Monthly Archives: November 2025

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November 27, 2025

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Bible Stories, Holidays & Holy Days, Thanks & Praise

THE BREAD OF LIFE – THANKSGIVING DAY 2025

“Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves. [John 6:10-13 (NLT)]

In all probability, you’re not having more than 5,000 guests for dinner today and they won’t be dining al fresco on a hillside. Nevertheless, John’s description of that miraculous meal sounds a bit like Thanksgiving dinner at any number of homes today. There will be lots of people and more than enough to eat but, instead of all the leftovers being gathered in baskets, we’ll pack them into storage containers made by Rubbermaid, Glad, Tupperware, and Pyrex.

After dinner, some people might take a stroll around the block to work off a few of those extra calories while others will settle into comfortable chairs and probably snooze a bit while watching football. Although “I can’t eat another bite!” will be repeated at tables far and wide, sooner or later, our stomachs will empty and start rumbling. Our brains will pick up the message that it’s time for our next meal and we’ll be hungry again. Regardless of much we eat today, just like those people on the hillside nearly 2,000 years ago, we’ll get hungry and want to eat again tomorrow. No matter how much turkey, gravy, and potatoes we eat at our Thanksgiving feast, today’s meal won’t satisfy tomorrow’s hunger.

After Jesus fed the multitude, the crowd followed after Him. More interested in perishable food for the body than everlasting food for the soul, they asked for another miracle—one like the manna Moses gave their ancestors. Correcting them, Jesus said that bread wasn’t from Moses, it was from His Father and that He now was offering them, “the true bread from heaven.” When the people said they wanted it, Jesus identified Himself as “the bread of life…the living bread that came down from heaven.” Seeing Jesus only as a carpenter from Nazareth, they protested His claim to divinity. [John 6:30-58]

Unlike the manna their ancestors ate in the wilderness, the bread of which Jesus was speaking was not physical, temporal, or perishable. While the bread Jesus offers won’t ease our tummy’s hunger pangs, it will the ease the hunger in our souls—not just for today but forever. As the true bread of life, Jesus offers us a meal that is more than satisfying. We won’t ever feel stuffed or need to unbutton our pants to enjoy His bread because it is free of calories, fats, carbohydrates, gluten, and allergens. Rather than offering sustenance for a day, the Bread of Life offers us eternal life! As you pass the basket of rolls today, remember that Jesus is the true Bread of Life and give Him thanks.

Farmers everywhere provide bread for all humanity, but it is Christ alone who is the bread of life…Even if all the physical hunger of the world were satisfied, even if everyone who is hungry were fed by his or her own labor or by the generosity of others, the deepest hunger of man would still exist…Therefore, I say, Come, all of you, to Christ. He is the bread of life. Come to Christ and you will never be hungry again. [Pope John Paul II]

Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. … I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die.” [John 6:35, 47-50 (NLT)]

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November 24, 2025

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Attitudes & Behavior, Church & Worship, Today: Make it Count

PART OF HIS BODY

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. …They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. [Acts 2:42,46-47 (NLT)]

old world wisconsin churchWhen a friend won a trivia contest because she knew the day and year Elvis Presley died, I asked how she recalled the exact date. She replied, “I remember because August 16, 1977, was the day I traded one king for another one—it’s the day I accepted Jesus!” Indeed, it is an important date for her to remember. I don’t know when my mother-in-law became a Christ follower but my father-in-law marked his acceptance of Jesus with his baptism at the age of 17 (in 1925). I only know this because my in-laws kept a certificate attesting to his baptism in their safe deposit box along their birth certificates, passports, voter registrations, social security cards, and marriage certificate.

The day of our rebirth is as important as the date of our birth and our commitment to Christ is more important than the commitment we made to our spouse, so I understand why my friend knows the date of Elvis Presley’s death and my father-in-law treasured his baptismal certificate. The dates of my baptism and confirmation are recorded in my prayer book, but the day I clearly remember is the November afternoon my freshman year at Northwestern University when I knelt in the Alice Millar Chapel and truly accepted Jesus.

