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Childlike, Not Childish

Posted in Beautiful Places, Bible Study, Bible Study, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Orphans, Priorities, Responsibility, Service, Vision, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 31, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Matthew 19; Mark 10

Today’s reading takes us to Matthew 19 and Mark 10. They seem to tell the same events from two different perspectives. One comes from Matthew, the tax collector turned disciple of Jesus. The other comes from Peter, the impetuous follower who passed his memories along to his young protégé, John Mark.

I find it interesting that these passages met me after a particularly demanding and stressful week. My wife had one too. It was my first week working from home in eleven weeks. I’d been on the road ten straight weeks, and that wears you out in one way. Then a huge amount of work in a short window wears you out in another.

Yesterday I walked across the backyard just to clear my head for a moment. My mind ran to being a child in God’s kingdom. I thought about heaven, and how there are probably no deadlines there. There’s definitely no overbearing boss demanding hurry, hurry, hurry, and no unrealistic deadlines or expectations. I don’t think those things happen in heaven. Then I thought about being a child, whose main thoughts for the day were probably: Who am I going to play with today? What kind of adventure and fun am I going to get into? And I wonder what’s for supper? That’s the stress-free life that’s so hard to find here on earth.

Becoming Like a Child

When the disciples tried to turn the children away, Jesus was indignant. He said, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mark 10:14–15).

That’s hard for an adult to wrap our heads around: responsible, hardworking, with a to-do list a mile long. I’ll admit it. I’m action-oriented to a fault. I’m almost always looking for what needs to be done and how I can stay busy, until stress pushes me into that overwhelmed state.

Jesus doesn’t want us to get to that overwhelmed state. He wants us to get with Him:

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30)

Jesus is saying, I’ve got a life for you that isn’t the stress monster you deal with all the time. I’ve got a life that’s rich and full. How do we come to Him? We come as children, without a lot of preconceived ideas and without a lot of demands.

Childish Demands

Speaking of demands, consider James and John. They came to Jesus and said, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory” (Mark 10:37). In Matthew’s telling, their mother makes the request for them (Matthew 20:20–21). They wanted to be the top dudes in Jesus’ kingdom.

My guess is they weren’t thinking about heaven. They still expected Jesus to launch a campaign and set up His kingdom on earth, and they wanted to be right there with Him at His right and left hand. That’s a childish request more than a childlike one.

I see it in Scripture: childlike faith is good. Childish faith, I believe, the Lord puts up with for a while. But He really wants us to grow. He wants us to become more like Him, and that means servant leadership.

Growing Up into Servant Leadership

Jesus dives right into it with all the disciples:

“You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42–45)

We may have roles out front, roles that are more leadership in nature. But we’re never to forget that Jesus came to serve, and as His disciples and followers, we’re called to serve too. We’re to love with His love and serve with His heart.

So the childlike heart grows into a responsible adult who serves and loves well. We do that by keeping our eyes on Jesus and letting His Holy Spirit help us, guide us, and change us.

Today’s Thought

Childlike faith, not remaining childish in our faith, growing to lead as servants. Whether at home, in the workplace, at school, or among our friends, it’s what Jesus did, and it’s what He’s calling us to.

Where in your life right now are you living childish instead of childlike, and who is one person you can serve today?

Be blessed today, and be a blessing wherever God takes you.

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Open Hands: The Ruler, the Pharisee, and the Tax Collector

Posted in Bible Study, Bible Study, Church, giving, God, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Priorities, Responsibility, Salvation, Service, Spiritual Growth, Vision, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Luke 18

Today’s reading landed differently for me than it has in the past.

The story of the rich ruler has always been a challenge. When Jesus says, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Luke 18:22), and I hear it aimed at me, I immediately think of everyone else involved in that decision. How can I sell everything when I have a wife, children, and now grandchildren?

Where I Started

When I surrendered to the Lord 43 years ago, what He offered me was an empty hand. All I had was His call on my life and His promise that He would never leave me or forsake me. From there, I followed Him.

Over the years, a lot has come into that hand, and it has been blessing. My wife. Our children. A series of jobs and relationships. The comfortable middle-class life we’ve been able to build. It has all accumulated.

So today, when I hear Jesus’ call to the ruler, part of me pushes back: Lord, You gave me all these things. Do I have to release them?

The answer is yes. I can’t hold them tightly. They were gifts from Him, for His purposes, for a time.

Holding Loosely, Stewarding Well

That has to be read alongside the rest of Scripture and the rest of Jesus’ words. Part of His call on us is to be faithful stewards of what He has entrusted to us. Holding loosely doesn’t mean being careless.

But if I’m holding loosely and stewarding well, it means I have to let Him pick and choose what He needs. More than that, I need to give it to Him when He says, “This is what I want.”

Notice what the ruler did when he heard Jesus’ words: “he became very sad, for he was extremely rich” (Luke 18:23). His grip was the problem, not his wealth.

What I’ve learned over the years is that when God asks for something significant, even something painful, there is always good on the other side. The last few years at our year-end offering, He has asked us for a gift larger than we would have thought to give. Every time we’ve released it, He has blessed us. We keep trying to outgive God, and we keep losing.

Jesus said as much to Peter a few verses later: “there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life” (Luke 18:29–30).

The heart of it is how we see what’s in our hands: all we’ve been given, not all we’ve earned.

Two Men at the Temple

That brings me back to the beginning of the chapter, to the two men who went up to pray.

The Pharisee was a sterling example of keeping the law. He stood and prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector” (Luke 18:11). The tax collector, a man whose life didn’t line up with what the religious leaders said it should, stood far off, beat his chest, and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).

