“… And He said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’”

— Matthew 4:19

Are you living an adventure, or are you living a humdrum monotony? When it comes to truly following Christ, life is one of the most thrilling and most exciting adventures the human spirit can know. What is an adventure? It would be interesting to have people answer that, wouldn’t it? It may be something very different than you might think.

Actually, “adventure” comes from the Latin words ad and venire, which mean to “come to,” which are exactly the same roots from which we get the word “Advent.” An Advent means the “coming to” this world by Christ. An adventure is a “coming to.” It is a coming to Christ.

The Christian life is a supernatural life. The spiritual man was dead, and only as the Holy Spirit, the giver of life, comes and quickens our lives will there be the slightest stirring in the garden of our soul.

We need to pray that the Spirit would fill us and enliven us, that He would bring us to spiritual life and joy that only God can give, and that He would empower us to live for Him, to overcome temptation, and to serve Him throughout our lives. It is the work of God’s Spirit to sanctify us in this way. Life is never the same after that.

Lord, forgive us for ever believing Satan’s lie that following You is boring, while rebelling against You is exciting. Thank You so much for the Christian adventure. Lord, give me strength for today to follow the prompting of Your Spirit…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, THE
CHRISTIAN LIFE IS AN ADVENTURE.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

— 1 John 1:9

“Who may ascend the hill of the Lord?” (Psalm 24:3), the psalmist asks, and he answers this question by saying, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart” (v. 4). How shall we come into the presence of God, about whom the prophet said: “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and You cannot look on wickedness” (Habakkuk 1:13)? We must first come to be cleansed in that fountain that flows from Calvary’s hill.

We must come and ask God to cleanse us in every part of our being. Many people forget that even their memory is tainted by its intimate connection with the old self. All manner of sin has been brought into the sanctuary of the mind. This memory needs to be cleansed. Did you ever ask God to cleanse your memory from all of the evil stored there? Your affections need to be cleansed and purified. Our wills need to be cleansed.

We need to realize that only through the blood of Christ is there cleansing for sin. “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” If we are going to come into the presence of God and expect Him to hear and answer prayer, we dare not come into His presence besmirched and befouled and tainted with our sins. “Cleanse me, O God.” That means, of course, that we are going to confess our sins and repent of them as well as ask to be cleansed from them.

Forgive us, Lord, for our many sins. Forgive us that we keep repeating them, sins of commission and sins of omission. Thank You for Your cleansing blood, Jesus, the only means by which sin is forgiven…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH,
WE CAN BE WASHED NEW.

“I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

— Luke 15:10

God is at work throughout our world in great ways—often in ways we do not hear about.

Christianity is no longer a Western religion. It is a world religion. In fact, the growth of non-Western missions is now reported to be five times the rate of growth of Western missions. Christianity is becoming a Third World religion.

What is behind all these incredible developments? Well, for one thing, a greater commitment to prayer. For example, since 1989, when a “global prayer strategy” was initiated, millions of Christians from 180 nations have been involved in daily prayer for revival across the world. They spend at least five minutes when the sun rises in their area to pray for the spread of the Gospel. Prayer warrior David Bryant says, “As the sun moves across each time zone, the torch of prayer is being passed around the clock, around the world.”

In the last 50 years of the 20th century we saw the rise of active ministry of the lay person. Increasingly, tens of millions of lay people around the world have begun to share their faith in Christ. They have been equipped, trained, emboldened, and encouraged to go out and share the Good News with others. This is another reason for the great explosion of converts around the world.

Let God use you where you are, regardless of your level of theological training, to let others know about Jesus. There is a great deal of joy when someone becomes a true believer in Jesus. Even the angels rejoice.

Dear Lord, thank You for how You are actively at work around our world and drawing many people to Yourself from a variety of backgrounds. Thank You for the millions of Christians praying and the millions of Christians, including laymen, sharing the Gospel…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN JOIN
IN THE WORLDWIDE HARVESTING.

“Therefore pray in this manner: Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.”

