Category: Daily Thought

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Barking Dogs

Daily Reading

Psalm 32-35

Daily Thought

Dogs protect their homes. Annoying barking dogs. King David thought he got away with it, and he almost did.

Psalm 32 is David’s inside thoughts about the events of 2Samuel 11 and 12. The story begins, “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, King David remained in Jerusalem.” Sin’s moment arrives when you are not where you should be. The soldiers were away, and the wife of one of them was available. She conceived a child. To cover it up, the king brought the husband home from battle. If Uriah would enjoy a night with his wife, no one would know David had, but Uriah was one of David’s mighty men, an honorable man who does not take pleasure when his fellow warriors battle. The king got Uriah drunk, but Uriah’s integrity was stronger than the wine and Uriah slept on the porch. So, the king sent Uriah back to battle and arranged his murder in battle. David believed, at last, his secret was secure. He could rest. When you finally get a sin wrapped up all nice and tidy, you breathe a sigh of relief.

But the dogs kept barking. David had robbed their home, so they barked. Adultery, Woof, Deceit, Woof. Murder, Woof. And they don’t let up.

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. ~Psalm 32:3-4

Pray that you never find rest in sin. Worse than the barking would be peace with iniquity. Because of the dogs, David found the just discipline of the Lord, and it hurt. But through the pain, he also found God’s mercy and grace. He found peace.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance. ~Psalm 32:1, 7

Thank goodness for barking dogs.

Daily Prayer

Father in heaven, you are holy, you are good. Your kingdom is righteous. I long to live forever, a righteous man in a righteous kingdom. Do what it takes to prepare me for Your kingdom.

Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my thoughts. If there is any wicked way in me, straighten my path. Lead me in the way everlasting.

Amen

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God Is One

Daily Reading

Psalm 26-31

Daily Thought

The Shema is the centerpiece of the Hebrew prayer life. Shema means “Hear,” and it is the first word of Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one,” a prayer many Jews utter twice daily, their first words in the morning and final words before bed. A daily reminder that there is one, and only one, God, and he is our God and we are his people.

The Shema is the predominate sense of the Psalms. “The Lord is my light and my salvation; The Lord is the stronghold of my life” (Psalm 27:1). The Lord our God, the Lord is one. But more than that, the Lord is not only one, he is number 1. When that’s true, our Sunday morning language changes from “Do we have to go to church today?” to “Do we get to go to church today?”

One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple. ~Psalm 27:4

How many walk into church as if God should be glad they are there? David sought God’s permission to enter!

Our social apps invite us to check in at the places we visit. One family checked in to church on a Sunday morning and commented, “God 1st.” Later that afternoon, the family checked in again, this time at Oracle Park, “Baseball 2nd ~ Go GIANTS!!!” Wrong team (Go DODGERS!), but they got it right. God is One. Everything else get in line.

Daily Prayer

God, my Savior, I offer myself, body, soul, and spirit, as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to You. I love You, heart, soul, mind, and strength. Transform me, God, to reflect Your glory, to resemble Your Son.

You would rather I obey than play religion. My obedience is not a demonstration of my righteousness, but a sign of my love. I want to know Your Word, follow Your ways, and live in Your love. God, my strength comes from You; my life centers around You. Nothing more, nothing less.

Amen

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The Old Saw

Daily Reading

Psalm 21-25

Daily Thought

Something broke at my parent’s house and I needed tools, so I went to my dad’s workbench in the garage. I easily found the hammer because it was hanging in the same spot it has hung for forty years. One hammer. I thought of my tool chest where there are two identical hammers. In fact, I have two of lots of things, two of too much. There on the wall was my dad’s old circular saw, the same old drill, the same old level. I could keep going. It was a pleasant trip of nostalgia because I had used many of these tools as a teenager.

I buy a lot of backups and upgrades, and my dad does not, and his life is better for it. It is not that he is stripped to his mere needs, but his life is free of wants and full of delights because he delights in what he has. I delight in what is new, and therefore I want what’s next and what’s different. I want too much because I delight in too little.

