Memories About Mother

"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for 30 years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found." (Calvin Trillin)

Thoughts on the Subject of Death

• Every man must do two things alone: he must do his own believing and his own dying.



• Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come.



• If you live wrong, you can't die right.



• Death guarantees the sinner's penalty and the saint's promotion.



• A will is a dead giveaway.

It's Time to Vote

MSNBC has a poll on their website asking the following question: Should “In God We Trust” be removed from our US currency? Let’s make sure the media and others know that we want this to remain. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103521/

Roots and Fruit

I don’t know much about gardening, but I do know this: If you want something to grow and produce fruit, you have to leave it in one spot long enough for it to put down roots.

It seems the principle would also apply to people. Won’t we be most fruitful if we’re allowed to establish “roots” somewhere?

Yet all around me, people are being torn up and replanted in some fashion. One couple I know recently went through a particularly difficult relocation. Another friend is struggling to process a series of unexpected career changes. I’ve experienced smaller upheavals caused by a change in living situations and my closest friend moving halfway across the country. I’d like to think that these sorts of uprootings are just part of the season of life my friends and I are in right now. But I’ve witnessed so many of them over the past several years that I’m beginning to suspect they’re the rule more than the exception.

So when my small group discussed Psalm 1 a couple weeks ago, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy for the fruitful tree “planted by streams of water” (v. 3). We could consistently bear fruit too, I thought, if we got to stay planted in one spot for a while.

And then it hit me what this verse, set within a psalm about meditating on God’s law, was saying: Our rootedness comes from being firmly established in God’s Word and our relationship with Him—not in our circumstances. It's a familiar truth, but it has been particularly meaningful to me as I navigate the various uprootings happening around me.

Specifically, I’ve been holding on to three realities:

• God's in control. According to Acts 17:26-27, He has determined exactly where I and my friends will live and when. He has a purpose for bringing us to new cities, homes, and jobs.
• He is committed to me. Although friends may move away and relationships change, God promises that He will never leave me nor forsake me (Heb. 13:5-6).
• He knows what He’s doing. John 15:1-2 assures me that God is a wise gardener who desires for me to bear much fruit for His glory. So although I may not understand why He’s allowing changes and upheavals, I can trust that they are accomplishing His good purposes.

As I ground myself in these truths, the changes don't feel so unsettling. Rather, I know they are helping me grow deeper roots in God.

Are you experiencing uprootings? If so, I encourage you to ask God which truths from His Word He’d like you to sink yourself into. Then you’ll be able to bear fruit no matter what comes your way.

Dianne Bundt

Editor

DJ Online News

God Speaks through Circumstances

TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2 by Os Hillman
Tuesday, August 12 2008

"As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things" (Eccl 11:5).

God will often use circumstances in our lives to direct us in making and confirming decisions. I have often discovered this to be the case - but only after a situation has occurred. I later look back and see how God worked in the situation.

Years ago, I launched a magazine designed for Christians in the workplace and I was having lunch with a Christian leader named Larry who headed a ministry that helps men and women apply biblical principles to managing money.

During our lunch, I explained to Larry that I had noticed that there were many grassroots workplace ministries cropping up all over the country. I asked Larry if he was familiar with some of the groups since he had taught a course and wrote a book on operating a business on biblical principles. But he said he was not. He then asked, "It would be nice to know what all these groups are doing so we don't duplicate efforts. Do you think you could invite some of these groups for a roundtable discussion?" I told him I would and I proceeded to invite four main workplace ministries that I had worked with in the past.

Then something unexpected began to happen. I began to get requests from ministries all around the country that had heard about the gathering and they were asking if they could attend the roundtable. By the time the event actually took place, 54 people showed up representing 45 organizations from around the country! Unfortunately, Larry had a last minute conflict and was not able to attend, and he informed me that I would have to host the meeting myself. That was the birth of Marketplace Leaders, the ministry I now lead full time. I often joke that God tricked me into starting this ministry because He knows I never would have done that on my own at that time.