Jesus’ verdict: “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).

The heart is the key. The tax collector’s spiritual poverty put him in a place to receive what God wanted to do: redeem him and claim his life. The Pharisee came with full hands, full of his own record, and it’s hard to imagine him taking correction from anyone. He was thanking God for how good he was.

His heart wasn’t supple. It wasn’t bent before God in grief over the sin that was still there. And spiritual pride is sin.

A Warning for the Long-Time Follower

This is a real warning for those of us who have followed Jesus a long time. We’ve been through many battles. We’ve watched the Lord deliver us from things that tripped us up early in our walk. And it’s right there, in that history, that pride finds its foothold.

I recognize I’m not home yet. I’m still not fully surrendered. There are times when what I want carries the decision, and I don’t even stop to ask what God’s will is.

So I want to stand with the tax collector. Lord, I am still so needy apart from You. It is Your faithfulness and Your goodness toward us that wins the day. In my own strength, I can do nothing good.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your great grace, which saves us. Thank You for Your death on the cross, which paid the penalty we couldn’t pay. And thank You that, because of You and our trust in You, You call us justified. That is a glorious promise.

For Reflection

What are you holding with a closed fist right now: a possession, a plan, or maybe your own spiritual track record? What would it look like to open your hand to Him today?

Be blessed today, and be a blessing to someone.

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Bridges, Dead Ends, and a Woman Worth the Trip

Posted in Bible Study, Bible Study, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Priorities, Salvation, Service, Spiritual Growth, The Father, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , on October 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Matthew 15 and Mark 7

Today we see a familiar theme, along with a story that often confused me before I became a student of the Bible. Let’s dive in and see what Jesus has to teach us.

The familiar theme is Jesus confronting the hypocrisy and religiosity of the Jewish leaders. We also see two different long-distance trips in today’s passages. The first is the religious leaders traveling all the way from Jerusalem to chastise Jesus because His followers weren’t keeping their traditions. The text doesn’t tell us, but I wonder whether they came on a fact-finding mission to “check out this new teacher,” or whether they came specifically to get Jesus and His growing following to behave and follow their rules. Either way, what they got was not what they hoped for. Instead, Jesus clearly articulated God’s perspective on man-made religious rules being wedged between God and man.

Jesus came as the ultimate bridge between fallen humanity and God. Even as He taught about the Kingdom of God (also called the Kingdom of Heaven), He was setting the stage for His own sacrifice, the means by which every person could be made right with God. The religious leaders were building a path that ultimately led to a dead end. There might be some self-satisfaction in following all the rules, but the sin debt we all owe could only be satisfied by a sacrifice… a sacrifice Jesus would soon accomplish.

I want to circle back for a moment to the trip these leaders made. The 80 or so miles from Jerusalem to Galilee was not the simple hour-and-a-half drive we might make today. It was a multi-day journey through areas known for bandits and other ne’er-do-wells, and traveling as a group may have been partly for safety. This mattered to them. Their reputation seemed to be at stake. They were likely also worried about stirring up the Romans. In John, which we read yesterday, a populist movement was already forming that wanted to make Jesus, the powerful, miracle-working rabbi, into the military messiah they had been hoping for.

But Jesus was having none of it, neither from the crowds who wanted to make Him an earthly king nor from the religious leaders who wanted Him to conform to their rule book. What He did do was speak clearly to the leaders, then to the people, and then in more detail to His disciples about the Kingdom of God. And then He set out on a multi-day journey of His own.

The story of the Syrophoenician woman always struck me as a little odd. But learning the context, and especially digging into the meaning of the original words, turned odd into beautiful. Here’s what changed and why it matters.

First, notice the similarity, and then the contrast, between the two trips. The religious leaders were likely already irritated at this rogue teacher upstaging them before they ever arrived. They came to correct, and possibly rebuke, Jesus. They left chastised and rebuked themselves. It was NOT a pleasant experience for them. Jesus then promptly left the Jewish region of Galilee and headed north into Gentile territory.

During this period of His ministry, the text frequently mentions Jesus teaching crowds and healing. We don’t see that here. We read about only one encounter: a Gentile woman begging Jesus to deliver her daughter. Jesus traveled into Gentile territory, a place “proper” Jews avoided at all costs, and He engaged with someone who was 1) a Gentile, 2) a woman, and 3) pushy enough to break past the disciples’ protective wall. That sounds like three strikes against her. But Jesus engaged her anyway.

Now comes the part that always made me uncomfortable. He refers to her as a dog. Wow. That seems out of character for the Jesus I know from the rest of the Gospels. The religious leaders wouldn’t have engaged her at all, but where’s the compassionate Jesus? This is where understanding the original language matters. The word Jesus uses refers to a little dog, a household pet, the kind of beloved puppy that lives under the family table. It is NOT the harsh insult it can sound like in English. And don’t forget, Jesus knew exactly what He was going to do. It is very likely that this woman was THE reason Jesus marched His disciples into foreign territory so far from home. This exchange, and the deliverance He gave, had to be critically important, or the Holy Spirit wouldn’t have prompted both Matthew and Mark to record it.

When I read this story and noticed that Jesus promptly left the area, I couldn’t help but think of the demoniac on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus delivered that man and then promptly turned around and headed back to Jewish territory. All the Old Testament prophecies pointed to a Jewish Messiah who would set His people free. In a few places we see that promise expanded to the Gentiles, but the primary audience was the Jews. And that’s exactly what Jesus did. His initial outreach was in Israel, but He also “seeded” His message into the lives of Gentiles, in at least these two places, through deliverance and healing. I can just picture this woman telling her friends about her encounter with Jesus as she points to her now healthy, whole daughter.

