DayBreaks for the Week of 2/18/24 – The Nature of Fear and Sin

Did you know that, according to John Ortberg, there are 366 verses in Scripture that essentially say, “Fear not!”?  That’s one verse for every day of the year, including leap years!  God must have known something, eh?  We should note that more often than not, it is stated as a direct command, and usually at the point God is asking someone to do something that will take them so far out of their comfort zone that they’d be nuts not to be at least a little afraid.  Yet He tells His servants over and over “Fear not!”, “Don’t be afraid!”

I remember how my little kids would stand on the edge of the pool and I’d encourage them to jump into the pool while I caught them.  Their little bodies stood on the edge, their arms held tightly to their little, shivering bodies, often with their fingers near their mouth so they could chew on their fingernails while they debated the invitation.  They were shivering – but not because it was cold.  It was because they were afraid.  There was a titanic struggle going on inside their little hearts and minds, a struggle between the will and the want.  You see, they wanted to jump.  They wanted to be brave.  They figured that it must be kind of fun or people wouldn’t be jumping into pools all the time.  They wanted to believe that I’d not drop them or miss catching them if they left terra firma behind.  But the will, oh, the will – it surrenders hard when fear comes around the corner! 

In If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat, John Ortberg argues that fear is the #1 thing that keeps us from obedience to God.  It may be fear that we will be dropped, fear of failure, fear of success, fear that we’ll be revealed as something other than what we’ve pretended to be for so long – it could also be fear of the unknown. 

In sin, I think one of two things happens.  Either the want says, “God, I want to take the leap with You!”, but the will isn’t ready to jump, or both the want and the will are refusing to go with God.  Either way, when fear wins, we lose – but more important than that, God loses, too.  When we fail to do what He wants, we have made ourselves unavailable to Him as a servant.  And then what happens to what God wants to accomplish?  Oh, He’ll probably find a way to accomplish what He wants in the lives of others, but as long as we are blocked by fear, He is blocked in accomplishing what He wants to accomplish within us. 

Are you letting fear make you unavailable to God?  Consider the Father who is asking you to jump into His arms and see if He isn’t trustworthy!

PRAYER: God, help us to will and to want to leap out with You in faith!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2024 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 9/03/23 – Wearing the Name

Then he went to Tarsus to search for Saul, and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught large numbers. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. – Acts 11:25-26

Prior to being called “Christians”, followers of Christ were simply known as believers, followers, saints, or disciples. Those are all apt terms for those who believe in Christ, but all that changed in the town of Syrian Antioch.

It’s easy to miss the significance of names sometimes. In years past, names had meaning. Today few people name their children something because they like what the name means.

Alexander the Great had conquered nearly the entire known world by the time he we 26 years of age. He was known for his military genius and his great courage and bravery.

At one point, Alexander was informed that there was another man in his army who was a coward. The great general ordered that the man be brought to him. Shaking before Alexander the Great, Alexander asked him what his name was. The man answered, “Alexander.”

“You have the same name as me?”

“Yes,” the man muttered.

“Then be brave and courageous – or change your name.”

Have you ever wondered what Jesus thinks of those who wear his name? How many of us, I wonder, would he counsel much the same way as Alexander counseled his soldier? Would he look at me – or you – and tell us to be brave or to change our name from Christian to something else?

Harry A. Ironside was a famous preacher in the first half of this century. Once, when on a mission trip overseas to a foreign country, some people began calling him, Yesuian. Perplexed and not understanding their language, he asked someone what they were saying. The answer was awesome: Yesuian, he was told, mean “the Jesus man.”

Wouldn’t it be awesome if everyone who sees you or I could call us “the Jesus man” or “Jesus woman”!

Will you take up Jesus’ challenge – the same challenge that Alexander gave his soldier – either act courageously or change your name? Make it your goal today that whoever sees you today, whoever hears you today, whoever encounters you today would be able to say that you are a Yesuian?

PRAYER: Let us never be ashamed to be called by your name. Let us always make you proud of us and make you proud that we carry the same name as you! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2023 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 8/20/23 – The Lure of the Easy Way

There is a story about a young man, eager to make it to the top, who went to a well-known millionaire businessman and asked him the first reason for his success. The businessman answered without hesitation, “Hard work.” After a lengthy pause, the young man asked, “What is the SECOND reason?”

