Tag: Love

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Unexpectedly

Daily Thought

Luke 12-13

Daily Thought

My dad popped into my room every so often just to see how I was doing, and, I suspect, to see what I was doing. I did not have a lock on my bedroom door–by design of my parents. It was my bedroom, but it was Mom and Dad’s house. No locking them out. Sometimes he knocked; more often he did not. My bedroom door would suddenly swing open and Dad would enter, which meant the door could suddenly unexpectedly swing open anytime. Some of my friends hid stuff and did stuff in their rooms, stuff they did not want their parents to see. Not me.

“You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” ~Luke 12:40

After his resurrection, Jesus met with his disciples and told them to go everywhere and share the good news of God’s love with everyone. Then he disappeared into the heavens and the disciples were left staring. “And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:10-11). 

Suddenly. Unexpectedly. Be ready.

This is not to be a message of fear, however, but wonderful anticipation. “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them” (Luke 12:37). Jesus is more anxious to return than we are to see him. He cannot wait to set the table and serve a feast. 

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy.” ~Luke 12:32-33

Fear may be an effective deterrent against doing what is bad, but it does not make one good. Love does. 

We love because he first loved us. ~1John 4:19

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, we live in a world You created for us, a world that is good. I am so sorry for the bad I bring into it, and I am looking forward to the day Jesus comes and makes everything good again. I am amazed at Your love for me in spite of the way I mess things up. I am not just sorry, though. I will turn around and be a part of bringing good back into this world. Because You love me this much, how can I not do otherwise!

I pray, God, that the good things people see will turn their eyes toward You. May I live every moment eager for Your coming and hunger for Your blessings as much You love to bless me.  

Amen

Daily Question

How ready are you Jesus to show up at any moment? 

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Oil and Whine

Daily Reading

Mark 14

Daily Thought

When a woman poured a flask of very expensive ointment on the head of Jesus, he accepted her offering as fitting and good, “She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mark 14:6), but some in the room objected, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor” (Mark 14:4-5). In criticizing the woman, they actually demeaned Jesus. The oil, they said, could have been put to better use. The woman thought it best used for Jesus, no matter the cost. Besides, you cannot waste love.

One of those in the room, Judas Iscariot, however, put a price on Jesus, and “went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. They were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him” (Mark 14:10-11). To Judas, Jesus was a commodity, worth 30 pieces of silver. He came to Jesus for what he could get out of Jesus. But the woman adored Jesus–to her, Jesus was her Savior and Lord, the Christ, the Son of the Living God. She looked to gain nothing, but to give her all. If the woman had any regrets about emptying her jar of perfume on Jesus, it would be that she did not have more.

Daily Prayer

My God and Savior, what is amazing is that You gave Your all for me before I cared. You poured out Your blood for my sake, an act of love I can barely fathom. I am learning more about You, knowing You better each day, following more faithfully, loving You more fully. It is a lifetime of growth, but there is no better life to live.

My desire, Jesus, is to empty myself for You, as You did for me; to give up my desires and replace them with Yours; to lose myself in Your love for others; and to worship You by giving myself to You completely.

Amen

Daily Question

When have you loved someone without any thought of what you get back?

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Blessed to Bless

Daily Reading

Mark 8-9

Daily Thought

At the beginning of Mark 8, Jesus feeds a crowd of 4,000 people with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. It was a miracle, but if you have been following along, you might be thinking, “Wait a minute. haven’t I heard this one before?” You would be right. Almost. In chapter 6, Jesus fed 5,000 people. Now he feeds 4,000, and everything is just about the same. Mark is the shortest Gospel, yet he tells the same story twice. 

Why? Because there is a difference that matters.

To the Jews there were two types of people, Jews and the unclean non-Jews called Gentiles. For centuries, Israel followed a system of purity, including a special diet, some food was clean and some unclean. This kept them holy, set apart from the non-Jews. But a few days earlier, Jesus had called the disciples together “and said to them, ‘Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.’ Thus he declared all foods clean” (Mark 7:14-15, 19). 

They did not understand.

Now the feeding of the 4,000. Everything is the same, except they are “in the region of the Decapolis” (Mark 7:31), where lived many Jews and many more Gentiles. Jesus is feeding the unclean the same way he fed the clean, except when Jesus fed the 5,000 Jews, it was the disciples who noticed the hunger. Here, it is Jesus, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat” (Mark 8:2). The disciples, even after 3 days, do not mention the need. 

