Category Archives: Uncategorized

SUCH A LITTLE ROCK Daniel 2

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My sister was the first to sign up for these weekly devotionals over 7 years ago.  Thanks, Barbara!  From the beginning, I’ve had a certain number goal in mind.  Something to aim at.  Takes 6 years to hit that target.  I now have a vibrant ‘congregation’ to encourage week by week!  All of the Lord’s doing.  Coupled with help from my tech-savvy wife Sue.

Let me admit my number goal is most modest.  Pastors would not be impressed.  Too little.  Too insignificant.  Too bad, so sad…for them!

This is between the Lord and me.  I’m to forget the naysayers.  Put your fingers to the loom, your hands to the wheel.  Off you go.  For Jesus, the Master Weaver.

May require lots of hard work, producing a rather teensy-weensy outcome… in some minds.  But with Jesus, first and foremost, the results are His anyway.  Aren’t they?  Rag on Him?  Better not!

Look back at Daniel chapter 2.  A bad dream nauseates bloviating King Nebuchadnezzar.  A colossal statue, made of gold, silver, bronze, iron and clay, topples over crashing and smashing to the ground.  Destruction complete.

What demolishes this hotdogger, grandstander statue?  Some ancient earthquake?  Could be.  Shoddy construction?  Possibly.  Enemy sabotage?  Perhaps.  But what exactly?  Daniel 2: 34–‘As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.’

A little rock, not from Arkansas but from God, gets hurled at that big-shot, phoney baloney bunkum.  The miniscule shatters the mighty.  Down it comes with brute force as the earth shakes and shudders.

When God calls you to do something, nothing could be better.  If we grab hold of it.  If.  May seem small change, but little is much when God is in it, as the old song says.  So, get busy with what He places in your hands.  To do for Him.  For others.  Something come to mind?

What a privilege, Lord, to serve you.  In Jesus’ name and for His sake.  Amen.

A PSALM FOR ALL Psalm 71

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Here’s a psalm for all of us.  Begins when life does.  Even before–‘Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb’ (Ps. 71:6).  Then the poet continually praises the Lord regardless of age–‘My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day’ (v.8).

Finally, he gets to me, an old goat!  A bit long-in-the-tooth.  Please don’t say as good as you-know-what with one foot you-know-where!  Psalm 71: 18– ‘So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.’

Ferver to pass it on to the next generation.  Unselfish and generous.  Not hogging forgiveness and eternal life, but eager to share.  Giving to missionaries who carry the word of God to where we can or dare not go.  Since I became a believer in Jesus listening to Christian radio, monies are gladly designated to groups who beam the Gospel message around the world.

But what grabs your heart will be different.  Maybe you love to help children’s ministries for that’s when and how you came to know the Savior.  Or the local Gospel mission reaching those we have a hard time relating to.  That Christian school you attended, that made such an impact on your life, which still needs financial donations to keep going for others.  How about all of the above?  And then some.

No matter your age, you can pray for those younger than yourself.  Can’t you?  Digging deeper, giving a tad more?  After all, this is no dress rehearsal.  When life calls it a day, all comes to a screeching, grinding, shuddering halt.

What’s on your ‘to do’ list?  For Jesus.  For others.

Thank you, Father, for life worth living.  All because of Jesus.  Amen.

MOVE IT! Psalm 70

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Here’s a psalm fit for impatient types like me.  Hardly a procrastinator, I dislike putting things off.  I’m a planner.  A list maker.  That’s why I’m drawn this psalm’s cry for help.  As if telling God to move it!  Psalm 70:1–‘Make haste, O God, to deliver me!  O Lord, make haste to help me!’  See what I mean?  And this from the last verse–‘O Lord, do not delay!’ (Ps. 70:5).

The Bible teaches that God’s ways are His alone, and that He rarely reveals any details to us.  Only that we need to trust Him.  But here’s the rub.  We know that life can be rather nasty.  No guarantees that all will be days of wine and roses.  Not at all.  Life often is a mish-mash of the helpful and the hurtful.  Trust Him?

As much as I don’t like admitting it, troubles do benefit me long-term.  The older I get, the clearer that becomes, though not an open-and-shut case.  So I shy away, getting antsy not knowing what’s coming…or going.   As if God has it in for me and not necessarily in a good way.

