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1 John 1:8-2:2

25 Sep

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.
1 John 2:1-2

Dear God, thank you. The “verse of the day was actually just 1 John 2:1. I just wanted to keep the others around it for context, but my first thought when I read verse 2:1 this morning was, “Thank you!” Thank you, Jesus, for pleading my case.

Funny, but I just got this song going on my head by For King and Country. It’s called “Priceless” and pretty much describes how you see me thanks to Jesus. I’m just so grateful. Thank you.

Now, here’s an interesting question: Why don’t I share more with others this thing for which I’m so grateful? Maybe I’m not as grateful as I think I am.

Father, first, thank you. Second, I’m sorry. Help me to take your message into my day and share it with others and give them the joy and peace you give me.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 25, 2019 in 1 John

 

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Hebrews 10:31-39

24 Sep

It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever. So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.” But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.
Hebrews 10:31-39

Dear God, the other night I heard a woman say that she was tired of all of the persecution the church is under right now. I’ve got to tell you, at least living in this part of the country, I feel zero persecution. There is certainly nothing happening in our entire country that rises to the level of what is described here. We are absolutely soft.

But what I want to look at are the first words of this passage: “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Why is it terrible? I think the author is saying that I am no longer my own. When I submit my will and my life then I am yours and sometimes that will lead me to places I don’t want to go. I have to deny some things that bring me immediate gratification and exchange them for humility and service. I have to love you and other things more than myself. I must discipline myself to throw off the sin that entangles me and press on towards the goal you have set for me.

What do I get in exchange? Mercy and freedom. Peace. Joy. There is no other source for such things.

Father, no, for me it is not a terrible thing to be in your hands. You are good and I am grateful for you. My life has not turned out as I had hoped or dreamed, really in any way. But I wouldn’t trade it. I have it better than I deserve. Please reveal to me how you would like to use me today to love others and serve you.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 24, 2019 in Hebrews

 

Romans 5:3-4

23 Sep

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.
Romans 5:3-4

Dear God, I spoke to a home church last night and it struck me that there was this one part of our time together that we talked about parenting our adult children. Knowing when to help. Knowing when not to help. When to advise and when to remain silent and let you work.

Now that mine are both in their 20’s, I have taken a huge step back and my prayer every day is that you will do in their lives what you need to do to accomplish your will. You choose their significant others. You choose their struggles. You choose their circumstances. I will be here to love them and to give them the knowledge that their father loves them. I will reach out to them every once in a while to maintain that connection, but at this point, their lives are theirs. And my life is mine. I have my own struggles. I have my own challenges. I have my own path that you laid out for me. Their lives are not mine. They are yours. My life is not mine. It is yours.

Father, help me to embrace the trials before me. Redeem them into things that will bring you glory. Whether that be strengthening me or using me in the lives of others, please help me to glorify you in all that I do. Give me what you need me to have. Give to others what you need them to have through me. And please surround my wife and children. Guide them and love them.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 23, 2019 in Romans

 

Joel 2:23

20 Sep

Rejoice, you people of Jerusalem! Rejoice in the Lord your God! For the rain he sends demonstrates his faithfulness. Once more the autumn rains will come, as well as the rains of spring.
Joel 2:23

Dear God, I always talk about using peace as my litmus test for how I’m doing with you. Well, I’m apparently not doing well at the moment. I feel overwhelmed by both the amount of work I have to do and the problems I have to solve. I feel anxious about your provision. I sat down last night to start to work on next year’s budget for where I work, and even though you have provided financially and materially through great staff, I find myself being fearful about where the provision will come from next year. I talk a good game and I think people see the different fruits of the Spirit in me, but I’ll bet anyone who really knows me and were to talk to me now would see that peace isn’t there like it should be.

So what am I doing wrong? I’m spending daily time with you in prayer. I’m mixing in some praise and worship. I talk about you to others and I am quick to give you credit for all of the good things you have done this year. But you know what I’m not doing? I’m not trusting you for this moment and the next. I’m trying to solve it all myself. I’m trying to take you place in my life and, ultimately, the glory that you deserve for myself. I am not a humble man. As I look at our organization’s needs for next year, both in terms of services we offer and the resources we collect, my first thoughts are around how I will go out and put this all together and not how you will do it.

