If this precious little baby in my belly decides to make her appearance right on time, I will be a mother in 60 days. 60 days. That’s insane. In 60 days, my life will be forever changed as I learn everyday what it is to love someone more than I have ever understood was possible, protect her from as much as I can, and teach her as diligently as I can who she is because of whose she is. Since I have been pregnant, lots has changed. I eat lots of bagels (like a lot of bagels), can’t sleep on my belly, and I cry at the most bizarre times. As much as some of the times the waterworks come can only be explained by hormones from Satan himself, I am starting to wonder if sometimes the tears are different. I say this because there are a few songs that I can hear during pregnancy and be moved to tears in a way that feels nothing less than Spirit filled and Spirit driven. One of the songs that does this to me right now is the song “No Longer Slaves”. The lyrics that really get me are the following: 

“From my mothers womb
You have chosen me
Love has called my name
I’ve been born again, into a family
Your blood flows through my veins
I’m no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God
I’m no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God
I’m no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God
I am surrounded
By the arms of the father
I am surrounded
By songs of deliverance
We've been liberated
From our bondage
We're the sons and the daughters
Let us sing our freedom”

At this very moment, inside my womb, the Lord is knitting together a precious little girl who will be born into a family so much greater than one that has mine and my husband’s last name attached to it. She is preparing to be born into a family that is made possible by the blood, love, and mercy of Jesus. It’s a family I have been a part of since I was in the same position as her. However, we are at such different stages in our membership in that family. Not because of our age or size difference, but rather because she has not yet fallen victim to the lies of the evil one. She is still pure and protected and safe from the bondage he has trapped me in time and time again. 

I don’t know what lie you believed or pain you have experienced that has moved you from a place of liberation into shackles of bondage. But I do know this. Bondage doesn’t have to be permanent, and freedom is always possible. Maybe bondage looks like illness (mental or physical), grief, lies, sin you cannot leave behind, family dysfunction, or something completely different. I don’t know what it is for you, and I know you are maybe thinking that sometimes leaving the bondage entirely isn’t up to you. You would be correct. As much as I would love for things to work this way, those who are physically ill or have to sit by and watch as their family crumbles around them cannot simply pray that pain and bondage away. I cannot pray my depression and anxiety away. Here is what I can do… I can believe that in spite of the situation that proves scary, difficult, and sometimes unbearable, I walk step by step with a God who chose me when I was in my mother’s womb to be a part of his family. And let me tell you, being a part of a family headed by the God of the universe means I have access to a peace, a love, a grace, a mercy, and a freedom unlike anything earthly freedom or peace can provide to me. I am free not because of my circumstances, whether they be good or bad. I am no longer a slave, and I am free because of the one who chooses to bear my burdens for me and daily provide me with exactly what my daily bread looks like for that day. 

I want my daughter to know that freedom. I want to teach her a freedom not dependent on earthly comfort but of heavenly deliverance. But I can’t teach her that until I believe it for myself. Someone around you needs you to teach them this lesson, but they too cannot fully receive it until you can fully teach it, and can we fully teach it if we haven’t tasted the freedom for ourselves?

I think one of the most dangerous tactics Satan has in his toolbelt is his ability to make us feel
alone in our pain and struggle. All of us have shared in this experience. We feel shame for a sin
we continue to fall prey to, and we keep it to ourselves. We have a familial shakeup, a divorce,
or a death maybe, but we don’t want to burden others with the weight we carry. There are so
many ways the Adversary wants us to see ourselves as alone. One way in particular is hit on in
Psalm 13. It reads:
How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, LORD my God.
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the LORD’s praise,
    for he has been good to me.
At some point or another, most people end up asking themselves some variation of this
question. “Are you even real God?” “How could you let this happen if you’re actually real?”
“Why should I believe in a God I can’t see?” “Where are you God?” The list goes on and on and
each variation is just as heartbreaking as the next. Just like the examples listed earlier, we often
wrestle these thoughts alone, right where Satan wants us. We need to work on better ways to
cope with doubt when it arises. One way we can do this is to bring our community into the places
of doubt we find ourselves in. We are weak when we are under the guise of being the only one.
Lean on others. Be someone others can lean on. Live as the community we have been called to
be. I try my best to consult people older, or wiser, or more knowledgeable than myself all the
time. Doubt should be no different.
The other key is to do exactly what David does in this passage so well; remember to recenter
our doubts and bring them to the feet of our Lord. David is clearly at a low when writing this
Psalm and can resonate with us when we find ourselves in this same hole. Christ is glorified in
our weaknesses. When doubt arises, we need to recognize this human weakness and lean on
Christ and community. Praise God for other believers and for finding ways to use people as
broken as I am.