— Matthew 6:9

In our day of short attention spans, it is often hard for people to learn how to pray effectively. Too often we come to God with all sorts of petitions and intercessions like, “God bless Uncle John and Aunt Sue and Grandma,” and we are sending prayers all over the place, yet the sender is broken down. We have no ability to have prayers answered because we ourselves are often not right with God. Of course, there is more to prayer than petition. We should include in our prayers, prayers of:

• Petition, which is asking something for yourself,
• Adoration, which is praising God for what He is,
• Thanksgiving, thanking God for what He has done,
• Intercession, praying for the needs of other people, and many others.
• I like to use the ACTS formula for prayer. First is Adoration—to spend time in praise of God. Second is Confession of sin. Third comes Thanksgiving. Fourth comes Supplication, which includes petitions and intercessions.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to begin in praise, then to petition God for His will to be done. Next comes a request for our daily needs. After that is a request for forgiveness of sins, along with a commitment to forgive those who have sinned against us. Next comes a very important petition that we not be led into temptation, but delivered from the evil one, that is, from Satan, is the best translation. Finally, it closes as it opened—with praise and adoration, for our God is great.

Lord, give me strength for today to spend meaningful time with You in prayer. Forgive me for my mind wandering. Thank You, Jesus, that You are seated at the right hand of the Father, and You are even interceding on our behalf. Help us to always remember that…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, OUR PRAYERS
CAN AVOID BEING MERE BABBLING.

“This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”

— 1 John 5:14

In dealing with unanswered prayer, note that all of Jesus’ prayers were answered. “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me” (John 11:41), Jesus said. Now why was this? It was not simply because of His divine nature, but because like a good Son, He was committed to His Father. He is the one who could say, “…for I always do those things that please Him” (John 8:29). “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17), said His Father. In effect, His prayers were the desires of His Father, and so they were answered.

Consider any parent and child. All parents have some ideal or idea in mind about what they want their child to grow up to be. They have some ideal for their child’s education, morality, safety, and physical well-being. Consequently, when a child comes to a parent and makes a request, it is filtered through the ideal the parent has in mind, consciously or subconsciously.

If it is contrary to what the parent feels is ideal for that child, (if the parent has any backbone at all) it will be denied. Since God has no lack of backbone, those requests made to Him that are contrary to His ideal for us are invariably denied. When we submit ourselves to His ideal and His plan for our lives, it can be nothing other than that which is good. Mercifully, God does not answer all of our prayers. In retrospect, we can be glad for that.

Father, help us to pray more effectively. Forgive us that often we just hasten into Your presence with a “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme” attitude. Help us to praise You, to confess our sins, to thank You, and to lay our concerns before You. Thank You for Your care for us…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE ARE ADOPTED CHILDREN
WHO BRING OUR REQUESTS TO OUR FATHER.

“…And the Gospel must first be preached to all nations.”

— Mark 13:10

Christopher Columbus used to be a hero. Today, he is politically incorrect and unjustly blamed for many of the bad things done in the wake of his historic voyage.

His name, Christopher, means “Christ-bearer.” Pherein, the second part of his name, means “to bear”—the one who bears Christ. Interestingly, the pilot of the Niña, one of the three ships made famous by Columbus, drew a map of the known world. At the top of the map is a drawing of St. Christopher carrying the Christ child across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, and the features of St. Christopher are unmistakably the features of Christopher Columbus, who, his son tells us, was a tall man with blonde hair and blue eyes. His hair turned white at the age of thirty. He was a gentle man who hated swearing and blasphemy and tried to live a godly life.

The word “Columbus,” coming from the Italian colon, means “a member.” Christopher Columbus liked to say he was a member of the body of Christ and would carry Christ to the New World. He himself said, “I am a most unworthy sinner, but I have cried out to the Lord for grace and mercy and they have covered me completely…No one should fear to undertake any task in the Name of our Savior, if it is just and if the intention is purely for His holy service.” Opening the New World for the rest of the earth to come and begin to Christianize was no small task.

Lord of the Universe, we thank You for the bravery and great daring of Christopher Columbus. We ask for Your grace to do what You call us to, whether great or small…

LORD, GIVE ME STRENGTH FOR TODAY
TO SAIL UNKNOWN SEAS.

“Do not abandon me, O Lord; O my God, do not be far from me.”

— Psalm 38:21

Unanswered prayers—the bane of every Christian’s life—is the distressing problem of the children of God down through the centuries. It is, in fact, the cause of spiritual retrogression.

It is because of unanswered prayers, perhaps more than any other reason, that Christians pray less, and when they pray less, their lives are less changed by God and their prayers are consequently less answered. The result is that having begun their spiritual career with great joy as they spend time with the Savior, over the years, things changed.

Many Christians have discovered that their prayers have become tedious. They have often felt that their prayers have not risen any higher than the ceiling. Their lives seem to be unaffected by their prayers—not only their lives personally, but the circumstances in which they live. God’s timing is not ours. Our prayers are heard, and God will answer. Often it is a matter of surrendering our will to His. Sometimes we might not be praying according to His will.

