DayBreaks for the Week of 1/08/23: Let There Be No Doubt

One of the striking features of John’s gospel is how John pictures the life and ministry of Jesus. The other gospels tell us stories about Jesus so we, like the disciples, are left to ask what seems the obvious questions, “Who is this, that wind and sea obey him? Who is this who feeds the multitude on a couple of loaves and a few fish?” But in John, there’s no doubt who Jesus is because both John and Jesus tell us who He is! Usually, Jesus did so with a statement that starts with “I am.” Put him in a situation and he will clarify who he is and what he has come to do.

If you put him in a desert surrounded by people who are chronically unsatisfied, and Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35).

If you put him in the midst of confused people who ask, “Who are you, Jesus? What makes you different from all the other gurus, rabbis, and religious leaders?” Jesus replies, “I am the gate for the sheep. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture” (10:7, 9).

If you find him at a graveside surrounded by grief-stricken people, Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live” (11:25).

On the other hand, if you put him in the middle of people who feel disconnected by life’s difficulties, Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit,

because apart from me you can do nothing” (15:5).
You see, in the Gospel of John, in situation after situation, Jesus defines himself and says, “This is who I am….” In the eighth chapter, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (8:12). His words echo the opening words of the Fourth Gospel, where the writer defines the person and work of Jesus in terms of light. “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people … The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (1:3-4, 9).

Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” That, my friends, is wonderful news – just the kind of news that we would hope to hear with Christmas in the rearview mirror and 51 weeks of a New Year staring us in the face.  Let Him be the Light of your world in 2023!

Happy New Year, everyone!  “Walk in the light even as He is in the light…”

PRAYER: Thank you for not leaving us in the dark about Who You Are and thank You for the assurance that You enter this new year with us and that nothing it holds is hidden from Your sight or beyond Your control. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 9/30/21 – Recognizing Jesus

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. – Luke 1:39-41

Scripture tells us that people have entertained angels unknowingly.  I know people who suspect that they have seen/entertained angels.  Whether they actually have or not, I can’t say. 

I find it interesting that when Mary went to the home of her cousin, Elizabeth, the first human being to recognize the presence of the Messiah (still unborn) was another unborn baby.  Why should that have been the case? 

I can’t say.  Why was it John, not Elizabeth, who first recognized the presence of the Messiah?  Could it have been because the babe, as yet unborn, was not yet guilty of personal sin and could recognize the Pure One whereas due to sin, Elizabeth (and everyone else that Mary talked with) didn’t? 

And further, why is it that we don’t leap for joy when we hear his name?  Has our worship become so restricted and “tame” that we are ashamed to do so?  Or have we, akin to the church in Laodicea, lost our first love and grown lukewarm? 

I know the day will come when we – and even those who now deny His identity – will all hear his name and will bend the knee and confess His Lordship.  Yet it must be much more of a delight to the Lord when people leap and rejoice in worship to Him than when they will be forced to acknowledge His identity.

PRAYER: Lord, I want to learn to worship you more fully, with more joy!  Warm my heart again with the wonder of Your Presence, the amazement at Your extended grace, and the magnificence of Your Lordship!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 1/15/19: His DNA

DayBreaks for 1/15/20: His DNA

From the DayBreaks Archive, January 2010:

Lee Eclov told this story, shared by permission of the Foote family:

“In August, 2009, we got a rather amazing email from my wife’s youngest brother, Jon. Six or seven years ago, when Jon and his wife, Lori, were working with a youth group in Nebraska, they met Amanda—a teenage girl the same age as their son, Wesley. Amanda came from a terribly abusive home and was eventually taken from her parents by the state. She has been part of Jon and Lori’s family ever since.

“After conferring with their two sons, Jon and Lori legally adopted Amanda. She is 22, and her name is now Amanda Foote. She will even get a new birth certificate! Now Jon and Lori have three legal heirs, and Amanda has two new brothers. She no longer has any legal claim upon her former parents, who disowned her—nor they upon her. The process was relatively simple.

“They had thought of Amanda as their daughter for a long time, but I asked if anything felt different after that day at the courthouse. Jon said, “Absolutely! When it was official there was a huge change in Lori and me—sort of like when you see your newborn for the first time. And for Amanda, there was a change in her, too. Now she knew she belonged. She knew we were her parents.”

“The beauty of it all made me offer a word of thanks to the way-clearing of our Elder Brother Jesus, God’s Beloved Son. God has given us a new name (his), a new legal standing (we are his responsibility and his heirs), and a new family (brothers and sisters in Christ, and God as our true Father). But God went even further. He gave us something that Jon and Lori can’t give Amanda. God gave us his Holy Spirit. In some ways it’s like God gives us his DNA. But even more than that, God implants in us his heart, his mind, his passion, his holiness—and people even look at us and say, “My how you bear a striking resemblance to your Father!”

Today in courts all over the world, DNA is used to prove relationships or identity.  When you think about it, isn’t that what the Holy Spirit is within us?  In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. – Ephesians 1:13-14 Our inheritance is assured because of our Paternity, and the Holy Spirit is the guarantee, the identifying method if you will, that shows we are His.

PRAYER: Thank You, Lord, for the incomparable gift of your Holy Spirit that You have placed within us.  Teach us to hear His voice and follow His leading!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright by 2020 by Galen C. Dalrymple.  ><}}}”>

 

DayBreaks for 10/4/19 – He Knows Your Name

DayBreaks for 10/04/19: He Knows Your Name

From the DayBreaks archive, September 2009:

A true story: “A guy walked into a little corner store with a shotgun and demanded all the cash from the cash drawer.  After the cashier put the cash in the bag, the robber saw a bottle of scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the shelf.  He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well, but he refused and said, ‘Because I don’t believe you are over 21.’  The robber said he was, but the clerk still refused to give it to him because he didn’t believe him.  At this point the robber took his driver’s license out of his wallet and gave it to the clerk.  The clerk looked it over and agreed that the man was in fact over 21 and he put the scotch in the bag.  The robber then ran from the store with his loot.  The cashier promptly called the police and gave the name and address of the robber that he got off the license.  They arrested the robber two hours later.”

If I’d been the clerk, I probably would have forgotten the name and address before I could tell it to the cops.  We have probably all experienced times when someone forgot our name.  It’s embarrassing for everyone when that happens.

Have you ever thought about what it will be like to stand before God?  Have you ever wondered if there will be a “foul up” in heaven and that out of all mankind that has ever lived, you will be the only one whose name should have been found in the book of life (Rev. 20:12) but wasn’t?  That somewhere, just as in a human courthouse, there will have been a transcription error and your name will be missing?

It won’t happen!!!  Never!  You see, God knows you, He calls you by name, He knows every word that has ever been in your mouth before you spoke it, He knows how many hairs there are on your head at any moment in the day or night.

Consider Isaiah 49:14-16a: But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.’  Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you!  See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands….

Though I might forget someone else’s name, I’d never ever forget my child’s name!  You see, God knows a whole lot more about you than you do about your own children, and He never has amnesia or Alzheimer’s disease.  What’s even better than all that: he loves you with a love that will never go away, grow weak or get tired.

Your name will be written there if you have believed and trusted in Christ…He knows you (that’s good news!!!) and He loves you, too!  Rejoice today knowing that He does!

I am not now, nor will I ever be, a stranger to God!

PRAYER: May we find complete and utter rest in knowing that You know us and we are not strangers to You!

Copyright by 2019 by Galen C. Dalrymple.  ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 9/16/19 – Two Appropriate Thoughts

From the DayBreaks archive, September 2009:

My wife and I live outside of the glare of city lights, about 5 miles from the closest town.  We feel very blessed with the peace and quiet of this place.  On occasion on warm summer nights, I go out onto the deck and just stare up at the skies.  You can see far more stars here than in town.  It is possible to see the milky scatter that is called the Milky Way as it stretches across the sky. 

Just the other night as I lay there gazing up, I was struck by several thoughts.  I am always totally amazed at the vast distances involved in the universe.  I thought about the deep, absolute cold of outer space.  I thought about the huge amounts of nothingness that presents itself through the absence of any sign of light.  And, I thought about the incredible fact that some of the “stars” I perceived as a single point of light are really extremely distant galaxies that are composed of billions (some say as many as 350,000,000,000) of stars.  What appears tiny may indeed be exceedingly massive. 

I also always find myself repeating David’s question as I stare into this vastness: What is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him?  And I ask myself: Why, God, do You think of and take notice of ME? 

God, of course, didn’t have to make the universe so vast.  In fact, He didn’t have to make it large at all.  He could have been content with just creating a nice little cozy solar system for us to live in.  That would have been impressive enough!  We don’t even understand all that happens on our planet, let alone in our solar system.  They mysteries and wonder are deep, indeed. 

Once again, Francis Chan found himself wondering about the same thing.  “Why would God create more than 350,000,000,000 galaxies (and this is a conservative estimate) that generations of people never saw or even knew existed?  Do you think maybe it was to make us say, ‘Wow, God is unfathomably big?  Or perhaps God wanted us to see these pictures so that our response would be, ‘Who do I think I am?’”

The Bible tells us that God is unfathomably big and powerful.  And it amazingly tells us that He does in fact notice and care about us as individuals, that we matter GREATLY to Him – each and every one of us.  Perhaps, as Chan suggests, the most important feeling that the universe should stir in us is to put us in our place when we are thinking too highly of ourselves. 

Space should make us feel small, for we are infinitesimally small in comparison to the universe.  Our God holds all that exists in the palm of His hand.  We need to be reminded of that when we’re too puffed up and feeling hoity-toity.  If the universe makes us feel small, when we compare ourselves (our wisdom, goodness, knowledge, capabilities, etc.) to God, may we all be led to view the skies with wonder and ask, “Who do I think I am?”

PRAYER: For the wonder of your creation, we thank you.  For the way you feel about us and love us, we adore you.  When we start to get too big for our shoes, keep us humble before You!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright by 2019 by Galen C. Dalrymple.  ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 01/01/2019: Live the Power

Generators inside Hoover Dam. See the tiny human to the lower right. 

From the DayBreaks archive, December 2008:

I am fascinated by power – not political or positional power, but energy. I’ve never been to Niagara Falls but only seen it from flying overhead. I’ve been told by those who’ve been there that the power of the water rushing over the falls is awesome. Hoover Dam houses 17 generators that are over 70 feet tall weighing over 2000 tons each. It takes about three years to assemble each generator. The moving part of each generator weighs over 800 tons and spins 3 times per second (180 times a minute!) Together, they generate over 2000 megawatts of energy (unless my math is wrong, that’s 2 billion watts). Pretty heady stuff. But it’s nothing compared to what’s being built just over the hill from us at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It’s call the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and will be by far the most powerful laser in the world. Actually, it will be composed of 192 lasers when completed. Get this: the NIF will be able to generate 500 TRILLION watts of energy, a figure that is 100 times the total US generating capacity as of today. But there’s a tiny catch…that level of power will only be sustainable for 4 billionths of a second.

Here’s a story about another kind of power: “Christian Herter was the governor of Massachusetts, running for a second term in office. After a busy morning kissing babies and chasing votes, he arrived at a church BBQ in his honor. Late in the afternoon, he was famished. Moving down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person. “Excuse me,” Governor Herter said, “do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?” “Sorry,” the woman told him. “I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person.” “But I’m starved,” the governor said. “Sorry,” the woman said again. “Only one per customer.” Governor Herter, a modest/unassuming man, decide that this time he’d throw his weight around a little. “Do you know who I am?” he said. “I’m the governor of this state.” “Do you know who I am?” the woman said. “I’m the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister.”

This lady had power and authority because she knew who she was and what she was supposed to do. Have you ever thought about what the world would be like if we Christians ever really understood WHO and WHAT we are in Christ?! If we ever grasp the truth of our sonship/daughtership – look out world! In Titus 2:15 Paul encourages Titus to teach, encourage and rebuke with all authority and not to let anyone despise us. We need to be courageous and take a stand and refuse to be despised! Then, 2 Tim. 1:7 says God’s Spirit doesn’t make cowards out of us. The Spirit gives us power, love and self-control. Do you live like you believe that?

When Satan comes through life’s serving line and wants things from us – let’s agree to tell him to “move along, mister!” We don’t have to take (or give) anything to him! Live in the power of the Spirit in 2019!

