Read: 1 Thessalonians 2

So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. (v. 8)

From the moment of your conception, the one thing that sustained you was multiplication. As your cells multiplied at a frenetic pace, you began to take shape until the moment you were born. Even then, essential cell multiplication happened that has led to your body being what it is today. Not only do healthy things grow, but they also multiply.

The apostle Paul had an amazing life. After encountering Jesus, he experienced radical forgiveness and restoration. He traveled all over his world, met incredible people, and saw miracles upon miracles. He preached the gospel with power, overcame persecution, planted churches, and wrote a large part of the New Testament.

But the thing that endured past Paul’s eventual death was the investment he had made in others. When we grow and serve, we are limited by our own lifetime. But when we invest in others, the impact of Christ’s life in us is multiplied and shared for generations beyond us. This brings the impact of our lives from good to great.

Think of the great gift of those who have invested in you and determine that your faith will walk forward as you share the gift with others. Where would you be without those people? Where will others be without your investment? Invest yourself! —Joel Plantinga

Prayer: Lord, please show me the person you want me to invest in. Overcome my fears and lead me in faith. Amen.

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Read: Hebrews 13:8-9

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (v. 8)

When I was a baby, my doctor told my mother that it was best to lay me on my stomach to sleep. He said that babies were happier on their stomachs and were less likely to choke if they spit up. When I had babies of my own, the doctor told me to lay them on their backs to sleep. New research shows that babies who sleep on their backs are much less likely to experience a host of dangers. Even though doctors give different advice now than they did 40 years ago, we can still trust that the goal of these doctors has always been to keep babies healthy and safe.

We constantly have new and different circumstances to navigate as the world around us develops and changes. But Jesus never changes. Our world doesn’t look the same today as it did when Jesus walked the earth, so we need to keep seeking God’s path in new ways. We ought to ask ourselves what Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection have to teach us about how to interact with the world around us today. But we can be sure that no matter how circumstances change, Jesus’ message of love is always the same. When the world changes, we don’t look for a new teaching; we look for new ways to follow Jesus’ command to love. And if we cling to the message of Jesus, we’ll find our way in any circumstance life throws at us. —Jen Petersen

Prayer: Jesus, help me hold fast to your truth.

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Read: Exodus 3:7-10

I will send you . . . (v. 10)

God’s mission is stunning, his call is daunting, and his task towers over our lives, but for some reason God chooses us. God told Moses, “I will send you.” God invited a shepherd to rescue his people from a king. There is a mystery in this story: if God can talk from a flaming plant, can’t he just wipe out Egypt in one cosmic sweep of his hand? Well, God did destroy Pharaoh and his army in dramatic fashion, but not before Moses acted. For reasons that still sometimes baffle us, God carries out his mission through human beings.

Just as daunting as confronting a pharaoh was God’s call to a virgin to give birth to a king. God could have rolled back the clouds to enter our world but instead he chose a small-town girl who was already engaged to give birth to the Savior of the world. God could have chosen renowned philosophers but instead picked uneducated fishermen to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. And similarly, God chooses you, too.

God still sees people all around the world who do not know him. God hears their cries of pain and sighs of sadness. God knows the suffering they endure and the injustice they bear. We might see a bit of this through the news, but God sees it all. We might demand of God, “What are you going to do about all this suffering?” But God whispers, “I will send you.” —Jon Opgenorth

Prayer: Holy Spirit, help me to be captured by the significance of your mission.

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Read: Mark 3:20-21, 31-35

Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother. (v. 35)

Because they receive so little attention in the Gospels, we may sometimes forget that Jesus actually had a human family. He was born into a Jewish home and grew up in Galilee with a mother, father, and siblings. In the initial verses of our Bible reading today, we see the biological family of Jesus very concerned about him. They heard about all he was doing, not even stopping to eat, so they rushed out to lay hold of him and take him back home. They feared that he was “out of his mind” (v. 21)

One of the great things about families is that they can provide safety and security. What concerned Jesus’ family was that he was taking risks with his life. He was putting himself in danger and they wanted to sweep in and protect him.

Obviously, in Jesus, we have a Savior who was willing to put his life on the line for us. He was willing to go all the way to the cross in order to offer his life as a sacrifice for our sins.

His biological family, at this point, could not understand that. For Jesus, family is not limited to those to whom he was related biologically. “Whoever does the will of God” is part of his family. Whoever does God’s will. Is that you? —John Koedyker

Prayer: Lord, we thank you for opening your family to all of us. Help us this day and every day to do your will. Amen.

