encouraged
After GOD had finished addressing Job, He turned to Eliphaz the Temanite and said, "I’ve had it with you and your two friends. I’m fed up! You haven’t been honest either with me or about me — not the way my friend Job has." — Job 42:7 from The MessageI like this rendering of this verse because it reminds us that God invites our struggle with Him. Job engaged God honestly. No, he didn’t have a clue about many things and neither do we. But Job didn’t settle for pat answers and comfortable theology. He led the way to authenticity.If…
Moses listened to his father-in-law [Jethro] and did everything he said. — Exodus 18:24The silence of God. No one knew God like Moses. Moses spoke with God face to face, he had a relationship with Him unparalleled in his day. Yet God never told Moses how to organize a judicial system. He was silent on that point.Why? Because God wanted Jethro to tell Moses. Jethro had administrative insight to bring to the table. I’m glad that God has put Jethros in my life. One of the most important of these advisers is my wife. She has enough common sense to…
"Why bother the Teacher any more?" — Mark 5:35While Jesus was sailing through the storm, a 12-year-old girl was getting sicker and sicker. While Jesus was delivering the man afflicted with demons, she grew weaker and weaker. Her father was frantic. Where’s Jesus?Jesus finally returned, and the father pushed his way through the crowd. He rehearsed in his mind what he was going to say. "Yes, many people are sick, but you don’t understand. This is my daughter." In a race against time, this father pleaded with Jesus to hurry. But what did Jesus do? He dawdled. He paused. He…
Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. — Mark 5:5Here is a man who was in torment. He had no rest day or night. He was driven away from people and had no one to share his suffering with. He was lonely and in terrible pain.Yesterday we looked at the storm from the perspective of the disciples. God brought them through the storm so they might see a clearer picture of who Jesus is.Today I’d like to look at the storm from the perspective of this desperate, demonized…
"Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?" — Mark 4:38I’d like to focus in on the word "care." We all know the story. The storm is out of control. Jesus is asleep. The waves are swamping the boat. The disciples are terrified.Where was God’s care? In a sense, that’s an unfair question, because we have a big advantage. We are looking at this storm 2000 years later. We know that God’s care was there all along. The disciples didn’t know how to stop the storm. So they did the only thing they knew how to do, they found Jesus inside…
Today is "Tell A Friend Day"If you like these devotionals, pass this on to a friend.http://www.dwightclough.com/discoveries/web_index.htmlWhen they walk through the Valley of Weeping,it will become a place of refreshing springs,where pools of blessing collect after the rains! — Psalm 84:6 NLTWe all want to meet God on the mountain top. We want to see Jesus transfigured before us, in dazzling white. We want a glimpse of heaven. But life changing spiritual growth occurs not on the mountain top, but in the valley. It is in the valley, where we are cold, lonely and miserable that God wants to meet us. …
The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want. — Psalm 23:1We imagine ourselves to be very busy and terribly short on time. We must understand that this is a lie. God is not stingy. He has not shortchanged us on time. We have time in abundance. It is a joy and a privilege to finish a task, but God will release us from every unfinished work that didn’t fit into His perfect plan. We have time for God-ordained interruptions, time for acts of kindness, time for wonder and reflection.As it says in Ecclesiastes 3, there is a…
You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. — Exodus 20:17Why would we think that a gift from the devil is better than a gift from God? The whole point of this commandment is this: God gives good gifts.There have been times in my marriage when I couldn’t figure out what drug induced me to say, "I do." This is usually the time when the devil brings out the dessert tray and whispers, "See what you’re missing!"We all know, I hope, that there’s nothing but candy-coated poison on that tray.But what is God getting at here, when he tells us to…
Careless I haven’t cleaned the cellar, I forgot to sweep the stair There’s a button off my jacket my blue jeans have a tear. There’s an old, arthritic lady whom I should uphold in prayer. But I’m sitting in the moonlight, the moonlight, the moonlight, adoring You by moonlight As if I had no care. 4/16/79 Elizabeth Rooney My friend Ellen, a beautiful, brilliant, creative, wildly funny woman, introduced me to Elizabeth Rooney. Now, I introduce her to you.One of my goals in this blog is to introduce women to each other.Elizabeth Rooney was a poet from Blue Mounds Wisconsin.…
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. — John 1:1The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. — Mark 1:1The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. — Matthew 1:1Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things which have been accomplished among us, just as they were delivered to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely…