To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Proverbs 21:3

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’                                                                                                              Matthew 25:40

The wisdom literature in the Bible is fascinating to me. One can find practical instruction that is good for how to live among other people. One can find the heart of God in literature such as Proverbs. You also can find some arcane sayings that are baffling to modern readers. Yet, we can learn much from this literature, and the Proverb above is one that I like. I like it because it speaks to how God sees his children living out their lives with one another.

The Proverbs, and other Bible passages, speak about the need for us to treat one another well, for as we do that, we treat God well. God wants us to do well toward others more than he wants some sacrifice to him. God was speaking to the Hebrew nation that valued sacrifices of goats and lambs. Yet God essentially said, “I would rather that you take care of one another than to sacrifice more sheep to me” (my feeble translation of the Proverb…). Jesus expounded on this when he explained that “whatever you do for the poorest person among you, you did for me…”

I mean, how can you not love a God that has that kind of a plan?

Prayer: What a powerful message of who God is! Amen

 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.                                               I John 4:18

I recently spoke with a client about his motivations as he digs deep into himself to determine the things that drive him. I suggested, by the things I heard from him, that fear is a strong driver for him. He identified some family of origin issues as having an outsized affect on his relationship with his wife. He now sees that fear is at the root of some of those marriage issues.

It got me thinking about the verse from John- “Perfect love casts out fear”. I am reminded that if we are not motivated primarily by love, we will likely be driven by fear. Fears of all sorts can play in our head. I also know that as humans, fear is a primary emotion- one we do not like to acknowledge, but it is ever present.

John’s quote is both prophetic as well as a great mental health principle. “Perfect love casts out fear.” If we are more reliant on love as the basis of our standing with God and others, we are less likely to be fearful of losing those relationships.

So, perfect love casts out fear. Tomorrow I will look at what is “perfect love.”   

Prayer: Lord, your love is perfect, but ours…is not, Amen

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand                                                                                                          John 10:27-28   

There are times that my clients struggle with the idea of being “good enough” to hold on to their relationship with God. When they fail or sin, or come short in some area of life, they begin to question how anyone can love them sometimes.

I have a visual about how we can characterize our relationship with God. Picture a strong arm coming down from above with a big hand ready to envelop a much smaller, weaker hand. We may tend to envision ourselves as that weaker hand trying to grasp on to the large hand, but not having the strength to hold on when times get hard. We get tired.

Now imagine that large, strong arm and hand firmly gripping that weaker hand. That is how God relates to us. We are not strong enough to keep the grip on God. His grip never fails. Sometimes, I will actually demonstrate that with my own arms and hands- kinda awkward, but you get the idea, and the clients usually do too.   

Simple truths and simple illustrations to explain a mighty promise. We can count on God to keep his promises (and his grip) on us.

Prayer: Thank you for your strong hand and strong promises, Amen

He set the moon to mark the appointed seasons; the sun knows its time for going down  Psalm 104:19

Yes, today is August 1. Yes, it is technically still summer, and the coming heat will remind us of that, I’m sure. Yet, August is the month that schools resume. Some schools will start again in about two weeks. I wonder where the summer went.

Summer is the best season in the world, right? OK, not all would agree with that, but it is for me. Days are getting just a bit shorter now, and very soon, high school football players will be suiting up and working out in the withering heat. I do remember sweltering in that heat in football pads, running and wondering if I could make it around the required laps. I did make it, even if I came in last, or close to it.

But I digress. Summer is starting its inevitable trip toward Autumn. As for me, I will sit outside in the evenings as long as I can. I will offer thanks for the incredible gift of late sunlight, and birds, frogs and fish in my pond. I will hang onto this wonderful season until nature takes it away into another.

Then I will be grateful for the opportunity to see in another season.  

Prayer: Lord, you have created the marvel of seasons. Help us to enjoy each one to its fullest, Amen

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.                                                          Titus 2:1-2

I have talked in the past about the need to periodically reinvent ourselves. Life stages are one of those natural opportunities to do just that- reinvent ourselves. Adjustment to different life stages can be quite challenging. The stage of becoming a “senior”, and retirement are perfect examples of this.

