Max Lucado Daily: ONE DECISION AWAY FROM JOY
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus promises joy nine times! But this joy is not cheap. Observe the sequence. First, we recognize we are in need…we are poor in spirit. Next, we repent of our self-sufficiency…we mourn. We quit calling the shots and surrender control to God…we are meek. Grateful for his presence, we yearn for more of him…we hunger and thirst. As we grow closer to him, we become more like him. We forgive others…we are merciful. We change our outlook…we are pure in heart. We love others…we are peacemakers. We endure injustice…we are persecuted. (Matthew 5:3-12).
The more radical the change, the greater the joy. His is a joy that consequences cannot quench. His is a peace that circumstances cannot steal. And it is within your reach. You are one decision away from joy.
Read More Applause of Heaven
Proverbs 6
Dear friend, if you’ve gone into hock with your neighbor
or locked yourself into a deal with a stranger,
If you’ve impulsively promised the shirt off your back
and now find yourself shivering out in the cold,
Friend, don’t waste a minute, get yourself out of that mess.
You’re in that man’s clutches!
Go, put on a long face; act desperate.
Don’t procrastinate—
there’s no time to lose.
Run like a deer from the hunter,
fly like a bird from the trapper!
6-11 You lazy fool, look at an ant.
Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two.
Nobody has to tell it what to do.
All summer it stores up food;
at harvest it stockpiles provisions.
So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing?
How long before you get out of bed?
A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there,
sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next?
Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life,
poverty your permanent houseguest!
12-15 Riffraff and rascals
talk out of both sides of their mouths.
They wink at each other, they shuffle their feet,
they cross their fingers behind their backs.
Their perverse minds are always cooking up something nasty,
always stirring up trouble.
Catastrophe is just around the corner for them,
a total smashup, their lives ruined beyond repair.
16-19 Here are six things God hates,
and one more that he loathes with a passion:
eyes that are arrogant,
a tongue that lies,
hands that murder the innocent,
a heart that hatches evil plots,
feet that race down a wicked track,
a mouth that lies under oath,
a troublemaker in the family.
20-23 Good friend, follow your father’s good advice;
don’t wander off from your mother’s teachings.
Wrap yourself in them from head to foot;
wear them like a scarf around your neck.
Wherever you walk, they’ll guide you;
whenever you rest, they’ll guard you;
when you wake up, they’ll tell you what’s next.
For sound advice is a beacon,
good teaching is a light,
moral discipline is a life path.
24-35 They’ll protect you from wanton women,
from the seductive talk of some temptress.
Don’t lustfully fantasize on her beauty,
nor be taken in by her bedroom eyes.
You can buy an hour with a whore for a loaf of bread,
but a wanton woman may well eat you alive.
Can you build a fire in your lap
and not burn your pants?
Can you walk barefoot on hot coals
and not get blisters?
It’s the same when you have sex with your neighbor’s wife:
Touch her and you’ll pay for it. No excuses.
Hunger is no excuse
for a thief to steal;
When he’s caught he has to pay it back,
even if he has to put his whole house in hock.
Adultery is a brainless act,
soul-destroying, self-destructive;
Expect a bloody nose, a black eye,
and a reputation ruined for good.
For jealousy detonates rage in a cheated husband;
wild for revenge, he won’t make allowances.
Nothing you say or pay will make it all right;
neither bribes nor reason will satisfy him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, May 03, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Luke 10:25–37
Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”
26 He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”
27 He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”
28 “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”
29 Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”
30-32 Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
33-35 “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’
36 “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”
37 “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.
Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”
Insight
Who were the experts in the law (Luke 10:25)? These men, also known as scribes or lawyers, were authorities on the Mosaic law. They’re mentioned in the Gospels in connection with Pharisees and high priests who opposed Jesus (Matthew 22:34–35; Luke 7:30; 11:46–52). Yet they were responsible for preserving the Old Testament and applying it to the lives of Jewish believers.
Beyond the Neighborhood
Love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 12:31
In the summer of 2017, Hurricane Harvey brought devastating losses of life and property to the Gulf Coast of the US. Many people provided food, water, clothing, and shelter for those in immediate need.
The owner of a piano store in Maryland felt prompted to do something more. He considered how music could bring a special kind of healing and sense of normalcy to people who had lost everything. So he and his staff began to refurbish pre-owned pianos and to make inquiries to see where the need was the greatest. That spring, Dean Kramer and his wife, Lois, began the long trek to Houston, Texas, driving a truck filled with free pianos to give to grateful families, churches, and schools in the ravaged area.
