DayBreaks for the Week of 5/21/23 – It’s Not an Either/Or World

It is so easy to forget that what we see and experience every day, while real, isn’t really that important.  How many of the things that you do and decide today will matter 100 years from now?  OK, maybe that’s a bit too far out.  How many will really make a difference in 10 years?  5 years?  Next year?  See what I mean?  We are so fixated on what we can see, rather than on what is most important.  We see ourselves as physical beings.  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin tried to correct that incorrect perception when he suggested that “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”  Well put.

But, because we see ourselves as human beings, rather than spiritual ones, we have a tendency to think that what we do each day doesn’t really make a very big difference in things at all.  We are wrong.  “To his followers, Jesus hinted at the effect they were having on the world beyond their vision.  ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven,’ he told one group as they returned from a mission trip. They had been walking over hot sand, knocking on doors, asking to see the sick, announcing the coming of Jesus.  All their actions took place in the visible world, which they could touch, smell and see.  Jesus, with supernatural insight, saw that those actions in the visible world were having a startling impact on the invisible world.

“The world we live in is not an either/or world.  What I do as a Christian – praying, worshiping, demonstrating God’s love to the sick, needy, and imprisoned – is not exclusively supernatural or natural, but both working at the same time.  Perhaps if Jesus stood in the flesh beside me, murmuring phrases like ‘I saw Satan fall’ whenever I acted in his name, I would remember better the connections between the two worlds.”  – Philip Yancey, Rumors of Another World

The real answer to the questions I asked earlier about what difference your decisions and actions today will have on the future is that none of us really know, only God.  But my guess is that they are a lot more important than we’ll ever know in this world.  They may affect someone’s eternity – either for good or for bad.  What you say today has heavenly weight.  What you do today has eternal implications.  This world, and our actions in it, are inextricably linked to the next. 

Sobering, isn’t it?

Luke 10:18-20 (NIV)  – He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.  However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

PRAYER: Father, give us the wisdom to live wisely in this world, to remember that what we do every single day has eternal implications. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2023 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 5/14/23: Tests and Testimonies

When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. He saw them being battered as they rowed, because the wind was against them. Around three in the morning He came toward them walking on the sea and wanted to pass by them. When they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw Him and were terrified. – Mark 6:47-50a

Isn’t it interesting how you can know a bible story from the time you were a child and only when you’re old do you notice something new?

If you missed it when you read through the passage above, read it again.

The disciples are in a boat, fighting against a fierce storm. They are on a mission that Jesus told them to undertake: to get to the other side of the sea of Galilee. They weren’t doing this on their own, but by the command of the lord of sea and sky. You might be tempted to think that if you’re on a mission commanded by God that it would go easy. Don’t be on it. In fact, count on it being difficult. But that’s not what struck me.

It says that Jesus saw them “and wanted to pass by”. What?!?!? Jesus was intending to pass them by and leave them in the storm! How did Mark know that? It can only be because Jesus at some point told the disciples about his intentions.

Why would Jesus do that? Why wouldn’t he make the journey easy for them? I think there’s a very good reason: before there can be a testimony of the power, love, and goodness of Jesus, there must first be a test. No test, no testimony. If Jesus had just kept walking across the water their testimony could never have included this incredible testimony to his power.

But there’s more good news: when they called out to in their terror, he changed his plan, spoke to them, got in the boat and the storm calmed immediately. That’s what the presence of Jesus does, even when we’re in the middle of the test. All we have to do is call out and we will find him beside us.

PRAYER: Jesus, when we are in the storm we ask you to remind us we are never alone and that in the storm you have a good, good purpose. In your name, Amen.

Copyright 2023 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 10/16/22: The Fateful Journey

The other day I was driving in town and watching the cars around me. I wondered where the people inside them were headed. What was their intended destination?

Then, suddenly, out of the blue, a thought hit me with visceral force: all the people you see are heading toward death. Don’t ask me why that thought came to mind or why it struck me so strongly. Sure, we know that everyone will die – but we push that thought so far down in our conscious mind that it seldom comes to the surface. But that day it did.

