Guidelines For Living Devotional

When the renowned German surgeon, Dr. Werner Forssmann (1904-1979) was in medical school, he had an idea. He believed that if a small tube were inserted into an artery and run into the heart, then the diseased heart was x-rayed, it would be possible to diagnose the problem and thus save many lives. His professors, however, were horrified and forbade him to do the experiment.

An anonymous observer wrote that it "doesn't complain about the condition of the weather, seeks no 'social security' and never asks for a vacation. It will work best when treated well, but will do its utmost to give good service when working conditions are unduly taxing its strength." No, it isn't your dog--man's best friend--who sits by the gate and awaits your arrival with wagging tail. It is your heart, located six inches below your collarbone slightly off-center on the left side of your body.

Show an optimist a glass of water which is only partly filled and he would describe it as half-full, but show the pessimist the same glass and he would call it half-empty. What is the difference? It is how we see life. It is whether we put the accent on the negative or the positive, and when it comes to home and relationships, the principle is just as true.

Time does not come to you in hours or days--not even in minutes. It is dribbled out to you by God, one second at a time. Like fine sand through our fingers, seconds that are wasted slip away and eventually pile up into minutes and hours. Years ago, the Apostle Paul provided guidelines for living when he said that we are to walk "not as unwise" but we are to "…make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:16).

If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,400, and your bank carried over no balance from day to day, but allowed you to keep whatever cash you could spend, and each evening canceled out whatever amount you had failed to use during the day, what would you do? Naturally, you would draw out every last dollar. Of course! Actually, you do have such a bank and its name is "time." Every morning it credits your account with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules as lost whatever of this you have failed to invest.

In response to the question, "According to your understanding, who is Jesus Christ?" two-thirds of some 10,000 college students interviewed said they believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Yet when these same students were asked how they could become Christians, 90% said they did not know. What those students expressed is quite true of all men. It is not a question of facts; it is a matter of acting on those facts. What counts is not knowledge, but action!

There's a curse on the world today–denied by many, trivialized by others, and ignored by the vast majority of people. It is there, nonetheless. The curse of evil in our world is a horrible, hideous reality.

When I visited a neighbor's home I was surprised to see a freshly painted sign on the door. No, not a quarantine sign warning of an infectious disease, but it did generate almost as much surprise. The notice read simply, "LOVE SPOKEN HERE."   I could not help wondering just what kind of a home this was where they wanted visitors and friends to know that the language spoken within was LOVE.

Have you ever heard someone say, "I would be a Christian but there are too many hypocrites"? Now in absolute honesty, perhaps, you may admit that you, too, have had such a thought. A hypocrite is someone who pretends to have something he really does not possess. He's a fraud, a fake, a pretender.

Have you ever noticed how many times it is the little things in life that get you down? You can drive your car off a cliff, someone kidnaps your mother-in-law, or your mortgage is foreclosed on, and these things do not bother you quite as much as the little things such as running out of razor blades, your phone battery dying, or not being able to get your computer to work properly. I think we would all agree that the little things in life often irritate us far more than the major disasters. Solomon revealed a great truth when he said it is the little foxes that spoil the vines.