Max Lucado Daily: God’s Résumé - August 17, 2021
After a few moments of flailing in the water, Peter turned back to Jesus Christ and cried, “‘Lord, save me!’ And immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’ And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down” (Matthew 14:30-32 NIV).
Now Jesus could have stilled this storm hours earlier, but he did not. He wanted to teach the followers a lesson: storms are not an option, but fear is.
God has hung his diplomas in the universe. Rainbows, sunsets, horizons. His résumé includes Red Sea openings. Lions’ mouths closings. Goliath topplings. Lazarus raisings. And his lesson is clear: he is the commander of every storm. Are you scared in yours? Then stare at him.
Genesis 29
Jacob set out again on his way to the people of the east. He noticed a well out in an open field with three flocks of sheep bedded down around it. This was the common well from which the flocks were watered. The stone over the mouth of the well was huge. When all the flocks were gathered, the shepherds would roll the stone from the well and water the sheep; then they would return the stone, covering the well.
4 Jacob said, “Hello friends. Where are you from?”
They said, “We’re from Haran.”
5 Jacob asked, “Do you know Laban son of Nahor?”
“We do.”
6 “Are things well with him?” Jacob continued.
“Very well,” they said. “And here is his daughter Rachel coming with the flock.”
7 Jacob said, “There’s a lot of daylight still left; it isn’t time to round up the sheep yet, is it? So why not water the flocks and go back to grazing?”
8 “We can’t,” they said. “Not until all the shepherds get here. It takes all of us to roll the stone from the well. Not until then can we water the flocks.”
9-13 While Jacob was in conversation with them, Rachel came up with her father’s sheep. She was the shepherd. The moment Jacob spotted Rachel, daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, saw her arriving with his uncle Laban’s sheep, he went and single-handedly rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of his uncle Laban. Then he kissed Rachel and broke into tears. He told Rachel that he was related to her father, that he was Rebekah’s son. She ran and told her father. When Laban heard the news—Jacob, his sister’s son!—he ran out to meet him, embraced and kissed him and brought him home. Jacob told Laban the story of everything that had happened.
14-15 Laban said, “You’re family! My flesh and blood!”
When Jacob had been with him for a month, Laban said, “Just because you’re my nephew, you shouldn’t work for me for nothing. Tell me what you want to be paid. What’s a fair wage?”
16-18 Now Laban had two daughters; Leah was the older and Rachel the younger. Leah had nice eyes, but Rachel was stunningly beautiful. And it was Rachel that Jacob loved.
So Jacob answered, “I will work for you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”
19 “It is far better,” said Laban, “that I give her to you than marry her to some outsider. Yes. Stay here with me.”
20 So Jacob worked seven years for Rachel. But it only seemed like a few days, he loved her so much.
21-24 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife; I’ve completed what we agreed I’d do. I’m ready to consummate my marriage.” Laban invited everyone around and threw a big feast. At evening, though, he got his daughter Leah and brought her to the marriage bed, and Jacob slept with her. (Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maid.)
25 Morning came: There was Leah in the marriage bed!
Jacob confronted Laban, “What have you done to me? Didn’t I work all this time for the hand of Rachel? Why did you cheat me?”
26-27 “We don’t do it that way in our country,” said Laban. “We don’t marry off the younger daughter before the older. Enjoy your week of honeymoon, and then we’ll give you the other one also. But it will cost you another seven years of work.”
28-30 Jacob agreed. When he’d completed the honeymoon week, Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. (Laban gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid.) Jacob then slept with her. And he loved Rachel more than Leah. He worked for Laban another seven years.
31-32 When God realized that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb. But Rachel was barren. Leah became pregnant and had a son. She named him Reuben (Look-It’s-a-Boy!). “This is a sign,” she said, “that God has seen my misery; and a sign that now my husband will love me.”
