2025-05-09
Genesis 1:27-28 NKJV
A pastor writes: “When God created man, he made him ‘in his own image.’ That was God’s original plan, and it has not changed. He wants to make us like himself… godly. He does it by working on our character through his Word, through his Holy Spirit, and through circumstances. The Greek word for ‘character’… means ‘tested and proven reliable.’ It brings to mind the work of a blacksmith, describing something that has gone through the fire, has been beat on… but has stood the test.”
Notice, one of the first things God said to man was, “Be fruitful.” And Jesus tells us how: “If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit” (John 15:5 CEV). But fruit takes time to ripen. When you try to rush the process, it doesn’t taste as good. Have you ever tasted gassed tomatoes? You buy them at the grocery store. If farmers picked ripe tomatoes and shipped them, they would get smashed en route to market. So, they pick them green, spray them with ethylene gas before they go to market, and the gas quickly ripens green tomatoes into red. Nothing is wrong with those tomatoes, but if you have ever tasted a vine-ripened tomato, you know there is no comparison.
Similarly, it takes time for spiritual fruit to grow in your life. You can’t take a crash course and graduate with spiritual maturity. It requires a lifetime of walking with God, leaning on Him, learning from Him, and loving Him with all your heart. God wants to produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life, so cooperate with Him.
Soul food: Titus 1-3; Mark 6:1-13; Ps 150; Prov 11:16-18
2025-05-08
Psalm 37:23 TLB
To come up with a daily to-do list that keeps your peace and joy intact, consult God. When you take on too much, you set yourself up for failure – and stress. If you’re wise, you won’t schedule more than one or two “majors” in a day. Life doesn’t run smoothly, no matter how badly you want it to. So, build in time for interruptions, traffic jams, lost keys, slow-moving people, etc.
And be careful about multitasking. Studies have connected high-stress multitasking to short-term memory loss. Experts have concluded that multitasking makes you less efficient because it decreases the brainpower needed to execute each task. So, make yourself finish one task before beginning another. To be productive, you must be focused.
And one more thought – a very important one: Solitude is essential to success! Before Jesus picked His disciples, fed the multitude, and calmed the storm, He took time to be alone with God in prayer. He did, but we don’t, and it shows up in the results we get! We pick the wrong people, lack the necessary resources to meet the need, and the storms of life overwhelm us. The great thing about prayer is that you can do it anywhere – in a traffic commute, in the checkout line at the grocery store, on your lunch break, or when your eyes first open in the morning. Bottom line: Since God “delights in each step” of your life, begin to involve Him more.
Soul food: Jonah 1-4; Mark 5:31-43; Ps 62; Prov 11:15
2025-05-07
Ephesians 3:20 NIV
Lack of faith is not a failure of logic; it’s a failure of imagination. Lack of faith is the inability or unwillingness to entertain thoughts of a God who is able to do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (v. 20 NIV). Did you get that? God wants to empower your imagination!
A pastor writes: “If we are going to have an eternal impact on our culture, we can’t just criticize it or copy it. We’ve got to create it. If we are going to reach our generation with the gospel, we can’t just appeal to logic. We’ve got to capture their imagination. And C. S. Lewis is a great example of both. Can you think of anyone more left-brain logical than Lewis? His theological writings, from Mere Christianity to The Problem of Pain, are as logical as logic can be. But Lewis combined left-brain logic with right-brain creativity. The Chronicles of Narnia continue to capture the imagination of new generations. The church ought to be the most creative place on the planet. And there are certainly pockets of ingenuity and imagination, but we’re nowhere near our creative potential.”
Perhaps this is because we have a false definition of faithfulness. Faithfulness is not doing it how it has always been done. It’s not preserving the status quo. No, we must never water down the gospel or promote biblical compromise for cultural relevancy. Bottom line: Our message must never change, but our methods must change if we are to gather in the final harvest before the Lord of the harvest returns.
