February 10, 2026

Proverbs 16: 9  (NIV)

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

He promises to direct our steps, but not to dictate them.*

I have a friend who is very organized. One time she showed me the proposed itinerary for her family’s vacation in which she had an activity planned for every moment of the trip. I asked her if she was planning to be spontaneous at any time. I’m pretty sure my little joke went right over her very organized head!

I am not so organized myself, but in my career, I had to learn to be. There were statutory deadlines that I had to meet so I had to get my ducks in a row. Having everything organized and ready helped keep me out of court, but being able to think on my feet was also an important skill because not everything goes according to plan.

Life is like that. Our plans often go awry. Solomon and I are not suggesting that you shouldn’t make plans, but it is always prudent to ask for God’s guidance before formulating any plan.  And no matter how prepared you think you are, you had better have a contingency plan. 

Having God’s blessings on your plan minimizes the chances of having to employ a Plan B, but don't be surprised if all your planning is for nothing. Trust God to determine your next step.

Have we not often made the mistake in some emergency of taking certain steps that to us seemed reasonable and prudent, and then praying afterwards that God would bless what we have done. In His mercy He may so bless but we should have done better if we had prayed first.*

February 9, 2026

Leviticus 18: 24 (NIV)

“Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.”

Evil . . . has damaged our relationships with God, self, each other and the earth.*

Leviticus chapter 18 contains a long list of forbidden sexual practices. These sins – and any other sinful lifestyle – corrupt individuals and eventually the nation; incur the wrath of God; and seal our doom. With his prohibitions and warnings, God gave the children of Israel the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of their new neighbors in the land of Canaan. He was teaching them to be reflections of his uniqueness and holiness.

As someone has observed, “Some things are immoral and unclean in themselves for all persons at all times.”* The laws addressed in this chapter are of a moral nature rather than ceremonial and we can find them restated and updated in the New Testament. As Christians we are called to distinguish ourselves from the world, just as the Israelites were to stand out from the people around them.

For several decades, we in America have been sliding inexorably down that slippery slope of depravity. Could it be that we have become the modern equivalent of Canaan? Is God even now preparing a tribe to invade us and cleanse our land? It may be too late for our nation to be spared from God’s judgment but there is still time for individuals to repent and walk in holiness.

We cannot treat as acceptable what God has prohibited.*

February 8, 2026

II Corinthians 4: 8, 9 (NIV)

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

A Christian never loses anything by suffering and affliction.*

Being a Christian is not always easy. In some parts of the world it is a daily walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. In these verses, Paul shares some of the inward and outward afflictions that he and his fellow ministers were enduring. It is characteristic of Paul that he would choose to look at the bright side of his challenges. These are bad things, he says, but not the worst things.

Paul’s life was hard – not just because of circumstances beyond his control but because of his faith. It was the life he chose. If you are a Christian, you have chosen a perilous path. Some of us make it to the end of the trail with a minimum of actual danger and, to us, Paul’s words are mere theory, not real life experience. Perhaps those of us who have never suffered for our faith are missing out on the blessed secret that Paul knew. He knew "the power and victory of Jesus in his life because he was continually in situations where only the power and victory of Jesus could meet his need!”*

Isn't that what we should know, too?

Faith faces the brutal facts, but it never gives up hope.*

February 7, 2026

Exodus 16: 3 (NIV)

The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

Memories may be beautiful, and yet what’s too painful to remember we simply choose to forget.*

How easy it is to become a spoiled rotten brat. How quickly we forget where we’ve been and who was with us through it all. How human to be such whiners. “Oh, poor us. We’re slaves in Egypt!” And now that God has delivered them, rather than thank him, they snivel about a little hardship in the desert. I guess we could say the grass is always greener back in Egypt.

The Israelites’ selective memory is a vivid illustration of “the critical choice we all face between the immediate pleasures of Egypt and the long-term benefits of walking in God’s will.”* If we are going to walk by faith, we can’t walk by sight – whether it’s hindsight or foresight or just trying to see the road today.

Have you ever been enslaved by anything? A bad habit? Believing a lie? Sin in general? Did God deliver you from it? Would you rather have died there than to face the desert you find yourself in today? Are you going to blame God for your present troubles - or will you remember that if he can facilitate your escape from Egypt, he can certainly provide for you in the wilderness?

Discontent magnifies what is past, and vilifies what is present, without regard to truth or reason.*

February 6, 2026

Numbers 18: 20 (NIV)

The Lord said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites.”