Matthew 16:21-25 (NLT) From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead. But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”

Today, I want to think about the lure of the easy way. Jesus and His disciples were at Caesarea Philippi. Their ministry to this point had been a stunning success. Crowds pressed in on them everywhere they went. People eagerly reached out to touch this attractive young teacher from Nazareth. The disciples themselves were caught up in the excitement of it all. Jesus asked them, “Who do you say I am?” and Simon Peter answered enthusiastically, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” It was one of the most dramatic moments in the disciples’ pilgrimage with Jesus.

Then Jesus abruptly changed the subject. He began to tell them that the crowds would soon turn against Him; He would be crucified, on the third day he would be raised. The disciples didn’t know what to make of all this. Simon Peter took Jesus aside: “Forbid it, Lord, that these things should happen to you.” Jesus’ response to Simon Peter is as harsh as any words in the New Testament: Get behind me, Satan! You are not on the side of God but of man.

Perhaps Jesus called Simon Peter ‘Satan’ because of Jesus’ experience in the wilderness immediately after His baptism by John. In today’s parlance, it was there that Satan revealed to Jesus the way to “make a million dollars in three easy steps”: turn stones to bread, leap off the pinnacle of the temple, and “Bow down and worship me!” I see Satan not as a red-caped figure with a pitchfork but dressed in a $1000 suit and offering in a glib and polished tongue instant success, instant glamour, instant gratification. We can see Satan almost anywhere today. Jesus encountered him this time in Simon Peter: Forbid it, Lord, that you should have to suffer and die.

If there is any doubt that Jesus is resisting the lure of the easy way, listen to the words that follow: If any man would be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

What way are you pursuing in your life?  How can you change today?

PRAYER: Jesus, I know that I almost always seek the easy way, and that the easy way is very seldom Your way.  May I be more like You! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2023 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 4/02/23 – The Master’s Week

Matthew 21:8-11 (NLT) – Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting, “Praise God for the Son of David! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the LORD! Praise God in highest heaven!” The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as he entered. “Who is this?” they asked. And the crowds replied, “It’s Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

This week is the Masters.  Sure, it’s the golf tournament, but that’s not the Masters I’m talking about, for this week is the week that in a special way belongs to THE Master, for during this week the most earth-shattering events of all history played out in the city of Jerusalem.

I recently heard this illustration and thought it apt for the start of the Master’s week:

“At a pre-concert lecture, the conductor of a symphony orchestra was telling the audience about the major work that the orchestra would be performing at that evening’s concert. The conductor told the people that if they listened carefully to the music, they would discover that it was both surprising and inevitable. On the one hand, the musical score would take a fair number of rather jarring and unexpected twists. There would be points in the concert when the blare of the trumpet or the sudden rolling of the timpani would seem to come from out of nowhere in a surprising fashion. On the other hand, however, the conductor noted that in the long run, these surprises would themselves become part of a larger coherence. Once listeners heard the entire piece from start to finish, they would find in the music an air of inevitability–how could it ever have been written any differently?

“Surprising and inevitable. Palm Sunday and the events of Holy Week are both surprising and inevitable. The truth is that we are not completely sure what to make of Palm Sunday.”

What do you make of Palm Sunday?  Do you see it as a triumphant moment in the life of Christ?  Do you see it as the “beginning of the end”?  Do you see yourself in the faces lining the streets of the city as the rabbi rode into town on a donkey?  Can you hear your voice shouting praises and singing with delight for the One who has come in the name of the Lord?

Or, would you be hanging back, worried about what others might think of you, perhaps knowing that those who held the religious power couldn’t have been too happy about the goings on, and even if they were ambivalent, the Romans certainly wouldn’t be? 

For me, as much as I enjoyed the worship today (Sunday), I have to say that Palm Sunday has always been a struggle for me because I think it was a real struggle for Jesus.  He knew that the story of that particular week wasn’t going to end with praises but with hammers and nails.  He knew that the ones cheering for him would be jeering at him as he was stripped naked and crucified at week’s end.  He knew that the good feelings would change and be overwhelmed with darkness in the garden and while he hung on the cross. 

Whatever else we might “make” of Palm Sunday, this much is certain: Jesus rode into the city knowing what lay ahead – and he never blinked.  Why?  Love – that’s why.  This was nearly the peak of his ministry – so much lay behind and yet so much lay ahead. 

