Max Lucado Daily: ISAIAH - June 16, 2022 Isaiah was ancient Israel’s version of a Senate chaplain or court priest. His family, aristocratic. His Hebrew, impeccable. But when he sees the holiness of God, he falls on his face and begs for mercy: “Woe is me, for I am ruined!” (Isaiah 6:5 NASB).
The God-given vision was about God and his glory. Isaiah finds humility, not through seeking it, but through seeking him. God’s holiness silences human boasting. And God’s mercy makes us holy.
God solicits a spokesman. “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” (Isaiah 6:8). Isaiah’s heart and hand shoot skyward. “Here am I. Send me!” A glimpse of God’s holiness, and Isaiah was different. Holy—H-O-L-Y—different.
1 Samuel 8
Rejecting God as the King
When Samuel got to be an old man, he set his sons up as judges in Israel. His firstborn son was named Joel, the name of his second, Abijah. They were assigned duty in Beersheba. But his sons didn’t take after him; they were out for what they could get for themselves, taking bribes, corrupting justice.
4-5 Fed up, all the elders of Israel got together and confronted Samuel at Ramah. They presented their case: “Look, you’re an old man, and your sons aren’t following in your footsteps. Here’s what we want you to do: Appoint a king to rule us, just like everybody else.”
6 When Samuel heard their demand—“Give us a king to rule us!”—he was crushed. How awful! Samuel prayed to God.
7-9 God answered Samuel, “Go ahead and do what they’re asking. They are not rejecting you. They’ve rejected me as their King. From the day I brought them out of Egypt until this very day they’ve been behaving like this, leaving me for other gods. And now they’re doing it to you. So let them have their own way. But warn them of what they’re in for. Tell them the way kings operate, just what they’re likely to get from a king.”
10-18 So Samuel told them, delivered God’s warning to the people who were asking him to give them a king. He said, “This is the way the kind of king you’re talking about operates. He’ll take your sons and make soldiers of them—chariotry, cavalry, infantry, regimented in battalions and squadrons. He’ll put some to forced labor on his farms, plowing and harvesting, and others to making either weapons of war or chariots in which he can ride in luxury. He’ll put your daughters to work as beauticians and waitresses and cooks. He’ll conscript your best fields, vineyards, and orchards and hand them over to his special friends. He’ll tax your harvests and vintage to support his extensive bureaucracy. Your prize workers and best animals he’ll take for his own use. He’ll lay a tax on your flocks and you’ll end up no better than slaves. The day will come when you will cry in desperation because of this king you so much want for yourselves. But don’t expect God to answer.”
19-20 But the people wouldn’t listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We will have a king to rule us! Then we’ll be just like all the other nations. Our king will rule us and lead us and fight our battles.”
21-22 Samuel took in what they said and rehearsed it with God. God told Samuel, “Do what they say. Make them a king.”
Then Samuel dismissed the men of Israel: “Go home, each of you to your own city.”
Our Daily Bread
Today's Scripture:
Ephesians 4:17–24 The Old Way Has to Go
17–19 And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.
20–24 But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.
Insight
In view of what God has done through Christ in choosing, redeeming, and predestining believers in Jesus to be His children (Ephesians 1:3–14), Paul exhorted the believers in Ephesus and us to “live a life worthy of [His] calling” (4:1). The apostle commanded them and us not to live ungodly and immoral lives that defined our past (v. 17). For now that we know Christ, we’ve been given a new life (vv. 21–24); we’re a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Reminiscent of Genesis 1:27, this new person is “created to be like God”—truly righteous and holy (Ephesians 4:24). To live the new life is to “put off your old self” (v. 22) “and to put on the new self” (v. 24). We’re to “put to death . . . whatever belongs to [our] earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed” and to “clothe [ourselves] with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:5, 12). By: K. T. Sim
New DNA in Jesus
Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:24
Chris had his blood retested four years after his lifesaving bone marrow transplant. The donor’s marrow had provided what was needed to cure him but had left a surprise: the DNA in Chris’ blood was that of his donor, not his own. It makes sense, really: the goal of the procedure was to replace the weakened blood with a donor’s healthy blood. Yet even swabs of Chris’ cheeks, lips, and tongue showed the donor’s DNA. In some ways, he’d become someone else—though he retained his own memories, outward appearance, and some of his original DNA.
Chris’ experience bears a striking resemblance to what happens in the life of a person who receives salvation in Jesus. At the point of our spiritual transformation—when we trust in Jesus—we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus encouraged them to reveal that inward transformation, to “put off [their] old self” with its way of living and to “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22, 24). To be set apart for Christ.
We don’t need DNA swabs or blood tests to show that the transforming power of Jesus is alive within us. That inward reality should be evident in the way we engage with the world around us, revealing how we’re “kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave [us]” (v. 32).
