Max Lucado Daily: Whoever - March 16, 2022
Whoever—God’s wonderful word of welcome. We lose much in life—jobs and chances, we lose at love. We lose youth and idealism. We lose much, but we never lose our place on God’s “whoever” list.
I love to hear my wife say “whoever.” Sometimes it’s my favorite fragrance wafting from the kitchen: strawberry cake! I follow the smell like a bird dog follows a trail. Yet I’ve learned to still my fork until Denalyn gives clearance. “Who’s it for?” I ask. She might say, “For a friend. Max, don’t touch it!” Or she might throw open the door of delight and say, “Whoever!” And since I qualify as a “whoever,” I say “yes.”
I hope you will too. Not to the cake, but to God. No status too low. No hour too late. No place too far. However. Whenever. Wherever. Whoever includes you…forever.
Deuteronomy 24
If a man marries a woman and then it happens that he no longer likes her because he has found something wrong with her, he may give her divorce papers, put them in her hand, and send her off. After she leaves, if she becomes another man’s wife and he also comes to hate her and this second husband also gives her divorce papers, puts them in her hand, and sends her off, or if he should die, then the first husband who divorced her can’t marry her again. She has made herself ritually unclean, and her remarriage would be an abomination in the Presence of God and defile the land with sin, this land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance.
5 When a man takes a new wife, he is not to go out with the army or be given any business or work duties. He gets one year off simply to be at home making his wife happy.
6 Don’t seize a handmill or an upper millstone as collateral for a loan. You’d be seizing someone’s very life.
7 If a man is caught kidnapping one of his kinsmen, someone of the People of Israel, to enslave or sell him, the kidnapper must die. Purge that evil from among you.
8-9 Warning! If a serious skin disease breaks out, follow exactly the rules set down by the Levitical priests. Follow them precisely as I commanded them. Don’t forget what God, your God, did to Miriam on your way out of Egypt.
10-13 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, don’t enter his house to claim his pledge. Wait outside. Let the man to whom you made the pledge bring the pledge to you outside. And if he is destitute, don’t use his cloak as a bedroll; return it to him at nightfall so that he can sleep in his cloak and bless you. In the sight of God, your God, that will be viewed as a righteous act.
14-15 Don’t abuse a laborer who is destitute and needy, whether he is a fellow Israelite or foreigner living in your land and in your city. Pay him at the end of each workday; he’s living from hand to mouth and needs it now. If you hold back his pay, he’ll protest to God and you’ll have sin on your books.
16 Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their parents. Each person shall be put to death for his own sin.
17-18 Make sure foreigners and orphans get their just rights. Don’t take the cloak of a widow as security for a loan. Don’t ever forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and God, your God, got you out of there. I command you: Do what I’m telling you.
19-22 When you harvest your grain and forget a sheaf back in the field, don’t go back and get it; leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow so that God, your God, will bless you in all your work. When you shake the olives off your trees, don’t go back over the branches and strip them bare—what’s left is for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. And when you cut the grapes in your vineyard, don’t take every last grape—leave a few for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. Don’t ever forget that you were a slave in Egypt. I command you: Do what I’m telling you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Today's Scripture
Ezra 4:1–5
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24
(NIV)
The Building Stopped: Cease Rebuilding in That City
1–2 4 Old enemies of Judah and Ben-jamin heard that the exiles were building The Temple of the God of Israel. They came to Zerubbabel and the family heads and said, “We’ll help you build. We worship your God the same as you. We’ve been offering sacrifices to him since Esar-haddon king of Assyria brought us here.”
3 Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the family heads of Israel said to them, “Nothing doing. Building The Temple of our God is not the same thing to you as to us. We alone will build for the God of Israel. We’re the ones King Cyrus of Persia commanded to do it.”
4–5 So these people started beating down the morale of the people of Judah, harassing them as they built. They even hired propagandists to sap their resolve. They kept this up for about fifteen years, throughout the lifetime of Cyrus king of Persia and on into the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Dariusv king of Persia.
Insight
The books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are considered the “post-exilic” narratives of the Old Testament. The previous narratives found in the books of Kings and Chronicles described the conditions that led to the people of Judah being given over to the discipline of exile in Babylon. Now, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther pick up the story, describing the events following the conclusion of Judah’s seventy years in captivity. As such, they present three different pictures with three different priorities. In Ezra, the theme is the rebuilding of the broken-down temple that Nebuchadnezzar had left in ruins upon defeating and sacking Jerusalem. Nehemiah’s focus was reestablishing the security of the returning exiles by rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls. The book of Esther gives a view of what was happening among those Jews who’d remained behind in the land of their captivity. Each book describes circumstances filled with challenges and struggles. By: Bill Crowder
Thanks, but No Thanks
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.
2 Corinthians 6:14
A Christian school for autistic children in India received a big donation from a corporation. After checking that there were no strings attached, they accepted the money. But later, the corporation requested to be represented on the school board. The school director returned the money. She refused to allow the values of the school to be compromised. She said, “It’s more important to do God’s work in God’s way.”
