Today’s reading is Romans 3:1-4:25.

Today’s reading is a great comfort to me. Especially Romans 4:20-21:

“No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”

In this context, Abraham was trusting that God would bring about his promise through Isaac, even if he sacrificed Isaac on the altar. Because of that, Abraham surrendered his life to God even to the point of being willing to sacrifice his own son if God asked. What great faith.

I need to grow in this faith as well. Later in this book, we’ll read God’s promise to us: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first born among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:28-30).

Here is God’s promise to me. If I love Him, He will conform me to the image of His Son. I struggle daily with all kinds of problems, temptations, and sins. Sometimes it causes me to want to throw my hands in the air and say, “Forget it. Why even keep trying? I’ll never make it.” But God has promised me that I will. God is working within me to accomplish growth and conformation. I may have botched things today, but God is working on me and will get me there if I simply keep loving Him. God isn’t crossing His fingers behind His back. He’s making a promise and He will keep it.

So the question is am I convinced God will do what He has promised? Am I so convinced that I’ll completely surrender my life to Him in faith, just doing what He asks me to do? That is what I need to work on today.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Luke 11:1-12:59.

What father among us would give his children a snake or a scorpion when they are asking for a fish or an egg. Even though we can mess things up pretty royally, we’re generally smarter than handing our child a rattlesnake or scorpion. Generally.

However, the great thing is that for God it is not “generally.” It is always. This teaching in Luke 11:11-13 is a powerful statement about God. God gives good gifts. He doesn’t give bad gifts.

Here are the two really important aspects of this that I have to learn.

1) Even when I think the gift is bad, I need to trust God that it is good. That is, some tough things happen in life. Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out how what is going on is really good for me. In fact, I may not be able to figure it out. That is when I simply have to trust God. His gifts are good. Since He’s God, He can see the good from them. Since I’m not God, I can’t always see the good. But His gifts are good.

2) This text says God won’t give me a snake when I ask for a fish and He won’t give me a scorpion when I ask for an egg. Here’s the great thing. Sometimes, due to my own immaturity, I’ve asked for the snake and the scorpion without realizing it. God will give me the fish and the egg anyway. God’s gifts are good.

We can trust God. When things aren’t going our way, that is when we need to simply trust that our refuge really is taking care of us. He really is helping us grow. His way will work best if we just trust it. All I know is this, when I quit trusting God and start trying to fix things on my own, I really mess them up. Today, I’m going to trust that God’s gifts really are good. One day I may see that. Today, I’m just going to walk by faith.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Revelation 19:1-20:15.

Sadly, these two chapters are argued about and disagreed upon in many ways. I am decidedly amillennial. But no matter your view, the thing God wants us to see in these chapters is He wins. Glory and power belong to Him. Because of that, we ought to glorify Him and be on His side. God reigns and those who stay on His side will reign with Him.

The beast and the false prophet may think they have the upper hand, but they will be destroyed in the pit. Satan may think he is going to win with his mediocre copies of God’s things, but he will be bound and then ultimately damned. He can gather an unimaginable army, but all his power cannot remotely threaten God. 

GOD WINS!!!

I need to remember that today. Sometimes it seems the battle is just going to keep raging and there is no end. Sometimes it seems that every defense or offense is useless. The enemies of Christ keep pouring forth. Why keep fighting? 

I need to carry a banner to remind me why we keep up the fight. GOD WINS!!! 

Keep working, keep striving, keep fighting the fight of faith. GOD WINS!!! You want to be on His side.

***Question: How do you stay on God’s side every day?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

Today’s reading is Revelation 7:1-8:13.

Revelation 7:10 shows a great multitude crying out: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

What a powerful statement. What a directive statement. Think about it. This says salvation does not belong to me. I can’t own salvation in the sense that somehow I get it for myself. Salvation is God’s. Salvation is the Lamb’s. If I want salvation, I have to go to God and the Lamb to get it.

So, what should be my top priority today? Trying to get salvation from me and my effort? Absolutely not. I can’t get it that way. Instead, my top priority should be striving to get close to God and the Lamb. They have salvation. If I am in them, then I’ll have salvation.

***Question: What do you do to get close to God and the Lamb?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

Today’s reading is John 17:1-18:40.

