Dianne Neal Matthews is the author of several daily devotional books including The One Year Women of the Bible (Tyndale House) and Designed for Devotion: A 365-Day Journey from Genesis to Revelation (Baker Books). She also writes for websites, blogs, and compilations (including Guideposts' Mornings with Jesus).
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After becoming queen, Esther lived in two worlds. Nothing could be further from her Jewish upbringing than life in the place of a powerful Persian monarch. Although Esther lived in luxury, with numerous servants to carry out her slightest whim, her role required her to live among people who did not know God. Esther conducted herself in a way that won the favor of those around her, yet she remained true to her heritage. She stayed in constant contact with her guardian, Mordecai, and followed his advice just as she had before she became queen.
A sudden crisis disrupted this settled arrangement and brought Esther to a defining moment in her life. When Haman scheduled a day for the Jewish people's annihilation, Mordecai urged Esther to intervene. Esther knew the dangers this entailed-approaching the king without an invitation meant death unless he chose to extend his scepter. Esther also didn't know how Xerxes would react when he found out that she was Jewish. Would she reveal her race or continue to conceal it? Would she speak up for her people or stay quiet and hope to avoid trouble? Esther's decision would change her world and that of her people, one way or another.
Many Christian women try to live in two separate worlds. We may work hard to fit in on the job, around the neighborhood, or in social settings while keeping our faith a private matter. Although we try to justify our silence as a desire not to force our beliefs on others, God will eventually require us to choose which world we represent. How will we react when speaking up for Christ brings us ridicule or poses a danger, such as losing a job? Whether we choose to conceal or reveal our faith, it will affect our lives and the lives of those around us.
Is there a setting in which God is asking you to reveal your faith?
More Devotions on Spiritual Life
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This Devotion is taken from The One Year Women of the Bible Devotion.
(Tyndale House Publishers)
© 2007 Dianne Neal Matthews
Dianne Neal Matthews has written Devotions, magazine articles, and newspaper features. She is the author of The One Year on This Day (Tyndale House) and is a contributing author to Classic Christmas: True Stories of Holiday Cheer and Goodwill (Adams Media). Dianne is a CLASS graduate and a member of Toastmasters. She and her husband, Richard, live in central Illinois and have three grown children and a granddaughter.
I was filled with Christmas spirit as I lugged box after box down our attic stairs that December afternoon. My two youngest children began ripping open the cartons to see what was inside. Before leaving the room to do some pressing chore, I instructed them to look, but not take anything out until we were ready to use it. My plan was to trim the tree and decorate the house in an orderly, logical manner, one step at a time.
My impulsive children, however, had different plans. When I returned to the family room several minutes later, all the boxes were open and much of the contents scattered across the shag carpet. The room looked like a fully-loaded Christmas tree had exploded.
“Just look at this mess!” I scolded.
“Yes, but Mommy, isn’t it wonderful?’ an excited five-year old voice answered. “It’s a Christmas mess!”
I looked at my daughter’s wonder-filled eyes and thought back to the first Christmas. The city of Bethlehem must have been a big mess with the crowds coming to register for the census. Joseph and Mary were in a mess when they found that all the inns were full. And giving birth in a stable sounds like a messy situation, to say the least.
Yet in the midst of this chaos, a plan older than time itself began to unfold. God looked down at a world messed up by sin and knew what was needed—a Messiah. The Creator Himself physically entered our world through the supernatural birth of a tiny baby in a humble stable. And the miracle of Christmas happened—the Ancient of Days became a newborn.
Two thousand years have passed, but the world hasn’t really changed all that much. People still make a mess of things. We cause suffering for others and we suffer because of others. We seek fulfillment in anything other than the only One who offers it.
I’m so grateful that the baby in the manger has changed. Jesus grew up, lived a sinless life, then willingly suffered an excruciating death to pay for the sins of the world. After being raised to life again, He stepped back into His heavenly home where He is preparing a place for those who believe and receive Him.
