Max Lucado Daily: A MESS FOR GOD TO USE
Twenty years of marriage, three kids, and he’s gone. Traded in for a younger model. She told me her story, and we prayed. Then I said, “It won’t be painless or quick. But God will use this mess for good. With God’s help you’ll get through this.”
Remember Joseph? Genesis 37:4 says his brothers hated him. Far from home, they cast him into a pit, leaving him for dead. A murderous cover-up from the get go. Joseph’s pit came in the form of a cistern. Yours may be in the form of a diagnosis, a foster home, a divorce. Pits have no easy exit.
Joseph’s story got worse before it got better. Yet in his explanation we find his inspiration. “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. . .” The very acts intended to destroy God’s servant, turned out to strengthen him.
You will get through this!
Isaiah 31
Doom to those who go off to Egypt
thinking that horses can help them,
Impressed by military mathematics,
awed by sheer numbers of chariots and riders—
And to The Holy of Israel, not even a glance,
not so much as a prayer to God.
Still, he must be reckoned with,
a most wise God who knows what he’s doing.
He can call down catastrophe.
He’s a God who does what he says.
He intervenes in the work of those who do wrong,
stands up against interfering evildoers.
Egyptians are mortal, not God,
and their horses are flesh, not Spirit.
When God gives the signal, helpers and helped alike
will fall in a heap and share the same dirt grave.
4-5 This is what God told me:
“Like a lion, king of the beasts,
that gnaws and chews and worries its prey,
Not fazed in the least by a bunch of shepherds
who arrive to chase it off,
So God-of-the-Angel-Armies comes down
to fight on Mount Zion, to make war from its heights.
And like a huge eagle hovering in the sky,
God-of-the-Angel-Armies protects Jerusalem.
I’ll protect and rescue it.
Yes, I’ll hover and deliver.”
6-7 Repent, return, dear Israel, to the One you so cruelly abandoned. On the day you return, you’ll throw away—every last one of you—the no-gods your sinful hands made from metal and wood.
8-9 “Assyrians will fall dead,
killed by a sword-thrust but not by a soldier,
laid low by a sword not swung by a mortal.
Assyrians will run from that sword, run for their lives,
and their prize young men made slaves.
Terrorized, that rock-solid people will fall to pieces,
their leaders scatter hysterically.”
God’s Decree on Assyria.
His fire blazes in Zion,
his furnace burns hot in Jerusalem.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, May 01, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ephesians 4:14–24
Then we will no longer be infants,x tossed back and forth by the waves,y and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.z 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love,a we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head,b that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, growsc and builds itself upd in love,e as each part does its work.
Instructions for Christian Living
17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longerf live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.g 18 They are darkened in their understandingh and separated from the life of Godi because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.j 19 Having lost all sensitivity,k they have given themselves overl to sensualitym so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put offn your old self,o which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;p 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;q 24 and to put onr the new self,s created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Insight
The church at Ephesus faced tremendous challenges in their home city. One was the fanatical devotion of the Ephesian people to the goddess Artemis, whose temple there was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Additionally, Ephesus was a center of the dark arts—magic and the occult. In Acts 19:19, some of the people who trusted Christ displayed their spiritual commitment by destroying the scrolls used in the practice of sorcery—scrolls valued at 50,000 drachmas (a drachma was a day’s wage). With challenges like these, Ephesus was a difficult place to live for Christ.
Living in the Branches
Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. Ephesians 3:17 nlt
As I shared with my counselor my roller-coaster of emotions after a stress-filled week, she listened thoughtfully. Then she invited me to look out the window at the trees, lush with autumnal oranges and golds, the branches swaying in the wind.
Pointing out that the trunks weren’t moving at all in the wind, my counselor explained, “We’re a bit like that. When life is blowing at us from every direction, of course our emotions will go up and down and all around. But sometimes we live as if we only have branches. Our goal is to help you find your own trunk. That way, even when life is pulling from all sides, you won’t be living in your branches. You’ll still be secure and stable.”
It’s an image that’s stuck with me, and it’s similar to the image Paul offered new believers in Ephesians. Reminding them of God’s incredible gift—a new life of tremendous purpose and value (Ephesians 2:6–10), Paul shared his longing that they’d become deeply “rooted and established” in Christ’s love (3:17), no longer “blown here and there by every wind of teaching” (4:14).
