Resurrection Morning!

March 31

"Who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" Isaiah 53:1

May you proclaim boldly with millions of believers through the centuries, "I believe, for HE REVEALS HIS STRONG ARM IN THE BEHALF OF MY PRAYERS; FOR HE REVEALS HIS GREAT POWER IN ME!

Other than to quote the angels in Matthew 28:6, "HE IS NOT HERE, HE HAS RISEN AS HE SAID," I will allow the Word of God to speak for itself regarding the cross, the tomb, and the resurrection:


I Corinthians 1:17-31

Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
Christ the Wisdom and Power of God For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:

But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are: That no flesh should glory in His presence.

But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Saturday

March 30

Today we sit in the agony of gloom and defeat. Today we are haunted by the horrible sights of yesterday that are impressed indelibly upon our mind’s eye. The beautiful, kind, loving, perfect man with whom we have walked, with whom we have broken bread, to whom we have listened in awe for three years, is lying broken and battered in a borrowed tomb.

Today, we hide in fear of the Romans who nailed Him to the cross and in dread of our own leaders who insisted He be crucified. Today we marvel at the fickleness of man who jubilantly shouted “Hosanna” and cast palm fronds at His feet (Matthew 21:9) as He entered Jerusalem and who yelled, “Give us Barabbas,” (John 18:40) when Pilate would have set Him free.

Today we are overtaken by confusion and doubt. Today we are disappointed in ourselves because we didn’t stand by Him at His time of need. Today we are disappointed in Him because He left us broken and disappointed when we thought we were to reign beside Him in His glorious Kingdom.

Today we are hiding from ourselves, from our anguish, from our anger, from our utter disbelief in our total immersion in His failed cause. Today we are too broken to do so, but we know we must plot our way back to normal life—when we overcome our fear of the Romans, we must face the reality of our failure through the scoffing of our neighbors and friends—and return to the work-a-day world.

Today we ponder our return to the mundanity of life without the excitement of working for the Kingdom; without the joy of walking with the King.

Today

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

ON THE CROSS

Love was compressed for all history in that lonely figure on the cross, who said that he could call down angels at any moment on a rescue mission, but chose not to -- because of us. At Calvary, God accepted his own unbreakable terms of justice. -- Philip Yancey

Today

Today, His followers see Him scourged with the notorious Roman cat of nine tails. Today, they see Him brutalized and mocked. Today they watch Him fall under the weight of His cross; perhaps it was the weight of our sin that He bore that truly weighed Him down. Today they watched Him as the thorns bloodied His brow and the nails pierced His hands and feet. Today they watched the Roman soldiers cast lots for His seamless robe. Today they saw the Pharisees gloat in their destruction of the One they hated. Today God's ancient enemy basked in self-satisfaction. Because today HE died.

May the Lord be with you today and give you the assurance of His promises that always outweigh the gloom of today. Today was not the end on that awful Friday and today is not the conclusion of the matter now.

Hope

March 28

Hope springs eternal. - Alexander Pope

Hope does spring eternal—an insightful observation on the part of Alexander Pope. He doesn’t go far enough, however, for the reason it does is because the Lord is faithful. HIS WORD tells us regarding our amazing Father and God, "Great is Thy faithfulness, O God. Thy mercies are renewed every morning," Lamentations 3:22, 23. So we awaken today with the expectation that no matter what we faced yesterday, no matter what we may face today—no matter how good or how challenging; no matter what the people we encounter may extend to us of kindness or of cruelty—we will be steadfast in our hope because our HOPE IS IN JESUS, not in the highs or lows of life and not in the people that populate our space.

Whatever you do today, YOU will be a vessel of light and hope and faith and truth and genuine love that flows from the heart of Christ. YOU will be all the brighter a reflection of the light of the Lord if those around you choose to be enshrouded in the gloom of their own self-righteousness rather than reflections of His light. (See John 1:5). No matter what THEY do, YOU will be the Lord's emissary of hope because you are His and He is yours! You are His light, reflected into the darkness. (See Matthew 5:15 and Mark 4:21.)

If worldly people look at you askance, reflect Jesus' love. If they speak unkindly, respond with Jesus' kindness. If they embrace you warmly, reach out gently as the Lord would—but without being deluded by their charade, for the Word tells us that we must be “wise as serpents, harmless as doves,” Matthew 10:16. We also know that the world, “loves its own,” but hates the people of Christ. (See John 15:19.)

Your hope springs eternal but your hope isn't in people...your hope is in the Lord who made heaven and earth and who made you His own beloved and precious child when you placed your life at the cross and allowed Him to make you new in the cleansing flow of His shed blood. Your hope springs eternal, but your hope isn't in the rise or fall of human friendships or loyalties or in their acceptance or their rejection...your hope is in the finished work of Calvary.

As you reflect real truth, real joy, real love to artificial people, they will have the opportunity within their spirits to accept or reject the Christ who projects His attributes through you, His child. What they do with you is a reflection of what they do with Jesus. Because JESUS is your HOPE, it is new this morning as He is with you this morning. Because JESUS is your HOPE, HOPE springs eternal in you—for every day of time and every eon of eternity, these are HIS gifts to you. HOPE THOU IN THE LORD AND HE SHALL BRING IT TO PASS. (See Psalm 37:1-6.)

Count Your Blessings

March 27

Count Your Blessings. Anonymous

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, who is the only Source of hope and the only Giver of joy. In Him we trust—no one else (Hebrews 12:1, 2).

When a man has a real, heart-transforming experience with Jesus Christ, he will clearly see himself as he is—and he won't like who he is (I John 3:2). And he will desire to be transformed by the renewing of his mind and heart into a clearer reflection of the Lord's kindness and love rather than maintain the status quo of his own self-righteousness and his own modicum of kindness (Romans 12:2).

That emergence from his cocoon of self into the beauty of the transformed man the Lord desires him to become will cause a man to become a reflection of Jesus, and in shining His light, the man who loves Him will be a true emissary of the Holy One. He will combine the scholarship in the Word employed by the Presbyterians with fervor in the HOLY SPIRIT of the Pentecostals that will enable his life to be a page from the Book of Acts.

Keep seeking Jesus. Keep trusting Jesus. Keep loving Jesus. Keep drinking in His WORD. Keep flowing in His SPIRIT. Keep EXPECTING to hear Him speak and keep expecting to feel His love, for He will not disappoint you (Hebrews 13:5).

You are more dearly loved than words can say by your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the Lover of your soul and the Guardian of your life and the Perfector of all that touches you. He is the only Giver of your joy and of your hope. Trust Him and no one else. As you count your blessings, His truth and love and power will be affirmed.

Speak to Your Mountain

March 26

"If you believe, you may speak to this mountain, 'Be ye removed and cast into the sea and it shall be even as you say,'" Matthew 21:21.

Obviously, not many believers desire to create the upheaval of literally moving mountains into the sea. Our mountains are ones of fear, doubt, anxiety, depression, anger, vindictiveness, self-recrimination...and the list could go on.

Simply speaking to these negative, destructive emotions is not sufficient unless the words we say to them are rooted in our faith in Jesus, unless we truly believe that HE, at work within us and our circumstances, can make a difference for good in our lives. HE CAN, but the promise states very clearly, "If you believe..." Our God places a lot of value, a lot of importance on what we believe. He is not responsive to half-hearted faith, for if He were, half-hearted faith would be perceived as attaining reward. He does not want to give us that impression.

He is in the process of refining those who profess faith in Him, He wants them to own and employ a true, indefatigable faith that cannot be denied! He wants those who name His name to "Know whom I have believed and be persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him..." II Timothy 1:12. If He rewards paltry faith, we will attain paltry results. He want us to know we are "more than conquerors," Romans 8:37, and as such that we can indeed "move mountains" in our own behalf and in the behalf of His Kingdom and its purposes.

