Max Lucado Daily: WITH THE ONES WE LOVE - November 22, 2022
Holiday travel. It isn’t easy. Then why do we do it? Why cram the trunks and endure the airports? You know the answer. We love to be with the ones we love. The four-year-old running up the sidewalk into the arms of Grandpa. The cup of coffee with Mom before the rest of the house awakes. That moment when, for a moment, everyone is quiet as we hold hands around the table and thank God for family and friends and pumpkin pie. We love to be with the ones we love.
May I remind you? So does God. How else do you explain what he did? Between him and us there was a distance—a great span—and he couldn’t bear it. He couldn’t stand it. So he did something about it. Philippians 2:7 reminds us, “He gave up his place with God and made himself nothing.”
Psalm 141
God, come close. Come quickly!
Open your ears—it’s my voice you’re hearing!
Treat my prayer as sweet incense rising;
my raised hands are my evening prayers.
3-7 Post a guard at my mouth, God,
set a watch at the door of my lips.
Don’t let me so much as dream of evil
or thoughtlessly fall into bad company.
And these people who only do wrong—
don’t let them lure me with their sweet talk!
May the Just One set me straight,
may the Kind One correct me,
Don’t let sin anoint my head.
I’m praying hard against their evil ways!
Oh, let their leaders be pushed off a high rock cliff;
make them face the music.
Like a rock pulverized by a maul,
let their bones be scattered at the gates of hell.
8-10 But God, dear Lord,
I only have eyes for you.
Since I’ve run for dear life to you,
take good care of me.
Protect me from their evil scheming,
from all their demonic subterfuge.
Let the wicked fall flat on their faces,
while I walk off without a scratch.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Today's Scripture
James 2:14–26
Faith in Action
14-17 Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?
18 I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.”
Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.
19-20 Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?
21-24 Wasn’t our ancestor Abraham “made right with God by works” when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn’t it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are “works of faith”? The full meaning of “believe” in the Scripture sentence, “Abraham believed God and was set right with God,” includes his action. It’s that weave of believing and acting that got Abraham named “God’s friend.” Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?
25-26 The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn’t her action in hiding God’s spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.
Insight
James 2:14–26 challenges the idea that faith can exist on its own apart from good actions. James said an opponent of this idea might argue that some believers in Jesus have faith, while other believers have works (v. 18). The opponent seems to be suggesting that either are valid strengths. James rejected the idea that faith and action can be put in separate categories, however, saying that true faith is impossible to verify without good actions (v. 18). He emphasized that true faith always flows into service on behalf of society’s marginalized and economically vulnerable (vv. 14–17). By: Monica La Rose
Faith in Action
Faith without deeds is dead. James 2:26
A tornado blew through a community on a June evening in 2021, destroying a family’s barn. It was a sad loss because the barn had been on the family property since the late 1800s. As John and Barb drove by on their way to church the next morning, they saw the damage and wondered how they might help. So they stopped and learned that the family needed assistance with cleanup. Turning their car around quickly, they headed back home to change clothes and returned to stay for the day to clean up the mess the violent winds had created. They put their faith into action as they served the family.
James said that “faith without deeds is dead” (James 2:26). He gives the example of Abraham, who in obedience followed God when he didn’t know where he was going (v. 23; see Genesis 12:1–4; 15:6; Hebrews 11:8). James also mentions Rahab, who showed her belief in the God of Israel when she hid the spies who came to check out the city of Jericho (James 2:25; see Joshua 2; 6:17).
“If someone claims to have faith but has no deeds” (James 2:14), it does them no good. “Faith is the root, good works are the fruits,” comments Matthew Henry, “and we must see to it that we have both.” God doesn’t need our good deeds, but our faith is proven by our actions. By: Anne Cetas
Reflect & Pray
Why do you think it’s important that we do good deeds? What can you do out of your love for God?
May I serve You out of my faith in You and love for You today, dear God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Shallow and Profound
Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. —1 Corinthians 10:31
Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful, for this is how contempt for others is produced in our lives. And it causes us to be a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than we are. Beware of posing as a profound person— God became a baby.