As followers of Jesus, we are members of the body of Christ or, as the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds state, the holy catholic (or universal) Church. The Christian life, however, is not meant to be lived in isolation and it is important to belong to a local community of believers. In joining a church, we make a visible commitment to Jesus and His body. Just as hanging a Cubs flag indicates our favorite team or a bumper sticker indicates our politics, our church membership is an outward and visible sign of our faith in Jesus. Joining a church is like joining a movement; we become part of something far bigger than ourselves. My in-laws understood that and cherished their church membership. In their safety deposit box, we also found the membership certificate and church bulletin from the Sunday they joined the local church they attended until their deaths.

A church provides a place to learn God’s word so that our faith is grounded. It’s the place to openly ask questions and get them answered. It’s where we find fellowship with other believers and learn from, share with, help, and encourage one another. It’s where we observe the Lord’s Supper and break bread in Christian fellowship. The church is where we pray both as a unified body and as individuals; we pray for the world at large and in answer to our brothers’ and sisters’ specific requests. The church is where we minister, not just to one another, but to the community by providing for both physical and spiritual needs. The church is where we are held accountable. Rather than complain when the pastor’s words make us squirm in our seats, we should be thankful for them. If we’re just looking for a feel-good message, there are plenty of afternoon talk shows and New Age self-help books for that. Jesus, however, was never about making us feel good—he was about making us better and making us better is what His shepherds (our pastors) are called to do!

As the body of Christ, the Apostle Paul compared us to the physical parts of a body. Although we are different parts of that one body, no part of the body can function by itself. You never see an ear, eye, or hand strolling around by itself! We need one another just as much as our feet need our legs and our lungs need the nose and mouth. Although many of us don’t remember the date we accepted Jesus or the date we joined our church, may we always honor our commitment to be a valuable part of the body of Christ.

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.… All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. [1 Corinthians 12:12,27 (NLT)]

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November 20, 2025

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Challenges & Difficulty, Family, Friends & Fellowship, Fruit of the Spirit, Love & Works, Obedience, Sharing Our Faith, Temptation & Sin, Today: Make it Count, Wisdom & Guidance

ANOTHER WEAPON OF DESTRUCTION

The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. [Proverbs 18:21 (NLT)]

With their words, the godless destroy their friends, but knowledge will rescue the righteous. … Upright citizens are good for a city and make it prosper, but the talk of the wicked tears it apart. [Proverbs 11:9,11 (NLT)]

When writing about nitroglycerin recently, I realized there’s something else in our lives much like this strange chemical that is both helpful and harmful. Like nitroglycerin, man’s capabilities are a dichotomy between good and evil, constructive and destructive, and beneficial or detrimental. The same mind capable of creating a vaccine that saves thousands of lives is capable of creating a nuclear bomb that can take those lives. James speaks of this incongruity when writing about the way we use our words, “We use our tongues to praise our Lord and Father, but then we curse people, whom God made like himself. Praises and curses come from the same mouth! My brothers and sisters, this should not happen.” [3:9-10]

While most of us have nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction and can’t annihilate a city with the push of a button, we can destroy one life at a time with our words! Like dynamite, our words can cause an explosion that produces major destruction. We can quash ambition with disparaging and demeaning remarks. We can shoot down someone with censure, condemnation, and blame. While we’d never think of physically harming a person, with a few words, we can wound an ego and tear open old wounds. We’d never murder anyone but we certainly can manage to kill someone’s hopes and dreams. We wouldn’t think of destroying a person’s home, yet we can demolish their reputation and even their career with just a few words! Ridicule and shaming can collapse self-esteem faster than an arrow can deflate a helium balloon. Our words, like nitroglycerin, can be devastating weapons.

Nevertheless, like medical nitroglycerin, our words also can help. Words of love, comfort, forgiveness, encouragement, respect, or sympathy can lift burdens and defuse situations better than any bomb squad. It is our choice as to whether we crush or nurture, rend or mend, stifle or encourage. My mother used to tell me, “If you can’t say something nice, say nothing at all!” Sometimes that’s easier said than done! There are times my prayer is simply that God will put his arm around my shoulder and place His hand across my mouth!

