Max Lucado Daily: Hope Is an Olive Leaf - July 22, 2022
Noah pulled a dove out of the bowels of the ark and ascended the ladder. With a prayer he let it go. All day he looked for the dove’s return. You’ve known your share of floods. Flooded by sorrow at the cemetery, stress at the office, anger at the disability in your body or the inability of your spouse. You’ve likely seen the sun set on your hopes as well. You’ve been on Noah’s boat.
And you’ve needed what Noah needed; you’ve needed some hope. “That evening it came back to him with a fresh olive leaf in its mouth” (Genesis 8:11 NCV). The bird brought more than a piece of a tree; it brought hope. Hope is an olive leaf—evidence of dry land after a flood. Proof to the dreamer that dreaming is worth the risk.
1 Samuel 25
To Fight God’s Battles
Samuel died. The whole country came to his funeral. Everyone grieved over his death, and he was buried in his hometown of Ramah. Meanwhile, David moved again, this time to the wilderness of Maon.
2-3 There was a certain man in Maon who carried on his business in the region of Carmel. He was very prosperous—three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and it was sheep-shearing time in Carmel. The man’s name was Nabal (Fool), a Calebite, and his wife’s name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and good-looking, the man brutish and mean.
4-8 David, out in the backcountry, heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep and sent ten of his young men off with these instructions: “Go to Carmel and approach Nabal. Greet him in my name, ‘Peace! Life and peace to you. Peace to your household, peace to everyone here! I heard that it’s sheep-shearing time. Here’s the point: When your shepherds were camped near us we didn’t take advantage of them. They didn’t lose a thing all the time they were with us in Carmel. Ask your young men—they’ll tell you. What I’m asking is that you be generous with my men—share the feast! Give whatever your heart tells you to your servants and to me, David your son.’”
9-11 David’s young men went and delivered his message word for word to Nabal. Nabal tore into them, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? The country is full of runaway servants these days. Do you think I’m going to take good bread and wine and meat freshly butchered for my sheepshearers and give it to men I’ve never laid eyes on? Who knows where they’ve come from?”
12-13 David’s men got out of there and went back and told David what he had said. David said, “Strap on your swords!” They all strapped on their swords, David and his men, and set out, four hundred of them. Two hundred stayed behind to guard the camp.
14-17 Meanwhile, one of the young shepherds told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, what had happened: “David sent messengers from the backcountry to salute our master, but he tore into them with insults. Yet these men treated us very well. They took nothing from us and didn’t take advantage of us all the time we were in the fields. They formed a wall around us, protecting us day and night all the time we were out tending the sheep. Do something quickly because big trouble is ahead for our master and all of us. Nobody can talk to him. He’s impossible—a real brute!”
18-19 Abigail flew into action. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep dressed out and ready for cooking, a bushel of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she had it all loaded on some donkeys. Then she said to her young servants, “Go ahead and pave the way for me. I’m right behind you.” But she said nothing to her husband Nabal.
20-22 As she was riding her donkey, descending into a ravine, David and his men were descending from the other end, so they met there on the road. David had just said, “That sure was a waste, guarding everything this man had out in the wild so that nothing he had was lost—and now he rewards me with insults. A real slap in the face! May God do his worst to me if Nabal and every cur in his misbegotten brood aren’t dead meat by morning!”
23-25 As soon as Abigail saw David, she got off her donkey and fell on her knees at his feet, her face to the ground in homage, saying, “My master, let me take the blame! Let me speak to you. Listen to what I have to say. Don’t dwell on what that brute Nabal did. He acts out the meaning of his name: Nabal, Fool. Foolishness oozes from him.
25-27 “I wasn’t there when the young men my master sent arrived. I didn’t see them. And now, my master, as God lives and as you live, God has kept you from this avenging murder—and may your enemies, all who seek my master’s harm, end up like Nabal! Now take this gift that I, your servant girl, have brought to my master, and give it to the young men who follow in the steps of my master.
28-29 “Forgive my presumption! But God is at work in my master, developing a rule solid and dependable. My master fights God’s battles! As long as you live no evil will stick to you.
If anyone stands in your way,
if anyone tries to get you out of the way,
Know this: Your God-honored life is tightly bound
in the bundle of God-protected life;
But the lives of your enemies will be hurled aside
as a stone is thrown from a sling.
30-31 “When God completes all the goodness he has promised my master and sets you up as prince over Israel, my master will not have this dead weight in his heart, the guilt of an avenging murder. And when God has worked things for good for my master, remember me.”
