November 1, 2026

Psalm 78: 70-72 (NIV)

He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.

Completing a small job with excellence is of eternal value.*

My cousin began his career at Delta Airlines as a baggage-handler and ended it, years later, as their station manager at a busy city airport. He was able to work his way through the ranks because he had what the company was looking for and the company was savvy enough to recognize what he had to offer. If my job-hunting experience is any indication, there aren’t many businesses today who are looking to grow their employees from bottom to top.

God is an employer who recognizes the value of investing in his staff. He took David from his humble, blue-collar background – herding sheep – and shaped him into a military commander and then crowned him king. It is interesting that it was in his lowly job as a shepherd that God prepared David for his ultimate destiny.

I can safely say that none of my readers is being groomed by God to be the king of anything, but I believe that he wants to use each of us to accomplish great things for his kingdom. So what can we learn from David’s example that will help to prepare us for our future assignment?

First, treat today’s assignment as if it as important as tomorrow’s. Because it is. Tending sheep may be a humble occupation but to the sheep in your care, it’s a vital task. Second, carry out the duties of your lowly calling with integrity of heart. David was called “a man after God’s heart.” We should seek after God’s heart in order to maintain a right heart within ourselves. And third, perform your job with excellence. When the psalmist writes that David led them with “skillful hands,” he was talking about the sheep. He didn’t save his best efforts for the prestigious job he hoped was in his future; he gave his best to his current calling.

Whether in a secular job or a ministry, these principles are applicable. God may not choose to take you from the sheep pens, but he will bless you and your sheep when you follow David’s example.

This job has been given to me to do. Therefore it is a gift. Therefore it is a privilege. Therefore it is an offering I may take to God. Therefore it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him. Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness.*

October 31, 2026

Numbers 11: 18-20 (NIV)

“Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now, the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. . . . not . . . for just one day . . . but for a whole month – until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it . . .”

We are practically slaves to our own whims and desires.*

Once in awhile, during the summer, our parents would take my brother and me to the “root beer stand” after church on Sunday night. They always ordered us a small mug each, no matter how much we begged for a larger one. One time we got to go there with out-of-town relatives and they let us get whatever size mug we wanted. Afterwards, I felt like I was going to explode and my brother claimed to feel the same way. Getting what we wanted didn’t make us as happy as we thought it would.

I’m not much to complain about a free meal that I didn’t have to cook but I might have been whining right along with the people of Israel over having to eat manna meal after meal day after day. It doesn’t sound appetizing: it was like coriander seed and looked like resin; they ground it or crushed it; cooked it in a pot or made it into cakes. There is no mention of seasoning. There is also no mention of gratitude for the Lord’s provision. They were in the desert where, left to their own devices, they would have had to settle for what they could snag for themselves. Lizards and snakes. Birds, maybe. God gave them manna every day – all they had to do was get up every morning and gather it.

After listening to the people’s complaints, the Lord had to listen to Moses’ complaints about their complaints. So God said, “Let them eat meat.” They were going to eat meat until it came out of their noses. It was a plague of quail. As someone has observed, “In time you may come to hate what you thought you had to have.”*

The moral of this story: Don’t make God mad. Be grateful for his provision. Don’t whine about how good you had it back in the days when you were a slave. Be careful what you wish for – even more careful what you ask God for. 

We are a people obsessed with having our individual needs met, and we have become indoctrinated with the belief that it is our right to have things our way.*

October 30, 2026

I John 5: 1 (NIV)

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.

In the community of faith, we do not choose our companions. We do not get to look for the sane, the attractive, or those most likely to help us succeed. We have to make do with what we’re given.*

I have attended many bridal showers, weddings, and baby showers for people who don’t know me well. I feel like I know them because I rocked them as babies in the church nursery and/or watched them grow up in youth group with my own kids. These young people are my friends’ children (and my children's friends) so I love them – at least enough to show up at their special occasions bearing gifts.

If I can do that much for the children of my friends, how much more love should I have for the children of my Heavenly Father? We share a Father; that makes us brothers and sisters. We don’t choose our biological siblings so sometimes we are stuck with one or two that we don’t get along with so well. Our spiritual brothers and sisters, likewise, are not always the easiest people to love.

In this verse, John doesn’t command us to love the Father’s children – he just says that everyone who loves the Father loves his child. It is what it is. He helps us out with this in the next verse by saying, “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.” Love and obey God. Okay. But keep reading. John says that God’s commands aren’t burdensome and everyone who is born of God overcomes the world (verse 3). If that’s true, surely it’s possible to love those less lovable people in our lives. After all, love isn’t a feeling. It’s something you do.

“Obedience is the only proof of love."*

October 29, 2026

John 17: 20 (NIV)

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.

