August 29, 2024

Ephesians 5:15-16

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

If you don’t work on your yard in Utah, you’ll lose it. It will be consumed by weeds which will themselves die out in the heat until all that’s left is wispy yellow stalks and sharp goatheads. But if you water and mow, fertilize and weed, you can have a green, lush, and living carpet for kids and pets alike to roll and romp across. If you don’t work at it, things get worse not better.

Your soul is such a landscape. Things won’t automatically get better. The days are working against you and time is slipping away. What will you do today to walk wisely and make the best use of the time? It is said a man often over-estimates what he can do in a year and underestimates what he can do in 10 years. Take time to invest in wise practices that will bear fruit now and forever.

Prayer prompt: Lord, help me to steward my time and resources wisely.

August 28, 2024

2 Corinthians 9:8

8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

So often, I feel like a balloon with all the air let out. Exhausted and frustrated, I look at ministry with a wince rather than a smile. In those moments, the prospect of doing more for the Kingdom is terrifying. It seems like the reward of good work is just more work. How can I really turn up the intensity and survive?

Grace, by nature, has to come from the outside. A gift must be given and must be received, not earned or bought. If I am only prepared to attempt what I already have the strength and wisdom to do, I’ll be a pretty useless servant. God is able to give me grace, and to pour it out in abundance. That grace, not my own strength, will make me sufficient for EVERY good work. What mountain has He given you to climb?

Prayer prompt: Lord, point me to the next task while filling me with confidence in Your grace.

August 27, 2024

2 Corinthians 9:7

7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

As a preacher, I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to have this verse in the Scripture. Imagine it becomes your job to instruct people in the ways of the Bible and find the repeated commands to give and give wildly. You may begin to sweat to think of trying to pry open fingers grasping money with a deadly grip. Yet this verse doesn’t pry the fingers, but delights to offer them something much better than money.

One of the great wonders of Christianity, a crucially unique aspect that sets Christianity apart from a million other thoughts, is the way it works from the inside out. God doesn’t want your money, as though He was a little insoluble at the moment. God loves to see your heart changed so that you give cheerfully. Open up your hand to grasp something greater.

Prayer prompt: Lord, thank You for filling my life with so many opportunities to find so much joy!

August 26, 2024

2 Corinthians 9:6

6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

From the outside, the Christian life can seem like a celebration of the word ‘No’. There is an austerity in the Christian walk, a constant refusal of the things our culture enjoys. From the outside it seems like we just enjoy the deprivation, or the superiority of that moral high ground. But is that what we’re really up to? Instead of saying no for the sake of no, the Bible emphasizes sacrifice in order to build something grander, more pleasurable, and more lasting than any small temptation. 

Paul tells us to sow bountifully, to give and sacrifice heroically, in order to reap an even greater reward. He assures us that the ground is fertile, the rewards are assured. Simply get to work and watch as every effort is observed by the Father and nothing goes to waste. Choose today where you are going to grow and sow for the Kingdom! 

Prayer prompt: Lord, show me where I can take the first step in sowing bountifully.

August 24, 2024

Luke 17:15-16

15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.

Thankfulness is deceiving. It seems like a small nicety like making your bed or chewing with your mouth closed, but it isn’t small or merely polite. Thankfulness is more like the word praise, or worship. Those words are volcanic, world making or re-making, like in the story above.

In Luke 17, 10 lepers cry out for Jesus and are healed. 9 run to get a clean bill of health from the priests so they can go back to their families, which is very understandable. But one stopped, turned, and gave thanks. Stopping to realize what God had done for him resulted in not only clean skin, but the reward of Jesus Himself. Look at the gifts then look up to the Giver. Practice thankfulness today.

Prayer prompt: Lord, please forgive me for the thousand thousand things I haven’t thanked You for, and help me to look up from the gifts to enjoy the Giver.

August 23, 2024

Acts 5:29

29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. …”

A very smart guy named Charles Taylor talks about something called a “social imaginary”. The concept is that the society around us deeply affects our thinking whether we realize it or not. It may seem like something you grow out of, and sure, as a teenager you tried a lot more consciously to be cool, but it’s a constant force that sways us all. The question isn’t if society affects your thinking, it’s where and how much it affects you. 

Yet, we must obey God rather than man.  Looking danger in the eye and completely disregarding what the spiritual and political leaders of the day mandated, the Apostles obeyed God rather than man. They were beaten for it, but daily, in both public and private venues, they took their knocks to make the Kingdom go forward. Where in your life is there sin that needs to be strangled or obedience that needs to be performed even though it will be incredibly unpopular?

Prayer prompt: Lord, bend my will to Yours as I swim against the current of human opinion.

