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Every now and again when reading through Scripture I come across a phrase that breaks my heart. One such is in Mark’s account of Jesus’ trial. It’s a simple phrase, yet in its simplicity it sums up not only Pilate’s actions, but the actions of so many, even sadly my own actions.

Mark 15:15: “So to pacify [NIV: satisfy] the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.” [NLT]

Pilate is the one that released Barabbas to the crowd, and Pilate is the one that had Jesus flogged. Even though he washed his hands, Pilate is the one that handed Jesus over to be crucified. As much as that saddens me, the phrase that breaks my heart is what comes at the beginning of that Scripture . . . wanting “to satisfy the crowd.”

John writes a similar phrase in his Gospel when he relates that many of the Pharisees believed Jesus but did not confess Him lest they be expelled from the Synagogue. John says, “For they loved human praise more than the praise of God.”  [John 12:43 NLT]

How many times do I find myself trying to “satisfy the crowd” or doing something for the “praise of men?” It is a sinister trap the enemy of our souls often sets for us. It is a sinister trap I still find myself succumbing to—even after all these years.

Forgive me, Lord!

Oh my, I was praying one of the prayers from my precious little book, “The Valley of Vision,” (A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions edited by Arthur Bennett) and I came across one of those thoughts that made me pause. The petitioner requested “to be not only a professor of but an example of the Gospel.”

I am not sure if the petitioner meant the word “professor” as one who speaks the Gospel, or “professor” as one who studies the Word and teaches others (as in college professor). But either way …

Paul was quite clear when he wrote that we are to study the Word of God diligently. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” [2 Timothy 2:15 NKJV]

But Paul was equally clear that we are to become more and more Christ-like as we walk through this life. “…we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ.” [Ephesians 4:15 NLT]

I have known people who knew the “Word of Truth,” but never allowed the “Truth of the Word,” to penetrate their behavior. They could recite Scripture, but their actions and conduct never reflected Christ.

We must be careful that we keep our motivation pure. We learn, memorize, and study the Word (and share it), not to gain the admiration of others, but to grow more like Christ in our thinking and our actions.

Lord, help me “to be not only a professor of but an example of the Gospel.” Amen

December is demanding. It pulls in many directions. There are gifts to buy, events to attend, parties to plan. Even good things, family gatherings, church events, etc., can nudge us away from centering on hearts on the LORD.

“Joy to the World the LORD has come…. Let every heart prepare Him room.”

We can’t allow the stress of December’s demands to cause us to lose focus. We must prepare our hearts. We must move through this season with our eyes on the treasure. Because …

“Wherever [our] treasure is, there the desires of [our] heart will also be.” [Matthew 6:21 NLT]

Christ Jesus, the Babe in the Manger, the Man of the Cross, is our treasure. Not the gifts, not the decorations, not the events … Not Santa, not parties … only Him. We cannot allow anything else to take over our hearts.

“Joy to the World the LORD has come…. Let every heart prepare Him room.”

It is just a little over one week until the Thanksgiving holiday.  If we haven’t been thinking about thanksgiving this month, we should probably start before too long.  Soon, we will be into the crazy Christmas season where it seems everyone is so rushed.

When David brought the Ark of the Covenant and set it inside the tent that he had pitched for it, they offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. David blessed the people in the name of the Lord and gave each a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and one of raisins.

He did something else also. He appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the LORD. The Levites were given three tasks, to make petition, to give thanks, and to praise the LORD. He even gave them a song to sing … it began, “Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.”   

Some, like Heman and Jeduthun were chosen and designated by name to give thanks to the LORD. They used trumpets and cymbals and instruments. You can read about it in 1Chronicles 16.

What a wonderful job to have—to go every day to the presence of the Lord and sing and give thanks. WAIT! We have that job also and we don’t have to go to a temple or tent for the presence. God’s presence now dwells within us.

Oh Father, what glory to know that we too can be in Your presence and sing praises and offer our thanksgiving for all your wonderful works. Help us to be aware always of all You are to us. Amen.

Good News! Good News! There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!

Good News! Good News! And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you (YES HE IS!), He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you.

Good News! Good News! Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you received the Spirit of sonship. The Spirit Himself testifies that we are God’s children.

Good News! Good News! We are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. [Romans 8]

Yes, the world’s news lately is all bad, undeniably so. Yes, times are tough and who knows what the near future holds for any/all of us. And if we allow the news of the world to determine our countenance, there will be nothing to make us different from those who do not bear the mark of sonship as God’s children? If we allow the news of the world to set our heart’s song, how will the world know that the Spirit of God leads us?

The world is alive with Good News! And we are the singers. It should show on our faces, it should be reflected in our attitudes, and it should determine our actions. Right now is the prime time to proclaim Good News!

We will acknowledge that the world’s in trouble, to do otherwise is foolishness; but our primary call to all is Good News! God is still on the throne.

As I posted previously, my long-time friend Patty died recently. I traveled to Harlowton, Montana, last Friday for her Celebration of Life on Sunday the 6^th. I returned home Monday evening.

It was a difficult trip for a couple of reasons. I am not as young as I once was, and air travel is not as easy as it once was. Still, I was blessed with on-time flights, great passenger assistants with wheelchairs, and luggage that did not get lost.

It was also a difficult trip because I was grieving the loss of my long-time friend and I knew the people I would be meeting would also be grieving their loss of wife, mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, friend.

Sunday morning, I went to morning service at Patty’s church. There I found many, many people who also loved Patty. We encouraged each other. Family and friends, singing together, worshipping together, hugging each other, remembering Patty, and reminding each other of the promises of our Christian faith.

I thought about part of Paul’s salutation to the church in Rome. “For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord.  When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.” [Romans 1:11-12 NLT]

Sometimes the path we are on is difficult. Sometimes we feel all alone. But our faith was never meant to be walked alone. Spending time with others who trust God – even during time of grieving, encourages us. It reminds us that God’s promises are faithful and true.

