Guidelines For Living

Harold Sala

The Good Side Of Doubt

June 16, 2020

Contrary to what some may tell you, there can be a silver lining to the dark clouds of doubt.  “Just take it by faith,” we are often told, but there are situations where doubting what you are uncertain of results in a far more positive faith in the long run than to blindly accept something. Doubt causes you to dig deep, to search for truth, to compare what you have been told with what the Bible really says.  There is a positive side to doubt. While some never confront their doubts, others face them and end up being better because of it, much better.

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How do you keep track of your tomorrows?  Do you plan them out, meticulously calendaring work and social events on your phone and reviewing tomorrow’s agenda before bed?  Or do you stand by your paper calendar and a scribbled to-do list?  Even if you don’t plan for the tomorrows of life, you probably operate under the assumption that you should.  Human wisdom has generally run along the lines of the African proverb that says, “Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”  If we’ve got a plan ready to execute, we may feel that when tomorrow arrives, we will have whatever it takes to meet it head on.  We are in control of our destinies!
June 15, 2020
What is so special about the Bible? Billions of copies of it have been sold.  It’s available in 698 languages and it’s the bestselling book of all time.  For 2,000 years, people have claimed to be changed by reading it. 
June 12, 2020
Our earth with its diameter of 7,926 miles (measured through the poles), rests basically on nothing, yet the earth races along its elliptical orbit around the sun in exactly three‑hundred sixty‑five and a quarter days.  Isaac Newton defined this force in his "law of gravitation" when he said that the gravitational force is directly proportional to the product of two masses (e.g. the Earth and the Moon) and inversely proportional to the distance between them squared.  The entire universe is held in harmony by an intricate system of balances and tensions.
June 11, 2020
The God of the Bible is a deeply personal God.  The Bible tells us that he “knit us together in our mother’s womb.”  He knows the numbers of hairs on our heads, knows when we sit down and rise up and knows what we’re thinking from afar (Luke 12:7, Ps. 139).  And it is exactly because He knows us so well that He has compassion on us and offers us grace in our weaknesses.  Think about it:  He is intimately aware of your unique struggles.  He knows, that perhaps, you need grace for anxiety because of a tumultuous childhood.  Maybe He knows all about about your desire to impress others because, underneath it all, you feel incompetent.  You need grace to comprehend His great love for you and to live in His acceptance.
June 10, 2020
It’s a hard fact to come to grips with:  we are living in an evil world and that means pain is involved.  The Bible points out to us that, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 KJV). Deceitful, wicked hearts produce evil deeds and followers of Jesus are not spared the spill-over of this evil.  In fact, Christians should really be the least surprised when life turns upside down, knowing that our world is temporarily ruled by a god (that’s with a lower-case “g”) who does not have our best interests at heart.  “Satan… is the god of this world,” says the Bible in 2 Corinthians 4:4.
June 9, 2020
It is a medical fact:  Either you will learn to control your emotions or else your emotions will control you.  When your emotions are out of control, they will create havoc with your physical body.  David Messenger is a physician who has specialized in structural medicine.  Speaking of the effect of your emotions on your wellbeing, Dr. Messenger says, "Negative emotions are energy‑draining, mind stifling and completely counterproductive.  Allowing oneself to hang onto and revel in the bondage of bitterness, anger, resentment and hatred is a most self‑destructive way of living.  Bitterness, with its subsequent anger, resentment, hatred and then self‑pity, is the emotional disturbance I see most."
June 8, 2020
How many friends do you need?  No, we’re not talking about Facebook friends, but the real thing.  Social science researchers quantify friendship types by the levels of relationship depth, starting with acquaintances, casual friends, close friends and then, intimate friends.  Acquaintances are people you make small talk with, maybe at the mailbox or the gym.  You might share an activity with a casual friend but probably wouldn’t see them outside of that activity.  Close friends are who you call when life turns upside down or something amazing happens to you, no matter what time of the day or night it is.  But intimate friends are far and few.  An intimate friend, hopefully would include a mate; this is someone you trust with your deepest secrets and your most vulnerable self, described by an old Arab proverb as, “One to whom we may pour out the contents of our hearts, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away!” 
June 5, 2020
So you think that you could never succumb to moral temptation, do you? Paul didn’t apparently think so or else he wouldn’t have given the advice he did to the effect that we are to guard against temptation by not allowing ourselves to be in a position of being vulnerable. In other words, you prevent the possibility by closing the door ahead of time and pushing the furniture against it, and leaving the lights on.
June 4, 2020
What prompts a person to return something that was stolen years before?  The influential weapon that governs our conduct is called conscience.  On the fifth floor of the U.S. Treasury Building in Washington D. C. is a room which contains thousands of letters.  It contains the files of the federal "Conscience Fund."  This strange gift fund dates back to the year 1811 when an anonymous citizen wrote that he was "suffering the most painful pangs of conscience" because he had stolen from or defrauded the U.S. government.  He eased the pain by remitting $6.  In the 175 years that the fund has been in existence, $5.7 million dollars has been contributed.  However, “The sincerity of some donors' repentance can be uncertain, writes Dave Philipps, “as demonstrated by a received letter reading, ‘Dear Internal Revenue Service, I have not been able to sleep at night because I cheated on last year's income tax. Enclosed find a cashier's check for $1,000. If I still can't sleep, I'll send you the balance.’"[1]   [1] Philipps, Dave (April 10, 2005). "Would you tip the IRS?". The Gazette.  
June 3, 2020
Some 40 miles from Rome, strategically located between the Aegean and the Mediterranean, lay the beautiful city of Corinth.  Unlike Athens, where there were family connections and traditions, Corinth was a new city with fast money and loose morals. In Paul’s day to call somebody a Corinthian was desultory or debasing—a pejorative term that made someone fighting mad.
June 2, 2020
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Refocus your busy life leading up to Easter with this study and remind yourself of the importance of what Christ did on the cross for us. Prepare yourself for a journey to the cross.

About Guidelines For Living

Start your day with hope, confidence, and purpose by listening to the Guidelines for Living daily devotional with Harold Sala! This 5-minute program offers insightful teaching from God’s Word and practical application for living out your faith in the day-to-day. Strengthen your relationship with Jesus by adding this short devotional to your daily routine.  Guidelines for Living is the longest running five-minute program in Christian radio!  

About Harold Sala

Speaker, author and Bible teacher, Dr. Harold Sala founded Guidelines in 1963 and pioneered the first 5-minute Christian program on radio.  Dr. Sala holds a Ph.D. in biblical text and has taught at conferences, seminars and churches the world over.  An author of over 60 books published in 19 languages, his most recent release is 40 Unstoppable Women (Rose Publishing).

 

 

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