2024
January
Rejected by God? by Bill Stough
February
Standing Before God Forever by Patricia Manning
March
Reading My Own Obituary by Bill Stough
April
The Gift of Life by Bill Stough
My Redeemer Liveth by Cynthia Saladin
May
The Fountain of Youth by Bill Stough
June
Hope For a Caterpillar by Bill Stough
Lessons From the Cat by Cynthia Saladin
July
We Will See Him by Cynthia Saladin
The Fervent Prayer of a Righteous Cat Availeth Much by Bill Stough
August
Encouraging One Another by Cynthia Saladin
Our Holiest Example by Charles H. Spurgeon
September
The World Is Too Much With Us by Cynthia Saladin
Hitting the Wall by Bill Stough
Godly Truths by Dr. Mario Denton
January 2024
Rejected by God?
by Bill Stough
I crouched down in a ditch in a Chicago park, trying to not be seen as the police shined spotlights over my head. This ditch was now my bedroom, and I knew the danger I lived in. How could this happen? I couldn’t imagine being in this situation. Only two weeks before I was a student at Ambassador College in Pasadena, California and now things had come to this! I had to remain very still to avoid being seen and hoped I would not snore when I slept for that could draw people to me. This ditch would be my new home for several weeks. Anyone who found me there could have taken what little money I had and probably have killed me. I don’t know what the Chicago police would have done, but I didn’t want to find out! I believed I had turned my life over to God, and now I wondered about whether God would have anything to do with me. If he was with me, why had he led me to this low state?
As I crouched there I wondered if God was rejecting me, as some ministers had at least implied. I was fighting for my eternal salvation but it seemed I was now only a bum. Does God let a person become a homeless bum as an answer to prayer? How could God be working with me if he let me get into this demeaning and dangerous situation? Why was I now homeless and hungry? I had given up my career and put all my goals into God’s hands – but it seemed God didn’t want a person like me. None of what was happening to me seemed to fit what I believed would happen to a real Christian. Do you ever feel that God doesn’t care about you or that he has rejected you? I hope my story can help you.
There was an underlining belief that at that time (summer of 1963) that God would easily reject us. He wanted only certain types of personalities. At Ambassador in 1963 it seemed God was always “beginning to reject” this person or accepting another. There were some of us that didn’t have potential to become what God wanted and were encouraged to get out of “God’s college.” All except me did not return the following semester. But what is the truth about God ‘s acceptance or rejection by him?
“All that the Father gives me will come to me and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.”(John 6:37) KJV
“All that the Father gives me will come to me and him that comes to me I will never drive away.” (NIV).
Here are some lessons we can learn from experiences like mine:
First, God may lead us into unusual places and situations, and we may have trouble believing we are following his will. Secondly, God works strongly with us when we are young. Thirdly, God is molding us and is concerned about our latter end. Fourth, God is not in the business of rejecting people.
I was in Chicago that summer to try to change my basic personality to a type God could accept. It involved seeking work in areas that didn’t fit me, but I did it anyway. As it turned out my basic personality did not change, but God did work in me and made me unafraid of almost anyone or any situation. I learned much that summer. When I returned to Ambassador, I was shortly called to a meeting by some ministers to inquire why I had come back to Ambassador. My reaction to them astonished them.
I told them that in no way was I going to leave, and that they couldn’t make me. I told them my grades were good and that I had broken no college rules, so they had no basis for kicking me out. They sat there not knowing what to say. Apparently no one had ever spoken up to them. So they didn’t challenge me, and I was allowed to finish my Ambassador education. My basic personality was the same, but God had put confidence and conviction in me. God had indeed molded me that summer in Chicago. We might not think God works through letting us know homelessness and all the other things I went through that summer – including having five jobs! It was a summer to remember.
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"If you feel pain, you're alive. If you feel other people's pain, you're a human being.” - Leo Tolstoy
February
Standing Before God Forever
by Patricia Manning
As far as I know, the Bible records three people that have received a promise from God to “never lack a man to stand before Him”, meaning presumably that their descendants will continue until Christ returns. Take a moment now. Can you name these three? Much more importantly, do you know what they did to deserve such a distinction? Perhaps by studying their example, we as God’s people can more deeply understand what God wants from each of us.
The first of three was David. David fought Goliath while giving the credit to God. He also wrote music (psalms) giving praise to God. David led the armies of Israel under Saul, became the second king of Israel, and desired to build a house for God’s name. Solomon was his son as was Jesus Christ our Lord.
The second was Levi, one of the thirteen tribes that came out of Egypt. When Moses asked who was on the Lord’s side at Mount Sinai, they were the only ones who stepped forward. They chose to follow and obey God above love for their Israelite relatives (Deu 33:8-9). They gave up any inheritance in the land to serve as intermediaries between God and His people (Deu 18:1), and they provided service to God. For example, they were responsible for carrying the frames and accessories of the Tabernacle in the wilderness (Num 4). Of David and Levi God says, “Thus says the LORD: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers.” Jer 33:20-21. The tribe of Levi shares many similarities with Christian disciples who, likewise, are devoted to God more than their relatives (Luke 14:26), renounce all that they have (Luke 14:33), and carry the cross of Christ (Luke 14:27).
The third was Jonadab. Our introduction to Jonadab is found in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah had the irksome task of telling the house of Judah that they were destined for captivity in Babylon. In fact, their three-tiered deportation occurred during his forty-year watch. During Zedekiah’s reign (the last king of Judah) God arranges for Jeremiah to meet the descendants of Jonadab. The story is found in Jeremiah chapter thirty-five. Of Jonadab God says, “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man to stand before me.” Jer 35:19
What did Jonadab do to obtain such honor from God? He raised obedient children. Wow! Did you know that raising those little tykes to be obedient is one of the most important things you can do to worship God? Did you know a progenitor who can raise obedient children is on the same level as David and Levi? I didn’t.
Perhaps I should have known, though, because God says to the children of Israel many times concerning His commandments, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Deu 6:7 ; Deu 11:19; Deu 4:10. God said something similar of Abraham, the friend of God, “For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” Gen 18:19.
Hopefully all of us can benefit from the examples of David, Levi, and Jonadab. I hope we are encouraged to continue in their spiritual lineage - doing righteousness and justice as they did. May God give us confidence to endure in teaching our children and grandchildren to do the same.
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One day on the way home from church a little girl turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, the preacher's sermon this morning confused me."
The mother said, "Oh! Why is that?
The girl replied, "Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?"
"Yes, that's true," the mother replied.
"He also said that God lives within us. Is that true too?"
Again the mother replied, "Yes."
"Well," said the girl, "if God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn't He show through?"
March
Reading My Own Obituary
by Bill Stough
The sign on the marquee outside the funeral home in St. Clair, Missouri, read: “William Stough; graveside; Jefferson Barracks.” It had been posted July 13, 2007, and stayed there until Monday, July 16. In a town where I am well known, this created quite a stir. Phone calls were being made to friends of mine asking what had happened. There had been no indication that anything had been wrong with me, but people can die very suddenly. That occurs commonly and can happen to any of us.
The obituary was actually referring to my 95 year-old father, who had just died and with whom I had been spending extensive time as his death approached. But in this community I am the one who is well-known, and he is not. His name is also William, although I go by Bill. When a store in adjacent Union, Missouri, inquired
if I were dead, I told them (as Mark Twain was once said to have declared), “The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
Nonetheless as I read that marquee, I thought about how that could be me. Indeed, one day I will be joining him.
We don’t like to think about it, but a wise person will occasionally meditate on the fact that death is in our future. It is wise to make our days count.
It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart (Eccles. 7:2, NIV).
God wants us to have our heads screwed on straight and seek him while we are alive. Note what Solomon writes in Eccl. 12:1-2, 5-7:
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain; . . . because man goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets; or ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
I once made a service call to a recently retired man, and he was showing me about his home and pointing out all the improvements he was making. Then he suddenly stated, “I wonder if I shouldn’t be putting some time and effort into God and eternal life rather than just this house only.” He caught me by surprise, but we had a good discussion following that. Shouldn’t we all listen to my customer’s concern?
It’s easy to get snared in the here-and-now, and Satan would love it to be that way. In Matthew 13, Christ gave the parable of the sower and the seed. He describes being overly concerned with the cares of this life (verse 7-9 and 22). It is compared to thorns choking the growth of a plant. Always remember that this life is short, and something far more important lies ahead. Put efforts there and not just into the cares of this life. We each need to be a praying person and be involved in helping others. Use your gifts. Don’t let fear paralyze you. Don’t be stopped by the fact that “someone else can do it better.” Do things anyway. We don’t have forever in this life. Make it count.
What good is pursuing money? I have known so many who did nothing but that. But they died, and how did that money help them? What will they have when they come up in the resurrection? And what good is pursuing power and recognition in whatever personal form it takes for us? All these things will be gone when it is our name posted outside the funeral home.
Jesus wants us to seek him and his righteousness and let him be the provider (Matt. 6:33-34). If we do that, we don’t have to be obsessed with what it takes to survive in the here-and-now.
David brings out the motivation an older person should have in Psalm 71:17-18: Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come (NIV).
Jesus knew he had a short time to do his work. He died before he was 34 years old. “As long as it is day I must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. while I am in the world, I am the light of the world (John 9:4-5, NIV).
