Category: Bible verses

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What do Freezing Temperatures and God’s Love Have in Common?

I’m guessing most of the people reading this at the end of January have recently been dealing with some very cold weather, along with some snow/ice. This past weekend there was an enormous storm that dropped snow, ice, or rain in something ridiculous like 40 states.

I’ll be honest with you, I was disappointed as the forecasted amount of snow kept dropping. At one point we were supposed to get 21 inches of it. As the models kept updating though, eventually we were projected to get less than half that.

Well, when you live in an area that’s not accustomed to more than a few inches of snow, and then you see warnings about nearly two feet of it, things start to get a little crazy. The snow wouldn’t be so bad, but then forecasts started talking about some ice mixing in. Cue the panic. Power outages mixed with some of the coldest temperatures in several years spells trouble.

I started making preparations here at home. I have electric heat, so my worst-case scenario was to lose power during the season’s coldest temperatures. I have a few batteries I use for power tools, and I charged them all up so I could use them to power lights or recharge phones. I have some firewood we could use in the fireplace, but not nearly enough to keep the whole house warm for any significant length of time. If we lost power, we’d lose heat, and that would probably mean we’d have pipes freeze and we’d lose water, too. We bought some bottled water to have on hand.

I started thinking about how I’d try to make the most of the fireplace. I came up with a plan to hang up blankets over the entryways of the room where our fireplace is, sort of enclosing it so the heat from the fireplace would mostly stay in the room rather than being dispersed throughout the house. We could use a lot less wood if we moved everybody into that single room and all slept there.

We have a big blanket that I had in mind for this; it’s probably big enough for a King- or Queen-sized bed, and it’s heavy enough to keep a lot of heat in. It’s not a little rinky-dink blanket, and it’s thicker than a curtain. As I started thinking about turning this blanket more or less into a giant curtain to help box in our living room, I’m not sure why, but I thought of the temple veil mentioned in the Gospels.

The temple veil was a big, thick curtain (probably multiple inches thick) that was used to separate the innermost sanctuary of the temple, the “Holy of Holies,” or the Earthly dwelling place of God’s presence, from the rest of the temple that was otherwise accessible to men. The veil was meant to illustrate the fact that sin separates humanity from the Lord’s presence.

In the New Testament, the veil is most famous for what happened immediately after Christ’s death. His passing was such a momentous event that it literally rocked the world and caused supernatural phenomena. Matthew 27:50-52 says And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks splitand the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.

There’s no way I’d be strong enough to rip the blanket I was preparing to use, and it’s much smaller and thinner than the temple veil. The fact that the temple veil was torn apart from top to bottom, which could have been as much as 60 feet tall, is amazing! It’s symbolic of the idea that Jesus’ death provided a way to overcome the sin-caused separation. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, no longer are believers separated from the Lord’s presence. Only God could have torn the veil apart so completely while illustrating the symbolism so richly.

Well thankfully we still have electricity and we haven’t had to MacGyver any emergency heating arrangements. Even so, this exercise helped serve as a reminder of just how significant and powerful Christ’s death on the cross was for us.

I hope you’re all safe and warm, that you’re dug out of any frozen precipitation you may have received, and that you’re living confidently in light of what Christ’s done for you. God bless!

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A Little Tweak in the Right Spot can Have an Outsized Impact

Have you ever come across someone who was already very talented at something, but needed a little extra guidance to make them unstoppable?

In the book of Acts (chapter 18, verses 24-28) we encounter a Jewish fellow with an odd combination of knowledge. He had extensively studied the Old Testament and was very familiar with what it prophesied about the coming Messiah, but he was also a follower of John the Baptist’s teachings. That might not seem so strange, but the teachings of John the Baptist were the limit of this guy’s New Testament experience. He lacked a complete understanding of the significance of Christ’s death and resurrection, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and the Church as God’s new witness people.

His name was Apollos.

