ODJ: an unlikely route to life
For until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead (v.9). READ: John 20:1-9 The first Easter morning didn’t start out well for the disciples. The one thing they knew for sure, when they woke up that day, was that Jesus was dead. The precious Master and Friend they [...]
ODB: honestly
April 30, 2010
READ: Proverbs 12:17-22
Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are His delight. —Proverbs 12:22
Today is National Honesty Day in the United States. It is a little-known designation for April 30, but an important one nonetheless.
Author M. Hirsh Goldberg established National Honesty Day in the early 1990s as a way to honor the honorable and encourage honesty. He said that April 30 was selected because “April begins with a day dedicated to lying [April Fool’s Day] and should end on a higher moral note.”
Honesty Day would be a good time to review the value of this trait according to God’s Word. Honesty is not as easy as it seems—but we please God by striving for it.
An understanding of honesty begins with recognizing that God—our ultimate example—is truth (Deut. 32:4) and that He cannot lie (Num. 23:19; Heb. 6:18). Also, He hates falsehood (Prov. 6:16-19). Beyond that, all lies have as their originator Satan himself (John 8:44).
For our part, we can use these Scriptures as our guide: “A righteous man hates lying” (Prov. 13:5); love rejoices in truth (1 Cor. 13:6); lying is part of the old nature (Col. 3:9); growth means setting aside deceit (1 Peter 2:1); and speaking truth declares righteousness (Prov. 12:17).
Let’s make every day Honesty Day. — Dave Branon
People who trust God’s Word should be people whose word can be trusted.
Source: Our Daily Bread
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Loading ...ODJ: the source of life
Then Jesus said, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (v.28).
READ: Matthew 11:25-30
An Amazon message board comment caught my attention recently. “I have a zillion books in my library,” Michele said in a discussion on New Age spirituality, “books on the Kabbalah, Golden Dawn books, The Zohar, books on the Tetragrammaton, Ernest Holmes books, Dalai Lama books, Ascension books, Christian Science books, Theosophical books, and on and on.” Michele’s vast reading left her confused. “I couldn’t assemble [their teachings] into a bottom line if my life depended on it. If the ultimate communion with Source relies somehow on endless ritual and recitation, all is lost to me.”
Michele longed to commune with the “Source”—with God—but felt disheartened by the contradictory teachings her mystical authors gave about how to do so. She was weary. Burdened.
Jesus addressed people like Michele. Many years before He came to earth, another Jesus—Jesus ben Sira—had called people to find soul rest by taking on the “yoke” of the Jewish Law through study and reflection (Ecclesiasticus 51:23-27). By Christ’s time, legalistic teachers had distorted that Law, adding long lists of rules to it. This “yoke” (originally a device worn on the shoulders to make a load easier to carry) now crushed the faithful (Matthew 23:4). The people longed for God, but were burdened with “rituals and recitations.”
Jesus gave an extraordinary invitation to these weary folks. “Come to Me,” He said. “Take My yoke upon you . . . and you will find rest for your souls” (11:28-29). With those shocking words Jesus claimed that He was the ultimate source of soul rest—not the teachers’ rituals or even the Law itself.
Jesus is the ultimate source of life (John 1:4). Come to Him today.
—Sheridan Voysey
If you knew Michele, how would you respond to her comments? Have you allowed any “rituals and recitations” to get in the way of your relationship with God?
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ODB: our demanding schedules
April 29, 2010
READ: Mark 1:32-39
The whole city was gathered together at the door. Then He healed many. —Mark 1:33-34
Is your life too busy? Business deadlines, productivity quotas, and shuttling children to lessons and sporting events can really fill up your schedule. It’s easy to think, If only I didn’t have so many responsibilities, then I could walk in vital union with God.
Yet C. S. Lewis wisely points out that no one was busier than Christ. “Our model is the Jesus . . . of the workshop, the roads, the crowds, the clamorous demands and surly oppositions, the lack of all peace and privacy, the interruptions. For this . . . is the Divine life operating under human conditions.”
