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Archive for the ‘God Stories’ Category

The Waiting Is Part of the Plan

Posted in Bible Study, Church, God, God Stories, Salvation, Spiritual Growth, Trials, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , , on October 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »

John 11

Jesus raised others from the dead: Jairus’s daughter, and the widow’s son at Nain. Those were people who sought him out. Lazarus was different. Lazarus was a friend. Jesus had stayed in his home and knew his sisters well. We meet Martha and Mary in Luke: Martha the busy one, Mary the one at his feet.

So when word reaches Jesus that Lazarus is sick, the story takes a turn that stops me every time. John writes, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was” (John 11:5–6, ESV).

“So.” Because he loved them, he waited.

That is hard for us. God will ask us to wait, and the timing is his, not ours. Jesus tells us why he waited: the sickness was “for the glory of God” (v. 4), and he was glad for the disciples’ sake “so that you may believe” (v. 15). When he arrives, Lazarus has been in the tomb four days. Jews buried quickly, and day four meant there was no doubt left. Lazarus was dead. And Bethany was only two miles from Jerusalem, so mourners from the city had time to gather.

What struck me today is how Jesus meets each person exactly where they are. Martha rushes out, ever the doer, with a question that is close to a rebuke: if you had been here, he would not have died. Jesus reasons with her. As Tara-Leigh Cobble points out, there is an irony here. Jesus usually spoke of spiritual things and the crowds heard physical ones. Now he speaks of a physical raising, and Martha hears a spiritual one, the resurrection at the last day (v. 24). That was the belief of the Pharisees and many ordinary people. The Sadducees denied any resurrection, which fit well with their focus on wealth and position now. Jesus answers her: “I am the resurrection and the life” (v. 25).

With Mary, Jesus doesn’t reason. He enters her grief. “Jesus wept” (v. 35). God in the flesh, standing at a friend’s grave, knowing what he is about to do, and still weeping with the one who hurts.

Then: take away the stone. A prayer of thanks to the Father. “Lazarus, come out” (v. 43). And the dead man walks out. I can only imagine what the last day will be like, when all creation is raised.

The timing reaches even further. Some in the crowd believed. Others ran to the Pharisees (v. 46). The council met, and Caiaphas declared that one man should die for the people (vv. 49–53). From that day they planned to kill him. Jesus’s act of love and power was the spark that set the final events in motion. It led to the cross at Passover, the Lamb of God slain at the very time the Passover lambs were slain, just as God had planned before the foundation of the world.

We all have things we are waiting on. If you have surrendered your life to Jesus and walk under his lordship, you can trust him in the wait. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). The waiting is not God ignoring you. It is part of the good he is working.

What are you waiting on right now, and could the delay be part of how God plans to show his glory?

Have a blessed day, and be a blessing.

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The Tree of Humility

Posted in Bible Study, Bible Study, Church, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, love, Parables, Prayer, Priorities, Spiritual Growth, The Father, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Luke 14–15

On Monday mornings when I’m in town, I meet with a few friends to pray. Yesterday we prayed for the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians to be evident in the Church: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). One of the men said he found it interesting that humility isn’t on the list. Before I’d really thought about it, I said, “Humility is the tree on which the fruit of the Spirit grows.” I was a little surprised to hear myself say it. But this morning, reading Luke 14 and 15, Jesus returns to humility again and again.

A Word About “Hate”

In Luke 14:26 Jesus says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” In the language and thinking of Jesus’ day, “hate” in this sense means to love less, not the bitter hostility we usually mean by the word. Matthew records the same teaching this way: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37). We also know Jesus doesn’t mean hatred in our modern sense, because of how He honored His own mother, and because He rebuked the religious leaders for using their traditions to avoid caring for their parents.

Jesus is saying that following Him is to be our highest love, with every other relationship ranked below it. After 41 years of marriage, I’ve learned that when I follow Jesus with my utmost, I love my wife and others better. When my attention turns to myself, or when any other relationship takes first place, I have less love both for others and for God.

The Younger Son: Humbled, Then Humble

The story of the prodigal son shows how humility is the tree the fruit grows on. For a long time I thought prodigal meant rebellious. It actually means wasteful, and that’s what the younger son was. He took his inheritance and “squandered his property in reckless living” (Luke 15:13). Then a famine came, which would have made life hard even for someone with resources, and he had none. He ended up feeding pigs. For a Jewish young man, that was the bottom rung of the ladder, and then some.

