Max Lucado Daily: GRACE CAME AFTER JACOB - September 4, 2023
If you want to see God’s steadfast devotion…
If you need to know how long God will put up with a scoundrel and his scandals…
If you are wondering if God’s plan has a place for botchers and bunglers and schemers…
If you could benefit from a tale of God’s unending, unbending, unswerving faithfulness…
Then the story of Jacob is what you need.
In Exodus 3:15 God said to Moses, “…The Lord is the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…” God used Jacob in spite of Jacob. Period.
The word for such devotion? Grace. Grace came after Jacob. Grace found him in the desert. Grace protected him when he lived in exile. Grace wrestled him to the ground and blessed him.
Do you know such grace? God never gives up on you.
1 Corinthians 14:26-40
So here’s what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight. If prayers are offered in tongues, two or three’s the limit, and then only if someone is present who can interpret what you’re saying. Otherwise, keep it between God and yourself. And no more than two or three speakers at a meeting, with the rest of you listening and taking it to heart. Take your turn, no one person taking over. Then each speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all learn from each other. If you choose to speak, you’re also responsible for how and when you speak. When we worship the right way, God doesn’t stir us up into confusion; he brings us into harmony. This goes for all the churches—no exceptions.
34–36 Wives must not disrupt worship, talking when they should be listening, asking questions that could more appropriately be asked of their husbands at home. God’s Book of the law guides our manners and customs here. Wives have no license to use the time of worship for unwarranted speaking. Do you—both women and men—imagine that you’re a sacred oracle determining what’s right and wrong? Do you think everything revolves around you?
37–38 If any one of you thinks God has something for you to say or has inspired you to do something, pay close attention to what I have written. This is the way the Master wants it. If you won’t play by these rules, God can’t use you. Sorry.
39–40 Three things, then, to sum this up: When you speak forth God’s truth, speak your heart out. Don’t tell people how they should or shouldn’t pray when they’re praying in tongues that you don’t understand. Be courteous and considerate in everything.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, September 04, 2023
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Jeremiah 52:31–34
When Jehoiachin king of Judah had been in exile for thirty-seven years, Evil-Merodach became king in Babylon and let Jehoiachin out of prison. This release took place on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month. The king treated him most courteously and gave him preferential treatment beyond anything experienced by the political prisoners held in Babylon. Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and from then on ate his meals in company with the king. The king provided everything he needed to live comfortably for the rest of his life.
Insight
The prophet Jeremiah is often referred to as the weeping prophet because his book of prophecy contains several references to tears, including his own personal sorrow. For example, Jeremiah 9:1 says, “Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.” And 13:17 adds, “If you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears, because the Lord’s flock will be taken captive.” Jeremiah wasn’t afraid to cry! Some students of Scripture have speculated that some in the crowd thought Jesus was Jeremiah (Matthew 16:14) because He wasn’t ashamed of His tears. By: Bill Crowder
Extreme Kindness
When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us. Titus 3:4–5
Fast-food restaurant worker Kevin Ford hadn’t missed a shift in twenty-seven years. After a video surfaced showing his humble gratitude for a modest gift he received to commemorate his decades of service, thousands of people rallied together to show kindness to him. “It’s like a dream, a dream come true,” he said when a fundraising effort brought in $250,000 in just over a week.
Jehoiachin, the exiled king of Judah, was also the recipient of extreme kindness. He’d been incarcerated for thirty-seven years before the benevolence of the Babylonian king resulted in his release. “[The king] freed him from prison. He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon” (Jeremiah 52:31–32). Jehoiachin was given a new position, new clothes, and a new residence. His new life was fully funded by the king.
This story pictures what happens spiritually when, out of no contributions from themselves or others, people who believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection are rescued from their estrangement from God. They’re brought from darkness and death into light and life; they’re brought into the family of God because of the extreme kindness of God. By: Arthur Jackson
Reflect & Pray
What acts of human kindness have reminded you of God’s goodness? How do you respond to the kindness of God who welcomes you into His family based on what Jesus has done?
Father, thank You for Your forgiving kindness. “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.”
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 04, 2023
His!
