Max Lucado Daily: BE LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN
We prayer wimps fear “mis-praying.” What’s the expected etiquette and dress code of prayer? What if we kneel instead of stand? Jesus’ answer? In Matthew 18:3, He says, “Become as little children.” Carefree. Joy filled. Playful. Trusting. Curious. Trust more—strut less.
God prefers this greeting: “God, you are my Daddy, and I am your child!” It’s hard to show off and call God “Daddy” at the same time. Impossible, in fact. Remember, prayer doesn’t depend on how you pray. The power of prayer depends on the One who hears the prayer!
Here’s my prayer challenge for you! Every day for four weeks, pray four minutes. And get ready to connect with God like never before!
Psalm 127
A Pilgrim Song of Solomon
If God doesn’t build the house,
the builders only build shacks.
If God doesn’t guard the city,
the night watchman might as well nap.
It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late,
and work your worried fingers to the bone.
Don’t you know he enjoys
giving rest to those he loves?
3-5 Don’t you see that children are God’s best gift?
the fruit of the womb his generous legacy?
Like a warrior’s fistful of arrows
are the children of a vigorous youth.
Oh, how blessed are you parents,
with your quivers full of children!
Your enemies don’t stand a chance against you;
you’ll sweep them right off your doorstep.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Hebrews 10:19–25
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Insight
The New Testament letter to the Hebrews was written to readers born and raised under the law of Moses. Their lives had been centered in the moral, civil, and ceremonial obligations of a temple-based culture. Now, however, they were in trouble for believing in Jesus in defiance of temple authorities and the teachers of their law. Some were discouraged. They needed to know that, while no one likes to suffer, they didn’t have to live in fear of dying (2:14–15). Jesus had suffered and tasted death for them (v. 9). He was greater than Moses and was the last sacrifice for sin they’d ever need (3:1–3; 9:24–48). He was a High Priest who wasn’t ashamed to call them brothers and sisters (2:10–13). In Jesus—their new temple—they had become the house of God (3:1–6). Remembering what Jesus had suffered and won for them, they could encourage one another.
To learn more about the letter to the Hebrews, visit christianuniversity.org/NT337. By: Mart DeHaan
Alert Circles
Encourage one another and build each other up. 1 Thessalonians 5:11
African gazelles instinctively form “alert circles” while resting on the savannah. They gather in groups with each animal facing outward in a slightly different direction. This enables them to scan the horizon a full 360 degrees and to communicate about approaching dangers or opportunities.
Instead of looking out only for themselves, the members of the group take care of one another. This is also God’s wisdom for followers of Jesus. The Bible encourages us, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together” (Hebrews 10:24–25).
Christians were never intended to go it alone, explains the writer of Hebrews. Together we are stronger. We’re able to “[encourage] one another” (v. 25), to “comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Corinthians 1:4), and to help each other stay alert to the efforts of our enemy the devil, who “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
The goal of our care for each other is so much more than survival. It’s to make us like Jesus: loving and effective servants of God in this world—people who together look forward confidently to the hope of His coming kingdom. All of us need encouragement, and God will help us help each other as together we draw near to Him in love. By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
How do you receive strength and help from other believers? Who can you encourage with God’s love?
Thank You for Your faithfulness, loving God. Please help me to encourage others to look forward to You today!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Discovering Divine Design
As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me… —Genesis 24:27
We should be so one with God that we don’t need to ask continually for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God. A child’s life is normally obedient, until he chooses disobedience. But as soon as he chooses to disobey, an inherent inner conflict is produced. On the spiritual level, inner conflict is the warning of the Spirit of God. When He warns us in this way, we must stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind to discern God’s will (see Romans 12:2). If we are born again by the Spirit of God, our devotion to Him is hindered, or even stopped, by continually asking Him to guide us here and there. “…the Lord led me…” and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design. If we are born of God we will see His guiding hand and give Him the credit.
We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.
Beware of being obsessed with consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. If you are a saint and say, “I will never do this or that,” in all probability this will be exactly what God will require of you. There was never a more inconsistent being on this earth than our Lord, but He was never inconsistent with His Father. The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the divine life. It is the divine life that continually makes more and more discoveries about the divine mind. It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We should always choose our books as God chooses our friends, just a bit beyond us, so that we have to do our level best to keep up with them. Shade of His Hand, 1216 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 14, 2019
The Hand on the Hammer - #8569
Hollywood really missed this one. It was a movie no one was willing to distribute; a movie most thought would have a limited audience. But from its midweek opening, Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" a few years ago took off like a rocket. Soon it became apparent this movie portraying the agonizing last twelve hours of Jesus' life was going to be a blockbuster, whose box office numbers were up there with the record-breakers. But according to Director, Mel Gibson, this movie ultimately wasn't about commercial success. It was, for him, a deeply personal project, portraying what he described as "Christ's wounds that healed my wounds." The personalness of Jesus' death to him surfaced vividly on the day they were filming the driving of the nails into Christ's hands. It's a not-to-be forgotten moment. The director himself grabbed the mallet and spikes from the actor who was supposed to be nailing Jesus to the cross. The cameras kept rolling, and in the movie it is Mel Gibson's hands we see, wielding the hammer and driving the nails into Jesus' hands.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Hand on the Hammer."
Time Magazine's cover article on "The Passion" asked this question: "Who Killed Jesus?" Well, in one sense, no one killed Jesus. He said, "I lay down My life...No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (John 10:17-18). Actually, that makes sense. Who can kill the Son of God? He created the men who put Him on the cross! He created the tree he was dying on. But Mel Gibson understood something when he drove those nails - that it was his sins that made Jesus' sacrifice necessary. It was my sins. It was your sins. In a sense, you and I had our hand on the hammer.
God makes that crystal clear in Isaiah 53:5-6, our word for today from the Word of God. The Bible says, "He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, by His wounds we are healed."
So why did the way I've lived my life necessitate this horrific crushing of God's one and only Son? The Bible continues: "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him (that's Jesus) the iniquity (or the sin) of us all."
Most of us would like to think that we're pretty good people, that we can somehow contribute to our own going to heaven. Romans 3:10, though, delivers God's verdict on all that goodness, "There is no one righteous, not even one." We are all under the eternal death penalty for running our life. So my only hope, your only hope is to look at that cross and say, "Jesus, some of those sins you're pouring out your life for are mine - for all the angry things I've done, the dirty things, the selfish things. You're dying for my pride, my lust, all the hurtful things I've ever done." To put it simply, your only hope of having your sin erased from God's book forever, your only hope of getting into His heaven is to go to Jesus' cross and say, "For me. This is for me!"
Has there ever been a time when you've consciously told Jesus that, when you've abandoned all other spiritual hope and pinned all your hopes on Jesus? If not, you're still carrying the awful death penalty for your sin. But this very day, you could change that by trusting fully in the one who already paid your penalty.
If you're ready to finally make the Savior your Savior, would you tell Him that right now? "Jesus, I'm yours. What you've done on the cross and the fact that you came out of your grave, that's my only hope. Today I give myself to you." Look, our website is all about helping you begin your relationship with Him. Please go there. It's ANewStory.com.
This can be the day when every wrong thing you've ever done will be forgiven by God, erased from His Book, when you trade a hell you deserve for a heaven you could never deserve. Today you can experience for yourself the love that thought you were worth dying for.