Max Lucado Daily: ARE YOU LOOKING? - December 10, 2024
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’d 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?
In the Manger
Revelation 14
A Perfect Offering
1–2 14 I saw—it took my breath away!—the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, 144,000 standing there with him, his Name and the Name of his Father inscribed on their foreheads. And I heard a voice out of Heaven, the sound like a cataract, like the crash of thunder.
2–5 And then I heard music, harp music and the harpists singing a new song before the Throne and the Four Animals and the Elders. Only the 144,000 could learn to sing the song. They were bought from earth, lived without compromise, virgin-fresh before God. Wherever the Lamb went, they followed. They were bought from humankind, firstfruits of the harvest for God and the Lamb. Not a false word in their mouths. A perfect offering.
Voices from Heaven
6–7 I saw another Angel soaring in Middle-Heaven. He had an Eternal Message to preach to all who were still on earth, every nation and tribe, every tongue and people. He preached in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory! His hour of judgment has come! Worship the Maker of Heaven and earth, salt sea and fresh water!”
8 A second Angel followed, calling out, “Ruined, ruined, Great Babylon ruined! She made all the nations drunk on the wine of her whoring!”
9–11 A third Angel followed, shouting, warning, “If anyone worships the Beast and its image and takes the mark on forehead or hand, that person will drink the wine of God’s wrath, prepared unmixed in his chalice of anger, and suffer torment from fire and brimstone in the presence of Holy Angels, in the presence of the Lamb. Smoke from their torment will rise age after age. No respite for those who worship the Beast and its image, who take the mark of its name.”
12 Meanwhile, the saints stand passionately patient, keeping God’s commands, staying faithful to Jesus.
13 I heard a voice out of Heaven, “Write this: Blessed are those who die in the Master from now on; how blessed to die that way!”
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “and blessed rest from their hard, hard work. None of what they’ve done is wasted; God blesses them for it all in the end.”
Harvest Time
14–16 I looked up, I caught my breath!—a white cloud and one like the Son of Man sitting on it. He wore a gold crown and held a sharp sickle. Another Angel came out of the Temple, shouting to the Cloud-Enthroned, “Swing your sickle and reap. It’s harvest time. Earth’s harvest is ripe for reaping.” The Cloud-Enthroned gave a mighty sweep of his sickle, began harvesting earth in a stroke.
17–18 Then another Angel came out of the Temple in Heaven. He also had a sharp sickle. Yet another Angel, the one in charge of tending the fire, came from the Altar. He thundered to the Angel who held the sharp sickle, “Swing your sharp sickle. Harvest earth’s vineyard. The grapes are bursting with ripeness.”
19–20 The Angel swung his sickle, harvested earth’s vintage, and heaved it into the winepress, the giant winepress of God’s wrath. The winepress was outside the City. As the vintage was trodden, blood poured from the winepress as high as a horse’s bridle, a river of blood for two hundred miles.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
by Nancy Gavilanes
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Acts 3:1-10
One day at three o’clock in the afternoon, Peter and John were on their way into the Temple for prayer meeting. At the same time there was a man crippled from birth being carried up. Every day he was set down at the Temple gate, the one named Beautiful, to beg from those going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the Temple, he asked for a handout. Peter, with John at his side, looked him straight in the eye and said, “Look here.” He looked up, expecting to get something from them.
6–8 Peter said, “I don’t have a nickel to my name, but what I do have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” He grabbed him by the right hand and pulled him up. In an instant his feet and ankles became firm. He jumped to his feet and walked.
8–10 The man went into the Temple with them, walking back and forth, dancing and praising God. Everybody there saw him walking around and praising God. They recognized him as the one who sat begging at the Temple’s Gate Beautiful and rubbed their eyes, astonished, scarcely believing what they were seeing.
Today's Insights
The book of Acts begins just before Jesus’ ascension and then proceeds to chronicle the acts of the apostles and the early church. After Christ ascended on the Mount of Olives (1:9-12), the disciples returned to Jerusalem and appointed Matthias to replace Judas (vv. 12-26). In chapter 2, we learn it was on the day of Pentecost, when Jews gathered from many nations to celebrate the festival. The disciples and other believers were gathered in a house when they heard a sound like roaring wind and what looked like “tongues of fire” (v. 3) separated and settled on each of them, filling them with the Holy Spirit (vv. 1-4). The believers immediately began speaking in other languages. The racket brought the crowds running. At once, Peter shouted to address the crowd and preached the gospel. Afterward, three thousand people believed and were baptized (v. 41).
The Perfect Gift
Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. Acts 3:6
While I was on an outreach during a short-term mission trip to Peru, a young man asked me for money. For security reasons, my team had been instructed not to give out money, so how could I help him? Then I recalled the response of the apostles Peter and John to the lame man in Acts 3. I explained to him that I couldn’t give him money, but I could share the good news of God’s love with him. When he said that he was an orphan, I told him that God wants to be his Father. That brought him to tears. I connected him with a member of our host church for follow-up.
Sometimes our words can feel so insufficient, but the Holy Spirit can empower us as we share Jesus with others.
When Peter and John came across the man by the temple courts, they knew that sharing Christ was the greatest gift ever. “Then Peter said, ‘Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk’ ” (v. 6). The man received salvation and healing that day. God continues to use us to draw the lost to Him.
