Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man: A Daily Devotional

by Walter A. Henrichsen

God says, the more you have the more accountable you are.

If the Word of God is true, however, there will be a day of reckoning in which all will be judged, not on the basis of how much they accrued in this life, but on the basis of what they did with what they had and why they did it.

Your vocation is your pulpit. For this reason, you have no biblical ground for wanting to retire. Most believers who do want to retire, want a little bit of heaven this side of the grave. Such may be possible for the Philistines, but definitely not for the serious follower of Christ.

A good word for us in business when having moved past the "need" to make more money.

The desire to retire is an expression of despair. It means that you have lost your rudder and do not know why you are here or where you are going.

Seems harsh, but squares with Scriptures.

JULY 1 Day 183 Contrasting Ministries “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27 A lawyer came to Jesus with an important question: How does one get to heaven? It is the test of orthodoxy for all religions, and the lawyer wanted to test Jesus. He didn’t want the correct answer; he wanted to see how Jesus would answer. Jesus referred him to the Law, and the lawyer correctly responded with the summary of the Law. When Jesus agreed with him, he asked, “who is my neighbor?” That question prompted the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The Levite and Priest are vocational religious workers. They were professional ministers and they didn’t love their neighbor. The Samaritan, a layman not in the ministry, loved his neighbor. He who was in the ministry wasn’t ministering, and he who wasn’t in the ministry was ministering. The vocational religious workers saw ministry in terms of programs, the layman in terms of people. The Levite and Priest said, “My meeting is more important than that man’s needs, and if he wants my help, let him come to where I minister and I will meet him on my terms.” The Samaritan met the stranger on the stranger’s terms. In all probability: 1) - The Samaritan had a schedule he was willing to interrupt for the sake of this need; 2) - He probably never saw the stranger before or since; 3) - Getting involved was messy resulting in blood...

The sun melts butter and hardens clay. Blessed are the troubled who allow their tribulation to soften their heart to repentance. Notice how often God uses our children to get our attention. Christianity is a religion of rescue. It is designed for the desperate.

I like this.

A Lesson on Miracles “Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it, and said, ‘Thus says the Lord, I have made this water wholesome; henceforth neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.’” II Kings 2:21 The spring watering the city of Jericho was unfit for drinking. The prophet cured the spring by pouring salt into it. Not only was the water now drinkable, they no longer had a problem. The salt not only cured the water, but the spring itself. From this we can draw two related conclusions. First, a miracle is an event contrary to our understanding of how things work. Salt naturally destroys the usability of water; it does not restore it. Not only did the salt heal the waters, one application gave the spring a permanent cure. Second, a miracle assumes an ordered universe where things don’t happen by chance. We assume that inviolable laws govern the universe, and thus the breaking of a law is a miracle. This in turn assumes the existence of a transcendent God who established the laws by which the universe functions. Contrary to most peoples’ assumptions, those skeptical of miracles logically believe in the existence of God. If you deny God’s existence, you deny the existence of the laws governing the universe. All you have left are degrees of probability. In such a universe what you normally call miracles would be common occurrences. You would expect people to occasionally walk on water and raise the dead. Within a world of limitless possibilities, salt wou...

Repentance is not just for conversion; all who sin need to repent. It doesn’t matter where you are in your walk with God, you never grow out of the need to repent. As long as you sin you need to repent. Never deceive yourself into believing that because you are a child of God you no longer need to repent.

Yup! 2022, I still agree. 2023, I agree most energetically.

AUGUST 2 Day 215 The Spirit Departed “And she said, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ And he awoke from his sleep, and said, ‘I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free.’ And he did not know that the Lord had left him.” Judges 16:20 When the Holy Spirit leaves, He does not announce His departure. God endowed Samson, a judge in Israel, with supernatural power. He was secure in his relationship with God and so sure of himself that he thought he could compromise without paying a price. Delilah enticed him into telling her the secret of his strength, and when he went out to engage the enemy as at other times, he supposed nothing had changed. The Spirit had departed and Samson did not even know it, like a ship crossing the sea thinking that her cargo is safely stored below, unaware that there was no cargo. You can find other biblical illustrations of this, like the Spirit departing the nation of Israel. Our Savior said, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.”1 You are never so secure in your relationship with God that you can afford to neglect His will. The more God prospers you the greater your tendency to feel blessed by Him and in turn, the more you will be tempted to believe you can take license with His commands. Remaining prosperous, with all of the accruements of success, and assured that God favors you, the Spirit will depart, as He did with Samson, and you probably will n...

