Max Lucado Daily: Who Did the Work?
Humility is such an elusive virtue. Once you think you have it, you don't, or you wouldn't think you did. You've heard the story of the boy who received the "Most Humble Badge" and had it taken away because he wore it?
God hates arrogance-because we haven't done anything to be arrogant about. Can you imagine a scalpel growing smug after a successful heart transplant? Of course not. It's only a tool, it gets no credit for the accomplishment.
The message of the 23rd Psalm is that we have nothing to be proud about either. We have rest, salvation, blessings,, and a home in heaven-and we did nothing to earn any of it! Who did? Who did the work? The Psalmist says the Lord, our Shepherd, leads His sheep-not for our names' sake but-for His name's sake!
This is all done for God's glory!
From Traveling Light
Hebrews 10:1-18
The Sacrifice of Jesus
1–10 10 The old plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. Since that old “law plan” wasn’t complete in itself, it couldn’t complete those who followed it. No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gone merrily on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead of removing awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over and over they actually heightened awareness and guilt. The plain fact is that bull and goat blood can’t get rid of sin. That is what is meant by this prophecy, put in the mouth of Christ:
You don’t want sacrifices and offerings year after year;
you’ve prepared a body for me for a sacrifice.
It’s not fragrance and smoke from the altar
that whet your appetite.
So I said, “I’m here to do it your way, O God,
the way it’s described in your Book.”
When he said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings,” he was referring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, “I’m here to do it your way,” he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—God’s way—by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.
11–18 Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dent in the sin problem. As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process. The Holy Spirit confirms this:
This new plan I’m making with Israel
isn’t going to be written on paper,
isn’t going to be chiseled in stone;
This time “I’m writing out the plan in them,
carving it on the lining of their hearts.”
He concludes,
I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.
Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Today's Scripture
Revelation 7:9-12
I looked again. I saw a huge crowd, too huge to count. Everyone was there—all nations and tribes, all races and languages. And they were standing, dressed in white robes and waving palm branches, standing before the Throne and the Lamb and heartily singing:
Salvation to our God on his Throne!
Salvation to the Lamb!
All who were standing around the Throne—Angels, Elders, Animals—fell on their faces before the Throne and worshiped God, singing:
Oh, Yes!
The blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving,
The honor and power and strength,
To our God forever and ever and ever!
Oh, Yes!
Insight
The book of Revelation (in Greek apokalypsis) is considered apocalyptic literature—a term which today is often used to describe literature that portrays the end of the world. This is due to the graphic imagery of the prophecies contained in Revelation. However, apokalypsis means “to reveal, to unveil something that has been hidden.” Primarily, the book of Revelation isn’t about the end of the world; it’s about Jesus, who’s referred to as “the Lamb” (see 5:6-13; 7:9-17). This description also appears in John’s gospel: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29); “Look, the Lamb of God!” (v. 36). By: Bill Crowder
Making God Known
Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. Revelation 7:10
A love for God and for people undergirds Kathryn’s Bible translating work. She rejoices when women in India come to a deeper understanding of Scripture, reading it in their mother tongue. She remarks that when they do, “They often start cheering or clapping. They read about Jesus, and they say, ‘Oh, wonderful!’ ”
Kathryn longs for more people to read the Scriptures in their own language. In this desire, she holds close to her heart the vision of the aging disciple John on the island of Patmos. Through the Spirit, God ushered him into the throne room of heaven, where he saw “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9). All together they worshiped God, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God” (v. 10).
God continues to add to the great number of people praising Him. He uses not only the work of Bible translators and those praying for them, but also those who reach out to their neighbors in love with the good news of Jesus. We can rejoice in this joyful mission, marveling at how God will spark more people to join with the angels in saying, “Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever” (v. 12). By: Amy Boucher Pye
Reflect & Pray
How do you see God spurring on people to praise and honor Him? How might He invite you to join in His mission of spreading the good news of Jesus?
Saving God, thank You for the gift of Jesus. Please help me to share Your wonderful love with others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Out of the Wreck I Rise
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?— Romans 8:35
God doesn’t promise to make us immune to trouble; God promises to be with us in trouble. It doesn’t matter what kind of trouble; even the most extreme hardship can never separate us from God.
“In all these things we are more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37). The “things” Paul is talking about in this verse aren’t imaginary; they are desperately real. And yet, Paul says, in the middle of all our hardships, we are super-victors—not because of our intelligence or our courage, but because nothing can affect our relationship to God in Jesus Christ. Whether we like it or not, we are where we are, exactly in the condition we’re in. I am sorry for Christians who have nothing difficult in their circumstances.
“Shall trouble . . . ?” Trouble is never a noble thing, but neither is it all-powerful. No trouble, says Paul, “will be able to separate us from the love of God” (v. 39). Let trouble be what it is. Let it be exhausting and irritating. But never let it separate you from the reality that God loves you.
“Shall . . . hardship . . . ?” Can God’s love hold when everything around us seems to be saying that his love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?
“Shall . . . famine . . . ?” Can we not only believe in God’s love but be more than conquerors even when we are being starved? Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver and Paul is deluded, or something extraordinary happens to the soul who holds on to God’s love when the facts are against God’s character.
“More than conquerors . . .” Logic is silenced in the face of Paul’s claim. Only one thing can account for what he says: the love of God in Christ Jesus. “Out of the wreck I rise,” every time.
1 Chronicles 7-9; John 6:22-44
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….”
So Send I You, 1325 R