Our Daily Bread

[judE_Law]

January 1, 2011 — by C. P. Hia

Eat Fast, Pay Less

A hotel in Singapore introduced an express buffet—eat all you can in 30 minutes and pay just half the price! After that experience, one diner reported: "I lost my decorum, stuffing my mouth with yet more food. I lost my civility, . . . and I lost my appetite for the rest of the day, so severe was my heartburn."

Sometimes I think in our devotional reading we treat God's Word like an express buffet. We wolf it down as fast as we can and wonder why we haven't learned very much. Like physical food, spiritual food needs chewing! For those of us who have been Christians for a long time, we may have a tendency to speed-read through the passages we've read many times before. But in doing so, we miss what God is meaning to show us. One sure sign of this is when we learn nothing new from that passage.

David's desire was right when he wrote in Psalm 119:15, "I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways." That's the way to treat God's Word—to take time to mull it over.

Let's not come to the Bible as if we were going to an express buffet. Only by meditating on God's Word will we get the most value for our spiritual well-being.



Spending time in meditation,
Hiding Scripture in our heart,
Works in us a transformation
So from sin we can depart. —Sper

Reading the Bible without reflecting
is like eating without chewing.

[MaRfZ]

December 31, 2010 — by Joe Stowell

Rearview Mirror Reflections

I've always thought that you can see the hand of God best in the rearview mirror. Looking back, it's easier to understand why He placed us in the home that He did; why He brought certain people and circumstances into and out of our lives; why He permitted difficulties and pain; why He took us to different places and put us in various jobs and careers.

In my own life, I get a lot of clarity (though not perfect clarity—that's heaven's joy!) about the wise and loving ways of God as I reflect on the ways He has managed my journey by "the works of [His] hands" (Ps. 92:4). With the psalmist, it makes me glad and strikes a note of joy in my heart to see how often God has assisted, directed, and managed the outcomes so faithfully (Ps. 111).

Looking ahead, though, is not always so clear. Have you ever had that lost feeling when the road ahead seems twisted, foggy, and scary? Before you move into next year, stop and look in the rearview mirror of the year gone by, and joyfully realize that God meant it when He said, "'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' So we may boldly say: 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear' " (Heb. 13:5-6).

With the promise of God's presence and help in mind, you can move ahead into 2011 with utmost confidence.



Shall not He who led me safely
Through the footsteps of this day
Lead with equal understanding
All along my future way? —Adams

God's guidance in the past gives courage for the future.

isa sa mga napakagandang verse sa bible: "I will never leave you nor forsake you"

andun lagi ang pangako ng Lord na kahit kelan di nya tayo iiwan. He's our greatest companion. 

[MaRfZ]

Eat Fast, Pay Less

Amen. minsan / kadalasan ganun nangyayari saken. 

[judE_Law]

January 4, 2011 — by David C. McCasland

A Lover Of God

In a brief biography of St. Francis of Assisi, G. K. Chesterton begins with a glimpse into the heart of this unique and compassionate man born in the 12th century. Chesterton writes: "As St. Francis did not love humanity but men, so he did not love Christianity but Christ. . . . The reader cannot even begin to see the sense of a story that may well seem to him a very wild one, until he understands that to this great mystic his religion was not a thing like a theory but a thing like a love-affair."

When Jesus was asked to name the greatest command in the Law, He replied, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment" (Matt. 22:37-38). The questioner wanted to test Jesus, but the Lord answered him with the key element in pleasing God. First and foremost, our relationship with Him is a matter of the heart.

If we see God as a taskmaster and consider obedience to Him as a burden, then we have joined those of whom the Lord said, "I have this against you, that you have left your first love" (Rev. 2:4).

The way of joy is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind.



Oh, help me, Lord, to take by grace divine
Yet more and more of that great love of Thine;
That day by day my heart may give to Thee
A deeper love, and grow more constantly. —Mountain

Put Christ first and you'll find a joy that lasts.

[maykel]

The way of joy is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind.
Put Christ first and you'll find a joy that lasts.

Thanks for this... naremind ako.

[eLgimiker0]

The way of joy is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind.
Put Christ first and you'll find a joy that lasts.

Nice bro jude. Thanks. Ganda ng word of wisdom

[MaRfZ]

ako din same lines.
"Put Christ first and you'll find a joy that lasts."

[judE_Law]

January 5, 2011 — by Julie Ackerman

Lion Of Judah

The lounging lions in Kenya's Masai Mara game reserve looked harmless. They rolled on their backs in low-lying bushes. They rubbed their faces on branches as if trying to comb their magnificent manes. They drank leisurely from a stream. They strode slowly across dry, scrubby terrain as if they had all the time in the world. The only time I saw their teeth was when one of them yawned.

Their serene appearance is deceiving, however. The reason they can be so relaxed is that they have nothing to fear—no shortage of food and no natural predators. The lions look lazy and listless, but they are the strongest and fiercest of all. One roar sends all other animals running for their lives.

Sometimes it seems as if God is lounging. When we don't see Him at work, we conclude that He's not doing anything. We hear people mock God and deny His existence, and we anxiously wonder why He doesn't defend Himself. But God "will not be afraid of their voice nor be disturbed by their noise" (Isa. 31:4). He has nothing to fear. One roar from Him, and His detractors will scatter like rodents.

