Tag: Daily Devotion

Welcome to Today’s Word Is … A Daily Devotion (Mon-Fri) by Chaplain Mark Davis. If this made a difference in your life today, please leave me a comment.

“It often takes more courage to change one’s opinion than to stick to it.” – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1790) Physicist and Philosopher

Sometimes you need to change your opinion and sometimes you need to stick to it. A great feat of maturity is to learn when and how to do both. Many people are out of balance and are far better at one than the other.

At one extreme are folks who are good at making decisions and sticking to them … but pride will not let them admit they might be wrong … thus they lack the courage to admit a mistake or to change their opinion. From the perspective of others, it is hard to respect someone who will never change their mind. Why do people remain adamant and unchanging? Sometimes they are bullies. It may also be to avoid intimacy in relationships. Never changing your mind is a good way to keep people at a distance or under control.

At the other extreme are those who are humble and honest enough to admit their mistakes … but often will fold easily when challenged about an opinion they truly believe in … thus they lack the courage to stick to their opinion. From the perspective of others, it is hard to respect someone who wavers on nearly everything. Why do such folks as these give in so easily? It might be fear of conflict or failure, possibly a poor self-image, not understanding who they are in Christ. But again, it is also another way of avoiding intimacy in relationships or of having the need to protect oneself.

Jesus had a better way … a way that requires courage, honesty, and humility.

“But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” – Jesus (Matthew 5:37)

Making yes be yes, and no be no, is in one sense about removing the playing of emotional games from our conversations. It is much more enjoyable to converse with someone who does not have a hidden agenda. It works well when both have the courage to be honest … honest about their true convictions, but also courageous to admit when they need to change their mind about something.

(If you believe there is nothing you ever need to change your mind about, your name would be “God” … just sayin’ … don’t mean to sound harsh. None of us has perfect theology or doctrines or opinions or knowledge. Surprise, surprise.)

The takeaway is this … ask God for what you need.

If you need courage to stick to your opinion … ask God. (Many folks who need the courage to be bolder are painfully aware that they need it.)

If you need courage to admit when you are wrong … ask God. (However … Many folks who need the courage to be humble are blissfully unaware that they lack humility.)

Choose to be balanced, to be able to say equally well, “I’m right this time,” or “I’m wrong this time.” This requires courage, honesty, and humility. Making it more complicated than this involves offering excuses for our behavior, and is, as Jesus said, “from the evil one.”

It takes courage to be honest, bold, and humble all at the same time!

Chaplain Mark

(NOTE: If you are in a relationship where the other person is virtually always right and certainly never wrong, and where you feel the pressure of conformity, this is a red flag. Seek some godly advice from a trusted pastor or friend.)

Welcome to Today’s Word Is … A Daily Devotion (Mon-Fri) by Chaplain Mark Davis. Today: Agreeing with God about your strengths. If this made a difference in your life today, please leave me a comment.

I once had this conversation with a co-worker …

ME:        You’re very smart.

THEM:   No. Not really.

ME:        I’m smart. I made straight A’s mostly.

THEM:   Yeah, so did I.

ME:        Then you’re pretty smart.

THEM:   Well … hmmmm … Okay.

It’s okay to say you’re smart or talented in some way, or whatever your characteristics are, in an honest and humble way. It’s part of having a good, healthy, and accurate view of yourself. Many of us were taught not to compliment ourselves because it sounds like “bragging.” Often our solution is to belittle ourselves as a way of ensuring that we don’t think too highly of ourselves. It took me 40-plus years to stop this bad habit.

The Bible talks about how you should view yourself.

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” – The Apostle Paul (Romans 12:3)

A “sober judgment” means a correct evaluation. This means you should not think “too highly” nor “too lowly” of yourself. Now who do you think has the most “sober” or accurate evaluation and opinion of you? Well … It’s God, of course.

You should agree with God and his opinion of you. He knows your value, your potential, your strengths, your weaknesses. For some of us, it is a great discovery to learn that “God thinks of me more highly than I thought He did!” God is for us, not against us. (See Romans 8 below.) So, if someone has told you that God thinks poorly of you … that’s a lie. If you think you should deny your strengths as a way of being humble, consider that this is a form of false humility, and not at all biblical. Instead, affirm who you are and the gifts you have been given, and then delight in using them for God’s purposes.

