January 20, 2022

Acts 9:3-4

3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

It has to be unbelievably hard to go through persecution. We’ve all felt the pain of being an outsider; some of us may have even been hurt physically for being an outsider. But if we become followers of Jesus persecution will come. Stories like this one from the Bible prepare us for those horrible occasions.

Saul had been persecuting the Christians, having just overseen the first killing of one of Christ’s followers. Then Jesus meets him on the road and says, “why are you persecuting me?” Saul killed Stephen, not Jesus. But Jesus is so closely united to His church that He feels our pain as His own. He sees your tears, feels your fears and has promised to make all things right. Continue despite persecution knowing who stands with you.

Prayer prompt: Lord, give me courage as I think about how You stand with me.

January 19, 2022

Matthew 24:36 

36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Intellectual pride is a scary thing. Our minds are so adaptive and clever that seeming miracles come from the Research and Development departments of companies all over the world. We get in trouble when we react to those advancements with a confident idea that we can understand anything. Then we believe the silly lie that we do or soon will understand everything. 

Then we encounter a verse like this where God holds out on us. He tells us only He knows the day and hour and we have to just submit. It requires the humility of a child to trust that God will handle all the important stuff that we can’t handle. But don’t lose sight of the joy of the child who can play and work without a care because Dad’s in charge.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I trust You. Help me to enjoy the humble and care-free life of a beloved child.

January 18, 2022

Matthew 4:10

10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

No one has to be told that the sun is bright or that its warmth feels good. And no one has to be told about the fire of temptation. We are all too familiar with knowing the right thing while feeling the hypnotic attraction of what is certainly wrong. The right way seems hard and cold, the wrong so warm and comfortable. It’s like falling asleep before a crackling fire even though you know by experience that it’s more like putting the fire in your lap.

How do we stop temptation so we can stop getting burned? Jesus actually experienced temptation and He showed us the way out. He looked straight at the right thing, the way He was supposed to act, and quoted Scripture in the face of the Enemy. He simply didn’t fall. He did what was right and told the tempter to disappear. In your Savior’s example is both the way we should live and the obedience God credits to our account. Stand up to your temptation by calling out what’s right and telling the enemy to be gone!

Prayer prompt: Lord, I desire holiness. Help me to remember what’s right and to send the enemy away!

January 17, 2022

1 Thessalonians 4:7-8

7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Have you ever thought about the word desecration? It’s a hard word to use when few things are thought of as holy. But it’s a strong word. The word goes beyond mere vandalism or the destruction of property. It is taking something high and holy and exposing it to something common or even dirty. It would take a twisted soul to attempt, how much more to enjoy, that kind of ruining. 

But that’s part of the accusation against us when we sin. Sin isn’t just a bad decision, it’s a desecration. You have the Holy Spirit inside you, so you, even sinful you, are now holy. That high honor comes with a grave responsibility. Open your eyes further to the glory and the fear of being truly His.

Prayer prompt: Lord, help me to see the honor of being Yours. Help me to cringe at even the possibility of sinning against You.

January 14, 2022

Matthew 6:7-8 

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

If God knows what we need before we ask Him, then why do we need to ask? If heaping up empty phrases is silly because God knows it all already, they why hazard one phrase? The Bible says at one point that the Holy Spirit fixes our prayers before they get to God. If we can’t call His attention to something He doesn’t already know, and what attempts we make are so broken they need to be cleaned up, why go through prayer at all? 

The act of praying, of going to God to ask Him for action in the world, has a great effect on us. How it affects God is beyond our understanding, because God is beyond our understanding. We do know that it also affects us. The action changes the way we think, and the way we feel about the world. What does your prayer life look like? Does it show a dependence on God and a desire to be in His presence? 

Prayer prompt: Lord, in my praying, teach my heart to desire and depend on You.

January 13, 2022

1 Thessalonians 4:3

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;

We all want to know God’s will for our lives. We usually assume that He would tell us the perfect person for us to marry so that we would have the perfect marriage. We would hope He would let us in on the perfect vocation for us to feel perfectly fulfilled and successful.  We could live anywhere in the world, but where are we supposed to live? The Bible is so long already, why not add a page more with God’s will for our life?