If we cannot employ the faith-power to topple the mountains of doubt and despair within our own limited sphere, how can He expect to use us to implement His purposes in the broader world, to be His conquering army of faithful believers who wrestle with the enemy for the souls of men in a fallen world that is steeped in more and ever-more corruption? How can we be soldiers who are trained in fierce combat with all that opposes God if we have not first put down the things within our own sphere that would defeat us?

So, we are challenged sorely! No shadow boxing, no cardboard swords, no paper helmets! We must be fully equipped (Ephesians 6:11) for the fight for the hearts and minds of men—and we cannot be effective in that monumental effort if we have not first been successful in conquering "the little foxes that spoil the vines" (Song of Solomon 2:15) of our own life and faith! Jesus allows us to struggle with our doubts, our depression, our anxiety—in order that we will be ready to do battle in the behalf of His Kingdom and that we will be successful in pulling down the one enemy whose defeat is imperative!

When we remove that 'mountain,' that one obstacle in our lives, we will have readied ourselves to pull him down wherever we find him because we will have proven our metal and we will have proven our faith—indeed, we will have proven Christ and His promises! We will know our metal is strong, our faith is unshakable and our Christ is faithful!

...Taken Seriously

March 25

Life is too important to be taken seriously. - Oscar Wilde

Although things do not look optimistic today—economic calamities, saber rattling, betrayal of allies—you have to recognize that nothing has really changed. As you are told in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” The same evil entity who has been about the scheme of undoing the work of God plods on with his evil intent; and the same Christ who has brought his mischief to nothing will still reign eternally. Those who believe are citizens of Heaven (Philippians 3:20) and their great hope is Jesus. Nothing has changed.

But the one great truth that covers both the destiny of men and nations, contrary to the words of Oscar Wilde, IS TOO IMPORTANT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY—“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” Hebrews 13:8. Your receipt of Him into your heart as Lord and Savior is the one event of life that can transform you eternally. Because of the Lord’s life, death, and resurrection, no man need taste death. Because He died in your place, and because, “In Him is life and the life is the light of men,” John 1:4, you need never walk in darkness.

Life, who you are in the inner man, who you are as a parent to your children, who you are in Christ, who you are eternally, is far more important than the impact of the ever-deepening darkness of the hearts of people who are governed by humanistic arrogance rather than by Christ-centered love (II Corinthians 4:16).

Just as your citizenship is not in fallen Earth but in Heaven, so your hope, your strength, you peace, your joy, your faith, your love are not in empty, broken, miserably-self-absorbed people but in the One Person who can transform the darkness of this world—whether political or personal—into light. Your hope, your light, is now, as it has ever been, in Jesus alone.

When you grasp that truth, you are truly free, truly happy—for you know every good thing you possess comes from His hand. You know that what HE gives transcends the ever ebbing and flowing fortunes of time. People, circumstances, governments can't give peace, hope, truth; and people, circumstances, governments can't take peace, hope, truth away. So continue to live your life for the Jesus who you profess to love and trust. Continue to strive to make your sphere of influence radiant with His light and to transform every life that touches yours with the power of His love.

You are His; you do His bidding in the darkness, hoping that His glory as it reflects from you will draw others who will allow themselves to love Him and allow His light to transform their gloom into His radiance. Eternal life is far too important to be neglected. The souls of lost men hang in the balance so you must play your role of reflecting His light with utmost seriousness.

The Triumphal Palm Sunday Entry

THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY

The two disciples did as Jesus commanded. They brought the donkey and the colt to him and threw their garments over the colt, and he sat on it.

Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting,

"Praise God for the Son of David! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Praise God in highest heaven!"

The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as he entered. "Who is this?" they asked. And the crowds replied, "It's Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee." -- Matthew 21:6-11

May we allow Him to enter our hearts triumphally and may we allow Him to abide there forever in the glory of who HE is and in the power of all He desires to be to us. May we invite Him to shine through us as we reflect His love , His truth, His power, His glory, His salvation to everyone whose life touches ours.

Like the moon that has no light, may we illumine the darkness around us because we reflect the Son as He shines forth from us.

If God Be For Us

March 24

Where there is great love there are always miracles. - Willa Cather

How can love be the springboard for miracles? Perhaps because it is the one human emotion that so emulates the character and the heart of God, who tells us of Himself, "God is love," I John 4:8. Perhaps it is because, as the WORD of GOD that cannot fail and cannot lie says to us, "Love covers a multitude of sins," I Peter 4:8. Again, this affirmation is a total reflection of Jesus who gave Himself in order to cover our sins. When we love—in spite of the failures and foibles and sins of those around us, we are reflecting the Lord Himself who loves the most evil among us and will wash away the sin of every man who asks—in the cleansing font of Calvary's flow.

Is there much to forgive? Sometimes the offenses are many and weighty, but when the resolve to love is greater than the natural tendency to retaliate or to hold a grudge, the great miracle of forgiveness can occur—and the greater miracle of love can do its work. When the mechanism for those two matchless entities—forgiveness and love—is set in motion, there is no limit, no restriction, no hindrance to the unfolding of true miracles—not just the good things that accrue from kindnesses exchanged and normalcy restored to a relationship, but the true, God-initiated miracles that thrive wherever love and forgiveness dwell!

Decide to give God’s way of loving and forgiving a to chance result in the kinds of miracles that love brings. Be enveloped in a cocoon of the Lord's presence and power around you to facilitate the effecting of love's work without hindrance from interfering or conflicting attitudes or emotions from others who may not see your resolve as a positive step in the direction of a good goal. They may count you as a fool because you employ the emotions of Heaven to overcome the evils of Earth, but we who believe are prepared to be “fools for Christ’s sake,” I Corinthians 4:10. May you give love, truth, hope, peace, joy, kindness—the fruit of the Spirit—a chance to result in the full and complete reign of the Lord Jesus Christ over your heart, within your home, and through all the circumstances that fall within the sphere of your influence.

May HIS LORDSHIP over you bring good things to you to such a degree that nothing and no one else will matter. May other opinions melt into the great opinion of GOD which says, "Father forgive them..." Luke 23:4, and which says, "Love never fails," I Corinthians 13:8. May the Lord's investment of Himself into your experiment of loving as He loves be so full and complete that every other person who has any connection to you must be conformed to the great mind of Christ—bringing to pass the promise, "IF GOD BE FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US," Romans 8:31.

Love's Great Reward

March 23

Lord, grant that I might not so much seek to be loved as to love. - St. Francis of Assisi

Perhaps what the good saint is saying to us here is that we should be 'initiators' not 'responders.' If we wait until we are loved before we are willing to extend that precious commodity to others, the pipeline that carries it from one heart to another will certainly be clogged and no love will flow at all! Does he expect that we pour ourselves out in order to love people who are unloving? It seems he does. But the love with which we must lavish them is not the frail human variety that fades like an autumn leaf and is blown away with the wind.

The love St. Francis admonishes should become a part of our gift to those around us—both the kind and gentle of spirit as well as the unkind and harsh—is that which flows from the Lord's own heart to us. It is that amazing love that washes over us in spite of our unbelief, in spite of our inability to receive it or to requite it, that, if we can bring ourselves to embrace it to our hearts, our hearts will have in abundance to extend to the broken, bitter, empty souls around us.

Do we have a promise that we will then become the recipients of the love of everyone who is touched by Christ's love flowing from us? No, we do not, for every soul must make its choice to receive or disdain the love the Lord holds out to them and to receive or disdain the vessel He uses to pour it upon them. The one thing that remains constant is His admonition that we must love even our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48). In so doing, we will emulate the Christ who said with dying lips from the cross, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing," Luke 23:34.

When we recognize that those who would undo us, those who would cause us hurt, those who would judge us and count us guilty and deny us even salvation if they could are so bitter and blind and beyond the mercy-shadow of Calvary's Hill from which love and forgiveness flow that they cannot understand or appropriate the amazing prayer of Jesus and they cannot therefore apply it to their own sphere of experience!

