Max Lucado Daily: IT’S YOUR SERVE
“And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:27–28).
Jesus came to serve. Suppose you took that role. Be the family member who offers to wash the dishes after dinner. Be the neighbor who mows the grass of the elderly people. Find happiness in serving others. Doing good does the doer good.
What would happen if everyone took on the role of a servant? How many marriages would be blessed? If politicians set out to serve people more than serve themselves, would their country benefit? If churches were populated by sincere servants, how many people would hear the invitation of a lifetime? Service… it’s how happiness happens.
Philippians 3
And that’s about it, friends. Be glad in God!
I don’t mind repeating what I have written in earlier letters, and I hope you don’t mind hearing it again. Better safe than sorry—so here goes.
2-6 Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book.
7-9 The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.
10-11 I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.
12-14 I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.
15-16 So let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision—you’ll see it yet! Now that we’re on the right track, let’s stay on it.
17-19 Stick with me, friends. Keep track of those you see running this same course, headed for this same goal. There are many out there taking other paths, choosing other goals, and trying to get you to go along with them. I’ve warned you of them many times; sadly, I’m having to do it again. All they want is easy street. They hate Christ’s Cross. But easy street is a dead-end street. Those who live there make their bellies their gods; belches are their praise; all they can think of is their appetites.
20-21 But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.
The Message (MSG)
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, October 04, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 14:23–33
After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Insight
The gospels of Matthew and Mark describe two separate occasions when Jesus, in the presence of His frightened disciples, calms a storm on the lake of Galilee. In the first of these events, Jesus is asleep in the bow of the boat when a storm threatens to sink it (Matthew 8:23–27; Mark 4:35–41). In the second, the disciples are crossing the lake by themselves when Jesus comes to them in the storm walking on the waves (Matthew 14:22–33; Mark 6:45–51).
Although Luke describes only the occasion when Jesus was asleep in the boat (8:22–25) and John describes only the storm that occurred while He walked on water (6:16–21), the accounts in Matthew and Mark show us that by the time Christ stepped into the boat and calmed a storm with His presence, the disciples had already seen Him calm a storm with His command. By: Mart DeHaan
He Calms the Storms
But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Matthew 14:27
Jim was frantically sharing about problems he was encountering with his work team: division, judgmental attitudes, and misunderstandings. After an hour of patiently listening to his concerns, I suggested, “Let’s ask Jesus what He would have us do in this situation.” We sat quietly for five minutes. Then something amazing happened. We both felt God’s peace cover us like a blanket. We were more relaxed as we experienced His presence and guidance, and we felt confident to wade back into the difficulties.
Peter, one of Jesus’s disciples, needed God’s comforting presence. One night he and the other disciples were sailing across the Sea of Galilee when a strong storm arose. All of a sudden, Jesus showed up walking on water! Naturally, this took the disciples by surprise. He reassured them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid” (Matthew 14:27). Peter impulsively asked Jesus if he could join Him. He stepped out of the boat and walked toward Jesus. But he soon lost focus, became aware of the dangerous and humanly impossible circumstance he was in, and started sinking. He cried out, “Lord, save me!” and Jesus lovingly rescued him (vv. 30–31).
Like Peter, we can learn that Jesus, the Son of God, is with us even in the storms of life! By: Estera Pirosca Escobar
Reflect & Pray
What storm of life are you going through today? What can you do to shift your focus from the storm to the One who can calm it?
Jesus, thank You that You have the power and authority to calm the storms in our lives. Help us to trust You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 04, 2019
The Vision and The Reality
…to those who are…called to be saints… —1 Corinthians 1:2
Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people.
There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to relax on the mountaintop and live in the memory of the vision, then we will be of no real use in the ordinary things of which human life is made. We have to learn to live in reliance upon what we saw in the vision, not simply live in ecstatic delight and conscious reflection upon God. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.
