Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.—Matthew 11:28 (NIV)
When life’s burdens feel like a backpack full of stones, Jesus invites you to unload your burdens onto Him. Let Him shoulder your heavy load. Sink into the peace He offers. His promised rest is a sanctuary for your spirit. In His arms, you will find the strength to face a new dawn, your hope kindled anew.
Heavenly Father, I hand my worries and troubles over to You.
Suddenly a light from heaven flashed around [Saul]. He fell to the ground and heard a voice. Acts 9:3-4
Today’s Scripture
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Morse was the son of a Protestant minister and a struggling painter of landscapes. In the 1820s, he made a meager living as a limner—“an itinerant painter” of colonial America. But his was a life God led in another direction. Morse also had an interest in science. He learned about electromagnets, conceiving an idea that would change the world. In 1832, Samuel F. B. Morse conceived the idea of an electric telegraph and later went on to make the first working telegraph.
Probably the most dramatic biblical account of “career change” was that of Saul, who was “breathing out murderous threats” against believers in Christ (Acts 9:1). Jesus appeared to him in a great light (v. 3) saying that Saul was persecuting Him. Essentially, Saul was told to stop because he was under new orders now (v. 6). Saul did a U-turn in his life and assumed a new identity in Christ as the apostle who would eventually spread the gospel wherever he went.
Sometimes what we think is our future really isn’t. God leads us in another direction. Perhaps He needs to call us out of our sin. Or maybe it’s a change of ministry or vocation. When God redirects our lives, we do well to stop what we’re doing and follow our new orders. And as our new path opens before us, we might just echo the joy of the first dot-and-dash message of Morse’s telegraph: “What hath God wrought!”
Reflect & Pray
How has God led your life in a different direction? What word has He given you today to encourage others?
Dear God, please help me be open to Your leading as You guide my path and career in this current season.
For further study, read It’s Not Fair: Trusting God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense.
Today’s Insights
The book of Acts contains three accounts of Saul’s conversion: 9:1-19; 22:3-16; and 26:9-18. Saul (later called Paul) made “murderous threats” (9:1) against those who “belonged to the Way” of Christ (v. 2). The second and third times we read of his conversion, Paul is giving testimony of how he turned to Christ. He admitted, “I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death” (22:4). The apostle would’ve continued in the way of opposition to Christ had not Jesus intervened (9:3-5) and led him in a different direction. At times, God will also lead us in a different direction for our good and His honor.
But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night. And he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity].
Psalm 1:2-3 (AMPC)
Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You…I will meditate on Your precepts and have respect to Your ways [the paths of life marked out by Your law]. Psalm 119:11,15 (AMPC)
In the early days of computers, they used to say, “Garbage in, garbage out.” That was a way of explaining that the computer only worked with the data put into the machine. If we wanted different results, we needed to put in different information.
With computers, most people have no trouble grasping that concept, but when it comes to their minds, they don’t seem to get it. Or perhaps they don’t want to get it. So many things demand their attention and beg for their focus. They’re not just sinful things. The apostle Paul said that although everything was lawful for him, not everything was helpful (1 Corinthians 6:12).
If you are going to win the battle of the mind and defeat your enemy, where you focus your attention is crucial. The more you meditate on God’s Word, the stronger you’ll become and the more easily you’ll win the victories.
Too many Christians don’t realize the difference between meditating on the Bible and reading the Bible. They like to think that whenever they read God’s Word, they’re absorbing the deep things of God. Too often people will read a chapter of the Bible, and when they get to the last verse, they have little idea of what they’ve read. Those who meditate on God’s Word are those who think—and think seriously—about what they’re reading.
They may not put it in these words, but they are saying, “God, speak to me. Teach me. As I ponder Your Word, reveal its depth to me.”
Today’s verse is from Psalm 1. This psalm begins by defining the person who is blessed and then points out the right actions of that person. The psalmist wrote that those who meditate—and do it day and night—are like productive trees…and everything they do shall prosper.
The psalmist made it quite clear that meditating on and thinking about God’s Word brings results. As you ponder who God is and what He’s saying to you, you’ll grow. It’s really that simple. Another way to put it is to say that whatever you focus on, you become. If you read about and allow your mind to focus on God’s love and power, that’s what operates in you.
The apostle Paul says it beautifully in Philippians 4:8 (AMPC): …Whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].
It’s sad, but most Christians don’t put much effort into their study of the Word. They go to hear others teach and preach, and they may listen to sermon tapes and read the Bible occasionally, but they’re not dedicated to making God’s Word a major part of their lives.