33-35 She became pregnant again and had another son. “God heard,” she said, “that I was unloved and so he gave me this son also.” She named this one Simeon (God-Heard). She became pregnant yet again—another son. She said, “Now maybe my husband will connect with me—I’ve given him three sons!” That’s why she named him Levi (Connect). She became pregnant a final time and had a fourth son. She said, “This time I’ll praise God.” So she named him Judah (Praise-God). Then she stopped having children.
* * *
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Today's Scripture Jeremiah 15:15–21
(NIV)
Lord, you understand;
remember me and care for me.
Avenge me on my persecutors.p
You are long-sufferingq—do not take me away;
think of how I suffer reproach for your sake.r
16 When your words came, I ates them;
they were my joy and my heart’s delight,t
for I bear your name,u
Lord God Almighty.
17 I never satv in the company of revelers,
never made merry with them;
I sat alone because your handw was on me
and you had filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain unending
and my wound grievous and incurable?x
You are to me like a deceptive brook,
like a spring that fails.y
19 Therefore this is what the Lord says:
“If you repent, I will restore you
that you may servez me;
if you utter worthy, not worthless, words,
you will be my spokesman.a
Let this people turn to you,
but you must not turn to them.
20 I will make you a wallb to this people,
a fortified wall of bronze;
they will fight against you
but will not overcomec you,
for I am with you
to rescue and save you,”d
declares the Lord.
21 “I will savee you from the hands of the wickedf
and deliverg you from the grasp of the cruel.”h
Insight
The prophet Jeremiah ministered some forty-seven years (627–580 bc) through the turbulent reigns of Judah’s last few kings (Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah) before Jerusalem was destroyed and Judah exiled to Babylon (Jeremiah 1:1–3; 39:1–10; 2 Kings 23–25; 2 Chronicles 36:1–21). Jeremiah witnessed the destruction and devastation of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 52). Because of his young age and inexperience when he was called (1:6), along with the persistent unfaithfulness and unrepentance of Judah, his prophetic ministry proved to be extremely challenging for him. In chapter 15, Jeremiah laid bare the reproach, fears, unending pain, and incurable grief he faced (vv. 15–18). Could God be trusted? Would He deliver him from danger, scorn, and persecution? Jeremiah’s fear was answered when he remembered that God was with him, that the words of God wouldn’t fail (vv. 19–21). By: K. T. Sim
Trusting the Bible
When your words came, I ate them. Jeremiah 15:16
Billy Graham, the renowned American evangelist, once described his struggle to accept the Bible as completely true. One night as he walked alone in the moonlight at a retreat center in the San Bernardino Mountains, he dropped to his knees and placed his Bible on a tree stump, able only to “stutter” a prayer: “Oh, God! There are many things in this book I do not understand.”
By confessing his confusion, Graham said the Holy Spirit finally “freed me to say it. ‘Father, I am going to accept this as thy Word—by faith!’ ” When he stood up, he still had questions, but he said, “I knew a spiritual battle in my soul had been fought and won.”
The young prophet Jeremiah fought spiritual battles too. Yet he consistently sought answers in Scripture. “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight” (Jeremiah 15:16). He declared, “The word of the Lord . . . is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones” (20:8–9). Nineteenth-century evangelist Charles Spurgeon wrote, “[Jeremiah] lets us into a secret. His outer life, especially his faithful ministry, was due to his inward love of the word which he preached.”
We too can shape our life through the wisdom of Scripture despite our struggles. We can keep studying, as always, by faith.
By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
How has your life been shaped by Scripture? As you accept it by faith, how do you expect your life to change?
Heavenly Father, show me new things about You as I read the Bible. Teach me Your ways. Show me Your love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Are You Discouraged or Devoted?
…Jesus…said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have…and come, follow Me." But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. —Luke 18:22-23
Have you ever heard the Master say something very difficult to you? If you haven’t, I question whether you have ever heard Him say anything at all. Jesus says a tremendous amount to us that we listen to, but do not actually hear. And once we do hear Him, His words are harsh and unyielding.
Jesus did not show the least concern that this rich young ruler should do what He told him, nor did Jesus make any attempt to keep this man with Him. He simply said to him, “Sell all that you have…and come, follow Me.” Our Lord never pleaded with him; He never tried to lure him— He simply spoke the strictest words that human ears have ever heard, and then left him alone.