Does that mean we should scratch them from our prayers? Does that mean we should withhold God's love from them as it flows from our heart? It does not. If we will but persist in allowing ourselves to be the vessels from which the Lord can pour Himself upon the lost and dying sinners among us, upon the self-righteous and arrogant who are in our midst, we will one day see the result of His promise to those who do so—and "even our enemies shall be at peace with us," Proverbs 16:7.

Perhaps this is one of the ultimate great advantages toward which St. Francis looked and aspired when he penned those beautiful words, "...rather love than be loved," for he knew from his own experience with man and with God which is the better course, which is the truest expression of the heart of Christ, and which affords the believer the greatest reward of joy.

Love Conquers All

March 22

Love conquers all. - Virgil

If only Virgil were right. If only love could transcend all that's wrong on this fallen planet and every animosity, rooted in every human heart, could be defeated by that one sweeping affirmation of the power of the one thing the Bible tells us is the greatest fruit of the Spirit which will abide forever (see I Corinthians 13:8). If even the Word of God that cannot fail and cannot lie tells us that "Love never fails," what's wrong here? What's the basis for the discrepancy between what the pens of poets acclaim and what the Word of God affirms—and the 'reality' we see all around us?

If love conquers all, if love cannot fail, then why do men wallow in hatred and disdain for their fellow man? Why is the divorce rate at 50%? Why do broken children rebel against their parents? Why do neighbors mistrust each other and why must borders be guarded? There is no single answer to any of those questions but part of the answer is that men do not believe that love can accomplish what it is purported to do—and in their disbelief, they don’t give love a chance.

Perhaps this is so because they equate love to the fickle emotion they bear within themselves. Their own love is rooted in the lust of the eyes and the desires of the flesh and the pride of life (I John 2:16). Human love is selfish and introspective. It appears to conquer all when it attains the object of its yearning. But human love wanes. Human love does not stand the test to which it is put. Human love cannot endure the refiner's fire. When the novelty wears off, when disappointments come, human love is revealed to be the beggarly counterfeit of real love that it is.

So the Word of God is true when it says, "Love never fails." But it is true only of the love of God—the love that was evidenced by Jesus Christ who died on the cross so man could live eternally (see John 15:13). To the degree that fallen man espouses DIVINE LOVE, the love that took Jesus to Calvary and then raised Him from the grave, to that degree does love have the opportunity to conquer all.

The Buck Stops Here

March 21

The buck stops here. - President Harry Truman

I am not a student of history so my understanding of who Truman was may not be precise, but he is the first president that I remember. My childhood observation was that he was honored and respected by the adults in my life. They were democrats so that wouldn't be a surprise to me—except that I didn't have a clue at that time as to what being a democrat meant. My first memory of a presidential election was when Dwight Eisenhower ran against Adlay Stevenson. My family respected Ike for winning the war and all...but they were for the democrat. My parents attended a Stevenson rally. Our little community was a thriving industrial union area so he visited there.

The point I’m leading to here is that President Truman inherited a war. Unlike some politicians today who blame former administrations for adverse conditions facing the voters, Truman assumed responsibility for the problems swirling around the country at that time. He had been Roosevelt’s vice-president and everyone knows the vice-president isn't involved in a great amount of governance, but this president didn't lay the blame for the problems of war upon his predecessor who had been in office for well-beyond the allotted two terms. He accepted that he was now in the seat of power; therefore; it was he who now had control.

We must emulate President Truman with that one unequivocal assertion in our own lives. Each of us must say, regarding the things we think and say and do and believe—"The buck stops here." It is easy to fall into the trap of believing that it is someone else who pulls our strings...that we are mere puppets who are jerked here and there by people and circumstances beyond our control. And there are indeed people and circumstances in our lives that cause our lives to be more or less difficult, but it is ultimately our choice as to how we will react to them.

Will we allow the good people, the good things, to encourage us, to lift us up, to affirm the reality of God's love and provision and complete care for us or will we allow the bad people to depress us, to drag us down, to make us wonder if even God can love us? What will we do? "The buck stops here." Will we hold our burdens tightly as though they were some valued possession that we can't bear to lose or will we "Cast all our care on Jesus for He cares for us"? (I Peter 5:7) What will we do? "The buck stops here."

Will we wallow in misery today and carry our mindset of gloom and depression and despair into another 24 hours of hopelessness or will we "Redeem the time," Ephesians 5:16, although “the days are evil,” knowing time is a precious gift from the Christ who wants us to possess His finest gifts in the realm of time? What will we do? "The buck stops here."

Will we allow our mind to become our prison where we are not free to hope in the promises God has extended to us in His Word? Will we negate His offer of His own joy that is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10), His own faith that moves mountains (Matthew 17:20), His own peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7), His own love that never fails (I Corinthians 13:8), His own power (II Timothy 1:17), which delivers us from fear, His own Spirit who dwells within us (I Corinthians 3:16)? Or will we embrace the promises to ourselves—even if we don't understand, even if we don't see the advantage in doing so? What will we do? "The buck stops here."

Whatever has transpired to date, whatever happened yesterday, allow today to be the day of your new beginning! Let today be the day that you sing along with the beautiful words of Rich Mullins' amazing song, MY DELIVERER IS COMING, "Though the stars break faith with the sky, though I doubt my heart, though I doubt my mind, I will never doubt His promise!"

No matter what men may say or do to cause you to believe there is no hope in the world and no help in the Savior, don't allow them or their distortion of the gospel to cause you to wither into the depression and despair that hopelessness causes! NO! Hold fast to the WORD OF GOD THAT CANNOT FAIL AND CANNOT LIE! HOLD FAST TO THE CHRIST WHO LOOKS AT YOU WITH EYES OF ACCEPTANCE AND FORGIVENESS AND LOVE and allow the favor in which you abide because you are HIS and HE IS YOURS to influence everything you say, everything you do, everything you are in the inner man—for good! What will you do? "The buck stops here!"

Whose Mind Will You Have?

March 20

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in YOUR sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer. David in Psalm 19:14

Jeremiah 31:3 assures us that our Father God “has loved us with an everlasting love.” He does not promise to love us if we fulfill His expectation of us, if we never fail, if we never sin. He does not promise to love us only in prosperity and in youth and in health but “even unto old age and gray hairs,” Isaiah 46:4, He has promised to lavish His love and protection upon us.

Since you are precious in His sight, let today be the first day of the change YOU make in WHO YOU ARE IN YOUR OWN EYES—and in so doing, you will set the course of your future on a bright and hopeful path of light and truth and joy and love. The Lord who loves you will assure your hopeful expectations, for He has ways beyond yours to establish the good things you will for yourself when you allow your mind to latch onto the HOPE YOU HAVE IN CHRIST!

You do the part you can do—change your mind and change your heart and change your outlook—"LET THE WORDS OF YOUR MOUTH AND THE MEDITATION OF YOUR HEART BE ACCEPTABLE IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD WHO LOVES YOU," Psalm 19:14—THINK AND SAY HIS WORDS OF TRUTH AND FREEDOM—and allow Jesus to do His part to change the things you cannot change.

Even a prison is not the same thing to God that it is to man. Just as nothing of life's trials are to the Lord what they are to us. One of God’s finest servants was languishing in a Saudi prison for merely possessing a Bible! He was beaten and tortured and scheduled for execution but this was not the same impossible tragedy to God as it was to him. To him it was an inevitable, unfortunate, victory of the enemy who would destroy him to prevent the future ministry he would have. To God it was a small thing to reverse the dictates of evil men, to have the King of Saudi Arabia pressured by public opinion abroad to set this godly man free at the 'midnight hour.' Yes, at the midnight hour he was released from his death sentence!

Peter, in chains, awaiting execution had friends who were praying for him. When the angel came and guided Peter through the locked prison to the home of his friends, they thought they saw a ghost because his release was an impossibility in their minds—even as they were praying for him to be released! But it was not an impossibility in God's mind! (See Acts 12:1-18).

