In step

[RiverOL]

Your Key is Still in the Ignition
"The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron."1

Some time ago I read the following story in Focus on the Family magazine about a man who bought a car that had replaced warning lights with spoken instructions from a woman.

In a soft voice, his little woman, as he called her, would say, "Your door isn't closed properly." "Your key is still in the ignition." "Your seatbelt isn't fastened properly."

On one occasion, he recalled how the voice of his little woman said, "Your fuel level is getting low."

The driver thanked her and, figuring he had sufficient fuel to take him fifty more miles, ignored the voice and kept driving. Soon his little woman repeated, "Your fuel level is low." The longer he drove, the more his little woman repeated her warning.

Getting frustrated, he stopped his car, searched under the dashboard, and found the appropriate wires. One quick jerk and his little woman was silenced.

Imagine the look on his face when, a few minutes later, his car sputtered and jerked to a standstill—out of fuel! One could almost imagine a grin on his little woman's face!

We all have a little voice within. It's called conscience. It can get very annoying at times, too. Sometimes we "pull its wires" and, too late, we discover we are "out of fuel."

One danger, when we ignore the voice of our conscience and don't live according to our convictions, is that our mind experiences what counselors call "cognitive dissonance." That is, mental disharmony. Because this is too uncomfortable to live with, we switch off our conscience.

When we do this often enough, our mind not only switches off the voice of conscience but turns up the volume on the voice of rationalization and justification.

The sad fact is that if we don't live the life we believe, we end up unhappily believing the life we live. The Bible calls this having a seared conscience. It is a dangerous and self-destructive path to follow.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to realize the danger of switching off the voice of conscience and justifying what I want to do. Please help me to live the life I believe—a life that is lived in harmony with your will and your Word. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. 1 Timothy 4:1-2 (NIV).

 

[RiverOL]

Trust is good for us
For reading & meditation: Proverbs 14:14-26
"A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps." (v.15)

We saw yesterday that all relationships, both human and divine, are fun-damentally governed by trust. Without trust, society would deteriorate into paranoia - the feeling that everyone is out to get you. Mental health specialists see an inability to trust as a symptom of emotional illness. Erik Erikson, a famous psychiatrist, says that the capacity to trust is the foundation of good emotional health, and conditions such as chronic anxiety, high nervousness or paranoia could be caused by an inability to trust.

Although people may let us down and betray our trust, we must be careful that we do not allow those experiences to lead us to the conclusion that everyone we meet is a conspirator. On the other hand, you will no doubt have come across the expression "a trusting fool" - a phrase used to describe the person who is unable to discern the diabolical schemes that might be hatched up to exploit him. Erikson also says: "Unless we have a balanced approach to life - a basic trust together with a certain degree of caution - then we will never achieve emotional maturity or wholeness."

Note his words carefully - "a balanced approach to life." Therein lies the secret. We must learn how to trust while at the same time exercising a certain amount of caution. Our text tells us that "a simple man believes anything," but that does not mean we should go to the other extreme and believe that everything people tell us is a downright lie or fabrication. Truth is a narrow column and we must watch that we do not lose our balance and fall off.

Prayer:
O Father, help me to be a balanced person - one who stands on the narrow column of truth without falling off into one extreme or the other. Remind me that error is often truth taken to an extreme. Keep me in the truth. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Are You God's Wife?
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."1

According to a story reportedly written by Leo Buscaglia, "On a cold day in December, some years ago: A little boy, about 10 years old, was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold.

"A lady approached the young boy and said, 'My, but you're in such deep thought staring in that window!'

"'I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,' was the boy's reply.

"The lady took him by the hand, went into the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her.

"She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with the towel.

"By this time, the clerk had returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy's feet, she then purchased a pair of shoes for him.

"She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, 'No doubt, you will be more comfortable now.'

"As she turned to go, the astonished child caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face, with tears in his eyes, asked, 'Are you God's wife?'"2

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, open the eyes of my heart so that wherever there is a pressing need placed across my path, I will see it—and help to meet it. And wherever there is a hurt, please help me to heal it. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."

 

[RiverOL]

A snake in the grass
For reading & meditation: Proverbs 16:10-20
"' blessed is he who trusts in the Lord." (v.20)

Why does the Bible put before us the idea of caution? The simple answer is because we live in a fallen world. God made the first human pair perfect in every way and put them in a beautiful garden called "Paradise." They trusted Him for everything they needed and not once did He let them down. Unfortunately, however, there was a "snake in the grass" who hatched up a plot to which they succumbed and so they were brought down to ruin. Their downfall, in turn, plunged the whole human race into chaos. Because of the Fall, life is beset with problems, especially in the matter of trust.

