Sacred vs. Secular

Sacred Versus Secular
From: Today God Is First by Os Hillman
January 06, 2018

"The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it," (Genesis 2:15).

Imagine for a moment that Jesus has just completed his three years of training with the disciples. He has been crucified and is now commissioning the twelve to go into the world and disciple the nations. Now imagine him also making this statement to them.

"Dear brothers, it is now time for you to share what you have learned from me. However, as you share with others be sure that you keep what I taught you separate from your work life. The principles I have shared with you only apply in situations outside your work life. Do not make them fit into this context. The miracles you saw in me can only be done in certain situations outside work life. Keep this in mind when thinking about praying for the sick or the lost. These truths will not work in the marketplace."

Sound preposterous? It may, but this is the mindset of many in our world today. The spiritual does not mix with the everyday world of the workplace. "What happens on Monday has no relationship to what takes place on Sunday," they say.

These are the thoughts expressed so much in our day and time, although they are not expressed in such direct terms.

Let's think more about this idea.
When Jesus came to earth, how did He come? He came as a carpenter. He was a man given to work with his hands and to provide an honest service to his fellow man.

He did not come as a priest, although He was both a King and a Priest (Revelation 1:6). When it came time to recruit those by whom the Church would be founded, He chose twelve men from the workplace - a fisherman, a tax collector, a doctor, and so on.

They all came from the workplace. None of his disciples were priests from the synagogue, a natural place to recruit from if you were going to start a religious movement.

Jesus called them all from the marketplace of life. Was this any accident that Jesus called men and women from the marketplace to play such a vital role in His mission?

I think not.

Today, embrace your work life as a holy calling.

Kids Deserve

May the LORD help us to be all we can be to the precious ones HE has entrusted to our care. May their parents and teachers and all adults who ae role models in their lives assume their sacred responsibility to lead these beloved young ones in the direction that leads to their optimum good.

Teach Me, Teacher

I Will See

I HAVE seen; I SEE; I WILL SEE the goodness of the LORD, for HE is always good.

I only miss seeing HIS goodness when I am otherwise occupied.

JESUS, help me not to be so distracted by life that I forget to observe YOU WHO ARE LIFE.

Discovering Your Unique Purpose

Discovering Your Unique Purpose

From Today God Is First by Os Hillman

January 05, 2018

"You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something," (Psalm 139: 15).

If you are going to discover how God wants to use your life and work, you must know why you were created. If you start trying to determine your purpose in life before understanding why you were created, you will inevitably get hung up on the things you do as the basis for fulfillment in your life, which will only lead to frustration and disappointment.

First and foremost, God created you to know Him and to have an intimate relationship with Him. In fact, God says that if a man is going to boast about anything in life, "boast about this: that he understands and knows me" (Jeremiah 9:24).

Mankind's relationship with God was lost in the Garden when Adam and Eve sinned. Jesus' death on the cross, however, allows us to restore this relationship with God and to have an intimate fellowship with Him.

The apostle Paul came to understand this when he said, "I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself" (Philippians 3:10).

Establishing this relationship with God is vital to understanding your purpose. If you don't have this relationship with God, you will seek to fulfill your purpose out of wrong motives; such as fear, insecurity, pride, money, relationships, guilt, or unresolved anger.

God's desire is for you to be motivated out of love for Him and to desire to worship Him in all that you do. As you develop your relationship with God, He will begin to reveal His purpose for your life. "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord" (Jeremiah 29:11).

Today, ask God to help you discover your unique purpose.

Prayer Initiative

Prayer Initiative The Law Suggested Scriptural references ... Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.  Psalm 119:1  It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.  Luke 16:17 I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds.  Hebrews 10:16  But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it  James 1:25 Many nations will say, "Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the House of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us about His ways, and that we may walk in His paths."  For from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  Micah 4:2

