Day by Day

[HisDaughter]

Maturity Involves Development
by Dr. Tony Evans

In His Presence: According to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love (Ephesians 4:16).

When a baby matures, it also develops. The baby learns coordination, and its body parts develop, grow, and work together. Babies move from milk to solid food. Paul compared this development to that of a Christian: “Everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity” (Hebrews 5:13–6:1).

There is a developmental progression in Christian maturity, and one concept depends on understanding another. Elementary principles must be mastered before you can move on to deeper things, but we’re not supposed to dwell on elementary things forever. Spiritual growth takes place on the playing field of life, not in the classroom. If you never make the connection between the things you learn in Scripture and the way you live your life, you will never mature into anything beyond a Sunday Christian. You are to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13).

Development is marked by change. If you give earthly excuses about why things are happening in your life, you are living as a natural man. But if your reaction to your situation is to focus on Christ at work in you, you are becoming a mature believer. When you are mature, you will react, think, and act like Christ because you are being conformed into His image.

Do you consistently live life looking through the eyes of Christ or are you still a natural man or a natural woman?

[HisDaughter]

The Centurion at the Foot of the Cross
by Max Lucado

The day began as had a hundred others—dreadfully. It was bad enough to be in Judea, but it was hell to spend hot afternoons on a rocky hill supervising the death of pickpockets and rabble-rousers. Half the crowd taunted, half cried. The soldiers griped. The priests bossed. It was a thankless job in a strange land. He was ready for the day to be over before it began.

He was curious at the attention given to the flatfooted peasant. He smiled as he read the sign that would go on the cross. The condemned looked like anything but a king. His face was lumpy and bruised. His back arched slightly and his eyes faced downward. “Some harmless hick,” mused the centurion. “What could he have done?”

Then Jesus raised his head. He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t uneasy. His eyes were strangely calm as they stared from behind the bloody mask. He looked at those who knew him—moving deliberately from face to face as if he had a word for each.

For just a moment he looked at the centurion—for a second the Roman looked into the purest eyes he’d ever seen. He didn’t know what the look meant. But the look made him swallow and his stomach feel empty. As he watched the soldier grab the Nazarene and yank him to the ground, something told him this was not going to be a normal day.

As the hours wore on, the centurion found himself looking more and more at the one on the center cross. He didn’t know what to do with the Nazarene’s silence. He didn’t know what to do with his kindness.

But most of all, he was perplexed by the darkness. He didn’t know what to do with the black sky in midafternoon. No one could explain it.… No one even tried. One minute the sun, the next the darkness. One minute the heat, the next a chilly breeze. Even the priests were silenced.

For a long while the centurion sat on a rock and stared at the three silhouetted figures. Their heads were limp, occasionally rolling from side to side. The jeering was silent … eerily silent. Those who had wept, now waited.

Suddenly the center head ceased to bob. It yanked itself erect. Its eyes opened in a flash of white. A roar sliced the silence. “It is finished.” (John 19:30 NIV) It wasn’t a yell. It wasn’t a scream. It was a roar … a lion’s roar. From what world that roar came the centurion didn’t know, but he knew it wasn’t this one.

The centurion stood up from the rock and took a few paces toward the Nazarene. As he got closer, he could tell that Jesus was staring into the sky. There was something in his eyes that the soldier had to see. But after only a few steps, he fell. He stood and fell again. The ground was shaking, gently at first and now violently. He tried once more to walk and was able to take a few steps and then fall … at the foot of the cross.

He looked up into the face of this one near death. The King looked down at the crusty old centurion. Jesus’ hands were fastened; they couldn’t reach out. His feet were nailed to timber; they couldn’t walk toward him. His head was heavy with pain; he could scarcely move it. But his eyes … they were afire.

They were unquenchable. They were the eyes of God.

Perhaps that is what made the centurion say what he said. He saw the eyes of God. He saw the same eyes that had been seen by a near-naked adulteress in Jerusalem, a friendless divorcée in Samaria, and a four-day-dead Lazarus in a cemetery. The same eyes that didn’t close upon seeing man’s futility, didn’t turn away at man’s failure, and didn’t wince upon witnessing man’s death.

“It’s all right,” God’s eyes said. “I’ve seen the storms and it’s still all right.”

The centurion’s convictions began to flow together like rivers. “This was no carpenter,” he spoke under his breath. “This was no peasant. This was no normal man.”

He stood and looked around at the rocks that had fallen and the sky that had blackened. He turned and stared at the soldiers as they stared at Jesus with frozen faces. He turned and watched as the eyes of Jesus lifted and looked toward home. He listened as the parched lips parted and the swollen tongue spoke for the last time.

“Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit” (Luke 23:46 NIV).

Had the centurion not said it, the soldiers would have. Had the centurion not said it, the rocks would have—as would have the angels, the stars, even the demons. But he did say it. It fell to a nameless foreigner to state what they all knew.

“Surely this man was the Son of God.” (Matthew 27:54 NIV)

[HisDaughter]

A Metaphor for America
by Dr Tony Evans

In His Presence: Hebrews 1:1-2

A while ago, a crack appeared in the Evans’ bedroom wall. We called in a professional who replaced the plaster around the crack and repainted the wall. But the crack reappeared not long after that. We called the painter back, he repaired the crack, and he repainted the wall again. Everything looked fine until about a couple months later when the crack came back. And this time it brought its aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews!

We called in another professional and he gave the verdict. The cracks in the wall were due to a much deeper problem. We were experiencing a shifting foundation. He told us that until we stabilized our foundation, we would forever be repairing cracks in the walls. What a perfect metaphor for the condition of American society today.

Until we stabilize the foundation, no number of programs, government grants, or elections will be able to repair the cracks in our cultural walls. There is no place where the foundation of America needs to be stabilized more than in the home. The breakdown of the family is the single greatest contributor to the deterioration of our country. Strong families hold the key to a strong society, while weak families lead to a weak society. This is true because every other institution in society depends on strong families. You can’t have strong families without God as their foundation.

“No man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ”(1 Corinthians 3:11).

[HisDaughter]

How to Save a Nation in Trouble
by Dr Tony Evans

In His Presence: 2 Chronicles 7:11-22

“If my people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land”(2 Chronicles 7:14).

King Solomon reigned over Israel. In 2 Chronicles 6, Solomon had just finished building God’s temple and had offered up a prayer of dedication. In this prayer, Solomon was basically saying that he wanted to lead this people as God wanted him to lead. After the prayer, God’s glory came down to the temple and filled it. The people offered sacrifices and held a feast. Later that night, the Lord appeared to Solomon and told him that if the people ever rejected His ways and turned away from Him, the prayers of His people would be heeded.

God will deal with a nation that turns its back on Him. If a culture wants to be free of God, He will let it have that freedom. But freedom from God brings dire consequences. Pagans do not normally turn to God when things get rough. But this Scripture isn’t addressing pagans; it is addressing “My people who are called by My name” (v. 14). The people who are supposed to pray for their nation are God’s covenant people. In the Old Testament, His covenant people were the Jews. In the New Testament, the covenant people are the church—the body of true believers who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Sin-bearer and Redeemer.

[HisDaughter]

Penetrate the Culture
by Dr Tony Evans

In His Presence: Colossians 3:17

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the light of the world . . . Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-14, 16).

When we look closely at a culture that is deteriorating, we will probably see the people of God withdrawn from that culture. For example, when Christians began abandoning inner city and urban neighborhoods, taking their skills, resources, and moral influence with them, those neighborhoods deteriorated. When Christians left the public school system, moral values were systematically erased until they became almost illegal to teach. When Christians vacated the media, a spiritual approach to defining everything we hold dear went with them. When Christians decided to get out of politics, righteous political decisions left with them.

God’s people have been called to penetrate society. Of course, evangelism is always first because without forgiveness of sins, anything else we give a person is temporary. We have been called first and foremost to win people to Christ. But after a person receives Christ for eternity, he must represent Christ in history. Christians must give out hope; no earthly institution offers real hope for the world.

One Minute Please

The absence of righteousness in our culture has everything to do with the absence of God’s people penetrating the culture. When there is no yeast, the bread stays flat.

[nChrist]

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the light of the world . . . Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-14, 16).

Amen! - A lot to think about and do. May God give us all the strength, courage, and guidance to do His Will until Christ comes to take us Home.

[HisDaughter]

We Must Obey God
by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Exodus 1:1–22

When we come to passages like the first chapter of Exodus, we are reminded that God's law always comes before man's law. Scripture does not teach blind-and-blanket submission. The fact is, there is a time to submit, and there's also a time to resist.

Before we run with that principle too far, however, a word of caution may be in order. The Exodus passage does not teach children to disobey their parents, wives to usurp their husband's leadership in the home, or anyone to reject ethical authority. But the passage does make one thing clear: submission to civil authority has limits. As Peter once told the Jewish ruling council, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).