Yet, this verse presents His will for us on a silver platter. I think you may have missed it on other readings of this part of the Bible because it is such a let down from our expectation! His will is our sanctification. His will is our growth in holiness. From that perspective, a bad marriage with a difficult job in a less-than-ideal city may best teach us to rely on Him and to act in selfless love. How can you pursue sanctification today?

Prayer prompt: Lord, help keep me focused on Your will for my life, that I would grow in holiness.

January 12, 2022

2 Timothy 4:3-5

3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Where do you find someone who will only tell you true things? There is this cloudy memory in some people’s minds of a grizzled news man in the ‘50s who could really be trusted. But those days are gone now! Verifying a fact is incredibly time consuming if it’s even possible. With conflicting reporting, the possibility arises to just follow or read people who suit your own passions. Christians don’t have that option. 

We have met the Truth and He’s given us quite a bit to do. If Jesus has captured you, if you are really His, then you do have an unerring standard for what is true. What’s more, you don’t have the time to have your head turned by things that only affect the year or even the next presidential term. We are called to work as evangelists helping people for eternity. Look up and fix your eyes again on what, or who, is True.

Prayer prompt: Lord, help me to think clearly and stay focused on what I know is true.

January 11, 2022

Ephesians 5:1-2

1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Loving service to others is hard to sustain. It is hard to keep making lunches for your kids and they’re your kids. How are you going to keep providing for the poor, fostering the orphan, and giving loving forgiveness to the mean man in the car behind you? Looking out on strangers with all their sin and indifference doesn’t seem to stir much passion. 

So look a different direction. We don’t serve because we are so fascinated with the poor. We study the Lord and imitate Him. We walk in love because we can’t stop thinking about Christ’s loving walk and life. We sacrifice and suffer because we follow a God who suffered for us. Turn your gaze upward and see a sacrifice and love so compelling, you’ll search the earth for opportunities to follow Jesus’ example.

Prayer prompt: Lord, help me to study the sacrifice of Jesus to see Your love and find motivation to serve.

January 10, 2022

1 Thessalonians 3:1-2

1 Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God's coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith,

Why is there so much nail-biting in these verses? He says, “when we could bear it no longer…” twice in 5 verses. He’s got a concern for these people that is hard to pin down if it isn’t based on love. He doesn’t get any monetary value from them and his message is bearing fruit all over without the testimony of the Thessalonians. So why the angst? 

It does boil down to the way God has constructed His mission to go forward. Paul felt an intense love for the people he served. The Christian mission doesn’t plod along through personal discipline or cut an impressive figure through proud arrogance. We are propelled by love. And so much greater is love that it melts these piddling motivations like a popsicle in the summer sun. Who are you pursuing for God’s Kingdom through love today?

Prayer prompt: Lord, propel me to work with the vigor of Paul by teaching me to love people.

Daily Reading: Isaiah 66, Daniel 12  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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January 7, 2022

1 Thessalonians 2:19-20

19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? 20 For you are our glory and joy.

What do you get for the man who has everything? Never an easy question, but what do you get for the One who made everything? A gift fit for a king is difficult, a gift fit for the King of Kings is bordering on ridiculous. As CS Lewis pointed out in Mere Christianity, we are in the position of a child asking a Father for money to buy Him a gift.

Yet, Paul seems to have an idea. Laying down our lives to bring the Lord’s Word to people who haven’t heard it before has to come close to the best we can do. We can present the King’s message faithfully and hope to see rebels reclaimed. What small step, or big step, can you take today to introduce someone new to our King?

Prayer prompt: Lord, I want to give You a gift of praise today by sharing Your goodness! Help me to see opportunities and have the boldness to take them.

Daily Reading: Isaiah 63, Daniel 9  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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January 6, 2022

Matthew 9:13

13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus said that. I think most everyone thinks of Jesus as a nice guy, so maybe it isn’t surprising to attribute this quote to Him. But if you become aware of what God thinks about your sin, suddenly the sentence takes on incredible dimensions. Matthew the outsider, the sinner and tax collector had just been recruited by Jesus while the Pharisees stood by, judging. Then Jesus opened up an entirely new side of God; one the Pharisees had never seen.

