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The Vinedresser’s Shears

Posted in Bible Study, God, God Stories, Holy Spirit, Holy Week, Jesus Christ, love, Priorities, purpose, Responsibility, Spiritual Growth, The Father, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

John 14-17

Few passages in Scripture are as intimate as these four chapters. Jesus is hours away from His arrest, a mock trial, and the cross. The men who have walked with Him for more than a thousand days, through Galilee and even into the Gentile regions around Israel, are gathered close, and He pours out His heart to them. He is preparing them, bridging the gap between His leaving and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is central to everything Jesus says here. He is the Paraclete, the Helper, the Advocate: God present with them when Jesus is no longer physically beside them. Jesus promises, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). Much of what Jesus taught still puzzled the disciples. The Spirit would make sense of it, and show them that God had not left them. He was doing the next grand thing in His plan of salvation, not for Israel alone, but for all of humanity.

There’s a lot to unpack about who the Holy Spirit is, but today I want to focus on one part: why Jesus calls us at all. We step into a life of faith through surrender. And then He calls us to bear fruit.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:1–2).

I’ve gardened most of my life, and I know the value of pruning. A grapevine grows up the back of our house and covers the pergola. After 13 years it is a glorious vine and produces abundantly every year. That’s partly because I climb my ladder and look for the right places to cut, so new branches can fill in and bear more fruit. This September we put up 113 jars of jelly, and we have just as much juice in the freezer, waiting for a long, lazy Saturday this winter. All of that from one vine, because it has been pruned, tended, and given what it needs.

That is exactly what the Lord wants to do with us. He prunes us so we can be more fruitful. He tends us. He gives us what we need.

And what do we need? Honestly, we think we know. Often we don’t know everything required to accomplish God’s purpose in the places He puts us. That’s the Lord’s knowing and the Lord’s doing. This is where surrender comes in, and where Romans 12:1–2 comes in: “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God… Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Our minds are renewed through the Word and by living out what Jesus taught His disciples, because we are His disciples too. We are still sitting at His feet.

I’m so thankful the Lord moved the Gospel writers and apostles to capture these words and pass them on to us. They are life-giving, truly eternal-life-giving. “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8).

So as you ponder Jesus’ words today, remember: you are here with a purpose. God will do His good work in you, even when the pruning feels painful. There is glorious fruit to be borne for the Lord, in ways that amaze, thrill, and fill us with His joy.

Where might the Vinedresser be pruning in your life right now, and what fruit could He be making room for?

Be blessed today, and be a blessing.

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Is It I, Lord? — A Ring of Remembrance

Posted in Bible Study, Bible Study, God, Holy Week, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Priorities, Responsibility, Salvation, Worship, tagged , , , , , on November 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Matthew 26; Mark 14

A shorter word today, written from the Centurion Club in Atlanta as I travel.

Both readings today take us to the Last Supper. Before we get there, a woman anoints Jesus, and He says, “She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial” (Mark 14:8). It’s amazing how many details God arranged to point to Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. Most of them the people around Him didn’t understand until afterward. The Passover lamb, first slain before Israel left Egypt, was coming to its true fulfillment. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Two takeaways stood out to me.

First: Lord, or Rabbi?

When Jesus says one of them will betray Him, eleven disciples ask, “Is it I, Lord?” (Matthew 26:22). Even before they fully understood, they gave Him the place of supremacy in their lives. The Holy Spirit would later open their eyes to all that meant.

But one asks differently. “Judas, who would betray him, answered, ‘Is it I, Rabbi?’” (Matthew 26:25). Teacher, not Lord. Judas had walked with Jesus for three years. He likely believed Jesus was special, even sent by God. Yet he had never surrendered to Him as Lord, as God in the flesh. At that moment, the silver was already in his pocket (Matthew 26:15). Scripture makes clear that financial gain mattered more to him than following the Messiah.

It reminds me of Jesus’ earlier warning: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

Second: A Ring of Remembrance

Jesus took the Passover meal and transformed it into the Lord’s Supper. Communion, the Eucharist, whatever we call it, He gave it with these words: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).

A good friend and I are building curriculum to help young men live as faithful believers. One idea we keep returning to is giving men touch points, reminders of who they are, so they don’t drift into sin when temptation is all around. My friend described his “ring of remembrance.” Whenever he heads out, he touches his wedding ring and remembers who he is: joined to his wife, the two become one flesh (Genesis 2:24).

The Lord’s Supper is that kind of remembrance. Each time we take it, we remember that we belong to Him, adopted into the family of God.

