My friend Rob cried freely telling his story about his young son's challenging life.
Daniel was born with a double cleft palate, dramatically disfiguring his face. He had surgery, but the evidence remains, so people constantly notice and occasionally make remarks.
Daniel, however, is unfazed! He just tells people God made him this way so, what's the big deal? He was named student of the week, so was asked to bring something to show his classmates for show and tell. Daniel told his mom he wanted to take the pictures that showed his face prior to the surgery. His mom was concerned. "Won't that make you feel a bit funny?" she asked. But Daniel insisted, "Oh, no, I want everyone to see what God did for me!"
Try Daniel's defiant joy and see what happens. God has handed you a cup of blessings. Sweeten it with a heaping spoonful of gratitude!
From You'll Get Through This
1 Timothy 5
New International Version (NIV)
Widows, Elders and Slaves
5 Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
3 Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. 4 But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. 5 The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. 6 But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives. 7 Give the people these instructions, so that no one may be open to blame. 8 Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
9 No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, 10 and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord’s people, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.
11 As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. 12 Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. 13 Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also busybodies who talk nonsense, saying things they ought not to. 14 So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. 15 Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.
16 If any woman who is a believer has widows in her care, she should continue to help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.
17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 18 For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,”[a] and “The worker deserves his wages.”[b] 19 Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. 20 But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning. 21 I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism.
22 Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.
23 Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.
24 The sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. 25 In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not obvious cannot remain hidden forever.
Footnotes:
1 Timothy 5:18 Deut. 25:4
1 Timothy 5:18 Luke 10:7
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Romans 8:1-11
Life Through the Spirit
8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.[c] And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life[d] because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of[e] his Spirit who lives in you.
Footnotes:
Romans 8:2 The Greek is singular; some manuscripts me
Romans 8:3 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit; also in verses 4-13.
Romans 8:3 Or flesh, for sin
Romans 8:10 Or you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive
Romans 8:11 Some manuscripts bodies through
“Gorgeous Inside”
October 11, 2013 — by Dave Branon
To be spiritually minded is life and peace. —Romans 8:6
It’s a rather nondescript house that sits on a busy thoroughfare. With no distinctive characteristics, this rather plain home is easy to ignore. But as I drove past it the other day, I noticed a “For Sale” sign in the yard. Attached to the sign was a smaller notice that happily announced: “I’m gorgeous inside.” While I’m not in the market for a new house, that sign intrigued me. What could make this otherwise forgettable house gorgeous inside?
It also made me wonder: Could that sign apply to us as followers of Jesus? Think about it. No matter what we look like on the outside, shouldn’t there be within us a beauty that reveals God’s love and work in our lives?
What does the Bible say about inner beauty? We might start with Romans 7:22, which says, “In my inner being I delight in God’s law” (niv). A few verses later in Romans 8:6, Paul speaks of a Spirit-controlled mind that is characterized by “life and peace.” And in Galatians, we see that letting the Spirit take charge of our inner being will build in us the “fruit of the Spirit” (5:22), a beautiful array of qualities such as love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness.
Delighting in Scripture and allowing the Spirit to work in our heart will make us look good on the inside—and will pay off in a life that honors God.
Dear Lord, I pray that through the work of Your
Spirit dwelling within me I will be transformed
into a grand display of the fruit that will attract
others to You and reflect glory back to You.
Righteousness in your heart produces beauty in your character.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 11, 2013
God’s Silence— Then What?
When He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was —John 11:6
Has God trusted you with His silence— a silence that has great meaning? God’s silences are actually His answers. Just think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything comparable to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? God will give you the very blessings you ask if you refuse to go any further without them, but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into an even more wonderful understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible— with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, then praise Him— He is bringing you into the mainstream of His purposes. The actual evidence of the answer in time is simply a matter of God’s sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you may have said, “I asked God to give me bread, but He gave me a stone instead” (see Matthew 7:9). He did not give you a stone, and today you find that He gave you the “bread of life” (John 6:35).
A wonderful thing about God’s silence is that His stillness is contagious— it gets into you, causing you to become perfectly confident so that you can honestly say, “I know that God has heard me.” His silence is the very proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will always bless you in answer to prayer, He will do it, but He will never give you the grace of His silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, then He will give you the first sign of His intimacy— silence.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
How to Walk Through the Wreckage - #6980
Friday, October 11, 2013
There's one vacation spot our family always wanted to go back to-Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. As you walk through this bustling, restored Colonial capital, suddenly you say, "Whoa, it's not "now" anymore." You feel like you're in the 1770s again. I mean the buildings, and the gardens, and the elegant rooms carry this charm that even children can sense. But it wasn't always that way.
This was the capitol of Virginia in Revolutionary War times, but over 150 years a lot of buildings changed, deteriorated and were torn down. Then along came the Rockefellers in the 1930s. A local minister had dreamed of the town being restored to its former beauty and to the glory that it once had. And that was the beginning of a whole new episode in the history of Colonial Williamsburg. It was really something rundown until someone committed his resources to restoring it.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Walk Through the Wreckage."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the Old Testament prophet Joel. It's in chapter 1, verse 4. "What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten." What you're getting here is an image here of total destruction in the land.
It's symbolic, because verse 6 says, "A nation has invaded my land, powerful and without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vines and ruined my figs trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white." What the Bible was talking about here is a devastating past; maybe like yours.
And then comes the hope. Chapter 2, verse 25, "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten-the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm." Then he says, "Then you will know that I am in Israel; that I am the Lord your God and there is no other. Never again will my people be ashamed." Boy, here is the promise of a great restoring work.
Time and neglect had done a lot of damage to old Colonial Williamsburg. But then someone with a lot of resources committed themselves to restoring it. And that commitment made all the difference. In many ways that's Joel's picture here. God has seen the wreckage of the past, and He knows sometimes maybe that you have that sort of Humpty-Dumpty feeling: All the kings horses and all the kings men can't put you together again. But the King can.
A Christian psychiatrist once told me, "Ron, I think only a Christian can dare to truly face his or her past." Yes, because you're not facing it alone. You're facing it with a Savior, the healer, the carpenter who rebuilds what others have given up on. There is a Savior who will walk with you through those memories and help heal them, who will put them in perspective, who can loosen their grip on you. That Savior can give you a brand new identity; not being the victim any more, but the victor. He can turn your pain into sensitivity for the similar pain of others. And then He can make you a make-a-difference person for those who are walking through that same valley. Something deeply healing happens when you take Jesus Christ into each painful episode from the past. The Bible says, "He's carried all our grief and sorrows."
You do not have to be trapped in the wreckage of the past any longer. Jesus stands poised with His infinite resources to tackle the damage you could never fix and to restore you to a new beauty that you never thought possible.
And listen with me to the words from a hymn that captures that restoring miracle. It says, "Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter, feelings lie buried that grace can restore. Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness, cords that are broken will vibrate once more." That's what Jesus can do for you this very day.