Be careful what you think about. The more you think about good things, the better your life will seem. The more you think about Jesus Christ and the principles He taught, the more you become like Jesus and the stronger you grow. And as you grow, you win the battle for your mind.
Prayer of the Day: Lord God, help me think about the things that honor You. Fill my life with a hunger for more of You and Your Word so that in everything I may prosper. I ask this through Jesus Christ, amen.
The bestselling Christian author and speaker Jen Hatmaker headlined women’s events and conferences and was profiled in Christianity Today. She and her husband founded a church in Austin; their family was featured in an HGTV series.
In 2020, she announced that she and her husband were divorcing. In May 2021, she stopped attending church services. She has now written a memoir of her experience titled Awake and has been interviewed by the New York Times and Time.
In the latter, she said,
I’m out of the church right now. I don’t know that I will ever go back, and I don’t know that I will never go back. I grew up under the steeples. My dad was a pastor. I married one at the ripe age of nineteen, and I have always been a part of the machine. I was a leader. I was an organizer. I was a pastor. I don’t even know what church could or would be for me just as a person. My lifelong exposure has left me in a place where I know too much. I have been a part of the problem. So I need a break from the machine.
Christians far from the character of Christ
I have never met Jen Hatmaker and cannot imagine her pain of recent years. But if I had a relationship by which to speak to her about it, I would think with her about her statement, “I don’t even know what church could or would be for me just as a person.”
As empathetically as possible, I would suggest that the only way to find out is to try. If she chooses to stay away from the church, she obviously will not experience how Jesus can work through his “body” to heal and redeem her suffering (1 Corinthians 12:27).
This issue is much larger than Jen Hatmaker’s story. Clergy abuse has damaged untold numbers of victims, many of them children. Many churches in the South were complicit in slavery and Jim Crow racism. Many of us have stories of pain resulting from Christians who were far from the character of Christ.
And even if the church does not disappoint us, God often does.
My father was very active in his church before he served in World War II and experienced such atrocities that he never attended church again. I am praying and grieving right now for the family of a dear friend who died recently of cancer after I and multitudes of others prayed fervently for his healing. I am praying and grieving for another dear friend whose cancer has come back despite my fervent intercession for him.
I wrote yesterday that trusting God in such times positions us to experience his best in response. But there’s more to say here.
“So this is what God’s really like”
As I noted in my first response to the Minneapolis church shooting, circumstances cannot change the character of an unchanging God (cf. Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). He is today what he was before the tragedy.
But this does not resolve the issue. C. S. Lewis wrote after his wife died of cancer:
Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about him. The conclusion I dread is not “So there’s no God after all,” but “So this is what God’s really like. Deceive yourself no longer.”
Perhaps the Greeks got it right with their capricious deities atop Mt. Olympus. Perhaps God sometimes disappoints us because that’s just who he is.
Or perhaps my doubts say more about me than they do about him.
It makes sense for me to question the character of someone only if I know enough about them for my doubts to be fair to them and accurate to the facts. But I cannot see the future consequences of God’s present actions. I cannot know how he will redeem present suffering for a greater future good, as with Joseph’s imprisonment in Egypt, which led to his saving Egypt and his own family from starvation.
Nor can I know how he is redeeming present suffering in my life, as with Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” that led the apostle to trust God on a deeper level than ever before and then testify, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).
And doubting God when he disappoints me can only lead to further disappointment and further doubt, because I refuse to allow him to work in my life and then blame him when he does not.
When we trust God with our pain
Conversely, trusting God even when he disappoints us moves our faith from a transactional religion to a transformational relationship.
We all want the latter and would probably say this is how we relate to God. But if we turn from him when he does not do what we want, we discover that the former was actually the case. Choosing to trust him when we don’t understand him shows that our trust is not based on our circumstances. And this positions us to experience him on a level that changes our lives.
I can offer three ways this has been true for me personally.
First, when we trust God with our pain, we can experience his presence and comfort on a level we could not before the suffering came. When I was a summer missionary in East Malaysia many years ago, I experienced a deeper loneliness than I have ever felt before or since. But when I turned to God in my darkest hours, I felt his presence at a depth that marked my soul.
Second, when we trust God with our pain, he can use us in ways he could not before the suffering came. When our son and grandson were diagnosed with cancer, cancer survivors ministered to us as others could not. As Henri Nouwen noted, wounded people can be “wounded healers.”
Third, when we trust God with our pain, he can use our suffering to guide us into his purpose in ways he could not before the suffering came. My back challenges of recent years have led me to focus more on writing than ever before, a season of my work in which I am finding great fulfillment and joy. As Michel Quoist notes, God often leads us through our limitations.
