Devotions

Choosing Joy

Joy is what makes life worth living, but for many joy seems hard to find. They complain that their lives are sorrowful and depressing. What then brings the joy we so much desire? Are some people just lucky, while others have run out of luck? Strange as it may sound, we can choose joy. Two people can be part of the same event, but one may choose to live it quite differently than the other. One may choose to trust that what happened, painful as it may be, holds a promise. The other may choose despair and be destroyed by it.

What makes us human is precisely this freedom of choice.

I'm starting a new weekly story-telling minstry called Timmy Tales, it will deliver a e-mail with a story to you each week. Just send a request to Tim@soulrehab.org
Tim Manzer

Blaise Pascal

First Day In Church
(Best read with a Cockney accent, or at least your best attempt at one)

The first time that I went to church was on a Sunday morning
And from what I'd heard, I figured I'd spend me whole time yawning
At 18 years of age or so, I thought I knew it all
Me hair was long, me jeans were tight
I loved a knife and buckle fight
Provided mates stood left and right
And those we fought were small

But me mates and me, we'd never been, so off to church we filed
We marched inside, about three abreast
Straight down the middle aisle
Some of us were smokin' cigs; Ron was sucking candies
We sat in what they call a "pew"
Then looked around to see just who'd come inside
Let me tell you, everyone dressed like dandies

And the row behind was full of dames
You shoulda seen their looks!
And one old dear, she gives me a smile
And offers me some books
Tah! We open 'em, pass 'em around
You shoulda seen the words, all set out like poetry is
And Sam says through his lemon fizz
"These books is fer the birds"

"Shhhh! Tsk tsk tsk tsk!"
One old lady says
And the whole place buzzed
And Sam turns around and says
"Oh do hush up, you make more noise than us"
We looked around the building then
It really was revealing
Sam says, "Hey mates, I get the score
"There ain't no carpets on the floor
"Look at the rafters; they're so poor they can't afford a ceiling
"Can't afford electric either; using candles everywhere"
"Shut your face," I says to Sam, "I'm be listening"
So was Ron

And from the left, without a noise
Came a line of little boys
And Sam says, in a puzzled voice, "Coo, they've all got nighties on"
Then came men, in robes and banners
"Look at that one, must be queer
"And they dare condemn us for the way we choose our gear?"
And then there's the minister, who's job's to preach
The Minister Whats-his-name
Those real long prayers, and what he preaches
Sounds just about the same

I came to church to listen -- close
But I can't understand their chatter
It's like "mumble, mumble, shifting sinking sands"
And words like judgment or reprimand
Well, me and me mates can't understand talk quite like that
I'm used to talking with me mates
With words that has a meaning

If people like that sort of stuff...
Well, let them, that's okay
But let me tell you what I feel
I feel we need someone who'll deal in words and thoughts
And things that's real -- I'd listen to what he'd say
Me mum once said,
"Son, Jesus came to help young men like you"
But Jesus came so long ago, Mum, and I don't think it's true

But is there anyone here, right now, who can explain to me
Is Christ a myth? A madman's whim?
Some say Christ can cure our sin
Is there a way to contact Him?
Or will I die not knowing how?

Listen, I only came to church to see if they could offer hope
But everything that happened there was way outside my scope
Like afterwards, outside, was a beggar on the grass
He held out his hand, and people'd smile, then they'd pass
I'm sure he reached for something real
For something more than cash

He begged them for a little cheer
And they all pretended not to hear
I get the message,
Loud and clear:

Church is middle-class.

Love must be learned again and again; there is no end to it. Hate needs no instruction, but waits only to be provoked.

When you look for the good in others, you discover the best in yourself.

Bob Anderson

Healing Family Hurts

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Have you got some hurdles to overcome in your family relationships? You know-some things that need to change and improve at your house? All of us can at one time or another admit to family problems, causing family pain.

I have just one word to offer you as you seek help and healing for your family: love. Love is relational dynamite that obliterates all obstacles in its path. Talking won’t do that for you. Pressuring won’t; prodding, insisting, demanding, getting selfish-these all will only tear your life and family apart. But 1 Corinthians 13:8 says, “Love never fails.”

Love never fails to what? Let me point out three things that it will handle for you:

#1 Love never fails to conquer selfishness. I am selfish and so are you. We never have to work at self; it’s just right there barking for attention. Love conquers the biggest obstacle in me: selfishness.

#2 Love never fails to conquer skepticism. Over time, it’s easy to doubt that anything is ever going to change. Your family disappoints you and you want to bail but love holds on.

But James, we’ve got real problems over at our house and some pep talk on love is not going to fix it.

You’re right-that’s why we need 1 Corinthians 13:6, “[Love] does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”

#3 Love never fails to rejoice in the truth. Love doesn’t sit back in some happy delusion that everything will be okay. Love doesn’t deny problems, but works to see them changed. Love is an action before it’s a feeling.

Here’s your assignment this week:

In love, serve your family when they choose to be selfish.
In love, humble yourself before your family when conflict creates distance.
In love, forgive your family by releasing them from the obligation that resulted when they hurt you. Don’t hold it over them.
And lastly, in love, speak God’s Word in any situation regardless of the cost. Truth, delivered with love, is what sets us free.
Love gives God an opportunity to work. It’s a tool in His hands to work through you in helping your family.

Healing Our Memories

Forgiving does not mean forgetting. When we forgive a person, the memory of the wound might stay with us for a long time, even throughout our lives. Sometimes we carry the memory in our bodies as a visible sign. But forgiveness changes the way we remember. It converts the curse into a blessing. When we forgive our parents for their divorce, our children for their lack of attention, our friends for their unfaithfulness in crisis, our doctors for their ill advice, we no longer have to experience ourselves as the victims of events we had no control over.

Forgiveness allows us to claim our own power and not let these events destroy us; it enables them to become events that deepen the wisdom of our hearts. Forgiveness indeed heals memories

I had just spent the last three and half months in a hospital bed. Occupational and physical therapists had tried to exercise my bruised muscles and prepare me for the day they would stand my broken body up and help me to take my first steps. I had spent a few sessions in out-patient therapy exercising on my back on the green mats. I was satisfied with my slow progress but my PT was ready for my return to the world of walkers.

So my pushy little red-headed grandma therapist decided I was ready to take my first steps. Her PT goal for me was to take eight steps. The tiny woman put a safety belt around my waist and stood in back of me. Then she demanded that I move forward. Easy for her to ask but my broken body rebelled from the mere idea of taking one step.

The first step was an earthquake of throbbing pain. Every part of my body seemed to beg for mercy. The eight step goal sounded like being asked to hike the Appalachian Trail. I would like to say that each new step was easier and easier but each step was pure torturous anguish. Tears filled my eyes. My head began to swirl. Sweat covered my body as if I had been in an hour long work-out.

To my surprise I was able to complete my eight step goal. I sat down in the wheelchair and was rolled back to the green mat. It did not feel like a victory. Back at the safety of the mat I wept and wept. In the past I had climbed mountains, run cross-country, guided white water trips, gone on week long bicycle trips and enjoyed a very physically active life. I was left alone in my personal misery and physical pain.

Then an elderly voice spoke hope into my soul. I heard the old man say “Get your inch.” I looked through my tears at an ancient man that had slowly inched up to my green mat. He was using a walker to secure his steps. It was the very same recovery aide that I was trying to master. He smiled and said again, “Get your inch!”