In that place of being humbled, he chose humility: “I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:19). In that humility he went home, and the father ran to him and lavished love on his lost, wandering, wasteful son. Humility started the process that leads to good fruit.

The Older Son: Dutiful, but Proud

Most parables drive home one main point. This one seems to give us two, and both are about humility: one son who found it and one who lacked it.

The older son was dutiful, obedient, and hardworking. What he didn’t have was the humility to recognize that the father was the source and the owner, the one through whom every blessing came, and that he was also his father, worthy of honor. Instead he threw a fit. He already got his inheritance. Why does he get the fattened calf? I’ve been here working the whole time. Where’s my party? That’s pride, not humility. And the father’s answer is gentle: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” (Luke 15:31).

Jesus ends the story there, with the older brother standing outside the party. The Pharisees He was speaking to were zealous for the Scriptures, and some of them did come to believe. Acts mentions “believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees” (Acts 15:5). If they opened their hearts with a little humility, everything they knew from the Word pointed to Jesus as the promised Messiah.

The Fruit Grows from the Tree

So today I’m thinking about humility and a life of intimacy with God that produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That fruit comes as we humble ourselves, grow closer to God, mature spiritually, and let the things of God take precedence over the things of this world. As Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). That is what the tree of humility provides.

Which son do you most resemble right now: the one who needed to be humbled, or the one who needed to recognize he was always at home?

Have a blessed day, and be a blessing to someone.

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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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Who Said, “Let’s Get in the Boat”? Mark 4–5

Posted in Bible Study, God, God Stories, Jesus Christ, Responsibility, Salvation, Spiritual Growth, Trials, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Today’s reading is Mark 4 and 5. First, a quick review of who wrote the four Gospels. Matthew and John were two of Jesus’ disciples. Matthew was a Jewish tax collector until he met Jesus and his life was turned upside down. John was probably the youngest disciple and was the brother of James. Luke was a physician turned historian, a Gentile convert, and a travel companion of Paul. Mark was most likely John Mark, a disciple of Peter. When I read Mark, I picture an older, wiser Peter preaching to the crowds while Mark takes notes, and then later, around a campfire, Peter telling the same stories from a more personal place.

Each Gospel shows Jesus’ life, ministry, message, and mission from a slightly different angle. For years after the resurrection, the disciples went about proclaiming the good news. Some of it may have been written down early, but the Gospels as we know them came together roughly 30 to 60 years after the resurrection, with John most likely last, written late in his life in Ephesus. I mention this because several stories appear in more than one Gospel, like the parable of the four soils, and it’s right to give extra weight to what is repeated.

I don’t have time for all the parables today, so I want to focus on a boat trip.

The storm

After a long, hard day of teaching, Jesus is the one who said, “Let us go across to the other side” (Mark 4:35). They set out across the Sea of Galilee in the evening. The first several times I read this, I wondered how anyone could sleep through that kind of rocking. But Jesus was fully God and fully human. He was tired, and he fell asleep on a cushion in the stern.

I’ve been to Israel, and while we were there a storm swept across that lake in a hurry. What amazed me was how quickly it left again. So I can picture this. But for the disciples it was nighttime, water was filling the boat, and it was about to sink. I’m sure they were bailing and rowing and getting nowhere. And Jesus was asleep.

They wake him with, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (4:38). These men had already watched him do miracle after miracle. Mature faith takes time.

Jesus knew what he was doing. All creation was made through him, and when he speaks to the wind, it obeys. He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” and there was a great calm (4:39).

This showed his power, but I think it showed something more: his compassion is real, and his compassion doesn’t keep us from every storm. Go back and ask who said, “Let’s get in the boat.” It was Jesus. He led them into the boat with a storm ahead. And the moment they turned to him, they received an immediate answer.

The other side

They left from the Jewish side of the lake and landed on the Gentile side, in the region of the Decapolis. On the Jewish side, Jesus often told people to keep his miracles quiet. He didn’t go to the Gentile side often, but when he did, it was for specific, God-ordained ministry.

