ODJ: risky business
Money is put into risky investments that turn sour (v.14). READ: Ecclesiastes 5:8-20 A recent study by the US-based Virginia Tech Transportation Institute reveals that texting while driving is risky business. The study concluded that the risk of being in a collision is 23 times greater for truck drivers who text. The Institute’s research team is [...]
ODB: ike’s anger problem
September 13, 2010
READ: Proverbs 16:21-33
He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. —Proverbs 16:32
On June 6, 1944, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, was the most powerful man on earth. Under his authority, the largest amphibious army ever assembled prepared to liberate the Nazi-dominated continent of Europe. How was Eisenhower able to lead such a vast army? Part of the answer can be linked to his remarkable skill in working with different kinds of people.
What many do not know, however, is that Ike hadn’t always gotten along with others. As a boy, he often got into fistfights at school. But fortunately he had a caring mother who instructed him in God’s Word. One time, when she was bandaging his hands after an angry outburst, she quoted Proverbs 16:32, “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” Years later, Eisenhower wrote, “I have always looked back on that conversation as one of the most valuable moments of my life.” Undoubtedly, by learning to control his anger, Eisenhower was able to work effectively with others.
Inevitably, each of us will at times be tempted to lash out in anger. Yet through God’s work in our lives we can learn to control our anger. What better way to influence people than through a gentle spirit. —Dennis Fisher
He who conquers his anger conquers a strong enemy.
Source: Our Daily Bread
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...ODJ: museum of broken relationships
I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope (vv.20-21).
READ: Lamentations 3:19-26
A garden dwarf, a glass house, and a box made of matches. These items and many others are on display at the Museum of Broken Relationships in Croatia. It exists so that everyone who contributes a memento from a shattered relationship has the chance to “overcome emotional collapse through creation.”
The Bible offers even more constructive insight on how to mend broken hearts. Jeremiah wrote Lamentations based on his firsthand experience with heartbreak over the nation of Israel. Sorrowfully, he said, “I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss” (3:20). Jeremiah acknowledged his pain. He didn’t bury it or get busy and just try to forget. He expressed his feelings, proving that there is “a time to grieve” (Ecclesiastes 3:4).
Deep in his grief, Jeremiah never lost sight of God’s love. He knew, “The faithful love of the Lord never ends!” (v.22). In the Hebrew language, this refers to a kind of love called chesed love—translation: loyal love. Although people we cherish may break our heart, God’s love will never disappoint us.
God’s consistent, dependable affection caused Jeremiah to proclaim, “I will hope in Him!” (v.24). The idea of hope here relates to waiting for something, or lingering. While it’s tempting to pine away for that guy or girl who just said sayonara, it’s better to put our hope in God. He “will never abandon [us]” (Hebrews 13:5).
If you’re recovering from a splintered relationship, remember that it’s okay to take time to mourn the loss. Allow God to comfort you with His faithful love, and wait on Him for emotional healing. Then you can eventually toss out all the reminders of lost love—with no need to keep them on display.
—Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Why is it best to turn to God with a broken heart? What might God want to teach us through the pain of heartbreak?
(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ODB: just another Sunday?
September 12, 2010
READ: Acts 2:41-47
They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine. —Acts 2:42
Early on a sunny Sunday afternoon after church, I headed out for a walk around the neighborhood. A man was trimming his grass along the sidewalk, and we greeted each other with the usual “Hello, how are you?” In a negative tone, he replied, “It’s just another Sunday.” Later, I wondered what he had meant by that. Was he saying, I’m just doing my chores—going through the motions?
Sometimes even church attendance can become a matter of merely going through the motions on just another Sunday. For the believers in the early church (Acts 2:41-47), joining with fellow believers was a source of excitement. That was when the church first started and everyone was a new believer—so they were bound to be enthusiastic. But what about us? What can we do to make each Sunday special?
Go with the anticipation of meeting with God. While He is with us all the time (Heb. 13:5), God is with us in a unique way as we gather with others who know Him (Matt. 18:20; James 4:8). Bring your burdens and praises to Him.
Go to learn about God. We may not learn something new every week, but we can always be encouraged by the truths of God’s Word (Ps. 119:105). Expect to hear from Him.
