Our Daily Bread Ministries Newsletter

Holiness and you

Turn your worry into powerful trust

Our Daily Bread app for kids!

E NCOURAGING STORIES & NEWS

UNITED, THEY STAND

W hen you see NATE and ROSE JOHNSON together, you would never guess the journey their nearly forty years of marriage has taken. Their contentedness in Christ and in each other overshadows the hard road travelled.

FEATURE

STORY

by Rochelle Traub

A

S A BOY, Nate felt unloved and hopeless. He recalled, “My mom was very abusive, verbally and physically. I grew up believing that I was nothing, because she told me I was nothing.” By the time he met Rose when they were both fifteen, Nate was involved with drugs, alcohol, street gangs, and destructive behaviors.

By age eighteen, Rose became pregnant with their fi rst son. When their baby was three months old, they went to City Hall

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Holiness and Wholeness

“You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” LEVITICUS 20:26 (NIV)

LThis is an excerpt from The Way to Wholeness: Lessons from Leviticus, a Discovery House book by Ray Stedman. Go to dhp.org/stedman to purchase your copy.

OOK AT THE WORDS that God speaks to Israel and to us: “You are to be holy to me.” What does the word holy mean to you?

Some people associate holiness with strangeness or peculiarity. They think of holy people as being weird or different. This misconception is fostered by the stereotype of ancient holy men who lived as hermits in the desert, remote from other people, a little crazed perhaps, possibly even seeing strange visions and talking to themselves. If this is your image of a holy person, then you probably don’t fi nd anything attractive in holiness. In fact, the word probably repels you.

For other people, the word holy suggests a sort of grim religiousness. They think of a holy person as someone who has been steeped in vinegar. I thought of holy people as joyless, solemn people who prayed all the time, sang grim, gloomy hymns all the time, and never had any fun. The word holy was not attractive to me. In fact, it repelled me.

But my impression of holiness began to change when I encountered several verses in Scripture that spoke of holiness as a beautiful and glorious thing. For example, 1 Chronicles 16:29 tells us, “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him. Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness” (NIV). (These words are echoed in 2 Chronicles 20:21; Psalm 29:2; and Psalm 96:9.) I began to realize that if holiness is a thing of splendor and beauty, then my mental image of holiness must be all wrong— and I began to explore what the Bible truly means by the word holiness.

The word holiness comes from the same Old English word from which we get our word wholeness. The Old English word is hali or halig, which had such varied shades of meaning as wholeness, completeness, health, and even salvation. So when we talk about holiness, we are truly talking about wholeness and completeness. And when God says to us, “You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy,” He is telling us that we are to be as whole and complete as He is.

That word wholeness has power to awaken a longing within us: We are aware of our brokenness, and we long to be whole and complete. Don’t you want to be what God made you to be? Wouldn’t you want to have every aspect of your personality function in perfect balance? That is what it means to be a whole and holy person. That is the beauty and splendor of wholeness and holiness. That is what God is after in our lives.

He Will Direct Your Paths

JUST LIKE YOU, I fi nd myself clinging to the promises found in God’s Word during times of challenge or trial. I’ve found that passages like these can bring the kind of comfort and peace that only comes from above—especially when the future seems uncertain:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths. PROVERBS 3:5–6 NIV

Since You are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me. PSALM 31:3 NIV

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

PSALM 139:23–24 NIV

Our main feature in this newsletter is the story of Nate and Rose. Although married for many years, Nate and Rose were separated by Nate’s incarceration and their lives were headed on two entirely different paths—until the Lord intervened. It’s an amazing story of redemption and what the Lord can do through a life that is surrendered to Him.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support for our ministry. We hope you’ll continue to fi nd daily reminders of His love and care for you within the pages of Our Daily Bread.

It’s an amazing story of redemption and what the Lord can do through a life that is surrendered to Him.

and got married. Their second son arrived shortly after that.

“Things didn’t go well from the beginning, if I think back on it,” Rose said. “He used to like to go out and have a good time on Saturday nights.”

“Because of my addiction, we grew further apart. That was all my fault,” Nate confessed. “She hated me because I left and how I left; and I just plain didn’t like her anymore.”

The couple separated when they were twenty-one. “I was a full-blown alcoholic at the time, and I graduated to cocaine,” Nate said. “I had left my wife and kids, and I was staying with another woman. All we did was party, all the time.”

Nate fed his addictions through illegal activities, and eventually he got caught. “I remember the night I got arrested like it was yesterday,” Nate said. “I was out of my mind—just insane— and wanted more drugs.” He robbed the drug dealer next door and wound up with $12. He thought he got away with it, until he heard police sirens. He huddled in the laundry room with a crack pipe in his hand while they searched the house. Nate had unscrewed the light bulb so they couldn’t turn on the light, but an officer opened the door and his flashlight found Nate by the water heater. “He pulled his gun and cocked it because he thought that the crack pipe was a gun. So I shouted out, ‘It’s not a gun!’ I remember him being so angry because he said, ‘I could’ve killed you. I could’ve killed you over this,’ holding the crack pipe in his hand.”

