Max Lucado Daily: WHEN WE ARE GIVING - December 4, 2024
Oh, the things we do to give gifts to those we love. But we would do it all again. The fact is, we do it all again. Every Christmas, every birthday, and every so often we find ourselves in foreign territory. Grownups are in toy stores, wives are in the hunting department, and husbands are in the purse department.
And we do the most unusual things. We assemble bicycles at midnight. We hide new tires with mag wheels under the stairs. One fellow I heard about rented a movie theater so he and his wife could see their wedding pictures on their anniversary.
And we’d do it all again. Having pressed the grapes of service, we drink life’s sweetest wine—the wine of giving. We are at our best when we are giving. In fact, we are most like God when we are giving.
Christmas Stories: Heartwarming Classics of Angels, a Manger, and the Birth of Hope
Esther 4
When Mordecai learned what had been done, he ripped his clothes to shreds and put on sackcloth and ashes. Then he went out in the streets of the city crying out in loud and bitter cries. He came only as far as the King’s Gate, for no one dressed in sackcloth was allowed to enter the King’s Gate. As the king’s order was posted in every province, there was loud lament among the Jews—fasting, weeping, wailing. And most of them stretched out on sackcloth and ashes.
4–8 Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her. The queen was stunned. She sent fresh clothes to Mordecai so he could take off his sackcloth but he wouldn’t accept them. Esther called for Hathach, one of the royal eunuchs whom the king had assigned to wait on her, and told him to go to Mordecai and get the full story of what was happening. So Hathach went to Mordecai in the town square in front of the King’s Gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him. He also told him the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to deposit in the royal bank to finance the massacre of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the bulletin that had been posted in Susa ordering the massacre so he could show it to Esther when he reported back with instructions to go to the king and intercede and plead with him for her people.
9–11 Hathach came back and told Esther everything Mordecai had said. Esther talked it over with Hathach and then sent him back to Mordecai with this message: “Everyone who works for the king here, and even the people out in the provinces, knows that there is a single fate for every man or woman who approaches the king without being invited: death. The one exception is if the king extends his gold scepter; then he or she may live. And it’s been thirty days now since I’ve been invited to come to the king.”
12–14 When Hathach told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai sent her this message: “Don’t think that just because you live in the king’s house you’re the one Jew who will get out of this alive. If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.”
15–16 Esther sent back her answer to Mordecai: “Go and get all the Jews living in Susa together. Fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, either day or night. I and my maids will fast with you. If you will do this, I’ll go to the king, even though it’s forbidden. If I die, I die.”
17 Mordecai left and carried out Esther’s instructions.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, December 04, 2024
By Tim Gustafson
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
1 John 1:1-10
From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.
3–4 We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!
Walk in the Light
5 This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him.
6–7 If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin.
8–10 If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.
Today's Insights
The word life in John’s writings means more than physical existence; rather, it describes the vibrant, rich quality of joyful fellowship with God—“the eternal life, which was with the Father” (1 John 1:2). Divine life transforms human life from mere existence into something more, as light transforms darkness (John 1:4-5). Through our bond with Jesus, believers in Him access that rich life—so that “our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). And believers’ fellowship with God also draws them into “fellowship with one another” (v. 7).
When Life Appeared
The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it. 1 John 1:2
In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine dominated the world’s attention. As the magnitude of the catastrophe became apparent, officials scrambled to the critically essential task of containing the radiation. Lethal gamma rays from highly radioactive debris kept destroying the robots deployed to clean up the mess.
So they had to use “bio robots”—human beings! Thousands of heroic individuals became “Chernobyl liquidators,” disposing of the hazardous material in “shifts” of ninety seconds or less. People did what technology could not, at great personal risk.
Long ago, our rebellion against God introduced a catastrophe that led to all other catastrophes (see Genesis 3). Through Adam and Eve, we chose to part ways with our Creator, and we made our world a toxic mess in the process. We could never clean it up ourselves.
That’s the whole point of Christmas. The apostle John wrote of Jesus, “The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us” (1 John 1:2). Then John declared, “The blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, purifies us from all sin” (v. 7).
Jesus has provided what His creatures could not. As we believe in Him, He restores us to a right relationship with His Father. He’s liquidated death itself. The life has appeared.
Reflect & Pray
How might you be trying to clean up your own mess? How will you give your struggles to Jesus today?
Loving God, thank You for sending Your Son into this world to clean up my mess.
