Guidelines For Living Devotional

When the Dutch woman, Corrie ten Boom was a prisoner of the Germans, confined in a concentration camp where most prisoners were executed, there were times when she would say, "Lord Jesus, I know this problem is way too big for you; I'll have to worry about it myself!" Then she would smile and say, "How foolish!"  The reality is that we are often confronted with issues that are troubling and we struggle with them as though there is no help from heaven and the burden is much too great for God to do anything about.

If you ever saw her picture, you surely would remember it for the rest of your life. It gained notoriety in the 1970s as an antiwar icon when a photographer took her picture as she was running naked from a napalm attack in Vietnam.[1] The 9-year old girl whose picture was so riveting became known as the "Napalm Girl," and the picture appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world. As an adult, writing of the horrible and devastating event, Kim Phuc said, "I had not been targeted. I had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some 45 years after that dark, hideous day, Kim has recorded the story of her life--the pain, the fear, the hatred, as well as the transformation that eventually purged the anger, bitterness, and resentment toward those who caused her suffering in a book entitled, "Fire Road: The Napalm Girl's Journey Through the Horrors of War to Faith, Forgiveness, and Peace," published by Tyndale.

[1] Publishers Weekly.com, Dec. 22, 2017

C.S. Lewis, the author of Mere Christianity and a host of other significant books, said, "Integrity means doing the right thing even if no one is watching you!" Before him, by almost 400 years, the English playwright, William Shakespeare, said, "To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

Your reputation is what people think of you; your character is what God knows you to be, the mental and moral qualities that are distinctive to an individual. Someone once said that you can easily judge the character of a person by how he or she treats those who can do nothing in return--how he treats those who are not in a position to retaliate or reciprocate.

"Pastors need prayer, too," contended Will Bruce in an article by the same title.  The following is what he wrote, which I consider so important that, with his permission, I'll share it with you.

There is a line from an old song which goes, "If the Lord be willing, and the creek don't rise."  While it was neither an English major nor a theologian who wrote those lines, it does bring a powerful question into focus:  "To what extent does God will that the creek does not rise?"  And there's a second, "Why doesn't God stop it when the creek turns into a river that turns into a flood?"

One of the differences which distinguish man from lower forms of life is that man, made in the image of God, worships a god who is greater than he.  Worship is a universal act of adoration no matter where men and women are, no matter what their culture or background.  The worship of the true God begins when sinful man encounters a holy, righteous God. 

A young man invested his life savings in a new Ferrari sports car, and having made the investment of his life, felt that he ought to have someone bless his car‑‑just to be on the safe side.  Unsure of whom to call, he phoned the local Catholic priest, who said, "Yes, it's a bit out of the ordinary but I do baptize things for people"; but then he added, "Oh, by the way, what's a Ferrari?"

You find yourself caught up in the rush of living so you scarcely remember which day of the week it is.  You jump out of bed in the morning, gulp down a cup of coffee and you're off to work.  Then you rush home, eat dinner quickly so that you can get to an evening appointment.  And then you crawl into bed, bone weary, so that you'll be able to get up in the morning, gulp down your coffee and repeat the cycle.

When your best friend marries the girl you dated, it's hard to get excited.  When the employee whom you hired gets promoted, leap-frogging over you, you may wish him luck and be polite, but inwardly you'd probably like to put a dagger in his back.  Your neighbor wins the lottery—not you.  How do you handle other people's good fortune?  Are you glad for them, or do you detest their good fortune, wishing it had happened to you?  There's a part of human nature which remains the same, year after year, generation after generation.