After You

So we have come to the end of the week it's FRIDAY! let's take a moment to reflect on these words of wisdom Read: Genesis 13:1–18 Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 30–31; Mark 15:1–25 Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.—Genesis 13:9 In some cultures a younger person is expected to permit his elder to enter a room first. In others, the most important or highest ranking individual enters first. No matter what our traditions, there are times when we find it difficult to allow someone to choose first on important matters, especially when that privilege rightfully belongs to us. Abram (later called Abraham) and his nephew Lot had so many flocks, herds, and tents that the land could not support both of them as they traveled together. To avoid conflict, Abram suggested they part company and generously gave Lot first choice of the land. His nephew took the fertile Jordan Valley, leaving Abram with the less desirable land. Abram did not insist on his rights as the elder in this situation but trusted his future to God. “So Abram said to Lot, ‘Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me . . . . Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left’ ” (Gen. 13:8-9). Lot’s choice eventually led to dire consequences for his entire family (see Gen. 19). Today, as we face choices of many kinds, we can trust our Father to guide us in His way. He has promised to care for us. He will always give us what we need. —David McCasland Father, Your unfailing love and faithfulness guide us in every choice we make. May our lives speak well of You and honor You today. God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him. Jim Elliot

Surprise Interview

Here we are starting a New Week with these words of wisdom to help us accomplish the week that is head of us Read: Acts 26:9–15 Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 20–22; Mark 13:21–37 The King will say, “I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!”—Matthew 25:40 nlt On a crowded London commuter train, an early morning rider shoved and insulted a fellow passenger who got in his way. It was the kind of unfortunate and mindless moment that usually remains unresolved. But later that day, the unexpected happened. A business manager sent a quick message to his social media friends, “Guess who just showed up for a job interview.” When his explanation appeared on the Internet, people all over the world winced and smiled. Imagine walking into a job interview only to discover that the person who greets you is the one you had shoved and sworn at earlier that day. Saul also ran into someone he never expected to see. While raging against a group called the Way (Acts 9:1-2), he was stopped in his tracks by a blinding light. Then a voice said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (v. 4). Saul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The One speaking to him replied, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (26:15). Years earlier Jesus had said that how we treat the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, and the prisoner reflects our relationship to Him (Matt. 25:35-36). Who would have dreamed that when someone insults us, or when we help or hurt another, the One who loves us takes it personally? —Mart DeHaan Father, forgive us for acting as if You were not present in our moments of need, hurt, anger, or compassion. When we help or hurt one another, Jesus takes it personally. INSIGHT: Commentator William Barclay says, “One of the extraordinary things about the great characters in the New Testament story is that they were never afraid to confess what once they had been.” In today’s passage, Paul describes how Christ had transformed his life from someone who once persecuted Christ and His followers to someone who proclaims the truth of the gospel. His former way of life no longer defined him. A personal testimony is an effective witnessing tool. A simple way of telling our story is to write down answers to three simple questions: What characterized my life before receiving Christ? What were the circumstances when I chose to receive Him? How has my life changed since I trusted Jesus for salvation? Dennis Fisher

Home

So here we are another week has come an gone it's FRIDAY! Here are some wordsto help us ALL reflect on this past week with Read: Ephesians 2:11–22 Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 11–13; Mark 12:1–27 You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people.—Ephesians 2:19 A young African refugee who goes by the name of Steven is a man without a country. He thinks he may have been born in Mozambique or Zimbabwe. But he never knew his father and lost his mother. She fled civil war, traveling country to country as a street vendor. Without ID and unable to prove his place of birth, Steven walked into a British police station, asking to be arrested. Jail seemed better to Steven than trying to exist on the streets without the rights and benefits of citizenship. The plight of living without a country was on Paul’s mind as he wrote his letter to the Ephesians. His non-Jewish readers knew what it was like to live as aliens and outsiders (2:12). Only since finding life and hope in Christ (1:13) had they discovered what it meant to belong to the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:3). In Jesus, they learned what it means to be known and cared for by the Father He came to reveal (Matt. 6:31-33). Paul realized, however, that as the past fades from view, a short memory can cause us to forget that, while hope is the new norm, despair was the old reality. May our God help us to live in security—to know each day the belonging that we have as members of His family is by faith in Jesus Christ and to understand the rights and benefits of having our home in Him. —Mart DeHaan Lord, as we remember how hopeless we were before You found us, please help us not to forget those who are still on the street. Hope means the most to those who have lived without it. INSIGHT: It’s easy to feel lost. The apostle Paul knew some of his readers felt that way. In his letter to the Ephesians, he wrote to them about being part of God’s family. They were no longer “foreigners” and “excluded” (2:12) but were “fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household” (v. 19). How does knowing you are part of God’s family help when you feel lost and alone? J.R. Hudberg

