Category: Daily Thought

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The Sin of Sloth

Daily Reading

2Thessalonians 1-3

Daily Thought

The Seven Deadly Sins listed in Christian tradition are pride, greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, envy, and sloth. Sloth, the sin of laziness, is possibly the least noticed, but the most insidious. Paul warns the church at Thessalonica, “We hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies” (2Thessalonians 3:11). When people are not busy doing what they should, they are often busy doing what they shouldn’t, or at least dreaming about it. This sin of doing nothing becomes a breeding ground for all the other sins.

So Paul advises, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (2Thessalonians 3:11), a punishment connecting behavior to consequences–always a good idea. “As for you, brothers and sisters, do not grow weary in doing good” (2Thessalonians 3:13). 

The best antidote to laziness is love, serving others. Love is a verb, an action verb. There is no laziness in love.

Daily Prayer

My God, may I live life fully, actively, passionately serving others in the Name and to the glory of Your Son, Jesus Christ. May love drive me toward people, toward forgiveness and reconciliation when called for, toward charity to those in need, toward encouragement to the discouraged.

May I have no time for gossip, may there be no room for bitterness, may my life be too full to allow for either idolatry or idleness. May I stay single-focused on love, toward you with all my heart and soul and mind and strength, and toward others seeking their best.

Amen

Daily Question

In what kind of actions does love show up in your life?

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Full of Attitude

Daily Reading

1Thessalonians 1-5

Daily Thought

Paul begins a very happy letter to the church in Thessalonica, “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Thessalonians 1:2-3). The people are walking right and pleasing God, and Paul encourages them to “do so more and more” (1Thessalonians 4:1). They are loving on each another and Paul encourages them to “do this more and more” (1Thessalonians 4:10). His letter is full of attitude–good attitude–because attitude affects everything.

Listen to an interviewer tell two different applicants with two different attitudes what to expect from the same job. 

The interviewer asked the applicant, “Tell me about your last job.” Applicant #1: “Not good. Not good at all. The boss was unfair, moody, played favorites. The employees were mean and petty. You couldn’t trust anyone. That’s why I am applying here. I’m looking forward to a change.”

“Well, you are qualified. Congratulations, you are hired. But I do have bad news, I think you’ll find the same environment here.”

Next applicant; “Tell me about your last job.” Applicant #2: “Wonderful. I was sad to leave, but it couldn’t be helped. My boss was fair, a good man, encouraging. The office was like a family. Everyday was a pleasure.”

“Well, you are qualified. Congratulations, you are hired. And I have good news, I think you’ll find the same environment here.”

Paul’s letter is full of attitude because attitude affects everything. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1Thessalonians 5:16-18). Do this more and more. 

Daily Prayer

My God, each and every day is a gift. I like gifts. That’s a good way to wake up. I love starting the day, anticipating the joy of living fully for You. May this be my daily mindset. May my attitude reflect the life Your Son has given me, a life of joy and purpose, hope and love.

Thank You, God, for giving me life. I am looking forward to forever! 

Amen

Daily Question

Is your attitude mostly one of hope or one of despair? Why?

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Cobwebs

Daily Reading

Colossians 1-4

Daily Thought

She came every week with her mom to the Wednesday night prayer meeting. She was twelve, the youngest in the room, but she liked to pray and she liked the prayers of the people who came. Except one man. He prayed long every week, and every week finished with the same words, “and now, Lord, clean all the cobwebs out of our lives. Amen.”

At long last, she could take no more. The man, as always, prayed what he always prayed, finishing, as expected, with “and now, Lord, clean all the cobwebs out of our lives.” But before he could say “Amen,” she jumped to her feet and shouted, “Don’t do it, Lord! Kill the spider!”

That’s what Paul is shouting in his letter to the Colossian church, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you” (Colossians 3:5). In our war against sin, it is kill or be killed. We don’t need a cleaning, we need a killing, because sin is a fight to the death. It is not the cobwebs, but the spider; not our actions, but our “passion, evil desire, and covetousness” (Colossians 3:5). The heart of the matter is found in our hearts.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ~Colossians 3:15-16

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, You are holy and good. You didn’t save me merely to make me a better person, but a new creation, to die to myself and become a new life in You.

I don’t want to think and act the way I used to, but rather, to live the life You created me to live. May I put to death the desires, the thoughts, the habits of old, and put on the new life you have given me, a life of love and compassion, of goodness and peace, of thanksgiving for a better life, the best life, a life that gives You glory and pleasure.

Amen

Daily Question

What need to be put to death in your life?

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A Team Sport

Daily Reading

Philippians 1-4

Daily Thought

Paul begins his letter to the church in Philippi, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” (Philippians 1:3-5). Paul found joy in his partnership with others and the purpose which bound them together. Paul understood what it means to be a team, “Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose” (Philippians 2:5). 

There was no better coach in basketball than John Wooden. He had the stars, but that’s not why he won. He understood the team and the game. “No UCLA basketball player’s number was retired while I was coach, not because there weren’t outstanding players, but because other fellows who played on our team also wore those numbers.” Wooden argued, “The star of our team is the team.”

