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Psalm 139:23-24

07 Mar

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 Point out anything in me that offends you,
    and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Psalm 139:23-24

Dear God, is this a prayer I’m really willing to pray? You’re God, after all. I mean, if I am a criminal and have things to hide, I can hide them really creatively, invite the police in and say, “Search me,” and they likely won’t find anything. It reminds me of Casablanca when Rick hides the stolen letters of transit in Sam’s piano and then allows the police to search his place. Things can be hidden from man.

But you’re God. You know my heart better than I do. There is nothing I can hide from you. I can be obstinate and turn my own blind eye to my sin. I can distract myself and avoid you. But I can’t say these words in verses 23 and 24 of Psalm 139, mean them, and then look the other way. Verses 7-12 of this same psalm say:

7 I can never escape from your Spirit!
    I can never get away from your presence!
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
    if I go down to the grave, you are there.
9 If I ride the wings of the morning,
    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    and your strength will support me.
11 I could ask the darkness to hide me
    and the light around me to become night—
12     but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
    Darkness and light are the same to you.

David knew there was no hiding from you. I know that too.

So Father, I offer these words to you with as much sincerity as I can. Search me and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Forgive my lack of faith. Forgive my selfishness. Forgive my vanity. Forgive how I judge others. Forgive how I slander. Holy Spirit, reveal to me what offends you, my Jesus, and the Father, my Triune God. Lead me along the path to be with God forever.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 7, 2026 in Psalms

 

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Isaiah 25:1

06 Mar

25 O Lord, I will honor and praise your name,
    for you are my God.
You do such wonderful things!
    You planned them long ago,
    and now you have accomplished them.

Isaiah 25:1

Dear God, this is the verse of the day from Bible Gateway, and it’s such an interesting one because it’s totally out of context. Isaiah is in the middle of this devastating prophecy about Tyre. But here’s what I like about it. It’s a reminder that, regardless of what might be happening in the land, you are to be praised. Your name is to be honored. You are my God. You do such wonderful things! You’ve planned all of this. Nothing, regardless of how horrible or wonderful escapes your notice. And I’ll add this to this verse. You don’t bite your nails and fret. You don’t worry. You are God!

I was talking about a friend whom I speak with every Friday morning, just a moment ago, and we were talking about how weird it is that our country is at war, and, outside of our gas prices being higher, our lives are not impacted at all. I will still drive to work this morning. The contractor will continue building. There are good people in the world right now who are really suffering today and so far my toughest decision has been which box of cereal to choose for breakfast. How do I handle that. I told him, “To put it in biblical terms in the time of Jesus, it’s weird to be a Roman living in Rome while the people in other parts of the world like Israel are experiencing the weight of our power.”

Father, I honestly don’t know what my response to the suffering in all different parts of the world today is supposed to be. I know prayer is the first response, but I’m not even sure how to pray. I guess I will pray, first and foremost, for the wisdom and humility of our leadership. I pray that they will be wise and shrewd. I pray that they will receive your counsel through voices they can hear. I pray that you will protect over people, provide food and care for them. Help all of this to stop. Please, ring it to an end. And I want to mention my niece and her husband really quickly. I normally do this part of my prayer silently to myself, but I want to ask that you please be with him and guide the doctors who work on his today. Strongly support him and my niece. Love them well. Impart your peace and power to them. Thank you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 6, 2026 in Isaiah

 

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Waiting

04 Mar

“We Are Waiting” by Geoff Moore & The Distance

We are waiting, waiting
All of Your people anticipating
Come hear our plea, we are down on our knees, our knees
Oh come quickly Lord, You’re all that we need
Come find your people are waiting

From all across the earth our voices can be heard
A chorus of the faithful calling to the word
A hymn of invitation, our humble offering
Come find Your people are waiting

We are waiting, we are waiting
All of Your people anticipating
Come hear our plea, we are down on our knees
Oh come quickly Lord, You’re all that we need
Come find your people are waiting

With hands into the soil, and hearts toward the sky
We wait to hear Your call to draw us to Your side
But ’til that final day may You find us in the fields
Working with hearts that are waiting

We are waiting, we are waiting
All of Your people anticipating
Come hear our plea, we are down on our knees
Oh come quickly Lord, You’re all that we need
Come find your people are waiting