We too must work on things that matter while it is day. When we die, it is night. Your name will at some future time be posted outside a funeral home.
God remembers us and what we have done. Job described it elegantly in Job 14:14-15: “If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made” (NIV).
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April
The Gift of Life by Bill Stough
There was a time when you and I did not exist Then suddenly we were! We have no personal memory of what it was like years before we were born, for we were not. Then suddenly, with no planning of our own, we were given life.
A child in a good home has a deep love of life. He enjoys playing, skipping, running, and many more things. I can vividly remember getting up in the morning when I was a child and how much I enjoyed eating, and I still do. I would go out and run up and down my neighborhood in San Francisco. My neighborhood friend (Roy) and I would build forts out of bushes. We would dig holes and hide in them. Why we liked all that is hard to explain other than it is a love of life.
As we got a little older, Roy and I developed a desire to climb every fence in the neighborhood. If it was a difficult job, then we worked on techniques until we could do it. There was something inherent in us that made us want to be able to do what seemed hard to do. The neighbors probably didn’t like us climbing their fences, but they usually let it go without complaining.
Roy and I wanted to explore everything. We played hide-and-seek with kids in the neighborhood. We liked jumping off of wood piles and anything else we could find. My boyhood friend, Roy, with whom I maintained contact until his death, remembered all the things we used to do and marvels at how much we were into life. And all these things are merely types of what is planned for us by God. Life is worth so very much. It is our greatest gift.
Why are we the way we are? We were made to want to learn, to experience life, and to do new things even if they are difficult. God put that in us. I could see that there was some kind of drive in me that wanted to overcome obstacles. That too is something God has put in people. God put it in us because he is that way too. We are, after all, his children, and children are very much like their parents in some ways, even from birth.
Roy and I used to dream about what it would be like to explore the universe, and we’d talk about it. Before we were even yet teenagers, we’d imagine what an incredible thing it would be to stand on the moon. We’d walk around in spacesuits, examine features, and look at the Moon Mountains. And what was Mars like? Nobody had seen a clear picture of Mars at that time. We wished we could go there and find out. This was how we talked in the early 1950s, long before space flight. There was something in us that seemed to know no bounds. Our minds were not tied up in knots. We had been given minds that were creative and that could think in vast ways. That, too, tells us something about God and the kind of mind he has, for all we have comes from him.
I see the love of life in my grandchildren. They become excited and enthusiastic about so many things. Sophia and Ethan love running through puddles barefooted. Do you remember how much fun it was to go running around barefooted? All this would not be possible if we hadn’t been given life and the innate love of life that is just somehow inside us.
What are we to learn from this?
This life and our desires to fully experience the good things of life is merely a shadow - a prototype - of what God intends to give us. It also tells us something about him.
God has given us a desire to live forever. We are driven to love life forever. But the love of life that we have now is only a foretaste of what kind of a life is ahead for us as spirit beings (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). And just as a child who is born didn’t give himself that life, neither can we give ourselves life. But it is something Jesus and the Father want to give us, and they can.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full . . . My sheep listen to my voice: I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand (John 17:1-2).
There is a time period in this human life when many, if not most, people want to have children. In effect, they want to give life. And when they do, the child is precious to them. They will guard and look out for their child and seek to see that he has a full, abundant life. All of this tells us something about God, for we are given our human desires by God. And this life is nothing compared to the type of life that lies ahead. So many of the desires we find in ourselves were put there by God and tell us something about what he is like.
I described how Roy and I had some innate craving to overcome obstacles, to accomplish, to create. We also wanted to build things. (Roy, incidentally, became a building contractor.) It may seem trite at times to say “God is Creator.” But it is a profound truth, and it is not just what he has done in the past, for he continues to create. After all, that is his nature. We like to build, do things, and accomplish things. That tells us something about what God is like. He does things. He doesn’t sit on a park bench waiting for things to happen. The Father loves life, and he has put those inclinations right in us.
We must not become discouraged by trials, for a kind of life is ahead that will dwarf the one we know now. And our Father will get us there, for he is not put off by our difficulties. He doesn’t quit, any more than Roy or I would give up when we set our minds to do something. The gift of eternal life lies ahead, so we should not grow weary in well doing.
Think about what God is like in the ordinary things of daily life. Remember God when you see children playing in puddles. Love life now, but know that an even more dramatic, exciting, and fulfilling life lies ahead.
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"A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
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My Redeemer Liveth
by Cynthia Saladin
I got the phone call that my Uncle Dick died early this morning. There is grief because Uncle Dick was a great guy (as human beings go) and his family loves him so much. But there is also relief because his last two weeks were especially rough; he is now no longer suffering. And overarching all of the mix of emotions is our belief that he will be resurrected again - because of what Jesus did on our behalf (John 3:16). We look forward to seeing so many of our loved ones again because my Redeemer liveth!
Job knew this! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another (Job 19:25-27).
Jonah knew this! yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. . . . But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord! (Jonah 2:4, 9)
Martha believed that Lazarus would live again! I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day (John 11:24)!
But this hope is predicated on the assumption of a relationship with Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter what great works you do or how holy you think you are, if you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter (Matthew 7:23). That’s why what we do this month is so important! The communion service is that time of coming before God, having examined ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:27-28) and having reaffirmed that we need Jesus Christ to save us (1 Corinthians 7:24-25), and reaffirming our covenant with Him in Christ (John 13:8, Matthew 26:26-28). It’s followed with our obedience - having just renewed the covenant telling Him that we would obey Him!!! - of celebrating the Days of Unleavened Bread and eating unleavened bread for seven days. It’s an unmistakable picture of taking Jesus Christ into us; in obedience, of hungering for Him and subsisting on that Bread of life so that He exudes from every pore of our being.
This is not just some religious festival. This is Life! And this is not just about our physical life in this world; it’s about eternal life with the Creator of the universe. The stakes are incredibly high; why would you devote less than your full attention to preparing for these days?!
There’s a saying: “You only go around once in life, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Doing it right HAS to be founded on Jesus!
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May
The Fountain of Youth
by Bill Stough
The name Juan Ponce de Leon is familiar to many of us. Some people may remember him as the early Spanish explorer who tried to find the fountain of youth. Ponce de Leon came to the Americas on Christopher Columbus’s second voyage in 1493. He would become the first governor of Puerto Rico under the Spanish Crown. Whether he really believed in the fountain of youth is unknown, but many stories of such life-restoring water were circulating in the areas where Ponce lived, and he may have been trying to find it.
One of the legends circulating among the Caribbean natives was that there was a spring of water that produces eternal youth. It was supposedly on an island nearby. When Ponce de Leon later found Florida, he thought he had found an island. He may have heard a local legend which described Sequene, an Arawak chief from Cuba, who had purportedly been unable to resist the lure of an island known among the Arawaks as Bimini. That island was supposed to have a restorative fountain. Sequene was supposed to have gathered a troupe of adventurers and sailed north, never to return. Word spread among Sequene’s more optimistic tribesmen that he and his followers had located the Fountain of Youth and were living in luxury in Bimini. These and similar stories were widespread.
Stories about a water that would bring a restored life if it was drunk or bathed in did not begin in the 1500s but go back hundreds and even thousands of years. There has been a persistent hunger to find a spring or river of water that would bring eternal life.
Today there is a product sold called “SoBe Lifewater.” It doesn’t promise eternal youth, but the feel of that is inherent in the name. There seems to be some kind of desire built right into us that we need to find something to drink that will make us feel strong and extend our life.
Is there a water that we can drink which will give us eternal life?
In John 4, Jesus is talking with a Samaritan woman at a well. He asks her for a drink. She is surprised a Jew would talk to a Samaritan.
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” [She doesn’t understand.] Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:7-13).
The Holy Spirit not only brings life to us, but it changes us literally, and we have something flowing out of us that refreshes and produces life in others.
On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scriptures has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the
Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet be glorified” (John 7:37-39).
Are we really different because we’ve been drinking that lifewater? Or do we just have a religion? Does all this discussion just sound nice, but it doesn’t really mean anything? Have we actually come to Jesus who is doing something dramatic with us? Or are we just someone who believes certain doctrines? Jesus said we would be taking in life, and that it would be flowing out of us.
There is something about water that is different from any other substance. Water refreshes; it makes alive; it restores. When a person is exercising or working in the heat, nothing feels so good as to stop for a drink of water. It not only feels good, but unless you drink water to replace what you have sweated out, you can die. It is water that keeps you alive.
Water has many traits. When we sit alongside a babbling brook, it is completely relaxing and peaceful. Yet that same water can be a source of power when it is moving fast and in great amounts, such as we see at Niagara Falls. So also the Holy Spirit is both a source of peace and comfort and a source of power. But in each case, the water must move or it will stagnate.
Ponce de Leon was looking for the very kind of water that Jesus spoke about, but he didn’t know it. He looked for physical water.
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son” (Revelation 21:6-8).
What the world needs now is the water of life.
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Final Thought:
A noted psychiatrist was a guest at a gathering of humor editors, and his host naturally broached the subject in which the doctor was most at ease.
"Would you mind telling me, Doctor," he asked, "how you detect a mental deficiency in somebody who appears completely normal?"
"Nothing is easier," he replied. "You ask him a simple question which everyone should answer with no trouble. If he hesitates, that puts you on the track."
"What sort of question?"
"Well, you might ask him, 'Captain Cook made three trips around the world and died during one of them. Which one?'"