I can't rely entirely on nature - sometimes it rains too much or not enough. I can't rely entirely on family or friends - sometimes they won't or can't help or they may help too much. Sin has struck so deeply into human relationships that it would be unwise not to recognize that at times and for a variety of reasons people may let us down. In one way or another the Fall has played havoc with this matter of trust, but we must be careful that we do not allow the failures of trust we may experience on the human level to affect our view of the Divine. You can put your trust in God without fear of ever being let down. The apostle Peter puts it like this: "' the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame" (1 Peter 2:6). Drop your anchor into the depths of this reassuring and encouraging revelation. Whoever else you may not be able to trust - you can trust Him.

Prayer:
O Father, what encouragement this thought gives me: whoever else I can't trust, I can trust You. I have heard it so many times and read it so many times; now help me take hold of it. In Jesus' Name I Pray. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Embrace the Fear

. . . for man shall not see me and live—Exodus 33:20

We’re made for fear. We’re made to live with fear, not without it, as we’d like. It’s just, as so often happens, we get preoccupied with things we can see and hear and touch. But these aren’t what we’re supposed to fear—not people, nor circumstances. About such things, our King, Jesus Christ says, “do not fear” (Luke 12:4-5, 22-24). No, we’re meant to fear a fearsome God.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7).

But what does it mean to fear God? Well, mostly it means keeping our thinking straight. It means seeing God, in all his power, in proper relation and proportion to the people and problems in this world. Though we sometimes act as if he were, God isn’t smaller than financial hardship, difficult work situations, difficulties with children. He’s not equal to them. He’s so much bigger, so much more powerful, even comparing doesn’t make sense. He’s alpha and omega. He’s the beginning and the end of everything.

What’s astonishing is this fearsome God, for some reason, chooses to love each of us with a fierce love—a love that’s good and will never relent. So, to him, we mustn’t respond as we’ve been conditioned to respond to fear—control, minimize, avoid, numb. We must respond by recognizing, every day, every moment, that he’s the most important, most powerful force in our lives, and that we’re his favored sons.





Name your biggest fears. Write them down. Look at them. Imagine them as God sees them. How frightening are they now? The truth is, things we can see, hear, touch are never our ultimate threats, not when God’s around—and he always is. Our ultimate threat is choosing to live as if these things are bigger than he.

 

[RiverOL]

Why is trust difficult?
For reading & meditation: Proverbs 28:18-28
"He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe." (v.26)

Why is it that some people find it so difficult to trust? Many have said to me: "My problem is I find it so hard to trust." A person who finds it difficult to trust on a human level often finds it difficult to trust on a spiritual level. Trust is a learned response and we begin learning it the moment we arrive in this world. A newborn child arrives in the world with a good deal of vulnerability and among other things has to learn the art of developing trust. If parents are loving, reliable, predictable and trustworthy the child soon gets the idea: "I can trust these people who are looking after me.

They don't always respond the way I would like them to but generally they are there for me when I need them." If, however, there is no reliable and consistent input of love and affection into a child's personality in the early years, if the parents are unconcerned and unpredictable, the child gets the idea: "People are not to be trusted." And in cases where parents are not just unconcerned, but downright cruel and abusive, the development of a basic trust is hard and difficult; some would say impossible. My experience in counselling shows that people with an inability to trust are usually those who experienced serious deprivation, abuse or cruelty in their early developmental years. This is no reason to despair, however, for in Christ we have a new parent and a new parentage. He enables us to overcome whatever difficulties there may be in our past.

Prayer:
Father, help my focus to be not on what has been, but on what can be, and what will be, when I am rightly related to You. I have grown up physically; now help me grow up spiritually. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

You will have complete and free access to God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth.
—Matthew 16:9 MSG

You’ve probably heard stories of people who crave access to political leaders, such as Presidents, Prime Ministers, and other powerful dignitaries. But Jesus Christ gave us something far greater than that: access to God the Father, ruler of the universe!

When Jesus uttered the words, “It is finished” (John 19:30), and breathed His last breath on the cross, the veil in the Temple was torn from the top to the bottom (Mark 15:38). Through the blood of Christ, it became possible to enter into the Holy of Holies—the very presence of God—and offer prayers and petitions directly to Him.
What a magnificent gift! No longer was it necessary to be a high priest and then wait for a specific day or festival to enter God’s presence. Because of Jesus, every Believer has been given the gift of unlimited access to the throne room of Almighty God!