Father, forgive us for our thoughtless and often cruel words. Guide us to use our tongues with wisdom and love; show us how to heal, not harm. Let our words be ones of encouragement and support. Rather than destroyers, show us how to be builders; rather than combatants, let us be peacemakers; and rather than adversaries, let us be advocates.

Only speak words that make a heart grow stronger. [Ann Voskamp]

The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you. [Matthew 12:37 (NLT)]

Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips. [Psalm 141:3 (NLT)]

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November 17, 2025

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Attitudes & Behavior, Challenges & Difficulty, God's Grace & Love, Holy Spirit, Patience & Perseverance, Trusting God

NITROGLYCERIN

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. [James 1:2-4 (NLT)]

Back in the days before coronary artery bypass surgery and angioplasty, my father had heart disease and often suffered from the burning chest pain of angina. When that occurred, he would stop briefly, place a nitroglycerin tablet under his tongue, and his pain would ease. Medical nitroglycerin acts as a vasodilator by dilating or expanding the blood vessels so the heart doesn’t have to work as hard to pump blood through those vessels.

When I was a little girl and my dad took one of his nitro tablets, I didn’t know how they worked. Having seen enough Saturday matinees to know that liquid nitroglycerin is so unstable that the slightest jolt can cause it to explode, I couldn’t understand how my father could safely carry it around in his pocket, let alone put it in his mouth. After all, when Tweety Bird put it in Sylvester’s medicine, the cat blew up! Elmer Fudd used it when battling Bugs Bunny, and I’m sure Wyle E. Coyote purchased some from Acme in his effort to destroy the Roadrunner. The bad guys in westerns blew up train tracks, bank safes, or mines with nitroglycerin and I wondered how something capable of blasting a hole in the side of a mountain could keep my father’s heart from exploding in a heart attack.

Whether in its liquid form or stabilized with clay in dynamite, nitroglycerin is the most dangerous and unstable explosive there is and yet both explosive and medical nitroglycerin have the same chemical formula. How can one can destroy us while the other helps? The difference is that medical nitro is highly diluted, given in a minute dose, and stabilized when manufactured. The trials in our lives are a little like nitroglycerin. Whether they destroy or help us depends on what we make of them and how we use them. We live in an imperfect fallen world and, like it or not, every one of us will face ordeals and troubles throughout our lives. Some we bring on ourselves as consequences of our own sin. But, as happened with Job, many of life’s trials seem as undeserved, random, and unexpected as a tornado; they can descend upon us without rhyme or reason. Without God, those trials can demolish our lives as easily as nitroglycerin can demolish a building. With God, however, like medicinal nitroglycerin, trials can help our heart for Him.

God’s purpose isn’t to give us easy comfortable lives; He wants us to grow into the image of his son, Jesus Christ (which is what sanctification is all about). Everything in our lives, both good and bad, is designed to help us reach that goal. Unfortunately, when all is going smoothly, we tend to forget about God, just as easily as my father forgot about his diseased heart when relaxing in his recliner. But, just as the pain from stress or strenuous exercise made him turn to his nitro, trials force us to turn to God.

I lose the analogy between trials and nitroglycerin here because, while those tiny nitro pills alleviated the pain in my father’s chest, they didn’t cure his heart disease. They were a temporary fix and he died of a massive heart attack at the age of 56. Trials, however, do more than ease the symptoms of what’s wrong with us; they can actually shape and fix us. Unlike heart disease, disappointment, despair, and disaster don’t have to kill us. Faith is a muscle and, just like the heart, it grows stronger when it is exercised. Somewhat like bypass surgery and cardiac rehab, God fixes our hearts with trials—it may hurt for a while but it gets better and we get stronger!

Whether our trials are as destructive as liquid nitroglycerin or as therapeutic as nitroglycerin pills depends upon our reaction to them. We can become bitter or we can consider them blessings in disguise. We can rebel or choose to trust God and accept His grace to deal with our difficulty and pain. Rather than a cardiologist, we have the Holy Spirit who will give us all of the comfort, strength, and wisdom we need to endure our trials. Because of Him, we can emerge from our trials with mended hearts and a stronger, purer, and more mature faith.

