Max Lucado Daily: SIGHTLESS PEOPLE
From heaven’s viewpoint our earth is populated by sightless people. They do not see the meaning of life or the love of God. How else do we explain the confusion and chaos? How else do we explain the constant threat of world war, plagues of hunger, racism, and the holocaust of the unborn? Billions of people simply cannot see. The Scripture says, “The devil who rules this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. They cannot see the light of the Good News—the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is exactly like God” (2 Corinthians 4:4 NCV).
We need a spiritual ophthalmologist. We need Jesus to do for us what he did for the man on the side of the Jerusalem road. He restored his sight, and he will do the same for us. Remember my friends, you are never alone.
Titus 1
I, Paul, am God’s slave and Christ’s agent for promoting the faith among God’s chosen people, getting out the accurate word on God and how to respond rightly to it. My aim is to raise hopes by pointing the way to life without end. This is the life God promised long ago—and he doesn’t break promises! And then when the time was ripe, he went public with his truth. I’ve been entrusted to proclaim this Message by order of our Savior, God himself. Dear Titus, legitimate son in the faith: Receive everything God our Father and Jesus our Savior give you!
A Good Grip on the Message
5-9 I left you in charge in Crete so you could complete what I left half-done. Appoint leaders in every town according to my instructions. As you select them, ask, “Is this man well-thought-of? Is he committed to his wife? Are his children believers? Do they respect him and stay out of trouble?” It’s important that a church leader, responsible for the affairs in God’s house, be looked up to—not pushy, not short-tempered, not a drunk, not a bully, not money-hungry. He must welcome people, be helpful, wise, fair, reverent, have a good grip on himself, and have a good grip on the Message, knowing how to use the truth to either spur people on in knowledge or stop them in their tracks if they oppose it.
10-16 For there are a lot of rebels out there, full of loose, confusing, and deceiving talk. Those who were brought up religious and ought to know better are the worst. They’ve got to be shut up. They’re disrupting entire families with their teaching, and all for the sake of a fast buck. One of their own prophets said it best:
The Cretans are liars from the womb, barking dogs, lazy bellies.
He certainly spoke the truth. Get on them right away. Stop that diseased talk of Jewish make-believe and made-up rules so they can recover a robust faith. Everything is clean to the clean-minded; nothing is clean to dirty-minded unbelievers. They leave their dirty fingerprints on every thought and act. They say they know God, but their actions speak louder than their words. They’re real creeps, disobedient good-for-nothings.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 26, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 148
Praise the Lord.[a]
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights above.
2 Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
3 Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars.
4 Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the skies.
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for at his command they were created,
6 and he established them for ever and ever—
he issued a decree that will never pass away.
7 Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
8 lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
stormy winds that do his bidding,
9 you mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
10 wild animals and all cattle,
small creatures and flying birds,
11 kings of the earth and all nations,
you princes and all rulers on earth,
12 young men and women,
old men and children.
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
14 And he has raised up for his people a horn,[b]
the praise of all his faithful servants,
of Israel, the people close to his heart.
Praise the Lord.
Footnotes
Psalm 148:1 Hebrew Hallelu Yah; also in verse 14
Psalm 148:14 Horn here symbolizes strength.
Insight
Considering Psalm 148 from the point of view of those in the ancient Near East helps us gain a greater understanding of the context and the call for everything to praise God. For example, some people groups viewed the sun, moon, and stars (v. 3) as gods; however, this psalm reminds readers that these heavenly bodies are to worship God, not to be worshiped.
In verse 4, the “highest heavens” was likely referring to the realm of the gods as well. Earth and “the heavens” were seen as a dome; the heavens being above that dome. The ancient peoples speculated that there was water between the dome of the atmosphere and the heavens. This is where they believed rain came from. So the call for the “waters above the skies” (v. 4) to praise God emphasizes the call for all creation to praise God, even the weather (v. 8).
Prayers on La Playa
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted. Psalm 148:13
During a trip to celebrate our twenty-fifth anniversary, my husband and I read our Bibles on the beach. As vendors passed and called out the prices of their wares, we thanked each one but didn’t buy anything. One vendor, Fernando, smiled wide at my rejection and insisted we consider buying gifts for friends. After I declined his invitation, Fernando packed up and began walking away . . . still grinning. “I pray God will bless your day,” I said.
Fernando turned toward me and said, “He has! Jesus changed my life.” Fernando knelt between our chairs. “I feel His presence here.” He then shared how God had delivered him from drug and alcohol abuse more than fourteen years earlier.
My tears flowed as he recited entire poems from the book of Psalms and prayed for us. Together, we praised God and rejoiced in His presence . . . on la playa.
Psalm 148 is a prayer of praise. The psalmist encourages all of creation to “praise the name of the Lord, for at his command [everything was] created” (v. 5), “for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens” (v. 13).
