Max Lucado Daily: LET YOUR HEART LEAD - November 9, 2022
Tears represent the heart, the spirit, and the soul of a person. To put a lock and key on your emotions is to bury part of your Christlikeness. Especially when you come to Calvary.
You can’t go to the cross with just your head and not your heart. It doesn’t work that way. Calvary is not a mental trip. It’s not an intellectual exercise. It’s not a divine calculation or a cold theological principle. It’s a heart-splitting hour of emotion.
Don’t walk away dry-eyed and unstirred. Don’t just straighten your tie and clear your throat. Don’t descend Calvary cool and collected. Please…pause. Look again. Those are nails in those hands. That’s God on that cross. And it’s us who put him there. No wonder they call him the Savior.
Psalm 72
Give the gift of wise rule to the king, O God,
the gift of just rule to the crown prince.
May he judge your people rightly,
be honorable to your meek and lowly.
Let the mountains give exuberant witness;
shape the hills with the contours of right living.
Please stand up for the poor,
help the children of the needy,
come down hard on the cruel tyrants.
Outlast the sun, outlive the moon—
age after age after age.
Be rainfall on cut grass,
earth-refreshing rain showers.
Let righteousness burst into blossom
and peace abound until the moon fades to nothing.
Rule from sea to sea,
from the River to the Rim.
9-14 Foes will fall on their knees before God,
his enemies lick the dust.
Kings remote and legendary will pay homage,
kings rich and resplendent will turn over their wealth.
All kings will fall down and worship,
and godless nations sign up to serve him,
Because he rescues the poor at the first sign of need,
the destitute who have run out of luck.
He opens a place in his heart for the down-and-out,
he restores the wretched of the earth.
He frees them from tyranny and torture—
when they bleed, he bleeds;
when they die, he dies.
15-17 And live! Oh, let him live!
Deck him out in Sheba gold.
Offer prayers unceasing to him,
bless him from morning to night.
Fields of golden grain in the land,
cresting the mountains in wild exuberance,
Cornucopias of praise, praises
springing from the city like grass from the earth.
May he never be forgotten,
his fame shine on like sunshine.
May all godless people enter his circle of blessing
and bless the One who blessed them.
18-20 Blessed God, Israel’s God,
the one and only wonder-working God!
Blessed always his blazing glory!
All earth brims with his glory.
Yes and Yes and Yes.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, November 09, 2022
Today's Scripture Ephesians 5:15–17
Don’t waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It’s a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.
Wake up from your sleep,
Climb out of your coffins;
Christ will show you the light!
So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!
17 Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants.
Insight
To live a meaningful and purposeful life, “a life worthy of the calling” (Ephesians 4:1), Paul told believers to be careful, wise, and make “the most of every opportunity” to do good (5:15–17). Being careful is being wise, for an unwise person or a fool is both careless and reckless (Proverbs 12:15; 14:16). Careful living means living as “children of light” and striving to do “what pleases the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8, 10). In another letter, Paul said, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity” to share the gospel (Colossians 4:5). To the Galatian believers he said, “Let us not become weary in doing good . . . . As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:9–10). By: K. T. Sim
Wise or Unwise?
Understand what the Lord’s will is. Ephesians 5:17
When I was ten, I brought home a cassette tape from a friend at youth group that contained the music of a contemporary Christian band. My dad, who had been raised in a Hindu home but had received salvation in Jesus, didn’t approve. He only wanted worship music played in our home. I explained it was a Christian band, but that didn’t change his mind. After a while, he suggested that I listen to the songs for a week and then decide if they brought me closer to God or pushed me further away from Him. There was some helpful wisdom in that advice.
There are things in life that are clearly right or wrong, but many times we wrestle with disputable matters (Romans 14:1–19). In deciding what to do, we can seek the wisdom found in Scripture. Paul encouraged the Ephesian believers to “be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise” (Ephesians 5:15). Like a good parent, Paul knew that he couldn’t possibly be there or give instructions for every situation. If they were going to “[make] the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil,” they were going to have to discern for themselves and “understand what the Lord’s will is” (vv. 16–17). A life of wisdom is an invitation to pursue discernment and good decisions as God guides us even when we wrestle with what might be disputable.