The sound of his voice told me that he was recovering from a stroke. He smiled at me and reached out his hand and said “You will make it! Just try to get your inch each day.”

It was the most profound advice that I received from anyone during my year long rehabilitation. I took it as words from God. “Get my inch” was the words that helped me start each occupational or physical therapy session. At first I could never picture myself walking again. The goal was very distant and hard to visualize. Yet I could see myself taking another step with the help of a walker or riding the exercise bike for ten more minutes.

When I face problems today, I still think, “Get my inch!” I try to break each problem down into small steps and get the first step completed. I am only responsible for the inch not the big picture. The big picture is God’s job.

Forgiving in the Name of God

We are all wounded people. Who wounds us? Often those whom we love and those who love us. When we feel rejected, abandoned, abused, manipulated, or violated, it is mostly by people very close to us: our parents, our friends, our spouses, our lovers, our children, our neighbors, our teachers, our pastors. Those who love us wound us too. That's the tragedy of our lives. This is what makes forgiveness from the heart so difficult. It is precisely our hearts that are wounded. We cry out, "You, who I expected to be there for me, you have abandoned me. How can I ever forgive you for that?"

Forgiveness often seems impossible, but nothing is impossible for God. The God who lives within us will give us the grace to go beyond our wounded selves and say, "In the Name of God you are forgiven." Let's pray for that grace.

One person can make a difference and every person must try.

Tom Peters

Moral Injunctions about Morality
Ravi Zacharias

“Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” This thought we often hear posited as rationale for casting any type of public moralizing aside.
Evidently, society cannot completely shake off its bequest from a Christian worldview. Ironically, this moral conviction is given even as we are stridently reminded that all morality is a private matter and not for public enforcement. But if all moral convictions are a private matter, why is this very conviction itself not kept private too? Why is it publicly enjoined?

Interestingly, every instance when I have asked those who cite this verse if they are aware of the context in which those words were uttered, virtually none could give it to me. One said it had to do with the woman in adultery. I followed up and asked if he was aware of what prompted that imperative and to whom Jesus had said those words. There was silence. Significantly, the entire confrontation came about because the Pharisees were seeking to trap Jesus into either explicitly defending the Law of Moses or implicitly overruling it. The whole scenario was a ploy, not to seek out the truth of a moral law, but to trap Jesus.

Fascinatingly, Jesus exposed their own spiritual bankruptcy by showing them that at the heart of law is God's very character. There is a spiritual essence that precedes moral injunctions. Many of those who vociferously demand that only the one without sin may cast the first stone would not grant credence to God's Word in its numerous other pronouncements. And for some, sin is not even a viable category. This selective use of Scripture is the very game the questioners of Jesus were playing. But what is lawful can only withstand the test of human guile if it reflects an understanding of what is sinful. Sin by definition points to an absolute moral law-giver. When the law is quoted while the reality of sin is denied, self-aggrandizing motives can override character. Thus, in our spiritually amputated world, the art of obscuring truth has become a science in courtroom and political theatrics.

Herein lies what I believe the crucial death of our times. There is no transcendent context within which to discuss moral theory. Just as words in order to have meaning must point beyond themselves to a commonly understood real existence, so also, must the reality point beyond itself to commonly accepted essence. Otherwise, reality has no moral quotient whatsoever and moral meaning dissolves into the subjective, rendering it beyond debate. Only the transcendent can unchangingly provide fixed moral worth.

But this death of the transcendent comes with a two-edged sword, both for the skeptic and the Christian alike. Yes, the law has moral value, but not as a means for shrewd lawyers to play deadly word games, minimize immorality, and kill the truth. At the same time the law has spiritual value so that we do not destroy the truly repentant individual. The grace of God abounds to the worst in our midst. Hidden in the odious nature of our failures is the scandalous secret of God's forgiveness. When the prodigal returned, the anger he faced was not the father's but the older son's who failed to understand how marvelous was the grace of his father.
Throughout history, God's way of dealing with the reckless has disclosed how dramatic are his ways. We must allow for such possibilities. "This my son was dead, but is now alive." Death lay in the wanderings of the passions and the seriousness of wrongdoing. Life was spelled in true repentance to return and "sin no more." But let us take note.
Forgiveness does not minimize the wrongdoing. It is offered in full recognition of the heinousness of what is being forgiven.

On the contrary, when words, consequences, purity, and transcendent contexts have died, a pigsty awaits. Only if we remember our Father's address can we know where to return for forgiveness and love. But if we insist upon arguing as quick-witted political power-mongers or legal wordsmiths with no spiritual context, we may kill both law and love.
That, I am afraid, is the abyss over which we often hover.

Yet I am confident that as precipitous as the edge seems, God has always been in the business of rescue. The truth is that as human beings we all fall short. Our only hope is for an understanding of God's ways, through which forgiveness and responsibility come in balance. There is indeed another bridge, one on which a body was broken so that a path was made that we might cross over and live. In that Cross lie both judgment and mercy. The Judge of all the earth cannot be fooled by shades of meaning, nor can He be obliterated by the shadows of death. James Russell Lowell closed his hymn with these words:

Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet 'tis truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold
And upon the throne be wrong,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above his own.

He is our help in ages past and our only hope for years to come.

Ravi Zacharias is founder and president of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

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Forgiveness, the Cement of Community Life

Community is not possible without the willingness to forgive one another "seventy-seven times" (see Matthew 18:22). Forgiveness is the cement of community life. Forgiveness holds us together through good and bad times, and it allows us to grow in mutual love.

But what is there to forgive or to ask forgiveness for? As people who have hearts that long for perfect love, we have to forgive one another for not being able to give or receive that perfect love in our everyday lives. Our many needs constantly interfere with our desire to be there for the other unconditionally. Our love is always limited by spoken or unspoken conditions. What needs to be forgiven? We need to forgive one another for not being God!

No Free Lunches?
Jill Carattini

Henri Nouwen was a man people wanted to know. In his lifetime he taught at Harvard and Notre Dame, and was a tenured professor at Yale. He was a prolific author and a speaker often in demand. Yet ironically, the people who wanted to know him most were probably the least interested in his crowning achievements.

In 1986, Nouwen walked away from his position at Harvard and accepted the position as pastor of the L'Arche community in Toronto, a community where mentally handicapped persons and their assistants live together according to the gospel. Describing his experience, Nouwen remarked of the people of L'Arche, "If they express love for you, then it comes from God. It's not because you accomplished anything. These broken, wounded, and completely unpretentious people forced me to let go of my relevant self--the self that can do things, show things, prove things, build things--and forced me to reclaim that unadorned self in which I am completely vulnerable, open to receive and give love regardless of any
accomplishments."(1)

Interestingly, it was a similar selfless love that caught Nouwen off guard years earlier, piercing the conditional world he had grown accustomed to with the freeing love of God. A director of the L'Arche community had come to visit Nouwen while he was still at Yale. She visited the campus for a few days, cooked him an enjoyable meal, and offered help in simple, practical ways. Nouwen recalls, "I expected this greeting to be followed by a request to give a lecture, write an article, or offer a retreat."

But the visit had no strings attached; she had simply come to care for him in the name of Christ. It was altogether unlike the rules of kindness Nouwen was used to. In a world where there are no free lunches, the simple act stirred deeply in his soul.

