Max Lucado Daily: GOD’S FINISHED WORK - May 15, 2023
When God gave the Ten Commandments, and it came to Sabbath rest, his message was clear: If creation didn’t crash when I rested, it won’t crash when you do! You know, we need to rest. For a field to bear fruit, it must occasionally lie fallow. And for you to be healthy, you must rest.
When David says in the twenty-third Psalm, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures,” he’s saying, “My shepherd makes me lie down in his finished work.” With his own pierced hands, Jesus created a pasture for the soul. He pried loose the huge boulders of sin. In their place he planted seeds of grace and dug ponds of mercy.
Can you imagine the satisfaction in the heart of the shepherd when the work is completed, and he sees his sheep rest in the tender grass? Can you imagine the satisfaction in the heart of God when we do the same?
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Psalm 93
God is King, robed and ruling,
God is robed and surging with strength.
And yes, the world is firm, immovable,
Your throne ever firm—you’re Eternal!
3-4 Sea storms are up, God,
Sea storms wild and roaring,
Sea storms with thunderous breakers.
Stronger than wild sea storms,
Mightier than sea-storm breakers,
Mighty God rules from High Heaven.
5 What you say goes—it always has.
“Beauty” and “Holy” mark your palace rule,
God, to the very end of time.
94 1-2 God, put an end to evil;
avenging God, show your colors!
Judge of the earth, take your stand;
throw the book at the arrogant.
3-4 God, the wicked get away with murder—
how long will you let this go on?
They brag and boast
and crow about their crimes!
5-7 They walk all over your people, God,
exploit and abuse your precious people.
They take out anyone who gets in their way;
if they can’t use them, they kill them.
They think, “God isn’t looking,
Jacob’s God is out to lunch.”
8-11 Well, think again, you idiots,
fools—how long before you get smart?
Do you think Ear-Maker doesn’t hear,
Eye-Shaper doesn’t see?
Do you think the trainer of nations doesn’t correct,
the teacher of Adam doesn’t know?
God knows, all right—
knows your stupidity,
sees your shallowness.
12-15 How blessed the man you train, God,
the woman you instruct in your Word,
Providing a circle of quiet within the clamor of evil,
while a jail is being built for the wicked.
God will never walk away from his people,
never desert his precious people.
Rest assured that justice is on its way
and every good heart put right.
16-19 Who stood up for me against the wicked?
Who took my side against evil workers?
If God hadn’t been there for me,
I never would have made it.
The minute I said, “I’m slipping, I’m falling,”
your love, God, took hold and held me fast.
When I was upset and beside myself,
you calmed me down and cheered me up.
20-23 Can Misrule have anything in common with you?
Can Troublemaker pretend to be on your side?
They ganged up on good people,
plotted behind the backs of the innocent.
But God became my hideout,
God was my high mountain retreat,
Then boomeranged their evil back on them:
for their evil ways he wiped them out,
our God cleaned them out for good.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, May 15, 2023
Today's Scripture
Psalm 19:1–6
God’s glory is on tour in the skies,
God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
Madame Day holds classes every morning,
Professor Night lectures each evening.
3-4 Their words aren’t heard,
their voices aren’t recorded,
But their silence fills the earth:
unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
4-5 God makes a huge dome
for the sun—a superdome!
The morning sun’s a new husband
leaping from his honeymoon bed,
The daybreaking sun an athlete
racing to the tape.
6 That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies
from sunrise to sunset,
Melting ice, scorching deserts,
warming hearts to faith.
Insight
Psalm 19 speaks to ancient Israel of Yahweh’s power and serves as a defense of their monotheistic beliefs. The psalmist presents God as creator and controller of the would-be gods of the nations that surrounded them. The psalms weren’t simply songs of worship but were teaching tools that helped Israel (and us) solidify her beliefs in the power and presence of God. Commentator Tremper Longman states: “The psalmist calls our attention specifically to the sun, the most dominant of the heavenly bodies. Using poetic personification, the poet points out that the sun lives in the sky. That is where God has placed its tent. Verse 5 then uses two similes to emphasize the passionate energy of the sun as it races across the sky. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.” By: J.R. Hudberg
Exploring the Stars
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one. Isaiah 40:26
In 2021, a multination effort led to the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope—deployed nearly a million miles from Earth to better investigate the universe. This marvel will peer into deep space and examine the stars and other celestial wonders.
This is indeed a fascinating astronomical piece of technology, and if everything works, it will provide us with amazing photos and information. But its mission isn’t new. In fact, the prophet Isaiah described searching the stars when he said, “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one” (Isaiah 40:26). “Night after night” they speak of our Creator who hurled this imperceptibly immense universe into existence (Psalm 19:2)—and with it the countless luminous bodies that silently grace our night sky (v. 3).
