Max Lucado Daily: CONDUCT THAT HONORS CHRIST - November 3, 2022
Those who don’t believe in Jesus note what we who believe in Jesus do. They make decisions about Christ by watching us. When we’re kind, they assume Christ is kind. When we’re gracious, they assume Christ is gracious. But when we’re dishonest, what assumption will an observer make about our Master?
No wonder the Apostle Paul says, “Be wise in the way you act with people who are not believers, making the most of every opportunity. When you talk, you should always be kind and pleasant so you will be able to answer everyone in the way you should” (Colossians 4:5-6 NCV).
Courteous conduct honors Christ. It also honors his children. When you make an effort to greet everyone in the room, especially the ones others may have overlooked, you honor God’s children with a love worth giving.
John 13:1-20
Washing His Disciples’ Feet
Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end. It was suppertime. The Devil by now had Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, firmly in his grip, all set for the betrayal.
3-6 Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Master, you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered, “You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.”
8 Peter persisted, “You’re not going to wash my feet—ever!”
Jesus said, “If I don’t wash you, you can’t be part of what I’m doing.”
9 “Master!” said Peter. “Not only my feet, then. Wash my hands! Wash my head!”
10-12 Jesus said, “If you’ve had a bath in the morning, you only need your feet washed now and you’re clean from head to toe. My concern, you understand, is holiness, not hygiene. So now you’re clean. But not every one of you.” (He knew who was betraying him. That’s why he said, “Not every one of you.”) After he had finished washing their feet, he took his robe, put it back on, and went back to his place at the table.
12-17 Then he said, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do. I’m only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer. If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.
The One Who Ate Bread at My Table
18-20 “I’m not including all of you in this. I know precisely whom I’ve selected, so as not to interfere with the fulfillment of this Scripture:
The one who ate bread at my table
Will stab me in the back.
“I’m telling you all this ahead of time so that when it happens you will believe that I am who I say I am. Make sure you get this right: Receiving someone I send is the same as receiving me, just as receiving me is the same as receiving the One who sent me.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 03, 2022
Today's Scripture
John 10:1–6, 27
He Calls His Sheep by Name
“Let me set this before you as plainly as I can. If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen instead of going through the gate, you know he’s up to no good—a sheep rustler! The shepherd walks right up to the gate. The gatekeeper opens the gate to him and the sheep recognize his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he gets them all out, he leads them and they follow because they are familiar with his voice. They won’t follow a stranger’s voice but will scatter because they aren’t used to the sound of it.”
6-10 Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. So he tried again. “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—sheep rustlers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.
0 Jesus answered, “I told you, but you don’t believe. Everything I have done has been authorized by my Father, actions that speak louder than words. You don’t believe because you’re not my sheep. My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them real and eternal life. They are protected from the Destroyer for good. No one can steal them from out of my hand. The Father who put them under my care is so much greater than the Destroyer and Thief. No one could ever get them away from him. I and the Father are one heart and mind.”
Insight
In the Bible, leaders were considered “shepherds of [their] people” (Psalm 78:70–72). These leaders were to provide for, protect, and guide the sheep under their care. God is called the “Shepherd of Israel . . . who [leads] Joseph like a flock” (80:1). Psalm 23 expresses this beautifully. And Isaiah 40:11 says, “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.” In Ezekiel 34, we see both a stern warning against the wicked “shepherds of Israel” (v. 2) and a rich depiction of God as our perfect Shepherd. In the New Testament, Jesus is the Good Shepherd who “lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). He has “compassion on” (Mark 6:34) and cares for His wandering and lost sheep (Matthew 18:12–14).
By: Alyson Kieda
Hearing Christ, Not Chaos
My sheep listen to my voice.
John 10:27
After watching TV news for hours each day, the elderly man grew agitated and anxious—worried the world was falling apart and taking him with it. “Please turn it off,” his grown daughter begged him. “Just stop listening.” But the man continued to spend an excessive amount of time on social media and other news sources.