Recently I made the decision to return to school. As with many things in this life, it certainly has
had its ups and downs. I have loved getting back into school for things such as discussions with
fellow students about current readings, for relationship within another community, for pushing
myself to learn more about the character of God. The list goes on and on. There of course, have
been some things that have not felt as glamorous as one might hope. I now constantly face my
clunkiness as a writer, how busy I let myself be, my trouble with things that don’t come
naturally. Again, the list goes on and on. My big assignment of the semester is an 8-page
bibliographic essay on the meaning of one word in Colossians 2:14 and the different interpretations surrounding the passage. (Coincidentally, the paper is due later this evening and it appears I still have a sizable amount to do.) Anyways, here is the passage in question:

“…having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us
and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”

Colossians 2:14

The discourse around this passage hinges on the interpretation of the Greek word
“chierographon.” This is typically translated as an IOU, hence the phrase “charge of our legal
indebtedness.” Writing 8 pages around one word was and is a daunting task. But through this
practice, I have spent a lot of time in the chapter and seen the beauty in it. Here is the verse in
more context:


When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God
made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge
of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken
it away, nailing it to the cross.

Colossians 2:13-14

I can’t pretend to know Greek or to have some incredible insight into this discussion. I have
often felt inept in this assignment. But I do know this. Regardless of the differing translations
and nuance around this word, whatever was standing in the way of us and life in Christ has been nailed to the cross, vanquished by the death and resurrection of our Savior. This “chierographon” was holding us back in death, but Christ has brought life to our broken existence. This thing that held us from our Lord is done away with. Praise be to the God who wiped clean our slate.

Fika



Fika [fee-ka] is a Swedish noun meaning a moment to slow down and appreciate the good things in life. Many people in European countries center their lifestyle around this word and will often gather in the middle of their regular day to share coffee, tea, or bread with friends and family. However, for Swedish people this word means so much more than a simple coffee break. It is meant to be an intentional effort made to set aside time to spend quality time with those you love. It can happen at any point of the day at any place and with anyone you love. But, it is always intentional. Am I being intentional with the people I love and making time for them?


The season we are entering into is my very favorite time of year. From the tail end of October into the new year, we are bombarded (in the very best way) by events, people, gatherings, gift buying, cooking, caroling, decorating, giving, and hopefully memory making. This time is special, and it is sacred, but this time also easily becomes stressful and exhausting. I could give a hundred reasons for why I think this is, but I will just say what so many of us already know to be true. We miss the point, and we lose focus of what makes this season special. In the midst of all that the holiday season brings us, we focus more on the gift buying than people. We focus more on the cooking than gathering. We focus more on the decorating than the memory making.


I am as guilty as the next person, but for this year, what if we actually took the time and discipline to be intentional with the way we love? What if we caught ourselves in the act of losing our footing and made an adjustment to grow relationships and make memories? I want to be intentional this year because I am especially guilty of not living the fika mindset. I think we could all do better, and I am certain that we would all experience a noticeable difference in the holiday season if we made this intentional change.

Lord of the Big, the Small, and Everything in Between

There is a prayer I have shared before that has come to mean a lot to me. Students in our
ministry often make fun of how regularly this prayer comes up when I teach. Some of them even remember parts of it when I ask! (I have found that it is often the less consequential parts they remember, and the overall point is missed, but it is a start nonetheless.) The prayer is:

Lord of all pots and pans and things… make me a saint by getting meals and washing up the plates!

This prayer is found in a short little book called The Practice of the Presence of God by
Brother Lawrence. Lawrence was a simple monk from France in the 17 th century. By all accounts there was nothing outwardly special about him. He was never the smartest, or most well read, or most put together. Regardless, people saw something was different about him. Many would visit or write to him to seek spiritual advice on a multitude of topics, most commonly on how to live such a content and peaceful existence. The answer was really a lot simpler than you would think. Brother Lawrence tried to do everything as if for the Lord. Somehow, he managed to find God in his work at the monastery in the kitchen. Washing dishes, an activity that is normally a nuisance, he turned over to God. He sought companionship with God in the mundane, in the monotonous, in the everyday, in everything he did. What a gift: to be able to turn otherwise meaningless occurrences into living praise to our God. One of my favorite quotes from the book is, “That we ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.” The little things are often overlooked. Which is a shame because our lives are made up of these little things. We are often guilty of passing them by in lieu of something flashier, more glamorous, or ‘better’ by our broken standards. This line of reasoning, of course, seems to make sense. God is great and powerful, so he shows up in the great and impactful things. While this is true, it is far from the full picture we see in Scripture. In 1 Kings 19, God doesn’t appear to Elijah in the great and powerful wind, or in the earthquake, or in the fire: but instead in a small, still voice. So often we fall into this same trap of expecting God to be or act in a certain way. The problem is God is not in the business of fitting in the boxes we attempt to force Him into. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking God is only present for the ‘big’ events of our lives. Give the small things over to Him too.

