Daily Readings at Southeast

What Does God Promise When You Give? “Give, and you will receive. You will be given much. It will be poured into your hands — more than you can hold. You will be given so much that it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you.” (Luke 6:38 ICB) To reap a great harvest, you must plant generously in faith. My wife Kay and I have done this hundreds and hundreds of times. We give away 91 percent of our income and live on 9 percent. We’ve raised that from giving 10 percent 40 years ago. I’m an example of the fact that you cannot out-give God. I’ve tried for 40 years and lost every year. To plant generously in faith, you need to remember two promises of Jesus. Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and you will receive. You will be given much. It will be poured into your hands — more than you can hold. You will be given so much that it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you” (ICB). The way you give to others is the w...

  Why Not Your Best? “Do your best to improve your faith.” (2 Peter 1:5a CEV) Admiral Hyman Rickover was the father of America’s nuclear Navy. He once interviewed a Naval Academy graduate for a job on a nuclear submarine and let the young man talk for two hours about anything he wanted to, and the cadet really tried to show off his intelligence and ability. Right before the young man left, Admiral Rickover asked him a very direct question: “When you were in school and in all your life, did you always do your best?” The young man started to say “yes” but then realized it wasn’t truthful. “No,” he said, “I didn’t do my best all the time.” Admiral Rickover looked at him with piercing eyes and said, “Why not?” Why not? The question burned in the young man’s heart, and the interview was a turning point in his life. That young cadet became the 39th president of the U.S., Jimmy Carter, who wrote a book called Why Not the Best? If you want to give your best to God, there are three things y...

  Is It Your Dream or God’s Dream? “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.” (Mark 8:35 NLT, second edition) How do you know if you are living your dream or God’s dream? You may think you were created to get up, go to work, come home, watch TV, and go to bed, to make a little money, retire, and die. Really? You think that’s all God put you here for? If your dream is truly from God, it will somehow be connected to his Church and his plan for the world. Why would God give you a self-centered dream, unconnected to what he wants to do in the world? He wants to use you for his dream. He wants to use you for his plan. And what is God’s big, overarching plan? God is building a family, and he’s collecting family members from every nation, every tribe, every language, and every people group. When everybody’s in the family that he knows will be in the family, it’s over. We’re going int...

Doubt is the Enemy of Imagination “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” (James 1:5-7 NIV) Doubt is the enemy of imagination. When you were a kid, you had a great imagination. But the older you get, the more your imagination grows rusty. You stop imagining what things could be, and you just start living the way they are. You get stuck in the status quo, which is Latin for “the mess we’re in.” Doubt and fear neutralize what God wants to do in your life. It takes courage to imagine. Do you know why most people don’t imagine? Because they’re afraid of failure. Courage is doing the thing you fear the most. If you’re not afraid, you don’t need courage. Courage is when you’re scared to death and you say, “I...

  Faith Requires Imagination “We fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” (2 Corinthians 4:18 NLT, second edition) When you can’t see something physically, you have to imagine it in your mind. Imagination is essential to living by faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see” (NLT, second edition). Faith is when we hope for something and we know it’s going to happen. In order to hope for something, you have to picture it in your mind. Hebrews 11 is God’s Hall of Fame. When you read through the heroes of faith, you realize that every one of them became heroes of faith because they used their imagination. For instance, God said to Abraham, “You’re 90 years old, and you have no kids. But I’m going to change your name from Abram to Abraham, which means ‘father of a great nation.’” He told...

  T he Benefit of Believing “I am the one who raises the dead and gives them life again. Anyone who believes in me, even though he dies like anyone else, shall live again. He is given eternal life for believing in me and shall never perish.” (John 11:25-26a TLB) There are a lot of benefits to believing in Jesus and having a relationship with him, but even if there were nothing else, there would still be this, and it’s a pretty big deal: When you believe in Jesus Christ, you are guaranteed eternal life. Your eternity is sealed because of Jesus’ Resurrection. You see, Jesus bringing himself back to life changed everything. It literally split history into A.D. and B.C. It’s the most important event. And it proved three things. First, it proved that Jesus is exactly who he claimed to be. He repeatedly said he was the Son of God who came to die for our sins. And he did just that. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most well-documented events in history. It would stand u...