When Satan’s “cause is never in more danger”
None of this makes pain less painful. But if you’re in such a season, perhaps I can encourage you to believe that there is more to your story with God than you can know today.
The greater the pain, the more we need a physician. The harder it is to trust our Father, the more we need to trust our Father. And a relationship with God that transcends feelings and circumstances shows the world that such faith is real and relevant, displaying the light of Christ in the darkest of days.
In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis notes that Satan’s “cause is never in more danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do [God’s] will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”
Will you endanger Satan’s cause today?
Quote for the day:
“Afflictions are but the shadow of his wings.” —George MacDonald
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by Henry M. Morris, Ph.D.
“And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.” (Revelation 19:9)
Unbelievers sometimes ridicule Bible-believing Christians as being so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly use and as waiting for “pie in the sky bye and bye.” This canard is, of course, unjustified because the Lord Jesus has told us, “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13), and we are also instructed: “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23). A Christian could—and should—do a better job in his particular occupation than he would ever have done as a non-Christian. All honorable occupations come within the scope of God’s primeval dominion mandate (Genesis 1:26-28). “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
Nevertheless, there is a great feast day coming bye and bye, and indeed it will be a great blessing to be “called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Presumably those who partake of this wonderful feast will be not only those who constitute His Bride but also others who are called to be guests at His wedding supper. Since the Holy City is also called “the bride, the Lamb’s wife,” and since it is inscribed with the names of both the “twelve tribes” of Israel and also of the “twelve apostles” (Revelation 21:9, 12, 14), it is clear that believers from both the pre-Christian and Christian ages will be there. They will all have responded to the Lord’s invitation and have had the right attitude of heart and life toward the will of the Bridegroom (Matthew 22:1-14; 25:1-13).
Whether some kind of heavenly pie will be served at the supper is doubtful, but it will surely be a time of great blessing. HMM
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. — John 7:38
Jesus didn’t say, “Whoever believes in me, every blessing they receive will be theirs to keep.” He said, “Whoever believes in me, every blessing they receive will escape from them.” Our Lord’s teaching is always anti-self-realization. His purpose isn’t to develop our personal qualities. It’s to make us exactly like him—and his chief characteristic is self-sacrifice.
If we believe in Jesus, it isn’t what we gain but what he pours through us that counts. God doesn’t turn us into beautifully rounded grapes; he squeezes sweetness out of us. Spiritually, we can’t measure our lives by success. We can only measure them by what God pours through us—and we can’t measure that at all.
When Mary of Bethany broke a box of precious perfume and poured it over Jesus’s head, no one else thought the act necessary. Even the disciples were scornful. “‘Why this waste?’ they asked” (Matthew 26:8). But Jesus commended Mary for her extravagant act of devotion. He said that wherever his gospel was preached, “what she has done will also be told, in memory of her” (v. 13). Our Lord is carried away by joy whenever he sees any of us acting as Mary did, abandoning ourselves to him with no thought of the cost.
“Whoever believes in me . . .” If we believe in Jesus, hundreds of lives will continually be refreshed through us. It’s time to break our ceaseless craving for personal satisfaction. God poured out the life of his Son so that the world might be saved. Are we ready to pour out our lives for him?
Psalms 137-139; 1 Corinthians 13
Wisdom from Oswald
The sympathy which is reverent with what it cannot understand is worth its weight in gold. Baffled to Fight Better, 69 L
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
—Ephesians 6:12
All life is a struggle—that is the nature of things. Even within our physical bodies, doctors tell us, a conflict for supremacy is going on. The bacteria in our bloodstream are waging a constant war against alien germs. The red corpuscles fight the white corpuscles constantly in an effort to maintain life within the body. A battle is also raging in the spiritual realm. “We fight,” the Bible says, “against the rulers of the darkness of this world.” Darkness hates light. I have a dog that would rather dig up a moldy carcass to chew on than to have the finest, cleanest meal. He can’t help it—that is his nature. Men cannot help that it is their nature to respond to the lewd, the salacious, and the vile. They will have difficulty doing otherwise until they are born again. And until they are changed by the power of Christ, they will likely be at enmity against those who are associated with Christ.
Prayer for the day
The battles of life must be faced, but I know they will not be faced without You, my heavenly Father.
Noah did everything just as God commanded him.—Genesis 6:22 (NIV)
Just as Noah obeyed God’s instructions, you too are called to walk in obedience to Him. It may not always be easy, and the path may seem unclear at times, but God is with you. As you follow His instructions, you’ll see His hand guiding your steps. Remember, God’s plans are always perfect, and He works all things together for your good.
