Throughout the entire Bible whenever God had a job to do he called a person—usually just one person. When he wanted to form a nation, the nation of Israel to be his own people, he chose and called Abraham. When he wanted to deliver the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, he chose and called Moses. When he wanted a leader to take the children of Israel into the Promised Land, he chose and called Joshua. When he needed an earthly mother for the Christ child, he chose and called Mary.

From Genesis to Revelation, God’s methods are people—calling one at a time. You, too, can be one that God uses. As the unknown poet wrote:

One song can spark a moment,

One flower can wake the dream.

One tree can start a forest,

One bird can herald spring.

One smile begins a friendship,

One handclasp lifts a soul.

One star can guide a ship at sea,

One word can frame the goal.

One vote can change a nation,

One sunbeam lights a room.

One candle wipes out darkness,

One laugh will conquer gloom.

One step must start each journey,

One word must start each prayer.

One hope will raise our spirits,

One touch can show you care.

One voice can speak with wisdom,

One heart can know what’s true.

One life can make the difference,

You see it’s up to YOU!

As Edward Everett Hale said, “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something I can do.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you use individual people through whom you do your work on earth. I am available. Please use me to be one person to make a difference in the world in which I live—for time and eternity. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Hebrews 11: 32-34 (NIV).

Vance Havner used to say that, “Worry, like sitting in a rocking chair, will keep you busy but won’t get you anywhere.”

This reminds me of the “famous story of Jean Henri Fabre, the French naturalist, and his processional caterpillars. He encountered some of these interesting creatures one day while walking in the woods. They were marching in a long unbroken line front to back, front to back. What fun it would be, Fabre thought, to make a complete ring with these worms and let them march in a circle.

“So, Fabre captured enough caterpillars to encircle the rim of a flowerpot. He linked them nose to posterior and started them walking in the closed circle. For days they turned like a perpetual merry-go-round. Although food was near at hand and accessible, the caterpillars starved to death on an endless march to nowhere.”²

There are lots of people like this. They worry themselves sick over unfounded fears which all but paralyze them, not realizing that 95 percent of things they fear never happen, and the other five percent probably won’t happen either.

Many men, when they arrive at middle age, experience a mid-life crisis with a sense of despair, feeling that they haven’t accomplished anything worthwhile with their life to date, and feel that they have nothing better to look forward to in the future.

Other people wander aimlessly through life without a purpose and without any meaningful and worthwhile goals. Even more tragic are the millions who go through life without ever having made plans and preparation for life after death.

Similar to the processional caterpillars, these people not only spend their life going in circles, but go in ever decreasing circles until their life diminishes into nothing. A terrible way to live. A tragic way to die.

But for those who discover their God-given life-purpose and plan and live accordingly as well as living in harmony with the will of God, when they come to the end of life’s journey, they have the assurance of meeting God face to face and hearing his welcoming words at the entrance of heaven. “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.” A joyous way to live. A triumphant way to die!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you do have a divine purpose for my life. Please help me to discover what it is and, with your help, start working on it today. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV).

2. From King Duncan www.sermons.com.

“David Levenson has written a book titled, The Seasons of a Man’s Life. In examination of the factors that contribute to the development, growth, and success of people, he discovered three primary factors that seem to be essential to success. The first is a great vision; a driving dream that moves and motivates you to do something with your life. Those who give themselves to the fulfillment of something worthwhile experience a great sense of accomplishment.

“The second thing common to the successful people he studied was that they had each found a teacher who could instruct and help them along the way. Not only do we need a vision, we need some folks who have had visions before us, who can walk beside us and point the way.

“There was another commonality among these successful people. They each had a deeply personal and significant relationship with at least one other person, someone who would support them in accomplishing their dreams. These were the folks who would walk with them through the difficult times, even when it seemed as though the dream would never come true. In short, they had a friend.”²

We don’t have to be famous to be successful … all we need is a vision, a good teacher, and a faithful, supporting friend. To this I would add that our vision needs to be in harmony with and a vital part of our God-given life purpose.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to know what my God-given life purpose is and a realistic goal to work towards fulfilling that purpose. Give me a clear vision of what you want me to be and do, a good teacher to show me how to do it, and at least one trusted and faithful friend to support and encourage me. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

Note: For further help read, “You, too, Can Be a Winner” at: http://tinyurl.com/true-winner.

