May 24, 2026

Acts 17: 11 (NIV)

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

Trust but verify.*

We might wonder if Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, thought that Paul was never going to read these words. He is bragging on a group of people who are eagerly checking up on the veracity of Paul’s preaching. Didn’t they trust Paul? Shouldn’t they trust him?

I believe there are two important lessons we can learn from the Bereans. In the church, we have preachers, teachers, and leaders that we trust and who would never purposely lead us astray. But they are humans and prone to human error. If the Bereans were to be commended for not relying on every word out of Paul’s mouth, certainly we should verify the words of our beloved leaders as well.

The second lesson is this: No matter how many sermons or lessons you hear from the Bible, there is no substitute for digging into the Word for yourself. When you read the Bible, do you do it out of duty? Do you find it boring and difficult to understand? Or do you approach it with the enthusiasm of a treasure hunter? Do you ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you indulge in the Word of God?

I urge you to follow the example of the Berean Christians and receive the message with great eagerness while examining the Scriptures daily to find the truth.

Five minutes with God each day will never accomplish a deep spiritual examination.*

May 23, 2026

Jeremiah 23: 25; 28: 9 (NIV)

“I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’” . . . “But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true.”

Mohammedanism cannot point to any prophecies of the coming of Mohammed uttered hundreds of years before his birth. Neither can the founders of any cult . . . rightly identify any ancient text specifically foretelling their appearance.*

Remember the old joke about the guy who came upon his friend looking for a lost object far from where it might possibly be found because the light was better where he was? Jeremiah had to deal with people who believed false prophets because their predictions were in a better light: they prophesied peace. Wouldn’t we prefer to believe prophecies of peace and prosperity, too?

How can we tell real prophets from false ones? Should we believe only those whose message is depressing and ominous? In Jeremiah’s day, the test was: did their predictions come true? In our day, prophesying is more closely associated with preaching than with predictions of the future but we still need to discern between true and false. We have an advantage over Jeremiah - we have the complete written works of God at our disposal and it is our tool for determining the truth of the message. Don’t take my word for anything – see what God’s word has to say about it first. How do my words measure up to the Words of Life?

Reliance on the word of God is not fatalistic or superstitious. It is not trust in something impersonal like the stars or a good-luck charm.*

May 22, 2026

Malachi 3: 8 (NIV)

“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ In tithes and offerings.”

It’s unhealthy to view tithing as a place to stop, but it can still be a good place to start.*

If you have ever been on a diet, perhaps you have struggled with some of the same issues that I do. Such as: shouldn't saying "no" to ice-cream burn a few calories? If I skip that brownie, will I wake up thin tomorrow? How is it fair that one day of indulgence can undo a week of righteous eating?

Through Malachi, God told his people that they were robbing him. This puzzled them. They hadn’t stolen anything from anyone. But similar to how saying no to a fattening treat doesn’t burn calories, withholding their tithe from God was the same as taking from him. A lack of action does not equal a positive action. Their lack of giving actually equaled a negative action: disobedience.

Are you robbing God? While tithing is not specifically commanded in the New Testament, we can find precedents and principles for giving a portion of our wealth to support the work of the church.  In 2 Corinthians 9: 7, Paul writes: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Here and now, I write: If you dare to ask God, “How much should I give,” I am positive that you will decide in your heart that 10% of your income is the least you can give. And if you determine to give more, you will find yourself becoming that cheerful giver that God loves.

If our question is, “How little can I give and still be pleasing to God?” our heart isn’t in the right place at all.*

May 21, 2026

II John 6 (NIV)

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

Love has no definition apart from how it looks.*

How would you define love? While we have one English word for all kinds of love, the Greeks were a little more precise in their language. But even knowing that the New Testament differentiates between brotherly love and erotic love and unconditional love, we still are compelled to include feelings in our definition of love.

The apostle John writes a lot about love in his letters. We can trust his credentials as an authority on the subject because he walked and talked with Jesus who was the living embodiment of love. This expert on love tells us that the definition of love is that we walk in obedience to Jesus’ commands – and says not one word about how we should feel about it. From the beginning, John says, the command is that we walk in love.

So how does that make you feel? How often have you done the right thing even though your heart wasn’t quite as engaged as it should have been? Have you ever felt guilty because your charitable actions made you look more saintly than you felt?

I am not suggesting that we can say we are walking in love if our obedience involves a defiant spirit. I am not advocating hypocrisy. I believe that John is telling us that love means honoring the one we love, regardless of how we feel. When my husband needed my assistance with a household project right now, I helped him because I loved him – not because it’s what I wanted to do right then. Or what I felt like doing. Over the years of our marriage I came to realize that the more lovingly I behave, the more loving I feel.

Love Jesus? Prove it. Follow his commands. Someday you will even feel like it.

