Max Lucado Daily: UNLOCK THE STOREHOUSES OF HEAVEN - May 28, 2021
Someone you know is under attack. Your neighbor is depressed, your sibling is off track, your child is facing an uphill challenge. You may not know what to say. You may not have resources to help. But you have this: you have prayer. According to this promise, your prayers prompt the response of God in the lives of those you love. James 5:16: “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”
When we pray for one another we enter God’s workshop, we pick up a hammer, and we help him accomplish his purposes. Our prayers unlock the storehouses of heaven. The link between God’s goodness and your friends is your prayers. When you pray, when you speak for the ones who need help to the One who can give it, something wonderful happens—this is how happiness happens.
Job 4
Eliphaz Speaks Out
Now You’re the One in Trouble
Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up:
“Would you mind if I said something to you?
Under the circumstances it’s hard to keep quiet.
You yourself have done this plenty of times, spoken words
that clarify, encouraged those who were about to quit.
Your words have put stumbling people on their feet,
put fresh hope in people about to collapse.
But now you’re the one in trouble—you’re hurting!
You’ve been hit hard and you’re reeling from the blow.
But shouldn’t your devout life give you confidence now?
Shouldn’t your exemplary life give you hope?
7-11 “Think! Has a truly innocent person ever ended up on the scrap heap?
Do genuinely upright people ever lose out in the end?
It’s my observation that those who plow evil
and sow trouble reap evil and trouble.
One breath from God and they fall apart,
one blast of his anger and there’s nothing left of them.
The mighty lion, king of the beasts, roars mightily,
but when he’s toothless he’s useless—
No teeth, no prey—and the cubs
wander off to fend for themselves.
12-16 “A word came to me in secret—
a mere whisper of a word, but I heard it clearly.
It came in a scary dream one night,
after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep.
Dread stared me in the face, and Terror.
I was scared to death—I shook from head to foot.
A spirit glided right in front of me—
the hair on my head stood on end.
I couldn’t tell what it was that appeared there—
a blur .?.?. and then I heard a muffled voice:
17-21 “‘How can mere mortals be more righteous than God?
How can humans be purer than their Creator?
Why, God doesn’t even trust his own servants,
doesn’t even cheer his angels,
So how much less these bodies composed of mud,
fragile as moths?
These bodies of ours are here today and gone tomorrow,
and no one even notices—gone without a trace.
When the tent stakes are ripped up, the tent collapses—
we die and are never the wiser for having lived.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, May 28, 2021
Read: Genesis 9:12–17
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
INSIGHT
The word covenant (Genesis 9:12–17) is a translation of the Hebrew word ber-eeth’. This widely used word in the Old Testament (close to 280 times) conveys ideas such as a pact, an agreement, or a bond between two or more persons. Entrance into the covenant bound the participant(s) to the stipulated terms. Treaties could be unilateral, where one party subscribed to self-generated commitments. While in other arrangements, multiple parties agreed to specific terms. The covenant God made with Noah was unilateral. Four elements were essential: parties, conditions, results, and security. In the Noahic covenant, the parties were God, Noah and his descendants, and the earth (vv. 12, 13, 16); the conditions were that mankind would be fruitful and fill the earth (vv. 1, 7); the result was God’s preservation of the earth and mankind (vv. 11, 15); and the security was the rainbow (vv. 12–17).
By Kirsten Holmberg
Rainbow Halo
My rainbow . . . will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Genesis 9:13
On a hike in the mountains, Adrian found himself above some low-lying clouds. With the sun behind him, Adrian looked down and saw not only his shadow but also a brilliant display known as a Brocken spectre. This phenomenon resembles a rainbow halo, encircling the shadow of the person. It occurs when the sunlight reflects back off the clouds below. Adrian described it as a “magical” moment, one that delighted him immensely.
We can imagine how similarly stunning seeing the first rainbow must have been for Noah. More than just a delight to his eyes, the refracted light and resulting colors came with a promise from God. After a devastating flood, God assured Noah, and all the “living creatures” who’ve lived since, that “never again [would] the waters become a flood to destroy all life” (Genesis 9:15).
Our earth still experiences floods and other frightening weather that results in tragic loss, but the rainbow is a promise that God will never judge the earth again with a worldwide flood. This promise of His faithfulness can remind us that though we individually will experience personal losses and physical death on this earth—whether by disease, natural disaster, wrongdoing, or advancing age—God bolsters us with His love and presence throughout the difficulties we face. Sunlight reflecting colors through water is a reminder of His faithfulness to fill the earth with those who bear His image and reflect His glory to others.
How does God’s promise reassure you in the midst of weather-related catastrophes? Who in your life needs your reflection of God’s glory?