It is my prayer that this week we seek God in the small. Don’t overlook the opportunities
for companionship with God in the mundane. Seek Him out in unexpected places. Listen closely
for that small, still voice we have all been tuning out for far too long.

Taking Every Thought Captive

I am worthless. I am unlovable. I am a failure. I have no purpose. I am inadequate. These statements are a few of the most common negative core beliefs that we as humans believe about ourselves and that counselors encounter when working with individuals in counseling. I know this to be true both in my own humanity and in my work as a part time clinical mental health counselor. Not one of us is immune to the reality of having negative thoughts or the temptation of falling captive to them. We will all and do all struggle on some level and at some point in our lives with negative thoughts about ourselves.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, “We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.” Another version of verse 5 reads like this, “We can demolish every deceptive fantasy  that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought  and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.”

We are called as believers to capture every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to our Father, the Anointed One. This one sentence should be an immense comfort. However, that may be a confusing thought because for so many of us, we feel powerless in the war that wages in our minds. If you feel that way, you are not alone. I have been there too. More than once. I don’t want the words I am writing to be misunderstood and for a reader to hear me say that all struggles we fight with mental health can be solved with a quick prayer and an encouraging Bible verse you’ve posted to your Facebook status. For so many of us, myself included, our battles with negative thoughts are diagnosed disorders that need special attention and oftentimes even other resources. But, here is what I also know to be true. You won’t find a counselor out there who isn’t actively working with their clients to teach, train, and partner with them in their own personal journey against rewriting the negative thoughts they believe deep in their spirit. This is because it is possible to rewire your brain and retrain your thoughts, and I believe there is one big reason why. Jesus Christ rewrites our story, gives us a new name, and puts to death the parts of us that keep us trapped in our shame, but we have to do the work in partnering with Jesus and believing the truth He speaks over us.

 It is possible to take our thoughts captive because of the power of the Spirit that lives within us and the truth of Jesus that washes over us. I am not worthless because I can read that “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” I am not unlovable because I can read that God “gave His one and only Son for me.” I am not a failure because I can read the words of Jesus that say  “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” I am not without a purpose because I can read that He is “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” I know I am not inadequate because it was the request of God himself to “make mankind in His image.” He has equipped us to fight the spiritual battle, but we have to choose to fight for our own joy and peace. We have to believe that the power of our Savior is more powerful than any thought that might have kept us captive in the past. You can do this, and so can I because we serve a God more powerful than we could ever imagine, and he is partnering with us in the battle against our thoughts.

“Love and do what you will.”

Depending on the lens with which you read the quote “Love and do what you will,” one might read it as a self-explanatory, easy to digest sentiment for the Christian. At the same time, another sees this as heresy. A tidied-up way of proposing one needs to seek out and do whatever they please. Outside of the context with which this statement originated, both lines of reasoning can be valid. So, let’s try to get to the bottom of what this statement is trying to get at. This quote is given as part of a sermon by St. Augustine on 1 John 4:4-12 and in effect, summarizes his message on the scripture. Let’s start by looking at the passage.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1 John 4:7-12

What is meant by the word “love” in Augustine’s short quote becomes a little clearer when looked at through the lens of love that John provides for us. Love cannot be defined by simply human means or understandings. Augustine believed that for humans to be able to exemplify love, there is something that must occur beforehand. This prerequisite is for one to be transformed by the one who IS love. For Augustine, humans are incapable of being love in the truest sense due to our fallen nature. But through the grace and transformative intimacy we experience by being close to Love Himself, we can more closely embody the love we have been called to be as His followers. We would be wrong to think that we leave the same after encountering the Lord and His Love: we are changed, our wills change, our desires change. We cannot continue as the same creatures we were before. Our former selves have been given up for the sake of a higher calling. All this change and transformation is for the purpose of God’s kingdom. I cannot love on my own, but His presence is enough to transform us so that in turn we can “Love and do what you will.”


As you go through your week, find time to open your heart and allow our Lord to transform you from the inside out. Allow Him to show you what love and His will are, so that we may love and do as He pleases.

When I first signed up to write a devo, I was excited. What a great opportunity, I thought. I will have so much free time to do the writing I have always planned to do, I thought.  First of all I have not had all the free time people keep talking about. I think most of my day is spent in the kitchen! But also, now that it is my turn, it seems I just can’t get the words to come together. I wanted to share something thoughtful, profound and helpful but I also don’t want to leave the impression that this pandemic hasn’t thrown my anxiety into overdrive or exposed the cracks in what I pridefully thought was a solid faith.  There have been so many thought patterns over the last several weeks and roller coasters of emotions. One day I’m excited to see God’s plan unfold. I mean this isn’t my first bat at uncertainty and God always comes through in ways I could have never imagined. Then the next moment I am ready to pull the cover over my head and sleep until it is over, because the disappointment and fear is just too hard to bare. I fear that life won’t ever return to normal and then I fear that it will. I savor the sweet time of worship at home sharing communion with my little family, but then cry buckets longing to be singing with my church.

