Category Archives: Love & Works

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March 9, 2026

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Church & Worship, Fruit of the Spirit, Love & Works, Sharing Our Faith

A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD

The Lord spoke to Moses: “See, I have taken the Levites from the Israelites in place of every firstborn Israelite from the womb. The Levites belong to me, because every firstborn belongs to me. At the time I struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated every firstborn in Israel to myself, both man and animal. They are mine; I am the Lord.” [Numbers 3:11-13 (CSB)]

cabbage white butterflyHaving spared Israel’s first-born males during the final plague on Egypt, God called for every first-born Israelite male, whether man or beast, to be consecrated to Him. The entire male population of the tribe of Levi was 22,000 (about the same number of first-born Israelite men) and God substituted the Levites for the other first-born males. Substituting the Levites for the first-born male in every tribe centralized the sacred duties to one tribe without disrupting the other tribes’ families.

Appointed to minister and serve in the Tabernacle, the Levites didn’t get to choose their careers—that decision was made for them by God. By divine appointment, they were charged maintaining the holiness of the sanctuary, guarding the worship of Jehovah, instructing the people in God’s Word, and warning Israel of idolatry. While only Aaron’s lineage could serve as priests, the other Levite clans were destined to serve the Lord and His priests in supportive roles. Some clans were responsible for preparing sacrifices or washing the hands of the priests, while others guarded the temple and its furnishings, made music, or led worship. Still other families were assigned to make repairs to the Tabernacle/Temple and its equipment or were to act as gatekeepers, secretaries, or scribes.

Like the Israelites, Christ’s followers are a unique nation. However, rather than a nation based on ethnicity, physical characteristics, culture, or language, we are one people united by faith. Prior to Jesus, only the descendants of Levi were dedicated to God; today, all of Christ’s followers are consecrated to Him. Regardless of lineage, we all are “people for His possession.” Although only Aaron’s descendants could be priests, every follower of Jesus belongs to a “royal priesthood.” While the Levites’ various duties were determined by their specific lineage within the tribe of Levi, our duties are determined by the Holy Spirit’s gifts to us. But, like the Levites who didn’t receive an allocation of land as did the other tribes, our inheritance is not found in earthly things like property; it is found in God! Like the Levites of long ago, rather than seeking to be served, we are called to serve the Lord. Just as their responsibility was to work for the Lord and proclaim the goodness of God, we are called to do the same.

As members of Christ’s royal priesthood, our service doesn’t end with the closing hymn on Sunday morning—that’s when it begins! Whether it’s teaching Sunday school, visiting the sick, shopping for shut-ins, sending cards, packing food, writing newsletters, cooking meals, greeting visitors, filling communion cups, ironing paraments, mowing the lawn, singing in the choir, providing transportation, making calls, being a prayer warrior, setting up chairs, running the sound equipment, knitting prayer shawls, folding programs, or running the website, we are called to serve in the household of faith. As humble and mundane as it may seem, our service is glorious work because, like the work of the Levites, it is done to serve the Lord!

The Church has not yet touched the fringe of the possibilities of intercessory prayer. Her largest victories will be witnessed when individual Christians everywhere come to recognize their priesthood unto God and day by day give themselves unto prayer. [John R. Mott]

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. [1 Peter 2:9-10 (CSB)]

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February 19, 2026

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Challenges & Difficulty, Love & Works, Sharing Our Faith, Today: Make it Count

INDIFFERENCE

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. [Micah 6:8 (NLT)]

In 1986, holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel said, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” That thought, however, has a longer history. In 1897, in George Bernard Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple, these words were spoken: “The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.” The evil of indifference can be found as far back as 474 BC (during Judah’s exile) in the story of Esther and as recently as today’s news.

It’s in the Persian capital of Susa that we find King Xerxes’ “prime minister” Haman (a descendant of Agag from the race of Amalekites) facing off with the Jewish Mordecai (a descendant of King Saul’s tribe of Benjamin). The two families had a long history of hatred between them and Mordecai continually refused to bow down to the powerful Haman. Although Jewish law permitted him to bow to someone out of respect, Mordecai did not respect Haman. Moreover, no self-respecting descendant of Saul would ever bow before an ancient enemy like an Amalekite. The incensed Haman took their personal animosity to another level by convincing King Xerxes that a “certain race” in the empire posed a threat and should be killed. The king was so indifferent to these unidentified people that he never even asked who they were. Xerxes gave Haman free rein to do with them and their wealth as he wanted. Written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring, Mordecai sent out an order for the Jews’ extermination to take place eleven months later on March 7.

