Author: Ross Blumhorst

Today’s reading is on Luke 9:28-36.

When’s the last mountaintop moment you had? When you last felt, spiritually, on top of the world? (Maybe physically if you’re actually into mountain climbing or something?) That moment of intense, intentional focus & closeness to God’s presence. Maybe a spiritual conference or church gathering; an intense small group gathering, or much-needed prayer circle; maybe even just a particularly convicting, revealing moment of prayer and revelation of the Lord’s will in your life. Anything come to mind? Do you remember how it made you feel? That comfort, warmth, joy, that you want to hold onto afterwards?

The biblical significance of the mountaintop is a logical one: people drawing close to God in earnest, both metaphorically and literally closer to the heavens, and a significant spiritual closeness occurring. Moses on Mount Sinai receiving God’s commandments; Elijah calling the wrath of God upon Baal’s prophets from Mount Carmel; Jesus’s ascension from the Mount of Olives, foretold by the prophet Zechariah; in the transfiguration of Christ, an occasion described in Luke 9:28, as well as Matthew 17 & Mark 9. Jesus takes Peter, James & John up a mountain, where Christ’s sudden transfiguration occurs, and the full radiance of Heaven’s majesty shines through Him upon the three disciples. Even the likenesses of Moses and Elijah appear to discuss Jesus’s coming death, representing, as Jesus explained in Luke 24:44, “the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms” pointing to His death & resurrection. 

Peter mentions setting up three tents for Jesus and His two visitors, basically expressing how much he wants to just stay here in this moment. Peter wants this moment of intense glory, the full radiance and amazement of Christ’s true glory, to be a lasting celebration, to camp out and cherish this holy closeness to God’s work as long as possible. Alas, soon it is over. But not before the disciples have confirmed without a doubt, from the very voice of God, the true nature of Christ.

Interesting, Luke’s telling of the Transfiguration includes one fact, in verse 28, the other apostle’s recollections do not: that Christ had taken them to the mountain specifically to pray. To draw away and have intentional closeness to God, setting their time and effort aside explicitly for talking to Him and being in His presence. Setting aside our time & effort for dedicated prayer and Scripture is such an important practice, especially for experiencing a real, genuine focus on God’s working in our hearts & minds. Especially in moments of sharing that with others, as the three apostles had here to an incredible degree, seeing their dear friend & Savior displaying the full glory of God. But when we experience those spirit-filling moments, when we’re called to listen and hear the truth from God and see His glory, what happens next? Are we expected to stay still and enjoy our blessing from there? No; none of these people, after their mountaintop moments, spent the rest of their life on that mountain. They took the word of God, and what they’d experienced, and went down & shared the joy and might and power they experienced with others. They went and glorified God to the people below and demonstrated the effect God had in their life in those moments.

Lord, I pray a prayer of thanks this morning for sharing with us the glory of your son Jesus Christ, who stepped down to earth to fulfill the laws of Moses and the Prophets, and die for our sin in our place. We thank you that we would be able, at any time, to seek conversation & closeness to you, and that when we do, your word and your glory would be revealed to us. We pray that, in those times between our moments of prayer and Scripture, that we could seek glorification and honor of your word, above all else, to those around us, that they may share in the joy we experience with you.

Maybe it’s just the early sunsets lately speaking to me, but does it feel like we live in dark times? With all modern society’s distractions and trappings and other avenues for self-fulfillment, it seems that more & more people are trying to find something to fill their life in ways other than God. Of course, God is working in many ways through many believers & many great works are being done in His name, but it can be easy in our humanly narrow vision to feel defeatist these days about the plague of spiritual darkness.

