Max Lucado Daily: REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS
If anyone had a reason to be anxious it was the apostle Paul! Envision an old man as he gazes out the window of a Roman prison. Half-blind, squinting just to read, and awaiting trial before the Roman emperor. His future is as gloomy as his jail cell.
Yet to read his words, you would think he’d just arrived at a Jamaican beach hotel. His letter to the Philippians bears not a word of fear or complaint. Not one! Instead, he lifts his thanks to God and calls on his readers to do the same. “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).
Paul’s challenge is a decision deeply rooted in the confidence that God exists, that he is in control, and that he is good. Rejoice in the Lord—always! You can’t run the world but you can entrust it to God!
2 Chronicles 27
Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king; he reigned sixteen years at Jerusalem. His mother was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok. In God’s eyes he lived a good life, following the path marked out by his father Uzziah. Unlike his father, though, he didn’t desecrate The Temple of God. But the people pushed right on in their lives of corruption.
3-6 Jotham constructed the Upper Gate of The Temple of God, considerably extended the Wall of the Ophel, and built cities in the high country of Judah and forts and towers down in the forests. He fought and beat the king of the Ammonites—that year the Ammonites turned over three and a quarter tons of silver and about 65,000 bushels of wheat, and another 65,000 bushels of barley. They repeated this for the next two years. Jotham’s strength was rooted in his steady and determined life of obedience to God.
7-9 The rest of the history of Jotham, including his wars and achievements, are all written in the Royal Annals of the Kings of Israel and Judah. He was twenty-five years old when he became king; he reigned for sixteen years at Jerusalem. Jotham died and was buried in the City of David. His son Ahaz became the next king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, March 20, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Nehemiah 9:9, 13–21
“You saw the suffering of our ancestors in Egypt;x you heard their cry at the Red Sea.
“You came down on Mount Sinai;j you spokek to them from heaven.l You gave them regulations and laws that are justm and right, and decrees and commands that are good.n 14 You made known to them your holy Sabbatho and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. 15 In their hunger you gave them bread from heavenp and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock;q you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted handr to give them.s
16 “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked,t and they did not obey your commands.u 17 They refused to listen and failed to rememberv the miraclesw you performed among them. They became stiff-neckedx and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery.y But you are a forgiving God,z gracious and compassionate,a slow to angerb and abounding in love.c Therefore you did not desert them,d 18 even when they cast for themselves an image of a calfe and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.f
19 “Because of your great compassion you did not abandong them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloudh did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. 20 You gave your good Spiriti to instructj them. You did not withhold your mannak from their mouths, and you gave them waterl for their thirst. 21 For forty yearsm you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing,n their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.
Slow for a Reason
You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Nehemiah 9:17
In the BBC video series The Life of Mammals, host David Attenborough climbs a tree to take a humorous look at a three-toed sloth. Getting face to face with the world’s slowest moving mammal, he greets it with a “boo!” Failing to get a reaction, he explains that going slow is what you do if you are a three-toed sloth living primarily on leaves that are not easily digested and not very nutritious.
In a rehearsal of Israel’s history, Nehemiah reminds us of another example and explanation for going slow (9:9–21), but this one isn’t comical. According to Nehemiah, our God is the ultimate example of going slow—when it comes to anger. Nehemiah recounted how God cared for His people, instructing them with life-giving laws, sustaining them on their journey out of Egypt and providing them with the Promised Land (vv. 9–15). Although Israel constantly rebelled (v. 16), God never stopped loving them. Nehemiah’s explanation? Our Creator is by nature “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love” (v. 17). Why else would He have borne so patiently His people’s complaints, disbelief, and distrust for forty years? (v. 21). It was because of God’s “great compassion” (v. 19).
What about us? A hot temper signals a cold heart. But the greatness of God’s heart gives us room to patiently live and love with Him. By: Mart DeHaan
Reflect & Pray
In what areas of your life do you need to practice being slow to anger? How does it make you feel that God is slow to anger with you?
Father in heaven, fill us with the Spirit of Your graciousness, compassion, mercy, and love so that others can see not just our restraint, but our love because of You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, March 20, 2020
Friendship with God
Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing…? —Genesis 18:17
The Delights of His Friendship. Genesis 18 brings out the delight of true friendship with God, as compared with simply feeling His presence occasionally in prayer. This friendship means being so intimately in touch with God that you never even need to ask Him to show you His will. It is evidence of a level of intimacy which confirms that you are nearing the final stage of your discipline in the life of faith. When you have a right-standing relationship with God, you have a life of freedom, liberty, and delight; you are God’s will. And all of your commonsense decisions are actually His will for you, unless you sense a feeling of restraint brought on by a check in your spirit. You are free to make decisions in the light of a perfect and delightful friendship with God, knowing that if your decisions are wrong He will lovingly produce that sense of restraint. Once he does, you must stop immediately.
