I’m So Proud of My Humility

“Humility is not a character trait to develop, it’s the natural by-product of being with Jesus” (Louie Giglio).

Humility is an odd character trait to me. It seems that inevitable it’s the one thing that once you’re aware of having it, you lose it. At least for me. I almost always become prideful of how humble I am. It never fails.

But true humility is one of those things you don’t notice about yourself. It’s something you notice about others and hopefully they can see it in you. After all, it’s generally never wise to go around bragging about how humble you are.

But what Louie Giglio said makes sense. If you spend time with Jesus, His life starts to flow into you. The next thing, you’re exhibiting Christlike characteristics without even being aware of it. I remember an old married couple who had been together for so long that they even started to look alike. They’d even finish each others’ sentences because they knew the other so well as to know what that person would most likely say next.

Jesus is the only truly humble person ever. The rest of us show humility from time to time, but the vast majority of us still struggle with pride in one form or another. We either think too highly of ourselves or we go around with a false modesty that shames anyone who tries to give us compliments.

But the more I attune my ear to the voice of Jesus and set aside time for Him to speak to me, the more I find that I will live like He lived and be more and more like Him. At the same time, I may or may not be aware of all these changes. Hopefully, I will be too focused on Jesus to notice.

Lord, instead of me asking for humility, I’m asking that you’d draw me nearer to You. Let Your life so seep into mine that Your words flow out of my mouth and Your actions proceed from my hands and feet. As I wander, gently lead me back to my first love and keep my eyes fixed on You so that I can learn Your ways and Your heart. Amen.

The Joy of the Lord

“The stronghold of the Christian faith is the joy of God, not my joy in God. . . . God reigns and rules and rejoices, and His joy is our strength” (Oswald Chambers, Run Today’s Race).

i think too often we read that and take it to mean our joy in the Lord. Or at least I do. I somehow managed to go through most of my life reading the verse about the joy of the Lord being our strength and came away thinking that I had to conjure up or manufacture joy in the Lord to be strong. Anybody else? Just me? Cool.

I think we forget that the Lord has joy in His children, not for anything we are or anything we bring to the communal table, but simply because we are His. He has joy in what He has made. He has greater joy in what He has bought and paid for and redeemed.

To go through life in my own strength is like pushing my car from place to place instead of driving it. God’s strength is the fuel that helps me to become what He created me to be and to go where He’s called me to go. If I decide I don’t need that strength, I’m getting as far in life as I can push my car — not very far.

If you’re feeling spiritually weak, maybe the best thing for you and I do to is to rediscover God’s joy. I’m thankful that holiness isn’t something I work up in my own power. Sure, I strive for holiness, but not in my own strength. If only we could remember that God’s joy is endless and never runs out, we could always find our strength to live in the center of His will.

Lord, overwhelm us with Your joy today. Help us to lean on Your strength as we seek to please You and to do Your will in every area of our lives. Make us a people who are known for their contagious and overwhelming joy that can only come from You. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Every Time

“In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents” (Luke 15:10, NLT).

The Message says that there’s a party in heaven every time even one sinner gets saved. I get that.

I know lately I find myself overjoyed when I read about any celebrity who comes to faith or someone who is coming out of a Muslim or LGBTQ or pagan background. I love that the gospel is for anyone and everyone, and there is no one who is beyond the reach of God’s grace.

I love hearing testimonies of being delivered by the power of Jesus. That never gets old for me (and I hope it never will). It always brings me ecstatic joy and reminds me of my own early days when I first experience the joy of my own salvation. It reminds me that God is still able to seek and to save the lost.

I do a lot more praying for people’s salvation than I used to. I think maybe it’s because I appreciate the gift of salvation way more than I did when I was younger. I also realize more and more that there are no political answers to what are ultimately spiritual problems.

At the root of every war and of every act of violence and every racial epithet is sin. We are all born into sin and we all need a Savior. We are not good people who need to be better or even bad people who need to be made good but dead people who need to be made alive.

