I had a dog one time who had a habit of sighing.  I mean huge sighs that came from deep in his diaphragm.  He probably did this at least several times a day.  As far as I could tell, my dog was not in any kind of distress or danger.  He just sighed.  I don’t know why but it seemed to be of some benefit to him.  There are times today when we sigh—from fatigue, frustration or failure.  Have you ever sighed?  A sigh can often make us feel a little better. It’s almost like something got released that we needed to let go.  Some researchers suggest that sighing can relieve stress or anxiety.  A good sigh can act as something like a reset for our bodies and minds.  You may be surprised to find that there is a sort of sighing that is mentioned in the Bible.  Romans 8:22-23 says, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.”  A groan is similar to a sigh.  And the Bible speaks of the creation groaning today.
            The groans or sighs of the creation come from sin—the presence of sin and the consequences of sin.  These groans are an indication that something is not right—indeed something is profoundly disturbed and skewed.  Sin has woven its way into the very fabric of the creation.  Nothing is left unstained and malformed by sin.  Nothing.  The pain, sickness, stress, anxiety and loss we experience originate with sin and our disobedience to God’s ways.  Paul said in Romans 8 that we are awaiting the Lord’s power to make right all that is wrong and to bring forth a new creation—a new heaven and a new earth.  We are powerless to do this ourselves so we live in anticipation of God ushering in these new realities. 
            Maybe you have found yourself groaning or sighing over something that has burdened or broken you.  Maybe a situation has left you with no idea what to do or how to react.  We look on at a world where it often seems that sickness, pain, injustice and wrong seem to rule and reign.  But we remind ourselves that God still reigns—not the circumstances or sins of this world.  God remains on the throne.  And we look forward to the day when God sets right every wrong and makes something good out of all that has gone badly.  We look forward to the fulfillment of Romans 8:28 that says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  God is going to transform our groans into something glorious and our sighs into something special and significant.  We trust our future to Him.
            When we find ourselves sighing or groaning, let’s remember that God reigns and rules—always has and always will.  Let’s remember that God has the final word about anything anywhere.  Take time to turn your groans or sighs into prayers—asking God to be at work in things and places that are unsettling to you.  As Paul wrote in Romans 8:31, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”  The things that cause us to sigh do not have to control or possess us.  If we call Jesus “our Lord,” then He is surely Lord over all things we encounter or face each day.  David experienced many trials and battles in his life—even surviving Saul’s multiple attempts to murder him.  Yet, David repeatedly turned to the Lord to be his lasting peace and consolation.  He knew that God would sustain him amid all these things.  God had promised David the throne of Israel and this shepherd boy believed God at His word and held on to that truth with an unflinching faith.   We believe that David wrote many of the Psalms in our Bible.  In Psalm 116:7, David wrote, “Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.”  We can “return” to rest when we remember how good God has been to us and what He has done for us.  When the urge to sigh over the state of things rises in you, take your rest in the Lord.  Remember His goodness to you.  Remember His promises to you.  And take comfort in knowing that God will complete the good work that He began in you.  Have a great Monday! 
               

             1 and 2 John are two letters near the end of the New Testament.  We believe these letters were written by John—a disciple of Jesus.  We also believe John wrote 3 John, Revelation and the Gospel that bears his name.  1 and 2 John emphasize the important biblical truth that Jesus came in the flesh.  He was incarnated into the creation.  The eternal Son of God took on human form and was born into the world.  In John’s day, some opponents diminished or even denied the truth that Jesus came in the flesh.  They saw Jesus as exclusively divine and spirit.  A balanced biblical view of the person of Jesus teaches that Jesus was/is both God and man—fully God and fully man. Not more of one and less of the other.  We are not to lose sight of His humanity or deity.  The humanity of Jesus is important.  He lived the perfect life that we cannot live and that life is credited to us.  He was the perfect sacrifice for our sins at the cross because He was the lamb without stain or blemish from sin. If Jesus had not come in the flesh, we would be hopelessly lost in sin with no Savior.
            John gave counsel in his day on how to deal with opponents and false teachers who dismissed Jesus’ humanity.  John wrote, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching [that Jesus came in the flesh], do not take them into your house or welcome them.  Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work” (2 John 10-11).  John issued a warning not to be deceived by false teachers and false teachings.  He went so far as to say do not even entertain such things in your home.  Draw a line at the door and do not permit false teachings that conflict with Scripture to have an entry point into your home or life. That counsel works today.  The enemy would love nothing more than to deceive people with a nugget of truth encased in a lot of error or deception.  He can bait a line better than an ace fisherman.  Be on guard, John says, that you do not entertain such things.
            Today’s false teachers often diminish the truth of salvation by grace through faith.  Such teachers would emphasize salvation by works or accomplishments or a steady diet of self-improvement (perhaps reinforced by products they would be glad to sell to you).  We can easily find false teachers today who would like to remake Jesus in their own image—a Jesus who speaks, acts, thinks and behaves as they do.  This remade Jesus just acts on cue.  Some bad teachings today offer books that they place on par with Scripture.  A popular but misguided teaching today concerns the end times or the end of the world.  Be wary of people who think they know the day, time and manner in which Christ will return. Setting days and times for Jesus’ return is a fool’s errand. Stay faithful in serving and living for Jesus and you will always be prepared for His return.  Be careful about a steady diet of online videos, teachings and teachers.  Such things could be dangerous to your life and faith.
            John would likely counsel us today to stay true to the important Christian
disciplines that have stood the test of time.  Read the Bible, pray, worship with other believers, study God’s Word together, fellowship and connect with other Christians.  Satan rarely needs any help to tempt or torment us with sinful ideas or ways.  We do not have to go looking for such things and there is no reason to welcome such things into our homes and lives.  If we give an audience to false teachings, we share in their promotion and marketing.  Psalm 119:105 reminds us, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” If given a choice to trust the words of men and women or the Word of God, we turn to God every time.  And God has given us His Holy Spirit to help us read and understand His Word with clarity.  We are blessed by the opportunity to study God’s Word with other believers who can help us to see how this Word applies to our lives today as we seek to live for Him.
            You may recall in the book of Acts that some believers called the Bereans carefully searched the Scriptures to confirm anything they were taught (see Acts 17:10-15).  They “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”  These Bereans may have been among the first fact-checkers in history.  But God’s Word is the standard by which we assess the things we read or hear from others.  This yardstick of God’s Word helps us to know what is good and right and what is misleading and wrong.  We can give thanks today that God has shepherded His Word across the centuries so that we will know His heart, way and will.  Guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Put on the armor of God and be aware of the enemy’s attempts to deceive or trick you.  Have a great Thursday!
               

         Amos 5:14 says, “Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say He is.”  Amos was an Old Testament prophet who spoke God’s Word to the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  He was active almost 2800 years ago. Though he was a prophet centuries ago, his message remains fresh and important for us even to this day.  He gives us some powerful words to live by in 2026.  He offered two commands and two consequences that should be important to us.  Amos is part of God’s Word to us and, as such, should be held in high regard.  Amos’ first command is a positive command.  The command is to “seek good.”  We are to do good things and live in good ways.  We are to let goodness abound in our lives each day.  The word he used for good means that which is pleasant, agreeable and rich in integrity.  To do what is good means we consistently behave this way whether anyone is watching or not. His command is proactive. God calls his people to be good and to seek good ways and outcomes.  Do whatever is good is the command God gives through Amos.
            The second command is a negative one.  Amos directs us not to do something.  We are not to seek evil.  The reasoning should be fairly simple and self-evident.  There is enough evil in the world today.  We do not have to go looking for anything that is evil.  And we do not want to add to the evil that is in the world.  Also, to seek evil is to put us at odds with God.  Another way to speak of evil is sin.  When we sin, we are living defiantly and opposed to God and His good ways.  We are not to normalize sin or reduce the severity of sin through attempts to justify or rationalize what we have done.  Sin leads to death.  Our attempts to explain or justify our sins only make matters worse.  If we are seeking good, we should also be shunning evil and sin.
            The first consequence comes from seeking good and not seeking evil.  That first consequence is spelled out for us by Amos: “that you may live.”  Goodness is the road that leads to life.  Evil leads to death.  Think of the early pages of the Bible where Adam and Eve defied God and ate the forbidden fruit.  They paid with their lives.  They would one day face a somber death.  Even the ground itself was cursed.  The paradise that God had given them was corrupted by their fall and choice of evil.  If we seek what is good, then we will unmistakably seek Jesus.  For Jesus is the embodiment of goodness and righteousness. And Jesus is the One, the only One, who gives us new life and everlasting life. Disobedience and defiance toward God always lead to death.  Living in opposition to God’s Ways and Word never ends with life.  Such a posture ends with death.
            The second consequence is also a good one.  When we seek good, “the Lord God Almighty will be with” us.   We know that God abides with His people.  When we seek the Lord and walk with the Lord, we can be confident that He is with us.  When we show humility, mercy, grace and kindness to others, we know that God is with us and will honor such decisions.  It is a joy to know that God keeps watch over us as we sleep and guides us each day after we awake.  We cannot always control what happens around us but we can always control how we will respond to such things.  We always want our responses to reflect the grace and goodness of the Lord and for others to see His fingerprints and be filled with the sweet aroma of His goodness.  Amos 5:15 opens with a command similar to 5:14. Verse 15 says, “hate evil, love good.”  The prophet flipped the priorities as compared to verse 14 but the message remains the same.  Twice in two verses, Amos reminds us of the importance of seeking and loving what is good while running from and hating what is evil. Imagine the different outcome in the Garden of Eden if Adam and Eve had run from the serpent rather than listening to His deceptive and evil speech. 
            There are almost two months left in 2026.  Make it your goal to seek good in the remainder of the year.  Live for good things and look for good things.  It is easy to be cranky, ornery, argumentative or to want things your way.  But if you or I live that way then we have shrunk the world to just the little bit of space that we occupy.  God may be doing something new that could be a blessing to you and your family if you only saw it through the commitment to seeking what is good.  Compliment where you could have criticized. Pray when you could have complained.  Be humble when you don’t get your way.  Build someone up rather than muttering under your breath.  Seek what is good.  Have a great Monday!
           

