Max Lucado Daily: JESUS WANTS US TO BE HAPPY
Jesus was accused of much, but he was never described as a grump, sourpuss, or self- centered jerk. People didn’t groan when he appeared. He called people by name. He listened to their stories. He answered their questions. He visited their sick relatives and he helped their sick friends. Jesus fished with fishermen and ate lunch with the little guy and spoke words of resounding affirmation. He went to weddings. He went to so many parties that he was criticized for hanging out with questionable people.
Thousands came to hear him teach. Hundreds chose to follow him. They walked away from careers to be with him. His purpose statement read, “I came to give life with joy and abundance” (John 10:10). Jesus was happy and wants us to be the same.
2 Kings 16
In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham became king of Judah. Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king and he ruled for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t behave in the eyes of his God; he wasn’t at all like his ancestor David. Instead he followed in the track of the kings of Israel. He even indulged in the outrageous practice of “passing his son through the fire”—a truly abominable act he picked up from the pagans God had earlier thrown out of the country. He also participated in the activities of the neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines that flourished all over the place.
5 Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel ganged up against Jerusalem, throwing a siege around the city, but they couldn’t make further headway against Ahaz.
6 At about this same time and on another front, the king of Edom recovered the port of Elath and expelled the men of Judah. The Edomites occupied Elath and have been there ever since.
7-8 Ahaz sent envoys to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria with this message: “I’m your servant and your son. Come and save me from the heavy-handed invasion of the king of Aram and the king of Israel. They’re attacking me right now.” Then Ahaz robbed the treasuries of the palace and The Temple of God of their gold and silver and sent them to the king of Assyria as a bribe.
9 The king of Assyria responded to him. He attacked and captured Damascus. He deported the people to Nineveh as exiles. Rezin he killed.
10-11 King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria in Damascus. The altar in Damascus made a great impression on him. He sent back to Uriah the priest a drawing and set of blueprints of the altar. Uriah the priest built the altar to the specifications that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. By the time the king returned from Damascus, Uriah had completed the altar.
12-14 The minute the king saw the altar he approached it with reverence and arranged a service of worship with a full course of offerings: Whole-Burnt-Offerings with billows of smoke, Grain-Offerings, libations of Drink-Offerings, the sprinkling of blood from the Peace-Offerings—the works. But the old bronze Altar that signaled the presence of God he displaced from its central place and pushed it off to the side of his new altar.
15 Then King Ahaz ordered Uriah the priest: “From now on offer all the sacrifices on the new altar, the great altar: morning Whole-Burnt-Offerings, evening Grain-Offerings, the king’s Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Grain-Offerings, the people’s Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Grain-Offerings, and also their Drink-Offerings. Splash all the blood from the burnt offerings and sacrifices against this altar. The old bronze Altar will be for my personal use.
16 The priest Uriah followed King Ahaz’s orders to the letter.
17-18 Then King Ahaz proceeded to plunder The Temple furniture of all its bronze. He stripped the bronze from The Temple furnishings, even salvaged the four bronze oxen that supported the huge basin, The Sea, and set The Sea unceremoniously on the stone pavement. Finally, he removed any distinctive features from within The Temple that were offensive to the king of Assyria.
19-20 The rest of the life and times of Ahaz is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. Ahaz died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Hezekiah became the next king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, September 06, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Leviticus 19:9–18
“‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.
11 “‘Do not steal.
“‘Do not lie.
“‘Do not deceive one another.
12 “‘Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
13 “‘Do not defraud or rob your neighbor.
“‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.
14 “‘Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord.
15 “‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
16 “‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people.
“‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the Lord.
17 “‘Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt.
18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
Insight
The command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) is found in a chapter containing a variety of rules for godly living that many scholars consider a counterpart of the Ten Commandments. Leviticus 19:18, like the tenth commandment (Exodus 20:17), is about responsibility toward one’s neighbor. But it goes a step further by saying our care for others includes love, which extends not only to members of the believing community but also to “foreigners” (Leviticus 19:34). Jesus quoted this golden rule as an extension of our love for God: “The most important [commandment] . . . [is to] love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ ” (Mark 12:29–31).
I Will
Love your neighbor as yourself. Leviticus 19:18
Shirley settled into her recliner after a long day. She looked out the window and noticed an older couple struggling to move a section of old fence left in a yard and labeled “free.” Shirley grabbed her husband, and they headed out the door to help. The four of them wrestled the fence onto a dolly and pushed it up the city street and around the corner to the couple’s home—laughing all the way at the spectacle they must be. As they returned to get a second section of fence, the woman asked Shirley, “You be my friend?” “Yes, I will,” she replied. Shirley later learned that her new Vietnamese friend knew little English and was lonely because her grown children had moved hours away.
In Leviticus, God reminded the Israelites that they knew how it felt to be strangers (19:34) and how to treat others (vv. 9–18). God had set them apart to be His own nation, and in return they were to bless their “neighbors” by loving them as themselves. Jesus, the greatest blessing from God to the nations, later restated His Father’s words and extended them to us all: “Love the Lord your God . . . . Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39).