Although the Jews had their unique dietary laws and customs, they had integrated into the Persian culture. They lived throughout the kingdom and interacted with the Persians daily. Mordecai, for example, was born in Persia, had a Persian name, was a court official himself, and had saved the king’s life. The Jews reacted to their extermination date with mourning, but what of the Persians? Scripture tells us that the city of Susa was perplexed but nothing more. Although there was nearly a year between the edict and its execution date, we never read of people approaching the king on behalf of their Jewish friends and neighbors. The nation appeared indifferent to the slaughter of an entire people! Some Persians even may have looked forward to looting their Jewish neighbors.

Enlisting Queen Esther’s help, Mordecai asked her to beg the king for mercy. While not exactly indifferent to the Jews’ plight, Esther initially was more concerned with her safety than theirs. She balked at his request until Mordecai pointed out that the Jewish queen was not exempt from the king’s edict. To quickly summarize: Esther took action, Haman was executed, Mordecai became prime minister, and the Jews were saved.

Xerxes’ indifference to the fate of an entire race, the Persians’ indifference to the massacre of their neighbors, Esther’s initial indifference to her people’s plight, the indifference of Elie Wiesel’s countrymen as Jews were hauled off to Auschwitz, the world’s indifference as it looked the other way while millions were exterminated by Hitler, and our indifference as we witness injustice, genocide, inequality, human trafficking, discrimination, slave labor, and repression in our world today—indifference to wrongs that don’t personally affect us—is, indeed, “the essence of inhumanity.” Let us remember that, like the beautiful queen Esther, we are not exempt from being touched by the world’s evil. Perhaps, like her, we are here “for just such a time as this!” [Esther 4:14] It’s time to speak up!

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. [Martin Niemöller]

Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. [James 4:17 (NLT)]

Those who shut their ears to the cries of the poor will be ignored in their own time of need. [Proverbs 21:13 (NLT)]

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January 29, 2026

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Attitudes & Behavior, Family, Friends & Fellowship, Fruit of the Spirit, Knowing Him, Love & Works, Money & Wealth, Today: Make it Count

DEVOTED TO WHAT?

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. [Romans 12:2 (NLT)]

The man who does not know where he is is lost; the man who does not know why he was born is worse lost; the man who cannot find an object worthy of his true devotion is lost utterly. [A.W. Tozer]

A firm with whom we do business sends us a newsletter every month. After asking their associates what accomplishment in the last year made them most proud, January’s newsletter shared some of the answers. One man was proud that, after reading up on motors, he managed to repair the family boat by changing the starter motor, another was proud that he expanded his horizons by hiking and rock climbing in various national parks during the year, and a third man was proud that a case he pled had been cited in several law review articles.

The response that touched me, however, was from a man who had just been inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame and named as one of the ten most influential people in his industry. While pleased by those honors, they were not his point of pride. This man was most proud of the fact that he’d made a positive impact on other people’s lives through his work—that people came to him with issues to clarify, problems to solve, or obstacles to surmount and he helped them. He shared that bettering the lives of others is the force that drives him to do what he does. After reading his response, I wondered how I would answer that same question. How would you? Of what are you most proud?

That question brought to mind A.W. Tozer’s words about a wealthy English aristocrat whose obituary read that he had “devoted his life to trying to breed the perfect spotted mouse.” While Tozer didn’t argue with the man’s right to breed spotted mice, he was troubled that a man of means and position would have devoted his entire life to such a task. Of this nameless man, Tozer wrote, “Made in the image of God, equipped with awesome powers of mind and soul, called to dream immortal dreams and to think the long thoughts of eternity, he chooses the breeding of a spotted mouse as his reason for existing.…Surely this is a tragedy.”

