LIVING BY GOD’S POWER

“For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.”  (1 Corinthians 4:20 NLT)

The kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power, the power of Godliness.  Though now we are fallen upon another method, we have turned all religion into faith, and our faith is nothing but the production of interest or disputing; it is adhering to a party and a wrangling against all the world beside -- and when it is asked of what religion he is, we understand the meaning to be what faction does he follow, what are the articles of his sect, not what is the manner of his life. 

-- Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)

#5276

DEPENDENCE ON THE SAVIOUR

“God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.”  (Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT)

To have faith is to rely upon Christ, the Person, with the whole heart.  It is not the understanding of the mind, not the theological opinion, not creed, not organization, not ritual.  It is the koinonia of the whole personality with God and Christ, ...  This experience of communion with Christ is itself the continual attitude of dependence on the Saviour which we call faith. 

-- Kokichi Kurosaki in “One Body in Christ”

#5275

FAITH IN ACTION

Faith is not merely a belief in ideas or concepts but a belief that moves us to action. The New Testament usage of "faith" derives largely from the Hebrew understanding that "to believe" is to have firmness, reliability, or steadfastness. Faith in action is a steadfast trusting in God and in our relationship with God. ...

A significant part of our faith is how we live it out daily, for our actions and our lifestyles witness to the true faith we hold. Somehow in our upbringing, many Western Christians have missed the critical link between faith and lifestyle. Faith should express itself in what we eat, how we spend our time, how we entertain ourselves, and how we spend our money. ...

For faith to grow, we must be open and listening to God through scripture, prayer, worship, music, nature, people, and the circumstances of our lives. Then we must be obedient to God's will and direction for us as we discern them. True Christian faith leads us to involvement with others and sensitivity to their needs. 

-- Ann Hagmann in “Climbing the Sycamore Tree”  (Nashville, Tenn.: Upper Room Books, 2001)

#5274

RESPONDING TO FAILURE

Failure does not shape you; the way you respond to failure shapes you.

Sir Edmund Hillary made several unsuccessful attempts at scaling Mount Everest before he finally succeeded.  After one attempt he stood at the base of the giant mountain and shook his fist at it.  "I’ll defeat you yet," he said in defiance.  "Because you’re as big as you're going to get -- but I’m still growing."

Every time Hillary climbed, he failed.  And every time he failed, he learned.  And every time he learned, he grew and tried again.  And one day he didn’t fail. 

-- John Ortberg in “If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat”

#5273

SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL FOR GOD

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things."   (Philippians 4:8 NIV)

Malcolm Muggeridge titled his short biography of Mother Teresa “Something Beautiful for God.”  My idealistic soul says that each of us should do our work with that motto in mind -- particularly when what we do is done for Christ and the church.  The song we sing, the report we give, the class we teach must be excellent -- as truly excellent as we can make it -- because it is done for God.  It was such a passion for quality that made J. S. Bach identify each composition -- including those that were written on secular themes -- as "for the Glory of God alone."  Bach's vision of success was one of excellence, and his standard for excellence was that his work should be acceptable to the praise of God. 

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in “If Experience Is Such a Good Teacher Why Do I Keep Repeating the Course?”

#5272

WE DO HAVE A PART

“And this gospel of the kingdom swill be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”  (Matthew 24:14)

Some of us may like to think we really don't play a part in the overall scheme of things. That is, we feel as though this ol' world will just continue with or without my help. In fact, we feel rather insignificant in the overall picture. However, the truth is that we do have a part in the world and in fact God entrusts us to deliver His message of salvation to a lost and dying world. The New Testament commands - not suggests - that we share our faith and warn the lost. Could there be any greater job? Is anything more important than sharing the message of Jesus Christ? 

-- Pastor Gary Stone 

#5271

IN HIS HOUSE FOREVER

 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me….
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
(Excerpts from Psalm 23 NKJV)

We [live] and will continue to [live] because it pleases God. He sees that it is good. This is how the Twenty-third Psalm is to be understood. “Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death,” death looming over me, “I fear no evil!” How, really, can this be? It is not a frightened person whistling in the dark. It is experience-based knowledge of the reality of God’s rod (protection) and staff (correction) that comfort me. “His goodness and mercy dog my steps through the days of my life, and I shall reside in His house forever.” How does the psalmist know this? Because He knows God. He knows Him in regular interactions in the real world. Those interactions show who God is and what God, therefore, will certainly do! That is what the Twenty-third Psalm says. 

-- Dallas Willard in “The Divine Conspiracy”

#5270

CLOSE TO THE BROKENHEARTED

God, our Loving Father, is never too busy or preoccupied to hear your cry, to wrap His arms of love around you, and to give you Fatherly counsel. Psalm 34:18 declares, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Are you suffering today with troubles that threaten to overwhelm you? Then be assured. Your Heavenly Father loves you. Go to Him. He hears your cry. You’re not an interruption. You’re His child. 

-- Adapted from Anne Graham Lotz in “Fixing My Eyes on Jesus”

#5269

IS YOUR FACE TOWARDS ME?

