May 5, 2022

If there is a lie at the heart of every single sin, it has to be the one going all the way back to the Garden. There, Satan tempted Adam and Eve to believe God was holding out on them. He tempted them to break God’s law with the lure of pleasure. If we are going to fight that same temptation, we have to see the lie for what it is. The quote below is from CS Lewis’ book The Srewtape Letters. Screwtape, a demon and tempter, gives demonic advice to another tempter: 

“Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden. Hence we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasure to that in which it is least natural, least redolent of its Maker, and least pleasurable.” 

Never forget that pleasure, ALL PLEASURE, comes from God! If we stop believing the lie of the enemy, “at [God’s] right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11b).

Prayer prompt: Lord, I don’t know why You would include me in the pleasure of Your presence, but thank You!

May 4, 2022

Psalm 23:5

5 You prepare a table before me

    in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

    my cup overflows.

Where will my happiness come from if God forbids so much? He forbids me from even the fantasy of more than one lady (Matthew 5:27-28), from more than a little drink (Proverbs 23:29-35), even from the very American pleasure of wanting what my neighbor has (Exodus 20:17). Should I ever come to the place where I agree that God’s right about these sins, what’s left? How do I get pleasure when He outlaws almost everything the people around me love?

We have to remember where all pleasure comes from. He invented them all. The enemy can only ever tempt us to twist God’s pleasures and in twisting reduce them. God promises to give us the food we need for life, even to load a table with it in the presence of our enemies. He makes our skin and hair soft with oil, He gives us blessings until they fill us up then over flow! We will have to trust Him while we adjust to the pleasures as they were meant to be, but when we do we’ll feel a little bit of Heaven even here on earth. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to trust You for pleasure by reminding me about all the good gifts You’ve already given.

May 3, 2022

Psalm 3:3

3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me,

    my glory, and the lifter of my head.

I want to be strong. I want my kids to see me as invincible and the one they can run to in trouble. I want to be Captain America, but I’m not. Really, I’m more like the scared kid than the invincible dad. That’s why this verse means so much to me. 

I am the scared kid, but I have an invincible Dad. God is a shield about me, total protection. God gives me what value I have calling me loved and His child. God lifts up my head when it droops from fatigue and discouragement. That’s just how good He is when I go to Him. Commit today to look to Him for your security, your satisfaction, and your identity.

Prayer prompt: Lord, let me look to you to lift my head, to be a strong shield around me.

May 2, 2022

Today, read a quote from James KA Smith’s book You Are What You Love. The whole of God’s law to us is summed up in that word love. Take a hard look at your heart and life and ask yourself, what do you love most?

“Jesus doesn’t encounter Matthew and John—or you and me—and ask, “What do you know?” He doesn’t even ask, “What do you believe?” He asks, “What do you want?” This is the most incisive, piercing question Jesus can ask of us precisely because we are what we want. Our wants and longings and desires are at the core of our identity, the wellspring from which our actions and behavior flow. Our wants reverberate from our heart, the epicenter of the human person. Thus Scripture counsels, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Prov. 4:23). Discipleship, we might say, is a way to curate your heart, to be attentive to and intentional about what you love. So discipleship is more a matter of hungering and thirsting than of knowing and believing.”

Prayer prompt: Lord, bring my heart again and again back to You.

April 29, 2022

Psalm 16:11

11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

What do you expect to happen when you talk to God or open your Bible? What do you hope will happen when you attend a church service and spend time with Christians? If it is anything less than real joy, joy that fills you up and satisfies you all the way down, you are missing out.

We have to walk a path of life, a path that includes understanding our sin before God and coming to Him to save us by faith in Jesus. But once we have received God’s forgiveness, at the moment we ask Him with faith in Jesus, He walks with us. He leads us into His presence, full of joy, with pleasures forevermore. Pursue God today with joy as an expectation, maybe only a little now though increasing, and full-volume joy forevermore.

Prayer prompt: Lord, please teach me to feel an ever increasing joy in You.

