Max Lucado Daily: GOD’S TRUTH DEFINES ALL PEOPLE
Every person you see was created by God to bear his image and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Imagine the impact this promise would have on the society that embraced it. What civility it would engender. What kindness it would foster. Racism will not flourish when people believe their neighbors bear God’s image.
Will society write off the indigent, the mentally ill, the inmate or the refugee? Not if we believe, truly believe, that every human being is God’s idea. And he has no bad ideas. High IQ or low standing—doesn’t matter. First string or cut from the squad—doesn’t matter. You are a diamond, a rose, and a jewel, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
2 Chronicles 13
In the eighteenth year of the rule of King Jeroboam, Abijah took over the throne of Judah. He ruled in Jerusalem three years. His mother was Maacah daughter of Uriel of Gibeah.
2-3 War broke out between Abijah and Jeroboam. Abijah started out with 400,000 of his best soldiers; Jeroboam countered with 800,000 of his best.
4-7 Abijah took a prominent position on Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim and gave this speech: “Listen, Jeroboam and all Israel! Don’t you realize that God, the one and only God of Israel, established David and his sons as the permanent rulers of Israel, ratified by a ‘covenant of salt’—God’s kingdom ruled by God’s king? And what happened? Jeroboam, the son of Solomon’s slave Nebat, rebelled against his master. All the riffraff joined his cause and were too much for Rehoboam, Solomon’s true heir. Rehoboam didn’t know his way around—besides he was a real wimp; he couldn’t stand up against them.
8-9 “Taking advantage of that weakness, you are asserting yourself against the very rule of God that is delegated to David’s descendants—you think you are so big with your huge army backed up by the golden-calf idols that Jeroboam made for you as gods! But just look at what you’ve done—you threw out the priests of God, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made priests to suit yourselves, priests just like the pagans have. Anyone who shows up with enough money to pay for it can be a priest! A priest of No-God!
10-11 “But for the rest of us in Judah, we’re sticking with God. We have not traded him in for the latest model—we’re keeping the tried-and-true priests of Aaron to lead us to God and the Levites to lead us in worship by sacrificing Whole-Burnt-Offerings and aromatic incense to God at the daily morning and evening prayers, setting out fresh holy bread on a clean table, and lighting the lamps on the golden Lampstand every night. We continue doing what God told us to in the way he told us to do it; but you have rid yourselves of him.
12 “Can’t you see the obvious? God is on our side; he’s our leader. And his priests with trumpets are all ready to blow the signal to battle. O Israel—don’t fight against God, the God of your ancestors. You will not win this battle.”
13-18 While Abijah was speaking, Jeroboam had sent men around to take them by surprise from the rear: Jeroboam in front of Judah and the ambush behind. When Judah looked back, they saw they were attacked front and back. They prayed desperately to God, the priests blew their trumpets, and the soldiers of Judah shouted their battle cry. At the battle cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. The army of Israel scattered before Judah; God gave them the victory. Abijah and his troops slaughtered them—500,000 of Israel’s best fighters were killed that day. The army of Israel fell flat on its face—a humiliating defeat. The army of Judah won hands down because they trusted God, the God of their ancestors.
19-21 Abijah followed up his victory by pursuing Jeroboam, taking the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron with their surrounding villages. Jeroboam never did recover from his defeat while Abijah lived. Later on God struck him down and he died. Meanwhile Abijah flourished; he married fourteen wives and ended up with a family of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
22 The rest of the history of Abijah, what he did and said, is written in the study written by Iddo the prophet.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, February 14, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 16
A miktama of David.
1 Keep me safe,c my God,
for in you I take refuge.d
2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;e
apart from you I have no good thing.”f
3 I say of the holy peopleg who are in the land,h
“They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”
4 Those who run after other godsi will sufferj more and more.
I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods
or take up their namesk on my lips.
5 Lord, you alone are my portionl and my cup;m
you make my lotn secure.
6 The boundary lineso have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.p
7 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;q
even at nightr my heart instructs me.
8 I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
With him at my right hand,s I will not be shaken.t
9 Therefore my heart is gladu and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,v
10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,w
nor will you let your faithfulb onex see decay.y
11 You make known to me the path of life;z
you will fill me with joy in your presence,a
with eternal pleasuresb at your right hand.c
Insight
Several of David’s inspired songs operate on two levels. The first level describes the emotional weight of David’s own experience, whether good or bad, and the second level looks forward to David’s greater Son (Jesus) and what He would experience on earth during His incarnation. We see a clear example of this in Psalm 22, where David’s experiences of suffering and persecution perfectly anticipate Christ’s crucifixion—even to the point where David says his foes pierced his hands and feet (v. 16).
A similar thing occurs in Psalm 16:8–11, which Peter quotes in Acts 2:25–28 as part of his Pentecost sermon. Peter said that David’s words anticipated the resurrection of Jesus. This is a marvelous picture of divine inspiration of the Scriptures. While David couldn’t have been aware of the future implications of his words, hindsight now makes their reality clear.