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others,” wrote Paul (Philippians 2:3-4). Wooden would agree, “A player who makes the team great is more valuable than a great player.” Christianity is a team sport. Our joy in following Jesus is found through our partnership with the team, the church, “being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” (Philippians 2:2), and the purpose of the game, “to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:11). 

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.” ~Philippians 2:5

Daily Prayer

God, Your ways are so beyond me. You are holy and good and just and righteous. I am a sinner, yet You came for me. My world does not work that way. Yours does. In my world, I chase what matters to me. In Your world, You chase… me! And everyone else!! You are the one who pursues, who seeks us and saves us, and You left everything to do it.

What kind of love is that? It’s a love I want more than anything in the world. It is Your love that compels me to leave everything and follow You. I can truly love others because You first loved me. 

Amen

Daily Question

Who are you helping to become better?

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Bonfires

Daily Reading

Ephesians 4-6

Daily Thought

You should not put out a beach bonfire by shoveling sand on the flames. Sand locks in the heat and the smoldering coals get hotter and hotter. I learned this the hard way when I stepped on a hot spot and scorched my bare foot, and there is a picture of bitterness. Paul says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice” (Ephesians 4:31), each word inflicting more damage. Bitterness is buried hurt, a wrath waiting to ignite. The burst of anger seems to come out of nowhere, but it was laying in wait just under the skin. Left unchecked comes clamor, a loud attack of anger. I want to hurt you, physically if necessary. Then slander, I want to hurt you deeper, emotionally. We’ve heard, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” The guy who made up that little ditty was an idiot. I know I’m not supposed to say idiot, but apparently words don’t bother him. Meanwhile, for the rest of us, words do the greater damage. Lastly comes malice–I just want to hurt you. Period.

The point: stop it early. “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger” (Ephesians 4:26). Do not bury bitterness. It does not smother, it smolders. Deal with it. Today.

Paul tells us to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15), and Jesus describes what that might look like, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother” (Matthew 18:15). You and your brother (or sister) are not actually alone, however, because Jesus reminds you, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20). These are the times when we need Jesus most. Thank You for being there, Jesus.

Daily Prayer

My Father, let no corrupting talk come out of my mouth, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Help me be one who imitates You, who is ready to forgive, as You forgave me, who is tenderhearted, who seeks unity. May I walk in love, may I look like You.

Amen

Daily Question

How can you tell if you’re losing control of your anger?

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God’s Poem

Daily Reading

Ephesians 1-3

Daily Thought

I was a kid taking guitar lessons, and Jack was my teacher. Jack was a master on the classical guitar. Torroba’s Sonatina, Etude #5 by Villa-Lobos, Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie, I practiced and I played as best I could. Then I would hand the guitar to my teacher. Jack would perform the same music–full of plunks and scratches when I played–in his hands something beautiful, heavenly. The guitar was in the hands of the master now.

Paul, in verse 10 of Ephesians 2, calls us God’s workmanship, which is in the Greek, poiema. You can hear our English word, poem. God the poet, and “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). In the hands of the Master now.

Notice it does not say “you” or “I,” but “we,” we together, and not merely by being human, it is the work of Jesus Christ in us. We must be placed in the hands of the Master, and then, we together, the body of Christ, his church, become something beautiful, heavenly, the majesty of God. Every artist has their masterpiece, and God is an artist, and we are his poem, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

Daily Prayer

Father in heaven, You are wonderful. Truly wonderful. What a world. What a creation. The heavens, the oceans, the mountains. Fabulous. And me, too. Fearfully and wonderfully made in Your image.

As I return myself to Your hands, making You master of my life, may I respond to Your leading and reflect Your wisdom and truth and love. Mold me again into a vessel for Your glory. Make my life count because it is lived for You.

Amen

Daily Question

How has God made you better?

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A Covenant of Freedom

Daily Reading

Galatians 4-6

Daily Thought

I had to sign a student covenant when I enrolled in a Christian college my freshman year, a list of rules including, “I will not dance, drink, smoke, or gamble.” I was a terrible dancer, too young to drink, didn’t smoke, and typically lost at cards, so I signed, but I did wonder why. After all, didn’t Paul say, “for freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). These rules did not sound like freedom.

Of course, freedom does not mean you can do anything, because when it is Christ who sets you free, you won’t want to do just anything. Some things actually send us back into slavery, and Paul mentions “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Galatians 5:19-21). Do not do those things, he says, or they will take over your life and master you. You will not be free at all.

But there are certain things you can enjoy any time, all the time. That list Paul calls the  fruit of the Spirit. I’ve often wondered if perhaps this would be a better covenant for a Christian college: I will pursue “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). That means I can do those things anytime I want. 

A covenant of freedom. I would rather sign that one.

