DayBreaks for the Week of 2/11/24 – The Breeding Ground of Fear

Darkness.  Not only does the nightfall with darkness, but it seems as if fear falls along with the dark.  We’re more afraid in the dark than we are in the light (which, all by itself, should be sufficient to run to the Light of the world!), and with good reason.  Perhaps, if we had eyes like an owl or a dog, we’d not fear the darkness as much, either.  But I think we’d still be more frightened than in the daylight because it is in the time of no shadows that great evil happens.  But perhaps we are more frightened in the dark because that is when we tend to feel most alone.  Don’t you feel more alone in a strange city when it’s night than in the broad daylight?  When it is dark, every sound is magnified and is attributed to dark and sinister forces.  The darkness disorients us.

In C.S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the ship by that name has sailed into a place called the Dark Island, and predictably, everyone on board is terrified.  Lucy, one of the visitors on the ship, starts to whisper, “Aslan, Aslan, if ever you loved us at all, send us help now.”  Lewis went on to state: “The darkness did not grow any less, but she began to feel a little – a very, very little – better.”  Then what happens?  A tiny, ever so tiny, speck of light becomes visible ahead.  Lewis put it this way: “…(it) did not alter the surrounding darkness” but it did light up the ship. 

What’s the point?  As Mike Yaconelli noted in Dangerous Wonder, “Notice that the darkness did not diminish.  God does not always rid us of the darkness; He joins us in the darkness.”

There are some things that people can only do when it is light outside, or when there is sufficient light to dispel enough of the darkness that blankets itself around us.  Jesus is the Lord of the daylight.  But he is also the Lord when it is dark.  And sometimes, that’s when we can best recognize Him.

1 Tim. 6:16 (NLT) – He alone can never die, and he lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him. No one has ever seen him, nor ever will. To him be honor and power forever. Amen.

PRAYER: Thank you for being Lord of both the light and the darkness, but most of all, for joining us when it is dark and walking with us!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2024 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

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 2/06/2023 – Going Home in Deep Sorrow

Luke 23:44-49 (NLT) By this time it was noon, and darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. The light from the sun was gone. And suddenly, the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle. Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last. When the Roman officer overseeing the execution saw what had happened, he worshiped God and said, “Surely this man was innocent.” And when all the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw what had happened, they went home in deep sorrow. But Jesus’ friends, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching.

For my quiet time, I’ve been using the gospel of Luke. Though it isn’t near Easter yet, I am at this point in the gospel. This has always intrigued me, not just because of the pathos of the crucifixion and the meaning it has, but because of a couple of statements in these verses.

First: how poignant is the statement The light from the sun was gone. It could have been said that the “Light from the Son was gone” and been equally true.  What happened to cause this three-hour darkness? Some suggest it was an eclipse, but those don’t last for three hours. Cloud cover? Possibly – a very thick one. Was it that God had for those 3 hours turned away from the earth and His glory wasn’t there anymore? Was it symbolic of the sway that evil was having during those ghastly hours? I don’t know. But the point is that it was dark as if all creation was mourning the suffering and death of its Creator. And God clearly was directly involved with the event and the disappearance (as it says, the light was “gone”) of the sun. Nothing He does is by accident. For God, it was a time of deep sorrow and grief – and black is the color of mourning. I suspect this may be why, but we shall have to ask someday to really understand.

Second: the reactions of the Roman centurion and the people as they left were interesting. For the centurion, it led to some level of faith or at least belief. The reaction of others after the death of Christ was, appropriately, deep sorrow. Did they now realize what they’d done? Remember, these were the people who mere hours before were chanting “Crucify him!  Crucify him!”

I can only surmise something here. My guess is that not a single person among the crowd would have made the decision all on their own to kill Jesus, nor would they have pounded nails into his hands or feet, nor mocked him. But people in crowds do bizarre things and it only takes one or two (in this case probably the “exalted” religious leaders and a few of their zealous adherents) to have incited them to “Crucify him!” chants and to demand his death.  Often, it is only in hindsight that we see the gravity of our actions and how wrong we were. Jesus’ words from the cross were more spot on than we can imagine: Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing. It appears that was precisely the case as the people when they did realize what they had done, were filled with deep sorrow.

