DECEMBER 22, 2024

  “We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.” 

― Ernesto Che Guevara

NAHUM

7The Lord is good,

a refuge in times of trouble.

He cares for those who trust in him,

8but with an overwhelming flood

he will make an end of Nineveh;

he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness. (1:7-8)

REVELATION 13

9Whoever has ears, let them hear.

10“If anyone is to go into captivity,

into captivity they will go.

If anyone is to be killed^c with the sword,

with the sword they will be killed.”^d

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.

JOURNAL 

God is either a refuge or your worst nightmare. To read Revelation along with predictive prophecy from the Old Testament is definitely enlightening. God is our refuge no matter the situation we find ourselves. Good times or bad he is our ultimate source of hope and direction. 

Reading these verses in the comfort and ease of my life makes the life of the Bible seem so foreign and unrelatable. Yet comfort and ease are not what make life great, purposeful or meaningful. The chance to live and have impact on this world for good, that is what makes life meaningful and that is only truly accomplished when God's love is active and fruitful in our hearts. Because regardless of our physical condition in either comfort or suffering, having a purpose and fulfilling that purpose is what truly brings joy to our lives. 

The world is full of those that have everything they could ever want or need yet are miserable and joyless. So the miracle and beauty of God is that he makes everything better, he gives those with plenty as well as those with little a reason to live. That reason is to give and live love. What a word, what a message. 

12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17This is my command: Love each other.

JOHN 15:12-17

DECEMBER 21, 2024

“If God were small enough to be understood, he wouldn’t be big enough to be worshipped.” 

― Timothy J. Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

 

MICAH 6-7

8He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly^a with your God. (6:8)

REVELATION 12

“Now have come the salvation and the power

and the kingdom of our God,

and the authority of his Messiah.

For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,

who accuses them before our God day and night,

has been hurled down.

11They triumphed over him

by the blood of the Lamb

and by the word of their testimony;

they did not love their lives so much

as to shrink from death.

JOURNAL 

• Act Justly
• Love Mercy
• Walk Humbly with God
• Triumph through Sacrifice
• Obedience over self-indulgence

Here are  pearls of scripture, sitting right in the middle of confusing prophecy . Although every word of scripture is "God-breathed" I often wonder if part of the purpose is to have us persist in reading even when it doesn't make sense or is confusing. 

That is precisely how I have experienced God. So often life is confusing...doesn't make sense and yet we are commanded to trust and follow regardless of the circumstances. Often in private moments and some public I have questioned the process. I have wanted guarantees and logical explanations. But what I find is that guarantees and logical explanations seem to be on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to faith. In fact if we had fully explainable facts then it would no longer be faith. We don't have faith in gravity.

Most of the details about Jesus and his life is somewhat illogical. On the surface, God sacrificing his son and having him pay the penance of sin makes no sense. Then there is the manger, the running from Herod, the shepherds, pagan wise men...it's all messy and illogical and yet when it comes to the Christmas story, that's exactly what makes it beautiful. God never really seems to work in the obvious or the logical...yet too often that's what I want. 

Hmmm...maybe that's the problem, hoping and expecting God to act in sensible, human ways. Is that why we have scripture...to show us that God logic is not human logic? I think so...and even more reason to trust it and follow it. 

 9He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

2 TIMOTHY 1:9-10

DECEMBER 20, 2024

“Yet as I read the birth stories about Jesus I cannot help but conclude that though the world may be tilted toward the rich and powerful, God is tilted toward the underdog.” 

― Philip Yancey

MICAH 4-5

He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace. (5:4-5)

REVELATION 11

7Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. 8Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city—which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where also their Lord was crucified. 9For three and a half days some from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. 10The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

11But after the three and a half days the breath^b of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. 12Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

JOURNAL 

Reading through Revelation is really bizarre, it is just so dark and confusing. Yet here is a scene which is so central to our lives on earth and relationship with God. These two "witnesses", annointed and sent by God prophesy for 3 years...3 years! Then they are killed and left to rot in the street.  Quite a horrible end for doing God's work.  Public opinion would say "game over", God's anointed are dead, laying in the street for over 3 days...starting to discolor and smell. Then it happens, God shows up in ways never expected. Turns the table, flips the script, changes the game.

