Max Lucado Daily: THE BREAD OF LIFE
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again” (John 6:35).
You know, the grain-to-bread process is a demanding one. Bread is the end result of planting, harvesting, and heating. Jesus endured an identical process. He was born into this world. And then He was cut down, bruised, and beaten on the threshing floor of Calvary. He passed through the fire of God’s wrath, for our sake. Jesus “suffered because of others’ sins … He went through it all— was put to death and then made alive— to bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18 MSG).
Bread of Life? Jesus lived up to the title. But you know, an unopened loaf does a person no good. Have you received the bread? Have you received God’s forgiveness?
1 Corinthians 12
What I want to talk about now is the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn’t know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It’s different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say “Jesus be damned!” Nor would anyone be inclined to say “Jesus is Master!” without the insight of the Holy Spirit.
4-11 God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:
wise counsel
clear understanding
simple trust
healing the sick
miraculous acts
proclamation
distinguishing between spirits
tongues
interpretation of tongues.
All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.
12-13 You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.
14-18 I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, “I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so? If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.
19-24 But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?
25-26 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
27-31 You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything. You’re familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his “body”:
apostles
prophets
teachers
miracle workers
healers
helpers
organizers
those who pray in tongues.
But it’s obvious by now, isn’t it, that Christ’s church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It’s not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called “important” parts.
But now I want to lay out a far better way for you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, January 10, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
2 Timothy 1:6–14
Appeal for Loyalty to Paul and the Gospel
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.n 7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid,o but gives us power,p love and self-discipline. 8 So do not be ashamedq of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner.r Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel,s by the power of God. 9 He has savedt us and calledu us to a holy life—not because of anything we have donev but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10 but it has now been revealedw through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus,x who has destroyed deathy and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11 And of this gospelz I was appointeda a herald and an apostle and a teacher.b 12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame,c because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guardd what I have entrusted to him until that day.e
13 What you heard from me,f keepg as the patternh of sound teaching,i with faith and love in Christ Jesus.j 14 Guardk the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.l
Insight
Paul’s second letter to Timothy gives us a chance to reflect on the last recorded words of a battle-scarred apostle. Abandoned by fellow believers in Jesus and imprisoned in Rome (2 Timothy 1:15–18), Paul urges a young man he loved like a son (v. 2) to remain strong in the face of looming opposition and hardship (v. 8). In the process, he reminds Timothy of the commissioning ceremony by which he and other church leaders (v. 6; 1 Timothy 4:14) had recognized Timothy’s readiness to join them in leading others and suffering for the gospel (2 Timothy 1:8–14). By: Mart DeHaan
Here Be Dragons?
The Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7
Legend has it that at the edges of medieval maps, marking the boundaries of the world the maps’ creators knew at the time, there’d be inscribed the words “Here be dragons”—often alongside vivid illustrations of the terrifying beasts supposedly lurking there.
There’s not much evidence medieval cartographers actually wrote these words, but I like to think they could have. Maybe because “here be dragons” sounds like something I might’ve written at the time—a grim warning that even if I didn’t know exactly what would happen if I ventured into the great unknown, it likely wouldn’t be good!
But there’s one glaring problem with my preferred policy of self-protection and risk-aversion: it’s the opposite of the courage to which I’m called as a believer in Jesus (2 Timothy 1:7).
One might even say I’m misguided about what’s really dangerous. As Paul explained, in a broken world bravely following Christ will sometimes be painful (v. 8). But as those brought from death to life and entrusted with the Spirit’s life flowing in and through us (vv. 9–10,14), how could we not?
When God gives us a gift this staggering, to fearfully shrink back would be the real tragedy—far worse than anything we might face when we follow Christ’s leading into uncharted territory (vv. 6–8, 12). He can be trusted with our hearts and our future (v. 12). By: Monica La Rose
Reflect & Pray
Is there a particularly debilitating fear God may be calling you to confront? How might the support and love of other believers encourage you as you walk through your fears?
Loving God, thank You for the new life You’ve given us, for freedom from all that would cripple us in fear and shame. Help us to find peace in You.
