“He
makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He
restores my soul…” (Psalm 23:2-3a NKJV)
In the
Christian life it is more than passing significance to observe that those who
are most serene, most confident, and most able to cope with life’s complexities
often are those who rise early each day to feed on God’s Word. It is in the
quiet, early hours of the morning that they are led beside the quiet, still
waters where they imbibe the very life of Christ for the day. This is much more
than mere figure of speech. It is practical reality. The biographies of the
great men and women of God repeatedly point out how the secret of success in
their spiritual life was attributed to the “quiet time” of each morning. There,
alone, still, waiting for the Master’s voice, one is led gently to the place
where, as the old hymn puts it, “The still dews of His spirit can be dropped
into my life and soul.”
-- W. Phillip Keller, as quoted
in “In This Quiet Place: Discovering the Pleasures of Prayer”
#4291
“For
by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it
is the gift of God,…” (Ephesians 2:8
NRSV)
God’s
judgment has never been a problem for me. In fact, it always seemed right.
Lightning bolts on Sodom. Fire on Gomorrah. Good
job, God. Egyptians swallowed in the Red Sea. They had it coming.
Discipline
is easy for me to swallow. Logical to assimilate. Manageable and appropriate. But
God’s grace? Anything but.
Examples?
How much time do you have? David the psalmist becomes David the voyeur, but by
God’s grace becomes David the psalmist again. The thief on the cross: hell-bent
and hung-out-to-die one minute, heaven-bound and smiling the next. Story after
story. Prayer after prayer. Surprise after surprise…
I
challenge you to find one soul who came to God seeking grace and did not find
it… Find one person who came seeking a second chance and left with a stern
lecture. I dare you. Search.
You
won’t find it.
-- Max Lucado in “When God
Whispers Your Name”
#4290
“In
the beginning God created…” (Genesis 1:1)
Why is
there something rather than nothing? When you think about it, there's nothing
that says that it has to be. If you start with that question, then I think the
very next question becomes, Is this kind
of world more likely to have happened by accident or by design?… It's
amazing that we wouldn't for a minute look at objects of everyday life -- the
television in our room or a vase on the table -- and say, how did that come
about? We know it came about because of some kind of intelligence and some kind
of design by a person or a committee of persons. But when it comes to this
unbelievable universe, we can be talked into thinking that it could have
happened by chance.
The
creation of the universe is absolutely amazing, from my point of view, and
that's a bias probably because I'm a physician. I find that the human body is
even in some ways more amazing. And when you get down to the structure of DNA
and the brain, in particular, it turns out to be the most amazing structure
that we could ever possibly imagine.
To
give you one little example -- the compacting ability of DNA. All the
information needed to run each of us weighs less than a few trillionths of a
gram. And here's another little factoid that just blows my mind. If we were to
collect all of the information in DNA for all the organisms that have ever
existed on this planet, it could fit into the size of a grain of salt.
-- Dr.
Timothy Johnson, ABC News Medical Editor, in an interview in Christianity
Today, May 24, 2004
#4289
Because
Billy Graham realized the power didn't come from him but came through him, he
didn't feel obligated to overreach with his methods.
Jack
Hayford, himself a powerful preacher, observed, "Billy Graham reveals a
remarkable absence of the superficial, of hype, or of pandering to the crowd.
His communication consistently avoids exaggeration or 'slick' remarks. There's
never been anything cutesy or clever about his style. There are no grandiose
claims or stunts employed to attract attention. Graham merely bows in prayer
while seekers come forward -- moved by God, not a manipulative appeal."
That
confidence in the power of the message frees the leader from having to work
over-hard on presentation techniques to convince the hearers. When a basketball
player is not in a position to take a shot but puts it up anyway, coaches call
it "forcing the shot."
Forced
shots are usually ineffective. Coaches will tell players to wait until they're
in a good position, then the shot has a better chance of success. Likewise,
people can sense that efforts are forced when a leader isn't convinced his message
has spiritual power.
Because
Billy was well connected to his continuous voltage, he knew where the power
came from. He simply made himself available to receive it.
-- Harold Myra and Marshall
Shelley in “Christianity Today”
#4288
I love John 4:28. It says that after talking
with Jesus, the woman [at the well] “left her water jar beside the well” and
headed back toward town. Have you ever had an unexpected encounter so
world-shaking that it caused you to forget
what you were doing? I can picture Jesus noticing the forgotten water
jar and smiling at its symbolism. She’d not only brought an empty water jar to
the well, she’d brought an empty life. And she was leaving them both behind.
I also love the stir this woman created
when she got back to town. Keep in mind, she wouldn’t have been a popular
figure. People would have distanced themselves from her. But on this day her
message was so intriguing and her enthusiasm so contagious that even her
harshest critics were filled with curiosity. “Come and meet a man who told me
everything I ever did!” she said (John 4:29).
And they did. Followed her out to the
well as if she were the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
Such is the power of a changed life.
-- Mark Atteberry in “Free Refill: Coming Back for More of Jesus”
#4287
