Tag: Grace

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Broken Records

Daily Reading

Judges 13-15

Daily Thought

When I was young, I listened to records. A scratch in the surface of a vinyl record would cause a song to repeat at the same spot over and over again. We called it a “broken record.” It would sound something like this, “And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord – And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord – And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”

Judges 13:1, “And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” In the Bible, when something is repeated, you are looking at a theme, and the theme of Judges is God is faithful when we are not. Israel would do evil, a foreign nation would enslave Israel, and God would do something special that only he could do to remind Israel that he is their God. Samson was going to be special; it was obvious before he was born. “There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, ‘Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son’” (Judges 13:2-3).

There it is, another scratch in the record, a child born out of barrenness, life from death, another theme. It has happened before. Isaac, son of Abraham, was born to Sarah, who “was barren; she had no child” (Genesis 11:30). Later, “Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer” (Genesis 25:21), and Rebekah gave birth to Jacob and Esau. Jacob’s wife, Rachel, “was barren” (Genesis 29:31), “then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son and she called his name Joseph” (Genesis 30:22-24). The theme, life from death, continues. Hannah, “though the Lord had closed her womb” (1Samuel 1:5) would give birth to the prophet Samuel, and barren Elizabeth (Luke 1:7) had a son named John, who would be called John the Baptist. 

Then, one very special, not from barrenness, but from innocence. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). God with us. Jesus. Some things bear repeating, again and again. Life from death. “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love for us, even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-5). Not a broken record, this is grace.

Daily Prayer

God Almighty, I can do all things through You. You give me the strength to find peace and contentment in any circumstance. Whether I have plenty or am in need, weak or strong, You are my strength. If You are for me, who can be against me.

God, may I walk in the confidence of Your strength and the humility of mine. I pray that I grow daily in dependence on You, replacing my will with Yours.

Amen

Daily Question

When have you seen God do what only God can do?

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A Guy Like Me

Daily Reading

Judges 10-12

Daily Thought

The people of Israel are again (still) doing evil in the eyes of the Lord (Judges 10:6), so God lifted his hand of protection and permitted the Philistines to torment them. Israel cried for help, and God responds, “Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you” (Judges 10:14). But the people cried louder and God relented and raised a leader and Judges 11 is beautiful grace.

His name was Jephthah and he was born of a prostitute, but lived with his dad and his dad’s wife and their legitimate sons. Jephthah was a constant reminder his father strayed, so when Jephthah was old enough to leave, he did. He collected worthless fellows as companions and formed a mob, a mob that could fight, and Israel needed fighters. How Jephthah developed a deep faith in God isn’t recorded, but he spoke of his Lord more than anyone else in Judges. He was a mix of street smarts, worldly manners, and impassioned faith. God chose Jephthah to lead Israel.

He made mistakes, one in particular. He vowed to God, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return shall be the Lord’s, I will offer it up for a burnt offering” (Judges 11:30-31). His daughter was first out the door to greet him. His vow was foolish, even wicked, pagan, and ungodly; but that was the way of the world he knew. If you want the help of the gods, make big promises. The Bible records life as it happens, unvarnished. It records that Jephthah “did with her according to his vow that he had made” (Judges 11:39). The Bible is a rough read.

A guest interviewed on “The Tonight Show” said, “I don’t know anybody who could read the Bible and still want to be a religious person. It is a book filled with immorality, wickedness, and then just plain silliness.” Yes, it is. It is raw humanity in need of God’s strength and guidance, which to me makes it eminently readable. Three millennia later, I live in a world that is every bit as immoral, wicked, and silly. I need God, the kind of God who will work with a guy like Jephthah. And a guy like me.

Daily Prayer

My Lord, You show me your love in grace. I do not deserve it, I do not even desire it, and I certainly do not seek it. And then You die for me anyway. You take my sins on Yourself, you pay the price of justification, and You share Your righteousness with me. You adopt me as Your child, teach me Your ways, and give me Your strength.

How can I possibly not love You? I love because You first loved me.

Amen

Daily Question

What skills do you have that God can use?

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Grace > Tolerance

Daily Reading

Deuteronomy 21-23

Daily Thought

God demands repeatedly of Israel, “So you shall purge the evil from your midst” (Deuteronomy 13:5; 17:7, 12; 19:19, 21; 22:21, 22, 24; 24:7). Israel was the one nation in history where God joined together Church and State, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” In that close relationship, when God’s holiness is a daily display, Israel is to bless the world as an example of God’s presence. You cannot have God in your midst and evil, too. Evil must be purged. 

For example, Deuteronomy 22:22, “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.” The Pharisees used this passage when challenging Jesus with a woman caught in adultery, “Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” We like Jesus’s answer, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” God, in the Old Testament, seemed so severe, so stiff. Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:3-11). 

