March 7, 2026

Song of Solomon 5: 9 (NIV)

How is your beloved better than others?

When we love someone, we take the entire package.*

Ah! Young love! Who can explain it? What makes that particular person the object of your devotion? I tried to solve the mystery of love when one of my sons started dating the girl who eventually became his wife. I asked, “Why her? What made you decide she was so special?” His reply, “Because she thinks I’m the coolest.” I don’t know if that clears it up for the rest of you but it worked for them – they dated through his senior year in high school, through four years of college, and have been married for almost 17 years. They are still such a cute couple!

Falling in love and getting married has not always been the course of matrimony – and in some cultures it still is not the way things are done. Families arranged marriages for political, social, and financial reasons, and the happy couple had no say in the matter. And yet, written in a world that operated like that, the Bible still speaks of love between husbands and wives.

Perhaps there is some practical application of this verse for those of us living in enlightened times and a liberated society. Before you jump into marriage, ask yourself the question: How is my beloved better than others? Your answer should help you determine if you are making the right decision.

If your marriage is in trouble, try to remember how you would have answered the question when you first fell in love. Before you give up and abandon your marriage, try to recall what made your spouse special back then. What changed – you? Your spouse? Or are you just not willing to make the effort to deal with the inevitable changes that life brings? Is it easier just to blame your partner? If your spouse asked himself or herself the question about you – how are you better than others – how would you fare in the comparison?

No marriage can be dissolved without someone failing, either one party or both, to some degree.*

March 6, 2026

Joshua 24: 31 (NIV)

Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.

Personality is a prime factor in natural leadership. . .The Spiritual leader, however, influences others not by the power of his personality alone but by that personality . . .empowered by the Holy Spirit.

It is sad that the nation of Israel could only maintain their momentum during the lifetime of Joshua and the elders who had been with him. Where was the next leader? Why was there no one ready to fill the void left by the death of Joshua?

There are dangers for dynamic leaders. Even a truly godly minister runs the risk of having church members who are more loyal to him than to Jesus Christ. Another hazard for successful leaders is the ego trap. How many megachurch preachers have gone from being humble servants of God to becoming arrogant, greedy, and impure? Oh, but this is no reason to keep a good man down. We need men of God to rise to positions of leadership - men who have prepared themselves for the job, just like Joshua did . . . well, men who are prepared by God, that is!

My home church is a growing and thriving congregation, thanks in no small part to the efforts and personality of our former senior minister. He was energetic, innovative, and preached the truth week after week. His church family had a responsibility to pray for him, encourage him, and hold him accountable. We also need to be praying that God has prepared his replacement to fill the void and that the congregation will support him - so that no one sadly says of our church, “They served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Jim.”

We are called to worship him, not the music, the preacher, the sermon, or the children’s program. God alone is deserving of worship.*

March 5, 2026

I Timothy 1: 9-11 (NIV)

The law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers – and for whatever else is contrary to the glorious gospel . . . which is entrusted to me.

The moral laws of life are just as immutable as the natural laws.*

Years ago, someone called my attention to this list of sinners and pointed out that liars were included among these most heinous of offenders. That made an impression on me. What never got my attention was the inclusion of slave traders in the list.

As an American and a Christian, I am appalled that there are people who profit from the sale of other humans and that these same humans have no rights to themselves. But until recently I considered slavery to be one of those unnamed “whatever else is contrary to the glorious gospel” items because I was not aware of any scripture which actually condemned it. But, even before I was aware of this list, I knew slavery had to be wrong because it is clearly in conflict with the two “greatest” commandments: love God and love others.

Any questionable principle or activity, whether specified as sin or not, could be held up to the light of these two greatest commandments to determine if it is right or wrong. We should ask ourselves: Could someone who loves God participate in this activity? Could I ask for God to bless me while I am taking part in it? Would others be hurt by my actions? Could I accept a principle that is detrimental to others? What would Jesus do?

It is in the light of God’s Word that ethical decisions must be weighed and made.*

March 4, 2026

John 21: 25 (NIV)

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

In an era when new religions were a dime a dozen, the Christian faith became a worldwide phenomenon.*

After more than 30 years, I got together with my college best friend, and of course we took that stroll down memory lane. I know we didn’t remember everything that we did back then but it was enough to make me ask, “When did we have time to go to class?”

Jesus’ “classmates” in his three-year ministry must have had a similar feeling when they looked back on the experience. “How did the 13 of us manage to accomplish so much back in Jerusalem?” they might have wondered. Jesus changed the world with 12 seemingly-ordinary men in fewer years than it took me to get a college degree. Trying to capture and record all those memories would be daunting – and unnecessary. The inspired writers of the gospels told us everything we needed to know about their exploits. As someone has observed, “The Gospels get their facts straight, but they’re not written to say everything about Jesus and to say it in chronological order.”* We should also note that, since John begins his account of Jesus’ life by saying that all things were made by him, we would have to go all the way back to creation to begin filling in the missing details!*

And Jesus isn’t finished with his activity in this world. John records Jesus’ promise to send his Spirit to be in us (John 14: 16-18) – and we still have work to do (Matthew 28: 19, 20).

