Guidelines For Living Devotional
Episodes
A young man described by Luke, the physician, as "a man full of God's grace and power" did great wonders and miracles among the residents of Jerusalem shortly after Christ's ascension to heaven. But the religious leaders of the day didn't like it. He was taken before the Sanhedrin. When the high priest asked him if these charges were true, Stephen proceeded to preach to the crowd, but his sermon didn't si...
God has a plan, and chance has no part in that plan. Take, for example, planet Earth‑‑this elliptical sphere spinning on its axis at the rate of 1,000 miles per hour, hurtling through space at the rate of 27,000 miles per hour. Planet Earth, of course, is but one of eight major planets which revolve around the sun, all of which are part of our solar system, which moves through space at the speed of 720,000 kilometers per hour in ...
When you don't in a world that generally does, you stand out like a sore thumb! In other words, when almost everybody cheats, and you don't, you are penalized. When almost everybody lies to get ahead, and you feel compelled to tell the truth, you are at a distinct disadvantage. When almost everybody uses company time for their own personal business or pleasure and you don't, you are thought strange or even stupid.
A man and woman wanted to sneak off for a romantic lunch together, away from the eyes of their colleagues at the office they both worked in. They picked up a pizza and headed for a nearby park. When they opened the pizza box, however, they found, not only the pizza, but an envelope full of cash, which the restaurant manager had hidden in the box the day before, for safekeeping. Fearing that they might be accused of theft, they i...
Ezekiel was a priest who had been carried away by King Nebuchadnezzar and forced to settle in Tel Abib on the Chebar Canal in Babylon. As this man grew older, he grew both hungry for God and lonesome for his homeland that we know as Israel today.
Long ago the psalmist prayed, "Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?" (Psalm 85:6). A generation ago, folks sang the rousing words of a song written by John Husband: "Revive us again; fill each heart with thy love; May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Hallelujah! Thine the glory, Hallelujah! Amen; Hallelujah! Thine the glory, revive us again."
How does a person restore a connection with God? That was the question posed by a friend of Guidelines. She struggled in even writing the letter, saying that four years ago she had written asking the same question but never mailed the letter. Now a little girl, three years of age, is asking questions about God, and all of this triggers feelings of remorse and regret.
Do you live in a part of the world where the trees lose their leaves in the fall? Strangely, they become their most brilliant, with leaves of red, orange, gold, and brown right before the cold freeze of winter arrives, stripping the leaves and leaving barren branches. Yet when spring follows winter, there is hope for renewal, and as the warmth of a spring sun gradually drives back the frost of winter, there is the expectation that...
A former Khmer Rouge prison chief who was convicted of crimes against humanity is now serving only half of his 35-year sentence. His name is Kang Kek lew, but he was known during the decimating and ruthless slaughter perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge as "Comrade Duch."
In his book Making Life Rich Without Any Money, Phil Callaway tells of an elderly couple celebrating their 50th anniversary. When the cake was cut, it seemed only fitting that the husband comment on those wonderful years together. He looked tenderly at his wife and tried to express himself.
The greatest rivers in the world usually begin on the cold, frozen slopes of high mountains as the sun begins to melt snow and ice, and from the trickle of crystal-clear water a steam begins to flow and eventually a cascade of water plummets down the mountain. In the valley far below, the stream becomes a river, then a great river which we call the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges, the Rhine, or whatever. By the time these massive bo...
"Why don't you grow up? You aren't a child anymore!" Scores of adults never cut the apron strings, never emotionally grow up. They lean on mother, on their wife or husband, or buy expensive toys which become security blankets. The difference between some men and their boys is merely the price of their toys, so observed one critic.
"Your love was fake," the social media post read. "But the pain it caused was very real." It's a sad truth—to love, to be in relationship with another human inevitably involves experiencing pain in one way or another. To simply live in this world involves rubbing shoulders with people that we don't even like, let alone love. But, love—the kind that the Apostle Paul wrote about in the Bible book of 1 Cor...
When Sir Ernest Shackleton was exploring in the Antarctic, he faced a very difficult hour as their rations became depleted. Finally, the last few biscuits were given out to the men. There was not a crumb of anything left. That night Shackleton lay awake in his sleeping bag with their peril heavy on his mind. He knew that death by starvation was near unless something happened.
Marriage, said an unknown pundit, is the art of two incompatible people learning to love compatibly together. Anyone who has been married for more that 24 hours would agree that sustaining a marriage takes more than romantic feelings. It takes a deep commitment of love which reaches beyond your emotions and feelings to meeting the needs of another. It’s costly, too! But its currency isn’t monetary. We pay by repressing the des...
When you learn that your bitterest enemy has really “gotten it in the neck,” how do you feel? Do you quietly—or perhaps not so quietly—rejoice? “Good!” you think, “Got just what he deserved! I never liked that person anyway.”
When the cartoonist Charles Schulz dined in the home of a friend, the host remarked that he had just what Schulz needed to set off his dinner jacket. He disappeared and then returned in a few minutes with a heavy chain from which a medallion hung. Across the face of the medallion were the letters L O V E. Schulz fingered it for a few minutes and then handed it back to the host. With a wry "Charlie Brown" smile on his f...
One of the greatest orators of all times was Sir Winston Churchill, and who would deny the power of his words during Britain's darkest hours? Yet, says 1 Corinthians 13 from the New Testament, the greatest orator in the world is nothing apart from love. That is why it is so necessary to translate love into the kitchen where you face dirty dishes, and into the laboratory where you rub shoulders with unlovable men and women, a...
What keeps the world running? Is it the Internet, markets or governments that print money as needed? It's definitely not politicians! No, the reality is that these all threaten to bring the world to its knees. In one word, it is faith! You have faith that another nation will keep its alliances and treaties, faith in your coworkers and faith in your husband or wife that he or she will live up to the promises you made to ea...
Overconfidence can be your most deadly enemy! So learned a young man who once stood guard on the walls of ancient Pergamos when an enemy force laid siege to the city. What you don't know is that the wall of the ancient city was almost impregnable. I use the word almost because nothing is absolutely impenetrable.