Max Lucado Daily: KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON - May 16, 2024
In the days leading up to the war with Germany, the British government commissioned a series of encouraging posters. The first poster was distributed in September of 1939: Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory.
Soon a second poster was produced: Freedom is in peril. Defend it with all your might.
A third poster was never released to the public, but was held in reserve for an extreme crisis, such as an invasion by Germany. It was never seen until nearly sixty years later. It read: Keep calm and carry on.
God’s sovereignty doesn’t negate our responsibility. It empowers it. Trust God to do what you can’t. Obey God, and do what you can. Just…keep calm and carry on.
Jeremiah 34
Freedom to the Slaves
1 34 God’s Message to Jeremiah at the time King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon mounted an all-out attack on Jerusalem and all the towns around it with his armies and allies and everyone he could muster:
2–3 “I, God, the God of Israel, direct you to go and tell Zedekiah king of Judah: ‘This is God’s Message. Listen to me. I am going to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he is going to burn it to the ground. And don’t think you’ll get away. You’ll be captured and be his prisoner. You will have a personal confrontation with the king of Babylon and be taken off with him, captive, to Babylon.
4–5 “ ‘But listen, O Zedekiah king of Judah, to the rest of the Message of God. You won’t be killed. You’ll die a peaceful death. They will honor you with funeral rites as they honored your ancestors, the kings who preceded you. They will properly mourn your death, weeping, “Master, master!” This is a solemn promise. God’s Decree.’ ”
6–7 The prophet Jeremiah gave this Message to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, gave it to him word for word. It was at the very time that the king of Babylon was mounting his all-out attack on Jerusalem and whatever cities in Judah that were still standing—only Lachish and Azekah, as it turned out (they were the only fortified cities left in Judah).
8–10 God delivered a Message to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah made a covenant with the people of Jerusalem to decree freedom to the slaves who were Hebrews, both men and women. The covenant stipulated that no one in Judah would own a fellow Jew as a slave. All the leaders and people who had signed the covenant set free the slaves, men and women alike.
11 But a little while later, they reneged on the covenant, broke their promise and forced their former slaves to become slaves again.
12–14 Then Jeremiah received this Message from God: “God, the God of Israel, says, ‘I made a covenant with your ancestors when I delivered them out of their slavery in Egypt. At the time I made it clear: “At the end of seven years, each of you must free any fellow Hebrew who has had to sell himself to you. After he has served six years, set him free.” But your ancestors totally ignored me.
15–16 “ ‘And now, you—what have you done? First you turned back to the right way and did the right thing, decreeing freedom for your brothers and sisters—and you made it official in a solemn covenant in my Temple. And then you turned right around and broke your word, making a mockery of both me and the covenant, and made them all slaves again, these men and women you’d just set free. You forced them back into slavery.
17–20 “ ‘So here is what I, God, have to say: You have not obeyed me and set your brothers and sisters free. Here is what I’m going to do: I’m going to set you free—God’s Decree—free to get killed in war or by disease or by starvation. I’ll make you a spectacle of horror. People all over the world will take one look at you and shudder. Everyone who violated my covenant, who didn’t do what was solemnly promised in the covenant ceremony when they split the young bull into two halves and walked between them, all those people that day who walked between the two halves of the bull—leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, palace officials, priests, and all the rest of the people—I’m handing the lot of them over to their enemies who are out to kill them. Their dead bodies will be carrion food for vultures and stray dogs.
21–22 “ ‘As for Zedekiah king of Judah and his palace staff, I’ll also hand them over to their enemies, who are out to kill them. The army of the king of Babylon has pulled back for a time, but not for long, for I’m going to issue orders that will bring them back to this city. They’ll attack and take it and burn it to the ground. The surrounding cities of Judah will fare no better. I’ll turn them into ghost towns, unlivable and unlived in.’ ” God’s Decree.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Today's Scripture
Psalm 8
For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by a stringed instrument.*
1 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens.
2 You have taught children and infants
to tell of your strength,*
silencing your enemies
and all who oppose you.
3 When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
the moon and the stars you set in place—
4 what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?*
5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God*
and crowned them* with glory and honor.
6 You gave them charge of everything you made,
putting all things under their authority—
7 the flocks and the herds
and all the wild animals,
8 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
and everything that swims the ocean currents.
9 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
Insight
The superscription of Psalm 8 tells us that David wrote this hymn to be sung in temple worship (“For the director of music” and “According to gittith.”) The gittith (see also Psalms 81 and 84) is most likely a kind of stringed instrument (like the guitar) or a musical arrangement. Scholars suggest that as a shepherd boy tending sheep in the open fields, David was inspired by the stars in the night sky to write this praise song. That would explain why there’s no mention of the sun or clouds. Psalm 8 celebrates the majesty and glory of God as Creator (vv. 2-4) and the dignity and significance of human beings as the crown of God’s creation (vv. 5-8). By: K. T. Sim
God’s Handiwork
How majestic is your name in all the earth. Psalm 8:1
On July 12, 2022, scientists awaited the first images of deepest space from the new James Webb Space Telescope. The state-of-the-art telescope can look farther into the universe than mankind has ever looked before. Suddenly a breathtaking image emerges: a color space-scape of the Carina Nebula, never before seen like this. One NASA astronomer quoted Carl Sagan, a noted atheist: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting.”
