Max Lucado Daily: THE BEST IS YET TO BE
In Matthew 1:23 God called himself Immanuel, which means God with us. Not just God made us, not just God thinks about us, not just God above us. But God with us. God where we are. He breathed our air and walked this earth. God…with…us.
Bethlehem was just the beginning. Jesus has promised a repeat performance. Bethlehem, Act 2. No silent night this time, however. The skies will open, trumpets will blast, and a new kingdom will begin. He will empty the tombs and melt the winter of death. Death, you die! Life, you reign! The manger dares us to believe the best is yet to be. I love Christmas because it reminds us how “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God!”
Ezekiel 19
A Story of Two Lions
Sing the blues over the princes of Israel. Say:
What a lioness was your mother
among lions!
She crouched in a pride of young lions.
Her cubs grew large.
She reared one of her cubs to maturity,
a robust young lion.
He learned to hunt.
He ate men.
Nations sounded the alarm.
He was caught in a trap.
They took him with hooks
and dragged him to Egypt.
5-9 When the lioness saw she was luckless,
that her hope for that cub was gone,
She took her other cub
and made him a strong young lion.
He prowled with the lions,
a robust young lion.
He learned to hunt.
He ate men.
He rampaged through their defenses,
left their cities in ruins.
The country and everyone in it
was terrorized by the roars of the lion.
The nations got together to hunt him.
Everyone joined the hunt.
They set out their traps
and caught him.
They put a wooden collar on him
and took him to the king of Babylon.
No more would that voice be heard
disturbing the peace in the mountains of Israel!
10-14 Here’s another way to put it:
Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard,
transplanted alongside streams of water,
Luxurious in branches and grapes
because of the ample water.
It grew sturdy branches
fit to be carved into a royal scepter.
It grew high, reaching into the clouds.
Its branches filled the horizon,
and everyone could see it.
Then it was ripped up in a rage
and thrown to the ground.
The hot east wind shriveled it up
and stripped its fruit.
The sturdy branches dried out,
fit for nothing but kindling.
Now it’s a stick stuck out in the desert,
a bare stick in a desert of death,
Good for nothing but making fires,
campfires in the desert.
Not a hint now of those sturdy branches
fit for use as a royal scepter!
(This is a sad song, a text for singing the blues.)
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, December 07, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 109:21–27
But you, Sovereign Lord,
help me for your name’s sake;
out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I fade away like an evening shadow;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees give way from fasting;
my body is thin and gaunt.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, Lord my God;
save me according to your unfailing love.
27 Let them know that it is your hand,
that you, Lord, have done it.
Insight
Psalm 109 has been called the “Judas Psalm.” Peter quotes from it to support his suggestion that the apostles needed to replace the betrayer of Jesus (Psalm 109:8; Acts 1:20). This psalm is also known for the intensity of the curses that show up in David’s appeal to God for help (Psalm 109:6–20). From a New Testament point of view, we may not understand the cruelty of the requests. Bible scholars differ in their interpretations, with some suggesting verses 6–20 express what David’s enemies were wishing on him. The New Living Translation inserts “They say” at the beginning of verse 6 to indicate that David is asking God for help in the face of such hatred. Regardless of the interpretation, such curses stand in contrast to Jesus’ counsel to reflect our relationship to Him by returning blessing for curses (Luke 6:27–36).
Prayer of the Broken-Down
Help me, Lord my God. Psalm 109:26
“Dear Father in heaven, I’m not a praying man, but if you’re up there, and you can hear me, show me the way. I’m at the end of my rope.” That prayer is whispered by a broken-down George Bailey, the character played by Jimmy Stewart in the classic film It’s a Wonderful Life. In the now iconic scene, Bailey’s eyes fill with tears. They weren’t part of the script, but as he spoke that prayer Stewart said he “felt the loneliness, the hopelessness of people who had nowhere to turn.” It broke him.
Bailey’s prayer, boiled down, is simply “Help me.” And this is exactly what’s voiced in Psalm 109. David was at the end of his rope: “poor and needy,” his “heart . . . wounded” (v. 22), and his body “thin and gaunt” (v. 24). He was fading “like an evening shadow” (v. 23), and sensed himself to be an “object of scorn” in the eyes of his accusers (v. 25). In his extreme brokenness, he had nowhere else to turn. He cried out for the Sovereign Lord to show him the way: “Help me, Lord my God” (v. 26).
There are seasons in our lives when “broken down” says it all. In such times it can be hard to know what to pray. Our loving God will respond to our simple prayer for help. By: John Blase
Reflect & Pray
When was the last time you felt broken down by life? If you have a family member or friend who currently feels that way, how might you help?
