Max Lucado Daily: A THOUSAND YEAR REIGN - September 26, 2024
The plainest reading of Revelation 20 is a literal thousand-year reign of Christ. The apostle John mentions it six times in seven verses. Why not take John’s number literally?
Daniel would have. Toward the end of his life, the prophet Daniel called on God to forgive the Jewish people and return them to Jerusalem. What prompted the prayer? He was reading the prophecy of Jeremiah. “This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jeremiah 25:11). At the time, sixty-seven years of captivity had passed. Daniel assumed it meant seventy literal years, so he prayed for God to keep his promise.
In the book of Revelation, John promised a thousand-year reign of Christ. I believe Daniel would have taken the number at face value; I choose to do the same.
What Happens Next
Ezekiel 41
He brought me into the Temple itself and measured the doorposts on each side. Each was ten and a half feet thick. The entrance was seventeen and a half feet wide. The walls on each side were eight and three-quarters feet thick.
He also measured the Temple Sanctuary: seventy feet by thirty-five feet.
3–4 He went further in and measured the doorposts at the entrance: Each was three and a half feet thick. The entrance itself was ten and a half feet wide, and the entrance walls were twelve and a quarter feet thick. He measured the inside Sanctuary, thirty-five feet square, set at the end of the main Sanctuary. He told me, “This is The Holy of Holies.”
5–7 He measured the wall of the Temple. It was ten and a half feet thick. The side rooms around the Temple were seven feet wide. There were three floors of these side rooms, thirty rooms on each of the three floors. There were supporting beams around the Temple wall to hold up the side rooms, but they were free-standing, not attached to the wall itself. The side rooms around the Temple became wider from first floor to second floor to third floor. A staircase went from the bottom floor, through the middle, and then to the top floor.
8–11 I observed that the Temple had a ten-and-a-half-foot-thick raised base around it, which provided a foundation for the side rooms. The outside walls of the side rooms were eight and three-quarters feet thick. The open area between the side rooms of the Temple and the priests’ rooms was a thirty-five-foot-wide strip all around the Temple. There were two entrances to the side rooms from the open area, one placed on the north side, the other on the south. There were eight and three-quarters feet of open space all around.
12 The house that faced the Temple courtyard to the west was one hundred twenty-two and a half feet wide, with eight-and-three-quarters-foot-thick walls. The length of the wall and building was one hundred fifty-seven and a half feet.
13–14 He measured the Temple: one hundred seventy-five feet long. The Temple courtyard and the house, including its walls, measured a hundred seventy-five feet. The breadth of the front of the Temple and the open area to the east was a hundred seventy-five feet.
15–18 He measured the length of the house facing the courtyard at the back of the Temple, including the shelters on each side: one hundred seventy-five feet. The main Sanctuary, the inner Sanctuary, and the vestibule facing the courtyard were paneled with wood, and had window frames and door frames in all three sections. From floor to windows the walls were paneled. Above the outside entrance to the inner Sanctuary and on the walls at regular intervals all around the inner Sanctuary and the main Sanctuary, angel-cherubim and palm trees were carved in alternating sequence.
18–20 Each angel-cherub had two faces: a human face toward the palm tree on the right and the face of a lion toward the palm tree on the left. They were carved around the entire Temple. The cherubim—palm tree motif was carved from floor to door height on the wall of the main Sanctuary.
21–22 The main Sanctuary had a rectangular doorframe. In front of the Holy Place was something that looked like an altar of wood, five and a quarter feet high and three and a half feet square. Its corners, base, and sides were of wood. The man said to me, “This is the table that stands before God.”
23–26 Both the main Sanctuary and the Holy Place had double doors. Each door had two leaves: two hinged leaves for each door, one set swinging inward and the other set outward. The doors of the main Sanctuary were carved with angel-cherubim and palm trees. There was a canopy of wood in front of the vestibule outside. There were narrow windows alternating with carved palm trees on both sides of the porch.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Today's Scripture
John 15:13-17
This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.
16 “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
17 “But remember the root command: Love one another.
Insight
The apostle John referred to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23; see 20:2; 21:20). It wasn’t that Christ loved him alone or the most, but most likely that John keenly felt Jesus’ love. Of all the New Testament books, John’s writing focuses the most on God’s love. He says, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (3:16). The apostle also says, “the Father loves the Son” (v. 35; 5:20). Why? Because Christ laid down His life (10:17). In response, we’re to “love one another” (13:34) just as He loved us (15:12). By our love for each other, others will know we’re His disciples (13:35). If we love Him, we’re also called to “keep [His] commands” (14:15). In 1 John, the apostle’s emphasis is again on God’s love: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (4:8). By: Alyson Kieda
What a Friend
Love each other. John 15:17
As favorite backyard neighbors, my mother and Mrs. Sanchez grew also into friendly rivals. The two competed every Monday to be the first to hang their freshly washed laundry on their outdoor clotheslines. “She beat me again!” my mother would say. But the next week, Mama might be first—both enjoying their friendly weekly contest. Over ten years of sharing a backyard alley, the two also shared each other’s wisdom, stories, and hope.
The Bible speaks with great warmth about the virtue of such a friendship. “A friend loves at all times,” King Solomon observed (Proverbs 17:17). He also noted, “The pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice” (27:9).
Our great Friend is surely Jesus. Urging loving friendship from His disciples, He taught them, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). The very next day, He would do just that on the cross. He also told them, “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (v. 15). Then He said, “This is my command: Love each other” (v. 17).
With such words, Jesus “is elevating His listeners,” as philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff said, from lowly humans to companions and confidants. In Christ, we learn to befriend others. What a Friend to teach us such love! By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
How do you experience love in your friendship with Jesus? How can you be a friend like Him?
You call me friend, dear Jesus. Please help me be a loving friend to others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, September 26, 2024
The Unblamable Attitude
If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift . . . and be reconciled to them. — Matthew 5:23–24
Jesus tells us that we should leave our gift at the altar if we remember, when we get there, that our brother or sister has something against us. He doesn’t say that every time we come to the altar we should begin, with a morbid sensitivity, to dredge up thoughts of possible problems with our brother or sister. “If you . . . remember” means “If the Spirit of God brings something to your conscious mind.” The Holy Spirit makes us sensitive to things we never thought of before. Never object to the intense sensitivity of the Spirit of God in you when he is educating you down to the scruple.
“First go and be reconciled to them” (Matthew 5:24). Our Lord’s command is simple: go back the way you came; go the way the Spirit of God indicates to you when you are at the altar; go to the person who has something against you, keeping an attitude of mind and a temper of soul that make reconciliation as natural as breathing. Jesus doesn’t mention the other person. He says, “You go.” There’s no question of your rights. The hallmark of the disciple is the ability to waive personal rights and obey the Lord Jesus.
“Then come and offer your gift” (v. 24). The process is clearly marked. First, you arrive at the altar in a heroic spirit of self-sacrifice. Then comes a sudden inspection by the Holy Spirit, followed by the sense of conviction that stops you in your tracks. You go back, tracing the way of obedience to the word of God and constructing an unblamable attitude of mind and temper toward the one you’ve wronged. Finally, you return to the altar, ready to make a glad, simple, unhindered offering of your gift to God.
Isaiah 1-2; Galatians 5
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.
The Place of Help
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, September 26, 2024
WHY COMMITMENTS FAIL - #9839
You want to write a best-selling book? Do something about self improvement. Man are we into self improvement! I mean, think about how the health clubs and how they boom in membership in January. A resolution is called, "A firm decision to do or not to do something." Well we find out that about 88% of our resolutions don't happen.
So there's a lot of things we do to be healthier and to spend more time with the family, get out of debt, do better in school, clean out the junk in our house. So why do our great intentions so often end up in failed commitments?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Commitments Fail."
My work has put me in the middle of a lot of folks' desire to change, their efforts to change. And from their experience - and then honestly from too much of my own - I've seen four reasons that we fail in commitments that we really do want to keep.
Number one, we're not specific. Goals have to be more than just general intentions. "I'm going to be a better husband." "I'm going to get in shape." "I want to make more of a difference." Well, those are great ideas, but they're not likely to succeed. How about, "I'm going to give my wife all of my attention at least once a day." "I'm not going to eat after 6 o'clock and I'll spend 20 minutes on the treadmill each day." "I'm going to volunteer at the shelter." See, those are specific and measurable, you've got a decent shot at really changing.
Here's the second reason I think we fail. We're not accountable. A resolution between me, myself and I is just too easy to forget. But when you announce to several key people the commitment you've made, you've put yourself on the line to do it. The Bible says, "Two are better than one ... if one falls down, his friend can help him up."
Here's a third reason that our commitments fail. We give up too soon. You know, babies learn to walk by a process that I call "step... boom!" They fall down, but they don't stay down. They get up! Next time it's "step, step, step... boom!" Until one day they're rocketing across the room. Sadly, when we fall down in our effort to do better, don't we often just stay down? But one day's failure is just one day's failure. One day - keep it that way. Get up and keep walking!
And the last reason - maybe the most important of all - why we don't improve like we want to improve is we've got a power shortage. Especially when it comes to the changes that really matter, like breaking the cycle that's hurting the people I love, conquering that dark part of me that's brought me down again and again, moving beyond the pain of my past, attacking that fatal flaw that keeps costing me too much.
Every new year has the same last name - "A.D." Like, 2024 A.D. "Anno Domini" the year of our Lord measured by how many years it is since Jesus Christ came. Well, my whole life has been "B.C./A.D." There was the me I couldn't change before Christ took the wheel of my life. And then the changed life that He's made possible since I gave me to Him.
I thought I could only trust me to drive, but I drove into too many ditches. I ran over too many people. I crashed too often. I couldn't get me to the man I want to be, I need to be, that the people I love need me to be. That's like one of the men who wrote the Bible. He said in our word for today from the Word of God taken from Romans 7, beginning in verse 18, "I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't ... Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?"
I know that feeling, but I've found the power to change where that same Bible-writer found it. He says. "Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord." See, it took the Man who died for my sin to give me the power to beat my sin. For 2,000 years this Jesus has changed people in ways they could never change themselves.
You might be ready for the Life-Changer right now. He says in His Word, "When anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old is gone and the new life has begun."
You tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours" and the change has begun. Our website is called ANewStory.com. Check it out! I think it will help you begin that relationship with Jesus. This can be the day that you move from B.C. to A.D. and things will never be the same.
