They sat on opposite sides of the room, a man and a woman, bidding on an adorable puppy at a school auction. Others dropped off, but not this duo. Back and forth until they’d one-upped the bid to several thousand dollars. This was like the Wimbledon finals, and neither player was backing off the net! Finally the fellow gave in and didn’t return the bid. Going once, going twice, going three times. Sold!  You know what she did? Amidst the applause, she walked across the room and presented the puppy to the competition.

Suppose you did that to the competition. With your enemy. Suppose you surprised them with kindness? Not easy? No, it’s not. But mercy is the deepest gesture of kindness. Paul equates the two in Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”

From Lucado Inspirational Reader

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Max Lucado – Texas Church Tragedy – Hello, everyone. This is Max Lucado joining with you in offering urgent prayers for the community of Sutherland Springs, Texas. It’s hard to believe that this peace-loving, God-fearing community was victimized in, of all places, a church service.

We pray for their recovery and for peace. And we are reminded that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities and powers of this present darkness.

We are praying for the quick and speedy demise of the devil. And we are urgent in our prayers for the return of Christ in which He will establish a kingdom of peace, once and for all, with the banishment of evil, and filled with the goodness of God. Amen.

This Brutal World

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” Matthew 10:28

Yet again, yet so soon, we struggle to make sense of bloodshed and violence. Last week bikers mowed down on New York City’s Westside. Sunday, worshippers slaughtered in a small-town South Texas church.

Life is a dangerous endeavor. We pass our days in the shadows of ominous realities. The power to annihilate humanity has, it seems, been placed in the hands of people who are happy to do so.

Contrary to what we’d hope, good people aren’t exempt from violence. Murderers don’t give the godly a pass. Terrorists don’t vet out victims according to spiritual resumes. The bloodthirsty and wicked don’t skip over the heavenbound. We aren’t insulated. But neither are we intimidated. Jesus has a word or two about this brutal world. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28).

His disciples needed this affirmation. Jesus had just told them to expect scourging, trials, death, hatred, and persecution (Matthew 17–23). Not the kind of locker room pep talk that rallies the team. To their credit none defected. Perhaps they didn’t because of the fresh memory of Jesus’ flexed muscles in the graveyard. Jesus had taken his disciples to the “the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, [where] two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs; they were so exceedingly violent that no one could pass by that road. And behold, they cried out, saying, ‘What do we have to do with You, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?’” (Matthew 8:28–29 NASB).

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We speak of a short life, but compared to eternity, who has a long one? A person’s days on earth may seem like a thimbleful. But compared to the Pacific of eternity, even the years of Methuselah filled no more than a glass.

James was not speaking just to the young when he said, “Your life is like a mist. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away” (James 4:14). In God’s plan every life is long enough and every death is timely. And though you and I might wish for a longer life, God knows better.

And this is important. Though you and I may wish a longer life for our loved ones who’ve gone to glory before us, they don’t. Ironically, the first to accept God’s decision of death is the one who dies. While we’re mourning at a grave, they’re marveling at heaven. While we’re questioning God, they’re praising God!

From the Inspiration Lucado Reader

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Remember when you sought a night’s rest and got a colicky baby? Remember when you sought to catch up at the office and got even further behind? And you can add to the list of interruptions sorrow, excitement, and bedlam. Sound familiar? Take comfort—it happened to Jesus too.

You may have trouble believing that. You probably believe Jesus knows what it means to endure heavy-duty tragedies. You’re no doubt convinced Jesus is acquainted with sorrow and has wrestled with fear. Most people accept that. But can God relate to the hassles and headaches of my life? Of your life? For some reason this is harder to believe. Jesus knows how you feel. His eyes have grown weary. His heart has grown heavy. He has had to climb out of bed with a sore throat. He has been kept awake late and has gotten up early. Jesus knows how you feel!

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Many years ago I spent a week visiting the interior of Brazil with a longtime missionary pilot. Let me just say, Wilbur and Orville had a sturdier aircraft! I could not get comfortable. I kept thinking the plane was going to crash in the jungle and I’d be gobbled up by piranhas. I kept shifting around, looking down and gripping my seat—as if that would help. Finally the pilot had enough of my squirming. He looked over at me and shouted over the airplane noise, “We won’t face anything that I can’t handle. You might as well trust me to fly the plane.”

