DayBreaks for 2/09/21 – Sanctuary or Stadium?

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Chances are that when you hear the term, “sanctuary”, you think of one of two things: 1) an edifice of worship such as in a church or temple, or 2) a place of refuge where one is safe and where the enemy can’t get to you.  I get it.  That’s what I think of, too.  In fact, when you think of it, the two meanings of sanctuary are closely related.  A place of worship should be a safe place, and a safe, peaceful place can easily and readily become a place conducive to deepest worship.

Our churches should be sanctuaries where, in addition to other places, the wind of God’s Spirit sweeps through hearts and minds with its power of renewal.  Since the church is not the building, but the people of God, that means that we are to be His sanctuary.

But are we?  It is easy to be a stadium for God’s Spirit rather than a sanctuary where He lives.  What is the difference?  Stadiums may be full of raucous, cheering masses…but at the end of the day, everyone goes home and the stadium is empty until the time for the next big event.  During the interim, its void, still, inanimate…dead.  Sanctuaries are not that way. 

We, as people, can be like that stadium: filled with noise and cheering on Sunday mornings, but then when the show is over, we walk out through the gateway and out of the Presence until the next event.  Or, we can be like the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies where the Presence of God came to live.  But even the analogy of the Holy of Holies breaks down because with the rebellion of the people, the Presence of the Lord departed as His glory left the temple. 

His Spirit lives in us.  It is His new temple, His sanctuary, the Holy of Holies is in the hearts of believers. 

So, is your heart more like a sanctuary or a stadium? Are your actions pushing God out?

PRAYER: Lord, I want to be in tune with Your Spirit at all time, to not be on-and-off, hot-and-cold.  I long for Your glory to be strong in my heart and mind every moment, every day!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.  

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

DayBreaks for 1/26/21 – Where’s the Difference?

From the DayBreaks archive, January 2012:

Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. And tell him, ‘God blesses those who do not turn away because of me.’”-  Matthew 11:3-6

This is one of the most perplexing passages in Scripture.  Jesus will go on just a bit later in the discussion to say that no man ever born of woman was greater than John, yet here is John in prison, sending his disciples to Jesus to ask him if he’s really the Messiah.  This is the same John who had seen the dove descend on Jesus at his baptism and heard the voice of God proclaim Jesus was His Son.  This is the same John who said of Jesus, “He must increase, I must decrease” and “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the world’s sin!”  It is comforting to know that even the greatest man born of woman had questions and doubts at times.  But that’s not the point I want to consider today. 

Jesus didn’t directly answer the question, but pointed the questioners to what they’d seen: the miracle, the blind who could now see, the lame who could now walk, lepers healed, hearing restored – and even the dead raised to life.  Had those present seen the dead who Jesus had raised?  I don’t know.  Jesus seems to imply that they had.  But then I got to thinking, perhaps Jesus was referring not to the physically raised, perhaps he was referring to the people who had been spiritually dead who had found new life – such as the immoral woman who washed Jesus feet, even those who were part of the crowd who had been dead, but found in Jesus new life.

I started to ponder my life.  As Christians, we have been born again.  Our old man is dead, the new life has come.  But if questioners were to look at me, would they see someone who is truly alive, vibrantly alive?  Is not the Christian experience supposed to be life from the dead?  We were dead in our trespasses and sins, Paul wrote.  But we’re now alive in Christ Jesus!

Has anybody noticed it in you?

PRAYER: Let your life be brilliantly visible in me, may I give witness to the new life I have in Your Son, and may people wonder at how the dead can live again!!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 1/25/21 – Who Lives Where?

From the DayBreaks archive, January 2012:

My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So, I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. -Galatians 2:20

Here’s a question for you: does Christ live in us, or do we live in Him?  I suspect that the answer is “Yes” to both.  On the one hand, Paul said it is “no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  That’s relatively clear, isn’t it?  But then we have the parable of the vine and the branches…and we are part of the vine…the vine isn’t part of the branches. 

The mystery of the indwelling of the Spirit is purely that…a mystery.  If we could explain it, it would no longer be a mystery.  How does it work?

I liked the analogy that Randy Pope gave this past Sunday.  Think about eating food.  You take a piece of meat or a vegetable or whatever, and you eat it.  Before you eat it, it was something that was separate and distinct – it existed in its own right.  It was not part of you…you were separate and distinct, too.  But, once you eat that bit of foodstuffs, it becomes a part of you.  It is absorbed, it is no longer separate from you or your body.  It becomes a part, potentially, of every cell in your body and it is indistinguishable from “you”.  You, and “it” cannot be separated because you are now one in substance.  You were strengthened by what you took in.