As a mother awaits her baby, all of creation is ready
For the trumpet to sound and the heavens unfold
We’ll rise from the ground to see You Lord
All of Your people anticipating
Come hear our plea, we are down on our knees

We are waiting, we are waiting
All of Your people anticipating
Come hear our plea, we are down on our knees
Come quickly Lord, You are all that we need
Come find your people are waiting

Written by Geoff Moore and Geof Barkley

Dear God, I thought about the patient prayer this morning and waiting on you. That’s when this old song from Geoff Moore about 30 years ago came to mind. I was initially thinking more along the lines of perseverance and just waiting on you to answer our prayers in your time so I didn’t think this song really fit where my head was. But then I spent a little bit of time with it and thought about it some more. As I looked at the verses I really liked the imagery in the second verse:

With hands into the soil, and hearts toward the sky
We wait to hear Your call to draw us to Your side
But ’til that final day may You find us in the fields
Working with hearts that are waiting

At the end of the day, you are what I’m waiting for. Now, frankly, I’m not really toiling and looking for Jesus to return any given day. I expect to die and see you then. But while I wait for that day, I will pray to you for the things of this earth that I care about: my wife, my children and their significant others, my family, my friends, my community, my country, my world, etc. And there are things that are going in ways that I don’t like. And there are some things that I pray a lot about. And there are some things that I’m frustrated you haven’t made it all work out the way I selfishly want it to work out. And so I keep praying, and through that process I hope you are doing your good in those situations and those lives. But that doesn’t mean I am called out of the world to just sit and wait. No, as this verse says, I need to keep working (with hands into the soil) and seeking you and your direction (heart toward the sky). And when the day of my death or your return comes, may you find me in the field where you’ve place me, working alongside others who are waiting.

Father, I remember Gary Thomas saying in a talk on marriage that I heard him give that he doesn’t hear enough sermons on perseverance. Help me to persevere in my prayer, in my discipleship with you, in my work, and in my waiting. And as far as the things I’m praying for that have not come to fruition in the way I think they should, I pray that you will give me the peace to know that you aren’t doing any of this so that I get things the way I want them. You are doing it so that your will might come and be done on earth as it is in heaven. Help me to be about your work and to have patience to wait.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 4, 2026 in Hymns and Songs

 

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Desperation

03 Mar

36 Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.” 37 He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. 38 He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

39 He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

40 Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? 41 Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”

42 Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43 When he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open.

44 So he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again. 45 Then he came to the disciples and said, “Go ahead and sleep. Have your rest. But look—the time has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Up, let’s be going. Look, my betrayer is here!”

Matthew 26:36-46

Dear God, I don’t know that I’ll ever have to pray to you at this level of desperation, hoping that you’ll change your mind on something like this, but when I think of praying in desperation, this is the prayer in the Bible that comes to mind. Jesus, in the Garden, and hoping there might be a suitable Plan B.

But sometimes there simply isn’t a Plan B, and Plan A will cost me more than I want to pay. Or maybe it’s that life is just working out the way life is going to work out, and relieving me some sort of suffering will interrupt other plans. So I come to you in prayer, waiting for an answer, but one doesn’t come.

I’ve had one thing that’s caused me great pain for well over 10 years, and I pray about it almost every day, but, so far, I can’t see your answer. You might be actively answering it in ways that I cannot see. I’m trusting that you are. But still I continue to pray. But I can only imagine what my prayers would be like if I were to need to pray for my wife’s health or something like that. If her or my children’s lives were threatened, I cannot imagine what my prayers would look like.

Father, I like the fact that Jesus gave us an example of what a desperate prayer looking out for our own self-interests looks like. He told you what he hoped for and wanted, but he also submitted to you and what you needed from him. He didn’t want to do it, and that, frankly, makes the sacrifice mean that much more. If I knew that he just breezed through it and got the indication that he didn’t really suffer like an ordinary man would have then it would change how I see this whole story. But one things Jesus’s fear and reluctance shows me is that the sacrifice was real. The love for me was real. It legitimately cost him something he didn’t want to have to give, but he did it anyway. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Holy Spirit.

