DayBreaks for the Week of 3/3/24 – A Failure for the Ages

John 6:66-71 (NLT) – At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you going to leave, too?” Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You alone have the words that give eternal life. We believe them, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”  Then Jesus said, “I chose the twelve of you, but one is a devil.” He was speaking of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, one of the Twelve, who would betray him.   

Sometimes it is easy to know why things go haywire.  But at other times, it is a great mystery.  Why do people who seem to have everything going for them (like the leaders of Enron, sports or entertainment big-wigs, or even people like the Bakker’s or Jimmy Swaggart) sometimes seem to go terribly wrong?  Children from families where they are loved and cared for are still subject to going off the deep end in rebellion, drug or alcohol abuse, or a life of crime. 

But perhaps the greatest “failure” of all time can be found in the life of Judas.  This man spent something like 3 years with Jesus.  He saw miracle after miracle and heard sermon after sermon from the greatest teacher who ever lived.  He saw the blind receive sight, saw the lame walk, saw the lepers healed – and saw the dead rise (several times).  So how could he have wound up being the betrayer of the Lamb of God?

It is hard to understand.  Was it merely greed that led him to this despicable action?  Was it disillusionment when it became clear that Jesus’ kingdom wasn’t one that was destined to overthrow Rome, but rather to overthrow the dark rule of evil in the hearts of women and men?  I don’t know.  There is another possibility, too, that should not be overlooked.  Perhaps Judas never was a true follower.  Perhaps he was one of those people, like many today, who work under the “grace by association” principle.  He may have thought that he was in good standing with God because he was one of the 12 – the handpicked few.  It had to be a pretty heady thing to be hand-picked personally by Jesus. 

Many people today suffer from this “grace by association” principle, believing that because they go to church, they have a relationship with God.  What they don’t understand is that it is the other way around: we have a relationship with God, therefore we go to church to worship Him and glorify Him as a family of believers.  Judas may have had it backward.  Just being in Jesus’ presence isn’t enough.  We need to have Jesus alive and breathing the breath of life into our being, in short, we need Jesus’ presence within us.

PRAYER: Lord, save us from being prideful at having been chosen by you, and help us to do things for all the right reasons. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2024 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for the Week of 7/18/22 – My Friend Douglass

DayBreaks for the Week of 7/18/22 – My Friend Douglass

Romans 8:31-34 (NLT) – What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us.

Frederick Douglass approached the front door of the White House, seeking admission into Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Ball. Just as Douglass was about to knock on the door, two policemen seized him, barring the black man’s entrance. Douglass, a large, powerful man, brushed the officers aside and stepped into the foyer. Once inside, two more officers grabbed the uninvited guest, all the while uttering racial slurs.

As Douglass was being dragged from the hall, he cried to a nearby patron, “Just say to Mr. Lincoln that Fred Douglass is at the door!” Confusion ensued. Then suddenly the officers received orders to usher Douglass into the East Room. In that beautiful room, the great abolitionist stood in the presence of the esteemed President. The place quieted as Lincoln approached his newly arrived guest, hand outstretched in greeting, and speaking in a voice loud enough so none could mistake his intent, the President announced, “Here comes my friend Douglass.”

The President had called Frederick Douglass friend. Who dared demean Douglass if he was a friend of the President?  Can you imagine for a moment how those guards at the door must have felt? 

Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe, has called us not just his friends, but much more: his brothers and his sisters. God the Father has also called us His own children.  We have an accuser, someone who would stand at the gateway to heaven and attempt to deny us entrance.  His name is Satan.  He will be shamed in his accusations against us as Jesus, with a voice like thunder that could shake the universe, will proclaim, “Here comes my sister/brother!  Welcome!” and will overrule him.  Satan will be silenced!

Let us not think that because we’re in His family that we can just sit back and forget about those who don’t have Him as a brother.  There are many persons who lie stripped and beaten by the side of the road (think the Good Samaritan story). He or she may not yet be our brother or sister in Christ, but they are our friend, our neighbor, and by God’s grace they may one day be family. So, let us pause and help, because once there was a man who paused on a cross for us.

PRAYER:  Lord, we long to hear You silence the accuser and put him to shame in his accusations!    We long to enter into our family Home to be with You forever!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2022 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for 2/4/22 – The Ministry of Reconciliation

Romans 5:11 – Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Reconciliation is a big topic in scripture.  In fact, it’s what the entire story of God’s interaction with mankind is all about.  Reconciliation is about the restoration of relationship.  We like the idea of reconciliation, whether it is with God or with our human acquaintances.  But perhaps we take reconciliation too lightly – we cheapen the cost of reconciliation.

