If I asked a class of third grade students, “Raise your hand if you love ice cream.” I bet every hand would shoot up. 🙋🏿♀️🙋🏻🙋🏽♂️🙋🏼♀️🙋🙋🏾♂️
But if I then said, “Raise your hand if you love Brussel sprouts,” I’m quite sure I’d get a very different response. Even if I followed it up with words like, “They are really good for you! They’re high in fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants.” Still, it’s a no. 🙅🏽♂️🙅🏼♀️🙅🏻🙅🏿♂️🙅🏻♀️🙅
It is only logical to love ice cream. It’s sweet and creamy and delicious.🍦😋 But Brussel sprouts … They are more of an acquired taste, suited for a more refined palate. 🥬 😝
I’m afraid that I sometimes think I’m naturally easy to love. I’m afraid sometimes I forget about all my prickly, hard to love spots. I’m afraid I see myself as ice cream, rather than Brussel sprouts.
When God tells the prophet Hosea to go love Gomer, a woman who chases after other men, refusing to remain faithful to her husband, I’m afraid that we all think we’re Hosea, not realizing that we’re actually Gomer. We are that adulteress, that whore, that woman who abandons her true love to pursue idols, and God is Hosea, the faithful One who again and again chases after His bride, pulling her out of the pig slop. 🥴🐖
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:10 ESV
Love covers a multitude of sins.
Love is not irritable or resentful or rude.
Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Love forgives.
Love never ends.
Love is steadfast and patient and faithful.
God loved us while we were sinners, and He calls us to go and do likewise.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your steadfast, patient, faithful love toward me. Thank You for pursuing me, though I didn’t deserve it, though I don’t deserve it still. I’m not worthy, but You are. You deserve better. You deserve chocolate, chocolate chip ice cream with whipped cream and sprinkles and a cherry on top. And yet You have demonstrated Your love by sending Your own Son to be the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice, the substitutionary offering, for my sin. Praise Your Name forevermore. Amen.
Had they stopped observing the feasts and Sabbaths?
They had forsaken Him by making Him one god on a buffet of gods. They had forsaken Him by worshipping both Him and Baal. They had forsaken Him by offering themselves to other lovers in addition to the Lord God.
Friends, we can have a dozen coworkers, a dozen children, and a dozen friends, but we can only have ONE husband and he can only have ONE bride.
A good husband refuses to share his bride with other men, and our good God refuses to share His bride with other gods.
It is not enough for us to make God the biggest god in our life, or the most valuable idol that we have. He can’t be our “favorite” husband. He wants to be our ONLY husband. He wants ALL of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. He wants to be our everything. He is either Lord of all or He’s not Lord at all.
God despises adultery of all forms, especially adultery toward Him. God wants our whole heart. He is a jealous God. He will not share His glory with another.
Exodus 34:14 ESV — (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
Deuteronomy 4:24 ESV — For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Isaiah 42:8 ESV — I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.
Heavenly Father, You are a good husband who loves His bride and refuses to share her with another. I pray that we would be a loving bride, rejecting all other things who vie for our attention. I pray that You would be the apple of our eye, the center of our attention, the singular focus of our lives. In the Name of Jesus Christ, our redeemer, Amen.
Have you ever gone to a corn maze (or a sorghum maze if you’re in the south)? I’ve taken my kids a few times and discovered I really don’t like them. I hate how easily one wrong turn can lead you down the wrong path, forcing you into another wrong turn and another, until you finally find yourself at a dead-end where you then have to try retracing your steps to get back where you were 30 minutes ago. I’m just not a fan. How about you?
In reading 2 Samuel 11, I couldn’t shake how many times someone could have made a different choice and changed the whole course of events. Chapter 11 begins with the words, “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.”
What if David simply had gone to battle instead of staying home?
Then David “arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of his home late in the afternoon.”
What if David had been commanding his armies or counseling his people?
What if David had spent the afternoon in prayer and Bible study?
So often in life it’s how we spend our leisure time that really trips us up!
When we’re worn out, worn down, and trying to relax, what do we do? What do we turn to? Food, Facebook, or the phone? Sex, shopping, or scrolling? How differently things could’ve been in David’s life if he’d spent his afternoon differently.
Then David sees a beautiful woman bathing.
Accidentally seeing someone bathing is not a sin, but what if this wasn’t the first time David had gone up to his roof and noticed Bathsheba.
Had David made an intentional choice to go up on his roof, hoping that he would see Bathsheba?
