Max Lucado Daily: HEAVEN AS YOUR HOME - June 14, 2023
Dread of death ends when you know heaven is your true home. In all my air travels I’ve never seen one passenger weep when the plane landed. Never. No one clings to the armrests and begs, “Don’t make me leave. Let me stay and eat more peanuts!” We’re willing to exit the plane because the plane has no permanent mailing address.
Nor does this world. Philippians 3:20 says, “We are citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.” Why don’t you do this: why don’t you give God your death? Imagine your last moment. Envision your final breath. Offer it to God. Deliberately, regularly. “Lord, I receive your work on the cross and in your resurrection. I entrust you with my departure from earth.” With Christ as your friend and heaven as your home, the day of death becomes sweeter than the day of birth!
Psalm 119:89-176 Lamedh
89
Your word, Lord, is eternal;
it stands firm in the heavens.
90
Your faithfulness continues through all generations;
you established the earth, and it endures.
91
Your laws endure to this day,
for all things serve you.
92
If your law had not been my delight,
I would have perished in my affliction.
93
I will never forget your precepts,
for by them you have preserved my life.
94
Save me, for I am yours;
I have sought out your precepts.
95
The wicked are waiting to destroy me,
but I will ponder your statutes.
96
To all perfection I see a limit,
but your commands are boundless.
מ Mem
97
Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.
98
Your commands are always with me
and make me wiser than my enemies.
99
I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
100
I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.
101
I have kept my feet from every evil path
so that I might obey your word.
102
I have not departed from your laws,
for you yourself have taught me.
103
How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104
I gain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every wrong path.
נ Nun
105
Your word is a lamp for my feet,
a light on my path.
106
I have taken an oath and confirmed it,
that I will follow your righteous laws.
107
I have suffered much;
preserve my life, Lord, according to your word.
108
Accept, Lord, the willing praise of my mouth,
and teach me your laws.
109
Though I constantly take my life in my hands,
I will not forget your law.
110
The wicked have set a snare for me,
but I have not strayed from your precepts.
111
Your statutes are my heritage forever;
they are the joy of my heart.
112
My heart is set on keeping your decrees
to the very end.[a]
ס Samekh
113
I hate double-minded people,
but I love your law.
114
You are my refuge and my shield;
I have put my hope in your word.
115
Away from me, you evildoers,
that I may keep the commands of my God!
116
Sustain me, my God, according to your promise, and I will live;
do not let my hopes be dashed.
117
Uphold me, and I will be delivered;
I will always have regard for your decrees.
118
You reject all who stray from your decrees,
for their delusions come to nothing.
119
All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross;
therefore I love your statutes.
120
My flesh trembles in fear of you;
I stand in awe of your laws.
ע Ayin
121
I have done what is righteous and just;
do not leave me to my oppressors.
122
Ensure your servant’s well-being;
do not let the arrogant oppress me.
123
My eyes fail, looking for your salvation,
looking for your righteous promise.
124
Deal with your servant according to your love
and teach me your decrees.
125
I am your servant; give me discernment
that I may understand your statutes.
126
It is time for you to act, Lord;
your law is being broken.
127
Because I love your commands
more than gold, more than pure gold,
128
and because I consider all your precepts right,
I hate every wrong path.
פ Pe
129
Your statutes are wonderful;
therefore I obey them.
130
The unfolding of your words gives light;
it gives understanding to the simple.
131
I open my mouth and pant,
longing for your commands.
132
Turn to me and have mercy on me,
as you always do to those who love your name.
133
Direct my footsteps according to your word;
let no sin rule over me.
134
Redeem me from human oppression,
that I may obey your precepts.
135
Make your face shine on your servant
and teach me your decrees.
136
Streams of tears flow from my eyes,
for your law is not obeyed.
צ Tsadhe
137
You are righteous, Lord,
and your laws are right.
138
The statutes you have laid down are righteous;
they are fully trustworthy.
139
My zeal wears me out,
for my enemies ignore your words.
140
Your promises have been thoroughly tested,
and your servant loves them.
141
Though I am lowly and despised,
I do not forget your precepts.
142
Your righteousness is everlasting
and your law is true.
143
Trouble and distress have come upon me,
but your commands give me delight.
144
Your statutes are always righteous;
give me understanding that I may live.
ק Qoph
145
I call with all my heart; answer me, Lord,
and I will obey your decrees.
