Tag: good

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Take the Deal!

Daily Reading

2Corinthians 5-9

Daily Thought

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

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

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

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

Take the deal!

Daily Prayer

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

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

Amen

Daily Question

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

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Very Good

Daily Reading

John 1-2

Daily Thought

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” ~John 1:1

Thus, John opens the curtain of his Gospel echoing the first words of the Bible, “In the beginning God” (Genesis 1:1), because Jesus was there at the beginning because Jesus is God. Jesus, with his Father and Spirit, holy Trinity, spoke our world into existence and, with each creative Word, declared, “It is good” (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). It continued to be good until God created man, and it was “not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18), and woman was formed and there came a wedding. and with that, a celebration. “It was very good” (Genesis 1:31), the grand finale of Creation.

It is no surprise, then, a wedding is the scene of the first miracle. “On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee” (John 2:1), but “the wine ran out, and the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine’” (John 2:3), to which Jesus responded, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? (John 2:4). 

It has everything to do with Jesus. 

In Creation, God filled the earth with “every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Genesis 2:9), enough for every one to feast, but now there is not enough and it is not good and must be made good again. So Jesus took six water jars, “each holding twenty or thirty gallons” (John 2:6), and turned water into wine, and “the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now’” (John 2:9-10). 

It was very good.

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. ~John 2:11

This is Jesus, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Our lesson is learned from his mother, who, when the wine ran out, turned to the servants and said, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). 

Daily Prayer

King of kings and Lord of lords, Maker of the heavens and earth, the First and the Last, Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. You have made all things and in You all things hold together.

What a wonderful world made by a Wonderful Maker, but we no longer knew You. The wine ran out, and then You became flesh, human, one of us. Creator took the form of creation, so we could know You and it will be very good again.

Amen

Daily Question

Where do you find the goodness of God in creation?

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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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Something Good

Daily Reading

Jeremiah 10-13

Daily Thought

“But the Lord is the true God;
he is the living God and the everlasting King.
It is he who made the earth by his power,
who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.” ~Jeremiah 10:10, 12

In a discussion of first causes, or “what started everything,” the believer’s answer is God. Then comes the snappy retort, “But, who created God?” 

Really? 

If someone else created God, would not that someone else then be God? Then who created that someone? And that one, and the next one. Ad infinitum. The point is there is a beginning and either nothing or something or, better yet, Someone started everything. Those are the choices.

Idolatry is replacing God with something else, but Jeremiah argues that anything else is actually nothing: “Idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good” (Jeremiah 10:5). Our idols nowadays are not so much wood and stone, but ideas. In college, I was unprepared for an essay exam, so I wrote a lot of nothing, hoping volume would pass for knowledge. When the paper was graded and returned, the professor had written across the front, large and in red, “This is not right. It is not even wrong.” A lot of our ideas are volume passing for knowledge. They are nothing. Not bad, not good. Nothing. 

“Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work of delusion.” ~Jeremiah 10:14-15

The problem with nothing is, well, Billy Preston sang it, “Nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’.” There is a simple poetic sense to that. “Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could,” chirps Julie Andrews in Sound of Music. “So somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.” 

She is on to something.

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. ~Genesis 1:31

Daily Prayer

My Father in heaven, You are holy and good, righteous and wonderful, and You made me in Your image. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Every one is.

I know, God, that I am Your creation, accountable to You. I am not my own, I belong to You, and the welfare of others is my concern because it is Your concern. You have blessed me, Lord, and I shall strive to be a blessing to others. What I have I will share, holding loosely all that You have placed in my possession. May I be an agent of Your grace to this world.

Amen

Daily Question

Where do you see the goodness of God in creation?

Posted on

Very Good

Daily Reading

John 1-2

Daily Thought

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1); thus, John opens the curtain of his Gospel echoing the first words of the Bible, “In the beginning God” (Genesis 1:1), because Jesus was there at the beginning because Jesus is God. Jesus, with his Father and Spirit, holy Trinity, spoke our world into existence and, with each creative Word, declared, “It is good” (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). It continued to be good until God created man, and it was “not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18), and woman was formed and there came a wedding. and with that, a celebration, “It was very good” (Genesis 1:31), the grand finale of Creation.

It is no surprise, then, a wedding is the scene of the first miracle. “On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee” (John 2:1), but “the wine ran out, and the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine’” (John 2:3), to which Jesus responded, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? (John 2:4). It has everything to do with Jesus. In Creation, God filled the earth with “every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Genesis 2:9), enough for every one to feast, but now there is not enough and it is not good and must be made good again. So Jesus took six water jars, “each holding twenty or thirty gallons” (John 2:6), and turned water into wine, and “the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now’” (John 2:9-10). It was very good.