Dear Father, some days are hard. They feel hopeless. Turn my heart to You in my brokenness. Give me strength to simply ask for help.
To learn more about the practice of prayer, visit ChristianUniversity.org/SF120.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 07, 2020
Repentance
Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation… —2 Corinthians 7:10
Conviction of sin is best described in the words:
My sins, my sins, my Savior,
How sad on Thee they fall.
Conviction of sin is one of the most uncommon things that ever happens to a person. It is the beginning of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict people of sin (see John 16:8). And when the Holy Spirit stirs a person’s conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not that person’s relationship with others that bothers him but his relationship with God— “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight…” (Psalm 51:4). The wonders of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven person who is truly holy. He proves he is forgiven by being the opposite of what he was previously, by the grace of God. Repentance always brings a person to the point of saying, “I have sinned.” The surest sign that God is at work in his life is when he says that and means it. Anything less is simply sorrow for having made foolish mistakes— a reflex action caused by self-disgust.
The entrance into the kingdom of God is through the sharp, sudden pains of repentance colliding with man’s respectable “goodness.” Then the Holy Spirit, who produces these struggles, begins the formation of the Son of God in the person’s life (see Galatians 4:19). This new life will reveal itself in conscious repentance followed by unconscious holiness, never the other way around. The foundation of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a person cannot repent when he chooses— repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for “the gift of tears.” If you ever cease to understand the value of repentance, you allow yourself to remain in sin. Examine yourself to see if you have forgotten how to be truly repentant.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried. He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R
Bible in a Year: Daniel 5-7; 2 John
A Word with You, by Ron
Hutchcraft
Monday, December 07, 2020
Changing Hands - #8846
Our good friends were visiting us with their precious three-year-old daughter. Captivating dark eyes, a winsome smile, a high-energy personality, and a mind of her own. Her Dad said they were crossing a very busy street - he and his daughter - and he said, "Now hold Daddy's hand." She apparently didn't like that idea. She looked up at him with those big eyes and said, "That's OK, Daddy. I'll hold my own hand." Not a good idea.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Changing Hands."
Our Heavenly Father looks at the road ahead and He knows exactly where we should go and when we should go. He reaches our direction and He says, "Hold Daddy's hand." Maybe you've got a mind of your own, and you've kind of got that independent spirit. And you say, "That's OK Daddy. I'll hold my hand." Not a good idea.
Tucked away in the drama of the first Christmas is a better idea. Our word for today from the Word of God, Luke 1:26, "In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph. The virgin's name was Mary... The angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus.'"
So, God comes to Mary and says, in essence, "Take My hand - I'm leading you into something amazing." Now, if Mary had insisted on holding her own hand, she never would have gone. He's leading her into a situation where she will suddenly be mysteriously pregnant. And who's going to believe that God is doing it? She's got a lot to lose if she takes God's hand and goes where He wants to take her. She'll probably lose her reputation as a "nice girl of Nazareth." She stands to lose the man she loves when he hears she's expecting and he knows he's not the father. The wedding she has dreamed of? Probably will never happen. And since, in the Jewish culture of that day, they stoned women for sexual sin, obedience could even cost Mary her life.
But listen to her response to God's plan. "I am the Lord's servant." Those five words change everything. If Mary's identity is "I'm Joseph's girl," there's no way she's going to do what God wants. If her image as a "nice girl of Nazareth" is her identity, she won't do this. But Mary bases her identity on one thing and one thing alone. With open hands, open arms, face looking up, she declares, "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as You have said." And because of that surrendered spirit and surrendered future, Mary carries God's only Son in her body, nurses the Son of God, teaches the Son of God.
See, God's most special assignments are for those who will let go of their own hand; who will grab God's hand and say, "Lord, I'll go where You want me to go." In fact, there's a hymn that says, "Lord, I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord' O'er mountain or plain or sea. I'll say what You want me to say, dear Lord. I'll be what You want me to be."
As we approach this Christmas, look at what God gave because He loves you so much. He sacrificed His only Son to pay the death penalty for the sinning you did. That should remove any doubt of whether you can trust Him with the things that matter most to you. Anyone who loved you enough to die for you will never do you wrong.
It's a good day to ask yourself, though you may know all about Jesus, though you may go to His meetings, though you may agree with Him, do you belong to Him? You might believe in Him but not belong to Him because you've never really reached out to Him and made yours what He died to give you - this greatest gift in the world - eternal life and forgiveness and heaven, and a relationship with your Creator made possible only one way; by Him taking your place, dying for your sin. Why don't you let this be the day you say what you've missed before, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
You want to begin that relationship? I'd love to help you if you'll just go to our website. It's ANewStory.com. This Christmas season, say those five words that open you up to God's best, "I am the Lord's servant."
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