Max Lucado Daily: LET GRACE HAPPEN
I became a Christian about the same time I became a Boy Scout, and I made the assumption that God grades like the Boy Scouts do– on a merit system. Good scouts move up. Good people go to heaven.
So I worked toward the day when God, amid falling confetti and dancing cherubim, would drape my badge-laden sash across my chest and welcome me into his eternal kingdom where I would humbly display my badges for eternity. But some thorny questions surfaced. How many badges does He require? How good is good?
Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Unearned. A gift. Our merits merit nothing. So, let grace happen. Of all the things you must earn in life, God’s unending affection is not one of them. You have it!
Read more GRACE
Acts 11
The news traveled fast and in no time the leaders and friends back in Jerusalem heard about it—heard that the non-Jewish “outsiders” were now “in.” When Peter got back to Jerusalem, some of his old associates, concerned about circumcision, called him on the carpet: “What do you think you’re doing rubbing shoulders with that crowd, eating what is prohibited and ruining our good name?”
4-6 So Peter, starting from the beginning, laid it out for them step-by-step: “Recently I was in the town of Joppa praying. I fell into a trance and saw a vision: Something like a huge blanket, lowered by ropes at its four corners, came down out of heaven and settled on the ground in front of me. Milling around on the blanket were farm animals, wild animals, reptiles, birds—you name it, it was there. Fascinated, I took it all in.
7-10 “Then I heard a voice: ‘Go to it, Peter—kill and eat.’ I said, ‘Oh, no, Master. I’ve never so much as tasted food that wasn’t kosher.’ The voice spoke again: ‘If God says it’s okay, it’s okay.’ This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the sky.
11-14 “Just then three men showed up at the house where I was staying, sent from Caesarea to get me. The Spirit told me to go with them, no questions asked. So I went with them, I and six friends, to the man who had sent for me. He told us how he had seen an angel right in his own house, real as his next-door neighbor, saying, ‘Send to Joppa and get Simon, the one they call Peter. He’ll tell you something that will save your life—in fact, you and everyone you care for.’
15-17 “So I started in, talking. Before I’d spoken half a dozen sentences, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as he did on us the first time. I remembered Jesus’ words: ‘John baptized with water; you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So I ask you: If God gave the same exact gift to them as to us when we believed in the Master Jesus Christ, how could I object to God?”
18 Hearing it all laid out like that, they quieted down. And then, as it sank in, they started praising God. “It’s really happened! God has broken through to the other nations, opened them up to Life!”
19-21 Those who had been scattered by the persecution triggered by Stephen’s death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but they were still only speaking and dealing with their fellow Jews. Then some of the men from Cyprus and Cyrene who had come to Antioch started talking to Greeks, giving them the Message of the Master Jesus. God was pleased with what they were doing and put his stamp of approval on it—quite a number of the Greeks believed and turned to the Master.
22-24 When the church in Jerusalem got wind of this, they sent Barnabas to Antioch to check on things. As soon as he arrived, he saw that God was behind and in it all. He threw himself in with them, got behind them, urging them to stay with it the rest of their lives. He was a good man that way, enthusiastic and confident in the Holy Spirit’s ways. The community grew large and strong in the Master.
25-26 Then Barnabas went on to Tarsus to look for Saul. He found him and brought him back to Antioch. They were there a whole year, meeting with the church and teaching a lot of people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were for the first time called Christians.
27-30 It was about this same time that some prophets came to Antioch from Jerusalem. One of them named Agabus stood up one day and, prompted by the Spirit, warned that a severe famine was about to devastate the country. (The famine eventually came during the rule of Claudius.) So the disciples decided that each of them would send whatever they could to their fellow Christians in Judea to help out. They sent Barnabas and Saul to deliver the collection to the leaders in Jerusalem.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
2 Corinthians 2:14–17
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
Insight
Up to this point in his letter, Paul has alluded to the pain he’s endured, including extreme physical dangers (2 Corinthians 1:8–10) and having to deal with serious divisions in the church (see 1 Corinthians 1:10–17). These divisions may have been caused by the “many” Paul mentions: “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit” (2 Corinthians 2:17). Besides that, a church member had been committing incest (1 Corinthians 5:1–5). God preserved Paul and his co-workers (2 Corinthians 1:10–11), unity was being restored in the church (7:8–13), and they had dealt with the sexual sin (2:5–11). This is why Paul’s letter takes a triumphant turn: “But thanks be to God . . .” (v. 14). He concludes the section by affirming his apostolic authority: “In Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God” (v. 17).
Victory Parade
But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession. 2 Corinthians 2:14
In 2016 when the Chicago Cubs baseball team won the World Series for the first time in more than a century, some sources said that five million people lined the parade route and gathered at a downtown rally to celebrate the championship.
Victory parades are not a modern invention. A famous ancient parade was the Roman Triumph, in which victorious generals led a procession of their armies and captives through crowded streets.
