DayBreaks for the Week of 3/25/25 – The Lesson of the Thief

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”^[1] – Luke 23:39-43

I don’t know about you, but in this verse, I find great reason for hope. Here was a man who had lived a criminal life. What his explicit crimes were are not mentioned in Luke, though some think he may have also been a murderer. Suffice it to say that he was not a good man and had not lived a good life.

Yet still, at the end of that day, the man’s soul was in Paradise with Jesus.

What did this man have to recommend himself to the Judge of all the earth? Nothing. He could not point to righteous deeds. He could not, it would seem, even point to a life lived while trying to be righteous and pious. He had nothing in his hands with which to stand before his Maker.

But he had two things, and two things only, going for him. Firstly, Jesus had given his word to the man about his destiny. And this is the Jesus who has never broken a promise.

Secondly, even as Jesus spoke the words of comfort, he blood was paying for that man’s sins – every single one of them. And with that, the man’s forgiveness was purchased.

I suppose that being Jesus, he had the right to save the man without shedding of his blood. After all, he had the right to dictate the terms of salvation, did he not? But he didn’t do that. He knew that forgiveness of sin required blood – His blood.

Maybe you are sitting there smugly, thinking to yourself, “But I’m a good man”, or “I’m a good woman.” Not you are not. You are not good. Romans 3:10b-12 puts it as bluntly as possible: None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.

You are not good. I am not good. Not a one of us is. Jesus would himself refuse to be called good, saying only the Father was good. How dare we think we are good when Christ had to die for us!

I am a believer – have been for many, many years. But I know in my heart that I am still not good. There are too many kindnesses I have failed to show. I’ve been too selfish. I’m too prideful. My thoughts are filled with evil. I have not been kind when I should have. I am, bluntly, a sinner. But thank God, I’m like the criminal on the cross – an evil man forgiven by a gracious God who died for my every sin. That is the lesson of the thief on the cross: it is not good men or women who go to heaven, but forgiven men and women.

PRAYER: Holy Father, thank you for this lesson in humility and for your great forgiveness and grace that also saves us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2024 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Copyright 2022 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 5/15/22: A Mountain of Mercy

On a recent Sunday as we were singing, I looked around the auditorium and spotted one of our teens.  She wasn’t singing.  It caught my attention because she is usually quite animated and energized by the worship and the music.  She looked troubled.  I watched her for a moment and soon found myself transported back a number of years to when I was her age.  I remembered how there were times at church when I, too, was quiet.  The reason: I was deeply troubled by some sin in my life. 

I remember being deeply convicted by some sin in my life, a sin that haunted me, a sin that made me feel as if I couldn’t qualify for God’s forgiveness, that never again would I be able to run to Him and call Him “Father”.  And as the invitation was offered, I found myself (on many occasions) “going forward”, desperately seeking His forgiveness, a sense of cleansing and release from the guilt that I felt.  And inevitably, I found it. 

As I think back now about those times of deep conviction, and as I looked at this young lady in our worship service (not knowing what was going on in her heart or life), I couldn’t help but feel that she was struggling with guilt much as I had done long ago.  In looking back at my life now, those were times of great value.  I was right: I could never qualify for God’s forgiveness by working at it harder, by being more righteous.  I could only claim His promise of love for me, of the forgiveness He extended to me through the blood of His Son. 

But I find myself today in a different state of life in terms of my walk with Christ.  When I was young, I felt the weight of my sin very deeply.  Do I still feel it today?  Yes, but in a different way.  At that time in my life, I was focused on MY sin, on MY guilt, on MY despair and failure, on MY determination to try harder to try to prove myself worthy, to gain His favor.  Now, I’ve lived long enough to know that those early spiritual failures were just the beginning.  I’ve lived long enough now that I’ve committed a mountain of sins.  They are ugly and offensive to God.  They are,   but there is a mountain of mercy that I’ve experienced as a result of understanding Romans 9:14-16 –For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

My standing before God is not based on anything I can do or say to gain his favor.  My standing is based on Christ’s sacrifice, and on God’s mercy.  My desire to serve Him can be as great as anyone’s desire to serve Him.  My effort can be huge – but that won’t earn me His mercy.  The mountain of His mercy looms over all my sin.

If there is a message I’d like to share with that young woman, it would be this: Yes, sin is awful and ugly.  But there is a mountain of mercy, a rock of refuge to Whom we can run.  He awaits us there!

PRAYER: Father, teach us to run to you for refuge, filled with confident hope! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2022 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the week of 4/03/22: Verdict Overturned

DayBreaks for the Week of 4/03/22 – Verdict Overturned

From Lee Eclov, Preaching Today:

“As a kid did you ever play that game where you lean over, put your forehead on a baseball bat and circle it three times? Then when you try to walk you stagger and stumble like a drunken sailor. Ministry has been a lot like that the last couple of years.

