Disrupted Connection

My heart has heard you say, "Come and talk with me." And my heart responds, "Lord, I am coming" (Psalm 27:8).

While bootstrapping for a start-up wi-fi company, I borrowed significantly from my father. The company began growing and was soon in talks for acquisition, but we needed additional capital to move it forward. A few months later, the acquisition went through, but some loose ends held us back from collecting the payment. So I wasn't able to promptly repay my father.

Yet the true severity of the situation didn't hit me until some time later when I heard from my father. "I knew there was a problem weeks ago," he said, "when you stopped calling me."

My heart sank as I realized that in the midst of my work—even toward a worthwhile goal—I'd lost focus and let my relationship with my father falter. Like the parable of the prodigal son, my father was far more concerned about our relationship than about the money.

This experience taught me a great deal about how the Lord values our relationship with him. Even though we may be pursuing worthy, worthwhile goals, what God really cares about is our personal connection with him. He loves us for who we are, not for anything we could hope to achieve in this life.

(Devotional Ventures)

The Source

Although I remember it like yesterday, more than a decade has passed since the October 1987 stock market crash wiped out my public relations business. A psychology of fear dried up financing and led many companies to pull in their horns. One client on a healthy retainer cancelled within a month. Three companies who owed me substantial sums of money went bankrupt. By the end of the year, I didn't know how we would survive.

Recovery was slow and painful. I kept waiting for that "magic" check to fall from the sky and wipe out all our debts. I thought that would only be fitting. If it weren't for the companies who had never paid me, I wouldn't have had my debts. But the check ever came.

A few years passed. One afternoon I scanned my accounts receivable. Although things had improved, times were still tough. Losing my temper, I growled "God, where are you? I don't see any miraculous provision. We tithe, but I don't see any special blessings. Everything in this file is something I've worked for".

Suddenly, a thought shot through my mind. Gently yet forcefully, it asked "Where do you think the work came from?" I felt as though I had been slapped in the face - kindly.

I have never forgotten that lesson. If you are tempted to think that your good fortunes are a result of your brilliance, read Deuteronomy 8:18 and ask yourself, "From where did it come from?".

(God's Man)

High Noon

It’s noon—lunchtime. You walk into the eating area at work and overhear several coworkers blatantly and loudly mocking something that a prominent Christian has said on television, something that the media has focused on for the last day or so. Do you try to slip out of the room, or do you engage with these individuals in conversation and stand up for your faith?

Oops! Let’s say you don’t get that choice. Your coworkers see you, “You’re one of them”, they say, “You’re a Christian, aren’t you? What do you have to say about what Pastor So and So said the other day? How can you defend that?”

Now let’s add a little more pressure. What if your answer could affect the possibility of a job promotion? Or what if you feared losing the respect of your coworkers? When faced with this stress-filled opportunity to say something, would you speak up? Would you defend a Christian perspective on a contentious issue, or would your response be something along the lines of “live and let live”?

Before you exercise too many brain cells pondering how you’d respond in this situation, consider the apostle Peter. Even though he was one of Jesus’ closest disciples, he denied knowing Christ three times! In fact, he emphatically informed people that he did not know the Lord.

How could Peter have answered this way? How could he have failed to acknowledge Jesus? Peter had spent the last three years with Jesus as one of his closest friends. The fact of the matter is, Peter broke under the pressure he was feeling. Stressed to the limit, he did exactly what he had emphatically denied he would do just a few hours earlier. And the story of his failure, combined with Jesus’ redemptive act of forgiveness and restoration, stands for us as a model of what happens with us—every single day of our lives.

We’re fortunate. If we deny knowing Christ, no rooster crows to remind us of our denial. But we do have the record of Peter’s wake-up call to remind us of how easy it was for even a first-century disciple to claim that he didn’t know Jesus Christ. Have you ever denied, either openly or by your silence, being a follower of Christ? What steps can you take to become more willing to stand up for your faith?

(Men’s Devotional Bible)

Deliverance From Temporary Distress

“I know this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” Phil. 1:19

Today’s verse shows the value of confident trust in God. Paul knew his current distress was only temporary and that he would be delivered from it

Why was Paul convinced of his deliverance? His statement “I know this will turn out for my deliverance” is a quote of the Greek version of Job 13:16. Job was a righteous man who suffered greatly, yet he was delivered because God always delivers the righteous. Job said “After my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 9:26). He knew that either temporarily or eternally God would deliver him.

