All posts by 5Q

Be Prepared

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“Prepare to meet your God, O Israel.”1

King Duncan wrote how, “In 1976, Indiana University’s basketball team was undefeated throughout the regular season and captured the NCAA National Championship. Controversial and colorful coach Bobby Knight led them to that championship. Shortly afterwards, Coach Knight was interviewed on the television show ’60 Minutes.’ The commentator asked him, ‘Why is it, Bobby, that your basketball teams at Indiana are always so successful? Is it the will to succeed?’

“Bobby Knight replied, ‘The will to succeed is important, but I’ll tell you what’s more important, it’s the will to prepare. It’s the will to go out there every day training and building those muscles and sharpening those skills!’

“Another famous coach believed the same thing. ‘Hurry Up’ Yost was the football coach at the University of Michigan. A player once assured Coach Yost that their team was sure to win on Saturday because the players had ‘the will to win.’ ‘Hurry Up’ Yost answered: ‘Don’t fool yourself. The will to win is not worth a plugged nickel unless you have the will to prepare.’ That is true. Whether we are talking about sports, or education, or science, or business, or any worthwhile endeavor in life, success goes to the person who has the will to prepare!”2

When it comes to serving God, as Jim Wallace said, “It’s better to be prepared and not called, than to be called and not prepared.”

And, most important of all, when it comes to life after death how incredibly foolish it is not to be prepared. While God said to Israel to prepare to meet him, the same principle applies to you and me. If, for example, your life were to end today, are you prepared to meet God? For help, be sure to read the article, “Life After Death,” at: http://tinyurl.com/8brzh.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that your Word, the Bible, shows me how I can be prepared for life after death. Help me to know for certain that I am ready to meet you face to face no matter when that will be. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Amos 4:12 (NIV).

2. King Duncan, www.sermons.com.

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Growing in Love

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“We love him because he first loved us.”1

“How many feel they would like to have more love in their life?” is a question I have asked many times to seminar attendees. Many, if not most, hands are raised. When I ask the same folk how many feel all of their love needs are being met, very few hands are raised.

Some years ago there was a popular song by Jackie Deshannon that stated, “What the world needs now is love / Sweet love / It’s the only thing / That there’s just too little of / What the world needs now / Is love, sweet love / No, not just for some / But for everyone.”

Those words still ring true because so many of our human problems are caused by a breakdown or failure in love. And when I ask people how we get more love in our life, inevitably almost all say by giving love. Sounds good, but that isn’t always true because we can’t give what we don’t have. In fact, unless I have learned to love and accept myself in a healthy way, I am not able to love or accept anyone else in a healthy way. My love will be contaminated by need.

Thus, love is an action/feeling to be learned. We didn’t come into the world knowing how to love—only with the ability to learn how to love. So how do we learn to love? John stated that we love God because he first loved us. The same principle holds true for human love. We love others because others (or another) first loved us. If they didn’t, and we didn’t receive sufficient unconditional love as a child and learned how to love then, we need to receive it now and learn how to love maturely now.

Furthermore, I can only be fully loved to the degree that I am known. Thus, the way we grow in and learn to love is by becoming vulnerable and allowing at least one or two safe, accepting, and non-judgmental persons see and know us as we really are—warts and all. And as they love and accept us as we are, little by little we learn to love and accept ourselves. And as we learn to love and accept ourselves, we are then freed both to give and receive love without strings attached. But as long as we hide our inner or secret self (our dark side) behind any kind of a mask (no matter how sophisticated that mask may be), we will never feel fully loved, nor will we be able to fully love. I repeat … we can only ever feel fully loved to the degree that we are fully known.

Risky? Yes. But not to learn to love is the greatest risk of all.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to find a loving, safe, nonjudgmental, accepting person that I can trust, so I can share my total self with this person and be truly accepted and loved by this person for who I am (and not for what I do or don’t do), so that I, in turn, can learn to accept and love others more fully. And help me to experience your love more and more so that I will also be able to love others more and more. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 1 John 4:19.

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Feelings

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“There is a time for everything … a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.”1

Imagine living in a world where you couldn’t laugh when you were highly amused, where you couldn’t yell your head off at a ball game, sing your heart out in church or at a party, or cry when you are sad. Life would be deadly dull, empty, and boring. As another has said, “Life without feelings would be like playing a trombone with a stuck slide.” It is also a very unhealthy way to live. As John Powell put it, “When I repress [that is, deny] my emotions, my stomach keeps score.” Furthermore, people in denial and out of touch with their feelings are like zombies.

