December 16, 2021

Psalm 17:7

7 Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.

God has made a strange deal. He has decided to display the extent of His love and the quality and grandeur of His grace by heaping it on our heads. It is exactly like one of the unimaginably rich tech billionaires adopting an orphan and then building palaces with perfectly manicured gardens and legions of servants just to house the orphan. Take a moment to imagine the wild decadence of God giving in order to show off the magnitude of His love. 

God isn’t just going to give you what you need. He is wondrously showing His steadfast love. If you see the waterfall of God’s grace, the jaw-dropping, size-of-the-cosmos love that He has then you will seek refuge at His right hand. He can and will protect you for His Name’s Sake. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, I look to You for my protection and provision!

Daily Reading: Proverbs 25, Isaiah 41, Ezekiel 35  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 15, 2021

Ephesians 2:6

6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 

An absolutely wonderful young lady at Hope Church went on a trip to Italy to support a church in Rome. I jealously asked her about the food and she hated it. She just wanted Olive Garden. Say what you will about her palate, she is an American girl with American appetites. Where you’re from matters. 

The first part of Ephesians 2 talked about what we were. When Paul describes our passionate desires against God and our following of the Enemy, he uses the past tense. We were like that, but we are now raised up and seated with Jesus in the heavenly places. We now have access to a new country, we have a seat at a new table. It may take some time to acclimate your appetites to Italy, but let me tell you, it’s better than Olive Garden.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I am now Yours forever. Help me to right now, desire Jesus more than the world.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 24, Isaiah 40, Ezekiel 34  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 14, 2021

Ephesians 2:1-2

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

It’s really hard to go against the current. The constant pressure sweeps you away unless you actively row against it. Believers spend a shockingly small amount of time with the Father because the current is pulling them away all the time. As soon as I let my guard slip, as soon as I stop putting oar to water, away I go. 

That current is what the Scripture calls the world. People all around you continually express their love of things other than God. The art and music, the entertainment and almost uniform attitudes form a constant flow away from a God-centered heart. There is amazing truth in the world, but the love of the Father is missing. We have to pull against to find the better joy of His presence.  

Prayer prompt: Lord, You are better than all the options the world gives. Today, I choose You.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 23, Isaiah 39, Ezekiel 33  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 13, 2021

1 Peter 5:8

8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

In the beginning of the Bible, we had a pretty sweet thing going. Man and wife lived in a pleasure garden built by God with unfiltered access to God Himself. Now we live with pain, death, fear, anxiety, and a gap between us and God that allows millions to deny He even exists. What happened? 

We only got what we deserved with a huge helping of mercy on top. We did sin. But there was another there who crafted a lie to entice us from bliss to bedlam. He hates us because he hates the God we reflect. He hurts us because he knows how much that hurts the Father. Be sober-minded. Be watchful. Stay close to the Lord and stay clean because there is an enemy hunting you.

Prayer prompt: Lord, help me to see Your hand of protection and be wary of my enemy.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 22, Isaiah 38, Ezekiel 32  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 10, 2021

Daniel 7:13-14

13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Instability, painful memories, and concern for the future of our country comes with a day like today and in a time like we’re living in. We pray for our leaders and hope for a better tomorrow, but I don’t know how many of us connect our current experiences with the situations in the Bible. The book of Daniel takes place when the whole of Israel had been broken and burned with the people taken into captivity in Babylon. In the night, God gives captive Daniel a vision.

Daniel sees the Son of Man standing before God to receive the Kingdom that will never end. This King is becoming the King over an everlasting realm. Daniel looked upon the true foundation of our confidence. Imagine waking up with the confidence that God is still on His throne and that Jesus will reign forever. You live under that King and that Kingdom. Walk out in that confidence today. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, I trust You have all of this world, with all of its pain, under complete control.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 19, Isaiah 35, Ezekiel 29  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 9, 2021

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  8 Love never ends.

