Max Lucado Daily: HE ALWAYS REMAINS FAITHFUL
Did you know that the smith in silversmith comes from the old English word smite? Silversmiths are accomplished smiters. So is God. A silversmith buffets the metal until he is finished with it. Some silversmiths, I’m told, keep polishing until they can see their face in the tool. When will God stop with you? When he sees his reflection in you. “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me” (Psalm 138:8).
The pounding you feel does not suggest God’s distance but proves his nearness. Trust his sovereignty. Hasn’t he earned your trust? Has he ever spoken a word that proved to be false? Given a promise that proved to be a lie? Look up reliability in heaven’s dictionary and read its one-word definition: God. “If we are faithless he always remains faithful. He cannot deny his own nature” (2 Timothy 2:13).
Psalm 79
God! Barbarians have broken into your home,
violated your holy temple,
left Jerusalem a pile of rubble!
They’ve served up the corpses of your servants
as carrion food for birds of prey,
Threw the bones of your holy people
out to the wild animals to gnaw on.
They dumped out their blood
like buckets of water.
All around Jerusalem, their bodies
were left to rot, unburied.
We’re nothing but a joke to our neighbors,
graffiti scrawled on the city walls.
5-7 How long do we have to put up with this, God?
Do you have it in for us for good?
Will your smoldering rage never cool down?
If you’re going to be angry, be angry
with the pagans who care nothing about you,
or your rival kingdoms who ignore you.
They’re the ones who ruined Jacob,
who wrecked and looted the place where he lived.
8-10 Don’t blame us for the sins of our parents.
Hurry up and help us; we’re at the end of our rope.
You’re famous for helping; God, give us a break.
Your reputation is on the line.
Pull us out of this mess, forgive us our sins—
do what you’re famous for doing!
Don’t let the heathen get by with their sneers:
“Where’s your God? Is he out to lunch?”
Go public and show the godless world
that they can’t kill your servants and get by with it.
11-13 Give groaning prisoners a hearing;
pardon those on death row from their doom—you can do it!
Give our jeering neighbors what they’ve got coming to them;
let their God-taunts boomerang and knock them flat.
Then we, your people, the ones you love and care for,
will thank you over and over and over.
We’ll tell everyone we meet
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Read: Ecclesiastes 4:8–12
There was a man all alone;
he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
“and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
This too is meaningless—
a miserable business!
9 Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
INSIGHT
The book of Ecclesiastes is unique for its grappling with “existential angst,” or the meaninglessness of life. Our days are complicated and our experiences aren’t always easily understood. Ecclesiastes reflects the confusion we all experience as we wrestle with the challenges of life; therefore, it has an almost timeless appeal. It speaks to highly personal issues, such as loneliness (4:8), that are just as relevant today as when it was first composed. But even a subject as apparently simple as loneliness is not as straightforward as it appears. A few verses earlier in verse 4 the writer complained that one’s labor is a result of the jealousy of one for another, and yet in verse 8 the problem is not having anyone around. We don’t want to be alone, and yet certain relationships can bring pain and discomfort—perhaps leaving us wanting to be left alone! Ecclesiastes gives voice to the painful tensions we experience in life.
Visit ChristianUniversity.org/OT506-11 to learn more about the book of Ecclesiastes.
Never Alone - By Lisa Samra
Two are better than one . . . If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. Ecclesiastes 4:9–10
“It can be an affliction more harrowing than homelessness, hunger or disease,” wrote Maggie Fergusson in The Economist’s 1843 magazine. Her subject? Loneliness. Fergusson chronicled the increasing rates of loneliness, irrespective of one’s social or economic status, using heart-wrenching examples of what it feels like to be lonely.
The hurt of feeling alone isn’t new to our day. Indeed, the pain of isolation echoes off the pages of the ancient book of Ecclesiastes. Often attributed to King Solomon, the book captures the sorrow of those who seem to lack any meaningful relationships (4:7–8). The speaker lamented that it’s possible to acquire significant wealth and yet experience no value from it because there’s no one to share it with.
But the speaker also recognized the beauty of companionship, writing that friends help you accomplish more than you could achieve on your own (v. 9); companions help in times of need (v. 10); partners bring comfort (v. 11); and friends can provide protection in difficult situations (v. 12).
Loneliness is a significant struggle—God created us to offer and receive the benefits of friendship and community. If you’re feeling alone, pray that God would help you form meaningful connections with others. In the meantime, find encouragement in the reality that the believer is never truly alone because Jesus’ Spirit is always with us (Matthew 28:20).
How might you reach out to someone who’s lonely? How have you experienced the blessing of God’s Spirit with you when you’ve felt alone?
