Max Lucado Daily:Desperate Dads Go to Jesus
In Mark 5:23 we meet Jairus-a leader of the synagogue-one of the most important men in the community. But the man in this story is a humble man, saying again and again, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." He doesn't barter with Jesus. He doesn't negotiate. He doesn't make excuses. He just pleads!
There are times when everything you have to offer is nothing compared to what you're asking to receive. What could a man offer in exchange for his child's life? So there are no games, no haggling. Jairus asks for help. Jesus, who loves the honest heart, goes to give it. And God, who knows what it's like to lose a child, empowers His Son!
From Dad Time
Psalm 113
Hallelujah!
You who serve God, praise God!
Just to speak his name is praise!
Just to remember God is a blessing—
now and tomorrow and always.
From east to west, from dawn to dusk,
keep lifting all your praises to God!
4-9 God is higher than anything and anyone,
outshining everything you can see in the skies.
Who can compare with God, our God,
so majestically enthroned,
Surveying his magnificent
heavens and earth?
He picks up the poor from out of the dirt,
rescues the forgotten who’ve been thrown out with the trash,
Seats them among the honored guests,
a place of honor among the brightest and best.
He gives childless couples a family,
gives them joy as the parents of children.
Hallelujah!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, June 03, 2023
Today's Scripture
Psalm 139:1–12
God, investigate my life;
get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I’m never out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there,
then up ahead and you’re there, too—
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can’t take it all in!
7-12 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
If I go underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings
to the far western horizon,
You’d find me in a minute—
you’re already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I’m immersed in the light!”
It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.
Insight
God knows His people personally and intimately. This truth is evident in David’s words in Psalm 139. He says God created our “inmost being” (v. 13) and “all the days ordained for [us] were written in [His] book before one of them came to be” (v. 16). The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah affirmed this truth (Isaiah 49:5; Jeremiah 1:5). Later, Jesus declared, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (John 10:14). In fact, He’s numbered the hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:30)! The apostle Paul wrote, we “are God’s temple and . . . God’s Spirit dwells in [us]” (1 Corinthians 3:16). And he added, “Whoever loves God is known by God” (8:3). The best news is that He loved us first (1 John 4:19). By: Alyson Kieda
Within God’s Reach
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? Psalm 139:7
After an officer searched me, I stepped into the county jail, signed the visitor’s log, and sat in the crowded lobby. I prayed silently, watching adults fidgeting and sighing while young children complained about the wait. Over an hour later, an armed guard called a list of names including mine. He led my group into a room and motioned us to our assigned chairs. When my stepson sat in the chair on the other side of the thick glass window and picked up the telephone receiver, the depth of my helplessness overwhelmed me. But as I wept, God assured me that my stepson was still within His reach.
In Psalm 139, David says to God, “You know me. . . ; you are familiar with all my ways” (vv. 1–3). His proclamation of an all-knowing God leads to a celebration of His intimate care and protection (v. 5). Overwhelmed by the vastness of God’s knowledge and the depth of His personal touch, David asks two rhetorical questions: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (v. 7).
When we or our loved ones are stuck in situations that leave us feeling hopeless and helpless, God’s hand remains strong and steady. Even when we believe we’ve strayed too far for His loving redemption, we’re always within His reach. By: Xochitl Dixon
Reflect & Pray
How has knowing the vastness of God’s extensive reach affected your faith? How has He comforted you during a time when you felt hopeless and helpless?
Loving Father, help me to remember that You’re always willing and able to reach me and my loved ones.
Learn more about trusting God in times of suffering.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, June 03, 2023
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him… —Psalm 25:14
What is the sign of a friend? Is it that he tells you his secret sorrows? No, it is that he tells you his secret joys. Many people will confide their secret sorrows to you, but the final mark of intimacy is when they share their secret joys with you. Have we ever let God tell us any of His joys? Or are we continually telling God our secrets, leaving Him no time to talk to us? At the beginning of our Christian life we are full of requests to God. But then we find that God wants to get us into an intimate relationship with Himself— to get us in touch with His purposes. Are we so intimately united to Jesus Christ’s idea of prayer— “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10)— that we catch the secrets of God? What makes God so dear to us is not so much His big blessings to us, but the tiny things, because they show His amazing intimacy with us— He knows every detail of each of our individual lives.
“Him shall He teach in the way He chooses” (Psalm 25:12). At first, we want the awareness of being guided by God. But then as we grow spiritually, we live so fully aware of God that we do not even need to ask what His will is, because the thought of choosing another way will never occur to us. If we are saved and sanctified, God guides us by our everyday choices. And if we are about to choose what He does not want, He will give us a sense of doubt or restraint, which we must heed. Whenever there is doubt, stop at once. Never try to reason it out, saying, “I wonder why I shouldn’t do this?” God instructs us in what we choose; that is, He actually guides our common sense. And when we yield to His teachings and guidance, we no longer hinder His Spirit by continually asking, “Now, Lord, what is Your will?”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from. The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R
Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 19-20; John 13:21-38