September 17 – Ezra 1-3

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from Ezra 1-3. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word. Also above in the tabs is a link to the Bible reading plan.

Are you willing to stand strong under persecution to carry out the will of God? That is a big and important question all followers of God must answer at some point in life. God does not always call us to do the safe things for Him. God does not always ask us to go where it will take no stretching of faith to go. God wants to mold us and shape us and sometimes that means we must go through some hard times.

Today we started the book of Ezra. Ezra is called by God to go back to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding the Temple of God in the city. All the prophecies pointing to the hope of the return from exile are now beginning to be played out. Their work however is met with obstacles. There are people living in the land who do not want the exiles to return. Some of these people were other nationalities brought in from regions all around when the Babylonians exiled the Jews. Some of these are Jews who were not faithful and may have been left behind in the land. Read again these words of Ezra 3:3 … “Even thought the people were of afraid of the local residents, they built the altar at its old site.” (NLT) Even though they were afraid, thy built anyway.

What is God asking you to that will stretch your faith and trust in Him? Are willing to do it, or are you going to shyly step back and do what is only in your comfort zone. Some of the greatest change this world has ever seen was because people allowed God to stretch them. How can God use you?

September 12 – Joel 1-3

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from Joel 1-3. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word. Also above in the tabs is a link to the Bible reading plan. 

Photo Credit: Matt Molly

In the ancient world one way to show grief, shock, or repentance was by tearing your clothing from the neck down. This was an outward symbol of what was going on in the mind and heart in the moment of anguish. In our twenty-first century minds this is an odd way to show grief. But in reality until recently we had some similar practices … wearing only black to a funeral … as a minister I attend many funerals, people no longer wear solid black to funerals. I am sure there are other ways today that we show morning through our outward appearances.

God knew this practice existed and in the return from exile, He wanted His people to turn back to Him. “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Do not tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is merciful and compassionate.” (Joel 2:12-13 NLT).

So while we may show the physical signs of mourning, I do not believe that is enough. I believe we must turn to God. We must find comfort and strength in Him. In God we should find our medicine. Only in God will true joy be realized. In cognitive thinking that is an easy thing to do. But in a practical application it is harder. Doing so will be something that takes effort, thought, and time to develop into a habit. To tear your heart and not your clothes is giving it to God because only He can mend the torn heart. 

August 14 - Jeremiah 26-29

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from Jeremiah 26-29. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word. Also above in the tabs is a link to the Bible reading plan. 

Photo Credit: Jeanette's Ozpix

Ok, so you have to admit the imagery of Jeremiah is pretty awesome. Jeremiah is like a modern day preacher, pulling out all sort of props and doing cool visual illustrations. I have tried a few of these myself; pulling rocks out of bag to represent the burdens we carry, having people place stones with sins on them before a cross, lighting felt on fire, and a few other little gimmicks. However, I have never gone to the extremes that Jeremiah went to. I did not live my life with an ox’s yoke around my neck. Could you just imagine the Hollywood cartoonary that would illustrate this story? Jeremiah trudging around Jerusalem, slouched over, sweat is glistening across his brow, as he carried this yoke on his shoulders?

Then could you imagine the epic scene in the Temple where Hananiah (This must be a different Hananiah than was taken into captivity with Daniel) pronounces God’s deliverance from the oppression of Babylon? Could you imagine how Hananiah would have gone about destroying the yoke around Jeremiah’s neck? I think this sort of imagery is what I love about the Bible.

The Bible is the greatest romance novel ever written. It tells an awesome story of how God has relentlessly perused a relationship with you and me. But it is also an action adventure story. How many battle scenes have we seen play out through the words on the pages? In the midst of that it is also a drama. Today’s story highlights that aspect of it as well.

On a side note, have you put a yoke around your neck that you are trudging through life with? Is it weighing you down? Is it holding you back? Do you need to let go? Here’s the cool thing, while it was not time for God to remove the yoke of oppression of the Babylonians, in Jesus, God wants to remove any yoke you may be carrying now. Really he may not completely remove it, but he will join with you and help you carry your yoke. That is what a yoke was designed for. It lightened the load, spread it out over two animals or more, to help pull whatever it was they were pulling. Here is an awesome promise from Jesus … “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NIV)

June 5 – Proverbs 7 - 9

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from Proverbs 7 - 9. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word. Also above in the tabs is a link to the Bible reading plan.

