Guidelines For Living Devotional

He was once a trusted friend, but something happened.  His friendship became treachery, and the man who had been a companion, a family friend, and confidant became an enemy.  Have you ever had that happen?  Painful, isn't it?  The person that you thought would have gone to the wall with you slowly begins to drift away.  Your phone doesn’t ring.  It’s a one-way friendship.  When you call or drop by, you get the connection but it’s cold, routine, and your friend gives you the impression that he’s outgrown your friendship.

The man who sat in the office of psychologist Ed Fish was middle‑aged and quite successful.  He began talking about his daughter's forthcoming marriage, but instead of looking forward to it, he dreaded it.  Why?  Because he did not like the man she was marrying?  Not at all!  He liked him.  "I would really like to have somebody from the family at the wedding," he wistfully remarked.

The story is told about a certain mountain climber who slipped and fell off a cliff, but on the way down, he grabbed the roots of a tree and held on for dear life.  Looking beneath him, he saw a sheer drop of several thousand feet.  He yelled for help but none came.  Finally, he cried out, "God, help me!"  And then came a voice saying, "Just turn loose; I'll catch you," but looking around he didn't see anyone and not liking the alternatives called out again, "Anybody else up there?"

A certain couple were in deep water financially.  They tried to borrow money from the bank, from a brother-in-law, from friends and acquaintances, but without success.  Talking over their plight the wife said, "We've tried everything--there is nothing we can do but trust God!"  "Oh, no!" exclaimed the husband, "Has it really come to that?" 

Some call it revival.  Others call it a spiritual renewal, but no matter what you call it, what the Church needs today is a great move of God's Spirit as He breaks the fallow ground of our hearts and brings conviction and cleansing in the body of Christ which results in His power being manifest in our lives.

The Miriam-Webster Dictionary attempts to define the word "revival" as "a period of renewed religious interest, an often highly emotional evangelistic meeting or series of meetings."  It describes the popular understanding of the word--canvas tent, flamboyant evangelist who works the crowd for the offering and an orchestrated attempt to touch the emotions of people.

Pastor Thorleif Holm-Glad was walking through the empty sanctuary of Bethlehem Church in Oslo, Norway when the old caretaker of the church stopped him and soberly announced, "See these empty seats? This year there will be revival in this church!"  The pastor was startled to say the least.  Yes, he knew the church had empty seats and plenty of them.  No, not during the week when people were working but during services when the empty seats should have been filled. He also knew the caretaker was a good man, not given to exaggeration.

In the dome of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington DC is an inscription which reads, "One far‑off event towards which all creation moves." A visitor, seeing the inscription, turned to a guide and asked, "What does that mean?" Hesitating for a moment the guide replied, "I think it refers to the second coming of Jesus Christ."

Mao Zedong, who died in 1976, began his Selected Works by asking two important questions: "Who are our enemies?" and "Who are our friends?"  Mao was concerned not just with political entities that had to be faced, such as the United States and Russia.  He was even more interested in ideologies that represented power.

It is called Syria today, but in ancient days it was known as Assyria. Historians often referred to the Assyrians as the Romans of ancient Asia. Their religion wasn't much different from that of the Babylonians whom they had displaced as the greatest power in the world.  They believed in many gods who supposedly directed human destiny and controlled the earth, water, storms and fire.  In their temples, they worshipped Nabu, the god of learning; Ishtar, the goddess of love and sex; and Niruta, the god of war.  But most of all, they believed in their weapons, and they used them well.