Why Devotions Are Important - Looking Beyond Ourselves

"He must become greater; I must become less." - John 3:30 NIV

There are times when I am doing my devotions that I journal, that is, I keep a diary of what is going on in my life. I sometimes look back on that and gain new insight on what I was going through back then. I have become more adept at interpreting God's leading and plan for me as I further experience life and receive what He has done.

By looking back on what we have been through and seeing the hand of God there, we can have greater comfort and encouragement for what we are going through now or even what lies ahead. As I gain new insight into my personality and the Lord's working into my issues and problems, I realize how small they really are compared to my Lord's holiness and greatness.

Superstitions Aren’t Silly; They’re Evolutionary.

Break a mirror and you’re stuck with bad luck. Walk under a ladder and you’re tempting fate. Sound ridiculous?Scientists believe such beliefs may be genetic, part of adaptive behaviors passed on to create an evolutionary advantage to surviving impeding danger.

Boiled down, a superstition is the belief that one event caused another event, without any evidence of the link. “All animals will display behaviors that imply a causal relationship that isn’t there,” says Kevin Foster, evolutionary biologist at Harvard University. Foster uses a pigeon as an example: The pigeon will take flight if it hears a hand clap, the same way it would react if it heard a gun shot.

The importance of adding action to your plans

Dr. J.B. Gambrel tells an amusing story from General Stonewall Jackson’s famous valley campaign. Jackson’s army found itself on one side of a river when it needed to be on the other side. 

	Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. — James 1:23-24

After telling his engineers to plan and build a bridge so the army could cross, he called his wagon master in to tell him that it was urgent the wagon train cross the river as soon as possible. The wagon master started gathering all the logs, rocks, and fence rails he could find and built a bridge. Long before daylight, General Jackson was told by his wagon master all the wagons and artillery had crossed the river.

General Jackson asked, “Where are the engineers, and what are they doing?” The wagon master replied, “They’re in their tent drawing up plans for a bridge.”

Where you can find real healing

A drunken husband snuck up the stairs quietly one evening as his wife was sleeping. He looked in the bathroom mirror and bandaged the bumps and bruises he’d received in a fight earlier that night. He doctored himself up, then proceeded to climb into bed, smiling at the thought that he’d pulled one over on his wife.

	For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. — Psalm 103:11-12

When morning came, he opened his eyes and there stood his wife. “You were drunk last night weren’t you!”

“No, honey. I wasn’t.”

“Well, if you weren’t, then who put all the Band-Aids on the bathroom mirror?”

Many people today are much like that husband. They look into the mirror of their lives, see their scars, and do the best they can to bandage themselves up, replacing “bad behavior” with “good behavior.” But the reality is when they do that, they’re simply putting bandages on a mirror and doing nothing to really heal the sin in their lives.

You Make Me Laugh : Kiss The Mirror Good-Bye

According to a radio report, a middle school in Oregon was faced with an unique problem: 

A number of girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. 

Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the custodian. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every day. 

To demonstrate how difficult it was to clean the mirrors, she asked the custodian to clean one of the mirrors. 

He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it into the toilet and then cleaned the mirror. 

Since then there have been no lip prints on the mirror. 
*Thanks to Pastor Tim for this joke!*
cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh 


http://www.crosswalkmail.com/ViewMessage.do?a=view&m=oqmlqmtkz&r=ofqwztwwrqwm&s=pjfcqdhlcfchvlsytkrwrhdvjttvfmhrqqs