Such parade imagery was likely in Paul’s mind when he wrote to the Corinthian church thanking God for leading believers “as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession” (2 Corinthians 2:14). I find it fascinating that in this imagery, followers of Christ are the captives. However, as believers we’re not forced to participate, but are willing “captives,” willingly part of the parade led by the victorious, resurrected Christ. As Christians, we celebrate that through Christ’s victory, He’s building His kingdom and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).
When we talk about Jesus’s victory on the cross and the freedom it gives believers, we help spread the “aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere” (2 Corinthians 2:14). And whether people find the aroma to be the pleasing reassurance of salvation or the odor of their defeat, this unseen but powerful fragrance is present everywhere we go.
As we follow Christ, we declare His resurrection victory, the victory that makes salvation available to the world. By Lisa M. Samra
Reflect & Pray
What does Jesus’s victory on the cross mean to you? How are you living out the power of His resurrection?
Jesus is our victorious King.
For further study, see christianuniversity.org/NT109-06.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
The Miracle of Belief
My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom… —1 Corinthians 2:4
Paul was a scholar and an orator of the highest degree; he was not speaking here out of a deep sense of humility, but was saying that when he preached the gospel, he would veil the power of God if he impressed people with the excellency of his speech. Belief in Jesus is a miracle produced only by the effectiveness of redemption, not by impressive speech, nor by wooing and persuading, but only by the sheer unaided power of God. The creative power of redemption comes through the preaching of the gospel, but never because of the personality of the preacher.
Real and effective fasting by a preacher is not fasting from food, but fasting from eloquence, from impressive diction, and from everything else that might hinder the gospel of God being presented. The preacher is there as the representative of God— “…as though God were pleading through us…” (2 Corinthians 5:20). He is there to present the gospel of God. If it is only because of my preaching that people desire to be better, they will never get close to Jesus Christ. Anything that flatters me in my preaching of the gospel will result in making me a traitor to Jesus, and I prevent the creative power of His redemption from doing its work.
“And I, if I am lifted up…, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
For the past three hundred years men have been pointing out how similar Jesus Christ’s teachings are to other good teachings. We have to remember that Christianity, if it is not a supernatural miracle, is a sham. The Highest Good, 548 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Your Time to Shine - #8483
Sometimes you'll hear someone called a "Renaissance man." That means he's a man of many interests, and gifts and pursuits, and skilled in many areas. Now, if there is such a thing as a "Renaissance boy," well, I used to like to think our grandson was one. Interested in a lot of things - and he was pretty good at a lot of them. To round out the other areas of his life, he got involved in a soccer league for kids his age. Which would make his mother a "soccer mom," I guess. Which means everybody wants her vote. Right, in elections? Well, our grandson didn't have the benefit of having an older sibling to learn from as some of the other members of his little team did. The soccer learning curve for him was a little steep, but he was doing well. But something really special happened in one of the last games of the season. The team's two little stars came late - players who the others tend to lean on. But they weren't there to lean on. Well, now it was clearly up to kids who were usually in the shadow of those stars, including our favorite soccer player who really stepped up. Suddenly, he was more focused, more aggressive than we'd seen him all season. And right away he scored two goals for his team. Oh, and of course, they won that night.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Time to Shine."
Now, I guess our grandson looked around and said, "Well, if it is to be, it's up to me!" And suddenly he stepped up to make a difference like he'd never made before. It may be that time in the game for you right now, time to step up and really make a difference.
You've got a great example to follow in our word for today in 1 Samuel 17, beginning with verse 23. The Israelis and Philistines are lined up facing one another on opposite sides of a valley. Every day the Philistine giant comes out and he challenges the Israelites to send out a man to fight him, with the people of the loser serving the people of the winner from that day on. Young David, the youngest brother in his family, arrives to bring food to his warrior brothers just as Goliath is coming out to issue his challenge for the 40th day in a row.
The Bible says, "Goliath...shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. When the Israelites saw the man they all ran from him in great fear. David said to Saul, 'Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.'" Well, none of the big varsity players in their nice uniforms will get in the game - so the kid does, with just a slingshot. He doesn't have the training the others do, he doesn't have the experience, he doesn't have the weapons, but he's willing to step up because he believes, as he tells Goliath, "The battle is the Lord's." And Goliath went down because an unlikely, seemingly unqualified hero stepped up.
This is a time when the Goliaths of hell are holding the field all around us. Not because the darkness is so strong, but because no one will step up and fight the darkness. Right now God's summoning you, maybe as unlikely and unqualified as you may feel you are, to come out of the shadows and get onto the front lines.
Someone has to take that assignment where no one else is rising up to. Someone needs to step up and change the atmosphere in your church, your family, your home, your school, or where you work. Someone has to fight for your marriage. Someone has to be the one to confront what's wrong, to bring people together, to lead a prayer effort, to talk about Jesus.
In Isaiah's day when God asked, "Who will go for us?" Isaiah answered, "Here am I, send me" (Isaiah 6:8). Maybe you've been holding back saying, "Here am I, send him." Well, God's summoning you to step up for this one - like our grandson on that soccer field, making a greater difference than he'd ever made before, because he knew it was up to him this time. And this assignment from God is up to you.
Even if there are defiant giants standing in the way, it's your time to shine! And you will. Because the battle is the Lord's.