Tag: Faith

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Country Dogs

Daily Reading

Galatians 1-3

Daily Thought

The Law of God is a good thing, a picture of righteousness. The problem is, our hearts are rebellious and we do not like to be told what we can and cannot do. “We were held captive under the law” (Galatians 3:23), writes Paul, and we don’t like fences.

Lucy, our basset hound, is a city dog. She stays indoors and sleeps in a kennel in the corner of my office. Lucy is a city dog and she does not roam free. She is not allowed to. She is confined, but she longs to run. Every so often, a door is open, unwatched. Lucy breaks for freedom and away she goes and does not return. Fortunately, our neighbors know Lucy and bring her home. Lucy obeys our rules until she thinks we are not looking. Unless something changes, we are like a city dog.

The Law does not and cannot make us righteous, rather, “the righteous shall live by faith” (Galatians 3:12), and through faith comes the change we need, a change of heart from rebellion to love. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20), and with faith in Christ comes freedom to live. The best obedience is doing what I should do, not because I have to, but because I want to

Faith is the life of the country dog. My cousins live in the country. Tramp, their yellow Labrador, is free to roam, and he does. Wherever he wants, whenever he wants, doing whatever he wants. Tramp is a country dog. Sometimes he leaves in the morning and returns at night. But return he does, every night. Tramp can sleep anywhere he wants, and he does. He sleeps on the back porch. That’s where he wants to be. He is happy to be home.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. ~Psalm 23:6

Daily Prayer

Father God, You have set me free from the burden and bondage of sin. Thank You so much! I am now enslaved to love, a willing servant of Your goodness and grace. Forgive me, God, when I turn my liberty into a religion of do’s and don’ts, or I turn my freedom into a license to sin.

I love You, God, not from force or fear, but because I desire You so much. I follow You, because this is where I find life, a life abundant and good. With You, I am at home.

Amen

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God, You Decide

Daily Reading

Acts 14-15

Daily Thought

Paul and Barnabas arrived at Iconium and spoke of Jesus in the synagogue and many believed, both Jew and Gentile, “but the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds” (Acts 14:2) and the city became divided. Those against threatened to stone Paul and Barnabas, so the disciples fled to Lystra, where they spoke again of Jesus, and did miracles, too. The people began calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes and worshiped them rather than the Savior they spoke of and the gospel of Jesus was drowned out by the people’s passion for their own Greek gods. The Iconium Jews, who had chased them out of their own city, caught up with them here and persuaded the crowd to stone Paul and so they did and dragged him out of the city and left him for dead, but he got right back up and went right back into the city. Like the Energizer Bunny, these disciples kept going and going, traveling from Derbe to Pisidia to Pamphylia to Attalia, finally to Antioch, where they ignored what the cities had done to them and “declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27).

Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, is the Savior of the world, and the disciples took the message out of Israel to one city and one nation after another. Like David against Goliath, it never dawned on the disciples they were too small to win the world, so they kept going and people kept believing and the good news of Jesus Christ spread “from Jerusalem to all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). If you decide you cannot do something, you will be right every time, so leave those decisions to God and do whatever he says. You will be amazed at what gets done. 

Daily Prayer

My God, may I go as long and as far as You lead, and keep going because You keep leading. Give me the passion and boldness to enter open doors and knock on closed ones. May I burn with the memory of what Your salvation did to my life and fan that flame so Your fire for this world never dies within me.

Keep me encouraged and enthusiastic, faithfully living and speaking grace and truth, and trusting You for changed lives. God, I will stop listening to what I think I cannot do, but listen to what You say I can!

Amen

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A Red Umbrella

Daily Reading

Acts 11-13

Daily Thought

Herod the king discovered popularity with certain Jews by killing Christians, and so “he killed James the brother of John with the sword” (Acts 12:2). Peter was next, but it was not to be. God intervened; “an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, ‘Get up quickly.’ And the chains fell off his hands” (Acts 12:7). Peter was led past sleeping guards and open gates and deposited outside the jail and inside the city.