 

[RiverOL]

How to forgive
For reading & meditation: Proverbs 30:21-33
"' as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife." (v.33)

If difficulties concerning basic trust on a natural level can hinder our ability to trust at a spiritual level, how do we as Christians overcome this? The first thing we must do is demonstrate a willingness to forgive those who hurt us. "That's hard," you might say. My reply is: "Yes, in the case of those who have been badly let down, it is hard - but not impossible." Here's how you do it. Focus first on how much you have been forgiven.

The key to forgiving others is to enter into a realized awareness of how much God has forgiven you. When people say to me during a counselling session, "My problem is that I can't forgive," I usually respond by saying, "No, that's not your problem. Your problem is that you dont know how much you have been forgiven." It may be difficult for some to see this, especially those who have gone through deep hurt, but nothing others have done to you is as awful as what you have done to God. If you have difficulty with the last statement, it is because you do not understand the nature of sin.

Sin is taking the Creator of the universe and relegating Him to irrelevance; it is saying to the One who made us - "I can run my life on my own terms." Sin is insanity - and you and I have been guilty of that. Yet in Christ God has forgiven us, pardoned us, and bestowed upon us His royal favor. Having been given such forgiveness, can we, dare we, withhold it from anyone who has betrayed our trust, no matter how horrifying that hurt has been?

Prayer:
Father, Your Word is frank and open - help me to respond to it in the same way. Take from me every biting hesitancy, every fear and apprehension, every refusal to accept responsibility. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

You Can't Take Me, I'm Dead.
"Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."1

I have read how Dwight L. Moody told about a young man who was called to serve in Napoleon Bonaparte's army but didn't want to go. A friend volunteered to go in his place and was accepted as his substitution. Unfortunately, the friend was later killed in battle.

However, because of a clerical error the same young man was called up to serve again. "You can't take me. I'm dead. I died on the battlefield," he told the astonished officers.

After checking the records, the officers found documentation of his name and alongside it the name of the friend who died in his place. The case was presented to Napoleon who, after examining the evidence, said, "Through a surrogate, this man has not only fought, but has died in his country's service. No man can die more than once; therefore the law has no claim on him."

And that's exactly what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did for you and me. He died in our place to pay the just penalty for all our sins so we could be freely forgiven and given the gift of eternal life. When we accept God's pardon, we will never have to pay the price for our sins because Jesus did that for us. He was our surrogate.

The critical question is have you accepted God's pardon? If not, for help be sure to read the article, "How to Be Sure You're a Christian." Click on the Know God link below or go to: http://tinyurI.com/real-christian.

Suggested prayer: "Dear Jesus God, thank you again for being my surrogate and dying on the cross in my place so that I will never have to pay the ultimate penalty for my sin—eternal death and separation from you. Because you died for me please help me to always live for you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Romans 5:7-8 (NIV).

 

[RiverOL]

My way - or God's way
For reading & meditation: Proverbs 14:1-13
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." (v.12)

The second step we need to take in order to rid ourselves of the things that hinder our ability to trust is the recognition of the fact that, having been let down by others, we have determined in our hearts that we will never trust another person again. The determination never to trust another person again may be a human reaction, but it is not a Christian one. I have heard many people say, "I can trust God but I can't trust people."

But Christianity is all about relating to people. The essence of reality is passionate, other-centered relationships, as is evidenced by the perfect relationships of the Trinity, in whose image we are made. If we draw back from others because we are afraid of being betrayed, then what we are saying is this: "I can't trust God enough to hold me when others let me down." Those, therefore, who say, "I can trust God and I can't trust people," are not making sense.

It is more honest to say, "I can't trust God and I can't trust people." What we ought to be saying, if we really believe the truths of the New Testament and are willing to give ourselves to them, is this: "I can trust God to hold me when I relate to others, irrespective of whether I am accepted or rejected." The determination to stay self-protected is evidence that our trust is not what it should be. We must bring this self-protective determination to preserve our own soul before God in an act of repentance, and resolve that no matter how others may treat us, our trust will be confidently placed in Him.

Prayer:
O Father, I must ask myself: Can I trust You enough to hold me when others do not come through for me? The determination to stay safe seems so right, yet it is so wrong. I turn from my way to Your way. Hold me secure. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. —Matthew 6:14 NLT

The Message paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 reminds us that love “doesn’t fly off the handle” and “doesn’t keep score of the sins of others.” It “trusts God always” and “always looks for the best.”
Take a few minutes to ask God to search your heart. Have you tended to be irritable or fly off the handle lately? Have you been keeping score of all the ways people have wronged you and offended you?

