Blog (Page 13)
Preparing for Palm Sunday and Holy Week
Jesus enters Jerusalem on the way to the cross—John 12 As you get ready for this coming Sunday, March 28, let me remind you that you are not just preparing for a normal Sunday, but much more: you are preparing for what is traditionally called Holy Week, Passion Week, or Passover Week. We all need to read ahead—not just for Sunday, but for each day of the week leading all the way to Easter Sunday. Your assignment for the whole…
How to Carry On
Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted and had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 5)
Today I bring you Tip #5 in the “How to Read Your Bible” series. Scroll to the end for a full explanation of each previous tip. TODAY’S FOCUS—Tip #5: Mark up your Bible! Take notes! This is one of my personal favorites. I love to mark up and write in my Bible. Now, I am a note-taker in most meetings. My notes are not always clean in form, but I get inspired and like to write stuff down because I…
The Raising of Lazarus
As you get ready for the church teaching this coming Sunday morning, March 21, read the amazing story of John 11. Read the whole chapter. Catch the names of the characters in the story. See if you can catch the intensity of the situation at hand. Try to capture the human emotion and agony of sisters Martha and Mary when they were pleading for Jesus to come and heal their dying brother, Lazarus. Try to place yourself in the moment…
Sin
You may think you have the best dog, but you’d be wrong. Klaus Von Heim, the feisty wiener dog we had when I was growing up, was the best tail-wagger ever. We acquired him from a family who had a growing pack of pooches and was willing to re-home one. Klaus, being the smallest of the lot, had learned to hold his own in all circumstances. He was a scrappy little rascal. You could almost imagine him standing on a…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 4)
Today I bring you Tip #4 in the “How to Read Your Bible” series. Scroll to the end for a full explanation of each previous tip. Today’s Focus—Tip #4: Choose your Bible Translation When you begin to get serious about reading the Bible regularly for yourself, you quickly notice that there are many different English versions of the Bible. This can be very confusing. You may wonder to yourself, “What is the right version? Is there a more correct version? Does…
The Most Important Shepherd
Did you know that the process of sheep giving birth is called lambing? Did you know that sheep have rectangular pupils? Did you know there are over 1000 breeds of sheep? Did you know sheep have excellent memory, and they can recognize up to 50 other faces—sheep faces, that is. Did you know sheep do not have teeth in their upper front jaw? Did you know all these things because you grew up on a farm? Have you sheared sheep…
Hope in Creating
I wrote my first blog post about COVID last May when I was struggling to find peace amidst my anxiety about contributing to the spread. Much time has passed, and this COVID rollercoaster (COVID-coaster?) has taken me through many highs and lows. I’m so thankful for all that we’ve learned about how to navigate life within the pandemic. I’m thankful that God has given us the ability to adjust to challenging circumstances. All the loss that grieved me so heavily…
Because Jesus is the Light of the World, Then I as a Disciple…
As you get ready for this coming Sunday morning, I am asking you to read two chapters from the book of John: John 7 John 8 Through this season, we are spending our time looking deeply at the life of Jesus from the book of John, learning and connecting the dots on how the entire Bible is built around Jesus in our years-long series, “The Book of Jesus.” But last Sunday morning we crossed a continental divide, theologically. We saw…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 3)
Over the next many weeks, I am giving you my tips as to how to go about developing a habit of reading and mediating daily on God’s Word—the Bible. Scroll to the end for a full explanation of each previous tip. Today’s focus—Tip #3: Use a Study Bible as your primary Bible to read from each day I highly recommend that you find a good Bible (I always recommend a printed Bible, not just electronic) to be your “go to”…
Biblical Discernment
Discernment is a good word. Everyone admires it. Everyone desires to have it, and have more and more of it. Can one learn to have it? Where does one go to get it? But before we go further, may I ask you what is it? What is discernment? How would you answer? The dictionary says the meaning of discernment is “discrimination; acuteness of judgment and understanding.” Some say discernment is the ability to distinguish between, and recognize the moral implications…
Warning Label
Are you turning back also? When Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life,” he actually said it twice—in John 6:35 and again in John 6:48. The statement came on the heels of last week’s story, the famous feeding of the 5000. Remember Scott Jackson’s phrase from the sermon: Jesus had “bread power”! We were challenged again to truly come and make a decision as to who this Jesus really is to us: A Quid Pro Quo Jesus, the trade-off…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 2)
Scroll to the end for a full explanation of the previous tip. Today’s Focus—Tip #2: Choose the location of where to read When I say “location,” what I really mean is, “Where should I start in the Bible?” The Bible has 66 books—39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. There are multiple subsections of the Bible as well. The 39 books of the Old Testament are divided into… The Pentateuch & the Law: the first 5…
Getting Ready for This Sunday
John 6:1-15: Jesus Feeds 5000 When I was a little boy, I grew up in a Sunday School class and went every summer to Vacation Bible School. Those days certainly impacted my life in a huge way, and I am so grateful for the teachers and leaders who led me. Often we don’t remember details about those Sunday School days, but I do remember this one. We learned the story of how Jesus fed 5000 people (actually, because of the…
Why Does a Church Membership Matter?
