August 31: Thoughts on Isaiah 2:22

"Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?"
~ Isaiah 2:22

Chapter 2 of Isaiah talks about the Day of the Lord that is coming, in which God's glory will be revealed and and humankind will be humbled, a day in which "the eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day" (v. 11). The Day of the Lord is a day in which men will throw away their idols and hide from God, just as Adam and Eve hid from God because of their sin against Him.

But we can't really hide our sin from God, can we? Sure, we can keep our sins from others, we can maintain our perfect image. On the outside we can wear perfectly spotless white clothes, put on our makeup perfectly, and iron our jeans until they have that dorky little crease, but if the condition of our heart is not right, we aren't fooling God. He knows us intimately, and He can see past the image we put forth to others right to the center of our being. Rest assured, you can't hide your sin from the Lord. He knows everything, including what you did last summer (TM).

The craziest part about this little revelation is this: it's actually good news! You'd think that would be bad, that we can't disguise our sin from God, but it actually isn't, and here's why. When we sin, we know we sinned, and God knows we sinned. This isn't like breaking one of your parents' rules, where you go through the awkward stage of how to tell them what you did, because God already knows. Doesn't that make confession at least ten times easier? God already knows what you did wrong; you just need to confess it to Him and tell Him you're sorry, and because He's faithful and just, He'll forgive you (1 John 1:9).

So no matter what you've done, there are two important things to realize here:

1. God already knows about it.
2. God will forgive you if you tell Him you're sorry and ask for His forgiveness.

Now, to the actual Scripture that started this devotional. Isaiah 2:22 is telling us to stop putting our trust in other people, because in the end, people aren't very important compared to eternity. Isaiah isn't telling us not to trust other people. Instead, he's telling us that ultimately, though we trust other people, they're not as important as the Lord, and they are going to let us down eventually because no one is perfect except God. There is a difference between trusting someone and putting your trust in that person. While we should trust other people in our lives who have earned it, we should never put our trust fully in anyone but God. We can't, for instance, trust anyone but God to provide our salvation.

We should trust in the Lord, not in fallible human beings. People will only let us down, but the Lord is good and faithful and steadfast, and He's always true to His Word.

August 29: Thoughts on James 2:15-18

"Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith; I have deeds.' Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do."
~ James 2:15-18

Here, James is trying to draw a comparison for us.

We can say compassionate things all we want, like "I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but if we don't act out of that compassion, is it really compassion? If we say to someone, "Gosh, I wish you didn't have to walk around in those awful tattered clothes," but we don't provide them with the clothes even if we have the money to help them out, do we really care about them?

In the same way, if we claim to have faith in God and love Him, but we don't do anything about it, what kind of faith is that? If we really believe that God is the Creator of the universe and the Savior of mankind, why aren't we doing more to further His will? The Gospel is not the kind of thing you can just sit back and listen to and smile about, you know? We're to be doers of the Word of God, and not hearers only (James 1:22).

Faith demands a response, demands action.

What have you done as a result of your faith lately? How have you served the Lord?

August 27: Thoughts on Psalm 27:14

"Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart, and wait for the LORD."
~ Psalm 27:14

It seems most of us are waiting on God for something, whether it's a job, or a spouse, or a child, or simply a revelation about what His will for us is. We cry out to God because we don't know what to do. We ask for stuff, or for His guidance, and sometimes it seems like it's slow in coming.

If I'm being honest, sometimes I feel like telling God to get with the program. But then I have to sit down and have a little talk with myself, because, well, He's God - and He kind of wrote the program. In moments like those, I have to realize that I'm the one who needs to get with it. God knows what He's doing, even if I don't.

Here's what happens when we wait for the Lord's timing:

"Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it." (Psalm 37:34)

"Do not say, 'I'll pay you back for this wrong!' Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you." (Proverbs 20:22)

"But those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (Isaiah 40:31)

What happens when we try to take control for ourselves instead of waiting on God's perfect timing?

