October 16

A Powerful Devotion


They joined with the other believers and devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, sharing in the Lord’s Supper and in prayer.

Acts 2:44 (NLT)


These new believers came together, they invested time and energy with each other and with more established Christ Followers. Pentecost excitement filled them, but there was more. Life was new. Life was different. They were different, and their priorities showed it. They devoted themselves to what was truly important … God, His word, His people.

Along with God’s word and heartfelt prayer, it is the Holy Spirit who brings great change ... if we let Him. These First Century Christ Followers show me, I need to allow the Holy Spirit success in prompting change in me ... to invest my time and my energy in others. For after all, it’s not my time, nor is it my energy. It all comes from Him. It is all to be used for Him.

This is the Christ Follower's mindset: devotion.


Lord, I love You. I lay my life before You … for You … for others. Amen.

October 15

Choosing Your Attitude


Get rid of all bitterness….

Ephesians 4:31 (NIV)


If you want an example of what God can do with a life free from bitterness, just look at Joseph. While Joseph never did any of the things we normally associate with greatness—no miracles, no incredible acts of courage—nothing spectacular, still God used him greatly. The one thing that makes Joseph stand out, the thing that made him so great afterall … was his attitude.

Chuck Swindoll, in his book on Joseph, quotes American author Elbert Hubbard as saying, “The proof of greatness lies in being able to endure (contemptuous treatment) without resentment.”

Joseph went through the wringer of life, but his unrelenting, enduring faith in God and the resultant attitude toward life’s circumstances and others carried him to new heights of service and maturity.

Joseph’s godly attitude is seen at the end of Genesis when his father dies and his brothers are concerned he will seek revenge. Instead, Joseph reassures them, “Don’t be afraid of me. As far as I am concerned God turned into good what you meant for evil" (Genesis 50:19-20).

Yes, it’s all about attitude, isn’t it? You may not have been wrongfully enslaved, or victimized by a sexual predator, or unjustly jailed like Joseph, but somebody at sometime mistreated you, or spoke unkindly to you or about you. You’ve been hurt and it wasn’t right. We’ve all been there.

So the question for us is: Can we keep our eyes on Jesus and get rid of the bitterness? It can happen. Our attitude, it seems, is a choice.


Father, help me to think like Joseph, to act more like Jesus. Lord, help me to love. Amen.

October 14

The End of the Rope!


But while in deep distress, Manasseh sought the Lord his God and cried out humbly to the God of his ancestors. And when he prayed, the Lord listened to him and was moved by his request for help. … Manasseh had finally realized that the Lord alone is God!

2 Chronicles 33:12-13 (NLT)


If you’ve made big mistakes in life, if you’ve had more than your share of major screw ups, if you’ve lived in rebellion and are now suffering the consequences … Manasseh has a message for you. Few people in the history of Israel made as many bad choices, or performed as many evil deeds as this wicked king. The Bible says he was worse than the pagans God destroyed when He brought His people into the Promised Land. He was excessive in his acts of rebellion: setting up a variety of idols and then worshipping them, sacrificing his own son to one and then killing the prophets who gave him God’s warning to stop.

He did this without regret ... until the prophets’ warnings came true and the Assyrians captured him, put a hook in his nose and hauled him off.

Then he humbled himself.

Then he cried out. And the mind-boggler is this: God listened to this terrible, terrible man. And Manasseh changed—completely.

Manasseh was set free. He returned to Jerusalem and tore down the idols … then endured to become the longest reigning King in Israel's history.

Amazing.

Manasseh provides lessons for all of us. First, if we are alive and kicking, God can still use us. In fact, He wants to use us … in spite of our past. And He loves it when we approach Him humbly. Finally, there is still a lot of good we can do.

So, if you find yourself at the end of your rope … call out to God and realize, just as Manasseh did, the Lord alone is God!


Lord, thank You for truth to direct our way and for the knowledge You love, You forgive and You lead. Amen.

October 13

The Wonder of It All!


God makes a huge dome for the sun—a superdome!

Psalm 19:4 (The Message)


Show your strength, God, so no one can miss it. We are out singing the good news!

Psalm 21:13 (The Message)


I look out my window at the majestic Cascades of Oregon—Mount Bachelor, Broken Top, the Three Sisters and more. I spy Mount Washington, Three-Fingered Jack, Mount Jefferson, and way out there ... Mount Hood. They are massive. A couple weeks ago, we spent 45 minutes driving just to get to the bottom of one of the closest. Then we invested another half hour riding two chair lifts to the top—and what a view! Now, however, I think of these huge heights as mere pimples on a blue marble … and I realize what that makes me! My mind spins back to yesterday’s sermon, and again, I am awed—truly awed.

Yesterday, Pastor John reminded us of the scientific facts: our sun can hold 130-million planet earths within its sphere. Yet our sun is not a big sun. When I got home, I searched the web for more facts, and I found Pastor Mark Adams quoting astronomers who say there are over 12-quadrillion galaxies each containing over a billion stars.

I remember a trip we took as a family to the MacDonald Observatory in West Texas. There we looked heavenward in the heart of the night—a star party they called it. Stars filled the sky! But even more impressive was the statement our guide made. Everything we saw with our naked eyes, he said, was in our galaxy—the Milky Way—except for one object. That was a tiny speck off to one side. That speck, barely visible, was Andromeda, the nearest galaxy to our own. I had to strain to see it. Now I’m realizing that on that marvelous desert night my eyes detected light from only two of the12-quadrillion galaxies.

Then I remember something, Charles Swindoll, the President of Dallas Theological Seminary once said: There are more stars than there are grains of sand on every beach on our planet.

I am in awe.

This is big stuff, but my God is bigger than all of this ... and He loves me. He loves all of us. Now, that’s amazing!

Strike up the band. It’s time to party; and I feel like singing!

Father, Wow! You are an awesome God! Thanks for giving me the big picture of Your Creation. I praise Your name. Hallelujah! Amen.