And yet Judas was at that table too. He took the bread and the cup without having given his life to the Lord. Our churches are full of people who acknowledge Jesus and the Christian way. But acknowledgement isn’t the same as relationship.

I learned at age 23 that a real relationship with the Lord was being offered to me. It takes complete surrender: believing in your heart, confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9), and turning from a life built on what I want to one that says, “Yes, Lord, whatever You want.”

So, two takeaways: a ring of remembrance, and Jesus as Lord.

When Jesus looks at you across the table, do you call Him Teacher, or do you call Him Lord? Have a blessed day, and be a blessing.

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Be Prepared, Be Ready, Be Filled, Be Active

Posted in Bible Study, Church, God, God Stories, Holy Spirit, Holy Week, Jesus Christ, Parables, Priorities, Responsibility, The Father, Vision, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , on November 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Matthew 25

Jesus is in His last week on earth in human form, and He is ratcheting up His teaching. Parable after parable, He drives home the key points of His whole ministry so they will resonate long after He’s gone.

Today I see being and doing.

When I first came to faith, one thing that helped me grasp this new life was understanding my identity. It was in Christ. I had been adopted into God’s family. Most of what I needed to do was simply live out that reality: be the child God created me to be and the man He called me to be. That weekend I gave my life to Christ, I realized that being comes before doing.

In today’s parables, Jesus gives us several things to be, and then one thing to do.

1. Be Prepared

In the parable of the ten virgins, five were wise and five were foolish. The difference was preparation: “the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps” (Matthew 25:4). They knew the bridegroom was coming but didn’t know when, so they prepared for the possibility that it might be a while. The foolish simply weren’t thinking ahead.

For us, preparation comes through reading the Word, through prayer, and through Christian fellowship. We prepare now for the doing that will come in time.

2. Be Ready

All ten virgins dozed off. But when the cry went out that the bridegroom had arrived, the five who brought extra oil were immediately ready. They leapt up, trimmed their lamps, and went in to the wedding feast.

Preparation makes readiness possible. When we are ready, the Lord will present opportunities, and we are to step into them. “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:13).

3. Be Filled

Oil in Scripture is frequently connected with the Holy Spirit. At this point in the story, Jesus has not yet been crucified, raised, or poured out the Spirit on the apostles, but that day is coming soon. To me, the oil represents being filled with the Holy Spirit.

We don’t talk about being Spirit-filled very often, but it is in fact the way to live the Christian life and the way God’s purposes are accomplished: being led by the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, and allowing Him to direct our words, our thoughts, and our actions (Ephesians 5:18).

4. Be Active

This last be is also the do. In the parable of the talents, the master entrusted his servants with money, a significant amount, even the single talent. He gave to each according to his ability, recognizing that those under him had different capacities. And he expected each of them to be active with what he’d been given.

The servants with five and two talents put them to work, doubled them, and were not only rewarded but praised: “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). The third servant dug a hole, buried his talent, and went off to who knows what. He was inactive with what the master gave him, and he was condemned, cast into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. He lost his place under the master because he did nothing with what he’d been given.

That should strike home for those of us in the affluent West. God has called us to be active with what He has given us, so that the kingdom advances, the gospel goes forth, and lives are transformed as people enter a relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The Progression

There is a real progression here. Prepared, ready, filled, active. It equips us and sends us out into the world to do what God has called us to do, what He saved us to do, what He purposed for us before the foundation of the world: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

And that is good news.

Which of the four is weakest in your life right now: prepared, ready, filled, or active? And what has God put in your hands that might still be buried in the ground?

Be blessed today, and serve someone well. In Jesus’ name.

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Be Thou My Vision

Posted in Bible Study, Bible Study, God, God Stories, Holy Spirit, Holy Week, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Prayers, Priorities, Responsibility, Trials, Vision, worldview, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Areliablefaith Devotional | Matthew 23, Luke 20–21, and Mark 13

I missed yesterday because of an early appointment. Since some of the same stories run through yesterday’s and today’s readings, I’m combining them into one post. The common thread is Jesus foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. But the title that keeps ringing in my mind is “Be Thou My Vision,” and to explain why, I have to begin with a little story.

Praying in the Dark

I was up very early this morning, wrestling with something unfair at work. I really wanted to debate it and argue it out. But I realized that probably wouldn’t accomplish what I wanted from a work standpoint, and it especially wouldn’t advance God’s kingdom. James says it plainly: “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).

So I walked around in the dark, praying. Because it was dark, I set my glasses down and never turned on a light. After about an hour, I came in here to do my devotion and suddenly thought, why can I not see very well?

Oh. I don’t have my glasses. Where did I put those glasses?

