“The message flickered into C.F’s living room each night: ‘Be faithful in how you live and how you give, the television preachers said, and God will shower you with material riches.’”²

And so the TV listener pledged $500 a year to one TV evangelist and wrote checks to a flamboyant faith healer, and another to a local preacher-made-good. Only the promised blessings didn’t come. C.F. ended up having to borrow money to buy food. The explanation given on TV implied that she didn’t have enough faith. Now she is understandably disillusioned with all TV ministries. Undoubtedly, unlimited numbers have suffered the same fate.

As Michael Palmer, dean of the divinity school at Regent University, founded by Pat Robertson, said, “More and more people are desperate and grasping at straws and want something that will alleviate their pain or financial crisis.”³

Sadly, there is no shortage of TV preachers who, primarily for their own gain, are ready to offer these people false promises under the guise of it being a part of the Christian gospel.

One teacher I know fittingly calls the “Name it and claim it gospel” the “blab it and grab it gospel”—which of course, is NOT the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When God promised the ancient Israelites prosperity and good success,⁴ he was stating that if the entire nation—as a whole—lived in harmony with God’s will and obeyed his commandments, then they would be prosperous and have good success. This was a message to the nation—not to individuals. Furthermore, prosperity and success according to God can be totally different to what man thinks prosperity and good success is; which to many, at least here in the U.S. and other Western nations, means material prosperity. Sadly, many of these people may very well be spiritual and emotional paupers.

Furthermore, do these “prosperity gospel” preachers take their message to the starving masses in India and South Africa and to other extremely needy parts of the world? I don’t think so.

Don’t misunderstand me; I am not implying that we have to be poor to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. For those of us who live in developed countries we have the opportunity to work hard and be financially prosperous which is wonderful. However, the important issue is: what is our motive for making money and for what purpose are we using it? It does take money to get God’s work on earth done—not for TV evangelists to own private jets. Giving is very important. It is one of the major resources for doing God’s work on earth—to help the poor, to aid the suffering, and to proclaim the true gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world.

However, in our giving, let us pray for guidance and give to churches and organizations who are truly committed to doing God’s work on earth, and not to those who are seeking to build up their own empire and/or ego by offering an easy-believeism, feel-good, non-committed, name it and claim it false prosperity gospel.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me the desire to know what your Word teaches, the wisdom to live by it, the discernment to identify all false teachings, and the courage to stand up for truth. And please give me a grateful heart for all your blessings, and a generous spirit to support your work on earth. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. John 16:33 (NIV).
2. Eric Gorski, religion writer for the Denver Post.
3. Ibid.
4. See Joshua 1:6-9 (NIV).

“A peach tree stands in our back yard,” wrote K. Marshall Strom. “Unpruned, the tree grew big and leafy. It was loaded with peaches, although the fruit was disappointingly small and tasteless.

“The year my husband, Larry, was out of work, he went to work on the tree. When I came home from school one day and saw how far back he had pruned it, I stared in shock. ‘You’ve killed it,’ I cried. ‘Now we won’t have any peaches at all.’

“I was wrong. That spring the pruned branches burst forth with a beautiful blanketing of pink blossoms. Some little green peaches replaced the blossoms. ‘Leave them alone,’ I begged. Larry ignored me and thinned the fruit.

“By the end of summer the branches were so heavily laden with fruit they had to be propped up. And the peaches—how large, sweet and juicy they were! There was no denying it: the tree was far better off from the painful cutting it endured.”²

I like to constantly emphasize that God’s goal is not to make us good but to make us whole. The result will be that genuine goodness will be the outcome of being made whole. But to be made whole usually takes a lot of “pruning” (discipline) by God. Speaking personally, the only time I ever take a look at myself and break through some defense I have been using to hide some sin or fault, is when I am hurting bad enough. I mean, who wants to change when everything is going great. Not me! I may not like the “pruning” process but I certainly appreciate the result … fruit!