But that’s not this psalm’s mind-set.  Not at all–“May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you!  May those who love your salvation say evermore, ‘God is great!'” (Ps. 70:4).  In his impatience, David knows that seeking God is joyous.  Our Lord is dependable and loving.  Our promise-keeper through and through.

With that in mind, we can bear almost anything.  Give it a try?  What’s to lose?  I read about a man, climbing down into a darkened well, tightly holding onto a rope.  Soon his strength gives out.  Not knowing how far he’ll plummet to reach rock bottom, he fears death calling out to him.  His muscles fail.  He lets go, cascading and tumbling down all of three inches to the solid bottom.  Three inches.

The Lord wants me to let go more often to find His bedrock that’s usually less than a stone’s throw away.  You’re invited, too.  Ready?  Get set…

Thank you, Lord, for being our safe landing place.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

AN ACCEPTABLE TIME Psalm 69

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It’s hard to wait when you want things to happen right now.  As if held back in neutral when gears are raring to roar into drive.  When I pray, and it doesn’t happen, then I start to wonder if some sin hasn’t put the kibosh on it.  Okay, I’m forgiven, but what about my comeupance?  Those dreaded consequences. 

When you think about it, my mind’s image doesn’t sound like the God I know from the Bible.  More like me.  Tit for tat.  An eye for an eye.  As good as one gets.  Payback time.  Not so my Lord.  He loves me and thinks the world of me…and you.  What He wants is for us to untangle those looney thoughts, putting them more in line with what the Bible says.  Too much to ask?

Let’s check out Psalm 69: 13–‘But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.  At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.’  Prayer’s answer comes in an acceptable time.  Whose time?  Mine?  Probably not.  More like God’s plans.  His will.  His call.   Galatians 4: 4-5 announces God’s acceptable and impecable timing–‘But when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of woman…to redeem…so that we might receive adoption as sons.’

Old Testament saints pray for millenia that Messiah will come and save them.  We also must wait for God’s ‘fullness of time’.  Whatever prayer we utter to God, step back, cool your heels, hold onto Jesus’ hands and never, ever let go until answers come of God’s own choosing and timing.  Not mine, not yours or anyone else’s.  We bow to Him alone.

Here’s more.  Psalm 31: 14-15–“But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’  My times are in your hands…”  That hits the nail on the head, doesn’t it?

Lord Jesus, help me to trust you more and more.  Amen. 

BIG Psalm 69

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Big categorizes what we buy anymore.  Quantities maximized.  Those humungous cubes of 24 soda cans literally destroy my wife’s shoulder when lifting those monsters up onto the checkout counter at the grocery store where she worked.  Big toilet paper packs get piled up sky high during the pandemic, making it almost impossible to get into your car.  We jam-pack all our available cabinet and closet space before hoarders squirel them all away!

Big personalities dominate the political landscape.  Poor old ‘Silent Cal’ Coolidge wouldn’t stand a chance today.  Honest Abe’s out.  Big names adorn marquees at mega-churches, drawing crowds for entertaining worship.  Big cars and trucks crowd our highways and bi-ways, guzzling gas like it’s going out of style.

Here are some big words and phrases from Psalm 69–‘save me’, ‘my prayer is to you’, ‘an acceptable time’, ‘abundance of steadfast love’, ‘answer me’, ‘your saving faithfulness’, ‘deliver me’, ‘hide not your face’, ‘draw near to my soul’, ‘redeem me’.  Lots more where those came from.  Check them out.

Know what grabs me?  How honest we can and should be with our God–‘I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched.  My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God’ (Ps. 69:3).  See?  Be an open book.  Clear as a bell.  Not crafting our prayers, walking on eggshells, as if only magic, right words will force His hand.  Trying to manipulate Jesus into giving us what we want, as if we could.

Be yourself.  Like you’re talking with your best friend.  Isn’t He?  Be respectful.  He’s God.

Know that we have a big God, who has surprising answers to our prayers.  Come close.  Even closer.  There’s room.  Plenty of it.  Big, wide-open space in His heart for you and me.

Thank you, Jesus, for being my Lord and Savior.  I love you.  Amen.

GOOD NEWS FOR A CHANGE Psalm 65

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Psalm 65 is a favorite one of mine.  Read it and maybe it will become one of yours.  Especially when we need some good news.  The overload of internet and TV news outlets makes everything so in your face.  Too much horror, scandal and madness.  Hardly anything that smacks of godliness.  Know what I mean?

