Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Snap a telescopic lens on your perspective for the next few minutes. Pull yourself up close . . . close enough to see the real you. From the reflection in your mental mirror, pay close attention to your life.

"Physician. One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs when well," defines A. Bierce in The Devil's Dictionary. Of all the professions, that of the physician has to be the most paradoxical.

I had just completed a manuscript on Philippians, and my heart was full of joy. Not only because I was through (isn't that a wonderful word?) but because joy, the theme of the inspired letter I had spent weeks studying, had rubbed off.

When I was deep in the redwoods some time ago, I lay back and looked up. I mean really up. It was one of those clear summer nights when you could see forever. So starry it was scary.

Nobodies. What a necessary band of men and women . . . servants of the King . . . yet nameless in the kingdom! Men and women who, with silent heroism and faithful diligence, relinquish the limelight.

A Greek class was given an assignment to study the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25–37. As is true in most classes, a couple or three of the students cared more about the practical implications of the assignment.

Wisely labeled "the saving virtue," tact graces life like fragrance graces a rose. One whiff erases any memory of the thorns. It's remarkable how peaceful and pleasant tact can make us. Its major goal is avoiding unnecessary offense.

Are you aware of what waiters and waitresses say about the Christians they serve? Do you have any idea how much they dread waiting on our tables in restaurants after church on Sundays?

Is your next step the need to forgive? Do it. Don't let anything or anyone talk you out of it. I know, I know. After all the misery you have had to endure, why should you have to be the one who humbles yourself and forgives?

Class Action is a class act. It's a film about two lawyers who go head-to-head, both in court and in life. They are father and daughter . . . on opposite sides of a complicated case charged with the full spectrum of emotions.

During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the British government began to run low on silver for coins. Lord Cromwell sent his men to the local cathedral to see if they could find any precious metal there.

Remember that time you got ticked off trying to find a verse in the Bible and couldn't? That was almost as bad as the day you decided to read a couple of chapters and got hung up on "Nazirite" . . . or scratched your head over "cubit."

Thanks to the Word of God, we can list several marks of integrity that God would have us appropriate into our lives. Do you have these marks of integrity?

Better than any other word I can think of, change describes our world. Vast, sweeping changes, especially in the last 150 years. Simply to survive requires adjusting.

The path of the pale horse named Death, mentioned in Revelation 6:8, is littered with bitterness, sorrow, fear, and grief. This ashen stallion started his lengthy journey ages ago and races through time with steady beat.

Reader alert: [I wrote this back when Lenny Dykstra was playing for the Mets. But the truth still applies.] No offense, but Lenny Dykstra doesn't look like much of an athlete. He looks more like some team's mascot.

For years we Americans have been hung up on records and statistics—particularly in the world of sports. They have become the standards for greatness. What's really amazing is that once "unreachable" world records now seem reachable.

Blow that layer of dust off the Book of Nahum in your Bible and catch a glimpse of the last part of verse three, chapter one: "The way of the Lord is in the whirlwind and in the storm" (Berkeley Version).

Discipline is one of the most hated terms of our times . . . right alongside patience and self-control. But have you noticed how often it comes up in the testimonies of those who win?

God's sharp sword stabbed me deeply recently as I was on a scriptural hunt in the Ephesian letter. I was searching for a verse totally unrelated to the one that sliced its way into me.