Lord, give me the strength to obey Your commands, even when it is difficult.
I saw the Holy City . . . coming down out of heaven from God. Revelation 21:2
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On a warm evening, I met up with friends in a downtown area. We were excited to eat at a restaurant that offered live jazz music outside, but when we arrived, the patio was full. Disappointed, we left and had to walk several blocks to find another place to eat.
On earth, disappointments come in all sizes, both big and small. Beloved pets pass away. Careers fizzle. Health problems occur. We lose relationships with loved ones. In our setbacks, we have God’s comfort, but our life stories don’t always contain the blissful endings we long for. Believers in Jesus, however, have the hope of a joyful eternity.
The book of Revelation records God giving John a breathtaking vision. John saw “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem” (21:2). “Prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (v. 2), it radiated God’s glory. God would inhabit the place along with all His people. In His city there would be no crime, no darkness, and no fear (vv. 25-27). Light, peace, and goodwill would abound.
On the night I met my friends for dinner, we ended up walking back past the first restaurant. White lights lit the sidewalk, and we stopped to listen to the music as we ate ice cream. I savored the moment, but we know that no earthly joy can compare with the ultimate ending believers will enjoy forever.
Reflect & Pray
What are you most looking forward to in the next life? How does the promise of a joyful future encourage you?
Dear God, please help me see my pain in light of eternity, knowing You have a better future prepared for me.
Today’s Insights
God gave the apostle John a glimpse of “what must soon take place” (Revelation 1:1) when Jesus returns to rule the world as king and usher in eternity (vv. 1-3). Satan and the unbelieving, sinful world will be judged and punished for their evil and wickedness (chs. 4-20). John saw “a new heaven and a new earth” (21:1). Eight hundred years earlier, Isaiah had prophesied that God would create “new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17; see 66:22). Scholars say both Isaiah and John are describing heaven or “paradise” (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7), “God’s dwelling place” where God will live with His people forever (Revelation 21:3). Jesus affectionately called heaven “my Father’s house” (John 14:2). “Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27) will be allowed to experience the fullness of joy in God’s home.
Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whom You discipline and instruct, O Lord, and teach out of Your law, that You may give him power to keep himself calm in the days of adversity….
Psalm 94:12-13 (AMPC)
According to Exodus 13:17 (AMPC), When Pharaoh let the people go, God led them not by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer…. There was a shorter route, but God took the Israelites the long, hard way on purpose because they were not ready for the battles they would face. He continued to work with them during forty years of wandering, waiting for them to get to the point where they could praise Him in their adversity.
God will continue dealing with us until we learn how to stay peaceful in the storm. Nothing shows our spiritual maturity more than staying calm when our circumstances are not calm. Stability is a sign of maturity, and the more mature we are, the more God can trust us with His power and blessings.
Prayer of the Day: Lord, help me stay calm when life feels uncertain. Teach me to trust Your timing and grow through the journey, knowing You’re preparing me for something greater, amen.
Brand promises and the power of personal transformation
If you haven’t eaten the “comfort food” at Cracker Barrel, enjoyed the antique country paraphernalia decorating the walls, and shopped in their “country store,” you probably won’t care that they changed their logo and are modernizing their restaurants. Even if you have, you may not consider their corporate re-do an existential crisis.
But there’s more to the story than the fact that the company lost nearly $100 million in market value when its stock plunged after releasing its new logo. According to a creative director specializing in brand development, what Cracker Barrel has done is a textbook case of how not to rebrand.
Jeff Rifkin says the company’s core message is, “We don’t care about our core audience. We’re too busy trying to appeal to everyone and satisfying no one.” In his view, despite corporate explanations, Cracker Barrel erased the quirks and history that made people love their brand and thus lost touch with what it did best.
By contrast, the restaurant chain Chili’s is undergoing what Slate calls a “renaissance.” Three years after a new CEO and a team of executives were brought in to oversee a corporate revival, same-store sales were up 31 percent in the first quarter of this year. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, which the article describes as a “corporate turnaround for the ages.”
Their secret? Streamlining operations, simplifying their menu, emphasizing food quality and customer service, and focusing on what the restaurant is most known for—burgers, fajitas, appetizers, margaritas, and ribs. They’re not trying to compete with non-chain restaurants, fast-casual concepts, or quick trends. Instead, they’re innovating for what their chief marketing officer calls the “population that’s right down the middle.”
Why are the Dallas Cowboys so profitable?
