Max Lucado Daily: His First Choice
You are God's child. He saw you, picked you, and placed you! Jesus said, "You did not choose me, I chose you!" You are God's child. Replacement or fill-in? Hardly. You are His first choice. The choice wasn't obligatory, required, compulsory, forced, or compelled. He selected you because He wanted to. You are His open, willful, voluntary choice. He walked onto the auction block where you stood, and He proclaimed, This child is mine!
1 Peter 1:19 says He bought you, "with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." You are His child forever. Your struggles will not last forever-but you will. The promise is in 2 Timothy 2:12: "If we endure, we shall also reign with Him." Believe it. Clutch it. Tattoo it on the interior of your heart! You are God's child.
From You'll Get Through This
Song of Solomon 2
I’m just a wildflower picked from the plains of Sharon,
a lotus blossom from the valley pools.
The Man
2 A lotus blossoming in a swamp of weeds—
that’s my dear friend among the girls in the village.
The Woman
3-4 As an apricot tree stands out in the forest,
my lover stands above the young men in town.
All I want is to sit in his shade,
to taste and savor his delicious love.
He took me home with him for a festive meal,
but his eyes feasted on me!
5-6 Oh! Give me something refreshing to eat—and quickly!
Apricots, raisins—anything. I’m about to faint with love!
His left hand cradles my head,
and his right arm encircles my waist!
7 Oh, let me warn you, sisters in Jerusalem,
by the gazelles, yes, by all the wild deer:
Don’t excite love, don’t stir it up,
until the time is ripe—and you’re ready.
8-10 Look! Listen! There’s my lover!
Do you see him coming?
Vaulting the mountains,
leaping the hills.
My lover is like a gazelle, graceful;
like a young stag, virile.
Look at him there, on tiptoe at the gate,
all ears, all eyes—ready!
My lover has arrived
and he’s speaking to me!
The Man
10-14 Get up, my dear friend,
fair and beautiful lover—come to me!
Look around you: Winter is over;
the winter rains are over, gone!
Spring flowers are in blossom all over.
The whole world’s a choir—and singing!
Spring warblers are filling the forest
with sweet arpeggios.
Lilacs are exuberantly purple and perfumed,
and cherry trees fragrant with blossoms.
Oh, get up, dear friend,
my fair and beautiful lover—come to me!
Come, my shy and modest dove—
leave your seclusion, come out in the open.
Let me see your face,
let me hear your voice.
For your voice is soothing
and your face is ravishing.
The Woman
15 Then you must protect me from the foxes,
foxes on the prowl,
Foxes who would like nothing better
than to get into our flowering garden.
16-17 My lover is mine, and I am his.
Nightly he strolls in our garden,
Delighting in the flowers
until dawn breathes its light and night slips away.
Turn to me, dear lover.
Come like a gazelle.
Leap like a wild stag
on delectable mountains!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, June 09, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ephesians 6:16-20
Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.
19-20 And don’t forget to pray for me. Pray that I’ll know what to say and have the courage to say it at the right time, telling the mystery to one and all, the Message that I, jailbird preacher that I am, am responsible for getting out.
Insight
Unlike many of Paul’s letters, Ephesians isn’t directed at any particular heresy. Instead, the letter emphasizes Paul’s longing for the Ephesian believers to grasp the high calling God has for the church (1:18–23; 3:16–19). Through their union with Christ through the Spirit, believers experience reconciliation with God and each other (2:14–19), a miraculous unity that foreshadows the unity God is bringing “to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ” (1:10; see 4:13).
But being faithful to this radically countercultural calling does not come naturally, so Paul repeatedly urges believers to deepen their roots in Christ’s love (3:16–19) so they can resist the destructive lifestyles around them (6:17–19). To truly witness God’s reign, the church, with the courage and discipline of soldiers, must cultivate practices of justice, peacemaking, and an unwavering commitment to the truth through the power of Christ’s Spirit (6:10–18).
Abby’s Prayer
I urge . . . that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people. 1 Timothy 2:1
When Abby was a sophomore in high school, she and her mom heard a news story about a young man who’d been critically injured in a plane accident—an accident that took the lives of his father and stepmother. Although they didn’t know this person, Abby’s mom said, “We just need to pray for him and his family.” And they did.
Fast forward a few years, and one day Abby walked into a class at her university. A student offered her the seat next to him. That student was Austin Hatch, the plane crash victim Abby had prayed for. Soon they were dating, and in 2018 they were married.
“It’s crazy to think that I was praying for my future husband,” Abby said in an interview shortly before they were married. It can be easy to limit our prayers to our own personal needs and for those closest to us, without taking the time to pray for others. However, Paul, writing to the Christians at Ephesus, told them to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kind of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” (Ephesians 6:18). And 1 Timothy 2:1 tells us to pray “for all people,” including those in authority.
Let’s pray for others—even people we don’t know. It’s one of the ways we can “carry each other’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). By Dave Branon
Reflect & Pray
Who are the people—some you may not even know personally—who need your prayers today? How will you carve out some time to talk with God about their needs?
Jesus, open my heart to the needs of people around me—even those I don’t know. Take my heartfelt concern and intervene for them as only You can.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, June 09, 2019
Then What’s Next To Do?
Everyone who asks receives… —Luke 11:10
Ask if you have not received. There is nothing more difficult than asking. We will have yearnings and desires for certain things, and even suffer as a result of their going unfulfilled, but not until we are at the limit of desperation will we ask. It is the sense of not being spiritually real that causes us to ask. Have you ever asked out of the depths of your total insufficiency and poverty? “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God…” (James 1:5), but be sure that you do lack wisdom before you ask. You cannot bring yourself to the point of spiritual reality anytime you choose. The best thing to do, once you realize you are not spiritually real, is to ask God for the Holy Spirit, basing your request on the promise of Jesus Christ (see Luke 11:13). The Holy Spirit is the one who makes everything that Jesus did for you real in your life.
“Everyone who asks receives….” This does not mean that you will not get if you do not ask, but it means that until you come to the point of asking, you will not receive from God (seeMatthew 5:45). To be able to receive means that you have to come into the relationship of a child of God, and then you comprehend and appreciate mentally, morally, and with spiritual understanding, that these things come from God.
“If any of you lacks wisdom….” If you realize that you are lacking, it is because you have come in contact with spiritual reality— do not put the blinders of reason on again. The word ask actually means “beg.” Some people are poor enough to be interested in their poverty, and some of us are poor enough spiritually to show our interest. Yet we will never receive if we ask with a certain result in mind, because we are asking out of our lust, not out of our poverty. A pauper does not ask out of any reason other than the completely hopeless and painful condition of his poverty. He is not ashamed to beg— blessed are the paupers in spirit (see Matthew 5:3).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L