“And when they put the handcuffs on, even though I wasn’t saved, I knew that I was not just being arrested, but I was being rescued,” Nate shared. “I was so tired of living that life. I actually welcomed going to prison.”

Meanwhile, Rose was living a separate life with their two sons and a longtime boyfriend. “During his time of incarceration, my life was great because I was moving on,” Rose said. When Nate told her he was in prison, “It didn’t faze me at all. I really didn’t care.”

Nate figured while in prison he would join the Gangster Disciples, a famous Chicago gang. God had other plans. Prisoners are only allowed a certain amount of gym time, so Nate and a buddy snuck into the chapel dodging the prison guards in order to slip back into the gym. While in the chapel, Nate heard the gospel. He was curious, and he desperately wanted forgiveness.

“I kept going to chapel every day, going up for altar calls, but I still didn’t feel forgiven. I didn’t know then that it was an act

of faith, not about feeling,” Nate said. “So I went to my cell one night, and I cried out to God, ‘If you’re real, if your Son Jesus is real, if your forgiveness is real, would you please show me? I need to feel it.’ And instantly I felt the presence of God in my cell, and I knew that He was real. I knew that Jesus had died for my sins, and I knew that I was forgiven. I knew that I was a new creation in Christ.”

After becoming a believer, Nate

SAVING GRACE: From drugs, despair, and time in prison, salvation came in a powerful way to Nate, then to Rose, and then to their lost marriage. Today they are growing leaders in their church, and Nate leads a men’s Bible study and a support group for ex-offenders.

found out that one of his friends had a ministry of connecting Christian male prisoners with Christian women on the outside. “So I told him to hook me up,” Nate recalled. “But as soon as I left him, and I started to go back to my unit where my cell was, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Fool, you are already married!’ And I said, ‘No, God, I don’t want to get back with that woman.’”

So Nate bargained with God. If he wrote Rose and she didn’t want to get back together, he figured God would let him off the hook. But she did. They corresponded for a while, until she finally determined that she wanted to marry the man she had been dating.

“So she sent me a ‘Dear John’ letter,” Nate said. “At this point, we were separated about nineteen years. The letter said, ‘I was just fooling around with you. I don’t want to reconcile. I’m going to get married to this guy.’ My heart was broken.”

Rose asked Nate to pursue a divorce because it was free for prisoners. Nate saw a judge who was a Christian and a preacher, which was Nate’s dream. The judge was stern insisting that the divorce paperwork be filled out correctly or he would deny it. Even though Nate had filled it out perfectly twice, the judge denied it both times. “You only get three chances, and I knew at that point,” Nate reasoned. “I didn’t even send in the third one, cause I knew that God—not only the preacher, but God— was saying no. I realized that it did no good to fight against God, and so I just kept praying that she would change her mind.”

Eventually, Nate got out of prison and Rose broke up with her longtime boyfriend. Nate kept sharing the gospel with Rose, until one day it clicked and she received Christ as her Lord and Savior. They still faced struggles, but they were learning to grow together as believers and as husband and wife.

Now they are leaders in their church, where Nate is an

associate to the pastor teaching a men’s Bible study and facilitating a biblical recovery and ex-offenders’ support group. He’s working towards a correctional ministries certificate through Christian University GlobalNet (CUGN), a part of Our Daily Bread Ministries.

Their lives are a witness to God’s healing power. “God has played a huge role in our life from the beginning to the end. It’s a testimony for other people that are going through whatever they’re going through,” Rose said. “A lot of people are surprised whenever I tell them that we were separated for twenty years.”

“We’re best friends. We love each other very much. It’s a more mature type of love. I thank God for her. She’s a gift to me,” Nate said contentedly. “God’s sovereignty in reconciling me to my wife, in saving me, is that— even though He’s not the author of sin—He used our sin to bring us to the cross. He’s faithful, even when I’m not.”

Watch Nate and Rose’s story of God at work at ourdailybread.org/reunited.

How do you minister to those in jail or prison or to those who are transitioning back into society?

Christian University GlobalNet, in partnership with the Institute for Prison Ministries, offers a Certificate in Correctional Ministries. The Certificate in Correctional Ministries is designed for individuals seeking to establish a foundation in correctional ministries and to receive specialized training in correctional chaplaincy or reentry.

The time to register is now! Classes begin October 4, 2016! Go to cugn.org/programs/ certificate-in-correctional-ministries to learn more.

Four Ways to Put Your Worry to Work

1 Let Worry Turn Your Attention to God

When we worry, we are actually acknowledging the truth that we are not adequate to meet the demands of life in our own strength. This is our moment to remind ourselves of some important truths about God.

He is everywhere. There is no place, no matter how alone we may feel, that God cannot be. He is everywhere! (����� 139:7–12; �������� 23:23–24).

