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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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The Truth Tug-of-War

Posted in Bible Study, Bible Study, God, Jesus Christ, Priorities, Responsibility, Salvation, Spiritual Growth, The Father, Vision, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , , on October 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

John 7–8

The tug-of-war over truth has been, and still is, one of the most contentious struggles in human existence. Much conflict has come from differing worldviews, each built on a different understanding of what is true. Religions are founded on what a group of people believes to be true. For that matter, people who reject religion do so because of what they believe is true and what is not.

At this point in John’s Gospel, Jesus is about midway through His ministry. John wasn’t mainly concerned with chronological order. His goal was to paint a clear picture of Jesus as God, and he does this by capturing critical moments in Jesus’ ministry. Today’s scene takes place in Jerusalem during the Feast of Booths, one of the pilgrimage feasts every faithful Jew was expected to attend.

By now the religious leaders are deeply troubled by Jesus’ teaching. His picture of the Kingdom of God, and what He says about Himself, about them, and about God, threatens their carefully structured religious order. Their reputations, their livelihoods, and the whole system are at risk if Jesus keeps preaching this upside-down kingdom. They sit at the top of that system, and Jesus threatens to overturn it if people keep listening to Him and following Him.

Today’s exchange goes to the heart of that conflict. Here’s the thing about truth: while our individual perceptions and understanding of what is true may vary, there is ultimate truth. I’m decent at math. 2 + 2 = 4. If mankind had never gotten good at math, space exploration would never have become reality. Putting a man on the moon couldn’t have happened. There is real, objective truth.

Because I was decent at math, I became an engineer. When I learned the second law of thermodynamics, I saw a truth explaining why things slow down, degrade, and deteriorate unless some outside source puts energy into the system. Years later, I dug out my old thermodynamics textbook and found a fascinating note from the authors. They wrote that the second law of thermodynamics is evidence of an external Creator. They didn’t go so far as to point to any particular religion, but they stated plainly that a Creator must exist because of it.

So we circle back to today’s exchange between Jesus and the religious leaders. They are disputing with Jesus, but they can’t muster a real argument against what He’s teaching, so they resort to attacking His character. Because Jesus won’t toe the religious party line, He must be of the devil: “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (John 8:48, ESV).

Only in the last few years have I really noticed something: the religious leaders repeatedly accused Jesus of breaking the Law, yet Jesus never broke the Law. He broke the religious rules they had built up around the Law.

Jesus appealed to the Law and the Prophets often, frequently expanding on what they meant. That was common among religious teachers of His day. What was uncommon was the authority He spoke with and the authority He invoked. He went over the religious leaders’ heads. He didn’t carry their credentials (“How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” John 7:15, ESV), yet He spoke like the most learned of teachers.

Sadly, arguments about truth today devolve quickly into personal attacks. Nowhere is that more visible than in political discourse. And because so much political discourse invokes religion, religious discussion also drifts from a pursuit of truth into arguments untethered from that pursuit, arguments more about winning than about what is true.

But we must come back to the reality that there is ultimate truth, and there is an external Creator who determines what is true. Jesus’ claims in today’s reading are huge on both counts. In John 8:31–32, He tells everyone listening, and the millions who have since read or heard these words, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (ESV). He doesn’t sugarcoat it. He is the One who teaches what is true. A little later in John’s Gospel He takes it a step further: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, ESV). Bold words. Words He then backed up by dying on the cross, a substitutionary death for every person who puts their trust in Him.

But that isn’t the only truth bomb Jesus drops on these religious leaders. All of what Jesus taught is truth to live by, but as the argument heats up and they accuse Him of being in league with the devil, Jesus turns it back on them (“You are of your father the devil,” John 8:44, ESV). Then He makes a claim that sends them into a frenzy: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58, ESV).

Jesus claims to have existed before Abraham, which is a God-move by itself. Then He doubles down by using the divine name the LORD gave Moses at the burning bush: “Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14, ESV).