Apollos was unusually skilled in debate and public speaking. He arrived in the city of Ephesus and started accurately teaching in the synagogue what he knew about the Messiah. He eventually attracted the attention of two well-known followers of Christ, Aquila and Priscilla. This pair recognized that Apollos’ understanding of the situation was incomplete, so they pulled him aside and brought him up to speed, giving him a more full understanding of Jesus and His role in God’s plan.

Armed with a more robust understanding of “The Way,” Apollos then went on to “vigorously refute the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 18:28). Apollos went on to become a very prominent teacher in the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:12), and his knowledge and skills were so great, Paul wanted him to use him in different cities (1 Corinthians 16:12).

Apollos was a man that became a powerful tool of God’s Church, but before all that, when he first arrived on the scene, he wasn’t yet ready to be the full version of what he would later become. It took the husband/wife team of Aquila and Priscilla, a faithful Christian couple, to mentor and disciple him. This was an ordinary, faithful couple who saw a need and filled it. As a result of their faithful behavior, they helped enable Apollos’ ministry for years to come.

Faithful service to the Lord doesn’t always involve flashy events. More often than not, it’s quiet, unseen efforts with lasting effects. In what ways can you use your gifts to enable someone else for greater success in the Kingdom of God? Is there someone you know who could benefit from your Christian mentorship?

Lord, people have been following Your teachings for just about two thousand years now. So much of that has come from the passing of knowledge and teachings from one Christian generation to another. Please help me/us as we look to be taught by, as well as mentor, other Christians. Praise You for helping Your followers thrive even in the unlikeliest places. Amen.

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It’s Tough for Me To Care About That

While visiting my parents one summer, my wife and I took our three kiddos out for ice cream. As we stood inside, waiting to order, I looked around the place and noticed a fun little bit of décor that caught my eye.

Framed in a corner of the room was an autographed picture of the group “Fighting Gravity.” This group was a blacklight performance act on the talent show “America’s Got Talent” (AGT) in the year 2010. I had watched the show that season and thought they were very entertaining, and thought it was fun to see some kind of local connection.

I don’t remember what year this was, but I’d ballpark it somewhere in the early 2020s. I thought it a little odd for this place to have an autograph from that group, and figured there must be some kind of personal connection between this ice cream shop and some member of Fighting Gravity. As we were waiting to place our order, I asked someone behind the counter about the picture. She wasn’t sure, and turned to ask one of her coworkers. Turns out she didn’t know either, and taking a quick poll, nobody at the store knew anything about that signed picture. In fact, nobody seemed to even know what “Fighting Gravity” was. It had only been about 10 years and I could understand that nobody working there had watched the show, but already none of them knew anything about the picture’s significance. Maybe if the proprietor had written something down it would have been easier to convey the story to people curious about the connection.

Did you ever wonder why God took the time to include all those boring genealogies in the Old Testament? Odds are you probably skipped over them or only skimmed them. Since it’s just a bunch of names of people nobody remembers, there’s not much purpose to them, right? Well if 2 Timothy 3:16 is correct, there’s purpose for all scripture. Here are a few reasons why they might be important.

  • The listing of all those individuals helps demonstrate scripture’s accuracy. By listing the physical existence of actual people you can trace back, we can verify that the Bible contains actual confirmed records of things, and isn’t just some collection of fictional stories. It’s authentic and contains historical records.
  • They confirm prophecy. The Messiah was prophesied to come from the line of David. By the time Jesus walked the earth, those lineages were long in the past, but recording those lineages helps check more boxes in the “prophesies fulfilled by Jesus” category.
  • Each name represents an actual person’s lifetime. God doesn’t see Israel as a collection of vague characters all lumped together; He sees them as individuals, each with highs and lows, victories and failures. Those are real people, and God is involved in the details of each of their lives.
  • Some genealogies reveal God’s favor for gentiles, even though they weren’t part of His chosen people. Ruth and Rahab are both part of Christ’s ancestral lineage, even though they were not Jewish. The Lord cares about each person He’s created; He values them all, and He invites them all to come to Him.