Trials are medicines which our gracious and wise physician prescribes because we need them; and he proportions the frequency and weight of them to what the case requires. [John Newton]

And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. [Ezekiel 36:26-27 (NLT)]

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November 13, 2025

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Bible Stories, God's Word: The Bible, Sharing Our Faith, Trusting God, Wisdom & Guidance

KNOWING IT’S TRUE

As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people. He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah.” … they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. As a result, many Jews believed, as did many of the prominent Greek women and men. [Acts 17:2-3, 11b-12 (NLT)]

St. MatthewProof of the truth is no substitute for our faith; nevertheless, it is important to know the truth of what we believe. At some point, we will ask ourselves how we can believe the validity of what we’re reading in our Bibles. Fortunately, we have Christian apologists to help us see its truth. Rather than offering apologies for the wrongs committed by evil people in the name of Jesus, apologists share the objective reasons and evidence that Christianity is true and should be believed. The Apostle Paul was probably the first apologist when he showed that Jesus’ fulfillment of Scripture’s prophecies proved He was the Messiah. Paul knew that the truth could stand up to scrutiny and it still does today. As for those prophecies: by conservative estimate, Jesus fulfilled at least 300 prophecies while on earth.

Most ancient works were written on perishable papyrus so we don’t have the originals of any ancient secular or sacred manuscript. But, with the New Testament, we do have more than 25,000 manuscript copies and fragments with a gap of less than 25 years between the time of the original manuscripts and the first existing copies! About 5,800 of these ancient copies were written in Greek and over 19,000 copies are in Latin and other languages. Running a distant second to the New Testament is Homer’s Iliad with fewer than 1,800 copies and a 500-year gap between the original manuscript and the first existing copy.

Unlike the Iliad copies, the New Testament’s manuscripts are remarkably alike. When those 25,000 plus copies and fragments are compared, they agree 99.5% of the time! As you’d expect with handwritten copies, there are some minor variations, most of which can be attributed to scribal error. Out of the 8,000 verses in the New Testament, only about two dozen (.3%) are in dispute and none of them affect doctrine. Moreover, even though we don’t have the original manuscripts or even the first copies, 2nd century church fathers, like Ignatius of Antioch, Clement of Rome, and Polycarp quoted from scripture so frequently that we could piece together about 95% of the New Testament just from their writings! We can be sure that the gospels and epistles we read today are nearly identical to those being circulated by the end of the 1st century AD.

How can we know Christianity isn’t more myth than reality? We can trust the writers because none of them had any motivation for perpetuating a lie. Rather than getting rich and powerful, they were persecuted and punished. They abandoned their long-held beliefs and practices, were banished from their synagogues, and (like the Apostles) suffered and died for their faith! Their words were written and circulated where Christ’s miracles occurred when witnesses to the events were still alive; they wouldn’t have succeeded if they were passing along a lie! Unlike the authors, liars wouldn’t put themselves in a bad-light by writing of denials, doubt, disagreements, and failures. Moreover, we have plenty of extra-Biblical documentation for Jesus in the ancient writings of Roman historian Tacitus, Roman governor Pliny the Younger, 1st century Jewish historian Josephus, Greek satirist Lucian, and even the Babylonian Talmud! In all, 39 ancient secular sources corroborate more than 100 facts concerning Jesus.

I’m not a religious scholar, historian, or an archeologist and I haven’t examined the Dead Sea scrolls or ancient papyri. Nevertheless, I do read the work of those who have. The more I study Scripture and the work of Christian apologists, the more certain I am that there is nothing unreasonable, irrational, or unfounded about my belief. The Bible can stand up to intense archeological and historical investigation so we have nothing to fear (and much to gain) when we look closely at God’s word.