In Genesis 16, Abram's wife Sarai, who is infertile, gives her servant Hagar to her husband in order that he might have a child with her. She does this even though God has already promised her that she and Abram will eventually have a child together. She's tired of waiting on the Lord, so she takes matters into her own hands. Abram, following Sarai's directions, gets with Hagar, who winds up pregnant. As you can imagine, Sarai's not too pleased about this, even though it was her idea in the first place, and she was really harsh and rude to Hagar (as though this was somehow Hagar's fault). Of Ishmael, the Lord says, "He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers" (Genesis 16:12). Wow, Ishmael sounds like a model child, right? That went well, didn't it? Not really. And why? Because Ishmael wasn't the child God intended for this couple to have.

So, fast forward 13 or 14 years. It's finally God's time for this couple. He renames them Abraham and Sarah. Abraham is 100 years old, and Sarah's old too, but it doesn't matter; it is God's time for this couple. So God gives them a child (the original child they were promised), and they name him Isaac. Isaac is the one that the covenant of Abraham goes through. Isaac is Abraham's heir. Isaac is the child God intended for Abraham and Sarah, and if they hadn't disobeyed God and tried to work around His will, who's to say they might not have had him sooner? And now they have this extra child to worry about, and Sarah casts Hagar and Ishmael out of her household because they offend her...and the whole situation is just bad.

If they had just waited in obedience on God's timing, it wouldn't have had to be that way.

There's a bit of a contrast here. If we wait on the Lord, good things happen. If we don't wait on the Lord, not-so-good things happen. It's clear that we'll be better off if we wait on God's timing for our lives. We should be strong against the temptation to take matters in our own hands, take heart that the Lord has our best interests in mind, and wait for His perfect timing for things to happen in our lives.

August 24: Thoughts on James 4:13-14

"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."
~ James 4:13-14

Our lives aren't endless. Because we are young, it is likely that we will wake up tomorrow morning and the sun will rise on another day of our lives, but it's not guaranteed.

There's only a small percent chance that you will die tomorrow. However, there is a 100% chance that you will die. It's what we all have in common. Everybody dies.

A lot of people, particularly young adults, think they can live their lives however they want to because they're young, and that they'll give their lives to Christ when they're older. This isn't such a good idea, for a couple of reasons.

First, it's not a good idea because you don't know for sure that you'll make it to be an old person. Death is relatively rare among young adults, but it does happen. The death rate per year of people between the ages of 20 and 24 is 101 deaths per 100,000 people. That's about a .1% chance of dying in any given year, which doesn't sound like much. And it isn't - unless you happen to be one of those 18,000 Americans between 20 and 24 who pass away every year. For them, it's everything.

Ask yourself - and I'm not trying to be morbid, but it's an important question - if you went to sleep tonight and didn't wake up in the morning, where would you spend eternity (and why)? If you got to the pearly gates and the Lord asked you why you deserved to be let into Heaven, what would you tell Him?

Certainly, I don't think there's anything I've done that makes me worthy of entering into His glory, so my only answer would be that I've been washed in the Blood of Jesus, and the God's Word says that's enough (a whole bunch of Scriptures). God's not a liar, and His Word won't return void (Isaiah 55:11), so I know that He'll have to let me in. But what would you say? Do you truly have a personal relationship with Jesus? Have you accepted His sacrifice for your sins?

The second reason it's a bad idea to wait until later in your life to turn to God is that it's not always possible for you to do so. The longer that you're apart from God, the harder your heart becomes against Him. Let's take, for instance, Ephesians 4:17-19: "So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more."

The longer you are in sin, the longer you're away from God, the more you forget about and the less you desire the things of God, until eventually your heart becomes hard and foolish and you begin saying things to yourself like, "God doesn't really exist" or "there's a God, but He can't care about me after all I've done" or "yeah, God is real, but I'd rather spend my life having a good time than serving Him" or "maybe Hell is a real place, but the future isn't important; right now is what matters."

