Daily Devotional - Respect the Journey

Respect for the journey
by John Fischer

Everyone knows some truth. Everyone is right about something. Even the most evil of people get something right. Traditionally, members of the mafia have great family values. They are loyal. They will kill for their loyalty, but they are loyal, nonetheless.

When seeking to reach out to those around you who do not have a relationship with Christ, it’s best to find out first what they already know, because they are getting something right. Think about it: Who would you rather be around – someone who agrees with you or someone who is always pointing out where you are wrong?

Ask the Holy Spirit to make you sensitive to the spiritual needs of those around you who do not know Christ. Make it your goal to find out about the spiritual journey of others. Pastor Rick suggests we pray, “Father, help me to understand what is keeping this person from knowing you.” We can’t make people believe, but we may be able to help remove some of their barriers to believing.

It’s not necessary to clear the table of someone’s pre-Christian spiritual journey before you can set up Christ. Chances are Christ is already on their table somewhere in the form of truth. Jesus said he was the truth, so that all truth has something to do with Jesus. You can work this either way. You can start with Jesus and lay out the truth, or you can start with the truth and work your way back to Jesus. Starting with Jesus works fine for those who already believe in him and want to learn more. Starting with truth is best for those who may have doubts about Jesus but might relate to the truths he espoused.

“Jesus said that?” someone might say.

“Yes,” you could say in response, “and would you be interested in hearing some other things he said as well?

”What’s important is that we have enough respect for people to value what they already know, and then make ourselves available and willing to find out.

As Christians, we need to always remember we are not persuading people about God all by ourselves. The Holy Spirit is doing this and was already doing it before we came along. We can introduce people to Jesus, but we cannot make anyone believe; just like you can lead a horse to water. but you can’t make it drink.

“I try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what I like or what is best for me, but what is best for them so they may be saved.” (1 Corinthians 10:33 NLT)

John Fischer resides in Southern California with his wife, Marti and son, Chandler. They also have two adult children, Christopher and Anne. John is a published author and popular speaker.

Daily Devotional - God Waves

By John Fischer

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4)

Wow.That’s a lot of noise. Imagine if you could hear all that speech and all those voices all the time. You would probably go nuts.As it is, people who are really tuned into God run the risk of being locked up.

Think of the traditional hymn, This Is My Father’s World. It has a line in it: “This is my Father’s world; he shines in all that’s fair. In the rustling grass I hear him pass; he speaks to me everywhere.”Now think about it: This guy is either a nut case or he is so aware of God that he hears him everywhere – even in the wind that ripples through the grass.

I think a good analogy here would be the invisible presence of radio waves in the air.Imagine what we would hear if suddenly our ears were tuned into frequencies shared by AM and FM radio. Imagine the noise of hearing all those stations all at the same time.We would walk around mad, covering our ears all the time, and pleading for the noise to stop.It’s a little like this for the psalmist, David, when he tunes into God in the universe. He is deafened by the sound of God speaking in the heavens – through space and time, past stars, and worlds beyond.What he’s hearing is a display of God’s creative handiwork that pours out continual truth about the presence and the nature of the God who created it.And if we could hear all that all at once, we would be overwhelmed.So we can’t.Our hearing is limited to a very narrow frequency band so as to allow us to function day by day in the world.

But that’s where worship comes in.Worship is tuning into the sound of God if even for a moment, to remind us of his presence and power.The important thing about this is that the sound, like radio waves, is always going out.It’s there all the time.We just don’t hear it because we haven’t trained our ears to hear it.

You don’t have to go anywhere to hear God today; just tune in.But beware.You might want to cover your ears, because the sound is deafening.

John Fischer resides in Southern California with his wife, Marti and son, Chandler. They also have two adult children, Christopher and Anne. John is a published author and popular speaker.