By: Glenn Packiam
Reflect & Pray
How can you determine what will be wise or foolish as you make decisions? How can you seek God’s guidance?
Dear Jesus, cultivate a heart of wisdom in me. Enable me to live my life in a way that will always draw me closer to You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, November 09, 2022
Sacred Service
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ… —Colossians 1:24
The Christian worker has to be a sacred “go-between.” He must be so closely identified with his Lord and the reality of His redemption that Christ can continually bring His creating life through him. I am not referring to the strength of one individual’s personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through every aspect of the worker’s life. When we preach the historical facts of the life and death of our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacred. God uses these words, on the basis of His redemption, to create something in those who listen which otherwise could never have been created. If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His. We must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do.
When we say, “What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!” then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal. If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus says we are to lift up only Him (see John 12:32).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching; it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz. into character. We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something. The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 664 L
Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 46-47; Hebrews 6
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, November 09, 2022
TIME TO CHOOSE YOUR SIDE - #9348
Okay, I admit I'm a history guy. I stop at President's houses and all these places like that. My poor kids have gone on more tours of places: Revolutionary War, Civil War. And, of course we're going to stop and see that. We'd just come back from a vacation that had included a tour of a Civil War battlefield and we had our appropriate souvenirs. That night there was actually a revealing addition to my wife's and my room! On her side there was a gray hat, on my side there was a blue hat. We were just goofing! But guess who grew up in the south, and guess who grew up in the north. But I'll tell you what. Back in those days, as in many battles throughout history, the color of your uniform made you the other guy's target.
There's a story about one soldier during the Civil War who tried his own unique method of staying safe. He decided he'd wear a blue coat and gray pants. One small problem: he got shot at on both ends.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Time to Choose Your Side."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 19:38 - a man who had to make that choice. We're going to look at an amazing day in the life of this man who in a sense literally tried to wear two opposing uniforms.
Joseph of Arimathea - the scene is right after the death of Jesus, and it says, "Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilot for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate's permission he came and took the body away." We know now, and we'll know for all history that Joseph said, "I want Jesus buried in my tomb." But, see, this is a man who wore the uniform of Jesus in his heart but who operated in surroundings and with people where Jesus wasn't respected. And that could cost him a lot for people in his circle to know of his allegiance to Jesus! So on the outside he wore the uniform of his environment, blending in, but on the inside, he had his Jesus uniform. This sound a little familiar at all?
Is there a place where you cover up your Jesus uniform because it might cost you to show it, like at your job, or in school, with a particular group of people, at the gym, with certain associates, with your family, on social media? Well, the problem is when you don't choose your uniform, you just get pressure from both sides. You haven't declared the Jesus difference in your life to the unbelievers around you so they continue to expect you to be like them. Meanwhile, you have a Christian world that knows your Jesus side and expects you to live like you belong to Him! When you don't choose, you've got pressure from both sides.
Well, be encouraged with what happened to Joseph. Suddenly he blew his cover, he went public, he acted as if he didn't care who knew he belonged to Jesus. What happened here? The cross happened. Joseph must have seen what Jesus suffered that day and he couldn't deny his Savior anymore. Like Joseph, maybe it's time for you to say, "Jesus, if you could hang on a cross and die publicly for me, unashamed, I can live publicly for you."
It was after an event where we had challenged Christian young people to be a Jesus ambassador to their friends. A young 12-year-old girl surprised her mom; I guess it was the next day. She'd had Jesus shirts but she only wore them to Christian places, but the morning after this rally she appeared ready for school wearing one of her Jesus shirts and her Mom was kind of taken aback. She said, "You're wearing that to school?" And her daughter replied, "Mom, today I am going to start making a difference."
Well, it's not necessarily about wearing a Christian shirt or handing out Christian literature. But it is about making a firm decision to choose your uniform once and for all. To belong to Jesus and not care who knows it. To bring up your relationship with Him whenever there's an opportunity; to seek opportunities to tell people about that relationship.
Here's God's charge to you in Ephesians 6:13, "Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand" Well, if you've tried maybe serving two masters haven't you done that long enough? You've postponed choosing your uniform long enough. Jesus stood for you, and He didn't care what it cost. It's time you did that for Him.