Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

A FEW DECEMBERS AGO, I saw something that I won't soon forget. The bumper sticker on the back of the car in front of me caught my eye. It made me think. And it even aroused some guilt.

IN THIS SEASON OF EXTREME BUSYNESS, we Christians need to stay alert to any potential dangers. I'll mention only four of them . . . along with some strategies that will allow us to combat each risk.

IT HAPPENED TO ME LAST WEEK. Isaac Watts did it again. One of his best hymns (he wrote over six hundred!) lingered in my head for more than an hour before I formed the words with my mouth.

MANY YEARS AGO, my brother, Orville, introduced a hymn to me I'd not heard before. Its moving strains often accompany me as I drive or walk in solitude or return late from a day of demands.

THERE'S NOTHING LIKE THE SONGS OF the faith to help us live beyond the grind. Why else would God have inspired those age-old compositions?

I'VE LIVED LONG ENOUGH TO know that sometimes Christmas hurts. And when words fail, tears flow.

SOMEBODY COPIED THIS piece from a well-worn carbon in the billfold of a thirty-year veteran missionary. She and her husband were on their way to another tour of duty in Sudan.

THOUGH I HAVE WALKED WITH God for several decades, I must confess I still find much about Him incomprehensible and mysterious. But this much I know: He delights in surprising us.

SAMUEL WAS NOT IMPRESSED. Having discovered that the self-reliant king had once again disobeyed God's command, the exasperated prophet rebuked the stubborn king as few men in Scripture were rebuked:

THE PSALMIST WAS CORRECT: the heavens do indeed proclaim the glory of God. The skies do indeed display his craftsmanship (see Psalm 19:1).

GOLIATH REMINDS ME OF the cross-eyed discus thrower. He didn't set many records . . . but he sure kept the crowd awake!

THERE'S A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE. That isn't funny; it's tragic. Fakery draws its fuel from the pit. That's what God tells us.

EVERY YEAR, as Christmas draws nearer, I remember a story Paul Harvey told on one of his radio broadcasts. It's a tale that never grows old.

ALTHOUGH IT MAY BE a little ahead of schedule, it's not too early to give some things away this Christmas. Not just on Christmas Day, but during the days leading up to December 25.

The whole world was on fire with the flames of Rome's rampaging expansion. What could possibly have been more important than Caesar's decrees or Rome's massive building programs?

BEING A PROPHET IN Israel wasn't an easy gig. That's the understatement of the year. Most of the men God called were expected to boldly bear the bad news of God's displeasure with the attitudes and sins of His people.

I RECALL THE FIRST TIME I watched the children's classic movie The Wizard of Oz. I was spellbound by the music and the enchanting way in which the simple themes of family, valuing home, and celebrating individual differences were on display.

STRANGE, ISN'T IT, how we tend toward extremes? What begins as self-improvement becomes self-enslavement. What starts as merely a mellow change of pace leads to a marathon of fanaticism.

I'M THE GUY WHO PROMOTES WAITING and allowing the Lord to open the doors and shove you through. You know, all the stuff you expect a preacher to say.

BACK WHEN I WAS A KID I got a bellyache that wouldn't go away. It hurt so bad I couldn't stand up straight. Or sit down without increasing the pain.