I pray this in the name on Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 3, 2026 in Matthew

 

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Ignorance

01 Mar

Dear God, I learned yesterday that our nation took extensive military action on another nation, killing it’s top leader and several beneath him. Was it a good thing? Was it a bad thing? The right thing to do? The wrong thing to do? I’d love to say that I know, but how could I possibly know? There are things that people know about this situation that I don’t know. And then there are things that you know in the spiritual realm that they don’t know. I’m just a little guy in a small town in the United States with incomplete information. So my response was to ask my wife to go to our church’s chapel and pray for…well, everyone. It was a prayer of ignorance, just asking for you to move in this historical moment. To move in your mysterious way. Does that prayer change you and your actions? Does my little prayer make a cosmic difference? I don’t know, but it felt important to do it, not only for your glory and plan, but for my understanding of my place in all of this and learning to trust you.

As I thought about our trip to the chapel, I thought about these prayers I’m doing to you about prayer. This is certainly an area of prayer–praying in ignorance. I don’t understand a given situation in my life. I don’t know why this family member, friend, or community member is acting the way they are, but I know they need prayer. I know they need to be part of your kingdom. I know they need your peace that only comes through walking through the narrow gate. I know they need your daily bread and forgiveness.

Father, when it comes right down to it, every prayer I pray is laced with ignorance because I have no idea what you’re doing or what is going on around me. I don’t know what you’re doing in my life, my wife’s life, my children’s lives, my friends’ lives, etc. at any given moment, much less the activities in the entire world. That’s why I submit myself to your kingdom and your will. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. My will is foolish and ignorant. I will likely almost always ask for the wrong thing. So I offer you the prayer today that I offered you last night. Be in every situation. Help the leaders to receive your counsel through voices they can hear around them. But regardless of how this all turns out or how it even impacts my life or my personal safety, my hope is not in anything that is happening here. My hope is only in you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 1, 2026 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Rage Room

28 Feb

Dear God, I logged on to Facebook this morning to post the daily Parents of the Bible Lenten Meditations I’ve been doing on my Parents of the Bible Substack for Lent, and I happened to see a woman’s post about a political thing. It was a bemoaning of everything Democrats have done wrong when in power over the last 20 years (well, 17 years). That’s fine. The part that disheartened me was at the end when it ended with four words and three exclamation points: “Now it’s our turn!!!”

Honestly, the woman who shared someone else’s post who is my Facebook “friend” isn’t someone I could pick out of a lineup. I’m not sure how I knew her once or if I’m supposed to know her now, but I’ve forgotten. So I went to figure out how I knew her, and I saw another post. In this one, she was was angry (the irony of this will be apparent in just a second) that her family’s reservation at a “Rage Room” had somehow been canceled, so she created a rage room of her own for a birthday party for a child so they could have their rage-filled experience. HOLD IT! What? A Rage Room? I had never heard of this before. These things exist? Of course, I had to Google one, and it was as bad as I thought it would be. The biggest fonts on the page that were reversed out in white on a black background were “Seek + Destroy,” “Unleash Your Rage,” “Release Your Inner Beast” (with beast in red), “Rage Sessions” (sessions was in red for some reason), “Signature Rages” (rages in red), and “Join the Rage Club” (rage club in red). Probably most disconcerting was the fact that nearly all of the images, including the image at the top of the page, and video reels were of children wielding destructive weapons while donning their safety mask and suit . Every week in Sports Illustrated, they would end their weekly news briefs column with a little blurb they called “This Week’s Sign the Apocalypse is Upon Us.” That was my thought when I saw this webpage.

But linking back to the woman who posted this. She is an older woman. I’d guess she’s in her 70s. And she is pursuing the idols of power, which in turn will let her down, which in turn will fill her with rage, which will in turn cause her to look for another idol to meet her needs, with will in turn let her down, which will in turn fill her with more rage. This pattern will continue until she is driven to create a rage room to teach other children to express their anger at something as rage to the point that violence is the acceptable outlet for it. It’s tragic and frightening.

