Daily Devotional –From Lonnie’s Pen

Superstitious Pigeons

B.F. Skinner was right – you can make a pigeon superstitious. We usually associate superstition with black cats crossing our path, the number 13, or walking under ladders, but these are merely examples of ways people are superstitious. To be superstitious is to have a compulsion to take an action which has no actual effect on the desired outcome.

All you have to do to make a pigeon superstitious is to put him in a cage and wait for him to do some act such as bobbing his head or spinning around and then feed him at the second he does that thing. In time he will start doing that act over and over in the hope that food will appear.

Aren’t you glad that you are smarter than a pigeon? We have no irrational beliefs which in reality have no effect on a desired outcome. After spending a lifetime around good people, I can say that we sometimes are superstitious. Some folks have told me that whenever they attend a game of their favorite team, the team always wins. One lady told me that when her team falls behind, if she will start doing laundry, her team starts winning. Baseball players put their hats on in certain ways and call them “rally caps” in the belief that wearing the cap in that way will cause them to win. I knew one great Christian lady who drove the long way home rather than cross the path of a black cat.

Honestly, these are not harmful superstitions. I have worn my lucky suit a time or two. Superstitions that do bother me are those where people believe that God has spoken, when in fact he has not. “Back in the day,” people said if you went to the movie on Sunday you could not go to heaven. Some believed that if you played pool, you could not go to heaven. I know one preacher who was rebuked in a men’s meeting for playing golf.

To believe something is right or wrong when God has not spoken makes us superstitious pigeons. We are doing a little dance and saying this is what will cause God to save us. We need to have our beliefs firmly grounded in what God says and not some belief that is not found in His Word. Paul told those listening to his sermon, “I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.” (Acts 17:22 KJV). To be grounded in teachings which are not God’s clear teaching is to be “too superstitious” and makes us like superstitious pigeons.

Lonnie Davis

Begin with a Smile

The busiest day of the week is “Manana.”

HeartWord – Psalm 68:19
“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.”

Reflecting on Today’s Text:

All of God’s followers would be refreshed if we only remember this great fact. God helps us and He helps us daily. For that we ought to give praise to Him. He is our God and our Savior.

Today’s Bible Chapter
is Psalm 68.

To read it click H E R E.

Daily Devotional – We are All Babies

I stood out by my car and looked at my old friend. Only moments before we sat in my room and talked about the old days. I won’t say we were remembering happier days because these are happy days too. I looked back on him, even though I knew it was him, I almost couldn’t recognize him. I wondered if he felt the same as he looked at me. No doubt he did.

This is not a depressing article. It is about life – not life on earth but life wherever we are. If I don’t get around as well as I used to, it is to remind me that I am not made for here. I am made for there. If I prefer comfort to adventure, it is because I am in a different place in the same life. The truth is that we don’t get older, we only move to different places in our lives. I am not old. You are not old. If you are 50, you are not old. If you are 90 you are not old. You are exactly where God wanted you to be.

I think it must be funny to a 4,000 year-old Abraham when any of us complains about being 50, or 40. A 2,000 year old Paul probably can’t wait to challenge us about old age. You may think it strange to speak of 4,000 year old Abraham or 2,000 year old Paul in the present tense, but that is approximately how old they are and they are still alive. I love the fact that there will never be another time when I will cease to be.

When I was a child I thought of eternity as a distance place and a distant time that might be a million years from now. Jesus spoke of eternity as beginning when death happens on earth. (Luke 16:19-31) Paul said he wanted to leave and go be with Jesus. (Phil 1:21-24).

You are not made for here. You are made for there. Any pleasures you might have here are nothing compared with what is yet to be. You are not growing old.

In the number of our eternal years, we are all still babies.

Lonnie Davis

Begin with a Smile

“Mothers are guinea pigs in a scientific experiment to prove that sleep is unnecessary for human existence.”

HeartWord – Psalm 56:3-4
“When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?”

Reflecting on Today’s Text:

When we truly trust God, we know that in the end there is nothing man can do to us. Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matt 20:28). Someday we will all understand that only eternity matters.

Today’s Bible Chapter

Psalm 56.

To read it click H E R E.