On our own, it’s easy to feel insecure and fragile, pummeled by our fears and insecurities. But as we grow in our true identity in Christ (vv. 22–24), we can experience deep peace with God and each other (v. 3), nourished and sustained by Christ’s power and beauty (vv. 15–16). By: Monica La Rose
Reflect & Pray
When do you feel most “blown here and there” by life’s challenges? How might remembering your identity in Jesus encourage and strengthen you?
Jesus, thank You for the overwhelmingly good news that the strength needed to withstand life’s challenges isn’t our own. Help us to grow ever-deeper roots in Your love and our place in Your family.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 01, 2020
Faith— Not Emotion
We walk by faith, not by sight. —2 Corinthians 5:7
For a while, we are fully aware of God’s concern for us. But then, when God begins to use us in His work, we begin to take on a pitiful look and talk only of our trials and difficulties. And all the while God is trying to make us do our work as hidden people who are not in the spotlight. None of us would be hidden spiritually if we could help it. Can we do our work when it seems that God has sealed up heaven? Some of us always want to be brightly illuminated saints with golden halos and with the continual glow of inspiration, and to have other saints of God dealing with us all the time. A self-assured saint is of no value to God. He is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and completely unlike God. We are here, not as immature angels, but as men and women, to do the work of this world. And we are to do it with an infinitely greater power to withstand the struggle because we have been born from above.
If we continually try to bring back those exceptional moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are becoming obsessed with the moments when God did come and speak with us, and we are insisting that He do it again. But what God wants us to do is to “walk by faith.” How many of us have set ourselves aside as if to say, “I cannot do anything else until God appears to me”? He will never do it. We will have to get up on our own, without any inspiration and without any sudden touch from God. Then comes our surprise and we find ourselves exclaiming, “Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!” Never live for those exceptional moments— they are surprises. God will give us His touches of inspiration only when He sees that we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never consider our moments of inspiration as the standard way of life— our work is our standard.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand. Not Knowing Whither, 888 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Kings 10-11; Luke 21:20-38
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 01, 2020
The Geography of Power - #8690
People in the real estate business will tell you that three things really matter when it comes to the value of any property: location, location, and location. Apparently, the President's White House team believes that, too. After the re-election of Bill Clinton many years ago, "Newsweek" actually described the efforts of various officials to get the best office spaces at the White House. I guess it happens with every administration. But I liked the title, "The Geography of Power." So what makes an office at the White House a good office? Well, if you had a choice about your office, you'd probably want the one with windows and plenty of space. But that's not what matters most in the White House office scramble. It's how close are you to the Oval Office! You've got to be near the President! Right? The way they put it is this - "proximity is power." Uh-huh, it is.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Geography of Power."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 27:51-52. It's the event that changed forever the geography of power - spiritual power. The Bible says, "And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He gave up His spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." Someone might say, "That's impressive. A curtain in the temple just suddenly split in two at the moment Jesus died. But so what?"
Well, the "so what" is this. That curtain covered the Holy of Holies, the place where God Himself was present on earth. No one could enter that place and live for centuries, except for one man, the high priest, one time a year. He would go in to make sacrifice for the nation's sins. The geography of spiritual power was that basically no one could get near the personal presence of the living God. Sin kept everyone out, until the day Jesus died to pay for every sin of every man and woman. And suddenly, God said, "If you belong to Me, come on into My Presence, anytime, for any reason." And today, if you've put your trust in Jesus Christ to be the Rescuer from your sin, you have a spot that is always close to the power.
Listen to God's invitation - it's staggering. Hebrews 4:16 says, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need." People think they have power because they can come and go from the Oval Office regularly? That's nothing, compared to your privilege of coming and going regularly from the Throne Room of Almighty God. The Throne Room from which a hundred billion galaxies are governed! Through prayer, God has thrown open His Throne Room to you, His blood-bought child!
So are you praying like you are with an awesome, all-powerful God? Or are you, like too many of us, under praying? And over worrying, over scheming, praying too often as a last resort ("I guess all we can do is pray") or an afterthought, or praying for just like man-sized things; praying these safe, small, predictable prayers. Listen, you have access to the power but you're trying to figure it out in your little office down the hall if you're under praying. See, you're probably under living then. You're settling for mediocrity and you're settling for unnecessary spiritual poverty. When you don't spend time in God's Throne Room, you overestimate the problem and you underestimate your Lord.
If proximity is power, then God has placed you in the most powerful position a human being can be in. By earth standards, your spot may not be very impressive. But because Jesus opened the door, you have instant access to all the power, all the love, all the resources of the God of the universe. Pray like it! Live like it!
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