All posts by 5Q

Avoiding Mayhem at Home

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“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”1

One day a man came home from work to find total mayhem at home. The kids were outside still in their pajamas playing in the mud and muck. There were empty food boxes and wrappers all around. As he proceeded into the house, he found an even bigger mess. Dishes on the counter, dog food spilled on the floor, a broken glass under the table, and a small pile of sand by the back door. The family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing, and a lamp had been knocked over.

He headed up the stairs, stepping over toys, to look for his wife. He was becoming worried that she may be ill, or that something had happened to her. He found her in the bedroom, still in bed with her pajamas on, reading a book.

She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, “What happened here today?” She again smiled and answered, “You know everyday when you come home from work and ask me what I did today?”

“Yes,” was his reply.

She answered, “Well, today I didn’t do it!”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to appreciate what my wife/husband/mother/father/friends/others do for me. May I never take them for granted and may I be as committed to helping them as they are to me. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. The Apostle Paul (Ephesians 5:25).

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Never Too Old

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“So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”1

We are never too old to serve the Lord. Caleb, forty-five years earlier, was one of the twelve spies Moses sent to spy out the Promised Land and one of the two who came back with a glowing report. At age eighty-five he still wants to serve the Lord.

Admittedly, folks lived much older back then but no matter how old we are (except for extenuating circumstances), we are never too old to serve the Lord—even if all we can do is pray.

According to Today in the Word, “Cervantes completed Don Quixote when he was nearing 70. Clara Barton, at 59, founded the American Red Cross. Goethe finished the dramatic poem ‘Faust’ at 82. Verdi composed ‘Othello’ at 73, ‘Falstaff’ in his late seventies. Benjamin Disraeli became Prime Minister of England for the second time at 70.”

When it comes to achieving anything worthwhile (especially serving God), it is availability—not age-ability—that counts.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, I’m available, please make me usable and use me every day in some way to be a part of what you are doing in the world today. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Caleb (Joshua 14:10-12, NIV).

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God Moves In Mysterious Ways

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“For in the day of trouble he [God] will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock.”1

I have read that William Cowper, like many people today, suffered from times of deep melancholy and depression. One night when he was in a particularly dark mood of despair, he decided to take his life by jumping into the Thames River.

That night the city of London was blanketed with an extremely heavy fog and Mr. Cowper, searching to find the river, lost his way. Stumbling blindly through the fog he was dumbfounded when he found himself on the doorstep of his own home. Going to his room he penned the words of the beautiful hymn:

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me in my times of despair and depression to trust in you. Hide me in the shelter of your love and lead me to the place of help that I need. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. King David (Psalm 27:5, NIV).

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Communicating Christ

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“He [Jesus] looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man [with the withered hand], ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.”1

Because Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath (the formal religious day of the religious leaders), they were furious with him and planned to kill him.

A major fault of these religious leaders was that they loved their man-made rules and doctrines more than they loved people! Furthermore, they used these rules to control people. Instead of communicating God’s love and mercy, they communicated their rigid religiosity and drove people from God rather than draw them to him.

While correct teaching is important, “Christianity is much more than a creed. It is experiencing divine love, divine acceptance, and divine forgiveness and communicating these to every life we touch.”

St. Francis had it right in his prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light, and
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much
Seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to
eternal life.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please make me an instrument to share your love, joy and peace wherever I go and to every life I touch. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Mark 3:5-6 (NIV).

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Seize the Day

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“Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross over the Jordan River, you, and all these people, to the land which I am giving to you.… Every place where you set your foot, that I have given to you.”1

When God told Joshua and the ancient Israelites that he had given them the Promised Land, he didn’t hand it to them on a silver platter. To claim God’s promise, they had to battle every inch of the way. They still had to go, conquer, and possess it.

The reality is, however, that had God not given the Promised Land to them, they never would have been able to conquer and possess it.

God also has a work for you and me to do. He will give us opportunities every day to serve him but it’s up to us to take advantage of every one of these as they will come to pass—not to pause!