“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.”1

God distributes in unequal amounts certain gifts, abilities, and opportunities. The sickly person with few gifts who dies early is not handicapped in the economy of God. Your reward in heaven will not be determined by what God gave you, but by what you do with what God gave you and why you do it.

Encouraging...admonition, to be a faithful steward of both time & opportunity. yes,

Confrontation is one of the highest expressions of love. When done in love and compassion, confrontation is one the kindest things you can do for another person. A refusal to confront when needed, is one of the most selfish things you can do.

Wow! Heavy, yet important for me & all.

In your heart you know whether you are as close to God as you ought to be; keep your ears open to your conscience, your heart open to God and your eyes in the Word. 1

Timely and important for me.

How do you demonstrate a love for God and others in the heat of a contract negotiation in which you perceive the other party to be unreasonable? The Bible gives you no clear-cut answer. God designed the ambiguity in which you are forced to live in order to keep you trusting in Him.

For owners and executives. Ouch! This illustrates the value of a CBMC Forum.

To the degree that you know what God’s expectations of you look like, you do not need Him. Seeking to apply positive commandments forces you into a posture of dependence upon God, which is right where He wants you.

And this. A CBMC Trusted Advisors group helps in living out our leadeship role

AUGUST 17 Day 230 The Foundation of Grace “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Revelation 4:11 We will define grace as the favor of God bestowed upon the undeserving without reference to reciprocity. Nothing in the object of God’s grace warrants His favor. Those who are the recipients of grace are chosen wholly from within the counsel of His own will. People have a natural antipathy toward grace, for it violates their sense of fairness. We tend to be less concerned when we are the object of God’s grace, but what about all of those people that are not? Election and grace are the head and tail of the same coin; you cannot have grace without election. Thus Paul says, “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”1 If you believe that you obtain heaven by what you do that others are unwilling to do, you rob grace of its essence. If you believe that you are saved by grace, then you have to conclude that God gave you what He has not given others. If your relationship with God is based on what you did that others are unwilling to do, then your salvation is in perpetual jeopardy; you cannot have assurance of salvation. For what you did to establish this relationship ...

God commanded His prophet Hosea to enter into a marriage with Gomer that was not only dishonoring to the husband, but was against custom, legal sense, and reason. He woos to himself a worthless woman and yokes himself to her in a nonsensical marriage. God uses this marriage to depict to the nation of Israel how He views His relationship with her. Israel, the whore, lusts after other gods and sells herself to a never-ending string of lovers. Still God elects Israel to be His bride, the object of His affection. No reason for such love can be given other than to say that it serves His purpose. Grace has no rationale.

Crazy gracious love!

Before you came to Christ, you knew something of love; in all probability there were people in your life that loved you. So also you knew something of faith, for all must commit before knowing. You may have even experienced mercy. But grace is different. Only in Jesus Christ do you discover grace, for His death made it possible for Him to be both gracious and just. You are the recipient of God’s grace because He charged Jesus with your sin while imputing Jesus’ righteousness to you.

O the wonder of grace! Unmerited favor.

SEPTEMBER 1 Day 245 The House of Mourning “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for this is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart.” Ecclesiastes 7:2 If you want an accurate estimation of life, you must face it at its worst. When you face life like it is, you prepare yourself for difficulty, for you realize when it comes, you are not alone, an isolated case. For this reason, you have opportunity to learn more going to a funeral than to a wedding, to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. When you face life like it is, you develop empathy for others. When you yourself experience tragedy, it alters your character, for good or for bad. Time in the house of mourning, as you comfort others, prepares you for your own encounter with grief. Angry people resign themselves to the hurts of life. Blaming God, others, or life itself, they say, “I cannot avoid life’s pain. The cruel experiences that crash around my head destroy any hope of happiness. Don’t blame me for being cynical; life is a sick joke.” Such people learn nothing from the house of mourning. Instead of softening their character, making them more empathetic and thus able to minister to others, tragedy has the opposite effect in their lives. They refuse to “lay to heart” the lesson God intended that they learn. Solomon says that this life is the seedtime for eternity. No one escapes the “grim reaper.” Mortality is 100 percent. God brings grief into...

