Max Lucado Daily: THE REALITY OF LOVE - November 10, 2022
In the summer before 8th-grade, I made friends with a guy named Larry. He was new to town, so I encouraged him to go out for our school football team. It was a good news/bad news scenario. The good news? He made the cut. The bad news? He won my position. I tried to be happy for him, but it was tough.
A few weeks into the season Larry fell and broke a finger. I remember the day he stood at my front door holding up his bandaged hand. “Looks like you’re going to have to play,” he said.
The passage Paul wrote was a lot easier for him to write than it was for me to practice. “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” You want to plumb the depths of your respect and love for somebody? Then answer the question: How do you feel when that person succeeds? And how do you feel when that person struggles?
Psalm 86
Bend an ear, God; answer me.
I’m one miserable wretch!
Keep me safe—haven’t I lived a good life?
Help your servant—I’m depending on you!
You’re my God; have mercy on me.
I count on you from morning to night.
Give your servant a happy life;
I put myself in your hands!
You’re well-known as good and forgiving,
bighearted to all who ask for help.
Pay attention, God, to my prayer;
bend down and listen to my cry for help.
Every time I’m in trouble I call on you,
confident that you’ll answer.
8-10 There’s no one quite like you among the gods, O Lord,
and nothing to compare with your works.
All the nations you made are on their way,
ready to give honor to you, O Lord,
Ready to put your beauty on display,
parading your greatness,
And the great things you do—
God, you’re the one, there’s no one but you!
11-17 Train me, God, to walk straight;
then I’ll follow your true path.
Put me together, one heart and mind;
then, undivided, I’ll worship in joyful fear.
From the bottom of my heart I thank you, dear Lord;
I’ve never kept secret what you’re up to.
You’ve always been great toward me—what love!
You snatched me from the brink of disaster!
God, these bullies have reared their heads!
A gang of thugs is after me—
and they don’t care a thing about you.
But you, O God, are both tender and kind,
not easily angered, immense in love,
and you never, never quit.
So look me in the eye and show kindness,
give your servant the strength to go on,
save your dear, dear child!
Make a show of how much you love me
so the bullies who hate me will stand there slack-jawed,
As you, God, gently and powerfully
put me back on my feet.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 10, 2022
Today's Scripture
Proverbs 27:6–10
The wounds from a lover are worth it;
kisses from an enemy do you in.
7 When you’ve stuffed yourself, you refuse dessert;
when you’re starved, you could eat a horse.
8 People who won’t settle down, wandering hither and yon,
are like restless birds, flitting to and fro.
9 Just as lotions and fragrance give sensual delight,
a sweet friendship refreshes the soul.
10 Don’t leave your friends or your parents’ friends
and run home to your family when things get rough;
Better a nearby friend
than a distant family.
Insight
The word friend occurs several times in the Bible. In many of the occurrences in the book of Job, Job grieves the behavior of those he once called friends (Job 12:4; 19:14). In the Psalms, David struggles over friends who’ve betrayed him (Psalms 31:11; 38:11; 41:9; 55:12–14; 109:4–5). Proverbs provides helpful words about what friendship is and isn’t. We see two of those references in today’s text (Proverbs 27:6, 10). Further sage advice from Proverbs includes: “the righteous choose their friends carefully” (12:26); “a gossip separates close friends” (16:28); and “do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered” (22:24). Perhaps the best insight is that “a friend loves at all times” (17:17). As Abraham and Moses discovered, our truest and greatest friend is God (Exodus 33:11; James 2:23). By: Alyson Kieda
Legacy of Friends
A friend loves at all times. Proverbs 17:17
I met him in the 1970s when I was a high school English teacher and basketball coach, and he was a tall, gangly freshman. Soon he was on my basketball team and in my classes—and a friendship was formed. This same friend, who had served with me as a fellow editor for many years, stood before me at my retirement party and shared about the legacy of our longstanding friendship.
What is it about friends connected by the love of God that encourages us and brings us closer to Jesus? The writer of Proverbs understood that friendship has two encouraging components: First, true friends give valuable advice, even if it’s not easy to give or take (27:6): “Wounds from a friend can be trusted,” the writer explains. Second, a friend who is nearby and accessible is important in times of crisis: “Better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away” (v. 10).
