You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:6-8

We all face the struggle of authority issues on a daily basis. However, God is the author of authority. He has strategically placed authorities over us in ways that can shape us and make us into something greater. He wants us to play a huge role in His redemptive plan on planet Earth.  But in living our lives as God intends, we cannot miss the significance of the role that God plays.  We have all seen the movie or read the book where the hero/heroine rides off to lay down their life for the one they love. It is the ultimate act of bravery. It is the ultimate act of love.  Somehow, though, we miss that love when we think about Christ. We would recognize it in any other story, but we neglect it when it comes to Jesus’ love for us. 

Read today’s verses again. And this time, thank God for the love that Christ showed to us on the cross. Recognize the significance of that sacrifice.

Dear God, It is so easy to put fictional characters on a pedestal and idolize their façade. Please help me to keep life in the proper perspective and to truly understand and acknowledge the significance of the sacrifice that You have made personally for me. Help me to show my gratitude to You by living under your authority each and every day, in everything I do. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

The ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads.  Isaiah 51:11

We are all born sinners, and for some reason the ones we hurt the most are usually the ones we love the most. Jacob was no different. He deceived his father and stole from his brother. Jacob was forced to leave home for many years because of his sin. However, there came a time when God called Jacob to return to his family, to go back home and face those he had hurt.  One part of returning home, or going back, is repentance. When we allow sin to live in our hearts, it separates us from the blessings that God wants to give us. Recently, I’ve been called by God to return home, to repent, to come clean about my past. This process has involved confession to my family about sinful choices I made in my late teens. Like Jacob, I deceived and robbed my family of truth.

Going back home can be very scary. Yet when God directs us to make the journey and we obey, we have the promise that blessings will follow. Those who return to God through his Son, Jesus, are the “ransomed of the Lord.” We who obey will return and receive everlasting joy. With each step I gain a glimpse of this truth: Joy is on the horizon. God is faithful. 

Dear Lord, please prepare the way for our return home. Give us enough courage to obey, and prepare those we’ve hurt to hear the truth. We trust you to guide our steps. Amen.

“You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” (John 15)

How do we show our love and friendship for Jesus? In John 15:14, Jesus points out three things we can do to show our friendship with God.

First, true friends of Jesus will obey Him. Quite simply, we will do what He says. If we don’t, then we have no right to call ourselves His friends. What kind of obedience are we talking about here? An active obedience. Some people think it’s enough if they avoid what He specifically forbids. And certainly being a Christian means ceasing to do certain things. But it also means setting out to do certain things. It’s not merely avoiding the wrong thing, but it’s doing the right thing.  How do we find out what God wants us to do? By reading the Bible and becoming familiar with its content. The more we know of this Book, the more we will know of God. The more we know of this Book, the more we will know about what He requires of us—and what friendship with God really looks like.  Lastly, true friends of Jesus obey Him continually. In other words, we are constantly obedient. Not always perfect, but always trying. And if we fail, then we repent and get up and try again.

Remember, this is Jesus who asks for our obedience. This the One who has loved us, offered His friendship to us, and laid down His life for us. We obey Him joyfully because we love Him and know how much He loves us. When we are in love with God, obedience won’t be a duty; it will be a delight. And if our Christian life has become drudgery, merely consisting of rules and regulations, then we are missing out on what friendship with God is all about.

“He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.” (Psalm 91:15-16)

Are you facing an emergency today? Dial 911…Psalm 91:1, that is.

This psalm of David speaks of both great adversity and the wonderful help and protection of God. The fact is, God can use difficulty and crisis in the life of the Christian. None of us wants adversity in our lives, but God can be glorified through such times. You may have faced a serious, even life-threatening illness and experienced the healing power of God. Or perhaps you’re still dealing with a troublesome physical condition, and you haven’t experienced that longed-for healing. Either way, we bring glory to His name right in the midst of it all.

Psalm 91 doesn’t say you will never die. But it is saying that you won’t die before your time. It is saying that until God is done with you, His angels will keep you in all your ways…in your ups and downs, when you’re awake and asleep, in the sunshine and in the rain.  What’s your part? It is to dwell in the secret place of the Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Your objective as a Christian should be to stay as close to the Lord as you possibly can, leaning on Him with quiet faith and confidence. Because this all-powerful, all-knowing God who possesses heaven and earth, has made a covenant with you, loves you, and offers to protect and provide for you, you should make it your objective to get closer to Him, asking, How can I walk so closely with Him that I will be in His very shadow?

You should periodically ask yourself whether you are meeting the criteria of this great psalm, whether you are living up to the conditions that have been set forth. If your answer is yes, then you have God’s word that these promises will be activated in your life.

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  John 15:13

Every day, men and women are willing to do what it takes for the cause of freedom. And through the years, many have paid for that freedom with their lives. Memorial Day is a time when we reflect on and honor the sacrifice and dedication of those people. Because when you boil it down, what we have, where we live and the freedoms we enjoy aren’t free.  Yet, as awesome and humbling as that is, there’s an even greater freedom that we have that came at an even higher cost. And it was born out of unconditional love.  When Jesus walked the earth, He had one purpose, one mission, one cause—to die for your sins so that you could enjoy the freedom that comes with a relationship with God. So as you celebrate and honor the men and women who are serving and have served our nation, don’t forget the cost that Jesus paid for you. Thank Him for that ultimate freedom He provided to us because of His pure and powerful love.

