Daily Devotional for December 2, 2016

December 2 ~ Galatians 6:6-10

Share every good thing you have with anyone who teaches you what God has said.

You cannot fool God, so don’t make a fool of yourself! You will harvest what you plant. If you follow your selfish desires, you will harvest destruction, but if you follow the Spirit, you will harvest eternal life. Don’t get tired of helping others. You will be rewarded when the time is right, if you don’t give up. We should help people whenever we can, especially if they are followers of the Lord.

Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.

As I write this, Timothy is standing in front of me…building some of his favorite characters from an ottoman covered in Legos® while we watch our third movie since we got home from school today.  The three of us (Greg, Timothy and I) also watched two “reindeer” specials that I saved on the DVR. 

Fridays are my “day” to volunteer in Timothy’s class at school -and sometimes help Zola’s teacher. While I’m there, I go to lunch with both children. Trust me…it’s all about spending time with the kids, because no adult really has a burning desire to sit through 30-40 minutes in the cafeteria with elementary school children just for fun!

Greg and I hope the time we are investing in these children will reap a good harvest.  We sow seeds of love, kindness, positivity, and the teachings of Jesus into their little hearts and minds every chance we get. There is no guarantee that these efforts will “pay off,” but we prayerfully trust that God will bless our faithfulness.

You may be asking, “What does this have to do with me?”  You may not have elementary school children to nurture. Your “calling” may be totally different from ours. God may be providing you with other opportunities to help someone.  But the point is, we all have a “mission.”  There is someone, somewhere who needs your help.  You may not want to give it…you may grow tired of assisting and doing what God shows you to do.  But keep doing it!  You will harvest what you plant…and if you persevere and keep giving, God will bless your efforts.  Scripture says to do otherwise will reap a harvest of destruction.  I don’t know if this is a guarantee…but is it really worth the risk?

Don’t get tired of helping others.  God may not be calling you to sit in the elementary school cafeteria every Friday – or watch a marathon of kids’ movies all weekend.  But He is calling you to give all you can to someone – or something.  How you respond will make all the difference.  Are you ready to roll up your sleeves and start giving?

©2016 Debbie Robus

Daily Devotional for March 11, 2016

1 Kings 4:26-34
Solomon owned forty thousand chariot horses and employed twelve thousand charioteers. Each month the tax officials provided food for King Solomon and his court, also the barley and straw for the royal horses in the stables.

God gave Solomon great wisdom and understanding, and a mind with broad interests. In fact, his wisdom excelled that of any of the wise men of the East, including those in Egypt. He was wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and he was famous among all the surrounding nations. He was the author of 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs. He was a great naturalist, with interest in animals, birds, snakes, fish, and trees—from the great cedars of Lebanon down to the tiny hyssop which grows in cracks in the wall. And kings from many lands sent their ambassadors to him for his advice.
   
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve undoubtedly heard more than one person talk about how great he/she is lately.  The “news” has been filled with such proclamations…from a rapper who thinks he can “bring beautiful ideas to the world” if he can acquire $53 million and change from donors…to politicians who claim that God has blessed and ordained them to save our country…to countless pastors who are asking their congregants – and the world at large – to make “offerings” to enable them to purchase jets, homes, jewelry and other material luxuries that will “further the Kingdom of God” in some way.

I know…I don’t get it either!  But here’s the thing.  Look at all that King Solomon possessed.  He was wealthy and prestigious.  He was brilliant…well-rounded…and he apparently had common sense and understanding! Yes, Solomon was human – and if you study his life through the scriptures, you will see that he got a little too big for his britches and had to be taken down a notch or two at times.  But God ordained Solomon and used him in spite of his occasional arrogance and foolishness.

If you have time, read the first few chapters of Ecclesiastes.  King Solomon writes about all of the “virtues” and “things” that God gave him, such as wisdom, prosperity, work to do (and slaves to do it!), and more.  And he concludes that these are all meaningless.  In particular, start reading in Ecclesiastes 9, as Solomon begins to summarize what he has determined.

