by Max Lucado

Through Christ, God has accepted you. Think about what this means. You cannot keep people from rejecting you. But you can keep rejections from enraging you.

Rejections are like speed bumps on the road. They come with the journey. You’re going to get cut, dished, dropped, and kicked around. You cannot keep people from rejecting you. But you can keep rejections from enraging you. How? By letting his acceptance compensate for their rejection.

Think of it this way. Suppose you dwell in a high-rise apartment. On the window sill of your room is a solitary daisy. This morning you picked the daisy and pinned it on your lapel. Since you have only one plant, this is a big event and a special daisy.

But as soon as you’re out the door, people start picking petals off your daisy. Someone snags your subway seat. Petal picked. You’re blamed for the bad report of a coworker. Three petals. The promotion is given to someone with less experience but USC water polo looks. More petals. By the end of the day, you’re down to one. Woe be to the soul who dares to draw near it. You’re only one petal-snatching away from a blowup.

What if the scenario was altered slightly? Let’s add one character. The kind man in the apartment next door runs a flower shop on the corner. Every night on the way home he stops at your place with a fresh, undeserved, yet irresistible bouquet. These are not leftover flowers. They are top-of-the-line arrangements. You don’t know why he thinks so highly of you, but you aren’t complaining. Because of him, your apartment has a sweet fragrance, and your step has a happy bounce. Let someone mess with your flower, and you’ve got a basketful to replace it!

The difference is huge. And the interpretation is obvious.

God will load your world with flowers. He hand-delivers a bouquet to your door every day. Open it! Take them! Then, when rejections come, you won’t be left short-petaled.

God can help you get rid of your anger. He made galaxies no one has ever seen and dug canyons we have yet to find. “The LORD … heals all your diseases” (Ps. 103:2–3 NIV). Do you think among those diseases might be the affliction of anger?

Do you think God could heal your angry heart?

Do you want him to? This is not a trick question. He asks the same question of you that he asked of the invalid: “Do you want to be well?” (John 5:6). Not everyone does. You may be addicted to anger. You may be a rage junkie. Anger may be part of your identity. But if you want him to, he can change your identity. Do you want him to do so?

Do you have a better option? Like moving to a rejection-free zone? If so, enjoy your life on your desert island.

Take the flowers. Receive from him so you can love or at least put up with others.
Source: A Love Worth Giving © (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004) Max Lucado

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“In the rarefied atmosphere of Tibet, at fifteen thousand feet, you see things differently. It seems that you can see forever. The water looks different. The sky looks different. Everything looks different. When we are standing on the mount of God, everything looks different…

God must lift us into the glory realm so that we can see the earth from heaven’s perspective. We have lived on this earthly level so long that we see things totally out of perspective…

When Jim Irwin went to the moon, the thing that amazed him was that the earth appeared to be the size of a golf ball. It was life-changing for him. He determined that if God could love this small earth so much that He was willing to send His Son, then he would go back to earth and dedicate his life to the ministry. He took a golf ball with him wherever he went as a reminder of that perspective…”

Source: Ruth Ward Heflin “Glory-Experiencing the Atmosphere of Heaven”

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“Champions are not those who never fail, they are those who never quit…Men love winners. They want to be identified with winners. Men open a newspaper and turn directly to the sports page because it features winners, while the front page usually features losers…Champions are the right man, in the right place, at the right time. Timing is all important.

God has an eternal clock which was started from the beginning of time to make you become a champion for Him. To become a champion, you must see yourself as a champion. Hanging on to the fear of failure, the sins of others and past mistakes will keep you from becoming a champion. Champions are made, not born. Many champions start with severe handicaps in life, but in making the effort to overcome, they find the ability to continue until they have excelled beyond those even without handicaps…The athlete, the farmer and the soldier all have different ways of winning. Each of them does his training, plowing or exercising in private, and they show their abilities in public…The fainthearted never win, they wilt. They start well, but fade before they finish…

Joshua was a member of the championship team. He could hardly stand to see other men who didn’t feel the way he did, and finally issued the challenge that lives on forever:

‘Choose this day whom you will serve,
but as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord’

I’m proud to be on Joshua’s team!”

Source: Edwin Louis Cole in “Courage – Winning Life’s Toughest Battles” (ISBN 0-89274-873-7)

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“…Sit down and think for a moment, please. Find a quiet spot in your dwelling, just for sixty seconds. Think–just think about the two statements…’you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow…’ and ‘…you do not know what a day may bring forth.’

