Max Lucado Daily: DON’T MISS IT - December 8, 2023
One’s imagination is kindled thinking about the conversation of the innkeeper and his family. Did anyone mention the arrival of the young couple the night before? Did anyone ask about the pregnancy of the girl on the donkey? The innkeeper and his family were so busy. The day was upon them. The day’s bread had to be made, the morning’s chores had to be done. There was too much to do to imagine that the impossible had occurred. God had entered the world as a baby.
Meanwhile the city hummed. Merchants were unaware that God had visited their planet. The innkeeper would never believe that he had just sent God into the cold. Those who missed His Majesty’s arrival missed it not because of evil acts or malice. No, they missed it because they simply weren’t looking. Not much has changed in the last two thousand years, has it?
Blind Yourselves So That You See Nothing
Isaiah 29
1–4 29 Doom, Ariel, Ariel,
1–4 29 Doom, Ariel, Ariel,
the city where David set camp!
Let the years add up,
let the festivals run their cycles,
But I’m not letting up on Jerusalem.
The moaning and groaning will continue.
Jerusalem to me is an Ariel.
Like David, I’ll set up camp against you.
I’ll set siege, build towers,
bring in siege engines, build siege ramps.
Driven into the ground, you’ll speak,
you’ll mumble words from the dirt—
Your voice from the ground, like the muttering of a ghost.
Your speech will whisper from the dust.
5–8 But it will be your enemies who are beaten to dust,
the mob of tyrants who will be blown away like chaff.
Because, surprise, as if out of nowhere,
a visit from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
With thunderclaps, earthquakes, and earsplitting noise,
backed up by hurricanes, tornadoes, and lightning strikes,
And the mob of enemies at war with Ariel,
all who trouble and hassle and torment her,
will turn out to be a bad dream, a nightmare.
Like a hungry man dreaming he’s eating steak
and wakes up hungry as ever,
Like a thirsty woman dreaming she’s drinking iced tea
and wakes up thirsty as ever,
So that mob of nations at war against Mount Zion
will wake up and find they haven’t shot an arrow,
haven’t killed a single soul.
9–10 Drug yourselves so you feel nothing.
Blind yourselves so you see nothing.
Get drunk, but not on wine.
Black out, but not from whiskey.
For God has rocked you into a deep, deep sleep,
put the discerning prophets to sleep,
put the farsighted seers to sleep.
You Have Everything Backward
11–12 What you’ve been shown here is somewhat like a letter in a sealed envelope. If you give it to someone who can read and tell her, “Read this,” she’ll say, “I can’t. The envelope is sealed.” And if you give it to someone who can’t read and tell him, “Read this,” he’ll say, “I can’t read.”
13–14 The Master said:
“These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their hearts aren’t in it.
Because they act like they’re worshiping me
but don’t mean it,
I’m going to step in and shock them awake,
astonish them, stand them on their ears.
The wise ones who had it all figured out
will be exposed as fools.
The smart people who thought they knew everything
will turn out to know nothing.”
15–16 Doom to you! You pretend to have the inside track.
You shut God out and work behind the scenes,
Plotting the future as if you knew everything,
acting mysterious, never showing your hand.
You have everything backward!
You treat the potter as a lump of clay.
Does a book say to its author,
“He didn’t write a word of me”?
Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it,
“She had nothing to do with this”?
17–21 And then before you know it,
and without you having anything to do with it,
Wasted Lebanon will be transformed into lush gardens,
and Mount Carmel reforested.
At that time the deaf will hear
word-for-word what’s been written.
After a lifetime in the dark,
the blind will see.
The castoffs of society will be laughing and dancing in God,
the down-and-outs shouting praise to The Holy of Israel.
For there’ll be no more gangs on the street.
Cynical scoffers will be an extinct species.
Those who never missed a chance to hurt or demean
will never be heard of again:
Gone the people who corrupted the courts,
gone the people who cheated the poor,
gone the people who victimized the innocent.
22–24 And finally this, God’s Message for the family of Jacob,
the same God who redeemed Abraham:
“No longer will Jacob hang his head in shame,
no longer grow gaunt and pale with waiting.
For he’s going to see his children,
my personal gift to him—lots of children.
And these children will honor me
by living holy lives.
In holy worship they’ll honor the Holy One of Jacob
and stand in holy awe of the God of Israel.
Those who got off-track will get back on-track,
and complainers and whiners learn gratitude.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, December 08, 2023
Today's Scripture
John 1:43–51
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. When he got there, he ran across Philip and said, “Come, follow me.” (Philip’s hometown was Bethsaida, the same as Andrew and Peter.)
45–46 Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, “We’ve found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one from Nazareth!” Nathanael said, “Nazareth? You’ve got to be kidding.”
But Philip said, “Come, see for yourself.”
47 When Jesus saw him coming he said, “There’s a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body.”
48 Nathanael said, “Where did you get that idea? You don’t know me.”
Jesus answered, “One day, long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree.”
49 Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi! You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!”
50–51 Jesus said, “You’ve become a believer simply because I say I saw you one day sitting under the fig tree? You haven’t seen anything yet! Before this is over you’re going to see heaven open and God’s angels descending to the Son of Man and ascending again.”
Insight
In John 1:51, Jesus told His first disciples, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.” At first glance, this might seem to be an odd word picture, but it points back to Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28:12: “He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” In this application, Jesus Himself is the ladder from which we can make our way from earth to heaven. This was Christ’s first hint, opaque though it may be, of His ultimate mission. No wonder Jesus would also say, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). By: Bill Crowder
Prejudice and God’s Love
Nazareth! Can anything good come from there? John 1:46
“You’re not what I expected. I thought I’d hate you, but I don’t.” The young man’s words seemed harsh, but they were actually an effort to be kind. I was studying abroad in his country, a land that decades earlier had been at war with my own. We were participating in a group discussion in class together, and I noticed he seemed distant. When I asked if I’d offended him somehow, he responded, “Not at all . . . . And that’s the thing. My grandfather was killed in that war, and I hated your people and your country for it. But now I see how much we have in common, and that surprises me. I don’t see why we can’t be friends.”