We read of Jesus in Capernaum: “At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. Then He healed many” (Mark 1:32-34). The next day Christ sought out a solitary place and prayed. There He received direction from His Father to pursue a demanding ministry in another place. Our Lord communed with His Father and depended on the Spirit to minister through Him.
Is your schedule demanding? Follow the example of Jesus and set aside a specific time for prayer. Then depend upon God’s power to help you meet each day’s demands. — Dennis Fisher
To keep your life in balance, lean on the Lord.
Source: Our Daily Bread
(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...ODJ: so we may live
So that you will love Him with all your heart and soul and so you may live! (v.6).
READ: Deuteronomy 30:1-10
We decided we had to move or freeze to death.” Eleven-year old Norman Ollestad uttered these harrowing words to a newspaper reporter soon after being rescued in the San Gabriel Mountains. The small Cessna plane he had been traveling in had smashed into one of the range’s jagged peaks. Norman was the lone survivor—his dad and the pilot died immediately, his dad’s girlfriend a bit later. Norman’s book Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival recounts the remarkable tale.
While the crash was center stage, Ollestad’s story is about more than surviving that cruel day—it’s about his emerging from trauma as a man who, in the aftermath, has learned to live.
In Deuteronomy, God laid out a framework for Israel that would govern their corporate identity. He provided numerous regulations about their diet and their worship and the way they would govern themselves. Underlying it all, however, was the subtext of God preparing them for the long days when they would be in foreign lands and under foreign rule. Whenever they would find themselves “living among the nations,” God knew it would be vitally important for Israel to be able to survive, to maintain their unique identity and their unique story and purpose (30:1).
However, these structures and instructions were about much more than mere holding themselves together. God intended this way of life to guide them into (or at times return them to) a deep love for Him. And this love for God was not a technique to help them merely survive, but an invitation to life—to experience the joy and bounty of all God would give them (v.6).
God’s kind intentions toward us are more delightful than we can imagine. His plan is for us to live well, taking deep pleasure in all the goodness He provides.
—Winn Collier
Are you merely surviving or truly living? What changes do you need to make in order to embrace God’s plan for you to live well?
(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ODB: make my brown eyes blue
April 28, 2010
READ: Matthew 16:24-28
Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. —Matthew 16:25
As a young girl, Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) wished she had blue eyes instead of brown. She even prayed that God would change her eye color and was disappointed when it didn’t happen. At age 20, Amy sensed that the Lord was calling her to serve Him as a missionary. After serving in various places, she went to India. It was then that she realized God’s wisdom in the way He had made her. She may have had a more difficult time gaining acceptance from the brown-eyed people if her eyes had been blue. She served God in India for 55 years.
We don’t know for sure that Amy was more readily accepted because of her eye color. But we do know and believe that it is the Lord “who has made us, and not we ourselves” (Ps. 100:3). As we submit to His wisdom in everything, we can serve Him effectively.
Amy knew what submission was. When asked about missionary life, she replied, “Missionary life is simply a chance to die.” Jesus said, “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matt. 16:25).
That describes the devoted Christian’s life as well— total surrender to God’s plans and will for us. May we submit to Him today. — Anne Cetas
Our lives are never more secure than when they are abandoned to God.
Source: Our Daily Bread
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ODJ: buyer’s remorse
At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness (v.7).
READ: Genesis 3:1-7
Have you ever experienced buyer’s remorse? I have. I wonder why I buy half the clothes hanging in my closet.
Just prior to making a purchase, I feel the positive emotions that come with getting something new. Afterwards, having bought the item, a wave of remorse crashes over me. I become more aware of the negative aspects of my shopping.
In Genesis 3, history’s first buyer’s remorse is recorded. The whole thing began with the crafty serpent and his sales pitch. He persuaded Eve to doubt God’s Word. She even ends up misquoting what God had said to her and Adam: “You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die” (v.3). Allen Ross in The Bible Knowledge Commentary writes, “Either Eve did not know God’s command very well or did not want to remember it.”
