Max Lucado Daily: THE HOPE DIAMOND OF THE BIBLE
Jesus said, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Born again? You must be kidding. Put life in reverse? We can’t be born again! Oh but wouldn’t we like to? A try-again. A reload. How can this be?
Jesus answers in John 3:16, the hope diamond of the Bible. “For God so loved the word that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” A twenty-six word parade of hope! If you know nothing in the Bible—start here. If you know everything about the Bible—return here! He loves. He gave. We believe. We live!
For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only son… John 3:16.
Habakkuk 3
God Racing on the Crest of the Waves
A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk, with orchestra:
God, I’ve heard what our ancestors say about you,
and I’m stopped in my tracks, down on my knees.
Do among us what you did among them.
Work among us as you worked among them.
And as you bring judgment, as you surely must,
remember mercy.
3-7 God’s on his way again,
retracing the old salvation route,
Coming up from the south through Teman,
the Holy One from Mount Paran.
Skies are blazing with his splendor,
his praises sounding through the earth,
His cloud-brightness like dawn, exploding, spreading,
forked-lightning shooting from his hand—
what power hidden in that fist!
Plague marches before him,
pestilence at his heels!
He stops. He shakes Earth.
He looks around. Nations tremble.
The age-old mountains fall to pieces;
ancient hills collapse like a spent balloon.
The paths God takes are older
than the oldest mountains and hills.
I saw everyone worried, in a panic:
Old wilderness adversaries,
Cushan and Midian, were terrified,
hoping he wouldn’t notice them.
8-16 God, is it River you’re mad at?
Angry at old River?
Were you raging at Sea when you rode
horse and chariot through to salvation?
You unfurled your bow
and let loose a volley of arrows.
You split Earth with rivers.
Mountains saw what was coming.
They twisted in pain.
Flood Waters poured in.
Ocean roared and reared huge waves.
Sun and Moon stopped in their tracks.
Your flashing arrows stopped them,
your lightning-strike spears impaled them.
Angry, you stomped through Earth.
Furious, you crushed the godless nations.
You were out to save your people,
to save your specially chosen people.
You beat the stuffing
out of King Wicked,
Stripped him naked
from head to toe,
Set his severed head on his own spear
and blew away his army.
Scattered they were to the four winds—
and ended up food for the sharks!
You galloped through the Sea on your horses,
racing on the crest of the waves.
When I heard it, my stomach did flips.
I stammered and stuttered.
My bones turned to water.
I staggered and stumbled.
I sit back and wait for Doomsday
to descend on our attackers.
17-19 Though the cherry trees don’t blossom
and the strawberries don’t ripen,
Though the apples are worm-eaten
and the wheat fields stunted,
Though the sheep pens are sheepless
and the cattle barns empty,
I’m singing joyful praise to God.
I’m turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God.
Counting on God’s Rule to prevail,
I take heart and gain strength.
I run like a deer.
I feel like I’m king of the mountain!
(For congregational use, with a full orchestra.)
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 03, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Romans 6:1–11
Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:6 Or be rendered powerless
Insight
Paul’s question in Romans 6:1—“Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase”—flows from his observation in the previous chapter that when sin increases, grace increases “all the more” (5:20). So Paul asks if grace is a license to sin. Not if we value being in the gracious care of Christ rather than in the custody and condemnation of the law (v. 21). Not when we see that what we lost in Adam now overflows in the life, love, peace, and hope that comes in the awareness of what it means to be united in and with Jesus (chs. 5–6).
The Battle’s Over. Really.
We were . . . buried with him. Romans 6:4
For three decades, Onoda lived a meager, isolated existence, because he refused to surrender—refused to believe the conflict was done. We can make a similar mistake. Paul proclaims the stunning truth that “all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death” (Romans 6:3). On the cross, in a powerful, mysterious way, Jesus put to death Satan’s lies, death’s terror, and sin’s tenacious grip. Though we’re “dead to sin” and “alive to God” (v. 11), we often live as though evil still holds the power. We yield to temptation, succumbing to sin’s seduction. We listen to lies, failing to trust Jesus. But we don’t have to yield. We don’t have to live in a false narrative. By God’s grace we can embrace the true story of Christ’s victory.
While we’ll still wrestle with sin, liberation comes as we recognize that Jesus has already won the battle. May we live out that truth in His power. By: Winn Collier
Reflect & Pray
How are you tempted to believe that death and sin still hold power over your life? Where can you see Christ’s victory already present in the world?
Jesus, I know You’ve won the battle over evil and darkness. Would You help me to live this out?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 03, 2020
The Compelling Purpose of God
He…said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem…" —Luke 18:31
Jerusalem, in the life of our Lord, represents the place where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will. Jesus said, “I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30). Seeking to do “the will of the Father” was the one dominating concern throughout our Lord’s life. And whatever He encountered along the way, whether joy or sorrow, success or failure, He was never deterred from that purpose. “…He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem…” (Luke 9:51).
