2022-01-13
Psalm 78:4 NIV
A legacy, good or bad, is something handed down from one person to another. I hope, over time, God has healed your hurts and you have moved on, but what are you leaving behind? The harsh words you spoke may have been based on what was happening in your life at the time, but now you see things more clearly. It’s wonderful when you move from resenting others to forgiving them – but have you left unhealed wounds?
James writes, “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires” (James 1:19-20 NLT). Your words can do lasting damage, and that should concern you. Paul writes, “See…that no one falls short of the grace of God and…no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” (Hebrews 12:15 NIV). Have you planted seeds that caused a root of bitterness to grow in someone’s heart?
If possible, you must make amends by seeking forgiveness and trying to set the record straight with those you have left festering over a situation you now feel differently about. It’s humbling, but you must do it because you won’t feel right toward God until you’re right with those He loves. Jesus said, “If you are offering your gift at the altar and…remember…your brother…has something against you…go and be reconciled…then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24 NIV).
Dr. Dale Turner writes: “It is the highest form of self-respect to admit our errors and mistakes and make amends for them….A mistake is only an error in judgment, but to adhere to it when it is discovered shows weakness of character.”
Soul food: Gen 28:1-30:24; Luke 2:34-40; Ps 74:1-11; Pro 2:6
2022-01-12
Romans 1:21 NLT
Contemplating the amazing design of our universe, physicist and Nobel laureate, Arno Penzias, tries to explain it this way: “Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe…created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life. In the absence of an absurdly improbable accident, the observations of modern science seem to suggest an underlying, one might say, supernatural plan.”
Harvard biologist Stephen Jay Gould describes humans as “a glorious accident” of evolution which needed sixty trillion contingent events. Cosmologists estimate the earth to be 4.55 billion years old. So, to accomplish those sixty trillion events would necessitate more than thirty-six essential events a day for 4.55 billion years – just to get Homo sapiens. And conveniently, each of these thirty-six new events would have to occur in the right place, at the right time, in the right sequence. And this doesn’t take into account the astronomical number of “accidents” required to form the tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of individual ecosystems.
One individual put it this way: “The odds would be better of getting hit by lightning at the moment you won the Power-ball lottery while dying in the crash of a plane that got struck by a meteor.” Dr. Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project, a believer himself, describes exploring nature as “a way of getting a glimpse of God’s mind,” and observes, “All truth is God’s truth, and therefore God can hardly be threatened by scientific discoveries.” God is real, and when you reach for His help, you will get it.
Soul food: Gen 25:19-27:46; Luke 2:21-33; Ps 71:17-24; Pro 2:3-5
2022-01-11
Romans 1:20 NLT
They say, “There are none so blind as those who will not see!” Richard Dawkins, the well-known atheist said, “It is absolutely safe to say that, if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane.” But the truth is, most great scientific minds from the past – brilliant men who founded and developed key disciplines of science – were creationists. For example: (1) Physics: Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, Kelvin. (2) Chemistry: Boyle, Dalton, Pascal, Ramsay. (3) Biology: Ray, Pasteur, Mendel, Linnaeus. (4) Geology: Steno, Woodward, Brewster, Agassiz. (5) Astronomy: Kepler, Galileo, Herschel, Maunder. Were these men “ignorant, stupid or insane”?
Sir Isaac Newton managed to discover the composition of light, deduce the laws of motion, invent calculus, compute the speed of sound, and define universal gravitation – while believing our universe “could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.” In a 2007 Newsweek magazine survey, 78 percent of those polled attributed creation to God, while only 13 percent believed in naturalistic evolution.
Don’t be intimidated by nonbelievers. Push back! The Bible says: “They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities…So they have no excuse for not knowing God” (vv. 18-20 NLT). Yes, there is a God – and He wants you to know Him on a personal level.