April 28, 2022

John 4:16

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

When Jesus says His followers have to take up their cross daily to follow Him, it sounds like He only accepts followers who are ready to die for Him. Who could ever match up to that? So to become a Christian, you have to be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego before Nebuchadnezzar and the fiery furnace? Yes, it will certainly be the case that many will be called upon to die for Christ, but to become a Christian, giving your life is much more like the conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan woman.

When she finally asks for the water He is promising, Jesus tells her to bring her husband. He knew her love life was the primary place she sought life and happiness only to be the place of her greatest failures. In taking the conversation to that awful sore spot at the core of her identity, Jesus told her to trade in her failed life for the true life He offers. It always comes back to worship. Will you lay down your life to find it in Him?

Prayer prompt: Lord, I trust You to be the One I put my hope in and the One I get my joy from today.

April 27, 2022

Are you keeping up with people at Hope Church through all the craziness of life now? If you haven’t been, you’re missing out. Jesus’ Church ins’t a place to show off, or to perform some kind of penance. It’s His body showing His love to His people and the world. Ed Welch has written a tremendous book helping Christians know how to care for one another. Check out this brief quote and maybe give the book a read!

“In our era we consult experts, professionals, and specialists, but when you look at your own history of having been helped, it’s likely that you’ll notice very few experts among those who have helped you. Who were your helpers? Were they professional counselors or specialists? Probably not. Most often, they were friends—the regular, everyday people in your life. Friends are the best helpers. They come prepackaged with compassion and love. All they need is wisdom, and that is available to everyone. It’s the perfect system. If God used only experts and people of renown, some could boast in their own wisdom, but God’s way of doing things is not the same as our way. We ordinary people have been given power and wisdom through the Holy Spirit and are called to love others (John 13:34). From this beginning, we are compelled to move toward others rather than stay away.”

Welch, Edward T.. Side by Side (p. 14). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Prayer prompt: Lord, thank You for Your church! Teach me to give and receive Your love through them.

April 26, 2022

Luke 9:23-24

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

It doesn’t matter how easy, or how difficult, the commands of Christ are. There’s still that moment of bowing the knee to Him, and I think that’s the hardest moment. True obedience to Christ starts by calling Him Lord and by laying your whole life before Him. His commands are to love Him with everything you have, so how could obedience require anything less?

At Hope, we’ve been confronting some stuff our culture has tremendous difficulty with. Yet, the hardest part isn’t the Bible’s teaching on sexuality or identity. The hardest part is handing God the right to be God over your life. As desperately difficult as this death sentence looms, God requires our life. Give it to Him. Then watch as He, being Lord of your life, gives it back to you abundance forever!

Prayer prompt: Lord, thank You for giving me life!

April 25, 2022

John 18:8-9

8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” 9 This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.”

Chesterton said, “Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel.” I’m not a fighter. Nobody considers my hands lethal weapons. But when something makes a bump in the night, and I get out of bed to check, shuffling around in my pajamas, I do take upon myself the grand mantle of Protector. God gave men that job, and when we accept it we regain something of that original spark and even reflected majesty that God intended man to have.

Adam failed as a protector, the snake slid right past him. I know I fail constantly to stop the lies of the world from getting to my children and wife. But Christianity isn’t built on teaching people what failures they are and pointing to what they should have done. Christ came to show us what a protector is and then to boldly protect us now and forever. He put Himself before His disciples like a shield, then He bled to shield them from the serpent, Hell, and death. Look to your Protector and gain the confidence to keep fighting.

Prayer prompt: Lord, You are my protector. I hide myself under the shadow of Your wings.

April 22, 2022

John 6:11

11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.

Men are called to provide. When Adam sinned, God’s curse to Adam was on his ability to bring up food from the ground. It’s difficult to talk to a man without finding out what he does for a living; it’s just who we are, even to a twisted degree. There is something about God displayed when a man makes sure his family is satisfied.

Jesus models masculine provision in a staggering way. We have stories like this where He miraculously gives enough for thousands to be satisfied, but He goes much further. Jesus doesn’t just model a fatherly provision, but a heavenly self-sacrifice. He gives them bread in John 6 before teaching them that He is the bread of life. Don’t just go to Jesus for an example, go to Him for your life.