In Ecclesiastes 11:4-6, Solomon writes “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.  God’s ways are as mysterious as the pathway of the wind and as the manner in which a human spirit is infused into the little body of a baby while it is yet in its mother’s womb. Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow—perhaps it all will.”  And that is the point for today.  God may not give us the wealth and wisdom of King Solomon, but He has planted seed in us that will grow according to His will – if we will allow it and do the work that God has ordained.  We may never be celebrities on any scale.  But God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things!

We don’t have to wait until we are out of school…married and/or settled in a relationship.  We don’t have to have been a Christian for so many days/weeks/months/years…be debt free or have a decent amount of money to pay our bills with a little left over.  We must start here…now…with what we have at this moment…and trust that God will make the difference.  Because He WILL!

We may never be in the “King Solomon” category…but that doesn’t matter to God.  He made us who we are and can use us to do great things in His name, regardless of our “status.”  Are you ready to start “sowing seed” and let God work in and through you?  Isn’t it time you were?

©2016 Debbie Robus

Daily Devotional for June 2, 2014

Galatians 6:9
And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t get discouraged and give up.

The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”  ~  Dr. Seuss in The Lorax

If you are familiar with The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss, you know that it’s a story about greed.  A character known as the “Once-ler” cuts down a “Truffula tree” and creates a multi-purpose object called a “thneed”.  The Lorax protests the harvesting of the Truffula trees, citing a need to protect this vegetation and the surrounding environment.  But the Once-ler persists.  And as he sells his “thneeds” and begins to make money, he recruits others to help produce them.  This leads to all sorts of problems…from pollution to safety hazards and risk to the lives of family members and friends.  Ultimately, the last Truffula tree is hacked down…and there is no way to produce more “thneeds”.  The workers are sick and injured…and things are in a mess.

It looks hopeless…and the Lorax disappears into the sky through a hole in the smog.  Later, a boy comes along and begins asking questions.  Where is the Lorax?  What happened?  The whole story is a flashback sequence, as the Once-ler explains what has transpired.  He looks down upon a stone on which the Lorax had etched one word…unless.  The Once-ler realizes that the Lorax was trying to tell him that UNLESS someone cares enough, things will never get better.  UNLESS someone tirelessly does what is right, we’ll never get anywhere!  So the Once-ler gives the little boy a seed…for a Truffula tree…and encourages him to plant it and set things right.

I once taught a series of Senior High Sunday school lessons one summer using Dr. Seuss books.  The kids thought I was nuts for the first Sunday or two…and then they started showing up in bigger numbers.  They were eager to see what book I would choose for the week and how I would dovetail it with scriptures to discover what God wanted to tell them and how this related to their life.  We can learn a lot from a children’s book author…which is proof that God can use anyone – ANYWHERE!   And the point I want to make today is that we cannot give up.  We have to be like the Lorax …we have to keep standing up for what is right.

We have to keep helping people – and loving them – even when they hurt our feelings or disrespect us.  We may have doors slammed in our faces, unanswered phone calls or messages (or even rude and dramatic hang-ups!), be the victim of unkind words and gestures, and more.  We may feel discouraged, insulted, offended, heartbroken...and weary.  But we must keep doing what God has commanded us to do in His name.

Have we learned nothing from Jesus?  He was bruised, beaten, spit upon, humiliated, ridiculed, slapped…and crucified…all because of His message of love and kindness, grace and mercy, forgiveness and humble obedience to our Heavenly Father.  For offering us Eternal Life, His very life was brutally taken…for our sins, His blood literally poured from His body and spread over the ground.  In light of these facts, how can we fail to persist?