Suggested prayers ... Please awaken and lead our people and our leaders to a reverent understanding and adherence to Your law as expressed in Your word and written on our hearts and minds. Lord, we are constantly bombarded with messages that blur those laws.  We ask you to defeat the efforts of those who would attempt to rid our nation of clarity and adherence to Your laws. We thank You for founders who expressed a deep reverence for Your word and Your created natural law.  We ask You to revive the awareness of self-evident truth in America. We ask You to foil the plans of those who would tear down faith in Your eternal truth. Father, Your word is truth which not only lights our path, but provides the roadmap for our journey through life. We gratefully thank You for communicating with us through Your word.  We ask You to give Americans a hunger for Your word as the key to a fulfilled life and the health of our nation. May Your word come alive in the heart, mind, spirit and life of each American.  Father, if You can change the course of a king's heart like a stream, we trust that You can change the heart of any American.  Lord, many are deceived in this country.  We ask You to lift the veil of deception, and speak to our hearts and minds of Your truth, Your laws, and Your deep love. Allow Americans to sense Your presence and Your voice, and lead us in Your ways once again. Sovereign Lord, restore in our courts and law schools a respect for Your law as the blueprint for the laws of the land. ~~~ “...The foundations of our independence and our Government rests upon basic religious convictions. Back of the authority of our laws is the authority of the Supreme Judge of the World, to whom we still appeal for their final justification...” President Calvin Coolidge  “The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws.  All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”  Founding Father Noah Webster

Today in History

Today in History

1933

Golden Gate Bridge Is Begun

On January 5, 1933, construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge, as workers started excavating 3.25 million cubic feet of dirt for the structure’s huge anchorages.

Following the Gold Rush boom that began in 1849, speculators realized the land north of San Francisco Bay would increase in value in direct proportion to its accessibility to the city. Soon, a plan was hatched to build a bridge that would span the Golden Gate, a narrow, 400-foot deep strait that serves as the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, connecting the San Francisco Peninsula with the southern end of Marin County.

Although the idea went back as far as 1869, the proposal took root in 1916. A former engineering student, James Wilkins, working as a journalist with the San Francisco Bulletin, called for a suspension bridge with a center span of 3,000 feet, nearly twice the length of any in existence. Wilkins’ idea was estimated to cost an astounding $100 million. So, San Francisco’s city engineer, Michael M. O’Shaughnessy (he’s also credited with coming up with the name Golden Gate Bridge), began asking bridge engineers whether they could do it for less.

Engineer and poet Joseph Strauss, a Cincinnati-born Chicagoan, said he could.

Eventually, O’Shaughnessy and Strauss concluded they could build a pure suspension bridge within a practical range of $25-30 million with a main span at least 4,000 feet. The construction plan still faced opposition, including litigation, from many sources. By the time most of the obstacles were cleared, the Great Depression of 1929 had begun, limiting financing options, so officials convinced voters to support $35 million in bonded indebtedness, citing the jobs that would be created for the project. However, the bonds couldn’t be sold until 1932, when San-Francisco based Bank of America agreed to buy the entire project in order to help the local economy.

The Golden Gate Bridge officially opened on May 27, 1937, the longest bridge span in the world at the time. The first public crossing had taken place the day before, when 200,000 people walked, ran and even roller skated over the new bridge.

With its tall towers and famous red paint job, the bridge quickly became a famous American landmark, and a symbol of San Francisco.

Good Health

Good Health by Dr. D. James Kennedy

"Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones."   Proverbs 3:7-8

When did you last hear a health news update about another food to avoid or another theory on exercise? We live in a health-conscious society, and we seem to constantly hear ways to promote our health through proper diet, exercise, and annual checkups.

No doubt these precautions are of value. But underlying our physical health is our spiritual health. In reality, God controls every germ, every virus, and every bacterium. He’s ultimately in control of our health, just as He controls life and death.

If you would have “health to your flesh, and strength to your bones,” then fear the Lord and depart from evil. If we want true health, we need to pursue good. We need to reject the idea that we can find happiness or fulfillment by compromising with the world and engaging in sinful amusements.

After all, many sinful and evil practices, such as substance abuse and promiscuity, result in bad health. Instead, we need to find our joy by following God.

As long as we live in this fallen world, we’ll experience sickness and sorrow. Many godly people live with pain every minute of their lives, and good health is no measure of spirituality. Only in heaven will we be totally free from sickness and pain.

And yet, generally speaking, we’ll gain life and health if we follow God’s ways. Recent studies have shown the link between being spiritually committed and having good health. One recent article documented the link between mental and physical health and being a committed Christian; it was appropriately entitled “For good health, go to church.”

How can you walk in God’s ways today to gain “health to your flesh, and strength to your bones”?

God helps the sick in two ways, through the science of medicine and surgery and through the science of faith and prayer. NORMAN VINCENT PEALE