A friend says that it was probably better a century ago when it takes about a year to find out about some tragedy which hits somewhere to somebody else.  When news arrives it’s all over and done with.  Not sure I agree, but I see his point.  Shut out bad news, at least for the moment.

How about some good news like simple praise and thanksgiving to our great God?  Raving about Jesus.  Hats off to the Holy Spirit.  A gold star to the Father.  Shout out good news.  Then cozy up to this psalm.  What the doctor orders?  To overcome what eats away at us?  Could be.  Try it.

Notice in the psalm’s introduction that King David is the author who writes for his choirmaster and choirs.  This is joyous singing time.  Breathe deeply, fill your lungs with oxygen, and let fly melodious words to our God.

Here I’ve listed some stanzas and overtones from Psalm 65.  God hears our prayers (v.2).  Forgives our sins (v.3).  Chooses us to be close to Him, dwelling where He does (v.4).  Provides all we’ll ever need and then some (v.4).  He’s mighty (v.5).  Acts for His own (v.4).  Creates the most amazing planet (vs.5-8).  And sustains all creation with the mere utterance of a word (vs.9-13).

This week get an eyeful of the gifts God gives you.  Stopping in your tracks, thank Him.  Using your hand-sanitizer on bad news, distance yourself way more than six feet from worst-case scenarios, nail-biting anxiety and fidgety fear.  Giving them up for an early Lent.  Singing good news.

See if that doesn’t make for a better week.  Get snug as a bug in a rug with Psalm 65!

Thank you, Lord, for all your goodness.  We love you and praise you most of all.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

ESCAPE ARTIST Psalm 68

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Harry Houdini!  How does the great escape artist extricate himself from the seemingly unthinkable?  Is there one greater than Houdini?  Guess who.  Looking back, I can you see how God has gotten me out of impassible and impossible messes.  Some of my own making.  Other times the finger points somewhere else. 

Yet I can’t remember when life doesn’t bring more blessings than regrets and failure.  That Romans 8:28 still runs a booming and profitable business.  That Jesus continues to float my boat, making delicious lemonade out of the spent, rotten ones I hand over to Him.

Sadly, we’ve known others who get handcuffed in their own bitterness.  Shackled into righting some wrong in their own ways.  Trying to prove a point, always grasping to come out on top.  Broadcasting how clever they are while blaming everyone else.  Driven more by revenge than forgiveness and mercy.  Cooped up, cornered by sin’s stubbornness.  Thinking of someone?  Looking in the mirror?

Is God this way?  Hardly.  Jesus lives to forgive.  We can count on Him… always.  No need to fight our own battles…in our own strength…all alone.  He’s way ahead of us.  If only I’d rely on Him, His ways in His timing.  Watch Him handle my life’s muddy jumbles.  Why not?  What’s to lose?

Unfortunately, I’m hard-headed.  Not an easy sell.  Quickly tinkering with my little grey cells instead of falling on my knees (so to speak, at my age!) before God.  Thinking twisted thoughts rather than letting the Bible clear up my muddled mind and emotions.  God’s Word does that.  Even cuts through like a skilled surgeon’s knife bringing health and healing (Heb. 4:12).  Time to face heaven’s Sawbones?  

King David knows his share of troubles.  Many of his own making.  Like me.  Anyone else you can think of?  Still gawking in that same old mirror?  Psalm 68: 19-20–‘Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up;  God is our salvation.  Our God is a God of salvation, and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.’  The Hebrew word ‘salvation’ means ‘escape’. 

Like Houdini?  No, from One far greater.  The Lord loosens the manacles of sin, unforgiveness, pride, you name it.  In this life, escape from what ties us up is often short-lived and incomplete.  But in heaven, well, that’s a different story.  For another time.  In another place. 

‘For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face’ (1 Cor. 13:12).  

Lord Jesus, thank you for helping us to live with more victories than failures.  For your sake.  Amen.

ALL THE HELP I CAN GET Romans 8

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I need all the help I can get.  And then some.  For all the messes I’ve conjured up.   Plus some foisted on me by others, well-meaning but mostly not.  Help!

So, who gives us a helping hand?  You know.  From God who works all things together, making good come from even disasters and trials (Rom. 8:28).  How?  When?  Where?  Like I know?  I’m as clueless as the next.  Ask Him.  Not about how insensitive and oblivious I am.  But for His insight and support.