What do you do when the crowd presses hard on you to compromise your faith or simply to do something that your spirit tells you is a compromise that is not honorable? Stand strong so that you won’t have to go home in “deep sorrow”.

PRAYER: Jesus, we all played a role in your crucifixion. We often don’t know what we are doing or how we hurt you, but forgive us all the same! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for the Week of 6/20/22 – It Opens on the Dawn

DayBreaks for the Week of 6/20/22 – It Opens on the Dawn

From the DayBreaks archive (Galen is on vacation):

“Mary Magdalene came to the tomb while it was still dark. But the darkness was soon overcome with light. Maybe that’s the message you need to hear this day. Perhaps for whatever reason you are in darkness right now. Family concerns. Problems at work. Anxiety about your health and your future. The loss of someone you love. Easter promises us more than the stars in our darkness. Easter promises us that in the midst of our deepest darkness the Son rises to overwhelm the darkness forever.

“Victor Hugo once put it like this, “For half a century I have been writing my thoughts in prose and verse and history and philosophy . . . But I feel I have not said the thousandth part of what is in me. When I go down to the grave I can say, I have finished my day’s work,’ but I cannot say, I have finished my life.’ My day’s work will begin again the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley; it is a thoroughfare. It closes on the twilight; it opens on the dawn.” Mary Magdalene came to the tomb while it was still dark “but the darkness did not remain. The dawn broke. God’s Son had risen.” – King Duncan

The weekend is over, a new week has come.  The seeming endless cycle rolls onward.  Perhaps this weekend you received extremely bad news.  Perhaps someone told you that they no longer wanted to be married to you.  Perhaps on Friday you received a diagnosis that caused you to feel the cold clasp of death’s hand on your shoulder.  Perhaps you fought with someone – exchanging words that caused the darkness to descend and envelop you.  Perhaps today you are returning to a job that you despise but which you can’t afford to quit.  Perhaps a loved one died.  There are far too many “perhap’s”, don’t you think?  And I’ve barely scratched the surface.

The resurrection morning started out like any other.  There was darkness…then there was light.  That seems to be the pattern.  Even during the creation, darkness preceded the light.  Then God spoke, the darkness ran to the farthest corners of the universe and Light flooded the heavens. 

If darkness is riding shotgun with you today, look for the Light.  Hope opens on the dawn of each new day.  Never stop hoping!   

PRAYER:  Thank you for making light.  Let your Light brighten our hearts and minds this day, causing our darkness to give way to inexhaustible hope!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2022 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for 3/06/22 – Because the World Loves Darkness

NOTE TO READERS: Just a reminder that DayBreaks is now published only once a week.  

A great many of us American Christians get “wrapped around the axle” when it comes to what’s going on in our culture.  Mass shootings of children in schools, rampant drug abuse even among elementary age children, economic systems that feed the pockets of the wealthy but starve the hard workers, injustice, laws that blatantly fly in the face of God’s clear Word, the massive numbers of unwed mothers and dead-beat fathers, children growing up without healthy role models, churches that have forgotten why Jesus created them in the first place – these and many other things scare us and cause us to scratch our heads and wonder what’s happening. It’s not just America, but the world, too, as we’ve seen with the brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Once when out walking, my wife commented on what a beautiful world God created.  Being in a rather sober mood, I commented that yes, it is beautiful here, but around the world people are shooting and killing each other – often in the name of their faith, or for greed or power.  North Korea threatens South Korea and the US with “fire” that will destroy Seoul and Washington as they continue their nuclear program.  Iran has pledged itself to wipe Israel “off the map” once they have the capability to do so.  Human trafficking exists on a rampant scale, thrusting young children as young as 11 or younger into abuse the defies description.  So called cease-fire corridors to allow for humanitarian evacuations of civilians are shelled and bombed and women and children get killed. I don’t get it.  What, in God’s name, has become of us?

