Zondervan Inspire

As the Opportunity Arises

From the Editor: Two excellent examples to follow. I pray we all learn to walk as Jesus did.

Wishing you blessings today,

Keith 

Jesus could only physically be with one person or group of persons as he walked this earth in his human body. How did he love? He simply loved people as the opportunity arose during the normal traffic patterns of his life. If he was in Jerusalem, he loved the people on the streets of Jerusalem. If he was traveling from Judea to Galilee, he loved the people he met along the way. When he was with his disciples, he showed love to them.

My wife, Chaundel, practices this command to love our neighbors better than anyone I know. She finds out that one of our neighbors is in the hospital, and she's immediately there to visit them. She drops what she's doing to go next door and help a neighbor with a practical need. She commits to facing difficult and frightening circumstances with someone on our block. She goes for a walk in the neighborhood and meets a new neighbor also out walking — and the new neighbor is at a Bible study in our home the next week.

From The Relationship Principles of Jesus

by Tom Holladay

God Chooses All of Us

From the Editor: The authors are talking about God choosing everyone in the sense of God wanting everyone to be on His team. Have you ever been the person last to be chosen in gym class to be on a team? I have. No fun. Thankfully God specializes in choosing people that others would leave behind.

Wishing you blessings today,

Keith 

The Old Testament tells of God's "chosen" people, the Jews. It is full of stories of who God chose to do this or that. He chose Abraham to lead his chosen people. He chose David to be his greatest king. He chose prophets like Isaiah to deliver his message.

Jesus, however, tells us that now God chooses all of us. "Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). We've always liked the stories in the New Testament of who Jesus chooses to talk to. It often is not the "choosable" people. In John 4, for example, Jesus talks to a woman who has three strikes against her: she is a woman, she is a Samaritan, and she is an adulterer. She could have been stoned for her sin, and yet this is who Jesus talks to about salvation.

From The Seven Desires of Every Heart

by Mark & Debra Laaser

Love Is at the Core

From the Editor: It sounds so simple, but it’s impossible to do without divine help. The good news: I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.

Wishing you blessings today,

Keith

To please God, we do not have to spend years in theological training. Neither do we have to master some thick rule book that covers each and every situation. What we have to do is remember, every moment of every day, to treat others as we would like to be treated. As the apostle Paul put it, "Love is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom. 13:10). Love is at the core of what a godly life requires.

If we Christians would, through the grace of God, conscientiously obey this one sentence, we would have covered the essence of God's desire for us. What a difference this would make! It would help us grasp that God's greater blessing for each of us is built on a foundation of selfless love. As Jesus said in his sermon, "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:43–45).

From You Were Made for More: The Life You Have, the Life God Wants You to Have

by Jim Cymbala

Any comments or testimonies today?

Wired for Touch

From the Editor: Not only do I need to increase my exercise quotient, I could stand to increase my “hug” quotient, too! It’s amazing how something so simple as loving human touch can have such a profound impact.

Wishing you blessings today,

Keith 

Have you ever watched a newborn baby? They cry and cry until they are picked up and held, and often just that skin-to-skin contact seems to comfort them. That desire to be touched stays with us throughout our lives. That's why a hug from a coworker is a great pick-me-up in the midst of a stressful day. It's why we hold hands at funerals. Our bodies are wired to desire this touch: a recent study by scientists at the University of North Carolina found that people who hug a lot have a lower risk of heart disease!

Once we were on a plane flying home from Korea. On the same plane was a proud set of parents who had just adopted a little girl. This cute little baby appeared to be several months old. We asked the father how old she was, and he said, "She's a year old." To our surprised reaction, the father said, "The orphanage where we adopted our daughter is a wonderful place, but they are short-staffed, and the babies spend lots of time in their cribs without being held." That is the power of touch and the problems the lack of it can create.

From The Seven Desires of Every Heart

by Mark & Debra Laaser

Return to Putting Him First

From the Editor: This picture and this post remind me of how much I need to put God first and depend on him daily—like a small boy depends on his dad.

Wishing you blessings today,

Keith 

Like a husband's first love for his young bride, that's how God feels about you. Like a loving parent desires his children to trust his guidance, God longs to lead you into life. But when we put things that are worth less first in our lives, before God, we end up feeling worthless ourselves. We can never feel secure enough, we can never get enough, because we've abandoned the fountain of living water to dig wells for ourselves that are full of cracks and can never satisfy our deepest thirst. God pleads with people through the prophets to return to putting him first.

From Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended

by John Burke

Healthy Relationships Maintain Balance

From the Editor: For task-oriented people like me, this is so important to remember.

Wishing you blessings today,

Keith 

"God does not demand of me that I accomplish great things. He does demand of me that I strive for excellence in my relationships."
—Ted W. Engstrom, The Making of a Christian Leader

There is certainly nothing wrong with wanting to do great things for God — and accomplishing great things for him. The problem is that it's just too easy to start doing the great things for yourself and not for him. It can happen in the blink of an eye. Service is then replaced with selfishness. We all struggle with selfishness, so how do we protect ourselves from letting our ego take center stage? That's where the priority of relationships comes in! A healthy relationship with God and healthy relationships with others have the power to keep our commitments to the things and the tasks in our lives from getting out of balance.

From The Relationship Principles of Jesus

by Tom Holladay

Created Out of Love for Love

From the Editor: Today’s post is a good reminder of our purpose on this earth.

Wishing you blessings today,

Keith 

God is love. Jesus revealed greater insight into the mystery of God who is relationship — perfect, loving relationship between Father, Son, and Spirit existing eternally. How else could God be love, since love requires an object — other persons to love? There's only one God, not three, but God at the center of his Being exists in loving relationship.

As a husband and wife in a healthy, loving relationship discover, love creates children to invite into relationship, and in so doing love expands. God created us out of love and for love, inviting us into his Divine Community of ever-expanding love. All the prophets who wrote thousands of years before Jesus made it clear that loving relationship is God's motive for creating us.

From Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended

by John Burke

A Life-Transforming Awareness

From the Editor: This picture reminds me of my oldest daughter when she was young—tough, determined, looking to the future. It’s good to know that God’s love and grace is with all who trust him.

Wishing you blessings today,

Keith 

Our souls deeply desire affirmations. Think how often you may have wondered, "Does God really love me like the Bible says he does?" To know that God does love us and that he bestows his grace upon us is a life-transforming awareness. It gives us confidence in ourselves and our abilities. It helps us know the value of what we can do. It makes us long to serve such a God, and it makes us long to serve others. God's love and affirmation for us leads us to his calling, plan, and purpose for our lives.

From The Seven Desires of Every Heart

by Mark & Debra Laaser

Seek to Grow Upward

From the Editor: There are so many things that speak of growing in this picture—the trees, the boy, the grass. And aren’t we all merely children when it comes to spirituality? Some of us are much further along in the journey than others, but we all have so much to learn while on this earth, which is why we need to keep growing. A wise person once said (I don’t remember who), “if you’re not growing you’re dying.” Any other thoughts on this subject?

Wishing you blessings today,

Keith 

"Grow in grace" — not just in some grace — but in all grace. Grow in the root of all grace, which is faith. Believe God's promises more firmly than ever. Allow your faith to increase in its fullness, firmness, and simplicity. Grow also in love. Ask God to stretch your love and make it more intense and practical, to the point of influencing your every thought, word, and action.

Grow in humility too. Seek to be unnoticed and to more fully recognize your own nothingness. Yet as you grow "downward" in humility, also seek to grow "upward," where you will have closer times with God through prayer and more intimate fellowship with Jesus.

—Charles Spurgeon

From Look Unto Me: The Devotions of Charles Spurgeon

by Jim Reimann

Loved Despite Our Errors

From the Editor: There really is someone behind the curtain at Zondervan putting these posts together. I'm planning to add a little commentary each time going forward to foster better understanding and hopefully stimulate a little conversation. If you're helped in any way by the posts you read here, then glory to God! There will be times you may disagree with all or part of a post. That's fine. Please express your thougths.

Wishing you blessings today,

Keith 

When we do make mistakes, it can be difficult to talk to people about those mistakes because we fear that we will be judged. This can lead to isolation and loneliness — after all, we have all made mistakes, and part of the desire to be affirmed is the desire to be affirmed as struggling people in process, people who are loved despite our errors. Without the safety of knowing that we will be accepted and affirmed despite our mistakes, it can be difficult to ever confess our mistakes — to friends, or to God.

From The Seven Desires of Every Heart

by Mark & Debra Laaser