1. Proverbs 29:18 (KJV).

2. Cited on www.sermons.com.

You’ve undoubtedly read about Swiss watchmakers who, for many years, dominated the world market for watchmaking.

“The Swiss made the best watches in the world and were committed to constant refinement of their expertise. It was the Swiss who came forward with the minute hand and the second hand. They led the world in discovering better ways to manufacture the gears, bearings, and mainsprings of watches. They even led the way in waterproofing techniques and self-winding models. By 1968, the Swiss made 65 percent of all watches sold in the world and laid claim to as much as 90 percent of the profits.

“By 1980, however, they had laid off thousands of watch-makers and controlled less than 10 percent of the world market. Their profit domination dropped to less than 20 percent. Between 1979 and 1981, fifty thousand of the sixty-two thousand Swiss watchmakers lost their jobs. Why? The Swiss had refused to consider a new development”³—the development of the digital watch.

Some time ago I wrote a Daily Encounter with the title, “If the Horse is Dead, Dismount.” Some readers felt that I was suggesting that we change much of what we were doing in the church for change’s sake. I was not suggesting this at all. What I was saying was we needed to make changes in our methodology where what we were doing was no longer effective. The Swiss were right in that watches were still needed. Their mistake was that they weren’t open to adding a new method for watchmaking.

Years ago when I was a director of a youth organization and started changing our method of reaching teens with the gospel, I was told that my methods weren’t acceptable. I was given an ultimatum—either I stayed with the “accepted ways” of doing things or get out. I chose the latter. And that’s how and why ACTS International was founded. (To be perfectly honest I would never have had the courage to start my own organization had I not been “pushed out” of the one I was with.) For the next three decades I majored in publishing outreach literature which has been distributed to more than 40 million people around the world—and is still being distributed by our offices in Australia and, until recently, in New Zealand.

However, here in North America, with the revolution of electronic communications via E-mail and the Internet, had I not been willing to change my methodology once again, my work here would be dead. I haven’t changed the message—just changed the way of communicating it.

Let us learn a lesson from the Swiss watchmakers. If we need to change our methods to be more effective in what we are doing, let’s be willing to make and implement the necessary changes.

At the opposite end of the scale, where even some churches and Christians are making changes just to be politically correct and are thus accepting behaviors that are drastically opposed to what the Word of God teaches—let us, as the Apostle Paul advised, stand firm in the faith and in harmony with the Word of God regardless of what the secular world thinks or the media promotes.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, give me a love for and an understanding of what your Word teaches. Help me to discard that which is out of harmony with what you say, and always stand firm in my faith and hold fast to that which is good—regardless of the pressure to be politically correct. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (NIV).
2. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (KJV).
3. Quoted by Brett Blair. http://www.esermons.com/.

It’s rather depressing how the news media thrives on presenting negative news because that’s what sells—or at least that’s what we’re led to believe. But as Michael Josephson suggested in an issue of Character Counts, “let’s stop thinking about the handful of ex-college coaches who were fired for dishonorable conduct and the one sportsman who belittled his profession and destroyed his own good name (and possibly his promising career) through illicit sexual behavior—and remind ourselves of the noble side of sports.

“When leader Lance Armstrong’s bike went down [in a Tour de France grueling bicycle race] after a collision with a spectator, his closest challenger Jan Ullrich and other lead cyclists slowed to wait for him to get back into the race. They were honoring an unwritten code of honor. According to Diane Pucin in the L.A. Times, Ullrich said, ‘If I would have won this race by taking advantage of someone’s bad luck, then the race was not worth winning.’ Apparently, the world’s best cyclists understand the difference between being declared the winner and really winning.”²

That’s what I call admirable and is wonderful to see. I surely wish that our news media would major on this type of stories and help inspire our youth to more noble deeds of honor, valor and kindness, and thereby help make the world of today a much better place in which to live.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to work, compete in sports or games, and live with honor and thereby maintain a high level of self-respect and bring glory to your name. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Romans 12:9-11 (NIV).

2. Michael Josephson, “Honorable Men and Honorable Competition” 315:4 Character Counts, www.charactercounts.org.

I recently read how “an ethics professor at Princeton Seminary asked for volunteers for an extra assignment. About half the class met him at the library to receive their assignments. The professor divided the students into three groups of five each.

