Usefulness or Relationship?

Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven —Luke 10:20

Jesus Christ is saying here, "Don’t rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me." The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service— rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ. If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour "rivers of living water" through you ( John 7:38 ). And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it. Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to "walk in the light as He is in the light" (1 John 1:7 ).

Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone’s usefulness. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived. For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint’s usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that our Lord gives His attention to in a person’s life is that person’s relationship with God— something of great value to His Father. Jesus is "bringing many sons to glory . . ." ( Hebrews 2:10 ).

my utmost for His highest

walk forward
by jennifer benson schuldt

Back in Egypt . . . we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted (v.3). -Exodus 16:2-7

His father described him as down-to-earth, generous, kindhearted, life-loving, and unselfish.

Maybe that’s why so many people were shocked when Australian-born actor Heath Ledger died of a prescription drug overdose. Before his death, Ledger was reportedly fighting an addiction to heroin.

We all struggle with habitual cravings—food, gambling, and porn are just a few of the things that can enslave us. Fortunately, God can free us, as surely as He released the Israelites from slave status in Egypt. But once He sets us free, He wants us to move forward.

A short time after the Israelites left Egypt, they developed an attitude. “Back in Egypt . . . we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted” (Exodus 16:3), they whined. Shaky circumstances led them to idealize the “good ol’ days.” But that kind of backward thinking sabotages our efforts to move forward, following “the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives” (Galatians 5:25).

God wants us to keep taking steps of faith—believing that He will provide what we need each day. When the Israelites realized that their new zip code didn’t include any grocery stores, God said, No biggie. I’ll send some manna their way—”as much food as they need for that day” (Exodus 16:4). Similarly, we should live one day at a time, trusting God to provide an escape route from our selfish desires. God “will not allow the temptation to be more than [we] can stand” (1 Corinthians 10:13). When we’re tempted, He will show us a way out.

If God has shown you the escape hatch, don’t look back. Don’t “let sin control the way you live” (Romans 6:12). Instead, walk forward each day, trusting that “you will see the glory of the Lord” on your journey through the wilderness (Exodus 16:7).

our daily journey

Three Dollars' Worth of God
Joe Stowell

“So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:16

Most of us can blow through three dollars without even thinking twice. It’ll get you a cup of Starbucks, a few snacks for a road trip, or a squeak toy for your new puppy. But one thing is for sure: it won’t buy you soul-to-soul intimacy with the Creator of the universe.

Someone once wrote: “I’d like to buy three dollars’ worth of God. Please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want the warmth of the womb, not a rebirth. I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I’d like to buy about three dollars’ worth of God, please.”

I wonder if you are among those who want just enough of God to get yourself to a comfortable place, but not enough to pay the price of a deepening relationship with Him. If we want to be in tight with Jesus, we’ve got to abandon the idea that a mere acquaintance with Him is enough and that we have all we really need in and of ourselves. Self-sufficiency is life’s greatest barricade when it comes to intimacy with God.

I find it interesting that all the “self” terms we throw around make us wither with guilt. Just say the word self-centered and we wince. The same applies to self-indulgent and self-serving. But when we think of self-sufficiency, our eyes glaze over with pious apathy. We don’t consider it as much of a no-no as the other “self” sins. But, I’m telling you, with God self-sufficiency is a big deal.

In fact, Jesus reproved the Laodiceans about their self-sufficiency in no uncertain terms. He said, “because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16). The Laodiceans were three-dollar Christians. Their self-sufficiency blinded them to their great need for Jesus. They didn’t have many material needs—in fact the text says that they were loaded—so they thought they didn’t need God. But in their self-sufficient attitude they had left Jesus standing outside the door of their hearts. They had enough of Him to get into heaven, but He didn’t have much of them in return!

But Jesus didn’t give up on the Laodiceans, just like He doesn’t give up on you and me. He wants to be much more than the divine “911” call of our lives—only hearing from us in moments of desperation and emergency. He wants us to abandon ourselves in our quest for intimacy with Him. He wants our souls to reach out for Him with passionate desire every day! I think the psalmist said it best when he wrote, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:2). That’s a far cry from being satisfied with a measly three dollars’ worth of Him.

Ever feel there should be something more to your life? It’s Jesus you’re looking for—and a lot more than three dollars’ worth! If you’re looking for transformation, rebirth, and enough of God to “explode your soul,” you will only find it in a self-sacrificing, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ—and that is priceless.

YOUR JOURNEY…

• Do you have a three-dollar relationship with God? Pray and ask God to give you a sense of your need for him. Incorporate Acts 17:28 into your prayer.
• Read Colossians 1:15-20. Do you think it’s possible to buy three dollars’ worth of God based on this passage? Why or why not?
• True intimacy with God comes from accepting Christ as Savior. Have you done this? If not, read Romans 3:10-18, 23; 5:8; 6:23; and 10:9. Pray and ask Jesus to be your Savior.
• The letters Christ wrote to the churches in the book of Revelation are about their ongoing sin. If Christ were to write you a letter about patterns of unconfessed sin in your life, what would the topic(s) be?

daily strength

Sacrifice and Friendship

I have called you friends . . . —John 15:15

We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, "I’ll surrender if . . . !" Or we approach it by saying, "I suppose I have to devote my life to God." We will never find the joy of self-sacrifice in either of these ways.

