Max Lucado Daily: CONFIDENT IN HIM - October 7, 2024
Yes, life stinks. But it won’t forever. As one of my friends likes to say, “Everything will work out in the end. If it’s not working out, it’s not the end.”
In the meantime, don’t overreact. Psalm 37:7 (NLT) says, “Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.” This is a toxic world. But neither do we join the Chicken Little chorus of gloom and doom: “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!”
Somewhere between Pollyanna and Chicken Little, between denial and blatant panic, stands the levelheaded, clear-thinking, still-believing follower of Christ. Psalm 27:3 says, “My heart shall not fear—though war arise against me, yet I will be confident!” Confident in Him.
Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear
1 John 3
What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at
it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he’s up to.
2–3 But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own.
4–6 All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God’s order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program. No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They’ve got him all backward.
7–8 So, my dear children, don’t let anyone divert you from the truth. It’s the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil’s ways.
9–10 People conceived and brought into life by God don’t make a practice of sin. How could they? God’s seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It’s not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. Here’s how you tell the difference between God’s children and the Devil’s children: The one who won’t practice righteous ways isn’t from God, nor is the one who won’t love brother or sister. A simple test.
11 For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other.
12–13 We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous. So don’t be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time.
14–15 The way we know we’ve been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn’t love is as good as dead. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don’t go together.
16–17 This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
When We Practice Real Love
18–20 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
21–24 And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God’s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 07, 2024
Today's Scripture
Zechariah 4:1-7
Fifth Vision: A Lampstand and Two Olive Trees
1 4 The Messenger-Angel again called me to attention. It was like being wakened out of deep sleep.
2–3 He said, “What do you see?”
I answered, “I see a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top. Seven lamps, each with seven spouts, are set on the bowl. And there are two olive trees, one on either side of the bowl.”
4 Then I asked the Messenger-Angel, “What does this mean, sir?”
5–7 The Messenger-Angel said, “Can’t you tell?”
“No, sir,” I said.
Then he said, “This is God’s Message to Zerubbabel: ‘You can’t force these things. They only come about through my Spirit,’ says God-of-the-Angel-Armies. ‘So, big mountain, who do you think you are? Next to Zerubbabel you’re nothing but a molehill. He’ll proceed to set the Cornerstone in place, accompanied by cheers: Yes! Yes! Do it!’ ”
Insight
God reminded Zerubbabel not to rely on his own strength during difficulty: “ ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground’ ” (Zechariah 4:6-7). The term translated “Lord Almighty” (“Lord of hosts” [esv]; “Lord of Heaven’s Armies” [nlt]) is Yahweh Tseva’ot. It’s the combination of the covenant name for Israel’s God, Yahweh (Lord), and tseva’ot (almighty, hosts, armies). This divine name appears around three hundred times in the Old Testament. It’s God’s “heavenly title.” He’s the “Commander-in-Chief” of the universe. When we’re faced with challenges, we should rely on the one who controls and rules over all things rather than trust in our own personal resources. Thus, with David, we can say, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord [Yahweh] our God” (Psalm 20:7). By: Arthur Jackson
Bibles in the Back Seat
“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty. Zechariah 4:6
Andrew’s Volkswagen stopped, and the guards walked over. He prayed as he had many times in the past: “God, when You were on earth, You made blind eyes see. Now, please make seeing eyes blind.” The guards searched the car, saying nothing about the Bibles in the luggage. Andrew crossed the border, taking his cargo to those who couldn’t own a Bible.
Andrew van der Bijl, or Brother Andrew, relied on God’s power for the seemingly impossible task God had called him to—taking the Scriptures to countries where Christianity was illegal. “I’m an ordinary guy,” he said, emphasizing his limited education and lack of funds. “What I did, anyone can do.” Today, his organization, Open Doors International, serves persecuted believers in Jesus worldwide.
When Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, faced the seemingly impossible task of rebuilding the temple after the Jews returned from exile, he was discouraged. But God reminded him not to rely on human power or might, but on His Spirit (Zechariah 4:6). He encouraged him through a vision given to the prophet Zechariah of lamps supplied with oil from nearby olive trees (vv. 2-3). Just as the lamps could burn because of the continual supply of oil, Zerubbabel and the Israelites could do God’s task by relying on His continuous supply of power.
As we rely on God, may we trust Him and do what He calls us to do. By: Karen Huang
Reflect & Pray
How can you rely on God’s Spirit? How might the vision of the olive trees supplying the lamps with oil encourage you?
Holy Spirit, please help me to rely on You.