Well, you know, I’m not sure that anything has become of us.  There is a simple reality that the apostle John pointed out in the third chapter of his gospel that goes like this: John 3:19 (MSG) – This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God.  Or, in the more familiar way of putting it: And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. – (NLT)

There it is, pure and simple.  We must not be surprised at what is happening – at least not if we believe what Scripture says about us.  The fact is that people love the darkness (evil, self-promotion and self-interest) more than the light (the things of God).  Why?  Because “their actions were evil” – and their actions, if the world gets dark enough, will seem normal and right or at the very least acceptable.

It’s easy to point the finger at “them”, isn’t it?  But in what ways am I loving the darkness more than the light?  In what ways are you loving darkness and evil and sin?  Don’t fool yourself about how holy and upright you are.  You are still human.  You still have a sin nature that has a strong root in you. 

Maybe it is time for us Christians to take a good, hard look at ourselves and really probe on the ways that we still love darkness…and then ask God to shine the Light of Jesus into those dark places in our hearts, to root out that darkness.  One thing is for sure: we can’t root them out ourselves!  We can’t even recognize them for what they are because we are deluded about our own faults and sin and goodness. 

Prayer is called for.  Repentance is needed.  The Spirit-walk is necessary.  Even as I write this, I know what some of those dark areas are in my soul and I fear to write what I have for I know my own weakness and how the darkness calls to me and how weak and prone to falling that I am.  Hypocrisy knows no bounds and it spares none of us.  Lord Jesus, have mercy on our souls!

PRAYER: Oh, Light of the world that reached down into darkness, cast Your beams into the dark, dank recesses of our hearts and minds to drive away our love of darkness.  Help us love the Light more than the darkness!  Spare us from what we deserve and grant us Your grace!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2022 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for 2/7/22 – Sent By Jesus, #1

From the DayBreaks archive:

John 17:14-18 (NLT) – I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.

What a treat worship was Sunday!  We needed to pick up something from some friends, so we went to their church over on the peninsula.  The church was Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, and the worship music was wonderful and glorifying to God.  John Ortberg is the senior pastor there and he was preaching on Jesus and His Movement.  John has long been one of my favorite writers and Christian speakers…he is brilliant, funny, very humble…and a committed man of God.  His message today, as it has been every time I’ve heard him, was challenging, thought provoking and I could have sat for hours to hear more.

He spoke on John 17:14-18, part of the great High Priestly prayer of Jesus for his disciples.  He started by looking at verse 18 and built from there: Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. 

What was the world?  Well, the word is used different ways in Scripture.  He isn’t talking about the physical planet, but the world of darkness, the world where God is defied.  God sent Jesus into that world – a cold, hostile, dark, cruel and God-defying place.  We know that and understand it from John 3:16, too: in spite of the characteristics of the world that I mentioned, God still loves that world – and sent His Son into it. 

But here’s the kicker: just as God sent Jesus into that cold, dark, forbidding place – JESUS SENDS US INTO THE SAME COLD, DARK WORLD.  He doesn’t keep us from that place.  He doesn’t expect or want us to silo ourselves up in cloisters and cathedrals surrounded by believers where we are relatively safe and secure.  He sends us into the world where God is defied.  THAT’s where he wants us to go. 

Jesus sends us into that world without illusions – at least without illusions on His part.  He knows what that world will be like because He was sent to it first…and see what it did to Him!  But if we are to walk in His footsteps, if we are to go where He sends us…we MUST go to that world whether we relish the idea or not. 

I think we’d all rather stay in warm, fuzzy Christian circles.  We are afraid of “contamination” somehow if we go to the world.  We are afraid someone will see us and judge us for hanging around with “them”.  It’s a lot more predictable inside the walls of the chapel.  It’s safer.  But it is most definitely NOT where Jesus sends us.  Oh, and by the way, did you know that “Be in the world, but not of the world” is not found in Scripture?

More on this during the week…

PRAYER: Jesus, I’m sorry for seeking the “safe” way for so long and for not being in the world to which you have sent me!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 1/20/22 – Jesus’ Magic Lamp

From Lee Eclov, Preaching Today, January 19, 2022 (condensed):

As the story goes, Aladdin discovered a magic lamp which, when rubbed, brought forth a genie who could grant any of his wishes. Thus, he became rich and powerful, and he married up. But that’s kids’ stuff compared to the Lamp we hold.