With God’s help, let us “seize the day” and take advantage of every one of these opportunities, and claim every promise he has for us.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to be ready to ‘seize’ every opportunity you give me to serve you and claim every promise you have made to me. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. God to Joshua in the Bible (Joshua 1:2-3).

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Show Me – Don’t Tell Me

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“And then he [Jesus] told them, ‘You are to go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere.’”1

I have often felt that much of my education taught me how to make a living and do a lot of good things, but it didn’t teach me how to live or make a life. That I have had to learn the hard way—and am still learning how to do that.

Nevertheless, my education did teach me many valuable lessons. One that I have never forgotten was from my journalism professor. Time and again in bright red he would write on my papers, “Show me. Don’t tell me!”

I took it to mean that in my writing I needed to illustrate important points with stories, which was the way that Jesus taught in his many parables.2

I like to apply the “show me—don’t tell me” principle not only in my writing, but also in my teaching and especially in my witness for Christ. In other words, one of the greatest ways we can teach others and witness for Christ is to model true Christianity. Until we do this, our words won’t carry much weight.

Like Mother Theresa wisely said in words to this effect: “Witness at every opportunity. Use words when necessary.” And as another wisely said, “The living truth I long to see, I cannot live on what used to be, so close your Bible and show me how the Christ you talk about is living now.”

In other words, “To win some we need to be winsome.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to so live the Christian life that others, seeing what you have done in my life, will want you in their lives as well. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Jesus (Mark 16:15, TLB).
2. See Matthew 13:35.

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The Muslim Will to Power Part II

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“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”1

In addressing the challenges the world is facing today caused by radical Muslims, we continue yesterday’s message by the unknown author who reminds us that: “It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the ‘peaceful majority’ the ‘silent majority’ is cowed and extraneous.

“Communist Russia comprised Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.

“China’s huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

“The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the Systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel and bayonet.

“And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were ‘peace loving’?

“History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.

“Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awake one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.

“Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up, take action, until it was too late.

“As for us who watch it all unfold; we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

“Lastly, at the risk of offending, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, can contribute to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand.

“So, please extend yourself and send this article on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands [even millions]—world wide—will read this message, think about it, and send it on. Actions speak!”2

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, as Jesus instructed us, help us to love our enemies and even those who want to kill us. But also help us to be very much aware of their evil devices and be prepared and ‘arm’ ourselves appropriately. Give us the wisdom to know what we need to do and the courage to do it. And help us to reach every Muslim and every non-Christian worldwide with your saving gospel message, and grant that multitudes will turn from darkness to the glorious light of your truth. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

For a comparison grid between what Christians and Muslims believe go to:
http://www.carm.org/islam/grid.htm

1. 2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV).
2. Author unknown. Submitted by Frank Feracco.

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The Muslim Will to Power Part I

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“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”1

Mark Early, president of Prison Fellowship, wrote in BreakPoint, “The history of the last fifty [plus] years has richly validated Friedrich Nietzsche’s argument that man’s desire to control his own destiny and to impose his will on others is the most basic human motivation. Nietzsche’s prophecy that the ‘will to power’ would fill the twentieth-century’s vacuum of values has been fulfilled through Hitler, Mao, Stalin, to name only the worst tyrants.”2 To this list could be added the will to power of radical Muslims whose aim is to rule and control the world—or a very large part of it—without any qualms whatsoever on how to fulfill this goal.

The German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel said, “What experience and history teach is this—that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it;” Churchill paraphrased it by saying, “The only thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history.” And as another has said, “What we don’t learn from history we are doomed to repeat.” Tragically, with the ever increasing resurgence of radical Islam, history is again repeating itself.

Preceding World Ward II Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of England, “fought” for appeasement with Hitler whose life was dominated by his will to power. Chamberlain meant well but he failed because there is no such thing as appeasement with the Hitlers and terrorists of the world. You give in to all their demands or they kill you. We in the West need to wake up and learn from history. To claim that most Muslims want peace will not protect or save. Radical Muslim’s have a will to ultimate power and will stop at nothing to achieve that power and control.