It is fair to ask, why was Peter rescued and not James? Why one and not the other, why not both or neither? I do not know the answer to this, but I do know that neither was more important to God, nor more loved by God, because death is no worse a fate than life to the faithful, and both rest in the hands of God.

Perhaps due to the death of James, when Peter was taken, “earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church” (Acts 12:5). Also, due to the death of James, their faith was lacking. When a servant girl interrupted the disciples and informed them Peter was outside waiting at the door, safe and unharmed, their response was a faithless, “You are out of your mind” (Acts 12:15).

The farming town was in the midst of a long drought and the people gathered at church to pray. Twelve year old Susie came, as well, and it was good she did. By her side on the pew laid her red umbrella. She alone thought to bring one.

“Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door, they saw him and were amazed” (Acts 12:16). The disciples did one thing wrong, they did not have faith. Nevertheless, they did one thing right, they prayed anyway. Their prayer lacked faith, but they were faithful to pray. Pray and have faith, but if you find faith difficult, pray anyway. And bring an umbrella.

Daily Prayer

Father God, I know that You are faithful and true. I know that You can do all things. I know that what You promise will happen.

God, I have faith. Help me with my faith. May I trust You and live my life reflecting my faith and confidence in You. When I pray, may I not be surprised, but still amazed, when You answer.

Amen

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Against Temptation

Daily Reading

Luke 4-5

Daily Thought

“For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” ~1John 2:16-17

Jesus went from baptism to battle, being assaulted by Satan in the wilderness. “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread” (Luke 4:3). Perhaps Satan had been eavesdropping at Jesus’s baptism when coming out of the water heaven tore open and God spoke, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). The challenge seemed reasonable, Jesus had not eaten for forty days, but behind hunger hid the temptation to clutch again his deity for himself, the desire of the flesh. “Man shall not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4), easier said when one is not famished.

If “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16), Satan offered Jesus an easier way and showed him what he loved, “all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time” (Luke 4:5), the desire of the eyes. All Satan demanded in exchange was Jesus’s heart. How often Satan need offer much less to get mine, but Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve’” (Luke 4:8). 

Finally, boastful pride, Satan set Jesus “on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here’” (Luke 4:9). The angels will protect and the world will know, but “not my will, but yours, be done” is the answer to pride and Jesus rebuked Satan, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Luke 4:12).  

Jesus knows the power of temptation and I only its sting because I so frequently give in, but I know the power of Jesus.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. ~Hebrews 4:15-16

Daily Prayer

Dear God, I pray to You because You are the One true God. There are no others. I know that You are good and powerful and wonderful. I know that You care about me. I can’t quite figure out why, but I’m glad. You cared so much that You sent Your Son to heal me.

God, I need to be healed. I cave into temptation and sin leaves me broken, but by Your grace and strength, I am made new. You are the only wise God, my Savior. To You be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forevermore.

Amen

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Jesus of Nazareth

Daily Reading

Mark 6-7

Daily Thought

His miracles, his teaching, his kindness, and his confidence set Jesus apart and above the typical celebrity and left people astonished and in awe, and then Jesus went home. You would never know of Nazareth had Jesus not grown up there. Population 500, it was a little place, 25 miles southwest of Capernaum, in the middle of nowhere. Jesus came home “and they took offense at him” (Mark 6:3). They knew Jesus and his brothers and sisters and his mom, and they do not mention his dad because it is a small town and there were rumors about his birth. He was not what they expected of a prophet, let alone a Savior. They sought majesty, he was ordinary, too ordinary to be extraordinary. They deserved better, “and he could do no mighty work there” (Mark 6:5).

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men, ~Isaiah 53:2-3

Later, far from home, outside Israel, a woman fell at his feet. “Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter” (Mark 7:26). Jesus is Israel’s Messiah, the Savior of God’s children, and he rebuffs this foreign woman, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (Mark 7:27). I do not know how to make that sound not rude, yet the woman accepts her role as dog, and still insists on her food, “she answered him, ‘Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs’” (Mark 7:28). She is not allowed at the table, she is not of the tribe of Israel, she does not worship Israel’s God, she does not read the Bible, she does not follow the Law. She knows she is unclean and unworthy in the eyes of Israel, and so she does not ask Jesus of Nazareth to give her what she deserves because she is good; she asks Jesus to give her what she does not deserve because he is good. “And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone” (Mark 7:30).