Then there is the work in front of me that I have to get done. I am simply pressing too hard and trying to get all of this done in my own strength. I can feel myself conjuring up the energy to do it, and it is exhausting. I’m being manic when I should simply be resting in you and working as unto you.

Father, help me to not try to be you. Help me to let go of my desire to supplant you and to take your glory. Let your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven through my life in any way that you wish. Give me the strength you need me to have, give us the resources you need us to have, and when I am talking to someone who might partner with us, help me to do it from the perspective of it being about blessing them instead of blessing me. Oh, and I’m sorry for how I’ve been acting.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 20, 2019 in Joel

 

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Ephesians 4:29

19 Sep

Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
Ephesians 4:29

Dear God, this is one of those great reminder verses. It’s a verse I’ve read many times before. And this is a prayer I’ve prayed many times before. I need to be nothing but uplifting in my words, and when criticism must be delivered it needs to be loving and constructive and not biting and mean.

Why? Because I hurt you, your creation, and myself when I allow myself to sink into the cesspool of making me feel better about myself through the putting down of others. When I stop to think about the insecure part of me that is fed when I choose to not be generous with someone else, I get creeped out. To know that my natural state needs someone else to decrease so that my own ego can increase is disturbing. But you have released my ego from that need to increase. Your sacrifice says I’m good enough and, in fact, I have some room to give if that’s what it takes to build up my sisters and my brothers around me.

Father, it would be nice to have people at my funeral be able to say, “I never heard him say a negative word against anyone.” Of course that would never be said now, and it will take years to change the memories of those who know me, but let this be day one. Let this be the first day of the rest of my life, when my words were good, helpful, and encouraging.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 19, 2019 in Ephesians

 

Friendship

18 Sep

A few years ago, a colleague mentioned to me that he was going to meet with David Brooks, the New York Times columnist and author of some of my favorite books. I gave my colleague an assignment: “Ask him what he would do with several million dollars. What does he think the world really needs right now?”

A few weeks later, David published his answer in the New York Times, which really surprised me. His answer surprised me, too: “…friendship is not in great shame in America today [so]…I’d try to set up places that would cultivate friendships.”

Why? Friends help each other make good decisions. They bring out the best in each other. They hold each other accountable.

Good friends help each other become better people.

David Rogers, President, H.E. Butt Foundation
Echoes Vol. 4, No. 3

Dear God, I was trying to think of what I wanted to talk to you about this morning when I sat down to breakfast and I saw the latest issue of the H.E. Butt Foundation’s magazine/newsletter on the table. I opened it up with the intent of being inspired, and the first thing I saw on the inside cover was David Rogers’s editorial on the inside cover. The importance of friendship seemed like something good to pray to you about.

Friendships have been harder to achieve as an adult than I thought they would be. It is so easy to isolate. Even when I’m out in public, it is easy to have a hundred casual relationships that at one level are friends, but they certainly aren’t on a deeper level.

I suppose I’m grateful not only for my wife, but also for a friend with whom I visit every week on the phone. We share our lives with each other. We talk about accountability issues. I wish he lived closer, but, on the other hand, if he lived closer would we make the time to visit like we do now? Is the distance actually good for us in how we discipline ourselves to visit?

I don’t know how many levels of friendships there are, but let’s say I break it simply into three: Superficial, Moderate, and Deep. Superficial are the relationships I have with most of the people in this town. They know me, but they don’t really know me. And I’m the same way with them. Moderate friendships are like the ones in my church group. They are people with whom my wife and I meet once a month and we talk about our lives in those settings, but we don’t really see each other outside of that. Then there are the deep friendships, of which I only have a couple. I’m grateful for them, but I wonder if I shouldn’t have more.

Father, help me to find the relationships you want me to have so that you can use me in other men’s lives and so that you can use them in mine. Help us to sharpen each other so that we might be the men you need us to be for our families, our work, and our community. And most of all, for your glory.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 18, 2019 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Ephesians 4:31-5:2

17 Sep

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
Ephesians 4:31-5:2

Dear God, yesterday at Rotary one of our members gave a great invocation. He talked about civility and disagreeing with respect. He talked about our current national discourse on politics. He prayed that you would teach us to love each other.

