Max Lucado Daily: WHY GOD HATES PRIDE
Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them” (Proverbs 26:12). God hates pride. How do we explain God’s abhorrence of the haughty heart? Simple. God resists the proud because the proud resist God. Arrogance will not admit to sin. The heart of pride never confesses, never repents, never asks for forgiveness. Pride is the hidden reef that shipwrecks the soul.
Pride comes at a high price. Don’t pay it. Choose instead to stand on the offer of grace. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). Isn’t it easy to see why? Humility is happy to do what pride will not. The humble heart is quick to acknowledge the need for God, eager to confess sin, willing to kneel before heaven’s mighty hand. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Obadiah 1
Obadiah’s Message to Edom
from God, the Master.
We got the news straight from God
by a special messenger sent out to the godless nations:
“On your feet, prepare for battle;
get ready to make war on Edom!
2-4 “Listen to this, Edom:
I’m turning you to a no-account,
the runt of the godless nations, despised.
You thought you were so great,
perched high among the rocks, king of the mountain,
Thinking to yourself,
‘Nobody can get to me! Nobody can touch me!’
Think again. Even if, like an eagle,
you hang out on a high cliff-face,
Even if you build your nest in the stars,
I’ll bring you down to earth.”
God’s sure Word.
5-14 “If thieves crept up on you,
they’d rob you blind—isn’t that so?
If they mugged you on the streets at night,
they’d pick you clean—isn’t that so?
Oh, they’ll take Esau apart, piece by piece,
empty his purse and pockets.
All your old partners will drive you to the edge.
Your old friends will lie to your face.
Your old drinking buddies will stab you in the back.
Your world will collapse. You won’t know what hit you.
So don’t be surprised”—it’s God’s sure Word!—
“when I wipe out all sages from Edom
and rid the Esau mountains of its famous wise men.
Your great heroes will desert you, Teman.
There’ll be nobody left in Esau’s mountains.
Because of the murderous history compiled
against your brother Jacob,
You will be looked down on by everyone.
You’ll lose your place in history.
On that day you stood there and didn’t do anything.
Strangers took your brother’s army into exile.
Godless foreigners invaded and pillaged Jerusalem.
You stood there and watched.
You were as bad as they were.
You shouldn’t have gloated over your brother
when he was down-and-out.
You shouldn’t have laughed and joked at Judah’s sons
when they were facedown in the mud.
You shouldn’t have talked so big
when everything was so bad.
You shouldn’t have taken advantage of my people
when their lives had fallen apart.
You of all people should not have been amused
by their troubles, their wrecked nation.
You shouldn’t have taken the shirt off their back
when they were knocked flat, defenseless.
And you shouldn’t have stood waiting at the outskirts
and cut off refugees,
And traitorously turned in helpless survivors
who had lost everything.
15-18 “God’s Judgment Day is near
for all the godless nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you.
What you did will boomerang back
and hit your own head.
Just as you partied on my holy mountain,
all the godless nations will drink God’s wrath.
They’ll drink and drink and drink—
they’ll drink themselves to death.
But not so on Mount Zion—there’s respite there!
a safe and holy place!
The family of Jacob will take back their possessions
from those who took them from them.
That’s when the family of Jacob will catch fire,
the family of Joseph become fierce flame,
while the family of Esau will be straw.
Esau will go up in flames,
nothing left of Esau but a pile of ashes.”
God said it, and it is so.
19-21 People from the south will take over the Esau mountains;
people from the foothills will overrun the Philistines.
They’ll take the farms of Ephraim and Samaria,
and Benjamin will take Gilead.
Earlier, Israelite exiles will come back
and take Canaanite land to the north at Zarephath.
Jerusalem exiles from the far northwest in Sepharad
will come back and take the cities in the south.
The remnant of the saved in Mount Zion
will go into the mountains of Esau
And rule justly and fairly,
a rule that honors God’s kingdom.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
James 4:13–17
oasting About Tomorrow
13 Now listen,f you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”g 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.h 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will,i we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.j 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
Insight
James warns the rich against arrogant boasting, a worldly and materialistic outlook, and exploiting the poor (James 4:13–17; 5:1–6). Instead of helping believers who were suffering because of persecution, rich believers were exploiting them (2:5–7). In contrast, we’re to use our material wealth to do good (4:15–17). James reminded self-confident and arrogant wealthy believers who believed they had the future in their hands not only to be aware of the uncertainties, brevity, and frailty of life, but also to trust in God who controls it (v. 14). Alluding to Christ’s parable of the rich man in Luke 12:16–21, he warns that trusting in their own selves is sin. The apostle Paul gave similar advice in 1 Timothy 6:17–19.
Unexpected Change
You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. James 4:14
In January 1943, warm Chinook winds hit Spearfish, South Dakota, quickly raising the temperatures from –4° to 45°F (–20° to 7°C). That drastic weather change—a swing of 49 degrees—took place in just two minutes. The widest temperature change recorded in the USA over a twenty-four-hour period is an incredible 103 degrees! On January 15, 1972, Loma, Montana, saw the temperature jump from -54° to 49°F (–48° to 9°C).
Sudden change, however, is not simply a weather phenomenon. It’s sometimes the very nature of life. James reminds us, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow” (4:13–14). An unexpected loss. A surprise diagnosis. A financial reversal. Sudden changes.
Life is a journey with many unpredictable elements. This is precisely why James warns us to turn from “arrogant schemes” (v. 16) that do not take the Almighty into account. As he advised us, “You ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’ ” (v. 15). The events of our lives may be uncertain, but one thing is sure: through all of life’s unexpected moments, our God will never leave us. He’s our one constant throughout life. By: Bill Crowder
Reflect & Pray
When facing sudden change, how do you respond? What do you think an appropriate faith response to life’s surprises should look like?