August 22, 2024

Titus 3:1

1 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,

My wife still can’t eat really fresh salsa or cake pops. Both those lovely foods were favorites of ours until pregnancy when each was a cause of, shall we say, a refund. Some how, those foods still turn her stomach even though that child is 10 years old. We can get that way with things that hurt us. They become sickening forever after. 

For the Christian, what can be more repellant than rebellion? We watched it hang our Savior on a cross. We hate the memory and, God forbid, the continual presence in our lives. While there are times when we must rebel against some crooked authority, we only do it to submit to God. In the climate we find ourselves in, search your heart to check your appetite for rebellion and be ready for every good work. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to hate rebellion and draw close to You, ready to do the good works You have prepared for us.

August 21, 2024

1 Corinthians 9:22b

22 … I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

What would you do to get the gospel to someone who needs it? If you really understood the time involved in a word like forever, the pleasure promised in a word like Heaven, or the horror hidden behind the word Hell, you would crawl across broken glass to speak these words of life. In 1 Corinthians Paul was defending his ministry which included different styles and approaches for different audiences. 

There is no question that we are under Christ’s law and the supremacy of that law. We will never sin to speak the gospel, but there is no pain, deprivation or even humiliation which we should permit ourselves to avoid if another person can hear the words of life. What will you do to reach people unlike yourself? 

Prayer prompt: Lord, push me to give up everything to speak of Your grace and share in the blessings of the gospel. 

August 20, 2024

Hebrews 12:2

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

You have to get a good, wide base if you want to help me up. At 6’6” and a considerable weight, if you want to lift me, commitment is required. Think then, about what muscle, what determination is necessary to get a sinner like me into God’s presence? If sin is a weight that entangles, I’ve got all the weight of hell itself on me. I have the wrath of God on me. What hope can I have?

Jesus wasn't just a religious leader. He is God’s Son and is seated at God’s right hand. That throne doesn't have the slightest tinge of weakness. From God’s mouth poured worlds and at His glance mountains skitter away like goats. I keep my eyes on the only one who can lift me up. I keep running because of His great might.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I keep my eyes on You.

August 19, 2024

Hebrews 12:1-2

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith. If asked to climb Everest and shown the path, I will politely decline. I’m just not able to do that. If asked to swim the English Channel, sorry, nothing doing as I would fail and then drown. Why then does it seem possible that I can run the race of the Christian life? 

I run because Jesus has made it possible. He is the founder, originator, author of this path that I tread and He has perfected, meaning completed to the last degree and most minute detail, my race. I can run in complete confidence even as I know I am much much too weak. It is the Christian who continues against the odds and  because of Jesus, eventually, wins. Keep running with your eyes fixed on Jesus. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to remember the way you saved me so I will trust that you still love me.

August 17, 2024

Hebrews 12:1-2

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, …

I don’t know if you’ve stopped to think about it, but Christianity is an old institution. Take a moment to think of anything in your world more ancient than this faith that goes back beyond Abraham to the founding of the world itself. In all those plodding centuries and millennia, men and women have encountered and wrestled with God. Untold millions have been devastated, daunted, and eventually delighted by God.

In view of that cloud of witnesses, that matchless gallery of people so unlike and exactly alike you in heart and soul, run the race set before you. They had the same valleys and deeper ones to cross. They’ve had the same joys and fuller ones to enjoy. And each, without a single exception, wishes you to run on and run faster. Hear their cheers and see their smiles beckoning you on.

Prayer prompt: Lord, lift my eyes to see the endless examples of the joy You give your people.

August 16, 2024

Hebrews 12:1-2

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Running is awful. Anyone who tells you differently has deluded themselves by enduring so much of the awfulness of running that they enjoy it becoming slightly less awful as they get stronger. Why run any race? Why run this race? If running this race means you have to give up sin that you love and enduring extreme difficulty and pain, why go through with it?

We look to Jesus. God has set this race before us with Jesus as the example, the reward, and the constant encouragement. He is the reason we run and the strength to run. There will be pain on this road, but if Jesus prescribes it, we can endure it with the joy set before us. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, please hold the joy and example of Jesus before my eyes all day today.

August 15, 2024

Hebrews 12:1-2

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

How do we stop sinning? This verse, like many places in the New Testament, uses the metaphor of a race. Because I want to cross the finish line, I lay down all the things that slow me down or tangle me up. That’s what sin is: anything that we choose instead of God.

God has given us the great desire of life with Him and the great mission of reaching the world with the gospel. With a race to run like that, our desires begin to work for us rather than against us. Instead of wanting our sin, we will want to lay that sin down in order to run with greater speed and constancy. What is slowing you down?

Prayer prompt: Lord, please show me my sin so that I can lay it down to run to You.

