Last weekend I stayed up late to watch a football game between Colorado State University and the University of Colorado—the Rocky Mountain Showdown. The game started at 8 pm and lasted into the night. I’m not a late night person, but the thrilling game kept me energized. About 11:30 I made a distinct decision that I was watching the end of the game no matter how late it ran. After two overtimes I got to bed just before 1 am. So worth it.

Part of a journey of faith involves distinct decisions to follow the Lord along the way, especially when the way grows challenging. Here’s how the psalmist wrote of such resolve:

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.

The writer describes a conscious decision. We choose to make the Lord our refuge, to cling to him when our strength fails and our heart wilts. Faith is not a feeling, but rather resolute choice after resolute choice.

I’ve heard this common put-down of religious people—Christianity is just a crutch for the weak. In reality, we all need a crutch, but the true Christian faith is way better than a crutch. It’s more like the full body suit worn by Tony Stark in the Iron Man movies. The faith engulfs us, empowers us and turns away flaming missiles of the enemy. The more we wear it the more the Holy Spirit changes us.

Later the psalmist writes, as for me, it is good to be near God. The decisions we make daily either pull us closer to the Lord or allow us to drift away.

And as for me personally? I’ll grab my crutch, put on my body suit, and choose to limp toward the Lord, my refuge and my strength.

Psalm 71 & 73 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Lance Grandahl

Paul struggled to connect with the church members in Corinth. He addressed several challenging issues and felt they buffered their affections toward him and his coworkers. Which is not unusual when hashing through problems. Regardless, Paul encouraged them to open wide their hearts.

Paul shared his heart and reminded the church of the many remarkable hardships he and his band faced as they ministered across the empire. He wrote of faithfulness through beatings and imprisonments…sleepless nights and hunger…glory and dishonor…bad report and good report.

Then Paul shared an amazing perspective on his position in life: Poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

While this group of missionaries possessed little more than what they carried, they enriched everyone around them with their message of Jesus. They spread seeds that rooted and flowered into lives changed for the good of the hearers and generations to follow. The Lord created spiritual wealth through them.

Materially bereft, in Christ all the world lay before them. They understood that the earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains (Psalm 24:1). They moved through God’s creation knowing the Lord provided as they served him.

Every screen I gaze upon during my day encourages me to purchase a product. I’m told I need it, I’ll benefit from it, I’ll engage the world in a better way with it, or I’ll enjoy great pleasure from it. Yet I learn from Paul I need little. In reality I need the Lord, I’ll benefit from the Lord, I’ll engage the world better with the Lord, and I’ll enjoy great pleasure from the Lord.

Less stuff to deal with leads to more attention to the Lord and those on his heart. That’s the secret to having less yet possessing more. Lift others up, make them rich in the faith, and we’ll find we possess true wealth.

2 Corinthians 6 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Nick Fewings

It doesn’t take long for the right person to accomplish a whole lot of wrong. Josiah, the young king of Judah, started reading the newly discovered Book of the Law and his soul lurched. The Lord clearly stated you shall have no other gods before me, yet Josiah gazed upon a landscape filled with other gods.

His great-grandfather, Hezekiah, cleared the land of all pagan worship. But the next king, Manasseh, pursued all the gods of the surrounding lands like a kid in a candy store. He worshipped anything and everything, even burning his own son alive to appease the gods. Starting with a blank canvas, Manasseh painted a monstrous legacy.

Josiah, under deep conviction, set out to once again demolish all the evil centers of worship. No small task, this record of his actions give us a feeling for the enormity of Israel’s sin against the Lord:

He removed from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel.

Josiah did away with the idolatrous priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem—those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts.

He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people.

He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the temple of the Lord, the quarters where women did weaving for Asherah.

Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense.

He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice their son or daughter in the fire to Molek.

He removed from the entrance to the temple of the Lord the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun.

He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the Lord. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley.

The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption—the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the people of Ammon. Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.

Even the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin—even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also. Then Josiah looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance with the word of the Lord proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these things.

Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria and that had aroused the Lord’s anger. Josiah slaughtered all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human bones on them.

Quite a list. I’m impressed at how vigorously Manasseh thumbed his nose at the Lord. It didn’t take long to lead so many so far astray, profane worship carried out in God’s face. The Lord’s wrath smoldered, and broke out a few years later, but under Josiah the nation enjoyed a brief respite.

Every generation must believe in the Lord afresh, and every generation faces the temptation to follow leaders like Manasseh and worship the gods of this world. It’s our responsibility to do the best we can to help those around us find the Lord and walk with him.

2 Kings 23 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Randy Laybourne

What were you doing seventy five years ago? If you were alive, can you even remember? What did your house look like? Who was president? How much did a loaf of bread cost?

Josiah, a young king, launched a rejuvenation of the temple in Jerusalem. In the mess workers discovered a scroll. Ignored for seventy five years, the priest began to read to the king:

When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. He ordered his advisors: Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book.

Seventy five years prior, Josiah’s grandfather (Manasseh) became king and rejected the Lord. He led the people to worship all sort of heinous gods, and incurred the wrath of the One True God. Perhaps worst of all, he hid the Word of God out of sight.

After the fall of communism, I watched videos of Russians clamoring for Bibles in the streets, a book banned in Russia for roughly seventy five years. When Bibles became available again, the response was stunning. This book is powerful.

Fortunately, you and I now possess these unparalleled writings in abundance. Don’t let them get buried in the detritus of life. Like Josiah and all those Russians, open up your Bible and discover the wonderful truths found within.

2 Kings 22 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Taylor Flowe