Max Lucado Daily: DECISIONS - October 3, 2022
According to God’s plan, life is a series of decisions. Do I move or stay? Hold on or let go? Tie the knot or not? Small decisions, large decisions. Decisions everywhere! We make our choices, and they make us. Consequently, decision-making saps energy and creates anxiety. What if I make the wrong choice?
So what can we do? Given the weightiness of choices, how can we make good ones? You will be encouraged by the promise of Scripture: we can be led by the Holy Spirit. “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3 ESV). God, our Good Shepherd, doesn’t just feed us; he leads us. He does more than correct us; he directs us. He keeps us on the right track. He has commissioned the Holy Spirit to guide us down the winding roads of life.
Psalm 15
God, who gets invited
to dinner at your place?
How do we get on your guest list?
2 “Walk straight,
act right,
tell the truth.
3-4 “Don’t hurt your friend,
don’t blame your neighbor;
despise the despicable.
5 “Keep your word even when it costs you,
make an honest living,
never take a bribe.
“You’ll never get
blacklisted
if you live like this.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 03, 2022
Today's Scripture
James 1:22–27
Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
25 But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
26–27 Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.
Insight
James calls his readers to not just hear the words of the law—most likely referring to the laws given through Moses—but to put them into practice. In Matthew 7, Jesus reminds us that everyone who “hears [His]words . . . and puts them into practice” is like the man who builds on a solid foundation (vv. 24–27). In James 1:27, the writer describes how we put what we hear into action when we “look after orphans and widows.” James, like the prophets before him, is calling believers in Jesus to care for those who are vulnerable (see Isaiah 1:16–17). This is the practice of God Himself: “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing” (Deuteronomy 10:18). James is calling us to be like God our Father in the same way that Jesus calls us to be perfect like our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).
By: J.R. Hudberg
Mirror Test
Whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it . . . will be blessed in what they do. James 1:25
“Who’s in the mirror?” the psychologists conducting the self-recognition test asked children. At eighteen months or younger, children don't usually associate themselves with the image in the mirror. But as kids grow, they can understand they’re looking at themselves. Self-recognition is an important mark of healthy growth and maturation.
It’s also important to the growth of believers in Jesus. James outlines a mirror recognition test. The mirror is “the word of truth” from God (James 1:18). When we read the Scriptures, what do we see? Do we recognize ourselves when they describe love and humility? Do we see our own actions when we read what God commands us to do? When we look into our hearts and test our actions, Scripture can help us recognize if our actions are in line with what God desires for us or if we need to seek repentance and make a change.
James cautions us not to just read Scripture and turn away “and so deceive [ourselves]” (v. 22), forgetting what we’ve taken in. The Bible provides us with the map to live wisely according to God’s plans. As we read it, meditate on it, and digest it, we can ask Him to give us the eyes to see into our heart and the strength to make necessary changes.
By: Katara Patton
Reflect & Pray
What do you see when you look into the mirror of Scripture? What changes do you need to make?
Dear God, please help me use Scripture as a mirror into my life, my motives, and my actions.
To better understand who you are, click here.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 03, 2022
The Place of Ministry
He said to them, "This kind [of unclean spirit] can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." —Mark 9:29
“His disciples asked Him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ ” (Mark 9:28). The answer lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. “This kind can come out by nothing but” concentrating on Him, and then doubling and redoubling that concentration on Him. We can remain powerless forever, as the disciples were in this situation, by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on His power, and by following instead the ideas that we draw from our own nature. We actually slander and dishonor God by our very eagerness to serve Him without knowing Him.
When you are brought face to face with a difficult situation and nothing happens externally, you can still know that freedom and release will be given because of your continued concentration on Jesus Christ. Your duty in service and ministry is to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there anything between you and Jesus even now? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it as an irritation, or by going up and over it, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ. Then that very problem itself, and all that you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way that you will never know until you see Him face to face.
We must be able to “mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and in the living that is done in the valley. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) and what he was referring to were mostly humiliating things. And yet it is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say, “No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountaintop with God.” Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they really are destroy my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.
Biblical Psychology
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 17-19; Ephesians 5:17-33
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 03, 2022
WHEN THE DEVIL PULLS YOUR STRING - #9321
When you have young grandchildren, hey, you're back in the toy business again. And sure enough, man, have we had a closet full of toys that, contrary to some vicious rumors, are not mine. They are there for the grandchildren. And they quickly learn to relocate those toys from the closet to our living room every time they would visit. One of them is this furry blue puppet with bulging eyes - good old Cookie Monster of Sesame Street fame. You know him. And he's got this string in his back. When you pull it, he starts chewing and moving his arms and uttering his trademark phrase: "Cookie. Me want cookie!" Pull the string again and he'll say the same thing again. No matter how many times you pull that string, he's going to do the "cookie" thing every time.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When the Devil Pulls Your String."
You pull that puppet's string, and he'll respond the same way every time. Now the sad thing is that's exactly what happens when Satan pulls our string - we act like this puppet. We respond in the same old sinful, destructive way almost every time…until you cut his string. We've got some insight into how to do that in 1 Samuel 17, beginning with verse 16, our word for today from the Word of God. You may recognize that as being the chapter about David and Goliath.
The Jewish army and the Philistine army are at a standoff, and their armies are each holding a hill on opposite sides of this valley. The Philistines send out their nine-foot giant every day to challenge the Jews to send out some champion to fight him - with the people of the loser serving the people of the winner from then on. Every day the giant tries to make them afraid; every day the Jewish soldiers run for cover. Goliath's tactics, well they actually mirror our enemy's tactics. We can discover here the ways that Satan gets you to do whatever he wants you to do every time he pulls those old strings.
Verse 16 says, "For 40 days the Philistine came forward…and took his stand." Tactic #1 to keep you in a pattern of defeat - persistent attacks. Satan just keeps hammering, pulling that string that has always worked before, stalking, tempting, twisting your feelings until you finally do again what you've always done. Here's a second way your enemy can get you to do what he wants - Goliath says in verse 9, "If I overcome him" - that's whoever the Jews send against him - "and kill him, you will become our subjects." Second enemy tactic - raise the stakes. The devil gets his way by saying, "Look at all you have to lose if you don't give in. The stakes are too high this time to do it God's way."
Well, young David finally steps up to the challenge, and he takes on the enemy. But his older brothers, who are part of that cowering army, accuse him of being "conceited" and "wicked" and coming there for the wrong reasons. Even the king says, "You are only a boy." Tactic #3: discouragement from your fellow soldiers. Ever had that happen; cowardice, criticism, negativity? They're contagious, and they're Satan's favorite tool to discourage a believer - another believer. Don't fall for it. One other string your enemy loves to pull: lies about who you are. As David challenged the giant, he mocked David's youth, his pitiful weapons, and he said "I'll give your flesh to the birds" (verse 44). Satan's gotten you to do what he wants over and over by getting you to believe lies about who you are.
You've responded to the enemy pulling the same old strings long enough haven't you? Do what David did - don't be compliant. Be defiant against your enemy! David said to him, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty" (verses 45, 47). God says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). It's time you defied that enemy in the conquering name of your Jesus. It's time you say, "Go ahead, pull my string. But because I've got Jesus on my side, I am not going to do what I've always done before. I am not your puppet anymore!"
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