By: Kirsten Holmberg
Reflect & Pray
How has Jesus changed you inwardly? How does that inward reality show in the way you engage with those around you?
Jesus, thank You for making me new and giving me a new life in You.
Read New Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel .
My Utmost for His Highest “Will You Lay Down Your Life?”
By Oswald Chambers
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends….I have called you friends… —John 15:13, 15
Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him. Peter said to the Lord, “I will lay down my life for Your sake,” and he meant it (John 13:37). He had a magnificent sense of the heroic. For us to be incapable of making this same statement Peter made would be a bad thing— our sense of duty is only fully realized through our sense of heroism. Has the Lord ever asked you, “Will you lay down your life for My sake?” (John 13:38). It is much easier to die than to lay down your life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling of God. We are not made for the bright-shining moments of life, but we have to walk in the light of them in our everyday ways. There was only one bright-shining moment in the life of Jesus, and that was on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was there that He emptied Himself of His glory for the second time, and then came down into the demon-possessed valley (seeMark 9:1-29). For thirty-three years Jesus laid down His life to do the will of His Father. “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). Yet it is contrary to our human nature to do so.
If I am a friend of Jesus, I must deliberately and carefully lay down my life for Him. It is a difficult thing to do, and thank God that it is. Salvation is easy for us, because it cost God so much. But the exhibiting of salvation in my life is difficult. God saves a person, fills him with the Holy Spirit, and then says, in effect, “Now you work it out in your life, and be faithful to Me, even though the nature of everything around you is to cause you to be unfaithful.” And Jesus says to us, “…I have called you friends….” Remain faithful to your Friend, and remember that His honor is at stake in your bodily life.
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: Nehemiah 4-6; Acts 2:22-47
Ron Hutchcraft "A Word with You
YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN - #9244 If you follow baseball, you know what a designated hitter is. When you really need a hit, you put in this guy who's got a really good batting average. Now, we didn't have a designated hitter in our town, but they sort of made me the designated prayer in our town. I'm not sure how I got that assignment, but when they were having some kind of a community function and they needed a prayer, they'd call me.
Well, I had an interesting assignment out of many of those that came up when I was asked to remember America's MIAs and POWs. There was a ceremony for them. Now, in case you've forgotten the initials, MIA means missing in action, and you know, we still think about a number of unaccounted for servicemen left over from past wars. And there have been intelligence reports that some of them may still be alive. So this ceremony was to commemorate them. When I got there, there were some veterans there in their fatigue pants and their black T-shirts, wearing their berets from Vietnam. And there were speeches, a gun salute, a flag raising. And I was impressed by the flag raising, because underneath the American flag they raised a banner, maybe you've seen it. It's a black banner. It has these words on it: You are not forgotten. There are a lot of MIAs who are not from a war that America's military fought. In fact, you could even be one of them.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "You Are Not Forgotten."
MIA - missing in action. You know, God has MIAs from His family. Maybe it's someone who's been around the Bible, been around Jesus at some point in their life. Yet somewhere they wandered away. Maybe that person is you. Maybe you can remember even as a child being exposed to Jesus and being exposed to the Bible, and somehow you've ended up listening today to this program or reading it. It's mostly memories, but the memories are there. Now, you're not really against Jesus, but you're not close to Him like you used to be. And you're away from God's people right now; you're away from God's Word, kind of doing your own thing; experimenting. Maybe you've been avoiding the people and the places that would remind you of that Christ that you were once close to. Maybe on the roles of your parents, or your Christian friends, or your church, you're missing in action.
Would you listen to a word for today from the Word of God? Psalm 139, "Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I arise. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down. You are familiar with all my ways. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go to the heavens you're there. If I make my bed in the depths you're there. If I arise on the winds of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me. Even the darkness will not be dark to You. The night will shine like day, for darkness is as light to You."
See, God's been following your life through every twist, every turn, every detour. And today He's brought us together to raise a banner that says, "You are not forgotten." He loves you. He knows you. He wants you back.
Maybe you're on the other end of the MIA drama. Someone you love is spiritually missing in action. I want you to know God is lovingly pursuing them today, and your prayer will be answered.
Don't wait until everything comes crashing down to get back to the Lord. The Christ who died for you is calling you back home. You've been on enough roads to know all the other brightly lit paths; they're dead end streets, aren't they? Why be a prisoner in enemy territory one day longer? Maybe we can help you find your way back to Him. Check out our website today. A lot of people have gone there at a time like this. It's ANewStory.com. Maybe a new story for you.
Your Savior has not forgotten you, even though you maybe have tried to forget Him. Open up your life. Let His peace replace all that hurt and all that restlessness. You are not forgotten. You can come home today.