Daily Devotionals Archives - Max Lucado: Recent Episodes
Max Lucado
Do you feel isolated from family and friends? Perhaps your isolation is less geographical and more ideological. Do you feel alone in your opinions and concerns? When we follow the crowd, we feel safe. When we swim against the tide, we need strength.
Turn to God as your best friend. Find what it means to walk in the Spirit, to lean on and lean into him as your comforter. Meditate on Scripture. Read inspirational books. Enjoy times of worship. Lay claim to a quiet spot where you can hear God’s voice. Speak less when you are in his presence.
“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10 NKJV). Learn to savor the stillness. Trust God’s stops as well as God’s steps.
God sent Elijah into the rocky, raw, and lonely land of the Kerith Ravine. He had no temple for worship, no faith fraternity for strength. It would be years before he enjoyed fellowship with faithful Jews. Preparation by separation. Purposeful silence and solitude are basic courses in Unbreakable Courage 101.
Jesus found his Kerith in the obscure days of Nazareth and the quiet days in the wilderness. In order to gather strength for the cross, he sought time alone in the Garden of Gethsemane. If Jesus needed Kerith-like solitude, how much more do we? God’s invitation is compelling. From Psalm 46:10 (MSG): “Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me…” When did you last “step out of the traffic” to be alone with your Father?
God told Elijah to “hide in the Kerith Ravine…I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there” (1 Kings 17:2-4 NIV).
Why would God do this? To protect Elijah from Ahab and Jezebel for one thing. The crown had posted an APB. Search parties were dispatched. What better place for Elijah to hide than in the rugged landscape of his homeland?
And God sent Elijah to Kerith to prepare him for the future. Remember, the world had gone crazy. Abhorrent behavior—child sacrifice, worship of idols, temple prostitution—had been normalized. God needed a steadfast prophet to stand against such a tide.
To prepare Elijah for his assignment, God led him into the wilderness. It was there the prophet learned to radically trust God. Call it divine boot camp. Be patient. God is working on you.
Spiritual muscle is developed not by sitting but by acting. Not by listening but by doing.
“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like” (James 1:22-24 NLT).
You turn away, pause, and wonder, Did I comb my hair? Such a question would betray one truth, and that is lack of attention. James indicts us for doing the same. We go to church. We hear a message, enjoy a few songs, but are we changed? Do we worry less and pray more? Are we less concerned about our will and more concerned about God’s? Let’s not be lookers. Let’s be doers.
Do you feel it is you against the world? Not so, my friend. Outnumbered by foes and outdone by fear? Please reconsider. Surrounded by adversity? Perhaps. Yet, you are also encircled by divinity. With God’s help you can ride these raging rapids with unbreakable courage.
Immovable. Determined. Square-jawed and resolved. Like the prophet Elijah who “…went and did according to the word of the Lord…” (1 Kings 17:5 NKJV). Elijah affirms a positive answer to these questions: Can a person maintain faith in a world that has little? When a culture belittles belief, can a believer beget strength? Yes! With God’s help, we will discover strength to ride this storm, an unbreakable courage and steadfast faith.
Ancient Israel had the scruffy hills of Gilead, and somewhere in this rugged land Elijah came to believe in a mighty Yahweh who refused to share his glory with others. He confronted Ahab and Jezebel with a surgical strike. Baal was regarded as the god of fertility, yet Baal’s veil was about to be yanked back. Jehovah has declared a drought.
Does Elijah have some encouragement for our generation? Absolutely! The story of Elijah offers us hope. Elijah shows us that one person following a living God is greater than hundreds of people praying to a lifeless one.
“Ahab was king over Israel for twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did even more open evil before God than anyone yet—a new champion in evil!” (1 Kings 16:29-30 MSG).
There’s a reason parents don’t name their kids Ahab or Jezebel. Ahab not only neglected the faith of his fathers, but he also embraced the false gods of his enemies. Yet this evil king did more—he married Jezebel. She was vile, she endorsed a religion that promoted temple prostitution and child sacrifice, she and her husband systematically killed the Lord’s prophets. The Ten Commandments were treated as ten suggestions, and the temple of worship was a relic of history.
God, however, will not sit idly while his covenants are trashed. He will not stay silent while his will is mocked. But he will act.
In his fine book, The Dance of Hope, Bill Frey remembers the day he tried to pull a stump out of the Georgia dirt. One of his chores as a 12 year-old was to search for stumps of pine trees that had been cut down and chop them into kindling. But there was one root system he just couldn’t pull out of the ground.
He was still struggling when his father came over to watch. “I think I see your problem,” the dad said. “What’s that?” the son asked. “You’re not using all your strength.” Bill exploded and told him how hard he’d been working. “No,” the dad said. “You’re not using all your strength.” When Bill cooled down, he asked what his father meant and the dad said, “You haven’t asked me to help you.”
You don’t have to do it alone, friend. Present the challenge to your father and ask for help. Will he solve the issue? Yes, he will.
We can calmly take our concerns to God because he is as near as our next breath. This was the reassuring message from the miracle of the bread and fish. In an event crafted to speak to the anxious heart, Jesus told his disciples to do the impossible: feed five thousand people.
You aren’t facing five thousand hungry bellies, but you are facing a deadline in two days, a loved one in need of a cure. On one hand you have a problem. On the other you have a limited quantity of wisdom, patience, or time.
Typically, you’d get anxious. You’d tell God, “You’ve given me too much to handle.” This time, instead of focusing on what you don’t have, start with Jesus. Start with his wealth, his resources, and his strength. Before you lash out in fear, look up in faith. Turn to your Heavenly Father for help.
God repeatedly pledges his presence to his people. To Abram, God said, “Do not be afraid…I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (Genesis 15:1 NKJV). God told Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9 NIV).
In the ultimate declaration of communion, God called himself Immanuel, which means, “God with us.” He became flesh. He became sin. He defeated the grave. He is still with us. In the form of his Spirit, he comforts, teaches, and convicts.
Don’t assume God is watching from a distance. Isolation creates a downward cycle of fret. Choose instead to be the person who clutches the presence of God with both hands. We can calmly take our concerns to God because he is as near as our next breath. And because the Lord is near, we can be anxious for nothing!
How many disasters have been averted because one person refused to buckle under the strain? It’s this kind of composure Paul is summoning when he says, “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything” (Philippians 4:5-6 NIV).
The Greek word translated here as “gentleness” describes a temperament that’s seasoned and mature. It envisions an attitude fitting to the occasion, levelheaded and tempered. This gentleness is “evident to all.” Family members take note. Your friends sense a difference. Coworkers benefit from it. The gentle person is sober minded and clear thinking. The contagiously calm person is the one who reminds others God is in control.
Pursue this gentleness. The Lord is near. You are not alone. You may feel alone. You may think you’re alone. But there is never a moment in which you face life without help. God is near—be anxious for nothing!
The first Christians were joyful Christians. The phrase “joyful Christian” is redundant. Do we need the adjective? Ideally, we should not have to put joyful in front of Christian. But we do because we tend to major in contingent joy and not courageous joy. Let’s invite God to deposit unspeakable joy in our hearts.
According to a study from sociologists at Harvard University, joy is contagious, spreading among friends, neighbors, and colleagues like the flu. Joy has a ripple effect. The pursuit of happiness is more than a line in the Declaration of Independence. It is a necessary step in enhancing the happiness of others. Is it time for you to bump up your joy level?
Jesus said: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11 NIV).
The joy Jesus offers is unlike the one promised at the car dealership or shopping mall. It is not a joy that depends upon circumstance. Peter spoke of this joy. “Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8 NKJV). Peter was writing to persecuted Christians. Adversaries took their rights, property, and possessions. But no one could take their Jesus. No one could take their joy.
Courageously joyful people have tethered their hearts to the foundation of God. Is that to say your life will be storm-free? Is that to say no sorrow will come your way? No. But that is to say your sorrow will not last forever.
Can we have the certainty of forgiven sin? God answers any hesitation with an invitation. “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). This is God’s surprising encouragement to us. He throws open the pantry of his heart and says, “Taste and see how good I am.”
If you do not believe that God is good, you will not confess your sins to him. But if he is who he claims to be, you will. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Stand in the Bethlehem stable. How good of God to become flesh. At the foot of the cross, taste his forgiveness. At the vacant tomb, taste his power.
Was he not good then? Is he not good still? Will he not be good enough to receive your confession and forgive your sins? Wave the white flag. No more doubt.
Do you desire a guilt-free heart? Then equip yourself with this promise: “If we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done” (1 John 1:9 NCV).
Oh, the sweet certainty of these words. “He will cleanse us.” Tell God what you did. The place and posture are your choice. Go on a walk and talk with him. Stand in a corner. Kneel in a closet. Hold up your hands. Revisit that moment and let him display his grace. Confess your sins to him. And confess your sins to others. James 5:16 (NKJV) reads, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” Healing happens when we are honest with God and others about our struggles.
Confession is agreeing with God. We agree about the reality of our sin. We don’t pretend we never sinned, nor do we discount its severity. We admit to it. God has an acceptable standard of behavior. “Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23 NCV). God’s standard is perfection, and we are anything but.
We are prone to tamper with the standard. We compare ourselves with others, we justify misbehavior, we downplay the severity of our sin. In confession we quit tinkering with the system. Our thought process should go something like this: I took the wrong path. I ignored the direction of God. But though my sin is great, God’s grace is greater. I trust him to forgive me. We agree with God about the reality of our sin.
Guilt tells you when you’ve done something wrong; shame tells you something is wrong with you. God wants to use your guilt to guide you, so let your guilt turn you toward God. How? Paul can help us. “Godly sadness produces a changed heart and life that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets, but sorrow under the influence of the world produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10 CEB).
The apostle contrasts two types of remorse. One is from God that leads to deliverance. One is from the system of the world that leads to death (shame). One is healthy, the other is deadly. How can we uproot our guilt and replace it with seeds of grace? The answer: confession. “If we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust him to do what is right” (1 John 1:9 NCV).
Make a list of your blessings. We cannot be anxious and thankful at the same time. God’s pathway to peace is paved with thoughts of appreciation. Practice Picky Thinking when you’re tempted to grumble. Choose gratitude.
Sometimes God calms the storm. Sometimes he calms the child. No storm ever hit harder than the one that raged through Gethsemane’s garden. And no prayer was ever prayed with more passion than the one Jesus prayed. The cross was part of God’s plan to redeem his children. God did not calm the storm. But our Father calmed his Son, and Jesus marched to Calvary in peace.
You can find this peace. Trust God. Tell God. Thank God. I pray God calms your storm. If he does not, may he calm you. And may you find the “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7 ESV).
“God raised Christ from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything” (Ephesians 1:20-22 MSG).
Christ runs the show. He has authority over the world, and he has authority over your world. Your date of birth, your date of death. Your mood swings, sleep patterns, eating habits, your salary. He’s never surprised, he’s never caught off guard. He’s never ever uttered the phrase, “ Now how did that happen?”
Uproot your fear of pandemonium and replant the assuring promise: “God makes everything work out according to his plan” (Ephesians 1:11 NLT).
Satan hates to see you pray. He does not scatter when you listen to a sermon. Demons do not backpedal when you perform acts of benevolence. The principalities of hell are not flustered when you open a Christian book. But the walls of hell shake when, with an honest heart and faithful confession, you bow your head and pray. Satan knows the power of prayer.
Do you long for peace? Then pray. “Prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long” (Ephesians 6:18 MSG). You cannot control events that are uncontrollable, so don’t try. You cannot change the future as long as the future is in the future, so don’t try. There is so much we cannot do. But there is one thing we must do. We must pray.
Jesus offers this assurance: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27 NKJV).
Jesus contrasts two types of peace—the peace the world offers and the peace he offers. The peace the world offers depends upon circumstances. If the weather is right, if the traffic is light, if the stock market is up. If…If…If. Exchange if peace for his peace. We can have the peace of Jesus. We can uproot thoughts of catastrophe and replace them with truths like this one: “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts” (Philippians 4:7 NKJV).
When your heart needs peace, trust God.
Philippians 4:4 commands, “Be full of joy in the Lord always. Again I will say, be full of joy.”
How can you be full of joy when you’ve got bills to pay and kids to raise? Those anxious, negative thoughts? Refuse to indulge them. Grab the weed of anxiety and give it a good yank. Then before the enemy can sow a seed, remind him and yourself that you live life “in the Lord.”
If you believe you face your problems alone, you will never find deep and lasting peace. On the other hand, if you believe that you face your challenges in the Lord—in the presence of the Lord, in the name of the Lord, in the power of the Lord, in the protection of the Lord—then you can be full of joy because you are full of the Lord.
Satan can disturb us, but he cannot defeat us. The head of the serpent is crushed.
I saw a literal picture of this in a prairie ditch. A petroleum company was hiring strong backs and weak minds to lay a pipeline. Since I qualified, much of a high school summer was spent shoveling in a shoulder-high West Texas trough. One afternoon the digging machine dislodged more than dirt. “Snake!” shouted the foreman. We popped out of that hole faster than a jack-in-the-box. One worked launched his shovel and beheaded the rattler.
That scene is a parable of where we are in life. In Revelation 20 verse 2 (NCV), John calls Satan, “that old snake who is the devil.” Has he not been decapitated? Not with a shovel, but with a cross.
A diving accident left Joni Eareckson paralyzed. Her handicap didn’t keep her from marrying Ken Tada, but it almost kept her from the joy of the wedding. While waiting to go down the aisle, she discovered across her beautiful wedding dress a big, black grease mark courtesy of her chair. The bouquet of daisies on her lap slid off center, her paralyzed hands unable to rearrange them. She felt far from a picture-perfect bride.
But as she looked down the aisle, she saw her groom. She says, “Grease stains? Flowers out of place? Who cares! The love in Ken’s eyes washed it all away. That’s what changed me.” She forgot about herself. Everything changes when you look at your groom!
You don’t have to be weird to follow Jesus. You don’t have to stop liking your friends to follow him – just the opposite!
Sometime ago I was part of a foursome for golf that included two preachers, a church leader, and a guy who wasn’t a Christ follower. The thought of four hours with all of us didn’t appeal to him. His best friend, a Christ follower—and his boss—insisted, so he agreed. I’m happy to report that on the ninth hole he said, “I’m so glad you guys are normal.” I think he meant this: “I’m glad you didn’t get in my face or club me with a King James driver. Thanks for laughing at my jokes and telling a few yourself.”
We didn’t lower standards, but neither did we saddle a high horse. Discipleship is sometimes defined by being normal.
Several years ago, I joined thousands who ran through the streets of San Antonio, raising money for breast cancer research. Most of us ran out of kindness, happy to log three miles and donate a few dollars to the cause. A few ran in memory of a loved one, others in honor of a cancer survivor. We ran for different reasons.
But no runner was more passionate than one I spotted. A bandanna covered her bald head, dark circles shadowed her eyes. She had cancer. While we ran out of kindness, she ran out of conviction. She knows how cancer victims feel. She’s been there.
So has Jesus. Whatever you’re facing, he knows how you feel. So go to him! He is able.
Isaiah 53:2 describes Jesus as having “no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him.” Heads didn’t turn when Jesus passed.
Are your looks run-of-the-mill and are your ways simple? So were his. Questionable pedigree, simple home, an ordinary laborer with ordinary looks. Are you poor? Jesus knows how you feel. Ever feel taken advantage of? He understands the meaning of obscurity. Whatever you’re facing, he knows how you feel.
And he’s not ashamed of you. Hebrews 2:11 says, “Jesus, who makes people holy, and those who are made holy are from the same family. So he is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters.” So go to him. After all, you’re part of the family!
Most families keep their family secrets a secret. Some stories remain unmentioned at the family reunion and unrecorded in the family Bible. That is, unless you’re Jesus. He displayed the bad apples of his family tree in the first chapter of the New Testament. Rahab was a Jericho harlot. David was one day writing psalms, another day seducing his captain’s wife. But did Jesus erase their names from the list? Not at all!
If your family tree has bruised fruit, Jesus wants you to know, “I’ve been there.” The phrase “I’ve been there” is in the chorus of Christ’s theme song. To the lonely, he whispers “I’ve been there. To the discouraged, Christ nods his head and sighs, “I’ve been there.” When you turn to him for help, he runs to you to help. He’s been there!
Most of us had a hard time learning to tie our shoes. Tightening shoes by wrapping strings together? Nothing easy about that. Who came up with the idea of shoes anyway?
My friend Roy used to sit on a park bench watching kids gather and play at the bus stop. One day a little fellow struggled to board the bus, frantically trying to disentangle a knotted shoestring. He grew more anxious by the moment. All of a sudden it was too late. The bus door closed. With tear-filled eyes he looked at Roy on the bench and asked, “Do you untie knots?”
We never outgrow the urge to look up and say, “Help!” And when we do, who shows up? Jesus, our next-door Savior. Go ahead, ask him: “Do you untie knots?” “Yes,” he will say.
2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness…” As we behold him, we become like him.
It’s a principle I experienced first-hand when an opera singer visited our church. He sat right behind me. He tried to contain himself, but how can a tuba hide in a room of piccolos? I was startled. Inspired. Emboldened by his volume. I lifted mine. Did I sing better? No. But did I try harder? No doubt. His power brought the best of me.
Could your world use a little music? If so, invite heaven’s baritone—Jesus Christ—to cut loose. Who knows? A few songs with him might change the way you sing!
Do you visit the Grand Canyon for the T-shirt or the snow globe? No. The reward of the Grand Canyon is the Grand Canyon. The wide-eyed realization you’re part of something ancient, splendid, powerful and greater than you.
The cache of Christianity is Christ. Not money in the bank or a car in the garage or a better self-image. The Fort Knox of faith is Christ. Fellowship with him. Walking with him. Pondering him. The heart-stopping realization that in him you’re part of something endless, unstoppable, unfathomable! And that he, who can dig the Grand Canyon with his pinkie, thinks you’re worth his death on Roman timber. Christ is the reward of Christianity.
“Who do you say I am?” Jesus asks of Peter. “I, uh, I believe…um, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Maybe he wasn’t that hesitant. But if he was, you can hardly fault him. How many times do you call a callous-handed nail bender from a one-camel town the Son of God?
You remember the drawings with the question, “What’s wrong with this picture?” We’d look closely for something that didn’t fit—like an astronaut on the moon with a pay phone in the background. Pay phones aren’t found on the moon, and God doesn’t chum with common folk or snooze in fishing boats. But Colossians 2:9 says he did: “For in Christ there is all of God in a human body.” All God, all man. Don’t we need a God-man Savior?
Some days never come. Go to the effort. Invest the time. Make the apology. Take the trip. Do it! The seized opportunity renders joy. The neglected brings regret.
Remember Mary’s extravagance in pouring expensive perfume over Jesus’ head? And Jesus’ disciples criticizing her. “Why waste that perfume?” they said. “It could have been sold for a great deal of money and given to the poor” (Matthew 26:8-9). Do not miss Jesus’ prompt defense of Mary in Matthew 26:10: “Why are you troubling this woman?” he said. “She did an excellent thing for me.”
Don’t miss Jesus’ message. There is a time to pour out your affections on one you love. When the time comes, seize it!
Certain chapters in this life seem so unnecessary. Suffering. Loneliness. Disease. Holocausts. Martyrdom. Hurricanes, earthquakes, monsoons. If we assume this world exists just for pre-grave happiness, these atrocities disqualify it from doing so. But what if this earth is the womb? Might these challenges, severe as they may be, serve to prepare us, to equip us for the world to come?
The apostle Paul would think so. He wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17, “These little troubles are getting us ready for an eternal glory that will make all our troubles seem like nothing.” Eternal glory? I’d like a large cup of that, wouldn’t you? Go ahead and request it. The barista is brewing that cup for you. And everything in this life is preparing you for the next.
Life is so much easier if we can just put labels on people. Pigeonholing permits us to wash our hands and leave. “Oh I know him—he’s an alcoholic.” “She’s a liberal Democrat.” “He’s divorced.” Categorizing others creates distance and gives us a convenient exit strategy for avoiding involvement.
But Jesus took an entirely different approach. He was all about including people. Jesus touched lepers and loved foreigners. His Facebook page included the likes of Matthew the IRS agent and some floozy he met at Simon’s house. You see, Jesus set aside the privileges of deity. He took on the status of a slave. He became a human.
Jesus sends this message: No playground displays of superiority. Don’t call any person common. Don’t call any person unfit. Every person matters to God!
There’s a predictable progression from poverty to pride. The poor man prays and works; God hears and blesses. The humble man becomes rich and forgets God. The faithful, poor man becomes the proud, rich man. As God said through Hosea, “When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me” (Hosea 13:6 NIV).
How can a person survive prosperity? Scripture says do not be haughty. Do not think for a moment that you had anything to do with your accumulation. Scripture also makes clear that your stocks, cash, and 401(k) are not yours. 1 Timothy 6:17 warns us to not put our “trust in uncertain riches.” Money is an untrustworthy foundation. Have you noticed that the word miser is just one letter short of the word misery?
Scrooge didn’t create the world, God did. Giving characterizes God’s creation. Psalm 104 celebrates this lavish creation with twenty-three verses of blessings: the heavens and the earth, the water and streams and trees and birds and oil and bread. The Scripture says God is the source of “innumerable teeming things, living things both great and small…These all wait for him, that he may give them their food in due season” (Psalm 104:25, 27).
And he does. God is the great giver, the great provider, the fount of every blessing. Absolutely generous, utterly dependable. The resounding and recurring message of Scripture is clear: God owns it all, and God shares it all.
Some years ago I attended a San Antonio Spurs basketball game. It was the final game of the regular season, and it was unique because it did not matter. The Spurs had already won their division. The game had no bearing on their standings.
The game intrigued this preacher. I saw a sermon illustration waiting to happen. Christians occupy the same spot that the Spurs did. According to the Bible, we’ve already won. According to prophecy, victory is secure. According to the message of grace and the death of Christ on the cross, no one can snatch us from our Father’s hand.
So how do we behave in the meantime? Well the Spurs were a good example. They were relaxed, confident, and happy, and they won the game. In these last days show up, play hard, and be happy. After all, the victory is secure.
Just moments prior to his ascension into heaven, the followers of Christ inquired, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6 NKJV). Christ didn’t correct their kingdom conception. Could it be the apostles were correct? That Jesus will establish a kingdom on earth? That he will bless Israel?
Examine the itinerary of your journey home, and you will find ten centuries reserved by God for him to do what he promised to do—establish Eden. Place your ear upon the pages of your Bible and you will hear the hoofbeats of a coming king. A glorious day awaits God’s children. It includes an interlude of earthly abundance, a thousand year reign of Jesus. It most certainly includes an eternity of joy in God’s presence. Our Father has a plan, and he hold us in his hand.
The plainest reading of Revelation 20 is a literal thousand-year reign of Christ. The apostle John mentions it six times in seven verses. Why not take John’s number literally?
Daniel would have. Toward the end of his life, the prophet Daniel called on God to forgive the Jewish people and return them to Jerusalem. What prompted the prayer? He was reading the prophecy of Jeremiah. “This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jeremiah 25:11). At the time, sixty-seven years of captivity had passed. Daniel assumed it meant seventy literal years, so he prayed for God to keep his promise.
In the book of Revelation, John promised a thousand-year reign of Christ. I believe Daniel would have taken the number at face value; I choose to do the same.
The Antichrist is the warmonger of the end times, the enemy of God, and the nemesis of the Jews. He will be the pawn of Satan in a final, fatal, and futile attempt to overthrow the kingdom of God. He will enter a pact with the state of Israel. Israel will either continue or begin the construction of the temple. The world will sigh with relief at the appearance of peace in the Middle East. Yet, midway through the seven-year treaty, the Antichrist’s true nature will be disclosed. He will tear up the agreement and seize the rebuilt temple, install his image, and demand universal worship. This period of time is called the Tribulation.
Jesus Christ spoke of this moment. “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel…then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains” (Matthew 24:15-16 NKJV).
Satan is a fallen, embittered, and evil angel. He wreaks havoc on earth and leaves devastation in his wake. Every war, worry, and weary soul can be blamed on him. Hence, to imagine Satan bound, locked away from humanity—what an appealing thought! Has this incarceration occurred? Has Satan been removed from the earth and locked away? As far as I can tell, he is still “a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8 GNT). Satan’s incarceration is a yet-to-be event.
But he will be incarcerated. Revelation 20 declares with the reality of the devil’s upcoming demise. The millennium will be glorious because Satan will be bound, Christ will be crowned, and we will reign with Jesus for a thousand years.
I believe Jesus will someday rule from the physical city of Jerusalem for a thousand years. The earth will be restored to its garden-of-Eden splendor, and we will walk on a perfect planet in perfected bodies.
What leads me to that conclusion? One reason is that a millennial kingdom provides an opportunity for God’s covenants to be honored. God said, “…fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28 NKJV). But with rebellion came the fall. Consequently, humanity has fallen from its intended position as ruler of the earth.
What’s more, unfulfilled covenants remain between God and Israel. God also made a covenant with David. It requires that Jesus sit on David’s throne and rule over David’s kingdom, the nation of Israel. The millennial kingdom allows for this to occur. And I’m so excited for you and me to be there and be a part of it.
The angel Gabriel gave three prophecies to Daniel. Look at the second one. He said, “A command will come to rebuild Jerusalem. The time from this command until the appointed leader comes will be forty-nine years and four hundred thirty-four years” (Daniel 9:25 NCV). The Hebrew term for “appointed leader” means Messiah…Jesus Christ. The angel mentioned two blocks of time, for a total of 483 years.
Nehemiah was a high-ranking exiled Jewish ruler. He made a request to Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem, and the king agreed. According to the Hebrew calendar, the 483rd year occurred during the Passover of AD 33, on April 6 – the very year and day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. Our Savior fulfilled Gabriel’s prophecy. What a testimony to the authority of the Bible!
History is an ordered, orchestrated movement toward an eternal goal. God has a time line. Gabriel declared three prophecies, often called “the backbone of Bible prophecy.”
The angel said, “God has ordered four hundred ninety years for your people [the Jews] and your holy city [Jerusalem] for these reasons: to stop people from turning against God; to put an end to sin; to take away evil; to bring in goodness that continues forever; to bring about the vision and prophecy; and to appoint a most holy place” (Daniel 9:24 NCV).
Have these decrees been fulfilled? No. These events have yet to occur, but they will occur. Obviously the angel was describing a spectacular future era, and it will be amazing!
Be assured, God is at work. His plans are proceeding at the right pace, in the right places, and according to his will. What he has said, he will do.
When our daughters were young, I took them on many road trips. On the eve of our departure, I’d tell my daughters what was about to happen. “Early tomorrow, while you are still sleeping, I will carry you to the car, cover you with a blanket, and buckle you in your seat. By the time you wake up, we will be on the road.” I told them in advance what would happen. Consequently, they relaxed. Their father had told them what to expect.
Our good Father has done the same. So, as his promises are being fulfilled, we have no need of fear. We can relax, knowing that our Father has the wheel.
In Jeremiah 31:31, God made a covenant with Israel: “The days are coming…when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.” In Ezekiel 36:24 and 28, God affirmed, “I will take you [Israel] out of the nations…and bring you back into your own land…Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.”
This stunning covenant envisions a return and a revival among the Jews. Since 1948 more than three million Jews have moved to the historic homeland. But what of the spiritual revival? According to the prophecy of John, it is coming. He speaks of the day in which Jews will declare, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Revelation 7:10 NKJV). Let’s pray for the people of Israel.
God declared that someone from the house of David would sit on David’s throne and rule over his kingdom forever. “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32-33 NKJV).
Now for this to happen, Israel must exist as a nation – it does. David’s descendant must be alive – he is. Jesus Christ must return to earth – he will. He must bodily and literally sit on David’s throne and reign over Israel. Mark it down, my friend. At some point in the future, Jesus—the “Son of the Highest”—will rule over Israel and the world from David’s throne in Jerusalem. I cannot wait to see it.
“…the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘to your descendants I will give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates…’” (Genesis 15:18 NIV). Israel is the only nation in history to whom God has given land. This covenant includes modern-day Israel as well as parts of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. God ratified this covenant with a ceremonial sacrifice of animals, and his covenant is untethered to performance.
Has God fulfilled this soil covenant? Not entirely. But will God keep this promise? Charles Swindoll said, “It’s as simple as this: If we cannot trust God to keep his promises to Israel, how can we trust him to keep his promises to us? Never doubt it. God will do what he says he will do.”
Amen!
After Adam and Eve rebelled, God set in motion a plan of redemption that includes promises, prophets, and miracles. He made a covenant with Abraham. He raised up Joseph in Egypt. He gave courage to David and strength to Esther. But still the people sinned. It would take a perfect man and a perfect sacrifice to overcome it.
Enter Jesus Christ.
Like Adam, Jesus had no earthly father. Like Adam, Jesus was given authority over creation. Like Adam, Jesus was tempted. But unlike Adam, Jesus never sinned. We can thank the apostle Paul for this concise summary found in Romans 5:18 (MSG): “Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life!”
Hebrews 2:8 (MSG) reads, “When God put [Adam and Eve] in charge of everything, nothing was excluded. We…don’t see everything under human jurisdiction.” Instead of ruling the world, we feel ruled by the world. We see creation in a state of corruption, eruption, and pollution. What’s more, we don’t see male and female behaving as partners, but often as rivals.
What happened? Sin happened. Rebellion happened. Satan happened. A villain entered the garden. He convinced the couple that the garden was inadequate. They wanted to be like God. And God, who knows what is best for creation, said, “No.” He temporarily suspended the Garden of Eden plan, but he did not cancel it. And he did not abandon it. And he certainly did not abandon us.
“It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18 NLT). God commissioned Adam to care for the creation. But alone? No companion? No partner? For the first time God used the phrase “It is not good.” Adam exercised his role as overseer and assigned a name to each creature. But the man could find “no helper just right for him” (Genesis 2:20 NLT).
Men, aren’t we glad? What if he’d chosen a warthog as a helper? But God had a special gift for Adam. God put Adam to sleep (thereby forever sanctifying the act of a good nap), extracted a rib from Adam’s side, and created the perfect partner. Eve, like the bone from which she was made, was created to remain closest to Adam’s heart. And life was good.
“Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7 NLT). Out of the soil of the garden, God shaped Adam’s torso. He rounded the head and formed a nose. The same hand that flung stars in the heavens and scooped the floor for the ocean sculpted the first person.
Then, “He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person” (Genesis 2:7 NLT). God exhaled. And Adam inhaled. And Adam had life. But he had more than oxygen in him. He had God’s breath in him. What a sterling, stunning creation he must have been. Unsullied by greed. Uncorrupted by hate. Untainted by guilt. Unacquainted with fear.
That is how we were intended to be. And that is how we will be, when Christ comes again.
Want to know what’s coming next? Then consider what came first. God’s designs for you and me were unveiled in Scripture’s opening pages. Eschatology, the study of end things, begins with protology, the study of first things.
Our story begins like this: “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground’” (Genesis 1:26 NLT).
By this point God had created much. Stars sparkled at night. The air was sweet with the fragrance of flowers and the music of birds. Animals roamed the valley. But creation, albeit magnificent and mighty, was not made in the image of God. That privilege was reserved for the likes of you and me.
Five hundred years ago sailors feared the horizon. Sail too far and risk falling off the edge. The Spaniards held dominion over both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar. At its narrowest margin, where Africa can see Europe, they erected the Pillar of Hercules, a huge marker that bore in its stone “No More Beyond.”
But then came Columbus and the voyage of 1492. The discovery of the new world swung open the western doors of Spain. They took the Latin phrase “No More Beyond,” removed the first word, and impressed this slogan onto their coins: “More Beyond.”
You were made for “More Beyond.” You were made to explore what happens next. It’s all about hope. It’s all about him. So let’s make sure that we are good to go.
Prophecy is to the Bible what the Serengeti is to Africa—vast, expansive. If Bible prophecy is the Serengeti, some Christians are big game hunters. They find prophecy on every page, symbolism in every story, and clues in every verse.
Somewhere between these two positions is a healthy posture. Believers who avoid utter ignorance on one hand and total arrogance on the other. Who seek what God intends: a deep-seated confidence that our tomorrow is in our Lord’s hands.
The purpose of prophecy is to empower the saint with a sense of God’s sovereignty. As the apostle Paul wrote, “The one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them (1 Corinthians 14:3 NLT). Prophecy prepares us to face the future with faith.
Christ could come at any moment. I believe that with all my heart—not just because of what I read in the Scriptures, but also because of what I read in the news.
To be clear, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36 BSB). The exact time remains hidden. While we cannot know the day or hour, we can know the signs. Wouldn’t you agree that the signs of our day warrant our vigilance?
We have a choice. We can view the future through the eyes of fear or faith. The eyes of fear see little reason for hope and ample reason for anxiety. The eyes of faith see history inching closer and closer to a new era, a heavenly destiny.
Prior to 1948 Jews were dispersed to more than seventy countries for more than twenty centuries. Yet since 1948 we have seen them return. For the first time since AD 135, there are more Jews living in Israel than any other place on earth. The Bible repeatedly presents the regathering of the Jewish people as a watershed event that must occur before other end times events take place.
We’ve always had wars, always had disasters, and deceptions. But now that the milestone moment has happened and Israel is restored, the other signs progressively signal the impending end. We have entered the last days. So, let us be looking, and let us be declaring: the end is near.
On Friday, May 14, 1948, President Harry Truman signed a proclamation that read: “This government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine…The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority in the new state of Israel.”
In scripture, from Ezekiel, 650 years before Christ: “For I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24 NLV).
In other words, May 14, 1948, saw a page turn in the calendar of prophetic history. Almost all the key events of end times hinge upon the existence of Israel as a nation.
C.S. Lewis said, “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought the most of the next.” We have bills to pay, kids to raise, deadlines to meet. Why occupy our thoughts with the “not yet” when we need strength to face the “right now”? Understanding the future empowers us to face the present.
That was the apostle Paul’s opinion. “I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (Philippians 3:13-14 NLT). The best of life is yet to be. Got challenges in this life? Then ponder the next. Be a future-facing follower of Christ.
The Christian lives life on tiptoe, ever searching the skies. We awaken with the thought Perhaps today! Our hope is centered on the bodily return of Christ. We are looking to a new age in which Jesus will be crowned as the rightful King and we will serve as his grateful servants.
Peter declared, “The Lord will…send Jesus, the One he chose to be the Christ. But Jesus must stay in heaven until the right time comes when all things will be made right again” (Acts 3:19-21 NCV).
Does that assurance not speak to the heavy heart? Weary of racism? Things will be made right. Weary of child abuse? Things will be made right. Weary of terrorists wreaking terror? Rulers pillaging the poor? Scandal infecting the church? Things…will…be…made…right.
The apostle Paul wrote, “If there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors…But the truth is that Christ has been raised up…” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 20 MSG).
Jesus validated his return by vacating his tomb. Is the tomb of Jesus empty? Did Christ discard his shrouds and march out of the tomb? Yes! His tomb has the prints of pierced feet. Those feet were nailed to a cross on Friday and lifeless in the grave on Saturday. But on Sunday the hope of Easter called them to stand, step, and walk out of the grave.
When Jesus vacated the tomb, he populated the heart of humanity with hope. And since his grave is empty, our confidence in his return is not.
Hope is an endangered species. We are more troubled than we’ve been in nearly fifty years. Happiness is down. Loneliness is up. And optimism has taken a right hook to the chin. Research from the National Institute of Mental Health is showing an epidemic of mental health problems among eighteen- to twenty-four-year-olds in the United States.
You can relate. Your heart has been broken, your dreams have been shattered, your body has battled disease. And maybe you’ve wondered if this life is worth living. God’s therapy for our trepidation reads like this: “For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever” (2 Corinthians 4:18 NLT). Face the problems of this life by focusing on the promises of the next.
On the eve of his crucifixion, Jesus told his followers what was going to happen the following day. He would be abandoned by his friends and killed by his enemies. Yet before they could voice their fears, Jesus calmed them. “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” he said. “You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:1-3 NIV).
Jesus lifted their eyes. In essence he said, “Think less about your fears. Think much about your eternal home.” What would Jesus say to this troubled generation?
I consider myself a bit of an expert in airport repartee. It typically consists of one question: “Where are you headed?” We are all headed somewhere. Each day brings us closer to a final breath, a final heartbeat, a final sigh. No one is getting younger. Shouldn’t our destination be an obsession?
The Bible makes almost five hundred references to heaven. The New Testament mentions the return of Jesus more than three hundred times—one out of every thirty verses! Twenty-three of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament describe Jesus’ second coming, and on some fifty occasions we are told to be ready. If quantity equates to priority, then life after this life is a crucial issue to God.
On one side Nicodemus, representing all well-meaning, God-fearing, scripture-memorizing folk. On the other, Jesus Christ. And what the latter says to the former is so uncanny that it sends shock waves through church pews and synagogues to this very day. “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life” (John 3:5-6 NLT).
The phrase “Kingdom of God” refers to a relationship with God in this life and entrance into heaven in the next. How do we receive citizenship? Be born again. In our first birth we become brand-new humans. In our second birth we become brand-new creations. And who oversees our second birth? The Holy Spirit.
“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25 NIV).
Make it your aim to walk in the Spirit by inviting him into the details of each day. Let this prayer be quick to come to your mind: “How am I to respond to this challenge, Lord?” Or, “Direct me, please. Which way should I go?” Pause and listen. Keep an ear inclined toward the Spirit.
For us not to consult the Spirit of God would be foolish. He is here to teach us. Our privilege is to stay in mindful communion with him. Day by day, moment by moment. Listen as the divine instructor whispers wonders in your ear. And be assured that, as you smile, the Spirit smiles with you. After all, he is your teacher.
I recall an afternoon early in my ministry when the invitation of Jesus to the weary became the invitation of Jesus to Max. I was supposed to be studying. But I could not concentrate. I thought I had to fix everyone’s problems, shoulder everyone’s burdens, and never grow weary in doing so. After some moments I bowed my head and sighed, and this scripture came to mind: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
It was the pronoun me that got me. I had been turning to everyone and everything but him. Why did that verse come to mind? Simple – the Holy Spirit, my teacher, reminded me. The Spirit of Christ will do this for you, my friend.
The Holy Spirit has a specific, overarching mission. His task is to teach us about Jesus. The apostle Paul echoed this point: “No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, never so much as imagined anything quite like it—what God has arranged for those who love him. But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10 MSG).
The world religions look to the teachings of their now-dead founders—Muhammad, Buddha, Confucius. Christians, however, hold to this inscrutable and beautiful promise: our teacher not only spoke, but he speaks. His wisdom is not confined to an ancient document but is part of the day-to-day curriculum of our mentor, the Holy Spirit.
Jesus doesn’t want us to think of the Holy Spirit as an it or a thing. The Spirit is a person. According to one study only four people in ten believe that the Spirit is a divine person. The rest of those surveyed either don’t have an opinion or choose to believe the Spirit is more like a power surge than a divine being who empowers and teaches us.
Can you join me in a pledge? “I hereby resolve never to call the Holy Spirit an it.” The Spirit is a person. And Jesus calls him the Paraclete. Now translators land on different, yet similar, translations for this Greek word: “Comforter,” “Counselor,” “Advocate,” “Intercessor.” But the central message is the same: we are not alone.
Some time ago I realized my car’s gas tank was nearly empty. I spotted a convenience store and parked next to a pump. I placed the nozzle in my tank, and swiped my card, and began filling up my car. I then went into the store and bought a soda. I chatted with the store clerk. I went back to my car and washed the windshield. I was barely back on the road when I happened to look at my gas gauge. It was on empty! Knowing my attention span, I probably forgot to squeeze the lever.
I did everything except the one thing I needed to do. Have you done the same? Have you neglected the Holy Spirit? The Spirit of God longs to give you his great power. Challenges come with life, but they need not define your life. Help is here.
Jesus would not let his followers begin their ministries unless they knew the Holy Spirit. By this point the disciples had spent three years in training. They had seen the empty tomb, they had touched his resurrected body, they had spent forty days listening to the resurrected Christ teach about the kingdom. But they needed more. Jesus told them, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8 NKJV).
The Holy Spirit comes with power. Power to make good choices, to keep promises, to silence the inner voices of fear and failure. Power to get busy about the right things in the right way. Power. This is what Jesus promised then, and this is what Jesus promises still.
In Luke 24:49 (TLB) Jesus said, “And now I will send the Holy Spirit upon you, just as my Father promised.” Who is the Holy Spirit? God as Father? We comprehend that image. God as Jesus, the Son? That idea is manageable as well. But God as Spirit? The word itself is mystical.
One day, I read the words Jesus used to describe the Holy Spirit: comforter and friend. “I know that Person.” That was over three decades ago. I no longer think of the Holy Spirit as the Holy Who? I now call him our Heaven-Sent Helper. He is our champion, our advocate, our guide. He comforts and directs us. He indwells, transforms, sustains, and will someday deliver us into our heavenly home.
“Along about midnight, Paul and Silas were at prayer and singing a robust hymn to God…Then, without warning, a huge earthquake! The jailhouse tottered, every door flew open, all the prisoners were loose” (Acts 16:25-26 MSG).
Authorities beat Paul and Silas with rods. Soldiers then imprisoned them in the deepest part of the prison where it was damp and cold and rat-infested. Their feet were put in stocks. There they lay all afternoon and into the night, with no local advocates, their backs open to infection, surrounded by darkness, and shivering from the cold. Oh, to have heard that midnight song.
Paul and Silas were not sure of their deliverance, but they were sure of their Deliverer. You can be too. Rather than panic, you can choose to praise.
Our stress-laden society has developed many skills for dealing with anxiety. We have breathing exercises and meditation techniques. But the person in whom the Spirit dwells has the greatest of resources. The apostle Paul said, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18-19 NIV).
The apostle contrasts two strategies for facing inner chaos: inebriation and celebration. Many people numb themselves, if not with liquor, with bouts of shopping or hours of playing. The better option: celebration. Constant worship clears the debris from our hearts. Praise is the cleansing element that flushes the trash of worry and anxiety.