We sometimes assume the word neighbor means someone who lives nearby or at least is someone we know. But in Luke 10, Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan to teach that our love for our neighbors shouldn’t have barriers. The man from Samaria freely gave to a wounded stranger, even though the man was a Jew, part of a people group at odds with the Samaritans (vv. 25–37).
When Dean Kramer was asked why he gave away all those pianos, he explained simply: “We’re told to love our neighbors.” And it was Jesus who said, “There is no commandment greater” (Mark 12:31) than to love God and our neighbor. By Cindy Hess Kasper
Today's Reflection
In what way are you limiting your understanding of the word neighbor? How might God be urging you to expand the borders of your “neighborhood”?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 03, 2019
Vital Intercession
…praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit… —Ephesians 6:18
As we continue on in our intercession for others, we may find that our obedience to God in interceding is going to cost those for whom we intercede more than we ever thought. The danger in this is that we begin to intercede in sympathy with those whom God was gradually lifting up to a totally different level in direct answer to our prayers. Whenever we step back from our close identification with God’s interest and concern for others and step into having emotional sympathy with them, the vital connection with God is gone. We have then put our sympathy and concern for them in the way, and this is a deliberate rebuke to God.
It is impossible for us to have living and vital intercession unless we are perfectly and completely sure of God. And the greatest destroyer of that confident relationship to God, so necessary for intercession, is our own personal sympathy and preconceived bias. Identification with God is the key to intercession, and whenever we stop being identified with Him it is because of our sympathy with others, not because of sin. It is not likely that sin will interfere with our intercessory relationship with God, but sympathy will. It is sympathy with ourselves or with others that makes us say, “I will not allow that thing to happen.” And instantly we are out of that vital connection with God.
Vital intercession leaves you with neither the time nor the inclination to pray for your own “sad and pitiful self.” You do not have to struggle to keep thoughts of yourself out, because they are not even there to be kept out of your thinking. You are completely and entirely identified with God’s interests and concerns in other lives. God gives us discernment in the lives of others to call us to intercession for them, never so that we may find fault with them.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end.
Not Knowing Whither
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 03, 2019
The Great Splitter-Upper - #8430
When you have three children, only one can be the first, of course. And that one becomes the one that all the others measure by when it comes to what privileges and treatment they should receive. In our case, our daughter is the oldest, followed by her two brothers. Now the kids could be getting along perfectly, and then suddenly the boys would learn about something their big sister got. Then I would hear the march of determined feet to my desk, followed by two boys asking in unison, "How come she...?" Followed by whatever goody she had gotten that they had not. Actually, knowing that kind of question was coming helped me make better decisions.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Great Splitter-Upper."
In Bible times, Rebekah was the mother of two boys, Jacob and Esau. In Genesis 27:45, she alludes to what is going to be a very unhappy ending for these relationships. She says, "Why should I lose you both in one day?" Actually, she did. She was sending Jacob away for his own protection. His brother Esau was ready to kill him.
Now, how did this family end up this broken? Well, Jacob's Mom and he have tricked father Isaac into giving Jacob the blessing that his big brother, Esau, had the rights to. So how did this family end up with hatred, conflict, and deceit between a husband and a wife, and a mother who physically loses the presence of one son and emotionally loses the other?
Our word for today from the Word of God tells us in Genesis 25:27-28. "The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob." Here are two godly people who fall into a trap that divides parents from children, children from parents, employees and employers, spiritual leaders from the people they lead, and the trap is called partiality. It is indeed the great splitter-upper.
When my sons were asking, "How come our sister gets to _______?" They were actually forcing me to take a partiality check, "Am I showing favoritism here?" Favoritism inevitably leads to conflict, it leads to bitterness, and even to trying to get even and a loss of respect for the leader who is showing partiality.
Now, if you're a parent, you cannot afford to choose between your children. If you're a son or daughter, you can't afford to pick one parent that you're going to favor. In spiritual leadership, you cannot afford to get close to one person over another. That's deadly. If people work for you, you have to treat them the same. Natural compatibility with certain people is natural, but it can never be the basis for your relationships or your decisions, or it will rip things apart. That's why the Bible commands very clearly in 1 Timothy 5:21, "Do nothing out of favoritism." That's a command.
Poor Rebekah lost both the insider and the outsider in her game of what I would call uneven love. You're going to lose, too, if you fall into the deadly favoritism trap. It is just too expensive, because partiality is the great splitter-upper!