Thank You, God, for Your faithfulness to protect and provide for me by sustaining the natural laws of Your creation. Help me to reflect Your glory to those around me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 28, 2021
Unquestioned Revelation
In that day you will ask Me nothing. —John 16:23
When is “that day”? It is when the ascended Lord makes you one with the Father. “In that day” you will be one with the Father just as Jesus is, and He said, “In that day you will ask Me nothing.” Until the resurrection life of Jesus is fully exhibited in you, you have questions about many things. Then after a while you find that all your questions are gone— you don’t seem to have any left to ask. You have come to the point of total reliance on the resurrection life of Jesus, which brings you into complete oneness with the purpose of God. Are you living that life now? If not, why aren’t you?
“In that day” there may be any number of things still hidden to your understanding, but they will not come between your heart and God. “In that day you will ask Me nothing”— you will not need to ask, because you will be certain that God will reveal things in accordance with His will. The faith and peace of John 14:1 has become the real attitude of your heart, and there are no more questions to be asked. If anything is a mystery to you and is coming between you and God, never look for the explanation in your mind, but look for it in your spirit, your true inner nature— that is where the problem is. Once your inner spiritual nature is willing to submit to the life of Jesus, your understanding will be perfectly clear, and you will come to the place where there is no distance between the Father and you, His child, because the Lord has made you one. “In that day you will ask Me nothing.”
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: 2 Chronicles 4-6; John 10:24-42
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 28, 2021
Intimate Messages - #8970
It's always kind of exciting to go to the mailbox. It's depressing however, when most of it is addressed to Occupant, Resident, or it comes with some computer label that calls me Don Hutchcraft. Or it butchers my last name, which is a very "butcherable" name, by the way.
But I pay more attention to the labels that at least have my name right on them, and you probably do too. When the envelope says, Open First, I open eagerly. Of course, they're personally addressed. They have my name on them. Well, if you like things with your name on them, you came to the right place today!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Intimate Messages."
Okay, our word for today from the Word of God, John 10. I'll begin with verse 4. "The man who enters in by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he has brought all his sheep out, he goes on ahead of them and his sheep follow him because they know his voice."
You know, the shepherds of Jesus' day would name their sheep, and they'd call them by name as they called them out of the sheepfold in the morning. "Hey, there's Curly! Hey, Bumpy! Come here Woolly! Come on, let's go!" They're all individual sheep to him.
Maybe you just feel like you're just part of God's big flock. You say, "Well, I'm just one of a million Christians; I'm another person in my church." No! One of the most heartwarming revelations in Scripture is that God deals intimately, and personally, and uniquely with each individual. He calls His sheep - He calls you by name. Can you hear Him now whispering your name? He called to Moses from a burning bush, "Moses!" Called him by name to give him his life assignment.
He called Samuel by his name, "Samuel! Samuel!" when he was asleep in the temple. He called him by name to let him know His plans for him. When He saw Zacchaeus in a tree, He said, "Zacchaeus, you come down." Called him by name so He could love him and change his life. When Jesus rose from the dead, He called Mary by her name, "Mary." When Saul was on the Damascus road, He said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" All through the Bible called by name. In Saul's case, to convict him of sin - to bring him to Christ.
Jesus calls you by name. He's got a customized plan for you and He knows the kind of love you need. He wants to pour out His love on you in a unique way, customized for you. See, prayer is listening for God to call your name. You read the Bible, you go to church, you listen for Him to speak your name with a message that's got your name on it. You're not just some piece of wood carried along in this massive current of life. You're not just someone in the Christian category. He knows you; He wants to relate to you as just you. He knows what's in your bank account, what's in your heart, what's in your closet, what's in your future, what's in your deepest feelings.
He wants to speak to you. He wants to love you. He wants to lead you in a way that He will do for no one else on earth. Nobody else has got the plan that He has for you. This is how much Jesus loves you. And even if you don't know Him; even if you're away from Him, He's calling your name. Maybe through this radio broadcast right now. Don't ever believe the lie that you're lost in the crowd - that you don't matter. You're Jesus' sheep; He knows you by name.
I think it dawned on the Apostle Paul when he said these words, "I live my life now by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Let me ask you, has there ever been a moment in your life when you've been to the cross where Jesus died for our sins and said, "Jesus, for me. I'm taking You for me. You died on that cross for me. I want you to be my Savior." First person, singular; just for you.
If you've never done that, get it settled today. I think maybe going to our website might even help that happen. It has a lot of people. Would you go there today? ANewStory.com.
That song we learned as kids didn't say, "Jesus loves us" though that's true. It's so right because it says, "Jesus loves me. This I know."
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.