Check out Romans 8 for two super-duper, crackerjack helpers.  All ready to jump in when we’re heading for the nearest exit.  Who?  First, there’s God the Holy Spirit.  Romans 8: 26-27–‘Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.’  Read that last phrase again.  See it?  Help is on the way.  Actually, it’s already here.

Here’s more–‘Christ Jesus…who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us’ (Rom. 8:34).  Who?  Jesus, the Son Of God.  Doing what?  Interceding…helping…speaking up for us.  What a team!  OJ’s legal ‘Dream Team’ of decades past looks like a bunch of incompetent flunkees.  No comparison to ours.  Not even close.

When tongue-tied in prayer, the Spirit speaks up for us.  When we feel the heavens closed off, Jesus clears the skies with the Father.  It’s all covered, making me wonder why I have so many fears.  Why?  After all, we’ve got a first string team like no other, on the go with all the bases covered…to help you and me.  Ponder that this week.

Thank you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for all your help, now and always.  Amen.

HIS PART… AND MINE Romans 6

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Looking honestly at my commitment to Jesus, I want to run and hide.  Sitting tight hoping to melt into the scenery.  Would like to forget all those times when I’ve let Him down.  What I said…and did.  All that I shouldn’t have.  Just me?

Romans 6 is a big chapter in the Bible.  Don’t speed read it.  Turn off those modern gadgets.  Concentrate.  Focus.

What grabs me is that bit about Jesus freeing me from sin because of the cross.  His death nixes mine.  His resurrected life gives me what only He can.  Romans 6: 22-23–‘But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

Did you note that strange theological word–‘sanctification’?  Hard to unpack let alone understand?  Here’s where my Presbyterian heritage offers clues.

In its Larger Westminster Catechism (1647AD), the question centers on the meanings of justification and sanctification.  Now I’ve done it.  Added another tough-nut-to-crack word–justification!  But listen to what the sage Catechism says–‘…in the former (justification), sin is pardoned; in the other (sanctification), it is subdued.’  I’m reading that again.  Hmm.  Fog begins to lift.  Can see some forest and trees.

Sin forgiven.  Justification.  Sin subdued.  Sanctification.  One accomplished, once for all, by our Lord Jesus.  The other lands in my ballpark, so to speak.  Forgiveness guaranteed.  Growing in the Lord less so as a moment-by-moment adventure.  What God does is complete.  What I do…well, you know, not quite.

Sin all forgiven by Jesus through faith in Him.  His part.  Mine is to subdue disobedience.  For me, it’s one step forward, two back.  Three forward with yet another one shoved in reverse.

Such is life this side of heaven.  But when glory comes, that’s a different story!  Mission accomplished… by God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  All forgiven.

Me and you?  All grown up.  Dry behind the ears.  Seasoned and mature.  That’s no theological mumbo-jumbo.  Not by a long stretch.  You can hang your hat on it!

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for much better days ahead.  Amen.

HERE’S MORE Psalm 56

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Here’s another week with Psalm 56.  Says so much about God.  Going verse by verse, we discover that God is gracious, loving and kind.  Forgiving.  Trustworthy and worthy of ALL our praise.  With God on our side, as He is, by faith in Jesus His only Son, fear gets tossed out the window.  Or should.

He cares so much that it’s as if He has our tears in a bottle and a written record of them in His book.  Our picture on a refrigerator magnet in His kitchen.  Our childlike, homemade pictures plastered all over His office.  Sort of.

After all, God is for us.  On our side.  Our advocate, who stands up for us, even when double-crossers smear and slam us.  The Lord never throws salt on our wounds.  Never says one thing to our face only to badmouth us behind our back.  Never abandons us for a younger, cuter, wealthier convert.  Sticks with us through thick-and-thin.  As in forever.  For sure.

There’s no one in this world as good as our God.  No one.  So, enjoy Him!  Relish knowing that He’s always by your side, even when the winds blow hard against us and the tide starts dangerously rolling in.  Especially then.

Depend on Jesus.  Better than the Rock of Gibraltar.  He’s your Rock of Ages.  Takes whatever monkey off your back and carries it on His.  No matter what’s in store, He’s always minding the store.  You get the point.  Don’t you?

So says Psalm 56.  Soak in it!

Lord, what an honor to know and love you.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.