The editor thought a moment, then said with a nervous laugh, "You wouldn't happen to have another example would you? I must confess I don't know much about history."
June
Hope For a Caterpillar
by Bill Stough
The little girl stood in awe of the butterfly that landed on her mother’s hand. Her mother stood very still, and the girl reached out and touched it. This was an amazing event to her. All around us butterflies were flying. My wife and I were visiting the Butterfly House in St. Louis.
A butterfly begins as a caterpillar. Nobody would ever believe by looking at a caterpillar that it could transform into a different kind of life form. When the insect is still a caterpillar, it exists only for itself; its purpose in life is solely to eat and not be eaten. The caterpillar does this with great efficiency, but it may destroy plants in the process.
Then something incredible begins to happen to the caterpillar, and it attaches itself to a vine or twig and hangs upside down. The following describes what happens with a developing monarch butterfly:
“While the caterpillar hangs upside down, it molts for the last time. Its skin splits from head to tail. The caterpillar wriggles free of its skin . . . once the caterpillar is free of its old skin, a hard case forms around its body. The case is called a chrysalis. The insect inside the chrysalis is now called a pupa. The caterpillar’s body changes completely inside the chrysalis. It dissolves, or breaks down, into a green liquid. Butterfly parts such as wings start forming in this soupy mixture. . . By the second week, the chrysalis is clearer . . . you can see the pupa starting to change into a butterfly. When the chrysalis becomes totally clear, the butterfly is ready to emerge, or come out of its case.”
The new butterfly hangs there for several hours while he pumps blood into his new wings. He moves those wings and strengthens them. When the wings are strong enough, he flies off. The butterfly now begins his new life and flies from flower to flower eating nectar. In the process, he transfers some of the flower’s pollen to other plants, which fertilizes them. Without even thinking about it, he is now making new plants and participates in creating life, whereas once he only lived for himself and had no capacity to do anything differently.
A caterpillar has a certain amount of beauty, but he must be transformed to do any life-giving. He may wish he could do more noble things, but he can’t.
Neither can we humans unless we become a “new life form.” And we have no power within ourselves to do that. Nonetheless, there are individuals . . . and churches . . . that attempt to bear Godly fruit through their own efforts, without realizing that won’t work.
Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:24-25).
We have to be transformed by Christ and become a new creature. What we have been must die, and a different type of being must arise. The power to do that must come from God; it cannot come from us. It is a work God does. We can’t do life-giving work unless we have Christ living inside us. All attempts to do so by human power and church “programs” are futile. More is involved than changing human habits. Jesus said: “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
When Jesus lives in us, we are different!! A person with the life of God in him is not a “new, improved” human being. It is far more than that, for he is literally a new creature. He is just as different as a caterpillar is to a butterfly.
In John 20:19, the disciples were hiding out for fear of the Jews. But just a short time later in Acts 2, the disciples were transformed by the Holy Spirit and faced the crowd forcefully and fearlessly. Many of the Jews in that crowd were then converted.
Jesus has chosen us to bear fruit (John 15:6). But fruit has to be more than numbers. There are many churches that get new members by various programs, but sometimes lose as many people as they get. The real fruit of the Holy Spirit is changed lives, and the character of such fruit is described in Galatians 5.
A caterpillar can’t by himself become something that he is just simply not. Something must happen to him that dramatically changes him into a different creature. That new creature (a butterfly) somehow automatically gives life through his normal, day-to-day activities. We can’t produce Godly fruit either unless Christ literally lives in us.
It is interesting that a monarch butterfly begins its changes in a liquid.
“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4).
A butterfly does not immediately appear as soon as a chrysalis forms, but the changes become gradually visible. We too do not become like Christ all at once, but we will gradually develop, and others will be able to see the changes.
A caterpillar also has simple eyes that see only light and dark. It finds its way by using its tentacles. But when it becomes a butterfly, it has compound eyes that see colors and patterns on flowers that even our human eyes cannot see. In a similar way, the Apostle Paul wrote that there are things a spiritual eye can see that the natural person can’t (1 Cor. 2).
The words of scripture are very deep. Those words can become even deeper when we see them illustrated in nature.
A caterpillar can’t help what he naturally is. But he can be transformed into a new creature. So can we.
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Lessons From the Cat
by Cynthia Saladin
My habit is to walk the dog every morning, rain or shine. Pepper loves it. He somehow knows when I’ve decided it is time to go and has even learned what W-A-L-K spells. He excitedly jumps and barks and encourages me to hurry up so we can get the walk underway. But there’s another result of his barking: it alerts the cat that the walk is underway. Occasionally, but very rarely, I can get Pepper out the door before he alerts the whole neighborhood. On those days, the cat hears the door close and eventually comes to see what’s going on. When she sees that “the walk” is underway, she runs to catch up - unless, of course, she sees that I’ve noticed that she’s coming and then her tail goes up like a flag and she slows to a dignified saunter.
One day we managed to get half of the way around the field before she noticed. She wanted to accompany us so badly that she cut straight across the field. Normally our path is around the edge. That way, if there’s something that spooks her, she can be up a tree before you can say lickety-split. But cutting across the field? That’s dangerous. An owl could swoop down and enjoy cat for dinner. So the day she cut across the field, I watched the behavior of a scaredy-cat. She would creep a few steps and then crouch and look back over her shoulder, then creep a few more steps. I was a little concerned that the owl would also observe her vulnerable state and took pity on her. I walked to meet her. She was delighted. Of course, the only way I know that is by how she insisted I scratch her chin once we met mid-field.
Recently, her MO is to watch carefully for “the walk” and zoom silently past me - and stop dead in front of me. If I’m not paying attention, it’s easy to boot the cat. That always results in me telling her that I’m sorry and that I didn’t mean to hurt her - and a scratch under the chin. So, of course, you know that she has decided that’s the way to get her morning quota of chin scratches - zip past me and stop dead in front of me - over and over. Currently we do this about halfway around the field. Every morning. I find myself looking at my feet and slowing down and taking small steps. This is no longer walking the dog; this is trying not to boot the cat.
It occurred to me this past week that maybe there’s a lesson here. One observation I made is that it’s those closest to you who tend to trip you up. I may innocently intend to walk the dog. What actually happens is a cat stroll/scratch where I try really hard not to fall over the cat or propel her six feet in front of me.
Does that ever happen in your life? You are busy doing something productive and good; suddenly someone close to you causes you to take your eyes off the job, or even worse, take your eyes off Jesus Christ. They’ve set themselves up in front of you so that you have to modify your walk so that you don’t hurt them or so that you don’t hurt yourself. Is that what Solomon’s wives did? Did they trip him up and cause him to take his eyes off the goal?
I suspect that if you think about it long enough, you will think of someone you know whose children were raised in the church, taught to believe the way we believe, but then they strayed - maybe just a little. And the parents started making excuses for why those life decisions were okay - and then eventually, those choices were really not contrary to God’s will. And suddenly those parents found themselves out of fellowship with God. It’s kind of reminiscent of Jehoshaphat making a marriage alliance with Ahab, yes, that Ahab, Jezebel’s husband. Jehoshaphat’s son married Ahab’s daughter, you know, the wicked Athaliah. There were consequences to those actions. So why would we think that we can water down God’s law and not experience consequences - even for those closest to us?
Think about it. John Smith, three blocks over from your house, whom you have never met and has no interaction with you, no intersection in your life, what are the chances that he’s going to trip you up in your relationship with God? And why else would Jesus say, “He who does not hate mother, sister, brother, yes, even his own life, cannot be my disciple?” We have to put God first. Our future as the Bride of Christ depends upon it!
I have a cat and a dog that I dearly love. I love my family more than those pets. There are things that I value greatly in this world - things I work hard for. But Jesus warns us that something very close to us could offend us (If your eye offend thee, pluck it out!). It could trip us up. We must not hesitate to put God first every time.
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Matt: I invented a thought-controlled air freshener.
Mike: That's ridiculous.
Matt: It makes scents when you think about it.
July
We Will See Him
by Cynthia Saladin
I couldn’t believe my eyes! I was walking the dog and the cat up the hill one morning this week. I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. A pretty black and white striped “kitty” was scampering up the hill into the trees. Yikes! That’s not something I wanted Pepper to see. Thankfully, he didn’t and he was more than willing to come when I called. He was less than enthusiastic about his walk being cut short, but he was mollified with a treat.
I had never actually seen a live skunk in the wild before. I’ve seen lots of dead ones - and smelled more than I’ve seen. So it got me thinking about sight and vision and another experience I recently had.
I just got new glasses. Without glasses, I see distances with my right eye and midrange distances with my left eye. I can get along without glasses until it’s time to read something. If I don’t wear glasses all the time, I’m constantly searching for where I might have left them. So I decided a pair of progressives was worth the cost. But it was tricky getting the lenses ground correctly so that I can use both eyes.
But it was in checking out the glasses - to see if they really are balanced and if they really are an improvement - that I had another experience with sight. The lenses really do sharpen my vision and it’s better with them than without them. But the lenses color everything just a little, making the colors more vibrant.
It made me think of the disclaimers that people now have to put on their photos. “These were the actual colors! I didn’t add any filters!” In this age of AI, optical illusions, and retouching/air brushing, you can’t really tell what is real and what has been modified by man. So, in reality, you really can’t believe your eyes. You find yourself wondering, “Did I really see a skunk?”