If you relate to seeing this darkness in the world, perhaps Isaiah 60 is the Friday celebration of God’s glory to read. In it, the prophet describes the coming glory of the final Kingdom of God. Verses 1-3; “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” Isaiah has foreseen a world shrouded in darkness, drawn to the joy and celebration of those who know God’s glory. This chapter describes a glorious kingdom built up on God’s glory, with nothing to want and nothing but peace to be had among God’s chosen. In verses 10-12 of this chapter, and verses 19 & 20, Isaiah prophesies the forthcomings of Revelations 21, displayed in verses 22-27: “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

There will come a day when the glory of God’s kingdom will be all that’s left, as has been foretold. We know, as Jesus puts it in John 8:12: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” I think of David’s song of deliverance in 2 Samuel 22, verse 29: “For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness.” In a world of spiritual darkness, of distance & separation from God, we have an incredible guiding gift in knowledge & trust of the goodness & sanctity of the Lord God & our Savior Jesus Christ, who is with us and grants the faithful unfailing hope in the darkest & toughest of times, as many of us can attest.

But even more than just this life of hope, it is worth noting how it’s worded when Paul references this scripture in Ephesians 5:11-14 when he writes, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness’, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’” Our coming into the light form darkness is akin to death, and in rising in the light from darkness, we find life. Chet went into it yesterday in his powerful writing on Romans 6; we become dead to sin, and alive in Christ in accepting Him. 

When we accept Christ and His light shines on us, we are called to shine that light to that world of darkness that needs it, that all the world & its leaders may seek His glory. In Matthew 5:14, Jesus tells His followers: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” We can live as slaves to sin & death, indistinguishable from the darkness of separation from Christ around us, or in anything we do, we can show hope, joy, and strength in Christ in a way that people will notice, and will draw others to Him. Is the celebration of God’s glory not reason enough for this? Is the glory of His people and His kingdom as the prophet Isaiah describes here not amazing enough to draw even the most downtrodden & hopeless into a hope that can overcome anything? I would pray for us all this morning, that in a world of spiritual darkness, we would joyously thank the Lord for shining the light of His glory upon us, and a song of thanks that we may shine His light for the world to see.

Christmas Eve is always a day of anticipation. Between Christmas Eve church services, retellings of The Night Before Christmas & singing Silent Night, little children awaiting the visit of Santa Claus, and the final preparations of Christmas festivities and celebrations to take place, there’s a lot to both prepare for & reflect on on this day. Most importantly, it is a time of reflection on the miracle & amazing fulfillment of Scripture’s promise in the birth of the Lord Jesus as man, God humbling His son to endure life and death as we do, ultimately receiving a gruesome end on our behalf. We reflect on that incredible anticipation & excitement of a long-awaited Savior finally arriving, both back then for the first time, and as we do now for the second.

For the believer, there is no sweeter promise than the return of Christ. Revelations 10 demonstrates this: can you imagine how horrifying it would be to witness with your own eyes the final wrath of God? In Revelations 9, the apostle John describes witnessing the fifth & sixth trumpets of God, signaling the First and Second Woes of man. Horrible demonic creatures roving the earth & torturing those without God’s blessing; a vast army of fallen angels vested in horrible armors, leading a rampaging charge killing a third of mankind. Regardless of the disobedience of God’s enemies inviting this judgement, to fully witness & comprehend the full wrath of God on display must not be a pleasant display.

Revelations 10:10 reveals both sides of God’s love & wrath. John describes the angel of God instructing him to consume this scroll, representing what was to come on the final trumpet: “I took the scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.” While the wrath of God is great, how sweet and delightful is His victory & His vindication against His enemies! Christmas is a celebration in part of this victory: Christ Jesus, fully flesh and fully God, the King arriving in Jerusalem to finalize God’s victory over death through death on a cross. As Psalm 119:103 says of God’s law: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Or Psalm 19:10: “More to be desired are they than gold, even fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.” Honey’s often used as a symbol of the sweetness and joy of God’s provision & deliverance of His people; what greater & sweeter celebration do we have of God’s deliverance from evil than Christmas, the celebration of Christ on earth with us.

