DayBreaks for the Week of 5/08/23: Seeing Through the Darkness

My eyesight isn’t nearly as good as it once was.  I notice it especially at night.  I’m told that it has to do with astigmatism – and at night, since it’s dark, the pupil of the eye opens wider to admit more light, and as a result, the astigmatism (irregular surface of the eyeball) distorts the image more than when it’s brighter.  At least that’s what I’ve been told.  I think it’s easier to just say “I don’t see as well at night as I once did!”  At least we have the advantage of contacts or glasses or even surgery today to correct vision problems – luxuries the disciples didn’t have.

John 21:4-5 tells us about one such problem they had with vision: At dawn the disciples saw Jesus standing on the beach, but they couldn’t see who he was. He called out, “Friends, have you caught any fish?”  “No,” they replied.”

To be fair, we don’t know if they couldn’t see and recognize him because of bad eyesight, or because it was still too dark to make out who he was, or just because he was too far away from them to decipher his features.  But the point is that they couldn’t recognize Jesus that day.  What is so special about that, you may ask?  Just this: even though they’d been with him for some time but couldn’t recognize him, Jesus could recognize them.  And I don’t believe that it was just because he had better eyesight.

Psalm 139 says that “darkness is as light to him”, implying that God can see no matter what the circumstances.  Consider for a moment how it would be if He couldn’t see us?  If we were too far away from Him to take notice of our plight, to witness our desperation?  Thankfully, that is not the case.  No matter how “hidden” we have become because of our sin, God can see through it.  No matter how hard we try to hide our sadness or our pain, and even though others may not be able to see them, God can – and does.

And notice how Jesus addressed his poor-sighted friends when he sees them: “Friends…” If you can’t see, a friend calling your name is comforting!

Wherever you are, whatever has happened to you, Jesus sees you, and he calls you “Friend”!

PRAYER: I am grateful, Lord, that you see me and call me your friend!!!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2023 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 11/13/22 – The Illusion That Comes from Distance

Have you ever driven across the country?  I’ve done it many times!  It is always an interesting experience.  You never know what or who you will encounter along the way, but you know that you’ll see lots of different scenery, much of it very beautiful.

Just this past week I was at a seminar with John Walker from Blessing Ranch in Colorado, a retreat and refreshment center for church leaders.  H shared an interesting story with us that speaks a lot about our human perceptions.  From where Dr. Walker lives, it is 31 miles to a particular mountain range.  From his ranch, he can see two mountain peaks that look like identical twins, the proverbial, “twin peaks”.  The tree line stops at the same elevation, and the snow level and coloring look identical.  They are almost identical in height.  But as Dr. Walker noted, as you get closer to the peaks, the differences begin to become apparent.  The coloring isn’t the same after all, the irregularities of each become apparent, and the vegetation patterns are different.  What looked so much alike from a distance, no longer is apparent – in fact, what becomes obvious is that there is not much similarity at all between the two peaks.

What does this have to do with Christianity?  Simply this: it is easy, from a distance, to think that we’re quite Christ-like.  But the truth is that the closer we get to Him, the more obvious our differences from Christ become.  The closer we get to Christ, the more dissimilarity appears.  The farther away we are, the easier it is to assume the illusion that we are similar.

Perhaps you have become pretty satisfied with your Christian life and the Christ-likeness that we are to wear.  But the closer we draw to God’s Presence, the more we see how far we have to go to have much resemblance to Him at all.  It’s a humbling experience, but it’s also instructive.  We simply aren’t going to ever get very close to his likeness in this life, but that’s not the end of the story.  We have His promise that when He returns for us, we shall be like him: 1 John 3:2 (NIV)  – Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

We are encouraged to draw near to Him in full confidence (Heb. 10:22).  As we do, we’ll see where we need to be changed and God will commence the great transformation.   

PRAYER: Lord, let us draw near to You so that we may see ourselves with a sharper vision that shows us how far we still have to go.  And then, Father, let your Spirit of encouragement and comfort fall on us to reassure us of not just Your love, but Your goodness and promise to make us like You! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2022 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 8/22/22 – Not My Shame

From the DayBreaks archive: I took my wife out for lunch yesterday and as we were sitting there at Boudin bakery (we love their sourdough bread bowls), I was watching people come in and out.  People come in such a huge variety of shapes, sizes, and colors.  And as I watched them, I was struck (for about the millionth time in my life) by the fact that they all carry around their own consciousness all day long and no one else can see it.  They carry concerns and joys, pains and relief, despair and hope, love and hate – to name just a few emotions and thoughts. 

