Our Daily Bread Podcast | Our Daily Bread Our Daily Bread Ministries

“Are. You. KIDDING?!” I yelled, digging through our dryer looking for my shirt. I found it. And . . . something else.

My white shirt had an ink spot on it. In fact, it looked like a jaguar pelt: blacks splotches coated everything. I clearly hadn’t checked my pockets, and a leaky pen had stained the entire load.

Scripture often uses the word stain to describe sin. A stain permeates the fabric of something, ruining it. And that’s how God, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, described sin, reminding His people that its stain was beyond their ability to cleanse: “Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me” (Jeremiah 2:22).

Thankfully, sin doesn’t get the last word. In Isaiah 1:18, we hear God’s promise that He can cleanse us from sin’s stain: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

I couldn’t get the ink stain out of my shirt. Neither can I undo the stain of my sin. Thankfully, God cleanses us in Christ, just as 1 John 1:9 promises: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Thousands of people prayed for Pastor Ed Dobson when he was diagnosed with ALS in 2000. Many believed that when they prayed in faith for healing, God would answer immediately. After twelve years of the disease causing Ed’s muscles to atrophy little by little (and three years before he died), someone asked Ed why he thought God hadn’t healed him yet. “There is no good answer, so I don’t ask,” he replied. His wife, Lorna, added, “If you’re always obsessed about having to have answers, you can’t really live.”

Can you hear the respect for God in Ed’s and Lorna’s words? They knew His wisdom is above their own. Yet Ed admitted, “I find it nearly impossible not to worry about tomorrow.” He understood that the disease would cause increasing disability, and he didn’t know what new problem the next day might bring.

To help himself focus on the present, Ed placed these verses in his car, on the bathroom mirror, and next to his bed: “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid’” (Hebrews 13:5–6). Whenever he started to worry, he would repeat the verses to help him refocus his thoughts on the truth.

No one knows what the next day will bring. Maybe Ed’s practice could help us turn our worries into opportunities to trust.

After his wife died, Fred felt he could endure the pain as long as he had his Monday breakfasts with his buddies. His fellow retirees lifted his spirits. Whenever sadness came, Fred would think about the next time he’d enjoy their company again. Their corner table was Fred’s safe place from grief.

Over time, however, the gatherings ended. Some friends became ill; others passed away. The emptiness led Fred to seek solace in the God he’d met in his youth. “I have breakfast by myself now,” he says, “but I remember to hold on to the truth that Jesus is with me. And when I leave the diner, I don’t leave to face the rest of my days alone.”

Like the psalmist, Fred discovered the safety and comfort of God’s presence: “He is my refuge . . . in whom I trust” (Psalm 91:2). Fred came to know safety not as a physical place to hide, but as the steadfast presence of God we can trust and rest in (v. 1). Both Fred and the psalmist found that they didn’t have to face difficult days alone. We too can be assured of God’s protection and help. When we turn to Him in trust, He promises to respond and be with us (vv. 14-16).

Do we have our safe place, a “corner table” we go to when life is hard? It won’t last but God will. He waits for us to go to Him, our true refuge.

Our former church in Virginia held baptisms in the Rivanna River where often the sunshine is warm, but the water is frigid. After our Sunday service, we’d load into our cars and caravan to a city park where neighbors tossed Frisbees and kids mobbed the playground. We were quite a spectacle, traipsing to the river’s edge. Standing in the icy water, I would offer Scripture and immerse those being baptized into this tangible expression of God’s love. As they emerged, soaked to the bone, cheers and clapping erupted. Climbing up the bank, friends and family enveloped the newly baptized in hugs—everyone getting drenched. We had cake, drinks, and snacks. The neighbors watching didn’t always understand what was happening, but they knew it was a celebration.

Jesus’ story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32) reveals that it’s cause for celebration whenever someone returns home to God. Anytime someone says yes to God’s invitation, it’s time to party. When the son who’d abandoned his father returned, the father immediately insisted on showering him with a designer robe, a shiny ring, and new shoes. “Bring the fatted calf,” he said. “Let’s have a feast and celebrate” (v. 23). This was a massive, exuberant party including whoever would join the revelry. They “began to celebrate” (v.24).

The criminal had been apprehended, and the detective asked the perpetrator why he had brazenly attacked someone with so many witnesses present. The response was startling. “I knew they wouldn’t do anything; people never do.” That comment pictures what is called “guilty knowledge”—choosing to ignore a crime even though you know it is being committed.

The apostle James addressed a similar kind of guilty knowledge, saying, “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin” (James 4:17).

Through His great salvation of us, God has designed us to be agents of good in the world. Ephesians 2:10 affirms, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” These good works aren’t the cause of our salvation but rather the result of our hearts being changed God’s Holy Spirit taking up residence in our lives. The Spirit even gives us spiritual gifts to equip us to accomplish those things for which God has recreated us (see 1 Corinthians 12:1–11).

As God’s workmanship, may we yield to His purposes and the empowering of His Spirit so that we can be His instruments for good in a world that desperately needs Him.

On February 5, 2023, Christian Atsu kicked the winning goal for his football (soccer) team in a match in Turkey. A star international player, he learned to play the sport as a kid running barefoot in his home country of Ghana. Christian was a believer in Jesus: “Jesus is the best thing that ever happened in my life,” he said. Atsu posted Bible verses on social media, was outspoken about his faith, and put it into action by helping finance a school for orphans.

The day after his winning goal, a devastating earthquake shook the city of Antakya, once the biblical city of Antioch. Christian Atsu’s apartment building collapsed, and he went to be with his Savior.

Two thousand years ago, Antioch was the fountainhead of the early church: “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:26). One apostle, Barnabas, said to be “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit” (v. 24), was instrumental in bringing people to Christ: “A great number of people believed and turned to the Lord” (v. 21).

We look to the life of Christian Atsu not to idolize him but to see in his example an opportunity. Whatever our circumstance in life, we don’t know when God will take us to be with Him. We do well to ask ourselves how we can be a Barnabas or a Christian Atsu in showing others the love of Christ. That, above all, is the winning goal.