Today I am struck by how good the LORD is to reach out to us, no matter how far we might stray. He walks near enough to respond the moment we decide to seek Him. After the resurrection, we’ll see this intimacy with God go to a whole new level, as the Father places His Holy Spirit within each person who repents and surrenders their life to Him. But even before that, He is near… He pursues… He loves… and He gives us every opportunity to turn and become His child. That is a beautiful truth to rest in.

Where in your life might God be making a long trip just to meet you?

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Eyes Above the Waves

Posted in Beautiful Places, Bible Study, God, God Stories, healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Priorities, Responsibility, Service, Spiritual Growth, The Father, Trials, Vision, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , on October 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9

Reading today’s Gospel passages, I felt almost tired. The action is relentless, and the emotional weight comes early. John the Baptist, guilty of nothing but speaking truth to power, loses his life to a scheme hatched by Herodias and carried out through her daughter (Mark 6:17–29).

When Jesus hears the news, Matthew tells us he withdrew by boat to a desolate place by himself (Matthew 14:13). John wasn’t only his cousin. He was the forerunner who prepared the ground for Jesus’ ministry. I’m sure Jesus went to grieve and to be alone with the Father. But he didn’t get that, at least not at first. The crowds saw where he was going and followed him on foot. And when Jesus saw them, he had compassion on them (Matthew 14:14). Grieving, tired, and interrupted, he served anyway. That’s the servant leadership he still calls us to, and 2,000 years later it’s still rare.

The disciples were grieving too

I want to look at the disciples for a moment, because they had also heard the news. John was part of their story. At least a couple of them had followed John before they followed Jesus (John 1:35–40). John and Jesus preached the same message: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The handoff from John to Jesus was one of preparation and arrival, but I don’t think that was clear to them yet. Most still pictured a Messiah who would throw off the yoke of Rome. They didn’t yet see that the yoke Jesus came to break was sin, and the debt we owe for our failure to obey God, or that Jesus himself would take the death sentence in our place. What they did know was that John was dead.

And here’s something I hadn’t noticed before. This all happens right after the disciples return from the mission Jesus had sent them on, with authority to proclaim the kingdom and to heal (Mark 6:7–13, 30; Luke 9:1–10). They had seen God’s power at work through them. It must have been exhilarating. They were also exhausted. Jesus had even said, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while” (Mark 6:31). Then the crowd showed up.

“You give them something to eat”

The teaching lasted all day. The people were hungry and had a long way home. When the disciples suggested sending them away, Jesus answered, “You give them something to eat” (Mark 6:37). They were flustered. Where would they find food, even if they had the money?

The answer was a boy’s lunch of five loaves and two fish (John 6:9). It fed 5,000 men, and with women and children, the crowd could easily have been 15,000. This is one of the few miracles recorded in all four Gospels.

Notice what the disciples’ responsibility turned out to be. They didn’t have to produce the food. They had to take what Jesus gave them and put it into the hands of the people. That’s servant leadership too. Fresh off a successful mission, they were still shocked by the scale of what Jesus asked. And he showed them that no need is too big for the power of God.

Headwinds on the lake

Then comes one of my favorite stories in the Bible. Jesus makes the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him across the lake, while he finally goes up the mountain alone to pray (Matthew 14:22–23).

I’ve been to Israel and stood on Mount Arbel, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. From the top you can see the whole lake. Just below it, a valley pass opens toward the Mediterranean, and the wind can funnel through it and whip up that part of the water. It was easy for me to picture Jesus on a mountain on a breezy, moonlit night, looking down and seeing the disciples straining at the oars against the wind (Mark 6:48).

Jesus knew what was coming. He knew they’d be rowing into headwinds, and that in their own strength they wouldn’t make it. He sent them anyway. Then, in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them, walking on the sea.

They thought he was a ghost. Maybe that fear was tied to hearing that John had just been killed. They were terrified, and they were spent. They’d come back from a big mission, wanted rest, ministered all day to thousands, watched Jesus feed them, and were now paddling through the night and getting nowhere. And then someone was walking on the water. Jesus said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:27).

Peter, and me

Then Peter, only in Matthew’s account, asks Jesus to call him out onto the water. Jesus says, “Come.” As long as Peter keeps his eyes on Jesus, he walks on the water too. But when he sees the wind, he becomes afraid, begins to sink, and cries out, “Lord, save me” (Matthew 14:28–30). Jesus immediately reaches out and catches him.

Oh my goodness, do I recognize this in my own life. When trials and challenges come, or when too many things crowd in and I look at the things instead of the person of Jesus, that’s when I sink. That’s when my emotions run amok. That’s when I’m less loving to my wife, less thoughtful toward my children, and less kind to the people I meet.

But when I keep my eyes on Jesus, follow what he did and what he said, and let the Holy Spirit help me not just with the task but with my focus, the water isn’t what drowns me. That’s when I’m walking above the waves. That’s when I’m rowing into the wind and actually making headway. That’s when I’m living the servant life Jesus called me to.

And before we know it, the Lord gives us the opportunity to lead others into a relationship with him, into discipleship, and into faithful action of their own. Not because we’re strong rowers, but because we keep our eyes on Jesus, follow him, and let our lives be used as his servants.

A question to carry with you today: What wind or wave has your attention right now, and what would it look like to lift your eyes back to Jesus in the middle of it?

Have a blessed day.

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Sent From the Feet of Jesus

Posted in Bible Study, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Mission to Kenya, Orphans, Responsibility, Service, The Father, Trials, Vision, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Matthew 10

Today’s Gospel reading in Matthew is about Jesus setting apart the twelve. They began as disciples, and in this chapter he sends them out as apostles.

