Entries by YMI

ODJ: unaffected

/in , , /by

January 20, 2014 

READ: Haggai 2:1-23 

Everything they do and everything they offer is defiled by their sin (v.14).

Not all influence is the same. A piece of coal and a diamond vastly differ in their make-up and value, though both contain carbon. Coal’s stubborn, black residue marks anything it touches. A diamond, though stronger and more costly, doesn’t transfer its brilliance. Carry a bag of coal or a bag of diamonds and the lesson is visible—only one influences by proximity.

Sin and holiness function in the same way. While compromise leaves its staining residue wherever it moves, holiness doesn’t impact through external touch. Instead, its impact is seen when we rightly understand God’s promises “while the seed is still in the barn” (Haggai 2:19) and we plant according to His purposes, not ours. Responding to people’s sin of apathy, Haggai drew a parallel between the state of the unfinished temple and the formative decisions we make in life. We can’t enter into apathy and remain unaffected. Its deathly influence will become visible in our attitudes and actions (vv.13-14).

On the contrary, simply going to church and associating with people who are strong in their faith won’t lead to a passionate faith of our own (v.12). That requires a reformation of the heart (Romans 2:28-29), one rooted first in our identity and then realised in our behaviour (1 Peter 1:15-16).

God doesn’t rescind His promises, but He does delight when we actively live out our faith in Him. When we bind ourselves to Jesus with a love made visible in obedience, we will be affected by His presence. Hating the sin of apathy that would tarnish the offering of our lives, we know “the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us” (Haggai 2:11). —Regina Franklin

MORE
Read Joshua 24:14-31 and consider the characteristics that mark a covenant relationship with God. 
NEXT
Who or what is having the greatest influence on your life? How are your attitudes and decisions affecting those around you? 

(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)

ODB: Two Men

/in , , /by

January 19, 2014 

READ: John 11:30-37 

He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. . . . Jesus wept. —John 11:33,35 

Two men were killed in our city on the same day. The first, a police officer, was shot down while trying to help a family. The other was a homeless man who was shot while drinking with friends early that day.

The whole city grieved for the police officer. He was a fine young man who cared for others and was loved by the neighborhood he served. A few homeless people grieved for the friend they loved and lost.

I think the Lord grieved with them all.

When Jesus saw Mary and Martha and their friends weeping over the death of Lazarus, “He groaned in the spirit and was troubled” (John 11:33). He loved Lazarus and his sisters. Even though He knew that He would soon be raising Lazarus from the dead, He wept with them (v.35). Some Bible scholars think that part of Jesus’ weeping also may have been over death itself and the pain and sadness it causes in people’s hearts.

Loss is a part of life. But because Jesus is “the resurrection and the life” (v.25), those who believe in Him will one day experience an end of all death and sorrow. In the meantime, He weeps with us over our losses and asks us to “weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15).

— Anne Cetas

Give me a heart sympathetic and tender;
Jesus, like Thine, Jesus, like Thine,
Touched by the needs that are surging around me,
And filled with compassion divine. —Anon.

Compassion helps to heal the hurts of others. 

ODJ: give what you have

/in , , /by

January 19, 2014 

READ: Romans 12:4-8 

In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you (v.6).

Last year a few foreign exchange students from Saudi Arabia celebrated Christmas with our family in America. When they arrived they told us they had never experienced a Christmas in America and were looking forward to it with great anticipation.

When it came time to exchange gifts, we carefully explained to our guests that the tradition of giving gifts to those we love was one way we celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ—God’s greatest gift to the world (John 3:16).

As one who has received the gift of God’s Son, I sometimes wonder what I can give in return. It’s helpful to realise that God simply asks us to give what we have (Romans 12:6). He doesn’t ask us to be more than we are. He simply asks us to do our best with what He’s given us.

Each of us has something of substance to give. We can give our time to assist a person in need. We can give our money to support a kingdom effort. We can help by volunteering our talents in helping others. It doesn’t matter how much natural ability or resources we possess. What matters to God is whether we make good use of what we have been given for His kingdom, whether big or small. Paul wrote that whatever we do for God with the gifting He’s given us, we should do it “well” (v.7).

Doing our best is the best gift we can give Him in return for sending Jesus to rescue us and for the gift of new life. What we give back won’t be enough to bring His kingdom to earth as it is in heaven, but it will help.

As the apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth, “Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless” (1 Corinthians 15:58). —Jeff Olson

MORE
Meditate on Philippians 1:6 and apply it to the way you use your time, talents and treasures today. 
NEXT
How can you put the talents and resources God has given you to better use? Why is it important for us to give back to God? 

