EverydayDevotions.com

Click here to read Ezra 6 on BibleGateway.com

It seems that Hollywood never runs out of love for the personification motif. For those of you that are getting ready to look up the definition of “personification,” let me save you the trouble. Notice how many movies in the last decade revolve around something made of plastic or metal coming to life: toys, cars, computers, radios, and on and on. For a little realism, I’d like to see someone make a movie about the life of keys after dark; there’s no other explanation for how my car keys can begin the night on the hall table when I place them, and end the night in the nether regions of the couch. I understand that all creatures great and small have the need to explore, but I don’t think scaling Mt Davenport is going to inspire anyone, so Mr. Keys should just stay in his little cubby instead of invoking his little key-pixie wanderlust.

FETCH ME MY ROYAL PAPERS

Rest assured, fellow Bible trekker, that wandering inanimate objects did not start with the era of moving pictures. For as long as people have been making stuff, stuff has been wedging itself into cushions, falling behind appliances, and traversing the digestive tracts of family pets. In Ezra 6, we see King Darius trying to locate a decree of his predecessor, King Cyrus. He naturally looks in the royal archives in the capital, but alas, ye olde paper gnome has stolen the paper. It eventually turns up in Ecbatana, the summer home of the kings. Always in the last place you look.

Moreover, this is no ordinary decree. Cyrus had granted the Israelites the opportunity to rebuild their temple, an opportunity that was going unfulfilled due to (among other things) the ongoing harassment of the Israelites’ neighbors. This misplaced little note proved that the Jews not only had the right to rebuild their temple, but that anyone that interfered was to be impaled on one of the supporting walls of his own home. Gotta love the warm fuzzies of those crazy Persians.

ONE MAN’S TRASH

Notice how this document, so vitally important to one group of persons, was so forgettable by the issuing king that he left it at his beach house with his royal speedos. Often times, we don’t realize how the little things in our lives can be essential to the lives of others. That extra dollar you left as a tip at Bob’s House o’ Chicken Wings? Maybe that was enough for the waitress to pay for a doctor visit for her sick baby. That extra second you took to allow Old Lady McCreary to cross the street in front of you? Maybe that saved her life. That little “thank you” may be just what the ticket agent at the airport needed to hear that day. Opening the door for that man at the grocery store may be just what saves his back from needing another surgery.

The Bible makes clear again and again how the most insignificant events can change fate in ways we can’t begin to imagine. What will you do today to change the world?

Click here to read Psalm 114-115  on BibleGateway.com

There are a few phrases that fill every man with dread: “Sorry, sir, we are all out of hot wings”; “Honey, can you hold my purse for a moment while I run into this store in the mall?”; “I think we need to talk.” But all these pale in comparison to the icy stare of a significant other and the sentence of doom: “If you don’t know what’s wrong, I’m not telling you.”

THE GREAT MENTALO 

For you ladies out there, let me just clarify something. Men are not telepathic, nor are they good are reading body language. In fact, they’re not even that smart. The idea that somehow a man may know what you are thinking by using “common sense” is ludicrous, primarily because men don’t even they are supposed to be trying to figure out what you’re thinking in the first place. It’s not that they are lagging behind, it’s that they haven’t even turned the engine on yet. By the time you’re angry enough to punch a hole in the space time continuum, a man may have just noticed that you are not your usual perky self, which he will probably attribute to either your need for more football or a visit from your “friend.” The more reckless among manhood may actually suggest one of these alternatives, after which he will spend the greater part of his afternoon struggling to regain consciousness.

For you men, be of good cheer. God is not a woman. You don’t have to struggle to try to figure out what God values, nor to figure out what you should do. It does take some effort, as you have to actually read the Bible, but if you can muster enough energy to do that, you’re pretty much golden. Here, let’s look at an example.

WHAT IS IT YOU REQUIRE? 

Amos 5 lays out some of the most important things to God: Seek good, not evil; hate evil,love good, maintain justice in the courts; seek the Lord and live. It’s actually pretty easy. God doesn’t necessarily want our sacrifices, he doesn’t need our money, he doesn’t look to make sure we are following all the commandments and check off the ones we screw up each day.

Seek God, hate evil, maintain justice. Those other things will flow out of our love of God and our desire to do what’s right. It seems to me that we often get these ideas turned around. We try to do the right thing, and then God will come looking for us. But the Bible says our goal should be to seek God, to love our Creator and Lord. All the external stuff will follow naturally.

All that and no guess work. Not too shabby.

Oh, and if you menfolk are still wondering about “that other thing”: get some flowers, make dinner, and break out the foot massage. Don’t say I never did nothing for ya.

Click here to read Psalm 114-115  on BibleGateway.com

Admit it, you think sarcasm is funny.  We try to hide behind our serious grown-up facades, but underneath our pretenses, we still have to stifle a laugh.  But then we have all the good ole guilt.  After all, if it’s that funny, it must be a sin of some sort. Take heart, good friends; here at Everyday Devotions we consider one of our primary reasons for existence is to point out all the times the Bible uses sarcasm. And if the Bible thinks it’s funny, it must be ok.

Psalm 114:5-6 includes these little gems:

Why was it, sea, that you fled?
Why, Jordan, did you turn back?
Why, mountains, did you leap like rams,
you hills, like lambs?

LET’S TRY THAT AGAIN

Typically, reading translated poetry is pretty pointless; you lose the rhythm and meter, lose any wordplay, rhyming, or structural awesomeness. Therefore, we must read these lines, as best we can, as the early readers may have.  Ahem:

In your face, sea.
How do you like it now, Jordan?
And as for you mountains – don’t let the door hitcha on the way out.

The Psalmist is taunting the seemingly unassailable power of nature: the sea is impassable? God builds a 6 lane highway in one night; the river is flooding? No problem, we’ll just hold it back with my divine rubber band; the mountains are in your way? Here, let me flatten the hills and straighten the curves for you. God’s power is so much greater than what we see, that it brings out the inner 2-year old in the Psalmist. You can almost see him sticking his tongue out and dipping the mountains’ pigtails in the inkwell.

YOUR MOM GOES TO COLLEGE 

It’s almost as if the Bible is reminding us of how silly our worries are. What about my debt? God has cattle on a thousand hills. What if something happens to my family? God is our father. What if the “wrong” person wins the next election? God says He is the King. All of our worries fade when we remember the ease with which God pushed aside the ocean and held back the river. It’s almost laughingly obvious.

So the next time a worry sneaks up on you, don’t just pull out the tried and true “Get thee behind me, Satan.” Break out your own inner sarcastic child:

I know you are but what am I, medical diagnosis.
Nice try, surprise bill.
Like I’m really scared, employment status.

See how fun this is?

Click here to read 2nd Samuel 1  on BibleGateway.com

Let’s say, hypothetically, that you are reading your Kindle tomorrow, and in the process of turning the page, a modern genie pops out of the screen and offers you three wishes (see what I did there? Updating a common story with a modern flair. That’s what the great writers do. Or so I hear.) What would your wishes be? Making money hand over fist? That didn’t work out too well for ole Midas. How about finally marrying the love of your life? Romeo and Juliet seem to nix that one. How about supreme rule over the earth? Seems that Julius Caesar tried that one, and got a pointy reminder about jealous friends. What does that leave us? An ice-cold Mountain Dew and the NFL on three nights a week. I guess I’ll go with that one, despite the caloric consequences and the pain of watching a particular un-named team’s annual dance of futility.

ONE BILLION DOLLARS…

All of these wishes/stories have the same general theme: be careful what you wish for, you may not like the results. This is not a new idea; examples of people receiving the consequences of their desires are piled throughout the Bible. Some of these are well-known, such as Solomon and Samson, and others less so. One of the more ironic appears in today’s reading in 2nd Samuel 1.

We read at the end of 1st Samuel (recall that these were originally one book, so it’s cool if we read them as one continuous story) that Saul and his sons were killed in battle with the Philistines; specifically that Saul committed suicide after being wounded to avoid becoming a prisoner of war. However, at the beginning of 2nd Samuel, an unnamed Amalekite comes to David and declares that he killed Saul, and has the crown of Israel to prove it.

What was this man’s motivation? It appears that he perhaps came across Saul’s body on the battlefield, took the crown, and took it David. Why? Apparently, he believed that David, who was typically the target of Saul’s wrath, would be grateful to this Amalekite for killing Saul and clearing his way to the throne. The Amalekite may have even thought he’d be richly rewarded for this “brave” act.

WHOOPS 

David’s reaction must have come as quite shock. Rather than celebrating, he is plunged into deep mourning. Moreover, rather than rewarding the Amalekite, David has him executed for attacking the king. Let’s not forget that David had had numerous occasions in the past to kill Saul himself if that’s what he wanted, but he believed that it was God’s place to remove the leader, not man’s. Ironically, the lie this man told in order to advance himself ended up costing him his life.

God has the best plan for our lives; when we try to take control, especially at the cost of honoring those in authority over us or when our actions go against the Bible, things have a way of unraveling pretty quickly. To receive all that God has for us, we must be careful to stay within his guidelines rather that doing what we think might be best at the moment. As a wise man once said, even the very wise cannot see all ends. Only God can do that.

Though if you ever get a chance with that genie, I give you permission to ask for a money tree in my backyard to support EverydayDevotions. I’m sure that’s God’s will. Right?

Click here to read Psalm 7-8  on BibleGateway.com

The question has been posed several times to us here at EverydayDevotions: what does it take to be a devotional writer? You’ll notice that the questioner leaves off such unimportant adjectives as “successful”, “insightful”, or “accurate.” We’d be tempted to read more into that, but sometimes if you know what’s at the bottom of the cone, you don’t need to eat all the ice cream.

In any case, the most essential ingredient for any devotional writer is deep felt conviction; or to use a more common term, arrogance. That’s right, my friends, behind every devotional you see in the Bible Book Store or read online (or “like” on facebook, hint hint) you will find a man or woman with the assumption that they have found something in scripture that has eluded the general population of goobers that go to NASCAR events and keep Kmart in business. Not only that, it has eluded the church as a whole for the last 2000 years.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT 

Well, let it not be said that we at EverydayDevotions don’t follow the trend. Today we’re going to be looking at a passage of scripture that has been pored over by PhDs for years, and yet we will claim to find something new. Why, you ask? The answer is simple:…if I think of what it is, I’ll let you know.

Psalm 7:14, according to the NIV, says “Whoever is pregnant with evil conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.” If you’re a KJV fan, you get “Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.” The NLT says “The wicked conceive evil; they are pregnant with trouble and give birth to lies.” There’s a host of other translations, of course, but you get the idea. Why so many versions of one verse? Well, fun fact of the day, one of the hardest things to translate into another language is wordplay, such as puns, metaphors, alliteration, ect. The Psalms, consisting primarily of poetry, are ripe with these types of translation landmines.

So let’s look at one of these words, specifically the one that is translated “travaileth/conceive/pregnant.” The original word here is “chabal”, which is sometimes translated as bind, such as tightening a cord or twisting to bind something. So, if we go with that meaning, then the verse could be translated: “sinners are tied up in sin; what they conceive as mischief eventually is born as deception and lies.”

