Max Lucado Daily: ABBA FATHER - November 23, 2023
When my daughter Jenna was twelve, I took her to Jerusalem. As we were exiting the Jaffa gate, an orthodox Jewish family was in front of us—a father and his three small girls. One of the daughters fell a few steps behind and couldn’t see her father. “Abba!” she called to him. “Abba!” she called again. He spotted her and immediately extended his hand.
As they continued, I wanted to see the actions of an abba. He held her hand tightly in his. When he stopped at a busy street, she stepped off the curb and he pulled her back. When the signal changed, he carried her and led her sisters through the intersection.
Isn’t that what we all need? An abba who will hear when we call? An abba who will swing us up into his arms and carry us home? Don’t we all need an Abba Father?
Isaiah 15
Poignant Cries Reverberate Through Moab
1–4 15 A Message concerning Moab:
Village Ar of Moab is in ruins,
destroyed in a night raid.
Village Kir of Moab is in ruins,
destroyed in a night raid.
Village Dibon climbs to its chapel in the hills,
goes up to lament.
Moab weeps and wails
over Nebo and Medba.
Every head is shaved bald,
every beard shaved clean.
They pour into the streets wearing black,
go up on the roofs, take to the town square,
Everyone in tears,
everyone in grief.
Towns Heshbon and Elealeh cry long and loud.
The sound carries as far as Jahaz.
Moab sobs, shaking in grief.
The soul of Moab trembles.
5–9 Oh, how I grieve for Moab!
Refugees stream to Zoar
and then on to Eglath-shelishiyah.
Up the slopes of Luhith they weep;
on the road to Horonaim they cry their loss.
The springs of Nimrim are dried up—
grass brown, buds stunted, nothing grows.
They leave, carrying all their possessions
on their backs, everything they own,
Making their way as best they can
across Willow Creek to safety.
Poignant cries reverberate
all through Moab,
Gut-wrenching sobs as far as Eglaim,
heart-racking sobs all the way to Beer-elim.
The banks of the Dibon crest with blood,
but God has worse in store for Dibon:
A lion—a lion to finish off the fugitives,
to clean up whoever’s left in the land.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 23, 2023
Today's Scripture
Luke 14:12–14
Then he turned to the host. “The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be—and experience—a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!—at the resurrection of God’s people.”
Insight
Jesus’ instruction to invite the poor and the outcast to a meal (Luke 14:12–14) is something God wanted the Israelites to do. God commanded His people not to mistreat or oppress the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the foreigners living in their midst but instead to love them (Exodus 22:21; 23:9; Leviticus 19:33; Deuteronomy 10:19). Even as the Jews were blessed with material prosperity so they could enjoy the good life, they were commanded to be generous and share with others. They were to include the foreigner and the poor in their celebrations and feasts (Deuteronomy 16:9–12; 26:8–11) and to give a tithe to share God’s provisions and abundance with them (26:12). The Israelites were to treat foreigners as if they were native-born Jews and love them as they’d love themselves (Leviticus 19:34; 24:22; Deuteronomy 27:19). By: K. T. Sim
A Thanksgiving Blessing
When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Luke 14:13–14
In 2016, Wanda Dench sent a text inviting her grandson to Thanksgiving dinner, not knowing he’d recently changed his phone number. The text instead went to a stranger, Jamal. Jamal didn’t have plans, and so, after clarifying who he was, asked if he could still come to dinner. Wanda said, “Of course you can.” Jamal joined the family dinner in what has since become a yearly tradition for him. A mistaken invitation became an annual blessing.
Wanda’s kindness in inviting a stranger to dinner reminds me of Jesus’ encouragement in Luke’s gospel. During a dinner party at a “prominent” Pharisee’s house (Luke 14:1), Jesus noticed who was invited and how the guests jostled for the best seats (v. 7). Jesus told His host that inviting people based on what they could do for him in return (v. 12) meant the blessing would be limited. Instead, Jesus told the host that extending hospitality to people without the resources to repay him would bring even greater blessing (v. 14).
For Wanda, inviting Jamal to join her family for Thanksgiving dinner resulted in the unexpected blessing of a lasting friendship that was a great encouragement to her after her husband’s death. When we reach out to others, not because of what we might receive, but because of God’s love flowing through us, we receive far greater blessing and encouragement. By: Lisa M. Samra
Reflect & Pray
When has an unexpected invitation encouraged you? What blessings did you experience?
Heavenly Father, may my invitations reflect a heart that wants to bless others as You lead me.