(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)

ODB: All Spruced Up

/in , , /by

January 18, 2014 

READ: Jude 1:20-25 

[Jesus] is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless. —Jude 1:24 

Getting our children to look good for church was always a challenge. Ten minutes after arriving at church all spruced up, our little Matthew would look like he didn’t have parents. I’d see him running down the hall with his shirt half untucked, glasses cockeyed, shoes scuffed up, and cookie crumbs decorating his clothes. Left to himself, he was a mess.

I wonder if that is how we look sometimes. After Christ has clothed us in His righteousness, we tend to wander off and live in ways that make us look like we don’t belong to God. That’s why Jude’s promise that Jesus is “able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless” gives me hope (Jude 1:24).

How can we keep from looking like we don’t have a heavenly Father? As we become more yielded to His Spirit and His ways, He will keep us from stumbling. Think of how increasingly righteous our lives would become if we would take time in His Word to be cleansed with “the washing of water by the word” (Eph. 5:26).

What a blessing that Jesus promises to take our stumbling, disheveled lives and present us faultless to the Father! May we increasingly look like children of the King as we reflect His loving care and attention.

— Joe Stowell

Lord, thank You for the blessing of being clothed
in Your beautiful righteousness and the promise
that You will keep me from stumbling and present
me faultless before Your Father and my God!

To reflect the presence of the Father, we must rely on the Son. 

ODJ: no more prejudice

/in , , /by

January 18, 2014 

READ: James 2:1-13 

My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favour some people over others? (v.1).

Many years ago it was assumed that women could not play the French horn better than men. Their thoughts were challenged and disproved, however, when Julie Landsman auditioned for the role of principal French horn for the renowned Metropolitan Opera. During her audition, Landsman sat and played behind a screen—and played beautifully. After being declared the winner of the lead chair based on sound alone, she stepped out from behind the screen. The judges gasped! They didn’t expect to see a woman.

Two millennia ago James had to remind a group of believers in Jesus that they shouldn’t allow others’ outward appearances and their own inner prejudice to colour how they viewed one another. He gently rebuked these believers: My brothers, stop judging one another according to first appearances (James 2:2-4). He called them brothers because they belonged to one another and because they had the same Father through Jesus. Based on this union and the character of God, they needed to stop evaluating and discriminating against people based on looks, ethnicity, culture, age, education and socioeconomic status (Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 10:17). This type of treatment of one another was sinful, inconsistent with their faith in Jesus, betrayed the grace of God and violated the law of love. For James, the answer to prejudice was to follow the example of Jesus: love your neighbour as yourself.

Our heavenly Father is a God who shows no favouritism or partiality (Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11) and He has forbidden prejudice and partiality among His children (Leviticus 19:15). Let’s stand together and fight the sin of prejudice by letting our love for God find full expression in our love for one another. —Marvin Williams

MORE
Read 1 Samuel 16:1-13 and see the context in which God told one of His servants not to judge based on outward appearances. 
NEXT
Who helped to shape your theology of the treatment of people? What are some things you can do to love and treat people as Jesus did?  

(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)

ODB: Heavenly Perspective

/in , , /by

January 17, 2014 

READ: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 

The things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. —2 Corinthians 4:18 

Fanny Crosby lost her sight as an infant. Yet, amazingly, she went on to become one of the most well-known lyricists of Christian hymns. During her long life, she wrote over 9,000 hymns. Among them are such enduring favorites as “Blessed Assurance” and “To God Be the Glory.”

Some people felt sorry for Fanny. A well-intentioned preacher told her, “I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when He showered so many other gifts upon you.” It sounds hard to believe, but she replied: “Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I was born blind? . . . Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior.”

Fanny saw life with an eternal perspective. Our problems look different in light of eternity: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17-18).

All our trials dim when we remember that one glorious day we will see Jesus!

— Dennis Fisher

Dear God, please help us to see this life
from a heavenly perspective. Remind us that
our trials, however difficult, will one day fade
from view when we see You face to face.

The way we view eternity will affect the way we live in time. 

ODJ: crooked house

/1 Comment/in , , /by

January 17, 2014 

READ: Matthew 7:21-29 

Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it . . . builds a house on solid rock (v.24).

Wobbly, woozy, unsteady. These words all describe the appearance of the Crooked House—the most photographed house in all of Poland. One observer commented that the structure looks as if it is “melting or sagging from exhaustion”. Designer Szotynscy Zaleski purposely created the exterior to feature few straight lines and the result is an architectural ode to a funhouse mirror.