Though God invites us to bring our needs before Him and trust He hears and cares for us, He also delights in prayers of grateful praise wherever we are. Even on the beach. By: Xochitl Dixon
Reflect & Pray
What will you praise God for today? How has He inspired you to praise Him after hearing someone else’s story?
Help me praise You with every breath You’ve given me, God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 26, 2020
What is a Missionary?
Jesus said to them again, "…As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." —John 20:21
A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in our service for God is behind us, not ahead of us. The tendency today is to put the inspiration out in front— to sweep everything together in front of us and make it conform to our definition of success. But in the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, and is the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be true to Him— to carry out His plans.
Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary work the great danger is that God’s call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ— “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” (Matthew 28:19).
When looking back on the lives of men and women of God, the tendency is to say, “What wonderfully keen and intelligent wisdom they had, and how perfectly they understood all that God wanted!” But the keen and intelligent mind behind them was the mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the divine guidance of God being exhibited through childlike people who were “foolish” enough to trust God’s wisdom and His supernatural equipment.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching; it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz. into character. We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something. The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 664 L
Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 9-11; 1 Timothy 6
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 26, 2020
The Highest Bid You've Ever Had - #8816
When you live and work on a remote Indian reservation, as our sons did for a number of years, you get good at shopping without going anywhere. Because anywhere is so far away! Our sons got to be very skilled Internet shoppers. They found gifts there I didn't even know existed. They found bargains I was jealous of. Sometimes, I would watch over their shoulder, and I've gotten kind of good at it these days. But I'd see them bid on an item that was being auctioned on the Internet. They're pretty good at knowing what it's going to take to own what was being auctioned. For all the little tricks of the trade, there seemed to be one decisive bottom line. Everyone knows that it belongs to the one who bids the most. Right?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Highest Bid You've Ever Had."
Many years ago, Bob Dylan had a hit single with a simple message. He said, "You gotta serve somebody. It may be the devil, it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody." Consciously or unconsciously, we all make choices about what or who we're going to give ourselves to. We pour ourselves into a relationship, a family, a business, a church, a hobby. We pour ourselves into making money, or into pleasing our friends. It's almost as if they're all bidding for your time, your energy, your commitment.
But really you should belong to the highest bidder - the one who paid the most for you. That would be Jesus. He announced His personal mission in our word for today from the Word of God in Mark 10:45. Referring to Himself with the title "Son of Man," Jesus said: "The Son of Man came...to give His life as a ransom for many." Okay, what's a ransom? Well, it's the price you pay to get someone back. Jesus spells out here the price He paid to get you back - it was His life.
In another place, the Bible says: "You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price" (1 Corinthians 6:20). Yeah, a very high price - the life of His one and only Son. Which raises a question. Why did Jesus go through the torture and humiliation and brutal death by crucifixion? Honestly, my sin is so bad, that's what it took to pay for it. All of us have repeatedly said, in essence, "No, God, I won't do it Your way. I'll do what I want." We have openly and repeatedly defied the God who made us. And that spiritual hijacking of our life carries a death penalty: eternal separation from the God who is the source of everything good.
But the Bible makes this stunning little statement: "Christ died for our sins" (Romans 5:8). I did the sinning. Jesus did the dying for it. Then He rose again from the dead in order to offer you and me what we could never deserve - an eternity in His heaven.
But the price for you was so high. Jesus was beaten until His back was ripped apart. He carried a cross on that bloody back, a crown of thorns was jammed on his head, spikes were driven into His hands and feet. And worst of all, His Father turned His back on Him because He was carrying your sin so God would never have to turn His back on you. The Bible says Jesus was "so disfigured one would scarcely know He was a person" (Isaiah 52:14). All that was for you...to pay for you.
Is it any wonder, then, that God bases your entire eternity on what you do with His Son? It's possible that you've believed about Jesus for a long time, but you don't belong to Jesus, because there's never been a time when you've totally given yourself to Him as your only hope of being forgiven for your sin - your only hope of going to heaven.
Has there ever been a time when you did that? If you're not sure you belong to Him, I encourage you to make sure today. The greatest tragedy of your life would be that Jesus went through hell to save you and you never grabbed your Rescuer. You could do that today. Right where you are, just talk to Him. Tell Him you're ready to turn from your sin and to hold onto Him like He's your only hope.
We'd love to help you. Just go to our website. You'll see there how to begin this relationship. That website is ANewStory.com.
Everything Jesus did on that cross He did for one reason: He loves you. Isn't it time you started to live for the One who loves you the most?
From my daily reading of the bible, Our Daily Bread Devotionals, My Utmost for His Highest and Ron Hutchcraft "A Word with You" and occasionally others.