Max Lucado Daily: Trust the Cross
My dog Salty knows he isn't supposed to get into the trash. But let the house be human free, and dark side of Salty takes over. If there's food in a trash can, the temptation is to?great. That's what happened the other day. I got mad, but I got over it. I cleaned up the mess and forgot about it. Salty didn't! He kept his distance. When I finally saw him, his tail was between his legs, ?his ears drooping. He thinks I'm mad at him. He doesn't know I've already dealt with his mistake.
Somewhere, sometime, you got tangled in garbage…and you've been avoiding god. You wonder if you could ever feel close to God again.The message of his torn flesh on the cross is - you can. The door is open. Don't trust your conscience. Trust the cross. You're welcome in God's presence!
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).
from He Chose the Nails
2 Kings 16
Ahaz of Judah
In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham became king of Judah. Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king and he ruled for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t behave in the eyes of his God; he wasn’t at all like his ancestor David. Instead he followed in the track of the kings of Israel. He even indulged in the outrageous practice of “passing his son through the fire”—a truly abominable act he picked up from the pagans God had earlier thrown out of the country. He also participated in the activities of the neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines that flourished all over the place.
5 Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel ganged up against Jerusalem, throwing a siege around the city, but they couldn’t make further headway against Ahaz.
6 At about this same time and on another front, the king of Edom recovered the port of Elath and expelled the men of Judah. The Edomites occupied Elath and have been there ever since.
7-8 Ahaz sent envoys to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria with this message: “I’m your servant and your son. Come and save me from the heavy-handed invasion of the king of Aram and the king of Israel. They’re attacking me right now.” Then Ahaz robbed the treasuries of the palace and The Temple of God of their gold and silver and sent them to the king of Assyria as a bribe.
9 The king of Assyria responded to him. He attacked and captured Damascus. He deported the people to Nineveh as exiles. Rezin he killed.
10-11 King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria in Damascus. The altar in Damascus made a great impression on him. He sent back to Uriah the priest a drawing and set of blueprints of the altar. Uriah the priest built the altar to the specifications that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. By the time the king returned from Damascus, Uriah had completed the altar.
12-14 The minute the king saw the altar he approached it with reverence and arranged a service of worship with a full course of offerings: Whole-Burnt-Offerings with billows of smoke, Grain-Offerings, libations of Drink-Offerings, the sprinkling of blood from the Peace-Offerings—the works. But the old bronze Altar that signaled the presence of God he displaced from its central place and pushed it off to the side of his new altar.
15 Then King Ahaz ordered Uriah the priest: “From now on offer all the sacrifices on the new altar, the great altar: morning Whole-Burnt-Offerings, evening Grain-Offerings, the king’s Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Grain-Offerings, the people’s Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Grain-Offerings, and also their Drink-Offerings. Splash all the blood from the burnt offerings and sacrifices against this altar. The old bronze Altar will be for my personal use.”
16 The priest Uriah followed King Ahaz’s orders to the letter.
17-18 Then King Ahaz proceeded to plunder The Temple furniture of all its bronze. He stripped the bronze from The Temple furnishings, even salvaged the four bronze oxen that supported the huge basin, The Sea, and set The Sea unceremoniously on the stone pavement. Finally, he removed any distinctive features from within The Temple that were offensive to the king of Assyria.
19-20 The rest of the life and times of Ahaz is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. Ahaz died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Hezekiah became the next king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Today's Scripture
John 15:9–17
“I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.
11-15 “I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.
16 “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
17 “But remember the root command: Love one another.
Insight
Two important themes in John 15 are remaining in Jesus and friendship with Jesus. Twice, Christ instructs us to “remain in [His] love” (vv. 9–10)—to continue in a personal, enduring, and endearing intimate relationship with Him. To remain in Jesus’ love is to “remain faithful to [His] teachings” (8:31 nlt) and obey His commands (15:10).
Jesus contrasted servants and friends (v. 15) to show the new level of intimacy that believers now have with Him. He proved this friendship by laying down His life for us (v. 13). Because Abraham was privileged to be called a “friend” of God (2 Chronicles 20:7; James 2:23), God revealed His plans to him (Genesis 18:17). He also spoke to Moses “as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11). Jesus likewise tells us “everything that [He] learned from [His] Father” (John 15:15) because we are His friends. By: K. T. Sim
Greater Love
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13
Just days before Holy Week, when Christians around the world remember Jesus’ sacrifice and celebrate His resurrection, a terrorist stormed into a supermarket in southwest France opening fire and killing two. After negotiation, the terrorist released all but one hostage, whom he turned into a human shield. Knowing the danger, police officer Arnaud Beltrame did the unthinkable: he volunteered to take the woman’s place. The perpetrator released her, but in the ensuing scuffle Beltrame was injured and later died.
A minister who knew the police officer attributed his heroism to his faith in Jesus, pointing to His words in John 15:13: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Those were the words Christ spoke to His disciples after their last meal together. He told His friends to “Love each other as I have loved you” (v. 12) and that the greatest love is to lay down one’s life for another (v. 13). This is exactly what Jesus did the next day, when He went to the cross to save us from our sin—as only He could.
We may never be called to follow the heroism of this officer. But as we remain in God’s love, we can serve others sacrificially, laying down our own plans and desires as we seek to share the story of His great love. By: Amy Boucher Pye
Reflect & Pray
How do you react to stories such as that of Arnaud Beltrame? How can you serve someone sacrificially today?
Dear Jesus, You died to give me life everlasting. May I live with gratitude for this gift and share it with those You put in my path.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Can You Come Down From the Mountain?
While you have the light, believe in the light… —John 12:36
We all have moments when we feel better than ever before, and we say, “I feel fit for anything; if only I could always be like this!” We are not meant to be. Those moments are moments of insight which we have to live up to even when we do not feel like it. Many of us are no good for the everyday world when we are not on the mountaintop. Yet we must bring our everyday life up to the standard revealed to us on the mountaintop when we were there.
Never allow a feeling that was awakened in you on the mountaintop to evaporate. Don’t place yourself on the shelf by thinking, “How great to be in such a wonderful state of mind!” Act immediately— do something, even if your only reason to act is that you would rather not. If, during a prayer meeting, God shows you something to do, don’t say, “I’ll do it”— just do it! Pick yourself up by the back of the neck and shake off your fleshly laziness. Laziness can always be seen in our cravings for a mountaintop experience; all we talk about is our planning for our time on the mountain. We must learn to live in the ordinary “gray” day according to what we saw on the mountain.
Don’t give up because you have been blocked and confused once— go after it again. Burn your bridges behind you, and stand committed to God by an act of your own will. Never change your decisions, but be sure to make your decisions in the light of what you saw and learned on the mountain.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 30-31; Luke 13:23-35