Somewhere I read of a young man whose wife had died, leaving him with a small son. Back home from the cemetery on the day of the funeral, he and his son went to bed early because, in his sorrow, the young widower could think of nothing else he could bear to do. As he lay there in the darkness, grief-stricken, numb with sorrow, the little boy broke the spell from his bed with a disturbing question: "Daddy, where is Mommy?"

The young father tried to answer the boy and tried to get him to go to sleep, but the question kept coming from his confused, childish mind. "Where is Mommy? When is she coming home?"

After a while the father got up and brought the little boy to bed with him. But the child was still disturbed and restless, persistently asking his probing, heart-breaking questions.

Finally the little boy reached out his hand through the darkness and placed it on his father's face, asking, "Daddy, is your face towards me?" Given assurance, both verbally and by his own touch, that his father's face was indeed toward him, the little boy said, "If your face is toward me, I think I can go to sleep." And in a little while, he was quiet.

The father lay there in the darkness and in childlike faith prayed, "O God, the way is dark and I confess that I do not see my way through right now, but if Your face is toward me, somehow I think I can make it."

We can make it if God's face is toward us -- and certainly that's the case. God's face is always toward us. 

    “The Lord make His face shine on you,
    And be gracious to you;
    The Lord lift up His countenance on you,
    And give you peace.”  (Numbers 6:25-26)

-- Maxie Dunnam in “Living the Psalms: A Confidence for All Seasons” 

LIVING FULLY IN THE KINGDOM

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.”  (Philippians 3:20-21 NIV)

To live strongly and creatively in the kingdom of heaven, we need to have firmly fixed in our minds what our future is to be like. We want to live fully in the kingdom now, and for that purpose our future must make sense to us. It must be something we can now plan or make decisions in terms of, with clarity and joyful anticipation. In this way our future can be incorporated into our life now and our life now can be incorporated into our future. 

-- Dallas Willard in “The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God”

#5267

PRACTICAL FAITH

“If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”  (James 2:15-17 NKJV)

We must remember that it's possible to affirm the existence of God with your lips and to deny the existence of God with your life. The most dangerous form of atheism is not theoretical atheism but practical atheism. 

-- Martin Luther King, Jr. in a sermon titled “Rediscovering Lost Values” (1954) 

#5266

UNIQUELY YOU

"He gave... to each one as much as he could handle."  (Matthew 25:15 NCV)

Da Vinci painted one Mona Lisa. Beethoven composed one Fifth Symphony. And God made one version of you. He custom designed you for a one-of-a-kind assignment. Mine like a gold digger the unique-to-you nuggets from your life. When God gives an assignment, He also gives the skill. Study your skills, then, to reveal your assignment. Look at you. Your uncanny ease with numbers. Your quenchless curiosity about chemistry. Others stare at blueprints and yawn; you read them and drool. "I was made to do this," you say.

Our Maker gives assignments to people, to each according to each one's unique ability. As He calls, He equips. Look back over your life. What have you consistently done well? What have you loved to do? Stand at the intersection of your affections and successes and find your uniqueness. 

-- Max Lucado in “Cure for the Common Life”

#5265

DEMONSTRATING TRUST

There's an old story about a real person named Charles Blondin that gets retold so much that it has turned somewhat into a legend.

Imagine a tightrope stretched over a quarter of a mile and spanning the breadth of Niagara Falls?  The thundering sound of the pounding water drowns out all other sounds as you watch a man step onto the rope and walk across! This stunning feat made Charles Blondin famous in the summer of 1859.  He walked 160 feet above the falls several times back and forth between Canada and the United States as huge crowds on both sides looked on with shock and awe.  Once he crossed in a sack, once on stilts, another time on a bicycle,  and once he even carried a stove and cooked an omelet! On July 15, Blondin walked backward across the tightrope to Canada and returned pushing a wheelbarrow.

The Blondin story is told that it was after pushing a wheelbarrow across while blindfolded that Blondin asked for some audience participation.  The crowds had watched and "Ooooohed" and "Aaaaahed!"  He had proven that he could do it; of that, there was no doubt.  But now he was asking for a volunteer to get into the wheelbarrow and take a ride across the Falls with him! It is said that he asked his audience, "Do you believe I can carry a person across in this wheelbarrow?"  Of course the crowd shouted that yes, they believed! It was then that Blondin posed the question, "Who will get in the wheelbarrow?” Of course, none did.

The story of Charles Blondin paints a real life picture of what faith actually is. The crowd had watched his daring feats. They said they believed, but their actions proved they truly didn't.

It's one thing for us to say we believe in God. It's true faith, though, when we believe God and put our complete trust in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Don't worry, Jesus has carried many across to Heaven's gates. You can trust Him! 

-- Adapted from a variety of sources 

#5264

JESUS CALLING - TRUST IN ME

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”  (Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV)

Relax in My healing, holy presence. Allow Me to transform you through this time alone with Me. As your thoughts center more and more and more on Me, trust displaces fear and worry. Your mind is somewhat like a seesaw. As your trust in Me goes up, fear and worry automatically go down. Time spent with Me not only increases your trust; it also helps you discern what is important and what is not.