That’s why I do what I do. If even one single person is in heave because of me posting these blogs every day for almost 16 years, then I can say it was worth it.

I hope you will join me in praying for lost people. If you want, you can comment on the people you are praying for or you can always text me at 615-556-5850. I’d love to pray for your loved ones as well. God is still good all the time, and all the time God is still good.

The Great Paradox

“The great paradox of life is that those who lose their lives will gain them. This paradox becomes visible in very ordinary situations. If we cling to our friends, we may lose them, but when we are nonpossessive in our relationships, we will make many friends. When fame is what we seek and desire, it often vanishes as soon as we acquire it, but when we have no need to be known, we might be remembered long after our deaths. When we want to be in the center, we easily end up on the margins, but when we are free enough to be wherever we must be, we find ourselves often in the center.

Giving away our lives for others is the greatest of all human arts. This will gain us our lives” (Henri Nouwen).

I think Jesus said something similar. He said those who seek to save their lives will lose them but those who lose their lives for His sake will find them. I do believe that when we die, we can only take with us that which we’ve given away. Primarily, we give away our faith when we share it with others so that they can also know Jesus and have eternal life.

It does seem like a paradox that if you seek after fame and fortune and wealth, you end up missing out on so much and not even getting what you were after. Or worse yet, you get all the fame and fortune and wealth and find out that it didn’t satisfy you like you thought it would.

But if you seek after God’s kingdom first, then everything you need is added in. When you deny yourself and take up your cross and put others first, you find utmost fulfillment and you discover your true self in the process. It’s almost the complete opposite of the way the world works.

It seems to me that life is more enjoyable when you’re less focused on yourself. The old saying goes that humility isn’t thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. I have found in those moments when I was absorbed completely in something other than me I made my best memories.

Lord, help us to live for You first, live for others second, and trust You to take care of our needs at every moment of our lives. Teach us that it’s better to give than to receive and that we are never more like You than when we are giving ourselves away for Your sake. Amen.

Reading through the Bible in 2026

I’ve loved reading through the Bible every year for a while. I love how the story of redemption is woven throughout the entire story of the Bible. Right now, I’ve finished 2 Kings and seen God’s people completely mess up their inheritance and get deported from their promised land. I’m seeing Jesus set His face like flint toward Jerusalem to pay for the sins of His people.

As much as I want to dismiss these children of God who keep sinning and rebelling against God, I have to admit that they remind me a lot of me a lot of the time. I confess that I am drawn away by lesser loves instead of pursuing God wholeheartedly. I have worshipped at the altars of the gods of culture instead of at the throne of the one true God.

I love how God has always preserved a remnant of faithfulness throughout history. God kept the family line alive that led to Jesus. God has preserved His true Church throughout the ages despite all the efforts to destroy or corrupt it. When any of us makes it to heaven, we can’t say that we made it because of our faithfulness to God but because of His faithfulness to us.

I’m using the Bible in a Year reading plan through the Bible app, but there are many other ways to read through the Bible. You can even start in Genesis 1 and read straight through, as I have done in years past.

The Bible is the only book I’ve ever read where I see different applications and implications from the text, not because the Bible has changed but because I have. The meaning is still the same, but it hits me different now than it did 20 or 30 years ago because I’m hopefully more mature in my faith.

I love how more and more people are discovering the Bible and finding saving faith within its pages. Any time I read about anyone who has decided to follow Jesus, I celebrate with all the angels in heaven because it’s still a miracle every single time it happens to anyone, whether that person is famous or not.

Thank You, Lord, for Your perfect Word. Help us to love it like You do. Help us not only to read it for information but to be renewed and transformed by it. Help us to not only be readers and hearers but doers and to live out and obey what we read. Amen.

