Max Lucado Daily: GOD LOVES THE NATIONS
Pentecost was the busiest day of the year in Jerusalem. And Jesus’ followers were gathered in prayer. They were not separated from society but smack-dab in the center of it. Once God had them where he needed them, the Holy Spirit came upon them suddenly; first as wind and then as individual tongues of fire (Acts 2:4 KJV). Individual flames hovered over each person and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
People from all over the world heard the wonderful works of God. Whatever could this miracle mean? It means at least this much: God loves the nations. He has a red-hot passion to reach every people group on the planet. He loves everybody. And that includes you, my friend.
1 Corinthians 11:17-34
Regarding this next item, I’m not at all pleased. I am getting the picture that when you meet together it brings out your worst side instead of your best! First, I get this report on your divisiveness, competing with and criticizing each other. I’m reluctant to believe it, but there it is. The best that can be said for it is that the testing process will bring truth into the open and confirm it.
20-22 And then I find that you bring your divisions to worship—you come together, and instead of eating the Lord’s Supper, you bring in a lot of food from the outside and make pigs of yourselves. Some are left out, and go home hungry. Others have to be carried out, too drunk to walk. I can’t believe it! Don’t you have your own homes to eat and drink in? Why would you stoop to desecrating God’s church? Why would you actually shame God’s poor? I never would have believed you would stoop to this. And I’m not going to stand by and say nothing.
23-26 Let me go over with you again exactly what goes on in the Lord’s Supper and why it is so centrally important. I received my instructions from the Master himself and passed them on to you. The Master, Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, took bread. Having given thanks, he broke it and said,
This is my body, broken for you.
Do this to remember me.
After supper, he did the same thing with the cup:
This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you.
Each time you drink this cup, remember me.
What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns. You must never let familiarity breed contempt.
27-28 Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master irreverently is like part of the crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death. Is that the kind of “remembrance” you want to be part of? Examine your motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe.
29-32 If you give no thought (or worse, don’t care) about the broken body of the Master when you eat and drink, you’re running the risk of serious consequences. That’s why so many of you even now are listless and sick, and others have gone to an early grave. If we get this straight now, we won’t have to be straightened out later on. Better to be confronted by the Master now than to face a fiery confrontation later.
33-34 So, my friends, when you come together to the Lord’s Table, be reverent and courteous with one another. If you’re so hungry that you can’t wait to be served, go home and get a sandwich. But by no means risk turning this Meal into an eating and drinking binge or a family squabble. It is a spiritual meal—a love feast.
The other things you asked about, I’ll respond to in person when I make my next visit.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, January 07, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 6:1–4
Giving to the Needy
6 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.g If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.h
Insight
Matthew 6 is part of Christ’s well-known Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3–7:27). In this chapter, He emphasizes three things believers should do in secret: give (vv. 1–4), pray (vv. 5–15), and fast (vv. 16–18). In explaining each of these actions Jesus starts with a prohibition, gives a command, and ends with a promise: “Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (vv. 4, 6, 18).
In contrast, hypocrites make their acts known “to be honored by others” (v. 2). The word hypocrite comes from the Greek hypokrites and refers to actors in a play. It implies a lack of sincerity and genuineness. Jesus is emphasizing the importance of the motive behind our actions. By: Julie Schwab
Secret Delivery
When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Matthew 6:3
A clear, glass vase with bell-shaped lilies of the valley, pink tulips, and yellow daffodils greeted Kim at her front door. For seven months, an anonymous believer in Jesus sent Kim beautiful bouquets from a local flower shop. Each monthly gift arrived with a note filled with scriptural encouragement and signed: “Love, Jesus.”
Kim shared photos of these secret deliveries on Facebook. The flowers gave her opportunity to celebrate an individual’s kindness and to acknowledge the way God expressed His love to her through His people. As she trusted Him through her battle with a terminal disease, every colorful blossom and handwritten note affirmed God’s loving compassion for her.
The sender’s anonymity reflects the heart motive Jesus encourages His people to adopt when giving. He warns against practicing righteous acts “to be seen” by others (Matthew 6:1). Good deeds are intended to be expressions of worship overflowing from hearts grateful for all God’s done for us. Highlighting our own generosity with the hope or expectation of being honored can take the focus off the Giver of all good things—Jesus.
God knows when we give with good intentions (v. 4). He simply wants our generosity motivated by love as we give Him the glory, the honor, and the praise. By: Xochitl Dixon
Reflect & Pray
How can you place the spotlight on Jesus by giving to someone in secret this week? How can you give God credit while still accepting appreciation?