Is God saying the same to you? Examine the truths which sustain your belief in God. Make sure one of them is etched with the words “My God is sovereign!” Then, be anxious for nothing!

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Our minds cannot be full of God at the same time they are full of fear! Don’t get lost in your troubles. Lift up your eyes! “He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord! (Isaiah 26:3 TLB).

Are you troubled, restless, sleepless? Then rejoice in the Lord’s Sovereignty. I dare you. I double-dog dare you—to expose your worries to an hour of worship. Your concerns will melt like ice on an August sidewalk!

Jeremiah draws a direct connection between faith and peace. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought (Jeremiah 17:7-8 NKJV).

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The next time you fear the future, rejoice in the Lord’s sovereignty. Rejoice in what he has accomplished. Rejoice that he is able to do what you cannot do. Fill your mind with thoughts of God.

“He is the Creator, who is blessed forever” (Romans 1:25).

“He is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

“His years will never end” (Psalm 102:27 NIV).

He is king, supreme ruler, absolute monarch, and overlord of all history. An arch of his eyebrow and a million angels will pivot and salute! Every throne is a footstool to his. Every crown is papier-mache next to his. He consults no advisers. He needs no congress. He reports to no one. He is in charge.

Sovereignty gives the saint the inside track to peace. Others see the problems of the world and wring their hands. We see the problems of the world and bend our knees!

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What will happen if your job disappears? Or your health diminishes? Or the economy takes a nosedive? Does God have a message for his people when calamity strikes?

He certainly had a word for Isaiah. The prophet wrote, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. . .above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: The whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:1-3).

God calmed the fears of Isaiah, not by removing the problem, but by revealing his divine power and presence. Rejoice that God is able to do what you cannot do! Your anxiety decreases as your understanding of your heavenly father increases!

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Control freaks are easily frustrated. We can’t take control because control is not ours to take! The Bible has a better idea. Rather than seeking control, relinquish it. Peace is within reach, not for lack of problems, but because of the presence of a sovereign Lord.

Rather than rehearse the chaos of the world, rejoice in the Lord’s sovereignty, as Paul did. From prison he wrote, “The things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ” (Philippians 1:12-13).

In the innermost of his being, Paul was a man who believed in the steady hand of a good God…protected and preserved by God’s love! He lived beneath the shadow of God’s wings. Do you?

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If anyone had a reason to be anxious it was the apostle Paul! Envision an old man as he gazes out the window of a Roman prison. Half-blind, squinting just to read. Awaiting trial before the Roman emperor. His future is as gloomy as his jail cell.

Yet to read his words, you’d think he’d just arrived at a Jamaican beach hotel. His letter to the Philippians bears not a word of fear or complaint. Not one! Instead, he lifts his thanks to God and calls on his readers to do the same. “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).

Paul’s challenge is a decision deeply rooted in the confidence that God exists, that he is in control, and that he is good. Rejoice in the Lord—always! You can’t run the world but you can entrust it to God!

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It is not God’s will that you face every day with dread and trepidation! I have a childhood memory that I cherish. My father loved corn bread and buttermilk. About ten o’clock each night he would meander into the kitchen and crumble a piece of corn bread into a glass of buttermilk, stand at the counter and drink it. Then he would make the rounds to the front and back doors, checking the locks. Once everything was secure, he would step into the bedroom I shared with my brother and say something like “Everything is secure, boys. You can go to sleep now.”

I have no inclination to believe that God loves corn bread and buttermilk, but I do believe he loves his children. He keeps everything secure and oversees your world! By his power you will “be anxious for nothing” and discover the “peace…that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:4-8 RSV).

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Anxiety is a meteor shower of what-ifs. The sky is falling, and it’s falling disproportionately on you. Anxiety ain’t fun! One would think Christians would be exempt from worry but we are not. It’s enough to make us wonder if the apostle Paul was out of touch with reality when he wrote in Philippians 4:6, “Be anxious for nothing.”

Is that what he meant? Not exactly. He wrote the phrase in the present active tense—implying an ongoing state. “Don’t let anything in life leave you perpetually breathless and in angst.” The presence of anxiety is unavoidable, but the prison of anxiety is optional. Could you use some calm? Of course you could. We all could! We all could use a word of comfort and God is ready to give it.