This time it was a man possessed by many demons. When Jesus asked the name, the answer was “Legion, for we are many” (5:9). When the demons were sent into the herd of about 2,000 pigs, the pigs rushed down the steep bank and drowned. I don’t know whether that number says anything about how many demons there were, and Scripture doesn’t say.

What caught my attention this time was the contrast. The storm stopped at one word. Here, Mark tells us Jesus “had been saying” to the spirit, “Come out” (5:8), and there’s an exchange before the demons leave. I hold this loosely, but it makes me wonder whether active resistance to the kingdom of God calls for a different kind of perseverance from us than crying out to Jesus in a trial does. Jesus’ authority was never in question, but the encounter wasn’t a one-word moment.

Encounters with the evil one will come. A large part of Jesus’ ministry was rebuking and casting out demons. He rebuked the Pharisees too, but they didn’t recognize their need and didn’t want deliverance. This man did. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran to him and fell on his knees (5:6). Whatever had a hold on him, part of him wanted to be free of it, and it took an encounter with Jesus for that to happen.

Sent instead of kept

When the man begged to go with Jesus, Jesus said no. Instead he told him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you” (5:19). I can see a couple of reasons. On the Jewish side, Jesus knew the resistance building against him would lead to the cross, so he kept things quiet there. That resistance wasn’t present on the Gentile side yet, so he sent this man out as a witness. And though the first disciples all came from Jewish heritage, the kingdom message was for all people. When persecution came, it went out to the whole world, and this man was an early sign of that.

In two chapters, Jesus shows his power over the forces of nature, his power over the forces of the evil one, and his compassion for his frightened disciples and for one tormented man in the Decapolis.

Question for today: Is there a storm in your life right now that you got into by following Jesus, and have you turned to him in it, or are you still bailing and rowing on your own?

Have a blessed day.

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Amending the Soil Matthew 13 & Luke 8

Posted in Beautiful Places, Bible Study, Bible Study, God, God Stories, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Parables, Priorities, Responsibility, Spiritual Growth, The Father, Trials, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »

One of Jesus’ favorite ways to teach was through parables, and Matthew 13 gives us a whole collection of them. The one shared by both Matthew 13 and Luke 8 is the parable of the sower. Having read through the Bible many times, I’ve come to see this as one of those parables we need to step into, ponder, and let roll around for a while.

Jesus first told the parable on its own. His disciples didn’t really get it, so they came and asked Him what it meant (Luke 8:9). And Jesus went deep. Both Matthew and Luke thought it was important enough to give us not just the story, but the explanation too.

What strikes me is how easy it is to sit back, look around, and sort other people into one of the four soils. And it’s telling that of the four places the seed lands, only one produces fruit. Three of them never get there.

But if all we do is evaluate everyone else’s soil, we’ve missed the point. The soil is the condition of the heart, its receptivity to God’s Word being planted. So the real question is about my own heart.

As someone who has surrendered my life to Jesus, I would love to say my heart is always soft and supple. The truth is, as I’ve grown and matured, I’ve realized my heart has shown every one of these soil conditions at different times. There are seasons when the Word lands and I’m simply not open to it. There are times when my soil is shallow.

But the most common one for me is the thorns: “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22, ESV). Luke adds that they are choked “by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature” (Luke 8:14).

We live in a busy world, and I’m inclined to be a busy person. The result is that God’s Word, and His purpose for my life, can get overlooked or minimized. It becomes one of many things I’m taking in and trying to act on. That’s exactly what Jesus is getting at. Good things can crowd out the best thing, the one thing of ultimate importance: allowing His Word to take root in my heart, to change me from the inside, and to accomplish what He wants through a life surrendered to Him.

I love that the good soil produces “in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty” (Matthew 13:23). What I read in that is that fruitfulness can grow. When I deal with the bad soil conditions, when I’m quicker to pull up the thorns and briars before they choke things out, and when I do the things that amend the soil and make it deeper and richer, the yield increases.

What are those things? A daily quiet time. Consistent Bible study. Gathering regularly with other believers for fellowship and encouragement. Even writing these devotionals. Each one is a way of amending the soil.

And the hard path? Luke says the seed that fell there “was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it” (Luke 8:5). The answer is not to walk the well-worn way of the world, where the seed gets stepped on and the enemy snatches it away. Instead, be open to the Holy Spirit leading you off the path: to places of quiet, to people in need, and into the seasons of trial, suffering, and challenge, trusting the Lord to be with you through them.

