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- Monday, August 3 - Blessed Research Part 1: This fall, my novel, A Life for Barabbas, will be released by TouchPoint Press (Date to be announced.). It has been an odyssey of blessed research into sacred and ancient writings and a recognition of God’s graces through inspiration. The research has taken me into the writings of scholarly theologians, and multiple commentaries. I was introduced to the Apocrypha, which, at the start, I couldn’t spell, let alone know what it was. In turn, it led me to Josephus, Jewish historian that wrote a century or so after the Resurrection. I met St. Jerome who translated the Greek Septuagint (another word I had to look up) that resulted in the Latin Vulgate (?). St. Jerome’s contribution was his in-depth translation and explanation of original Hebrew writings. Continue reading
- Saturday, August 1 - Truth and Grace: Okay, you and a friend are having this conversation about Heaven. Your friend thinks he will be surprised to see who is there. You reply, with a smile, that they may be more surprised to see you. That kind of the conversation is lighthearted and with much good humor. There is a degree of truth in that exchange. In the midst of that conversation someone might wonder, isn’t it strange that God would send people to hell. Oh, I have a couple of candidates to nominate for that trip. The better question might be, how could God send sinful people to Heaven? On matters of truth and grace, it occurs to me that we may not know the full definition of either one of those ideas. I have read essays that talk about what is truth, but when it comes to the matter of grace, I wonder if we fully understand. Continue reading
- Friday, July 31 - Ever consider yourself a power source? Well, you are. So am I. First thing in the morning, I reach over and turn on my lamp and there is light. I did not say, “Let there be light”, as my creator-God did. I start my Keurig and make coffee, and I don’t celebrate, “Hey, look what I did! See what I created!” No, not that kind of power. I’m talking about the power, or the energy for the Christian life and where that comes from. One of the most important commandments that Jesus left us with before he was taken up to heaven is contained in the first chapter of the book of acts. Continue reading
- Better Than We Deserve? - Recently I was reading something by Randy Alcorn, asking “Are we trying to atone for our own sins?” He went on to say that he believed that too many of us are trying to repeat the atonement, and we can’t. Only Jesus can and He already did. Our job is to accept it, to embrace God’s forgiveness, to relax, rejoice and enjoy His peace. You know as humans our tendency this to embrace God’s forgiveness and surrender our anxiety and worries to Him, then we turn around and take them all back, putting the on our shoulders, where it weighs us down. I think we tend to hoard God’s graces. Oh, we can talk about our blessings, and named them one by one, and maybe we even celebrate them, but I think too often we find it hard to pass it on. I don’t mean to brag about them, I mean to go and do likewise. Continue reading
- Tuesday, July 28 – The Good Stuff - Blessings, Taking Inventory: The Good stuff in our lives. That’s what we’d rather talk about, think about, share about. What are the blessings in your life? If you were to list your blessings, what would be on that list, beyond your spouse, your family, your children, your grandchildren, even your circle of friends? I have heard it said that "what is past is past", but that is simply not true. The memories linger, just staying in the background, until you are wise enough to call them up, look at the pictures, play the videos, and marvel at how young we looked! What blessings come to mind! Continue reading
- The Blame Game II - The Blame Game, Part 2: I don’t like the idea of writing about the blame game…it is so negative. The way to avoid responsibility for your own behavior doesn’t make any sense at all in the walk of a Christian. But, it has been going on since Adam and Eve. Some of the critical moments in our history featured that same mentality that says, I am not responsible. The blame game doesn’t fit the Christian. Yet, it pops up in even the best of churches. Did you know that in the 1930s, the German church leaders supported Adolph Hitler? Why? They defended him because he didn’t smoke, or drink, he encouraged women to dress modestly, and he opposed pornography. I wonder what they thought about genocide? Continue reading
- Saturday, July 25 – The Blame Game I - The Blame Game, Part 1: “It was his fault.” “She made me do it.” “The devil made me do it.” “Don’t look at me, I know nothing of it.” “Those two are responsible, my hands are clean.” “I am not responsible.” “Don’t blame it on me if God made you become a farmer.” The blame game is the longest running sport in the world. We easily track it back to Genesis 3 and that poor serpent that, apparently, was at the root of all evil in the world. Poor little snake. Should we call it the “sin-maker”? Or was it something other than the serpent? We see the blame game running throughout the Bible, Old and New Testament people reaching out and hurting others in order to shift blame from the responsibility that they should be taking. And here we are, still at it! Continue reading