Feelings or emotions are God-given. They are a vital part of humanity. Whether they are positive or negative, they need to be acknowledged, owned, and expressed or dealt with in healthy ways. Proverbs even advises, “Open rebuke is better than secret love.”2

Feelings in and of themselves are amoral; that is, they are neither right nor wrong. Jesus never told us how to feel, only how to act. It’s what we do with feelings and how we handle them that matters.

Bottling up (denying) emotions hurts ourselves and damages our relationships. Lashing out hurts others and also damages relationships. Expressing them in love and kindness brings people closer together, and reinforces relationships. Furthermore, sharing feelings openly in a loving manner is the heart of intimacy. In fact, without this there is no closeness or intimacy, and such couples end up living together alone apart.

Listen to your heart and share some of your feelings in a loving and creative way with a friend or loved one today! And, when sharing feelings, it is always helpful to start by saying, “I feel ….” Be sure to share what you are feeling—and not just what you are thinking. Sharing thoughts is good (unless it is a way to avoid facing and expressing feelings), but it isn’t intimacy.

Furthermore, if we don’t learn how to express feelings in creative ways, we may very likely allow them to control us and/or to act them out in self- or other destructive ways. This is allowing feelings to control us instead of our being in control of them. Remember, too, what we fail to talk out creatively, we will inevitably act out negatively.

One more point about feelings: It is important not to base our beliefs and actions on the way we feel. It is the Word of God, the Bible, which is our final voice of authority—not the way we feel.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me to handle my emotions as Jesus did who, when he was sad, wept; and when he was angry at evil, he expressed his anger to bring about change. So help me to do likewise, but always to speak the truth in love. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4 (NIV).

2. Proverbs 27:5.

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Christianizing or Spiritualizing Complexes

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“Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, it if is not accompanied by action, is dead.”1

I recall an occasion when I was going through a difficult time of discouragement and shared this with a friend whose immediate response was, “Are you in the Word [meaning was I reading the Bible enough], Dick?”

I felt more discouraged and replied, “Joan, what do you do when you are hungry?”

“I get the point,” she answered.

“What I need right now is an understanding and supportive friend,” I replied.

Certainly I believe in reading the Bible and praying daily and “walking with God” but does that take away our pain when we are hurting, and does that meet the need of a lonely or hurting heart? No, of course not.

When Elijah, following his great victory on Mt. Carmel, was being threatened by Queen Jezebel who wanted him killed, he ran some forty miles for his life and was so depressed that he sat under a tree and wanted to die. So God sent an angel to him, and did the angel say, “Elijah, get up and pray?”

No. The angel said to Elijah, “Get up and eat!”

Elijah was emotionally, spiritually, and physically exhausted. What he needed was a good feed. Sometimes that’s what we need, too, or a good hug or someone just to listen, to care, and understand, not to give advice or try to fix us, but just to be there and give us their presence—and certainly not to spiritualize or Christianize an everyday normal human need by giving a spiritual answer for a non-spiritual need or problem.

In today’s Bible passage James had it right. True religion is not only to “walk with God” but to understand people and their immediate needs, and to minister to them at that point of need—just as Jesus always did.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me to be sensitive to people’s felt and immediate needs and help meet them at their point of need. And deliver me from the insensitivity of giving them an irrelevant empty ‘spiritual cliché’ answer. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. James 2:16-17 (NIV).

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Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

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In Memory of Veteran’s Day, November 11.

“The body [Christ's Church] is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body…. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ God has combined the members of the body … so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.”1

Some readers will be old enough to remember Richard Daley who was mayor of Chicago for 21 years (1955-1976). Mayor Daley was known as a rather forbidding man to work for. One story goes like this. One of Mayor Daley’s speech writers came in and demanded a raise. Mayor Daley responded as could be expected. He said ‘I’m not going to give you a raise. You are getting paid more than enough already. It should be enough for you that you are working for a great American hero like myself.’ And that was the end of it … or so the mayor thought.

“Two weeks later Mayor Daley was on his way to give a speech to a convention of veterans. The speech was going to receive nationwide attention. Now one other thing Mayor Daley was famous for was not reading his speeches until he got up to deliver them. So there he stood before a vast throng of veterans and nationwide press coverage. He began to describe the plight of the veterans. ‘I’m concerned for you. I have a heart for you. I am deeply convinced that this country needs to take care of its veterans. So, today I am proposing a seventeen-point plan that includes the city, state and federal government, to care for the veterans of this country.’

“Now by this time everyone was on the edge of their seat to hear what the proposal was. He turned the page and saw only these words: “You’re on your own now, you great American hero!”2

The fact is that there are many people who have contributed to our lives to help make us what we are, and to give us the freedoms we enjoy today—at least for those of us who live in free countries. We need to be grateful for every person who has ever helped us—including every veteran who has put his or her life on the line to defend our freedoms.