There are many reasons to decline help, and this is one of them. In the Bible we see another. When the exiled Jews returned to Jerusalem, King Cyrus commissioned them to rebuild the temple (Ezra 3). When their neighbors said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God” (4:2), the leaders of Israel declined. They concluded that by accepting the offer of help, the integrity of the temple rebuilding project might have been compromised and idolatry could have crept into their community since their neighbors also worshiped idols. The Israelites made the right decision, as their “neighbors” then did all they could to discourage the building.
With the help of the Holy Spirit and the counsel of wise believers in Jesus, we can develop discernment. We can also be confident to say no to friendly offers that may hide subtle spiritual dangers because God’s work done in His way will never lack His provision. By: Poh Fang Chia
Reflect & Pray
What are the dangers of joining hands with those who would bring a conflict of interest to God’s work? How can you develop discernment?
Loving Father, You know my need. Help me to be wise and discerning in knowing when to partner with others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
The Master Will Judge
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ… —2 Corinthians 5:10
Paul says that we must all, preachers and other people alike, “appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” But if you will learn here and now to live under the scrutiny of Christ’s pure light, your final judgment will bring you only delight in seeing the work God has done in you. Live constantly reminding yourself of the judgment seat of Christ, and walk in the knowledge of the holiness He has given you. Tolerating a wrong attitude toward another person causes you to follow the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are. One carnal judgment of another person only serves the purposes of hell in you. Bring it immediately into the light and confess, “Oh, Lord, I have been guilty there.” If you don’t, your heart will become hardened through and through. One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it. It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll. No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin. No power, except the power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, can change or prevent the inherent consequences of sin.
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light…” (1 John 1:7). For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to the standard we have set up for another person. The deadliest attitude of the Pharisees that we exhibit today is not hypocrisy but that which comes from unconsciously living a lie.
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, 199 R
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 28-29; Mark 14:54-72
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
D-Day's Battle Cry for Us - #9178
Most Americans weren't around on that D-Day of course. And even though we weren't, we should be very glad they succeeded when they hit those Normandy beaches. They stopped one of the most powerful threats to freedom in history. Of course it was Nazi Germany.
Steven Spielberg used his cinematic genius to help this generation get a little taste of what that victory cost. It was in the movie "Saving Private Ryan," and it carried a very strong "R" rating because there were brutal D-Day violence scenes it portrayed. I'll tell you this: Hollywood has no rating for how awful it really was.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "D-Day's Battle Cry For Us."
The heroism of the Allied troops who waded ashore that day just defies words. They knew what they were headed for. A beach laced with deadly landmines. Nazi sharpshooters and artillery on the sheer cliffs above them, positioned to just mow them down as they hit the beach.
But they still charged into the face of the enemy for a cause greater than themselves. They were some of the greatest of the Greatest Generation. In the words of President Reagan on an earlier D-Day anniversary, "We are all the children of their sacrifice."
But now, years later, I've been profoundly challenged in my personal faith by their sacrifice. Actually, in the words of a correspondent who watched those warriors charge the beach, he said, "Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the disregard of it."
That hits me personally. Because there have been so many times when fear has stopped me from doing the right thing, even the life-saving thing. That is the central mission of my faith; the one that caused Jesus to charge onto our "beach" to set us free. Knowing He would die brutally for that Cause. "Jesus, we are all the children of Your sacrifice."
His mission, He said, was to "seek and save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). Lost because we've defied the God who made us. We've become our own god, running the life He's supposed to run. In the Bible's words, "Each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6), leaving us with this awful eternal death sentence. Which Jesus shed His holy blood to pay so we wouldn't have to. I know that. But the people around me have no idea that what Jesus did on the cross was for them. This is life-or-death information! I've got it. They need to hear it.
Then why don't I tell them? Why do so many of my fellow Jesus-followers choke on this life-saving Good News? Fear of what they'll think of me, of them rejecting me, of me messing it up. Do you know all the fears have one thing in common? They're all about me. What will happen to me if I "go in for the rescue?"
Back to D-Day. "Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the disregard of it." Sure, you're afraid. But you refuse to let your fear decide what you will do. Because of what's at stake. The greater Cause - someone's eternity. That's what I should be afraid of. What's going to happen to them if I don't risk to rescue them, if I let my fear decide what I do. God underscores how urgent our mission is when He says in Jude 23, "Snatch others from the fire and save them."
Even the heroic Apostle Paul had battles with fear, believe it or not. It's in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 2, beginning with verse 2. "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling." This is the great Apostle Paul. "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with the demonstration of the Spirit's power."
See, he didn't let his fear decide, even though he was afraid. He still told them about Jesus Christ and Him crucified, because spiritual rescue wasn't about him. It's not about me. It's a demonstration of the Spirit's power. Hallelujah! I don't go in alone! The Hero of eternity's D-Day at the cross goes in with me.
