Max Lucado Daily:Above All, Love - January 14, 2022
We did a lot of shouting on our elementary school playground. All the boys marched around the playground shouting, “Boys are better than girls!” In response, the girls paraded around the school announcing, “Girls are better than boys.” We were a happy campus.
Shouting feels good. But does it do any good? It seems to me there is a lot of shouting going on. On the airwaves, on bumper stickers, on social media.
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). It is one thing to have an opinion; it’s something else to have a fight. Let’s reason together. Let’s work together. And if discussion fails, let love succeed. If love covers a multitude of sins, can it not cover a multitude of opinions? Resist the urge to shout.
Numbers 15
God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, When you enter your homeland that I am giving to you and sacrifice a Fire-Gift to God, a Whole-Burnt-Offering or any sacrifice from the herd or flock for a Vow-Offering or Freewill-Offering at one of the appointed feasts, as a pleasing fragrance for God, the one bringing the offering shall present to God a Grain-Offering of two quarts of fine flour mixed with a quart of oil. With each lamb for the Whole-Burnt-Offering or other sacrifice, prepare a quart of oil and a quart of wine as a Drink-Offering.
6-7 “For a ram prepare a Grain-Offering of four quarts of fine flour mixed with one and a quarter quarts of oil and one and a quarter quarts of wine as a Drink-Offering. Present it as a pleasing fragrance to God.
8-10 “When you prepare a young bull as a Whole-Burnt-Offering or sacrifice for a special vow or a Peace-Offering to God, bring with the bull a Grain-Offering of six quarts of fine flour and two quarts of oil. Also bring two quarts of wine as a Drink-Offering. It will be a Fire-Gift, a pleasing fragrance to God.
11-12 “Each bull or ram, each lamb or young goat, is to be prepared in this same way. Carry out this procedure for each one, no matter how many you have to prepare.
13-16 “Every native-born Israelite is to follow this procedure when he brings a Fire-Gift as a pleasing fragrance to God. In future generations, when a foreigner or visitor living at length among you presents a Fire-Gift as a pleasing fragrance to God, the same procedures must be followed. The community has the same rules for you and the foreigner living among you. This is the regular rule for future generations. You and the foreigner are the same before God. The same laws and regulations apply to both you and the foreigner who lives with you.”
17-21 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, When you enter the land into which I’m bringing you, and you eat the food of that country, set some aside as an offering for God. From the first batch of bread dough make a round loaf for an offering—an offering from the threshing floor. Down through the future generations make this offering to God from each first batch of dough.
* * *
22-26 “But if you should get off the beaten track and not keep the commands which God spoke to Moses, any of the things that God commanded you under the authority of Moses from the time that God first commanded you right up to this present time, and if it happened more or less by mistake, with the congregation unaware of it, then the whole congregation is to sacrifice one young bull as a Whole-Burnt-Offering, a pleasing fragrance to God, accompanied by its Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering as stipulated in the rules, and a he-goat as an Absolution-Offering. The priest is to atone for the entire community of the People of Israel and they will stand forgiven. The sin was not deliberate, and they offered to God the Fire-Gift and Absolution-Offering for their inadvertence. The whole community of Israel including the foreigners living there will be absolved, because everyone was involved in the error.
27-28 “But if it’s just one person who sins by mistake, not realizing what he’s doing, he is to bring a yearling she-goat as an Absolution-Offering. The priest then is to atone for the person who accidentally sinned, to make atonement before God so that it won’t be held against him.
29 “The same standard holds for everyone who sins by mistake; the native-born Israelites and the foreigners go by the same rules.
30-31 “But the person, native or foreigner, who sins defiantly, deliberately blaspheming God, must be cut off from his people: He has despised God’s word, he has violated God’s command; that person must be kicked out of the community, ostracized, left alone in his wrongdoing.”
* * *
32-35 Once, during those wilderness years of the People of Israel, a man was caught gathering wood on the Sabbath. The ones who caught him hauled him before Moses and Aaron and the entire congregation. They put him in custody until it became clear what to do with him. Then God spoke to Moses: “Give the man the death penalty. Yes, kill him, the whole community hurling stones at him outside the camp.”
36 So the whole community took him outside the camp and threw stones at him, an execution commanded by God and given through Moses.
* * *
37-41 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them that from now on they are to make tassels on the corners of their garments and to mark each corner tassel with a blue thread. When you look at these tassels you’ll remember and keep all the commandments of God, and not get distracted by everything you feel or see that seduces you into infidelities. The tassels will signal remembrance and observance of all my commandments, to live a holy life to God. I am your God who rescued you from the land of Egypt to be your personal God. Yes, I am God, your God.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, January 14, 2022
Today's Scripture
James 1:19–27
(NIV)
Listening and Doing
19 My dear brothers and sisters,h take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speaki and slow to become angry, 20 because human angerj does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid ofk all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you,l which can save you.
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.m 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom,n and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.o
26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tonguesp deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look afterq orphans and widowsr in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Insight
When we think of the Beatitudes, we rightly think of the sayings in Matthew where Jesus declared that certain kinds of people are “blessed” (see Matthew 5:3–12). The word translated “blessed” is the word makários, which means “fortunate, favored, well-off.” The word is sometimes rendered “happy.” Three times in the book of James some form of the word makários is used (1:12, 25; 5:11). In 1:12, a blessing is pronounced on those who persevere under trial. In 1:25, those who hear and act upon the words of God are declared blessed: “Whoever looks intently into the perfect law . . . will be blessed in what they do.” This echoes the words of Jesus in Luke 11:28: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” And, finally, in James 5:11, the verb form of the word blessed is used. By: Arthur Jackson
Practice What You Preach
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
James 1:22
I started reading the Bible to my sons when my youngest, Xavier, entered kindergarten. I would look for teachable moments and share verses that would apply to our circumstances and encourage them to pray with me. Xavier memorized Scripture without even trying. If we were in a predicament in which we needed wisdom, he’d blurt out verses that shined a light on God’s truth.