So, if you are going through a rough time right now, ask God to help you see if there is some lesson he is teaching you, some issue he is wanting you to deal with, or some change he sees you need to make.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that your goal is to make me whole. Please help me to accept and submit to your pruning and discipline and, because of them, please make me a better, more whole person. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Hebrews 12:11 (NIV).
2. Cited on KneEmail, http://www.oakhillcoc.org

When my sons were born, we wanted to give them meaningful names. My oldest son’s name is Brent, which means “upright.” My youngest son’s name is Mark which means “noble warrior.” Their middle names are also meaningful. When Mark was studying overseas, he struggled because he is bi-polar. At the time I told him that he was very courageous in what he was doing and reminded him that his name means “noble warrior” and that his middle name, Shaun (Irish for John), means “sent from God.” I also told him that I believed in him.

One tragedy is when a parent repeatedly calls his/her child a negative name such as “stupid” or “clumsy.” Chances are, the child will grow up to believe that this is true, act accordingly, and also have a very poor self-image. Calling anyone a bad name is very destructive. The exact opposite is true when parents call their children positive and affirming names.

In days of yesteryear, a person’s name had much to do with what he/she did. John Baker, for example, would have been a baker. Fred Shumaker, a shoemaker, and so on.

The greatest name of all was Jesus. His name means Savior. He was given this name by God, showing to all who hear or use his name who he is. As another has said, his name “teaches us the purpose of his incarnation. It is his human name reminding us that he who is God also became man. Peter made much of this name in the healing of the crippled beggar, and declared that there is no other name sufficient for our salvation.”

Speaking about Jesus, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “His name is not so much written but plowed into the history of the world.”

For those of us who have invited Jesus into our heart and life as personal Savior and Lord, it is of great comfort to know that he has written our name in his Book of Life. It will be interesting to know what meaning he has given to it. I believe it will describe who he wants us to be and what he wants us to do. Whatever it is, may he help us to discern that and live up to it!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for giving your Son, Jesus, to be the Savior of the world. Because I have accepted him as my Savior, I thank you that you have my name written in your book of life. Help me to discern what meaning you have given to my name and with your help, live up to it for your glory. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife, enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.

The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.

When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter.

“This is your house,” he said, “my gift to you.”

What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.

So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built. If we had realized it, we would have done it differently.

Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely. It’s the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity. The plaque on the wall says, “Life is a do-it-yourself project.”

Who could say it more clearly? Your life today is the result of your attitudes and choices in the past. Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.²

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to live with eternity’s values in view and to build a life that will not only be rewarding for me but, more importantly, bring glory to you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

1. Colossians 3:23 (NASB).
2. Author Unknown.

For today’s Daily Encounter I would like to use the Prayer of St. Francis both for the devotional and the 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.”

“Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

1. James 3:18 (NIV).

Vern Treat tells about a scuba diver who said that when you’re in deep water, you’re encircled by light, so there’s no way you can tell which way is up because the water diffuses the light. You’re also totally weightless, so you have no sense of gravity. The only way you can tell which way to get out of the water is to go the direction the bubbles are going.

Surrounded in an aura of light and weightless, it’s very easy to lose all sense of direction and get disoriented. You may sense that this way is up and that your air bubbles are going sideways. You may be so convinced that your perception is true that you decide to ignore your bubbles and go the way you think is up.

One of the first things we were told when learning to scuba-dive, Trent said, was to always trust your bubbles—to always follow your bubbles. No matter how you feel, no matter what you think, your bubbles are always right.

Life can be like that at times too. If we base the rules of life on our feelings, perception or what we think, we can be very easily led astray. The philosophy, “If it feels good it must be right,” is a dangerous guide to follow because our feelings can play all sorts of tricks on us. If something is wrong, it is wrong regardless of how we feel or what we think. True, it’s important that we don’t deny or repress our feelings, because we can learn to trust them; but what we can’t always trust is our interpretation of them.

