Max Lucado Daily: A Whispered Reminder
In Matthew 6, Jesus prayed, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
A prayer that begins. . . "May I not view you as a distant father, but as one who has come to earth and understands the challenges and temptations of my life. Be near me today, whisper reminders that you're close. My friends need you today as they make difficult decisions in their workplace and in their families. Show them you are closer than even their earthly fathers. Thank you for hearing me and listening to my pleas. It's in Jesus' name I pray this, amen."
Join me in prayer every day for 4 weeks, and pray 4 minutes per day. Sign on at BeforeAmen.com-it'll change your life!
Before Amen
In Matthew 6, Jesus prayed, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
A prayer that begins. . . "May I not view you as a distant father, but as one who has come to earth and understands the challenges and temptations of my life. Be near me today, whisper reminders that you're close. My friends need you today as they make difficult decisions in their workplace and in their families. Show them you are closer than even their earthly fathers. Thank you for hearing me and listening to my pleas. It's in Jesus' name I pray this, amen."
Join me in prayer every day for 4 weeks, and pray 4 minutes per day. Sign on at BeforeAmen.com-it'll change your life!
Before Amen
Psalm 28
Don’t turn a deaf ear
when I call you, God.
If all I get from you is
deafening silence,
I’d be better off
in the Black Hole.
2 I’m letting you know what I need,
calling out for help
And lifting my arms
toward your inner sanctuary.
3-4 Don’t shove me into
the same jail cell with those crooks,
With those who are
full-time employees of evil.
They talk a good line of “peace,”
then moonlight for the Devil.
Pay them back for what they’ve done,
for how bad they’ve been.
Pay them back for their long hours
in the Devil’s workshop;
Then cap it with a huge bonus.
5 Because they have no idea how God works
or what he is up to,
God will smash them to smithereens
and walk away from the ruins.
6-7 Blessed be God—
he heard me praying.
He proved he’s on my side;
I’ve thrown my lot in with him.
Now I’m jumping for joy,
and shouting and singing my thanks to him.
8-9 God is all strength for his people,
ample refuge for his chosen leader;
Save your people
and bless your heritage.
Care for them;
carry them like a good shepherd.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, October 16, 2022
Today's Scripture
John 14:15–24
The Spirit of Truth
15-17 “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!
18-20 “I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you.
21 “The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said, “Master, why is it that you are about to make yourself plain to us but not to the world?”
23-24 “Because a loveless world,” said Jesus, “is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we’ll move right into the neighborhood! Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn’t mine. It’s the message of the Father who sent me.
Insight
Jesus promised that “another advocate” (John 14:16), the “Spirit of truth” (v. 17), would be with His disciples after He was no longer physically present (v. 28). The word advocate (Greek parakletos), used only by John, is a word with legal connotations, a bit like a defense lawyer or counselor. Jesus’ words suggest that He was an advocate and teacher to His disciples while on earth. After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the Spirit would continue this work (vv. 25–26). First John 2:1 points to an inseparable relationship between Jesus and the Spirit as advocates for believers in Jesus. Here, we’re told “we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”
By: Monica La Rose
The Indwelling Christ
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
John 14:20
English preacher F. B. Meyer (1847–1929) used the example of an egg to illustrate what he called “the deep philosophy of the indwelling Christ.” He noted how the fertilized yolk is a little “life germ” that grows more and more each day until the chick is formed in the shell. So too will Jesus come to live with us through His Holy Spirit, changing us. Meyer said, “From now on Christ is going to grow and increase and absorb into Himself everything else, and be formed in you.”
He apologized for stating the truths of Jesus imperfectly, knowing that his words couldn’t fully convey the wonderful reality of Christ dwelling in believers through the Holy Spirit. But he urged his listeners to share with others, however imperfectly, what Jesus meant when He said, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20). Jesus said these words on the night of His last supper with His friends. He wanted them to know that He and His Father would come and make their home with those who obey Him (v. 23). This is possible because through the Spirit Jesus dwells in those who believe in Him, changing them from the inside out.
No matter how you picture it, we have Christ living inside us, guiding us and helping us to grow to be more like Him.
By: Amy Boucher Pye
Reflect & Pray
What difference does it make to you that Jesus dwells within you? How do you see His presence in others?
Dear Jesus, You’re God and man. Thank You for giving of Yourself so sacrificially, that I might be called a child of God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, October 16, 2022
The Key to the Master’s Orders
Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. —Matthew 9:38
The key to the missionary’s difficult task is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer, not work— that is, not work as the word is commonly used today, which often results in the shifting of our focus away from God. The key to the missionary’s difficult task is also not the key of common sense, nor is it the key of medicine, civilization, education, or even evangelization. The key is in following the Master’s orders— the key is prayer. “Pray the Lord of the harvest….” In the natural realm, prayer is not practical but absurd. We have to realize that prayer is foolish from the commonsense point of view.
From Jesus Christ’s perspective, there are no nations, but only the world. How many of us pray without regard to the persons, but with regard to only one Person— Jesus Christ? He owns the harvest that is produced through distress and through conviction of sin. This is the harvest for which we have to pray that laborers be sent out to reap. We stay busy at work, while people all around us are ripe and ready to be harvested; we do not reap even one of them, but simply waste our Lord’s time in over-energized activities and programs. Suppose a crisis were to come into your father’s or your brother’s life— are you there as a laborer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? Is your response, “Oh, but I have a special work to do!” No Christian has a special work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ’s own, “a servant [who] is not greater than his master” (John 13:16), and someone who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls us to no special work— He calls us to Himself. “Pray the Lord of the harvest,” and He will engineer your circumstances to send you out as His laborer.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To live a life alone with God does not mean that we live it apart from everyone else. The connection between godly men and women and those associated with them is continually revealed in the Bible, e.g., 1 Timothy 4:10. Not Knowing Whither, 867 L
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 47-49; 1 Thessalonians 4