Speaking personally, I grew up in Australia during World War II and, had it not been for the U.S. military, Australia—without doubt—would have been totally run over by the Japanese. Our population at the time was only about seven million and much of Australia’s military forces were fighting in Europe to help save the U.K. from Hitler’s Germany. So I am extremely thankful for every U.S. veteran who gave his or her life to save mine.

May we all give credit where credit is due. And may we never forget how much God has done and continues to do behind the scenes for every one of us—every day.

Suggested prayer, “Dear God, thank you for every person who has contributed to the betterment of my life—including every veteran who has helped to protect my freedom. Thank you, too, for the gift/s you have given to me. Please help me to use them to help make my world a better place in which to live, and always do this for your glory. And, above all, thank you for giving your Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for all my sins so that I can receive your forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 1 Corinthians 12:12, 21, 24-25 (NIV).

2. Journey Toward God, New Community Small Group Study on Exodus (Zondervan), p.33.

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The Sin of Silence

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“Today is November the 9th—the 74th anniversary of “Kristal Nacht”

In referring to Hitler’s Germany, when church leaders and Christians remained deathly silent while Hitler murdered six million Jews, the president of a Christian university—a man of Germen descent—warned the student body as follows:

“Today is November the 9th—the 74th anniversary of “Kristal Nacht,” the Night of the Broken Glass. On this day in 1938, Nazi thugs moved through the cities of Germany smashing the windows of German homes and shops, burning the synagogues. Innocent people; men, women and children were beaten and killed simply because they were Jews.

“I was there as a young man … and I can still hear the sound of the shattering glass. There were many of us who were Christians then but we did nothing. We looked the other way and we did nothing. That was the beginning of the Holocaust because the Jew haters knew then that no one would stop them, no one would stand in their way.

“My friends, it is happening again. It is happening again today in our beautiful America—so richly and abundantly blessed by a gracious God. It is happening today as the innocent are slaughtered in a forty-year Holocaust that has seen over fifty-four million little boys and girls brutally done to death [via legalized abortion]. It is happening again as families are fractured and marriages are broken, while self-obsessed people pursue the immediate gratification of their every desire. It is happening again as militant homosexuals pursue absolute approval, complete acceptance, and preferential legal treatment for their perversion…. It is happening again as the nation’s leaders wallow in decadence and deceit, while the people look on in apathetic indifference [and silence].”2

Church pastors, leaders, and Christian friends it is absolutely imperative that today we stand up and be counted—to be watchmen who no longer remain silent—and take a stand against all evil and moral perversity. It is also imperative that we vote only for leaders who are men and women of character and integrity, and who take a positive stand against all evil and moral corruption—including wretched abortion for any reason and especially the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion. Can you even begin to imagine what God thinks of this perversion and that of our moral decay? We are fast moving away from God’s protection and, as a nation, will suffer the dire consequences of what happens to nations when men and women forget God. Think of Ancient Israel, for example, when they turned from God, they removed themselves from God’s protection and ended up in captivity in Babylon.

As a follower of Jesus Christ, while we need to love all sinners, we are, as today’s Scripture reminds us, to take a moral stand and correct and rebuke all evil and moral decay. Let us remember too, that meekness is not weakness and let us not forget the words of Edmund Burke who said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” And in the words of the German pastor, Pastor Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please open the eyes of my understanding and help me to see the way our country is rapidly moving away from you and your Truth. Deliver me from the sin of silence and give me the courage to stand up and be counted and, in so doing, please use me to be an effective witness for Jesus Christ. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

Note: For helps to stand up and be counted and be an effective witness for Jesus Christ, please join with us as a People Power for Jesus Partner. See https://learning.actsweb.org/people_power_invite.php.

1. 2 Timothy 4:1-3 (NIV).

2. http://www.hiswayministries.org/fdsilence.htm. Be sure to read this entire challenging message.

Reveille

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“O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?”1

Prior to his death, Winston Churchill planned his funeral and requested that at his funeral a bugler, positioned high in the dome of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, play “Taps,” the signal that the day is over. However, as soon as “Taps” was finished, a second bugler positioned on the opposite side of the dome was to play “Reveille,” signaling that a new day is beginning and that “It’s time to get up! It’s time to get up in the morning!”

Churchill had it right. Death is not the end of life. It’s just the end of life on earth, for the human spirit is immortal. For the non-Christian death is eternal disconnection or separation from God, the author of all life and love. For the Christian, death is but the end of their “day” on earth and the beginning of a new day—the entrance into eternal life in heaven to be “forever with the Lord.”