I’m overwhelmed with gratitude on Easter for the resurrection, but at the same time feel deep sadness for the celebratory meal of just 4. I lie awake at night with worry over all the things, but yet I feel this peace knowing my hope is in Jesus. I have had to continually recenter on God’s sovereignty and  surrender my will to His. To say my brain feels like it might explode is an understatement, and I may or may not be driving Jarred just a little crazy.

So I decided to share something I wrote the week that life began to suddenly change and we really didn’t have a grasp yet on how much. It was the week we found out there would be no Makin’ Music and most likely our table wouldn’t be surrounded by college students again until the fall. I have gone back and read it often to remind myself of the strength and peace I felt that day as I surrendered myself to God’s will in all of this. Because this is the truth that we must hold on to, as cliche’ as we have made it - God’s got this, He really does have a great plan, He is in control and what Satan intended for evil, God will turn into good through His people.
 
Here are my thoughts from March 19:

I stayed away from all forms of media yesterday. Jon Acuff posted this, “There’s a thin line between “informed” and “obsessed.” It’s different for each person, but when you find the constant stream of Coronavirus information fueling your fear instead of equipping you with facts, take a short break.” This is what was happening to me. So I’m taking a break. A break from all the opinions, the numbers, the political post, the gloom and doom, the disappointments, the beautifully written posts on how we should react as Christians, the countless educational resources and Pinterest projects I should be doing with my kids, etc, etc. and it is unbelievable the clarity I have received back in just one day.

On Tuesday I was angry and sad and overwhelmed. I yelled at my kids... a lot. I cried. I didn’t want to think about the good that God was creating from all this. I just wanted to pout about the unfairness of it all. I felt selfish and petty for feeling that way. I mean hadn’t I just spent the last year and a half studying suffering and disappointment. But perhaps the biggest part of my fear and anxiety comes from the place in my soul that this whole crisis is forcing me to face. The one that wants to hang on to my comfortable life with a death grip. That the god I may really trust is the comforts of life we have turned into necessities. I think about the class I recently taught where I urged my Christian sisters of  the importance of showing our children how to suffer well. That in our suffering is where they will see God....but they won’t see God in the comfort or if life never brings them disappointment. And if we never suffer, then we can’t show them how to suffer. Tuesday I wanted to believe that surely there was another way. Christ begged his father for another way but in Heb 5:8 it says “ although he was the Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered....” So peace in all this comes from surrendering it all to our Father and saying, Thy will be done.”
 
What’s funny is that I have been praying for over a year that God help me simplify my life, so I had more white space for the most important things. Maybe stripping our lives of all the “good” things so we can rebuild with the most important things as the foundation was the only way.
 
I know without a doubt God is doing amazing work in all of our hearts. Work that if life had kept on as normal, would have never happened. Do I think God caused this crisis -NO! Do I believe He can use it to do great things for His kingdom - YES! Just imagine how strong our children will be knowing they saw God deliver us all through this.  Not guaranteeing that tomorrow I won’t be reaching for the covers again and needing to once again stop the spiraling in my brain with more truth, but today I am excited and joyful thinking about the possibilities and opportunities God has in store for his church.
 
To finish I want to leave you with a verse that I have read over and over for the last 6 months and it has brought me so much comfort. Psalms 107:23-32 but especially versus 28-30 that reads “Then you called out to God in your desperate condition; He got you out in the nick of time. He quieted the wind down to a whisper, put a muzzle on all the big waves. And you were so glad when the storm died down and He led you safely back to harbor.” “He got you out in the nick of time…” I just love that.

- Beth Anne Clayton

I have never had to work hard to find God in the good times. But in the difficult times it is easy for me to wonder where He is. I know He will never leave me, nor forsake me. I know that He works things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. I know I should trust in Him, and rest in His presence. When life is falling apart, how are we supposed to blindly do that?
 
“Where are you, God?” has been a thought that crosses my mind during difficult days or when I think of evil things that are going on in the world. Sometimes I even try to come up with reasons why these sufferings are happening. If you find yourself asking similar questions today due to everything going on in the world, I encourage you to meditate on some comforting scriptures— John 16:33, Jeremiah 29:11-13, Exodus 14:14, Matthew 11:28-29, Proverbs 3:5.
 