A disciple is a learner, a follower of a rabbi. In his day Jesus was seen as a rabbi, and he had a lot of followers. Estimates are that around 100 to 120 people regularly traveled with him, and the number would swell as he came into different towns. At times like the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain, crowds of many thousands gathered to hear him. Within that larger group were the disciples who followed him closely, and within them were the twelve, the men he chose as his closest followers.

In Matthew 10, Jesus sends those twelve out. “He called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction” (Matthew 10:1). They were to carry his message: “Proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay” (10:7–8). Jesus had the authority to give his power to his followers so they could carry out his work.

If a disciple is a learner, an apostle is one who is sent on a mission. Most of this chapter is about what would happen as these men went out: the power they would walk in and the very different responses they would get. Some of Jesus’ warnings are stern. “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (10:16). Jesus is honest about how hard it is to be his disciple and to be sent out with his message. He knows it won’t always be well received.

He also gives a very clear instruction: we are not to worry when we are sent on mission in God’s power. “When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (10:19–20). Yes, people may have some power over our lives, but God is in control. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father… Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (10:29, 31). He guides our steps and our words. He is the one who heals, delivers, and works miracles. Our role is to take what we have learned as disciples and carry it wherever he sends us.

I love how Paul says that Christ gave leaders to the church “to equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:12). Every Jesus follower is sent on mission. For some, the mission field is mostly the home. A homemaker homeschooling her children and serving on the neighborhood association is on mission. Others are sent far away, like my friends LJ and Danee, who are now in Kenya running an orphanage with some 200 children, many of them rescued from desperate situations.

I’ve had many opportunities to share the love of Jesus with people and to pray with them. What I see now is that my own experiences are part of how God has equipped me. There were times God was with me in hardship, times he rescued me from very difficult situations, and times he simply poured out his Spirit and gave me a reason to laugh. When I share those stories and acknowledge that God was behind them, that is ministry.

When we are placed in a hostile situation and questioned about our faith, telling who Jesus is and what he has done in our lives is the powerful witness God has given us. We may suffer in this life, but eternal life is bigger, greater, and grander. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). Whatever we may suffer for being faithful and proclaiming the gospel is nothing compared to what God has in store for “those who love God… who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

So here is what I’m taking from today: all believers are called to be disciples. We sit at Jesus’ feet, read his Word, and let it speak to our hearts. We let it read us. Then, as God gives us opportunities, we recognize that we are on the mission field everywhere we go, carrying his message, his power through prayer, and his life and light.

Where has God already sent you? Who in your everyday path needs to hear what Jesus has done in your life?

Be blessed today.

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Today’s reading was Matthew 10, where Jesus takes the twelve who had been following him as disciples and sends them out as apostles. A disciple is a learner and follower of a rabbi. An apostle is one who is sent on a mission.

Jesus “gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction” (Matthew 10:1). He sent them to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons. He had the authority to give his power to his followers.

He was also honest with them. “I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves” (10:16). The message would not always be welcome. But he told them not to be anxious about what to say, “for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (10:20). People may have some power over our lives, but God is in control. Not even a sparrow falls apart from our Father.

Paul says leaders were given “to equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:12). Every follower of Jesus is sent. For some the mission field is the home and the neighborhood. For my friends LJ and Danny, it’s an orphanage in Kenya caring for some 200 children. For me, it’s often sharing how God has been with me in hard times, rescued me, or simply given me a reason to laugh.

We may suffer in this life for being faithful, but those sufferings “are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

So sit at Jesus’ feet. Let his Word read you. Then recognize you’re on the mission field everywhere you go.

Where has God already sent you? Who in your everyday path needs to hear what Jesus has done in your life?

Be blessed today.

GroupMe

Today’s reading was Matthew 10. Jesus took the twelve who had been following him as disciples, which means learners, and sent them out as apostles, which means ones sent on a mission. He gave them his authority to heal and cast out demons, and he sent them to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Jesus was honest that it would be hard: “I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves” (10:16). But he told them not to worry about what to say, because the Spirit of the Father would speak through them. God is in control, and not even a sparrow falls apart from him.

Every believer is sent. Your mission field might be your home and neighborhood, or it might be an orphanage in Kenya like my friends LJ and Danny. Whatever we suffer for being faithful isn’t worth comparing to the glory ahead (Romans 8:18).

Sit at Jesus’ feet, let his Word read you, and remember you’re on mission everywhere you go. Where has God already sent you? Be blessed today.

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From a Prison Cell to an Easy Yoke

Posted in Bible Study, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Priorities, Responsibility, Service, Spiritual Growth, Trials, Vision, worldview, tagged , , , , , on October 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Matthew 11 · Devotional for Areliablefaith

Matthew 11 opens with John the Baptist in prison. He is there for simply speaking the truth. He spoke the truth to power, and power locked him up. John had called out Herod for taking his brother’s wife, Herodias, and his life is now hanging by a thread.

From that cell, John sends some of his disciples to ask Jesus a question: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3, ESV).

Some read this as doubt. I don’t believe it was unbelief. John had seen God move too clearly. At the Jordan he saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus and heard the Father speak. John himself testified, “I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God” (John 1:34). A man who saw that doesn’t simply stop believing.

What I can easily see is discouragement. He may have felt despair and loneliness. Perhaps he even thought that if Jesus is the Messiah, He could come and rescue him. We don’t know exactly. But John seems to be looking for one final assurance as he awaits his fate.