One of the disciples, when he was first told of Jesus, asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Another answered, “Come and see.” (John 1:46).

Daily Prayer

My God, You are righteous and good, but more than that, You are full of grace. I do not deserve Your favor, I am neither righteous nor good, and yet You looked upon me with love, and sent Your Son to bring me back into Your family. Thank You.

May I look at others as You look at me. May I see each person as a special creation, lovingly made by You, and give them the grace and the goodness You have shown me.

Amen

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Death Can Wait

Daily Reading

Mark 4-5

Daily Thought

The daughter of Jairus is at death’s door. “Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live’” (Mark 5:22-23), What an opportunity, to save the daughter of a prestigious man. This would do much to advance the mission of Jesus. You would think. “And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him” (Mark 5:24).

Then, from the crowd, a woman, we do not even get her name, “came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment” (Mark 5:27), and she was made well. For twelve years she had a bleeding illness no doctor could cure, but one touch healed her. And Jesus stopped. Jairus and his daughter and death would have to wait. “And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my garments?’” (Mark 5:30). “Everybody!” thought the disciples. “You are in a crowd. Hurry up Jesus. You have to get to the home of Jairus. This is important,” but the immediate is never more important than the eternal. “The woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease’” (Mark 5:33-34). Jairus’s was not the only daughter who needed the touch of Jesus.

While Jesus is not hurrying, while he is taking valuable time to talk to this woman, who was already healed, by the way, the news Jairus feared arrives. “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” (Mark 5:35), but the limits we place on God are not God’s limits. “But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe’” (Mark 5:36). The immediate is never more important than the eternal.

A little girl on the edge of death was next on the agenda, except Jesus was interrupted by a woman. Death could wait while Jesus paused to heal this woman, but death did not wait and the little girl died. No matter, the King of kings is the Lord of life. “Little girl, I say to you, arise” (Mark 5:42), and she did.

Daily Prayer

My Great God, what an amazing story, Your Son born a baby to Mary. No earthly father, but a Heavenly Father, a poor family, peasant shepherds announcing His birth, a Friend of sinners and outcasts, and yet Jesus is King of kings and the Lord of lords. Big things come in small packages.

You came humbly and changed the world. You defeated all enemies, including the last enemy – death. You have established an eternal kingdom of peace and declared the good news of salvation. I’m listening and believing, and my life has been changed forever. Thank You, my God and Savior.

Amen

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Get Out of the Boat

Daily Reading

Matthew 13-14

Daily Thought

Jesus began to speak in parables to the hard of heart, because though “seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (Matthew 13:13). They were perfectly capable of hearing, but not willing, and so they do not try to understand and are blind and deaf to the words of God.

Peter, on the other hand, was not capable. He could not walk on water, yet when Jesus said, “Come,” Peter left the boat and walked on water and came to Jesus (Matthew 14:29). Half way there he realized he could not do what he was doing and sank, but for a brief time he did the impossible because he was willing to believe the impossible.

Jesus chastised Peter as he lifted him out of the water and back in the boat, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31). God cares not what we can do, but what we will do.

Daily Prayer

Creator God, this world is marvelous, full of wonders. It displays Your wisdom and majesty. How great You are. You have power and authority over all things. And You are good. That’s why You can promise that all things work together for good for those who love You and are called according to Your purpose.

God, may I keep my ears tuned to You, listening to Your words and following them. May I live a life full of joy and wonder and surprise, not at what I can do, but what you keep doing. May I do what I cannot do, but You can. May I walk in faith and see the greatness of my God.

Amen

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Empty Hands

Daily Reading

Malachi 1-4

Daily Thought

It is a shaming question: the gifts you present to God, would you give to the king? “‘When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor?’ says the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 1:8). 