“THE PATH YOU HAVE SET UPON CAN ONLY END IN DEATH” 

It’s interesting that people who are not living by God’s plan can see some actions as simple mischief, but in the end they wind up twisted up and bound by their own lies. The Bible is clear in other passages that sin is pleasurable for a season, but it ends in death. It seems to me that this verse is reiterating that same concept in poetic form.  There’s no such thing as “innocent” sin.

How does this apply to us? The time to decide how far you’re going to go with your date is not when the windows are all fogged up; by then, you’re already tangled pretty tight in those cords. The time to decide how much you’re gonna drink is not when you’re on the 3rd round at the pub. The time to decide if you’re gonna do that shady business deal is not when you’re in the closed boardroom; it’s when you first see the prospectus. God warns us time and again that walking too close to the edge is not “exciting,” it’s foolhardy and dangerous, and once the cords are tight, it’s very hard to struggle free. Decide now how you intend to live; before the knots are tied.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Click here to read Jeremiah 34  on BibleGateway.com

Sometimes when you think things can’t get any worse, somebody throws another nail under your tire. This wonderfully uplighting principle is often called “Murphy’s Law,” which basically says “just because you think you’re a pessimist, doesn’t mean life can’t still come up with more things wrong than you can think of.” For example, it is inevitable that right when the Superbowl is on, the power will go out. And you’ll be in a basement with no windows. And all the flashlights will have dead batteries in them. And you’ll inevitably miss the first step running upstairs, faceplanting on the remaining steps in a fall cushioned only by the plate of nachos that you were carrying. And when you finally make it outside, you’ll see that there is one ray of light, coming from your burning roof.

Take heart, my friends. Murphy’s law is nothing new; even in the Bible we see how things go from bad to worse quite often. Let’s take a peek at poor Zedekiah today. Zedekiah was a king of Judah during the fun time of Judah’s history called Babylon-kicks-everybody-around-and-takes-all-their-stuff BC. So, Zedekiah, being the semi-righteous man he is, begs God to come and save his city, Jerusalem. Day after day, there’s no word from God, and the armies of Babylon are getting mighty close.

IS THERE ANYONE ELSE UP THERE I CAN TALK TO?

Finally, Zedekiah sees his ray of hope; Jeremiah the prophet steps on the scene. Finally, God has answered Zedekiah, and Jeremiah’s coming to tell him the details on how God is going to miraculously save his people yet again. Jeremiah tells him “yep, I have a word from God. Here it is: This is what theLord says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. You will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and given into his hands.”

Can you imagine poor Zedekiah? Finally, after all his waiting for a Word from God, God looks him in the eye and says “you think it’s bad now? Just wait a couple hours.” How tough would it be to hear “yes, I have heard your prayer about getting you that promotion; instead, you’re going to be fired and unemployed for the next year.” Why would God do such a thing? Doesn’t he care?

THE SILVERISH LINING

In Zedekiah’s case, God did care for him. Though Jerusalem would be destroyed, “Yet hear the Lord’s promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the Lord says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; you will die peacefully.” Judah had long forfeited its right to God’s divine protection, and nothing was going to change the fact that they would now reap the consequences of their actions. However, in the midst of the suffering, God remembered his servant.

This is often how God works in our lives. Sometimes we just can’t understand why God is allowing us to suffer like this. In some cases, unfortunately, it’s not because God is teaching us a lesson, but because we have to reap the consequences of our own decisions. But even in the midst of that, God still finds a way to show His love for us. Maybe we won’t see it till after the storm has passed and we’re sitting in captivity somewhere, but God is always working. He never forgets.

Even when the new guy at work drops a steel girder on the new truck you just bought yesterday. And haven’t had time to get insured yet.

Click here to read Judges 19  on BibleGateway.com

A word of warning to those of you who are regular readers of EverydayDevotions – typically we find a lot of humor in the Bible in these devotions, but every so often we come across certain passages of scripture that offer very little in the way of humor. This is one of those days.

In Judges 19, we read the story of a Levite and his concubine. There has been much discussion about this story regarding the relationship of the Bible to the issue of homosexuality in our modern setting. For most people, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is the big condemnation in scripture; but this story is just as powerful, and possibly moreso, since it concerns almost all Israelites, God’s chosen people who were supposed to be a shining light of his goodness.

THE DOWNWARD SLIDE 

In any case, while we could spend some time examining the sexual orientation angle, let’s look instead at the so-called protagonist of this story, the Levite. The first thing we notice about this man is that he is in a remote area; this was not one of the up and comers in the temple, but a simple everyday Joe living in the boonies.

Next, notice that he had a concubine. A concubine in the Old Testament setting was neither wife nor prostitute, but somewhere inbetween. They were members of the household, so they were more than just sexual partners, but they do not have the full rights of a wife, especially regarding inheritance. It would appear that they were basically women who did not have enough standing or looks or property to get married, but found a man that wanted an extra female around. It should strike us odd that a Levite, one of the priests of the nation, should have this sort of relationship.

The woman leaves this man and returns home, where he subsequently follows her to get her back. On the way home, they stay in a stranger’s home (very common in the Ancient Near East). Notice again how the author of Judges draws attention to the fact that this city he stayed in were composed of Israelites, not “sinful” foreigners.

In the course of the night, this “godly” priest sends his near-wife out to take his place with a town full of strange men, who essentially rape her to death. Shockingly, when he arises in the morning, he steps over her and calls her to get up and proceed on their way. It’s hard to imagine this heartlessness, especially from an Levite.

THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD 

I’ll leave the gruesome details for you to read on your own, but I think we need to take a good look at this passage, and a good look at ourselves. This Levite probably saw himself as the spiritual leader of his town, the pastor or priest of his day. Yet one compromise, taking a concubine, sends his life and the life of the nation at large into an alarming spiral.

We often think that because we are “forgiven” or under “grace,” that the problems of sin don’t apply to us like they apply to all those sinners out there. We can easily grow complacent in our walk with the Lord, and make little compromises like watching that movie, reading that book, or dating that person. This story should be a sobering reminder to us of the devastation we can cause to ourselves and others when we begin to think that we are beyond such earthly temptations. The Bible is clear that Pride leads to great suffering, and sometimes we can even become prideful of our salvation. We think that since we are God’s special one, that we can get away with little sins and nothing bad will happen.

We need to pray that God will keep our eyes open to the temptations around us and our hearts clearly tuned to his will. Nothing else will keep us from falling.

Click here to read Psalm 1+2  on BibleGateway.com

Every so many moons, Americans get the extreme privilege of choosing between two millionaires chosen for their looks and voices by hooded secret societies. In the run-up to this exercise of free choice, we are treated to six months of commercials telling us why option A’s .0003% tax increase is the fifth horse of the apocalypse, and option B’s fuel emission standards will send us all back to riding mules. I think I can speak for everyone when I say the real joy of the electoral process is the day after, knowing that we get at least a 12 month break from political ads.

EVERYONE SAY “AYE” 

Judging by the media attention, it would seem that the fate of the planet hinges on exactly how many chads are hanging here and there. Yet what does one candidate actually bring to the table? Is there real power there? There’s an old story of a king that was out walking along a beach with some of his sycophants…i mean servants. They were praising him as suckups tend to do, telling him of his great power and authority. The king turned to the most boisterous of his flatterers and said “do you really think my power is absolute?” The man replied, “Oh yes, Your Majesty, there is no power on earth to rival yours.” The King turned his face to the sea and said, “very well, if I command this tide to stop coming in, you believe it will stop?”

This king showed considerable wisdom. While temporal power is all well and good, all the power in the world is not enough to slow the tide on iota, nor add one more minute to the day. The psalmist writes with amusement in Psalm 2, saying “The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and…The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.” It seems God is in the same position as the restaurant patron watching lobsters pushing and climbing on top of each other in a vain attempt to reach the top of the tank. A simple push sends them all crashing back to the bottom.

VOTE EARLY AND VOTE OFTEN

Lest it be misunderstood, voting is an important part of our American life, and everyone should avail themselves of the opportunity. However, we should always keep in mind that the fate of the world does not rest in the seat of government, but in the throne of the Most High. The Bible says in Philippians that our citizenship is in heaven; our ultimate allegiance belongs to an Eternal King, not a temporal ruler.  Our fate and the fate of the world is already under God’s control; there’s no need to get panicky if our favorite candidate doesn’t make the cut.

That should help put your mind at ease while you wait for the potato chip commercials to reclaim the airwaves. How sweet it will be.

Click here to read Mark 16 on BibleGateway.com

Have you ever said something you didn’t really mean? Like “I’m never going to eat a whole cheesecake by myself again,” “I’ve learned my lesson, Officer, I’ll never speed again,” or “I can’t believe I wasted my money on that; I’m never going to store without a shopping list again.” It seems we are very quick on the draw with our mouths, but a little less contemplative with our meaning. Take heart, my fellow blabber mouths, we are not alone. No less a person than the great Peter blazed a wide trail for us.

Everybody knows the story about how Peter denied Jesus 3 times, possibly because he was terrified of a 9 year-old serving girl. The ye ole rooster crows, and Peter goes out and cries himself to sleep. Later on, Peter is all over the book of Acts, including the big Pentecost speech in Acts 2. But the time inbetween there is a little fuzzy; what happened to Peter between cowering before Hannah Montana and standing up to the Jewish leadership?

…AND PETER

Mark 16 gives us one small incident from this time, and I think it reveals more of Jesus’ nature than it might appear at first glance. When the Mary’s show up at Jesus’ tomb, the angel tells them “He is not here; He is risen…go tell his disciples and Peter.” And Peter. Notice that Peter is not included in the disciples anymore. Just because Jesus rose from the dead, Peter doesn’t get to just ignore what happened.

Often times, when we screw up, we just want to forget about it. Remember what I said when I was mad, jesus? I didn’t mean it. Remember when I told that joke? I was just trying to fit in, but that’ not really who I am. Remember when I watched that? That was just an accident, let’s just forget it. Unfortunately, the nature of sin is such that we can’t just “ignore” it. It must be addressed, and Jesus does not just forget about our failures because he loves us.

FEED MY SHEEP 

Don’t worry, though, there’s good news. In John 21, there’s a story of how Jesus officially reinstates Peter as a disciple, bringing him back into the disciple fold in a fairly moving scene (go read it, people.) Jesus had not forgotten what Peter had done, but his love was greater than his memory. Peter became a disciple again, and his whole life from that point on was dedicated to serving Jesus. As far as we know, he never wavered again, taking his dedication to his own cross.

That’s good news for us. We all screw up; if you haven’t yet this week, I’ll go out on a limb and guarantee you will before this time next week. But take heart, Jesus is ready to welcome us back. Not because he forgets, but because he loves us more than he remembers our failures.

Love keeps no record of wrongs.