Whose mind will you have while you are in your prison? Will you presume you're helplessly trapped? If you do, you are obviously in good company—in the company of men of profound faith but whose faith did not allow them to see beyond man's limitations to God's unfathomable power! Or will you allow yourself to hold fast to the assurance that the One who has come to “set the captive free,” (Luke 4:18) the One who has already freed you from “death, hell and the grave,” (Hosea 13:14) the One who has already set you free from the worst thing that ever had you bound—your own sin—will also set you free from the circumstances that currently hold you in their grip!

With Man...With God...

March 19

We must become the change we wish to see in the world. - Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Gandhi makes an important point. We don't have the power to change the world. We can't change our political system, we can't change our nation's destiny. We can't change what's happened in the past. We can't change what will transpire in the future. We hardly have control over what will happen two minutes from now. The one thing we can begin to influence toward a desired change is ourselves, although often, we don't seem able to affect even our own heart-set or our own mind-set.

The above-stated observation is particularly true if we have allowed ourselves to become prisoners of our own thinking (Proverbs 23:7). If we have allowed ourselves to become negative in our perceptions of who we are and what our future is, we can be incarcerated within our own tormented outlook as to what our future holds. The world around us impacts us negatively—from the devastation caused from renegade storms or the threatenings of renegade nations or the aspirations of violent men who yearn for total conquest of the world, to our own personal storms—so we have every reason to be depressed.

We have every reason to allow ourselves to plummet further and further into a sense of inadequacy and hopelessness; to allow ourselves to spiral further and further into a sense of our own worthlessness—UNTIL we remind ourselves that the Author of the universe, the One who created all that exists by the word of His mouth, the One who laid His deity aside to become a man has paid an enormous price in order to save us from our foibles, failures and sins! Jesus did it all to deliver us from people and circumstances that can precipitate our downfall; He came to deliver us from even our ‘self,’ I Timothy 1:15.

Jesus paid it all for me; He paid it all for you. The realization of that one amazing truth should negate the effect of any negative world event, any personal conflict, or any negative inner perception we have of ourselves! I am not an orphan child whose mother died too soon, whose father rejected him, whose so-called friend claimed, "I can destroy you." NO! I am the child of the KING of kings and LORD of lords! I have value in HIS eyes! I am treasured so much that HE DIED FOR ME!

YOU ARE "PRECIOUS IN THE BELOVED." You, if you will change your perception of yourself, will discover that in appropriating what JESUS thinks of you unto your self-hood, in allowing the love of the Almighty to over-ride the disdain of mere men who would make themselves to be lord over you, you will become who the LORD ordained you to be from the foundation of the earth! You will be pure and free and alive and filled with hope in your own perception of yourself!

Let today be the first day of the change YOU make in WHO YOU ARE IN YOUR OWN EYES—and in so doing, you will set the course of your future on a bright and hopeful path of light and truth and joy and love. The Lord who loves you will affirm your hopeful expectations, for He has ways beyond yours to establish the good things you claim for yourself when you allow your mind to latch onto the HOPE YOU HAVE IN CHRIST! Remember, “With man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible,” Matthew 19:26.

Mightier Than The Storm

March 18

Gather strength from life's storms. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

After the 'monster storm' of the century, we looked back to evaluate the impact it had upon us; to assess the damage that would require repair and to determine whatever strength we may have attained through the experience of it. Our first reaction was to simply be glad it's over!

One good thing that came from the storm is the fact that families had the opportunity to be at home together. Instead of going off to work and to school, the weather caused the cancellation of many daily activities. In that alone, if nothing else, the storm was a blessing.

However, seeing the devastation in some locales, makes us aware that many people were not so fortunate as to simply be cloistered for a short time with those they love. According to reports, there are multiplied thousands of individuals whose property was extensively damaged and still more who remain without electrical power. It is a testimony to the Lord's hand upon us that we are not among them. May He wrap His arms around the people who are undone by the hurricane, and show them His power as they recover from the damage that was inflicted upon them by its great force.

If there is any real strength to be obtained through such weather calamities as was experienced, perhaps it is in realizing that Jesus is greater than the storm. When all is said and done, we must acknowledge that we have no power to control the storms. We must acknowledge that we cannot prevent the damage and the loss that they inflict. But we can hold fast to the ONE who can control the storm, who can assuage its ability to cause destruction and who can keep the power line to HIMSELF intact despite the storm!

If HE desires anything from the storm and its aftermath that later item may be the singular effect He wants us to achieve through life's difficult seasons—through them He demonstrates His nearness to us in a clearer way than we can ever realize in the sunny times of our lives. Through the storm and its gloom and its devastation, He brightly shines His light through its darkness and demonstrates His protection from the damage it can inflict. His power line remains unshaken! As the Word tells us, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning,“ Psalm 30:5.

So we, who trust Him gain the strength of seeing His power demonstrated in our behalf at the point of our need—we were desperate for shelter from the storm and He supplied it! We were desperate to maintain our power source and He maintained it! May that help us to grasp Jesus' never-failing power at the point of every need we ever face! No matter the nature of the tempest, our Lord and Savior is mightier than the storm!

The Perfect Storm

March 17 Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

When I awoke after a recent, violent storm, I expected to be stumbling through the dark, to be feeling quite a chill, and to be drinking bottled water instead of a cup of freshly brewed coffee. But I am illumined by my little night lights, enjoying the designated temperature set on our thermostat, and sipping my warm coffee. The 'perfect storm' that is still hovering in our area, still howling outside the window, still pouring buckets-full of rain upon us has not curtailed our electric service! Far lesser storms have done that, but this one has been stayed by a mighty hand that has ordained we shall not be without necessary power through this onslaught.

That same hand touches our lives through other types of storms in life as well. In fact, the one thing this horrible storm has done is to awaken my awareness of the truth of His promise to be with His people through their storms. It is evident that Jesus Christ makes all the difference in the midst of the storm--and not only when He speaks, "Peace, be still," Mark 4:39. Sometimes, He doesn't stop the storm when we cry out, "Lord, don't You care that we perish!" as His disciples did when their little boat was threatened by the towering waves of the tumultuous sea (Mark 4:38). Sometimes He allows the storm to run its course and He calms His people (John 14:27).

He calms His people by giving them that inner "peace that passes understanding to keep their hearts and their minds in Him" (Philippians 4:7) when the storm around them continues to rage. When He gives inner peace in the midst of the storm, we gain an advantage that sunny skies cannot afford to us. When He gives inner peace in the midst of the storm, we begin to recognize the infinite power that is ours when we walk hand-in-hand with Him through our trials. We begin to recognize that there is a level of living and moving and having our being that transcends the calm moments of joy that we so covet—and allows us to embrace even the moments of helplessness in the face of a torrential onslaught that is beyond our ability to overcome on our own.

So we hold more tightly to the Lord in our trials and we seek His direction a little more fervently, for we know He is the key to riding out the storm, but we do not fear, for we begin to grasp the truth that was made manifestly clear to Job in his ordeal, "When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold," Job 23:10. We realize as that good man did that the trial is not for our destruction but to prove our faith, to strengthen our confidence in the One who sometimes allows us to reach the point of saying, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him," Job 13:15. He wants us to reach that decision—to trust in spite of the storm—for that decision, of all the decisions we will ever make, brings us to the real point of power over the storms of life.

It is that decision, of all the decisions we will ever make, that brings us to the point of understanding what a storm—even a 'perfect monster storm of the millennium'—cannot do! It cannot rob us of His light in which He enables us to walk without fear of the darkness. It cannot rob us of the warmth of His love which is always with us. It cannot rob us of the refreshing of the living water that Jesus is to us.

It cannot rob YOU of these things because Jesus is with you through the storm; He is by your side. The storm—no matter its nature or its intensity—has no power over you.