The Gospel of Matthew recalls an evening of few words and free meals.
With the murder of John the Baptist weighing heavily on his mind, Jesus withdrew to a solitary place, traveling privately by boat. But the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. Seeing this, Jesus was not bothered, suspicious, or disheartened, but filled with compassion. He didn't send the crowds away, but healed the sick and remained among them. But as evening approached, the disciples came to him with their concerns, bothers, and suspicions, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food" (14:15). But Jesus only replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat" (14:16).

Jesus's words strike deeply, sharp with accountability: You give them something to eat. The call is personal and practical, piercing our motive-ridden hearts. How am I offering practical love to the crowds around me? Am I heeding Christ's command to serve or am I sending whoever away for whatever practical reason? What’s more, does my service come freely or does it come with a cost? How often have I fed Christ's sheep with un-free lunches--kindness peppered with conditions and expectation, love given with costs built-in? Even as Christians, it is easy to play as if there is no such thing as a free lunch. Henri Nouwen was a well-connected, much-loved member of the Christian community, and yet a kind and selfless visit from a fellow Christian took him completely by surprise.

C.S. Lewis once remarked that the hard sayings of Christ are nourishing only to those who find them hard. The disciples met Christ's command with objections more reasonable than the ones I usually come up with: the crowd was large, the place remote, the food sparse. The cost to them seemed more than costly. Nonetheless, the instructions lingered: You give them something to eat. That is, will you freely offer nourishment to those who need it most--knowing full well that the cost may be personal?

Christ has given us the daunting task to feed unconditionally the hungry and broken around us. He has also given us himself. “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world...I am the bread of life” (John 6:33). Christ’s is a love that receives us unadorned and vulnerable, love not merited because of accomplishments, but because of desperate need and disparaging hunger. Do we offer others this same kind of bread?

"Bring them here to me," Jesus told the disciples. And with five loaves of bread and two fish he fed five thousand. And Matthew reports, "They all ate and were satisfied."

Jill Carattini is senior associate writer at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) Henri J.M. Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus (New York; Crossroad, 1993), 27-28.

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Stick With Today

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? . . . But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6: 25-27, 33

How often do you wake up in the middle of the night with burdens on your heart that keep you from going back to sleep?

It happened to me last night. The clock said, 4:10 a.m. and I was wide awake.

Baggage from yesterday and worries about tomorrow weighed heavily on my mind. What Jesus said in Matthew 6:34 is true. “Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Do you start the day thinking, “I don’t have enough on my mind today. I’m going to borrow trouble from tomorrow and make up some new problems”? Yeah, me neither. The word trouble means adverse circumstances, problems, hardship. And for certain, each day has enough of its own.

Jesus says in effect, “Let’s compartmentalize here. You can’t carry the weight of the past-that’s what forgiveness is for. You can’t carry all the uncertainties of the future-that’s what faith is for; you must focus on today. Let’s deal with what we can.”

We weren’t made for anxiety. The manufacturer’s specifications do not allow for worry. It’s no different than if someone poured sugar in your gas tank or introduced a virus to your computer. Worry does that to the human spirit. When you gather up in your mind on a regular basis a list of all the unknowns of the future and repeatedly review and extrapolate, the uncertainties become so large that it will crush you. Everything gets sideways when you’re on the anxiety program.

You were not fashioned for fear.

You were not wired for worry.

You were made to live today-“Sufficient for the day is its own trouble”-to focus on the things that you can affect, to work on the things that you can improve that are right in front of you.

You and I have limited capacity. We can’t carry yesterday or our imagined tomorrow. We’ve got to trust the Lord today, from one day’s 4 a.m. to the next.

It was May of 1980; Don and I had completed another year of college. Both of us planned to spend our summer working in a Christian camp. However, summer camps did not start until mid-June. Not wanting to waste any of our summer vacation, we decided on traveling to Isle Royale National Park and backpack around the island until our summer jobs began.

It was just going to be Don and me on this camping adventure. Don was about one year my junior in age, but when it came to excitement and adventure he exceeded me by miles. So going in I knew that this trip would be non-stop excitement!

We rode the tiny boat from Copper Harbor on Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula to Rock Harbor, Isle Royale. Some parts of the island still had snow covering the ground on that chilly spring day in May. The first thing we decided to do after we arrived was to hike up the middle part of the island on an elevated crest known as Greenstone Ridge. Greenstone Ridge is the greenish hue basalt “backbone” of Isle Royale. The views of Lake Superior are superb on Greenstone Ridge because of the higher elevation and sparse vegetation. We witnessed lots of adult moose who had traveled up into the forests to eat the young leaf spouts growing there. Because it was May and still very cool, none of the mosquitoes or black flies that usually haunt Isle Royale during the warmer months of summer were buzzing about yet.

We carried our food on our backs. It was that time in history when everyone was eating freeze-dried food just like the astronauts ate. However, the cardboard-like food neither tasted nor satisfied like homemade food did. After about a week on the island, we still had a mixture of instant oatmeal, Tang, and the worst of the freeze-dried stuff left over.

During this week our conversation, daydreams, and thoughts were all about steak, hotdogs, Big-Macs, and pizza. We no longer spoke about the beauty of the island, the humongous moose and college girls. The foremost topic of conversation was “REAL FOOD!” We had eaten all of the beef jerky on our long trek across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The few cans of chicken meat and Spam that we had packed for our island adventure were devoured shortly after we arrived. The two summer sausages that we crammed in with the rest of our stuff made it through about fifteen miles of hiking. Our lack of thoughtful dietary self-control left us in a type of “cuisine depression”.

We hiked down from the highlands in the middle portion of the island to a campground on Lake Superior. To our delight a small stream entered the island and gently flowed to a beautiful inland lake. In the midst of this beauty we turned into ravenous hunters and began seeking “REAL FOOD!”

At first we tried catching fresh water clams. Unfortunately it takes many clams to make a meal, and when they are cooked up they end up tasting like old leather shoes and so we quickly abandoned the claim dinner idea. The second source of wild protein we thought about trying was white suckers. These very ugly fish were swimming up the tiny stream in huge numbers that spring. Since killing a moose or hunting down a wolf was definitely out of the question, our menu “choice” became obvious: sucker.

We first tried to hook them with string and clothespins but failed miserably. The unsightly white suckers were on a mission to lay lots of eggs that day. They had no time for a lunch break. So we carved spears from sticks with our jackknives. This plan failed as well. It seemed obvious to me that Don and I had lost all connection to our primitive side. At that moment I looked up to see Don ecstatically holding a large slippery fish in his arms. He was in the stream with wearing only his boxers catching fish with just his hands and feet. I quickly stripped down to my Hanes and got into the cold waters of the Lake Superior fed stream. Like Don I fished with my hands with amazing success!

We first built a huge fire and let it burn down to red-hot coals. Next we added our fresh fish fillets into a pan of boiling corn oil. We then feasted with great delight. We started out wanting hamburgers and steak but God gave us tender white sucker taken from Lake Superior instead. We learned to be content not with what we wanted, but with what the Creator provided for us. We learned this critical truth: In whatsoever circumstances I am in there I have learned to be content. More, sucker please.