Click here to read Jeremiah 29 on BibleGateway.com

One of the trickier aspects of the Christian life is the relationship of modern prophets to our everyday walk with the Lord. In the Bible, prophets seem to pop up fairly frequently, and the true believers know them and follow them. But in our time, it seems often difficult to tell the phonies from the realies. Especially when so many people that claim to have received a divine mandate to take up the mantle of prophet are…um…unique.

If only there was a way to weed out the pretenders. In the book of Jeremiah, we read “you should put any maniac who acts like a prophet into the stocks and neck-irons.” That’s an idea. Maybe there’d be a few less self-appointed prophets around if they knew that all the maniacs would be put in stocks and neck irons; I know i’ve been around a few churches that could have benefitted from a stock or two.

This isn’t to diminish the role of the true prophet; by following a few simple rules, we could eliminate a few of the glory hounds, and open the airways for authentic messages from God to his people.

Number One: Beware the Joyful Judge

Abraham Lincoln once said “the problem with brutally honest people is that they often enjoy the brutality as much as the honesty.” Most of the prophets in the Bible, particularly Jeremiah and Ezekiel, did not relish their jobs as much as many modern “prophets” do. The true prophets seem to genuinely beg God to pick somebody else. If someone has “Prophet” on their business card or facebook profile, or if they have “PrFit” on their license plates, let the buyer beware.

Number Two: Check the Facts

According to Jeremiah 28:9, true prophets always predict accurately (in the rare instances when they actually predict the future; a fairly small percentage of prophecies in the Bible are forecasts.) If your local Prophet o’ the Day is not consistently proven correct, time to move along.

Number Three: Watch Out for Innovation

Isaiah 8:20 says “they speak not according to this word, because [there is] no light in them.” If a prophet suddenly starts with a new teaching or a new vision that goes against the Bible, make sure you keep a firm hand on your loved ones. This is usually the making of a cult, not a divine messenger.

Number Four: Stay on Target

True Godly prophecy always has as its aim to glorify God and edify others. If a prophet proclaims things such as “Thus the Lord says, listen to this man, for he is awesome” or “All of the people in this church are blind stumbling sheep except myself,” you might want to take their words with a grain of salt the size of a volkswagon.

While it may be true that the majority of our local prophets have…um….difficulties, we shouldn’t throw out the little prophet baby with the bath water. God is clear in his Word that prophets are a gift to communicate to His people. We just need to ensure that is God speaking, and not the author of today’s entry in Chicken Soup for the Prophet’s Soul.

Speak Lord, for your servants are listening.

Click here to read Judges 15 on BibleGateway.com

Every since I was a kid, I’ve heard horror stories about the damage television does to young, impressionable minds. “Don’t watch too much TV, you’ll turn into a drooling zombie…really, does anyone need more than 3 channels?…is your butt glued to that couch?…your muscles are atrophied into pudding…etc etc.” Yet, I never heard complaints about the one thing I believe is more damaging than any other (now that I’m all growed up): the discrepancy between television and reality.

On television and movies, if a man (particularly a man with exceptionally good martial arts skills and exceptionally bad acting ability) feels wronged in any way, he takes vengeance on those who have dared to trespass on his personal space. He always has the better plan, the quicker fists, the bigger muscles, or whatever. And then the movie ends. Finite. Over.

AND THE GIFT GOES ON

However, in real life, it never ends. There is no point where the “bad guys” say “ok, you win.” In real life, nobody thinks of themselves as a bad guy; everybody is the hero. As a result, everyone always has to get vengeance for whatever junk has happened to them. Everyone wants the last word, everyone wants the ace in the hole. The truth is, in real life, no one has a better plan. No one has the answers, everybody loses in the end. Example? Your wish is my command.

In today’s chapter, we get to see the result of a man trying to outdo his opposition. One of the more tragic figures of the Bible, Samson, is off romping around and decides to go visit his wife (wonder why he’s off romping and his wife is elsewhere? That’s for another day.) He goes to her house, where Samson finds out that her father – unsurprisingly assuming that Samson is probably not coming back – has married her off to Samson’s best man. Samson’s response: “Now I have the right to get even.” (note: nobody ever has a “right” to vengeance. That’s God’s prerogative.)

AND SO IT BEGINS

So Samson burns down a few Philistine fields (the original foxfire, for you pilots out there). But it doesn’t end there. Now the Philistines have the “right” to get even, so they go and burn Samson’s wife and her father alive.

Samson’s turn: he “attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them.” Now the Philistines return to the attack, this time possibly putting the rest of the israelites in the crosshairs. On and on it goes, until ultimately Samson is captured and blinded. If only Samson had let it go to start out with. Or better yet, if he had been a better husband, or not even married a girl against his parents’ wishes. Notice how his whole life snowballs because of his “rights.”

This is the real danger of television/movies. We believe that somehow we’ll get the last word, and it’ll be over. Look at some of the nations that have been fighting for hundreds of years around the world. Why? Because somebody had their “rights” violated. When we become Christ followers, we give up our rights. He is our Lord, and that means he takes vengeance when needed; that is out of our hands. Does Christ do this because he’s a powermad dictator? No, he does it to protect us from the consequences of our own stupidity. He does it for Love.

That’s the real Reality.

Click here to read Ezra 10 on BibleGateway.com

I’ve always kind of been fascinated by the whole monk thing. On the surface, it looks so good: no temptations of the world, peaceful life, basic labor for work, and spending most of your time with God. Hard to find anything wrong with that idea (except for the whole singleness thing, of course; I need me some smooches from the wifey-poo). I can see why that sort of life might be kind of enjoyable.

SPREADING THE LOVE

Yet, reading through the Bible, it seems that this may be the exact opposite of what God intended for his people. Take a look at Joshua 14 from today’s reading. Notice that the tribe of Levi (the priest tribe) was given no land of their own, but they received towns scattered throughout the rest of the tribes, along with some needed pastureland for their sheeps and goatsies.

This seems like a bit of smack in the loincloth for the Levites, but if we think about it, it makes a kind of spiritual sense. God did not want the spiritual backbone of the nation to hide away in one area. There is too much of a danger that they would stay in their own “holy” region, and forget about the rest of the people. On the contrary, they were spread out among all the tribes, so that no person would ever be far from a spiritual figure to teach them God’s ways.

“BEWARE, THE PEASANTS ARE ON THE MARCH…”

This is the opposite of the monk mentality. Monasteries are designed to keep the righteous people in and the evil people out, so that they won’t disturb the people serving God inside. But the Bible indicates that serving others is a large part of serving God; we can’t serve God in isolation.

Yes, it’s hard. Yes, people are jerks. Yes, it’d be simpler to hide away behind our church walls, hanging out with people who believe the same, act the same, talk the same, dress the same, and raise their kids the same as we do. Yet God has called us to live a messy life. Hard to imagine that Jesus left the perfection of heaven to live among unwashed fishermen, but that’s the example he sets for us.

Today, look outside the walls of your cloister/church/circle of friends, and ask God to show you how to be more like the Levites, and a little less monky. (hee hee. Monkey. Sweet.)

Click here to read Ezra 10 on BibleGateway.com

You know, there’s an easy solution to the obesity epidemic in America; real-time updates. For those of you behind the technology curve, you may not be aware that you can now send the whole world updates on exactly what you’re doing each minute of each day. This is so people who are interested in our lives (friends and family, hopefully) can keep up with our busy schedules, particularly if we don’t have time to make those pesky phone calls home from college or send the best man from our wedding an email. It has really opened up the eyes of the world to the lives of everyone; specifically, that we are dangerously boring people, one and all. I’m sure it makes enthralling reading when “Dave is in aisle 7 at Walmart; Dave is in Produce at WalMart; Dave is in Tolietries at Walmart; Dave is in line at Walmart; Dave is in line at Walmart; Dave is still in line at Walmart; Dave is beating the people in front of him in line with a loaf of French bread that he bought at Walmart, etc.”

ATTENTION GOLDEN CORRAL PATRONS…

What if we apply this same technology to our consumption? We all should wear little iPad-esque signs around our necks, with our daily diet recorded on them for all to see. Imagine if you had to tell everyone what you had for breakfast: Bob ate half a cold pizza and flat root beer for breakfast; Bob ran through starbucks on the way to work and got a grande mochachino with extra cocoa (and a large chocolate muffin to keep it company); Bob grabbed a twinkie for a mid-morning snack…etc.  People would so paranoid that we’d eat Wheaties and bran muffins every day.  We’d end the fat-alution of america overnight (probably not, but we can dream).

PIZZA IS THE LEAST OF MY PROBLEMS

There aren’t too many us that would like our food choices splashed all over the public consciousness (with the exception of those skinny dietitians; may they all choke on a stalk of celery). But imagine if you had to show the world not only your diet, but all your sins as well. Would that change how you act each day?

In Ezra 10, we read the story of the returning exiles being separated from their pagan neighbors. At the end of the chapter is a long list of names of the men who had fallen into this particular temptation. Can you imagine this? What if you knew that all of your sins were written, published, and saved for all generations to read? Would you think twice about lying on the tax return? Or visiting that website? Or “borrowing” those supplies from the office? How would that change your actions?

LIKE JOURNALING, ONLY EVIL

Here’s a challenge for today: write down all of the things you eat, and all of the actions/thoughts you might consider less-than-holy for the day. Obviously, this isn’t for publication, but write it down and look at it tomorrow morning. See if you’d like to have that published for the whole world to read.

Then get down on your knees and thank God that Jesus came and gave his life so that those sins are washed clean in his blood. We don’t have to worry about those sins, because if we repent and turn from those actions and thoughts, God removes those sins from us as far as the Earth is from Gamma Ray Burst GRB 090423 (look it up, people).

That’s what forgiveness is all about.

Click here to read Ezra 9 on BibleGateway.com

Gotta admit, one of the best things about watching sitcoms is watching people totally freak out. There’s a sort of vicarious joy that comes from watching someone completely blow a gasket when the airline loses their luggage, or the cook burns their sirloin, or the plumber sends sewage into their basement. There’s a sense of satisfaction from watching someone else say “what I should have said,” and of course get thunderous applause from the audience. (of course, we never see the aftermath, when Lucy and Ethel get to go to jail for disorderly conduct, though that might be sorta funny, too).

In any case, it seems in our society that anger has taken on a comedic tone. Instead of being surprised or upset when someone is angry, we instead find the humor in someone else’s distress. In fact, it’s become so commonplace that we would be genuinely surprised to read of the reality of the people in the Bible when they become angry.

“YOU DID WHAT? WHERE’S MY DULL RAZOR?”

Let’s look at Ezra in today’s chapter. The Israelites had just returned from 70 years of captivity in Babylon, and Ezra learns that the people are once again sliding into sinful choices. He is so upset by the sin of the people that he reacts by pulling his hair and beard out, tearing his clothes, collapses on the ground, and stays there all day. Can you imagine this in our day? What if Billy Graham suddenly ripped his suit off, pulled out his hair on stage, and fell to the ground?

IT STARTS AT HOME

More importantly, look at what Ezra is upset about; it’s not because someone promised to support his ministry and then bailed out; it’s not because the media gave more airtime to the atheists; it’s not because the youth group ran around the church and broke all the windows. These are the kind of things that get us upset, but Ezra instead is appalled at the sin of the “righteous people.” Can you honestly say that you are more distressed by the sin of Christians (including yourself) than upset at “the world”? What would it take for you to be pull your hair out because you realized you are so far from God?

