Max Lucado Daily: RETRAINING MULES - October 26, 2022
Let’s pray prayers like this one: God, please release living water upon and through your children. Let us be sources of life and love everywhere we go.
One of the most famous revivals happened early in the twentieth century in Wales. One hundred thousand people came to Christ in less than a year. Almost-empty bars were closed for lack of business. Magistrates saw their courts emptied of criminals. Miners even had to retrain the mules that worked in the coal mines – many of the animals had been trained to respond to vulgar commands. But when the men got cleaned up, their language did as well, and the mules had to learn a new vocabulary.
May the need arise to retrain some mules today. Let the thirsty souls come to Christ, and let the rivers of living water flow again.
Psalm 39
I’m determined to watch steps and tongue
so they won’t land me in trouble.
I decided to hold my tongue
as long as Wicked is in the room.
“Mum’s the word,” I said, and kept quiet.
But the longer I kept silence
The worse it got—
my insides got hotter and hotter.
My thoughts boiled over;
I spilled my guts.
4-6 “Tell me, what’s going on, God?
How long do I have to live?
Give me the bad news!
You’ve kept me on pretty short rations;
my life is a string too short to be saved.
Oh! we’re all puffs of air.
Oh! we’re all shadows in a campfire.
Oh! we’re just spit in the wind.
We make our pile, and then we leave it.
7-11 “What am I doing in the meantime, Lord?
Hoping, that’s what I’m doing—hoping
You’ll save me from a rebel life,
save me from the contempt of idiots.
I’ll say no more, I’ll shut my mouth,
since you, Lord, are behind all this.
But I can’t take it much longer.
When you put us through the fire
to purge us from our sin,
our dearest idols go up in smoke.
Are we also nothing but smoke?
12-13 “Ah, God, listen to my prayer, my
cry—open your ears.
Don’t be callous;
just look at these tears of mine.
I’m a stranger here. I don’t know my way—
a migrant like my whole family.
Give me a break, cut me some slack
before it’s too late and I’m out of here.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Today's Scripture
Isaiah 55:9–11
“I don’t think the way you think.
The way you work isn’t the way I work.”
God’s Decree.
“For as the sky soars high above earth,
so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
not come back empty-handed.
They’ll do the work I sent them to do,
they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.
Insight
To urge God’s people to return to Him (Isaiah 55:6–7), the prophet Isaiah emphasized that God’s ways aren’t like ours (v. 8). He’s far more merciful and forgiving; “he will freely pardon” (v. 7). And Isaiah vividly described the foundational reason for returning to God: He’s completely trustworthy and can be depended upon to do good for His people.
Isaiah used the imagery of precipitation (vv. 10–11) to illustrate this idea. In the ancient Near East, where rainfall meant the difference between famine and harvest, life and death, this comparison would’ve been especially powerful. Rainfall, Isaiah says, makes the earth “bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater” (v. 10). Like rain, God’s words and actions on behalf of His people always bring good—deep joy and a flourishing life (vv. 11–13). By: Monica La Rose
Walk On
My word . . . will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11
Walk On is the fascinating memoir of Ben Malcolmson, a student with virtually no football experience who became a “walk on”—a non-recruited player—for the 2007 University of Southern California Rose Bowl champion team. A college journalist, Malcolmson decided to write a first-person account of the grueling tryout process. To his disbelief, he won a coveted spot on the team.
After joining the team, Malcolmson’s faith compelled him to find God’s purpose for him in this unexpected opportunity. But his teammates’ indifference to discussions of faith left him discouraged. As he prayed for direction, Malcolmson read the powerful reminder in Isaiah where God says: “My word . . . will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). Inspired by Isaiah’s words, Malcolmson anonymously gave every player on the team a Bible. Again, he was met with rejection. But years later, Malcolmson learned one player had read the Bible he’d been given—and shortly before his tragic death had demonstrated a relationship with and hunger for God, who he discovered in the pages of that Bible.
It’s likely that many of us have shared Jesus with a friend or family member, only to be met with indifference or outright rejection. But even when we don’t see results right away, God’s truth is powerful and will accomplish His purposes in His timing.