Peter discovered the wonder of God’s second chance. One day Jesus preached from Peter’s boat. Then he told Peter to take him fishing. The apostle-to-be had no interest. He was tired; he had fished all night. He was discouraged; he had caught nothing. He was dubious; what did Jesus know about catching fish? But Jesus insisted. And Peter relented. “At Your word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5 NKJV).
This was a moment of truth for Peter. He was saying, “I will begin again, your way.” When he did, the catch of fish was so great the boat nearly sank. Sometimes we just need to begin again with Christ in the boat. Don’t miss your opportunity by inaction. It’s time to rise up and step out. God has not forgotten you. Keep your head up! You never know what good awaits you.
Begin again. Fresh starts require a determined first step. You can’t change yesterday, but you can do something about tomorrow. Put God’s plan in place.
God told Joshua to revisit the place of failure. In Joshua 8:1 he said, “Arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land” (Joshua 8:1 NKJV). In essence, God told Joshua, “Let’s begin again. This time my way.”
In the first attack, Joshua consulted spies; in the second, he listened to God. In the first, he stayed home. In the second, he led the way. The first attack involved a small unit, the second involved many more men. The first attack involved no tactics, the second was strategic and sophisticated.
The point? God gave Joshua a new plan. “Begin again,” he said. “My way.” When he followed God’s strategy, victory happened. And friend, the same will happen to you.
Everyone stumbles. The difference is in the response. Some stumble into the pit of guilt. Others tumble into the arms of God. They make a deliberate decision to stand up and lean into the grace of God.
Just like you, the prodigal son was given an inheritance; he was a member of the family. Perhaps just like you, he squandered it on wild living and bad choices. His trail dead-ended in a pigpen. He fed hogs for a living. Then he made a decision that changed his life forever. “I will arise and go to my father” (Luke 15:18 NKJV)
You can arise and go to your Father! Maybe you can’t solve all your problems or disentangle all your knots. You can’t undo all the damage you’ve done, but you can arise and go to your Father. Landing in a pigpen stinks. But friend, staying there is just plain stupid.
One stumble does not define or break a person. Though you failed, God’s love does not. Face your failures with faith in God’s goodness. He tells you what he told Joshua: “Arise, go. You and all this people to the land which I am giving” (Joshua 1:2 NKJV). There is no condition in that covenant. God’s Promised Land offer does not depend on your perfection; it depends on his.
In God’s hands, no defeat is a crushing defeat. “The steps of good men are directed by the Lord. He delights in each step that they take. If they fall, it isn’t fatal. For the Lord holds them with his hand” (Psalm 37:23-24 TLB). Miss this truth and miss your new beginning. You must believe that God’s grace is greater than your failures.
Failure finds us all. Failure is so universal that we must wonder why more self-help gurus don’t address it. Bookstores overflow with volumes on how to succeed, but you’ll look a long time before you find a section called “How to Succeed at Failing.”
Maybe no one knows what to say. But God does. His book is written for failures. It is full of folks who were foul-ups and flops but got a second chance. David was a moral failure, yet he became a man after God’s own heart. Jonah was in the belly of a fish when he prayed his most honest prayer and then saw revival in Nineveh.
Perfect people? No. Perfect messes? You bet. Yet God used them all. A surprising and welcome discovery of the Bible is this: God uses failures.
Jesus once went to the house of a little girl who had just died. Mourners were gathered at the door. “Why are you crying?” he asked them (Mark 5:39 NCV). When we see death, we see reason to cry. When Jesus sees death, he sees deliverance. That was too much for the people to take. “They laughed at him” (v 40). You’re not going to believe what Jesus did next – he threw the mourners out!
You know, God is still busy casting out the critics and silencing the voices that could deter you. Some of his work you have seen, most of it you haven’t. Only when you get home will you know how many times he has protected you from mocking voices of unbelief. He knows you and I are blind. I think that’s the reason he raised the girl from the dead. Not for her sake—she was better off in heaven. But for our sake—to teach us that heaven notices when we trust.
God’s view and our view of death tend to be different. We see death as the end. God sees it as a beginning. From God’s viewpoint death is not permanent. It is a necessary step for passing from this world to the next.
From God’s perspective death is a small price to pay for the privilege of sitting at his table. The scripture says, “Flesh and blood cannot have a part in the kingdom of God…This body that can be destroyed must clothe itself with something that can never be destroyed” (1 Corinthians 15:50, 53 NCV).
In other words, we must die for our body to be exchanged for a new one. So from God’s viewpoint death is not to be dreaded; it is to be welcomed.
A prisoner carved these words on the wall of a concentration camp: I believe in the sun, even though it doesn’t shine. I believe in love, even when it isn’t shown. I believe in God, even when he doesn’t speak. What eyes could have seen good in such horror? There is only one answer: eyes that chose to see the unseen.
As the apostle Paul wrote, “We set our eyes not on what we see but on what we cannot see. What we see will last only a short time, but what we cannot see will last forever” (2 Corinthians 4:18 NCV). Jesus asks us to make a choice. Either to live by the facts or to see by faith. When tragedy strikes, we are left to choose what we see. We can see either the hurt or the Healer. The choice is ours.
Jesus and Jairus are interrupted by emissaries from his house. “Your daughter is dead,” they said.” “There is no need to bother the teacher anymore. But Jesus paid no attention to what they said…” (Mark5:35-36). I love that line! It describes the critical principle for seeing the unseen: Ignore what people say. Close your ears. And, if you must, walk away.
Ignore the ones who say it’s too late to begin again. Turn a deaf ear toward those who say you aren’t smart enough, fast enough, tall enough, or big enough. Faith sometimes begins by stuffing your ears with cotton. Jesus turns immediately to Jairus and pleads, “Don’t be afraid; just believe” (v 36). And Jesus compels Jairus to see the unseen. When Jesus says, “just believe” he is imploring, “Don’t be afraid; just trust.” Is he saying the same words to you?
We are blind, blind to the future. Just ask Jairus. He is the leader of the synagogue, the most important man in the community. But the Jairus in this Bible story is not the clear-sighted, black-frocked civic leader. He is, instead, a blind man begging for a gift. He falls at Jesus’ feet, saying, “My daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so she will be healed and will live” (Mark 5:23 NCV).
You know, there are times in life when everything you have to offer is nothing compared to what you are asking to receive. The situation is starkly simple: Jairus is blind to the future, and Jesus knows the future. So Jairus asks for help. And Jesus, who loves to give new beginnings, goes to give it. He’ll do the same for you. Do you face an uncertain future? Ask Jesus to help you.
How did Jesus endure the terror of the crucifixion? He went first to the Father with his fears. He modeled the words of Psalm 56:3 (NLT): “When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.” Do the same with yours. And be honest. Do what Jesus did – open your heart. And be specific; Jesus was. “Take this cup,” he prayed. Share the details. God has plenty of time. He also has plenty of compassion, he doesn’t think your fears are foolish or silly, he knows how you feel, and he knows what you need.
In the case of Christ God did not take away the cross, but he took the fear. Who is to say he won’t take away your fear? Please don’t measure the size of the mountain; talk to the One who can move it. Hope is just a look away. Now, what were you looking at?
Jesus said, “Father, if you are willing, take away this cup of suffering” (Luke 22:42 NCV). Jesus could have confided in his disciples. He could have assembled a prayer meeting. But when he faced fear he went first to his Father. Oh, how we tend to go everywhere else. First to the bar, to the counselor, to the self-help book, or to the friend next door. Not Jesus. The first one to hear his fear was his Father in heaven.
A millennium earlier David was urging the fear-filled to do the same. “I will fear no evil.” How could David make such a claim? Because he knew where to look. Rather than turn to the other sheep, David turned to the Shepherd. Rather than stare at the problems, he stared at the rod and staff. Because he knew where to look, David was able to say, “I will fear no evil.”
The Bible that I carried as a child contained a picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He seemed peaceful. Yet one reading of the Gospels disrupts that image. Mark says, “Jesus fell to the ground” (Mark 14:35 NCV). According to Luke, Jesus was “full of pain” (Luke 22:44 NCV).
What do we do with this image of Jesus? Simple – we read it when we feel the same. We read it when we feel afraid. For isn’t it likely that fear was one of the emotions Jesus felt? He saw something in the future so fierce, so foreboding that he begged for a change of plans. “Father, if you are willing, take away this cup of suffering” (Luke 22:42 NCV).
How remarkable that Jesus felt such fear. But how kind that he told us about it. We see no mask of strength, but we do hear a request for strength. And the fact that he prayed invites us to do the same.
Perhaps you don’t need your hope restored right now. Your jungle has become a meadow, your journey a delight. If such is the case, congratulations. But remember, we do not know what tomorrow holds. You may be one turn from a cemetery, from a virus, from an empty house. You may be a bend in the road from a jungle. And though you don’t need your hope restored today, you may tomorrow. And you need to know to whom to turn.
Or perhaps you do need hope today. You know you were not made for this place, you know you are not equipped, you want someone to lead you out. If so, put your trust in the Shepherd. He knows the path that leads to your new beginning, and he’s just waiting for you to join him.
We ask God, “Where are you taking me? Where is the path?” And he doesn’t tell us. Oh, he may give us a hint or two, but that’s all. If he did, would we understand? Would we comprehend our location? No, we are unacquainted with this jungle. So rather than give us an answer, Jesus gives us a far greater gift – he gives us himself.
Does he remove the jungle? No, the vegetation is still thick. Does he purge the predators? No, danger still lurks. Jesus doesn’t give hope by changing the jungle; he restores our hope by giving us himself. And he has promised to stay until the very end. “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
We need that reminder. We all need that reminder, for all of us need hope.
God, your rescuer, has the right vision. He also has the right direction. He made the boldest claim in the history of humanity when he declared, “I am the way” (John 14:6). People wondered if the claim was accurate. He answered their questions by cutting a path through the underbrush of sin and death…and escaping alive. He’s the only One who ever did. And he is the only One who can help you and me do the same.
He has the right vision—he has seen the homeland. He has the right directions—he has cut the path. But most of all, he is the right person because he is our God. Who knows the jungle better than the One who made it? And who knows the pitfalls of the path better than the One who has walked it?
Our Shepherd majors in restoring hope to the soul. Whether you are a lamb lost on a craggy ledge or a city slicker alone in a deep jungle, everything changes when your rescuer appears. Your loneliness diminishes because you have fellowship. Your despair decreases because you have vision. Your confusion begins to lift because you have direction.
Now, you still haven’t left the jungle. It hasn’t changed, but you have. You have changed because your hope has been restored. And you have hope because you have met someone who can lead you out. Your good Shepherd knows that you were not made for this place, so he has come to guide you out. He is the perfect one to do so. He has the right vision, and he urges you to lift your eyes from the jungle around you and to see the heaven above you.
Can you imagine, just for a moment, how it feels to be out of hope? If you can, you can relate to many people in this world. For many people life is a jungle. Our jungles are composed of thickets of contagious diseases and broken hearts and empty wallets. Our forests are framed with hospital walls and divorce courts.
What would it take to restore your hope? Three answers come quickly to mind. The first would be a person who knows the way out – someone you can trust. And from him you need some vision – someone to lift your spirits. Perhaps most important, you need direction. If you have someone who can take you from this place to the right place, now you’ve found someone who can restore your hope. Jesus offers to do this for you. Or, to use the words of King David: “He restores my soul” (Psalm 23:3).
The Scripture says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV).
When God found me, I was a fruitless stump with deep roots. Even so, he found a place for me. It required a good yank and no small amount of cleaning up, but he took me from badlands to his home, and he displayed me as a work of his own. Such is the work of the Holy Spirit.
My friend, the Spirit of God will transform you into a handiwork of heaven and display you in full view. Now, expect to be scrubbed, sanded, and varnished a time or two or ten. But in the end, the result will be worth the discomfort.
God knows the way forward. No matter what kind of disappointment or grief or trouble or heartache you’ve encountered, God offers an opportunity to begin again. In his plan prodigals get a new robe, the weary find new strength, and the lonely find a friend.
Your current circumstances will not get the final say in your life. To all the Noahs of the world, to all who search the horizon for a glimpse of hope, God proclaims, “Yes!” He comes as a dove. He comes bearing fruit from a distant land, from our future home. He comes with a leaf of promise that he can make all things new. By God’s grace you can find your way to dry land. You can step out on fresh soil. With God as your guide, you can begin again.
Water. All Noah can see is water. You can relate. You’ve known your share of floods. Flooded by sorrow at the cemetery, anger at the disability in your body, fear of the uncertainty of a pandemic. And you’ve needed what Noah needed; you’ve needed hope.
Sometimes all we need is a little hope. That’s all Noah needed, and that’s what Noah received. This is how the Bible describes the moment: “When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf!” (Genesis 8:11).
Hope is an olive leaf—evidence of dry land after a flood. Could you use some hope? Could you use a fresh start? At some point in life we all could. And the oh-so-welcome news of Scripture is this: our God is a God of fresh starts.
The sign said “Found: Potbellied Pig.” Did I just read what I think I read? I’d never seen such an announcement. Similar ones, sure. But “Found: Pot Bellied Pig”? Who loses a pig? The sign presupposes a curious moment. Someone spots the pig lumbering down the sidewalk. “Poor thing. Climb in little piggy. The street is no place for you. I’ll take you home.” Me, I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t claim one. But God would. And God did. God did when he claimed us.
We assume God cares for the purebreds of the world, the tidy-living. But what about the rest of us? Do we warrant his oversight? Psalm 91 offers a rousing yes. “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. The Lord says, ‘I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name!'” Even we, Potbellied Pigs.
Some of us have postgraduate degrees from the University of Anxiety. We go to sleep worried that we won’t wake up. We wake up worried that we didn’t sleep. We worry that someone will discover that lettuce was fattening all along. Wouldn’t you love to stop worrying?
Could you use a strong shelter from life’s harsh elements? God offers you just that: the possibility of a worry-free life. Not just less worry, but no worry. Philippians 4:7 says, “His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Worry is an option, not an assignment. Be quick to pray. Rather than worry about anything, Scripture says, “pray about everything.” Focus less on the problems ahead and more on the victories behind. In everything let your requests be made known to God. Do your part, and God will for sure do his.
The sky is dark. Sudden waves of water tilt up our sailing vessel until we see nothing but sky and then downward until we see nothing but blue. I learned this about sailing: there is nothing swell about a swell! Eyes turned first to the thunderclouds, then to the captain. We looked to him. He was deliberate and decisive. He told some of us where to sit, others what to do, all of us to hang on. And we did what he said. Why? Because he knew best.
Such winds test our trust in our Captain. Does God know what he’s doing? Why did he allow the storm? The conditions sometime worsen, his instructions perplex. How do you respond? Can you say about God what I said about our captain? “I know God knows what’s best. I know I don’t. I know he cares.” Do you trust him?
Why anyone would pester Hannah Lake is beyond me. If her sweet face doesn’t de-starch your shirt, her angelic voice will. But a grade school bully tried to stir some trouble. Intimidation. Pressure. But Hannah did not fold. And in the end, it was her faith that pulled her through. The older student warned Hannah, “Any day now I’m coming after you.” Hannah didn’t flinch or cry; she simply informed the perpetrator about the facts. “Do whatever you need to do,” she said. “Just know this: God is on my side.” Last word has it that no more threats have been made!
Elementary school bullies don’t await you, but job transfers and fair-weather friends do. Challenges pockmark the pathway of your life. Where do you find energy to face them? You know, God never promises the absence of distress. But he does promise the assuring presence of his Holy Spirit.
We used to have a backyard trampoline. One afternoon all three of our girls were bouncing on it. Like all siblings, they don’t always get along. But for some reason, that afternoon they were one another’s biggest fans. When one jumped, the other two applauded. My chest swelled with pride. After a few moments, you know what I did? I joined them. I couldn’t resist. Their alliance pleased me.
Our alliance pleases Christ. Jesus promised, “When two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there” (Matthew 18:20). Do you desire power of Jesus in your life? Paul said in Romans 12:18 that it will come as you “do your part to live in peace with everyone, as much as possible.” Work through your conflicts. Forgive offenses. Resolve disputes. Scripture says, “Always keep yourselves united in the Holy Spirit, bind yourselves together with peace” (Ephesians 4:3).
God’s using your struggle to toughen you up. It’s like viewing a movie after you’ve read the book. When something bad happens, everyone else gasps at the crisis on the screen. But not you. Why? You’ve read the book. You know how the good guy gets out of the tight spot.
God views your life with the same confidence. He’s not only read your story, he wrote it. His perspective is different, and his purpose is clear. One of God’s cures for weak faith? A good, healthy struggle. “Consider it a gift when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. Under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.” Scripture says, “Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way” (James 1:2-4 MSG). Join with Isaiah who resolved, “I will trust in him and not be afraid!” (Isaiah 12:2 NLT).
It’s been a long time, but there was a time when my daughters celebrated my daily arrival. Jenna was five at the time, Andrea three. Denalyn would alert them, and they’d scamper to the window, pressing noses and hands against the tall pane that paralleled the front door. As I pulled in, I would see them. Jenna, a head taller than her sister Andrea, squeezed into the frame. Seeing me, they’d squeal. My, how they jumped and clapped. You’d think someone had switched their M&M’s for coffee beans. No returning Caesar ever felt more welcomed. Their father was home!
You know, it’s been too long since I searched for God that way. Let’s do better! Colossians 3:2 (TLB) says, “Let heaven fill your thoughts!” Every day carries us closer to the day our Father will come. Let’s keep a look out for him.
You’ve been claimed. Adopted. God’s very own child! Romans 8:29: “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters.”
Abandon you to a fatherless world? No way. Before you knew you needed adopting, he’d already filed the papers and selected the wallpaper for your room. Those who have access to God’s family Bible can read your name. He wrote it there. He covered the adoption fees. We don’t finance our adoption, but we do accept it. And the moment we accept his offer, we go from orphans to heirs!
Romans 8:17 says we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. No stepchildren or grandchildren. You and Christ share the same will. What he inherits, you inherit. You are headed home!
Dread of death ends when you know heaven is your true home!
In all my air travels I’ve never seen one passenger weep when the plane landed. Never. No one clings to the armrests and begs, “Don’t make me leave. Let me stay and eat more peanuts!” We’re willing to exit the plane because the plane has no permanent mailing address.
Nor does this world. Philippians 3:20 (NLT) says, “We are citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.” Why don’t you do this? Why don’t you give God your death? Imagine your last moment. Envision your final breath. Offer it to God. Deliberately, regularly. “Lord, I receive your work on the cross and in your resurrection. I entrust you with my departure from earth.” With Christ as your friend and heaven as your home, the day of death becomes sweeter than the day of birth.
Is the dread of death robbing you your joy of life? It can.
At the age of 37, Florence told her friends her life hung by a thread, and so she went to bed. And she stayed there—for 53 years! She did die, at the age of ninety. Except for three years, Florence cowered before the giant of death. During those years she made a name for herself, not as one who suffered, but as a friend of those who did. History’s most famous nurse, Florence Nightingale lived, as a slave of death.
What about you? Jesus came to deliver those who’ve lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. Death sits in his jurisdiction. Psalm 139:16 (NLT) says, “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment laid out before a single day had passed.”
No one told me newborns make nighttime noises. All night long. They gurgle; they pant. They keep Daddy awake. One night I was on baby duty and Jenna’s breathing slowed. I leaned my ear onto her mouth to see if she was alive. When she burbled and panted, so did I. That’s when a tsunami of sobriety washed over me. We’re in charge of a human being!
I don’t care how tough you are. You may be a Navy SEAL who skydives behind enemy lines. Doesn’t matter. Moms have thirty-six weeks of reminders elbowing around inside them. Dads, our kick comes in the gut later. But it does come. And for me it came some years ago, in the midnight quiet of an apartment living room, as I held a human being in my arms.
One of my favorite childhood memories is greeting my father as he came home from work. My brother and I would take our positions on the couch and watch cartoons, always keeping one ear alert to the driveway. Even the best “Daffy Duck” would be abandoned when we heard his car.
I’d run to meet Dad and get swept up in his big arms. He’d put his big-brimmed straw hat on my head, and for a moment I’d be a cowboy. When we went indoors and opened his lunch pail, any leftover snacks—which he always seemed to have—were for my brother and me to split. What more could a five-year-old want?
But suppose my dad, rather than coming home, just sent some things home. No deal. That wouldn’t work. Even a five-year-old knows it’s the person, not the presents. It’s not the frills; it’s the father!
Each year God gives millions of parents a gift – a brand new baby. And dads make a decision. Make our children in our images? Or release our children to follow their God-given identities?
As dads, we accelerate or stifle, release or repress our children’s giftedness. They will spend much of life benefitting or recovering from our influence. But remember, our kids were God’s kids first. We tend to forget this fact, regarding our children as “our children,” as though we have the final say in their health and future. But we don’t. Wise are the parents who regularly give their children back to God. In the right time and the right way, God will give your child back to you.
In Mark 5:23 we meet Jairus: a leader of the synagogue, one of the most important men in the community. But the man in this story is an humble man, who says again and again, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” He doesn’t barter with Jesus. He doesn’t negotiate. He doesn’t make excuses. He just pleads.
