Max Lucado Daily: LONELINESS HAS A LANGUAGE
We may relish moments of solitude—but a lifetime of it? No way! Many of us, however, are too fluent in the language of loneliness. The kids used to need me…the business once needed me…my spouse never needs me. Lonely people fight feelings of insignificance.
What do you do? How do you cope with such cries of insignificance? Some stay busy; others stay drunk. Some buy pets; others buy lovers. Some seek therapy. Yet only a few seek God. He invites us to do so. God’s ultimate cure for the common life takes you to a manger “…and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated God with us (Matthew 1:23. There’s no withholding tax on God’s “with” promise. He is with us. God is with us!
Acts 15:1-21
It wasn’t long before some Jews showed up from Judea insisting that everyone be circumcised: “If you’re not circumcised in the Mosaic fashion, you can’t be saved.” Paul and Barnabas were up on their feet at once in fierce protest. The church decided to resolve the matter by sending Paul, Barnabas, and a few others to put it before the apostles and leaders in Jerusalem.
3 After they were sent off and on their way, they told everyone they met as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria about the breakthrough to the non-Jewish outsiders. Everyone who heard the news cheered—it was terrific news!
4-5 When they got to Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas were graciously received by the whole church, including the apostles and leaders. They reported on their recent journey and how God had used them to open things up to the outsiders. Some Pharisees stood up to say their piece. They had become believers, but continued to hold to the hard party line of the Pharisees. “You have to circumcise the pagan converts,” they said. “You must make them keep the Law of Moses.”
6-9 The apostles and leaders called a special meeting to consider the matter. The arguments went on and on, back and forth, getting more and more heated. Then Peter took the floor: “Friends, you well know that from early on God made it quite plain that he wanted the pagans to hear the Message of this good news and embrace it—and not in any secondhand or roundabout way, but firsthand, straight from my mouth. And God, who can’t be fooled by any pretense on our part but always knows a person’s thoughts, gave them the Holy Spirit exactly as he gave him to us. He treated the outsiders exactly as he treated us, beginning at the very center of who they were and working from that center outward, cleaning up their lives as they trusted and believed him.
10-11 “So why are you now trying to out-god God, loading these new believers down with rules that crushed our ancestors and crushed us, too? Don’t we believe that we are saved because the Master Jesus amazingly and out of sheer generosity moved to save us just as he did those from beyond our nation? So what are we arguing about?”
12-13 There was dead silence. No one said a word. With the room quiet, Barnabas and Paul reported matter-of-factly on the miracles and wonders God had done among the other nations through their ministry. The silence deepened; you could hear a pin drop.
13-18 James broke the silence. “Friends, listen. Simeon has told us the story of how God at the very outset made sure that racial outsiders were included. This is in perfect agreement with the words of the prophets:
After this, I’m coming back;
I’ll rebuild David’s ruined house;
I’ll put all the pieces together again;
I’ll make it look like new
So outsiders who seek will find,
so they’ll have a place to come to,
All the pagan peoples
included in what I’m doing.
“God said it and now he’s doing it. It’s no afterthought; he’s always known he would do this.
19-21 “So here is my decision: We’re not going to unnecessarily burden non-Jewish people who turn to the Master. We’ll write them a letter and tell them, ‘Be careful to not get involved in activities connected with idols, to guard the morality of sex and marriage, to not serve food offensive to Jewish Christians—blood, for instance.’ This is basic wisdom from Moses, preached and honored for centuries now in city after city as we have met and kept the Sabbath.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, August 23, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Mark 9:33–37
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
36 He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
Insight
In the world of first-century Israel, opening one’s home to travelers was of great social importance. According to one rabbinic tradition, hospitality was greater than welcoming the shekinah, which signaled God’s glory or presence in His temple. The same culture, however, didn’t require men to open the doors of their hearts to members of their own community they considered beneath their dignity. They regarded servants, wives, and children as property and often treated them accordingly. As a result, Christ’s disciples had no natural understanding of a kingdom that would be led by a servant-king willing to die for His vision of a better world (Mark 9:30–32).
Jesus turned their views of His kingdom upside down by embracing and honoring a little child to illustrate a humility they’d not yet begun to understand. Then He expanded the implications of who we welcome into our hearts (v. 37).
Servant’s Heart
Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all. Mark 9:35
Cook. Event Planner. Nutritionist. Nurse. These are just some of the responsibilities regularly performed by modern moms. In 2016, research estimated that moms likely worked between fifty-nine and ninety-six hours per week doing child-related tasks.