Endurance isn’t an easy thing to find. Some rare folks have a natural tenacity, but most of us don’t. The Greeks told of Sisyphus having to push a rock up a mountain forever, never reaching the top, never allowed to stop. That monotony and lack of progress perfectly sum up most of our relationships, certainly our sanctification. How do we keep at it?

It’s not easy to define love, but the quality of valuing someone even when they aren’t particularly useful is a great place to start. Only love can continue to push a rock up a hill with no sign of a finish line. Only love can continue to endure all things, believing the best, hoping for real change. Only love never ends. When we see the gospel message, is it any wonder that the Bible says God is love?

Prayer prompt: Lord, I love You and I am forever amazed that You love me.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 18, Isaiah 34, Ezekiel 28  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 8, 2021

Luke 15:20

20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

So what is Heaven really? Americans are uniquely able to ask that question as we live, even now, in unprecedented wealth. You have more access to pleasure than almost any other group in history. So what is it? If we are going to make the perfect moment, the perfect situation, what would it entail?

Love truly is the only answer. Heaven is love without the restrictions of our sin, love from the only One who can really love. Heaven is that hug from the Father that bestows a name, an acceptance, and a joy that overwhelms us. One day we will know that love fully, but even now we can know it in part. Heaven is reaching out to you right now. Stop and enjoy His love this morning.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I love You. Help me to experience Your love today.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 17, Isaiah 33, Ezekiel 27  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 7, 2021

Luke 6:35-36 

35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. 

I want to be like my dad. He’s a generous soul who desperately cares for others. He may see wickedness and hate it, but when the wicked come close, his heart fills with compassion. He models another One we would be blasphemous to call Father. Except that’s what He makes Himself for those who are in Christ. 

Our Father in Heaven is influencing us all the time. Our love for Him is going to end up molding our actions and the way we react to even the enemies around us. In a world filling with enemies, this is no light task! Are you prepared to be kind to the ungrateful and the evil? If you need a model, be merciful even as your Father is merciful.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I’m so thankful for the way You loved an enemy like me and made me into a son. Teach me to love like You love.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 16, Isaiah 32, Ezekiel 26  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 6, 2021

Jeremiah 29:11

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Have you read this verse before? It is super encouraging. It’s the kind of verse a grandpa would write in the card of a graduating senior. They look forward to big things with a blazing optimism, the kind of optimism that sours in most people. If you don’t know the story with this verse, you can get pretty upset when evil does come instead of what we would call welfare. 

This isn’t God’s promise to a young man or woman with the world at their fingertips. This was spoken by God to the nation of Israel as Jerusalem burned and Babylon conquered. Everything they hoped for was just taken apart, brutally, before their eyes. God’s wrath was being poured out on their sin. And even there, God’s steadfast love continued. Even in ashes and smoke, God’s promise continued. In this strange year, look up to God’s steadfast unconditional love. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, I know You will never leave me or forsake me.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 15, Isaiah 31, Ezekiel 25  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 3, 2021

Proverbs 5:3-5

3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil, 4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death her steps follow the path to Sheol;

If an enemy were going to poison me, where would he hide the poison? If he put it in many healthy foods, I’d continue a long, happy life. But if he hid it in the kettle corn, or the Ruby Snap cookies, I’d be dead in 5 minutes time. The sweet can hide the bitter. Our enemy knows this very well. 

Temptation doesn’t have to be sexual to fit into the verses above. Anything God warns us against will be used by the enemy to entice us down to death. Sin is always going to be honey on top and death underneath. Look away from these false pleasures, these poison injected cookies, to the life that we find in Christ. He too stands with open arms, ready to embrace you as friend, son, and co-heir to God’s pleasures forever more. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, help me to see through the bait to the hook and hate sin so that I may much more love the good pleasures you give.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 12, Isaiah 28, Ezekiel 22  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 2, 2021

Luke 16:26

26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’

Are Christians happy about people being separated from God forever in Hell? Some think we look down on those far from God as being inferior to us and are snickering behind our Bibles at their eventual destruction. If any church person feels that way, and I’m not sure who does, they don’t have Christ’s love for the lost. 

