Max Lucado Daily: LOVE BEARS ALL THINGS - February 22, 2024
Wouldn’t it be great if love were like a cafeteria line? It would be easier. It would be neater. It would be painless and peaceful. But you know what? It wouldn’t be love. Love doesn’t accept just a few things. Love is willing to accept all things!
In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV) Paul says, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” I envision the leathery-faced saint pausing in his dictation. Checking off his fingers, he reviews his list. Let’s see, patience, kindness, envy, arrogance. We’ve mentioned rudeness, selfishness, and anger, forgiveness, evil, and truth. Have I covered all things? Ah that’s it—all things!
“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Every single one!
Micah 1
God’s Message as it came to Micah of Moresheth. It came during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. It had to do with what was going on in Samaria and Jerusalem.
God Takes the Witness Stand
2 Listen, people—all of you.
Listen, earth, and everyone in it:
The Master, God, takes the witness stand against you,
the Master from his Holy Temple.
3–5 Look, here he comes! God, from his place!
He comes down and strides across mountains and hills.
Mountains sink under his feet,
valleys split apart;
The rock mountains crumble into gravel,
the river valleys leak like sieves.
All this because of Jacob’s sin,
because Israel’s family did wrong.
You ask, “So what is Jacob’s sin?”
Just look at Samaria—isn’t it obvious?
And all the sex-and-religion shrines in Judah—
isn’t Jerusalem responsible?
6–7 “I’m turning Samaria into a heap of rubble,
a vacant lot littered with garbage.
I’ll dump the stones from her buildings in the valley
and leave her abandoned foundations exposed.
All her carved and cast gods and goddesses
will be sold for stove wood and scrap metal,
All her sacred fertility groves
burned to the ground,
All the sticks and stones she worshiped as gods,
destroyed.
These were her earnings from her life as a whore.
This is what happens to the fees of a whore.”
8–9 This is why I lament and mourn.
This is why I go around in rags and barefoot.
This is why I howl like a pack of coyotes,
and moan like a mournful owl in the night.
God has inflicted punishing wounds;
Judah has been wounded with no healing in sight.
Judgment has marched through the city gates.
Jerusalem must face the charges.
10–16 Don’t gossip about this in Telltown.
Don’t waste your tears.
In Dustville,
roll in the dust.
In Alarmtown,
the alarm is sounded.
The citizens of Exitburgh
will never get out alive.
Lament, Last-Stand City:
There’s nothing in you left standing.
The villagers of Bittertown
wait in vain for sweet peace.
Harsh judgment has come from God
and entered Peace City.
All you who live in Chariotville,
get in your chariots for flight.
You led the daughter of Zion
into trusting not God but chariots.
Similar sins in Israel
also got their start in you.
Go ahead and give your good-bye gifts
to Good-byeville.
Miragetown beckoned
but disappointed Israel’s kings.
Inheritance City
has lost its inheritance.
Glorytown
has seen its last of glory.
Shave your heads in mourning
over the loss of your precious towns.
Go bald as a goose egg—they’ve gone
into exile and aren’t coming back.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, February 22, 2024
Today's Scripture
Colossians 3:8–17
But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.
9–11 Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.
12–14 So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
15–17 Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.
Insight
Paul’s letters are both doctrinal and practical. Colossians 1-2 tell us who Jesus is. Chapters 3-4 teach us what kind of people we ought to be. In Colossians 3:1-17, the apostle tells us what “a life worthy of the Lord” (1:10) looks like. Employing the image of clothing (3:12), the apostle commands us to take off our old sinful self and to put on the new self. Listing various vices a believer of Jesus must get rid of—including sexual immorality, lust, greed, anger, malice, and lying (vv. 5-9)—Paul instructs believers to put on Christlike virtues—compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and a forgiving heart—enveloped and motivated by love (vv. 12-14). Elsewhere, he speaks of these as the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). By: K. T. Sim
Walking in Jesus’ Shoes
Clothe yourselves with compassion. Colossians 3:12
What would it be like to walk in the shoes of royalty? Angela Kelly, the daughter of a dockworker and nurse, knows. She was also the official dresser for the late Queen Elizabeth for the last two decades of the monarch’s life. One of her responsibilities was to break-in the aging Queen’s new shoes by walking in them around the palace grounds. There was a reason for it: compassion for an elderly woman who sometimes was required to stand for extended periods at ceremonies. Because they wore the same shoe size, Kelly was able to save her some discomfort.
Kelly’s personal touch in her care for Queen Elizabeth makes me think of Paul’s warm encouragement to the church in Colossae (an area in modern Turkey): “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12). When our lives are “built on” Jesus (2:7 nlt), we become “God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved” (3:12). He helps us take off our “old self” and “put on the new self” (vv. 9–10)—living out the identity of those who love and forgive others because God has loved and forgiven us (vv. 13–14).