August 14, 2024

Psalm 119:11

11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

When I was growing up, this verse was a constant motivation to memorize scripture. Teachers used the implied punishment, the fear of sin and God’s judgment, to push your nose into the text. I think they were half right; punishment is a fair and helpful motivator, but it’s not the only one. 

God’s word is full of a beauty that captures the heart. When I memorize those words they open up in my mind like a remembered view of Zion Canyon or the sunset over the Pacific. They calm, inspire, invigorate, and woo. They put the true God back into my world and leave the sin I was tempted by to shrivel away. Find and memorize that beauty today.

Prayer prompt: Lord, open up Your word so that I can’t sleep until I store it up in my heart.

August 13, 2024

Ezekiel 20:7

7 And I said to them, ‘Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.’

God wanted to give the Israelites the greatest of all lands, a place with pleasure overflowing. But the people wanted to return to the idols of Egypt. If you remember, Egypt was the nation that had enslaved the Israelites. In a very real sense, the people of God wanted to leave God and go back to idols even if that meant slavery. How stupid is that?

I’m sure you see this reversal coming, but you are the exact same kind of stupid. When we reject God’s ways, we reject God’s rewards. When we return to sin, we return to slavery. Following God does mean pursuing purity, self-control, love sacrifices, service to others, and rampant giving. It can seem like a grueling walk, but remember two things: the reward and the alternative. Be free!

Prayer prompt: Lord, corral me back to Your ways and away from the slavery my heart sometimes desires.

August 12, 2024

Ezekiel 20:6

6 On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands.

God promised to take His people to the most glorious of all lands. Travel is always difficult. It’s hard to look longingly at photos of amazing landscapes or read reviews of paradise-on-earth beach resorts and know they’re probably too expensive. It would be bliss to get away from where we are, to walk in a stress-free, beauty-filled somewhere instead of being stuck in our more dark, difficult, real life.

Take that little version of longing and let it inform the longing we should feel for the “most glorious of all lands” God is preparing for us. It will be a place flowing not only with provision but with pleasure. You don’t need milk or honey to survive, but are you really living without them? God has promised to take you to pleasure, to Himself, will you walk away from your sin and into His paradise?

Prayer prompt: Lord, fill me so full of longing for You and Your blessings that sin loses all allure.

August 10, 2024

Acts 18:9

9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”

Many of us are afraid and are silent. It would be an incredible boost to have God give us a personal promise that we won’t be attacked in our city! But be honest for a second, is that why you’re silent? Are you really afraid of physical attacks? 

Blinded by our pride, arrested by our fear, insensible through our total self-absorption, there are very few of us who are faithful to our calling to make God’s name known. Yet look at the end of those verses, “I have many in this city who are my people.” God has people in SLC who need to be rescued. It is time for us to speak.

Prayer prompt: Lord, open my eyes to the people You have planned for me to speak to today.

August 9, 2024

Exodus 15:1

1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying,  “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.

God saved the people of Israel by the waters of the Red Sea twice. The water moved so Israel could cross on dry land, then the waters crashed over the Egyptians, killing them to the last man. As the waters stilled over the defeated enemy, a nation of former slaves broke out in song. Imagine the million mouths hanging open in shock, then the eruption of cheers and praise!

When we are in a dark time praise can be difficult. If you find it difficult to praise God today, take a moment to remember the enemy He has defeated, that He swallowed up in victory. You haven’t been saved from an Egyptian army, Jesus saved you from the penalty and sting of death itself. There is no problem facing you that He can’t overcome. Look back, praise, and trust for tomorrow.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I praise You as my Protector and Savior! May praise fill up my thoughts and bring me joy even through the tears.

August 8, 2024

Psalm 31:23

23 Love the Lord, all you his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.

Here’s the real question: are you more in love with God or yourself? Which love wins in a fight? The results of each option are described above. You can either love God most which makes you a saint and faithful, or you can love yourself most, with is called pride.

If in your heart, pride wins, you are working against the flow of the universe. You have attempted to make a fantasy into a reality. Believing you can fly is harmless if it’s only a fantasy, but if you try to make it a reality, you’ll break your neck. At some point, God will either preserve you because you are His or He will let you attempt to fly on your own. Humble yourself before God.

Prayer prompt: Lord, increase in my love of You and humble my heart.

August 7, 2024

Revelation 7:9-10

9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

In Heaven, before God’s throne, we are united. All the differences that seem so obtrusive fade in that glorious picture. The surface distinctions become harmonies rather than discord as each heart unites in adoration of God. They all love the same thing.

The differences in our world breed suspicions; we wonder at another person’s deeper motives and allegiances. But in the Kingdom, whatever I don’t know about you pales in comparison with what I do know. We can spread that love of God and watch it unite across any boundary, no matter how formidable. That’s our calling as believers. Pursue it today.

Prayer prompt: Lord, please use the pain I see around me to push me to spread Your gospel.