The Difficulties of His Friendship. Why did Abraham stop praying when he did? He stopped because he still was lacking the level of intimacy in his relationship with God, which would enable him boldly to continue on with the Lord in prayer until his desire was granted. Whenever we stop short of our true desire in prayer and say, “Well, I don’t know, maybe this is not God’s will,” then we still have another level to go. It shows that we are not as intimately acquainted with God as Jesus was, and as Jesus would have us to be— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22). Think of the last thing you prayed about— were you devoted to your desire or to God? Was your determination to get some gift of the Spirit for yourself or to get to God? “For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). The reason for asking is so you may get to know God better. “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). We should keep praying to get a perfect understanding of God Himself.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is a relation of facts, the truth of which must be tested. Life may go on all right for a while, when suddenly a bereavement comes, or some crisis; unrequited love or a new love, a disaster, a business collapse, or a shocking sin, and we turn up our Bibles again and God’s word comes straight home, and we say, “Why, I never saw that there before.” Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
Bible in a Year: Joshua 4-6; Luke 1:1-20
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, March 20, 2020
When Waiting is Deadly - #8660
I can't begin to count how many hundreds of thousands of miles I've flown commercially. And I don't think I've ever missed a flight where it was my fault. Well, almost never. Recently, I was on a ministry trip with one of our young Native American leaders - not a very seasoned traveler. We had one more connection to reach our destination. It was a smaller plane - so our gate was at the far end of the airport with flights being called right and left. No call yet for our flight. So I excused myself to go to a nearby counter for some health food - actually, a pastry. There are different kinds of health, don't judge me. There's like emotional health you know. When I got back to our gate, I went to check on our flight. That's when I saw the dreaded words I had not seen before - FLIGHT CLOSED. NO FURTHER BOARDING. My young associate was quite impressed with Mr. Seasoned Traveler. No way we were going to get on that plane!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Waiting is Deadly."
Eventually, we got another flight that day. But it felt awful to realize we had gotten to that one flight too late - the scheduled one. My mind raced to another "missed flight" - another closed door. It's actually in a disturbing scene described in the Bible in our word for today from the Word of God.
We're in Luke 13, beginning in verse 25, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many will try to enter and will not be able to." So Jesus is talking here about entrance to heaven. "Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from."
Then later it says, "There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God - but you yourselves thrown out." That is the ultimate "flight closed. No more boarding." Someone's final opportunity to go to heaven. Missed. Door closed. How does this happen? Is there a worse nightmare then missing heaven for all eternity?
Jesus came here because there was no way we could ever open heaven's door. In the Bible's words, "All have sinned and fallen short of God's glorious ideal" (Romans 3:23). Rebelling against our Creator, running our own lives is punishable by forever separation from Him. "Your sins have separated you from your God," the Bible says. And I think we can feel that in our heart.
But God loves you too much to leave you lost. So in the Bible's words, "He gave His one and only Son" so if you would "believe in Him," you "will not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). On that cross, Jesus was absorbing all the guilt, all the penalty, and all the hell of your sin. That's why He said, "I am the way...no one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).
The Bible actually pictures Jesus knocking on our door - giving us a chance to open the door and let Him come in to be our Savior from our sin. But He won't knock forever. That's why the Bible says, "Today is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). And, "seek the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:7). Which would seem to say He won't always be able to be found. He won't always be near.
But if you feel a tug in His direction, He is today. He's knocking today. That's Him, giv
ing you another opportunity to open that door of your heart. There's no guarantee there'll be another opportunity.
If there's never been a time when you've pinned all your hopes on Jesus - and told Him so - please don't risk putting it off again. Let this be the day when you say, "Jesus, You died for my sin. You walked out of your grave so you could walk into my life. The door is open, Jesus. I'm Yours!"
If you want to be sure you belong to Him, I encourage you to check out our website as soon as you can - ANewStory.com. It's a roadmap to a life-saving relationship with Jesus.
Today, He knocks on your door. Some day you will knock on His. Grab Him now - before the flight is closed. And there is no further boarding.
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