One day, I got angry and spoke harshly within his earshot. My son hugged me and said, “Practice what you preach, Mama.”
Xavier’s gentle reminder echoes the wise counsel of James as he addressed Jewish believers in Jesus scattered in various countries (James 1:1). Highlighting the various ways sin can interfere with our witness for Christ, James encouraged them to “humbly accept the word planted in them” (v. 21). By hearing but not obeying Scripture, we’re like people who look in the mirror and forget what we look like (vv. 23–24). We can lose sight of the privilege we’ve been given as image-bearers made right with God through the blood of Christ.
Believers in Jesus are commanded to share the gospel. The Holy Spirit changes us while empowering us to become better representatives and therefore messengers of the good news. As our loving obedience helps us reflect the light of God’s truth and love wherever He sends us, we can point others to Jesus by practicing what we preach. By: Xochitl Dixon
Reflect & Pray
In what ways have you struggled to obey Scripture? In what ways has God transformed you?
Loving God, please make me more like You so I can use every opportunity You give me to share Your love with others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, January 14, 2022
Called By God
I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." —Isaiah 6:8
God did not direct His call to Isaiah— Isaiah overheard God saying, “…who will go for Us?” The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God’s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). That is, few prove that they are the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and have had their spiritual condition changed and their ears opened. Then they hear “the voice of the Lord” continually asking, “…who will go for Us?” However, God doesn’t single out someone and say, “Now, you go.” He did not force His will on Isaiah. Isaiah was in the presence of God, and he overheard the call. His response, performed in complete freedom, could only be to say, “Here am I! Send me.”
Remove the thought from your mind of expecting God to come to force you or to plead with you. When our Lord called His disciples, He did it without irresistible pressure from the outside. The quiet, yet passionate, insistence of His “Follow Me” was spoken to men whose every sense was receptive (Matthew 4:19). If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard— “the voice of the Lord.” In perfect freedom we too will say, “Here am I! Send me.”
Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession.
Bible in a Year: Genesis 33-35; Matthew 10:1-20
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, January 14, 2022
The Captain and The Crash - #9135
"So are you planning to go on a cruise sometime soon?" It was the guy checking me out at the drugstore, and he was pointing to the newspaper I was buying and sort of asked that with a wry smile. Because on the front page was this haunting picture of that capsized Italian cruise ship that went aground a few years ago now.
Here's a ship larger than Titanic eerily leaning into the sea and costing the lives of some of the passengers. And, of course, thousands of passengers are telling their stories of panic, and mayhem, and harrowing, uncoordinated escapes. And the captain? Well, he was under arrest, charged with the responsibility for that tragedy. Courts of law, of course, had to sort that out, but ultimately there were some troubling accusations: that he caused the collision by negligent, even criminal navigational decisions; that he abandoned his sinking ship and his desperate passengers. There are recordings of him openly defying official's commands to return to the ship and reports that he had a history of disobeying orders.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Captain and the Crash."
A maritime trial lawyer said, "The captain is the master of the vessel. Every crew member looks to the captain for guidance and leadership. He has to take care of life and property in that order. A lot was lost because of a captain who made some terrible choices and ultimately steered his ship into the rocks.
Here's what troubles me. I see myself in that captain, because like all my fellow humans, I've wanted to be at the helm of my life, taking it where I wanted it to go. But Captain Ron was never meant to captain this ship. It's not even my ship. I'm God's creation. I'm made for His purposes, not mine. But I've hijacked the wheel; I've taken this ship where it was never meant to go. We all have. Isaiah 53:6, our word for today from the Word of God says this: "We have left God's path to follow our own."
Inevitably people end up hurt and we end up in trouble. Oh, it was one thing when my sinful choices were largely just taking me down. But then I brought a wife on board, and children, and friends and co-workers. So now, it was at the point when my "me-first" choices caused hurt and brokenness, and I was taking my passengers with me. All the selfishness, the anger, the dirty stuff, the pride, the wounding words, the stubborn self-will...too often they hurt most the people we love most. And when we run the ship into a rock, they go down with us.
According to the Bible, we're all dangerously off course. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), the Bible says. And the destination is unavoidable: "Sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death" (James 1:15). Our being at the wheel has left us spiritually and relationally shipwrecked. Marriages hit the rocks because the wrong captain's at the helm. Children break our hearts because, in many cases, they're copying us - wrong captain. Friendships are broken, promises are broken, hearts are broken, lives are broken, because someone incapable of being in command has taken over the ship.
But once again, as in so many tragedies, the story of a sinking cruise ship has a hope word in it - "Rescuers." Yeah. Those passengers are alive today from that ship because some rescuer risked himself to save them. And not only am I a captain who wrecks what he tries to run, but I'm also a man who's alive today because of a Rescuer. His name is Jesus. And Paul said he "kept doing the things he didn't want to do." But he said, "I found the answer was in Jesus Christ, our Lord." (Romans 7:19, 24-25 - NLT)
He wrote that 20 centuries ago, but the same man who rescued me from the wreckage that caused sin in my life is that man, Jesus. He didn't risk His life to save me; He gave it for you too. And the day you surrender the wheel to Captain Jesus, that's the day you start heading in the direction you were made for. Let it be today. Say, "Jesus, I'm yours beginning today."
Go to our website - find out how to begin that relationship - ANewStory.com. Because you'll find in Jesus the captain who knows exactly where He's going, who makes no mistakes, and who will never never abandon you.
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.