Max Lucado Daily: SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY - October 31, 2024
Some days never come. Go to the effort. Invest the time. Make the apology. Take the trip. Do it! The seized opportunity renders joy. The neglected brings regret.
Remember Mary’s extravagance in pouring expensive perfume over Jesus’ head? And Jesus’ disciples criticizing her. “Why waste that perfume?” they said. “It could have been sold for a great deal of money and given to the poor” (Matthew 26:8-9). Do not miss Jesus’ prompt defense of Mary in Matthew 26:10: “Why are you troubling this woman?” he said. “She did an excellent thing for me.”
Don’t miss Jesus’ message. There is a time to pour out your affections on one you love. When the time comes, seize it!
Cast of Characters: Lost and Found
Zechariah 12
Home Again in Jerusalem
1–2 12 War Bulletin:
God’s Message concerning Israel, God’s Decree—the very God who threw the skies into space, set earth on a firm foundation, and breathed his own life into men and women: “Watch for this: I’m about to turn Jerusalem into a cup of strong drink that will have the people who have set siege to Judah and Jerusalem staggering in a drunken stupor.
3 “On the Big Day, I’ll turn Jerusalem into a huge stone blocking the way for everyone. All who try to lift it will rupture themselves. All the pagan nations will come together and try to get rid of it.
4–5 “On the Big Day”—this is God speaking—“I’ll throw all the war horses into a crazed panic, and their riders along with them. But I’ll keep my eye on Judah, watching out for her at the same time that I make the enemy horses go blind. The families of Judah will then realize, ‘Why, our leaders are strong and able through God-of-the-Angel-Armies, their personal God.’
6 “On the Big Day, I’ll turn the families of Judah into something like a burning match in a tinder-dry forest, like a fiercely flaming torch in a barn full of hay. They’ll burn up everything and everyone in sight—people to the right, people to the left—while Jerusalem fills up with people moving in and making themselves at home—home again in Jerusalem.
7–8 “I, God, will begin by restoring the common households of Judah so that the glory of David’s family and the leaders in Jerusalem won’t overshadow the ordinary people in Judah. On the Big Day, I’ll look after everyone who lives in Jerusalem so that the lowliest, weakest person will be as glorious as David and the family of David itself will be godlike, like the Angel of God leading the people.
9 “On the Big Day, I’ll make a clean sweep of all the godless nations that fought against Jerusalem.
10–14 “Next I’ll deal with the family of David and those who live in Jerusalem. I’ll pour a spirit of grace and prayer over them. They’ll then be able to recognize me as the One they so grievously wounded—that piercing spear-thrust! And they’ll weep—oh, how they’ll weep! Deep mourning as of a parent grieving the loss of the firstborn child. The lamentation in Jerusalem that day will be massive, as famous as the lamentation over Hadad-Rimmon on the fields of Megiddo:
Everyone will weep and grieve,
the land and everyone in it:
The family of David off by itself
and their women off by themselves;
The family of Nathan off by itself
and their women off by themselves;
The family of Levi off by itself
and their women off by themselves;
The family of Shimei off by itself
and their women off by themselves;
And all the rest of the families off by themselves
and their women off by themselves.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Today's Scripture
Mark 12:13-17
Paying Taxes to Caesar
13–14 They sent some Pharisees and followers of Herod to bait him, hoping to catch him saying something incriminating. They came up and said, “Teacher, we know you have integrity, that you are indifferent to public opinion, don’t pander to your students, and teach the way of God accurately. Tell us: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
15–16 He knew it was a trick question, and said, “Why are you playing these games with me? Bring me a coin and let me look at it.” They handed him one.
“This engraving—who does it look like? And whose name is on it?”
“Caesar,” they said.
17 Jesus said, “Give Caesar what is his, and give God what is his.”
Their mouths hung open, speechless.
Insight
Part of the reason the religious leaders tried to “catch [Jesus] in his words” (Mark 12:13) was to discredit Him and charge Him with blasphemy for claiming to be God (see Matthew 26:63-65; Luke 20:20). Jesus made an exclusive claim that He’s the Messiah (Matthew 26:63-64) and the only way to the Father: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). The book of Acts underscores this exclusive claim: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). John makes it clear when he wrote, “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). The good news is that in Christ, we have our Savior! By: Bill Crowder
The Great Divide
Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Mark 12:17
In a classic Peanuts comic strip, Linus’ friend berates him for his belief in the Great Pumpkin. Walking away dejectedly, Linus says, “There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people . . . religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin!”
The Great Pumpkin existed only in Linus’ head, but the other two topics are oh-so-real—dividing nations, families, and friends. The problem occurred in Jesus’ day as well. The Pharisees were deeply religious and tried to follow the Old Testament law to the letter. The Herodians were more political, yet both groups wanted to see the Jewish people freed from Roman oppression. Jesus didn’t seem to share their goals. So they approached Him with a politically charged question: should the people pay taxes to Caesar (Mark 12:14–15)? If Jesus said yes, the people would resent Him. If He said no, the Romans could arrest Him for insurrection.