Sometimes it takes the innocent wonder of a child to give us a fresh view of Christmas and point us toward what’s really important. I needed the reminder that it’s not a beautifully decorated tree or an immaculate house. It’s not hosting parties or dinners that go off without a hitch. It’s not shopping until we find the perfect gifts for everyone on our list. We truly experience Christmas when we look past the messes in our lives, gaze at the Child in the manger and recognize Him as the One who was called “Wonderful” hundreds of years before His birth by the prophet Isaiah.
So on that long-ago December afternoon, I looked at my children sitting in a sea of tangled ribbon, tinsel and garland. In spite of the mess around us, I had to agree with my daughter, “Yes, it is wonderful!”
“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” "> (NLT)
This Devotion is adapted from The One Year Women of the Bible with permission. (Tyndale House) © 2007 Dianne Neal Matthews
Years ago one of my friends became interested in tracing his roots. Jason belonged to one of the founding families of our church and community; they still owned much of the property and businesses in our little town. After subscribing to an online service that provided access to records and spending hours researching his family history, Jason lost some of his initial enthusiasm. One of his first discoveries was an ancestor arrested for being a horse thief.
Genealogies and family histories were important to the Jewish people. So as a Jew writing to a Jewish audience, Matthew naturally opened his book with a genealogy. In order to introduce Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies about Messiah, Matthew had to prove that Jesus was a direct descendant of David with a rightful claim to the throne. He traced Jesus’ ancestry through Joseph, his legal father, and ended at Abraham, verifying that Jesus was one of God’s chosen people. (Luke traced Jesus’ ancestry all the way back to Adam through Mary, also a direct descendant of David but through another son.)
Matthew condensed Jesus’ genealogy by skipping some generations, but he proved Jesus’ credentials. In the process, he also revealed something about God’s love and mercy. The list of 46 people includes a motley crew ranging from ordinary men to flawed heroes, to adulterers and evil kings. Even more striking, Matthew included the names of several women—something that Jewish genealogies normally did not do since ancestry was traced through men. God had Matthew include not only the name of Mary, Jesus’s mother, but also four women from the Old Testament. All of these women were either foreigners or of questionable character. (See Matthew 1)
From a human standpoint, some of these women had shameful blots on their life stories that made them unlikely candidates for being included in the ancestry of God’s Son.
Tamar was probably a Canaanite. After she was widowed twice, her father-in-law, Judah, failed to arrange her marriage with his surviving son as the Law required. Tired of waiting, Tamar pretended to be a prostitute and had sex with Judah. (See Genesis 38) Despite the immorality of the relationship, God allowed Judah’s line to be traced through one of Tamar’s twin sons.
Rahab was a prostitute in Jericho, a city that God planned to destroy because of its wickedness. Choosing to believe in what she’d heard about Yahweh, Rahab saved the lives of the Israelite spies, who then promised protection for her and her family. (Joshua 2, 6) Rahab later married an Israelite from the tribe of Judah and had a son named Boaz.
Ruth came from Moab. According to
, no Moabite could be “admitted to the assembly of the Lord.” But Ruth accepted the God of her husband’s family. Later, when the widowed Ruth chose to follow her mother-in-law to Israel, Boaz married her. Their first son was King David’s grandfather.Because Bathsheba was originally married to Uriah, she may have been a Hittite. The child born from her adultery with David died (2 Samuel 11-12), but they later had Solomon, who succeeded his father in ruling Israel.
God included these women in the Messiah’s line despite their backgrounds and mistakes. He wanted to make it clear that his mercy and grace extends to the entire world, not just to one group of people. God didn’t choose the Jewish nation as his special people to exclude anyone but to draw the entire world to himself. Nothing can keep us from being a part of God’s family if we choose to believe in him. There is nothing that can cut us off from his forgiveness—not our past mistakes, our questionable background, or our present failures. Only one thing can keep us from being a part of God’s family: our choice not to believe in his Son, Jesus Christ.
No matter how many skeletons in our closet, no one is outside God’s grace unless he or she chooses to be there.