I’m having to go to some meetings of different political parties during this 10-day stretch, and I’ve decided what I dread most about it isn’t what they say about their own beliefs, but how they insult people from the other side. And it goes beyond them thinking that they other person is wrong or even stupid. They start to claim that they aren’t patriotic and don’t love our country. They claim that the other side wants us to become fascists or socialists (depending on which group I’m visiting). The hate is real, and I don’t like being around it.

Father, I’ve been thinking about writing an editorial or letter to the editor about how we need each other. It starts with us needing you, moves to us needing our spouses, and then beyond that into our friends and community. As far as Republicans and Democrats go, the need each other too. They need each other for balance. If either one were in control, not balanced by the other, our country would either run into a ditch on the left of a ditch on the right. But with both sides holding onto the wheel, the car stays down the road. The same is true in my marriage, at work, in the boardroom where I work, and in our community. You made us all part of one body. Help me to me part of uniting it.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 17, 2019 in Ephesians

 

James 3:13-18

16 Sep

If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.
James 3:13-18

Dear God, I’ve never thought of this passage in this way before, but this is another way of looking at the fruits of the Spirit in myself or someone else.

  • Honorable living
  • Good works
  • Humility
  • Peace loving
  • Gentle
  • Willing to yield
  • Mercy
  • Good deeds
  • No favoritism
  • Sincere
  • Peacemaking
  • Righteous

The opposite of God’s wisdom:

  • Bitter jealousy
  • Selfish ambition
  • Boasting
  • Lying
  • Selfishness
  • Disorder
  • Evil works

So I guess my question is, what do I do with the second type of person? How do I respond to them in my family, in my community, in my work, and even as my political/governmental leader?

Ironically, I think it goes back to the first list James gave me. If I’m in you and I’m doing those things then my life will influence the sphere you want me to influence. I will carry you into my world and be your ambassador. But if I try to manufacture those actions myself without relationship with you then I will find that second list creeping into and through my life.

Father, I’m sorry for any times yesterday I exhibited bitterness, jealousy, pride, lying, ambition, disorder, or evil in any way. I’m sure I touched on all of them in one way or another. Live through me so that my life will be whole and you can then use me however you will.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 16, 2019 in James

 

“Grace Wins” by Matthew West

15 Sep

“Grace Wins” by Matthew West

In my weakest moment I see you
Shaking your head in disgrace
I can read the disappointment
Written all over your face

Here comes those whispers in my ear
Saying who do you think you are
Looks like you’re on your own from here
‘Cause grace could never reach that far

But, in the shadow of that shame
Beat down by all the blame
I hear you call my name sayin’ it’s not over
And my heart starts to beat
So loud now, drowning out the doubt
I’m down but I’m not out

There’s a war between guilt and grace
And they’re fighting for a sacred space
But I’m living proof
Grace wins every time
No more lying down in death’s defeat
Now I’m rising up in victory
Singing hallelujah
Grace wins every time

Words can’t describe the way it feels
When mercy floods a thirsty soul
A broken side begins to heal
And grace returns what guilt has stole

And, in the shadow of that shame
Beat down by all the blame
I hear you call my name sayin’ it’s not over
And my heart starts to beat
So loud now, drowning out the doubt
I’m down but I’m not out

There’s a war between guilt and grace
And they’re fighting for a sacred space
But I’m living proof
Grace wins every time
No more lying down in death’s defeat
Now I’m rising up in victory
Singing hallelujah
Grace wins every time

For the prodigal son, grace wins
For the woman at the well, grace wins
For the blind man and the beggar, grace wins
For always and forever, grace wins
For the lost out on the street, grace wins
For the worst part of you and me, grace wins
For the thief on the cross, grace wins
For a world that it lost

There’s a war between guilt and grace
And they’re fighting for a sacred space
But I’m living proof
Grace wins every time
No more lying down in death’s defeat
Now I’m rising up in victory
Singing hallelujah
Grace wins every time
Every time
I’m living proof grace wins every time

Source: LyricFind
Songwriter: Matthew West

Dear God, the lyrics of this song deserve some time. On a macro level, this song is all about your Plan A vs Satan’s Plan A. Satan’s Plan A is all about dividing us and using judgment and shame between us to accomplish it. Your Plan A is to do your work in the world through unity with us and then us with each other. The way we are able to do that is your grace for us and then our grace with each other. If we actually tap into your grace then, as this song says, “Grace wins every time.”

