2020-05-01
John 20:25 NIV
When the disciples told Thomas, ‘We have seen the Lord!’, Thomas refused to believe them. He said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’ When Jesus appeared to the disciples again, this time Thomas was there too. Jesus invited Thomas to touch His scars and see His hands. When Thomas did this, He stopped doubting and exclaimed ‘My Lord and my God!’ (v.28 NIV). Thomas has often been given a bad reputation because of his doubt, but how often do we find ourselves doubting God too? We might believe in the resurrection, but we doubt that God will come through for us in the situation we’ve been praying about for years. We can doubt His love, goodness, grace, faithfulness, and promises. We doubt Him because He does things that we don’t understand. But we’re not going to understand everything in this life. This is where we need to have faith that God’s in control. The Bible says: ‘Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see’ (Hebrews 11:1 NIV). Thomas only believed when he saw Jesus with his own eyes, but Jesus said, ‘blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’ (John 20:29 NIV). We don’t always see God working in our lives, and it can be challenging to have faith in a God we can’t see. But Jesus says that we’re blessed when we keep believing and when we keep trusting. So let’s take all our doubts to Jesus, and ask Him to help us have faith in Who He is and what He’s doing in our lives.
Num 3:1-4:33; Mark 5:31-43; Ps 2; Prov 10:30-32
2020-04-20
Psalm 71:3 NLT
The Bible says, ‘Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring’ (Proverbs 27:1 NLT). Every morning when we wake up, we have no idea what will happen to us that day. Sometimes the day is filled with good things, other times unexpected bad things happen. We live in a real world with real problems. We’re not immune to bad situations happening in our lives. Satan wants to attack us, discourage us, and make us afraid of what’s going to happen. We’re told to: ‘Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour’ (1 Peter 5:8 NLT). It can be easy to start fearing the future, especially when lots of bad things seem to be happening to us and those we love. While we can’t avoid experiencing some of these things, we can avoid being fearful. In Psalm 91, it says: ‘Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday’ (vv.5-6 NLT). So how can we stop being afraid? We can choose to believe that God is our protector, fortress, and hiding place. The psalmist wrote: ‘Be my rock of safety where I can always hide. Give the order to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.’ No matter what comes our way, we need to trust that when it arrives, God will give us the strength to cope. As long as we remain strong inwardly and keep trusting God, we can handle anything that comes against us outwardly and keep moving forward.
Lev 26-27; Mark 2:13-22; Ps 103:1-12; Prov 10:13
2020-02-02
Exodus 15:26 NIV
Why isn’t every sick person we pray for healed? We don’t know, and God doesn’t always tell us. Paul writes, ‘I left Trophimus sick in Miletus’ (2 Timothy 4:20 NIV). Why would Paul, who had raised the dead, leave a friend sick instead of praying and seeing him healed? Perhaps he did pray, but God chose not to heal Trophimus, at least at that time. There are aspects of healing we’ll never fully understand, and there are many things about God we don’t know, but here’s one thing we do know about Him: ‘I am the Lord, who heals you.’ And since He said, ‘I am the Lord, and I do not change’ (Malachi 3:6 NLT), and ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever’ (Hebrews 13:8 NIV), we can go to Him for healing based on His Word. One of the last statements Jesus made before leaving earth was: ‘These signs will follow those who believe…They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover’ (Mark 16:17-18 NKJV). Do we believe God still heals people today? Or have we become disappointed and disillusioned because we haven’t seen God move in miraculous ways when we’ve prayed? If we’re struggling to believe, we need to ask God to increase our faith and then we need to start praying expectantly again. Let’s obey this verse: ‘Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord’ (James 5:14 NIV). We may be finding it hard to keep praying when we’re not seeing anything happen. We can wonder if God really is as good as He says He is. But let’s not give up. Let’s persistently, expectantly pray for those we know who are ill.
Luke 6:27-36; Exo 23:1-9; Rom 12:14-21
2019-05-23
Galatians 6:10 NLT
Have you ever watched a train switch on to the same track as several disconnected rail cars, hook up, and together move forward? The truth is if you want to help people you’ve got to get on the same track, connect with them, and help move them forward. But before you can do that there are two rules you need to observe: (1) Never take anyone for granted. Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said that during an election one of his elderly neighbors told him, “I voted for you again today even though you didn’t ask me to.” Surprised, O’Neill replied, “But I’ve known you all my life, Mrs. O’Brien. I took out your garbage and mowed your lawn – I didn’t think I had to ask.” In a motherly tone she replied, “It’s always nice to be asked!” (2) Believe that everyone has potential. Mother Teresa said, “We don’t have to be extraordinary in any way. I can do what you can’t do, you can do what I can’t do, and together we can do great things.” You may not be able to help everybody, but you can help somebody. The thing Andrew is most noted for in Scripture is introducing his brother Peter to Jesus. But Peter ended up bringing multitudes to Jesus. In the New Jerusalem you’ll see the name of each of the apostles written above its twelve foundations (See Revelation 21:14). And Andrew’s name will be there. How come? Because he believed everybody has the potential to make a difference once they know Jesus.
Soul food: 1 Kings 14-15; Mark 9:14-29; Ps 101; Prov 12:12-13
2019-04-19
John 19:30 NIV
Calvary was victorious! The cross may look like the triumph of evil over goodness, the powerful over the powerless, but only to those who don’t understand Christ’s mission. Never was courage greater or strength stronger. When He cried, “It is finished” (some translations read “It is completed”), He didn’t mean, “I’m finished, My cause is defeated.” Far from being crushed at Calvary, Jesus triumphed in three ways: (1) He conquered His own human desire to avoid unspeakable suffering: “He…bowed with his face to the ground, praying, ‘My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine'” (Matthew 26:39 NLT). (2) He conquered the demonic powers of darkness. “In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross” (Colossians 2:15 NLT). (3) He conquered the law’s stubborn demands against sinners. “Christ…brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God” (Romans 10:4 GNT). At Calvary love triumphed over law, forever freeing us who could never live up to God’s law. “It is finished” was the cry of a victor instead of a victim! It didn’t look that way to the crowd or to His devastated disciples. But it did three days later when the empty tomb proved Jesus had won the victory over death. It all comes down to this: “If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved” (v. 9 GNT).
Soul food: Gen 22:1-18; Luke 23:26-49; Ps 22; Isa 53