The test of your love for God isn’t what you do when you’re feeling in love with him. It’s how you live when you don’t feel anything for him at all.*

May 20, 2026

Joshua 22: 28 (NIV)

“And we said, ‘If they ever say this to us, or to our descendants, we will answer: Look at the replica of the Lord’s altar, which our fathers built, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.’” [Read verses 10-34 for the complete story.]

Human nature is fond of climbing up into the judgment seat and proclaiming its decisions, without hearing both sides or calling witnesses.*

The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had built a monument which the other tribes thought was an altar. They were all righteously indignant because erecting altars was the priests’ job. Verse 12 of chapter 22 says that the “whole assembly” of the other tribes gathered to go to war against the supposed violators of God’s law. Imagine their chagrin when they learned that the purpose of the structure was to commemorate the tribes’ unity with each other and to remind their descendants to fear God.

If jumping to conclusions or rushing to judgment actually burned calories, we would be very fit people. Case in point: my friend was making lots of money until the economy crashed and suddenly she had no income. Some people were critical when they learned that she had applied for food stamps and asked the church to help with mortgage payments because they saw that she was still driving around in her high-end SUV. What they didn’t know (and what was really none of their business) was that she had paid cash for the vehicle back when her financial situation was good, but no one else wanted to buy the gas-guzzler now that she couldn't afford to fill the tank. (What "they" also didn't know was how generous she had been to the church and to people in need before she lost her income.)

We should be less eager to believe the worst of others. Yes, people lie, cheat, and betray - but not all people all the time. What would it cost you to give someone the benefit of the doubt, to trust that their intentions are good? If someone’s behavior appears to be out of character, perhaps you don’t know the whole story. Would you want to be judged and condemned upon incomplete evidence? How can we call ourselves followers of Jesus when we ignore his command to do to others as we would have them do to us (Matthew 7: 12)?

Some Christians delight in finding what is false, while never searching for an ounce of gospel.*

May 19, 2026

Matthew 9: 5, 6 (NIV)

“Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so you know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . .” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”

Testimony is evidence.*

If I told you, “Your sins are forgiven,” how would you know it was true? What proof could I present that I had the authority to forgive sins – or even just the ability to know that your sins had been forgiven? But if I said to someone who had a visible affliction, “You are healed,” it wouldn’t take long to know whether or not I was for real.

Jesus used his healing power as evidence of his divine power. Many people then, and today, are willing to accept that he could heal and that he was a good man but not that he was the Son of God. Could they not follow that misconception to its natural conclusion? How could he perform miracles if he wasn’t who he said he was? And if he wasn’t who he said he was, how could we call him a good man? If Jesus wasn’t the Son of God, he was an impostor and there is nothing he said or did that we could trust. But multitudes witnessed his miracles so how can you explain them without including his claims as to his divinity?

Much of our Christian life requires us to walk in faith. We must believe and trust in a lot of things that can’t be seen or explained. But Jesus never intended for us to wander blindly through life. He used his healing power to prove to his witnesses that he had the authority to forgive sins. Their testimony would have stood up in court then and it’s enough to convince us today. He has not promised physical healing to us, but we can trust that his offer of forgiveness is valid and applicable to those who choose to accept it.

What would it take to convince you?

Faith in the Christian sense goes beyond reason but not against it.*

May 18, 2026

Ruth 2: 3 (NIV)

So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.

We weren’t created to pursue the lives we want.*

When I was a single mom, my boys went off to their dad’s every other weekend. On those childless weekends, my friend and I took advantage of my freedom to go out and have fun. Both of us were interested in remarrying some day but in the meantime, we just went our merry way. I joked that Prince Charming wasn’t going to come knocking on my door and that even if he did, I wouldn’t be home anyway.

The truth is, whatever you think it is that’s missing from your life - whether it’s love, friends, career advancement, purpose – you probably won’t find it by looking for it. Ruth was a young widow with very few resources but instead of launching a campaign to find a man to fulfill her needs, she just lived her life. She went out in the fields to glean behind the harvesters – hardly glamorous – because that was her current opportunity, and she just happened to find herself in the field of her Prince Charming. If she had been franticly searching for love in all the wrong places, she might have missed her chance to meet Boaz and to become an ancestor of the Messiah.

My advice for you, if you have a void in your life, is to walk with God. Ask him to fill that vacancy. Live your life, take advantage of opportunities, and wait for God to make arrangements. He will either fulfill your desires or you will find yourself no longer desiring the same things.

By the way – my happy ending: part of “living my life” included being involved in the singles group at my church. It was at a singles group Christmas party at the home of my minister and his wife that I met my Prince Charming. And we lived happily ever after.

He knows precisely when we are spiritually ready to receive blessings for our gain and His glory.*