Max Lucado Daily:GRACE, TRUTH, AND ACCEPTANCE
How does Jesus receive us? I know how he treated me. I was a twenty-year-old troublemaker on a downhill path. Though I’d made a commitment to Christ a decade earlier, you wouldn’t have known it by the way I lived.
Finally I came to Jesus, and he welcomed me back. Please note– he did not accept my behavior but he accepted me, his wayward child. He said, “Come back. I’ll clean you up.” He was “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Not just grace, but also truth. Not just truth, but also grace.
Grace and truth. Grace told the adulterous woman, “I do not condemn you.” Truth told her, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11). Jesus shared truth but graciously. Jesus offered grace but truthfully. Grace and truth. Acceptance seeks to offer both.
This is how happiness happens.
Psalm 96
1 Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
7 Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts.
9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of his[a] holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.
10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.
11 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is in it.
12 Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;
let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.
13 Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in his faithfulness.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 41:8–13
“But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
you descendants of Abraham my friend,
9 I took you from the ends of the earth,
from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, ‘You are my servant’;
I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
10 So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
11 “All who rage against you
will surely be ashamed and disgraced;
those who oppose you
will be as nothing and perish.
12 Though you search for your enemies,
you will not find them.
Those who wage war against you
will be as nothing at all.
13 For I am the Lord your God
who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
I will help you.
Insight
In the prophecies of Isaiah, chapters 1–39 are like an ever-darkening night anticipating a catastrophic consequence to Jerusalem’s love affair with idols (Isaiah 39:6–7). When the warnings come to pass, chapters 40–55 follow like a dawning light. According to the prophet, God would once again show His people the mercy He had shown Jacob—the lying, scheming father of their nation. He would call them from the streets of Babylon as He had led Abraham, the father of their faith, out of idolatrous Ur. In a way no one could have anticipated, He would rescue them by a foreign king who didn’t even know Him (45:1–13). Cyrus, king of Persia, would crush Babylon and offer the Jewish people their right of return. With words of hope and a hint of His greater plans for the world, He urges them not to be afraid of returning to Him (41:13). By: Mart DeHaan
Hang in There
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
My father-in-law turned seventy-eight recently, and during our family gathering to honor him, someone asked him, “What’s the most important thing you’ve learned in your life so far?” His answer? “Hang in there.”
Hang in there. It might be tempting to dismiss those words as simplistic. But my father-in-law wasn’t promoting blind optimism or positive thinking. He’s endured tough things in his nearly eight decades. His determination to press on wasn’t grounded in some vague hope that things might get better, but in Christ’s work in his life.
“Hanging in there”—the Bible calls it perseverance—isn’t possible through mere willpower. We persevere because God promised, over and over, that He’s with us, that He’ll give us strength, and that He’ll accomplish His purposes in our lives. That’s the message He spoke to the Israelites through Isaiah: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
What does it take to “hang in there”? According to Isaiah, the foundation for hope is God’s character. Knowing God’s goodness allows us to release our grip on fear so we can cling to the Father and His promise that He will provide what we need each day: strength, help, and God’s comforting, empowering, and upholding presence. By: Adam Holz
Reflect & Pray
How have you experienced God’s provision for you in moments of fear? How can the support of other believers help you to hang on?
Father, Your love gives us everything we need to “hang in there.” Help us to remember Your promise of strength and to rely upon it each day.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Building on the Atonement
…present…your members as instruments of righteousness to God. —Romans 6:13
I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot make atonement for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I cannot right what is wrong, purify what is impure, or make holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Do I have faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made the perfect atonement for sin. Am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The greatest need we have is not to do things, but to believe things. The redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith on it. If I construct my faith on my own experience, I produce the most unscriptural kind of life— an isolated life, with my eyes focused solely on my own holiness. Beware of that human holiness that is not based on the atonement of the Lord. It has no value for anything except a life of isolation— it is useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every kind of experience you have by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the foundation of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.
The atonement of Jesus must be exhibited in practical, unassuming ways in my life. Every time I obey, the absolute deity of God is on my side, so that the grace of God and my natural obedience are in perfect agreement. Obedience means that I have completely placed my trust in the atonement, and my obedience is immediately met by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.
Beware of the human holiness that denies the reality of the natural life— it is a fraud. Continually bring yourself to the trial or test of the atonement and ask, “Where is the discernment of the atonement in this, and in that?”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed.
So Send I You
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT YOUR BAD NEWS - #8543
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
For years, her voice was one of the signature voices of Southern Gospel music. When Bill Gaither started doing his Homecoming videos, her commanding voice became known to a lot more people than ever before. She's with the Lord now, but when Vestal Goodman was around she belted out a song, and it captivated audiences. I was actually surprised to learn that Vestal Goodman's singing didn't always dominate a room. And whether you've ever heard of her or not, it's amazing how this all came to be. Her husband Howard said that when they first started traveling in itinerant ministry, his wife actually had this little, light soprano voice. Something obviously happened. The storm happened. This near hurricane-strength storm hit Monroe, Louisiana the day they were supposed to have a concert in their big tent. Well, those violent winds destroyed everything, including the tent and their sound system. They moved their meeting to a church that night, and Vestal asked Howard to accompany her on a song she had never sung before publicly. As he started to play that song, he said that's when it happened! Suddenly he was hearing his wife sing with this great booming voice he'd never heard before - a voice that belted out a Gospel song; not only for the folks in the church that night, but later for millions of people for decades to come.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Good News About Your Bad News."
While most of us will never sing like Vestal Goodman did, the same thing that uncorked her song may be what will help you find a song you've never had before. It's the power of the storm. The same turbulence that can blow away important things in your life can also be God's instrument to bring out a strength you never knew you had; to unleash from deep inside you a "song" that can touch many other lives unless you let the storm make you stop singing.
No doubt, you're well acquainted with the pain that one of life's storms can bring into your life. We all are. You may be in the middle of picking up the pieces of what the storm has destroyed. What we need help seeing is the potential of the storm; the possibilities that the storm brings into our life.
We see that bigger picture of the heavy blows in our life when we read Romans 5:3-5, our word for today from the Word of God. Paul says, "We also rejoice in our suffering" - Really? Yeah. "...because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit."
The natural response is to focus on what the storm has taken. I get that. The healing response is to focus on what the storm can produce. These verses talk about a storm helping to transform us from a retreating wimp into a persevering warrior; to build or to reveal in us a character we may have never had before; to produce hope - the kind that comes when your hurt makes you a more caring and compassionate person because of what you've been through. And then you can give that hope to other broken people. You can give them the comfort you received from Christ.
It's our storms, more than any other factor in our life, that make us more useful to our Master and then put us in a position to tell others who might not otherwise listen about the storm-proof Savior that we're hanging onto. They'll listen to you because of what you've been through; which may mean that someone else may be in heaven with you someday because of the hurt you've been through. And that will last long after your storm is past. The psalmist tells us that "stormy winds do His bidding" (Psalm 148:8). So would you let God use your storm to produce in you a strength you've never had before; a song you've never been able to sing before?
The majestic eagle, unlike most other birds, refuses to run and hide when a storm's approaching. He actually perches on the edge of his nest, waiting for the storm. Because he lets those powerful currents carry him higher than his wings can take him - until he's actually seeing the sun and looking down on his storm.
Like the eagle, God wants you to use this storm to fly where you've never flown before.