What we listen to matters deeply. We see this in Jesus’ encounter with Pontius Pilate. Responding to criminal charges brought against Jesus by religious leaders, Pilate summoned Him and asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?” (John 18:33). Jesus replied with a stunning question: “Is that your own idea . . . or did others talk to you about me?” (v. 34).
The same question tests us. In a world of panic, are we listening to chaos or to Christ? Indeed, “my sheep listen to my voice,” He said. “I know them, and they follow me” (10:27). Jesus “used this figure of speech” (v. 6) to explain Himself to doubting religious leaders. As with a good shepherd, He said that “his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice” (vv. 4–5).
As our Good Shepherd, Jesus bids us to hear Him above all. May we listen well and find His peace.
By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
What do you hear on the news or social media that makes you feel anxious? How can you give more time to hearing the voice of God?
Loving God, in a noisy world, when You speak to my heart, mind, and spirit in and through the Scriptures, may I hear You over all.
For further study, read Being Jesus Online.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 03, 2022
A Bondservant of Jesus
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me… —Galatians 2:20
These words mean the breaking and collapse of my independence brought about by my own hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to this point three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot push me through it. It means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. Once I am at that point, there is no possibility of misunderstanding. Very few of us know anything about loyalty to Christ or understand what He meant when He said, “…for My sake” (Matthew 5:11). That is what makes a strong saint.
Has that breaking of my independence come? All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is— will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable— “I have been crucified with Christ….”
The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I will not begin to be a saint.
One student a year who hears God’s call would be sufficient for God to have called the Bible Training College into existence. This college has no value as an organization, not even academically. Its sole value for existence is for God to help Himself to lives. Will we allow Him to help Himself to us, or are we more concerned with our own ideas of what we are going to be?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. Facing Reality, 34 R
Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 30-31; Philemon
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 03, 2022
WHY YOUR GOD IS TOO SMALL - #9344
Your first clue that something unusual ahead is a sign on the Interstate announcing what they call "the biggest cross in the Western Hemisphere." And, sure enough, as you approach that spot in Texas, you begin to see this huge white cross on the horizon. Actually, it doesn't look all that large from a distance. But then, as you drive that direction, it looks more and more impressive. Until you are coming up on it; (or especially when you do what I did), you stop and you stand at the foot of it - that cross is huge!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Your God Is Too Small."
When you're far away, that cross is nice but it's not particularly impressive. But the closer you get, the bigger it looks. Sadly, there are people, even good church people, who go through their life never realizing the magnitude of the God they belong to. He's nice, but they never really see how big He is because they never get close enough to Him to experience His amazingness. Their God is too small, so their life is too small.
The Apostle Paul didn't want the believers that he cared about to miss the awesomeness of the God they had. In Ephesians 3, beginning with verse 17, our word for today from the Word of God, he says, "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power... to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (In other words, so you can experience everything God's got.) Then Paul, who has paid the price to see God up close, describes what He's like when you see Him up close. He describes God as "Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us."
You don't get to see God that big by just taking your place at church every time the doors are open. You never see the amazingness of your Lord by just reading the Bible when you get around to it; by praying general, predictable prayers; by obeying God's Holy Spirit only when it's not too hard or not too risky. It is possible to be around Almighty God for your whole life and just keep a safe distance. You've determined how big God's piece of your life is going to be and that's that. But you'll never know what your life could have been if you would dare to step on the spiritual accelerator and experience God up close. When you do that, nothing else in your life ever needs to be overwhelming to you again except the overwhelming size of your God.
If you want to experience a big, big God, make a daily time with Him in His Word the non-negotiable of your personal schedule. You can't specialize in your Lord unless you specialize in His Word. Throw open the doors of your heart and tell Him, "Lord, I've played it safe long enough. I'm ready to go for everything you've got by surrendering everything I've got." Tell Him you're ready to follow Him out of your comfort zone; beyond where it feels safe.
We make serious mistakes because we forget, or we don't know, how very big our God is. We overestimate earth-stuff and underestimate our Almighty God. A safe distance turns out it really isn't safe at all. Don't just believe in Him, pursue Him with everything you've got. The closer you get, the more amazing He looks.