Not one of us can see inside their heads or hearts to know what is going on there.  And, if they hide what is there, we cannot tell.  There may be some who have studied human behavior and could make an educated guess based on little tell-tale signs, but for the most part, we’re clueless about what is going on with others.

Maybe we need close friends with whom we can be vulnerable…yet safe.  Someone that we can share what’s happening between our ears and the beats of our hearts.  We need fellow humans who can help us navigate the rapids and falls of life’s river that flows inexorably onward toward a common end. 

More than that, though, we need One who knows ALL about us.  One who will judge us by our hearts and not our shortcomings – just as He did with David long ago. 

There is a song by Fernando Ortega (possibly my favorite Christian musician) called Shame that has these words in it (excerpted):

Though I am weak
Sometimes weary
In times of trial
I hide my face
In the balance
Judge me wholly
Please don’t judge me
By my shame

I have tried to
Live life humbly
Not a coward
Not in vain
When my weakness
Overcomes me
Remember me
Not my shame
Not my shame

I am weak
Sometimes weary
Sometimes small
I hide away
When my hours
Are all accounted
Please don’t bind me
To my shame.

What a blessing it is to know that Christ has borne our shame, that He knows our innermost hearts, hears the unspoken words and thoughts that zing around inside our craniums…and loves us the same!

PRAYER: Lord, we can consume ourselves with our thoughts of failure, guilt and shame!  Remind us when we do that You have lifted that off us past, present and future because you are our closest friend! In Your name, Amen.

Copyright 2022 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for 2/22/22 – Ghost Soldiers

I have recently completed one of the most compelling and remarkable books that I’ve ever read.  The title of the book is Ghost Soldiers, written by Hampton Sides.  The book tells the true story of an incredible rescue mission that was launched in the Philippines during WW2.  You may have heard about the Bataan death march that took place during World War Two.  This was a brutal forced march of American, Philippine and other prisoners of war by the Imperial Japanese army.  Hundreds died during this forced march, and those who survived were brutalized, beaten, diseased, starved, tortured and forced to live under the most incredibly demeaning circumstances in prisoner of war camps.  This amazing story (I would highly recommend it, but it isn’t for the squeamish) was one I’d never heard before, but one which deserves to be told repeatedly – and never forgotten. 

This story highlights the most noble side of human nature – and the most degrading.  It is hard to believe that humans could rise to such heights of self-sacrifice, honor and integrity – in many cases giving up their lives for fellow-prisoners or for people they’d never met before.  I am in total awe of the prisoners and rescuers.  At the same time, it also reveals the depths to which human nature can sink when deprived of any knowledge of God.

Sadly, I think that far too often the church reflects both sides of humanity, too.  Some of the most noble and honorable acts in human history have taken place in the church because of the love of one Christian to another.   Sadly, some of the most inhumane acts have been perpetrated in the church and by the church – supposedly in the name of God.  

Matthew 7:3-5 – Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.  

I know that we are also told to speak the truth in love, and also that we are to restore those taken in by sin: (Gal 6:1-2) – Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.  While Paul may be warning us about falling into the same sin as the one who is being restored, I don’t think that’s what he had in mind.  I think he was warning us about becoming too puffed up, too proud of our own righteousness (which we have none of – our only righteousness is HIS righteousness!) and as a result fall because of our prideful, haughty attitudes. 

Sometimes when a brother or sister has been around a long time and has a long track record of sinning, repenting, being restored, then repeating the pattern over again, we become jaded and skeptical of repentance.  We start to judge the heart of the person as if we can really see it, we determine if the person really feels sorry for their sin or not, and if they have really repented or not.  That’s dangerous ground.  Peter asked Jesus how many times he had to forgive someone who sinned against him.  Jesus’ response didn’t delve into reading the person’s heart, weighing the risk if the person hadn’t really repented, etc.  No, he put it this way in Matthew 18:21-35: Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.  Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.  The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.  His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’  But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.  Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.  This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.

Perhaps the most difficult thing here is the last 3 words: “…from your heart…”.  What does Jesus mean?  With ALL our heart.  Without reservations.  Without hesitation.  The same way God forgives us.  Can you imagine, even for a second, that God sits and debates about whether or not to grant you the forgiveness you ask for?  (And He already KNOWS if you’ll fall into that sin again!!!) 

Perhaps someday we’ll learn to extend even a portion of the grace to others that God has extended to us.

