MARCH 10, 2025

  “To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.” 

― Timothy J. Keller, The Meaning of Marriage

DEUTERONOMY 11-13

1Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.(11:1)

MARK 13:1-13

1As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

2“Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

JOURNAL 

It is not buildings that matter...it is the hearts and souls of people. To really embrace the words of God and the Bible means that "things" no longer take precedence...things include money, possessions, power, positions, titles, jobs, etc. The minds, hearts and souls of people, their commitment to God and their fellow man is all that matters. 

Yet so many things and circumstances too often take precedence over my love of God and others. I get caught up in the superficial. I get caught up in how I think things should play out and work out, instead of trusting God and focusing on today and only today. Forgive me father for trying to get ahead of you. Help me to see the good in every moment and seek to give you my best in that moment. That's the only way to have true peace and joy. 

34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^c 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^d 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

MATTHEW 22:34-40

MARCH 9, 2025

 

“Make doing your best a habit, and you’ll never know not doing your best. If you build roads, then build them Roman—make them last two thousand years. Dig ditches as if you were taking them to the state fair to win another blue ribbon for best ditches . . .”

― Carew Papritz

DEUTERONOMY 8-10

1Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. 2Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.(8:1-5)

MARK 12:28-44

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.”

32“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

JOURNAL 

I love this verse in Deuteronomy! "That as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you." God is for us, he desires that we become our best, but in order to do so we must go through struggles, times of heartache and times when we wonder "what's the point of it all?" God does this to bring us to him, to teach us to trust him and to realize that we are not all powerful, that this world is not just about us and our desires. To then juxtapose this with Jesus words on the greatest commandment...the message could not be more clear. 

God desires that we surrender to him and love each other. It's not complicated but yet it is...it's complicated because it means going against some habits and ways of living that are pretty well ingrained in my subconscious. Those habits are often at odds with seeking God first and equally in truly loving others. It is painful to really confront some of my thoughts and motives and realize how selfish they often are. Which is why seeking God and loving him first is so critical. This discipline takes my comfort, laziness, and selfishness off the table. It demands that I empty myself of my own agenda and replace it with God's. This daily surrender is ultimately an impossible task to master. Confronting this constant failure means that I am continually faced with my own flaws and sin. It's unnatural and can be pretty depressing. Yet what God offers in return is his spirit of love, power and self-control. Not my flawed mind and spirit but rather his...which was fleshed out in the life of Jesus. 

This is why God asks for everything and not just a portion of my mind and heart. It is a daily, moment by moment experience and in the end it promises to change me into a conduit of God's own love and power. 

41Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

43Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.44They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

MARK 12:41-44

MARCH 8, 2025

  “Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.” 

― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

DEUTERONOMY 5-7

9Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. 10But

those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction;

he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.

11Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.(7:9-11)

MARK 12:1-27

1Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 2At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. 5He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.

6“He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

7“But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

9“What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture:

“ ‘The stone the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

11the Lord has done this,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’^a ?”

12Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.

JOURNAL 

I remember the day as if it was yesterday. Samford University matt drills...it was my first semester after transferring from JUCO to play football. It was the second week and I had already missed one matt drill from oversleeping. I had stayed up late studying and forgot to turn the volume up on my alarm. All of a sudden I woke up at 5:50 am and we had to be there at 5:50 with matt drills starting at 6:00. Sheer panic and terror, I can recall the pit in my stomach even now. I sped across campus and got there just as it was starting. I tried to sneak in and get in the stretching line. Of course there was no sneaking in...my attempt was greeted with muffled snickers and laughs. I had blown it...I knew it and later in the day I received the most severe tongue lashing of my life by my QB coach ( Jimbo Fisher ).  He told me that if I was ever late again he would convert me to Tight End and my Quarterback days would be over. 

Fortunately I got the message...for the the next 2 years I was obnoxiously early to any meeting, practice, gathering etc. In fact I became so paranoid about being on time that I would consistently wake up several times a night in sheer panic that I had overslept. 

It's really interesting to look back on times like this and see the impact of an experience. For me it made an impression that has stayed with me for the last 33years. A few years ago Jimbo was speaking at the Quarterback Club here in Birmingham, a friend of mine invited me to attend and I was able to take my oldest son. He joked with me about those days as if it had just happened. In some ways it seemed like it but also it confirmed the value of experience, whether success or failure. 

God has created us to learn from experiences and that's why it was so important that Jesus himself came and lived and died. He doesn't just give us empty commands...he gets it, he understands and therefore can be trusted for his words, his stories and his experiences. 

54When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

MATTHEW 27:54

MARCH 7, 2025

  “I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?” 

― C.S. Lewis

DEUTERONOMY 3-4

 29But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. 31For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.(3:29-31)

MARK 11:20-33

27They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28“By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”

29Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.30John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!”

31They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 32But if we say, ‘Of human origin’ . . . ” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)

33So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

JOURNAL 

The pharisees had an agenda...Jesus did not fit their idea of the Messiah. So they were intent on exposing him as a heretic and a fraud. As a result Jesus threatened to expose their motives or at least outsmarted them in a way that left them silent. 

Most people never really willingly expose their true agendas. Vulnerability and true honesty too often is seen as weakness not strength.  While Jesus does play coy with them in the end he has no hesitation exposing who he is and what is mission and purpose are. 

Jesus is here for us always, we can always be honest, always be vulnerable. It is why he came to establish connection and relationship. He is the calm in the middle of the storm, he is the answer when the world has only questions, he is a savior when the world offers condemnation and hate. 

7“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

9“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

MATTHEW 7:7-12

MARCH 6, 2025

 “Keep a clear eye toward life's end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God's creature. What you are in his sight is what you are and nothing more. Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take nothing that you have received...but only what you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage.” 

― Francis of Assisi

DEUTERONOMY 1-2

29Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. 30The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, 31and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” (2:29-33)

MARK 11:1-19

15When they arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began to drive out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves. 16And He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17Then Jesus began to teach them, and He declared, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’e? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’f”

18When the chief priests and scribes heard this, they looked for a way to kill Him. For they were afraid of Him, because the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.

JOURNAL 

I love that Jesus went in and disrupted the "business" of the church. I love that he called it for what it was a "den of robbers". It was no longer a sacred place for "all nations"...all people. This is the real kingdom that Jesus was trying to "teach" them about. 

I really wonder if in all our striving and "business" if we truly have not missed the heart of God. In our obsession to secure financial freedom have we missed spiritual freedom? In our quest to be "right" have we erred and traveled a path not to the heart of God but rather further into our own fear and selfishness? 

It is the same way when it comes to our hopes and dreams and the things that block us along the way. The question is do we really trust God or do we trust man? Do I truly believe that the God who created heaven and earth is with me? If so then why do I fear, why do I doubt, why do I despair? 

No man is above God. God is the authority and ultimately holds all the cards. The Bible is filled with example upon example of times when God does the unthinkable and moves a mountain of impossibility. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, David, Moses, Daniel, Peter, Paul etc. God is a God who never seems to do things the easy and conventional way. Probably because we need reminders that we are not God and ultimately we need him. Also I think it forces us to go the path of obedience instead of self-reliance. 

Thank you Father for this reminder. Thank you for again flipping over the tables of my doubt and faithlessness. Thank you for your word that lets me know that you never leave me and that you will never forsake me. Your spirit compels me to act...to go forward...to love the unlovable, persist in the hopeless, overcome despair,  break down walls, move mountains, defy traditions and slay giants.

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

HEBREWS 12:1-3