Jesus cares for people the Jews did not care about and Jesus treats them the same.

After the feeding, Jesus and the disciples returned to the Jewish side of the sea, and were met by the Pharisees, who “began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him” (Mark 8:11). Prove yourself, they demanded. Jesus sighed, refused, and instead, “left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side” (Mark 8:13), back to the people you are not supposed to care about. In the boat, Jesus explained, “When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?” (Mark 8:19-21). 

Not yet.

“For God so loved the world…” ~John 3:16

Daily Prayer

My God–but not just mine–You are the God of the heavens and the earth, and all who live in this world. My love for You is displayed by my love for others–all others. When I feel blessed, I must remember why I am blessed–to be a blessing, going overboard to care for those most unlike me. Build in me that kind of love.

I’m so glad You have that kind of love, God, because without it, I would never know You. I was most unlike You, doing what I wanted, following my ways and rebelling against Yours, and You loved me and You found me. Thank You for caring.

Amen

Daily Question

Do you care about people who are more like you or more unlike you? 

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The Wrath of God

Daily Reading

Nahum 1-3

Daily Thought

Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a brutish people who crushed Israel. The city once repented briefly when warned by Jonah of God’s coming wrath, but returned again to evil and worse, “Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder–no end to the prey!” (Nahum 3:1). This time, there would be no prophetical warning, but a pronouncement of doom, and no nation would shed a tear over Nineveh’s demise, rather, “all who hear the news about you clap their hands over you” (Nahum 3:19). Imagine a funeral where everyone is happy you are gone.

Their doom is set–“the Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies” (Nahum 1:2). Such words seem ungodly to our ears, wrath and vengeance and jealousy, possibly because we like our soft-focused, air-brushed pictures of Jesus, or because we think God a watchmaker who merely wound up creation and turned her loose to run her course, but the true God is intimate and personal. His jealousy is not of the kind we favor, enviously desiring the possessions of others, but the jealousy of God is the loving desire to protect the people who belong to him, wrathfully if necessary, for one does not truly love if there is no anger kindled toward an enemy who brings harm. And where is justice if injustice is not avenged, and who better to trust vengeance to than the holy righteous God. 

Toward Nineveh is written, “Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts” (Nahum 3:5). This was welcome news to Judah in the face of her enemy. “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him” (Nahum 1:7). This is the God of heaven and earth, who is an intimate father and passionately protective of his people against evil.

Daily Prayer

Lord God, Maker of the heavens and the earth, God outside of time and space, Creator of time and space, Author of life, the beginning and the end, Eternal Father, Savior and Lord, Yahweh, I Am That I Am.

Thank You for loving me.

Amen

Daily Question

When is jealousy and good thing? Have you ever been jealous in a good way?

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The Image of God

Daily Reading

Obadiah 1; Jonah 1-4

Daily Thought

Of Ninevah had been written, “Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder–dead bodies without end–who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms” (Nahum 3:1, 3-4). Ninevah was an evil nation, hated by Israel, and God called the prophet Jonah to “arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2). 

Ninevah was 500 miles east. Jonah immediately boarded a ship for Tarshish, two thousand miles west–the opposite direction. Jonah hated evil Ninevah, so he did not want God to be “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (Jonah 4:2). Jonah wanted Ninevah to burn so he disobeyed God and set sail to remove God’s mercy as far from Ninevah as possible.

It did not work, of course. God sent a storm to get Jonah tossed from the ship, “so they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging” (Jonah 1:15); and God sent a great fish to swallow him up and deliver him back to Israel, “and the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land” (Jonah 2:10). 

“Let’s start over,” God said. “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you’” (Jonah 3:1-2). Jonah obeyed this time, “and the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them” (Jonah 3:5), and God relented, just as Jonah feared, “when God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry” (Jonah 3:10-4:1). 

Jonah would prefer a god made in his own image, a god who would hate the same people he hated. But that is not God.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” ~Matthew 5:43-45

It turns out, the way you can tell God has made you in his image is how much you love the same people he loves.

Daily Prayer

Savior God, You are full of mercy and grace. My love for You is displayed as I love people. In fact, You said it will be apparent that I am Your disciple by my love for others. God, help me improve at love. Teach me Your ways. May I be a servant like Your Son.