By: Lisa M. Samra
Reflect & Pray
How have you seen the power of Scripture at work? How has that brought blessing?
Heavenly Father, thank You that Your Word will achieve Your purposes.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
What is a Missionary?
Jesus said to them again, "…As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." —John 20:21
A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in our service for God is behind us, not ahead of us. The tendency today is to put the inspiration out in front— to sweep everything together in front of us and make it conform to our definition of success. But in the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, and is the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be true to Him— to carry out His plans.
Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary work the great danger is that God’s call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ— “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” (Matthew 28:19).
When looking back on the lives of men and women of God, the tendency is to say, “What wonderfully keen and intelligent wisdom they had, and how perfectly they understood all that God wanted!” But the keen and intelligent mind behind them was the mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the divine guidance of God being exhibited through childlike people who were “foolish” enough to trust God’s wisdom and His supernatural equipment.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus. We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed. Our Brilliant Heritage, 946 R
Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 9-11; 1 Timothy 6
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
WHY YOU'RE GOD'S BEST REP - #9338
I couldn't help but overhear the conversation across the aisle on an airplane flight. The man was dropping profanity about every third word; he even mentioned God quite a few times. He stopped only to work on his meal. Apparently, he needed some cream for his coffee, so he demanded the flight attendant get some, in his usual colorful language.
While he was waiting, he finally let his fellow passenger do a little talking. He said, "Well, what do you do for a living?" And his neighbor said, "Oh, I'm a minister," at which point the flight attendant returned with the cream. My profane neighbor across the aisle looked up at the attendant with the most angelic expression and he said, "Oh, God bless you." Suddenly, the real guy disappeared, and the religious guy showed up.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why You're God's Best Rep."
It's a funny thing about people. They suddenly get sort of weird when they're with a preacher. It's pretty hard to have a real conversation once a person realizes you're one of those guys who makes a living being religious. If you're not a preacher, that's where you come in.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 4:39. It's about how most of an entire Samaritan village came to faith in Jesus. He had met this one Samaritan woman outside the village of Sychar, and He shared eternal life with her. And then we read, "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman's testimony."
Now it's interesting that Jesus didn't reach this village by just going in and starting to preach there. Instead, He shared with one person who knew the folks in Sychar, who was one of the folks in the village. Her life was touched. She went back and told about Jesus in "Samaritanese" and that generated a lot of interest. It sparked a village revival. Which just serves to remind us that the most powerful witness for Christ is not a crusade, or a radio or TV program, or a concert. It's the testimony of one changed life.
Think about it. We see lots of commercials with professional pitch men selling a product, but we're pretty much salesman immune. But when someone you know tells you, "I love that car," or "this shampoo cured their dandruff," or "that pill relieved my pain." That gets through! The same is true in reaching people for Jesus.
Many lost people are honestly immune to what they perceive as professional spiritual salesmen. Meanwhile, many believers, everyday believers, are thinking, "If only I can get this lost person I know to my church to hear my pastor, or watch this Christian show, or come to this outreach event, or hear this Christian celebrity."
But there's something much more powerful than that. That's seeing your changed life and hearing you attribute that difference to Christ. You're from their village! You walk in their world. They know you. You're closer to them than the preacher's ever going to be.
You might say, "Yeah, but someone trained, more gifted can explain it better." Well, sure, the doctor or the pharmacist can explain better how a medicine works than my friend can. But you know what? I'll ask for that medicine maybe just because a friend told me it helped them. That was the power of the blind man's testimony in Jesus' day, "Once I was blind, but now I can see." (Why don't you fill in the blank here?) "I used to be ______, but now I'm _______ because of Jesus." It might be the kind of husband you are or the kind of wife you are, the kind of father or mother, the kind of friend, the kind of single person you are, how you are in your lonely times, or your stressful times, when there's bad news from the doctor, at the funeral home.
Don't depend on that person you care about being reached by some professional. It's up to you. You live where they live. You feel what they feel. Jesus is sending you to them, not because you can present it best, but because you're part of their life! You are in a better position to share Christ with them than the best "professional salesman" there is, because you are Jesus' satisfied customer!