Max Lucado Daily: FORGIVE LIKE CHRIST
Scripture says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).
It was the eve of the Crucifixion and Jesus’ final meal with his followers. Jesus stood up, hung his cloak on a hook, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. He washed feet. Jesus used some of his precious final moments in this silent sacrament of humility.
The disciples pledged to stay with their Master. But, later that night when the soldiers marched in, the disciples ran out. When they looked at their feet in shame, they realized Jesus forgave his betrayers before they betrayed him.
Hasn’t he done the same for us? We each have a basin. We’ve each been wounded. But before we knew we needed grace, we were offered it. This is how happiness happens.
Psalm 111
Hallelujah!
I give thanks to God with everything I’ve got—
Wherever good people gather, and in the congregation.
God’s works are so great, worth
A lifetime of study—endless enjoyment!
Splendor and beauty mark his craft;
His generosity never gives out.
His miracles are his memorial—
This God of Grace, this God of Love.
He gave food to those who fear him,
He remembered to keep his ancient promise.
He proved to his people that he could do what he said:
Hand them the nations on a platter—a gift!
He manufactures truth and justice;
All his products are guaranteed to last—
Never out-of-date, never obsolete, rust-proof.
All that he makes and does is honest and true:
He paid the ransom for his people,
He ordered his Covenant kept forever.
He’s so personal and holy, worthy of our respect.
The good life begins in the fear of God—
Do that and you’ll know the blessing of God.
His Hallelujah lasts forever!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 5:1–9
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [b] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
Footnotes:
John 5:2 Some manuscripts Bethzatha; other manuscripts Bethsaida
John 5:4 Some manuscripts include here, wholly or in part, paralyzed—and they waited for the moving of the waters. 4 From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.
Insight
In Luke 4:18–19, Jesus begins His ministry by quoting from Isaiah (61:1–2) that the Messiah would perform miracles. Christ’s miracles served as proof that He was indeed the Messiah. In John 5, Jesus directly confronted the religious leaders about His identity. When they began to persecute Him for working on the Sabbath, He referred to God as “my Father” (v. 17) and stated that God too worked (on the Sabbath). As evidence of His deity, Jesus pointed to the miracle He’d just performed, saying that as the Father gives life so does the Son (v. 21). In other words, He wouldn’t have been able to restore the paralyzed man’s legs if He were not doing it through the power of the Father.
Good News for Feet
For you, Lord, have delivered me from death . . . that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living. Psalm 116:8–9
The ad brought a smile to my face: “The most comfortable socks in the history of feet.” Then, extending its claim of good news for feet even further, the advertiser said that because socks remain the most requested clothing item at homeless shelters, for every pair of socks purchased the company would donate a pair to someone in need.
Imagine the smile when Jesus healed the feet of a man who hadn’t been able to walk for thirty-eight years (John 5:2–8). Now imagine the opposite look on the faces of the temple officials who weren’t impressed by Jesus’s care for the feet or heart of someone who had gone without help for so long. They accused the man and Jesus of breaking a religious law that allows no work to be done on the Sabbath (vv. 9–10, 16–17). They saw rules where Jesus saw the need for mercy.
At this point the man didn’t even know who had given him new feet. Only later would he be able to say that it was Jesus who had made him well (vv. 13–15)—the same Jesus who would allow His own feet to be nailed to a tree to offer that man—and us—the best news in the history of broken bodies, minds, and hearts. By: Mart DeHaan
Reflect & Pray
What needs do you see in those around you? In what ways have you seen Jesus meet your own needs?
Jesus, allow me to see and meet the needs of others.
To learn more about the life of Christ, visit christianuniversity.org/NT111.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
The Witness of the Spirit
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit… —Romans 8:16
We are in danger of getting into a bargaining spirit with God when we come to Him— we want the witness of the Spirit before we have done what God tells us to do.