I remember our pastor years ago talked about turning 60 and he reframed that well saying that this makes us “tribal elders”. I liked that. Being a tribal elder brings on certain freedoms and certain responsibilities. 

I think it is all about how we view our advancing years. The idea of becoming a tribal elder is appealing. We are now at the stage of some wisdom and experience which we can share with our younger members. We worry less at this stage about our career, and more about pouring into the careers of others. We now revel in the success of those whom we have mentored, and are less concerned about increasing personal achievements.

There is real freedom in this, as long as we can truly embrace our new status. We can get real satisfaction out of the achievements of others, and we celebrate the fact that the future is increasingly becoming theirs. 

The plan for this life is the need to give it away in order to have it truly become a blessing for us.

Prayer: Lord, help us to finish our race well, Amen

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful. I know that full well                                         Psalm 139:14

Funny thing how we take healing for granted. Yes, we really do. How often have you had some malady- a cold, a sore muscle, a cut, a broken bone? Yes, most of us have had all of them at one time or another. Some people have had much more significant ailments- heart attacks, strokes, cancers- and have, with some treatment, recovered nicely.

Some of the maladies I mentioned above “heal on their own”. That cold, flu, sore muscle, cut, etc. healed without much, if any, medical intervention. Why is that? Because our bodies were made to be self-healing. Our immune system and our system of cell repair has been baked into our bodies by the Creator. He made a wonderful healing machine that we may often take for granted.

Yes, it is absolutely true that such healing will not take place forever. There will be a time when that body breaks down and ages to a point where the system can no longer operate as it was intended.

In the meantime, let us celebrate the everyday miracles of our “healing machine” bodies.

Prayer: Lord, what an amazing plan for your creation! Amen…

Christ is the exact likeness of the unseen God. He existed before God made anything at all, and, in fact,Christ himself is the Creator who made everything in heaven and earth, the things we can see and the things we can’t; the spirit world with its kings and kingdoms, its rulers and authorities; all were made by Christ for his own use and glory. He was before all else began and it is his power that holds everything together. 

Colossians 1:15-17 (Living Bible)

I have been fascinated by this passage for many years now. I think that this is not merely metaphorical language to describe Jesus as the Son of God and creator of the universe. I truly think that the Physics of this passage is amazing.

What do I mean by that? Well, my regular readers know of my fascination with science and Physics in particular. This despite the fact that I am only an admirer of such subjects, and not a scientist. I think that allows me to speculate on things without having to come up with a scientific basis. I just have the curiosity and joy of expounding my own ideas. How fun! So, here goes, given that caveat…

This passage states that everything is held together by Jesus. He is the First Cause of creation, and he is also the power that holds life together. Take the equation E = mc²                                                                     

We are familiar with this equation of Albert Einstein because it explains the amazing notion that energy and matter are interchangeable. Matter can be turned into energy, and energy can be turned into matter. We understand that fission and fusion, which are ways of changing the matter and structure of atomic particles, release tremendous amounts of energy when that change takes place. Similarly, in order for energy to be turned into matter, it takes an enormous input of energy to do that.

But what if Jesus, the Light of the World, indeed the author of light (energy) caused the making of all matter by that incredible Big Bang of creation? That energy still exists today because there is no new energy being produced or destroyed. That is the Law of the Conservation of Energy. The same energy that Jesus used in creation is now preserving that creation today. The very atoms of the universe are his energy in play still at this time.

So, Jesus rules the universe he created, and he maintains it literally in his presence in everything.

Yes, I can hear you now saying that this sounds like some weird heresy. It is a little different slant on how the universe is maintained, and it is just my ideation gone wild.

But I think it is fun, and I wanted to share my understanding of this amazing passage. Hope it gets you thinking! Thanks for indulging me!