As thinking Christians, we must never be afraid to ask questions and seek answers. When we seek the truth, as did Lee Strobel, we’ll be able to make a case for Christ. Like Josh McDowell, we’ll discover that Jesus was more than a carpenter and, like Tim Keller, we’ll know the reason for God. After atheist turned apologist C.S. Lewis examined the faith, he made the case for Christianity. After their research, Norman Geisler and Frank Turek didn’t have enough faith to be atheists! When forensic scientist J. Warner Wallace examined the claims of the Gospel as he would a cold case and lawyer David Limbaugh put Jesus on trial, our Lord withstood their intense scrutiny and cross examination. The closer we examine Scripture, the more we’ll believe that Jesus really is the way, the truth, and the life!

Socrates once said that the unexamined life is not worth having. We believe that the unexamined faith is not worth believing. [Norman Geisler & Frank Turek]

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. [2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT)]

Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. [1 Peter 3:15 (NLT)]

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November 10, 2025

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Bible Stories, Church & Worship, Faith & Hope, Salvation: A New You, Sharing Our Faith, Wisdom & Guidance

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. [1 Corinthians 15:1-5 (NIV)]

I came across an article questioning whether we have to believe certain things to be a Christian or is it enough just to trust God. The author believed that Christians don’t have to “assent intellectually” to the facts of traditional Christian teaching or agree with the Christian creeds. “Faith” to the author is simply placing one’s confidence in “Spirit” (not the Holy Spirit) and following Jesus’ teaching is more important than believing certain things about Him. Having nothing to do with dogma or creeds, Christianity was seen as a wisdom tradition and way of life rather than a belief. Claiming they were “man-made” and date from the 4th century and Emperor Constantine, the author believed Christianity’s creeds should be disregarded.

A creed (or confession of faith) is simply a statement of what we believe; every time we share what we believe with others, we are confessing a creed. The first creed predates Constantine by at least 1,600 years and was given to us by God. The Hebrew Shema, found in Deuteronomy, declares the fundamental belief of Judaism: “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.” [6:4] To be recited every morning and night, this declaration of belief remains the cornerstone of the Jewish faith. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, we find worshippers recalling the Lord’s faithfulness with confessions of faith like that in 1 Kings 18:39 that, “The Lord—he is God! Yes, the Lord is God!” The belief that, “The Lord is our God, the Lord alone,” is a cornerstone of Christianity, as well!

In the New Testament, we also find confessions of faith or creeds. Christianity’s fundamental belief was confessed by Peter when he stated that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” [Mat 16:16] and again when Nathaneal acknowledged Jesus as “the Son of God…the King of Israel!” [John 1:49] When other followers deserted Jesus, the Lord asked the twelve if they would leave. Peter responded, “You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” [John 7:68-69] Although short, these confessions of faith were creeds.

The earliest creeds of the church can be found in the epistles of Paul. His words in today’s verse from 1 Corinthians 15 appear to be an early creed. That he “received it,” means Paul wasn’t the original author and, since he’s reminding them, it predates Paul’s first trip to Corinth (49-50 AD)! In his first letter to Timothy, Paul emphasized the importance of preserving and proclaiming the truth and includes what historians believe to be an early hymn summarizing the theology of the incarnation.[3:16] In Philippians 2:5-11, we find another early hymn explaining the dual nature of Jesus. It’s believed that Ephesians 4:4-6, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all,” were an early creed that was recited by new converts when they were baptized. If we believe Scripture is God-breathed, those words of belief aren’t man’s—they’re God’s!

The article’s author contends that belief and faith are two different things and that belief is not essential for faith. I think the Apostle Paul would disagree. Belief is intellectual acceptance that something is true and faith is trusting in the promise of that belief and they seem to be two sides of the same coin. If I believe the boat is sea-worthy, it’s my faith in it that gets me to sail it out to sea. On the other hand, if I don’t believe it’s sea-worthy, I wouldn’t have faith enough to take it sailing. Faith involves trust, commitment, and action and, without knowing and believing the promises of God, how will we have faith enough to trust them? Our creeds are the foundation of Christianity and help us know exactly what it is in which we have faith! It’s that knowledge that keeps us from falling for the false “feel-good-anything-goes” theology we find in the world today!

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. [Timothy 3:16  (ESV)]

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