God’s Heartbeat

This is one example of why Dr. Adrian Rogers of Bellevue Baptist Church was one of the best communicators of God’s Word that I have ever heard. He was indeed a gifted pastor and preacher. I’m sharing one of the thousands of sermon excerpts that are the reason he is so well loved and remembered to this day, over 20 years after he passed to glory:

“Once I was reading the Houston Chronicle and came across a picture of a woman who had her ear on the chest of a man. And there was a caption under the photo that explained the man had received a heart transplant, and the heart that was beating in his chest was the heart of this woman’s son. She was listening by putting her ear to his chest to hear her son’s heart beating. When I read that, I thought, ‘Would to God that He could put His ear on my chest and hear the heartbeat of His Son.’

If God Almighty puts His ear to your chest, and Jesus is in there, you’re going to have a heartbeat for missions and evangelism. Jesus said, ‘As the Father has sent Me, I also send you’ (John 20:21). And why was He sent? Luke 19:10: ‘for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’

Does your heart beat with God’s heartbeat? Does mine? That’s not something that happens overnight. It takes a lifetime of prayer and obedience, of sacrificial love and surrender. It’s not something you can declare over yourself or magically wave a wand and automatically make it happen. It takes years of laying down your life and taking up your cross and following Jesus daily. Not sporadically or periodically or even regularly, but every single day.

Lord, make us Your disciples whose hearts truly beat with Your Son’s heartbeat. May people observe us in all our actions and hear us in our words and see not us but You in us. May they see Your Church at work and see Jesus with skin on in this world. Amen.

Sunday Blessings

“O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

I’m still processing a lot of what happened today.

My church met at the Fisher Center today while our sanctuary is being renovated. It was a bit like having church at Carnegie Hall or at The Met. It was a different kind of Sunday, but I believe God still knew where to find us. He still showed up as always.

I’m still so thankful to be a part of an amazing congregation that is growing not only numerically but spiritually as well. I love how so many of our members have such a willingness to serve and to be flexible to do whatever God asks, whenever God asks.

Ultimately, that’s the only fulfillment. Learning to discern the voice of Jesus and to follow where He leads is the only pathway to joy. Any other voice that promises joy only delivers disappointment.

Jesus spoke about how He knows His own sheep and calls them by name. Each one of them. He knows the very number of hairs on our heads and cares for each one of us. He said that we in turn are learning to recognize His voice and only heed His voice above all others. We know that where He leads is better than any other way that promises fame or wealth or power.

Lord, we are Your sheep. We don’t always know where to go. We recognize that without You, we are lost and helpless as any other sheep would be without a shepherd. Teach us more and more to know and love Your voice. Teach us to follow You as You lead and never doubt that they way You lead us is the only way that leads to life everlasting. Grant us to lead others to follow as You lead us in paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake. Amen.

God is Good No Matter What

“Often I have heard people say, ‘How good God is. We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at this lovely weather!’

Yes, God is good when He sends weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister Betsie to starve to death before my eyes in the German concentration camp.

I remember on one occasion when I was very discouraged there. Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart. I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us.

‘No, Corrie,’ said Betsie, ‘He has not forgotten us. Remember His Word: ‘For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who Fear Him.’ [Psalm 103:11]

There is an ocean of God’s love available … There is plenty for everyone. May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love — whatever the circumstances” (Corrie ten Boom, Clippings from My Notebook).

God is good when the miraculous healing comes, and God is good when He choses to take the person to heaven.

God is good when the job comes, and God is good when there’s no job and no money.

God is good when you meet the love of your life and get married, and God is good when you spend your life single and dedicated to serving Him only.

God is good when everything goes your way, and God is good when you are facing more than you can handle and are forced to rely on God’s strength to carry you through.

God is good on the good days, and God is good on the bad days. We know no matter what God is with us and above anything God could give us, what we need most is God Himself. Even if we perish, God is still good.

A Little Matter of Discipline

“Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth” (Hosea 6:1-3).