God loved the world this way: He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life.
(God’s Word™ translation)
Copyright © Dianne Neal Matthews, used with permission.
CBN.com -- On June 8, 1937, a specimen of the world's largest flower bloomed in the United States at the New York Botanical Garden.
The giant Sumatran Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum) measured eight and a half feet high with a four-foot diameter.
Visitors were repelled by its putrid, rotting-corpse fragrance.
The plant is native to the Sumatran jungles of Indonesia, where it is called the "corpse flower."
The first Western botanist to find the Titan Arum was Dr. Odoardo Beccari of Italy. He sent his patron seeds and supervised their cultivation in Italy. From there, shipments of the "corpse flower" were sent to other countries.
Eve decided that the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil looked delicious and pretty, and would make her wise.
says,"When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it." (NIV)
But when she and Adam disobeyed God's command, and ate from the forbidden tree, it was as if the fruit became "corpse fruit." For the first time, the stench of death and decay entered God's perfect garden. They were repelled by the results, and expelled from the garden.
We play out that same scene anytime we give in to sin's pull. A habit seems harmless, an activity appears pleasurable, or a relationship looks attractive, so we ignore the Spirit's nudge that this is not in line with God's will.
Eventually what seemed harmless blooms into full-blown sin, with a putrid fragrance of death and destruction. The results may be the death of a dream or ministry, or even physical death.
We need to remember that just because a flower has a large, colorful bloom doesn't mean it smells good. And just because a decision looks harmless doesn't mean that we won't be repelled by the results.
This Devotion is taken from The One Year On This Day Devotion.
(Tyndale House Publishers)
© 2005 Dianne Neal Matthews
Dianne Neal Matthews’ publishing credits include magazine articles, Devotions, and newspaper features. Her work has won several awards, including the 2006 Writer of the Year Award at the Write-to-Publish Conference in Wheaton, Illinois. She and her husband, Richard, have been married thirty-two years and have three grown children and one granddaughter. Dianne is currently working on The One Year Women of the Bible Devotion scheduled for release by Tyndale in August 2007.
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At a time when many cultures regarded wives as property to be dealt with according to their husbands' wishes, Christianity elevated the role of wives to unheard-of-heights. The passage in Ephesians 5 doesn't seem revolutionary to us, but it must have sounded radical to the women who first heard Paul's letter when it was read to early groups of believers. To show his love for his "bride," Jesus Christ had willingly given up his life for everyone who would follow him. Now, Paul's writings commanded husbands to love their wives with that same sacrificial heart.
Some of the original recipients of Paul's letters had probably endured harsh treatment. Perhaps some of them lived with indifferent or uncaring spouses. Even if they had learned to accept their situations, God's words must have made them feel valued in a way they had never known before. Whether or not the men obeyed the instructions, the women had the assurance that God intended for their husbands to love and care for them as much as for their own bodies. God desired for wives to experience the kind of love that always acted in their best interest.
What woman wouldn't want a man with deep, unselfish love that would lead him to lay down his life for her if necessary? Many wives today feel that they are in loveless marriages. Some experience a distorted version of the relationship that God intended, which makes them feel used. Regardless of the nature of our marriages or our marital status, we have experienced the love described in Ephesians 5. Jesus gave up his life for us before we even knew him. He suffered and paid the price for our sin so that we can have a worthwhile life on earth, and then live with God forever. Once we accept what Jesus offers, we are cherished women indeed.
More Devotions on Spiritual Life
More from Spiritual Life
This Devotion is taken from The One Year Women of the Bible Devotion.
(Tyndale House Publishers)
© 2007 Dianne Neal Matthews
Dianne Neal Matthews has written Devotions, magazine articles, and newspaper features. She is the author of The One Year on This Day (Tyndale House) and is a contributing author to Classic Christmas: True Stories of Holiday Cheer and Goodwill (Adams Media). Dianne is a CLASS graduate and a member of Toastmasters. She and her husband, Richard, live in central Illinois and have three grown children and a granddaughter.