It was time to finish that for which he’d come.  Let the week begin…

PRAYER: Jesus, for this week, help us focus on You more clearly than ever before, to have your mind, know your thoughts, feel your love throughout this week!  Let us remember you well! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for the Week of 1/15/23: Sitting by the Enemy’s Fire

Luke 22:54-55 (NLT) So they arrested him and led him to the high priest’s home. And Peter followed at a distance. The guards lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter joined them there.

How quickly we are humbled!  How quickly we can turn from proud and confident followers to betrayers! Mere hours before, Peter had said with full confidence in himself, that he would never betray Jesus. Now, the deed that echoes through the centuries is done in a heartbeat.  Note the progression: long before the first denial, Peter had gone from standing beside Jesus, sword drawn and flashing in the dancing torchlight to “following at a distance”. No one had yet accused him of anything…but he was at a distance. Notice the next statement: Peter even joined the same guards he’d seen in the garden and sat beside them at the fire!

What happens when we let distance come between us and the Lord? Other things grab our attention. In this case, it may have been the guards who were roughly handling Jesus in the garden that first caused Peter to perhaps duck and hide, bob and weave, through the night shadows from one olive tree to another.  It may have been the number of swords that were drawn. It may have been the suspicion of what would happen at the trial.  We don’t know what all went through his mind, but this we do know: he followed “at a distance.”

How often I follow at a distance! How easily my pride can be destroyed by a threat of personal harm. How easy it is to find myself sitting in the enemy camp by a warm fire rather than standing with my Lord!

We will all face choices today regarding whether we will stand with Jesus or sit by a warm fire with the enemy. Which will you choose?

PRAYER: Forgive me, Lord, for the times I’ve sought the comfort of the fire to standing with you in a cold and terrifying position! Forgive my pride that makes me think from time to time about how strong my faith might be and about what a committed follower I am! Give me courage, Lord! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 2/10/22 – Living the Beatitudes

From Christianity Today, 12/13/21, by Rebekah Eklund

“Helena Jakobsdotter Ekblom (1784–1859) was born in Östergötland, Sweden, the same province from which the Eklund side of my family originated. At an early age she began to have visions of paradise, in which all the promises of the Beatitudes have come to fruition—she saw the poor rejoicing, laughing, and possessing the earth, crowned as sons and daughters of God. She started to preach about her visions, attracting crowds of impoverished peasants, who eagerly received her message, and the authorities, who did not.

“Lena declared, in the words of the Beatitudes, good news to her fellow poor. As in Luke’s gospel, this message carried with it an implied corollary: “Woe to the rich who cause poverty, to those whose laughter is bought by tears, to those whose opulence is built on misery, to the mighty and powerful whose strength is founded on injustice, to those who despise and persecute and oppress the little ones of Jesus.”

“This implied corollary proved deeply challenging to both state and church authorities. As Jerry Ryan wrote, “Viewed through Lena’s eyes, the existing order becomes intolerable, literally revolting.” Her preaching proved so disturbing that she was locked away for 20 years in Vadstena, in a castle converted into an insane asylum.

“Even there, where she found herself among the poorest of the poor, the humiliated and abandoned, Lena continued to preach. She preached of God’s unshakeable love for them, assuring them that even “in their cells they delight in the freedom of the sons of God, that they are the heirs of the promise” (Matt. 5:9–10).

“After 20 years she was released, but she would not stop preaching the good news of the Beatitudes—good news for the poor, bad news for the powerful. She was arrested again, but on the way back to Vadstena, she and her escort passed through a town devastated by plague, and the guards fled in terror. Lena, however, stayed there, tending the sick, comforting the mourners.

“When the plague subsided, she was so beloved by the local people that nobody dared to arrest her again. When she grew old and unable to work, she moved into a shelter for the poor in her home village. Lena performed the Beatitudes in her preaching and in her life—she blessed the poor and was poor; she comforted and she wept.”

Just imagine what this world and its perception of Christianity would look like if the beatitudes touched us as it did Lena.

PRAYER: Speak to our deepest heart, Lord, and change us!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 12/03/21 – The Judge and the Fool

2 Corinthians 5:13 (NLT) – If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit.

Perhaps it is time to ask the question of ourselves as Christians: Are we insane? 