The most familiar Psalm begins, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1), and the next line is telling, “He makes me…” (Psalm 23:2). I do not go on my own, but I am learning to follow my shepherd, and he leads me not to my wants or even my needs, but to his delights. Somehow green pastures and still waters restore my soul. I thought a full life meant having more, but it doesn’t. I have two of too many things.

Daily Prayer

Loving God, You promise a life that is full, even overflowing. My life is full of clutter. Let’s clean it up. God, teach me to love what You love, to share Your delights, to seek righteousness and goodness and purity and beauty and truth, things of eternity more than things of today.

May I pursue the One that I truly need, the One who fills my heart, the One who created me and leads me in the right direction. I love what You promise, that if I follow You, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. That is what I want!

Amen

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Goldilocks

Daily Reading

Psalm 17-20

Daily Thought

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). When the Pharisees asked Jesus to silence his followers, Jesus replied, “If these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40). Nature cannot help itself. “Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (Psalm 19:4).

Scientists who study the world and the stars speak of the anthropic principle. It says that we can trace backward in time to discover the narrow set of circumstances that brought human life to earth. For example, the earth is exactly the right distance from the sun and our atmosphere has the perfect blend of gases, the sun is the proper temperature and ice floats. Most solids sink, but if ice sunk, it would gather on the bottom of the oceans and never melt, and pretty soon the whole ocean would be frozen solid and there would be no life. It’s dubbed the Goldilocks Effect, everything is just right. Everything is perfect for us to be here now. It makes sense because if the universe wasn’t exactly right for us, there would be no “us” to look backward, and here we are. It’s almost as if someone intended it to happen.

That’s why the first six verses of Psalm 19 speak of the majesty of God in the heavens and the earth and verse 7 sums it up, “The law of the Lord is perfect.” God’s Law worked and continues to. The opening words of the Bible, “In the beginning God” (Genesis 1:1), introduce a providential purpose to our life and our world. Someone intended us to happen and here we are. It makes sense, then, to keep following God’s laws. They got us here successfully; they will keep us here, as well.

The rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward. ~Psalm 19:9-11

Daily Prayer

My God, Creator of everything, this world and all that is in it. I have no world without You, nor does anyone else, whether or not they yet acknowledge it. It truly is good to know You, because there is no good without You.

You created me special, me and every other man and woman. A special place on earth, bearing Your image, governing Your creation, caring for this planet and its inhabitants. May I know Your laws and live Your laws so that my life will be blessed, and a blessing to all life around me. May I reflect You and Your ways in what I do, so that our eyes will look to You, and our knees will bow, and our tongues proclaim that You are God.

Amen

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Cut the Cake

Daily Reading

Psalm 9-16

Daily Thought

It’s supposed to be a fair system, one which puts an end to arguments. One child cuts the cake, the other chooses the first piece. It should have worked. It’s not difficult to draw a line down the middle, but neither child was looking for fair. The trick was to cut the cake at a slant so one piece looks bigger, but is actually smaller. Both children sought the advantage and neither wanted mom cutting the cake because she might be fair. And, to be honest, neither wants more cake–just more than the other.

Nothing’s changed. Watch Congress reline the districts or nations draw up treaties. No one aims for fair and there are no straight lines. The Hatfields and McCoys keep fighting not to get even, but to get even plus a little more. “Ties,” snarls the football coach, “are like kissing your sister.” The system favors the devils. “Nice guys finish last” is how Leo Durocher saw it. So, nasty ones finish first? “For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul. His ways prosper at all times” (Psalm 10:3, 5), and for a time, it seems, the wicked win. That’s our system, the system of advantage, of fair plus a little more. “The one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord. In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 10:3-4). We don’t want mom cutting the cake, and he gets the bigger piece, for awhile. 

But not the better piece. Who cares about more cake! “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance” (Psalm 16:5-6).

Daily Prayer

My God, there is nothing in this world that satisfies me. For a brief time, I find something fun, but then I want something more or something else, and I spend my life looking. Until I found You, or I should say, You found me. I wasn’t looking for You, but when You showed up, suddenly there was peace and contentment, strength and worth, a hope and a future. Now I have nothing to gain because You are all I seek. And I have nothing to lose because You provide all I need. I have stopped looking and started living. The life You give is truly abundant and overflowing.