One more brand in the news: the Dallas Cowboys are again the most valuable sports franchise in the world. The Dallas Morning News (DMN) reports that since 1996, the team has increased in value forty-seven times over, to a world-record $12.8 billion. However, the team has also failed to reach the NFC championship game even once over the same time frame, the longest such drought in the NFL.
How is this juxtaposition possible?
As the title of the eight-part Netflix docuseries that dropped this month shows, the Cowboys are still “America’s Team.” They boast the most followers of any NFL team on social media; their merchandise tops the league’s ranks and generates the most Google search interest. By the end of the upcoming season, they will have played in twenty-eight primetime games since 2021 (including Thursday night’s game with the world champion Philadelphia Eagles). That’s tied with the Kansas City Chiefs for the most over that span, though the Chiefs have played in the Super Bowl each of the last three years, winning twice.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has clearly mastered what Nobel Prize-winning economist Herbert A. Simon called the “attention economy.” As the DMN article explains, “In an information- and entertainment-abundant world, people’s attention acts as a scarce commodity, like oil or diamonds, and producers of content become valuable by commanding and controlling large amounts of that commodity.”
In this sense, the team’s thirty-year record of playoff futility works in their financial favor. As longtime Cowboys announcer Brad Sham noted, “There is no sports hate in America that comes close to Dallas Cowboys hate,” but those who hate the team “will never stop talking about them.” As a result, Sham said, “If someone in Massachusetts or Nevada turns on a Cowboys game hoping they’ll lose, that doesn’t matter to the ratings. All that matters is that they’re watching.”
Jesus “never asks us to decide for him”
Unlike the Dallas Cowboys, for whom “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” the Christian “brand” is undermined every time Christians are in the news for the wrong thing. Our clergy abuse scandals call into question the trustworthiness of our leaders. Our political entanglements alienate those who disagree with our politics.
But there’s a deeper issue here, one illustrated by the contrast between Cracker Barrel and Chili’s.
Methodist evangelistic camp meetings of the early nineteenth century issued public invitations for people to come forward to trust in Christ. Revivalist Charles Finney popularized the practice; D. L. Moody and Billy Graham used what came to be known as the “altar call” in their evangelistic meetings as well.
There is nothing inherently wrong with making public our faith in this way, of course. The Bible calls us to acknowledge Christ “before men” (Matthew 10:32) as we “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord” (Romans 10:9). However, as I’m certain Revs. Finney, Moody, and Graham would agree, “deciding for Christ” is not enough.
Oswald Chambers put it this way: “[Jesus] never asks us to decide for him, but to yield to him, a very different thing.”
Jesus called us to “take my yoke upon you,” which means to submit our lives to his authority (Matthew 11:28). We are to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1), to be “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), to take up our cross and follow Christ “daily” (Luke 9:23). The reason is simple: Jesus can change only what he can touch. He can transform our lives to the degree that he is Lord of our lives.
And transformed lives are the Christian “brand promise,” nothing less.
“If man is not fit to govern himself”
Like many churches and denominations today, we can change our theology to adapt to the popularity of LGBTQ and abortion ideologies. Like some in the evangelical world (and despite the clear teachings of Acts 4:12, 1 Corinthians 3:11, and John 3:18), we can jettison our culturally unpopular belief that Jesus is the only way to salvation.
But if we abandon the core tenets of biblical Christianity, we lose touch with what we do best: offering the gospel, which is the only “power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). By contrast, if we yield our lives daily to Christ as Lord and lead everyone we know to join us, we can never be the same. Nor can they.
Such moral and spiritual transformation is crucial to the future of our democracy. As James Madison asked, “If man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?” And it is crucial to the future of our souls. As Paul noted, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Corinthians 9:25).
Which type of wreath will you seek today?
Quote for the day:
“We are all servants. The only question is whom we will serve.” —R. C. Sproul
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by Henry M. Morris, Ph.D.
“And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6)
It may come as a surprise to some that both Old and New Testament believers are justified only by faith. In fact, four New Testament epistles base their arguments on justification by faith on two Old Testament passages, each quoted three times but with each one emphasizing a different aspect.
In our text, we see that Abraham was declared righteous because of his faith (i.e., belief, same word). This verse is quoted in Romans 4:3 in the midst of a formal argument on the just nature of God and the fact that we are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). Here, the emphasis is on counted. In Galatians 3:6, the word believed is emphasized, couched in the book dedicated to contrasting works and faith. “They which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham” (Galatians 3:9). The book of James was written to encourage believers to good works as evidence of their faith, and our text, quoted in James 2:23, emphasizes righteousness. “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).