In addition, don’t bemoan your weaknesses. Everyone has them. Accept them. Improve on them when you can. This is all part of agreeing with God about who you are and who you are to become. And if you can agree with God about the total you, there will be greater peace, and probably more smiles.

Ask God for more wisdom. This was King Solomon’s one desire.

1^st Kings 9:9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” 10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked…”

Agreeing with God about who you are is a good thing! Asking for more … that’s good, too!

Have a blessed day,

Chaplain Mark

Romans 8 reference

“… If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” – Romans 8:31-32

Welcome to Today’s Word Is … A Daily Devotion (Mon-Fri) by Chaplain Mark Davis … Today: Rejecting Intimidation. If this made a difference in your life today, please leave me a comment.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” – The Apostle Paul (2^nd Timothy 1:7)

Sometimes fear serves a useful purpose, right? For instance, … Fear could keep you away from the edge of a dangerous cliff. … or … Fear could cause you to keep your distance from a poisonous snake. … or … Fear could cause you to run out of a burning building.

Those, of course, are things God designed into our nature to protect us. What we are not supposed to have is the type of fear that debilitates us, keeps us in misery, or prevents us from being the person that God calls us to be.

The normal Greek word for fear is “phobia,” which is used 150 times in the New Testament. Another New Testament word for fear is “deilia,” used only once by Paul in this passage, and once by Jesus (Matthew 8:26 and Mark 4:40), on the occasion where a frightening storm came up while the disciples were in a boat with Jesus. “But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”

This use of the word can also be translated as “intimidation.” Why would Paul tell Timothy not to be intimidated? Interestingly, the name Timothy comes from the same root word, as if describing someone who is easily intimidated. Timothy was a young man with great potential in ministry, but how easy it is to let yourself be intimidated, being a young person teaching people older than yourself, and often much wiser. I know. I pastored my first church at age 19.

Also notice that Paul didn’t say, “we are not given fear.” He said, “We are not given a SPIRIT of fear.” This is a spiritual issue. There are evil spirits that have certain characteristics or tactics, and yes, there is a spirit of fear, whose strategy is to intimidate you out of your destiny.

In the 6^th grade my first male teacher, Mr. Webb, was a combination of caring, wise, and tough. We would go to the playground and the whole class of 30 kids played softball. He divided the class in half, and we scattered all over the field to play, lots of infielders and outfielders. Mr. Webb was the pitcher.

One day I hit a ball past the outfielders, a “for sure” home run, rare for me. I rounded first, second, third and looked back over my shoulder as I was halfway to home. And, oh no, Mr. Webb was standing in a throwing position with his arm back over his shoulder, ready to throw the ball. I stopped and froze in disbelief! How could they have retrieved the ball so quickly!? As I stood there staring, waiting for him to throw me out, the ball came bounding in from the outfield and stopped at his feet. He smiled, leaned over, and with his empty hand, scooped up the ball, and threw me out. He had bluffed me … intimidated me … out of a home run. I was so focused on Mr. Webb that I didn’t see where the ball really was. I could have had a home run! I will never forget that lesson.

Think about it … this is what your “enemy” wants to do to you … bluff you into thinking you’re not good enough, smart enough, innovative enough, persistent enough, or enough of whatever you may need to succeed. He has no weapon to harm you, so he intimidates you into giving up. I thought Mr. Webb had the ball in his hand … nope. I was not robbed by the power of the enemy, but by being intimidated out of claiming what was mine.

If you have a spirit of fear, God didn’t give it to you. I repeat … If you have a spirit of fear, God didn’t give it to you! And he wants to replace it with power, love, and a sound mind. Suppose you just “spoke” to this spirit of fear you’ve been burdened with and served it an eviction notice! I will no longer be intimidated out of my blessings! Then ask God for his three replacement gifts … power, love, and discipline.

Power – that’s like the engine of a car. The Holy Spirit will give you his kind of power.

Love – that’s the proper fuel. It will help you to do things with right motives. If you are fueled by anger, for instance, things will often not turn out so well.

A Sound Mind (or Discipline) – that’s the steering wheel. It means guiding how you apply the love and use the power God has given you. Not too fast or slow, staying on track, waiting sometimes, proceeding at others.

The experience of ridding myself of the spirit of intimidation, with God’s help, created a quantum leap forward in my faith. I still get intimidated occasionally, but I am quicker to rebuke it now.

