September 24, 2026

Ezekiel 2: 4, 5 (NIV)

“The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’ And whether they listen or fail to listen – for they are a rebellious house – they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

Persistence in ministry has brought success, as long as I am properly defining success.*

When you are confident that you have correctly understood and obeyed God’s calling for your life, you expect your mission to be successful. How discouraging it must have been for Ezekiel to get this news from God: I am sending you to preach to people who probably won’t listen. 

We measure success by the results we can see – souls saved, lives changed. It turns out that God has a different set of criteria for measuring success. The response of the listeners doesn’t seem to have been his top priority. He didn’t instruct Ezekiel in how to capture the attention of the crowd. He didn’t have him research the demographics in order to implement the most effective evangelistic approach. It seems that God had two main objectives: 

1. Ezekiel’s obedience. The prophet was to deliver the message from the Sovereign Lord to an obstinate and stubborn audience. Their response (or lack thereof) was not Ezekiel’s concern. 

2. That the rebellious house would know that they had heard from a prophet – whether they listened or not. 

While changed lives and saved souls are how we measure evangelistic success, those activities are the work of the Holy Spirit. Our job is to obediently proclaim the message so as to leave no doubt that the Word of God has been shared. That is God’s definition of a successful ministry – the Sovereign Lord says so!

It is not our ministry to have the last word. The best we can do is point to Christ and say, “Hear ye Him.”*

September 23, 2026

Acts 4: 12 (NIV)

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

The Holy Spirit is the author of conversion.*

Have you ever gone miles out of your way before you realized that you had taken a wrong turn? You were happily tooling along, admiring the scenery and making good time, totally oblivious to the fact that you were lost. When was it that you felt the symptoms of panic? Not until you knew you were lost, of course.

That’s a big problem with lost souls, as well. They can be living happy and productive lives, unaware that hell is their ultimate destination. It is daunting to think of trying to convince this oblivious lost soul of his need for salvation, let alone that Jesus is the source of salvation. Where do you start? I suggest that your starting point is not with the person but with the Lord in prayer.

When you pray for the lost: 1) the Holy Spirit becomes your power source; 2) the Holy Spirit will use you as he sees fit – you are just a tool through whom he might or might not choose to work; 3) the Holy Spirit assumes responsibility for convicting the lost soul.

Do you know someone who is lost and making good time on the road to destruction? Have you been dithering about witnessing to this person? Pray that God will send a messenger that your friend will listen to. Pray that he will prepare you to be that messenger. And don’t give up - because salvation is found in no one else but Jesus. There is no Plan B. 

We can do a great deal for people after we pray for them but little of lasting value until we pray for them.*

September 22, 2026

Acts 20: 27 (NIV)

“You know that I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.”

We need to focus on and proclaim what God has plainly revealed – even when it’s unpopular – and trust him with what we don’t know.*

There are a lot of differences between me and the Apostle Paul. In this one sentence we find two ways that he and I are not alike.

· Did not hesitate. When have I not hesitated to speak up for the Lord? It’s easy for me to “talk straight” to my readers; not so much face-to-face. Why do I hesitate? I’m not ashamed, not afraid, and not even concerned about whether people like me or not. Am I hesitant because I want to say the right thing? Because it feels too personal? Why do you hesitate? 

· Knew the whole will of God. Maybe Paul wasn’t afraid to proclaim the whole will of God because he knew it. Such knowledge would produce confidence, wouldn’t it? If I don’t know the whole will of God, why don’t I?

I have concluded, after prayerful analysis of my inadequacies that: 

· It doesn’t matter why I hesitate. Hesitation in itself isn’t such a bad thing if it is a sign of thoughtfulness. Hesitating to speak is not the same as refusing, neglecting, or forgetting to speak. I am not a preacher (another way that Paul and I differ), but I am not excused from proclaiming. 

· I don’t have to know everything to say something. I know the gospel – the good news of Jesus – and what I’m supposed to do with it. I have a testimony. I may not know the whole will of God but through his Spirit, I know what his will is for me.

If you would like me to share more on this subject, don’t hesitate to ask!

Don’t complicate evangelism.*

September 21, 2026

Proverbs 14: 12 (NIV)

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

Nobody can be truly better off from believing and advocating a lie.*

In the movie, Quigley Down Under, Matthew Quigley and Crazy Cora, after being left for dead in the Australian Outback, have acquired a horse upon whose back they hope to ride to civilization. When Crazy Cora points out that they are making good time, Quigley laconically responds, “Don’t know where we’re going but there’s no point in being late.”

Quigley’s words could be the motto for the man who pursues a way that seems right to him. A man who is sincere while on the wrong path is just as lost as the one who deliberately, rebelliously takes the highway to hell. Case in point: Saul/Paul. Read Acts 8: 1-3, and 9: 1 and 2, for a look at someone who wasn’t just sincerely wrong – he was zealous and bloodthirsty. When Saul was blinded by the light on the road to Damascus, Jesus didn’t tell him that being a terrorist was okay since he thought that persecuting Christians was pleasing to God. Jesus told him the truth and Saul had to decide what to do with his new knowledge.

