Max Lucado Daily: THINGS WILL BE MADE RIGHT - August 19, 2024
The Christian lives life on tiptoe, ever searching the skies. We awaken with the thought Perhaps today! Our hope is centered on the bodily return of Christ. We are looking to a new age in which Jesus will be crowned as the rightful King and we will serve as his grateful servants.
Peter declared, “The Lord will…send Jesus, the One he chose to be the Christ. But Jesus must stay in heaven until the right time comes when all things will be made right again” (Acts 3:19-21 NCV).
Does that assurance not speak to the heavy heart? Weary of racism? Things will be made right. Weary of child abuse? Things will be made right. Weary of terrorists wreaking terror? Rulers pillaging the poor? Scandal infecting the church? Things…will…be…made…right.
What Happens Next
Read more What Happens Next
2 Timothy 1
I, Paul, am on special assignment for Christ, carrying out God’s plan laid out in the Message of Life by Jesus. I write this to you, Timothy, the son I love so much. All the best from our God and Christ be yours!
To Be Bold with God’s Gifts
3–4 Every time I say your name in prayer—which is practically all the time—I thank God for you, the God I worship with my whole life in the tradition of my ancestors. I miss you a lot, especially when I remember that last tearful good-bye, and I look forward to a joy-packed reunion.
5–7 That precious memory triggers another: your honest faith—and what a rich faith it is, handed down from your grandmother Lois to your mother Eunice, and now to you! And the special gift of ministry you received when I laid hands on you and prayed—keep that ablaze! God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.
8–10 So don’t be embarrassed to speak up for our Master or for me, his prisoner. Take your share of suffering for the Message along with the rest of us. We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God, who first saved us and then called us to this holy work. We had nothing to do with it. It was all his idea, a gift prepared for us in Jesus long before we knew anything about it. But we know it now. Since the appearance of our Savior, nothing could be plainer: death defeated, life vindicated in a steady blaze of light, all through the work of Jesus.
11–12 This is the Message I’ve been set apart to proclaim as preacher, emissary, and teacher. It’s also the cause of all this trouble I’m in. But I have no regrets. I couldn’t be more sure of my ground—the One I’ve trusted in can take care of what he’s trusted me to do right to the end.
13–14 So keep at your work, this faith and love rooted in Christ, exactly as I set it out for you. It’s as sound as the day you first heard it from me. Guard this precious thing placed in your custody by the Holy Spirit who works in us.
15–18 I’m sure you know by now that everyone in the province of Asia deserted me, even Phygelus and Hermogenes. But God bless Onesiphorus and his family! Many’s the time I’ve been refreshed in that house. And he wasn’t embarrassed a bit that I was in jail. The first thing he did when he got to Rome was look me up. May God on the Last Day treat him as well as he treated me. And then there was all the help he provided in Ephesus—but you know that better than I.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 19, 2024
Today's Scripture
2 Samuel 22:1-7, 29-30
God is bedrock under my feet,
the castle in which I live,
my rescuing knight.
My God—the high crag
where I run for dear life,
hiding behind the boulders,
safe in the granite hideout;
My mountaintop refuge,
he saves me from ruthless men.
4 I sing to God the Praise-Lofty,
and find myself safe and saved.
5–6 The waves of death crashed over me,
devil waters rushed over me.
Hell’s ropes cinched me tight;
death traps barred every exit.
7 A hostile world! I called to God,
to my God I cried out.
From his palace he heard me call;
my cry brought me right into his presence—
a private audience!
29–31 Suddenly, God, your light floods my path,
God drives out the darkness.
I smash the bands of marauders,
I vault the high fences.
Insight
Several observations are in order regarding 2 Samuel 22. This song—that focuses on God’s strength exercised on behalf of David, Israel’s greatest king—appears in Israel’s hymnbook as Psalm 18. Metaphors depicting God as the source of David’s victories fill this song, which is framed by “bookends” (2 Samuel 22:2-4; 47-50).
The similarities between “Hannah’s Song” (1 Samuel 2:1-10) and the song in 2 Samuel 22 are noteworthy. In her commentary on the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, Mary Evans titles these sets of verses, “God the rock who is worthy of praise.” Both celebrate God’s strength to save (1 Samuel 2:1; 2 Samuel 22:4) and the exaltation of God’s anointed: “He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever” (2 Samuel 22:51; see 1 Samuel 2:10). By: Arthur Jackson
Forest Darkroom
The Lord turns my darkness into light. 2 Samuel 22:29
The army wouldn’t give Tony Vaccaro a chance as a photographer, but that didn’t stop him. Between terrifying moments of dodging artillery shells and shrapnel that seemed to rain from the trees, he took pictures anyway. Then, as his friends slept, he used their helmets to mix the chemicals to develop his film. The nighttime forest became the darkroom in which Vaccaro created a timeless record of World War II’s battle of Hürtgen Forest.