Prayer: Lord, you are Creator and maintainer of this marvelous universe. You are the Lord of Creation! Amen

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.                            Matthew 6:13 (MEV)

If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.                                Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I am not one who sees the devil under every rock when it comes to ascribing the basis of evil actions in the world. I try to pay very little attention to Satan, or devils, or any other manifestations of evil that we understand to be in this world. The old expression “give the devil his due”, does not sit particularly well with me, because I want nothing to do with the author of evil.

There is enough evil present in the world without ascribing it to Satan. Quite frankly, in my opinion, there are some evil people in this world. Evil is the determination to “get what I want at the expense of others”. Taken to extreme, it means killing, starving, torturing, and trying to exterminate others (such as genocide), for the gratification of personal or political power and gain. We saw it personified in Adolf Hitler.

I think evil is still alive and well, unfortunately, in 2023. When I see the terroristic targeting of churches, schools and hospitals in Ukraine by the Vladimir Putin directed Russian invaders, I see evil. Unfortunately, this perpetration of evil is now on page three or four of the daily newspaper, not the front page. The news cycle these days simply moves to the stories that will get people’s attention. The atrocities in Ukraine are now 17 months old, so they have been shifted from the headlines. When that happens, people tend to forget the horrors of the situation. We become inured to evil, the suffering of innocent people, and the threat of unchecked evil.

So, this is just a reminder- if you need it. Evil lurks in this world in the hearts of people. Let us be mindful of the statements of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as cited above, we cannot sit by and watch evil play out- we must call it out.

Prayer: Lord, deliver us from evil, Amen,

Give us this day our daily bread.                                                                       Matthew 6:11

As I went to a local farmer’s market today, I began to think about that phrase from the Lord’s Prayer- “Give us this day our daily bread…” In ancient times, there were no supermarkets, (obviously), no refrigeration, and no high-speed transportation to bring in food from long distances. People would go to a local market of some kind every day to shop for bread, fish, vegetables, oil, meat (if they were lucky or wealthy), or any other foodstuffs. There were no food preservatives, other than salting, smoking, or drying, and food generally needed to be consumed on the day or two after purchase.

So, when Jesus said that they should pray for their daily bread, he meant that they were to be reliant on God daily for subsistence. Individuals did not have capacity or availability of large amounts of food storage- they had to shop frequently for what they needed- they could store very little.

In our first-world picture of food supply, we have abundance, and typically, any given pantry, freezer and refrigerator fairly bulges with food. Unfortunately, our ultra processed food is abundant, but also nutritionally void, and often unhealthy for us. But it also tends to give us this false sense of food security, and may take us just a step or two away from daily dependence on God for our very food.

We are blessed with modern ways of shopping for, and storing food, but to the extent that it makes us feel less daily dependent upon God for it, we are that much poorer in spirit.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for our daily bread, Amen

And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.                                                                  Philippians 4:19

Well, my dear readers, this has been quite a couple of weeks for my family! For regular readers, you are aware that as we were leaving our family vacation in South Carolina, my son-in-law had a stroke.  After the fact, we saw all the blessings of how circumstances could have been disastrous had some events happened a bit differently. My son-in-law is back home and healing nicely from this life-threatening event.

On our way back home, our car blew out a wheel bearing, causing us to make some large changes in travel plans, but we were able to get the car fixed and get home after a long ride (and a long delay). Again, what if we had not discovered the wheel bearing problem the way we did? Maybe we could have been stranded along the way at night in the storms we encountered, or worse, had a highway accident with loss of control. Looking back, we understood that God’s provision was there, even when we did not immediately see it. All we saw at the time were some miserable events that caused us pain and suffering.

Our pastor this past weekend had a sermon (we listened on the way home) on the Book of Joshua, regarding the crossing of the Jordan River. God’s provision for that crossing took place upstream at a place where the Israelites did not see God’s hand in the miracle.

So, isn’t it true that God’s provision usually takes place out of our sight? Only later do we see his hand in things we could not possibly understand or do for ourselves. The folks in AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) have a saying- “God does things for us that we cannot do for ourselves.”

To that I simply say, Amen.

Prayer: Lord, we trust your hand, even when we do not immediately see it, Amen