fbpx
Large Print

Heart Healthy

By |2024-09-29T02:33:16-04:00September 29th, 2024|

The human heart is an amazing organ. This fist-sized pumping station weighs between 7 and 15 ounces. Daily it beats around 100,000 times and pumps 2,000 gallons of blood through the 60,000 miles of blood vessels in our bodies! With such a strategic assignment and heavy workload, it’s understandable why heart health is central to the wellbeing of the entire body. Medical science encourages us to pursue healthy habits because the condition of our heart and the quality of our health go together.

While medical science speaks authoritatively about our physical hearts, God speaks with even greater authority about a “heart” of another kind. He addresses the mental, emotional, spiritual, and moral “center” of our being. Because the heart is the central processing unit of life, it must be protected: “Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). Safeguarding our hearts will help us with our speech (v. 24), compel us to be discerning with our eyes (v. 25), and choose the best paths for our feet (v. 27). Regardless of age or stage of life, when our hearts are guarded, our lives are preserved, our relationships are protected, and God is honored.

Read More

Grace Now

By |2024-09-05T02:33:28-04:00September 5th, 2024|

We hurried to a fast-food restaurant to have lunch together on my friend Jerrie’s short work break. Arriving at the door about the same time, six young men got inside just in front of us. Knowing we didn’t have much time to spare, we grumbled inwardly. They stood as a group at both registers to be sure each of them could order first. Then I heard Jerrie whisper to herself, “Show grace now.” Wow! Sure, letting us go first would have been nice, but what a great reminder to think of others’ needs and desires and not only my own.

The Bible teaches that love is patient, kind, and unselfish; it’s “not easily angered” (1 Corinthians 13:5). “It often . . . prefers [others’] welfare, and satisfaction, and advantage, to its own,” wrote commentator Matthew Henry of this love. God’s kind of love thinks of others first.

In a world where many of us are easily irritated, we frequently have occasion to ask God for help and the grace to choose to be patient with others and to be kind (v. 4). Proverbs 19:11 adds, “A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.”

That’s the love that brings honor to God, and He might even use it to bring others thoughts of His love for them.

With God's strength, let’s take every opportunity to show grace now.

Read More

Search My Heart, God

By |2024-07-10T02:33:11-04:00July 10th, 2024|

To reduce food waste, a supermarket chain in Singapore sells slightly blemished fruits and vegetables at lower prices. In one year, this initiative saved more than 850 tons (778,000 kg) of produce that previously would’ve been thrown out for not meeting aesthetic standards. Shoppers soon learned that outward appearances—scars and quirky shapes—don’t affect flavor and nutritional value. What’s on the outside doesn’t always determine what’s on the inside.

The prophet Samuel learned a similar lesson when he was sent by God to anoint the next king of Israel (1 Samuel 16:1). When he saw Eliab, the firstborn son of Jesse, Samuel thought he was the chosen one. But God said: “Do not consider his appearance or his height . . . . People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (v. 7). Out of Jesse’s eight sons, God chose the youngest, David—who was tending his father’s sheep (v. 11)—to be the next king.

God is more concerned with our hearts than with outward credentials—the school we attended, what we earn, or how much we volunteer. Jesus taught His disciples to focus on purifying their hearts of selfish and evil thoughts because “what comes out of a person is what defiles them” (Mark 7:20). Just as Samuel learned not to consider outward appearances, may we, with God’s help, examine our hearts—our thoughts and intentions—in all that we do.

Read More

Three Kings

By |2023-10-27T02:33:24-04:00October 27th, 2023|

In the hit musical Hamilton, England’s King George III is humorously portrayed as a cartoonish, deranged villain. However, a new biography on King George said he was not the tyrant described in Hamilton or America’s Declaration of Independence. If George had been the brutal despot that Americans said he was, he would have stopped their drive for independence with extreme, scorched-earth measures. But he was restrained by his “civilized, good-natured” temperament.

Who knows if King George died with regret? Would his reign have been more successful if he’d been harsher with his subjects?

Not necessarily. In the Bible we read of King Jehoram, who solidified his throne by putting “all his brothers to the sword along with some of the officials of Israel” (2 Chronicles 21:4). Jehoram “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” (v. 6). His ruthless reign alienated his people, who neither wept for his gruesome death nor made a “funeral fire in his honor” (v. 19).

Historians may debate whether George was too soft; Jehoram was surely too harsh. A better way is that of King Jesus, who is “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus’ expectations are firm (He demands truth), yet He embraces those who fail (He extends grace). Jesus calls us who believe in Him to follow His lead. Then, through the leading of His Holy Spirit, He empowers us to do so.

Read More

Let Go

By |2023-09-14T02:33:03-04:00September 14th, 2023|

The owner of the bookstore where Keith worked had been away on vacation for only two days, but Keith, his assistant, was already panicking. Operations were smooth, but Keith was anxious that he wouldn’t do a good job overseeing the store. Frenetically, he micromanaged all he could.

“Stop it,” his boss finally told him over a video call. “All you have to do is follow the instructions I email you daily. Don’t worry, Keith. The burden isn’t on you; it’s on me.”

In a time of conflict with other nations, Israel received a similar word from God: “Be still” (Psalm 46:10). “Stop striving,” He said in essence, “just follow what I say. I will fight for you.” Israel was not being told to be passive or complacent, but to be actively still—to obey God faithfully while yielding control of the situation and leaving the results of their efforts to Him.

We’re called to do the same. And we can do it because the God we trust is sovereign over the world. If “he lifts his voice” and “the earth melts”, and if He can “make wars cease to the ends of the earth” (vv. 6,9), then surely, we can trust in the security of His refuge and strength (v. 1). The burden of control over our life isn’t on us—it’s on God.