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When you recognize God as Creator, you will admire Him. When you recognize His wisdom, you will learn from Him. When you discover His strength, you will rely on Him. But only when He saves you, will you worship Him.

Before your rescue, you could easily keep God at a distance. Comfortably dismissed and neatly shelved. Sure, He was important, but so was your career…your status. Then came the storm and the ripped moorings. Turn to your career for help? Only if you want to hide from the storm—not escape it. Lean on your status for strength? A storm isn’t impressed with your title.

And from that moment on, He is not just a deity to admire or a teacher to observe—He is the Savior. The Savior to be worshiped. A season of suffering is a small price to pay for a clear view of God!

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The mark of a disciple is his or her ability to hear the Master’s voice!  The world rams at your door, but Jesus taps. Voices scream for your allegiance, but Jesus softly and tenderly requests it. Which voice do you hear? There is never a time during which Jesus is not speaking. Never. There is never a place in which Jesus is not present. Ever. There is never a time when He is not tapping gently on the doors of our hearts—waiting to be invited in.

Few hear His voice. Fewer still open the door. But never interpret our numbness as His absence. For amidst the fleeting promises of pleasure is the timeless promise of His presence. “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). There is no chorus so loud that the voice of God cannot be heard. . .if we will but listen!

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I’m thinking about God’s blessings. Every day I have the honor of sitting down with a book that contains the words of the One who created me. Every day I have the opportunity to let Him give me a thought or two on how to live. If I don’t do what He says, He doesn’t burn the book or cancel my subscription. If I don’t understand what He says, He doesn’t call me a dummy, He explains what I don’t understand.

As I think about my three daughters, about the wife I have and that I get to be with her for a lifetime, I shake my head and thank the God of grace. And I think–Remarkable!  I’m learning that if I open my eyes and observe, there are many reasons to look at the source of it all, and just say thanks!

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Beware of those who urge you to find happiness here in this life. You won’t find it! Guard against the false physicians who promise that joy is only a diet away, a marriage away, or a job away. The prophet denounced people like this, “They tried to heal my people’s serious injuries as if they were small wounds. They said, ‘It’s all right, it’s all right.’ But really, it is not all right!” (Jeremiah 6:14).

We won’t be all right until we get home. The Bible says, “No one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). What a breathtaking verse! Anything you imagine is inadequate. Anything anyone imagines is inadequate. No one comes close. No one! All the songs about heaven, all the artists’ portrayals, all the lessons preached, poems written, chapters drafted—when it comes to describing heaven, we are all happy failures. It is beyond us!

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Do you want to know how to deepen your prayer life? The Bible instructs in Romans 12:12 to steadfastly maintain the habit of prayer. Though there are many bad habits, there are also many good ones. At the risk of sounding like a preacher—which is what I am—may I make a suggestion? Don’t prepare to pray. Just pray. Don’t read about prayer. Just pray. Don’t attend a lecture on prayer or engage in discussion about prayer.

Just pray. Posture, tone, and place are personal matters. Select the form that works for you but don’t think about it too much. Don’t be so overly concerned with wrapping the gift that you never give it. Better to pray awkwardly than not at all. And if you feel you should only pray when inspired, that’s okay. Just see to it that you are inspired every day!

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Isn’t there a time or two when you went outside for a solution when you should have gone inward? Reminds me of the golfer about to hit his first shot on the first hole. He swung and missed the ball. Swung and whiffed again. Tried a third time, and missed again. In frustration he judged, “Man, this is a tough golf course.” He may have been right.  But the golf course wasn’t the problem.

You may be right, as well. Your circumstances may be challenging, but blaming them is not the solution. Nor is neglecting them. Consider the prayer of David, who said, “Create in me a new heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10 NIV). Real change is an inside job. You might alter things a day or two with money and systems, but the heart of the matter is and always will be, the matter of the heart.

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There is a correlation between the way you feel about yourself and the way you feel about others. If you are at peace with yourself you will get along with others. The converse is also true. If you don’t like yourself, if you are ashamed, embarrassed, or angry, other people are going to know it. Unless the cycle is interrupted!

Which takes us to one of the kindest verses in the Bible.  Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Accept my teachings and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your lives” (Matthew 11:28-29).

“Come to me,” the verse reads! Let Christ be kind to you…and as you do, you’ll find it easier to be kind to others.

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