By GARY ANDREWS
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I remember a story of a young atheist who took a theology of faith course in a northern university. This young man was looking for God and on the last day of class he asked his professor if he will ever find him. The professor answered, “No, but I am absolutely certain He will find you.”
The young man went on about his life and quit searching for God. At the age of 24 he was diagnosed with terminal cancer which changed his mode of thinking. He revisited his college professor and told him that God had found him.
The young man decided he really didn’t care anything about God and decided that he would do something productive with his life. He told his professor that it is an essential sadness to go through life without loving. He also realized that it would be equally sad if he left this world without telling those he loved that he loved them.
How many of us today have this same story? How trivial it is for us to hold a grudge against family members, friends, or others we don’t even know without talking with these people. Most of the time the differences we have are going to be very insignificant and over some petty misspoken words or deeds.
The young man related to his professor that the professor’s words to him were correct. He told him that even though he quit searching for God; God found him. He realized that the surest way of finding God is not to make Him a private possession, a problem solver, or an instant consolation in time of need, but rather by opening to love.
When we love we find a life that is more beautiful that eyes have ever seen, ears have ever heard, or the mind ever imagined. Our most precious possession that we can ever have, and it is a free gift, is the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ. All of us need to remember that God is love!
Along these same lines we need to understand that the most destructive habit we can have is to worry. Our greatest joy is giving; our greatest loss is self-respect and our most satisfying work is helping others. The greatest problem for us to overcome is fear and the worst thing to be without is hope. We need to realize that the deadliest weapon is the tongue, the most worthless possession is self-pity, and the most crippling disease is excuses.
Our greatest asset is faith and the most contagious spirit is enthusiasm. Our most beautiful attire is a smile, our most prized possession is integrity, and our most powerful channel of communication is prayer.
Just as God found the young man with a terrible cancer, the man changed his thoughts and lifestyle from one of no hope to one of love. Love is what makes the world go round and the quicker we realize this the more comfortable we will be with our own lifestyle.
Prayer: Father thank you for finding me and giving me eternal life when I leave this world. I know without uncertainty that you are the one and only true God. I praise you for this time on earth and pray that I can be a witness for you and your glory. Amen.
(Suggested daily Bible readings: Sunday – John 3:16; Monday – Song of Songs 8:6-7; Tuesday – 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Wednesday – Revelation 3:14-22; Thursday – Psalm 136:1-26; Friday – Job 10:12; Saturday – 1 John 2:1-6.)
Gary Andrews is the author of Encouraging Words: 30-days in God’s Word. To obtain a copy go to his website www.gadevotionals. com.

By GARY ANDREWS
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In the early 60’s there was a very popular folk song called, “Where have all the flowers gone?” written by Pete Seeger. This song has been recorded by many artists and in many languages.
Considered to be a political song the message is very strong and has so much meaning. Many say it talks about the struggles of anger and war among the nations, but some have said it speaks also to the inner struggles of man with himself. The phrase “When will they ever learn,” is the endless battle within all of us and passes from generation to generation.
I think about this song in a different but similar way. I firmly believe that all of us could sing this song and not talk about the warfare within us but to the wisdom that has escaped us through the loss of older and wiser generations. Seeger’s song relates to young girls plucking the flowers and then the young girls being picked by the young men for their wives. The men go off to war and return to graveyards, which again produces flowers for the young girls to go and pluck again. It is a rotation that seems to never cease.
Thinking back to when I was a teenager I wish that I had spent more time listening and learning from the previous generation. Even though we are in the midst of the most advanced electronic age, have we learned the basics of life or are we just getting by with imitations that will soon fade into obscurity? What has happened to common courtesy? Where has the respect of elders gone to? What about the reverence of Sunday and God’s house?
We have become a generation of fast food, less family time, impatience, rudeness, little or no hospitality, self-centeredness, laziness, and, for many, Godlessness. The world moves in a fast circular motion and people are continuing to look about and wonder why we are changing to the immoral and unethical values that are so prevalent today. Why have we quit standing up and speaking up for God? Why are we allowing radical religions to dictate to us what we should or should not be doing? Little by little Satan and his force of demons are taking away our freedoms that our previous generations treasured and stood up for.
Where have all the flowers gone? Gone to graveyards every one, when will we ever learn? If we continue on this path of destruction and our non-obedience to the one and only true God, then we will go to graveyards with no legacy to leave to our future generations. The future starts now and if we are not willing to stand and fight for what we know is right, then we have no hope. We need to hear and heed the psalmist words in Psalm 37:1: “Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong
Prayer: Father thank you for another day of life. I pray that the life I lead will be a testament to the ones that follow me. I pray for our sinful world and pray that our country will return to you. Amen.
(Suggested daily Bible readings: Sunday – Psalm 73:2-28; Monday – Luke 10:18-23; Tuesday – Proverbs 24:19-22; Wednesday – Job 17:1-16; Thursday -  1 Corinthians 11:17-22; Friday – Exodus 10:1-2; Saturday – 1 Peter 2:23.)
Gary Andrews is the author of Encouraging Words: 30-days in God’s Word. To obtain a copy go to his website www.gadevotionals .com.