“He gave the first group envelopes telling them to proceed immediately across campus to Stewart Hall. He told them that they had 15 minutes and if they didn’t arrive on time, it would affect their grade. A minute or two later, he handed out envelopes to five others. They were also to go over to Stewart Hall, but they had 45 minutes. The third group had three hours to get to Stewart Hall.

“The students weren’t aware of it, but the professor had arranged for three drama students to meet them along the way. Close to the beginning of their walk, one of the drama students had his hands on his head and was moaning aloud as if in great pain. About half way to Stewart Hall, on the steps of the chapel, the seminary students passed a man who was lying face down as if unconscious. Finally, on the steps of Stewart Hall, the third drama student was acting out a seizure.

“In the first group of students, those who had only 15 minutes to get across campus, no one stopped to help. In the second group, two students stopped to help. In the last group, the one that had three hours for their assignment, all of the students stopped to help at least one person. The professor had clearly shown these seminarians that hurry hinders ministry.”²

Even when I was a student in college I had a quote taped to my desk which read, “Beware of the barrenness of a busy life.” Of this I constantly need to remind myself as battling busyness for me is a constant challenge.

As another has said, “Come apart and rest awhile before you come apart.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to find a way to cut back on my over-busyness so I have more quality time with my family and am available in times of emergency (regardless of how busy I happen to be) to help another who needs a helping hand. Please help me to become more and more like Jesus in every way. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Jesus to his disciples in Mark 6:31 (NIV).

I recall vividly what a good friend said about her church after she had been away for almost a year because of ill health. She was older so I could understand why she reacted the way she did regarding the new-style music in her church. She was very upset and said that the new group “just couldn’t quite make it in Las Vegas.” Unfortunately my friend died soon after from cancer. But the conflict regarding music in the church hasn’t quite died—yet!

Today, however, I’m not talking about church music. What I am addressing is the need to change when change is necessary. According to Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Community church and author of the book, The Purpose Driven Church, the reason that 95% of all churches in the world never grow past 300 members is because their structure keeps them from growing beyond that point. Quoting today’s scripture, he said, “When a thing grows weak and out of date, it is obviously soon going to disappear. That’s true of churches, too. If a church cannot change, it will eventually die.”

This same principle applies to many areas of life. No, we don’t want to make changes where change is not to our advantage, but there are times when we do need to make changes. When it comes to communicating the gospel, while the message itself never changes, our way and means of communicating it have to change in order to communicate effectively to the particular group we are addressing. One size doesn’t fit all!

Also, whether we approve or disapprove, many things around us change and if we don’t adapt, we get left behind. For instance, marriage partner roles have changed drastically from the days of our parents and grandparents. If a husband still interprets being the head of the home as being the family dictator, he will be doomed for failure (at least here in America and other parts of the world as well). Those old ways (which, by the way, were a misinterpretation of the Bible), have “gone with the wind.”

A few years back, Moody Monthly, the highly respected Christian magazine, discontinued its publication after its 103-year history. Why? Because of the economy, the proliferation of Christian magazines, and because of technology. Moody Monthly, like so many other ministries, has had to turn from printed hard copy to electronic means of communication, not only to become more effective in their ministry, but also to survive.

So whether it is in our professional or personal life, let’s be open to and willing to change where change is both essential and necessary.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, in these days of rapid change, please give me the courage to change the things I need to change, the insight to know the things I must not change, and the wisdom to know the difference. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Hebrews 8:13 (Phillips paraphrase)(NIV).

In continuing our two-part series on handling stress remember also what René Dubos said, “What happens in the mind of man is always reflected in the disease of his body.”

The first four steps for turning stress into success are: (1) Realize that some stress is helpful; (2) Be aware that stress is only troublesome when it continues for too long or if there is too much of it; (3) Recognize symptoms as early as possible; and (4) Identify causes. The fifth step in turning stress into success is: Seek a practical cure.

1. The starting point to turn stress into success is to lessen your load. Eighty percent of the cure can come out of writing down all your cares and responsibilities in order of priority, then eliminating the least important.

2. Remember that Superman and Superwoman exist only in comics and films. Everybody has a breaking point, so recognize yours and call a halt before you reach your limit.

3. With stress comes pent-up feelings. Get them “off your chest” by sharing them with a trusted friend or counselor. This of itself can bring immediate relief and helps you to think and plan more objectively.

