Max Lucado Daily: BOUNCE BACK - September 22, 2023
Jacob’s rap sheet included words like cheater, deceiver, trickster, grifter, liar. He was a bit of a mess. Aren’t we all? Like him, our spiritual walk follows a crooked path. And we wonder, does God have a place for us? Well the answer through Jacob is “yes.” God uses flawed folks. He doesn’t cast us out when we deserve it.
He does, however, let us reap what we sow. Evil rebounds. So does good. Jesus summed up the bounce-back principle when he said, “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:2 NIV). Do you want God to disperse mercy upon you with a bucket? Then use a bucket as you disperse mercy to others. Would you want him to use a teaspoon? Well, you get the point. God never gives up on you.
2 Corinthians 2
That’s why I decided not to make another visit that could only be painful to both of us. If by merely showing up I would put you in an embarrassingly painful position, how would you then be free to cheer and refresh me?
3–4 That was my reason for writing a letter instead of coming—so I wouldn’t have to spend a miserable time disappointing the very friends I had looked forward to cheering me up. I was convinced at the time I wrote it that what was best for me was also best for you. As it turned out, there was pain enough just in writing that letter, more tears than ink on the parchment. But I didn’t write it to cause pain; I wrote it so you would know how much I care—oh, more than care—love you!
5–8 Now, regarding the one who started all this—the person in question who caused all this pain—I want you to know that I am not the one injured in this as much as, with a few exceptions, all of you. So I don’t want to come down too hard. What the majority of you agreed to as punishment is punishment enough. Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it. My counsel now is to pour on the love.
9–11 The focus of my letter wasn’t on punishing the offender but on getting you to take responsibility for the health of the church. So if you forgive him, I forgive him. Don’t think I’m carrying around a list of personal grudges. The fact is that I’m joining in with your forgiveness, as Christ is with us, guiding us. After all, we don’t want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief—we’re not oblivious to his sly ways!
An Open Door
12–14 When I arrived in Troas to proclaim the Message of the Messiah, I found the place wide open: God had opened the door; all I had to do was walk through it. But when I didn’t find Titus waiting for me with news of your condition, I couldn’t relax. Worried about you, I left and came on to Macedonia province looking for Titus and a reassuring word on you. And I got it, thank God!
14–16 In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.
16–17 This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No—but at least we don’t take God’s Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, September 22, 2023
Today's Scripture
Isaiah 65:16–22
Then whoever prays a blessing in the land
will use my faithful name for the blessing,
And whoever takes an oath in the land
will use my faithful name for the oath,
Because the earlier troubles are gone and forgotten,
banished far from my sight.
New Heavens and a New Earth
17–25 “Pay close attention now:
I’m creating new heavens and a new earth.
All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain
are things of the past, to be forgotten.
Look ahead with joy.
Anticipate what I’m creating:
I’ll create Jerusalem as sheer joy,
create my people as pure delight.
I’ll take joy in Jerusalem,
take delight in my people:
No more sounds of weeping in the city,
no cries of anguish;
No more babies dying in the cradle,
or old people who don’t enjoy a full lifetime;
One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal—
anything less will seem like a cheat.
They’ll build houses
and move in.
They’ll plant fields
and eat what they grow.
No more building a house
that some outsider takes over,
No more planting fields
that some enemy confiscates,
For my people will be as long-lived as trees,
my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.
Insight
In the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, the apostle John writes of the certainty of “what must soon take place” (Revelation 1:1; see 22:6). At the conclusion of human history and the ushering in of eternity, God will say, “I am making everything new!” (21:5) and will gift us with “a new heaven and a new earth” (v. 1). This creation of a new heaven and new earth isn’t something revealed only to John. Seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, God, through the prophet Isaiah, had declared, “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17)—a world that “will endure” (66:22) and “where righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). By: K. T. Sim
Beautiful Restoration
The past troubles will be forgotten . . . . See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. Isaiah 65:16–17
In his wonderful book Art + Faith: A Theology of Making, renowned artist Makoto Fujimura describes the ancient Japanese art form of Kintsugi. In it, the artist takes broken pottery (originally tea ware) and pieces the shards back together with lacquer, threading gold into the cracks. “Kintsugi,” Fujimura explains, “does not just ‘fix’ or repair a broken vessel; rather, the technique makes the broken pottery even more beautiful than the original.” Kintsugi, first implemented centuries ago when a warlord’s favorite cup was destroyed and then beautifully restored, became art that’s highly prized and desired.