  God Can Top Your Biggest Dream “God can do anything, you know — far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” (Ephesians 3:20 MSG) God’s dream for your life is exponentially bigger than your dream. It’s eternally significant. There are a lot of dreams you could have that may seem big, but they wouldn’t be significant. You could dream of being a millionaire by a certain age, but for what purpose? Do you think God put you on this planet to live for yourself? Of course not! God’s dream for your life is bigger than your dream. Ephesians 3:20 says, “God can do anything, you know — far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” (MSG) I’ve never been accused of small dreaming. I have big visions in life. Yet God says, “Rick, think of the greatest thing I could do in your life, the greatest way I could bless your life. Dream the biggest dream, the greatest vision — and I can top that!” You have no idea what God wants ...

  You Can Be Saved, No Matter What You’ve Done “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.” (Romans 3:22 NLT, second edition) Because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, everything you’ve ever done wrong is forgiven. God forgives you freely, completely, instantly, and repeatedly. Even if there were no such thing as a Heaven — but of course there is — it would be worth believing in Jesus just to get a clear conscience. I’ve talked to thousands of people, and I know that most people are carrying secret guilt, secret regrets, and secret shame. You can be completely forgiven of that! Romans 3:22 says, “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are” (NLT, second edition). I love that last part. It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, who you’ve done it with, how long you did it, or where ...

How to Get God’s Power in Your Life “God gives power to those who are tired and worn out, and he offers strength to the weak.” (Isaiah 40:29 NLT, second edition) When you believe in Jesus, you get God’s strength for daily living. I used to think this wasn’t a big deal. But I’ve realized that for most people the number one problem in life isn’t worry or fear or guilt or bitterness. Their number one problem is weariness. I talk to people all the time who say, “I’m just so tired all the time. I can’t get it all done. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.” The reason why you’re tired all the time is you have a power shortage. And the reason you have a power shortage is because you’re not plugged into God’s power. You’re trying to live your life on your power alone. There’s no way you can fulfill your purpose in life without being plugged into God’s power. A toaster unplugged is worthless. A blender unplugged is worthless. A vacuum cleaner has no purpose if it’s not plugged into the p...

Want to Know Your Purpose? Ask Your Creator! “Everything, absolutely everything … got started in him and finds its purpose in him.” (Colossians 1:16 MSG) When you put your trust in Jesus Christ, you learn God’s purpose for your life. Most people don’t know the purpose of their lives. If you don’t know your purpose, you end up drifting through life. You get bounced around. You don’t control your life; your life controls you! There’s only one way you’re going to learn the purpose of your life. You’ve got to talk to your Creator. Sometimes people will say that if you want to know your purpose, look within. I did that. It didn’t work! You can’t tell you what your purpose is because you didn’t create you. Only the Creator can tell you what purpose you were created for. You will never, ever know the purpose of your life until you believe in Jesus Christ, because he is your Creator. The Bible says, “Everything, absolutely everything … got started in him and finds its purpose in him” (Colossia...

The First Step to a Miracle “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them …. So he began teaching them many things. By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. ‘This is a remote place,’ they said, ‘and it’s already very late. Send the people away so that they can go … buy themselves something to eat.’ But he answered, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said to him, ‘That would take more than half a year’s wages!’” (Mark 6:34-37 NIV) If you want God to do a miracle in your life, the first thing you have to do is admit that you have an unsolvable problem. Mark 6:34-37 says, “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them …. So he began teaching them many things. By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. ‘This is a remote place,’ they said, ‘and it’s already very late. Send the people away so that they can go … buy themselves something to eat.’ But he answered, ‘You give them something to eat.’ T...

  Grow, Sow, and Go in Faith “Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” (Colossians 2:7 NLT, second edition) God wants you to focus on growing, sowing, and going in faith. First, God wants you to grow in faith. He doesn’t want you to be a spiritual baby! The Bible says in Colossians 2:7: “Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness” (NLT, second edition). And God wants you to sow in faith. He wants you to learn to become generous because you cannot become like Christ without becoming generous. The Bible says, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Corinthians 9:6 NIV). This is the law of sowing and reaping, and it’s true in every area ...