King David lived through his share of battles and dark times. Second Samuel 22 says, “The Lord delivered [David] from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul” (v. 1). David used those experiences to produce a record of God’s faithfulness. He said, “Waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me” (v. 5).
David soon pivoted from desperation to hope: “In my distress I called to the Lord,” he recalled. “From his temple he heard my voice” (v. 7). David made certain to praise God for His unfailing help. “The Lord turns my darkness into light,” he said. “With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall” (vv. 29-30).
David turned his difficulties into an opportunity to tell the world about his faithful God. We can do the same. After all, we rely on the One who turns darkness into light. By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
When have you felt most desperate? How will you tell others about God’s faithfulness to you in that moment?
Dear God, please help me to see the many ways You protect and help me—especially when it’s darkest.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 19, 2024
Self-Consciousness
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened. — Matthew 11:28
God intends for us to live a full-orbed life in Jesus Christ, a life defined by an unworrying oneness with him. But there are times when that life is attacked from the outside, when we find ourselves tumbling back into a habit of introspection we thought had gone. Self-consciousness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, because it produces a continual wrestling. Self-consciousness isn’t sin. It may be caused by a nervous temperament or by suddenly finding ourselves in new circumstances. But it’s never God’s will that we should be less than absolutely complete in him. Anything that disturbs our rest in him must be cured at once.
“Come to me.” You can’t cure self-consciousness by ignoring it; the only cure is to come to Jesus Christ. When we come to him and ask him to produce Christ-consciousness, he will do it, over and over again, until we learn to abide in him.
If your life in Christ is no longer whole, don’t refuse to face the problem. Beware of anything that splits up your oneness with him, whether it be the influence of friends or of circumstances. Beware of anything that makes you see yourself as separate from your Lord. Nothing is as important as keeping whole spiritually. The great solution is the simple one: “Come to me.” The depth of our reality—intellectually, morally, and spiritually—is tested by these words. In every matter in which we are not real, we will argue with God rather than come.
Psalms 103-104; 1 Corinthians 2
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
Monday, August 19, 2024
Judgment Canceled - #9811
There was a miracle in the wildfire that night on an Indian reservation where we have many dear friends. We watched the news with growing concern that summer - and with intensifying prayer - as the path of that fire's destruction grew steadily. We learned that some of our kind of unofficial "family" there had their church and some loved ones in a town that was surrounded by the flames. And they told us about the miracle.
The flames were sweeping straight toward their sister's home, along with her in-laws' house next door. But the fire stopped. It burned through the narrow yard between the two homes and right up to the homes. But the cell phone pictures told the story - two houses, standing untouched in a circle of charred ground and trees.
And the fire won't come back there because the fire can't go where the fire has already been.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Judgment Canceled."
That's something Native Americans counted on for centuries as wildfires would sweep across the prairie. And this is a technique familiar to modern firefighters. They would intentionally burn the area around their village so the approaching flames didn't have any fuel; they couldn't reach them.
Praying on the phone with our reservation friends made me think about that life-saving strategy. And the hill - Skull Hill. That's what they called it back then. A garbage dump where they nailed people to a cross. Where they nailed Jesus to a cross. Actually, where He let them nail Him to a cross, because He said, "The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep...No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down..." (John 10:11, 18). He made the tree He died on. He made the men who nailed Him there.
It was on that hill that the fire of divine judgment fell on the only Son of God so it would never come to me or you, or a whole world of sinners like us. Our final destiny is pretty clear when you read the Bible. "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).
I have to admit it, it is a judgment I deserve. I have, along with all of my fellow humans, essentially said to my Creator, "You run the universe, God, and I'll run me, thank You." In essence, attempting to dethrone God and enthrone me. How dare I?
But Jesus' unspeakable sacrifice on Skull Hill is the game-changer. Romans 5:8-10, our Word for today from the Word of God, says, "God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners... And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God's condemnation."
I have chosen to place all my hopes for now and forever in what Jesus did on that cross; to stand at the one place where the judgment of God will never come. By that cross where Jesus took my hell and your hell so we would never have to. Romans 8:1, "There is no condemnation to those who belong to Christ Jesus."
The question is, "Have you ever taken your stand by that cross and stepped into that circle where the fire - the judgment of God - has already fallen? Have you ever said, "Jesus, I now see that what was on that cross was for me." You can know all about Him. You could have been around a religion that's all about Jesus your whole life and still have never actually gone to that cross and said, "Jesus, for me. You're doing it for me, and it's my sin You died for and it's my sin that needs forgiving. Jesus, I want you to be my Savior, my Rescuer from my sin - my personal Savior."
If you've never done that, let this be the day that you trade a death sentence for eternal life, and God's condemnation for God's forgiveness. If you want to begin a relationship with Him and experience His love for yourself, Our website is there to walk you through how to get there. It's ANewStory.com.
His cross is the only safe place from the fire, because the fire will not come where the fire has already been.