Max Lucado Daily: GOD IS WAITING ON YOU
Whatever it is that’s troubling you, you’ll get through this. Cancel your escape to the Himalayas. Forget the deserted island. This is no time to be a hermit. Pray. Lean on God’s people. Be a barnacle on the boat of God’s church. Matthew 18:20 says, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
Don’t quit, don’t hide. Would the sick avoid the hospital? The hungry avoid the food pantry? Would the discouraged abandon God’s Hope Distribution Center? Only at great risk. God is waiting on you, my friend. He is with you. Your family may have left. Your supporters may be gone. Your counselor may be silent. But God has not budged. His promise in Genesis 28:15 still stands: “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go!” You will get through this.
Romans 6
So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!
3-5 That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.
6-11 Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.
12-14 That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God.
15-18 So, since we’re out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we’re free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you’ve let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you’ve started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!
19 I’m using this freedom language because it’s easy to picture. You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God’s freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?
20-21 As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.
22-23 But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, May 15, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Galatians 5:16–26
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[a] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Footnotes:
Galatians 5:17 Or you do not do what
Insight
Paul’s letter to the Galatian church is one of his most strident and forceful. Why? Having responded to the message of the good news of Jesus, the people were now being steered away from God’s grace by Judaizers—those who were trying to enforce Jewish religious law upon the new believers in Jesus. Paul’s primary concern for them is expressed in the letter’s opening chapter where he wrote, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6–7). Sometimes called Paul’s “angry letter,” the letter to the Galatians is actually a passionate expression of his concern for the spiritual welfare of his friends there.
To learn more about the book of Galatians, visit bit.ly/2J08Jzx.
In Tune with the Spirit
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:25
As I listened to the piano tuner work on the elegant grand piano, I thought about the times when I’d heard that very same piano pour out the incredible sound of the “Warsaw Concerto” and the rich melody of “How Great Thou Art.” But now the instrument desperately needed to be tuned. While some notes were right on pitch, others were sharp or flat, creating an unpleasant sound. The piano tuner’s responsibility wasn’t to make each of the keys play the same sound but to assure that each note’s unique sound combined with others to create a pleasing harmonious whole.
Even within the church, we can observe notes of discord. People with unique ambitions or talents can create a jarring dissonance when they’re joined together. In Galatians 5, Paul pleaded with believers to do away with “discord, jealousy, fits of rage, [and] selfish ambition,” which would destroy fellowship with God or relationships with others. Paul went on to encourage us to embrace the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (vv. 20, 22–23).
When we live by the Spirit, we’ll find it easier to avoid unnecessary conflict on nonessential matters. Our shared sense of purpose can be greater than our differences. And with God’s help, each of us can grow in grace and unity as we keep our hearts in tune with Him. By: Cindy Hess Kasper
Reflect & Pray
In what ways might I be causing discord among the body of believers? How can I spread harmony?
Gracious God, teach me how to “get in tune” with the Spirit’s leading and live in harmony with others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 15, 2020
The Habit of Rising to the Occasion
…that you may know what is the hope of His calling… —Ephesians 1:18
Remember that you have been saved so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in your body (see 2 Corinthians 4:10). Direct the total energy of your powers so that you may achieve everything your election as a child of God provides; rise every time to whatever occasion may come your way.
You did not do anything to achieve your salvation, but you must do something to exhibit it. You must “work out your own salvation” which God has worked in you already (Philippians 2:12). Are your speech, your thinking, and your emotions evidence that you are working it “out”? If you are still the same miserable, grouchy person, set on having your own way, then it is a lie to say that God has saved and sanctified you.
God is the Master Designer, and He allows adversities into your life to see if you can jump over them properly— “By my God I can leap over a wall” (Psalm 18:29). God will never shield you from the requirements of being His son or daughter. First Peter 4:12 says, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you….” Rise to the occasion— do what the trial demands of you. It does not matter how much it hurts as long as it gives God the opportunity to manifest the life of Jesus in your body.
May God not find complaints in us anymore, but spiritual vitality— a readiness to face anything He brings our way. The only proper goal of life is that we manifest the Son of God; and when this occurs, all of our dictating of our demands to God disappears. Our Lord never dictated demands to His Father, and neither are we to make demands on God. We are here to submit to His will so that He may work through us what He wants. Once we realize this, He will make us broken bread and poured-out wine with which to feed and nourish others.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them. Biblical Psychology, 189 L
Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 22-23; John 4:31-54
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 15, 2020
Night Vision - #8700
Throughout the history of warfare, there always have been those weapons or tools that gave an army an edge. When I was a boy, it was the iron chariot or the catapult. Later, it was the crossbow, and then the latest rifle. While it's not exactly a weapon, there is a new military tool that can give military folks an edge. It's called night goggles, and they help soldiers live up to their reputation for "owning the night." Night goggles literally allow the wearer to see an illuminated view of what's going on in the darkness; things that would otherwise be invisible. If you can see through the night, you can see what others can't see and you can operate when others can't move.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Night Vision."
For a long time, God has been equipping folks with the ability to see through the night. You don't even need special goggles. You do need to have a love relationship with God where your heart opens up to things that He wants to show you. And maybe it's nighttime in your life right now. It's gotten pretty dark. It's hard to see where to go, hard to know what to do, and maybe it's pretty scary.
Then you're going to love God's promise of night vision to His children who keep trusting Him. Isaiah 42:16, one of my anchor verses and our word for today from the Word of God. God says, "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them..." Are you walking down a way you've not known before? Are you headed into an unfamiliar path maybe? Your Lord says, "I will be your night vision."
It gets better. He goes on to say, "I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth." This is awesome! Of course, you have to be walking into the darkness for God to turn the darkness into light. He doesn't say to start walking when He lights up the path. He says to start walking and as you walk, He'll light it up. The rest of His promise concludes: "These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." I've got to tell you, this promise has meant so much to me I've committed it to memory. I want to be able to say it; I want to be able to stand on it anywhere, anytime. It is a great verse to make part of you!
Look, you might be in a night season right now, but your God owns the night! In fact, that's usually when you can see Him best. Like the moon. As long as it's light, you can only see a pale moon at best. But when it's dark, that's when you can see the brightness of the moon - or of your Master. Just like the military who get a lot done in the night because they have night vision, your Lord gets a lot done in the nighttimes of our life; often some of His greatest missions are accomplished when it's darkest for us.
No matter how dark it is around you right now, your God is able to lead your steps, protect you from all harm, to show you where to walk, and to enable you to complete your mission, unhindered, undiminished, uncompromised, and undefeated no matter what's out there in the dark. Because, as 1 John 4:4 tells us, "the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."
So, don't make the mistake of just trusting what you can see, or trusting what you can feel. You need to know that your Heavenly Father is walking on ahead of you every step of that night that you are in. So, keep on walking and keep on trusting, because your Father owns the night!
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