Many of us live much of our lives under the illusion that we are in control. But when our circumstances start turning in the wrong direction we are faced with the fact that we actually have very little control.  This life is filled with circumstances that will leave us questioning or even denying God’s goodness if we live by what we see, rather than by faith in what God has promised. “For we live by faith, not by sight” 2 Corinthians 5:7. This choice is a daily one we have to make. We can choose to either trust what we see and find what is good for ourselves or we can live by faith in a crucified Savior and let Him define what is good for us, even if it means choosing to trust Him over what we can see and feel.
 
I think about the disciples when they were on the boat with Jesus when a dangerous storm erupted on the water. They were unprepared to face it and terrified, realizing they could die. The entire time this is happening, Jesus is sleeping peacefully. Instead of looking at Jesus’ reaction to what was happening, the disciples allowed their fear to dictate their reactions. After begging Jesus to do something, He calms the storm, and then asks them, “Where is your faith?” His gentle rebuke over their lack of faith wasn’t because they didn’t believe Jesus could save them from the storm, but because they were scared and struggled to believe He would see them through it.
 
God has power over every storm. If the wind and waves don’t concern Him, then they shouldn’t frighten us. We might not be able to change our situation, but we can choose to faithfully trust God in the middle of whatever we are going through. Fixing our eyes on Jesus leads us to peace. Are you looking at the size of the storm, or turning towards the One who can calm it? It is only by focusing on God that we can face any situation with His wisdom and peace. Jesus is always in our boat. It is easy to focus on our fears when we cannot control our future, but thankfully Jesus knows our future and is always by our side.
 
Whenever we find ourselves overwhelmed by life, we have two choices: we can dwell on our circumstances, or fix our eyes on Jesus. If we choose to look to Jesus above everything else, we will begin to see that the storms we are facing are not nearly as powerful as the Savior choosing to walk through the storm alongside us.
 
So let’s come to Christ with our worries and ask Him to give us the faith to take our eyes away from what we can see in front of us and lift our eyes again to the cross. That is where we will find assurance and confidence in the undeserving goodness and faithfulness of our heavenly Father. He has all wisdom. He has all power. He comes to us in our pain. We have Him on our side. He is perfect, which means everything He wants and desires for our lives is far greater than anything we could imagine.
 
Hope this gives you some encouragement and comfort to face whatever comes your way today!
 

With Love,
Taylor Bell

I don’t do well in isolation. I am an extreme extrovert and I need to be around people to recharge my batteries. The idea of “social distancing” and “self-quarantine” are not my cup of tea. In creation when God created Adam, He said, “It is not good for man to be alone” (Gen 2:18). It is my prayer that this crisis ends quickly and we can all resume our normal lives. My thought in all of this is that God has a plan. He has a plan for me and my family as well as you and your family.

Repeatedly in the scripture, God chose to reveal himself to isolated people. It was not until Moses was alone on Sinai that God showed him His glory and instructed him in the Law. Inside the tabernacle and the temple, only the lone high priest was allowed to go into the Most Holy Place where God dwelled. John was exiled on the island of Patmos and God chose that situation to show him the visions recorded in Revelation. Jesus himself often sought isolation to commune with the Father in both the wilderness and the garden. Instead of running from isolation in this season, I am challenging myself to use this time to seek God’s plan for me and I hope you will too.

God bless you, stay home, and wash your hands.

- Robert Groves

As humans, we have a need for physical contact; a handshake, A pat on the back, a hug… The list could go on. Physical contact makes us feel loved, appreciated, and safe. When Nathan was a baby we all got in the habit of asking, “Would you like me to hold you?” or “ Do you want me to hold you?“ when he was able to walk and talk and needed comforting, he would come to us, throw his hands in the air and say, “Hold you! Hold you!” It was sweet and cute to witness. He needed to be held, comforted, snuggled. It didn’t matter if it was Jenna, Abby, or me that he came too. He just knew that he wanted and needed that physical touch. In this crazy time of social distancing, I miss touch. I miss people. Yes, I even miss God. I miss seeing Him on people’s faces and in their eyes, their smiles, and their hearts. At the same time, I love seeing people’s faith in action, their kindness, and their support of each other during this crazy time.

Scriptures often talk about embracing; the wrapping of arms around others. This shows safety, love, forgiveness.

Mark 10:16- “ And He took the children in His arms, placed His hands on them and bless them.“

Genesis 33- Shows Esau running, throwing his arms around Jacob‘s neck and weeping

Genesis 45 & 46- So Joseph embracing his brother Benjamin and later his father Jacob and weeping

Isaiah 40- He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart

Luke 15:20- But while he was still a long way off his father saw him and was filled with
compassion. He ran to him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him.

Maybe during this crazy, terrifying pandemic it will help us throw up our arms, run to Jesus, and cry “Hold you! Hold you!” Because nothing feels better than to be safe in the arms of Jesus!