For further study, read Hope: Choosing Faith Instead of Fear at discoveryseries.org/q0733.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, January 10, 2020
The Opened Sight
I now send you, to open their eyes…that they may receive forgiveness of sins… —Acts 26:17-18
This verse is the greatest example of the true essence of the message of a disciple of Jesus Christ in all of the New Testament.
God’s first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the words, “…that they may receive forgiveness of sins….” When a person fails in his personal Christian life, it is usually because he has never received anything. The only sign that a person is saved is that he has received something from Jesus Christ. Our job as workers for God is to open people’s eyes so that they may turn themselves from darkness to light. But that is not salvation; it is conversion— only the effort of an awakened human being. I do not think it is too broad a statement to say that the majority of so-called Christians are like this. Their eyes are open, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is a neglected fact in our preaching today. When a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People may make vows and promises, and may be determined to follow through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, namely, forgiveness of sins.
This is followed by God’s second mighty work of grace: “…an inheritance among those who are sanctified….” In sanctification, the one who has been born again deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God’s ministry to others.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth. The Place of Help, 1005 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, January 10, 2020
No Business Re-creating - #8610
Aunt Betty's wedding ring had been in the family for three generations, and it was passed down to my wife. There's probably no piece of jewelry that she treasured more than this one. But she couldn't wear it because Aunt Betty's ring size was a lot larger than my wife's little fingers. So Karen identified a jeweler whose craftsmanship she trusted and she entrusted this heirloom to him to be downsized. To be honest, she was a little nervous leaving it with anyone, but she did commit it to this jeweler. When he called that the ring was ready, she could hardly wait to see what he had done with it. Well, the diamonds were intact, the ring looked the same, but it fit her perfectly. He didn't make it into a necklace or a pendant. He didn't change the setting of the stones. Of course not. He took what was entrusted to him and just made it better.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Business Re-creating."
A jeweler shouldn't try to re-create a piece of jewelry into something else. Not when the one who trusted it to him just wanted him to enhance what it already was. We understand that about jewelry, but sometimes we don't seem to understand that about the child God has entrusted to us! God gave them to us to enhance what He made them to be. Sometimes we keep trying to make them into something else - what we want them to be!
The problem is a lot of parents didn't get the child they wanted. You wanted an athlete and you got a scholar, you wanted a musician and you got a mechanic, you wanted a quiet one and you got a loud one, you wanted a loud one and you got a quiet one. The list just goes on and on. So maybe you didn't get the child you wanted, but you got the one God wanted!
You got what is described in our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 2:10. In fact, you could put the name of your child, and each of your children, right in this verse. It says, "We are God's workmanship" If you'd like, put the name of a child of yours right there at the beginning, __________ is "God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" - or for "___________ to do."
Your business is to step back and recognize the unique person God made when He made your son or when He made your daughter with all their personal strengths, their great qualities, and with all the limitations and weaknesses He gave them, too. Then your job is to hold up a mirror regularly for them and let them see the incredible person God made when He made them. Affirm who God made them to be, praise them, compliment them even when you need to correct them. Do it in the context of affirming who they are.
A mom came to me once, and she was concerned about the offbeat sense of humor her eight-year-old son has. (That could have been my Mom.) Actually, she asked me if I was like that at that age. I'm still not sure what that was all about, but this boy seems like an anomaly in a family that's otherwise pretty serious. But I encouraged her to fan the flame of his sense of humor. It's something God can use mightily to open doors and hearts her son's whole life.
Our son used to frustrate us when he'd come to us with a whole itinerary he had planned out meticulously for him and his friends, but only asking us after everything was already set up. We needed to correct that a little, but actually, you know what? Looking back, I'm glad we didn't put out the flame of a budding planner. God's using him as a strategist and a planner mightily now. Same
abilities, but he's using them in a trailblazing ministry way!
So remember, God didn't trust the treasure of that child to you to reshape him into what you want him or her to be. God gave you that child for you to develop and enhance the person God made them to be. Don't try to re-create the workmanship that God has created!