“The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that an insane person cannot be executed, no matter how heinous the crime, because he cannot understand why he was being killed. Notwithstanding that, Florida Judge David Glant has ordered John Ferguson, 64, to death for a 1978 multiple-murder conviction, despite evaluations from 30 doctors that Ferguson is an insane paranoid schizophrenic. (At press time, the U.S. Court of Appeals is considering Ferguson’s lawyers’ last-second challenge.)

“Judge Glant acknowledges that Ferguson is delusional, but found that he nevertheless understands why he is being executed. Ferguson’s belief in a Jesus-like resurrection upon death, with a glorious afterlife, is not, Glant said, “so significantly different from beliefs [that] other Christians may hold so as to consider it a sign of insanity.” [The Guardian (London), 10-14-2012; CNN, 10-23-2012] 
It is an interesting question. There have always been those who believed that Christians were off their collective rocker. Belief in a Creator, belief in a great flood, belief in miracles, belief in the incarnation and virgin birth, belief in resurrection – it does start to strain the credibility a bit, doesn’t it?

How would you feel if someone called you crazy for your faith? If they did, you’d be in good company. Agrippa essentially said he thought Paul was crazy (mad out of his mind) because of his “much learning” and his faith in Christ. Did Paul care? No. Paul elsewhere said that he counted everything else to be, well, dung, for the sake of knowing Christ. He also wrote this: 1 Corinthians 3:18 (NLT) – Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. 

I wonder what the world would look like and how it would change if we were all fools for Christ?

Luke 12:21 – Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.

PRAYER:  It is so very easy for us to fear being seen as a fool! We so often seem to want the respect of our fellow man more than we want to be sold out to You. Help us to recognize true value and worth, and to gladly be seen as fools for following You! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 11/25/21 – Reasons to Give Thanks

Back during the dark days of 1929, a group of ministers in the Northeast, all graduates of the Boston School of Theology, gathered to discuss how they should conduct their Thanksgiving Sunday services. Things were about as bad as they could get, with no sign of relief. The bread lines were depressingly long, the stock market had plummeted, and the term Great Depression seemed an apt description for the mood of the country. The ministers thought they should only lightly touch upon the subject of Thanksgiving in deference to the human misery all about them. After all, what was there was to be thankful for? But it was Dr. William L. Stiger, pastor of a large congregation in the city that rallied the group. This was not the time, he suggested, to give mere passing mention to Thanksgiving, just the opposite. This was the time for the nation to get matters in perspective and thank God for blessings always present, but perhaps suppressed due to intense hardship.

I suggest to you the ministers struck upon something. The most intense moments of thankfulness are not found in times of plenty, but when difficulties abound. Think of the Pilgrims that first Thanksgiving. Half their number dead, men without a country, but still there was thanksgiving to God. Their gratitude was not for something but in something. It was that same sense of gratitude that lead Abraham Lincoln to formally establish the first Thanksgiving Day in the midst of national civil war, when the butcher’s list of casualties seemed to have no end and the very nation struggled for survival.

Perhaps in your own life, right now, there is intense hardship. You are experiencing your own personal Great Depression. Why should you be thankful this day? May I suggest three things?

1. We must learn to be thankful or we become bitter.

2. We must learn to be thankful or we will become discouraged.

3. We must learn to be thankful or we will grow arrogant and self-satisfied.

We often think that we should be thankful for God’s sake, so that he is glorified and appreciative of our thanks. I suppose there’s some truth in that, but he doesn’t need our thanks. The more I’ve thought about it recently, the more I’ve come to the conclusion that we should also be thankful for our own sake for the reasons listed above.

This is a special day of thanksgiving. Give thanks today to keep from being bitter about your life. Give thanks to keep your courage up. And give thanks because it reminds you where all your blessings come from!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

PRAYER: Thank you, Lord, for all the blessings throughout our lives – even those we don’t recognize as blessings. Make us more aware of your goodness each moment. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 11/22/21 – No Barriers, No Limits

From the DayBreaks archive:

Luke 5:17-20 – One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven.’”

