September 16, 2025

Isaiah 6: 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” (NIV)

We are completely surrounded by the divine presence. We cannot escape it no matter where we turn.*

You’ve heard the saying, “You can run but you can’t hide.” Those words very aptly apply to God’s glory. You can ignore it or deny it, but you can’t avoid it because the earth is full of it. According to Paul in Romans chapter one, God has made himself plainly known through what he has created.

With a planet full of God’s glory, I wonder if we could lure a non-believer into acknowledging God by getting him to appreciate the beauty and intricacy of life on earth. I have heard it said that God didn’t have to make a beautiful world – he could have chosen to make it merely functional. If the universe came about by pure accident, doesn’t it seem reasonable that it would have ended up as more practical than pretty? And why would we have such discerning eyesight if no one cared what we saw?

Begrudgingly acknowledging the undeniable proof of God is a far cry from accepting him as Lord, but it does remove an obstacle in the path to salvation: a vain excuse. Back to Romans chapter one: Paul writes, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Verse 20)

No, people, you can’t deny God. There is no excuse for your ignorance. The evidence is glaring you in the face. The world is full of it!

If we believe in God, it’s only a small step from creation to Easter, a short distance from Genesis 1 to Matthew 28.*

September 15, 2025

Psalm 46: 10 “Be still and know that I am God.” (NIV)

In the midst of our praying, let us “listen” . . . And let us listen carefully, for God doesn’t shout.*

Writing these meditations is sometimes like time travel. Today's entry, for a day in September, was composed in January. I reposted it two years later, and two years after that, and here I am posting it yet again, two years after the third publication. So let's go back in time as we recall something that happened to me "yesterday" -  the day before I first wrote this.

 

That day, the words that I had written months (now years) earlier were about prayer. I talked about how Jesus’ example teaches us that prayer is a conversation with God. Conversation involves talking and listening. As we mature in our spiritual walk, we should move beyond the “it’s all about me” kind of prayers. So, the night before I wrote this entry, as I was journaling my prayers, I began with my usual thankfulness for the day’s blessings (all about me), but then I moved on to something different. I said, “And how was your day?” I then went on to list the great and small things that are a part of God’s day and I thanked him for his attributes. And I felt like I had progressed to a higher level of communication with the Lord.

After I turned out the light and started my journey into sleep, I was suddenly jolted by the realization that I had asked God about his day – and then I didn’t bother to wait for his answer. Turns out, my prayer had still been all about me. He didn’t tell me how his day went – I told him how I imagined it to have gone.

I don’t know if God will ever talk to me about his day, but I am sure of this: if I had taken the time to be still, he would have revealed himself. I know this because I have practiced this spiritual discipline before. It is not easy to be so still, to quiet the mind, to become hyper-aware of God’s presence, but it is an awesome experience.

The next time I ask God how his day went, I will wait for him to answer. If all I hear is, “I am God,” that will be enough! 

The most transformational part of prayer is the time spent in silence, listening. In silence we learn.*

September 14, 2025

Psalm 11: 3 When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do? (NIV)

God is not sometimes sovereign.*

In this verse, David poses a thought-provoking question, then fails to provide an answer. When life happens and circumstances are beyond your control, what can you do? As we residents of Florida know, you can fill up your bathtub with water, stock up on canned food and bottled water, and gas up the generator, but you can’t stop a hurricane from blowing your house away. David implies that, just like us Floridians in hurricane season, there is nothing that the righteous can do to prevail against wickedness and bad luck.

At first glance, David’s next words seem like a non sequitur. “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne,” may not provide step-by-step procedures for how to handle the worst that can happen, but it really is all we need to know. You may be helpless but you are not hopeless. God is on his throne – hurricane winds can’t touch him – and he is in control. I would suggest that you not wait until the foundation of your life has been destroyed before you learn that. 

He simply wants to be in charge, which relieves me of the great burden of trying to fix everything.*

September 13, 2025

Mark 9: 12 “Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected?” (NIV)

All our questions about God and suffering should, in fact, be filtered through what we know about Jesus.*

This is Jesus, answering a question with a question. It is part of his discussion with Peter, James, and John following their big encounter with Elijah and Moses up on a high mountain. I bring it up here in order to ask a version of that same question myself: Why did Jesus have to suffer and die? 

My question isn’t about the fact of his sacrificial death. Someone had to pay the price for sin. I get it. But why the suffering? With all the slaughtering of animals in the Old Testament, none of them was tortured first. 

In Acts 3: 18, Peter declares, “But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer.” So, he suffered to fulfill prophecy? Not exactly. It was prophesied because it was going to happen – the prophets didn’t make it happen just because they foretold it. 

In fact, I can’t find a direct answer to my question anywhere in scripture. I have asked some preacher friends and they couldn’t provide me with that “A-ha” moment that I was looking for. But I think I have a clue – from Peter, again. In his first letter, chapter four, verse twelve, he writes, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering . . .” Could it be that Jesus suffered because his followers might also be called on to suffer for his sake? 

