Guidelines For Living Devotional

An Offer of Grace In Times Of Crisis

When stress erupts and disruption turns life upside down, each of us handles the storm differently. Mental health advocate, Kay Warren, points out that, in a crisis, we all might be battling the same storm, but not everyone has the same emotional resources with which to weather it.  If a storm of tumultuous times hits when you are in a relatively healthy place emotionally and financially, you might be able to make it through like someone aboard a stable yacht.  Others may find themselves rowing mightily in a leaky rowboat or worse, down in the waves, desperately clinging to only a log. 

3 Ways To Prevent Alienation In Your Marriage

When Simon and Chana Taub decided to disagree and couldn’t resolve their conflicts, a judge ordered a wall built right down the center of their three-story house, separating the angry couple from each other.  I’m not sure whether or not the judge had heard the story about Solomon’s decision to divide a child down the middle, thereby finding out which one of the women was actually the mother of the child.  But I do know that when hearts are divided, those same walls divide the hearts of children as well.

Is There A Wall Up In Your Marriage?

“Far apart under one roof,” was the title of the story telling of the bitter dispute between Chana Taub and her husband Simon.  In this unbelievable saga, repeated countless times around the world, after 27 years of marriage and four children, Chana and Simon’s love turned to hatred.

There Is New Life And A New Look Waiting For You

Out of the mouths of babes comes the unvarnished, plain truth.  Of that you can be sure.  I thought of that when I took my little grandson to the park. Andrew was then a two-year old full of smiles framed by a few baby teeth, a little bit of fuzz on his head, and glasses to correct a vision problem.

Why Non-Believers Don’t Want To Talk With Christians

You’ve heard people say it: “I’m spiritual, but not religious.”  Whether it was a celebrity, your next-door neighbor or even your adult child, this is how one quarter of Americans view themselves, according to the Pew Research Center. [1] But not just Americans--Prince Charles and one-fifth of people in the UK fit into this category, according to Professor Michael King from University College London. The definition of the term is broad; it can include a moment of transcendence while watching a sunset, living in the moment or using meditation in an attempt to stop chattering thoughts.
 
[1] Castella, Tom de. “Spiritual, but Not Religious.” BBC News. BBC, January 3, 2013. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20888141.
 

What Is The Best Thing To Do With Doubt?

Not all doubt is bad.  Some of the world’s leading skeptics of Christianity have eventually become its leading advocates.  Such a person was C. S. Lewis, the late professor of Medieval English at Cambridge University.  A combination of issues--the horror of war, seeing some of his best friends die, wondering about the hereafter--made Lewis first doubt his faith, then search for answers.  He found them, too, in the pages of Scripture. What’s good about doubt?  Consider the following five observations, and then make your own decision.

The Good Side Of Doubt

Contrary to what some may tell you, there can be a silver lining to the dark clouds of doubt.  “Just take it by faith,” we are often told, but there are situations where doubting what you are uncertain of results in a far more positive faith in the long run than to blindly accept something. Doubt causes you to dig deep, to search for truth, to compare what you have been told with what the Bible really says.  There is a positive side to doubt. While some never confront their doubts, others face them and end up being better because of it, much better.

Tomorrow’s Here And It’s Out Of Control

How do you keep track of your tomorrows?  Do you plan them out, meticulously calendaring work and social events on your phone and reviewing tomorrow’s agenda before bed?  Or do you stand by your paper calendar and a scribbled to-do list?  Even if you don’t plan for the tomorrows of life, you probably operate under the assumption that you should.  Human wisdom has generally run along the lines of the African proverb that says, “Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”  If we’ve got a plan ready to execute, we may feel that when tomorrow arrives, we will have whatever it takes to meet it head on.  We are in control of our destinies!

Can The Bible Change A Person?

What is so special about the Bible? Billions of copies of it have been sold.  It’s available in 698 languages and it’s the bestselling book of all time.  For 2,000 years, people have claimed to be changed by reading it. 

Discover How To Keep Your Life In Balance

Our earth with its diameter of 7,926 miles (measured through the poles), rests basically on nothing, yet the earth races along its elliptical orbit around the sun in exactly three‑hundred sixty‑five and a quarter days.  Isaac Newton defined this force in his "law of gravitation" when he said that the gravitational force is directly proportional to the product of two masses (e.g. the Earth and the Moon) and inversely proportional to the distance between them squared.  The entire universe is held in harmony by an intricate system of balances and tensions.