Okay, so with all that said, and as I sit here in a moral, self-righteous judgment on this woman and anyone who is like her, let me step back and turn the viewer on myself. How do I handle my anger? How do I pray through my anger? As I think about prayer what I will say to the church I’m speaking at on the 18th, I think praying through anger, as well as the other emotions (yesterday, I talked about lament and disorientation) is important. As I sit here now, I’m trying to think of times the disciples got angry. Peter got angry with Jesus when Jesus was talking about dying. Peter had made an idol out of Jesus living his earthly life forever and probably had Jesus rising to political power somewhere in his calculus as well. He let his anger get to a point where he was an inadvertent temptation to Jesus on behalf of Satan (Matthew 16:21-23). I thought of James and John wanting to call down fire on the Samaritans for not welcoming them on their way to Jerusalem for what would be the Passion Week (Luke 9:51-56). There are all kinds of examples.

There are also examples of Jesus getting angry. Usually he would take that anger and use it to challenge the powers that be by asking them hard questions that would make them face their hypocrisy. The only time he really physically displayed his anger was when he turned over the tables in the Temple and grabbed a whip (John 2:13-16). But was the whip for the people or just to drive out the animals? Probably the animals. I don’t think Jesus was trying to whip people. He was making a point. An emphatic point. It wasn’t reckless rage. It was a thoughtful display of anger and making his point. And depending on when one thinks he did this (was is Passion week as in Matthew or early on as in John, or perhaps both) it could have also been an intentional ploy to provoke the Pharisees into killing him. Point being, the disciples displayed anger in unhealthy ways. Jesus used his anger to try to improve others in a constructive way.

Father, I have anger. I’m angry at people who have hurt me. I’m angry at people who I think are hurting our community, our country, and our world. And I think you give us this anger so we can pray through how you want to use it to motivate us. If I’m angry about vape shops opening in my town, what would you have me do with that anger? If I’m angry about sex trafficking, what would you have me do with that anger? If I’m angry about how someone has treated me or someone I love, what would you have me do with that anger? James and John were angry with the Samaritans. Maybe they needed to stop and pray for the Samaritans, and may the Holy Spirit would have given them a heart for the Samaritans’ pain–the pain that drove them to deny Jesus passage through their village. Maybe Peter could have taken his anger, and asked that you reveal to him if there was an idol and his own agenda you were trying to reveal to him. Now that I think about it, it would be interesting to make a list of the different ways you use anger in our lives. Maybe that’s what I’ll look at tomorrow. Until then, create in me a clean heart, oh God. And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on February 28, 2026 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Luke 11:1-13

26 Feb

11 Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

2 Jesus said, “This is how you should pray:

“Father, may your name be kept holy.
    May your Kingdom come soon.
3 Give us each day the food we need,
4 and forgive us our sins,
    as we forgive those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation.”

5 Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, 6 ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ 7 And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ 8 But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.

9 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

11 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? 12 Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! 13 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

Luke 11:1-13

Dear God, I think there might be a Bible Project series on the Lord’s Prayer. At least, I am pretty sure one of the podcasts I listen to–Bible Project, Voxology, or Slow Theology–did a series on it, looking at it slowly. A church has asked me to do a talk on prayer at one of their Lenten services in a few weeks, so I thought I’d take a look at how you taught us to pray this morning.

My biggest weakness in prayer is intercessory prayer. Praying for my friends who are ailing physically, struggling through life’s trials like divorce or losing a loved one or money, or who are just struggling with emotional pain. Then I noticed something about the Lord’s Prayer when I read it here in Luke this morning. As far as the prayer goes, Jesus doesn’t have praying for my neighbor as part of it. Hmm. That’s weird. The prayer is pretty self-centered (and not in a bad way). It’s about my worship of you. It’s about my wish for your kingdom here, in the present. It’s about my repentance and my temptations. It’s about my daily bread. Or is it?

I think I’ve been doing something wrong when I pray this prayer. I’ve intentionally personalized it and changed the “us” to “me.” “Give me this day my daily bread.” I’ve tried to make this an intentional prayer, but maybe the collective “us” was intentional on Jesus’s part. Both Matthew and Luke say it that way in the different English translations. And maybe that’s where the prayers for others comes in. For example, I have a friend in a physical rehab facility after a car accident. When I pray the collective “us,” maybe I’m praying for her provision for daily bread as well. And that’s part of her daily bread. Her healing–both physical and emotionally after the trauma of the accident and the road to recovery she’s facing.

