SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

 “God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that he really is. This is what it means to be created in the image of God.” 

― John Piper

PROVERBS 7-8

32“Now then, my children, listen to me;

blessed are those who keep my ways.

33Listen to my instruction and be wise;

do not disregard it.

34Blessed are those who listen to me,

watching daily at my doors,

waiting at my doorway.

35For those who find me find life

and receive favor from the Lord.

36But those who fail to find me harm themselves;

all who hate me love death.” (8:32-36)

1 CORINTHIANS 14:21-40

 24But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, 25as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

JOURNAL 

This life is really short...no matter if it's 10 years or 100...life here ends and it's just a blip in the realm of time.  Even with this known reality I hate endings, whether that's the end of vacation or the end of a life...endings suck, but it is the only way for beginnings to happen,,,things must end. The point of faith is relationship with God, its not about manipulating God to make life easier, rather it is about engaging with the creator of the universe so that my time here is fully lived and lived in ways that glorify God and this life that I am gifted to live. According to Paul this is the main reason for prophesy and the organization of the church. To care for each other and to be a beacon so that unbelievers will know that "God is really among you". 

I know for me, there are times when I fantasize about how life could be easier, often that involves more money, more success, etc. Yet God is very clear in his word to us that this brief, blip of time that we get to live is best spent in gratitude and in relationship with him and the others that cross our paths.  That is so much simpler than I often make it. 

When I really look around I see how often I have missed it. I see how I get so consumed with my own doubts and questions and circumstances that I miss the opportunity to really love others and to be part of a community that demonstrates and lives out the spirit of God. I miss out on teaching this to my children. I miss out on encouraging other believers in their own walk and battle. I am grateful that my life is not over. I am grateful that I still have today to share God's love, to lead my boys, to love Marci and to encourage others.

31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

MATTHEW 6:31-34

SEPTEMBER 4, 2023

   “Lord, when I feel that what I'm doing is insignificant and unimportant, help me to remember that everything I do is significant and important in your eyes, because you love me and you put me here, and no one else can do what I am doing in exactly the way I do it.” 

― Brennan Manning, Souvenirs of Solitude: Finding Rest in Abba's Embrace

PROVERBS 5-6

20My son, keep your father’s command

and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

21Bind them always on your heart;

fasten them around your neck.

22When you walk, they will guide you;

when you sleep, they will watch over you;

when you awake, they will speak to you.

23For this command is a lamp,

this teaching is a light,

and correction and instruction

are the way to life (6:20-23)

1 CORINTHIANS 14:1-20

1Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit...

JOURNAL 

This one statement in Corinthians says so much...for to follow the way of love is to ultimately follow God. To also eagerly desire gifts of the spirit is to seek God's blessing on my own life and the gifts that he gives me rather than to be consumed with what I do not have.  To stay in this frame of mind is really what this life is all about. God has pressed on my heart 3 things that are key to following him and my purpose on this earth...choose a God, own my talent and live my mission.

Everything in life, every day of life comes down to how I deal with these 3 choices. The reality is though that I was created to be an agent of God and if I do not choose him then I will choose something and if not God it will poison me and all those with whom I come in contact.  By choosing God I will own the talent and spirit he gives me and I will use it in love and serving him and others. In doing this I will find a purpose and mission to give my life to completing. In this I will find a power and passion that will carry me through all the trials and tribulations of life.

28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

29“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^e 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’^f 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^g There is no commandment greater than these.”

MARK 12:28-31

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

 “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.” 

― Mahatma Gandhi

PROVERBS 3-4

5Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

6in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight. (3:5-6)

1 CORINTHIANS 13

1If I speak in the tongues^a of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^b but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

JOURNAL 

Love is the one test as to whether I serve God or serve myself. If I do "good" things but have not love then it is all for nothing and my life and efforts are meaningless. I am to trust God above everything. God is to be my God and if so then everything I do will be colored with his love.

