Daily Devotionals

Acts 26:1–23

One time-honoured and effective method of evangelism is the giving of your personal testimony. The skeptic may deny your doctrine or attack your church, but he or she cannot honestly ignore the fact that your life has been changed. The skeptic may stop his or her ears to the presentations of a preacher and the pleadings of an evangelist, but this person is somehow attracted to the human-interest story of how you found peace within.

Philippians 2:3-7

It was a cold, blustery January night in 1973. Senator John Stennis, the venerable hawkish Democrat from Mississippi, drove from Capitol Hill to his northwest Washington home. Although older (71), he was still the powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. At precisely 7:40 p.m., Stennis parked his car and started toward his house 50 feet away.

Ephesians 5:15–16

Let’s talk about the offering, the time during the weekly worship service when the plate is passed and most people daydream or fidget around, feeling uncomfortable. If that describes you, you’re missing a golden moment! As I mentioned yesterday, you can turn this time from ho-hum to hallelujah.

If I may take the phrase in Ephesians 5:16, making the most of your time, to include the silent moments during the offering, let me offer some practical suggestions.

Six come to my mind:

Psalm 46:10

Your response to the heading of today’s reading is probably: “Uh, oh—another money plea!” or “Here we go again...some Christian ministry trying to get into my wallet.” If that’s your response, I hate to disappoint you, but you’re wrong. Being wrong this time, however, disappoints no one!

Hebrews 13:1–4

Who really cared? His was a routine admission to busy Bellevue Hospital. A charity case, one among hundreds. A bum from the Bowery with a slashed throat. The Bowery...last stop before the morgue. Synonym of filth, loneliness, cheap booze, drugs, and disease.

The details of what had happened in the predawn of that chilly winter’s morning were fuzzy. The nurse probably shrugged it off. She had seen thousands and she was sure to see thousands more. Would it have made any difference if she and those who treated him had known who he was? Probably so.

Isaiah 29:1

The Great Plague stretched across London like a thick, drab blanket. It came as a thief in the night...unannounced, treacherous, silent. The mortality rate was astounding.

1 Thessalonians 4:1–8

Yesterday we looked at the grim, pitiful life of Samson, a powerful leader whose lust ultimately destroyed him. (Read Judges 16.) Lust is a deadly intruder you dare not entertain for a moment. When lust knocks on your door, you must call on Christ to meet it.

Before giving lust a firm shove away from your life, have Christ inform this intruder that the permanent peace and pleasure you are enjoying in your home with Christ are so much greater than lust’s temporary excitement that you don’t need it around any longer to keep you happy.

Judges 16

Samson was a he-man with a she-weakness. In spite of the fact that he was born of godly parents, set apart from his birth to be a Nazirite, and elevated to the enviable position of judge in Israel, he never conquered his tendency toward lust. On the contrary, it conquered him. Several things that illustrate his lustful bent may be observed from the record of his life in the book of Judges.

1. The first recorded words from his mouth were: I saw a woman (14:2).

Job 42:1–3

Could it be that you are beginning to feel the nick of falling rocks? Maybe the avalanche has already fallen and you’re more than a little desperate. Job is our model for staying faithful when life is reduced to rubble. How’d he do it? Let’s take a look.

First, Job claimed God’s loving sovereignty. He sincerely believed that the Lord who gave had every right to take away (Job 1:21). Stated in his own words:

“Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10)

Job 1:22

Job could write about wounds. His words were more than patronizing platitudes and armchair proverbs. He’d been there and back again. He could describe intense inner suffering in the first person because of his own sea of pain.