2018-01-29
Revelation 4:11 NKJV
A Christian farmer taught his horse to start and stop, using words from the Bible. When he wanted the horse to go, he would shout, “Praise the Lord.” When he wanted the horse to stop, he would shout, “Hallelujah.” All went well until one day a thunderbolt caused the horse to take off galloping at full speed. Realizing he had lost control, the farmer panicked and forgot the words he had trained the horse to respond to. Up ahead was a cliff, and they were headed toward it at full speed. Desperately he tried to recall every religious word he’d ever heard of. He shouted, “Amen! Jesus saves! Worthy! Holy!” Nothing worked. Just as the horse approached the precipice, he shouted, “Hallelujah!” The horse stopped right there on the edge. Relieved, he wiped the sweat off his brow and said, “Whew, praise the Lord!” Seriously, praising the Lord is not a religious activity that belongs only in church on Sunday morning. “From the rising of the sun to its going down the Lord’s name is to be praised” (Psalm 113:3 NKJV). That means let your first words in the morning and your last words at night, be praise to God. “Why should I praise God every day?” you ask. Because He is worthy of your praise. “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.” And one more thought. Spoken words of love and appreciation draw people together and create intimacy. Do you want to get closer to God? Start praising Him more.
Soul food: Num 4:34-6:27; Matt 10:32-42; Ps 104:24-35; Prov 3:11-12
2018-01-28
Zechariah 4:10 MSG
Imagine the temple lying in ruins, and having to be rebuilt from the ground up. That’s what things were like when Zechariah shared his vision with the people of Israel. Some thought it couldn’t be done, and others thought that their particular contribution would make no difference. So Zechariah challenged them in these words: “Does anyone dare despise this day of small beginnings? They’ll change their tune when they see Zerubbabel setting the last stone in place!” In 1963, MIT meteorologist Edward Lorenz presented the hypothesis that became known as the butterfly effect. He theorized that a minor event, like the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil, could conceivably alter wind currents sufficiently to cause a tornado in Texas. Lorenz came to the simple yet profound conclusion: “Minuscule changes in input can make macroscopic differences in output.” That simple discovery has the power to change your life. It can radically alter your spiritual, emotional, relational, or financial forecast. It can change the atmosphere of your organization or your marriage. One decision. One change. One risk. One idea. That’s all it takes. You don’t have to make one hundred changes. All that does is divide your energy by one hundred, and results in a 1 percent chance of success. You have to be 100 percent committed to one change. It will take an all-out effort. It will probably be the hardest thing you’ve ever done. But that one change has the potential to make a 100 percent difference in your life.
Soul food: Exo 20:8-11; Isa 58:13-14; Luk 4:16; Heb 10:19-25
2018-01-27
Ephesians 1:3 NKJV
Farmer Brown lived during the Great Depression, and he was having trouble keeping up the mortgage payments on his farm. Eventually the bank gave him thirty days to catch up on his back payments or face foreclosure. Then something wonderful happened. A man from an oil company showed up on his doorstep, asking for a lease to drill for oil on his land. Since he was going to lose the farm anyway, Farmer Brown decided that it couldn’t hurt. Well, that oil company drilled and hit a gusher – 82,000 barrels of oil a day. Immediately Farmer Brown became a millionaire many times over. Now, here’s the question – When did he become a millionaire? Was it when oil was discovered on his farm, or when he first bought the land? He was a millionaire the moment he purchased the farm, but he lived in poverty because he didn’t know what was under his feet and within his reach. The Bible says God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.” Some people think the only thing God will do for you is bless you with salvation, then He lets you struggle through the rest of life until you get to heaven. As long as you believe that, you’re living in your own spiritual version of the Great Depression. You’re living spiritually poor, spiritually weak, and spiritually deprived because you don’t know what’s available to you in Christ or how to access it and appropriate it in your life. Refuse to live that way. Instead, read your Bible and begin to claim God’s promises in every area of your life.
Soul food: Num 3:1-4:33; Matt 10:21-31; Ps 104:1-23; Prov 3:9-10
2018-01-26
Jeremiah 1:5 NIV
Does a baby come into the world with a complex personality, or is that child a blank slate on which experience will write? In the past, behavioral scientists believed newborns had no temperamental or emotional characteristics upon arrival from the womb. Their little personalities were supposedly formed entirely by the experiences that came their way in ensuing years. But most parents knew better. Every mother of two or more children was convinced that each of her infants had a different personality – a different feel – from the very first time they were held. Now, after years of research, numerous authorities in child development acknowledge that those mothers were right. One important study identified nine characteristics that varied in babies – such as moodiness, level of activity, and responsiveness. They also found that the differences from child to child tended to persist into later life. Indeed, babies do differ in infinite ways that define our humanness and our individuality. If every snowflake that falls has its own design, and if every grain of sand at the seashore is unique, it makes no sense to suppose that children are assembly-line products stamped out by the same giant cookie cutter. There’s no denying the importance of environment and human experience in shaping who we are and how we think. But there can be no doubt that each person on earth is a one-of-a-kind creation from the earliest moments of life. As God told Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” You need to know that about your children.
Soul food: Num 1-2; Matt 10:11-20; Ps 100; Prov 3:7-8
2018-01-25
Colossians 2:9 NKJV
In his book Outlive Your Life, author Max Lucado says the Greek word for “blessed,” makarios, was the name of an island off Greece. It was known as “the blessed island” because it was self-contained. The residents didn’t need to leave it in order to get their needs met. The natural resources of this island were so rich that everything needed to enjoy life was already there. There’s a lesson here for you. The moment you trust in Christ as your Savior, He becomes your king and you begin living in His kingdom. You don’t have to leave it and go elsewhere to find what you need, because it’s all around you in the island of blessing. You don’t have to strive for God’s blessing; you simply have to “tune in” and receive it. It’s like your radio; there are no orchestras or newscasters inside it, it’s only a conduit and a point of contact. Even when your radio stops working, there are still signals in the air. All your radio does is receive the signal that comes from another source and deliver it to you. If you lose sight of that fact, you’ll give the radio more credit than it deserves. One of the reasons we don’t recognize the blessings of God in our lives is that we confuse the means of delivery with the source. If something doesn’t miraculously fall into our lap, we think it didn’t come from God. No, God will bless you at different times, through different people, in different ways. But you must always remember that they are only the carriers of blessing, while He is the source of it (See Psalm 31:19).
Soul food: James 3-5; Matt 10:1-10; Ps 96; Prov 3:5-6
2018-01-24
John 14:26 NIV
Jesus ended His Sermon on the Mount with a striking story that addresses the gap between knowing and doing: “Therefore anyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24 NIV). The problem is, we find is easier to be smart than to be good. You don’t need to know more about the Bible until you put into practice what you already know. John Ortberg says that when he taught tennis, unskilled novices would agonize over which racket to buy – whether to use nylon or gut strings, whether to string them up at sixty-five or seventy pounds. The problem was, they couldn’t even hit the ball. Instead of debating the minutiae, they simply needed to practice. But a word of caution here: You don’t become a “doer of the word” by drawing on your own strength and willpower. The Holy Spirit who dwells within you is referred to in Scripture as “the paraclete.” The word means “one who comes alongside to help.” When you decide to do what’s right, the Holy Spirit within you empowers you to do it. When a situation arises, He will prompt you as to what you should do. Jesus promised, “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” You ask, “But what if I don’t get it right?” He will work with you, giving you opportunities until you do get it right.
Soul food: James 1-2; Matt 9:27-38; Ps 91; Prov 3:3-4