Jesus gives it. He tells John’s disciples to report what they have seen and heard: “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matthew 11:5). These are the very signs Isaiah said the Messiah would bring. In effect, Jesus is telling John, Yes, it’s Me. Hold on.

There’s a lesson here for us. As believers, we are not promised that life will be a cakewalk, all rainbows and joy and happy days. In many ways it’s just the opposite. Following Jesus means standing against the current, standing against the culture, and standing for what is good and right. We stand for God’s kingdom, which runs counter to this world. Sometimes that lands us in our own kind of prison cell, and we need that same assurance.

Greater Still

After John’s disciples leave, Jesus turns to the crowd and honors him: “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11).

What on earth? How can the least be greater than the greatest?

I think the answer lies in this: Jesus inaugurates the kingdom of God. John was the last and greatest of the prophets who pointed toward it. Jesus says “all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John” (Matthew 11:13). John stood at the doorway, but through Jesus the kingdom is brought to earth. Those of us who live on this side of the cross and resurrection get to step through that door. That isn’t because we are greater people. It’s because of where we stand.

And that kingdom is advancing, even to this day. I’m a member of it, and most likely you are too.

It advances one soft and supple heart at a time, as hearts respond to the Holy Spirit’s prompting. It advances when God’s people get on their knees, praying and seeking the good of their families and communities. It advances when the Word of God is read and put into practice. Wherever the Holy Spirit is at work and people follow His leading to serve and to love with agape, God’s own love, the kingdom moves forward. Jesus described it this way: it starts as small as a mustard seed and grows until birds nest in its branches (Matthew 13:31–32).

A Yoke That Fits

Jesus closes the chapter with some of the most beautiful words of encouragement in Scripture. I see them as a counterbalance to how the chapter began. It opened with John in prison, discouraged. It ends with this:

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30)

This is truly the secret to life as a follower of Jesus: to take His yoke upon us. We do that by coming to Him and staying with Him, and by seeking to fellowship with Him day by day.

A yoke was the wooden beam that linked two oxen together so they could pull as one. So who is the other one in the yoke with us? It’s the Lord. We are linked to Him. And His yoke fits perfectly. He knows exactly how much we can pull when we’re walking alongside Him.

If I might say it, He does the heavy lifting. He does most of the pulling. And yet He gives us the great privilege of working with Him in advancing His kingdom. He lets us be part of His answer for our families, our friends, our communities, and any place He takes us. Wherever that is, He’s there in the yoke beside us.

Oh, this is glorious to know. Whether we’re standing against the current or sitting in a cell of discouragement like John, we aren’t pulling alone.

Where do you need to stop pulling alone today and step back into the yoke beside Jesus?

Have a blessed day.

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From Outcast to Adopted – Matthew 9; Luke 7

Posted in Bible Study, Bible Study, Church, God, healing, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Service, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

In today’s readings I was struck by the broad view of Jesus’ ministry. He heals the blind, the mute, the paralyzed, lepers, and even a woman who had suffered with bleeding for twelve years. He delivers people from demons, He raises the dead, He forgives sin, and He preaches good news to the poor. Jesus has neither a narrow band of giftedness nor a target audience to constrain Him. His only limits seem to be time and the means of travel in His day.

The overarching theme for me today is how Jesus reaches out to everyone. In Jesus, the outcast becomes the accepted, and those who respond become adopted into God’s family. The apostle Paul will later pick up this theme of adoption and explain it to a growing Gentile audience in terms they would understand (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:4–7; Ephesians 1:5). In Roman culture, adoption was a deliberate, legal choice that gave the adopted child a full new identity, name, and inheritance in the family.

We’ve touched on this before, but all people are created in the image of God. We are given the immense dignity of being real agents in this world, with a will and the ability to make free choices. The first family chose to exercise that will contrary to God’s explicit instruction, and sin entered the world. But God had a plan, even from before the beginning, to rescue humanity after the fall. The promised seed of Genesis 3:15 was Jesus. In today’s readings we see Jesus displaying power that belongs to God alone. The miracles are one proof that He was the promised Messiah and Savior. His message, first proclaimed in the synagogues throughout the cities and villages, was the good news of God’s kingdom come to earth (Matthew 9:35).

You would think this message would be joyfully received by all, but we already see early signs of conflict. Jesus operated outside the established religious hierarchy. He showed no interest in military revolt, even healing the servant of a Roman centurion. And He didn’t favor the already-favored. All of this began to generate opposition. As His ministry grows and the time of His ultimate sacrifice draws near, we will see Jesus directly confront those who made it hard for people to come to Him. But today we see Him reaching multitudes with great compassion, great love, and powerful acts of healing and mercy.

He reaches the outcast. Matthew, a tax collector, and Matthew’s friends, likely men like him, looked down on for siding with the Roman occupiers (Matthew 9:9–13). The woman with the issue of blood, who for twelve years had been considered unclean, cut off from public worship and from the community of God’s people (Matthew 9:20–22). The Roman centurion, who cared enough for his servant to seek out a Jewish rabbi and ask for healing. He belonged to a people hated by the majority, yet he came seeking help from the One he believed God had empowered to heal (Luke 7:1–10).

In our final story we read about a “sinful” woman coming to Jesus (Luke 7:36–50). Many scholars think this means she was a prostitute, someone who sold her body to survive. I prefer the term sinful woman, because every one of us is either a sinful woman or a sinful man in need of the forgiveness and cleansing that only God, only Jesus, can provide. And that is exactly what He gives her. Jesus accepts her, and He accepts her worship. He even points it out to Simon, the Pharisee who looks down his nose at her. Here Jesus makes a critical comparison, one worthy of deep prayer and reflection, because it is something every person will ultimately face:

What will you do with Jesus?