But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy. The ultimate goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down our lives for our Friend (see John 15:13-14 ). When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because sacrifice is the Holy Spirit’s ultimate expression of love.

Our Lord is our example of a life of self-sacrifice, and He perfectly exemplified Psalm 40:8, "I delight to do Your will, O my God . . . ." He endured tremendous personal sacrifice, yet with overflowing joy. Have I ever yielded myself in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If He is not the One to whom I am looking for direction and guidance, then there is no benefit in my sacrifice. But when my sacrifice is made with my eyes focused on Him, slowly but surely His molding influence becomes evident in my life (see Hebrews 12:1-2 ).

Beware of letting your natural desires hinder your walk in love before God. One of the cruelest ways to kill natural love is through the rejection that results from having built the love on natural desires. But the one true desire of a saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not something sentimental or emotional— for a saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing imaginable.

"I have called you friends. . . ." Our friendship with Jesus is based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted to God.

my utmost for his highest

Tell Your Story

Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you. —Mark 5:19

An organizational consultant in New York says that his graduate students typically recall only 5 percent of the main ideas in a presentation of graphs and charts, while they generally remember half of the stories told in the same presentation. There is a growing consensus among communication experts about the power of the personal touch in relating an experience. While facts and figures often put listeners to sleep, an illustration from real life can motivate them to action. Author Annette Simmons says, “The missing ingredient in most failed communication is humanity.”

Mark 5:1-20 gives the dramatic account of Jesus setting a violent, self-destructive man free from the powerful demons that possessed him. When the restored man begged to stay with Jesus as He traveled, the Lord told him, “?‘Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.’ And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled” (vv.19-20).

Knowledge and eloquence are often overrated in the process of communicating the good news of Jesus Christ. Never underestimate the power of what God has done for you, and don’t be afraid to tell your story to others. — David C. McCasland

Take control of my words today,

May they tell of Your great love;

And may the story of Your grace

Turn some heart to You above. —Sees

Sharing the gospel is one person telling another good news.

our daily bread

Got Any Neighbors?

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39

Jesus’ life and ministry dramatically demonstrated that the word prejudice is not in His vocabulary. In fact, He hates prejudice in any form. He detests racism, classism, and religious snobbery. Why? Because it defies who He is and what He came to do. No one escaped the embrace of His love and concern. And He calls us to love as He did—without limits. But prejudice blocks our ability to love as he did and denies us the privilege of being like Him in our world.

When the Pharisee hoped to embarrass Jesus by asking Him to name the greatest commandment, Jesus answered that we should love God with the totality of our being. And although it was more than the scheming lawyer had asked for, Jesus added the second most important command: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). Not “second” meaning less important, but sequentially. In other words, the authenticity of our love for God is measured by our attitudes and acts of love for others.

Ironically, the Pharisees prided themselves in mastering their love for God but were dreadfully lacking in love for their neighbor—which, in Jesus’ book, would break the first command. Their prejudices—often supported by their self-constructed theology and traditions—reduced their circle of involvement to people who were a lot like themselves. When the “expert in the law” asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29), Jesus’ concern was not identifying who our neighbor is, but whether or not we are acting in a “neighborly” way to others regardless of who they are.

The important dynamic in the story Jesus told about the Good Samaritan is not that the religious passersby were too busy to help the dying victim. It is rather that they were the true victims. The priest and Levite, trying to avoid ceremonial defilement, were victims of a distorted view of righteousness. And that distorted view disabled them from keeping the law’s most fundamental command about loving those in distress regardless of who they are.

Which should give us modern folk pause about any thoughts or attitudes that might blind us to the needs of others outside our usual circle of concern. Because quite simply, if we can’t love them, we can’t love Jesus!

Lord, as difficult as it may be, I pray that you would bring to mind any prejudice that keeps us from loving others the way you love us. We want to love the way that Jesus loved—to be like the Good Samaritan in our willingness to tangibly care for those outside our usual circle. Please give us the strength, grace, and courage to love our neighbors. Amen.

YOUR JOURNEY…

• Do you struggle with prejudice against a particular person? Against a group of people?
• What traditions or beliefs might stand in the way of being a good neighbor?
• What action steps could you take to demonstrate love to others?

strength for the journey

Indestructible!

[Christ] has come . . . according to the power of an endless life. —Hebrews 7:16

The space shuttle reenters Earth’s atmosphere at more than 25 times the speed of sound! Friction from wind resistance raises the spacecraft’s outer temperature to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. To keep the shuttle from burning up, 34,000 separate tiles protect its underbelly. These tiles must be virtually indestructible against high-speed friction.

In this world of death and decay, nothing is truly indestructible. Yet the Bible tells us of an indestructible life. Comparing the Lord Jesus to the works of the law, we are told, “[Christ] has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life” (Heb. 7:16). The Greek word translated “endless” is best rendered “indestructible.”

