May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. [Psalm 19:14]
I’m sharing these daily devotions in the hope they will inspire you to read God’s word. I’m praying that they will help you find your way to a closer relationship with God. [Read More ….]
Let’s pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere. [C.S. Lewis]
I still go online to read the newspaper from what was our hometown for over fifty years. Last week, it was filled with news about the events of Fiesta Days. With its Car Show, Big Wheel Race, Duck Derby, Beach Bash, Street Fair, Music Fest, Art Show, Parade, Fireworks, and Carnival (complete with rides and funnel cakes), the festival is one of summer’s highlights.
However, when air quality monitors reached the “hazardous” and “very hazardous” categories, all outdoor activities in the area were cancelled. Smoke from Ontario’s over 200 wildfires caused the unhealthy conditions and darkened skies. The smoke and haze from these fires spread southeast over 500 miles through Minnesota, Wisconsin, and across northern Illinois. It didn’t stop there; on Friday, it also brought hazardous air and hazy skies to Toronto, Chicago, Detroit, New York City, D.C., and across Maryland and Virginia. By Saturday, over 125 million Americans in 18 states were on air quality alerts.
Fire has a way of causing far-reaching collateral damage and so does sin. The chronology of kings in Israel and Judah is filled with stories of how a father’s sinful example was followed by his son and led the people to sinfully disregard God’s commands. Today, the abusive father is likely to have an abusive son, the adulterous spouse’s divorce hurts the entire extended family, toxic relationships poison everyone near them, and the children of an alcoholic carry emotional baggage that affects not just them but their own children, as well. When the bad stuff hits the fan, it spatters all over innocent people and rarely stops there.
Well, I’m not abusive, adulterous, toxic, or alcoholic so I can’t spread sin, pain, and sorrow, or can I? A few poorly chosen words, a sharp retort, a tidbit of gossip, a rude gesture, a bit of spitefulness, impatience, and rudeness—they all have far-reaching effects. My rudeness to a waiter or salesperson can easily cause them to be irritable with their customers, who then might be short-tempered with the people they meet later. By the end of the day, my unpleasantness may have created a negative chain reaction affecting dozens of people.
Unkindness to one person can end up spoiling other people’s days the way smoke spoiled people’s plans for the Fiesta Days’ carnival! We are connected to the people around us and to those around them. Whether intentional or not, the consequences of our sins don’t remain with us just as that smoke didn’t remain in Thunder Bay!
We talk of “paying it forward” when doing a kindness that will reverberate with more kindnesses. Unfortunately, it appears to work that way with sin (including those “little sins” like anger, rudeness, impatience, hostility, gossip, griping, and spite). Worse, it seems we’re more likely to pay rudeness forward with more of the same than to pay forward our blessings! Any time we fail to live as Jesus did, every time we allow Satan a foothold in our lives, when we forget to respond with love, or are inconsiderate of other people, our ugliness can spread far and wide as did the smoke from the fires in Ontario.
Father, guide our words and actions so that the love of Jesus is clearly seen and felt by all whose lives we touch today. Don’t let us darken someone’s day the way smoke can darken the sky!
The greatest need in the world is the transformation of human nature. We need a new heart that will not have lust and greed and hate in it. We need a heart filled with love and peace and joy, and that is why Jesus came into the world. [Billy Graham]
Several “Nancy” comics written and drawn by Guy Gilchrist have inspired my writing. Curious about the cartoonist, I was not surprised to learn that he is a Christian; that was not always true. As a boy, he was poor, lonely, abused, and searching for someone and something in which to believe. Missing a dad, he found a father figure in an unlikely place—television—and in a remarkable person—a radio, television and movie star by the name of Roy Rogers. When the young cartoonist was unsure how to behave, he’d look to the singing cowboy and ask himself, “What would Roy do?” He knew his cowboy hero always took the right course of action. Although Rogers was publicly vocal about his faith, Gilchrist didn’t know his hero was a Christ follower until many years later.
Since there was no difference between Rogers’ television persona and the man himself, Gilchrist chose an excellent role model in this man of integrity. Kind and honest, Rogers was a devout Christian who stood for decency, truth, and justice. Unaware of Roger’s Christian faith, the boy didn’t know that the entertainer had his own model for behavior: Jesus. While Gilchrist asked, “What would Roy do?” the star probably asked, “What would Jesus do?”
Emulating Roy’s example made Gilchrist a good person. But, following the “Roy Rogers’ Rider’s Club Rules” by studying hard, obeying his parents, protecting the weak, and being kind, courteous, brave, and neat didn’t make him a Christian. Gilchrist’s commitment to Christ didn’t happen until the cartoonist realized how much he needed Jesus shortly after his divorce.
Nevertheless, the father figure Guy Gilchrist found in Roy Rogers illustrates how each of us can influence the lives of others and have a profound effect on them. Granted, we’re not Hollywood stars. We don’t ride a golden palomino named Trigger or have a German shepherd answering to the name of Bullet. All the same, we have a responsibility to be good role models to all who know or even observe us—and, like Rogers and his wife Dale Evans, we must be open to sharing the gospel whenever possible.