For some, the exit from this life may be way down the road, but for others, it might be just around the corner. Even as we get older, we know the offramp is getting closer and closer, yet we choose not to meditate on it. The simple fact is that none of us know when we will reach the exit. But reach it we shall.

Was my mind just being maudlin? I think not. I think God wanted to impress on me that urgency of life and of finding eternal life. How many of the people that I saw driving in their cars that afternoon were on the straight and narrow and how many were on the wide, twisty road that leads to perdition? I don’t know. God does, but I don’t. And that’s why I need to take this revelation to heart – there is a job at hand for each one of us that claim the name of Christ. We aren’t here to just live out our days, and then die and go to heavenly splendor. We’re here to help others find the right road, the good road, that will lead them to eternal life and joy.

The message to me couldn’t have been much more clear: get busy telling the good news and begin living it as if you really, truly believe it, because everyone you see is driving toward death.

As a result of my experience, I’m starting by reminding myself that everyone I see is on that journey – including me and including you. I’m trying to let that awareness sink deep into my heart and the daily practice of my life in such a way that I’ll be more eager and open to share the glorious news of who Jesus is, what he is like, and what he has done for the person in the car on my left and on my right, in front of and behind me.

How close are you to the offramp of your life? Who, in the final analysis, will be able to say in glory one day that it was you who showed them the map to get to the glorious land where there is never darkness because the Lamb is the light:

PRAYER: Lord, forgive me for my blindness to the reality of the destination of all mankind and for my reluctance to tell people about Jesus. Create in my heart a true belief that the fields are white unto harvest and that you want me to be part of the plan to bring others to you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2022, Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 9/11/22: Living in God’s Reality

“Come on, get real!”  You’ve probably heard that.  In fact, I’d be willing to bet that someone has even said it to you at some point in the past.  It is usually said when someone thinks that you aren’t being realistic. 

But what constitutes reality?  The concept of what exists and what is real has captivated philosophers for thousands of years.  It might seem simple to you, but some have asked the question of human existence itself.  This search for reality led to the conclusion, “I think.  Therefore I am.”

Defining reality isn’t always easy.  Especially if you are a Christian.  Here’s what I mean: we think we know reality.  We know many of the laws of science and nature – we know that when you throw a ball in the air, it will come back down (unless you can throw it at escape velocity, which you can’t).  We know that if you push against a rock, it will exert an equal and opposite reaction in the opposite direction.  Based on the rules of thermodynamics, we know that things are winding down.  But what would happen if those things weren’t reality?

What is reality to God?  Phil Claycomb once said that “Reality is a malleable thing.  Reality doesn’t exist for God.”  What did he mean?  Simply this: as humans, we are “bound” by reality – by the rules which we can see and observe at work in nature.  But God, quite honestly, isn’t bound by any of that stuff.  Consider these examples:

FIRST: the parting of the Red Sea.  It just isn’t a realistic possibility for people to walk through a sea on dry ground with the water piled up on both sides, right?  God apparently didn’t know about that part of reality.

SECOND: the virgin birth.  It can’t happen, right?  Apparently, God didn’t know about that, either. 

THIRD: the resurrection.  People just can’t come back from the dead.  Someone apparently forgot to tell God that it couldn’t happen.  But happen it did!

Here’s the point: when it fits His sovereign purposes, God changes reality to fit His vision.  Why is that important to us?  Because it means that miracles can happen, that “reality” as we know it, can be suspended, even changed, and overruled when necessary in order to achieve what God wants. 

God will move mountains, divide the waters, and raise the dead in order to achieve His purposes – including His purpose for your life!

Jeremiah 32:27 – I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? (NIV)

PRAYER: Lord, sometime today we may be tempted to think that we are outside of Your love for us.  It is at those moments that we need You to hold us the closest so that we never forget we can never outlive or out sin Your love for us!  In Jesus’ name, Amen

Copyright 2022 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for 7/22/21 – A Purposeful Examination

From the DayBreaks archive, 2012:

This past Sunday morning, our pastor started a five-week series titled, The Church, Your Church, and You.  This week he was challenging us to think about our purpose in life.  There is the typical response that many Christians would be tempted to offer that comes from the Westminster Catechism: “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.”  I have no qualms with that statement whatsoever. 