By GARY ANDREWS
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Our greatest assets for the future are our today’s youth. We, as adults, have the responsibility to nurture and train our youth in values, morals, integrity, responsibility, ethics and optimism.
There is a Chinese Proverb that goes like this; “All the flowers of all the tomorrow’s are in the seeds of today.”
I am a product of the sixties and the hippie movement. I saw first-hand when the youth of the country starting rebelling against all authority and renouncing all they were ever taught. If it feels good do it! That was the saying of the day and most of the sixties youth participated in it.
Probably some of the problems we are experiencing today are because of the training the youth of the sixties have given their own teenagers of today. Times have changed. We as parents of today may have waited too late to realize that we don’t have the answer to every problem and that just possibly our parents were smarter that we thought.
A lot of problems in society today are because of our low morals, unethical values, lack of discipline, and no desire for what the future holds. Maybe our parents didn’t care enough to discipline us in the ways we needed it most. Remember what King Solomon told us in Proverbs 13:24; “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.”
Now that we are parents and the adults trying to maintain a trouble free environment for our children, we wish that our younger years could have been more of listening and learning instead of rebelling and doing what felt good.
For me, I am an optimist. I don’t feel it is too late to pave a good road for a brighter future for the young people of America and the world. We need to bring our morals and ethics up to standard and then pass on to our children the idea of doing things right the first time. We need to act and talk positive. Let’s be more energetic about the future and teach them the values of what life should be about.
More optimism and good positive feedback is what our youth need. They need to feel good about themselves and the road they are travelling on. They need to have sense of direction and a destination that will provide them a safe comfort zone when they have achieved it. Let’s teach them the difference between right and wrong!
Even though we can’t correct the mistakes we have made in our past we can help someone younger than we are from making the same mistakes. It is up to us as to what the future holds for America and the entire world. The seeds that we are planting today determine how pretty and bright the flowers of tomorrow are going to be!
Prayer: Thank you Father for all you have allowed me to have. Help me seek your face in all that I do for without you I am nothing. Help me to be a good example for our youth today and to teach them about you and your Saving Grace. Amen.
(Suggested daily Bible readings: Sunday – Exodus 32:17-35; Monday – Matthew 19:16-30; Tuesday – 2 Samuel 12:1-14; Wednesday – Psalm 20:6-8; Thursday – Ephesians 4:1-6; Friday – Philippians 1:3-6; Saturday – Proverbs 5:11-14.)
Gary Andrews is the author of Encouraging Words: 30-days in God’s Word. To obtain a copy go to his website www.gadevotionals.com.

By GARY ANDREWS
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Have you ever driven your car down a street and realized it was a one-way street and you were going the wrong way? Several years ago I drove a group of high school children to New Orleans and got on a one-way street going the wrong way.
During this little adventure in New Orleans, and me not being familiar with the streets, found myself on some back streets that were poorly lit and not well signed. I had no idea I was going the wrong way and neither did the chaperones or students until we passed a one-way sign with the arrow pointing the other way.
Many of us in our daily routines of work and social life may not realize the direction that we are heading. Even though it may seem as if all is well in our life, we could be headed for a downfall and have no one there with us to lift us up. And, from another perspective, we may have people around us that are headed for destruction and we are not leading or helping them find the righteous track.
Doris Mortman once stated, “Unless you make peace with who you are, you will never be content with what you have.” The problem with many of us today is that we believe we are happy with the material possessions we have and would be much happier with things we do not have. With this in mind we push ourselves and the people around to achieve material possessions and not worry about their spiritual well-being or ours.
Many times we are so wrapped up about what we can own or have and never realize we are on a one-way street headed the wrong way. For us to stay focused on what is important we have to discipline ourselves. We have to understand what we accumulate on earth means nothing, however if we miss out on eternal life we have lost everything.
Please understand that I am for doing the best you can while you are on this earth but do it the best you can through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and be Spirit filled in all that you say or do.
Proverbs 12:3 tells us, “A man cannot be established through wickedness, but the righteous cannot be uprooted.”
The Saving Grace of Jesus Christ is all that we will ever need while we walk these meaningless days on earth. If you do well while on earth and it’s through the grace of God, use you abundance and wealth for the kingdom of God. It is easy for us to get on a one-way street going the wrong way but realizing where we are headed with our life and what our destination is, will get us turned around and headed in the right direction.
Prayer: Lord lead me in the direction you want me to go. Help me get out of your way and allow you to touch others through my life. Amen.
(Suggested daily Bible readings: Sunday -1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Monday – Luke 3:7-17; Tuesday – Psalm 18:20-24; Wednesday – Philippians 3:12-16; Thursday – Deuteronomy 20:5-9; Friday – Leviticus 20:26; Saturday – Romans 16:17-20.)
Gary Andrews is the author of Encouraging Words: 30-days in God’s Word. To obtain a copy go to his website www.gadevotionals.com.