Max Lucado Daily: THE HUMAN HEART PROBLEM
The sinful nature is the stubborn, self-centered attitude that says, “My way or the highway.” The sinful nature is all about self: pleasing self, promoting self, preserving self. I have a sin nature; so do you. Under the right circumstances you will do the wrong thing. You’ll try not to, but you will. You have a sin nature. You were born with it. The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.
Christmas commemorates the day and the way God saved us from ourselves. The angel speaking to Mary in Matthew 1:21 says, “…you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Each of us entered the world with a sin nature. Each of us entered the world with a sin nature; God entered the world to take it away.
1 Peter 1
I, Peter, am an apostle on assignment by Jesus, the Messiah, writing to exiles scattered to the four winds. Not one is missing, not one forgotten. God the Father has his eye on each of you, and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus. May everything good from God be yours!
A New Life
3-5 What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.
6-7 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
8-9 You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.
10-12 The prophets who told us this was coming asked a lot of questions about this gift of life God was preparing. The Messiah’s Spirit let them in on some of it—that the Messiah would experience suffering, followed by glory. They clamored to know who and when. All they were told was that they were serving you, you who by orders from heaven have now heard for yourselves—through the Holy Spirit—the Message of those prophecies fulfilled. Do you realize how fortunate you are? Angels would have given anything to be in on this!
A Future in God
13-16 So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy.”
17 You call out to God for help and he helps—he’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living.
18-21 Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.
22-25 Now that you’ve cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it. Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God’s living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself! That’s why the prophet said,
The old life is a grass life,
its beauty as short-lived as wildflowers;
Grass dries up, flowers droop,
God’s Word goes on and on forever.
This is the Word that conceived the new life in you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, December 14, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 8
For the director of music. According to gittith.[b] A psalm of David.
1 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?[c]
5 You have made them[d] a little lower than the angels[e]
and crowned them[f] with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their[g] feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Insight
In the opening verse of this beautiful hymn of praise, David declares the greatness of God through His power and glory evident in heaven and earth. In Psalm 8:2 he states, “Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies.” Some Bible versions put it this way: “you have ordained strength” (nkjv); “you have established strength” (esv). Here David considers the power and glory of God displayed through babies and small children. This idea touches on the familiar theme in the Bible that God uses the weak to display His strength and majesty (1 Corinthians 1:27). The remaining verses of Psalm 8 point to the creation story in Genesis 1–2 and the fact that God’s creation of humanity was His crowning achievement.
Who You Are
What is mankind that you are mindful of them? Psalm 8:4
His name is Dnyan, and he considers himself a student of the world. And “this is a very big school,” he says of all the cities and towns he’s passed through. He began a four-year journey on his bicycle in 2016 to meet and learn from people. When there’s a language barrier, he finds that sometimes people can understand just by looking at each other. He also depends on a translation app on his phone to communicate. He doesn’t measure his journey in the miles he’s traveled or the sights he’s seen. Instead, he measures it in the people who’ve left an imprint on his heart: “Maybe I do not know your language, but I would like to find out who you are.”
It’s a very big world, yet God knows everything about it and the people in it—fully and completely. The psalmist David was in awe of God when he considered all the works of His hands: the making of the heavens, the moon, and the stars (Psalm 8:3). He wondered, “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (v. 4).
God knows you more thoroughly than anyone else possibly can and He cares for you. We can only respond, “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (vv. 1, 9). By: Anne Cetas
Reflect & Pray
How do you feel knowing that God knows all about you and loves you? What does believing this truth look like in your life today?
Dear God, it’s awesome to realize that You’re all-knowing about Your whole creation. I love You for knowing me personally too.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 14, 2020
The Great Life
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled… —John 14:27
Whenever we experience something difficult in our personal life, we are tempted to blame God. But we are the ones in the wrong, not God. Blaming God is evidence that we are refusing to let go of some disobedience somewhere in our lives. But as soon as we let go, everything becomes as clear as daylight to us. As long as we try to serve two masters, ourselves and God, there will be difficulties combined with doubt and confusion. Our attitude must be one of complete reliance on God. Once we get to that point, there is nothing easier than living the life of a saint. We encounter difficulties when we try to usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit for our own purposes.
