DayBreaks for the Week of 5/13/24 – I Am the One Jesus Loves

The late author and speaker Brennan Manning came up with a slogan. The slogan is, “I am the one Jesus loves.” It sounds a little arrogant, doesn’t it? But he is quoting Scripture. Jesus’ closest friend on earth, the disciple named John, is identified in the Gospels as “the one Jesus loved.” Manning said, “If John were to be asked, ‘What is your primary identity in life?’ he would not reply, ‘I am a disciple, an apostle, an evangelist, an author of one of the four Gospels,’ but rather, ‘I am the one Jesus loves.'”

What would it mean, I ask myself, if I too came to the place where I saw my primary identity in life as “the one Jesus loves”? How differently would I view myself at the end of the day?

Sociologists have a theory of the looking-glass self: you become what the most important person in your life (wife, father, boss, etc.) thinks you are. How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible’s astounding words about God’s love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?

Brennan Manning tells the story of an Irish priest who, on a walking tour of a rural parish, sees an old peasant kneeling by the side of the road, praying. Impressed, the priest says to the man, “You must be very close to God.” The peasant looks up from his prayers, thinks a moment, and then smiles, “Yes, he’s very fond of me.”

Maybe you need to start thinking that way of yourself rather than listening to the father of lies.  If so, there’s no better day to start than today.

PRAYER: It seems impossible, Lord, but I am the one Jesus loves! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2024 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 5/06/24 – Love, Hate, and Those Without Faces

From the DayBreaks archive, 2015:

The humorist Will Rogers told us that he never met a man he didn’t like. In the musical that celebrated Rogers’ life, there is a song by that title and in that song, Rogers admits that one man “put him to the test,” but never pushed him finally to the point where his ability to like evaporated. I don’t know what your response is to Rogers’ disclosure, but I am led to think he was — to utilize an overworked phrase — “in denial.” Come now, can any of us stand and say that we have, without exception, always liked every single person with whom we have ever come into contact? I appreciated the honesty of a well-seasoned cleric who confessed: “There are some people to whom I couldn’t warm even if I were cremated with them!” 

Let’s get this on the table before we go a step further. Christian men and women are not called to like everyone. The old camp song is titled “They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love,” and not, “They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Likes and Dislikes.” If there are folks to whom you do not warm, know please that you are not in violation of any Christian norm.

We are not called to like, but we are called — and this is the burden of our text — to love: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you,” says Jesus. 

On Tuesday, I sat across the table from a co-worker whose niece was killed in the terrorist attack on the university in Kenya that was in the news recently.  It took them several days to identify all the bodies – and for a while, they were in suspense about what had happened to her as she was “missing.”  What you probably didn’t read in the news stories was that the attackers purposely shot people in the face so they would be unrecognizable, but her body was finally identified by fingerprints.  I asked him how he can not hate the people who did this horrible deed.  His response humbled me: “What good would it do for me to hate them?  Would that bring her back?  The only answer to the problem is to love them.”

Love, as it is defined by our faith, is both a revered panacea and an underemployed practice. To say that the answer to the world’s problems is for people to love each other more is both right and banal at the same time. It sounds wonderful and grand. Who would argue with the contention? But when you are eyeball to eyeball with another person — especially one who is cantankerous, obnoxious, difficult, who may be holding a gun (literally) to your head, who is unlovely, and seemingly unlovable — it is anything but an easy task. There will be more than a few times when we say with Jeremiah 9:2 – O that I had in the desert a traveler’s lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! 

Frederick Buechner has observed: “In the Christian sense, love is not primarily an emotion, but an act of will.”  What does that say to you about your understanding of love?