When was the last time your heart was broken by sin?

Click here to read II Chronicles 7 on BibleGateway.com

Today’s chapter is one of the most quoted chapters in churches around the world, especially in America. In particular, everyone seems to love vs 14: if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. We love to quote that one at times of repentance and at basically every youth convention known to man. Still, good verse.

However, let’s look today at a lesser quotified section of the chapter, namely verses 19-22. Often times, we focus on quoting the positive promises of God, i.e. “will heal their land”. But we typically neglect the negative aspects of this promise; if we don’t follow God’s commands, he promises that those actions will have repurcussions too, which are less healy and more beat-down-with-a-whupping-stick-y.

2 SIDES OF THE COIN

This chapter highlights the two aspects of God that we all struggle to keep in perspective: his simultaneous complete loving-kindness and his holiness. God is Love; he is the definition of Love; without Him there is no Love to speak of in the universe. Yet he is also Holy; he is the embodiment of perfection and goodness; there can be no darkness in him because he is 100% light. The fact that we like to focus more on the former and neglect the latter seems to be more a reflection of the kind of God we’d prefer to serve than a true representation of who God is.

Notice also in these ending verses that the “you” in the “if you turn away” is not talking to Solomon specifically. This is the pural “you”, as in “you people”. It’s a strange twist of English grammar that we have the same word for you-singular and you-plural; that’s pretty unique in the languages of the world, and can sometimes obscure our understanding of the Bible. In this instance, it means the same as “if my people” in the previous section. Once again, this highlights the dual aspect of the promises in this chapter. If we turn from evil and follow God, he will heal our land; if we do not, he will not.

BOTH HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME

So the mindbending question of the day is: can you come to grips with the duality of God? That He is perfect Love and perfect Justice at the same time? That he is Father and Judge? Creator and Flooder? Coming to accept God as He is and not as we’d like Him to be is one of the hardest thing for our limited human minds to do.

Good thing we have a Son who helps us bridge the gap.

Click here to read II Chronicles 3-4 on BibleGateway.com

People talk a lot about “pet peeves,” those little things that get on your nerves, that even you know is kinda ridiculous to get so upset about, but it still bugs you. Like when people take up two parking spaces to protect their 2003 volvo. Or when somebody cuts in front of you at Subway, and then spends 45 minutes deciding to get the cold cut combo on white. 6 inch. With no toppings. It just makes you want to rain blows down upon them with a package of oscar meyer baloney (and yes, I know how it’s spelled. It should be spelled “baloney.” pet peeve #573.)

However, there’s also what I like to call “pet amusements,” which are the little things that make you smirk and shake your head, but not really get mad. For instance, name dropping. We all have friends that say things like, “so, I went to a conference, and I shook Billy Graham’s hand; I prayed for him quick (in my mind) that he would preach good, so i’m sure that’s why it went so well tonite.” “or, yeah, I was at woodstock. I put out Jimmy’s guitar,” or “so, I was just hanging out at Mickey D’s the other night, and Postmaster Dave was there.” I never really get mad at that sort of thing, but it does make me smirk. And mock just a little.

“AND THEN, AFTER I HELPED HIM KILL GOLIATH…”

But, then we read passages like today’s in the Bible, and it turns out that name dropping has been going on as long as men have been wearing fig leaf underpants. In 2 Chronicles, we read about Solomon building the temple, and notice some of the names that come up: David is mentioned twice in the first sentence; in verse 17 we read about Boaz (the noble man who married Ruth); and my favorite in the Subtle Name Dropping category, the temple mount is referred to as Mount Moriah (instead of Mount Zion), the site where Abraham sacrificed Isaac.

Why all the references to the past? In the ancient world, establishing a link with a famous ancestor was fairly important. Often kings would reuse the names of famous predecessors, hoping to incur some of their awesomeness. The Bible has several instances where family trees are traced in some detail; actually, it’s more like excruciating detail. So they must have thought it was pretty important.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

We do the same thing today, but we are a little less open about it. How many Rockefellers do you know that are anxious to change their last name? How many people do you know with the first name of Judas? It was actually a fairly common name, until that one guy messed it up for everybody. The truth is, all of us are influenced by the names in our past, and we’d like to keep the good as brightly lit as possible, and the bad as shadowy as we can get away with.

Interestingly, the Bible gives us a nice little bonus in this situation. John 1:12 tells us that we have the opportunity to become “children of God.” Most of us would be content to known as a descendent of Charlemagne or Louis XIV, so shouldn’t we be ecstatic to hear that we are actually in the Bloodline of God himself?

Think of that next time some doofus sneaks into the express with 14 items instead of 10; and try not to lay them out with your rapidly melting frozen lasagna. You have a family reputation to think of.

Click here to read II Chronicles 2 on BibleGateway.com

Do you ever find yourself trying to figure out your own motivations? For example, why do people go to a buffet? You know deep in the bowels of your gut that the food is as low a quality as possible; just fresh enough to pass health inspections. Not so bad that maggots are in plain view, but definitely not fresh off the farm. Why do people watch a repeat of Dancing with the Stars instead of finishing the report that’s due tomorrow? Why do people watch the NBA at all? And don’t get me started on the luge.

BECAUSE IT’S THERE

In the 1920s, George Mallory was obsessed with climbing Mt. Everest. Back then, it was even more dangerous than it is today; but Mallory made three attempts in a quest to be the first to stand at the top of the world. When some reporters asked why he was so determined, Mallory responded with the famous quote “Because it’s there.” There is something in us as people that has to defeat a challenge, simply because it exists, to be the one that overcame the odds, to make a name for ourselves.

In the ancient world, there was a common motivation among rulers; to leave a lasting monument to their own greatness. We can appreciate those desires now, since they resulted in such classic monuments as the pyramids, the coliseum, and the plethora of ruins in Greece. However, I imagine the people actually working on these monuments (and paying for them) probably were a lot less enthusiastic.

“UM…I NEED MORE WOOD”

However, in 2 Chronicles, we read of an entirely different motivation for a building project. Solomon is beginning work on the temple in Jerusalem, and he writes to a neighboring king, saying “The temple I am going to build must be great, because our God is greater than all other gods.” Solomon was trying to create a monument to Creator of the universe; there was no expense or effort too great to make. Rather than make a name for himself, he was trying to make a name for God.

But even in the midst of these preparations, Solomon recognized that his efforts were ultimately futile. He comments “but who is able to build a temple for him, since the heavens cannot contain Him?” In other words, what is the point in making the temple at all, when God’s glory in the skies will over shadow it anyway?

I AM WHO I AM

I think the answer lies in that same motivation as Mallory. We don’t build monuments to God so that everyone can see them; after all, people just have to look around to see God’s greatness. We don’t build them to give God a place to hang out; the very realms of reality are not enough to contain Him.

Rather, we build cathedrals and churches, we sing and worship, we dance and praise, simply because He Is. There is something in us that is driven to worship God; sometimes that drive gets warped to worship something else, but our search drives us on to worship. It’s fulfilled only when we fully engage our lives in worship of our Creator.

Simply because He’s there.

Click here to read I Chronicles 24-25 on BibleGateway.com

We have a new word for today, boys and girls. The word is “nepotism”; can you say “nepotism” boys and girls? Very good.

For those of you who don’t know, nepotism is the action of giving benefits to relatives rather than to others that may be more deserving. For instance, when the CEO of PowerMart decides to hire his nephew as Vice-President of Bacon Acquisition, that’s nepotism. When a coach decides his 4’3”, 72 pound son should be the starting QB, that’s nepotism. Or, dare we say it, when a pastor decides his son(s) should be the associate, assistant, youth, and music ministers, that’s nepotism.

SONS OF AWESOMENESS

Of course, that’s assuming that the sons are not actually the most qualified candidates. There is a chance that they actually are the best people for the job; and then it’s just more awkward than nepotism. But still fairly suspicious.

In any case, the concern over nepotism is surprisingly more cultural than you might think. In many parts of the world, nepotism is not only expected, people are actually surprised that we have a problem with it. If you suddenly had a million dollars, wouldn’t you give some to your children? How is that any different than giving them a job if you are successful? Seems kind of weird to us, but it does make a kind of sense.

SHEMAIAH AND SONS

Let’s look at example in the Bible. In I Chronicles 26: 6, we learn of Shemaiah and his sons, all of whom leaders in Israel. However, notice that the Bible describes the sons as “very capable men.” Chronicles implies that, even though these men are related to a leader, their own positions were given because they were capable, not because they were Shemaiah’s sons.

As leaders, we need to be sure that we are evaluating people based on their capability, and not on other factors. However, this does not mean we have to automatically exclude our own close friends and family. Sometimes we can be so cautious of appearing to favor those close to us, that we neglect people that God may have brought into our lives for just that reason. Whomever we choose as assistants, we need to prayerfully seek God’s guidance, so we are not led astray by either favoritism, or our sense of “being fair.”

Time to go for the day. I feel the need to elect myself to the position of Executive Thin Mint Tester. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.

Click here to read I Chronicles 24-25 on BibleGateway.com

Not that long ago, it was the big rage to write books with titles that highlighted the differences between men and women; often with fairly lame attempts at humor. “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus,” “Men are Knights, Women are Queens,” “Men are like bacon, Women are like better looking bacon.” (yes, I made that last one up. sue me) One of the many incarnations of this theme is one called “Men are like waffles, women are like spaghetti.” The idea is that men tend to separate different aspects of their life into various “spheres,” while women tend to see interconnections between everything.

SEPARATE, YET…UMM…EQUAL?

This idea of spheres of influence is surprisingly controversial in our time. Not regarding men, which everyone recognized (which is why a man can see no connection between the 18 hours of golf and his wife’s exasperation), but in the public sector.

In our western world, we see distinct separation between various aspects of our life: church goes here, politics goes here, family goes here, sports goes here, etc etc.

ALL CONNECTED

However, the Bible does not see the world in the same way. This is particularly notable in the relationship between the state and religion. While many ancient cultures had a unity between the secular and religious, few cultures integrated them as thoroughly as the Israelites.

Look at I Chronicles 25:1. David is selecting clans for serving in the temple, particular for what we would call “worship” ministry; including singers and musicians. So who does he ask for advice? The commanders of the army.

Can you imagine this in our time? What if the pastor of your church called the local ROTC to help choose a worship leader? Or if the Pentagon choose the pastors for American churches?

In our mind, these are two totally different areas of life. The politico-military establishment has no place in the sacred; but in the Israelite mind, they were intimately connected. The soldiers fought the wars of the LORD, and the singer commemorated those wars (and sometimes led the troops).

EGGO-TACULAR 

In God’s world, He doesn’t just want one square of our waffle, he wants the whole plate of spaghetti. We can’t put God in a little aspect of our life (which, let’s face it, we like to do so we can “control” just how much influence God has in our lives). God wants total and complete integration of our worship and the rest of our lives.

