God’s Catalog

John 17:20-26 (NKJV)

Jesus Prays for All Believers

20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will[a] believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”



Tis the season to receive catalogs in the mail. Every trip to the mailbox ends with an armload of slick holiday catalogs. Each one claims to offer me something I need—immediately. “Don’t wait!” “Limited offer!” “Order now!”

The lure works. I open the pages to discover what I didn’t know I needed. Sure enough, I see things that suddenly seem essential, even though a few minutes earlier I didn’t know they existed. Manufacturers use catalog illustrations to create desire for their products.

In a way, Christians are God’s catalogs. We are His illustration to the world of what He has to offer. His work in our lives makes us a picture of qualities that people may not know they need or want until they see them at work in us.

Jesus prayed that His followers would be unified so the world would know that God sent Him and loved them as God loved Him (John 17:23). When Christ is alive in us, we become examples of God’s love. We can’t manufacture love. God is the manufacturer, and we are His workmanship.

As you browse holiday catalogs, consider what the “catalog” of your life says about God. Do people see qualities in you that make them long for God? — Julie Ackerman Link

What does the world see in us
That they can’t live without?
Do they see winsome qualities
And love that reaches out? —Sper

As a Christian, you are “God’s advertisement.” Do people want what they see in you?

What thorn are you facing?

We all have a thorn in our lives. I know I have one and it pokes at me from time to time and it's not fun. Yet when I am weak God is strong for me. I know with all my heart that I could not make it each day without God helping me with this thorn. What ever thorn a persons has no matter how big or small, God can help us through the pain it causes. I just wanted to encourage someone today.


When God sent His own Son—sinless, full of grace and healing—we killed Him. God Himself allows what He does not prefer, to achieve some greater goal.
— Philip Yancey

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NKJV)
7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Some Wisdom For Us Parents

For 18 years, our home was blessed by the presence of teenagers. But now that our youngest is in his 20s, my wife and I are all out of teenagers.

Those years were full of challenges and demands that sometimes zapped our strength and took all of our mental and emotional reserves. Along the way, we navigated the rough seas of the sudden death of one of our four teens. We also enjoyed the thrills of success and struggled through the turmoil of rebellion. As I look back on our experiment in parenting, we learned some valuable lessons:

• Some teens follow life in a straight line, while others zig-zag along life’s pathway. It’s best to “zig” with them in love and with courage.

• All teens need unconditional love because they live in a conditional world.

• A love of God’s Word is vital to successfully transferring faith from one generation to the next.

• Teens need to develop a relationship with Christ that is based not on rules but on a deep love of Jesus.

Has God placed any young people in your life? Whatever their age, love them unconditionally. Help them learn to love God’s Word. Show them how to have a deep love for Jesus. And hold on!
— Dave Branon

Parents, give your children guidance
And instruction from God’s Word;
Then with wisdom and compassion
Teach them how to love the Lord. —Sper

Don’t merely spend time with your children—invest it.

Psalm 128 (NKJV)
Psalm 128
A Song of Ascents.
1 Blessed is every one who fears the LORD,
Who walks in His ways.
2 When you eat the labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.
3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
In the very heart of your house,
Your children like olive plants
All around your table.
4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
Who fears the LORD.
5 The LORD bless you out of Zion,
And may you see the good of Jerusalem
All the days of your life.
6 Yes, may you see your children’s children.

Peace be upon Israel!

True Heart Diease

Pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars selling drugs that prevent hardening of the arteries, a condition that can lead to heart attacks, which kill thousands of people every year.

A more serious condition than hardening of the arteries, however, is hardening of the heart, and it cannot be prevented by any wonder drug. The prophet Zechariah warned the Israelites about it. They had hardened their hearts and refused to listen to the words of the Lord. Symptoms of this deadly condition were their refusal to execute true justice and their failure to show mercy and compassion (Zech. 7:9). As a result, the Lord became angry and stopped listening to them (v.13).

While it’s important to keep plaque from forming in our arteries, it’s even more important to keep our hearts from becoming callous to people who are important to God: widows, orphans, aliens, and the poor (v.10).

It’s crucial to follow our doctor’s orders to keep our arteries from hardening. But it’s even more crucial to obey God to keep our hearts from becoming hardened to the needs of others.

Ask God to bring to mind a person who needs the help of someone with a soft heart.