Our little “I am” always sulks and pouts when God says do. Let your little “I am” be shriveled up in God’s wrath and indignation— “I AM WHO I AM…has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). He must dominate. Isn’t it piercing to realize that God not only knows where we live, but also knows the gutters into which we crawl! He will hunt us down as fast as a flash of lightning. No human being knows human beings as God does.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The place for the comforter is not that of one who preaches, but of the comrade who says nothing, but prays to God about the matter. The biggest thing you can do for those who are suffering is not to talk platitudes, not to ask questions, but to get into contact with God, and the “greater works” will be done by prayer (see John 14:12–13). Baffled to Fight Better, 56 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 04, 2019
How to Be Sure You'll Make it Home - #8540
Our friend commuted in his private plane hundreds of times. He flew from a little airfield near his house to the community where his office was. Well, knowing that he wanted to get home one day before the weather set in, he left his office earlier than usual and he headed for his plane. As he was boarding, he told a friend, "I'm going home!" Those may have been his last words. As he landed a few minutes later, the plane went into a skid and slammed into a tree. He probably died instantly, but he still made it home.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Be Sure You'll Make it Home."
Our friend had made it known to a lot of people that he cared about that he had placed his total trust in Jesus Christ to forgive his sins and take him to heaven when he died. And while it was his home on earth he thought he was heading for, his last words had more meaning than he could have ever known. He really was going home - to the eternal home in heaven that we all hope we'll go to when we take our last flight.
I hope you have that kind of security. I hope you know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are, in the words of the Bible, "prepared to meet your God" (Amos 4:12). That you are going to heaven when you die. It has nothing to do with being good enough to be in heaven. It has everything to do with what Jesus did when He died to remove the only thing that will keep you out of heaven, which is all the sins of your life.
There's a peace and a security that is beyond words in knowing that death no longer has any hold over you. It is, in reality, a non-issue because of Jesus. In Hebrews 2:14, our word for today from the Word of God, God says that Jesus "shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." Or as another Bible writer says, "Christ Jesus...has destroyed death" (2 Timothy 1:10).
The Bible doesn't take death lightly. In fact, it refers to death as "the last enemy to be destroyed" (1 Corinthians 15:26). But it goes on to say that "death has been swallowed up in victory" by Jesus blowing the doors off death when He rose from the dead on Easter morning.
One Easter Sunday morning, Dr. Adrian Rogers' daughter read an amazing poem in their church service. King Death and Father Time are talking outside of Jesus' tomb. Death tells Time that he is "guarding just one grave" because Jesus has threatened to challenge him. And Death says, "When I steps in to cut 'em down, it's for eternity." But three days later, Time finds Death quivering on the ground.
When Time asks what happened, Death says, "He came and got ahold of me and He threw me to the ground. He put His foot here on my neck and He took my keys and crown. Two angels came to talk with Him. They glistened like the sun. He said, 'The job's all finished, boys. Redemption's work is done.'" Wow! And Death concludes by saying, "I'm just a lowly servant now. I've little time to roam. I open up the soul gate and help the saints go home."
That's the only thing death can do now is take you to heaven if you know Jesus Christ personally. Maybe you've never grabbed Jesus as your only hope. Eternity is just too long to risk one more day without Him. Today why don't you tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours. I believe I was made by You and I was made for You, but I've wandered away from You. I've done things that have broken Your laws and broken Your heart. And I believe You loved me so much that when You died on the cross, some of that sin You were dying for was my sin. And I believe You're alive today, and I want You to be alive in me. I want to belong to You from this day on."
You know, if that's where your heart is right now, you're feeling that tug of Jesus his direction, I want to ask you to make one of your next steps to go to our website and find there, the information that will help you get this settled once and for all. That site is ANewStory.com.
Beginning this day, you can know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are going to heaven when you die. Why? Because you've put yourself in the hands of the only One who can take you there. And whenever your last day on earth is, you'll just be going home.