Jesus, thank You for reminding us that giving to others is a privilege and a wonderful way to thank You for all You’ve given us.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, January 07, 2020
Intimate With Jesus
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?" —John 14:9
These words were not spoken as a rebuke, nor even with surprise; Jesus was encouraging Philip to draw closer. Yet the last person we get intimate with is Jesus. Before Pentecost the disciples knew Jesus as the One who gave them power to conquer demons and to bring about a revival (see Luke 10:18-20). It was a wonderful intimacy, but there was a much closer intimacy to come: “…I have called you friends…” (John 15:15). True friendship is rare on earth. It means identifying with someone in thought, heart, and spirit. The whole experience of life is designed to enable us to enter into this closest relationship with Jesus Christ. We receive His blessings and know His Word, but do we really know Him?
Jesus said, “It is to your advantage that I go away…” (John 16:7). He left that relationship to lead them even closer. It is a joy to Jesus when a disciple takes time to walk more intimately with Him. The bearing of fruit is always shown in Scripture to be the visible result of an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ (see John 15:1-4).
Once we get intimate with Jesus we are never lonely and we never lack for understanding or compassion. We can continually pour out our hearts to Him without being perceived as overly emotional or pitiful. The Christian who is truly intimate with Jesus will never draw attention to himself but will only show the evidence of a life where Jesus is completely in control. This is the outcome of allowing Jesus to satisfy every area of life to its depth. The picture resulting from such a life is that of the strong, calm balance that our Lord gives to those who are intimate with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I becoming more and more in love with God as a holy God, or with the conception of an amiable Being who says, “Oh well, sin doesn’t matter much”? Disciples Indeed, 389 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, January 07, 2020
The Breathtaking Finish Line - #8607
The Lewis and Clark Expedition! They were that bold group of explorers that Thomas Jefferson sent to explore the largely uncharted Louisiana Purchase. The expedition was under the leadership of Captains Lewis and Clark, and it faced blazing heat and bone-chilling cold. They had some close calls with vicious animals, they were attacked by insects, they had the prospect of massacre by many Indian tribes whose land they were crossing, there were perilous passages, and even the death of one of their own. After a year and a half of paying a really high price, Captain William Clark stood one day in the bow of his boat, pointed west up the Columbia River, and shouted, "Ocean in view!" Later he wrote in his journal: "Ocean in view! O joy! Great joy in camp! For we are in view of the ocean, this great Pacific Ocean which we had been so long anxious to see!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "That Breathtaking Finish Line."
When I saw that incredible moment dramatized in a movie recently, something happened in my heart, because I saw myself at the bow of my boat some day, pointing ahead and shouting, "Heaven in view! O the joy!" There it will be - the gates of heaven - the entrance into the personal presence of the King I have tried to serve for so long. The place and the person that I had been "so long anxious to see!" The ultimate, triumphant finish line!
I don't know what kind of struggle you've been through lately. I don't know what the hardships are, the hurts, the disappointments of your life. But I do know that when you see your great reward, you'll never think again about the great struggle to get there. The Apostle Paul was one of Jesus' all-time great warriors. And in the last chapter of the last book of the Bible he ever wrote, he reflects on his journey and looks just upriver to his glorious finish line. It's in 2 Timothy 4:6, our word for today from the Word of God.
Paul tells his young protégé Timothy to "discharge all the duties of your ministry." Why? "For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord ... will award to me on that day." Okay, let me translate this into how we might say it today: "Yee-hah! It's worth it all!" Or something like that.
That isn't just about then. It's also about now. Because when Paul was in the middle of the hardships, he said, "We do not lose heart ... for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." Today's crushing troubles weigh in much lighter when you put heaven on the other side of the scale.
Remembering your finish line really affects how you make today's values choices. You invest in what's going to matter in heaven, not what matters on earth. You'll spend on what will last forever. And with heaven in view, you realize you cannot let the people around you miss heaven because you didn't tell them about Jesus and how to get there.
Maybe you're not so sure you're going to heaven when you die. Did you know how you can be? The Bible plainly says, "He that has the Son (that's Jesus, the Son of God), has life." So if you've put your total trust for going to heaven in Jesus, the One who died to pay for the sin - the sin that would keep you out of heaven - then you "have the Son of God" and you have heaven.
If not, honestly, you are risking an awful eternity every day you live without Jesus. But this could be the day that you tell Him you're all His. When you give Him what He died for - your life. And this could be the day you change your eternal address from hell to heaven.
Our website is all about helping to get across that finish line. And if you go there today, I promise you, you will find some very helpful information. That's ANewStory.com.
Death has no fear for the person who knows, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that heaven is on the other side. That Jesus is on the other side. For one of these days, the long, hard journey will be over and I hope you'll be shouting, "Heaven in view!"