Consider these words from a pastor by the name of Allan Boesak: “True reconciliation cannot take place without confrontation.  Reconciliation is not feeling good; it’s coming to grips with evil.  In order to reconcile, Christ had to die.  We must not deceive ourselves.  Reconciliation does not mean holding hands and singing ‘black and white together.’  It means, rather, death and suffering, giving up one’s life for the sake of the other.  If white and black Christians fail to understand this, we shall not be truly reconciled.” 

“So it is with peace.  One is not at peace with God and one’s neighbor because one has succeeded in closing one’s eyes to the realities of evil.  Neither is peace a situation where terrorism of the defenseless is acceptable because it is being done under the guise of the law…Peace is not simply the absence of war or an uneasy quiet in the townships.  Peace is the active presence of justice.  It is shalom, the well-being of all.”

Reconciliation to God was extremely costly.  We hope for an easy and cheap reconciliation in our relationships.  Chances are if it is easy, it isn’t truly a reconciliation.   God has given us the ministry of reconciliation.  Just like our Lord, we may have to bleed for it.

2 Cor. 5:18-20 – All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

PRAYER: Lord, I don’t like confrontation and I don’t like to bleed!  Help us to value reconciliation more than we value our own comfort and ease!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 8/25/21 – Of Roses and Names

Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”  Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used. “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.) And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

It was William Shakespeare who wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? I’m sure it would. You see, the truth is that the thing is what it is, not what someone calls it. Names are assigned to us, based on our outward circumstances by ourselves and other people. “Sinner, Failure, Stupid, Dummy, Unclean” all are names or descriptions with which we or others label us. But what we are called, either by others or by ourselves does not determine who we are. It might speak of those external circumstances, but it might be wholly inaccurate.

You see, a failure is not someone who fails. In simple truth is that the people who fail the most are the ones who succeed. You only get to success by taking risks and risk-taking brings many failures along the way. A failure is someone who simply doesn’t try. No, names do not determine who you are. You are who you are on the inside.

So, the first important lesson is that we must cultivate the inner person.

The inner person is the person who counts. The apostle Paul desired that we be strengthened in the inner man.

It boils down to relationship. We are only as strong as our personal relationship with Christ.

PRAYER: Lord, take residence in our hearts and change us. Make us strong in you! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 7/05/21 – Known Only to God

Ezekiel 37:1-3 – The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.“

They have lain in place now for hundreds of years.  But that’s nothing.  Others have been waiting for thousands of years.  Waiting.  Listening.  Waiting for Someone to call their name.  But I can’t do that, nor can you for we don’t know their names.  Who are these people?  As Ezekiel put it: O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.

I stood first at the Poulnabourne dolmen, a stone age burial site.  Dating back 5600 years, it predated the pyramids by 500 years, and Stonehenge by 1000.  It was a construction of rock slabs, roughly forming a house shape – four sides (two longer than the others) and a slab across the top as a roof.  It is to be found high up on the hillsides of “the Burren” in Ireland, standing a silent vigil over the earthly remains of those who lived, and died, in that rugged, windswept and mostly barren place. No one knows who built it, nor who was buried in it.  Just stone, ashes and bits of bone remain.  The names of those people who lived and died there has been swept away with the ceaseless winds that scour the hillside.

I next stood in the cemetery surrounding Reefert’s church in Glendalough, Ireland.  The church walls are still mostly intact, but the roof is long gone.  It has been dated back to at least the 11^th century – possibly as far back as the 9^th century.  I do not know when the last person was interred in the cemetery surrounding the church.  There were perhaps 30-40 markers in the cemetery, yet I don’t recall being able to read anything off of them.  In some cases, one of the stone arms of the cross-shaped burial markers had broken off and was long gone.  But in every instance, there was no name.  Who were the men and women buried there?  “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

I have always been the curious sort when I am in a graveyard.  I want to know about the people – how they loved, lived and died.  I want to know about their interests, their hobbies, what they looked like, what they did for a living, how old they were when they died, how they died, but perhaps most haunting of all – I want to know how they lived. 

Someday, we will all pass from this life’s labors.  For the saints of God, we will pass into eternal rest that God has promised to us.  For the unbelievers – well, the labors of this life will seem pleasant for them compared to what awaits. 

