Entries by YMI

ODB: Seeing to Tomorrow

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February 17, 2017 

READ: 2 Corinthians 5:1–9 

We live by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7

 

I enjoy gazing up at a cloudless blue sky. The sky is a beautiful part of our great Creator’s masterpiece, given for us to enjoy. Imagine how much pilots must love the view. They use several aeronautical terms to describe a perfect sky for flying, but my favorite is, “You can see to tomorrow.”

“Seeing to tomorrow” is beyond our view. Sometimes we even struggle to see or understand what life is throwing at us today. The Bible tells us, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14).

But our limited visibility is not cause for despair. Just the opposite. We trust in the God who sees all of our tomorrows perfectly—and who knows what we need as we face the challenges ahead. The apostle Paul knew this. That’s why Paul encourages us with hopeful words, “We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).

When we trust God with our day as well as our unseen tomorrows, we don’t need to worry about anything life throws at us. We walk with Him and He knows what is ahead; He is strong enough and wise enough to handle it. 

— Bill Crowder

Lord, I know I can trust You for today and tomorrow because You are kind, good, loving, wise, and powerful. Teach me not to worry.

God sees the beginning to the end.  

ODJ: What Will We Become?

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February 16, 2017 

READ: 1 John 3:1-6 

We are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is (v.2).

I spent my birthday this year at a conference with my husband and some friends. At the end of the conference, I enjoyed taking some time to talk with an acquaintance that is a year younger than I am. As we chatted, he said, “The older I get, the more I realize I haven’t accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish by now.” Then he wistfully remarked, “I may never accomplish it.”

His comment reminded me that as I age, I inch toward death. And the truth is, I will never be all I dreamed of becoming in this life. Life has a way of upending and preventing some of our heartfelt aspirations. Even if we live past the age of seventy, most of us will not have enough time, resources, or energy to do everything we want to do. And if allowed to fester, these realities about the brevity and limits of life can elicit a deep and pervasive sorrow the older we get.

But thankfully, believers in Jesus can rejoice in the knowledge that this life is all about relationship, not accomplishment. In John 11:25 Jesus tells us, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.” I may not do all the things I’d like to during my days here on earth. Yet death doesn’t finish us off. You and I, each of us, are God’s works of art—masterpieces of His making (Ephesians 2:10). He loves us passionately (1 John 3:1). So make no mistake, God will complete His purposes for me and you and the entire church (Philippians 1:6). As John wrote, “We are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears” (1 John 3:2).

In His perfect timing, God will reveal what we are to become!

—Marlena Graves

365-day plan: Exodus 32:1-29

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Read Zephaniah 3:17 and reflect on this truth: You are God’s child, His work of art. He rejoices over you with joyful songs. 
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How does the hope found in Jesus free us from the regrets of this life? What does it mean for you to be God’s masterpiece? 

(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)

ODB: The Junkyard Genius

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February 16, 2017 

READ: John 9:1–11 

One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see! John 9:25

 

Noah Purifoy began his work as an “assemblage” artist with three tons of rubble salvaged from the 1965 riots in the Watts area of Los Angeles. From broken bicycle wheels and bowling balls to discarded tires and damaged TV sets—things no longer usable—he and a colleague created sculptures that conveyed a powerful message about people being treated as “throw-aways” in modern society. One journalist referred to Mr. Purifoy as “the junkyard genius.”

In Jesus’s time, many people considered those with diseases and physical problems as sinners being punished by God. They were shunned and ignored. But when Jesus and His disciples encountered a man born blind, the Lord said his condition was not the result of sin, but an occasion to see the power of God. “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5). When the blind man followed Jesus’s instructions, he was able to see.

When the religious authorities questioned the man, he replied simply, “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” (v. 25).

Jesus is still the greatest “junkyard genius” in our world. We are all damaged by sin, but He takes our broken lives and shapes us into His new creations.

— David McCasland

Lord, I thank You today for Your amazing grace!

Jesus is the restorer of life.  

Made to Relate

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Title: Made to Relate Materials: Graphic Design Description: As humans, we need to be connected, to be celebrated and to be comforted. This need to relate is innate.  Because God placed it in us. We’ve all heard it before – it isn’t where you’re going that matters, it’s the people that make the journey with you. […]

ODJ: Taking the Hate

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February 15, 2017 

READ: Psalm 5:1-12 

Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him (1 John 3:5).

“I stopped believing in God because of the Bible,” said the soup kitchen volunteer. “I couldn’t get over how many times it says God hates people!” I know that volunteer and find him to be a thoughtful young man. But is he right?

We can accept it when King David writes, “O God, you take no pleasure in wickedness; you cannot tolerate the sins of the wicked” (Psalm 5:4). But the next verse unsettles us: “The proud may not stand in your presence, for you hate all who do evil” (v.5). A few pages later we read, “[The Lord] hates those who love violence” (Psalm 11:5).

God hates people? But isn’t God love?

The gospel itself is simple, yet God’s character presents us with a complexity we can’t fully grasp. But let’s try to understand it in our terms. Doesn’t something within you despise evil when you encounter it? Imagine how a perfect, holy God must feel!