The other Old Testament passage dealing with faith, which is also quoted three times in the New Testament, reads, “The just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). When used in Romans 1:17 just prior to the description of the evil lifestyles of the wicked (vv. 18-32), the emphasis seems to be on the word just. In Galatians 3:11, as noted above, the word faith is stressed. But in Hebrews 10:38, the author teaches that those who have been declared righteous by God live eternally by faith and will be able to cope with persecution (vv. 34-37).
Thus, the Old Testament doctrine that we are saved by faith in the work of God to solve our sin problem applies to every area of our lives and being, including our past sin, our present holy life and work, and our future eternal life. JDM
Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. — John 12:35
Beware of not acting on what God shows you when you are up on the mountaintop with him. You have to obey the light you receive on high after you come back down into the valley. If you don’t, the light will turn to darkness. “If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:23). The instant you brush aside an insight from God, you will begin to get dry rot in your spiritual life. Continually bring the truth out into your daily life. Work it out in everything you do. When you don’t, the light you’ve been given will prove a curse.
The most difficult kind of person to deal with is the one who has the smug satisfaction of recalling some past mountaintop experience, but who isn’t working out that experience in day-to-day life. If you say that you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it’s evident in your life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent. No matter how beautiful it sounds, it comes from the devil.
Theology has to work itself out in the most practical ways. “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees . . . you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). You must be more moral than the most moral being you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you putting it to work in the practical issues of life? Every aspect of your life—physical, moral, and spiritual—is to be judged by the standard of the atonement of our Lord.
Psalms 120-122; 1 Corinthians 9
Wisdom from Oswald
The attitude of a Christian towards the providential order in which he is placed is to recognize that God is behind it for purposes of His own. Biblical Ethics, 99 R
Just as you used to be slaves to all kinds of sin, so now you must let yourselves be slaves to all that is right and holy.
—Romans 6:19 (TLB)
We have heard the modern expression, “Don’t fight it—it’s bigger than both of us.” Those who are meek do not fight back at life. They learn the secret of surrender, or yielding to God. He then fights for us! Instead of filling your mind with resentments, abusing your body by sinful diversion, and damaging your soul by willfulness, humbly give all over to God. Your conflicts will disappear and your inner tensions will vanish into thin air. Then your life will begin to count for something. You will have the feeling of belonging to life. Boredom will melt away, and you will become vibrant with hope and expectation. Because you are meekly yielded, you will begin to “inherit the earth” of good things, which God holds in store for all who trust Him with their all.
Prayer for the day
Let me yield to You this day, Father, all my innermost thoughts. I cannot hide from You.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.—Psalm 36:6 (NIV)
Reflect on the magnificence of creation. God’s care envelops all His handiwork—every sunrise, every bird’s serenade, and every whispering breeze is a testament to His abiding care. Pause to appreciate, honor, and safeguard this stunning world He has entrusted to our stewardship.
Almighty God, I am amazed by the glory of Your breathtaking creation.
I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. Ezekiel 34:15
Today’s Scripture
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Today’s Devotional
Traffic came to a halt, but I had no idea why. There were few cars on the road, and I could see no obvious reason to be stopped. And then, suddenly—to my great surprise and delight—thousands of sheep emerged and crossed the freeway. As a newcomer to Idaho, I wasn’t yet familiar with the annual migration of the sheep into the Boise foothills each spring. Local ranchers escort their flocks into the foothills, where they graze on the native grasses over the summer.
Because I’d only lived in urban and suburban areas throughout my life, the sight was something of a spectacle to me. Yet sheep were a regular part of living in the days of Ezekiel (and much of the Bible’s recorded history). The prophet drew on something familiar to the people—sheep and shepherding—to convey God’s message to them of comfort and hope.
Ezekiel offered comforting, hopeful words to the Israelites, telling them that despite the years of hardship in Babylon—the consequence of their recurrent rebellion against God—He’d one day restore them to “their own land” (Ezekiel 34:13). God would then, like a shepherd, “tend them in a good pasture,” and they would “lie down in good grazing land” (v. 14).
God shows similar care for His people. We can trust Him, our Shepherd, to lead us forward through life—though we may feel “scattered” like sheep in the midst of difficulties (v. 12)—toward good pastures (vv. 13-14).
Reflect & Pray
When has God led you through seasons of difficulty? How can you trust Him to be your Shepherd today?
Thank You, God, for being my tender, trustworthy Shepherd.