Then last night, Ron and I were standing next to the Honda with the hood open. We were talking. Suddenly, Ron said, “Did you see the light flash?” I hadn’t, but I hadn’t been looking directly at it either. We continued our discussion and it happened again. Again, I hadn’t seen the flash. But now I was worried that maybe Ron had a tear in his retina. So I focused on the car. It was a relief when the light came on! Again, however, the phrase popped into my head: I couldn’t believe my eyes. And who knew that the car would flash its lights if the hood was open too long? These new fangled inventions!!
Here, in very short succession, I experienced three different events where I couldn’t believe my eyes. Is God telling me something? Am I being warned to be on alert not to be deceived? We know there’s a warning from Jesus in Matthew 24:24, "For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” It certainly sounds like the deception involves what we see. It only makes sense, then, that the song which is currently playing in my head is “Open My Eyes That I May See.” I also thought about 1 John 3:2 “. . . we will see Him as He is.” I’m looking forward to the day when we will see Jesus our Messiah and deception will be gone along with tears and sorrow and pain and death. O.K. now I’m singing “What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see . . .”
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The Fervent Prayer of a Righteous Cat Avails Much by Bill Stough
It was 11:30 p.m. when we first heard the pleading cry of the lost and frightened cat outside our bedroom.
“Meow, meow, . . . MEOOOW,” it cried over and over.
My wife Scarlett and I were exceedingly tired, but it was clear someone had dumped an unwanted kitten near our country
home. That cat looked for human help and recognized people were inside our window.
In exhaustion, we closed the window and slept lightly until morning. By that time, the young cat had found a place in our nearby storage shed. It continued to cry for help.
I had to go to work. Scarlett went out and cared for the young cat. She fed it food, which it gulped down. The cat then wanted to be petted and have endless attention. He purred and purred. He cuddled up to her and followed her everywhere she went.
The cat longed to be wanted. He wanted someone to care for him and was so responsive when petted and given attention.
We could not ignore the cat and let him go. He had sought help from someone in his great need. He had, in effect, been praying to us. It was not possible for us to leave him to starve when he so earnestly and persistently cried out to us for help, Was God showing us something about Himself?
So often when we pray, we wonder whether God will hear us. I have thought, “Why would God hear me? I’m not worth it. I am not righteous enough.” But here I was seeing things from the side of the one that hears the prayers. The cat was persistent. He kept crying out for what he needed. He was lost, abandoned, and needed to be loved. The cat was humble and scared. Scarlett and I were deeply moved by that cat. He was teaching us about prayer, showing us what moves God.
If we feel a great need and keep crying out to God in prayer, He can’t turn us away. The God who made us knows what caring really means. He is more moved by our pleas than we are for a needy animal.
Scarlett and I were unable to keep the cat because she had developed allergies to cat dander. So we found home for him. But I still think about that cat when I pray. I now have a better grasp of how God feels about my prayers.
Related Scriptures:
*James 5:16 - The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
*Matthew 10:29-31 - God even cares about sparrows. We are worth more.
*Luke 18:1-8 - Pray always. Do not give up. The persistent widow kept coming.
*Luke 18:9-14 - The publican was heard because he knew he needed God.
*1 Peter 5:5-7 - God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Cast your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
by Bill Stough
The sign on the marquee outside the funeral home in St. Clair, Missouri, read: “William Stough; graveside; Jefferson Barracks.” It had been posted July 13, 2007, and stayed there until Monday, July 16. In a town where I am well known, this created quite a stir. Phone calls were being made to friends of mine asking what had happened. There had been no indication that anything had been wrong with me, but people can die very suddenly. That occurs commonly and can happen to any of us.
The obituary was actually referring to my 95 year-old father, who had just died and with whom I had been spending extensive time as his death approached. But in this community I am the one who is well-known, and he is not. His name is also William, although I go by Bill. When a store in adjacent Union, Missouri, inquired
if I were dead, I told them (as Mark Twain was once said to have declared), “The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
Nonetheless as I read that marquee, I thought about how that could be me. Indeed, one day I will be joining him.
We don’t like to think about it, but a wise person will occasionally meditate on the fact that death is in our future. It is wise to make our days count.
It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart (Eccles. 7:2, NIV).
God wants us to have our heads screwed on straight and seek him while we are alive. Note what Solomon writes in Eccl. 12:1-2, 5-7:
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain; . . . because man goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets; or ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
I once made a service call to a recently retired man, and he was showing me about his home and pointing out all the improvements he was making. Then he suddenly stated, “I wonder if I shouldn’t be putting some time and effort into God and eternal life rather than just this house only.” He caught me by surprise, but we had a good discussion following that. Shouldn’t we all listen to my customer’s concern?
It’s easy to get snared in the here-and-now, and Satan would love it to be that way. In Matthew 13, Christ gave the parable of the sower and the seed. He describes being overly concerned with the cares of this life (verse 7-9 and 22). It is compared to thorns choking the growth of a plant. Always remember that this life is short, and something far more important lies ahead. Put efforts there and not just into the cares of this life. We each need to be a praying person and be involved in helping others. Use your gifts. Don’t let fear paralyze you. Don’t be stopped by the fact that “someone else can do it better.” Do things anyway. We don’t have forever in this life. Make it count.
What good is pursuing money? I have known so many who did nothing but that. But they died, and how did that money help them? What will they have when they come up in the resurrection? And what good is pursuing power and recognition in whatever personal form it takes for us? All these things will be gone when it is our name posted outside the funeral home.
Jesus wants us to seek him and his righteousness and let him be the provider (Matt. 6:33-34). If we do that, we don’t have to be obsessed with what it takes to survive in the here-and-now.
David brings out the motivation an older person should have in Psalm 71:17-18: Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come (NIV).
Jesus knew he had a short time to do his work. He died before he was 34 years old. “As long as it is day I must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. while I am in the world, I am the light of the world (John 9:4-5, NIV).
We too must work on things that matter while it is day. When we die, it is night. Your name will at some future time be posted outside a funeral home.
God remembers us and what we have done. Job described it elegantly in Job 14:14-15: “If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made” (NIV).
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April
The Gift of Life by Bill Stough
There was a time when you and I did not exist Then suddenly we were! We have no personal memory of what it was like years before we were born, for we were not. Then suddenly, with no planning of our own, we were given life.
A child in a good home has a deep love of life. He enjoys playing, skipping, running, and many more things. I can vividly remember getting up in the morning when I was a child and how much I enjoyed eating, and I still do. I would go out and run up and down my neighborhood in San Francisco. My neighborhood friend (Roy) and I would build forts out of bushes. We would dig holes and hide in them. Why we liked all that is hard to explain other than it is a love of life.
As we got a little older, Roy and I developed a desire to climb every fence in the neighborhood. If it was a difficult job, then we worked on techniques until we could do it. There was something inherent in us that made us want to be able to do what seemed hard to do. The neighbors probably didn’t like us climbing their fences, but they usually let it go without complaining.
Roy and I wanted to explore everything. We played hide-and-seek with kids in the neighborhood. We liked jumping off of wood piles and anything else we could find. My boyhood friend, Roy, with whom I maintained contact until his death, remembered all the things we used to do and marvels at how much we were into life. And all these things are merely types of what is planned for us by God. Life is worth so very much. It is our greatest gift.
Why are we the way we are? We were made to want to learn, to experience life, and to do new things even if they are difficult. God put that in us. I could see that there was some kind of drive in me that wanted to overcome obstacles. That too is something God has put in people. God put it in us because he is that way too. We are, after all, his children, and children are very much like their parents in some ways, even from birth.
Roy and I used to dream about what it would be like to explore the universe, and we’d talk about it. Before we were even yet teenagers, we’d imagine what an incredible thing it would be to stand on the moon. We’d walk around in spacesuits, examine features, and look at the Moon Mountains. And what was Mars like? Nobody had seen a clear picture of Mars at that time. We wished we could go there and find out. This was how we talked in the early 1950s, long before space flight. There was something in us that seemed to know no bounds. Our minds were not tied up in knots. We had been given minds that were creative and that could think in vast ways. That, too, tells us something about God and the kind of mind he has, for all we have comes from him.
I see the love of life in my grandchildren. They become excited and enthusiastic about so many things. Sophia and Ethan love running through puddles barefooted. Do you remember how much fun it was to go running around barefooted? All this would not be possible if we hadn’t been given life and the innate love of life that is just somehow inside us.
What are we to learn from this?
This life and our desires to fully experience the good things of life is merely a shadow - a prototype - of what God intends to give us. It also tells us something about him.
God has given us a desire to live forever. We are driven to love life forever. But the love of life that we have now is only a foretaste of what kind of a life is ahead for us as spirit beings (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). And just as a child who is born didn’t give himself that life, neither can we give ourselves life. But it is something Jesus and the Father want to give us, and they can.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full . . . My sheep listen to my voice: I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand (John 17:1-2).
There is a time period in this human life when many, if not most, people want to have children. In effect, they want to give life. And when they do, the child is precious to them. They will guard and look out for their child and seek to see that he has a full, abundant life. All of this tells us something about God, for we are given our human desires by God. And this life is nothing compared to the type of life that lies ahead. So many of the desires we find in ourselves were put there by God and tell us something about what he is like.