How would it change your approach to your work today, if you really believed that everything you did was an act of worship?

Click here to read II Kings 15 on BibleGateway.com

Gotta admit, sometimes it’s hard to find much inspiration in the story of Israel’s monarchy. Let’s summarize: King so-and-so is a dirt weasel, he is assassinated and succeeded by King Loser, who is also a dirt weasel and is assassinated, and then followed by King Needs-a-Life, who decides to break the mold and become a super dirt weasel. What an inspiring story.

However, there is one theme that seems to jump out over and over again in this general trend of doofishness. Notice for most of the kings of Israel, the Bible says that “he did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam.” For a little background, Jeroboam was the first king of Israel, who started his illustrious career by ripping half of the kingdom away from Solomon’s son, thereby dividing the Promised Land, and then decided to set up a couple golden calves to make sure that people didn’t go to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. Nice guy. So, for the rest of Israel’s history, the Bible says that most of the kings “followed in the ways of Jeroboam.”

THE ME BONE’S CONNECTED TO THE….YOU BONE 

Unfortunately, throughout the bible, it seems that both good bad habits can be transferred to future generations. Abraham passed his faith to his son Isaac, who passed it to Jacob, who passed it to Joseph; in the same way, Jeroboam passed his wayward ways on to his kids, who passed it to their kids and successors.

Of course, the Bible is also clear that God (and men, to some degree) can break these patterns, but it seems that there is often some type of moral inertia that has to be overcome first. And just to prepare you, it often takes quite a bit of effort to right the ship once it starts rocking. But there is hope, and that’s what Jesus is all about.

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO 

We need to be careful that the legacy we leave for our children (and future generations, should you not have kids) is one that is pleasing to God. Sometimes we think that our actions only affect ourselves, but the Bible is clear that even our “secret” sins can affect those around us (hello, David). Additionally, secret faithfulness is also contagious (hello, woman with issue of blood).

Today, the goal is to have our secret lives be worthy of being recorded in the Bible (the good ones in the Bible, that is, not like that doofus David).

What do you want your legacy to be?

Click here to read II Kings 14 on BibleGateway.com

Well, my friends, welcome back. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, such as sunspots, crippling illness, and laziness, EverydayDevotions has been on hiatus for a couple months. However, we’re happy to announce that we’re back up and running, and we’re glad to be joining you once again for our journey through Holy Writ. Or random thoughts about the Bible. Whichever makes you happier.

So, jumping back into things, we are on II Kings 14 today, right smack in the middle of the Israelite monarchy. There’re few things more enjoyable than a romp through Biblical history, with the possible exception of a romp though a room filled with bacon. The thick cut kind. Awesomeness.

DON’T GO THERE

In any case, today we met Amaziah, the son of a great king, and an all around decent guy in his own right.Unfortunately, Amaziah had one big problem: pride. During one of his military campaigns, Amaziah defeated a weaker neighboring country, mainly because that’s what kings do. However, he let his victory over the local 3^rd grader go to his head, and he soon got a little too big for his toga, and decided to attack the bodybuilding 25 year old on his northern border.

You gotta hand it to the northern king, he honestly tried to warn Amaziah off. But, to no avail, and Amaziah soon found himself on the business end of the historical whupping stick, and most likely taken into exile along with all his rich goodies. Whoops.

So, what can we take from this somewhat ironic tale? Simply put, to be content with what you have. In Luke 3:12-14, we read of John the Baptist giving advice to various groups of people, such as tax collectors (don’t collect more than required) and soldiers (be content with your pay). The Bible reiterates this thought over and over, but we tend to gloss over it in order to focus on “worse” sins.

JUST A LITTLE MORE…. 

How many times have we thought “I just need a newer car,” or “I just need a raise, and everything will be good,” or “if only I had a few nice outfits to wear to church.” The story of Amaziah reminds us that we need to content with where we are, and not try to grab more than what God has provided.

In fact, the Bible is more serious about this problem of desiring more stuff than we like to admit. “Do not covet” is one of the ten commandments, after all, though we like to think that wanting “nice stuff” is not as bad as murder. According to God, they are on the same level. Are you sure you really need that new Ipad? Do you want it bad enough to kill for it?

This is a tough lesson for people in the Western world, as material possessions are often seen as a sign of God’s blessing. However, the challenge for today is to look long and hard at the things we feel we “need,” and ask ourselves before God if they are really needs, or are we guilty of the sin of coveting?

Click here to read Acts 24 on BibleGateway.com

If you’ve never read through Acts, you may have missed one of the best characters in the Bible. Not “best” as in the kind of person you want to be or to hang around, but “best” as in most entertaining. That’s right, friends, today we get to hang out with Felix. Never heard? Not to worry; you’ll probably remember him after today.

OH HERE’S THE STORY

Felix was a governor in the time of Paul, and like Jesus before Pontius Pilate, the Jewish leadership brought Paul before a Roman (Felix) to put him on trial. Felix had a wife named Drusilla (actually, he was married three times, and the first two wives were both named Drusilla.  That can’t be normal.) who also was in attendance when Paul was brought to trial.

Here we get into Felix’s awesomeness; he talks with Paul for a while, can’t find anything wrong with him, but leaves him in jail for two years so that Paul has ample opportunity to offer Felix a bribe. When he (Felix) gets called back to Rome for being a complete loser as governor, he leaves Paul in prison as a “favor to the Jews.” Real humanitarian, that Felix.

WAIT A MINUTE. GO BACK TO THE OTHER STUFF

Verses 24 and 25 give us great insight into Felix’s character: He [Felix] sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now!” Notice what’s going on here. Felix enjoys talking to Paul about theology and miracles, but when it gets personal, when it’s a matter of self-control and judgement, Felix has heard enough and shuts the conversation down.

Now, we may laugh at Felix (perhaps rightfully so), but maybe he’s not so different from us. Many of us like getting into debates over politics, or fine points of theology, or sports, or whatever; but when it comes time to be serious about changing ourselves, then suddenly we want to shut the conversation down. We’d rather hear about Jesus feeding the five thousand than about dying to ourselves and taking up our cross. But which is really what God wants to show us?

Are you able to look at the full message of Christ today?

Click here to read Acts 23 on BibleGateway.com

“Life is not fair; get used to it.” – Bill Gates

We have this strange obsession with keeping things fair in our society. Often we hear that the Constitution guarantees our happiness; actually, to quote Mr. Benjamin Franklin, the Constitution only guarantees the pursuit of happiness; you have to catch it yourself.

HEY, YOUR PEW IS NICER THAN MY PEW

This attitude can often leak over into our spiritual life as well. How many of our prayers sound something like this: Dear Lord, we just need a new car (so we don’t have to be embarrassed with our rust held together with duct tape), please help me get that promotion (so I don’t have to work under that nincompoop anymore), please help Kohl’s to have a sale this weekend (so I can look as good as Mrs. Glesterhosen down the street). We may not say the phrases in parenthesis, but that’s really what we’re thinking. Many of our prayers are really about our happiness and making things fair, not about building a relationship with God.

The truth is life isn’t fair. It never has been, it never will be this side of heaven (and even then, Jesus only has one left and right side with places reserved for someone other than you and I, I’d wager.) Even Jesus’ earliest followers found this out.

A TALE OF TWO APOSTLES

In Acts 12, Peter finds himself in jail. An angel shows up and says “Get dressed Peter; time to go,” and off Peter goes into the wild blue yonder. In our reading for today, Paul finds himself in prison, and an angel shows up. Guess what the angel says. “Take courage, you’re gonna stay in custody until you get to Rome in a few weeks/months, and will be under arrest there for 2 years.” (EverydayDevotions paraphrase). What’s the deal? Peter gets let out and Paul is told to settle in for the long haul? How is that fair?

In an nutshell, it’s not fair. “Fair” is rarely God’s purpose for our lives. Peter and Paul both served the Lord, but in different ways. Both of them were right where God wanted them to be, even though their circumstances were radically different. Our goal in life should not be to equalize blessings, but to be in God’s service to the uttermost of our ability. If we obsess over how “unfair” things are, we may miss out on fully becoming what God wants us to be.

Can you go the whole day today without praying for life to be more “fair”? Can you pray just to know and be in God’s will?

Click here to read Acts 21 on BibleGateway.com

What if there were no hypothetical situations?

And……there it is. That’s right, my friends, it’s Irony Day here at EverydayDevotions.com, which means I may have to type slower so everyone can keep up. They say it’s bad form to leave people behind, though you can never believe generalizations. That said, there’s not much in this world that I would consider better than irony (though I would give my left arm to be ambidextrous), and today we get a healthy dose in the life of Paul.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY…

As Paul is coming into Jerusalem, he runs into some well-meaning friends who tell him some of the Jewish leadership is after him. In order to appease the trouble makers, Paul agrees to purify himself and some other men as an act of good faith to show that he still followed the Jewish ceremonial law. After the purification, Paul is hanging around the temple, and the Jewish leaders come and arrest him for bringing non-Jews into the Temple.

See the irony? Paul’s friends want him to avoid a confrontation with the existing leadership, and the very actions they recommend lead inexorably (*vocab word alert*) to that conflict.

There’s an old story of a servant who was in the market for his master in Agraba, and he turns around and sees the Grim Reaper. The man is so scared he runs home to his master and tells him what he saw. The master, being fond of the man, tells him to take his fastest horse and race the 200 miles to Samarra and stay there. The master then hurries to the market, finds the Reaper, and asks “why are you scaring my servant?” The Reaper replies, “I didn’t intend to frighten him. I was just surprised to see him here since we have an appointment in Samarra tonite.”

ALWAYS AVOID ALLITERATION…AND SO ON

I love this story because it highlights our human desire, and yet inability, to control our fate. Paul seemed to know that trouble awaited him in Jerusalem, but went anyway because he felt that’s where God was leading him. We can almost see his sigh and possibly a weary smile as he humors his friends and follows their advice, all the while knowing that God’s will would be done.

Our goal in life should not be to avoid suffering, as Jesus seemed to indicate that suffering was not only common to all men, it would also be particularly likely for his followers. Instead, we need to focus our energies on knowing Him and serving Him, trusting that He is working all things together for good despite our outward circumstance. If Paul had never been arrested, he may never have made it to Rome; it’s hard to tell where our road may lead. Only God knows, and he rarely shows us the whole map at once.

Wouldn’t it be nice if he did? Don’t you hate rhetorical questions?

Click here to read Judges 14 on BibleGateway.com

Prepare yourself: this is a paradigm shifting day.  As much as it may pain some Sunday School teachers, we have to face the awful truth today: Samson was not a hero. In fact, he was pretty much a big, ole doofus. This may be a tough thing to hear for those of you that consider the strongman to be one of the great men of the Bible, but if one has to call a spade a spade, we have to call a doofus a doofus, and Samson was a doofus to out doofus all doofuses that ever doofused.

