Max Lucado Daily: Respond to God’s Promptings - September 20, 2021
To walk in the Spirit, respond to the promptings God gives you. Don’t sense any nudging? Just be patient and wait.
Jesus told the disciples, “Wait for the gift my Father promised—the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5). Abraham waited for the promised son. Moses waited forty years in the wilderness. Jesus waited thirty years before he began his ministry. God instills seasons of silence in his plan. Winter is needed for the soil to bear fruit. Time is needed for the development of a crop. And disciples wait for the move of God.
Wait for him to move, nudge, and direct you. This beautiful promise in Isaiah 30, verse 21 where God says, “This is the way; walk in it.” It’s nice to be led by a master. Won’t you let your Master lead you?
Exodus 3
Moses was shepherding the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the west end of the wilderness and came to the mountain of God, Horeb. The angel of God appeared to him in flames of fire blazing out of the middle of a bush. He looked. The bush was blazing away but it didn’t burn up.
3 Moses said, “What’s going on here? I can’t believe this! Amazing! Why doesn’t the bush burn up?”
4 God saw that he had stopped to look. God called to him from out of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
He said, “Yes? I’m right here!”
5 God said, “Don’t come any closer. Remove your sandals from your feet. You’re standing on holy ground.”
6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father: The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.”
Moses hid his face, afraid to look at God.
7-8 God said, “I’ve taken a good, long look at the affliction of my people in Egypt. I’ve heard their cries for deliverance from their slave masters; I know all about their pain. And now I have come down to help them, pry them loose from the grip of Egypt, get them out of that country and bring them to a good land with wide-open spaces, a land lush with milk and honey, the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
9-10 “The Israelite cry for help has come to me, and I’ve seen for myself how cruelly they’re being treated by the Egyptians. It’s time for you to go back: I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the People of Israel, out of Egypt.”
11 Moses answered God, “But why me? What makes you think that I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
12 “I’ll be with you,” God said. “And this will be the proof that I am the one who sent you: When you have brought my people out of Egypt, you will worship God right here at this very mountain.”
13 Then Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the People of Israel and I tell them, ‘The God of your fathers sent me to you’; and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ What do I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I-AM-WHO-I-AM. Tell the People of Israel, ‘I-AM sent me to you.’”
15 God continued with Moses: “This is what you’re to say to the Israelites: ‘God, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob sent me to you.’ This has always been my name, and this is how I always will be known.
16-17 “Now be on your way. Gather the leaders of Israel. Tell them, ‘God, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, appeared to me, saying, “I’ve looked into what’s being done to you in Egypt, and I’ve determined to get you out of the affliction of Egypt and take you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, a land brimming over with milk and honey.”’
18 “Believe me, they will listen to you. Then you and the leaders of Israel will go to the king of Egypt and say to him: ‘God, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness where we will worship God—our God.’
19-22 “I know that the king of Egypt won’t let you go unless forced to, so I’ll intervene and hit Egypt where it hurts—oh, my miracles will send them reeling!—after which they’ll be glad to send you off. I’ll see to it that this people get a hearty send-off by the Egyptians—when you leave, you won’t leave empty-handed! Each woman will ask her neighbor and any guests in her house for objects of silver and gold, for jewelry and extra clothes; you’ll put them on your sons and daughters. Oh, you’ll clean the Egyptians out!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, September 20, 2021
Today's Scripture
Luke 19:1–10
(NIV)
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
19 Jesus entered Jerichov and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-figw tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.x
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”y
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord,z “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything,a I will pay back four times the amount.”b
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.c 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Insight
Tax collectors had a reputation for extorting money from others. Their position would make it easy for them to imprison others with false accusations, so people had no choice but to cooperate. Some would even initiate bribes with tax collectors in hopes of preventing higher fees.
It’s likely that the wealthy Zacchaeus was guilty of such behavior, something he seems to tacitly acknowledge in Luke 19:8 (“if I have cheated anybody”). But Jesus’ willingness to be Zacchaeus’ guest prompted a response of repentance in Zacchaeus, who promises to give half of his possessions to the poor and make four-fold restitution for anyone defrauded by him. Paying “four times the amount” (v. 8) is likely an allusion to Old Testament law regarding retribution (see Exodus 22). Zacchaeus’ words show he recognizes his behavior as theft requiring additional compensation.
To learn more about the gospel of Luke, visit ChristianUniversity.org/NT219. By: Monica La Rose
An Unexpected Guest
[Jesus said], “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”
Luke 19:5
Zach was a lonely guy. When he walked down the city streets, he could feel the hostile glares. But then his life took a turn. Clement of Alexandria, one of the church fathers, says that Zach became a very prominent Christian leader and a pastor of the church in Caesarea. Yes, we’re talking about Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus (Luke 19:1–10).
What prompted him to climb the tree? Tax collectors were perceived as traitors because they heavily taxed their own people to serve the Roman Empire. Yet Jesus had a reputation for accepting them. Zacchaeus might have wondered if Jesus would accept him too. Being short in stature, however, he couldn’t see over the crowd (v. 3). Perhaps he climbed a tree to seek Him out.