Paul knew he could trust God to deliver him just as God had delivered Job. He was confident his circumstances would work out for good, whether he was released from prison, vindicated at his trial, and delivered from execution or passed into glory as a martyr. You may not face the same trials as Paul, but whatever your circumstances, the same confident trust is available to you.

(Truth For Today)

Glorifying God

In Deuteronomy 6:1-9, we read the great command that Moses shared with Israel: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” He then continues and tells them, “These commandments I give you today are to be upon your hearts.”

An airplane is meant to fly, a car is built to be driven, and clothes are designed to be worn. You would have very little use for a plane that would not fly, a car that would not move, or clothes that can no longer be worn. Why? Because their purpose is not being realized. It’s a great frustration to have things that are no longer useful. God must feel that way about us sometimes.

You were designed to know Him, not simply to have a comfortable life. You were not created just to get married, have children and a successful career, then grow old and enjoy retirement. These are some of life’s benefits, its side dishes, but not its purpose.

The tragedy today is that we have taken life’s benefits and tried to make them our purpose. We’re trying to make the side dishes the main course. The result is that we often find the benefits very unsatisfactory. No wonder.

So if the purpose of life is not marriage, success, happiness, or any of that, what is it? What were we created for? Answer: we were created to know and worship God with an all-consuming passion. That’s why Paul tells us to do everything to God’s glory.

Bringing glory to something means to put it on the mantel where it can be admired. A woman seeks glory when she decorates her home in such a way that guests say, “Wow, where did you get that?” She puts a special treasure on display so that when people see it, they are in awe.

That’s what we’re supposed to do for God. We’re supposed to display Him in such a way that people are awed by Him. Glorifying God means to make Him look good, to place Him on display so that when others see our lives, they are in awe of our God.

Even in the everyday stuff, your goal should be to make God look good. But it takes real passion to live like that. To anyone who is trying to know and serve God halfheartedly without passion, I think Paul would say, “Why bother?” If you’re going to seek God, go for it like you mean it! Bring your ultimate purpose in life to fruition. Take a few moments to determine how you can glorify God in practical ways in your everyday life.

Men’s Devotional Bible

The First Priority of Time

Men are "people of the clock".  It matters little whether we are talking about the clock on the mantel, the clock on our wrist, the biological clock or our spiritual clocks. We like order; we like schedules; and we like to know when it is time to work, time to play, time to be at home, time to be with our child, grandchild, or those we enjoy the most in life. We also like a clear understanding of what are the most important activities of the day, so that we can spend our best energies and the best of ourselves in those tasks or relationships that are most important.

Matthew 22:36-38 is the familiar account of the Pharisees testing Jesus with a question, "Which is the greatest of commandments?" or "What is the first priority for men of faith?". They obviously were expecting Him to speak against one of the hundreds of laws that governed life in Israel.  Then they could attack Jesus for ignoring the other commandments of God.

However, Christ saw the treachery of His opponents.  He said that the first priority for the man of faith is to use one's time to show unconditional love others.  The Savior quoted Deuteronomy 6:5: "You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind."

The first step for any man of faith begins with loving God.  Here, we find not only empowerment for life but purpose, direction, and the grace necessary to prepare us to live daily as men of God.  For many men, identity comes from their work, but Jesus says that such is not true identity.  That comes only when we love God, and then, in that love, find who we are, and what we are to be about.  

Loving God, then, is the first commandment, the first priority for our time.  The spiritual clock begins ticking when we give ourselves to God, and from that point the rest of our time begins to move forward.  Loving Him wholeheartedly is the beginning of  life and the foundation upon which everything else is built.

(God's Man)

Brotherly Love

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love (Romans 12:10)

Brotherly love reflects the nature of Christians. That's why Paul doesn't hesitate to remind believers to practice that virtue, "Concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another" (1 Thes. 4:9)

The true disciple of Jesus knows intuitively he should love his brothers and sisters in Christ. Because they have the same heavenly Father, love among believers is as normal as the affection between members of a family.  If you are a true disciple, such love will be true of you.

(Truth for Today)