And what about Bathsheba? Was it really just an accident that she was bathing in the afternoon in such a place that the king who lived nearby would see here?
We don’t know, but how different things could’ve been if Bathsheba had bathed somewhere else or had been more careful to shield herself from David’s view.
And then David sent a messenger to find out more about the woman, and he is told that she is the wife of one of his mighty men, Uriah the Hittite.
Why did David send someone to find out more about her? Was he planning to take her as another wife or maybe a concubine?
But then, I wonder, how did David not know who she was? Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah, one of his chosen mighty men (2 Samuel 23:8-9) the daughter of Eliam, also one of David’s chosen mighty men, (2 Samuel 23:34) the granddaughter of Ahithophel, one of David’s chief counselors (2 Samuel 23:34, 2 Samuel 15:12), and she lived near enough to David’s home that he can see her clearly from his roof. Did he really not know who that bathing woman was?
What if David had never inquired of her? David had more than enough wives already. Surely he didn’t need to find out anything about this beautiful young woman.
Next David sends someone to take Bathsheba to his palace and she becomes pregnant.
What if the messenger had refused to help David?
What if Bathsheba had refused to come, preferring shame, imprisonment, or even death to breaking her marital vows?
What if she had fled like Joseph had when Potiphar’s wife tried to get him to lie with her and he ended up in prison? (Genesis 39)
By the way, this phrase, “David sent messengers and took her,” reminded me of 1 Samuel 8 when the Lord warned the Israelites through the prophet Samuel about the troubles that a king would bring upon them. This same Hebrew word for “take” is used again and again in 1 Samuel 8. The king will take their sons and their daughter, their fields and their grain, their servants and their donkeys. And here, David, the king, has taken even the wife of one of his most valuable warriors.
Then David asks Joab to bring Uriah back home, hoping that Uriah would spend some time with his wife, so no one would find out how she had become pregnant.
Like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden after they had taken the forbidden fruit, David chose to hide his sin.
Maybe David was afraid of hurting his friend, Uriah.
Maybe David was afraid of losing his position as king.
Maybe David was simply afraid of losing face.
What if David had come clean at this point and repented of his sin?
What if David had brought Uriah home so that he could confess his sin to him and seek his forgiveness?
Proverbs 28:13 ESV says, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” Think of how differently this story would’ve ended if David had confessed his sin and sought mercy from Uriah and Bathsheba.
Next when Uriah refuses to go home to be with his wife, then David tells Joab to “set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down and die.” (11:15) and Uriah was killed in battle.
What if Joab had refused to be a party to this?
People might say, “Joab HAD to obey the king,” like they say that Bathsheba had to obey the king.
Don’t believe those lies. You DON’T have to do it. You don’t. Sure, you might get in trouble. Yes, you might face some embarrassment or other consequences, even severe, or life-threatening consequences, but no one ever has to choose sin.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace (Daniel 3) because they refused to bow down to the king’s golden idol.
Daniel was thrown into a den of lions (Daniel 6) because he refused to stop praying.
God will always provide a way of escape (even if it’s death) that you may be able to withstand temptation. Read 1 Corinthians 10 for more on this.
David’s sin hurt lots of other people: Uriah, Bathsheba, the child Bathsheba bore, not to mention David’s other wives and David’s other children, as well as Joab and the Israelite army and the list goes on and on. But so does ours.
When we lie or cheat or boast or complain, we hurt other people.
When we think malicious thoughts about others and make plans in our minds to hurt them, we are hurting them as well as ourselves and others. We have got to remember that those people were made in the image of God and when we put our desires above them, it hurts them and it hurts God.
David knew that what he was doing was wrong. David knew the Ten Commandments. He knew it was sin to covet his neighbor’s wife and commit adultery, but he did it and then tried to cover it up. He knew God had said DO NOT MURDER. That’s why he had Joab arrange the murder for him.
Your sin might not look like David’s sin. Maybe you will never get another man’s wife pregnant or have anybody killed, but your sin separates you from God just as much as David’s sin did.
“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Mark 7:21-23
God was displeased with David’s sin, and God is displeased with our sin, too. God made a way for David to be saved, and God made a way for us to be saved, too.
As we will read tomorrow, David’s innocent son died, but so did God’s. God sent His own Son in the flesh, Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, to be born as a human baby, to live a perfect and sinless life and to die on the cross to pay the punishment that our sins deserve. And He promises to us eternal, abundant, new life in Christ – AS SOON AS we trust in Him His Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, to be our ever-present help, our ever-present counselor … and for all eternity to dwell in heaven with Him.
