Max Lucado Daily: JOINT HEIRS WITH CHRIST
God sought you. He searched you out. Before you knew you needed adopting, he’d already filed the papers. Listen to this passage from Romans 8:29, “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”
What’s more, he covered the adoption fees. “God sent him, speaking of Christ, to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children” (Galatians 4:5).
The moment we accept his offer we go from orphans to heirs. Heirs! Heirs with a new name. A new home…a new life! Heaven knows no stepchildren or grandchildren. You and Christ share the same will. What he inherits, you inherit. And you are headed home.
Joel 2
Blow the ram’s horn trumpet in Zion!
Trumpet the alarm on my holy mountain!
Shake the country up!
God’s Judgment’s on its way—the Day’s almost here!
A black day! A Doomsday!
Clouds with no silver lining!
Like dawn light moving over the mountains,
a huge army is coming.
There’s never been anything like it
and never will be again.
Wildfire burns everything before this army
and fire licks up everything in its wake.
Before it arrives, the country is like the Garden of Eden.
When it leaves, it is Death Valley.
Nothing escapes unscathed.
4-6 The locust army seems all horses—
galloping horses, an army of horses.
It sounds like thunder
leaping on mountain ridges,
Or like the roar of wildfire
through grass and brush,
Or like an invincible army shouting for blood,
ready to fight, straining at the bit.
At the sight of this army,
the people panic, faces white with terror.
7-11 The invaders charge.
They climb barricades. Nothing stops them.
Each soldier does what he’s told,
so disciplined, so determined.
They don’t get in each other’s way.
Each one knows his job and does it.
Undaunted and fearless,
unswerving, unstoppable.
They storm the city,
swarm its defenses,
Loot the houses,
breaking down doors, smashing windows.
They arrive like an earthquake,
sweep through like a tornado.
Sun and moon turn out their lights,
stars black out.
God himself bellows in thunder
as he commands his forces.
Look at the size of that army!
And the strength of those who obey him!
God’s Judgment Day—great and terrible.
Who can possibly survive this?
12 But there’s also this, it’s not too late—
God’s personal Message!—
“Come back to me and really mean it!
Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins!”
13-14 Change your life, not just your clothes.
Come back to God, your God.
And here’s why: God is kind and merciful.
He takes a deep breath, puts up with a lot,
This most patient God, extravagant in love,
always ready to cancel catastrophe.
Who knows? Maybe he’ll do it now,
maybe he’ll turn around and show pity.
Maybe, when all’s said and done,
there’ll be blessings full and robust for your God!
15-17 Blow the ram’s horn trumpet in Zion!
Declare a day of repentance, a holy fast day.
Call a public meeting.
Get everyone there. Consecrate the congregation.
Make sure the elders come,
but bring in the children, too, even the nursing babies,
Even men and women on their honeymoon—
interrupt them and get them there.
Between Sanctuary entrance and altar,
let the priests, God’s servants, weep tears of repentance.
Let them intercede: “Have mercy, God, on your people!
Don’t abandon your heritage to contempt.
Don’t let the pagans take over and rule them
and sneer, ‘And so where is this God of theirs?’”
18-20 At that, God went into action to get his land back.
He took pity on his people.
God answered and spoke to his people,
“Look, listen—I’m sending a gift:
Grain and wine and olive oil.
The fast is over—eat your fill!
I won’t expose you any longer
to contempt among the pagans.
I’ll head off the final enemy coming out of the north
and dump them in a wasteland.
Half of them will end up in the Dead Sea,
the other half in the Mediterranean.
There they’ll rot, a stench to high heaven.
The bigger the enemy, the stronger the stench!”
21-24 Fear not, Earth! Be glad and celebrate!
God has done great things.
Fear not, wild animals!
The fields and meadows are greening up.
The trees are bearing fruit again:
a bumper crop of fig trees and vines!
Children of Zion, celebrate!
Be glad in your God.
He’s giving you a teacher
to train you how to live right—
Teaching, like rain out of heaven, showers of words
to refresh and nourish your soul, just as he used to do.
And plenty of food for your body—silos full of grain,
casks of wine and barrels of olive oil.