When Life Is Hard
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” Psalm 16:2
Physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted, I curled up in my recliner. Our family had followed God’s leading and had moved from California to Wisconsin. After we arrived, our car broke down and left us without a vehicle for two months. Meanwhile, my husband’s limited mobility after an unexpected back surgery and my chronic pain complicated our unpacking. We uncovered costly problems with our new-to-us, old home. Our senior dog suffered with health issues. And though our new pup brought great joy, raising a furry ball of energy was far more work than anticipated. My attitude soured. How was I supposed to have unshakable faith while traveling on a bumpy road of hardships?
As I prayed, God reminded me of the psalmist whose praise didn’t depend on circumstances. David poured out his emotions, often with great vulnerability, and sought refuge in the presence of God (Psalm 16:1). Acknowledging God as provider and protector (vv. 5–6), he praised Him and followed His counsel (v. 7). David affirmed that he would “not be shaken” because he kept his eyes “always on the Lord” (v. 8). So, he rejoiced and rested secure in the joy of God’s presence (vv. 9–11).
We too can delight in knowing our peace doesn’t depend on our present situation. As we thank our unchanging God for who He is and always will be, His presence will fuel our steadfast faith. By: Xochitl Dixon
Reflect & Pray
How can offering God praise for His unchanging character and wondrous works increase your faith during challenging circumstances? What situations do you need to place in God’s trustworthy hands?
Thanks for being You, Father!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, February 14, 2020
The Discipline of Hearing
Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. —Matthew 10:27
Sometimes God puts us through the experience and discipline of darkness to teach us to hear and obey Him. Song birds are taught to sing in the dark, and God puts us into “the shadow of His hand” until we learn to hear Him (Isaiah 49:2). “Whatever I tell you in the dark…” — pay attention when God puts you into darkness, and keep your mouth closed while you are there. Are you in the dark right now in your circumstances, or in your life with God? If so, then remain quiet. If you open your mouth in the dark, you will speak while in the wrong mood— darkness is the time to listen. Don’t talk to other people about it; don’t read books to find out the reason for the darkness; just listen and obey. If you talk to other people, you cannot hear what God is saying. When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else once you are back in the light.
After every time of darkness, we should experience a mixture of delight and humiliation. If there is only delight, I question whether we have really heard God at all. We should experience delight for having heard God speak, but mostly humiliation for having taken so long to hear Him! Then we will exclaim, “How slow I have been to listen and understand what God has been telling me!” And yet God has been saying it for days and even weeks. But once you hear Him, He gives you the gift of humiliation, which brings a softness of heart— a gift that will always cause you to listen to God now.
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
Friday, February 14, 2020
Life-Saving Kits with Nothing Inside - #8635
During our college years, my wife spent part of a summer as a counselor at a Bible camp that was buried deep in the mountains. I mean like deep in the mountains - deep enough in the mountains that the rattlesnakes are plentiful. One day as she was hiking with her girls through the woods, they all heard what they thought was just a branch or a stick breaking. Until they realized that one of the girls had been struck in the leg by a rattlesnake. Now my wife was someone you wanted to have around you when there was a crisis - really cool head. She ran to the nearby camp and immediately went for the box in the infirmary that said Snake Bite Kit on it. But her heart sank when she opened it; the life-saving kit was empty. Thankfully, they were able to get that girl to a hospital in time to save her life, no thanks to the empty snake bite kit!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Life-Saving Kits with Nothing Inside."
It's a terrible thing to realize that the thing that claims to be able to save your life really has nothing that can help. As you read the pages of the Bible, you discover that the religions of the world are much like that. Every religion motivates its followers with the same promise - some form of heaven, eternal life if you're a good follower of "whatever" or "whoever." But sadly, religion does not, for the most part, offer a cure for the deadly infection we have: that's sin and its eternal death penalty.
There may be no more famous verse in all the Bible than John 3:16. It says, "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Interestingly enough, the verses that immediately precede that description of God's plan for saving us talk about a snake. In John 3:14-15, our word for today from the Word of God, He says, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. God so loved the world..."
In order to understand this snake thing, and more importantly, to understand the only way your sins can be forgiven and you can go to heaven, is to go back to Numbers 21 in the Old Testament where this snake incident took place. Venomous snakes have attacked God's people in the desert, and many of those people are dying. So God says to Moses, "'make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live'" (Numbers 21:8-9). Their only hope was to look at what God had lifted up to save them.
For us, that is Jesus, God's Son, dying on that cross. We've all been bitten by the deadly snake called sin. None of the great moralities, none of the great religions can possibly pay the death penalty for our sin. Getting to heaven isn't just about putting enough good on one side of the scale to balance the bad on the other; it's about satisfying a death penalty, and it took Jesus Christ's death to do that. You have to look to Him as the only One who can save you.
Have you ever done that? If you don't know you've given yourself to Jesus, you probably haven't. And you are risking an eternity away from God, paying an eternal death penalty that Jesus already paid on the cross. But listen, this could be your day to look away from any other hope of heaven and say, "Jesus, You're my only hope of having my sins forgiven, my only hope of going to heaven. And Jesus, I'm Yours beginning today!"
This would be the right day t
o go to our website. Because I can walk you through there; the steps to being sure you belong to Jesus from now on, your sins are forgiven and you're going to heaven. That website is ANewStory.com.
Please don't depend on something that promises life but can't possibly give it to you. Depend on the One who loves you so much that He died so you don't have to.