“John wrote his first Epistle to Christians dizzied by false teaching. What he says to all believers is especially helpful to us as pastors. Top of the list:

This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. … we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (1 John 3:11, 16)

“When our heads are spinning and our hearts are bewildered, love is how we walk a straight line. People matter more than things. The person in front of you matters more than the crowd. Welcome the little ones in Jesus’ name. Search for the one lost sheep.

“Another dizzy-maker is failure to love others, perhaps by our sharp words, inattention, or gracelessness. How can we shepherd on when we’ve hurt our flock? Pastor John tells us,

If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. (v. 20)

“Our hearts are like a court rendering a guilty verdict, but there is a higher court. It is not that our heart was wrong but that we did not “know everything.” While we might fear that facing God’s high court would be the death of us, it is not so because God not only knows everything we’ve done but, more importantly, everything that Christ has done on our behalf. Our heart’s verdict is overturned.”

PRAYER: Father, how grateful I am that you are greater than my heart and that you overturn my own heart’s verdict and have declared me free of sin and guilt because of the work of your son, Jesus! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2022 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for 1/03/22 – The Victory of Grace

From the DayBreaks archive:

On New Year’s Day, my wife and I went to see Les Miserables, the movie that was released on Christmas day.  We knew the story well, having seen the musical on stage at least 3 times. I know of no musical that can rival it for either the music or message. 

The first time we went to see the play, Les Miserables, was the night that allied forces launched the first Gulf war against Iraq.  The first bombs had fallen just before we left for the play.  From the time I first hear about it, my mind was captivated by the imaginings of brave men and women in harm’s way at those moments.  It made Les Mis all the more relevant during the scenes at the barricade (and leading up to the scene of the fighting of the revolutionaries for freedom.) 

Today, as I watched the movie, I was more struck than ever about the dynamic portrayal of law versus mercy and grace.  Javert is the epitome of one who has lived his life by not just the spirit of the law, but the letter of it as well.  Once himself from “the gutter”, he believes it has been his adherence to the law that has raised him up to a position of influence and power.  He sees himself as a better human than the main character, Jean Valjean, a convicted thief who changed his ways after he received an undeserved act of mercy and grace from the bishop.  Valjean has not earned the blessings he received and Javert is intent on putting him back in his place for years ago breaking parole. 

I can identify with both men.  I was raised in an extremely legalistic church that was all about the things we couldn’t do because we were tasked to obey.  If you sinned, you were at risk of eternal hellfire if you didn’t have a chance to pray and seek forgiveness between the time you sinned and the time you died.  It is, to put it bluntly, a terrible, terrible way to live. 

Then, thanks to new eyes during a study of Romans, and the writings of Philip Yancey and Brennan Manning, I came to learn about mercy and grace.  Living under an umbrella of God’s mercy and God’s grace is a much better way to live…and it sets one free!

Perhaps the most comforting verse in all Scripture to me is this from James 2:12-13:  Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!

And so it is in the movie: Javert takes his own life rather than believing in and accepting the truth of grace.  Valjean dies in peace, knowing that though he was a flawed man with many faults and failings, that if one human could show to another the kind of grace he received from the bishop, then the grace of God must be of infinity magnitude.  With such knowledge, he breathes his last.

If you are struggling with a version of “performance Christianity”, I beg of you to see Les Miserables, then go home and read Romans, then Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace and Brennan Manning’s Ragamuffin Gospel and Ruthless Trust.  Let mercy and grace prevail.  If James was inspired when he wrote what he did (and I believe he was), not even on the day of Judgment will law triumph over grace.   

PRAYER: May we throw ourselves with reckless abandon into Your waiting arms of love, mercy and grace, there to wait mercy’s ultimate victory over Judgment…all because of the blood of the Lamb!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 12/02/21 – An Indifferent God?

“I don’t care.” “It doesn’t matter to me.” Those are both expressions of indifference. Sometimes those can be received by the listener as good news because now they can choose what they want without concern. But on the other hand, it can drive others crazy because they think you just really don’t care! I drive my wife crazy with my “I don’t care” statements. She’ll ask, “Where do you want to eat?” or “What do you want to do Saturday?” and my “I don’t care” statement to her seems to suggest that I don’t care about spending time with her or that I’m trying to be self-sacrificing but may harbor resentments inside.

Imagine our plight if God looked at what happened in the Garden and shrugged his mighty shoulders and said, “I don’t care” and just walked away from us and our desperate need!

Thank God (literally!) he is not that kind of God. He does care. “…He is deeply moved by our need of Him,” assures Karl Barth.