Through Christ’s Spirit living in us, we can love God and others because He loved us first (Galatians 5:22–23; 1 John 4:19). Can we say with Shirley, “Yes, I will”? By: Anne Cetas
Reflect & Pray
How have you been cared for by someone when you felt alone? Who can you reach out to this week to show the love of Jesus?
Loving God, thank You for the love You’ve shown me. Please, Holy Spirit, love others through me so that You might be glorified.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, September 06, 2019
The Far-Reaching Rivers of Life
He who believes in Me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. —John 7:38
A river reaches places which its source never knows. And Jesus said that, if we have received His fullness, “rivers of living water” will flow out of us, reaching in blessing even “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) regardless of how small the visible effects of our lives may appear to be. We have nothing to do with the outflow— “This is the work of God, that you believe…” (John 6:29). God rarely allows a person to see how great a blessing he is to others.
A river is victoriously persistent, overcoming all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, but then comes to an obstacle. And for a while it is blocked, yet it soon makes a pathway around the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, only later to emerge again even broader and greater than ever. Do you see God using the lives of others, but an obstacle has come into your life and you do not seem to be of any use to God? Then keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you around the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never focus your eyes on the obstacle or the difficulty. The obstacle will be a matter of total indifference to the river that will flow steadily through you if you will simply remember to stay focused on the Source. Never allow anything to come between you and Jesus Christ— not emotion nor experience— nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.
Think of the healing and far-reaching rivers developing and nourishing themselves in our souls! God has been opening up wonderful truths to our minds, and every point He has opened up is another indication of the wider power of the river that He will flow through us. If you believe in Jesus, you will find that God has developed and nourished in you mighty, rushing rivers of blessing for others.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, September 06, 2019
The Trouble with the Top of the Mountain - #8520
I was reminiscing with our son about some of the great experiences we had together as a family when he and his siblings were kids. I was thinking especially of the hikes we took up mountains, through forests, and along the seashore. To which my son added, with a little whimsy in his voice, "And sand dunes?" See, that's kind of a sore point in our family memories. It's all about the time I led our family on an exhausting hike up a massive Cape Cod sand dune, promising them, based on what I had been told, a beautiful view of the ocean when we reached the top. Well, there was a view of another sand dune, which we climbed as well. And there it was finally, "There! There it is!" another sand dune! The next dune was like that, too, and the next one. This was not one of my better ideas.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Trouble with the Top of the Mountain."
I made a pretty simple mistake that day of the dunes. I kept thinking that what I was looking for was just over the next hill, and it wasn't. That's a mistake a lot of us have made with our life. We've kept climbing a mountain that we were sure would bring us what we were looking for once we got to the top. But so far, it never has. You've got to wonder if one day, when you climb that final hill called death, if you'll still be looking, still without any real peace, any real fulfillment, any real answers.
Maybe you've gotten to the top of some of the mountains you thought would bring you happiness. You got your man. You got your woman. You got that job. You got a decent income. You got the house, the position, the promotion, the award. You got your dream. But now, looking out from the top of your mountain, the view just isn't what you hoped it would be. You're feeling as empty inside at the top as you did at the bottom.
Our word for today from the Word of God reveals the reason, actually, behind our lifetime search and our lifetime disappointment. It spells out the reason for our lives in these simple words from Colossians 1:16. Speaking of Jesus, it says, "All things were created by Him and for Him." Well, that's it. That's why you were created; you were created by Jesus, you were created for Jesus, so nothing is going to fill that hole in your heart until you have Jesus. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah says that until we get rid of the wall between us and our Creator, we are like "the tossing sea, which cannot rest." God describes the turbulent condition of our hearts very pointedly in four words, "There is no peace..." (Isaiah 57:20-21).
The Bible says we've all pretty much pushed God to the edges of our life. We've declared ourselves in charge of this life that He was supposed to run. We're restless and we're searching because we're away from the One we were made for, and that is why Jesus came to die on a cross to absorb the eternal death penalty for every sin we've ever done. So to find forgiveness, to find peace, to find the only love that can truly satisfy your heart, you have to climb one more hill. It's that hill where Jesus died for you. It's got a cross on the top. You go there in your heart, you open up to the One who gave His life for you, and who rose again so He could give you life forever.
If you've never really given yourself to this Jesus, you could do that today. You could tell Him right now, "Jesus, You run my life from now on. It was supposed to be run by You all along, but I've been running it. I've done it my way. And I turn from that now, and I accept the payment You made - the death penalty you took for me when you died on the cross. Beginning right now, Jesus, I'm Yours."
He's what you've been trying to find all these years, and you can belong to Him this very day. There's some wonderful information I would love to give you. It's at our website so you could be sure you have begun this relationship with the only One who can save you from your sin. That website is ANewStory.com. Get there as soon as you can.
It could be that God brought you here to hear His voice and to have this opportunity to finally experience a personal relationship with Him. You've been searching long enough. It's time to finally be home.