That's utter foolishness. Think about it. You are going to be dead a lot longer than you are going to be alive. We live but for a season, 120 years at the absolute maximum. But after we die, what is there? Eternity. And eternity, by its very definition, is eternal - it lasts forever. So isn't concerning ourselves with what we're going to be doing forever and ever and ever a little more sensible than trying to have a very short good time while we're here on earth? Isn't it worth considering eternal things, considering God?

We're a mist that appears for a little while on the earth and then vanishes. A million years from now, it won't matter where you went to school, what your grades were like, who you dated, what fraternity you joined - but it will matter whether you loved and served the Lord of all creation and who you shared the Gospel with.

As young adults, we have this sort of overwhelming tendency to think about what makes us happy right now, but maybe we should stop for a moment and just ponder the eternal meanings of our everyday lives. Are we giving our all to God and sharing Him with others, or, in being busy busy busy, are we barely managing to acknowledge Him at all?

August 22: Thoughts on Psalm 119:9-16

"How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word."
~ Psalm 119:9-16

"How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word."

As young adults, we struggle with purity. There's disgusting, filthy sin all around us, and it's readily available to us everywhere we turn. It is not as though we have to seek out sin to be tempted; it seeks us out!

For instance, the Ignite MySpace originally listed its gender as male. Within days of being created, messages started showing up in its inbox and friend requests started pouring in. Why? Well, these were fake profiles created by women who appeared to be peddling porn. The messages would say things like "If you like my pictures, there are more where these came from, but they were too racy for MySpace" - and they would link to what was essentially a porn site! It's not as though the Ignite MySpace did anything to make anyone think we were pro-pornography. Rather, our presence as a presumed young male on MySpace was enough to send temptation our way. (Apparently this is just the way things work, because while Farris does get these messages on his own MySpace, Lori doesn't get them on hers - and this is presumably because Lori is female and Farris is male.) This is the main reason we changed the gender of the Ignite MySpace, by the way - the messages and friend requests were just time-consuming and frustrating.
Anyway, this is just one example of how Satan targets temptation to exploit our vulnerabilities and undermine our purity. Sin seeks us out (heck, sometimes it even does market research), and we have to resist temptation to maintain purity. How can we do this? By living according to God's Word.

"I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches."

Sometimes we don't really think about what a great gift the Bible is to us, but it really is. When we think about Bible study or spending time in the Word, it often feels like a chore, something we have to slog through to be a good Christian. But if you look at what the Word of God truly is - which is, come on, the Word of God, the actual words that come out of God's mouth. It's a way for the God of the universe to communicate with us.

And when you think about it that way, even having the Word of God available to us - the idea that the great God of all creation would stop for a moment and reveal Himself to us in written form - well, studying that is a privilege, not a chore! The Word of God itself is great riches. Keeping the Word of God, following God's laws and statutes, is an even greater privilege.

"I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word."

Because He's given us His Word, we should not neglect to study it. It's one of the amazing ways He's given us to learn about Him. We should rejoice that we have a God who loves us enough to draw boundaries for us, and who cares about us enough to reveal Himself to us through His Word.

August 20: Thoughts on John 15:5

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
~ John 15:5

"I am the vine; you are the branches"

Have you ever seen a vine in nature? The way it works is that the vine runs along the ground, and little branches branch off the vine and hold the fruit (in this case, a tomato - and yes, a tomato is a fruit).

(image taken with thanks from seedman.com, but not hotlinked, tyvm)

See how there's a main vine there, and little branches branching off the vine and holding the tomatoes?

Okay, so Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. He's our source. We're dependent upon Him, but He's self-sufficient. His roots gather up nourishment and water for us and deliver them to us. We are the branches, offshoots of Him. Without Him, we can't live, can't bear fruit, because we wouldn't have a source of strength and energy and sustenance.

"If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit"

The branches of a vine bear fruit. We see this in nature. It's not the main vine itself that produces the fruit. Rather, the main vine provides support to the branches so that they can produce the fruit.

