Max Lucado Daily: Come to Me
How does a person get relief from shame, embarrassment, anger?
In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, "Come to Me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Accept my teachings and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your lives. . ."
I can see you shaking your head. I've tried that. I've read the Bible. I've sat on the pew-but I've never received relief. Could it be you went to religion and you didn't go to God? Could it be you went to a church, but never saw Christ?
"Come to Me" the verse reads. Jesus is the solution for weariness of the soul. Go to Him. Admit you have soul secrets you've never dealt with. He already knows what they are.
Go to Him! He's just waiting for you to ask Him to help!
From When God Whispers Your Name
Leviticus 9
The Priests Go to Work
On the eighth day, Moses called in Aaron and his sons and the leaders of Israel. He spoke to Aaron: “Take a bull-calf for your Absolution-Offering and a ram for your Whole-Burnt-Offering, both without defect, and offer them to God.
3-4 “Then tell the People of Israel, Take a male goat for an Absolution-Offering and a calf and a lamb, both yearlings without defect, for a Whole-Burnt-Offering and a bull and a ram for a Peace-Offering, to be sacrificed before God with a Grain-Offering mixed with oil, because God will appear to you today.”
5-6 They brought the things that Moses had ordered to the Tent of Meeting. The whole congregation came near and stood before God. Moses said, “This is what God commanded you to do so that the Shining Glory of God will appear to you.”
7 Moses instructed Aaron, “Approach the Altar and sacrifice your Absolution-Offering and your Whole-Burnt-Offering. Make atonement for yourself and for the people. Sacrifice the offering that is for the people and make atonement for them, just as God commanded.”
8-11 Aaron approached the Altar and slaughtered the calf as an Absolution-Offering for himself. Aaron’s sons brought the blood to him. He dipped his finger in the blood and smeared some of it on the horns of the Altar. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the Altar. He burned the fat, the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver from the Absolution-Offering on the Altar, just as God had commanded Moses. He burned the meat and the skin outside the camp.
12-14 Then he slaughtered the Whole-Burnt-Offering. Aaron’s sons handed him the blood and he threw it against each side of the Altar. They handed him the pieces and the head and he burned these on the Altar. He washed the entrails and the legs and burned them on top of the Whole-Burnt-Offering on the Altar.
15-21 Next Aaron presented the offerings of the people. He took the male goat, the Absolution-Offering for the people, slaughtered it, and offered it as an Absolution-Offering just as he did with the first offering. He presented the Whole-Burnt-Offering following the same procedures. He presented the Grain-Offering by taking a handful of it and burning it on the Altar along with the morning Whole-Burnt-Offering. He slaughtered the bull and the ram, the people’s Peace-Offerings. Aaron’s sons handed him the blood and he threw it against each side of the Altar. The fat pieces from the bull and the ram—the fat tail and the fat that covers the kidney and the lobe of the liver—they laid on the breasts and Aaron burned it on the Altar. Aaron waved the breasts and the right thigh before God as a Wave-Offering, just as God commanded.
22-24 Aaron lifted his hands over the people and blessed them. Having completed the rituals of the Absolution-Offering, the Whole-Burnt-Offering, and the Peace-Offering, he came down from the Altar. Moses and Aaron entered the Tent of Meeting. When they came out they blessed the people and the Glory of God appeared to all the people. Fire blazed out from God and consumed the Whole-Burnt-Offering and the fat pieces on the Altar. When all the people saw it happen they cheered loudly and then fell down, bowing in reverence.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, November 27, 2021
Today's Scripture
Acts 4:8–13
(NIV)
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,f said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people!g 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lameh and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,i whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead,j that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is
“ ‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’a k
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”l
13 When they saw the courage of Peter and Johnm and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men,n they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Insight
The word translated “unschooled” in Acts 4:13 is unique in the New Testament and is used only in this verse. In the original language, the word means “without letters, illiterate, without learning.” Peter and John were perceived by the religious leaders as being “unversed in the learning of the Jewish schools” (Greek dictionary). They were also referred to as “ordinary men,” a reference to a private person, one without the kind of knowledge or education that would be useful in the public square. In the minds of the religious elite, the apostles were “regular Joes.” But what they did possess—the empowerment of the Holy Spirit (v. 8)—more than compensated for their lack of formal religious training or sophistication. The Spirit continues to fill and embolden believers in Jesus today to proclaim His death and resurrection—even to those who reject Him (v. 11).
By: Arthur Jackson
Bold Faith
Salvation is found in no one else.
Acts 4:12
After Prem Pradhan’s (1924–1998) plane was shot down during World War II, he was wounded while parachuting to safety. As a result, he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. He once noted, “I have a lame leg. Isn’t it strange of God that He called [me] to preach the gospel in the Himalaya Mountains?” And preach in Nepal he did—but not without opposition that included imprisonment in “dungeons of death” where prisoners faced extreme conditions. In a span of fifteen years, Prem spent ten years in fourteen different prisons. His bold witness, however, bore the fruit of changed lives for Christ that included guards and prisoners who took the message of Jesus to their own people.
The apostle Peter faced opposition due to his faith in Jesus and for being used by God to heal a “man who was lame” (Acts 4:9). But he used the opportunity to boldly speak for Christ (vv. 8–13).
Today, like Peter, we too may face opposition (v. 3), yet we have family members, co-workers, fellow students, and others we know who desperately need to hear about the One in whom “salvation is found” (v. 12), who died as payment for our sins and was raised from the dead as proof of His power to forgive (v. 10). May they hear as we prayerfully and boldly proclaim this good news of salvation found in Jesus.
By: Arthur Jackson
Reflect & Pray
How will you boldly share Jesus today? What keeps you from telling others about Him? How can you be better prepared to do so?
Father, thank You for what You’ve done for me. Help me, in Jesus’ name, to boldly share my faith with others
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, November 27, 2021
The Consecration of Spiritual Power
…by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. —Galatians 6:14
If I dwell on the Cross of Christ, I do not simply become inwardly devout and solely interested in my own holiness— I become strongly focused on Jesus Christ’s interests. Our Lord was not a recluse nor a fanatical holy man practicing self-denial. He did not physically cut Himself off from society, but He was inwardly disconnected all the time. He was not aloof, but He lived in another world. In fact, He was so much in the common everyday world that the religious people of His day accused Him of being a glutton and a drunkard. Yet our Lord never allowed anything to interfere with His consecration of spiritual power.
It is not genuine consecration to think that we can refuse to be used of God now in order to store up our spiritual power for later use. That is a hopeless mistake. The Spirit of God has set a great many people free from their sin, yet they are experiencing no fullness in their lives— no true sense of freedom. The kind of religious life we see around the world today is entirely different from the vigorous holiness of the life of Jesus Christ. “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). We are to be in the world but not of it— to be separated internally, not externally (see John 17:16).
We must never allow anything to interfere with the consecration of our spiritual power. Consecration (being dedicated to God’s service) is our part; sanctification (being set apart from sin and being made holy) is God’s part. We must make a deliberate determination to be interested only in what God is interested. The way to make that determination, when faced with a perplexing problem, is to ask yourself, “Is this the kind of thing in which Jesus Christ is interested, or is it something in which the spirit that is diametrically opposed to Jesus is interested?”
Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L
Bible in a Year: Ezekiel 30-32; 1 Peter 4
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.