Monthly Archives: January 2014

Lessons From Eagles

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“Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.”1

“Though many of us have seen pictures of a huge eagle’s nest high in the branches of a tree or in the crag of a cliff, few of us have gotten a glimpse inside. When a mother eagle builds her nest she starts with thorns, broken branches, sharp rocks, and a number of other items that seem entirely unsuitable for the project. But then she lines the nest with a thick padding of wool, feathers, and fur from animals she has killed, making it soft and comfortable for the eggs.

“By the time the growing birds reach flying age, the comfort of the nest and the luxury of free meals makes them quite reluctant to leave. That’s when the mother eagle begins stirring up the nest. With her strong talons she begins pulling up the thick carpet of fur and feathers, bringing the sharp rocks and branches to the surface. As more of the bedding gets plucked up, the nest becomes more uncomfortable for the young eagles. Eventually, this and other urgings prompt the growing eagles to leave their once-comfortable abode and move on to more mature behavior.”2

Yesterday we implied that motivation comes from within—that only we can motivate ourselves. When it comes to growth, however, there is another motivator to help get us motivated—and that is pain that is either caused or allowed by God. Like the mother eagle “motivating” her eaglets to launch out to grow towards their full potential, pain and troubles in our life can be “God’s wake-up call” to “stir up our nest,” to motivate us to move us out of our comfort zone, and grow towards our God-given potential to become all that he envisioned for us to be and to do all that he wants us to do.

However, it’s best to get smart. If we choose to move “out of our comfort zone nest” and become motivated about and involved in God’s work, we may avoid some prickly thorns that God may need to send into our life to stir us out of our nest.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, in all the trials and troubles You allow to come into my life, please help me use these as an opportunity to grow so that I will become ‘strong in character and ready for anything.’ Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. James 1:2-4 (NLT).

2. Today in the Word, June 11, 1989

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Do You Want to Be Made Whole?

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“Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well [whole]?’”1

If I were to ask you if you want to be made whole, I’m sure you would say yes. But what does it mean to be whole? Simply put, it means to become a whole person especially in mind and spirit; that is, to become emotionally well, and spiritually well. Quite a challenge to be sure.

As long as we live in our human body we will be subject to sickness and disease. However, the more whole we become emotionally and spiritually, the healthier we are more likely to be physically. Unresolved spiritual and/or emotional issues make us much more susceptible to illnesses of all kinds.

For instance, a person whose life is riddled with guilt because of unconfessed sin, or is nursing a grudge and refusing to forgive someone who has hurt him or her is more than likely to get sick physically and/or mentally. Many an ulcer, for example, is caused not so much by what we are eating but by what is eating us on the inside. And when I repress super-charged negative emotions, as John Powell puts it, “My stomach keeps score.”

While the principle for being made well/whole is simple, the process is anything but simple. That is, if we want to be made well/whole, we need to resolve all past hurts, forgive anyone and everybody who has ever hurt us, face and resolve every buried negative emotion, deal with and resolve any unconfessed sin, and make our life right with God.

Remember, too, there is a world of difference between a want and a wish. To be made well/whole takes total commitment, personal honesty, and determination. The half-hearted never make it. They may wish to get well but they don’t want it badly enough to be willing to pay the price of doing what it takes to be made well/whole.

Jesus’ invitation is still available. Receiving the answer is up to each one of us. Do you truly want to be made whole/well? For only to the degree that we are made whole will our lifestyle, our behavior and actions, our manner of living, and our relationships be wholesome.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to understand fully what it means and what it takes to be made whole, and give me the courage and will to do what I need to do in order to be made whole. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. John 5:5-6 (NKJV).

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No Greater Love

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“Greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends.”1

Gregory Robertson, a parachute safety and training adviser and a veteran of several hundred parachute jumps, followed six other sky divers out of a plane two miles above the ground.

At 1¾ miles the six attempted to link hands. One of the divers, Debbie Williams, accidentally collided with one of the other skydivers and knocked herself unconscious. Seeing her plight, Robertson tucked his arms to his sides and, using his shoulders to steer himself, went after Debbie. Plunging downward at 200 miles per hour, he was able to catch her. Maneuvering her into a sitting position, Robertson yanked her rip cord. They were at 2,700 feet! At 2,000 feet he opened his own chute. Ten seconds later he would have slammed into the ground.

As Jesus said, there is no greater love than someone being willing to give or even risk his or her own life to save another’s. But God’s love for us is even greater. As the Bible says, “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”2

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, because You loved me enough to die for me, help me love You enough to live for You every day for the rest of my life. Please use me to be a vital part of what You are doing in the world today to save those who are plummeting toward eternal death without Christ. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. John 15:13.

2. Romans 5:7-8 (NIV)

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Discovering God’s Will for Your Life

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“I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart.”1

A Daily Encounter reader asks, “How does one know that God is speaking to him or her? I am very confused because I do not know what God wants me to do with my life.”

