Max Lucado Daily: LIVE ADVENTUROUSLY EXPECTANT
As a child of God, this resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike, ‘What’s next, Papa?’ God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get an unbelievable inheritance!” (Romans 8:15-17 MSG).
God says, “Hey, Lucado. You are an heir to the joy of Christ. Why not ask Jesus to help you?” “And you, Mr. Without-a-Clue, aren’t you an heir to God’s storehouse of wisdom? “Mrs. Worrywart, why do you let fears steal your sleep? Are you not a beneficiary of God’s trust fund?”
Approach God’s throne not as an interloper but as a child of the living and loving God. Because His promises are unbreakable, our hope is unshakable!
2 Chronicles 17
Asa’s son Jehoshaphat was the next king; he started out by working on his defense system against Israel. He put troops in all the fortress cities of Judah and deployed garrisons throughout Judah and in the towns of Ephraim that his father Asa had captured. God was on Jehoshaphat’s side because he stuck to the ways of his father Asa’s early years. He didn’t fool around with the popular Baal religion—he was a seeker and follower of the God of his father and was obedient to him; he wasn’t like Israel. And God secured the kingdom under his rule, gave him a firm grip on it. And everyone in Judah showed their appreciation by bringing gifts. Jehoshaphat ended up very rich and much honored. He was single-minded in following God; and he got rid of the local sex-and-religion shrines.
7-9 In the third year of his reign he sent his officials—excellent men, every one of them—Ben-Hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah on a teaching mission to the cities of Judah. They were accompanied by Levites—Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tob-Adonijah; the priests Elishama and Jehoram were also in the company. They made a circuit of the towns of Judah, teaching the people and using the Book of The Revelation of God as their text.
10-12 There was a strong sense of the fear of God in all the kingdoms around Judah—they didn’t dare go to war against Jehoshaphat. Some Philistines even brought gifts and a load of silver to Jehoshaphat, and the desert bedouin brought flocks—7,700 rams and 7,700 goats. So Jehoshaphat became stronger by the day, and constructed more and more forts and store-cities—an age of prosperity for Judah!
13-19 He also had excellent fighting men stationed in Jerusalem. The captains of the military units of Judah, classified according to families, were: Captain Adnah with 300,000 soldiers; his associate Captain Jehohanan with 280,000; his associate Amasiah son of Zicri, a volunteer for God, with 200,000. Officer Eliada represented Benjamin with 200,000 fully equipped with bow and shield; and his associate was Jehozabad with 180,000 armed and ready for battle. These were under the direct command of the king; in addition there were the troops assigned to the fortress cities spread all over Judah.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Genesis 41:46–52
Joseph was thirty years olds when he entered the servicet of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh’s presence and traveled throughout Egypt. 47 During the seven years of abundanceu the land produced plentifully. 48 Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities.v In each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it. 49 Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea;w it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure.
50 Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On.x 51 Joseph named his firstborny Manassehe z and said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” 52 The second son he named Ephraimf a and said, “It is because God has made me fruitfulb in the land of my suffering.”
Insight
Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers at age seventeen (Genesis 37:2, 27–28) and was later imprisoned after being wrongly accused of trying to sleep with his master’s wife (39:1–20). Thirteen years passed from when he first became a slave to when he entered Pharaoh’s service (41:46). God was with Joseph when he was a slave (39:2–6) and while he was in prison (vv. 20–23), and He later used him to prepare the land for famine. This allowed him to save his family, God’s people, from starvation and bring them to Egypt (see chs. 41–47). If Joseph hadn’t been sold into slavery, he wouldn't have been in a position to get his family to Egypt to survive the famine. If they’d died, then Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, would not have come from that line. Ultimately, God used Joseph’s life to set His plan of redemption into motion. By: Julie Schwab
The Hardest Places
Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea. Genesis 41:49
Geoff is a youth pastor today in the same city where he once abused heroin. God transformed both his heart and his circumstances in a breathtaking way. “I want to keep kids from making the same mistakes and suffering the pain I went through,” Geoff said. “And Jesus will help them.” Over time, God set him free from the slavery of addiction and has given him a vital ministry in spite of his past.
God has ways of bringing unexpected good out of situations where hope seems lost. Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt and falsely accused and sent to prison, where he was forgotten for years. But God restored him and placed him in a position of authority directly under Pharaoh, where he was able to save many lives—including the lives of his brothers who’d abandoned him. There in Egypt Joseph married and had children. He named the second Ephraim (drawn from the Hebrew term for “twice fruitful”), and gave this reason: “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering” (Genesis 41:52).