In my weakest moment I see you
Shaking your head in disgrace
I can read the disappointment
Written all over your face

Here comes those whispers in my ear
Saying who do you think you are
Looks like you’re on your own from here
‘Cause grace could never reach that far

This is the first part in Satan’s Plan A. He lies to us about you. He takes the shame we feel in letting others down and he applies the same standard to you. Yes, our family and friends might judge us for what we’ve done, but you see us through the blood of Jesus. People who feel judged by you are taking the judgment they feel from others, including Christians, and associating that with you. But you are just waiting to love us and then give us freedom from whatever is behind our shame, whether it is something we’ve done or something that was done to us.

But, in the shadow of that shame
Beat down by all the blame
I hear you call my name sayin’ it’s not over
And my heart starts to beat
So loud now, drowning out the doubt
I’m down but I’m not out

I have some people in my heart right now who need to hear your call. This is where I struggle–what is my role in helping to be your voice to them? What exactly am I afraid of? I guess I’m afraid that if I address your grace for them then they will feel judged that I’m sitting around thinking they are awful people. In the case of a couple of them, in particular, I suspect things were done to them for which they feel shame and it has colored the rest of their lives. But it’s only a suspicion. How do I know? How do I broach the subject? How do I offer them your grace without sounding either 1.) sanctimonious or 2.) judgmental myself.

There’s a war between guilt and grace
And they’re fighting for a sacred space
But I’m living proof
Grace wins every time
No more lying down in death’s defeat
Now I’m rising up in victory
Singing hallelujah
Grace wins every time

Maybe that’s the answer. Maybe I tell them my story. Maybe I tell them about the guilt and shame I used to feel and how your grace won in my life. Maybe I need to tell them how I still feel shame over some of my decisions and I still need your grace. Maybe I need to tell them I love them and I truly want the best for them. Maybe I need to tell them that I have firsthand experience that your grace wins every time.

Words can’t describe the way it feels
When mercy floods a thirsty soul
A broken side begins to heal
And grace returns what guilt has stole

I’ve experienced the tears and release of turning loose of my guilt and shame and embracing your forgiveness. It’s amazing. He’s right. “Words can’t describe the way it feels, when mercy floods a thirsty soul.” To quote Dennis Jernigan song, “I wish I could take your heart into my heart. I wish I could show you just how good it feels to let go of the pain you know is killing you and cling to the only one who can heal you.”

For the prodigal son, grace wins
For the woman at the well, grace wins
For the blind man and the beggar, grace wins
For always and forever, grace wins
For the lost out on the street, grace wins
For the worst part of you and me, grace wins
For the thief on the cross, grace wins
For a world that it lost

I’ll tell you who else wins. The man who feels shame for lust. The woman who feels shame for how her children turned out. For the person who felt judged by and could never please their parents. For the child who was sexually abused. For the adult who was sexually assaulted. For all of us, grace wins every time.

Father, I really, earnestly pray that you will guide me in knowing how to be your messenger of grace to those around me. Show me what to do in each relationship and opportunity I have.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 15, 2019 in Hymns and Songs

 

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1 Peter 3:8-9

13 Sep

Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing.
1 Peter 3:8-9

Dear God, I wish we could stop assuming the worst in others. Man, Satan is good at this. He is so good at dividing us.

But Peter is right here. We should sympathize with each other. We should love others as brothers and sisters. We should be tender hearted. We should be humble. We should NOT repay evil for evil. We should NOT retaliate with insults when people insult us. We should bless others who curse us.

Now I need to change all of the “we’s” above to “I’s.” This is for Christians as a group, but it’s for me personally as well. I can be too dismissive of other people. I can judge way too easily. In short, I can be as much a part of the problem as anyone.

Father, whether someone is as bad as I am wont to believe or not, I should still show them love. The worst person I know should feel as much love from me as the best person I know. Why? Because that’s how you love me. It’s how you love them. And I am yours. I am your ambassador. Help me to recognize these attitudes in myself and opportunities to love and reject hate in real time so that you might have glory and they might be drawn to you. At the end of the day, I know it will draw me closer to you as well.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 13, 2019 in 1 Peter

 
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