It is necessary to be in need to receive grace. It is necessary to be in debt to be forgiven. It is necessary to be in suffering to be granted mercy. The Pharisees couldn’t receive these gifts from God because they refused to admit their need of them. What does your posture before God allow you to receive? Are you sick? Jesus stands ready to heal.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I confess my sickness; please give me the mercy of your presence.

Daily Reading: Isaiah 62, Daniel 8  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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January 5, 2022

1 Thessalonians 2:7-8

7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

How much should you give to your fellow man if you want to obey the commands of God? I pray that God forgives us for how often we ask this question and how we ask it. We don’t ask it like a bookish theologian, but scream like a teenager through the bedroom door, “Leave me alone!” More time, more compassion, more understanding, more intrusion and so little in return. 

How do we do it? How do we give like mothers give? Paul did through love. Flip the question over. Instead of asking the minimum required to fulfill an obligation, like the lowest percent you can tip without raising an eye brow from the server. As what more you can do to show the overflowing love you feel for this person. Don’t feel that love? It is one of the great blessings of our universe that the act of loving will be followed sooner than you expect by genuine love. Try it and see. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, help me to quickly feel the love I should feel for those You have dropped in my life like a gift.

Daily Reading: Isaiah 61, Daniel 7  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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January 4, 2022

Acts 16:27-28

27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”

Why suffer for someone else to get Jesus? In this story, one of Jesus’ followers went to a town he’d never been to before to tell about Jesus. Against all odds, he saw people start to follow Jesus and even cast a demon out of a little slave girl! The town, in response, hauled him before judges, stripped and beat him, then threw him into jail. God responds by sending an earthquake that breaks the jail open leaving a perfect escape route and even still, this Jesus follower stayed put in the hope of seeing the jailor become a Christian. 

What could possibly motivate that kind of suffering on behalf of another? Why would one of Jesus’ followers go through that for another? Because he truly followed Jesus. All this guy did was follow through with the example he saw in his Lord. Jesus suffered, going all the way below prison to death itself to see us freed. Where can we follow His example today?

Prayer prompt: Lord, please grow in me a love that will go anywhere for those You want to save.

Daily Reading: Isaiah 60, Daniel 6  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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January 3, 2022

Jeremiah 17:9-10

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 

10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

In the Smith’s parking lot, in the space of 2 minutes, I was both outraged at the outrageously slow walking of the shoppers in the parking lot, parked, then was infuriated by the infuriating drivers as I tried to walk in the store. That is the silly and dirty top to the disgusting and sinful depths of my heart. How can I work to clean things up if I can’t even see myself and chart the inconsistencies, pride, madness, and transgressions of my own life?

God sees to the bottom of that spinning chaos you call a heart and He shows you your sin. Consequences follow actions in God’s world and it is incredibly kind of Him to make it so. If your heart is beyond your own understanding, lean on His. Commit to doing life His way and watch what happens.

Prayer prompt: Lord, show me my ways that I may change them to follow Your commands.

Daily Reading: Isaiah 59, Daniel 5  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 31, 2021

Ezekiel 37:9

9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”

I don’t know if there is a more weird and wonderful story in Scripture than that of Ezekiel preaching to the Valley of Dry Bones. God commands His prophet to go and prophesy to a massive, dry valley filled with the bones of warriors who died in some ancient battle. We may shiver or laugh at such an assignment, but Ezekiel probably got very emotional.

He had done much of his ministry to an Israel that was dead on the inside. He wanted them to turn, to repent like Nineveh and live, but no. Nothing greeted his ministry but death, deportation, and despair. And here, God was telling him to go and preach to the bones, just as he had been preaching to spiritual skeletons. As he preached, those bones had their corruption undone and then life breathed into them. We are a people of sin, but God is a God of restoration. Listen to His words today and live.

Prayer prompt: Lord, let me see my sin that I may turn to You for life.