So it is to be with the Spirit who lives within us.  He is separate and distinct, as we were, before He took up residence in us.  But when we belong to Christ, we become more Christlike, and as Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  The Spirit is to be so tightly interwoven into the very fabric of our being that we are no longer distinguishable…He is to permeate our cells/hearts/minds, in fact, our body at that moment has become His temple – in a way it is no longer our body, but His temple where He is to be worshipped.

Does Christ live in us via the Spirit?  Yes.  We can only live as we remain connected to Him.  Christ doesn’t so much want us to live our lives with Him – He wants to live HIS life through us.

PRAYER: How great, Lord, is the mystery of the Incarnation, and of the indwelling of Your Spirit within us!  Take control over every aspect of our lives so that we can echo Paul’s words that it is not any longer we who live, but You who live in us!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 1/18/21 – The Secret Worth Knowing – and Telling

In Princeton, New Jersey, there is a legendary tale about the eminent scientist Albert Einstein walking in front of a local inn and being mistaken for a bell boy by a dowager who had just arrived in a luxury sedan. She orders him to carry her luggage into the hotel, and, according to the story, Einstein does so, receives a small tip, and then continues on to his office to ponder the mysteries of the universe. True or not, the story is delightful, precisely because we savor from the beginning a secret the dowager does not know: the strange-looking, ruffled little man is the most celebrated intellect of our time. Some stories gain their power from our knowing the story’s secret from the start.

The Gospel of Mark is just such a story. The secret of Mark’s Gospel is the identity of Jesus Christ. In the very first sentence of the Gospel story, Mark lifts the veil and lets us know the secret when he says that this is “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus is the Son of God, that’s the secret, and lest we miss it, this hidden truth is confirmed in the story’s opening episode, when Jesus, coming up out of the waters of baptism, sees the Holy Spirit descending upon him like a dove from the heavens, which have been torn open like a piece of cloth, and hears the very voice of God telling the secret: “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). Only Jesus sees the Spirit; only Jesus hears the voice. This is, in the words of one commentator, “a secret epiphany.”

The great tragedy is that as we walk the streets or work in our cubicles or on the loading docks, we carry a secret that shouldn’t be a secret. We carry the presence of the Spirit of the Lord within us. Why is it a secret? Because to many around us we keep that Spirit bottled up inside us and don’t let our identity as believers be revealed.

We are to let the Light shine – that the secret of Jesus Christ is proclaimed to the whole world! This is one secret that we’re not supposed to hide!

PRAYER: Lord, we’ve recently seen images of those carrying flags about your Son during riots at the capitol building and other locations. It may make us reticent to let the Light shine out from within us for fear of being mocked or shamed. Give us discerning spirits and courage to share the best secret ever with those around us in a way that brings glory to Jesus!  In His name we pray, Amen.Copyright 2021, Galen C. Dalrymple. ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 12/07/20 – Where Righteousness and Peace Kiss

Ps. 85:9-11 – For his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Truth shall flourish out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

If I were to ask you face to face today what you see when you look around you, what would you say? Would you say that “mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other”? Note that is in past tense…it has occurred already.

When you look around you today what hits you? Can you say that it looks like mercy and truth are sitting happily at the same place”? Or perhaps even stranger, that righteousness and peace have already met up and that it describes what you see in the world around you?

As interesting as these verb tenses and actions are, perhaps the bigger question is: If I can’t see it where I am, where has it happened?

Well, we know it has happened in heaven. We know that it will continue to happen in heaven. We know that all those things happened in the person of the Christ. Yes, the Psalmist could have simply been speaking prophetically about the day it would happen, but I think there’s more to it than that.

As disciples of Christ, let me suggest that those things are to have happened in us. Mercy and truth, righteousness and peace are to meet in us…and then flow out to the world.

Dare we suggest that the reason we don’t see more mercy and truth, righteousness and peace in the world may be because we aren’t living out that experience ourselves. We are to be the light to the world, the salt it desperately needs. If the world is going down the drain it could be explained by Christians not living out these things ourselves and modeling them to others.

I hope and pray that by the time this season is over we’ll be able to say that within our hearts, peace and righteousness have kissed!