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Read: Mark 1:12-13

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (Matt. 4:1)

Like yesterday, today’s reading may seem a bit unusual at first. After Jesus is baptized, he is led (Matthew) or driven (Mark) into the desert to be tempted. Really? You would think that the Holy Spirit would comfort Jesus and encourage him. After all, aren’t we told that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23)? Isn’t the Spirit called the “Comforter” (Jn. 14:16, KJV)?

He is that. But from these verses it seems that the Holy Spirit can also lead us into some trying situations. Here we see that the Spirit can lead us to challenging places not to ruin us but to make us stronger. Certainly Jesus emerged from his temptations committed to God’s calling upon his life. It is true that our Lord uses all kinds of things—good and bad—in our lives to mold us and make us more like him. And he never abandons us. In this case, he sent his angels to help his Son.

The apostle Paul wrote: “For those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). That is one of my favorite verses, one that assures us that our loving God is always in control and will work things out for our good. —John Koedyker

Prayer: Lord, assure us of your presence and your protection as we undergo all kinds of difficulties, problems, and challenges in life. Amen.

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Read: Galatians 5:22-24

But the fruit of the Spirit is . . . goodness . . . gentleness . . . (vv. 22-23)

These days people seem angry. They feel cut off from the prosperity enjoyed by only the few. They see other groups of people doing better, and they come to despise those groups. Even Christians seem angry, protesting loudly and carrying hate-filled picket signs decrying this or that issue. When Christians debate each other on split-screen TV news shows, they spew invectives, shout each other down.

In and through this, the fruit of the Spirit shrivels like an apple left sitting on the counter too long. It is striking that half of the nine fruit listed by Paul have something to do with being gentle, kind, quiet, and in control. We are supposed to be patient, not snappish and ill-tempered. We are supposed to exude a gentle kindness that gives others a wide berth and a warm embrace, not a hostility that wags fingers or screams purple-faced at others.

Most of these fruit are the opposite of what many in our world regard as strength. These fruit seem weak, wimpy. Of course, Jesus struck many people the same way. He was easy to gang up on, arrest, and kill. But Jesus endured it all in patience, gentleness, kindness, and goodness because he knew the world would be saved not by power but by humility and sacrifice. And that is the path down which his Spirit still leads us. —Scott Hoezee

Prayer: Make us a kind people, dear God, that we may show your face to all.

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Read: Galatians 5:22-24

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace . . . (v. 22)

As mentioned yesterday, each fruit follows the others and we are called to bear all of them. No individual fruit is more important than any others. Yet it is fitting to begin with love. Jesus gave no higher commandment than that we love one another. What’s more, because of Jesus’ example, we know that love means sacrificing ourselves for others.

Through love we can find joy. Paul does not say that “happiness” is a fruit of the Spirit, even though happiness seems to be most people’s highest goal. But today happiness is shallow and fickle. Happiness comes and goes depending on circumstances and disappears the moment times are tough and sad. Not so with joy. Joy emerges from the cross and resurrection. Joy stays with us in the hospice ward and when death comes. Why? Because joy knows that Christ has overcome the world and the power of death. Joy lasts.

And it brings peace. Not “peace” in the sense of no fighting but peace as shalom, peace as flourishing and wellness and a world where everybody is doing his or her level best to help everyone else flourish. This is the shalom for which God created this world. It’s not easy to find such peace in this world, but through the Spirit we can exude this kind of wholeness and live in ways that make it real to those around us. —Scott Hoezee

Prayer: Fill us with love that we may know joy and peace always.

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Read: Genesis 28:10-17

For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. (v. 15)

The key concept in the world of marketing is the idea of a “brand.” Brands, marketers say, are more than just recognizable product names. Brands ultimately are promises. Consumers have expectations, and we become loyal to those brands that reliably keep their promises. Think of the best-known brands like Apple, McDonald’s, or Toyota. All of those names mean something to us, and we have expectations of price, quality, and service from each. Brands succeed because they keep their implicit promises.

God has been making and keeping promises for thousands of years. “I will not leave you” (and its expanded version “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” Heb. 13:5) is perhaps God’s strongest promise. It was made first to Jacob in the book of Genesis but is repeated several times throughout the Bible. In one way or another, this promise recurs in the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Kings, Chronicles, Psalms, Isaiah, Haggai, Romans, Hebrews, and more. These promises aren’t just for the people in the Bible. They are for you and me.