Be Yourself

Often we want to be somewhere other than where we are, or even to be someone other than who we are. We tend to compare ourselves constantly with others and wonder why we are not as rich, as intelligent, as simple, as generous, or as saintly as they are. Such comparisons make us feel guilty, ashamed, or jealous. It is very important to realize that our vocation is hidden in where we are and who we are. We are unique human beings, each with a call to realize in life what nobody else can, and to realize it in the concrete context of the here and now.

We will never find our vocations by trying to figure out whether we are better or worse than others. We are good enough to do what we are called to do. Be yourself!

I Believe in Creator God

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Romans 1:18-20

Every scientist agrees that for every effect in the universe there must be a cause.

Like the science professor who was out walking in the forest with one of his students and noticed a little glass sphere on the ground. They picked it up to examine it more closely.

The professor said, “I wonder where this came from . . .” Looking around, they saw no one.
The student said, “Yeah, I wonder.” Then with a twinkle in his eye he added, “I wonder if it was ten times bigger, would we know where it came from then?”
“It had to come from somewhere,” the professor said, “It can’t just show up.”
And he said, “Yeah, I agree with that. But what if it was like a hundred times bigger than it is?”
“Well,” he said, “all the more reason to know it had to come from somewhere.”
The student went on, “Well, what if it was like a million times bigger?”
The professor then jokingly said, “Well, then it would have gotten here on its own.”

How foolish! But isn’t that exactly what people do? They look at our universe, so incredibly complex and vast that it makes our minds swim when we study it, and they deny God’s work. The human mind cannot even comprehend the universe that God made yet some people arrogantly make this exception, “Well, this is the one time that there was an effect without a cause-the one time we got this whole thing from nothing.”

The Bible calls that suppressing the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). Fact is, when people reject the truth that the immense effect had to be caused by something, they are resisting it only because they don’t want it to be true. They reason that if there’s a God, they’re going to have to be accountable to Him. So they choose not to believe any of it.

Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens are declaring the glory of God.” Creation itself is shouting “There’s a God! There’s a God!” Some choose to listen while others refuse in spite of the obvious evidence. When people deny a Creator, Psalm 14:1 says, “The fool has said in his heart there is no God.” Some people stand off at a distance with phony intellectualism and say, “Well, I don’t see the proof for God.” Then please go out on a starlit night and look up at the skies. Now what’s your answer? The heavens itself testify to God’s glory.

How did the universe get here? The scientific world has speculations, not meaningful explanations. I’m going to go with there’s a God and He spoke it into existence like Genesis 1 tells us. I don’t understand Him or how He made it all but you don’t have to be a genius to know that you can’t throw a stick of dynamite into a printing factory and get the Declaration of Independence. An effect testifies to a cause. A design shouts a designer. I’m convinced by these arguments and choose to believe in a sovereign Creator God.

Three Elements of Spiritual Victory

Spiritual victory is a line, not a dot. By that I mean it's not a single attitude or action; it's a series of attitudes and actions which, over time, define who we are. If we drew it on a piece of paper, it would appear as a wavy line that goes up and down, but is always heading in an upward direction. Sometimes men get discouraged because they say or do something that's both stupid and sinful. They feel they aren't making progress. At such times it's crucial to remember - victory is a line not a dot. And ultimately my victory is assured, not by my determination or effort, but by the one who lives in me.

Galatians 2:20 is my life verse. In it Paul declares, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

The truth of this passage is profound.
The power of the resurrected Christ is
present in every believer. Since this is
the case, there are three elements that are crucial to ongoing spiritual victory:

Perspective

I'm a new person. I see my sin differently. I'm united with Christ, and the power of my sinful nature has been broken. I don't have to obey its commands any longer. Like a sailor who has finished his term of duty and is no longer subject to the captain
he used to serve, so I no longer have
to obey the promptings of my sin
nature.

Presence

I'm not alone in my struggles. There is One beside me who knows my weakness and accepts me as I am. He is Jesus Christ, the slayer of sin and death.

Power

I have the power of the risen Christ living within me. I don't have to argue or fight against my sinful appetites. I don't need to resist the urgings of my sinful nature. When I'm tempted, I can turn to Jesus and utilize his power for victory.

This week I want to urge you to print out this email and read it aloud until you've learned these three elements. Once you have them memorized, repeat them aloud and often. I guarantee that if you'll take
this step, you'll see God's strength unleashed in your life in a powerful and refreshing way.

The Leader of The Band's Legacy Lives On

Singer and song writer Dan Fogelberg died Sunday. His music impacted my life and I am sad that he is dead after only fifty-six years. Fogelberg is probably best known for the song “Same Old Lang Syne” that details his emotions after running into his old love on Christmas Eve many years later.

And running out of things to say
She gave a kiss to me as I got out and I watched her drive away
Just for a moment I was back at school
And felt that old familiar pain
And as I turned to make my way back home
The snow turned in to rain...

Having felt a fair amount of pain in high school those lyrics made me melancholy whenever I heard them. But the song that I will remember Dan Fogelberg most for is his song written about his dad called “Leader of the Band”. His father was a musician and he passed that talent down to Dan. Parts of the lyric made me think of my Dad while he was still alive.

The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul

My Dad helped define who I have become both good and bad. I am blessed that there was far more good than bad in my father. I remember all that my Dad taught me.

I thank you for the music and your stories of the road
I thank you for the freedom when it came my time to go
I thank you for the kindness and the times when you got tough
And, papa, I don't think I said 'I love you' near enough

My Dad knew how much I loved him. Still I wish I had told him more. But this is the portion of the song that continues to impact me as a son.

My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band

My Dad was a wonderful, kind, loving and flawed man. I have the flawed part down. I hope I am following his legacy of joy, kindness and love that he modeled.

The Psalmist writes that as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. I am so blessed that I had a dad that allowed me to understand how that looks. Not every man does.

I will miss Dan Fogelberg. The timing of his death and this article is odd. Fogelberg died far too young because of advanced prostate cancer. The odd timing is that later today I am enduring my annual physical and the moment of indignity known as the digital exam. I enjoy digital in music and video but not so much in this context. That single moment is why men start sweating whenever they see rubber gloves. But at Fogelberg’s website he begged men to get the blood test and suffer that moment of discomfort to help prevent prostate cancer. His music will surely endure. But I hope that part of the living legacy of Dan Fogelberg will be getting stubborn men to take a moment to love themselves and their families by scheduling regular prostate screening.

Dave Burchett is an Emmy Award winning television sports director, author, and Christian speaker. He is the author of When Bad Christians Happen to Good People and Bring'em Back Alive: A Healing Plan for those Wounded by the Church. You can reply by linking through daveburchett.com.

ON FIRE, YET NOT TAKING IT TO HEART

The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will exalt the law and make it honorable. But this is a people robbed and plundered; all of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison houses; they are for prey, and no one delivers; for plunder, and no one says, “Restore!” Who among you will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? Who gave Jacob for plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the Lord, He against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in His ways, nor were they obedient to His law. Therefore He has poured on him the fury of His anger and the strength of battle; it has set him on fire all around, yet he did not know; and it burned him, yet he did not take it to heart. (Isaiah 42:21-25)

Isaiah looked forward to the time that God would demonstrate His strength on the earth: “The LORD is well pleased . . . He will magnify the law and make it honorable.” Isaiah tells is that the Lord God is pleased to bring this justice on the earth, and to magnify and honor the law.

