Category: Devotionals

My wife and I recently celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary by renewing our vows in Jerusalem and exchanging new rings that we bought at the Jordan River. It was great to celebrate such a milestone, but it took hard work to get there. In the 25 years that we have been married, there have been ups and downs, peaks and valleys, good times and, yes, some bad times. We began our 26th year of marriage in a stronger place than at probably any point in our marriage but it took a lot of hard work, prayers, and even some tears to get there. Building a good, lasting marriage is hard work. And it starts with God.

For a marriage to be all it should be, God must be at the center of it. When times get bad and we are dealing with a crisis, we need to lean on God for the wisdom and strength to persevere. And when times are good and we are feeling joy and happiness, we need to thank God for all that He is and all that He has done for us. In the good times and the bad, God is always there for us and for our marriages. He wants them to succeed and He will help us each and every day. But we need to allow Him into our marriages. We need to pray with and for our spouses, we need to praise God together, and we need to pray together. A healthy marriage begins with God.

In addition to keeping God at the center of our marriage, there are some other things that we need to work at to have a good, lasting marriage. We need to communicate. Any relationship needs communication. Our relationship with God needs communication. We need to talk to and listen to God. The same is true in our marriages. For a marriage to work, there needs to be a constant flow of communication. We need to talk to each other and, perhaps more importantly, we need to listen to each other, to hear what the other is feeling and what the other needs. Two-way communication in a marriage is a must!

A successful marriage also requires that we learn about each other. In our relationship with God, we learn about Him by reading His Word and by spending time in His presence. To learn about our spouses we have to take time to discover what makes them tick. We need to discover what they like, what is important to them, what they expect of us. Communication comes into play here, but we also need to spend time together. We need to be in our spouse’s presence to truly get to know him or her. We need to work together, have fun together, and sometimes just be together.

There are many other things that help to make a marriage successful, but I am going to end with just one more. For a marriage to be truly successful, for it to last and be all that God intends a marriage to be, we need to make our spouses the most important people in our lives after God. God should take first place in our lives. Our spouses should come next. Our spouses should come before our parents, before our brothers and sisters, even before our children. Genesis 2:24 says that a man shall leave his mother and his father and cling to or hold fast to his wife so that the two become one flesh. This was echoed by Jesus in Mark 10:7-8. Jesus added that what God has joined together no man should separate (Mark 10:9). We should never allow anyone else – friends, family, no one – to come between us and our spouses.

A good, lasting, successful marriage is possible as long as we are willing to work hard, stay committed to each other and our marriage, and keep God in the center of it.

The man had an urgent problem. He came looking for Jesus but encountered several of Jesus’ disciples first. The man had a son who was possessed by a demon that caused the son to be mute. The demon would often cause the son to have seizures that would cause him to fall to the ground, foaming at the mouth and grinding his teeth, and then to go rigid. The man thought Jesus could help his son but, since Jesus was not there, he asked the disciples to help. The disciples tried but were unable to cast the demon from the boy.

Jesus returned to find a crowd surrounding His disciples, and the disciples arguing with the scribes. When Jesus asked what they were arguing about, the father of the demon-possessed boy told Him of the boy’s problem and how the disciples had been unable to cast the demon from the boy. Jesus had the man bring the boy to Him and proceeded to cast the demon from the boy. Later, when Jesus was alone with His disciples, the disciples asked Him why they were unable to cast the demon out. Jesus replied, “This kind can only come out by prayer.” (Mark 9:14-29)

Have you ever encountered a problem that you were unable to solve? A problem that, no matter what you did or how hard you tried, you couldn’t make it go away? In this story from the gospel of Mark, Jesus is teaching us the solution to handling problems that are too big to handle alone. The solution is prayer. Why prayer? There are two important reasons for that. First, prayer brings us closer to the throne of God. When we seek Him in prayer, we are bringing ourselves into His presence. God is bigger than our problems and when we seek His help through prayer, when we enter into His presence, we focus on Him and not our problems. When we stay focused on Him, He will help us to deal with our problems.

The second reason for why prayer is the solution to handling our problems is that prayer helps us to admit that we need Him and need to access His power to help us to deal with or even overcome our problems. When we seek Him in prayer, we are saying, “God, I need you. I have tried to deal with this problem on my own, but I cannot find my way through it. But, God, I know that You have the power to help me to overcome it. Please, God, help me to overcome this.” When we take that posture of humility through prayer, we are surrendering our problems to God. And, when we do that, we can be sure that He will hear us and give us the strength, wisdom, and perseverance that we need as we work to overcome those problems.

