Max Lucado Daily: Succeed at Home First
Quiet heroes dot the landscape of our society. They don't make the headlines, but they do sew the hemlines and check the outlines and stand on the sidelines. You won't find their names on the Nobel Prize short list, but you'll find their names on the carpool, and Bible teacher lists. They are parents! Heroes! Their kids call them mom. Dad. And these moms and dads, more valuable than all the executives and lawmakers, quietly hold the world together.
Be numbered among them. Read books to your kids. Play ball while you can and they want you to. Make it your aim to watch every game they play, read every story they write, hear every recital in which they perform. Children spell love with four letters: T-I-M-E. Not just quality time, but hang time, downtime, anytime, all the time! Cherish the children who share your name. Succeed at home first!
From Dad Time
Genesis 39
Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
2 The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. 6 So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”
8 But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” 10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12 She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, 14 she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
16 She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. 17 Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. 18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. 20 Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.
But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 John 1
The Incarnation of the Word of Life
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.
Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[b] sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
Footnotes:
1 John 1:4 Some manuscripts your
1 John 1:7 Or every
Insight
In today’s reading we see how God has provided a gracious means of cleansing us from our personal sins and reestablishing fellowship with God. It comes through confession of sin and redirecting our choices to the path of obedience (1 John 1:9).
The Big Comeback
By Bill Crowder
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. —1 John 1:9
Chad Pennington is a former American football player who has suffered multiple career-threatening injuries. Twice, his injuries forced him to endure surgery, months of physical therapy, and weeks of training to get back onto the field. Yet, both times he not only returned to playing but he also excelled at such a high level that he was named Comeback Player of the Year in the National Football League. For Pennington, his efforts were an expression of his determination to return to football.
Spiritually, when sin and failure break our relationship with God and sideline our service, determination alone is not what restores us to rightness with God and usefulness in His kingdom. When we are sidelined because of sin, the path to a comeback is confession as well. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
For us to be able to recover from our spiritual failings, we are absolutely dependent on the One who gave Himself for us. And that gives us hope. Christ, who died for us, loves us with an everlasting love and will respond with grace as we confess our faults to Him. Through confession, we can find His gracious restoration—the greatest of all comebacks.
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come. —Elliott
Confession is the path that leads to restoration.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, June 30, 2014
Do It Now!
Agree with your adversary quickly . . . —Matthew 5:25
In this verse, Jesus Christ laid down a very important principle by saying, “Do what you know you must do— now. Do it quickly. If you don’t, an inevitable process will begin to work ’till you have paid the last penny’ (Matthew 5:26) in pain, agony, and distress.” God’s laws are unchangeable and there is no escape from them. The teachings of Jesus always penetrate right to the heart of our being.
Wanting to make sure that my adversary gives me all my rights is a natural thing. But Jesus says that it is a matter of inescapable and eternal importance to me that I pay my adversary what I owe him. From our Lord’s standpoint it doesn’t matter whether I am cheated or not, but what does matter is that I don’t cheat someone else. Am I insisting on having my own rights, or am I paying what I owe from Jesus Christ’s standpoint?
Do it quickly— bring yourself to judgment now. In moral and spiritual matters, you must act immediately. If you don’t, the inevitable, relentless process will begin to work. God is determined to have His child as pure, clean, and white as driven snow, and as long as there is disobedience in any point of His teaching, He will allow His Spirit to use whatever process it may take to bring us to obedience. The fact that we insist on proving that we are right is almost always a clear indication that we have some point of disobedience. No wonder the Spirit of God so strongly urges us to stay steadfastly in the light! (see John 3:19-21).
“Agree with your adversary quickly . . . .” Have you suddenly reached a certain place in your relationship with someone, only to find that you have anger in your heart? Confess it quickly— make it right before God. Be reconciled to that person— do it now!
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Life or Death Verb - #7166
Pete came to me with this very unusual request when we were freshmen in college together. He asked me who I thought were the five best girls to date in our class. (Just call me Dr. Love.) Well, I gave him my top five list; four of whom I had been out with on my mad "date them all" freshman rush.
The one on the list that I hadn't dated was this beautiful perky brunette. Well, after I gave Pete that list, I began to ask myself an obvious question, "Why haven't I dated her?" So I did, and I did it again, and again. In fact I still am. By the time we graduated, we were engaged to be married. Now, Pete was a New Englander, so he was a man of few words. He wrote only six words next to his picture in my senior yearbook: You believe in your product...Pete. Oh, yes I did! See, she and I got married one week later.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Life or Death Verb."
Now, my friend summed it up pretty well; I really believed in this girl. Not just intellectually. I mean, I believed in her with everything I had. Believe as in committing your whole life to. When it comes to God and where we spend the next hundred billion years, believe is the decisive action word. It's the life-or-death verb. Not in the official or intellectual sense like, "Pete, I believe this girl is a great catch for somebody." No, no! "I'm trusting my life to her."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 16:30-31. A man is asking the great missionary, Paul, this timeless question, "What must I do to be saved?" Well, the answer is so clear and so unmistakable, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." Now obviously saved is a life-or-death word. Just ask the people who were saved from the rubble of the World Trade Center on December 11, 2001, or someone who was saved by an emergency medical team. If the rescuer saved you, you lived. If he didn't, you died.
Now, the kind of saving the Bible talks about is being rescued from the death penalty we are all under with God. Why? Well, the Bible says "all of us have wandered like sheep. We have turned each one to his own way." That's my way instead of God's way. And that is ultimate rebellion against the ultimate authority of the One who gave me my life to live for Him.
The death we suffer in this life is trying to make it without God's love, without God's peace, without God's purpose for our days. And if we die still away from Him, the penalty is what Jesus called hell. But that's where believing in Jesus comes in, because He's the only Rescuer, the only Savior that can keep you from dying spiritually. Because He died on the cross to bear all the guilt and the penalty of the sins we've committed. That's how much He loves you. But you've got to believe in the Lord Jesus if you're going to be saved.
You say, "Well, I believe in Jesus." But did you know you can have Him in your head but not in your heart? The Bible says in Romans 10:10, "It is with your heart that you believe and are justified." That means made right with God. Believe, like committing yourself in total trust to the One who died in your place.
Now, here's a question on which your eternity could depend, "Has there ever been a time in your life when you've told Jesus, 'I'm pinning all my hopes on You and what You did on the cross to rescue me from my sin.'" If there's never been a time like that, you're not saved. You're in eternal danger.
But that could change in the next few minutes if you would just reach out to this Savior that you've known about but never really known. If you want to know Him for sure, would you go to our website, ANewStory.com. It's time to make the Savior your Savior.
One day I walked into a church not married. I walked out married, because I believed in someone. You need a day like that; a day to commit yourself to the One who loves you the most-Jesus Christ. A day like today.