During these times of anxiety, uncertainty and with tons of information being thrown at us in ways that we have never experienced before, I think it’s important to be able to distinguish the useless information from the information that really matters.  To remind us what REALLY matters, I’d like to look at several scriptures later in this devotional.
But, before we read from scripture ………….I would like to share some more useless information with you just in case you didn’t have enough of it being thrown at you every day already.
Did you know:

• A fully mature oak tree sheds about 700,000 leaves per year.
• Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
• For 99.97% of humans, it is impossible to lick your elbow.
• Ecclesiophobia is the fear of church.
• There are 178 seeds on the average Big Mac bun.
• Mosquitos are attracted to the color blue twice as much as any other color.

Have you ever stopped to think about the amount of useless information that we see and hear every day?  All of the facts that I just mentioned, with maybe the exception of how not to make yourself a target for mosquitoes, are what I consider trivial and almost useless information.
Technology today is advancing so fast that it is almost hard for me to comprehend.  We are pressed to learn and understand and do things through our jobs, our investments, our daily finances and our relationships that seem to be so complex.  Even the complexities of human relationships take effort to understand.  I have read where my wife might be from Venus and I am from Mars (sorry for that reference if you have never heard of that book).

Why does everything have to be so complex?  It seems like we are challenged every day, each of us in different ways, to spend a lot of time and energy on things of this world just to stay somewhat relevant in our culture.

I oftentimes wish things were as simple as I thought they were when I was in Elementary School.  I understand more and more every day that sometimes ignorance really is bliss.  We could read all day and all night long about this virus that is sweeping the world.  After reading it all, I’m afraid that we could be more confused than before we read it.  As I grow older, I see that this world is a lot more complex than ever imagined.

How many of you have watched the TV show Jeopardy?  There’s not much that makes me feel any less smart than watching that show.  How do people store or even see the need to store that much useless information?  I don’t think it’s relevant to know who the King of Prussia was in 1740, but I saw one man get that question right the other night and it wasn’t even for $1,000.
Our minds are full of information, some is useless and some is necessary due to the society and time that we live in. We need to know about mutual funds and IRA’s and gigabytes and social distancing and how to Livestream our worship service.

I hope that I have been successful as I have begun my thoughts in this short devotional to get you to think about the time and the effort that we give every day to the things and to the thoughts of this world.  And for those of you who have never tried to lick your elbow, wash your elbow for at least 20 seconds (in case you can actually do it) and please wait until you finish reading this devotional to give it a try.

In all seriousness, these “things”……….. this “useless” information takes part of us as Christians and sometimes forces our time and our thoughts away from our responsibilities as Christians.  Call it the “rat race,” “keeping up with the Jones”, keeping up with society or whatever term fits in your life.

What I would like to do for just a short minute is to allow your mind and mine to back away from the complexities of this life and the historical challenges that we are going through and look at three passages of scripture that I think can help us make our lives more simple every day.  The principles in these scriptures are very basic, but carry more importance than anything that we could possibly learn or grasp in this life.

The concepts in these passages are so straight forward and simple that I don’t want to add my words, but just allow you to read them in their simplicity without explanation

Matthew 22:36-38
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment.

Matthew 18:1-3
1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, 3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
 
 
John 3:16-17
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

I challenge you as you go through your daily lives to take time to see that even though this world is complex and these times are complex…….. God’s plan is simple.  God’s commands and desire for our lives is as basic and simple as it has been from the beginning.   We are the ones who have allowed our lives to be dominated by this fast paced, high demand society and high anxiety times.

We all have our ways of getting away and relaxing.  Some play golf, some ride motorcycles.  I hunt and I fish to help me slow down and it truly helps me shed the worries of everyday life.
Let me suggest that when we feel like this world is in control, that we simply challenge ourselves to stop and reflect on the simplicity of God’s plan for us.  His desire for us has never changed and it never will change.  

God’s plan is simple to understand, but sometimes the demands of our lives make it difficult to follow.  We each have to individually decide what’s going to get our focus and our attention.  What am I going to give the most of my focus….the most of my effort….the most of my time?  The Bible easily prioritizes things for us.  

Mark 8:36
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole WORLD, and lose his own soul?
 
- Robert Mullins 

For you it might be a special day with a grandparent who has now passed, a Christmas where the whole family was together, your wedding day, the birth of a child, a first dance, or the last words from a friend. We cling to these memories. We tell these stories often to keep them fresh on our minds. We take down the photo albums, scroll through our phones, or open files in the cloud to relive these memories. I come from a family of storytellers with a rich history. We’ve known about “our people” since before the time they settled in Lexington, Luray, Michie, and Sevierville. Any time we are together we tell the stories of our family. One of my favorite things is cracking open old photo albums and watching my grandmother introduce my kids to all of their relatives that they’ll never meet but whose lives have influenced theirs more than they’ll ever know.
 