But the flip side of Revelations 10 – the bitterness of knowing what awaits the nonbeliever. Romans 1:18 says “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” While God’s judgement is just, and reaps the deserved wages of death, imagine the sorrow and hopelessness of knowing that is what awaits you, instead of eternity at God’s side. But Romans 6:23 encapsulates pretty well what our gift to those in this sorrow should be this time of year: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

For many, the Christmas season is not a time of anticipation and joy, but a time of pain and sorrow. From loneliness, the remembrance of past loss, damaged relationships, frustration & stress, and a general aversion to the truth of this season, many are reminded of the hurt they carry this time of year. But what greater gift do we have to share than this truth, that Jesus came walk among us to offer salvation to anyone who would give their life to Him? That we could take our pain, our past, our hurt, our selfishness to Him & trade the certain death that awaits us for eternal life? As Tracy put earlier this week, what kind of “thank you” seems appropriate for such an invaluable gift? In the spirit of Christmas, what can we do with this gift of eternal life but share this gift with those who need it. There are many who react to God’s truth only with bitterness and sorrow, because they do not yet know & accept His love. Imagine how much sweeter life could be knowing God walks it alongside you!

So please, enjoy a peaceful Christmas Eve wherever you are, cherish the anticipation of a wonderful Christmas Day with your loved ones or whoever may need the warm words of Christ’s love. Consider how you can share the sweet promise of a priceless gift of God’s victory over death with those who need it, now more than ever. And be thankful for the wonderful news of the birth of a Savior, who would die so we may know the mystery of God and be able to joyfully anticipate when He declares His final victory, knowing we have been redeemed through Christ Jesus to be by God’s side.

Today’s reading is on James 3 & 4.

Every year at this time of year, I reflect on how I felt about Christmas as a very young boy. I remember the excitement about vacations from school, a bunch of Christmas treats, all the decorations, and of course, what presents I’d be getting. One unfortunate by-product was always seeing the excitement dissipate; anticipation and wonder turning to disappointment and frustration as the season passed by, jolly merriment turning into exhaustion. As I’ve grown older and more able to understand the significance of Christmas, this focus on the material has slipped away and been replaced more in cherishing the immaterial: family, time together, and of course, the celebration of the birth of a Savior. And now, lo and behold, it feels now like the Christmas season is more about lasting gratification than in my youth.

(Side note for my mother & father – I still very much appreciate all you did, even more so now, don’t worry!)

Reading these chapters of James this week, that shift is what came to mind, especially with the start of James 4: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” It’s no surprise that the world has diluted Christmastime into a celebration of “stuff”: gifts, decorations, snowy weather phenomena, some vague sappy notion of “goodwill” and “Christmas spirit” instead of the miraculous fulfillment of Scripture’s promise for a Messiah. But isn’t this more just one small example of the larger problem of material fixation we tend to fall into? We spend our time and energy on physical accumulation, vain pursuits, and self-gratification, sometimes at the cost of contention with neighbors, coworkers, friends, or family. We take what should be about glorifying God and turn it into a glorification of the world around us. Scripture is very clear about placing the world above God: in doing so, we become His enemies. Check out 1 Corinthians 15:24-26 if you need a reminder of what that will get you.

What better time of year to remind ourselves of James’ emphatic plea from this passage: God’s jealousy for our misplaced commitment is great, but His grace over our wrongdoings in greater. Greater than the words of our tongues, which can be both a blessing and a curse (3:5-9); greater than any wisdom of man, so often proudly relied upon (3:13-17); greater than the promise of an un-guaranteed tomorrow we tend to bet our hope on, instead of on Christ in the present (4:13-14). Certainly greater than any family get-together or vacation or holiday fruitcake or big cup of eggnog you’ll experience in the next few weeks. Christmas is absolutely a time to celebrate the priceless blessings God has bestowed upon us; but more so, an opportunity to celebrate the enactment of God’s redemption plan for man. We can’t cling to everything we have when our Savior’s birth is so worth proclaiming with everything we are.

Father, I just lift a simple prayer to you this morning: amidst all life’s chaos, let us be fixed firmly on you. Above all the wonders of our lives you’ve blessed us with, our Lord Christ Jesus being made fully God yet fully flesh is still the greatest. I thank you for this time to renew my focus on you & on your son; please help me remember at all times, in all circumstances, this holiday season and ever after, that the truest gift we have is eternal life, bought only by the blood of Jesus.

