February 14, 2025

I Corinthians 13: 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. (NIV)

If we lack love, we misuse truth.*

When you watch a movie, do you cheer when the bad guy gets what’s coming to him? Do you feel the same way when it’s a real-life villain? Perhaps it’s become even worse – the bad guy doesn’t really have to be all that bad - he’s just someone we don’t like. 

Now that our country is so divided between “us and them,” we find ourselves feeling like “we” have won a victory when something bad happens to “them.” Why do we want bad things to happen to anyone? Shouldn’t we want them to learn a better way? The better way? 

As Christians, of course we don’t delight in evil . . . do we? If we are going to represent ourselves as followers of Jesus, we must respond to evil as he did: 

· He did not delight in evil, but he loved the sinner. 

· He rejoiced with the truth, but he spoke it in love. 

· He never got confused about what is truth and what is evil. 

The next time you see a Facebook post that gloats over the misfortune of someone with whom you disagree, turn it into an opportunity to pray for your enemies – and for those among your friends who just might have the wrong attitude about the bad guys.

This world always has and always will hate truth and truth-tellers. But I would at least have the world hate us for the right reasons. When the world hates us because we are hateful, no one wins – least of all our Lord.*

February 13, 2025

Acts 13: 15 After reading from the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue rulers sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak.” (NIV)

It’s not about being at the right place at the right time but rather about being prepared when the time arrives.*

Paul and his traveling companions dropped in at the synagogue in the town they were visiting when this happened: Oh, look. Out-of-town guests. Come on up and speak some words of encouragement for the people! 

Most of us do not like being put on the spot like that. Finding yourself in the spotlight and unprepared can cause you to freeze like – well, a deer in the headlights! This kind of thing used to happen to my husband often. It wasn’t so bad when, as City Manager, someone would ask him to speak off the cuff about the state of the City because that was information that was always stored in his mind. But one time he was asked to say a few words at the funeral of the wife of one of his employees. He had never met the woman!

One Sunday morning, I got to witness my preacher do a masterful job of improvising in much the same way that Paul did on this occasion in the Book of Acts. Just before the first service, word was received that a young woman from our church had died, leaving a husband and two small daughters. She was very active in several areas of ministry, including children’s, women’s, and music, so she was well-known by many. Instead of preaching the sermon he had prepared, Jim stepped up and delivered a message of comfort and hope to a stunned congregation.  My thoughts that morning as I listened to the impromptu message are a truth about my preacher, about Paul, and about all of us: It can’t come out of you if it’s not already in there.

In Matthew 12: 35, Jesus says that the good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him. Nowhere in scripture are we promised that the Spirit will bring to mind things that we never knew. He won’t help us pass a test we didn’t study for. If we want to be prepared in season and out of season (II Timothy 4: 2), then we must do our best to present ourselves to God as one who correctly handles the word of truth (II Timothy 2: 15). 

Be ready in case someone asks you if you have a message of encouragement for the people. May it be true of us that the word is very near – in our mouths and in our hearts (Deuteronomy 30: 14).

Out of a heart well kept will flow . . . good products, to the glory of God and the edification of others.*

February 12, 2025

II Peter 3: 18 Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (NIV)

The greatest adventure of all mankind is to discover the mind of God.*

When my husband and I got married, we had known each other for less than two years. There was a boatload of stuff we didn’t know about each other, but we were still married. Our marriage didn’t become null and void just because we learned some previously undisclosed information about each other. What kind of marriage would it be if each of us didn’t know more about the other after 25 years together? And how sad would it be if we didn’t love each other more after many years than we did at the beginning of our life together?

The same principles apply to the Christian’s walk with the Lord. None of the sermons in the Book of Acts includes a clause about how much you have to know before you can be saved. Based on Peter’s sermon in chapter 2, pretty much all you have to know is that you need to be saved. When he had finished preaching, Peter’s listeners “were cut to the heart” and asked, “What shall we do?” Peter didn’t proceed to tell them what they had to know – he told them what they had to do. (Acts 2: 37-41)

“Grow in grace and knowledge,” Peter writes, thirty years later. Just as a successful marriage requires more than just saying, “I do,” living a Christian life doesn’t stop with repentance and baptism. Seeking knowledge of God leads to knowing God. Knowing God leads to loving him. The more you love him – well, the more you will love him as you grow in grace and knowledge.

It would be sad to settle for a marriage that never grows after the wedding day; sadder still to settle for less than the abundant life we are promised in Jesus. Grow in grace and knowledge – and love him more every day.

A true acquaintance with God produces reverence for Him.*

February 11, 2025

Genesis 1: 3-26 And God said, “Let there be light,” . . . And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly across the expanse of the sky.” . . . And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures . . .” Then God said, “Let us make man in our image . . .” (NIV)

Often we fail to give God an opportunity to work, not realizing that it takes time for Him to answer prayer.*

If Adam and Eve could have been disembodied observers of the creation process, they might have been impatient with God’s timing. “Why don’t you create us first?” they might have wondered. “We’re your best and favorite creation, after all.” They would not understand how purposeful God is in arranging affairs for the good of his children. If he had created people first, they would have stumbled around in chaotic darkness with nothing to eat.

We are the same when we don’t think God is answering our prayers. If we don’t see instant results, we get impatient, sometimes to the detriment of our faith and our witness. We fail to consider that God is at that very moment making preparations for our good. You need a job? There’s one for you – as soon as he makes arrangements for the person who has that job right now. Tired of being single? He may even now be making arrangements for your path to cross with someone very special. (I met my husband two days after his divorce was final. No point in meeting him sooner!) Praying for a baby to complete your family? Perhaps your circumstances – finances, schedule, health, living conditions – will be better in a year.  God could grant our wishes instantaneously – but he won’t. A genie in a lamp might not consider how making your dreams come true could affect the lives of others but God does. So GIVE HIM TIME!