Honoring the law of God is good. Though under the new covenant, we do not come to God on the basis of the law, it does not mean that the law of God is bad. As Paul wrote in Romans 7:12, Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. The weakness of the law is not in the law, but in us. The law perfectly suits the purpose God intended for it: to display God’s holy standard, to expose our sin, and to show is the need for salvation in Jesus.

Unfortunately, Isaiah saw that all this was not a benefit for God’s people in his day. He saw, “But this is a people robbed and plundered.” God looked upon His people and saw the pain and devastation the world, the flesh, and the devil had wrought upon them. They were robbed and plundered, they “are for prey, and no one delivers.” Worst of all, “no one says, ‘Restore!’”

Why? Who did this? “Who gave Jacob for plunder, and Israel to the robbers?” Isaiah’s answer is almost shocking: “Was it not the LORD, He against whom we have sinned?” In this circumstance, God allowed the low, defeated place of Israel as discipline for their sin, for their chosen blindness and deafness.

He says why: “For they would not walk in His ways, nor were they obedient to His law.” The painful and low place of Israel was meant to draw them back to the Lord. We can know that the Lord only used these measures after He had exhausted far gentler measures. Yet even these sharp measures did not work: “Yet he did not know . . . Yet he did not take it to heart.” It is a sad thing when we won’t listen to or respond to God’s correction in our life.

Isaiah described the correction for God’s people: “It has set him on fire all around.” This correction from the Lord felt like fire to Israel; yet they did not respond to it. In 1 Peter 4:12-19, Peter also related trials and correction from the Lord to fire: “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you . . . For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

God’s purpose in the fiery trial is to bring us to repentance and softness of heart, and the more we resist that work, the more the fire will burn! We should respond as Peter said we should in 1 Peter
4:19: “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.” Is the fire of God’s correction burning away the sin and impurity in your life, or is it just making you blacker and harder?

By David Guzik

For Bible Study resources by David Guzik, go to:
www.enduringword.com/library_commentaries.html

From Unceasing Thinking to Unceasing Prayer

Our minds are always active. We analyze, reflect, daydream, or dream. There is not a moment during the day or night when we are not thinking. You might say our thinking is "unceasing." Sometimes we wish that we could stop thinking for a while; that would save us from many worries, guilt feelings, and fears. Our ability to think is our greatest gift, but it is also the source of our greatest pain. Do we have to become victims of our unceasing thoughts? No, we can convert our unceasing thinking into unceasing prayer by making our inner monologue into a continuing dialogue with our God, who is the source of all love.

Let's break out of our isolation and realize that Someone who dwells in the center of our beings wants to listen with love to all that occupies and preoccupies our minds.

The Spiritual Work of Gratitude

To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives-the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections-that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for.

Let's not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.

"We are simple people. You can't remember ten things at once. Invariably, if you could remember just ONE true thing…you'd be different. Connect one bit of Scripture to one bit of life…. Apply one relevant thing from our Redeemer to one significant scene in your story. Bring one bit of the Bible to one bit of your life….You can't deal with it all at once. Scripture never does…. Life goes one step at a time."

SPRING-LOADED TOWARD THE SPIRIT
Galatians 5:16
Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh

When we first became Christians, we were like one-third horsepower lawn mower engines. We could accomplish something, but not very much because we weren't very mature. Our ambition as Christians is to become engines that can power earth-moving machinery--real powerhouses for the Lord. But neither a lawn mower nor a bulldozer can accomplish anything without gas. And neither can we accomplish anything apart from Christ (John 15:5). No matter how mature you are, you can never be productive unless you are walking in the Spirit.

When it comes to the choice between walking according to the flesh and walking according to the Spirit, our will is like a toggle switch. The new Christian's will seems to be spring-loaded toward fleshly behavior. He is still the unwitting victim of a thoroughly trained flesh which only knows how to operate independently of God. The mature Christian's will is spring-loaded toward the Spirit. He makes occasional poor choices, but he is learning to crucify the flesh and walk in the Spirit on a daily basis.

If you re hoping for a magic formula or a list of foolproof steps for walking in the Spirit, you will be disappointed. The moment you reduce the Spirit-filled walk to a formula or an intellectual exercise, you probably won't be Spirit-filled anymore.

The Holy Spirit is a "He," not an "it." Our walk with God is a personal experience, not a mechanical or legalistic formula. We see the immorality of fleshly indulgence everywhere, but simply preaching against it and telling people to shape up is not God's answer. The law is powerless to give life (Galatians 3:21). Reintroducing the law to believers won't work. But if we learn to walk by the Spirit, we won't carry out the desires of the flesh. Let's encourage others to do the same.

Prayer:

Lord, I desire to be patient with others in their walk of faith as You are patient with me. Help me have a gracious response and a gentle answer to others today.

Trusting the Catcher

Trust is the basis of life. Without trust, no human being can live. Trapeze artists offer a beautiful image of this. Flyers have to trust their catchers. They can do the most spectacular doubles, triples, or quadruples, but what finally makes their performance spectacular are the catchers who are there for them at the right time in the right place.

Much of our lives is flying. It is wonderful to fly in the air free as a bird, but when God isn't there to catch us, all our flying comes to nothing. Let's trust in the Great Catcher.

The Race Is On
Jill Carattini

Ellen MacArthur's journey began and ended on the south coast of England.
Persisting through 65 mph winds, intimidating storms, burns, bruises, depression, and a near miss with a whale, MacArthur was hoping to set the record for the fastest, nonstop, solo circumnavigation of the globe. The young captain slept an average of 30 minutes at a time and four hours in any day. Twice she had to climb the 98-foot mast to repair mainsail damage. She consistently battled fatigue and mental exhaustion, oscillating between emotional extremes throughout the 27,000-mile voyage.
But 71 days, 14 hours, and 18 minutes later, she was holding the prize, having set a new world record.

The apostle Paul often used the imagery of the race in his letters to encourage believers in their pursuit to live out the call of Christ. "Be ye perfect," is hardly a stroll in the park! When I have spoken words in anger or acted foolishly, it is helpful to see the painful journey towards apology and repentance as a race I must finish. On the days I want to give in and trade in the laws of God for the rules of the games the world plays, it is helpful to keep my eyes on the race Paul describes. "Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training" (1 Corinthians 9:25a).
Hasn't it been promised that Christian pilgrimage will be costly?

Yet it was not the certainty of the race or the intensity of training that Paul stirs his readers to think about in the midst of hardship, but the goal itself. The word Paul used for "race" put a very specific image in the mind of the listeners. His reference depicts the race-courses found in many Greek cities. The runner who outperformed the rest and reached the goal first received the only prize; interestingly, prizes for second and third did not exist. Paul was pointing to a common vision while inviting them to see more. "Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it" (1 Corinthians 9:23).

We strain to follow Christ, training to become more like him, pressing onward through pain and struggle where he requires us to change. Yet we strain, not for the sake of a good effort or the satisfaction of outshining a neighbor, but for the goal set before us. Take away the record, wrote the young captain in a dairy while yet at sea, "and it simply becomes a voyage around the world." Likewise, Christ stands calling us onward toward lives abundantly lived and the enduring prize of eternal life. Though we grow weary or encounter various obstructions, if Christ himself is our end, we do not run aimlessly.

