Entries by YMI
ODB: Waving The White Flag
July 23, 2014
READ: Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God. —Deuteronomy 6:4-5
Recently, while watching a video of a church service held in South America, I noticed something I had never seen before in church. As the pastor passionately called his flock to yield their lives to Jesus, one of the parishioners took a white hankie out of his pocket and started waving it in the air. Then another, and another. With tears running down their cheeks, they were expressing full surrender to Christ.
But I wonder if there was more to the moment than the flags of surrender. I think they were waving flags of love to God. When God told His people to “love the Lord your God” (Deut. 6:5), it was in the context of His urging them to surrender their lives to Him.
From God’s point of view, life with Him is far more than just trying to be good. It is always about relationship—relationship in which surrender is the way we express our grateful love to Him. Jesus, in amazing love for us, surrendered Himself on the cross to rescue us from our helpless bondage to sin and set us on a journey to all that is good and glorious.
We don’t have enough words to tell God how much we love Him! So, let’s show Him our love by surrendering our hearts and lives to follow Him.
— Joe Stowell
Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine.
Take all my will, my passion, self, and pride;
I now surrender, Lord—in me abide. —Orr
Surrender is God’s love language.
ODJ: faith at the finish
July 23, 2014
READ: Luke 21:8-28
I will give you the right words and . . . wisdom (v.15).
She burned down her house and lives off the land in Africa. Her name is Jja Ja Nakibuuka. Leprosy has claimed her fingers and toes. She owns nothing, so children sometimes offer her food and small presents. When she greets the children and their mothers, Jja Ja Nakibuuka always says the same thing: “God is good, and He is coming back.”
The Bible encourages us to anticipate the moment when Jesus will return to earth (1 Peter 1:13), and it also warns us about the time preceding His return. In those days, some Christians will stand trial before government officials. Some will face hatred, betrayal, prison and even death (Luke 21:12-17). The upheaval in our lives will be intense.
Despite this turmoil, God will support those who believe in Him. Jesus said, “I will give you the right words and . . . wisdom” at the right moments (v.15). We’ll be able to rely completely on Him, and He will never fail us (1 Peter 4:19). We won’t fret or fear, for we know Jesus will rescue those who remain faithful to the end (Luke 21:28).
By remaining faithful to God and standing firm, we will experience His salvation (v.19). Despite persecution, Christians will thrive spiritually and help others to do so as well. God’s saving power will still be active in the world, and He will enable us to carry out “the good things He planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10).
Do you ever feel concerned about future world events? If so, remember that “when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much . . . honour on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world” (1 Peter 1:7).
—Jennifer Benson Schuldt
365-day plan› Luke 9:28-45
Look up Matthew 24:36 to see why it’s useless to try to predict Jesus’ return date. Read 1 Corinthians 15:52 to see what will happen to believers when Jesus returns.
What’s your attitude towards Jesus’ second coming? If you knew the day and time of His return, how would you live differently?
(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)
ODB: Lasting Regrets
July 22, 2014
READ: Psalm 32:1-7
When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. —Psalm 32:3
While I was talking with a gifted pianist, she asked me if I played any musical instruments. When I responded, “I play the radio,” she laughed and asked if I had ever wanted to play any instrument. My embarrassed answer was, “I took piano lessons as a boy but gave it up.” Now, in my adult years, I regret not continuing with the piano. I love music and wish I could play today. That conversation was a fresh reminder to me that life is often constituted by the choices we make—and some of them produce regret.
Some choices produce much more serious and painful regrets. King David discovered this when he chose to sleep with another man’s wife and then killed that man. He described the guilt that filled him as devastating, saying, “When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer” (Ps. 32:3-4). But David acknowledged and confessed his sin to God and found forgiveness (v.5).
It is only from God that we can receive the grace of forgiveness when our choices have produced painful regrets. And only in Him do we find the wisdom to make better choices.
— Bill Crowder
I have made. Please enable me to be wiser in
my choices. Teach me the value of resting
in Your grace.
God’s forgiveness frees us from the chains of regret.
ODJ: dad, mum & me
July 22, 2014
READ: Ephesians 6:1-4
Honour your father and mother (Exodus 20:12).
I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour when I was 15 years old. When my dad found out, he was heartbroken because of his differing religious beliefs. He couldn’t sleep well for the next several nights. He felt that he had failed as a father because he couldn’t keep his family together. His daughter had deserted the family tradition and chose to follow a “Western god”.
I love my dad, but on this matter I knew I couldn’t follow him. Instead, I became the first Christian in my family.
So what does it mean to obey God’s commandment in honouring our father and mother? (Exodus 20:12). Honour is a heavy word—literally. The Hebrew word is kaved, meaning “heavy” or “weighty”. So to honour one’s parents is to give due (weighty) respect for their position. It includes speaking respectfully to them, and speaking kindly about them. This is the fifth commandment God gave His people in Exodus 20, following four commandments that dealt with loving Him. By inference, love for God must come first.
Paul puts it this way: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord” (Ephesians 6:1 NIV).
