Max Lucado Daily: The God of Tomorrow - May 12, 2022
When Jesus found the just-healed man in the temple, he told him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you” (John 5:14). Stagnant, do-nothingness is deemed as a serious offense. No more Bethesda for you. No more waking up and going to sleep in the same mess. God is the God of forward motion, the God of tomorrow. The man in John’s story had waited thirty-eight years, but something about the presence of Christ, the question of Christ, the command of Christ convinced him not to wait another day.
Let’s join him. Ask the Lord this question: What can I do today that will take me in the direction of a better tomorrow? Keep asking until you hear an answer. And once you hear it, do it. Stand up, take up, and walk. Remember, friends, you are never alone.
Judges 7
Jerub-Baal (Gideon) got up early the next morning, all his troops right there with him. They set up camp at Harod’s Spring. The camp of Midian was in the plain, north of them near the Hill of Moreh.
2-3 God said to Gideon, “You have too large an army with you. I can’t turn Midian over to them like this—they’ll take all the credit, saying, ‘I did it all myself,’ and forget about me. Make a public announcement: ‘Anyone afraid, anyone who has any qualms at all, may leave Mount Gilead now and go home.’” Twenty-two companies headed for home. Ten companies were left.
4-5 God said to Gideon: “There are still too many. Take them down to the stream and I’ll make a final cut. When I say, ‘This one goes with you,’ he’ll go. When I say, ‘This one doesn’t go,’ he won’t go.” So Gideon took the troops down to the stream.
5-6 God said to Gideon: “Everyone who laps with his tongue, the way a dog laps, set on one side. And everyone who kneels to drink, drinking with his face to the water, set to the other side.” Three hundred lapped with their tongues from their cupped hands. All the rest knelt to drink.
7 God said to Gideon: “I’ll use the three hundred men who lapped at the stream to save you and give Midian into your hands. All the rest may go home.”
8 After Gideon took all their provisions and trumpets, he sent all the Israelites home. He took up his position with the three hundred. The camp of Midian stretched out below him in the valley.
9-12 That night, God told Gideon: “Get up and go down to the camp. I’ve given it to you. If you have any doubts about going down, go down with Purah your armor bearer; when you hear what they’re saying, you’ll be bold and confident.” He and his armor bearer Purah went down near the place where sentries were posted. Midian and Amalek, all the easterners, were spread out on the plain like a swarm of locusts. And their camels! Past counting, like grains of sand on the seashore!
13 Gideon arrived just in time to hear a man tell his friend a dream. He said, “I had this dream: A loaf of barley bread tumbled into the Midianite camp. It came to the tent and hit it so hard it collapsed. The tent fell!”
14 His friend said, “This has to be the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite! God has turned Midian—the whole camp!—over to him.”
15 When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he dropped to his knees before God in prayer. Then he went back to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up and get going! God has just given us the Midianite army!”
16-18 He divided the three hundred men into three companies. He gave each man a trumpet and an empty jar, with a torch in the jar. He said, “Watch me and do what I do. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly what I do. When I and those with me blow the trumpets, you also, all around the camp, blow your trumpets and shout, ‘For God and for Gideon!’”
19-22 Gideon and his hundred men got to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the sentries had been posted. They blew the trumpets, at the same time smashing the jars they carried. All three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands, ready to blow, and shouted, “A sword for God and for Gideon!” They were stationed all around the camp, each man at his post. The whole Midianite camp jumped to its feet. They yelled and fled. When the three hundred blew the trumpets, God aimed each Midianite’s sword against his companion, all over the camp. They ran for their lives—to Beth Shittah, toward Zererah, to the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.
23 Israelites rallied from Naphtali, from Asher, and from all over Manasseh. They had Midian on the run.
24 Gideon then sent messengers through all the hill country of Ephraim, urging them, “Come down against Midian! Capture the fords of the Jordan at Beth Barah.”