Unfailing Love

Love conquers all. - Virgil

Sometimes those words sound a little hollow. We aspire to love and to experience the joy and fulfillment that accompany requited love, but in the real world, disillusionment sets in when the best of our efforts to extend love result in a cold, hard, callous wall that stands between us and all the hopes and dreams we'd invested in attaining something good and lovely.

What began as a vehicle that brought us to a point of warm, pleasant, hopeful expectation becomes instead one that dashes our hope and leaves our emotions bruised and broken. So we doubt the veracity of Virgil's assertion...

...unless we apply it from its only completely viable perspective, unless we view it as it is best apprehended. And that is when we come to the awareness that no matter how completely human love can indeed disappoint us, the Lord's love never will.

I Corinthians 13:8-13 says, "Love never fails. Prophecies shall fail...tongues shall cease...knowledge shall vanish away...we see through a glass darkly (we cannot perceive God's love in its totality for our eyes are finite and His love is infinite), but then face-to-face...then shall we know even as we are known. For now abides faith, hope and love—and the greatest of these is love."

May Jesus help us to keep our focus on Him, for when we look at Him, we will not be disappointed in love. May Jesus help us to appropriate the unfathomable love He has for us—even if we don't understand it totally. May Jesus help us to be a reflection of His love to others who may not grasp the magnitude of blessings that real, forgiving, accepting, all-encompassing love can be to a life for time and eternity. And as we reflect Him, may the light of Jesus' truth and love illumine our world and those who live in it. May we always remember, the Lord loves us with a love that will never fail (Jeremiah 31:3).

Refreshing Rain

March 15

Kind words are a creative force, a power that concurs in the building up of all that is good; they are the energy that God uses to shower blessings upon the world. Lawrence G. Lovasik

Kind words don't always trill off our tongue. It's because they aren't in our minds or in our spirits. We tend to be reactive rather than proactive so our minds and spirits formulate their thoughts based on what people say and do to us rather than on our own resolve to allow only the goodness of God's heart to speak through us. It requires a determination on our part to appropriate the creative, powerful force of words in the behalf of the Christ we desire to be reflected in our lives.

Our words and the thoughts from which they emanate are among the most powerful things we possess. This is why the Word admonishes us to prayerfully say before the Lord, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer," Psalm 19:14. If our words and the meditations from which they spring are acceptable to Jesus, then we can be assured that they will be effective tools in producing the good things He would have us to achieve through them.

May we be so filled with HIS WORD—the truth, the joy, the kindness, the purity, the light, the love (Philippians 4:8) that emanate from Jesus—that our own words will be bathed in the glory of what HE says! When our words are washed in the lovely wellspring from which His wondrous love and kindness emanate, then love and kindness shall pervade the totality of our lives. When that happens, our self-hood will be transformed by the wonder of the perfection of Jesus, and who we are will be transformed by who HE IS! The good that will accrue to us when our being is re-formed into the likeness of His will astound us!

May we surprise ourselves with the wonderful things that can be accomplished in and through us when we simply determine to make His words our own. May we surprise everyone around us when there is nothing they can do or say that can cause an unkind response from us, for we have allowed our lives to be taken over in their entirety by the life of Christ (Luke 6:45). When we have done that, we will no longer indulge words that are not advantageous to the ultimate intention of the heart of Jesus—to bathe all men in the power of His love; to infuse them with the energy that brings His blessings to everyone it touches!

With all my heart I pray the power of God's words of love and truth may ever be on your tongue so the blessings they bring can continually rain down in a refreshing shower upon you.

Nothing Can Hold You Down!

March 14

Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence. - Og Mandino

This simple admonition, "Count your blessings..." is God's invitation to us to take inventory of ourselves, of our lives, of our circumstances. He would have us to do so because in that simple accounting exercise we will come to the conclusion that in spite of the things that are amiss in our lives (and everyone's life has trials of one sort or another) the evidence of the Lord's loving hand upon still abounds.

He does not ask us to negate the challenges we face or to deny the impact of the actions and attitudes of those who have set themselves against us. He doesn't expect us to live a lie in order to improve our perception of our circumstances. But He would have us to recognize the truth of the Word that says, "If God be for us, who can be against us!" Romans 8:31—and HE IS FOR US!

He is for us. That is not always evident amid the clamor of negativity that impacts our lives. It is not always easy to hear His "still, small voice," I Kings 19:12 in the cacophony of competing shouts of accusation and condemnation that assail our ears. It is not always easy to discern His love when so much disdain is thrust in our face. It is sometimes impossible to feel hope when the weight of depression virtually crushes us.

But, Jesus IS for us. As Rich Mullins said so beautifully in "My Deliverer Is Coming," ...I doubt my heart, I doubt my eyes...but I will never doubt His promise. Through the hurts we endure, through the challenges we face, through the self-recrimination that we impose, the Lord is endeavoring to bring us to a realization of the immeasurable totality of His promises in our behalf.

Jesus wants us to know that we know that we know that we know –HE WILL NEVER FAIL OR FORSAKE US! (Hebrews 13:5) The problems He allows to touch our lives are designed with the intent that through them HE WILL REVEAL HIS FAITHFULNESS! So we listen for His voice of comfort when the winds of adversity blow. So we look for His hand of kindness when other hands would point accusing fingers in our direction. So we endeavor to sense His assurance of hope when our own heart is encompassed in despair.

And in so doing, we find that which He has intended for us all along—we find His peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7)—and when we do, we further discover that we are so precious to Him that He will indeed effect miracles in our behalf. He will indeed give us the beauty of His up-lifting promises in exchange for the down-trodden weight our spirits. We will discover without a doubt that "His banner over ME is love," Song of Solomon 2:4. Hold that banner high over YOU every day, for if you do, no person, no weight of care, no negative emotion can hold you down!

Dance Lightly

March 13

Dance lightly with life. Anonymous

Four simple words that can transform this minute, this hour, this day, and all our tomorrows! Sometimes we allow life to hold us too tightly as we dance. We take every word spoken to us, every glance shot our way, with a degree of seriousness they do not deserve. If we could adopt the policy of the duck, who allows the water in which he's engulfed to simply roll off him, we, like this wise little creature, would not be drowning in our circumstances!

The people, the things that seem negative and unmanageable are so because we give too much power to them. We allow them to be like tentacles of an encompassing monster that grasp us tightly and suffocate the hope, the truth, the peace, the joy, the love--right out of us! They don't deserve to have that kind of destructive hold on us! They don't deserve any hold on us at all!

What they deserve is to be wrested from us and cast into the ash bin of life! That's the place for any negativity—such things as despair, hopelessness, depression frustration, self-denigration, faithlessness—all these things are arms of the monster-octopus of trouble that the evil one uses to grasp God's people and squeeze the faith and the life out of them. Indeed, he knows that if he can choke our faith, he increases the strength of all the things he uses to hold us and suffocate us!

In order to help the Lord effect our deliverance, we must indeed, 'dance lightly with life.' We must require ourselves to let go of the trials that have us bound, for in our releasing them, half the strength of their grip is gone! They can't grasp us nearly so tightly on their own as they can when we cling to them! Dance lightly with them...and soon they will no longer be our dancing partner!

When we have allowed Him to approach us, our NEW PARTNER—ONE who has love in His eyes, ONE who has gentleness in His hands, ONE who will hold us tenderly to HIS heart and whisper kindly into our ear, “Come to Me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest,” Matthew 11:28—will dance with us! If we follow His lead, allow Him to dance through the years and decades of time with us, His promise is that we shall also dance together through a glorious eternity."

Children

March 12

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives. Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein may have been one of the smartest men to ever live but I think he is wrong when it comes to his assessment of the pursuit of truth and beauty. He is wrong to relegate some of life's most worthwhile endeavors to the activities of childhood.

Children play, children run and cry and demand their way, but they rarely pursue truth and are discriminating when it comes to discerning beauty only in that their mommy is, in their eyes, the most beautiful, perfect creature on earth! And the Word tells us, “When I was a child, I thought as a child…but when I became a man, I put away childish things,” I Corinthians 13:11.