So, if we remain in Christ (that is, we keep the faith and do our best to follow the Lord) and Christ remains in us (and He tells us in John 6:37 that He won't cast us out if we come to Him, though we can cast ourselves out by turning our backs on Him), we'll do what? Bear fruit. And not just a little bit of fruit, but much fruit. That's a LOT of fruit, not just a single tomato, but maybe more like a whole bunch of grapes, I don't know.

So, we're supposed to be bearing fruit if we remain in Christ. What does it mean to bear fruit? Well, the fruits of the Spirit are "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23).

Okay, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'm kind of good at some of those. I can do love. I even like loving. I can do joy, kindness, and gentleness. But patience? Peace? Faithfulness? I'm not so very good at those. I think my lack of patience contributes to my lack of peace sometimes. Self-control? Well, that's a hard thing. For instance, I can't keep a secret to save my life. Well, maybe to save my life, but you know what I mean. And "goodness"? Fuhgeddaboutit.

But see, here's the thing. God doesn't want us to have just one kind of fruit. We have the seed of the Holy Spirit within us, right? So theoretically, if we allow ourselves to be fertile ground for the Spirit's work within us, we should bear all the fruits of the Spirit, right? But most of us, me included, don't, at least not all the time.

Why? Maybe because we've allowed the root of bitterness to get in. Maybe because we've allowed Satan to spray pesticide on us (when we should actually be the ones spraying pesticide on him, because he's the real pest, right?). Maybe because we've started to turn away from Jesus, allowing our connection to Him to get weaker and weaker, until it's difficult for us to get all the nutrients we need from Him. Maybe unconfessed or unrepentant sin is clogging up the pathway the nutrients would be passing through.

"apart from me you can do nothing"

Wow. So here, Jesus is telling us that apart from Him, we won't be able to bear fruit. We wouldn't be able to get anything done at all! That's a stark contrast to Mark 9:23, which tells us that all things are possible to those who believe, and Phillippians 4:13, which tells us that we can do all things through Christ.

So, we can't do anything without Christ, but with Him, we can do anything! That's pretty amazing, isn't it? The Lord is our strength and our sustenance. He gives us our nutrients and water and His Spirit and His love, because He is truly good.

August 17: Thoughts on John 1:10-13

"He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
~ John 1:10-13

"He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him"

Jesus Christ walked among us. He was God, through Whom the very world was created, and yet when the world came across Him, they didn't know what to make of Him. Most didn't honor Him as the Creator. Some who claim to be Christians still don't. But this much is clear: the Bible tells us that the world was created through Christ, but it didn't know Him. Do you have children? Your children were created through you. Can you imagine if one day, just out of nowhere, your precious little boy or girl didn't know you anymore, if you went to him or her and they looked at you like "who are you and where's my mommy"? How heartbreaking would that be? That's the way Jesus felt when He came here. God's own people, the Jews, for the most part did not receive Him. They didn't recognize Him for who He was and is.

"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

But - and here's a transition - to those who DID receive Him, Jesus gave them the power and the right to become children of God. That's amazing. When the children of Israel turned their back on the Lord, the Lord opened the door wider and gave anyone who received Him and believed in His name the power to become the children of God. This verse tells us that while relationship with God used to be determined by blood and kinship (i.e., Hebrew descent), now it is determined by God Himself. We may not be the "natural" children of God, but we do have the right to become His "adopted" children (Romans 8:15; Ephesians 1:5) through Jesus. And when you're adopted, as I'm sure any adopted child can tell you, you are legally no different than any natural child. You have a right to your inheritance as a child of God.

What is that inheritance? Eternal salvation (1 Peter 1:4).

Who does it go to? The children of God (John 1:12).

How do you become God's child? Believe in His name and be born again of God (John 1:12-13).

