Max Lucado Daily: YOUR LADDER INTO HEAVEN - September 15, 2023
Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51 ESV).
Your ladder into heaven is not a vision; yours is a person. Jesus is our stairway. He calls himself the “Son of Man,” a title that refers to his preexistence. Jesus is announcing, “I am the one upon whom the angels ascend and descend. I am the vehicle of blessing to the world.”
Christ, our go-between, is everywhere at all times, equally present with the Father to hear our prayers as he is with the Spirit to answer them. He is at both ends of the ladder: Jehovah at the top, Jehovah at the bottom. He is the intermediary between you and God. The question is not, Is God active? The question is, Are we watching? God never gives up on you.
2 Chronicles 4
Temple Furnishings
1 4 He made the Bronze Altar thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and ten feet high.
2–5 He made a Sea—an immense round basin of cast metal fifteen feet in diameter, seven and a half feet high, and forty-five feet in circumference. Just under the rim, there were two parallel bands of something like bulls, ten to each foot and a half. The figures were cast in one piece with the Sea. The Sea was set on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. All the bulls faced outward and supported the Sea on their hindquarters. The Sea was three inches thick and flared at the rim like a cup, or a lily. It held about 18,000 gallons.
6 He made ten Washbasins, five set on the right and five on the left, for rinsing the things used for the Whole-Burnt-Offerings. The priests washed themselves in the Sea.
7 He made ten gold Lampstands, following the specified pattern, and placed five on the right and five on the left.
8 He made ten tables and set five on the right and five on the left. He also made a hundred gold bowls.
9 He built a Courtyard especially for the priests and then the great court and doors for the court. The doors were covered with bronze.
10 He placed the Sea on the right side of The Temple at the southeast corner.
11–16 He also made ash buckets, shovels, and bowls.
And that about wrapped it up: Huram completed the work he had contracted to do for King Solomon:
two pillars;
two bowl-shaped capitals for the tops of the pillars;
two decorative filigrees for the capitals;
four hundred pomegranates for the filigrees (a double row of pomegranates for each filigree);
ten washstands with their basins;
one Sea and the twelve bulls under it;
miscellaneous buckets, forks, shovels, and bowls.
16–18 All these artifacts that Huram-Abi made for King Solomon for The Temple of God were made of burnished bronze. The king had them cast in clay in a foundry on the Jordan plain between Succoth and Zarethan. These artifacts were never weighed—there were far too many! Nobody has any idea how much bronze was used.
19–22 Solomon was also responsible for the furniture and accessories in The Temple of God:
the gold Altar;
the tables that held the Bread of the Presence;
the Lampstands of pure gold with their lamps, to be lighted before the Inner Sanctuary, the Holy of Holies;
the gold flowers, lamps, and tongs (all solid gold);
the gold wick trimmers, bowls, ladles, and censers;
the gold doors of The Temple, doors to the Holy of Holies, and the doors to the main sanctuary.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, September 15, 2023
Today's Scripture
Jeremiah 28:2–4,10–16
Hananiah said:
2–4 “This Message is straight from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: ‘I will most certainly break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Before two years are out I’ll have all the furnishings of God’s Temple back here, all the things that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon plundered and hauled off to Babylon. I’ll also bring back Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and all the exiles who were taken off to Babylon.’ God’s Decree. ‘Yes, I will break the king of Babylon’s yoke. You’ll no longer be in harness to him.’ ”
At that, Hananiah grabbed the yoke from Jeremiah’s shoulders and smashed it. And then he addressed the people: “This is God’s Message: In just this way I will smash the yoke of the king of Babylon and get him off the neck of all the nations—and within two years.”
Jeremiah walked out.
12–14 Later, sometime after Hananiah had smashed the yoke from off his shoulders, Jeremiah received this Message from God: “Go back to Hananiah and tell him, ‘This is God’s Message: You smashed the wooden yoke-bars; now you’ve got iron yoke-bars. This is a Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s own God: I’ve put an iron yoke on all these nations. They’re harnessed to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. They’ll do just what he tells them. Why, I’m even putting him in charge of the wild animals.’ ”
15–16 So prophet Jeremiah told prophet Hananiah, “Hold it, Hananiah! God never sent you. You’ve talked the whole country into believing a pack of lies! And so God says, ‘You claim to be sent? I’ll send you all right—right off the face of the earth! Before the year is out, you’ll be dead because you fomented sedition against God.’ ”
Insight
The focus of Jeremiah 28 is the prophet’s dealings with a false prophet named Hananiah. God had instructed Jeremiah to “make a yoke out of straps and crossbars” and put it on his neck (27:2) to symbolize God’s discipline upon the nation—undoubtedly an unwelcome message. But Hananiah presented a contradictory message to the people saying that God had broken that yoke and promised the exiles a swift return to their homeland (28:1–4). Hananiah then broke Jeremiah’s yoke (v. 10) to visualize the promise he claimed was from God. Jeremiah confronted Hananiah with a very different message—God would bring judgment on Hananiah the false prophet (vv. 15–17). By: Bill Crowder
The Message of the Prophets
In the past God spoke . . . through the prophets . . . , but in these last days . . . by his Son. Hebrews 1:1–2
Before baseball’s 1906 World Series, sportswriter Hugh Fullerton made an astute prediction. He said the Chicago Cubs, who were expected to win, would lose the first and third games and win the second. Oh, and it would rain on the fourth. He was right on each point. Then, in 1919, his analytical skills told him certain players were losing World Series games intentionally. Fullerton suspected they’d been bribed by gamblers. Popular opinion ridiculed him. Again, he was right.
