July 2, 2026

Revelation 5: 8 (NIV)

And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

The prayers of God’s people are as sweet to Him as incense.*

Incense was an important part of worship in the tabernacle. So important that when God gave Moses the recipe, he warned him that concocting a batch for your own pleasure would result in your being “cut off” from your people (Exodus 30: 34-38). The Old Testament is full of references to incense. David’s prayer in Psalm 141: 2 is a poetic picture of its symbolism: “May my prayer be set before you like incense.” Like God’s favorite fragrance, our prayers rise up to Heaven for his pleasure.

Picture a bowl in Heaven. It’s got your name on it. Every time you pray, your prayers go in the bowl. What do those prayers smell like? I have to admit that my whiney selfish prayers probably don’t smell so sweet. What are the ingredients for a sweet-smelling prayer? I believe the formula would include qualities such as humility; faith; affection; fervency.* Since discovering this verse, I have been more intentional in offering prayers of praise and intercession. They smell SO good!

There is an exquisite beauty in this thought that true prayer is fragrance to God. The pleadings and supplications of His people on the earth rise from lowly homes, from sick rooms, from darkened chambers of grief where loved ones kneel beside their dead, from humble sanctuaries, from stately cathedrals, and are wafted up before God as the breath of flowers is wafted to us in summer days, sweet fields and fragrant gardens. And God “smells a sweet savour.” Prayer is perfume to Him.*

July 1, 2026

Revelation 3: 17, 18 (NIV)

“You say, ‘I am rich . . . and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold . . . so you can become rich; and white clothes . . . so you can cover your nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”

Self-sufficiency is the fatal danger of a lukewarm state.*

Remember the fable of the Emperor’s New Clothes? Some con men convinced everyone in the kingdom that they could fashion a new wardrobe for the emperor that only the wisest people could see. No one wanted to be thought stupid so everyone pretended to admire the emperor’s outfit as he paraded around town, until some child, too young to be concerned about what others thought, calls out, “But he’s not wearing any clothes!”

Satan, the world’s greatest con man, had convinced the church members at Laodicea that they were rich and didn’t need a thing. “They had evidently mistaken ‘the good life’ for the righteous life.”* God says to them, through his revelation to John: Not only are you not rich, you are pathetic, blind, and naked. They professed to be Christians but in their rampant materialism they failed to notice that they were “out of communion with Christ.”*

The Laodiceans are not the only ones who ever fell for Satan’s scams. Theirs is the condition of all who are trusting in something other than Jesus Christ. But just as “self-sufficient Laodicea”* is called to repentance (verse 19), God also offers us the chance to cover our nakedness, become rich, and to see again. Learn to value the things that God values – such as faith refined by fire; purity; and spiritual discernment.

The appearance of affluence and self-sufficiency can often blind us to deeper spiritual needs.*

June 30, 2026

Revelation 2: 19, 20 (NIV)

I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. Nevertheless, I have this against you: . . .

On the sin scale, we’re all tied for worst.*

You may have noticed Paul’s fondness for buttering people up before delivering the bad news. We see God employing the same strategy here in the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the church in Thyatira. The Lord commends them for their good works and perseverance, as well as for their love and faith. He is especially proud of their improvement. But after all that glowing praise, he delivers a harsh reprimand for the “cancer [that] was gnawing away at the vitals of the congregation.”*

When I read these verses, I ask myself: Is it possible to please God when you are only partially getting it right? And then I have to ask: How could I ask that? Do we ever get it right? And even if we did finally learn to live a life that is totally pleasing to God, it’s too late; we’ve already got all those past sins on our record.

Or do we? According to Romans 3: 22, our righteousness comes through our faith in Jesus Christ, not through how close we come to “getting it right.”

We are under grace, even when we sin.*

June 29, 2026

Luke 22: 42 (NIV)

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Had any of God’s chosen ever understood why the Lord’s answer to a prayer was not exactly as anticipated?*

My friend probably echoed this prayer for a couple of years. Beginning with the discovery of breast cancer, she endured surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Before she could savor a victory, she faced a new crisis – one after another. She was a bright light of faith in the dark world of cancer sufferers and she was surrounded by an army of prayer warriors. But at the end, she knew that the answer to her prayers was “no.” What I am about to say would have provided little comfort in the midst of her misery: 

We can ask God to deliver us from our troubles and we have faith that he is able; but if he denied the request of his beloved Son, how can we expect our cup of suffering to be taken from us? 

So why pray? More to the point: why did Jesus pray? He already knew what the answer would be. He had lived his whole life knowing what to expect and yet he begged to be released from his horrible fate. He knew it had to be done but still he implored his Father to find some other way. What can we learn from our Savior’s anguished cries in the garden that night?

First, we see Jesus submitting to his Father’s will. Before and after his request, he expressed his concession to the Father’s will. Second, we see that Jesus was not hesitant to tell God what he wanted. Even knowing what he knew, and what he knew that God knew, he clearly expressed what he wanted from God for himself. 

And finally, we learn the most important lesson from Jesus’ prayer: the true purpose of prayer. Jesus didn’t pray to get stuff from God. He didn’t pray because God didn’t know what his Son wanted. Jesus prayed because he and the Father needed to spend time together. When we spend time with our loved ones, we talk; and God, a jealous God, wants our undivided attention when we talk to him. He wants to draw us so close to him that we are compelled to spill our guts to him – to purge ourselves of what we want and binge on what he wants. 

From scripture, we can compile lists of what we should pray for, how we should pray, and whose prayers are answered. But we look to the life of Jesus to see that the true purpose of prayer is . . . prayer.