As I wandered the old cemeteries and churches in Glendalough and the dolmen at Poulnabourne, I wondered if some day people would pass by my gravestone and wonder about me.  I wondered if they would know – or even care – who was buried there.  And the thought disturbed me that they might not know me.  I thought, however, of Ezekiel and his encounter with God and my heart found rest knowing that whether those cemetery wanderers in some future age know who I was or not is really and truly irrelevant.  The only thing that matters is that God knows me.  And He will not forget my name. 

Isaiah 49:15-16 – 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; your walls are ever before me.

PRAYER: I rest, Lord, in the peace that comes from knowing you not only know about me, but you know me and my name and will not forget me! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 5/3/21 – The Danger of Proximity

1 Samuel 3:7 (CSBBible) – Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, because the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

This passage comes from the story of Samuel hearing a voice in the night and thinking it was the high priest, Eli, who was calling him, but it was the Lord instead. There are many strange things in the context of this verse. Here’s some of them:

FIRST: Samuel was in the temple when this account takes place. It wasn’t in some house nearby, but in the very temple where the Presence dwelt. Yet something was amiss.  

SECOND: Even though Samuel was in the temple, it clearly says that Samuel did not yet know the Lord. How curious! We would think that because he served in the temple and especially since he served the high priest, that surely he would know the Lord, but apparently he didn’t. The lesson should be clear to us: just being in the presence of God or spending our life in service doesn’t guarantee us one single thing. We could spend a night in a chicken coop but that wouldn’t make us a chicken. We can spend a lifetime in the church and not be a Christian who knows the Lord. The last part of the verse tells us why.

THIRD: The word of the Lord hadn’t been revealed to Samuel. Surely, he had heard it many, many times as he served in the temple. This verse shows us that just hearing it isn’t enough. It has to be “revealed” to us. One could reasonably argue that it is the Word (with a capital) that must be revealed to us for us to really know God. Jesus said as much, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” Sadly, even in the case of those who saw the incarnate Word, many still didn’t know God.

What are we to make of this: it is a heart check for us all. Do you really know the Lord? If you don’t know the w/Word, you can’t.

PRAYER: Father, we desire to truly know you. Never let us be comfortable with just knowing about you, but let us know you as we know our best friend. Don’t let us be deceived by proximity to you but make us hungry to have a deep, rich relationship with you so we can recognize your voice. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 12/31/20 – Power for 2021

National Ignition Facility, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Livermore, CA

Partially from the DayBreaks archive, 2010:

Here we are on the cusp of a new year. This past one has been challenging and for many, we shrank back from the challenges it presented. The church has had to learn new ways of being the church, many have struggled with work and relationships due to COVID-19. But I believe there is reason for great hope for all believers! Why? Because of where the power in the universe is and the Source it comes from!

I am fascinated by power – not political power, but energy. I’ve never been to Niagara Falls, but 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 3 years to fully assemble each and every one of those generators.  The moving part of each generator weighs over 800 tons and spins 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 been built just over the hill from us at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It’s called 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.  (Note: that laser has since been surpassed by even more powerful ones!)

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 plat 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 believe it? Do you live like you believe it?

What would it be like if we all lived 2021 in the power of the Spirit? 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! Let’s take 2021 head on in His power, for His glory!

PRAYER: As we enter this new year, Lord, let us live as people who believe in the power of Your Word and the indwelling Spirit.  Let us not be timid and fearful this year, but stand up for the Lord of Hosts and His Kingdom!  In Jesus’ name, Amen. Copyright 2020, Galen C. Dalrymple. ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 11/30/20 – All This You Did for Me

From the DayBreaks archive, November 2010:

The Archbishop of Paris once stood in the pulpit of Notre Dame Cathedral to preach a sermon.  His sermon was built around a single story – an illustration from real life if you please.  Thirty years earlier, he began, there were three young tourists who had come into this very cathedral. All the young men were rough, rude, and cynical, who thought that all religion was a racket. Two of these men dared a third to go into the confessional box and make a made-up confession to the priest. The two bet that the third young man did not have the nerve to do as they suggested.

That was all that was necessary to motivate the third young man who went into the confessional box and tried to fool the priest. But the priest knew that what the young man was saying was a lie. There was a tone of arrogance in the young man’s voice – which could not go without notice. After hearing the confession, the priest told the young man his penance. The priest said, “Very well, my son. Every confession requires a penance, and this is yours. I ask you to go into the chapel, stand before the crucifix, look into the face of the crucified Christ and say, ‘All this you did for me, and I don’t give a damn!’ “

The young man staggered out of the confessional to his friends, bragging that he had done as they dared. The other two young men insisted that he finish the performance by doing the penance. This young man made his way into the chapel, stood before the crucifix, looked up into the face of Christ and began, “All this you did for me and I … I … I don’t … I don’t give a ….” At this point in the story, the archbishop leaned over the pulpit and said, “That young man was this man who stands before you to preach.”