In other words, when the king's edict directly violates God's clearly stated will, we ought to fear God, even as a couple of brave ladies named Shiphrah and Puah feared God. And they, being dead, still speak. Scripture tells us that God honored the faith of these midwives. It says, "The people multiplied, and became very mighty. Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them" (1:20–21).

The midwives valued God's favor more than that of Pharaoh. Motivated by a deep and abiding reverence for the living God, they refused to obey the king's wicked edict. When that king told them to violate God's basic principle, the preservation of life, they refused to do so.

Pharaoh's directive, barbarous as it was, has its contemporary equivalent . . . in reverse. In Communist China today, couples are allowed only one child. When many women learn the sexes of their babies, they either carry them to term or immediately abort. If it's a boy, he lives. If it's a baby girl, she is frequently terminated.

The date on the calendar may have changed since the days of the Exodus, but human nature has not. Apart from the redeeming work of Christ, our hearts are desperately wicked. Cruelty existed in Moses' day, and cruelty exists today. Tyrants ruled in the ancient world, and tyrants rule in our day. Injustice hurt the innocent in Pharaoh's time, in Herod's time, and still in our sophisticated twenty-first-century world.

But in the days of Exodus there also lived men and women ready to stand alone for righteousness, even in the face of death, just as there are today. God always has His remnant.

[HisDaughter]

Mary Magdalene at Jesus' Tomb
by Max Lucado

Mary had been there. She had heard the leaders clamor for Jesus’ blood. She had witnessed the Roman whip rip the skin off his back. She had winced as the thorns sliced his brow and wept at the weight of the cross.

In the Louvre there is a painting of the scene of the cross. In the painting the stars are dead and the world is wrapped in darkness. In the shadows there is a kneeling form. It is Mary. She is holding her hands and lips against the bleeding feet of the Christ.

We don’t know if Mary did that, but we know she could have. She was there. She was there to hold her arm around the shoulder of Mary the mother of Jesus. She was there to close his eyes. She was there.

So it’s not surprising that she wants to be there again.

In the early morning mist she arises from her mat, takes her spices and aloes, and leaves her house, past the Gate of Gennath and up to the hillside. She anticipates a somber task. By now the body will be swollen. His face will be white. Death’s odor will be pungent.

A gray sky gives way to gold as she walks up the narrow trail. As she rounds the final bend, she gasps. The rock in front of the grave is pushed back.

“Someone took the body.” She runs to awaken Peter and John. They rush to see for themselves. She tries to keep up with them but can’t.

Peter comes out of the tomb bewildered and John comes out believing, but Mary just sits in front of it weeping. The two men go home and leave her alone with her grief.

But something tells her she is not alone. Maybe she hears a noise. Maybe she hears a whisper. Or maybe she just hears her own heart tell her to take a look for herself.

Whatever the reason, she does. She stoops down, sticks her head into the hewn entrance, and waits for her eyes to adjust to the dark.

“Why are you crying?” She sees what looks to be a man, but he’s white—radiantly white. He is one of two lights on either end of the vacant slab. Two candles blazing on an altar.

“Why are you crying?” An uncommon question to be asked in a cemetery. In fact, the question is rude. That is, unless the questioner knows something the questionee doesn’t.

“They have taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they have put him.”

She still calls him “my Lord.” As far as she knows his lips were silent. As far as she knows, his corpse had been carted off by grave robbers. But in spite of it all, he is still her Lord.

Such devotion moves Jesus. It moves him closer to her. So close she hears him breathing. She turns and there he stands. She thinks he is the gardener.

Now, Jesus could have revealed himself at this point. He could have called for an angel to present him or a band to announce his presence. But he didn’t.

“Why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” (John 20:1-18 NIV).

He doesn’t leave her wondering long, just long enough to remind us that he loves to surprise us. He waits for us to despair of human strength and then intervenes with heavenly. God waits for us to give up and then—surprise!

And listen to the surprise as Mary’s name is spoken by a man she loved—a man she had buried.

“Miriam.”

God appearing at the strangest of places. Doing the strangest of things. Stretching smiles where there had hung only frowns. Placing twinkles where there were only tears. Hanging a bright star in a dark sky. Arching rainbows in the midst of thunderclouds. Calling names in a cemetery.

“Miriam,” he said softly, “surprise!”

Mary was shocked. It’s not often you hear your name spoken by an eternal tongue. But when she did, she recognized it. And when she did, she responded correctly. She worshiped him.

[HisDaughter]

Our Ultimate Hooray, Part One
by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Revelation 21:4; 22:3, 5

What gives a widow courage as she stands beside a fresh grave?

What is the ultimate hope of the disabled, the amputee, the abused, the burn victim?