This seems so simple yet my normal habit is to think of myself first. While that is normal, it can certainly put me at odds with God and other people. I don't think it's possible to not think of myself first. But maybe it is the way I think of myself. Do I think my needs are more important than others? Do I see God as a means to an end? Do I fear and worry about my fate more than I seek to serve God?

These are the questions that can reveal my heart and whether or not I am truly accepting God's love and then returning it in loving others. As long as I am alive, I will think of myself first but if in doing so I think of how I can love others and obey God, then I'm definitely closer to living a life that fulfills God's purpose for my life.

3Let love and faithfulness never leave you;

bind them around your neck,

write them on the tablet of your heart.

4Then you will win favor and a good name

in the sight of God and man.

- Proverbs 3:3-4

SEPTEMBER 2, 2023

  “At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.” 

― Friedrich Nietzsche

PROVERBS 1-2

8Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction

and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

9They are a garland to grace your head

and a chain to adorn your neck. (1:8-9)

1 CORINTHIANS 12

12Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by^c one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

JOURNAL 

It has been fascinating to teach science these past few years. Each year I begin with the fascinating fat of how a human being is composed of an average of 50 trillion cells and that each one of those cells are separate living things that work together to make a human being exist.  Then to juxtapose that to the world that we live in...we see that humanity gets it so wrong. Our selfishness and insistence of getting our way at the consequence of others actually goes directly against our cellular makeup.

That is why I love these verses in 1 Corinthians. They affirm our differences while also calling us to be the best version of ourselves. To be grateful in our personalities and gifts and see them as part of what make the body of the church. In this way differences are beautiful. We don't need to look to each other in view of our weaknesses but rather in view of our talents and strengths. Therefore I also don't need to focus on my failures and weaknesses but rather on my gifts and all the ways God has gifted me to contribute and find my place in his Kingdom.

But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

1 CORINTHIANS 12:24-27

SEPTEMBER 1, 2023

  “Ted Engstrom insightfully writes: “Cripple him, and you have a Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in a prison cell, and you have a John Bunyan. Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge, and you have a George Washington. Raise him in abject poverty and you have an Abraham Lincoln. Strike him down with infantile paralysis, and he becomes Franklin Roosevelt. Burn him so severely that the doctors say he'll never walk again, and you have a Glenn Cunningham -- who set the world's one mile record in 1934. Deafen him and you have a Ludwig van Beethoven. Have him or her born black in a society filled with racial discrimination, and you have a Booker T. Washington, a Marian Anderson, a George Washington Carver. Call him a slow learner, "retarded," and write him off as uneducable, and you have an Albert Einstein.” 

― Charles R. Swindoll, The Quest for Character/Improving Your serve/Strengthening Your Grip

PSALM 148-150

4For the Lord takes delight in his people;

he crowns the humble with victory.

5Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor

and sing for joy on their beds. (149:4-5 )

1 CORINTHIANS 11:16-34

23For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 

JOURNAL 

It is so difficult to stay in the moment. It really is hard because as humans, our ability to project and plan and reason is one of our greatest gifts, yet it also can be a curse if we begin to depend too much on what we hope will happen, rather than living life from the reality of now. Now is the gift, not tomorrow, next week etc. To do so requires incredible discipline...discipline that is far from easy or natural. That lead me to think about the different habits in my life and the reality that the more I do something, the more likely I will be to repeat that behavior. If I am disciplined to following God, then my default behavior will be to do so. However if I am conditioned to going my own way and counting on people and things rather than God...then I will tend to continue...especially when under stress or in difficult situations.

So disciplining myself to practice my faith...no matter the circumstance, is what is required. However it is not a grit and bear it faith but rather we are promised that joy and love are there no matter the earthly circumstances. To have faith means I trust God in all things, in all trials in all victories, in all suffering, in all pleasure. It is to be the one and only constant.

3“Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

5Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth.

6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

7Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

8Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God.

9Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called children of God.

10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

MATTHEW 5:3-10