Overheard at a garage sale, “Why are you selling the barbecue?” “Just built a backyard kitchen. Don’t need this anymore.” “Anything wrong with it?” “The auto-igniter doesn’t work and the flames are a bit uneven. It could use some TLC.” “How much?” “We’re asking $25. If it doesn’t sell, I’m donating it to my church.”

God calls it robbery. “But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ And God says, ‘In your tithes and contributions’” (Malachi 3:8). Essential to our offering is faith, and faith is letting go, so either owe God everything or give him nothing, but do not offer him leftovers or tips. “That was a good service today,” and an extra five is dropped in the offering, as if God should perform for our pleasure to earn his keep.

It is not an empty faith, however, when we empty our hands and trust in the Lord. “Put me to the test,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need” (Malachi 3:10). 

“For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and its fullness are mine.” ~Isaiah 50:10-12

We give to God, not because God needs, but because we need and God gives–but he will not until our hands are empty and open and ready to receive.

Daily Prayer

My God, may You fill my life with Your desires, Your passions, Your wisdom. May I love You first, most, and always. May my love for You be reflected in what I do, what I buy, what I keep, and what I give. May the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart, and the actions of my self be a testimony of Your goodness and Your greatness, and of my devotion to You.

Amen

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God Is Always Late

Daily Reading

Jeremiah 42-45

Daily Thought

The nation of Judah had been carried off in captivity to Babylon with only a small remnant left behind in the land of Israel. The prophet Jeremiah remained with the remnant. Fearful that Babylon would return against them, the remnant of Judah favored seeking refuge in Egypt, but requested Jeremiah first ask God if they should go. They vowed before the prophet, “Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God” (Jeremiah 42:6).

God responded, instructing them to remain in the land, “Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Do not fear him, declares the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand” (Jeremiah 42:11). A short time later, “they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the Lord” (Jeremiah 43:7). The people vowed to obey, then rebelled when God answered. What happened?

The answer is found between the request and the rebellion, “at the end of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah” (Jeremiah 42:7). God is always late (it seems), because “‘my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8)). In our prayers, we seek answers. In our prayers, God seeks faith. 

The silence tested their faith. God took ten days to answer, which gave the people ten days to ponder whom they feared, and they feared the Babylonians they could see more than they feared the God they could not, so they disobeyed the word of God. Time is a test of faith. They should have waited.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” ~Hebrews 11:1

Daily Prayer

Almighty God, You are forever faithful and true. I place my trust in You because You are the Rock, the Solid Foundation on which to build my life.

You are my God and I will wait for You and Your Word, because it is worth the wait. You are my God. I will place my faith in the One who is always faithful.

Amen

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Do It Anyway

Daily Reading

Esther 1-5

Daily Thought

Ahasuerus, king of Persia, “loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen” (Esther 2:17). It is a time of national peril for Israel and Mordecai appeals to Esther to approach the king, “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). The book of Esther is more political than religious, the name of God not found on its pages, but God’s providence fills the pages. Esther’s response, inviting her countrymen to fast on her behalf, acknowledges God behind the scenes. This story is of godly action more than words.

Courage cannot be ignorant and Esther knew the danger of Mordecai’s request, “if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law–to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter (Esther 4:11). “Do it anyway,” is Mordecai’s response, even as he knew the danger, for he also had stood courageously. Mordecai is not careless of her life. He loves her and has cared for her since childhood, but cares more deeply for her soul. To keep silent when courage is called for may (or may not) save your life, but you will die inside. Esther understood, “I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16). This is no statement of despair, but of devotion to her nation and her God.

“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” ~Luke 9:24

Daily Prayer

God, wonderful Savior, I will be prepared always to stand for You, as You stood for me in my place at the cross. I will be prepared, putting on Your armor daily, the faith in Your care, the hope of eternity, the love which You showed me. I will be prepared, pouring into Your Word, always ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope I have in You.

You set the time, I’ll be ready.

Amen