MAX LUCADO: A REFINING FIRE - October 12, 2022
Fire is a chemical reaction that releases energy in the form of light and heat. If there is enough air, fuel, and heat, the fire will keep advancing. Can’t something similar be said about the Spirit of God? If we let him do his work, he will not be quenched.
Yet this flame is never intended for our harm. Everything that is good about a fire can be listed as a blessing of the Holy Spirit. Fire is a purifying force. The Holy Spirit is the ultimate purifier. Are we fit to serve as a temple of the Holy Spirit? We need the cleansing, sanctifying work of the Spirit of God to prepare us for this assignment.
Invite this refining fire to finish this work in your heart. “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV).
Psalm 25
My head is high, God, held high;
I’m looking to you, God;
No hangdog skulking for me.
3
I’ve thrown in my lot with you;
You won’t embarrass me, will you?
Or let my enemies get the best of me?
Don’t embarrass any of us
Who went out on a limb for you.
It’s the traitors who should be humiliated.
4
Show me how you work, God;
School me in your ways.
5
Take me by the hand;
Lead me down the path of truth.
You are my Savior, aren’t you?
6
Mark the milestones of your mercy and love, God;
Rebuild the ancient landmarks!
7
Forget that I sowed wild oats;
Mark me with your sign of love.
Plan only the best for me, God!
8
God is fair and just;
He corrects the misdirected,
Sends them in the right direction.
9
He gives the rejects his hand,
And leads them step-by-step.
10
From now on every road you travel
Will take you to God.
Follow the Covenant signs;
Read the charted directions.
11
Keep up your reputation, God;
Forgive my bad life;
It’s been a very bad life.
12
My question: What are God-worshipers like?
Your answer: Arrows aimed at God’s bull’s-eye.
13
They settle down in a promising place;
Their kids inherit a prosperous farm.
14
God-friendship is for God-worshipers;
They are the ones he confides in.
15
If I keep my eyes on God,
I won’t trip over my own feet.
16
Look at me and help me!
I’m all alone and in big trouble.
17
My heart and mind are fighting each other;
Call a truce to this civil war.
18
Take a hard look at my life of hard labor,
Then lift this ton of sin.
19
Do you see how many people
Have it in for me?
How viciously they hate me?
20
Keep watch over me and keep me out of trouble;
Don’t let me down when I run to you.
21
Use all your skill to put me together;
I wait to see your finished product.
22
God, give your people a break
From this run of bad luck.
Our Daily Bread
Read-Psalm 90:1–14
God, it seems you’ve been our home forever;
long before the mountains were born,
Long before you brought earth itself to birth,
from “once upon a time” to “kingdom come”—you are God.
3-11
So don’t return us to mud, saying,
“Back to where you came from!”
Patience! You’ve got all the time in the world—whether
a thousand years or a day, it’s all the same to you.
Are we no more to you than a wispy dream,
no more than a blade of grass
That springs up gloriously with the rising sun
and is cut down without a second thought?
Your anger is far and away too much for us;
we’re at the end of our rope.
You keep track of all our sins; every misdeed
since we were children is entered in your books.
All we can remember is that frown on your face.
Is that all we’re ever going to get?
We live for seventy years or so
(with luck we might make it to eighty),
And what do we have to show for it? Trouble.
Toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard.
Who can make sense of such rage,
such anger against the very ones who fear you?
12-17
Oh! Teach us to live well!
Teach us to live wisely and well!
Come back, God—how long do we have to wait?—
and treat your servants with kindness for a change.
Surprise us with love at daybreak;
then we’ll skip and dance all the day long.
Make up for the bad times with some good times;
we’ve seen enough evil to last a lifetime.
Let your servants see what you’re best at—
the ways you rule and bless your children.
And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us,
confirming the work that we do.
Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!
Insight- Moses’ authorship of Psalm 90, based on the superscription, makes it the oldest of the psalms whose authorship we know. In addition to this psalm, Moses is ascribed authorship of the first five books of the Bible—the Pentateuch or Torah—making him the most prolific Old Testament writer. Some scholars believe that the background to the writing of this psalm may have been Israel’s failure at Kadesh Barnea (Numbers 13–14), where they rejected the land of promise despite Joshua and Caleb’s glowing account of the magnificent new homeland God had promised them. That rejection resulted in the forty years of wilderness wanderings the Israelites endured.
Life Expectancy
By Kenneth Petersen
A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by. - Psalm 90:4
In 1990, French researchers had a computer problem: a data error when processing the age of Jeanne Calment. She was 115 years old, an age outside the parameters of the software program. The programmers had assumed no one could possibly live that long! In fact, Jeanne lived until the age of 122.
The psalmist writes, “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures” (Psalm 90:10). This is a figurative way of saying that whatever age we live to, even to the age of Jeanne Calment, our lives on earth are indeed limited. Our lifetimes are in the sovereign hands of a loving God (v. 5). In the spiritual realm, however, we’re reminded of what “God time” really is: “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by” (v. 4).
And in the person of Jesus Christ “life expectancy” has been given a whole new meaning: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36). “Has” is in the present tense: right now, in our current physical moment of trouble and tears, our future is blessed, and our lifespan is limitless.
