Max Lucado Daily: HOLY THOUGHTS - November 21, 2024
When you see the successful, are you jealous? When you see others struggle, are you pompous? Do you assume the worst about the future? If so, you suffer from what I call DTPs – destructive thought patterns.
Oh to be DTP-free. No energy lost, no time wasted. A lifetime of healthy and holy thoughts would render anyone a joyful genius. But where would you find such an individual?
Blame DTPs on sin. It messes with our minds. So, God changes us by changing our mind. By considering the glory of Christ. To behold him is to become like him. Give him your best thoughts, and see if he doesn’t change your mind!
Nextdoor Savior: Near Enough to Touch, Strong Enough to Trust
Psalm 84
A Korah Psalm
1–2 84 What a beautiful home, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
I’ve always longed to live in a place like this,
Always dreamed of a room in your house,
where I could sing for joy to God-alive!
3–4 Birds find nooks and crannies in your house,
sparrows and swallows make nests there.
They lay their eggs and raise their young,
singing their songs in the place where we worship.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies! King! God!
How blessed they are to live and sing there!
5–7 And how blessed all those in whom you live,
whose lives become roads you travel;
They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,
discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!
God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and
at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!
8–9 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, listen:
O God of Jacob, open your ears—I’m praying!
Look at our shields, glistening in the sun,
our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.
10–12 One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,
beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.
I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God
than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.
All sunshine and sovereign is God,
generous in gifts and glory.
He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions.
It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 21, 2024
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Hebrews 9:23-28
That accounts for the prominence of blood and death in all these secondary practices that point to the realities of heaven. It also accounts for why, when the real thing takes place, these animal sacrifices aren’t needed anymore, having served their purpose. For Christ didn’t enter the earthly version of the Holy Place; he entered the Place Itself, and offered himself to God as the sacrifice for our sins. He doesn’t do this every year as the high priests did under the old plan with blood that was not their own; if that had been the case, he would have to sacrifice himself repeatedly throughout the course of history. But instead he sacrificed himself once and for all, summing up all the other sacrifices in this sacrifice of himself, the final solution of sin.
27–28 Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Christ’s death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation.
Today's Insights
Jesus is the “Hero in Hebrews” (and in the entire Bible). Hebrews 9 demonstrates His significance and uniqueness with commentary about His priesthood. Christ’s priesthood is superior to any Old Testament person and system. The “priests” (7:23) and their “sacrifices” (v. 27) of old were many, but the work and sacrifice of Jesus is one-and-done (see 9:12). The Greek word hapax, meaning “once,” “once for all,” captures this feature. Of the fourteen New Testament occurrences, eight are in Hebrews (four in ch. 9—vv. 7, 26, 27, 28). This word also appears in 1 Peter 3:18 and reinforces our hope in Jesus and neutralizes our fear of our own death appointment: “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.”
The Appointment
People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment. Hebrews 9:27
Today's Devotional
On November 22, 1963, US president John F. Kennedy, philosopher and writer Aldous Huxley, and Christian apologist C. S. Lewis all died. Three well-known men with radically different worldviews. Huxley, an agnostic, still dabbled in Eastern mysticism. Kennedy, though a Roman Catholic, held to a humanistic philosophy. And Lewis was a former atheist who as an Anglican became an outspoken believer in Jesus. Death is no respecter of persons as all three of these well-known men faced their appointment with death on the same day.
The Bible says that death entered the human experience when Adam and Eve disobeyed in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3)—a sad reality that has marked human history. Death is the great equalizer or, as one person put it, the appointment that no one can avoid. This is the point of Hebrews 9:27, where we read, “People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.”
Where do we find hope about our own appointment with death and what follows? In Christ. Romans 6:23 captures this truth perfectly: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” How did this gift of God become available? Jesus, the Son of God, died to destroy death and rose from the grave to offer us life forever (2 Timothy 1:10). by Bill Crowder
Reflect & Pray
How does it make you feel to ponder your own inevitable appointment with death? How have you prepared for it?
Dear God, thank You for sending Your Son to pay the price for my sins and to die in my place. Thank You for offering me eternal life.
Learn more about having a personal relationship with God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 21, 2024
It Is Finished
I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. — John 17:4
The death of Jesus Christ was the performance in history of the mind of God. Jesus’s death wasn’t martyrdom; it wasn’t something that happened to Jesus or that might have been prevented. The death of Jesus Christ was on purpose. It was the very reason he came.