32-34 And David said, “Blessed be God, the God of Israel. He sent you to meet me! And blessed be your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and taking charge of looking out for me. A close call! As God lives, the God of Israel who kept me from hurting you, if you had not come as quickly as you did, stopping me in my tracks, by morning there would have been nothing left of Nabal but dead meat.”
35 Then David accepted the gift she brought him and said, “Return home in peace. I’ve heard what you’ve said and I’ll do what you’ve asked.”
36-38 When Abigail got home she found Nabal presiding over a huge banquet. He was in high spirits—and very, very drunk. So she didn’t tell him anything of what she’d done until morning. But in the morning, after Nabal had sobered up, she told him the whole story. Right then and there he had a heart attack and fell into a coma. About ten days later God finished him off and he died.
39-40 When David heard that Nabal was dead he said, “Blessed be God who has stood up for me against Nabal’s insults, kept me from an evil act, and let Nabal’s evil boomerang back on him.”
Then David sent for Abigail to tell her that he wanted her for his wife. David’s servants went to Abigail at Carmel with the message, “David sent us to bring you to marry him.”
41 She got up, and then bowed down, face to the ground, saying, “I’m your servant, ready to do anything you want. I’ll even wash the feet of my master’s servants!”
42 Abigail didn’t linger. She got on her donkey and, with her five maids in attendance, went with the messengers to David and became his wife.
43-44 David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. Both women were his wives. Saul had married off David’s wife Michal to Palti (Paltiel) son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, July 22, 2022
Today's Scripture
Acts 3:1–10
One day at three o’clock in the afternoon, Peter and John were on their way into the Temple for prayer meeting. At the same time there was a man crippled from birth being carried up. Every day he was set down at the Temple gate, the one named Beautiful, to beg from those going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the Temple, he asked for a handout. Peter, with John at his side, looked him straight in the eye and said, “Look here.” He looked up, expecting to get something from them.
6–8 Peter said, “I don’t have a nickel to my name, but what I do have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” He grabbed him by the right hand and pulled him up. In an instant his feet and ankles became firm. He jumped to his feet and walked.
8–10 The man went into the Temple with them, walking back and forth, dancing and praising God. Everybody there saw him walking around and praising God. They recognized him as the one who sat begging at the Temple’s Gate Beautiful and rubbed their eyes, astonished, scarcely believing what they were seeing.
Insight
Early in their training, Jesus sent His disciples “out two by two” (Mark 6:7). It seems that Peter and John thrived in this pattern since they’re often seen working together (Luke 22:8; John 20:3–4; Acts 3:1; 4:1; 8:14). In Acts 3:1–10, we see them together at the temple. The Jews had three daily times of prayer: 9 a.m., 12 noon, and 3 p.m. (see Psalm 55:17; Daniel 6:10; Acts 10:30). The temple would’ve been crowded with Jews who’d come to offer their prayers. As devout Jews, Peter and John may have come to the temple to offer their evening prayers too. Additionally, and more likely, they might have come to tell the crowd gathered there about Jesus (Acts 3:11–4:2; 5:20–21, 42). Beggars were apt to gather at the temple because devotees who came to seek God’s blessings were more willing to give alms in the hope of impressing Him with their generosity. By: K. T. Sim
Live Like You’re Healed
Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.
Acts 3:8
Two sisters from India were born blind. Their father was a hard-working provider, but he could never afford the surgery that would give them sight. Then a team of doctors came to their region on a short-term medical mission. The morning after their surgery, the girls smiled wide as the nurse unwrapped their bandages. One exclaimed, “Mother, I can see! I can see!”
A man who had been lame since birth sat in his usual spot at a temple gate, begging for money. Peter told the man he didn’t have coins, but he had something better. “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” (Acts 3:6), he said. The man “jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went . . . jumping, and praising God” (v. 8).
The sisters and the man appreciated their eyes and legs more than those who were never blind or lame. The girls couldn’t stop blinking in amazement and celebration, and the man “jumped to his feet.”
Consider your own natural abilities. How might you enjoy these abilities more, and how might you use them differently, if you had been miraculously healed? Now consider this. If you believe in Jesus, He's healed you spiritually. He’s rescued you from your sins.
Let’s thank the One who made and saved us and dedicate all that He gave us to Him.
By: Mike Wittmer
Reflect & Pray
How might you use your natural abilities for Jesus? How might you enjoy serving with whatever abilities you have? Thank Him for the pleasure they bring.
Father, thank You for ears to hear You, mouths to praise You, and hands and feet to serve You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, July 22, 2022
Sanctification (1)
This is the will of God, your sanctification… —1 Thessalonians 4:3
The Death Side. In sanctification God has to deal with us on the death side as well as on the life side. Sanctification requires our coming to the place of death, but many of us spend so much time there that we become morbid. There is always a tremendous battle before sanctification is realized— something within us pushing with resentment against the demands of Christ. When the Holy Spirit begins to show us what sanctification means, the struggle starts immediately. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate…his own life…he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).
