“So wherever
you go into the world, tell everyone the Good News.” (Mark 16:15)
Things
change, old problems fade, and new problems take their place, but life goes
on; and you and I have but one life to live and a job to do for God before
it ends. I can't do much about changing
the world, but that doesn't keep me awake at night. Even the people in authority can't do much
about changing the world. But I can do
something about bringing God's presence into the world in which He has put me,
and that's what servant-ministry is all about…
-- Warren
Wiersbe in “On Being a Servant of God”
#4389
“For the Word
of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates
even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and
attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12
NIV)
We must
allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our
complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior.
-- John Stott in “Authentic
Christianity”
#4388
“Give us
this day our daily bread.” (Matthew
6:11)
Truth is, I
think, if God just gave us our daily bread, many of us would be angry. “That's
all you're going to give me? You're just going to give me enough to sustain me
for today? What about tomorrow or next year or 10, 20, 30 years from now? I
want to know that I'm set up.” And yet Jesus says just pray for your daily
provisions.
-- Francis Chan
#4388
"I have
been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in
me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
(Galatians 2:20)
A faithful
person sees life from the perspective of trust, not fear. Bedrock faith allows
me to believe that, despite the chaos of the present moment, God does reign;
that regardless of how worthless I may feel, I truly matter to a God of love;
that no pain lasts forever and no evil triumphs in the end. Faith sees even the
darkest deed of all history, the death of God's Son, as a necessary prelude to
the brightest.
-- Philip Yancey in “Reaching for the Invisible
God Study Guide”
#4386
Jesus
said, "If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you
will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31b-32 NIV)
It is
comparatively easy to be faithful if we do not care to be contemporary, and
easy also to be contemporary if we do not bother to be faithful. It is the
search for a combination of truth and relevance which is exacting.
-- John R. W. Stott in “Christian
Mission in the Modern World”
#4385
Jesus
said, “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. If you keep My commands, you will remain in My
love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have
told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My
command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” (John 15:9-12 NIV)
So
many of us live our lives as if the secret purpose is to somehow get everything
done. We stay up late, get up early, avoid having fun, and keep our loved ones
waiting… I find that if I remind myself (frequently) that the purpose of life isn’t
to get it all done but to enjoy each step along the way and live a life filled
with love, it’s far easier for me to control my obsession with completing my
list of things to do.
-- Richard Carlson, PH.D. , as
quoted in “Finding Joy”
#4384
“So if
anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away;
see, everything has become new!” (2
Corinthians 5:17 NRSV)
Faith
is unlearning the senseless worries and misguided beliefs that keep us captive.
It is far more complex than simply modifying behavior. Faith is rewiring the
human brain. We are literally upgrading our minds by downloading the mind of
Christ.
-- Mark Batterson in “In a Pit
with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars”
#4383
“The
world and all that is in it belongs to the Lord; the earth and all who live on
it are His.” (Psalm 24:1 TEV)
Life on earth is a trust. This is [one of the] metaphors
for life we find in the Bible. Our time, energy, intelligence, opportunities,
relationships, and resources are all gifts that God has entrusted to our care
and management. We are stewards, or managers, of whatever God gives us. This
concept of stewardship begins with the recognition that God is the owner of
everything and everyone on earth.
We
never really own anything during our brief
stay on earth. God just loans it to
us while we’re here. It was God’s property before you arrived, and God will
loan it to someone else after you die. You just get to enjoy it for a while.
-- Rick Warren in “What on Earth
Am I Here For?”
#4382
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and
today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8 NIV)
There’s a delightful story told about
Lloyd Douglas, author of “The Robe.” He enjoyed visiting a little, old, violin
teacher in a shabby, small, walk-up room he proudly called his studio.
Douglas liked to drop in on him because
he had the kind of lovely wisdom about life that refreshed him. One morning, Douglas
stopped by to see the old man. “Well, what’s the good news today?” he asked.
Putting down his violin, he stepped over
to a tuning fork suspended from a silk cord. He struck it with a smart blow
with a padded mallet. That, my friend, is ‘A.’ It was ‘A’ all day yesterday. It
will be ‘A’ all day tomorrow, next week, and for a thousand years.”
That story tunes our minds to the ‘A’ of
true joy. Like Christ, who is its only source, joy is the same yesterday,
today, and tomorrow. It is artesian, never changes, and is consistent irrespective
of people or circumstances. At the same time, joy is not a quality we can find
by searching or earn by effort. It comes from something -- really Someone
else.
-- Lloyd J. Ogilvie in
“If God Cares, Why Do I Still Have Problems?”
#4381
Jesus
said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you
must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if
you love one another.” (John 13:34-35 NIV).
In a
contagious world, we learn to keep our distance. If we get too close to those
who are suffering, we might get infected by their pain. It may not be
convenient or comfortable. But only when you get close enough to catch their
hurt will they be close enough to catch your love.
