Max Lucado Daily: IN THE SHADOW OF SHECHEM - October 18, 2023
Psalm 36:1 reads, “Sin lurks deep in the hearts of the wicked, forever urging them on to evil deeds” (TLB).
The human heart is a dark place. When God is not sought, when society submits to no one higher than self, the result is chaos. We become savages. We victimize the vulnerable. We break hearts, homes, covenants, and promises.
We create a poisoned system where people suppress their better selves and rise on the backs of others. It awards power and force and downplays kindness and grace.
To be clear, in the Christian calculus, humanity is treasured, priceless, and destined for glory. We are created in God’s image. But we have squandered our inheritance by seeking to be God. Yet there is hope! And his name is Jesus. He came to rescue us from ourselves.
2 Corinthians 10
And now a personal but most urgent matter; I write in the gentle but firm spirit of Christ. I hear that I’m being painted as cringing and wishy-washy when I’m with you, but harsh and demanding when at a safe distance writing letters. Please don’t force me to take a hard line when I’m present with you. Don’t think that I’ll hesitate a single minute to stand up to those who say I’m an unprincipled opportunist. Then they’ll have to eat their words.
3–6 The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.
7–8 You stare and stare at the obvious, but you can’t see the forest for the trees. If you’re looking for a clear example of someone on Christ’s side, why do you so quickly cut me out? Believe me, I am quite sure of my standing with Christ. You may think I overstate the authority he gave me, but I’m not backing off. Every bit of my commitment is for the purpose of building you up, after all, not tearing you down.
9–11 And what’s this talk about me bullying you with my letters? “His letters are brawny and potent, but in person he’s a weakling and mumbles when he talks.” Such talk won’t survive scrutiny. What we write when away, we do when present. We’re the exact same people, absent or present, in letter or in person.
12 We’re not, understand, putting ourselves in a league with those who boast that they’re our superiors. We wouldn’t dare do that. But in all this comparing and grading and competing, they quite miss the point.
13–14 We aren’t making outrageous claims here. We’re sticking to the limits of what God has set for us. But there can be no question that those limits reach to and include you. We’re not moving into someone else’s “territory.” We were already there with you, weren’t we? We were the first ones to get there with the Message of Christ, right? So how can there be any question of overstepping our bounds by writing or visiting you?
15–18 We’re not barging in on the rightful work of others, interfering with their ministries, demanding a place in the sun with them. What we’re hoping for is that as your lives grow in faith, you’ll play a part within our expanding work. And we’ll all still be within the limits God sets as we proclaim the Message in countries beyond Corinth. But we have no intention of moving in on what others have done and taking credit for it. “If you want to claim credit, claim it for God.” What you say about yourself means nothing in God’s work. It’s what God says about you that makes the difference.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Today's Scripture
Acts 9:36–43
Down the road a way in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, “Gazelle” in our language. She was well-known for doing good and helping out. During the time Peter was in the area she became sick and died. Her friends prepared her body for burial and put her in a cool room.
38–40 Some of the disciples had heard that Peter was visiting in nearby Lydda and sent two men to ask if he would be so kind as to come over. Peter got right up and went with them. They took him into the room where Tabitha’s body was laid out. Her old friends, most of them widows, were in the room mourning. They showed Peter pieces of clothing the Gazelle had made while she was with them. Peter put the widows all out of the room. He knelt and prayed. Then he spoke directly to the body: “Tabitha, get up.”
40–41 She opened her eyes. When she saw Peter, she sat up. He took her hand and helped her up. Then he called in the believers and widows, and presented her to them alive.
42–43 When this became known all over Joppa, many put their trust in the Master. Peter stayed on a long time in Joppa as a guest of Simon the Tanner.
Insight
Jesus commanded His disciples to be His “witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Because of persecution, the believers “were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria” (8:1). Philip went to Samaria to preach the gospel (vv. 4–5) as well as Peter and John (v. 14). Luke highlighted Peter’s ministry in Lydda and Joppa (Acts 9:32–43), commercial towns with large numbers of gentiles. After raising Dorcas from the dead, Peter stayed in Joppa “for some time” (v. 43). While praying, he saw a vision of unclean animals (10:9–16), reiterating that “God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of . . . receiving eternal life” (11:18 nlt). It was from Joppa that Jonah sailed for Tarshish instead of going to Nineveh to tell gentiles about God (Jonah 1:3). It’s significant that from Joppa, God now calls Peter to proclaim the good news to the gentiles (Acts 10:24–48). By: K. T. Sim
Use What You Have for Christ
[Tabitha] was always doing good and helping the poor. Acts 9:36
Ever heard of The Sewing Hall of Fame? Established in 2001, it recognizes people that have made “a lasting impact on the home sewing industry with unique and innovative contributions through sewing education and product development.” It includes individuals like Martha Pullen, inducted into the hall in 2005, who is described as “a Proverbs 31 woman who . . . never failed to publicly acknowledge the source of her strength, inspiration, and blessings.”
