Guidelines For Living Devotional

5 Steps To Satisfaction In God

If you have an unsatisfied hunger for God deep down within your heart, no matter how far away He seems or how miserable you may be, be encouraged.  You are spiritually alive and God's Spirit is prodding you to seek and find Him.  But you may be thinking, "You don't understand.  I'd like to know God, but I'm not sure He's even there, so how can I find Him?"

7 Guidelines For Financial Survival

Few of us lie awake nights worrying about a major world economic collapse any more than we lie awake worrying about our planet’s getting wiped out by an asteroid from outer space. But thinking about our own families and what may happen if mom or dad doesn't get a good-paying job is another matter.

Avoid These 3 Attitudes Toward Money At All Costs!

When hard times come every one looks for a scapegoat.  Blame tough times on the economy, or the government, or a mate whose use of credit cards has been less than frugal.  Whether it is an organization, a church, a business, or a family, when the cash flow begins to dry up there has to be a cause somewhere--a reason for the problem.  Somebody, or something, has to be responsible, so the search for blame gets underway. 

What Your Pastor Needs Right Now

When pastors or spiritual leaders of Christian organizations battle with moral failure or get divorced or struggle with their teenagers, we often are perplexed. Aren't they supposed to be different? Don't they have PhDs in “Godly Living?" Aren't they immune to disappointments, depression or other mental illnesses?

Why You Can Count On God

Can you really trust God for your needs?  Perhaps the question should be prefaced by asking, “When you were a kid, could you trust your dad for your needs?”  And if so, why?  “Well,” you say, “we were related.  He loved me and, therefore, provided for me.”  The same line of logic really applies to your being able to trust God for your needs, ones which your earthly father could never meet.  How so?  In a one-word response, it is relationship.

How To Live With Grace At Any Age

“Gray hair is a crown of splendor,” says the writer of Proverbs, but most of us would just as soon avoid what it represents—growing old.  So we do everything in our power to camouflage the symptoms; but the reality is that as the years go by, we gradually grow older, thereby proving the observation of my son that there are three periods of life: youth, middle age, and “My, you’re looking well today.”

How Can I Inherit Eternal Life?

Anyone who has ever visited ancient Jericho can testify to the reality that in the summer it can be unbearably hot.  Locals are convinced that hell itself is only ten degrees hotter than Jericho.  There is an old aphorism that in China only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun, and that surely applied to Jericho as well–which is why a drama that unfolded as Jesus approached the city on His way to Jerusalem is so remarkable.

Commit To 5 Minutes A Day With God

OK, you have decided to take five minutes a day and focus on God.  You've made the decision to try it.  What can you expect?  For one thing, you'll discover that Murphy's law, "Anything that can happen, will happen," has your name on it.  You will oversleep.  You will discover that your socks don't match.  You will have extra work that keeps you up late, so late that as soon as you close your eyes, you are instantly asleep.  You will set the alarm early, and an alarm that has never failed before, will not go off!  You will settle down with an open Bible or a notebook and begin to ponder your relationship with God, and the phone will ring, or you will immediately think of things that need your attention right now, and you close the Book and skip your quiet time with God.

Does Your Life Reflect Your Faith?

It's a rather sobering thought to realize that the world judges God by what they see of Him in the lives of His children--in my life.  So we look at our lives, and recognize that instead of mirroring His love, justice, character, and peace, we often project a somewhat distorted picture of God, one fogged over by our human failure.  "Not good enough!" cries our incriminating conscience.  Then in failure we feel like turning away.

The Jesus You Can Know

The Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman once stood before a painting of Christ which hung in a cathedral in Europe.  As he gazed intently at the painting, He whispered, "Speak to me!"  But there was only silence, so goes the story.