I was just sitting here reading my Bible reading for the day and this thought kept swimming around in my head… “Oh the value of people!” People are valuable! God made people! Man was and is the creme de la creme of His creation. That got me to thinking how special some of the people God has placed in my life are: My wife, my daughter and soon-to-be-son 🙂 , my Mom and Dad, my sister, and my extended family and in-laws. Then beyond that… my church family and the many friends God has blessed my wife and I with through the years. Each one of them has been placed in my life by the Lord. I am so grateful to have them in my life. What would life be like without that support system? Kinda scary and kinda lonely for sure!

Yet sometimes, even though that is the case, I have found myself at times taking for granted those who are closest to me. WHY IS THAT?

I guess for me this little phrase that kept rolling around in my head this morning caused me to say to the Lord, “PLEASE HELP ME TO NOT GET SO WRAPPED UP IN MY LIFE THAT I FORGET THOSE VALUABLE PEOPLE YOU HAVE PLACED IN MY LIFE! HELP ME TO NOT ONLY BE THANKFUL FOR THEM, BUT HELP ME BY MY ACTIONS TOWARD THEM TO TELL THEM SO REGULARLY! HELP ME TO GIVE SUPPORT TO THEM AS WELL AND NOT JUST BE A TAKER. HELP ME TO REMEMBER HOW PRICELESS THEY TRULY ARE.”

My challenge to you today is LOOK AROUND AND LOVE THE PEOPLE HE HAS PLACED AROUND YOU. THEY ARE THERE FOR A REASON. NONE OF US ARE PERFECT AND EACH OF US NEED LOVE. LET’S GIVE AND RECEIVE LOVE TODAY.

As for Me
In the 1700s, a young man named James Taylor proposed marriage to his girlfriend, and a wedding date was set. Neither of them were Christians. James, in fact, so detested itinerant preachers that he often pelted them with rotten tomatoes or eggs.
Shortly before his wedding, one of John Wesley’s circuit riders entered town, and James, hearing of it, wanted to disrupt the meeting. But as James listened in the fringes of the crowd, the preacher quoted Joshua 24:15: But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
The words stuck James like an arrow.
When the day of his wedding arrived, the verse was still lodged in his thoughts. That morning James retired to the fields to think. He was about to take a wife, to establish a home, but he wasn’t serving the Lord. He knelt in the grass and earnestly asked Christ to be his Savior. By the time he finished praying, he was alarmed to discover it was time for the wedding.
Rushing to the chapel, he apologized for being late, and the ceremony proceeded. Then he shocked his bride and guests, by announcing he had become a Christian. He soon began witnessing to his new wife, but she remained resistant. Finally one day James came home so burdened for her that he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. There with a forceful hand he made her kneel beside him. Soon both were weeping, and there she, too, became a Christian.
Eight generations have since passed, each filled with Christian workers serving the Lord. Included among them is James Taylor’s great-grandson, Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, who opened the interior of China to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Today’s Suggested Reading
Joshua 24:14–25

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15
Morgan, R. J. (2000). From this verse : 365 scriptures that changed the world (electronic ed.). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

How awesome to find out that John Wesley indirectly had a part in leading China to Jesus! WOW! This shows how one person’s obedience to the Lord can start a generational chain reaction that can alter the course of his entire family.

In my own family, my grandmother came to the Lord, and then began to pray for her family. Entire generations were blessed because she chose to serve the Lord. We are serving the Lord today and it all began with her decision back in the 1970’s and set off a chain reaction of blessing.

You too can set off a chain reaction for good or bad in your family by even one decision. Where will your decisions lead them? I pray with God’s help that I will lead my family down the blessed path of righteous living. I sincerely pray that by God’s grace my example will effect change in the generations beyond me long after I am gone, and that I will look down from the portals of heaven should Jesus tarry and see generations of righteous and Godly world changers effecting change in their families and on and on and on…. thus setting off a divine Holy Ghost, God-ordained, blessed chain reaction.

Be encouraged! Your obedience today can change your entire family!