— Julie Ackerman Link

Zechariah 7:8-14(NKJV)
8 Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying,
9 “Thus says the LORD of hosts:

‘ Execute true justice,
Show mercy and compassion
Everyone to his brother.
10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless,
The alien or the poor.
Let none of you plan evil in his heart
Against his brother.’

11 “But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear.
12 Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.
13 Therefore it happened, that just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so they called out and I would not listen,” says the LORD of hosts.
14 “But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they had not known. Thus the land became desolate after them, so that no one passed through or returned; for they made the pleasant land desolate.”

To love Christ is to have a heart for others.

A Question Of Motive

Hebrews 4:11-16 (NKJV)

The Word Discovers Our Condition

11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Our Compassionate High Priest

14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

A Question Of Motive

My wife and I were stopped at a railroad crossing to allow a train to pass. As we waited in the line of cars, the driver next to us suddenly darted through a nearby parking lot and headed in the direction of the next available railroad crossing.

I turned to Marlene and said, with some righteous indignation, “Look at that guy. He’s trying to get around the train instead of waiting like the rest of us.” As soon as I said those words, the man, camera in hand, hopped from his car to take pictures of the oncoming train. I had judged his motives, and I was dead wrong.

Although we can observe behavior and outward appearance, only God can see what’s in the heart. That is one reason we all need the Word of God so desperately. Hebrews 4:12 says, “The Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

When we find ourselves ready to judge another person’s motives, let’s pause and remember—only God can see the heart, and only His Word can expose its motives. Our responsibility is to let the Lord and His Word convict us about our own hearts.

— Bill Crowder

The Bible is a lamp from God,
A sword of truth and light;
It searches heart and soul and mind,
And helps us know what’s right. —Bosch

People will be judged by the way God sees them not by the way we see them.

The New Man

Ephesians 4:17-24 (NKJV)
The New Man

17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of[a] the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Footnotes:

a.Ephesians 4:17 NU-Text omits the rest of.

To be like Jesus is our goal,
Though it doesn’t happen fast;
We trust the Spirit as our Guide
Till we’re glorified at last. —Branon

The conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment; the growth of a saint is the work of a lifetime.

A Child’s Wonder

Psalm 78 (NKJV)

A Contemplation of Asaph.

1 Give ear, O my people, to my law; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old,

3 Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done.

5 For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children;

6 That the generation to come might know them, The children who would be born, That they may arise and declare them to their children,

7 That they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments;

8 And may not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not set its heart aright, And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

A Child’s Wonder

In 19th-century Scotland, a young mother observed her 3-year-old son’s inquisitive nature. It seemed he was curious about everything that moved or made a noise. James Clerk Maxwell would carry his boyhood wonder with him into a remarkable career in science. He went on to do groundbreaking work in electricity and magnetism. Years later, Albert Einstein would say of Maxwell’s work that it was “the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton.”

From early childhood, religion touched all aspects of Maxwell’s life. As a committed Christian, he prayed: “Teach us to study the works of Thy hands . . . and strengthen our reason for Thy service.” The boyhood cultivation of Maxwell’s spiritual life and curiosity resulted in a lifetime of using science in service to the Creator.

The community of faith has always had the responsibility to nurture the talent of the younger generation and to orient their lives to the Lord, “that they may arise and declare [God’s law] to their children, that they may set their hope in God” (Ps. 78:6-7).

Finding ways to encourage children’s love for learning while establishing them in the faith is an important investment in the future.

— Dennis Fisher

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

We shape tomorrow’s world by what we teach our children today.

Forgiven!

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. —Psalm 32:1

A little boy had just been tucked into bed by his mother, who was waiting to hear his prayers. But he had been naughty that day, and now it was bothering him. So he said, "Mama, I wish you'd go now and leave me alone. I want to pray by myself."

Sensing that something was wrong, she asked, "Bobby, is there anything you ought to tell me?" "No, Mommy," he replied. "You would just scold me, but God will forgive me and forget about it."

That little boy understood one of the greatest salvation benefits of all—the reality of sins forgiven. The Bible indicates that in Christ "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins" Col. 1:14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. We who have received the Lord Jesus as Savior enjoy freedom from sin's eternal condemnation Rom. 8:1There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit., and we can also have daily forgiveness and cleansing 1 John 1:9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The apostle Paul said that salvation provides these added benefits: we are justified Rom. 3:24being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and we are at peace with God 5:1Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,.

We should never get the idea that our sins are taken lightly by the Lord. But when we acknowledge our guilt with true repentance, God is ready to forgive because of what Jesus did on the cross. It's up to us to accept it. — Richard De Haan