I described how Roy and I had some innate craving to overcome obstacles, to accomplish, to create. We also wanted to build things. (Roy, incidentally, became a building contractor.) It may seem trite at times to say “God is Creator.” But it is a profound truth, and it is not just what he has done in the past, for he continues to create. After all, that is his nature. We like to build, do things, and accomplish things. That tells us something about what God is like. He does things. He doesn’t sit on a park bench waiting for things to happen. The Father loves life, and he has put those inclinations right in us.
We must not become discouraged by trials, for a kind of life is ahead that will dwarf the one we know now. And our Father will get us there, for he is not put off by our difficulties. He doesn’t quit, any more than Roy or I would give up when we set our minds to do something. The gift of eternal life lies ahead, so we should not grow weary in well doing.
Think about what God is like in the ordinary things of daily life. Remember God when you see children playing in puddles. Love life now, but know that an even more dramatic, exciting, and fulfilling life lies ahead.
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"A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
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My Redeemer Liveth
by Cynthia Saladin
I got the phone call that my Uncle Dick died early this morning. There is grief because Uncle Dick was a great guy (as human beings go) and his family loves him so much. But there is also relief because his last two weeks were especially rough; he is now no longer suffering. And overarching all of the mix of emotions is our belief that he will be resurrected again - because of what Jesus did on our behalf (John 3:16). We look forward to seeing so many of our loved ones again because my Redeemer liveth!
Job knew this! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another (Job 19:25-27).
Jonah knew this! yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. . . . But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord! (Jonah 2:4, 9)
Martha believed that Lazarus would live again! I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day (John 11:24)!
But this hope is predicated on the assumption of a relationship with Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter what great works you do or how holy you think you are, if you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter (Matthew 7:23). That’s why what we do this month is so important! The communion service is that time of coming before God, having examined ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:27-28) and having reaffirmed that we need Jesus Christ to save us (1 Corinthians 7:24-25), and reaffirming our covenant with Him in Christ (John 13:8, Matthew 26:26-28). It’s followed with our obedience - having just renewed the covenant telling Him that we would obey Him!!! - of celebrating the Days of Unleavened Bread and eating unleavened bread for seven days. It’s an unmistakable picture of taking Jesus Christ into us; in obedience, of hungering for Him and subsisting on that Bread of life so that He exudes from every pore of our being.
This is not just some religious festival. This is Life! And this is not just about our physical life in this world; it’s about eternal life with the Creator of the universe. The stakes are incredibly high; why would you devote less than your full attention to preparing for these days?!
There’s a saying: “You only go around once in life, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Doing it right HAS to be founded on Jesus!
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May
The Fountain of Youth
by Bill Stough
The name Juan Ponce de Leon is familiar to many of us. Some people may remember him as the early Spanish explorer who tried to find the fountain of youth. Ponce de Leon came to the Americas on Christopher Columbus’s second voyage in 1493. He would become the first governor of Puerto Rico under the Spanish Crown. Whether he really believed in the fountain of youth is unknown, but many stories of such life-restoring water were circulating in the areas where Ponce lived, and he may have been trying to find it.
One of the legends circulating among the Caribbean natives was that there was a spring of water that produces eternal youth. It was supposedly on an island nearby. When Ponce de Leon later found Florida, he thought he had found an island. He may have heard a local legend which described Sequene, an Arawak chief from Cuba, who had purportedly been unable to resist the lure of an island known among the Arawaks as Bimini. That island was supposed to have a restorative fountain. Sequene was supposed to have gathered a troupe of adventurers and sailed north, never to return. Word spread among Sequene’s more optimistic tribesmen that he and his followers had located the Fountain of Youth and were living in luxury in Bimini. These and similar stories were widespread.
Stories about a water that would bring a restored life if it was drunk or bathed in did not begin in the 1500s but go back hundreds and even thousands of years. There has been a persistent hunger to find a spring or river of water that would bring eternal life.
Today there is a product sold called “SoBe Lifewater.” It doesn’t promise eternal youth, but the feel of that is inherent in the name. There seems to be some kind of desire built right into us that we need to find something to drink that will make us feel strong and extend our life.
Is there a water that we can drink which will give us eternal life?
In John 4, Jesus is talking with a Samaritan woman at a well. He asks her for a drink. She is surprised a Jew would talk to a Samaritan.
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” [She doesn’t understand.] Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:7-13).
The Holy Spirit not only brings life to us, but it changes us literally, and we have something flowing out of us that refreshes and produces life in others.
On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scriptures has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the
Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet be glorified” (John 7:37-39).
Are we really different because we’ve been drinking that lifewater? Or do we just have a religion? Does all this discussion just sound nice, but it doesn’t really mean anything? Have we actually come to Jesus who is doing something dramatic with us? Or are we just someone who believes certain doctrines? Jesus said we would be taking in life, and that it would be flowing out of us.
There is something about water that is different from any other substance. Water refreshes; it makes alive; it restores. When a person is exercising or working in the heat, nothing feels so good as to stop for a drink of water. It not only feels good, but unless you drink water to replace what you have sweated out, you can die. It is water that keeps you alive.
Water has many traits. When we sit alongside a babbling brook, it is completely relaxing and peaceful. Yet that same water can be a source of power when it is moving fast and in great amounts, such as we see at Niagara Falls. So also the Holy Spirit is both a source of peace and comfort and a source of power. But in each case, the water must move or it will stagnate.
Ponce de Leon was looking for the very kind of water that Jesus spoke about, but he didn’t know it. He looked for physical water.
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son” (Revelation 21:6-8).
What the world needs now is the water of life.
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Final Thought:
A noted psychiatrist was a guest at a gathering of humor editors, and his host naturally broached the subject in which the doctor was most at ease.
"Would you mind telling me, Doctor," he asked, "how you detect a mental deficiency in somebody who appears completely normal?"
"Nothing is easier," he replied. "You ask him a simple question which everyone should answer with no trouble. If he hesitates, that puts you on the track."
"What sort of question?"
"Well, you might ask him, 'Captain Cook made three trips around the world and died during one of them. Which one?'"
The editor thought a moment, then said with a nervous laugh, "You wouldn't happen to have another example would you? I must confess I don't know much about history."
June
Hope For a Caterpillar
by Bill Stough
The little girl stood in awe of the butterfly that landed on her mother’s hand. Her mother stood very still, and the girl reached out and touched it. This was an amazing event to her. All around us butterflies were flying. My wife and I were visiting the Butterfly House in St. Louis.
A butterfly begins as a caterpillar. Nobody would ever believe by looking at a caterpillar that it could transform into a different kind of life form. When the insect is still a caterpillar, it exists only for itself; its purpose in life is solely to eat and not be eaten. The caterpillar does this with great efficiency, but it may destroy plants in the process.
Then something incredible begins to happen to the caterpillar, and it attaches itself to a vine or twig and hangs upside down. The following describes what happens with a developing monarch butterfly:
“While the caterpillar hangs upside down, it molts for the last time. Its skin splits from head to tail. The caterpillar wriggles free of its skin . . . once the caterpillar is free of its old skin, a hard case forms around its body. The case is called a chrysalis. The insect inside the chrysalis is now called a pupa. The caterpillar’s body changes completely inside the chrysalis. It dissolves, or breaks down, into a green liquid. Butterfly parts such as wings start forming in this soupy mixture. . . By the second week, the chrysalis is clearer . . . you can see the pupa starting to change into a butterfly. When the chrysalis becomes totally clear, the butterfly is ready to emerge, or come out of its case.”
The new butterfly hangs there for several hours while he pumps blood into his new wings. He moves those wings and strengthens them. When the wings are strong enough, he flies off. The butterfly now begins his new life and flies from flower to flower eating nectar. In the process, he transfers some of the flower’s pollen to other plants, which fertilizes them. Without even thinking about it, he is now making new plants and participates in creating life, whereas once he only lived for himself and had no capacity to do anything differently.
A caterpillar has a certain amount of beauty, but he must be transformed to do any life-giving. He may wish he could do more noble things, but he can’t.
Neither can we humans unless we become a “new life form.” And we have no power within ourselves to do that. Nonetheless, there are individuals . . . and churches . . . that attempt to bear Godly fruit through their own efforts, without realizing that won’t work.
Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:24-25).
We have to be transformed by Christ and become a new creature. What we have been must die, and a different type of being must arise. The power to do that must come from God; it cannot come from us. It is a work God does. We can’t do life-giving work unless we have Christ living inside us. All attempts to do so by human power and church “programs” are futile. More is involved than changing human habits. Jesus said: “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
When Jesus lives in us, we are different!! A person with the life of God in him is not a “new, improved” human being. It is far more than that, for he is literally a new creature. He is just as different as a caterpillar is to a butterfly.
In John 20:19, the disciples were hiding out for fear of the Jews. But just a short time later in Acts 2, the disciples were transformed by the Holy Spirit and faced the crowd forcefully and fearlessly. Many of the Jews in that crowd were then converted.
Jesus has chosen us to bear fruit (John 15:6). But fruit has to be more than numbers. There are many churches that get new members by various programs, but sometimes lose as many people as they get. The real fruit of the Holy Spirit is changed lives, and the character of such fruit is described in Galatians 5.
A caterpillar can’t by himself become something that he is just simply not. Something must happen to him that dramatically changes him into a different creature. That new creature (a butterfly) somehow automatically gives life through his normal, day-to-day activities. We can’t produce Godly fruit either unless Christ literally lives in us.
