Guidelines For Living Devotional

Does God Punish Us With Tragedy?

We live in a broken, imperfect world, and one of the results is that bad things do happen to good people; but when we are confronted with that stark reality, almost always our hearts cry out, "Why, God? Why did this happen to me?"

When You Can’t See The Whole Picture

One of the problems that confronts us in asking the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" is that our perspective is incomplete.  We look at the set of circumstances which leads up to the unpleasant event which triggers the question, "Why?"  It is almost like asking the outcome of a ball game when there are two important minutes on the clock, and until the game is over, you don't have the complete picture.

Don’t Take Your Life For Granted

When Boris Yeltsin was weathering the stormy coup in Moscow which so altered the former USSR, his adrenaline was really flowing.  As he mounted the barricade outside the walls of Parliament and raised his fist in the air, he allowed his five-year-old granddaughter to climb up and stand by his side.  After all, history was being made and what a grand moment to share with this little girl, who would never forget what she had experienced.

5 Responses To Frustration

Frustration is no stranger to the child of God.  Believers live in a world of broken pieces, and buses which are late, and budgets which will not balance, just the same as the man who is an atheist.  I contend, however, that the child of God should have some resources with which to fight frustration.  Yes, the believer has powers to cope that the atheist does not have.  Like what?

Can You Trust Your Conscience?

When a psychotherapist talks about guilt, he is usually talking about something which the Bible describes as conscience. He's talking about the emotion which either condemns or exonerates you of your actions.  But when the Bible talks about guilt, using the same term which psychotherapy uses, it is in relationship to your standing before God--not your feelings, which may reflect your culture and your understanding of right or wrong.

4 Ways To Learn From Failure

Charles Schultz, the creator of the comic strip "Peanuts" had a grasp of human nature such as do few people.  Who can't identify with the series of cartoons where Lucy is trying to console Charlie Brown?  She says, "Remember, Charlie Brown, you learn more from your defeats than you do from your victories."  And Charlie Brown says, "That makes me the smartest man in the world!"

Discover Why We Need To Be Followers

What we need today is more leaders!  Right?  Wrong, says Joe Stowell!  And who is this negative voice?  He served for 18 years as president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, one of our day's leading Christian colleges with more than a century of history. 

Move From Ignorance Into Truth

Ignorance is a wonderful thing!  What you don't know doesn't worry you, though it probably should.  You couldn't be out of money since you still have checks in your checkbook, right? The lump that you have on your neck can’t hurt you as long as you ignore it or can it?  It's not only your bank account or your health which is an issue; it's your spiritual life as well. Strange, is it not, how we prefer to ignore issues rather than confront them.

Who Decides What Is Right And What Is Wrong?

The writer, C.S. Lewis, points out that you've got to know what a straight line is before you know what a crooked one is.  But the “straight lines” of morality, of what is right and wrong, are fuzzy in the minds of a lot of people. Where do we get our idea of what is right and what is wrong and can something be “right for you, but wrong for me?”

Jesus: Four Reasons To Believe

A sign carried by a demonstrating student on a university campus read, "JESUS, YES!  CHRISTIANITY, NO!"  Was the student rejecting the distorted picture of Christianity which is often projected--the image of someone who goes to church yet whose life has been unaffected by the message?  Does this mean that the demonstrator related to Jesus as a revolutionary, as someone who stood against the crowd and certainly against the established government and authority of His day?  Or does that mean He stood for the real, the authentic, the genuine Christ who spoke the truth and gave His life that those who believe in Him could have everlasting life?