PRAYER: We let so many things get in the way of showing mercy, speaking and living truth, acting righteously and being in peace with all creation, Father. Enlarge our hearts, expand the mystery of the indwelling Spirit and the wonder of the incarnation it brings so we may join you in the business of healing the world. In Jesus’ name, Amen. ><}}}”>Copyright 2020, Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for 6/4/20 – The Breath of God

DayBreaks for 6/04/20: The Breath of God

In the Genesis creation account, God breathes into the body of Adam the “breath of life”. Many times throughout Scripture it speaks of man’s breath in a way that symbolizes his life.

The Spirit of God comes from the Greek word pneuma which can be translated as wind or breath.

Regardless of whether it is used in conjunction with human life, or with the Spirit of God, it is the animating life force which gives and sustains life. Without breath, we’d be dead in mere minutes.

All that makes it even more tragic that when that breath is cut off, we quickly expire.

George Floyd was not a perfect human being. There’s only been one of those and he was also the perfect Almighty God -perfect man and perfect God. George Floyd was not the Son of God, but by virtue of his being part of God’s creation and made in the image of God, plus his professed Christianity, we was a son of God. I make no judgment about that – nor should you.

But this man was reported to have said multiple times, “I can’t breathe!” He was deprived of the breath of life by one who didn’t recognize or honor the fact that he was made in the very image of God and breathed the air God created. It was flat out wrong – and evil!

We should all be praying that we would have more of the Breath of God in us, the one who said he is the Life, and not like the one who snuffed the breath out of George Floyd. And we must be very, very careful that we don’t snuff the breath of life from others through our attitudes and actions – or lack thereof.

PRAYER: Fill us with your breath and let us help bring the Breath of God to all we encounter. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 10/07/19 – From a Distance

From the DayBreaks archive, September 2009:

I don’t know who wrote the song titled, From A Distance, but I know that both Bette Middler and Kathy Mattea have recorded it. The words are very poignant, and were probably inspired by some of the beautiful pictures of earth that were taken from space. Essentially, the song describes how from a distance all on the earth looks to be peaceful and serene. From space, you can’t see people hurting each other, killing each other and cheating one another. The song goes on to describe how God sees all this going on from a distance.

I like the song, actually. But I must disagree with the concept that God views us from a distance. The ancient Jews conceived of God as very high and exalted (and rightfully so), but to the extent that they believed that man could never approach God. Well, I guess that up to a point in time, they were right about that, too. Man couldn’t approach God until He first approached us! But with Jesus, all that changed. God was no longer viewing us from a distance, but from behind human eyes. What a different perspective for Him that must have been!

We might be tempted to think that with the ascension, God left the earth and hasn’t been close since. Nothing could be further from the truth. If the NT is clear about anything, it is that God takes up residence in us when we give our lives to Him: And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. (Eph. 2:22) God doesn’t watch you from a distance. In fact, He’s closer to you than your very own skin, because He is inside of your skin!!!

Does it bother you that God sees you from that close instead of far away? It really shouldn’t make any difference. If He truly is God (and He is!) He can see equally well from far away. But it is to our benefit that He lives within us. It is the indwelling Spirit that testifies to us that we are His children (Romans 8:16), that seals us for redemption and guarantees us of our heavenly inheritance (Eph. 1:13b-14).

When we lose contact with the God who dwells within us, we lose much of our ability to resist sin. As you make your way through this day, practice the presence of the God that lives within you. Listen for Him, talk to Him and enjoy Him! He enjoys you – just as you are, up close and personal!

PRAYER: May we find complete and utter rest in knowing that You know us and we are not strangers to You!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 8/12/19 – The Power at Work Within You

DayBreaks for 08/12/19: The Power at Work Within You

From the DayBreaks archive, July 2019:

I have recently been reading a fascinating book titled, A Short History of Nearly Everything, by author Bill Bryson.  It is not a Christian book…but it is nonetheless an incredible read about the history of things like astronomy, physics, chemistry, geophysics, well…in short, nearly everything.  The anecdotes about great women and men of science and history and the exceedingly rich information about some of the sciences and discoveries truly intriguing. 

One of the chapters is titled, “Einstein’s Universe” and it describes as you might imagine, the universe as Einstein understood it – and the physics behind it.  (I’m not a physicist at all, but I can’t put this book down!!!!)  We all know that there is tremendous energy stored in the atom.  We know this from the power of nuclear weapons.  It doesn’t take a lot of fissile material to make a really big bang.  But you may have never thought of that in terms of what makes up your own body – which, as you know, is also made up of atoms. 

Did you realize that, if you are an average sized adult, inside of your body you carry no less than 7 x 10¹⁸ joules of potential energy.  Now before you scurry off to find out what a joule is, just know that it’s a measurement of a unit of electrical energy equal to the work done when a current of one ampere is passed through a resistance of one ohm for one second, or: a unit of energy equal to the work done when a force of one newton acts through a distance of one meter.

