Hatorade

March 14, 2021 by  
Filed under Daily Devotions, Humorous

by Elaine James –

I overheard my daughter asking her angry friend “did you, like, drink some Hatorade today?” One of her friends had made a hateful comment toward another friend. My daughter took up for her, which is why she asked the Hatorade question. I heard her say ‘Hatorade’ and thought “What a funny question and word.” This is precisely the way slang words are created today.

Gatorade was invented with the idea that it is a high performance drink that absorbs quickly into your body to give you energy to activate your muscles. If there was a drink called Hatorade, I would imagine that after drinking some, it would absorb quickly into your soul and then cause you to spew hate out your mouth. Spewing words is an age old problem. Speaking without thinking will always get you into trouble.

Controlling the tongue is a difficult thing to do. You wouldn’t have got snappy with your husband if he did not get snappy with you. You are hurting so you want to hurt someone back. It is easy to be nice when life is going well.

Perhaps you feel like Paul when he said “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

A binding exchange of promises with God should help us to watch what we say. That is the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

I don’t think we will see a drink called Hatorade at the grocery store anytime soon. It wouldn’t surprise me to see it in a Hollywood movie someday.

Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

PRAYER: Father in heaven I have trouble at times doing good. I ask you to give me the strength to say and do the right things. Thanks for listening. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

“People with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness” (Proverbs 14:29 NLT).

Living Squinty-Eyed

February 20, 2021 by  
Filed under Daily Devotions, Humorous

By Cheri Cowell –

Sunglasses in Florida are just a part of life, but that part of life gets more complicated when you wear prescription glasses. This past Saturday, I knew we were going to be out in the sun all day and decided to wear my contacts, keeping my sunglasses on a string around my neck. This was a much easier method swapping between my regular glasses prescription sunglasses. The only real downside to this decision is I can’t really see with my contacts. Oh, I can see to walk, but don’t ask me to read anything. I end up squinting, a lot, when I need to read.

Jesus actually talked about living a squinty-eyed life versus a life lived with wide-eyed wonder.

This passage in Matthew approaches the idea of light and eyes from two different angles. One being the eye as the window through which light enters, and the other as the lens through which man visions the world. Jesus uses both interpretations to teach the lesson that seeing the way God sees is the only way to see truthfully. If you and I want to live a life full of light, we must do so without squinty-eyed greed and distrust.

PRAYER: God, I Praise You for helping me see things with more of a God’s eye view. Help me to live more wide-eyed and less squinty-eyed so I might be filled to overflowing with wide-eyed wonder.

“Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!” (Matthew 6:22-23 MSG).

Sky Mall and the Things We Buy

February 10, 2021 by  
Filed under Daily Devotions, Humorous

By Peter Lundell –

On a recent flight I browsed the Sky Mall catalog, which exists to showcase things every satisfied person ought to have. My favorites:

A showerhead that lights up with different colors, which “can feel as enjoyable and relaxing as being in a spa.” Oh, really?

A toilet seat with a sensor that automatically raises and lowers the seat and lid, because “some men have a hard time remembering to put the toilet seat down after use.” Humph. Men.

The world’s largest CD storage towers that can hold my “2,262 CDs” or “936 DVDs.” But there are only 365 days in a year.                                                                                                                            

A cherry wood luxury showcase for my “24 watches. Over 4 million sold world-wide.” Guess I should have one too—after I buy another 23 watches.

A portable staircase to help my older dog get onto its favorite bed or sofa. (So I don’t have to lift my pet.) Lucky me.

Then there are the skeleton gnomes (midget skeletons with red caps), along with statuary of zombies, and replicas of King Tut’s Egyptian Throne and the Peeing Boy of Brussels. How inspiring.

Oh, how happy I would be if I owned all these things. How happy many people seem to think they will be.

By design, our consumer culture keeps adults thinking and buying like insatiable children.

Then Jesus comes along and tells us to give things up, even our lives. Who would want to follow Him? Seriously, Jesus is not attractive to materialists—which is one reason so many reconfigure Jesus as a palatable religious icon in their own image.