Geoff’s and Joseph’s stories, while separated by three to four thousand years, point to the same unchanging truth: even the hardest places in our lives can become fertile ground for God to help and bless many. Our Savior’s love and power never change, and He’s always faithful to those who trust in Him. By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
When have you seen God bring something good out of difficulty in your life? How can you use your past problems to encourage others today?
All-powerful Father, I praise You that nothing is too hard for You! Thank You for Your perfect faithfulness, today and forever.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Taking the Initiative Against Daydreaming
Arise, let us go from here. —John 14:31
Daydreaming about something in order to do it properly is right, but daydreaming about it when we should be doing it is wrong. In this passage, after having said these wonderful things to His disciples, we might have expected our Lord to tell them to go away and meditate over them all. But Jesus never allowed idle daydreaming. When our purpose is to seek God and to discover His will for us, daydreaming is right and acceptable. But when our inclination is to spend time daydreaming over what we have already been told to do, it is unacceptable and God’s blessing is never on it. God will take the initiative against this kind of daydreaming by prodding us to action. His instructions to us will be along the lines of this: “Don’t sit or stand there, just go!”
If we are quietly waiting before God after He has said to us, “Come aside by yourselves…” then that is meditation before Him to seek His will (Mark 6:31). Beware, however, of giving in to mere daydreaming once God has spoken. Allow Him to be the source of all your dreams, joys, and delights, and be careful to go and obey what He has said. If you are in love with someone, you don’t sit and daydream about that person all the time— you go and do something for him. That is what Jesus Christ expects us to do. Daydreaming after God has spoken is an indication that we do not trust Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1459 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, February 20, 2020
The Fatal Flipside - #8639
Nutmeg was a beautiful young horse with this white blaze on her nose and what looked like white boots on her feet. Her owners learned that her grandmother had actually been a prize-winning jumper. Apparently, Nutmeg had her grandmother's blood; she just kept jumping every fence her owners ever used to try to restrain her. One day, trying to get out of another fence, she broke her leg. The veterinarian told the owners it was the worst break he had ever seen in a horse, and there was no way to save her. She was a horse with such great potential and a very sad ending.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Fatal Flipside."
That horse's great strength was her instinct and ability to jump, but it also ended up killing her. Her strength, uncontrolled, untamed, became her fatal weakness. Not unlike a lot of us. So often, our greatest weakness is the flipside of our greatest strength. Right? And untamed, uncontrolled, it will eventually bring us, and others, great injury and great pain.
Think about Samson, for example. He was Israel's conqueror, conquering every Philistine in sight. But he ended up conquering every woman he was attracted to, as well, until one named Delilah conquered him and brought him to destruction. It's really important that we look with brutal honesty at the downside of our strengths and confront the weaknesses that go with them before they do any more damage.
Hebrews 12:1-2, our word for today from the Word of God, and it says, "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus..." Identify, this says, what trips you up and what slows you down, and "throw it off." And don't be surprised if it's the other side of a strength you have.
You may be a strong, goal-oriented person with a lot of drive who, on the other hand, may drive right over people or cut corners with what's right to get to your goal. Maybe God has given you the ability to communicate well - you're a good talker, but sometimes those people can use that ability to deceive or to manipulate. Then there's the person who's very determined and hard to derail, but who may, on the other side, be stubborn and even disobedient when God's way differs from their way.
You may be known to those around you as a gentle, loving, encouraging person, and boy that's good. But because you don't want to hurt anyone and you like being liked, you won't confront people, you won't confront situations that need confronting, thus, setting the stage for some terrible explosions. Then there's the person who prides himself on always being honest about how they feel, not realizing or not caring how much their "honesty" is hurting people...crushing people. You can be a logical person. You're so logical you box out God's miracles, a disciplined person who is also rigid and inflexible, or a spontaneous person who is also lazy and undisciplined.
Thank God for the strengths that He has given you. But turn to God to help you see, and repent of, and conquer the fatal side of your strengths. Often, those weaknesses are the last ones for us to see and repent of. They're strongholds to the Lordship of Christ in our life.
This Biblical prayer, prayed often and with an open heart, can save you so much
grief: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way" (Psalm 139:23-24, NASB).