The final prayer of Jesus was about you.*

The gospels provide us with plenty of evidence that Jesus was a man of prayer. John chapter 17 is his longest recorded prayer, revealing our Savior’s heart. Jesus begins this prayer by – surprise – praying for himself. It is not a selfish prayer but one that’s about doing the Father’s will and bringing him glory. He follows with a heartfelt prayer for his followers. He doesn’t tell God anything God doesn’t already know, but the human Jesus had a human need to communicate with his Father. His request for his disciples is that they will be protected from the evil one and sanctified by the truth.

Finally, he prays for me. I am one of those who believe in him through the message of his disciples. He looked ahead to the far distant future and made provisions for my salvation. He placed me in a home with parents who brought me up among the fellowship of believers and who modeled Christian living. What about you? He was praying for you, too. How did he arrange for you to be exposed to the gospel? Family? Friends? A chance encounter? I love stories of how people have come to know Jesus. I love that he cared enough to pray for each of us even while his own death was on his mind. I love that some of us get to be the tools through which his prayer is answered.

He closes his prayer by expressing his desire that the love the Father has for him may be in us and that he himself may be in us also. Whether that prayer is answered or not is up to us. Will we allow him to dwell in us?

Jesus prayed not just as a model, but because he had to pray.*

October 28, 2026

John 13: 14 -16 (NIV)

“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I . . . have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, or is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.”

Why did Jesus make himself nothing? So we all could be something.*

When Jesus said that he had set an example, he wasn’t referring to foot-washing literally. His example was in the attitude – humility. Jesus admits that his disciples are right to call him Teacher and Lord but they don’t fully understand the significance of those positions as they pertain to him. So he shows them what he means by lowering himself to wash their feet.

Like the disciples, we think of people in “high places” as being too good to stoop to perform servants’ work. We might even think of ourselves as one of those people. As usual, Jesus has a different way of looking at things. From his position of honor, Jesus demonstrates a new standard for greatness. And when your superior humbles himself, you should, too – because no servant is greater than his master.

Jesus has presented a new principle – now how does it fit into your life? In what areas does pride have a foothold (no pun intended!)? Perhaps you think of yourself as “humble enough,” making it okay to hoard that little bit of conceit. Humility can be faked if your acting skills are good enough, but God knows it’s only a show. We will never reach Jesus’ level of greatness until we are as low as we can go.

True humility comes from standing next to the cross.*

October 27, 2026

Luke 14: 27 (NIV)

“And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

There are no uncrucified disciples.*

“I guess it’s just my cross to bear.” How often do we hear that expression? Do you ever hear it and think that somebody is exaggerating the weight of their load? In response to this sentiment, Oswald Chambers writes: “We are apt to imagine that the cross we have to carry means the ordinary troubles and trials of life, but we must have those whether we are Christians or not. Neither is our cross suffering for conscience’s sake. Our cross is something that comes only with the peculiar relationship of a disciple to Jesus Christ; it is the evidence that we have denied our right to ourselves.”* 

Our daily burdens – however heavy they may be – are not our cross. Our cross is not even the sacrifices we make in order to live a Christian life. When we submit to carrying our cross, it is a private matter between us and the Lord. What we see that looks like cross-bearing is only an outward indication that we might be carrying a cross. When I deny my right to myself, there should be  external, visible signs of the change in me, but only God knows the rebellions that my heart clings to, the idols of self that stand between me and him.

Some of Jesus’ disciples are called to more sacrifice and suffering than others but all of us are called to give up ourselves. When you let go of yourself, your cross is not your burden but your honor as you shoulder it on the path behind Jesus and his cross.

If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you. God’s experiments always succeed.*

October 26, 2026

John 13: 23 (NIV)

One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him.

Stop and ask Jesus to remind you how He sees you.*

In the sensitivity training required by my job, we were taught to refer to a handicapped individual as “a person with a disability” rather than as “a disabled person.” Not being so very sensitive myself, I failed to see the distinction at first. Then I thought of it in terms of myself being referred to as “the lady with blonde hair” as opposed to “The Blonde.” How much of our self-worth is tangled up with how we identify ourselves?

Is John being just a little bit arrogant, claiming a special relationship with the Lord?  I have heard that this may have been a literary device employed in the Jewish culture at this time. Also, I sense humility in John’s refusal to include his own name in the story - though there might be a hint of pride – or gratitude, perhaps – in knowing that he is loved by Jesus.

Philip Yancey, in his book, What’s so Amazing about Grace? poses these questions: “What would it mean, I ask myself, if I too came to the place where I saw my primary identity in life as ‘the one Jesus loves’? How differently would I view myself at the end of a day?”* I think that someone who can define himself as “the one whom Jesus loves” has a clear idea of his value. This person knows the price that Jesus paid for him; and knowing that price, longs to be more worthy of the honor and the sacrifice.

What do you see as your primary identity in life? Are you a mom? A loyal employee? A good person?  Is this your most valuable quality? Or is your worth factor determined by the blood of the Lamb?

What a value hath God set upon the soul! He made it after his image, he redeemed it with Christ's blood.*