October 26, 2024

Psalm 40:5

5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

There is this hanging command for Christians to make disciples all over the world. Most believers recoil at such a command because of how difficult it is for a modern to look at someone else and tell them that their ideas about God, good and evil, Heaven and Hell are either Christian or wrong. Convinced as we may be of Jesus, it feels almost violent to declare those convictions at someone else. 

Verses like Psalm 40:5 turn evangelists from cavemen clobbering people with a club to crazy wealthy philanthropists dropping money on any and everyone. We do have truth for others to receive, but it is truth that transforms with its radical goodness. It is exactly what others need! Ponder God’s deeds towards you and be ready to tell someone else today.

Prayer prompt: Lord, Help me to declare Your wondrous deeds!

October 25, 2024

Zephaniah 3:16-17

16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. 17 The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

There is a bottomless well of blessing to be found in these two verses, but the one our church needs is the end of verse 16, “let not your hands grow weak.” I don’t want to be slow or weak in the work I do for the Kingdom. I want strong hands that know their work. I want to have hands like a bricklayer or a shepherd as we build God’s house and care for His people. But the command is never enough, why do we keep going?

We have the Lord. Our work won’t be in vain, He is in our midst and He will save. He doesn’t stand among us like a task master, waiting on our missteps with a whip. He rejoices over us with gladness. He doesn’t allow our weeping and pain to continue forever; He will quiet us with His love. He’s not sad to have this role; He rejoices over you with LOUD singing. Don’t let your hands grow weak.

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to work hard because I see Your joy over me.

October 24, 2024

Zephaniah 3:14-15

14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! 15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.

What would a life without fear look like? Looking out from your home, or even just your room, on a world without any threats would almost be Heaven by itself. We fear the future, the past, and the present. We fear the judgment, the anger, the sneers, and maybe most of all the indifference of the people around us. We fear because we’re guilty and guilty people always fear being caught. 

The Christian joy comes from being freed, not only from enemies, but from the judgment of God Himself. True rejoicing comes when we look all the way up to the highest Judge and see that He has taken away the judgments. On that face is not a frown, but a smile. Now He is in our midst, and we shall never fear again.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I look to You to be free of judgment and free forever of fear.

October 23, 2024

Psalm 17:15

15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

There is a great deal of technique involved in becoming like Christ. We do specific things and we need to do them right, if we want to grow our affections. We spend time with God in the Word and in prayer. We go on mission with God in showing love to our world. We see life with God reflected in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Church. But all of these things will fall apart if we are not truly seeking one thing: to see His Face.

In this verse, that is all the Psalmist wants. The verses before Psalm 17:15 talk about the worldly man who wants lots of kids and possessions. But this person wants to see God’s face more than anything else. True bliss is to stand before that face and see Him looking back at you. You must have righteousness to stand before that Face, another reason we must have Jesus. But if you stand in righteousness before God and He sees you then you see the Holy Smile. That’s heaven.

Prayer prompt: Lord, today I desire just one thing, show me Your Smile through Jesus.

October 22, 2024

Ephesians 2:7

7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

When I think about my growth in Jesus, it is incredibly slow. The same sins trip me up and the same coldness has to be overcome when I begin my time with the Lord. There is progress, but it is so discouraging to look back at a year or two and see how small it is. It’s here that Heaven becomes so encouraging.

My progress may be slow, but if I keep heaven before me, I know I’m headed the right direction. Speed and distance can be slow and small but if I’m headed in the right direction, I will get there. In Jesus, I know I will get there. Commit to walking toward Heaven today and trust in Jesus to get you there.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I am walking towards the coming ages of Your immeasurable grace and kindness. Please help me to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

October 21, 2024

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!

October 19, 2024

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.

October 18, 2024

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.

October 17, 2024

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.

October 16, 2024

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 can sneak up on us at the end of a year with the prospect of having to do it all again. 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.

October 15, 2024

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.

October 14, 2024

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.

October 12, 2024

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.

October 11, 2024

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.

October 10, 2024

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.

October 9, 2024

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. Are we willing to take steps today, when no chasm exists, 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.

October 8, 2024

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.

October 7, 2024

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 of 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.

October 5, 2024

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.

October 4, 2024

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.