PRAYER: May we extend grace to others as much as we desperately want Your grace to be extended to us!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2022 by Galen C. Dalrymple. ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 2/21/22 – What is Mankind – Two Takes

REUTERS/NASA/European Southern Observatory/Space Telescope Science Institute/Hubble Space Telescope

From Philip Yancey’s blog, Feb. 27, 2022: “Where I live in the Rocky Mountains, you can see several thousand stars with the naked eye on a clear night. All of them belong to the Milky Way Galaxy, which contains more than 100 billion stars, including an average-sized one that our planet Earth orbits around—the Sun. Our galaxy has plenty of room: 26 trillion miles separate the Sun from the star nearest to it. And traveling at the speed of light, it would take you 25,000 years to reach the center of the Milky Way from our home planet, which lies out in the galaxy’s margins.

“Until a century ago, astronomers believed the universe consisted of our galaxy alone. Then, in 1925, Edwin Hubble proved that one apparent cloud of dust and gas in the night sky, named Andromeda, was actually a separate galaxy. Now there were two. When NASA launched a large telescope into space for a clearer view, they appropriately named it after Hubble.

“In 1995, a scientist proposed pointing the Hubble telescope at one dark spot, the size of a grain of sand, to see what lay beyond the darkness. For ten days, the telescope orbited Earth and took hundreds of long-exposure photos of that spot. The result, which has been called “the most important image ever taken,” defied all expectations. That tiny spot contained almost 3,000 galaxies!

“Scientists now believe that if you had unlimited vision, you could hold a sewing needle at arm’s length toward the night sky, and you would see 10,000 galaxies in the eye of the needle. Move it an inch to the left and you’d find 10,000 more. Same to the right, or no matter where else you moved it. There are approximately a trillion galaxies out there, each encompassing an average of 100 to 200 billion stars.

“Back when people assumed the universe comprised a few thousand stars, a psalmist marveled in prayer, ‘When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?’ (Psalm 8 NIV)

“The question has expanded exponentially since David’s day. I try to wrap my mind around what I call “the Hubble telescope view of God.” The One who spun off a trillion galaxies, could that God possibly care about what happens on our infinitesimal planet?

“Then I turn to the Book of Job, where poor, beleaguered Job turns the psalmist’s question on its head: What is mankind that you make so much of them, hat you give them so much attention,
that you examine them every morning and test them every moment? Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant? (Job 7, NIV)

“Job gets a direct answer from God, who speaks to him out of a whirlwind. Job had saved up a long list of questions, but it is God who interrogates, not Job. “Brace yourself like a man,” God begins. “I will question you, and you shall answer me.”

“Reading this, the longest speech by God in the Bible, I hear God saying, ‘Let’s compare résumés, you and me, and I’ll go first.’ Frederick Buechner sums up what follows: ‘God doesn’t explain. He explodes. He asks Job who he thinks he is anyway. He says that to try to explain the kind of things Job wants explained would be like trying to explain Einstein to a little-neck clam.’ God does not need Job’s or anyone else’s advice on how to run the universe.”

Galen’s thoughts: how interesting it is that David and Job were amazed by polar opposites – one amazed at our smallness in this vast universe, the other than God makes so much of us! Indeed, it is a wonder that he thinks of us at all in something so vast, but the amazing thing is that he thinks of us in astounding detail – knowing the number of hairs on our head, every word in our mouths before we speak, every second of our lives as they speed by. Yes, the universe is amazing…but next to God it is puny and small.

PRAYER: Father, we fall on our face before you, lost in wonder, admiration and awe at your greatness!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2022 by Galen C. Dalrymple. ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 2/18/22 – Reflections on the New Life

From the DayBreaks archive: (Galen is out of the office this week)

Saturated fat.  Unsaturated fat.  Mono-unsaturated fat.  Poly-unsaturated fat.  Total fat.  Cholesterol.  LDL cholesterol.  HDL cholesterol.  Triglicerides.  Low fat.  Fat free.   Yikes!  These are things that I never really had to pay too much attention to until recently.   Even though heart problems have run in our family for several generations, it appeared that it had “skipped” a generation with me because I’d never had problems and my blood chemistry gave no indication of any problems.  But alas, appearances can be deceiving!  So now, here I am, trying to figure out how to live a new life in several different ways, one of the most important being in how I eat and what I eat. 

I’ve never really been on a diet before.  I’m not overweight and have never been too much overweight.  In fact, I weigh the same now at 49 years of age as I did when I graduated from high school.  So, diets are foreign creatures to me.  But now I find myself reading every label before I eat something to figure out whether or not it will be good or bad for me to eat – or even just okay to eat. 

