Category: Scriptures
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3–4 minutesStarting the day with praise and thanksgiving to God and recognizing Him in everything is crucial to experiencing His sustaining joy and peace. I don’t do it as much as I should, but it is a practice that I am embracing more. Seeing His faithful love in who He is and as it is reflected in what He does is an amazing pattern of gratefulness that is found in Psalm 136. In the midst of this dialogue, it always catches me off guard that it includes verse 10, about striking down the firstborn of Egypt. Not only that, but that…
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1–2 minutesThe only thing that satisfies me Is to bring Your name glory My heart is fulfilled When my life is laid down Pour Your wisdom In the deepest parts of me Grant me knowledge Let me see Your heart I don’t want to chase vanity I don’t want to run after the wind Bring me to rest In Your glory Replace my foolishness The emptiness of my plans With the eternity You placed By your sovereign hand Sill I can’t grasp The fullness of who You are There is a longing A crying in my soul Nothing else satisfies me…
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4–6 minutesI wear glasses with blue light filtering lenses because I use a computer and I stare at a screen regularly. It took some time to get used to because the screen is less vivid when I wear the glasses. Without them, however, I get headaches and my vision blurs. As I was working, I realized this is similar to the insidious nature of sin that wants us to remove our spiritual blue light glasses. When things are “good”, by that I mean there is no apparent struggle or difficulty we face, we see life as vivid. The sky seems clearer,…
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2–3 minutes“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has…
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2–3 minutesThere are times when my sin rings in my ears. It chimes repeatedly, reminding me I am weak and covering me in shame. At times, unworthiness pounds at the doors of my heart in an attempt to lay siege to my identity in Christ. When I feel under the pressure of my own failings, it is easy for my focus to be misplaced. It gets lost in the fight between who I am in my own ability and the truth of who Christ says I am in Him. This chaos can lead me to drown myself in distraction. Knowing I…
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1–2 minutesGod is worthy of all the praise and honor we can give, and so much more. Whether we see His goodness and abundance in blatant ways or whether circumstances hide His splendor behind the mundane or outright brokenness, He deserves our praise. His character and might are on display all around us. Other things may try to demand our attention and seem more pressing than sitting to ponder aspects of God’s abundant greatness. Other people might want our time and energy. Those agendas may be important, but praising God isn’t something done; instead of facing life’s needs, it is done…
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2–4 minutesNow when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Mark 4:36-38 NKJV In reading Mark 4:36-38, I often forget that at least 4 of the disciples were fishermen. They had made their livings on the Sea of Galilee. I…
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1–2 minutesI have too many words, so I am speechless; too many feelings, so I have gone numb. My heart wants to publicly sort through it all. I want to clamor to be heard. Then I am faced with the sobering fact that what I want to say is not necessarily what I want to be heard. Therefore, I withdraw and find my voice and my comfort in the Word of God. 5:44-45
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6–9 minutesGod called a man who thought himself ineloquent and with impeded speech to speak before a king. In fact, he wasn’t called just to speak, but to demand the release of all the slaves. He was called to walk into a nation and upturn their society. One man, with what scholars believe to be a stutter and who worked for his father-in-law out in the fields, was presented with this grand destiny. And he said no. Exodus 3 tells the story of God appearing to Moses through a burning bush. Moses, like many of us are prone to do, began…
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2–3 minutesA person who is full tramples on a honeycomb, but to a hungry person, any bitter thing is sweet. Proverbs 27:7 The desire for fullness is one that we all have. It is in the satisfaction of being secure in the provision for our emotional, spiritual, and physical needs we can find true rest. In the absence of fullness, there is hunger, desire, and want. We all can be guilty of ignoring that emptiness. Seeing it as a sin, we can avoid acknowledging it. Finding ourselves busy with other things of importance, we can neglect it. Left unaddressed, it will…