This may be a bit of an odd thought today, but something came out of left field today and smacked me as I was reading. It was one of those V8 moments.

I know a lot of people have struggled with issues surrounding God’s knowledge and times when He asked questions like “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9) or “Who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11). They struggle with God’s interactions with man like Abraham’s bartering with God in Genesis 18:22-33 or Moses “convincing” God not to wipe out Israel and start over with him in Deuteronomy 9:13-29. How do these interactions mesh with God knowing everything.

A verse in today’s reading brought some resolution to my mind. John 18:3-4 says:

So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?”

My conclusion from this verse is not really new to me. I just hadn’t seen it so clearly demonstrated as in this verse. Look at what happens here. Jesus knew what was going to happen to Him. That means He knew exactly who they were coming to seek. They were coming to seek Him and He knew it. Why the question then? It was not because He needed information. This question was asked for the benefit of the seekers. This question was asked to make them think about who they were actually coming to get. This question was asked to set up the situation of freely giving Himself over. A situation that shocked the seekers so badly they fell back at first.

Here is the point. This passage demonstrates that when God asks questions, it is not because He needs information. He asks questions for our benefit. Adam and Eve needed to think about where they were. Adam needed to give consideration to how he knew he was naked. Even the exchanges between God and Moses and God and Abraham can be interpreted in light of this. God didn’t need convincing. These men needed to do some convincing. God’s foretold plan had been to bring the Messiah through Judah. He couldn’t possibly do that if He wiped out Israel and started with Moses. God knew that wasn’t going to happen. This exchange wasn’t really for God’s benefit. It was for Moses’ benefit. He needed to see how important it was for God to preserve the people. He needed to intercede on their behalf because there would be days when he didn’t want to. God didn’t need Abraham to barter with Him. Abraham needed to see that God would do what was right. 

Jesus knew who they were coming to seek, but asked the question anyway. God’s questions and exchanges with man aren’t for His benefit; they are for ours.

***Question: How has God benefited you?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

Today’s reading is 2 Corinthians 2:1-3:18.

Paul said, “Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Corinthians 3:4-5). 

This verse hit me like a ton of bricks. One of my great struggles is never believing that I’m good enough. After years of being trained that accidents don’t happen, mistakes only come to those who don’t pay attention, and perfection seems to be the only level of good enough, I really struggle with that. Because I do have accidents. I do make mistakes. I’m a long way from perfect.

I constantly beat myself up for not being a good enough person, good enough Christian, good enough husband, good enough father, etc. The struggle for me is that in trying to be good enough, I was still trying to find my sufficiency in me. Maybe if I just try a little harder, I can be sufficient or adequate. Maybe then I’ll be good enough.

Now please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that I’m good enough as I am so I don’t have to worry about growing or doing better. What I am saying is being good enough is not going to come from be. If I want to be sufficient, adequate, good enough, I have to quit trying harder and simply surrender myself to God and His will. My sufficiency needs to come from Him. Further, I need to quit trying to gain my sufficiency from other people. That is, I need to quit trying to impress other people so they’ll say I’m good enough and I need to quit trying to push others down so I can feel good enough in comparison. My sufficiency won’t come from either of those sources. 

Sufficiency won’t come from me. It won’t come from other people. It will only come from God. Therefore, for today, I need to put my hand in His and let Him make me good enough by His will.

***Question: How do you find sufficiency in God?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

Today’s reading is Colossians 1:1-2:23.

Once again, reading the Bible tells me I have gotten things exactly backwards. No wonder I’ve had so many struggles.

Colossians 1:11-12 says, “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Then Colossians 1:29 says, “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”

The concept I have unwittingly had for years is if I endure, if I am patient, if I maintain joy, God will then be with me. But that is not what these passages say at all. Rather, they say that if I am with God, He will empower me to endure, He will empower me to be patient. He will empower me to have joy. If I am with God, He will empower me to toil and struggle and overcome. If I am with God, He will empower me to accomplish His work.

No I don’t believe this is saying God has marked out before time those whom He will empower arbitrarily. I must definitely choose to be with God. I must choose to trust Jesus. However, my power will accomplish nothing. If I’m waiting on me to be powerful enough for God to come be with me, I won’t make it. Rather, I must recognize how powerless I am and abandon myself to God. Then the God of power will be with me and empower me.