This same story plays out so often in life, not the rotting in the street part, but the part where the cause seems lost and then out of the blue something changes, something no one saw coming. These are the sports stories that I love to watch. The classic underdog story that warms our heart and makes for great TV, or books or posts on the internet. Reality is that it strikes such a chord because it is God's story. Death on a cross or dead and rotting in the street would never have been deemed a great victory...in those moments. 

I love this about life and God. Most of the stories from the Bible are unpredictable, Adam and Eve, Noah, Job,  Abraham, Lot, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, David, Daniel, Peter, Jesus, Paul...God defies convention and when he flips a switch it's usually pretty dramatic. 

This time of year that same story is what we celebrate...who could ever have predicted that the Messiah...would be born into a smelly dirty barn. Who would have predicted that this boy born into meager conditions would become the savior of us all. These stories give us hope but more importantly they give us a clue as to how God works and his love for defying our predictions, opinions and judgements. It's the truth that guides and directs me to live today, this moment and let God handle tomorrow.  

 We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,^e 10so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you^f to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

COLOSSIANS 1:9-14

DECEMBER 19, 2024

 

“Be true to yourself.
Make each day your masterpiece.
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books.
Make friendship a fine art.
Build a shelter against a rainy day.
Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.” 

― John Wooden

MICAH 1-3

11Her leaders judge for a bribe,

her priests teach for a price,

and her prophets tell fortunes for money.

Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say,

“Is not the Lord among us?

No disaster will come upon us.”

12Therefore because of you,

Zion will be plowed like a field,

Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,

the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets. (3:11-12)

REVELATION 10

5Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. 6And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay! 7But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.”

JOURNAL 

Here from Micah is a warning that to me, seems against those that have found profit and comfort in their current position. It also is a reminder of the dangers and the subtlety of comfort. Yet many times I find that my heart longs for comfort and ease, but when I get it and it's outside of the normal weekend break or vacation I find that it no longer is satisfying. I get bored and long for challenge and something that matters. Fortunately or unfortunately this hasn't happened very often, and  I do wonder if it's an indication of the dangers of things being too easy. 

Rest and vacation are all wonderful things.  They are definitely gifts that are good.  Just as the Kingdom of Israel, Solomon's wealth was a blessing. But I think the danger is when they become the end goal rather than a blessing for a small period of time.  One of the things that used to bother me as a financial advisor was always focusing on planning for the day that people will do nothing.  The more I think about it...it almost feels like a way to take people out of the game and render them ineffective. We aren't meant to check out of life. We are here for a purpose and it's not to simply rest and take it easy. 

16Rejoice always, 17pray continually, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

1THESSALONIANS 5:16-18

DECEMBER 18, 2024

   “One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.” 

― Sigmund Freud

JONAH

5Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant^a and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

9But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

10But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

REVELATION 9

20The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. 21Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

JOURNAL 

Reading through Jonah it is easy to see how I many times have acted like Jonah. When things don't work out like I want them. When heartache strikes and I don't get my way, there is an anger and bitterness that can begin to surface. Jonah moping over the plant is really kind of funny but it's also the state of his heart. He has such hatred for Nineveh that he cannot see beyond it. The hatred turns everything bad in his mind. Everything is exacerbated to a level where he is content to die because of a plant. Obviously it is not the plant but just where his heart has gone as a result of his bitterness and disappointment. . 

It's a Wonderful Life is one of my favorite movies. So even though I have seen it probably 100 times I still get emotional every single time George goes running through the town yelling Merry Christmas.  The reason being that this is a great truth of life that the movie beautifully reveals. Once George gets his life back...that's all that really matters to him. The stresses, disappointment and botched dreams become irrelevant. Gone are the dreams of building skyscrapers and getting out of Bedford Falls. Gone are the concerns over scandal and prison. The only thing he cares about is being back in his life...with the people he loves...no matter what that may look like. So George's "wonderful life" isn't because of good circumstances. His "wonderful life" is simply the gift of living in that moment with the people he loves. 

Today we celebrate 31 years of marriage. There were times in those 31 years when life didn't seem so "wonderful", I confess there have been days and moments when I questioned everything. Yet the more years that pass the more I realize that the things that often get me so twisted up inside exist because I fail to appreciate the true amazing gifts of my life. As Dr. Seuss so eloquently wrote...

“Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN'T stopped Christmas from coming!
IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?
'It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes or bags!'
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!  

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

Thank you Father for the reminder and the clarity even when I become disillusioned, bitter and lost. Thank you for the gift of this "wonderful" life! 

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

LUKE 15:20-22