25-27 “I’ll make up for the years of the locust,
the great locust devastation—
Locusts savage, locusts deadly,
fierce locusts, locusts of doom,
That great locust invasion
I sent your way.
You’ll eat your fill of good food.
You’ll be full of praises to your God,
The God who has set you back on your heels in wonder.
Never again will my people be despised.
You’ll know without question
that I’m in the thick of life with Israel,
That I’m your God, yes, your God,
the one and only real God.
Never again will my people be despised.
28-32 “And that’s just the beginning: After that—
“I will pour out my Spirit
on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
also your daughters.
Your old men will dream,
your young men will see visions.
I’ll even pour out my Spirit on the servants,
men and women both.
I’ll set wonders in the sky above
and signs on the earth below:
Blood and fire and billowing smoke,
the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,
Before the Judgment Day of God,
the Day tremendous and awesome.
Whoever calls, ‘Help, God!’
gets help.
On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be a great rescue—just as God said.
Included in the survivors
are those that God calls.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, March 04, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Mark 9:2–10
The Transfiguration
After six days Jesus took Peter, James and Johnr with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white,s whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi,t it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud:u “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”v
8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyonew what they had seen until the Son of Manx had risen from the dead. 10 They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.
Insight
It’s interesting to see both Moses and Elijah join Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:4). Though separated by many years, the ministries of Moses and Elijah had much in common. God used Moses to part the Red Sea with the symbol of his authority, the shepherd’s staff (Exodus 14:15–16). Meanwhile, Elijah parted the Jordan River with his cloak—which represented his prophetic office (2 Kings 2:6–8). Both had a significant encounter with God on Mount Sinai/Horeb (Exodus 34; 1 Kings 19). God provided food miraculously for Moses (and Israel) in the wilderness (Exodus 16), and did the same for Elijah during the drought-induced famine he’d prophesied (1 Kings 17). And both Moses and Elijah were succeeded by men (Joshua and Elisha—see Joshua 1:1–2; 1 Kings 19:16) whose names mean “The Lord/God saves.” Scholar H. H. Rowley said of the ministries of these Old Testament giants, “Without Moses the religion of Yahweh as it figured in the Old Testament would never have been born. Without Elijah it would have died.”
Live Wire
We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 2 Peter 1:16
I felt like I had touched a live wire,” said Professor Holly Ordway, describing her reaction to John Donne’s majestic poem “Holy Sonnet 14.” There’s something happening in this poetry, she thought. I wonder what it is. Ordway recalls it as the moment her previously atheistic worldview allowed for the possibility of the supernatural. Eventually she would believe in the transforming reality of the resurrected Christ.
Touching a live wire—that must have been how Peter, James, and John felt on the day Jesus took them to a mountaintop, where they witnessed a dramatic transformation. Christ’s “clothes became dazzling white” (Mark 9:3) and Elijah and Moses appeared—an event we know today as the transfiguration.
Descending from the mountain, Jesus told the disciples not to tell anyone what they’d seen until He’d risen (v. 9). But they didn’t even know what He meant by “rising from the dead” (v. 10).
The disciples’ understanding of Jesus was woefully incomplete, because they couldn’t conceive of a destiny that included His death and resurrection. But eventually their experiences with their resurrected Lord would utterly transform their lives. Late in his life, Peter described his encounter with Christ’s transfiguration as the time when the disciples were first “eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16).
As Professor Ordway and the disciples learned, when we encounter the power of Jesus we touch a “live wire.” There’s something happening here. The living Christ beckons us. By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
What are some of your “live wire” experiences: moments when you encountered God in a radically new way? How has your knowledge of Him changed over time?
Father, when we approach You in prayer, we come to what we don’t comprehend. Forgive us for taking for granted the majesty of Your presence.
To learn more about the life of Jesus, visit christianuniversity.org/NT111.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 04, 2020
Is This True of Me?
None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself… —Acts 20:24
It is easier to serve or work for God without a vision and without a call, because then you are not bothered by what He requires. Common sense, covered with a layer of Christian emotion, becomes your guide. You may be more prosperous and successful from the world’s perspective, and will have more leisure time, if you never acknowledge the call of God. But once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God asks of you will always be there to prod you on to do His will. You will no longer be able to work for Him on the basis of common sense.
