Max Lucado Daily: GIVE GRACE FREELY
Forgiveness is not foolishness. Forgiveness, at its core, is choosing to see your offender with different eyes. By the way, how can we grace-recipients do anything less? Dare we ask God for grace when we refuse to give it? This is a huge issue in Scripture. Jesus was tough on sinners who refused to forgive other sinners.
Remember his story in Matthew 18 about the servant freshly forgiven a debt of millions who refused to forgive a debt equal to a few dollars? He stirred the wrath of God: “You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt. Shouldn’t you have mercy just as I had mercy on you?” In the final sum, we give grace because we’ve been given grace. And we’ve been given grace so we can freely give it. See your enemies as God’s child and revenge as God’s job.
Zephaniah 1
No Longer Giving God a Thought or a Prayer
God’s Message to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah. It came during the reign of Josiah son of Amon, who was king of Judah:
2 “I’m going to make a clean sweep of the earth,
a thorough housecleaning.” God’s Decree.
3 “Men and women and animals,
including birds and fish—
Anything and everything that causes sin—will go,
but especially people.
4-6 “I’ll start with Judah
and everybody who lives in Jerusalem.
I’ll sweep the place clean of every trace
of the sex-and-religion Baal shrines and their priests.
I’ll get rid of the people who sneak up to their rooftops at night
to worship the star gods and goddesses;
Also those who continue to worship God
but cover their bases by worshiping other king-gods as well;
Not to mention those who’ve dumped God altogether,
no longer giving him a thought or offering a prayer.
7-13 “Quiet now!
Reverent silence before me, God, the Master!
Time’s up. My Judgment Day is near:
The Holy Day is all set, the invited guests made holy.
On the Holy Day, God’s Judgment Day,
I will punish the leaders and the royal sons;
I will punish those who dress up like foreign priests and priestesses,
Who introduce pagan prayers and practices;
And I’ll punish all who import pagan superstitions
that turn holy places into hellholes.
Judgment Day!” God’s Decree!
“Cries of panic from the city’s Fish Gate,
Cries of terror from the city’s Second Quarter,
sounds of great crashing from the hills!
Wail, you shopkeepers on Market Street!
Moneymaking has had its day. The god Money is dead.
On Judgment Day,
I’ll search through every closet and alley in Jerusalem.
I’ll find and punish those who are sitting it out, fat and lazy,
amusing themselves and taking it easy,
Who think, ‘God doesn’t do anything, good or bad.
He isn’t involved, so neither are we.’
But just wait. They’ll lose everything they have,
money and house and land.
They’ll build a house and never move in.
They’ll plant vineyards and never taste the wine.
A Day of Darkness at Noon
14-18 “The Great Judgment Day of God is almost here.
It’s countdown time: . . . seven, six, five, four . . .
Bitter and noisy cries on my Judgment Day,
even strong men screaming for help.
Judgment Day is payday—my anger paid out:
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of catastrophic doom,
a day of darkness at noon,
a day of black storm clouds,
a day of bloodcurdling war cries,
as forts are assaulted,
as defenses are smashed.
I’ll make things so bad they won’t know what hit them.
They’ll walk around groping like the blind.
They’ve sinned against God!
Their blood will be poured out like old dishwater,
their guts shoveled into slop buckets.
Don’t plan on buying your way out.
Your money is worthless for this.
This is the Day of God’s Judgment—my wrath!
I care about sin with fiery passion—
A fire to burn up the corrupted world,
a wildfire finish to the corrupting people.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, July 27, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Genesis 1:26–27; 2:15
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:26 Probable reading of the original Hebrew text (see Syriac); Masoretic Text the earth
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Insight
On the first four days of creation, God created the physical infrastructures—the galaxies and earth—sky, land, and seas (Genesis 1:1–19). On days five and six, God created the living creatures—birds, fish, and land animals to populate the three realms (vv. 20–25). However, the epitome of creation was on day six when God created human beings. Humans were given prominence, purpose, and special placement in God’s plan; the only creature created “in [God’s] image, in [God’s] likeness” (v. 26). Only humans have the attributes of personhood, self-consciousness, will, reason, knowledge, emotions, creativity, morality, and spirituality, just as God Himself. Speaking of the crowning distinction of humans in creation, the patriarch Job asked of God, “What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention?” (Job 7:17; see Psalms 8:4–6; 144:3).
Cultivating God’s World
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Genesis 2:15
“Dad, why do you have to go to work?” The question from my young daughter was motivated by her desire to play with me. I would have preferred to skip work and spend time with her, but there was a growing list of things at work that required my attention. The question, nevertheless, is a good one. Why do we work? Is it simply to provide for ourselves and for the people we love? What about labor that’s unpaid—why do we do that?
Genesis 2 tells us that God placed the first human in the garden to “work it and take care of it” (v. 15). My father-in-law is a farmer, and he often tells me he farms for the sheer love of land and livestock. That’s beautiful, but it leaves lingering questions for those who don’t love their work. Why did God put us in a particular place with a particular assignment?