It’s not good for us to fly solo in life. As Solomon noted: “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed” (Ecclesiastes 4:9 nlt). In life, we need to have friends and we need to be friends. May God help us “love one another with brotherly affection” (Romans 12:10 esv) and “carry each other’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2)—becoming the kind of friend that can encourage others and draw them closer to the love of Jesus. By: Dave Branon
Reflect & Pray
In what sense could you be isolating yourself from others? How can you regularly connect with some strong believers in Jesus to encourage each other?
Dear God, search my heart regarding my friends. Please help me provide Christ-centered counsel to them and receive godly wisdom from them.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 10, 2022
Fellowship in the Gospel
…fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ… —1 Thessalonians 3:2
After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, “God has called me for this and for that,” you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God’s interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.
I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, “Lord, this causes me such heartache.” To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy “world within the world,” and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being “frost-bitten.”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not fundamentally free; external circumstances are not in our hands, they are in God’s hands, the one thing in which we are free is in our personal relationship to God. We are not responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us; we can either allow them to get on top of us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be. Conformed to His Image, 354 L
Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 48-49; Hebrews 7
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 10, 2022
THE MISSING WORD IN YOUR FAITH - #9349
This might come as a surprise to you, but athletes often have egos as big as their biceps. One way I've observed that is that I used to take a lot of pictures of our local high school football team. And I would ask my youngest son, "What happens when we tell the players that we're going to show some of those pictures at an event?" And he said, "Well, instead of three people coming, about 300 come." "Why is that?" "All because they all want to see themselves on the big screen." That would happen. One of the fellows would come up to me afterwards and he'd say, "You didn't have me in any of the pictures Mr. Hutch."
Well, at the end of the season, we had a dinner for those fellows. I had a chance to share the Gospel and give them a chance to give their lives to Christ. What we would do is that they would have a chance afterwards to take a picture from the season home with them. I'd tell them that they could pick one picture and take it home with them. and I never had anyone take a picture of somebody else! Strangely enough, they always took a picture of themselves. I don't think they're that unique. I find that people never really get interested in a picture until they see themselves in it."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Missing Word In Your Faith."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 20:27-28. It's after the amazing resurrection of Jesus. He has appeared to all the disciples but Thomas. The disciples said, "We have seen the Lord!" Thomas said, "I don't believe it unless I can touch the nail marks in His hands and feet and thrust my hand into His side." Now Jesus appeared to them and Thomas is there. Here's what happened: "Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.' Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God!'"
You know what impresses me most in this story? The pronouns. Let's go back through it and see if I remember anything from English class. It's first person and it's possessive. It's not our; it's not your. He says, "Jesus, you are my Lord, my God." You know, it's possible to be around Jesus your whole life and never make Him yours. Maybe you've heard about Christ for years, you've sung about Him, you've talked about Him, you've prayed to Him, but there's never been a moment when you really made Jesus first person singular for you.
Listen, walk with me up that hill outside of Jerusalem called Skull Hill, and think of Jesus being on that middle cross. Have you ever looked up to Him and said the two words that make all the difference between whether you know Him or not, whether you're saved or lost, whether you'll go to heaven or hell. The two words are, "For me. Jesus, you did it for me. It's my sin you're paying for and I want You to be my Savior. I believe you were their Savior for a long time, but I want you to be my Savior."
Many years ago a man in England toured a locomotive factory, and he was very impressed by the guide who took him around. As that man extended his hand to shake hands, he noticed the guide's hand drew up on him. Apparently the guide could tell that the visitor was a little uneasy with that, and he said, "Let me explain, Sir. Some years ago I was working on the tracks and I was in an industrial accident; I drove a spike through that hand and I've never been able to open and close that hand since."
I want to know Jesus as Lord as closely as that. Those spikes were driven in those hands for you. He's reaching out today through this program to you one more time. You've heard about Him before, but you've never taken it for yourself. With all the faith you've got, today reach out to Him and say, "Jesus, today you are my Lord, you are my God."
I'd love to help you cross that line and experience His love for yourself today. That's what we do at our website. I hope you'll go there next. ANewStory.com. That's it. This could be the day that the Savior who died for the whole world becomes your personal Savior.