The real pursuit of truth and beauty is a never-ending sphere of activity in which people who desire to be Christ-like in their own lives endeavor to discern His reality in the things of time—in the things they understand with their minds and in the things they see with their eyes. This is not child's play; this is at times a real life or death matter that must be engaged in earnestly.

We know all truth is in Christ, for He has said of Himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but by Me," John 14:6. We know there is no error in Him, there is no subtlety; there is no guile. He says what He means and He means what He says. In a world steeped in deception, He is our one anchor to truth. In a world that worships at the shrine of beauty, He is the one beautiful person to live among us and reveal true loveliness to us.

He has shown us that true beauty is a matter of the soul and not of the physical. He has shown us that truth and beauty complement one another for they each affirm the person-hood of the one who seeks them. In Jesus, we discover that Heaven's radiance has come to earth to reveal not only the mind of God to us but to reveal His heart to us. When we see the mind and heart of God, we see the only truth there is and the only beauty there is.

We see all the best of life in the truth and beauty of Jesus. With that in mind, perhaps Einstein is correct, for the Lord said that to attain heaven we must become as little children (Matthew 18:3). If Einstein is correct and seeking truth and beauty is the occupation of children, may we remain forever young and forever absorbed in the task of not only finding but living and walking in truth and beauty!

...On The Difficult Days

March 11

May a thread of comfort be woven through your difficult days.- Mary Anne Radmacher

We don't want difficult days. We want days of comfort and leisure and prosperity and joy. We want days that overflow with life's good things. But the reality is that difficult days come. In fact, the delight of good days is most often interwoven with the difficulty of unpleasant days. Life is rarely a solid cloth but a balanced pattern of both.

Much as our plates must have a bit of carbohydrate, a bit of protein...so our daily emotional fare includes a bit of sunshine, a bit of rain (Matthew 5:45). As the Word states in Ecclesiastes 7:16, "Be not righteous overmuch; neither make thyself over-wise, for why should you destroy yourself?" The point seems to be that preoccupation with doing all things right, attempting to have the answers to all difficulties, will result in failure and disappointment! Our solution is to leave these things with the Lord, for only He is our righteousness. Only He is our truth. Only He is our reality. Only He is our joy. Only He is the answer to our every need!

In Paul's letter to the Corinthians he discusses the topic of moral and spiritual failure. He has addressed a fault that has been found among the people. But he goes on to say, "...if I make you sorry, how can I be glad?...so I wrote to you with many tears that you should not be grieved, but rather that you should know my abundant love...and forgiveness and comfort...lest satan should get an advantage," II Corinthians 2:2-11. The point is, be righteous, be wise, be godly and upright, but if failure comes, if temptation assails and sin overtakes, be mindful of the reality that only Jesus has conquered sin! Only Jesus is holy! Only Jesus has the covering for our sin. We don't have it on our own.

And if others fail us, must we not forgive them? How can we hold them to a standard no man can achieve without Jesus? Our responsibility is not to condemn but to identify the wrong and then forgive it. Paul says the only one who is advantaged when we hold a grudge is the devil. How so? Because when we deny ourselves any opportunity to be like Jesus, we are robbed of His blessing! The enemy of God, the enemy of our soul, would have us to be bound in doubt, fear and unforgiveness. Why?

The evil one desires that we compound the difficulties of our days with disobedience. If he can cause us to cling to doubt, he has undermined our faith. If he can cause us to cling to despair, he has undermined our hope. If he can cause us to cling to unforgiveness of others, he can undermine the forgiveness from sin we have received from our Savior. If he can cause us to reject love and embrace disdain, he can blind us to the great love Jesus holds out to us! Because the Lord has forgiven us all things and delivered us from every negative thought (“God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of wisdom,” II Timothy 1:7) He will empower us to employ the gift of forgiveness.

So, let us receive the thread of comfort that the Lord weaves through our difficult days. Let it create a fabric for our lives that is strong, that is impossible to rend. Let us evidence Christ in our days of comfort and pleasure as well as in our days of trial and frustration, for HE IS LORD OF ALL! Let us "walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7) into the comfort He provides every day to those who will appropriate it. Let us hold tightly to Jesus—especially on the difficult days.

We Shape The World

March 10

What we think, we become. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we shape our world. Anonymous

There is a great and profound truth expressed in today's quote; it is one that is stated in the Bible in even more specific and positive terms. In Philippians 4:8, the Apostle Paul says, "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and there be any praise, think on these things."

The point is that we are what we think. That is why it is crucial that we don't allow ourselves to succumb to negativism. Our thoughts can pull us down. Those who would try to tear us down, the evil one himself, would have us to think negatively and thereby relegate ourselves to despair and despondency and depression. Those attitudes of mind are destructive to spirit and soul and emotion and body. The one who, "comes to steal, kill and destroy," John 10:10, uses those tactics to undo a believer and to make him his own worst enemy.

Of course the negative circumstances of life can drag us down! Of course the adversity we encounter can challenge us in the deepest part of our self-hood. Of course the unkindness of the people around us can badger our self-confidence and make us question our right to joy and peace and love...but these are tools of the enemy! These are not the threads from which our Jesus would weave the fabric of our lives but they are the moths that would corrupt the fabric of our lives!

Our Lord would build us up! Does He condone our sin? By no means. He hates sin. That is why He gave Himself to eradicate the power of sin from the lives of His fallen creation! And in having given us the means of having our sin erased, the Word tells us that we cannot leave the space that sin once filled empty, for if it is not filled with the good things—the lovely, the true, the honest, the up-lifting things of life—the evil things will return with a vengeance! (See Matthew 12:44.)

Negativity is rather like a disease that seems to have been cured but flares back in an even more devastating onslaught! It must be totally healed, it must be totally under the blood of Jesus—and there must be nothing left of it to recur another day! So must the negativity of sin and its consequences be completely under the blood of Jesus so it cannot beset the blood-bought child of God another day. How is this accomplished?

First, by receiving in faith the complete cleansing that Jesus' sacrifice for our sin provided for us. We must believe and be sure that HE has done a complete work, an effectual work—and it is complete and effectual for ME! Jesus didn't die just for the sin of the world, HE DIED FOR MY SIN! I must believe that. Then I must act upon that belief. I must comport myself as “more than a conqueror,” Romans 8:37. I must live my life as the child of the King of kings and Lord of lords. How do I do that? By taking control of what I think! Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

I cannot appropriate all that HE has for me if I do not believe in my mind that it is for me. If I indulge negative thoughts about myself, I relegate myself to a shadow of the fullness HE desires to give me! I must think about those lovely and glorious truths that separate me from my past life, from my sin. I must allow the sweet songs of salvation and love and truth and joy to drown out the sounds of accusation and condemnation from people who allow themselves to be instruments in the hand of the evil one toward the destruction of believers who are Christ's!

All we are begins with our thoughts! With our thoughts we shape our world!

Miracles

March 9

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.- Albert Einstein

Life is a miracle. This concept boggles my mind because it is so beyond anything that could have been accomplished apart from the great, unfathomable mind of God. Those who believe life emerged from primordial slime and evolved into the intricately different aspects of it that abound are simply exercising a greater faith than that which Christians have in the God whose handiwork we believe we see.

But beyond the evidence we have of His great mind that is behind all that exists (see Genesis 1) is the evidence of His unfathomable love that sent Jesus to the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of man! (See Revelation 13:8.) Our finite minds have great difficulty wrapping themselves around that glorious truth, as evidenced by the fact that so many disbelieve. Man is willing to embrace any number of false ways, but is unwilling to appropriate ‘the Way’ that grants forgiveness when we simply ask Jesus to wash us and make us clean in Calvary's flow.