Thank You for Your salvation. It has changed my heart. If You can show that kind of love for me, can I not love others the same?

Amen

Daily Question

Is it possible to love your enemies? What would that look like?

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The Lady Is a Tramp

Daily Reading

Hosea 1-7

Daily Thought

Hear the exasperation of God in the words of his prophet Hosea:

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes early away. ~Hosea 6:4

This, however, is not despair, but hope, for Israel is not the subject in this question, but the object, and God is the subject. It is he who will act and answer.

Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of my mouth,
and my judgment goes forth as the light. ~Hosea 6:5

A prophet need not speak to be heard, and the Lord commanded Hosea to act out the love of God toward an unfaithful Israel; “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord” (Hosea 1:2). A word is repeated for emphasis, but certain words need no repetition to stand out. God called Israel a whore. Three times. If Israel knows nothing of love, God does and he will show her.

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. ~Hosea 6:6

Hosea was commanded to “go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods” (Hosea 3:1). The lady is a tramp, yet the story is not about the morning cloud of Israel’s faithlessness, but the sun that shines forth when the mist burns away. God is faithful even while we are faithless. Our sin is less about the whore we become, but the God we betray. Fortunately for us, God’s love does not depend on who we are, but who he is.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ~Romans 5:8

Daily Prayer

Wonderful God, You are my Creator, but how often I love the world you created rather than You. All the while, You pay attention to me. You humbled Yourself in love for my sake. You sought me and saved me with amazing grace and mercy, and the more I know You, the better I love You.

May I be not only an object of Your love, but a giver, as well. of grace and mercy to others. May I take this good news of Your steadfast love to a world that needs Your salvation.

Amen

Daily Question

In what ways is God’s love for people different than your love for people?

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Loving Good

Daily Reading

Ezekiel 23-24

Daily Thought

Ezekiel writes of sisters, “Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem” (Ezekiel 23:4); Samaria, the capital of Israel, and Jerusalem of Judah. During the reign of Rehoboam, the Hebrew nation split in half, into two sisters. “To your tents, O Israel!” (1Kings 12:16), cried the older sister as she broke with Judah. Oholah means “her tent,” and Israel began worshipping idols and set up her own temple and priesthood. Oholibah means “my tent is in her,” and God’s temple remained in Jerusalem, but she was no more faithful than her big sister.

Confused yet? The names make this difficult to follow, but here is what happened: “Oholah (Israel) played the whore” (Ezekiel 23:5), and the consequences were terrible. “Her sister Oholibah (Judah) saw this (both the whoring and the consequences), and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister” (Ezekiel 23:11). 

It is baffling! Why doesn’t Oholibah learn from the mistakes of her sister and choose to do what is right?

At youth events, speakers often share with teenagers how bad they had been when they were young teenagers, and the consequences of their badness. “If the kids hear what I went through,” they reason, “they won’t make the same mistakes.” The speakers are usually wrong. What teenagers hear is if someone speaking up front at a youth event did bad things then they could do bad things, too. They ignore the consequences. 

Why? It is not that hard to figure out. It is because they like bad. We like bad.

Oholah liked bad, and Oholibah watched the bad things Oholah did and the bad things that happened and went ahead and did bad anyway. Because they wanted to.

God created this world and called it good. We chose to do things our way and it has gone bad ever since. Consequences be damned, we like bad. 

We will love good again when we love God again.

Daily Prayer

My God, I did not love good, but was delighted with my own way, until You came along and showed me a better way. You loved me and brought me back into a relationship with You, and I found what I needed, my great God and Savior.

Thank You for the righteousness of Your Son Jesus Christ, which became my righteousness when I gave my life to Him. By Your grace, through faith, I can live again displaying Your goodness, serving others with the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. May I, at all times, stand for Your Kingdom and Your righteousness.

Amen

Daily Question

Do people do bad things because they love to do bad things? If so, why do we love bad? If not, then why do we do bad things?

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Turning Back

Daily Reading

Lamentations 3:37-5:22

Daily Thought

God used Babylon as his hammer of judgment against Israel, but that does not mean the mallet was swung by God’s hand. God lifted his hand of protection and Babylon was eager and willing to crush Judah. Jeremiah describes this as “greater than the punishment of Sodom” (Lamentations 4:6). Sodom saw God’s fist, “then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven” (Genesis 19:24). Judah saw God’s back, and that is worse. God turned away from Judah. It was the back of God Jesus saw when, carrying the sins of the world on the cross, he cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). There is no greater hell.

