Max Lucado Daily: GOD MAKES REASSIGNMENTS - May 9, 2024
If only we could order life the way we order gourmet coffee. “Give me a tall, extra-hot cup of adventure, cut the dangers, with two shots of good health.” Truth is, life often hands us a concoction entirely different from the one we requested. None of us pass through this life surprise free. So, embrace it. Accept it.
Change is not only a part of life; change is a necessary part of God’s strategy. To use us to change the world, he alters our assignments. God transitioned Joseph from a baby brother to an Egyptian prince. Over time, we discover that the thing we thought we wanted is far less satisfying than what God has prepared for us.
Hebrews 7
Melchizedek, Priest of God
1–3 7 Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of the Highest God. He met Abraham, who was returning from “the royal massacre,” and gave him his blessing. Abraham in turn gave him a tenth of the spoils. “Melchizedek” means “King of Righteousness.” “Salem” means “Peace.” So, he is also “King of Peace.” Melchizedek towers out of the past—without record of family ties, no account of beginning or end. In this way he is like the Son of God, one huge priestly presence dominating the landscape always.
4–7 You realize just how great Melchizedek is when you see that Father Abraham gave him a tenth of the captured treasure. Priests descended from Levi are commanded by law to collect tithes from the people, even though they are all more or less equals, priests and people, having a common father in Abraham. But this man, a complete outsider, collected tithes from Abraham and blessed him, the one to whom the promises had been given. In acts of blessing, the lesser is blessed by the greater.
8–10 Or look at it this way: We pay our tithes to priests who die, but Abraham paid tithes to a priest who, the Scripture says, “lives.” Ultimately you could even say that since Levi descended from Abraham, who paid tithes to Melchizedek, when we pay tithes to the priestly tribe of Levi they end up with Melchizedek.
A Permanent Priesthood
11–14 If the priesthood of Levi and Aaron, which provided the framework for the giving of the law, could really make people perfect, there wouldn’t have been need for a new priesthood like that of Melchizedek. But since it didn’t get the job done, there was a change of priesthood, which brought with it a radical new kind of law. There is no way of understanding this in terms of the old Levitical priesthood, which is why there is nothing in Jesus’ family tree connecting him with that priestly line.
15–19 But the Melchizedek story provides a perfect analogy: Jesus, a priest like Melchizedek, not by genealogical descent but by the sheer force of resurrection life—he lives!—“priest forever in the royal order of Melchizedek.” The former way of doing things, a system of commandments that never worked out the way it was supposed to, was set aside; the law brought nothing to maturity. Another way—Jesus!—a way that does work, that brings us right into the presence of God, is put in its place.
20–22 The old priesthood of Aaron perpetuated itself automatically, father to son, without explicit confirmation by God. But then God intervened and called this new, permanent priesthood into being with an added promise:
God gave his word;
he won’t take it back:
“You’re the permanent priest.”
This makes Jesus the guarantee of a far better way between us and God—one that really works! A new covenant.
23–25 Earlier there were a lot of priests, for they died and had to be replaced. But Jesus’ priesthood is permanent. He’s there from now to eternity to save everyone who comes to God through him, always on the job to speak up for them.
26–28 So now we have a high priest who perfectly fits our needs: completely holy, uncompromised by sin, with authority extending as high as God’s presence in heaven itself. Unlike the other high priests, he doesn’t have to offer sacrifices for his own sins every day before he can get around to us and our sins. He’s done it, once and for all: offered up himself as the sacrifice. The law appoints as high priests men who are never able to get the job done right. But this intervening command of God, which came later, appoints the Son, who is absolutely, eternally perfect.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, May 09, 2024
Today's Scripture
Isaiah 35:1-7
The Voiceless Break into Song
1–2 35 Wilderness and desert will sing joyously,
the badlands will celebrate and flower—
Like the crocus in spring, bursting into blossom,
a symphony of song and color.
Mountain glories of Lebanon—a gift.
Awesome Carmel, stunning Sharon—gifts.
God’s resplendent glory, fully on display.
God awesome, God majestic.
3–4 Energize the limp hands,
strengthen the rubbery knees.
Tell fearful souls,
“Courage! Take heart!
God is here, right here,
on his way to put things right
And redress all wrongs.
He’s on his way! He’ll save you!”
5–7 Blind eyes will be opened,
deaf ears unstopped,
Lame men and women will leap like deer,
the voiceless break into song.
Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness,
streams flow in the desert.
Hot sands will become a cool oasis,
thirsty ground a splashing fountain.
Even lowly jackals will have water to drink,
and barren grasslands flourish richly.
Insight
To the Israelites, the “day of Lord” was the day when God would judge all the foreign nations who are Israel’s enemies (Isaiah 13; Jeremiah 46; Ezekiel 30; Joel 3:1-16). At that time, God would pour out His blessings on Israel as His covenant nation (Isaiah 61; Joel 2:18-32; 3:17-21). Isaiah 35:4 encapsulates this twin mindset: “Your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you” (nlt). Prophesying about God’s judgment against the nations, the prophet warned, “The Lord is angry with all nations . . . . He will totally destroy them” (34:2). Then Isaiah assured God’s people about the glories that would await them when He comes to rescue and restore them (35:3-7). Jesus referred to verses 5-6 when he confirmed His messianic identity to encourage a disheartened John the Baptist in prison (Luke 7:18-23). By: K. T. Sim
Blooming Deserts
The desert will bloom with flowers. Isaiah 35:2 nirv
A century ago, lush forest covered roughly 40 percent of Ethiopia, but today it’s around 4 percent. Clearing acreage for crops while failing to protect the trees has led to an ecological crisis. The vast majority of the remaining small patches of green are protected by churches. For centuries, local Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido churches have nurtured these oases in the midst of the barren desert. If you look at aerial images, you see verdant islands surrounded by brown sand. Church leaders insist that watching over the trees is part of their obedience to God as stewards of His creation.