Father, you are in heaven and you are glorious. You have left the world your Holy Spirit through Jesus. You are everything. You are powerful. You are God. Your name is to amazing, so I can only use words like Father or add a capital G to God to reference you. I do pray that they kingdom you designed us to be will come today on this earth. I pray that in the areas of the world, our country, and our community that are far from you will experience your light, love, joy, and peace. I pray for the daily bread–physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually–for my family, friends, and me. And I pray that you will forgive all of us, and help us know what it means to forgive and to give that forgiveness freely, for our own sake as well as for the forgiven. And protect us from Satan and his plans to tempt us in the wrong direction. To lead us into selfishness, idolatry, and away from you and your best for us. Father, the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on February 26, 2026 in Luke

 

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Jonah 3; Luke 11: 27-32

25 Feb

3 Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”

3 This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. 4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” 5 The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.

6 When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes. 7 Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city:

“No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all. 8 People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God. They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence. 9 Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.”

10 When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.

Jonah 3

27 As he was speaking, a woman in the crowd called out, “God bless your mother—the womb from which you came, and the breasts that nursed you!”

28 Jesus replied, “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.”

29 As the crowd pressed in on Jesus, he said, “This evil generation keeps asking me to show them a miraculous sign. But the only sign I will give them is the sign of Jonah. 30 What happened to him was a sign to the people of Nineveh that God had sent him. What happens to the Son of Man will be a sign to these people that he was sent by God.

31 “The queen of Sheba will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now someone greater than Solomon is here—but you refuse to listen. 32 The people of Nineveh will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.

Luke 11:27-32

Dear God, I was with a group of men last night and one of them posed a question while we were talking. What would happen if there were all of a sudden undeniable, definitive proof that everything in the heavenly realm was real. That the UFO sightings over the years were really angels. That Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection was real. That who he is as your son is real. That you are real. That everything in the Nicene Creed is true. What would be the outcome?

My answer was negative. I said I can imagine that Christians would use it as an excuse to grab as much power as possible and command those who choose not to follow you to yield. We would be emboldened to demand our neighbors walk under you. Taking it father than I did last night, after we got control of the government to a sufficient level, we would then start taking it to the other nations. We would go to war over it. We would insist that anyone not serving you be destroyed. It would be the Crusades.

Looking at the story of Nineveh and Jonah and then Jesus’s usage of it in his day, reminds me of a couple of things. The power to destroy should be yours and yours alone. You didn’t tell Jonah to threaten Nineveh with an opposing army. You didn’t tell Jonah to command the people of Nineveh to serve you. No one was compelled to do anything. You gave him a warning to deliver. You gave him a message of rebuke. But the power to administer any justice when it came to serving or not serving you, being evil and doing evil, remained with you. The Assyrians were doing some really reprehensible things, and you called them on it. But it was only Jonah’s job to deliver the message, not to lead a force that made people behave.

Then for Jesus using this story, he simply told the Israelites at the time, who were seemingly in no way doing the obvious evil stuff the Assyrians of Jonah’s day were doing, that they were just as bad in God’s sight. Why? Because they simply wouldn’t, basically, choose to walk through the narrow gate. This is coming off the story of Jesus casting out a demon, and their response was to claim he was of Satan. Their hearts were hard against your message of peace.

Father, I want to start with a humble heart for myself. I don’t want to be like an Israelite who chided, mocked, and accused Jesus of evil. I don’t want to be a fool. I want to be your humble servant. At the same time, I want to take my job as your messenger seriously, which I don’t think I do enough. I want to let people know who amazing your are and how it’s worth it to walk through the narrow gate. Repentance. Submission. Worship. Love of neighbor. These are all liberating and the path to joy. I want to be more bold about it. I want to be your messenger, but I want to do it in exactly the loving way Jesus did it. The apostles after the resurrection had all the evidence they needed that you were real and Jesus was the Messiah, but their path forward was to invite people into the truth and not compel them into it. Help me to know exactly what I’m inviting people into, and then invite them with great enthusiasm.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on February 25, 2026 in Jonah, Luke

 

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Leviticus 19:1-18

23 Feb

19 The Lord also said to Moses, 2 “Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

3 “Each of you must show great respect for your mother and father, and you must always observe my Sabbath days of rest. I am the Lord your God.

