Max Lucado Daily: YOUR “ONLY GOD” MOMENTS - October 31, 2022
There is something unique about your story. Would you be willing to share it? Become well versed in your “only God” moments – those precious events in your life that only God could have orchestrated.
There was an occasion when Jesus healed a deranged man. The fellow had made his home in a cemetery and cut himself with rocks. When Jesus delivered him from the affliction, the man wanted to go with Jesus. Christ, however, said, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you…” (Mark 5:19 NKJV).
In other words, speak up. Do you feel ill equipped to do so? That’s okay. You have God’s Spirit to help you. And God’s plan is reduced to one strategy: ordinary folks telling the extraordinary story of Jesus with the extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 53
Bilious and bloated, they gas,
“God is gone.”
It’s poison gas—
they foul themselves, they poison
Rivers and skies;
thistles are their cash crop.
God sticks his head out of heaven.
He looks around.
He’s looking for someone not stupid—
one man, even, God-expectant,
just one God-ready woman.
3 He comes up empty. A string
of zeros. Useless, unshepherded
Sheep, taking turns pretending
to be Shepherd.
The ninety and nine
follow the one.
4 Don’t they know anything,
all these predators?
Don’t they know
they can’t get away with this,
Treating people like a fast-food meal
over which they’re too busy to pray?
5 Night is coming for them, and nightmare—
a nightmare they’ll never wake up from.
God will make hash of these squatters,
send them packing for good.
6 Is there anyone around to save Israel?
God turns life around.
Turned-around Jacob skips rope,
turned-around Israel sings laughter.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 31, 2022
Today's Scripture
Matthew 5:13–16
Salt and Light
13 “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.
14-16 “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.
Insight
The New Testament uses various metaphors to describe the responsibilities of believers in Jesus. For example, Paul says that as good soldiers of Christ, we’re to endure suffering and to “please [our] commanding officer” (2 Timothy 2:3–5). As athletes, we undergo strict training to compete according to the rules (1 Corinthians 9:25). In Matthew 5:13–16, Jesus used two everyday items—salt and a lamp—to illustrate the impact we can have on the society we live in. Salt is a preservative, a flavor enhancer, and a thirst stimulant. We’re to bring the salt of preservation and joy to a bland, tasteless, and otherwise decaying world. A lamp gives light that enables people to see and to give direction. The lamp must necessarily be placed in a conspicuous position for the light to be effective. We’re to be the light of salvation to a world darkened by sin.
By: K. T. Sim
Opportunities to Shine
Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:16
In March 2020, while walking his dog in New York City’s Central Park, Whitney, a retired financial expert, saw trucks, stacks of tarps, and white tents, each bearing a cross and the name of a charity he’d never heard of before. When he discovered the group was building a field hospital for his fellow New Yorkers with COVID-19, he asked if he could help. For weeks, despite differing faiths and politics, he and his family pitched in wherever they could. Whitney stated, “Every single person I’ve met has been a genuinely nice person.” And he applauded the fact that no one was paying them to “help my city in our hour of deep, deep need.”
In response to the tremendous needs resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, unlikely partners in service were brought together, and believers in Jesus were given new opportunities to share Christ’s light with others. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught His followers to “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds” (Matthew 5:16). We shine Christ’s light by letting the Spirit guide us in loving, kind, and good words and actions (see Galatians 5:22–23). When we allow the light we’ve received from Jesus to shine clearly in our daily lives, we also “glorify [our] Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
This day and every day may we shine for Christ, as He helps us be salt and light in a world that desperately needs Him.
By: Alyson Kieda
Reflect & Pray
Where do you see an opportunity to share hope and light with others today? When has someone been light to you in a difficult time?
Jesus, help me to shine Your light in all I say and do.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 31, 2022
The Trial of Faith
If you have faith as small as a mustard seed…nothing will be impossible for you. —Matthew 17:20
We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through faith— faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work. Yet God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His blessings. The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and sweetness. Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach you to “walk by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And you are worth much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight with your thrilling testimony.
Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds. Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation. Never confuse the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him— a faith that says, “I will remain true to God’s character whatever He may do.” The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the whole Bible is— “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).
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: Jeremiah 22-23; Titus 1
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 31, 2022
COMING BACK FROM CRASHING - #9341
You've probably seen pictures of an eagle, probably soaring majestically. You've actually seen some eagles? Okay. I'll bet they were soaring. It's always special when you see one. But apparently, from something I read recently, there are times that they can't even fly. and very few people have ever seen them in their bad times. According to this account, eagles do get sick, and sometimes when they're sick they're almost immobilized. They're weak, depleted, and frankly they're not much to see. When an eagle crashes like that he goes off to a place where he can be alone, often on top of a high cliff. And he lies out in the sun, face up, spread-eagled, totally collapsed. God has actually outfitted the eagle with eyes that can look at the sun without any damage, and that's what the powerless eagle does. He focuses his eyes on the sun and he lies there until his strength comes back. Yeah, the eagle crashes, but he knows how to come back to soar again!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Coming Back From Crashing."
It's not just eagles that crash...so do we. We all go through those times when we've got nothing left to give. You may be in one of those seasons right now. You're weak, you're depleted, you're exhausted, you're physically, emotionally, spiritually drained. I know the feeling. You don't have the personal resources to meet your challenges - the demands that you've got in front of you. It's in those moments that you become a candidate for resources far beyond your own. Let's call it "eagle power."
It's described in our word for today from the Word of God in the familiar words of Isaiah 40, beginning with verse 28. "The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom." Now, if the word "weak" or "weary" would describe you right now, then this next promise has your name on it. "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
Now, if we can grasp how it is that an eagle in crash mode renews his strength, we'll understand how we can renew ours - and then "soar on wings like eagles." Just picture that usually strong eagle, sprawled out powerlessly, eyes focused on the sun, his body and spirit soaking up its strength. He totally gives up in order to gain strength. The law of God's renewing work is pretty simple - you have to surrender to get strong.
God has not allowed you to reach the end of you so you'll give up, but so you'll give up control! It's time to finally take your fingers off that steering wheel that you've held onto so tightly and relinquish all control to Almighty God. "I give up, Lord. I can't fix it. I can't figure it out. I can't contribute anything to a solution. I'm wiped out and I'm totally releasing all of me and all of my issues to You." At that moment, God miraculously begins to replace your weakness with His unlimited strength and your confusion with His infinite wisdom. Your exhaustion for his boundless energy and your despair for his indomitable hope.
That surrender can't just be a one-time thing. Paul said we're "renewed day by day." You need to come to Him each new day, confessing your powerlessness, surrendering control, and downloading His strength and power. When you keep your eyes on the son of God...when you totally surrender to Him, you'll become a candidate for His strength and His power. And you know what? You are ready again to "soar on eagles' wings!"
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