Devotionals

Psalm 100:3

I am told that sheep, being stupid animals, frequently are alarmed and actually run over each other, racing away from something that startles them. 

The shepherd corrects the problem by catching a sheep and gently, yet firmly, forcing it to lie down and feed quietly on the grass beneath its feet.

Proverbs 12:3

I want to be quite direct with you. Secular thought has taken a tragic toll on the servant of God's distinctiveness. 

This has begun to influence the church. Many a believer has surrendered his mind to the world system. 

The uniquely Christian mind, therefore, is a rare find. Humanism, secularism, intellectualism, and materialism have invaded our thinking to such a marked degree our testimony has become diluted—in some cases, non-existent. 

Ephesians 5:1-2

God says we are to be "imitators" of Him, which really means we are to "mimic" Him. Since God is a God of freshness and change, so we should be. 

Are you open to change in your life? Are you willing to risk? Are you flexible enough to innovate? Are you willing to tolerate the sheer possibility of making a massive change in your direction for life? 

"Lord, is it South America? Great! Or Indonesia? I'll do it. I'll move or change my profession. Fine! Are You leading me into a new venture? I'll do it. Count me in!"

Proverbs 14:26

Do you find yourself trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole? Are you pushing and straining and dumping loads of emotional freight to get something going? 

You'd better call time out and check with the Coach! When God's in something, it flows.

Let's say you had it in your heart to get into some kind of ministry at your place of employment. You'd like the opportunity to sit down with some co-workers and maybe spend 15 minutes together around the Scriptures at lunch. Great idea!

Matthew 5:7

Mercy is a concern for people in need. It has to do with assisting those less fortunate than ourselves, including those who suffer the consequences of disappointment, disease, and distress. 

One of my mentors used to say, "Mercy is God's ministry to the miserable." 

And it does not stop with compassion or sadness over someone in dire straits; it means identifying with those who are hurting and imagining the pain they are having to endure, then doing something about it. 

How do we live with worry and stress and fear? How do we withstand these joy stealers? 

Let me be downright practical and tell you what I do. First I remind myself early in the morning and on several occasions during the day, "God, You are at work, and You are in control, and, Lord God, You know this is happening. You were there at the beginning, and You will bring everything that occurs to a conclusion that results in your greater glory in the end." 

Isaiah 55:8

God is the Potter; we are the clay. He's the Shepherd; we are the sheep. He's the Master; we are the servant. 

No matter how educated we are, no matter how much power and influence we may think we have, no matter how long we have walked with Him, no matter how significant we may imagine ourselves to be in His plan...none of that qualifies us to grasp the first particle of why He does what He does when He does it and how He chooses to do it.

1 John 2:15

If you want to stay clean, even when you're walking alone in the dark, low-ceilinged coal mine of the corrupt and secular culture, you need to remember a few practical things—four come to mind.

1. Pay close attention to what you look at.... Our eyes seem to be the closest connection to our minds.  

2. Give greater thought to the consequences of sin than to its pleasures.... Nobody ever mentions the ugly underside of pleasurable sins. 

Genesis 6:17-18

God informed Noah of His plan: He was going to destroy the world with a flood. 

So for 120 years, by faith, Noah followed the Lord's leading. He gathered the materials; he built the ark, probably to the ridicule of everyone around him. After all, this was a world that had never known rain; the earth was watered from beneath. 

Ecclesiastes 8:17

There are numerous riddles in life that remain wrapped in mystery and shrouded inside an enigma. 

The sea, for example, is an unexplainable phenomenon.... There are diseases that still remain a mystery...yet we seem to have little trouble going on through life with dozens of riddles still unanswered, hundreds of mysteries still unsolved.