Reality defies the description that Islam is a religion of peace. I don’t know who the author of the following article is but it exemplifies the fact that the claim of peaceful, non-radical Muslims is irrelevant at this point of time. For example:

“A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. ‘Very few people were true Nazis,’ he said, ‘but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of our world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.’

“We are told again and again by ‘experts’ and ‘talking heads’ that Islam is a religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace.

“Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.”

To be continued …

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help every Christian never to be ignorant of Satan’s devices and always be cognizant of the fact that Satan’s goal is to deceive and destroy all who believe in you. Help us always to trust in you and so live that people seeing our good works will glorify you,3 and that seeing Jesus in us will want him in their life as well. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

For a comparison grid between what Christians and Muslims believe go to:
http://www.carm.org/islam/grid.htm

1. 1 Peter 5:8 (NIV).
2. Mark Earley, BreakPoint, June 7, 2007,
www.breakpoint.org
3. See Matthew 5:16.

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Overcoming Loneliness

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“The LORD confides in those who fear [reverence] him; he makes his covenant known to them. My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare. Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart have multiplied; free me from my anguish. Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins. See how my enemies have increased and how fiercely they hate me!”1

“Loneliness, it’s such a sad affair” sang Karen and Richard Carpenter some years ago. Sad to say for Karen she was apparently singing exactly how she felt for, feeling unloved and lonely, she starved herself to death.

Probably most of us at one time or another know the painful pangs of loneliness. We were created for relationships and without sufficient love and human companionship we “limp along in the shadows of life” starving for human love, warmth and connection.

King David also knew what it was like to be lonely especially when he was on the run from King Saul who was desperately jealous of him and was seeking to kill him.

I know what it’s like to be lonely, too—even when among friends—with that deep down feeling that leaves one feeling empty inside. My problem? Because of past hurts I was afraid to get too close to people for fear of being hurt again.

But I, too, sought the Lord in my loneliness and shared my fears, failures and insecurities with him and asked him to give me the courage to face the cause/s of my fear and to lead me to the help I needed to overcome them. I had personal issues to work on and resolve, and while it took time I’ve come a long way since then and am more open to love than ever before.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you so much that you hear the cry of my heart when I reach out to you in my loneliness and pain. Help me always to be honest with myself and you and please give me the courage to face the cause/s of my loneliness, accept responsibility for what I need to do, and lead me to the help I need to overcome. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

For additional help in overcoming loneliness, go to: http://tinyurl.com/3bg5xy

1. King David (Psalm 25:14-19 NIV).

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Healing Life’s Hurts

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Jesus asked, “Do you want to be made whole/well?”1

I have read that if flies are placed in a jar with air holes in the lid, they will fly around frantically, banging into the lid, desperately trying to escape from their prison. If left there long enough, eventually they will stop hitting the lid. Later, if the lid is removed, they won’t even try to escape. Somehow they have been conditioned “to feel and believe” that there is no escape. They just keep circling in the cramped jar.

Many people are like this. Somewhere in their past, through a frightening and/or traumatic experience, such as being raped, sexually, physically, or emotionally abused or rejected as a child, they have been conditioned to believe at an unconscious level that they, too, are trapped and that there is no way out of their dilemma. And they end up going in circles with their life and/or relationships.

To be freed from this endless cycle of defeat, those of us who have been abused need the healing touch of God—and want it with all of our heart. As a general rule God uses other people to bring this healing. It begins with acknowledging our problem (often best detected by the symptoms we experience), genuinely wanting to be healed, being willing to face the agony of confronting these painful memories and damaged emotions, and getting the help we need (qualified counseling is often needed). Most important of all, start with praying the right prayer such as the following:

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you care about my pain and where I have been hurt in my past. In many ways my life is in chaos and I have failed miserably in my closest relationships. Please give me the courage to face any and all painful memories, connect to them and bring them to the light for your healing. Please lead me to the help I need whatever that may be. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. John 5:6.

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