A few mornings back I was jogging through my neighborhood, and even I could not miss the significance of that day. It was the first day of school.

It was no surprise to me, then, to see a pretty little girl step out of her house wearing new clothes and a backpack. “Have a great first day of school,” I greeted as I jogged past.

She stopped and looked at me as if I’d pulled a rabbit out of a hat. “How did you know?!”

She was stunned. Somehow I had miraculously discerned why she was up so early and where she was going. And she was impressed.

“Oh, I just know those kind of things,” I shouted back to her. (No need to burst her bubble.)

You, on the other hand, are not so easily impressed. You understand the difference between a child and a grownup. Take the difference between the girl and me, amplify it a million times over, and we begin to see the contrast between us and our Father.

We ask for grace, only to find forgiveness already offered. (How did you know I would sin?)

We ask for food, only to find provision already made. (How did you know I would be hungry?)

We ask for guidance, only to find answers in God’s ancient story. (How did you know what I would ask?)

God dwells in a different realm. “The foolishness of God is higher than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor. 1:25). He occupies another dimension. “My thoughts are not like your thoughts. Your ways are not like my ways. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8–9).

From The Great House of God
© (W Publishing Group, 1997) Max Lucado
Used by permission

Questions: What do you need God’s guidance in today? Will you pray to Him now to guide you?

Are you hiding behind secrets?  Talk to us.

I didn’t know.

I didn’t realize that would happen.

Words of protest escape from our lips in our defense. Surely we can’t be held responsible for actions made in ignorance.  Yet, would an honest examination of your heart reveal you were unaware of the truth or merely that you pretended not to understand so that you wouldn’t be held responsible?

That is the trouble with truth. Once we know truth, we must make a decision. Either we will respond or refuse to respond, but we can no longer pretend to not understand simply because we don’t want to change.

Israel didn’t want to be held accountable for their sins. They wanted to claim ignorance, but Amos speaks as a witness against them.

“Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?
Does a lion roar in the thicket when he has no prey?
Does he growl in his den when he has caught nothing?
Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground where no snare has been set?
Does a trap spring up from the earth when there is nothing to catch?
When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble?
When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?”(Amos 3:3-6)

Through Amos, God was saying, “these things are obvious, everyone knows them, anyone can understand them.”  They had God’s laws but they did not live by them. They didn’t want Amos prophesying because they didn’t want to hear the truth or be held accountable to it.

Have we also closed our ears to the truth? It is easier to pretend we don’t know what’s expected of us than to have to confess our sins and surrender our will to God, but God knows what is in our hearts.

Holy God, You have revealed Your truth to me. Help me to allow it to penetrate my heart and change me. I don’t want to pretend any longer that I don’t know what is right.  Amen.

Questions: Why do we fake ignorance? What truths have you been pretending you don’t understand?

A few mornings back I was jogging through my neighborhood, and even I could not miss the significance of that day. It was the first day of school.

It was no surprise to me, then, to see a pretty little girl step out of her house wearing new clothes and a backpack. “Have a great first day of school,” I greeted as I jogged past.

She stopped and looked at me as if I’d pulled a rabbit out of a hat. “How did you know?!”

She was stunned. Somehow I had miraculously discerned why she was up so early and where she was going. And she was impressed.

“Oh, I just know those kind of things,” I shouted back to her. (No need to burst her bubble.)

You, on the other hand, are not so easily impressed. You understand the difference between a child and a grownup. Take the difference between the girl and me, amplify it a million times over, and we begin to see the contrast between us and our Father.

We ask for grace, only to find forgiveness already offered. (How did you know I would sin?)

We ask for food, only to find provision already made. (How did you know I would be hungry?)

We ask for guidance, only to find answers in God’s ancient story. (How did you know what I would ask?)

God dwells in a different realm. “The foolishness of God is higher than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25). He occupies another dimension. “My thoughts are not like your thoughts. Your ways are not like my ways. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

From The Great House of God
© (W Publishing Group, 1997) Max Lucado
Used by permission

Questions: What do you need God’s guidance in today? Will you pray to Him now to guide you?

About the Author: Max Lucado

Are you searching for a source of peace? Take this study.

Habakkuk spoke these words when he was humbled by God’s righteousness and holiness. The power of his utterance works its way into my heart. When was the last time I stood in awe of God’s deeds? When have I begged Him to renew them in our time, so that all people would know the truth? I forget sometimes that Christmas is an opportunity to stand in awe of God’s deeds.

Even though our nation has moved far from God, Christmas is an annual reminder, a renewing, of God’s great mercy to us. Almighty God took on human flesh to save humanity. Jesus was born for this purpose: to reveal God to mankind and to die. Because He lived a sinless life, His death was the atoning sacrifice necessary to reconcile us to God. Because of His resurrection we have the power to live a new life.

Allow God to renew His deeds in our day by taking these intentional steps:

•    Read the Christmas story from Matthew and Luke, meditating on the marvel of God becoming man.
•    Sing all the verses of Christmas carols. So many tell the story of God’s amazing deeds.
•    Go to church and hear the Good News of our salvation all over again.
•    Pray that God would renew His deeds in our time.
•    Proclaim to a lost world that the Savior has come.