The bottom line is that genealogies reinforce the significance of God’s promises. Yeah, they can be pretty boring if you’re not very interested in that kind of thing. It’s important to remember, though, that all of Scripture and all of God’s plans tie together; if He takes the time and care to arrange fulfillment of the “boring” promises, it suggests He’ll fulfill the other ones, too.

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Many Parts, One Body. Many Personalities, One Mind?

There are a lot of different kinds of people out there. Think about all the different personality types you’ve dealt with. There’s usually something specific that characterizes each one. Some people are amazingly creative. Others have a strong sense of loyalty, or compassion, or are optimistic, or have a dangerous temper.

It’s interesting to me that when you consider all the different personalities out there, when you boil down the essence of each of these types, that central thing is usually something that can be considered a trait of God. The things I just listed…there are examples in the Bible of God displaying each of those characteristics:

  • Creativity – With no point of reference, God just kind of…invented a huge diversity of living things, from centipedes to elephants, mosquitoes to squids.
  • Loyalty – How many times did the Lord get sick of the Israelites complaining and abandoning Him after leaving Egypt, but He stuck with them anyway?
  • Compassion – Multiple times in the Gospels, Christ was moved with compassion to help people, either because of their spiritual plight or because of the faith they displayed.
  • Optimism – Despite all the evil in the world, God knows how this story ends, and He’s shared enough of the story with us to give us hope.
  • Wrath – There’s some pretty intense stuff in the Old Testament about God’s wrath: putting down an insurrection against Moses, 10 plagues on Egypt, destroying the world with a flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, kicking the money-changers out of the temple, etc.

Normally when I think about the character of God, these “right brained” aspects are the first to come to mind. Something we don’t often think about is the highly ordered and symmetrical side of God’s character. There’s actually quite a bit of orderliness and symmetry God displays. We don’t often think about it because it’s usually in more macro terms than we think in, or it’s captured in parts of the Bible we don’t like to read.

For example, did you ever stop to think about how the Old Testament is arranged? There are 39 books in the Old Testament. You might think they’re thrown together in a random order, but their layout is quite deliberate and makes sense once you realize the arrangement’s significance. Those 39 books encompass history, wisdom/poetry/praise, and prophecy.

The book of Ezekiel captures a lot of God’s orderliness and symmetry. In the Millennial kingdom described in Ezekiel, the land of Israel will be broken down into 13 “zones,” one for each tribe plus one for the temple and public use. Within the temple/public use section, there are very deliberate instructions for how the land’s boundaries and layout are to be set up, including where the temple grounds are to be situated. This includes the temple itself, areas for the temple priests to live, areas for growing crops, other areas dedicated to public use, and two very large areas dedicated to the prince (the human governor or administrator of the land at that time).

Zooming in even further, Ezekiel chapters 40-43 describe the layout and dimensions of the temple yet to be built. The largest building’s main opening faces east. There are inner and outer courtyards, multiple gates, kitchens and storage areas for the priests, and the altar. It’s arranged in a very detail-oriented manner, with each element serving a purpose.

This is one of the things in the Bible you probably don’t pay all that much attention to, but it’s definitely some supporting evidence that God doesn’t just cater to those who are strong on intuition/creativity/holistic thinking. He definitely has a logical/analytical/detail-oriented nature to Him, too. If you’ve been looking at the Bible and wondering why there’s so much emphasis on the emotional, artsy side of things, maybe you just need to look in the right places to find more rational thought, sequential logic, and specific instructions.

Praise You, Lord, for the immense variety of life and personalities You’ve created. Since we are made in Your image, the good things in us are reflections of some of Your personality traits, and we thank You for that ever-present reminder. Help us remember even if someone is different from us, they, too, are made in Your image, and need to hear the good news about You. Amen.