Father, forgive me for the times I worry over things I couldn’t anticipate or can’t control, and help me to find my rest in You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, February 27, 2020
The Impoverished Ministry of Jesus
Where then do You get that living water? —John 4:11
“The well is deep” — and even a great deal deeper than the Samaritan woman knew! (John 4:11). Think of the depths of human nature and human life; think of the depth of the “wells” in you. Have you been limiting, or impoverishing, the ministry of Jesus to the point that He is unable to work in your life? Suppose that you have a deep “well” of hurt and trouble inside your heart, and Jesus comes and says to you, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:1). Would your response be to shrug your shoulders and say, “But, Lord, the well is too deep, and even You can’t draw up quietness and comfort out of it.” Actually, that is correct. Jesus doesn’t bring anything up from the wells of human nature— He brings them down from above. We limit the Holy One of Israel by remembering only what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past, and also by saying, “Of course, I cannot expect God to do this particular thing.” The thing that approaches the very limits of His power is the very thing we as disciples of Jesus ought to believe He will do. We impoverish and weaken His ministry in us the moment we forget He is almighty. The impoverishment is in us, not in Him. We will come to Jesus for Him to be our comforter or our sympathizer, but we refrain from approaching Him as our Almighty God.
The reason some of us are such poor examples of Christianity is that we have failed to recognize that Christ is almighty. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but there is no abandonment or surrender to Jesus Christ. When we get into difficult circumstances, we impoverish His ministry by saying, “Of course, He can’t do anything about this.” We struggle to reach the bottom of our own well, trying to get water for ourselves. Beware of sitting back, and saying, “It can’t be done.” You will know it can be done if you will look to Jesus. The well of your incompleteness runs deep, but make the effort to look away from yourself and to look toward Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Awe is the condition of a man’s spirit realizing Who God is and what He has done for him personally. Our Lord emphasizes the attitude of a child; no attitude can express such solemn awe and familiarity as that of a child. Not Knowing Whither, 882 L
Bible in a Year: Numbers 17-19; Mark 6:30-56
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Drinking Dirt - #8644
When you use our kitchen sink, you might notice this little contraption attached to the faucet. It's one of those sophisticated water filters. Before the water arrives in your glass or your container, it passes through that filter. I don't like surprises in my H2O, you know? I don't know about you, but I don't. I was amazed the first time we took that filter off to clean it. Oh, it needed lots of cleaning! It had screened out of our drinking water this layer of dirty stuff. I didn't even want to think about that stuff going into my body. Let's hear it for the filter!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Drinking Dirt."
That's actually what a lot of people are doing - drinking dirt. Mentally, that is. Just letting a lot of things that are spiritually and morally impure pour right into their soul - un-filtered input, like drinking dirt. And if you belong to Jesus Christ, the dirt is rushing into what the Bible describes as the "temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). God literally lives in you through His Holy Spirit. That's Holy Spirit. Dirty stuff should never defile His temple.
In fact, our word for today from the Word of God, tells us that God clearly commands us to filter what's coming in. 2 Corinthians 7:1 says, "Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." A lot of times we either don't have a spiritual filter for what we see and hear. Or we have a pretty wide screen on that filter; one porous enough to let in a lot that has no place in a heart or mind that's owned by Jesus and inhabited by the Holy Spirit of God.
Sometimes it takes a child to show us "sophisticated" adults how we should be living. There was a time when the teacher was a five-year-old in our family - our grandson. Yeah, he was watching a whole new crop of kids' shows. You know, the old days of Captain Kangaroo and Mister Rogers are gone; and yes, Big Bird. Well, he's still flying around Sesame Street I guess. But then we started learning about Dora the Explorer, Bob the Builder, a tomato named Bob, a cucumber named Larry.
Well, anyway, that was going on when our five-year-old grandson had a few favorites he liked to watch. There was one he watched almost every day. But he walked over to the television one day and did something he didn't do with this program that he likes a lot. He turned it off in the middle of the show. The story was starting to involve some ghost and witch stuff. When Daddy asked our grandson why he had turned off one of his favorites, he just said, "It was a bad one, Daddy."
You know, the radar of a five-year-old boy in whom Jesus lives. He knew that no matter how much he liked the show, no matter how many shows they have when there's nothing bad, when it is bad, it isn't for him. That's a model for Jesus-followers of any age. But all too often, we watch portrayed, or we read about, or we listen to something that is part of the sin that Jesus had to die for.
The Bible says He carried our sins in His body on the tree "that we might die to sins" (1 Peter 2:24). So what business do we have letting in things that portray premarital sex, or adultery, or occult practices that the Bible calls an "abomination," or that portrays violence, or disrespect for God and His Son? You can't turn on the TV or video, go to a website and then turn off being a temple of the Holy Spirit. We're most likely to let in the garbage when it's wrapped in a package that's funny, or entertaining, or brilliant, or clever, or popular. Satan's no dummy! He comes in under the radar, like a Stealth Bomber, when your guard is down.
It's not to be taken lightly when God gives a command that says, "Above all else..." He does in Proverbs 4:23 - "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Guard your heart as the spiritual reservoir from which you drink all day
long. If it's a "bad one," you've got to turn it off if you're serious about really being His man or woman.
If you don't want to let dirt into the Holy Spirit's house, filter what you let come in. You wouldn't unknowingly let your mouth drink dirt. Well, then, don't let your soul do it!