It urges us to also remain faithful and true and to continue in our mutual faith even when the going gets tough.  Amen

I have been spending time in 2 Peter 3, thinking about the coming of the Day of the Lord.  Yes, Peter says, scoffers will come and say nothing ever changes, but they forget that change can happen instantly and dramatically as it did in the Day of the Flood.  They also forget that God does not measure things as we do, we are bound by the constraints of time, and He is free in eternity.  God is patient and wants as many as will answer His call to be saved.  The Lord’s patience means salvation.  [Verses 1-9, 15]

Then in verse 10 a little word really caught my attention.  It is the four-letter word “WILL.”  I was suddenly enthralled by that little word as I read on in verses 10-13.

“The day of the Lord WILL come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens WILL pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves WILL disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it WILL be found to deserve judgment…. On that day, he WILL set the heavens on fire, and the elements WILL melt away in the flames.” [emphasis added]

Wow.  WILL is one powerful word.  This WILL is based in the WILL of God.  God has determined these things WILL happen.  The day of the Lord WILL come suddenly and without warning, the same way a thief strikes.

God has said the earth itself WILL change, it WILL be destroyed by fire, by the judgment of God and everything that has been affected by the sin of mankind will be gone in a flash.  Suddenly “we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.”  [vs13]

We fail to comprehend how much of life has been affected by sin.  Our thought patterns, our society, our customs, our politics, our consciences have all been influenced by sin.  Even the earth we live on has felt the effects, buildings crumble in time, we are subjected to hurricanes, fires, lightning, freezing blizzards and blasting heat, earthquakes and famines and all manners of destruction.  All are the result of sin and its curse of death.

Yet God promises that one day all things WILL be made new.  Nothing that sin has touched, in the heavens or on this earth WILL remain.  Everything WILL be made new in righteousness.  God hasten the day when this faith shall be sight.

It was late evening, too early for bed but too late to start anything. Bob was watching another of his westerns on television. Usually I can just tune it out, but not this night. So, I moved into the bonus room. This is my quiet room. Bob seldom goes in there because he’s not comfortable on that couch or chair.

As I sat there thinking about whether to listen to music or watch a video, I was suddenly alive with the awareness of how much God loves me.  I hadn’t done anything. I wasn’t praising or worshipping. I wasn’t reading my Bible. I admit I wasn’t even thinking about God.

I was just sitting there in the quiet and God suddenly wrapped His arms of love around me, and I knew that I knew my Father was “hugging His child.”

This morning, I was reading Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 in the New Living Testament and came to a dead stop at verses 18-19.

“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.” [Ephesians 3:18-19 NLT]

“May you experience the love of Christ….” Other translations say to “know the love of Christ.”

That word translated as “know” or “experience” means “to know, especially through personal experience.”

I am never going to understand why God loves me. As Paul says, “it is too great to understand fully,” but the other night in that quiet room, God allowed me to know (experience) the love of Christ in a way that I can barely explain. PTL

As I watch the Summer Olympics I am remembering how much I loved to play sports when I was young. I could run fairly fast as a young girl. I remember there was one girl that could always beat me. She was really fast. When she was in the race I always came in second. I loved playing softball, volleyball, and basketball, until I blew out my knee. I loved to bowl. When it came time to choose teammates, I might not be chosen first, but I was always picked in the top three or four.

I never wanted to be left standing on the sidelines waiting for one of the teams to choose me. It hasn’t changed much as I have aged. I still don’t want to be left standing on the sidelines. I imagine these Olympic athletes are also glad to be chosen.

One of the most magnificent phrases in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians comes in the opening verses. First, he said that we have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Then he goes on, “for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”

The word chosen in the original Greek means, “chosen once for all.” We have been chosen out of this world, once for all, to be God’s own peculiar treasure. Jesus reminded His disciples in John 16 that they had not chosen Him, but He had chosen them.

Does that mean God picks and chooses just a few and the rest of the world can go to hell in a hand basket?  Does it mean God overrides our own free will to choose so that we respond to Him? I don’t think so. But again, I cannot explain the mind of God and how this all works in His Divine Plan.

I do know that it is God’s desire that all come to salvation in Christ, but God is not foolish, He knows all will not respond to his call.

I used to wonder how God could forget what I once was, especially when it is so hard for me to forget … but this verse comforts me. I was chosen in Christ before creation to be holy and without blame before Him in love. God saw the finished product in Christ before I was even created.

This is one of the greatest of all riches found in Christ!

Temptation. It happens to all of us. While we are in this life, we are going to be tempted. Let’s remember, however, temptation itself is not a sin. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that “[Jesus] has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin.”  (You can read about His temptation in the opening verses of Matthew 4 & Luke 4.)

Jesus was absolutely sinless and yet suffered temptation. Very often temptation hits us at the point of our weaknesses. We are tempted to drink, or watch pornography, or get angry, or indulge in the weaknesses of our flesh. We usually expect temptation in those areas.

Other times we are tempted at the point of our strengths. If we have much talent, we are led by the enemy of our soul to pride. If we are influential, we might be tempted to use that to manipulate others. If we have successes, we often are tempted toward self-reliance.

Jesus was tempted to turn stones into bread to satisfy his physical hunger at the end of a 40-day fast. The enemy wouldn’t bother us with that temptation because he already knows we don’t have the capability of turning rocks into dinner rolls.

I remember hearing Rick Warren say that God will never get angry with you for being tempted. In fact, God’s promise is exactly the opposite, He promises to help, “God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.”   [1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT]

Father, thank you for the promise to lead us away from temptation. Thank you for the power of Your Spirit in us. Amen