Now ask God to fill your heart with His Holy Spirit, manifesting love, joy, peace, and the other aspects of the fruit of the Spirit in your life (Galatians 5:22-23). And then you must make a conscious decision to let go of any offenses.
How often must you forgive a person? When Peter asked this, he suggested that seven times might be often enough. But Jesus replied, “Not seven times, but seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21-22 NLT). In other words, it’s time to quit keeping score!

 

[RiverOL]

Is trust idealistic?
For reading & meditation: Proverbs 29:19-27
"Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe." (v.25)

Sometimes someone says to me: "Isn't it idealistic to expect me to be vulnerable to further hurt after I have been let down and betrayed?" My answer is to point them to Jesus. If He can do it, then so can we - providing we depend on His strength and not ours. Our Lord knows better than anyone what it means to be let down and betrayed. In all the heaped up pain of His passion, few things would have hurt Him more than being betrayed by His disciples. Did our Lord's experience of Peter's denial cause Him to conclude: "Never again will I trust that man"?

Come with me to Galilee and let us see. Simon Peter, no doubt feeling disillusioned, returns to his trade as a fisherman, whereupon Jesus pursues him and puts Himself in a position of being hurt once again. He says to Peter, "Do you love Me?" using the strong Greek word for love - agape. Peter responds, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You," using the weaker Greek word for love - philia (John 21:1516, NKJV). How would you feel, do you think, if you plucked up courage to say to someone who had already let you down. "Do you love me?" and he or she responded: "Well, I like you." Would you not feel hurt, wounded, perhaps slightly rejected? I think Jesus must have felt most keenly the thrust of Peter's words, yet He did not allow it to deter Him from continuing, even pursuing, the relationship. That's what I mean by vulnerability. That's what I mean by love.

Prayer:
Father, is it possible that You can make me so secure that I, too, am able to be vulnerable in my relationships? I must believe it; I do believe it. Help me to demonstrate it in every relationship I am called by You to pursue. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Acting Out
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has … sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed"1.

Fred is an alcoholic. Betsy is a drug addict. Bernard is a sexaholic. What causes Fred, Betsy and Bernard to act out this way?

Certainly we all have a bent towards sinning because we happen to have a sinful nature. However, in addition we act out in destructive ways because we have been further damaged emotionally (mostly in childhood) through rejection, emotional abandonment, controlling love, and many other ways—the bottom line of which is love deprivation. As a result, we are left in pain, feeling angry, resentful, hurt, fearful, guilty, shame-based, insecure, and so on.

It's the unresolved pain that drives us to act out. We do it to medicate or anesthetize our inner pain and emptiness. One reason an alcoholic drinks, for example, is to deaden the pain of his/her loneliness, hurt or anger, and to avoid facing these painful feelings. The food addict is seeking to fill the empty hole in his/her heart caused by love deprivation. The workaholic keeps forever busy/active to avoid feeling the pain of feeling unloved. The sex addict is not a highly sexual person, but one who uses sex to avoid facing the fact that he/she doesn't feel loved and is looking for love in all the wrong places.

The beginning cure for overcoming these problems is to feel and face one's inner pain and allow it to drive us into recovery. The destructive acting-out ways are symptoms of unresolved inner problems. Among other things, God wants to heal us of emotional blindness so we can see the truth and be healed within—to heal us from the inside out. If we treat only the symptoms—our acting out—this will only lead to increased problems farther down the road.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, help me to see and face every problem I have, deal with it and resolve any hidden causes, and get my 'love cup' (love needs) filled in healthy ways, so I won't seek to deaden my emptiness by acting out self-destructive ways or seek to get my 'love cup' filled with the wrong kind of love. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Jesus in Luke 4:18 (NIV)

 

[RiverOL]

Yours trustingly
For reading & meditation: Proverbs 11:25-31
"Whoever trusts in his riches will fall '" (v.28)

What have we been saying about the important issue of trust? Trust is an essential ingredient in our relationships - both human and divine. The reason we can demonstrate trust in all our earthly relationships is because we recognize that there is One who is governing our lives. We can give ourselves to others knowing that even though they let us down He will hold us in His arms and not allow us to be destroyed.