David needed to repent, to turn away from his sins, and so do we. The only way we can do that is to place our trust in the Lord and seek Him for strength to overcome temptation moment by moment and day by day. David fell because he had stopped seeking God; his eyes were on earth instead of on heaven.
Let’s pray and ask God to help us to resist the devil and submit to Him.
Heavenly Father, I need Your help. I can’t do it on my own. My spirit is willing but my flesh is weak. Help me to trust You moment by moment. Help me to be so careful how I spend my leisure time. Help me to get the rest I need so I can be strong in the moment of temptation. Help me to resist the devil and submit to You. Help me to see that way of escape that You will provide for me each and every time. Help me to be in Your Word day after day, remembering that it is my weapon to fight against the devil. Help me to hold up that shield of faith so I can extinguish all the flaming darts that the evil one throws my way. Help me to fasten the belt of truth firmly around my waist and strap the breastplate of righteousness tightly to my chest. Give me the strength and courage I need to stand firm and fight this battle, so that I will not bring shame to Your name. I love You, Lord. You are worth the fight. Death is not the worst thing. Denying You whether in word or deed is. Help me, Lord, for the glory of Your Name. Amen.
Have you ever been mad at someone, not just for a few minutes, but for hours or days? Have you ever allowed your anger to stew like a 8-pound chuck roast left in a crockpot to bubble all day, causing a seed of bitterness to take root deep in your heart?
How did that effect your relationship with that person? How was your attitude toward them? Did that bitterness ever make it hard for you to think kind thoughts or speak kind words about them?
Now, how about your feelings toward God? Have you ever been mad at God for days or weeks? Have you ever felt like He didn’t treat you or a loved one the way He should’ve? Did you ever let that anger plant a seed, no matter how small, of contempt toward God?
How did that effect your relationship with or your attitude toward God? Did it make it hard for you to meet with Him or submit to His commands?
In my life, I’ve noticed that often my bitterness toward a person is intimately tied to my disappointment with God.
Maybe a friend, a parent, a sibling or even a spouse has hurt you deeply. They’ve let you down. They’ve attacked you and disappointed you. They’ve done you wrong. Maybe it’s substance abuse or pornography. Maybe it’s lying and deceit. Maybe it’s an emotional or physical affair. Maybe it’s a lack of regard for your thoughts and feelings.
How has that relationship with a human being effected your relationship with God?
How have your feelings toward a person effected your feelings toward God?
In today’s passage in 2 Samuel 6, we read about Michal, King Saul’s daughter and David’s first wife, who despised David in her heart when she witnessed his joy before the Lord. Michal had been hurt again and again by David, a man she had loved. David had taken other wives and then had allowed her to be sent away, only to be brought back after she’d married another man. I don’t know that Michal ever trusted in God. In fact, Michal may have been a pagan idol-worshipper, but we do know that it grieved her deeply to see David dancing with reckless abandon in the presence of God and all the house of Israel. Click here to read through an overview of Michal’s life in the scriptures.
Thinking through Michal’s response to David’s joyful worship, I asked myself these two questions:
When have my feelings of disappointment toward a fellow human being resulted in me treating them with disdain and contempt rather than love and forgiveness?
When have my feelings of disappointment with my Heavenly Father resulted in me turning my back on Him rather than turning my face toward His open arms?
Heavenly Father, Your ways are certainly not our ways. You are always holy and righteous and good, and we are not. You have told us what You require of us, yet we have disobeyed You again and again. We have shunned Your scriptures. We have mocked Your Words and Your workers. We have treated Your Creation and Your commands with contempt. We have blamed You for circumstances that we have brought upon ourselves. We have turned our backs to You instead of our faces. Please, Father, forgive us. Remove the root of bitterness from our hearts, bitterness toward our fellow sinful man and bitterness toward You, our perfect Father. Renew a right spirit in us. Give us a new heart, a new mind, and a new soul. Strengthen us to love others as You have loved us. Help us to love You, our Lord and God, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Help us to cast all our cares upon You and to trust that You care for us. Help us to fully believe that You are at work, working all things together for good for those who love You and have been called according to Your purposes, bringing beauty out of the ashes of our lives. In the Name of Jesus Christ who died in my place I pray. Amen.
Thursday night, our family read the seventh advent devotional in “From Creation to Christ” along with Luke 7. If you don’t have your own copy, you can order your own a Kindle version instantly, while you wait for the paper copy to arrive.