They were Yours, You gave them to Me… —John 17:6
A missionary is someone in whom the Holy Spirit has brought about this realization: “You are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19). To say, “I am not my own,” is to have reached a high point in my spiritual stature. The true nature of that life in actual everyday confusion is evidenced by the deliberate giving up of myself to another Person through a sovereign decision, and that Person is Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit interprets and explains the nature of Jesus to me to make me one with my Lord, not that I might simply become a trophy for His showcase. Our Lord never sent any of His disciples out on the basis of what He had done for them. It was not until after the resurrection, when the disciples had perceived through the power of the Holy Spirit who Jesus really was, that He said, “Go” (Matthew 28:19; also see Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8).
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). He was not saying that this person cannot be good and upright, but that he cannot be someone over whom Jesus can write the word Mine. Any one of the relationships our Lord mentions in this verse can compete with our relationship with Him. I may prefer to belong to my mother, or to my wife, or to myself, but if that is the case, then, Jesus said, “[You] cannot be My disciple.” This does not mean that I will not be saved, but it does mean that I cannot be entirely His.
Our Lord makes His disciple His very own possession, becoming responsible for him. “…you shall be witnesses to Me…” (Acts 1:8). The desire that comes into a disciple is not one of doing anything for Jesus, but of being a perfect delight to Him. The missionary’s secret is truly being able to say, “I am His, and He is accomplishing His work and His purposes through me.”
Be entirely His!
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Both nations and individuals have tried Christianity and abandoned it, because it has been found too difficult; but no man has ever gone through the crisis of deliberately making Jesus Lord and found Him to be a failure. The Love of God—The Making of a Christian, 680 R
Bible in a Year: Psalms 143-145; 1 Corinthians 14:21-40
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 04, 2023
End Times Praying End Times Loving - #9561
Now, the problem with professional football games is they keep slowing down for huddles and time outs; especially those commercials. I'll tell you when they don't slow down. It's near the end of the game where your team is behind, and with two minutes left, a team often skips the huddle, all the delays, and they just go right from one play to the next. They forget the game plan; there's two minutes left. They go for broke!
Now, this is called the "hurry-up offense," and that's pretty literally named. Skip the huddle, skip all the game plan; let's win this game - do whatever it takes. You play differently when there isn't much time...or you should.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "End Times Praying End Times Loving."
Which brings us to our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Peter 4, beginning with verse 7, where he talks about "the end of all things is at hand." Now, all of us are living in a world that seems to be winding down, or maybe winding up to Christ's return. It's obvious even to unbelievers that we seem to be moving to some kind of dramatic climax. It's all bubbling up into something. And if you've read the final chapters of the Bible, you know what that climax is. So, how should we be playing in light of this what might be a two-minute warning from God so to speak?
Well, there are two areas that are supposed to be affected the most: How we pray, because verse 7 in 1 Peter 4, talks about being clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. OK, the first area is we ought to be praying differently - open-mindedly, ready for whatever God might say to us in these urgent times. So, don't be surprised if God says to do something outside of your box.
The second area that is affected is how we treat each other. Listen to this, coming off that statement, "the end of all things is near." It says, "Above all..." (okay, that's important) "...Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins." I love that phrase. It seems to be summed up in these two words, "covering love."
Urgent times - times when you see climactic events taking place. Those are times in which our relationships should be described by those two words, "covering love." Love covers all kinds of wrongs that might be done to you. What's the opposite? Is it hate? Is it indifference? Well, let's call it un-love... if I'm giving you anything less than love, it's un-love. You know what it does? It uncovers every wrong that's done to you; it keeps score. "If I don't love you, I will maintain a list of grievances I'll never forget. But these are urgent times. There's no time to dissect every misunderstanding, every harsh word, every miscommunication, every hurt feeling. In sports they say, "Shake it off" when you get hurt.
That's what you do with end-times loving. You "shake it off" if you've been hurt by somebody. You choose to move on. This isn't some passive little tame love. It's active loving, active forgiving. Actually it's the word in the Greek stretched out. That's what "love each other deeply" means. It's like a fully extended runner. It's fully extended love.
That's the kind of offense that is worthy of the time that's on the clock. You pray ready for anything God might say, and you love ready to forgive anything, and to give anything. I think we may have heard God's two-minute warning. It's time for God's hurry-up offense. Hey, it's time to go for broke.