But when we have believed, we have another hurdle to overcome--that which would deny the effectuality of His promises to us! When the challenges of life confront us, we should say, as Habakkuk did in His small book, "The promise is for an appointed time. Though it tarry, wait for it, for it will surely come. It will not tarry," Habakkuk 2:3. We are reluctant to say as Rich Mullins affirmed in his beautiful song, "My Deliverer Is Coming...I doubt my mind, I doubt my heart...but I will not doubt His promises.” I will not doubt His absolute care for me that assures He will be faithful to me--no matter what I see!

May we, no matter what our situation might be, look beyond our circumstances to the unshakable truth of God's love and promise of hope in our lives. May we be part of the category of men who do not doubt miracles, but who see them everywhere. May our eyes be opened to see the loving Deliverer who stands beside us and will lead us into the promised land of good that He has in His heart to give to us for time and eternity.

Carve Your Name

March 8

Carve your name on hearts, not on marble. - Charles H. Spurgeon

Great and mighty men are immortalized with statues and paintings and frescoes that depict their victories and their accomplishments, but few of them have actually carved their names in the hearts of people. That's because so many individuals whose exploits in life are considered 'great' have accomplished their amazing feats through harsh or even ruthless tactics.

Carving ones name on hearts requires far greater skill and patience and evenness of temper than mere advancement in the areas of life's challenges. The Bible tells us that the man who conquers his own spirit is far stronger than the general who conquers a city, Proverbs 16:32. Just so, the individual who carves his name upon the hearts of those around him is guided by a far superior force than the one who merely use those around him to advance himself.

A loving parent is among the individuals who resolutely do the work of rearing their children in the wisdom and admonition of the Lord, according to Ephesians 6:4. These nurturing souls invest themselves in the well-being of their little ones and they do not rest until they are assured that in every circumstance they can work goodness to their children's advantage; in every circumstance they can labor until their children are established in the right path, according to Proverbs 22:6 which says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

These godly parents will invest their time and energy and faith and love toward the goal of their children's perfect good for time and eternity, thereby carving themselves on the hearts of their progeny. You, Christian parent, must not allow yourself to be dissuaded from guiding your children aright when they are resilient and willful. You cannot allow yourself to be deterred from the right course of godliness and truth when that course is not easily pursued because of the challenges of life or by the corrupting influence of the world around you. You must stay the course until the goal is reached when “Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…” as plainly declared in Philippians 2:10, 11.

Who Do They See?

March 7

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. Ann Landers

Ms. Landers is absolutely correct—as far as she goes, but God has another standard, another measure, that He expects of those who name the name of Christ. We are not to merely accord perfunctory courtesy to those who cannot benefit us in some fashion; we are to love them. Beyond that, we are to love our enemies; beyond that, we are to do good even to those who “persecute us and despitefully use us,” Luke 6:27.

The word tells us that even heathens will be good to those who are good to them (Matthew 5:47). Our measure in the Lord's eyes is how we are to those who trample the goodness we extend to them under their feet. The scripture is clear in the matter—we are not to be reactive but proactive. We are not to be responders to the treatment others extend to us but initiators of Christ’s love toward them—whether or not they deserve it.

Everything we say, everything we do must be motivated by what we have seen in Jesus, not by what we see in those who pit themselves against us. When our heart is controlled by the Lover of our soul; when our minds are given to the One who said, '’Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus...'’ Philippians 2:5 then we allow ourselves to be vessels in the hand of our Lord in which He may carry and from which He may dispense upon a lost and dying and unlovely populace, the sweet perfume of Himself.

Is it easy to do? Indeed not! In fact, of ourselves, we can't do it at all (see John 15:5). But with Jesus in our heart and with our will surrendered to His, HE can achieve His purposes through us. He can use us, as we give our hearts, our minds, our attitudes, our lips, the entirety of our 'selfhood' to Him for His glory. May HE help us to be so completely surrendered to Him as His servant or His handmaiden that everyone who sees us—even our enemies—will see only the character, the nature, the love of Jesus.

The Sure Foundation

March 6

The foundation my parents laid down of faith continues to be my core. Christy Borgeld

Most Christian parents love their children dearly and want nothing more than to have imparted to them and to continue to live before them a faith that is strong—a faith that is foundational to their lives. It is their prayer that the ground on which their children's lives have been built from earliest childhood will be unshaken through all life's storms and will hold the structure of a long, healthy, happy, blessed life throughout the time the Lord grants to them on earth and be the springboard to their eternal joy. Though they may not always be stellar examples of their faith, they pray the Lord Himself will overcome all failure on their part to accomplish that end so their children will have complete victory through Jesus.

Instructing their offspring in the one thing most people lack toward God—obedience—compels them because they know it is in learning this elusive behavior toward parents that children are enabled to one day take their place as a people of faith and obedience to God. As Jesus said, "If you can't love your fellow man who you can see, how can you love God who you cannot see?" I John 4:20. Extrapolating from that the reality of the importance of the seen—our lesson is clear—to be obedient, a child must live obedience. Parents who love must patiently and steadfastly require it of their beloved children or they will not appropriate it.

Even through the areas of difficulty and challenge, godly parents pray their children will be girded by Christ's love and established in obedience to His truth; they pray they will adhere to the Living Word of the Scriptures so their children will know more and ever more fully the Living Word Himself, Jesus, who their parents have attempted to instill into their hearts.

May the foundation you lay down for your children be wrought of faith chiseled from the only unshakable commodity in time (when all else is shaken, only the truth of God shall stand unshaken) Hebrews 12: 26-29 and may the glue that holds it all together be the love of the Living Christ whose life, death, and resurrection are the only secure foundation upon which anyone can build a life that is established forever.

Jesus Emboldens Us

March 5

Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. - James 1:24

What better place to turn for counsel on a difficult day than to the eternal, living Word of God that helps us to put the trials of life into their proper perspective! The apostles of Jesus were no stranger to trial. They had watched when Jesus was nailed to the cross and they saw Him die. They retreated in fear after the crucifixion, knowing their own lives were in jeopardy. But after they saw the Risen Jesus, they went to the Upper Room in prayer. Here they remained until the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-24).

But persecution became rampant. First Peter and John were arrested at the Temple when they healed a lame man (Acts 3:1-4:21). Then Stephen was martyred (Acts 7:1-60). James was slain by the sword. James' martyrdom is not the only one—all the apostles but John were martyred for their faith.

Were fear and anxiety a part of that time? Of course they were, but the followers of Jesus were not scattered like mice from a sinking ship! They were rallied to a height of courage and faith that had eluded them before. They indeed counted their trials as joy and they became steadfast, perfect and complete because of them. They lacked nothing they needed to overcome the challenges before them.

They are our inspiration to do the same! Their transformation occurred when they saw the risen Lord. Thomas, the doubter, proclaimed when he saw the wounds in Christ's hands and side, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28) Thomas discerned then that Jesus was no ordinary man. Perhaps he saw who the 'real' Jesus is for the first time at that moment of recognition. That is the Jesus who, when we see Him as He is, empowers us to overcome our trials!

The nail-scared Jesus emboldens us to tackle our challenges, to confound our accusers, to defend our integrity and to love our enemies! The nail-scared Jesus is all we need to overcome the trials of life, for He has conquered all of them in our behalf! Though our victory may seem long in coming; though our accusers and tormenters may appear to have the upper hand, we know their seeming victory is short in duration for God will “perform all things for us!” (Psalm 57:2) And it is His Spirit who helps us to see the trials of life as the defeated foes that they are when we know Christ.

A Jewel That Reflects His Glory

March 4

Adversity is the diamond dust with which heaven polishes its jewels. - Leighton

The God who loves you does indeed desire that you become the most beautiful of His people. Does He desire the same for everyone who professes to love Him? Of course He does. He would have each of us to be His servants and handmaidens who reflect the loveliness of Christ. As the Word assures us, "He is no respecter of persons," Acts 10:34, but that does not negate the reality of His one-on-one care and concern for each individual. Yes, Jesus loves us all. Yes, Jesus wants each believer to appropriate the entirety of the wealth of promises He has woven so beautifully throughout His glorious book, but He also wants His best for the one—you.

