Even now in my fifth decade of life, I’m still learning every day. I’m definitely still learning about history and science, but I’m also still learning to be a better human. One thing I’m actively trying to learn is to ask questions. Maybe that sounds like an odd thing to need to learn, but in my sinful nature I find myself prone to pride and to talking more than listening.
I’m not only learning to ask questions when I’m with my family, friends, or strangers, but I’m also learning to ask questions of God. I want to be like David who inquired of the Lord, “’Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?’ And the LORD said to him, ‘Go up.’ David said, ‘To which shall I go up?’ And he said, ‘To Hebron.’” (2 Samuel 2:1)
Father, What do You want me to do today?
Spirit, What does this verse mean?
Lord, What should I say right now?
Spirit, How can I apply this passage to my life?
Father, What do You want me to write about from this passage?
I want to be a better asker and a better listener. I want to heed the inspired words of James 1:5.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
James 1:5 ESV
Heavenly Father, thank You for always being faithful to give wisdom and guidance when I come to You humbly in need. Help me to learn to ask, and help me to learn to listen. And, then, Father, help me to obey. I fear sometimes I don’t ask because I don’t want to obey. Forgive me and change me. I want to be more like Jesus who faithfully asked and listened and obeyed. I love You, Lord. You are worthy to be obeyed. Grow my faith. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Before reading 2 Samuel 1, I took some time to review and reflect on 1 Samuel – the life and death of the prophet-priest-judge Samuel and the life and death of the first king of Israel, Saul. I was reminded again of how fleeting life is and how brief both the joys and the trials of life really are. When I find myself smack in the middle of the latest disaster, it’s hard to remember that this too shall pass, but today I’m reminded that it will. Someday every one of my tears will be wiped away. Someday all my questions will be answered and my faith will be as sight. Someday I will sit at the feet of Jesus and everything will be made right. Someday there will be no more goodbyes.
The first day of a new year is a time both to reflect back on the previous year and to look forward to what the new year has in store. In this looking back and looking forward, I want to remind myself (and you) of all that is unchanging – God’s Word, His love for His people, and man’s need for forgiveness. I pray that in 2024 my heart would stay focused on these truths so that my life would reflect the eternal wisdom of God rather than the temporal wisdom of man. He is enough. His grace is enough. Whatever He has prepared for me, it is enough and it is good.
Heavenly Father, Turn my eyes upon Jesus. Help me to look fully in His wonderful face, so that the things of this earth will grow dim in the light of His glory and grace. Help me to remember that Your grace is sufficient for me, that the things of earth are all passing away, that in Christ I have been granted life eternal and abundant. Help me to fix my eyes on You, on Your love, on Your mercy and power and wisdom. I pray for love to cover a multitude of sins – sins of my own and sins of others. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Come Unto Jesus – Keith, Kristyn Getty, Laura Story
On Monday I’ll be beginning the second year of my Read Through the Bible in 2 Years plan. Get more information here. I hope you’ll join me!
This week we have a teenage international student staying with us while his school is on Christmas break. When I invited everyone to pray after reading our chapter in Colossians, he commented that he didn’t know how to pray. I remember what that felt like when I began my life in Christ as a new believer almost 30 years ago. I encouraged him to talk simply and honestly to God about whatever he’s thankful for as well as what he needs.
On that note, Colossians is a great place to learn to pray. I’m praying for my children, but you might be praying for yourself, your husband, your future husband, or someone else. I hope these words would help bend your heart and life toward God.