I’m really loving this “mash up” of the advent devotional with the daily reading in Luke. We’re all having fun finding connection points.
How was Joseph able to forgive his brothers after they had perpetrated such great sin against him? I think the answer might be found in Luke 7.
“Then turning toward the woman [Jesus] said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven–for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.””
– Luke 7:44-50 ESV
So long as I think my sins aren’t really that bad, it’s hard to forgive other people. But when I recognize how much God has forgiven me, then I’m able to love God and love others. And if I think that God is mean to allow such terrible things into my life, then I will be bitter toward Him and toward others as well. But if I think that God is the master weaver, creating a masterpiece of my life, then I will humbly accept whatever others do to me and keep praising Him through it all.
Heavenly Father, I know that You are good. I trust You. Help me to love others with the love that You have poured out lavishly on me. Help me to remember how MUCH I have been forgiven, how GREAT my sins are and have been. Help me to be so busy working on getting the log out of my own eye that I don’t dwell so much on the splinter in my brother’s. I love You, Lord. Help me to love You more!
Today the kids and I read our fourth advent devotional in “From Creation to Christ” along with Luke 4. If you don’t have your own copy, you can order your own a Kindle version instantly, while you wait for the paper copy to arrive.
“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. … So Abram went, as the LORD had told him.”
– Genesis 12:1, 4a ESV
“And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.”
– Luke 4:1-2 ESV
My husband and I are about to celebrate our twenty-eighth wedding anniversary. Many of those years have been hard, friends, and sometimes I’ve questioned what God is up to. Why did He put the two of us together?
In the first five years of homeschooling, I often second guessed whether God had really called me to this because it was an uphill battle day after day. Now with the end of my homeschooling days on the horizon, I can look back and see God’s hand with me every step of the way. I know that God has carried me and walked with me, even though the path has been at times twisty and rocky.
Our culture has sold us the lie that if we obey God, then everything will be smooth sailing. Don’t believe it. It wasn’t smooth sailing for Noah or Abram. It wasn’t smooth sailing for John the Baptizer or Jesus Christ or His disciples. Don’t be surprised when it’s not smooth sailing for you.
My job isn’t to question and argue and second-guess, to help God figure out where I ought to turn. My job is to follow where God leads and stay on the path that He has set before me. My job is to trust and obey.
Heavenly Father, You know all the answers. You know what path is best. You are almighty. You are all-knowing. And You are good. Help me to trust You and to stay on that straight and narrow path. Help me to go where You lead me. Help me to follow You rather than trying to get out front. Help me to go where You send me. Help me to trust and obey. In the Name of Jesus Christ, my faithful Shepherd I pray. Amen.
Did you know that the famous words from Ruth 1:16, “For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God,” were spoken by Ruth to her mother-in-law, not her husband? Well, now you do. In fact, Ruth said this to her mother-in-law after her husband’s death.
My grandma made this for me as a wedding gift. Ruth 1:16.Baby #1 – very tired parents, very happy grandparents
Little did my Grandma know when she cross-stitched Ruth 1:16 for a wedding gift for me what an enormous impact my mother-in-law would have on my life. To be honest, as a young bride I struggled in my relationship with my mother-in-law, but God…. God used my mother-in-law’s patience, kindness, and forgiveness to draw me to better understand God’s patience, kindness, and forgiveness.
How’s your relationship with your mother-in-law? Rather than looking at all the things she’s done wrong, try looking instead at all the things she’s done right. You married her son. She must’ve done something well. Next time you start thinking about all the ways you’d like her to change, try looking at what you could change to improve your relationship with her. Could you be more patient, kind, and forgiving toward her? Start there and see what God does. And if you need to make a call or have a face-to-face chat about some hard feelings from something that happened days, months, or years ago, do it. Today. Don’t let bitterness take root and spoil the good fruit that God wants to bear through you.
At Baby #1’s wedding shower
Heavenly Father, Thank You, Lord, for the gift of a mother-in-law who loves You and who loves me. Help me to be grateful and to recognize that this truly is a gift. Thank you for blessing my son with a wife and my daughter with a husband. Give me the wisdom and strength I need to be a patient, kind, and forgiving mother-in-law myself. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
An angel appeared to Hagar in the desert (Genesis 16) and to Mary, the mother of our Savior Jesus (Luke 1). The Lord answered the prayers of Hannah when she asked for a son (1 Samuel 1). Abigail’s discernment and quick actions spared David from having revenge on foolish Nabal (1 Samuel 25).
