Daily Devotional

As he neared his destination, on his way to make a very important speech in Scotland, an Englishman’s mode of transportation got stuck in the mud. Across the field, a Scottish farm boy noticed the problem, recognized that he needed help, and approached the Englishman.

The boy told him that he would hook his team of horses to the horses pulling the Englishman’s carriage and pull it free. True to his word, the boy did exactly what he said and it worked. Just before the Englishman left, he asked the young man if he could help him in any way and asked, “Is there anything that you plan to do in the future?” The young boy replied, “Oh yes, I plan to go to school and be a doctor.” The curiosity, as well as the generosity of the Englishman, was sparked, and he replied, “Then, son, I will help you.” And he did this by paying for the boy’s education.

Many years later, another great Englishman of Parliament, Winston Churchill, was in Morocco for a wartime speech when he was stricken with pneumonia and about to die. However, a miracle drug called “penicillin” saved Churchill’s life. The drug in its earliest form had been discovered many years before by Sir Alexander Fleming, who was the Scottish farm boy that helped a man out of a mud pit, who in turn helped the boy become a doctor. The man who paid for his education was…

Every year we experience different holidays and seasons, and there are also seasons in the Christian calendar we recognize like Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost. Each season and each holiday reminds us of something different and teaches us along the way. As Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.

This season of Lent is the 40 days before Easter when we prepare and get ready for Easter. Lent is a more solemn season, a time of reflecting and fasting before the great celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. Maybe you have fasted or given something up during the season of Lent. These sacrifices help us to focus on our relationship with God and to reflect upon the sacrifice that Christ made for us. There is a time for everything: and a time to give up something can be an important part of our faith journey.

Bob Goff is an inspirational speaker and author. In his book and study, Love Does, he talks about his practice of quitting something every Thursday…

Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled; and he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. I knew that thou hearest me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by, that they may believe that thou didst send me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Laz′arus, come out.” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

“But it did not satisfy him, barely to abstain from doing evil. his soul was athirst to do good. The language of his heart continually was, “`My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.’ My Lord went about doing good; and shall not I tread in his steps” As he had opportunity therefore, if he could do no good of a higher kind, he fed the hungry, clothed the naked, helped the fatherless or stranger, visited and assisted them that were sick or in prison. He gave all his goods to feed the poor. He rejoiced to labour or to suffer for them; and whereinsoever he might profit another, there especially to “deny himself.” He counted nothing too dear to part with for them, as well remembering the word of his Lord, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me” (Matt. 25:40).

I was recently at dinner with a close friend, and she asked me about some upcoming travels that my husband and I have planned.  I told her I have always had extreme anxiety when it comes to travel. It usually takes me weeks to prepare to get on a plane because the fear of flying is something I struggle to overcome.  I cling to what is familiar, unchanging, consistent, and safe. Until a couple of years ago, I have not really known the word “home.” It struck me that I was living in fear, even if it’s for a good reason, it isn’t the fulfillment to which God is calling me. He has more for me, and although change scares us, He knows what is best for us and “has plans to prosper us and not to harm us” – Jeremiah 29:11.

Jesus wanted to change the scope of an entire way of believing…

The season of Lent is a time Christians have set aside to prepare for the great celebration of Easter. Lent is 40 days of preparation, not including Sundays, because every Sunday is a day to celebrate the gift of our Lord Jesus. The season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. The early church chose 40 days as the length of time because that is how long Jesus spent in the wilderness: fasting, praying, and being tempted. (Matthew 4:1-11) Lent is a gift to the people of faith, as it draws us close to our God and helps make us more aware of the gift of life that comes through Easter.

Throughout history, Christians have used many practices to help make the journey of Lent a more tangible and meaningful experience. Like Jesus in the wilderness, Christians often use fasting, additional times of prayer, and study to help better connect ourselves with the God who loves us so greatly that He would endure the cross, the grave, and the resurrection to bring new life filled with hope and joy to us. Lent is a gift. It is a time to change our ordinary practices so that we can connect with the extraordinary…

I love the passage from 1 John chapter 4 that says, He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

I have found that too often people tend to read the passage with a sense of guilt. They have a tendency to read, “He who does not love does not know God,” as a statement that they must not be connected to God because they don’t fully love in all the ways that they should. It is a shame because it really is a complete misreading of the passage. Perhaps it would help if people read the first sentence in the following way, “If one loves, they know God; for God is love.”

I can only begin to imagine the fear that grabbed the disciples that evening when they saw Jesus walking on the water. Surely, as they looked out across the sea, they must have thought their eyes were playing tricks on them. After all, they were tired. It had been a full day with Jesus as he taught the people, and then fed the 5,000 with just a few loaves of bread and two fish. Now they were making the long journey across the Sea of Galilee.

As Jesus approached the boat, the disciples were confused and “terrified.” Jesus calms the fears in the boat by calling out to his disciples. He tells them, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Most of you know that our daughter Kelly, her husband Andy, and their four children live in Lafayette, CO.  On December 30, 2021, they stood on their driveway and watched 115 mph winds spread fire through two of their neighboring cities, lighting the whole area into an unbelievable raging fire: It was truly hard to fathom, and hundreds of homes burned to the ground. They were put on notice that they may be evacuated from their home, but so grateful that and their property was untouched.

They wondered how they would all begin to overcome this tragedy. It was so hard to even know how to help or where to begin. They were heartbroken for their community and knew that everyone would be needed to help in this time of great need.

Parker and Milly, their two youngest children, had an idea for a way to share hope and love with the many children that suffered such great loss…

“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you a still more excellent way.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends”