March 4, 2025

Acts 16: 13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. (NIV)

Remember to always leave a place of divine providence.*

When we walk with God, our plans and expectations are often (or usually) preempted by God’s will. In this story, Luke, along with Paul and his other companions, goes down by the river, expecting to find a quiet place to pray. Instead, they found a group of women and began speaking to them. One of them, Lydia, a business-woman, responded to Paul’s message and she and the members of her household were baptized.

When you look for one thing and instead find something else – something better – it’s called serendipity. God is the master engineer of the serendipitous. I’m sure you can recall times in your life when God stepped in and improved on your expectations. My college career is a shining example of serendipity. Right out of high school, I attended a conservative, traditional Bible college; but after two years, I knew God was leading me elsewhere. In those days, Bible college offered little for young women who weren’t planning a career as a church secretary, church musician, or minister’s wife. Across the country, a new idea in Christian higher education was launched – a Christian “vocational” college – so off I went. The school had been open for one year when I enrolled, so nothing went according to plan – mine or theirs. The degree program I went there to pursue never really got off the ground so my hopes of a career in creative writing were dashed. The serendipitous element of this story is that even though I didn’t get the college education I was looking for, I received real-life experience and opportunities for leadership development that better prepared me for my future than anything a conventional college would have offered. The irony: in my life, I have served stints as a church secretary, a church musician, and a minister’s wife. And now I am finally getting to fulfill my life-long dream to be a writer!

There is nothing wrong with making plans and having expectations, but don’t fall in love with them. If you allow yourself to yield to God’s better idea, you may find yourself down by the river changing lives for eternity – and maybe even doing what you always wanted to do. 

If we are intent on achieving only our own plans, we will have no time for His.*

March 3, 2025

Acts 1: 16, 17 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago . . . concerning Judas who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus – he was one of our number and shared in this ministry.” (NIV)

Your past doesn’t have to be a picture of your future.*

In this passage, Peter is speaking to believers in Jerusalem. You would think that he could get his message across just as effectively if he neglected to mention the part about Judas having been “one of our number.” His audience might have concluded that Jesus didn’t screen his top management team very thoroughly - if they didn’t listen carefully to the whole story: the Scripture had to be fulfilled. Jesus had to be betrayed and someone was going to do it. Judas stepped up and volunteered for the position. What I find intriguing is Peter’s admission that Judas shared in the ministry. It makes him sound like he was a productive member of their merry band. Until he wasn’t.

I knew a preacher who went to prison for income tax evasion. Another preacher, one whose preaching spoke to me when I was just a kid, went a little crazy and tried to kill his wife. Another, whose writing I found to be challenging and scriptural, decided that he was really a woman. Does their bad end cancel out the good that they did?

I don’t believe that scripture teaches that our good deeds and our sins will be weighed, our fate decided by which is heavier, but it is certainly scriptural to believe that anyone can repent and return to living a Christian life. The fact is, the second preacher’s impact on my life was not diminished by what he did later. His good influence lives on in his son who is a successful minister today. The articles written by the third preacher may have become tainted in my mind but you may have read a quote from him in one of these posts.

God can – and does – perform miraculous deeds, but for the most part he has left the work of the Kingdom in the hands of imperfect people. (Perhaps the miraculous occurs every time any good is actually accomplished by our inadequate attempts to be helpful.) Even Judas, who betrayed the Lord for money, could have chosen to repent and return to sharing in the ministry of Jesus. After all, the Lord accepts our repentance after we have betrayed him for nothing.

Believe in Christ’s forgiveness. Then start living like a forgiven person.*

March 2, 2025

Acts 13: 29 “When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.” (NIV)

God always writes the last chapter.*

Jesus lived his whole life knowing what his destiny was. He knew the prophecies about the Messiah and that he was the fulfillment of them. (Read Luke 24: 27.) But what about the other people involved in Jesus’ life, ministry, and death who played key roles in carrying out the predictions in scripture? Did any of them realize the significance of their actions?

We see from the events surrounding Jesus’ life and death that God can use anyone to accomplish his will. In this speech in the synagogue in Pisidia Antioch, Paul doesn’t distinguish between those who cruelly executed Jesus and those who lovingly tended to his body afterwards. Everyone played their part in fulfilling the prophecy. Just as the players in the drama of Jesus’ life and death were unaware of their role in history, we may be clueless about God’s plans for our lives.

Many Christians believe that God has a detailed blueprint for each of his followers, but I’m don’t see it that way. While we are often faced with choosing between right and wrong, most often our big life-choices are between good and good. God gives us free will and so we get to make up our own minds about whom to marry, where to live, what career to pursue. Every decision should be preceded with prayer for God’s direction – because every decision has the potential of being that defining moment for those who are called to a specific path. But if God hasn’t spoken to you through a burning bush, or an angel, or your cousin Mordecai, chances are your calling is to glorify God in the everyday life you have chosen for yourself.

That having been said . . . even so, perhaps it would be wise to live as if you are expecting to fulfill a unique niche in history. Prepare yourself for your potential mission: study and meditate on God’s word daily; develop a healthy prayer life; look for opportunities to serve and witness; be open to the Holy Spirit’s counsel; love God and love others. Do this and you will fulfill God’s (large or small) purpose for your life. 

