May 21, 2025

Psalm 149: 4 For the Lord takes delight in his people. (NIV)

Do not grieve Him by doubting His love.*

What do you think God sees when he looks at you? What do you see when you look at your children or grandchildren or nieces and nephews? Do you see bratty, snot-nosed carrier monkeys? Or do you look at them through eyes of love? Love doesn’t make you blind to their bad behavior; it just makes you see it in a different light.

In his commentary, David Guzik writes: “We often underestimate the joy God has in His people, and too often think God is annoyed or irritated with us.”* Do you go around fearing that you are getting on God’s nerves the way other people’s kids get on yours? (I told my kids: “I think you are the cutest kids in the world but not everyone feels that way.”) When you mess up (again!), do you picture him throwing up his hands and saying, “That’s it! I've had it with you!”

The psalmist says that the Lord delights in his people. Picture joy instead of exasperation. As long as you love him, as long as you do not turn your back on him, you are still God’s child and he still delights in you. Dotes on you. Forgives you. He probably thinks you’re cute!

Men more easily believe in miraculous power than in miraculous love.*

May 20, 2025

Ephesians 6: 5-7 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were the serving the Lord, not men. (NIV)

You can’t control their attitude, but you can manage yours.*

Surely this passage does not apply to us today. Despite jokes about our employers, none of us is a slave, nor do we own slaves; but I would suggest that though the culture has changed, the principles remain the same.  Our bosses may not own us but we are subject to them for as long as we are on the payroll.

Christian employees should set the standard for workplace ethics. “Not my job,” should not be heard coming from our mouths. Would we tell the Lord that we aren’t going to perform duties that aren’t included in our job description? Will we save our most diligent and energetic work for when we are being watched? Surely a Christian wouldn’t adopt a “what the bosses don’t know, they don’t know”* attitude!

You may hate your job. You may be underpaid, overworked, and underappreciated, your boss may be unfair and your co-workers slackers, but if you serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord instead of that unfair boss, you will see improvements in your workday. As someone has observed about this new and better attitude: “Such a view of work adds unlimited dignity to our labor.”*

I can’t promise that your Christian work ethic will make a difference in how you are treated on the job, but I know how Paul concludes this passage in the next verse: “Because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether slave or free.” (Ephesians 6: 8)

Embrace the ministry potential of any job.*

May 19, 2025

John 9: 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (NIV)

Saying that Christ is the answer assumes we have a legitimate question.*

Perhaps you’ve heard the old illustration about the man who was asked, “Do you still beat your wife?” Clearly, whether he answered yes or no, he was in trouble. Similarly, Jesus’ disciples thought there were only two possible answers to their queries about the man’s blindness – and either way, somebody had to be to blame.

How often do we think we know the answers to someone else’s problems? (Probably more often than we know the answers to our own problems!) We may easily look at another’s life and see it in stark black and white, while from their perspective, it is all in shades of gray. And if we knew their story as well as they do, we might begin to pick up on the gray tones as well.

For example: I have a friend whose son grew up and made poor choices, ending up homeless and jobless, with a girlfriend and two small children. My friend allowed them all to live with her for the sake of the children. My black and white view of her problem: she should not let her son and his girlfriend cohabitate in her house. Her gray perspective: what would become of her helpless grandchildren if she kicked them out? My simplistic answer was not going to solve her problems.

Jesus knew the right answer to give to his disciples, just like he does for my friend. He is always the source of help – and I am not. I have prayed for my friend and I have encouraged her, but I have never told her what she should do. The Holy Spirit has chosen to reveal his will to her without my input. That’s the way it often works when Jesus is the answer! 

Most people are convinced that the answer to mankind’s problems lies in mankind’s ability to solve them.*

May 18, 2025

Matthew 14: 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. (NIV)

He sought the Father’s agenda.*

Healing the sick was not Jesus’ raison d’être. He had more important work to do. He could have looked at that mass of needy humanity and rolled his eyes as he proceeded with his real ministry. What would be our response if we had to deal with a horde of clueless people interfering with our business? Would we be angry? Indifferent? Perhaps we would care about them, but we would put them at the bottom of our to-do list because – well, there’s just so many of them and we have so much else to do . . .

I may have a goal to get a certain amount of writing done in a day, but when a friend calls with a need, I have to let go of my agenda. If my writing is my ministry calling, God will help me to fulfill it; but interruptions might be just as much a part of his plan. Jesus didn’t ruin everything by taking time out to heal those poor sick people. If anything, his ministry was enhanced by the demonstration of his compassion, and it serves as a reminder to us that people should come first.

But one more aspect of Jesus’ ministry that we should note, as observed by another writer: he “restored sight to many blind people but not to every blind person he encountered. He healed many lepers but not every leper in Israel. He did his Father’s will.”* Jesus knew when interruptions were divine opportunities and when they were merely distractions. He knew it by staying in touch with the Father. Just another way we should try to be more like him.

In prayer, we align ourselves with God’s will, his priorities, his thoughts.*

May 17, 2025

Hebrews 11: 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. (NIV)

Nowhere in scripture are we promised worldly ease in return for our pledge of faith. In fact, the most devout saints from the Bible usually died penniless, receiving a one-way ticket to prison or death by torture.*

I found an article on the internet about 6 Actors Who Posthumously Won Emmy Awards. How nice for them. Too bad their talents couldn’t have been appreciated while they were alive to enjoy the experience. The people in Hebrews chapter 11 received some posthumous recognition as well. The writer of Hebrews commends them for their faith – unto death – which they demonstrated by their actions. They endured, often at the risk of their lives, with no promise of reward in life. What kept them going? They knew that God was faithful to keep his promises and they knew that their posthumous reward was really an eternal one.

But there’s one more thing – tagged on at the end of this verse – that indicates another element of their ability to endure: the right perspective. They admitted that they were not citizens of the world. They lived their lives on earth with the knowledge that they were travelers who were passing through on their way home. Their visit was a lengthy one and they contributed to society while in the area, but they were always on their way home. If we adopted that attitude, we would reduce our risk of becoming attached to the enticements of the world. Like these faithful heroes, we would be “longing for a better country – a heavenly one.” (Hebrews 11: 16)

We are not living in the world our souls were made for.*

May 16, 2025

I Samuel 17: 45 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty.” (NIV)

Faith that goes forth triumphs.*

Goliath, the Philistine's giant secret weapon, was taunting the army of Israel. “Send one of your men over to fight me,” he challenged. “Winner take all!” The Bible says that Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. Perhaps Saul and his army would have benefited from having a woman among them because I would have said something like, “Nah. We already have our army assembled so let’s just fight in the traditional manner.”

Maybe I’m missing something in the story. Whatever it was that had Saul’s soldiers in such a dither, David didn’t see it either. He was a shepherd boy whose father had sent him to the front lines to deliver food to his brothers, but not even the sneering accusations of his oldest brother could daunt the young man’s enthusiasm. “Don’t lose heart over this, people! I’ll go fight him,” he said. He did – and he killed the big guy with a well-placed rock.

It has been said that faith caused David to look at the giant differently.* And faith should cause us to see our giants differently as well. David’s faith was a result of his experience with God’s faithfulness in the past. God’s faithfulness should be the source of our faith, too. Have you not found God to be faithful? Did you give him a chance to prove himself? Did you really step out in faith or did you wait for God to step up first? I won’t tell you that the first time you step out in faith will be easy. But the second time will be easier. And soon you will be like David, who knew that the Lord who delivered him from the lion and the bear could deliver him from the giant, too.

Our faith has its own unique past, where God personally intervened.*

May 15, 2025

Mark 15: 24 And they crucified him. (NIV)

Our contemporary secular society specializes in making everything superficial and common.*

It is a blessing that the gospel writers were more interested in sharing the facts than the gory details of Jesus’ execution. On the other hand, maybe we should have a more vivid picture of what our Lord endured on our behalf. I just read an article, written by a doctor, about the practice of crucifixion. It made my stomach hurt. One of my professors in Bible college gave a very dramatic presentation of Jesus’ death, including the speculation that flies would have swarmed his open wounds. And viewing the movie, The Passion of the Christ, relieved me of my inability to picture the suffering of my Savior.

One writer maintains, “In an era when the cross has become a decorative object and even a good-luck charm, we need the reminder that originally it was ugly and monstrous.”* It was not a beautiful thing that the Son of God did for us. There was no halo glowing over his head; he wasn’t wrapped in snowy white linen; his countenance was not serene.

I wouldn’t condemn you for wearing cross-shaped jewelry, but unless it reminds you of the real cross – that ugly, bloody one – it’s just a piece of metal. Is it a symbol that we wear so that others will recognize that we are Christians? Perhaps. But let’s not reduce an instrument of torture to the equivalent of a rabbit’s foot. Let the cross of Christ stand for what it is – “foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (I Corinthians 1: 18)

Toward that cross the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, directed His life.*