            Stewardship is a rich word.  It suggests that a steward is managing resources, money and possibly property that belongs to someone else.  The steward does not own these things.  But the steward keeps a watchful eye on these assets and applies a skillful hand to ensure that these assets are used and maintained in a way that honors the owner.  A synonym for stewardship might be trust.  Today, people create trusts that are managed for them by someone else who has a fiduciary obligation to act and to manage the trust in the best interest of the owner.  All of these perspectives speak to the way we relate to God’s blessings and gifts.  God has given us resources and assets to use for His glory and for the good of Kingdom work.  Jesus said, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much” (Luke 16:10).  This principle governs how we are to see what God has given to us. 
            The Bible teaches that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (Psalm 24:1).  The whole creation belongs to God because, in the beginning, He made everything that exists (Genesis 1:1).  Jesus teaches us that God often gives us roles and responsibility in proportion to how well we have done with what He has already entrusted to us.  If we serve well, God can open doors for us to serve in greater ways.  If we struggle to be good stewards with small things, we have little reason to believe that God will give us greater opportunities.  One important way that we demonstrate our stewardship is by tithing on what God has given to us.  The tithe in the Bible is 10% of what God has provided to you.  A person who has made $100 would have a tithe of 10% that God calls that person to return to Him. 
            As we look at how God has blessed us, we want to see the ways we may be able to use those blessings for the good of the Kingdom and to help others know the gospel.  God may have given you specific talents and abilities that you can translate into ways to serve Him.  We all have the gift of time.  If God allows you to wake up in the morning, then you have been gifted a day that you can use to serve Him.  This day is not your own.  Indeed, the Bible teaches that today (or any day) is the day that the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24).  A good question to ponder shortly after waking up is how you will use this new day that has been gifted to you by the Lord. 
            We should hold on to our blessings lightly and with open hands.  God could at any moment present us with an occasion to use what He has given to use and to open our hands in obedience.  We can all be tempted to hold tightly to what we have and to see our blessings as occasions to bless ourselves rather than to honor God.  To be a good steward, we have to keep four truths in mind.  First, God is the biggest giver.  Everything we have comes from Him.  We deserve nothing based on our sins but God graciously blesses us from the generosity of His heart.  Second, God blesses and equips us to serve Him wherever He leads us or stations us.  Our eyes and ears should be open for situations where we can steward well what God has provided to us.  Third, blessings never run out. We do not have to squeeze or ration our blessings.  God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10) and has a bottomless well of blessings to offer us.  We can freely use and share what He has already given.  He knows what we need and how well we have used what we already possess.  And finally, we serve the Lord.  We are His stewards.  And one day, we will account for what we have done with all the things we have been given—money, time, blessings, opportunities and responsibilities.  Steward all things as well as you can. Live for the glory of God and trust that He will provide for you as you steward everything for Him.  Have a great Thursday!
           
 

            In Luke 10, Jesus appointed seventy-two men to go ahead of Him into the towns and places where Jesus had planned to visit.  He gave them clear instructions about what to do and to say.  Luke 10:17 says the seventy-two returned to Jesus “with joy.”  They said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name” (Luke 10:17).  Such a thing would be amazing for anyone to witness—to see demons yield in submission and surrender would be an extraordinary sight!  Plenty of movies have been made about the phenomenon of demons but Jesus gave the seventy-two the authority to deal with demons in real time and real ways.  Jesus confirmed to them that He had given them His authority to do all manner of amazing things—trample snakes and scorpions, cast out demons and overcome Satan’s snares and ways.  But then Jesus said, “However, do not rejoice that the spirits {demons} submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).  By Jesus’ word and authority, the greatest and most amazing reality that we can embrace is the truth that our names are written in heaven. This truth is binding for men and women who have heard and responded to the gospel message of Jesus.  We can rejoice in this good news. That is precisely why heaven indeed rejoices whenever a lost, sinful soul comes to Christ.
            It can be easy to get caught up in things like signs, wonders, miracles, possessing power over demons and resisting Satan.  These kinds of things seem to be exciting and dazzling.  They grab the headlines and often grab our eyes as well.  People, by nature, often gravitate toward the sensational things.  But Jesus said we are to rejoice that we have a place in heaven and that we are bound to Him.  Paul wrote about the names of believers being written in the book of life (see Philippians 4:3).  Paul also wrote about our citizenship being in heaven (Philippians 3:20). It is amazing and joyous to consider that God has done everything necessary to secure a place for us with Him forever.  Jesus has paid the price for our sins and is the only way we can have an eternal home in heaven where our names are forever written in the book of life.  Jesus does not just make a way for us; He is our way (John 14:6).
            Everlasting life is the unending and permanent by-product of our salvation. Jesus later said in Luke 10:23-24, “Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.  For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.’”  The men and women of the Old Testament longed to see the joys that we securely possess in Jesus—a new and everlasting life and home in eternity.  This simple truth reminds us that God is good and kind.  His love endures forever.  Revelation 20, near the end of the Bible, reminds us once again that saved men and women possess the certainty of knowing beyond any doubt that their names are written in God’s book of life.  Our lives have been stained and scarred by sin in almost every imaginable way.  But there is coming a place and time that sin has not and cannot touch. 
            Take confidence in these words from Jesus and the comforting words of Scripture found elsewhere in the Bible.  We will build our faith not on feelings, emotions or our grandest dreams.  We build our faith on what the Lord has promised to us in His Word.  Earth is characterized by time, space and matter.  But heaven is a realm of reality that exists beyond what we presently know or experience by our brains and five senses.  We enter the presence of heaven and eternity quicker than we can blink our eyes or take a shallow breath.  Jesus teaches us to rejoice over the simple certainty that we are His and that our names are written down in heaven in an indelible ink that never fades or fails.  If Jesus says to rejoice over something, then it is certainly worth our attention and obedience. We can preach this message to ourselves each day.  We can write it down in our Bible in the margin of Luke 10 so we never forget this blessing.  While some people may seek headlines or spectacles, we always want to come back to the simple truths that are suitable for eternity.  Have a great Monday!
           
 

             Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:48).  That six-word statement is simple to understand.  It is easy to read.  But it is a profound theological truth.  Jesus is the bread of life.  That is a present reality.  Our Lord proved His words by feeding crowds of 5000 and 4000 men (and many more women and children).  He gave them bread to eat.  But we would be rather nearsighted to reduce Jesus to a mere bakery or Subway franchise.  Jesus fed people to be sure.  But He is not just a baker or giver of food to those who have none. He came to save people—from sin, Satan and a certain death.  Jesus went on in John 6 to give more insight into what He means when He calls himself the bread of life.  The Bible says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).  Jesus is the bread of heaven—a bread unlike anything we could purchase or bake on earth.
            Jesus is making clear that He is the One, and the only One, who gives us life—everlasting life.  Though we are dead in our sins, He has the power to bring us back to life, to give us new life and to make us a new creation.  This verse gives us the gospel.  Jesus came to us because we could not reach Him.  He gave His life.  His life is our bread.  His death paid the price for our salvation and satisfied the justice of God.  We live only because He died.  And because He died, we can live forever with Him.  We are not quite as bread-centric today as folks would have been in the first-century in Jesus’ day.  But still, we equate bread with food.  Bread can be read as synonymous with food in general.  And who doesn’t like the smell of fresh baked bread?  Jesus sustains us.  His power keeps us in the Father’s care and plan.  We draw our spiritual nourishment from reading the Word of Christ because He is the Word made flesh.  We are nourished when we pray and worship our Lord.  We are nourished when we remember the gospel.
            Take time each day to preach the gospel to yourself.  Think of Jesus as your bread of life today.  He is the One who has come to nourish and shepherd you.  1 John 5:12 tells us, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”  To know Jesus is to possess the bread of life and the bread for life.  Those who do not know Jesus possess no bread.  They are like those crowds of 5000 and 4000 men who were hungry and lacking any food.  They have no way to make food for themselves or to enjoy the food of others.  To say that Jesus is the bread of life means that we have made a break from the bread the world offers—bread that is neither filling nor sustaining.  The world’s bread may be good for the first taste but it quickly sours and leaves us emptier than ever.    
            The Lord’s Supper is probably the clearest visual we have for understanding Jesus as the bread of life.  The small piece of bread that we take reminds us of the abundance and riches of Christ and his Kingdom.  Taking this small bite of bread and eating it symbolize that we have opened our hearts and lives to Jesus.  We have taken His bread. Jesus commands us to take the bread and eat so we are continuously mindful of what He has accomplished for us through the cross.  The Lord’s Supper is a family meal—a meal for those who have responded to the Lordship of Jesus.  The Lord’s Supper reminds us of what we once were and what we have been delivered from because Jesus is our bread of life. Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that the Lord has set eternity in the human heart.  Christ is the One who satisfies that longing.  Physical bread perishes and grows stale.  But the spiritual bread that is Jesus lasts forever.  If you have a sandwich today, or bread of any kind, remember that Jesus is your everlasting bread.  He is the bread that nourishes you for a lifetime and for eternity.  Have a great Thursday!
           

            In Genesis 16, we read the story about Hagar and Ishmael.  At the end of her rope and basically all hope, Hagar takes comfort in learning that the God of Abraham has seen her.  The Bible says, “She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me’” (Genesis 16:13).  To know that God sees you or me should be an incredible comfort and strength to us. On a planet of billions of people, the Lord sees you or me.  He knows us.  And, in spite of our sinfulness and giving Him every reason to be rid of us, He loves us.  He demonstrated His love for us in this way—while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).  But back to the reality that God sees us.  To see something is to take note of it—to record a mental impression of what it is and what it means.
            While flying back from Europe yesterday, I had a chance to watch the movie “The Great Awakening.”  This movie tells the story of the enduring friendship shared by Benjamin Franklin and the great evangelist George Whitfield.  Whitfield suffered from an eye condition that left him open to ridicule, humiliation and shaming by others.  It was through the kindness and Christlikeness of John and Charles Wesley that Whitfield came to know the love and goodness of God and to surrender His life to faith in Christ.  Yet, this enduring problem with his left eye was used by God for good and for the gospel.  Whitfield developed a penchant for telling others, especially those easily overlooked and missed by others, that God saw them.  He shared this simple message with prisoners, slaves, the working-class poor and the masses both in Great Britain and the American colonies.
            Sharing the simple message “God sees you” opened the way for many, many people to hear and receive the saving gospel message of Jesus.  Whitfield’s open-air preaching led to a movement that church historians have called “the great awakening.”  It remains both compelling and comforting to know that God sees us—at home, in our distress, in a hospital, taking our final breaths or as we struggle with the demands of work and family.  God sees us at our worst and still He loves us.  God not only sees us, He also walks with us through the circumstances we face.  Nothing about this world is perfect and it never will be.  Sin has stained and seeped into every corner and crevice of this world. Perfection awaits in eternity. Yet, God sees us still.  Indeed, the gospel message is that God became like us in the birth of His Son Jesus—the very Christmas message that we will celebrate and embrace in just a little more than two months.
            Strengthen your faith today with three words that point to one great truth—God sees me!  Take time to see God today as you read His Word, speak with Him in prayer, praise Him for His blessings and worship Him along with other believers.  To remember that God sees you, remember the great stories of the Bible.  God saw the Old Testament Joseph in the suffering and injustice of his Egyptian prison cell.  God saw a future king when he saw a shepherd-boy named David all alone tending his sheep. God saw Daniel in the lions’ den and the three boys in the fiery furnace who would not bow to an idol. God saw Ruth as a young widow with no other way to eat but to glean the leftovers of the field alongside the rest of the poor and needy.  Adam and Eve could not hide from God after they defied Him and sinned against Him by eating the forbidden fruit.  God saw them.  God’s eyesight is perfect—never once does He miss a detail or falter.  He sees it all and that means He sees you too.  Have a great Monday!
           

          Matthew 1 and Luke 3 share at least one thing in common.  Both chapters contain a lot of names...some familiar and some may be unfamiliar to readers.  These chapters are known as genealogy chapters.  We learn about Jesus’ ancestors and from whom He descended.  These chapters validate some of the prophecies made about Jesus and the circumstances of His birth and lineage.  Often, we can be tempted to race through lengthy chapters with lots of names and genealogy.  We can trick ourselves into thinking these names offer little direction, comfort or encouragement for us.  But we would be wrong to skip such chapters or rush through them.  These chapters are gold mines just waiting for us to explore.  Also, we have to remember that all Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit and has something good for us to know and experience.  2 Timothy 3:16-17 teaches us that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
            Matthew 1’s account teaches us that there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the Babylonian Exile and fourteen generations from the end of this exile to the birth of Jesus.  We can see that for forty-two consecutive generations God was at work faithfully and ceaselessly to bring forth His Son Jesus and the gospel message that Jesus embodies.  God never took a day off or a vacation from His salvation work.  What an amazing testimony to the goodness and patience of God to bring His Son into the world to save lost sinners!  Luke 3 shows us the lineage of Jesus all the way back to Adam himself.  From Adam forward, God was at work to bring forth the new Adam—His Son Jesus who lived the kind of obedient life that God had called Adam to live. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:45, “So it is written: The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.”  Jesus lived in our place as well as dying in our place.
            We find in both Matthew 1 and Luke 3 that Jesus descended from Boaz—the husband of Ruth and the great-grandfather of David.  Jesus’ connection to David and the kings of Judah remind us that Jesus is the King of all kings.  He is the everlasting King who will reign for eternity in majesty and glory.  Jesus is a descendant of Solomon—the wisest man who ever lived and the author of Proverbs.  Yet, Jesus’ wisdom far surpasses the wisdom and grandeur of Solomon.  Jesus taught with authority and clarity and stumped the religious teachers and leaders of His day who could not match His wisdom and power. 
            We find Abraham’s name mentioned by both Matthew and Luke.  We remember Abraham for being a model of faith and trust.  The Bible says that Abraham believed God and it was credited to Him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6 and Romans 4:3).  This word faith reminds us that Jesus is the One we trust.  He is the One in whom we place our full faith for forgiveness, everlasting life and to see us through life’s turns and valleys.  Jesus is the ultimate embodiment of faithfulness.  He keeps His promises and never forgets His people. He has vowed to return again one day to claim His people and we live today in anticipation of that holy promise.
            At the end of Jesus’ genealogy, we find the name of Joseph.  Though Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, He was a paragon of integrity and virtue.  He stayed with Mary even when it was made clear to Him that she was pregnant.  His trust that Mary’s child had come from the Holy Spirit reminds us that God can be trusted in good times and hard times. Even when others did not know the backstory or the circumstances of Mary’s pregnancy, Joseph stayed true and faithful both to Mary and the Lord.  He kept his word.  And, in a big way, Joseph stayed true to Jesus—the Son who was not his own but the Son he would raise. And this Son, Jesus, would be the One who saved Joseph from his own sins.  Biblical genealogies are extraordinary and have much to contribute to our daily faith.  Have a great Monday!  
 

             Luke 1 lays the foundation for the birth and lives of two significant Bible characters...John the Baptist and Jesus.  Both of their births were foretold by an angel—Gabriel.  Both of their births would take place in unlikely and unexpected ways.  John was born to an aged couple named Zechariah and Elizabeth—a couple well-past child-conceiving and child-bearing years.  Jesus, of course, was born to Mary—a virgin pledged to be married to Joseph.  Yet, the circumstances of their births would underscore God’s ability to do anything and everything as He wills and chooses.  Their exceptional births would foreshadow the exceptional work of God to redeem and save lost sinners and bring them new lives.  The birth announcement for John and Jesus was received in very different ways by Zechariah, the father of John, and Mary, the mother of Jesus.
            When Zechariah heard Gabriel announce that he and Elizabeth were about to be blessed with a son, his reaction was disbelief.  He responded this way, “Zechariah asked the angel, ‘How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years’” (Luke 1:18).  As a result of his disbelief and doubt, John lost his voice, literally went silent, until the day of his son John’s birth.  This had to be the worst chase of laryngitis in history!  But there is a simple lesson—disbelief and doubt can often deprive us of God’s blessings and joy.  We can often miss out on seeing God at work in our lives or the lives of others because of doubt.  We can trust God’s Word today.  He will do what He has promised to do.  Anything He declares to be right and good remains that way today.  Anything that he has labeled as sin continues to be sin—no matter what culture or people may wish to change or revise.  Never let a lack of belief or trust rob you of the goodness that God may wish to bring into your life.
            Mary’s reaction stands in stark contrast to John.  She heard a more astounding revelation from Gabriel—as a virgin, she was about to conceive a son. And not just any son, but the very Son of God.  She didn’t waver.  Her response was, “’I am the Lord’s servant’, Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled’” (Luke 1:38).  Mary embraced God’s promise and leaned into what God had chosen to do through her.  We can trust God to do the incredible, the impossible and the improbable.  He is not bound or limited by anything we can think or imagine.  Mary knew this.  And Mary went forward to carry and deliver Jesus knowing that God was with Her and would be faithful to His promises. 
            Indeed, the Bible says, God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).  Live in faithful expectation of what God can do.  He is able to do much more than our highest and best prayers could possibly request.  Many times, when we are confused or struggling, we can simply bring our brokenness, confusion and burdens to the Lord and entrust them to Him.  He is worthy and He is able.  As Mary sang, “He has filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:53a).  God can bring good things into our lives today.  The earth is His and everything in it (Psalm 24:1).    
            Think of where you may be today in your relationship with the Lord.  Perhaps, you are a bit like Zechariah—a little doubtful about what God can do and whether God can or will keep His promises to you.  You might even wonder whether God will provide in a situation that you are facing or one that may be looming in the future.  Maybe you are a bit like Mary—ready to surrender and entrust yourself to the Lord and His ways.  Maybe you have no relationship with the Lord.  Maybe there has never been a time when you trusted Him with your life—your past, present and future—and declared Him to be your Savior and Lord.  God is at work today to change people and their lives.  He can turn doubts into faith and make us more like Mary than Zechariah.  He can bring life to barren places.  Have a great Thursday!    
 
             
                 

              Nehemiah is known in the Bible as a builder.  He led the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem at the time of Israel’s return to the land following exile.  This was no small feat either practically or spiritually for Israel.  His name means “the LORD comforts.”  What a great name!  He was entrusted with great responsibility but encountered great opposition to his work of leading the rebuilding project. In Nehemiah 4:6, we discover this simple statement, “So, we rebuilt the wall.”  Nothing more than that.  We rebuilt the wall.  These five words are written rather matter-of-factly.  They are written as a mission that has been both received and completed.  There is a lesson in this simple statement that can speak to us even today.  Being a follower of Christ often means we simply and immediately do what He has entrusted us to do.
            There could be an area of your life where you are struggling with obedience or faithfulness.  You know what is right.  You agree with what is right.  Yet, you struggle to do what is right or to say the right words.  Obedience is not always easy.  But it is usually straightforward enough for us to know what the Lord expects of us in a given setting or matter.  God does not trick us or take delight in confusing us.  Nehemiah had every imaginable reason to suspend or even stop the work of rebuilding.  Yet, he continued.  He turned a deaf ear to naysayers and those who were trying to persuade him to quit.  He reminded his co-workers to stay on task in 4:14 when he said, “Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome.” Remembering the Lord still works today.  Remember where He is at work.  Remember what He has made you to be.  Remember the work that He has entrusted to your hands.  Remembering the Lord each day helps us to remember what He has for us to do or to be.    
            Nehemiah served the Lord with diligence and even dogged determination.  He was not going to walk away from what the Lord had given Him to do.  When the opposition seemed to reach a crescendo near the end of Nehemiah 4, this courageous man wrote, “we all returned to the wall, each to our own work” (4:15b).  Note the word “returned.”  We can come back to the Lord.  We can come back to the work He has given us to do.  We can come back to Him in obedience and service.  Though we may have failed in some way, we can come back to Him.  Duties we may have abandoned, shirked or handled half-way can be taken up again with renewed conviction, dedication and faithfulness.  The enemy would love to convince us that we are damaged goods and that one failure means a lifetime of failure.  Not true at all.  Nehemiah inspires us to get back to what God has set aside for us to do.
            When Nehemiah faced additional opposition and opponents in Nehemiah 6, he prayed, “now strengthen my hands” (6:9b).  That four-word prayer is one that we could pray each day for ourselves or for those who had asked for our prayers.  Ask God to strengthen your hands for anything He has committed to you.  Ask God to strengthen the hands of teachers, pastors, ministers, servants and leaders in the church.  God does not limit His calling and commissioning to the equipped and capable alone.  Rather, He equips, qualifies and makes capable those whom He has called.  One way God does this is through prayer—our prayers and even the prayers of those people we have enlisted and asked to pray for us.
            As you start a new week, think about how God may be leading you to obey or serve Him.  Think of the doors that God has opened for you but you have yet to pass through these doors.  Think of actions and words that God has seared into your heart to do or speak, yet you have left these things to grow cold and unattended.  Be devoted as Nehemiah was devoted.  Yield yourself to the Lord and serve Him.  Be open to serving the Lord in new ways rather than rolling out the same old ways day after day.  Be open to changes and newness that God may want to bring to your life and fight the temptation just to have things your way because they are comfortable and familiar to you.  The familiar things that bring you comfort may be obstacles to others coming to the Lord or the work that God would like to do around you.  Let God’s Word encourage you in the face of the world’s discouragement and hostility.  Take some time to read Nehemiah and let this ancient builder instruct and inspire you to live obediently for the Lord in these days and times.  Have a great Monday!
 
             

          The late singer and songwriter Tom Petty sang, “The waiting is the hardest part.  Every day you see one more card.  You take it on faith; you take it to the heart.  The waiting is the hardest part.”  We might say he’s not wrong.  Waiting can be hard.  Kids struggle to wait for Christmas.  We wait for planes to board and take off.  We wait for payday to arrive. Teenagers just want to grow up.  Adults grow antsy waiting for hopes and wishes to come true.  Waiting is addressed in the Bible.  Psalm 130:5 says, “I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in His word, I put my hope.”  Folks waited in the Bible.  David waited to become king and to ascend to the throne that God promised Him.  When His mother pressed Him to make more wine at a wedding, Jesus responded that His time had not yet come (John 2:4).  Following the resurrection, the disciples waited for the promised Holy Spirit to come.  Waiting has been around for a long time.
            Some people say, tritely yet truthfully, that God often answers our prayers with one of these three possibilities...go, no or slow.  Go and no are rather obvious answers. The idea behind slow is simply to wait.  How do we wait for the Lord?  For starters, we make sure we are not waiting grudgingly with clenched teeth.  It can be easy to become angry if God is putting the brakes on our plans or intentions.  But God always acts in ways that are good, right and true.  If we know the Lord, we should welcome those moments when God applies the brakes.  He could well be saving us from ourselves and some ill-timed plans we have in mind.  It has been said that fools rush in where angels fear to tread.  But there are some positive things we should also do as we wait on the Lord.
            First, we continue to pray.  God may give us greater clarity when we are waiting in a prayerful way.  Prayer can slow us down just a bit and allow God to work and move in our lives and circumstances.  As we pray, we can invite others to pray for us and with us in this season of waiting.  Second, we continue to worship.  We come before the Lord to praise and honor Him.  We can worship warmly and eagerly because we know that we rest in His arms.  Worship often gives us an image of God to hold on to as we wait—an image like that of a shepherd, a tender father, a confidante or the One for whom nothing is impossible.
            Third, we stay in God’s Word.  We continue to read and reflect upon Scripture.  The Psalms and Proverbs are two great books in the Bible to read during a season of waiting. We can glean wisdom from Proverbs and consolation from the Psalms.  The Psalms can gladden our hearts and cheer on our spirits as we wait for God to work or to open a door for us.  Psalm 130:6 says, “I wait for the LORD more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.”  When we wait, we are not alone.  Past men and women of faith have waited.  And others are waiting alongside us too.
            Fourth, remember that God’s timing is perfect.  Waiting can leave us frustrated and even aggravated.  But we come back to the simple truth that God’s timing is perfect.  He is neither too late nor too early in anything He chooses to do.  Often, hindsight gives us a chance to see that God’s movement came at the right time and in the right way.  When you wait, remind yourself that God’s timing will be right—perfect, in fact, every time.  Fifth, look expectantly for where God may be at work.  He could well surprise you by how and where He works.  He may open doors that you surely thought were closed forever.  In Acts 16, the Holy Spirit specifically kept Paul from going to Bithynia but opened a door to go to Macedonia—Paul’s famous Macedonian call that opened the way for the gospel to enter Europe.  We can always hold on to the profound truth that God’s timing is perfect. He will always get His people (including you and me) to where we need to be and when we need to be there.  Christian song writer Chandler Moore wrote these words about waiting, “I'm gonna wait on You.  I'vе tasted Your goodness. I'll trust in Your promise.  I'm gonna wait on You.“  Have a great Thursday!  
             
                 
                 

             Haggai is a brief book of prophecy found near the end of the Old Testament.  Only two chapters long, we commonly call Haggai a “minor prophet” because of the brevity of his book.  He addressed his prophecy or his word from the Lord to those Jews who were returning to Israel following the exile in Babylon.  His name means “one who celebrates” or simply “a celebration.”  He prophesied to encourage people to finish the rebuilding of the temple and to restore proper worship and a proper reverence for the Lord who had delivered them back to the land. 
            Twice in chapter one, Haggai wrote the same admonition, “give careful thought to your ways” (1:5, 7).  That six-word command is a good way to start a Monday and a new week.  We should always give careful thought to our ways—primarily the way in which we relate to the Lord and walk with Him.  It can be easy to reduce our faith to an autopilot relationship with God whereby we simply go through the motions—the same old motions that can easily turn into empty habits.  And empty habits can often lead to empty hearts. So, we are challenged by this small prophecy to give careful thought to our ways.  Do we walk with the Lord?  Do we read His Word?  Do we honor Him with the blessings that we have been given by Him?
            As you begin a new week, is there something in your faith that cries out for a new beginning?  Have you allowed some important roles in your life to slip into little more than mere habit?  No one is immune to this.  Jesus gave us a good word in Matthew 6:21 where He said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  We tend to pursue the things that matter to us.  We tend to allocate time and thoughts to those things that we cherish and treasure.  It can be easy for any of us to speak about how God comes first for us.  Yet, when we look at how we have spent our time, thoughts and treasure in a typical week, we find little evidence that is true. 
            In Haggai 2, the prophet again gives us a simple command two times.  The command is “be strong” (twice in 2:4).  We are to be strong in the Lord—not ourselves or our power.  Find your strength in Bible reading, prayer, worship, serving the Lord, obeying the Lord and honoring Him with your tithes.  These activities are called “spiritual disciplines” because they make us stronger in our faith and discipleship.  Just as physical exercise and conditioning can change your health, spiritual disciplines make your heart and spirit stronger.  Take time to cultivate these disciplines into your life and faith.  Reclaim your time from the things that rob you and mislead you.  Today’s smart phone is often one of the biggest thieves of time, energy and rest.  It seems to beckon to our eyes and ears almost ceaselessly.  Maybe make a decision to talk with someone personally rather than bombing them with texts—but that’s a different devotion for another time. However, there is a healthy goodness in relaxed, face-to-face conversations with others rather than just an electronic exchange of information.
            Haggai called his people to rebuild the temple.  The temple was the place where they could faithfully and personally meet with the Lord.  The temple was the place that would ensure that the people would not again fall into idolatry and pagan ways.  Today, we are not rebuilding a temple for ourselves.  If we know Jesus in a saving way, the Holy Spirit lives inside us.  Our very bodies are the temple for the Holy Spirit.  So, today, we want to build our heart, mind and spirit as a place that welcomes and embraces the Lord.  We want to dedicate our time, thoughts and ways to Him.  Give some careful reflection and thought to your ways as you begin a new week.  Think about the doors that you have opened to the Lord or maybe closed to Him.  Incline your heart to Him today.  Have a great Monday!
             

            Ezekiel is one of the major prophets in the Bible.  It is a fairly long book by Bible standards—forty-eight chapters in total.  Ezekiel’s audience was Jewish exiles in Babylon and scattered elsewhere.  His name means “God strengthens.”  And indeed, Ezekeil foresaw a day when God would again regather and strengthen His people.  The exile in Babylon would not last forever and Israel would return to the land that God had provided.  Ezekiel declared what God would do for Israel in 36:26-29, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.  I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you.”  The prophet painted a bright and blessed future for Israel—a future where God would resettle them in their land and open His blessings and fruitfulness to them.
            The good news we immediately see is that God can change the human heart—any heart that looks to Him in faith and surrender.  Ezekiel wrote about a “heart of stone.”  This kind of heart is stubbornly opposed to God and resistant to God and His ways.  A heart of stone is/was not unique to ancient Israel.  People can develop such a heart even today.  A life of disobedience, defiance, bitterness and sin can easily harden and calcify our hearts. Only God can change the human heart.  There is no medication or New York Times bestseller that can create a new heart within us.  We are powerless to do this by ourselves. But the good news of the gospel is God can change our hearts through Jesus.  Jeremiah, another major prophet, also spoke of God’s capacity to change human hearts.  He wrote, “’This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people’” (Jeremiah 31:33).
            God promised to give Israel (and us today) the capacity and help to love, serve and obey Him.  We can be grateful today, if we are saved by Jesus, for the presence of the Holy Spirit living within us.  He can produce good fruit from a changed heart.  The Holy Spirit living within us can give us the power to love and honor the Father who has saved us from sin and death.  The hymn “There Shall Be Showers of Blessing” was inspired by the words of Ezekiel in 34:26b when the prophet wrote, “I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.”  God works in and through those who yield to Him. One way that God works is by supplying us with the blessings we need to live for Him.  God’s blessings are designed to enable us to love, worship and serve Him.  His blessings also enable us to love and serve others around us.  The image “showers of blessings” would suggest that God provides incredibly more blessings than we can see or imagine.  On our best days, we might see a few blessings that God has provided while many, many more go by unseen and even unacknowledged.  God’s grace and mercies are not rationed or strained.  They are lavishly bestowed upon us as His children.
            Ezekiel pointed the people of Israel to a new and better day that would come
because of God’s goodness and grace.  Even today, we always look forward in anticipation of where God is at work and what He is doing.  We can look back and see the evidence of God’s blessings and hand at work.  The blessings of the past encourage us to look forward to see where God is leading and drawing us forward.  God can change barren places into fertile ones and empty hearts into full hearts.  God can turn hearts of stone, made callous by sin and failure, into hearts that are pliable and new—hearts that live for His glory.  Give thanks today for the “showers” of blessings that God has rained down in your life.  Give thanks for the new heart He has given you through the work of Jesus at the cross.  Lead with your blessings each day.  Look forward and lean into opportunities to use your blessings to serve Him. Have a great Monday!
                 
                 

             Over time, babies become toddlers.  Toddlers become children.  Children become youth.  And youth become adults.  This process can seemingly happen overnight—just ask any parent of adult children.  But the reality is babies are born to grow up and become adults.  Spiritually, we are not to remain infants either.  A decades-long infantile Christian is heartbreaking to see.  We are to grow in Christ and become mature followers of Jesus.  We are born again at the moment of our conversion to faith in Jesus.  And, immediately after being born again, we start the journey of Christian maturity and growth. 
            Hebrews 5 speaks to our growing in Christ.  The Bible says, “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:12-14).  God did not save us to leave us as struggling, immature Christians—mere babes in the faith.  God calls us to grow into the likeness of Christ.  This growth is to be ongoing and enduring.    
            Romans 8:29 says, “God predestined believers to be conformed to the image of His Son.”  Ephesians 4:15 says, “we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”  So, yes, our growth in Christ and spiritual maturity is very much God’s plan for us.  Our growth is on the forefront of His radar.  Yet, many Christians choose to linger and flounder in immaturity and almost infantile faith.  To grow in Christ, Hebrews 5 says, requires good, solid spiritual food.  We need robust and daily Bible reading and study.  We need to pray frequently and faithfully.  We need to worship with other believers consistently.  Hebrews says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (10:24-25).  We need to be with other healthy believers who can encourage and inspire us to grow in Christ.  We need opportunities to serve where we develop a servant’s heart and give of ourselves just as Christ gave Himself up for us at the cross. 
            Sadly, many Christians enjoy little, if any, real growth in faith and Christlikeness.  They stagnate.  And this stagnation can easily intensify over time.  You may find yourself today in a bit of a “slump” spiritually.  You can remain there and gradually experience more and more of the same.  Objects at rest tend to stay at rest.  Or, you can get into the Bible. Get back to worshipping with other believers.  Take some time to pray.  Invite a healthy, mature Christian to help you be accountable in breaking free from this slump.  Occasionally, these spiritual slumps are the result of some spiritual failure or mishap.  It could be a bad decision.  It could be a moment of regret that you have let define yourself.  But remember, Christ still loves you.  He died for those sins, bad decisions and regrets that we often allow to remain in our minds and hearts.  We carry them unnecessarily.  We hold on to bitterness and disappointment to our detriment.  Christ calls us to release our sins to Him and to remember that He died for those sins and can set us free from a stagnant faith and life.  That is the truth.  Do not allow the enemy to lie to you any longer.
            Just as a car battery often needs a jumpstart, we can spiritually need one too.  Today may be such an occasion for you.  Ask the Lord to help you begin taking the first steps to running in the great race of faith again.  Satan would love to isolate you on the sidelines and marginalize your faith and influence.  Do not fall for those old tricks and schemes that the evil one likes to unleash.  Get back to the faithful spiritual disciplines that produce faithful men and women for Christ—Bible study, prayer, worship, tithing, serving, coming together with other believers and making your spiritual growth the number one priority in your life.  Remember these encouraging words from Hebrews 12, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (12:1-2a).  Have a great Thursday!  Get up and get going for the glory of God! 
                 

          Near the end of 1 Corinthians, we find Paul closing the letter with these words: “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand” (1 Corinthians 16:21).  A quick aside, the way Paul ended his letters is worth a study all its own.  His conclusions were nothing short of powerful and sensational.  Paul wrote much of the New Testament.  We believe he wrote no less than thirteen letters and possibly fourteen (depending upon whether one believes Paul wrote Hebrews which is debatable).  Paul was also a missionary, a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ and a church planter.  The Bible tells us much about his work in these areas. If we could summarize Paul’s ministry in three words, we might choose these—available, resourceful and faithful.  He was available to be used by Christ in whatever way our Lord thought best.  He was resourceful—he knew and relied on other Christians and served God with what he possessed.  He was faithful in serving the Lord all the way to the end of his life.
            When we read today’s verse, we see that Paul mentioned his hand—"my own hand” to be precise.  He used his hand to write letters of instruction, encouragement and even correction to individuals and local churches in the early days of the Church.  We can think today of what we have to use for the Lord.  Maybe our hands could be used to write letters, send texts or prepare a message of hope for others.  We could use our hands to serve in disaster relief in Western North Carolina.  We could use our hands to prepare meals to serve those who might be hungry.  We might use our hands to help those who have fallen—physically or spiritually.  Our hands could be used to teach others how to read and study the Bible.
            God may ask us the same question that He asked Moses.  “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘What is that in your hand?’” (Exodus 4:2).  We all possess something that can be used for the Lord and to be of service to Him.  We have something in our hands—whether big or small.  Even today, God calls us to be available, resourceful and faithful.  Knowing what we have in our hands is an important step in serving God as well as we can and stewarding well the blessings that He has given to us.  Aside from knowing what you have in your hands, the Lord may call us to assess the time that we have available to us and how that time can be redeemed for His service. 
            We rarely think that God can use our failures and weaknesses but He can.  God may use our failures to help someone else avoid the same traps and heartbreaks that we have experienced.  Our weaknesses may be opportunities for us to see the strength and glory of God magnified for others to see.  Paul learned this truth firsthand, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).  Those who have journeyed through sickness, the loss of a loved one or personal failure may not think of themselves as having anything to offer out of their weaknesses.  But, God can easily and powerfully use the things that we write off as weaknesses or failures.  He can transform these things into something good and wonderful for His glory.  He can use these things to advance the gospel into the lives of those who might not otherwise hear this good news.
            With Paul as an example, you might have more today than you realize that would allow you to be available, resourceful and faithful.  Small things entrusted to God can often do exceedingly and abundantly more than all we could ever ask or imagine.  Remember Jesus fed a multitude of more than 5000 men, women and children with just one little boy’s lunch.  God still multiplies and makes sufficient the things we bring to Him with our hands. As a new month prepares to start, think about what you can do for God’s glory with your hands.  How can your hands lift high the good news of the gospel message?  God has made your hands and mine.  By faith, we ask Him to use what our hands hold and possess. Have a great Monday!
                 

