Reading through the Bible every year and blogging about it is only a small (but very enjoyable) part of what I do.

I recently returned from two successive weekends speaking to college juniors and seniors who are considering next steps beyond graduation. While some plan to work in ministry, others are thinking about how to best serve the Lord in their places of work.

It was a privilege to speak to such motivated young people on walking with the Lord for the next 60 years of their lives. In a world where we don’t hear enough good news, these delightful students give hope for the future.

Later in January I’ll travel to Guatemala to plan for mission trips with professors alongside a partnering ministry. In March my wife and I will help host an outreach featuring American academics in Italy, and in June we will again lead a group on the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain.

Alongside these mission experiences, I’m working towards a Doctor of Ministry degree. Already well into the program, I’m researching how to better equip professors to serve as missionaries. I’m excited about the confluence of missions with this avenue of study.

Which brings me to money. My wife and I raise all the funds needed to cover our salary, health care, retirement benefits and ministry expenses—everything we receive. It amazes me to realize that we have seen the Lord provide, through many committed donors, for 37 years straight.

With so many doors opening, I hope to raise an additional $25,000 for the coming year. Along with opportunities with international missions and the expenses for my doctoral program, an increase in medical insurance adds to the total. Would you prayerfully consider giving toward this need?

This need is best met with on-going giving. But while our primary need is for long-term funding, a gift of any amount helps us serve for the coming year.

If you would like to help, you can do so by making a one-time gift or joining our team on a regular basis. You can give to us at www.give.cru.org.

I appreciate your thoughtfulness in following my blog, Thank you as well for considering this request.

I look forward to this next year of engaging with Scripture together and seeing what the Lord brings!

Do you know someone who loves to be first? I don’t mean an athlete in competition or a fan rooting for their favorite team, but a person who always needs control. It’s a regular tendency.

John wrote to a church leader regarding a man named Diotrephes, who loves to be first. Apparently Diotrephes opposed hospitality to traveling believers, and spread malicious rumors about John and his party. Not content in his personal obstruction, Diotrephes threatened kicking those inclined to help out of the church.

A deep need for control twists a leader. Insidious, the one who loves to be first manipulates and confuses. Leaders like this arise in our churches, as we see here, as well as in politics and business and education and all walks of life. Such a leader strangles the passion of others, divides good people and works all situations to benefit himself.

Which makes me wonder—where am I tempted to control situations to my benefit? Where do I love to be first? As I work with people, the temptation to make situations beneficial to myself regularly pops to mind. Occasionally this creates a better plan, but most often I’m simply using others for my pleasure.

It’s worth asking a co-worker if they see this tendency in you (a seriously brave question). Dealing with this impulse before it fruits moves us to healthier places with God and others.

Plus, better than poor Diotrephes, we avoid becoming an object lesson for the next 2,000 years.

Photo by Javier Quiroga

In certain things we lack clarity, like what’s really out there at the edge of the universe? But other times truth shines clearly.

John illuminates divine reality with this statement—God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has the life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

Eternal life exists, the door opening at the hand of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. To accept this for ourselves means life, to turn away results in no life forever.

John writes so those who believe in the name of the Son of God may be confident in eternal life. With this life comes the action of the Holy Spirit, the confidence to pray boldly, and the protection of the Lord.

The point remains unambiguous. Such a wonderful life exists here only—no other savior or philosophy or religion or self-help program suffices.

Best to embrace the clarity and turn toward the Son.

1 John 5 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Sebin Thomas