That’s the miracle of the cross. When we begin to understand the love on the cross, we want to change our relationship with God. We cannot remain the same, anymore. We want God at the center of our lives, again.

How has the love of God changed your life?  Are you aware of what Christ has done for you – and do you still dare stand and look into his eyes and say to him that you don’t care about it? 

PRAYER: I know that by my actions, words and thoughts it must often appear to you, Lord, that I don’t care about what You did for me.  Please see my heart – and know that I am weak, but that I do truly love You, and that I do care about what it cost You to save my soul!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2020, Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for 7/31/20 – A Sign in the Subway

From the DayBreaks archive, July 2010:

A while back on a subway platform in one of our Eastern states was a large, printed sign proclaiming boldly: “God Answers Prayer.”  Right below that message, some experienced person had scrawled these words: “Sometimes the answer is NO!”  This is one of the challenges that we have to deal with in any discussion of prayer.

If you have talked with any skeptic, or even some Christians, you have undoubtedly heard someone say something like this: “I felt the need of God.  I prayed for something to happen, for Him to give me a sign, or just to answer me, and it didn’t happen.  Prayer failed.” 

Is that really a fair statement to make?  I don’t think so.  As Carveth Mitchell said: “I suggest that you did not want God – you wanted God to do something, and that’s different.”

Far too often I think we think of prayer primarily when we want something from God.  We want someone to be made well, we want more money, we want a child or a job or a house.  And so we pray for those things – asking Him for what we want.  And we tend to pray for what we want, but seldom do we pray for what God wants.  It is very possible that we have missed the primary purpose of prayer: to be in harmony with God, to be keenly aware of His hovering and indwelling Presence, to feel the assurance that God is aware of, encompassing and is far greater than any circumstance we may be encountering, and that no matter what else happens, that we will still belong to Him and that underneath us are the everlasting arms of God that never quiver or are weary. 

Mitchell also observed: “Prayer is not a trading post, but a line of communication.”  Let’s be more aware of the purpose of our praying and not treat it like a bartering session with a Father that loves us.  He is eager to give good gifts…but only what is good, never what is harmful.

PRAYER: In our prayers, Lord, may we want You more than anything else!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 7/9/20 – The Forgetfulness of God

DayBreaks for 7/09/20: The Forgetfulness of God

The story of the creation and fall of man in the garden is ancient history. It is intriguing in so many ways. But even as it is ancient history, it is as new as this day’s sunrise.

There is no secret in Scripture that Satan and God are at odds with one another and they work for different goals. Yet, it is intriguing in the temptation narrative from the garden how Satan seeks to manipulate the situation.

He starts by asking what appears to be a very simple, harmless question: Did God really say…? That question alone is fascinating, but the name Satan uses for God is even more intriguing. Satan doesn’t use the word Yahweh-Elohim (the Lord God) as God is described in Genesis 2, but simply uses the term Elohim (God). What’s the big deal? Satan is removing the relational Yahweh from his language. The implication Satan is making is that there’s a distancing, that God is not a Supreme Being that one can know and engage in a relationship, but a theoretical idea to ponder. Deitrich Bonhoeffer noted this when he said, “Satan does not…fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God.”

It is only after planting a seed of doubt about God at all to challenging and contradicting what God said about pending punishment should they disobey.

And the very first thing they learn after seeking to be like God is that they are in fact exceedingly vulnerable. There was no sense of being empowered to a greater position or of being enlightened other than to their miniscule-ness. They are ashamed and try to hide.

Satan is a smart cookie. He’s no fool and no one should play him as a fool. He’s certainly not on an equal footing with God, but he’s no idiot. And rather than seeking to get us to hate God, he’s quite content with getting us to forget God. Once we forget God and his omniscience, we are freed from boundaries (or so we believe) because the thought of a watchful God has vanished from our minds, giving us permission to do in secret things we’d never do in the light.

The secret, I suspect, to living a Godly life has more to do with mindfulness of God than any sort of human willpower and determination to “do good”. 

How is Satan seeking to make you forget God? What will you do to see to it that you remember Him more often?

PRAYER: Father, we are so prone to Satan’s sneakiness and we so quickly forget you, even as Israel did of old. We beg you to fill us with awareness of your presence and existence and watchfulness so that we can never forget you! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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