Category: Bible (Page 46 of 335)

Several years ago I traveled to New York City for a work trip. One evening a colleague gathered a group to visit a trendy restaurant. I joined the party, looking forward to the culinary excursion. We started our meal sharing a variety of appetizers. My friend ordered one featuring beets, long forgotten but once again in vogue.

As a kid I hated beets. I thought they tasted like dirt. Now after many years, I spooned a few on my plate. I thought, Why not? I’m a grown man and enjoys lots of different foods, so maybe beets aren’t so bad. One bite brought me back. Same grainy mash of soil. I scraped the remaining beets onto my neighbor’s plate and reached for a chicken wing to kill the taste.

It’s easy to let a crowd pull you where you don’t want to go. At a restaurant it’s actually a lot of fun, but in life the wisdom of the crowd sometimes turns to madness.

Paul and Barnabus experienced such madness as they carried the good news of Jesus to a town named Lystra. Paul miraculously healed a man lame from birth, and when the crowd saw the man jumping around, they went wild. They shouted, The gods have come down to us in human form! Thinking Paul and Barnabus were Hermes and Zeus, they hung wreaths in their honor and wrangled cattle to sacrifice.

Paul responded: Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God.

The crowd roiled around them. Deprived of their gods, they eventually turned on the evangelists. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, leaving him for dead. Only by the good hand of the Lord did Paul survive.

In the chaos, the crowd lost the message of a Savior. One minute euphoria, the next minute dashed hopes morphing into rage. Hope lay trampled under the madness of the mob.

Paul and Barnabus moved on, leaving the people of Lystra with the empty myths of Hermes and Zeus. But amazingly, months later they returned. Not everyone missed out on their message of Jesus. Among the believers they met Timothy, who joined them on their missionary journey.

Gobs of people chase popularity. But behind the masses are folks quietly considering the truth. Worry less about appealing to the crowd and more about connecting with those seekers of the Way.

Acts 14 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Farhad Ibrahimzade

Along with April showers and May flowers, spring brings baseball. I follow three major league baseball teams—the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals (whose fandom I acquired growing up in Missouri), and my local team, the Colorado Rockies.

Last season all three finished dead last in their respective divisions. But a fresh year births new hope! Currently the Royals are in second place, but the Cardinals and Rockies remain in the rear. Hopefully they’re pacing themselves for a long pennant run.

Fans pray for our teams. Mostly in desperation—please not last place again! When a team goes from last to first we call it a miracle, but I’m convinced last to first mostly involves good pitching. Still, I appreciate audacious sports prayers.

Jabez offered up an audacious prayer of his own: Oh, that you would enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.

Then the amazing response—God granted his request.

Jabez sounds like the Hebrew word for pain. His mother named him that after giving birth in great distress. Maybe Jabez feared pain growing up (or maybe he was a Rockies fan). Along with freedom from pain, Jabez also brazenly asked for more land, greater influence and freedom from harm.

One side of me doesn’t believe Jabez’s prayer is proper, not modest enough. It’s simply too in God’s face. Then I’m afraid of what enlarged territory might look like in my life. Do I want more responsibility?

It took faith and desperation to pray such an audacious prayer, and yet the Lord answered in the affirmative. God may not grant baseball prayers, but if we cry out to him like Jabez you and I might be surprised at his response.

1 Chronicles 4 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Lesly Juarez

After two grueling 10+ hour flights, I arrived in India about 2 am. A driver met me at the airport and drove me to my hotel. We started to unload, but between the van and the hotel doors a pair of mangy dogs snarled and snapped and lunged at each other. I looked at the driver. He shrugged and cut a wide berth around the dogs as he carried my bag into the lobby. I staggered behind. A local guide always proves invaluable.

Before he became king, David ran from assassins sent by King Saul to end his life. David pleaded to the Lord:

I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Arise to help me; look on my plight!…They return at evening, snarling like dogs, and prowl around the city.

David eluded the assassins by climbing out a window and fleeing Jerusalem. He lived as a fugitive until the death of Saul. But even in the midst of heavy oppression, David turned to the Lord:

I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. You are my strength, I sing praise to you; you, God, are my fortress, my God on whom I can rely.

David’s lament turned into a song of confidence. The Lord scattered his snarling enemies and provided a refuge. That night in India I relaxed as I entered the hotel, knowing the dog fight remained outside. In a similar, but much more profound way those who follow the Lord can relax and find rest in the fortress of his strength.

Psalm 59 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Tadeusz Lakota

If there’s one piece of Biblical wisdom proven over and over through the years, it’s this—the inner life eclipses the outer.

Standing before a strapping young man, Samuel assumed he faced the next king of Israel. Instead, the Lord told him: People look at the outside appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

Then along came David, who turned out to be a man after God’s own heart.

Fight the tyranny of first impressions. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in staying in shape, dressing nice and bathing regularly. But issues of character cannot be discerned by glances, or social media postings, or hearing the right phrases.

Only time, and the Lord, reveals the quality of our hearts.

I Samuel 16 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Hunters Race