Max Lucado Daily: Can You See the Light? - May 25, 2022
From heaven’s viewpoint our earth is populated by sightless people. They do not see the meaning of life or the love of God. How else do we explain the confusion and chaos? How else do we explain the constant threat of world war, plagues of hunger, racism, and the holocaust of the unborn?
Billions of people simply cannot see. The scripture says, “The devil who rules this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. They cannot see the light of the Good News—the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is exactly like God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
We need a spiritual ophthalmologist. We need Jesus to do for us what he did for the man on the side of the Jerusalem road. He restored his sight, and he will do the same for us. Remember my friends, you are never alone.
Judges 16
Samson went to Gaza and saw a prostitute. He went to her. The news got around: “Samson’s here.” They gathered around in hiding, waiting all night for him at the city gate, quiet as mice, thinking, “At sunrise we’ll kill him.”
3 Samson was in bed with the woman until midnight. Then he got up, seized the doors of the city gate and the two gateposts, bolts and all, hefted them on his shoulder, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
* * *
4-5 Some time later he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek (Grapes). Her name was Delilah. The Philistine tyrants approached her and said, “Seduce him. Discover what’s behind his great strength and how we can tie him up and humble him. Each man’s company will give you a hundred shekels of silver.”
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me, dear, the secret of your great strength, and how you can be tied up and humbled.”
7 Samson told her, “If they were to tie me up with seven bowstrings—the kind made from fresh animal tendons, not dried out—then I would become weak, just like anyone else.”
8-9 The Philistine tyrants brought her seven bowstrings, not dried out, and she tied him up with them. The men were waiting in ambush in her room. Then she said, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He snapped the cords as though they were mere threads. The secret of his strength was still a secret.
10 Delilah said, “Come now, Samson—you’re playing with me, making up stories. Be serious; tell me how you can be tied up.”
11 He told her, “If you were to tie me up tight with new ropes, ropes never used for work, then I would be helpless, just like anybody else.”
12 So Delilah got some new ropes and tied him up. She said, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” The men were hidden in the next room. He snapped the ropes from his arms like threads.
13-14 Delilah said to Samson, “You’re still playing games with me, teasing me with lies. Tell me how you can be tied up.”
He said to her, “If you wove the seven braids of my hair into the fabric on the loom and drew it tight, then I would be as helpless as any other mortal.”
When she had him fast asleep, Delilah took the seven braids of his hair and wove them into the fabric on the loom and drew it tight. Then she said, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He woke from his sleep and ripped loose from both the loom and fabric!
15 She said, “How can you say ‘I love you’ when you won’t even trust me? Three times now you’ve toyed with me, like a cat with a mouse, refusing to tell me the secret of your great strength.”
16-17 She kept at it day after day, nagging and tormenting him. Finally, he was fed up—he couldn’t take another minute of it. He spilled it.
He told her, “A razor has never touched my head. I’ve been God’s Nazirite from conception. If I were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would be as helpless as any other mortal.”
18 When Delilah realized that he had told her his secret, she sent for the Philistine tyrants, telling them, “Come quickly—this time he’s told me the truth.” They came, bringing the bribe money.
19 When she got him to sleep, his head on her lap, she motioned to a man to cut off the seven braids of his hair. Immediately he began to grow weak. His strength drained from him.
20 Then she said, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He woke up, thinking, “I’ll go out, like always, and shake free.” He didn’t realize that God had abandoned him.
21-22 The Philistines grabbed him, gouged out his eyes, and took him down to Gaza. They shackled him in irons and put him to the work of grinding in the prison. But his hair, though cut off, began to grow again.
23-24 The Philistine tyrants got together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They celebrated, saying,
Our god has given us
Samson our enemy!
And when the people saw him, they joined in, cheering their god,
Our god has given
Our enemy to us,
The one who ravaged our country,
Piling high the corpses among us.