God’s mark of approval, whenever you obey Him, is peace. He sends an immeasurable, deep peace; not a natural peace, “as the world gives,” but the peace of Jesus. Whenever peace does not come, wait until it does, or seek to find out why it is not coming. If you are acting on your own impulse, or out of a sense of the heroic, to be seen by others, the peace of Jesus will not exhibit itself. This shows no unity with God or confidence in Him. The spirit of simplicity, clarity, and unity is born through the Holy Spirit, not through your decisions. God counters our self-willed decisions with an appeal for simplicity and unity.
My questions arise whenever I cease to obey. When I do obey God, problems come, not between me and God, but as a means to keep my mind examining with amazement the revealed truth of God. But any problem that comes between God and myself is the result of disobedience. Any problem that comes while I obey God (and there will be many), increases my overjoyed delight, because I know that my Father knows and cares, and I can watch and anticipate how He will unravel my problems.
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: Joel 1-3; Revelation 5
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, December 14, 2020
Getting Rid of the Guilt of a Lifetime - #8851
If you've ever tried to find a parking space at a mall a few days before Christmas, you've probably eyed some of those handicapped parking places with a little envy. They're right up close, and there's usually one available. Maybe you've even been tempted to park in one of those spots, even though you're not handicapped and you don't have one of those tags to hang on your mirror. Don't try it. Just ask Connie. Because of some serious health issues, her doctor gave her one of those tags. So Connie can use those spaces legally, if she displays her tag - which she unfortunately forgot to do during a two-night stay at a hotel. She returned to her car only to find two tickets with a fine of $250.00 each and a demand that she appear in court, no matter how she pleaded. And Connie lives a thousand miles from the town where she got the ticket!
Well, she filled out a court affidavit and pleaded guilty to what the clerk described as a "not minor violation." The affidavit was mailed to the municipal judge along with a photocopy of Connie's handicapped tag. And then she received the judge's response regarding her scheduled court appearance. The note simply said, "Upon review, the judge has declared you not guilty." Suddenly, her heavy load was gone!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Getting Rid of the Guilt of a Lifetime."
Connie was guilty as charged, by her own confession. She had a high price to pay. But to her amazement, the judge declared the guilty offender not guilty. I know a little bit about that kind of good news. It was that kind of transaction that literally changed my life and changed my eternal address. It could happen to you.
There's a lot of creative thinking today about what God is like and where we stand with Him. But the only one who can tell us the truth about that is God Himself, of course, and He did in His book - the Bible. Listen to what God says in Romans 3, beginning with verse 23. It's our word for today from the Word of God. I'm reading from the New Living Translation. It starts with some very bad news. "Everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard."
Well, all right, there's no way to God without pleading "guilty as charged" according to that. Guilty of violating the holy law of God every time we covet what someone else has, every time we tell something less than the truth, every time we think or act immorally, every time we let someone or something be more important to us than God is. Every one of us is a rebel against Almighty God. The more religious you are, the harder it is for you to plead guilty to running your own life, to being the sinner God says you are. Until you agree with God about your guilt, though, there's no hope. And sin carries a heavy penalty - eternal separation from a holy God. The Bible has a name for that - it's hell.
But here comes the amazing good news. "Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood." Those are God's words.
So, there it is! The Judge's declaration you are not guilty - even though you are - because He offered His only Son to lay down His life to pay for what you've done, so you could be free from the guilt of every wrong thing you've ever done and have the hell you deserve cancelled for the heaven you could never deserve.
But you have to tell your Judge that you're depending completely on His Son's death for you as your only hope. And at that moment, the One who would have been your Judge becomes your Savior. It could happen for you today, if you'll reach out to Jesus and give yourself to Him, because He gave Himself for you.
Just tell Him where you are, "Jesus, beginning today I'm not running things. I'm Yours." Go to our website the first chance you have, because there, I think, you're going to find what you need to know that you belong to Jesus. The website's ANewStory.com.
See, this could be the day that you're declared "not guilty" by the God of the universe, and that lifetime load will be gone. And you will be free!