Soul food: Gen 24:1-25:18; Luke 2:8-20; Ps 71:1-16; Pro 2:1-2
2022-01-10
Hebrews 3:4 NKJV
Imagine a human skull evolving with holes and sockets in just the right places. “Then,” as one author writes, “by accident came the brain, interconnected to two eyes, two ears, one nose, skin, blood, nerves, mouth, teeth, tongue, salivary glands and taste buds, connected to a neck and a body with heart, liver, kidneys, lungs, in both male and female with complex, complementary reproductive systems – and that a similar thing happened throughout all the animal kingdom.”
Atheists claim something can bring itself into being from nothing, and given enough time, complex systems can be constructed by chance through random, unguided developments. It doesn’t make sense. The Bible says, “Every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God” (v. 4 NKJV). If the first man to walk on the moon had discovered a Coca-Cola can, would it be sensible to imagine it had evolved over millions of years? Or would he know it was devised and constructed, and therefore someone must have been there earlier? Think about how simplistic a Coca-Cola can is compared to your design.
“But don’t the most intelligent people, like great scientists, believe God didn’t create the world?” you ask. No! Albert Einstein, perhaps the world’s greatest scientist said, “The deeper one penetrates into nature’s secrets, the greater becomes one’s respect for God.” And Sir Isaac Newton said, “The most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.” Yes, there is a God, and one day you will stand before Him. Are you ready for that event? If not, you can be, by putting your trust in Christ today.
Soul food: Gen 20-23; Luke 2:1-7; Ps 46; Pro 1:32-33
2022-01-09
Acts 14:17 NLT
Do you believe there is a God who made all things, including you? Yes? Then you’re blessed. On the other hand, if you don’t believe in God, try to make an eye, an ear, or a brain. Only make one…from nothing! Or create a flower that can produce nectar which can be collected by bees you made and make them transform it into honey for you to eat. You breathe in life-giving oxygen released by trees, then you breathe out carbon dioxide giving the trees what they need for their survival. Brilliant, right? And since atheists believe all this came into being without an intelligent guiding power – there was no “mind” behind creation – imagine having your brain removed and then being asked to create it.
Perhaps that’s why the majority of people in a Newsweek poll said they believe in God. So, what about the tiny 3 to 5 percent who claim to be atheists? Are they just smarter than the rest of us, or are they missing some apparent evidence? An atheist is defined as someone who doesn’t believe in God. But since it is impossible to prove scientifically that something doesn’t exist, atheists can’t know for sure that there is no God. Their view is based solely on the lack of evidence.
However, believing there is no God doesn’t mean one does not exist. The Bible says, “He never left them without evidence of himself and his goodness. For instance, he sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and joyful hearts” (v. 17 NLT). The “evidence” is all around us. God’s existence can be proved. And you can have a personal relationship with Him!
Soul food: 1 Sam 3:1-11; Acts 9:1-9
2022-01-08
Matthew 22:37 NLT
When a lawyer asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, He replied that he must love God, others, and himself (See vv. 37-39 NLT). Observe that He said, “You must love” (emphasis added). This tells you a lot about the true nature and behavior of love. If love can be commanded, then it can’t be only emotional, or a matter of feelings. Genuine love is much more than feelings; it’s a matter of the will. That’s why Jesus could command us to express it. It’s a commandment followed by a commitment. Although feelings are important, true love functions regardless of how you feel.
In his book The Fred Factor Mark Sanborn writes: “I learned a long time ago that liking people and loving them are different. Liking someone is an emotional response. Unlike love, ‘like’ is a feeling. The tough part is that we can’t control our emotions. We can control how we choose to express those emotions but not the feelings themselves. A healthy person can choose to be angry and still choose to act lovingly…A feeling is a reaction. Maybe that’s one reason Jesus didn’t say, ‘Like your enemies.’ He knew that liking or not liking someone was not always in our immediate control…I have learned that love is, among other things, an action. I can love someone I don’t necessarily like. I can do something or act toward that person in a certain way because I know it is the right thing to do even if I don’t feel warm and fuzzy doing it.”
And here’s the thing: When you act lovingly toward another person, your emotions begin to line up with your actions. Go ahead, try it and see!
Soul food: Gen 17-19; Luke 1:67-80; Ps 42:6-11; Pro 1:28-31