25-27 Then this: Everyone was feeling high and someone said, “Get Samson! Let him show us his stuff!” They got Samson from the prison and he put on a show for them.
They had him standing between the pillars. Samson said to the young man who was acting as his guide, “Put me where I can touch the pillars that hold up the temple so I can rest against them.” The building was packed with men and women, including all the Philistine tyrants. And there were at least three thousand in the stands watching Samson’s performance.
28 And Samson cried out to God:
Master, God!
Oh, please, look on me again,
Oh, please, give strength yet once more.
God!
With one avenging blow let me be avenged
On the Philistines for my two eyes!
29-30 Then Samson reached out to the two central pillars that held up the building and pushed against them, one with his right arm, the other with his left. Saying, “Let me die with the Philistines,” Samson pushed hard with all his might. The building crashed on the tyrants and all the people in it. He killed more people in his death than he had killed in his life.
* * *
31 His brothers and all his relatives went down to get his body. They carried him back and buried him in the tomb of Manoah his father, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
He judged Israel for twenty years.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Today's Scripture
Matthew 26:47–56
With Swords and Clubs
47–49 The words were barely out of his mouth when Judas (the one from the Twelve) showed up, and with him a gang from the high priests and religious leaders brandishing swords and clubs. The betrayer had worked out a sign with them: “The one I kiss, that’s the one—seize him.” He went straight to Jesus, greeted him, “How are you, Rabbi?” and kissed him.
50–51 Jesus said, “Friend, why this charade?”
Then they came on him—grabbed him and roughed him up. One of those with Jesus pulled his sword and, taking a swing at the Chief Priest’s servant, cut off his ear.
52–54 Jesus said, “Put your sword back where it belongs. All who use swords are destroyed by swords. Don’t you realize that I am able right now to call to my Father, and twelve companies—more, if I want them—of fighting angels would be here, battle-ready? But if I did that, how would the Scriptures come true that say this is the way it has to be?”
55–56 Then Jesus addressed the mob: “What is this—coming out after me with swords and clubs as if I were a dangerous criminal? Day after day I have been sitting in the Temple teaching, and you never so much as lifted a hand against me. You’ve done it this way to confirm and fulfill the prophetic writings.”
Then all the disciples cut and ran.
Insight
The betrayal and arrest of Jesus is recorded in all four gospels (Matthew 26:47–56; Mark 14:43–50; Luke 22:47–50; John 18:1–14). In Matthew 26, Jesus declared that His arrest in the garden of Gethsemane “must happen in this way” (v. 54) so that Scripture “might be fulfilled” (v. 56). Christ had forewarned His disciples three times about His betrayal and death in Jerusalem (Matthew 16:21; 17:22; 20:18–19), and they didn’t understand what He meant (Luke 18:34). Peter expressed disbelief saying, “Never, Lord!” (Matthew 16:22). Perhaps that’s why he was so quick to draw his sword to resist Jesus’ arrest (John 18:10). By: K. T. Sim
Run Away
How then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?
Matthew 26:54
The introductory lesson on aikido, a traditional Japanese form of martial arts, was an eye-opener. The sensei, or teacher, told us that when faced with an attacker, our first response should be to “run away.” “Only if you can’t run away, then you fight,” he said seriously.
Run away? I was taken aback. Why was this highly skilled self-defense instructor telling us to run away from a fight? It seemed counterintuitive—until he explained that the best form of self-defense is to avoid fighting in the first place. Of course!
When several men came to arrest Jesus, Peter responded as some of us might have by drawing his sword to attack one of them (Matthew 26:51; see John 18:10). But Jesus told him to put it away, saying, “How then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26:54).
While a sense of justice is important, so is understanding God’s purpose and kingdom—an “upside-down” kingdom that calls us to love our enemies and return evil with kindness (5:44). It’s a stark contrast to how the world might react, yet it’s a response that God seeks to nurture in us.
