Max Lucado Daily: Jesus Understands You
When Jesus saw people, He saw an opportunity to love and affirm value. When we see people, we often only see thousands of problems. What did Jesus know that enabled Him to do what He did? He knew how people felt, and He knew that they were special. I hope you never forget that.
Are you under the gun at work? Jesus knows how you feel. Do people take more from you than they give? Jesus understands. He knows what that’s like. Your teenagers won’t listen? Believe me, Jesus knows how you feel. You’re precious to Him. So precious that He became like you so that you would come to Him. When you struggle, He listens. When you yearn, He responds. When you question, He hears. He loves you. He understands you. And He paid a great price to take you home.
From In the Eye of the Storm
Ezekiel 12
Put the Bundle on Your Shoulder and Walk into the Night
1–6 12 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, you’re living with a bunch of rebellious people. They have eyes but don’t see a thing, they have ears but don’t hear a thing. They’re rebels all. So, son of man, pack up your exile duffel bags. Leave in broad daylight with everyone watching and go off, as if into exile. Maybe then they’ll understand what’s going on, rebels though they are. You’ll take up your baggage while they watch, a bundle of the bare necessities of someone going into exile, and toward evening leave, just like a person going off into exile. As they watch, dig through the wall of the house and carry your bundle through it. In full sight of the people, put the bundle on your shoulder and walk out into the night. Cover your face so you won’t have to look at what you’ll never see again. I’m using you as a sign for the family of Israel.”
7 I did exactly as he commanded me. I got my stuff together and brought it out in the street where everyone could see me, bundled it up the way someone being taken off into exile would, and then, as the sun went down, made a hole in the wall of the house with my hands. As it grew dark and as they watched, I left, throwing my bundle across my shoulders.
8–10 The next morning God spoke to me: “Son of man, when anyone in Israel, that bunch of rebels, asks you, ‘What are you doing?’ Tell them, ‘God, the Master, says that this Message especially concerns the prince in Jerusalem—Zedekiah—but includes all the people of Israel.’
11 “Also tell them, ‘I am drawing a picture for you. As I am now doing, it will be done to all the people of Israel. They will go into exile as captives.’
12–15 “The prince will put his bundle on his shoulders in the dark and leave. He’ll dig through the wall of the house, covering his face so he won’t have to look at the land he’ll never see again. But I’ll make sure he gets caught and is taken to Babylon. Blinded, he’ll never see that land in which he’ll die. I’ll scatter to the four winds those who helped him escape, along with his troops, and many will die in battle. They’ll realize that I am God when I scatter them among foreign countries.
16 “I’ll permit a few of them to escape the killing, starvation, and deadly sickness so that they can confess among the foreign countries all the disgusting obscenities they’ve been involved in. They will realize that I am God.”
17–20 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, eat your meals shaking in your boots, drink your water trembling with fear. Tell the people of this land, everyone living in Jerusalem and Israel, God’s Message: ‘You’ll eat your meals shaking in your boots and drink your water in terror because your land is going to be stripped bare as punishment for the brutality rampant in it. All the cities and villages will be emptied out and the fields destroyed. Then you’ll realize that I am God.’ ”
21–22 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, what’s this proverb making the rounds in the land of Israel that says, ‘Everything goes on the same as ever; all the prophetic warnings are false alarms’?
23–25 “Tell them, ‘God, the Master, says, This proverb’s going to have a short life!’
“Tell them, ‘Time’s about up. Every warning is about to come true. False alarms and easygoing preaching are a thing of the past in the life of Israel. I, God, am doing the speaking. What I say happens. None of what I say is on hold. What I say, I’ll do—and soon, you rebels!’ Decree of God the Master.”
26–28 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, do you hear what Israel is saying: that the alarm the prophet raises is for a long time off, that he’s preaching about the far-off future? Well, tell them, ‘God, the Master, says, “Nothing of what I say is on hold. What I say happens.” ’ Decree of God, the Master.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, August 04, 2024
Today's Scripture
Matthew 8:5-13
As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.”
7 Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.”
