Max Lucado Daily: MATURE TRUTH
Your family history doesn’t have to be your future. The generational garbage can stop here and now. Don’t give your kids what your ancestors gave to you. Talk to God about it, in detail. God, everyday I came home from school to find mom drunk, lying on the couch. I had to take care of baby brother, do homework on my own. It’s not right, God. Difficult, for certain. But let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Let Him replace “childish thinking” with mature truth.
A dear friend of mine was called to identify the body of his father who’d been shot by his ex-wife. The blast was just another in a long line of angry, violent family moments. He made this resolution: “It stops with me.” And it has! God wants to help you—for your sake! Trust Him—you’ll get through this.
Isaiah 63
The watchmen call out,
“Who goes there, marching out of Edom,
out of Bozrah in clothes dyed red?
Name yourself, so splendidly dressed,
advancing, bristling with power!”
“It is I: I speak what is right,
I, mighty to save!”
2 “And why are your robes so red,
your clothes dyed red like those who tread grapes?”
3-6 “I’ve been treading the winepress alone.
No one was there to help me.
Angrily, I stomped the grapes;
raging, I trampled the people.
Their blood spurted all over me—
all my clothes were soaked with blood.
I was set on vengeance.
The time for redemption had arrived.
I looked around for someone to help
—no one.
I couldn’t believe it
—not one volunteer.
So I went ahead and did it myself,
fed and fueled by my rage.
I trampled the people in my anger,
crushed them under foot in my wrath,
soaked the earth with their lifeblood.”
7-9 I’ll make a list of God’s gracious dealings,
all the things God has done that need praising,
All the generous bounties of God,
his great goodness to the family of Israel—
Compassion lavished,
love extravagant.
He said, “Without question these are my people,
children who would never betray me.”
So he became their Savior.
In all their troubles,
he was troubled, too.
He didn’t send someone else to help them.
He did it himself, in person.
Out of his own love and pity
he redeemed them.
He rescued them and carried them along
for a long, long time.
10 But they turned on him;
they grieved his Holy Spirit.
So he turned on them,
became their enemy and fought them.
11-14 Then they remembered the old days,
the days of Moses, God’s servant:
“Where is he who brought the shepherds of his flock
up and out of the sea?
And what happened to the One who set
his Holy Spirit within them?
Who linked his arm with Moses’ right arm,
divided the waters before them,
Making him famous ever after,
and led them through the muddy abyss
as surefooted as horses on hard, level ground?
Like a herd of cattle led to pasture,
the Spirit of God gave them rest.”
14-19 That’s how you led your people!
That’s how you became so famous!
Look down from heaven, look at us!
Look out the window of your holy and magnificent house!
Whatever happened to your passion,
your famous mighty acts,
Your heartfelt pity, your compassion?
Why are you holding back?
You are our Father.
Abraham and Israel are long dead.
They wouldn’t know us from Adam.
But you’re our living Father,
our Redeemer, famous from eternity!
Why, God, did you make us wander from your ways?
Why did you make us cold and stubborn
so that we no longer worshiped you in awe?
Turn back for the sake of your servants.
You own us! We belong to you!
For a while your holy people had it good,
but now our enemies have wrecked your holy place.
For a long time now, you’ve paid no attention to us.
It’s like you never knew us.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Jeremiah 11:9–13
Then the Lord said to me, “There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. 10 They have returned to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both Israel and Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors. 11 Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. 12 The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes. 13 You, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns; and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’
Insight
Because the people of Judah had persistently refused to walk in God’s ways and had rejected His instructions (Jeremiah 11:10), Jeremiah warned that God would bring a nation from afar to punish them for their idolatrous unfaithfulness (1:14–15; 5:15; 6:22; 25:9). They would also be exiled to Babylon for seventy years (25:11). Jeremiah witnessed the deportations of the Israelites to Babylon and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (52:1–34). Judah’s idolatrous unfaithfulness was chronically deep-rooted. “From the time I brought your ancestors up from Egypt until today,” God said, “they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts” (11:7–8). Jeremiah called them to turn away from their idols and to worship Yahweh as their one and only true Creator God and King (10:1–11), warning that their dependence on their many gods would be punished (11:12–13).
Just-in-Case Idols
They have followed other gods to serve them. Jeremiah 11:10
Sam checks his retirement account twice each day. He saved for thirty years, and with the boost of a rising stock market, finally has enough to retire. As long as stocks don’t plunge. This fear keeps Sam worrying about his balance.
Jeremiah warned about this: “You, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns; and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem” (11:13).
Judah’s idolatry is remarkable. They knew the Lord was God. How could they worship anyone else? They were hedging their bets. They needed the Lord for the afterlife, because only the true God could raise them from the dead. But what about now? Pagan gods promised health, wealth, and fertility, so why not pray to them too, just in case?