The only safe guide to follow when it comes to the rules of life is to trust God and his Word, the Bible. Therein lie the “bubbles of life” to follow. These “bubbles” are always right. Always!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for your Word, the Bible, and for giving us principles for healthy living and loving. Give me a love for your Word and the desire to hide it in my heart so I won’t sin against you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

1. Psalm 119:11 (NIV).

When Nehemiah and the Israelites had almost completed rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem several centuries BC, enemies were strongly opposed to their progress and sought through trickery to deceive Nehemiah and get rid of him. They tried to lure him away from his work and invited him to meet with them in the Plain of Ono.

But Nehemiah’s reply was, “O no!” He knew their stories were fabricated and that they were lying. Just as well he did, otherwise he would have been destroyed and God’s work frustrated. Nehemiah stuck to the job God commissioned him to do until the work was finished and the walls rebuilt. He didn’t allow himself to be sidetracked.Whenever we get involved in God’s work, there is always opposition. The enemy attacks at every opportunity and usually at our most vulnerable places. He is a master of deceit and we, like Nehemiah, need to be aware of his devices.

More often than not, he comes as an angel of light—seemingly as a teacher and promoter of truth. But many a sincere Christian has been deceived and led astray by these often authoritative-sounding, silver-tongued orators, and deceptive leaders who claim to be coming in the name of the Lord.”Be careful,” Jesus said to them [his disciples]. “Be on your guard against the yeast [false teaching] of the Pharisees and Sadducees [the religious leaders of Jesus' day].”²

At the risk of being over-repetitious, when in doubt, always pray for God to reveal to you the truth. And the more connected we are with our own inner truth—that is, the more honest we are with our own self—the easier and quicker we will “smell” (sense and discern) the false teachings of those who are not for real.

So, be on your guard and watch out for phony people with phony solutions.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to be a man or woman of truth so I will always have the insight to discern all false teaching and never be led astray from the true teachings of your Word no matter how eloquent or persuasive the teachers may be. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Nehemiah 6:2 (NIV).
2. Matthew 16:6 (NIV).

After the days of Moses when the armies of Israel, led by Joshua, were conquering the Promised Land marked out for them by God, the surrounding kings and nations were understandably terrified. This was because God was with the Israelites giving them great victories wherever they went.

However, the men of Gibeon, a nearby country, resorted to trickery and outsmarted Joshua. They sent a delegation to Joshua with the appearance of having come from a distant land so they could deceive Joshua into making a treaty with them. Their donkeys carried worn-out sacks and old wineskins that were cracked and had been mended. They wore old clothes, and worn and patched sandals, and the bread they carried with them was dry and moldy.

Their ruse worked. Joshua signed a treaty with them and only afterwards discovered they were a neighboring people among those countries God had told Joshua to destroy because of their wickedness. They had to live with the consequences as a result.

Joshua’s mistake was that he made this treaty without praying and inquiring of the Lord! An extremely valuable lesson for all of us to learn!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for including this story in your Word, the Bible, as a graphic reminder for me to seek your guidance and direction for every aspect of my life, so that I will continuously live in harmony with your perfect will. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Joshua 9:14 (NIV).

First, to be an effective witness for Christ we need to be real. On one occasion when I was still living and working in my homeland and returned from being overseas, I met a new member, Lynne G., who had been added to our Australian staff while I was away. When Lynne was offered a job with ACTS, her husband, Terry, told her that it would be OK but not to get involved with a bunch of religious nuts! That’s what he thought about us Christians.

Soon after, Lynne overheard me telling a pushy salesperson where to get off. I had no idea she could hear me, but when she got home that night, she said to Terry, “You’ll never believe my new boss. He said, ‘such-and-such.’ He’s real.” And that was the turning point of their life and began their journey to a committed Christian life. That was over three decades ago. Today, Lynne and Terry are both on the ACTS staff. Terry is the Australian director and Lynne is in charge of all the print publications for the Australian office.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you tell people where to get off as a way of witnessing, but what I am saying is that to be an effective witness for Christ it is important that people see us as real persons and not just as phony saccharine-sweet-do-gooders!