Satan then capitalized on the waffling woman’s uncertainty by casting doubt on God’s character. He mixed the truth with a lie to make it more palatable.
So Eve ate. Adam ate. And sin entered the world. But the first man and woman got more than they bargained for. Their eyes were opened all right, but they didn’t become “like God” (v.5). In fact, their first act as enlightened sinners was to hide from God (vv.7-8).
This account in Genesis 3 teaches us that sin has dire consequences. It always keeps us from God’s best. Because of His grace, however, Genesis 3 is filled with more than just bad news. For God took innocent animals and shed their blood. He clothed Adam and Eve in garments made from the animals’ skins.
This was a foreshadowing of what Jesus Christ would do for us by dying on the cross for our sins. His blood was shed so that we might be clothed with His righteousness—with no buyer’s remorse! —Poh Fang Chia
What lies of the world have you bought into? How will you live out the righteousness of Jesus today?
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...A Soldier’s Journal
By Isaac Tan, Singapore This is a fully fictional account. All these thoughts are purely generated out of a curious mind to try to understand the mindset of the soldiers as they walked round the city of Jericho. All feelings were based on the author’s personal views on life at large. Part One: “It is [...]
(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...ODB: for the sake of His name
April 27, 2010
READ: 1 Samuel 12:19-25
I will never leave you nor forsake you. —Hebrews 13:5
The ancient Israelites gathered at Gilgal for the coronation of Saul as their first king (1 Sam. 11:15). The Lord was not pleased that His people had asked for a king, yet on this occasion Samuel uttered these words: “The Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people” (12:22).
We too are God’s “own special people” if we have trusted Jesus as Savior (1 Peter 2:9). He will not forsake us even though He knows we will fail Him. He knows what we are like—sinful, weak, and frail. He knew it before He called us and drew us to Himself. The certainty of our salvation rests not in ourselves but on the character of God (1 John 5:20). He will keep us to the end.
This does not give us an excuse to continue in sin. Paul said, “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Rom. 6:2). Our choices do reflect on God’s reputation, our witness in the world, and our fellowship with Him. But God will never reject His people, those who are truly His. The Lord cannot and will not forsake His own (Heb. 13:5).
We can rest assured. What God saves, He keeps—for the sake of His great name! — David H. Roper
Lives rooted in God’s unchanging grace can never be uprooted.
Source: Our Daily Bread
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ODJ: chutzpah
“Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed (v.28).
READ: Matthew 15:21-28
When I was growing up, my father kept one can of WD-40 in the house and another in his car. It seemed it was the be-all and end-all for almost every mechanical problem. But what is WD-40? It literally stands for Water Displacement 40th attempt.
In 1953, chemist Norm Larsen was attempting to concoct a formula to prevent corrosion—a task which is accomplished by displacing water. Larsen’s unyielding tenacity and persistence paid off when he perfected the formula on his 40th try.
Matthew introduces us to a Gentile woman who had this same kind of persistence. Her daughter was violently and cruelly demon-possessed (15:21). She had no hope of ever seeing her daughter normal again, until she heard that Jesus was in town. She had heard about Jesus’ power and the miracles He had worked in the lives of others, and she believed He could help her too. So she approached Jesus boldly and persevered with unyielding tenacity, even when everything and everybody seemed to be against her. Her race, religious background, gender, the disciples, Satan, and even Jesus seemed to be against her (v.24).
Despite these seeming obstacles, she did not give up, but pushed her way through the dark corridors of her desperate need. She had chutzpah (khoot-spuh), a Jewish/Hebrew word for headstrong persistence, unyielding tenacity, bold determination, and raw nerve. Jesus complimented her chutzpah and rewarded her faith by healing her daughter (v.28).
Sometimes we pray, and if we don’t get an answer the first time, we give up. That’s not chutzpah! Chutzpah is having the raw belief, the deep trust, and the confident hope to be persistent with God, believing that He is good, just, and loving, and that He desires what’s best for us. —Marvin Williams
How have you demonstrated your faith through chutzpah in prayer lately? What prayers have you seen answered as you’ve persisted in calling on God?
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