The greatest thing for us to remember is that we go up to Jerusalem to fulfill God’s purpose, not our own. In the natural life our ambitions are our own, but in the Christian life we have no goals of our own. We talk so much today about our decisions for Christ, our determination to be Christians, and our decisions for this and that, but in the New Testament the only aspect that is brought out is the compelling purpose of God. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…” (John 15:16).
We are not taken into a conscious agreement with God’s purpose— we are taken into God’s purpose with no awareness of it at all. We have no idea what God’s goal may be; as we continue, His purpose becomes even more and more vague. God’s aim appears to have missed the mark, because we are too nearsighted to see the target at which He is aiming. At the beginning of the Christian life, we have our own ideas as to what God’s purpose is. We say, “God means for me to go over there,” and, “God has called me to do this special work.” We do what we think is right, and yet the compelling purpose of God remains upon us. The work we do is of no account when compared with the compelling purpose of God. It is simply the scaffolding surrounding His work and His plan. “He took the twelve aside…” (Luke 18:31). God takes us aside all the time. We have not yet understood all there is to know of the compelling purpose of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Civilization is based on principles which imply that the passing moment is permanent. The only permanent thing is God, and if I put anything else as permanent, I become atheistic. I must build only on God (John 14:6). The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 L
Bible in a Year: Psalms 63-65; Romans 6
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 03, 2020
The Only Way to Heal Your Heart - #8756
It was the kind of news that no expectant parents want to get from their obstetrician. The doctor told them that a recent sonogram revealed that their baby had a 1-in-10,000 heart condition. Their unborn son had a potentially devastating hole in his heart. They had to deliver the baby early, so He was pretty small, but they went ahead and they performed open-heart surgery on his heart that was only the size of a nickel. He made it, and I was privileged to be there in infant intensive care the first time that his father got to hold him - tubes and all. There, in the middle of his tiny chest, there was this 2 & 1/2-inch wound, covered by a bandage. On the one hand, it was a pretty hard thing for a daddy to see his little son, actually his only son, with that big wound. But that wound was the only way his heart could be healed.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Only Way to Heal Your Heart."
As I watched that father holding his wounded son, I couldn't help but think, God has a wounded son - His only Son. And without His wounds, there's no way my heart could have ever been healed or that your heart can be healed.
That man hanging on that rugged cross - spikes in His hands and feet, a crown of thorns jammed on His head, a deep spear wound in His side - that man is Jesus, God's one and only Son. In fact, as I watched a dad holding his only son, his wounded son, some of the most precious words in the Bible popped into my mind. I found myself actually saying it out loud: "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). That really comes to life when you put your name in it. I'll do it with my name. "God so loved Ron that He gave His one and only Son so that if Ron (now put your name in there) would believe in Him, then (there you go) will not perish but have eternal life."
Jesus' death was no accident. He wasn't a victim. God sent Him here to die in our place. He describes it vividly in Isaiah 53:4-5. It's our word for today from the Word of God. "He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities (that covers every law of God you've ever broken, I've ever broken, every wrong thing we've ever done); the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed."
Healed from what? From the deadly sin-cancer inside each of us; the spiritual cancer that's always terminal unless it's cured. And there's only one way that could happen - the wounding and the dying of God's only Son. Because only He was qualified to take your place and mine, absorbing all the punishment that we deserve for our sin. Without His wounds, there's no way you or I could ever have our hearts healed of what will otherwise cost us eternal life.
The greatest tragedy I can imagine is that you would miss what Jesus spent so much to give you, by depending on your religion or your goodness to get your sins forgiven. If there was any other way for you to have your sin forgiven, believe me, Jesus would not have paid the price He paid. You could miss it all by ignoring Him or just continually putting Him off, or by knowing a lot about Him but not knowing Him.
Today, Jesus is extending His nail-scarred hand to you. He didn't stay dead. He rose from the dead to be a living Savior for you. But you have to grab His hand, as your only hope of being rescued from the penalty of your sin. You can do that by telling Him you're ready to turn from the sin that separates you from Him and then you're ready to pin all your hopes on Him and what He did for you on the cross.
Today could be your day to experience this love, this forgiveness for yourself. If you want that, I'd love to be able to encourage you in that direction. That is what our website's for. I've provided a brief explanation there how you can begin your personal relationship with Jesus. You go there today - I would just urge you to do that. It's ANewStory.com. That's the website. Your new story could begin there today!
Because of all that God's Son has done for you, God will never forget what you do with His Son.