All three unproductive soils can be transformed as we develop the daily habits that draw us closer to the Lord. The work God wants to do in us is a partnership where the Holy Spirit takes the lead. As I release control and give Him room to work in my heart, He transforms me to be more and more like Jesus, my Lord and Savior.

And the more I do, the more fruitful my life becomes. Thirty can become sixty, sixty can become a hundredfold, and the kingdom of God advances. That’s what I’m here for. That’s what you’re here for.

Which soil best describes your heart this season, and what is one habit you could start or recommit to this week to amend it?

Have a blessed day.

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From Seeing to Worship

Posted in Beautiful Places, God Stories, Travel, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , on October 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »

It’s been a full week. A week of travel, of teaching and work, and also of time with family, beautiful places, and a lot of pictures. Today the outside is gray, windy, and rainy. There isn’t much to do outdoors. So I’m sitting beside my wife, resting in God’s grace and thinking back over the week. As I do, my mind keeps returning to one idea: the path things travel from our eyes, into our minds, and down into our hearts.

The Heart Behind the Eyes

By heart, I don’t mean the muscle that pumps blood. I mean the center of our being, the place where our true self lives. Scripture treats the heart that way, as the seat of what we think, love, and choose.

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” — Proverbs 4:23 (ESV)

What reaches the heart usually comes in first through the eyes. Jesus made that point with startling force in the Sermon on the Mount:

“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.” — Matthew 5:29 (ESV)

He was using hyperbole, of course. The truth underneath it is real, though. What we let into our minds through our eyes affects us and changes us. A little later in the same sermon He said it another way:

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.” — Matthew 6:22–23 (ESV)

So what is the path from the eye to the heart? As I’ve reflected on it, I see a progression.

Recognition and Awareness

It begins with recognition. We see something and recognize it for what it is: beauty, value, worth. Recognition is the door. Nothing gets to the heart without first passing through it.

Close behind recognition comes awareness. Here we start weighing and judging what we’re taking in. Is this good? Is this true? Is this worth holding onto? Paul gives us a filter for exactly this moment:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” — Philippians 4:8 (ESV)

Appreciation and Gratitude

Once we are aware of what is good, appreciation follows quickly. These are the things that register in us as lovely and valuable, the things we like.

This week gave me plenty to appreciate. Driving through Canada, the fall foliage was stunning, and the deep blue of Lake Superior stopped me in my tracks. But the smiles, the laughter, and the kind words we shared while gathered with family in Gaylord, Michigan were just as beautiful. So was a visit to Boyne Mountain. And then many hours of travel where my friend Red and I talked about the Lord and the life lessons He has taught us along the way.

From appreciation, it isn’t a big step to gratitude. Once we value something, we become thankful that we were able to see it, perceive it, and enjoy it at all. And this week, gratitude was flowing.

Where Gratitude Leads

Gratitude is a platform. From it, we can go one more step, if we recognize the One who is the source of every good thing.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” — James 1:17 (ESV)

That last step is not automatic. Paul describes people who saw God’s handiwork in creation and still stopped short:

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” — Romans 1:21 (ESV)

They had recognition but no gratitude, and so no worship. Their path ended in darkness instead of light. That’s Jesus’ warning about the eye, seen from the other side.

When we do recognize the Giver behind the gift, gratitude becomes worship. Worship is the highest level of recognition. It flows through appreciation and gratitude and turns back to the One who made the beauty, who made the people we spend time with, who made the ones who add value to our lives and make life worth living.

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” — Psalm 19:1 (ESV)

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!” — Psalm 100:4 (ESV)

Thanksgiving is the gate, and praise is the court. Gratitude walks us right up to worship.

A Gray Day, a Grateful Heart

I find it fitting that I’m writing this on a day with no blue sky and no bright leaves outside my window. The beauty of this week doesn’t depend on today’s weather. I can look back over it, recognize it, appreciate it, and give thanks. And as I do, I’m moved to worship.

“This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” — Psalm 118:24 (ESV)

That includes the gray, rainy ones.

Looking back over your own week, what beauty did you recognize? And did it make it all the way from your eyes to your heart, through gratitude, and into worship of the One who gave it?