25 So all the men of Ephraim rallied and captured the fords of the Jordan at Beth Barah. They also captured the two Midianite commanders Oreb (Raven) and Zeeb (Wolf). They killed Oreb at Raven Rock; Zeeb they killed at Wolf Winepress. And they pressed the pursuit of Midian. They brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Today's Scripture
Isaiah 48:12–20
“Listen, Jacob. Listen, Israel—
I’m the One who named you!
I’m the One.
I got things started and, yes, I’ll wrap them up.
Earth is my work, hand-made.
And the skies—I made them, too, horizon to horizon.
When I speak, they’re on their feet, at attention.
14–16 “Come everybody, gather around, listen:
Who among the gods has delivered the news?
I, God, love this man Cyrus, and I’m using him
to do what I want with Babylon.
I, yes I, have spoken. I’ve called him.
I’ve brought him here. He’ll be successful.
Come close, listen carefully:
I’ve never kept secrets from you.
I’ve always been present with you.”
Your Progeny, Like Grains of Sand
16–19 And now, the Master, God, sends me and his Spirit
with this Message from God,
your Redeemer, The Holy of Israel:
“I am God, your God,
who teaches you how to live right and well.
I show you what to do, where to go.
If you had listened all along to what I told you,
your life would have flowed full like a river,
blessings rolling in like waves from the sea.
Children and grandchildren are like sand,
your progeny like grains of sand.
There would be no end of them,
no danger of losing touch with me.”
20 Get out of Babylon! Run from the Babylonians!
Shout the news. Broadcast it.
Let the world know, the whole world.
Tell them, “God redeemed his dear servant Jacob!”
Insight
The people’s return from Babylon (Isaiah 48:12–20) was significant because Israel needed to be in the promised land for Messiah Jesus to come and be born in Bethlehem as prophesied (Micah 5:2). But perhaps the greatest importance of deliverance for Israel was that in this rescue, God had once again fulfilled His promises to His chosen people. The promises found in Jeremiah 25:11–12 motivated Daniel to pray for his displaced people (Daniel 9:2–3) that they’d be ready for rescue when the time came. By: Bill Crowder
Walking by a Blessing
If only you had paid attention to my commands.
Isaiah 48:18
In 1799, twelve-year-old Conrad Reed found a large, glittering rock in the stream that ran through his family’s small farm in North Carolina. He carried it home to show his father, a poor immigrant farmer. His father didn’t understand the rock’s potential value and used it as a doorstop. The family walked by it for years.
Eventually Conrad’s rock—actually a seventeen-pound gold nugget—caught the eye of a local jeweler. Soon the Reed family became wealthy, and their property became the site of the first major gold strike in the United States.
Sometimes we walk past a blessing, intent on our own plans and ways. After Israel was exiled to Babylon for disobeying God, He proclaimed freedom for them once again. But He also reminded them of what they’d missed. “I am the Lord your God,” He told them, “who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea.” God then encouraged them to follow Him away from old ways into a new life: “Leave Babylon . . . ! Announce this with shouts of joy” (Isaiah 48:17–18, 20).
Leaving Babylon, perhaps now as much as then, means leaving sinful ways and “coming home” to a God who longs to do us good—if only we’ll obey and follow Him! By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
What aspect of God do you look forward to as you walk with Him today? What can you do to gently lead others to His love?
Loving God, there’s no one like You! Help me embrace the opportunity to walk with You and discover the blessings You alone provide.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 12, 2022
The Habit of Having No Habits
If these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful… —2 Peter 1:8
When we first begin to form a habit, we are fully aware of it. There are times when we are aware of becoming virtuous and godly, but this awareness should only be a stage we quickly pass through as we grow spiritually. If we stop at this stage, we will develop a sense of spiritual pride. The right thing to do with godly habits is to immerse them in the life of the Lord until they become such a spontaneous expression of our lives that we are no longer aware of them. Our spiritual life continually causes us to focus our attention inwardly for the determined purpose of self-examination, because each of us has some qualities we have not yet added to our lives.
Your god may be your little Christian habit— the habit of prayer or Bible reading at certain times of your day. Watch how your Father will upset your schedule if you begin to worship your habit instead of what the habit symbolizes. We say, “I can’t do that right now; this is my time alone with God.” No, this is your time alone with your habit. There is a quality that is still lacking in you. Identify your shortcoming and then look for opportunities to work into your life that missing quality.
