Max Lucado Daily: HOW TO BE MADE RIGHT WITH GOD - August 21, 2023
How would you fill in this blank: A person is made right with God through…? Simple statement, yet don’t let its brevity fool you. How you complete it is critical. It reflects the nature of your faith.
A person is made right with God through… Being good. Giving sandwiches to the poor. Christian conduct, that’s the secret! Suffering, there’s the answer. Sleep on dirt floors. Malaria, poverty, bare feet. The greater the pain, the greater the saint. No, no, no. The way to be made right with God? Doctrine. Airtight theology which explains every mystery. Inspiration clarified.
How are we made right with God? All the above are tried, all are demonstrated, but none are from God. Romans 3:28 says, “A person is made right with God through faith.” Through faith in God’s sacrifice on the cross. It’s not what you do, it’s what he did.
Psalm 87
A Korah Psalm
1–3 87 He founded Zion on the Holy Mountain—
and oh, how God loves his home!
Loves it far better than all
the homes of Jacob put together!
God’s hometown—oh!
everyone there is talking about you!
4 I name them off, those among whom I’m famous:
Egypt and Babylon,
also Philistia,
even Tyre, along with Cush.
Word’s getting around; they point them out:
“This one was born again here!”
5 The word’s getting out on Zion:
“Men and women, right and left,
get born again in her!”
6 God registers their names in his book:
“This one, this one, and this one—
born again, right here.”
7 Singers and dancers give credit to Zion:
“All my springs are in you!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 21, 2023
Today's Scripture
1 Samuel 23:14–23
David continued to live in desert hideouts and the backcountry wilderness hills of Ziph. Saul was out looking for him day after day, but God never turned David over to him. David kept out of the way in the wilderness of Ziph, secluded at Horesh, since it was plain that Saul was determined to hunt him down.
16–18 Jonathan, Saul’s son, visited David at Horesh and encouraged him in God. He said, “Don’t despair. My father, Saul, can’t lay a hand on you. You will be Israel’s king and I’ll be right at your side to help. And my father knows it.” Then the two of them made a covenant before God. David stayed at Horesh and Jonathan went home.
19–20 Some Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Did you know that David is hiding out near us in the caves and canyons of Horesh? Right now he’s at Hakilah Hill just south of Jeshimon. So whenever you’re ready to come down, we’d count it an honor to hand him over to the king.”
21–23 Saul said, “God bless you for thinking about me! Now go back and check everything out. Learn his routines. Observe his movements—where he goes, who he’s with. He’s very shrewd, you know. Scout out all his hiding places. Then meet me at Nacon and I’ll go with you. If he is anywhere to be found in all the thousands of Judah, I’ll track him down!”
Insight
The central feature of 1 Samuel 23:14–23 is the “Jonathan visit”—a friend-to-friend encounter at a very critical time. Though God can use casual, unplanned meetings with those we may or may not know, Jonathan’s visit was rooted in a deep, lasting friendship (see 18:1–4). This meeting is believed to have been their last. The depth of their relationship comes through in the lyrics of David’s lament for Jonathan (see 2 Samuel 1:25–27). Selfless, brief, timely visitations like these can be a real gift to those needing encouragement from God. By: Arthur Jackson
The Gift of Encouragement
Encourage one another and build each other up. 1 Thessalonians 5:11
“Your bees are swarming!” My wife stuck her head inside the door and gave me news no beekeeper wants to hear. I ran outside to see thousands of bees flying up from the hive to the top of a tall pine, never to return.
I was a little behind in reading the clues that the hive was about to swarm; more than a week of storms had hampered my inspections. The morning the storms ended, the bees left. The colony was new and healthy, and the bees were actually dividing the colony to start a new one. “Don’t be hard on yourself,” an experienced beekeeper told me cheerfully after seeing my disappointment. “This can happen to anyone!”
Encouragement is a winsome gift. When David was disheartened because Saul was pursuing him to take his life, Saul’s son Jonathan encouraged David. “Don’t be afraid,” Jonathan said. “My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this” (1 Samuel 23:17).
Those are surprisingly selfless words from someone next in line to the throne. It’s likely Jonathan recognized that God was with David, so he spoke out of a humble heart of faith.
All around us are people who need encouragement. God will help us help them as we humble ourselves before Him and ask Him to love them through us. By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
Who do you know who needs encouragement? How might you humbly serve them today?