Heavenly Father, You alone are righteous and holy. I am humbled by Your marvelous works. Thank you for sending Jesus. I ask that You would renew Your deeds in our time. Help me to proclaim Your Good News by explaining to those around me what Christmas is all about.  Amen.

Questions: What helps you to stand in awe of God’s deeds? Why is it important to pray before we proclaim?

About the Author Suzanne Benner

“But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy” 1 Peter 1:15-16

Many are unfamiliar with the fact that our word “holiday” comes from an old English word whose original meaning was Holy Day. Though our secular society seeks to drain all that is holy from Christmas leaving little more than tinsel and toys, eggnog and elves, we can bring back a sense of sacredness to the holiday.

As believers, we understand that while God alone is truly holy – pure and sinless – He calls us to holy living.  We approach God with reverence and awe because of His holiness. The Scriptures, the Sabbath, and days of remembrance and rejoicing are sacred because God ordained them.

We can bring a sense of sacredness to our celebration of Christmas, simply by seeking to be holy ourselves.

The call to holiness is found throughout the Bible:

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12).

“May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones” (1 Thessalonians 3:13).

“But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16).

The concept of holiness also encompasses the idea of being set apart for God or consecrated to Him.  How do we embark on this journey of holiness?

Treat His name, His word, and the building where believers gather with the reverence they deserve. Begin each day by taking time to speak with God and offering yourself to Him, to be used for His purposes. Mediate on God’s word. Ask God for His cleansing power in your life.  Be holy these holidays and let the world be in awe of what God has done in your life.

God, You are holy. Make me like You.  Amen.

Questions: How can we strive for holiness in the midst of all our imperfections? What do you do to seek God and His holiness?

About the Author: Suzanne Benner

Is anger defining your relationships? Here is an Online study.

Join us for our Daily Devotional Chat today in our Women’s Chatroom at 10:30 am EST.

“But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16).

Many are unfamiliar with the fact that our word “holiday” comes from an old English word whose original meaning was Holy Day. Though our secular society seeks to drain all that is holy from Christmas leaving little more than tinsel and toys, eggnog and elves, we can bring back a sense of sacredness to the holiday.

As believers, we understand that while God alone is truly holy – pure and sinless – He calls us to holy living.  We approach God with reverence and awe because of His holiness. The Scriptures, the Sabbath, and days of remembrance and rejoicing are sacred because God ordained them.

We can bring a sense of sacredness to our celebration of Christmas, simply by seeking to be holy ourselves.

The call to holiness is found throughout the Bible:

•    “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12).

•    “May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones” (1 Thessalonians 3:13).

•    “But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16).

The concept of holiness also encompasses the idea of being set apart for God or consecrated to Him.  How do we embark on this journey of holiness?

Treat His name, His word, and the building where believers gather with the reverence they deserve. Begin each day by taking time to speak with God and offering yourself to Him, to be used for His purposes. Mediate on God’s word. Ask God for His cleansing power in your life.  Be holy these holidays and let the world be in awe of what God has done in your life.

God, You are holy. Make me like You.  Amen.

Questions: How can we strive for holiness in the midst of all our imperfections? What do you do to seek God and His holiness?

About the Author Suzanne Benner

Are you hiding behind secrets?  Talk to us.

Join us for our Daily Devotional Chat today in our Women’s Chatroom at 10:30 am EDT.

I didn’t know.

I didn’t realize that would happen.

Words of protest escape from our lips in our defense. Surely we can’t be held responsible for actions made in ignorance.  Yet, would an honest examination of your heart reveal you were unaware of the truth or merely that you pretended not to understand so that you wouldn’t be held responsible?

That is the trouble with truth. Once we know truth, we must make a decision. Either we will respond or refuse to respond, but we can no longer pretend to not understand simply because we don’t want to change.

Israel didn’t want to be held accountable for their sins. They wanted to claim ignorance, but Amos speaks as a witness against them.

“Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?
Does a lion roar in the thicket when he has no prey?
Does he growl in his den when he has caught nothing?
Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground where no snare has been set?
Does a trap spring up from the earth when there is nothing to catch?
When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble?
When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?”(Amos 3:3-6)

Through Amos, God was saying, “these things are obvious, everyone knows them, anyone can understand them.”  They had God’s laws but they did not live by them. They didn’t want Amos prophesying because they didn’t want to hear the truth or be held accountable to it.

Have we also closed our ears to the truth? It is easier to pretend we don’t know what’s expected of us than to have to confess our sins and surrender our will to God, but God knows what is in our hearts.

Holy God, You have revealed Your truth to me. Help me to allow it to penetrate my heart and change me. I don’t want to pretend any longer that I don’t know what is right.  Amen.

Questions: Why do we fake ignorance? What truths have you been pretending you don’t understand?

About the Author Suzanne Benner

It is with serious intent that I intrude upon our devotional moments in these missives with things such as coffee, the Da Vinci Code, jogging, iPods, Bonnie Raitt, and Dodger dogs. There is a method to this madness – to splash a little profane around the sacred so that the opposite might happen when we leave this devotional reflection to the end that the sacred might invade our profane existence and open our eyes to God in the world.