Man’s knowledge seems impressive – awesome. We can split atoms, we can build skyscrapers, transplant kidneys, program computers, explore and explain outer space, and even unknot the problems of ecology. But when it comes to ‘tomorrow,’ our knowledge plunges to zero. Whoever you are. You may be a Ph.D.from Yale, you may be a genius in your field with an I.Q. above 170, marvelously gifted and totally capable in any number of advanced, technological specialities–but you simply ‘do not know’ what tomorrow will bring. Scientists may project, program, predict, deduct, deduce, and compute diagrams about the future. They’re still only guessing. In algebraic terms, tomorrow remains Factor X…. a mystery. It cannot be explained. It defies all attempts to be exposed. It lies hidden in the depths of God’s unfathomable, intricately interwoven plan. He has not been pleased to unveil it until this old earth spins sufficiently to see the dawn. And then…only one moment at a time…

This sort of thinking leads to an inevitable question: Are you ready? ‘Ready for what?’ you may ask. ‘Ready for anything’ is my answer. Is your trust, your attitude of dependence sufficiently stable to sustain you ‘regardless?’ Remember Job’s avalanch? Should your Lord be pleased to turn you into a Job, would He still be your Treasure and your Triumph? Don’t let the answer slip off your tongue too easily. Think about the implications of that question to your life, health, job, and family. Should your Lord make you an Enoch, would you be reluctant to make that eternal journey?

Thank the Lord, it is His ‘love’ that arranges our our tomorrows… and we may be certain that whatever it brings, His love sent it our way. That is why I smile every time I read Romans 11:33. Let it bring a smile into your world:

‘Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are His wisdom and knowledge and riches! How impossible it is for us to understand His decisions and His methods! (TLB) ‘ ”

SOURCE: Charles R. Swindoll- “Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life”

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There is something about a living testimony that gives us courage. Once we see someone else emerging from life’s dark tunnels we realize that we, too, can overcome.

Could this be why Jesus is called our pioneer? Is this one of the reasons that he consented to enter the horrid chambers of death? It must be. His words, though persuasive, were not enough. His promises, though true, didn’t quite allay the fear of the people. His actions, even the act of calling Lazarus from the tomb, didn’t convince the crowds that death was nothing to fear. No. In the eyes of humanity, death was still the black veil that separated them from joy. There was no victory over this hooded foe. Its putrid odor invaded the nostrils of every human, convincing them that life was only meant to end abruptly and senselessly.

It was left to the Son of God to disclose the true nature of this force. It was on the cross that the showdown occurred. Christ called for Satan’s cards. Weary of seeing humanity fooled by a cover-up, he entered the tunnel death to prove that there was indeed an exit. And, as the world darkened, creation held her breath.

Satan threw his best punch, but it wasn’t enough. Even the darkness of hell’s tunnel was no match for God’s Son.
Even the chambers of Hades couldn’t stop this raider. Legions of screaming demons held nothing over the Lion
of Judah.

Christ emerged from death’s tunnel, lifted a triumphant fist toward the sky, and freed all from the fear of death. ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory!’

Source: Max Lucado in “On the Anvil” (1985 Tyndale House)

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“Not enough is said today about *finishing* well. Lots and lots of material is available on motivation to get started and creative ways to spark initiative…Let’s extol the virtues of sticking with something until it’s *done.* Of hanging tough when the excitement and fun fade into discipline and guts. You know–being just as determined eight minutes into the fourth quarter as at the kickoff…

I fear our generation has come dangerously near the ‘I’m-getting-tired-so-let’s-just-quit’ mentality…

Do I write today to a few weary pilgrims? Is the road getting long and hope wearing a little thin? Or to a few parents who are beginning to wonder if it’s worth it all–this exacting business of rearing children, which includes cleaning up daily messes and living with all that responsibility? Or to you who have a dream, but seeing it accomplished seems too long to wait?…

So many start the Christian life like a lightning flash–hot, fast, and dazzling. But how many people…can you name who are finishing the course with sustained enthusiasm and vigor? Oh, there are some, I realize, but why so few? What happens along the way that swells the ranks of quitters? ”

Source: Charles R. Swindoll in “Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life”

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Check out the church ads on the religion page of the Saturday edition of most big city newspapers and you find some impressive sounding places of worship. There, with sleek graphics and Madison Avenue phrases, a few select churches boast of their assets — their choirs, their friendliness, their powerful preaching, their singles ministries, their ample parking, their family life centers, their sensitive child care, and their compassionate spirit. Some churches, it seems, have it all.

