Max Lucado Daily: Remember Your Name - October 19, 2021
We face the identical temptation that Mordecai and Esther faced as recorded in the book of Esther. Our society permits all beliefs except an exclusive one. The incontestable value of Western culture is tolerance. Ironically, the champions of tolerance are intolerant of a religion like Christianity that adheres to one Savior and one solution to the human problem.
In such moments God’s message to us is clear: remember your name. Friend, you are the presence of Jesus in this world. You are an eternal being, destined for an eternal home. A citizen of heaven. Secured by Christ for eternity. The devil can’t touch you. The world can’t possess you. What people think about you matters not one whit. You belong to your heavenly Father – you remember that.
Exodus 23
“Don’t pass on malicious gossip.
“Don’t link up with a wicked person and give corrupt testimony. Don’t go along with the crowd in doing evil and don’t mess up your testimony in a case just to please the crowd. And just because someone is poor, don’t show favoritism in a dispute.
4-5 “If you find your enemy’s ox or donkey loose, take it back to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying helpless under its load, don’t walk off and leave it. Help it up.
6 “When there is a dispute concerning your poor, don’t tamper with the justice due them.
7 “Stay clear of false accusations. Don’t contribute to the death of innocent and good people. I don’t let the wicked off the hook.
8 “Don’t take bribes. Bribes blind perfectly good eyes and twist the speech of good people.
9 “Don’t take advantage of a stranger. You know what it’s like to be a stranger; you were strangers in Egypt.
10-11 “Sow your land for six years and gather in its crops, but in the seventh year leave it alone and give it a rest so that your poor may eat from it. What they leave, let the wildlife have. Do the same with your vineyards and olive groves.
12 “Work for six days and rest the seventh so your ox and donkey may rest and your servant and migrant workers may have time to get their needed rest.
13 “Listen carefully to everything I tell you. Don’t pay attention to other gods—don’t so much as mention their names.
* * *
14 “Three times a year you are to hold a festival for me.
15 “Hold the spring Festival of Unraised Bread when you eat unraised bread for seven days at the time set for the month of Abib, as I commanded you. That was the month you came out of Egypt. No one should show up before me empty-handed.
16 “Hold the summer Festival of Harvest when you bring in the firstfruits of all your work in the fields.
“Hold the autumn Festival of Ingathering at the end of the season when you bring in the year’s crops.
17 “Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Master, God.
18 “Don’t offer the blood of a sacrifice to me with anything that has yeast in it.
“Don’t leave the fat from my festival offering out overnight.
19 “Bring the choice first produce of the year to the house of your God.
“Don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
* * *
20-24 “Now get yourselves ready. I’m sending my Angel ahead of you to guard you in your travels, to lead you to the place that I’ve prepared. Pay close attention to him. Obey him. Don’t go against him. He won’t put up with your rebellions because he’s acting on my authority. But if you obey him and do everything I tell you, I’ll be an enemy to your enemies, I’ll fight those who fight you. When my Angel goes ahead of you and leads you to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, I’ll clear the country of them. So don’t worship or serve their gods; don’t do anything they do because I’m going to wipe them right off the face of the Earth and smash their sacred phallic pillars to bits.
25-26 “But you—you serve your God and he’ll bless your food and your water. I’ll get rid of the sickness among you; there won’t be any miscarriages nor barren women in your land. I’ll make sure you live full and complete lives.
27 “I’ll send my Terror on ahead of you and throw those peoples you’re approaching into a panic. All you’ll see of your enemies is the backs of their necks.
28-31 “And I’ll send Despair on ahead of you. It will push the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites out of your way. I won’t get rid of them all at once lest the land grow up in weeds and the wild animals take over. Little by little I’ll get them out of there while you have a chance to get your crops going and make the land your own. I will make your borders stretch from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Wilderness to the Euphrates River. I’m turning everyone living in that land over to you; go ahead and drive them out.
32-33 “Don’t make any deals with them or their gods. They are not to stay in the same country with you lest they get you to sin by worshiping their gods. Beware. That’s a huge danger.”
* * *
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Today's Scripture
Galatians 5:22–26
(NIV
But the fruitu of the Spirit is love,v joy, peace,w forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.x Against such things there is no law.y 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the fleshz with its passions and desires.a 25 Since we live by the Spirit,b let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited,c provoking and envying each other.
Insight
The book of Galatians has been rightly referred to as a “short and fiery” work. Paul’s tone and word choices match the seriousness of the error that confronted the believers in Jesus in Galatia (a region in Asia Minor where Paul preached and established churches). What needed correction? False teachers were preaching a false gospel that required adhering to the demands of the law of Moses in addition to faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.
Not only are we justified—made right with God—by faith in Christ alone (Galatians 2:15–21), but believers in Christ grow to be like Him (sanctification) by the same means—by faith apart from keeping the law (5:1–11). Through God’s Spirit, believers are empowered for godly living, including loving one’s neighbor as oneself (vv. 13–26). By: Arthur Jackson
When to Sacrifice
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Galatians 5:22–23
In February 2020, as the COVID-19 crisis was just beginning, a newspaper columnist’s concerns struck me. Would we willingly self-isolate, she wondered, changing our work, travel, and shopping habits so others wouldn’t get sick? “This isn’t just a test of clinical resources,” she wrote, “but of our willingness to put ourselves out for others.” Suddenly, the need for virtue was front-page news.