I had read through both days’ readings that way. It occurs to me that this is not a bad picture of how we often read these chapters.

Words Too Big to See All at Once

The disciples admired the temple, and Jesus told them, “There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down” (Mark 13:2). He had already told Jerusalem, “See, your house is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:38). In Luke he is even more specific: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near” (Luke 21:20).

I know this history. The revolt began in AD 66, and in AD 70 Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, just as Jesus said. His word was accurate. Yet the people struggled to understand it, and even today, with the words captured in Scripture, scholars debate them. Was this only about Jerusalem? Was it about some future destruction? When Jesus speaks of the Son of Man “coming in clouds with great power and glory” (Mark 13:26), is that imagery about the first century, or about the end of all time?

I believe the answer is that Jesus’ prophetic words can be both. A number of times, God speaks on more than one level. He gives us something that is true today and true tomorrow, and the two can be distinctly different things.

The One Who Gives the Light

The Holy Spirit, God with us and living inside believers, is the one who can prompt, nudge, and guide us and give us the illumination we need. Jesus promised that the Spirit “will guide you into all the truth” and “will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13).

God resides outside of time. That’s how prophetic words could come to Jesus, the God-man. It’s also how, on occasion, God speaks prophetically through believers for the edification of the body, the building up of the church (1 Corinthians 14:3). He is able to show us things that are beyond our natural ability to figure out.

An Engineer Learning to Lean

I’m an engineer. I love to solve problems, figure things out, and come up with solutions. Yet I have learned in my walk that Jesus really values my trust. He wants me leaning on him, and as of this morning, allowing him to give me the picture of what he wants me to do, what he wants me to pray, and what he is about, so I can trust him to bring it to fruition.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

One verse in these readings stopped me, given how my morning began. Jesus told his disciples, “Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom” (Luke 21:14–15). Mark records the same promise: “Say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit” (Mark 13:11).

Jesus was speaking to people who would stand before courts because of his name, and my situation is nothing like that. But I had spent the early morning preparing my arguments, and here was the Lord reminding me where the right words come from.

A Prayer of Relinquishment

So when I say “Be Thou My Vision,” it’s really a prayer of relinquishment. Lord, I don’t see the path through, but I know you have a way through. I don’t know the words I need to say, but I know you will give them to me at the right time.

Oh, Jesus, I love you. I thank you that when I don’t know, when I am in a place of frustration or even confusion, I can open my hands, lift them up to you, and say, here it is, Lord. Here it is, Lord. Please take this. Take this mess, this uncertainty, this confusion. I give it to you. I trust that you will do with it what needs to be done, and that you will show me what I need to do.

Sometimes that’s just to sit and be still. “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). So that’s what I’m going to do this morning. I love you, Lord.

For reflection: Where are you straining to see your way through on your own, and what would it look like to open your hands and ask Jesus to be your vision?

My friends, be blessed today and be a blessing.

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The Widow in the Wedding Garment

Posted in Bible Study, Church, giving, God, Holy Week, Jesus Christ, Orphans, Priorities, Responsibility, Salvation, The Father, Worship, tagged , , , , , on November 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Areliablefaith Devotional | Matthew 22 and Mark 12

The Teacher Who Asked Questions

Two things stand out to me about the way Jesus taught. The first is his consistent use of parables. If you took the time to sit with them, you began to see that he was describing a kingdom radically different from anything the scribes and Pharisees taught. It was just as different from the way the civil and military leaders of his day saw the world.

The second is his questions. Jesus frequently answered a question with a question, and by one common count he asked nearly twice as many as he was asked. His goal was to get people to think deeply, to ponder, and even to ask for help.

I believe asking for help in prayer is the starting place for so much discovery. When we stop running on “this is what I’ve always done, this is what I’ve always believed” and bring our questions to God, we’re liable to receive fresh insight that leads to greater understanding. James gives us this promise: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5).

The King’s Wedding Feast

Matthew 22 opens with a king throwing a wedding feast for his son. With the whole of Scripture in front of us, and with Paul’s description of the church as the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25–27), we can fill in many of the details. Those first invited point to Israel, and in that moment especially to the religious leaders standing in front of Jesus. They refused to come.

So the king sent his servants to the main roads to bring in everyone they could find, “both bad and good,” until “the wedding hall was filled with guests” (Matthew 22:10). Two thousand years later, the kingdom of God is still filling that hall from every corner of the earth.

Then comes the twist. The king finds a man without a wedding garment and asks, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” (Matthew 22:12). Even in the parable, the King asks a question, and the man has no answer.