There is a right answer. When we know it, we move from outcast to accepted, from accepted to forgiven, and from forgiven to adopted. That is our blessed hope and our greatest joy.

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The Servants Knew — John 2–4

Posted in Bible Study, Jesus Christ, Service, Spiritual Growth, Worship, tagged , , , , , , on October 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I read today’s passage twice, and something stood out that I had never really noticed before. It started with a small parenthetical in John 2 and ended up changing how I saw the whole chapter.

At the wedding in Cana, the wine runs out. For a family hosting a marriage feast, that was a real embarrassment. Mary brings it to Jesus, and he answers, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4). On paper that can sound a little stand-offish. Scripture doesn’t tell us his tone, but I picture him saying it with a half smile, knowing his mother’s heart and knowing she wants to spare this family. Tara Leigh Cobble points out that the original language is much warmer and more familiar than it sounds in English. “Woman” was a respectful way to address someone, and it’s the same word Jesus uses for Mary from the cross (John 19:26). I believe Jesus already knew what he was going to do, and he was proud of his mom for asking on behalf of someone in distress.

Then John slips in this detail: “When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew)…” (John 2:9).

The servants knew. The people on the lowest rung of the social ladder at that party had the inside scoop.

Move one step up the ladder and you find the bridegroom’s family. They had enough sense of responsibility to throw a marriage feast in keeping with Jewish custom, but running out of wine suggests they weren’t well off. Whether or not they knew it at that moment, they were the direct beneficiaries of the miracle.

Next comes the master of the feast, likely a fairly well-to-do man. He tastes the blessing and stops the celebration to announce it: “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now” (John 2:10). He had probably never experienced such a delightful surprise. The person with the title got the experience, and the people carrying the water jars got the knowledge.

The whole wedding turned into an absolute joy, and it happened because a friend intervened, a mother stepped in, and God the Son moved. People at every level of society were blessed.

And then there’s the temple.

John isn’t concerned with strict chronological order. His gospel was written last of the four, and he likely knew Matthew, Mark, and Luke well. I can easily picture the Holy Spirit prompting John to give us one more critical lens on Jesus’ life, one that hammers on his deity. John’s account is thematic, and right after Cana he shows us one more group: the religious leaders in the temple at Passover. (The other gospels place a temple cleansing in Jesus’ final week. Some scholars think John moved it forward for theological reasons, and others believe Jesus cleansed the temple twice. Either way, John wants us to see it here.)

Every social layer at the wedding experienced the joy of Jesus’ presence. The religious leaders did not. They considered themselves the most pious and important people of all, and they became the targets of his anger. At Cana Jesus served others without drawing attention to himself. In Jerusalem, the leaders were profiting off pilgrims who had come to worship. “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade” (John 2:16). They were blind to their own greed, and they were making it hard for ordinary people to come before God with joy.

Then, in 2:18, they demand a sign. That comes right after John has shown us one they didn’t see.

A chapter break that hides a connection

John closes chapter 2 with what is essentially his thesis: “Jesus… knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man” (John 2:24–25).

The original manuscripts had no chapters or verses. Stephen Langton’s chapter divisions came in the early 1200s. Robert Estienne added verse numbers to the New Testament in 1551, and the Geneva Bible of 1560 was the first English Bible to include both. Those divisions help us find our place, but they can also hide connections.

Here’s one. The very next sentence, John 3:1, reads, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.” John uses the same Greek word for “man” in both verses. Without the chapter break, it reads as one thought: Jesus knows what is in man, and here is a man. Nicodemus is John’s first example of that claim.

In that nighttime conversation, John lays out the heart of Jesus’ rescue mission: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Then John the Baptist steps aside for the One the Old Testament had been pointing to all along: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

Beyond the boundaries

In chapters 2 and 3, Jesus establishes his message and mission among the Jewish people. In chapter 4, John follows him straight across the boundary lines. The Samaritans weren’t exactly Gentiles. They were a mixed people with partial roots in Israel who worshiped on their own mountain, and the Jews despised them. The woman at the well is stunned: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) (John 4:9). In one conversation, Jesus crosses ethnic, religious, and social lines. Her whole town ends up declaring that he is “indeed the Savior of the world” (John 4:42).

This was paradigm-shifting in the most wonderful way. God’s people had come to see his promises as exclusive, limited to the children of Abraham by bloodline. Jesus blew up that exclusivity. He made it a posture of the heart: “the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” (John 4:23). It means an open mind and a willingness to look inward and let God’s Spirit search us and draw us close.

When we do, we know a joy beyond being at a wedding with the best wine ever.

For reflection:

  • Where am I standing at the party: serving and seeing, receiving without knowing, or guarding the temple courts?
  • Is there a “sign” God has already given me that I’ve been too busy or too proud to notice?

Who is on the other side of a boundary I’ve drawn, and what would it look like to ask them for a drink?

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The Greater Blesses the Lesser

Posted in Bible Study, Genesis, God, God Stories, Responsibility, Service, tagged , , , , , , on February 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Genesis 46-47, The Greater Blesses the Lesser. When Jacob and his family arrive in Egypt, Joseph brings his father in to meet Pharoah. Pharoah is the king of Egypt, the highest office in the land. While he has elevated Joseph to the highest administrative role in all the land, ultimate authority still rests with Pharoah. Yet when Jacob enters into Pharoah’s presence it is Jacob who blesses Pharoah… twice. From our perspective millennia later, we know that the relationship between Israel and Egypt has been a tumultuous one with slavery, genocide, war and general distrust, but in this case honor and blessing are given. It seems incongruous that Jacob is the one doing the blessing in the context of Israel needing deliverance from the famine and Egypt being the place of that rescue.