No wonder moms are always exhausted! Being a mom means giving a lot of time and energy to care for children, who need so much help as they learn to navigate the world.
When my days feel long and I need a reminder that caring for others is a worthy pursuit, I find great hope when I see Jesus affirming those who serve.
In the gospel of Mark, the disciples were having an argument about which one of them was the greatest. Jesus quietly sat down and reminded them that “anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all” (9:35). Then He took a child in His arms to illustrate the importance of serving others, especially the most helpless among us (vv. 36–37).
Christ’s response resets the bar for what greatness looks like in His kingdom. His standard is a heart willing to care for others. And Jesus has promised that God’s empowering presence will be with those who choose to serve (v. 37).
As you have opportunities to serve in your family or community, be encouraged that Jesus greatly values the time and effort you give in service to others. By: Lisa M. Samra
Reflect & Pray
How might you serve someone today? How could you take time to say “thank you” to someone who has graciously loved and served you?
Jesus, thank You for reminding us of Your loving care for children and any who are vulnerable. Help us to follow Your example of service.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, August 23, 2019
Prayer—Battle in “The Secret Place”
When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. —Matthew 6:6
Jesus did not say, “Dream about your Father who is in the secret place,” but He said, “…pray to your Father who is in the secret place….” Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.
We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, “This needs to be done, and I have to do that today.” Jesus says to “shut your door.” Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from “the secret place”— He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in “the secret place,” it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into “the secret place,” and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place,” every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment. The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, August 23, 2019
An Open Door for Locked-Out People - #8510
Our daughter and son-in-law and grandsons were visiting some out-of-state family members. Our favorite four-year-old at the time had gone outside to play. When he tried to come back in the house, he found the door had locked behind him. He tried other doors, but he was locked out, no matter where he went. So he yelled loudly, but it was a big house and no one was close by. No one heard the little guy. The longer he was locked out without anyone responding to his cries, well you can guess, the more desperate he became. And even though he eventually got in, the awful feelings that went with being locked out left a pretty deep and lasting impression.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "An Open Door for Locked-Out People."
Unfortunately, that locked out feeling isn't unique to a child who can't get in. Many of us grownup children know that feeling all too well. Maybe you have felt locked out much of your life, like excluded, abandoned, unheard, unnoticed, invisible. You've been hurting, but no one seems to respond.
Maybe you've found a lot of doors locked for you. But there is a door that stands not only unlocked to you, but wide open. Inside that door is love and acceptance and worth greater than you ever could have hoped for. At that door stands the very Creator who made you, wanting to welcome you into a personal relationship with Him.
The very first book of the Bible tells the story of a woman who had been locked out by those among whom she had once belonged. Hagar was maidservant to Abram's wife, Sarai. God had promised Abram and Sarai a miracle child in their old age, but when God didn't do it fast enough for her, she suggested Abram sleep with her servant Hagar to conceive a child through this surrogate mother. Hagar became pregnant, but the ensuing tension between her and Sarai is described in the Bible this way, "Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her."
Now this expectant mother is all alone in the desert, essentially locked out of the family she had been a part of. In Genesis 16, beginning with verse 6, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says, "The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert ... the angel of the Lord said to her ... 'the Lord has heard of your misery.'" Experiencing the love and help of the Lord, it says, "she gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her, 'You are the God who sees me,' for she said, 'I have now seen the One who sees me.'"
That is the same Lord who knows your misery, who sees you in your situation, even if you've never given yourself to Him. He loves you. So much so, that He sent His one and only Son to die on a cross to pay the penalty for your sin. He's had His eye on you since before you were born. You matter so much to Him that He paid the ultimate price so you could get rid of the sin that keeps you from having a relationship with Him.
This could be the day you finally "see the One" who's seen you all along. You see your Creator for yourself, you experience Him for yourself beginning the moment that you reach out to Jesus with total faith that He is the only One who could forgive your sin; the only One who could bring you into a right relationship with God, the only One who can take you to heaven with Him. Don't you want to experience this incredible love for yourself? You have never been invisible to Him.
If you want to begin your relationship with this One who sees you, loves you, and wants you to belong to Him, would you stop wherever you are as soon as you can and say, "Jesus, I was made for your love. I believe when you died, you died for the sinning that I have done so I could be with you now and forever. And I am yours starting today."
You know, a lot of people when they've reached that point, they have gone to our website and found there what we have put there for someone at the beginning point of their relationship with Jesus. That website is ANewStory.com. Would you get there as soon as you can today?
You're on the edge of the love you've needed and you've yearned for all your life. Jesus died to unlock the door to that love. Don't go one more day without Him.