We make decisions throughout each waking moment of the day, but first those decisions must be evaluated and compared with what God has instructed his people to do.*

March 1, 2025

Romans 12: 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. (NIV)

Jesus knows how you feel.*

Today's passage appears amid a series of verses that could be captioned: Words to Live By According to Paul. They aren’t deep theological thoughts, but applying these principles will exemplify a Christ-like attitude more profoundly than any words of wisdom we might express.

Rejoicing or mourning with another speaks of our ability to empathize with them. We display the appropriate emotion for the occasion because we feel it also. It’s harder to do than you might think, no matter how much we might love the other person. We aren’t always made happy or sad by the same circumstances as others. We can be glad or sad for them but we don’t feel the same pain or joy.

Is there anything we can do to improve our ability to empathize? There may be a library-full of self-help books on the subject but I’ll save you the trouble of reading them. If we want to care more deeply we can accomplish it by becoming more like Jesus.

In Matthew 9: 36, we read that Jesus had compassion on the crowds. “Compassion” is a feeble attempt to convey the significance of the original Greek word used in this text. Matthew used a word that expresses Jesus’ “vehement affection of commiseration, by which the bowels and especially the heart is moved.”* We might say that our heart hurts for someone but Jesus felt it in his gut. The more closely we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, the more our hearts – our guts – will become like his.

It is not enough to merely don a mask of appropriate emotion. We may not be comfortable with the idea of such intensity but when Jesus rejoiced and mourned with others, he really felt their joy and sorrow. Living the Christian life often requires us to do things that we really don’t feel like doing, but if we are going to love others as Jesus loves them we are going to feel it in our guts!

The character of our Savior is compassion.*

February 28, 2025

Romans 12: 6-8 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. (NIV)

Sometimes the Lord calls us to do tasks that are far beyond our “giftedness” – jobs that will stretch our faith and force us to use some unfamiliar spiritual muscles.*

Paul took a risk when he made this list. There is a tendency among humans to think every list is all-inclusive. We might look at this catalogue of gifts and think, “I’m not gifted in any of those areas. I guess I have nothing to offer.” And we would be missing the point.

If you’re like me, you may be a little cloudy on the difference between gifts and talent. Maybe you aren’t sure if you have either. So, what can you do? Paul says that our gifts are a matter of the grace given to us. What better way to show your gratitude for that grace than by just doing what you do and doing it to the best of your ability? You might discover your giftedness, or you might just learn that the more you do something, the better you are at it. Perhaps God gave you the gift of persistence! (Not on the list, by the way.)

I read something that speaks powerfully to the gift-impaired: “Excusing yourself from evangelism because it’s not your ‘spiritual gift’ is like watching a child drown because you’re not [a] lifeguard.”* Don’t wait until you have discovered and perfected your gift before you offer your service to the Lord. Glorify him with all your actions and others may identify your spiritual gift before you do. Just because you don’t know what to call it doesn’t mean you don’t have it! Use it or lose it!

We hold our spiritual gifts on the terms of using them.*

February 27, 2025

Mark 4: 3-8 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path . . . Some fell on rocky places . . . Other seed fell among thorns . . . Still other seed fell on good soil. . . .” (NIV)

Failure in evangelism is to be expected. Not everyone will see the point.*

After telling the parable of the seed and the sower, Jesus took the Twelve aside and explained to them the meaning of the story. The seeds represented the word, and the ground they fell upon stood for the condition of the hearts of the hearers of the word. It seems the seeds were sown liberally and randomly. Some of those randomly scattered seeds fell on good soil; some didn’t fare as well. Because Jesus called the man a farmer, it is safe to assume that he would also have been deliberate about planting most of his seeds in a properly prepared garden.

Our attempts at sharing the word can look a lot like this farmer’s work. We aren’t surprised that sowing liberally and deliberately would have good results, but have you ever considered the effectiveness of the randomly scattered seed? I recently heard a woman share the story of how she came to know the Lord. It began in WalMart when she overheard two other women talking about church. How random is that??

As in farming, proper preparation and effective methods are important in sharing the gospel, but sometimes we stress so much about strategy that we neglect to sow our seeds liberally. As for those randomly scattered seeds – those occur naturally when we follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Some seeds may be eaten by birds or choked by thorns but some will fall on soil that has already been plowed by another. We must learn to leave the bountifulness of the crop to the Lord. Our job is just to keep scattering those seeds!

My part is to share the gospel and God’s part is to make the gospel effective in the heart.*

February 26, 2025

Psalm 1: 1-6 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked . . . (NIV) 

You’re the average of the five people you associate with the most.*

There is a lesson for us in every verse of the first Psalm. Let’s look. 

1. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. People come into our lives uninvited and unwelcome. We don’t get to choose our family members or our co-workers or our fellow church-members. We do have freedom of choice when it comes to whose advice we listen to, whose company we keep in our leisure time, and whose behavior we emulate. 

2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. Reading God’s word should not be just an item on our to-do list. If we delight in it, we will make it a priority. Read it, meditate on it, own it. 

3. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. A tree growing on the river bank is always close to its source of refreshment. When we remain in the refreshment of God’s word, we will be spiritually fruitful and healthy – success on God’s terms. 

4. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. The wicked have no roots and thus no connection to the source of sustenance and strength. 

5. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. If not there, where will they be? Alone. 

6. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. The way of the righteous lasts; the way of the wicked doesn’t. 

Choose your companions wisely. Delight in and meditate on the word of God. Stay on the path that leads to everlasting life. Be prosperous!

God’s Word reveals the right road.*