Daily Reading: Isaiah 56, Daniel 2  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 30, 2021

1 Thessalonians 1:4-5a

4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

The Bible is full of encouragement for the Christian. We are given God’s richest blessings while being called, and this is beyond any hope, His children, even His beloved. How can God’s people fear when a God like Yahweh is watching out for us? It’s a very simple answer: we’re not sure we’re His people. How do we know He is for us and not, how chilling to think, against us?

The Thessalonians wondered the same thing. Unsure about the end times, they began to shake in their hope of God’s love and provision. Paul comes through with an amazing comfort for any believer, then or now. When you believed, you received God’s seal, His very presence, in the Holy Spirit. We are not God’s because our life is perfect or our faith is strong. If we believe, then we can trust Him to bring us home. Rest in that conviction today. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to remember the way you saved me so I will trust that you still love me.

Daily Reading: Isaiah 55, Daniel 1  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 28, 2021

2 Corinthians 6:1-2

1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

The Old Testament is full of the woe of Israel. They walked away from God so many times and their desertion always led to destruction. Even still, God didn’t abandon them. He continued to love them and restore them. Imagine leaving your spouse for another lover, being abused and left penniless and alone, only to be found by your spouse and invited back. Who would refuse such love and forgiveness?

That’s how absolutely mad the human heart is. In 2 Corinthians, Paul quotes Isaiah’s prophetic words to Israel to come back. God wants you to come back. Today is the day of salvation. Right now, His hand is stretched out to you. Won’t you take it? Won’t you live today with joy and a solid commitment to leave your idols?

Prayer prompt: Lord, I accept Your loving invitation to be Yours again.

Daily Reading: Isaiah 53, Ezekiel 47  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 29, 2021

1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Is there any fundamental difference between the modern Christian and the ancient one? The first 11 Christians were sent out by Jesus, on foot, to convert the Roman Empire. What kind of Christianity empowers that kind of optimism? It would be like the kind of optimist that attempts to relocate a mountain one stone at a time. 

And yet, the Christian faith does work. We labor in love, constant in hope, trusting that exactly that kind of miracle can happen. The early Christians had their eyes of faith open wide, staring fixedly at Jesus. They saw their master and believed what He said. Famously, Jesus promised us we could move mountains by faith. Time to begin a work of faith, a labor of love, today. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to see Jesus rather than my obstacles and get to work.

Daily Reading: Isaiah 54, Ezekiel 48  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 27, 2021

Malachi 3:10

10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

It’s crazy to realize, but I’ve never preached a sermon on this verse. You’d think it’d be the pastor’s ole standby, but no. Yet every sermon at Hope Church has talked about what this verse addresses. God’s concern here isn’t with money. How could it be? He is promising to pour out blessing on those who give even 10% so that they have no more need. No, the verse cuts much deeper.

God wants you to trust Him and not yourself. Love not pride. You can never make enough to feel safe in this fallen world. You can never have enough stuff to feel truly happy. Trying to make your own name great leads to just one destination: destitution. Give enough to look away from your money and up to the Face who can make you truly glad.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I commit to give what will never satisfy so I can learn to trust what will always satisfy.

Daily Reading: Isaiah 52, Ezekiel 46  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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December 24, 2021

Luke 1:26-33

30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Christmas requires a good poker face. Even as an adult, it can be hard to hide disappointment or confusion with a gift you didn’t expect and don’t really want. Reading scripture, so many of Jesus’ original audiences start very excited when they suspect He may be the promised Messiah. That excitement plummets into disillusionment or even a cry to “Crucify him!” when they see what kind of Messiah He really is. Why?

If you want to enter the Kingdom of God you have to embrace the King over that Kingdom. He’s in charge and all things work towards His glory. Some people got on board with that idea and embraced Jesus; others rejected Jesus because they’d rather be kings than be ruled even by such a perfect Ruler. Take a look at your heart this Christmas. Will you bow to the King who was born and died for you?

Prayer Prompt: Lord, help me to see feel the joy of Your presence and Your rule. I want to love You as Savior and as Lord.

Daily Reading: Isaiah 49, Ezekiel 43  (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)

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