Jesus spoke about a house that was destined to fall down. He said rain, flooding and winds would cause this building to “collapse with a mighty crash” (Matthew 7:27). He pointed out that the structure would fail because it was built on sand. Sand is unstable—water easily washes it away and wind quickly scatters it into the air.

Like sand, the world around us is constantly changing. Technology soon becomes outdated. Friendships spark and then cool. Fashion and music groups glimmer with fickle fame. Allowing these things to shape our lives leads to instability. If we’re not careful, we can let them replace Jesus as the foundation of our lives.

When we consistently take in Jesus’ teachings, but don’t live them out (v.26), we begin walking on unstable foundations, leaving behind the bedrock of living by His truth. We’re “only fooling [ourselves]” if we only listen to God’s Word, but don’t obey it (James 1:22-23).

Fortunately, Jesus said, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock” (Matthew 7:24). If you long for a life that’s able to withstand torrents of trouble and the winds of change, remember that you can have stability through Jesus. With His help, you can shrug off the world’s influence and build your life on His rock-solid truths. —Jennifer Benson Schuldt
› Genesis 27:1-40

MORE
Read James 1:6-8 to see what the Bible says about people who seek God half-heartedly. Look up 1 Chronicles 28:9 to read David’s advice to Solomon regarding devotion to God. 
NEXT
Does God’s nature ever change? How does this truth create stability in your heart? How might having your life rooted in Jesus inspire your friends to follow God? 

(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)

ODB: The Little Tent

/in , , /by

January 16, 2014 

READ: Colossians 1:1-12; 4:12 

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. —Colossians 1:19 

During evangelist Billy Graham’s historic 1949 Los Angeles campaign, the big tent that held over 6,000 people was filled to overflowing every night for 8 weeks. Close by was a smaller tent set aside for counseling and prayer. Cliff Barrows, longtime music director and close friend and associate of Graham, has often said that the real work of the gospel took place in “the little tent,” where people gathered on their knees to pray before and during every evangelistic service. A local Los Angeles woman, Pearl Goode, was the heart of those prayer meetings and many that followed.

In the apostle Paul’s letter to the followers of Christ in Colosse, he assured them that he and his colleagues were praying always for them (Col. 1:3,9). In closing he mentioned Epaphras, a founder of the Colossian church, who is “always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (4:12).

Some people are given the high visibility task of preaching the gospel in “the big tent.” But God has extended to us all, just as He did to Epaphras and Pearl Goode, the great privilege of kneeling in “the little tent” and bringing others before the throne of God.

— David C. McCasland

They labor well who intercede
For others with a pressing need;
It’s on their knees they often work
And from its rigor will not shirk. —D. DeHaan

Prayer is not preparation for the work, it is the work. —Oswald Chambers 

ODJ: hope in death

/in , , /by

January 16, 2014 

READ: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 

We want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope (v.13).

In early 2013 James McConnell passed away at a nursing home in Southsea, Hampshire, in England. Mr. McConnell, a veteran of the UK’s Royal Marines, was 70 years old. Unfortunately he had no family and when the medical staff told Rev. Bob Mason that they feared no one would show up for the funeral, Mason sent the following note to the Royal Marines Association:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, In this day and age it is tragic enough that anyone has to leave this world with no one to mourn their passing, but this man was family and I am sure you will agree [he] deserves a better send off. If you can make it to the graveside . . . to pay your respects to a former brother in arms, then please try to be there”.

Mason was shocked when 200 people showed up for McConnell’s funeral.

While it’s true that no one should be buried without mourners to acknowledge the grief, the truth is that believers in Jesus have hope beyond physical death. “For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again,” said the apostle Paul, “we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). To make certain that his point was perfectly clear, Paul also said that “We tell you this directly from the Lord . . . the Christians who have died will rise from their graves” (vv.15-16).

Death, though it’s certainly something to grieve, is absolutely nothing to fear. We don’t have to live in terror of death or carry the burden of sorrow for those who have no hope. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead! His resurrection is the assurance of our own. Faith in His cross and resurrection provides us with hope in life and hope in death. —Winn Collier
Genesis 25:19-34 ‹

MORE
Read 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12. What instructions does Paul give the church? What’s the connection between these life instructions and the teaching that followed? 
NEXT
What are your feelings about death? How does the fact of Jesus’ resurrection affect your feelings? 

(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)