Max Lucado Daily: OUR REWARD - January 28, 2025
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10 NIV).
The Bible speaks of a reward ceremony that will take place in Paradise immediately after the rapture of the church. This event is called the judgment seat of Christ. The Greek word translated judgment is bema – the bema seat judgement. This is not a trial to ascertain whether we are innocent or guilty, saved or lost. That judgment occurs during our lifetime.
The bema judgment is about recognition. Salvation is based on the work of Christ for us. Our recognition is based on our work for him. Our deeds do not contribute to our salvation. Our deeds do, however, inform our reward.
What Happens Next
Genesis 8
Then God turned his attention to Noah and all the wild animals and farm animals with him on the ship. God caused the wind to blow and the floodwaters began to go down. The underground springs were shut off, the windows of Heaven closed and the rain quit. Inch by inch the water lowered. After 150 days the worst was over.
4–6 On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ship landed on the Ararat mountain range. The water kept going down until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains came into view. After forty days Noah opened the window that he had built into the ship.
7–9 He sent out a raven; it flew back and forth waiting for the floodwaters to dry up. Then he sent a dove to check on the flood conditions, but it couldn’t even find a place to perch—water still covered the Earth. Noah reached out and caught it, brought it back into the ship.
10–11 He waited seven more days and sent out the dove again. It came back in the evening with a freshly picked olive leaf in its beak. Noah knew that the flood was about finished.
12 He waited another seven days and sent the dove out a third time. This time it didn’t come back.
13–14 In the six-hundred-first year of Noah’s life, on the first day of the first month, the flood had dried up. Noah opened the hatch of the ship and saw dry ground. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the Earth was completely dry.
15–17 God spoke to Noah: “Leave the ship, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives. And take all the animals with you, the whole menagerie of birds and mammals and crawling creatures, all that brimming prodigality of life, so they can reproduce and flourish on the Earth.”
18–19 Noah disembarked with his sons and wife and his sons’ wives. Then all the animals, crawling creatures, birds—every creature on the face of the Earth—left the ship family by family.
20–21 Noah built an altar to God. He selected clean animals and birds from every species and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar. God smelled the sweet fragrance and thought to himself, “I’ll never again curse the ground because of people. I know they have this bent toward evil from an early age, but I’ll never again kill off everything living as I’ve just done.
22 For as long as Earth lasts,
planting and harvest, cold and heat,
Summer and winter, day and night
will never stop.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
by Sheridan Voysey
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Isaiah 33:2-6
God, treat us kindly. You’re our only hope.
First thing in the morning, be there for us!
When things go bad, help us out!
You spoke in thunder and everyone ran.
You showed up and nations scattered.
Your people, for a change, got in on the loot,
picking the field clean of the enemy spoils.
5–6 God is supremely esteemed. His center holds.
Zion brims over with all that is just and right.
God keeps your days stable and secure—
salvation, wisdom, and knowledge in surplus,
and best of all, Zion’s treasure, Fear-of-God.
Today's Insights
The Hebrew word Yeshu’ah (“salvation,” “deliverance,” “rescue”) is a key word in the book of Isaiah. Noun and verb forms appear numerous times. This word occurs in the prayer in Isaiah 33:2: “Be . . . our salvation in time of distress.” It’s also used in verse 6 as a pronouncement about God: “He will be . . . a rich store of salvation.” In his commentary Isaiah: God Saves Sinners, Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. summarizes the book’s message with these words: “God is announcing to us through Isaiah: The Lord, for all that he is, saves, for all that’s worth, sinners, for all that we need. This truth is better than we give it credit for.” Isaiah 33:22 captures this truth well. “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.”
God—Our Sure Foundation
He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge. Isaiah 33:6
With a crumbling kitchen and sagging floors, our house needed renovation. After large sections of it were demolished, builders began digging a new foundation. Then things got interesting.
As the builders dug, shovel loads of broken plates, 1850s-era soda bottles, even cutlery emerged. Were we built on an old garbage dump? Who knows, but as a result, our engineer said our foundations would need to be dug deeper or else cracks would appear in our walls.
Good foundations make for strong houses. The same is true of our lives. When the Israelites were shaken by their enemies, Isaiah prayed for them to stay strong (Isaiah 33:2-4). But their strength wouldn’t come from bravery or weapons, but by building their lives on God. “He will be the sure foundation for your times,” the prophet said, “a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge” (v. 6). Jesus said something similar, teaching that those who built their lives on His wisdom would withstand life’s storms (Matthew 7:24-25).