Jacob declares, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it” (Gen. 28:16). There is no place we can go and no emotional state we can get into where God abandons us. When Paul says that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:38-39), he means it. This is a trustworthy promise. —Jeff Munroe

Prayer: Thank you for keeping your promises.

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Read: Luke 7:36-50

Do you see this woman? (v. 44)

Jesus had many encounters with people who were profoundly alone. The woman who washed his feet with her tears, as recorded in Luke 7, is such a person. The Bible doesn’t say what sort of sin she had committed, but she was identified as a sinner. To himself Simon the Pharisee said that if Jesus really were a prophet, he’d know what sort of woman she was, but apparently it didn’t actually take a prophet to figure this out.

Jesus asked Simon an arresting question: “Do you see this woman?” On one level, Simon had obviously seen her because he was complaining about her. But Jesus was asking something else. Not just did you notice her, but did you really see her? Have you comprehended her? Have you thought one bit about her life, her problems, and her realities? For gaining such insight, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says the principle is “to know what we see rather than to see what we know” (The Prophets, xxiv). Jesus’ question is along these lines. Do you actually see this woman?

No matter who you are, no matter what your situation, no matter how alone, lonely, misunderstood, isolated, outcast, or forgotten you feel, Jesus sees and knows you. Yesterday we spoke of how Jesus said, “Get up.” Don’t think for a moment his command is harsh. His voice is filled with compassion, forgiveness, restoration, and healing. He sees you and wants the best for you. —Jeff Munroe

Prayer: We thank you, dear Jesus, for seeing us.

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Read: 1 John 5:1-13

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (v. 12 NIV)

Traveling in the car on a chilly Iowa day, my parents and I soon found ourselves nice and warm. There was no need for the heater, because the sun was streaming through the windows and quickly warmed up the air. As Mom was taking off her coat she commented, “Wow, the sun really makes all the difference!”

Her remark made me think of another kind of son. Not the sun in the sky, but Jesus, God’s own Son. The apostle John writes that if we accept Jesus as Lord, we will have eternal life. Thanks to his death and resurrection, we do not have to fear death. Instead, we can have the confidence that God will welcome us into his heaven because Jesus’ righteousness becomes our salvation. John also writes that if we have faith in Jesus, we have overcome the world, or defeated its power. The Devil likes to claim this world and the people in it, but if we belong to Jesus, the Devil has no claim on us. Jesus has already defeated him on the cross.

Mom’s words were true as she talked about the sunshine, and similarly Jesus the Son of God really makes all the difference for all who believe. He changes the atmosphere around us. How has Jesus made a difference in everything in your life? —Steve Laman

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for the difference you make in our lives.

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Read: Luke 6:37-42

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. (v. 37 NIV)

In the Gospels you will see Jesus hanging out with people of questionable reputation, healing people of diseases, and assuring them of God’s forgiveness. He never once said to anyone, “I won’t heal you until you stop sinning,” or “You can’t eat with me because of your lifestyle!”

Jesus didn’t have a problem with “sinners.” The only people Jesus had problems with were those who believed they weren’t sinners! Jesus had issues with the religious leaders who enforced the letter of the law, while ignoring the spirit behind the law, and thinking they themselves were above the law.

It’s easy to point out the sins of others—especially if we don’t know them personally. It’s even easier to point out the sins of an entire group of people! This deflects the focus—if I point at them, no one will be looking at me! However, Jesus says this is hypocrisy. If I cannot or will not admit my own faults and failures, how dare I point out yours?

Let’s face it—we are all sinners. The good news is that Jesus has compassion for sinners. He understands our tendency to excuse or deny our own sinfulness, while finding fault with others. But then he says, “Stop it!” When we follow Jesus’ example, we learn not to judge other people’s behavior before taking a good hard look at our own. —Susan Hetrick

Prayer: Forgiving God, show me my own faults, and teach me compassion for others.

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Read: John 4:4-30, 39-41

And he had to pass through Samaria. (v. 4)

Most Jewish people in Jesus’ day despised the Samaritans and would rather walk around Samaria, going more than 90 miles out of their way, than walk through it. Not Jesus. He had a divine appointment with a woman at a well in Sychar. Their appointment wasn’t about a drink of water, or her marital status. It was about the pain in her heart.

This woman was an outsider in her village. She was seen as “unclean” and people avoided her. In our culture “outsiders” might be immigrants, addicts, ex-cons, or the homeless. Jesus chose to befriend outsiders. Where we see differences, Jesus saw people in pain. Jesus always saw a person’s heart.