Jesus loves us collectively. That is why the Bible tells us that "whosoever will may come and drink from the River of Life freely," Revelation 22:17. His is not a select club for a chosen few. His is an open-armed invitation to the masses! Any one or all of us may choose to lay our sins at His feet or to bear our transgression ourselves. Any one or all of us may accept the forgiveness He extended from the cross when He said, "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do," Luke 23:34, or we can refuse His grace, we can turn our backs on His forgiveness for our sins.

Jesus said that if we are to be forgiven, we must first forgive those who have offended us (see Luke 6:37). Until we do that one essential thing, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Does He desire that everyone empty himself of the vitriolic bitterness that causes him to cling to offense? Indeed He does. Jesus wants it so much that He is Himself our example for doing so! Yet to forgive or to cling to offense is each man's choice to make.

Each of us must allow the adversity of our lives to make us more like Jesus. Each of us must allow the slings and arrows that come against us to refine us as good soldiers in the Army of the Lord. Each of us must allow the negative experiences we incur to establish us in the way of Christ who bears all adversity in our behalf when we accept His invitation to, "Cast all your cares upon Me, for I care for you," I Peter 5:7.

Just as we need not carry our sin, neither need we carry our worries. Jesus bears it all in our behalf. Jesus gives us release from every aspect of life's trials and failures. If we will allow Him to do so, the Master Jeweler will use the adversity of our lives as the diamond dust to polish the jewel that we are to Him into glorious radiance! He will do that for everyone who names His name. He will do it for you. He will do it for your enemies. When it happens in each of you individually, you will each become the lovely adornment He desires you to be—you will become a jewel that reflects Heaven's glory.

Effective Strategy

March 3

Keep away from people who try to belittle you. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. - Mark Twain

It is indeed true that the people who try hardest to tear others down, to discourage them from believing in themselves are those whose inner heart is fraught with self-doubt and self-loathing. That may be small consolation when challenged with their pettiness, but it does interject a measure of understanding into the nature of the challenge they pose as well as insight into how to overcome it.

The first and most important thing is to believe firmly in the power of the living God who is within you, and to guard the truth you know (II Timothy 1:14); always trust that Jesus is your Advocate (I John 2:1). It is essential that the goodness and love of the Lord Jesus Christ are accepted as the basis of life and all its endeavors. Knowing that one truth empowers the person of faith to attempt great exploits and to have complete confidence in their outcome.

A second essential is to believe firmly in one’s own worthiness. If we do not believe we are good enough to be loved by God, the enemy can persuade us that we can succeed at nothing good because we are worthy of nothing good. This is a boldfaced lie that shreds the entire premise of salvation which is that our own goodness is irrelevant to the Lord's love for us. We must believe the basic premise that “God so loved the world He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life,” John 3:16.

Because His love overcomes all our foibles and sins, our unworthiness isn't even a factor in the salvation equation. The best thing we can say to the enemy when he tells us we're too wretched for the Lord to save, is to agree that he's absolutely right—we are wretched but the Savior is not limited by our paltry state! It is HIS PERFECT STATE THAT ENABLES HIM TO SAVE US!

When we place the entirety of our future for time and eternity into the loving hands of Jesus, we avail ourselves of the third thing we need—our total reliance on the efficaciousness of His finished work on Calvary. We can sing that beautiful hymn with gusto and complete conviction--"Just as I am without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me and as Thou biddest me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come; I come."

When we acknowledge that we have no merit, it is then we are able to lay before Him the only thing that can result in our salvation and blessing. We give Him our sin. That's all He wants from us—and in exchange for it, He gives us His righteousness. All the believers in our lives will counsel us to do just that because they know that is exactly what worked for them.

Tea Bags

March 2

We are like tea bags - we are strengthened in hot water. - Sister Busche

If nothing else, the negative, the challenging, the dangerous experiences you face evidence to you the magnitude of your own strength. You may be 'oppressed' in the eyes of your persecutors, but if I had to select one word to describe you it would be 'faithful'. You have borne criticism and disdain, and persecution at the hands of lost, dying men, but you know you have the never-ending approval and love of your Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

He, unlike those who wag their fingers at you, those who mock your faith and hate your Savior, knows the depth to which you've fallen and He has not abandoned you there but He has lifted you up, set you on His path of achievement and self-respect, and tasked you with accomplishing the most formidable challenge He could place before you—reflecting Him to the scoffers around you.

God knows the lost, dying deluded mockers and tormenters of people of faith need to drink the undiluted cup of living water contained in His vessels of truth; in the men who have faced the worst of life and who know the power of prevailing, determined prayer to overcome it. Fallen man needs examples of steadfast faith who will resolutely define Christ before them by building His image within themselves—block upon block. You, O man of faith, are the person HE CHOSE TO PERFORM THAT JOB within the sphere of your influence!

Why? Because HE KNOWS YOU BETTER THAN YOU KNOW YOURSELF! HE KNOWS YOUR FAITH WILL PREVAIL! HE KNOWS YOUR LOVE IS UNFALTERING! HE KNOWS YOUR STRENGTH, THOUGH CHALLENGED SEVERELY, IS ROOTED IN HIM--BECAUSE HE KNOWS THE "JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH" (Nehemiah 8:10) AND THOUGH YOUR JOY MAY BE CHALLENGED BY YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES, HE KNOWS IT WILL PREVAIL!

Like a teabag in hot water, you will reach a strength that will astound you! Whether the people around you are 'hot' or 'cold' or indifferent, your strength will be more than sufficient to assure that the brew of your life will be rich, satisfying and invigorating. The brew of your life will be strong enough to bring you and those with whom you share the Gospel message to the blessings of the Christ who died that you may live eternally.

I know that your steadfastness in faith will bring you to the blessings Jesus has for you, and that He can use you to bring all those He's touching by your faith to the point where they, too can receive His precious salvation. We know one day every knee shall bow before Jesus and every tongue proclaim Him as Lord (Philippians 2:10). May the hot water of your life enable you to proclaim Him even more boldly in trial than in triumph.

When You Have Done All

March 1

In order to be walked on, you have to be lying down. - Brian Weir

By this simplistic definition of being taken advantage of, of being denigrated and maligned, it is apparent that one must be complicit to his own demeaning. Most of us take the initiative to assure the ends we desire will be attained.

One who conducts his life on a high level of efficiency cannot achieve his goals from a prone position! He must be always on the move to assure the investment of himself will result in great things. He must be a Clark Kent kind of guy who is always at his post to get the job done. Superman just flies in at the crucial moment to receive the glory. While the audience (even Lois Lane) stands in awe of the Caped Crusader, the astute observer realizes that without Clark Kent's steadfast faithfulness, Superman's glory would be impossible!

So we are awed when Superman sweeps in to right every wrong in our little corner of the world, to allow our life to soar above the ordinary for a little while. Although we can't fly, we don't just lie there to be walked on either! We rise up in the power of who we are and Whose we are in Christ! As we are told in Ephesians 2:4-7, “Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. God raises us up with Christ and seats us with Him in the heavenly realms.”

We must continue to live a life of overcoming victory before those whose lives touch ours so they will gain--through the challenges we overcome—the insight into how a believer, with the Lord's help, can be "more than a conqueror," Romans 8:37, for indeed they will one day require all we can give them today to overcome their own problems! They will deal with difficulty effectively because we give them a daily dose of the strength that comes when faith and its incumbent power in prayer is appropriated!

Let Jesus make YOU mighty in faith; a believer who cannot be dragged down and trodden upon, for when we decide that we will overcome, we will be totally victorious through the Christ whose strength is perfected in our weakness according to II Corinthians 12:9. We won't 'lay down' in the fight; rather, as the scripture admonishes that we do, we will "stand" (Ephesians 6:13).