But in the bigger picture, God is already at work implementing His amazing act of cosmic deliverance. Through the cruel acts of Israel’s sons, Joseph was sent to Egypt to prepare for the famine. Joseph’s interpretation of the dreams and his wise accumulation of resources prior to the famine saved Egypt and Israel. God was working through Jacob’s family to deliver the Pharoah and his people. And God, who had wrestled with Jacob many years prior, spoke to Jacob at Beersheba, He was directing him to settle in Egypt in preparation for His next cosmic move. We know God’s work through Abraham’s descendants was just getting started but already we see worldly powers recognizing and submitting to God’s blessing through His people.

We are called to continue God’s blessing into the world we live in. We are not called to be uninvolved observers, but rather active participants in God’s redeeming work today. And we do that from the place of staying close to the Father and following the leading of the Holy Spirit.

LORD, you have blessed us richly by drawing us into relationship with you. Teach us and lead us into divine conversations where you bless through our words and actions. May your mercy, grace, truth and love flow from our lives in such a way that others come to know you. Jesus, be lifted up. Jesus, be exalted. Jesus, be glorified in us and through us today.  

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Out of the Comfort Zone

Posted in God, God Stories, Jesus Christ, Mission to Kenya, Orphans, Prayer, Service, Spiritual Growth, Travel, Trials, worldview, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 9, 2023| Leave a Comment »

In 2019 I traveled to Kenya to support some friends who were serving in an orphanage and Christian school in Nairobi.  It was an awesome trip, and I was greatly encouraged by the Davis family’s faithfulness in serving the Lord and the dozens of young people under their charge.  I told a friend afterwards that the trip was amazing, but somehow that word really wasn’t sufficient.  My wife and I travel for leisure a fair amount and seeing new places, experiencing new cultures, and making new friends is not a new experience for me.  My common response is that a trip is “amazing”.  This was so much more than that.  It was inspiring.  It was hard work.  It was uplifting talking to LJ and Danee about the work.  It was wonderful to hear from the Lord frequently and be able to obey with the encouragement and activity that He directed.  It weighed on my heart to see the poverty, filth, and lack of opportunity that is so much more prevalent than in the USA (or any of the places we travel to for fun).  But as heavy as that was, the light of God’s goodness in the work being carried out stood out in stark, yet highly desirable contrast.  There are many lessons that I have taken from the trip.  Some were fully formed while I was there.  Some are still being processed.  The following are my keys take-aways.

Maturing in faith and becoming a seasoned Christian will always include steps out of our comfort zone. 

Growth as a believer is an on-going series of steps that progressively move us from a place of comfort and ease into new territory that will often be a little scary and uncomfortable.  But it is in stepping into the new that we learn to trust in Jesus’s presence and provision more than our own abilities and strength.  I used to think that the word comfort meant ease and leisure.  The actual root of the term comfort means “with strength”.  Com = with, fort comes from the same root as fortress or fortification – a place of strength.  When we are comforted, we are given strength to endure whatever difficulty, trial, or challenge we are encountering.  Being comforted is a good thing.  Being comfortable is in itself not a bad thing.  However, there are times when the good can become an enemy of the best.  And God wants the best for His children.

The path to intimacy with God isn’t always comfortable.

So, what is the problem with being comfortable and why does God want us to move out of our comfort zone?  The issue is not that God is a killjoy.  Joy, comfort, and peace are great gifts He provides.  But these are by-products not the end product.  The goal is a deepening relationship with Him and a greater intimacy with the lover of our soul.  It is God’s desire that each one of us grow to know Him so well that we live in constant communion with Him.  Prayer without ceasing is more than a pious platitude, it is an accurate description of the life God wants to lead us into.  Which is where our personal comfort zone can become a hindrance rather than a good thing.

The Creator of the universe is without limits.  His love is truly beyond our comprehension, but He wants us to experience it in ever greater amounts.  To do so often means we must let go of our current familiar and comfortable understanding to experience the next greater level of His love.  The same is true of His wisdom, His faithfulness, His mercy, His grace.  Each time we let go of our current state of satisfaction and lean into a holy hunger for more of Him, we will experience a stretching and growth that reveals more of God’s nature, and a lessening of the negatives of the world’s perspective.  For me personally, this stretching often includes a letting go of self-reliance in some area to gain a greater God-reliance.

One family’s pursuit of following God in Kenya.

I saw this in Kenya.  It was evident in my friends LJ and Danee.  It was also true in me.  God’s specific word to LJ was “to prepare the land”.  The orphanage had fallen into disrepair.  Mismanagement had resulted in the loss of the license as a children’s home and much of the 14-acre compound was overgrown with brush and vegetation.  The entire family responded to the call to prepare the land. 

Now for many of us, traveling overseas can be a daunting experience.  That increases when the travel is to a third world country.  Raise it another notch when we are placed next to the 2nd largest slum in the world.  Oh, for good measure, take the entire family with children ages 15, 14, 13, and 9 in tow.  I know very few people who would be able to be stretched that far.  But the path the Lord has led Danee and LJ on has been a path of consistent next steps of trusting God as they go a little further out of their comfort zone, only to see Him provide exactly what was needed after each step.