Notice carefully what I say here, because many Christians hold God to promises He never made and then get disappointed when He doesn't come through for them. God does not promise to keep us from being hurt in our relationships, but He does promise to keep us from being destroyed. The more you trust in God, the more effective you will be in your relationships with others. Because your ultimate trust is in God, you will be free from unconscious manipulative techniques and, drawing your security from Him, you can give yourself more freely to others. "Love does not begin," someone has said, "until you expect nothing in return."

When your trust is wholly in the Lord, you can love like that. If you have never done so before, decide now to put in God's hands all the hurts and betrayals of the past. Forgive all those who have let you down. Lift up your head and look into the face of the One who will never betray you. Give Him all your trust. And, I say again, keep in mind that trust is not only an essential posture of life; it is the first step in wisdom. The wise are those who trust.

Prayer:
O God, break down any last barrier that may be hindering me from putting my trust fully in You. I would have the doors of my spirit turn out, not in. Help me begin and end every day by saying, "Yours trustingly." In Jesus' Name. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Refocusing the Drive

greatest among you become as the youngest
. . . leader as one who serves—Luke 22:26

We men devote so much of our mental attention and hard work to our own greatness. We plan for advancement; strategize next moves; put our heads down and grind. Deep in our inner machinery there’s something that drives us on toward securing greatness . . . of some kind or another . . . for ourselves. Maybe it’s on a small scale. Maybe on a large scale. Maybe in our work, maybe in our communities, maybe even in our faith. The drive is just there.

The twelve Apostles—men, human men—had this drive. In the upper room, a dispute “arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest” (Luke 22:24). But Jesus stopped them and taught them (and us) that this drive must be refocused. “But I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22:27). That’s our blueprint. His life is the blueprint for our lives. We must follow it and no other. We must reject all blueprints drawn by our pride, or envy, or selfishness.

Refocusing this drive, away from lifting ourselves and toward lifting those around us, is one of the most important things we can do, as men. It moves us into true masculinity—where we lend our strength to others, who need it, rather than use it solely for our own gain. We must trust that this is a better way to live . . . better for God, better for us, and better for those we are to love and serve.





Look around you—today, this week—for people you can serve. Keep it simple. Whom will you come into contact with, naturally? Whom do you have influence over, in the normal course of your days? Whom might you have overlooked? Ask yourself, what do they need and how can I help?

 

[RiverOL]

Another pillar of wisdom
For reading & meditation: Proverbs 10:9-17
"The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out." (v.9)

We turn now to look at what I consider to be the second pillar of wisdom - integrity. This theme, like trust, is one that is continually emphasised in Proverbs for, as we shall see, no one can be truly successful in life without integrity. The dictionary defines integrity as: "wholeness, soundness, trustworthiness, uprightness, honesty." You can see at once that there is a moral quantity about integrity and that morality is an essential characteristic of wisdom.

One of the mistakes many people make when thinking about wisdom is to confuse it with learning, intelligence, brilliance or cleverness. How many times do we read in our newspapers of those who have climbed the ladder of success, have been highly educated or have achieved great prominence in the world, only to see them come tumbling down because of some moral indiscretion? Many professional people have a great deal of knowledge but lack wisdom.

For example, you see this in the marriage counselor who, in spite of all his credentials, can't hold his own marriage together; in the economist who goes bankrupt playing the stock market; in the preacher who shocks his congregation by running off with a young woman. Learning, understanding, intelligence and professional training are important - dont hear me demean them - but if we are to be experts in the art of living, as Proverbs sets out to teach us, then we must see that without wisdom the things I have listed don't count for too much. "The simplicity of integrity is the profundity of wisdom," says Paul Larsen. How true! How very true!

Prayer:
O God, give me, in addition to trust, a high degree of integrity. I want not only to trust others but I want them to trust me. You know my need and also my desire. Grant me these facets of wisdom. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Boundaries and Codependency, Part I
"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."1

Phil, a businessman, has gone bankrupt twice. As a result, he and Janet, his wife, have lost two homes. Both times, Janet worked hard to pay off their debts and rescue Phil.

Phil had also been involved in an extramarital affair for several years. When Janet found out about this, she was hurt terribly, but when Phil said how sorry he was, assured Janet how much he loved her, and promised that he would never see the other woman again, Janet forgave him and took him back.

Later, Phil told Janet he had found work in another city and would be away for several weeks. He was gone for more than two months. Phil wrote and told Janet how much he missed her and that she was the only woman in his life, but he didn't send her any support. Again, Janet was left with the responsibility of paying all the bills.

