Split Vision

“A wise man’s heart guides his mouth.” Proverbs 16:23 

Isn’t it curious how in the midst of a nasty family argument we can shake our bad mood the instant the telephone rings or a neighbor knocks on the door? Have you ever been brought up short by a small voice questioning such a sudden turn to peaches and cream after twenty minutes of fire and brimstone? Sometimes we treat those we love the worst, and kids are quick to recognize this hypocrisy.

Mark Hatfield, a longtime senator from Oregon and the father of four, said his wife once stung him by saying, “I just wish you were as patient with your children as you are with your constituents.” He isn’t alone. We’re all guilty at times of what might be called “split vision”— treating acquaintances with forbearance while losing patience or even heaping contempt on those under our own roof. We assume the worst. We pounce on every shortcoming. We never miss an opportunity to harangue. In the process, we wound the people we care about most.

It’s time we cut one another a little slack at home. If we say our spouses, children, and parents are the most significant people in our lives, we can prove it by showing them the same kindnesses we would bestow on our most honored guests.

Just between us…

• Are we as patient with each other at home as we are with guests and strangers?
• Why do you think we can be so hard on each other?
• How can we encourage each other to avoid this kind of “split vision”? 

Father, open our eyes to see one another the way You do. Forgive us for the laziness and selfishness that so easily sour our family relationships. Help us guard our words and actions so that we may be pleasing in Your sight. Amen. 

From Night Light For Couples, by Dr. James & Shirley Dobson
Copyright © 2000 by James Dobson, Inc. All rights reserved.
Illustration from Quiet Times with the one You Love by Art Hunt (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 1998).

SINGING PRAISES

After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: "Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever." As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. 2 Chronicles 20:21-22 

The overflow of singing praises amid great difficulties has tremendous spiritual power for helping to win the spiritual battle. Paul and Silas set the biblical pattern in the prison in Philippi. Pastor Jack Hayford enjoys sharing the story as told by his favourite black preacher. Paul and Silas' prison cell singing was heard all the way to the throne room of God. He began to tap his toe to the music. Since heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool; that created an earthquake!!!

Ivan Antonov spent twenty-four years in Russian prison camps for preaching the gospel. He later shared how he survived:

I would sing hymns. I was really glad that I knew so many. I had memorized about one hundred seventy hymns, and in order not to forget them, I reviewed several every day. So over a time, I sang through all of them. I want to emphasize to my young friends that you should worship God with songs and poems and memorize them. They will come in handy...I sang hymns every morning and at night before going to bed...In those quiet [morning] hours, I would go outside in the fresh air and sing hymns of praise to God and pray. Then I went in for breakfast with everyone else.[1]

China’s notable pastor Wang Ming-dao shared upon his release from prison that he frequently sang praises to God to buoy his spirits. The songs that meant the most to him were “All The Way My Saviour Leads Me” and “Safe In The Arms Of Jesus.”

His contemporary, Allen Yuan shared with me two songs which he repeatedly sang aloud throughout his nearly twenty-two years in prison. One was “The Old Rugged Cross” and the other “Psalm Twenty-Seven” from the Chinese Psalter. It was always an emotional highlight to hear him sing these songs. 

RESPONSE: Today I will sing praises to the Lord my God.

PRAYER: Lord, help me to rejoice and sing praises to You, especially when I feel the challenges of spiritual warfare. 

1. Ivan Antonov, “Survival 101: How to prepare for imprisonment,” Prisoner Bulletin (1989), p.13.

Verse of the Day - May 15, 2016

Ecclesiastes 11:5 (NIV) As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 11

Pentecost

Pentecost is the Greek name for Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, a prominent feast in the calendar of ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law to Moses at Sinai. In Christianity, Pentecost is celebrated fifty days after Easter Day, counting inclusively (including both the first and last days), i.e. seven weeks after Easter Day. In Judaism, Shavuot is on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan (late May or early June). Pentecost falls on the tenth day after Ascension Thursday (which itself is 40 days after Easter).

The feast is also called White Sunday, or "Whitsunday", especially in the United Kingdom, where traditionally the next day, Whit Monday, was also a public holiday. In Eastern Christianity, Pentecost can also refer to the entire fifty days between Easter and Pentecost, hence the book containing the liturgical texts for Paschaltide is called the Pentecostarion.

Pentecost is the old Greek and Latin name for the Jewish Festival of Weeks which can be found in the Hebrew Bible. It is called by that name in Exodus 34:22 and Deuteronomy 16:10. It is also called the Festival of Reaping in Exodus 23:16, and Day of the First Fruits in Numbers 28:26.

Jews traditionally read the Book of Ruth at Pentecost, as the story links with the grain harvest theme of the festival.

In the New Testament, Pentecost was the occasion of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ, as described in the Acts of the Apostles 2:1–31. Thus in the Christian liturgical year it became a feast commemorating this occasion. For this reason, Pentecost is described by some Christians as the "Birthday of the Church". The Pentecostal movement of Christianity derives its name from this New Testament event, as the movement emphasizes direct personal experience with God, akin to the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles.

The biblical narrative of Pentecost is given in the second chapter of the Book of Acts. Present were about one hundred and twenty followers of Christ (Acts 1:15), including the Twelve Apostles (i.e. the Eleven faithful disciples and Matthias who was Judas' replacement) (Acts 1:13, 26), his mother Mary, various other women disciples and his brothers (Acts 1:14).

Their reception of the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room is recounted in Acts 2:1–6:

    And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

While those on whom the Spirit had descended were speaking in many languages, the Apostle Peter stood up with the eleven and proclaimed to the crowd that this event was the fulfillment of the prophecy ("I will pour out my spirit"). In Acts 2:17, it reads: "'And in the last days,' God says, 'I will pour out my spirit upon every sort of flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy and your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams." He also mentions (2:15) that it was the third hour of the day (about 9:00 am). Acts 2:41 then reports: "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."

Peter stated that this event was the beginning of a continual outpouring that would be available to all believers from that point on, Jews and Gentiles alike.

The Daily Readings for May 15, 2016 - Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2:1-21
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine." But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

Psalm 104:24-35, 37
24   Man goes forth to his work and to his labor until the evening.
25   O LORD, how manifold are your works! in wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
26   Yonder is the great and wide sea with its living things too many to number, creatures both small and great.
27   There move the ships, and there is that Leviathan, which you have made for the sport of it.
28   All of them look to you to give them their food in due season.
29   You give it to them; they gather it; you open your hand, and they are filled with good things.
30   You hide your face, and they are terrified; you take away their breath, and they die and return to their dust.
31   You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; and so you renew the face of the earth.
32   May the glory of the LORD endure for ever; may the LORD rejoice in all his works.
33   He looks at the earth and it trembles; he touches the mountains and they smoke.
34   I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will praise my God while I have my being.
35   May these words of mine please him; I will rejoice in the LORD.
37   Bless the LORD, O my soul. Hallelujah!

John 14:8-17, 14:25-27
Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. "I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

Forward Day by Day Meditation for Sunday, May 15, 2016 - Pentecost Sunday

Genesis 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

The story of Babel serves as an ancient explanation of why different languages exist, and it is a moral story of how we humans can misuse God-given gifts. Language is a gift, without a doubt. Because of language we have been able to write poetry, sing songs, and share our stories with each other.

We have also used our words to diminish each other and to speak words of hate. Using our words for selfish, prideful means leads to discord and disunion.

God, however, also uses words. And on this day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes upon those gathered and gives them inspired speech, unifying humanity in our varied languages. God’s words, spoken in love, unify rather than divide. Pentecost redeems our babble.

Subscribe to Forward Day By Day 

 Join more than a half million readers worldwide who use Forward Day by Day as a resource for daily prayer and Bible study