Max Lucado Daily: THE RIGHT DIRECTION - May 24, 2023
David said in Psalm 121, “I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from?” Then David answers his own question: “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip, he who watches over you will not slumber…The Lord watches over you…The Lord will keep you from all harm, he will watch over your life.”
God, your rescuer, has the right vision. He also has the right direction. He made the boldest claim in the history of man when he declared, “I am the way.” People wondered if the claim was accurate. He answered their question by forging a path through the underbrush of sin and death, escaping alive.
Maybe you need your hope restored? If so, lift up your eyes like David said. Look into the hills. Look into the one who made you. And he will give you help.
Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Meant to Carry
Read more Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Meant to Carry
Psalm 100
On your feet now—applaud God!
Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.
3 Know this: God is God, and God, God.
He made us; we didn’t make him.
We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.
4 Enter with the password: “Thank you!”
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.
5 For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Today's Scripture
Ecclesiastes 2:17–26
I hate life. As far as I can see, what happens on earth is a bad business. It’s smoke—and spitting into the wind.
18-19 And I hated everything I’d accomplished and accumulated on this earth. I can’t take it with me—no, I have to leave it to whoever comes after me. Whether they’re worthy or worthless—and who’s to tell?—they’ll take over the earthly results of my intense thinking and hard work. Smoke.
20-23 That’s when I called it quits, gave up on anything that could be hoped for on this earth. What’s the point of working your fingers to the bone if you hand over what you worked for to someone who never lifted a finger for it? Smoke, that’s what it is. A bad business from start to finish. So what do you get from a life of hard labor? Pain and grief from dawn to dusk. Never a decent night’s rest. Nothing but smoke.
24-26 The best you can do with your life is have a good time and get by the best you can. The way I see it, that’s it—divine fate. Whether we feast or fast, it’s up to God. God may give wisdom and knowledge and joy to his favorites, but sinners are assigned a life of hard labor, and end up turning their wages over to God’s favorites. Nothing but smoke—and spitting into the wind.
Insight
In Ecclesiastes 2, Solomon—who had everything—begins to despair. But he notes in chapter 3, “[God] has also set eternity in the human heart” (v. 11). He understood that we must look outside ourselves for the answers to our biggest questions. The story of the Bible shows how those answers are found in Jesus. As the apostle Paul reminded us, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19). Paul concluded, “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead” (v. 20). Jesus’ death and resurrection infuse our lives with meaning and purpose. By: Tim Gustafson
Blessed Routine
Without [God], who can eat or find enjoyment? Ecclesiastes 2:25
Watching the morning crowd pour onto the train, I felt the Monday blues kick in. From the sleepy, grumpy faces of those in the jam-packed cabin, I could tell no one looked forward to going to work. Frowns broke out as some jostled for space and more tried to squeeze in. Here we go again, another mundane day at the office.
Then, it struck me that just a year before, the trains would have been empty because COVID-19 lockdowns had thrown our daily routines into disarray. We couldn’t even go out for a meal, and some actually missed going to the office. But now we were almost back to normal, and many were going back to work—as usual. “Routine,” I realized, was good news, and “boring” was a blessing!
King Solomon came to a similar conclusion after reflecting on the seeming pointlessness of daily toil (Ecclesiastes 2:17–23). At times, it appeared endless, “meaningless,” and unrewarding (v. 21). But then he realized that simply being able to eat, drink, and work each day was a blessing from God (v. 24).
When we’re deprived of routine, we can see that these simple actions are a luxury. Let’s thank God that we can eat and drink and find satisfaction in all our toil, for this is His gift (3:13). By: Leslie Koh
Reflect & Pray
What simple blessings can you thank God for today? What can you do for someone who’s in need or is unable to enjoy life’s simple routines?
Dear God, thank You for my “usual” routines, no matter how boring they may seem at times. Help me to be grateful for Your every blessing in life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
The Delight of Despair
When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. —Revelation 1:17
It may be that, like the apostle John, you know Jesus Christ intimately. Yet when He suddenly appears to you with totally unfamiliar characteristics, the only thing you can do is fall “at His feet as dead.” There are times when God cannot reveal Himself in any other way than in His majesty, and it is the awesomeness of the vision which brings you to the delight of despair. You experience this joy in hopelessness, realizing that if you are ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God.
