May 7, 2025

Acts 6: 5 They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. (NIV)

Each of us has only so much mental space. What is filled with frivolity, foolishness, and filth cannot be filled with goodness and godliness.*

You may be a “glass half-empty” kind of person, or you could have a “glass half-full” outlook, but no matter which type you are, you can’t add more to a full glass without displacing some of what’s already in there. If you, like Stephen, are full of faith and the Holy Spirit, you can’t add worry or guilt to your spirit without sloshing out an equal volume of the good stuff.

Likewise, if you are full of negative attitudes and sinful desires, there is no room for faith and the Spirit until you begin to spill out the bad stuff. In Ephesians chapter four, Paul gives some practical tips for emptying the bad and pouring in the good – he calls it putting off the old self and putting on the new. He says to quit lying and start speaking the truth; if you are angry, defuse it before the day is over; stop stealing and perform useful work; replace unwholesome talk with encouraging words; get rid of bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, and malice, and instead be kind, compassionate, and forgiving (verses 25 – 32).

Stephen is later described as “a man full of God’s grace and power.” (Verse 8) He allowed the Holy Spirit to fill his heart until there was no room for anything else. If you are not full of grace and power, what is taking up space in your heart?

It’s not enough to keep the bad stuff out. We’ve got to let the good stuff in.*

May 6, 2025

Genesis 4: 4, 5, 8 The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look 

with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. . . . while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. (NIV)

Obedience breeds spiritual power. Disobedience breeds more disobedience.*

What went wrong here? Why did God favor Abel and his offering over Cain and his? Prior to this incident, we have no record of God having instituted the practice of offering sacrifices, so we don’t know if there was a procedural issue involved, but we find some hints within the passage that help us understand what happened and why. 

· Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil; Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. Was Abel more generous than his brother? 

· Cain was angry when God rejected his sacrifice. Could he already have been harboring a bad attitude? 

· In verse seven, God poses a question to Cain: “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?” Clearly, Cain had done something wrong. 

The message for us today is this: “It’s possible to feel what Cain felt without doing what Cain did.”* Cain was rejected and angry and he allowed sin to “crouch at his door.” We all have moments – maybe days – when negative emotions seem to be in charge. None of us has plotted and killed our brother in the midst of our snit, but we have all made bad decisions and allowed that crouching sin to come on in. The solution that God extended to Cain is the same that he offers us: master the sin (verse 7). 

From here, we look ahead to Jesus and we learn that we do not – cannot – rely on our own strength to master sin. The Holy Spirit is our power source (Acts 1: 8). It is his job to teach us and remind us (John 14: 26); to convict the world of guilt (John 16: 8); and to guide us into all truth (John 16: 12). We are not victims of sin: “But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.” (Romans 8: 10) 

Master the sin, indeed!

To be born of God means that I have the supernatural power of God to stop sinning.*

May 5, 2025

Luke 14: 16-20 “A . . . man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. . . . he sent his servants to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, . . . everything is now ready.’ But they all . . . began to make excuses. . . . ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. . . .’ . . . ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. . . .’ . . . ‘I just got married . . .’” (NIV)

Ours is so often a self-imposed busyness.*

Jesus said the people in this parable were making excuses, not presenting reasons, for why they couldn’t attend the banquet. The point of this parable had nothing to do with excuses versus reasons, but it certainly provides a good illustration. Look at what each of them said: 

· Excuse: “I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it.” First of all, did he not go look at it before he bought it? And second, would it not still be there after dinner? Reason: I do not want to attend your banquet. 

· Excuse: “I have just bought . . . oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out.” Maybe this fellow had actually seen the oxen before he purchased them, but now he can’t wait to try them out. We’re supposed to believe that he would rather go plow a field than to attend the banquet? Reason: I do not want to attend your banquet. 

· Excuse: “I just got married.” This sounds like it could possibly qualify as a reason rather than an excuse, but Jesus said they made excuses so presumably the wedding did not take place within the past few minutes. Reason: I do not want to attend your banquet. 

As a Christian, you should know the difference between excuses and reasons. If you are trying to avoid commitment, it’s probably an excuse. If you make a list, it will probably be composed of excuses. If you can’t just say, “I don’t want to,” you will make excuses. But not everything we are asked to do is an obligation – or even the right thing to do. In those instances, why make excuses? Feel free to offer your reasons. But stay tuned to the Holy Spirit because when God calls you, there is no excuse or reason for turning him down.

As it turns out . . . those weren’t reasons to say no, they were reasons I was afraid.*

May 4, 2025

I Corinthians 6: 9-11 Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (NIV)

Contact with Jesus . . . changes the unclean to clean.*

Is your “signature sin” included on this list? If not, is it worse than, or not as bad as, these? Is Paul addressing an occasional sin or a sinful lifestyle? If you got drunk once, does that make you a drunkard? If you cheated once, does that make you a swindler?