If we begin to have a heart like Jesus, we will be willing to go anywhere, even terrible places, to bring the lost to God. A great evidence is this verse from Jesus’ teaching on the rich man and Lazarus. Abraham tells the rich man that a chasm exists between Heaven and Hell to stop traffic in either direction. There are some, like Our Savior, who would leave Heaven to try and help out Hell. Are we willing to take steps today to find people far from God and bring them to His grace?

Prayer prompt: Lord, send me a love like You have and send me to the world.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 11, Isaiah 27, Ezekiel 21  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 1, 2021

Luke 16:25

25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.

What are your good things? It may seem like an odd question, but that one question distinguishes Lazarus from the rich man. It will determine Heaven or Hell. It is what the Old Testament Law was built to show you. In the end, God will judge you based on what you loved most. As Jesus said, the whole law rests on the command to love God and loving God, to love others. 

So, what are your good things? If God is not it, you’re missing out on Heaven. You will miss out on Heaven in the ultimate sense of where your soul goes, but more than that. Heaven isn’t primarily a gold-plated city without disease. Heaven is the place where God is and where we are with Him forever. If you can know Him now, Heaven will invade your life even now.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I want You more than anything else.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 10, Isaiah 26, Ezekiel 20  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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November 30, 2021

Isaiah 55:8-9

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Our kids are still young, but I already dread the teenage years. It won’t be easy to lead them when they are only sure of one thing: They know more than their parents. While there is a moment when teenagers come back around and gain a small amount of humility in dealing with mom and dad, most people struggle to have that humility toward God. We are extremely quick to call Him a tyrant, cold, or even to insist He can’t exist. 

We need a reality check. God’s ways are infinitely higher than our ways. We should fall on our knees in gratitude that we don’t understand everything He does. If we could, it would mean He is no greater, wiser, or smarter than we are. When I look at the mess we’ve made fo the world, I thank God that His ways are higher than ours. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, I submit my will to Yours knowing You know better than me.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 9, Isaiah 25, Ezekiel 19  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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November 29, 2021

Isaiah 49:14-16

14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

Early in my marriage, I had a nightmare that Rachael had just forgotten me. I had to remind her of who I was and that we were married. It wasn’t dementia, she forgot me like you might misplace your keys. That nightmare is a real fear for many Christians, especially when we suffer. Has God forgotten us? 

These verses from Isaiah are amazing. A woman would never forget her nursing baby. Even if she did, God would never forget us. He has proved it by carving us into His hands. More permanent than any tattoo, Jesus could show doubting Thomas the holes that the nails had made. Those scars of love are still with Him and should preach a sermon to our fearful hearts every time we remember them.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I trust that You will never forget me, even when the enemies surround me or dark depression comes.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 8, Isaiah 24, Ezekiel 18  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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November 26, 2021

1 Corinthians 4:5

5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. 

We don’t judge other people because Jesus commanded it and because we use such vastly different standards for others and ourselves (Matthew 7:3-5). We don’t judge ourselves because God is our judge and the Gospel is our identity. In 1 Corinthians 4:5 we get one more reason to withhold our judgment on others: we just don’t know enough.

“Don’t judge my story based on the chapter you walked in on.” We don’t know other people’s history, the set of gifts and intelligences they were given, or the motivations in their hearts as they act. How can we be so quick to assume we know all this and can therefore pronounce a judgment of good or bad? It’s so manifestly proud and hypocritical. Determine today to believe all things and hope all things in love toward others. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, I resign as a judge over the Universe. Thank You for correcting my thinking.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 5, Isaiah 21, Ezekiel 15  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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November 25, 2021

1 Corinthians 4:4

4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.

