Max Lucado Daily: FROM POVERTY TO PRIDE - October 2, 2024
There’s a predictable progression from poverty to pride. The poor man prays and works; God hears and blesses. The humble man becomes rich and forgets God. The faithful, poor man becomes the proud, rich man. As God said through Hosea, “When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me” (Hosea 13:6 NIV).
How can a person survive prosperity? Scripture says do not be haughty. Do not think for a moment that you had anything to do with your accumulation. Scripture also makes clear that your stocks, cash, and 401(k) are not yours. 1 Timothy 6:17 warns us to not put our “trust in uncertain riches.” Money is an untrustworthy foundation. Have you noticed that the word miser is just one letter short of the word misery?
Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear
Ezekiel 45
Sacred Space for God
1–4 45 “When you divide up the inheritance of the land, you must set aside part of the land as sacred space for God: approximately seven miles long by six miles wide, all of it holy ground. Within this rectangle, reserve a seven-hundred-fifty-foot square for the Sanctuary with a seventy-five-foot buffer zone surrounding it. Mark off within the sacred reserve a section seven miles long by three miles wide. The Sanctuary with its Holy of Holies will be placed there. This is where the priests will live, those who lead worship in the Sanctuary and serve God there. Their houses will be there along with The Holy Place.
5 “To the north of the sacred reserve, an area roughly seven miles long and two and a quarter miles wide will be set aside as land for the villages of the Levites who administer the affairs of worship in the Sanctuary.
6 “To the south of the sacred reserve, measure off a section seven miles long and about a mile and a half wide for the city itself, an area held in common by the whole family of Israel.
7–8 “The prince gets the land abutting the seven-mile east and west borders of the central sacred square, extending eastward toward the Jordan and westward toward the Mediterranean. This is the prince’s possession in Israel. My princes will no longer bully my people, running roughshod over them. They’ll respect the land as it has been allotted to the tribes.
9–12 “This is the Message of God, the Master: ‘I’ve put up with you long enough, princes of Israel! Quit bullying and taking advantage of my people. Do what’s just and right for a change. Use honest scales—honest weights and honest measures. Every pound must have sixteen ounces. Every gallon must measure four quarts. The ounce is the basic measure for both. And your coins must be honest—no wooden nickels!
Everyone in the Land Must Contribute
13–15 “ ‘These are the prescribed offerings you are to supply: one-sixtieth part of your wheat, one-sixtieth part of your barley, one-hundredth part of your oil, one sheep out of every two hundred from the lush pastures of Israel. These will be used for the grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings for making the atonement sacrifices for the people. Decree of God, the Master.
16–17 “ ‘Everyone in the land must contribute to these special offerings that the prince in Israel will administer. It’s the prince’s job to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings at the Holy Festivals, the New Moons, and the Sabbaths—all the commanded feasts among the people of Israel. Sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings for making atonement for the people of Israel are his responsibility.
18–20 “ ‘This is the Message from God, the Master: On the first day of the first month, take an unblemished bull calf and purify the Sanctuary. The priest is to take blood from the sin offerings and rub it on the doorposts of the Temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the gate entrance to the inside courtyard. Repeat this ritual on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins without knowing it. In this way you make atonement for the Temple.
21 “ ‘On the fourteenth day of the first month, you will observe the Passover, a feast of seven days. During the feast you will eat bread made without yeast.
22–23 “ ‘On Passover, the prince supplies a bull as a sin offering for himself and all the people of the country. Each day for each of the seven days of the feast, he will supply seven bulls and seven rams unblemished as a burnt offering to God, and also each day a male goat.
24 “ ‘He will supply about five and a half gallons of grain offering and a gallon of oil for each bull and each ram.
25 “ ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and on each of the seven days of the feast, he is to supply the same materials for sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and oil.’ ”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 02, 2024
Today's Scripture
Galatians 5:13-26
It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?
16–18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?
19–21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
22–23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
23–24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.
25–26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
Insight
In Galatians, Paul warned against the teaching that gentile believers in Jesus needed to obey the law revealed to Moses. This was one of the most contentious issues in early communities of believers; it was difficult for many to fathom gentile believers not being required to adhere to the requirements of the law as inspired by God (such as circumcision; see Galatians 5:6). But Paul argued that the law had a temporary teaching role in God’s plan (3:23-25). It had no power to overcome sin. Christ frees and empowers believers to be “led by the Spirit” (5:18) in a life of love (vv. 22-25). By: Monica La Rose
Christ’s Character
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23
Following a challenging tour in Afghanistan, Scott, a sergeant in the British Army, fell apart. He remembered: “I was in a dark place.” But when he “discovered Jesus and began following Him,” his life changed radically. Now he seeks to share the love of Christ with others, especially veterans with whom he competes in the Invictus Games, an international event for wounded and injured members and veterans of the armed forces.
For Scott, reading the Bible, praying, and listening to worship music grounds him before going to the Games. God then helps him “to reflect the character of Jesus and show kindness, gentleness, and grace” to the fellow veterans competing there.
