Max Lucado Daily: A BEAM IN YOUR EYE
“Why do you notice the little piece of dust in your friend’s eye, but you don’t notice the big piece of wood in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3).
Anyone who thinks Jesus never cracked a joke hasn’t read these words from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus envisioned a fellow who has a two-by-four sticking out of his eye. He doesn’t see the log in his own eye but can’t help but notice a man who stands across the street dabbing his eye with a tissue. He declares, “Don’t you know that if you get something in your eye, it can be harmful?”
On target? Yes, sirree, Bob. We have eagle- eye vision when it comes to others but can be blind as moles when we examine ourselves. If you want to change the world, begin with yourself. This is how happiness happens.
2 Kings 24
It was during his reign that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the country. Jehoiakim became his puppet. But after three years he had had enough and revolted.
2-4 God dispatched a succession of raiding bands against him: Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite. The strategy was to destroy Judah. Through the preaching of his servants and prophets, God had said he would do this, and now he was doing it. None of this was by chance—it was God’s judgment as he turned his back on Judah because of the enormity of the sins of Manasseh—Manasseh, the killer-king, who made the Jerusalem streets flow with the innocent blood of his victims. God wasn’t about to overlook such crimes.
5-6 The rest of the life and times of Jehoiakim is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. Jehoiakim died and was buried with his ancestors. His son Jehoiachin became the next king.
7 The threat from Egypt was now over—no more invasions by the king of Egypt—for by this time the king of Babylon had captured all the land between the Brook of Egypt and the Euphrates River, land formerly controlled by the king of Egypt.
8-9 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king. His rule in Jerusalem lasted only three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem. In God’s opinion he also was an evil king, no different from his father.
10-12 The next thing to happen was that the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked Jerusalem and put it under siege. While his officers were laying siege to the city, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon paid a personal visit. And Jehoiachin king of Judah, along with his mother, officers, advisors, and government leaders, surrendered.
12-14 In the eighth year of his reign Jehoiachin was taken prisoner by the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar emptied the treasuries of both The Temple of God and the royal palace and confiscated all the gold furnishings that Solomon king of Israel had made for The Temple of God. This should have been no surprise—God had said it would happen. And then he emptied Jerusalem of people—all its leaders and soldiers, all its craftsmen and artisans. He took them into exile, something like ten thousand of them! The only ones he left were the very poor.
15-16 He took Jehoiachin into exile to Babylon. With him he took the king’s mother, his wives, his chief officers, the community leaders, anyone who was anybody—in round numbers, seven thousand soldiers plus another thousand or so craftsmen and artisans, all herded off into exile in Babylon.
17 Then the king of Babylon made Jehoiachin’s uncle, Mattaniah, his puppet king, but changed his name to Zedekiah.
18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he started out as king. He was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah. Her hometown was Libnah.
19 As far as God was concerned Zedekiah was just one more evil king, a carbon copy of Jehoiakim.
20 The source of all this doom to Jerusalem and Judah was God’s anger—God turned his back on them as an act of judgment. And then Zedekiah revolted against the king of Babylon.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 Peter 5:8–10
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
Insight
The Scriptures have much to tell us about our spiritual adversary, Satan. Peter, writing from his own painful defeat, warns us of our adversary “the devil [who] prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Some thirty years before writing this letter, Peter boasted that he would never disown Jesus (Matthew 26:33–35), but in his overconfident pride he failed to “be alert and of sober mind” (1 Peter 5:8). According to John, the whole world is presently under Satan’s control (1 John 5:19), but Jesus came “to destroy the devil’s work” (3:8). Jesus has already defeated Satan (John 12:31; 16:11; Hebrews 2:14), but the devil is permitted to continue to deceive people for a season (2 Corinthians 11:14). Satan’s end is sealed, however, for he will be “thrown into the lake of burning sulfur . . . tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).
Turn and Run
Resist [the devil], standing firm in the faith. 1 Peter 5:9
Ali was a beautiful, smart, and talented teenager with loving parents. But after high school something prompted her to try heroin. Her parents noticed changes in her and sent her to a rehabilitation facility after Ali eventually admitted the impact it was having on her. After treatment, they asked what she would tell her friends about trying drugs. Her advice: “Just turn and run.” She urged that “just saying no” wasn’t enough.
Tragically, Ali relapsed and died at age twenty-two of an overdose. In an attempt to keep others from the same fate, her heartbroken parents appeared on a local news program encouraging listeners to “run for Ali” by staying far from situations where they could be exposed to drugs and other dangers.
The apostle Paul urged his spiritual son Timothy (and us) to run from evil (2 Timothy 2:22), and the apostle Peter likewise warned, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9).
None of us is immune to temptation. And often the best thing to do is to steer clear of situations where we’ll be tempted—though they can’t always be avoided. But we can be better prepared by having a strong faith in God based in the Bible and strengthened through prayer. When we “[stand] firm in the faith” we’ll know when to turn and run to Him. By: Alyson Kieda
Reflect & Pray
In what area(s) are you particularly susceptible to temptation? What has helped you to resist?