What a wonderful hope to have. If you are not absolutely certain that you have this hope of life beyond the grave, I encourage you to read the article, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian” at: http://tinyurl.com/real-christian. Herein you will find how you, too, can have hope and the promise of life beyond death.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me to prepare today for eternity’s tomorrow, and help me always to remember that: ‘Only one life, ’twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.’ Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 1 Corinthians 15:55.

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The Power of Hope

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“According to your faith will it be done to you.”1

“A few years ago John Hopkins University did an experiment with mice. The mice in the first group were held tightly in the experimenters’ hands so that they could not move. The mice struggled but were immobilized without being injured. Then after a set period of time, they were placed in a tub of water. They immediately sank, having learned that fighting was hopeless.

“The mice in a second group were held in the lab technicians’ hands less tightly. The creatures were given some hope of escaping the grip of the lab technician but without being actually free. After the same length of time, they were also dropped into a tub of water. These mice immediately swam to safety.”2

Life for all of us is filled with struggles and challenges. If, when faced with seemingly overwhelming challenges, we believe that we are unable to cope and thus without hope—we will be overcome. If, on the other hand, when faced with the same challenges, we believe that with endurance, stick-ability, and God’s help—and thus have hope—we will overcome.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that when I put my trust in you, no matter what curves life might throw at me, I have hope. And that, with your help, I will overcome and, as a result, be a better, healthier, wiser, and stronger person. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Matthew 9:29 (NIV).

2. Maxine Dunham, Perceptions: Observations on Everyday Life. Cited in Encounter magazine (ACTS Australia), Oct/Nov, 2005, p. 19.

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The Rise and Fall of Democracies-a Reminder

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“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”1

Richard Halverson, former Chaplain of the Senate, in one of his bi-weekly devotional letters shared a quote from a book written by Alexander Fraser Tyler, who lived from 1748 to 1813, the book was titled:

The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic.

Tyler wrote the following about democracy long before our own had been tested.

He said: “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on the majority always vote for the candidates promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury, with a result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy and is followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to selfishness;
From selfishness to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependency;
From dependency back into bondage.

Truly, the love of money (not the actual money but the love for and of it) is a root of all kinds of evil!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me not to get caught up in the ‘lust’ for money or material possessions. And help me to remember that the price of freedom is still eternal vigilance. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 1 Timothy 6:10 (NIV).

An Amazing Message for today by Paul Harvey. Do you remember the famous ABC radio commentator, Paul Harvey? Millions of Americans listened to his programs which were broadcast over 1,200 radio stations nationwide. When you listen to this message, remember, the commentary was broadcast 47 years ago on April 3, 1965. It’s short … less than three minutes. Be sure to listen to it. You’ll be amazed!

It’s at: http://stg.do/9LDc

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The Rise and Fall of the West

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King “Hezekiah trusted in the Lord … He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook.”1

According to an article in Restore magazine, Edward Gibbon in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire said that there were five major attributes that marked the closing days of the great Roman Empire. 1. There was an increasing love of show and luxury; that is, affluence. 2. There was a widening gap between the very rich and the very poor. 3. There was an obsession with s-e-x. 4. There was freakishness in the arts masquerading as originality and creativity. 5. There was an increased desire to live off the state.

The application for today is obvious. Without a doubt our nation needs God. Many well-informed people believe Western civilization is in an accelerating moral decline, which, if it continues, will eventually weaken and cause us to fall.

At the time of King Hezekiah ancient Israel had collapsed morally and spiritually, had turned from God, and had become weak and powerless. The nation was divided and Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had been taken into captivity. King Hezekiah was king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah and because he led his nation back to God, God delivered them from destruction in an amazing way. In one night the angel of the Lord put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men of the Assyrian army who were poised to attack and destroy Jerusalem.2

Where do we begin to turn our nation back to God? We do so one person at a time. We do this in our heart, our manner of life, our dedication to genuine worship of God, in serving God by helping others, in our giving, in prayer, and in our witness for Christ.

As it is Federal Election Day in the USA tomorrow, we urge every U.S. citizen-reader of Daily Encounter to accept their responsibility and to vote. Be certain that you know all you need to know about the ones you vote for and do so based on their past performance, not on what they say they are going to do; to vote for men/women of character; and to pray earnestly for God’s guidance at such a critical time in the ever-increasing anti-God and anti-Christian mind-set, and the ever-increasing moral decline here in the U.S.A.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, I’m available. Please begin your work in me; make me usable; and use me to be ‘as Jesus’ in some way to every life I touch every day. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 2 Kings 18:5-7 (NIV).

2. 2 Kings 19:35.

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