Day 9 Matthew 2:3 I can be a child of God, be a follower of Jesus for years, and yet some days I can live as if he’s not there. “Let this Christmas be the time when you consider the Messiah and ponder what it is to worship him.” Day 5-8
Day 5 Luke 2:6-7 This is my favorite advent devotional so far. Jesus did not take any detours to Calvary. “For your sake he became poor.” (2 Cor 8:9) “Now if you would think that if God so rules the world…, he surely could have seen to it that a room was available in the inn…The […]
Day 4 Luke 2:1-5 God moves world affairs in order to fulfill his plan in the lives of two unknown ordinary people. He can both macro manage the world and micro manage my life. “For it is implicit in Scripture that all the mammoth political forces and all the giant industrial complexes, without them even […]
I started on December 1 to meditate on a daily advent devotional, following John Piper’s plan. Here are some of my thoughts. Day 1 Luke 1:16-17 Focusing on Jesus is not as easy as it seems. I am too familiar with the Christmas account that it has lost some of the grandeur and awe for me. […]
You would think Jesus only got angry at evil guys, so I was pretty scared when I read this in Mark 3:5 – “And [Jesus] looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart…” He was angry at the Pharisees for caring more about the Sabbath laws than about a man’s life. […]
I attended the funeral of Ron D, an 80-year-old very devoted Christian man. I didn’t talk to him much when he was alive, but I sure learned a lot from him today. One testimony stood out to me. A man said that when he was a young man, Ron told him to read the Bible. […]
You can’t help but be impressed by Daniel, as in Daniel and the Lion’s Den. His enemies could not find a fault to accuse him. He did everything with integrity and followed the law exactly. But what should impress us more is the God who enabled him. It’s God who granted him favor, who gave […]
In the sermon at church today, I was reminded about the rich young ruler to whom Jesus spoke. Jesus looked at the young man and loved him. He could relate to the challenge that was put forth – to give up his riches and power to follow God. Jesus himself gave up heaven’s riches and […]
I have a friend name Iscah. I thought it’s a made up name, but yesterday I read it in the Bible. Iscah is the daughter of Haran; Haran is Abraham’s brother, that makes Iscah Abraham’s niece. (Gen 11:29). Her brother is Lot, who traveled to Canaan with Abraham. Though she is only mentioned one time […]
The way we live may be considered “the good life” – prosperous and doing whatever we please, having a good time. We think the “gray areas” are not so bad; the ends justify the means and the means justify the ends. We are accountable to no one. But God sees all. From God’s perspective, sin […]
When someone wrongs you, do something very terrible like burns down your house, and takes everything you have, you would find it very hard to forgive him. But if you are a very nice person, you may find it in your heart to forgive him. But what if that someone is a person whom you’ve […]
Isaiah 3: The pride and glory of men will fall As long as we think we can handle things and solve our own problems, we won’t allow God into our lives. Pride keeps God away. Without God, we will fail, no matter how good we think we are. Instead of fragrance there will be a […]
Continuing in Isaiah: We live as if we’re in control of our lives, we live selfishly, we ignore God, we set up idols to rule us, as if there is no judgement day of reckoning, but there is. Judah was warned. We are warned too, that the Day of the Lord will come. Then where […]
In studying Isaiah chapter 1 and worship, I was thinking that sometimes church can get in the way of true worship. I love “church” and all that we do at church, but I’m not sure I love it because it’s worship or I love it because it’s comfortable and enjoyable. I can’t help but think […]
This year at Bible Study Fellowship, we studied the book of Isaiah. I had not systematically studied this book, so it was a good discipline. However, some of the reading and homework was too much for me to keep up with. It was time consuming just to get the answers the questions and I didn’t […]
In Bible Study Fellowship today, in the study of Isaiah 58-59, I had an insight. Religious activities – fasting, praying and keeping the Sabbath were the context in Isaiah, can be a cover for the sins that we need to deal with in our heart. “Religious people” run the risk of thinking that they are […]
On Saturday, a friend shared her favorite verse – Isaiah 41:10. She said she did not know that verse, but she heard God speak to her in similar words when she was feeling overwhelmed and distressed about her job. When she got home and told her husband, he showed her Isaiah 41:10 – almost the […]
Rev 3:8 – I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. This was the passage we read in the sermon at church. To tell you the […]
A few weekends ago at our church retreat, the speaker talked about having a memorial of Bible verses. Memorials are things that remind us of something that happened in the past. The Lincoln Memorial, the USS Arizona Memorial. Memorials, often referred to in the Old Testament, also serves to pass on history to future generations. […]
I love Psalm 121. When I first learned to drive, in the pre-GPS, pre-Thomas Guide days (all we had were those maps from AAA, you know, the ones that are impossible to refold), I was taught that if I am lost, look for the mountains – the mountains are north. We lived against the foothills […]