While Ellen MacArthur was halfway across the world, facing the task of repairing a damaged boat by herself, a friend described the complexities of the race. "Sailing around the world is like a marathon," he said. "But this is a mechanical sport, so not only has the skipper got to keep going when they hit the wall but the shoes have got to last to the end as
well."(1) In the race to live for the sake of the gospel, where life's complexities meet us unapologetically, the apostle Paul reminds us that the equipment within our reach is of the finest quality. "Therefore take up the whole armor of God...having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace" (Ephesians 6:13-15).

Let us race as runners who know not only the prize, but also know that we are equipped to obtain it. For it is Christ who goes with us that we might be able to say with Paul, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

Jill Carattini is senior associate writer at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) Tim Jeffery, "MacArthur in High Drama" in The Daily Telegraph (Jan.
21, 2005).

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Copyright (c) 2008 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) "A Slice of Infinity" is aimed at reaching into the culture with words of challenge, words of truth, and words of hope. If you know of others who would enjoy receiving "A Slice of Infinity" in their email box each day, tell them they can sign up on our website at http://www.rzim.org/slice/slice.php. If they do not have access to the World Wide Web, please call 1-877-88SLICE (1-877-887-5423).

Copyright notice: "A Slice of Infinity" may be copied and re-transmitted by electronic mail, and individual copies of a particular "A Slice of Infinity" may be printed, provided that such copying, re-transmission, printing, or other use is not for profit or other commercial purpose.
However, "A Slice of Infinity" may NOT be reproduced in any form on the World Wide Web or in print media or other media without express written permission. RZIM considers requests to reprint, transmit, or otherwise reproduce "A Slice of Infinity" (or portions thereof) in print, or other media on a case-by-case basis; please contact RZIM at 1-800-448-6766 to submit a request.

Any copying, re-transmission, distribution, printing, or other use of "A Slice of Infinity" must set forth the following credit line, in full, at the conclusion of the portion of A Slice of Infinity that is used:
Copyright(c) 2008
Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM).
Reprinted with permission.
A Slice of Infinity is a ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries Ravi Zacharias International Ministries may withdraw or modify this grant of permission at any time http://www.rzim.org.

Your Children Will Ask
Jill Carattini

I’ll have to ask my mom if I was one of those children who asked a lot of questions. (Chances are the verdict is clear.) Whether or not a child is the type whose inquisitive nature leaves her parents exhausted, children as a rule seem to come with questions included.

Before the miraculous events at the Red Sea even took place, God instructed Moses to tell the Israelites that they were in the makings of what would become a festival. To a people yet bound in slavery, God commanded them to celebrate forever the things that were about to take place. And God added, "Then your children will ask, 'What does all this mean? What is this ceremony about?' And you will reply, 'It is the celebration of the LORD's Passover, for he passed over the homes of the Israelites in Egypt'" (Exodus 12:26-27).

Your children will ask. According to developmental psychologists, children ask questions because they are curious, because they are interested, because they want to know, and because they believe you have the answer. But perhaps questions also form on the lips of our youngest simply because they love to ask. Inquiry is an imperative part of a developing young life. Yet, as adults, we may all too easily make the mistake that answers are all they are looking for. While nerves and photocytes may explain the glow of the firefly, perhaps the question was more accurately probing the miracle of light. We do well to remember that an answer can just as easily silence the wonder of inquiry as it can inform
the curious.

A recent study on the faith and belief of today's youth laments the growing inarticulacy of students when it comes to talking about what they believe. The study relates the language of faith to something like a second language in our culture. Acquiring a second language requires listening to others speak, studying the lessons of language, and practicing it until your voice is found. The researchers were troubled as they realized how seldom teens found opportunity to practice talking about their faith. They were astonished by the number of kids who reported that this was the first time they had been asked by an adult what they believed.
One replied as if he was caught off guard, "I don’t know. No one has ever asked me that before."

Such a study offers many angles for analysis. But I often wonder if, in the spirit of the information age, we boast in the promise of endless and instant answers, all the while failing to notice that we are too soon interrupting questions with explanation. Perhaps an abundance of answers has stifled our teens' ability to probe deeply the truths and mysteries of faith. We seldom look for opportunities to practice talking about the things we cease to wonder at. Our children will ask; in our answers may we not interrupt their inquisitive sense of awe.

To the children who first celebrated the Passover feast, inquiry must have been abounding with anticipation. The unleavened bread stood out from what they were used to eating, the lamb was prepared with extraordinary care, and the adults seemed marked by a hopeful sense of urgency. "What does all this mean?" would have come naturally out of eager mouths. Parents answered with the stir of recollection, "Today we celebrate the LORD's Passover, for he passed over our homes in Egypt and brought us out with his mighty hand." Their answer offered within it the weighted truth of the Exodus--and no doubt their eyes were filled with the boundless wonder
of a child.

Jill Carattini is senior associate writer at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Copyright (c) 2008 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) "A Slice of Infinity" is aimed at reaching into the culture with words of challenge, words of truth, and words of hope. If you know of others who would enjoy receiving "A Slice of Infinity" in their email box each day, tell them they can sign up on our website at http://www.rzim.org/slice/slice.php. If they do not have access to the World Wide Web, please call 1-877-88SLICE (1-877-887-5423).

Copyright notice: "A Slice of Infinity" may be copied and re-transmitted by electronic mail, and individual copies of a particular "A Slice of Infinity" may be printed, provided that such copying, re-transmission, printing, or other use is not for profit or other commercial purpose.
However, "A Slice of Infinity" may NOT be reproduced in any form on the World Wide Web or in print media or other media without express written permission. RZIM considers requests to reprint, transmit, or otherwise reproduce "A Slice of Infinity" (or portions thereof) in print, or other media on a case-by-case basis; please contact RZIM at 1-800-448-6766 to submit a request.

Any copying, re-transmission, distribution, printing, or other use of "A Slice of Infinity" must set forth the following credit line, in full, at the conclusion of the portion of A Slice of Infinity that is used:
Copyright(c) 2008
Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM).
Reprinted with permission.
A Slice of Infinity is a ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries Ravi Zacharias International Ministries may withdraw or modify this grant of permission at any time http://www.rzim.org.

A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm.

OUR DYNAMIC POWER SOURCE
Ephesians 1:19
. . . the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might . . .

In Ephesians 1:19-21, Paul gives us a peek at the dynamic source of our authority in Christ. He explains that the authority at our disposal flows from the reservoir of power which raised Jesus Christ from the dead and seated Him at the Father's right hand. That power source is so dynamic that Paul used four different Greek words in verse 19 to describe it: power (dunameos), working (energeian), strength (kratous), and might (ischuos) . Behind the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ lies the mightiest work of power recorded in the Word of God. And the same power which raised Christ from the dead and defeated Satan is the power available to us to overcome the works of Satan in our daily lives.

Paul opens our eyes to the expansive scope of Christ's authority which is "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come" (Ephesians 1:21). Think about the most powerful and influential political or military leaders in the world. Imagine the most feared terrorists, crime kingpins and drug barons. Think about Satan and all the power of darkness marshaled under his command. Jesus' authority is not only above all these human and spiritual authorities past, present and future, but He is far above them. We share the same position because we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies, which enable us to live in freedom and victory over demonic intrusion and influence.

Don't be deceived. You are not under Satan's power or subject to his authority. You are in Christ above all demonic rule, authority and power.