For further study, read Giving It Away.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 23, 2023
The Distraction of Contempt
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us! For we are exceedingly filled with contempt. —Psalm 123:3
What we must beware of is not damage to our belief in God but damage to our Christian disposition or state of mind. “Take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously” (Malachi 2:16). Our state of mind is powerful in its effects. It can be the enemy that penetrates right into our soul and distracts our mind from God. There are certain attitudes we should never dare to indulge. If we do, we will find they have distracted us from faith in God. Until we get back into a quiet mood before Him, our faith is of no value, and our confidence in the flesh and in human ingenuity is what rules our lives.
Beware of “the cares of this world…” (Mark 4:19). They are the very things that produce the wrong attitudes in our soul. It is incredible what enormous power there is in simple things to distract our attention away from God. Refuse to be swamped by “the cares of this world.”
Another thing that distracts us is our passion for vindication. St. Augustine prayed, “O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself.” Such a need for constant vindication destroys our soul’s faith in God. Don’t say, “I must explain myself,” or, “I must get people to understand.” Our Lord never explained anything— He left the misunderstandings or misconceptions of others to correct themselves.
When we discern that other people are not growing spiritually and allow that discernment to turn to criticism, we block our fellowship with God. God never gives us discernment so that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
“I have chosen you” (John 15:16). Keep that note of greatness in your creed. It is not that you have got God, but that He has got you. My Utmost for His Highest, October 25, 837 R
Bible in a Year: Ezekiel 20-21; James 5
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 23, 2023
No Days to Waste - #9619
I used to work with our high school football team quite a bit, and their practices were in full swing. And I was talking with one of the soon to be freshman football players, and he said, "Ron, it seems like just yesterday we were having our first practices back in the summer." And I talked to some seniors, and then they said, "Ron, weren't we just freshmen? How did we get here so fast?"
Well, another friend's daughter was getting ready to make a decision about college, and he said, "It just seemed like yesterday that she needed my hand even to go anywhere outside the yard." You know this feeling? And then I heard a pastor not long ago who was soon to turn 60, and he said, "You know, when I was 16, 60 seemed like forever; seemed like it was so far off. It was just yesterday I was 16 and saying that." I think we all know about this, huh? Billy Graham said when he was asked what the biggest surprise of his life was, he said, "The brevity of it."
I guess it's somewhere early in our teenage years that we realize that time is limited. Time seems to, like, hit the accelerator and it never looks back, never slows down. Months and years fly by like months used to fall off the calendars in those old movies. The speed of sound and the speed of light have a companion called the speed of time. And when you realize the speed at which your life is racing by, you don't just watch it happen. You do something about it.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Days to Waste."
It's been a theme with us this week. I think it's important, very much on my heart. It comes from our word for today from the Word of God, and it comments on the flyingness of time. It's in Psalm 90. It goes back to at least when the psalmist wrote and said in verse 10, "The length of our days is 70 years, 80 if we have the strength. They quickly pass and we fly away." But in verse 12 (a favorite of mine), he comes up with a flight plan for when time is flying. He says, "Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
Ephesians 5:16 tells us to "make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." It's kind of like the psalmist is saying, "That life that seemed so long is really so short." It's given to us in something called days. He said, "Our days are flying by." "Teach us to number our days."
Now, life seems to come sometimes as sort of this, you know, dull routine pace. The days just sort of slip by and then the days become weeks, and weeks become months, and we don't know where they went. There's no plan; there's no thought. They're sort of this plodding cycle. But this is a call from the Scripture to have no wasted days.
Smart living makes each 24 hours matter. Older people wake up one day in their life and wish they could have their days back. And you may still have a lot of years ahead. Hey, capture them now. Awaken each morning with an awareness that this 24 hours is a gift not to be wasted, never to be lived again. You say, "Well, I've got school, or work, or traffic, or errands." That's not the wise way to live.
There are people who need you, opportunities to see God at work in your every day. A chance to give love. A chance to receive love. And nowhere is time more precious than investing in your family. This is a building block; this day that will either bring you closer to God and His will or farther from it.
"This is the day the Lord has made." Don't just dedicate your life to Him, dedicate this 24 hours. When you fly a plane you don't just cruise wherever you feel like. You file a flight plan of where you're going. As you face time flying by, file a flight plan for that day; seize that day. Don't just let that day happen to you. Pray for it, plan for it, make it count.
Well used days may fly by just as fast, but they'll land you where you want to land.
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