While shopping, a woman who smelled like she hadn’t bathed in weeks asked me about a certain brand of shampoo. Then she told me her son had killed himself recently, and she wasn’t coping; she couldn’t sleep, eat, or make decisions. Most days she couldn’t leave her house. I listened as she cried and talked about her son. We prayed together, then she smiled and bought her shampoo. This was a divine appointment. She needed someone to acknowledge her pain, and remind her God still loved her.

When you encounter an outsider, do you see them as Jesus would? Perhaps they need to be reminded they are loved. It could be a divine appointment; be sure to keep it. —Susan Hetrick

Prayer: Lord, when you have set divine appointments for me, remind me to see people as you do.

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Read: Luke 8:40-56

Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” (v. 46)

Jesus had a habit of paying attention to the little things. He knew that the little things are the big things. Even though he was walking through a crowd he felt a tiny, hesitant tug on his cloak. Most people would have thought nothing of it.

Jesus, however, stopped and asked who touched him. Not only did Jesus feel her touch, but he saw a woman whom no one else would have seen. She had been ceremonially unclean for 12 years due to her medical condition. Being unclean, she would not have been allowed in the temple. No one would have touched her, or she would have made them unclean, too. She would not have been seen in public for 12 years . . . until she touched Jesus’ cloak.

That little touch transformed her life. She was healed, and would be welcomed back into her community after 12 long years of solitude. This was no little thing!

How often do we rush through our days, striving to accomplish the “big” things? Do we ignore or miss the little things? Jesus knew that true transformation happened within the small things; the interruptions in life, not necessarily in the “important” things we spend hours trying to accomplish. What little things—the little interruptions—can you pay attention to in your life and through them allow God to transform you?  —Susan Hetrick

Prayer: Lord, help me pay attention to the little things, for I know that they really are the big things

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Read: Acts 1:8

You will be my witnesses. (v. 8)

The job the Lord gave his disciples was huge–to reach the whole world with the gospel. But he didn’t expect them to do it on their own. Jesus promised a resource more than adequate for the work: the power of the Holy Spirit.

Then he added that they would be his witnesses “in Jerusalem . . . Judea . . . Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (v. 8 NIV). In one sense, this is a simple historical description of how the gospel spread throughout the world. It is effectively the table of contents of the book of Acts.

But it is also possible to read this as a plan for us to follow. Witness begins with local outreach; proceeds to those nearby, including people from different cultures; and doesn’t stop until “the ends of the earth.”

Past generations made that last step a priority, and were willing to pay the price it took to do it–not just the cost in dollars, but in prayer, hard work, and sacrifice. The ends of the earth are filled with missionary graves. Samuel Zwemer, the great Reformed Church missionary to the Muslim world, took his young family to the Middle East in the 1890s. Within a few years, Zwemer lost two young daughters to illness. What did he think then of his decision to go to that hard place with the gospel? A clue is given in the phrase from Revelation he in-scribed on their graves: “Worthy is the Lamb to receive riches.”

—David Bast

Prayer:

Pray for a missionary today.

Read: Revelation 6:9-11

How long before you will judge and avenge our blood? (v. 10)

Walking through the old market district of a city in eastern Turkey, my guide mentioned that all the shops and businesses around us had once been owned by Armenians. A century ago a majority of the people in that region were Armenian Christians; today almost none are left. My companion lowered his voice and added, “There are deep caverns north of the city where they say the bodies were thrown.” In Turkey one does not allude to such things except in a whisper.

What is the mission of God in a world of such horrors: genocide, persecution, exploitation, sex slavery, poverty, terrorism, and corruption? Jesus said that his mission was to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45) and to build his church (Matt. 16:18). So we proclaim the gospel to the world and invite people everywhere to become followers of Jesus.

But followers of Jesus must also witness to and work for the coming of God’s kingdom, God’s reign of justice and peace here on earth. The Hebrew prophets called it shalom–the state of things where all is right, where humans and even nature itself flourish together in joyous harmony.

I was talking with someone about our struggle to understand all the evils of life. He said, “I don’t ask God why anymore, I ask him when. When are you gonna come and fix things?” We may be sure that God will; meanwhile, we join him in working on the fix.

—David Bast

Prayer:

Come, Lord Jesus!

Read: John 10:14-30

My sheep hear my voice . . . and they follow me. (v. 27)

Who are Jesus’ “other sheep” (v. 16)? They are all those people, in every time and place, of every tribe and language and race, who belong to him and who will be brought eventually to salvation through him.