Don’t be confused…there is a difference between giving up and stepping aside to allow God room to work.  I like to think that perhaps this is what the Lorax did.  He had done the right thing…always and forever…and when there was nothing else that HE could do, he stepped aside.  Ultimately, the Once-ler realized his mistake.  Perhaps that wasn’t merely a “coincidence”!  Maybe God used the Lorax to plant “seeds” of hope and reason…to teach long-lasting lessons that would not fully “bear fruit” until after he had moved on.   There have been many times in my life when I have become discouraged over someone or a certain situation.  Often, others have told me, “You are planting seeds that you cannot even realize – and may never see develop.  But they are there.”  I believe this is true…I have seen it firsthand in my life and the lives of others.

Let’s all remember three things… 1) it’s not over until GOD says “It’s over!”;  2) just because we cannot readily see results doesn’t mean that our efforts to do the right thing – to love and honor God with our obedience, our actions and our service – is not productive; and 3) “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”  God is calling us to care.  He is calling us to hang in there…to stick with it…to keep on “keepin’ on” in Jesus’ name.  We cannot rest on our laurels…or slack off and hope that someone else will step up and take our place.  The time for rest and reward will come…someday…in God’s time.  And we will enjoy it fully in His presence.  I’ll see you there… won’t I?

©2014 Debbie Robus

Daily Devotional for July 16, 2011

Proverbs 22:6
Point your kids in the right direction— when they're old they won't be lost.

Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.

Put on your “thinking cap” and recall at least one positive “life lesson” you have learned from one of your parents or grandparents. Two come to mind for me… both from my grandmothers… “Blood is thicker than water,” and “The LORD will take care of me.” I’ve heard my grandmothers say these phrases countless times, and they resonate with me. My mom used to always tell us, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” All three of these phrases are good “life lessons” – ones that I have never forgotten!

I can also name a few negative “life lessons” that colored my thinking… though not necessarily in a negative way. I learned the hazards of cigarette smoking by watching more than one beloved adult in my family die from its effects. I learned not to judge a person by their appearance or the word of someone else by listening to elders do just that… and I learned later that the person of whom they spoke and thought poorly was really pretty nice! I discovered that not all Christians belong to the same denomination… and those who attend a church down the street are loved just as much by Jesus as those who worship in my own sanctuary!

If we think people in general are watching what we say and do… children are watching even more closely. A great case in point is my little cousin Owen and my nephew Timothy. We have observed both of them mimic our behaviors… from repeating what we say with the same tone and inflection to wearing their hats cocked at the same angle as their dad and Uncle Greg… and much more.

So what does this have to do with you? If you want to really make a difference in someone’s life – regardless of your age - spend some time with a child! If nothing else, be a good and Godly example for children who may cross your path. Watch your language, your habits, your behaviors. Think about what you say – and how you say it.

If you are given a chance to mentor a child, take it. That one morning you spend rocking babies in a church nursery… or the evening you take the neighbor kid out in the yard and throw a ball… may have lifelong ramifications. Send a greeting card to a child who is having a birthday, did well at the swim meet, or won a chess tournament at school. This child may not even know your name, but he/she might remember that someone loved and cared for them… if only for a few minutes. And it could make a huge difference.

God holds a special place in His heart for children… I’m convinced of this! And I believe any time we spend serving children pleases Him doubly. God knows that we are building future generations. We are sowing the seeds of His love in that child… we are creating the opportunity for growth in him/her… and into others exponentially. And while it may seem that our efforts were wasted or miniscule… we need to leave the depth and breadth of their effects up to God. It’s not our job to determine the outcome… just to take the first step.

So my challenge to you today is to find a child to love and nurture. You don’t have to become a foster parent… or volunteer to work in Vacation Bible School or an after-school program of some sort. You don’t have to become a Scout leader or coach Little League… although all of these are worthy projects! All you have to do is be the best role model, friend, parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin, or neighbor God has called you to be. He will use you to inspire and influence the children in your lives.

God’s efforts are never wasted… and yours on His behalf won’t be, either!

©2011 Debbie Robus