Go to fellowship with others. We need each other in this Christian journey. Encourage others, challenge them in their faith, and pray for them (Heb. 10:24-25).
Lord, give us a renewed enthusiasm of heart for attending church, so that it won’t be just another Sunday. —Anne Cetas
If you want to be spiritually fed, go to church with a hunger for the Word.
Source: Our Daily Bread
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ODJ: serving God leftovers
When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn’t that wrong? And isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is! (v.8).
READ: Malachi 1:6-14
A few years ago, radio commentator Paul Harvey shared a true story about a woman and her frozen turkey. The Butterball Turkey Company set up a telephone hotline to answer consumer questions about preparing holiday turkeys. One woman called to inquire about cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 years. The representative told her the turkey would be safe to eat, but did not recommend eating it because the flavor would have deteriorated. The caller replied, “That’s what I thought. Okay, we’ll probably just give it to our church then.”
That woman was guilty of serving leftovers to her church. The priests and people of Malachi’s day were also guilty of serving leftovers to a holy God. Questioning God’s love for them (1:2-5), the priests and the people became negligent in their worship. God sent Malachi to scold them for “serving” Him careless worship (vv.6-7). The people were offering defective animals for sacrifice, and the priests, who were responsible for inspecting the animals and offering up unblemished sacrifices to God (Leviticus 22:17-25), were accepting them. The Lord said it was insulting that they were bringing Him—the Great King of the universe—sacrifices that weren’t even fit for one of their human authorities (Malachi 1:8).
Are we offering God less than our best? Here are three standards of sacrifices to test our worship and service to God: (1) Are we giving to God first? (2) Are we giving God our best? (3) Are we offering God a sacrifice that costs us something? Let’s apply those questions to these areas of our life: our bodies (Romans 12:1-2), our money (Philippians 4:14-18), our praise (Hebrews 13:15), our good works (v.16), and our witnessing to unbelievers. Let’s give our best, not simply the leftovers. —Marvin Williams
In what area of your life do you think lightly of God by offering Him leftovers? When are you tempted to offer God less than your best? How can you consistently offer Him your best?
(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...ODB: everyone knows what’s wrong
September 11, 2010
READ: Romans 12:14-21
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. —Romans 12:21
Glance at any newspaper and the headlines tell you what’s wrong with the world. Watch television, listen to the radio, talk to friends, and you will find no shortage of opinions as to what is wrong on planet Earth. That’s because pointing out what’s wrong is easy.
When terrorists hijacked passenger planes and slammed them into the Pentagon, two New York skyscrapers, and a Pennsylvania field, the world quickly called it evil. The destructive power of this epic evil event made people feel paralyzed and helpless. And that’s what evil does best; it makes us feel powerless.
But we’re not. Most of us experience evil on a smaller, more personal scale. And for us, the apostle Paul outlined the proper response. He said we are to abhor evil (Rom. 12:9), not to repay it with more evil (v.17), and not to be overcome by it (v.21).
The true victim of evil is goodness—the goodness that God designed as part of creation for everyone to enjoy (Gen. 1:4-31). It is surprising then when Paul concludes that the casualty of evil is also its conqueror (Rom. 12:21).
Evil gets all the headlines, but God’s goodness is stronger, and He wants us to use it on His behalf to overcome His enemy. —Julie Ackerman Link
As light overcomes darkness, goodness can overcome evil.
Source: Our Daily Bread
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ODJ: when the world falls apart
But [the king of the north] will vent his anger against the people of the holy covenant (v.30).
READ: Daniel 11:29-32
We are obsessed with success. An entire industry revolves around Guinness World Records, cataloging stuff like the longest beard, the fastest 40-meter wheelbarrow race, and the most T-shirts worn at once. We have meticulous lists of all the record holders, but nobody remembers the losers.
Unfortunately, this fascination with all things triumphant has corroded our spiritual pursuits. We can begin to believe that God’s job is to make us succeed, to clear our path of obstacles, to (always) remove impediments and suffering.
In contrast, the prophet Daniel went to great lengths in warning Israel of a future time of severe troubles. Pushing against any misplaced feelings of entitlement to comfort, Daniel warned that an evil king from the north would descend with his crushing army to “take over the temple fortress, pollute the sanctuary,” and unleash his rage on God’s people (11:31). Later, Jesus echoed a similarly dreadful prediction to His disciples, essentially warning them that their world would fall apart (Mark 13:14).