I need to get rid of this concept of, “God, I’m trying really, really hard to serve you.” Instead, I need to have the concept of, “God, when I try hard, I mess it up. I’m just going to surrender to you and you empower me to struggle, endure, and overcome. Thank you for qualifying me.”

Today’s reading is Acts 25:1-26:32.

Christianity began on Pentecost. That is, in Acts 2, when the Spirit came upon the apostles and they preached entrance into Christ’s kingdom via repentance and baptism, the church began. The first Christians came to be on that day.

However, we need to understand that Christianity was not a new thing in the mind of God on that day. In Acts 26:6-7, Paul said, “And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king!”

God promised Abraham that a blessing would come through the Jews upon all nations. Jesus was the fulfillment of that promise. Carrying the message of blessing to all nations to all the nations was the natural response. How could Jesus be a blessing to all nations if no one ever told the other nations. But Paul was on trial for taking those promises at their word. The Jews liked the promises insofar as they promised blessing to the Jews. But these blessings go so much farther. And I’m thankful that they do, because that means they include me.

***Question: In what promises from God do you take comfort? Why?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

Earthquake Seismograph

Today’s reading is Acts 15:1-16:40.

On Wednesday, we saw Peter escape from prison. No one expected it to happen the way it did. Peter didn’t expect it. It wasn’t until he was actually outside the gates and the angel left that he realized it was more than a dream. The Christians didn’t expect it. When Rhoda told them Peter was at the house gate, they thought she must be mistaken. Yet, God works in unexpected ways.

In Acts 16:16ff we find an apostle in prison again. He is praying and singing, along with Silas. Then God does the unexpected. He doesn’t simply cause the magistrates to release Paul. He doesn’t send an angel to spirit Paul and Silas away. This time, He sends a natural disaster. He sends an earthquake. 

However, this surprising turn of events produces great results. Who knows how well the jailer had been listening to Paul and Silas’s songs and prayers. But when they stay after the earthquake, as do the other prisoners, his heart is softened and he wants to hear Paul and Silas’s message. He and his entire household submit to the gospel.

I can’t help but see the parallel established once again between Paul and Peter. I also can’t help but see again that God works in unexpected ways. Who would have expected an earthquake to be the key to the jailer’s salvation. Yet, God gets His work done. Maybe we should rely on Him more and ourselves less.

***Question: Why is it hard to rely on God?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

Today’s reading is Acts 11:1-12:25.

I’ve heard many people repudiate the Christians who were praying at Mary the mother of John Mark’s house for not having faith in God to answer their prayers. When they heard Rhoda’s report that Peter stood at the gate, they didn’t believe her. They said it must be his angel instead. I simply want to share two ideas here that are a little different from the norm. You can let me know what you think.

1). I try to give these people who were praying into the middle of the night a little more credit. I’ve usually found that people who don’t have faith in God to grant their prayers, don’t pray very much. I’m not so sure that they were praying but not expecting God to do anything. Rather, I think they were praying but weren’t expecting God to work in this way. They were expecting God to work in some way that Herod changed his mind and just let Peter go. They weren’t expecting God to send an angel to miraculously release Peter in the middle of the night. Therefore they were surprised.

What I learn from this is not to put God in a box. God can work however God wants. Usually, when I’m praying for something, I not only have the end result in mind but a method as well. I need to let God know my desires and leave the methods up to Him. He will not always do what I expect.

2). This is just kind of a side note. But in the past, when I’ve thought about the statement “It is his angel” in Acts 12:15, I’ve thought the people meant Peter must be dead and now is coming as an angel. Of course, there is no indication that dead saints become angels. So this would be their misunderstanding. However, what about this possibility. Since a spiritual being like an angel wouldn’t be kept outside by a locked gate, perhaps the Christians meant something entirely different. 

Remember that the word translated “angel” means messenger. Is it possible that what these folks meant was not that Peter was dead and coming to them as a spiritual being, but rather that he had sent a messenger to them. Tell me what you think about this possibility.

***Question: What are some things God has done that were unexpected to you?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC