June 21, 2025

I Peter 2: 13-15 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king . . . or to the governors . . . For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. (NIV)

The key characteristic of godly and holy behavior in the public arena isn’t a political strategy or even a unified worldview. It’s goodness.*

As I am writing this, our country is watching as mobs of people protest . . . everything. There is lots of dialogue about freedom of speech as they carry signs and shout their slogans. No matter which side of an issue you are on, I believe it is your constitutional right to speak about your beliefs. I don’t believe, however, that our laws give you the right to visit violence on other people, to destroy property that isn’t yours, or to interfere with someone else’s right to free speech.

That having been said, I ask: Is this the most effective way to get your message across? Not according to Peter. If we want to make a difference, he says, our strategy should include submitting to authority and – above all – doing good. You might – ahem – protest that one person’s good deeds aren’t going to accomplish much. Well, one person carrying a sign probably won’t get much media attention, but a multitude of sign-carriers gets to be in the news. So, an individual who goes about doing good might want to join forces with other doers of good to make a bigger impact.

How do you find birds of a feather for you to flock together with? Go to church. Get involved in ministry and outreach. If your church isn’t actively involved in good works, be the instigator. Your leadership may just be waiting - and praying - for someone to step up and volunteer to head a new ministry. But never, ever, underestimate the influence of one Spirit-empowered person’s good deeds.

Good works don’t save us but they are the means by which we lead others to salvation. As Paul wrote, we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works (Ephesians 2: 10). Let’s get busy and fulfill our purpose.

A Christian should do good works, not to be seen of men but because we are seen of men.*

June 20, 2025

Genesis 3: 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked . . . (NIV)

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they immediately became ashamed of their bodies and wanted to hide. Ever since, human beings have been ‘hiding’ from each other and from God.*

Body-shaming: “the action or practice of humiliating someone by making mocking or critical comments about their body shape or size.” It’s mean. Christians should never be guilty of making fun of a person because of how he or she looks. But we all do it – to ourselves.

I don’t know why Adam and Eve’s nakedness was okay originally and then it wasn’t. The Bible just says that their eyes were opened and they realized they were naked. The commentaries I consulted provided little more than speculation. So, I will proceed to do a little speculation of my own. Is it possible that our dissatisfaction with our own bodies is just part of the “curse” of the fall? Maybe we would feel better about our appearance if we just accepted that we are doomed to never feel good about ourselves. Even those hot bodies at the gym were motivated by unhappiness with their original shape.

Jesus didn’t have much to say about having a good self-image for its own sake. Feeling good about ourselves is a result of our confidence in the Father’s love for us – not in how we look. That’s not to say that a healthy body isn’t important. We’ve all heard that we should honor our bodies because they are the temple of God. To that I would add that if your body isn’t healthy, your ability to minister and serve is impaired. Between heredity and our environment, our bodies have enough working against them without all the poor choices we make.

In 2 Corinthians 5: 10, we read: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” We will be held accountable for what we have done while inhabiting our bodies. Could that include what we do to those bodies?

It is okay not to have a great self-image. In fact, to spend a lot of time trying to achieve that goal is to focus . . . on me, rather than . . . focusing on the Lord.*

June 19, 2025

Proverbs 4: 1 Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. (NIV)

The way to train the child is to train yourself.*

Have you ever watched a Peanuts movie? You know – Charlie Brown and Linus and Lucy and Snoopy. Remember the sound effects used to portray the voices of the adults? “Waah waah waah” is the closest equivalent that I can contrive. I’m pretty sure that’s exactly the way we sound to our own children when we offer them our unsolicited advice.

Instead of harping on all the things his sons should or shouldn’t do, Solomon wisely tries to help them learn to choose wisely. Any parent or other authority figure is bound to have more success by presenting wisdom as a desirable aspiration and by being a solid role model. There’s no guarantee that your child will not choose poorly once you are no longer in a position to enforce or influence his decisions, but Solomon offers some words of hope in Proverbs 22: 6, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” A proverb may not be an “invariable rule” or a “binding promise from God,”* but exceptions are – well, exceptions to the rule!

Even if I had been a perfect parent, I could not build the perfect child.*

June 18, 2025

Psalm 17: 15 And I – in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness. (NIV)

To see God’s face is to see and know him personally, deeply, and without the clouds of mystery that so often make faith difficult.*

For a long time now, technology has made it possible for us to hear the voices of our loved ones who are far away. But now we can also see their faces as we talk to them. This is a special blessing for grandparents whose grandchildren are growing up elsewhere.

God’s children may be satisfied with hearing his voice through various “technology” – the Bible, a sermon, a friend – but wouldn’t it be nice to see his face? Nice? What word could I use to describe what it would be like to see God’s expression when he’s looking at me? How would it feel to talk to him face to face, as with a friend, the way Moses did?

Perhaps you aren’t ready for such a close encounter with the Almighty. It’s one thing to acknowledge that he knows your every thought and reason; it would be another to look him in the eye. Someone has said that seeing God’s face is “a goal that is valuable only to someone who deeply loves God.”* Maybe you haven’t reached that level of intimacy with God. Begin now to invest more time in deepening your relationship with him. Prayer, Bible study, meditation, worship, fellowship, time alone with him – these are ways to help you draw so close to him that you can almost see his face!

Know him as he revealed himself.*

June 17, 2025

Proverbs 16: 18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. (NIV)

If we humble not ourselves under God’s grace, he will humble us under his judgments.*

When I think of the destruction that results from pride, or the fall caused by a haughty spirit, I recall times when I have been thinking I am “all that,” and how embarrassing it is to find out the hard way that I’m not. We’ve all had that moment when we’ve thought we were so smart or cute or funny, only to be brought low by reality. It can be a devastating blow to our pride. 

But pride is more than just a matter of personal humiliation over a blunder. Pride – or lack of humility – can separate us from an intimate relationship with God. It’s a Catch-22" situation: we’re too proud to ask God to make us humble. Humility isn’t a quality that is bestowed upon us in a magical ceremony – we acquire it as a result of humiliation of some sort. It’s no wonder we would prefer to avoid it! 

Perhaps instead of waiting for a surprise attack of humility, we could begin by behaving humbly. On purpose. Read John, chapter 13, verses 1 through 17, where, as I read in a Facebook post: “Jesus illustrated to his disciples what to do whenever you feel you are the greatest person in a room...grab a towel.” Of course, it’s possible to mask a prideful attitude with humble activities, but it would certainly be hard to maintain that haughty spirit while washing dirty feet. 

As you struggle with issues of pride, remember the words found in James 4: 10: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” Isn’t that better than trying to lift yourself up? And far superior to waiting for the destruction and the fall!

No one is immune to foolish actions fueled by pride. We may be afraid to ask God . . . to keep us humble because humility involves discomfort. . . . Why are we not far more frightened of what pride can do?*

June 16, 2025

Deuteronomy 19: 21 Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. (NIV)

Justice requires punishment of the guilty and protection of the innocent.*

If you learned about “citizen’s arrest” from watching the Andy Griffith Show, you may have a misinformed view of taking the law into your own hands. Many people down through the ages have taken the phrase “an eye for an eye” as justification for private vengeance.* And those people were wrong. 

In the book of Deuteronomy, we find the “stipulations, decrees and laws” (4: 45) that Moses presented to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. Just like the laws of any nation, the Law of Moses addressed a wide range of issues – from the trivial to matters of life and death. Beginning with verse 15 of chapter 19, we find the court procedure for conviction of a man accused of a crime: 

1. “A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” (19: 15) One witness was not enough to convict someone of a crime. 

2. The defendant and the plaintiff “must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and judges who are in office at the time.” (19: 16, 17) 

3. The judge must conduct a thorough investigation. (19: 18) 

4. As a lesson to the rest of the people, the punishment must fit the crime. (19: 19-21) 

“An eye for an eye” was never intended for the resolution of offenses between private citizens. Though vengeance is not man’s business (“It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” Deuteronomy 32: 35), human justice is the job of the appropriate officeholders. Our job, as Christians living in the world, is to facilitate reconciliation. We are not here to see that people get what they deserve but to introduce them to someone who can provide them with what they don’t deserve – a verdict that declares them, “Not guilty!”

The most wonderful truth revealed in all of the word of God is that mercy stands higher than the law as the guiding principle of God's relationship with men.*

June 15, 2025

Luke 2: 8, 9, 16, 17, 20 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them . . . they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what they had been told about this child . . . The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen. (NIV)

Heaven may have a shrine to honor God’s uncommon use of the common.*

In Palestine, on Day Zero, was there any group of people more poorly equipped to be royal emissaries? Uneducated. Employed, but sleeping outside. The butt of crude jokes. Smelly. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to them and they went from subordinary to extraordinary. The first visitors to the newborn King! When they left, they were glorifying and praising God for what they had seen and heard.

After spreading the word about the baby, how long was it before their enthusiasm began to wane? Was it just a matter of days before they returned to their lives of drudgery? Or did such an incredible experience change them forever?

Have you encountered the King? How has your life changed because of it? Are you still glorifying and praising God for all that he has done in your life? Perhaps your encounter has grown into a daily, ongoing relationship. The circumstances of your life may not have changed, but you can’t know Jesus and not be changed from the inside out. How can you keep it to yourself?  How can you not spread the word concerning what you have seen and heard?

Ordinary people can become extraordinary evangelists simply by telling what Jesus has done for them.*