“But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ,” Peter continues in verse thirteen, “so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” We can rejoice because Jesus suffered, and Jesus overcame, and we will never be called on to suffer more than he did. According to Warren Wiersbe, not everyone is called to a ministry of suffering,* but Jesus asks us to surrender all. 

He may ask for our all – but he gave his all first.

We’ll never suffer more than Jesus suffered.*

September 12, 2025

Exodus 11: 10 Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country. (NIV)

God made us as free-will creatures who are able to sin, but who are also able not to sin.*

I have always wondered: If God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, what happened to his freedom to choose? I have heard it said that the same sun that softens wax also hardens clay,* which at first glance seems a likely explanation for what happened in this case – except that the raw material of our hearts is not a matter of choice, while rejecting God is. So how could we say that the way your heart reacts to exposure to God depends on what your heart is made of? Did Pharaoh have a choice?

I have twin sons who started out with physical hearts that were composed of the exact same genetic material. Their "spiritual hearts" were a blank slate. I was a single mom who didn’t have time to dedicate to nurturing their individuality as the experts recommended, so for the first five years of their lives, my sons had very few separate experiences. But from kindergarten on, their paths began to diverge and become more personalized. They continued to develop at the same rate and shared the same aptitudes and interests (including friends), but eventually they made different life choices – college, career, wife. Those life choices, however, were the result of what their hearts had been exposed to – not what they were made of.

Hearts may be composed of the same ingredients and exposed to the same stimuli, but at some point the owner of that heart decides how he or she will react. We are not victims of how we’re wired. So here’s the thing: Pharaoh had plenty of opportunities to soften his heart but he continued to choose poorly. Don’t be like Pharaoh. Maybe you will only get so many chances to make the right choice before God hardens your heart. 

Jesus warns us that a time will come when there will no longer be an opportunity to repent.*

September 11, 2025

Matthew 1: 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” which means, “God with us.” (NIV)

He will be with you in trouble all day and through the night.*

Throughout the Old Testament, we find God making promises to be with someone. For example:

·  Exodus 3: 12 – God promises to be with Moses as he leads the people of Israel out of Egypt.

·  Joshua 1: 9 – God calms Joshua’s fears as he succeeds Moses as the leader of the Israelite nation.

·  Isaiah 43: 2 -  The prophet Isaiah shares God’s promise to be with Israel through flood and fire.

In the book of Hebrews, an Old Testament promise is brought forward to offer hope to God’s people today: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13: 5; Deuteronomy 31: 6) But the promise that applies to all of us – and offers us the most hope – is found as the New Testament opens, in one of the titles given to Jesus our Savior: Immanuel. God with us. It is a constant reminder that we will never be abandoned by him.

And just in case we need further assurance, Jesus chose to reiterate the promise in his last recorded words on earth: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 20) Sometimes we may feel lonely but we are never alone. Surely.

Have you ever felt as though God has forsaken you? . . . [Y]ou are in very good company. . . Jesus felt that way at one time too.*

September 10, 2025

Malachi 4: 6 “He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (NIV)

Matthew 1: 1 A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham. (NIV)

The creation, although it did declare so much of God, as left all men without excuse, yet did not fully manifest the will of God, nor bring men to eternal salvation.*

The verses above are the last one in the Old Testament and the first one found in the New Testament. From the time one was written to the next was a span of more than 400 years. Some speak of this as a time when God was silent. It is true that no new words were added to scripture during that time, but was God really silent? It has been more than 2,000 years since John recorded the words of the revelation of Jesus Christ – has God not spoken since then?

I like to speculate about what God was doing in the rest of the world while he was interacting with the Jews, and later, with the brand-new church. Was he silent then among all the other people on the planet? What did they know about God? Were the Gentiles who associated with the Jews the only ones who were exposed to the one true God? I don’t know who God revealed himself to outside of those mentioned in scripture, but according to Paul, in Romans 1: 19 and 20, since the creation of the world God has made himself known. So, God may have written all he is going to in scripture but he has not stopped speaking – even in nature we hear his voice.

Perhaps you feel that you are dwelling in a long stretch of God’s silence. You might wonder if those who claim to hear him speak are liars or nuts. My advice: place yourself within the sound of his voice. Start at the most basic, fundamental level – nature. God has clearly revealed himself through his creation. Acknowledge his invisible qualities – his eternal power and his divine nature. A great start! But you can’t stop there. Nature can’t tell you how to be saved – only God’s word contains that information. Read the Bible. Ask that God’s Holy Spirit will reveal God’s will to you and you will soon learn that God is not silent – you just weren’t listening.

God speaks to us through the Bible in new ways when we reflect on it deeply and repeatedly.*