When you preach, take care not to belittle Jesus’s death or make his cross unnecessary. We do this when we preach that our heavenly Father forgives us because he loves us. Our Father does love us, but this isn’t the reason he forgives us. The reason is the death of Christ. To preach otherwise makes the redemption “much ado about nothing.” God could forgive humanity in no other way than by the death of his Son, and Jesus is exalted as Savior because of his death. “We do see Jesus . . . crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death” (Hebrews 2:9). The greatest note of triumph that ever sounded in the ears of a startled universe was the note sounded on the cross: “It is finished” (John 19:30). This is the last word in the redemption of humankind.
Anything that belittles or seeks to obliterate the holiness of God by a false view of his love is untrue to the revelation of God given by Jesus Christ. Never allow the thought that Jesus Christ stands with us against God out of pity or compassion. Jesus Christ became a curse for us, not out of sympathy but by divine decree. Through the conviction of sin we are able to realize the overwhelming significance of this curse. Shame and penitence are gifts, given to us by the great mercy of God, which enable us to grasp the meaning of Calvary. Jesus Christ hates the wrong in humankind, and Calvary is the estimate of his hatred.
Ezekiel 16-17; James 3
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The truth is we have nothing to fear and nothing to overcome because He is all in all and we are more than conquerors through Him. The recognition of this truth is not flattering to the worker’s sense of heroics, but it is amazingly glorifying to the work of Christ.
Approved Unto God, 4 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 21, 2024
The Father, The Poor, and Your Heart - #9879
The old wisdom is that the way to a man's heart is, yeah, through his stomach. Actually I think that's true, but I believe that the way to a parent's heart is through their children. And I have to admit that I'm one of those who feels that way. I mean, you really have a warm feeling toward people who are kind to your children and grandchildren. You know, when our kids were young, that was especially true. It was important to me when people remembered my child's name or maybe their birthday.
Most of all, I really felt warmly toward those people who didn't just act like my kids weren't there; they took time to actually talk with them like they were people. I guess I noticed the people who didn't treat my kids right too. You know, it was hard to have warm feelings toward them. I didn't have a grudge but it would have been nice if they'd at least noticed them. Actually there is a Heavenly Father watching you and me too, and He's responding to our treatment of some people He really loves. So, I wonder if you're giving your Father (capital F, Father) those warm feelings?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Father, The Poor, and Your Heart."
Proverbs 19:17 is where we will find our word for today from the Word of God, and here's what it says: "He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward him for what he has done." Well, that's pretty clear what God is saying. There is a group of people that are very special to Him, and He's watching how they're treated, as I watch how people treat my children. We're told here that the poor are special to God.
That's not just in this verse. In fact, all through the Old Testament over and over again, righteousness is actually equated with how you treat the poor. The Old Testament law is very careful in providing for the care of the poor. And in Luke 4:18, Jesus preached His first sermon and He says, "I have come to preach good news to the poor."
It's pretty clear from this verse that our Heavenly Father is watching how we treat the poor. And not only that, but He takes it personally. It says that the person who was kind to the poor, lends not to them but to the Lord. That's interesting. It tells you something about your commitment to the Lord and your unselfish love when you do something for the poor. Do you know why? Because they can't do anything back for you. You're really giving. There's nothing in it for you. You know what? We're surrounded today by people who God the Father has His eyes on. They're the homeless people that might be within our reach, or that family out of work right within your circle of influence, a struggling single parent who's having a very difficult time making ends meet. There are some hungry people maybe near you and a world away from us.
If you are attuned to God's heart, you're going to be involved in treating the poor like Jesus did. Maybe you need to be looking for an inner city ministry working among poor people. See, the hardest ministry to support in America is work in the inner city or on Native American reservations. Well, everybody seems to care about their turf, and not so much about what's beyond your own personal world.
Put your money, your time, mobilize your church to do something about needy people wherever they are. I'm talking about getting your hands dirty, personal involvement, family involvement. Teach your kids how to have a heart for the poor. Work first hand with some less fortunate people; help lift their burden. Do the work of God on earth. By the way, those folks have a lot to teach you. Pray this: "Lord, it's so easy just to drive by; to write people off as lazy or just to care about what's done to me. But I know, Lord, You have Your eyes on the poor. Would you give me Your heart for the poor and a way to take a piece of that action in my world? And a way to do something about it in my world?" You know what the Bible says will happen? "He will reward you."
Embracing a poor person or a poor family? Seems like that's the way to your Father's heart.