Today’s reading is on 1 Timothy 1-3.

What are some of the forms that good leadership takes in your life? Who or what are some of the sources of information or examples of people in your life of strong leadership? Personally, I can think of my father & father-in-law acting as strong yet caring leaders & disciplinary figures for their families; the teachers who’ve put tremendous effort into developing their students into smart & hard workers; co-workers who’ve demonstrated compassion and a commitment to doing things right in high-pressure circumstances; pastors and elders at several churches we’ve attended who’ve offered sound advice on difficult topics and guided churches on biblical foundations through tricky real-life situations.

As a young man beginning to discover & grow into roles of leadership within my own life, I find myself emphasizing with Timothy, a young friend of the apostle Paul, tasked with growing the leadership of the Macedonian church in a difficult growing period, as described in the first chapter of this passage. With false teachers abound & the trappings of a self-centered culture leaking into the church, re-affirming the foundation of God’s people in the area on solid biblical ground must have seemed a tremendous task for someone in Timothy’s steps. Luckily, he had a friend and mentor in Paul to give advice from experience. Paul had a lot of good ideals in Chapter 3 for sound Christian leaders to follow that we can all take away from:

v.2&3 – An upstanding, kind, clear-headed individual whose outward behavior reflects the inward transformation found in Christ in us. (Galatians 2:20)

v.4&5 (11 & 12 as well)- Reflects both the stern & loving characteristics of God the Father through their own home life & familial situation, leading their loved ones to further reflect Christ.

v.6 – Firm in the knowledge of their identity in Christ and their role within His Kingdom.

v. 7 – A model of a transformed life visible to those outside the church (Matthew 5:48), so that those who don’t know God may witness His guidance through them.

v. 8 – A heart devoid of deceit, drunkenness, and personal gain, instead focused on service and helping. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

v. 9 & 10 – Sticks to their Christ-centric principles through hardship in a way that won’t earn rebukement, both from others & from within.

To be called to leadership in a formal sense is a tall task. But we each have our chances in our own ways to lead others to Christ, be it in our churches, or within our families and friend groups, or our students & small/study group members, or even to the outside society largely at odds with authority. But the importance of doing so can not be overstated: as Paul says in 3:16, in the action of our faith we confess “the mystery of Godliness:” in leading others to Christ, we help share a knowledge perviously unknown – but once known, becomes priceless. Although these rules were written specifying church leadership, these principles described help each of us reflect Christ through our own actions in our own specific opportunities to lead others to Christ. And I’m sure many of us can personally attest, thinking back to the Christian role models we’ve had throughout life (and our opportunities to be role models!), how the example you set can have a compounding effect in growing Christ’s kingdom even more.

My wife and I have a pretty odd sense of humor sometimes, and there’s a terrible joke I like to make on occasion. If we’re in particularly sassy moods, when she says “I love you”, I’ll respond “I’m contractually obligated to say that I love you too.” Obviously, I correct myself afterwards and tell her the truth that I do love her with all my heart, but my bad joke comes to mind reading Paul’s experience with the churches in Galatia that he expands upon in Galatians 2 & 3. The notion that true love, and the following display of it, could be adequately viewed as just fulfilling a contract or obligation, a list of guidelines to follow, is preposterous. But that’s what the gist of people were telling those Christian converts: faith in Jesus is not sufficient to ensure your salvation, you have to observe the laws of the Jews to share in their salvation as well.

God sent Christ to die for our sake out of love, as John 3 famously says. Galatians 2:16 says “…we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” After Christ took on the price of our sin in His death, it isn’t the rules or traditions we observe that cleanses our sin: it’s our belief in His act of sacrifice. It’s our pure gratitude and thankfulness that make us sing and praise, not our good deeds or works of our hands. Not that following laws and rules is bad or foolish – they’re there for a reason. “Because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come,” as Paul puts it – until Christ stepped in between us and sin as our mediator. Simply put, we’ve fallen short of leading sinless lives like Christ on our own, and it is not the rules and behaviors we as Christians follow that can save us – only Jesus Christ can make us truly just & grant us eternal life. And that is why we spend our lives selflessly giving all we have for His benefit – out of gratitude, out of reverence, out of awe, and because we love Him.