It is impossible to overstate how big this claim is. Any argument against Christianity has to find some way to diminish who Jesus is. People will accept that He was a good man, a good teacher, even a prophet, but not God. The trouble is, that doesn’t fit the facts. Jesus claimed to be God. There are many other places He does so, but this one stands out, because the religious leaders understood exactly what He was saying, and they hated Him for it. They picked up stones to kill Him (John 8:59).

C.S. Lewis laid out what’s often summarized as the trilemma in Mere Christianity: there are only three options for who Jesus was. He was a liar, a lunatic, or He was, and is, Lord.  Lewis’ warning was against the common notion that Jesus could be merely a great moral teacher without being divine. He wrote: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

When we face this question honestly, the only way to truly answer it is to do what Jesus said in John 8:31–32: abide in His word and come to know the truth. When we do, we run smack-dab into capital-T Truth… and His name is Jesus.

Who do you say Jesus is: a good teacher, or the great I AM?

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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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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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Holy and Near Reading: Luke 11

Posted in Bible Study, Bible Study, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Priorities, Responsibility, Spiritual Growth, The Father, Trials, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , , on October 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Jesus’ ministry has reached the point where He is teaching His disciples in preparation for their going out in ministry. He has performed many miracles, meeting people in the middle of their need, and many have now leaned in to hear His message and follow Him as a gifted teacher. Some are clearly beginning to think of Him as the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. That expectation was especially strong at this point in Israel’s history. The Roman occupation had the people longing for someone who would lead them to deliverance.

So what does Jesus do? He teaches them to pray.

One of the disciples watches Jesus pray and then asks, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1, ESV). Jesus’ example is short. It is concise. And it touches the themes all of us deal with every day. What it doesn’t do is call down fire from heaven to drive out the Romans. (Just a chapter earlier, James and John wanted to call down fire on a Samaritan village, and Jesus rebuked them; Luke 9:54–55.) Jesus teaches us to pray in the middle of life, wherever we might be.

Starting From Humility

There is a foundation in the Lord’s Prayer that is absolutely essential: we come to this conversation with our heavenly Father from a place of humility. God is holy. He is uniquely set apart from all of creation. Yet He loves us, desires a relationship with us, and makes Himself present in a real way through prayer.

A “God is my buddy” attitude can easily miss the reality of a holy God stooping to talk with us. He does desire fellowship with us, and He will draw close to us. But pride, and even complacency, can create a distance that is our own making. As James writes, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” and “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:6, 8).

The prayer opens, “Father, hallowed be your name” (Luke 11:2); in Matthew’s version, “Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). He is above all, completely set apart. His name is holy. The tension between His holiness and purity and our lack of it keeps us properly humble as we come before our loving Creator. And from that place, God draws us close.

“Your Kingdom Come”

Luke records “Your kingdom come” (11:2), and Matthew adds, “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). God’s purpose, the establishment and advancement of His kingdom on the earth through the lives of His children, should be ever before us. He wants us to pray for it, and then to live it.

“Give Us Each Day Our Daily Bread”

I can’t read this line without thinking of the children of Israel wandering in the desert for forty years, provided manna from heaven every single day (Exodus 16:4). Gratitude includes recognizing that the gift is only given because there is a Giver. Asking God to provide is never wrong. One of His names in the Old Testament is Jehovah Jireh, “The LORD will provide” (Genesis 22:14).

“Forgive Us Our Sins”

“And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us” (Luke 11:4). This line highlights two of our greatest needs: to be forgiven, and to release through forgiveness those who sin against us.

It also circles back to the importance of humility. We will struggle to forgive if we hold too tightly to our hurt, our reputation, what people say, or what people do. Forgiveness doesn’t condone the evil done against us. It means we release our right to hold onto it, and we hand it to the Lord.

“Lead Us Not Into Temptation”

The English wording here can be a little confusing. Scripture is clear that God doesn’t tempt anyone to sin (James 1:13). The essence is this: the world is full of temptations to sin and to drift away from God and His best. We have been given free moral agency, the ability to choose. And in every situation, there is at least one path that leads toward God and away from sin. Paul says it this way: “with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Trials, troubles, and challenges will come. But we have a loving Father who will help us through them and away from sin. We just have to ask, and then follow.