Dear God, Thank you so much for the freedom that I enjoy and for the sacrifice of the many who provided that freedom. But most of all, thank You for the ultimate freedom that You have given through Jesus Christ. Help me each day to reflect on and remember the cost You were willing to pay for a relationship with me. It is through Christ that I pray, Amen.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.   Isaiah 55:8

As I was going through some old belongings, I found a notebook where I had recorded my prayers and requests. I read it with great curiosity. Many of the requests have been granted, but some have not. Of the people I prayed for, some are now dead. Some names I do not even recognize.  One of the requests that caught my attention was about a friend who wanted to join her family overseas. God answered that prayer 10 years to the day after I started to intercede for her family to be reunited and wrote it in my notebook. I was amazed and thankful for God’s way of working.

Sometimes when we pray, we want God to intervene instantly. But sometimes immediate answers don’t come. The difficult circumstances in our lives and the times of waiting for God to act can refine our faith, teach us, and prepare us for future responsibilities God has for us. 

Patient, loving, and amazing God, we thank you for your ways of working in our lives. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.  Psalm 78:1, 4

When I was in high school my father gave me a Bible. And he wrote some powerful reminders for me on the inside cover.  The first thing he wrote was study it through. I’m going to challenge you to read God’s Word for fifteen minutes a day for the next thirty days. If you’re new to reading the Bible, start with the book of John. You don’t have to understand everything you read, but just read it. Study through it.  Next my father wrote pray it in. Many times I know what I should do as a believer, but I don’t want to obey God in certain things. But during those struggles, I need to pray it in. And so do you.  The third thing he wrote was live it out. The Bible was not written for our information. It was written for our transformation. We should live out what we are submitting to in God’s Word.  The fourth thing is pass it on. As we live out God’s Word, we’re to give it out to others around us. We’re to pass on what God has done in our lives. We’re simply following His will and being light and salt as we reach out to a world in desperate need of Jesus Christ. 

Dear Lord, Thank you so much for giving us Your Word so that not only is my life transformed, but also the lives of those I meet as I live it out. Please help me in my commitment to read Your Word daily. I look forward to spending this time with You. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. (1 John 2:6)

The word “walking” speaks of regularity, of moving at a certain pace. The Bible tells us in Genesis 5 about Enoch, who walked with God. But what does it mean to “walk with God”? Is it just a religious cliché? The prophet Amos asked, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3). The idea is to be walking in pace with someone, in harmony with another.  I have a problem with this when I walked with my wife. I always walk a little faster than she does. I will walk ahead. I’ll stop. Then she will catch up with me. So I’ll walk more slowly, but the next thing I know, I’m walking fast again.  When it comes to walking with God, some of us run ahead of Him. Some of us lag behind. We need to move in harmony with Him. We need to stay close to Him, and make a continual commitment to do so.

But what does this mean in practice? How do we do this? It means we take time for the things of God. It means when we get up in the morning, we take time to read the Bible. If we neglect the Word of God, it will show in our lives. Abiding in Jesus also means that we spend time in fellowship with God’s people.  Make time for the things of God. Don’t wait for time to simply materialize; deliberately carve out room in your schedule. If it means an hour less of sleep, fine. If it means skipping a meal, okay. If it means missing a television program, so be it. Do what you need to do, because these things are essential to spiritual growth, to abiding with God, and to bearing spiritual fruit.

And it is a walk—the best of all walks—that will bring indescribable richness to your daily life.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” (John 15:4)

A glance at today’s headlines could lead us to conclude that we live in pretty bleak times. There is great uncertainty about the future, especially among teens and twenty-somethings. Many feel they have nothing to grasp, no one to believe in, and no one to trust except themselves.  I would like to say that there is something to grasp. There is someone to trust in, but it is not ourselves. It is the God who created us.  Why am I here? What is my purpose in life? These are questions that everyone should ask as they look to the future, especially if they are young. If we have no goals, purpose, or guiding principles, then we will waste our lives like so many others have wasted theirs. As it has been said, if we aim at nothing, we’re bound to hit it.

According to the Bible, you don’t find happiness, fulfillment, and joy by just looking for them here and there. These things are by-products of a relationship with the living God, in Christ. Let me put it this way: if you seek God and live according to His plan for your life, then you will find happiness. You will find joy. You will also find fulfillment—not through the pursuit of those things, but through the pursuit of God. So seek Him!

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Philippians 2:3

The most common phrase used to describe the Bible is “the Word of God.” In fact, the Bible uses that self-descriptive phrase over 4,000 times. But people’s reactions to the Bible vary. Not everyone looks at it the same way.  Some people deny the Bible. They just don’t believe it is God’s communication to us. Others distort the Bible. They take Scripture out of context and build entire theologies and false religions around it. Then there are those who dissect the Bible. They treat it like a textbook, pulling things out and trying to prove them right or wrong through conventional means like science or archaeology.  But the biggest issue people have with the Bible is not denying, distorting or dissecting it—it’s disregarding the Bible altogether.  Too often, we thumb through the Bible and read something like, “…in humility consider others better than yourselves.” But because that goes against our human nature, we disregard it.  But the Bible doesn’t work that way. The Bible, as a whole, is our Owner’s Manual for living life. Its inerrant truth helps us understand what it means to live under God’s authority. And living according to that truth is a lot easier than dealing with the consequences of disregarding His Word.   

Dear Lord, Thank You so much for Your Word, Your Love Letter to us, which enables us to stay in ongoing communication with You. Please help me to follow the principles and instructions that You have given me so that I can live a blessed and abundant life under the Authority of Your Word. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.