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Key Bible Verse: O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you ( 63:1a). Bonus Reading: Psalm 63:2-8

Howard Rutledge, a Vietnam prisoner of war, was incarcerated at the prison the Americans called Heartbreak Hotel in Hanoi. In his book, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, he writes:

"During periods of enforced reflection it became so much easier to separate the important from the trivial. For example, in the past, I usually worked or played hard on Sundays and had no time for church. For years Phyllis had encouraged me to join the family at church. But I was too preoccupied to spend one or two short hours a week thinking about the really important things.

"Now the sights and smells of death were all around me. My hunger for spiritual food soon outdid my hunger for a steak. I wanted to know about that part of me that will never die, to talk about God and Christ and the church. But in Heartbreak solitary confinement there was no pastor, no Sunday school teacher, no Bible, no hymnbook, no community of believers to guide and sustain me. I had completely neglected the spiritual dimension of my life. It took prison to show me how empty life is without God.

—Doug McIntosh in God Up Close

• What fills your life these days? Examine your heart and ask God to speak to you about your priorities.

Thought to Apply: The whole you needs worship—and the part of you that will live forever needs it most.

—ROBERT W. MCINTYRE

Credits: Adapted from—Tuesday: God Up Close (Moody, 1998)

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information click here.

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Prayer for the Week

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