Max Lucado Daily: WHAT FAITH SEES - April 25, 2023
Faith is trusting what the eye cannot see. Eyes see storms; faith sees Noah’s rainbow. Your eyes see your faults; your faith sees your Savior. Your eyes see your guilt; your faith sees his blood. Your eyes look in the mirror and see a sinner, a failure. But by faith you look in the mirror and see a robed prodigal bearing the ring of grace on your finger and the kiss of your Father on your face.
How do I know this is true? someone asks. Nice prose, but give me the facts. “God’s power is very great for those who believe,” Paul taught. Ephesians 1:19 and 20 says, “That power is the same as the great strength God used to raise Christ from the dead.” Next time you wonder if God can forgive you, read that verse. The very hands that were nailed to the cross are open for you.
2 Kings 22
Josiah of Judah
Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He ruled for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. He lived the way God wanted. He kept straight on the path blazed by his ancestor David, not one step to either left or right.
3-7 One day in the eighteenth year of his kingship, King Josiah sent the royal secretary Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to The Temple of God with instructions: “Go to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money that has been brought to The Temple of God that the doormen have collected from the people. Have them turn it over to the foremen who are managing the work on The Temple of God so they can pay the workers who are repairing God’s Temple, all the carpenters, construction workers, and masons. Also, authorize them to buy the lumber and dressed stone for The Temple repairs. You don’t need to get a receipt for the money you give them—they’re all honest men.”
8 The high priest Hilkiah reported to Shaphan the royal secretary, “I’ve just found the Book of God’s Revelation, instructing us in God’s ways. I found it in The Temple!” He gave it to Shaphan and Shaphan read it.
9 Then Shaphan the royal secretary came back to the king and gave him an account of what had gone on: “Your servants have bagged up the money that has been collected for The Temple; they have given it to the foremen to pay The Temple workers.”
10 Then Shaphan the royal secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest gave me a book.” Shaphan proceeded to read it to the king.
11-13 When the king heard what was written in the book, God’s Revelation, he ripped his robes in dismay. And then he called for Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the royal secretary, and Asaiah the king’s personal aide. He ordered them all: “Go and pray to God for me and for this people—for all Judah! Find out what we must do in response to what is written in this book that has just been found! God’s anger must be burning furiously against us—our ancestors haven’t obeyed a thing written in this book, followed none of the instructions directed to us.”
14-17 Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went straight to Huldah the prophetess. She was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, who was in charge of the palace wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter. The five men consulted with her. In response to them she said, “God’s word, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you here that I’m on my way to bring the doom of judgment on this place and this people. Every word written in the book read by the king of Judah will happen. And why? Because they’ve deserted me and taken up with other gods, made me thoroughly angry by setting up their god-making businesses. My anger is raging white-hot against this place and nobody is going to put it out.
18-20 “And also tell the king of Judah, since he sent you to ask God for direction; tell him this, God’s comment on what he read in the book: ‘Because you took seriously the doom of judgment I spoke against this place and people, and because you responded in humble repentance, tearing your robe in dismay and weeping before me, I’m taking you seriously. God’s word: I’ll take care of you. You’ll have a quiet death and be buried in peace. You won’t be around to see the doom that I’m going to bring upon this place.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Today's Scripture
Romans 13:11–14
But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!
Insight
Paul’s warning here is a tacit acknowledgment of our propensity to sin even after we’ve come to Christ. That’s why he warns us to “put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). The passage is reminiscent of another of Paul’s letters in which he refers to putting on armor. There he writes, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:11). In both passages, the strong implication is that temptations will inevitably come, and we must supplant those sinful desires by following Jesus unreservedly and completely. “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ,” the apostle says, “and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh” (Romans 13:14). The only effective way to neutralize our obsession with sin is to replace our selfish desires with a craving for Christ. By: Tim Gustafson
Let It Go
Do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. Romans 13:14
Augustine’s autobiographical Confessions describes his long and winding journey to Jesus. On one occasion, he was riding to the palace to give a flattering speech for the emperor. He was fretting over his deceptive applause lines when he noticed a drunken beggar “joking and laughing.” He realized the drunk already had whatever fleeting happiness his shifty career might bring, and with much less effort. So Augustine stopped striving for worldly success.
But he was still enslaved by lust. He knew he couldn’t turn to Jesus without turning from sin, and he still struggled with sexual immorality. So he prayed, “Grant me chastity . . . but not yet.”
Augustine stumbled along, torn between salvation and sin, until finally he had enough. Inspired by others who had turned to Jesus, he opened a Bible to Romans 13:13–14. “Let us behave decently . . . not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality . . . . Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.”