We think Jesus tolerant, and we think we like tolerance, but our definition of tolerance is “live and let live” and it is wrong. Romans 1 describes what happens when God lets people live in their sin. God gave them up (let them live) in their lusts (v 24), their dishonorable passions (v 26), their debased mind (v 28), and the result? “They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless (vv 29-31). It turns out God uses “live and let live” as a tool of his wrath and judgment. It turns out “live and let live” is really “let die.” It turns out an eternity of that kind of tolerance would be hell.

Rather than our idea of tolerance, I am grateful for God’s, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8), and as a result, “there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11). That’s not tolerance, that’s grace. That’s not “live and let live,” Jesus died for that sin. That’s the good news of Jesus Christ.

Daily Prayer

My God, Your reign and Your Kingdom is good. At the Name of Jesus every knee will bow, above the earth, on the earth, under the earth. Every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord.

I know I test Your patience a lot, yet Your love never ceases. May my love, my faith, my devotion, my delight in righteousness continue to grow. I desire nothing less, nothing else.

Amen

Daily Question

When you recognize a pattern of sin in someone, how do you deal with it?

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But He Does Anyway

Daily Reading

Numbers 18-20

Daily Thought

God delivered the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and all they’ve done is grumble and complain, sin and rebel. Now they are whining again. They are thirsty, there is no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink” (Numbers 20:2-5).

After all that God has done, more complaining? Moses challenges the accusers, “Hear now, you rebels: must we bring water for you out of this rock?”  The answer is, No! But he does anyway.

You would think we would learn, but we don’t, and the grumbling and complaining, sinning and rebelling continue. Fifteen hundred years later, Jesus is in a garden. “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me” (Matthew 26:39). A legitimate question, must Jesus drink the cup that contains the wrath our sins deserve? No. But he does anyway.

I get on my knees after years of grumbling and complaining, sinning and rebelling, and at last I plead, “Jesus, save me.” Must he? No, but he does anyway. “For by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:8).

When God has given me his grace, why do I still grumble?

Daily Prayer

Loving God, You show me your love in Your grace. I do not deserve it, I do not desire it even, and I certainly do not seek it. And then You die for me anyway. You take my sins on Yourself, you pay the price of justification, and You share Your righteousness with me. You adopt me as Your child, and I am co-heir alongside Your Son.

How can I possibly not love You? I love because You first loved me. 

Amen

Daily Question

How do you give gratitude a bigger role in your personality?

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Grace Is Stronger

Daily Reading

Luke 19-20

Daily Thought

Given a choice between riches and God, the man clung to his wealth, and Jesus observed, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:25). The disciples were shocked because in their mind, rich people could do anything. Except let go of their riches, explained Jesus, which made it impossible for them to follow God, “but what is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). Along came Zacchaeus, “a chief tax collector and rich” (Luke 19:2)–just the guy to show what God can do. 

Zacchaeus, in name Jewish, served Rome instead, collecting taxes for Caesar. This earned him the hatred of his people, but he favored money more than friends. Little wonder the crowd did not part to let the short guy up front, so Zacchaeus was forced to climb a tree if he would see Jesus. When Jesus stopped under the tree and looked up, Zacchaeus must have feared the worst–the holy man would call out the sinner, but instead, Jesus invited himself to dinner, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). It was not a request, but a necessity, not for  Jesus’ sake, but for Zacchaeus’. The crowd grumbled that Jesus would “be the guest of a man who is a sinner” (Luke 19:7), and the sinner opened the door and let him in. Greed may have its grip on the heart of Zacchaeus, but grace is stronger. Grace is the power of God to do in Zacchaeus what he would never do on his own. “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold” (Luke 19:8). God did the impossible and the rich man let go of his riches.

Daily Prayer

Father God, You are good and Your ways are good for me. I choose to follow You, to stay on the path You put before me. Made in Your image, I desire to look like You again. Thank You for Your Son, who showed me what You look like. Thank You for Your Spirit who day-by-day transforms me into Your likeness.

May my life be a reflection of You, so that I can say to others, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” To Your glory!

Amen

Daily Question

What does God compete with most for your heart?

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God’s Love Never Ends

Daily Reading

Joel 1-3

Daily Thought

God’s promise to Israel had two parts. If you obey, God will shower you with blessing, 

“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” ~Leviticus 26:3-4

If you disobey, judgment. 

“But if you will not listen to me…  then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache.” `Leviticus 26:14, 16

We like the first part. 

The book of Joel begins with the second. 

What the cutting locust left,
the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
the destroying locust has eaten. ~Joel 1:4

Locust, locust, and more locust follows disobedience, disobedience, and more disobedience. God was patient, but Israel’s disobedience persisted and then came the locust. Israel had tested God’s patience, over and over, until it ran out. 

Now, God says, test my love. 

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. ~Joel 2:12-13

Beware, God’s patience has its limit. Ah, but be glad, his love does not. 

Daily Prayer

Righteous God, You have given me Your commandments, not as a burden, rather, they are a blessing. They give life and show me the way to live. Even the littlest commandment. Every Word You speak, God, is valuable and true. May I learn Your Word and keep it in my heart, so that it will guide my steps. 