And Jesus was seeking Zacchaeus too. When Christ reached the tree where he was perched, He looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today” (v. 5). Jesus considered it absolutely necessary that He be a guest in this outcast’s home. Imagine that! The Savior of the world wanting to spend time with a social reject.
Whether it’s our hearts, relationships, or lives that need mending, like Zacchaeus we can have hope. Jesus will never reject us when we turn to Him. He can restore what’s been lost and broken and give our lives new meaning and purpose. By: Poh Fang Chia
Reflect & Pray
What relationships in your life can Jesus help restore? What will it mean for you to be restored by Him?
Jesus, thank You for seeking me when I was lost in sin and for redeeming my messed-up life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 20, 2021
The Divine Commandment of Life
…be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. —Matthew 5:48
Our Lord’s exhortation to us in Matthew 5:38-48 is to be generous in our behavior toward everyone. Beware of living according to your natural affections in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affections— some people we like and others we don’t like. Yet we must never let those likes and dislikes rule our Christian life. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1:7), even those toward whom we have no affection.
The example our Lord gave us here is not that of a good person, or even of a good Christian, but of God Himself. “…be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” In other words, simply show to the other person what God has shown to you. And God will give you plenty of real life opportunities to prove whether or not you are “perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Being a disciple means deliberately identifying yourself with God’s interests in other people. Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing, but in God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not just good human characteristics. God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian’s life is that the supernatural becomes natural in him as a result of the grace of God, and the experience of this becomes evident in the practical, everyday details of life, not in times of intimate fellowship with God. And when we come in contact with things that create confusion and a flurry of activity, we find to our own amazement that we have the power to stay wonderfully poised even in the center of it all.
Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
A fanatic is one who entrenches himself in invincible ignorance. Baffled to Fight Better, 59 R
Share with your friends:
Bible in a Year: Ecclesiastes 4-6; 2 Corinthians 12
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 20, 2021
The Last Lonely Man - #9051
"Go to your room!" No, I'm not telling you that personally. I'm just saying those four words are some of the most dreaded words in a family. What it does, is it takes the family law breaker and consigns that person to that awful punishment - being alone. Now, on a more serious level, that same punishment is used when someone has been a severe offender in prison. What's the worst thing they can do to them to punish them? They put them in solitary confinement. "Go to your room, and stay there alone." More sadistic people have used aloneness as a form of torture to help break a person's resistance. In fact, there's not one of us who doesn't know from personal experience the awful feeling of aloneness - one of the darkest feelings there is. You've felt it. Maybe you are right now. And there isn't one of us who doesn't need the antidote.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Last Lonely Man."
Some years ago, an actress named Inger Stevens was one of the top actresses in Hollywood. She was a beautiful blond, on a lot of successful TV series, in movies. She was one of the most dateable and the most dated women in Hollywood. And then suddenly everyone was stunned. She took her own life! I still remember what she wrote in a suicide note. She said, "I have felt so alone." Man, here she is; she's got guys who want to be with her, she's got so many friends, this beautiful, popular, successful woman. You couldn't tell it, but she felt so alone.
You know, in a world of stressed out families, superficial relationships, loneliness can be more epidemic than ever, and you just can't tell by looking who the lonely person is. That's why we need to meet the last lonely man.
Our word for today from the Word of God, Matthew 27:46, Jesus Christ is dying on that cross. "About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' - which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Now, here's Jesus, God's only Son, experiencing total aloneness. You know why? So you would never have to. Totally alone so you don't have to be. Cut off from everyone. Most of all, cut off from God, the Father.
See, inside us...inside you there's this gnawing sense that we're missing a relationship. Well, it's the ultimate relationship. We sort of hope every friendship, or romance, or maybe a family member will be that relationship. And no matter how much they love you, they may be feeling alone sometimes. Just like there's this voice inside that says, "Someone's missing."
Well, someone is missing. It's the One who made you. It's the One you're going to. And you know why He's missing? Isaiah 59:2 tells us, "Your iniquities (that's your sins) have separated you from your God." You and I are separated from the one relationship we can't live without. We're cut off from that relationship we were made for. Jesus took your place on that cross. He was cut off from God; paying for your sin...for my sin so we don't have to be cut off from Him.
And when you ask Jesus into your life, the wall between you and God comes down and the promise of Jesus is for you. He said, "I will never leave you or forsake you." A religion can't alleviate your loneliness. Beliefs can't do it. Only a person can do that; a person who will never leave you, never forsake you, no strings attached. And Christianity isn't really a religion; it's the person Jesus Christ. He allowed Himself to be cut off from the ultimate relationship so you never have to be. He was in that sense the last lonely man...or the last person who ever has to be totally alone again.
If you've never had that time in your life when you said, "Jesus, I'm Yours. I want to take what You did on that cross as being for my sin. I want to belong to You." Let that be today. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours."
Our website, I think, can help. A lot of people have found information there to help them begin their relationship with Jesus. The website's ANewStory.com. I hope you'll go there. If you'll give your life to Jesus today, you've just spent your last day alone.
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.