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. ~John 2:11

This is Jesus, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Our lesson is learned from his mother, who, when the wine ran out, turned to the servants and said, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). 

Daily Prayer

King of kings and Lord of lords, Maker of the heavens and earth, the First and the Last, Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. You have made all things and in You all things hold together.

What a wonderful world made by a Wonderful Maker, but we no longer knew You. The wine ran out, and then You became flesh, human, one of us. Creator took the form of creation, so we could know You and it will be very good again.

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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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? Because they 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.

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

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God’s Not Done

Daily Reading

Judges 19-21

Daily Thought

The best thing about chapters 19-21 of Judges is they are the last chapters of Judges. Judges is over, and none too soon. The period of the Judges began when Joshua died and there arose another generation after him who did not know the Lord (Judges 2:10); was characterized by the oft-repeated, “the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” (Judges 2:11; 3:7, 12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; and 13:1); and closes in summary, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). How often what is right in our eyes is not so in God’s?

The hope of Judges is that the book will end, but God will keep going. And he does. God’s story continues through Ruth into 1&2 Samuel, when, at last, Israel does have a king, a king after God’s own heart, “The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people” (1Samuel 13:14). Even that is not enough, and the story is far from over, because there is a King to come, the King of kings and Lord of lords, “the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen” (Jude 25).

God’s unfolding story is best captured in the words of the apostle Paul, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). If it’s not good yet, God’s not done yet.

Daily Prayer

My Father in heaven, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I’ve met the King, my Savior, Jesus Christ, and I will follow Him. May my life display my allegiance, for I am an ambassador of the good news of salvation.

Thank You, God, that You keep working. That what You began, You will finish, and that it will be once-and-for-all good. Keep changing my heart so that I will desire and delight in righteousness and justice and peace. May I love You fully and out of that love, serve the people of this world who so need to know and trust in the Savior, Jesus Christ, my Lord.

Amen

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The Allure of Sin

Daily Reading

Genesis 38-40

Daily Thought

Sin was introduced with the serpent who questioned God’s goodness when he asked Eve, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). This is the heart of temptation, that good may be found outside God, that God may be keeping something desirable from us. The same serpent was speaking when Potiphar’s wife “cast her eyes on Joseph and said, ‘Lie with me’” (Genesis 39:7). She looked good.

Joseph’s situation was like Adam and Eve’s in the Garden of Eden, “My master has put everything that he has in my charge” (Genesis 39:8-9) …except one thing. The difference was Adam and Eve kept looking at the sin, “the woman saw that the tree was good for food” (Genesis 3:6). Joseph kept his eyes on God, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9). 

A man ran up to Jesus, knelt before him and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:17-18). 

Joseph “would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her” (Genesis 39:10), because Joseph knew there is nothing good without God. We choose good over evil when our attraction to God is greater than the allure of sin. Worship is greater than willpower.

Daily Prayer

My God, how wonderful is Your love for me, Your attention to my life, Your wisdom and direction in leading me forward. You ask me, simple enough, to follow. You do not ask me to win any battles, but to stand in the victory already won by Your Son.   

I shall spend my days exploring the Your wonders of Your revelation. You have made Yourself known in Your Word, and in the Word, which is Jesus. May I everyday become more intimate with You, and may I reflect Your grace and truth to a world that desperately needs the faith, hope, and love of the good news of Jesus Christ.    

Amen

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Meanwhile

Daily Reading

Genesis 35-37

Daily Thought

Jacob knew his son, his favorite son, Joseph, was gone, apparently dead. The sons of Jacob knew more. They knew Joseph was not dead. He was, however, as good as dead. They had sold him into slavery. 

But nobody knew about ‘meanwhile.’“Meanwhile the Midianites had sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard” (Genesis 37:36). When you read the word ‘meanwhile,’ it might be a clue God is up to something. Meanwhile describes something happening at the same time in another place. Meanwhile means the story isn’t over. Meanwhile is the habitation of God, a place where God is at work. 

We draw conclusions and make decisions based on all we know, but all we know does not mean we know all. God may be up to something good in the meanwhile.

Jacob’s sons sold their brother Joseph to the Midianites. Joseph would become a slave, then a prisoner, then the prime minister, second in command beside Pharaoh over the land of Egypt and would save the people of Egypt, and of Israel, from famine. Joseph explained ‘meanwhile’ to his brothers, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today”

Meanwhile is Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Daily Prayer

Sovereign God, You not only know the future, You make the future. You are good and all that You do is good. I trust in You, not because I know Your plans (I usually don’t), but because I know You, and You are good.

You are the Potter and I am the clay. As You mold me, Your wisdom and beauty is on display. Father, may I not resist, but rather surrender to Your hands and trust in Your skill.

Amen