There are times when everything you have to offer is nothing compared to what you’re asking to receive. What could a man offer in exchange for his child’s life? So there are no games, no haggling. So Jairus asks for help. And Jesus, who loves the honest heart, goes to give it. And God, who knows what it’s like to lose a child, empowers his Son.
My daughters are too old for this now, but when they were young—crib-size and diaper-laden—I’d come home, shout their names, and watch them run to me with extended arms and squealing voices. And for the next few moments we would speak the language of love. We’d roll on the floor, gobble bellies, and tickle tummies and laugh and play. We delighted in each other’s presence.
In this very special dad time my kids let me love them! Psalm 127:3 through 5 reminds us that “Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from Him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.”
I’m a blessed man!
On my list of things I wish I’d learned earlier, this truth hovers near the top. Grace came my way packaged in a church. Congregations and their leaders changed me. But then churches struggled, even divided. Mature men acted less than that. The box ripped, the faucet clogged, and my heart, for a time sank.
Not a moment too soon, I heard the invitation of the still-running fountain. “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” God describes himself as “the fountain of living water.” Thank him for the faucets, but don’t trust them to nourish you. Thank him for the boxes in which his gifts come, but don’t fail to open them. And most of all, do not fail to read the note: Dear child of mine. Are you thirsty? Come and drink. I delight in you, and I will never fail you or forsake you!
When the doctor who’d examined the tremor in my hand said, “You’re fine. You’re in good health,” I did what you might expect – I began to weep. “How much time do I have left?” The doctor cocked his head, puzzled. Wait a second! you’re thinking. Didn’t you hear what the doctor told you? And I’m wondering, didn’t you hear what heaven told you?
That response to the doctor? I made it up. I was elated. And now when I see my thumb shake, I chalk it up to an aging body and I just place my trust in the doctor’s words. Do the same won’t you? For just as my thumb will occasionally tremble, you will occasionally sin. And when you do, remember sin may touch you, but it cannot claim you. Christ is in you! Trust his work for you. Trust his work in you. Your heart is his home, and he is your master.
Dry mouth. Moist palms. Pulse pounding. Eyes darting over your shoulder. Heart in your throat. You know the feeling. You know the moment. You know exactly what it’s like. Policeman have stirred more prayers than a thousand pulpits! Upward prayers become backward thoughts. What did I do? How fast was I going? The policeman is standing at your door. No one likes the thought of judgment.
1 John 4:18 (NLT) says, “Perfect love expels all fear.” You need never fear God’s judgment. Not today. Not on Judgment Day. With perfect knowledge of the past and perfect vision of the future, God loves you—perfectly—in spite of both. Jesus is speaking on your behalf. “That’s my friend,” he says. And when he does, the door of heaven opens. Trust God’s love. His perfect love. It can handle your fear of judgment. And slower driving can handle your fear of policemen.
Don’t deny your anger. Don’t dismiss your loneliness. Your restless spirit. Your sense of dread. Don’t let your heart shrink into a raisin. Hydrate your soul. Heed that thirst!
Not everything you put to your lips will help your thirst. The arms of forbidden love may satisfy for a time, but only for a time. Eighty-hour workweeks grant a sense of fulfillment, but they never remove the thirst. Religion pacifies, but never satisfies. Church activities may hide a thirst, but only Christ quenches it. Drink him. And drink him often!
Don’t you need regular sips from God’s reservoir? I do. I step to the underground spring of God and receive anew his work for my sin and death, the energy of his Spirit, his Lordship, and his love. His unending, unfailing love. Drink deeply, and drink often.
Your body is 80% fluid. Stop drinking and see what happens. Coherent thoughts vanish, skin grows clammy, and vital organs wrinkle. Deprive your heart of spiritual water and your dehydrated heart will send desperate messages – hopelessness, loneliness, resentment.
Where do you find water for your soul? Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38 NKJV).
Let Christ be the water of your soul. Church activities might hide a thirst, but only Christ quenches it. Drink him. Receive Christ’s work on the cross. The energy of His Spirit. His Lordship over your life. His unending, unfailing love. Drink deeply and often. And out of you will flow rivers of living water.
Unceasing prayer may sound complicated, but it needn’t be that way – just change your definition of prayer. Think of prayer less as an activity for God and more as an awareness of God. Seek to live in uninterrupted awareness. Acknowledge his presence everywhere you go. As you stand in line to register your car, think, Thank you, Lord, for being here. In the grocery store as you shop, think, Your presence, my King, I welcome.
People struggle with life when they don’t have answers. The darkest valleys are blackened by the shadow of question marks. So what do you do? Think harder? Try harder? Have longer conversations with yourself? Ephesians 6:18 (MSG) says, “Pray hard and long.” Why not pray to the One with all the answers and let him take over?
Worry happens when we keep our problems to ourselves or present our problems to the puny deities of money, muscle, or humankind. The act of prayer moves us from a spirit of concern to a spirit of gratitude. Even before our prayers are answered, our hearts begin to change. So take these steps:
- First, take your worries to God. Set aside some time each day to pour out your concerns, complaints, fears and woes to him. Don’t suppress; express! Take everything to God and then…leave it with him.
- Find a promise to match your problem. Spend time in the promises and stories of Scripture. Find a promise that fits your problem, and build your prayers around it.
- Pray specifically. Generic prayers aren’t nearly as effective as heartfelt prayers that target particular needs.
Peace happens when we pray.
The prophet Daniel discovered how seriously God takes our prayers. Daniel was troubled. He resolved to pray. After three weeks, Daniel saw a man with a belt of gold around his waist. His face was like lightning, his eyes on fire. Daniel was so stunned he fell to the ground. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven…” (Daniel 10:12 NLT).
The moment Daniel began praying, the answer was issued. Demonic forces blocked the pathway of the angel, and the impasse lasted a full three weeks. Have you prayed and heard nothing? If so, I beg you, don’t give up. You have been heard in heaven. Angelic armies have been dispatched. Just keep praying. Heaven has helpers for you.
Paradise is not promised until Jesus returns. Peace, joy, and absence of pain are promises of the future, not of the present. Sin is still epidemic, but the cure is coming.
Christ predicted bad news. He told us things are going to get bad before they get better. And when conditions worsen, “See to it that you are not alarmed” (Matthew 24:6 NIV). The only time we should get scared is when something surprises God. If something takes God by surprise, we are doomed. But since God knows all things, we are comforted.
The same God who has the power of omniscience (knowing everything) also has the power of omnipresence (being multipresent) and omnipotence (having all power). That trinitarian trifecta is unstoppable. All problems are too small in the shadow of God.
“Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; let such as love Your salvation say continually, ‘The Lord be magnified!’” (Psalm 40:16 NKJV).
The grateful heart is like a magnet sweeping over the day, collecting reasons for gratitude. For the jam on our toast and the milk on our cereal. For the joke that delights us and the warm sun that reminds us of God’s love. For the men who didn’t cheat on their wives. For the wives who didn’t turn from their men. For the kids who, in spite of unspeakable pressure to dishonor their parents, decided not to do so. Thank You Lord.
To reflect on your blessings is to rehearse God’s accomplishments. To rehearse God’s accomplishments is to discover his heart. To discover his heart is to discover not just good gifts but the good Giver.
I was flying home when a snowstorm delayed my arrival in Dallas. I raced to catch the final flight of the night for San Antonio. I asked the attendant, “Are any seats left?” She looked at her computer screen. “No. I’m afraid we are going to have to bump you up to first class. Do you mind if we do that?” Color me thankful.
Not every passenger was appreciative. A fellow across the aisle was angry. “I paid extra to fly first class. I want another pillow!” On the other side of the aisle, yours truly smiled. One passenger grumbled; the other was grateful. The difference? The crank paid his way into first class. My seat was a gift.
Thankful people focus less on the pillows they lack and more on the privileges they have. On which side of the aisle do you find yourself?
“I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Timothy 1:12 NKJV).
God does not need our help, counsel, or assistance. (Please repeat this phrase: “I hereby resign as ruler of the universe”). And when he is ready for us to reengage, he will let us know. Until then, replace anxious thoughts with grateful ones.
God takes thanksgiving seriously. Here’s why: gratitude keeps us focused on the present. Worry takes a meat cleaver to our thoughts, energy, and focus. Anxiety chops up our attention. Anxiety takes our attention from the right now and directs it “back then” or “out there.” But when you aren’t focused on your problem, you have a sudden availability of brain space. Use it for good.
God provides so many ways for us to grow in gratitude. Unfortunately, our attempts often follow this pattern: Find something negative in everything you see. Make a list of all the critical and unhappy thoughts that come into your mind. Notice how you feel when you are finished, and write those feelings down. Not much fun. A steady diet of critical, negative, ungrateful thoughts leaves us critical, negative, and ungrateful.
Now try the opposite approach: Find something positive in everything you see. Make a list of all the kind, generous, and grateful thoughts that come into your mind. And notice the difference.
What if this exercise became a way of life? Nobody other than you has the power to make you miserable and unhappy. This simple exercise will place your mind in a healthy posture of gratitude.
My friend Jerry has taught me the value of gratitude. His dear wife, Ginger, battles Parkinson’s disease. What should have been a wonderful season of retirement has been marred by multiple hospital stays, medication, and struggles. Yet Jerry never complains. I asked Jerry his secret. He said, “Every morning Ginger and I sit together and sing a hymn. I ask her what she wants to sing. She always says, ‘Count Your Many Blessings.’ So we sing it.”
Look at your blessings. Do you see any? Do you see any friends? Family? Grace from God? The love of God? Any abilities or talents? As you look at your blessings, take note of what happens. Anxiety grabs his bags and slips out the door. Worry refuses to share the heart with gratitude. Focus more on what you do have and less on what you don’t.
Declare with David: “[I will] daily add praise to praise. I’ll write the book on your righteousness, talk up your salvation the livelong day, never run out of good things to write or say” (Psalm 71:14-15 MSG).
Gratitude is a mindful awareness of the benefits of life. Studies have linked the emotion with a variety of positive effects. Grateful people tend to be more empathetic and forgiving of others. People who keep a gratitude journal are more likely to have a positive outlook on life. Gratitude improves self-esteem and enhances relationships, quality of sleep, and longevity. If it came in a pill form, gratitude would be deemed “the miracle cure.” It’s no wonder, then, that God’s anxiety therapy includes a large, delightful dollop of gratitude.
Jesus is a doorman. He opens and shuts doors all the time, and no one can close what he has opened, and no one can open what he has closed. But better than being a doorman, Jesus is the door! In John 10:9 (NCV), he said, “I am the door, and the person who enters through me will be saved…” He controls all gateways and passages from one place to another.
Jesus doesn’t leave us standing in the hallway or outside in the cold. He has something for us—new opportunities, new destinations, new chances to show our faith in him. Right now Jesus is sorting through that vast key ring, looking for the right door for you. He may have to lock and unlock a few other doors first, but one is sure to open soon. Trust him.
In the days leading up to the war with Germany, the British government commissioned a series of encouraging posters. The first poster was distributed in September of 1939: Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory.
Soon a second poster was produced: Freedom is in peril. Defend it with all your might.
A third poster was never released to the public, but was held in reserve for an extreme crisis, such as an invasion by Germany. It was never seen until nearly sixty years later. It read: Keep calm and carry on.
God’s sovereignty doesn’t negate our responsibility. It empowers it. Trust God to do what you can’t. Obey God, and do what you can. Just…keep calm and carry on.
If your peace is contingent upon circumstances, you open the door to anxiety and fear. Peace 101 says that God is greater than your challenges, and you can choose to catch calm rather than worry. Your peace does not depend upon people, which is good because they are fickle. Your peace does not depend upon the government, which is good because rulers come and go. Your peace does not even depend upon a peaceful home, which is good because kids misbehave. Peace—long-lasting peace—depends only upon God.
With Jesus Christ living within you by the power of his Holy Spirit, you can take control of your thoughts before they take control of you. Remember, “the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world” (1 John 4:4 NLT). Relax. Anxiety is needless when God is near.
Time for rest must be taken on a daily and a weekly basis. God told Moses, “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work…” (Exodus 23:12 NIV). This was not a suggestion; this was a command. Rest! The Israelite who violated this law paid for the sin with his or her life. Today the death penalty is still in effect, but the death is a gradual one that comes from overwork, stress, and anxiety. Never has rest been more important. We move at too fast a pace.
To relax is to disengage and let go. An hour or day long Sabbath is not the time to catch up with your work. It is a time to entrust your work to God. After all, he worked for six days and then rested, and the world didn’t fall apart. It won’t for you either.
We can calmly take our concerns to God because he is as near as our next breath. This is the reassuring lesson from the miracle of the bread and fish. Jesus told his disciples to do the impossible: feed five thousand men, plus women and children. The disciples responded, “Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food” (Matthew 14:15 NKJV).
Now you’re not facing five thousand hungry bellies, but you are facing a deadline, a loved one in need of a cure, a spouse entwined in temptation. And typically, you’d get anxious. But this time, instead of starting with what you have, start with Jesus. Start with his wealth, his resources, his strength. And before you open the ledger, open your heart. Before you lash out in fear, look up in faith. Turn to your heavenly father for help.
With change comes fear, insecurity, sorrow, and stress. Change finds you. It found the apostle Peter. He and his pals were sailing on calm waters when all of a sudden a storm hit. When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water, he decided to step out in faith on the water. It is possible to walk right over the storms of change – Peter proved it!
Unfortunately, one other thing changed Peter’s mind. “… when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” (Matthew 14:30 NIV). When Peter saw Christ, he was strong. When he saw the storm, he was not. One thing to remember: as Peter sank, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” He knew where to find help, and Jesus reached out his hand to catch Peter. Jesus is always there to pull us to safety.
If only we could order life the way we order gourmet coffee. “Give me a tall, extra-hot cup of adventure, cut the dangers, with two shots of good health.” Truth is, life often hands us a concoction entirely different from the one we requested. None of us pass through this life surprise free. So, embrace it. Accept it.
Change is not only a part of life; change is a necessary part of God’s strategy. To use us to change the world, he alters our assignments. God transitioned Joseph from a baby brother to an Egyptian prince. Over time, we discover that the thing we thought we wanted is far less satisfying than what God has prepared for us.
The widest river in the world is a body of water called If Only. Are you standing on its shore? Does it seem the good life is always one if only away?
According to the apostle Paul, the good life begins, not when circumstances change, but when our attitude toward them does. “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). Paul embedded two essential words that deserve special attention: with thanksgiving. Sprinkled among the phrases Help me…, Please give me…, If only… should be two wonderful words: Thank you.
Confession is not complaining. If I merely recite my problems, I’m not confessing. Confession is not blaming. Pointing fingers at others without pointing any at myself does nothing to remove the conflict within me. Confession is coming clean with God.
King David did. As if the affair with Bathsheba wasn’t enough. As if the murder of her husband wasn’t enough. Somehow David denied his wrongdoing for at least nine months until the child was born. It took a prophet to bring the truth to the surface, but when he did, David did not like what he saw. And he waved the white flag. David said, “I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, ‘I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.’ And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone” (Psalm 32:5 NLT).
When Joseph faced his brothers twenty years after they had betrayed him, he made an incredible proclamation. “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result” (Genesis 50:20 NASB). The Hebrew word translated here as bring about is a construction term. God is the Master Builder. He redeemed the story of Joseph. But we wonder if he will redeem our story as well?
Yes! Deliverance won’t be painless. It may not be quick. But God will use your mess for good. You are a version of Joseph in your generation. You carry something of God within you, something noble, something holy, something the world needs. That is what God is building in you. But it will take time. That’s just how these construction projects develop.
“That evening [Adam and Eve] heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden” (Genesis 3:8 TLB). What had happened to the first family? The first couple said yes to the serpent’s temptation and no to God. And when they did, their world collapsed like an accordion.
The only antidote to guilt is the power of God’s grace. I could take you to the church where this grace found me. I was a twenty-year-old college sophomore. For four years I had lived with the concrete block of guilt, not just from the first night of drunkenness but also a hundred more like it. But mercy snapped the chains of guilt and set me free. I know this truth firsthand: guilt frenzies the soul; grace calms it.
Denalyn and I enjoyed a nice dinner at a local restaurant one night. About the same time we received our bill, we received a visit from a church member. After we chatted for a moment, he reached down and took our bill and said, “I’ll take this.” Guess what I did? I just let him take it away.
Someday we will all stand before God. All of us will have to give an account for our lives. And were it not for the grace of Christ, I would find this to be a terrifying thought. Yet, according to Scripture, Jesus came to “take away the sins of the world” (John 1:29 Phillips). On the day when I appear before the judgment seat of God, when my list of sins is produced, I will gesture toward Christ and say, “He took it.” Let him take yours.
Hard as it may be, it’s time to shine a light on that one weakness, that one bad habit, that one rotten attitude where Satan has a stronghold within you. And it begins by naming it. Try these steps:
Lay claim to the nearness of God. “…Never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5 NIV)
Cling to his character. The qualities of God—like his faithfulness, love, mercy, goodness—are promises you can rely on in the midst of the change you desire in your life.
Confess your sins. The Scripture says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 NIV)
And lastly, walk as a new creation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)
Frightening thing, pride. Doesn’t it sneak up on us? We begin spiritual journeys as small people. The act of conversion is a humbling one. We confess sins, beg for mercy, bend our knees. We come to God humbly. No swagger, no boasts.
And God works. He works the miracle of salvation. He immerses us in mercy. He stitches together our shredded souls. He deposits his Spirit in our hearts and implants heavenly gifts. Our big God blesses our small faith. Gradually our big God changes us, and people notice the difference. They applaud. They admire us. And kudos become ladder rungs, and we begin to elevate ourselves, and we forget. We forget who brought us here.
Take time to remember. “Look at what you were when God called you” (1 Corinthians 1:26 NCV). Remember who held you in the beginning. And remember who holds you today.
Stephen was one of the seven men tasked to care for the Gentile widows. His ministry, however, provoked antagonism. A sect of jealous enemies falsely accused him of blasphemy. They marched him to the council of the Sanhedrin and demanded that he defend himself. And did he ever! He caused a stir before he even opened his mouth. “Everyone in the high council stared at Stephen, because his face became as bright as an angel’s” (Acts 6:15 NLT).
Did heaven bathe him in a tunnel of brightness? I don’t know. I don’t know how to imagine the scene, but I know how to interpret it. This was God speaking. The sermon emerges, not from Stephen’s mind, but from God’s heart. This was not a lightweight message. Fifty-two verses led the listeners from Abraham to Jesus. Two thousand years of history resulted in this one indictment: “You’re forgetting who holds you.”
In the game of life, many of us who cross home plate do so because we were born on third base. Others aren’t even on a team. Now some people are poor because they are lazy, and they need to get off their duffs. Others, however, are poor because they were born in the wrong place. A latitude largely vacant of libraries, vaccinations, clean water, and paved roads.
The ultimate solution to poverty is found in the compassion of God’s people. Scripture endorses not forced communism, but Spirit-led volunteerism among God’s people. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. What about you? Why not teach an inner-city Bible study? Use your vacation to build houses in hurricane-ravaged towns? Run for public office? Get out of your comfort zone, for Christ’s sake.
Hypocrisy turns people against God, so God has a no-tolerance policy. Let’s take hypocrisy as seriously as God does. Expect no credit for good deeds. Give financial gifts in secret. Don’t fake spirituality. When you go to church, don’t select a seat just to be seen or sing just to be heard. And if you raise your hands in worship, raise holy ones, not showy ones.
Bottom line: don’t make a theater production out of your faith. Slay the desire to be noticed. Stir the desire to serve God. Heed the counsel of Christ: “First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too” (Matthew 23:26 NLT). Do good things. Just don’t do them to be noticed. You can be too good for your own good, you know.
When Jesus saw the religious hypocrite, he exposed every self-righteous mole and pimple. “All their works they do to be seen by men” (Matthew 23:5 NKJV). This is the working definition of hypocrisy: “to be seen by men.”
We must do good works. And some works, such as benevolence or teaching, must be seen in order to have an impact. To do a good thing is a good thing. To do a good thing to be seen, however, is a serious offense. Here’s why: hypocrisy turns people away from God.
When people enter a church to see God yet can’t see God because of the church, don’t think for a second that God does not react. “Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding” (Matthew 6:1 MSG).
I’m reading from Acts 4:13 (NKJV). “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”
What set Peter and John apart was the fact that they had been with Jesus. Could you use some high-octane boldness? Could you use some courage? Are you being criticized, mocked, persecuted? If so, imitate the disciples. Linger long and often in the presence of Christ. Meditate on his grace. Ponder his love. Memorize his words. Gaze into his face. Talk to him. Courage comes as we live with Jesus.
Bzuneh Tulema lives in Ethiopia. Just a few years ago he and his wife were so consumed with alcohol that they farmed out their kids to neighbors and resigned themselves to a drunken demise. But then someone saw them. A member of an area church shared Jesus with them. Then Meskerem Trango, a World Vision worker, arranged a loan through the World Vision microfinance department. Within a year Bzuneh had repaid the loan, built his house, and reclaimed his kids.
Could this be God’s strategy for human hurt? Kind eyes meet desperate ones, strong hands help weak ones, then the miracle of God. We do our small part, he does the big part, and life begins again.
