Max Lucado Daily: Three Proclamations
“Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you.” Romans 15:7 NIV
Grace makes three proclamations.
Dealing with my sins is God’s responsibility. I repent, I confess, but only God can forgive. (And he does.) . . .
Dealing with my neighbor is God’s responsibility. I must speak; I must pray. But only God can convince. (And he does.) . . .
God loves me and makes me his child. God loves my neighbor and makes him my brother.
Revelation 20
A Thousand Years
1–3 20 I saw an Angel descending out of Heaven. He carried the key to the Abyss and a chain—a huge chain. He grabbed the Dragon, that old Snake—the very Devil, Satan himself!—chained him up for a thousand years, dumped him into the Abyss, slammed it shut and sealed it tight. No more trouble out of him, deceiving the nations—until the thousand years are up. After that he has to be let loose briefly.
4–6 I saw thrones. Those put in charge of judgment sat on the thrones. I also saw the souls of those beheaded because of their witness to Jesus and the Word of God, who refused to worship either the Beast or his image, refused to take his mark on forehead or hand—they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years! The rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years were up. This is the first resurrection—and those involved most blessed, most holy. No second death for them! They’re priests of God and Christ; they’ll reign with him a thousand years.
7–10 When the thousand years are up, Satan will be let loose from his cell, and will launch again his old work of deceiving the nations, searching out victims in every nook and cranny of earth, even Gog and Magog! He’ll talk them into going to war and will gather a huge army, millions strong. They’ll stream across the earth, surround and lay siege to the camp of God’s holy people, the Beloved City. They’ll no sooner get there than fire will pour out of Heaven and burn them up. The Devil who deceived them will be hurled into Lake Fire and Brimstone, joining the Beast and False Prophet, the three in torment around the clock for ages without end.
Judgment
11–15 I saw a Great White Throne and the One Enthroned. Nothing could stand before or against the Presence, nothing in Heaven, nothing on earth. And then I saw all the dead, great and small, standing there—before the Throne! And books were opened. Then another book was opened: the Book of Life. The dead were judged by what was written in the books, by the way they had lived. Sea released its dead, Death and Hell turned in their dead. Each man and woman was judged by the way he or she had lived. Then Death and Hell were hurled into Lake Fire. This is the second death—Lake Fire. Anyone whose name was not found inscribed in the Book of Life was hurled into Lake Fire.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, January 12, 2025
by Leslie Koh
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Acts 15:36-41
After a few days of this, Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit all our friends in each of the towns where we preached the Word of God. Let’s see how they’re doing.”
37–41 Barnabas wanted to take John along, the John nicknamed Mark. But Paul wouldn’t have him; he wasn’t about to take along a quitter who, as soon as the going got tough, had jumped ship on them in Pamphylia. Tempers flared, and they ended up going their separate ways: Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus; Paul chose Silas and, offered up by their friends to the grace of the Master, went to Syria and Cilicia to build up muscle and sinew in those congregations.
Today's Insights
“John, also called Mark” was a young believer in Jesus in Jerusalem, where his mother Mary hosted a church in her house (Acts 12:12). After handing over the famine relief money from the Antioch church to the Jerusalem church, Barnabas and Paul took Mark with them back to Antioch (v. 25). He became Paul’s missionary intern in his first missionary journey (13:5) but left the mission team halfway and returned to Jerusalem (v. 13). Paul viewed this as an unforgivable defection and failure (15:38). The apostle’s refusal to let Mark join the second missionary trip ended his cordial partnership with Barnabas (v. 39). Barnabas restored and nurtured his young cousin (Colossians 4:10) into faithfulness and fruitfulness (2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 1:24). Because Peter called him “my son Mark” (1 Peter 5:13), scholars believe that he later came under the tutelage of Peter. Scholars also believe that Peter gave Mark the source materials to write the gospel bearing his name.
God Will Act
Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. 2 Timothy 4:11
A hardworking clerk, Erin always did her job well. But after she was accused of dishonesty, Erin was put on leave while being investigated. She felt like quitting in protest but was advised to wait it out. “Leaving suggests you’re guilty,” she was told. So Erin stayed, praying for God to give her justice. Sure enough, months later, she was cleared.
John Mark may have felt the same when Paul dropped him from the mission team. To be sure, the young man had left them earlier (Acts 15:37-38). But perhaps he’d regretted this and was hoping to be included this time. He must have felt unfairly judged by Paul; only Barnabas believed in him.
Years later, Paul would change his mind. “Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry,” he said (2 Timothy 4:11). John Mark must have been relieved to have his reputation restored.
When we’re unfairly judged, may we remember that Jesus understands how we feel: He Himself was judged a sinner though He wasn’t, and He was treated worse than a common criminal though He was the Son of God. But He continued to do His Father’s will, knowing that He’d be vindicated and shown to be righteous. If you’ve been unfairly judged, don’t give up: God knows and will act in His time.
Reflect & Pray
What promises of God can you hold on to when you’re unfairly judged? How does Jesus’ example encourage you?
Father, only You know how I feel and what I’m going through. Please grant me the faith and patience to wait and to trust in You, for You’re a just God.
Learn how the stories we tell ourselves, shape who we are by reading Character Comes from the Stories We Tell Ourselves.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, January 12, 2025
Our Solitude with God
When he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything. —Mark 4:34
Jesus doesn’t get us alone and explain things to us all the time; he explains them as we become able to understand. Other people’s lives are parables: they show us certain truths, but others cannot walk our path for us. God is making us spell out our own souls, so that we may come to our understanding honestly, through our own experience.
God’s ultimate aim, in asking us to do this work, is to shape us for his purposes. It is slow work, so slow that it takes him all of time and eternity to accomplish it. We must let him guide us through all the nooks and crannies of our characters. It is amazing how ignorant we are about ourselves! We don’t recognize envy when it is inside us, or laziness, or pride. Jesus reveals these things to us. He reveals everything we’ve been hiding before his grace began to work. How many of us have learned to look in with courage?
We have to get rid of the idea that we understand ourselves: it is the last bit of conceitedness to go. Only God understands us. If we ever get a glimpse of what we are like in his sight, we will never again say, “Oh, I am so unworthy,” because we will know we are, beyond having to say it. As long as we aren’t quite sure, God will keep cornering us until he gets us alone. He’ll wound our pride, take us to the limits of our intelligence, break our hearts. He’ll show us where we have loved unwisely, or too much.
Only then, when we are truly cornered and alone with him, will he begin to explain.
Genesis 29-30; Matthew 9:1-17
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy.
Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
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