It is interesting that a monarch butterfly begins its changes in a liquid.
“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4).
A butterfly does not immediately appear as soon as a chrysalis forms, but the changes become gradually visible. We too do not become like Christ all at once, but we will gradually develop, and others will be able to see the changes.
A caterpillar also has simple eyes that see only light and dark. It finds its way by using its tentacles. But when it becomes a butterfly, it has compound eyes that see colors and patterns on flowers that even our human eyes cannot see. In a similar way, the Apostle Paul wrote that there are things a spiritual eye can see that the natural person can’t (1 Cor. 2).
The words of scripture are very deep. Those words can become even deeper when we see them illustrated in nature.
A caterpillar can’t help what he naturally is. But he can be transformed into a new creature. So can we.
🦋 🐛 🦋 🐛 🦋 🐛 🦋 🐛
Lessons From the Cat
by Cynthia Saladin
My habit is to walk the dog every morning, rain or shine. Pepper loves it. He somehow knows when I’ve decided it is time to go and has even learned what W-A-L-K spells. He excitedly jumps and barks and encourages me to hurry up so we can get the walk underway. But there’s another result of his barking: it alerts the cat that the walk is underway. Occasionally, but very rarely, I can get Pepper out the door before he alerts the whole neighborhood. On those days, the cat hears the door close and eventually comes to see what’s going on. When she sees that “the walk” is underway, she runs to catch up - unless, of course, she sees that I’ve noticed that she’s coming and then her tail goes up like a flag and she slows to a dignified saunter.
One day we managed to get half of the way around the field before she noticed. She wanted to accompany us so badly that she cut straight across the field. Normally our path is around the edge. That way, if there’s something that spooks her, she can be up a tree before you can say lickety-split. But cutting across the field? That’s dangerous. An owl could swoop down and enjoy cat for dinner. So the day she cut across the field, I watched the behavior of a scaredy-cat. She would creep a few steps and then crouch and look back over her shoulder, then creep a few more steps. I was a little concerned that the owl would also observe her vulnerable state and took pity on her. I walked to meet her. She was delighted. Of course, the only way I know that is by how she insisted I scratch her chin once we met mid-field.
Recently, her MO is to watch carefully for “the walk” and zoom silently past me - and stop dead in front of me. If I’m not paying attention, it’s easy to boot the cat. That always results in me telling her that I’m sorry and that I didn’t mean to hurt her - and a scratch under the chin. So, of course, you know that she has decided that’s the way to get her morning quota of chin scratches - zip past me and stop dead in front of me - over and over. Currently we do this about halfway around the field. Every morning. I find myself looking at my feet and slowing down and taking small steps. This is no longer walking the dog; this is trying not to boot the cat.
It occurred to me this past week that maybe there’s a lesson here. One observation I made is that it’s those closest to you who tend to trip you up. I may innocently intend to walk the dog. What actually happens is a cat stroll/scratch where I try really hard not to fall over the cat or propel her six feet in front of me.
Does that ever happen in your life? You are busy doing something productive and good; suddenly someone close to you causes you to take your eyes off the job, or even worse, take your eyes off Jesus Christ. They’ve set themselves up in front of you so that you have to modify your walk so that you don’t hurt them or so that you don’t hurt yourself. Is that what Solomon’s wives did? Did they trip him up and cause him to take his eyes off the goal?
I suspect that if you think about it long enough, you will think of someone you know whose children were raised in the church, taught to believe the way we believe, but then they strayed - maybe just a little. And the parents started making excuses for why those life decisions were okay - and then eventually, those choices were really not contrary to God’s will. And suddenly those parents found themselves out of fellowship with God. It’s kind of reminiscent of Jehoshaphat making a marriage alliance with Ahab, yes, that Ahab, Jezebel’s husband. Jehoshaphat’s son married Ahab’s daughter, you know, the wicked Athaliah. There were consequences to those actions. So why would we think that we can water down God’s law and not experience consequences - even for those closest to us?
Think about it. John Smith, three blocks over from your house, whom you have never met and has no interaction with you, no intersection in your life, what are the chances that he’s going to trip you up in your relationship with God? And why else would Jesus say, “He who does not hate mother, sister, brother, yes, even his own life, cannot be my disciple?” We have to put God first. Our future as the Bride of Christ depends upon it!
I have a cat and a dog that I dearly love. I love my family more than those pets. There are things that I value greatly in this world - things I work hard for. But Jesus warns us that something very close to us could offend us (If your eye offend thee, pluck it out!). It could trip us up. We must not hesitate to put God first every time.
🦋 🐛 🦋 🐛 🦋 🐛 🦋 🐛
Matt: I invented a thought-controlled air freshener.
Mike: That's ridiculous.
Matt: It makes scents when you think about it.
July
We Will See Him
by Cynthia Saladin
I couldn’t believe my eyes! I was walking the dog and the cat up the hill one morning this week. I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. A pretty black and white striped “kitty” was scampering up the hill into the trees. Yikes! That’s not something I wanted Pepper to see. Thankfully, he didn’t and he was more than willing to come when I called. He was less than enthusiastic about his walk being cut short, but he was mollified with a treat.
I had never actually seen a live skunk in the wild before. I’ve seen lots of dead ones - and smelled more than I’ve seen. So it got me thinking about sight and vision and another experience I recently had.
I just got new glasses. Without glasses, I see distances with my right eye and midrange distances with my left eye. I can get along without glasses until it’s time to read something. If I don’t wear glasses all the time, I’m constantly searching for where I might have left them. So I decided a pair of progressives was worth the cost. But it was tricky getting the lenses ground correctly so that I can use both eyes.
But it was in checking out the glasses - to see if they really are balanced and if they really are an improvement - that I had another experience with sight. The lenses really do sharpen my vision and it’s better with them than without them. But the lenses color everything just a little, making the colors more vibrant.
It made me think of the disclaimers that people now have to put on their photos. “These were the actual colors! I didn’t add any filters!” In this age of AI, optical illusions, and retouching/air brushing, you can’t really tell what is real and what has been modified by man. So, in reality, you really can’t believe your eyes. You find yourself wondering, “Did I really see a skunk?”
Then last night, Ron and I were standing next to the Honda with the hood open. We were talking. Suddenly, Ron said, “Did you see the light flash?” I hadn’t, but I hadn’t been looking directly at it either. We continued our discussion and it happened again. Again, I hadn’t seen the flash. But now I was worried that maybe Ron had a tear in his retina. So I focused on the car. It was a relief when the light came on! Again, however, the phrase popped into my head: I couldn’t believe my eyes. And who knew that the car would flash its lights if the hood was open too long? These new fangled inventions!!
Here, in very short succession, I experienced three different events where I couldn’t believe my eyes. Is God telling me something? Am I being warned to be on alert not to be deceived? We know there’s a warning from Jesus in Matthew 24:24, "For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” It certainly sounds like the deception involves what we see. It only makes sense, then, that the song which is currently playing in my head is “Open My Eyes That I May See.” I also thought about 1 John 3:2 “. . . we will see Him as He is.” I’m looking forward to the day when we will see Jesus our Messiah and deception will be gone along with tears and sorrow and pain and death. O.K. now I’m singing “What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see . . .”
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The Fervent Prayer of a Righteous Cat Avails Much by Bill Stough
It was 11:30 p.m. when we first heard the pleading cry of the lost and frightened cat outside our bedroom.
“Meow, meow, . . . MEOOOW,” it cried over and over.
My wife Scarlett and I were exceedingly tired, but it was clear someone had dumped an unwanted kitten near our country
home. That cat looked for human help and recognized people were inside our window.
In exhaustion, we closed the window and slept lightly until morning. By that time, the young cat had found a place in our nearby storage shed. It continued to cry for help.
I had to go to work. Scarlett went out and cared for the young cat. She fed it food, which it gulped down. The cat then wanted to be petted and have endless attention. He purred and purred. He cuddled up to her and followed her everywhere she went.
The cat longed to be wanted. He wanted someone to care for him and was so responsive when petted and given attention.
We could not ignore the cat and let him go. He had sought help from someone in his great need. He had, in effect, been praying to us. It was not possible for us to leave him to starve when he so earnestly and persistently cried out to us for help, Was God showing us something about Himself?
So often when we pray, we wonder whether God will hear us. I have thought, “Why would God hear me? I’m not worth it. I am not righteous enough.” But here I was seeing things from the side of the one that hears the prayers. The cat was persistent. He kept crying out for what he needed. He was lost, abandoned, and needed to be loved. The cat was humble and scared. Scarlett and I were deeply moved by that cat. He was teaching us about prayer, showing us what moves God.
If we feel a great need and keep crying out to God in prayer, He can’t turn us away. The God who made us knows what caring really means. He is more moved by our pleas than we are for a needy animal.
Scarlett and I were unable to keep the cat because she had developed allergies to cat dander. So we found home for him. But I still think about that cat when I pray. I now have a better grasp of how God feels about my prayers.
Related Scriptures:
*James 5:16 - The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
*Matthew 10:29-31 - God even cares about sparrows. We are worth more.
*Luke 18:1-8 - Pray always. Do not give up. The persistent widow kept coming.
*Luke 18:9-14 - The publican was heard because he knew he needed God.
