The Only Way

A welfare worker, visiting in the home of one of her clients, discovered a crippled child that had never gone to school because he was unable to walk. Her compassionate heart was deeply touched by his condition and she decided to do something out of the ordinary for him.

Initially, she took him to a distinguished orthopedic surgeon who performed several procedures to correct the problems in his legs. Then a podiatrist corrected the problems with his crooked feet. Little by little he learned to walk and run and play. He also learned to read and write and make enough progress to attend school with his friends.

One day, in telling this story to a group of her friends she said, "He is now a grown man. And I want you to tell me where you think he is and what he is doing.”

After a few moments her colleagues began to reply: "A doctor?" asked one. "No," she responded. "A minister?" wondered another. "No," she replied. "I know," said a third, "a welfare worker because of your influence in his life."

"No," she said with tears in her eyes. "He is now in prison serving a life term for murder. You see, we spent all of our time in teaching him how to walk and run, read and write, but we did not teach him where to walk and what to read and who he should communicate with."

David prayed, "Teach me Your way, O Lord, and I will walk in Your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name."

Prayer:  Father, write on our hearts and in our minds the words of Your Son: "I am the way, the truth and the life!" May we share those words with others. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture For Today: Psalm 86:11 Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart,  that I may fear your name.

Kingdom Work

What happens when God's people do God's work? Can what we do provide evidence to His mercy and grace? Can those around us actually see Him by what we do?

The Psalmist said that "Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him, that His glory may dwell in our land."

In other words, when people become born again – accept God's salvation through faith in Christ – there will be evidence of God's Kingdom on earth. Christians will busy themselves in working with the needy, bring hope and help to those who are suffering, seek justice for those who are wronged, and establish rules that are just and fair.

In Psalm 85:11 we read, "Faithfulness (to God's Word) will spring forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven." If we believe in the Word of God, we are to live in obedience to the Word of God, and that means we are to do the work of God: we are to do whatever is within our abilities and power to establish His Kingdom on earth.

Whenever people’s hearts are right with God, we see God-things happen. The abolition of slavery and the end of child labor followed a resurgence of faith in God. The Salvation Army came to life when General Booth was convicted that God called him to “bring God's love to the needy”. Seeing children, who were neglected, ignorant and hungry burdened Robert Raikes to start "Sunday" school. Many educational and charitable institutions came into existence because God's people saw God's children in need and were convicted by His Spirit to do something about it. Good deeds and showing compassion are evidence that righteousness on earth comes from Heaven!

Prayer:  Help us, Father, to see what You see and then become Your hands and feet on earth to show Your love. May we find a need and fill it! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture For Today: Psalm 85:11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.

God's Peace

There is an interesting theme that runs throughout the Bible. It is the if/then theme. If we are obedient to God, then we can be confident of His blessings, favor, gifts and a sense of His presence in our lives. If on the other hand, we are disobedient and willingly disobey His laws and teachings, then we will experience guilt and a separation from Him.

Certainly the feelings of separation can be a good thing. It is God within us stirring up a special gift He has given us – the gift of the Holy Spirit who is to guide us and guard us; and give us peace. When we become "disconnected" from God, He is there to "alert us" of impending dangers and convict us to return to the path and plan He has designed for us. He is eager to do His work if we are willing to allow Him to do so.

Our Psalmist reminds us that God "speaks peace to His people and to His saints." His peace is what brings us "wholeness and completeness" and unites us with Him. It dissolves the fear we have of Him and removes the guilt that we carry within us from being disobedient to Him.

So our Psalmist wisely adds, "but let them not return to their folly" – or perhaps a more appropriate translation of the word "folly" is "stupidity."  What might this mean?

Often we become "presumptuous" and assume that we deserve God's blessings. We take an inventory of our lives and things appear to be "just about as wonderful as wonderful can be." We have no "fear" of God and take His goodness for granted. "What stupidity!" says the Psalmist. "Be careful of falling into Your past sinful ways."

Prayer:  May we be constantly alert, Lord, to any sin that will separate us from You, Your peace, and Your blessings. Please keep us from being “stupid!” In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture For Today: Psalm 85:8 I will listen to what God the Lord says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—but let them not turn to folly.

Hope's Foundation

Many of us have struggled through difficult times and painful days in years gone by. We recall with pleasure what God has done for us in the past with gratitude – knowing that it was His love, mercy and grace that enabled us to get through lengthy days and long nights. Because of those memories when He graciously lavished His love on us, we can if we chose to, view our future in, through, and with Him, with hope and optimism.

In Psalm 85 our author is apparently reflecting on a loss suffered by Israel in a military battle. They looked at their loss as punishment from God. But the Psalmist does not focus on the loss, he focuses on the fact that God has brought them out of captivity in the past, forgave them of their sins, and promised them  a future. So with confidence and boldness he said, "Restore us again, O God, our Savior."

The message for us to take away from this Psalm is that in times of depression, defeat, and darkness, we must remember God's grace, gifts, and goodness in our past and pray in the present for His restoration and renewal in the present, as we face our future.

Sometimes when we look at our past and are overwhelmed with the guilt of our sins we are fearful of going to God and asking for “more forgiveness, please!” We feel that we are undeserving and unworthy. We approach His throne of grace in fear and trembling, wondering if we have any right to ask for more forgiveness, cleansing, and restoration.

But when these thoughts plague us, we must remember that God's judgment is always tempered by His love and mercy and He will always forgive us, restore us, and revive us again. Forgiveness is one prayer away, and always available when we ask for it!

Prayer:  Help us, Father, to remember Your blessings in the past as we pass through the problems we face today. Surely, “My grace is sufficient for you.” In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture For Today: Psalm 85:4a  Restore us again, God our Savior,

And In Conclusion...

We are all familiar with the Beatitudes of Jesus in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. But Psalm 84 contains three beatitudes we rarely think about: “The Three B’s.”

The first talks about our relationship with God – about being with Him and worshiping Him and praising Him. "Blessed," said the psalmist, "are those who dwell in Your House; they are ever praising You." Indeed, we are truly blest that His invitation to us is "Come, now is the day of salvation" – an invitation to be with Him today and every day throughout eternity. To dwell in His presence forever is not a blessing we often think abut.

The second beatitude we find is "Blessed are those whose strength is in You, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage." Throughout this life we are not on our own to struggle with the difficulties we constantly face. His strength is always available to us when we are weak, weary, and worn out. He knew our “pilgrimage” would be long and difficult, so He continually makes Himself available to us whenever we call on Him.

And, perhaps the last beatitude actually sums us the other two: "O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man and woman who trusts in You."

A young college student was at home dying from cancer. He had been heavily sedated for days. Every now and then his Mother would sit by his bedside and ask, "Dennis, are you here?" He would answer her, "Yes, Mom, I'm still here." On the day of his death, however, he responded to her question, "No for long, Mother, I'm going home now."

Above his bed in an empty room are the words: "I hear you, Christian, happy, unafraid, For you heard a song from the other side of death."

Prayer:  Thank You Father, for preparing our next home away from our present home. We thank Your for all You all You have done and are doing. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture For Today: Psalm 84:12 O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man and woman who trusts in You.