Even on the Golf Course

Those needing strength often turn to Joshua 1:1–11, a potent passage given to Joshua as he assumed the leadership of Israel : Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people. …  As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. …  Be strong and of good courage. …
Tom Lehman, PGA Tour Player of the Year in 1996, has often spoken of this verse. He came to Christ in high school when a friend invited him to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting. After playing golf in college, he joined the PGA Tour briefly but didn’t play well enough to continue. In 1991 he won three tournaments on the Ben Hogan Tour and was named Player of the Year, qualifying him again for the PGA Tour.
Then in 1995, he got a scare. Doctors discovered precancerous colon polyps. Tom and his wife got down on their knees and committed the matter to God. Joshua 1:9 sustained him : Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Surgery was successful, and Lehman resumed his golf.
The following year, he and Steve Jones were playing the 18th hole during the final round of the U.S. Open. Both men longed to win their first major championship, and they were tied for the lead. The situation was tense, but the men calmed themselves by quoting Scripture to each other, Lehman reminding Jones of Joshua 1:9.
Jones won out by one stroke. But, remembering his verse, Tom shook off the discouragement and entered the British Open. He arrived in England quoting Joshua 1:9 to himself. This time, he won a two-stroke victory.
“In every difficult situation,” he said, “even on the golf course, I remember Joshua 1:9.”
Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Morgan, R. J. (2000). From this verse : 365 scriptures that changed the world (electronic ed.). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

What an amazing story! Thank God for His wisdom to put the right man in office at just the right time!

To Their Descendants
January 22
For a hundred years before the establishment of the modern state of Israel, Christians worked alongside Jews in advancing Zionism, but nothing created more sympathy for the rebirth of the Jewish nation than reports emerging after World War II of the Holocaust. Still, President Harry Truman, aware of impending Arab-Israeli conflict, was reluctant to recognize the new state. On May 12, 1948, several advisors gathered with him to discuss the issue. Secretary of State George C. Marshall was against recognition, warning that the Jews faced war on every side. But to Marshall’s dismay, Clark Clifford, Truman’s political advisor, urged the president to recognize Israel at once.
“I don’t even know why Clifford is here,” Marshall grumbled. “This is not a political meeting.”
“He is here,” Truman said, “because I asked him.”
Clifford made his case calmly and persuasively. He reminded the men of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis, and of the survivors with nowhere to go. A separate Jewish state was inevitable, Clifford said. And then he quoted Deuteronomy 1:8—See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to give to them and their descendants after them.
Marshall became so angry he threatened to vote against Truman in the next election, bringing the meeting to an icy close. But two days later, the nation of Israel was born, and President Harry Truman became the first head of state to afford it official recognition.
Later, when Israel’s Chief Rabbi, Isaac Herzog, visited the White House, he told Truman, “God put you in your mother’s womb so that you would be the instrument to bring the rebirth of Israel after 2000 years.”
“I thought he was overdoing things,” said an observer, “but when I looked over at the president, tears were running down his cheeks.”
Today’s Suggested Reading
Deuteronomy 1:1–8
See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to give to them and their descendants after them. Deuteronomy 1:8

Morgan, R. J. (2000). From this verse : 365 scriptures that changed the world (electronic ed.). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

God’s Payroll

Samuel Logan Brengle and Billy Sunday had much in common. Both were raised by godly mothers on Midwestern farms after their fathers had perished in the Civil War. Both became famous preachers who gave the credit to their Lord and to their mothers. And both were very familiar with skid row. Brengle preached there. Sunday lived there awhile.
Billy Sunday initially gained fame as an outfielder for the Chicago White Sox, but his career was marred by drinking. One night, staggering down the street, he heard a Salvation Army group singing a song his mother used to sing : “Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?” Later that evening at the Pacific Garden Mission, Sunday gave his life to Christ. He soon left the baseball diamond for the pulpit.
Among his inimitable, bombastic sermons is one from Exodus 2:9 about Moses’ mother : “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” Thinking of his own mother, Sunday said : Being a king, emperor, or president is mighty small potatoes compared to being a mother. Commanding an army is little more than sweeping a street compared with training a boy or girl. The mother of Moses did more for the world than all the kings that Egypt ever had. Oh, you wait until you reach the mountains of eternity, then read the mothers’ names in God’s Hall of Fame. I tell you women : Fooling away your time, hugging and kissing a poodle dog, drinking a cocktail, and playing cards is mighty small business compared to molding the life of a child.
“Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages.” God pays in joy that is fireproof, famine-proof, and devil-proof.
“Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages.” If you haven’t been doing that, then get your name on God’s payroll.

Today’s Suggested Reading
Exodus 2:1–10
Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. Exodus 2:9

From:
Morgan, R. J. (2000). From this verse : 365 scriptures that changed the world (electronic ed.). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.