I see in him the person who comes into church and enjoys the party but has never accepted the free gift the Master offers. Many scholars see the garment as the righteousness that only Christ can give. We surrender our own clothes and receive his. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Isaiah sang about that same exchange: “He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).

A Week of Failed Traps

Between that parable and the end of Mark 12 is a long back-and-forth between Jesus and the religious leaders. This is his final week in Jerusalem. It’s Passover, and the city is churning with crowds, many probably staying out in the surrounding countryside. The leaders gather around the temple, where Jesus is teaching, and they keep coming to him with questions designed to disprove him as the supposed Messiah.

They keep failing. Each attempt does the opposite of what they intended, revealing a man with a deep understanding of Scripture who flips their traps on their heads.

Two Small Coins

Then Jesus sits down across from the treasury and watches people give. Rich people put in large sums. A poor widow comes along and drops in two small copper coins, worth about a penny.

Jesus calls his disciples over and says she has put in more than all the others: “For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on” (Mark 12:44).

Only moments earlier, Jesus had warned about scribes who “devour widows’ houses” (Mark 12:40). Now he holds up a widow as the example worth noticing. Earlier in the same chapter, he said the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). He had just described that kind of “all,” and here it comes walking up to the offering box in worn clothes.

Her faith moved her to trust God, release what was in her hands, and live believing that somehow, some way, he would provide. Mark doesn’t tell us what happened after she walked away, but I trust the God she trusted.

Seated at the King’s Table

Somehow, I see a connection between the first story and the last. I can see this woman with the wedding garment on. As she drops in her coins, she is dirty, bowed down, and dressed in worn clothes. But I can also see her with a seat of honor in the King’s presence, beaming.

What God has for her is a great, great reward. He loves her heart. He loves her faith. James asks, “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom?” (James 2:5).

The man in the parable sat at the feast and didn’t belong. The widow walked past the people who seemed to belong, and Jesus noticed her. She was overlooked and destitute in this world, but rich in faith and rewarded by the God she loves.

A question to ponder: What are you still holding in your hands that God may be asking you to release, and what would it look like to ask him for help today?

Be blessed today and be a blessing. In Jesus’ name.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Grace for the Latecomers, Leaves Without Fruit

Posted in Bible Study, Bible Study, Church, God, Jesus Christ, Priorities, Responsibility, Spiritual Growth, The Father, Vision, Worship, tagged , , , , , on November 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Matthew 20–21

It’s amazing how Scripture keeps opening up, even passages I’ve read dozens of times. This morning, Matthew 20–21 struck me in a new way because of how the two chapters speak to each other.

Chapter 20 opens with a landowner who keeps going out all day to hire workers for his vineyard. At evening he pays everyone the same wage. Those hired at dawn got exactly what they agreed to. Those hired at the last hour got far more than they had earned. That is grace, and the landowner pictures God. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve.

What stands out is the reaction of the early workers. They grumble, convinced they deserve more than they were promised. The landowner answers directly: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” (Matthew 20:15, ESV).

Hold onto that as the reading moves into chapter 21. Jesus enters Jerusalem, cleanses the temple, and heals the blind and the lame. Children shout “Hosanna!” And the response of the chief priests and scribes is telling: “when [they] saw the wonderful things that he did… they were indignant” (Matthew 21:15, ESV).

Then comes the fig tree. Jesus finds it “with nothing on it but only leaves,” and it withers (Matthew 21:19, ESV). For years I didn’t know what to do with this passage, so I set it on the shelf. I think that’s a healthy practice. When a passage doesn’t square with what you know of Jesus, don’t force an interpretation. Keep reading, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you, and let understanding come in time.

Today it came through clearly. The fig tree pictures the religious leaders of Israel. They had the leaves: visible religion, position, and power. But they had no fruit. They had replaced true, faithful worship and seeking of God with a man-made system they were very confident in. Jesus says it plainly a few verses later: “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits” (Matthew 21:43, ESV).

This wasn’t the end of Israel’s story. God’s promises to His chosen people still stand, and Revelation shows them with an important role. But their whole calling was that the Messiah would come through them, and that the kingdom would spread through the gospel, through love and faithfulness and knowing Him, not by force. The leaders missed it. The Messiah was standing in front of them, and they were indignant.

That temptation is not only theirs. Every person is made with what’s been called a God-shaped void. We try to fill it with religion of our own making, or we give up and insist there is no God at all. Nothing fits that space except Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. He truly lived, died, and rose again, proving He is the Son of God who brought the kingdom near.

So here is the contrast in today’s reading. On one side are the undeserving latecomers, welcomed by grace. On the other are those certain they deserved the kingdom, full of leaves and empty of fruit. “So the last will be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16, ESV).