Apparently, breeding rodents is not as far-fetched as it sounds. There’s a National Mouse Club in England, the Rat & Mouse Club of America, and a Rat & Mouse Gazette. Every November 12 is Fancy Rat & Mouse Day and every April 4th is World Rat Day. While some people keep mice and rats as pets, I hope they aren’t devoting their lives to their rodent companions. Although mice are often bred and genetically modified to study genetics and human diseases, I hope that even the most zealous geneticists and researchers are not devoting their entire lives to that project.

We’re probably not trying to breed the perfect spotted mouse, but are we devoting our lives to its equivalent? People dedicate their lives to making money, becoming famous, getting frequent flyer miles, climbing mountains, having fun, setting or breaking records, shopping, going to casinos or playing the ponies, having a pristine house, decorating and redecorating, or building collections of art, cars, and Star Wars figures. While nothing is inherently wrong with those activities, none are worthy of our devotion! As Christians, Tozer points out that we have no right to dedicate ourselves to anything that can “burn or rust or rot or die.” We are not to give ourselves “completely to anyone but Christ nor to anything but prayer!”

Rather than having our obituaries tell of our commitment to breeding spotted mice, collecting Labubus, or attending every Grateful Dead concert, wouldn’t we rather have them speak of our devotion to God and of our love for His children? Rather than being remembered for the perfect spotted mouse or an immaculate house, I’d rather be remembered for making a positive impact on the lives of others.

One of the glories of the Christian gospel is its ability not only to deliver a man from sin but to orient him. … The spirit-illuminated Christian cannot be cheated. He knows the values of things; he will not bid on a rainbow nor make a down payment on a mirage; he will not, in short, devote his life to spotted mice. [A.W. Tozer]

“And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” The second is equally important: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” No other commandment is greater than these. [Mark 12:30-31 (NLT)]

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December 29, 2025

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Bible Stories, Holidays & Holy Days, Love & Works, Sharing Our Faith, Today: Make it Count

HOLY INNOCENTS

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. [Matthew 2:16 (ESV)]

Ruthless and paranoid about possible usurpers to his throne, King Herod the Great killed three of his sons, several uncles and cousins, and one each of his wives, mothers-in-law, and brothers-in-law to protect his regime and keep his crown. Having been crowned “King of the Jews” in 40 BC by the Roman Senate, it’s not likely a man like that would be willing to share his title with an infant the Magi described as “the king of the Jews!” When Herod realized he was duped by the Magi and had no way to identify the infant king, the merciless man safeguarded his reign by ordering the wholesale slaughter of all Bethlehem’s boys two and under.

While there is no historical evidence of this slaughter, the story is plausible. It’s easy to believe that Herod, the Kim Jung-un/Joseph Stalin/Mao Zedong of the ancient world, would order the death of innocent children. When he was dying, the heartless king hatched a diabolical plan to gather all of the Jewish leaders and execute them upon his death. By doing this, he guaranteed that, instead of people rejoicing at his death, the entire nation would mourn. Massacring innocent children was right up his alley!

Perhaps, because the early church grossly inflated the number killed by Herod’s men to between 14,000 and 144,000, historians question its historicity. Bethlehem’s population at the time was somewhere between 300 and 1,500 so there probably would have been no more than two dozen children under the age of two (about half being girls). While the death of even one child is a tragedy, the deaths of 12 to 15 baby boys in a time of high infant mortality probably wasn’t newsworthy. Those innocent children may have gone unnoticed by ancient historians but they had names and mothers and their loss was noticed by all who knew them.

The first Christian martyr wasn’t Jesus on Calvary or even the sainted Stephen; it was a nameless baby boy in Bethlehem. St. Augustine called these murdered children the “flowers of the martyrs” and “the first buds of the Church killed by the frost of persecution,” while pointing out that “they died not only for Christ but in His stead.” They died for the one who would die for all!

Around 485 AD, Herod’s massacre of these innocent children was commemorated in a feast day called Holy Innocents or Childermas. For the Western church, yesterday was this often-overlooked feast day. Just three days after singing “All is calm, all is bright,” we’re singing of Herod slaying children. Instead of picturing Mary peacefully holding Jesus in her arms, we picture Herod’s soldiers tearing babies out of their mother’s arms. This day is the dark side of Christmas. It serves as a poignant reminder of the vulnerability of the innocent and the depths of human cruelty; it is a day to reflect on the sanctity of all human life.

