Category: Bible (Page 265 of 419)

One bit of wisdom years of experience bring involves who you ask for advice. When I was younger, I listened to advice from friends and peers, mostly people my age. I asked because they were close, and I didn’t know enough to know who to ask. But as I got older, I learned the value to consulting knowledgable people.

An issue with my car? I go to a mechanic. Money? A financial expert. Health? I call the doctor. I know enough to (mostly) avoid unsolicited advice from lousy sources.

Isaiah scolded the people around him for their choice of advisors. When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction…If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

Looking to mediums and spiritists is like a teenager asking another teenager if he should jump off a bridge. Why not—what could go wrong? It’s foolish, but it takes hitting the bottom of the creek a few times to work the foolish out of us.

Isaiah pointed the people of Judah to the words of God. Avoid the mutterings of dead counsel, the ramblings of the foolish—turn instead to the light of dawn.

Today I face the same choice. No lack of opinion points me in every direction possible. But my first choice, the one solid place to base my life decisions and practices remains the living word of God’s instruction.

Isaiah 8 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Medienstürmer

One of the great joys of my summer are the tomatoes flourishing along my fence. I find it hard to grow tomatoes here in Colorado, with the late spring freezes and early fall frosts. But this month I’m enjoying slices of Early Girls and Cherokee Purples with every meal.

Around the corner blackberries ripen. I’ll pick enough to eat and bake in cobblers and make blackberry preserves (my wife is the baker and preserver). Grapes fatten next to the blackberries. If the squirrels and birds don’t get to them, a few will ripen to a tangy sweetness.

I work spring and summer to create the best conditions for fruiting. I amend the soil, I watch for pests, I water, and most importantly, I prune.

Pruning involves cutting off parts of the plant that won’t lead to fruiting. I have better tomatoes this summer as a result of better pruning. Because I grow grape vines as a privacy screen, I let them run wild and the fruit suffers. If I want better grapes, I need to prune aggressively.

Tomatoes immediately come to mind when I read Jesus teach about pruning (although I imagine Jesus looked on a vineyard as he spoke). I’m the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

As a gardener, I understand the need to prune. But when I’m the object of the pruning, I hesitate. Why would God remove something good from my life? Why did my job change, or why do I have less responsibilities than before? What will I do with all this time? When life brings unexpected change, the Lord may be in the process of pruning.

All my pruning involves cutting back living, healthy branches. I want the life of the plant flowing into the fruit, not new shoots. The last few years the Lord pruned some good things from my work. Vibrant, active, growing areas of ministry. While I question the cutting, I believe it will lead to fruiting elsewhere.

I hope you enjoy some home grown tomatoes or blackberries this summer. When the pleasure hits your mouth, think of the pruning involved in growing such delights.

Then consider the pruning the Lord may be doing in your life, and find hope in the hands of the Master Gardener.

John 15 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Ever been invited over to a friend’s house for the evening and when you arrive lights blaze and your friend’s watching and greets you even before you get to the porch? Or have you arrived at another friend’s house, dark and closed up, and knock on the door to echos of silence? You notice the light change in the peephole, so you know someone’s there, and your friend cracks the door and asks, what are you doing here? To which you stammer, you invited me…

Prayer is a lot like this.

My prayer experience at times feels welcoming and encouraging, while other days more akin to approaching a dark house. David shared the same experience. On the upswing he wrote: The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.

But on another day his experience cratered: Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

I’m encouraged to know David, a man after God’s own heart, shared this frustrating experience. I wish it weren’t so, and I don’t have any easy answers for why we feel this way while at prayer. I’m pretty sure, however, it has more to do with me than with the Lord.

I also notice how David, despite his frustration, returned to the Lord over and over. He closed the same psalm where he questioned God with this thought: You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted, you encourage them and listen to their cry.

David understood a profound truth. Even if David didn’t feel it, the Lord remained close. The Lord heard his pleas. Why did David climb up to a dark porch again and again? Because only the Lord could meet his needs. There was no where else to go.

So it is with you and me. At times we may feel alone, but we’re not. Keep knocking. Only the Lord can possibly meet your deepest needs, and so to the Lord you must go.

Psalm 9 & 10 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by m wrona

The little church warmed in the summer evening, and soft light slanting through the stained glass tempted me to doze. But a specific sermon topic brought me to the service and promised to hold my teenaged attention—End Times. Nothing better than trying to figure out who the anti-christ might be (Gorbachov?), or imagining a beast with ten heads and seven horns rising from the sea.

The end of days remains a fascinating topic, although I admit one I don’t give much thought. But Jesus pointedly taught his disciples to stay alert:

Watch out that no one deceives you.

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

After all these years keeping watch feels a bit silly. Why has this promised day of the Lord’s return taken so long to occur? Did Jesus miss a prediction? No, the answer is quite simple:

Do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:8 & 9).

In reality it’s only been a couple of God-days since Jesus spoke. The Lord pauses to give every person every opportunity to turn to him.

When the trumpet sounds I hope I’m not surprised. I’m not sure it will happen in my day, but it will happen just as Jesus promised. In the meantime I can remain grateful for his patience with me and with everyone around me.

Matthew 24 & 25 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Kyle Popineau