Today’s Insights
In the Old Testament, Israel’s kings were also known as shepherds of God’s people (Numbers 27:17; 2 Samuel 5:2; Ezekiel 37:24). As monarchs, kings were to rule the nation with justice and righteousness. As shepherds, they were to provide for, guide, care, and protect God’s flock. Israel’s kings failed in their dual roles of kingship and shepherding (Ezekiel 34). God declared, “I myself will search for my sheep and look after them” (v. 11). Isaiah speaks of God as the Shepherd-King: “[The Sovereign Lord] rules with a mighty arm. . . . He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart” (40:10-11). Micah prophesied of a “ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old,” born in Bethlehem, who will come and “shepherd [God’s] flock” (5:2, 4). Jesus, the God-Shepherd, is our Good Shepherd who knows us and lays down His life for us (John 10:11, 14).
Visit GO.ODB.org/082625 to learn more about shepherding in the Middle East.
If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.
Isaiah 1:19 (AMPC)
God surely knew that we would all need help in life because He sent us His Holy Spirit Who is referred to as the Helper. One of the best prayers we can pray is: “Lord, I need help!” Asking is the first rule to receiving, so don’t be too prideful to ask for help.
Isaiah said that all people grow weary at times. No matter what our age is or how naturally strong we are, we all have limits and that is okay. It is okay if you cannot do it all. In fact, you can’t do it all. Isaiah’s instruction was to wait upon the Lord and be refreshed and renewed (Isaiah 40:28–31).
Isaiah knew what many other people in the Bible also knew—David, Ruth, Gideon, Mary, Peter, and Paul (to name a few). He knew that asking for help is a sign of wisdom, not of weakness. Not only is it okay to ask for help, but it is also essential that we do so on a regular basis.
Prayer of the Day: Lord, I admit I can’t do it all. I humbly ask for Your help today—fill me with strength through Your Spirit and renew me as I wait on You, amen.
The Texas Senate passed a controversial bill over the weekend, creating five new GOP-leaning districts, following a similar Texas House vote earlier in the week. Gov. Greg Abbott stated that he would “swiftly” sign the bill into law when it reaches his desk. When he does, Democrats and civil rights groups are expected to challenge the new maps in court.
In response to the Texas redistricting bill, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the “Election Rigging Response Act,” which would transform five Republican seats into districts that heavily favor Democrats. If California voters approve the measure in a special November 4 election, it would cancel the GOP seats gained in Texas.
The term “gerrymandering” was first used in 1812 when Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a bill redrawing state senate election districts. Though Gerry was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and US vice president under James Madison, his name has been forever linked to what many consider political powerbrokering.
Speaking of Mr. Madison: Patrick Henry tried to gerrymander him out of a congressional seat in 1789, showing that the practice is nothing new. Election districts have been redrawn over the years through legislative procedures such as we are seeing in Texas and through court actions. Both parties have engaged in the practice as a means of increasing their political power.
But is such partisanship what Mr. Madison and the Founders intended?
How America became the “United” States
I just finished reading The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783–1789 by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph J. Ellis. He describes in vivid detail the remarkable work of Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison, and (indispensably) George Washington in leading the newly independent United States to become a truly “united” nation.
As Ellis shows, the “Cause” for which the thirteen American colonies fought was independence from England, not the forging of a national government to which they would be subsidiary parts. Most colonial Americans considered such a sovereign power over the various states to be a continuation of the English monarchy and a violation of the purpose for which they fought. They saw their future as a kind of Europe, with small “countries” linked by common trade.
But Gen. Washington and his three colleagues were convinced that such independent colonies could not survive, much less thrive, in the face of European threats to dominate the New World. They would need each other if they were to retire the massive debt incurred by the war, develop viable trade relations with Europe, and settle their western frontier as well. The Constitution they therefore created and led the colonies to adopt was a vital expression of the American motto, E pluribus unum, “Out of many, one,” words that are emblazoned on our Great Seal and US coinage.
However, the “Quartet” and those they influenced also knew that Americans were too disparate to be represented by a single party or ideology. This is why they created the three branches of our governance with their checks and balances, permitting no individual or group to have unaccountable power over others. Within such governance, our two-party system has provided a means of debating our vital issues and achieving compromise when necessary to benefit the common good.
“America’s identity as a unified nation is eroding”
That was then, this is now.
Many analysts believe the US is more divided today along ideological and political lines than at any time since the years leading to the Civil War. Our partisan divisions reflect deep cultural chasms:
Gerrymandering, whether done to benefit Republicans or Democrats, reflects these divisions and deepens them as well. Redistricting is intended to make a voting district safer for the party in power, with the effect of reducing the number of competitive districts. As a result of such efforts and larger demographic shifts, analysts rate just three dozen of the nation’s 435 House districts as competitive in the upcoming midterm elections.