[Jesus] said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.” (Mark 4:21-23)

We have been entrusted with the Jesus-lamp. All believers are…to take our people by the hand and lead them into dark rooms where secrets and mysteries hide and then hold out our marvelous Lamp.

Perhaps we take them in Jesus’ Emmaus Road footsteps into one of the rooms along the vast corridors of the Old Testament. We might cast the Christ-light over Genesis 3 or the Exodus, Psalm 2, or Isaiah’s Servant Songs. We might hold the Lamp over Isaac bound on Abraham’s altar or on Jacob’s mysterious foe that dark night by the Jabbok. “There!” we say, “Now what do you see?”

Anyone can hear the stories of Jesus, but they can’t really see them without that Lamp. His Light is necessary for us to worship with the magi or to hear the Sermon on the Mount so clearly that we hunger for righteousness. In that Light water turns to wine again, storm-tossed seas fall quiet, the ghastly cross is wreathed in white roses, and the blood of the Lamb stirs us to life, liberty, and song.

We hold that Lamp up to Jesus himself and see the invisible God. Think of that! Our Lamp can awaken our drowsy brothers and sisters to see Christ as the Lord over all things seen and unseen, and (even more eye-popping) as the head over the church, born first from the womb of the tomb and now the King of Immortals. The Lamp shows us drawn so deeply into Jesus that we have become his very body. Who could have ever imagined such a thing!

Yet there are even more rooms to illuminate, rooms our people least expect to see, for we take them into their own souls. Their closeted fears scurry away from the Flame. We cast the Word into the dark-draped room of their sorrows, regret, and shame and their hearts begin to heal. Hand in hand with the risen Christ, we walk through the locked doors of their sins and hold forth the warm peace of Christ. We enter, too, the storeroom of their unopened gifts, showing them, to their everlasting surprise, all their treasures glinting in the Jesus-light.

We hold our Light high and walk with them into the valley of the shadow of death so they can see the dark waters piled up on either side, the prison door flung open, their death sentence vacated, and the Lord Jesus himself waiting for them open-armed in the bright light of eternity.

Again, and again…we hold out the Christ-lamp entrusted to us, bringing out into the open long-hidden mysteries. Jesus said it can be dangerous work because sinful people love their darkness. Nevertheless, think of the wonders we’ve seen and the treasures we have yet to reveal to our people. All of them illuminating the most glorious mystery of all: Christ in you (in you, dear people), the hope of glory!

PRAYER: Strengthen our weary arms, Lord, to hold your Lamp high! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 1/14/22 – A Brave New World?

Growing up, there were two key books that it seems every teenager had to read as part of their high school years.  Those books were Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.  I’m happy to say that the year 1984 has come and gone, and while there are some things about it that have come true, most has not.  The same, however, could not be said for Brave New World.  Huxley looks more like a prophet each passing year: “We’re all familiar with the statistics on violent crime, rape, child abuse, drugs, and similar American leisure activities.  We know that half of all marriages commit suicide, i.e., divorce.  We can read headlines well enough to be largely cynical about financiers and politicians.  Surveys tell us this is the first generation in American history whose children are less well educated than their parents.  They tell us that if teenagers don’t have sex, they must be ugly, isolated, or Fundamentalists.  Half of all urban teenagers get pregnant, and half of them have abortions.  One out of every three babies conceived is killed.  A brave new world indeed.”  – Peter Kreeft, C.S. Lewis for the Third Millennium

It is not a pretty picture that Mr. Kreeft paints, but nonetheless, I believe it is an accurate one.  The problem is that we’ve all tended to bury our heads in the sand like ostriches so that we can pretend we can’t see the ugliness in our culture.  But it is there.  Sadly, when we pull our heads out of the sand, our first reaction is to stick them back down the hole again and pretend we didn’t see any of it.  It allows us to stay “guilt-free” if we think we have deniability.

