Guidelines For Living Devotional

William Carey was one of the pioneers of the modern missionary movement as he left his native England and went to India. In the process Carey established himself and began to translate the Bible into the language of the people he worked with. Before the days of linguists and computers, it was a long slow process. Eventually a printer joined him, and, after years of effort, Bibles were printed and the process of distribution was begun. One day, however, Carey returned from a time of ministry elsewhere to find that a disastrous fire had broken out and had completely destroyed the building housing his offices and press, but far more damaging, his manuscripts, grammars and dictionaries had all gone up in flames as well. Nothing short of death could have struck such a blow.

One of the most beautiful structures in the world, the Notre Dame Cathedral, stands on the banks of the Seine River in the heart of modern Paris. This beautiful building dating from the Middle Ages gains elegance and uniqueness partially from the lovely flying buttresses or arches which gracefully support the walls.

Long ago Joshua and his staff could have saved themselves all kinds of heartaches had they only stopped long enough to ask God for guidance. Here's how they got themselves into trouble. After God gave them two great victories--one at Jericho and Ai--they met together and renewed their commitment to serve God. The law was read and the people nodded their heads in agreement.

God made you in such a way that you can survive tremendous ordeals--illness, imprisonment, persecution, and privation. You can live without food and water--far longer than you might think. You can handle a tremendous amount of stress, but there is one thing with which you cannot do without. Apart from this you quickly despair. It is hope!   You can rebuild when illness has ravished your body. You can put your finances together again, and you can pick up the broken pieces of your world when the bottom drops out, and go on, but when you are overcome by the despair of hope, you give up and die!

You may have seen the headline yourself:  "Rouge executioner a born-again Christian."  The Reuters news story began, "The chief executioner of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, who ordered thousands of people killed in the 1970's, is a born-again Christian ready to face justice, the Far Eastern Economic Review said."

"No one can say 'Jesus is Lord,'" wrote the Apostle Paul, "except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3). Thousands of men and women today do recognize Jesus as their Savior, but they are still struggling to run their own lives and have never discovered the Lordship of Christ. "We are not our own bosses to live or die as we ourselves might choose" wrote Paul to the Romans. Many sincere, well-intentioned believers are really afraid to turn loose, not certain that God can handle their lives. They remind me of the legend involving the Greek philosopher, Diogenes.

He was once a trusted friend, but something happened. His friendship became treachery, and the man who had been a companion, a family friend, and confidant became an enemy. Have you ever had it happen? Painful, isn't it? The person that you thought would have gone to the wall with you slowly begins to drift away. Your phone doesn't ring. It's a one-way friendship. When you call or drop by, you get the connection but it's cold, routine, and your friend gives you the impression that he's outgrown your friendship.

The English poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow captured an age-abiding truth when he wrote, "Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime. And, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time." He's right, and one man who left footprints stretching across 2000 miles of time was an unlikely candidate for success—a fisherman by trade. He was scarcely qualified to do more than perhaps organize the union of fisherman on Galilee until the day that Jesus walked by and said, "Follow me!" Then Peter got up, left his nets and followed Jesus Christ.

While the cross is unquestionably the universal symbol of redemption, Albrecht Dürer's praying hands have become the symbol of prayer.  The story, though, behind his creation of those praying hands, makes it even more poignant. Dürer was a German painter who had a friend who also was a painter, and though his friend worked hard, he never became famous.  One day Dürer, looking at the hands of his obscure friend, saw in his folded hands the embodiment of what prayer is about.  Common, ordinary, unfulfilled men and women who are needy and poor in spirit, fold their hands in reverence and surrender and lift their hearts to God.

When the British expositor and teacher, Joseph Parker, saw the suffering his wife endured as she lay dying with cancer, he was perplexed.  Yes, he prayed and cried out to the Lord, but day by day, her suffering increased, and finally she lay still.  When she died, for a week Parker, according to his own testimony, wallowed in the dark despair of atheism.  He said that if he had had a dog who suffered as did the one he loved, he would have put the animal out of its misery.