Today marks a day I never want to forget. A day that friends gathered together to share a festival meal that was rich with historical importance.  A day where they celebrated the most important story of deliverance the world had ever known. It was at this meal, in this time of remembrance, that Jesus chose to introduce a new deliverance that would go on to be remembered for every generation that followed. We remember this meal every week and in our remembrance it’s as if we are looking back through those old photo albums at relatives long since gone, relatives that we will never know but who changed us forever. But what was this meal like for the ones who were actually there? How did Jesus look at each of them as he washed their feet? Did he bless them? Did any of them have any idea what was about to happen?
These are not the questions we typically ask. We have the advantage of knowing how the story ends and being thousands of years on the other side of the Easter story. We also have the disadvantage of not experiencing the emotional connection of living that moment. The Lord’s Supper can feel like a story told by a relative that seems like ancient history. My hope is that we will allow ourselves to be caught up in the “great cloud of witnesses” that have gone before us. When we take communion, we will find ourselves at the table not only with Jesus and his disciples but with our family, church members, friends, mentors who have gone on before us. I pray that the Lord gives you that vision as you read the text of the Lord’s last meal with his closest friends.
 
Devotional Reading:
Mark 14:12-28
John 13-17

- Andy Frizzell

“For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.”  (John 5:46)
 
Unleavened Bread

Happy Passover!
If you are like me, all your days, weeks and months have turned into a blur, so I am reminding you that this Sunday April 12th is Easter.  Did you also that know that Passover is this week? Passover begins today at sundown and goes through Thursday, April 16th at sundown.

Unleavened (without yeast) bread is an important part of both the Passover and Easter celebrations and will be eaten all over the world this week by both Jews and Christians. The importance of the unleavened bread is well-known to both religious groups.

There’s not much that’s appealing about the flat, bland crusts of bread that we are so accustomed to passing from person to person every Sunday. We call it communion bread while the Jewish people refer to it as Matzah or Matzo bread. It doesn’t have much taste or any other kind of appeal to it.  Most people if given a choice at their dinner plate would choose bread with yeast. Historically, unleavened bread has also been known as a “poor man’s bread” or the “bread of affliction” (Deuteronomy 16:3). Because it is Passover this week, you can buy a box of it at most grocery stores or on Amazon. You can also make it at home. The simple ingredients for it are listed in Exodus 29:3—flour, oil and water. I have included a recipe at the end if you want to try making some in your kitchen.

As a Jew, Jesus was celebrating the Passover meal with His disciples on the night He was betrayed and arrested.  In that upper room, Jesus took the unleavened bread and shared it with His disciples.

And he took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said “This is my body, which is given for you.” (Luke 22:19)
 
This same unleavened bread has a long history that precedes what we know as the Last Supper by thousands of years.  It has been mentioned in scripture since the time of Abraham (Genesis 18), but you are most likely familiar with it from the Exodus story when the Lord initiated the first Passover (Exodus 12).   You probably are knowledgeable about some of the symbolism involved, but there are a few aspects of this unleavened Passover bread that I find quite surprising, fascinating, and faith-building, and I hope it will be to you, too.  Before we get to that, let’s review some of the references to unleavened bread in the scriptures.

So, what’s so bad about leaven? The idea of leaven (yeast) being a symbol of sin, pride and corruption in the scriptures goes back to Leviticus and continues in Paul’s letters. Bread that has risen is symbolic of puffed up pride, while the flat bread made without yeast is symbolic of humility, simplicity, and purity.

“No grain offering that you present to the LORD is to be made with yeast, for you are not to burn any yeast or honey as a fire offering to the LORD.” (Leviticus 2:11)
 
“Your boasting is not good.  Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough?”  (1 Corinthians 5:6)

The initiation of the Passover takes place in Exodus 12 (read the entire chapter for the full account).  God comes to Aaron and Moses and gives them very specific instructions on how to prepare the Passover lamb so that the angel of destruction will “pass over” the houses of the children of Israel and thereby “execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt” (vs. 12). In addition, they are given instructions about the bread they are to take with them as they escape Egypt.  Here it is known as the bread of affliction. It lacked luxury. It was bread eaten in haste as they fled slavery. It is also associated with redemption.
 
Now the Egyptians pressured the people in order to send them quickly out of the country, for they said “We’re all going to die!” So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their clothes on their shoulders. (Exodus 12:33-34)
 
Here’s the part of all this I think is most fascinating. The Jewish people have been making Passover bread since the time of Moses.  They have handed down recipes in families and have pretty much done it the same way for literally thousands of years.  They don’t put yeast in the dough, but because there is some yeast in the air, the dough will start to puff up some on its own.  In order for it to maintain its flat shape, it must be made quickly (less than 18 minutes) and striped and pierced with a fork or other utensil. Did you catch that? It has to be striped and pierced. Once the bread is baked, it has a brownish or a “bruised” appearance where the small bubbles of dough rise between piercings.  The finished product is unleavened bread that has the appearance of being striped, pierced, and bruised.  This is how is has been made for generations.
 