August 15: Thoughts on 1 Cor. 10:12-13

"So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
~ 1 Corinthians 10:12-13

"if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall"

In other words, don't be prideful about your walk with God. Don't assume that just because everything is hunky-dory, it always will be. Don't look at the sins and temptations of others and think with disgust or judgement, "I could never do that. I'm better than that." In other words, if you think you're walking on the straight and narrow with the Lord, don't let your guard down. In fact, this is the time when you should really be on your guard the most, because Satan loves to get between a Christian and the Lord. Satan loves to tempt us and draw us away from God's heart.

"no temptation has seized you except what is common to man"

Okay, so you're tempted to sin. What's Paul telling us here? That we're all tempted to sin. Temptation is common to man - that is, all men experience temptation. Even Jesus was tempted (Hebrews 2:18), though He did not sin in reaction to temptation (Hebrews 4:15). Satan hates our relationship with God. He desires nothing more than to tear us away from the Lord any way he can, and sin is what separates us from God. So Satan tries to deceive us into sin, just as he deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden. Does that mean that just because we're tempted that we have to sin? No.

"God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear"

God is faithful. That means He's reliable, trustworthy, true to His Word. We're told here that God won't let us be tempted beyond what we can stand against. That is, the choice to sin will always be that: a choice. Though God will perhaps allow us to be tempted, He will never allow so much temptation that we're incapable of resisting it. Thus we can't excuse our sin. "I engaged in impure acts with my girlfriend because she wore a skirt that was way too short" is not an excuse. Yes, perhaps the skirt and the girl were tempting, but God doesn't allow temptation beyond what we are able to resist. What the Bible is telling us here is that we need to stop shifting blame. If we sin, if we do evil, it's not God's fault, it's not our girlfriend's fault, it's not the dog's fault. It's our own fault, because God doesn't allow temptation to become so strong that we have no choice but to sin.

Okay, so God doesn't allow us to be tempted beyond what we can withstand. But how can we withstand it?

"when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it"

God gives us a way out, a way to stand against temptation. Maybe He gives us the strength of will to pull away from the temptation ourselves. Maybe He provides us with an accountability partner. Maybe, just maybe, He provides a perfectly timed phone call from our mother just as we were getting ready to give in. I don't really know what God will do in any given situation to allow us a way out of sin, but I do trust the Word of God, and it says that He will provide a way out. Isn't that an awesome promise of God?

August 13: Thoughts on Psalm 51:10

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."
~ Psalm 51:10

"create in me a pure heart, O God"

We try so hard to make ourselves righteous, to make ourselves good. This is a worthy cause, but it's one we can't accomplish without God's help. When we face temptation or see impurity within ourselves, we should pray that God will wash it away and replace it with the good. Our hearts are impure by nature, but through Christ they can be made new and pure. God can create purity within us if we ask Him, if we let Him.

"renew a steadfast spirit within me"

When we start out on our Christian journey, most of us do so with a passion, with fire, with zeal for what God has in store for us. Then time and work and life get in the way, and the fire dims. Sadly, we seem to forget everything the Lord has done for us. While in the beginning our spirits were steadfast in following the Lord, as time passes, if we're not careful, we lose our vision and we lose our direction. We wake up one day and realize, all of a sudden, how very far away we've gotten from God. So we need to ask Him to help us get back on track.

What's a steadfast spirit? Steadfast means "fixed in direction; steadily directed; firm in purpose, resolution, faith, or attachment; unwavering; firmly established." In other words, a steadfast spirit is one that stands firm against temptation, has a vision about where it is headed, and allows the Spirit of God to direct it.

So how do we go about getting a steadfast spirit?

First, we must remember why we want a steadfast spirit in the first place. We must remember why we are Christians, why God is worthy and deserving of our honor and praise. He created us, gave us life, watched us sin and throw it all away, and then gave us life again in the ultimate act of love. Think of it. The Creator of the universe cared enough about you in particular to die for you. That's amazing stuff, and it's why we're Christians. We love Jesus because He first loved us.