He sat near a gate called Beautiful. The man, however, was anything but. He couldn’t walk but had to drag himself about on his knees. “Peter and John looked straight at him and said, ‘Look at us!’” (Acts 3:4 NCV). The thick, meaty hand of the fisherman reached for the frail, thin one of the beggar. Peter lifted the man toward himself. The cripple stood and began to shout, and passersby began to stop. Peter explained that faith in Christ leads to a clean slate with God.
What Jesus did for the legs of the cripple, he does for our souls. Brand new! An honest look led to a helping hand that led to a conversation about eternity. Works done in God’s name long outlive our earthly lives. Let’s be the people who stop at the gate. Let’s look at the face until we see the person.
“Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay” (1 Peter 4:9 NLT).
The Greek word for hospitality compounds two terms: love and stranger. The word literally means to love a stranger. All of us can welcome a guest we know and love, but can we welcome a stranger? Every morning in America more than 39 million people wake up in poverty. When we provide food stamps, we stave off hunger. But when we invite the hungry to our tables, we address the deeper issues of value and self-worth. God’s secret weapons in the war on poverty include your kitchen table and mine.
We encounter people. We detect an urge to open our doors to them. In these moments let’s heed the inner voice. We never know whom we may be hosting for dinner.
Hospitality and hospital come from the same Latin word, for they both lead to the same result: healing. When you open your door to someone, you’re sending this message: “You matter to me and to God.” Do you know people who need this message? Your hospitality can be their hospital. All you need are a few basic practices.
Issue a genuine invitation. Let your guests know you want them to come. Make a big deal of their arrival. One of God’s children is coming to your house! Address the needs of your guests. Modern-day hospitality includes the sharing of food and drink and time to talk and listen. Send them out with a blessing. Make it clear you are glad your guests came. Offer a prayer for their safety and a word of encouragement for their travel.
Open your table. Even more, open your circle.
Our society is set up for isolation. We communicate via e-mail and text messages. Our mantra: “I leave you alone. You leave me alone.” Yet God wants his people to be an exception—people of hospitality. “Every day in the Temple and in people’s homes they continued teaching the people and telling the Good News—that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 5:42 NCV).
Even a casual reading of the New Testament unveils the house as the primary tool of the church. The first generation of Christians was a tinderbox of contrasting cultures and backgrounds, united through the clearest of messages (the Cross) and the simplest of tools (the home). So do you have a front door? Do you have bread and meat for sandwiches? You just qualified to serve in the most ancient of ministries: hospitality.
What if the missing ingredient for changing the world is teamwork? “When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action” (Matthew 18:19 MSG). This is an astounding promise. The Jerusalem church found a way to work together. They found common ground in the death, the burial, and resurrection of Christ. Because they did, lives were changed.
And as you and I do, the same will happen. The congregation is a microcosm of God’s plan. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. And when we do, “God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them” (Acts 4:33–34 NLT). You see, those who suffer belong to all of us. And if all of us respond, there is hope.
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Millions of mighty spiritual beings walk on earth around us. When John, the apostle, caught a glimpse of heaven, he saw “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” of angels (Revelation 5:11). Can you do the math on that statement? Nor can I. Angels are to heaven what stars are to the night sky: too many to count!
And what is their task? “All the angels are spirits who serve God and are sent to help those who will receive salvation” (Hebrews 1:14 NCV). There is never an airplane on which you travel or a classroom into which you enter that you are not preceded and surrounded by God’s mighty servants.
The message of the angelic armies could not be clearer: when we are at our lowest, God is watching over us from the highest. God never gives up on you.
In one fell swoop Jacob had tricked his brother and aging father. His mother Rebekah told him to hightail it to the land of her brother Laban and to stay there while Esau cooled down. And Jacob did exactly that. On the evening of the second day, he stopped for the night. Jacob’s lack of repentance is what makes the next scene one of the great stories of grace in the Bible.
Jacob dozed, and in a dream he saw “A ladder resting on the earth and reaching up into heaven, and…angels of God going up and coming down the ladder. Then Jacob saw the Lord standing above the ladder” (Genesis 28:12-13 NCV). When Jacob awoke, he realized that he was not alone. He was surrounded by august citizens of heaven!
God came to Jacob, not because of Jacob’s actions, but in spite of them. The word for such kindness: grace.
God has promised to give us all that we need. All we need to do is wait on God. But his timing is out of sync with ours, so we cut corners. We cheat on exams, on taxes. We deceive with lies, exaggerations, and misstatements. We inflate facts, drop names, and work the system. A wrong shortcut, even one taken for the right reasons, always causes someone pain.
There are no shortcuts with God. He doesn’t need my help with his plans. What are you seeking? Needing? Wanting? God’s timing is always right. His plan is always best. His will never includes deception or manipulation. His strategy never destroys people or requires compromise. He never badgers, battles, belittles, or bruises people. And if you are doing so, then you are not in God’s will. Trust him…and wait. God never gives up on you.
Isaac was on his deathbed, at least he thought he was. The truth was, he was 135 years old and would live another 45 years. In Genesis 27:35 we read his words to Esau: “Your brother came in and tricked me. He has taken your blessing.”
A blessing was irreversible and irrevocable. Isaac could give Esau a secondary inheritance, but Jacob had already cashed the check. Verse 41 says, “Esau said in his heart, ‘…I will kill my brother.’”
Jacob skedaddled. Jacob purloined the blessing, but… his family was splintered, he was without a home, he had to run for his life, his twin wanted to kill him, he had betrayed his father’s trust, and he, as far as we know, never saw his mother again. All because he took a shortcut. He couldn’t wait on God to do what God had promised.
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The Old Testament patriarch Jacob exited the womb with a hand on his twin brother’s heel as if to say, “I want the top spot.” A triumph of irony, this was: Jacob beginning life the way he would live it, grasping for a better position. Jacob’s nickname was Deceiver, and deceive he did.
Prodigy? No. Prodigal? That word fits. Jacob never fed the pigs, but he did wrestle in the mud with, if not God, someone like God. Jacob pinned him down and begged for a blessing. And The blessing came, but at a cost. Jacob was given a new name: Israel. But Israel’s hip was out of joint.
Sound familiar? Jacob’s story is for you. Jacob’s story is for limpers like me. And you know, God never gives up on limpers.
God, our Shepherd, doesn’t check the weather; he makes it. He doesn’t defy gravity; he created it. Jesus said, “God is Spirit.” He has no limitations. Unchanging. Uncaused. Ungoverned. Don’t we need this kind of shepherd?
You don’t need to carry the burden of a lesser god—a god on a shelf, a god in a box, or a god in a bottle. No, you need a God who can place 100 billion stars in our galaxy and 100 billion galaxies in the universe. A God who can shape two fists of flesh into 75 to 100 billion nerve cells, each with as many as 10,000 connections to other nerve cells, place it in a skull, and call it a brain. And you have one. He is your Shepherd.
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Your body is 80% fluid. Stop drinking and see what happens. Coherent thoughts vanish, skin grows clammy, and vital organs wrinkle. Deprive your heart of spiritual water, and your dehydrated heart will send desperate messages. Hopelessness, loneliness, resentment. Where do you find water for your soul? Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).
Let Christ be the water of your soul. Church activities might hide a thirst, but only Christ quenches it. Drink him. Receive Christ’s work on the cross, the energy of his Spirit, his lordship over your life, his unending, unfailing love. Drink deeply and often. And out of you will flow rivers of living water.
The hero of heaven is God. Angels don’t worship mansions or glittering avenues. God is not the grand marshal of the parade; he is the parade. He’s not the main event; he’s the only event. His Broadway features a single stage and star: himself. He hosts the only production and invites every living soul to attend. At this very moment God issues invitations by the millions. He says, “Come, enjoy me forever.”
Yet many people have no desire to do so. He speaks; they cover their ears. He commands; they scoff. They don’t want him telling them how to live. They regard his son as a joke and the cross as utter folly. They spend their lives telling God to leave them alone.
Jesus offers the invitation in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Psalm 89:6 asks the question, “Who among the sons of the mighty is like the Lord?” And the answer is: any pursuit of God’s counterpart is vain.
No one and nothing compares to him. No one advises him, no one helps him. You and I may have power, but God is power. Unlike the potter who takes something and reshapes it, God took nothing and created something. God created everything that exists by divine fiat. John said in Revelation, “You, God, created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11).
Even God asks, “To whom will you compare me?” And, as if his question needed an answer, he gives one: “I am God—I alone. I am God. There is no one else like me” (Isaiah 46:9). We can only stand before him with humility and praise his glorious name. Bless you, Lord.
God has one goal: God. God says in Isaiah 48:11, “I have my reputation to keep up” (The Message). Surprised? Isn’t such an attitude self-centered self-promotion? Why does God broadcast himself? For the same reason the pilot of the lifeboat does.
Think of it this way: you’re floundering neck-deep in a dark, cold sea. Ship sinking, life jacket deflating, strength waning. Through the darkness comes the voice of a lifeboat pilot. But you cannot see him. What do you want the pilot to do? Be quiet? Say nothing? You need volume. Amp it up, buddy! In biblical language, you want him to show his glory. You need to hear him say, “I’m here, I’m strong, I have room for you!”
Don’t we want God to do the same? We’re going down fast, and only one message matters – his! We need to see God’s glory.
Have you ever gone to the grocery on an empty stomach? You’re a sitting duck when you do. You buy everything you don’t need. Doesn’t matter if it’s good for you—you just want to fill your tummy!
When you’re lonely, you do the same in life. Pulling stuff off the shelf, not because you need it, but because you’re hungry for love. Why do we do it? Because we fear facing life alone. For fear of not fitting in, we take the drugs. For fear of standing out, we wear the clothes. For fear of appearing small, we go into debt and buy the house. For fear of sleeping alone, we sleep with anyone. For fear of not being loved, we search for love in all the wrong places.
But all that changes when we discover God’s perfect love. 1 John 4:18 says, “Perfect love casts out fear.” You are not alone!
How did Jesus endure the terror of the crucifixion? He went first to the Father with his fears. He modeled the words of Psalm 56:3: “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”
Do the same with your fears. Enter them—just don’t enter them alone. And while there, be honest. Pounding the ground is permitted. Tears are allowed.“Take this cup” Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Give God your fears. Give God the number of the flight. Share the details of the job transfer. He has plenty of time. He also has plenty of compassion. He won’t tell you to “buck up” or “get tough.” He knows how you feel.
That’s why we punctuate our prayers as Jesus did: “Father, if you’re willing….” Was God willing? Yes and no. He didn’t take away the cross from Christ, but he took the fear. Who’s to say he won’t do the same for you?
God loves humility. Could that be the reason he offers so many tips on cultivating it? May I (ahem) humbly articulate a few? Do you want to be humble? Assess yourself honestly. Don’t take success too seriously. Celebrate the significance of others. Don’t demand your own parking place. Never announce your success before it occurs. Speak humbly. And one last thought: live at the foot of the cross.
Paul said in Galatians 6:14, “The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is my only reason for bragging.” Do you feel a need for affirmation? Does your self-esteem need attention? You don’t need to drop names or show off. You need only pause at the base of the cross and be reminded of this: the maker of the stars would rather die for you than live without you. And that’s a fact. So if you need to brag, brag about that!
Proverbs 16:18 reminds us as humility goes before honor, “pride goes before a fall.” Ever wonder why churches are powerful in one generation but empty the next? The Bible says the Lord will tear down the house of the proud (Proverbs 12:5). God hates arrogance. He hates it because we haven’t done anything to be arrogant about. Is there a Pulitzer for ink? Can you imagine a scalpel growing smug after a successful heart transplant? Of course not. They are only tools. So are we. We may be the canvas, the paper, or the scalpel, but we are not the one who deserves the applause.
David declares who does in the twenty-third Psalm. “He makes me, he leads me, he restores my soul…for his name’s sake.” For his name’s sake! No other name. This is all done for God’s glory. He takes the credit, not because he needs it, but because he knows we cannot handle it.
Carry a load of guilt? So many do. If our spiritual baggage were visible, you know what you’d see? Suitcases of guilt, bulging with binges, blowups, and compromises. The kid with the baggy jeans and the nose ring? He’d give anything to retract the words he said to his mother, but he can’t. So he tows them along. The woman in the business suit? Looks like she could run for Senator. She can’t run at all, not hauling that carpet bag wherever she goes.
So what do we do? In Psalm 23:3, David said it like this: “He leads me in the paths of righteousness.” The path of righteousness. A narrow, winding trail up a steep hill. At the top is a cross. At the base of the cross are bags, countless bags full of innumerable sins. Calvary is the compost pile for guilt. Would you like to leave yours there as well?
David said in Psalm 121, “I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from?” Then David answers his own question: “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip, he who watches over you will not slumber…The Lord watches over you…The Lord will keep you from all harm, he will watch over your life.”
God, your rescuer, has the right vision. He also has the right direction. He made the boldest claim in the history of man when he declared, “I am the way.” People wondered if the claim was accurate. He answered their question by forging a path through the underbrush of sin and death, escaping alive.
Maybe you need your hope restored? If so, lift up your eyes like David said. Look into the hills. Look into the one who made you. And he will give you help.
The story’s told of a man on an African safari deep in the jungle. The guide had a machete and was whacking away the tall weeds and thick underbrush. The traveler, wearied and hot, asked in frustration, “Where are we? Do you know where you’re taking me? Where’s the path?” The seasoned guide stopped and looked back at the man and replied, “I am the path.”
We ask the same questions, don’t we? “God, where are you taking me? Where’s the path?” Oh, he may give us a hint or two but that’s all. If he did give us more, would we understand? No. Like the traveler, we’re unacquainted with this jungle. So rather than give us an answer, he gives us a far greater gift – Jesus gives us himself. He says in Matthew 28:20, “I am with you always to the very end of the age.” We need that reminder!
For many, hope is in short supply. Hopelessness is an odd bag. Unlike others, it isn’t full. It’s empty, and its emptiness creates the burden. Unzip the top and examine all the pockets. Turn it upside down and shake it hard. The bag of hopelessness is painfully empty.
Not a very pretty picture, is it? What would it take to restore your hope? One comes quickly to mind—a person. Not just any person. You need someone to look you in the face and say, “This isn’t the end. Don’t give up. There’s a better place than this, and I’ll lead you there.”
David in Psalm 23 used these words: “He restores my soul.” God majors in restoring hope to the soul. Please note: you have hope. Psalm 121:7 says, “The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life.” And he’s the perfect one to do so.
Arthur Hays Sulzberger was the publisher of the New York Times during the Second World War. Because of all the world conflict, he found it almost impossible to sleep. He was never able to set aside worries from his mind, until he adopted as his motto these five words: “One step enough for me.”
He took the words from the old hymn:
Lead, kindly light…Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to seeThe distant scene; one step enough for me.
Friend, God isn’t going to let you see the distant scene either. So you might as well quit looking for it. God does promise a lamp for our feet, not a crystal ball into the future. We don’t need to know what will happen tomorrow. We only need to know that Hebrews 4:16 promises “we will find grace to help us when we need it.”
Worrying is one job you cannot farm out, but you can overcome it. There’s no better place to begin than in Psalm 23:2. “He leads me beside the still waters,” David declares. “He leads me.” God isn’t behind me, yelling, “Go!” He’s ahead of me bidding, “Come.” He’s in front, clearing the path, cutting the brush. Standing next to the rocks, he warns, “Watch your step there.”
Isn’t this what God gave the children of Israel? He promised to supply them with manna each day. But he told them to collect only one day’s supply at a time. Matthew 6:34 says (The Message), “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” God is leading you. Leave tomorrow’s problems until tomorrow.
Worry is the burlap bag of burdens. It’s overflowing with “whaddifs” and “howells.” Whaddif after all my dieting, I find out lettuce is fattening and chocolate isn’t? Howellwill we pay our baby’s tuition? Whaddifs and Howells. The burlap bag of worry. Cumbersome. Chunky. Unattractive. Scratchy. Irritating to carry and impossible to give away.
No one wants your worries. Truth is, you don’t want them either. No one has to remind you of the high cost of anxiety, but I will anyway. Worry divides the mind. It splits our energy between today’s priorities and tomorrow’s problems. The result is half-minded living.
Hebrews 4:16 encourages us to “boldly approach the throne of our gracious God, where we may receive mercy and in his grace find timely help.” God’s help is timely! God will do the right thing at the right time. And what a difference that makes.
When God gave the Ten Commandments, he needed only five English words to condemn adultery; four to denounce thievery and murder. But when it came to the topic of rest?
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work; you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servants, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day” (Exodus 20:8-11a).
Wow. One word after another. But still we object, don’t we? We offer up one reason after another. We don’t like to rest. Will you please repeat these words after me: It is not my job to run the world. In the long run, we will do more by doing less.
When God gave the Ten Commandments, and it came to Sabbath rest, his message was clear: If creation didn’t crash when I rested, it won’t crash when you do! You know, we need to rest. For a field to bear fruit, it must occasionally lie fallow. And for you to be healthy, you must rest.
When David says in the twenty-third Psalm, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures,” he’s saying, “My shepherd makes me lie down in his finished work.” With his own pierced hands, Jesus created a pasture for the soul. He pried loose the huge boulders of sin. In their place he planted seeds of grace and dug ponds of mercy.
Can you imagine the satisfaction in the heart of the shepherd when the work is completed, and he sees his sheep rest in the tender grass? Can you imagine the satisfaction in the heart of God when we do the same?
Isaiah 53:6 says, “We have all wandered away like sheep; each of us has gone his own way.”
You wouldn’t think sheep would be obstinate. Of all God’s animals, the sheep is the least able to take care of himself. Sheep are dumb. Have you ever met a sheep trainer? Ever seen sheep tricks? Know anyone who has taught his sheep to roll over? No, sheep are just too dumb.
When David said in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” couldn’t he have come up with a better metaphor than a shepherd for sheep? When David, who was a warrior and ambassador for God, searched for an illustration of God he remembered his days as a shepherd. He remembered how he lavished attention on the sheep, how he watched over them. And David rejoiced to say, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” And in doing so he proudly declared, “I am his sheep!”
Logic says, “Don’t go for the green.” Golf 101 says, “Don’t go for the green.” Give me my driver, I’m going for the green! Golf reveals a lot about a person. I don’t need advice—whack! I can handle this myself—clang!
Can you relate? We want to do things our way. Forget the easy way, the best way. Forget God’s way. Too much stubbornness, too much independence, too much self-reliance. All I needed to do was apologize, but I had to argue. All I needed to do was listen, but I had to open my big mouth. All I needed to do was be patient, but I had to take control. All I had to do was give it to God, but I tried to fix it myself.
Scripture says, “Do it God’s way.” Experience says, “Do it God’s way.” And every so often, we do. You know, we might even make the green.
When author Lloyd Douglas attended college, he lived in a boardinghouse with a retired music professor who lived on the first floor. Douglas would stick his head in the door and ask, “Well, what’s the good news?” The old man would pick up his tuning fork, tape it on the side of his chair and say, “That’s middle C. It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat. The piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, that is middle C!”
You and I need a middle C. A still point in a turning world. An unchanging shepherd. A God who can still the storm. A Lord who can declare the meaning of life. And, according to David in Psalm 23, you have one. The Lord is your shepherd – your middle C!
You and I are governed. The weather determines what we wear, gravity dictates our speed, and health determines our strength. We may change these forces, alter them slightly, but we never remove them.
God, however, is an unchanging God, an uncaused God, and an ungoverned God. He doesn’t check the weather; he makes it. He doesn’t defy gravity; he created it. He isn’t affected by health, since he has no body. Jesus said, “God is spirit.” And since God has no body, he has no limitations—he’s equally active in Cambodia as he is in Connecticut.
“Where can I go to get away from your Spirit?” asked David. God unchanging, God uncaused, God ungoverned. Only a fraction of God’s qualities, but aren’t they enough to give you a glimpse of your Father?
God wants to use you my friend, but how can he if you’re exhausted?
Getting ready for my run, the sun was out, but the wind was chilly. Jacket or sweatshirt? The Boy Scout within me prevailed, and I wore both. Got my cell phone, my water bottle. So no one would steal my car, I pocketed my keys. I looked more like a pack mule than a runner. Within half a mile, I was pealing off the jacket. That kind of weight will slow you down.
What’s true in jogging is true in faith. God has a great race for you to run. But you have to drop some stuff. How can you lift someone else’s load if your arms are full with your own? For the sake of those you love, travel light. For the sake of the God you serve, travel light. For the sake of your own joy, travel light.
I don’t know how to travel light, but I need to learn. You can’t enjoy a journey carrying so much stuff—so much luggage. Odds are, somewhere this morning between the first step on the floor and the last step out the door, you grabbed some luggage.
Don’t remember doing so? That’s because you did it without thinking. That’s because the bags we grab aren’t made of leather, they’re made of burdens. The suitcase of guilt. A duffel bag of weariness, a hanging bag of grief. A backpack of doubt, an overnight bag of fear. Lugging luggage is exhausting!
God is saying, “Set that stuff down. You are carrying burdens you don’t need to bear.” Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me all of you who’re weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Yes, I need to learn to travel light.
Many aren’t proud of their family trees. The harvest was taken, but no seed was sown. Childhood memories bring more hurt than inspiration. If such is the case, put down the family scrapbook and pick up your Bible.