Notice the present tense: “I have other sheep.” Jesus doesn’t say, “I will have other sheep someday, once my missionary forces go out and win converts.” His sheep already belong to him. He knows who they are, every last one of them. When we proclaim the gospel to the world, it’s not in the uncertain hope that someone, somewhere, will believe it. It’s in the sure confidence that Jesus’ sheep are everywhere, and when they hear his voice they will follow him.

For a number of years Words of Hope partnered in broadcasting the gospel to Southeast Asia in the Hmong language. I was visiting the producer of those programs in his office. “Let me show you something,” he said, handing me a stack of pages with hundreds of names written on them. “These came in the mail, with a simple request: ‘Pastor, we heard you speaking on the radio about the Lamb’s Book of Life, and we would like you please to record our names in it.’”

Of course, the pastor assured his listeners that they need not worry. Their faith in Jesus was evidence that their names had already been recorded in the Book long ago, by the Lamb himself.

—David Bast

Prayer:

Thank you for the assurance that my name is written there.

Read: 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

So faith comes from hearing . . . the word of Christ. (Rom. 10:17)

So this is how the gospel works. As missionaries–or for that matter any Christians–share the message of Christ, some people hear it and believe. They receive it not merely as human information but as the very Word of God (1 Thess. 2:13). And this results in changed lives, as hearers of the Word also become doers, and “walk in a manner worthy of God” (v. 12).

Albert Dosti is a pastor in Albania. As a young man serving in the Albanian military, he was assigned the task of monitoring foreign radio broadcasts being transmitted into the country in the Albanian language. One of the programs he monitored, listening for subversive political messages, was called “Words of Hope.” No politics there, but a truly subversive message nevertheless! After listening for some time, Albert discovered that a strange and unexpected thing had happened–he had become a believer. Eventually Albert would become the radio pastor for Words of Hope Albania, and would write and record almost 2,000 programs in which he faithfully preached the Word of God.

Jesus once said that the hour is now here when the dead will hear his voice, and those who hear will live (John 5:25). He was speaking of spiritual death and spiritual life. Many listen to the gospel but they don’t really hear it. To hear it in such a way that new life is born in you is a sort of miracle. Has that happened to you?

—David Bast

Prayer:

Lord, give me the kind of hearing that results in life.

Read: Romans 10:1-18

How are they to believe . . . ? (v. 14)

According to Paul, being saved is easy. All anyone has to do is “call on the name of the Lord.” But he’s not talking about some sort of magic incantation. The call has to come out of faith in Christ and an understanding of his saving work. Furthermore, the call must be accompanied by public confession; it can’t just be some kind of private deal we do with Jesus. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (v. 9).

OK, Paul says, now think through this with me. Salvation is simple to receive. You don’t have to climb all over heaven and earth to get it. Just call on the name of the Lord. But the name of the Lord is “Jesus.” People have to believe in Jesus in order to call upon him. But how can they believe in him if they’ve never heard of him? And how can they hear unless someone tells them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? There it is in a nutshell. That’s how the gospel works. It’s the rationale for missions. Those who know Jesus as Savior must tell others about him.

If we proclaim the gospel throughout the world and people don’t believe, that’s on them. But if we don’t proclaim it and people don’t hear, well, that’s on us.

—David Bast

Prayer:

Lord, send your gospel out to the world today. In fact, use me to send it.

Read: Philippians 3:1-11

I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. (Gal. 6:17)

A colleague in the Middle East sent me a picture of a young man who had been doing listener follow-up and evangelism. He had been arrested and interrogated by the secret police. The picture, taken several weeks after his release, showed his back crisscrossed with stripes from the beatings. As I looked at it I thought of Paul’s phrase, “the marks of Jesus.”

“From now on let no one cause me trouble,” he wrote the Galatians, “for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” (6:17). That is to say, “I’ve paid the price for faithfulness in mission.”

One of the things I find difficult to fathom is the hostility and rage expressed toward believers simply for witnessing to Christ, or even just for publicly following him. But Jesus told us to expect it. “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before . . . If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:18, 20).

In our supposedly open and tolerant culture today the threat of being “marked” for your allegiance to Christ is intimidating. The fact that we might have to pay a price if we are open about our faith tempts us to stay private with it, which is exactly what the Adversary would like us to do. My friend in the picture later told me it was actually quite easy to be a Christian believer in his country.

“All you have to do is keep your mouth shut,” he said.

—David Bast

Prayer:

Help me not to keep my mouth shut.