Brewing Up a Good Story
By Rhonda Rhea
I’m so excited that I found biblical grounds that my husband should be the one to make the coffee every morning. Hebrews. You know, “He brews”? And it’s a whole book. I figure that’s pretty solid biblical grounds, right? Wait. Did I really twice mention biblical “grounds” in the middle of a bunch of coffee talk? Okay, so no doubt I need to stay more alert in exactly how I read God’s word. The extra-shot-of-espresso, high-caff kind of alert. It’s important not to get lazy.
Isn’t it weird how we can sometimes make God’s Word say things it’s not really saying? Stringing things together that aren’t related, adding meaning where it doesn’t belong. Or sometimes we simply neglect God’s Word altogether. And that’s altogether the wrong thing to do. The thing is, there are essential life-building truths we just can’t ignore if we want to live a vital, fruit-filled, wide-awake kind of life in Christ. The Bible is not just a collection of good stories a group of people brewed up. It’s God’s message to us. And there is plenty of meaning right there in his word—right there in black and white—without trying to squeeze out something else. Meaning to last a lifetime. And meaning to change a lifetime.
Hebrews 4:12 tells us that “the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Now there’s some high-powered life-fuel. And 2 Timothy 3:14-17 lists some of the amazing things scripture does is in our lives. “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Coffee may partially equip us for a morning. But God’s word thoroughly equips us for every good work. His word equips us for life!
I think I’ll be percolating on that truth for a long time.
Meanwhile, I finally figured out that I can program the coffee maker to make the coffee all by itself. Auto-brew. There’s no book in the Bible about it or anything like that, but is it okay if I tell you that I thought it was a pretty marvelous “revelation”?
Who Is Calling? How to Discern the Voice of God
September 27, 2024 by admin
Filed under Faith Articles
By Dianne Butts
Go visit Archie. His cancer has advanced. I wanted to visit, but my schedule was full. Was this thought from God? My own nagging conscience? Or the enemy drawing me away?
When we hear a spiritual “voice”, how can we tell if it’s God?
Constant.
When I first felt the inkling to write, I thought. Me? Write? Was God asking me to write for Him? “Is this my idea or God’s?” I asked my friend, Linda. “Our desires come and go,” she said, “but God’s desires persist”.
God called Samuel three times (1 Samuel 3), but young Samuel didn’t recognize God’s voice either. When Eli figured it out, he instructed Samuel to respond to the Lord. God didn’t knock Samuel out of bed with a blast of thunder, but His persistent calling didn’t let Samuel rest.
Calm.
How can we differentiate between God’s nudges and impulses that are not from God? Impulses feel urgent, often coming in “shoulds” and “oughts”.
Jesus and the disciples certainly felt the pressure of impulses. One day a message arrived from Mary and Martha: “Jesus, come quick! Lazarus is sick!” “Yet…Jesus stayed where he was two more days” (John 11:6). When He left for Bethany, Lazarus was dead (vs. 7, 14). Jesus calmly continued His work. Then, He went to Lazarus.
Do impulses pull us away from God’s work? Distinguishing between God’s nudges and other impulses brings less fruitless busywork, more eternal fruit — and calm.
Convicting or Condemning?
We can distinguish between our enemy’s voice and God’s by where it leads. Surely when the religious leaders brought the adulterous woman to Jesus, she wanted to run away. After He ordered anyone without sin to throw the first stone and the people left, He asked, “Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared (John 8:10, 11).
Satan’s voice condemns us causing us to want to run from Christ. But as believers, we no longer stand before God condemned (Romans 8:1). God’s voice leads us to Christ for forgiveness.
Character.
Sandy grew up in a home filled with anger. “I associated these angry ‘voices’ in my mind with the voice of God. Now,” she said, “when I ‘hear’ a negative voice, I ask, ‘Is it characteristic of the God I know and love through Scripture?’”
God’s voice reveals His character. He is holy (Leviticus 11:44), righteous (Psalm 11:7), just (Psalm 9:16), merciful and forgiving (Daniel 9:9). He is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness (Psalm 86:15).
When the voice within us causes us to mistrust God or believe He won’t forgive us, we are not hearing the voice of God.
Clear.
“My husband and I wanted another child,” said author Tricia Rhodes. But six years passed, before a familiar voice said, “Tricia, your pain isn’t because you haven’t had another child but because you’ve come to believe I’m not good”. I heard Him because I was still listening [i] Jesus prayed, “‘Father, glorify your name!’ Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again” (v. 28). The crowd said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken (v. 29). Thunder? An angel? Did they not recognize the voice of God? God speaks clearly, but are we listening?
Go visit Archie. I left my writing and headed to Archie’s house. We had a wonderful visit, I still completed my writing work, and Archie soon went home to the Lord. Step by step, God is teaching me to recognize His voice.