In our reading today we began with more warnings about the immoral woman … the woman we are to guard against leading us men into sexual sin. This is very noble advice and wise council from God. But I want to take it to another level and discuss sin in general.

Like the immoral woman described in this chapter sin is seductive. If sin was not seductive we would not struggle with it. We struggle with sin because it is pleasurable and it gives us some sort of satisfaction in the moment. The same would be true for the brief sexual interlude that the chapter talks about. If the woman was not seductive and offering him a good time, he would not have stumbled into her bed. Friends, sin is the same way. There is pleasure in sin. That is why we do it.

We must be on guard because the pleasure of sin is often fleeting. There is pain and turmoil in giving your heart sexually to anther for what amounts to a one night stand. Whether that is the emptiness that follows or simply a sexually transmitted disease, the consequences can be devastating. Sin feels good in the moment, but the after can literally suck. So learn to not gratify the sinful desires that will only provide momentary pleasure. Find comfort and strength in the arms of God that last a lifetime. I will take the later, it sounds so much more fulfilling.

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January 5 – Job 6-9

Today’s reading comes from Job 6-9. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word.

Job has reached the full point of misery. Everything he has been blessed with in this life except for his wife has been taken from him. His flocks and herds, his servants, his property, and worst of all his children are all gone. Even his health has been effected. As we begin our reading today we are well aware of Job’s misery.

As many of us do when tough times are upon us we question God. Job knows that he has done his best to honor God with his life. He does not understand the misery, he does not understand the hardship, and from his words, he seems that he his ready to mail his life in. His friends seem to think there is some sort of sin that has brought God’s judgment upon him. They do not know what it is … in every way they have seen Job has been noble … but in their minds there is something deep and hidden that he needs to repent of.

Job has a healthy understanding of who God is. Job’s words in chapter nine paint a beautiful picture of God the creator. They also paint a picture of God the judge. Job’s friends seem to have persuaded him to believe he is guilty for something and that the pain he is suffering is because of his guilt. The story is still developing, but Job knows that God does not reason like a man does.

Job longs for an arbitrator to reason between him and God (Job 9:22-25). Friends, Job lived without and arbitrator, but we do not have to. In Jesus we have found one who will arbitrate for us. Because God is holy and we are the furthest thing from holy, we cannot be in God’s presence. But Jesus came to become our mediator, our arbitrator, to stand before God on our behalf with our sin upon him so that we can once again walk with God. Friends, I hope you are as thankful for that as I am. No matter how tough life gets here on earth, in Christ we have hope, and friends, that is comforting in times of distress!

Your Life Experience

Below is the daily Bible reading I am doing for the West Side Church. Please feel free to follow along.

In today’s reading (Acts 22) a lot about Paul’s background is explained to us. We learn that he was a Jew, was born in Tarsus of Cilicia (Tarsus is harbor city on the northwest edge of the Mediterranean Sea, it was in the province of Galatia), was raised in Jerusalem, trained under Gamaliel (Gamaliel was the Pharisee that persuaded the Jews by saying that if the Christian movement was from God then they would not be able to stop it), he was a Pharisee and was very zealous, he persecuted followers of the Way to their death, he threw men and women in prison, and he is a Roman citizen by birth. We also are reminded of Paul’s conversion story in the discourse he delivers to the people.

Paul’s life brought him many experiences. Having been born in a Greek speaking, Greek living culture, he knew and understood Gentiles. Having lived and studied in Jerusalem, he knew Jews. Having persecuted Christians, he knew the hate that drove Jews when their persecution erupted. Having been born to parents with Roman citizenship, his life was saved many times. God took all of these things and used them to turn the world upside down.

So what is your story? What are the experiences in life that you have gone through? How can you use them to help bring people far from God into a relationship with him? Maybe your experinces would not call you to go very far from home like it did Paul. Maybe your experiences would not drive you to have to give a defense for your life like it did Paul. But maybe your experiences could help you reach that pregnant teenage girl living next door. Maybe your experiences could help that co-worker who goes homes each night and drowns their sorrows in the bottle. Maybe your experienes could help that friend who has just been laid-off from their job. I do not know what your experiences are, but you and God do, and he might just have a plan for how to use them for his purposes.