Max Lucado Daily: TRUST GOD’S TRAINING
Each day has a pop quiz, and some seasons are like final exams. Brutal, sudden pitfalls of stress, sickness, or sadness. What is the purpose of the test? James 1:3-4 says, “For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.” Test, test, test!
This chapter in your life may look like rehab, smell like unemployment, sound like a hospital, but you’re in training. God hasn’t forgotten you, just the opposite. He has chosen to train you. Forget the notion that God doesn’t see your struggle. Quite the contrary—God is fully engaged. He is the Potter, we are the clay. He’s the Shepherd, we’re the sheep. He’s the Teacher, we’re the students. Trust His training. You’ll get through this.
Isaiah 45
God’s Message to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whom he took by the hand
To give the task of taming the nations,
of terrifying their kings—
He gave him free rein,
no restrictions:
“I’ll go ahead of you,
clearing and paving the road.
I’ll break down bronze city gates,
smash padlocks, kick down barred entrances.
I’ll lead you to buried treasures,
secret caches of valuables—
Confirmations that it is, in fact, I, God,
the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.
It’s because of my dear servant Jacob,
Israel my chosen,
That I’ve singled you out, called you by name,
and given you this privileged work.
And you don’t even know me!
I am God, the only God there is.
Besides me there are no real gods.
I’m the one who armed you for this work,
though you don’t even know me,
So that everyone, from east to west, will know
that I have no god-rivals.
I am God, the only God there is.
I form light and create darkness,
I make harmonies and create discords.
I, God, do all these things.
8-10 “Open up, heavens, and rain.
Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness!
Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation;
sprout right living.
I, God, generate all this.
But doom to you who fight your Maker—
you’re a pot at odds with the potter!
Does clay talk back to the potter:
‘What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!’
Would a sperm say to a father,
‘Who gave you permission to use me to make a baby?’
Or a fetus to a mother,
‘Why have you cooped me up in this belly?’”
11-13 Thus God, The Holy of Israel, Israel’s Maker, says:
“Do you question who or what I’m making?
Are you telling me what I can or cannot do?
I made earth,
and I created man and woman to live on it.
I handcrafted the skies
and direct all the constellations in their turnings.
And now I’ve got Cyrus on the move.
I’ve rolled out the red carpet before him.
He will build my city.
He will bring home my exiles.
I didn’t hire him to do this. I told him.
I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.”
14 God says:
“The workers of Egypt, the merchants of Ethiopia,
and those statuesque Sabeans
Will all come over to you—all yours.
Docile in chains, they’ll follow you,
Hands folded in reverence, praying before you:
‘Amazing! God is with you!
There is no other God—none.’”
15-17 Clearly, you are a God who works behind the scenes,
God of Israel, Savior God.
Humiliated, all those others
will be ashamed to show their faces in public.
Out of work and at loose ends, the makers of no-god idols
won’t know what to do with themselves.
The people of Israel, though, are saved by you, God,
saved with an eternal salvation.
They won’t be ashamed,
they won’t be at loose ends, ever.
18-24 God, Creator of the heavens—
he is, remember, God.
Maker of earth—
he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch.
He didn’t go to all that trouble
to just leave it empty, nothing in it.
He made it to be lived in.
This God says:
“I am God,
the one and only.
I don’t just talk to myself
or mumble under my breath.
I never told Jacob,
‘Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.’
I am God. I work out in the open,
saying what’s right, setting things right.
So gather around, come on in,
all you refugees and castoffs.
They don’t seem to know much, do they—
those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood,
praying for help to a dead stick?
So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence.
Put your heads together. Make your case.
Who told you, and a long time ago, what’s going on here?
Who made sense of things for you?
Wasn’t I the one? God?
It had to be me. I’m the only God there is—
The only God who does things right
and knows how to help.
So turn to me and be helped—saved!—
everyone, whoever and wherever you are.
I am God,
the only God there is, the one and only.