God often confirms His direction through circumstances. Be on alert that when God sets up situations that are out of your control - He may be giving you direction through these circumstances.

The Cost of Salvation

All that salvation costs is what everyone can afford: one's self.

INSIGHT

Coming to the Lord costs a man nothing and, at the same time, costs him everything. The offer is free in that a man need not give anything in exchange for his salvation. "Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price" (v. 1). Yet receiving salvation costs man his life. He no longer has the freedom of self-determination. "Seek the Lord while He may be found . . . Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him" (vv. 6-7). All that it costs is what everyone can give: one's self.

PRAYER

Nothing can exceed the importance of the salvation that the Lord offers us in Christ, and for it, praise Him:
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever. . .
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
From everlasting to everlasting!
(1 Chronicles 16: 34, 36).

Pause for praise and thanksgiving.

Pray this confession to the Lord as you seek to keep your life free from sin:
O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger,
Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak;
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
My soul also is greatly troubled;
But You, O Lord--how long? (Psalm 6:1-3).

Confess any sins that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind.

Now pray this affirmation to the Lord:
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust" (Psalm 91:1-2).

As you make your requests known to the Lord, include:
-- Greater commitment to the Lord
-- The work of specific Christian ministries
-- Whatever else is on your heart

Close with this prayer of praise to the Lord:
"Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,
Be to our God forever and ever. Amen" (Revelation 7:12).

Isaiah 55

August 10

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Waiting on the Lord

From the August 8 - Quiet Walk Daily Devotional

Isaiah 40

The Lord gives strength to those who wait on Him.

INSIGHT

God has given us the Christian family as a picture of the relationship between Him and His children. We are given earthly fathers, that we might more fully understand our heavenly Father. Just as an earthly father takes no delight in disciplining his children, so our heavenly Father takes no delight in disciplining His children. Hear the tenderness in these words: "Comfort, yes, comfort My people!" (v. 1). God tenderly loves us and takes no pleasure in our pain, although He desires our spiritual growth as a result.

PRAYER

Since the earthly family pictures the heavenly family, praise the Lord that He is your heavenly Father:
He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
A God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He (Deuteronomy 32:4).

"The Lord lives!
Blessed be my Rock!
Let God be exalted,
The Rock of my salvation! (2 Samuel 22:47).

Pause for praise and thanksgiving.

Pray this confession to the Lord as you seek to keep your life free from sin:
David's heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly" (2 Samuel 24:10).

Now pray this affirmation to the Lord:
The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account (Hebrews 4:12-13).

Make your requests known to God, and include:
-- Greater wisdom for living life
-- Needs of your immediate family
-- Those you know who are suffering

Finally, offer this prayer to the Lord:
To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
Amen (Jude 24-25).

When Someone Let's You Down

Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica" (2 Tim 4:9-10).

Adversity molded the apostle Paul into the greatest warrior for Christ the world has ever known. But there were times when adversity and disappointment took its toll on this rugged warrior. We can sense Paul's hurt and discouragement near the end of his second letter to Timothy:

Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica... At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me... Do your best to get here before winter (4:9-11,14,16,21).

Do you hear the pain in those words? Twice he urges Timothy to come to him. Do you feel his anguish when he twice speaks of being deserted by his friends?

In most of his letters, Paul seems to have an invincible spirit. Yet he was a man who suffered, felt betrayed, and was at times very lonely. However, Paul chose to look at life from a heavenly perspective. That's why he could write:

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Cor. 4:8-10).

Paul had experienced a level of opposition and suffering that you and I can scarcely imagine. People said they would do things but did not follow through. He could not depend on certain people. Yet he was not crushed, and he refused to give in to despair. He viewed his life as a continual process of dying. His goal was to live in such a way that the life of Jesus would be revealed in his response to adversity.

Beware of placing too much expectation on others. Realize that people will let you down from time to time, but do not let that impact your faith. Trust God to work even through these disappointments.