John 3:6 reminds us, “Human life comes from human parents, but spiritual life comes from the Spirit.” Your parents have given you genes, but God gives you grace. Didn’t have a good father? Galatians 4:7 says, “He will be your father.” Didn’t have a good role model? Ephesians 5:1 says, “You are God’s child whom he loves, so try to be like him.”
You cannot control the way your forefathers responded to God. But you can control the way you respond to him. Your past does not have to be your prison. Choose well and someday—generations from now—your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will thank God for the seeds you sowed!
Early in the reign of King Josiah he made a brave choice. 2 Kings 22:2 says, “He lived as his ancestor David had lived, and he did not stop doing what was right.” He flipped through his family scrapbook until he found an ancestor worthy of emulation. He found David and resolved, “I’m going to be like him.”
The principle? We can’t choose our parents, but we can choose our mentors. And since Josiah chose David, who had chosen God, things began to happen. Josiah broke up the idols. He broke down the altars. He was out to make a statement: “What my fathers taught, I don’t teach. What they embraced, I reject.” Josiah had found the God of David and made Him his own.
God has not left you on the sea of heredity. You have a choice in the path you take. Choose well.
When we’re mistreated, our animalistic response is to go on the hunt. Getting even is only natural. Which, incidentally, is precisely the problem. Revenge is natural, not spiritual. Getting even is the rule of the jungle. Giving grace is the rule of the kingdom.
You may be thinking, Easy for you to say, Max. You have no idea how hard my life has been. And you’re right, I don’t. But I have a very clear idea how miserable your future will be unless you deal with your anger. X-ray the soul of the vengeful and behold the tumor of bitterness; menacing, malignant. Yesterday you cannot alter, but your reaction to yesterday you can. After all, don’t we have enough things to do without trying to do God’s work too? Forgiveness is not saying the one who hurt you was right. Forgiveness is stating that God will do what is right.
There’s power in revenge. Intoxicating power. Haven’t we tasted it? Haven’t we been tempted to get even?
As we escort the offender into the courtroom, we announce, “He hurt me!” And the jurors shake their heads in disgust. “He abandoned me!” we explain, and the chambers echo our accusation. “Guilty!” the judge snarls as he slams the gavel. “Guilty!” the jury agrees. We delight in this moment of justice.
I don’t mean to be cocky, buy why are you doing God’s work for him? “Vengeance is Mine,” God declared. “I will repay” (Hebrews 10:30). Proverbs 20:22 says, “Don’t say, ‘I’ll pay you back for the wrong you did.’ Wait for the Lord, and he will make things right.” Judgment is God’s job. To assume otherwise is to assume God can’t do it. God has not asked us to settle the score or get even. Ever.
It’s quiet. It’s early. For the next twelve hours I’ll be exposed to the day’s demands. It’s now that I must make a choice. And so I choose—love.
I will love God and what God loves. I choose joy. I choose peace. I will live forgiven. I choose patience. Rather than complain that the wait is too long, I’ll thank God for a moment to pray. I choose kindness, for that’s how God has treated me. I choose goodness. I choose faithfulness. Today I’ll keep my promises. My wife will not question my love. I choose gentleness. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself. I choose self-control. I will be impassioned only by my faith and influenced only by God.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And when this day is done, I’ll place my head on my pillow and rest.
Jesus had a definition for greed. He called it the practice of measuring life by possessions. Greed equates a person’s worth with a person’s purse. You got a lot equals you are a lot. You got a little equals you are little. The consequence of such a philosophy is predictable. If you’re the sum of what you own, then by all means own it all. No price is too high. No payment is too much.
God’s foremost rule of finance is: we own nothing. We are managers, not owners. Stewards, not landlords. Maintenance people, not proprietors. Our money is not ours; it is his. It’s not as if God kept the future a secret. One glance at a cemetery should remind us; everyone dies. The Bible says, “The Lord owns the world and everything in it—the heavens, even the highest heavens, are his” (Deuteronomy 10:14 NCV). And that includes our money.
I’ve never been surprised by God’s judgment, but I’m still stunned by his grace.
God’s judgment has never been a problem for me. Lightning bolts on Sodom, fire on Gomorrah. Good job, God! Discipline is easy for me to swallow, logical to assimilate. But God’s grace? Anything but. Peter denied Christ before he preached Christ. The thief on the cross – hell-bent and hung out to die one minute, heaven-bound and smiling the next.
I challenge you to find one soul who came to God seeking grace and did not find it. I dare you. God gives a lot more grace than we’d ever imagine. We could do the same. I’m not for watering down the truth or compromising the Gospel. But one thing’s for sure: when we get to heaven, we’ll be surprised at some of the folks we see. And some of them will be surprised when they see us.
I believe in brevity. And since you’ve given me your time, I shouldn’t take more than my share. Over the years I’ve collected some “brief” statements of truth.
Number 1: Pray all the time. If necessary, use words.
Number 2: God forgets the past. Imitate Him.
Number 3: Greed I’ve often regretted. Generosity—never.
Number 4: In buying a gift for your wife, practicality can be more expensive than extravagance.
Here’s another: Don’t ask God to do what you want. Ask God to do what is right.
How about this one: You’ll give up on yourself before God will.
Flattery is fancy dishonesty.
You’ll regret opening your mouth. You’ll rarely regret keeping it shut.
And I’ll close with this one: To see sin without grace is despair. To see grace without sin is arrogance. To see them in tandem is conversion!
The apostle Paul shaped history, yet Paul would die in the jail of a despot. No headlines announced his execution. No observer recorded the events. Doesn’t look like a hero. The fellow who changes the oil in your car could be a hero. Maybe as he works he prays, asking God to do with the heart of the driver what he does with the engine. I know, I know, it doesn’t fit our image of a hero.
John Egglen, a deacon, stepped in and gave the sermon for a few folks who’d arrived before a snowstorm that prevented the pastor from getting there. In a moment of courage, he looked straight at a young boy in the service and said, “Look to Jesus. Look!” The boy’s name? Charles Haddon Spurgeon, England’s “prince of preachers.”
You never know. Tomorrow’s Spurgeon may be in your church or your neighbor. And the hero who inspires him might be in your mirror.
Pick up a high school yearbook and read the “What I want to do” sentence under each picture. You’ll get dizzy breathing the thin air of mountaintop visions: Ivy league school. Write books and live in Switzerland. Physician in a Third World country. Teach inner-city kids. Yet, take the yearbook to a twentieth-year reunion and read the next chapter. Some dreams have come true, but many haven’t.
Changing direction in life is not tragic. Losing passion in life is. Convictions to change the world downgrade to commitments to pay the bills. And rather than make a difference, we make a salary. Rather than look outward, we look inward. And we don’t like what we see. Philippians 1:6 says, “God began doing a good work in you, and he will continue until it is finished.” May I spell out the message? God isn’t finished with you yet!
When I see a flock of sheep I see exactly that – a flock. A rabble of wool. I don’t see a sheep; I see sheep. All alike, none different. But not so with the shepherd. To him every sheep is different. Every face has a story. John 10:3 says, “The sheep listen to the voice of the shepherd. He calls his own sheep by name.”
When we see a crowd we see exactly that – a crowd. We see people, not persons. A herd of humans. But not so with the Shepherd. To him every face is different. Every face is a story. The Shepherd knows you. He knows your name, and he will never forget it. God said in Isaiah 49, “I have written your name on my hand.” Quite a thought isn’t it? Your name on God’s lips. My, could it be?
When ancient sailors sketched maps of the oceans, they disclosed their fears. On the vast unexplored waters, geographers wrote words such as these: “Here be dragons.” “Here be demons.” “Here be sirens.”
Were a map drawn of your world, would we read such phrases? Over the unknown waters of adulthood: “Here be dragons.” Near the sea of the empty nest: “Here be demons.” Next to the furthermost latitudes of death and eternity, do we read “Here be sirens”?
Mark it down. You will never go where God is not. You may be transferred, enlisted, commissioned, reassigned, hospitalized, but brand this truth on your heart: you can never go where God is not. “I am with you always,” Jesus promised (Matthew 28:20 NKJV). Fear visits everyone. But make your fear a visitor and not a resident. Meet your fears with faith.
Harbored grudges suck the joy out of life. Revenge won’t paint the blue in your sky or restore the spring in your step. It will leave you bitter, bent, and angry.
Give the grace you’ve been given. You don’t endorse the deeds of your offender when you do. Jesus didn’t endorse your sins by forgiving you. Grace is not blind; it sees the hurt full well. But grace chooses to see God’s forgiveness even more. It refuses to let hurts poison the heart.
Hebrews 12:15 says, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” Where grace is lacking, bitterness abounds. But where grace abounds, forgiveness grows. Forgiveness may not happen all at once, but it can happen to you.
John 13 records the events on the final night before Jesus’ death. He and his followers had gathered in the upper room for Passover. And Jesus “…got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet…” (John 13:4-5 NLT).
Jesus—CEO, king of the world, sovereign of the seas—washed feet. This was the job of a servant. All twenty-four of Jesus’ followers’ feet would soon scoot, leaving Jesus to face his accusers alone. Do you ever wonder what God does with promise breakers? Well, He washes their feet.
Grace has happened to you. Look at your feet. They are wet, grace soaked. Can’t you share your grace with others? You see, to accept grace is to accept the vow to give it.
Consider these phrases from Mathew’s gospel: Jesus made his disciples get into the boat, he went to pray, and the boat was buffeted by the winds.
Jesus wasn’t in the boat with his disciples because he had gone to the hills to pray. Jesus prayed – that’s remarkable. It’s even more remarkable that Jesus did not stop praying when his disciples were struggling. Why? Well two possible answers. Either he didn’t care, or he believed in prayer. I think you know the correct choice.
So while Jesus is praying and we are in the storm, what are we to do? Simple. We just do what the disciples did. We row. Much of life is spent rowing. Getting out of bed. Turning in assignments. Changing diapers. Paying bills. But don’t lay down the oars! He is too wise to forget you, too loving to hurt you. And when you can’t see him, trust him. He is praying a prayer that he himself will answer.
“…Jesus’ followers went down to Lake Galilee. It was dark now, and Jesus had not yet come to them.” (John 6:16-17 NCV).
The disciples had done exactly what Jesus said, and look what it got them—a night on a storm-tossed sea with their Master somewhere on the shore. They had been on the sea for about nine hours before Jesus came to them. That’s a long night. Why did Jesus take so long?
Or, why does he take so long? Why does God wait until the money is gone? Why does he choose to wait until the other side of the grave to answer the prayers for healing? I don’t know. I can only say he will do what is best. “God will always give what is right to his people who cry to him night and day, and he will not be slow to answer them.” That’s a promise of Scripture (Luke 18:7 NCV) and what a promise to cherish.
I’ve often thought it strange that Matthew would begin his book with a genealogy. Certainly not good journalism. A list of who sired whom? Wouldn’t get past most editors. But then again, Matthew was not a journalist, and the Holy Spirit was making a point. God had promised he would give a Messiah through the bloodline of Abraham, and he did. Matthew 1:16 (NCV) says, “Joseph was the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus. Jesus is called the Christ.” Period. No more names are listed. No more are needed.
The promise of the Messiah threads its way through forty-two generations of rough-cut stones, forming a necklace fit for the King who came. Just as promised. And the promise remains. “Those people who keep their faith until the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13 NCV). God always keeps his promises.
“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22 NKJV).
We’re only as strong as our obedience. Remember who you are: you are God’s child. You’ve been bought by the most precious commodity in the history of the universe, the blood of Christ. You are indwelled by the Spirit of the living God, and you are being equipped for an eternal assignment that will empower you to live in the very presence of God. You have been set apart for a holy calling; you are his.
And remember where you are: this is Canaan. This is the promised land, not geographically but spiritually. This is the land of grace and hope and freedom and truth and love and life. The devil has no jurisdiction over you. So decide right now what you will say when temptation presents itself. In advance, choose obedience.
Do you want a promised-land life? Desire to feel the fullness of glory days? Than obey God’s commands.
What’s that? You expected something more mystical, exotic, intriguing? You thought the Canaan-level life was birthed from ecstatic utterances or angelic visions, mountaintop moments, or midnight messages from heaven? Well sorry to disappoint you. “Obedience,” wrote C.S. Lewis, “is the key to all doors.” Don’t think for a second that you can heed the wrong voice, make the wrong choice, and escape the consequences.
At the same time obedience leads to a waterfall of goodness, not just for you, but for your children, and the children of a thousand generations in the future. God promises to show “love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:6 NIV). As we obey God’s commands, we open the door for God’s favor.
Choices have consequences. Glory days happen when we make good choices and trouble happens when we don’t. This is the headline message delivered by Joshua in the nationwide assembly in the Valley of Shechem. Joshua brought the invasion to a halt and every person to the Valley of Shechem. Once they reached the valley, Joshua set about the task of building an altar.
In Joshua 8:32 we read, “And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses.” The secret to the successful campaign of the Hebrews was not the strength of the army but the resolve of the people to keep God’s commandments. Heeding God’s Word is more critical than fighting God’s war. In fact, heeding God’s Word isfighting God’s war. Conquest happens as the covenant is honored.
For a few historic steps and heart-stilling moments, Peter does the impossible: “he walked on the water to go to Jesus” (Matthew 14:29 NKJV). Then Peter shifts his attention away from Jesus and toward the squall, and he sinks like a brick in a pond. Give the storm waters more attention that the Storm Walker, and get ready to do the same.
God’s call to courage is not a call to naïveté or ignorance. We aren’t oblivious to the storms. We just counterbalance them with long looks at God’s accomplishments. Do whatever it takes to keep your gaze on Jesus. Memorize Scripture. Sing hymns. Read biographies of great people. Ponder the testimonies of faithful Christians. Walk to the sound of his voice. Make the deliberate decision to set your hope on him. And when your attention turns away, bring it back.
“The boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary” (Matthew 14:24).
Peter and his fellow storm riders knew they were in trouble. The boat lurched and lunged like a kite in a March wind. An apt description for the stormy seasons of life, right? But then the unspeakable happened. The disciples spotted someone coming on the water. They didn’t expect Jesus to come to them this way.
Neither did we. We never expected to see him in a divorce, death, lawsuit, or jail cell. We never expected to see him in a storm. But it is in storms that he does his finest work, for it is in storms he has our keenest attention. Jesus replies to their fear with an invitation worthy of inscription on every church cornerstone and archway. He said, “Courage! I am! Don’t be afraid” (Matthew 14:27).
Jesus’ heart was heavied by the news of the murder of John the Baptist, so he took the disciples on a retreat. But then came the crowd, a multitude of misery and sickness bringing nothing but requests. Jesus treated them with kindness. The disciples didn’t share his compassion. Jesus simply issued an assignment to them: “You give them something to eat.” So the disciples tallied their resources. “We only have five loaves and two fish” (Matthew 14:17 NKJV).
How do you suppose Jesus felt about the basket examination? Do you think he was hoping someone might count to eight? “Well, let’s see. We have five loaves, two fish, and…Jesus!” You see, standing next to the disciples was the solution to their problems…but they did not go to him. They stopped at seven and worried. Don’t do likewise. Count to eight. Better still, count on Christ.
“So don’t worry about tomorrow” Jesus said, “for tomorrow will bring its own worries.” (Matthew 6:34 NLT).
Do you ever worry? And now that you know we aren’t supposed to worry, you might worry about worrying. So let’s be certain what Jesus means when he says worry. Jesus doesn’t condemn legitimate concern for responsibility, but rather the continuous mindset that dismisses God’s presence. Worry is a state of mind in which God is distrusted and disregarded.
You know we pay a high price for such agitation: headaches, loss of sleep, irritability, high blood pressure, heart disease, even cancer. Some people fixate on the problem to the point of frustration, anger, anxiety, oblivious to the presence of their Father, who stands nearby.
Our Father invites us to request his help. The scripture says: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6 NKJV).
Heaven was not foreign to Jesus. He knew heaven before he came to earth. He knew what awaited him upon his return. And knowing what awaited him in heaven enabled him to bear the shame on the earth. I understand where Jesus found his strength. He lifted his eyes beyond the horizon, and he saw the table. He focused on the feast. He saw what gave him strength to finish—and finish strong.
Such a moment awaits us. We’ll take our place at the table. In an hour that has no end, we will rest. Surrounded by saints and engulfed by Jesus himself, the work will, indeed, be finished. We will be seated, and Christ will christen the meal with these words: “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23). And in that moment, the race will have been worth it.
Hebrews 12:2 (NCV) offers this intriguing statement: “[Jesus] accepted the shame as if it were nothing because of the joy God put before him.”
Shame is a feeling of disgrace, embarrassment, humiliation. That is exactly what Jesus felt. He never did anything worthy of shame, but we did. And since on the cross God made him become sin, Jesus was covered with shame. Condemned to die a criminal’s death. Parents likely pointed to him from a distance and told their children, “That’s what they do to evil men.” But the shame before men didn’t compare with the shame Jesus felt before his Father. Can you imagine bearing the collective shame of all humanity?
How did Jesus endure such disgrace? How can our hearts have the endurance Jesus had? Simple. By focusing where Jesus focused: on “the joy that God put before him.”
“The Spirit led Jesus into the desert where the devil tempted Jesus for forty days” (Luke 4:1-2 NCV).
We imagine the wilderness temptation as three isolated events scattered over a forty-day period. Would that it had been! In reality Jesus’ time of testing was nonstop. Satan got on Jesus like a shirt and refused to leave. Every step, whispering in his ear. Since he was tempted, Jesus could have quit the race. But he didn’t. He kept on running.
Temptation didn’t stop him, nor did accusations. Can you imagine what it would be like to run a race and be criticized by the bystanders? What if, in the roughest steps of the race, you heard words of accusation and not encouragement? Jesus’ own family called him a lunatic. His neighbors tried to throw him off a cliff.
But Jesus didn’t quit running. Let’s do likewise. Stay in the race.
The word race is from the Greek word agon, from which we get the word agony. The Christian’s race is not a jog but rather a demanding and grueling, and sometimes agonizing race. It takes a massive effort to finish strong.
Likely you’ve noticed that many don’t. There are many on the side of the trail. They may come to church, but their hearts aren’t in the race. And unless something changes, their best work will have been their first work, and they will finish with a whimper.
By contrast Jesus’ best work was his final work, and his strongest step was his last step. Our Master is the classic example of one who endured. The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus “held on while wicked people were doing evil things to him” (Hebrews 12:3 NCV). Jesus could have quit the race, but he didn’t. Let’s stay in the race, shall we? And let’s finish strong.
Any unfinished projects under your roof? Perhaps an exercise machine with the primary function thus far of holding towels? And let’s not even touch the topic of diets and weight loss, okay? Relax. “Don’t start what you can’t finish” is not the theme of this little message. To be honest, there are certain quests better left undone, some projects wisely abandoned.
We can become so obsessed with completion that we become blind to effectiveness. No, my desire is not to convince you to finish everything. My desire is to encourage you to finish the right thing. Certain races are optional—like washboard abs and speed-reading. Other races are essential—like the race of faith. Consider this admonition from the author of Hebrews who said: “Let us run the race that is before us and never give up” (Hebrews 12:1 NCV).
Having your family’s approval is desirable but not necessary for happiness and not always possible. Jesus did not let the difficult dynamic of his family overshadow his call from God.
What happened to Jesus’ family? Mine with me a golden nugget hidden in a vein of the book of Acts. Acts chapter one: “Then [the disciples] went back to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. They all continued praying together with some women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and Jesus’ brothers” (Acts 1:12, 14 NCV). What a change! The ones who had mocked him now worship him. The ones who had pitied him now pray to him.
What if Jesus had disowned them? Or worse still, what if he’d suffocated his family with his demand for change? He didn’t. He instead gave them space, time, and grace. So don’t lose heart – God still changes families.
It’s possible that your family will never give you the blessing you seek, but God will. If your earthly father doesn’t affirm you, then let your heavenly Father take his place.
To recognize God as Lord is to acknowledge that he is sovereign and supreme in the universe. To accept him as Savior is to accept his gift of salvation offered on the cross. To regard him as Father is to go a step further. Ideally, a father is the one in your life who provides and protects, and that is exactly what God has done. God has proven himself to be a faithful father. Now it falls to us to be trusting children.
Rely upon him for your affirmation and encouragement. “You are God’s child, and God will give you the blessing he promised, because you are his child” (Galatians 4:7 NCV).
It may surprise you to know that Jesus had a difficult family. You may not be aware that Jesus had brothers and sisters. There was a time when they were seen with him in public. Mark 3:21 (NCV) says, “His family…went to get him because they thought he was out of his mind.” They weren’t proud—they were embarrassed!
It’s worth noting that Jesus didn’t try to control his family’s behavior, nor did he let their behavior control his. He didn’t demand that they agree with him. Look how he defined his family in verse 35. He said, “My true brother and sister and mother are those who do what God wants” (Mark 3:35 NCV).
Jesus recognized that his spiritual family could provide what his physical family did not. If Jesus himself couldn’t force his family to share his convictions, what makes you think you can force yours?
God still looks for world changers. Men and women who believe God is not through with this world. Common people who serve an uncommon God. Will you be that kind of person? Will you serve, even when you don’t understand?
