Max Lucado Daily: Living Out of Your Inheritance
Promised Land people say I'm a victor in spite of my surroundings. Wilderness people say These are difficult days and I'll never get through them. But God's people say, These days are Glory Days…and God will get me through!
John 1:12 says, "Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." Imagine what would happen if a generation of Christians lived out of their inheritance. The lonely would find comfort in God, not in the arms of strangers. Struggling couples would spend more time in prayer and less time in anger. And children would consider it a blessing to care for their aging parents.
Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ, because He gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13). Join me in claiming your inheritance in a special 4-week journey of scripture memory at GloryDaysToday.com!
Claim Your Inheritance
We are in the middle of our 4 week Scripture Memory Challenge. This week's verse is John 1:12."Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God."
Claim your inheritance! As a child of God you have the power of God in you to fight any battle you face. He set us free so he could raise us up. The gift has been given. Will you trust it?
God said to Joshua, "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses." The people of Moses' day chose the wilderness. Don't make the same mistake! Joshua didn't. He took God at his word and set about the task of inheriting the land! I encourage you to do the same!
Psalm 67
God, mark us with grace
and blessing! Smile!
The whole country will see how you work,
all the godless nations see how you save.
God! Let people thank and enjoy you.
Let all people thank and enjoy you.
Let all far-flung people become happy
and shout their happiness because
You judge them fair and square,
you tend the far-flung peoples.
God! Let people thank and enjoy you.
Let all people thank and enjoy you.
Earth, display your exuberance!
You mark us with blessing, O God, our God.
You mark us with blessing, O God.
Earth’s four corners—honor him!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Exodus 3:10–17
So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you[a] will worship God on this mountain.”
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.[b] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,[c] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
Footnotes:
Exodus 3:12 The Hebrew is plural.
Exodus 3:14 Or I will be what I will be
Exodus 3:15 The Hebrew for Lord sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for I am in verse 14.
Insight
When Moses asked “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” (Exodus 3:11), God reassured him of His presence. “I will be with you” (v. 12) corresponds to the statement “I am who I am” (v. 14), which identifies God as an existing being. He expanded on this when He called Himself “The Lord” (v. 15), from the Hebrew Yehovah, which means “self-existing.” Regardless of abilities Moses possessed, the self-existing Sustainer of the universe would be with him. By: Julie Schwab
Who Am I?
“I am who I am.” Exodus 3:14
Dave enjoyed his job, but for a long time he’d sensed a pull toward something else. Now he was about to fulfill his dream and step into mission work. But strangely, he began to have serious doubts.
“I don’t deserve this,” he told a friend. “The mission board doesn’t know the real me. I’m not good enough.”
Dave has some pretty good company. Mention the name of Moses and we think of leadership, strength, and the Ten Commandments. We tend to forget that Moses fled to the desert after murdering a man. We lose sight of his forty years as a fugitive. We overlook his anger problem and his intense reluctance to say yes to God.
When God showed up with marching orders (Exodus 3:1–10), Moses played the I’m-not-good-enough card. He even got into a lengthy argument with God, asking Him: “Who am I?” (v. 11). Then God told Moses who He was: “I am who I am” (v. 14). It’s impossible for us to explain that mysterious name because our indescribable God is describing His eternal presence to Moses.
A sense of our own weaknesses is healthy. But if we use them as an excuse to keep God from using us, we insult Him. What we’re really saying is that God isn’t good enough.
The question isn’t Who am I? The question is Who is the I am? By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
When has thinking you’re not good enough kept you from serving God? How does it encourage you to look at Bible characters God used despite their flaws?
Eternal God, so often we doubt that You could ever use people like us. But You sent Your Son to die for the likes of us, so please forgive our doubts. Help us accept the challenges You bring our way.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, September 29, 2019
The Awareness of the Call
…for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! —1 Corinthians 9:16
We are inclined to forget the deeply spiritual and supernatural touch of God. If you are able to tell exactly where you were when you received the call of God and can explain all about it, I question whether you have truly been called. The call of God does not come like that; it is much more supernatural. The realization of the call in a person’s life may come like a clap of thunder or it may dawn gradually. But however quickly or slowly this awareness comes, it is always accompanied with an undercurrent of the supernatural— something that is inexpressible and produces a “glow.” At any moment the sudden awareness of this incalculable, supernatural, surprising call that has taken hold of your life may break through— “I chose you…” (John 15:16). The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. You are not called to preach the gospel because you are sanctified; the call to preach the gospel is infinitely different. Paul describes it as a compulsion that was placed upon him.
If you have ignored, and thereby removed, the great supernatural call of God in your life, take a review of your circumstances. See where you have put your own ideas of service or your particular abilities ahead of the call of God. Paul said, “…woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” He had become aware of the call of God, and his compulsion to “preach the gospel” was so strong that nothing else was any longer even a competitor for his strength.
If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for His purpose in the end. If you will agree with God’s purpose, He will bring not only your conscious level but also all the deeper levels of your life, which you yourself cannot reach, into perfect harmony.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.
Biblical Psychology