Heavenly Father, when I feel lonely, give me courage to reach out to others with an offer of friendship.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
The Delight of Sacrifice
I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls… —2 Corinthians 12:15
Once “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,” we deliberately begin to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ’s interests and purposes in others’ lives (Romans 5:5). And Jesus has an interest in every individual person. We have no right in Christian service to be guided by our own interests and desires. In fact, this is one of the greatest tests of our relationship with Jesus Christ. The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend, Jesus (see John 15:13). I don’t throw my life away, but I willingly and deliberately lay it down for Him and His interests in other people. And I do this for no cause or purpose of my own. Paul spent his life for only one purpose— that he might win people to Jesus Christ. Paul always attracted people to his Lord, but never to himself. He said, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22).
When someone thinks that to develop a holy life he must always be alone with God, he is no longer of any use to others. This is like putting himself on a pedestal and isolating himself from the rest of society. Paul was a holy person, but wherever he went Jesus Christ was always allowed to help Himself to his life. Many of us are interested only in our own goals, and Jesus cannot help Himself to our lives. But if we are totally surrendered to Him, we have no goals of our own to serve. Paul said that he knew how to be a “doormat” without resenting it, because the motivation of his life was devotion to Jesus. We tend to be devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which allow us more spiritual freedom than total surrender to Him would allow. Freedom was not Paul’s motive at all. In fact, he stated, “I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren…” (Romans 9:3). Had Paul lost his ability to reason? Not at all! For someone who is in love, this is not an overstatement. And Paul was in love with Jesus Christ.
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: Numbers 9-11; Mark 5:1-20
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
The Collapse Of a Two-Legged Bridge - #8903
When a bridge collapses it's always inconvenient, and sometimes tragic. Some years ago, I remember a bridge on the New York throughway near Albany, collapsed. It collapsed actually, under the pressure of heavy floodwaters, and several vehicles literally plunged into that raging river and it took their occupants to their death. Now it isn't always that tragic, but whenever a bridge is out, and you've probably driven somewhere and suddenly you saw that sign "Bridge out." You go, "Oh great!" And whenever a bridge is out it just makes it that much more difficult to get from one point to another. In fact, sometimes that bridge is the only way to get there. Oh, and sometimes the bridge is a person.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Collapse Of a Two-Legged Bridge."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God is from 2 Corinthians 5. I'm going to read beginning at verse 19 - this is the words of the Apostle Paul. Here's what he says, "God has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God."
Now when you hear these verses, I hope you get a mental picture. There's a great chasm, on one side is Jesus, on the other side I want you to picture someone who's close to you; someone who as far as you know probably doesn't know your Christ yet . Think about a lost person, maybe somebody who lives right near you, or you drive by all the time or walk past. It could be somebody who works near you, or at school. You see them almost every day. Someone you're on the phone with, or in a club with, you're on the Internet with a lot, could be a family member, could be someone in a carpool with you. But they're on the other side.
Now the word here is reconciliation. We have the ministry, the responsibility, the trust of reconciliation. God has committed to us, it says, the message of and the ministry of reconciliation. What does that mean? It means that there needs to be a bridge from that person to Jesus across that chasm. Guess who the bridge is? Yep! The two-legged bridge is you. Now in that mental picture, is this person you know moving toward Jesus because of you or are they as far from Him as they've ever been, and maybe they've known you for years? Is it possible that person's bridge to Jesus has collapsed?
Sometimes it means you're just so busy. "I've got so many things to do in my life, I never get around to talking to you about Jesus," but the days become weeks, and the weeks become months, and the months become years, and the years become never, and they become lost forever. Sometimes it's fear, but the greatest fear shouldn't be of being rejected by that person.
Our greatest fear should be if that person I care about would be lost forever. Sometimes it's the pressure, the peer pressure that makes me start doing things that make them wonder if being a Christian is really anything that different. I'm confusing them. I'm keeping them from Jesus because I'm not a whole lot different from the people who don't know Him.
I remember the morning I woke up and heard on my clock radio that a young girl I'd gone to high school with - I was a freshman in college at the time - she'd been murdered as a college freshman. I thought back over all those conversations we had about everything except Jesus. Oh, I was the bridge, but the bridge was out. I collapsed for her, and I can't help but wonder if somewhere in the quarters of eternity someone we knew on earth won't cry out to us, "Why didn't you tell me? You knew about this all the time. We talked about everything. Man, why didn't you tell me about Jesus?"
The good news is there's still time. Jesus is standing on one side with outstretched arms; that person you care about is restless in their heart where they are on the other side. What they need is a bridge, and the bridge is you.
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.