Max Lucado Daily: LOOK TO JESUS AND BELIEVE - July 18, 2023
It’s a simple promise: “Everyone who believes in him will have eternal life” (John 3:15 NLT). The simplicity troubles many people. We expect a more complicated cure, a more elaborate treatment. Others of us have written our own Bible verse: God helps those who help themselves. We’ll overcome our failures with hard work, thank you. We’ll find salvation the old-fashioned way: we’ll earn it. Christ, in contrast, says, “Your part is to trust. Trust me to do what you can’t.”
By the way, you take similar steps of trust daily, even hourly. You believe the chair will support you, so you set your weight on it. You trust the work of the light switch, so you flip it. You regularly trust power you cannot see to do a work you cannot accomplish. Jesus invites you to do the same with him. Look to Jesus…and believe.
Calm Moments for Anxious Days
Read more Calm Moments for Anxious Days
1 Chronicles 3
The Family of David
These are the sons that David had while he lived at Hebron:
His firstborn was Amnon by Ahinoam of Jezreel;
second, Daniel by Abigail of Carmel;
third, Absalom born of Maacah, daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;
fourth, Adonijah born of Haggith;
fifth, Shephatiah born of Abital;
sixth, Ithream born of his wife Eglah.
4-9 He had these six sons while he was in Hebron; he was king there for seven years and six months.
He went on to be king in Jerusalem for another thirty-three years. These are the sons he had in Jerusalem: first Shammua, then Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon. Bathsheba daughter of Ammiel was the mother of these four. And then there were another nine sons: Ibhar, Elishua, Eliphelet, Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada, Eliphelet—David’s sons, plus Tamar their sister. There were other sons by his concubines.
10-14 In the next generation Solomon had Rehoboam, who had Abijah, who had Asa, who had Jehoshaphat, who had Jehoram, who had Ahaziah, who had Joash, who had Amaziah, who had Azariah, who had Jotham, who had Ahaz, who had Hezekiah, who had Manasseh, who had Amon, who had Josiah.
15 Josiah’s firstborn was Johanan, followed by Jehoiakim, then Zedekiah, and finally Shallum.
16 Jehoiakim’s sons were Jeconiah (Jehoiachin) and Zedekiah.
17-18 The sons of Jeconiah born while he was captive in Babylon: Shealtiel, Malkiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah.
19-20 Pedaiah had Zerubbabel and Shimei; Zerubbabel had Meshullam and Hananiah. Shelomith was their sister. And then five more—Hashubah, Ohel, Berekiah, Hasadiah, and Jushab-Hesed.
21 Hananiah’s sons were Pelatiah and Jeshaiah. There were also sons of Rephaiah, sons of Arnan, sons of Obadiah, and sons of Shecaniah.
22 Shecaniah had Shemaiah who in his turn had Hattush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah, and Shaphat—six of them.
23 Neariah had three sons: Elioenai, Hizkiah, and Azrikam.
24 And Elioenai had seven sons: Hodaviah, Eliashib, Pelaiah, Akkub, Johanan, Delaiah, and Anani.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
Today's Scripture
2 Chronicles 33:10-16
But Manasseh led Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem off the beaten path into practices of evil exceeding even the evil of the pagan nations that God had earlier destroyed. When God spoke to Manasseh and his people about this, they ignored him.
11-13 Then God directed the leaders of the troops of the king of Assyria to come after Manasseh. They put a hook in his nose, shackles on his feet, and took him off to Babylon. Now that he was in trouble, he dropped to his knees in prayer asking for help—total repentance before the God of his ancestors. As he prayed, God was touched; God listened and brought him back to Jerusalem as king. That convinced Manasseh that God was in control.
14-17 After that Manasseh rebuilt the outside defensive wall of the City of David to the west of the Gihon spring in the valley. It went from the Fish Gate and around the hill of Ophel. He also increased its height. He tightened up the defense system by posting army captains in all the fortress cities of Judah. He also did a good spring cleaning on The Temple, carting out the pagan idols and the goddess statue. He took all the altars he had set up on The Temple hill and throughout Jerusalem and dumped them outside the city. He put the Altar of God back in working order and restored worship, sacrificing Peace-Offerings and Thank-Offerings. He issued orders to the people: “You shall serve and worship God, the God of Israel.” But the people didn’t take him seriously—they used the name “God” but kept on going to the old pagan neighborhood shrines and doing the same old things.
Insight
Under Assyrian rule, it wasn’t uncommon for rebellious kings to be deported as punishment. It seems that some who showed renewed loyalty may have been restored to serving as kings again. Some scholars believe it’s possible Manasseh was punished by Assyria for helping with a Babylonian uprising against Assyria (the revolt of Babylonian ruler Shamash-shum-ukin). Manasseh could later have been found innocent of involvement or pardoned. Whatever factors led to Manasseh’s humiliating downfall and later restoration to the throne (2 Chronicles 33:10–11), Manasseh recognized God’s hand at work (v. 13). By: Monica La Rose
Doing Something Right
In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly. 2 Chronicles 33:12
The letter from “Jason,” an inmate, surprised my wife and me. We “foster” puppies to become service dogs to assist people with disabilities. One such puppy had graduated to the next training phase, which was run by prisoners who've been taught how to train the dogs. Jason’s letter to us expressed sorrow for his past, but then he said, “Snickers is the seventeenth dog I’ve trained, and she is the best one. When I see her looking up at me, I feel like I’m finally doing something right.”