This awareness invigorates our understanding of Jesus on the cross. There we read the most heartrending cry in all history, rushing forth from Jesus’ anguished soul: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Matthew 27:46). The witnesses near the cross would have recognized those prophetic words from Psalm 22:1, which described crucifixion before it had even been thought of. Jesus paid a tremendous price so we could have His righteousness as our own.

God hates those who do evil because of what it does to us. He hates what we have done to His creation and to ourselves. Yet He loves us so much that “He gave his one and only Son” (John 3:16). “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him” (v.17).

Yes, God hates—because He hates sin. And He loves. Jesus took the hate to the cross—because of His love for us.

—Tim Gustafson

365-day plan: Exodus 20:1-22

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Psalm 22 shows us a picture of the crucifixion and what our sin cost the Messiah. Read especially verses 1, 6-18, and 29-31. 
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Which portions of the Bible trouble you the most? What might these passages be telling you about the nature of God and the human condition? 

(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)

ODB: Little Lies and Kittens

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February 15, 2017 

READ: Romans 5:12–21 

Just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead. Romans 5:21 NLT

 

Mom noticed four-year-old Elias as he scurried away from the newborn kittens. She had told him not to touch them. “Did you touch the kitties, Elias?” she asked.

“No!” he said earnestly. So Mom had another question: “Were they soft?”

“Yes,” he volunteered, “and the black one mewed.”

With a toddler, we smile at such duplicity. But Elias’s disobedience underscores our human condition. No one has to teach a four-year-old to lie. “For I was born a sinner,” wrote David in his classic confession, “yes, from the moment my mother conceived me” (Ps. 51:5 nlt). The apostle Paul said: “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned” (Rom. 5:12 nlt). That depressing news applies equally to kings, four-year-olds, and you and me.

But there’s plenty of hope! “God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were,” wrote Paul. “But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant” (Rom. 5:20 nlt).

God is not waiting for us to blow it so He can pounce on us. He is in the business of grace, forgiveness, and restoration. We need only recognize that our sin is neither cute nor excusable and come to Him in faith and repentance.

— Tim Gustafson

Father, be merciful to me, a sinner.

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  Romans 8:1  

ODJ: Not a Distant God

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February 14, 2017 

READ: Luke 12:4-7 

What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them (v.6).

Movie director James Cameron has been responsible for some of the most popular movies of all time: The Terminator, Titanic, Avatar, and others. But what many people don’t know is that far from being removed from the details of filmmaking, Cameron is heavily involved with almost every aspect of the process, from cinematography to creative design. Drawing from his earlier experience as a designer, Cameron even played a key role in developing some of the fantastic special effects that are the centerpiece of his most famous films.

It can be easy to imagine that God is a creative but distant movie director of sorts, interested only in the grandest aspects of the universe. In fact, American statesman Thomas Jefferson believed in such a Creator. He viewed God as a cosmic clockmaker who designed the world and put it into motion, but—apart from that—has little other involvement in human affairs.

But Jesus paints a very different picture of God in Luke 12. In verses 4 and 5, he describes a God of terrifying eternal power, a God rightly to be “feared.” And yet, in the very next verse He also says that this same God cares about creatures as insignificant as sparrows and knows us intimately, right down to the very number of “hairs on [our] head” (v.7). He goes on to say, “You are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.” He’s the Creator of the entire universe, but also a Father who knows us and cares for us individually.

What a profound and beautiful truth this is—that the God of the universe cares for me, and knows everything about me . . . even my deepest thoughts (Psalm 139:1-2). It brings great encouragement to know that we’re loved by such an amazing and caring God!

—Peter Chin

365-day plan: Exodus 19:1-25

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Read Romans 8:31-39 to be reminded of the intimate love God has for us. 
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How can you remind yourself today that God cares about the details of your life? What intimate thoughts and concerns will you bring to Him right now? 

(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)

ODB: Love Revealed

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February 14, 2017 

READ: 1 John 4:9–16 

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 1 John 4:9

 

When a series of pink “I love you” signs mysteriously appeared in the town of Welland, Ontario, local reporter Maryanne Firth decided to investigate. Her sleuthing turned up nothing. Weeks later, new signs appeared featuring the name of a local park along with a date and time.

Accompanied by a crowd of curious townspeople, Firth went to the park at the appointed time. There, she met a man wearing a suit who had cleverly concealed his face. Imagine her surprise when he handed her a bouquet and proposed marriage! The mystery man was Ryan St. Denis—her boyfriend. She happily accepted.

St. Denis’s expression of love toward his fiancée may seem a bit over-the-top, but God’s expression of love for us is nothing short of extravagant! “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).

Jesus is not merely a token of love, like a rose passed from one person to another. He is the divine human who willingly gave up His life so that anyone who believes in Him for salvation can have an everlasting covenant relationship with God. Nothing can separate a Christian “from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39).

— Jennifer Benson Schuldt

Dear God, thank You for showing me, in the greatest way possible, that You love me. Help my life to demonstrate my love for You.

We know how much God loves us because He sent His Son to save us.