Other churches, however, appear by contrast to have nothing, absolutely nothing. Take, for example, the church depicted in our text for today. Here, we get our first glimpse of the disciples gathered together after the resurrection, the first glimpse, in other words, of the church in its earliest days, and, all in all, it is not a very pretty picture. Near the end of his life, Jesus had carefully prepared his disciples to be a devoted and confident fellowship of faith. They were to be a community of profound love with the gates wide open and the welcome mat always out, but here we find them barricaded in a house with the doors bolted shut. They were to be the kind of people who stride boldly into the world to bear fruit in Jesus’ name, a people full of the Holy Spirit performing even greater works than Jesus himself (John 14:12), but here we find them cowering in fear, hoping nobody will find out where they are before they get their alibis straight.

In short, we see here the church at its worst — scared, disheartened and defensive. If this little sealed-off group of Christians were to place one of those cheery church ads in the Saturday newspaper, what could it possibly say? “The friendly church where all are welcome”? Hardly, unless one counts locked doors as a sign of hospitality. “The church with a warm heart and a bold mission”? Actually more like the church with sweaty palms and a timid spirit.

Indeed, John’s gospel gives us a snapshot of a church with nothing ­ no plan, no promise, no program, no perky youth ministry, no powerful preaching, no parking lot, nothing. In fact, when all is said and done, this terrified little band huddled in the corner of a room with a chair braced against the door has only one thing going for it: the risen Christ. And that seems to be the main point of this story. In the final analysis, this is a story about how the risen Christ pushed open the bolted door of a church with nothing, how the risen Christ enters the fearful chambers of every church and fills the place with his own life.

Whispering The Lyrics, Thomas G. Long, CSS Publishing, 1995

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Are you a ‘one-thing’ person?
The future fearlessness of your faith will rest on the singleness of your desire…

People who give themselves to one thing always fascinate me. J. Hart Rosdail of Elmhurst, Illinois, gave himself to visiting all 221 countries and territories in the world…Beginning in 1950, Francis Johnson of Darwin, Minnesota, dedicated himself to collecting the largest ball of string: eleven feet in diameter and weighing five tons. Marva Drew of Waterloo, Iowa, between 1968 and 1974 typed the numbers one to one million in words on a manual typewriter. She used 2,473 pages. When asked why, she said, ‘I love to type.’

These are preposterous examples of people obsessed with one thing. Many would wonder about the appropriateness of their obsessions. The psalmist, however, could speak of a single obsession that filled his own heart. When he looked to the past and into the future this one thing filled his perspective–and that perspective led him to strive for intense communion with and contemplation of God.

The psalmist makes one of the most single-minded statements to be found anywhere in Scripture when he writes: ‘that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.’ He habitually longs to be in Jehovah’s house, to be in close communication with Him both physically and spiritually. But he was often under attack and had to flee far from the tabernacle or tent that housed the visible presence of the unseen God. So he envied those servants of the tabernacle who perpetually lived in its very physical presence. Likewise, the same faith that overcomes fear today is a faith that longs to be in the congregation of God’s people where they gather together in His presence. The faith of a spiritual isolationist has difficulty overcoming fear. But the faith that feeds on the gathering of God’s people locally and physically in the congregation is the faith that can face down fear.”

-Dr. Joel C. Gregory- “Homesick for God”

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Christ professes to be the inexhaustible person, welcoming all of humanity in every generation; even then, there will be more than enough from this artesian well…No Plato of philosophy, no Einstein of intellect, no politician, no academician, no sage or philosopher ever made this statement. But Christ can, and twenty centuries have proven its truth. The apostles drank from this Source in the first century; but at the end of their era the blessed Source was still brimful.

Justin Martyr and Irenaeus and thousands of other Christian martyrs drank of it in the second century, and they died saying it is still full. Origen and Clement and the great commentators of the third century drank; and when they laid down their pens, the well was still overflowing. Augustine and his generation drank in the fourth century and died crying out, ‘There is still more!’ That well flowed through the Dark Ages, a river flowing through the night
of superstition that chained Bibles in cathedrals. In the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries they came to drink–John Wyclif, John Huss, Thomas Aquinas, and others, and they all cried out, ‘The longer it flows, the deeper it grows!’ Then the great reformers and the thousands they brought to Christ all drank. Luther gave the cup to Calvin, and cried, ‘John, it’s still full!’ Calvin passed the cup to Knox in Scotland, and cried, ‘The more you drink, John, the more there is!’ Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans drank and John Smyth and the Separatists drank, and still, the further it went, the wider it would grow, and the deeper it would flow.

That river flowed through colonial America in great awakenings and it became a mighty wave that flowed over the Appalachians to the great revivals on the frontier. It flows right down to this very day…Jesus, the Source of Life, promises to flow to and through the believer–and through us as sources to others.”

Dr. Joel C. Gregory – “Homesick for God” (Word Publishing)

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