Facing a problem today? As the old hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus says, “Take it to the Lord in prayer.”

On my recent trip to Israel, I saw several ancient winepresses. They were usually carved into the rock, had a flat surface where the grapes would be tread upon by foot, and had a channel or hole where the juice of the grapes would run down into a vat where it would ferment. Each time that our group saw a winepress, our tour guide would point out that the grapes needed to be pressed by foot in such a way so as to not crush the seeds. Crushing the seeds would cause the wine to be bitter.

Jesus came to earth to save us from our sins and to “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:19). As was promised by God and foretold by the prophets, Jesus suffered and died. His blood was spilled out for us, much like the juice of the grapes in a winepress. But although His blood was spilled and He died on a cross, Jesus rose on the third day.  And when we, as Christians, commemorate His sacrifice through communion, we drink of the juice of the grape, which represents His blood. And that juice is sweet, not bitter. Jesus was pressed like the grapes in a winepress, but He was not crushed.

Jesus is coming again. When that will be, no one knows but God. But, He is coming. And when He comes it will be “the day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61:2). Jesus will come to establish His kingdom on earth. He will come to render the final defeat to the enemy and all who follow him. Jesus will come from heaven on a white horse to strike down the enemy. Jesus will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God (Revelation 19:15). From that winepress will flow the wine of God’s wrath and all who choose to reject Him and serve the enemy will drink of that wine (Revelation 14:9-10). The enemy will be crushed and that wine, the blood of the enemy, will be bitter.

The choice is ours. We can follow Jesus and drink of the fruit of the vine that is sweet. Or we can reject Him and one day drink of the wine of God’s wrath, a wine that is bitter. If you have never made a decision to follow Jesus, why not do so today? Jesus came so that we can have eternal life in heaven in the presence of God. We cannot earn eternal life by doing good deeds or by being a good person. We are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We need a Savior, and His name is Jesus. If you would like to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, say this prayer:

“Dear Jesus, I believe that You came and that You died for me so that I may have eternal life with You and the Father. I confess that I am a sinner. But, Jesus, I am ready to turn from my sin and to follow You. I accept You as the Lord and Savior of my life. In Your name, I pray. Amen.”

If you say that prayer from the bottom of your heart, please tell someone. Connect with a church, pick up a Bible, and learn what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

(Note: Thanks to my wife, Linda, for her help in writing this one. Two are better than one!)

There is a song written by Carole King in 1971 that talks about the need for friends. The song is You’ve Got a Friend, and it is the sentiment of one person assuring another of their friendship. In times of trouble, or when we are feeling down, what we often need is someone to come alongside us, to encourage us, to lend us a helping hand (or shoulder!). When we are down and discouraged, we can trust that God will give us the comfort and encouragement that we need, and sometimes He does that through other people, through friends.

Since today is Valentine’s Day, and because I am still jet-lagged from my return trip from Israel, I thought I would repost something I wrote in June 2017 on love. Happy Valentine’s Day!

The word “love” appears in almost every book of the Bible. Love is one of the central themes of the New Testament. It is because God loves us that He has given us the gift of salvation through Jesus (John 3:16). God is love and, in order to know God, we must have love (1 John 4:8). We must love God (Deuteronomy 6:5), we must love our brothers and sisters in Christ (John 13:35), we must love our neighbors (Mark 12:31), and we must even love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). And, our love must be genuine (Romans 12:9). Genuine love can be demonstrated by truly forgiving one another and not bringing up past sins (1 Peter 4:8).

If we could speak the language of every nation on earth and could even speak the language of angels, we could communicate pretty well. But, without having love, that would be meaningless. It would serve no purpose in our lives. All we would be doing is making a lot of noise (1 Corinthians 13:1). If we had the ability to predict the future, possessed knowledge of all things, and even had faith strong enough to move a mountain, we might be considered great in the eyes of the world. But, if we possessed these things but did not have love, we would be nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2). And, if we gave up all that we own and even gave up our own lives, but did not have love, we would gain nothing (1 Corinthians 13:3).

Love is important in the lives of believers. The love that we show, the kind of love that God wants us to show, should be filled with patience and kindness. It should not be jealous, prideful, arrogant, rude, irritable, or resentful. It is a love that is selfless, looking out for others rather than having our own way. This kind of love does not delight in evil, but rather in the truth. The love that God wants us to show is characterized by unshakable faith and hope and is able to endure through anything. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

Now, as believers, as followers of Christ, there are some things that we should not love. We should not love money, but should be content with what we have (Hebrews 13:5). We should not love the world or the things in the world. If we love the world, then God’s love is not in us. The things of the world, desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, and pride, will all pass away along with the world. But, those of us who love God and do His will abide in Him forever (1 John 2:15-17). The love that God wants us to show to Him and to each other is a love that never ends (1 Corinthians 4:8).

