Category: Bible (Page 67 of 355)

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

Spectacular white blooms fill the flowering crabapple in our backyard. Caught in the wind, the petals look like snow. In another week, however, the last flowers will fall as spring emerges. The brevity of the beauty helps me pay particular attention to the display out my backdoor.

Like the flowers on my tree, the Bible reminds us of the passing nature of our lives:

Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.

A handbreadth measured the length across four fingers, roughly four inches. Our lives consist of the distance of a stumble, a mere sigh, a dot on the line of eternity.

Let the brevity move us to attentiveness. Enjoy the beauty. Engage with the people God puts around us. Turn off the screens (I’m preaching to myself) and experience the world.

I learned this little ditty years ago: Life is short, death is sure, sin’s the cause, but Christ’s the cure. Fleeting days lead to death—then life really begins. A connection with Jesus is the one vital detail not to miss during your handbreadth.

Psalm 39 in Through the Bible in 2023

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo