Month: March 2020

The Kitchen Table

Today’s Reading:  Ps 143; 2 Kings 4:18-37; Eph 2:1-10

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— Ephesians 2:4-5

We have a God that raises the dead and gives life to the lifeless.  We have an enemy who kills the living.  The Psalmist writes about the work of the enemy saying, “Therefore my spirit is faint within me; my heart within me is appalled.”  Sin & Satan take life, but God gives life and always has given life.  Our spirit is the life within us and when we expose our spirit to what is sinful and shameful, our spirit becomes faint, fearful and fails to motivate us. And the Bible says that our heart becomes appalled (desolate and deflowered).  When our spirit becomes faint and fearful our heart becomes empty and ugly.  Jesus gives life, His word is life-giving, His work is life-giving and His will is life-giving.  Don’t let the enemy kill your spirit with what is foolish, fearful and fruitless.  Look to Jesus!

The Kitchen Table            Day 60

Today’s Reading:  Ps 143; 1 Kings 17:17-24; Acts 20:7-12

For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead. Psalms 143:3

We have a choice today, to live in the light of life or in the darkness of death.   It seems like a no brainer, but people don’t see it.  The Bible says that the wages of sin is death.  Sin kills because Satan kills.  But God gives light and life, as we read this morning.  We can know the life we’ve chosen by the life we share.  Darkness brings darkness and light brings light.  Life shares life but death shares death.  One of the most precious things darkness kills is faith.  The darkness of death is filled with what’s false, fearful and frustrating.  Our enemy today wants to seat us in darkness, but God says we don’t have to.  The gifts of God are love, light and life.  Choose Life!

The Kitchen Table            Day 59

Today’s Reading:    Ps 130; Ez 33:10-16; Rev 11:15-19

But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared. Psalms 130:4

Without forgiveness there will always be fear but where there is forgiveness there will always be faith.  That word for fear here means to be afraid of but it also means to stand in awe of.  It’s about reverence or respect.  There must be forgiveness for life to work and we all need it.  But forgiveness isn’t just a word we throw around, it’s a word that flows into the heart of the remorseful and repentant.  And if it’s not there, there will be fear in that relationship.  Some of that anxiety people deal with could be a sign that they have a need for forgiveness in some area of their lives because without forgiveness, there will be fear.  But, where there is forgiveness there is faith and freedom to live this life free.

The Kitchen Table            Day 58

Today’s Reading:  Ps 130; Ez 1”1-3, 2:8-3:3; Rev 10:1-11

O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption. Psalms 130:7

Your spirit lives on Scripture!  Never forget that, it lives on what it hears and believes to be true.  And remember that God does nothing without telling His prophets.  A believer lives on the word and by the word of God.  A hungry spirit will eat at the wrong table, look for love in all the wrong places, live for all the wrong reasons.  That’s why Paul wrote that bad company corrupts good morals in 1 Cor 15:33.  The spirit lives on spiritual food and God’s word is just that, spiritual food.  Let God’s word be what you live on, live for and live by.  Those who neglect God’s word end up with a spirit that is starved, skinny and sick.  Even Jesus said that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Mt 4:4)  Dine daily on His word, it will keep you from dying daily on your walk.

The Kitchen Table            Day 57

Today’s Reading:    Ps 45; Is 7:10-14; Heb 10:4-10

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Hebrews 10:10

You can live a life that you pay for or you can live a life that’s paid for.  Jesus came to do the will of God which was to give us a life that is paid for, a life where we don’t have to live in guilt, shame and regret, paying over and over for the boneheaded things we’ve done and said and wished.  The Bible is filled with promises that Jesus would come and give us a new way of seeing and living.  There’s a price to pay and Jesus paid the price for us to live free through the forgiveness of our sins.  We no have to live as slaves to sin and the skin; Jesus paid the price for this new life.  Live thankful and He will make you thoughtful about living a life that’s been paid for.

The Kitchen Table            Day 56

Today’s Reading:    Ps 146; Is 42:14-21; Col 1:9-14

He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.      Col 1:13

One of the greatest consequences of being bad is that we live life blind.  The Bible often referred to a life of disbelief and disobedience as a life of darkness.  When we live in darkness we do not and cannot see reality as God sees it.  When we live in darkness, we cannot recognize what is from hell and what is from heaven.  We can’t see!  Jesus once said that the blind lead the blind and the blind follow the blind.  We don’t see reality as God does, we don’t see what, what we’re doing is doing to us or what it is doing to those around us.  Living in agreement with hell we will bring hurt into our lives and into the lives of those who come into our lives.  BUT, when we confess that we are sinful and sightless and come to Jesus, He puts us into a life that is real, a reality that is good and if we will keep looking at Him, we will see and agree with heaven.  That’s living!

The Kitchen Table            Day 55

Today’s Reading:  Ps 146; Is 59:9-19; Acts 9:1-20

The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.  Ps 146:8

One of the most beautiful things God does is open our eyes.  Sin sabotages our sight.  Isaiah prophesied that sin has built barriers between you and your God, your sins has hid His face from you.  Without sight we grope and stumble and growl and moan.  Sin sabotages sight.  Saul was stricken blind before Jesus only to find out he had been living blind before, looking for justice but not finding it.  Jesus restored his sight.  He could see life as God intended him to see it.   Blindness gives us a bad disposition.  Life is tough when you can’t see, can’t find what we’re looking for in this life.  When life is filled with groping, stumbling, growling and moaning, maybe it’s an inside thing, not an outside thing.  The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.  We can’t let sin sabotage our sight.

The Kitchen Table            Day 49

Today’s Reading:    Ps 95; Ex 16:9-21; Eph 2:11-22

O come let us worship and bow down;  let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.         Ps 95:6

Worship isn’t just showing up, it’s kneeling down.  Worship isn’t just our attendance, in the service, it’s our action of surrender and submission to God our Savior and King.  He is the One who shows up and meets our real need.  He is the One who steps into the heart of our situation and gives us a heart for the situation.  With a new heart we can believe and become and behold who He has created us to be.  It’s always been about believing Him.  That’s the wonder of worship; it empowers us to see who He is.  Worship isn’t just about attendance, it’s the action of surrendering and submitting to Him, our Lord, Maker, Savior, Healer and King.  It’s what God wanted in Exodus 16 and what the gentiles found in Ephesians 2.  Don’t just show up, sing!  It will give you a heart for heaven in the here and now as well as for the then and there.

The Kitchen Table            Day 48

Today’s Reading:  Ps 95; Ex 16:1-8; Col 1:15-23

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our Salvation.  Ps 95:1

Never, ever, neglect worship.  It is the lifeblood of the Christian life.  Worship is the heartbeat of this life with God.  Without worship we will worry, whine and wig out over our needs, nerves, and nevers.  Worship keeps our hope, help and healing alive.  The Israelites worried about their needs, wigged out over the nerves and they never had enough.  Why?  Their hearts were set on what they needed here rather than what they could have from heaven. Make a joyful noise, don’t just think worship, do it.  It can all begin with “thank you”.  But speak it, sing it, say it out loud.  Bring Jesus, into the equation.  Faith comes by hearing!  Bring faith into the room verbally and let fear leave the room hastily.   

The Kitchen Table            Day 47

Today’s Reading:    Psalm 128: Ezekiel 36:22-32; Jn 7:53-8:11

And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.  Ezekiel 36:26

Those who hurl stones have a heart of stone.  I don’t think it’s what anybody really wants, it can just happen when we experience bad days and bad decisions.  A heart of stone can’t feel, and it can’t flex or function like it needs to.  A heart of stone can’t pump life to the whole body.  A heart of stone becomes consumed with its self-preservation and life then gets ugly.  Did you ever think that maybe the woman caught in adultery had a heart of stone too?  Maybe she stood there caught and condemned by a life of bad decisions and days that left her unable to feel and function with love.  Maybe Jesus’ act of kindness softened her heart anew, gave here a new reason to live.  He did tell her that He didn’t condemn her and to go and sin no more.  That’s what God’s heart does, it feels for our needs and functions for our life.  Praise God!