- Friday, July 24 – Moments of Beauty - Moments of Beauty, Blessed Memories: You are on a solitary hike in the mountains. It's an early day in spring, it is warm, the sky is deep blue and wild flowers are everywhere. In short, it’s a perfect day and you alone are there to witness this bit of God's handiwork. There should be a crowd, a huge crowd, the largest in the world to see this and take in the beauty of the day. But it’s just you, and you sit and soak up the perfect scene. Thank You, God. You are on a casual walk in the woods, and the path has brought you out onto a park with playground. In the distance, a young father kneels before his small son, who is sprawled on the ground crying. The father gently lifts the son to his feet, and kisses the bruised knees. Even from this distance you can tell that the child has stopped crying and he is giggling. Continue reading
- Thursday, July 23 – Beatitudes II - I know, just yesterday, I listed all of the Beatitudes, why am I singling out these few, for special attention? Well, I got to thinking about how this part of the Sermon on the Mount seems to be setting a standard that one, early in their walk with Christ, could lead to discouragement. First, I don’t know that I’m poor in spirit, and I certainly know from experience about mourning. I would like to think that I am meek, and I do hope and wish for righteousness in this world. But I wonder about my sense of mercy in so many small acts during the course of my life. Then we come to the big one, blessed are the pure in heart. Oh, how I fall short. Continue reading
- Beatitudes I - Go Light Your World: ... That is such a beautiful song. It’s one of those if you hear it, and know the words, it’s hard not to sing at to the glory of God. Tells the story of God’s spirit within each one of us and how we are to minister through our life In Christ. We have that spirit within us, and that spirit turns into the fire of Christianity when you except Christ as Lord and Savior. Maybe your fire was kindled in sadness and loss. Maybe in the darkness of remembered violence as a child, you turned to your Savior, thus your candle was lit. Continue reading
- Monday, July 20 – You Are a Miracle - Have you ever considered yourself a miracle? I mean, a living, breathing, walking around this planet, miracle? Do you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life? Yes? Well, then, you are a miracle, because belief in Jesus is a miracle produced through redemption, by the sheer, unaided power of God. Let’s see. In Saul’s case, redemption came through a powerful lightning-strike of God’s presence. A miracle that knocked Saul off his…donkey…and into Paul, the apostle extraordinaire. The sheer power of God. What if I said that we all get knocked off our donkeys through the power of God. Continue reading
- Saturday, July 18 – Your Faith Story - This devotional could be called “telling secrets” because the focus here is on how important it is for the Christian to share “their faith story”. We have a role to play in the revealing of “God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ”. Our witness reveals that “secret” to those that do not know, or simply do not believe what they know, or know what they believe. We can track this telling of secrets that reveal God’s plan back to Daniel (2:18, 27-28, and 47), where Daniel, the captured slave, opens the truth to King Nebuchadnezzar, contained within the King’s dream. Daniel reveals the secret of the mysterious one True God to the King, sharing his faith in God. The King’s reaction is immediate, he appoints Daniel to a high position and made him ruler over the province of Babylon. At Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be in charge of all the affairs of the province of Babylon, while Daniel remained in the King’s court. Continue reading
- Friday, July 17 – Things Change - This morning I set aside the Meditation written for today. Things change, life moves on, sometimes in ways that are painful. For this morning, I feel led to share part of an essay I wrote in 2016, weeks after the death of my wife, Joanne. A Grief Experienced -- Many years ago, as a college dean, I sought to comfort an older student who had witnessed the accidental death of her 7- year-old son. As I stood in line at the funeral home, I wondered what could I possibly say to this grieving mother? In front of me was the Campus Pastor who did and said all the right things. The hug, the quite murmurs of sympathy, and then, to my surprise, he began to speak of the Young boy and what a blessing he had been in her life. He didn’t avoid the subject. The elephant was in the room but it didn’t matter! Her son was honored by the remembering conversation. The brief conversation did not ally her grief, but it mattered to her. Continue reading
- Thursday, July 16 – He Met Me in the Quiet Village - Today I quoted a beautiful and blessed piece of poetry by Gertrude Roberts Rays. As you read that, prayer-like, you can almost get caught up in the presence of God. For me the phrase “He taught me how to be a Friend”, brought tears of wonder. And “…he walked the earth with kindly might in quiet gentleness that makes men great” should cause the poet in each of us to pause and ponder that truth. In the interest of honesty, I found that prose as the dedication in a little book entitled What He Lived By, honoring Edward Increase Bosworth, Dean of The Oberlin Graduate School of Theology. Dean Bosworth was my dad’s favorite professor in Seminary in the early part of the 1920s. The book, compiled in 1931, is a collection of Bosworth’s prayers. My dad honored me by giving me the good Dean’s name. Continue reading