SEPTEMBER 3 Day 247 A Multiplying Ministry “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” II Timothy 2:2 Dawson Trotman, the founder of The Navigators, used to say that it takes four generations to ensure spiritual reproduction: “you, me, faithful men, others also.” First you reach your “Timothy,” and then teach him how to reach others. Then you must teach him how to teach others to reach others. When you have accomplished that, spiritual reproduction is operational. In the following verses Paul gives a trilogy of illustrations on what it means to be committed to this vision. The soldier illustrates the need not to become entangled. The athlete illustrates the need to play by the rules: the end cannot justify the means. The farmer illustrates that you reap what you sow. Spiritual reproduction means that you reproduce after your own kind, whether you want to or not. Therefore what you are becomes critically important as you invest in others. You have reception and transmission. You see the importance of reception in the words, “hearing” and “many witnesses.” You see transmission in the words “commit thou to others also.” Every follower of Christ must view himself as a link between generations. Reception is the privilege, transmission the responsibility.

SEPTEMBER 7 Day 251 Faith vs. Timidity “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what evil may happen on earth.” Ecclesiastes 11:1-2 The world’s perspective on life is the antithesis of God’s. Turn the world upside down and you begin to understand God. “That which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination with God.”1 Thus it requires faith to walk with God. Solomon says that an uncertain future means you should give rather than accumulate. Note that he gives a precept (cast) and a promise (find). The promise gives life to the precept. You often read of people who are impoverished by self-indulgence, but rarely by liberality. The Bible says a great deal about hoarding and stinginess; nothing suggests that you can be too generous. Cast not just the bread of money, but also your time and energy, all the resources God has given you to steward. Lavish spending is only possible with unlimited resources. Again and again God calls upon us to demonstrate that we believe all we have is a gift of His grace. If you believe this, then giving becomes easy, for God’s resources are unlimited. Most are so afraid of poverty that they refuse to risk anything beyond that which they feel they can afford. When the Savior calls upon His children to risk all, they obey. Casting upon the waters is more than giving; it is investing in whatever God wants, including the marketplace. The motive for such inve...

You can either discipline yourself, or you can let Christ do it for you. If you do it, He does not need to do it. You discipline yourself by keeping your heart tender and teachable before the Lord, and by keeping His commandments. To the degree that you walk in obedience to His Spirit, you diminish His need to chastise you.

The choice is mine...ours! You?

SEPTEMBER 14 Day 258 The Divine Dwelling Place “For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’” Isaiah 57:15 Isaiah’s words are a study in contrasts. The transcendent God draws near to man. The High and Lofty One comes to those who are humble. He who is holy dwells with the contrite sinner. The One who inhabits eternity enters time to have a relationship with finite man. The Sovereign of the universe reaches down to sinful people and draws them to Himself. You must maintain an appreciation of this contrast in order to have a healthy relationship with God. During the last two centuries the difference and distance between God and man was all but forgotten in Christian thought. Human logic decreed that people are basically good. Since people are like God, God is like people. Jesus was emphasized as human rather than divine. With this blurring of the difference and distance between the Creator and His creation, the Christian message was compromised. If you are good and God is like you, then you not only lose your sense of depravity, you have little need for Him. When you lose your fear of Judgment, you lose your need for salvation. You worship a God who is holy, transcendent, and eternal. The miracle is, He is willing to have a relationship with you, a sinner, bound by the l...

A critically important reminder for me! For you?

