“These six things the Lord hates… one who sows discord among brethren.”

— Proverbs 6:16, 19 nkjv

God hates it when people cause needless division. Tragically, such persons exist in many of our churches.

One such lady outed herself in an unusual story I heard around Halloween time. A man was going to a Halloween night party, and he was all dressed up in a devil’s suit. He had the whole thing with the horns and the tail and the red suit and everything. And he was driving his little car from one town to the next town where the costume party was going to be held. He ran out of gas, as a lightning storm was about to hit.

Seeing an old country church, he began to walk up the stairs, but hesitated about going in. All of a sudden there was CRASH, lightning struck right behind him and he leapt through the door. With smoke and lightning behind him, people turned around and they all saw the devil standing there.

It scared the daylights out of everybody and in a moment they were all through the windows except for one lady of generous proportions who was too big to get out. And finally she gave up and turned to him, saying, “Now, Mr. Devil, you know that I’ve been in this church for 45 years, and I’ve been on your side the whole time.” May God help us to have the wisdom with how to deal with those who sow discord among the brethren and to make sure we are not one of them.

Lord, give me strength for today to truly work together with those You have put in my life. Omniscient Lord, You see everything and You see our hearts. Let me not sow discord or division among believers. Give me discernment to test the spirits, to know what is of You…

IN GOD’S STRENGTH,
WE WILL BE UNIFIERS.

We are writing these things to you so that our joy may be complete.”

— 1 John 1:4

When the king is in residence in his castle, they raise the flag to indicate that fact. One theologian said, “Joy is the flag which is raised over the citadel of the heart to indicate that the King is resident within.” Joy is the flag.

Two workmen working in the street in front of a church were watching as the people filed in for Sunday morning service. One of them said to the other, “You know, I’ve seen a hundred or two hundred people go into that church, and I haven’t seen a single smile on any one of their faces.” That is tragic indeed.

The Gospel is a Gospel of joy, as well as of grace, peace, and love. At the birth of Christ, the angels said to the shepherds that they brought good tidings of great joy. Paul says in Galatians that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy… It is the second fruit of the Spirit.

Are our lives typified by joy? In looking at some people’s faces you wouldn’t think that they had much joy. They seem often to frown and be sullen and unhappy and show little of the joy of Christ in their countenance. Some people seem like the only experience that they have had is an experience of acid indigestion, instead of the transforming wondrous joy of Jesus Christ. If you want to experience more joy, remember this simple formula: J-O-Y means Jesus first, Others second, Yourself last.

Lord, give me strength for today to put Jesus first and others second. God of joy, thank You for giving me so much joy all around me and joy within. Let Your joy overflow unto all the people around me. Thank You for the joy of heaven…

IN GOD’S STRENGTH AND PRESENCE,
THERE IS FULLNESS OF JOY.

“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

— John 13:35

Paul tells us in Philippians 1:27 that we are to live lives “worthy of the Gospel of Christ.” Included in that notion is that we are to live lives of love. Jesus even said that people will know that you belong to Him if you love one another. As Francis Schaeffer said, love for each other is “the mark of the Christian.” How will the world know we belong to Jesus? Because of our love.

Now it is easy to love the lovely, to love the loving, but God loves the Godhaters and poured out His life for them. And so we are called upon to show that kind of a loving attitude toward people who may not be the type of persons that the ordinary individual would go out of his way to love.

Someone criticized a Christian leader with the remark that the church (in general) has a lot of kooks in it. The leader replied, “Well, I thank you for that compliment because I think it is true that the church has more of the unfortunate people that are handicapped and people that don’t get along well in many social situations than most any other voluntary associative organization. That is a wonderful compliment about the love of Christ being shown, where other people won’t put up with those kinds of people.” May God give us the grace to show more love, even to the unlovable.

God of love, give me strength for today that I may truly love Your bride, the church. Thank You for loving me. Let Your love so fill my heart that others may also benefit from it. Help me to be more like You and love the unlovable…

IN GOD’S STRENGTH AND BY HIS LOVE,
WE LOVE.

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

John 14:27

The Gospel of Jesus brings peace to troubled hearts, and so those that are justified have a peace which passes all understanding. Therefore, there should be an element of serenity and peace in our lives that should be seen by others. I think of a description of a man who was described as seeming to float through life and no matter what kind of storms would rage about him as he would pass through them, it did not seem to impact him because he had a wondrous peace that was very attractive to those that saw him. Is your boat easily upset by the waves and the winds around you? If so, I hope that you will remember that if your life is going to be consistent with the Gospel it should demonstrate peacefulness— the peace that passes understanding.

The Gospel is a Gospel that makes peace and reconciles people to God; that is the nature of our Gospel. It is a peace-making Gospel, and we are called upon to be peacemakers. Bill Elliott said that he has known church members that were much more easily identified as troublemakers than peacemakers, and I wonder about you. In your home are you the peacemaker? In your office, or school or workplace, are you a peacemaker or a troublemaker? Are you in church a peacemaker or a troublemaker? Well, God grant that we may demonstrate His peace and also extend it to others.

God of peace, grant me Your peace today so that it will fill me and sustain me and flow out to others. Thank You for Your peace that sets our souls at rest…

IN GOD’S STRENGTH,
WE ARE PEACFUL.