Prayer prompt: Lord, be my bread, what gives me strength and pleasure, all my days.

April 21, 2022

John 13:5

5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Jesus’ style of leadership is just different. Everybody works hard at college in order to be the boss. Why get ordered around when you can do the ordering? Our culture likes to think “Unless you’re the lead dog, the view never changes.” But Jesus went in a totally different direction.

Jesus is the Lord over all by right, by competency, by goodness. By every conceivable metric Jesus should be the leader over everyone and everything. And being the highest, He went the lowest. The God who dwells in unapproachable light stooped to a servant’s role when He knelt to clean the feet of the disciples, even Judas. Look up and see not just your example for leadership, but the kind eyes of your Servant King.

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to lead by Your example of service.

April 20, 2022

James 1:17

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Is God Happy? We can imagine Him as stern, certainly angry, but Happy? In the West we rarely imagine His emotions as inconceivable and flatten Him from the Bible’s full picture to an angry, almost malevolent, Judge. Judge He certainly is and the Scripture is clear about His Holy hatred of what is hate-worthy (i.e. sin), but the picture of God we get when we really read with eyes open is of a God who is essentially happy.

He dwells in a place where every good and perfect thing remains in an unchanging state of perfection. From that perfect Heaven, He rains down gifts on us. If I want to know if God has some good thing to bring me too, if I want to be sure that Heaven is a lovely, joy-filled place, I just need to look at the whole picture. He is Holy, and He is loving with a steadfast love. He is delighted and delights to delight us. Look up to the Sovereign smile of God’s almighty Joy.

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to fight the lie that happiness can only be found in this world.

April 19, 2022

Philippians 2:3

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

The world is not how God wants it to be. People act in their own pride and after their own selfish interests. From that sin comes all kinds of oppression, lovelessness, pain, and isolation. As Christ’s followers, we should not only be different but salt and light, people who impact the world around us. But the way we go about it is very important.

We can speak the truth, but if we do it by looking down on other people, we are sinning. We are commanded to count others as more significant than ourselves. Every person is worthy of dignity and respect. Everyone, even those who are far from God, should receive our kindness and even our service as we seek to help them see the love of God. How do you view people who disagree with you?

Prayer prompt: Lord, thank You for loving me even when you can see my wayward heart.

April 18, 2022

Below is a quote from Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands by Paul David Tripp. If we want to get serious about impacting the wrong thinking, believing, and acting around us, we have to look to our own hearts and be sure we’re leading people to Jesus. Listen to how Tripp says it:

“We all have [hostile people] in our lives, people who attack the borders of our comfortable lives. We have all had attempts at ministry blow up in our faces. We have all been torn between God’s calling and the fear of man, between compassion and anger, between love and bitterness. Given the messiness of sinners helping sinners, we need a model. And as God’s people, we do not have to stumble around. We have the example of the Wonderful Counselor. … Being an instrument of heart change means following Christ’s example and focusing on the heart—starting with your own. [A]ttacks and criticisms had filled me with the fear of man and caused me to forget my primary allegiance to God. These heart issues subverted my knowledge and skill, rendering them ineffective. This was a vivid demonstration of the way my heart shapes my response to the ministry opportunities God sends me. Paul said it to Timothy this way: ‘Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers’ (1Tim. 4:16). Starting with your heart means understanding and submitting to God’s calling, which will shape your life and relationships. God has called us to nothing less than incarnating Christ to others. I am to be rooted in the Word, and zealous to bring the living Word—Christ—to lost, blind, and struggling people. You and I are called to put flesh and blood on who Christ is and what he came to do.”

To read more from this excellent resource, pick up a copy here.

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to fight for holiness and humility that I may be a useful instrument of change for our world.

April 15, 2022

2 Corinthians 2:10-11

10 Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, 11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

Wait, what are his designs? How many people, who aren’t total weirdos, do you think would confidently claim to know Satan’s designs? Yet, it’s here in black and white. Paul assumes believers know what the enemy is doing, which means we would also be preparing ourselves to fight against him. 