SEPTEMBER 18 Day 262 Worth of the Individual “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Luke 15:7 The Judeo-Christian religion stands in sharp contrast with all other religions in regards to the worth of the individual. Created in the image of God and redeemed at the price of the Son of God, people are eternal and therefore of infinite worth. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”1 No other religion in the world views people from this perspective. Jesus did not die for institutions, but for people. Programs, organizations, causes – all are temporal. Never use people to further institutional goals; use institutions to help invest in people. You will find it easy to become enamored with your own program or cause, and recruit others to make it a success. The work of the Lord is not building institutions, but redeeming people. People and the Word of God last forever. Immerse yourself in Scripture and give your life serving others. Never sacrifice the individual for the common good, for who decides what constitutes the common good? Jesus never tried to articulate such a definition; He simply said that He came to seek and save the lost.

Crucial for me & all "do-ers"! Specifically CBMC & church leaders. Agree? 2022, I add, really important for me & us all who want to serve & please God. 9.19.23 uber important for me as i start CBMC here in Kona.

Because He ascended, all you need, to know Him intimately, is to invite Him into your life. “But if I go I will send the Counselor to you.” Paul declared, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”2 As a child of God you have Him living in you, allowing you opportunity to commune with Him moment by moment, day after day. If your fellowship with Him is not what it ought to be, it is because you have moved away from Him, not the opposite. He took up residence in you as the down payment of your eternal inheritance when you were born again. Happily, His Ascension made this possible.

This truth is more than wonderful!! 9.20.23 so encouraging for my dear a.y.u sister-in-law, Cheryl, here visiting us in Kona. will share with her.

When people observe that your life is in harmony with the message, they may not believe, but they know in their conscience that they have met truth.

This is my prayer, hope, desire. Especially now with Keith, Cheryl & Nancy visiting us.

One of the most insidious ways people tempt the Lord is when they marginalize His commandments.

Powerful thought! This "haunts" me, as I consider my failures, frequent failures, to obey His clear commands, as described in His Word, to love H8im & to love others.

God calls the violation of His will sin, and no one will get to heaven and be glad they sinned.

Heavy. Important for me. Yes, 9\23\23, still exceedingly important principle for me.

SEPTEMBER 26 Day 270 Inner Renewal “For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” II Corinthians 4:17-18 Two things take place simultaneously in almost every person’s life, irrespective of their sex, race, or religion: The older they become the more their capacity decreases while at the same time their responsibility increases. These two lines of increased responsibility and decreased capacity usually cross in a person’s forties. Two things can take place simultaneously in the life of Christ’s followers: The older they become the closer to physical death they are and the more spiritually alive they become. Paul says this takes place because they look not to the seen, but to the unseen; not to the transient, but to the eternal. You cannot experience the inner renewal that makes you increasingly more alive in Christ without setting your focus on the eternal. If you awaken in the morning thinking about transient matters, such as how you are going to survive in a hostile environment, you will not experience inner renewal. You must, when facing difficulties and hostilities, look to the unseen, hoping in what God has promised in the life to come, rather than “this slight momentary affliction” facing you. God promises that such afflictions prepare you...

You can sin by doing what you know to be wrong, but also by doing what you think is right. The latter is probably more deadly, for you do not have the help of your conscience to check you. To convince yourself that you are doing right, you need to bring your conscience into agreement. It is not hard to do. A man recently converted expressed shock that the Bible prohibits fornication. When asked if he always thought it was right, after reflection he said, “When I first did it I knew it was wrong, but I overruled my conscience and in a short while it seemed right.” Conscience has the power to condemn, but not absolve. A clear conscience gives confidence in the presence of God, but it does not absolve guilt. The Holy Spirit will assist your conscience in these matters, but even He may be grieved.1 Because you believe something to be right doesn’t mean that it is right. God may call it sin, as He did in the day of the judges. 1

Really powerful principle.

You cannot have a clean conscience without satisfying justice, and this Christ did when He died on the cross.

Powerful!!

Illegitimate self-justification takes place when you know you are guilty and seek to hide the fact. Few sins carry the profound ramifications that self-justification does.

This human inclination, self-justification, is deadly, yet avoidable.

Repentance is the key to reconciliation, and the key to repentance is an admission of wrong.