There is one prayer that God will always answer, “Thy will be done.” When we ask for God’s will to be done in our lives, He will do it. We often find great, positive changes in our lives when we submit to God in prayer. God delights in answering our prayers. Don’t let your prayer life become a tedious listing off of rote items. Instead, recognize it for what it is—communing with the Almighty Creator of the Universe.

O Lord, You who answer the cry of the heart of Your children, You see the longtime prayers that we have laid before You over and over. Give us strength for today to persist in prayer, to be faithful in our prayers, even if the fulfillment takes place after we’re gone…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN
PRAY “THY WILL BE DONE.”

“If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

— 2 Chronicles 7:14

Every once in a while a national tragedy takes place. For a short time, it jolts many people into returning to church or looking to God for help. Then fairly soon after, many go back to business as usual.

It is tragic that such horrible things as what took place in Columbine would be necessary to awaken an apathetic people to the need for this country to return to God. Solzhenitsyn, the great author and intellectual of the Soviet Union, said that when he was but a young man, he heard an old peasant farmer speaking to a friend, summing up the whole situation in the Soviet Union in a very simple, single sentence. He said: “We have forgotten God and we have destroyed ourselves.” We are in the process of doing that very same thing.

Dear friends, things can change. I am quite sure it won’t take many more national tragedies for the American people to begin to say, “Enough is enough.” And I want to say to those members of the Supreme Court who have given this nation this hellish milieu of ungodliness and immorality, “You had better get on your knees because you are going to have to answer to God for what you have done.” God promises to heal our nation, if we humble ourselves, repent from our wicked ways, and seek His face. Ours is a nation in great need of prayer.

Lord God, You have been so gracious and so good to us, and we turned away from You. Let it not be too late for our nation to return unto You. Lord, we deserve Your wrath, but we ask for Your mercy…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, OUR NATION
CAN RETURN TO THE LORD.

“If Christ is not raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.”

— 1 Corinthians 15:17

Are we just random accidents, with no future hope beyond the grave? Evolutionists essentially believe we are. Listen to what British atheist Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) said in his book, Why I Am Not a Christian: “…man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving…” Evolution says we’re here by accident.

Continues Russell: “…his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; …no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave…” The grave stops it all.

Death not only overtakes us all, but everything else, too, says Russell: “… all of the labour of the ages, all of the devotion, all of the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins…”

He concludes, “Only within the scaffolding of these truths, and on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.” Begin with the premise that life is meaningless and then you can build meaning into it, says Russell. What a phrase, “the firm foundation of unyielding despair.” What a contrast God gives us in His Word—we have a firm foundation of truth because Jesus definitely rose from the dead.

O Lord, give us hearts of compassion for those around us whose lives have no meaning and no purpose and no Savior. Help us to be shining lights in their darkness. May the light from the empty tomb dispel the darkness…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH,
WE SERVE A RISEN SAVIOR.

“But one thing is needed. And Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her.”

— Luke 10:42

The late motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once made an interesting comment about focus. He said suppose you took an outside stack of old newspapers, papers that would easily go up in flames with the right input and a magnifying glass on a sunny day. If you took that glass and you slowly moved it around in an unfocused way, nothing would happen. But if you carefully allowed the magnifying glass to stay at the same place—in a focused way—it could easily cause a fire (if that was your goal). We accomplish little if we remain “wandering generalities” as opposed to becoming “a meaningful specific.”

It’s easy to get distracted by many things. In modern times, we are overstimulated, over-exposed, and over-saturated—often with wordy things. In such a context, it is easy to forget what truly matters—listening to Jesus. In this passage, Martha and Mary have Jesus over as a dinner guest. Martha gets frustrated that she is doing all the work, while Mary is just sitting there listening to the Master. So Martha asks Jesus to tell Mary to help her. Instead, Jesus commends Mary for simply listening to God’s Word. We need to focus on what God has to say for us. We need to focus on His purpose for us, which may be different during different phases of our lives.

Whatever pressing activities we may feel obligated to do, it is most important that we always center our lives by spending time with Jesus. Remember this: If you’re too busy to pray, you’re too busy.

Lord, thank You for inviting us to sit at Your feet and listen. Forgive us for being slaves to “the tyranny of the urgent.” Instead, help us to focus on that which is important, beginning with spending time with You…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN
FIND TIME TO LISTEN TO HIM.