For further study, read Guided by the Spirit.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 07, 2024
Reconciliation
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. — 2 Corinthians 5:21
Sin is a fundamental relationship. It isn’t wrongdoing; it’s wrong being. Sin is deliberate and emphatic independence from God. The Christian religion bases everything on the radical, singular nature of sin. Other religions deal with sins; the Bible alone deals with sin. The heredity of sin in humankind was the first thing Jesus Christ addressed. Because we have ignored this in our preaching, the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.” The revelation of the Bible isn’t that Jesus Christ took upon himself our sins, but that he took upon himself the heredity of sin, which no human being can touch. God made his Son to “be sin” so that any sinner could “become the righteousness of God.”
The Bible reveals that our Lord bore the sin of the world by identifying himself with sin, not by sympathizing with it. He deliberately took the whole massed sin of humankind and placed it on his own shoulders; he bore that sin in his own being. By doing this, he redeemed all of humanity, rehabilitating it and putting it back where God designed it to be. Now, thanks to what Jesus Christ did on the cross, anyone can enter into union with God.
Human beings cannot redeem themselves. Redemption is God’s work, and it is work that has already been done; it’s finished and complete. How individuals experience redemption is a question of their individual choices. A distinction must always be made between the revelation of redemption, which applies equally to all, and the conscious experience of salvation in an individual’s life.
Isaiah 28-29; Philippians 3
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried.
He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 07, 2024
How to Test Spiritual Leadership - #9846
I think there's like an art to shopping for produce. You can't just grab the first apple or tomato you see. You have to learn to squeeze the lettuce. My wife taught me how to do that. You have to learn how to check for holes and dents in apples and peaches; you don't just take the first one off the pile. You have to check to see how yellow those bananas are, or how green, or how black. There are ways to tell whether a vegetable is one you should buy. Now it's much tougher to shop for a spiritual leader you can trust. But there is a way to tell.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Test Spiritual Leadership."
It's getting tougher and tougher to know which spiritual leaders you can trust. Look, we're living in a time when, sadly, a lot of Christian heroes have let us down, right? People who say spiritual things, lead spiritual causes, give spiritual counsel, and then all of a sudden something happens that exposes their hypocrisy. In a way, it kind of makes a lot of us hold back and wonder who can we trust?
Well, we're not supposed to have our eyes on man. The Bible makes that clear. And yet, God does give His people leadership; He does raise up teachers. There are authentic spiritual leaders. He does want us to be able to get His teachings and see His love coming through people, but so many have let us down. How can you tell whether a pastor is a leader from God or a person who's doing his own thing in God's name?
Well, there's one person that Jesus really held up as a model leader. It was John the Baptist. He said, "There has been no greater man born among women." Now I cannot think of a stronger endorsement than that. Jesus said John the Baptist was the real deal; a real spiritual leader. And out of the life of John, we get one test for a pastor, a Christian musician, a TV or radio personality, a youth leader, an influencer on the internet.
John 3:30 - here's John's statement. Speaking of Jesus, he said, "He must become greater; I must become less." The King James Version says, "He must increase; I must decrease." You know how to test a spiritual leader? Well, one of the tests is this: Does he leave you thinking more about him or more about Jesus? Where is the spotlight? More about his organization, his goals, his ministry, his programs, or more about Jesus? An authentic man or woman of God, like John the Baptist, puts himself or herself in the background. The leader doing his own thing is heavy on sentences that have "I," "me," or "mine" in them.
Is this the only test? No, but it's a pretty good start. If you're in leadership, measure yourself that way. Who is getting the spotlight, you the leader or the Savior? The real spiritual leaders, the ones you can trust, are the ones who put Jesus in the spotlight and make you think about Him and forget about them.
Years ago I read about a man who maybe 100 years ago had lived in the countryside in England. He traveled to London and wrote to his wife and said, "Honey, today I went to two of the great churches of London. This morning I heard Dr. Cartwright and he is a great preacher. Tonight I went to Metropolitan Tabernacle and I heard Mr. Charles Spurgeon." He said, "Mr. Spurgeon has a great Savior."
Do you want them to remember a great you or do you leave them thinking about a great Savior? Maybe you've been burned by Christians, by a Christian leader. Please, don't let them cause you to miss Jesus in the midst of it all. Jesus said, "Follow Me."
If you've never begun a relationship with Him, please don't let Christians or Christian leaders, or Christianity keep you from Christ. I hope you'll say today, "Jesus, you loved me enough to die for me. You walked out of your grave. I'm yours." You can go to our website to get the rest of the story. It's ANewStory.com.
If you see a leader who leaves you thinking about Jesus, in the crowded spiritual supermarket that you and I shop in, you'll know that's one you can buy.