Prayer:

Reigning with You, Lord--what a liberating thought! I praise You today for the power You share with me.

Stepping over Our Wounds

Sometimes we have to "step over" our anger, our jealousy, or our feelings of rejection and move on. The temptation is to get stuck in our negative emotions, poking around in them as if we belong there. Then we become the "offended one," "the forgotten one," or the "discarded one." Yes, we can get attached to these negative identities and even take morbid pleasure in them. It might be good to have a look at these dark feelings and explore where they come from, but there comes a moment to step over them, leave them behind and travel on.

He does not lead me year by year Nor even day by day, But step-by-step my path unfolds; My Lord directs the way.

Tomorrow's plans I do not know, I only know this minute; But He will say, "This is the way, By faith now walk in it."

And I am glad that this is so, Today's enough to bear; And when tomorrow comes, His grace Shall far exceed its care.

What need to worry then, or fret? The God who gave His Son Holds all my moments in His hand And gives them, one by one.

Barbara C. Ryberg

We Need Each Other

A friend loves at all times. Proverbs 17:17

Often the way God works in a person’s life is through other people. If there’s anything in my life that is praiseworthy, so much of it, from my perspective, relates to the people around me—my family, friends, and ministry partners. These people know and understand the power of biblical friendship.

I’m sure you too could report that major steps forward in your relationship with God have come through Him working through the influence of other people. If we’re going to continue to go forward spiritually and be the people that God wants us to be, we need to take hold of one another in caring, supportive, biblical friendship.

Friendship has always been a priority relationship with God. Throughout His Word, when God has wanted to picture a relationship of intimacy and integrity, He described friendship:

Of David and Jonathan, 1 Samuel 18:1 says “the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David.”
James 2:23 calls Abraham, “God’s friend.”
Jesus Himself describes the highest kind of love in terms of friendship, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13-14).
Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
In each of these contexts, godly friendship is a God-given refuge in hard times. Friendship is a bond in seasons of heartache, disappointment, and failure. A godly friend says, “Times are hard? You’re disappointed and discouraged? You’ve failed personally? I’ll stand with you, man. I’m not going anywhere.” Real friends come alive in those times. They move in closer.

Biblical friendship—lasting, loving friendship is a wonderful, very powerful thing. God created you and me to need each other. I want to be that kind of friend, don’t you? God help us not just to want others to be like that for us, but help us to be that kind of a friend to the people in our lives.

The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it.

Epiphany Comes
Jill Carattini

This Sunday marked a lesser known holiday after the fanfare of Christmas.
Epiphany, the historical Christian feast day that celebrates the arrival of the magi to the birthplace of Jesus, is described in Matthew 2:9-12.
“After [the magi] had heard [Herod] the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.”

Like many words that evolve in meaning through time and use, the word epiphany has come to mean more than the holiday it represents on January 6. Merriam-Webster offers an array of uses: an appearance or manifestation especially of a divine being, a sudden perception of the essential nature or meaning of something, an intuitive grasp of reality through something usually simple and striking, an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure, or a revealing scene or moment. Each of these definitions carries with it similar qualities--namely, vision and introspect, reality and awakening. As one who loves words, I like to think that all epiphany is inspired by the first Epiphany, when the Word became flesh and defined for us the meaning of vision, reality, meaning, and wakefulness.

In his poem Journey of the Magi, T.S. Eliot imagines the reminiscent thoughts of one of the magi who journeyed from afar to witness the birth of Christ. Using the voice of a pagan king, Elliot portrays the weight in the soul of a man who has truly confronted the Child king. The poem powerfully concludes:

Birth or Death? There was a birth, certainly, We had evidence, and no doubt I had seen birth and death.
But had thought they were different, this Birth was hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our palaces, these Kingdoms, But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation, with an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
Coming in contact with the Christ, proclaims Eliot, waking to the Child who was born to die is in a sense like dying ourselves. Though the poem seems to strike a somber note, it is a proclamation echoed triumphantly throughout the New Testament. The apostle Paul speaks readily of life in Christ using the words and imagery of death. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
Uttering a similar connection between loss and epiphany, Jesus proclaims, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39).

With those who first watched God stepped from the heavens and into an unlikely stable, we are reminded on the feast of Epiphany that we are a people with everything to lose but everything to gain. Like those who first journeyed to set their eyes on the Child born to die, we awaken to life, but we awaken as Christ was on that first night--homeless, out of place, and longing for the house of many rooms. We awaken to a story that reaches beyond self, even as it requires us to die to ourselves. But in so doing, Christ himself transforms our lives and our deaths, speaking words where death stings and tears flow. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me... [But] I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones”
(Matthew 16:24, 19:28).

Jesus appeared on the scene of a people who had lived with God's silence for 400 years. There hadn’t been a word from God since the prophet Malachi. The heavens were silent; but God was on the move. Into this wordless void, God not only spoke, but sent the Word as flesh to stand beside us, to cry with us, and to lead us home. Epiphany, like the Incarnation itself, reminds us that into ordinary days epiphany comes, that even death cannot stop wakefulness, and that this very story which moves our lives to insight is in fact still unfolding. The Christ Child appeared before the magi. The risen Christ stood among his startled disciples. And Christ the King will come again. There was a first Epiphany and there will be more to come.

Jill Carattini is senior associate writer at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

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UNDERSTANDING WHO YOU ARE
Romans 8:14
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God

I enjoy asking people, "Who are you?" It sounds like a simple question requiring a simple answer, but it really isn't. For example, if someone asked me, "Who are you?" I might answer, "Neil Anderson."

"No, that's your name. Who are you?"

"I'm an American."

"No, that's where you live."

I could also say that I'm five feet nine inches tall and a little over 150 pounds--actually quite a little over 150 pounds! But my physical dimensions and appearance aren't me either. If you chopped off my arms and legs, would I still be me? If you transplanted my heart, kidneys or liver, would I still be me? Of course! Now if you keep chopping, you'll get to me eventually because I'm in here somewhere. But who I am is far more than what you see on the outside.

We may say with the apostle Paul that we "recognize no man according to the flesh." But we tend to identify ourselves and each other primarily by physical appearance (tall, short, stocky, slender) or by what we do (plumber, carpenter, nurse, engineer, clerk). Furthermore, when asked to identify ourselves in relation to our faith, we usually talk about our doctrinal position (Protestant, evangelical, Calvinist, charismatic), our denominational preference (Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Independent), or our role in the church (Sunday school teacher, choir member, deacon, usher).

But is who you are determined by what you do, or is what you do determined by who you are? That's an important question, especially as it relates to Christian maturity. I subscribe to the latter. I believe wholeheartedly that your hope for growth, meaning and fulfillment as a Christian is based on understanding who you are--specifically your identity in Christ as a child of God. Your understanding of who you are in Christ will greatly determine how you live your life.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, I know I am complete in You. Don't allow me to fall back into fleshly attributes today in an attempt to impress others or You.