But here’s the rub: is that really the purpose that drives my daily life, my daily actions?  Or is there another purpose for which I am living?  For many, as the pastor stated, it is happiness.  What constitutes happiness?  For some it is accumulating a certain amount of money: “If only I had $1.5 million set aside for retirement…”  From some it may be a certain degree of fame: “If I could walk into a restaurant and be recognized by everyone there for what I’ve achieved.”  For still others it could be power: “I will feel as if I’ve arrived if I were the President.”

Those don’t sound very Christian, do they?  We were invited to wrestle with the question of our life’s purpose.  I am wrestling with it very much right now.  There are times when I thought I really understood His direction and plan and felt I was in the center of it.  But when I get right down to it, when it comes to looking at how I live, how much of the purpose of my life really has to do with the American dream?  What is that dream?  It is to earn a decent living, to live comfortably, to retire when and where I want with enough money and the means to travel, live a life of leisure, and sleep late if I want to or to rise early to watch the sun rise? 

When you get right down to it, my guess is that this summarizes the ambitions that most of us have, and trying to achieve those things dominates our lives, our decisions, and our plans.  But should they?  Aren’t those really the pursuit of happiness in my life?  I think that if I pursue those things and they become a reality for me, then I will be happy. 

God says my purpose for existing isn’t to be happy.  My goal is to come to know Him, to love Him, to follow Him – to want what He wants, to become like Jesus.  And then, and only then, will I know what happiness really is.  But oh!  How I struggle to believe it!!!

If there is one area where our hearts really need to be changed (as American Christians, at least), it may be in this area.  What is it that we are truly living for?  It becomes clearer when we examine what we spend our days and nights doing, what we spend our hours pursuing, and especially, how we spend our free time – those precious hours that don’t belong to our boss. 

How about you?  What is your REAL purpose – not what you want it to be  – but what it IS?

Ecclesiastes 12:13 (NIV) – Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man.

PRAYER: Lord, I somewhat fear this question for I believe I know that the answers are not what they should be.  Still, I am grateful for your incredible patience with me.  Help me believe that knowing you, glorifying you, and enjoying you forever is my highest calling.  Help me to live my life according to those three things that I may know joy and peace as I rest in you!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 5/12/21 – Macbeth and Life’s Purpose

John 17:20-23 (CSBBible) – I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

In Act 5 scene 5 of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the character Macbeth has heard that the queen is dead and he knows his own death is imminent. At this time he delivers his famous soliloquy:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow 

creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 

To the last syllable of recorded time, 

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 

The way to dusty death. Out, Out, brief candle 

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player 

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage 

and then is heard no more. It is a tale 

Told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury 

Signifying nothing. 

Is Macbeth right? Is life nothing but a shadow having no substance, no meaning? Writers and philosophers since recorded time have tried to answer the question. I don’t think any of them have been successful in answering the question to everyone’s satisfaction. Someone once said that “Trying to speak about the ultimate reality is like sending a kiss through a messenger.” I understand their point: Something of its truth is lost in the translation.

What is the meaning of life? A philosophical question to be sure but this is not only the philosopher’s question. It is a genuinely human question and therefore a question that we all ask. It might be a question that is asked in despair or hope, out of cynicism, or out of sincere curiosity and a deep desire to have goals and guidance in life. However, we raise the question about the meaning of life, it is our most basic and fundamental question.

And so, it comes as no surprise that Jesus deals with this question and answers it. The meaning, the purpose for our existence, is to come to know Jesus and that God loves us. It’s not building up cash reserves, becoming popular or famous, it’s not building an empire of power. It’s not even about accomplishing anything. It’s simply knowing Christ as the Savior.

That may seem like a paltry meaning to life for those who seek some grandiose meaning – and in that way it is one more example of how Christ is a stumbling block to unbelievers. But there is no greater or more important thing in the universe than knowing the Savior. There are approximately 2/3rds of the people in the world who have never heard about him. It’s up to us to tell them that they are loved by the one who died for them.