Soul food: Num 34-36; Mark 5:21-30; Ps 57; Prov 11:14
2025-05-06
Romans 16:2 NLT
When it comes to life’s great achievers, the apostle Paul is in a league of his own. But he takes one entire chapter of the Bible, Romans 16, to acknowledge all the people who helped him to succeed in his calling. The chapter could be captioned “I couldn’t have done it without you!” He starts by talking about Phoebe, “who is worthy of honour… for she has been helpful to many… especially… me” (vv. 1-2 NLT).
President Lyndon Johnson said, “There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.” When God created Adam, He said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper” (Genesis 2:18 NKJV). And He created Eve. From the beginning of time, God teaches us that very little of significance is ever accomplished by an individual acting alone. Look below the surface, and you will invariably find that all the single-handed feats are really team efforts.
Daniel Boone had at his disposal companions from the Transylvania Company while blazing the Wilderness Road. Wyatt Earp’s two brothers and Doc Holliday assisted him. Charles Lindbergh had the finances of nine businessmen from St. Louis and the expertise of Ryan Aeronautical Company, which built his plane. Even Albert Einstein acknowledged: “Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labours of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.”
The secret to success in any endeavour can be summed up in these three words: connect… commit… communicate.
Soul food: Num 32:25-33:56; Mark 5:11-20; Ps 44:17-26; Prov 11:12-13
2025-05-05
John 21:15 NIV
Reimar Schultze says: “The more conscientious we are, the more we… go to bed with some sense that we missed the elusive 100 percent again… Many precious saints fall for this trap… robbing themselves of the joy of the Lord and the peace… that passes all understanding… We all are familiar with the testimonies of some of the greatest men of God. Many of them, like us…found themselves in the gutters of self-incrimination.”
Moses felt completely unworthy and unable to free Israel from Egypt. Yet how often has God called you to do something and you said the same thing: “Who am I, that I should go?” (Exodus 3:11 KJV). Do you think you know more than the One who called you? David tells us throughout the Psalms that God is omnipotent and omnipresent; that He never takes his eyes off us. Then David contradicts himself by declaring, “I am a worm and not a man” (Psalm 22:6 NIV), and “I am forgotten as though I were dead” (Psalm 31:12 NIV). Elijah was so depressed that he cried, “Enough… Lord, take away my life” (1 Kings 19:4 KJV). Job cursed the day he was born, yet the Bible calls him a “blameless and upright” man who reverenced God (Job 1:1 NIV).
Pastor Schultze continues: “Measuring our worth to God by our performance will continue to threaten us until the end of time… I absolutely refuse to go to bed going through some kind of checklist on how I did… I would rather ask myself the question Jesus asked Peter…do you love Me with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? Again, that is the only test I want to give myself at the end of the day.” It’s the one that counts most!
Soul food: Num 30:1-32:24; Mark 5:1-10; Ps 44:9-16; Prov 11:10-11
2025-05-04
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 6 MSG
Persistence, determination, commitment, and recognizing the “right time…to hold on” are all commendable qualities, whether it’s setting aside time to pray and read every day, eating dinner with your family, finding a better job, or losing weight, etc. But it’s equally important to recognize the “right time… to let go” of self-generated urgency and things that are stopping you from living “life in all its fullness” (John 10:10 NCV). The Bible tells us to “lay aside every weight” (Hebrews 12:1 NKJV).
Not sure how to start? One teacher offers this suggestion: “Go to the hardware store and buy a flat patio stone that fits into your briefcase or purse. Then take a marker and write on the stone all the fears and prerequisites that are stopping you from enjoying life. Carry it with you wherever you go… eating, working, watching TV, showering, sleeping. Feel how heavy it is? It’s hard to get anything done when your muscles are working overtime carrying all that extra weight. At the end of the second day (if you last that long!), sit down with your stone, review the list, and make a conscious decision to let go of the worries and burdens that are sapping your energy. Then go outside and set the rock down beside your front door. See how much lighter you feel? How much easier it is to get things done? Before you leave home every day, take a second to look at your stone… then turn around and deliberately walk away.”
That’s what it means to “give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you” (Psalm 55:22 NLT).
Soul food: Exo 20:12; Eph 6:1-3; Matt 15:1-9; John 19:25-27