Some time after he returned, Janet discovered that Phil had been away with the other woman!

Kym is married to a transvestite. "I knew John was this way before I married him," Kym told me, "but I believed if I loved him, I could change him. But it isn't working. When he dresses like a woman and wants me to make love to him this way, I feel sick in my stomach. My counselor has advised me to accept him as he is. What should I do?"

Exactly what should Janet and Kym and others in similar or related situations do? What is the Christian thing to do?

First, they need to understand the nature of their problem. True, Phil and John have serious problems, but Janet and Kym also have problems of their own. They are both codependent and have a lack of healthy boundaries.

Codependency applies to the caretakers of any over-dependent person—such as any kind of addict or irresponsible person, and doing for these people what they can and need to do for themselves.

To resolve their problem, codependents need, first of all, to admit their sickness, for only as we face the truth about ourselves, as Jesus put it, will we ever begin to overcome our problems and find freedom and happiness.

To be continued …

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, in every problem or challenging situation I am in, please confront me with the reality of what I am contributing to the problem and lead me to the help I need to resolve this. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

 

[RiverOL]

The most powerful word
For reading & meditation - Proverbs 25:11-28
"As a north wind brings rain, so a sly tongue brings angry looks." (v.23)

It's astonishing, the effect words can have upon you. This is why the writer of Proverbs refers so often to words and the way they ought to be used.
Here's a teaser I want to drop in that highlights the way words can be used. Professor Ernest Brennick of Columbia University is credited with inventing this sentence which can be made to have eight different meanings by placing the word "only" in all possible positions in it: "I hit him in the eye yesterday." Don't write to me for all the permutations; work them out for yourself. Someone has compiled a list of the most powerful words in the English language. "The bitterest word - alone. The most revered word - mother. The most feared word - death.

The coldest word - no. The warmest word - friend." What, I wonder is the most powerful word you have ever come across? I will tell you mine - Jesus. Charles Colson, one of President Nixon's right-hand men who, after the Watergate affair, was wonderfully converted to Christ, tells of visiting a man on death row. The man had been in a fetal position for months and would speak to no one. Charles told him the gospel and asked him to say the name Jesus. A week later he returned to find the man sitting in his chair, shaven, and the cell swept clean. When he asked what had happened, the man said, "Jesus lives here now." He went to the electric chair but his last words to the executioner were these: "I'm going to be with the Lord."

Prayer:
O Father, when I utter the name Jesus something profound goes on in my being. It is like an oratorio in two syllables, a library compressed into a single word. May I learn and appropriate in my life all the power that lies behind that name. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

We know that, when He [Jesus] shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. —1 John 3:2 NIV

The eyes of God and the spotlight of heaven continually search for hungry hearts willing to surrender to the Person of Jesus Christ and thirst to be with Him.
Christ has determined that we will rule and reign with Him. It’s His mission, and not just when we get to heaven, but on this present earth.

Satan’s two greatest goals are (1) to convince you to live the Christian life yourself, in your own strength, and (2) to make you believe that you must be “worthy” and “righteous.”

Trust today in the One who can quench all the fiery darts of the Enemy, no matter the circumstances, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Satan has no power over us when we allow the Person of Jesus Christ to live through us.

 

[RiverOL]

I would rather be right
For reading & meditation: Proverbs 8:1-11
"For wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her" (v.11)

We continue with the thought that another aspect of wisdom is integrity. Both the universe and we are alien to untruth and dishonesty. The universe is made for the same thing we are made for - righteousness. Not only the face of the Lord, but the face of the universe, is set against those who try to go some other way. No scientist can get very far without integrity. If he tampers with the laws that govern the universe, then he comes out looking foolish. He must sit down before the facts of the universe, and if he is to be successful, whatever he does has to be based on a prior commitment to honor and truthfulness.

Without integrity, all learning becomes evil. Charles Spurgeon wrote to the then Prime Minister of Britain, William Gladstone, in these words: "You do not know how those of us regard you who feel it a joy to live when a Prime Minister believes in righteousness. We believe in no man's infallibility but it is restful to be sure of one man's integrity." What makes us so suspicious of politicians, even though politics can be a noble profession, is not that they might make some mistakes, but that sometimes staying in office is more important to them than honor and candor. Henry Clay, when about to introduce to the American Congress a bill that was heavily weighted in favor of morality, was told, "If you do this, it will kill your chances of becoming president." His reply was, "I would rather be right than be president." I can almost see King Solomon's head nodding in favor of that.