Why doesn’t God reveal Himself to you? He cannot. It is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the way as long as you won’t abandon yourself to Him in total surrender. Yet once you do, immediately God witnesses to Himself— He cannot witness to you, but He instantly witnesses to His own nature in you. If you received the witness of the Spirit before the reality and truth that comes from obedience, it would simply result in sentimental emotion. But when you act on the basis of redemption, and stop the disrespectfulness of debating with God, He immediately gives His witness. As soon as you abandon your own reasoning and arguing, God witnesses to what He has done, and you are amazed at your total disrespect in having kept Him waiting. If you are debating as to whether or not God can deliver from sin, then either let Him do it or tell Him that He cannot. Do not quote this or that person to Him. Simply obey Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden….” Come, if you are weary, and ask, if you know you are evil (see Luke 11:9-13).
The Spirit of God witnesses to the redemption of our Lord, and to nothing else. He cannot witness to our reason. We are inclined to mistake the simplicity that comes from our natural commonsense decisions for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of redemption, never to our reason. If we are trying to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder that we are in darkness and uncertainty. Throw it all overboard, trust in Him, and He will give you the witness of the Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1449 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
The Trash Removal That Saves Your Life - #8552
Twenty-three seconds. It takes you longer than that to eat a slice of pizza, or at least it should. It takes me about that long just to say three or four sentences. Now, a short TV commercial is longer than that. But every 23 seconds, something absolutely amazing happens inside you. Your blood pumps through your body during that time, delivers oxygen and nutrients to all your cells, and carries away the impurities from your cells and starts back through again in 23 seconds. Mind-blowing! That's what it takes to keep you going. You've got to have that oxygen delivered regularly. You've got to have your cell garbage taken out regularly, and your blood gets it done.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Trash Removal That Saves Your Life."
In the amazing ways of the God who made us, it's the blood that cleanses our body from the garbage that could kill us. And it is the blood that is our only hope of our soul being cleansed of that poison in there that could cost us our life forever; except my blood can't clean my soul. It takes blood that has never been poisoned by human sin. It takes the blood of Jesus Christ.
Our word for today from the Word of God makes it absolutely clear what it takes for you and me to get rid of that guilt and that penalty of our sin that will one day keep us out of heaven. 1 John 1:7 says: "The blood of Jesus, God's Son, purifies us from all sin." There's something about that blood that Jesus Christ shed on that horrific cross that has the power, actually the only power, to remove your sin and mine. The way God made for our body to get clean inside is also the way God made for our soul to get clean inside - blood. For our soul - Jesus' blood.
From the first sin in the Garden of Eden to the lie you told or the person you hurt today, God has minced no words telling us the penalty, "You will surely die" He said to Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:17). And the devil's lie to Adam and Eve went like this: "You will not surely die" (Genesis 3:4). He's been trying to get people to believe that lie ever since. He wants you to think that somehow you can escape the death penalty for your sin when God said that penalty is irrevocable.
But in His love, He set in motion a way that the death penalty that you and I deserve (the Bible calls that hell) could be paid without us being away from Him forever. A blood sacrifice - someone with no sin of His own to pay for, dying in your place. And there's only one someone who meets that qualification. That is the very Son of God. He came, as the Bible says, "to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Hebrews 9:26). Is it any wonder God said then, "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Hebrews 9:22).
You can't get rid of your sin by earning it and doing good things. You can't inherit God's forgiveness from a Christian family or pick it up by osmosis from just being around Christian things your whole life. Your only hope of getting clean and getting to heaven is the cleansing power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Not Christianity, but Jesus.
The question is, have you ever thrown yourself on His mercy and said, "Jesus, only by the blood You shed for me can I be clean before God. Please, Lord, this day, carry away the garbage of my life in Your precious blood." And He will do it if you ask.
And why wouldn't you? Why would you risk one more day carrying in your soul the guilt of your sin and its penalty? Why, when Jesus carried it for you on the cross so you would never have to carry it again! Aren't you ready to be forgiven? You ready to be clean? Let Jesus do that for you today. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
I'd love to have you go to our website, because I've loaded it with the information you need to make sure this forgiving, saving transaction happens in your life today. That site is ANewStory.com.
Picture yourself carrying all the sins of your life up that hill where Jesus' cross stands and leave it all there, never to carry it again. That could happen today.