How can the parents of children who have brain damage or physical handicaps keep from living their entire lives totally and completely depressed?

Why would anyone who is blind or deaf or paralyzed be encouraged when he or she thinks of the life beyond?

How can we see past the martyrdom of some helpless hostage or devoted missionary?

Where do the thoughts of a young couple go when they finally recover from the grief of losing their baby?

When a family receives the tragic news that a little daughter was found dead or their dad was killed in a plane crash or a son overdosed on drugs, what single truth becomes their whole focus?

What is the final answer to pain, mourning, senility, insanity, terminal diseases, sudden calamities, and fatal accidents?

The answer to each of these questions is the same: the hope of bodily resurrection.

We draw strength from this single truth almost every day of our lives—more than we realize. It becomes the mental glue that holds our otherwise shattered thoughts together. Impossible though it may be for us to understand the details of how God is going to pull it off, we hang our hopes on fragile, threadlike thoughts that say, "Someday, He will make it right" and "Thank God, all this will change" and "When we're with Him, we shall be like Him."

More than a few times a year I look into red, swollen eyes and remind the despairing and the grieving that "there's a land that is fairer than day"1 when, as John promised in the Revelation,

"He will wipe away every tear . . . there will no longer be any death . . . any mourning, or crying, or pain." . . . There will no longer be any curse . . . any night . . . because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever. (21:4; 22:3, 5)

Hooray for such wondrous hope!

[HisDaughter]

Satan Poses the Question
In His Presence: Genesis 3:1-7

Since God placed man on this planet, Satan has been determined to deceive man about the nature of God and God’s words to us. In the Garden of Eden, Satan began his plan by talking to Eve. “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). Satan raised a question about God’s command. Notice that he used the word “not.” He skipped over the first part of God’s statement and focused on the restriction. He didn’t want Eve to be thinking about God’s goodness. He wanted God to appear harsh and restrictive.

What God actually said was: “TheLord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die’ ” (Genesis 2:16-17). The first thing God told Adam was what he could do. All the fruit was good for the picking, and Adam could eat freely of the trees. He could eat whatever he wanted to eat whenever he wanted to eat. Of all the trees in the garden, and there were probably hundreds of trees, he was only restricted from one tree.

Especially for those of us who live in the United States, we have so much that is good. As much as we are able, we are free to pursue a good life and liberty. We can go after what makes us happy.

One Minute Please

In spite of what Satan wants, we should be thinking about God’s goodness.

[HisDaughter]

What Are We Thinking About?
By Dr Tony Evans

In His Presence: 1 Chronicles 16:8

Why did God put a limitation on the tree in the Garden of Eden? Why do we have limitations at all? In order to enjoy freedom, there must be sufficient restriction so that we can maximize what freedom is. A baseball player isn’t free to play baseball if there are no foul lines. A football player is not free to play football if there are no sidelines. God placed the restriction in the Garden of Eden to give us the ability to choose. In that way, freedom is better understood.

Another reason why God put a restriction in the Garden of Eden was to remind man that he is a created being. Restrictions make it clear who is in charge. God wanted it to be clear that there is a major difference between created man and the Creator God. God is transcendent. He is infinite and omniscient. We are not.

Satan used the presence of these restrictions to trick Eve into focusing on the negative. The apostle Paul said: “I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). Satan led her thinking away from the goodness of God to focus on the restrictions of God. In doing that, Eve lost sight of the freedom God had given her.

One Minute Please

Adam and Eve lived in a home they didn’t build and ate food they didn’t have to grow. They lived in a perfect environment that had only one restriction. Does your mind focus only on the restrictions in your life?

[HisDaughter]

Trees of Analogy
by Dr Tony Evans

In His Presence: John 8:12

Have you ever thought about the restricted tree in the Garden of Eden? It was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Was this a bad tree? No, there was nothing wrong with the tree itself. Good things could be learned from it. It would teach the difference between good and evil. Another tree in the Garden was the Tree of Life, but it had no restrictions. These two types of trees make a good analogy for today’s Christians.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil represents lists of good and bad things. We are to do the good things and not do the bad things. We could think of this as the Tree of the Law. This tree offered Adam and Eve death. The other tree, the Tree of Life, offered Adam and Eve intimate fellowship and relationship with God. It offered them life.

God wanted Adam and Eve and their descendents to live their lives based on a relationship with Him. He didn’t want them to live by a list. The Tree of Life pictured Jesus Christ, who is life. It represents the abiding relationship we have with Him through which the grace of God flows into our lives. We enjoy walking with God in an intimate relationship. The problem with eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was that life had to be lived based on a set of rules, not on a relationship. The New Testament would call that the difference between Law and grace.