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).

Amen

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I Pray

Daily Reading

Psalm 1-8

Daily Thought

In front of my parents’ house grows a towering redwood, over 50 feet high. It is beautiful and strong, a majestic tree. We planted two on our front lawn when my family moved into the house in 1973. They were 8 feet high then, and over the summer we watched as one grew and one did not. We watered them both, but one seemed to drink the water, to delight in the water, and it flourished. The other did not, dried up, and died. Today I can point to the spot the other tree was planted, but there is no trace it was ever there.

He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away (Psalm 1:3-4).

I was a teenager in 1973, and prayer was difficult. Speaking to someone unseen felt odd. I repeated myself a lot and talked like King James, “Thee” and “Thou.” One day I opened the Psalms and was surprised by the words. They were my words, the expressions I longed for, “Give ear to my words, O Lord” (Psalm 5:1), and “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers” (Psalm 8:3), and “I will fear no evil for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4). I began to pray the Psalms, to walk with a Bible in hand and pray God’s Word back to him. “Fight against those who fight against me” (Psalm 35:1), robust words that declared my thoughts and desires. I learned to pray by praying the Psalms, to “delight in the law of the Lord, and on his law meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2). That man is described as blessed. That man will grow like a tree planted by streams of water.

Daily Prayer

O Lord my God, early in the morning I stop and wonder what this day will bring. What have You set before me? Prepare me to meet the wonders and challenges and opportunities and delights of this world. Fill my heart this morning with Your grace and truth, make me wise and give me courage and compassion.

May I be strong in Your love today. Whether I meet friend or enemy, may my life express Your Gospel. May I do good and right, and may You be praised.

Amen

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Unsinkable

Daily Reading

Job 40-42

Daily Thought

And the Lord said to Job: “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it” (Job 40:1-2). God’s question for Job: Do you know who I am?

“Are you capable of forgiving and loving God even when you have found out that He is not perfect, even when He has let you down and disappointed you by permitting bad luck and sickness and cruelty in His world, and permitting some of those things to happen to you? Can you learn to love and forgive Him despite His limitations, as Job does?” That was written by Rabbi Harold Kushner in his book, “When Bad Things Happen To Good People.”

Really? An “A” for effort? Good job for trying? 

Remember the Titanic? “There is no danger that Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable and nothing but inconvenience will be suffered by the passengers,” said Phillip Franklin, White Star Line Vice-President, just before midnight, April 14, 1912. The Titanic sunk, April 15, 1912, 2:20am. If you claim you are unsinkable, don’t sink. 

Kushner was mistaken, about God and about Job. When bad things happen, why they happen or what to do is not as important as who to trust. “I know that You can do all things; no plan of Yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). Unsinkable.

And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job (Job 42:10).

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, You are good. Every good gift comes from You. You are holy and just and righteous. You are love.

There are times when people and events may argue against that, but God, I will not be swayed. I know that You are true, the First and the Last, and that in all things, You work for the good of those who love You. Father God, I love You. My life is Yours.

Amen

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He Is God

Daily Reading

Job 38-39

Daily Thought

God speaks, at last, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.” And he began to question Job, “Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?” (Job 38:8, 11).

There are 362 quintillion gallons of water in the ocean. That is 362 billion billion or 3.62×1020 or 362,000,000,000,000,000,000. Or 7,250,000,000,000,000,000 bathtubs or 15,000,000,000,000,000 swimming pools, if that makes it easier.

“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?” (Job38:31, 33)

On a clear, moonless night, a few thousand stars are visible, of the 10,000,000,000 in the Milky Way galaxy. Some estimate there are 10 billion billion stars in the universe, but NASA put the number precisely at gazillions.

“Can you hunt the prey for the lion? Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does? Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey, is the wild ox willing to serve you? Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?” (Job 38:39; 39:1, 5, 9, 19, 26-27)

Estimates range from 5 million to 100 million different species on earth, but we’ve identified less than 2 million. Breaking this down into categories, zoologists come up with 20,000 species of fish, 6,000 species of reptiles, 9,000 of birds, 1,000 amphibians, and 15,000 species of mammals. The remaining millions are, you’ll be happy to know, insects and spiders. As to the total number of individual animals, the scientific estimate is, “I have absolutely no idea.”

