Max Lucado Daily: THE INFECTION OF SIN IS UNIVERSAL
No culture, no nation, no person sidesteps the infection of sin. You can blame the plague of sin on a godless decision. Adam and Eve ignored God’s will…and sin, with death on its coattails, entered the world. The sinful mind dismisses God and becomes self-centered. Sin, for a season, quenches thirst. But, given time, the thirst returns, more demanding than ever.
God refuses to compromise the spiritual purity of heaven. Here’s the awful truth. Lead a godless life, and expect a godless eternity. Spend life telling God to leave you alone, and he will. So what can we do? Acts 16:31 says, “Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus.” Christ not only became the sin offering, he overcame the punishment for sin—death—through his glorious resurrection from the dead.
Read more Come Thirsty
Acts 5:1-21
But a man named Ananias—his wife, Sapphira, conniving in this with him—sold a piece of land, secretly kept part of the price for himself, and then brought the rest to the apostles and made an offering of it.
3-4 Peter said, “Ananias, how did Satan get you to lie to the Holy Spirit and secretly keep back part of the price of the field? Before you sold it, it was all yours, and after you sold it, the money was yours to do with as you wished. So what got into you to pull a trick like this? You didn’t lie to men but to God.”
5-6 Ananias, when he heard those words, fell down dead. That put the fear of God into everyone who heard of it. The younger men went right to work and wrapped him up, then carried him out and buried him.
7-8 Not more than three hours later, his wife, knowing nothing of what had happened, came in. Peter said, “Tell me, were you given this price for your field?”
“Yes,” she said, “that price.”
9-10 Peter responded, “What’s going on here that you connived to conspire against the Spirit of the Master? The men who buried your husband are at the door, and you’re next.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than she also fell down, dead. When the young men returned they found her body. They carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
11 By this time the whole church and, in fact, everyone who heard of these things had a healthy respect for God. They knew God was not to be trifled with.
12-16 Through the work of the apostles, many God-signs were set up among the people, many wonderful things done. They all met regularly and in remarkable harmony on the Temple porch named after Solomon. But even though people admired them a lot, outsiders were wary about joining them. On the other hand, those who put their trust in the Master were added right and left, men and women both. They even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on stretchers and bedrolls, hoping they would be touched by Peter’s shadow when he walked by. They came from the villages surrounding Jerusalem, throngs of them, bringing the sick and bedeviled. And they all were healed.
17-20 Provoked mightily by all this, the Chief Priest and those on his side, mainly the sect of Sadducees, went into action, arrested the apostles and put them in the town jail. But during the night an angel of God opened the jailhouse door and led them out. He said, “Go to the Temple and take your stand. Tell the people everything there is to say about this Life.”
Promptly obedient, they entered the Temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.
21-23 Meanwhile, the Chief Priest and his cronies convened the High Council, Israel’s senate, and sent to the jail to have the prisoners brought in. When the police got there, they couldn’t find them anywhere in the jail. They went back and reported, “We found the jail locked tight as a drum and the guards posted at the doors, but when we went inside we didn’t find a soul.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 14:25-31
“I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.
28 “You’ve heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away, and I’m coming back.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I’m on my way to the Father because the Father is the goal and purpose of my life.
29-31 “I’ve told you this ahead of time, before it happens, so that when it does happen, the confirmation will deepen your belief in me. I’ll not be talking with you much more like this because the chief of this godless world is about to attack. But don’t worry—he has nothing on me, no claim on me. But so the world might know how thoroughly I love the Father, I am carrying out my Father’s instructions right down to the last detail.
“Get up. Let’s go. It’s time to leave here.”
Insight
John 13–17 is known as the Upper Room Discourse or our Lord’s Farewell Discourse. After three years of ministry, the time for Christ’s departure had come (13:1). Within the next twenty-four hours He would be crucified, and within weeks He would return to His Father in heaven (14:3–4). Therefore, He seized this very special time to console, instruct, and encourage the men He had chosen to carry on His work. Not only did Jesus tell them that He would send the Holy Spirit (14:16–17, 26; 15:26; 16:7–11) to be their Advocate (one who would come alongside to aid and assist them), He shared other truths that would strengthen them as His representatives. Truths about serving and loving one another (13:1–15, 34–35; 15:12–17), about abiding in Him and bearing fruit (15:1–11), and about being hated and persecuted by the world (15:18–16:4).
Can We Relax?
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27
Darnell entered the physical therapist’s office knowing he would experience a lot of pain. The therapist stretched and bent his arm and held it in positions it hadn’t been in for months since his injury. After holding each uncomfortable position for a few seconds, she gently told him: “Okay, you can relax.” He said later, “I think I heard that at least fifty times in each therapy session: ‘Okay, you can relax.’ ”
Thinking of those words, Darnell realized they could apply to the rest of his life as well. He could relax in God’s goodness and faithfulness instead of worrying.