Do you know how this world would be changed if we simply did what Jesus told us to do, simply because he said so?*

March 3, 2026

Mark 10: 28 (NIV)

Peter said to him, “We have left everything to follow you.”

No one who ever participated in Jesus’ vision of kingdom life ever remained the same.*

When we think of someone giving his life to Christ, we usually think of the bad things he leaves behind: a destructive lifestyle; guilt; hopelessness. But sometimes – perhaps most times – new Christians are faced with rearranging their whole lives. Leaving everything to follow Jesus is not as simple as it sounds.

I knew a young woman who was living with a man and depended on him to help provide for her and her two boys. Becoming a Christian meant ending the relationship – which she did eventually, but it caused an upheaval in her life. 

Many people have chosen Jesus over family, careers, wealth, and power. (See Matthew 9: 9 and Luke 19: 1-10 to read of two men who made the right choice; and Mark 10: 17-22 to learn about a man who couldn’t bring himself to give up his old life.) Becoming a follower of Jesus can certainly be disruptive. There is no guarantee of a happily ever after in this life just because you chose wisely. But Jesus responds to Peter’s declaration with this promise: “No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (. . . and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.” (Mark 10: 29 and 30.)

According to Oprah Winfrey, as posted on Facebook, “The only courage you ever need is the courage to live your heart’s desire.” But the Christian's twist on that statement would read: “The only courage you ever need is the courage to sacrifice the life you want.”*

Many people believe that having decided to follow Jesus, they have safely arrived at their destination. But they’re actually stuck at the terminal. Jesus’ invitation speaks more about movement than arrival.*

March 2, 2026

Amos 8: 11 (NIV)

“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land – not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.”

To most Christians, the Bible is like a computer software license. Nobody actually reads it. They just scroll to the bottom and click, “I agree.”*

This prophecy in the book of Amos refers specifically to Israel at a time in their history when the words of the Lord were just words. Amos’ job was to predict their coming punishment for removing God and his ways from their daily lives. Life was good – prosperity and peace reigned throughout the land – and they were religious after a fashion. So, Amos’ announcement about the famine of hearing from the Lord probably didn’t alarm many of the people.

Would it alarm you if you were faced with a famine of hearing the words of the Lord? What if your Bibles were confiscated and burned? What if our Bible apps were outlawed and disabled? How would it affect your life? Would it not matter since you never read it anyway?

There are Christians in other parts of the world who suffer from a famine of God’s Word every day. For some, it is merely a matter of there being no Bible in their language. For others, they are too poor to own one. And many Christians are persecuted by their government and denied access to the Word. I pray for my brothers and sisters whose walk with God is not enriched by a daily dose of his written word. 

Does the thought of broken water pipes suddenly make you thirsty? Does the thought that your Bible might be snatched from you make you crave a taste of the Bread of Life?

More alarming than the ACLU’s desire to ban the Bible from every square inch of public space in this nation, is that the Bible has been exiled from most Christian homes.*

March 1, 2026

Job 2: 13 (NIV)

Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights.  No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

A ministry of presence is life-giving to a friend in need.*

Do you know what your “love language” is? I think most of us have two – one that we “speak” and one that we respond to. The language in which I express love the most fluently is “words of affirmation” but the one that speaks to me is “quality time.” I think it was Job's love language, too. His friends heard about his troubles and they got together to go comfort him. And for a whole week, they indulged Job’s apparent need for quality time. They waited for Job to break the silence before they began to speak. My kind of friends!

It’s so hard to know what to say to or do for a friend who is suffering. I haven’t mastered the skill myself but the attempts by Job’s friends illustrate some "dos and don’ts" for offering words of comfort - some obvious, some implied.

• The closer you are to the person, the more likely you are to know the right approach. If you aren’t so well acquainted, look to him or her for clues as to their preference.
• Don’t be so afraid of saying the wrong thing that you don’t say anything - but it doesn’t matter if you say the right thing if you don’t know when to shut up. (Read the rest of the Book of Job to see how his friends blew this one!)
• Prayer is always appropriate. Even people who don’t believe in prayer don’t usually mind if you offer to pray for them. (If they do mind, well, they can’t stop you from praying silently!)
• This one is for the person on the receiving end of the attempts at comfort: be gracious. Job listened to his friends as they spouted some good-intentioned nonsense. Their words probably didn’t help much but I think the fact that they cared enough to be there was soothing to his aching heart.

Jesus offered words of comfort on various occasions but in John chapter 11, we see what Jesus did to offer comfort, rather than something he said. His friend Lazarus has died. Jesus knows the story is going to have a happy ending but still, when he saw the grief of Lazarus’ sisters and the other mourners, he was “deeply moved in spirit and troubled.” Then, we read, “Jesus wept.” 

There is no need to worry that you don’t know what to say when you love someone enough to cry with them.

You must be close enough to feel their pain before they’re close enough to feel your love.*