To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth to your life at all— the ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God. These are all things our Lord did. He did them as the Son of God, and He said, “A disciple is not above his teacher…” (Matthew 10:24).
We are safeguarded by the shallow things of life. We have to live the surface, commonsense life in a commonsense way. Then when God gives us the deeper things, they are obviously separated from the shallow concerns. Never show the depth of your life to anyone but God. We are so nauseatingly serious, so desperately interested in our own character and reputation, we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life.
Make a determination to take no one seriously except God. You may find that the first person you must be the most critical with, as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of pronouncing any verdict on the life of faith if you are not living it. Not Knowing Whither, 900 R
Bible in a Year: Ezekiel 18-19; James 4
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
TRYING TO BE SUPERMAN - #9357
Okay, I'm going to admit it. Sometimes I wear a Superman t-shirt to sleep. That's about as close to being Superman as I'll ever get. As far as leaping tall buildings in a single bound? Sometimes I have trouble getting off the floor.
But in some of the "Man of Steel" movies that were such box office hits, Superman is popping up or landing all over the place. And he would remind me of the sad reality that there really is no such thing as Superman.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Trying to be Superman."
Oh, if you're a man, you're supposed to be Superman. Never weak, life's bullets bouncing off you, the fixer, the solver, the answer man, the tower of strength, the conqueror. Above all - the conqueror. Because a man supposedly proves he's a man by conquests, right?. You win in sports, you win in business, in the gym, and with women. I'm learning, though, that those aren't the conquests that ultimately prove your manhood. No, here's the question: "Can you conquer yourself?"
What about that volcano temper that erupts briefly but scars permanently? How about that chainsaw mouth that rips even the people we love. That selfishness that insists "I'm more important than you are." The passions that cheapen sex, imprison your imagination. Those dark feelings that take us to some very bad places. The addiction that's calling the shots.
The Bible presents a man's conquest of himself as decisive in his manhood. In our word for today from the Word of God, Proverbs 16:32, God says, "It is better to be patient than powerful; it is better to have self-control than to conquer a city." And young men are praised for proving that they are strong by the evil they've overcome (1 John 2:14).
Every man has his Kryptonite. Denying our weakness only guarantees it's going to bring us down. Stuffing our pain just hastens an explosion. Pretending we've got it all together only sentences us to a very dangerous strain of lonely. Yeah, manhood is conquest - of myself. And that begins with taking off the Superman mask of invulnerability, admitting when I'm hurting, when I'm not sure, when I need someone.
A lot of men had a dad who always had to be tough, and right, and in control. But the son would have given anything to know if his dad was proud of him...to hear him apologize...to hear him say, "I love you." Even today there are scars from a dad's criticism, a dad's anger.
So I'm seeing now that "man up" may mean something quite different from the macho myths we were raised on. It means being man enough to say three of the most healing words in the English language "I was wrong" or "I forgive you."
Manhood is saying those words we thought showed weakness but actually prove strength. Like, "I need help" and saying them before the explosion comes, before I hurt more people, before I'm hooked and I can't get free. I can't conquer me alone. The man in the mirror is my biggest battle. But maybe if I swallow my stubborn pride, it could be my biggest conquest.
I have to agree with that guy in the Bible who said, "I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. Who will free me?" You can't be rescued until you admit you can't save yourself, and you're willing to pin all your hopes on somebody who can rescue you.
And "who will free me?" Well, the Bible's answers this way: "Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ" (Romans 7:15, 24-25). Because the animal inside us - sin, God calls it - can only be tamed by the Man who turned its fury on Himself. That's what Jesus did on the cross, to beat our sin and to be able to forgive us of it having paid our death penalty.
I am one of an army of men who have surrendered our lives to this amazing Jesus. Who've discovered that a man can finally conquer his darkness by being conquered - by the Son of God. I'll tell you how to get started with Him. Just go to our website. It's ANewStory.com.
Jesus has the power to conquer what has always conquered you. And you can trust Him because He loved you enough to die for you.