Here, in Judges 13, the Lord has chosen Manoah’s unnamed wife, a barren, childless woman, to be His messenger to her husband.
Sisters, God wants to use you as a blessing to your husband, your children, your church, and your community. He has a purpose for you.
Whether you’re married or not, whether you have a house full of kids or not, if God has chosen you as His child, then He has chosen you to be His ambassador, a messenger of the most high God.
Heavenly Father, I pray that I would call out to You, seeking You, morning by morning and evening by evening and that I would hear Your voice as You answer me. You have chosen me to be a vessel of Your grace. May that grace overflow to my husband and my children and their children. May that grace bring glory to Your Name. Give my husband and I discernment as we listen for Your voice. Help us to know when You are speaking and grant us unity in Your Holy Spirit. Help us both to be humble toward each other and to You. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
On December 23, 1994, I vowed before God and 150 some witnesses, to love and cherish my husband until parted by death. With our 30th wedding anniversary quickly approaching, I’m so thankful that the Lord has given us both the strength to keep that vow.
Entering into the covenant of marriage is not something to be done lightly. If you are considering marriage yourself, please think seriously before vowing yourself to be faithful to another until death. Like Ecclesiastes 5:2 says, “Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth.”
Pray and seek wisdom from the Lord.
Seek counsel from believing friends.
Ask deep questions of your future spouse, making certain that they are committed followers of Jesus Christ before you enter into such a covenant with them.
When I started pondering this topic of keeping a difficult wedding vow, I started thinking about tough questions like these:
But, what if a husband is abusing his wife or his children? Or what if he is actively involved in an adulterous relationship and refuses to cut it off despite his wife’s pleas? Or what if he is destroying his family, squandering his health and his money on drugs or gambling? Would the Lord want a woman to remain with that kind of man in order to keep her marriage vows?
Charles Spurgeon said in his sermon titled, Retreat Impossible, “In Jephthah’s case there were good reasons for going back. He had made a rash vow, and such things are much better broken than kept…. If you have come under a rash vow, you must not dare to keep it. You ought to go before God and repent that you have made a vow which involves sin; but as to keeping the sinful vow, that were to add sin to sin.”
Do Spurgeon’s words apply to the marriage vows? Is it adding sin to sin to stay with an abusive spouse in order to keep your wedding vows or is it not? I don’t have the answers to these questions, but I’m sure thinking about them. I want my thoughts to be God’s thoughts, rooted in the character of God and the Holy Scriptures.
Heavenly Father, I lift up my sisters who find themselves in an abusive marriage. Please protect them and guide them. Protect their children. Protect their minds, hearts, and bodies. Help them to love their neighbor as themselves and do good to their enemies. Show them the way of escape that You have for them. I don’t have all the answers, but You do. Show us the way, Lord. In the Name of Jesus Christ, the perfect, sinless Lamb, we pray. Amen.
The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’
Judges 7:2 ESV
This passage has had a special place in my heart since one night about twenty years ago when the Holy Spirit convicted me about how often I used manipulation to get my husband to do what I wanted. That night, the Lord opened my eyes to the importance of trusting Him to fight my battles, rather than trusting my own skills of argumentation to get my way. That night, I decided to quit fighting against my husband and to start praying for him. That night, I finally recognized that I might be winning these marital battles, but I was losing the war for my marriage.
Can any of you relate?
Ask yourself what weapons you’re using to fight your own battles: Nagging and complaining? Threatening and yelling? Silence and the cold shoulder? Put those weapons away, friends. They’re not the Lord’s weapons; they’re the enemy’s.
If the Lord can cause the entire Middianite army to kill one another, giving the Israelites success by merely blowing their trumpets, then surely He conquer the heart of your stubborn loved one.
Put on the whole armor of God, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation. And take up your weapon, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and start praying in the Spirit, asking Him to fight for you. (Ephesians 6:12-17)
Join forces with the Lord. Remember who your real enemy is. Quit fighting your spiritual brothers and sisters and start fighting the spiritual forces of evil.
Heavenly Father, we need You to fight our battles for us. Open our eyes to see the spiritual battle that we are in. Make us soldiers in Your army, wielding that Sword of the Spirit, your Word, with excellence and accuracy, praying without ceasing, and seeking Your face for direction day after day. Let us not grow weary of well-doing. Give us clean hands and pure hearts. Help us to root up those spirits of bitterness and selfishness. Protect us from pride and manipulation. Make us more like You. In the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Brother, we pray. Amen.
Teach What is Good 
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