Guidelines For Living Devotional

What Does Marriage Even Mean Today?

Do you ever wonder if the twentieth century saw all the fabric of social institutions come unraveled so that nothing is an established norm anymore?  And perhaps foremost among them is the meaning of marriage.  Between 1970 and 1980 the number of unwed couples living together more than tripled, but that was just the beginning. 

What Does A True Leader Look Like?

"He who thinks he leads," said Benjamin Hooks, "and has no one following him is only taking a walk."  No great cause can survive apart from leadership--in government, in industry, in business, in the church.  One of the problems of leadership is that it is often difficult for the leader to distinguish between leading a cause and being the cause.  In reality, a leader is committed to a cause, but he does not become the cause.  Sometimes a leader pours himself into the cause he represents so much--body, soul, and spirit--that his judgment and perspective become warped.  The individual begins to think that he is the cause.

The Most Transformative Power On Earth

"If you know anyone who is colorblind," said the late psychologist John Money, "then you have a good idea of what it means to be love-blind."  What Professor Money is talking about isn't the starry-eyed young person who falls in love, but the individual who seems entirely normal--social, friendly, and handsome or attractive, but who just never seems to fall in love with anyone.  Believe it or not, love-blindness is but one of a broad spectrum of romantic problems now believed to result--at least in part--from chemical instabilities or malfunctions in the brain. 

You’re Invited To A Party!

Suppose you plan a big dinner party.  You hire a caterer, bring in a decorator, plan on entertainment, and really invest some money.  "This is going to be the hottest thing that has happened in years," you smugly tell yourself.  Then the phone starts to ring.  People whine and dance around the invitation, hesitating to come right out and say, "We're not coming," but you quickly translate their "We're not sure," and "We've got to go out of town," and "Our grandmother is having a birthday" excuses into reality as you ask yourself, "What is going on here?"

Check Your Heart

When you go to your doctor for a physical, he thumps you, feels you for swelling, and otherwise pokes and prods.  Like a policeman searching for a thief, he’s looking for anything that can cause you trouble.  And if he finds anything that seems irregular, he wants to check it out.  When I had a physical a few years ago, the doctor found a tiny lump near my collarbone.  “Hum!” he said in that not-so comforting doctor tone, “we had better check this out.”  He did, too.  He wanted a biopsy—a tiny bit of flesh (my flesh, of course), which could be put under a microscope and examined.  He explained that he would numb the spot and use a needle to get to the heart of the problem.

Learn How God Sees Us Through Our Battles

The earliest record of the fabled Roman legion tells us that it consisted of about 1000 men, organized in groups of about 100 who fought in a phalanx formation.  It's a fact: the Roman fighting forces were superior to anything else that existed in ancient days. 

Can You Trust God To Run Your Life?

At one time Bulstrode Whitelocke was England's ambassador to Sweden, and then, as now, life was chaotic and uncertain.  The night before he was to leave for Sweden, Whitelocke spent the night in a country inn near the ship that would take him on his journey when morning came.

Were Mistakes Made Or Did You Lie?

It happens almost every day.  You read a headline such as, "Truth Catches Up With Accused Storyteller," or "Top Historian Becomes Tangled in Fictions," or "Corporation Mogul Embarrassed By New Allegations," "Law School Dean Denies Plagiarism," and so forth.  It doesn't stop as our integrity seems to unravel.  But what gnaws at my viscera is that these are people who are supposed to lead the way, who are thought of as models of honesty and integrity.

What Jesus Promises You In The Storms Of Life

William Shakespeare had a tremendous grasp of life and human nature.  “When sorrows come,” he wrote, “they come not single file but in battalions.”  My mother used to say, “When it rains, it pours!” meaning essentially the same thing.  Nobody apart from a sadistic individual intent on self-destruction would purposely choose to punish himself by bringing difficulty or pain into his life. It just happens, often unexpectedly and without warning.  The phone rings in the middle of the night. It’s bad news.  Your job plays out on you, the one you thought would take you to retirement. Your daughter at college lobs a hand-grenade, letting you know that she’s dropping out of school to marry the young man who has no job.  You are confronted with a malpractice suit at the very time you have paid off your school debt, and often one difficulty follows another as surely as the moon and the sun.

How Much Do You Need To Be Satisfied?

How much is enough?  Have you ever pondered the question in relationship to your own lifestyle?  When John D. Rockefeller was asked how much money it would take to be satisfied, he replied, "Just a little bit more!"