Guidelines For Living Devotional

How often have you heard the line, "He just couldn't say no!" or the feminine version of that, which is, "She knew better than that.  That's not how she was raised!"  What's the problem?  Was it what the individual did, or the lack of discipline that brought confrontation with a situation which the person knew to be wrong?

When you don't in a world that generally does, you stand out like a sore thumb!  In other words, when almost everybody cheats, and you don't, you are penalized.  When almost everybody lies to get ahead, and you feel compelled to tell the truth, you are at a distinct disadvantage.  When almost everybody uses company time for their own personal business or pleasure and you don't, you are thought strange or even stupid.

When Larry Krusinski left the hospital after a stay of almost one year, he went home to a woman he couldn't remember marrying but a woman who cared so deeply for him that he literally fell in love with her twice.

Can you relate to the following?  A husband and a wife come together in marriage and celebrate their love.  Nine months later a son is born. They name him Jezreel but call him Jesse for short.  Don't think that children always bring you closer together.  In many cases children put stress on a marriage, and that's what happened with this couple. The husband was preoccupied with his work and he and his wife began to drift.

Years ago, before videogames, smartphones and tablets, kids used to play "Let's pretend!"  Perhaps you can remember back that far—fighting pirates in the Caribbean, riding wild horses or discovering buried treasure.  For just a minute, let's pretend we can turn back the calendar nearly 2000 years and walk the streets of ancient Ephesus, one of the most beautiful cities in the Roman world.

When China opened its doors to foreigners in the late 1970s, I was among the first 7000 to be granted a visa to see the land described as a sleeping giant.  For decades, Chinese friends had been denied what we take for granted--freedom of expression and, certainly, freedom of religion.  The group I traveled with was international, with people from all over the world.  At dinner, a fellow traveler from Britain told of a strange encounter with a youth on the street seeking a Bible.

When Henry Allan Ironside was just two years old, his father died of typhoid fever and left the family destitute.  His mother was forced to take in sewing to provide for the two little boys who were left without a daddy.  Money was always tight, but biographers tell about the occasion when there was nothing to eat.  Henry’s mother, nonetheless, set the table and poured water.  The two little boys and their mother sat down, and in spite of the fact there was no food on the table, they bowed their heads to give thanks to God for, at least, the water.  But no sooner had they finished their prayer when a resounding knock at the door brought them to attention.

When a young Jewish intellectual was striving to discover who he really was, a friend said to him, "Do you know what we really need to learn today?"  Art Katz thought, "Here's another one of these smart guys who thinks he has all the answers when he doesn't even understand the questions."  But since he was riding in the friend’s car, he went along.  "No, what do we really need?"

Is it possible that one of the reasons we see so little caring and compassion in the world is that we are overwhelmed with our sense of estrangement and searching?  Not understanding who we are, self-fulfillment is an endless search instead of an anchor, and the end result is that life is a selfish, "me first" game that results in our wanting to win every round or insisting that everyone be first, provided it is first, after you.

Three individuals were talking about a mutual friend.  One related how the friend had been struck by a car and had been killed.  The second said, "No, you are wrong.  That's not the way it happened at all."  Explaining, he told how that the individual had been riding in a taxi, and the taxi had been involved in an accident.  As the result the individual was injured and lost his life.