As we recall Herod’s victims, we thank God for the children with which we have been blessed. May we also remember the holy innocents of the twenty-first century. Not just children, but all who are trafficked or abused, refugees or homeless, hungry or disenfranchised. Today’s holy innocents are all who are victimized, poverty-stricken, vulnerable, or casualties of war. Both young and old, all are God’s precious children. How can we protect them from the Herods of today?

We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen [Collect for Holy Innocents from the Book of Common Prayer]

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” [Matthew 2:17-18 (ESV)]

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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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October 9, 2025

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God's Grace & Love, Love & Works, Obedience, Prayer, Salvation: A New You, Temptation & Sin, Today: Make it Count

JUSTIFIED

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. [Romans 3:23-25 (ESV)]

“Chocolate comes from cacao beans. Beans are vegetables. Salads are made of vegetables. Therefore, chocolate is a salad!” said the sign in the bakery. “I like their logic!” I thought. If you’ve ever tried to lose weight you probably know the loopholes used by dieters. Broken cookies have no calories because they fell out when the cookies broke, anything eaten with a diet soda is calorie-free, and food eaten off someone else’s plate doesn’t count because the original calories belong to them! Technically, anything licked off a spoon while preparing food isn’t eating; it’s cooking! Furthermore, if you’re eating with someone else, you’ve kept to your diet if the other person consumes more than you! As a once struggling dieter, I know all the excuses to justify over indulging. The worst lies are the ones we tell ourselves and, unfortunately, most of them aren’t as silly as these.

When I first learned that Christians were justified, I thought about the kinds of excuses we make to justify, validate, or defend our less than stellar behavior. Like Adam (who justified his sin by blaming Eve), we continue to justify or excuse our sins. We rationalize that it wasn’t our fault, it was harmless flirtation, we were only joking, everybody else did it, nobody was hurt by it, it really wasn’t gossip because it was true, no one warned us, or my children’s all-time favorite—the other guy started it! Since we often justify our bad behavior to avoid condemning it, the Christian term justification can be puzzling. Today, outside of the Christian church, the words “justify” and “justification” are used to excuse, defend, support, prove correct, or to vindicate one’s actions in the eyes of man or the law. While a legally justified man would be an innocent man in a court of law, justification means something else theologically.

Simply put, Christian justification is the removal and forgiveness of our sins and requires nothing more than faith in Jesus Christ. When the Apostle Paul said Christ-followers are justified, he was saying that we have been made righteous by the Lord; we’ve been cleared of all charges and any punishment related to our sins. Jesus’ cleansing us of our sins, however, is a whole lot different than our excusing or rationalizing them. When we justify, defend, rationalize, or excuse our sinful behavior, we claim to be innocent and continue to sin. On the other hand, when we are justified by Christ, there is no question of our guilt. We are acquitted, not because we are innocent, but because Jesus paid our penalty and took our punishment!

Justification, however, is not a “get out of jail free” card in the here and now. Sin’s consequences don’t disappear with God’s forgiveness and our salvation. Our justification before God does not mean that we won’t have to deal with the aftermath of our foolishness and disobedience. While we won’t face eternal consequences, we should expect to face temporal ones!

Jesus did the work regarding our justification but the rest is up to us. Justification means that we have the responsibility to live as God wants us to live. When we received forgiveness through faith, we also were sanctified and received Jesus’ righteousness. With the power of His Holy Spirit, we are to grow more and more like Christ which, among other things, means that we can no longer justify or defend our sins. We can never separate the faith needed for justification from obedience; true faith entails obedience and true obedience needs faith. We may be able to lie to ourselves (especially when in a bakery) but we better remember that we never can lie to God!

Through the death of Christ on the cross making atonement for sin, we get a perfect standing before God. That is justification, and it puts us, in God’s sight, back in Eden before sin entered. God looks upon us and treats us as if we had never sinned. [A.C. Dixon]

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. [1 Corinthians 6:11 (ESV)]

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