Blessed to be a blessing,

Chaplain Mark

Welcome to Today’s Word Is … A Daily Devotion (Mon-Fri) by Chaplain Mark Davis … If this made a difference in your life today, please leave me a comment.

Do you ever have a hard time sleeping? Do you frequently have a hard time sleeping?!

I have had issues with that sometimes. And there are many possible contributing factors which vary from person to person. If the problem for you is worrying about money or over-working, then God speaks to that, namely about losing sleep for a particular reason.

“It is vain for you to rise up early,

    To sit up late,

To eat the bread of sorrows;

    For so He gives His beloved sleep.” (Psalm 127:2 NKJV)

When I first discovered that verse, I committed it to memory and have never forgotten it.

I doubt there are many people, if any, who get to retirement age or the end of life and say to themselves, “I spent too much time with my family. I should have worked more!” It’s the other way around, right? We discover too late that all that excessive worry and work wore us down and robbed us of precious relationship time and the joys of life.

Now, obviously work is important and work is good. But when it gets out of proportion in the priorities of life, it can steal our health, our peace, our joy, and many other things.

God wants us to be healthy, fulfilled, and yes … happy. These things happen by adopting the patterns of God, the kingdom life that Jesus taught in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5,6,7). If you will live in God’s way instead of the world’s way, you can claim the promise of Psalm 127:2 … God grants sleep (literal translation would be “peaceful sleep”) to those whom he loves.

Now getting up early is the habit of some and staying up late is the habit of others. But this Psalm is about someone who, because of worry or stress, gets up too early or stays up too late. Maybe they even do both! It is about obsessing over your work and worrying about your provision … to the extent that you can’t sleep well, and as a result you do not enjoy the fruit of your labors. It is about the high cost of failure to trust in God’s provision. In contrast, God-given rest, peaceful sleep, is the glorious gift associated with believing his promises.

Trust God for your needs, and you can enjoy your work instead of dreading it. You can be satisfied with what you have and stop “burning your candle at both ends.”

Do you “eat the bread of sorrows”? That’s like working and fretting so much that eating the food you have bought with your paycheck is not enjoyable, because you have made yourself emotionally sick trying to “make ends meet.” (Holy cow, this means that not only do you have sleep problems, you have digestive problems as well!!!)

“Our God will supply all our needs, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19) So, do the wise thing. Be satisfied. Be at peace. Settle down in your mind. Give thanks. Eat some bread of blessing, instead of “bread of sorrows.” And then, of course, go to bed and sleep well tonight!

Be blessed!

Chaplain Mark

Welcome to Today’s Word Is … A Daily Devotion (Mon-Fri) by Chaplain Mark Davis … If this made a difference in your life today, please leave me a comment.

Over the years the disagreements between my wife and myself have gradually diminished to very few occurrences. And hurray! … we just recently celebrated our 37^th wedding anniversary! Whatever skirmishes we have are minor and mostly humorous. But I can recall a day about three years ago when we hit a bump. Each of us was dealing with our own bothersome physical issues, plus some other stresses such as moving to a new home.

Bad days are fairly infrequent for us, and when they occur it usually works out that the one doing OK supports the one having the bad day. But … on that particular day we decided (not really) to each have our own bad day on the same day … and express it forcefully! Such times can cause intense feelings of dissatisfaction. Through the early years I occasionally thought I should just leave, and although I’m afraid to ask (LOL), I’m pretty sure she had the some thought a few times. (Or maybe quite a few times … gulp!)

In the Bible (John chapter 6), the multitude of followers of Jesus were having a rough time with some of his “difficult” teachings, to the point that many of them decided to leave. The “chosen” twelve disciples must have been struggling with the same inner conflict, and Jesus asked them if they, too, wanted to leave. But the disciple Simon Peter blurted out a gem of a confession at this point.

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:66-68)

Back to my story … For both my wife and I to be tired, cranky, and emotionally upset on the same day seemed like an enormous challenge, one which might have made us question if we could keep going. Frankly, this had probably been building for quite a few days. What do you do when this happens? As people of faith we can learn something from Simon Peter about what is the right question to ask. If we look to the God of our faith and into our inner being, the truth is obvious. After all, that same belief, foundation, attachment, and love that we have (and the disciples had) with Jesus, is also true for us in our marriage.  … “Where would I go?” … and we know the answer … “You are the one.”