Isaiah describes God artfully enacting this kind of restoration with the world. Though we’re broken by our rebellion and shattered by our selfishness, God promises to “create new heavens and a new earth” (65:17). He plans not merely to repair the old world but to make it entirely new, to take our ruin and fashion a world shimmering with fresh beauty. This new creation will be so stunning that “past troubles will be forgotten” and “former things will not be remembered” (vv. 16–17). With this new creation, God won’t scramble to cover our mistakes but rather will unleash His creative energy—energy where ugly things become beautiful and dead things breathe anew.
As we survey our shattered lives, there’s no need for despair. God is working His beautiful restoration. By: Winn Collier
Reflect & Pray
What needs beautiful restoration? How does this imagery of “new creation” stir hope in you?
Dear God, please restore me and make my world new.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, September 22, 2023
The Missionary’s Master and Teacher
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am ….I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master… —John 13:13, 16
To have a master and teacher is not the same thing as being mastered and taught. Having a master and teacher means that there is someone who knows me better than I know myself, who is closer than a friend, and who understands the remotest depths of my heart and is able to satisfy them fully. It means having someone who has made me secure in the knowledge that he has met and solved all the doubts, uncertainties, and problems in my mind. To have a master and teacher is this and nothing less— “…for One is your Teacher, the Christ…” (Matthew 23:8).
Our Lord never takes measures to make me do what He wants. Sometimes I wish God would master and control me to make me do what He wants, but He will not. And at other times I wish He would leave me alone, and He does not.
“You call Me Teacher and Lord…”— but is He? Teacher, Master, and Lord have little place in our vocabulary. We prefer the words Savior, Sanctifier, and Healer. The only word that truly describes the experience of being mastered is love, and we know little about love as God reveals it in His Word. The way we use the word obey is proof of this. In the Bible, obedience is based on a relationship between equals; for example, that of a son with his father. Our Lord was not simply God’s servant— He was His Son. “…though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience…” (Hebrews 5:8). If we are consciously aware that we are being mastered, that idea itself is proof that we have no master. If that is our attitude toward Jesus, we are far away from having the relationship He wants with us. He wants us in a relationship where He is so easily our Master and Teacher that we have no conscious awareness of it— a relationship where all we know is that we are His to obey.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Civilization is based on principles which imply that the passing moment is permanent. The only permanent thing is God, and if I put anything else as permanent, I become atheistic. I must build only on God (John 14:6). The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 L
Bible in a Year: Ecclesiastes 10-12; Galatians 1
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, September 22, 2023
Always Time for a Time Out - #9575
If you're a sports spectator, it's the least exciting part of the event. If you're a player, it can really make an important difference. It's called a "time out." Now on TV, a time out is a good excuse for a commercial. Right? But some important things are sorted out during time outs. A coach can give you some perspective on what you're doing right or wrong, some suggestions on how to play better, to improve, to change the play, look at the weaknesses of the other team. You can catch your breath, you can recover, you can regroup. A time out wisely used can actually make a decisive difference in the game... in your game.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Always Time for a Time Out."
Time outs are part of God's game plan for you and me. I know that because of our word for today from the Word of God in Exodus 31. I'll begin reading in verse 13. "Say to the Israelites, you must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come." God goes on to say, "For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest." And then He says, "It will be a sign between Me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth. And on the seventh day He abstained from work and rested."
Well it's pretty obvious from what God is saying here that regular rest is built into our creation. The problem is this: nonstop running is built into our culture. No matter what we were created for, our culture has us running all the time. God says here, "You must. I insist you build a time out into every week. Not just a big annual vacation where you try to catch up for a whole year of not resting." In every week He says, "Time out - regular rest and recovery; time with Him."
Work will take over your life. It is a slave master. You don't have responsibilities; responsibilities have you a lot of times. And God's saying here, "Don't let it take over." He puts a Sabbath in every week to break the dictatorial momentum of work. The rule of work: cross out two of the things that sustain your life. One, it doesn't allow any time for worship of the Lord. And number two, it does not allow any time for the restoration of the worker. That's what Sabbaths are all about. Get together with God and get yourself together.
If you've allowed responsibility to cancel out the Sabbath thing in your life, you're flat out disobeying God's plan. The Lord's model was that He abstained from work and He rested.
Resting is the easy part; abstaining from work, that's the hard part. I mean, here's a mountain of responsibility in front of you. It is an act of faith to say, "I believe I'll obey God and I believe God will do more with six days than my seven because I'm honoring Him."
It's similar to what you believe about tithing, that God can do more with the 90 percent than with your 100 percent if you didn't tithe. When you exercise the faith to take your time out each week, your judgment improves, your energy goes up, your creativity is greater, your confidence is greater, your personality's better to be around, and you return to your responsibilities a better you. God insists on this practical step of sanity; rest whether you have time or not because you don't have time not to.
God calls you to stop the clock each week and remember who you are and whose you are. A time out wisely used can make all the difference in the outcome of your game.
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