I sometimes think that Paul had an unfair advantage. I mean, who wouldn’t turn to the truth if Jesus appeared to you in a flash of light and gave you an attitude adjustment? Paul might say that our advantages far surpass his: we have the truth in a handy reference book called the New Testament. He didn’t. He had to write most of it. Ignorance of the truth is no excuse when it is so readily available to us, and we are faced with the same choice as Paul: continue to pursue the way that seems right or pursue truth.

Don’t make good time on the road to hell. Seek the truth in God’s word. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you in your search for the path to righteousness - for sincerely wrong leads to death.

God created man with the ability to think, to acquire knowledge and to discern truth. God wants us to use our minds.*

September 20, 2026

Psalm 46: 10 (NIV)

“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

When a soul sets out to seek God, God sets out to meet that soul.*

I used this verse earlier (5/27) to encourage you to apply it as a spiritual discipline. I shared some practical tips on how to be still. It is challenging (for me) to block out the environmental distractions and stay focused, but it is well worth the effort. To prove my point, here are some things God has revealed to me in the stillness since then:

• In the stillness, God’s presence is more . . . present. Of course I know that God is everywhere but I don’t always sense his presence – his Spirit - in the room with me. I don’t say that I feel his presence because it is more than a feeling. 
• I don’t have to go to God – he has come to me. Again, something I know but don’t experience until I am still. 
• God’s “love language”* is quality time. I think we all have two love languages: one we “speak,” and one we respond to. I speak “words of encouragement” and I respond to “quality time.” It occurred to me in the stillness that God speaks all five love languages but he responds to quality time. He wants to spend time with us. 
• God never shouts. If I’m never still, I might not ever hear him speak. 
• I am thankful that I don’t have a God who can’t. God is faithful. God is love. And God is powerful. His attributes add up to a God who is almighty. Yes, I already knew this but he reminded me of it in the stillness because I needed to be reminded. Maybe you do, too.

I hope that you are encouraged to set aside a few moments to be still and know that God is . . . God. I would love to know what he reveals to you in the quietness. Perhaps later one of us will be able to answer how it is that being still and knowing God results in his being exalted among the nations and in the earth. . . 

There’s a good chance this verse will come up again at a later date!

The God of the infinite is also the God of the individual. The God of unlimited power is also the God of intimate relationship.*

September 19, 2026

Luke 4: 42, 43 (NIV)

At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”

Jesus was committed to making disciples, not attracting crowds of consumers.*

Jesus has been preaching, and healing, and driving out evil spirits in Capernaum and the people there did not want to let him leave. Can you blame them? His miracles improved their lives – and who doesn’t love a good sermon? Perhaps Jesus was moved by their desire to keep him with them, but it was time to for him to move on. They had heard his message; now it was someone else’s turn to hear it. This, he said, was why he was sent.

Aren’t we like those Capernaumites? We have heard the gospel – and we hear it week after week from the comfort of our church pews. We enjoy hearing our preachers proclaim truth. We love to worship together with fellow believers. It feels good to be with our church family on Sunday morning. But Jesus expected us to carry on with his mission after he was gone. His last words before he returned to heaven weren’t, “Sit and listen.” He said, “Go and disciple.” Isn’t it time for us to share the gospel with those who haven’t heard it yet? 

Even as we have made discipling and baptizing the imperatives of the Great Commission, it seems at times the focus of our local ministries has overlooked Jesus’ first instruction to “go.”*

September 18, 2026

Matthew 11: 12 (NIV)

“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.”

As we are living out our lives on earth, the supernatural universe is simultaneously at war.*

The kingdom of heaven is a spiritual realm, not a physical place. The army of the kingdom is invisible to human eyes but it is mighty. When I read Jesus’ description of it as “forcefully advancing,” I hear the thunder of military boots marching to war. The battles will be fierce but victory is guaranteed.

Satan heard the sound of those marching feet and he was alarmed. I have read speculation that Satan knew something was afoot when Jesus came to earth but he didn’t know exactly what, so he sent out his own army, ramping up the demonic activity during the days of Jesus’ ministry. A defensive maneuver like his demands a forceful countermove so the army of the kingdom of heaven is recruiting volunteers. Like the United States Marine Corp, this army is looking for a few good men (and women) – forceful and bold warriors willing to “wrestle with principalities and powers.”*

If you think that Christianity is for sissies, you don’t understand spiritual warfare and you underestimate Satan. It has been said that if you pray for peace, you should prepare for war. As someone has eloquently depicted it: "The kingdom has come with holy power and magnificent energy that has been pushing back the frontiers of darkness. . . . The kingdom is making great strides; now is the time for courageous souls, forceful people, to take hold of it."*

Military battles are not won with soldiers in the barracks nor are spiritual battles won by Christians who content themselves with polishing their holy armor in the safety of a church building.*