Many people give up on faith, marriages, jobs, friends, etc. because they jump without considering the question, “Where would I go?” That’s worth thinking about. Is there something you are about to give up on? Obviously, some things need to be abandoned, but in the case of faith or marriage or other things that God has a plan for, we need to ask, “where would I go?” The Holy Spirit reminded Simon Peter that the best place was right where he was, despite the struggle.

A few times in various circumstances of my life, I have jumped when I shouldn’t have. We all have done that. And Dr. Phil would gladly jump in and say, “And how’s that working for you?”

Sometimes dissatisfaction gives us the chance to see that we are where we are for a reason.

Blessings,

Chaplain Mark

P.S. If my wife is not OK with this post, I am believe I am in big trouble. (I love you, honey!)

Welcome to Today’s Word Is … A Daily Devotion (M-F) by Chaplain Mark Davis … If this made a difference in your life today, please leave me a comment.

The Paradoxical Commandments

by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. — Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. — Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. — Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. — Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. — Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. — Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. — Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. — Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. — Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. — Give the world the best you have anyway.

© Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001

Blessings Always!

Chaplain Mark

Furniture likes to collect dust. In biblical days, so did feet. And according to Jesus, so can you, in a spiritual sort of way. These are leftover emotions from negative interactions with people.

Jesus once sent his disciples out on a mission – a mission with a good purpose – healing, restoring, blessing. He knew that some people would welcome them, and others would not. Thus, his instructions to them were, that if anyone welcomed them … enjoy it … and thank them!

But he also said, “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town.” (Matthew 10:14)

In biblical days, a guest that was taken in for shelter or lodging, was to be treated with kindness and respect. First order of business … get their dusty feet cleaned off. If your host did this, you knew you were welcome. However, not everyone wants to hear what you have to say. They may obviously need help, and yet push you away with … “I don’t want your help! Go away!” If you are not welcome, Jesus advised that you leave the distastefulness of this rejection behind by symbolically shaking the dust off your feet.

Take note … this is different from what the world would have us do. Wiping off the dust means … not demonstrating anger, not mocking or rebuking, and not thinking up ways to get revenge. It means refraining from complaining … not using this as an opportunity to get some sympathy points. There is no need to post your hurt feelings on Facebook or Twitter, no sharing what these ungrateful people have done to offend you.

Jesus was telling his disciples that when you have been generous or noble or honest or caring or at least sincere, and someone still has an axe to grind, a complaint to register … well, you don’t have to be rude or angry back at them as you leave. Maturity is about gaining wisdom to carry with us, while leaving the “dusty” part behind.

If you are carrying “dust” around from an unpleasant rejection, shake it off and leave it behind … No anger … No disappointment … No revenge … No mumbling … Just wipe it off and go on, at peace. If you’re still angry or resentful, you took the dust with you when you left.

I think I need a paper towel,

Chaplain Mark

New Year’s Day has a wonderful feel to it. What happened last year is behind us, and we have a clean slate to write a new chapter of our lives.

Golfers use the word “mulligan” to describe this opportunity. If someone has a particularly bad shot, they take a mulligan, erasing the last shot and trying again. This is, of course, technically against the rules.  But who cares? A second chance is a great thing! No one knows exactly where the word mulligan came from, but the concept is widely used … and enjoyed!

The USGA (United States Golf Association) Museum mentions a fellow by the name of David Mulligan who frequented St. Lambert Country Club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada during the 1920s. Mulligan let it rip off the tee one day, wasn’t happy with the results, re-teed, and hit again. According to the story, he called it a “correction shot,” but his golfing buddies thought a better name was needed and dubbed it a “mulligan.”

Perhaps because Mr. Mulligan was a prominent local businessman, the term, according to the story, caught on among his peers and then spread from there. He brought the term to the United States when he moved to New York and joined Winged Foot Country Club. Other stories of the word’s origin exist, but none can be verified.

For those of us in the Christian faith, it is clear that God is a “do-over” kind of God.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1^st John 1:9

The beauty of this cleansing is that nothing in our past can prevent us from going on toward God’s preferred future in our lives. Claim your do-over! And also, grant a do-over to those around you who need one!

Thank you, Lord, for this new beginning! Today we can start over, unburdened, refreshed, and re-energized!

Have a blessed New Year!

Chaplain Mark