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This Year’s Patriot Day Message

Today we mark another somber anniversary. Believe it or not, it’s been almost a quarter century since one of the darkest days in the nation’s history.

For those on the younger side, I’m sure you’ve heard of 9/11 and you know what happened and all that, but it’s hard to really convey everything the nation went through that day and how it changed things for us. Imagine the nation as a whole feeling a blend of confusion, horror, fear, anger, grief, patriotism, and rage, all at the same time. As strange as it sounds, people of just about every political persuasion got along with each other in the weeks that followed, because being Americans united us more than it divided us.

There were three sites physically impacted that day: the field in Pennsylvania where the plane whose passengers rose up against their hijackers ended up crashing, the World Trade Center in New York City, and the Pentagon near DC. Watching the images from the site in Manhattan had the biggest effect on me; I had been up on the observation deck multiple times before, and within the previous year or two I’d had lunch with my Mom, Dad, and sister in a park made famous by a picture of an exhausted firefighter. Even though the Manhattan site was the most personal to me, there were lives lost in all three areas, either airline passengers or unassuming souls on the ground. Even though it’s 24 years later, that memory is still powerful to me, and I’m sure many people have similar powerful memories of that day.

This probably isn’t the last time we’ll get a bloody nose (or worse) as a nation. What I can tell you for sure, though, is that it’s not going to be the last time you see a wicked scheme succeed.

The Bible addresses incidents where wrongdoers seem like they’re getting ahead in life. David saw it and wrote about it. In Psalm 37:7-9 we read some of the most difficult instructions in the entire Bible: when you see wickedness seem to prevail, be patient.

“7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.

8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.

9 For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.”

This Patriot Day, take the time to pause and remember the innocents who lost their lives, but remember as a Christian that two wrongs don’t make a right. When you witness evil succeeding, be patient and wait on the Lord; He sees it and will deal with it in His time.

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Two Guys Who Were Each Literally One in a Million

Ever feel like you’re the only one in your circle who trusts what God’s doing?

Sometimes even other Christians’ faith seems to wilt in the face of apparent obstacles. It can be tough to believe you should pursue something God’s called you to do, especially when your senses are telling you to go the other way.

That’s exactly what Caleb and Joshua came up against as they neared the promised land. After God led them out of Egypt, but before entering into the land God had arranged for them to take possession of, He told Moses to take 12 men, one from each tribe, and send them in pairs to spy out the land to see what it was like.

They did just that. Five of the six pairs came back and lamented about how difficult it would be to conquer the land. The people were too strong, the cities were too fortified, etc. They lamented about how futile it would be to try to take the land by force. The last pair, Caleb and Joshua, were excited. “God promised us this land; whoever or whatever obstacles lay in front of us are inconsequential. We only need to move when He says to move, and He’ll take care of the rest to fulfill His promise to us!”

Despite the enthusiasm of these two, the people of Israel decided things were so bleak, they should reject the leader God had given them (Moses), appoint for themselves a new leader, and head back to Egypt! The people even started talking about stoning Caleb and Joshua! (Numbers 14:10) At that point the Lord stepped in. Exasperated with the Israelites, He spoke with Moses about their faithlessness and declared His intent to ensure no Israelite who was age 20 or older would live long enough to enter the promised land. The only two exceptions would be Caleb and Joshua, who believed God and advocated for His path.

There were roughly two million Israelites at this point. Out of those two million, there were only two who had the faith and focus on God to please Him. When you average it out, these two men of faith were literally one in a million.

Popular sentiment does not guarantee alignment with God’s will. There will likely be times when, even among other Christians, you’re in the minority about believing God’s promises or pursuing what He’s called you to do. When you’re the only one God’s given a particular assignment to, don’t be surprised when nobody else understands it. If you’re consistently in God’s word and you’re regularly in prayer, He’ll lead you in the direction He wants you to go. Follow God’s lead even if nobody else sees it.