Perhaps we don’t know enough about the gospel if we think any of those questions matter. As Paul proclaims in Romans 3: 23, all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. We are sinners. But Paul wasn’t trying to compose an all-inclusive list of iniquities in this passage. It wasn’t his goal to shame his readers. He wanted to remind us of the very good news: Our condition has changed! All those bad things? That’s what we used to be.

Do we still sin? Yes, we do. But we were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus and by the Spirit. Every time we get our hands dirty, Jesus is there with the antibacterial soap to make us pure again. In the words of another writer, “When we are saved . . . we actually become forgiven persons and live in a state of forgiveness as long as our trust in Jesus remains alive.”*

If you don’t believe his blood is powerful enough to wash you clean, your trust in him is weak – perhaps even dead.

Is it possible that He would so love us as to die for us, give us His likeness, adopt us into His family, seat us in heavenly places, and do many other things then leave it up to us as to whether or not we remain in that position?*

May 3, 2025

Luke 7: 36-50 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him . . . a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was . . . at the Pharisee’s house, . . . and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. . . Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (NIV)

When we give out the very things we so desperately need, we often find that what has been given away comes back to us a hundredfold.*

Jesus’ host was not very happy that Jesus was allowing this woman to create a scene. I find it amusing that though the Pharisee’s self-righteous, judgmental remarks were made to himself, Jesus answered him out loud. The Lord proceeds to deliver a lesson on choices and forgiveness, but we overlook the subtext in this passage: By his actions towards the woman, Jesus demonstrated that we can be generous by allowing others to give to us.* The woman at this dinner party wanted to do something for Jesus – and he allowed her to do it. She wanted to bless him but she went away blessed. 

Have you ever wanted to help someone but didn’t know what to do? How often have you said, “If there’s anything I can do, just let me know,” but no one ever let you know? It is hard to be the one who has to ask for help but there is grace in receiving as well as giving. 

When my friend was facing weeks of daily radiation treatments, she asked me to recruit and schedule volunteers to provide transportation for her. I was honored that she asked, and thrilled to be able to actually perform a useful service. She could have sat back and hoped that someone would see her need and fill it but she chose to be gracious in receiving.

Next time you need help, don’t expect your friends to be mind-readers. Be a blessing to them by allowing them to bless you!

If I had it to do all over again, I think I would have asked for help!*

May 2, 2025

Hebrews 11: 39 These were all commended for their faith . . . (NIV)

The faults of humans should not shake your faith in an Almighty God.*

Hebrews eleven is called The Faith Chapter. The people named in this chapter are considered to be members of the Faith Hall of Fame. The writer commends them for their faith and their faithfulness, and it seems that God was pleased with them for the same reasons. While we don’t know everything about these men (and one woman), what we do know about most of them is not all good. For instance: 

· Noah – got drunk and behaved shamefully 

· Abraham – a polygamist and a manipulator 

· Jacob – a cheater and a manipulator 

· Moses – a murderer 

· Rahab – a prostitute 

· Samson – physically strong but weak in character 

· David – adulterer and murderer 

We might be tempted to define these heroes by their worst moments, but they found favor with God because of their faith, not because they were perfect. They serve as reminders of what God sees when he looks at us. One writer expresses it beautifully: It’s wrong to idealize biblical characters or to excuse their faults. . . . But it is just as wrong to fail to recognize the fact that in forgiveness, God faces our sin, deals with it, and sends it to oblivion.*

At the end of our lives, it is our faith that defines us – not our sin.

Your eyes see your faults. Your faith sees your Savior.*

May 1, 2025

Mark 5: 21-34 . . . a large crowd gathered around him . . . Then one of the synagogue rulers . . . fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come . . . so that she will be healed and live. Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman . . . who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. . . . came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak . . . Immediately her bleeding stopped. . . . Jesus . . . asked, “Who touched my clothes?” . . . Jesus kept looking . . . to see who had done it. . . . He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. . . .” (NIV) 

Interruptions are only divinely interjected opportunities.*

The very day that I wrote this, I experienced an interruption to my plans. Oh, it was nothing like the day Jesus had – he was on his way to do something important and he stopped to do something else important. I was determined to spend the afternoon at my desk, working on this project right here, when I got a call from the office manager at church. Could you come in and answer the phones while we go to staff meeting?  I could have said no. I don’t have any trouble saying no when it needs to be said. But God has been trying to teach me that people come before projects. So, I said yes, took my laptop with me, and got as much work done as if I had stayed home – while also answering the occasional phone call.

As I said, Jesus was on his way to do something important – save the life of a little girl. The woman who touched him – well, she didn’t really interrupt him; he healed her without even having to slow down. But because people are important, Jesus stopped to bless her with the personal touch that is the essence of who he is. And if we are going to be like him, we need to make it the essence of who we are as well.

It isn’t a program but a person that matters.*