Something you probably haven’t heard many sermons on lately is the discipline of God. It’s not seeker-friendly. It’s not warm and fuzzy theology that makes everyone feel good and loved. But it’s the truth.

God disciplines those He loves. Just like my parents used to discipline me when I got out of line or acted in a way that wasn’t smart or heathy, they let me know quickly that bad decisions have consequences. God wants us to know that our sin has consequences and affects other people other than just us.

It’s not something I would have put in the Bible, but God knows it’s something I needed. I’ve learned that not everything that seems good to me is good for me, and somethings that are unpleasant are often the very best for me in terms of getting me to look more like Jesus and more like the true authentic self that God created me to be.

I’m thankful for tough love that doesn’t let me dwell in my bad habits and addictions. I’m thankful that God loves me enough to tell me no sometimes and to let me suffer the fallout of my bad decisions. Often, we learn from seeing others who have made poor choices, suffered for it, and now what they thought they’d never tell a living soul is now the first line of their testimony.

I do believe that God loves us just the way we are, but I also believe God loves us too much to leave us that way. He’s bringing us out of the mess we’ve made for ourselves into the glorious light of His kingdom and making us a people that can declare His praises to the nations. Whatever we go through will be worth it when we see the end results and see what God did in us and through us for His glory.

A Liturgy for Community

I liked this one so much I decided to borrow it for my own blog post. It’s by Douglas McKelvey and it’s for those who are seeking biblical community. I’ve been learning recently that there’s a reason why there are no Lone Ranger Christians in the Bible. We were designed and created for community. We’re better together. So here’s the post (with a link to the actual liturgy at the end):

"Good Father Who Gives Good Gifts
to His Children,

Like Abraham, in a step of faith
I have journeyed from the comforting
sameness of all I once knew—my family
and home, my friends, my neighborhood,
my church, my old school, my settled
rhythms and routines.

I have moved far from all
that was familiar, foundational,
and steadying. The distance is
disorienting in ways I did not foresee.

For now I have little to anchor my life.
That organic and interconnected web of
community was so deep a part of my identity.

In this new place
I do not know
where I fit.

I feel myself adrift.
So let my life here take root,
O Christ, and flourish again,
nurtured by your Spirit
and your people, and
bearing good fruit in time.
I do not yet have here the same
resources of vital relationship
to sustain me.

I feel like a weary pioneer recently arrived
with one meager pack of supplies,
who must now find a good place
to begin to carve out a homestead,
a place to sink new roots in hopes
of finding good soil for flourishing.
A meaningful life must somehow be
constructed in this open prairie
of undefined possibilities.

O God, I am lonely here.
But you are present with me.
I am unmoored,
but you are my anchor.
I am unsteady.
But you are my rock.

Now lead me into good community.
Let me forge new friendships.
Give me a place in this place.
Graft me in to your Body, and into
this community, in ways that I might be
blessed, and also be a blessing. Plant me
in places where I might find delight—in
serving and in receiving, in fellowship
and celebration, in sharing the many joys
and griefs and labors, and small and
meaningful moments of which friendships
and fellowships and the community
of saints are finally built.
So let my life here take root,
O Christ, and flourish again,
nurtured by your Spirit
and your people, and
bearing good fruit in time.

Use now even this time of disorientation
to draw my heart closer to yours; to teach
me how better to trust and hope
in your promises, how better
to rest in your love.

Let whatever hardships I endure
for a time be turned—under the sway
of your Spirit—into a more mindful
and active compassion extended toward
others who might suffer similar dismay.

Give me grace enough that I might,
even in my own season of discomfort,
still offer friendship and fellowship to
others who also struggle to find their place.
Let us build good community
and strong friendship
by serving one another.
So let my life here take root,
O Christ, and flourish again,
nurtured by your Spirit
and your people, and
bearing good fruit in time.
Amen."

https://rabbitroom.substack.com/p/a-liturgy-for-seeking-to-find-your