DOOFUS EXHIBIT A

Consider: Samson had 3 rules to live by: no wine, no touching dead bodies, no cutting his hair. In this chapter alone, he broke the first two in a matter of days. In fact, other than sporting a rockin’ mullet, Samson didn’t seem too interested in keeping any of God’s commands for most of his life. Take today’s reading, for example. Notice in verse 2 that Samson was out walking in Timnah (where he shouldn’t have been in the first place; it was sorta like spending the weekend cruisin’ around Vegas) and saw a pretty young woman and said to his parents “I have seen a woman…go get her to be my wife.” But then it’s not until verse 7 that Samson actually talks to the woman and decides he likes her.

See the sequence of events? See pretty girl, try to marry pretty girl, talk to pretty girl. Call me old-fashioned, but that seems out of order. Samson was more preoccupied with the outer advantages of marrying this girl than of who the girl actually was as a person. That’s a bad deal for both of ’em, and as it turns out, it was a bad deal for her people when Samson went on a rampage and killed a bunch of them.

WHO YOU LOOKING AT?

Unfortunately, we seem to often gloss over the faults of our heroes (Biblical or otherwise), and Samson is no exception. We often talk of emulating people in the Bible or elsewhere in the past as if that was our main goal, but I don’t think any parent would a) want Samson for a son or b) want a husband like Samson for their daughter. Despite the many cartoons and flannelgraphs that talk about the great strong leader Samson who routed God’s enemies in the power of the Spirit, it is probably more accurate to see Samson’s life as a warning to us or as an example of wasted potential. He was given every advantage in life, but threw it all away for lack of self-control.

Instead of trying to be like Samson (or Paul, or Peter, or David), our goal should be to follow Jesus the best we can. He should be our model, not those who followed him. No matter who our hero might be, the chances are fairly good (like 100% fairly good) that person is closer to being a doofus than we would like to admit. Unless our gaze remains firmly on Jesus, we risk becoming more like our heroes that we would like.

Today, ask God to help you change your focus; instead of a hero, focus on a Savior.

Click here to read Jeremiah 26 on BibleGateway.com

Hearing bad news is never easy. Think about the last time you heard bad news; do you remember that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach as your last meal dropped to your ankles? Do you remember your mind beginning to race as you try to take in all the negative information and try to formulate a plan? Do you remember wondering how God could have let this happen? And do you remember that sense of overwhelming relief when you found a way to deal? Do you remember when you realized that even though DQ was out of brownie pieces, you could still have a butterfinger blizzard, and the night could still be saved? Bad news is never easy on any of us.

I’VE GOT BAD NEWS AND…

If hearing bad news is tough, delivering bad news is often even worse. Look at poor Jeremiah. God comes to him and tells him to go warn the people of Israel of their sin, or else God is bringing discipline on them. And lest you think God wouldn’t actually relent, look at Jonah and the people of Nineveh. God told Jonah and Jeremiah basically the same message, with the exception that the heathen Ninevites heeded the warning and the Israelite “believers” did not. (Maybe a lesson there for us?)

In any case, Jeremiah delivers his message of warning, and instead of repenting, the people attack Jeremiah and call out for his death. Imagine poor Jeremiah’s dilemma; God tells him that all his friends and family are going to be conquered. Pretty bad. But wait, there’s a light; if the people will repent, God may still forgive them and the disaster can be averted. Great, thinks Jeremiah, and he runs to the city to tell everyone the good news. All they have to do is turn from their evil practices and God will spare them. He delivers his message, waits for the weeping and wailing of repentance, and instead finds himself under arrest and dragged before the authorities with people clamoring for his death. How’s that for a bad day at the office?

KNOCK KNOCK

While it may be tempting to put ourselves in Jeremiah’s shoes, and feel ourselves the victim of unfair muttonheads, in reality we are more often in the position of the townspeople. Let’s imagine a scenario: it’s 8pm on any given weekday night and we’re just snuggling into the couch to watch Andy Griffith take care of a Mayberry shoplifter, when there’s a knock at the door. There stands the local nut outside our door, and he says to us “hey, guess what, God told me that you’re a filthy sinner, and if you don’t change your ways, you’re gonna get a beatdown with the ugly stick.”

What is your first reaction? Are you pleased? Or do you react in anger to this intrusion? Do you invite the naysayer into your house, or do you give him your size 12 in the seat of his pants on the way off your property?

The truth is, none of us like to be reprimanded. We all like to think that we’re in the place of the prophet, but perhaps we’re actually more like the looney townspeople. Today, our challenge is to honestly look at ourselves and try to soften our hearts and really hear what God is saying. Would we be able to listen if we got that message, or would we react against the messenger?  Will we be like the Ninevites, or the Israelites?

Is God trying to warn you today?

Click here to read Acts 16 on BibleGateway.com

It’s often good practice to try to look at things from a different point of view. For instance, from one perspective, you could argue that this devotional hasn’t been updated in many moons. However, from a different point of view, it’s not quite as long as you might think. It might not seem like it, but a couple months is actually quite a bit shorter than eternity. Not by much, but still. Additionally, the average large sea turtle clears a century quite easily, and if I remember my 7^th grade biology, most turtles are notoriously slow readers, so the turtles probably think we’re moving along at a nice clip. And if the turtles are happy, I think we can all agree that the world is a better place.

HOLD YOUR HORSES, PAULY

Today’s passage is probably familiar to most of you, but we’re going to look at it a little differently today; a different perspective, if you will (notice the clever segue from the first paragraph. You’re welcome.) In Acts 16, Paul has it in his head to visit Asia (Turkey to you and me), but for some reason, he is restrained by the Holy Spirit (or the Spirit of Jesus). Shortly thereafter he gets a vision of man in Macedonia, and crosses on over to Greece and goes on his merry way.

Now, typically, we read this passage and think “obviously God wanted Paul to go Greece (Macedonia) instead of Asia. Good for him.” However, this leads to an obvious question: why doesn’t God want Paul to go to Asia? Doesn’t he know that if Paul preaches there, people will get saved? Does God not like the people in Asia? Why would he pull Paul away when he clearly wants to go?

OUT OF THE ONE, MANY

However, let’s jump ahead a couple chapters (yes, we said we would only do one chapter a day, but don’t worry, I checked with management and they said it was ok.) In Acts 19, we read that Paul spends two years teaching at a school in Ephesus and “all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.” In other words, instead of sending one Paul, God sent a whole army of Pauls from this school, reaching Asia far more quickly and efficiently than if Paul alone was there.

So we must ask ourselves: is it possible God knows what he’s doing? Sometimes we see an open ministry right in front of us, and we think “clearly God wants me to do/go/be this; look how many people will get saved if I do.” But God may be asking us to be a teacher instead of the evangelist; he may be asking us to be a sender instead of a goer; he may be asking to sit at the back instead of stand on the platform. Maybe by following God’s leading, His purposes will be done anyway, even if they aren’t done in the way we would like.

Are you ready to be used however God wants, even if it means staying right where you are?

Click here to read Numbers 28 on BibleGateway.com

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to really trust? We’ve probably all played that game at work retreats or youth groups wherein someone stands with their back to another person and then just falls over, trusting the other person to catch them.  How many of us actually let ourselves fall straight back?  I know I always gave up about halfway through my descent, throwing a foot out behind me.  Fully trusting someone is one of the hardest things to do, especially if that someone is your friend who thinks it’d be funny to watch you bounce off the carpet.

Did you notice in today’s reading how many sheep/bulls/etc were sacrificed to God in a given year?  2 a day every day, plus 2 more on each Sabbath, plus 10 for each new month, plus 10 for the Passover, plus 10 for the Feast of weeks, etc etc etc.  That’s almost a thousand animals every year, by my count.  And that’s just for starters; there’s all kinds of other sacrifices prescribed throughout the rest of the Pentateuch.  That’s a large chunk o’ change, no matter who you are.  Going by the price of hamburger at the grocery store, I can only image what the price for a whole cow is.

I WILL GLADLY PAY YOU BACK TUESDAY

How easy would it have been for the Israelites to look at these requirements and think “no way, I can’t afford that.  My family needs to eat them critters, not burn em up.”  Don’t we do the same thing?  “I can’t afford to tithe/give an offering this week; the heating bill is due.  I’ll make it up to God next paycheck.”

The Israelites saw this principle more clearly than we do, but it’s still applies even though we have to work a little harder to see the connection.  Who ultimately provided the livestock for the Holy BBQ?  Doesn’t it all come from God anyway?  If we give our whole paycheck to the missionary that visits church, will God just forget about us as we eat cardboard?  If we offer our livelihood to God, do we really think that He won’t be able to afford to pay us back?

IN GOD WE TRUST

What’s the underlying assumption when we say things (or think them) like this?  Isn’t it really saying that God may not provide for us?  “I can’t quit my job and do ministry; how will I make house payments? How will my family eat?”  Not to say that everyone should quit their job and do ministry, but what is our motivation?  Is it because we honestly feel we’re doing what God wants us to do, or is it because we don’t trust Him to provide?

Are you able to give up your own provision and trust God?

Click here to read Numbers 26 on BibleGateway.com

If there’s one thing that we’ve perfected as a race, it’s the art of pouting.  It’s amazing how kids are born with the innate ability to pout almost as soon as they enter the world.  Of course, it’s all cute and adorable when a 3 month old does it, but it wears off quickly when a teenager gets it going.  Until you get to your 20s, when you learn how to pout by just undermining those in authority rather than actually physically pouting.  That’s much healthier.

MOVE OVER BACON

In today’s reading, God tells Moses that it’s time to prepare himself; he’s about to die right before the Israelites go into Canaan.  Most of use probably would have taken this opportunity to either a) beg God for another chance or b) grumble and say something to the effect of “fine. I don’t wanna go in that ole dirty promised land anyway.”

Moses does neither.  Instead, his attention is focused on those under his leadership.  He asks that God prepare and appoint an able successor, so that the people will be well-led after his departure.  The Lord selects Joshua, one of only two survivors of the Egyptian slavery to enter Canaan.

“WELCOME TO THE FIRST CHURCH OF BOB…I MEAN GOD”

What a good example for us.  If we are in leadership in some capacity, and the time comes to pass the mantle to someone else, we need to be willing to set it aside without anger or self-pity, and focus on the good of those under us.  It’s so easy to feel that “God called me, so nobody else can do as good as job.”  That may be true, but God’s not always looking for the person who will be as good as you; He may be trying to train someone that is completely different and completely appropriate to a new situation.

The question becomes “Do I trust God enough that I can let this ministry go? Or do I need to make sure that I’m in charge? For the good of the people, of course.”  This is especially difficult for those that are part of a ministry that has seen growth and blessing during their time of leadership.  It’s so easy to believe that God is blessing the ministry because of us; what happens when somebody less faithful is in charge?  Won’t people under us suffer?

The truth is, we probably fear losing our own sense of identity and worth more than we fear for the people under us.  But God is looking for people who find their identity in Him, not in a ministry.

Do you trust God enough to let someone else lead “your” ministry?