Loving Perfectly

Getting ready to start this New Week off with these words of wisdom Read: 1 Corinthians 13:4–8 Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 1–2; Mark 10:1–31 [Love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.—1 Corinthians 13:7–8 Her voice shook as she shared the problems she was having with her daughter. Worried about her teenager’s questionable friends, this concerned mum confiscated her daughter’s mobile phone and chaperoned her everywhere. Their relationship seemed only to go from bad to worse. When I spoke with the daughter, I discovered that she loves her mum dearly but is suffocating under a smothering love. She longs to break free. As imperfect beings, we all struggle in our relationships. Whether we are a parent or child, single or married, we grapple with expressing love the right way, saying and doing the right thing at the right time. We grow in love throughout our lifetime. In 1 Corinthians 13 the apostle Paul outlines what perfect love looks like. His standard sounds wonderful, but putting that love into practice can be absolutely daunting. Thankfully, we have Jesus as our example. As He interacted with people with varying needs and issues, He showed us what perfect love looks like in action. As we walk with Him, keeping ourselves in His love and steeping our mind in His Word, we’ll reflect more and more of His likeness. We’ll still make mistakes, but God is able to redeem them and cause good to come out of every situation, for His love “always protects” and it “never fails” (vv. 7-8). —Poh Fang Chia Lord, our intentions are good but we fail each other in so many ways. Thank You for being our model in showing us how to live and love. To show His love, Jesus died for us; to show our love, we live for Him. INSIGHT: Do you ever find yourself hurting those you love, and maybe even forgetting in the emotion of the moment how much you really do care about them? If so, keep in mind that long before Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 13 he was an angry man who was mindlessly hurting the God he thought he knew and loved (Acts 9:1-6). So what brought about Paul’s change? First he needed to see how wrong he’d been about Jesus. He also needed to see that knowing the law is not the same as keeping it—and that he himself needed not only mercy but also the help of the Spirit of God to love others as God loved him. The Spirit who brought him from law to grace now invites and leads us into the loving patience and kindness that our Lord wants to express in and through us. Mart DeHaan

Two Portraits

So here we are in the 3rd month of the New Year it's MARCH! already time is moving it's the end of the week YES! It's FRIDAY! here are some words of wisdom to reflect on Read: John 16:19–24 Bible in a Year: Numbers 28–30; Mark 8:22–38 Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.—John 16:22 Clutching two framed photographs, the proud grandmother showed them to friends in the church foyer. The first picture was of her daughter back in her homeland of Burundi. The second was of her grandson, born recently to that daughter. But the daughter wasn’t holding her newborn. She had died giving birth to him. A friend approached and looked at the pictures. Reflexively, she reached up and held that dear grandmother’s face in her hands. All she could say through her own tears was, “I know. I know.” And she did know. Two months earlier she had buried a son. There’s something special about the comfort of others who have experienced our pain. They know. Just before Jesus’s arrest, He warned His disciples, “You will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.” But in the next breath He comforted them: “You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy” (John 16:20). In mere hours, the disciples would be devastated by Jesus’s arrest and crucifixion. But their crushing grief soon turned to a joy they could not have imagined when they saw Him alive again. Isaiah prophesied of the Messiah, “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering” (Isa. 53:4). We have a Savior who doesn’t merely know about our pain; He lived it. He knows. He cares. One day our grief will be turned into joy. —Tim Gustafson Lord, thank You for going to the cross for us. We certainly know trouble in this world, but You overcame the world and took our sin and pain for us. We look forward to the day when our sorrows will be turned into joy and we see You face to face. When we put our cares into His hands, He puts His peace into our hearts. INSIGHT: It was necessary for Jesus, who is fully God, to be made in every respect like us—fully human—so that He could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Only by becoming a human being could He die, and only by dying could He break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. While on earth, the Lord Jesus “walked in our shoes” and, therefore, He fully knows and understands us. We are now to walk in His “shoes” and imitate His example of compassion and care. “In your relationships with one another,” Paul tells us, “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). How can you bring comfort to others today by walking in Jesus’s shoes? Sim Kay Tee