1 Cor. 6:9-11 – Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Jude 18-21 –How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.  But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

Don’t be deceived.  What was wrong from the beginning is still wrong.  What is right is still right.  The world hasn’t changed.  It’s stayed as sinful and ugly as ever.  Neither has our job changed – to be change agents of light in a world of darkness.  It’s about time we get busy with our job.

PRAYER:  Jesus, don’t let us ever lose sight of truth and the need to stand for truth and what is right! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 12/20/21 – It Starts in Darkness

The Christmas story begins in darkness. There was the darkness of oppression, for God’s people were a conquered people. They were a beaten and a defeated people. There was the darkness of persecution. Indeed, it was a despised universal taxation that brought the participants in the story together on that fateful night. There was the darkness of disillusionment. There was an ever-increasing number who felt that violence, not faith, was the most effective path. Yes, on that first Christmas, the mood was one of despair and resignation.

And thus, it was then and thus it is now. We too live in a world of darkness. There are wars and rumors of wars, hunger and unemployment, racism, loneliness, and a sense of emptiness. Perhaps the poet Robert Frost worded it best when he wrote: “I have been acquainted with the night. I have walked in the rain and out of the rain. I have been acquainted with the night.” I don’t have to tell any of you about the darkness, because in one form or another, at one time or another, it has touched the life of every human. You have been acquainted with the night. Thus, we do not come to this season to naively deny the existence of the darkness. Nowhere in scripture do we receive a prep talk and an argument that things aren’t really as bad as they seem. Rather, it affirms that the darkness is real and it is present.

But, it also affirms that there is a light at the end of the tunnel as the Light of the world entered the darkness not for himself, but for us. The darkness has not been able to shut down that light and it never, every will throughout all eternity!

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for seeing us in the darkness and for having compassion on us. Thank you for being the very embodiment of light! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 8/11/11 – Looking for the Wrong Answer

Psalm 23:3: “…He restores my soul…”. 

“The story is told of a man on an African safari deep in the jungle.  The guide before him had a machete and was whacking away the tall weeds and thick underbrush.  The traveler, wearied and hot, asked in frustration, ‘Where are we?  Do you know where you are taking me?  Where is the path?!’  The seasoned guide stopped and looked back at the man and replied, ‘I am the path.’

“We ask the same questions, don’t we?  We ask God, ‘Where are you taking me?  Where is the path?’ And he, like the guide, doesn’t tell us.  Oh, he may give us a hint or two, but that’s all.  If he did, would we understand?  Would we comprehend our location?  No, like the traveler, we are unacquainted with this jungle.  So rather than give us an answer, Jesus gives us a far greater gift.  He gives us himself.”  (Max Lucado, Traveling Light)

Sometimes life sure does seem like being lost deep in the jungle, doesn’t it?  A career suddenly lost in the weeds of a corporate layoff and no one is hiring.  A marriage that started with such promise dying with such vitriol.  A world class athlete crumpled on the floor, holding a knee that will never be right again.  And as if one problem such as these weren’t enough, they seem to compound themselves until we can no longer figure out where we are, which direction we’ve come from, or even the way to get to our intended destination.  It is at times like that when we are most prone to ask the questions: Where are you taking me?  Where’s the path?  How do I get there?

“Jesus doesn’t give hope by changing the jungle; he restores our hope by giving us himself.  And he has promised to stay until the very end.  ‘I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”  (Matt. 28:20)

Ah, here’s the key.  I find that too often when I am lost in the darkness of the jungle, I spend too much time asking God to defoliate the place.  That’s not what He does.  (Oh, He’ll do that one day in a very universal way, but thus far, today doesn’t seem to be that day!)  What God wants us to understand is that He is the path (“I am the way, the truth and the life…”).  He isn’t going to change the jungle, but He will be the path – and the right one at that.  We just need to keep our eyes focused on His back, stay close enough to never lose sight of Him, and we’ll get there.  He’s guaranteed it. 

If you are discouraged and need hope…hang in there.  He will restore you as you hold on to Him.

PRAYER: Forgive me, Lord, for doubting that the way is clear to You when I can’t see past the next tree!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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