Lord, it can be hard to step out in faith, especially when it doesn’t make sense. Thanks for this example of two men who believed in your power and promise, and help me to recognize when You’re moving me toward something You want me to do. In those times, give me clarity of vision and boldness of heart. Amen.

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And Suddenly it Makes Sense

Ever have someone explain a Bible verse to you in a way that makes you understand it better?

I recently heard someone talking about his teenage son’s hygiene habits, which were less than stellar.

“Son, don’t you think you should shower?”

“No Dad, I don’t need a shower.”

“Well son, you need to put on some deodorant.”

“No Dad, I don’t need deodorant.”

“Well you need to do something; what about cologne? Maybe you want to put some of that on.”

“No Dad, I don’t need cologne.”

“Son, what do you think about washing the car? Don’t you think that might be a good idea?”

“Dad, I’m not washing the car.”

But then, lo and behold, that boy found a young lady that caught his eye. All of a sudden he’s taking showers. He’s using deodorant. He’s putting on so much cologne it’s dangerous to strike a match anywhere near him. Now the car gets washed and waxed.

What changed? It wasn’t the world around him…it was the son’s outlook. The second half of Matthew 12:34 says “For the mouth speaks what overflows from the heart.” Another translation says “Your words show what is in your hearts.” It’s perfectly evident what happened in this kid’s heart. It wasn’t just his words, but his actions that showed what was on the inside.

Whatever your past contains, when you meet Jesus, your new desire to draw nearer to Him changes your outlook on life. Your heart’s perspective shifts away from the old stuff and toward something new.

If you’re already a Christ-follower, it’s your job to share Him with others. Even the people you’ve written off as “too far gone” can have a total change of heart upon meeting Him. If those people meet Christ, all the other aspects of their life start falling into place. The thing is, though, they need to hear about Him from you.

You don’t need to change their hearts; that will happen without you. It’s just your job to arrange the introduction.

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Someone Who’s Seen it All…Moved With Compassion

Imagine you had a medical condition that affected not only your health, but your physical appearance. I’m talking obvious enough people can see from a distance you’ve got this condition. It affects multiple aspects of your life, even to the point people don’t want to get too close to you for fear of contracting the condition themselves. It doesn’t take long for people to associate you with the condition, seeing the two as synonymous.

Now imagine the condition vanishes. It’s just gone, no trace. People see you and begin to steer clear, but do double-takes as the two of you pass by one another. “Wait a minute, what happened?” They’ll motion toward you and lean in and whisper something to their companions. At some point someone’s going to approach you and ask what’s on everybody’s mind: what happened to you? How did something so wrong go away so fast?

In Mark chapter 1, we read a story about someone who took it a step further. Jesus healed a leper…someone whose condition was so bad he had to live in isolation from the healthy. Jesus told him afterwards “don’t tell anyone what happened here.” Was Jesus serious? The healed man couldn’t contain himself and went out and broadcast what had happened to anyone who would listen.

These events don’t seem quite right. Jesus had to know the guy wouldn’t be able to stay quiet on the matter, so why would He tell the guy not to tell anyone?

He told him not to spread the news because Christ knew it would sabotage His ministry to a degree. Rather than coming to hear what He was saying, crowds would instead gather to see miracles…people wanted to be entertained by a performer, not told to change their lifestyle and religious practices.

This brings up a question. If Jesus didn’t want His ministry to be undercut, why didn’t He simply avoid the leper or turn him away? It’s an interesting point to ponder, and I’d argue it’s because Christ was moved with compassion by a man who had strong faith in Him. How could the embodied Creator of the world turn away one of His creations, especially one who possessed full faith in Him when faith was so lacking in others?