Lord, I say of prayer of gratitude that you would send your son to die on our behalf as a living sacrifice that we may live by your side for eternity. I am grateful that my gratitude is not merely contractual, but a relationship with the living, breathing Word of God; that I am not condemned, but made free and upright by Jesus. Help me more closely follow your word and your desires for me, Lord, not for my own gain, but for yours, because I am a faithful child of God who finds freedom from the slavery of sin and the shackles of death in Christ alone.

For the last three years, I’ve been blessed with an incredible marriage with my wonderful wife Paige. We have shared countless laughs, joyous experiences, deep talks, hardships to overcome, and loving moments, and have both grown tremendously thanks to each other’s support in this short time. I wouldn’t have wanted our years together to happen any other way. Proverbs 18:22 puts it well: “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” 

But marriage does not remove all life’s problems: such a deep relationship brings its own new needs and trials to life. Especially a life of biblical principle in this modern culture. Paul’s writing to the church at Corinth here shows a little of how some of the dynamics between church and culture unfortunately haven’t changed too much; the tense navigation of godly marriage principles in a society that enables promiscuous, noncommittal relationships. But at the heart of Paul’s writing is this simple fact: married or unmarried, free or servant, no matter what the circumstances of your life led you to where you are now, or any of the different characteristics that make up you as a person; what matters is devoting who you are to serve Christ to the best of your abilities.

Back a few weeks ago, we mentioned becoming “slaves of righteousness” in Romans 6: “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.“ Paul mentions here in 1 Corinthians 7 23-24: “He who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.” I’ve met Christians who’ve come from all walks of life before their death to sin and rebirth in Christ. No matter what depth your servitude to sin was before, Christ died on a cross to claim that servitude for Himself, for a life serving God’s righteousness and justice. But we’re all alike in the outcome: navigating temptation, interpersonal discord, and purity surrounded by a culture of quick, easy pleasure can lead to sin no matter what your circumstance is. To give in and soil Christ’s sacrifice for our sanctification goes against Christ’s wish for us, Paul warns – by returning to your old ways, you return ownership of yourself to earthly sin. And you know what Matthew 6:24 says about serving two masters. Enslaving yourself to the world means rejecting the previously accepted price Christ paid for our freedom through His death on a cross, and what greater insult could we pay?

I think back to what BJ went into on Tuesday’s writing: God has given us each personal gifts, and it’s connected to other believers that we find ourselves more fully equipped in God’s word. Our relationship status is just one manner of this: do you lift up and honor God in your own marriage or singleness through your own unique trials, while uplifting others and encouraging them to do the same in the way God has blessed them? Or do your hesitations with where you are in life drag others down? If you are single and struggle with temptation, do you have strong brother/sisterhood in Christ to confide & strengthen each other in? If you are married, do you raise God’s purpose for your union above marital discord, honoring & pleasing your spouse while strengthening their conviction, and sharing that strength with other couples who could use wisdom and godly principles in this age of lackadaisical love? Do your words and actions reflect acceptance of who God made you to be & unify those around you in seeking God, or does a lack of empathy cloud your judgement and lead you to unwittingly distract others from God?

Lord, I thank you for blessing me with the life you have. I pray for help every day honoring you through following your command in how I interact with those around me. I want to grow each day in application of your word, both in my marriage, and in sharing what we’ve accomplished together with those around us. I pray each person find this satisfaction & growth in their love of you, no matter where they are in life. Most of all, help us avoid temptation and sin in the relationships we keep, so that we may better strengthen our conviction and service for our one true master, keeper of our one true debt: our Lord Jesus Christ.

Today’s Scripture is Acts 28 & Romans 1.