If you wonder why God isn't anxious when you are, it's because He has everything under control. He knows that Jesus, the Lion of Judah, will triumph.



When fear and worry test your faith
And anxious thoughts assail,
Remember God is in control
And He will never fail. —Sper

Because God is in control, we have nothing to fear.

[MaRfZ]

"Because God is in control, we have nothing to fear."

Amen! Wala naman talaga tayong dapat ipag-worry kung si Lord yun naghahari sa buhay natin. Kahit na may mga bagay o pangyayari na di maganda, i believe si God pa din ang nakakaalam ng lahat ng bagay.

[judE_Law]

"Because God is in control, we have nothing to fear."

Amen! Wala naman talaga tayong dapat ipag-worry kung si Lord yun naghahari sa buhay natin. Kahit na may mga bagay o pangyayari na di maganda, i believe si God pa din ang nakakaalam ng lahat ng bagay.

korek Marfz!

[judE_Law]

January 8, 2011 — by Dennis Fisher

A Clear Conscience

After Ffyona Campbell became famous as the first woman to walk around the world, her joy was short-lived. Despite the adulation she received, something troubled her. Guilt overtook her and pushed her to the brink of a nervous breakdown.

What was bothering her? "I shouldn't be remembered as the first woman to walk around the world," she finally admitted. "I cheated." During her worldwide trek, she broke the guidelines of the Guinness Book of World Records by riding in a truck part of the way. To clear her conscience, she called her sponsor and confessed her deception.

God has given each of us a conscience that brings guilt when we do wrong. In Romans, Paul describes our conscience as "accusing or else excusing [us]" (2:15). For the obedient follower of Christ, care of the conscience is an important way of maintaining a moral compass despite moral imperfection. Confessing sin, turning from it, and making restitution should be a way of life (1 John 1:9; Lev. 6:2-5).

Paul modeled a well-maintained conscience, saying, "I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man" (Acts 24:16 NIV). Through confession and repentance, he kept short accounts with God. Is sin bothering you? Follow Paul's example. Strive for a clear conscience.



There is a treasure you can own
That's greater than a crown or throne:
This treasure is a conscience clear
That brings the sweetest peace and cheer. —Isenhour

If God's Word guides your conscience,
let your conscience be your guide.

[judE_Law]

January 16, 2011 — by Dennis Fisher

A Child's Potential

Louis Armstrong was well known for his smiling face, raspy voice, white handkerchief, and virtuoso trumpet playing. Yet his childhood was one of want and pain. He was abandoned by his father as an infant and sent to reform school when he was only 12. Surprisingly, this became a positive turning point.

Music professor Peter Davis regularly visited the school and provided musical training for the boys. Soon Louis excelled on the cornet and became the leader of the boys' band. His life trajectory seemed to have been reset to become a world-famous trumpet player and entertainer.

Louis' story can be an example for Christian parents. The proverb: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22:6) can apply to more than the spiritual and moral aspects of our children's lives. We should also realize that a child's giftedness will often determine his or her area of interest. In the case of Louis, a little training in music resulted in a virtuoso trumpet player.

As we lovingly provide to our children godly instruction from God's Word, we should encourage them in their interests and giftedness so that they might become all that God has planned for them to be.



Our children are a gift from God
On loan from heaven above,
To train and nourish in the Lord,
And guide them with His love. —Sper

Save a child, save a life.

[MaRfZ]

"Because God is in control, we have nothing to fear."

Amen! Wala naman talaga tayong dapat ipag-worry kung si Lord yun naghahari sa buhay natin. Kahit na may mga bagay o pangyayari na di maganda, i believe si God pa din ang nakakaalam ng lahat ng bagay.

korek Marfz!

suddenly naalala ko yun sinabi ni kuya josh kagabi bout sa mga multo. kung hindi ka daw talaga spiritually founded or something like unforgiveness, at kung anu anu pa, wla lang naisip ko lang.

[judE_Law]

i heart this!
January 18, 2011 — by David H. Roper

An Open Book

Because I'm a writer, occasionally a friend will say to me, "I want to write a book someday."

"That's a worthy goal," I reply, "and I hope you do write a book. But it's better to be one than to write one."

I'm thinking of the apostle Paul's words: "Clearly you are an epistle of Christ . . . written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart" (2 Cor. 3:3).

In his book The Practice of Piety, Lewis Bayly, chaplain to England's King James I, said that "one who hopes to effect any good by his writings" will find that he will "instruct very few. . . . The most powerful means, therefore, of promoting what is good is by example. . . . One man in a thousand can write a book to instruct his neighbors. . . . But every man can be a pattern of living excellence to those around him."

The work that Christ is doing in believers can result in an influence far greater than any book they might write. Through God's Word, written "on their hearts" (Jer. 31:33), the Lord is displaying His love and goodness for all to see.

As a Christian, you may never write a book, but by living for God you will be one! You will be an open book, an "epistle of Christ" for all to read.



Oh, we would write our record plain
And come in time to see
Our unsaved neighbors won to Christ
While reading you and me. —Anon.

If someone were to read your life like a book,
would they find Jesus in its pages?

[maykel]

If someone were to read your life like a book,
would they find Jesus in its pages?

Nice with this one.. nacheck ako dito..

It applies to everyone especially those who judge others...