Max Lucado Daily: But God - February 28, 2022
“But God raised him from the dead” (Acts 2:24).
God’s sovereignty bids us to fight the onslaught of fret with the sword that is etched with the words but God. The company is downsizing, but God is still sovereign. The cancer is back, but God still occupies the throne. I was an anxious, troubled soul, but God has given me courage.
The ultimate proof of providence is the death of Christ on the cross. No deed was more evil. Yet God not only knew of the crucifixion; he ordained it. Everyone thought the life of Jesus was over—but God. His Son was dead and buried, but God raised him from the dead. God took the crucifixion of Friday and turned it into the celebration of Sunday. Can he not do a reversal for you?
Deuteronomy 12
These are the rules and regulations that you must diligently observe for as long as you live in this country that God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, has given you to possess.
2-3 Ruthlessly demolish all the sacred shrines where the nations that you’re driving out worship their gods—wherever you find them, on hills and mountains or in groves of green trees. Tear apart their altars. Smash their phallic pillars. Burn their sex-and-religion Asherah shrines. Break up their carved gods. Obliterate the names of those god sites.
4 Stay clear of those places—don’t let what went on there contaminate the worship of God, your God.
5-7 Instead find the site that God, your God, will choose and mark it with his name as a common center for all the tribes of Israel. Assemble there. Bring to that place your Absolution-Offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and Tribute-Offerings, your Vow-Offerings, your Freewill-Offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. Feast there in the Presence of God, your God. Celebrate everything that you and your families have accomplished under the blessing of God, your God.
8-10 Don’t continue doing things the way we’re doing them at present, each of us doing as we wish. Until now you haven’t arrived at the goal, the resting place, the inheritance that God, your God, is giving you. But the minute you cross the Jordan River and settle into the land God, your God, is enabling you to inherit, he’ll give you rest from all your surrounding enemies. You’ll be able to settle down and live in safety.
11-12 From then on, at the place that God, your God, chooses to mark with his name as the place where you can meet him, bring everything that I command you: your Absolution-Offerings and sacrifices, tithes and Tribute-Offerings, and the best of your Vow-Offerings that you vow to God. Celebrate there in the Presence of God, your God, you and your sons and daughters, your servants and maids, including the Levite living in your neighborhood because he has no place of his own in your inheritance.
13-14 Be extra careful: Don’t offer your Absolution-Offerings just any place that strikes your fancy. Offer your Absolution-Offerings only in the place that God chooses in one of your tribal regions. There and only there are you to bring all that I command you.
15 It’s permissible to slaughter your nonsacrificial animals like gazelle and deer in your towns and eat all you want from them with the blessing of God, your God. Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat.
16-18 But you may not eat the blood. Pour the blood out on the ground like water. Nor may you eat there the tithe of your grain, new wine, or olive oil; nor the firstborn of your herds and flocks; nor any of the Vow-Offerings that you vow; nor your Freewill-Offerings and Tribute-Offerings. All these you must eat in the Presence of God, your God, in the place God, your God, chooses—you, your son and daughter, your servant and maid, and the Levite who lives in your neighborhood. You are to celebrate in the Presence of God, your God, all the things you’ve been able to accomplish.
19 And make sure that for as long as you live on your land you never, never neglect the Levite.
20-22 When God, your God, expands your territory as he promised he would do, and you say, “I’m hungry for meat,” because you happen to be craving meat at the time, go ahead and eat as much meat as you want. If you’re too far away from the place that God, your God, has marked with his name, it’s all right to slaughter animals from your herds and flocks that God has given you, as I’ve commanded you. In your own towns you may eat as much of them as you want. Just as the nonsacrificial animals like the gazelle and deer are eaten, you may eat them; the ritually unclean and clean may eat them at the same table.
23-25 Only this: Absolutely no blood. Don’t eat the blood. Blood is life; don’t eat the life with the meat. Don’t eat it; pour it out on the ground like water. Don’t eat it; then you’ll have a good life, you and your children after you. By all means, do the right thing in God’s eyes.