What’s the worst thing that ever happened to you for sharing the Gospel? As I think back to only being called hurtful things & losing standing in the eyes of colleagues, I know I’ve definitely had it easy in that regard. Perhaps you’ve faced painful deterioration of personal relationships for your faith; maybe losing a job or esteem among other people; maybe, depending on where you live or have served, government/societally mandated suppression or violence. Perhaps even evading death, if so empowered by the Holy Spirit! By the time he went into Roman captivity at the end of Acts for his supposed crime of sharing Jesus’s message across many nations, Paul had been through all this and more in fulfilling his calling. He’d been tossed into prisons, run out of countless cities (smuggled out, even), incited entire riots; even surviving his own stoning by a thread. Even after facing the brunt of countless insults, threats, and shaming from Gentile and Jew alike in his journeys, he had this to say in Romans 1:16-17: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ’the righteous shall live by faith.’”

The Roman church Paul was wrote these words to was no stranger to his plight: they were a group of firm believers embattled in one of the largest western empires of all time in the peak of hedonism and indulgence. It’s a timeless plight that echoes into our experiences in the modern church as well. Read Romans 1:18-32 for yourself: I’m almost certain, as you read through Paul’s description of this self-serving behavior, many specific examples can pop up in your head of things you see every day in the world around you. But in his letter to Rome, Paul lays out our hope that rings true even louder to this day: no matter how unworthy of salvation we as a whole are and how little we deserve better, God takes the fallen and uprights them through their faith. God conquers evil trying to overtake us and shines over the spiritual darkness within us through faith. And it is this faith alone in Christ the Messiah that offers us life: both in our lives being enriched and made worthwhile in this life, and in the eternal life we know awaits us. And it’s because of these truths that Paul knew nothing could, nor should, keep him from wanting to boldly declare the gospel. 

The book of Romans is a difficult one, forcing us to confront our own human unrighteousness and just how much we really need God’s righteousness. But our motivation to do so is clear. In verse 17, Paul quotes the prophet Habakkuk, and the encouragement bestowed upon him from the Lord. In a time of darkness, when God’s people were assailed by the Chaldeans, Habakkuk prayed for answers, and instead was reminded of the Lord’s promise to destroy the wicked & deliver untold wrath upon the unrighteous, while the upright shall live eternally with Him. The prophet says this in Habakkuk 3:17: 

“Though the fig tree should not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

And the fields yield no food,

The flock be cut off from the fold, 

and there be no herd in the stalls,

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; 

I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”

We praise God, not because of earthly blessings or temporal gain, but because God is so good that we can’t not praise Him. He is the source of our joy, our light, and our salvation. Paul traveled all across the old world to find this truth and share it with us: people form all walks of life, no matter what they’ve struggled with or what the evils of the world have thrown their way, can be made clean and upright in their faith in the Lord. So I lift Habakkuk’s prayer as my response to Paul’s reflection and writing on God’s wrath: that even if the weight of the entire world is wielded against us, that God’s righteousness and redemption would shine through what our upstanding faith has done to our lives. That no matter how the world turns a blind eye to its own affliction & mock, shame, or takes from us, that we would know God’s wrath will be delivered upon those who resist Him in due time. That in God, and only in God, will we look for our joy – for only in the Lord will we find it.

Good morning. Happy Friday! How has Satan been trying to get in your way of sharing God this week?

A bit strong to start off with? Yeah, probably. But after hearing a message from the past Sunday from Ephesians 6 on the frank reality of spiritual warfare, that question has been shaping my perception of some of my usual behaviors and actions. And in reading Acts 13, I think this chapter gives a clear warning of what we’re up against sharing the word of God, but how much that pales to the empowerment and encouragement Christ blesses upon those who heed His command. 

Acts 13 is an important turning point in the mission of spreading the Gospel, when Paul and Barnabas are first sent by God into the Gentile world to grow the church, and Christ’s Great Commission in Matthew 28 begins springing to action. Not surprisingly, they encounter literal practitioners of evil opposing them in cities built around sin and temptation. More surprisingly, when sharing the Gospel of Christ to the Gentiles who rush in to hear and accept the spirit, certain Synagogue members grow jealous of their influence, trash the Gospel and their Savior these men spoke of, and drive them out of town. I’m sure these roadblocks would have been insurmountable for men of weaker faith, but these two quite literally shake it off and soldier on.