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Led, Tested, and OpenMatthew 4; Luke 4–5

Posted in Bible Study, Bible Study, Church, God, God Stories, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Today, Jesus’s ministry begins in earnest. But before He preaches a single sermon or calls a single disciple, He is led by the Spirit into the wilderness (Matthew 4:1; Luke 4:1).

Some see those forty days of fasting as a toughening, a kind of spiritual boot camp. I see it more as a time of cleansing and focusing. Jesus sets aside everything else, and at the end of those forty days the tempter, the accuser, comes to try to divert Him.

What fascinates me is how closely the three temptations line up with the ways Israel was tested in the wilderness after God rescued them from Egypt, and failed. They grumbled about bread, and Satan tempts Jesus to make bread for Himself. They put God to the test at Massah, demanding proof He was with them, and Satan tempts Jesus to throw Himself from the temple to force God’s hand. They bowed down to a golden calf, and Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if He will bow down to him. Every time, Jesus answers from Deuteronomy, the very book where Moses recounted Israel’s wilderness years (Deuteronomy 8:3; 6:16; 6:13). Where Israel failed, Jesus stands. He reverses the story.

And notice how Satan fights. In the second temptation, he quotes scripture himself, lifting Psalm 91 out of context to make it say something God never intended. Jesus doesn’t throw out the scripture. He answers it with scripture rightly understood: “It is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test'” (Luke 4:12).

That is so often the way the enemy works. If he can’t keep us away from God’s Word, he’ll twist it, bending it to mean and say and do things God never meant.

We see this today in how scripture gets pulled into almost every debate. Take immigration. Some argue for open borders; that isn’t the answer. Others argue for slamming the door shut completely; that isn’t the answer either. Both sides can find a verse to wave around. What matters is looking for people who are receptive to what is true, good, and right, people who will come, honor our laws, and become part of the community.

In a far deeper way, that’s what Jesus was looking for: hearts open and receptive not only to God’s love, grace, and mercy, but also to God’s way of living. “Repent,” He preached, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). The invitation was wide open, and it called for a response.

That’s exactly what stirred up His hometown. In the Nazareth synagogue, Jesus read from Isaiah that He had come to proclaim good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, and freedom for the oppressed (Luke 4:18). The people spoke well of Him, at first. Then He reminded them that in Elijah’s day God sent the prophet to a widow in Sidon, and in Elisha’s day God healed Naaman the Syrian (Luke 4:25–27). Both were outsiders. The Messiah had come not only for Israel, but for anyone, Jew or Gentile, whose heart was open to God’s mercy and grace. The same crowd that had admired Him tried to throw Him off a cliff.

And the rest of today’s reading shows Him doing exactly what He announced: healing the sick, touching a leper no one else would touch (Luke 5:13), forgiving a paralyzed man lowered through a roof (Luke 5:20), and calling a tax collector to follow Him (Luke 5:27). The downtrodden, the oppressed, the outsiders—these were the people who received Him.

So here is my takeaway today: a heart that is open. Open to God’s Word as He actually meant it, not as it can be twisted. Open to His grace, and open to His way of living. And open to love others and share God’s goodness with them, especially the ones others might overlook.

Is your heart open to God’s Word as He meant it, and to the people He is reaching for, even the ones you might not expect?

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A Star for Stargazers, a Dream for a Dreamer

Posted in Bible Study, Bible Study, God Stories, Holy Spirit, tagged , , , , , on October 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Matthew 2

Matthew 2 gives us a snapshot of a narrow window of time, when Jesus was about two years old or a little younger, likely around 6 BC. In just 23 verses, God speaks to people through dreams no fewer than four times.

Joseph receives three of them. First he is warned of Herod’s murderous intent and told to flee to Egypt. Next he learns that Herod is dead and it is time to return to Israel. Finally he is directed to settle his family in Galilee. Each time, Joseph acts right away. After the first dream, Matthew tells us, “he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt” (Matthew 2:14, ESV). He left by night, without waiting for morning.

The fourth dream goes to the wise men: “And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way” (Matthew 2:12). These men were almost certainly not Jewish. They were most likely astrologers from the East who watched the heavens for signs. Look at how God first got their attention. He did not send them a scroll. He put a star in the sky, where they were already looking.

