Matthew 24:29-51, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

MaxLucado.com: Grace Soaked

Most people keep a pot of anger on low boil!  But you aren’t most people.

Look at your feet.  They’re wet, grace soaked.  Jesus has washed the grimiest parts of your life.

To accept grace is the vow to give it.  You don’t endorse the deeds of your offender when you do.  Jesus didn’t endorse your sins by forgiving you.

Grace doesn’t tell the daughter to like the father who molested her.  The grace-defined person still sends thieves to jail and expects an ex to pay child support.   Grace sees the hurt full well.  But it refuses to let hurts poison the heart.  Where grace is lacking, bitterness abounds.  Where grace abounds, forgiveness grows.

Go ahead.  Set your feet in the basin.  Let the hands of God wipe away every dirty part of your life.  Then look across the room.   Let forgiveness happen with you!

From GRACE

Matthew 24:29-51

 “Following those hard times,

Sun will fade out,
    moon cloud over,
Stars fall out of the sky,
    cosmic powers tremble.

30-31 “Then, the Arrival of the Son of Man! It will fill the skies—no one will miss it. Unready people all over the world, outsiders to the splendor and power, will raise a huge lament as they watch the Son of Man blazing out of heaven. At that same moment, he’ll dispatch his angels with a trumpet-blast summons, pulling in God’s chosen from the four winds, from pole to pole.

32-35 “Take a lesson from the fig tree. From the moment you notice its buds form, the merest hint of green, you know summer’s just around the corner. So it is with you: When you see all these things, you’ll know he’s at the door. Don’t take this lightly. I’m not just saying this for some future generation, but for all of you. This age continues until all these things take place. Sky and earth will wear out; my words won’t wear out.

36 “But the exact day and hour? No one knows that, not even heaven’s angels, not even the Son. Only the Father knows.

37-39 “The Arrival of the Son of Man will take place in times like Noah’s. Before the great flood everyone was carrying on as usual, having a good time right up to the day Noah boarded the ark. They knew nothing—until the flood hit and swept everything away.

39-44 “The Son of Man’s Arrival will be like that: Two men will be working in the field—one will be taken, one left behind; two women will be grinding at the mill—one will be taken, one left behind. So stay awake, alert. You have no idea what day your Master will show up. But you do know this: You know that if the homeowner had known what time of night the burglar would arrive, he would have been there with his dogs to prevent the break-in. Be vigilant just like that. You have no idea when the Son of Man is going to show up.

45-47 “Who here qualifies for the job of overseeing the kitchen? A person the Master can depend on to feed the workers on time each day. Someone the Master can drop in on unannounced and always find him doing his job. A God-blessed man or woman, I tell you. It won’t be long before the Master will put this person in charge of the whole operation.

48-51 “But if that person only looks out for himself, and the minute the Master is away does what he pleases—abusing the help and throwing drunken parties for his friends—the Master is going to show up when he least expects it, and it won’t be pretty. He’ll end up in the dump with the hypocrites, out in the cold shivering, teeth chattering.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Saturday, September 25, 2021

Today's Scripture
Psalm 42
(NIV)

For the director of music. A maskilc of the Sons of Korah.

1 As the deerf pants for streams of water,g

so my soul pantsh for you, my God.

2 My soul thirstsi for God, for the living God.j

When can I gok and meet with God?

3 My tearsl have been my food

day and night,

while people say to me all day long,

“Where is your God?”m

4 These things I remember

as I pour out my soul:n

how I used to go to the house of Godo

under the protection of the Mighty Oned

with shouts of joyp and praiseq

among the festive throng.r

5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?s

Why so disturbedt within me?

Put your hope in God,u

for I will yet praisev him,

my Saviorw and my God.x

6 My soul is downcast within me;

therefore I will remembery you

from the land of the Jordan,z

the heights of Hermona—from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deepb

in the roar of your waterfalls;

all your waves and breakers

have swept over me.c

8 By day the Lord directs his love,d

at nighte his songf is with me—

a prayer to the God of my life.g

9 I say to God my Rock,h

“Why have you forgotteni me?