PRAYER: Lord, you have taught me today about what love means and how little hate accomplishes through the words of my friend.  Let me learn to love as you do and as you want me to! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2024 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 04/01/24 – The Not So Helpless Jesus

From the DayBreaks archive: When thinking of the events of Holy Week, my heart runs to Gethsemane for many reasons.  To me, it was in that garden that eternity and human destiny was settled as it was there that Jesus gave the final “go-ahead” to the plan of the Father, and once the decision was made, there would be no turning back. One of the things that amazes me is the restraint of Jesus.  Peter, of course, acted out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear…but there was only one sword among Jesus and his disciples.  They were grossly outnumbered and certainly out-weaponed.  As a human, if I had been Jesus, I would have been very tempted to resist – to fight back.  But we are told that Jesus was calm and led silently as a lamb to the slaughter.  Some might think that he knew resistance would be foolish – that in the face of such numbers who came to arrest him, he was helpless. Let me challenge that assumption.  We are told in Scripture that Jesus could have summoned twelve legions of angels to come to his defense.  A Roman legion consisted of 6000 soldiers.  That means that Jesus could have summoned 72,000 angels (or more!) to come to his rescue!  Now the numbers would have been decidedly in Jesus’ favor!  But wait – there’s more to this.  2 Kings 19:35 – And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. Math is not my strong suit, but let me walk you through this.  Jesus could have called 72,000 angels.  The question here isn’t “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin”, but “How many humans can one angel slay in one night?”  We know that “the” (singular) angel of the Lord killed 185,000 humans in one night.  The math works out like this: the 12 legions at Jesus’ call could have destroyed 13,320,000,000 people in one night.  That’s right, 13.3 billion of us.  That many people have not lived on earth since the beginning of human history.  J Jesus was not helpless in the Garden.  Far from it!  Jesus, during Holy Week, was not at the mercy of the religious leaders or Rome.  We were at His mercy.  Had He chosen to bypass the agonies of the cross and return to glory, all He had to do was speak one command: “Come!”  What does this mean to me?  It speaks to me of His love that DROVE Him through the pain of the crucifixion and the cross.  It drives me to my knees in humility and gratitude and fills me with wonder at the restraint of Christ. PRAYER: Your reticence to use your power for your own benefit amazes me, Lord!  That you chose to go through all that you did rather than save your own life leaves me breathless – and eternally grateful!  In Jesus’ name, Amen. Copyright 2024 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for 3/29/24 – More Beautiful Than I Ever Imagined

From Things Unseen, by Mark Buchanan: “William M. Dyke became blind when he was ten.  When he was in his early twenties and attending graduate school in England, he met the daughter of a British admiral, and they fell in love and decided to marry.  But before he agreed to give his daughter’s hand in marriage, the admiral insisted that William submit to what was at that time a risky surgery to restore his sight.  William agreed, but he also had a condition: he did not want the gauze removed from his eyes until the moment he met his bride at the altar.  He wanted her face to be the first that he beheld on their wedding day.”   “The surgery took place.  The wedding day was set.  William’s father led his son to the front of the church, and the bride’s father led her down the aisle.  As she came, William’s father stood behind his son and unwound the gauze from his eyes.  No one knew if the surgery had been successful.  When William’s bride stood before him, the last strand of gauze was pulled away, and he was face-to-face with his bride.  He stood there speechless, and everyone waited, breathless.  And then he spoke: ‘You are more beautiful than I ever imagined.”   “One day that will happen to us, only the roles will be reversed.  ‘Now we see but a poor reflection in a mirror,’ Paul says, ‘then we shall see face to face.  Now I know (Him) in part, then I shall know (Him) fully, even as I am fully known’ (1 Cor. 13:12).  One day, the Bride of Christ, near blind now, will stand before her Risen Bridegroom at the Wedding Feast, and the veil will be removed, the scales will fall away, and we will see Him face-to-face and know Him even as we are fully known.”   “And he will be more beautiful than we ever imagined.”   There is a song that takes my heart and puts it in my throat every time I sing it, called “I Can Only Imagine”, by Bart Millard.  It goes like this: “I can only imagine What it will be like When I walk By Your side.   I can only imagine What my eyes will see When Your face Is before me, I can only imagine.   Chorus: “Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel Will I dance for you, Jesus, or in awe of You be still? Will I stand in Your presence, or to my knees will I fall, Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all? I can only imagine.   “I can only imagine When that day comes And I find myself Standing in the Son   “I can only imagine When all I will do Is forever, Forever worship You… I can only imagine.”   Have a blessed Resurrection Sunday!   PRAYER: Lord, how we long to see you face-to-face in our heavenly home! I long to see You in Your glory and for faith to become sight! In Jesus’ name, Amen.   Copyright 2024 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for 3/27/24 – An Unexpected Gift

Is there anyone who doesn’t love an unexpected gift? It doesn’t matter much whether you’re already feeling on top of the world or in the deepest, darkest night of the soul, an unexpected gift lifts our spirits and cheers our hearts!