The Sewing Hall of Fame is a twenty-first-century invention, but had it been around during the first century in Israel, a woman named Tabitha might have been a lock for induction. Tabitha was a believer in Jesus and a seamstress who spent time sewing for poor widows in her community (Acts 9:36, 39). After she became ill and died, disciples sent for Peter to see if God would work a miracle through him. When he arrived, weeping widows showed him robes and other clothing that Tabitha had made for them (v. 39). These clothes were evidence of her “always doing good” for the poor in her city (v. 36). By God’s power, Tabitha was restored to life.
God calls and equips us to use our skills to meet needs that are present in our community and world. Let’s release our skills into the service of Jesus and see how He’ll use our acts of love to stitch hearts and lives together (Ephesians 4:16). By: Marvin Williams
Reflect & Pray
What talents and abilities has God given you? How can you use them to help people in need?
Dear Jesus, please help me to respond with love and compassion to the needs of others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
The Key to the Missionary’s Devotion
…they went forth for His name’s sake… —3 John 7
Our Lord told us how our love for Him is to exhibit itself when He asked, “Do you love Me?” (John 21:17). And then He said, “Feed My sheep.” In effect, He said, “Identify yourself with My interests in other people,” not, “Identify Me with your interests in other people.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 shows us the characteristics of this love— it is actually the love of God expressing itself. The true test of my love for Jesus is a very practical one, and all the rest is sentimental talk.
Faithfulness to Jesus Christ is the supernatural work of redemption that has been performed in me by the Holy Spirit— “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit…” (Romans 5:5). And it is that love in me that effectively works through me and comes in contact with everyone I meet. I remain faithful to His name, even though the commonsense view of my life may seemingly deny that, and may appear to be declaring that He has no more power than the morning mist.
The key to the missionary’s devotion is that he is attached to nothing and to no one except our Lord Himself. It does not mean simply being detached from the external things surrounding us. Our Lord was amazingly in touch with the ordinary things of life, but He had an inner detachment except toward God. External detachment is often an actual indication of a secret, growing, inner attachment to the things we stay away from externally.
The duty of a faithful missionary is to concentrate on keeping his soul completely and continually open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The men and women our Lord sends out on His endeavors are ordinary human people, but people who are controlled by their devotion to Him, which has been brought about through the work of the Holy Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them.
The Place of Help
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 53-55; 2 Thessalonians 1
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Never Off Duty - #9593
It was four months after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center a moving postscript was added to the accounts of rescue heroism that we had already heard. Some 343 firefighters lost their lives on September 11, going in to rescue people at a time when everyone else was fleeing. But a subsequent review of the fatalities actually revealed that sixty of those who died were "off duty" when they rushed into the burning towers. Some of the firefighters who gave their lives that day had been home or working second jobs when they heard about the fires at the towers and they sped to the scene in taxis or in their own cars. A fire department spokesman said, "Those who were 'off duty' joined those who were already working in a valiant and courageous effort to save as many lives as possible." Wow!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Never Off Duty."
That actually is the mindset of someone who's concerned about saving lives. You're not always rescuing, but you're never "off duty" when it's time for a rescue. That's a powerful picture of a follower of Jesus Christ whose life is truly available for Christ's service. You never go "off duty." Not when lives are at stake.
Paul, the early church's greatest rescuer, gave that kind of instruction to an up-and-coming rescuer. His name was Timothy. We're in 2 Timothy 4:2, our word for today from the Word of God. Here's what Paul says, "Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season." See, you never know when the opportunity is going to pop up to talk about having a relationship with Jesus Christ or to reach out and let someone else see Christ in some way that you love them. You can't schedule those things. And you don't just do it when it's your "job" to do it - when you're "on duty."
You never know when the call is going to come from your Lord, when He says through His Holy Spirit, "Hey, there's a life right there that needs a rescuer right now. I've opened the door. There's an opportunity here, my son, my daughter. You have a chance to speak for your Jesus. I'm sending you to that person right now."
This doesn't mean you don't follow God's command to take time off or to focus on your primary ministry (your family), or to take care of your everyday responsibilities. They're part of your life's work, too. But this "never off duty" mindset means you're always open to the opportunities in your everyday life to represent Jesus. Actually, you go into your day looking for, praying for those opportunities. And you're flexible enough to drop what you're doing when the summons comes from Headquarters to touch a life with God's redeeming love...always on call, always on assignment, always like a policeman in his patrol car, ready to hear from the dispatcher.
Maybe you've seen those city buses that have a sign on the front, "Out of Service." Well, let me tell you, if you understand what it means to belong to Jesus Christ, you are never "out of service." Those who have joined Jesus in the spiritual rescue mission for which He came, for which He died, just don't go "off duty," not when there are lives at stake.
No matter how uncomfortable they are, no matter how weary they are, no matter how they're feeling, no matter how risky it is, that tragic day at the burning World Trade Center, people showed up to make a difference who didn't have to be there. But they were rescuers. They knew that when lives are at stake, you drop everything to do whatever you can to save a life.
Well, can those whose job it is to rescue people for all eternity do anything less?