Click here to read Numbers 26 on BibleGateway.com

Numbers 26 is one of those tough passages in the Bible that we find difficult to gain any wisdom from (or from which to gain any wisdom, if you’re an English teacher). It’s a list of names and numbers which may have been exciting to the Israelites, but seems rather boring and tedious to us modern readers. Have no fear, though, all that it means is that we get to dig a little deeper to try to find what God is saying to us today. Wouldn’t want em all to be easy, would you?

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE

This is the second census (counting only the fighting men) that Moses took of the Israelites; the first was nearly 40 years earlier when they first reached Canaan. After all that time wandering around the Sinai peninsula, one of the striking features is that the numbers for the first and second censuses (censi?) are so similar: 603,550 for the first and 601,730 for the second. Despite living in a desert for an entire generation, the people were as strong as before.

Notice in verse 54 that God divides the land by the size of the tribe. The larger tribes got more land. Now, some of the smaller tribes could say “hey, that’s not fair. We should get as much land as so-and-so.” Also, notice verse 56. It seems so oddly out of place in a list of the military, and yet there it is black and white in Holy Writ.

AND THAT PERTAINS TO YOU HOW?

So what do we take from this? Do we just skip over this chapter and rush ahead to the epistles to get to stuff we can apply to ourselves? Nay, nay, thrice nay I say. Here are some pondering points, given in no particular order:

1) God cares for his people. It’s so easy for us to look at desert times as “let’s just survive this.” But God took care of his people, and several tribes dramatically increased in number, showing that God was not only preserving His people, but blessing them as well. (a few tribes lost population too, primarily Simeon and Reuben, which coincidentally were the tribes that God disciplined because of rebellions. Also food for thought.)

2) God has sense of fair play, but it may not be like ours. In several places in the Bible it speaks of “everyone had what they needed.” We tend to want everything to be “fair,” which we narrowly define as “we all should have the same amount of money and stuff.” However, God provides for people according to their need, not according to what their neighbor has; he who had much did not have too much, and he who had little did not have too little.

3) God remembers everyone. Serah was the daughter of one of the least important tribes, and yet she gets a whole verse just to herself in the Bible. Not bad. Some of the kings of Israel only get 2.

And you were gonna skip this chapter. Shame on you.

Click here to read Numbers 25 on BibleGateway.com

One of the most famous military anecdotes in all history is the story of the Trojan Horse. Without going into too much detail, the basic idea is that you should in fact look a gift horse in the mouth, particularly if it’s 90 ft high and sounds like it has a platoon of soldiers inside it. The warning, be it historically accurate or not, is to pay as much attention to what’s going on inside your walls as you do to the machinations outside.

1-800-DIAL-A-CURSE

The previous few chapters of Numbers have focused on the work of Balaam, a hired gun for Israel’s enemies. As Israel passed through various lands during their lengthy trek to the Promised Land, the kings of those lands freaked out at the rather large of number of strangers parking out in their driveways, and decided to call out Balaam, a shaman with the supposed powers to curse people. As the previous couple days have shown, his efforts were less than awesome, and it looks like Balaam may actually be a convert.

However, notice that the next chapter involves men being men, and they started indulging in various dalliances with foreign women, including sexual immorality and worshiping foreign gods. In fact, one man took a woman to his tent under the eyes of Moses and the leaders. (Go ahead and read the story to see what one of the leaders did to the offenders). Long story short, God sends a plague to remind the Israelites that he values purity, and we can hope that the Israelites get the message.

IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED

Jump ahead to Chapter 31. Guess who’s behind this seduction of the Israelite men. Good ole Balaam. When he couldn’t get his way by frontal attack, he shifts to a sneaky way of undermining the Israelites (and succeeds, unfortunately).

We spend a lot of time in the modern church discussing “the attacks of the enemy,” and how Satan wants to destroy us. This is true, but let’s not forget that attacks don’t always come from the front. No attack of the enemy does the damage that our own sin and weaknesses can do. When we think back on some of the high-profile failures of our life, public and private, how many were caused by direct spiritual attack? How many were caused by our own failure to keep our eyes focused on God, and instead allowed our attention to wander to things that sparkle and shine?

Today, ask God to show you where the enemy may be attacking you, but don’t be surprised if it’s closer to home than you may like. Sometimes we can see the enemy’s best weapon by simply looking in a mirror.

Click here to read Numbers 20 on BibleGateway.com

The hard part about reading the Bible is that sometimes it’s like looking in a mirror, and not a good mirror like in the dressing room at JCPenney, but the bad mirrors like at rest stops that make you look like you’ve been running the Iditarod on foot for the last fortnight. When we read the stories about the Israelites, it’s so easy for us to laugh at their idiocy, until we realize that we do the exact same things on a daily basis. Example? Very well.

In Numbers 20, we find the famous story of Water Coming from the Rock II, the Sequel. 40 years earlier, the Israelites were wowed by God providing water from a rock when Moses struck it with his staff, but by this time their memory has faded and they start complaining again.

HEY, WHERE ARE MY DOUGHNUTS?

We tend to think that they are complaining about water, but look at what they actually complain about: Num 20:5 “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!” There’s no figs, grapevines, or pomegranates? Oh, and also, no water. It’s like water is the afterthought.

Let’s not forget, this is after 40 years of God providing manna everyday, quail for the potlucks, and clothing that never wears out. And what’s the first thing on their mind? “Where’s my figs and pomegranates?”

MEANWHILE, IN ANOTHER MILLENIA

Before we get on our mocking pants, let’s update this story to our time.

After 40 years of serving the Lord in the most prosperous nation in the history of the world, the children of America turned to their pastor and said “why don’t we have cappucino like the church down the street? Why is our church van so old and worn out? How come our carpet is so dirty?”

I don’t know about you, but that makes me think less of how silly the Israelites are, and more “ouch.” How many of us have served the Lord for years, but we complain when we have to make due with a 5-year old car? Or have to shop at wal-mart instead of Macy’s. Or only have “one” laptop? Maybe we aren’t as different from the Israelites as we’d like to think.

What pomegranates are you focused on today?

Click here to read Luke 15 on BibleGateway.com

As we’ve said before, one of the chief dangers of a long Christian walk is that sense of familiarity. On one hand, it’s a good thing to be familiar with the Word, and to see it as familiar part of our life. On the other, some of the passages can become so over-read that we hardly even see them anymore. The Prodigal Son is one of those passage for many of us, and it’s easy to skip over some of the details because we’ve read or heard it so many times. For today, let’s look at one small aspect of this story, namely the three gifts the father gives to the son on his return.

First off, notice what he does NOT give him: rebuke. There is no sense of “I told you so,” or “come crawling back, did ya?” If anyone ever deserved it, surely this son did. But the father doesn’t even let the boy finish talking before running to him and giving him a robe, a ring, and sandals. Why those three? Why not a new camel?

LAWRENCE OF A-ROBE-IA

As for the robe, in ancient times a long robe was considered a mark of royalty. The most famous robe in the Bible, Joseph’s coat of many colors, was more likely a “long cloak,” which the rich wore to show that they didn’t need to work hard (it’s difficult to do manual labor in a ankle-length robe. Try it next time you’re shoveling the sidewalk). The father was elevating the son back to a position of royalty immediately, and in fact he literally asks for “robe the first,” which means the numero uno robe in the house.

ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL

Rings in that time were used as symbols of authority. Today, when a politician gives a speech or issues a policy, he puts his signature on it, regardless of whether he actually wrote the speech or policy himself. In some cases, leaders will make a little rubber stamp of their signature and give it to an assistant, effectively saying “you can sign for me.” The assistant then has the power that normally belongs to the one in authority.

A signet ring was much the same thing in the ancient world. A king or ruler had a ring that he always wore, and when he wrote a letter or decree, he would press that ring into melted wax and make his mark on the paper. When the father gave the son his ring, he was essentially saying “you can speak for me to the world.”

SANDAL AIRWALKS

The sandals are a sign that the son was not to be a servant in the household. Only high-ranking members of the house wore shoes; slaves and servants went barefoot.  Once again, the father is immediately elevating the son to a position of authority and comfort, despite the son’s pleas to be merely a servant in the home.

These three gifts show that the Father was immediately re-instating the son; no periods of mourning or reproach.

The Father is interested in restoration, not in condemnation.

Click here to read Luke 14 on BibleGateway.com

You’re in for a special treat today, my friends. We get to have a real life illustration from good ole US history about today’s passage. I bet you can hardly wait.

In Luke 14: 28-30, Jesus tells the story of a man building a tower. Jesus warns that anyone who starts a project like that should make sure they have enough funds on hand to finish, otherwise they might only finish half of it and leave a concrete testament to their gooberiety.

Never would happen you say? There’s always bank loans and what not to finish? Oh, how wrong you be.

THE IDEA

Fast forward to the 1960s. There was a famous televangelist based in Akron, Ohio named Rex Humbard. He was arguably the first of the crew of televised preachers that would gain prominence in the 70s and 80s, and he ended up being quite successful, with broadcasts on over 600 stations worldwide.

However, in the mid-60s, he decided that what his ministry really needed was a tall rotating tower with a restaurant on the top. We can all agree how important that might be to reaching the world for Christ (in seriousness, the tower would double as a broadcasting antenna, so it wasn’t completely bogus).

The tower was supposed to be 720 feet high, but when they got to 560 feet, several events conspired against the ministry. In the first place, there was a chance to expand the radio broadcast into South America, and the leaders wondered if that might be a better investment than the buffet-o-rama (ya think?). Secondly, and less inspiringly, the SEC began to investigate the ministry for fund-raising improprieties, namely selling bonds in the ministry without going through licensed brokers (gotta love those fun-loving SEC guys).

CAN YOU FINISH WHAT YOU START?

So, regardless if you prefer the positive or negative reasons, the tower was left unfinished. For years it sat as a reminder of what happens when ministries lose their focus. In the end, the tower was sold to another ministry, then resold several times until today it servers as a cell tower.

Jesus calls us to count the cost before we embark on our Christian walk. Yes, He promises to walk with us through it all, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be tough times. Sometimes the price of following Jesus is very high, maybe even your life. He calls us to carefully consider what we are signing up for before we claim to be His disciple, lest his followers look like goobers to the rest of the world.

Are you counting the cost today?

Click here to read Luke 13 on BibleGateway.com

Sometimes we miss some of the undercurrents of Bible passages because we read them so fast. Most of us have probably read today’s chapter many times, but we may have missed an important point that we’ll look at today. (nice teaser paragraph, eh?)

Jesus is teaching on various subjects like mustard seeds, yeast, and how watering donkeys is related to healing. Suddenly, he is warned that Herod, the king, is look for him to kill him (which is kind of odd, since we learned a little earlier that Herod wanted to see Jesus to see if he was John the Baptist or to watch him do a miracle).

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?

In any case, we tend to read this verse as a warning from Jesus’ friends: “watch out, Jesus. Herod is coming for you. Time to hit the road.” Here’s the ironic thing: this wasn’t Jesus’ friends who told him to run. It was the Pharisees. So now we have to ask ourselves why these people who were looking for a way to trap Jesus would suddenly warn him.

