April 20, 2026

Isaiah 20: 2 (NIV)

At that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah . . . He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

God wastes nothing.*

Isaiah was an educated man who was comfortable among the powerful and the elite of Judah. As an advisor to kings, he “helped set the course of his nation.”* Now God has issued a bizarre command to Isaiah: take off your clothes and your shoes. We assume that God did not intend for Isaiah to go about completely naked but that he was only required to remove the sackcloth which identified him as a prophet. And Isaiah did as he was told. For three years. 

God chose this method to present a “dramatic object lesson”* in protest of an alliance with Egypt and Cush. In our eyes, this appears to be a waste of Isaiah’s gifts and skills. Sometimes we, too, may be called to service that seems “beneath us” but when we, like Isaiah, say, “Here am I. Send me,” (Isaiah 6: 8) we’d better expect the unexpected! We can be certain, though, that whatever is required of us, it can’t compare to what our Savior endured on our behalf – and the reward far exceeds our sacrifices.

Based on my experience, I have concluded that if your response is not, ‘Oh no!’ it is probably not the call of God.*

April 19, 2026

Job 13: 19 (NIV)

“Can anyone bring charges against me? If so, I will be silent and die.”

He has never apportioned our punishment to our sins, nor has he regulated the exercise of his mercy by our merits.*

In the cop shows, lawyers are frequently portrayed as encouraging their clients to “take a plea” even though they insist that they are innocent. I used to think there was no way I would plead to a lesser charge when I knew I wasn’t guilty of any crime, but if real life is anything like TV, a person can’t always count on a fair trial to exonerate him. If the evidence against me was overwhelming, would I take my chances in court?

Job was falsely accused but he was confident of his innocence. And he was willing to take his chances in court. He was willing to die rather than admit to any wrongdoing. When we stand before God in his role as judge, how will we plead? We know we’re not innocent. Paul reminds us in Romans 3: 23 that we all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. But in the next verse we find the good news: we are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

As the redeemed of the Lord, we can face our judgment with Job’s confidence. “Can anyone bring charges against me?” 

The Cross ends the law's power of punishment.*

April 18, 2026

Deuteronomy 34: 1-4 (NIV)

Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land . . . Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob . . . I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.”

Don’t waste . . . [today] by whining over yesterday’s disappointments or pining for a perfect tomorrow.*

Poor Moses! One little temper tantrum and he is barred forever from crossing into the Promised Land. Surely the taste was bitter, after 40 years of trying to get there, as he looked but could not touch.

We face disappointments in life – big ones and little ones. We can imagine how we would feel if we were in Moses’ sandals and we even wonder how God could have been so harsh in his punishment for the little incident in Numbers chapter 20.  But in Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9, we find the happy ending arranged for Moses by a loving God. On a high mountain, Moses met and chatted with the Messiah – and finally stepped into the boundaries of the land that was forbidden to him in his lifetime.

Instead of bemoaning your life’s disappointments, remember that God’s plans for you are bigger and better than your dreams for yourself. Follow him and trust that you will see the Promised Land some day. And chat with the Messiah!

Our pain and suffering is often so intense it is impossible to see beyond our understanding to a greater plan and purpose.*

April 17, 2026

Luke 24: 55, 56 (NIV)

The women who had come with Jesus . . . followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

The cross was not the end but the beginning of something amazing.*

It was the day before the Sabbath so these devout Jewish women had to be satisfied with a hurried burial for their beloved teacher, but they made plans to return after the Sabbath to complete the job.

The Sabbath - the day before Easter. The day between the worst day and the best day in history. I wish I knew all the details of that day. Did Jesus decide on the moment he would arise? Did he lay there in the grave until sometime that morning or did he get up as soon as the tomb was sealed? Did he walk around in there, lighting it up with his presence, or did he just transport through the rock? What was his first thought? Or did his consciousness never disconnect? Did he think, “I’m glad that’s finally over,”? He was God and man before; what was he afterwards? 

The day after the Sabbath – Resurrection Day! If only I could hear the stories from those first people who saw him alive. Best news ever! How special to be one of those people! If only we were as caught up in the excitement of the moment as they were. He is alive! Don’t you want to run and tell someone?

Easter is too often used as a testimony to the past and a promise of the future without emphasizing its meaning for the present.

April 16, 2026

Ecclesiastes 9: 11 (NIV)

I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.

Life is hard, and you are not entitled to anything.*

Solomon’s attitude about the unfairness of life reflects our own at times. It doesn’t seem right when the slow and the weak win, but actually, most times the swift do come in first in the race and the strong do win battles. Should we be discouraged because life’s moments of fairness aren’t consistent?

Recently, a young couple that I know lost their baby boy after only 26 days of life. Someone said that they are struggling to understand why this happened. Sadly, there probably isn’t a “why.” As Solomon says, “Time and chance happen to them all.” Life happens – and death happens. The best we can hope for on earth is to reveal the glory and the blessing to be found in such unfairness. Of course, that isn't much comfort in our deepest grief.

Solomon lived in a time when knowledge of the details about heaven and hell was somewhat vague. We live in more enlightened and hopeful times because Jesus has revealed that a bright future lies ahead for his faithful followers. As it turns out, that hope is as unfair as Solomon’s hopelessness. If it were fair, it wouldn’t be grace.

Life happens. And none of it takes God by surprise.*

April 15, 2026

James 2: 19 (NIV)
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.

Belief in the one God does not mean salvation.*

Recently, someone told me that she believes in God but she doesn’t believe in Jesus. She is one of those “we’re all going to the same place just taking different paths” people. Wouldn’t it be nice if believing in God was all we had to do to be saved? Well, maybe not so nice for heaven because that means the devil and his minions will be there. And not so nice for Jesus because that would mean that he suffered and died for nothing.

James’ little display of sarcasm is directed at his readers who believed that faith alone meets the requirements for salvation. In this passage and the verses surrounding it, he makes two points: we aren’t saved by faith and we aren’t saved by works. If faith was enough, we would be sharing heaven with those shuddering demons. If good deeds could save us, any altruistic, hardworking heathen has a chance at eternal life.

But the equation still doesn’t add up. Faith plus good works doesn’t equal salvation. We are saved by the grace of God. We can’t work our way to heaven; no amount of faith merits eternal life. It is only through the sacrifice of God’s Son that we are saved from hell. Obedience to God’s plan is how we receive grace, not how we earn it.

Salvation was free to us, but expensive to God.*

April 14, 2026

Romans 15: 1, 2 (NIV)

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Whenever two people are together, one is influencing the other.*

Which one are you? Are you the strong one or are you the weak one? I think I agree with this assessment: “I have never heard anyone say he or she was the weak person! We always hear the text and identify with the strong (or the right) person!”*

The truth is, as Christians, each of is both the strong one and the weak one. That’s why we need each other. I may be able to prop you up on one side but look over and you will see someone else supporting my weak side. But here’s the thing: we can’t always know another’s weaknesses. Maybe we aren’t even aware of our own. Paul offers us the solution to this dilemma. “Each of us,” he says, “should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.”

In your community of faith, someone is looking to you for clues as to how you manage your Christian walk. You, in turn, are looking at others to be your example. If we seek to “emulate Christ who did not please himself,”* we will be bearing with the failings of the weak whether we know it or not.

Relationships give us a safe place to watch how someone further down the road navigates through life.*