Today's Soul Food — April 7 & 8
 

April 7

"Remember this, fix it in mind..." Psalm 44:1.

Memory is such a great blessing! To forget the goodness of the past is ingratitude. We owe recognition and appreciation to the pioneers who invented the many conveniences that make our lives so much easier. But we owe thanks to our spiritual pioneers even more. Every person who broke ground by understanding a larger view and pursuing it; the translators who so painstakingly copied by hand the precious Word into the common language; every person who died for a cause that went beyond him or herself; the spiritual poets who wrote for the ages: we owe them all our awareness, an engram for the dead ones and a telegram for the living ones who touch our lives in ways we will never fully understand on this earth.

Good memories don't stick as well as bad memories but, just as we can love with the will, so we can learn to exclude the sores of heart and mind with prayer to a forgiving Father and a willing heart and mind. And we hope and pray, literally, that we won't be a bad memory for others when it is time for us to become nothing but a recollection.

Thomas Fuller, who lived in the 17th century, left very wise advice for us: "Memory, like a purse, if it be overfull that it cannot shut, all will drop out of it; take heed of a gluttonous curiosity to feed on many things, lest the greediness of the appetite of thy memory spoil the digestion thereof." In this age of inquiring minds that soak up the innumerable and interminable offerings and scourings of the rich and famous, Mr. Fuller reminds us that the memory cannot run on overload. Going back further than Mr. Fuller, we have the sane advice of Paul: "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business..." 1 Thessalonians 4:11.

Pat Nordman ©

April 8

"`Do you want us to go and pull them up?' `No,' he answered, `because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.'" Matthew 13:28-30.

The lesson is explicit for us: we cannot possibly know who are the wheat and who are the tares. If ever there was a tare that tore mankind, it was Judas. Yet Jesus washed his feet and showed him every courtesy in a supreme and final effort to save Judas from himself. We are not weedless ourselves, so we cannot sift through or extract from another's garden or field.

"Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!" John 6:70. The tare among the wheat...! What possible reason could Jesus have to choose His very betrayer as one of His inner circle? Was Jesus using Judas to teach us all one of His great lessons? Judas left all to become a follower, only to finally become the greatest blot on humanity. Yet Jesus even washed his feet! Surely Judas was given every opportunity to repent. One wonders how Judas' heart could have been so dark and hard as to not melt at Jesus' continued love and concern for him. We ask, why did Jesus choose such a tare as Judas? Why did He choose us?

Human weeders cannot be trusted to discern between good and evil. Good and bad are intermingled, just as it rains on the just and the unjust. We cannot destroy the evil of ourselves (we have a difficult enough time destroying the evil in ourselves!) without ripping up some good with it. We are arrogant if we think we can gather up what we feel is wrong with the world and thereby set the world right. If everyone felt they could do that, then none of us would be left, for we are all tares to someone else. We would be assigning each other to our particular hells. God will take care of the tares on the day of harvest; until then, we don't need to worry about wheat and tares.

Pat Nordman ©

 

Today's Bible Question ?

Who was the runaway slave that went back to his master?

Previous question and Answer: When Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Melita he stayed with the chief man of the island. What was the name of this man? Answer: Publius Acts 28:1,7 And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita. ... In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously.(KJV)

T H I N K A B O U T I T

Fear of Death   A boy and his father were driving down a country road on a beautiful spring afternoon, when a bumblebee flew in the car window. The little boy, who was allergic to bee stings, was petrified. The father quickly reached out, grabbed the bee, squeezed it in his hand, and then released it. The boy grew frantic as it buzzed by him. Once again the father reached out his hand, but this time he pointed to his palm. There stuck in his skin was the stinger of the bee. "Do you see this?" he asked. "You don't need to be afraid anymore. I've taken the sting for you." We do not need to fear death anymore. Christ has died and risen again. He has taken the sting from death.  -- Adrian Dieleman, Waupun, Wisconsin. Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 1.  "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:11

 

Today's  Devotion

Enabled By His Attitude   "...but made Himself nothing" (Phil 2:7)

Do we think at the click of a finger we, as Christ, may make ourselves nothing, abase ourselves, humble ourselves? Can anyone in society at any given time humble himself? Like a choice that is always at hand - that we possess this authority over our own spirits? If so, then let's do it. Now. Let's cut through the favor we surround ourselves with of others' well-speaking or behavior we esteem as above board. Now. If we are honest, we realize that in Christ is "the attitude" (vs 5)..."who being in very nature God...made Himself nothing." Who of us ever really chooses to make this turn of Christ's downward? Who has the strength to, or who has the authority to? "The attitude" is in Christ Jesus. If humility is to be reached, it will be entered through the One who preceded us on that route perfectly. Who ever you are, endeavor to make yourself nothing. It will truly affirm the excellence of the Man who made the precedence, the "author of our faith" (Heb 5:9). We may ,therefore, walk within. "Which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to SEE or to HEAR?" (Jer 23:18) Let us at least stand to see or to hear whether a word comes or not. "Who has listened and heard His Word?" (Jer 23:18). Who has heard when the word comes? . © Cathy Vinson

If we are honest, we realize that in Christ is "the attitude"

More Whispers from the Wilderness

All the Rest April 7 & 8

Today in History April 7 Today in History April 8