Learn more about having a personal relationship with God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, December 04, 2024
The Law of Antagonism
In this world you will have trouble. — John16:33
Life without war is impossible, either in nature or in grace. The basis of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual life is antagonism. This is the open fact of life.
The law of antagonism means that in order to stay healthy, I have to fight. Health is a kind of balance between things that would harm me and my ability to resist them. Physical health occurs when there is a balance between my body and those things in the external world that are designed to put me to death. If I have enough vitality, enough fighting power, I will produce a healthy balance.
The same is true both mentally and morally. If I want to maintain a vigorous mental life, I have to fight; this is how the mental balance called thought is produced. When it comes to morality, everything that doesn’t partake of the nature of virtue is the enemy of virtue in me, and whether I am able to overcome and produce virtue depends on my moral vitality. When I am tempted to immorality in some particular and I fight against it, I am instantly moral in that particular. No one is virtuous by accident; virtue is acquired.
Spiritually, too, it is the same. When Jesus said that we would have trouble in this world, he meant that everything that is not spiritual would seek my undoing. “But,” he added, “take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). I have to learn to face down the things that come against me, and in that way produce the balance of holiness; then it becomes a delight to meet opposition. Holiness is the balance between my disposition and the law of God as expressed in Jesus Christ.
Ezekiel 47-48; 1 John 3
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The attitude of a Christian towards the providential order in which he is placed is to recognize that God is behind it for purposes of His own.
Biblical Ethics, 99 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, December 04, 2024
YOUR PERSONAL TITANIC - #9888
It's been over 100 years, but there's something about the sinking of the Titanic that still fascinates us. The latest evidence, newly unearthed photographs and stories, the incredible success of the blockbuster movie, "Titanic." I mean, they've kind of refocused us on it. I've always found the story of the last hours of this supposedly unsinkable ship to be a haunting story. The people on the Titanic represented just about all the kinds of people that there are. Then I start thinking about how most of them died. At best, only a few hundred of them got into lifeboats. Many more of them went down with the ship only wearing life jackets. And, you know, there were different ways people handled those terrifying hours on that sinking ship, and it tells us a lot about what we're all really like.
Only about 700 of the Titanic's 2,200 passengers survived. But what's even more tragic is that many of the 1,500 who died didn't have to die because many of the lifeboats were only half full. And those who made it aboard could hear hundreds of people in the water, crying for help. But almost all those people died - not from drowning - they were in their lifejackets. They died from hypothermia.
Here's the awful truth: there were 20 lifeboats, from the Titanic, most partially empty. Only one of those 20 went back - too late for most of the people in the water. Only six of those people were saved. Most of them could have been saved if only those who had already been rescued had gone back for those who had no other chance but them.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Personal Titanic."
Our Word for today from the Word of God comes from Ezekiel 33:6. It's about the watchman on the walls of an ancient city who sees the hostile army approaching. It says, "If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood."
God says, "If you know someone is going to die and you're in a position to do something about it, and you don't, that person's blood is on your hands." We're appalled to think that those who had been saved from the Titanic would just row off into the night, save themselves, but doing nothing about those who were dying around them. But I have to ask, "Dear God, is that us?"
We've been rescued from sin's sinking ship - from an eternity without God and without hope. But are we just rowing on, enjoying our cozy lifeboat with others who are already saved, singing our lifeboat songs, going to our lifeboat committee meetings, and building a more comfortable lifeboat for those who are already saved? And oblivious sometimes to our co-workers, our neighbors, our loved ones, our friends who will die if we don't turn the lifeboat around and reach out for them and tell them about our Jesus. Maybe we're not oblivious - maybe we're just afraid to go after them, to reach out to them. Whatever the reason, the result is the same - we're saved, they're not and they're going to die and their blood will be on our hands.
God's clear word in Proverbs 24:11-12 says, "Rescue those who are being led away to death. If you say, 'We knew nothing about this,' does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done?" God is accepting no excuses on this.
He's wonderfully pulled you into His lifeboat. He's rescued you from an awful eternity. And now He has put you in the middle of some people who need to know that Jesus died for them; that He's the relationship they've been looking for their whole life. People who are destined to die eternally without Jesus if they don't find out what He did for them on the cross. You're in a position to rescue them. They're within your reach.
There's still room in the lifeboat for the people around you. Please, don't leave them where they are.
