Max Lucado Daily: OUR FATHER HAS THE WHEEL - September 18, 2024
Be assured, God is at work. His plans are proceeding at the right pace, in the right places, and according to his will. What he has said, he will do.
When our daughters were young, I took them on many road trips. On the eve of our departure, I’d tell my daughters what was about to happen. “Early tomorrow, while you are still sleeping, I will carry you to the car, cover you with a blanket, and buckle you in your seat. By the time you wake up, we will be on the road.” I told them in advance what would happen. Consequently, they relaxed. Their father had told them what to expect.
Our good Father has done the same. So, as his promises are being fulfilled, we have no need of fear. We can relax, knowing that our Father has the wheel.
What Happens Next
Ezekiel 35
A Pile of Rubble
1–4 35 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, confront Mount Seir. Prophesy against it! Tell them, ‘God, the Master, says:
“ ‘I’m coming down hard on you, Mount Seir.
I’m stepping in and turning you to a pile of rubble.
I’ll reduce your towns to piles of rocks.
There’ll be nothing left of you.
Then you’ll realize that I am God.
5–9 “ ‘I’m doing this because you’ve kept this age-old grudge going against Israel: You viciously attacked them when they were already down, looking their final punishment in the face. Therefore, as sure as I am the living God, I’m lining you up for a real bloodbath. Since you loved blood so much, you’ll be chased by rivers of blood. I’ll reduce Mount Seir to a heap of rubble. No one will either come or go from that place! I’ll blanket your mountains with corpses. Massacred bodies will cover your hills and fill up your valleys and ditches. I’ll reduce you to ruins and all your towns will be ghost towns—population zero. Then you’ll realize that I am God.
10–13 “ ‘Because you said, “These two nations, these two countries, are mine. I’m taking over” (even though God is right there watching, right there listening), I’ll turn your hate-bloated anger and rage right back on you. You’ll know I mean business when I bring judgment on you. You’ll realize then that I, God, have overheard all the vile abuse you’ve poured out against the mountains of Israel, saying, “They’re roadkill and we’re going to eat them up.” You’ve strutted around, talking so big, insolently pitting yourselves against me. And I’ve heard it all.
14–15 “ ‘This is the verdict of God, the Master: With the whole earth applauding, I’ll demolish you. Since you danced in the streets, thinking it was so wonderful when Israel’s inheritance was demolished, I’ll give you the same treatment: demolition. Mount Seir demolished—yes, every square inch of Edom. Then they’ll realize that I am God!’ ”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Today's Scripture
Isaiah 42:1-7
God’s Servant Will Set Everything Right
1–4 42 “Take a good look at my servant.
I’m backing him to the hilt.
He’s the one I chose,
and I couldn’t be more pleased with him.
I’ve bathed him with my Spirit, my life.
He’ll set everything right among the nations.
He won’t call attention to what he does
with loud speeches or gaudy parades.
He won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt
and he won’t disregard the small and insignificant,
but he’ll steadily and firmly set things right.
He won’t tire out and quit. He won’t be stopped
until he’s finished his work—to set things right on earth.
Far-flung ocean islands
wait expectantly for his teaching.”
The God Who Makes Us Alive with His Own Life
5–9 God’s Message,
the God who created the cosmos, stretched out the skies,
laid out the earth and all that grows from it,
Who breathes life into earth’s people,
makes them alive with his own life:
“I am God. I have called you to live right and well.
I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe.
I have set you among my people to bind them to me,
and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations,
To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light:
opening blind eyes,
releasing prisoners from dungeons,
emptying the dark prisons.
Insight
Isaiah 42:1-7 is an encouraging passage in the prophetic writings. It contains images and metaphors that reveal the patient and loving nature of the “servant” of God (v. 1). The servant of God is the one who carries out His mission of redemption and restoration. But we also see the split identity of the servant. Verses 1-4 are commonly understood to refer to a single individual, the predicted Messiah, fulfilled in the person of Jesus. Some commentators believe that verses 5-7 turn from an individual servant to a corporate servant, the nation of Israel, who will be “a light for the Gentiles” (v. 6). Both passages describe the same gracious God whose servant(s) doesn’t “crush the weakest reed” (v. 3 nlt) and who can “open the eyes of the blind” (v. 7 nlt). By: J.R. Hudberg
God’s Patient Love
A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. Isaiah 42:3
When I give our beautiful, fluffy Norwegian Forest cat, Mystique, belly rubs and play with her, or when she falls asleep on my lap in the evening, it’s sometimes hard to believe that she’s the same cat we met years ago. Mystique used to live on the streets, underweight and fearful of everyone. But that gradually changed as I started putting out food for her each day. One day she finally let me pet her, and the rest is history.
Mystique’s transformation is a reminder of the healing that can come with patience and love. It reminds me of God’s heart as described in Isaiah 42. There, we’re told of a coming servant filled with His Spirit (v. 1), who would tirelessly and “in faithfulness” work to establish God’s “justice on earth” (vv. 3-4).
But that servant—Jesus (Matthew 12:18-20)—wouldn’t bring God’s justice through violence or pursuit of power. Instead, He’d be quiet and gentle (Isaiah 42:2), tenderly and patiently caring for those discarded by others—those “bruised” and wounded (v. 3).