There is an event recorded in Mark 14 where Jesus received an unexpected gift. Those around him criticized the woman for her extravagant act of anointing him with costly perfume, but put yourself in Jesus’ place for a moment. He knew what was coming – an onrushing freight train of anguish, weariness, torture and death. Don’t forget – he was God, but he was also human, and his spirit was heavy, I’m sure.

Then, out of the blue, this woman anoints him. Listen to what Jesus says: She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her. — Mark 14:8-9

We don’t have an exact chronology of how long before his arrest and trial this took place, but perhaps the fragrance of the perfume lingered on him in the garden, in custody, before Caiaphas and Herod. Perhaps as he walked the pathway to the cross the crowd could detect it. For Jesus, it was an unexpected gift of love and kindness, and I am confident it meant a lot to him or he would not have praised her so highly.

So, here we are, face to face (almost) with Good Friday. I am struck with two thoughts:

ONE: on Good Friday we all received the most amazing unexpected gift of all time: redemption from sin. It was not only an unexpected gift, but a totally undeserved one. How long has it been since you really, deeply received the reality of this gift of the Son of God who bore your sins so you could stand sinless before the Creator of the universe? How are you celebrating it?

TWO: the woman gave an unexpected gift to Jesus, and it moved his spirit. What gift are you preparing to give to Jesus today or this week? It will pale in comparison to the gift he has given to us, but just as the gift of the perfume moved Jesus to memorialize this woman’s act forever, your unexpected gift can also touch his heart.

What will you give him? Think about it. Pray over it. Then give it!

PRAYER: Jesus, there is no way we can ever thank you enough for your most unexpected gift and kindness toward us, but we pray that you will accept our heartfelt gifts to you this week. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2024 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 11/13/23 – For When You Can’t Believe It

Jude 1:24-25 (NIV) – To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy–to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

I suppose it is a common feeling among those of us who wear the name “Christian”, this feeling of “I’m just afraid I’m not going to make it.”  It’s a feeling born of the thousands upon thousands of failures, falls, and sins that have plagued us from the time we were old enough to know what is right and what is wrong.  It is a feeling of hopelessness, unworthiness and utter despair.  To feel like we have blown it not just one time too many, but hundreds or thousands of times. 

And when that happens, Satan has been playing with our heads.  That is precisely the way Satan wants us to think.  He wants us to believe things are hopeless.  He wants us to doubt that God could be “that” merciful, “that” loving, “that” forgiving.  He wants us to think that either God is not willing to forgive us that many times, or that He is, because of His holiness, unable to forgive us for such a huge pile of failures.  When we think those thoughts about our God, Satan smiles.

How do we know that it isn’t true?  Read today’s passage again – slowly – especially verse 24.  “To Him WHO IS ABLE to keep you from falling, and to present you before His glorious presence WITHOUT FAULT and great joy…”  Are there any sweeter or more promising words in all of Scripture? 

When we think despairing, hopeless thoughts, we are playing into Satan’s hand and his strategy.  God is neither unable nor unwilling to forgive you…over and over and over again.  And there’s another wonderful part of that passage that also very much deserves our attention and which lifts my spirits.  And here it is: not only is He able to keep me from falling and to present me before God’s glorious presence without fault…but he will do so with “…GREAT JOY…”  What does that mean?  It means that Christ won’t begrudge me that forgiveness.  He won’t look at me and shake his head from side to side and say, “Boy, it pains me to say this, but come on in.”  There will be none of that.  There will be only great joy on His face, on the face of Christ…but especially on mine.  I will know that I didn’t deserve it – but he will insist upon it, with a loving hug, a warm smile, and a pat on the back, and the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant!  Enter into the joy of your Master!”

So, for those times when you just can’t believe that this will happen to you, go back to this verse in Jude…and smile, knowing HE is able! 