Daily Prayer

My God, You have changed everything about my life. I used to think I was in charge and could do anything I wanted, but I discovered that those things took over, and pretty soon, I did them whether I wanted to or not. They were in charge and they weren’t good. So I asked You to take over, and Your Son saved me, and Your Holy Spirit is changing me. My desires are becoming Your desires, and I am doing more and more good, not because I have to, but because I want to. Thank You. It’s a better way to live!

Amen

Daily Question

How well does the fruit of the Spirit–love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law–describe you?

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A Free Gift

Daily Reading

2Corinthians 10-13

Daily Thought

Paul has a paternal relationship with the Corinthians–he is dad and they are his children–and parents provide for their kids, not the other way around, “for children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children” (2Corinthians 12:14).

Jack’s mom came downstairs to start breakfast one morning and found a bill from her twelve-year-old son on the kitchen counter: mowing the lawn $6; drying the dishes $1; raking leaves $6; cleaning garage $7; total owed $20. She smiled and made his breakfast. 

That afternoon, Jack came home from school and found next to a plate of cookies, an envelope with a twenty dollar bill inside and a note from his mom: washing clothes – nothing; vacuuming room – nothing; cooking meals – nothing; driving everywhere – nothing; baking cookies – nothing. Love, Mom.

This is the heart of Paul, “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (2Corinthians 12:15), love with no strings attached. All for nothing–any price tag we attach to love devalues it.

Daily Prayer

I thank You, God, for Your grace, for the righteousness that comes from Your Son, for the power that comes through Your Spirit. You love is worth everything, yet the cost of love is borne by the lover, and that is You, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”

Sometimes I get the idea that I have something to offer You, something You need. I should remember, and I shall remember, that everything I am is because of You. Everything I do, may it give You pleasure and bring You glory. And everything You have given me, may I share it freely, because it cost me nothing and You everything.

Amen

Daily Question

When you love someone, what do you expect in return?

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Take the Deal!

Daily Reading

2Corinthians 5-9

Daily Thought

Paul’s life is shaped by his awareness that this is but his first, his earthly life, and there is eternity to come, “for we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2Corinthians 5:1). “You only live once” has been oft said and never true. We are not long for this world is Paul’s point, so don’t settle in. I resonate with the words of Paul, more in my sixties than when I was sixteen, and look forward to eternity, “for in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling” (2Corinthians 5:2), and there is nothing wrong with that. 

But not so fast, there is work to be done.

“We are ambassadors for Christ,” says Paul, “God making his appeal through us on behalf of Christ’ (2Corinthians 5:20). An ambassador is a citizen of one kingdom living in another, representing his home country to a foreign land. Jesus is King and eternity is our home, but there are many who still make this world their home and do not know there is more yet to come.

There is good news and bad news, however. Bad news first. Between now and eternity stands judgment–“we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2Corinthians 5:10), and that is bad news because none of us have been all that good–not good enough for a heavenly dwelling. Now, the good news, and as God’s ambassadors, we bring it. For our sake God “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Corinthians 5:21). That is the Gospel, God’s offer to anyone who will receive this gift: Jesus gets your sin and you get his righteousness, and it is in his righteousness you stand before the judgment seat of God. It is an incredible offer, profoundly unfair, and you win. 

Take the deal!

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, You are holy and good. Your Son has taken the penalty of death for my sin and given me the reward of life through his righteousness. Thank You so much!

May I rid myself of the desires, the thoughts, the habits of old. May I put them to death. Help me kill them. I don’t want to think and act the way I used to, but rather, to live the life You created me to live, a life of service and love, of goodness and peace, that gives You glory and pleasure. Make me one who gives those on earth a taste of heaven.

Amen

Daily Question

Why can’t we be good enough for heaven on our own?

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Let There Be Light

Daily Reading

2Corinthians 1-4

Daily Thought

Light remedies darkness, and in the beginning, “darkness was over the face of the deep, and God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:2-3). But there is another kind of darkness, a darkness in the heart of humanity, for “people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19). Our world is veiled in darkness, explains Paul, because “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2Corinthians 4:4).

The Apostle Paul recalls how the face of Moses shone when he descended from Mt. Sinai, “because he had been talking with God” (Exodus 34:29). Moses had been on the mountain forty days and forty nights, and so bright was the glory on his face that he wore a veil to dim the glow. “But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed,” writes Paul, “and we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2Corinthians 3:16, 18). 

When I was a kid, my brother and I would shut our bedroom door, turn off the light, and play catch with a rubber, glow-in-the-dark ball. But first you had to get the ball to glow. The longer and closer we held the ball near the light, the longer and brighter it would shine in the darkness.

“You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” ~Matthew 5:14, 16

Stay close to the light because God’s answer is still, “Let there be light.”

Daily Prayer

My God, Your light shines in this dark world and reveals what is good and pure and right. May my life be a reflection of Your glory. The more time I spend in Your light, the brighter I glow. May my life shine in such a way that people know I have been in Your presence. May Your church do Your works in this world so that You are known and loved and followed.

Amen

Daily Question

In what ways can the world see Jesus in the way you “glow”?