4 “Do not put your trust in idols or make metal images of gods for yourselves. I am the Lord your God.

5 “When you sacrifice a peace offering to the Lord, offer it properly so you will be accepted by God. 6 The sacrifice must be eaten on the same day you offer it or on the next day. Whatever is left over until the third day must be completely burned up. 7 If any of the sacrifice is eaten on the third day, it will be contaminated, and I will not accept it. 8 Anyone who eats it on the third day will be punished for defiling what is holy to the Lord and will be cut off from the community.

9 “When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. 10 It is the same with your grape crop—do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.

11 “Do not steal.

“Do not deceive or cheat one another.

12 “Do not bring shame on the name of your God by using it to swear falsely. I am the Lord.

13 “Do not defraud or rob your neighbor.

“Do not make your hired workers wait until the next day to receive their pay.

14 “Do not insult the deaf or cause the blind to stumble. You must fear your God; I am the Lord.

15 “Do not twist justice in legal matters by favoring the poor or being partial to the rich and powerful. Always judge people fairly.

16 “Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people.

“Do not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is threatened. I am the Lord.

17 “Do not nurse hatred in your heart for any of your relatives. Confront people directly so you will not be held guilty for their sin.

18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

Leviticus 19:1-18

Dear God, when I read the Old Testament reading for the Church this morning, it made me think of the poster from years ago: “All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten.”

Sure, this advice isn’t exactly the same, but your commands are basically that we be good people and treat people well. It makes me wonder what kind of commands followers of Baal wrote down as from him. What does the Quran say we should do? Are there any other Gods that simply call us to be good people? It seems like what I hear about the other ancient religions of this time is that they celebrate selfishness. The god is selfish and it encourages the people to be selfish. I don’t know this for a fact, but it seems like passages like this are what set you apart from what the world is calling me to. What my idols are calling me to. My idols tell me to max out my bank accounts and keep my money for myself. My idols tell me to get my wife to meet all my needs. My idols tell me to look to my government for safety and security and my children and job for self-esteem.

Father, you tell me to just worship you and be nice. Do the right thing. Do the right thing by you. Do the right thing by others. Be on the lookout for how I might serve. And I’ll be the first to say that I miss a lot of opportunities to love you and love others. I’m sorry for that. Help me to be better today.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on February 23, 2026 in Leviticus

 

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Romans 5:12-21

22 Feb

12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. 13 Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. 14 Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come. 15 But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. 16 And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

18 Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. 19 Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.

20 God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. 21 So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:12-21

Dear God, would I be willing to give up sin for Lent? Not would I be able to, but would I be willing to even if I could?

My wife and I were talking yesterday about the idea of giving up lying for Lent. It was kind of a joke, but I started to think about whether or not I’d be willing to tell zero lies for the next six weeks. As I sit here right now, would I be willing to commit to total and complete honesty? No little white lies about how great of a job someone did when maybe they didn’t, or how much I enjoyed something that I thougth was meh. No selective truth about what I want someone to know and obscuring what I don’t want them to know. No lies of omission? And that’s just lying. Coveting. Hate. Lust. Not only can I give up every sin in my life, but am I willing to try?

Then there’s Jesus. Jesus denied himself and the temptations Satan threw at him, but he was also more about being one with you and he let that be the driver of who he was and the actions he took and how he thought about people than he was about disciplining himself to not sin. Going back to the quote I mentioned a few days ago, “The pure in heart should be known more for their God-attentiveness than their sin-avoidance.”

Father, Jesus was not only redemption for us and a contrast with Adam, but he was also an example for us of what it looks like to be yours. So help me to be yours today. Help me to love others well and love them through the things that frustrate me. Even the things that have hurt me. Even now as I type these things I find myself thinking about ways I’ve been hurt and getting angry. Help me to deal with this anger in a healthy way and love through it. Love beyond it. There’s an appropriateness to anger. We can use it to help us know where to build boundaries and inform our decisions for the future, but there’s no room for bitterness in it. Help me to let go of my bitterness and simply worship you through it, remembering there are plenty of things I’ve done to anger others. Going to the verses for today from Psalm 51, “Have mercy on me, O God, in your good ness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me.”

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on February 22, 2026 in Romans

 

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