Yet the human heart—whatever it believes—still yearns for something deeper and more enduring. No one can adequately fill the vacuum inside it except the God who put it there in the first place.

So, how filled is your vacuum?

PRAYER: Lord, keep my heart on Your Kingdom, my eyes on the unseen, my mind on the eternal. And let me not be seduced by the allure of possessions.

“If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Matthew 19:21 NIV).

Exhilarating

February 1, 2021 by  
Filed under Daily Devotions, Humorous

By Elaine James –

“Oh my gosh,” I screamed as I approached the top of a small hill. I clinched the brake handles of my bicycle and came to a screeching halt. There I was, face to face with a deer. I got off my bike in utter disbelief as eight other deer pranced across my path. They stopped only 10 feet away, then turned to stare at me. My heart was racing with delight. Life seemed to stop.

“This is exhilarating!” I thought to myself. “God does this moment really have to end?” It would be dark soon so I knew I couldn’t stay much longer.

The deer stood motionless for minutes, but began to leave one at a time, before I was ready, confirming the moment was over.

Some people approached from behind. When they caught up to me, I asked, with enthusiasm “Did you see that?”

“See what? “They retorted.

I gulped. “The nine deer that just surrounded me. ”

“No, we did not see anything.”

I could not believe it. I am so electronically challenged. You would think that I would be able to get my cell phone camera working to capture the moment! Without proof, would anyone even believe me?

“God, what just happened?”

God’s still small voice answered, “I brought you out to this forest preserve, just as I brought Elijah out of the cave to the cliff edge so I could pass by him. He discovered I was not in the wind, earthquake or fire that appeared before him. I am not in the deer. I am the creator of the deer. I chose to reveal myself to you.”

As I left the park that day, crying, I knew this was no coincidence. You see, I had been asking God to help me prepare to teach at an upcoming retreat that weekend. I had been meditating on 1 Kings 19, which is the story of Elijah.

As I laid my head on my pillow that night, I felt giddy, just as I felt as a little girl when I saw my favorite animal at the zoo. I giggled with excitement, for I knew I was ready to testify that “God wants to reveal himself to you too! Seek Him and you will find Him.”.

PRAYER: Father in heaven, help me to stay close to You so I can experience You more in my life.

“But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in Him” (1 John 2:27b).

Too Much Baggage

January 22, 2021 by  
Filed under Daily Devotions, Humorous

By Rosemary Flaaten –

“I’m sorry you have more baggage than is allowed with this ticket.” These words, spoken by the airline employee, sent my mind racing. What would I leave behind? I surveyed the suitcases bulging with books and new purchases. Suddenly the term “carry-on” took on a whole new meaning as I envisioned going into the restroom to slip on another layer of sweaters, change my flats to boots and fill up my briefcase in hopes of falling within the allotted baggage allowance.

“Baggage” can refer to the suitcases we take on trains, but it also is a quasi-psychological term that refers to the emotional things that encumber us. It is our baggage that restricts our freedom, progress, development or adaptability. Let me retell a story from 1 Samuel 8 & 9 that attests to the ongoing struggle with baggage in our lives.

“We want a King!” demanded the Israelites. So, God gave them the desires of their hearts and chose Saul whose view of himself was, “I’m only a Benjamite, from the smallest of Israel’s tribes and from the most insignificant in the tribe at that.”

One would think that Saul, having been chosen by the most highly respected Prophet of the day, having been told that he was to become a leader for the people, and having experienced such personal transformation, would move into this new role with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen that way!

The people were assembled. The crown was ready. Saul’s name has been called, but where was he? Samuel can’t find him and so enquires of God. God’s response should stop each one of us in our tracks. God finds Saul, the man He has chosen and equipped to become king, “hidden among the baggage.” Saul’s sense of inferiority, based on his heritage, became baggage that impeded his movement into the role God had for him.

What baggage are you carrying around? How are your present circumstances constrained because of a habitual warped view of yourself? Are you carrying so much baggage from your past that you cannot take hold of the new opportunities God is bringing your way?

Learn to travel lightly.

PRAYER: Lord, help me see myself as You see me and to let go of the past.

“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14 NIV).

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