One Minute Please

Eating from the Tree of Life meant that there was no need for the Tree of Knowledge

[HisDaughter]

Relationship vs. Rules
by Dr Tony Evans

In His Presence: John 10:14-15

“My brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God . . . What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law’’(Romans 7:4, 7).

Romans 7 tells us that the Law is good. But the problem with the Law is that it can’t help us deal with sin. While it can show us what is wrong, it can’t empower us to improve. Only a relationship abiding in the presence of Jesus Christ can transform our lives. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was irrelevant to Adam and Eve. They had abundant life already. “I came that [you] may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). It was a life based on a relationship with God.

So how do we combat what Satan wants us to believe—that restrictions and “do’s” and “don’ts” are unfair? We should focus on the goodness of God. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith” (Romans 3:23-25). This demonstration of grace is what the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden was all about.

One Minute Please

“From any tree of the garden you may eat freely”(Genesis 2:16).

[HisDaughter]

Max on Life #62
by Max Lucado

QUESTION #62:
I’m a new Christian who is trying to figure out how to grow closer to God. Friends tell me I need to have a quiet time with God each day, but I can’t figure out exactly what to do.

Denalyn and I like to go to the same restaurants over and over again. You could call our dates predictable, but for us they are special. We like the food. We like the servers. We like the atmosphere. When we’re there, we remember special moments we’ve shared before. Our hearts open up . . . we lose track of time . . . because we’re comfortable in that place. We talk to each other, listen to each other, laugh, and cry. I love those times!

A quiet time with God is very similar to a date. Here are some tools to help you keep your very special date with God.

Decide on a regular time and place. Select a slot in your schedule and a corner of your world, and claim it for God. A familiar place will remind you of similar feelings you experienced before with God. You need to get comfortable.

How much time should you take? As much as you need. Value quality over quantity. Your time with God should last long enough for you to say what you want and for God to say what he wants.

You should bring on your date an open Bible—God’s Word, his love letter to you. You won’t necessarily hear God speak out loud, but you can hear what he has to say through his eternal dialogue with humanity.

You also need a listening heart. Don’t forget the admonition from James: “The man who looks into the perfect mirror of God’s law, the law of liberty, and makes a habit of so doing, is not the man who sees and forgets. He puts that law into practice and he wins true happiness” ( James 1:25 PHILLIPS). Listen to the lover of your soul. Don’t just nod your head, pretending to hear. Your date knows when you’re engaged.

So does God. Just as you wouldn’t miss your date with a loved one, claiming you were too busy, make sure your date with God is on the calendar, and do everything in your power to keep it special.

[HisDaughter]

Bumps in the Road
by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Exodus 2:11–15

First surprise. Next confusion, followed by fear, like icy fingers around the heart. When Moses' well-kept secret hit the prime-time networks, he got the shakes. And acting on fear, the biblical account states that "he fled from the presence of Pharaoh." Why did he run? Verse 15 tells us, "Pharaoh tried to kill Moses." Now that Moses had tipped his hand and shown his true loyalties, Pharaoh couldn't stomach having such a threat around. In the king's eyes, a disloyal and out-of-control prince was better off dead. What awful repercussions grew out of Moses' ill-considered action.

It is very possible that you, too, have been forced to deal with such consequences. Your track record may reflect a pattern of great ambition but little knowledge. Great desire but little discernment. Great aspirations but little humility. Great zeal but little wisdom. And so you have to run the rabbit trails right to the bitter dead-ends, one after another. You've run faster each time, but never succeeded. None has taken you where you wanted to go. And if the truth were known, your impulsive actions have resulted in an unbearable situation.
 
In my book, there's only one thing worse than being at the end of a self-directed life, and that's being in the middle of one.

You say, "Well, I'm in my thirties, I ought to know better than that." Moses was forty.

You say, "Hey, I'm no novice! I've got education and training like you wouldn't believe!" Better than Moses? Remember, by this time in his career, he was "educated in all the learning of the Egyptians."
 
Our impressive resumé is part of the problem. Sometimes we're educated beyond our own intelligence. We know more than we're safe to handle! The truth is, when you rely on the flesh to get a job done, you don't need more schooling. You don't need another degree. You don't need more training seminars. Plain and simple, you need wisdom. So do I. So do all of God's people.

But discerning wisdom takes time. It takes some major bumps in the road. It takes enduring some failures and swallowing big and bitter doses of humility. Welcome to reality.