As hard as it would be, I do see the appeal in something like Islam. In that rigid religion if you do the right things someone will pronounce you Good. No matter how nagging your insecurities, if you follow all the commands all the time then you can walk around with your head held high. Of course, everyone who tries such a thing ends up proud or decimated by the attempt. It’s just not possible to stand up under God’s judgment.

That total inability is the beginning of the gospel and why we need the gospel so much. We can’t stand before God’s judgment, but Jesus can. We have to stand in Him. If you know that all the way down then you can live the kind of life that religion promised but never delivered. You can pursue good things and hate wicked things while still able to quiet shame and guilt with assurance of God’s acceptance in Jesus. Is that how you think?

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to live in a gospel way not in a religious way.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 4, Isaiah 20, Ezekiel 14  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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November 24, 2021

Proverbs 31:10

10 An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.

Today is my wife’s birthday and she is both excellent and far more precious than jewels. A precious stone may reflect beauty on the wearer. They may give the people around you something beautiful to see and make the world a more lovely place. But an excellent wife gives you the joy of real love. She brings you honor as the world wonders, “How did he get her?” I look at my wife and feel the same confusion mixed with just buckets of joy.

How is it possible that God would use this idea of a bride to talk about the Church? As a loving husband looks on an excellent wife, or a king shines in his radiant jewelry, God looks on you and me and finds joy. I expect Him to look at me like I look at something stuck to the bottom of my shoe, but no. That kind of love is beyond imagining and it rests, with all its intensity, on you.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I cannot understand Your love, but I’m so grateful for it.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 3, Isaiah 19, Ezekiel 13  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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November 23, 2021

1 Corinthians 4:3

3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.

In 1 Corinthians we are told not to be judged by people and our culture gives a surprised “Amen!” Culturally, we’ve been told to follow our heart, to make our own right and wrong for ourselves for generations. But then, the Scripture checks us by saying we don’t judge ourselves either. Let this light shine over your identity: you are not what people around you say you are, or even what the shame and insecurity in your own head say you are. You are who God says you are. 

As we’ll see as we dig into the scriptures further, God goes way further than we would in the way He judges and in the way He loves. You are both way worse than you thought and infinitely more loved than you ever dreamed. If you can stop judging yourself and start trusting God’s truth about who are then Heaven itself will open up to you.

Prayer prompt: Lord, thank You for loving me despite it all my sin!

Daily Reading: Proverbs 2, Isaiah 18, Ezekiel 12  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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November 22, 2021

Romans 5:1

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Reality shows leverage the moment of judgment. Talent shows squeeze every last ounce of tension from the moment before a judge allows a contestant to continue or sends them home crying. Imagine being in a more serious version, in a real courtroom. The presiding juror hands the decision to the judge to read, then gets it back as everyone sweats with anticipation. Your freedom, maybe your very life, hangs on that judgment.

The gospel tells us a different story. We have been, in the past, justified by faith. It has already happened. The judgment has already come and you are declared innocent. Even now, right now, you have peace with God through Jesus Christ. It isn’t a hope for the future but a present reality. Live in the incredibly free joy of that most lovely truth!

Prayer prompt: Lord, thank you so much for giving me certainty of my future in Jesus.

Daily Reading: Proverbs 1, Isaiah 17, Ezekiel 11  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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November 19, 2021

Hebrews 10:30-31

30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

If I forgive you, does that mean you got away with it? Doesn't it seem like the only person who will pursue justice on my behalf is me? I know movies have those dogged detectives who stay up at night looking at giant tack boards of clues and pictures, but can I count on justice in my life? I think that may be the biggest hurdle to forgiveness.

The hard truth of scripture is that God is the judge who will bring about vengeance on any and all who do evil. No one escapes, and His justice is perfect. That means I can forgive, but it also means I really, really need forgiveness. I may not be a picture on a detective’s cork board, but God has seen the way I’ve lived. Go to Jesus to be forgiven for your sin! Otherwise, well, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, please forgive me my debt of sin as I forgive those who hurt me.

Daily Reading: Jonah 2, Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 8  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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