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!”
Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! (Psalm 122:1-2, ESV)

Jerusalem is the heart and soul of our Christian faith. It was here that Jesus made His triumphal entry through the Golden Gate as crowds cried, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” It was here that Jesus was arrested, mocked, tortured, beaten, and then crucified and buried. And it was here that He rose again, leaving behind an empty tomb. It is also the heart and soul of the Jewish faith, the site of the Temple Mount where the first temple built by Solomon stood before it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and where the second temple built by Herod stood before it was destroyed by the Romans. And Jerusalem is also the second most sacred place in the Muslim faith, the place where they believe Muhammed ascended into heaven.

Jerusalem today is a place of tension, as each of these faiths disagrees over who it really belongs to. Because of these tensions, security is high, and heavily armed Israeli soldiers and police walk around the streets of the Old City. Disagreements also exist among various Christian churches, who squabble over the sites that are precious to the Christian faith. The disagreement is so strong that in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, several churches hold claim to certain sections of the building. Because none of these churches trust each other to hold the keys to the building, the keys are held by a Muslim family, who opens and closes the church. This is sad when you stop to think that the keys to His church were given by Jesus to Peter and the disciples. It is sadder still when you read the words that Jesus spoke the night before He died, when He prayed that all of His believers may be one so that the world may believe in Him (John 17:20-22).

As we spent time in the Old City today, we sat outside of the church of St. Ann, by the place where the pool of Bethesda once stood. While we sat there, I was watching bees gathering pollen from some flowers. I noticed that there were two different types of bees in the same group of flowers. While one type of bee was gathering pollen, another type was hovering behind it and following it from flower to flower. Then, at one point, the bee following the one gathering pollen attacked the other bee and they began to fight as they fell to the ground. I felt that God was giving me a vision in nature of what exists in Jerusalem and even within the Christian churches. Like the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths, and like the various Christian churches, the bees were fighting over territory, the bees were fighting over the flowers in that section of the garden.

One day, there will be peace in Jerusalem. Jesus will return to establish His reign on earth. He will once again enter the Old City of Jerusalem through the Golden Gate. A day will come when, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord (Philippians 2:10). Christians, Jews, and Muslims will all look to Him as Lord and peace will reign over Jerusalem and over all the world. In the meantime, as it says in Psalm 122:6-7, we must all continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Water. A chemical substance made of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, water covers 71% of the surface of our planet. In the average human adult, the body is 60% water. Water is a necessary part of life for all living things. Plants need it in order to grow. Animals need water for their bodies to function, as do people. It acts as a lubricant for joints, it regulates our body temperature, and it flushes out waste in our bodies. Under normal circumstances, the longest a person can live without water is about a week. Water is life.

As I have traveled through Israel these past few days, I have seen the necessity of water to human life illustrated in many of the sites that I have seen. In Caesarea, I saw the aqueduct that Herod built in order to ensure that there was a supply of fresh water in that city. Water was needed for the Roman bathhouses in Beit She’an for cleansing the body. I saw cisterns that were built in Qumran and Masada for the purpose of catching rainwater in areas where there was no other source of water. And in En Gedi, there was a stream that would have provided water for David as he hid in a desert cave from the wrath of Saul.

There is no doubt that water is essential to life. Ezekiel 47:9 says that wherever the river goes, every living thing will live. We all need water for our physical bodies. But just as importantly, we all need living water for our spiritual bodies, for our souls. In Samaria, Jesus met a woman who had come to a well to draw water. He asked her to give him a drink. Since she was a Samaritan and Jesus was a Jew, she responded with wonder that a Jew would be asking her, a woman and a Samaritan, for a drink. Jesus responded that if she knew who it was that was asking her for a drink, she would have asked and He would have given her living water (John 4:7-10). When the woman asked Jesus where He gets this living water, Jesus gave a response that was not just for the Samaritan woman, but for each of us.