It should not surprise us that from the very beginning of the church sharing Jesus’s name to the outside world, Satan has been closely behind, spreading doubt, jealousy, anger, and all sorts of guilty reactions to man’s own sin, both in the hearts of unbelievers, and in those of unprepared or unwary believers. If you’ve ever felt nervous in a situation where you’re able to share the Gospel with someone who may react very poorly; if you’ve felt embarrassment or shame at the outcome or method of sharing the Gospel; maybe even envy or jealousy of the works of other Christians: then maybe you’ve experienced firsthand how Satan tries to discourage & tear down believers. He has to, because there’s nothing more dangerous to Satan’s power than the name and the message of Jesus Christ.

How do we combat this? Well, circling back to Ephesians 6:10: “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.” Paul and Barnabas were blessed with this strength through whole-hearted learning, genuine devotion & commitment to the Word, and sharing in prayer (James 5:16: “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”). Thanks to the armor and strength of God, Paul was able to share an amazing message to the Gentiles in Antioch in this passage, sharing in the hope of salvation and promise of eternal life with many who hadn’t known of it. In our daily life, this rings true as well: we have so many opportunities to share an incredible message with the world. But if we have not spiritually prepared and lifted the sword and shield of the Lord’s word beforehand, Satan can and will try to keep that from happening with all his might.

I am thankful today that despite all Satan’s best attempts, Scripture has already ordained and God has already guaranteed His victory for us over death. I pray for vigilance and deliverance from the very immediate threat of the Deceiver attempting to separate us from God’s love and doubt our ability to do good works in His name; to find strength in Christ to overcome any obstacle in sharing this love with others; and for wisdom to discern truth from lies, good from evil, and Godly things from wicked traps. And most of all, I pray for haste for the day when Satan is cast aside and nothing keeps us from our dwelling place with God.

Today’s reading is on John 18.

This passage is one of those that really blows me away with just how much God really is in control of any situation. With John’s focus on Jesus as Messiah, I feel amazed at how gracefully Jesus, fully man, trusted His assigned role of “lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” It lays out all we need to know about trusting God in verse 4: “Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to Him, came forward“ – when those who sought Him hard came to seize Him, He knew gruesome death awaited; but He knew exactly how God sent Him to bear witness to the truth of God’s salvation plan, and obeyed His calling as such. Just as Jesus knew completely what would unfold, we know we can trust that through everything that has ever happened and will ever happen, God knows exactly what He’s doing.

Jesus was not without trials brought on against Him in this passage. He was faithful in God’s plan when confronted with non-believers who shunned even the most direct and straightforward display of His power. When his trusted disciple Simon Peter rejected his association with Jesus, He still protected them, ensuring their safety until their faith would be strong enough for the persecution they’d endure. He held fast to God’s fairness and righteousness when the priests of Jerusalem chained Him, beat Him, and harassed Him unjustly. He even held His head high when the notoriously ruthless Pontius Pilate tried to convene on His behalf and God’s own followers rejected His truth and demanded His death nonetheless. Through all the forces of evil in the world fighting against God’s will, Jesus knew God would prevail, and held firm in His knowledge that God had it in control. Knowing this, how could I possibly not hold firm in the face of adversity towards His will, and believe He shall make a way for me every day when I follow His calling? I’m reminded of Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

In a recent reading, I was asked to pray over Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, oh God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” That came to mind when thinking about the Israelites, carefully following the externally visible rules of their religion, but rejecting God’s message and the Messiah’s call in their hearts and actions. These are not the actions of people trusting in the Lord, but putting faith in their own understanding. It can be easy for our sinful pride to cloud our judgement when confronted with God’s word and the weight of our own sin, lashing out against the Truth and the Savior as the crowds in this passage did. Instead, I lift up Psalm 139 as a prayer today against such selfishness, that God could search my heart, show me the errors in my ways, and lead me instead to trust wholly in His command for me as Jesus did. Just as our Savior knew, so do we know God will be with us every step of the way.