Barth continued: “Is this perhaps the casualness and condescension of a great ruler, occasionally bending down to the man in the street? Not in the least. He takes our place and surrenders Himself for us, thereby binding Himself to us and compromising Himself once for all. He is the God of Christmas of whom we sing:  “A tiny child and poor He came, To give us mercy’s blessing.” This is the height and depth, the ultimate and eternal power and glory of the almighty Lord; He has mercy on us.”

He has mercy on us – have more meaningful words, words that give us solid reason for hope – ever been spoken? This is the wonder of Advent, the wonder of the Incarnation, the wonder of all time.

PRAYER: Thank you, Father, that you have mercy on us! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 6/18/21 – A Myth of Incalulable Harm

NOTE: Galen is out of the office until 6/28 so we’re featuring DayBreaks from the past.

“There is a myth flourishing in the church today that has caused incalculable harm – once converted, fully converted.  In other words, once I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior, an irreversible, sinless future beckons.  Discipleship will be an untarnished success story, life will be an unbroken upward spiral toward holiness.  Tell that to poor Peter who, after three times professing his love for Jesus on the beach and after receiving the fullness of the Spirit at Pentecost, was still jealous of Paul’s apostolic success.

“We want ever-sharp spirituality (push-pull, click-click – one saint that quick) and attempt to cultivate a particular virtue at a given point in time.  Prudence in January, humility in February, fortitude in March, temperance in April.  Score cards are provided for toting up gains and losses.  The losses should diminish if you expect to meet charity in May.  Sometimes May never comes.  For many Christians, life is a long January.

“Because salvation is by grace through faith, I believe that among the countless number of people standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands (Rev. 7:9), I shall see…the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorse but did the best she could faced with grueling alternatives; the businessman besieged with debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions…the deathbed convert who for decades had his cake and ate it, broke every law of God and man…

“But how?” we ask.  Then the voice says, “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

“There they are.  There WE are – the multitude who so wanted to be faithful, who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by trials, wearing the bloodied garments of life’s tribulations, but through it all clung to the faith.

“My friends, if this is not good news to you, you have never understood the gospel of grace.”  – Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

Have you known someone who has bought into this destructive myth?  It may have been toward themselves – they become a Christian but immediately get discouraged as they find that their old temptations, like old friends, are waiting for them as they walk out the church building door.  Or it may be evident in the attitude of a so-called “mature” Christian and their lack of mercy and patience with other Christians – be they new believers or old.  They might be tempted to say: “You should be farther along in your Christian walk by now.  What’s wrong with you?”

Revelation 7:9 – “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.”

May God keep us all from judgmental attitudes and a lack of patience with one another.  God will complete His work with us in HIS time and on HIS timetable.

PRAYER: We want perfection, and we expect it in ourselves, sometimes, Lord.  When we don’t see it in ourselves, we get discouraged.  When we don’t see it in others, we get judgmental.  Please forgive us all our transgressions, even the ones that seem to be driven by holy motives! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 6/11/21 – Lessons in Human Nature #1

NOTE: Galen is out of the office until 6/28 so we’re featuring DayBreaks from the past.

Mt. 27:48-49 – One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. But the rest said, “Wait! Let’s see whether Elijah comes to save him.”

For some time now, I have been spending my daily quiet time in the gospels, seeking to know Him better, to understand how He acted and what He did – and why.  In the process, we are often forced to confront our human nature as portrayed by the humans who interacted with Him in the days of His humiliation.

Matthew 27 has several such instances.  In the text above, Jesus has already been nailed to the cross and is nearing the moment of his death.  He has just cried out, asking why God has forsaken him.  Some of the people standing around thought he was calling for Elijah.  One ran to get a sponge with sour wine.  Why?  I’m not sure, but it would appear to have been a gesture that shows some genuine concern over his suffering – with the sour wine being a sort of pain killer. 

But notice what the others do: they refuse to give anything to Jesus that might ease  his suffering in any way.  They thought he’d been calling for Elijah and they are more interested in seeing if Elijah is going to come than in easing the suffering of the man who was suffering on the cross.

It seems that as humans our curiosity sometimes trumps our compassion. We who carry and wear His name and who claim allegiance to His cause are appalled by such callousness.  We think we would never be callous to the suffering of Jesus.  But is that an accurate assessment?  I don’t think so.  How sensitive are we to the pain our sin causes Him?  Is it enough to cause us to cease and desist?  Or does our curiosity with sin and the way we dabble in it of higher importance to us than the pain we cause Him?  Alas, it is far easier for us to engage in theological trivialities and to ignore his suffering on the cross because of our sin.

Likewise, if we see people suffering and turn away, we’re like the priests and Levites of the Good Samaritan story and we’ve failed to give the cup of cold water to ease the suffering of someone made in his image.