As Jesus neared His death, He knew His disciples would need to learn this. They’d soon face a time of upheaval and persecution. To encourage them, Jesus said He would send the Holy Spirit to live with them and remind them of what He had taught (John 14:26). And so He could say, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. . . . Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (v. 27).
There’s plenty we could be uptight about in our everyday lives. But we can grow in our trust in God by reminding ourselves that His Spirit lives in us—and He offers us His peace. As we draw on His strength, we can hear Him in the therapist’s words: “Okay, you can relax.” By Anne Cetas
Reflect & Pray
What causes you stress? What characteristics of God can help you learn to trust Him more?
Teach me, Jesus, to trust Your faithfulness, to know Your presence, to experience Your peace—to relax.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
The Never-forsaking God
He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." —Hebrews 13:5
What line of thinking do my thoughts take? Do I turn to what God says or to my own fears? Am I simply repeating what God says, or am I learning to truly hear Him and then to respond after I have heard what He says? “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’ ” (Hebrews 13:5-6).
“I will never leave you…”— not for any reason; not my sin, selfishness, stubbornness, nor waywardness. Have I really let God say to me that He will never leave me? If I have not truly heard this assurance of God, then let me listen again.
“I will never…forsake you.” Sometimes it is not the difficulty of life but the drudgery of it that makes me think God will forsake me. When there is no major difficulty to overcome, no vision from God, nothing wonderful or beautiful— just the everyday activities of life— do I hear God’s assurance even in these?
We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing— that He is preparing and equipping us for some extraordinary work in the future. But as we grow in His grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, at this very moment. If we have God’s assurance behind us, the most amazing strength becomes ours, and we learn to sing, glorifying Him even in the ordinary days and ways of life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from. The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
Rudderless - #8452
Our friends Roy and Judy have been married for almost 30 years. But there are two words that took a beating early in their marriage and they still get a rise out of Judy to this day believe it or not. The words "trust me." You know there's got to be a story here. Years ago, Roy decided to try his hand sailing one of those little Sunfish type sailboats. He wanted Judy to go with him. Her back was really bothering her, but he assured her that he knew what he was doing. Of course, every guy does! "Trust me," he said. One problem: as they sailed away, the rudder kept coming off. That's all. That's rudder, as in what steers the boat. Well, Judy was extremely unhappy when rudderlessness ultimately led them to capsizing - a boat with a ten-foot mast stuck upside down in six feet of water. Beautiful picture huh? So much for "trust me."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Rudderless."
That poor young husband! It's tough to be trying to sail without a rudder to guide you. It's actually a feeling a lot of folks know, even if they've never been on a sailboat in their life. In fact, it's our lives that often seem rudderless - drifting with no real sense of direction. It doesn't matter how big or how small your life is, it can still feel rudderless.
There's this feeling that I call pointlessness - the recurring sense that my life, however full and however successful, just seems so pointless...missing the meaning that makes it all make sense. And along the way, there have been people and things that have seemed to say, "Trust me" but they let us down. We're victims of disappointed trust, all of us, aren't we? Not sure where the rudder is that will help us find some direction.
The Bible explains our sense of rudderlessness, our sense of pointlessness when it says, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). We were created in such a way that our life can only make sense when the One who created us is running it. But we've taken command instead, happy to let God run the universe, but unwilling to let Him run us. So we're drifting, sometimes even shipwrecked. Away from the only person who has the plan for our life. We are, to use the Bible's word for it, "lost."
Then along comes Jesus. He said He had come to "seek and save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). That saving involved the total sacrifice of His life for us, dying on the cross to absorb the awful death penalty for our spiritual rebellion. His cross became the bridge to the Creator that we've been lonely for all these years. So, in John 10:10, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus is able to say, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." In other words, the life you were made for.
When Jesus says, "Trust Me," you can, because this man loved you enough to die for you, He will never do you wrong. But you're rudderless until you anchor your life to Him. You do that by putting your total trust in Him to forgive every wrong thing you have ever done and to remove forever that wall between you and God. There's no religion involved here. This is a life-giving love relationship with Jesus Christ which you can begin right now, right where you are.
If you want to begin a relationship with Jesus, would you tell Him right now, "Jesus, I'm done running my life. I've tried that. I want to do it Your way. I believe You died for me. I believe You rose from the dead, You walked out of Your grave and I want You to walk into my life today. No one's ever loved me like You have. And beginning right now, I'm Yours."
Our website is for exactly someone like you at a moment like this and I would encourage you to go there and get the information from God's word that will help you be sure you belong to Jesus. That website is ANewStory.com.
The pointless voyage can end today if you'll let Jesus take the helm of your life. You know what will happen? He'll take you where you were made to be.