PRAYER: I am so filled with hope in knowing YOU are able…and not only are YOU able, YOU will finish this according to Your promise!! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2023 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 8/13/23: Tightrope or Citadel?

I don’t know about you, but I grew up in a very legalistic type of church. There were rules about everything – not too unlike the Pharisees of old who took the commands of God and then created all sorts of additional rules intended to keep them on the right track.

What was the end result of that style of church/religion? It was guilt beyond compare! For decades of my life I despised myself and I was quite sure that God despised (perhaps even hated) me because I was such a weakling who sinned so much. It was a horrible way to go through life, smelling (at least in my mind) the brimstone of hell close behind me. There was even a debate among my young believing friends about whether or not one could be saved if they had sinned and died before they could pray to ask forgiveness.

Then, through the grace of God, I learned about grace. I learned that Jesus had already paid the price for my sins – past, present, and future. I learned that his grace is greater than all my sin, that he loved me in spite of my sins, not because I was sinless. And through a couple of people and the writing of some authors, my soul was set free.

I still have times when I’m not sure if God still loves me because I am still a sinner at my age (and I’m getting up there)! I can appreciate passion for holiness and purity. I know that grace is not an excuse to sin and keep on sinning. But I also believe now that God knows my heart and he loves me and through some incredible work on his part, will take me home to be with him forever.

But for many, the Christian life is one guilt trip after another, one moment of shame piled on top of another until we convince ourselves that the pile has gotten so high that nothing can be done about it. And that’s just plain wrong. I have to stop at moments like that and remind me that all those sins – every single one – was paid for on the cross.

We can view our position with God either as a tightrope (as I was raised) and that our identify as a saved believer teeters from one side to another and that we’re always in peril of falling off the rope into the abyss, or as a citadel where we are surrounded by the impregnable walls of the blood of Jesus and the grace and mercy and love of God. (This comparison of a tightrope or citadel comes from Eugene Peterson’s book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.)

And now, as I near the end of my life, after living on a perceived tightrope for decades, I now believe the citadel is the right image of the Christian’s relationship to Jesus.

My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish — ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one. – John 10:28-30

PRAYER: Thank you, Jesus, for holding us in your hand! Thank you, Father, for wrapping your Almighty hands around the hands of Jesus to ensure us that we are in the Citadel of the Almighty as we live life! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2023 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 6/18/23: A Father’s Love

In his book, Disappointment with God, writer Philip Yancey relates a touching story from his own life. One time on a visit to his mother–who had been widowed years earlier, in the month of Philip’s first birthday–they spent the afternoon together looking through a box of old photos. A certain picture of him as an eight-month-old baby caught his eye. Tattered and bent, it looked too banged up to be worth keeping, so he asked her why, with so many other better pictures of him at the same age, she had kept this one.

Yancey writes, “My mother explained to me that she had kept the photo as a memento, because during my father’s illness it had been fastened to his iron lung.” During the last four months of his life, Yancey’s father lay on his back, completely paralyzed by polio at the age of twenty-four, encased from the neck down in a huge, cylindrical breathing unit. With his two young sons banned from the hospital due to the severity of his illness, he had asked his wife for pictures of her and their two boys. Because he was unable to move even his head, the photos had to be jammed between metal knobs so that they hung within view above him–the only thing he could see. The last four months of his life were spent looking at the faces he loved.

Philip Yancey writes, “I have often thought of that crumpled photo, for it is one of the few links connecting me to the stranger who was my father. Someone I have no memory of, no sensory knowledge of, spent all day, every day thinking of me, devoting himself to me, loving me . . . The emotions I felt when my mother showed me the crumpled photo were the very same emotions I felt that February night in a college dorm room when I first believed in a God of love. Someone is there, I realized. Someone is there who loves me. It was a startling feeling of wild hope, a feeling so new and overwhelming that it seemed fully worth risking my life on.”

PRAYER: Father, thank you that you always see us, always think of us with love, and that you have sacrificed greatly for your children. Let us be children who make you proud. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2023 by Galen C. Dalrymple, ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for the Week of 1/22/23 – Through the Eyes of Jesus

John himself had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. – Mt. 3:4

John was a wild man. One look at him as he walked toward you out of the shadow of a cliff in the wilderness and you’d probably turn and head the other way. Whom do you know who wears clothes made of camel hair? How many of your friends eat locusts? I can almost picture him grinning with tiny little locust legs stuck between his teeth. My guess is that he probably didn’t smell all that great, either.