All around us are those who need us to “walk in their shoes” and have compassion for them in the day-to-day challenges of life. When we do, we walk in the shoes (or the sandals) of a humble king—Jesus—who always has compassion for us. By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
How has God had compassion for you? Who can you show His love to today?
Thank You, Jesus, for Your forgiveness and love. Help me to receive it, and also to give it away.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, February 22, 2024
The Discipline of Spiritual Perseverance
Be still, and know that I am God… —Psalm 46:10
Perseverance is more than endurance. It is endurance combined with absolute assurance and certainty that what we are looking for is going to happen. Perseverance means more than just hanging on, which may be only exposing our fear of letting go and falling. Perseverance is our supreme effort of refusing to believe that our hero is going to be conquered. Our greatest fear is not that we will be damned, but that somehow Jesus Christ will be defeated. Also, our fear is that the very things our Lord stood for— love, justice, forgiveness, and kindness among men— will not win out in the end and will represent an unattainable goal for us. Then there is the call to spiritual perseverance. A call not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately, knowing with certainty that God will never be defeated.
If our hopes seem to be experiencing disappointment right now, it simply means that they are being purified. Every hope or dream of the human mind will be fulfilled if it is noble and of God. But one of the greatest stresses in life is the stress of waiting for God. He brings fulfillment, “because you have kept My command to persevere…” (Revelation 3:10).
Continue to persevere spiritually.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Is He going to help Himself to your life, or are you taken up with your conception of what you are going to do? God is responsible for our lives, and the one great keynote is reckless reliance upon Him. Approved Unto God, 10 R
Bible in a Year: Numbers 4-6; Mark 4:1-20
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, February 22, 2024
Worth So Much More - #9684
I ordered out for lunch and of course it came on a paper plate. Guess what I did with the plate when I finished lunch? I didn't wash it, no, I didn't save it for later. In fact, I've never done that with a paper plate.
But we have these other plates at our house. They're in a cabinet in the dining room, my wife put them there. We save them for special occasions. And we wash those after we use them. They're the best we've got - those dishes. When we're done, we put them away very carefully. Because if you drop them, you're out of the family. Now, what's the difference? Paper plates are cheap, practically worthless. You throw them away. Now, fine china, oh no, that's expensive, too valuable to throw away. Guess which one most people feel like today.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Worth So Much More."
Yeah, an awful lot of people feel like paper plates these days. I mean they've been put-down, hurt, neglected, ignored, left out, abused. And they feel worthless, they're throwing themselves away. That might be you. I mean there's a lot of ways you can throw yourself away. You can throw yourself away socially by the friends you choose. You can throw yourself away alcoholically, chemically, romantically, sexually, musically. You can even be suicidal.
But when you get close to Jesus you find out God didn't make any paper plates! If you think you're not worth much, you are so wrong about who you are. And anyone who's treated you like you're not worth much, they are clueless about who you are. The One who knows what you're worth is the One who gave you your life in the first place, who gave you your worth in the first place - your Creator. And here's how He feels about you.
It's in our word for today from the Word of God, Exodus 19:5. "You will be My treasured possession." God says you're treasured; you're fine china. You're too valuable to throw away. But there's more in God's appraisal of your worth. He says in Ephesians 2:10, "We are God's workmanship." Now, workmanship isn't just thrown together; it's no accident. You're a masterpiece. You're a handmade creation of God the Creator. And then He goes on to say in that verse, "You are designed for good works, which He's prepared in advance for us to do." See, you are uniquely created to make a unique difference in people's lives.
But there's more! 1 Corinthians 6:20 says, "You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." God says you're a treasure, He says you're His workmanship, and you're the one He paid a lot for. Look, you can tell how much a person values something by how much they're willing to pay for it. Well, God paid for you with the blood of His one and only Son, Jesus. And even though you and I have left His creator's plan for us, we've sinned; He wants you back so much that He sent His Son to do the dying for your sin. To pay the death penalty in your place.
You're special, so don't believe the lies that your brain keeps telling you that you're a paper plate, you're worthless, you keep being tempted to throw yourself away. You are fine china, reserved for special purposes. If you feel like you're not worth much, it may be because you've never begun a relationship with the One who gave you worth in the first place. Who feels so deeply about you, who loves you so sacrificially. Listen, don't believe the lies about who you are anymore. Find out the truth of your worth. It happens when you give yourself to the man who died on a cross for you, for the sin that actually just dumps all kinds of lies on our worth.
This could be the day that you say, "Lord I take this life of mine out of my hands, I put it into your hands. I'm putting my total trust in the man who died for my sin. You run it from here on." That's a new start. That's a new beginning. It's what our website is all about. I urge you to check it out as soon as you can - ANewStory.com.
Start living like the treasure that your Creator says you are.