This is a new lifestyle for me, but I’ve found that it hasn’t been as hard of a change as I might have contemplated.  This surprised me quite a bit until I really thought about it.  Why?  Because after having discovered the extent of the heart problems I inherited, I now realize that what and how I eat could be a matter of life and death. 

As I contemplated why it has been relatively easy for me to adjust my eating habits, I began to think about what it means to begin a new life.  For some reason, while it’s been fairly easy for me to change the aspects of my physical life and eating habits, it is much harder to change the spiritual side of my life.  As I contemplated the reason that this might be the case, it came to me that the explanation was probably pretty simple:  it is easier to understand and believe that what I eat is a matter of life and death than to realize that sin is a matter of life and death, too.  Sin operates in the spiritual world, and while we can see the results and earthly consequences of sin, we can’t actually see the souls of the lost in the flames of hell and we can’t see the direct link between the day-by-day practice of sin in their lives (and ours) and their eternal destination.  But God is clear with us and pulls no punches: The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23) and 1 Peter 4:18 – And, ‘If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?’ 

When it comes to changing our spiritual life habits, it is hard and we give ourselves all kinds of excuses for our failures.  But the reality is, if we realize what is at stake and how serious it is, we will change.  While we don’t have the promise that the Spirit will help us change what we eat, we do have the promise that we have the Spirit to enable us to live the new life victoriously.  But the question remains: do we realize and truly believe that sin is a life and death matter? 

Romans 6:4 – We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

PRAYER:  Our old life was death…let us live in the newness of Your life!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2022 by Galen C. Dalrymple. ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 12/28/21 – Turning Thankless

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV) – Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Someone once wrote about a devoted Catholic named David Jimenez.  It seems that Jimenez, a 45-year-old from Newburgh, NY, was praying regularly to a large crucifix outside the Church of St. Patrick after becoming convinced it was responsible for eradicating his wife’s ovarian cancer. Jimenez requested, and got permission from the church authorities to dress up the structure as he believed its power deserved.  So far, so good. 

Then, while cleaning the crucifix in May 2010, the 600-lb. object came loose and fell on Jimenez’s leg, which subsequently had to be amputated.  Nearly overnight, the crucifix, in Jimenez’ mind at least, went from being an object of worship to grounds for a lawsuit that will go to trial in January 2013.  [WCBS-TV (New York), 10-26-2012] [Associated Press via Newsday, 11-7-2012] 

I confess that I am quick to judge upon hearing stories like this.  I wonder how someone could go so quickly from being thankful and worshipful to being vindictive and angry.  We have a tremendous capacity to move from thankfulness to ungracious hostility.  Israel did it as soon as they left the shackles and slave whips behind in Egypt.  I’ve done it more quickly than that.

We’ve just come through some wonderful and meaningful holidays.  Hopefully, you felt and expressed your appreciation and thanks to Almighty God.  But here’s the question: how have you been doing since then?  Has the joyful celebration of His goodness continued, or has it turned into bitterness as you face the celebration of the future and you see all the things that loom on the horizon?

I hope that as we move deeper and deeper into the coming of the new year, that our joy will turn into thanksgiving for what we DO have, and not into bitterness for our situation or for what we don’t have.

PRAYER: Let our hearts and spirits continually pour out songs of thanksgiving in all things, for You are good!!!!  In Your name, Amen.

Copyright 2021 by Galen C. Dalrymple. ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 12/24/21 – Comfort My People!

From the DayBreaks archive:

Isaiah 40:1-2: “Comfort my people” says our God. “Comfort them! Encourage the people of Jerusalem. Tell them they have suffered long enough and their sins are now forgiven. I have punished them in full for all their sins.”

I used to live where it snowed. One of the strongest and most stirring of my childhood memories is to walk alone in the dark in freshly fallen snow and hear the sound of the footsteps crunching the white wonder stuff under my feet. Then, sometimes, I’d stop and listen. You can’t hear the snowfall. The world was white and quiet – not a sound except my breathing.

In one sense, these words that God spoke were fulfilled with the return of some of the exiles from Babylon about 200 years after He spoke them. But not really and truly. They foresaw the coming of the baby in the manger and the life and death he would live.

I couldn’t help but wonder if the last words of God to Jesus before he shrank down to become a human embryo weren’t along these lines: “Comfort my people! Comfort them!” That’s what this day is all about – how God reached out to His people who were distressed and like sheep had gone astray. How His great heart must have been broken to see so much pain and misery in us! And as Jesus left the courts of heaven, God gave him this one final charge and message: “Comfort my people!”

Today you can choose to reject God’s comfort and to beat yourself senseless over your failures and faults. Goodness knows, we all have enough failings – we don’t have to look very hard or very long to find them, do we? Or you can accept His comfort.