-- John Ortberg in “Love Beyond
Reason: Moving God's Love from Your Head to Your Heart”
#4380
“Then Jesus said to His disciples,
‘Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross
and follow Me.’” (Matthew 16:24 NIV)
Reality is hard, it’s messy, it takes us
unawares, and it happens to be precisely where we live. The point of this
pilgrim path is to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus, right in the middle of
routine stuff -- good, bad, and ugly.
Jesus didn’t promise to make anything
easy, but He does promise to be our faithful companion along the way.
-- Derek Maul in “The Unmaking of a Part-Time Christian”
#4379
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in
humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to
your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you
that was in Christ Jesus,…” (Philippians
2:3-5 NRSV)
Thoughtfulness is the beginning of great
sanctity. If you learn this art of being
thoughtful, you will become more and more Christ-like, for His heart was meek
and He always thought of others. Our
vocation, to be beautiful, must be full of thought for others.
-- Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)
#4378
“There is a time for everything, and a
season for every activity under the heavens.”
(Ecclesiates 3:1 NIV)
Sometimes I wonder if I’ve become so
busy scheduling every moment of my life for success that I miss the one thing I
long for most: time to live.
Time to walk hand in hand with my wife
-- regardless of unfinished tasks. Time to lie on my back and watch the clouds
form and re-form into monsters and angels and things that exist only in the
minds of dreamers. Time to talk to the people I love. Time to write about the
stirrings of my heart. Time to visit with those people across the street I’ve never
met. Time to pray -- not during scheduled prayer time, but simply because I’m
overcome with gratitude, weariness, or joy. Time to simply talk with God.
-- Ken Davis in “Lighten Up!”
#4377
“Do not fear, for I am with you, do not
be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will
uphold you with My victorious right hand.”
(Isaiah 41:10 NRSV)
We have a tough, problem-confronting,
problem-solving God. He does not retreat from either the problems we have
brought on ourselves or the problems life has dished out. And He wants to make
us much tougher people. He wants to give us a new perspective on our problems,
exercise our prayer muscles, and strengthen the fiber of our souls. Instead of
wringing our hands in consternation or running away in panic, He wants to make
us people He can use.
…He wants to transform our approach to
problems. He wants us to think of ourselves as being men and women of valor
because of His might at work in us. And He assures us that His abiding presence
is available to help us tackle every problem with His strength and direction --
confident that problems are not a sign of His absence.
…We all have problems. That’s life. But
we also have a Lord who not only helps us grow through our problems, but gives
us the power to triumph over them.
-- Lloyd J. Ogilvie in “If God Cares, Why Do I Still Have
Problems?”
#4376
Loving God, Mysterious Wind-like Spirit,
blow strongly if You will
and surround with joy all those people
whom I dislike.
Be gracious to those whose giftedness I
envy.
Bless with wealth and success
those already annoyingly more successful
than myself.
They deserve my encouragement, never my
scorn.
I pray especially for all those
who do not particularly reverence me,
or may, in fact, dislike me and shun my
company.
Give me eyes to see beauty and
winsomeness
where I have not seen it before,
and give us all the self confidence to
believe
that we would have no enemies at all
if we were known as You, Holy Wisdom,
know us.
Amen.
-- William Cleary, as quoted in “When in Doubt, Sing” by Jane
Redmont
#4375
“Be very careful, then,
how you live -- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every
opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but
understand what the LORD's will is.” (Ephesians 5:15-17 NIV)
I find that those
who are waiting for the great revelation from on high before they
attempt to do anything for God seldom accomplish much for the kingdom. On the other hand, people who are into
redeeming the time (Ephesians 5:16) by getting on with whatever good for God
they can do in the present end up being persons whom we see great evidence of
God's guiding hand.
-- Tony Campolo
in “Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God”
#4374
“Direct your children
onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.” (Proverbs
22:6 NLT)
It was my
generation, and the generation that preceded me, that forgot. The younger generation is not primarily to be
blamed. Those who are struggling today,
those who are far away and doing that which is completely contrary to the
Christian conscience, are not first to be blamed. It is my generation, and the generation that
preceded me, who turned away. Today we
are left, not only with a religion and a church without meaning, but... with a
culture without meaning.
-- Francis
Schaeffer in “Death in the City”
#4373
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36 NIV)
In the
midst of our hectic schedules, we need to come before God in prayer. What was supposed to give us more time seems
to take more time to run. What was
supposed to free us up seems to imprison us.
And there are times when the only stability in the world is the Cross of
Christ. So to that Cross we turn,
praying that God would give us the courage to do only what needs to be done in
His eyes, through His power.
--
adapted from Max Lucado
#4372
“Therefore, my friends, I want you to
know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through
Him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were
not able to obtain under the law of Moses.”
(Acts 13:38-39 NIV)
Become like Christ, since Christ has
become like us… He has become inferior to make us superior; He has become poor
to enrich us by His poverty; He has taken the condition of slave to procure
freedom for us; He has come on earth to bring us to heaven; He has been tempted
to see us triumph; He has been dishonored to cover us with glory; He has died
to save us; He has ascended to heaven to draw us to Himself; we who lie
prostrate because of falling into sin.
-- Gregory of Nazianzus from the “Sermon I: On Easter” in “The
Paschal Mystery”
#4371