As we search for the perfect gifts to give this Christmas, let’s remember that the true gift is knowing Jesus and the gift of eternal salvation He offers. Let’s continue to seek to be used by God to lead people to the Savior.
Reflect & Pray
Who can you pray for this Christmas? How can you prepare to share Christ with others?
Heavenly Father, thank You for the gift of Jesus.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
The Offering of the Natural
Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. — Galatians 4:22
In this chapter of Galatians, Paul isn’t dealing with sin but rather with the relationship between the natural and the spiritual. The natural must be turned into the spiritual by sacrifice. Otherwise, a tremendoussplit will occur in our lives. Why did God ordain that the natural part of us should be sacrificed? He didn’t. God’s order doesn’t require this sacrifice; his permissive will allows it. What God ordained was that the natural should be transformed into the spiritual by obedience, not by sacrifice. It is sin that made it necessary for the natural to be sacrificed.
Some of us are trying to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God before we’ve sacrificed the natural. Abraham had to offer up Ishmael—his natural son, “born according to the flesh”—before he could offer up Isaac—his spiritual son, “born as the result of a divine promise” (Galatians 4:23). We have to follow Abraham’s lead, sacrificing the natural part of ourselves so that then we can offer ourselves up to God for his spiritual purposes.
If the natural part of us isn’t sacrificed, it will mock the life of the Son of God in us and cause continual wavering. Confusion is always the result of an undisciplined spiritual nature. We go wrong because we stubbornly refuse to discipline ourselves—physically, morally, and mentally. “But I can’t help it,” you protest. “No one disciplined me when I was a child.” You must discipline yourself now. If you don’t, you will ruin the whole of your personal life for God.
God isn’t with our natural life when we pamper it. But if we will put it out in the desert and resolve to keep it there, he will be with it. He will open up wells and oases and fulfill all his promises for the natural.
Hosea 1-4; Revelation 1
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The Bible is a relation of facts, the truth of which must be tested. Life may go on all right for a while, when suddenly a bereavement comes, or some crisis; unrequited love or a new love, a disaster, a business collapse, or a shocking sin, and we turn up our Bibles again and God’s word comes straight home, and we say, “Why, I never saw that there before.”
Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Buffalo Riding - #9892
I love to drive through Custer State Park in South Dakota. This time, we were driving through on our way to an outreach for the Lakota young people on a nearby reservation. I love the drive because, if I'm lucky, I'll get to see a lot of buffalo. I know you'll find this surprising, but seeing buffalo is one thing; riding them is another. Not that I ever have!
We were with our Lakota Christian brother, and we saw some buffalo! And he said, "Ron, I know someone who rides buffalo in parades, and on holidays." And I said, "Wait a minute! Rides a buffalo?" I can't imagine boarding one of these wonderful wild animals. Somebody asked this buffalo rider, "What's it take?" Here's what he said: "Patience. If you neglect them one or two days, he won't be tamed any more."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Buffalo Riding."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 7, beginning at verse 19. It actually talks about the buffalo - the wild animal inside you and me; a wild beast that does not want to be tamed. Verse 19, "For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it." Verse 24 Paul says, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" You get almost a hopeless feeling up to this point.
And then suddenly, "Bam! The sun comes out." Here's the good news. "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" See, there's an animal inside of us that wants us to go against God. It's like the hymn writer says, "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love." We know what God wants, and we want it too. But we keep choosing to let that part of us that is out-of-control run us. We just can't seem to tame it!
But we're not without hope. There's a Savior, not only from the penalty of sin, which is huge, but from the power of sin. Romans 6:14 says, "Sin will no longer be your master." When we surrender that wild part to Jesus, He begins to tame what has always ruled us; what has always beaten us. But you don't tame it once and for all. It takes patience like the buffalo rider said.
Luke 9:23 says, "Take up your cross daily and follow Me." If you neglect that buffalo - that animal inside you - one or two days, he won't be tamed any more. That sin that has beaten you, it's got to be beaten now on a 24-hour basis, 24-hour victories. I won it today. Some of us have made the mistake of thinking that big, great, one-time spiritual experience would tame the buffalo once and for all. But he keeps getting away from us; keeps riding over us. It's because we missed the daily part.
If you conquer sin one day at a time, and if Jesus is the only one who can conquer it, doesn't it stand to reason you have to be with Jesus each new day. Now, you notice something that happens consistently when you miss a day or two of your time with Jesus. At least it happens to me. The dark side of me starts to surface again, re-strengthened. I start to see traits that I was seeing less of, and suddenly I start seeing more of. And so does everyone close to me.
It's as if that daily surrender time with Jesus is the only dam that's holding back the parts of me I hate. You miss being with the Savior because of sin, and the sin starts to leak back in. You need a constant get-together. You need a consistent, non-negotiable time together with Jesus, where you again make Him the Lord of your stubborn sin. That's literally the margin between victory and defeat.
We've all got a buffalo to tame. Let him go unattended for a couple of days, and sin will stampede right over you again. But you can ride the buffalo that has ridden you by daily turning over the reigns to the One who died to tame the animal inside you. He is the Savior. He is Jesus.
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