146
I call out to you; save me
and I will keep your statutes.
147
I rise before dawn and cry for help;
I have put my hope in your word.
148
My eyes stay open through the watches of the night,
that I may meditate on your promises.
149
Hear my voice in accordance with your love;
preserve my life, Lord, according to your laws.
150
Those who devise wicked schemes are near,
but they are far from your law.
151
Yet you are near, Lord,
and all your commands are true.
152
Long ago I learned from your statutes
that you established them to last forever.
ר Resh
153
Look on my suffering and deliver me,
for I have not forgotten your law.
154
Defend my cause and redeem me;
preserve my life according to your promise.
155
Salvation is far from the wicked,
for they do not seek out your decrees.
156
Your compassion, Lord, is great;
preserve my life according to your laws.
157
Many are the foes who persecute me,
but I have not turned from your statutes.
158
I look on the faithless with loathing,
for they do not obey your word.
159
See how I love your precepts;
preserve my life, Lord, in accordance with your love.
160
All your words are true;
all your righteous laws are eternal.
ש Sin and Shin
161
Rulers persecute me without cause,
but my heart trembles at your word.
162
I rejoice in your promise
like one who finds great spoil.
163
I hate and detest falsehood
but I love your law.
164
Seven times a day I praise you
for your righteous laws.
165
Great peace have those who love your law,
and nothing can make them stumble.
166
I wait for your salvation, Lord,
and I follow your commands.
167
I obey your statutes,
for I love them greatly.
168
I obey your precepts and your statutes,
for all my ways are known to you.
ת Taw
169
May my cry come before you, Lord;
give me understanding according to your word.
170
May my supplication come before you;
deliver me according to your promise.
171
May my lips overflow with praise,
for you teach me your decrees.
172
May my tongue sing of your word,
for all your commands are righteous.
173
May your hand be ready to help me,
for I have chosen your precepts.
174
I long for your salvation, Lord,
and your law gives me delight.
175
Let me live that I may praise you,
and may your laws sustain me.
176
I have strayed like a lost sheep.
Seek your servant,
for I have not forgotten your commands.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Today's Scripture:
Hebrews 11:32, 35–40
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon,j Barak,k Samsonl and Jephthah,m about Davidn and Samuelo and the prophets,
35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins,a destitute, persecuted and mistreated—38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in cavesb and in holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised,40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with use would they be made perfect.
Insight
The book of Hebrews begins by identifying Jesus as the full and final revelation of God. Under the old covenant, God spoke to His people through the prophets at various times and in various ways, “but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (1:2). What follows is an extraordinary statement about the supremacy of Christ. The Son is the creator, sustainer, and “heir of all things” (v. 2). He’s fully divine—the “radiance” or reflection “of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (v. 3). After accomplishing our salvation, He took His place at the highest position in the universe, the right hand of God the Father (v. 3).
Adapted from Understanding the Bible: The Letter to the Hebrews.. https://discoveryseries.org/Q0427
Texts, Troubles, and Triumphs
We do not belong to those who shrink back . . . but to those who have faith and are saved.
Jimmy hadn’t allowed the reality of social unrest, danger, and discomfort to keep him from traveling to one of the poorest countries in the world to encourage ministry couples. The steady stream of text messages to our team back home revealed the challenges he encountered. “Okay, boys, activate the prayer line. We’ve gone ten miles in the last two hours. . . . Car has overheated a dozen times.” Transportation setbacks meant that he arrived just before midnight to preach to those who’d waited for five hours. Later we received a text with a different tone. “Amazing, sweet time of fellowship. . . . About a dozen people came forward for prayer. It was a powerful night!”
Faithfully serving God can be challenging. The exemplars of faith listed in Hebrews 11 would agree. Compelled by their faith in God, ordinary men and women faced uncomfortable and unfathomable circumstances. “Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment” (v. 36). Their faith compelled them to take risks and rely on God for the outcome. The same is true for us. Living out our faith may not take us to risky places far away, but it may well take us across the street or across the campus or to an empty seat in a lunchroom or boardroom. Risky? Perhaps. But the rewards, now or later, will be well worth the risks as God helps us.
By: Arthur Jackson
Reflect & Pray
How can you take a risk and follow Jesus even though it might be uncomfortable? What keeps you “playing it safe”?