Luke 22:51 even describes Jesus healing the ear of the man Peter had struck. May we learn to respond to difficult situations as He did, always seeking peace and restoration as God provides what we need. By: Leslie Koh
Reflect & Pray
How did you respond to a difficult situation recently? How does this compare with how you think Jesus might have responded?
Father God, give me a new understanding of Your greater purposes in Your kingdom, and a godly, loving, and peace-seeking heart to respond to situations as Your Son did.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
The Good or The Best?
If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left. —Genesis 13:9
As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically gratifying possibilities will open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God make your choice for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if you were not living the life of faith. But if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and allow God to make your choice for you. This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural into the spiritual through obedience to His voice.
Whenever our right becomes the guiding factor of our lives, it dulls our spiritual insight. The greatest enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. In this passage, it would seem that the wisest thing in the world for Abram to do would be to choose. It was his right, and the people around him would consider him to be a fool for not choosing.
Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to make the choice for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, as He did to Abram, “…walk before Me…” (Genesis 17:1).
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
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 25-27; John 9:1-23
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Praying For Real - #9228
It is no fun to be sick on Thanksgiving Day. My honey was. Much of the family was together for Thanksgiving, but she was the one person who just felt too sick to join the festivities. I mean after all, she had 101-plus degree fever, swollen glands, a burning sore throat, a full nose and ears. Nothing fatal, just really feeling crummy. And she didn't want to give any of us a Thanksgiving gift that we would not be thankful for.
It also happened that our daughter and son-in-law and our two grandsons weren't able to be with the rest of the family, so we connected by phone that day and each of them passed the phone around so we could talk to them. And, of course, I asked each one if they would pray for their grandma. And each person said they would. Well except for our little two-year-old treasure. When I asked him if he would pray for Grandma that day, I suddenly heard something like this on the end of the line: "Jesus - pray - Grandma - sick - better - Amen." No, he wasn't going to pray for her, he just jumped right in and started doing it!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Praying For Real."
Remember that Jesus didn't say little children need to become like us adults to belong to Him. No, He said we need to become like little children, and that day when my grandson just started praying - that's a good example of why. Everyone said they would pray for Grandma, and I'm sure they did. But that would be later. Not the little guy. No, he started right in praying as soon as he heard the need. You know what, that's not a bad idea.
How many times have we sincerely promised we'd pray for someone and we forgot? And while someone's promised to pray for us might be an encouragement, I'll tell you what, it's nothing like actually hearing them pray for you right then and there. Don't you think it's time we got over this feeling that some of us have? It's kind of a feeling of awkwardness and timidity about praying with each other, about bringing up that possibility? That day when Grandma was sick, I appreciated everyone's promise to pray for her, but I was touched when our grandson just went ahead and did it. I think we all need to be doing more of that. It will exponentially increase your personal ministry, and the impact of your life, and even open doors to talk about Jesus with folks who don't know Him.
This kind of ongoing, immediate, spontaneous prayer must be part of what Paul had in mind in our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 6:18. After his classic passage on spiritual warfare, he says, "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."
Now this prayer is triggered by the occasion. And no prayer ministers like immediate prayer. Going right into God's presence, in the presence of the one you're praying for, and bringing together their need with God's great love and power. And that's what prayer really is all about. It's not some religious exercise you force on a person, it's a real-life acknowledgement of God's "always there" presence and power and love.
So, as God provides appropriate opportunities, would you let it become an instinct to respond to people's needs and struggles by asking them if you can start praying for them right then and there. I've asked that of many people who didn't even know Christ, and I've never had anybody say no. In fact, many times when I open my eyes, there are tears in their eyes. It often happens that when they see me initiating a conversation with God, and they see with their own eyes that I have a personal relationship with Him, it gives me the opportunity to explain that I didn't always have that kind of personal relationship with Him and how that relationship got started. Let them experience your relationship with God as you pray for them.
If you're going to go to God on someone's behalf anyway, why not go there with them? It's one simple, but very meaningful way that you can make an unforgettable difference.
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.