2019-04-24
Deuteronomy 32:29 NKJV
If your goal is personal growth, then you must make time for reflective thinking. So: (1) Remove yourself from distractions. Reflection and distraction don’t mix. Reflection requires solitude. It’s not the kind of thing you can do well near a television, while the phone’s ringing, or with children in the same room. You say, “But I don’t have time to spend in reflection.” We all have 168 hours each week. If you spend just one of them reflecting, you’ll be amazed how your life will be enriched. (2) Regularly review your calendar or journal. Most people use their calendar as a planning tool, which it is. But few use it as a reflective thinking tool. What could be better, however, for helping you to review where you have been and what you have done – except maybe a journal? Those two things remind you of how you’ve spent your time. They show whether your activities match your priorities. They help you to see whether you are making progress. They also offer you an opportunity to recall activities you might not have had time to reflect on previously. Some of your most valuable thoughts may have been lost because you didn’t give yourself the reflection time you needed. (3) Ask the right questions. The Bible says, “Oh, that they were wise…that they would consider their latter end!” Ask yourself, “Am I growing personally and in my walk with God? Am I strengthening my relationships with the people who matter in my life? Am I using the gifts and sharpening the skills God has given me?” Reflecting on such questions can change your life for the better.
Soul food: Num 4:34-6:27; Mark 1:14-20; Ps 94:1-11; Prov 10:24-26
2019-04-23
Ecclesiastes 7:14 NKJV
The digital age has great advantages. Through emails, texts, and tweets we can communicate quickly. The disadvantage is that it doesn’t cultivate in us a desire to think about things deeply. You can’t microwave personal growth; it requires a crockpot. The Bible says, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: surely God has appointed the one as well as the other.” By taking time to reflect: (1) You gain confidence in decision making. Ever made a snap decision and later wondered if you did the right thing? Reflective thinking can help to defuse that doubt. It also gives you confidence for the next decision. Once you’ve reflected on an issue, you don’t have to repeat every step of the thinking process when you’re faced with it again. You’ve got mental road markers from having been there before. (2) You clarify the big picture. Reflective thinking encourages us to go back and spend time pondering what we have done and what we have seen. To keep from making the same mistake over and over, you must stop and examine the process that led to it. In other words, reflection helps you to see the big picture. (3) You take a good experience and make it a valuable experience. They say we learn by experience. No, we learn from evaluated experience. An experience becomes valuable when it informs and equips us. That’s why daily prayer and Bible reading are so essential. You’ll understand things in God’s presence that you won’t understand any other way.
Soul food: Matt 27:62-66; Mark 1:9-13; Ps 6; Deut 21:22-23
2019-04-22
Judges 14:8 NIV
One day Samson encountered a lion and slew it. The Bible says, “Some time later, when he went back…he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass. In it he saw…some honey. He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along” (vv. 8-9 NIV). There’s a lesson here for you. When you take time to stop and reflect, you discover “honey” in your experiences that you can eat and grow stronger and wiser. When you reflect, you are able to put things into perspective; you gain new appreciation for things you didn’t notice before. Few of us have clear perspective in the heat of the moment. Most of us who have survived a traumatic experience usually avoid similar situations at all costs. This can leave us with unresolved issues that leave us tied up in knots. Reflective thinking enables you to distance yourself from the intense emotions of an experience and see it with fresh eyes. Indeed, this process is one of the first steps to getting rid of our emotional baggage. President George Washington observed, “We ought not to look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.” Each of us has been shaped by the experiences, good and bad, that we’ve had in life. What we refuse to deal with deals with us, and often in harmful ways. We “act out” of our unresolved issues. But when we bring them into the light and ask God for the grace to face them squarely, they lose their power over us.
Soul food: Num 3:1-4:33; Mark 1:1-8; Ps 144:9-15; Prov 10:22-23
2019-04-21
John 11:25 KJV
Why is Christ’s resurrection unique? (1) He’s the only one who didn’t die again. In Scripture all others who rose from the dead, died again. Jesus was the glorious exception. Consequently, “He was made a priest…through the power of a life which has no end” (Hebrews 7:16 GNT). His testimony stands: “I was dead…I am alive for ever” (Revelation 1:18 NIV). (2) He alone ascended into Heaven to represent us before God. Other priests died and ceased to serve. But Jesus was “declared…a priest forever” (Hebrews 7:17 NIV). And He’s not sitting around awaiting the second coming; He’s representing us before God. “He entered heaven itself…to appear for us in God’s presence” (Hebrews 9:24 NIV). That means no accusation against us can stand. “Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died…is at the right hand of God…interceding for us” (Romans 8:34 NIV). (3) He has the power to resurrect you when you die. Jesus comforted His disciples with this awesome promise: “Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19 NIV). And that promise applies to you too! “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven…the dead in Christ will rise first…we who are still alive…will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NIV). What a day that will be!
Soul food: 1 Cor 15; Luke 24:1-53
2019-04-20
Revelation 1:18 NLT
The fact that Jesus arose from the dead isn’t what makes Him unique. The Bible records seven other resurrections. Jesus was number eight (the biblical number for new beginnings). In two amazing ways His resurrection was unlike any other; let’s look at them: (1) His was the only resurrection foretold in advance. David prophesied of Jesus: “For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave” (Psalm 16:10 NLT). And Isaiah foretold life for Him beyond His crucifixion. “When you make His soul an offering for sin…He shall prolong His days” (Isaiah 53:10 NKJV). Jesus actually forecast His resurrection from death. “Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem…be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Matthew 16:21 NIV). (2) Only Jesus raised Himself from the dead! His enemies deemed Him a helpless victim of their determined efforts to eradicate Him and His mission. But they were wrong on all counts! He said, “No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again” (John 10:18 NLT). All of Rome’s might and the hatred of his Jewish persecutors couldn’t eliminate Jesus or nullify His cause. He needed no help. In His death and in His resurrection, He was always at the helm. “Destroy this temple [my body], and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19 NLT). And He did! He’s alive forevermore!
Soul food: Num 1-2; Luke 23:50-56; Ps 144:1-8; Prov 10:19-21
2019-04-19
John 19:30 NIV
Calvary was victorious! The cross may look like the triumph of evil over goodness, the powerful over the powerless, but only to those who don’t understand Christ’s mission. Never was courage greater or strength stronger. When He cried, “It is finished” (some translations read “It is completed”), He didn’t mean, “I’m finished, My cause is defeated.” Far from being crushed at Calvary, Jesus triumphed in three ways: (1) He conquered His own human desire to avoid unspeakable suffering: “He…bowed with his face to the ground, praying, ‘My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine'” (Matthew 26:39 NLT). (2) He conquered the demonic powers of darkness. “In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross” (Colossians 2:15 NLT). (3) He conquered the law’s stubborn demands against sinners. “Christ…brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God” (Romans 10:4 GNT). At Calvary love triumphed over law, forever freeing us who could never live up to God’s law. “It is finished” was the cry of a victor instead of a victim! It didn’t look that way to the crowd or to His devastated disciples. But it did three days later when the empty tomb proved Jesus had won the victory over death. It all comes down to this: “If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved” (v. 9 GNT).
Soul food: Gen 22:1-18; Luke 23:26-49; Ps 22; Isa 53