A sure sign our foundations need tending is when cracks like aggression, addiction, or marriage problems appear in our lives. When we seek security where it can’t be found or follow the wisdom of this age alone, we’ll be on shaky ground. But those who build their lives on God gain access to all His strength and treasures (Isaiah 33:6).
Reflect & Pray
What “cracks” in your life might reveal a faulty foundation? How is your foundation looking this week?
Father God, I praise You for being the surest foundation for my life.
Learn to set aside distractions with Discover the Word in order to focus on just "One Tingh."
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Our Way or His?
Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? —Acts 26:14
Are we determined to serve God in our own way, or in his? Until we undergo the baptism by fire of the Holy Spirit, we will always be tempted to put our own ambitions and interests first. We won’t understand that our self-will and stubbornness stab Jesus, that our insistence on our own dignity and rightness hurts him. Every time we stand on our right to ourselves and insist that this is what we intend to do, we persecute our Lord.
When we realize what we’ve been doing, it is the most crushing thing. We see that we’ve been lying, see that every time we went out into the world with the Lord’s name on our lips and selfishness in our hearts, we were persecuting Christ. We were preaching sanctification while exhibiting the spirit of Satan.
Is the word of God alive and true in me as I hand it on to you, or does my life prove the lie of what I say? That is the question we must ask ourselves. The Spirit of Jesus is conscious of one thing only: a perfect oneness with the Father. All we do should be founded on this oneness, not a prideful determination to “be godly.” “Learn from me,” Jesus said, “for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29). If we are gentle and humble, it means that we can be easily taken advantage of, easily snubbed, and easily ignored. But if we submit to this treatment for his sake, we will prevent Jesus Christ being persecuted.
Exodus 19-20; Matthew 18:21-35
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1459 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
READY OR NOT, HERE HE COMES - #9927
The love of Mary Ann's life, Tom, was coming for a visit. He lived in another state, so those visits were really special. He was due to arrive Friday night or Saturday sometime, and Mary Ann's room had been declared a federal disaster area. Finally, on Thursday afternoon, she decided she'd better get busy trying to recover her room. It was really in an embarrassing condition.
Mary Ann's room was at that point on Friday morning when the phone rang. It was Tom. He was calling to say he loved her and that he was looking forward to seeing her soon. That was all the incentive she needed to finish the job. Unfortunately, she did not get that opportunity. Tom had called from downstairs. He had arrived earlier than Mary Ann expected. So in he walked and there she stood, dressed in her "grubbies," hair matted on her forehead, surrounded by an indescribable mess!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Ready Or Not, Here He Comes."
Poor girl! I mean, he came at a time when she did not expect him, and she was not ready. Not being ready might be okay when it's a boyfriend who's arriving unexpectedly. It's not okay when it's God who's arriving unexpectedly, which seems to be His modus operandi.
That's why Jesus provided this inside information for us in our word for today from the Word of God in Matthew 24, beginning with verse 39, where He tells us what His coming will be like. "Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come...Be ready because the Son of God will come at an hour when you do not expect Him."
Jesus was speaking specifically here of that day when He will return to this earth to write the final chapter of human history - the Second Coming of Christ. And while He made clear that no one will be able to predict the exact time He will come, He did give us signs that would be evident in the world when heaven's two-minute warning has been sounded.
And many Bible scholars believe that the world has never looked more like the kind of world Jesus said He would return to than it does today. People seem to be able to sense that. Look at how they made years ago the "Left Behind" series that became huge bestsellers because it was about a scenario for what the Bible calls the "last days." One major network aired a major mini-series entitled "Revelations" - imagining that world that Jesus will return to. You hear on the news more and more of the words like "apocalyptic" and biblical proportions.
But whether or not Jesus comes back physically in our time, He is most certainly going to come for you in this generation. And when He does, will you be ready? The Bible describes us as being in a mess - the mess of a life where we've sinned against God, we've ignored God, we've marginalized God, we've rejected God's rule of our life.
But that same Bible says, "God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). You and I did the sinning; Jesus did the dying so He could forgive those sins that otherwise would condemn you forever. You're not ready to meet Him until your sins have been erased from God's book. And that can only happen when you make the Savior your Savior, by turning over the life that He gave you to the One who gave His life for you. This could be your day to "get ready" if you'll tell Jesus, "I'm Yours."
In fact, right now where you are, why would you hesitate when there's so much at stake? This is the only guaranteed day you have? Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm done running my own life. You died for my sin, You're alive today, and I am Yours."
There's all the information you need to anchor a relationship with Jesus Christ at our website. Please check it out today, it's ANewStory.com.
He'll be coming for you, one way or another, and then it's too late to get ready. The time to do that is now. Opening your heart to Jesus means you are ready for eternity, whenever it comes.
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