Do we live by asking ourselves what Jesus would do? Do we live in such a way that we would want young people to model their behavior after ours? Would we want them to respond to disappointment, resolve problems, settle conflicts, react to insult or injury, deal with loss, and treat both pleasant and unpleasant people the way we do? Would we want them to ask themselves what we would do? Then, would we want them to do it?
A good example is far better than a good precept. [D.L. Moody]
When written by Guy Gilchrist, “Nancy” used to appear in the comics of our local paper. The slightly chubby, somewhat mischievous, eight-year-old girl with the red skirt and hair bow often prayed. In one comic, Nancy starts with a litany of thanks to God for always being there, showing her the way, filling her heart, and giving her just what she needs before she even knows she wants it. “You are an amazing God!” she offers in praise before closing her prayer with, “Could you throw me a couple answers before my math test tomorrow?”
After being told to say her prayers in another strip, the kneeling Nancy admits being told to have an “attitude of gratitude” and lists several things for which she is thankful. The little girl, however, informs God that she could spend even more time being thankful if only “there was a freak early snow storm and school was closed tomorrow.” Perhaps there was a math test scheduled that day! In another comic, after Nancy says, “I know you turned water into wine,” she looks up and asks, “Ever thought about turning Brussels sprouts into ice cream?”
At least Nancy started her prayers right with thanks, praise, and an acknowledgment of God’s power before voicing her requests. More often than not, people tend to skip right over those and get right into prayers like hers—fixing prayers—prayers to solve their problems, make their lives easier, or change what they don’t like. I hope Nancy wasn’t too disappointed when she missed a few long division problems on the test, no snow fell, and Brussels sprouts continued to taste like a cross between cabbage and broccoli.
If our prayers seem to go unanswered, could the problem lie with us and our prayers rather than an unresponsive God? Instead of asking God to bless and enable what it is we want to have or do, perhaps we should spend more time asking Him to direct our interests, actions, and causes. Rest assured, God will surely bless whatever it is He wants us to have or do. Rather than asking Him to change the world to please us, maybe we need to ask God to change us so we can please Him.
In a fourth “Nancy” comic, the usually cheerful little girl is lying on a hillside and crying. “I wonder if God knows how bad I feel,” she sobs. The next several squares show her weeping as the clouds change into words. In the last panel, she sits up and sees God’s message in the clouds: “Peace be with you.” With a faint smile, the tearful little girl says, “He knows.” Indeed, He does.
Like Nancy, Jesus had to learn his letters and numbers and attend school; He probably had a few foods he didn’t like, as well! Like you and me, He experienced everything we have—sorrow, family, work, love, betrayal, joy, pain, laughter, abandonment, temptation, friendship, loss, and even arithmetic.
While God isn’t likely to provide answers for math tests, provide snow days off from school, or transform hated vegetables into tasty desserts to accommodate our desires, He always will assure us of His love and bless us with His peace.
We must not think that [God] takes no notice of us, when He does not answer our wishes: for He has a right to distinguish what we actually need. [John Calvin]
My summer beach novel began with a man having a heart attack on a commuter train. For the next several pages, I was privy to the thoughts of his fellow passengers who were annoyed by the train’s unscheduled stop for medical aid. Because they’d be delayed, they saw the man’s collapse as a tremendous inconvenience to them. As passengers disembarked to find another way into the city, their thoughts were not of the dying man and his wife but of themselves and how they’d been inconvenienced.
My husband has been on a commuter train that was delayed because someone deliberately stepped onto the tracks in front of the train. His fellow passengers were like those in my novel. Their words were about themselves and how the delay negatively affected them. They seemed to forget that this person’s death had ruined more than a day for his family and friends—let alone the train’s engineer who’d become an unwilling accomplice in a suicide.
Back in the days of typewriters, my friend Gaye taught typing at the local junior college. When a student with only one arm entered her classroom, rather than empathy for the challenges he faced trying to conquer a keyboard, she thought of the problems his handicap posed for her as his teacher. Like the train passengers and Gaye, we usually see life through the eyes of self-concern. Forgetting that it really isn’t about us and we’re not the center of the world, our self-interest often undermines our compassion, patience, and understanding.
Surely all those people who followed Jesus and pled for healing inconvenienced and delayed our Lord, but we never read of Him sending anyone away because He was too busy or had better things to do. Jesus didn’t complain about walking to Jairus’ house or being delayed by the woman with the blood issue. Spotting a tax collector in need of forgiveness, He stopped for Zacchaeus and, hearing a blind man beg for mercy, He called for Bartimaeus. Rather than complain about interruptions or inconvenience, Jesus showed mercy, sympathy, patience, and kindness.
“It must be hard for you,” said a stranger to Anne as she maneuvered the walker into her car. “Yes,” she admitted, “but it’s much harder for my aunt who has Parkinson’s!” Although she was inconvenienced by the challenges of caregiving, Anne knows that Parkinson’s is no picnic for her aunt either. On the days she resents the extra weight placed on her shoulders, Anne remembers it is worse for the woman whose weight she is carrying. When she considers life from her aunt’s position, any resentment or feeling of inconvenience is replaced by love and compassion. Isn’t that what doing unto others really means? To truly do unto others, we need to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes instead of complaining about a little scuff on ours!