Consequently, according to the Wall Street Journal, “America’s identity as a unified nation is eroding, with Republican- and Democratic-led states dividing into separate spheres, each with its own policies governing the economic, social, and political rules of life.” Less than 20 percent of Americans now live in a state where the minority party has a meaningful voice in governance. A recent Harvard analysis found that 98 to 99 percent of Americans live in areas segregated by partisanship.
But without political debate, competition, and compromise, the views and needs of America’s very disparate population are underrepresented. And if Americans feel they are facing “taxation without representation,” we are back where we started when our drive for independence from England began.
A movement that “transformed American culture”
Dr. Ellis ends The Quartet with the approval of the US Constitution and the ascension of George Washington to the presidency. So we might ask ourselves: What continued to unify the new nation once its widely disparate people achieved the purpose for which they originally came together?
The answer is spiritual, not political.
According to historian Thomas S. Kidd, the Second Great Awakening that began in the 1790s catalyzed an explosive movement of churches, church membership, and personal conversion. He writes that this awakening “spawned an incredible array of reform, publication, and missionary agencies that transformed American culture and sent the Christian gospel to the far corners of the earth.”
Such spiritual unity amid cultural diversity should not surprise us: early Christians were even more disparate than early Americans (Acts 2:9–11), but they were “filled with the Spirit” (v. 2) and therefore united in biblical truth, community, worship, and prayer (v. 42).
Accordingly, “every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus” (Acts 5:42), as “the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly” (Acts 6:7).
As a result, their movement “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).
When we are as submitted to the Spirit as they were, do you believe God will use us as powerfully as he used them?
Quote for the day:
“In union there is strength.” —Aesop
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by Henry M. Morris, Ph.D.
“The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever. The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace.” (Psalm 29:10-11)
There are quite a few different Hebrew words that are translated “flood” in the Old Testament. The word in this passage (Hebrew mabbul), however, is unique in that it is only used elsewhere in the account of the Noahic Flood, thus indicating conclusively that the dramatic scenes described in this psalm occurred at the time of the great Flood.
There was never in all history such a time as that, when “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). God therefore brought about “the end of all flesh” (v. 13)—no doubt millions, perhaps billions, of ungodly men and women—by the great mabbul.
In spite of the fact that nearly every culture around the globe (made up of descendants of the eight survivors of the Flood) remembers this terrible event in the form of “flood legends,” the very concept of God’s judgment on sin is so offensive to the natural mind that modern scholarship now even denies it as a fact of history.
Nevertheless, the epitaph of the antediluvian world is written in stone in the sedimentary rocks and fossil beds everywhere one looks all over the world. The greatest rebellion ever mounted against the world’s Creator by His creatures (both humans and fallen angels) was put down by God simply by His voice! “The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters” (Psalm 29:3).
In all the great turmoil of the Flood, Noah and the righteous remnant in the Ark were safe through it all. In every age, even in times of stress and danger, “the LORD will bless his people with peace.” HMM
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. — John 14:27
There are times when our sense of peace is based on ignorance. We may be filled with calm delight about the world, but only because our eyes are closed to its cruelties. When we awaken to the facts of life, inner peace is impossible—that is, unless we receive it from Jesus. When our Lord speaks peace, he makes peace; his words are forever Spirit and life (John 6:63). Have I ever received the peace of Jesus? It comes from looking into his face and realizing his undisturbed calm.
Are you painfully disturbed right now, distracted by the waves and billows of God’s providential permission? Have you been examining your beliefs, searching them for a bit of peace and joy and comfort and finding none? Then look up and receive the undisturbedness of the Lord. Reflected peace is proof that you are all right with God, because you are at liberty to turn your mind to him. If you aren’t right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. If you allow anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you, either you are disturbed or you have a false sense of security.
Are you looking to Jesus right now, in a matter that is urgently pressing, and receiving peace from him? If so, he will be a gracious blessing of peace in and through you. But try to worry it out and you will obliterate him from your life and deserve what you get. We become disturbed because we haven’t been considering Jesus Christ. When we turn to him, our perplexity vanishes, because he has no perplexity; our only concern then is to abide in him.
Bring all your troubles and worries to Jesus; lay them out before him. In the midst of difficulty, bereavement, and sorrow, hear him say, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1).
Psalms 119:89-176; 1 Corinthians 8
Wisdom from Oswald
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.Biblical Psychology, 199 R
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