Why must I go about mourning,j

oppressedk by the enemy?”l

10 My bones suffer mortal agonym

as my foes tauntn me,

saying to me all day long,

“Where is your God?”o

11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

Insight

Eleven psalms, including Psalm 42, are attributed to “the Sons of Korah.” Numbers 16:1–3 identifies Korah as the leader of an insurrection in the days of Moses and Aaron that resulted in deaths by earthquake (vv. 31–33), fire (v. 35), and plague (vv. 46–50). Yet even though the earth literally opened up and swallowed the leaders and followers of this rebellion, Korah’s children weren’t wiped out (26:8–11). Responsible for the care of the sacred tent of worship, members of this family became worship leaders of Israel who gave us some of the most memorable words in the Psalms (Psalms 42:1; 46:1; 84:1). By: Mart DeHaan

God Knows We Feel

By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 42:8

Feeling overwhelmed, Sierra grieved her son’s fight with addiction. “I feel bad,” she said. “Does God think I have no faith because I can’t stop crying when I’m praying?”

“I don’t know what God thinks,” I said. “But I know He can handle real emotions. It’s not like He doesn’t know we feel.” I prayed and shed tears with Sierra as we pleaded for her son’s deliverance.

Scripture contains many examples of people wrestling with God while struggling. The writer of Psalm 42 expresses a deep longing to experience the peace of God’s constant and powerful presence. He acknowledges his tears and his depression over the grief he’s endured. His inner turmoil ebbs and flows with confident praises, as he reminds himself of God’s faithfulness. Encouraging his “soul,” the psalmist writes, “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (v. 11). He’s tugged back and forth between what he knows to be true about God and the undeniable reality of his overwhelming emotions.

God designed us in His image and with emotions. Our tears for others reveal deep love and compassion, not necessarily a lack of faith. We can approach God with raw wounds or old scars because He knows we feel. Each prayer, whether silent, sobbed, or shouted with confidence, demonstrates our trust in His promise to hear and care for us. By:  Xochitl Dixon

Reflect & Pray

What emotion have you tried to hide from God? Why is it often hard to be honest with God about difficult or overwhelming emotions?

Unchanging Father, thank You for assuring me that You know I feel and need to process my ever-changing emotions.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, September 25, 2021
The “Go” of Relationship

Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. —Matthew 5:41

Our Lord’s teaching can be summed up in this: the relationship that He demands for us is an impossible one unless He has done a supernatural work in us. Jesus Christ demands that His disciple does not allow even the slightest trace of resentment in his heart when faced with tyranny and injustice. No amount of enthusiasm will ever stand up to the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His servant. Only one thing will bear the strain, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ Himself— a relationship that has been examined, purified, and tested until only one purpose remains and I can truly say, “I am here for God to send me where He will.” Everything else may become blurred, but this relationship with Jesus Christ must never be.

The Sermon on the Mount is not some unattainable goal; it is a statement of what will happen in me when Jesus Christ has changed my nature by putting His own nature in me. Jesus Christ is the only One who can fulfill the Sermon on the Mount.

If we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must be made disciples supernaturally. And as long as we consciously maintain the determined purpose to be His disciples, we can be sure that we are not disciples. Jesus says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…” (John 15:16). That is the way the grace of God begins. It is a constraint we can never escape; we can disobey it, but we can never start it or produce it ourselves. We are drawn to God by a work of His supernatural grace, and we can never trace back to find where the work began. Our Lord’s making of a disciple is supernatural. He does not build on any natural capacity of ours at all. God does not ask us to do the things that are naturally easy for us— He only asks us to do the things that we are perfectly fit to do through His grace, and that is where the cross we must bear will always come.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

We should always choose our books as God chooses our friends, just a bit beyond us, so that we have to do our level best to keep up with them. Shade of His Hand, 1216 L

Bible in a Year: Song of Solomon 6-8; Galatians 4