In younger days I used to struggle with the same question; that is, how can I know the will of God for my life? The following comes from what I learned:

First, and most important, is that it is always God’s will for us to put God first in our lives and to live in harmony with what His Word, the Bible, teaches.

Second, ask God to help you discover what your God-given life purpose is, and then do what is necessary to fulfill this purpose. This will be achieved by developing and using your God-given natural gifts and talents to serve Him. Realize, too, that we serve God by serving/helping people.

Third, when fulfilling the above, you will enjoy and find fulfillment in the work/service (either paid or volunteer) that you do. Referring to Jesus, David, the Psalmist, wrote: “I take joy in doing your will, my God.” When we live in harmony with and do the will of God, we, too, will find joy and fulfillment.

Fourth, unless we have a “specific call” from God for a specific task such as being a missionary (or other ministry), we can do any of a number of things and still be doing God’s will. For instance, picture God’s will as traveling on a “train” that will take you to heaven when your life on earth is ended. While God is in charge of that train, we have all the freedom to move around in that train, and be involved in varied activities using our abilities to serve others. Should God be calling you to a specific task, it will be much like what Oswald Chambers once said: “The call of God is like the call of the sea to a sailor.” That is, a man who senses the call of the sea, will never rest until he launches out to sea to answer that inner urging. For more details on the call of God, see the article, “Baffling Call of God,” online at: http://tinyurl.com/callofGod.

Fifth, realize that God is not co-dependent. He will give wisdom and guidance if we ask Him to (see Proverbs 3:5-6), but He doesn’t make our decisions for us. So don’t wait for a special vision, just put to use the talents you have in serving others through your local church, a para-church organization, with a volunteer service organization, through visiting the sick or shut-ins, helping a neighbor, or just in one or more of normal, everyday activities.

Sixth, every morning pray and commit and trust your life and way to God and trust Him to lead you in the way that is best for you to go. I have prayed this prayer almost every day since my youth and, as I look back, can see how God has answered this prayer in so many ways that I never would have dreamed possible.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to discover my God-given life purpose, to live in harmony with Your will, and to develop and use my God-given gifts and talents in a way that will best serve You and fulfill Your purpose for my life—and therein find joy and fulfillment. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Psalm 40:8 (NLT).

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Report Card

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“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.”1

Report cards can make students nervous when having to give a less than desirable report to their parents. I received a report card from one of my sons when he was 13. It read:

Dad’s Report Card

Love: A

Patience: A

Understanding: A

Intelligence: A

Sense of humor: A

Helpfulness: A

Kindness: A

Wisdom: A

Allowances: C-

It was a birthday card, the inside of which read: “Let’s see if we can’t bring that last grade up a bit, Dad!”

Jokes aside, I wonder if we wouldn’t be better parents if we were regularly graded by our kids!

Whenever there is accountability with responsibility the results are usually more effective. For example, in ancient Rome when the scaffolding was removed from a completed Roman arch, the law required the engineer who built it to test its strength by standing beneath it.

The engineer knew his life depended on the quality of his work. Thus, it is no accident that Roman arches have survived for hundreds of years!

Perhaps it would be wise to remind ourselves that each of us is accountable and eventually will stand before God to give an account of how we have lived and served God while here on earth. May each of us hear the Savior say, “Well done good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, grant that when my works are tested, that they won’t burn up as wood, hay and stubble, but will, by Your grace, be as pure gold. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. 2 Corinthians 5:10.

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Words

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“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.”1

I love words. With words we can move people to laugh, to cry, to love us or to hate us. With words we can inspire some to noble deeds of kindness, or if we are so inclined, we can persuade others to dastardly deeds of violence and evil.

I love one-liners too. They can make powerful statements. I’ve been collecting them for years from various sources. I wish I knew who said each one; some I do, but unfortunately many I don’t. I trust the following will be as enriching to you as they have been and are to me.

“The tragedy in life,” said Albert Schweitzer, “is not that we die, but rather, what dies inside a man while he lives.”

“The unattended garden,” wrote A.W. Tozer, “will soon be overrun with weeds; the heart that fails to cultivate truth and root out error, will shortly be a theological wilderness.”

Abraham Lincoln said, “The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.”

A Chinese proverb says, “The longest journey begins with the first step.” And another, “Dig your well before you’re thirsty.” “If one stays too long in his shell, he’ll wind up nuts.”

“When you have a lot of rough edges, you’re easy to get hold of but hard to embrace.”

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

“To have a healthy sense of self-worth you don’t have to be the best. Just be your best.”

Winston Churchill wisely observed that opposition can be a healthy thing saying: “Kites rise against, not with the wind.”

“If you resent it, don’t do it; if you do it, don’t resent it.”

Ivy Baker Priest said, “The world is round, and the place which may seem like an end may also be only the beginning.”

And finally, “The way we treat people is the way we treat God.”

Suggested prayer: “Thank You God for Your words in Your Word. Like David, help me to hide Your Word in my heart so I won’t sin against You. And grant that my words will be ‘like apples of gold in settings of silver.’ Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Proverbs 25:11 (RSV).