I promise in my own name:
Every word out of my mouth does what it says.
I never take back what I say.
Everyone is going to end up kneeling before me.
Everyone is going to end up saying of me,
‘Yes! Salvation and strength are in God!’”
24-25 All who have raged against him
will be brought before him,
disgraced by their unbelief.
And all who are connected with Israel
will have a robust, praising, good life in God!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, May 22, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Lamentations 3:49–66
My eyes will flow unceasingly,
without relief,
50 until the Lord looks down
from heaven and sees.
51 What I see brings grief to my soul
because of all the women of my city.
52 Those who were my enemies without cause
hunted me like a bird.
53 They tried to end my life in a pit
and threw stones at me;
54 the waters closed over my head,
and I thought I was about to perish.
55 I called on your name, Lord,
from the depths of the pit.
56 You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears
to my cry for relief.”
57 You came near when I called you,
and you said, “Do not fear.”
58 You, Lord, took up my case;
you redeemed my life.
59 Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me.
Uphold my cause!
60 You have seen the depth of their vengeance,
all their plots against me.
61 Lord, you have heard their insults,
all their plots against me—
62 what my enemies whisper and mutter
against me all day long.
63 Look at them! Sitting or standing,
they mock me in their songs.
64 Pay them back what they deserve, Lord,
for what their hands have done.
65 Put a veil over their hearts,
and may your curse be on them!
66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under the heavens of the Lord.
Insight
The book of Lamentations gives us a poet’s picture of the aftermath of war. Jerusalem had been invaded by Babylonian warlords in 586 bc (Jeremiah 52). The God of gods had turned His chosen people over to their enemies, as He had threatened to do from the beginning if they persistently turned their backs on Him and forgot their mission to be a light to other nations (Deuteronomy 28).
The fluid emotions of the poet reflect a nation that now had nowhere to turn but to memories of their past and to hope in the everlasting God who, for this seemingly endless moment, seemed so far away (Lamentations 5:19–22).
Take Your Tears to God
My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief, until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees. Lamentations 3:49–50
Last summer, an orca named Talequah gave birth. Talequah’s pod of killer whales was endangered, and her newborn was their hope for the future. But the calf lived for less than an hour. In a show of grief that was watched by people around the world, Talequah pushed her dead calf through the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean for seventeen days before letting her go.
Sometimes believers in Jesus have a hard time knowing what to do with grief. Perhaps we fear that our sorrow might look like a lack of hope. But the Bible gives us many examples of humans crying out to God in grief. Lament and hope can both be part of a faithful response.
Lamentations is a book of five poems that express the sorrow of people who have lost their home. They’ve been hunted by enemies and were near death (3:52–54), and they weep and call on God to bring justice (v. 64). They cry out to God not because they have lost hope, but because they believe God is listening. And when they call, God does come near (v. 57).
It’s not wrong to lament the broken things in our world or in your life. God is always listening, and you can be sure that God will look down from heaven and see you. By: Amy Peterson
Reflect & Pray
How can you practice bringing all your emotions to God? When have you felt God draw near to you in your sadness?
Loving God, help us to remember that it’s right to lament wrongness before we can begin to change it.
To learn more about what Lamentations says about pain, visit christianuniversity.org/OT221.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 22, 2020
The Explanation For Our Difficulties
…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us… —John 17:21
If you are going through a time of isolation, seemingly all alone, read John 17 . It will explain exactly why you are where you are— because Jesus has prayed that you “may be one” with the Father as He is. Are you helping God to answer that prayer, or do you have some other goal for your life? Since you became a disciple, you cannot be as independent as you used to be.
God reveals in John 17 that His purpose is not just to answer our prayers, but that through prayer we might come to discern His mind. Yet there is one prayer which God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22). Are we as close to Jesus Christ as that?
