Proclamation227

Pray for a “sympathy breakthrough” “Clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” Col 3:12 NLT   The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” In his documentary on twentieth-century wars, Jonathan Glover refers to what he calls “sympathy breakthroughs.” Even in the situation of war, acts of compassion supersede the conflict. Most sympathy breakthroughs, according to Glover, are triggered by eye-to-eye contact, and that eye-to-eye contact displaces hand-to-hand combat. Have you ever had a sympathy breakthrough? If not, pray for one. It’s a moment when your tendency to hate is overcome by your will to love. A moment when proactive compassion overrules negative anger. A moment when you’re concerned more about someone else’s pain than your own. Those are the moments when you discover what it really means ...

What makes you glad, sad, or mad? “To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown.” Job 6:14 NKJV   A pastor writes: “What makes you glad or sad or mad? What puts a holy smile on your face? What causes your spirit to sob uncontrollably? What makes you pound your fist on the table out of righteous indignation? Somewhere in the mixture of that gladness, sadness, and madness is your God-ordained passion. Or maybe we should say compassion, because you are feeling what God feels. And once you identify it, doing something about it isn’t optional. You can’t not do something about it.” In 2006, Blake Mycoskie was touring Argentina when he noticed that many of the children didn’t have shoes. He could have returned to the United States and gone about his business. Instead, he started TOMS shoes, a business with a mission of putting shoes on the feet of children in third-world countries. It works like this: When you buy a pair of TOMS shoes, you’re giving a pair of shoes to a barefoot chi...

You are a wonder “I praise you because I am…wonderfully made.” Ps 139:14 NIV   Despite your aches and pains, you are a living, breathing, walking, talking wonder. The psalmist said, “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (vv. 13-14 NIV). One author explains: “Most of us take our eyesight for granted, but even the simplest of processes is divinely complex. The retina, for example, conducts close to ten billion calculations every second, and that is before an image even travels through the optic nerve to the visual cortex. The human nose can detect one-millionth of one milligram of garlic floating in the air and distinguish among ten thousand distinct odors. The hairs blanketing your body magnify the sensation of touch so that you can discern a thousandth of an ounce of pressure on the tip of a half-inch hair. Amazing, isn’t it?” Trillions of chemical reactions are taking place in every cell of...

The art of being a sheep (2) “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” Ps 23:1 NIV   We need to know two things: (1) Our shepherd’s character. Jesus distinguished good shepherds from bad ones (See Jn 10:11-16). Bad shepherds look out for their own interests, not the welfare of the sheep. They’re unreliable; when a threat arises, they abandon the flock. But Jesus claimed, “I am the good shepherd” (Jn 10:11). What makes Him good? “The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (v. 11 NKJV). Their needs and their security come before his own, and if necessary, he will die for them. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (v. 14 NIV). Jesus knows each of His sheep individually and desires an intimate relationship with them. He calls each one by name; they trust Him and follow where He leads (See Jn 10:3). You can rely on your shepherd to protect and guide you! (2) The sheep’s condition is the shepherd’s business. He can’t be a good shepherd if his sheep’s needs...

The art of being a sheep (1) “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” Ps 23:1 NIV   Perhaps you memorized Psalm 23 as a child. The vivid visual images remain with us lifelong. Author Hannah Whitall Smith said, “What we all need is just to get back into the nursery again, and take up our childish verses once more, and, while reading them with the intelligence of our grown-up years, to believe them with all our old childish faith.” As adults we become jaded, losing the simple joy that stress-filled lives require. We need to remember these three things: (1) Who our shepherd is—“The Lord.” He is the source of everything we will ever need, beginning with salvation. Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (Jn 10:11 NKJV). (2) What the shepherd’s job is—protector and provider for the sheep. And He knows how to handle wayward, headstrong, vulnerable sheep and care for them. Long before Jesus came as our shepherd, the Father said, “I will rescu...

God will rescue you “We stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God.” 2Co 1:9 NLT   Are you feeling hopeless about the situation you’re in and don’t know which way to turn? Maybe you’re struggling to find a reason to keep going, but you’re so tired and overwhelmed that you just want to give up. If that’s the case, you’re in a vulnerable place. Look out—Satan will try to convince you there must be sin in your life, or that you’re out of God’s will, or that He is unhappy with you because you have disobeyed Him in some area you’re unaware of. Don’t buy it! You can be in the center of God’s will doing everything the right way, and still experience adversity. The apostle Paul writes: “You ought to know…about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only o...

https://youtu.be/nch-oo0-JXk Meditate on God’s Word “In His law he meditates day and night…and whatever he does shall prosper.” Ps 1:2-3 NKJV   Thomas à Kempis wrote, “If you wish to grow in your spiritual life, you must not allow yourself to be caught up in the workings of the world. You must find time alone, away from the noise and confusion, from the allure of power and wealth.” You say, “Does that mean God doesn’t want me setting goals and achieving things in life?” No, quite the opposite! The Bible says, “In His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper” (vv.2-3 NKJV). What’s the secret of a tree’s fruitfulness? Having deep roots that are connected to life-giving streams of water. And as the demands on your time and energy become greater, you must discipline yourself to spend even more time in the Scriptures, not less. Wh...