26-27 And this: Lift high your Holy-Offerings and your Vow-Offerings and bring them to the place God designates. Sacrifice your Absolution-Offerings, the meat and blood, on the Altar of God, your God; pour out the blood of the Absolution-Offering on the Altar of God, your God; then you can go ahead and eat the meat.
28 Be vigilant, listen obediently to these words that I command you so that you’ll have a good life, you and your children, for a long, long time, doing what is good and right in the eyes of God, your God.
29-31 When God, your God, cuts off the nations whose land you are invading, shoves them out of your way so that you displace them and settle in their land, be careful that you don’t get curious about them after they’ve been destroyed before you. Don’t get fascinated with their gods, thinking, “I wonder what it was like for them, worshiping their gods. I’d like to try that myself.” Don’t do this to God, your God. They commit every imaginable abomination with their gods. God hates it all with a passion. Why, they even set their children on fire as offerings to their gods!
32 Diligently do everything I command you, the way I command you: don’t add to it; don’t subtract from it.
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Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, February 28, 2022
Today's Scripture
1 Peter 2:1–3
,
9–10
(NIV)
Therefore, rid yourselvesu of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slanderv of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk,w so that by it you may grow upx in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.y
Insight
Scripture often uses food metaphors to describe its value. Peter urges us to adopt the attitude and appetite of hungry “newborn babies . . . [who] crave pure spiritual milk” so that we “will grow into a full experience of salvation” (1 Peter 2:2 nlt). As we grow and mature, we move from drinking milk to eating “solid food” (1 Corinthians 3:2), for “solid food is for the mature” (Hebrews 5:14). Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Job treasured the words of God more than his “daily bread” (Job 23:12). Ezekiel ate God’s words to satisfy his hunger, testifying, “So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey” (Ezekiel 3:3). We can emulate Jeremiah’s excitement and satisfaction: “When I discovered your words, I devoured them. They are my joy and my heart’s delight” (Jeremiah 15:16 nlt). By: K. T. Sim
Choosing Celebration
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.
Proverbs 14:30
Writer Marilyn McEntyre shares the story of learning from a friend that “the opposite of envy is celebration.” Despite this friend’s physical disability and chronic pain, which limited her ability to develop her talents in the ways she’d hoped, she was somehow able to uniquely embody joy and to celebrate with others, bringing “appreciation into every encounter” before she passed away.
That insight—“the opposite of envy is celebration”—lingers with me, reminding me of friends in my own life who seem to live out this kind of comparison-free, deep, and genuine joy for others.
Envy is an easy trap to fall into. It feeds on our deepest vulnerabilities, wounds, and fears, whispering that if we were only more like so-and-so, we wouldn’t be struggling, and we wouldn’t be feeling bad.
As Peter reminded new believers in 1 Peter 2, the only way to “rid [ourselves]” of the lies that envy tells us is to be deeply rooted in the truth, to “have tasted”—deeply experienced—“that the Lord is good” (vv. 1–3). We can “love one another deeply, from the heart” (1:22) when we know the true source of our joy—“the living and enduring word of God” (v. 23).
We can surrender comparison when we remember who we really are—beloved members of “a chosen people, . . . God’s special possession.” We're called “out of darkness into his wonderful light” (2:9).
Reflect & Pray
What examples of comparison-free joy have influenced your life? How does remembering your place in the body of Christ free you from the need to compare yourself to others?
Loving God, source of all that’s good, help me to let go of envy’s lies, the kind of lies that suck out joy and “rot the bones.” Help me to instead celebrate the countless beautiful gifts of life in Your kingdom.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, February 28, 2022
“Do You Now Believe?”
"By this we believe…." Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?" —John 16:30-31
“Now we believe….” But Jesus asks, “Do you…? Indeed the hour is coming…that you…will leave Me alone” (John 16:31-32). Many Christian workers have left Jesus Christ alone and yet tried to serve Him out of a sense of duty, or because they sense a need as a result of their own discernment. The reason for this is actually the absence of the resurrection life of Jesus. Our soul has gotten out of intimate contact with God by leaning on our own religious understanding (see Proverbs 3:5-6). This is not deliberate sin and there is no punishment attached to it. But once a person realizes how he has hindered his understanding of Jesus Christ, and caused uncertainties, sorrows, and difficulties for himself, it is with shame and remorse that he has to return.