By faithfully waiting for God to answer our prayers according to his will and his timeframe, we grow. If we get what we asked for, our hearts are glad and thankful. If he doesn’t work things out according to our wishes, we praise him that in all things he works for our good. To attain that level of faith is better than to have a wish-granting genie.

Even while we wait, God is preparing the next step in his plan for our lives.*

February 10, 2025

Mark 2: 3, 4 Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and . . . lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. (NIV)

You must know him by living closely with him, relating to him personally in every aspect of your life.*

For a few years my husband had the Sunday afternoon duty of taking communion to shut-ins. Occasionally, he talked me into going with him. There was one woman who sometimes was not at home when we got there – because she had gone out to lunch. Never mind that she hadn’t been well enough to attend church that morning or any other Sunday for years.

How many of us are like that woman – whether once in awhile or all the time? Or are we like the paralyzed man in this story – are we willing to do whatever it takes to get to Jesus? I’m not talking about dragging yourself to church on Sunday morning when you have the flu because you never miss church. I’m talking about making every effort to be with Jesus because you need what he has to offer – healing, comfort, salvation – and because you know that he wants to be with you. Being with Jesus involves regular church attendance but it is so much more than that. It is spending time in prayer, talking to him – not just asking for favors. We are with him when we open our Bibles and let his word speak to us and then we meditate on it and apply it to our lives. Being with Jesus is a lifestyle of faithful service.

Perhaps you are willing to do whatever it takes to get to Jesus, but how far are you willing to go to bring someone else to him? The paralytic’s friends were certainly willing to take extraordinary measures to accomplish it – and Jesus noticed their faith. They carried the man up to the roof, cut a hole through the ceiling, and lowered him down into the room where Jesus was surrounded by the crowd. Do you care enough about your lost friends to be persistent in your witness to them? Do you remember to pray for them daily? Do you look for opportunities to introduce them to Jesus? Will you be there for them when they need you? Will Jesus be impressed by your faith when you bring a friend to him?

No man ever saved his soul who devoted his whole time and energy to saving it; but many a man has saved it by being so concerned for others that he forgot that he himself had a soul to save.*

Be Still - February 9, 2025

Mark 10: 35-37 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” (NIV)

God has a habit of choosing flawed people to achieve great good.*

In my former career, I had the occasional dubious honor of being interviewed by television reporters. I hated everything about it, but the worst part was watching the finished product on the local news. No matter how well I may have conducted myself for most of the interview, the editors always chose my most inarticulate moments to broadcast. My only consolation was the hope that no one was watching the news that night.

How would you like it if the dumbest thing you ever said was recorded for the whole world to read about for the next 2000 years or more? This is what happened to John - the Apostle Whom Jesus Loved, and writer of one of the gospels, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and three lovely letters that are also included in the New Testament. What’s worse, he dragged his brother into the embarrassing scene with him. Jesus set them straight, the others got indignant with them, and Jesus had to call them all together for a gentle reprimand within a sermon about how he came to serve, not to be served.

We aren’t surprised when Peter sticks his foot in his mouth because he did it so often before he became the new and improved apostle. But both apostles – John and Peter - illustrate how Jesus can take the raw material of our lives and turn us into spiritual powerhouses. They also show us how the Lord uses the personal touch to shape us. John seems to have learned from his one big blunder, while Jesus had to bear with Peter’s enthusiastic mishaps until he finally “got it.” When we follow Peter’s career in the Book of Acts, it’s hard to believe it is the same person who disowned Jesus that night in the courtyard. His new maturity gives hope to the rest of us bunglers.

It is hard to imagine how greatness can be achieved by becoming a slave, but if we trust Jesus to mold our character, we will learn how that works. He did it with Peter and John; he can do it with us.

He sees beyond what we are to what we can become, beyond our sins to the service we can offer.*

Be Still - February 8, 2025

Matthew 13: 3-7 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.” (NIV)

Reexamining one’s faith is to be preferred to skating through life on the thin ice of superficial belief lacking solid conviction.*

Most of us, upon reading this parable, will not see ourselves as one of those seeds that went awry. Anyone who considers himself a Christian will identify with the seed that fell on good soil (verse 8) – but only after the passage of time can we know the true condition of the soil of our own hearts. Read verses 19 through 23 carefully as Jesus explains the meaning of the parable: 

· The seed eaten by birds = anyone who hears the message, doesn’t understand it, and is swept away by Satan before the seed can take root. 

· The seed that fell on rocky places = the one who hears the word, receives it joyfully, but the seed is unable to form deep roots so he falls away at the first sign of trouble. 

· The seed that fell among the thorns = the one who hears the word but allows the worries of life and the deceitfulness of wealth to choke the seed, rendering it unfruitful. 

Do you still think you are the good seed – or can you see your potential to be one of the “bad” seeds? 

What can you do to prevent spiritual disaster in your life or in someone else’s life? A Christian has a responsibility to himself and to others. Getting into the Word for yourself is a great way to prepare your soil for a good crop. And those bad seeds in the parable might not have failed if someone farther along in the faith had stepped up to disciple them. Sometimes we’re the seed, sometimes we’re the sower.

There’s joy in serving others, but the joy multiplies when we equip someone else to serve.*