Max Lucado Daily: A HEARTFELT CRY TO GOD
When my eldest daughter was 13 years old, she flubbed her piano piece at a recital. The silence in the auditorium was broken only by the pounding of her parents’ hearts. She hurried off the stage, threw her arms around me and buried her face in my shirt. “Oh, Daddy.” That was enough for me. At that moment I’d have given her the moon. All she said was, “Oh Daddy!”
Prayer starts here. Prayer begins with an honest and heartfelt, “Oh Daddy!” Jesus invites us to approach God the way a child approaches his or her daddy.
Here’s my challenge for you! Every day for four weeks, pray four minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before!
Psalm 133
A Pilgrim Song of David
How wonderful, how beautiful,
when brothers and sisters get along!
It’s like costly anointing oil
flowing down head and beard,
Flowing down Aaron’s beard,
flowing down the collar of his priestly robes.
It’s like the dew on Mount Hermon
flowing down the slopes of Zion.
Yes, that’s where God commands the blessing,
ordains eternal life.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, November 22, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Luke 15:11–13; 17–24
Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
Insight
Luke 15 is a parable with three distinct but related parts in which Jesus describes three lost things—a sheep, a coin, and a son. Each part ends with rejoicing over finding what was lost to show there will be rejoicing in heaven over “a sinner who repents” (vv. 7, 10, 32). Those listening were Pharisees and teachers who criticized Jesus for welcoming sinners (vv. 1–2). Through the older brother (vv. 25–31), Jesus pointed out the need of the Pharisees to repent. He doesn’t tell us whether the older son chose to attend his brother’s celebration. It’s almost as if He placed the Pharisees in the older brother’s shoes to show them they had a choice of whether they themselves would repent. By: Julie Schwab
The Older Brother
[They] muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:2
Author Henri Nouwen recalls his visit to a museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he spent hours reflecting on Rembrandt’s portrayal of the prodigal son. As the day wore on, changes in the natural lighting from a nearby window left Nouwen with the impression that he was seeing as many different paintings as there were changes of light. Each seemed to reveal something else about a father’s love for his broken son.
Nouwen describes how, at about four o’clock, three figures in the painting appeared to “step forward.” One was the older son who resented his father’s willingness to roll out the red carpet for the homecoming of his younger brother, the prodigal. After all, hadn’t he squandered so much of the family fortune, causing them pain and embarrassment in the process? (Luke 15:28–30).
The other two figures reminded Nouwen of the religious leaders who were present as Jesus told His parable. They were the ones who muttered in the background about the sinners Jesus was attracting (vv. 1–2).
Nouwen saw himself in all of them—in the wasted life of his youngest son, in the condemning older brother and religious leaders, and in a Father’s heart that’s big enough for anyone and everyone.
What about us? Can we see ourselves anywhere in Rembrandt’s painting? In some way, every story Jesus told is about us. By: Mart DeHaan
Reflect & Pray
How might you reflect again on the story Jesus told and on the Rembrandt painting? As the light changes, where do you find yourself?
Father, help me to see myself for how much You love me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, November 22, 2019
Shallow and Profound
Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. —1 Corinthians 10:31
Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful, for this is how contempt for others is produced in our lives. And it causes us to be a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than we are. Beware of posing as a profound person— God became a baby.
To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth to your life at all— the ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God. These are all things our Lord did. He did them as the Son of God, and He said, “A disciple is not above his teacher…” (Matthew 10:24).
We are safeguarded by the shallow things of life. We have to live the surface, commonsense life in a commonsense way. Then when God gives us the deeper things, they are obviously separated from the shallow concerns. Never show the depth of your life to anyone but God. We are so nauseatingly serious, so desperately interested in our own character and reputation, we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life.
Make a determination to take no one seriously except God. You may find that the first person you must be the most critical with, as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. The Place of Help, 1032 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, November 22, 2019
Insisting on Driving - #8575
Yeah, my wife was always this way, I'm this way. We're some of those psychos called marathon drivers. Now I know long-haul truckers have to do it for a living. But sometimes, you know, I've been known to choose to do it, just because, well, we wanted to get somewhere quickly. Of course, like most men, I like to be the one driving, sometimes for longer than I should. My wife would always tell me that our lives start to be in danger from the time I would start rubbing my right leg while I'm driving. Now, what does that have to do with it? Apparently, that's the first tip-off I'm going to sleep soon. So she would gently offer to drive and I would, of course, refuse. She'd offer several other times to drive, and then I would start doing a workout at the wheel. And then I would turn on some obnoxious radio station at full volume. Then I would open the window to let in the 20-below wind chill. Finally, just before we're just about to become a National Safety Council statistic, I would grudgingly pull over to the side of the road. We would change seats, and I would be out before we could start the car again.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Insisting on Driving."
I have a feeling I am not the only one who hates to give up the wheel, even if it's dangerous to keep driving. A lot of us want that control, not just of our vehicle, but of our lives. And no one's going to get our hands off the wheel of our life - including God.
Now maybe you're a very independent person. You've driven your life all these years, and you're not about to relinquish the wheel now. But all these years, the One who created you has been saying, "Isn't it about time you let Me drive?" And while you may have tried to keep God happy by being religious, you've stubbornly tightened your fingers around the wheel.
The truth is we were never created to drive our own life! The Bible makes that very clear when it says in Colossians 1:16 that "all things were created by Him and for Him." Now it's talking about Jesus Christ. You were created by Jesus. You were created for Jesus. And you've had a hole in your heart all these years because you didn't have Jesus. The One who gave you your life is supposed to be running your life. But it might be that you've insisted on being your own god, because whoever's driving your life is who your god really is.
Which leads us to an important warning from God in our word for today from the Word of God. Proverbs 29:1 says, "A man (and it could just as easily be a woman) who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes (or warnings) will suddenly be destroyed without remedy." Now chances are that you've had many warnings in your life that you shouldn't be driving and that you should move over; you should turn the wheel over to the God who made you.
It may be that someone who really loves you has been encouraging you to come to Jesus, but you've been too proud to let that happen. Well, that's expensive pride; maybe fatal pride...eternally fatal pride.
At the moment God decides your life is over, your eternity is totally in His hands. And He will care about only one thing: did you give your life to His Son Jesus, who gave His life to die for your sins on the cross? So many of us who have finally turned the wheel over to Him put it off as long as we could only to say now, "Why did I wait so long? This peace, this security, the weight off that I feel in my heart when He's driving!"
Now Jesus is saying it again today, "Let Me drive." If you keep driving, you'll ultimately crash. While there's time, would you let go of the wheel of your life and turn it over to the One who was meant to drive all along. Don't you want to begin this personal love relationship with Jesus?
Well, what you need to do then is tell him right now, "Jesus, I've been running my life. I've been putting You off. I've postponed You. I've ignored You. I've tried to compensate by being good, but none of that will pay for my sin. It took You dying on the cross, Jesus, and I'm grabbing You like a drowning person will grab a lifeguard. You're my only hope." That relationship begins at the point when you do that.
That's what our website is there for, to help guide you on that road to begin that relationship and know you have. Would you go to ANewStory.com.
Please don't let your stubbornness, your pride, cost you Jesus, because that will cost you heaven. You've driven long enough. Why don't you let Him drive the rest of the way?