Sometimes people can look God in the eye and not see Him. But the psalmist David looked into the sky and knew exactly what he was seeing: “You have set your glory in the heavens” (Psalm 8:1). Sagan was right in saying that “something incredible is waiting,” but he failed to acknowledge what David clearly perceived: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them” (vv. 3-4).
When we see images of deepest space, we’re amazed, not so much because of technology, but because we’re witnessing the handiwork of God. We marvel because in the vastness of creation, God has made us “rulers over the works of [his] hands” (v. 6). Indeed, “something incredible is waiting”—God, waiting to bring believers in Jesus to Him when He returns. That’s the most breathtaking image of all. By: Kenneth Petersen
Reflect & Pray
What thoughts do you have as you look at images of deep space? How do you experience God in them?
Creator God, I’m amazed at the glory of the heavens and the beauty of Your handiwork. Thank You for caring for me in the midst of Your wondrous creation!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 16, 2024
The Habit of Wealth
He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature.— 2 Peter 1:4
Through God’s promises, we participate in the divine nature. But if we want to express the divine nature in our human nature, we must form habits—and the very first habit we must form is the habit of recognizing God’s provision.
Do you often find yourself saying, “I can’t afford it”? One of the worst lies is tucked up in this statement. It’s considered bad taste to talk about money—how much you have or don’t have—and the same is true of spiritual riches. We talk as though our heavenly Father has cut us off without a cent. We think it’s a sign of modesty to say, “It was a real struggle, but I got by.” Meanwhile, all of God Almighty is ours through the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we obey God, he will tax the last grain of sand and the remotest star to bless us. What does it matter if our external circumstances are difficult? Why shouldn’t they be? If we indulge in the luxury of misery and give way to self-pity, we banish God’s riches from our lives. No sin is worse than self-pity, because it erases God and puts self-interest on the throne. It opens our mouths to spit out streams of complaint, and our lives become constantly craving spiritual sponges, with nothing lovely or generous about them.
When God is beginning to be satisfied with us, he will impoverish every source of phony wealth in our lives, until we learn that true wealth lies only in him. If we aren’t consciously aware of the fact that his majesty and grace and power are being manifested in us, God holds us responsible.
“God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). Learn to lavish the blessings of God on others, and his blessings will come through you all the time.
2 Kings 24-25; John 5:1-24
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success.
My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Looking Up When The World's On Fire - #9744
It was like 11 o'clock at night when I suddenly got this cryptic text from my son - "Please turn off your porch lights." Excuse me?
Next weird thing - there are a dozen people in my front yard, all looking up at the sky. I can't really see them. I'm out in the country where dark is dark. But I can hear them.
Then I get it. They've come from town to see the show in the sky. The northern lights. The aurora borealis. That spectacular display of colored lights, that's seldom seen in the lower 48.
So I joined the party. Just like I did when we were all looking at that total solar eclipse. Remember?
So I'm watching the news last night, which concluded with amazing northern lights photos from all over the world.
But it was the anchorman's signoff that has had me thinking ever since, he said:
"We've had a lot of reasons to be looking up recently."
Whoa. And not just at the sky.
"The world's on fire." You know I've heard that phrase again today on the morning news. I've been hearing it a lot. Gaza, Ukraine, Israel, Ivy League schools, tinder box politics, almost nuclear Iran, China, Russia on the move, doomsday warnings. World on fire. And it seems like our fire extinguishers are spraying kerosene.
Is it any wonder that depression, anxiety, mental health issues, and even suicide are soaring? Conflict is dividing families... churches... communities.
There's not much peace to be found just looking around. With so much chaos and loneliness and fear, it seems like we do have "a lot of reasons to be looking up."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Eclipse, Colored Lights and Looking Up."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 11:3-4, where it asks this: "When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Listen to God's answer:
"The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord is on His heavenly throne."
Well I'll tell ya, one thing is not shaking - nor can it be shaken. God is still in charge. He always has been, He always will be.
Oh, yea I know we like to think we're in charge. Until things start spinning out of our control. One doctor's visit. One test result. One funeral. One financial hit. One storm. One child in trouble.
One of those moments when all our "go-to's" just aren't there or just aren't enough.
Like this week eight years ago for me. Sunday night, our oldest grandchild's honor student graduation from high school. Monday afternoon, my Karen, the love of my life was suddenly gone. I only knew life with her. I had no map for life without her.
The waves of grief, I'll tell ya, they were overwhelming. Oh I had a family who loved me - but they were grieving, too.
I had wonderful friends reaching out to me but, none of them could go to the places in my heart that were bullet-riddled and ripped wide open.
But "the Lord was still on His heavenly throne." Far away? Oh no. Closer than anyone on earth could possibly be. For His Book told me: "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, He saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18).
I looked up, and He moved close. My Jesus. Who promised, "I will never leave you. I will never forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5).
When fear is winning, He is there with His unexplainable peace. When loneliness comes knocking, His love answers the door. When everything's crashing, He is my one safe place.
I met Him at a cross where He loved me enough to die for my sin. I invited Him in and He came - because He's alive. His cross was followed by His empty tomb. And the Bible says of Him, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19).
If you don't have that anchor, if you've never begun a relationship with Him, would you go to our website and we'll show you how to begin with Him today. It's ANewStory.com.
You know, we do have a lot of reasons to look up recently don't we?
Because "up" that's where hope is.