         We have all likely heard the expression “time flies.”  And it does.  Children grow up quickly.  Christmas seemingly comes around more quickly every year.  We age faster than we ever expected we would.  James wrote, “What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14b-c).  Since life itself is brief, it pays to build our lives on the things that last—on foundations that are sure, trustworthy and faithful. We want to build our lives on foundations we can count on to sustain us through all the many circumstances of life—good or bad.  At the end of his powerful Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus reminded us to build our lives upon Him and His words (Matthew 7:24-25).
         Proverbs, the great wisdom book of the Bible, reminds us not to trust material things or riches.  We are taught, more than once, in Proverbs to build on sturdy and lasting foundations.  For example, the Bible says, “Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle” (Proverbs 23:5).   A few important lessons stand out for us to see and learn about material wealth and the things that we tend to accumulate.  First, we usually look for someone or something to trust.  People often look for safe places to save or invest their money.  The Bible assumes that we will look beyond ourselves to discover what we can trust with the things we cherish.  Our faith, or our relationship with the Lord, is our most precious possession.  We are not to let any rival or threaten that relationship.  So, when we look for what we can trust, we first look to the Lord.  Let God be true and every man a liar the Bible reminds us.  We can begin each day trusting God to see us through that day come what may.
         Second, we are to recognize that material possessions and things are worth only a glance.  Why?  Because such things are brief and do not last beyond this lifetime.  Most material things wear out or break down before this lifetime ends or expires. Imagine how many appliances that you have replaced or home repairs you have made.  Riches are worth only a glance the Bible says.  The Bible is teaching us to hold on lightly to the things we can see and touch.  Yet another example of living by faith and not by sight.  Do not measure your fulfillment or joy by what you have or what you can acquire.  These same things can easily be lost or taken from us and never recovered.
         Third, “riches,” Proverbs says, sprout wings and fly away.  You may feel like that’s true about your bank account.  It disappears much more quickly than it loads or fills up.  Riches can be lost or squandered.  Riches can be stolen or taken away.  Riches can break down, wear out and wither away.  Indeed, the Bible warns us that only God’s Word lasts forever.  Isaiah wrote, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever” (Isaiah 40:8).  God, His Word, our faith and our walk with Him are the precious blessings and possessions that matter in this life.  We should prioritize these things and lessen the times that we glance at riches and the things of this world that seem appealing to the eye, mind or heart.
         Take time today to prioritize the things that matter most.  Be filled with God and His Word.  Spend time in prayer and worship.  Do not chase the things that bring attention to yourself.  Rather, remember the good admonition of Proverbs 22:1 which says to us, “a good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed in better than silver or gold.”  Have a great Monday!  And build your life today on the things that will anchor you when storms come and trials seem to be overwhelming!

           Romans 8 is one of the towering chapters in the Bible.  It stands as a mountain peak of rich and important biblical truth.  We could camp out on top of this peak for a long time to take in the long view of God and His work of grace in Christ to change and transform us for His glory.  But just before we get into Romans 8, there is a rich passage at the end of Romans 7.  Paul wrote, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin” (Romans 7:24-25).  As we read these two verses, most of us rather easily find ourselves identifying with Paul in several ways.
            First, we do see ourselves as “wretches.”  We see ourselves as hopelessly lost and sinful apart from Christ.  This word “wretched” that Paul used comes from the Greek word “talaipōros” which means miserable, afflicted and conflicted with sin.  It has been said that sin is the one doctrine in Christianity that is most empirically and observably verifiable.  All we have to do is look around us to see evidence of sin and to look closely at ourselves to see our sinfulness.  We are indeed wretches in need of rescue—you and me.  Some compare this word “wretched” to a wrecked ship that is no longer seaworthy or able to sail safely to transport cargo or passengers.  A ship that cannot sail has little, if any, usefulness. Likewise, we are broken, battered and beaten by sin.  We are “wretched” people.  Our sins have left us deplorable and disgraceful in God’s sight—worthy of being cast aside.
            Second, Paul asked the question “who will rescue us” from sin and the effects of sin?  Who will come to our aid?  Who can change our present state and bring us hope for the future?  Left alone in our sins, we are in an appalling state.  Romans 6:23 reminds us of our state, “for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  We are powerless to save ourselves.  Our arms are much too small to lift ourselves from the muck and mire of a life of sin and rebellion.  But simply asking the question that Paul asked means we recognize that we cannot stay where we are.  We cannot make our home in sin.  There has to be a better way and a better place for us.  We must be set free from this self-created captivity and self-imposed prison that we have created by our choices and actions.    
            Third, Paul gave thanks that Jesus, the sinless Son of God, came to deliver us.  He came to rescue us.  Like a lifeguard who bravely fights through the wind and waves to save a sinking swimmer, Jesus entered into a world filled with sin and sinners to live the life we could never live and to take the death we should deservedly take.  Apart from the saving power of Christ, we are “slaves to sin.”  We would like to obey God’s law perfectly but we all too often find ourselves living as slaves to sin instead.  Yet, Jesus came to change that.  He came to give us a new birth and a new life.  He came to change our lives today and our eternity in the time to come.  As Paul wrote, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15).  We can be grateful that when sin left us “wretched” and wicked Christ came to set us free.  The gospel has the last and final word for us today. 
            Today’s verses, Romans 7:24-25, clearly remind us of the gospel of Jesus Christ—a gospel we are to cherish and remember forever.  It is this gospel that saves us, transforms us and sets us free.  We are not to lose sight of this good news or trade it for something lesser and watered down.  As Paul reminds us in Galatians 1:8-9, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one, we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!” Have a wonderful Monday!  Give thanks today for all that Christ has done for you!
 

             In the Bible, our faith is often compared to walking.  Indeed, we can easily find the word “walk” describing our relationship with Jesus.  Walking well can mean that we are growing as disciples of Jesus—reading Scripture, praying, serving well and putting aside the old things and the sinful things.  Isaiah 57:2 says, “Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.”  The word “walk” in Isaiah suggests a faithful, consistent journey through life as a follower of Jesus.  To walk well would mean there is a lifestyle of integrity, honesty and humility as we walk before the Lord and seek to serve Him well in the circumstances that we encounter.  We walk uprightly because God is the author of life.  Doing life His way is the right way.  As our Creator, God knows best for how we are to walk and live.  Walking uprightly and with integrity does not save us from our sins—such a notion is little more than “works-righteousness” or the idea that there is something we can do to make ourselves holy before the Lord.  Rather, because the Lord has saved us by His cross, we seek to live uprightly as thankful people for all that the Lord Jesus has done for us. 
            Walking uprightly brings a great blessing to us.  According to Isaiah, we “enter into peace.”  We will experience peace as we walk in God’s ways.  Peace does not mean we will never face adversity, trials or temptation from the enemy.  But it does mean we can remain faithful in our walk and not be pulled aside by every shiny or noisy thing that we encounter. We are anchored in the Lord and secure in him.  Like Jesus’ story about the two builders in Matthew 7:24-27, our foundation is upon the rock and not the sand.  Our lives have a foundation that holds us in place.  That foundation is Jesus—known and nurtured through Scripture, prayer, worship and our surrender to Him.  Psalm 15:2-3, 5 says, “The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others...whoever does these things will never be shaken.”  We experience God’s peace in our conduct, our words and in our relationships with others.  Our hearts can be at rest and not anxious or fretful.
            There is a second blessing that we experience when we walk uprightly.  We find rest as we enter death.  Living uprightly means we can approach death confidently in Christ. We have no unfinished business or outstanding debts.  We have lived our lives each day like we were dying and could find ourselves in the holy presence of the Lord at any moment.  There is a gentle and seamless transition from the earthly to the eternal, from this world to the next.  We leave no holy or righteous words unspoken or deeds undone.  We know we can die in peace when we have embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ that shows us the power of the cross to save us from our sins and rebellion against God.  Death is not a curse that we fear but rather a road that takes us from this fallen world into the place that the Lord has prepared for us and all of His people—a place where peace and blamelessness are the norms. (see John 14:2-3).
            God has supplied us with many promises to help us walk uprightly and to live in peace.  All of His promises are answered affirmatively in Christ Jesus.  We can give thanks that this simple verse in Isaiah 57 grants us three blessings for today.  One, with His help, we can walk and live uprightly and blamelessly throughout the days we enjoy.  Two, we can live at peace with God.  Our sins have been cancelled and forgiven and we have been made right with Him by the cross.  And three, there is an everlasting rest and life that awaits those who belong to Christ.  The grave does not hold the last word or final claim upon us. Those who know and walk with Christ belong to Him and will one day be with Him.  Have a great Thursday!
 

           One important tenet of the Christian faith is this: God is our creator.  We believe that God made the heavens and the earth.  God made everything.  When it comes to seeing God as our Creator, we usually turn the Bible to Genesis and read the opening couple of chapters.  But the truth of God being our Creator is taught more broadly in Scripture than just being confined to the first two chapters of Genesis.  The law, prophets, wisdom books, gospel and letters all confirm the same reality—God is the maker of all things.  In Jeremiah 10, we can read about God’s creative power.  The prophet wrote, “But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding” (10:12).  Jeremiah used three key words, verbs, to indicate the actions that God took in creation.  He wrote that God “made,” “founded” and “stretched.” 
            The word “made” means to establish.  God has created all that we see, know and enjoy.  The earth is not here by accident or some random chance.  God willed and spoke the creation into existence.  He provided the foundations for the creation to rest upon. When God speaks, the power of His Word causes things to happen.  The word “founded” means that God made the earth take shape and form.  Literally, He made the creation to stand up and be seen.  You may remember that Jesus commanded a sick man at the Pool of Bethesda to get up or to stand up (see John 5).  We see the power of Jesus’ spoken Word.  The Son of God spoke and reality changed for one man who had been crippled for thirty-eight years.  He would stand—something that moments earlier would have been impossible for him to do.  The word “stretched” means to spread out or to extend.  It can mean to incline or extend out—much like you might lean out to pick up something just beyond your reach or stretch to reach something on a store shelf.  God has extended out the limits of the creation.  The whole universe—beyond our ability to measure or calculate—has expanded at God’s direction and command.  The boundaries of the universe are far beyond anything we could reach.
            How is God able to do these things?  How does God act in ways beyond the human ability to understand?  Jeremiah 10:6 gives us the answer.  The prophet wrote, “No one is like you, Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power.”  God created simply because He willed to do so.  He acted because it was His prerogative to do so.  Our response is to marvel at His greatness and power.  Our response is to exalt His greatness. We do this on Sundays as we gather with other believers to worship the Lord and give Him His due honor and praise.  We exalt Him when we are overwhelmed by some beauty that we find in creation.  We exalt Him when we bow before Him to acknowledge that His ways and thoughts are far, far greater than ours.
            Maybe even more amazing than the material creation is God’s creation of human life.  Jeremiah wrote, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart” (Jeremiah 1:5).  God knew Jeremiah before He was formed and before He was born.  But knew you before you were formed and born too.  He knew the number of your days and the breaths that you would take.  He knew you would sin and need the saving cross and blood of His Son.  He knew you would need to be ransomed from sin and saved from His wrath.  God knew.  Yet, God still made you.  He created you and gave you the breath of life—the breath He gave to Adam.  If you are even tempted to diminish or devalue human life, remember soberly that God is the Author of human life.  Apart from Him, there is no life.  God is our maker.  Pride and sin often rob us from the joy and confidence that we find in knowing and remembering that God is our maker.  Remind yourself today that God made you.  You are not an accident, a cosmic mix-up or an afterthought.  You are made and loved by the same Lord who placed the stars in the sky. Have a great Monday!
 

             Jude is the next to last book of the Bible.  It is a single chapter long.  He identified himself in verse one as the brother of James—very likely meaning that he may also have been a brother of the Lord Jesus too.  He was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this single-chapter book as a warning against false and immoral teachers and alarming heresies that were a danger and threat to the unity and witness of the early church.  Satan was working hard and working overtime to destroy the Church in its infancy.  Jude was so disturbed that he changed the tone and direction of his letter from what he had originally planned to write. Jude says, “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people” (Jude 3).
            Jude’s letter is an encouragement to us today.  Several important lessons stand out for us to see in verse 3 and really the entirety of the letter.  First, our salvation in and through Jesus alone is precious and priceless.  It is worth contending for.  The enemy would love to convince us that salvation is not necessary—just do the best you can and let your good deeds outweigh your bad.  The enemy often tries to convince us that there are multiple ways to reach heaven and enjoy salvation.  Anything or any pathway will take us to God if we are just sincere and work hard.  But the gospel says otherwise.  It is by grace we are saved through faith, not by works, so that no one can or should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). The gospel that saves us this—Jesus died, Jesus was buried and Jesus rose again according to the Scriptures.  We add nothing.  We bring nothing.  We work for nothing. Jesus plus nothing leads to salvation!  We always want to speak with clarity and conviction when we speak about salvation.
            Second, we stand for and contend for the gospel daily.  It is not a battle once fought and then forgotten.  It is not even an annual struggle.  It is a daily contention for what is right, good and true.  Satan, our ruthless enemy, fights against the hope and power of the gospel relentlessly.  We want to put on the full armor of God each day and walk boldly by faith with Him.  Pray for one person every day to hear and to respond to the gospel message.  Extend one invitation each week to someone to come to our church or to participate in some of the ministries we offer.  Contending for the gospel is not just an Easter and Christmas engagement.  It is daily!
            Third, contending for the gospel keeps us on track.  It gives us a mission to set before us and to fulfill each day.  Near the end of his letter, Jude wrote, “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy” (Jude 24).  Christ keeps us from stumbling, flailing or floundering in life. He has set us free so we can serve Him and declare His greatness and glory to the ends of the earth and beyond.  Wake up to live for Him who died for you.  Faithfully declare His greatness by your life and witness.    
            Fourth, remember the gospel is good news!  It is the best news ever!  We are sinners but God loves us so much that He came to the earth to die for us and to win us back from the grave, sin and Satan forever.  When you get weighed down by the news of the world’s struggles, life’s battles or the normal aches and pains of the day, come back to the good news that changes everything.  God forgives and remakes us here and now and one day He’ll call us home to be with Him.  Take time today to memorize the way Jude ends his letter.  He began with a call to arms—to contend for the gospel and not to be led astray by false teachers or teachings.  But he ended in a crescendo of triumph, “to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen” (Jude 25).  Have a great Monday!  God is good and still mighty to save!  

          As you may know, the Bible has much to say about the way we speak.  With our mouths, we can bring glory to God or shame to ourselves.  James wrote in his letter, “Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing” (James 3:5-10a).  We often have to return to this warning from James to check our speech and to see how we use the voices that God has given and entrusted to us. 
            Proverbs also has much to say about our speech.  Proverbs is the wisdom book of the Bible.  Reading faithfully through Proverbs is an immersive education in God’s ways and wisdom—an education that can help us navigate our way through life.  For example, Proverbs 14:3 says, “A fool’s mouth lashes out with pride, but the lips of the wise protect them.”  Take a moment to meditate on this simple verse.  Read it a few times silently to yourself.  A few important truths stand out for us to see.  First, Solomon, the writer of Proverbs, gives us a contrast between those who are fools and those who are wise.  A fool has little, if any regard to what he says of the fallout that might ensue.  A fool, generally speaking, is concerned with the moment at hand and saying whatever may be most convenient or expedient in the heat of the moment.  But the wise individual takes time to speak consistently and thoughtfully.  The wise man or woman seeks to bring glory to God and is not motivated by earthly esteem or favor.
            Second, we can lash out in speech or choose our words with wisdom and restraint.  A fool often lashes out with little regard for where the words will land and the damage they may cause to others or the testimony of Christ.  The wise person will speak with restraint and measured consideration—hoping to make situations better rather than worse.  In some cases, there may be no reason to speak at all—and doing so may do little to change hearts and minds.  Proverbs 17:28 reminds us, “Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues.”  Occasionally, even a fool makes a wise choice.  But those who love the Lord realize that keeping silent may be a good course of action to follow in many circumstances. 
            Third, pride can often surface in our speech.  We may speak to make ourselves look better when compared to others.  We may speak to present ourselves in a deceptive way—enhancing our reputation in ways that we know are simply false.  A concocted story often takes much more time and many more words than simply speaking in truthfulness and humility.  President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was only 272 words long and took about two minutes to deliver.  Yet, it stands as one of American history’s greatest speeches. There is power in brevity.  And those who are wise, faithful and humble will see the importance of brevity in how they speak.  Consider today the power of your speech.  You may never speak to masses and great crowds but you can use your words to serve the Lord, to share the gospel, to make amends in a broken relationship and to bring a blessing to a family member or friend.  Have a great Monday!    
 

            Isaiah wrote, “Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death” (57:2).  This simple verse in Isaiah is a great encouragement to us today just as it was to people in Isaiah’s day around 700BC (over 2700 years ago).  It speaks to both life and death—two realities that we all have before us.  We are alive today but one day, unless the Lord comes for us first, we will die and enter into His presence as those before us have already done.  Isaiah encourages us to walk uprightly.  How do we understand this command? 
            To walk uprightly means to live honorably and obediently before the Lord.  The word “uprightly” means without pretense and in keeping with God’s commands. We are not one way when others are watching but something completely different when we are alone and think no one sees us.  Uprightness is a hunger to live and do things God’s ways as opposed to our ways.  The Bible faithfully and consistently connects “walking” with lifestyle choices. For example, “He who walks with integrity walks securely” (Proverbs 10:9). “The one who lives blamelessly, practices righteousness, and acknowledges the truth in his heart” (Psalm 15:2).  The sure pathway in life is to walk in keeping with God’s commands and ways.
            “Uprightly” can also mean straightforward, equitable, correct and with integrity.  There is a line between what we believe about God and how we live.  We are not too quick to diminish sin and minimize it.  When we fail to walk uprightly, we want to seek God’s forgiveness and take steps to correct the behavior and not repeat it ever again. Living “uprightly” does not mean we can earn God’s favor or justify ourselves before Him.  But we do live “uprightly” out of gratitude for God’s grace and forgiveness.  Because we are justified and forgiven, we want to live uprightly.  A good measurement for living “uprightly” is your attendance in worship.  We will want to be in the presence of God with other believers.  We will want to bring our worship to Him.  We will have a thirst for His Word and to offer praise to Him.  Scattered, random worship attendance should be a cause for concern.  It is neither healthy nor good.  Dropping out of or away from regular, consistent worship is a sign of some serious spiritual illness in need of God’s healing and forgiveness. Sporadic worship attendance could signify a cancer in your faith.  Research shows that when younger generations see their parents, grandparents and older generations taking worship lightly and carelessly, the younger ones are much more likely to fall out and fall away from worship altogether.  Tragic!
            Those who walk “uprightly” find rest when they die.  Now, the upright man or woman does not enter into God’s presence because they have been good enough to do so.  We go to heaven in and through Jesus and Him alone.  Our faith and trust in Jesus and calling upon His Name for salvation is what guarantees us a place in heaven.  But living uprightly means we have placed our full faith in Christ alone and rest securely in Him—whether we live or die.  John and Betty Stam were Christian missionaries who were executed for their faith in Jesus in China on December 8, 1934.  It was said that at the moment of their deaths, their faces were frozen in expressions of utter peace and contentment.  They seamlessly transitioned from this world, a world of sin and shame, into the presence of Christ, a world of everlasting life and goodness. 
            News of their death and martyrdom for the gospel led over 900 hundred students at Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton College to make commitments to go to the mission fields of the world in 1935—willingly accepting the same fate as John and Betty did, if that be God’s will.  When we walk uprightly, we are always ready to meet the Lord.  We are ready to draw our final breath from earth’s air supply and then take the next breath from heaven’s air.  Living “uprightly” means we leave no unfinished business left behind with the Lord or others.  We have resolved to live for and with Him alone.  We live for Christ and we are resolved that if we can better glorify Him in and through our death, we will gladly give our lives for the One who gave His for us.  Have a great Thursday!      

