Recent Devotions
“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). A friend and I met for lunch one day recently. It had been a while since we’d been together, so we needed a place that was quiet enough for easy conversation without shouting over the background noise. A quiet eatery is not always easy to find, but we succeeded. We spent a couple of hours just relaxing and catching up (and yes, eating cookies). We live in a fast-paced, noisy world. Have you ever sat at a traffic light with the loud, throaty beat of music from the car beside…
“But Noah found favor with the LORD . . . So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.” (Genesis 6:8 and 22, NLT) Near where I live is an area with a Walk of Fame that honors more than 150 famous people from the Greater St. Louis area.…
“For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” (Ezra 7:10, ESV) How do you turn a nation back to God when it seems to have lost its way? That question seems relevant…
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I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me and also about the king’s words which he had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us arise and build.” So they put their hands to the good work. Nehemiah 2:18 NASB To better understand how Nehemiah arrived at this moment, we must first go back in time. We read in 2 Kings 25:1 how “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army.” What follows in the coming days would lead to the destruction of Jerusalem and leave many of its people dead or in…
“Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since.” 2 Kings 23:25 Josiah was eight years old when he became king and reigned in Jerusalem for thirty-one years. One day, he sends his court secretary on an errand, and his life gets radically flipped upside down. What should have been a simple task on an ordinary day, quickly ended in despair for Josiah. The high priest discovers the Book of Law in…
Last week was my birthday. One more year. One more candle. Only this year I turned the big 40! A new decade… I can hardly believe it. I use to cringe at the thought of growing one year older, but now, I realize that it is a gift. I know there are those who have walked into eternity who would have gladly accepted grey hair, wrinkles, sunspots, and whatever else comes with aging. Growing old is not a curse, it is a blessing. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have…
Jeremiah 33:25 “But this is what the Lord says: I would no more reject my people than I would change my laws that govern night and day, earth and sky.” I have always thought I understood what love was, but once I had my first daughter I quickly realized that I knew very little about unconditional love. I adore my two sweet girls – but they wreck me. Ask anyone who knows me, when I start talking about my girls, I usually end up crying happy tears. When I read this verse I was struck with just how much God…