And it’s God Himself who decided how many of the shining objects there are: “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name” (Psalm 147:4). When mankind sends complicated, fascinating probes to explore the universe, we can enjoy with spellbound wonder the discoveries they make, because each observation points back to the One who made the solar system and everything beyond it. Yes, the “heavens declare the glory of God” (19:1)—stars and all. By: Dave Branon
Reflect & Pray
How do the stars and the entire universe speak of God and His creative ways? What thoughts and emotions strike you as you think about His power?
Heavenly Father, thank You for creating such an amazing universe for me to enjoy.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, May 15, 2023
The Habit of Rising to the Occasion
…that you may know what is the hope of His calling… —Ephesians 1:18
Remember that you have been saved so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in your body (see 2 Corinthians 4:10). Direct the total energy of your powers so that you may achieve everything your election as a child of God provides; rise every time to whatever occasion may come your way.
You did not do anything to achieve your salvation, but you must do something to exhibit it. You must “work out your own salvation” which God has worked in you already (Philippians 2:12). Are your speech, your thinking, and your emotions evidence that you are working it “out”? If you are still the same miserable, grouchy person, set on having your own way, then it is a lie to say that God has saved and sanctified you.
God is the Master Designer, and He allows adversities into your life to see if you can jump over them properly— “By my God I can leap over a wall” (Psalm 18:29). God will never shield you from the requirements of being His son or daughter. First Peter 4:12 says, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you….” Rise to the occasion— do what the trial demands of you. It does not matter how much it hurts as long as it gives God the opportunity to manifest the life of Jesus in your body.
May God not find complaints in us anymore, but spiritual vitality— a readiness to face anything He brings our way. The only proper goal of life is that we manifest the Son of God; and when this occurs, all of our dictating of our demands to God disappears. Our Lord never dictated demands to His Father, and neither are we to make demands on God. We are here to submit to His will so that He may work through us what He wants. Once we realize this, He will make us broken bread and poured-out wine with which to feed and nourish others.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Christianity is not consistency to conscience or to convictions; Christianity is being true to Jesus Christ. Biblical Ethics, 111 L
Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 22-23; John 4:31-54
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, May 15, 2023
AN APPETITE FOR GARBAGE - #9481
There's this little old camp song (maybe you've sung it), "Little cabin in the woods, little man by the window stood." I've sung it to my grandkids as they were growing up. Well, that was me sometimes. Yeah, some friends had given us this wonderful gift of vacationing in their mountain cabin, surrounded by woods. One morning we got a call from a neighbor notifying us of a visitor they had that morning - a mother bear and her cub. Since I was going out every day for a vigorous walk in the woods, I had mixed emotions, "I hope I get to see those bears. I hope I don't see those bears." I'd rather eat lunch than be lunch. You know, it's just a preference. I'm kind of funny that way. We never saw the bears. But it was interesting to see the pictures that our neighbor snapped of her furry visitors. There seems to be a special attraction for those bears - garbage. Yeah, when people have seen those bears, they're usually doing whatever it takes to get the lid off of a garbage can, including standing on top of the can, rocking back and forth on it, and trying with both paws to pry it open. They love garbage!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "An Appetite For Garbage."
An appetite for garbage; I guess it's OK if you're a bear. It's not OK if you're a child of Almighty God. That's why God says in 2 Corinthians 7:1, our word for today from the Word of God, "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." In other words, stay away from any garbage that can contaminate a son or daughter of the holy God they belong to.
The promises God says He's basing this challenge on, tell us that we are "the temple of the living God" and "sons and daughters" of "the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:16-18). Sadly, too many of His sons and daughters have allowed themselves to develop an appetite for garbage. TV shows, movies - they either glorify or minimize behaviors that break God's law and break God's heart. Or music, videos, whatever that's about doing some of the very things that Jesus died to deliver us from. Plenty of it on social media. Plenty of it on the Internet.
Maybe you've wandered where you never should have gone on the Internet, or in a magazine, or things you've been reading. Boy, it's attractive, but the wrapping paper doesn't change the fact that there's garbage inside. Often the trash that pollutes our soul and lowers our guard comes wrapped in something that's very entertaining, very magnetic, very popular, very funny. But garbage comes in other forms, too. Like negative talk, gossip, or backstabbing that you allow yourself to soak up. Some of us just can't walk away from something juicy about another person. That is verbal garbage.
If you're wondering why you feel defeated so many times, why you don't feel as close to Jesus as you used to, or why your dark side keeps winning and bringing you down, have you considered your diet: what you're watching, what you're listening to, who you're spending time with, or the things you laugh at. God tells us in Ephesians 5:11 to "have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness." And He says in Philippians 4:8 to think instead about things that are "noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and worthy of praise." Fill your mind, fill your heart with things that will build your soul, not poison it, not tear it down.
Honestly, have you allowed yourself to gradually develop an appetite for what God would consider garbage? It has no place in a life that's been bought and paid for with the precious blood of the Son of God. Walk away from that garbage can. There's nothing in there that belongs in you.