God is not concerned about our plans; He doesn’t ask, “Do you want to go through this loss of a loved one, this difficulty, or this defeat?” No, He allows these things for His own purpose. The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, and nobler men and women, or they are making us more critical and fault-finding, and more insistent on our own way. The things that happen either make us evil, or they make us more saintly, depending entirely on our relationship with God and its level of intimacy. If we will pray, regarding our own lives, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42), then we will be encouraged and comforted by John 17, knowing that our Father is working according to His own wisdom, accomplishing what is best. When we understand God’s purpose, we will not become small-minded and cynical. Jesus prayed nothing less for us than absolute oneness with Himself, just as He was one with the Father. Some of us are far from this oneness; yet God will not leave us alone until we are one with Him— because Jesus prayed, “…that they all may be one….”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 16-18; John 7:28-53
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 22, 2020
The Illusion of Being Covered - #8705
Hans Christian Andersen wrote this little fable, The Emperor's New Clothes. And when he did, he was displaying some keen insight into human nature. The Emperor in the story was a vain man, whose main focus in life was to dress in these elegant clothes and show them off to his people. Two scoundrels exploited that vanity by offering to make for the Emperor an extraordinary garment made from cloth so light and so fine that it looked invisible - invisible, that was, to anyone too stupid or incompetent to appreciate its quality. Which none of his officials wanted to be, for fear of losing their position. So they simply expressed admiration for the garment that didn't really exist. Even the Emperor had to fake his response to the garment lest he appear stupid and incompetent, right? So at that point, the scoundrels convinced the Emperor to appear before his subjects, wearing only his magnificent new clothes. And, of course, the crowd cheered for the clothes that weren't there. Who wants to be stupid, right? Until a little child did what little children do: tell it like it really is. He just went up to the royal carriage and blurted, "The Emperor is naked."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Illusion of Being Covered."
The Emperor thought he was covered. It didn't change the facts. He wasn't covered. Now, of course, that's fiction. There's a non-fiction version of that same phenomenon, and the consequences of that self-deception are not amusing. They're deadly.
This self-deception began a long time ago, actually in the Garden of Eden with the first man and woman. They had disobeyed God's boundaries, just like you and I have. Even though God had provided everything they needed inside the boundaries, they went outside them, just like you and me. They knew God had announced that sin's penalty must be spiritual death, separation from God, who was their Source. Again, just like you and me. Suddenly experiencing guilt and shame - something God never meant for us to experience - they realized their nakedness and they tried to cover it with fig leaves.
In Genesis 3:7, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says, "They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves...and they hid from the Lord God. But the Lord God called to the man, 'Where are you?'" God came looking for the people who had cut themselves off from Him. There's you and me again. Jesus is God come looking for you and me, in spite of our sin against Him.
Adam and Eve made the same mistake as the Emperor with the new clothes. They thought they were covered as far as God is concerned. Well, they're not. Then, the Bible says, "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." Of course, that meant animals had to die for them to be covered. The only covering God could accept was the one that required the shedding of blood, because sin has a death penalty.
So many of us are thinking we're going to be okay with God, that we'll make it into heaven because of all our religion, all the good we've done - fig leaves. The best we can do, but nowhere near enough to satisfy a perfect God. Hebrews 9:22 says, "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." It took the shedding of the blood of the sinless Son of God to cover your sin and mine. And your only hope is putting all your trust in Him.
Today's the day to face the hard but life-saving truth: you are not covered without Jesus. You're not ready to meet God; you're not ready for eternity. But you can be, from this day on. If you'll admit that the fig leaves of all your goodness, and religion, and church aren't enough and that Jesus is your only hope.
If you've never done that, and you want to know you have what Jesus died to give you, tell Him that right now, that you're giving up the running of your life. That you know the penalty for that is a death penalty. That you believe He loved you enough to pay for it and that you want to belong to Him by pinning all your hopes on Him.
If you want to find information to be sure you belong to Him, get to our website today - ANewStory.com. Because this day, Jesus has come close to bring you into a relationship with Him.
Please, don't miss Him.