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of times God says “no,” even to His faithful followers. On this occasion, though, He was “moved with compassion” and chose to grant the man His petition. Unfortunately, after this event Jesus couldn’t even get close to the city without being mobbed, and His ministry in this spot had to adapt into something different. (Fortunately, the Lord was able to make due. Yes, he avoided the city, but people flocked to him from all over even when he wandered through desolate areas after this.)

Our God is the God of compassion. Approach Him in prayer with a humble heart and clean conscience, and make your petition known. You may just prompt the Lord of the universe to move with compassion.

40 Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”

41 Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” 42 As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. 43 And He strictly warned him and sent him away at once, 44 and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

45 However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every direction.

Mark 1:40-45

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Dude, Living Out Your Calling Can Be HARD!

Let’s get real for a little bit here. Sometimes trying to follow God’s calling…is hard!

Back during the Covid years, I felt like God called me to do something really audacious. Despite never having published anything professionally, or not having written fiction stories since elementary school, I felt like God was calling me to write a series of fictional Christian novels.

Truth be told, it was kind of a miraculous experience to be a part of. When it comes to big, bold ideas, I’m actually pretty organized. I started spreadsheets to lay out this monstrous storyline, and the ideas just kept coming. Ideas would kind of fester for a bit, then evolve into something a little smoother. More details would come to mind, and they’d work really well. I took all kinds of notes for each of the stories that would eventually be part of the series. Things have changed a bit since the original nascent ideas, but overall the plots started coming together. It’s one of those times where it was perfectly evident only God could allow all the ideas to fall into place.

Eventually I figured I needed to have seven distinct stories, though some of the stories were multi-volume, so it came out to be 10 different books. I tried starting at the beginning of the series, and I worked on that for awhile. Then I tried dabbling in the second story for a bit, but the one I really wanted to get to work on was the fifth story. I’d be focused on the first or second story, but I kept getting more and more ideas about the fifth one. They’ve all got to get written, so I got started on the one I was excited about. That’s still the one I’m most pumped about, and it’s the one where I’ve made the most progress.

But fast forward a few years, and how are things going? Well, to be honest, things have kind of stalled. I’m still excited about the idea of getting these stories written out, but I don’t seem to have the time or energy to focus on them. Covid faded into the background, and normal life, along with all its distractions and energy sucks, returned. As the kids started becoming teenagers, my time and mental energy started getting siphoned off into other things.

I can’t dismiss the importance of this effort, though. Of all the things I feel like God’s called me to do in my life, I feel like this is the biggest, grandest, boldest thing yet He’s challenged me with. Years from now, after I’m gone, whatever legacy I leave behind, I feel like this project is supposed to be a part of it. I am still highly enthusiastic about working on this series, but it’s as though God said “look, I want you to stay pumped about this, but I’m going to put it on ice for now. The timing’s just not right. Maintain your motivation, because I’m coming back to this later.”

So what do I do? Generally the longer things sit, the tougher they are to get going again. This whole thing could die on the vine, if I let it. The choice is really up to me. Fortunately I’ve been blessed with much faith. I don’t know what God’s eventual plan for this project is, but it’s helpful for me to think about how things have changed since Christ rose again. In the Old Testament, it was only a select few that the Holy Spirit rested on; now it’s every single Christ-follower. We all have access to the same off-the-charts empowerment that Moses, Gideon, Samson, Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, David, and other famous Biblical characters had. How can I doubt that if the Lord chooses, He’ll equip me to figuratively move mountains for the sake of achieving what He wants me to achieve? The task for now? Prevent my attitude from becoming the weak link in getting this done (which may not be for a period of many years from now).

In the meantime, here are some Bible verses to help me stay focused and motivated, even when progress is painfully slow.

But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded. -2 Chronicles 15:7

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. –Galatians 6:9

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. – Isaiah 41:10

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. – Jeremiah 21:11

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” –Matthew 19:26

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28

Are you in the same boat I am? Motivation can be hard to maintain. Don’t give up; the world is waiting for you to become the person you were born to be.