Let this be a prayer for you and me

May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock! -- Charles Spurgeon, Morning & Evening devotional guide.


Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening devotional book has been very impactful for me these last few weeks. If you are looking for encouragement and strength through Jesus, I highly recommend this book.

Here is an excerpt from the July 11 morning devotion. It has been my prayer this last couple of days. Let it be yours as well!

First, the verse:

But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. - 1 Peter 5:10

...May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock! May your faith be no "baseless fabric of a vision," but may it be builded of material able to endure that awful fire which shall consume the wood, hay, and stubble of the hypocrite. May you be rooted and grounded in love. May your convictions be deep, your love real, your desires earnest. May your whole life be so settled and established, that all the blasts of hell, and all the storms of earth shall never be able to remove you... (more)

Do You Have a Safety Net?

Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. - 1 Peter 3:8 (NIV)

This from Rick Warren's book, Purpose Driven Life:

We Need Each Other: To Wait and Weep With

As a pastor, I see situations daily that nobody should ever have to go through alone. Nobody should ever have to wait in the hospital while a loved one is in life-or-death surgery. No woman should ever have to wait alone for the lab report on a problem pregnancy. Nobody should ever have to wait for news from a battlefield alone. Nobody should ever have to stand at the edge of an open grave alone. Nobody should ever have to spend the first night alone when their spouse has just walked out.

Life’s tough times and tragedies are inevitable – each of us will face them. But we don’t need to go through them alone. We need God’s safety net to help hold us up through these difficult times.

What is God’s safety net? It is a group of other believers – a handful of people who are really committed to you. We call this kind of group a community. Here’s God’s plan for community: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26 NIV). Community is God’s answer to despair.

Romans 12:15 expresses a similar idea: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (NIV).

The first part of that verse is easy. When something good happens to someone, it’s often easy to join in on the party.

But when someone is having a tough time, it can seem more difficult. But, really, it’s simple. When you’re going through a crisis, you don’t want advice; you just want somebody to be there – to sit with you, hold your hand, put an arm around your shoulder, or cry with you.

As Paul tells us, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11 NIV). Encouraging someone else doesn’t always mean giving a pep talk or words of wisdom. Sometimes the best kind of encouragement is just sitting in silence – waiting and weeping with a friend.

Do you have a safety net – a group of fellow Christians you know you can count on in life’s toughest times? If not, go out today and begin building those friendships. The hard times in life are inevitable, and only a fool would go into them unprepared.
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Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., one of America's largest and best-known churches. In addition, Rick is author of the New York Times bestseller The Purpose Driven Life and The Purpose Driven Church, which was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th Century. He is also founder of Pastors.com, a global Internet community for ministers.

Looking to Travel Light

When I first truly accepted Jesus Christ as my saviour, I remember that I felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders. It was instantaneous...right after I had said a sinner's prayer. It was not only an emotional feeling, I physically felt lighter.

The feeling lasted for quite some time, not as dramatically as that day, but I was "on a cloud" like they say. Ten years later, I still feel "lighter," but the burdens of life are starting to weigh me down. Fortunately, I have Jesus to look to and give those burdens to Him. However, I can sense a need to really take a time out for God, not for wordly pursuits.

As I look for a vision for my life, I realize I need to get closer to Him...my first love. The one who makes my burdens light.

Give all your worries to him, because he cares about you. - 1 Peter 5:7

This from Max Lucado's Grace for the Moment, Volume 2:

God has a great race for you to run. Under his care you will go where you’ve never been and serve in ways you’ve never dreamed. But you have to drop some stuff. How can you share grace if you are full of guilt? How can you offer comfort if you are disheartened? How can you lift someone else’s load if your arms of full with your own?

For the sake of those you love, travel light.

For the sake of the God you serve, travel light.

For the sake of your own joy, travel light.

There are certain weights in life you simply cannot carry. Your Lord is asking you to set them down and trust him.

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From award-winning author Max Lucado comes Traveling Light, refreshing words wrapped around the biblical passages of the 23rd Psalm to reenergize weary spiritual travelers. In his inimitable, pastoral voice that both soothes and exhorts, Lucado gently unpacks the verses of the psalm while helping readers lay down the burdens of doubt, anxiety, perfectionism, and fear. - Amazon.com

Love the Overlooked

Put on the apron of humility, to serve one another. - I Peter 5:5 TEV

This from Max Lucado's Grace for the Moment, Volume 2:

Servanthood requires no unique skill or seminary degree. Regardless of your strengths, training, or church tenure, you can...love the overlooked.