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Flack Attacks

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“Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I have been in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles … and in danger from false brothers.”1

Flack is a normal part of front-line action. Whenever a person invests his or her life in a worthwhile cause and does a good job, especially if he or she doesn’t follow the party line, is not acting in a “politically correct” manner, or swims against the tide of current thought, he or she will inevitably become a target for criticism from those who feel threatened or are in some way jealous. The Apostle Paul’s life is a prime example.

The point is, flack is a part of the price of leadership. If we don’t want flack, all we need to do is to stay a part of the status quo, don’t rock the boat, be politically correct, or stay at home. But safety is not the way of true success. As one poet wrote:

I would rather stumble a thousand times
Attempting to reach a goal,
Than to sit in a crowd
In my weather-proof shroud,

A shriveled and self-satisfied soul.
I would rather be doing and daring
All of my error-filled days,
Than watching and waiting, and dying
Smug in my perfect ways.
I would rather wonder and blunder,
Stumbling blindly ahead,
Than for safety’s sake
Lest I make a mistake
Be sure, be safe, be dead.

– Author Unknown

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me a passion to live for and serve You. Help me always to take a stand for all that Your Word, the Bible, teaches. And please give me the courage to not shrink back because of the attacks of those who oppose truth and Your work. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. 2 Corinthians 11:24-26 (NIV).

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Creative Adversity

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“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”1

In 1832, French engineer Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps was traveling on the Mediterranean Sea. One of the other passengers (on the ship he was on) came down with a contagious disease and the ship was quarantined. Lesseps became very frustrated. To help kill time he read the memoirs of Charles le Pere who had considered the feasibility of building a canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. In 1869 the Suez Canal was completed. It was constructed following the design by and under the leadership of Lesseps.

It was during that quarantine thirty-seven years earlier that the plan for the Suez Canal was germinated and conceived by Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps. The world has reaped the benefit ever since.

Probably more often than we realize, God uses adversity to help us grow, to motivate us to find creative solutions to life’s problems, or to further his work. For example, the early Christians didn’t fulfill Christ’s commission to move out of Jerusalem with the gospel to the ends of the earth until the Church faced persecution. They were forced to move to the ends of the earth.

This principle has been true in my life too. Just about every major change in my life for the better has been the result of some kind of setback or adversity.

So, every time adversity comes into your life, may I suggest that you embrace it, and ask God what he is saying or seeking you to learn or do through it.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, when facing a setback, or enduring a loss, a disappointment, or a trial, help me to ‘hear’ what You are saying to me through this experience and how You want to use it in my life for Your glory. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Acts 1:8 (NIV)

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The Person God Uses

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“And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.”1

“Down the streets of Portsmouth, two hundred years ago, walked a sailor with one arm, one eye, a persistent state of nerves, and unable to tread a ship’s deck without being seasick. Indeed he would probably have been in a home for incurables, were not his name Admiral Lord Nelson. The man’s spirit drove the flesh. The point is, when weighing the characteristics of a leader, remember a stout spirit can drive a weak body a long way.”2

More than two thousand years ago God informed Ezekiel, the prophet, that he was looking for a man to “stand in the gap” to save the land. God, today, is still looking for men and women who will stand in the gap to help bring people to Jesus, for without him perishing souls are lost forever. God uses ordinary people to fulfill his goals on earth—the major qualification is not our strength but having a stout spirit and being available for God to use.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, in spite of my inadequacies, I come to You and am available for service. Please make me usable and use me to stand in the gap to help bring the lost to Jesus. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

NOTE: For simple helps so you, too, can “stand in the gap,” please consider joining with ACTS as a People Power for Jesus Partner. There is absolutely no charge to join. See https://learning.actsweb.org/people_power/.

1. Ezekiel 22:30.

2. Lt. General Ira C. Eaker.

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The Search for Significance

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“Then he [Jesus] said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’”1

Not all by any means, but most of the motivational books and lectures that I have read and heard pretty much measure success in terms of wealth and material gain. For example, businessmen and women who are considered successful are those who have built an effective business that has become very profitable financially. Most of these “successful” people have been totally committed to and have invested their life in achieving their goal of success.

However, many or at least some of these people after they have reached the pinnacle of success in terms of the world’s measure of success ask themselves, “Is this all there is to life?” and wonder, “What have I achieved with my life that will leave anything of lasting value after I have gone? What, if anything, have I contributed to the betterment of mankind?” In other words, “What have I done of lasting significance?”

The reality is that one can achieve success and receive many accolades and obtain wide recognition, and yet not have achieved anything of lasting significance. On the other hand, if one has invested his or her life in things of lasting value, he or she is the one who has achieved real success and whose life is truly significant—with or without any accolades, recognition, or monetary gain.

In other words I can be “outwardly successful” but not have any significance, but if I have achieved significance I will be truly successful.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to become significant by my life’s priorities, in the way I invest my life, and in the worthwhile goals I achieve—and be genuinely successful by Your standards. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Luke 12:15 (NIV).

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