God destroyed Sodom. Judah, he planned to save, and salvation requires a deeper pain. Judah must repent. To repent means to change direction, and change is resisted until the pain of staying the same is worse than the pain of turning around. Parents have tools of discipline: spanking, grounding, lectures (I preferred a spanking to my dad’s lectures, quicker and less painful). But, of last resort, they let go. The father gave the prodigal son his inheritance and turned away. He left his son to himself.

Judah cried out, “Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days?” (Lamentations 5:20). They were afraid God’s back meant he no longer cared. They were wrong, he cared more, enough to let his child go, to place Judah on the painful path toward repentance.

“I called on your name, O Lord,
from the depths of the pit;
you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
your ear to my cry for help!’
You came near when I called on you;
you said, ‘Do not fear!’
You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
you have redeemed my life” (Lamentations 3:55-58). 

Daily Prayer

Mighty God, I look to You each morning and anticipate the day, and each evening I give thanks. You are always there, always sovereign, always involved, always in love. It took me awhile to learn this; I thought my way better, and You let me wander, but You were always there to hear my call. Thank You for walking slow enough for me to catch up.

I love being part of Your good news, God. Thank You for salvation, for hearing my cry, for giving me life and life’s purpose. I still try to grab the controls. Don’t let me! Your way is much better.

Amen

Daily Question

What kind of discipline worked best on you as a child?

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True Love

Daily Reading

Jeremiah 18-22

Daily Thought

God makes as a condition of Judah’s judgment their goodness to others, that they will treat well those who are lost, harmed, poor, and abused. “Thus says the Lord: ‘Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place’” (Jeremiah 22:3). Yet later, when asked why they are being judged, the answer is, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them” (Jeremiah 22:9). So, which is it that brings judgment against Judah, their indifference toward others or their idolatry against God?

Jesus was asked which commandment is greatest. He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” But he wasn’t finished, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). Two commandments, together the greatest, essential to each other, neither stands alone. Indifference is idolatry; compassion is worship.

“The righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” ~Matthew 25:37-40

Our love for God is only as true as it is displayed in our love for others, and our love for others is only as true as our devotion to God and his ways. 

Daily Prayer

Wonderful God, I am learning to love You better by learning to love others more. You are teaching me humility and service by doing it Yourself first. I would not know You unless You had sacrificed Yourself for me; You loved me that much. May I love that much.

I cannot worship my Creator without caring for those You created, those who bear Your very image. May I love actively, seeking opportunities to serve and to share. May others find You in my actions toward them, recognizing Your grace and goodness in all I do.

Amen

Daily Question

When is it most difficult to love people? When is it most difficult to love God? How are these two questions related to each other?

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Do Not Open Until Christmas

Daily Reading

Song of Songs 1-8

Daily Thought

How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!
Your lips drip nectar, my bride;
honey and milk are under your tongue. ~Song of Songs 5:10-11

Solomon’s Song of Songs reminds us of God’s creative delight in fashioning the passions and pleasures of love and marriage. This is love at heaven’s height, the love we long for, to be cherished and savored and guarded. The world sings of love and celebrates sex in free-for-all fashion and you get what you pay for. Beware the ways of the world for they cheapen us. “Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom” (Song of Songs 2:15), Solomon warns the young virgins.

My cousin Jim would sneak under the tree a week before Christmas and open his big gift to see what it was. He would play with it, rewrap it, and repeat the next night. By Christmas morning, the surprise was over, the wrapping tattered, and the joy of discovery lost. 

We were created with a powerful passion that must be protected. The young woman urges her friends, “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases” (Song of Songs 2:7). The purity of your youth is a precious gift; do not open it early. It belongs to someone special.

She spies him, “My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand” (Song of Songs 5:10). He observes her, too, “As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women” (Song of Songs 2:2). They each have found the other, their one-in-a-million, and there is a wedding, and they open the gift.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. ~Genesis 2:24-25

Daily Prayer

Loving Father, thank You for Your goodness. You looked at Your Creation and saw that it was good. Except one thing. Man was alone. You made woman, brought them together, and it was very good.

God, may my life be holy, my love pure, and my marriage an example of all You had in mind when you paired man with woman and said, “This is very good.”

Amen

Daily Question

What is marriage and why is it to be protected?