To be a master of the mystery of prayer one must pray, pray continually, pray hourly, pray at all times, pray without ceasing.*

June 28, 2026

I Kings 19: 11-13 (NIV)

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountain apart and shattered the rocks . . . but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. . . . Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

There is little joy to be found in having unrealistic expectations.*

Unrealistic expectations can ruin our dreams and our relationships. In our society, we are bombarded with messages that cause us to think that if we want it bad enough and work hard enough, we deserve whatever it is that we obsess over. The truth is, wanting and hard work aren’t always enough. Luck, talent, opportunity, genetics (Danny Devito was never going to be drafted by the NBA) – many factors are involved in how our lives turn out.

Keeping expectations real is a constant balancing act. Our aspirations aren’t the only area where we have been misled into a fantasy version of reality. Do any of these phrases sound familiar:

    ·         Name it and claim it!

    ·         Health and wealth gospel.

    ·         Pray through.

    ·         I know the plans I have for you . . .

    ·         Just ask Jesus into your heart.

These are just a few expressions that have caused people to look for God in all the wrong places and with unrealistic expectations. They are based on unscriptural principles or taken out of their intended scriptural context. Elijah was sent out on the mountain to look for God in an object lesson for all of us. God was not where Elijah expected him to be – not in the tornado; not in the earthquake; not in the fire. We are in awe of God when confronted by forces of nature but they are not how God usually chooses to speak to us. When he spoke to Elijah, it was in a whisper. In order to hear a whisper, you have to lean in and listen.

God speaks to us through his word but sometimes his Spirit whispers to us in unexpected ways to illuminate what we have read. I have heard his whisper through (of all things) a commercial for feminine hygiene products, and through the delight of a needy person upon receiving two rolls of toilet paper from a food pantry. He has whispered his answer to me when I have voiced my despairing – and, I thought, rhetorical – questions. He has whispered into my mind not what I expected to say but what I needed to say.

Has God ever spoken to you in an unexpected way? Nature testifies of God but we must lean in and listen if we want to hear his voice.

Because we look for the bonfire, we miss the candle. Because we listen for the shout, we miss the whisper.*

June 27, 2026

I Samuel 24: 4, 5 (NIV)

. . . David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off  a corner of his robe.

Forbearance is putting up with people you’d like to put down.*

The North American plains Indians had a custom called “counting coup.” (I don’t know what they called it, as “counting” is an English word, and “coup” is French.) The warriors scored points for touching the enemy and then escaping unharmed. It didn’t count if there was no risk of injury or death.* Doesn’t this sound like what David did that night in the cave, risking his life to prove that his enemy’s life was in his hands?

So what caused him to be “conscience-stricken”? He didn’t harm Saul; he didn’t even cause him public embarrassment – it is doubtful that anyone would have noticed a tiny tear on the corner of the robe of someone who had been traipsing about the wilderness and sleeping in a cave. All he did was obtain proof that he could have killed Saul but chose not to.

David’s shame reminds me of a line from the movie, You’ve Got Mail. Kathleen is lamenting that in the face of the rudeness of others, she never can think of the snappy comebacks until it’s too late. Joe reminds her that “when you finally have the pleasure of saying the thing you mean to say at the moment you mean to say it, remorse inevitably follows.” You think it’s going to feel so good to “get them back” but you usually end up sorry – if you are an honorable person.

While Saul may have been out for David’s blood, David recognized that Saul was still the king, anointed by God. Continue reading this chapter and you will see that instead of taunting Saul as he surely was tempted to do, David used the occasion to attempt reconciliation with his former mentor and friend. David, the warrior king, had a rare opportunity to be a peacemaker.

Most of us are like Kathleen in the movie – the clever retort arrives in our brains too late for us to put that obnoxious person in his place. But most of us have had the experience of “saying what you mean to say when you mean to say it” at least once in our lives. Instead of being proud of our cleverness, perhaps we should have stepped back and asked how we could use the situation as an opportunity to be a peacemaker. . . . Well, it’s too late now . . . but there’s always a next time!

What I say says more about me than it does about the person toward whom I have directed my impassioned speech.*

June 26, 2026

Proverbs 26: 13 (NIV)

The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!”

Fear can haunt us and paralyze us. Or fear can trigger us to flee to the one whose “perfect love drives out all fear.”*

About the time that my boys were preparing to go on a mission trip to Honduras, I read a newspaper article about some violent incident that had occurred somewhere in that country. I was already a little uneasy about letting my teen-agers go off to a foreign country, but then the thought came to me: the parent of a Honduran youth might not want her child to come to the US if she read about some of the things that happen here.

Life is dangerous everywhere. We might scoff at the lazy bums of the world whose imaginations have conjured up an excuse to avoid industrious or constructive activity but the fact is, there really are lions roaming the streets. It is not just the sluggard’s convenient delusion.

The Bible has a lot to say about facing fear – the Book of Job and the Psalms in the Old Testament offer comforting words; and I John 4: 18 is the New Testament go-to verse for the fearful: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear . . .” But God’s word has much more to say about fearing God than about any other type of fear. Read Leviticus and Deuteronomy and the Book of Acts. In Luke 12: 5, Jesus delivers the ultimate warning: Fear him who has the power to throw you into hell. Doesn’t that put your other fears into proper perspective?

Hell . . . is God’s idea.  It is God, not the devil, who holds the power to cast body and soul into Hell.  It is at the juxtaposition of these two facets, both the love and wrath of God the Almighty, that we find the cross of Christ.*