This is an excerpt from Overcoming Worry: Turning Fear into Faith, a Discovery Series booklet by David Egner.

To read the entire booklet online or to order a copy, go to discoveryseries.org/ overcoming-worry.

He knows everything. He knows how afraid we are, how bad we feel, and what scares us. The more worried we become, the more we act as if God were ignorant of our situation. We don’t know the future, but God does; and He knows our needs (��� 7:20; P���� 33:13–14).

He is all-powerful. Worriers feel that no one has the power to stop bad things from happening—not even God. But God has limitless power and His own wise reasons for what He permits (������� 17:1; 18:14; ������� 19:26).

2 Let Worry Turn You to the Words of Jesus

In Matthew 6:25–34, Jesus challenged His followers to see that the opportunities of heaven are more important than the potential losses of life. He urged them to believe that if God takes care of the birds of the air and the flowers of the fields, He will take care of His children. Jesus understands our inclinations, so He reminds us that just like the natural world around us, we were not made to worry. Birds have to eat, but they don’t get migraines obsessing about it. Flowers “wear clothes,” but they don’t have to be treated for ulcers. Their heavenly Father takes care of them.

3

Turn Worry into Prayer

Few of us have endured the kind of problems encountered by the apostle Paul. Yet in spite of all the threats on his life, the beatings, and the imprisonments, he wrote to the Philippians: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (PHILIPPIANS 4:6–7 NKJV). When we are worried, we need to take that worry to God. Ask for His help. Earnestly petition Him. The God who told us to ask, seek, and knock will give, help us fi nd, and answer (MATTHEW 7:7–8).

4

Turn Worry into Practical Choices

The apostle Peter wrote to people undergoing intense persecution and offered this alternative to worry: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him,

Our Daily Bread For Kids Adventure App

THE RESPONSE TO Our Daily Bread for Kids has been so overwhelming, we’re launching an exciting new Our Daily Bread for Kids app for iPads and Android tablets to teach even more children about Jesus! Here’s what some of our team members had to say as they worked on this fun project:

 I am passionate about Jesus and reaching future generations for Him. As a design team, we desire to see the kingdom grow and hope that this interactive devotional will teach kids Bible lessons that they’ll remember throughout their adult years. —AMY HAMMOND, DESIGNER

 It was a fun challenge to take the amazing Our Daily Bread for Kids book and make an interactive app version. A lot of time, prayer, and teamwork went into creating it. —SAM CARBAUGH, DESIGNER

 The Our Daily Bread for Kids app presents substantial gospel content in a format that is exciting and educational for kids. The format is both inviting and easy to use, as it draws little readers in. —TERI MCKINLEY, OUR DAILY BREAD FOR KIDS AUTHOR

 This app is truly packed to the max with clever ways to connect with the heroes, truth, and joy of the Word! I love thinking about the fun other kids and families are having with it around the world! —LUKE FLOWERS, OUR DAILY BREAD FOR KIDS ILLUSTRATOR

Each issue contains thirty devotions centered around a theme; two interactive activities such as puzzles, matching games, and drawing pages; two songs with printed lyrics; plus awards to encourage children to learn. It’s designed so that you and your family will have fun—and will grow closer together as you learn about Jesus. Please pray with us that this new app will introduce more children and families to the love of Jesus.

Go to ourdailybreadforkids.org to see more!

for He cares for you” (1 PETER 5:6–7 NKJV). Two steps are involved in this process: Accept What We Cannot Change. Instead of emotionally unraveling, or avoiding reality by denying our worry, we can humbly accept that these circumstances are part of our life.

Give to God What We Cannot Change. Peter’s words also encourage us to put our helpless feelings of worry into those same all-powerful hands. He urges us to cast our cares on God, entrusting ourselves to the One who cared enough for us to send His Son to die for us.

A decision to let the ultimate worry bring us to the One who died for us is the fi rst step. From then on, every concern of life, regardless of how troubling, can help us to care for others or trust the Lord for what He alone can do.

From ministry partners

You Can Make a Difference!

MANY PEOPLE, making even the smallest of donations, enable us to reach others with the life-changing wisdom of the Bible.

Visit us online at ourdailybread.org/donate to discover how you can help.

We are not funded or endowed by any group or denomination and are grateful for the support given to Our Daily Bread Ministries.

Thank You, Brazilian Presbyterian Church!

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN BRAZIL organized an evangelistic tour with over 100 youth from various cities in Brazil. They recently “invaded” the small town of Uiraúna, in the northeast corner of Brazil. It is a rural farming town with a population of just over 12,000 people. Some of the medical students in the group provided basic free medical services like blood pressure readings and glucose tests. Other students helped by giving haircuts or by distributing clothing to children or packages of food to families. But their main purpose was to share the Word of God and distribute Our Daily Bread devotionals. We are so grateful for their partnership in reaching people for Christ!

If you would like to order extra copies of Our Daily Bread to share with others, simply visit us at www.moreodb.org to place your order.