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Luke 6:27-28
But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
God’s love is different, and because it’s different, it teaches us to love differently as well.
The way we know to love is simple: do good to those who are good to you and repay evil with evil. It comes naturally. On the playground, we take revenge on people who hurt us. We gravitate toward those who appreciate us and love those who love us. It comes easy.
God teaches us a new way, because his love is different.
God demonstrated his love for us by sacrificing his Son to pay for OUR sins. He repaid our evil with the goodness of his grace and forgiveness. He took revenge on his Son and gave us eternal life.
And where do we go from here?
Well, what does God’s love toward us prompt us to do? What does it inspire us to do? We hear God’s call and see his love in action and go out to love. We love those who we would call an enemy. We do good to those who hate us. We pray for and bless those who persecute us.
Why?
That’s how God treated us. That’s the new attitude God instilled in us when he brought us to life and faith. That’s what it means to live like God and reflect his glory in the world.
Our natural self knows an aspect of love, but God teaches us a wholly different way to love, a way that reveals God in all his glory.
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Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The young girl hid the disaster as long as she could. She had broken a crystal vase that sat on a table in the living room. Mom always talked about how special this vase was because it belonged to her grandmother. It was precious for a variety of reasons. Now it lay in a bunch of pieces.
The young girl tried to hide it. When questioned, she lied and claimed ignorance. Finally, the truth came out. She spilled the beans about what she had done. Her mother asked her why she had lied and hidden what she had done. The little girl, through her sobs said, “I didn’t think you would love me anymore.”
Do you ever feel like that with God? Do you hold things in your heart that are really bad and feel like there is good reason for God not to love you? Maybe you look at difficult things you are going through and wonder where God is in all of it. You question whether he loves you. Those questions make sense to our natural mind. That’s what that little girl thought about her mom. Aren’t there things so bad that they would end God’s love for you?
The answer is no. Paul makes a bold statement in Romans 8 that there is absolutely nothing in all creation that can get between you and God. You are forgiven, saved, and chosen by God. He accomplished all that through Jesus your Savior.
So what things weigh on your heart? What sins trouble you? Bring them to Christ and have them forgiven. He’s already paid for them. What doubts or fears do you have about what’s going on in your life? Go to the empty tomb of Jesus. Remember what God declared about you and gave you at your baptism. You are his child, chosen and dearly loved.
There’s no need to hide the damage. There’s no reason to fear God. Nothing is going to separate you from his love.
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March 2025
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John 12: 23, 27-28
23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!”
The cross of Jesus is God’s centerpiece on the table of time. It’s not the end of the story. You can see that by the way in which the whole Bible is structured. The Old Testament is filled with symbolism, pictures, prophecy, and messages all pointing ahead to the day the Messiah came and was lifted up on a cross. The New Testament points back to that event with preachers like Peter, Paul, and others proclaiming that event as the goal and fulfillment of Jesus’ life.
Jesus himself knew and understood that. The cross wasn’t something he wanted to avoid, nor was it defeat.
It was the goal.
It was the place where life would be won.
He didn’t ask to be saved from that moment, but rather embraced it.
Don’t think for a minute, however, that it was easy. It wasn’t. He knew the pain involved, but that wasn’t the part that troubled him. He knew what this cross meant. All the sins of the world heaped onto him and he would pay for them. He would be treated as the enemy. He would bear the punishment. But in doing so, it meant people in the world would be treated as God’s friends. People would go free and receive eternal life.
From now until April 20, Easter, take some time to thank God for the cross. Thank Jesus for his willingness to suffer and die so we might live eternally. Meditate on the sacrifice Jesus made for you. Thank you Jesus for the cross, for embracing it, enduring it, and completing God’s plan of salvation so we could have life again.
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Jeremiah 17:7-8
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Trusting in the Lord leads to life, especially when difficulty comes. That’s the lesson God wants to instill in us through Jeremiah’s words in chapter 17. He does that with a simple picture.
He tells the story of a tree that sunk its roots deep into the ground. That paid off because of the inevitable things coming in the future, heat and drought. When those seasons hit, one normally dangerous for a tree, the tree not only survived, it thrived even in the harshest of conditions. The reason? It had tapped into an ever-present source of life from the water deep in the ground.
You are that tree and you will be ready for harsh and difficult seasons of your life when you trust in the Lord. Trusting in the Lord taps you into an ever-present source of God’s life, power, and strength. Difficult and harsh seasons of life will come. That’s inevitable. However, God’s life and power gives you the ability not simply to survive them, but rather to thrive in them.
Trusting in God and his powerful Word prepares you to praise and glorify God and produce goodness even when under pressure not to do that. Trusting in God gives strength to stand strong when the peer pressure of the world heats up.
Cling in faith to your God because he is your ever-present source of life for every season of life, especially the hard ones.
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1 Thessalonians 2:20
Indeed, you are our glory and joy.
There are many people I have served as a pastor over the last 17 years who fill my heart with joy, more than I can count.
One who sticks out in my memory is a believer named Paula, who is now in heaven. Paula came to my church years ago and she wore her faith on her sleeve. As people came into the church, she was ready with hugs. She wanted to know about your week and how you were doing. She loved the Word. She was always in the front row at Bible study with her husband, eager to listen, learn, and grow. She was one of many people who always lifted my heart and filled my ministry with joy. God took her home to heaven much sooner than I and many other people wanted, but her memory still brings me joy.
Paul thought of the Thessalonians in that way. They brought him great joy, a group of people who latched onto God’s Word, believed it, and wanted to grow in faith even though they only were able to spend three and a half weeks with Paul. The people Paul served gave him great joy because he had been used by Jesus as the instrument to bring them to faith and someday to glory.