I was talking with Heather this week about how, when Christians think of church membership, many think it is necessary mainly because it gives them the right to vote on church matters. In most churches as in LifeWay, only ballots of members can be counted as legitimate. Church membership is necessary also for those who aspire to hold official church leadership positions. From this, many conclude that church membership is necessary mostly for organizational reasons. Other than that, Christians usually…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 1)
One of the best practices in a growing disciple’s life is the habit of reading God’s Word personally on your own. There is everything good about a Bible study group with people, or listening to a sermon out of scripture. But none of this replaces the value of you personally sitting down in a quiet place and reading God’s Word, then reflecting on it—in other words, letting God speak to you. For several weeks I am walking you through some…
The Only Way to Be Set Free
I want to give examples to our church family on how to build a lifelong habit of reading and absorbing the Scripture on your own. Over these few weeks I’m showing you how I read the Bible each morning; maybe you will be able to develop a similar pattern. This is just an example of my devotional thoughts—not so you can use my devotional, but so you could instead cultivate your own time with God. Currently, I am reading every…
Do You Really Want to Get Well?
If I walked into a hospital room (which somehow sounds strange in our new world of COVID-19 restrictions!) and asked the sick patient if they really wanted to get well from the illness that hospitalized them, I am pretty sure they would give me a sarcastic response. “Why do you think I am here? Of course I am looking for a cure!” The story I am teaching this Sunday is from John 5:1-15. I ask you to read ahead before…
Speaking of Humility (Part 2)
Read Part 1 How will we know if we have true humility? How can we tell whether or not we are doing this right? We can tell a lot if we are heading in the right direction by looking at the results. If we are doing this right, having humility produces contentment, teachability, and godliness in us. CONTENTMENT Having humility means we won’t feel the need to draw attention to ourselves. It cancels our pride. It is okay with us…
Is There a Reward for Hard Work?
Psalm 127 Last week I told you I wanted to share a few weeks of personal devotion time with you—not to show you what I have learned while reading the Bible, but to encourage each of us to learn how to have our own personal time with God, letting him speak to you. As an example this week, here is a simple devotional that I had a few days ago, and what God showed me. Psalm 127:1 ”Unless the Lord…
True Worship: The Woman at the Well
This coming Sunday, February 7, we are looking at the next story in our “Book of Jesus” series: the famous story of the Samaritan woman at the well. You can find the story in John 4:1-42. In every story we study this winter from John, we find Jesus revealing something new about himself. This story is no different. To help shape your thoughts, I want you to think about what it means to worship God. For most of us, worship…
Speaking of Humility (Part 1)
Do you have a friend whom you would call a humble person? Why do you think this way? If I asked you how would you define humility, what would you say? Sometimes, I feel it is easier to begin to define humility by saying what it is not. Humility is not thinking too highly of ourselves. Paul wrote, “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he…
Pride vs. Humility
On September 25, 2008, the largest bank failure in U.S. history occurred. I remember that day distinctly, because it was my husband Eric’s birthday…and because I was an employee of that 119-year-old bank. The turmoil had been brewing for a few years, and it all had come to a head. Despite the optimistic emails from our CEO saying a recovery was just around the corner, anyone who had glanced at a headline in the previous week knew that the inevitable…
Developing Your Own Devotional Guide
Hearing God Speak to You Every Day One of my greatest desires for our church family is for each of you who calls LifeWay Church home to develop the life-long habit of picking up your Bible personally every morning (or evening, or during your noon lunch break) and listening to God speak to you. To borrow a phrase from youth director Kevin P: “If you want to hear God speak, then open your Bible. If you want to hear God…
“For God So Loved the World…”
“For God so loved the world…” I would guess that for many of you, if I gave you this opening line, you could finish it for me. You might be able to tell me where to find it in the Bible. Many of you have seen this famous verse on a billboard signs at stadium events, or even painted on the uniforms of a famous football player. If I ask you to think a little deeper, you probably could tell…