We need to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus on a much deeper level than we do now. We should get in the habit of continually seeking His counsel on everything, instead of making our own commonsense decisions and then asking Him to bless them. He cannot bless them; it is not in His realm to do so, and those decisions are severed from reality. If we do something simply out of a sense of duty, we are trying to live up to a standard that competes with Jesus Christ. We become a prideful, arrogant person, thinking we know what to do in every situation. We have put our sense of duty on the throne of our life, instead of enthroning the resurrection life of Jesus. We are not told to “walk in the light” of our conscience or in the light of a sense of duty, but to “walk in the light as He is in the light…” (1 John 1:7). When we do something out of a sense of duty, it is easy to explain the reasons for our actions to others. But when we do something out of obedience to the Lord, there can be no other explanation— just obedience. That is why a saint can be so easily ridiculed and misunderstood.
Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment.
The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption
Bible in a Year: Numbers 20-22; Mark 7:1-13
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, February 28, 2022
Only One Choice - #9166
As I was "remoting" my way across our TV channels, I came to a quick stop when I saw that one particular movie was on - "Chariots of Fire." You know, years ago, it won the Oscar for "Best Movie," but that's not why I stopped to watch it. It was because of how that movie impacted me the first time I saw it. It's the story of Eric Liddell, a famous Scottish Olympic runner. He had reached his dream of representing the United Kingdom as a 100-meter runner in the 1924 Olympics. Then, en route to the Games, he learned his event would be on Sunday - the day that Eric Liddell believed was reserved for God; a day on which his deep convictions would not allow him to participate.
The movie portrays the pressure placed on Eric Liddell to run that Sunday; pressure that came even from the future King of England. Liddell actually puts God first and stands his ground. Then he accepts the suggestion that he run later in an event that was not his event - the 400-meter race. And there is this memorable moment in the movie when another runner slips Eric Liddell a note just before his race. It reads, "The old Book says, 'He that honors Me I will honor.'" That day Eric Liddell won the gold ... and, as the movie points out at the end, went on to become a missionary to China who died for the Lord in a prison camp. And as the movie says, "All Scotland mourned."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Only One Choice."
Eric Liddell realized that when there's a choice between compromising and your convictions, there's really only one choice - taking your stand, no matter what it may cost. And God did honor this man who honored him. And 60 years after this man's integrity made Olympic headlines, a Hollywood producer told that story to the world in the year's best movie, which leads us to our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 4:5. It's only eight words. This is a good memory verse for you, and you should. These eight words will give you a compass to guide you through thousands of decisions in your life ... big and small. Here we go: "Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord."
Your mission remains unchanged, whether you're at work, at school, at home, in your relationships, on line - always do the right thing. Always tell the truth, always do the honest thing, always take the high road, always say no to temptation, always forgive, always put the other person first, always give God the glory, and when there's a question, always err on the side of integrity. Your job is just to do the right thing even when it costs. That's what the word "sacrifices" tells us - "offer right sacrifices."
But often all your righteous efforts will not be nearly enough to make it happen. That's where the second part of the verse comes in. After you've done the right thing, "trust in the Lord" to do what you could never do. You do your best; God does the rest. But He does it in response to you doing the right thing. Your commitment to the right thing isn't what will bring about the result you need. It's the trigger that causes God to show up and do amazing things.
Just in case you're afraid of the consequences of making the right choice, doing the right thing, you might let those consequences stop you. Well, remember all of the "yeah, buts" and all of the consequences of doing God's will; they're God's problem. You "trust in the Lord" after you've made the right sacrifice.
Life is so much less confusing when you've already decided your bottom line, "I will always do what's right. I will always do what God can honor." "Offer right sacrifices" then, "trust in the Lord." Before you run each day's race, let God hand you His note that says, "He that honors Me I will honor" (1 Samuel 2:30).
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.