*1 Peter 5:5-7 - God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Cast your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
August
Encouraging One Another
by Cynthia Saladin
I wanted to teach my 16-month old daughter, Jennifer, to share. So one day I gave her two M&Ms. I told her she could eat the first one. The second one I told her to give to her older brother Jonathan. Jennifer looked at me like I'd lost my mind. She loves chocolate! She couldn't imagine why I would give her a piece and then ask her to give it up. With much coaxing and scolding, she finally decided to give the M&M to Jonathan. He thanked her and praised her. I praised her and gave her another M&M, which I told her she could eat.
I repeated this several times. Then suddenly, she changed her behavior. When I gave her the two M&Ms, she hurried both of them over to Jonathan to give to him. She liked the praise so much she was willing to give up the treasured candy she loves. I was amazed!
Then it was Jonathan's turn to surprise me. He graciously took both M&Ms from Jennifer, thanked her, ate one, and then gave one of them back.
When I came across this story the other day, my first reaction was: I can’t believe that’s been nearly two decades ago already! Then I started thinking about how important church family is to our growth as Christians. Yes, God gives us the Bible with His commandments and Godly principles for making life work. But it is our church family which reinforces how vitally important it is to live according to God’s laws.
There are examples, of course, of this in the Bible. The one which comes to mind first is the verse in 1 Samuel 23:16 - And Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. This was during the time when Saul was pursuing David, seeking to kill him. Jonathan, instead of working with his father to retain the kingdom, encouraged David, even though it meant he himself would not be king. Jonathan was not thinking of himself; he was submitting to God’s will.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood together against Nebuchadnezzar’s decree to worship the golden idol he’d constructed (Daniel 3:16-17). It’s interesting that Daniel doesn’t record just one of them standing up to the king and the others agreeing. The way it is stated is, We have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. It’s a real life example of Ecclesiastes 4:12, a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Isn’t this why Hebrews 10:25 tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together - because we need to encourage one another in the Lord!? But encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
But it’s not just encouraging one another, it’s holding yourself to a higher standard so that you, in a sense, take your place among that great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1). It’s not just exhortation by word but by deed.
That’s what Jonathan did. So, wanna share some MnMs?
* * * * * * * * *
Our Holiest Example by Charles H. Spurgeon
I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved ( Psalm 16:8).
This is the way to live. With God always before us, we shall have the noblest companionship, the holiest example, the sweetest consolation, and the mightiest influence. This must be a resolute act of the mind. "I have set," and it must be maintained as a set and settled thing. Always to have an eye to the Lord's eye, and an ear for the Lord's voice - this is the right state for the godly man. His God is near him, filling the horizon of his vision, leading the way of his life, and furnishing the theme of his meditation. What vanities we should avoid, what sins we should overcome, what virtues we should exhibit, what joys we should experience if we did indeed set the Lord always before us! Why not?
This is the way to be safe. The Lord being ever in our minds, we come to feel safety and certainty because of His being so near. He is at our right hand to guide and aid us; and hence we are not moved by fear, nor force, nor fraud, nor fickleness. When God stands at a man's right hand, that man is himself sure to stand. Come on, then, ye foemen of the truth! Rush against me like a furious tempest, if ye will. God upholds me. God abides with me. Whom shall I fear?
Source: Blue Letter Bible devotional, Faith’s Checkbook, December 2, 2023
September
The World Is Too Much With Us
by Cynthia Saladin
William Wordsworth says, “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;” and that we are little moved by the Creation around us. We’re caught up in the rat race depicted in Matthew 13 by the picture of the seeds choked by thorns - the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. Busy, busy, busy - moving so fast that we hardly take time to smell the roses. I confess I had not remembered the gist of Wordsworth’s poem; I just remembered Dad telling me, when I was too busy or too stressed, that “the world is too much with us.” And in spite of the direction of Wordsworth’s poem, he has a point: we no longer allow our being to be soothed or excited by the world around us. We simply are too busy to pay attention.
This is not a good thing. Henry Lyte, author of “Abide With Me,” said that it’s better to wear out than to rust out. But there’s no record of Jesus being crazy busy. In fact, He often withdrew, by Himself, to talk with the Father.
This calls to mind another poem, this one by Edward Sill, “A Fool’s Prayer.” There’s a section in the middle:
'Tis not by guilt the onward sweep
Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay;
'Tis by our follies that so long
We hold the earth from heaven away.
I don’t know of a passage, outside of Matthew 13, which you might use to support the idea that being too busy is sinful. But, I suspect that the busy-ness could lead to neglecting our relationship with God. It could deafen our hearing of the Holy Spirit’s leading. It could cause us to miss the valuable task that God would rather that we do. It could be a distraction to the call of God to come closer to Him, seeking His will rather than what seems good to us. At the very least, too much to do can rob our peace and joy in the tasks we accomplish.
The other night, all of the kids were here. All ten of us sat around a campfire, roasted marshmallows, and made s’mores. It was one of those perfect nights: no breeze, no mosquitoes, a nice fire on a cool night, laughter and family and a peacefulness that you could feel. It was such a nice experience that Ron and I repeated it (sans s’mores) a couple of nights ago. The stars were so brilliant. The Milky Way arched across the sky. And the peace just kind of seeped into my soul.
The cooler autumn nights are coming. The fall holy days are right around the corner. What an incredibly busy time of year! I want to suggest that, as you are physically preparing to go to the Feast of Tabernacles, you take some time to mentally prepare for meeting with God. But also be intentional about preparing to meet God on the Feast of Trumpets. It is the call to assemble holy day.
And maybe you can remind me to not be so busy too.
🔥 🔥 🔭 🔥 🔥
Hitting the Wall
By Bill Stough
In November 1985, at age 45, I stood at the starting line of the St. Louis Marathon ready to run 26.2 miles. I was a seasoned, trained runner, but would I be able to pull off this one?
Christians and runners have a lot in common. Hebrews 12:1 compares overcoming with running and says we should run with “perseverance” (NIV) the race marked out for us. The Greek word is referring to “endurance.”
There are two types of runners: sprint runners and distance runners. The former run in short races and go all out for speed. The latter do not run fast, but like the Energizer bunny “just keep going.”
I have seen runners who start out with great speed in a distance race and get all the attention. But they couldn’t sustain that pace and had to drop out. And I also remember Christians who got great attention and were looked to as examples who are not in the race anymore.
To finish a marathon, you must run within your means. You must not go beyond your normal pace, which may be a 9 or 10 minute mile. If you run too fast, you will burn out and not finish. Some runners are influenced by those around them and unwisely pick up their own pace. That works against them. Christians who compare themselves with other Christians are also unwise (2 Corinthians 10:12).
I have been in dozens of distance races (but only one marathon) and always ran in the middle of the pack. All of those runners were in the race just to finish and were not ashamed of their lack of speed. A great camaraderie develops among runners. We talked to one another as we jogged along. We all had something in common and felt a kinship even though we’d never met before. Christians also feel a kinship for one another because we are all in the race together.
I have seen runners drop back to run with a slower runner who seemed to be getting discouraged. It helped; both finished. Christians should encourage one another, too.
In a long race like a 26-mile marathon, every runner will “hit the wall.” This is the point where you have burned out all your stored carbohydrates from recently digested food. Before that point running is very pleasant and enjoyable. This may seem strange to non-runners, but it is so. But when you “hit the wall” something is very different. In my 1985 marathon, it happened to me at about the 16-mile mark. My legs now felt like logs and didn’t want to move anymore. But I still had another ten miles to run! This is a critical point in a runner’s race. Christians come to places like this too. How can we continue when we have burned out our reserves?
In my marathon, I was at a transition point with about ten miles to go. At this point, the body begins burning nearly all its energy from fat in the body. You can keep going in spite of how you feel. Just a small amount of fat can provide enormous energy, and even the leanest person has plenty. Just draw on that source, and don’t quit. In my case, there were motivations that kept me in the race. I hadn’t come that far to quit. I could visualize that finish line and knew I’d reach it if I just kept going, even at my slow pace. Fat stores would provide the energy. I had the encouragement of other runners who were going through the same thing. We kept encouraging one another. I had trained my body before this race. It was conditioned to make it.
Jesus faced this “wall” on the night before he died. He didn’t have the strength to go through what was set before him. He prayed fervently. An angel encouraged him. He continued to pray. At the end of this intense time of prayer, we find a strengthened Jesus who was now both willing and able to go through the ordeal before him. There is no sign of him faltering after that.
What if we don’t feel like fighting on anymore even though we know we should? An overcomer can only go so far on his own power. At some point, a Christian needs to draw on another source of power. “Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16, KJV). Jesus did just that.
We can ask God for the desire to overcome. He supplies that too. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13, KJV).
When I crossed the finish line at 4 hours and 4 minutes after starting, a medal was placed around my neck as it was on all finishers. We had all fought the good fight, and we were all winners.
Ask for the will to keep running this Christian race and the strength to continue. Christ will supply it.
🔥 🔥 🔭 🔥 🔥
Dr. Mario Denton, South African professor, wrote the following truths this week for the class I’m teaching. I thought you would appreciate how much they apply to each person who, calling himself a disciple and servant of God, seeks to honor God with his life.