In the process of sanctification, the Spirit of God will strip me down until there is nothing left but myself, and that is the place of death. Am I willing to be myself and nothing more? Am I willing to have no friends, no father, no brother, and no self-interest— simply to be ready for death? That is the condition required for sanctification. No wonder Jesus said, “I did not come to bring peace but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). This is where the battle comes, and where so many of us falter. We refuse to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ on this point. We say, “But this is so strict. Surely He does not require that of me.” Our Lord is strict, and He does require that of us.
Am I willing to reduce myself down to simply “me”? Am I determined enough to strip myself of all that my friends think of me, and all that I think of myself? Am I willing and determined to hand over my simple naked self to God? Once I am, He will immediately sanctify me completely, and my life will be free from being determined and persistent toward anything except God (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).
When I pray, “Lord, show me what sanctification means for me,” He will show me. It means being made one with Jesus. Sanctification is not something Jesus puts in me— it is Himself in me (see 1 Corinthians 1:30).
Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from. The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R
Bible in a Year: Psalms 31-32; Acts 23:16-35
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, July 22, 2022
Looking for a Leader We Can Trust - #9270
I can't remember the names of all of Snow White's dwarfs, but I don't feel bad about that. I mean, I do remember one - Grumpy. Actually I've heard the Grumpy shirt is one of Disney's big sellers. Yeah, I might know why. Grumpy is a kind of mood a whole lot of people are in these days.
I mean, you know, when you take just the state of politics in America, we've got one group who wants us to stop spending money, and some who want people to stop making money. And there are some people who don't like what the President's doing, and some who don't like what Congress is doing. "Hello, Grumpy!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Looking for a Leader We Can Trust."
See, if there was a "none of the above" choice on the ballot, he might just win. I mean, it doesn't matter whether you're in America or many other countries of the world, we're just hurting for a leader who won't let us down; who can actually do something about the baffling tangle of problems we have. And it's not just politicians who've let us down. Sometimes parents fail us...a church, a pastor fails us...a leader we've looked to disappoints us...betrays us.
I guess we shouldn't be surprised, because our leaders are a lot like us. And I know I sure haven't been everything people needed me to be. I'm sure I've disappointed folks along the way.
As much as human leaders may have let us down, it doesn't change the fact that our hearts are hungry for someone to look to; someone who can take us where we haven't been able to go ourselves. Who totally lives what he says...who not only promises hope but delivers it...who can fix the unfixable...who we can follow with the confidence that they care about us more than they care about themselves.
That's Jesus, only Jesus. As our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 10:11 says, "Anyone who believes in Him will never be disappointed." I sure haven't been. This man who had the power to walk out of His grave has had more than enough power to change what I couldn't; people I couldn't change, problems I couldn't fix, dark parts of me that I couldn't change. He's led me on roads that didn't always make sense on the first mile, but always ended up putting me in a better place.
And there's no doubt about Him caring more about me than about himself. He offered himself to be nailed on a cross and separated from God so my sins could be erased, so I could be with Him in heaven forever. And anybody who loves me enough to die for me will never do me wrong.
There really is a hole in our hearts that is starved for a loving leader for our life. A "shepherd" as Jesus said. He said, "My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me." And where does following Him end up? He said, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish" (John 10:27-28). That's a promise that only Jesus can make, and only Jesus can keep. And it may be that in a heart that's listening today that feels lost inside, needing someone to look to, looking for that person who can fix what you can't fix, make sense out of the scattered pieces of the puzzle, then you're ready for Jesus and He's ready for you.
Why don't you reach out to Him today and say, "Jesus, I'm Yours. You died for me; I can trust You. I'm Yours." You know, our website is a place where there's information that will help you be sure you belong to him; that you've begun your relationship with him. I urge you to go visit there. It's ANewStory.com.
A few years ago there was a plane that crashed in the Hudson River, remember? And I thought it was just going to be like massive carnage. Instead we saw "the miracle on the Hudson." This jetliner's engines had been totally disabled. It looked like there was going to be a tragic crash, but their captain, "Sully" Sullenberger, was a veteran fighter pilot, an airline pilot and crash investigator; probably one of the few pilots who could have brought them in safely. And he was the one at the controls.
I've been on some flights where I wish I could have picked the captain in the cockpit. I've never been able to pick the pilot for my flight, but I got to pick the pilot for my life, and it's Captain Jesus.
He's the one pilot who can bring you in safely...no matter what happens.
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.