Ring of Invisibility

Here we are wrapping up the last couple of days in the month of February before we head into the 3rd month of the New Year which is March as we take this moment to reflect on these words of wisdom to guide us through the rest of the week with these words Read: John 3:16–21 Bible in a Year: Numbers 17–19; Mark 6:30–56 Everyone who does evil hates the light.—John 3:20 The Greek philosopher Plato (c. 427-c. 348 bc) found an imaginative way of shining light on the dark side of the human heart. He told the story of a shepherd who innocently discovered a golden ring that had been hidden deep in the earth. One day a great earthquake opened up an ancient mountainside tomb and revealed the ring to the shepherd. By accident he also discovered that the ring had the magical ability to enable the wearer to become invisible at will. Thinking about invisibility, Plato raised this question: If people didn’t have to worry about being caught and punished, would they resist doing wrong? In John’s gospel we find Jesus taking this idea in a different direction. There, Jesus, known as the Good Shepherd, speaks of hearts that stay in the cover of darkness to hide what they are doing (John 3:19-20). He isn’t calling attention to our desire for cover-up to condemn us, but to offer us salvation through Him (v. 17). As the Shepherd of our hearts, He brings the worst of our human nature to light to show us how much God loves us (v. 16). God in His mercy calls us out of our darkness and invites us to follow Him in the light. —Mart DeHaan Dear heavenly Father, thank You for the light of Your presence in my life. May I walk obediently in the light of Your truth in all that I do this day. Sin’s darkness retreats when Christ’s light is revealed. INSIGHT: Often we think of judgment and eternal life as primarily future realities, but John’s gospel emphasizes that each person experiences either judgment or eternal life now, based on how we respond to Jesus. People experience judgment, are “judged already” (v. 18), when they reject Jesus—through the pain and emptiness of life outside of the fellowship of God. This judgment is not because God is eager to judge. If He was, He would not have sent Jesus (v. 17). Jesus was a pure gift from the heart of a God who loves His creation (v. 16). Those who reject Jesus condemn themselves by rejecting the only solution to the evil and brokenness in the world (v. 18), choosing darkness when God has made His light freely available in Jesus (vv. 19-20). But when anyone turns to Jesus, they experience life—overwhelming, overflowing, abundant life (see 4:14, 10:10).Questions to consider: Why do we sometimes struggle to believe that God is more eager to show us love than judgment? How can we be more rooted in Christ’s love? Monica Brands

Check Out Our New Look

Here is our February Issue of CCFA'S Newsletter Check out our New Look. Letter from our President & CEO For the past 50 years, the Foundation has worked to improve the lives of patients living with Crohn's and colitis, and to find cures for these debilitating digestive diseases. I am pleased to share with you the exciting news that today the Foundation unveiled its new brand, which includes a new logo with a unifying symbol. This is reflective of our commitment and determination to uniting members of the IBD community to care and cure, and to guide the Foundation into the future. That's not the only difference—we are simplifying our name to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation to place greater emphasis on the diseases we are working to cure. We are excited to share our new brand, and can't wait to work with each and every one of you to continue the pursuit of our mission. Best, Michael Osso President & CEO Thank You to Our Team Challenge Family! The overwhelming feeling of love and hope at the Inspirational Pasta Party among the Mardi Gras floats…The sense of family and community gained from meeting new friends from across the country…The rush of accomplishment, gratitude, strength, and resolve as you cross the finish line hand-in-hand with your coach. These are just a few of the moments that make Team Challenge event weekend truly life changing. This month, 288 teammates from across the country came together to run and walk the Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans 10K, Half Marathon, and Marathon. They raised more than $1.35 million to help us fight Crohn's & colitis—which is incredible! Thank you for your hard work, dedication, and heart. Get a taste of what it's like to be a part of our #TCfamily. Click HERE to see video & photo highlights from our event in New Orleans earlier this month. Join us this year at a 5k, 10k, Half Marathon, Marathon, Triathlon, IRONMAN®, cycle event, or turn anything else into a fundraiser when you Race in Orange. JOIN US ► Colorectal Cancer & IBD Twitter Chat March is Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Awareness Month. After eight years of symptoms, patients with ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease involving the colon are at an increased risk for developing colorectal cancer; however, it's important to know that CRC is highly treatable when detected early. Join the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation, Dr. Karlee Ausk of the Swedish Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, and ulcerative colitis patient Will Lanier on March 22 from 8-9 p.m. EST for a Twitter chat about colorectal cancer, IBD, and how you can minimize your risk of developing CRC. Follow along or participate in the chat using the hashtag #IBDchat. #IBDCHAT ► Donate to the Foundation Support the organization that has been dedicated to finding IBD treatments and cures for 50 years. IBD & Dating For some people with IBD, the thought of dating or being intimate may be daunting. To provide some guidance in this area, we have several resources available that may help, including our "Being Intimate with IBD" video. Please reach out to our IBD Help Center for additional information at info@ccfa.org. Walk With Us This Spring! We will Take Steps in 68 communities this spring to raise funds and awareness for the 1.6 million people living with IBD. Connect with other patients, families, healthcare professionals, and caregivers. Bigger than one day, we're a family! Register your team today. REGISTER ► Camp Oasis—Summer Is Right Around The Corner! Camp Oasis is a fun environment where kids learn, play, and meet others with IBD. If you know a child who might be interested, visit our website for more information and to apply! We’re also looking for dedicated, compassionate people to serve as camp counselors and members of our Medical Team. Learn more here. LEARN MORE ► Crohn's & Colitis Foundation provides a comprehensive database of studies, clinical trials, and other research opportunities on Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Here is one of the recently added studies: An Open-Label, 2-Part, Multicenter, Post-marketing Study to Evaluate the Effect of Moderately or Severely Active Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s Disease on Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme Substrates Compared to Healthy Subjects and the Effect of Vedolizumab Treatment on Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme Substrates in Subjects With Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s Disease. Deciding whether to participate in a clinical trial is an important personal decision, best made with a full understanding of the drug development process and a participant's role.

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