God never gives up on His children. He has all the time in the world to care for our wounded hearts, until they finally begin to heal. Through His gentle, patient love we gradually learn to love and trust once more. By: Monica La Rose
Reflect & Pray
How have you seen transformation through patient love? How can you grow in experiencing and sharing God’s love?
Dear God, thank You for never giving up on me and for patiently loving and caring for my wounded heart. Please help me love others with that same patient love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
His Temptation and Ours
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way . . . yet he did not sin. — Hebrews 4:15
Until we are born again, the only temptation we understand is the kind mentioned in the book of James: “Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed” (1:14). After we are born again and become Jesus’s brothers and sisters, we are lifted into a different realm, where we begin to face the kinds of temptation our Lord faced during his human lifetime. Before our spiritual rebirth, our Lord’s temptations and ours moved in different spheres. His were the temptations of God-as-man, while ours were merely the temptations of man.
Once the Son of God was formed inside us through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit began to detect certain of Satan’s temptations—temptations which we, on our own, could never recognize. Satan doesn’t tempt believers to sin; he tries to lure us away from what has been put into us by our spiritual rebirth, in the hopes that we’ll no longer be of value to God. He tempts us to change our point of view, so that we’ll no longer see things from Christ’s perspective. Only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.
What happens in temptation is that an outside power comes to test the things we hold dear within us, the things that define our personality. This explains the way in which our Lord was tempted. Within his person, he held the fact that he was to be the king of humankind and the savior of the world, and these are precisely what Satan came to test him on. Jesus went through the temptation and “did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15), emerging from the battle with his personality intact. If we will commit ourselves to him, his Spirit will take us through every temptation in the same way, and we will emerge from the battle victorious.
Proverbs 30-31; 2 Corinthians 11:1-15
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
When you are joyful, be joyful; when you are sad, be sad. If God has given you a sweet cup, don’t make it bitter; and if He has given you a bitter cup, don’t try and make it sweet; take things as they come.
Shade of His Hand, 1226 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
RISKING TO RESCUE - #9833
Jessica's all grown up now. She almost didn't make it past eighteen months. You might even remember when, as a curious toddler, little Jessica fell down a deep shaft in her aunt's backyard in Midland, Texas. The shaft was far too narrow for any rescuer to go down, and she was wedged in a position that virtually immobilized her. If you remember that incident, it's because we all watched the drama unfold on television for three nerve-wracking days. By the time it was over, Jessica was like America's little girl! When the rescuers realized there was no easy way, no conventional way to save little Jessica, they devised a whole new way of getting it done: by digging a wider shaft parallel to the one she was trapped in, and then a tunnel connecting those two shafts. That's pretty ingenious! Finally, a rescuer was lowered into that second shaft. Minutes later, we smiled and we cheered as the rescuer emerged from that shaft with an armful of Jessica, holding onto him for dear life.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Risking to Rescue."
That seemed to be the attitude of Jessica's rescuers, wouldn't you say? That has to be the mindset of anyone who hopes to rescue someone who's going to die if they don't. You've got to do whatever it takes. Like the rescue God commands in Proverbs 24:11, "Rescue those being led away to death." Or in Jude 24, "Snatch others from the fire and save them." In other words, you got rescued from the fire, now don't just leave the people you know in the fire. God put you where you work, where you live, where you recreate, where you go to school to take some of those people to heaven with you! How are you doing?
But it probably is not going to happen if you insist on it being easy or safe, or on rescuing someone you care about by conventional means. Let's look at the guys portrayed in Mark 2, beginning with verse 2, our word for today from the Word of God. These guys are some of my heroes. I love this story.
They have a paralyzed friend, they know Jesus is his only hope, and they are his only hope of getting to Jesus. He'll never get to Him on his own. That could well be you and some folks you know. The house Jesus is teaching in is so crowded they can't possibly carry their friend in through the door or even through a window. Those would be the conventional ways, right, of getting into a house - a door, or at least a window. So they give up, right? "I guess my friend will never get to Jesus. It's too hard. That's so sad." Wrong! No!
Here's what the Bible says: "Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on." Minutes later, Jesus had forgiven their friend's sins and enabled him to walk for the first time in his life.
The point? The lost and dying people you know will probably never go through the front door to Jesus. They may never come to a meeting you invite them to. They may never go to hear a speaker you want them to hear. But guess what? You're already with them. It's up to you to tell them about Jesus who has changed your life and changed your eternal destination.
And all of us, from individual believers to churches to ministries, will have to realize if we keep on doing what we've always done, we'll keep on reaching who we've always reached. And dying people all around us will just go on dying! Like Jessica's rescuers, we've all got to be willing to try new methods, to get out of our comfort zone to rescue the dying, to go beyond what's easy, what would be convenient for us, to explain Jesus without all those religious words that only we understand. We've got to go to the places where the dying people really are instead of waiting for them to walk into the rescue station.
Whatever it takes, that's what it's got to be when the situation is life-or-death. Would you say it to Jesus today, "Jesus, I'll help some of the people I know be in heaven with me; whatever it takes, whatever it costs! Because that's what you did."