Dear God, there are so many temptations out there. Help us to watch and pray so that we won’t fall. And thank You for welcoming us back when we do.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
His Temptation and Ours
We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. —Hebrews 4:15
Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is the kind mentioned in James 1:14, “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” But through regeneration we are lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, namely, the kind of temptations our Lord faced. The temptations of Jesus had no appeal to us as unbelievers because they were not at home in our human nature. Our Lord’s temptations and ours are in different realms until we are born again and become His brothers. The temptations of Jesus are not those of a mere man, but the temptations of God as Man. Through regeneration, the Son of God is formed in us (see Galatians 4:19), and in our physical life He has the same setting that He had on earth. Satan does not tempt us just to make us do wrong things— he tempts us to make us lose what God has put into us through regeneration, namely, the possibility of being of value to God. He does not come to us on the premise of tempting us to sin, but on the premise of shifting our point of view, and only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.
Temptation means a test of the possessions held within the inner, spiritual part of our being by a power outside us and foreign to us. This makes the temptation of our Lord explainable. After Jesus’ baptism, having accepted His mission of being the One “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) He “was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness” (Matthew 4:1) and into the testing devices of the devil. Yet He did not become weary or exhausted. He went through the temptation “without sin,” and He retained all the possessions of His spiritual nature completely intact.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us. Disciples Indeed, 388 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
The Great Door Opener - #8528
I had a funny conversation with the owner of a local restaurant one day. The restaurant was close to our office, so I was there pretty frequently. I usually ran in and grabbed the quickest thing I could and ran out. Well, I was at the cash register and there were two or three others waiting to pay when Tony, the owner, said, "What do you do anyway?" Well, I wanted an opportunity there, and I thought this might be the first chance I had to really let him know that I know Christ.
On the spur of the moment I gave him what I thought was a creative answer that might get him thinking a little bit. I said, "Oh, I'm a manufacturer's representative." He said, "What?" "Well, you probably want to know what manufacturer." He said, "Yeah." I said, "The manufacturer of you and me." He said, "Oh, you work for my mother?" I said, "No, no, no. I work for the person who manufactured your mother, and the mother before her, and her mother before her." I know this is an odd conversation. He said, "That's funny! You don't look Italian."
Well, we went around on this merry-go-round a couple of times, and finally I said, "Actually, I lead a Christian organization that works with young people and their families." He said, "Oh, you're one of those born again things?" I said, "Well, it depends on what you mean by that. If you mean a cult with people who have antennas, do I have any antenna? No." I said, "Do you know who said those words first?" He said, "No." I said, "You know, Jesus said those words first. He invented that whole idea. It's referred to in the Bible, and it actually refers to a brand new start that He can give you when you come to Him after being what he called "born again."
Then he looked at me, and I was actually caught up short by his next comment. He explained why he had these questions about my life in the first place. He simply said, "All I know is that you're happy all the time." I thought, "Man, we are being watched." And you know, it's something pretty simple that can start something pretty eternal.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Great Door Opener."
Our word for today from the Word of God, we're in the book of Nehemiah. He's a servant. Actually, he's a cupbearer or waiter as it were to the king. And in chapter 2 and verse 1, he says, "I had not been sad in the kings' presence, so the king asked me, 'Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This could be nothing but sadness of heart.'" Of course we know Nehemiah was very sad because he wanted to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, his home city.
"'I was very much afraid,' Nehemiah said, 'But I said to the king, "May the king live forever. Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruin?' The king said to me, 'What is it you want?' Then I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the king." Well, from that point on, he shares his dream, the king supports it, and the rest... well, it's the miraculous history of the rebuilding of the walls and the gates of the city of Jerusalem.
Notice here the king says, "How come you're sad today?" So, apparently Nehemiah had a reputation for being a pretty happy camper at work. Do you? See, for Nehemiah, a bad mood at work must have been the exception. Is that how it is for you?
If you've ever been to an antique store, you know that something becomes more valuable as it becomes harder to find. Well, today, a smile is precious because it's getting hard to find. So much so that it eventually demands an explanation, "Hey, what kind of work do you do?" The restaurant owner asked me that. He said, "I guess the reason you're happy all the time is you enjoy your work." I said, "No, it's because I enjoy my relationship with Him. He's the reason."
What attracted him, he said, was happiness. Let's consider your usual attitude at work or at school. Is it kind of dark, complaining, kind of a dull let's-get-through-it attitude? Or do you carry the presence of Christ into your school or your workplace? Your greatest attention getter for Christ may be that you have a smile in a sea of sour. A Christian draws his joy, not from what's going on around him, but who Jesus is going on inside him. Nehemiah said, "The joy of the Lord is your strength."
You might be wondering how to get an open door to the people around you. You might prove that Jesus works by your smile, your consistent joy, your positive spirit. Those may be the greatest door openers in the world.