To benefit from a church’s staff, facilities, and events without praying, giving, and serving is no different from walking out of a store with items for which you haven’t paid.*

Many years ago I was a member of a small congregation in which a few other members decided that they were no longer happy with the preacher. Rather than handle the situation biblically, professionally, or lovingly, these disgruntled “Christians” just stopped giving financially to the church. Soon there was not enough money to pay the poor preacher.

This may not be new or unusual behavior among God’s people. While the physical survival of the Old Testament's “fulltime ministers” depended on how faithful the other Israelites were,* there were many periods in Israel’s history when the Levites (the priestly tribe) lived in a state of poverty.* And in Malachi, chapter three, the prophet had to remind the people to “bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.” He actually accuses them of robbing God!

We are not under any “legal” obligation to tithe today but there are scriptural principles that point to our duty as church members to provide financially for someone who can be available to “meet the pressing needs of the congregation.”* As ministry professionals, of course our ministers trust God to provide for their needs but as pew-level Christians, we are missing out on God’s blessings if we aren’t giving at least 10% of our income to the Lord’s work. 

• Blessing 1: Being obedient is its own reward. 
• Blessing 2: Blessing others blesses you. 
• Blessing 3: Living on the remaining 90% strengthens your faith in God’s provision.

Aaron and his tribe of priests were assured that God would be their share and their inheritance. As a priesthood of believers, Christians have double the opportunities to benefit from the same promise God made to the Levites: the blessing of his provision and the blessing of being the instrument of his provision.

If American Christians would tithe, we could wipe out poverty and tell the world about Jesus in no time.*

February 5, 2026

Matthew 21: 10 (NIV)

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

Sometimes the best answers to life's most baffling and troubling questions lie not in what God says but in who He is.*

Such excitement! Here comes Jesus riding on a donkey! Why was the crowd making such a fuss over him if they didn’t know who he was? There were lots of tourists in Jerusalem that day and the atmosphere must have resembled New Orleans at Mardi Gras. Everyone was looking for the next party and mass hysteria was inevitable. According to verse 10, “the whole city” asked, “Who is this?” In verse 11, Matthew says that “the crowds answered.” My guess is that the locals provided an answer for the out-of-towners. And who did they say Jesus was? “The prophet from Nazareth.” Did you know that even Islam teaches that Jesus is a prophet?* If someone asked you who Jesus is, would you know more than the crowd in Jerusalem did? Or a Moslem?

Remember when Jesus asked his disciples who did people say he was (Matthew 16: 13)? Their response was to report the rumors that he was a prophet or maybe John the Baptist. So then he asked, “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Not only did Peter get the right answer, it wasn’t something he learned on the street – it was revealed to him by the Father.

What has the Father revealed to you about who Jesus is? “Who is this?” You can’t answer if you don’t know. 

We don’t come to know God by human reason but by divine revelation.

February 4, 2026

Ezekiel 3: 15 (NIV)

I came to the exiles who lived at Tel Abib near the Kebar River. And there, where they were living, I sat among them for seven days – overwhelmed.

You will never be able to do your best work, unless you can sit where the people sit.*

Ezekiel’s ministry was to the Jews in exile in Babylon. He was a priest, called by God to deliver prophetic messages in often bizarre and dramatic fashion. In the instance described in this verse, Ezekiel seems to have randomly stumbled over a band of refugees who had established residence along the banks of a river.  Because his presence there wasn’t as random as it seems, he waited among them for seven days until the Lord spoke to him about his mission.

There is a great deal of speculation about why Ezekiel had to hang out there for a whole week before moving on to the next phase. It could have been due to the customs of that time and place. (Job’s friends sat with him for seven days before anyone spoke.) I tend to believe Ezekiel just needed the time to absorb the conditions of his congregation. Whatever his emotional response to what he saw there, he waited for God to reveal his next move. As Ezekiel’s story unfolds, we see that his message was not well-received.

We must be careful not to read unintended meanings into a passage of scripture but I think we are safe in drawing some conclusions from this one:

1. Sometimes we are called to a ministry of waiting. God’s timing is perfect but we are impatient. 

2. Sometimes we are called to a ministry of empathy. We can’t feel someone’s pain if we’ve never felt his pain! Jesus showed the way by “sitting among us” and “feeling our struggles in a fallen world.”* 

3. Sometimes, though commissioned by God, we are doomed to fail. Like Ezekiel, we may be called to deliver an unpopular message.

Wait for God. Turn your struggles into an instrument of blessing for others. Perform your ministry regardless of its potential for success. God knows what he’s doing.

We must never put our dreams of success as God’s purpose for us . . . It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.*