Guidelines For Living Devotional

Be kind and rewind.  Did you ever see that phrase on the label of an old VHS videotape cassette?  It was a request for a simple act, asking the viewer to show kindness by rewinding the tape at the end of watching a movie so that the next person wouldn’t have to.  Simply think of the next guy, was the idea.

One of the weaknesses in popular Christianity today is the overemphasis on God’s love and an under emphasis on obedience to what He expects of those who follow Him.  "If you love me, you will obey what I command,” Jesus told His disciples (John 14:15).  Love and obedience are not antithetical to each other.  To the contrary, obedience—without hesitation—is the result of unconditional love.

Look up the word sovereign and you are apt to find a definition such as this: “Sovereign:  A British coin. See Pound Sterling.”  The definition continues, “The name sovereign was first applied to kings.  Everyone in a kingdom was a subject of the king.  The king himself was usually sovereign, which means subject to no one.”

Dark nights of the soul, when you question what you believe to be true, are nothing new to those who walk the pilgrim pathway; however, sometimes when those whom we put on pedestals or look up to acknowledge their doubts and fears, we are shocked, criticize them or rationalize the depths of their anguish.

“I love you, you’re perfect, now change” is the name of a humorous play which is a kind of parody on how we often fall madly in love with someone, think the person is just wonderful, and then strive to remake him or her.   Sometimes we nag.  Sometimes we cajole, sometimes we manipulate, sometimes we threaten. But it just doesn’t work.  It’s a lot like teaching a pig to sing: it annoys the pig and it wastes your time, yet from the days of Adam and Eve to the present we strive to redo the person to whom we are married.

“Every person needs to take one day away,” wrote poet, Maya Angelou.  “A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future.  Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us… Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.”[1] 

 

[1] Angelou, Maya. “Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now.” Goodreads. Goodreads. Accessed May 27, 2020. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/rest.

When a TV crew interviewed people on the streets, they asked, “What is your purpose in life?”  Not expecting the question, some scratched their heads and said, “I’m not sure.”  One man said, “I don’t think I could answer that question until I’m dead,” which would be something like not knowing that you were supposed to put the ball through the hoop at the end of the court until after the basketball game was over.  Some spoke of their family’s figuring large in the purpose of their lives.

Does prayer work? Well, isn’t there a Bible verse that says something like that?” you may think, in response to this question.  After all, didn’t Jesus say, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it?” (John 14:14)

If you knew that there was a 5-minute habit that has been shown to boost the chance of your marriage succeeding to 99%, would you try it?  The secret has been around for some time now but has remained largely undiscovered.  A 1997 Gallup Poll done by the National Association of Marriage Enhancement (nameonline.net) showed the divorce rate among couples who pray together regularly is 1 out of 1,152. That's far less then 1%.

When 10-year-old Chris Carrier stepped off a school bus on a December morning in 1974, little did he know how his life was about to change.  Six days later, Chris was found some 75 miles from his home.  He had been burned with cigarettes, stabbed with an ice pick, and then shot in the head.  When his kidnapper and molester walked away from the little boy’s body, he thought he was dead.