You know there are many questions about the Bible that we won’t be able to answer until we get home. Many times we muse, “I wonder…” But in our wonderings there is one question we never need to ask: “Does God care about me?” Through the small face of the stable-born baby, he says “yes.”
Yes, your sins are forgiven. Yes, your name is written in heaven. Yes, yes, your death is defeated. And yes, God has entered your world. He is Immanuel, God is with us.
I’ve got a few questions for Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. And my first would be about Bethlehem. I see Joseph animated, pacing. Head shaking one minute, fist shaking the next. This isn’t what he had in mind. I wonder what he said that night in Bethlehem?
You’ve stood where Joseph stood. You’ve done what God told you to do only to wonder if it was God speaking in the first place. And you’ve asked what Joseph asked. You’ve asked if you’re still on the right road.
If you’re asking what Joseph asked, can I urge you to do what Joseph did? Obey. Just like Joseph, your task is to see that Jesus is brought into your part of your world. And just like Joseph, you have a choice: to obey or disobey. Because Joseph obeyed, God used him to change the world. Can he do the same with you?
Am I serving God now? This question may make you feel restless. Mary and Joseph find their twelve-year-old son in the temple studying with the leaders. He already senses the call of God. But what does he do next? Does he recruit apostles and preach sermons and perform miracles? No, he just goes home and learns the family business. Want to bring focus to your life? Go home, love your family, take care of business.
But Max, I want to be a missionary. Your first mission field is under your roof. But Max, I want to do great things for God. Good, do them, at work. Be a good employee.
God allows you to start fresh at any point in your life. Just make sure you’re serving God at every place in your life. 1 Peter 4:2 urges us, “From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God’s will and not by human desires.”
There are some things we want to do but simply are not equipped to accomplish. I, for example, have the desire to sing. The problem is, I am what you might call a jailhouse singer – I never have the key, and I’m always behind a few bars. Paul gives good advice in Romans 12:3: “Have a sane estimate of your capabilities” (PHILLIPS). In other words, be aware of your strengths. When you teach, do people listen? When you lead, do people follow? Where are you most productive? Identify your strengths, and—this is important—major in them.
We cannot meet every need in the world. We cannot please every person in the world. We cannot satisfy every request in the world. But some of us try, and in the end we run out of fuel. So have a sane estimate of your abilities and stick to them.
“Enjoy serving the Lord, and he will give you what you want” (Psalm 37:4 NCV).
What are my longings? When we submit to God’s plan, we can trust our desires. Our assignment is found at the intersection of God’s plan and our pleasures. So what do you love to do? What gives you a sense of satisfaction? You are a custom design; you are tailor-made. God prescribed your birth. Regardless of the circumstances that surrounded your arrival, you are not an accident. God planned you before you were born.
The longings of your heart, then, are not incidental; they are critical messages. The desires of your heart are not to be ignored; they are to be consulted. As the wind turns the weather vane, so God uses your passions to turn your life. God is too gracious to ask you to do something you hate.
Our lives tend to be so scattered. Lives with no strategy, no goal, no defining priority. We are easily distracted by the small things and forget the big things.
God wants us to be just like Jesus and have focused hearts. Romans 8:28 (TLB) says, “We know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans.” The first step for focusing your heart is to ask the question Am I fitting into God’s plan?If God’s goal is the salvation of the world, then my goal should be the same.
Regardless of what you don’t know about your future, one thing is certain: you are intended to contribute to the good plan of God, to tell others about the God who loves them and longs to bring them home.
“For our high priest [Jesus] is able to understand our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15 NCV).
God became flesh in the form of Jesus Christ. He was miraculously conceived, yet naturally delivered.
Had Jesus simply descended to earth in the form of a mighty being, we would respect him but would never draw near to him. After all, how could God understand what it means to be human? Had Jesus been biologically conceived with two earthly parents, we would draw near to him, but would we ever want to worship him? After all, he would be no different than you and me.
But if Jesus was both—God and man at the same time—then we have the best of both worlds. He was fully human. He was fully divine. Because of the first, we draw near. Because of the latter, we worship.
A more lowly place of birth could not exist. Mary looks at the face of the baby. Her son, her Lord, His Majesty. And somehow she knows she is holding God. She remembers the words of the angel: “His kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:33 NIV).
Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager, and in the presence of a carpenter.
Meanwhile the city hums. People would scoff at anyone who told them the Messiah lay in the arms of a teenager on the outskirts of their village. They were all too busy to consider the possibility. Those who missed His Majesty’s arrival that night missed it because they simply weren’t looking. Life has not changed in the last two thousand years, has it?
Bethlehem. Star-filled skies, bone-weary travelers, shepherds, and a new baby. Bethlehem reminds us of the most remarkable event in human history: the moment the Savior came to earth clothed in humility and humanity.
Today, centuries beyond that main event, a small chapel marks the probable birthplace of Jesus. Behind a high altar in the church lies a cavern lit by silver lamps. Enter the main edifice and admire the ancient church. Enter the quiet cave where a star embedded in the floor notes the birth of the king of heaven. There is one stipulation, however – you must bend down. The doorway is so low that you cannot enter standing up.
The same is true of Christ. You can see the world standing tall, but to witness the Savior, you gotta get on your knees.
We come to Christ in an hour of deep need. We realize that all the good works in the world are puny when laid before the Perfect One, so we beg for help. We hear his voice, and we step out in fear, hoping that our little faith will be enough. And with precious, wobbly steps, we draw close to him. We stand upon his promises.
It doesn’t make sense that we’re able to do this. We don’t claim to be worthy of such an incredible gift. When people ask how in the world we can keep our balance during such stormy times, we don’t boast. We point to the One who makes it possible. “Nothing in my hand I bring; Simply to Thy cross I cling,” we sing. “Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved,” we declare. And we never look back. May that be the anthem of your life.
How often do you see people more concerned about getting a job done right than they are about saving their necks? Too seldom, right? But when we do—when we see a gutsy human taking a few risks—ah, now that’s a person worthy of a pat on the back.
So here’s to the woman whose husband left her with a nest of kids to raise and bills to pay, but who somehow tells me every Sunday that God has never been closer. Here’s to the single father of two girls who learned to braid their hair. Here’s to the girl, told to abort the baby, who chose to keep the baby. Here’s to the doctor who treats more than half of his patients for free. Here’s to all of you reckless lovers of life and God. So what if you forget about pleasing the crowd – most of us aren’t even in your league.
If people love you at 6 am, one thing is sure: they love you. No makeup, no power tie, no status jewelry, no layers of images. They see unkempt honesty. Just you. “Love,” wrote one forgiven soul, “covers over a multitude of sins.”
Sounds like God’s love. Hebrews 10:14 says, “He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” Note that the word is not “improving.” God doesn’t improve; he perfects. He doesn’t enhance; he completes. When it comes to our position before God, we’re perfect.
And when he sees each of us, he sees one who has been made perfect through the One who is perfect—Jesus Christ. He sees perfection. Not perfection earned by us, mind you, but perfection paid by him. Scripture says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Worship happens when you’re aware that what you’ve been given is far greater than what you can give. Worship is the awareness that were it not for God’s touch, you’d still be hobbling and hurting, bitter and broken. It’s the glazed expression on the parched face of a desert pilgrim who discovers the oasis is not a mirage.
We’ve tried to make a science out of worship; we can’t do that. We can’t do that any more than we can sell love or negotiate peace. Worship is a voluntary act of gratitude offered by the saved to the Savior, by the healed to the Healer, and by the delivered to the Deliverer. If you and I can go days without feeling an urge to say “thank you” to the One who saved, healed, and delivered us, then we’d do well to remember what He did.
Perhaps the most amazing response to God’s gift is our reluctance to accept it. We feel better if we earn it. So we create religious hoops and hop through them—making God a trainer, us his pets, and religion a circus. If only, when God smiles and says we’re saved, we’d salute him, thank him, and live like those who’ve received a gift from the commander in chief.
We seldom do that, though. To accept grace is to admit failure. We opt to impress God with how good we are rather than confessing how great he is. We dizzy ourselves with doctrine, burden ourselves with rules, think that God will smile on our efforts. He doesn’t. God’s smile is not for the healthy hiker who boasts that he made the journey alone. It is, instead, for the crippled beggar who begs God for a back on which to ride.
The supreme force in salvation is God’s grace. Not our works, not our talents, not our feelings, not our strength.
Faith is not born at the negotiating table where we barter our gifts in exchange for God’s goodness. Faith is not an award given to the most learned. It’s not a prize given to the most disciplined. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
We, like Paul, are aware of two things: we are great sinners, and we need a great Savior. Salvation is God’s sudden, calming presence during the stormy seas of our lives. Death is disarmed, failures are forgiven, and life has real purpose. And God is not only within sight, he is within reach.
When you recognize God as Creator, you will admire Him. When you recognize His wisdom, you will learn from Him. When you discover His strength, you will rely on Him. But only when He saves you will you worship Him.
It’s a “before and after” scenario. Before your rescue, He was high on your priority list, but He shared the spot with others. Then came the storm, the rage, the fight. Despair fell like a fog. Turn to your career for help? Only if you want to hide from the storm, not escape it. Lean on your status for strength? A storm isn’t impressed with your title.
Suddenly you’re left with one option: God. And when you ask—genuinely ask—He comes. And from that moment on, He is not just a deity to admire, or a master to obey. He is the Savior. The Savior to be worshiped!
Everyone likes a list. Lists are reassuring. They comfort us. To list is to understand and solve, even control. Moses brought a list down the mountain. There are lists of the gifts of the Spirit, lists of good fruit and bad. I’ve compiled a list. Some God-given, time-tested truths that define the way to navigate your life. Can I share it with you?
Here it is: When no one is watching, live as if someone is. Succeed at home first. Pray twice as much as you fret. Listen twice as much as you speak. God has forgiven you; you’d be wise to do the same. Once a week, let a child take you on a walk. Only harbor a grudge when God does. Never let the important be the victim of the trivial.
Just some ideas on my list. Why don’t you compile your own?
Would you buy a house if you were only allowed to see one of its rooms? Would you buy a car if you saw only its tires and taillights? Good judgment requires a broad picture.
One failure doesn’t make a person a failure; one achievement doesn’t make a person a success. “The end of the matter is better than its beginning,” penned the sage. “Be patient in affliction,” echoed the apostle Paul. We only have a fragment.
Life’s mishaps and horrors are only a page out of a grand book. We must be slow about drawing conclusions. We must reserve judgment on life’s storms until we know the whole story. Jesus said in Matthew 6:34, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” He should know – he’s the Author of the story. And he has already written the final chapter.
Sometimes I wonder, how can our world get so chaotic? And I sometimes wonder why so many hearts have to hurt. Do you ever get doubt storms? Turbulent days when the enemy is too big and the answers too few? Every so often a storm will come, and I’ll look up into the blackening sky and say, “God, a little light, please?”
The light came for Jesus’ disciples. A figure came to them walking on the water. It wasn’t what they expected. Maybe they were listening for a divine proclamation to still the storm. One thing’s for sure, they weren’t looking for Jesus to come walking on the water. “‘It’s a ghost,’ they said and cried out in fear” (Matthew 14:26). And since Jesus came in a way they didn’t expect, they almost missed seeing the answer to their prayers. And unless we look and listen closely, we risk making the same mistake.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “We do not lose heart…for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.”
Hear what Paul called light and momentary. Not what I’d have called them, and I think you’ll agree: Imprisoned. Beaten. Stoned. Shipwrecked three times. In constant danger. Hungry and thirsty. Light and momentary troubles? How could Paul describe endless trials with that phrase? He tells us. He could see “an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
And you, you’re tired. Understandably so, rightfully so. You want to go on, but some days the road seems so long. God never said the journey would be easy, but he did say that the arrival would be worth it!
A day transporting a family from one city to another is closely akin to God transporting us from our home to his. And some of life’s stormiest hours occur when the passenger and the driver disagree on what takes place during the trip. Can you imagine the chaos if a parent indulged every child’s wishes? Can you imagine the chaos if God indulged each of ours?
God’s overarching desire is that you reach that destiny. His itinerary includes stops that encourage your journey. He frowns on stops that deter you. When his sovereign plan and your earthly plan collide, a decision must be made: who’s in charge of this journey? If God must choose between your earthly satisfaction and your heavenly salvation, which do you hope he chooses? Me too.
I remember receiving an invitation to speak at a church in the Midwest. I turned it down. If I’d gone, I would have had the attention of a great number of people for an hour. The opportunity to speak about Jesus to some people who didn’t know him.
Is a Tuesday evening at home with three children and a spouse more important than preaching to an audience? I decided to make a list of what I’d lose by saying no to my family one night. I wouldn’t have been there to hold Andrea when her finger got slammed in the door. I wouldn’t have been there to answer Jenna’s question: “Daddy what’s a handicapped person?” I would have missed Jenna telling the story of Jesus on the cross during our family devotional.
There are a hundred speakers who could have addressed that crowd, but my girls have just one daddy! I think I made the right choice.
There’s only so much sand in the hourglass. Who gets it? You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? Each June I put my calendar together for the coming year. Decisions to be made. You may not stockpile your requests until June, but your situation is every bit as real. It’s a tug-of-war, and you’re the rope.
On one side are the requests for your time and energy. They call. They compliment. They’re valid and good. Great opportunities to do good things. If they were evil, it’d be easy to say no. But they aren’t, so it’s easy to rationalize.
On the other side are the loved ones in your world. They don’t ask you to consult your calendar. They don’t use terms like “appointment” and “engagement” or “do lunch.” They don’t want you for what you can do for them; they want you for who you are. Are you making time for them?
Jesus says in Revelation 3:20, “Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
The world rams at your door; Jesus taps at your door. The voices scream for your allegiance; Jesus softly and tenderly requests it. Which voice do you hear? There is never a time that Jesus is not speaking. There’s never a room so dark that the ever-present, ever-pursuing, relentlessly tender Father is not there, tapping gently on the doors of our hearts—waiting to be invited in.
Few hear his voice. Fewer still open the door. But never interpret your numbness as his absence. He says, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Never.
The plane arrived late, folks were mad. I got off the plane with a cramp in my leg, an empty stomach, a bad attitude, and three more hours of travel to go. I skipped lunch and called home. Denalyn answered. She’s always glad when I call. We made no decisions. We solved no problems. We just talked, and I felt better. I can handle being a pilgrim as long as I know that I can call home whenever I want.
Maybe that’s the rationale behind Matthew 14:19. “Taking the five loaves and two fish…Jesus gave thanks.” Jesus was surrounded by people who wanted food and disciples who wanted a break. He needed a minute with someone who would understand. He needed to call home. Maybe you should call home, too. God will be glad when you do, but not half as glad as you will be.
As I look around, I find more and more things that I had labeled, To Be Expected that deserve to be labeled, Well What Do You Know.
There was a time, at the end of the day I’d step into the bedrooms of my three little girls. Their covers were usually kicked off, so I’d cover them up. Their hair usually covered their faces, so I’d brush it back. And one by one, I’d bend over and kiss the foreheads of the angels God had loaned me. Then I’d stand in the doorway and wonder why in the world God would entrust a fumbling fellow like me with the task of loving and leading such treasures.
But I’ve learned not to take these everyday miracles for granted. If I open my eyes and observe, there are many reasons to look at the Source of it all, and just say “thanks.”
Matthew 14:14 says, “He had compassion on them.” When Matthew writes that Jesus had compassion on people, he’s not saying that Jesus felt casual pity for them. Matthew is saying that Jesus felt their hurt in his gut. He felt the limp of the disabled, he felt the hurt of the diseased, he felt the loneliness of the leper, he felt the embarrassment of the sinful. And once he felt their hurts, he couldn’t help but heal their hurts.
He was so touched by their needs that he forgot his own needs. He was so moved by the people’s hurts that he put his hurts on the back burner.
God sees with the eyes of a father. He sees our defects, errors, and blemishes. But he also sees our value. Maybe that’s why God brings hurting people into your world, too.
When Jesus saw people, He saw an opportunity to love and affirm value. When we see people, we often only see thousands of problems. What did Jesus know that enabled Him to do what He did? He knew how people felt, and He knew that they were special. I hope you never forget that.
You’re under the gun at work? Jesus knows how you feel. People take from you more than they give? Jesus understands. He knows what that’s like. Your teenagers won’t listen? Believe me, Jesus knows how you feel.
You’re precious to Him. So precious that He became like you so that you would come to Him. When you struggle, He listens. And when you yearn, He responds. And when you question, He hears. He loves you. He understands you. And He paid a great price to take you home.
The next time your world goes from calm to chaos, ponder this: Jesus knows how you feel. His eyes have grown weary. His heart has grown heavy. He knows how you feel.
You’re no doubt convinced Jesus is acquainted with sorrow and has wrestled with fear. Most people accept that. But can God relate to the hassles and headaches of your life? For some reason this is harder to believe.
Listen to Hebrews 4:15, “…he Himself has shared fully in all our experience of temptation, except that He never sinned.” The writer of Hebrews anticipates our objections. God, it’s easy for you up there. You don’t know how hard it is from down here.
Listen again. He has shared fully. Not nearly. Not to a large degree. But entirely! In all our experience. Every hurt. Every ache. Why? So that when you hurt, you’ll go to Him who knows how you feel!
Ananias and Sapphira used the church for self-promotion. God has a strong word for such behavior: hypocrisy. The Greek word for hypocrite originally meant “actor.” First-century actors wore masks. A hypocrite, then, is one who puts on a false face.
Let’s be clear: to do a good thing is a good thing. To do good to be seen is not. In fact, to do good to be seen is a serious offense.
Matthew 6:1 warns, “Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding” (The Message).
Hypocrisy turns people against God. So God has a no-tolerance policy. Do good things. Just don’t do them to be noticed. You can be too good for your own good, you know.
“Where is God? My people say he is on the mountain. Your people say he is in Jerusalem. I don’t know where he is” (John 4:20).
I’d give a thousand sunsets to see the expression on the face of Jesus as he heard those words from the Samaritan woman. Did his eyes water? Did he smile? Did he look up and wink at his Father? Of all the places to find a hungry heart—Samaria? And of all the Samaritans to be searching for God—a woman? And of all the women to have an insatiable appetite for God—a five-time divorcée.
“I am the Messiah,” he told her (v. 26). Don’t miss the drama of the moment. Look at her eyes, wide with amazement. Suddenly the insignificance of her life was swallowed by the significance of the moment. “God is here! God has come! And God cares…for me!”
“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’” (Matthew 7:22 NIV).
These people are standing before the throne of God and bragging about themselves. Rather than sing his praises, they sing their own. What is worse—their arrogance or their blindness? Mark it down. God does not save us because of what we’ve done.
Only a puny god could be bought with tithes. Only an egotistical god would be impressed with our pain. Only a temperamental god could be satisfied by sacrifices. Only a heartless god would sell salvation to the highest bidders. And only a great God does for his children what they can’t do for themselves. Romans 8:3 says, “For what the law was powerless to do…God did.”
“If you want to be perfect, then go sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” (Matthew 19:21). This statement of Jesus leaves the rich young ruler distraught. He thought heaven was just a payment away. You work hard, you pay your dues, and “zap”—your account is paid in full. Jesus says, “No way.”
What you want costs far more than what you can pay. You do not need a system, you need a Savior. You do not need a resume, you need a Redeemer. For “what is impossible with men is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). Don’t miss the thrust of this verse: You cannot save yourself. Not through the right rituals, right doctrine, or right devotion. You see, it wasn’t the money that hindered the rich man; it was the self-sufficiency.
“By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient” (Hebrews 11:31 NIV).
The time had come for the Hebrew people to enter the promised land. Jericho, a formidable town, was their first challenge. Canaanites indwelled the city. They had no regard for human life or respect for God. And it was into this city that the two spies of Joshua crept. They met Rahab, the harlot.
Rahab provided cover for the spies of Joshua, and she came to believe in the God of Abraham before she ever met the children of Abraham. She was grafted into the Hebrew culture. She married a contemporary of Joshua’s, bore a son named Boaz, had a great-grandson named Jesse, a great-great-grandson named David, and a descendant named Jesus.
You know, God has a place for the Rahabs of the world.
Walls separated Philip from the eunuch. The Ethiopian was dark skinned; Philip was light. The official hailed from Africa; Philip grew up nearby. The traveler was rich enough to travel. Philip was a simple refugee, banished from Jerusalem. Philip was the father of four girls. The official was a eunuch.
But Philip “preached Jesus to him…And the eunuch said,…“What hinders me from being baptized?’” (Acts 8:35-36 NKJV). Philip, charter member of the bigotry-demolition team, invited, “If you believe with all your heart, you may” (v. 37). Next thing you know, the eunuch is stepping out of the baptism waters, and the church has her first non-Jewish convert.
The cross of Christ creates a new people, a people unhindered by skin color or family feud. A new citizenry, based not on common ancestry or geography, but on a common Savior.
“Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans” (John 4:9 NLT). The two cultures had hated each other for a thousand years. Most Jews would gladly double the length of their trip rather than go through Samaria.
Jesus, however, played by a different set of rules. He loves to break down walls. That’s why he sent Philip to Samaria. And when he did, the city broke out into a revival. Peter and John traveled from Jerusalem to Samaria to confirm it. According to verses 15 to 17 of Acts chapter 8, “…as yet [the Holy Spirit] had fallen upon none of them…Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.”