Energy and time are precious, limited entities. Therefore, you need to use them wisely, focusing on what is truly important. As you walk close to Me, saturating your mind with Scripture, I will show you how to spend your time and energy.       

“Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105 NKJV) 

-- Sarah Young in “Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence”

#5263

SLEEPING WHEN THE WIND BLOWS

Years ago a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops.

As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals. Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. "Are you a good farmhand?" the farmer asked him. "Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man.

Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work.  Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!" The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows."

Enraged by the old man's response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down. Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.

MORAL: When you're prepared, you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life? The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm.  We, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, secure ourselves against the storms of life by grounding ourselves firmly in the Word of God.

-- Author Unknown

#5262

THE FUTURE IMPACTS THE PRESENT

“But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand His plan, that He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.”  (Micah 4:12 NIV)

When God reveals the future, His purpose goes beyond satisfying our curiosity. He wants to change our present behavior because of what we know about the future. Forever begins now; and a glimpse of God’s plan for His followers should motivate us to serve Him now, no matter what the rest of the world may do. 

-- From the NIV Life Application Bible

#5162

A WAY FOR US

Plainly, in the eyes of Jesus there is no good reason for not doing what He said to do, for He only tells us to do what is best. In one situation Jesus asks His students, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46)  

Just try picturing yourself standing before Jesus and explaining why you did not do what He said was best. Now it may be that there are cases in which this would be appropriate. And certainly we can count on His understanding. But it will not do as a general posture in a life of confidence in Him. He really has made a way for us into easy and happy obedience -- really, into personal fulfilment. And that way is apprenticeship to Him. It is Christian ‘discipleship.’ His gospel is a gospel for life and Christian discipleship. 

-- Dallas Willard in “The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God” 

#5260

LOOK UP!

One of the pictures in John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” is a man sorting through a can of garbage. He carefully takes out the little bits of tinsel he finds in the garbage can. Behind him is an angel who’s offering him a solid gold crown studded with precious jewels. But the man is so engrossed in the garbage he never notices the angel.

When we get to heaven, will we be ashamed of our preoccupation with the garbage of life -- garbage that prevented us from turning around, leaving it all behind, and reaching out for what God wanted to give us? First Corinthians 2:9 says, “No eye has seen, no ear heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

So look up! Stop clinging so tightly to what you want. Don’t lose out on what God wants to give you. 

-- Anne Graham Lotz in “Fixing My Eyes on Jesus”

#5259

FACING PAIN

“Yes, even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid of anything, because You are with me. You have a walking stick with which to guide and one with which to help. These comfort me.”  (Psalm 23:4 NLV)

Scott Peck began a best-selling book with a sentence only three words long: "Life is difficult." Life starts difficult, when we're forcibly pushed from the warm, soothing womb into the cold, glaring lights, then turned upside down and smacked. Life ends difficult, when we're struck down by cancer, emphysema, stroke, or old age. And every day in between has some degree of difficulty.

So very early on, we learn to soothe our pain [in a variety of inappropriate ways. We try all sorts of things.]…

But the bottom line is, we still have pain, because life is difficult. And that "Spirituality is all about what you do with your pain." You can choose to medicate it, or you can face it in God's presence. One path stifles growth, the other promotes it.

-- Kevin A. Miller, from PreachingToday.com

#5258

PRESSING FORWARD IN THE NEW YEAR

“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 3:13b-14  NIV)

It is a mistake to be always turning back to recover the past.  The law for Christian living is not backward, but forward; not for experiences that lie behind, but for doing the will of God, which is always ahead and beckoning us to follow. Leave the things that are behind, and reach forward to those that are before, for on each new height to which we attain, there are the appropriate joys that befit the new experience. Don't fret because life's joys are fled. There are more in front. Look up, press forward, the best is yet to be! 

-- F. B. Meyer from "Our Daily Walk" in “Christianity Today”, Vol. 40, no. 1. 

#5257

ENGRAVED ON THE COMMUNION TABLE

Recently, I was visiting a congregation that offers an extraordinary deaf ministry. The director introduced me to some of the deaf young people, and then he took me to see an Eagle Scout project that was nearing completion. A young man from the church had made an exquisite full-size communion table, beautifully crafted and finely finished. On the front of the communion table there was a symbol engraved with a cross background. On the cross, where you might expect to see the body of Christ in a Catholic Church or a Cross and Flame logo in a United Methodist Church, there was a carving of a hand showing the sign language expression for “I love you.”  

How do you translate the meaning of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection?  How do you translate the meaning of the cross?  Translators express the mind, heart, and will of one person to another across boundaries.  I cannot think of a better translation than the one found in the engraving on the communion table:  “I love you.”   That’s what Jesus came to tell us. That’s what was on the heart and mind of God in sending him.  That’s the story we continue to translate and re-translate in every generation through scripture, worship, service, sacrament, and teaching.  Through the cross, God says, “I love you.” 

-- U.M. Bishop Robert Schnase, excerpted from his Five Practices blog   

#5256