8–9 “Oh, no,” said the captain. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I’m a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10–12 Taken aback, Jesus said, “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions—streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up ‘in the faith’ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.”
13 Then Jesus turned to the captain and said, “Go. What you believed could happen has happened.” At that moment his servant became well.
Insight
After challenging the Pharisees’ teaching and the people’s understanding of the law by repeatedly saying, “You have heard that it was said . . . but I tell you . . .” (Matthew 5:21-48), Jesus demonstrated the true nature of God’s kingdom. He healed a man with leprosy, thereby touching someone who was unclean (8:1-4). Then He healed a centurion’s servant (vv. 5-13). The centurion would’ve been considered unclean because of his nationality (Roman) and was also despised as a representative of the occupying force of the Roman Empire. Yet it’s in this despised foreigner that Jesus finds a greater faith than anyone in Israel. Matthew says that He turned to “those following him” (v. 10)—the verb used to describe discipleship—and praised the centurion’s faith. The irony is that the man who was hated by the Jews was demonstrating to Christ’s own followers what it truly meant to have faith. By: J.R. Hudberg
I’m Just the Driver
I myself am a man under authority. Matthew 8:9
“Dad, can I spend the night with my friend?” my daughter asked, getting into the car after practice. “Honey, you know the answer,” I said. “I’m just the driver. I don’t know what’s happening. Let’s talk with Mom.”
“I’m just the driver” has become a joke in our home. Daily, I ask my organized wife where I need to be, when, and whom I’m taking where. With three teens, my “moonlighting” as a “taxi driver” sometimes feels like a second job. Often, I don’t know what I don’t know. So, I have to check in with the master calendar keeper.
In Matthew 8, Jesus encountered a man who also knew something about taking and giving instruction. A Roman centurion, this man understood that Jesus had the authority to heal, just as the centurion had authority to issue commands to those under him. “Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me” (vv. 8-9). Christ commended the man’s faith (vv. 10, 13), amazed that he understood what His authority looked like in action.
So what about us? What does it look like to trust Jesus with our daily assignments from Him? Because even if we think we’re “just the driver,” each assignment has kingdom meaning and purpose.
By: Adam Holz
Reflect & Pray
What helps you to discern where and how God is leading you daily? What barriers sometimes get in the way of hearing and obeying Him?
Father, thank You that You lead me and guide my steps. Please help me to walk daily in dependence on You as You direct me according to Your plan and purpose.
For further study, read Making Decisions God’s Way.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, August 04, 2024
The Brave Comradeship of God
Jesus took the Twelve aside. — Luke 18:31
How brave is God in trusting us! You say, “God has been unwise to choose me. There’s nothing of value in me.” That is exactly why he chose you! As long as you believe that there’s something of value in you, God cannot choose you, because you have goals of your own to pursue. Only those who let God bring them to the end of their self-sufficiency are able to be chosen. These are the ones God will select to go with him to Jerusalem to fulfill his purpose.
“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth” (1 Corinthians 1:26). We tend to believe that people with natural abilities will make good Christians. But it isn’t a question of our abilities; it’s a question of our poverty. The question isn’t what we bring with us; it’s what God puts into us. Our natural virtues, knowledge, experience, and strength of character are of no importance. The only thing that matters is that we are taken up into the compelling purpose of God.
When we are taken up by God, we become his comrades. The comradeship of God is made up of people who know their own poverty. He can do nothing with those who think themselves useful. As Christians, we are to have no cause of our own to serve. We are dedicated to serving God’s cause, which can never be our cause. We don’t know what God’s cause is; we only know that, no matter what, we have to maintain our relationship with him. We must never allow anything to injure this relationship. If it does get injured, we must take time to put it right. The main thing about Christianity isn’t the work we do but the relationship we maintain. That is all God asks us to look after, and it’s the one thing that is constantly under threat.
Psalms 66-67; Romans 7
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
We must keep ourselves in touch, not with theories, but with people, and never get out of touch with human beings, if we are going to use the word of God skilfully amongst them.
Workmen of God, 1341 L