- Tuesday, July 14 – Power of Rest* - Every now and then I come across a devotional that captures the purpose of these meditations. I share this from Joyce Meyer’s Ending Your Day Right, for July 12: “This (Exodus 33:14) was God’s reply to Moses when he asked about the particulars of the mission he had been given and how he could get to know God better. God simply assured Moses that His presence would be with him and give him rest. This was considered by God to be a great privilege. To Him, it was all that Moses needed. What was true for Moses is true for you. As much as you would like to know God’s plans and ways for you, all you really need to know is that His presence will be with you wherever He sends you and in whatever He gives you to do. So, when you get concerned that things are not going the way you think they should, just remember that God’s presence is with you and enjoy the rest he promised to give you.” Continue reading
- Moments of Surrender - n the Ephesian passage; have you ever thought about the fact that we have been saved through faith, and faith is not from ourselves, but is a gift of God? Sometimes we may think of our faith as a decision that we made, but faith is a grace from God. The conscious decision we made for Jesus, whether in an altar call, or the still of the night, or evolving from circumstances in our lives, simply opened us to God’s gift, which we call faith. Paul uses the term ‘authority’, while we might use ‘witness’ or ‘sharing our belief’ or other terminology, i.e. “making disciples”. In those moments of surrender or commitment to Jesus, we “give it all to Him”, then, too often, the slide begins, followed by the confession: Forgive us Heavenly Father when, in the living of our lives, we go sideways to your will. When in our own self-interest, we act contrary to who You would have us be. Help us Lord, to get beyond the fact that who we are too often collides with the words that we speak, or the profession of love for you that we share with others, too often with pride. Amen. Continue reading
- Sunday, July 12 – Cradled in God’s Love - We are cradled in God’s love. Have you ever thought about that? God’s love surrounds us in so many ways, twenty-four hours each day, every week, every month, all the time. We talk about how our Lord is around us, within us. We pray to Him most every night. But, are we conscious of His presence? CS Lewis, in his essay “The Four Loves”, makes this statement about understanding the depth and the breath of God’s love:” We must not begin with mysticism, with the creature’s love for God or with the wonderful foretaste of God’s gifts in our earthly life. We begin at the real beginning, with love as Divine Energy. This primal love is Gift-love.” I don’t know fully what Lewis means by "Divine Energy", do you? Continue reading
- Saturday, July 11 – Baffling Call of God - I wonder if we understand even the basic meaning of words and phrases coming from God? I wonder if we have read too much into some of those phrases that we rely on, and, yet, we understand “none of these things”? Phrases like; “Pray without ceasing”, or “Lay down your life for your friend”, or perhaps a simple phrase like “Good works”. What is God telling us, really? God called Jesus Christ to what seemed unmitigated disaster. Jesus Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death. He led every one of them to the place where their hearts were broken. We may not fully understand the meaning of the Resurrection, yet, God’s purpose is never man’s purpose. Do we need to understand all things? Or, do we simply need to worship Him? Oswald Chambers in the original edition of My Utmost for His Highest makes this statement: “There comes the baffling call of God in our lives also. The call of God can never be stated explicitly; it is implicit. The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him..." Continue reading
- Friday, July 10 – Rehabilitation - Redemption – “The act, process, or an instance of redeeming.” That is the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of redemption. In theology, redemption is a metaphor for what is achieved through the Atonement. Okay, so that the death of Jesus pays the ransom, releasing Christians from bondage to sin and death. It is a completed process. The wife of a dear friend and colleague of ours is going through a process of rehabilitation. Or said another way, she is going through the means of being restored to normal physical capabilities. In a sense, we are all going through a process of rehabilitation, putting us in a right relationship with God, the one that God designed us to be, which is what Christ did in the redemption. Continue reading
- Thursday, July 9 – Support Group - Yesterday morning our men’s group was studying Genesis Chapter 26. We had a lively discussion, some on point, others not so much. Mostly reverent, some on the edge. Over all, we had an enriching time, learned a few things, and, because of the bond between us, openly shared. That is the beauty of our group and, I am sure, not unlike such groups you have been involved with. We all need that kind of support as we do our very best to walk with Jesus through this life. We can study the Bible, like Genesis 26, and learn about repeating mistakes, some handed down from generations, or simply not learning from previous errors. But, on the other hand, a person could wonder about the relevance of what happened between Jacob and Isaac, or Isaac and Abimelech, and how that applies to us, here and now, in our present circumstances. Continue reading