        In the Old Testament, Israel often suffered from a hardened heart—a heart of stone that was set against God and His ways.  Though we read about this spiritual malady in the Old Testament, it is not a condition that was unique only to Israel.  People can often harden their hearts against God today.  It still happens in 2026.  Hebrews 4:7 says, “Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts.”  That warning stands because we can still strike such a posture against God and the work He may seek to do in us.  The heart is often used in the Bible as a symbol of one’s spiritual condition or as indicative of where one stands with respect to God.  According to Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”  Today, the heart can be receptive to God or dismissive toward Him.  Is your heart open to what God may wish to teach you or make known to you?  We can often find ourselves open to the blessings that God has for us but not necessarily the corrections, discipline and rebukes that God may bring to us.  God is a gracious and good Father and He often has to discipline us for our good and to correct wayward behavior.
         But God consistently works in our hearts for our good and for His glory.  God works to make us more like Jesus.  That work can be hard.  Often, God has to break us before He can remake and rebuild us.  Isaiah 40 is a passage that we often read around the time of Advent because it seems to speak about the coming of John the Baptist as the forerunner of Jesus.  And indeed, John did his job well to prepare Israel for its Messiah.  John’s role was to call Israel to repentance and to trade their rough, hardened and calloused hearts for the new work of grace that God had in mind for them.  Isaiah says, “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain” (Isaiah 40:3-4).  
         These words from Isaiah show us that God works to tame the wilderness in our hearts and the wild fruit that is growing. He comes to make straight all the ways within us that are crooked and bent.  He comes to straighten out a character that has gone rogue and gone wrong.  He comes to raise up the low places that have harbored sin and rebellion.  He comes to lower or tear down the hills and mountains of pride and self-importance that we have allowed to grow within us.  He comes to humble the proud places that we have raised up in opposition to Him.  He comes to sand away the rough edges of our hearts, minds and character.  He comes to make smooth all the places scarred and marked by sin and rebellion.
         God can change the places we have neglected, overlooked and held on to in stubbornness and sin.  Occasionally, a person is the recipient of a heart transplant.  The old heart has failed because of disease and sickness so a new heart is implanted to sustain the person’s life.  God can perform a spiritual heart transplant and bring life to dead places, hope to hopeless places and a new life to replace an old life that has been crippled by sin and rebellion.  God’s works within us are always for our good.  Those works may not always be easy or what we wish to see.  But He works to make us less like our sinful selves and more like His good, righteous and beloved Son Jesus.  When God is at work to change you and to bring something new and good, do not harden your heart, close your eyes or deafen your ears.  Let Him do His good works—even the hard ones.  Remember the Lord’s great invitation in Revelation 3:20, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”  Open the doors to your heart when God knocks.  Let God bring the change He has chosen for you.  Have a great Monday!

            Isaiah is one of the major prophets in the Old Testament.  His message and content are certainly “major” but that adjective is applied more to the length of the book that carries his name (as opposed to shorter books like Amos, Obadiah and Nahum that are not nearly as long and, thus, called “minor” prophets).  Isaiah’s prophetic mission was to the nation of Judah—also known as the southern kingdom.  He wrote in Isaiah 30:21, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”  This verse is an encouragement to us in 2026.  The ancient prophet tells us today that God can and does guide His people.  God can and does lead His people. However, it can be easy to misrepresent God’s guidance.  Some people will insist that God has led them to do something as little more than a guise or ruse to do what they already want to do with the hope of getting away with it.  We need to be careful not to make God our justification or reason for doing something that He has not directed us to do.  Such a thing is really taking God’s name in vain as a pretext or defense for our actions.  So, how can we tell when God may be leading us?
            First, we begin with the Bible.  God is never going to lead us in ways that conflict with or contradict His Word.  We cannot call good what God has called bad.  We cannot call right what God has called wrong.  We want to check any guidance we think we may have from God with what God has said in His Word.  A clear conflict with Scripture is a certain indicator that God is neither leading nor guiding in the ways we may think.  We have to be careful not to isolate a single verse or promise that might be directed to a particular person or time and make it universally binding.  For example, we do not perform animal sacrifices for our sins today because Jesus was, and is, the perfect sacrifice for our sins.  To perform an animal sacrifice today would be blasphemous.  Like the Bereans in Acts, search the Bible carefully and thoughtfully to see what God has actually said.  Make sure you look at verses in the broader context of God’s Word.
            Second, rely on the accountability and support of mature, spiritually healthy Christians.  Check out what you may think God is guiding you to do with other believers. They can help you pray and talk through a situation. For example, if you are part of a mission team and everyone is working hard to finish a project and you think God has led you to go shopping, you are likely wrong.  Your fellow Christians can help you see the mistake in such thinking and help you to get back on task with the work at hand.  If we think we are led by God to do things that are badly out of step with what He is leading, equipping and preparing others to do, then we need the help of Christian brothers and sisters to get us back on track.
            Third, consider whether good fruit of the Spirit will be produced by what God is leading you to do.  Is the Kingdom advanced in any way?  Will others be drawn closer to Christ by what you do?  Is what you are thinking self-serving or a service to others?  Often, we can help ourselves by listening carefully to what we are actually saying or thinking.  If we hear the pronouns “I” or “me” repeated in our words and thoughts, we may actually be more centered on doing something to make ourselves happy instead of serving the work of God in some way no matter how we may characterize it. 
            And finally, we have to ask if what we think God is leading us to do is in keeping with the mission and character of those around us.  For example, God is not going to turn a Baptist church into a charismatic congregation by sending one person to lead the transformation.  God is the God of order—not chaos.  1 Corinthians 14:33 says, “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.”  If a faithful church, small group or Sunday School class is bearing fruit and being true to God’s Word, there is simply no reason to conclude that God is going to guide someone to throw them into chaos.  That notion flunks the common-sense test, the good theology test and the authority of the Bible test.  If a group of believers is working diligently in a ministry that is bearing fruit and changing lives, God is not going to stop that so one person can lead the group astray to something completely different under the pretext of “God is leading me.” 
            God gives us some wonderful direction to keep us on point and on track so that we clearly have His guidance.  That direction is found in 1 John 4:1 which says, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”  God plainly says there is a lot of falsehood, deception, error and human-centered thinking and behavior in the world.  He does not want us to fall prey to and party to such things.  Scripture and good Christian brothers and sisters can help us avoid the dangerous pitfalls of making God a signatory to or participant in what we have already decided to do.  God has created us with free will and freedom to follow or reject Him.  But we are not free to do as we wish and conclude that God has sanctioned it, approved it and led us to do it.  That is a sin!  Test the spirits and use the good help God has given to His people!  Have a great Thursday!
 

          The Bible is ultimately about the gospel.  And the gospel can be found plainly throughout the Bible.  The gospel, or good news, is not confined to the New Testament or Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  The seeds of the gospel can be found in the law, prophets, history and writings of the Old Testament.  The gospel tells us that God made us in His image and loves us beyond our comprehension or ability to describe.  His love is consistent, constant and unfailing.  We, however, have sinned against Him—denied, defied and disobeyed Him.  Isaiah wrote, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way” (Isaiah 53:6).  Because of our sins, we have fallen far short of His glory.  Our sins carry the stiff price of death—we deserve death and judgment for how we have lived.  I certainly do and so do you and everyone who has ever lived or will live.  But while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  He carried our sins to the cross and died for them.  He, in fact, became sin in our place.  His death was the perfect full payment and the final sacrifice for our sins.  In addition, the perfect life that Jesus lived is credited to us by our faith and trust in Him and surrender to Him and Him alone for our forgiveness and salvation.  We are given a new life by His death and resurrection.
            I Corinthians 15 tells us that Jesus died, was buried and rose again according to the Scriptures.  What Scriptures?  Well, the New Testament did not fully exist at the time that Paul wrote I Corinthians so the Scriptures that he referenced meant the Old Testament. The plan for the cross was clear to see in the Old Testament.  Jesus’ death and resurrection were in keeping with Scripture and the fulfillment of Scripture.  Revelation 13:8 tells us that the Lamb, Jesus, was slain before the foundations of the world.  The Bible is telling us that God’s plan to redeem us through the death of His Son was formed and fixed before the earth was created. God knew we would fall into sin and He made a way to rescue us from that fall and failure.
            Psalm 49:8 shows us the gospel, “the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough.”  The atonement for sin is made by blood—the perfect and sinless blood of Jesus.  The animal sacrifices of Israel’s ancient days were but a prelude and foreshadowing of the perfect sacrifice that was coming at the cross of Jesus.  God does not overlook our sins or minimize them.  He demands justice for sins—all the sins of the world.  But He exacts that justice through the death of His Son who became our substitute at the cross.  We dare not lose sight of the cross.  Should we ever overlook or minimize the cross, then our preaching has no power.  Paul wrote, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Corinthians 1:17). 
            As Psalm 49:8 acknowledges, we have no capacity to buy back our lives or to ransom our lives from sin’s snare and penalty.  “No payment is ever enough” that we might dream up or attempt to make.  We cannot live righteously enough to offset or balance out our sins.  We cannot offer any sort of payment to God to win His favor or approval.  He needs nothing we could offer as a bribe or settlement.  The Bible says that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (Psalm 24:1).  So, we rest confidently and completely in the finished work of Christ at the cross—trusting fully in the sufficiency of His death and resurrection to accomplish our redemption and forgiveness.  We add nothing to the cross and take nothing from it.  The cross alone is the perfect payment and the required ransom.  As Paul so passionately wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).  Have a great Monday!