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  1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 Click here to listen to today’s devotional The apostle Paul wanted the Thessalonian Christians to learn to please God "more and more." To appreciate what Paul might have had in mind, it's important to recall when he first preached in Thessalonica. The people there accused the believers of turning the world upside down because they said, "There is another king named Jesus" (Acts 17). Caesar was the other king. Living under a king like Caesar, "more" usually meant giving more. More taxes, more allegiance, more of yourself to an empire that always demanded something else. King Jesus is different. Paul's urging the church to please God "more and more" wasn't a call to appease a God who is never satisfied. No, he understood that the more we follow Jesus, the more we become the people God created us to be. We become more human, recognizing more and more the image of God within us. This growth is what we know as holin...

  Romans 15:1-6 Click here to listen to today’s devotional One of the marks of spiritual maturity isn't that nothing bothers you anymore. You just learn to decide what is worth being bothered about. Personally, I took the "pick your battles" advice to heart and have found less interest in fewer and fewer battles. I see this kind of spiritual maturity as a gift of the Spirit. The apostle Paul says it this way, "We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves" (Romans 15:1). That raises an uncomfortable question to wrestle with. Am I spiritually strong enough to let other people inconvenience me? Sometimes, I think our "standing for truth" is really just defending our preferences. Have you noticed the uproar that can happen when people get frustrated because someone is late, sings differently than they like, asks too many questions, or just doesn't see things the same way? Paul points us to a strength that...

  Psalm 119:105-112 Click here to listen to today’s devotional Many of us go to God’s Word for answers. We want God to show us the whole picture so we can know what is coming next, how everything will work out, and what decisions we should make. Now, I will never discourage you from seeking the Bible's wisdom. But I might suggest you not see the Bible as a spotlight. Psalm 119:105 gives us a different image. The psalm famously says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Consider that a lamp is not a spotlight that illuminates miles down the road. It gives just enough light for the next step. Perhaps God’s Word was never meant to satisfy our desire to know everything. Instead, it was given to shape our willingness to obey what God has already shown us. Think about how often we ask God for more clarity when what we really need is more courage or confidence in what God has already told us. We might want God to show us what's next, but what if God is saying, ...

  John 13:12-17 Click here to listen to today’s devotional Jesus didn't just wash his disciples' feet. There's too much happening around the story for it to just be a lesson on humility. Before Jesus picked up a towel, John tells us something important that Jesus knew. He knew and understood that God "had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God" (John 13:3). Secure in who he was and confident in what God had entrusted to him, Jesus took what had been placed in his hands and used those hands to wash dirty feet. The room must've been full of tension. Judas had begun to feel his betrayal. Peter was about to object. None of the disciples knew or understood what was unfolding. The Lord didn't explain what he was about to do. There was no leadership briefing. He simply stood up from the table, wrapped a towel around himself, poured water into a basin, and knelt before the first disciple. One by one, he washed every pair...

  Psalm 131 Click here to listen to today’s devotional Every once in a while, people ask me if I get nervous before I preach. I have to be honest and answer that I don't. When I first started preaching, I didn't know enough to be nervous. I was young. I had a sermon, a Bible, and more confidence than wisdom. I had no idea what it meant to stand before people and speak on behalf of God's Word. If I had known then what I know now! If I understood the weight of the calling, the responsibility, and even the privilege, I probably would have been terrified. Funny how that works. The more we grow, the more we realize how much we don't know. Psalm 131 expresses that kind of humility. The psalmist says, "my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me." Instead, he says, "I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother." That isn't a word against educa...

  Genesis 27:41-45 Click here to listen to today’s devotional Time heals all wounds. At least, that's what we're told. But does it? In the book of Genesis, Jacob steals his older brother Esau's blessing. Siblings know how frustrating it can be when a brother or sister messes with their things. Well, this was much more than that. Esau's rage builds, and he vows to kill his brother. The boys' mother, Rebekah, orchestrated this whole scenario. And when she hears what Esau plans to do, she tells Jacob to run away to an uncle for a while. A literal translation of the text could be to tarry for a few days. Rebekah assumes Esau's fury and anger will cool down in a few days. It almost sounds reasonable to give him time to cool his temper. Except Jacob doesn't stay away for a few days. He stays away for about twenty years. And as far as Genesis tells us, Rebekah never sees her son again. Sometimes, we assume time will do the work that only truth, repentance, forgiven...