Jesus said that everyone who drinks of natural water will eventually be thirsty again, but if anyone drinks of the living water that He was speaking of, they will never be thirsty again. And where does this living water come from? It comes from Jesus (John 4:13-14). Jesus is not just the one who gives the living water, He is the living water. Just as we need natural water for our physical bodies to survive, we need Jesus, the living water, so that our spiritual bodies can survive. Jesus, the living water, is the source of eternal life. Jesus said that whoever was thirsty should come to Him and drink. We need to come to Him and believe in Him. When we do, rivers of living water will flow not into our hearts, but will flow out of them (John 7:37-38). And when the living water that is Jesus flows out of our hearts, we can help others to receive it as well.

Today, while in Israel with a group from Evangel Church, I had the opportunity to visit the town of Bethlehem. We started off by visiting the site called Shepherds Field, which is where the angel appeared to a group of shepherds to announce the birth of a child. But this was not just any child. In the town of Bethlehem, the city of David, the child that was born was the Savior, Christ the Lord. This child, the angel said, would be found lying in a manger and wrapped in swaddling cloths (Luke 2:8-12).

As we spent time at this site, I thought about what an amazing message it was that the angel was delivering. It was a message that changed everything for mankind, for this little baby would one day suffer and die to save us all from sin. We left the Shepherds Field, and like the shepherds on that night two thousand years ago, we immediately made our way down into Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity. Underneath that church is a cave and, in that cave, which had served as a stable for animals, Jesus was born of the virgin named Mary.

Standing in that cave and gazing at the spot where Mary gave birth to Jesus and the spot where the manger stood, I was filled with emotion as I thought about the amazing gift that God gave us in the form of this tiny child. The Son of God took on human form, coming to this world as a fragile, helpless infant dependent upon His mother and His earthly father, Joseph for all of His needs. But that same tiny little baby was Immanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23). He came to this world to pay the penalty for our sins, to save us from eternal death, from separation from our God. He came to give us eternal life, living in the presence of God.

What an amazing gift God gave us on that night in Bethlehem. And all that is required on our part is to accept Jesus as our Savior, to repent and ask forgiveness for our sins, and choose to follow Him. Jesus gave Himself for us so that we can give our all to Him. Jesus is our Immanuel, God with us.

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” That was the response of Nathanael when Philip told him that he, Andrew, and Peter had found the one of whom Moses and the prophets had written, Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:45-46). The one of whom Moses and the prophets had written would be the promised Messiah of God, and Nathanael could not believe that the Messiah could possibly come out of such an insignificant town as Nazareth. Nazareth is not even mentioned in the Old Testament. Surely the Messiah would come from a place of higher prominence, such as Jerusalem, and not from a place that not only was insignificant but also, in light of Nathanael’s question to Philip, did not possess a good reputation. The negative reputation of Nazareth is also confirmed later, in the book of Acts, where followers of Jesus are referred to derisively as Nazarenes (Acts 24:5).

So, why did Jesus come from Nazareth? Although His mother, Mary, and his earthly father, Joseph, were both from Nazareth, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But, early in Jesus’ life, Joseph took Mary and Jesus and fled to Egypt in order to escape the wrath of Herod, who had ordered the death of all male children two years old and younger (Matthew 2:13-14). When it was safe to return to Israel, Joseph did not go back to Bethlehem but traveled with his family to his hometown of Nazareth. According to Matthew, this was done to fulfill what the prophets had spoken, that the Messiah would be called a Nazarene (Matthew 2:19-23). But wait! Nazareth was not mentioned in the Old Testament. So, how is it that Jesus calling Nazareth His hometown was a fulfillment of prophecy?

In Isaiah 11:1, the Hebrew word neser appears. This word means “branch.” The prophecy states that a branch will appear from out of the shoot of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David, the shoot of Jesse. So, Isaiah was saying that the Messiah was to be a branch of Jesse’s tree, He would be from the family of David. Neser is also the root of the name Nazareth, which basically means “town of the branch.” So, Matthew is saying that Jesus’ residence in Nazareth is a fulfillment of Isaiah 11:1. But Nathanael did not have the benefit of Matthew’s gospel, so his question is understandable. Is there anything good that can possibly come out of Nazareth?

I love Philip’s response to Nathanael’s question: “Come and see.” Philip was asking a similar question to the one Jesus Himself asked Andrew and John the previous day. When they had asked Jesus where He was staying, Jesus said, “Come and you will see” (John 1:38-39). As followers of Jesus, we should always bear in mind that being a follower requires action on our part. We must come to Him with hearts that are open so that we can truly see all that He is and all that He has done for us. And then, like Philip, we must tell others about Jesus. And if we are asked what good can possibly come from following this Jesus of Nazareth, we can respond like Philip, “Come and see!”