Max Lucado Daily: CAUGHT UP IN THE AIR - January 14, 2025
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command,…and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NIV).
The Greek word used to describe this event translates into the Latin word rapere, from which comes the English word rapture. It describes a moment in which living believers will be instantly changed into their resurrection bodies and lifted into heaven to meet Jesus. The bodies of dead believers will be resurrected and reunited with their spirits. Both groups will be “caught up” to meet Christ in the air and will be taken into Paradise.
A generation of Christians will skip the cemetery. Just one moment here, and the next moment there.
What Happens Next
Malachi 2
Desecrating the Holiness of God
1–3 2 “And now this indictment, you priests! If you refuse to obediently listen, and if you refuse to honor me, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, in worship, then I’ll put you under a curse. I’ll exchange all your blessings for curses. In fact, the curses are already at work because you’re not serious about honoring me. Yes, and the curse will extend to your children. I’m going to plaster your faces with rotting garbage, garbage thrown out from your feasts. That’s what you have to look forward to!
4–6 “Maybe that will wake you up. Maybe then you’ll realize that I’m indicting you in order to put new life into my covenant with the priests of Levi, the covenant of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. My covenant with Levi was to give life and peace. I kept my covenant with him, and he honored me. He stood in reverent awe before me. He taught the truth and did not lie. He walked with me in peace and uprightness. He kept many out of the ditch, kept them on the road.
7–9 “It’s the job of priests to teach the truth. People are supposed to look to them for guidance. The priest is the messenger of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. But you priests have abandoned the way of priests. Your teaching has messed up many lives. You have corrupted the covenant of priest Levi. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so. And so I am showing you up for who you are. Everyone will be disgusted with you and avoid you because you don’t live the way I told you to live, and you don’t teach my revelation truly and impartially.”
10 Don’t we all come from one Father? Aren’t we all created by the same God? So why can’t we get along? Why do we desecrate the covenant of our ancestors that binds us together?
11–12 Judah has cheated on God—a sickening violation of trust in Israel and Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the holiness of God by falling in love and running off with foreign women, women who worship alien gods. God’s curse on those who do this! Drive them out of house and home! They’re no longer fit to be part of the community no matter how many offerings they bring to God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
13–15 And here’s a second offense: You fill the place of worship with your whining and sniveling because you don’t get what you want from God. Do you know why? Simple. Because God was there as a witness when you spoke your marriage vows to your young bride, and now you’ve broken those vows, broken the faith-bond with your vowed companion, your covenant wife. God, not you, made marriage. His Spirit inhabits even the smallest details of marriage. And what does he want from marriage? Children of God, that’s what. So guard the spirit of marriage within you. Don’t cheat on your spouse.
16 “I hate divorce,” says the God of Israel. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says, “I hate the violent dismembering of the ‘one flesh’ of marriage.” So watch yourselves. Don’t let your guard down. Don’t cheat.
17 You make God tired with all your talk.
“How do we tire him out?” you ask.
By saying, “God loves sinners and sin alike. God loves all.” And also by saying, “Judgment? God’s too nice to judge.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
by Matt Lucas
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Genesis 5:21-24
When Enoch was sixty-five years old, he had Methuselah. Enoch walked steadily with God. After he had Methuselah, he lived another 300 years, having more sons and daughters. Enoch lived a total of 365 years.
24 Enoch walked steadily with God. And then one day he was simply gone: God took him.
Today's Insights
The metaphor of walking with God is a prominent theme in the Bible. Walking describes a life of obedience and submission to His instruction. Genesis 5 says that “Enoch walked faithfully with God” (vv. 22, 24). This imagery is also used throughout the book of Deuteronomy to remind Israel to follow the law by walking in it (5:33; 8:6; 10:12; 11:22; 19:9; 26:17; 28:9; 30:16). In chapter 6, we see the explicit origin of this idea. Verses 4-9 are referred to as the Shema, which means “hear,” the first word in this section of Scripture: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (v. 4). In the Shema, Israel is encouraged to make God’s law central to everything they do. Observant Jews today still recite this prayer daily. Other examples of walking imagery appear in the Psalms (see 1, 15, 119, 128) and in the New Testament (see Colossians 3:7; 1 John 1:7; 2 John 1:6).
Walking with God
Enoch walked faithfully with God. Genesis 5:24
For years, fitness experts have stressed the importance of running for cardiovascular health. But recent scientific studies have demonstrated that daily walking also has a range of health benefits. According to the US National Institute of Health, “Adults who took 8,000 or more steps a day had a reduced risk of death over the following decade than those who walked only 4,000 steps a day.” Walking is good for us.
Throughout the story of the Bible, walking is used as a metaphor for communing with God. In Genesis 3, we’re told how God walked with Adam and Eve “in the cool of the day” (v. 8). Genesis 5 shares the story of Enoch, who “walked faithfully with God 300 years” (v. 22). One day Enoch’s regular time spent with his Creator led to him being taken directly to be with God (v. 24). In Genesis 17, God invited Abram to “walk before” Him as He renewed His covenant with him (v. 1). And Jacob, near the end of his life, described God as his shepherd and spoke of his ancestors who had “walked faithfully” (48:15). In the New Testament, Paul instructed us to “walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16).
Like Enoch and the patriarchs in Genesis, we can walk with God daily. We do so by surrendering our lives to Jesus and being guided by the Holy Spirit. That’s the path to true health.
How’s your walk?
Reflect & Pray
How would you describe “walking with God”? Today, as you reflect on Scripture, how will you follow and obey it?
Father, please forgive me when I’ve chosen not to walk with You but pursued my own agenda. Help me keep in step with You.
Visit ODBU.org/NT050 to learn more about walking by the Spirit.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Called by God
I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” —Isaiah 6:8
God didn’t call Isaiah by name; he called for anyone willing to go. Isaiah simply heard and answered.
The call of God isn’t reserved for a special few; it’s for everyone. Whether or not we hear it depends on us. Are our ears open? Is our temperament in line with Christ’s? “For many are invited, but few are chosen,” Jesus said (Matthew 22:14). He meant that few prove themselves chosen. Chosen ones are those who, through Jesus Christ, have come into a relationship with God that has changed their temperament and opened their ears. All the time, they hear God asking, “Whom shall I send?”
God’s call leaves us free to answer or not to answer. When Isaiah answered the call, it wasn’t because God commanded him to. Isaiah was in God’s presence and, when the call came, realized that there was nothing for him to do but to answer, consciously and freely, “Send me.”
We have to get rid of the idea that if God really wants us to do something, he will come at us with force or pleading. When Jesus called the disciples, there was no irresistible compulsion from the outside. Instead, Jesus came with a quiet, passionate insistence, speaking to men who were wide awake, with all their powers and faculties intact. If we let the Spirit bring us face-to-face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard—“Whom shall I send?”—and we will say, in perfect freedom, “Here am I. Send me.”
Genesis 33-35; Matthew 10:1-20
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Christianity is not consistency to conscience or to convictions; Christianity is being true to Jesus Christ.
Biblical Ethics, 111 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
The Cure for Spiritual Cancer - #9917
I'll never forget my Grandmother Irene. She was one funny lady. She laughed a lot and she laughed loudly! And she gave me money, she was the life of the party. Some people in our family think she was a big influence on my personality. That's not a very nice thing to say about a woman who is no longer here to defend herself, right? But there's no doubt my grandmother did have a great impact on my life. I almost never got to meet her though, because she had a serious bout with cancer before I was even born. But she made it and I got an awesome grandma out of the deal. It took some radical action on the part of the doctor to save her though. He went in and totally removed the cancer and the areas around it. It was painful, it left some scars, but I'm sure thankful that he did what he had to do to keep her alive.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Cure for Spiritual Cancer."
Removing the cancer - that was my grandmother's only hope for living longer. It's your only hope, too, of living forever.
Our word for today comes from John 1:29 where the prophet John has come to the wilderness of Israel, announcing that God's long-awaited Messiah was about to appear on the scene. Then one day John sees Jesus. And in one simple sentence he identifies Him and he announces the Savior's life-saving mission. "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'" John says, "Man, this is it! The Sin-Remover is here. It's Jesus!"
That's why Jesus came, to remove the sin of the world. Or to understand the personal significance of what Jesus did, put your name in there. "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of (there's your name)." Sin - that spiritual cancer that eats away at all our close relationships, that puts a wall between us and God, the God whose love we just need so desperately. It's a terminal spiritual cancer. The Bible says the wages of our sin is death - eternal banishment from the God who made us.
Somewhere deep in our soul, we're haunted by the sin of our lives. I know we are. I mean, there's shame, and there's guilt, and there's the fear of God's punishment. But how can you treat this cancer that poisons our life here and costs us heaven later? Removal - just like my grandmother's physical cancer. I'm glad the doctor didn't just give her a pain reliever to make her feel better. Some of us try one anesthetic after another to calm that sin-storm in our soul, and it never goes away.
Or we try to defend ourselves with all the good things we've done, "Hey, I'm not so bad after all." But talking about all the ways you're OK doesn't remove the cancer. God strikes down all our religiousness and goodness with these "straight talk" words from Ephesians 2:8-9, "By grace you are saved...not by works." There was nothing my grandmother could do to remove her own cancer except trust herself totally to the one who could remove it.
Isn't it time you did that with the deadly sin-cancer you've got? Isn't it time to trust yourself totally to the master surgeon who can remove it? Not cover it, not compensate for it. Remove it so it never comes between you and God again; so it will not be there when you die, locking you out of heaven.
Jesus is your Sin-Remover because He became the Lamb of God. Like the Old Testament lambs slaughtered to pay sin's death penalty, God's own Son came to be put to death for your sin and mine so we wouldn't have to pay that death penalty. No one has ever loved you like Jesus.
If you've never trusted yourself to the only One who can remove your sin and its death penalty, if you've never begun a relationship with Jesus, this could be your day. Tell Him that you believe He's your only hope of being forgiven because He's the One who died to do that.
Would you go to our website? It will help you be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com.
The cancer is deadly, but it's not incurable. When you trust yourself to the Doctor - Dr. Jesus - you trade death for a life that will never end.