🔥 🔥 🔭 🔥 🔥
Encouraging One Another
by Cynthia Saladin
I wanted to teach my 16-month old daughter, Jennifer, to share. So one day I gave her two M&Ms. I told her she could eat the first one. The second one I told her to give to her older brother Jonathan. Jennifer looked at me like I'd lost my mind. She loves chocolate! She couldn't imagine why I would give her a piece and then ask her to give it up. With much coaxing and scolding, she finally decided to give the M&M to Jonathan. He thanked her and praised her. I praised her and gave her another M&M, which I told her she could eat.
I repeated this several times. Then suddenly, she changed her behavior. When I gave her the two M&Ms, she hurried both of them over to Jonathan to give to him. She liked the praise so much she was willing to give up the treasured candy she loves. I was amazed!
Then it was Jonathan's turn to surprise me. He graciously took both M&Ms from Jennifer, thanked her, ate one, and then gave one of them back.
When I came across this story the other day, my first reaction was: I can’t believe that’s been nearly two decades ago already! Then I started thinking about how important church family is to our growth as Christians. Yes, God gives us the Bible with His commandments and Godly principles for making life work. But it is our church family which reinforces how vitally important it is to live according to God’s laws.
There are examples, of course, of this in the Bible. The one which comes to mind first is the verse in 1 Samuel 23:16 - And Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. This was during the time when Saul was pursuing David, seeking to kill him. Jonathan, instead of working with his father to retain the kingdom, encouraged David, even though it meant he himself would not be king. Jonathan was not thinking of himself; he was submitting to God’s will.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood together against Nebuchadnezzar’s decree to worship the golden idol he’d constructed (Daniel 3:16-17). It’s interesting that Daniel doesn’t record just one of them standing up to the king and the others agreeing. The way it is stated is, We have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. It’s a real life example of Ecclesiastes 4:12, a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Isn’t this why Hebrews 10:25 tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together - because we need to encourage one another in the Lord!? But encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
But it’s not just encouraging one another, it’s holding yourself to a higher standard so that you, in a sense, take your place among that great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1). It’s not just exhortation by word but by deed.
That’s what Jonathan did. So, wanna share some MnMs?
* * * * * * * * *
Our Holiest Example by Charles H. Spurgeon
I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved ( Psalm 16:8).
This is the way to live. With God always before us, we shall have the noblest companionship, the holiest example, the sweetest consolation, and the mightiest influence. This must be a resolute act of the mind. "I have set," and it must be maintained as a set and settled thing. Always to have an eye to the Lord's eye, and an ear for the Lord's voice - this is the right state for the godly man. His God is near him, filling the horizon of his vision, leading the way of his life, and furnishing the theme of his meditation. What vanities we should avoid, what sins we should overcome, what virtues we should exhibit, what joys we should experience if we did indeed set the Lord always before us! Why not?
This is the way to be safe. The Lord being ever in our minds, we come to feel safety and certainty because of His being so near. He is at our right hand to guide and aid us; and hence we are not moved by fear, nor force, nor fraud, nor fickleness. When God stands at a man's right hand, that man is himself sure to stand. Come on, then, ye foemen of the truth! Rush against me like a furious tempest, if ye will. God upholds me. God abides with me. Whom shall I fear?
Source: Blue Letter Bible devotional, Faith’s Checkbook, December 2, 2023
September
The World Is Too Much With Us
by Cynthia Saladin
William Wordsworth says, “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;” and that we are little moved by the Creation around us. We’re caught up in the rat race depicted in Matthew 13 by the picture of the seeds choked by thorns - the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. Busy, busy, busy - moving so fast that we hardly take time to smell the roses. I confess I had not remembered the gist of Wordsworth’s poem; I just remembered Dad telling me, when I was too busy or too stressed, that “the world is too much with us.” And in spite of the direction of Wordsworth’s poem, he has a point: we no longer allow our being to be soothed or excited by the world around us. We simply are too busy to pay attention.
This is not a good thing. Henry Lyte, author of “Abide With Me,” said that it’s better to wear out than to rust out. But there’s no record of Jesus being crazy busy. In fact, He often withdrew, by Himself, to talk with the Father.
This calls to mind another poem, this one by Edward Sill, “A Fool’s Prayer.” There’s a section in the middle:
'Tis not by guilt the onward sweep
Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay;
'Tis by our follies that so long
We hold the earth from heaven away.
I don’t know of a passage, outside of Matthew 13, which you might use to support the idea that being too busy is sinful. But, I suspect that the busy-ness could lead to neglecting our relationship with God. It could deafen our hearing of the Holy Spirit’s leading. It could cause us to miss the valuable task that God would rather that we do. It could be a distraction to the call of God to come closer to Him, seeking His will rather than what seems good to us. At the very least, too much to do can rob our peace and joy in the tasks we accomplish.
The other night, all of the kids were here. All ten of us sat around a campfire, roasted marshmallows, and made s’mores. It was one of those perfect nights: no breeze, no mosquitoes, a nice fire on a cool night, laughter and family and a peacefulness that you could feel. It was such a nice experience that Ron and I repeated it (sans s’mores) a couple of nights ago. The stars were so brilliant. The Milky Way arched across the sky. And the peace just kind of seeped into my soul.
The cooler autumn nights are coming. The fall holy days are right around the corner. What an incredibly busy time of year! I want to suggest that, as you are physically preparing to go to the Feast of Tabernacles, you take some time to mentally prepare for meeting with God. But also be intentional about preparing to meet God on the Feast of Trumpets. It is the call to assemble holy day.
And maybe you can remind me to not be so busy too.
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Hitting the Wall
By Bill Stough
In November 1985, at age 45, I stood at the starting line of the St. Louis Marathon ready to run 26.2 miles. I was a seasoned, trained runner, but would I be able to pull off this one?
Christians and runners have a lot in common. Hebrews 12:1 compares overcoming with running and says we should run with “perseverance” (NIV) the race marked out for us. The Greek word is referring to “endurance.”
There are two types of runners: sprint runners and distance runners. The former run in short races and go all out for speed. The latter do not run fast, but like the Energizer bunny “just keep going.”
I have seen runners who start out with great speed in a distance race and get all the attention. But they couldn’t sustain that pace and had to drop out. And I also remember Christians who got great attention and were looked to as examples who are not in the race anymore.
To finish a marathon, you must run within your means. You must not go beyond your normal pace, which may be a 9 or 10 minute mile. If you run too fast, you will burn out and not finish. Some runners are influenced by those around them and unwisely pick up their own pace. That works against them. Christians who compare themselves with other Christians are also unwise (2 Corinthians 10:12).
I have been in dozens of distance races (but only one marathon) and always ran in the middle of the pack. All of those runners were in the race just to finish and were not ashamed of their lack of speed. A great camaraderie develops among runners. We talked to one another as we jogged along. We all had something in common and felt a kinship even though we’d never met before. Christians also feel a kinship for one another because we are all in the race together.
I have seen runners drop back to run with a slower runner who seemed to be getting discouraged. It helped; both finished. Christians should encourage one another, too.
In a long race like a 26-mile marathon, every runner will “hit the wall.” This is the point where you have burned out all your stored carbohydrates from recently digested food. Before that point running is very pleasant and enjoyable. This may seem strange to non-runners, but it is so. But when you “hit the wall” something is very different. In my 1985 marathon, it happened to me at about the 16-mile mark. My legs now felt like logs and didn’t want to move anymore. But I still had another ten miles to run! This is a critical point in a runner’s race. Christians come to places like this too. How can we continue when we have burned out our reserves?
In my marathon, I was at a transition point with about ten miles to go. At this point, the body begins burning nearly all its energy from fat in the body. You can keep going in spite of how you feel. Just a small amount of fat can provide enormous energy, and even the leanest person has plenty. Just draw on that source, and don’t quit. In my case, there were motivations that kept me in the race. I hadn’t come that far to quit. I could visualize that finish line and knew I’d reach it if I just kept going, even at my slow pace. Fat stores would provide the energy. I had the encouragement of other runners who were going through the same thing. We kept encouraging one another. I had trained my body before this race. It was conditioned to make it.
Jesus faced this “wall” on the night before he died. He didn’t have the strength to go through what was set before him. He prayed fervently. An angel encouraged him. He continued to pray. At the end of this intense time of prayer, we find a strengthened Jesus who was now both willing and able to go through the ordeal before him. There is no sign of him faltering after that.
What if we don’t feel like fighting on anymore even though we know we should? An overcomer can only go so far on his own power. At some point, a Christian needs to draw on another source of power. “Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16, KJV). Jesus did just that.
We can ask God for the desire to overcome. He supplies that too. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13, KJV).
When I crossed the finish line at 4 hours and 4 minutes after starting, a medal was placed around my neck as it was on all finishers. We had all fought the good fight, and we were all winners.
Ask for the will to keep running this Christian race and the strength to continue. Christ will supply it.
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Dr. Mario Denton, South African professor, wrote the following truths this week for the class I’m teaching. I thought you would appreciate how much they apply to each person who, calling himself a disciple and servant of God, seeks to honor God with his life.
- You are not just a leader of tomorrow; You are a leader of today.
- Your worth does not decrease because someone fails to see your value.
- Your worth is defined by God, who says you are loved, called, and chosen.
- You can dream big and work hard.
- You must never underestimate your potential to make a difference.
- You should lead by example, demonstrating humility, integrity, and resilience in all that you do.
- You should rely on the Holy Spirit's power, not your own.
- You need to continue seeking Jesus passionately and never lose sight of the importance of having a relationship with Him.
- You can be a light in a dark world.
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