Jesus asked for a coin. “Whose image is this?” He asked (v. 16). Everyone knew it was Caesar’s. Jesus’ words resonate today: “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (v. 17). His priorities in order, Jesus avoided their trap.
Jesus came to do His Father’s will. Following His lead, we too can seek God and His kingdom above all else, directing the focus away from all the dissension and toward the one who is the Truth. By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
What divisive issues trouble you? How might keeping your eyes on Jesus help guide your conversations today?
Father, I need Your wisdom and guidance for all my interactions.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Discernment of Faith
If you have faith as small as a mustard seed . . . — Matthew 17:20
We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith. This might be true in the initial stages of our walk with him, but we don’t earn anything by faith. Faith brings us into right relationship with God and gives God his opportunity.
If you are walking with God, he will often knock the bottom out of your experience in order to bring you into immediate contact with him. God wants you to understand that it’s a life of faith, not of emotional enjoyment of his blessings. Your earlier life of faith was narrow and intense, settled around a little sunspot of experience that had as much sensibleness as faith in it; it was full of light and sweetness. Then God withdrew his blessings—not all of them, just those you were conscious of—to teach you to walk by faith. Now you are worth far more to him than you were in your days of conscious delight and thrilling testimony.
Faith by its very nature must be tried. The real trial of faith isn’t that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character has to be cleared in our own minds. Faith in its actual working out has to go through spells of inexpressible isolation. Never confound the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life. Much that we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. In the Bible, faith means trusting God in the face of everything that contradicts him. Faith says, “No matter what God does, I will remain true to his character.” “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15): this is the most sublime utterance of faith in the whole of the Bible.
Jeremiah 22-23; Titus 1
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
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Broken No More - #9864
When I was growing up and when our children were growing up, basically when generations of children were growing up, mommies and daddies read stories to their children. And most of them had a predictable ending: "and they lived happily ever after." Except for this one nursery rhyme - the one about the uncoordinated egg. You know?
I wasn't sure what I was supposed to learn from that one. "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall - all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again." So what? Don't sit on a wall? I don't know. I kept waiting for the happy ending. There isn't one. Humpty's broken, he's in pieces, everybody tries to put him together and nobody can. Humpty is broken and no one can fix him. Well, not necessarily.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Broken No More."
We live in a world of Humpty Dumpty people; people who are broken inside where it's hard to heal. You might be one of them. The pain, the hurt, the disappointment of your life have left you shattered. And though there have been attempts to put the pieces together, nothing has really worked. The brokenness remains. There's no "they lived happily ever after."
Our word for today from the Word of God offers some real hope for what may have seemed hopeless until now - a happy ending. It's in Isaiah 61:1, speaking of Jesus Christ. "The Lord has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted." The Bible says that part of Jesus' mission on earth is to put together broken people.
Maybe all the King's horses and all the King's men can't put you together again. But the King can if you'll give Him all the pieces of your life no matter how hurtful, no matter how shameful, no matter how ugly. Jesus can do what no friend can do for you, no boyfriend, no girlfriend, no therapist, no medication, no family member, no emotional anesthetic. Why? Because He did what only He could do to deal with the root cause of all the brokenness in our world. And that's the spiritual destroyer God calls sin.
Not the breaking of somebody's religious rules. Sin, according to the Bible, is the basic choice all of us have made to do our life our way instead of God's way. That has led us to a lifetime of choices that go against the way God made us to live. God says, "Sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death" (James 1:15). Sin always destroys. It always leaves behind the pieces. All of us have been the sinned against, and all of us have been the sinner. And all our brokenness is from one or the other.
But God's one and only Son came as Jesus to pay for all that sin. In God's words, "He carried our sins in His own body on the tree." That's the cross where Jesus died. And because He paid for all our sins, He can forgive all the sins you've done and heal the damage done by your sin and the sins of others. It's all summed up in the beautiful word "Savior."
But Jesus isn't your Savior until you ask Him to be by telling Him you're putting your total trust in Him. Has there ever been a time when you've done that? If you've done that, you'll know you have. That's the day the healing begins. How about that being today for you? Tell Him, "Jesus, I want you to be my Savior from my sin. My life is yours. You made me. You paid for me with your life. I am yours."
I want to invite you to go to our website as an action step right now. There's so much good information there that will help you be sure that you know Jesus personally and have begun your relationship with Him. Now, remember this website - ANewStory.com.
No one else has been able to put together all the broken pieces of you. But that's why Jesus came to bind up the brokenhearted. He is your wonderful hope of a happy ending.