“Only let your conduct be worthy of the Gospel of Christ, that whether or not I come and see you, I may hear of your activities, that you are standing fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the Gospel.”

— Philippians 1:27

As Christians, what should our conduct with others be like? Well we know that we have a Gospel of grace, and therefore, our lives should be gracious.

I think that many people live lives which are unjust and unfair; they take unfair advantage of people in business or they act unlawfully and unjustly. But there are others who would never think of doing a thing like that and they operate on the principle of equity, of doing the fair thing, of being correct and honest in dealing with people—a quid pro quo, this for that kind of conduct. However, when somebody crosses them and does not deal with them right, then sometimes these people would deal with them like a judge, and they would punish them in some way for their conduct. But that is not the principle of grace.

You can be less than fair, but you can also be more than fair, and it is in that area that the Gospel is not merely fair, it is far greater, vastly higher than merely fair. It is wonderfully high and that means that we need to learn to deal with people graciously, and that we are going to go the extra mile with them. We are going to treat them lovingly even if they have treated us badly, and in that way our lives will adorn the Gospel and be consistent with the Gospel of Christ.

God of grace and mercy, give me strength for today whereby I may show grace to others. I praise You for Your mercy and Your grace in my life. I pray that You will help me to act and be gracious in my dealings with others. Let me give more than is expected, beyond the call…

IN GOD’S STRENGTH,
WE CAN LIVE GRACIOUSLY.

“But our citizenship is in heaven, from where also we await for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ…”
— Philippians 3:20

We should always remember that we hold a twin citizenship. We have our citizenship in our earthly country, but we also are citizens of a heavenly country, which is far better. Our citizenship is above, Paul tells us. And so we are to live out our citizenship, our conduct, in a way that is honoring and glorifying and adorning of the Gospel of Christ. It should be consistent with the Gospel of Christ.

Therefore, we should remember not to limit our conduct only to the kingdom of heaven of which we are a citizen, but also we are to exercise faithfully all of our responsibilities as citizens of this kingdom here on earth as well. And many Christians will limit themselves only to one and ignore the other, but Paul wants us to be consistent with the Gospel of grace. That is the way our conduct ought to be. We are called to honor and work for the country in which God has placed us, while at the same time help build His kingdom and invest in eternity.

If we are faithful to God’s first command—the cultural mandate given at the beginning of creation (Genesis 1:26) to serve as God’s vice-regents on earth, and if we are faithful in God’s last command to us—the Great Commission of Jesus to go and spread His Gospel then we will fulfill well our dual citizenship.

Lord of heaven and earth, give us strength for today to be worthy citizens of both. Help us to work for Your kingdom, as we live in this world. Help us not to be too comfortable and fond of this world which is temporary…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN FULFILL
BOTH THE CULTURAL AND GOSPEL MANDATES.

“…who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and rely upon his God…”
— Isaiah 50:10

Our life on this earth is a pilgrimage. It has a beginning and an end and it is going somewhere, and it is important where we end up. Life is not a meaningless circling about, a meandering here and there with no particular purpose.

God is sovereign and has revealed in His Word how we should live, so that we will not walk in darkness. Many people find life very complicated. This world is a labyrinth with innumerable tunnels leading in every kind of direction. We don’t know the future. We don’t know where this road will take us.

In one sense, we are forced to live eventually in the future, and yet it is unseen to us. And so the heart of man cries out for guidance, and this is what sends so many people to call psychics on the psychic hotline, or to go to an astrologer or to do all of the various foolish things that people will do indicating their felt need for some kind of guidance. God condemns this kind of divination.

He tells us to trust Him instead. Those who know their God have already experienced Him well in the past and the present. Therefore, we can trust Him with our future. The Bible is infinitely better than tarot guards, crystals, psychics, or any other false substitute to true divine wisdom.

Lord, my Shepherd and Guide, give me strength for today to follow after You and not after any false gods. Help me not to deceive myself by thinking I am following after You in utilizing avenues of guidance that You have clearly forbidden. Lead me by Your powerful hand…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE ARE
LED HOME TO HEAVEN.

“He said, ‘O my Lord, send, I pray, by the hand of whomever else You will send.’”
— Exodus 4:13

Some people think they are too old to do something significant in life. But I think of a gentleman who really never did much of anything. He dropped out of school and went to work in a store where he worked for about six months and got fired. That was just a picture of what was to come. He got fired from one job after another. This pattern lasted for decades.

Then one day he got a letter in the mail. It was a letter from Social Security, congratulating him for having reached the end of his working career and included a check. But he refused to quit working.

He was eventually able to buy a small beat-up old building that had been a restaurant and turned it into a decent looking place where he could sell food. What he really liked to do was to cook chicken. So he started selling chicken there, and the people liked it. He had a special recipe—a secret recipe. Finally, his business spread to franchises in other states around the country and around the world.

God blessed Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken, and he succeeded enormously. You’re never too old to make a contribution in life. Look at Moses, who may well have thought he was washed up at 40, tended sheep for 40 years, but was then called by God at age 80 to serve the Lord in mighty ways for the next 40 years.

Dear God, thank You that You care about us no matter how old we might be. Thank You that You can use us whatever age we may be. Help us to not sell ourselves short because of age or anything else…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE WILL
WHATEVER CONDITION WE’RE IN.