Dianne E. Butts (www.DianneEButts.com, http://Twitter.com/DianneEButts) has written for more than 50 Christian publications and fifteen books. Read about her current book-in-progress at www.DeliverMeBook.blogspot.com.
This article first appeared in the February/March 1999 issue of Virtue.
Scripture quotes are from the New International Version.
I Dream of…Genealogy?
September 25, 2024 by admin
Filed under Daily Devotions
I love to write suspense. Out of nothing—poof. I dream and worlds appear. It’s fun to make up characters. Maybe my protagonist should have purple highlights, drive a Karmann Ghia, and walk with a limp. And the food! I can whip up grilled pork roast, guilt-free Alfredo sauce, and crème brûlée. The setting? Antarctica. Or a planet of my own making, complete with talking chimera. Whatever I do, one thing is certain: My plot must hold readers captive so they neglect the laundry, the bathtub, sleeping, and breathing. The last thing I do if I want to tell a dramatic story is include a long list of names in my story’s climax. That would be like rolling the credits as the main action in a movie. Yet leave it to God to break all the rules when breathing inspiration into the best-told stories of all time.
Ending with a genealogy is exactly what He did through the human of the Book of Ruth. And once we “get” what He’s doing, we have to admit He has provided an utterly dramatic landing. The readers of “Ruth” lived in a world before moving pictures. No photos; only drawings. When a loved one died, the bereaved had no hope of ever seeing that person’s face again. The only thing left was a memory, and a name. So for the descendants of Abraham, genealogy ruled. What might seem anticlimactic to us thrilled the readers of Ruth’s story. Why? The last name on that list was King David.
What Ruth could not have known, but those who heard her story would have quickly discerned is that God blessed her long after her death. She was the grandmother of the greatest earthly king ever. And it keeps getting better: Much later Matthew records her name in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. A Moabite girl with the wrong pedigree was grafted into the royal tree. And all because she embraced the Lord as her God and showed loyal love to a helpless widow.
PRAYER: Lord, thank You that You love mercy and justice and humility, and You care for the needy and the vulnerable. Thank You that You are able to do far beyond what we can even ask or imagine if we trust in You. Glorify Yourself through my life that I might shine forth something of Your glory.
“These are the descendants of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron was the father of Ram, Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab was the father of Nachshon, Nachshon was the father of Salmah, Salmon was the father of Boaz, Boaz was the father of Obed, Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David,” Ruth 4:18-22 NET.
Today’s devotion is by Sandra Glahn, Th.M. She is an adjunct professor, Christian Education and Pastoral Ministries, at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS), her alma mater while currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Aesthetic Studies (Arts and Humanities) at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her books include The Coffee Cup Bible Study series and the medical suspense thriller, Informed Consent (Cook). She and her husband, Gary, have been married over thirty years and have a daughter who joined their family through adoption.
You’re Fat, Crappa!
By Lane R. Johnson
The television commercial was for a weight loss program and featured names like Dan Marino and Don Shula. It promised incredible results and advertised itself to be just the thing for men. I had seen the ad a hundred times and really wasn’t paying attention. After all, Cullen, my five year old grandson, was sitting next to me and I felt like I was on top of the world! Anyway, that commercial was for fat people.
Are You Listening to God or Goliath?
September 20, 2024 by admin
Filed under Daily Devotions
David had a choice in 1 Samuel 17. He could believe the promises of Goliath or God. “The Philistine said to David, ‘Am I a dog, that you are coming after me with sticks?” Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, ‘Come here to me, so I can give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the field!’ “But David replied to the Philistine, ‘You are coming against me with sword and spear and javelin. But I am coming against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel’s armies, whom you have defied! This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand! I will strike you down and cut off your head. This day I will give the corpses of the Philistine army to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land. Then all the land will realize that Israel has a God and all this assembly will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves! For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will deliver you into our hand,’” 1 Samuel 17:43-47 NET.
As you know, it was Goliath who became buzzard meat.
We have a choice, whose promises will we believe: our enemy or our God?
“You’re a loser, a worthless failure” or “You’re a child of God.”
“You can’t do it” or “I will give you strength.”
“You’re out of work and you’re going to starve” or “I will provide for you.”
“You have six months to live” or “In Me, you have eternal life.”
“Your prodigal children are lost” or “I will guide them home.”
“No one loves you” or “I love you unconditionally.”
“You’re alone” or “I am with you.”
We have a choice whose promises will we believe: the loser or the winner?
PRAYER: Father, as we face our individual Goliaths today, may we believe Your promises, rather than the giant’s. “For the battle is the Lord’s.”
Today’s devotion by James N. Watkins is reprinted by permission from www.jameswatkins.com copyright © 2009. He is the author of fifteen books, including Squeezing Good Out of Bad, and over two thousand articles. He has spoken across the United States as well as overseas.