God speaks in a language we can hear

I recently learned how differently our imaginations work. My son-in-law and grandson don’t see pictures when they read; some people call this “aphantasia.” That surprised me, because when I read, the scenes play out vividly in my mind. I would rather read a good book than see a movie, because movies usually fall short of what I imagined.

I suspect God’s communication with each of us is fitted to how we are wired. “O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar” (Psalm 139:1–2). He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knew a dream would reach Joseph and move him to act. He knew a star would reach men who studied the sky. Hebrews opens by saying that “at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2).

Paul widens this in Romans 1. Creation itself speaks: “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20). Some people hold to a belief in no God, and others to a God who cannot be known. Yet the order, complexity, and fine-tuning of the universe keep pointing to a Designer. For anyone willing to look honestly, God’s message is that He IS, and that He can be KNOWN.

When the message doesn’t get through

Matthew 2 also shows people who did not hear.

Herod heard the news of a newborn King and was “troubled.” His position and power had become his god, and idols block out the Son. To protect his throne, he ordered every boy two years old and under in Bethlehem killed. I can’t help thinking about the soldiers who carried out that order. They did not hear God either.

The chief priests and scribes are even more striking. When Herod asked where the Messiah would be born, they answered at once: Bethlehem, just as Micah had written. They had the right verse, and they were about six miles away. As far as we know, not one of them went. Foreign astrologers crossed a desert to worship, while the Bible scholars stayed home. Knowing the answer is not the same as hearing God.

If God speaks to each of us in a way we can hear, why do so few respond? We’ll return to that question in the coming weeks, as Jesus begins His ministry and is joyfully received by some and rejected by others, a road that ends at the cross.

The time God did not intervene

In Matthew 2, God moves through those who listen, and Jesus’ life is protected. About thirty years later, God does not intervene. Jesus himself said He could ask His Father and “he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels” (Matthew 26:53). No angels were sent, and no dream warned anyone away. The Father who rescued His Son from Herod’s sword chose not to rescue Him from the cross.

We are all so blessed because He didn’t. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

For reflection: God spoke to the wise men through stars and to Joseph through dreams. How has He been speaking to you, and what might be keeping you from hearing it, the way Herod’s throne or the scribes’ comfort kept them from Bethlehem?

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Crossed Arms

Posted in Bible Study, Genesis, God, God Stories, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Spiritual Growth, The Father, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , on February 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Genesis 48-50, Crossed Arms. Throughout Genesis we see the “expected way” to be upended. The Law of primogenitor stated that the inheritance, birthright, and double portion of blessing belong to the firstborn male in the family. It was the accepted rule in the time of the Patriarchs and still exists today in many societies. Yet in Genesis, we see this “law” broken in almost every case. The list of firstborn sons who did NOT receive this place of preeminence is longer than those who do. Cain, Ishmael, Esau, Reuben, and today Manasseh are all passed over and a younger sibling is given the leading role.

Jacob is old and almost blind when he “adopts” Joseph’s two oldest sons – Manasseh and Ephraim. Jacob is a younger brother to his twin Esau. We remember that Jacob used deception to steal his father’s blessing for the oldest son. Today in pronouncing blessing upon the two boys Jacob crosses his arms to intentionally bless Ephraim, the second son, with the blessing reserved for the older.

Two things struck me. First, the LORD has blessed me far greater than I deserve. The relationship He has drawn me into with Himself is truly life-giving and joy-inducing. Yet so many of God’s answers to my prayers have been different from what I expected. My prayers early in my walk included a good bit of instruction to God on how to meet the need I was praying about. God would answer, yet the path to His blessing was completely different than what I expected. And it was always better because of this. Second, the Bible refers to Jesus as our older brother, the firstborn from the dead. We know He truly exists in preeminence. Yet He passes on blessings to us, His younger siblings, in portions far beyond our merit. Grace, God’s unmerited favor, rests upon us because of Jesus’ death, resurrection and life.

Father, thank you for blessing us richly. You are no respecter of persons in the sense of entitlement. But you are the Lover of our souls, and you are at work wooing, training, and surprising us with grace upon grace. May we live to pass on your blessing to the people you bring into our lives… family, friends, and even the stranger we meet as we go through life.

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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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