Jason isn’t the only one with regrets. We all have them. Manasseh, king of Judah, had plenty. Second Chronicles 33 outlines some of his atrocities: building sexually explicit altars to pagan gods (v. 3), practicing witchcraft, and sacrificing his own children (v. 6). He led the entire nation down this sordid path (v. 9).
“The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention” (v. 10). Eventually, God got his attention. The Assyrians invaded, “put a hook in his nose . . . and took him to Babylon” (v. 11). Next, Manasseh finally did something right. “He sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly” (v. 12). God heard him and restored him as king. Manasseh replaced the pagan practices with worship of the one true God (vv. 15–16).
Do your regrets threaten to consume you? It’s not too late. God hears our humble prayer of repentance.
By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
What regrets do you have? How might you honor God by letting Him redeem them and use you to serve Him?
Thank You, Father, that You’re always ready to hear my honest prayers.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
He said, "Who are You, Lord?" —Acts 9:5
Through the miracle of redemption, Saul of Tarsus was instantly changed from a strong-willed and forceful Pharisee into a humble and devoted bondservant of the Lord Jesus.
There is nothing miraculous or mysterious about the things we can explain. We control what we are able to explain, consequently it is only natural to seek an explanation for everything. It is not natural to obey, yet it is not necessarily sinful to disobey. There can be no real disobedience, nor any moral virtue in obedience, unless a person recognizes the higher authority of the one giving the orders. If this recognition does not exist, even the one giving the orders may view the other person’s disobedience as freedom. If one rules another by saying, “You must do this,” and, “You will do that,” he breaks the human spirit, making it unfit for God. A person is simply a slave for obeying, unless behind his obedience is the recognition of a holy God.
Many people begin coming to God once they stop being religious, because there is only one master of the human heart— Jesus Christ, not religion. But “Woe is me” if after seeing Him I still will not obey (Isaiah 6:5 , also see Isaiah 6:1). Jesus will never insist that I obey, but if I don’t,I have already begun to sign the death certificate of the Son of God in my soul. When I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and say, “I will not obey,” He will never insist. But when I do this, I am backing away from the recreating power of His redemption. It makes no difference to God’s grace what an abomination I am, if I will only come to the light. But “Woe is me” if I refuse the light (see John 3:19-21).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment.
Bible in a Year: Psalms 20-22; Acts 21:1-17
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
Soul Dirt - #9527
When you use our kitchen sink, you notice this little contraption attached to the faucet. It's one of those sophisticated water filters. Before the water arrives in your glass or container, it passes through that filter. Now, I don't know about you, but I hate surprises in my water. How about you? I mean, I was amazed the first time that we took that filter off to clean it. Oh, it needed lots of cleaning! It had screened out of our drinking water this layer of dirty stuff. I didn't even want to think about that going into my body. Let's hear it for the filter!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Soul Dirt."
That's actually what a lot of people are doing - drinking dirt. Mentally, that is, just getting a lot of things that are spiritually and morally impure poured right into your soul - unfiltered input. And if you belong to Jesus Christ, the dirt is rushing into what the Bible describes as the "temple of the Holy Spirit." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) God literally lives in you through His Holy Spirit. That's Holy Spirit. Dirty stuff should never defile His temple.
In fact, in our word for today from the Word of God, God clearly commands us to filter what's coming in. 2 Corinthians 7:1 says, "Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." A lot of times we don't have a spiritual filter for what we see and what we hear. Or we have a pretty wide screen on that filter - one porous enough to let in a lot that has no place in a heart or a mind that's owned by Jesus and inhabited by the Holy Spirit of God.
Sometimes it takes a child to show us "sophisticated" adults how we should be living. The teacher was a five-year-old, our grandson, who was watching a new crop of kids' shows some years ago. Captain Kangaroo and Mister Rogers (some of you are going, "What?") are long gone, and yes, I think Big Bird might still be flying around Sesame Street. But then there was Dora the Explorer, Bob the Builder, a tomato named Bob. Our grandson, well, he had a few favorites he liked to watch. But then one day he walked over to the television and did something he did not do with this program that he liked a lot. He turned it off in the middle of the show. The story was starting to involve some ghost and witch stuff. When Daddy asked our grandson why he had turned off one of his favorites, he just said, "It was a bad one, Daddy."
The radar of a five-year-old boy in whom Jesus lives. He knew that no matter how much he liked the show, no matter how many shows they have where there's nothing bad, when it is bad, it isn't for him. You know what? That's a model for a Jesus-follower of any age. But all too often, we watch portrayed, or we read about, or we listen to something that is part of the very sin that Jesus died for.
The Bible says He carried our sins in His body on the tree, "that we might die to sins" (1 Peter 2:24). So what business do we have letting in things that portray premarital sex, or nudity, or adultery, or occult practices that the Bible calls an "abomination." You can't turn on the TV or radio or go to a website and then turn off being a temple of the Holy Spirit. We're most likely to let in the garbage when it's wrapped in a package that's funny, or entertaining, or has a great beat, or is clever, or popular. Satan's no dummy! He comes in under the radar, like a Stealth Bomber, when your guard's down.
It's not to be taken lightly when God gives a command that says, "Above all else..." And He does that in Proverbs 4:23. "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Guard your heart as the spiritual reservoir from which you drink all day long. If it's a "bad one," you've got to turn it off if you're serious about really being His man or woman. If you don't want to let dirt into the Holy Spirit's house, filter what you let come in. You wouldn't knowingly let your mouth drink dirt. Well, then, don't let your soul do it!
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