Read More

Free in the Spirit

By |2023-07-08T02:33:13-04:00July 8th, 2023|

Neither Orville nor Wilbur Wright had a pilot’s license. Neither had gone to college. They were bicycle mechanics with a dream and the courage to try. On December 17, 1903, they took turns piloting their Wright Flyer on four separate flights. The longest lasted only a minute, but it changed our world forever.

Neither Peter nor John had a preaching license. Neither had gone to seminary. They were fishermen who, filled with the Spirit of Jesus, courageously proclaimed the good news. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

The Wright brothers’ neighbors didn’t immediately appreciate their accomplishment. Their hometown newspaper didn’t believe their story, and said that even if true, the flights were too brief to be significant. It took several more years of flying and refining their planes before the public recognized what they had truly done.

The religious leaders didn’t like Peter and John, and they ordered them to stop telling others about Jesus. Peter said, No way. “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (v. 20).

You may not be on the approved list. Perhaps you’re scorned by those who are. No matter. If you have the Spirit of Jesus, you’re free to live boldly for Him!

Read More

Mimic Jesus

By |2023-07-05T02:33:14-04:00July 5th, 2023|

A “master of disguise” lives in the waters of Indonesia and in the Great Barrier Reef. The mimic octopus, like other octopuses, can change its skin pigment to blend in with its surroundings. This intelligent creature also changes its shape and “the way it moves and behaves” when threatened. In fact, the mimic octopus can impersonate fifteen other kinds of sea creatures, including the venomous lionfish and flatfish, and even deadly sea snakes. Though imperfect, these disguises provide time to escape other predators and may have kept the mimic octopus from being discovered until 1998.

Unlike the mimic octopus, believers in Jesus are meant to stand out in the world that surrounds us. We may feel threatened by those who disagree with us and become tempted to blend in so we won’t be recognized as believers in Jesus. The apostle Paul, however, urges us to offer our bodies as a “living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1), representing Jesus in every aspect of our lives.

Friends or family members may try to pressure us to conform to the “patterns of this world” (v. 2). But we can show who we serve by aligning our lives with what we say we believe as God’s children. When we obey the Scriptures and reflect His loving character, our lives can demonstrate that the rewards of obedience are always greater than any loss. How will you mimic Jesus today?

Read More

In All Our Dealings

By |2022-12-28T01:33:03-05:00December 28th, 2022|

In 1524, Martin Luther observed: "Among themselves the merchants have a common rule which is their chief maxim . . . I care nothing about my neighbor; so long as I have my profit and satisfy my greed.” More than two hundred years later, John Woolman, from Mount Holly, New Jersey, let his commitment to Jesus influence his tailor shop dealings. Out of support for the freeing of slaves, he refused to purchase any cotton or dye supplies from companies who used their forced labor. With a clear conscience, he loved his neighbor and lived according to integrity and sincerity in all his dealings.  

The apostle Paul strived to live out “integrity and godly sincerity” (2 Corinthians 1:12). When some in Corinth tried to undermine his authority as an apostle for Jesus, he defended his conduct among them. He wrote that his words and actions could withstand the closest scrutiny (v. 13). He also showed that he was dependent on God’s power and grace for effectiveness, not his own (v. 12). In short, Paul’s faith in Christ permeated all his dealings.

As we live as ambassadors for Jesus, may we be careful to let the good news ring out in all our dealings—family, business, and more. When by God’s power and grace we reveal His love to others, we honor Him and love our neighbors well.

Read More

The Coffee-Bean Bowl

By |2022-09-29T02:35:03-04:00September 29th, 2022|

I’m not a coffee drinker, but one sniff of coffee beans brings me a moment of both solace and wistfulness. When our teenage daughter Melissa was making her bedroom uniquely hers, she filled a bowl with coffee beans to permeate her room with a warm, pleasant scent.

It’s been nearly two decades since Melissa’s earthly life ended in a car accident at age seventeen, but we still have that coffee-bean bowl. It gives us a continual, aromatic remembrance of Mell’s life with us.

Scripture also uses fragrances as a reminder. Song of Songs refers to fragrances as a symbol of love between a man and a woman (see 1:3; 4:11, 16). In Hosea, God’s forgiveness of Israel is said to be “fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon” (Hosea 14:6). And Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet (John 12:3), which caused the house of Mary and her siblings to be “filled with the fragrance of the perfume” (John 12:3), pointed ahead to Jesus’ death (see v. 7).

The idea of fragrance can also help us be mindful of our testimony of faith to those around us. Paul explained it this way: “We are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15).

Just as the scent of coffee beans reminds me of Melissa, may our lives produce a scent of Jesus and His love that reminds others of their need of Him.

Read More

Leave the Light On

By |2022-08-30T02:33:11-04:00August 30th, 2022|

A hotel chain’s commercial featured one little building standing amidst a dark night. Nothing else was around. The only light in the scene came from a small lamp near the door on the porch of the building. The bulb cast enough illumination for a visitor to walk up the steps and enter the building. The commercial ended with the phrase, “We’ll leave the light on for you.”

 A porch light is akin to a welcome sign, reminding weary travelers that there’s a comfortable place still open where they can stop and rest. The light invites those passing by to come on in and escape from the dark, weary journey.

Jesus says the life of believers in Him should resemble that of a welcoming light. He told His followers, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14). As believers, we’re to illuminate a dark world.

As He directs and empowers us, “they may see [our] good deeds and glorify [our] Father in heaven” (v. 16). And as we leave our lights on, others will feel welcomed to come to us to learn more about the one true Light of the world—Jesus (John 8:12).  In a weary and dark world, His light always remains on.

Have you left your light on? As Jesus shines through you today, others may see and begin radiating His light too.

Read More
Go to Top