Genesis 1 gives us the answer. We’re made in God’s image to carefully steward the world He made (v. 26). Pagan stories of the way the world began reveal “gods” making humans to be their slaves. Genesis declares that the one true God made humans to be His representatives—to steward what He’d made on His behalf. May we reflect His wise and loving order into the world. Work is a call to cultivate God’s world for His glory. By: Glenn Packiam
Reflect & Pray
What’s the work God has given you to do? How could you cultivate this “field” by bringing order into it and bringing good from it, by His grace?
Dear God, thank You for the honor of joining You in Your work in the world. Help me to reflect Your love, wisdom, and order in my life and in the place where I work.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, July 27, 2020
The Way to Knowledge
If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine… —John 7:17
The golden rule to follow to obtain spiritual understanding is not one of intellectual pursuit, but one of obedience. If a person wants scientific knowledge, then intellectual curiosity must be his guide. But if he desires knowledge and insight into the teachings of Jesus Christ, he can only obtain it through obedience. If spiritual things seem dark and hidden to me, then I can be sure that there is a point of disobedience somewhere in my life. Intellectual darkness is the result of ignorance, but spiritual darkness is the result of something that I do not intend to obey.
No one ever receives a word from God without instantly being put to the test regarding it. We disobey and then wonder why we are not growing spiritually. Jesus said, “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). He is saying, in essence, “Don’t say another word to me; first be obedient by making things right.” The teachings of Jesus hit us where we live. We cannot stand as impostors before Him for even one second. He instructs us down to the very last detail. The Spirit of God uncovers our spirit of self-vindication and makes us sensitive to things that we have never even thought of before.
When Jesus drives something home to you through His Word, don’t try to evade it. If you do, you will become a religious impostor. Examine the things you tend simply to shrug your shoulders about, and where you have refused to be obedient, and you will know why you are not growing spiritually. As Jesus said, “First…go….” Even at the risk of being thought of as fanatical, you must obey what God tells you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Both nations and individuals have tried Christianity and abandoned it, because it has been found too difficult; but no man has ever gone through the crisis of deliberately making Jesus Lord and found Him to be a failure. The Love of God—The Making of a Christian, 680 R
Bible in a Year: Psalms 43-45; Acts 27:27-44
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, July 27, 2020
Settling for So Little - #8751
We were visiting some of my wife's cousins, and we got to talking about the incredible fishing results that Cousin Marty gets. It doesn't seem to matter when he fishes or where he fishes, he brings back a stringer of big ones. He wouldn't understand at all about a fisherman I heard about recently. It was one of those days when it wasn't just the bugs who were biting; the big fish really were. And this particular angler kept reeling in fish that were at least a foot long, and then he kept throwing them back. A fisherman in a nearby boat kept watching this with a mixture of amazement and disgust. Finally, he couldn't resist. He called over to the fisherman after he had just thrown back another fish that was over a foot long. He said, "Hey! Why are you throwing back all the big ones?" The answer was more disturbing than his not keeping them. He replied, "Hey! I've only got an eight-inch pan!" What?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Settling for So Little."
So this fisherman is settling for little stuff because he's only prepared for little stuff. Dumb. But then, I wonder if that isn't how some of us pray. We pray for what humans could do, not what an Almighty God could do. We go to God with an "eight-inch pan" when He wants to give us something much, much bigger. When you consider the size and the power of the God to whom we pray, a lot of our prayers are - well, end up pretty pathetic.
Let's go to our word for today from the Word of God and see if we can pick up a much bigger "pan" for answers to our prayers. We begin in Jeremiah 32:17. "Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm." Think about that when you come to Him with a need, a problem, a challenge. John Newton put it pretty well, "You are coming to a King; great petitions with thee bring, for His love and power are such, none can ever ask too much."
Jeremiah goes on to celebrate the one to whom we pray with these words: "O great and powerful God, whose name is the Lord Almighty, great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds." Later in this chapter, God responds to Jeremiah, "I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?"
You may have an issue in your life that's totally beyond your control, or your ability to fix, or beyond your ability to change or even understand. But is anything too hard for "the Lord Almighty," the one who "made the heavens and the earth?" Does the number of zeroes on the amount of money you need make it harder for God? Do the medical odds affect God's power to take care of it? Does the number of people you're up against mean God's going to have a harder time pulling this one out? The size of your need is absolutely inconsequential to a God for whom nothing is too hard!
So we shouldn't be surprised that a few verses later, in Jeremiah 33:3, this all-mighty Lord extends this invitation, "Call to me and I will show you great and mighty things..." We get man-sized answers because we expect man-sized answers. We believe God for what we can conceive, but your God is the God of the inconceivable. We've settled for so much less than what He could do because we continually overestimate the situation and underestimate God.
How often has God been ready to give us a bigger answer than we've ever seen, and we miss it because we've only got this "eight-inch pan"? It's time to blow the lid off your prayers by trusting your God, within the parameters of His perfect will, for something only God could do!