“He laid His right hand on me…” (Revelation 1:17). In the midst of the awesomeness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. You know it is not the hand of restraint, correction, nor chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father. Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it gives inexpressible peace and comfort, and the sense that “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27), full of support, provision, comfort, and strength. And once His touch comes, nothing at all can throw you into fear again. In the midst of all His ascended glory, the Lord Jesus comes to speak to an insignificant disciple, saying, “Do not be afraid” (Revelation 1:17). His tenderness is inexpressibly sweet. Do I know Him like that?
Take a look at some of the things that cause despair. There is despair which has no delight, no limits whatsoever, and no hope of anything brighter. But the delight of despair comes when “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells…” (Romans 7:18). I delight in knowing that there is something in me which must fall prostrate before God when He reveals Himself to me, and also in knowing that if I am ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God. God can do nothing for me until I recognize the limits of what is humanly possible, allowing Him to do the impossible.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible does not thrill; the Bible nourishes. Give time to the reading of the Bible and the recreating effect is as real as that of fresh air physically. Disciples Indeed, 387 R
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 22-24; John 8:28-59
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
YOUR PART IN THE RESCUE - #9488
It was enough to make a girl stop talking for years to come. That is, about her relationship with Jesus. One day in high school, God laid it on my wife's heart, (of course she wasn't my wife yet), to share Christ with one of her fellow band members. Ricky was a drummer. In my experience, drummers are usually cut from a little different piece of cloth than everybody else, and Ricky was no exception. He was a wild and crazy guy with a mouth to match. But one day my wife got up the courage to rise above her shyness and tell him about her Savior. Ricky didn't exactly fall to his knees in the band room and repent. In fact, he said, "Well, if you're going to heaven, I want to go to the other place!" Ouch!
Okay, fast forward. Years later, my wife and I were visiting a church where the pastor introduced us during the service. Afterwards, the man who had been sitting behind us said to my honey, "I've been hoping for years I'd get to see you and tell you what happened." It was Ricky and his wife. He said, "I know I blew you off that day you tried to tell me about Jesus. Later a couple of others did the same thing. I just wanted you to know I finally gave my heart to Christ." Wow! Ricky went on to tell about working on a Christian radio station and how he had even pastored a church. Ricky - the one who nuked the girl who tried to tell him about Jesus - ended up actually working on our team early on, helping us tell the world about Jesus. Wow!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Part in the Rescue."
Ricky's story is the story of so many who have changed their eternal address from hell to heaven. They didn't find Christ through one exposure to Him, but through a string of faithful witnesses who sowed the seed of the Gospel in their heart. One day, the harvest came because of those who sowed the Gospel, those who watered the Gospel, and then someone who recognized that it was time to harvest the Gospel.
God has placed you as His designated ambassador in the lives of the people in your personal world. Here's how the great rescue plan of God works, as revealed in 1 Corinthians 3, beginning with verse 5, which is our word for today from the Word of God. "What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe - as the Lord assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow...The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers..."
Do you realize how important you are in the life-saving plan of God? He's invited you to work side by side with Him in His harvesting of lives for heaven! In one life, you may be the one who sows the first thoughts a person ever has about Jesus - as my wife did in Ricky's life. For another person, you might be the one who unknowingly builds on seed someone else sowed to bring them a step closer to Jesus. For someone else, you'll be the one God puts there when the other seed sown in their life is ready to be harvested and they're ready for Jesus.
As you ask the Holy Spirit to show you what part He wants you to play and where that person is in the process of coming to Him, He'll give you the courage and the words if you ask Him to. You can never judge the final result of your witness by the immediate response. It is God who provides the seed, it's God who miraculously grows that seed into a heart that's ready for Jesus. But He's counting on you to sow His seed, water His seed, or harvest His seed.
There's only one way you can fail in sharing Christ - you don't do it! Your mission is to leave each lost person God leads you to closer to Jesus than they were before; knowing more about Jesus and what He did for them than they knew before.
God has an amazing plan for the spiritual rescue of every lost person you know and He's asking you to join Him in the rescue. Don't miss the most important thing you will ever do in your life!