Dear God, You give me eternal encouragement and good hope. Help me to show Your love to someone today.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 21, 2023
The Ministry of the Unnoticed
Blessed are the poor in spirit… —Matthew 5:3
The New Testament notices things that do not seem worthy of notice by our standards. “Blessed are the poor in spirit….” This literally means, “Blessed are the paupers.” Paupers are remarkably commonplace! The preaching of today tends to point out a person’s strength of will or the beauty of his character— things that are easily noticed. The statement we so often hear, “Make a decision for Jesus Christ,” places the emphasis on something our Lord never trusted. He never asks us to decide for Him, but to yield to Him— something very different. At the foundation of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is the genuine loveliness of those who are commonplace. I am truly blessed in my poverty. If I have no strength of will and a nature without worth or excellence, then Jesus says to me, “Blessed are you, because it is through your poverty that you can enter My kingdom.” I cannot enter His kingdom by virtue of my goodness— I can only enter it as an absolute pauper.
The true character of the loveliness that speaks for God is always unnoticed by the one possessing that quality. Conscious influence is prideful and unchristian. If I wonder if I am being of any use to God, I instantly lose the beauty and the freshness of the touch of the Lord. “He who believes in Me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). And if I examine the outflow, I lose the touch of the Lord.
Who are the people who have influenced us most? Certainly not the ones who thought they did, but those who did not have even the slightest idea that they were influencing us. In the Christian life, godly influence is never conscious of itself. If we are conscious of our influence, it ceases to have the genuine loveliness which is characteristic of the touch of Jesus. We always know when Jesus is at work because He produces in the commonplace something that is inspiring.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L
Bible in a Year: Psalms 107-109; 1 Corinthians 4
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 21, 2023
The Price of Withholding - #9551
Gross and net. Yeah, that's the words that you can use to describe what you really can use from your paycheck. Gross, of course, is the total amount you get in the paycheck. Then, of course, that's not what you can use, because net is the amount that's left after taxes, right? That's what you've still got in the net. You've never even seen the government's share... and that's what's gross. Well, they call what goes to the government withholding tax. Now, it's not just the government that's in the withholding business. No, you and I are too, and it's gross.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Price of Withholding."
Our word for today from the Word of God is in Genesis 22; it's the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice the most precious thing in his life. It is a test to clarify Abraham's love for God. You may remember that there was a son for whom he waited many, many years and miraculously God gave him a son in Isaac; the son of his and Sarah's old age. And Isaac was to be the one through whom a whole nation would come - a nation that God had promised to Abraham.
Now God says to him, "I want you to take him to the mountain and sacrifice him." Now, as I said, it was a test to clarify Abraham's love. You see, it's easy for one of God's gifts to become an idol that we love more than Him. And so here is the call to sacrifice his son. Of course, as you may remember, God provides a ram that he can sacrifice instead. But He calls on him to sacrifice his son, and it is a call that later God himself would respond to; only He would go all the way with the sacrifice, and sacrifice His Son on a cross for us.
Now, we go to Genesis 22 and we learn about withholding. In fact, it's a key word of the passage. Genesis 22:12 - "'Do not lay a hand on the boy,' God says. 'Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from Me your son... your only son.'" Verse 16: "I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you." Did you notice, "You have not withheld."
Now we know that in our tax system, the money the government takes out of our paycheck is because they have prior claim to it. We don't even consider hanging onto that money. Now, with our most precious relationships and possessions, we have a choice. The government doesn't give us a choice, but we have a choice about withholding these precious things. But God has a prior claim to that loved one that you're holding onto so tightly. He made them. He paid for them. They're His. He has a prior claim to that house, that car, that possession you may have hung onto for yourself. He has a prior claim to the money you want to spend mostly on your kingdom instead of His.
Yeah, God has prior claim to that position you hold or aspire to hold, to your gifts, to your talents, the opportunities He's entrusted to you. They're His! He has prior claim to your children. Could it be you're withholding them from God? Are you hanging onto something or someone you love? You have plans. You have dreams, and security riding on it as Abraham did. But God's hands are reaching your way saying, "Can you trust Me with what you love so much?"
Two thousand years after this incident, God proved that He could be trusted by sacrificing His Son on that very mountain. And if you give what you love to Him, He will either improve it or replace it with something better.
Can you hear God saying, "You have not withheld from Me what you love so much. Surely I will bless you." I hope so. After all, God has prior claim, so withholding from Him is stealing from God.