Guidelines For Living Devotional

When the cartoonist Charles Schulz dined in the home of a friend, the host remarked that he had just what Schulz needed to set off his dinner jacket.  He disappeared and then returned in a few minutes with a heavy chain from which a medallion hung.   Across the face of the medallion were the letters L O V E.  Schulz fingered it for a few minutes and then handed it back to the host.  With a wry "Charlie Brown" smile on his face, he said, "It's just a little too much for me.  Do you have one that says, L I K E?"

One of the greatest orators of all times was Sir Winston Churchill, and who would deny the power of his words during Britain's darkest hours?  Yet, says 1 Corinthians 13 from the New Testament, the greatest orator in the world is nothing apart from love.   That is why it is so necessary to translate love into the kitchen where you face dirty dishes, and into the laboratory where you rub shoulders with unlovable men and women, and into the classroom where you must learn to love those who disagree with you and actually dislike you.

What keeps the world running?  Is it the Internet, markets or governments that print money as needed?  It's definitely not politicians!  No, the reality is that these all threaten to bring the world to its knees.   In one word, it is faith!  You have faith that another nation will keep its alliances and treaties, faith in your coworkers and faith in your husband or wife that he or she will live up to the promises you made to each other.

Overconfidence can be your most deadly enemy!  So learned a young man who once stood guard on the walls of ancient Pergamos when an enemy force laid siege to the city.  What you don't know is that the wall of the ancient city was almost impregnable.  I use the word almost because nothing is absolutely impenetrable.

Anyone who has ever looked at the stars on a dark night has, at times, been awe-struck by their vastness and the greatness of space, yet only twelve men in history have been privileged to stand on the moon and look back towards the blue planet, as Earth has been described.  Standing on the surface of the moon, the Earth is some 229,000 plus miles away, and, according to Jim Irwin, one of those 12 who saw it from that perspective, the Earth appears to be the size of a walnut.

Are you constantly busy? Did you know that God mandates rest for his people? It is a matter of physical, mental, and spiritual health.

Jeremiah the prophet was a man who needs to be rediscovered today.  The circumstances surrounding his life and world have so many parallels to life today.  And how so?  Well, for one thing, instability had gripped the world.  Jeremiah's beloved nation was about to be chewed up by the powerful tiger of Babylon.  Social structures were failing.  Families were being torn apart, and truth and morality had been sacrificed in the process.  The priesthood had become politicized and suffered a bad case of moral laryngitis.  No wonder Jeremiah seemed out of sync with his day, an old prophet who castigated the moral and spiritual decline.  No wonder he was publicly scorned and privately castigated.

"Where is Zebedee?" asked George Stormont in Pointers.  He continued, "I've been looking for him for nearly fifty years.  The New Testament is haunted by his name.  You read of his sons, his wife, his hired servants, his fishing; but you never meet him."

How much do you really need?  If everything you own was suddenly wiped out by a fire or a devastating storm, would you thank God that your life was spared, or curse because of the loss?

Evident in almost every facet of life is a fundamental problem: We have not learned the secret of renewal, and pollution is the inevitable result, morally, spiritually, and physically.   A leading scientist said that almost everything the human hand touches becomes polluted.  The Sea of Galilee in Israel is a typical example.  Marine life in Galilee, the largest body of fresh water in Israel, is in danger of serious harm, even possible extinction, so some believe.