You are a gracious and compassionate God. Thank You for so great a salvation through Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen

Daily Question

How difficult is it for you to bless people who don’t deserve it?

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God’s Prophet

Daily Reading

Isaiah 5-8

Daily Thought

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).

Isaiah speaks for God to a nation in judgment. He sings a song to Judah of a beautiful vineyard full of grapes gone bad. Past the point of pruning, it is time to uproot:

And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed. ~Isaiah 5:5-6

God gives six reasons why, “Woe to those who…” delivered by his prophet Isaiah, repeated six times (Isaiah 5:8, 11, 18, 20 21, 22). Judah, having rejected God, lives in a world turned downside up, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).

There is a seventh woe, but it comes not from God, rather from Isaiah toward himself. A vision of the holiness of God confronts Isaiah with his own sinfulness, and he cries: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5). God’s prophet is humbled in the presence of the righteousness of God, and, in this moment, God’s prophet receives grace. Isaiah’s unclean lips are purified when “one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for’” (Isaiah 6:6-7).

The prophet is prepared to bring God’s Word to the nation. Truth must be spoken with courage and clarity, and always by a heart humbled, by a soul touched with the grace of God.

Daily Prayer

Righteous God, You are good and Your Words bring life. May I be one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. If something is wrong, may I be a defender of right, a defender of justice. May I be one who speaks up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of the broken and the poor and the needy.

Knowing Your goodness, experiencing Your grace, I will speak truth, Your Word, to the world around me.

Amen

Daily Question

Are you prepared to share God’s Word with others?

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The Grilled Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Daily Reading

Hebrews 1-6

Daily Thought

“For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt” (Hebrews 6:4-6). This passage describes lovers of legalism who nibble at the edges of grace, but the freedom frightens them. The problem with grace is it requires absolutely nothing from us. It offends the pride of the religious who insist on contributing to their own salvation. One sacrifice is not enough for their sin, so they go back to the safety of rules and religion, do’s and don’ts. 

Lovers of religion who delight in legalism harken back to the Law of Moses which taught the Israelites to offer repeated sacrifices for every sin, but Jesus offered one sacrifice, himself, and “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). The writer of Hebrews compares the new to the old, the cross of Christ to the Law of Moses, and it is not even close, “Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses” (Hebrews 3:3). 

Ask any kid, “What is the best sandwich ever made?” It is Peanut Butter and Jelly, no competition. Unless you met a kid from my youth group, a kid who was served my wife’s Grilled Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich. I run into these kids, 5, 10, 20 years after graduating. You know what they talk about? The Grilled Peanut Butter and Jelly. They liked the old PB&J, but once they tasted the new, there was no going back.

It is no longer what we must do to be forgiven, but what Christ has done to save us, once for all forever. This is the grace of God and once you bite deeply into grace, you will never again be satisfied by the Law. There is no going back.

Daily Prayer

God, You are so good. To be welcomed into Your family, to experience Your warmth and love, to understand what life is all about, to really live, what more could I ever want? (The answer is nothing more. You are above and beyond my deepest desires.)

Thank You for the blessings of heaven, of Your Kingdom. There is a better life than the one this world offers. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done. I look forward to the day when Your Son reigns over the heavens and the earth in perfect peace and righteousness. There is nothing better, not even close.

Amen

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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. Any price tag attached 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, but 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

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Grace Is Stronger

Daily Reading

Luke 19-20

Daily Thought

Given a choice between riches and God, the man clung to his wealth, and Jesus observed, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:25). The disciples were shocked because in their mind, rich people could do anything. Except let go of their riches, explained Jesus, which made it impossible for them to follow God, “but what is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). Along came Zacchaeus, “a chief tax collector and rich” (Luke 19:2), just the guy to show what God can do. 

Zacchaeus, in name Jewish, served Rome instead, collecting taxes for Caesar. This earned him the hatred of his people, but he favored money more than friends. Little wonder the crowd did not part to let the short guy up front, so Zacchaeus was forced to climb a tree if he would see Jesus. When Jesus stopped under the tree and looked up, Zacchaeus must have feared the worst–the holy man would call out the sinner, but instead, Jesus invited himself to dinner, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). It was not a request, but a necessity, not for  Jesus’ sake, but for Zacchaeus’. The crowd grumbled that Jesus would “be the guest of a man who is a sinner” (Luke 19:7), and the sinner opened the door and let him in. Greed may have its grip on the heart of Zacchaeus, but grace is stronger. Grace is the power of God to do in Zacchaeus what he would never do on his own. “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold” (Luke 19:8). God did the impossible and the rich man let go of his riches.

Daily Prayer

Father God, You are good and Your ways are good for me. I choose to follow You, to stay on the path You put before me. Made in Your image, I desire to look like You again. Thank You for Your Son, who showed me what You look like. Thank You for Your Spirit who day-by-day transforms me into Your likeness.

May my life be a reflection of You, so that I can say to others, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” To Your glory!

Amen