Daily Scripture Devotional

In Scripture the leper is symbolic of the ultimate outcast: infected by a condition he did not seek, rejected by those he knew, avoided by people he did not know, condemned to a future he could not bear. And in the memory of each outcast must have been the day he was forced to face the truth: life would never be the same.

The banishing of a leper seems harsh, unnecessary. The Ancient East hasn’t been the only culture to isolate their wounded, however. We may not build colonies or cover our mouths in their presence, but we certainly build walls and duck our eyes. And a person needn’t have leprosy to feel quarantined.

The divorced know this feeling. So do the handicapped. The unemployed have felt it, as have the less educated. Some shun unmarried moms. We keep our distance from the depressed and avoid the terminally ill. We have neighborhoods for immigrants, convalescent homes for the elderly, schools for the simple, centers for the addicted, and prisons for the criminals.

The rest simply try to get away from it all. Only God knows how many individuals are living quiet, lonely lives infected by their fear of rejection and their memories of the last time they tried. They choose not to be touched at all rather than risk being hurt again.

Some of you have the master touch of the Physician himself. You use your hands to pray over the sick and minister to the weak. If you aren’t touching them personally, your hands are writing letters, dialing phones, baking pies. You have learned the power of a touch.

But others of us tend to forget. Our hearts are good; it’s just that our memories are bad. We forget how significant one touch can be. We fear saying the wrong thing or using the wrong tone or acting the wrong way. So rather than do it incorrectly, we do nothing at all.

Aren’t we glad Jesus didn’t make the same mistake? If your fear of doing the wrong thing prevents you from doing anything, keep in mind the perspective of the lepers of the world. They aren’t picky. They aren’t finicky. They’re just lonely. They are yearning for a godly touch.

Jesus touched the untouchables of the world. Will you do the same?

From Just Like Jesus
Copyright 1998, Max Lucado

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts.
–Hebrews 11:4

I have often wondered about Cain and Abel. It’s such an interesting story, with an unexpected twist. God accepted and blessed the offering of Abel, but refused to accept Cain’s offering.

Now, the two offerings were probably about equal in amount, perhaps even more so on the side of Cain. So why did the Lord reject Cain’s offering? The answer has to do with Cain’s attitude. Cain made his offering with an attitude of unfaith and duty. Abel came with an attitude of faith and reverence,

But before we come down too hard on Cain, we need to be careful about how we might be bringing unacceptable sacrifices to God today. For instance, every time we sing a praise song when God Himself is the furthest thing from our mind, we bring false worship and a wrong attitude. Leftover worship and sacrifice is not what God desires. He desires authentic worship given with all that we have.

But I’m afraid many of us give God the leftovers far too often, whether it is our money, our prayers, or some other form of our worship. If we’re too tired to pray at night, we’ll just go to bed and pray later. If we just have to have that new car…even though we really don’t need it…we’ll just give less and deal with the issue of our tithe later.

But it’s in the seemingly small decisions like these that our attitude toward God is revealed.

What is your attitude toward giving of yourself and what you have to the Lord? Does He have it all…or just the leftovers?

GOD DESIRES YOUR VERY BEST… NOT JUST THE LEFTOVERS!

by Jack Graham

I received this email from my brother this morning who is a missionary in Thailand and wanted to share it with everyone. God bless you in your daily prayers.

This morning God convicted my heart in a way I have only felt once before. My heart is His and has been for a long time. But He is still trying to waken me to see how much I depend on myself instead of Him.

Once in Cambodia , the efforts of four years church planting came crashing down and we cried out, “Why Lord?”

I sensed deep in my heart God saying, “Because you have not prayed.”

“But I pray!” I answered. “I am a missionary. I pray.”

The clear thought seemed to come back straight from God, “You have not prayed as if what I do matters more than what you do.”

So I began to lean on God more in prayer. For the last few years prayer has become more important to me bit by bit.

But today three quotes took me by surprise. My last year rushed through my mind. It has been more full of traveling and projects than ever before. Yet the work of this last year feels like a dimly flickering light. Good things have still happened, work has gone forward, but not like I believe God wants to do. I want fire, a bright shining life like Daniel and Enoch and Paul.

Don’t you?

Listen with me to God’s convicting call to entire reliance on Him:

“If we as a people would pray as Daniel prayed, and wrestle as he wrestled, humbling our souls before God, we should realize as marked answers to our petitions as were granted to Daniel” (The Sanctified Life, 47).

I need marked, specific answers, don’t you?

I want to study Daniel’s way of praying,
AND PRAY LIKE HIM!

“Only by humbling themselves before God can God’s servants advance His work. Never are they to depend on their own efforts or on outward display for success” (4BC 1173).

It’s the ONLY way to advance God’s work.
Then what have my sometimes prayer-less efforts been doing?

“True prayer engages the energies of the soul and affects the life. He who thus pours out his wants before God feels the emptiness of everything else under heaven” (4T 535).

Anything else is emptiness?
Then let the prayers go forward with earnest, joyful faith!
Let us have “marked answers” to our prayers!

So today, I have no specific requests I’m bringing you this time, though there are some urgent things happening that need your intercession.
Instead, I’m just asking you to let the Holy Spirit empower you to pray. He is the great Intercessor (Romans 8).

Looking Unto Jesus,
Scott and Julie Griswold
Center for Ministry among Buddhists

BridgesForMinistry.org
MissionActionGuide.org