What do I count in my life as “dear to myself”? If I have not been seized by Jesus Christ and have not surrendered myself to Him, I will consider the time I decide to give God and my own ideas of service as dear. I will also consider my own life as “dear to myself.” But Paul said he considered his life dear so that he might fulfill the ministry he had received, and he refused to use his energy on anything else. This verse shows an almost noble annoyance by Paul at being asked to consider himself. He was absolutely indifferent to any consideration other than that of fulfilling the ministry he had received. Our ordinary and reasonable service to God may actually compete against our total surrender to Him. Our reasonable work is based on the following argument which we say to ourselves, “Remember how useful you are here, and think how much value you would be in that particular type of work.” That attitude chooses our own judgment, instead of Jesus Christ, to be our guide as to where we should go and where we could be used the most. Never consider whether or not you are of use— but always consider that “you are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19). You are His.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To live a life alone with God does not mean that we live it apart from everyone else. The connection between godly men and women and those associated with them is continually revealed in the Bible, e.g., 1 Timothy 4:10. Not Knowing Whither, 867 L
Bible in a Year: Numbers 31-33; Mark 9:1-29
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, March 04, 2020
Making the Days Left Really Count - #8648
It was one of those unexpected phone calls that leaves you stunned. Our friend Curt, one of the most experienced private pilots we know, had crashed two hours earlier. He was landing on a grass strip near his home, a strip where he's landed hundreds of times. This time he somehow went into a skid that propelled his plane right into a tree. The plane caught fire and exploded, and our friend Curt was in heaven. As a beloved leader in our community, I can tell you that his death rocked a lot of people, including me. Because of a collapsed wheel, he had been in a crash fourteen months earlier; one which should have been fatal but which he actually escaped from with serious but survivable injuries. I can't tell you how grateful I am he did not die then. See, something very important happened between those two crashes.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Making the Days Left Really Count."
It was my privilege to be asked by Curt's wife to talk about his faith at his funeral and the powerful changes that had taken place since that first crash. The word for that day from the Word of God is our word today. It's like a scale on which you can weigh the significance of your life and what you're living it for. You ready? Here it is: Philippians 1:20-21 - "I eagerly expect and hope that...Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain."
Now, we all need to honestly fill in the blank, "For to me to live is _________." See, the true answer - not the spiritual answer - might be, "For me to live is my business, my sports, my home, my kids, my success. For me to live is my family, or my friends, or my education, my dream. And maybe you should just put the name of the most important person in your life in that blank to fill it in. Here's the problem: if you're living for any of those things, to die is to lose it all. It's only when for you "to live is Christ" that to die will be gain.
When our friend Curt went down the first time, I'm not sure what he was living for. He was always a good man, but I think he would have said he wasn't always God's man. But after that crash he said, "God spared me for a reason." And he concluded that one major reason was for him to live for Christ in such a way that the people he cared about, the people who looked to him, would want his Jesus so they could be in heaven with him someday. And you know what? Curt began to live in such a way that "Christ would be exalted" by his life. And because he did, Christ was really exalted by his death.
In the months after that first crash, Curt had boldly told so many people in his large circle of influence about the Christ who died for them and for him. And it was only logical that his funeral would do the same thing - to give those he had touched the opportunity he had had - a wakeup call from a plane crash that would bring them into a vital relationship with Jesus Christ. But if you haven't lived to show Christ to people, well then, your death really can't lift Him up.
The death of a man or a woman who has really lived passionately for Christ can have such incredible meaning - helping others be in heaven with you. But a life not lived for Christ just can't have that kind of meaning. Death destroys every reason for living but one - living for Jesus and what matters to Him.
If Curt were here today, I believe he would tell you, "Don't wait to surrender your life and your influence to Jesus. You never know how many days you have left to
make your life count for something that's going to last forever." And, for sure, Jesus would tell you that. In fact, I believe He is telling you that - right now.
"Someday" isn't soon enough to give everything you've got to Jesus. No, it needs to be this day.