PRAYER: Lord, help us to come to great and greater knowledge of you each day that we can share the wonder of your goodness with a desperate world. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 5/5/21 – The Mob and the Boy

I don’t know why, but the feeding of the 5000 is the one “regular” miracle that is mentioned in all four gospels. That means that there must be great significance to it and many lessons we can learn from it. But today I want to focus on just one.

Who fed the 5000? Jesus did. There can be no denying that. No one else could have done what he did.

I used to pastor a church. I, like just about every other pastor I know, dreamed of a growing, vibrant church that would be bursting at the seams. I desired to feed a large flock with the Word each Sunday when I occupied the pulpit. But that wasn’t God’s dream for that church. It was a constant struggle after the first few years. Frustrations mounted, doubts crept in and I found myself second-guessing everything I thought or did. The church started small and stayed small. I was devastated.

Maybe that’s why I take great comfort in a thought I heard just yesterday. It was simply this: Jesus doesn’t ask me to feed the 5000.  He only asks me to bring my fish and loaves and leave the rest to him.

Jesus isn’t asking you to feed the 5000 either. He knows better than I what I can and can’t do. He knows my limitations. What he asks of all of us is to bring to him whatever we have and hand it over to him while we watch in amazement.

Jesus knows I can’t feed the 5000. He knows what I have to give and what you have to give. Will we part with it and put it into his hands?

PRAYER: Jesus, forgive us our ambitions of greatness and teach us to loosen our grasp on our possessions, skills, abilities and hearts to we can hand them to you and let you make miraculous things happen for your kingdom. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 12/21/20 – The Cross Marks the Spot

It was a Christmas pageant presented by a class of four-year-olds and it was an evening to remember. It began with the three virgin Marys marching out onto the stage. As they stood there, they, of course, were waving to their parents. It’s not every Christmas pageant that has three virgin Marys, but over the years the school had acquired three Mary costumes, and so, quite naturally the script was revised. This gave a chance for more children to be involved and kept down the squabbling over who got the starring roles. The two Josephs walked up behind the Marys. Then twenty little angels came out. They were dressed in white robes and huge gauze wings. They were followed by twenty little shepherd boys, dressed in burlap sacks. They carried an array of objects that were supposed to be crooks.

It was at this point that the problem occurred. During the dress rehearsal the teacher had used chalk to draw circles on the floor to mark where the angels were supposed to stand and crosses to mark the spots of the shepherds. But the children had practiced with their regular clothes on. So, on the night of the pageant, the angels came walking out with their beautiful gauze wings and stood on their circles. However, their huge wings covered the crosses of the shepherds as well. So, when the time came for the shepherds to find their places, they did not know where to go because the angels took up all their space.

There was one little boy who became extremely frustrated and angry over the whole experience. He finally spied his teacher behind the curtains and shocked everyone when he said in a loud stage whisper heard by everyone, ‘Because of these blankety-blank angels, I can’t find the cross!'” (He didn’t say “blankety-blank” but you get the idea!)

I wonder if that can’t happen sometimes? The romantic elements of Christmas…the shepherds, the wise men, the angels, the star in the East not to mention the commercialism of Christmas…have a tendency to obscure the important meaning of it all, and particularly the message of the cross.

That is why it might be healthy for us this Christmas season to turn to the prologue to John’s Gospel. There are no angels, no shepherds, no star, not even Mary and Joseph. Instead, there is some of the most beautiful and important theological language ever written: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

No shepherds, no angels, no star yet here ultimately is the story of Christmas….

PRAYER: Father, let us not lose sight of the cross as we stand wide-eyed in the manger. Help us to remember it was for the cross he came, not the manger. In Jesus’ name, Amen. Copyright 2020, Galen C. Dalrymple. ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 7/21/20 – Purpose Behind the Pain

From the DayBreaks archive, July 2010:

There are many things about the ways of God that I can’t even begin to understand.  I think that it must needs be so.  He is infinite – I am finite.  He knows all things – I know virtually nothing.  He sees all things including thoughts – I see only what my eyes behold and I fail to understand what I see.  I do not understand why little children are afflicted with leukemia and cancer, or why they are abused and mistreated by those who have responsibility to care for them.  It is all beyond me.