Heavenly Father, thank You for each of the children that You have given me as well as their spouses and children. Each of them is a gift from Your good hands. I pray that their hearts will be encouraged and knit together in love with one another and with You. I pray that they may reach all the riches of the full assurance of faith through the understanding and knowledge of Jesus Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Protect them from those who want to deceive and confuse them with worldly philosophy and plausible arguments. Give them insight through Your Holy Spirit and through Your written Word. Please, Father, be with them while we are apart and put strong Christians into their lives. Help them to walk faithfully in Christ, being rooted and built up in Him, established in their faith as they have been taught, with hearts full of thanksgiving. Grow their faith in Jesus Christ who is the head of all things and the head of the church and in whom the whole fullness of deity dwells. I pray that they would put off their fleshly desires and put on Christ, being clothed in His righteousness and made alive with Him. Help them to hold fast to Jesus from whom the whole body is nourished and knit together that they might grow wise and strong in heart, mind, and body. For the glory of God and the building up of the body we pray in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
I’m so sorry for my absence. This Christmas break I have been enjoying sweet time with my daughter being home from college – in addition to five days spent with my two little granddaughters and the rest of my family. Blogging was the easiest thing to leave out of my schedule, but I have to admit that I miss it. Writing ministers to my own soul, and I hope that it ministers to yours, too.
On Monday I’ll be beginning the second year of my Read Through the Bible in 2 Years plan. Get more information here. I hope you’ll join me!
This week our family got to read through Colossians together. It has always been one of my favorite books of the Bible. Do you ever pray Scripture? Colossians is a great place to start.
Heavenly Father, I thank You for sending the Lord Jesus Christ for us. I thank You for the sure and certain hope that is laid up for us in heaven by faith in Him. I thank You for drawing my children to faith; this faith is a gift and I pray that You would strengthen it and give it roots and wings. I pray that each of my children will be filled with the knowledge of Your will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that they might walk in a manner worthy of You, Lord, living lives that are fully pleasing to You, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in their knowledge of You. Help them to study your word each and every day, that they know You better that they would love You more. May they be strengthened with all power according to Your glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with hearts full of joy and gratitude for Your saving grace. If any of them have not yet fully trusted in You for salvation, I pray that You would deliver them from Satan’s domain of darkness and place them securely in the kingdom of Your Beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Strengthen them to continue in the faith, staple and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which they have heard from my own lips andfrom the pages of scripture.In the mighty name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Please forgive me for being behind in posting my daily advent devotionals here, but it’s been amazing to see God’s perfect timing in my lateness.
I’m loving reading the advent devotional in “From Creation to Christ” along with a daily reading of a chapter of Luke 7.
Today’s advent devotional was about God calling Moses to lead the Passover.
This morning when I checked my phone I was dismayed to see a message from a precious sister in Asia saying that her church’s Sunday worship service had been interrupted by police, and her husband, along with several other leaders in the church, had been arrested. Please, friends, pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world.
One of the best ways we can encourage our faith family is to be faithful to share the gospel ourselves. If they are faithfully worshipping God under such constraints, why are we so remiss when we enjoy such freedom?
And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, [Jesus] said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.”
As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.
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!
Wednesday night, our family read the sixth advent devotional in “From Creation to Christ” along with Luke 6. 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.
When we read the story of Jacob dreaming about a ladder set up on earth reaching to heaven, let’s pay careful attention to Genesis 28:13-14, where the Lord repeats the promise He had made to Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather, telling Jacob that, “The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”
I was reminded of Galatians 3.
“And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” … Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. … But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”
Galatians 3:8, 16, 25-29 ESV
Friends, though there are many children of Abraham, there is only one ladder by which anyone can reach God, that is Abraham’s one offspring, Christ, the Son of God.
Then, turning to Luke 6, I noticed in verses 17 and 18 that “[Jesus] came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.”
According to Got Questions, “Tyre and Sidon were Gentile cities north of Israel.” And in Luke 10:13, Jesus compares the cities of Galilee (Chorazin and Bethsaida) with these Gentiles cities, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” (You can read more about Tyre and Sidon in Matthew 11:20-24, Matthew 15:21-28.)
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6) It is by faith in Him that we can come to the Father now and for all eternity. All the nations will be blessed through the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, through Messiah Jesus, the Promised, Long-Awaited Seed.