While I was there, I witnessed LJ assuming the new role of overall Operations Manager for the entire compound.  By his own admission, LJ is a country boy from rural South Carolina.  He did not aspire to running an orphanage and school, but as I witnessed while I was there, LJ and Danee are faithfully doing whatever is required in leading, guiding, and serving the community.  And the land itself is beginning to flourish.  A ¾ acre vegetable garden is up and growing.  Soon it will be a major supplement to the food provisions for the 84 children getting their meals at LifeSpring.  The livestock are multiplying.  The third fluffle of rabbits are being nurtured and rabbit hutches were built while I was there.  Chickens roam the grounds during the day with baby chicks sticking close to mama hen for protection.  Goats graze on grass where brambles once grew.  To support the growing campus, LJ has hired widows and young men in desperate need of employment.   The land is well on its way to being prepared.

LJ’s work as an instrument and controls technician prepared him for some of the work.  I chuckle though because Google has come to the rescue many times as they encounter new situations they have never dealt with before.  (Like letting me know that a group of baby bunnies is called a fluffle!)  In one instance they were talking to one of the widows who had been hired to tend the garden.  In Kenya all the schools are in English, so if you have had the benefit of attending school you are liable to speak decent English.  This widow, who cares for her grandchild in the Kibera slum, knows zero English therefore she has never been to school.  Trying to communicate to her that LJ had bought four tin sheets to replace the plastic she was living under in Kibera was both humorous and deeply touching.  Google translate had to translate into Swahili so the widow could understand that some men would be coming by to help her.  Kenyans don’t cry.  Stoic persistence to survive doesn’t leave room for expressing much emotion, but the emotion flickered on her face when she realized the act of kindness being done for her. 

LJ and Danee went to Kenya following the Lord’s clear leading.  But following the Lord’s leading and knowing all that we are getting into are often two different things.  In some cases, the Father will give us a degree of insight into what’s ahead. 

The Bible’s witness to life outside the comfort zone.

I think of Paul heading to Jerusalem where he would be arrested.  God clearly told him to go to Jerusalem.  And he was also clearly told that difficulty was ahead.  But God gave Paul an assurance that walking this difficult path was God’s will and that God would be with him.  Paul was called out of his comfort zone over and over again.  In stepping into God’s call out of the comfort zone and into the unknown, Paul grew into the apostle God created him to be.  Today the Church is blessed because of Paul’s faithfulness in living outside of his comfort zone since much of the New Testament was written by Paul.

As the Lord opened my eyes to the reality of our growth as believers being tied to stepping out of our comfort zone, I realized that all the saints mentioned in the Bible were taken out of their comfort zone.  Abraham left his family, his land, and ventured many long and difficult miles (and years) to a “promised” land.  There was comfort in the land of Haran, but God’s call was to step out and follow Him. 

Mary was a young teenager engaged to a kind carpenter, when an angel said you have been chosen but it will take you out of your comfort zone.  Mary said “let it be done to me as you have said” and she stepped out of her comfort zone and into God’s plan for the salvation of humanity. 

Jesus was a good Jewish lad, well versed in the law, but God had a plan and a call upon His life.  Jesus was unique.  He was fully God, but at the same time fully human.  Being fully human, He experienced a degree of comfort as a carpenter son, then apprentice, and finally working as a carpenter in His own right.  But when God said step out of your comfort zone and into my call upon your life He did. 

Jesus ministered for 3 years outside of His comfort zone – forty days fasting in the desert, speaking to crowds that wanted signs and wonders, but not necessarily the all-in life with God He was espousing, doing battle with the persons of power and influence who chaffed at His familiarity with God, and finally suffering a painful and humiliating torture and execution at the hands of both Roman authorities and Jewish leaders.  Jesus modeled a life of stretching our human boundaries of comfort in faithful response to God’s call to something better, something richer, to life in union with God and His unique plan for each person.

What next step outside your comfort zone is God calling you to?

Friends I am deeply stirred that God has a call upon every person into a life that is beyond amazing.  He has a call upon you.  But it is a journey that will frequently take us out of our comfort zone.  God will ask us to take steps in faith in Him and not in sight by using our own wisdom and strength.  We will have to rely upon Him.  We will be stretched.  At times it won’t be “fun”.  At times it will even be difficult.  But as we listen and lean upon Him, He will be with us to bring about His good will in us and through us.  And this is so much better than the “good” we might experience in the comfort zone.  Because it is the best.

What burden or desire has the Lord put on your heart that gets shelved because it is outside your comfort zone?

Where do you see injustice, need, or sin that really pushes your buttons, but thus far you have done little beyond complain about it?

Do you get a passion for something the Word says to do, yet thus far you have not truly considered the possibility of you doing something just because?

Take a few moments and ask the Father to bring your next step into clear focus.  Ask with a willingness to take the next step.  Realize these will not usually be huge leaps out of the blue, but a gradual revelation where God draws you to a faith place that makes each progressive step a stretch, but doable with a little courage and trust in the One Who has provided for you in the past.  For the Davis’ it was a few years walking out many progressive next steps into mission work.  For me going over to help them was similar, taking about a year of progressive faith steps.  Having been, my faith is stirred to help even more.  Will I be more comfortable?  Walking in God’s grace and lifted by His love, I reckon I have all the strength a person needs.  So, the answer has to be yes, but in a new way.  When we walk His path, taking new steps into the unknown that He directs, we will be comforted with His great comfort. 

And that is way better than just being comfortable.

Be blessed my friends and be a light of blessing in the places where the LORD has placed you today, and always!

BTW, Danee and LJ are still serving in the same place although it is now called Oasis of Hope, and the Lord has done amazing things. The vision has shifted to rescuing young girls from forced marriages. The school now holds over 110 students, and the ministry is expanding more and more into the slum and areas around the school. The oversight organization is Serving Orphans Worldwide. Check them out at https://soworldwide.org/oasis-of-hope/

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