Prejudice is as old as the human race. Two millennia ago, when Nathanael first heard about Jesus living in Nazareth, his bias was evident: “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” he asked (John 1:46). Nathanael lived in the region of Galilee, like Jesus. He probably thought God’s Messiah would come from another place; even other Galileans looked down on Nazareth because it seemed to be an unremarkable little village.
This much is clear. Nathanael’s response didn’t stop Jesus from loving him, and he was transformed as he became Jesus’ disciple. “You are the Son of God!” Nathanael later declared (v. 49). There is no bias that can stand against God’s transforming love. By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
What biases have you faced or wrestled with? How does Jesus’ love help you deal with them?
Help me, loving God, to overcome any biases I may have and to love others with the love You alone can give.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, December 08, 2023
The Impartial Power of God
By one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. —Hebrews 10:14
We trample the blood of the Son of God underfoot if we think we are forgiven because we are sorry for our sins. The only reason for the forgiveness of our sins by God, and the infinite depth of His promise to forget them, is the death of Jesus Christ. Our repentance is merely the result of our personal realization of the atonement by the Cross of Christ, which He has provided for us. “…Christ Jesus…became for us wisdom from God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption…” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Once we realize that Christ has become all this for us, the limitless joy of God begins in us. And wherever the joy of God is not present, the death sentence is still in effect.
No matter who or what we are, God restores us to right standing with Himself only by means of the death of Jesus Christ. God does this, not because Jesus pleads with Him to do so but because He died. It cannot be earned, just accepted. All the pleading for salvation which deliberately ignores the Cross of Christ is useless. It is knocking at a door other than the one which Jesus has already opened. We protest by saying, “But I don’t want to come that way. It is too humiliating to be received as a sinner.” God’s response, through Peter, is, “… there is no other name…by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). What at first appears to be heartlessness on God’s part is actually the true expression of His heart. There is unlimited entrance His way. “In Him we have redemption through His blood…” (Ephesians 1:7). To identify with the death of Jesus Christ means that we must die to everything that was never a part of Him.
God is just in saving bad people only as He makes them good. Our Lord does not pretend we are all right when we are all wrong. The atonement by the Cross of Christ is the propitiation God uses to make unholy people holy.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
For the past three hundred years men have been pointing out how similar Jesus Christ’s teachings are to other good teachings. We have to remember that Christianity, if it is not a supernatural miracle, is a sham. The Highest Good, 548 L
Bible in a Year: Daniel 8-10; 3 John
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, December 08, 2023
Where You Were Born To Be - #9630
Our oldest son had just graduated from a wonderful Christian college. Most of his good friends were headed for careers in business or the professions - which can be great places to serve God. But his calling was to go as a missionary to an Indian reservation among a people listed by some world prayer people as one of the most unreached people groups in North America. We knew it wasn't going to be easy. In fact, his first place to sleep at night was just a little storeroom, where he slept on a table so he wouldn't be a snack for the critters on the floor. Now, he was there pretty much on his own, and he was just starting to try to break down some walls and meet some of the tribal young people there. He'd been there a couple of weeks when he called us, I guess it was some morning at sunrise his time. He had driven about eight miles to find a phone to call. It was before cell phones! It was the kind of call that a parent doesn't forget. He said, "Mom, Dad, I've got to tell you I've probably never been so lonely in my whole life. In college, I had friends whenever I wanted them, I could go out on a date whenever I wanted to, I could get some money together when I needed to. But here, I have none of those things." To be honest, our parents' hearts were aching at this point. And then we were blown away by his unexpected conclusion. He said, "But I've got to tell you this, "I've never had such peace in my life. I'm where I was born to be, doing what I was born to do!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Where You Were Born To Be."
It could be that your life has been very full, but not very fulfilling. What you're doing may be successful, but maybe not necessarily significant. It may be cheered by men, but not very important to God. Let's face it. You're restless inside. You know there's got to be something more. Maybe God is stirring your soul. Maybe He's trying to move you where you were born to be, to do what you were born to do. And it's different from what you're doing now. Don't be afraid of it. Be expectant. And be obedient - no matter how risky that obedience looks. Actually there's no such thing as a risky obedience - only a risky disobedience.
In Jeremiah 1:5, our word for today from the Word of God, the Lord says this to Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart." When Jeremiah expresses his sense of being inadequate to carry out his calling, God says, "You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you."
On the one hand, these words applied particularly to the calling of Jeremiah to be God's prophet. But the sense of what He said is true of every child of God...including you. He formed you in the womb for special purposes as Paul says, "for good works He prepared in advance" for you to do (Ephesians 2:10). And He's calling you to be where He made you to be, doing what He made you to do. And it may be something different from what you're doing now. You won't be able to see the whole road ahead, but He's expecting you to start walking that direction right now, following the light of His Word, and His leading through your prayers, and His defining circumstances.
His call is for you to "offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God." Out of that surrender, you will, according to Romans 12, "be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will." To follow Him to your designer destiny, you may have to defy the drumbeat of the culture around you. You may be called foolish by those who can't understand heaven's plans. You will almost surely have to proceed by faith; trusting in the Lord who loves you, not in a plan that you can control or even figure out.
But, by all means, follow Him where He's taking you. The alternative is a future filled with the bitter regrets of someone who knows they've missed what they were put here for. Don't settle for anything less than being where you were born to be, and doing what you were born to do.