UCB Word For Today

Psychologists say our self-worth is based upon what we believe the most important people in our lives think of us. For children, that would likely be their parents. For adults, that could be a spouse, a boss, a friend, or mentor. The problem is that people disappoint us. They can do things that bring us heartache and pain. The key to really knowing and sustaining a true sense of self-worth is to let your heavenly Father be the most important person in your life. Form your sense of value on what He says about you. When you make mistakes, some people may criticise and make you feel overcome with guilt. But God says, ‘I have mercy for every mistake. Get up and go again. Your future is brighter than your past’ (see vv. 4-10 NLT). The Bible says that you are ‘God’s masterpiece’. A masterpiece is not mass-produced or created on an assembly line. It’s not average. It’s unique. It’s original. It’s custom made. It’s one of a kind. That’s how God sees you. And that’s how He wants you to begin seeing yourself. The psalmist put it this way: ‘You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!’ (Psalm 139:16-18 NLT).© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding reception. There were six water pots, each capable of holding thirty gallons. First, He said, ‘Fill those pots with water.’ Next, He said, ‘Take some out and bring it to the host of the party.’ When the host tasted it, he told the groom, ‘This is amazing. Everyone serves the best wine first, and after people have had a lot to drink, they bring out the less expensive wine. But you have saved the best wine for last’ (see vv. 7-10 NLT). Do you know how long it takes to make wine? It begins with planting seeds, then takes several years for the vines to grow mature grapes. Then they have to be picked and processed to produce the wine. It often takes three to five years before the first wine is ready to be bottled. The better-quality wine takes five to seven years to make. And people consider the best wine to be twenty to thirty years old. Jesus produced in a moment in time what normally takes decades to produce. So if you’re concerned that you don’t have enough time to achieve your goals, remember that Jesus can do in a moment what might usually take years. Maybe it would typically take you twenty years to pay off your mortgage, or ten years to build your business. But God’s favour can thrust you years down the road. He still turns water into wine. Be encouraged, the God we serve knows how to accelerate natural laws. He can take you further, quicker than you can ever imagine. © 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

A college professor once took a group of students to China for a field trip. Several days into the journey, the professor experienced unimaginable stomach pain and was rushed by ambulance to a local clinic. It was a tiny town and the medical staffer in charge of the clinic observed that the professor’s appendix had ruptured. Poison was spreading all through his body, but since there were no surgeons around, there wasn’t much that could be done for him. The professor went into convulsions and in and out of consciousness. Back home in America during a church service, the professor’s father, a pastor, began to feel an extraordinary burden for his son. He said to the congregation, ‘We must stop and pray for my son. Something is wrong.’ In China it was two o’clock in the morning when suddenly one of the country’s most famous surgeons walked into the clinic – the very surgeon who travels with the US president when he visits China. The staff was amazed to see him. ‘I’m here to take care of the American,’ the surgeon said, and he operated and saved the professor’s life. The next day, the surgeon said to the professor, ‘Who were those two men you sent into my office yesterday?’ The professor replied, ‘I didn’t send anybody to you. I don’t know anybody here in China.’ The surgeon said, ‘That’s odd, because they said you were a very important person and that I needed to be here and operate on you.’ God’s Word says, ‘He will order his angels to protect you wherever you go.’© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

We could precisely translate the word glory as ‘brilliance’. Our new bodies may have a shiny quality to them. Recorded in Exodus 34:29, Moses spent time with the Lord and something uncommon happened to him – his face became luminous and began to shine. A similar thing happened to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (see Luke 9:28-29). In Revelation 21:23, we read that the entire city of New Jerusalem will be brightly illuminated by the light radiating from God’s glory and the resurrected Christ. Daniel 12:3 tells us that the resurrected saints ‘shall shine like the brightness of the firmament’ (NKJV). Matthew 13:43 says, ‘The righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father’ (NKJV). ‘For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour…who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body’ (Philippians 3:20-21 NKJV). ‘Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is’ (1 John 3:2 NKJV). A pastor writes that ‘the Lord Jesus Christ, in His own resurrection, provided the payment, the proof, and the pattern for our own resurrection.’ ‘As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man’ (1 Corinthians 15:49 NKJV). Just as we now bear the image of the first Adam, we will bear the image of the last Adam – who is Jesus. The truth is your new resurrection body will be glorious! © 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

Benjamin Franklin, who was a printer, wrote an epitaph for his grave. And even though it never ended up on his tombstone, it has been passed down in history for its cleverness and wisdom. ‘The body of Benjamin Franklin, printer; (like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, and script [stripped] of its lettering and gilding), lies here, food for worms. But the work shall not be lost, for it will, as he believed, appear once more, in a new & more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the Author.’ What a wonderful way to describe what’s going to happen to us someday. The apostle Paul used seeds as a metaphor: ‘But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined’ (vv. 35-38 NIV). A pastor explains: ‘When you plant your garden, you may toss a kernel of corn into the furrow and cover it. When it comes out of the ground, it will still be corn; it will be the same in essence. But what comes out of the ground is not the kernel. It’s the whole stalk. It’s much bigger, much better, and much more impressive.’ And your new resurrection body will be as superior to your old body as the stalk is superior to the seed; it will be a body specifically designed for everlasting life.© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.