The prophet Isaiah wrote to Israel, a people who lived in an arid land where bare desert and brutal droughts threatened. And Isaiah described the future God intended, where “the desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom” (Isaiah 35:1). God intends to heal His people, but He intends to heal the earth too. He’ll “create new heavens and a new earth” (65:17). In God’s renewed world, “the desert will bloom with flowers” (35:2 nirv).
God’s care for creation—including people—motivates us to care for it too. We can live in sync with His ultimate plan for a healed and whole world—being caretakers of what He’s made. We can join God in making all kinds of deserts bloom with life and beauty. By: Winn Collier
Reflect & Pray
Where do you see some part of creation barren or suffering? How will you be part of seeing deserts bloom?
Creator God, please show me how to help heal and restore what’s broken in the world.
Click to discover God’s creative purpose for nature and a nation.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 09, 2024
Grasp without Reach
Where there is no vision, the people perish. — Proverbs 29:18
There is a difference between an ideal and a vision. An ideal has no moral inspiration; a vision does. People who give themselves over to ideals rarely do anything. People who have vision are constantly inspired to go above and beyond.
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a heaven for?
—Robert Browning
An idealistic notion of God may be used to justify a neglect of duty. Jonah argued that because God was a God of justice and mercy, everything would be all right, no matter what Jonah did (Jonah 4). Jonah’s idea about God was correct—God is just and merciful—yet this was the very idea that stopped Jonah from doing his duty.
If we have a vision of God, we will lead a life of virtue, because the vision brings with it a moral incentive. Ideals, on the other hand, may lull us into ruin by causing us to lose sight of God. When we lose sight of God, we begin to be reckless. We stop exercising self-control; we stop praying; we no longer look for God in the little things. If we are eating out of our own hand—doing things on our own initiative, never expecting God to come in—we have lost vision and are on a downward path.
Is your attitude today one that springs from a vision of God? Are you expecting him to do greater things than he has ever done? Is there freshness and energy in your spiritual outlook? Take stock of yourself spiritually and see whether you have vision or merely ideals.
2 Kings 7-9; John 1:1-28
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading.
My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 09, 2024
How the Bible Builds a Wall Between You and the Sharks
They call it the shark tunnel. Yeah, that has to make you think twice about going in. It's an attraction, if you want to call it an attraction, at some of the aquariums and theme parks in America.
The tourists walk through this tunnel that's surrounded by glass above them and on both sides there's water all around them. And on the other side in that water are huge sharks swimming menacingly in their tank, and occasionally bumping into the glass. I think just about everyone has this primeval fear of sharks. Now I can't speak for everyone, but I do. And suddenly there they were all around me, and I was paying to see them - one wall between me and those monsters! But that wall made all the difference.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How the Bible Builds a Wall Between You and the Sharks."
When David writes his seventeenth Psalm, he is under attack; or so it feels as you begin to read it. He's asking for safety, for protection for his reputation, and you can tell as you read this psalm that he's feeling the urge to strike back. In a sense, the sharks are circling around him.
Now we go to our word for today from the word of God in Psalm 17, and I'll begin reading at verse 3. He says to the Lord, "Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, though you test me you'll find nothing. I have resolved that my mouth will not sin. As for the deeds of men, by the word of Your lips, I have kept myself from the ways of the violent." Now, David's saying here, "I feel like responding in the same way I've been treated, lashing out, striking back. And all that's keeping me from responding sinfully is," what he calls, "the word from your lips, Lord." Well, I can relate to that.
We don't just have sharks around us; we've got sharks inside us. You know what yours is. Maybe it's that temper that seldom if ever does anything that's really right. Maybe it's wrong thoughts about the opposite sex that keep trying to take over your mind, or the capacity you have for put downs, for criticism, negativity, for cutting sarcasm. Maybe it's that dark feeling of depression that you know very easily could win in your life.
Oh, we've got different sharks, but we all have them. And there's one wall that holds them back, that keeps the evil from winning, and it's the words that come from God. When a sinful response wells up inside, you've got to have something supernatural to suppress it with like that glass wall that holds back the sharks. That's the gut-level, practical reason why we must not start a day without taking a bath in God's Word. During the day I know that my wall between the sharks that swim around inside me - that sin that wants to take over - and the guy that I want to be and that God wants me to be, that wall starts to crack.
So as each new day begins, you open God's Word and you apply it to your struggles, your weaknesses, your failures. I need to rebuild my biblical wall every new day. It's also vital that key verses become a part of you; part of your personality. That means committing to memory verses that directly address your shark. For example, if you struggle with your temper winning, then you memorize Ephesians 4:26 and 27 about not letting the sun go down on your anger. And James 1:20, "The wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God."
So many days my time in the Word, and the Word that I've put in me, have literally been the margin of difference. You read it to get it "from His lips" as if God is sitting in the chair across from you, saying it to you directly. That's what David said.
So, when you feel the sharks inside you starting to attack, you use the wall of God's words to hold them back.