PRAYER: Jesus, we would like to believe that we would do anything to prevent you pain, but I fear that when it comes to our sinfulness that we are blind to the pain it causes you. Make our hearts more sensitive and may our eyes fill with tears for how we have hurt you so many times.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2021, Galen C. Dalrymple, all rights reserved. ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 5/13/21 – A Mountain of Mercy

DayBreaks for 5/13/21: A Mountain of Mercy

From the DayBreaks Archive, May 2002:

On a recent Sunday as we were singing, I looked around the auditorium and spotted one of our teens.  She wasn’t singing.  It caught my attention because she is usually quite animated and energized by the worship and the music.  She looked troubled.  I watched her for a moment and soon found myself transported back a number of years to when I was her age.  I remembered how there were times at church when I, too, was quiet.  The reason: I was deeply troubled by some sin in my life. 

I remember being deeply convicted by that sin, a sin that haunted me, a sin that made me feel as if I couldn’t ever qualify for God’s forgiveness, that never again would I be able to run to Him and call Him “Father”.  And as the invitation was offered, I found myself (on many occasions) “going forward”, desperately seeking His forgiveness, a sense of cleansing and release from the guilt that I felt.  And inevitably, I found it. 

As I think back now about those times of deep conviction, and as I looked at this young lady in our worship service (not knowing what was going on in her heart or life), I couldn’t help but feel that she was struggling with guilt much as I had done long ago.  In looking back at my life now, those were times of great value.  I was right: I could never qualify for God’s forgiveness by working at it harder, by being more righteous.  I could only claim His promise of love for me, of the forgiveness He extended to me through the blood of His Son. 

But I find myself today in a different state of life in terms of my walk with Christ.  When I was young, I felt the weight of my sin very deeply.  Do I still feel it today?  Yes, but in a different way.  At that time in my life, I was focused on MY sin, on MY guilt, on MY despair and failure, on MY determination to try harder to try to prove myself worthy, to gain His favor.  Now, I’ve lived long enough to know that those early spiritual failures were just the beginning.  I’ve lived long enough now that I’ve committed a mountain of sins.  They are ugly and offensive to God.  They are.  But there is a mountain of mercy that I’ve experienced as a result of understanding Romans 9:15-16 – For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” 

My standing before God is not based on anything I can do or say to gain his favor.  My standing is based on Christ’s sacrifice, and on God’s mercy.  My desire to serve Him can be as great as anyone’s desire to serve Him.  My effort can be huge – but that won’t earn me His mercy.  The mountain of His mercy looms over all my sin.

If there is a message I’d like to share with that young woman, it would be this: Yes, sin is awful and ugly.  But there is a mountain of mercy, a rock of refuge to Whom we can run.  He awaits us there!

PRAYER: Father, I give you thanks for your mountain of mercy that overshadows all my sin! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 4/01/21 – When Only the Infinite Will Suffice

How many sins have been committed since the first one in the garden? More personally, how many sins am I guilty of – both of commission and omission – in my lifetime?

Those who think that somehow, by doing enough good things in life, they can overcome the weight of their sin are either crazy or they simply don’t realize the deadly truth of what even one unforgiven sin can do to us. It’s rather terrifying to think about it and one can easily become paranoid and thing that there’s no sense in this thing called religion – it’s an impossible mountain to climb.

I can identify. There have been so many times in my life that I felt so desperately desperate because of my sin. Things that I kept falling into over and over and over – repeat ad nauseum. I know that I’m not alone. You’re just like me. We’re all in the same leaking, sinking boat. In the garden, Adam and Eve hadn’t committed a ton of sins before God tossed them out of the garden and death was the sentence that was pronounced. For one sin. That’s all it takes…one…little…seemingly innocent sin!

But multiply that one sin by all of my sins and all of your sins and all of humanity’s sins and it is beyond depressing.

What Minna Sundberg wrote so profoundly on March 19^th of this year is a reminder we all need at Easter or any other time when we are faced with the enormity of our sin: Sins of infinite severity can only be atoned by something of infinite value. And the only thing with infinite value is God.

That, my friends, is why only the sacrifice of God himself in the person of the Son is sufficient. That is why all the “good works” we try to build up in hopes that we’ll be “good enough” is nothing more than baloney. Each and every sin is a sin of infinite severity. And it takes something of infinite value, the blood of Christ, to atone for it.

God is not only of infinite value, he is of infinite mercy and love. Therein is not only our hope, but our firm confidence!

PRAYER: We confess our utter unworthiness for the sacrifice you made for us. We cower in shame at our sinfulness before your cross but see only love in your eyes as you look upon us. Thank you for not just thinking of how to save us, but of actually giving that which was and is of infinite value to redeem us from our sin! In Jesus’ name, Amen.Copyright 2021, Galen C. Dalrymple. ><}}}”>