4. Stop fighting situations that can’t be changed. As one father told his impatient teenager, “If you would only realize and accept the fact that life is a struggle, things would be so much easier for you.” Learning to live with and get on top of struggles is what helps us grow and mature.

5. Try to avoid making too many major life changes during the course of a single year.

6. If you hold resentment towards another person, resolve your differences right away. Never “let the sun go down while you are still angry.”²

7. Make time for rest and relaxation. Learn to “come apart and rest a while before you come apart.”

8. Watch your diet and eating habits. When under stress we tend to overeat—especially junk food which increases stress. A balanced diet of proteins, vitamins, and fiber while also eliminating white sugar, caffeine, too much fat, alcohol and nicotine is essential for lowering stress and its effects.

9. Be sure to get plenty of physical exercise. This keeps you healthier and helps burn up excess adrenaline caused by stress and its accompanying anxiety.

10. The ultimate answer to turning stress into success is to learn to trust God and live in harmony with his will for your daily life. Read again the words in today’s Bible verse above.

God’s peace comes through accepting and trusting to God those circumstances that can’t be changed, however difficult they may be. Perhaps this is what Christ meant when he spoke of taking up our cross daily and following him. Certainly he fully accepted his cross and trusted his situation to God and thereby was totally vindicated.

And so with us. If we take responsibility to do what we can to lessen our stress load and then, like Christ, take up our cross and daily commit and trust our life and way to God, we too will turn our stress into success, knowing that, in the words of the poet:

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please ‘give me the courage to change the things I can change, the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.’ And again, help me to trust my life to you in every situation in which I find myself. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT).
2. Ephesians 4:26 (NIV).
3. Author Unknown

A “friend” invoices you for considerably more than his original quote. A family member takes seriously ill and is in the hospital for months. Responsibilities and expenses soar. The result? Stress!

I know because these things all happened to me in the course of a single year. Stress is a normal part of contemporary living. Ignore it and it will take years off your life. As Francis Ford Coppola said in The Godfather movie, “When the mind is stressed, the body cries out.” However, if we deal with our stress creatively, we can turn our stress into success. How can we do this?

First. Realize that some stress is helpful. It provides motivation. For instance, if it weren’t for the stress of needing to eat and having to pay our bills, we may not want to go to work.

Second. Be aware that stress is only troublesome when it continues for too long or if there is too much of it.

I read about a ten-ton bridge that had been serving a community very well for over fifty years. During the course of those years it had carried millions of tons of weight. But one day the driver of a logging truck ignored the ten-ton load limit sign. The bridge collapsed. Life’s like that. All of us can carry our “load limit” day after day, year after year, but only one load at a time. Overload us and we collapse too.

Many readers will be familiar with the research Thomas Holmes has done on stress. He found that too much change at one time was the greatest cause of stress. An accumulation of 300 or more “life changing units” in any one year may mean an overload of more stress than an individual can carry. On his scale, death of a spouse equals 100 units, divorce 73, marital separation 65, marriage 50, and so on. (See the link to a “Personal Stress Test” at end.)

Third. The next step in turning stress into success is to recognize symptoms as early as possible.

Writing in Eternity magazine some time ago Fred Stansberry talks about “stress-related diseases such as cancer, arthritis, heart and respiratory diseases, migraines, allergies and a host of other psychological and physiological dysfunctions which are increasing at an alarming rate in our Western culture.”

Other symptoms of stress have been listed as, “tense muscles, sore neck, shoulders and back, insomnia, fatigue, boredom, depression, listlessness, dullness, lack of interest, drinking too much, eating too much or too little, diarrhea, cramps, flatulence, constipation, palpitations—heart skip, phobias, twitches, restlessness and itching.”

Fourth. Identify causes. As already mentioned change is one of the chief causes of stress. An accumulation of life’s everyday annoyances can also build up a significant stress level—perhaps even more than one single traumatic event. As the old saying puts it: “It’s the little things that bother us / and put us on the rack / you can sit upon a mountain / but you can’t sit on a tack.”

Whatever the cause of your stress is, be sure to identify it so you will be in a position to do something about it.

(To be continued)

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me the wisdom to know what I can do about my stressful situations, and the good sense to do it. And help me to trust my life to you in every situation in which I find myself. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

NOTE: See “A Personal Stress Test” at: https://learning.actsweb.org/stress_test.php.

1. Proverbs 14:30 (AMP).