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements–surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7)

Job said nothing. Sometimes it is the right time to be quiet, be still, and know that He is God.

Daily Prayer

Creator God, what a world I live in, created by Your hands, Your Word, Your breath. What a delight to look at the heavens and think of You. I marvel at the myriad shapes and sizes of Your creatures. Look at us, man and woman, a reflection of Your image.

May I, God, never cease my amazement at Your creativity. May I be a good steward of what You have placed in my care. May I use all things as You intended, to ultimately glorify You.

Amen

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Slow Down

Daily Reading

Job 35-37

Daily Thought

Elihu continued to speak, and, surprisingly, made some sense. Job’s problem was not he had sinned, but he was too focused on himself. “Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God” (Job 37:14), was Elihu’s advice, and good, at that. Something, in fact, I should keep in mind.

I often drive back and forth between northern and southern California, always on Interstate 5, fast lane, of course. It’s a straight shot, no distractions. NO DISTRACTIONS. Nothing to see, nothing to do. With one stop at Kettleman City for an In-N-Out double-double, I’m there. 400 miles, 6½ hours.

Interstate 5, every time. Except twice. Two times I detoured west along Highway One–a two-lane road, bending and curving, hugging the California coast. Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, San Simeon, Santa Barbara, it commands frequent stops to take in fog-shrouded cliffs, rugged canyons, windswept cypress trees, the crashing surf of the Pacific Ocean. 500 miles, 9 hours.

Ninety-eight percent of the time, I choose speed over splendor. But lately I’ve been asking myself, ‘Why?’ Why in the world do I hurry to Los Angeles  …and bypass the wonders of God? Or as a couple guys named Simon and Garfunkel put it, “Slow down, you move too fast.”

Daily Prayer

God of wonders, what a creation!! The stars so vast, beyond count, and yet you hold them in Your palm and name them. The depth of the oceans and height of the mountains do not surpass Your grandeur. Rather, they reflect Your majesty and mystery.

Lord, may I measure my days. May I be productive and do the work You have called me to do. May I also rest and worship. May I stop long enough to look at this world around me and reflect. May creation draw me to the wonder and worship of its Creator.

Amen

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Truth Is

Daily Reading

Job 32-34

Daily Thought

The sign posted at the University said, “It isn’t wrong to think you’re right, but it isn’t right to think others are wrong.” Sounds so charitable, so fair, nice even.

The ballplayer slides into second, the shortstop tags him, and the umpire calls, “You’re out!” It’s just a game, but try selling that to the team in blue. The call just killed a rally. The call is a travesty against all that is just and good and right in the universe. The blue coach screams, “Are you blind? He missed the tag!” The umpire explains, “I think I got it right. But, hey, I’m not saying you’re wrong, either.”

You can’t get away with something ridiculous like, “I think I’m right, but I don’t think you’re wrong.” Sports do not permit this. Truth and justice do not permit this. And neither does life permit this. Truth is. That’s it. That’s the whole definition. Life has rules. Right and wrong, good and evil, moral and immoral exist. Every seven-year old can tell you when something is or is not fair. 

Elihu, a young man, waited until his elders and Job were done talking, then he had something to say. Six chapters worth. The core of his argument is the justice of God, “Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice” (Job 34:12).

The Almighty will not pervert justice, and we are rule breakers. We want everyone to be able to do his or her own thing, because we want to do our own thing. We who seek a world where no one is wrong cannot change the rulebook, so we try to rid ourselves the umpire.

When Elihu stops talking (3 more chapters), we will hear from the umpire. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said…” (Job 38:1). God has the final word and he always will.

Daily Prayer

Sovereign God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, Your ways are good, right, and just. They are also loving. You are, at the same time, my Loving Father and my Righteous Judge. Why would I want to live in a world not ruled by righteousness? And yet, I do. 

Your Word seems foreign to this world, because this world would rather rule itself, and the results are not good. I can serve the kingdom of man or the Kingdom of God, but not both. The choice is clear, and I choose to be ruled by righteousness. I will follow You.

Amen