Have I ever heard Jesus say something difficult and unyielding to me? Has He said something personally to me to which I have deliberately listened— not something I can explain for the sake of others, but something I have heard Him say directly to me? This man understood what Jesus said. He heard it clearly, realizing the full impact of its meaning, and it broke his heart. He did not go away as a defiant person, but as one who was sorrowful and discouraged. He had come to Jesus on fire with zeal and determination, but the words of Jesus simply froze him. Instead of producing enthusiastic devotion to Jesus, they produced heartbreaking discouragement. And Jesus did not go after him, but let him go. Our Lord knows perfectly well that once His word is truly heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. What is so terrible is that some of us prevent His words from bearing fruit in our present life. I wonder what we will say when we finally make up our minds to be devoted to Him on that particular point? One thing is certain— He will never throw our past failures back in our faces.
Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
Bible in a Year: Psalms 97-99; Romans 16
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Taking the Sting Out of Goodbye - #9027
It was my first overseas trip, and I mean trip. Ten thousand miles to Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and there we were at Kennedy Airport. Me, my wife, our three young children facing three weeks of Daddy being gone. We'd never had that before. That's a long time when you're a little kid. Actually, it's a long time when you're the Daddy of some little kids. Well, I headed down the jet way, and I smiled and waved goodbye. Rounded the bend to the plane and then I wasn't smiling.
But Mommy was able to take some of the sting out of our goodbyes. She reminded the kids of one important fact. This separation wasn't permanent. It wasn't the end! It was only an interruption of our being together.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Taking the Sting Out of Goodbye."
Not long ago I stood in the cold cemetery by the grave of the man who had been my last living cousin. For all of us it was, of course, a sad goodbye, but not nearly as sad as it could have been because my cousin had placed his life and his eternity in the hands of Jesus. Now, there will be a separation, but because of Jesus, because of what He did on that first Easter, the goodbye isn't forever. But then it really hit home, standing next to the grave of the love of my life and being able to say, "See you soon, Baby. See you soon."
All of us who belong to Jesus will soon be together again. There's nothing more important in human history than what happened in a graveyard early on that morning that we call the first Easter. Because Jesus Christ walked out of His grave and death got demoted.
Listen to our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 15:54-56. "Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Death couldn't hold Jesus. And He has said to all who belong to Him, "Because I live, you will also live." So death can't be the end for anyone who has pinned their hopes on Jesus. He's not a dead prophet. He's a living Savior!
The Bible tells us that Jesus came to "...free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (Hebrews 2:15). Because of Jesus, death doesn't have to be the end. It doesn't have to be something to fear. It's only an interruption! It's the beginning of life beyond our imagination in God's heaven.
And you can't get into God's heaven with your sin. In some of the closing words of the Bible it says, "Nothing impure will ever enter it" speaking of God's heaven. But that's why Jesus died on that awful cross. He was paying for every wrong thing you've ever done. And now, He can erase every sin of your life from God's Book. You'll go to heaven, not because you were good, but because you were forgiven by the only One who can forgive your sin; the One who paid for it! Only Jesus did that.
You're not going to be asked what religion you were or how good you were. God's just going to want to know, "What did you do with My Son who died for you?" You have to reach out to Jesus. You have to grab Him like He's your only hope, and you could do that this very day. This could be your eternity-changing Jesus day. If you would say to Him, "Jesus, I have run my own life. I know that's wrong. I know it took your dying to pay for it, and I believe some of those sins You paid for were mine. Today I want to give myself to You, because you're a living Savior. Beginning today, Jesus, I'm Yours."
You're at a crossroads right now that everything depends on. I encourage you to go to our website. I can talk to you there by way of video, and you'll be able to see the road to being sure you belong to Jesus. That website is ANewStory.com.
The Bible says, "I have written these things to those of you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know you have eternal life." There's no greater peace, no greater security than knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that you're going to heaven when you die. And you can know that today!
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.