A question to consider: When God is generous to someone else, do I rejoice, or do I quietly feel I deserved more? And is my faith producing fruit, or just leaves?

Be blessed and be a blessing.

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

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

Luke 18

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

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

Where I Started

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

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

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

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

Holding Loosely, Stewarding Well

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two Men at the Temple

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

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

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

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

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

A Warning for the Long-Time Follower

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

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

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

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

For Reflection

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

Be blessed today, and be a blessing to someone.

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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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Forgiving from the Heart: Life in the Upside-Down Kingdom

Posted in Bible Study, Church, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Prayers, Priorities, Responsibility, Spiritual Growth, Trials, worldview, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Matthew 18

Matthew 18 brings Jesus’ upside-down kingdom close to home. It’s a kingdom radically different from the world system we live in, and humility is one of its hallmarks.

The chapter opens with the disciples trying to figure out who is the greatest. Jesus answers by calling a little child to stand among them: “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3, ESV). My pride, my competence, my long list of qualifications don’t count for much in God’s kingdom. What matters is humility, recognizing God, and placing Him and others first. Jesus will show us this Himself when He, God in the flesh, humbles Himself and goes to the cross (Philippians 2:5–8).

Then He gives another picture of the upside-down kingdom. A shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to search for one lost sheep (Matthew 18:12–14). Common sense says you protect what you’ve got. You don’t put the whole flock at risk for one lamb. Yet that’s exactly what Jesus describes. In His kingdom, each individual matters so much that the risk is worth taking.

And then we get to forgiveness. Oh boy.

I’m in the middle of a situation where someone mistreated a family member and has refused every attempt to reconcile. I’ll admit it: this one is very hard for me.

But when I read the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:21–35), I see how much I’ve been forgiven. For years I lived with one foot in the kingdom. I was in the church, but I held back part of my life from surrender. When Jesus forgave me and offered me life in Him, He forgave all of my sin. That included the sins I had already committed and the sins He knew I would commit in the future.

Now He calls me to be an agent of that forgiveness. When I extend it to others, they might catch a glimpse of the kingdom, and at the very least, I won’t be a hindrance to their turning. The process Jesus lays out in verses 15–17 shows the one who sinned against us what God’s forgiveness can look like. Our forgiveness is meant to mirror what God has already done for us and what He wants to do for the other person (Ephesians 4:32).

At the end of the chapter, Jesus says we are to forgive our brother “from your heart” (Matthew 18:35). In that culture, the heart was the center of a person’s being: mind, will, and the essence of who they are. So forgiveness can’t be only an intellectual decision. It includes that, but it goes all the way to the core of who we are. Because we are a forgiven people, we can be a forgiving people who extend God’s grace even when it isn’t deserved. When we do, the Holy Spirit is free to do the work only He can do in reaching that person’s heart.

I’ll be honest that part of my struggle is follow-through. The Lord has led me to do this before, and I’ve seen some pretty special results. Something else happens when we release an offense with our whole heart. God takes our hearts and our lives and shapes us more and more into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

Paul says, “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). But that mind isn’t something we fully possess the moment we come to faith. We can spend our entire earthly lives pursuing it with faithfulness and steadfastness, and it will still stretch out ahead of us. It’s the love and faithfulness Jesus showed as He rode into Jerusalem, knowing He would be maligned, falsely accused, falsely judged, and crucified.

Being shaped into that likeness is a process of deciding, over and over and over, that I am going to forgive. Each time, God changes my heart a little more. Forgiving from the heart opens the way for the Holy Spirit to change our own hearts. I suppose that’s what being a child of God is all about.

Question to consider: Is there someone you’ve forgiven in your mind but not yet from your heart? What would it look like to release them fully to God today?

Be blessed today, and be a blessing.

GroupMe version

Matthew 18 shows us Jesus’ upside-down kingdom. The disciples argue over who’s greatest, and Jesus points to a child. In His kingdom, humility counts for more than our pride and qualifications. A shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep to find one, because every person matters that much to God.

Then comes forgiveness, and that one’s hard for me right now. I’m dealing with someone who mistreated a family member and won’t reconcile. But the parable of the unforgiving servant reminds me how much I’ve been forgiven: every sin, past and future. I’m called to extend that same grace.

Jesus says to forgive “from your heart” (v. 35). That means my whole being, not just a decision in my head. When I do that, the Holy Spirit can work in the other person, and He keeps shaping my heart into the image of Christ too. It’s a choice I make over and over.

Is there someone you need to forgive from the heart today? Be blessed, and be a blessing.

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