That did it. God used those inspired words to break Augustine's chains of lust and brought him “into the kingdom of the Son . . . in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13–14). Augustine became a bishop who remained tempted by fame and lust, but he now knew whom to see when he sinned. He turned to Jesus. Have you?
By: Mike Wittmer
Reflect & Pray
What’s keeping you from giving your life to Jesus? How might your life change if you let it go?
Dear Father, let nothing come between me and You.
For further study, read Remade in the Image of Jesus at DiscoverySeries.org.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
“Ready in Season”
Be ready in season and out of season. —2 Timothy 4:2
Many of us suffer from the unbalanced tendency to “be ready” only “out of season.” The season does not refer to time; it refers to us. This verse says, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season.” In other words, we should “be ready” whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would never do anything. There are some people who are totally unemployable in the spiritual realm. They are spiritually feeble and weak, and they refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that our relationship is right with God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.
One of the worst traps a Christian worker can fall into is to become obsessed with his own exceptional moments of inspiration. When the Spirit of God gives you a time of inspiration and insight, you tend to say, “Now that I’ve experienced this moment, I will always be like this for God.” No, you will not, and God will make sure of that. Those times are entirely the gift of God. You cannot give them to yourself when you choose. If you say you will only be at your best for God, as during those exceptional times, you actually become an intolerable burden on Him. You will never do anything unless God keeps you consciously aware of His inspiration to you at all times. If you make a god out of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life, never to return until you are obedient in the work He has placed closest to you, and until you have learned not to be obsessed with those exceptional moments He has given you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….” So Send I You, 1325 R
Bible in a Year: 2 Samuel 21-22; Luke 18:24-43
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
THE HIGH PRICE OF SPIRITUAL IMMUNITY - #9467
It had been a rough year for the flu. Yeah, it was nasty, and it was dangerous. Early in the season, my doctor told me he was already concerned about how high the death toll was in our state. And then a friend texted me and said, "It's time for me to descend into the nightly coughing abyss." She had the flu. We've had some family members spend some time in that abyss - so we knew what they were talking about.
One thing that was unusual that year was the number of younger people who were dying from the flu. One reason, they said, could be that only about 30% of those in the 25-50 age group got a flu shot. And I know that vaccinations can be controversial. But I can speak for me and the scientists as an example. Go with the illustration. But the theory of a flu shot - or vaccination is give you a small dose of the disease to immunize you against a big dose of it. I used to tell my kids, "the good soldiers will come out and fight the bad soldiers in your blood."
But I got to thinking as I rolled up my sleeve for my shot. For me, immunizing, I guess, is a good thing when it comes to germs. But listen, when it comes to Jesus, it's a bad thing.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The High Price of Spiritual Immunity."
There are some troubling verses in the Bible, because they suggest that a lot of church folks may be in serious danger of dying from spiritual immunity. They've been inoculated with a mild dose of the Gospel - just enough to immunize them against really knowing Jesus; just enough to sit there when the need to trust Jesus is being preached and to think, "Hey, I'm OK. I sure hope the folks who need this are listening." Could this be you?
Our word for today from the Word of God, Matthew 7:21-22. Now, I personally find Jesus' words here to be some of the most disturbing things He ever said. Listen, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' (they've got the language) will enter the kingdom of heaven..." Really? Verse 22: "Many will say to Me on the day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'" Then these chilling words: "I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you.'" Wow! All that Christianity - and they missed Christ.
It's just so easy to know the words and think you know the Lord; to have Jesus in your head but not in your heart; to mistake agreeing with Jesus for commitment to Jesus. You say, "What mades me married to my wife wasn't agreeing with her. It was that moment when I committed my life to her." Well, it's the same with Jesus.
So like a ball player hitting a home run but failing to touch first base, you'd be out at Home. You played a good game, but you missed first base. You missed walking up to that cross where Jesus paid for your sins and saying, "For me, Jesus. This was for me!" And then consciously giving yourself to the One who gave His life for you.
So the Bible solemnly warns us church folks in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to "examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?" Apparently you can be into Jesus but not have Jesus in you. But the good news is He's still knocking. That's the tug you feel in your heart. You've not hardened your heart to the point yet that you can't hear the voice of the Holy Spirit saying, "This is for you church person, religious person; know the verses, give to all the right offerings, but you don't know Jesus."
This is your day to move Him 18 inches; from your head to your heart. That 18 inches is the difference between heaven and hell. Tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours. Finally, I'm going to get this settled. I'm Yours." I think a visit to our website might help you get this nailed down - It's ANewStory.com - and be sure you belong to Him.
The Bible says, "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart." Let this be the day that you will always know you've got it done. Get this settled today...once and for all.