Love means that there are no visible habits— that your habits are so immersed in the Lord that you practice them without realizing it. If you are consciously aware of your own holiness, you place limitations on yourself from doing certain things— things God is not restricting you from at all. This means there is a missing quality that needs to be added to your life. The only supernatural life is the life the Lord Jesus lived, and He was at home with God anywhere. Is there someplace where you are not at home with God? Then allow God to work through whatever that particular circumstance may be until you increase in Him, adding His qualities. Your life will then become the simple life of a child.
Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
Christianity is not consistency to conscience or to convictions; Christianity is being true to Jesus Christ. Biblical Ethics, 111 L
Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 15-16; John 3:1-18
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Why We're So Empty - #9219
Oh, it happens every year! The cinema's "beautiful people." Yeah, they're there for Hollywood's annual celebration of itself. It's all about that little gold guy they call Oscar.
Well, for some reason, the Hollywood news takes me back to a tour that our family did at Universal Studios some years ago. The tram took us through some scenes that would be familiar to veteran moviegoers - like a street in 1920s Chicago (You know, like Al Capone style?), or an Old West town. Yeah, there was a World War II French village. Impressive stuff.
It made you want to go into some of those buildings and check it out. Don't bother. When you open the door, there's nothing there. It's only a set. It looks really good on the outside, but it's empty on the inside.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You about "Why We're So Empty."
Now, sadly, there are a lot of lives like that. The outside looks great: smiles, style, success. Just don't open the door.
Years ago, I was working with our local high school football team, and they actually won the state championship. And I had some good relationships with the players, and I took one of their star linemen out to lunch after he had won it all. And we're talking about his aspirations for his senior year and he said, "Ron, when I was a junior I had three things I wanted. I wanted to win a championship, I wanted a scholarship, and I wanted lots of friends." I said, "Yeah." And he said, "Man, I got 'em all." I said, "That's awesome!"
Well it was crazy. I'd never seen this guy with tears in his eyes, even when he was on the sidelines experiencing a lot of pain in the game. But he had tears in his eyes right there in a restaurant. And he said, "Ron, I got everything I wanted." And then he said, "Why am I so empty?" I'll tell you what…that's a question that lurks behind the "set" in a lot of people's hearts, "Why am I so empty?"
The woman Jesus met at a well one day; she was one of them. As her story unfolds, we learn that she had a lot of men in her life. We can guess she was pretty attractive and even pursued. Well, she came to that well to draw water. And Jesus said, "Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again."
Think about those words, "Thirsty again." See, that's the problem with every "well" we go to for satisfaction in life - we inevitably end up "thirsty again." For this woman, every relationship - every guy - had been a well that left her empty inside. But then Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks of the water I give him will have in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life" (John 4:14). Wow! Well, that day, that woman traded never-lasting for everlasting.
Now, that's not an easy offer for Jesus to make to us. See, He's still making that offer to all of us thirsty people, because the hole in my heart is so big that only God can fill it. But for Jesus, it meant going to a cross to pay for the sins that separate us from God; that make a wall between us; that caused God to say in the Bible, "Your sins have separated you from your God." That's in Isaiah 59:2. So, here's this wall between me and the God whose love I was made for, who knows the reason I'm here, and who has the keys to the heaven I want to go to someday.
But Jesus came and made the offer after a life of never-lasting things. "I can give you that which is everlasting. I want to put the well inside you so you don't have to depend on something outside you ever again." And He's the well.
I wonder if there's ever been a time in your life when you've finally actually opened up your heart and said, "Jesus, I'm Yours"? You may be religious and you may really do a lot of Christian things, maybe you know a lot of Christian teachings, but there's never been that moment when you've made Him yours. Why don't you get that done today? Tell Him that today. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours."
Maybe you'll go to our website. I want to invite you to go there because I think you'll find some help in making sure that you belong to Him. The site is ANewStory.com. Check it out today.
Life with Jesus is more than a hollow set. Because inside there's life.
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.