Option one: these Pharisees were friends of Jesus. There are several occasions where Pharisees became followers of Jesus, particularly Nicodemus. So, there is the chance that these were some Pharisees who were honestly looking out for Jesus’ well-being and wanted to help.

Option two: the Pharisees had ulterior motives. Jesus was most likely preaching in Perea at the time, an area to the east of Judea and Jerusalem that was under Herod’s control. However, if Jesus were to flee this area into Judea (Jerusalem), he would then be under the nominal control of the Roman governor, and more specifically within the reach of the Jewish leadership. In other words, the Pharisees may have been trying to frighten Jesus into leaving Perea and running into the realm of their control so they could nab him.

WORTHLESS LIKE A FOX

Regardless, Jesus frustrates their plans with the casual dismissal of Herod as a “fox,” a term for a sneaky but ultimately worthless person. Jesus wasn’t going to be deterred from his purpose by the threat of temporal authority, either from Herod or the Pharisees. He knew what He was called to do, and He wouldn’t allow anything to prevent Him from following God’s plan for Him.

What is trying to dissuade you from your purpose today?

Click here to read Luke 12 on BibleGateway.com

We live in a world that has raised worry to an art form. And not just any art form, but the greatest art form known to the world: television. Shows started out telling the news, bad or good. Then we realized that just focusing on the bad news got higher ratings, so we we focused on that. Then we realized there wasn’t enough bad news locally to fill 24 hours a day, so we expanded to national and world news.

But as it turns out, there may not be enough bad news in the world to fill 12 news channels, so we have to start anticipating bad things happening. There are TV shows that focus on “What ifs,” such as “what if there were a major ice age that hit exclusively in Hawaii?” or “what if all the bacon in the world suddenly turned into pancakes? Are you prepared?”

THE JOY OF WORRY

We love to worry. It makes us feel that we are prepared, and plus it helps to raise those all-important stress hormones in the body to help us build up an extra layer of flab for the coming times of winter starvation.

Unfortunately Jesus seems less enthused about our penchant for worry. In fact, he seems almost to take it to the level of irresponsibility. He tells in today’s chapter that we shouldn’t worry about food, shelter or clothing, which seems kinda crazy until you remember that the Israelites in the desert had clothes and shoes that didn’t wear out for 40 years and food that just showed up on the ground in the morning. Maybe Jesus knows what he’s talking about.

PREPARATION vs TRUST

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t work hard to get ready for troubles ahead; Jesus also talks about counting the cost before setting out on a venture. But the point is that hoarding for an imaginary disaster that may or may not happen is not God’s will. He suggests (sounds better than commanded) that we give our possessions to the poor and store up supplies in heaven instead. The preparation isn’t wrong; it’s the nagging worry that God won’t take care of us, so we have to do it ourselves that seems to be the point.

Could you live without a savings or retirement account? Do you trust God to provide your needs when you need them?

Click here to read Luke 11 on BibleGateway.com

Have you ever noticed that Jesus rarely answers the way people want? It’s one of the characteristics of Jesus that he speaks to people and not about people. One of the more famous examples is when Peter asks what will happen to John (at the end of the book of John, if you’re wondering), and Jesus answers “what is that to you? Follow me.” Jesus is always more concerned with the people He is talking to than talking about other people.

That said, sometimes He reminds us it’s better to mind our own business than to worry about others. In today’s little vignette, Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees, and he chastises them for being so concerned with outward appearances of holiness without actually understanding God’s heart. He tells them essentially that they are prideful hypocrites, which I’m sure was a fun message for them to hear.

BUT NO ME, RIGHT?

As he’s saying this, another group is standing there, the so-called “experts in the law.” These were not Pharisees, at least not entirely. They may have been a sub-set of the Pharisees, but it seems more likely that they were more like Bible teachers or scribes. A modern comparison might be that the Pharisees were like pastors or priests, and the scribes were more like seminary professors. A person could be both, but they were separate organizations.

In any case, one of these tweed-toga-wearers comes to Jesus during his speech about the Pharisees and says “But Jesus, you are casting a bad light on all of us righteous people when you talk like this.” Ok, lesson one, don’t interrupt Jesus when He’s talking to someone else, especially when he’s in a rebuking mood.

This expert probably hoped Jesus would say “Oh, sorry about that. I’m not talking about you, of course. Your theology is right on, you have an accurate understanding of the Trinity and God’s sovereignty, and the world would be alright if everybody just listened to your wisdom. Carry on, good and faithful one.” Instead, Jesus turns and says “Oh hi. Didn’t see you there. I have a few things for you, too.” The experts in the law get 3 “woes” as well, just like the Pharisees.

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?

The truth is, neither our self-imposed piety nor our theology and education is a guarantee that we are serving God. It’s all about our hearts, and that is a challenge no matter how high or how low you are in society. God knows all of our deepest desiresand motivations, and there’s no degree or position or award that will blind Him to who we really are. Man looks at the outside, but God looks at the heart; there’s no hiding from Him.

Just ask Adam.

Click here to read Luke 10 on BibleGateway.com

What should our strategy be to reach the lost? Do we engage them on their own ground? Learn as much as we can about evolution, satanism, post-modernism, cults, or the like? Do we spend our time studying the enemy’s moves, or focusing on our’s? Do we adapt our Christianity to make it easy for people to come to Christ, or do we keep the bar high to encourage holiness? Sometimes it’s hard to know which battle to fight, but at least regarding evangelism, we have Jesus’ own words to help us out. (always a good thing)

OK, THIS HALF GOES NORTH, THIS HALF GOES SOUTH

In Luke 10, Jesus is sending out his disciples to preach to Israel. It’s interesting that this is not only the inner group of 12 disciples, but a group of 70 (or 72, depending on your translation) of his followers.  Who were these people? Why weren’t they included at the Last Supper? Did they all fall away?

In any case, as he was sending them out, Jesus gave them some basic instructions. In verse 9, he tells them that if they visit a town that is welcoming, their message should be “the kingdom of heaven is near you.” Seems pretty clear; plus, it should be an encouagment to those who were anxiously awaiting the Messiah.

Jump down to verse 11, where Jesus is giving instructions for towns that don’t lay out the welcome mat. What is the message for them? “The kingdom of heaven is near.” Isn’t it interesting that the same message would be given to both the welcoming and unwelcoming, but for one it was an encouragement, and for the other, a warning.

THY KINGDOM COME

So how should we apply this to our dilemmas? In the first place, our message is clear: the kingdom is coming. It’s so easy to get our minds and energies focused on things that seem important, but may not in fact be the message of God. We need to commit ourselves to “preaching Christ and Him crucified,” as Paul says.

Secondly, our message should stay the same regardless of the recipient. God doesn’t tell us to give one message to believers, one to almost-believers, one to non-believers, and one to never-believers. Our message stays the same: the kingdom is coming. Regardless of the hearers’ reactions, once the message is delivered, it’s time to move on to another audience. (of course, there’s a place for discipleship, too, but that’s another article). Preaching about Christ’s coming should always be our first priority.

That’s always a winning strategy.

Click here to read Luke 9 on BibleGateway.com

There’s a lot to be said for new translations of the Bible; they’re easier to read, easier to understand, and (arguably) easier to apply because they relate more directly to our lives.  I’d much rather “think about Jesus said” than “ponder therefore unto these of which he spake.”

However, there are some drawbacks to translations, and one of them is that sometimes we see the section headings as divine separations. In reality, the books of the Bible were (mostly) written as a single unit, without chapters, verses, paragraphs, or separations. Sometimes these separations may make it hard for us to see certain aspects of the narrative, because we see things separated that should maybe have been taken together.

GOING BACK TO WHAT I SAID EARLIER…

Today’s chapter, Luke 9, is broken up into several sections, but let’s look at what the chapter looks like if we break it differently. Verses 7-8 talk about what people thought about Jesus; he was a prophet, possibly Elijah, or maybe John the Baptist. When we jump down to verses 18-19, and Jesus asks his disciples, “who do people say that I am?” They shockingly answer “a prophet, possibly Elijah, or maybe John the Baptist.”

It’s almost as if these two sections are bookends, so we should naturally ask ourselves what is it exactly that they bookend? In between these markers is the story of Jesus feeding the 5000, one of the biggest miracles in the Bible apart from the resurrection. So, what’s going on? What does feeding people have to do with who Jesus is?

WHO AM I?

The answer comes from Peter himself. When the people were asking who Jesus was, the great King Herod decided that he needed to meet this miracle worker, quite possibly because he was afraid that John the Baptist had returned from the dead to draw attetion to his questionable morality once again. But Peter, when Jesus asked him for his opinion, answered “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

Peter may have been a thundering bonehead on many occasions, but he knew the power of God when he saw it. Watching Jesus feed the multitudes with virtually nothing convinced him that this was indeed the Messiah that Israel had been waiting for. Jesus then proceeds to tell them that he must suffer and die for the world.

Seen in this way, this passage seems to be preparing the disciples for what lay ahead. Jesus did a powerful miracle to confirm what they probably already strongly suspected; that Jesus was God’s anointed. Once they had passed that crisis point, he began to prepare them for what lay ahead; his miracle had a larger purpose than simply feeding people. Jesus wanted them to know that even though he would suffer and die at the hands of me, he had the authority and power to raise himself again, to perform an even bigger miracle for the whole world.

What is he preparing you for?

Click here to read Luke 8 on BibleGateway.com

Do you ever get the feeling that you’re focused on the wrong thing? A lot (maybe all)of magic tricks are based on the idea of misdirection. The performer grabs your attention with talking, hand movements, explosions, or other distraction, while all the time they are really pulling that spastic bird out of their jacket.

Sometimes we can feel like that in our spiritual life. We’re so focused on such-and-such particular issue (finances, what Sister Frustrating said to us on Sunday) that we miss what God is really doing. Then when the real crisis comes, we’re not ready for it.

SIGH. ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER STORM

Everyone knows the story in today’s chapter: Jesus and the mighty disciples are traversing the sea, a storm blows up, and the disciples bravely commit themselves the manly art of panic. They go to get to Jesus, who’s taking a siesta. We can almost see him roll his eyes, get out of bed, rebuke the waves (and the disciples), and head back to his bunk. The disciples are understandably in awe.

Fast forward to Jesus’ last night with his disciples. They go to the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus goes off to pray. He comes back to find his disciples resting their eyes, he wakes them, asks them to pray. He goes again to pray, comes back, and again find his trusty helpers dreaming away.

WHICH STORM DO YOU SEE?

See the irony? The disciples were panic-stricken when they saw their outward circumstances; they were in physical danger and were afraid, but Jesus was calmly sleeping through it all. But when the real crisis moment came, when Jesus was in his desperate hour of need, the disciples slept away, oblivious to the momentous occasion around them.

We can often fall victim to the same thing. When we’re in an immediate physical crisis, we panic and pray our hearts out for deliverance (and God often comes to our rescue). But we grow complacent when things are apparently going well, and don’t heed the warning signs and exhortations of Scripture to pray. Because we can’t see the spiritual realities, we may miss the important moments of life. We need to be on our guard and pray that God will give us the eyes to see what our real priorities should be.

Where is your focus today?