Max Lucado Daily: HOW ARE WE SAVED? - November 8, 2022
If we’re saved by good works, we don’t need God. Weekly reminders of do’s and don’ts will get us to heaven. If we’re saved by suffering, we certainly don’t need God. If we’re saved by doctrine then, for heaven’s sake, let’s study! But be careful, student. For if you’re saved by having exact doctrine, then one mistake could be fatal.
That goes for those who believe we’re made right with God through deeds. I hope the temptation is never greater than the strength. If it is, a bad fall could be a bad omen. And those who think we’re saved by suffering, take caution as well, for you never know how much suffering is required.
It took Paul decades to discover what he wrote in only one sentence. Romans 3:28, “A person is made right with God through faith.” Not through good works, suffering, or study. Just faith.
Psalm 68
Up with God!
Down with his enemies!
Adversaries, run for the hills!
Gone like a puff of smoke,
like a blob of wax in the fire—
one look at God and the wicked vanish.
When the righteous see God in action
they’ll laugh, they’ll sing,
they’ll laugh and sing for joy.
Sing hymns to God;
all heaven, sing out;
clear the way for the coming of Cloud-Rider.
Enjoy God,
cheer when you see him!
5-6 Father of orphans,
champion of widows,
is God in his holy house.
God makes homes for the homeless,
leads prisoners to freedom,
but leaves rebels to rot in hell.
7-10 God, when you took the lead with your people,
when you marched out into the wild,
Earth shook, sky broke out in a sweat;
God was on the march.
Even Sinai trembled at the sight of God on the move,
at the sight of Israel’s God.
You pour out rain in buckets, O God;
thorn and cactus become an oasis
For your people to camp in and enjoy.
You set them up in business;
they went from rags to riches.
11-14 The Lord gave the word;
thousands called out the good news:
“Kings of the armies
are on the run, on the run!”
While housewives, safe and sound back home,
divide up the plunder,
the plunder of Canaanite silver and gold.
On that day that Shaddai scattered the kings,
snow fell on Black Mountain.
15-16 You huge mountains, Bashan mountains,
mighty mountains, dragon mountains.
All you mountains not chosen,
sulk now, and feel sorry for yourselves,
For this is the mountain God has chosen to live on;
he’ll rule from this mountain forever.
17-18 The chariots of God, twice ten thousand,
and thousands more besides,
The Lord in the lead, riding down Sinai—
straight to the Holy Place!
You climbed to the High Place, captives in tow,
your arms full of plunder from rebels,
And now you sit there in state,
God, sovereign God!
19-23 Blessed be the Lord—
day after day he carries us along.
He’s our Savior, our God, oh yes!
He’s God-for-us, he’s God-who-saves-us.
Lord God knows all
death’s ins and outs.
What’s more, he made heads roll,
split the skulls of the enemy
As he marched out of heaven,
saying, “I tied up the Dragon in knots,
put a muzzle on the Deep Blue Sea.”
You can wade through your enemies’ blood,
and your dogs taste of your enemies from your boots.
24-31 See God on parade
to the sanctuary, my God,
my King on the march!
Singers out front, the band behind,
maidens in the middle with castanets.
The whole choir blesses God.
Like a fountain of praise, Israel blesses God.
Look—little Benjamin’s out
front and leading
Princes of Judah in their royal robes,
princes of Zebulun, princes of Naphtali.
Parade your power, O God,
the power, O God, that made us what we are.
Your temple, High God, is Jerusalem;
kings bring gifts to you.
Rebuke that old crocodile, Egypt,
with her herd of wild bulls and calves,
Rapacious in her lust for silver,
crushing peoples, spoiling for a fight.
Let Egyptian traders bring blue cloth
and Cush come running to God, her hands outstretched.
32-34 Sing, O kings of the earth!
Sing praises to the Lord!
There he is: Sky-Rider,
striding the ancient skies.
Listen—he’s calling in thunder,
rumbling, rolling thunder.
Call out “Bravo!” to God,
the High God of Israel.
His splendor and strength
rise huge as thunderheads.
35 A terrible beauty, O God,
streams from your sanctuary.
It’s Israel’s strong God! He gives
power and might to his people!
O you, his people—bless God!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, November 08, 2022
Today's Scripture
Leviticus 19:15–18
“Don’t pervert justice. Don’t show favoritism to either the poor or the great. Judge on the basis of what is right.
16 “Don’t spread gossip and rumors.
“Don’t just stand by when your neighbor’s life is in danger. I am God.
17 “Don’t secretly hate your neighbor. If you have something against him, get it out into the open; otherwise you are an accomplice in his guilt.
18 “Don’t seek revenge or carry a grudge against any of your people.
“Love your neighbor as yourself. I am God.
Insight
Bible commentator Gordon J. Wenham points out how easy it may be for modern readers to miss the connection between verses 15 and 16 of Leviticus 19. A key concept here is neighbor. In the community life of Israel, legal proceedings didn’t take place at distant seats of judgment; they occurred within the community, often in the same neighborhood. Hence, gossip, slander, or jumping to conclusions about a person you knew well and who faced legal proceedings could be a very real temptation. This naturally leads in to verse 17, in which the people are exhorted not to harbor grudges against a “fellow Israelite” but rather to take disputes to them openly, even before such a conflict requires legal intervention. And this, in turn, leads to the well-known command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 18).