Christ and compassion go hand in hand but compassion doesn’t always come easily. It’s only human to have our first response be, “What does this mean to me?” or “How will I be affected?” It may be human, but it’s not Christ-like.
The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But the good Samaritan reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” [Martin Luther King, Jr.]
I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do. [Helen Keller]
Isaiah heard the Lord ask, “Whom shall I send as a messenger to this people?” and responded, “Here I am. Send me.” When God commissioned him to be His messenger/prophet, Isaiah was acting as a scribe and had a family. Nevertheless, without hesitation, his was an unqualified, “Send me!” Isaiah didn’t know exactly what God wanted him to do or how he was supposed to do it. Even after God told him that the people wouldn’t listen, Isaiah never wavered. Many of Scripture’s heroes, however, weren’t as eager to do God’s work.
When Jonah was told to go to the enemy nation of Nineveh and preach God’s judgment, he ran in the other direction. It was only after he’d spent time soaking in the gastric juices of a sea creature for three days and nights that he finally submitted to God. Like Jonah, Moses was given a task by God—bring the Israelites out of captivity into the Promised Land. The Lord was clear about the assignment but Moses was equally clear in his protests. Rather than run away, he listed all the reasons he wasn’t qualified. Although God resolved every one of his concerns, Moses was still reluctant. Even though he finally accepted God’s call, he complained about his task for the next forty years. Gideon also was given a task by God—rescue Israel from the Midianites. Like Moses, he protested that he was incapable and then dared to question (not once but three times) God’s promise to help him. Eventually, all three men obeyed God’s call, but not without questions, protest, and complaint.
When God calls us to do something out of our comfort zone, we’re caught between wanting to obey the Lord but not wanting to endure whatever challenge, difficulty, or hardship might be involved. Like Noah, are there are places we won’t go? Are there people we won’t touch, jobs we won’t do, or restrictions on the time we’ll give Him? Like Moses and Gideon, we’re likely to list our inadequacies—we’re not smart enough, strong enough, talented enough, good enough, young enough, or old enough—before adding that surely someone else could do it far better! Perhaps, we respond this way because we forget that we don’t have to do God’s work under our own power. Rather than calling the qualified, God qualifies those He calls!
When in the army, after the drill sergeant says, “I need three volunteers,” he simply points to three of his men and says, “You, you, and you!” Since it’s the army, obedience follows without argument or stipulations. Well, we’re in God’s army now and, as Commander-in-Chief, He’s not looking for excuses, limitations, exemptions, exceptions, or even questions when He calls us to action. Isaiah eagerly said, “Here I am, Send me!” When Jesus was in the garden that last night, after praying, “I want your will to be done, not mine,” He went to the cross without hesitation or complaint. How will we respond the next time God calls us? Hopefully, we’ll say, “Yes, your will be done, Lord; your will be done!”
Rest in this – it is His business to lead, command, impel, send, call or whatever you want to call it. It is your business to obey, follow, move, respond, or what have you. [Jim Elliot]
“It’s a masterpiece!” I would exclaim when admiring my grands’ latest creations before hanging them on the refrigerator. Truth be told, they only were masterpieces in my grandma eyes. To anyone else, they were just a child’s efforts with crayons, markers, and stickers. A real masterpiece is a work done with exceptional skill—a supreme intellectual or artistic achievement. Even then, the word “masterpiece” usually is limited to an artist’s best work. While my grands needed to hone their skills before creating a true artistic masterpiece, every one of us is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece and an example of God’s best work.
Unlike masterpieces like Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon, or da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, we are not to be hung on a museum wall or placed on a stand. We are not a beautifully painted piece of canvas or a masterfully crafted statue whose purpose is to be viewed and admired but not touched. Nor are we a masterpiece like Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Dickens’ Great Expectations, or Shakespeare’s Hamlet with words and ideas that, while wonderful, never change. As great as they are, masterpieces like Renoir’s paintings, Rodin’s The Thinker, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Emily Dickenson’s poems are static—the same today as they were when they were completed. As God’s masterpieces, however, we are never finished. Regardless of our age, we are works in progress. Our creator continually fine-tunes us, refines our stories, fixes the messy spots, and chisels away at our rough edges so that we look and act more like Jesus every day.
Unlike the masterpieces on display in the Louvre or the Library of Congress, it’s not enough to be God’s masterpiece and sit passively on the sidelines of life. God created us with a purpose—to do the things He planned for us long ago. Yes, we are saved by faith and not works, but we have been saved by God’s grace so that we can do His work. God doesn’t make mistakes nor does he make junk and each one of us is as much a masterpiece as are Michelangelo’s frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. While those beautiful frescoes were made for viewing, however, we are made for doing!
Good works are indispensable to salvation—not as its ground or means, however, but as its consequence and evidence. We are not saved because of works, but we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, good works which God prepared beforehand…and for which he has fashioned us. [John Stott]
Devotions of the Heart 