Fullerton was no prophet—just a wise man who studied the evidence. Jeremiah was a real prophet whose prophecies always came true. Wearing an ox yoke, Jeremiah told Judah to surrender to the Babylonians and live (Jeremiah 27:2, 12). The false prophet Hananiah contradicted him and broke the yoke (28:2–4, 10). Jeremiah told him, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you,” and added, “This very year you are going to die” (vv. 15–16). Two months later, Hananiah was dead (v. 17).
The New Testament tells us, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets . . . , but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2). Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and through the Scriptures and guidance of the Holy Spirit, God’s truth still instructs us today. By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
What big questions trouble you? What might you learn about them by learning more about what Jesus taught?
Father, I have big questions today, and I need Your Spirit to guide me into Your truth. Help me to trust You in the things I can’t see.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, September 15, 2023
What To Renounce
We have renounced the hidden things of shame… —2 Corinthians 4:2
Have you “renounced the hidden things of shame” in your life— the things that your sense of honor or pride will not allow to come into the light? You can easily hide them. Is there a thought in your heart about anyone that you would not like to be brought into the light? Then renounce it as soon as it comes to mind— renounce everything in its entirety until there is no hidden dishonesty or craftiness about you at all. Envy, jealousy, and strife don’t necessarily arise from your old nature of sin, but from the flesh which was used for these kinds of things in the past (see Romans 6:19 and 1 Peter 4:1-3). You must maintain continual watchfulness so that nothing arises in your life that would cause you shame.
“…not walking in craftiness…” (2 Corinthians 4:2). This means not resorting to something simply to make your own point. This is a terrible trap. You know that God will allow you to work in only one way— the way of truth. Then be careful never to catch people through the other way— the way of deceit. If you act deceitfully, God’s blight and ruin will be upon you. What may be craftiness for you, may not be for others— God has called you to a higher standard. Never dull your sense of being your utmost for His highest— your best for His glory. For you, doing certain things would mean craftiness coming into your life for a purpose other than what is the highest and best, and it would dull the motivation that God has given you. Many people have turned back because they are afraid to look at things from God’s perspective. The greatest spiritual crisis comes when a person has to move a little farther on in his faith than the beliefs he has already accepted.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ reveals, not an embarrassed God, not a confused God, not a God who stands apart from the problems, but One who stands in the thick of the whole thing with man. Disciples Indeed, 388 L
Bible in a Year: Proverbs 22-24; 2 Corinthians 8
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, September 15, 2023
Where's God in the Tornadoes? - #9570
Well, Spring is tornado time, and there were some Mississippi folks at the conference we were at getting some pretty scary reports from back home. There were friends in a ministry organization we know of who were deeply wounded by the death of a coworker and daughters in Arkansas.
One of the daughters who survived that twister quoted the Book of Job, the biblical man who lost everything. Here's what she wrote: "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Somehow, that girl's faith was sustaining her amid a horrific loss.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Where's God in the Tornadoes?"
There were some others during that outbreak who responded with tragedy's frequent heart cry. "Why, God?" We try to make sense of the shattered pieces of our life. We can't. We want answers from God. Sometimes "Why, God?" is a cry for help. But "Why, God?" might be the wrong question.
I think most of the "why's" are hard to see in the middle of the pain. We're looking at the dark thread that we're living right now. Meanwhile God's working on this much larger tapestry that my thread is a part of. And the thread often cannot make sense without the big tapestry, which we won't see for a while. Maybe not until God shows it to us Himself some day.
But there is a question I've resorted to in the dark valleys. A question that may have some answers - sooner rather than later. Here's the question: "How can God use this?" See, turning from God in our devastation erases any hope of the suffering having any meaning. That road takes us to dark places of bitterness and despair. Turning to God is the only road to hope when we have no answers.
I saw my parents heartbroken when my baby brother died. But I saw their lives totally transformed when their grief actually drove them to the God who had been a stranger to my parents before. It was a tragedy that seemed initially to have no "why." But it was a tragedy that God used to give me a new mom and dad.
See, I saw from a very early age, there was purpose in the pain. I know it's been grief and pain that have taught this spoiled only child right here the meaning of compassion. As it says in 2 Corinthians 1:4, "We comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." People who know what it is to be broken have the credentials to be healers in a hurting world. And, like my parents, our darkest hour may be when we find the Light as never before in the God who came from a perfect heaven to be broken by the people He had made. I can tell you this, He was and has been my anchor since the day my wife, the love of my life since I was nineteen, was suddenly gone. And I said later, "I will not waste this grief." And God has been the anchor through it all.
In our word for today from the Word of God, in God's own words in Isaiah 53:3-5, speaking of Jesus, it says, "He was crushed...He was pierced...a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering." Paying my bill with God. That's what Jesus was doing so I wouldn't have to pay it forever; choosing to die so I could live.
This is a God who's lived our grief, who carries us when we can't take another step. Who went through all of the pain, all of the hell that I deserve. All the payment of my sin, all of the guilt and shame for one simple purpose: so that I could be with Him forever and have the wall between me and God removed.
Could it be the storm you're in right now has been to bring you to the place where you would grab the long-extended hand of Jesus, who's offered it for so many years? And now you grab Him and make Him your Savior from your sin and you will never face a storm alone again.
If you want to get that done, would you go to our website? I think we could help you. It's ANewStory.com.
When our shattered soul reaches in desperation for this God who hung on a cross for us, we find what that old song describes - grace... amazing grace.