Can you see how Judah’s idolatry is also our temptation? It’s good to have talent, education, and money. But if we’re not careful, we might shift our confidence to them. We know we’ll need God when we die, and we’ll ask Him to bless us now. But we’ll also lean on these lesser gods, just in case.
Where is your trust? Back-up idols are still idols. Thank God for His many gifts, and tell Him you’re not relying on any of them. Your faith is riding entirely on Him. By: Mike Wittmer
Reflect & Pray
What good thing are you tempted to turn into an idol? How might you use this gift while still depending fully on God?
Father, all my hope is in You. Help me trust in You alone, not in my abilities and assets.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
“Will You Lay Down Your Life?”
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends….I have called you friends… —John 15:13, 15
Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him. Peter said to the Lord, “I will lay down my life for Your sake,” and he meant it (John 13:37). He had a magnificent sense of the heroic. For us to be incapable of making this same statement Peter made would be a bad thing— our sense of duty is only fully realized through our sense of heroism. Has the Lord ever asked you, “Will you lay down your life for My sake?” (John 13:38). It is much easier to die than to lay down your life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling of God. We are not made for the bright-shining moments of life, but we have to walk in the light of them in our everyday ways. There was only one bright-shining moment in the life of Jesus, and that was on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was there that He emptied Himself of His glory for the second time, and then came down into the demon-possessed valley (seeMark 9:1-29). For thirty-three years Jesus laid down His life to do the will of His Father. “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). Yet it is contrary to our human nature to do so.
If I am a friend of Jesus, I must deliberately and carefully lay down my life for Him. It is a difficult thing to do, and thank God that it is. Salvation is easy for us, because it cost God so much. But the exhibiting of salvation in my life is difficult. God saves a person, fills him with the Holy Spirit, and then says, in effect, “Now you work it out in your life, and be faithful to Me, even though the nature of everything around you is to cause you to be unfaithful.” And Jesus says to us, “…I have called you friends….” Remain faithful to your Friend, and remember that His honor is at stake in your bodily life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else. “Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord”;… The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 537 L
Bible in a Year: Nehemiah 4-6; Acts 2:22-47
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
The Father Who Catches You - #8722
For most of us it's rare to see an eagle, and so an event when you do see one of those majestic birds soaring overhead it goes something like this: "Look! An eagle!" If you're driving when you hear that, your passengers might be in serious danger. Of course, an eagle isn't born knowing how to fly. Just like us learning to walk, they need to learn to fly and it's actually I imagine a pretty traumatic experience. Mama Eagle takes you high for a ride on her back and then she dumps you. Suddenly, you are hurtling through the sky with the ground below racing toward you. All the while, Papa Eagle is circling overhead, just watching. In a panic, the little eagle remembers watching Mom and Dad use these feathery things at their sides, so he clumsily extends his wings and starts flapping them frantically. That's a good start, but it's not enough to save him from this rapidly approaching disaster below. At that moment, Papa Eagle suddenly swoops downward at eye-blurring speed, flying straight for his falling child. And in a perfectly timed rescue, the father swoops in under his baby, catches him on his back, and takes him back to the sky.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Father Who Catches You."
That day of his first attempt to fly, Junior Eagle learns a very important lesson - your father can fly faster than you can fall. So can yours. Your Heavenly Father, that is. If there's been a time when you've put your total trust in Jesus Christ to be your rescuer from your sin, then the great God of the universe is your Father. And no matter how fast or how far you may fall, He can always fly faster than you can fall. He catches His falling children. For where you are in your life right now, that might be some of the best news you've heard in a long time.
Jude, verse 24, our word for today from the Word of God, tells us that "He is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy." Maybe you say, "Yeah, but I've gone too far. I've done too much. I've been gone too long." You think you're somehow beyond the rescuing reach of the Heavenly Father. Well, you're wrong. There's not a sin you've committed that He did not cover when He died on the cross for you. Romans 5:20 announces the wonderful news that "where sin increased, grace increased all the more." In other words, there's always more grace than there is sin. Hallelujah!
If you're one of His falling ones, if you're one of His falling ones, then you'll find yourself or someone you know in this wonderful description of what Jesus is doing about it right now. Listen to these verses from Ezekiel 34: "This is what the Sovereign Lord says: 'I Myself will search for My sheep and look after them. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak.'"
Then, lest the wandering and the falling have caused you to forget who you are and whose you are, He says, "'You (are) My sheep, the sheep of My pasture...and I am your God,' declares the Lord." If you're away from Him, you know that the best days of your life were when you were close to Him. You got away, but you can't stay away. He's come looking for you.
You've been afraid to fly again; afraid to come back to Jesus because you might mess up again or because you think He wouldn't want you back after what you've done. Not only does He want you back, He's come looking for you today!
Yes, you've been falling. But this very day, the Father who loves you has swept down from the sky. He's come underneath you to catch you and carry you home.