Second, we must ask God to make it possible. We must ask for His direction in our lives and accept it when it comes. We need to mean what we say. If we say, "Lord, if this man is not the man you have chosen to be my husband, please show me," then we can't go getting mad at the Lord when He shows us! If we want to yield to the will of God, we have to accept that His will is higher than our will, and that what we want is not always what's best for us. Sometimes this is painful, but in the end, if we're mature about it, we can rejoice because the Lord cares enough for us to save us from ourselves sometimes.

Third, we need to get back into the Word of God even more heavily than we already are, and we need to go deeper into prayer than we ever have. God does speak audibly to some people at some times, but the most reliable way to hear from God in any given situation is to read His Word. It's valuable, profitable, because it teaches us about God's mind and His Spirit. God is the ultimate in steadfast. In Him there is no variableness or shadow of turning (James 1:17). God doesn't change - He's the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He knows what He is doing. He is fixed in direction, firm in purpose, unwavering, and firmly established. If we want to be steadfast, the Lord is definitely our model for that. God is forever speaking to us through the Bible, and if we listen, we can learn a lot about how to be faithful and steadfast right from the source.

August 10: Thoughts on Ephesians 2:4-5

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved."
~ Ephesians 2:4-5

This was a common issue for me when I first started thinking about God and salvation. First I had to wrap my mind around the fact that I wasn't as good as everyone told me I was.

After I had come to terms with the fact that I was fallen and sinful, it radically changed how I thought of myself. When I first heard Jesus died for me and my sins on the Cross, I was like, "No, no, no, God, take it back. I'm so not worth all that trouble. Seriously. Just let me die. I deserve it." And I really wondered why the God of Heaven - the greatest Being in all the universe - would do something like that for ME.

I knew I wasn't basically good or special or unique or perfect or any of those things they try to tell you that you are in those terrible "self-esteem" talks they give you in school. We just aren't those things. We all sin. We all fall short.

So my question was, okay, so I fell short. Fine, I get that. But why does God want to stoop down and fix it when I've messed it up so badly?

The answer? "because of his great love for us"

The Bible tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8). It tells us that God loved people so much that He sent Jesus to die for us (John 3:16). Not because we deserved it, because I can promise you we didn't, but because He loved us anyway. He is "rich in mercy," which means He loves us and gives to us even though we don't deserve it.

"made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions"

This is a contrast isn't it. We were dead, but now we're alive! Just as Christ was raised from the dead, we're raised from the dead spiritually. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ (Romans 6:23). Why? Again, not because we're worthy of it, but because "by grace [we] are saved."

Grace is related to the Latin word gratis, which means free. In other words, our salvation is not something we can achieve on our own but a free gift - no strings attached - that we get from God. That doesn't mean we get off scot-free after we're saved though.

God still expects us to do good things and behave ourselves, because faith without works is dead (James 2:26) - and we are gloriously alive, so we should act like it. How? By doing good works - helping others, feeding the poor, spreading the Gospel, giving to the Lord, and living a holy life to the best of our ability (Romans 12:1-2).

What has the Lord done for you this week? What have you done for Him?

August 7: Thoughts on Proverbs 27:19

"As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man."
~ Proverbs 27:19

Simple but true. Most of us look in the mirror everyday (some more than others, but hey, that's another verse for another day). We check to make sure our hair is in place, see how that "blemish" is doing, or make sure nothing is hanging out of our nose.

And that's all well and good. But how often do we look a little deeper at the condition of our heart. Although you're having an awesome hair day, that's not gonna be what people see when they really look at you. The condition of your heart says the most about what you are.

Great example: Hollywood. Who do we see in Hollywood? Some of the most beautiful people in the world right? Yeah, if you have the mindset that beauty only runs skin deep. It's our ability to look past the outside into the heart of people to know the truth. Look at the wonderful example many of the people in Hollywood are setting for our youth.

When you look in the mirror and you see you have a stain on your shirt you change it. Sometimes you change your whole outfit. Sin stains our heart. Jesus gets rid of sin. As corny as it sounds, Jesus is Tide for the heart.