Dear Father, please give me strength and courage to let go of my life and entrust it to You.
My Utmost to his highest devotional
June 14
Get Moving! (1)
By Oswald Chambers
Abide in Me… —John 15:4
In the matter of determination. The Spirit of Jesus is put into me by way of the atonement by the Cross of Christ. I then have to build my thinking patiently to bring it into perfect harmony with my Lord. God will not make me think like Jesus— I have to do it myself. I have to bring “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). “Abide in Me”— in intellectual matters, in money matters, in every one of the matters that make human life what it is. Our lives are not made up of only one neatly confined area.
Am I preventing God from doing things in my circumstances by saying that it will only serve to hinder my fellowship with Him? How irrelevant and disrespectful that is! It does not matter what my circumstances are. I can be as much assured of abiding in Jesus in any one of them as I am in any prayer meeting. It is unnecessary to change and arrange my circumstances myself. Our Lord’s inner abiding was pure and unblemished. He was at home with God wherever His body was. He never chose His own circumstances, but was meek, submitting to His Father’s plans and directions for Him. Just think of how amazingly relaxed our Lord’s life was! But we tend to keep God at a fever pitch in our lives. We have none of the serenity of the life which is “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).
Think of the things that take you out of the position of abiding in Christ. You say, “Yes, Lord, just a minute— I still have this to do. Yes, I will abide as soon as this is finished, or as soon as this week is over. It will be all right, Lord. I will abide then.” Get moving— begin to abide now. In the initial stages it will be a continual effort to abide, but as you continue, it will become so much a part of your life that you will abide in Him without any conscious effort. Make the determination to abide in Jesus wherever you are now or wherever you may be placed in the future.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R
A Word With You by Ron Hutchcraft
TURNING YESTERDAY'S SHAME INTO SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL - #9503
Part of our ministry team has worked on a remote Native American reservation in the Southwest. In fact, our sons launched this ground-breaking outreach to Native young people many years ago there. The ministry at that reservation is part of our bigger initiative, "On Eagles' Wings."
Several years ago, God helped them launch a low-power FM radio station on that reservation. I mean, this was a reservation pretty spiritually hard and geographically hard to reach. But for several years, the light of Christ was going out via the airwaves 24 hours a day across that reservation in a very original format, and it really made a difference.
Part of the adventure was just getting the station on the air - including setting up the tower. That required some special climbing abilities. And one of the Native young men who God sent to help with the station just happened to have that experience - illegally, in the years before he was following Christ. He used to love to climb towers that the law actually forbade people to climb. Now, all of a sudden, those abilities - that he had practiced in a way that did not honor God - were suddenly being used by God to glorify Him. Don't you just love it!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Turning Yesterday's Shame Into Something Beautiful."
This is one of the amazing ways of God - taking what we did against Jesus before we knew Jesus and turning it into something Jesus can use for His glory. That aspect of God's amazing grace may help shed some hope-giving light on some of the very things you're most sorry for; the things you're even most ashamed of in your past.
In 1 Timothy 1:12-18, our word for today from the Word of God, Paul tells us how this miracle of spiritual recycling worked in his life: "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His service. Even though I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Then he says, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life." Basically Paul says, "The worst things I ever did have been transformed by God's grace into credentials to show people what He can do." Man! That's part of the grace miracle described in Romans 5:20, "Where sin increased, grace increased all the more." Wow! God always has more grace than we've got sin. Grace always triumphs over sin. Hallelujah!
Never is that more dramatic than when God takes the sinning you've done or the sinning that was done against you, and makes it into a boomerang to hit the very devil who once used that stuff to bring you down. Now all that ugly becomes something beautiful in Jesus' hands, because it causes people to listen to you when you talk about Jesus. You're providing living proof of His power - and maybe even helping you climb a tower for His sake.
That's why you need to bring all that sin, and all that shame, and all those awful memories, and all the things you wish you hadn't done to the foot of Jesus' cross. Accept the forgiveness He made possible by the shedding of His blood for that very garbage. And ask Him to redeem those regrets and those lost years by somehow using them for His glory and to help others come to know Him. There's a world of people out there who are where you were before you met Jesus and, under His leadership, you are uniquely equipped to work with Him in rescuing them. They'll listen to someone like you. You've been there.
That's one of God's great grace miracles, and it's waiting for you. Yesterday's shame, touched by the Master, can become today's life-saving victory!