Yet, what Jesus says about him should set us all back and cause us to think: I assure you: Among those born of women no one greater than John the Baptist has appeared…Mt. 11:11

We know that God doesn’t judge by outward appearance, but by the heart. When Jesus saw John, he saw not a scary-looking wild man to be avoided – he saw a man totally sold out to God.

When you got up and looked in the mirror this morning, what did you see? Did you see a short, overweight, ugly, disheveled person who had just lost their job or failed to get that promotion or flunked their exam? Did you see someone who the world despises and rejects? Did you see a broken-hearted wreck of a human being because they were rejected and abandoned by the one who promised to love them forever?

That’s not what Jesus sees. Sure, he sees those events in your life when he sees you, but that’s not how he sees you. How do I know? Because that’s not how he saw John the Baptist. I suspect that as he hung on the cross and scanned the faces of those gathered around, he didn’t see a single “ugly” person – to him the faces were all beautiful, the faces of those he loved and for whom he was willing to die.

Today, no matter what has happened to you recently or long ago, no matter what happens today that causes you heartbreak and makes you feel like a failure when you think about those things, also think this: Jesus thinks I’m beautiful…because you are.

PRAYER: Father, give me the eyes of Jesus so that I can see people as he does! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2023 by Galen C. Dalrymple, all rights reserved.

DayBreaks for the Week of 01/02/23 – What Power Fears Most

The excitement and joy of Christmas leaves many people with a strange feeling of sadness in the days after the celebration ends. The frenzied preparations, the endless shopping, the events, the guests, the food, the presents – suddenly it all ends. Everything becomes quiet. Reality sets in. The work week approaches again. Suddenly “normal” seems so…ordinary. Yet, with that sense of ordinary also comes a quiet peace. The world again becomes steady, semi-predictable, and reliable. No more pulling off financial feats to make Christmas happen, no more worrying that the kids will like their presents, no more losing hours and hours of sleep doing last-minute wrapping and Santa preparations, and no more super adrenaline-filled days or festivity-ridden evenings. Our bodies relax thankfully back into their “normal” rhythms of sleep. For soon life will offer its own bits of “excitement” which for us is quite enough – bills to be paid, deadlines to reach, work to be done, errands to complete, fires to put out, relationships to manage, weight to lose, truths to face. For some, the realities of illness, grief, or hardships will flood back in as soon as the momentary joy of the Christmas season has passed.

For Jesus’ family that cold reality apparently came only a night after their surprise visit by three prominent guests. Their son had attracted lots of attention. When three magi from the eastern kingdoms appeared at their door, it was quite a celebration. Staying a night or two as guests, they brought expensive gifts for the child Jesus and reminded his parents of the importance of his life in light of the messianic prophecies. Then they told them something else. They would need to be very, very careful. The child’s life was in danger. In fact, his life would always be endangered from the time of his birth until the moment of his death. His parents would need to protect him until he could do so on his own. Joseph, a man of great faith, trusted his dreams and the Magi’s direction, so still reeling from the celebrations of the birth, they packed up their belongings in the still dark night and headed out of Israel to the border of Egypt. The family would sojourn there for a few years until Herod the Great’s death, most likely near Alexandria, where many Jews had settled. Jesus’ life of living under the radar, under a shroud of mystery and caution, in discretion, had begun.

We can only imagine the brokenness of that time, the brokenness of the world that God sent his son, the Messiah into, a time when the dangerous power of the rich and politically armed could wipe out families in an instant if they didn’t do their will, a time when Israel lay subject not only to the forces of Rome but to their own cruel leaders who ate from Rome’s hands and grew drunk on its wine of prestige and power.

How would God fight this perversion of power?

With love. Unconditional love. The only thing that power can’t fight. The only thing that power fears.

PRAYER: Thank You, Lord Jesus, for showing us how to fight against power, oppression, and injustice. Help us to believe in the power of unconditional love and to practice it daily during this new year.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.