And this.

Jesus did not die for man’s sin against man, only for man’s sin against God. God decides how we are to treat one another, and therefore when we sin against others we sin against God. David said, “in thy sight,” knowing that God looks on. Nothing escapes His notice. One of the marks of regeneration is an awareness that God is watching.

God watches, yet, amazingly, He still loves us & wants only the best for us!

The attitude of John reflects that of all of Christ’s followers. As you minister to others, investing yourself in their lives, your objective remains the same: “He must increase and I must decrease.” To the degree that you call attention to yourself, you draw attention away from Jesus. As you minister to others let this be your job description, the gauge of your success: You and your opinions become less and less important while Jesus becomes more and more important.

Is this describing us? I trust that it is.

Wow. So.... Do I? Will I? Will YOU?

Wow! So true You as well? The secret for me....... my Lord.

When you find yourself ungrateful for the hurtful circumstances you must face, it indicates a lack of forgiveness towards others and anger towards God.

Strong. Insightful. Helpful reminder.

God meets you where you are, not where you ought to be. When you manifest a heart to seek Him, your sin and error do not stand in His way.

What a liberating truth!

View every day as a school day and every relationship as an opportunity to learn. There is no such thing as an accidental encounter. Each person you meet has been sent by God for your edification.

A timely reminder for me. For you too?

or a request?” I can respond in two ways: I can say, “yes, it is a law. I am head of the home; bring me the cup of coffee.” Or more wisely I can say, “of course you do not have to,” and get the cup of coffee myself. In either case, her asking the question alerts me to the fact that something is terribly wrong in our relationship. When you love another the difference between law and request should be moot. You need to know what a person wants in order to give it to him, and you should view the commandments of God from this perspective. For this reason, the distinction between law and request should be blurred in the mind of the dedicated follower of Christ. You sense this attitude in the Psalms of David. Because He had a heart to please God, he did not feel as though he rested under the weight of God’s decrees. Rather he saw God’s Law as an opportunity to know what delights the Lover of his soul. David wanted to keep the Law, simply because He loved God and wanted to please Him.

May this be my constant motive!

Awesome

NOVEMBER 28 Day 333 Dependence and Discipline “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12-13 The follower of Jesus Christ must be passive and active, dependent and disciplined. Faith must be active, never passive, and yet “except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it.”1 God will never do for you what you can do for yourself, but what you cannot do for yourself, He will do. If the work of sanctification belonged solely to God, the admonitions to self-control and discipline would be superfluous. Therefore, if you do not “work out your own salvation,” you will be lost. Obedience is a key component in your walk with God. Sanctification, however, cannot be accomplished by human means. You are dependent upon God to do it. He promises you that He resides in you “both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Paul asked, “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”2 Regeneration, from start to finish, is the work of God. He begins it in salvation and completes it in sanctification. This means that you will never experience a time when you are not dependent upon the Lord to complete His work in you, and you will always remain responsible for being His obedient, faithful, and dependent servant. If you let go of either tru...

DECEMBER 6 Day 341 The Wife of Your Youth “He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.” Malachi 2:13-14 Although women sue for divorce, men in particular have a problem with this issue; they value the looks and shape of women to such a degree that they are often tempted to divorce the wife of their youth and the mother of their children in order to satisfy their lust for fleshly beauty. In Malachi’s day the men reasoned: “Abraham put away Hagar, by whom he had begotten Ishmael, and who was therefore also his wife.”1 The Pharisees sought to leverage Jesus with the argument that Moses gave a bill of divorce.2 Such sophomoric reasoning can easily be seen for what it is: an endeavor to justify violating God’s commandments. You cannot use a biblical example to justify breaking or modifying a biblical command. Society joins God in condemning divorce, evidenced by the disparaging remarks made about those who abandon their families for “greener pastures.” Children are angry with their fathers and the courts generally take the side of the mothers. And rightly so, for it is a shameful act that God will harshly judge. Your marriage is bound by an inviolable covenant. You will never be able to replace the wife of your youth, no matter how attractive the options may appear, and God w...