It can be hard to consider others’ needs while we’re anxious about our own. Thankfully, we’re not left with willpower alone to meet the need. We can ask the Holy Spirit to give us love to replace our indifference, joy to counter sadness, peace to replace our anxiety, forbearance (patience) to push out our impulsiveness, kindness to care about others, goodness to see to their needs, faithfulness to keep our promises, gentleness instead of harshness, and self-control to lift us beyond self-centeredness (Galatians 5:22–23). While we won’t be perfect at all of this, we’re called to seek the Spirit’s gifts of virtue regularly (Ephesians 5:18).
Author Richard Foster once described holiness as the ability to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. And such holiness is needed every day, not just in a pandemic. Do we have the capacity to make sacrifices for the sake of others? Holy Spirit, fill us with the power to do what needs to be done.
By: Sheridan Voysey
Reflect & Pray
When have you made a sacrifice for the sake of others? What needs around you call for the Holy Spirit’s fruit today?
Holy Spirit, fill me afresh today and make me a person of virtue.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
The Unheeded Secret
Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world." —John 18:36
The great enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ today is the idea of practical work that has no basis in the New Testament but comes from the systems of the world. This work insists upon endless energy and activities, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation….For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). It is a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives to be seen by others, while it is the innermost, personal area that reveals the power of a person’s life.
We must get rid of the plague of the spirit of this religious age in which we live. In our Lord’s life there was none of the pressure and the rushing of tremendous activity that we regard so highly today, and a disciple is to be like His Master. The central point of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship with Him, not public usefulness to others.
It is not the practical activities that are the strength of this Bible Training College— its entire strength lies in the fact that here you are immersed in the truths of God to soak in them before Him. You have no idea of where or how God is going to engineer your future circumstances, and no knowledge of what stress and strain is going to be placed on you either at home or abroad. And if you waste your time in overactivity, instead of being immersed in the great fundamental truths of God’s redemption, then you will snap when the stress and strain do come. But if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in Him, which may appear to be impractical, then you will remain true to Him whatever happens.
Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me. The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 56-58; 2 Thessalonians 2
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
The Secrets of Supersized Prayer - #9072
Someone finally started looking at us Americans and realizing that a bunch of us are a whole lot bigger than we ought to be. I don't mean we're too tall! No. Well, look, I know what the weight battle is all about and I know it's hard, and I know your weight has nothing to do with your worth. But it can have something to do with your health. I guess all the talk about our weight and our health has even affected some of the fast-food restaurants - who might conceivably have something to do with the "widening of America." Oh, they're changing. They're trying to have healthier offerings and reducing fat and sodium. And then, not too long ago, they got rid of something they had started. Remember the "supersizing" thing? We'd go in and they would ask you after you'd placed your order, "Would you like to supersize that?" They might as well have asked, "Would you like to supersize you" in many places? Well, guess what? Now there's no more supersizing.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Secrets of Supersized Prayer."
I'm happy to report that God is still in the supersizing business. Except He's asking, "Would you like for Me to supersize your life?" He does it through supersized praying - believing God for things only He can do. Maybe you're in one of those "got to be God" times right now - it's got to be God or it's not going to be! Then you're ready for the secrets of miracle-making prayer. They're actually found in 1 Samuel 1, beginning with verse 10. It's our word for today from the Word of God.
Hannah is childless. She desperately wants a child. Her prayer, which results ultimately in the birth of Samuel, one of Israel's great leaders, contains those secrets of supersized prayer. The Bible says, "In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord. And she made a vow saying, 'Lord Almighty, if You will look upon your servant's misery...and give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life...And she kept on praying to the Lord."
All right, let's stop for some of those secrets of supersized praying. First, problems turned into prayer. You can turn a problem into many things. You can turn a problem into worry, or resentment, or self-pity, or negativity, or panic, or heartfelt prayer. That's the mountain-moving choice. That's what Hannah did with her problem. The psalmist said, "I pour out my complaint before Him; before Him I tell my trouble" (Psalm 142:2). Admit your bankruptcy in the situation, and He'll open up His bounty. The second secret Hannah shows us is pursuing our all-powerful Lord. She calls God "Lord Almighty" - that's mightier than the mightiest possibility. When you come to Him, come to Him as the one who's got the whole world in His hands.
Then there's a third secret in this prayer, too - pre-surrendered results. As much as Hannah wants a son, she says, "Lord, if You give him to me, I won't hang onto him. He's Yours." And she kept that promise. God will trust you with what you want so much when you give it back to Him in advance. Otherwise, when you get it, you may make an idol of it or let it come between you and your Lord Almighty. It has to be pre-surrendered. Notice, too, another secret Hannah shows us - persistence in the Throne Room. She "kept on" praying it says. Faith grows, your spiritual muscles grow, as you wait on the Lord and keep coming to Him trusting Him for your answer.
One final secret of supersized prayer - Hannah said of her prayer, "I was pouring out my soul to the Lord" (1 Samuel 1:15). God loves it when we come to Him, not with our usual script and our religious self, but all hanging out with real, true emotions. The deep contents of your soul become the substance of your prayer. Passion in your praying is one of those powerful prayer secrets.
The end of the story? God gives Hannah Samuel, she takes him to the temple and gives him to the Lord's service, and God gives this woman who couldn't have children three more sons, and two daughters! And that name she gave her little answer to prayer, Samuel, you know what it means? "Heard by God." Everywhere Samuel went, he was a walking testimony to a prayer-answering God, and so are you.