As I prepared for my sermon this past Sunday in which I would be talking about difficulties and trust – even and especially when we don’t understand – I was pondering the value of suffering.  I have often looked at the story of Job and wondered why it was necessary for Job to pass through such ordeals.  Job is not alone – there are many in Scripture who suffered…there are many today who suffer.  And I, like every other human who faces suffering, leap immediately to the “Why?” questions. 

I want to know the why’s and wherefore’s, like the apostles who wondered why the man was born blind, or why the tower of Siloam fell and killed 18 people.  In both of those cases, Jesus redirects their thinking from looking backwards for answers to the “Why” questions and to look instead at the present and future to try to understand God’s redemptive purpose in such events.  In the case of the blind man, Jesus said it was so the glory of God could be manifested in that man’s life.  In the case of the tower, the point was that God wanted to get us to consider whether or not we would be ready if the tower were to fall on us today or tomorrow.  Neither looked backward…always forward to the furthering of God’s redemptive purpose.

I have often thought that the purpose behind suffering was for us to understand our own weakness and lack of faith – to reveal, if you will, our own little faith and to grow as a result.  But, yesterday morning, I realized that this was a very self-centered view of suffering and its purpose.  Might not God also allow us to suffer not so we come to realize how weak our faith is, but even more to understand how faithful God is?  That view brings glory to Him – the other view is so focused on us that we might miss the very chance to bring glory to Him by trusting Him more. 

There is a purpose behind each and every pain.  That doesn’t mean each and every pain is caused by God, but simply that there is a purpose related to redemption – our own, and that of the world, in each hurt.  Let us resolve to look forward to understand how God wants to use such events in our lives to further His kingdom.

Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62

PRAYER: Lord, help us to understand Your purpose for us today and tomorrow and each day for the rest of our lives.  May we not concern ourselves with questions that are too big for us to ask, let alone understand, lest we get distracted and lose focus on what is most important.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 5/16/19 – God’s Intent

From the DayBreaks archive, May 2009:

Good intentions.  My goodness, I’ve certainly had enough of them to last a lifetime.  Do those intentions always translate into right actions?  Well, um, no.  But just because the action didn’t follow the intent, it doesn’t mean that anything was wrong with the intent.  It’s the execution of a good intention that leads to good actions.

There is an interesting passage in Ephesians that speaks about one of God’s intentions.  Here it is: His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Ephesians 3:10-11 (NIV)

Maybe it seems strange to think of it in this way, but at least for the present time, God’s intentions don’t always work out, either.  They will eventually, but in the meantime, they can get sidetracked, too.  They don’t get sidetracked because God changes His mind or because He can’t execute His plan.  It’s just that He chooses to make some of His intentions intertwined with the actions of human beings like us.  And that’s why His intentions don’t always get fulfilled right away.

It was God’s “intent” that His wisdom should show forth God’s wisdom.  How is your church doing at showing forth God’s wisdom?  But let’s make it a bit more personal than that…for we are the church.  The question could therefore be asked, “How well am I doing at letting God’s manifold wisdom be seen through my life?” 

Many churches are too busy fussing and fighting to show much of anything that would resemble God’s character.  But when a diverse group of people can not only co-exist, but love one another and let God’s wisdom (not the wisdom of the church leaders) be seen – then something amazing happens.  People in this world see something that doesn’t come from this world: God’s wisdom.  Even then, however, this display of wisdom from the church isn’t primarily for human eyes – it is for the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.  They are watching – and believe it or not, they see the wisdom of God in His plan to involve humans as His family.

You are the church.  Does your life showcase your wisdom, or His? 

Prayer: Father, forgive us for our foolishness and for wanting to show how smart and wise we are in our human thinking.  May we live as your church so that the angels and demons give You praise for Your wisdom in creating the church!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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