Guidelines For Living Devotional

In his day, Socrates was both loved and hated.  Those who listened to him as he spoke in the agora or marketplace usually applauded the manner in which he took on the leadership of his day.  His pungent, cutting remarks, however, were not greatly appreciated by the city fathers whose hypocrisy and fraud were often the subjects of his salty comments.

In the classic movie Chariots of Fire, the competitive Oxford athlete, Harold Abrams, watches his arch rival, Eric Liddell, run and is afraid that he cannot outrun him in a contest.  He's sitting in the bleachers after the crowd has left, alone and dejected, his head buried in his hands when his girlfriend sits down to console him.  "If I can't win, I won't run," he cries. And she replies, "If you don't run, you can't win!"

He rowed alone across the Pacific Ocean 8,990 miles but fell short of his goal by 33 miles.  Peter Bird attempted to become the first man to single-handedly row from San Francisco in the United States across the Pacific.  He almost succeeded, but approaching the east coast of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Bird encountered stormy weather and choppy seas.  He was looking for a passage through the coral.  Actually he was within one nautical mile of the reef when he had to radio for help fearing that he could not make it.

In the Upper Room Jesus told His disciples what was about to happen. They were at a Passover meal, and as part of that celebration Jesus took a loaf of bread and broke it: "This is my body," He told them. Then He took the cup and said, "This is my blood… which is poured out for many" (Mark 14:24).

"Dear Dr. Sala," wrote an eight-year-old friend, "Is Jesus and God a Christian, or don't they have to be one because they're the God?"  Out of the mouths of babes come some of the most profound issues.  Were Jesus and God "Christians" or "don't they have to be one?"  Our eight-year-old friend is doing some serious thinking, and to be honest with you, that's a tough question to answer, but let me see what I can do.  Let's begin by identifying what "God" we are talking about.  Sometimes we use language and assume that everybody understands, when in reality they are talking about something entirely different. 

They are larger than ducks but smaller than swans, and bird watchers have identified more than 130 varieties of them.  Geese, however, which mate for life have almost human characteristics in the way they relate to each other and protect each other.  Flying almost as high as a Boeing 747, migrating geese can rise to an altitude of 29,000 feet or 12,000 meters.

Richard Le Gallienne is credited with saying, "Time's horses gallop down the lessening hill."  That is a colorful way of saying, "Time flies."  The Romans said, "Tempus fugit."  No matter how you put it, you know what they mean, for you feel the pressures that are made on your time.  With all the inventions of modern technology, no one has come up with any means of putting more hours in the day.

Of the more than 9,000 varieties of birds in the world, none is more common than the sparrow.  The adjective "common" well describes this little bird that is found throughout much of the world, from the extreme reaches of the north to the southern hemisphere.  Geese have been seen over the Himalayas in Asia at a height of more than 29,000 feet, where jet airplanes fly.  But not the little sparrow that hovers quite close to the ground.  While an African ostrich may stand 8 feet tall and weigh 300 pounds, the little sparrow can rest in your hand.  Some birds, such as the peacock, have brilliant plumage, but sparrows are pretty basic and plain little birds mostly brown in color, with an occasional touch of white or black, or a suggestion of red.

If the Bible really is a supernatural book, then should it not follow that the Bible has a unique and distinctive flavor to it?  Something that rings different from the flood of inane books that have been written?  Even something that distinguishes it from the classics that have been recognized down through the centuries?

In 1874 a young man, only 23 years of age, wrote a little book called "The Greatest Thing in the World."  The thesis of Henry Drummond's work was that love is the most powerful force in the world.  Someone may say, "That may have been true in his day, but it certainly does not hold water today.  Things have changed!"  I grant you, things have changed.  That is one point no one will argue.