Daily Devotional – March 30

Hat Tip: Curt

Daily Devotional – March 29

PROVERBS

Since we just spoke about the wisest man in the world who largely failed to practice what he preached, lets spend next week with a daily dose of wisdom from Solomon’s book.  Here’s a primer to get us going:

PROVERBS 18:13 He that answereth a matter before he heareth [it], it [is] folly and shame unto him.

With the wonderful advent of the internet, we now have a medium to air our opinions on many a matter.

• Politics,
• religion,
• health,
• education,
•  welfare,
• social issues,
• you name it!

While these opinions are valuable and often supported, we have to make sure that we are aware of all of the pertinent variables before presenting that opinion.   Making up one’s mind before all of the information is available makes one look foolish–something for which one should be ashamed.

Daily Devotional – March 28

DO AS I SAY…

King Solomon, often considered the wisest and richest man to have ever lived, wrote hundreds of wise proverbs like:

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of knowledge: [but] fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

But contrary to what we like to think of Solomon, he used his God-given wisdom to further himself, living a life of personal glorification and wretched excess, setting the children of Israel and its following King up for miserable failure.

Many of us have been given wonderful minds, full of knowledge and wisdom, and we’re not very hesitant about doling out “proverbs” to others.  But, are we like mini-Solomons? 

 Are our lives characterized by, “Do as I say, not as I do?” 

Daily Devotional – March 27

PSALMS 100

A Psalm of praise.

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.

Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

Know ye that the LORD he [is] God: [it is] he [that] hath made us, and not we ourselves; [we are] his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, [and] into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, [and] bless his name.

For the LORD [is] good; his mercy [is] everlasting; and his truth [endureth] to all generations.

‘Nuff said!

Daily Devotional – March 26

BEGIN AGAIN

Begin to see yourself as you were
When you were the happiest and strongest you’ve ever been.

Begin to remember what worked for you
(and what worked against you),
And try to capture the magic again.

Begin to remember how natural it was when you were a child –To live a lifetime each day.

Begin to forget the baggage you have carried with you these long years:

• The problems that don’t matter anymore,
• The tears that cried themselves away,
• And the worries that are going to wash away on the shore of tomorrow’s new beginnings.

Begin again.

Author: Collin McCarty

Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

Note

The Berean is one year old!

Daily Devotional – March 22

IMPRESSIVE COFFEE CUP!

Headline reads: HotEnough.org Courts Good-Looking People.

I need not apply to HotEnough.org.  A picture of me would be grounds for rejection on this new dating site devoted to “hotties.”  

The article says, “Jason Pellegrino (an 8.2 on the attractiveness scale) says the problem with Internet dating services is not enough really hot-looking people. So he and a business partner have created HotEnough.org, a sort of online version of Studio 54, the exclusive ’70s disco where gaining admission was a pitiless Darwinian exercise. HotEnough.org is for ‘fit, good-looking’ people. ”

Recently an article profiled the increase in narcissism in college students, “Nip & Tuck” gives a bit of insight into the multi-billion dollar creepfest of cosmetic surgery, and every night you can watch countless informercials on “ab-beans, ab-thises and ab-thats”, age-defying creams and foods, you name it. 

Of course it may have never occurred to Mr.  8.2 above, that his looks have little or nothing to do with the success of his or anyone else’s long-term relationship.

While this is not new, vanity seems to be at an all time high and rising in these United States.  

Romans 1:21-22  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified [him] not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools…

Fools:  People who think that the taste of the coffee they drink is directly correlated to the attractiveness of the cup. 

Daily Devotional – March 21

GROW UP 

Today’s headline reads:  Scientists Are Developing Drugs That Could Eliminate Traumatic Events From Our Memories. 

We live in a nation of wusses.  Yep, the word is wuss.  Never before in the history of the United States have we had a generation so oriented around personal affirmation, security and comfort.  

Past generations of our nation took trial, pain and suffering as a part of every day life, and it remade them strong as iron.   Their slogan used to be, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger!”  Those great generations went on to accomplish and create great things.  

Today, we think that life comes with a pain-free guarantee, and seek every venue to accomplish that:  Drugs, alcohol, medicinal dependence, counseling, sanitized environments–life has become one large anti-bacterial wipe.  The slogan has been revised to, “If it doesn’t kill you, retreat into your safety zone and hide indefinitely.”

This thought has affected Christianity.  Our churches have ceased to be boot camps for training spiritual warriors, and have become tightly controlled environmental nurseries full of diaper clad adults. 

1Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Time to grow up.

Daily Devotional – March 20

FOREST FOR THE TREES

There is an animal rights group currently protesting the captivity of a small bear cub. 

They issued the following statement:

“The zoo must kill the bear,” said spokesman Frank Albrecht. “Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws.”

There is a certain point at which any deeply held belief system leaves the common sense and enters the bizarre world of feverish zealotry.    As Christians, we are at risk when our own belief system leaves the common sense teachings endemic to the nature of a loving God and enters into a state of religion so rigid and blind, that it cannot exist without causing damage to ourselves and those around us.

Evaluate your decisions and standards on a daily basis to see if they are truly in line with God.  If not, they may just be a construct of your own sinful nature.

Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom [is] the principal thing; [therefore] get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

Make sure your religion can see the  forest AND the trees. 

Daily Devotional – March 19

PUZZLE PIECE

When Adam fell in the garden he lost a valuable part of himself.  Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

When man left God he lost the part that belongs within every human.  The part that makes us whole.  Since then, every human born inherits a spiritual void that needs filling. 

People seek to fill this void with many things:

Money

Music

Entertainment

Causes

Family

Friends

Vice

Religion

At the end of it all, the aching void is still there. 

There is only one thing that can fill that void:

Ephesians 3:19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Feeling a void?  There’s only one piece that fits.