April 6, 2022 “For you should wage war with sound guidance – victory comes with many counselors.” – Proverbs 24:6 My OCD tendencies often cause me to overprepare for even small tasks. Whether I’m undertaking a large building project, working on restoring a car, or doing a simple repair job...
May 26, 2021 “Patience is better than power, and controlling one’s emotions, than capturing a city.” – Proverbs 16:32 Has your desire to be right or your insistence on winning an argument ever cost you a relationship? Dumb question, right? If we were to recount the relationships in...
March 31, 2021 “Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are...
March 10, 2021 “These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as...
February 17, 2021 “That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works he had done for Israel. The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped the Baals and abandoned the Lord,...
February 10, 2021 “I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love,...
January 27, 2021 “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who...
January 20, 2021 “It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but...
December 2, 2020 “Philip proceeded to tell him the Good News about Jesus, beginning with that Scripture.” – Acts 8:35 In Acts chapter 8 we find a story about an Ethiopian who is reading a passage from Isaiah 53. Philip hears him reading and asks him if he understands it....
November 25, 2020 “Hallelujah! Give praise, servants of the Lord; praise the name of the Lord. Let the name of the Lord be blessed both now and forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting, let the name of the Lord be praised.” – Psalm 113:1-2 Tomorrow we...
November 18, 2020 “I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.” – Luke 15:10 Most of us are probably fairly familiar with the parable of the prodigal son. If not, take a moment right now and read...
September 9, 2020 “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” – Exodus 14:14 Exodus 14:14 is one of those verses that is really easy to take out of context. It’s easy to pull out those few words and come up with an inspirational thought about...
Click here to view this devotion on YouTube August 5, 2020 “The sluggard says, ‘There’s a lion outside! I’ll be killed in the public square!’” – Proverbs 22:13 Do lions really exist? Yes. Are they incredibly powerful and dangerous animals? Yes. Can they kill you? Yes. Will they attack you...
July 22, 2020 “Yet the news about Jesus spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” – Luke 5:15-16 Imagine, if you will, a teenager who would willingly give...
July 15, 2020 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” – Philippians 1:21 I want to ask you a question today: how much living are you willing to sacrifice in order to preserve your life? The first time I really thought about this question was...
June 17, 2020 Rise up, God, champion your cause! Remember the insults that fools bring against you all day long “Rise up, O God, and defend your cause; remember how fools mock you all day long.” – Psalm 74:22 Have you ever seen or heard someone mock God? How does...
June 10, 2020 “Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.” – 1 Peter 4:8 My wife amazes me. There is no one in this world who is more familiar with every one of my shortcomings, every one of my failures… every one...
May 27, 2020 “Right away a man with leprosy came up and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be made clean.’ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” – Matthew 8:2-3 We have...
May 20, 2020 “After they called in the apostles and had them flogged, they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and released them. Then they went out from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully on behalf of...
May 13, 2020 “When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets. Saul then said to his attendants, ‘Find me a woman who is a medium, so I...
May 6, 2020 “When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort.” – Luke 23:8 During his arrest and trial Jesus...
April 22, 2020 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment” – 2 Timothy 1:7 What are you afraid of? I think we would all like to say that we live our lives free from fear. But if...
April 15, 2020 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” – Psalm...
April 8, 2020 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13:34-35 Today we are right in the middle...
October 23, 2019 “Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life.” – Proverbs 22:4 When the Bible talks about the “fear of the Lord” it is talking about much more than simply being afraid. The fear of the Lord means we stand in...
September 18, 2019 “The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it a wall too high to scale.” – Proverbs 18:11 I’m sure all of us have heard stories that illustrate how unreliable riches can be. From the story of Job thousands of years ago to modern...
September 11, 2019 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” – John 10:10 Yesterday my daughter, who is in 7th grade, brought home a questionnaire from her social studies teacher that she was supposed to...
September 4, 2019 “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand” – Psalm 40:2 Depression is an epidemic in America today. And this epidemic is a killer: Suicide rates...
“There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” – Proverbs 14:12 You don’t have to look very far to see the evil around us. Some things are overtly evil. But more often than not, evil is sneaky. When confronted with evil...
“Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will triumph in Yahweh; I will rejoice in...