Why would God warn His people of coming hardship rather than simply stopping it? And what does this say about us in our places of distress? Is God cavalier about our suffering?
The witness of Jesus teaches us that, amid this world drowning in sin, not all suffering can be avoided. To redeem the world, Jesus had to immerse Himself in it, even at the cost of His own life. Daniel’s prophecy pointed toward this long vision of God’s activity to rescue the world. And God invites His people to the same perspective, engaging our world in its brokenness. This means that while God will not always remove our suffering, He will always enter our suffering with us. —Winn Collier
Where have you encountered suffering? How have you experienced God’s presence in that place?
(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ODB: lost ones
September 10, 2010
READ: Luke 15:4-6
Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost! —Luke 15:6
In my college years I worked as a guide, taking boys on treks into Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. On one occasion one of my hikers—a small, slow chap—lagged behind and took the wrong fork on a trail. When we arrived at our campsite he was nowhere to be found. I frantically went out to search for him.
Just before dark, I came across him sitting by a small lake—utterly lost and alone. In my joy, I gave him a bear hug, hoisted him on my shoulders, and carried him down the trail to his companions.
In a story by Scottish writer George MacDonald, he describes a young woman finding a child alone and lost in the woods. She gathered him up in her arms and carried him home to her father, at which point she gained an insight that was never to leave her: “Now she understood the heart of the Son of Man, [who came] to find and carry back the stray children to their Father and His.”
I want you too to know the heart of Jesus, the Son of Man, who came to find and carry back His straying children to their Father, “for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). No matter how far you may have strayed and how lost you may be, He came to seek and to save you. —David Roper
To find salvation, you must admit that you’re lost.
Source: Our Daily Bread
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ODJ: the solution
God has now revealed to us His mysterious plan regarding Christ (1:9).
READ: Ephesians 2:1-10
With more than 70 books to his name, Martin Gardner is the world’s best-known recreational mathematician. His fun mathematical problems and mind-boggling puzzles have likely introduced more people to the joys of math than anyone in history.
Recently, he said, “If you think about it, everything that distinguishes a modern industrial society from the Greek and Roman period is the ability to solve puzzles.”
Unlike math puzzles, scientific discoveries achieved through study, deep concentration, and sudden or gradual insight, biblical puzzles or mysteries can only be answered through God-given revelation.
And no greater revelation has ever been or will ever be given than the solution to the problem of sin. Paul wrote, “God has now revealed to us His mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill His own good pleasure. And this is the plan: At the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth” (Ephesians 1:9-10).
The book of Ephesians vividly expresses God’s cosmic plan of salvation, and His plan for our daily lives, in a way no human problem-solving capabilities could ever accomplish:
• We were dead in our sins (2:1-3).
• Jesus died for our sins and rose again—showing His power over sin and death (vv.4-7).
• By grace we are saved through faith in Jesus (vv.5,8-10).
Today, thank God for revealing His mysterious plan in Jesus—the solution for your sin—so that you might be saved. —Roxanne Robbins
What does it mean to you to be “under the authority of Christ” (Ephesians 1:10)? What has God’s mysterious plan taught you about Him?
(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ODB: commanded to love
September 9, 2010
READ: 1 John 3:16-24
This is His command-ment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another. —1 John 3:23
As a result of adult children neglecting their responsibilities, some elderly parents in Singapore are forced to seek financial help from charities and other state agencies. Speaking about this escalating situation, a government official said, “We cannot legislate love.”
In the Bible, however, love is commanded. That is what Moses told the nation of Israel: “I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways” (Deut. 30:16). And Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to “love the Lord your God” (Mark 12:30).
How can God command love? His supreme display of love at Calvary gave Him that right. Jesus’ beloved disciple, John, wrote: “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. . . . This is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment” (1 John 3:16,23).
What opportunities do you have to obey God’s command to love? Honoring parents by caring and providing for them? Ministering to a sick friend? Offering a gracious and kind word to someone who is difficult to love?
Lord, because You laid down Your life for us, help us to show love to others. —C. P. Hia
We show our love for God when we love one another.
Source: Our Daily Bread
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