Heavenly Father, I pray that You will use me to bless the nations of the world. Draw all men to Yourself by faith in Jesus Christ, Your Only Begotten Son. Send Your children out to preach the good news in the corners and in the marketplaces, from the rooftops and through the airwaves. Bring the nations in! We want heaven to be filled with every nation, tribe, people, and tongue to the praise of Your glorious name. In the Name of Jesus Christ who is the Only Way to You, Father, we pray. Amen.
Tuesday night, our family read the fifth advent devotional in “From Creation to Christ” along with Luke 5. 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 tried to put myself in Abraham’s place, imagining how it would feel to lay my own son on an altar and prepare to give him up as an offering to God. This was particularly difficult for me to wrap my head around since God would never want a person to kill their own child. If I had such a thought in my mind, I would quickly and immediately dismiss it as clearly not from the Lord. Yet, here’s Abraham, obeying God even to the point of traveling for three days to sacrifice his own son.
It’s much easier for me to imagine my gratitude at God sparing my child. Suddenly, all of my confusion is taken away, the clouds part, and I see God’s glorious goodness in technicolor as a ram appears, caught in a nearby thicket. I understand, now, Father! You are so good! You are the great provider!
Then, we followed our advent reading with Luke 5. Again I tried to imagine myself in the events of the passage. I pictured myself a weary fisherman, having toiled all night without catching a single fish. When a man asks to get into my boat so he could teach the people, I oblige willingly enough, thinking, “Eh, what can it hurt?” But, then, when he tells me to go back out into the water, to keep fishing, to let down my nets again, it’s almost more than I can bear. Yet, I obey Him. And then it happens, I catch an unimaginable number of fish, to the point that my nets are breaking and my boat begins to sink. I’m blown away. How is this possible? Who is this man?
But, wait, what’s this? How does Simon Peter respond?
“But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.””
Luke 5:8 ESV
Heavenly Father, How good You are! Your mercies are so great and so glorious! And oh how sinful am I! Who am I, Lord, that You would spare my life and not strike me dead in an instant? Who am I, Lord, that You would invite me into your presence, to sit at Your feet, to read Your Word, to be taught by You? Father, You have done so much for me. You have blessed me so, so much. You have filled my nets to their breaking point. You have filled my boats to the point they would sink with Your mercies. My cup indeed overflows. You have brought me to sit an Your banqueting table. You have invited me to the eternal wedding supper of the Lamb. You have provided for Yourself the offering, the spotless Lamb to die in my own place. You have given Your own Son. For me, not a righteous woman, but a sinful one. You have so clearly demonstrated Your love for me in that while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me. Thank You, Lord. In the Name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Savior, I pray. Amen.
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.
Though we don’t know what exactly Noah said to those living around him, 2 Peter 2:5 calls Noah, “a herald of righteousness.” Though we don’t know exactly how Noah was treated by those who saw him building an ark in a desert, Hebrews 11:7 says that, “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
We know more about John. We know that John “went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (Luke 3:3 ESV) We know that John had fiery words to say to his Jewish brothers who came to be baptized by him.
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Luke 3:7b-9 ESV
I was reminded this morning that John’s father, Zechariah, was a priest, but we see here in Luke 3 that John answered the crowds, even those detested tax collectors and soldiers, who asked, “What shall we do?” And again and again John pointed people to the One who is mightier than him, the one who was yet to come, who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire, who would gather the wheat into His barn and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.
But Noah’s life and John’s life ended very differentlly. Noah’s life was spared, while John was locked up in prison (Luke 3:20) and eventually beheaded (Matthew 14:1-12).
So I’m asking myself, am I willing to be a herald of righteousness?
Am I willing to preach repentance or am I too afraid of what people will say?
Do I fear the disapproval of man … or of God?
Heavenly Father, make me like John and Noah. Make me a herald of good news. Help me to preach repentance and the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. I know how this story ends. I know that Jesus came, and I know that He is coming again. Help me to live for Your glory, rather than my own. Help me to love my neighbor more than I love my own comfort. Give me Your strength. Give me Your words. Guide me where You want me to go. In the Name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Savior, I pray. Amen.
Teach What is Good 
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