That clears it up, right?  Good!  Well, don’t worry about it because you don’t have to understand it to get the point of this stuff about joules.  Here’s why: the potential energy stored up in the atoms of your body is enough to explode with the force of 30 very large hydrogen bombs (if only we knew how to liberate it).  Sort of gives new meaning to the saying about someone “blowing up”! 

The truth is that everything that exists has that kind of power stored up in it.  We just aren’t any good at releasing that kind of energy.  Even the uranium bomb – the most energetic thing that mankind has yet produced – releases less than 1 percent of the energy it could release if only we were smarter at how to release it.  But that 1% is incredibly powerful. 

As amazing as all of that is, it’s nothing.  Not really.  Consider this passage from Ephesians 3:20 (NLT): Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.

What would happen if we yielded completely and totally to the power of the Spirit that works inside of us?  What percentage of spiritual energy do you think you currently release and tap in to?  Is it less than 1% as in the case of the uranium bomb?  My guess is that as regular old ordinary humans, we tap into far less than 1/1000^th of 1% of the power of the Spirit.  Think of what a different world it would be if we figured out how to really let the Spirit loose to work in and through us!!!! 

PRAYER:  How effectively we quench Your Holy Spirit, Lord!  We long to live more powerful spiritual lives, to have more victory and less failure.  Teach us how to turn Your Spirit loose inside of us for the sake of the kingdom and the lost!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 6/07/19 – Shaped by the Winds of God

John 3:8 (CSBBible) – The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

Often, when I’ve been called to conduct a funeral, I’m asked by the funeral director if I’d like to ride with them rather than to drive my own car. And most times, I take them up on the offer. It’s much more relaxing during that stressful event to not to have to worry about driving. On one such trip, one funeral director told another pastor about the effect God’s Wind has on things that grow. Over time, trees that stand out in the open become shaped in the direction the wind is blowing. Unless there are other trees around to block it from happening, a tree will inevitably be shaped by the force and direction of the wind.

The proof of this is visible everywhere but I’ve noticed it especially along the northern California coast. Tree after tree after tree are all bent in surrender to the wind.

I leave you with this question. Like those trees, do you and I as individuals, and as the body of Christ, show any evidence of being shaped by the Winds of God’s Spirit? If not, we need to ask ourselves why.

Prayer: Use your Spirit to bend us in accordance with your will for your purposes, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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

DayBreaks for 3/13/19 – It’s the Truth

From the DayBreaks archive, March 2009:

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  – Matthew 9:9-13 (NIV)

I recently received an email from a believer in which this person was a bit despairing about their Christ-walk.  On the one hand, I find that encouraging.  It says that the Spirit is still speaking to them – and that they are listening.  It is important that we listen to the Spirit and His take on our walk.  But, I have found in my own experience that the enemy can also attempt to convince me that because I’m not walking as close to Christ as I should and because that’s been true of nearly all my life, that I should just give up now and stop trying.  After all, if I stop trying, I’ll stop feeling guilty, right?  I’ll lose my shame, right?  No…those things are emotions that are planted deep within us.  We would just be in denial.

Then, I was thinking about this passage in Matthew.  I love what Jesus says, For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.  Who, after all, would there have been for Jesus to call if he’d come to call the righteous?  No one!  His expectation for is that this: we are sinners.  We will be sinners until the day we die.  We will always be sinners as long as we breathe the atmosphere of this world.  He knows it, he expects it and isn’t shocked by it.  If you are a sinner, Jesus came to call you…and He calls you still, day in and day out through the loving voice of the Spirit.  The Spirit will never encourage you to give up your faith walk.  Only the enemy will do that.  The Spirit will point out to you and to me our need for greater righteousness, but He is a comforter, a friend, who encourages us to walk forward into greater holiness and obedience. 

So, if you’re feeling down about your sinfulness and poor Christian walk, determine if you’re hearing from the enemy who wants to defeat you in your walk with Christ because you are a sinner, or the Spirit who wants to encourage you in your walk with Christ even though you are a sinner.  There’s a world of difference…and that’s the truth.

Prayer:  What a comfort it is to know, Lord, that you know we’re sinners and you came for us and you come to us over and over through your Spirit to encourage us and lead us into greater obedience, love and holiness.  Give us the wisdom to discern the voice of the Spirit and to distinguish it from the voice of Satan!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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