In this we rejoice and with the psalmist pray, “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days” (Psalm 90:14).
Reflect-What worries do you have about your life and its limits? How are you comforted by the presence of Jesus?
Pray- Loving God, sometimes this life is hard, but—even so—I sing for joy in Your provision for me. Satisfy me today with Your unfailing love.
My Utmost for His Highest
Getting into God’s Stride
By Oswald Chambers
Enoch walked with God… —Genesis 5:24
The true test of a person’s spiritual life and character is not what he does in the extraordinary moments of life, but what he does during the ordinary times when there is nothing tremendous or exciting happening. A person’s worth is revealed in his attitude toward the ordinary things of life when he is not under the spotlight (see John 1:35-37 and John 3:30). It is painful work to get in step with God and to keep pace with Him— it means getting your second wind spiritually. In learning to walk with God, there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride, but once we have done so, the only characteristic that exhibits itself is the very life of God Himself. The individual person is merged into a personal oneness with God, and God’s stride and His power alone are exhibited.
It is difficult to get into stride with God, because as soon as we start walking with Him we find that His pace has surpassed us before we have even taken three steps. He has different ways of doing things, and we have to be trained and disciplined in His ways. It was said of Jesus— “He will not fail nor be discouraged…” (Isaiah 42:4) because He never worked from His own individual standpoint, but always worked from the standpoint of His Father. And we must learn to do the same. Spiritual truth is learned through the atmosphere that surrounds us, not through intellectual reasoning. It is God’s Spirit that changes the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and then things begin to be possible which before were impossible. Getting into God’s stride means nothing less than oneness with Him. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don’t give up because the pain is intense right now— get on with it, and before long you will find that you have a new vision and a new purpose.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else. The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 39-40; Colossians 4
A Word With You
By Ron Hutchcraft
LIVING LIKE YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS - #9328
Our oldest son and his wife, who became our wonderful daughter, were living on an Indian reservation and had ministered there for several years. And then it was time to expect their first baby. It was wonderful that this baby girl was going to come. They lived pretty far from the hospital, so of course, you needed to "get in gear" when it was time. Right? And those were the words our daughter-in-law spoke that fateful night, "I think it's time!" Well, they had gone to the classes. They knew what to do. Oh, but my son? Well, he simply started (this is what I've been told) walking around in circles in his living room going, "Okay! Okay!" Meanwhile his wife's gently going, "It's time." "Okay! Okay!" Well, listen, when you know what time it is, you need to know what action to take.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Living Like You Know What Time It Is."
By the way, they got there in time. I thought you might want to know.
Well, you and I have been chosen by God to live in very important times, and it's important for us to know what time it is and what to do with that. I mean, people are exploring all kinds of spiritual answers. There are big questions about all the uncertainties of the world economy, and politics, and we're so dependent on technology.
Then there's worry about who's the latest to get nuclear weapons, and terrorism that can pop up anywhere, anytime, and a world that is looking more and more like the kind of world Jesus said he'd come back to than maybe it's ever looked before. These are extraordinary times. It's time to do some extraordinary living. It's time for some urgent action, because God is going, "It's time! It's time!" We're at a defining moment, and we've got to realize what time it is and respond accordingly.
Like some people did at another defining moment some 3,000 years ago. Israel was emerging as a nation, as they have again today. Their first king, Saul, had turned out to be a disaster. He died as a suicide in battle, and people are deciding where their allegiance is going to be. God has His man for king: David. He's about to take his rightful throne as his descendant, Jesus Christ, will do one day when He returns to earth to rule from what the Bible calls "the throne of David."
1 Chronicles 12 records that there were many fighting men who "came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel." We also read that "the Spirit came upon Amasai, chief of the Thirty, and he said: 'We are yours, O David! We are with you, O son of Jesse!'" And then in our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Chronicles 12:32, we read about one group of people who show us how to really be in a defining moment. And they lived in one; we live in one. The Bible describes "the men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do."
Now if you understand the times you're living in, you will know what you should do. And those who are committed to enthroning the rightful king - and we know Christ is that king - they show us the defining choice in defining times back then and now; making the King your king and living to enlarge His kingdom. They were, it says, "fully determined to make David king over all." That's where your choices lie. To make sure the king, King Jesus, first is your king. This is a moment like never before, to say, "I am Yours, O Jesus! I am with You, O Son of God!" He's moving toward wrapping up all of history. You'd better make sure He's the center of your personal history.
Secondly, if you really know what time it is, you're going to be living to enlarge this kingdom of King Jesus before He returns. That means getting as many people to belong to Him as you can. Throwing your influence and your money, your possessions into the greatest cause on this planet; the cause for which your King gave His life - rescuing spiritually dying people.
It's time to look through everything we own, everything we've planned, everything we've dreamed in light of the times that God has chosen us to live in. When it's the fourth quarter, you don't play as if it's the first quarter. Be sure you understand the time and then you'll know what to do.
It has never mattered more to live for what really matters and what will matter forever. Can you hear Jesus saying it, "It's time!"?