Why delay the gift? Simple. To celebrate the falling of a wall. The gospel, for the first time, was breaching an ancient bias. Let any doubt be gone: God accepts all people.
Everything in creation gives evidence of God’s existence. The intricacy of snowflakes, the roar of a thunderstorm, the bubbling of a cool mountain stream. These miracles and a million more give testimony to the existence of a brilliant, wise, and tireless God. The facts lead to a wonderful conclusion. God is…and God is knowable.
“Since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Romans 1:20 NKJV). He promises success to all who search for him. Of course, we will never know him entirely. Our God is knowable, but he is incomprehensible. The mark of a saint is that he or she is growing in the knowledge of God. Our highest pursuit is the pursuit of our Maker. And he will make himself known to all who seek him.
“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,… encouraging one another” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
Two cows were grazing in a pasture when a milk truck drove by. On the side of the truck were the words pasteurized, homogenized, standardized, vitamin A added. Noticing this, one cow said to the other, “Makes you kind of feel inadequate, doesn’t it?” Inadequacy indwells a billion hearts.
Who is going to tell people the truth? Will you distribute encouragement to the world? Will you remind humanity that we are made in God’s image? That we are chosen, destined, and loved? That God is for us, not against us? That we are in God’s hand, in God’s plan? Will you go face-to-face with the tidal wave of inadequacy that sucks people out to sea? Will you encourage someone today?
Satan appears in the garden at the beginning. He is cast into the fire in the end. He tempted David, he bewildered Saul, and waged an attack on Job. Serious students of Scripture must be serious about Satan. Jesus was.
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8). He squared off against Satan in the wilderness. Jesus saw Satan not as a mythological image, not an invention of allegory. He saw the devil as a superhuman narcissist. When Jesus taught us to pray, he did not say, “Deliver us from nebulous negative emotions.” He said, “Deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13).
We play into the devil’s hand when we pretend he does not exist. The devil is a real devil. But—and this is huge—the devil is a defeated devil.
The next time you fear the future, rejoice in the Lord’s sovereignty. Rejoice in what he has accomplished. Rejoice that he is able to do what you cannot do, and fill your mind with thoughts of God.
“[He is] the Creator, who is blessed forever” (Romans 1:25 NKJV). “[He] is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8 NKJV). He is king, supreme ruler, absolute monarch, and overlord of all history. An arch of his eyebrow and a million angels will pivot and salute. Every throne is a footstool to his. He consults no advisers. He needs no congress. He reports to no one. He is in charge.
Sovereignty gives the saint the inside track to peace. Others see the problems of the world and wring their hands. We see the problems of the world and bend our knees.
On his thirtieth wedding anniversary, a friend shared the secret of their happy marriage. “Early on, my wife suggested that she would make all the small decisions and would come to me for all the major ones. All these years have passed, and we haven’t had one major decision.” Facetious, for sure, yet there is wisdom in acknowledging the relatively small number of major decisions in life. Don’t sweat the small stuff, and you won’t sweat much at all.
James 1:19 says, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” During the next few days you’ll be tested. Your husband is going to blow his nose like a foghorn. Your wife is going to take her half of the garage in the middle. But don’t give up your joy—or theirs—over something that’s not worth sweating.
Jesus was at a wedding when Mary, his mother, came to him with a problem. “They have no more wine” (John 2:3). Weddings lasted as long as seven days in first-century Palestine. Food and wine were expected to last just as long. So Mary was concerned when she saw the servants scraping the bottom of the wine barrel.
We’re not told the reason for the shortage, but we are told how it was replenished. Mary presented the problem. Christ was reluctant. Mary deferred. Jesus reconsidered. He commanded. The servants obeyed. The sommelier sipped and said something about their squirreling away the best wine for the farewell toasts. Mary smiled at her son, Jesus raised a glass to his mother, and we are left with this message: our diminishing supplies, no matter how insignificant, matter to heaven.
The road on which Denalyn and I take our walks is marked by a small country graveyard. No dirt has been turned for a century. Yet John 5:28-29 says, “A time is coming when all who are dead and in their graves will hear his voice. Then they will come out of their graves.”
If these words are true, someday God will shake the soil of this simple cemetery. The caskets will open, and the bodies of these forgotten farmers will be called into the sky. But in what form? These bodies were wracked by disease and deformity. How will these bodies be worthy of heaven?
Here is Paul’s answer: “The body…is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:42, 44). Spirits will be reunited with bodies, resulting in a spiritual body. You are going to love yours.
“Cast your cares upon the Lord and he will sustain you” (Psalm 55:22). Casting is an intentional act to relocate an object. Let this “throwing” be your first response to bad news. Cast your anxiety in the direction of Christ. Do so specifically and immediately.
I did a good job of casting my problems in a high school algebra class. Fortunately my wonderful, patient teacher issued this invitation: “If you cannot solve a problem, come to me and I will help you.” I wore a trail between his desk and mine. I still had the problem, but I had entrusted it to one who knew how to solve it.
Do the same. Take your problem to Christ and tell him, “You said you would help me. Would you?”
Let’s climb into the boat with the disciples on the storm-tossed sea. Look at their rain-splattered faces. What do you see? Fear, for sure. Doubt? Absolutely. You may even hear a question shouted over the wind. “Anyone know where Jesus is?” The answer is clear and surprising: praying. Jesus became the answer to his own prayer.
The followers panicked. Peter’s faith became fear, but Jesus still walked on water. The winds howled, but Jesus was not distracted from his mission. He stayed on course until his point was made: he is sovereign over all storms. The disciples, for the first time in Scripture, worshipped him. “Truly you are the Son of God,” they said (Matthew 14:33). With a stilled boat as their altar and beating hearts as their liturgy, they worshipped Jesus. May you and I do the same.
It seems to me that the entire world is in a state of trauma. People do not know why they were born or where they are destined to go. The invisible enemies of sin and secularism have left us dazed and bewildered. The world is in desperate need of a people of God who will stay steady in the chaos.
Bombs are still dropped. Pandemics still rage. But in the midst of it all, the Lord still has his people. And when his people proclaim the truth of God in the middle of a crumbling world, you never know who might be changed. God is in the middle of this. This uphill struggle. You feel overwhelmed, but lift up your eyes. Your father is in this moment with you. Who knows but that you have been chosen for such a time as this?
The story of Esther dares you to believe that God, though hidden, is active. He brings life out of broken things. The apostle Paul wrote, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
We know God works. He is busy behind the scenes, above the fray, and within the fury. He never stops working for our good. Not for our comfort, pleasure, or entertainment, but for our good. To do this he uses all things. God works, not through a few things or just the good things, but in all things. And he works for the good of those who love him. Good things happen to those who trust God.
You are secure in the hands of a living and loving God.
Sometimes I wonder if the church has forgotten the vastness of God. Visit a congregation on a given Sunday and you’ll likely find a group of people sitting in comfortable chairs, hearing a comforting message about a God who keeps us comfortable. Do we understand that demons fear and flee at the sound of his name? Are we suffering from a loss of awe? Here’s what I think: a wimpy God makes for a wimpy heart, but a great God makes for a solid saint. So let him be big.
The psalmist asked, “Who among the skies is comparable to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty is like the Lord?” (Psalm 89:6 NASB). My friend, the next time you feel the weight of the world, talk to the One who made the world. As your perception of God grows greater, the size of your challenge grows smaller.
Is anything too hard for God? Does he ever throw up his hands and quit? The welcome answer is No, nothing is too hard for the Lord.Don’t measure the height of the mountain. Ponder the power of the One who made it. Don’t tell God how big your storm is. Tell the storm how big your God is. Your problem is not that your problem is so big, but that your view of God is too small. Accept the invitation of the psalmist: “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together” (Psalm 34:3 NKJV).
Our tendency is to magnify our fears. We place a magnifying glass on the diagnosis, the disease, or the debt. Stop that! Meditate less on the mess and more on the Master. Less on the problems and more on his power.
Despair can be a dangerous season. But it can also be a developing time, a time in which we learn to trust God, to lean into his Word and rely on his ways. The choice is ours.
And to help us choose the wise path, God gave the story of Esther. For fear of the death of his people, Mordecai cries out to Esther to intervene. He said, “If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place…who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).
Relief will come! This is God’s message for you. Feeling undone by the struggle? Then let God unleash the power within you to face it. Shift your focus away from the challenges, and ponder the power of your almighty God.
Satan’s scheme to kill the Son of God was defeated on the cross he designed for Christ. Had Satan known that the death of the Messiah would mean death for him and life for us, he never would have crucified the King. He never saw it coming.
And so that we would never forget, Jesus gave us our own celebration. “He took the bread, he gave thanks and broke it,…saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you;’…He also took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you'”(Luke 22:19-20).
A broken body? Spilled blood? Can good come from this? Communion says yes. You have a good God, who has a good plan, and that plan is revealed in his good book. Today’s confusion and crisis will be tomorrow’s conquest.
You and I live in a trashy world. Unwanted garbage comes our way on a regular basis. Haven’t you been handed a trash sack of mishaps and heartaches? Sure you have. May I ask, what are you going to do with it?
You could hide it, pretend it isn’t there. But sooner or later it will start to stink. So what will you do? If you follow the example of Christ, you’ll learn to see tough times differently.
He wants you to have a hope-filled heart…just like Jesus. Wouldn’t you want that? Jesus saw his Father’s presence in the problem. Sure, Max, but Jesus was God. I can’t see the way he saw.Not yet, maybe. But don’t underestimate God’s power. He can change the way you look at life.
Try this. Imagine a perfect world. Whatever that means to you, imagine it. Does that mean peace? Then envision absolute tranquility. Does a perfect world imply joy? Then create your highest happiness. Will a perfect world have love? Ponder a place where love has no bounds.
Whatever heaven means to you, imagine it. Get it firmly fixed in your mind. Delight in it. Dream about it. Long for it. And then smile as the Father reminds you from the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “No one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” No one. No one has come close. Think of all the songs about heaven, all the artists’ portrayals. All the lessons preached, and poems written, and chapters drafted. When it comes to describing heaven, we are all happy failures.
God will not let you go. The big news of the Bible is not that you love God, but that God loves you! He tattooed your name on the palm of his hand. His thoughts of you outnumber the sand on the shore. You never leave his mind, escape his sight, or flee his thoughts. You need not win his love. You already have it.
He sees the worst of you and loves you still. Your sins of tomorrow and failings of the future will not surprise him; he sees them now. Every day and deed of your life has passed before his eyes and been calculated in his decision. He knows you better than you know you and has reached this verdict: he loves you still.
No discovery will disillusion him. No rebellion will dissuade him. He loves you with an everlasting love. God’s love – never failing, never ending.
You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you.
Is it still hard to consider the thought of forgiving the one who hurt you? If so, go one more time to the room. Watch Jesus as he goes from disciple to disciple. Can you see him? Can you hear the water splash? Can you hear him shuffle on the floor to the next person? Keep that image.
John 13:12 says, “When he had finished washing their feet…” Please note: he finished washing their feet. That means he left no one out. Why is that important? Because that means he washed the feet of Judas. Jesus washed the feet of his betrayer. That’s not to say it was easy for Jesus. And that’s not to say it’s easy for you. That is to say God will never call you to do what he hasn’t already done.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
No man had more reason to be miserable than Jesus, yet no one was more joyful. He was ridiculed. Those who didn’t ridicule him, wanted favors. They wanted to kill him. He was accused of a crime he had never committed. Witnesses were hired to lie. They crucified him. He left as he came—penniless.
He should have been miserable and bitter, but he wasn’t. He was joyful! He possessed a joy that possessed him. I call it a sacred delight. Sacred because it’s not of the earth, delight because it is just that: the joy of God. He offers it to you, my friend: a sacred delight!
Christmas cards. Punctuated promises. On this day, can I share words from my favorite Christmas cards?
He became like us, so we could become like Him.
Angels still sing and the star still beckons.
And from Isaiah 9:6, God has given a Son to us. His name will be Wonderful Counselor, Powerful God, and Prince of Peace.
And my favorite: If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior.
Merry Christmas, everybody!
The virgin birth is much, much more than a Christmas story. It’s a story of how close Christ will come to you. The first stop on his itinerary was a womb. Where will God go to touch the world? Look deep inside Mary for an answer. Better still, look deep within yourself. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” Scripture says (Colossians 1:27).
Christ grew in Mary until he had to come out. Christ will grow in you until the same occurs. He will come out in your speech, in your actions, in your decisions. Every place you live will be a Bethlehem. Every day you live will be a Christmas. Deliver Christ into the world, your world.
In Bethlehem, the human being who best understood who God was and what he was doing, was a teenage girl in a smelly stable.
As Mary looked into the face of the baby—her son, her Lord, his majesty—she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Somehow she knew she was holding God. So this is he. And she remembered the words of the angel when he said: “His kingdom will never end.” Oh he looked like anything but a King. His cry, though strong and healthy, was still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby.
Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager, and in the presence of a carpenter. God came near! Luke 1:33 says, “His kingdom will never end.” May you be a part of it.
Some of the saddest words on earth are “We don’t have room for you.” Jesus knew the sounds of those words. He was still in Mary’s womb when the innkeeper said, “We don’t have room for you.” And when he hung on the cross, wasn’t the message one of utter rejection? “We don’t have room for you in this world.”
Today Jesus is given the same treatment. He goes from heart to heart, asking if he might enter. Every so often, he’s welcomed. Someone throws open the door of his or her heart and invites him to stay. And to that person Jesus gives this great promise: “In my Father’s house are many rooms” (John 14:2). We make room for him in our hearts, and Jesus makes room for us in his house.
John 1:14 says, “The Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.”
He lived among us. He donned the costliest of robes, a human body. He became a friend of the sinner and a brother of the poor. He touched their sores and felt their tears and paid for their mistakes. And to all of us frightened ones, he shared the same message: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me…I will come again and receive you to Myself” (John 14:1).
And how do we respond? Some pretend he doesn’t exist. Others hear him, but don’t believe him. But then, a few decide to give it a try. And when he calls your name, be ready. Look up. He will reach down and take you home…when Christ comes!
Would you do what Jesus did? He exchanged the worship of angels for the company of killers. If you were God, would you? I wouldn’t, but Christ did.
Jesus humbled himself. He went from commanding angels to sleeping in the straw. Why? Because that is what love does. It puts the loved before itself. Your place in heaven was more important to him than his place in heaven, so he gave up his so you could have yours.
It’s time to let his love cover all the things in your life. Every promise broken, every cross word, and harsh word. His love covers all things. Let it. Do it for his sake, for the peace of your heart. Do it for their sake, for the people in your life. Let his love fall on you so yours can fall on them.
Son of God, the Lamb of God, the Resurrection and the Life, Alpha and Omega. Phrases that stretch the boundaries of human language in an effort to capture the uncapturable: the grandeur of God. They always fall short. Hearing them is somewhat like hearing a Salvation Army Christmas band on the street corner playing “Handel’s Messiah.” No names do God justice.
But there is one name. Jesus. A name so typical, if he were here today, his name might be John or Bob or Jim. He was touchable, approachable, reachable. “Just call me Jesus,” you can almost hear him say. And those who walked with him remembered him not with a title or designation, but with a name—Jesus! It’s a beautiful name and a powerful name. The day is coming when at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord!
One’s imagination is kindled thinking about the conversation of the innkeeper and his family. Did anyone mention the arrival of the young couple the night before? Did anyone ask about the pregnancy of the girl on the donkey? The innkeeper and his family were so busy. The day was upon them. The day’s bread had to be made, the morning’s chores had to be done. There was too much to do to imagine that the impossible had occurred: God had entered the world as a baby.
Meanwhile the city hummed. Merchants were unaware that God had visited their planet. The innkeeper would never believe that he had just sent God out into the cold. Those who missed His Majesty’s arrival missed it not because of evil acts or malice. No, they missed it because they simply weren’t looking. Not much has changed in the last two thousand years, has it?
Christianity was born in one big heavenly interruption. Just ask the Bethlehem shepherds. They had no expectations of excitement – these are sheep they’re watching. We count sheep to go to sleep!
Shepherds, however, treasured the predictable. This was the night shift. Any excitement was bad excitement—wolves, lions, poachers. Just because they wanted a calm night, didn’t mean they would get it. Luke says, “Then an angel of the Lord stood before them. The glory of the Lord shining around them, and they became very frightened.”
We always assume the worst before we look for the best. Good thing the shepherds lingered. Otherwise they might have missed the second verse. “Today your Savior was born in the town of David. He is Christ the Lord.” I hope you’ll do what the shepherds did—linger near the manger.
There’s one word that describes the night Jesus came – ordinary. It was an ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. And were it not for a God who loves to hook an “extra” on the front of the ordinary, the night would have gone unnoticed. But God dances amidst the common, and that night he did a waltz.
The night was ordinary no more. The announcement went first to the shepherds. They didn’t ask God if he was sure he knew what he was doing. Theologians would have consulted their commentaries. The elite would have looked to see if anyone was watching. The successful would have first looked to their calendars. The angels went to the shepherds. Men who didn’t know enough to tell God that messiahs aren’t found sleeping in a feed trough. God comes to the common, because his most powerful tools are the simplest.
On the night when Jesus was born, I wonder if Joseph prayed, “Father, this all seems so…bizarre. The angel you sent? Any chance you could send another?”
You’ve stood where Joseph stood. Each of us knows what it’s like to search the night for a light. Not outside a stable, but perhaps outside an emergency room or the manicured grass of a cemetery. We’ve asked our questions. We’ve wondered why God does what he does.
If you’re asking what Joseph asked, let me urge you to do what Joseph did – obey. He didn’t let his confusion disrupt his obedience. What about you? You have a choice: to obey or disobey. Because Joseph obeyed, God used him to change the world. Can he do the same with you? Will you be that kind of person? Will you serve, even when you don’t understand?
“After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18).
Joseph was perched firmly on his branch in the tree. Predictable and solid, Joseph had no intention of leaving it. That is, until he was told to go out on a limb. “Conceived by the Holy Spirit? Come on! Who will believe me?” Pride told him not to do it, but God told him to do it.
I have a feeling you can relate to Joseph. One foot in your will and one foot in His. His or yours? Disrupting, isn’t it? You can bet it won’t be easy. Limb-climbing has never been easy. Ask Joseph. Or better yet, ask Jesus! He knows better than anyone the cost of hanging on a tree.
Proliferating throughout Scripture is an enticing and inviting preposition – the preposition “in.” Jesus lives in his children. From Revelation 3:20, Jesus says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” God in us
Have we sounded the depth of this promise? He will do what you cannot do. With God in you, you have a million resources you didn’t have before. Can’t stop worrying? Christ can, and he lives within you. Can’t forget the past, forgive the jerk, or forsake your bad habits? Christ can! And he lives in you.
Oh to be so full of him that we could say with the apostle Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
It all happened in a moment, a most remarkable moment. God became a man. Heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb.
Jesus came, not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter. The hands that first held him were un-manicured, calloused, and dirty. For thirty-three years he would feel everything you and I have ever felt. Weak and weary and afraid of failure. His feelings got hurt.
To think of Jesus in such a light seems almost irreverent. There’s something about keeping him divine that keeps him distant and predictable. But don’t do it. For heaven’s sake, don’t! Let him be as human as he intended to be. Let him into the mire and muck of our world. For only if we let him in can he pull us out.
God’s plan for humanity. It was crafted in the halls of heaven and carried out on the plains of earth. Only holiness could have imagined it. Only divinity could have enacted it. And only righteousness could have endured it.
When God chose to reveal himself, he did so through a human body. The hand that touched the leper had dirt under its nails. The feet upon which the women wept were calloused and dusty. And his tears—oh, don’t miss his tears. They came from a heart as broken as yours or mine ever has been.
So people came to him. Not one person was reluctant to approach him for fear of being rejected. Remember that the next time you find yourself amazed at your own failures. Or the next time you hear a lifeless liturgy. Remember, it’s man who creates the distance. It’s Jesus who builds the bridge.
The God of the Universe was born into the poverty of a peasant and spent his first night in the cow’s feed trough. He left the glory of heaven and moved into our neighborhood. Who could have imagined he would do such a thing?
What a world he left. Our classiest mansion would be a tree trunk to him. God became a one-celled embryo and entered the womb of Mary. He became like us.
Just look at the places he was willing to go: feed troughs, carpentry shops, badlands, and cemeteries. The places he went to reach us show how far he will go to touch us. He loves to be with the ones he loves!
A small cathedral outside Bethlehem marks the supposed birthplace of Jesus. Behind a high altar in the church is a cave, a little cavern lit by silver lamps. You can enter the main edifice and admire the ancient church. You can also enter the quiet cave, where a star embedded in the floor recognizes the birth of the King. There is one stipulation, however – you have to stoop. The door is so low you can’t enter standing up.
The same is true of the Christ. You can see the world standing tall, but to witness the Savior, you have to get on your knees. So at the birth of Jesus, while the theologians were sleeping and the elite were dreaming and the successful were snoring, the meek were kneeling. They were kneeling before the One only the meek will see. They were kneeling in front of Jesus.
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