We have to take a look at our own hearts; they make us who we are, not the clothes we wear, not the way we wear our hair, not the number of pimples we have, not how fat or skinny we are.

I ask you right now to take a look at your heart. Is it blemished? Is it stained with sin? Have you lied to someone you love? Are you harboring unforgiveness against a friend? Your wear your heart on your sleeve whether you know it or not.

As Christians, our hearts are always on display. It is a huge responsibility that our hearts be clean at all times. And though it is tough in the world we live in, we can be shining examples to all who come into contact with us in our daily lives with the help of the Lord.

August 6: Thoughts on Exodus 15:11

"Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you - majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?"
~Exodus 15:11

"Who is like the LORD? Nobody. Who is like the LORD? N-n-n-n-n-nobody."

If you're like me, you instantly got that song stuck in your head when you read today's verse.

But really, it's true, isn't it? Who is like God? There's nobody like Him. We work hard and strive to be good people, free from sin, but nobody's perfect. Nobody can be like God.

In my opinion, this is where a lot of religions go wrong. They teach that if you work hard enough, eventually you can be just like their god. While this certainly isn't true of all other religions, it is true of a large number of them.

If a religion really teaches that we can become like its god, its god must not be very great, and isn't our God at all - for none of us can even come close to the greatness of who God is.

He is God and we are His people. We can become Christlike (which is God-like), but that's a daily struggle, and we're asymptotic to godliness (by which I mean that through faith and perseverance, we can get close but not quite to the point of godliness). Wasn't Lucifer's fatal flaw his attempt to be like God?

Luckily, we don't need to be just like God. We don't need to be perfect, because Jesus, who was perfect, died in our place. All we need is faith that He did it. God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.

Also, our God is "majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders." God is great, nifty, awesome, majestic, wondrous, glorious, powerful, mighty, etc. I'm glad that I have the privilege to know Him, and that He cares about little old me.

August 3: Thoughts on Isaiah 53:5-6

"But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all."
~ Isaiah 53:5-6

That's the story, laid down in the Old Testament, of the Suffering Servant. Isn't it amazing that God revealed such a detailed, accurate prophecy of Jesus Christ to Isaiah, around 700 years prior to Jesus' birth? You can read the rest of Isaiah 53 here. It's eerily accurate - well, at least it would be eerie if we didn't know that God was involved. (On a side note, how strange-looking is the word eerie? Never noticed that before.)

"but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities"

He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Wow. His hands and feet were pierced by nails on the Cross and He was crushed because we sinned.

"the punishment that brought us peace was upon him"

We deserved the punishment, but rather than having to pay the price, He paid it for us. He exchanged His excruciating pain - even unto death - for our peace, because He loves us. And we can have peace, because He's taken our punishment and we're promised peace in return. The Word of God promises peace because God is the God of peace - because to bring peace, He gave His all.

"by his wounds we are healed"

Jesus was beaten heartily before He was put onto the Cross. He was severely wounded even before the nails were driven into His hands and feet. Before He was beaten, He was stressed out to the point of sweating blood. Because our Lord was physically hurt in such a way, we are now promised healing.

This healing is twofold. First of all, because of the Lord's suffering, we are promised spiritual healing. We are promised freedom from the prison of sin. Secondly, we are promised physical healing. Jesus did many miracles involving bodily healing while He walked the earth, and I just don't believe that all that ended when He ascended into Heaven. I believe it's still the same as it's always been: if we have faith, we may be healed (see Mark 5:34; Mark 10:52; Luke 17:19; and Luke 18:42).

"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way."

This is a good reminder. We've all turned from God's way and to our own way at one point or another. It's part of our sinful nature to do so. We've all sinned. We've all fallen short. It makes no sense to argue about who killed Jesus. Even though maybe some of the Jews were the ones pushing hard for His execution, in reality every single one of us killed Jesus, by sinning and making His death on the Cross necessary for our redemption.