Scott names here some of the fruit of the Spirit that the apostle Paul wrote about to the believers in Galatia. They struggled under the influence of false teachers, so Paul sought to encourage them to stay true to God and His grace, being “led by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:18). By doing so, they would then produce the Spirit’s fruit—“love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (vv. 22-23).
With God’s Spirit living within us, we too will burst forth with the Spirit’s goodness and love. We too will show gentleness and kindness to those who surround us. By: Amy Boucher Pye
Reflect & Pray
How can God help you to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit? What practices can help you to stay in tune with Him?
Life-giving God, thank You for Your Spirit. Please produce within me fruit for others to enjoy.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 02, 2024
The Sphere of Humiliation
“If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” — Mark 9:22
After every period of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are, where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the drudgery of the valley—but it’s in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. When we are on the mountaintop, we see the glory of God, but we cannot live for it. Only in the depths of the valley, in the realm of humiliation, do we discover our true worth to God; only there is our faithfulness revealed.
Most of us can do all sorts of difficult things when we are filled with a sense of heroism. But this is only because of the natural selfishness of our hearts, our desire to be useful and adored. God wants us to relinquish the heroic frame of mind. He wants us to live in the valley according to our personal relationship to him.
“Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain. . . . And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses” (Mark 9:2, 4). After witnessing the vision of Elijah and Moses, Peter wanted to stay up on the mountain. But Jesus took him and the other disciples back down into the valley, the place where the meaning of the vision would be explained.
“‘If you can’? . . .” Look back at your own experience, and you will find that until you learned who Jesus was, you were skeptical of his power. When you were on the mountaintop, you could believe anything. But what about when you were up against facts in the valley? You may be able to give testimony about your miraculous spiritual experiences, but what about the thing that is humiliating you just now? The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all power in heaven and earth belonged to Jesus. Will you see it now in the valley?
Isaiah 14-16; Ephesians 5:1-16
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Jesus Christ reveals, not an embarrassed God, not a confused God, not a God who stands apart from the problems, but One who stands in the thick of the whole thing with man.
Disciples Indeed, 388 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 02, 2024
Helene, Heroes and Heaven - #9843
It may turn out to be one of the deadliest, most damaging storms we've ever had - Hurricane Helene. You've seen it all over the news, and it really has been hitting me in the heart because I have a lot of friends along that 500-mile path of destruction. Especially in western North Carolina. I've just watched the heartbreaking news on two different levels actually. First, obviously the layers of just physical tragedy. But my heart also sees a picture that vividly clarifies the most important spiritual issues of our times.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have a word with you today about "Helene, Heroes and Heaven."
Well let me tell you what my heart has seen...
First, their world is suddenly very broken.
Bridges are gone, roads are gone, towns are gone, rivers have been totally rerouted, they have no power, many cases they can't communicate. They can't even find out how they're doing, they can't ask for help. You know that's also a picture of our lives and our world today. I mean look at the news - a world on fire today, brutally divided politics, it's dividing relationships, churches in some cases, and families. there's an epidemic of mental health issues. It just seems like so much is broken - and hope is hard to find. And our roads are even broken, we can't get to an answer.
Second, for many people, their only hope is a rescue from above. There's choppers today flying all over western North Carolina because there are people who can be only can be accessed, only rescued, only helped, with help from above.
Well, the Bible would say that's a picture of our spiritual condition. we're lost, we're spiritually endangered. We got a life without lasting love or meaning, and we're facing an unthinkable eternity. Because we're away from our God. Because we've run our lives instead of Him running them. But hope has a name - His name is Jesus and He's a rescuer.
Here's our Word for today from the Word of God from Galatians 1:4 - "The Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins to rescue us." Rescue us. You say, what about my religion? Religion is like the roads that are broken - they can't get us out of our spiritual predicament. Only the Rescuer from above can. And if He's come for you, man, grab Him while you can.
Thirdly, people are dropping everything because other peoples' lives are at stake. I mean you see it all over western North Carolina and other areas that have been hit. People know that when lives are at stake, you just drop everything else you've been working on, it's not that important right now.
Proverbs 24 commands us to "Rescue those are who being led away to death." That's every person we know who doesn't know our Jesus. It's all hands on deck. Nothing else really matters when people are dying. Only rescue matters. In our broken world, surrounded by broken lives, more than all our other agendas, more than all our distractions, it's rescue that matters!
Finally, people who've never thought of themselves as rescuers are saving lives.
I just heard today through a friend of a friend that a builder and his crew. Went down to western North Carolina to try to help people. In the process they cam across a house that had been totally buried in mud. It totally collapsed. They, with their bare hands dug through the mud and saved six lives. Pulled six people out who probably would have died otherwise. This guy's a builder, he didn't go there to rescue, but where there are dying people you know what you gotta do. You can't wait for the pros to get there. Every believer knows some lost person who needs rescuing. If you're there, you're responsible.
My friend, it's time to move past our fear, and past our excuses, past our distractions. And waiting for somebody else to do it. There's a spiritual disaster happening right in front of us. And the rescue mission is for all of us.
