Guidelines For Living Devotional

3 Things Hard Times Do For You

When I asked Fred Whiteman how old he was, he replied, "I'm 47 on the outside, 31 on the inside.  I've had more trouble that most senior citizens, and I still look at life through the eye of a child."  What kind of an answer is that?  Chronologically, Fred had seen 47 birthdays.  Within his chest cavity beat the heart of a man 31 years old--the result of having had a heart transplant.  Has Fred really seen more trouble than most senior citizens?

How Hidden Scrolls Give Us A Picture Of God’s Plan

In 1947, a shepherd boy by the name of Mohammed Ab Dib, from the Ta-Amir Bedouin tribe, was allegedly searching for lost sheep when he tossed a rock into the mouth of a cave near the Dead Sea. That evening as he sat around the campfire with his older brothers, Mohammed told how he had heard an evil spirit which he thought had been disturbed by a rock he had thrown into the cave as he searched for a lost goat.

What Is Your Conscience?

They called him, "The Gentleman Bandit."  Few robbers were ever more kind to their victims.  He would rob people, then mail the pictures of children and grandchildren back to their home addresses.  After pulling a gun and informing the victim that it was a robbery, on several occasions his heart would be touched by their stories of hardship if they lost their money, and he would put his gun in his pocket and walk away.  On one occasion a man was so frightened that he sustained a heart attack, and the kind bandit called for an ambulance.  He went so far as to sympathetically call the homes of victims, to see if they had recovered from the fright of being robbed.

How Did Jesus Get to Be God?

Out of the mouth of babes come some of the toughest issues that ever confront theologians, to say nothing of Sunday school teachers or parents.  For example, the question that my son, then five years of age, once put to me in rush-hour traffic:  "Daddy, how did Jesus get to be God?"  What struck me about the question was that we hadn't even been talking about the subject.  Surprising as it may seem to you, that very issue was one of the first controversies in the early church.  Did Jesus become God when He was born?  Or rather was He always God and only appeared to be a man? 

Your Greatest Enemies Are Within

Anyone who has ever undertaken a building project knows that what looks great on paper never takes the same shape in the real world.  I don't know if Nehemiah had ever heard of "Murphy's law --whatever can go wrong, will go wrong."  There must have been a Persian equivalent, because a man who lived 2600 years ago experienced the full force of that reality.

Don’t Settle For Mediocrity!

Have you ever wanted to do something, yet you were faced with all kinds of obstacles?  If you answer, "Yes!" then you can relate to one of the greatest of all Old Testament characters, a man by the name of Nehemiah. 

7 Steps To Protecting Your Child From A Sexual Predator

As we drove past the elementary school, we noticed the long line of cars waiting to pick up the children who were finishing their school day. "Boy," I commented--half speaking to my wife and half to myself--"things sure are different from when our kids went to school."  A generation ago, perhaps even a decade ago, few parents had much concern when kids walked home. After all, there were neighbors and it was generally safe.

Here’s How Sexual Infidelity Happens

David, the New Testament tells us, was a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22), something that was said of no other person whose life story is told in the Bible. He was the one who went against the giant Goliath, the one who united Israel and defeated its enemies, yet, tragically, it was for his affair with Bathsheba, that history has most remembered David.

Why Is Infidelity Such A Bad Idea?

Infidelity is not new, but we are treating it more casually than any previous generation in recent history. The reality, however, is that its consequences are not lessened by our more liberal outlook on life. In most cases, infidelity is the crowning blow to a marriage that may have already been on the rocks.

Here Is The Reality Of Sex

My wife and I had just boarded a flight from Amsterdam to the U. S.  Seated next to us was a young man, about 25 years of age. It was impossible not to notice the glossy cover of the magazine he picked up which featured a beautiful girl clad in a bikini along with an admiring young man. The caption was, "Sex on the beach!"  The glamorous tropical setting makes it seem so natural, so beautiful, and so spontaneous; but what the magazine, the media, and the message of our culture do not tell you is that sex is not casual, it is not free, and it is certainly not without consequences, whether you are single or married.