"and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all"

Jesus didn't sin. But He took the load of our sins away from us, took them upon Himself. He held the world on His shoulders, the heavy burden of the sins of every human being who ever had walked or would walk the earth. And He bore it all just for us.

He urges us to come to Him, to let Him take our burdens away from us (see 1 Peter 5:7) in exchange for His burdens, because His yoke is easy and His burdens are light (Matthew 11:28-30). It doesn't seem fair, does it? He's done nothing wrong, yet He offers to take all our sins and burdens and worries upon Himself.

Boy, am I ever glad God's not fair by the world's standards.

August 1: Thoughts on James 5:16

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."
~ James 5:16

Are you ever afraid to ask for prayer? Afraid that someone will judge you because of a prayer need? That they'll know whatever sin you've committed and not hang out with you anymore, or that they'll spread gossip about you? Yeah, me too.

Because, on some level, we're all a little bit fake (aren't you fake at church, even just a little bit?). It's not on purpose, but we feel that we need to put on a different face when we're around "church people" than we do when we're in the real world. But the truth is that we all live in the real world. Nobody's perfect, no matter how much we try to pretend we are.

But the altar (or the prayer meeting) is a place where we can get past all that fakeness and just come before God and be honest, be who we really are.

"confess your sins to each other"

We only need to confess our sins to God. We don't need someone else to be involved in order for God to forgive our sins. There is only one mediator between people and God, and that's Jesus Christ, but (and this is a big but) confessing to other believers can be helpful in several ways.

First, it breaks the fakeness. When we confess that we've done wrong to a fellow Christian, it sends the message, "Hey, you know what, you're not the only person who struggles with sin." It serves as an encouragement to the other person.

Second, it allows us to get things off our chest. Though God can forgive us, sometimes we benefit from confirmation from other people that God really does forgive us if we confess and repent (1 John 1:9).

It also gives us a little bit of extra accountability, because our friends who pray for us know what kind of sins we are susceptible to and thus they can help us stay away from temptation and pray for us more effectively.

"pray for each other so that you may be healed"

Do you believe God still heals? I do. If God can create our bodies, He can certainly set them back into working order. If he made the four chambers of our heart, He can comfort us in our emotional pain. If He can send His Son to die for us, He can heal us from the stain of sin.

In His time here on earth, Jesus healed a blind man (Mark 8:25), a woman with an issue of blood (Matthew 9:22), lepers (Luke 17:11-19), and people with paralysis (Mark 2:5; Matthew 8:13), just to name a few. The Bible tells us God doesn't play favorites (Acts 10:34, The Message), so if He healed those people, He can heal us too, if we believe He can.

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

But, you say, I'm not righteous! Not on your own, you're not, but through the obedience of Jesus unto death, we are made righteous (Romans 5:19).

So, as people made righteous through Christ's obedience, our prayers are powerful and effective. Powerful means "having or exerting great power or force." Our prayers exert our power over the Enemy. Effective means "adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result." Our prayers accomplish what we set them out to accomplish.

Prayer is a wonderful gift to us from God, and it is a gift whose worth is multiplied when we pray with others. As a church body, we exist to win the lost and build one another up. One of the best tools we have to grow closer to one another is prayer.

Father in the Name of Jesus, please bless the reader of this blog. Show them that You love them, that you are there and want to take care of them. If they are struggling, just hold them in your arms and be a comfort to them. If they are ill or in danger, protect them, Lord. If they need a friend, help them find a friend, Father. If it is Your will, let that friend be us. If they are broken, help them become whole. If they are weak, help them be strong. If they are alone, be with them, Lord. If they are lost, help them find themselves in You. You know their needs, Lord, and only You can fill them. We thank you for everything that you've given us, for homes and families and jobs, for strong brothers and sisters in Christ, for a church family that shows its love, and most of all for giving Your life only to save ours. We love you, Lord, and we ask that you bless these readers and all those we pray for. We ask it in the Name that is above every other name, the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.