PRAYER: Father, may we come to appreciate and realize who we are, and what we are becoming, in Christ!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright by 2019 by Galen C. Dalrymple.  ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 9/20/18 – Signing With Your Real Name

From the DayBreaks archive, September 2008:

From Bizarre News, 9/8/08: Iowa City, Iowa – “Police say an Iowa man accused of credit card theft forgot who he was supposed to be and allegedly signed his real name on credit card slips. Kody David Merrival, 21, of Iowa City, Iowa, was arrested after an unidentified man told police that his wallet had been stolen and his credit cards were being used, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reported Thursday. Police say Merrival allegedly used the card for his own account at a coffee house in the city and signed his real name on a slip for a carton of cigarettes, the Press-Citizen reported. Police caught up with him when he allegedly tried to make a purchase at a deli. Merrival, who allegedly confessed to using the credit card but denied stealing the wallet, has been charged with an aggravated misdemeanor, the Press- Trust reported.”

OK, no Iowa jokes, OK?  It is my home state where I was born.  But, you have to admit, it appears that not everyone in Iowa is very bright.  Perhaps Mr. Merrival was born in Nebraska(???) 

It’s interesting how so many criminals try to hide their identity.  I’m sure that most of them do it because they don’t want to be caught, but part of me wonders if they perhaps are also ashamed and don’t want anyone to know who they are for that reason as well.  Regardless, in a case of fraudulent use of a credit card, it’s not unusual to use a fake name.  For a while, unless the criminal is really not very smart, they can get away with it.  For a while, they don’t have to be accountable for their actions and cheating.

Judgment day will be a bit of a different story.  On that day, when the great and small alike stand before the Almighty, there won’t be fake credit cards, there won’t be any masks to cover any faces.  We will all have to sign with our real name when the time comes.  The time will have come, as the saying goes, to “pay the piper.”  What a relief it will be for believers to know that the payment has been made and we will have nothing to fear.

PRAYER: Please keep us from being frauds, Lord.  Let us be genuine and honest, providing honest things in the sight of all people and especially You.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

COPYRIGHT 2018 by Galen C. Dalrymple. All rights reserved.

DayBreaks for 7/31/18 – Living an Accidental Life

From the DayBreaks archive, July 2008:

From one day to the next, we form plans only to find that the day seldom goes as we’d planned.  Some things that we set out to do actually get done more or less as we’d planned them, but if your day is like mine, there are more unplanned things that happen in my life every day than I could ever anticipate.  There are interruptions that are totally unexpected – phone calls, drop-in visits, unforeseen actions by others that totally change the trajectory of my day.  It will happen to you today – bet on it.

There are many who live life this way on purpose, I believe – whose lives seem to careen from one accident to another.  And, if you buy the current thinking, I suppose it makes perfect sense.  As Neil Postman said about the scientific view of life and origins, in Science and the Story That We Need to Tell: “In the end, science does not provide the answers most of us require.  Its story of our origins and our end is, to say the least, unsatisfactory.  To the question, ‘How did it all begin’, science answers, ‘Probably by an accident.’  To the question, ‘How will it all end?’, science answers ‘Probably by an accident.’  And to many people, the accidental life is not worth living.”

Are you content thinking that your existence here on earth is purely accidental?  That when this world is all done with, that it will have all been an accident?  That your children happen to be yours by accident?  That whatever you achieve in life isn’t really an accomplishment, but an accident?  Where is there any hope or meaning in living an accidental life?

God has a much different view.  We are not accidents – God knew us before we were born.  The universe is not an accident, your mind is not an accident, your family and children are not accidents. 

Yes, we make our plans, and our days are full of what seem to be accidental encounters and events.  We can believe that if we choose.  But I, for one, cannot find any meaning in that, nor comfort.  I choose not to life an accidental life – or at the very least, to believe that my life – and yours, are not accidents, but rather generated in the thoughts and purposes of God.

PRAYER:  With each person that we meet and each event that crosses our pathway, may we seek Your purpose and wisdom!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

COPYRIGHT 2018 by Galen C. Dalrymple. All rights reserved.

DayBreaks for 7/25/18 – What Will He Call You?

NOTE: Galen is on vacation this week and may be unable to respond to email.

From the DayBreaks archive, July 2008:

Two brothers, laboring together under the sun, the glare of that orb dancing off the surface of the lake nearly blinds them as they pull in their nets.  The sweat is beaded on their brow, their clothes smell of fish, their tunics are soaked with perspiration.  The muscles in their arms are corded and well defined from years of physical labor, casting and hauling nets over and over and over.

All their lives they only thought they’d be fishermen.  They worked with their father as was often the case in that time, and he, too, was a fisherman.  It was the company business, and their hopes were to continue to live simply and make a decent living to feed their growing families.  They were most likely very simple men who were content with a simple home and family, a boat that didn’t leak and nets that were filled with shiny, writhing fish.  They were the sons of Zebedee, better known as John and James.  Good, solid citizens, good fathers, good workers. 

Then, one day, Jesus was walking along the lake and called Peter and Andrew to be disciples.  Then he saw this second pair of brothers and he invited them to join him, too.  Jesus must like fishermen and the kind of hearts that they have.  After all, he wanted people who could fish for men and women. 

After spending some time with Jesus, we’re told in Mark 3:17 that Jesus calls them by another moniker, “the sons of thunder.”  Who were these men?  Were they simple fishermen or were they sons of thunder?  I’m convinced that Jesus called them that because he saw who and what they really were.  The “sons of thunder” was their real identity – it was their real nature.  They might look to everyone else like fishermen who have forgotten how to fish and who are not working, but to Jesus, they were the “sons of Thunder!”

Revelation 2:17 (NASB) says He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.  What’s the point?  Jesus sees all of us – past all the external trappings, the family names, the things we do – and sees who we really are.  And some day, we’ll know the name that He has for us. 

Until then, it might be worth asking ourselves, “If Jesus picks a name for me based on what I’m really like, what would that name be?”  

PRAYER:  It is good to remember, Lord, that you see us as we are, not as we wish we were or hope to someday be like!  Thank You that You see us as completed beings of glory rather than simply creatures who have cast Your glory aside.  We wait, Lord, with anticipation, to know our new names!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

COPYRIGHT 2018 by Galen C. Dalrymple. All rights reserved.

DayBreaks for 5/23/18 – Defining Ourselves

From the DayBreaks archive, May 2008:

Just who, by the way, do you think you are?  I mean, who ARE you?  I know some of you by name, some only by email addresses, and some of you are close personal friends.  But if someone were to come up to you this day and inquire of you, “Who are you?”, how would you define yourself?  And how would others that you know define themselves?

There are those, atheists and agnostics and some of the intellectual elite who might resort to biological classification to answer the question: “I am a homo sapiens.”  They wouldn’t be wrong.  Others, who might be a bit more technical and who find that giving the obvious answer is too boring, might say something like this: “I am a featherless biped,” i.e., a two-footed walking creature that walks upright without feathers.  When you think about it, that’s not inaccurate either.  Off hand, I can’t think of any other two-footed creature that always walks upright other than humans and birds.  So, that’s a valid definition, but decidedly less than exciting. 

Christians have a different perspective, hopefully.  If someone asked you who you are, I’d hope that you’d say something about being made in God’s image.  You might delve into what that means and the implications of it, and that would be good.

It seems, however, that when it comes for us to respond to what God calls us to be and do, that we tend to define ourselves at the lowest possible level – we define ourselves minimally as “featherless bipeds,” and we’re content to live with that rather that to be maximally defined as being constructed in the image of God and living in that reality. 

What difference does it make how we define ourselves?  If we are featherless bipeds, and if that is all we really are, then it really doesn’t make much difference how we define ourselves.  But if we are maximally defined, then God certainly expects something more from us than He does from a sparrow or starling. 

To be made in His image means we have great obligations, great opportunities – and great possibilities.  The question is whether or not we will live up to them!

PRAYER:  Help us understand, Father, the great privilege and honor You have placed upon our shoulders.  Help us to also realize that it is You who gives our lives definition – and not we ourselves!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

COPYRIGHT 2018 by Galen C. Dalrymple. All rights reserved.