Jesus sits in your classroom, wearing the thick glasses, outdated clothing, and a sad face. You’ve seen him. He’s Jesus.

Jesus works in your office. Pregnant again, she shows up to work late and tired. No one knows the father. According to water-cooler rumors, even she doesn’t know the father. You’ve seen her. She’s Jesus.

When you talk to the lonely student, befriend the weary mom, you love Jesus. He dressed in the garb of the overlooked and ignored. “Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40 MSG)

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Max Lucado has touched millions with his signature storytelling writing style. Awards and accolades follow Max with each book he writes. Max is the first author to win the Gold Medallion Christian Book of the Year three times—1999 for "Just Like Jesus," 1997 for "In the Grip of Grace" and 1995 for "When God Whispers Your Name."

Max Lucado is a fixture on the national bestseller lists – a Max Lucado title has appeared on the CBA hardcover bestseller list every month for the past dozen years. He has appeared on the Publishers Weekly, USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists. He has won eight ECPA Gold Medallion awards. - MaxLucado.com

Go to Max Lucado's Book Selection at Amazon to order now!

Just One Thing

I want a lot. But maybe I should not want so much and do just one thing - love God. This is my prayer: to love God with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind. Do I need encouragement? Yes, I do daily...and I found a good dose right here...

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers. - 1 Peter 3:12

This from Charles F. Stanley's God's Way Day by Day:

God's plan for your life is that you might be in close fellowship with Him. The means of having that close fellowship is accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior. In accepting Jesus Christ, you are receving God's forgiveness and opening yourself up to His love.

That's your number one reason for living on this earth--to love God in return. That is the foremost aspect of the destiny God has for you!

Once you have received God's forgiveness...then you are ready to fulfill the rest of God's plan for your life, which is this: to follow the Lord wherever He leads you. Your destiny will unfold before you as you obey the daily prompting and leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit.


Internationally-acclaimed author and preacher Charles Stanley adds to his impressive legacy with a year's worth of devotionals drawn from his previous writings including best-sellers Success God's Way, Seeking His Face, and Enter His Gates. This best-selling devotional is loaded with life-changing thoughts and beautiful four-color illustrations. Divided into twelve months but not dated for a specific year, this book promises to become a perennial favorite. - Amazon.com

Get a copy of God's Way Day by Day now!

Is This All There Is?

Something is awry—we feel disconnected. We connect with a career, find meaning in family, yet long for something more.

From Max Lucado's 3:16, The Numbers of Hope

We feel the frustration I felt on Christmas morning, 1964. I assembled a nine-year-old’s dream gift: a genuine Santa Fe Railroad miniature train set, complete with battery-powered engine and flashing crossing lights. I placed the locomotive on the tracks and watched in sheer glee as three pounds of pure steel wound its way across my bedroom floor. Around and around and around and . . . around . . . and around . . . After some time I picked it up and turned it the other direction. It went around and around and around . . .

“Mom, what else did you get me for Christmas?”
Similarly, our lives chug in long ovals, one lap after another.

First job. Promotion. Wedding day. Nursery beds. Kids. Grandkids. Around and around . . . Is there anything else? Our dissatisfaction mates with disappointment and gives birth to some unruly children: drunkenness, power plays, eighty-hour workweeks, nosedives into sexual perversions—all nothing more than poorly disguised longings for Eden. We long to restore what Adam lost. As someone once said, “The man who knocks on the door of a brothel is seeking God.”

Where and when the brothel fails, Jesus steps forth with a reconnection invitation. Though we be “dead in [our] transgressions and sins (Eph. 2:1) and separated from the life of God (Eph. 4:18), whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God (I John 5:1). Reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan—this rebirth comes from God.” (John 1:13.)

Don’t miss the invisible, inward miracle triggered by belief. God reinstates us to Garden-of-Eden status. What Adam and Eve did, we now do! The flagship family walked with God; we can too. They heard his voice; so can we. They were naked and unashamed; we can be transparent and unafraid. No more running or hiding.

Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! - 1 Pet. 1:3–4 MSG


If 9/11 are the numbers of terror and despair, then 3:16 are the numbers of hope. Best-selling author Max Lucado leads readers through a word-by-word study of John 3:16, the passage that he calls the "Hope Diamond" of Scripture. (Amazon.com)

Get 3:16: The Numbers of Hope now!