By: Tim Gustafson
Loving Our Neighbors
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. Leviticus 19:18
In the days of self-isolation and lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, words by Martin Luther King Jr. in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” rang true. Speaking about injustice, he remarked how he couldn’t sit idly in one city and not be concerned about what happens in another. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,” he said, “tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects us all indirectly.”
Likewise, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted our connectedness as around the world cities and countries closed to stop the spread of the virus. What affected one city could soon affect another.
Many centuries ago, God instructed His people how to show concern for others. Through Moses, He gave the Israelites the law to guide them and help them live together. He told them to “not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life” (Leviticus 19:16); and to not seek revenge or bear a grudge against others, but to “love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 18). God knew that communities would start to unravel if people didn’t look out for others, valuing their lives as much as they did their own.
We too can embrace the wisdom of God’s instructions. As we go about our daily activities, we can remember how interconnected we are with others as we ask Him how to love and serve them well.
By: Amy Boucher Pye
Reflect & Pray
Why do you think Jesus echoed God’s law when He told the religious leaders to love their neighbors as themselves? How could you put this instruction into action today?
Loving Creator, help me to share Your love and grace today.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, November 08, 2022
The Unrivaled Power of Prayer
We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. —Romans 8:26
We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; and we know what it is to pray in accordance with the Spirit; but we don’t often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays prayers in us which we cannot utter ourselves. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.
“He,” the Holy Spirit in you, “makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27). And God searches your heart, not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the Holy Spirit is.
The Spirit of God uses the nature of the believer as a temple in which to offer His prayers of intercession. “…your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit…” (1 Corinthians 6:19). When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, “…He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple” (Mark 11:16). The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple, and said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer…. But you have made it a ‘den of thieves’ ” (Mark 11:17).
Have we come to realize that our “body is the temple of the Holy Spirit”? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, even though only a small part of our total person, is to be regarded by us as a “temple of the Holy Spirit.” He will be responsible for the unconscious part which we don’t know, but we must pay careful attention to and guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
An intellectual conception of God may be found in a bad vicious character. The knowledge and vision of God is dependent entirely on a pure heart. Character determines the revelation of God to the individual. The pure in heart see God. Biblical Ethics, 125 R
Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 43-45; Hebrews 5
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, November 08, 2022
THE DARKNESS IN OUR HEARTS - #9347
I've been to South Africa several times. I love those accents, but not when they're talking about an inspirational sports icon killing his girlfriend. You may remember some years ago there was a lot of fog about what exactly happened, but what we do know is that South Africa's Olympic hero admittedly shot his girlfriend four times. Now, he said accidentally and the police said on purpose.
Well, it's all the more disturbing because he was such an overcomer; a double-amputee, running on carbon-fiber blades, competing as an Olympic runner. He made history. He inspired people around the world. And then suddenly he was facing first degree murder charges. It was an extreme example. But there's been a growing list of fallen sports heroes we continue to hear about. One observer said, "It seems like it's almost one a month these days."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Darkness In Our Hearts."
Let's see, the world's greatest biker says he did it with dope, the world's greatest golfer admitted that he cheated on his wife, Hall of Fame-bound baseball stars were derailed by the discovery that those biceps were really built with steroids. It feels like pedestals are anchored in quicksand, because our heroes, no matter what their field, keep falling off their pedestal and into the mud.
It's not just athletes. Sometimes it's an influential politician, or maybe a respected business leader, even a gifted preacher or musician. You start to wonder, "Who's next?" What makes us put someone on that pedestal is that they do something really well. But, see, there's also character - "what you are when no one's around," or "what you are in the dark." That's real gold medal stuff.
Personally, I've decided that pedestals are a bad idea anyway; either putting someone on one or wanting to be on one yourself. None of us should be too enamored with compliments, or awards, or the "wins" we get. From God's viewpoint - and what should be our viewpoint - it's your character, not your performance that makes you truly great. You can get some awesome headlines and have an awful heart.
The Bible says that "man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). And in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Chronicles 16:9, the Bible says, "The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him." Those who will "medal" in heaven (that's as in gold medal) are those Jesus is going to greet with, "Well done, good and faithful servant!" (Matthew 25:21). Not "good and successful" - "good and faithful." The true hero is the person who is a hero outside and inside. The closer you get to them, the better they look.
What matters most is not what the folks who know the "platform me" think. It's the people who know me best - who see you unplugged, when there's no one to impress. Do they say, "Yup, he's the same guy all the time"? Or, when I'm "doing what I do," are they asking, "Where did that great guy suddenly come from?" Or, "if they only knew what he's really like..."
An EKG reveals that someone who's the picture of health on the outside may have a deadly heart condition on the inside. Which, according to the Bible, we all do. The Bible says, "The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9 ). That's why I need a Savior. That's why you need a Savior. Not just a religion about a Savior. All that can do is make me look healthy on the outside. I need the Master Heart Surgeon. The Bible says that "He alone can cleanse you from all your impurities." And it says He can "give you a new heart" (Ezekiel 36:26). In fact, the sin-cancer is so horrific it took blood to cure it - Jesus' blood, shed on the cross.
He makes unheralded people into authentic heroes because they have a heart like His. You're blessed if you know one. You're more blessed if you are one. You'll leave a Jesus-trail wherever you go. If you're ready for that heart transplant that only Jesus can do; a new beginning, forgiving all of your failures, and giving you the ability to be a Jesus-person in your family, at work and in all your relationships, open your heart today. Say, "Jesus, I'm yours"
We'd love to show you how to do that. And that's why our website's there. It's ANewStory.com. And let today be the day your new story begins.