Some prayers to share with my brothers, sisters in Christ

Let us pray to God the Father as David did in Psalm 103: 1-5

“Praise the LORD, O’ my soul! May all that is within me praise his holy name! Praise the LORD, O’ my soul! Do not forget his kind deeds! He is the one who forgives all your :sins, who heals all your diseases, who delivers your life from the Pit, who crowns you with his loyal love and compassion, who satisfies your life with good things, so your youth is renewed like an eagle’s.” Amen

This prayer is for you, pray with me:

Father God, thank you for your Grace, so that we may be found worthy in your sight through our faith in Jesus Christ who brought us truth. Father we forgive all who have sinned against us so that you may truly forgive us. We come before you as little children, completely dependent upon you, completely trusting you to care for us. We do not know your plan but know in our hearts that you have a unique purpose for us. Whatever that purpose has been and continues to be, we are grateful that you have chosen us to fulfill it. Give us wisdom and strength to endure any trials of the flesh in this temporal life. Protect us from the evil one that we may recognize and reject his temptations. Jesus, embrace us in your loving arms, cleanse us of all our sins that we may be pure before our Father in heaven. May His love fill us with a bright light so that all who know us may witness His goodness, and desire to come to Him through you. Amen.

Sam

January 6, 2008

Two men were traveling one sunny Northern Michigan morning. Their destinations, plans, and goals for that day were completely different. The first man was traveling in a car on his way to a volunteer fireman class on that lazy morning. His plan was to train a group of small town fire fighters so they would be ready to serve their community at a moment’s notice. He was planning to further develop the skills of men and women so that, if necessary, they would be ready to reach out in compassion to their neighbors.

The second man traveling on that day was conducting a wedding rehearsal at a local ski-resort. The preacher’s original plan was to roar out to the rehearsal on his motorcycle. He planned to arrive at the nine a.m. practice, hurry through the wedding rehearsal as realistically as possible, and then jump on his motorcycle and return home. It was a gorgeous August day, and he wanted to spend as much of it with his wife as possible Then at about three o’clock he would put on his “get them married suit” and return to the resort for the outdoor nuptials. There he would enjoy the beauty of the ceremony and then spend an evening of celebration with this new family. Unfortunately, plans have a way of changing.

Too late the biker saw the car run the stop sign. He had no opportunity to brake or even change direction. The loud sound of breaking glass and twisting metal filled the morning air. The man smashed through his motorcycle’s windshield and onto the front window of the tiny Ford. His body then burst through the windshield of the car. The forward movement of the car lifted the biker’s body into the air causing him to land upon the roof of the car and then come crashing down onto the asphalt country road.

The fireman, who was in his car directly behind the Ford, watched the accident unfold in front of him. He quickly drove his vehicle up to the injured biker. He immediately called for help on his fire radio. He hurriedly opened the car’s trunk pulling out his rescue gear, and ran to the bleeding body of the preacher.

The fireman did what he had been trained to do. In less then a minute after the accident he had the biker bagged and was pumping life-saving air into his lungs. He stopped the bleeding from his many wounds and prepared the broken stranger for his ride by helicopter to a waiting emergency team.

The Saturday morning traffic disaster had been very hard on the young preacher. He had a compound break of the right hand. Only one tiny tendon held the crushed hand onto his arm. His left hand received six breaks in just the wrist section. The cyclist’s sternum had broken at ribs “one” and “two”. These broken ribs had ruptured his lungs. His bladder had burst. His pelvis was in three painful parts. He had crushed his left leg and ankle. This father of two beautiful children whispered a final prayer, “Dear God, take care of my family.” Then he quietly waited in peace ready to die. The preacher had lived his life prepared to die; he was ready.

The preacher went from emergency room to surgery to I.C.U. Despite the extent of his injuries, God mercifully spared the biker’s life. Even after he was released from intensive care, the preacher still spent three and half months in a hospital bed undergoing further treatment. Because of his extensive injuries, the preacher would need further surgeries. He would also need about a year of occupational and physical therapy. The preacher’s life changed in other ways as well. Perhaps the biggest change was his attitude. He went from a crushed broken individual to a very thankful man that will always be grateful that he can still walk.

I am that young preacher who thought he was dead. I am so thankful for the skilled men and women who first trained and prepared, and then gave of their time for a dying stranger like myself. I had the gift of life restored to me by a trained stranger. I am still able to enjoy my life. I am still able to love my wife and kids. I am still able to serve my church and community, only now with a new sense of devotion. I have able to lead people to the Lord, counsel broken lives, pray at bedsides, weep at gravesides, and officiate at weddings. I have been able to do all of this since that day when I was broken in August. Beloved stranger, you were ready to do your part and so I live. You play a part in everything I do to bless others. Thanks!

Living the Moment to the Fullest

Patience is a hard discipline. It is not just waiting until something happens over which we have no control: the arrival of the bus, the end of the rain, the return of a friend, the resolution of a conflict. Patience is not a waiting passivity until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later and somewhere else. Let's be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.

Vulnerable, Like a Bird

Life is precious. Not because it is unchangeable, like a diamond, but because it is vulnerable, like a little bird. To love life means to love its vulnerability, asking for care, attention, guidance, and support. Life and death are connected by vulnerability. The newborn child and the dying elder both remind us of the preciousness of our lives. Let's not forget the preciousness and vulnerability of life during the times we are powerful, successful, and popular.

Because I Belong to God

For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me,” says the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 6:15

A lot of people will wake up this Tuesday morning filled with the resolution that in 2008, they will be different. They will think differently, they will do different things, and subsequently, life will be better. At least that’s what they hope.

But within a few days or weeks, most if not all, will lapse back into old behaviors, old attitudes, old patterns. That goes for Christians, too.

No matter how passionately you feel about pleasing God right now, living a holy life in 2008 will depend on a few key decisions.

Decision #1: Will I live my life in the power of God’s Spirit and not in my own strength or willpower?

Decision #2: Will my personal life be determined by God’s Word and its wise application? Between me and God-I will live according to what He has said is right.

The Bible describes this as holiness-being “set apart; separate.” The word actually means “to mark off a boundary.” Read 2 Corinthians 6:15-19 at the top of the page for specifics.

Separation is holiness in action. It’s drawing a line in the sand and saying, “I don’t go there; I don’t look at that; I won’t tolerate that in my life. I belong to God. I’ve made a choice and by God’s grace I’m not going back.”

Living a holy life begins with building convictions and living within those boundaries. The best time to make that lifestyle decision is today-before you’re in the heat of the moment, apart from the pressure of the choice.

Have you drawn protective, preventative lines around your life? If you haven’t established your own convictions based on God’s Word, you’re going to fail. You might do O.K. for a season, but if you don’t heed God’s call to come out and be separate, you’ll waffle right back into that old pattern of defeat.

If you’re ready to break the cycle, start here. Say, “I resolve once and for all that with the Spirit’s help and power, I’m doing it God’s way. I belong to Him.”

Maybe you’ve been struggling in a particular area of sin and you wonder if you’ll ever get victory. Hear the tender call of your loving Father, be done with that. Those things don’t fit in your life.

Maybe you’ve tolerated your rationalized behavior a long time and the Spirit of God wants your attention about the compromises you’ve been excusing. Before you make a choice you can’t reverse and reap a whirlwind of consequences, heed the piercing word of His Spirit saying, “Come out from that and be separate.”

I don’t know how the command could be any clearer, loved ones. God’s Word says to separate from the world’s lifestyle. Don’t touch what is unclean; don’t sit on the fence, don’t straddle the line, don’t be double minded. God’s says: “Be holy as I am holy.”

There’s joy and blessing waiting for you in 2008 when you live in the protective boundaries of God’s holy call on your life.