It’s all about connections. The more we learn to connect God’s truth to the physical world and the culture that surrounds us, the more we will be able to live a life of worship. Worship does not consist in leaving the world to see God, but in learning to see God at all times in the world.

The separation of the sacred and the profane is hard to shake. It is deeply engrained in us, the result of a long history going back at least to the early Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, who taught that the good and the sublime exist only in the non-physical realm. The body was tainted; the spirit was pure. The Gnostics came along and took it even farther. They believed the physical does not even exist. It is an illusion. The only truth is what you know in your mind.

Then along came Jesus. He busted the whole paradigm because he was the essence of the spiritual – God himself, to be exact – in human flesh and bone. He ate and drank and got dirty walking the road of life, and made it all sacred in the process. He told stories about vines and branches and farmers and merchants and kings and widows. He changed water into wine, sickness into health, death into life. He healed people’s bodies and forgave their sins at the same time. He paid his taxes, helped his disciples fish, and cooperated with Roman rule. And even after his resurrection, he made breakfast for his little band of followers and ate with them.

To Jesus, life was a mixed bag of the holy and the common, but mostly the common made holy by his touch. In Jesus, the sacred and the profane meet, resulting in the realization that the profane can be redeemed. Our earthly existence can be given spiritual value. The physical world is not disconnected from the spiritual one, nor is it at odds with it, but the physical world can embody all that is spiritual. The Word became flesh, and since then nothing has ever been the same. Now work, play, recreation, entertainment, and even commerce can contain God’s glory. Indeed, the entire physical world is merely a front for the spiritual realities it illustrates.

So to go into the world, leaving God back in your devotions somewhere would be a big mistake, when in reality, by focusing on him, you are just getting warmed up to discovering him everywhere else.

Question: What are some of the ways that we compartmentalize our lives into “sacred” and “profane”? How can we seek to redeem the so-called “profane” parts for God?

About this Author: John Fischer

“May the Lord bless you and protect you.  May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace.”  (Numbers 6:24-26 NLT).

We are truly blessed in the name of Jesus Christ.  We have everything we need to be refreshed!  In Him we are …

• made righteous;

• set apart and made holy for His purposes;

• given peace, His presence, His provision.

Under His banner we always win and can depend on His safety and guidance. Every need is ALWAYS met in Him and we have total victory.
We are blessed in this life to receive salvation and His precious promises; to have been chosen to be His own possession.  He is God, the faithful One to keep His covenant and loving-kindness to a thousand generations of those who love and obey His commands.

We are holy to the Lord our God.

These blessings belong to us in His Name … Abilities, Abundance, Angels,  Assurance, Authority, Clear Direction, A Controlled Tongue, Courage, Creativity, Deliverance, Eyes to See, Faith, Favor, Fear of the Lord, A Free Spirit, Good Health, Hands that Bless, Happiness, Holiness, Holy Spirit, Hope, Humility, Joy, Listening Ears, Longevity, Love, Mercy, the Mind of Christ, Ministry, Miracles, Obedience, Peace, Pleasant Words, Personality, Praise, Promotion, Prosperity,  Protection, Provision, Safety, Spiritual Power, Success, Trust, Wisdom.

Are you experiencing this provision and blessing?

Times of refreshing come from the presence LORD!

Psalm 68:34-35 “Tell everyone about God’s power.  His majesty shines down on Israel; His strength is mighty in the heavens.  God is awesome in His sanctuary.  The God of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Praise be to God!”

Questions: Are you experiencing God’s peace and clear direction in your life? How can one realize the gifts that God has in store for us?

About the Author Karen Braun

Daily audio podcast: A second daily devotional, Directions for the Road Ahead, today on the Men’s Devotional Blog

**Come chat with us:  http://thelife.com/interactive/chat.html

“So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace” (2 Timothy 1:8, 9).

Almighty God, Creator of the universe, sent Jesus to save us from our sins because we were incapable of saving ourselves. He did this, not because we were smart or pretty or friendly or funny but because He loved us.

It wasn’t because we had accomplished great things or sacrificed much for Him or were really sincere, but because of His grace.

Your life has purpose. You have been included in God’s great plan.

You have received a calling. It is holiness.

What does it mean to be called to a holy life?

It means refusing to let foul language be part of your vocabulary; being honest and showing integrity in every situation regardless of cost financially; being pure in what you read, what you watch and your behavior regardless of how lonely you are; basing decisions on whether it is honoring to God rather than if it will get you what you want.

Set apart. Pure. Dedicated to God.

Holiness is not an easy life; rather it is a grateful response to what God has done for us. It is made possible through grace. By the power of God we can be unashamed to testify about the Lord and unafraid to suffer for the gospel.

~God, thank you for calling me to a holy life. Let Your power and Your grace be at work in my life so that holiness will be my grateful response to Your salvation.

Questions: What does being called to a holy life mean to you? How does knowing that we were called to be holy because of God’s purpose and grace affect your attitude toward holy living?

About the Author:  http://talk.thelife.com/experience/devotionalforwomen/authors/suzanne-benner/