The Messiah is our Great High Priest whose priestly duties required His own sacrificial death for our sins. His resurrection guarantees eternal redemption for all who repent and believe in Him.

The loss of health, relationships, or finances can make us feel as if our life has been destroyed. But for the believer, nothing could be further from the truth. Through our spiritual union with Christ, we have the promise that we’ll share in His own indestructible life (John 14:19). — Dennis Fisher

Marvelous day, all suffering ended,
Glorious bodies now like to His own;
We will be kings and priests in God’s kingdom,
With glory and honor around the great throne. —Dixon

Nothing can shake those who are secure in God’s hands.

our daily bread

all the truth
by winn collier

In the 1930s, Spain endured a civil war when General Francisco Franco joined a coup to unseat Spain’s leftist Popular Front. While 500,000 died in the conflict, another 114,000 simply “disappeared” in the first years of Franco’s rule. When Franco died in 1975, no one was initially willing to investigate this dark history. After years of the victims’ families pressing for answers, however, Judge Baltasar Garzon ordered a criminal investigation to begin in 2008—including opening 19 unmarked mass graves. The process, though gruesome and unsettling, will be necessary for Spain’s healing.

In the first of many gruesome accounts recorded in Scripture, Cain murdered his brother Abel because of his jealousy over God’s positive response to Abel’s sacrifice (Genesis 4). Cain lured his brother out of their house and into one of their family’s fields. Once he had his brother alone, his seething anger erupted and “Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him” (v.8).

He knew he was guilty, but when God confronted him about the whereabouts of Abel, Cain played dumb. “I don’t know . . . . Am I my brother’s guardian?” (v.9). God, however, would not leave him alone, pressing further: “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground!” (v.10).

In the end, Cain had no choice. God forced him to own up to his evil actions. And once Cain faced his sin, he lamented that he would be removed from God’s presence.

Though many of us expend a great deal of effort attempting to cover our sin and hide our guilty secrets, it only exacerbates our shame. Our hope depends on a deep healing—and healing can only happen if we open ourselves to this deep work. We must come clean—acknowledging our failures and desperation to God. For to be healed for our future, we must be honest about our past.

our daily journey

It’s All About The Heart

Those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart. —Matthew 15:18

Every time Susan opens her mouth, it sounds like the blare of an ambulance siren. This TV commercial uses humor to indicate that a dental problem could reveal a more serious physical ailment. So she’d better see her dentist soon!

The commercial made me think about what comes out of my mouth when I open it. Jesus said that our words come from our heart (Matt. 15:18). He offended the Pharisees when He said, “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man” (vv.11-12). They thought they were right with God because they followed strict rules, including ritual cleansing of their hands before eating and eating only “clean” foods. Jesus upset their pride.

Jesus upsets our pride too. We may think we’re godly people because we go to church regularly or pray, but then we gossip or talk about people behind their backs. James 3:9-10 says, “With [our tongue] we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men . . . . Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. . . . These things ought not to be so.”

If a siren blares from our mouth when we open it, we need to examine our heart and ask the Lord to forgive us and to help us be a blessing to others. — Anne Cetas

Lord, cleanse our hearts so what we speak

Will be reflective of Your grace;

And help us to control our tongues

So we’ll not bring on You disgrace. —Sper

Every time you speak, your mind is on parade.

our daily bread

Have You Ever Been Speechless with Sorrow?

When he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich
—Luke 18:23

The rich young ruler went away from Jesus speechless with sorrow, having nothing to say in response to Jesus’ words. He had no doubt about what Jesus had said or what it meant, and it produced in him a sorrow with no words with which to respond. Have you ever been there? Has God’s Word ever come to you, pointing out an area of your life, requiring you to yield it to Him? Maybe He has pointed out certain personal qualities, desires, and interests, or possibly relationships of your heart and mind. If so, then you have often been speechless with sorrow. The Lord will not go after you, and He will not plead with you. But every time He meets you at the place where He has pointed, He will simply repeat His words, saying, "If you really mean what you say, these are the conditions."

"Sell all that you have . . ." ( Luke 18:22 ). In other words, rid yourself before God of everything that might be considered a possession until you are a mere conscious human being standing before Him, and then give God that. That is where the battle is truly fought— in the realm of your will before God. Are you more devoted to your idea of what Jesus wants than to Jesus Himself? If so, you are likely to hear one of His harsh and unyielding statements that will produce sorrow in you. What Jesus says is difficult— it is only easy when it is heard by those who have His nature in them. Beware of allowing anything to soften the hard words of Jesus Christ.

I can be so rich in my own poverty, or in the awareness of the fact that I am nobody, that I will never be a disciple of Jesus. Or I can be so rich in the awareness that I am somebody that I will never be a disciple. Am I willing to be destitute and poor even in my sense of awareness of my destitution and poverty? If not, that is why I become discouraged. Discouragement is disillusioned self-love, and self-love may be love for my devotion to Jesus— not love for Jesus Himself.

my utmost for his highest

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