The Gift That Makes Prayer Come Alive

Luke ends the prayer there, but he doesn’t end Jesus’ teaching on prayer. I think we often miss that Jesus’ next words describe an essential element in the power of our prayer. After teaching His disciples to ask, seek, and knock (11:9), He says:

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (11:13)

At this point, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the triune God, had not yet been poured out to live in believers. That came after Jesus’ resurrection, on the day of Pentecost, which Luke records in Acts 2, and it continues today as people surrender their lives to Him.

Jesus points out that the Holy Spirit is God’s gift to His children when they ask. The Holy Spirit is God, and He comes to dwell in us the moment we are saved. There is so much to unpack about God living within us, but it’s enough to say this: our intimacy with the Father grows so much richer as we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, pray through us (Romans 8:26), and help us understand God and His ways.

Religion That Keeps People Out

The final verses of the chapter reveal the growing conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders. A Pharisee invites Jesus to dine with him (11:37), though it seems the invitation may have been more about challenging Jesus than understanding Him. Whatever the motive, Jesus rebukes them for setting up man-made hurdles that made it hard for people to approach God: “you load people with burdens hard to bear” (11:46), and “You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering” (11:52).

God as a loving Father was not what the religious leaders promoted. They had built a religious system that made them feel good about themselves, yet left them, and anyone who followed them, outside of grace. Their prayers were rote, offered from a position of pride and supposed privilege. The humility the Lord’s Prayer calls for was far from them.

Simple and Refreshing

The simplicity of Jesus’ prayer is truly refreshing. I’m sure that’s part of what drew so many people to Him. He gave them a picture of a God who is both holy and loving. Through His life and His teaching, He showed that God wants to draw near to His children. All we have to do is ask, from a place of humble faith.

A question to sit with: Which line of this simple prayer have you been rushing past lately, and what might change if you prayed it slowly and humbly today?

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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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Built on the Rock

Posted in Bible Study, Bible Study, Church, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Priorities, Responsibility, Spiritual Growth, The Father, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Today’s devotional is on Matthew 5–7, known as the Sermon on the Mount. I have to admit to feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to glean a key thought from what is arguably the most important sermon ever preached. What began as covenants God made with Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses in the Old Testament finds its ultimate exposition in Jesus’ talk with a crowd gathered on a Galilean hillside 2,000 years ago. I think I will mostly let Jesus’ words speak for themselves and just speak to how today’s reading struck me.

I’ve read the Sermon on the Mount many, many times. Sometimes I take a piece of it and chew on it for days. Other times, like this morning, I read straight through and simply feel both the weight and the joy in it. What can feel in the Old Testament like a harsh checklist of dos and don’ts, Jesus boils down to the heart.

This morning, it was the final section that stopped me:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24–25, ESV)

The timing is not lost on me. As I write this, a hurricane that came ashore in the middle of the night, 400 to 450 miles from here, is still reaching us. We’re expecting driving rain and 30 to 40 mile-an-hour winds all day long. Storms like this have a way of revealing how well a house is built. Whatever was hidden in the framing and the foundation comes to light when the wind starts to blow.

The same is true of our lives. There are plenty of foundations on offer: success, reputation, comfort, our own good behavior. None of them hold when the storm comes. Jesus himself is the rock. As Paul wrote, “no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). He is what makes us whole and moves us toward the completeness and purposes God designed for us.

What struck me most this morning is how the sermon begins and ends. It opens with “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Recognizing that we are spiritually bankrupt without Jesus is where the right foundation begins. And it closes with building on the rock: on Jesus, on what he accomplished in our place at the cross, and on what he continues to do through his Holy Spirit living in us, drawing us close to the Father. That intimacy with God was his plan from the very beginning in the garden.

From there, the building goes on. As we keep reading, applying, and living out his Word, God brings about the spiritual maturity that lets the house stand. Notice that both builders in Jesus’ story heard the same words. The difference was that one of them did what he heard.