When you take a moment to think about it, we really do know some things about the enemy’s designs, at least in a broad-strokes kind of way. In the situation referenced above, Paul stops the enemy from pulling the church apart. We must certainly fight for unity. We also know that the enemy speaks a language of lies. When the Bible contradicts something our culture holds dear, are we ready to fight there too?

Prayer prompt: Lord, please teach me to love You with all my mind, so I’m ready to identify the lies of the enemy.

April 14, 2022

Romans 14:17

17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Inside or outside? We don’t stop asking that question at Hope Church. Does the way you act make you a Christian or does becoming a Christian effect the way you act? Is being part of the Kingdom about keeping Kosher or the way you dress? Does the gate to heaven swing wide for people without righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit as long as they avoid bacon?

The Kingdom of God is only for the holy and the perfect, and that’s not us. If we want in, we go in through Jesus. The question now is do we have Him? Has His love and has the Holy Spirit begun to change us? If it has and He has then we start to see righteousness, peace, and joy invade our lives. That’s what we are working toward in the Kingdom of God.

Prayer prompt: Lord, please work through me and allow me to see your work from the Inside Out.

April 13, 2022

Proverbs 3:7-8

“Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.”

Why obey? It’s so much easier to roll your eyes, wink at your friends, and go about whatever you want to do. We can follow the commands of God that make sense like loving people (at least some of them) and caring for the poor, but why follow the awkward ones? What about commands to stand up to our culture and proclaim God's truth?

Obedience is like good food, disobedience like poison. Each have huge effects not just in the mouth but in the belly. There's no question that it will be very difficult to not only stand with God but to stand against the wisdom of our age. But take heart, obedience will bring healing to your soul and refreshment to who you really are.

Prayer prompt: Lord, thank You for making me strong through obedience and warning me against what will surely hurt me.

April 12, 2022

Matthew 22:36-38
36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.

How do you confront people about their sin? All throughout the Bible, people’s disobedience leads to death. Sin, like poison or nuclear waste, isn’t something to play around with. But how do you talk to someone about it without being high and mighty or judgmental?

The verses above make it so much easier to have the right approach. When I confront someone, I have to remember how much I break the greatest command. I’m not a good person condescending to a bad one; I’m a recovering law-breaker working at loving better. I speak from love of God that is newly growing in my heart, always hopeful of the same process in my friend.

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to speak with truth and love to my brothers and sisters in sin.

April 11, 2022

Psalm 36:7-8

7 How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. 8 They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

To become a Christian you have to give up a crown. Right at the heart of our rebellion against God was a desire to be like God, even to be Him. We traded paradise for a crown, even if it was a crown of fig leaves in a tragic game of make believe. In bowing to God, we take off our crown and recognize God’s authority as the true Lord. But what do we get in return?

If we go back to Him, repentant then forgiven, we don’t become simple slaves cursed to depressing work forever. This Psalm tells us it’s more like walking into a home where we are welcomed to a table weighed down with more food than we can eat, showered with a love that never leaves us, where delights flow with the unending torrent of a river. He says in another place, “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” When we wonder if He is worth serving, remember a God who has challenged you to find the end of His unending love!

Prayer prompt: Lord, thank You for overwhelming any temptation with the goodness of Your love.

April 8, 2022

John 14:1-2

1 "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

On the list of top 5 most stressful events, moving is listed just between divorce and a major illness. Rachael and I felt that stress the week we sold our home and bought a new one with a little more space for friends and the girls. As we lost the comfort and relative stability of our home, we kept switching between idolizing some perfect home and imagining getting swindled into homelessness. Through it all, God has been so kind to remind us that we’re not home yet. 

I imagine Jesus smiling when He told His disciples not to be troubled. I know big things are coming, “in this world you will have troubles,” but if you could see what I’m preparing for you, you’d run through any fire to get there. It doesn’t matter if the new place is a money pit or everything we hope for, it’s still only a place to leverage for the Kingdom of God. It’s still not home. We pray God would keep teaching us and everyone at Hope to keep our hearts set on what’s coming instead of fretting over what is.

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to keep my eyes up on the home to come.