Listen to the words of God to Jesus: “Comfort my people!” Did you hear that? Listen to His voice. It was first heard as the cry of a baby in a manger that echoed, not just within the walls of the stable, but throughout the universe and inside the heart of the Father. To some, it may have just sounded like another baby crying, but to those who really knew what was going on, they clearly heard the message from the lips of the God in the manger: “I love you! I am with you! Be comforted!”

Let Him comfort you tonight – then do your part to comfort those who need His comfort and as you do, you’ll become a little more like Him. 

PRAYER: May we find comfort in Your love and welcome this day!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2021 by Galen C. Dalrymple. ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 11/30/21 – The Smallest Lights of Advent

Continuing this from Ann Voskamp, 11/27/21:

“We’re on the cusp of the tradition of Advent — and this changes the conditions of everything: He is coming.

“Because in the midst of troubled, turbulent times, in the middle of all kind of uncertainty, at the end of a year of a whole lot of hurt, it’s like the whole world’s whispering: We’re waiting for You, Lord.

“Standing there before our wooden advent wreath, it only takes me a minute to simply light a candle.

“We make ready for Him, this Advent season and every season, by lighting whatever little lights the Lord has put in front of us, no light too small to be used by Him, action in waiting, pointing ahead, looking to Christ and for Christ,” writes Fleming Rutledge.

“Even our smallest lights will be signs in this world, lights to show the way, beachheads to hold against the Enemy until the day when the great Conqueror lands with Michael the archangel at the head of his troops, the day that shall dawn upon us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace (Luke 1:78–79).” ~Fleming Rutledge

“The light from my candle dances up the wall and I’m lit: “It’s impossible for all the darkness in the world to smother out the light of a single candle in the hand.”

“You can’t snuff out hope, you can’t smother out hope, you can’t stamp out hope — because He is Coming.

“Advent doesn’t deny the dark within us, Advent isn’t afraid of the darkness around us, Advent doesn’t rush through the dark ahead of us, Advent sits in the dark and waits for the Light of the only One who went to the tree of Calvary, to shatter the dark for all of us.”

They say that the human eye can see the light from a single candle from a distance of up to 30 miles given the right circumstances, and 2.6 million light years if you’re taking about the light from a distant star.

The world needs light. He came to bring that Light. You and I can reflect it wherever we go this Advent, or we can be bah-humbug and let the darkness hold sway. Sure, we’ll only and always be just tiny lights, but THE Light is coming! Let’s be part of it!

PRAYER: Light us up, Lord, so people can see you! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2021 by Galen C. Dalrymple. ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 11/23/21 – Sharing the Bone

Luke 6:38 – Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” 

2 Cor. 8:2-5 – Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.

Scripture is abundant with God’s promises to meet our needs. It is also abundant in its exhortations to us to be givers – just like our Father. It even tells us that if we are generous, we will receive generously. (That doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll get money in return – but we will be blessed!)

In the passage above from 2 Corinthians, a beautiful example is given to us by the Macedonian churches. These people in Macedonia were not rich. They weren’t even of average income, it would appear. Paul says that “Out of the most severe trial…their extreme poverty” these people GAVE. They didn’t just give what they could…they gave “even beyond their ability”.

How could they do that? How could parents give when their own children may have been hungry? The key is in verse 5: They gave themselves first to the Lord…. They had entrusted themselves, their livelihoods, their next meal and the next meal of their children perhaps, to the Lord. They had faith. They trusted God to be as good as His word.

Generosity. Giving charitably. In America we may consider it a sacrifice to give up an extra $100 while we take our big paychecks to the bank. And for some, that $100 is a sacrifice, no doubt. God knows and God sees whatever sacrifice His children make for one another – and for His kingdom. But we can also fool ourselves about our charity, too. I believe it was Jack London who put it something like this: “Charity isn’t giving a bone to the dog.  It is sharing the bone with the dog when you’re just as hungry as he is.” Do you get it? The Macedonians were as hungry, or perhaps even more hungry, than those they gave to. 

An incredible story, and incredible example. How is your giving? Join me in searching our hearts – knowing that God searches them knows the truth about each of us – and He also knows the name of every hungry, starving family across the world that will go to bed hungry tonight, and tomorrow, and the day after that.  God asks us to give ourselves first to Him, and then to get busy following the example of the Macedonians.

PRAYER: When we look into our pantries, closets, homes and bank accounts, help us to see how rich we are…and to share the “bone”! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2021 by Galen C. Dalrymple. ><}}}”>