I have been writing these weekly devotions since September 2018 and I want you all to know that I feel the same about you as Paul did about the Thessalonians. It is truly a humbling and amazing thing to realize God is using me and his Word I share with you to grow your faith and discipleship. Some of you are close by and others are far away. Some of you are part of my congregation and some are not. But none of that matters, because I know God is using his Word to do great things in your life wherever you are.
I pray God continues to draw you closer to himself through his Word I am privileged to share with you. Thank you!
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Jonah 1:1-3
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.
Jonah was an Israelite prophet. He was a believer. He was proud of his people, his nation, and his God. He also did NOT want to share the Word of God with the people of Nineveh. They were unbelievers. They were Gentiles, not Jews. They were evil. Why would God want his Word preached to them? Why would God command him to do that? And because he disagreed with God, he ran away from God.
But Jonah was asking the wrong question.
The real question is, “Why would God want his Word preached to any of us?”
When the question is framed that way, well then it adds a whole new dimension to God’s grace and the salvation we’ve received.
The truth is nobody deserves God’s grace. Nobody has earned it. Instead, we’ve all done everything possible not to earn or deserve it. And yet, here we are today, believers in the Lord in spite of all that. The salvation we have from God is a pure gift, completely, and totally undeserved. Salvation is also not just for a few. It’s for all and that message needs to get out.
God eventually brought Jonah to that understanding. He took the Word to the Ninevites and they were saved. Praise the Lord for his unrelenting love for Jonah.
What about us? What people do we think are not worthy of God’s salvation? What groups will we not share the gospel with? What times have you said “No” to God’s command to spread the Word to all?
Dear friend, loved unconditionally by God, shake off that Jonah attitude and take the Word out. All need to hear it and believe it.
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Jeremiah 1:7-8
But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.
There are some things in life you are too young to do. Do you remember that when you were younger? Remember being told “you’re too young for _____ or to do _____?” Doesn’t it hurt to know you’re too young to do something you really want to do?
But did you know there is one thing you’re never too young to do?
That’s right. Serving and glorifying God has no age requirement. It has no age restrictions. In fact, you can glorify God at any age.
Jeremiah the prophet found that out when God called him to ministry. Jeremiah was scared to preach to the people of Israel. He was scared of the reaction and because he had no experience. By all accounts, Jeremiah was a teenager when God called him to preach. But God knew age and any other excuse Jeremiah had would be blown away by God’s promise of his presence and the fact God had appointed Jeremiah to do this. Age wasn’t a reason not to glorify God. God would overcome any perceived obstacle to unleash Jeremiah as a representative for his kingdom.
There is also no hurdle in the way of you serving, worshiping, and glorifying God in your life. Maybe your excuse isn’t age anymore. It could be inexperience or fear or inability or something else.
But guess what? God has appointed you too.
He has appointed you long before the world began to be his representative and be in his kingdom. He made that happen when he called you to faith and infused you with the Holy Spirit. He set you apart for the purpose of glorifying his name and singing his praise through your words and actions. That’s no small thing God has called and equipped you to do.
No excuses! God has called you to bring him glory through your life.
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Isaiah 6:6-7
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
I learned about friction pens a few years ago. I had never heard of these things. However, they are really neat. Friction pens write like any other pen. However, if you rub the top of the pen against the ink, the ink disappears. You can erase the ink! What’s even cooler is that you can do the same thing with a flame. Write with the pen on paper and then hold a flame under the paper, far enough away it doesn’t burn the paper but close enough for the heat to hit the paper. Then watch as the ink disappears. It’s like it was never there. That pen is pretty cool.
God has something like that for your sin. It’s a sacrifice made by your Savior. In Isaiah 6, we hear about God’s call to Isaiah to enter the ministry. Isaiah was noticeably and understandably upset because when his life was face-to-face with God’s holiness he realized very quickly how imperfect and sinful he was. But God had a solution, a burning coal from the altar was applied to Isaiah and all his impurity was washed away. A sacrifice had been made for Isaiah to cleanse him of all his sin. He was now forgiven and righteous before God.
God has done the same thing for you through Jesus your Savior. Yes, your sin is great, but God’s forgiveness and Jesus’ sacrifice is greater. His sacrifice had burned away all the sin in your life and so it’s as if it never existed. God doesn’t see it because Jesus took care of it. Your sin is gone. Forgiven. That’s pretty cool.
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Luke 6:36
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
The other day I was scraping off my car windows, preparing to take my children to school when all of a sudden a weasel-like creature ran under my car, across the street and down the road. Boy, was I surprised. What in the world was that thing?
My wife and I investigated and found out it was a mink. I had only heard about those things in American history textbooks. I had never seen one in real life. They exist! They exist in my neighborhood. What a surprise at 7:45 a.m. on a Thursday.
Does it surprise you when Jesus says in Luke 6:36, “Your Father is merciful?” Maybe you think that shouldn’t surprise you or it isn’t a surprise to you. But then again, maybe it does surprise you.
It might surprise you because of the many times in your life you thought, this isn’t fair. I don’t deserve this right now. What is God doing that this would be allowed to come into my life? There’s no way God is going to love me or forgive me after I ask for repentance for this particular sin for the umpteenth-millionth time! So maybe it’s a surprise to hear that God is merciful.
But that’s just who he is.
Or maybe you think so little of yourself and your life and your actions that to hear “God is merciful” is a huge surprise because you assume God isn’t. God doesn’t care for you or about you. God is disappointed in your life and what you have or haven’t done during it. Well, here’s good news: Surprise! Your Heavenly Father is merciful. That’s his nature. That’s what he does.
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