I recently attended our corporate sales and education kickoff meeting for FY03. The theme of the meeting was “No Limits!”  It was intended to inspire and motivate those of us in attendance to greater achievement in the coming year than in the past year.  It was an inspiring meeting – especially the part that talked about Terry Fox, a Canadian who was diagnosed with cancer, had one leg amputated, but who decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. For about 6 months, Terry, with the help of his friends, ran (hobbled is more appropriate) the equivalent of a marathon race EACH DAY. He wouldn’t give in to the barriers – whether they were rain, snow, ice, heat, bleeding from the stump of his leg, fatigue, frustration – because he had a goal he believed was worth achieving. Sadly, he had to quit before he completed the run because his cancer came back.  It eventually claimed his life. An incredible story.

Scripture captures another story that was similar. Among a group of friends was a paralytic. He couldn’t move himself, not even to get out of his own excrement. He couldn’t work. He probably couldn’t feed himself. His friends supported him and took him (carried might be a better term) to the Master. And notice verse 20: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” It wasn’t the faith of the paralytic man – but that of his friends that moved Jesus to this healing.

As I taught from this passage of scripture recently, I was struck with the fact that I seem to give up so easily when it comes to bringing a friend who is sick with sin – paralyzed, dead in sin – into contact with the Healer. I realized that it doesn’t take very much of a barrier to make me stop. The friends of the paralytic cared so much about his physical suffering and well-being that they tore through a roof in Palestine to bring their friend into contact with Christ. What kind of a barrier does it take to stop you from bringing your friend to Jesus? A wall of tissue paper?  A roof of twigs and mud? A brick wall? Or will you not let anything stop you from bringing your friend (or coming yourself) to Jesus for healing? 

PRAYER: Teach us to fearlessly break through barriers in Your name! Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 11/17/21 – Christian Gamblers

Meanwhile, I thought I should send Epaphroditus back to you. He is a true brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier. And he was your messenger to help me in my need. I am sending him because he has been longing to see you, and he was very distressed that you heard he was ill. And he certainly was ill; in fact, he almost died. But God had mercy on him—and also on me, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. So I am all the more anxious to send him back to you, for I know you will be glad to see him, and then I will not be so worried about you.Welcome him with Christian love and with great joy, and give him the honor that people like him deserve. For he risked his life for the work of Christ, and he was at the point of death while doing for me what you couldn’t do from far away. – Philippians 2:25-30 (NLT)

I love the way that there are “back stories” behind nearly every passage of Scripture!  This seemingly innocuous passage is quickly passed over in a rush to get through one’s daily Bible reading.  It doesn’t seem very spiritual, does it?  When I was a little kid, the local newspaper from the very tiny little Iowa town that was nearest to our farm would even include news about who got a phone call from someone else!  Or, who had out-of-town guests.  It may seem strange to people today, but it was a very personal and tight-knit little farming community.  So it is with this passage. 

Epaphroditus had come to Paul from Philippi.  Paul was in Rome, in chains.  It was risky for Ephphroditus to come, because if Paul were to be killed for his preaching, Epaphroditus could be killed as a follower or “co-conspirator.”  But he came to Paul anyway.  While in Rome, he got sick – and nearly died.  Fortunately, he recovered and now Paul is eager to send him back to his friends in Philippi so they can rejoice in his recovery. 

In verse 30, Paul uses an interesting Greek word to describe how Epaphroditus “risked his life” for Christ’s work.  The rather long Greek word was a gambler’s word that described staking everything on a single throw of the dice.  That’s how Paul describes what Epaphroditus had done for the sake of Christ.  But here’s the “rest of the story”: 

In the Early Church there was an association of Christian men and women called the parabolani, the gamblers. They weren’t gambling for money.  Rather, their aim was to visit the prisoners and the sick, especially those who were ill with dangerous and infectious diseases. In A.D. 252 plague broke out in the city of Carthage.  In their distress and terror, the heathen threw the bodies of their dead into the streets and fled the city in terror. Cyprian, an elder in the church in Carthage, gathered his congregation together and charged them to gather up the dead bodies, and to also care for those stricken by the plague in the city.  By doing so, they saved the city, at the risk of their lives, from destruction and desolation.  They were gambling everything on a single throw of the dice – risking their very lives for Christ and the love of their neighbors. 

This “gambling” spirit should be in every Christian, an almost reckless courage which makes him ready to gamble with his life to serve Christ and others.  How are you doing?  What have you risked for Him?

PRAYER: We have become so security conscious that we’ve grown risk-adverse, even when it comes to serving You, Lord.  Start today to create a spirit of courage and boldness within us for there is much to be done!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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