What storm in your life right now is revealing what your house is built on, and what would it look like to hear and do Jesus’ words this week?

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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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At the River: Obedience, Fire, and the Spirit’s EmpoweringReadings: Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3

Posted in Beautiful Places, Bible Study, Bible Study, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Responsibility, The Father, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Today’s three readings tell the same story from three angles: Jesus coming to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. It’s where His public ministry begins, and it raises questions that have shaped my own walk with God for more than four decades.

The one who prepared the way

John the Baptist had a clear assignment. He preached repentance and baptized those who responded, and the Gospel writers saw him as the fulfillment of what the prophets had foretold. Mark opens his Gospel by joining Malachi and Isaiah together:

“Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'” (Mark 1:2–3, ESV)

John also fit the mold of Elijah. Malachi had promised, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes” (Mal. 4:5), and John’s camel’s hair clothing and leather belt (Mark 1:6) echo Elijah’s own appearance.

So many people wondered whether John himself might be the Messiah. Luke tells us, “As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ…” (Luke 3:15). John was clear: he was not. Someone mightier was coming.

When Jesus showed up

Here’s what strikes me. John had spent his ministry pointing toward Jesus, yet when Jesus actually came to the river, John was surprised:

“John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented.” (Matt. 3:14–15)

Jesus had no sin to repent of. His baptism was not a confession. It was obedience, and the Father’s response was immediate: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17).

My own story of baptism

Christians have long understood baptism in different ways. In infant baptism (paedobaptism), a child is baptized or christened, committed to God with the trust that He will work in that child’s life. In believer’s baptism (credobaptism), a person who has come to recognize their need for God, repented, and received Jesus as Lord and Savior is baptized as an outward sign of that inward change.

I’ve experienced both. I was baptized as a child. But at age 23, I came to see that I’d been living with one foot in the kingdom of God and the other foot stuck out whenever it suited me. In reality, I was living outside of God’s will for my life. So I surrendered. I told the Lord I would follow Him with all that I was, and I meant everything.

Not immediately, but some time after that, I felt a prompting to be baptized by full immersion at my local church. And I obeyed.

That was 43 years ago. I’m still not sure I can fully describe what happened when I surrendered my life to Jesus. The Holy Spirit entered in a way I had never given Him control before. What I do know is this: baptism was a step of obedience I was called to take, and it was a step of obedience Jesus Himself took.

With the Holy Spirit and fire

John told the crowds what Jesus would come to do:

“I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Luke 3:16)

Half of that verse always grabs me: fire. Fire cleanses and purifies, burning away what doesn’t belong. Luke goes on to describe the chaff being burned (Luke 3:17).

The other half, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, is something I have experienced personally. I know that’s somewhat controversial in some circles. For me it has meant the Spirit’s empowerment to lead and direct me as I’ve submitted my mind, my will, and even my tongue to the Lord.

There are times when I pray in languages I do not know. It’s still within my control whether I do so, but when I do, I don’t understand the words. I simply know God is moving and that He is praying through me. Paul wrote, “We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Rom. 8:26). When God pours His Spirit into us, He works in the spiritual realm in ways that have real impact in the natural one.

Different gifts, one Spirit

I want to be careful not to be misunderstood. Not everyone receives the same gifting. Paul said, “All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (1 Cor. 12:11). Not everyone will pray in other languages.

Some people carry a gift and calling for evangelism that I simply don’t have. I’ve tried! But as I understand it, my calling is to be first and foremost a man of prayer, and the gifting I’ve received lines up with that calling.

What is true for all of us is this: as God’s children, we are connected to Him by His Spirit. He equips us, prepares us, and gives us assignments, carried out through both the natural abilities He has given us and the supernatural gifts of His Spirit. Those gifts are part of the package of belonging to Him.

A question to consider

At the Jordan, Jesus chose obedience, and the heavens opened. So let me ask: What step of obedience is God calling you to take today, and are you willing to let His Spirit, and His fire, have full control?

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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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