Dianne's Website: www.DianneNealMatthews.com
CBN.com - Kwanzaa, or Kwanza, is an adaptation of a traditional African festival of the harvest of the first crops and is celebrated from December 26 to January 1.
Maulana Karenga, a professor at California State University in Long Beach, created the holiday in 1966. Kwanzaa is part of a phrase that means "firstfruits" in Swahili.
Each day of the celebration focuses on one of the seven principles of black culture developed by Karenga: unity, self-determination, collective responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.
In the evenings, the family gathers to light a candle and discuss the principle for that day. Near the end of the holiday, families join in a community feast called the "karamu."
The Jewish people celebrated a festival of firstfruits. God instructed them to bring the first bundle of grain from their harvest as an offering to Him. They were not allowed to sell or eat their grain until after they had made their offering of firstfruits. The firstfruits offering represented the promise of a harvest to come.
The Jewish festival pictured the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who later became the firstfruits of believers who had died. Although Jesus had raised Lazarus and others from the dead, He was the first to be raised with a permanent body, never to die again.
Jesus is the promise of a harvest to come -- a resurrection of all those who have believed in Him. Because of His resurrection, we will gain an immortal body someday too. Our assurance of this is what Paul referred to as the "first fruits of the Spirit" within believers ( , NASB).
The Spirit is a foretaste of the blessings and glory we will enjoy someday -- a promise of the harvest to come.
"Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep" ( , NASB).
This Devotion is taken from The One Year On This Day Devotion.
(Tyndale House Publishers)
© 2005 Dianne Neal Matthews
Dianne Neal Matthews’ publishing credits include magazine articles, Devotions, and newspaper features. Her work has won several awards, including the 2006 Writer of the Year Award at the Write-to-Publish Conference in Wheaton, Illinois. She and her husband, Richard, have been married thirty-two years and have three grown children and one granddaughter. Dianne is currently working on The One Year Women of the Bible Devotion scheduled for release by Tyndale in August 2007.
CBN.com - In late December 2004, the most powerful earthquake in over forty years struck deep under the Indian Ocean off the northwestern coast of the island of Sumatra.
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggered massive tsunamis that hit the coasts of fourteen countries from Southeast Asia to northeastern Africa.
The disaster obliterated cities, villages, and holiday resorts. As of February 16, 2005, the death toll from the catastrophe totaled close to 288,000. Nearly two-thirds of the deaths occurred in Indonesia, with high death tolls also reported in India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
Our life can change in an instant. Catastrophe can suddenly strike and take away everything we have.
God called Job "blameless" and "a man of complete integrity" ( ), yet through a series of disasters, Job lost him children, his wealth, and his health overnight.
Even in his grief, Job did not blame God, although he questioned why these things happened. When his questioning turned into complaining, God revealed his power and majesty to Job in a new way. Job acknowledged God's sovereignty, and God restored him to greater things than before.
When we're reeling from sudden disaster, it's hard to think about anything except to wonder why. It seems impossible to focus on God's goodness at times like that, but that's what He wants us to do.
It helps to remember that our life can also change for the good in an instant. He is working in all things and will bring healing and restoration in His timing.
As believers, we can recall that time when His forgiveness and grace swept over us and brought redemption and eternal life. Even if we lose everything, including our life, we will still have the most important thing.
"The waves of death overwhelmed me; floods of destruction swept over me" ( ).
This Devotion is taken from The One Year On This Day Devotion.
(Tyndale House Publishers)
© 2005 Dianne Neal Matthews
Dianne Neal Matthews’ publishing credits include magazine articles, Devotions, and newspaper features. Her work has won several awards, including the 2006 Writer of the Year Award at the Write-to-Publish Conference in Wheaton, Illinois. She and her husband, Richard, have been married thirty-two years and have three grown children and one granddaughter. Dianne is currently working on The One Year Women of the Bible Devotion scheduled for release by Tyndale in August 2007.