When Francis Schaeffer followed what he believed was God’s will by going to Bible college, he said to his disappointed parents: “I love you, and I’m sorry to make you unhappy, but I am convinced that this is what God wants me to do, and I am going to do it.” His obedience to God was, in the end, the means of bringing first his father and later his mother to faith in Jesus Christ. Even in going against his parents’ wishes, Schaeffer showed them respect and kindness.
As you consider the fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12), remember that it’s weighty—but also that God is to be loved first and foremost. —Poh Fang Chia
365-day plan› Mark 8:22-9:1
Read the story of Saul and Jonathan in 1 Samuel 20:30-42, 31:1-6. Note how Jonathan tried to honour both God’s will and that of His father.
How can you honour God by honouring your parents? How can our love for God help us love our parents in an honouring way?
(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)
ODB: Water For The World
July 21, 2014
READ: John 4:7-15
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. —John 7:38
Although 70 percent of the world is covered by water, less than 1 percent of it is drinkable by humans. Water conservation and sanitation are crucial matters in many parts of the world, as all life depends on having sanitary water.
Jesus went out of His way to introduce a lost woman to another kind of life-giving water. He deliberately chose to go to a town in Samaria, a place where no respectable rabbi would set foot. There, He told this woman about “living water.” Those who drink of it, He said, “will never thirst.” It will “become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14).
The living water is Jesus Himself. Those who receive Him have eternal life (v.14). But the living water He provides also serves another function. Jesus said of those who receive it: “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (7:38). The living water that refreshes us is to refresh others also.
As fresh-water distribution is uneven in the world, so too is the distribution of living water. Many people do not know followers of Jesus who really care about them. It is our privilege to share Him. Christ is, after all, the living water for whom people are thirsting.
— C. P. Hia
life and love flow through me as I go about my
duties today so that others may see You through
me and be drawn to the living water.
Jesus is a never-ending supply of living water for a parched world.
ODJ: in the café
July 21, 2014
READ: John 4:3-26
Those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life (v.14).
Crystal stares out of the café window, wondering if life will ever improve. Five men, two kids, all by 29 years old. She’s lonely and wonders if man no. 6 will make things better.
Jesus walks through the café door and sits down at Crystal’s table. “I could really go for a coffee,” He says with a smile. “Uh, excuse me,” Crystal says, “do I know you?” “Not well,” Jesus says. Crystal gets up to leave. “Please stay,” Jesus says, “I’ll pay for the coffee.” “No thanks,” Crystal replies as she reluctantly sits down. She has nothing else to do. They sit silently for a few minutes.
“Maybe I will have another coffee,” Crystal says, reaching for her purse. “Need more caffeine, huh?” Jesus says. “Whatever gets you through the day. But the buzz always wear off, doesn’t it?” “So,” Crystal says, “is this what You do all day—sit and chat with women in coffee shops?” “Only the lonely ones,” Jesus replies. “What makes you think I’m lonely?” she asks. “Tell me about your husband.” “I don’t have a husband.”
“That’s right, Crystal,” Jesus says. “Five men, two kids, all by 29 years old.” “How do you know my name?” she says, astonished. “And how do you know about my life?” “Crystal, I’m offering you something greater than a caffeine buzz, or even the affections of man no. 6.” “What?” she says. “I’m offering you forgiveness.” “I don’t even know you,” Crystal says, “so why do I need your forgiveness? How can I hurt someone I’ve never known?”
“That’s right, Crystal. You’ve never known Me, the knower of your thoughts, the watcher of your deeds, the One who’s seen every silly, selfish, misguided decision you’ve ever made.”
“Who are you?” she asks softly. “I’m the One, Crystal. The One you’re really looking for.” —Sheridan Voysey
365-day plan› Matthew 15:32-16:12
Read John 10:10 and consider what Jesus offers to all who are thirsty for real life.
Imagine if Jesus met the “woman at the well” in your town today. What would the interaction look like? Where else do people look for a saviour other than Jesus?
(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)
ODB: Small Ways In Small Places
July 20, 2014
READ: Isaiah 49:1-6
For who has despised the day of small things? —Zechariah 4:10
Often I meet with people who serve in what they think are seemingly small ways in small places. They are frequently discouraged by loneliness, feeling that their acts of service are insignificant. When I hear them speak, I think of one of the angels in C. S. Lewis’ book Out of the Silent Planet. He said: “My people have a law never to speak of sizes or numbers to you. . . . It makes you do reverence to nothings and pass by what is really great.”
Sometimes culture says bigger is better—that size is the truest measure of success. It takes a strong person to resist that trend, especially if he or she is laboring in a small place. But we must not “pass by what is really great.”
It’s not that numbers aren’t important (after all, the apostles counted their converts; see Acts 2:41). Numbers represent living people with eternal needs. We should all work and pray for large numbers of people to enter the kingdom, but numbers mustn’t be the basis for self-esteem.
God doesn’t call us to find fulfillment in the amount of work we do for Him, or the number of people who are a part of that work, but in faithfully doing our work for His sake. Serving our great God with His strength in a small way is not a stepping-stone to greatness—it is greatness.
— David H. Roper
small places or small people. All are precious
in Your sight. May I see the value of my work
and cherish it as You do.
Anyone doing God’s work in God’s way is important in His sight.