Second, be available. When I told God I was quitting witnessing because I was too afraid, but was available for him to use to share the gospel, little did I know what lay ahead. I prayed that prayer at least 25 years ago. My work in ACTS has never grown to the point that we have a large organization. We are still only very small (in fact, Joy, my wife, and I are now the only full-time workers in our U.S. office). But God has used our work to share the gospel with millions of people around the world.

We have seen over 40 million pieces of our printed gospel literature distributed, reached multiplied thousands with our radio spots that we ran throughout Australia for a number of years, shared with many more thousands through our Australian monthly magazine, and now are reaching many thousands more every day around the world via email and the Internet. In fact, this Daily Encounter will go to 162,000 worldwide subscribers today. Thousands more will be reached today via Weekend Encounter and our many Internet pages.

If you tell God that you are available for him to use and genuinely make a commitment to do this, he will use you too.

Third, use the gifts God has given you. For instance, it is important to realize that out of the twelve disciples personally handpicked by Jesus to launch the taking of the gospel to the world, only one clearly had the gift of personal evangelism. No it wasn’t Peter. He had the gift of mass evangelism. It was Andrew who, whenever we read about him, in his own quiet way was bringing someone to Jesus: Peter; the boy with the loaves and fishes; and the Greek enquirers.

God wants to use your gifting, too. Know what your gifts are, develop them, and offer them back to God for his use in his work here on earth. And every day remember to pray the following prayer:

NOTE: To make it extremely easy to witness for Christ, we have printed very attractive and appealing Good News business witness cards. See samples online at http://actscom.com/witness_cards.php.

Try them. You’ll like them. I gave one to my barber, he looked at it, read it, and said, “My grown daughter really needs this,” and thanked me for it. I’ve given scores away and have never had anyone not accept it.

Today’s message is also adapted from the book, I Hate Witnessing (A Handbook for Effective Christian Communications) by yours truly. See http://tinyurl.com/33kfbk to obtain a copy.

I happen to be an Australian living in America. When I first came here, I had a very heavy Australian accent. I was even told that I spoke wonderful English for a foreigner. These days I like to kid and say that I now speak “HARF and HAFF.” However, even after many years my speech (accent) still betrays me. I simply cannot hide the fact that I am from Australia.

Now I don’t choose to be nor do I necessarily want to be, but wherever I go, because I am an Australian, I am automatically being a witness for my homeland. That’s just the way it is. If I happen to be what is called an okker Australian; that is a loud-mouthed, braggadocio, obnoxious Australian, people won’t like me. And, if I’m the only Australian they’ve ever met, in all probability they will project their negative feelings towards me onto all other Australians and not like them either. Thats the way it hapens.

On the other hand, if I’m the only Australian some Americans know and when they meet me and get to know me, they like me, chances are that they will also project their feelings of warmth onto all other Australians and like them too!

It’s the same with Christians. As a child of God and a citizen of Heaven I am automatically being a witness for Christ everywhere I go and in everything that I do. No matter how eloquent and articulate I may happen to be in sharing my faith, if people perceive me to be an okker Christian, I will do more to turn them away from Christ rather than draw them to him. On the other hand, I may be a very poor communicator, but if people sense the love of God flowing through me, they will automatically be drawn to the Savior. This is what I believe Jesus was saying when he said we would BE his witnesses.

Imagine if every Christian genuinely wanted God to use them every day to be an effective witness for him, and asked God to help him/her to be as Christ to every life they touched, what an impact we would make on our society and on our world!

I’m reminded of what St Francis of Assisi said: “Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.”

NOTE: To make it extremely easy to witness for Christ, we have printed very attractive and appealing Good News business witness cards. See samples online at http://actscom.com/witness_cards.php.

Try them. You’ll like them. I gave one to my barber, he looked at it, read it, and said, “My grown daughter really needs this,” and thanked me for it. I’ve given scores away and have never had anyone not accept it.

Today’s message is also adapted from the book, I Hate Witnessing (A Handbook for Effective Christian Communications) by yours truly. See http://tinyurl.com/33kfbk to obtain a copy.