But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
 
They pierced my hands and feet. (Psalm 22:16)
 
They will look on me who they have pierced. (Zechariah 12:10)

Think about that powerful symbolism that has existed for thousands of years!
There is another interesting tradition that was integrated into the Passover meal sometime around the time of Jesus.  It is called the “Afikomen” which is a Greek word which means “that which comes after.” It involves a piece of matzah bread wrapped in a cloth and hidden somewhere in the house. The children all scurry about trying to be the first to find the Afikomen to receive a reward.

Now that you understand this, it might be a fun activity to try to make your own unleavened bread according to Jewish tradition for your communion at home this Easter. Think about the symbolism as you pierce, bruise, and stripe the bread and teach that to your children.  I bet you will never look at the communion bread in the same way ever again!
Here is an example of one recipe, but there are many others online.  Have fun! I would love to see pictures of your unleavened bread on the CStreet Members FaceBook page.


Have a wonderful Passover week and a happy Easter!
- Shannon Guthrie

Lamentations 3:22-24:  “Because of the loving devotion of the Lord we are not consumed, for his mercies never fail. They are new every morning, great is Your Faithfulness! The Lord is my portions, says my soul, therefore I will hope in Him”

This passage, written by Jeremiah, gives hope to the hopeless. Nothing is certain in this world except the faithful love of a merciful Father.

During this time of uncertainty, I see God’s love everywhere. People are kinder, more generous, helpful,  prayerful. The “All about me” is being replaced with, “How can we help each other?” Family members call more often, what a blessing!  I pray it doesn’t stop.

As I read the passage in Lamentations, the song’ “Faithful Love” comes to mind. Stanza one reads, “Faithful love flowing down from the thorn-covered crown, Makes me whole, saves my soul, Washes whiter than snow. Faithful love calms each fear, reaches down, dries each tear; Holds my hand when I can’t stand on my own.” May we dwell on the Faithfulness of God, His love is everlasting, and we belong to Him!

As Daniel did, we are stopping three times a day to pray for our world to be healed, for a spiritual revival in this land, and for complete dependence on our Lord. How thankful I am for the power of prayer!

- Linda Harville

I grew up during the World War II years.  In 1941 to ‘44 the radio reports contained very little good news.  Hitler still owned Europe and the Japanese continued their march across the Pacific toward Australia and New Zealand.  Hitler was working on an atomic bomb, his army was rolling across Russia, and his technicians were working on a fighter plane that would outperform anything we had.    
 
When the Allies prepared to invade Europe, they knew the price would be high.  The Normandy coast was bristling with defenses that might repel the 156,000 men who would attempt to set Europe free.  Prayers were uttered.  Everything was ready.   But hope was mocked by a storm.  Weather cooperated with Nazi Germany, so the invasion would have to be put off two more weeks.  The surprise would be lost.  Field Marshall Erwin Rommel saw the storm as an excellent time to return to Germany to celebrate his wife’s birthday.  The German High Command decided to have a meeting to discuss tactics.  German field units were left without their top commanders.  Hitler had put his Panzer tanks under his explicit command and pulled them away from the coast.  They could move only at his personal say-so.  He was asleep with orders to not disturb him.  A sudden break in the weather on June 6, 1944 changed everything.  General Eisenhower made the decision, and all was “Go.”  The Germans thought the invasion was a decoy to cover one further north.  Indecision among the German High Command and fear of waking Hitler was a plus for the Allies.  The beaches were not walk-ins.  Despite their surprise, 1,200 Americans died on Omaha Beach alone.  There were 10,000 casualties with a total of 2,500 Allied soldiers being killed.  Victory could have been won by the German defenders, but they lost due to human error.
 
Did the Allies owe their victory to luck?  Did God not have anything to do with the outcome?  Sometimes we figure out how God ought to answer our prayers and when He doesn’t play along, we award the outcome to the gods of luck rather than Him.
 
We are now in a war with a virus.  There will be casualties because it will infect a large number of the population.  There will be a fallout affecting our economy and each household.  Some will meet their Maker sooner than others.  Grief will visit both believers and unbelievers. Perhaps it is a test to see who is on the Lord’s side?  Sin can affect more than the sinner.  Sometimes the innocent is included.  Yet, trust in God delivers the soul.  Some will mark this war as one waged on the lucky and the unlucky.  They believe one’s survival is just a matter of chance.  Others will see it as an opportunity to put their trust in God.  Whether we remain or we exchange a finite home for an infinite one, it all comes down to our choice.

- Ray Hawk

The thought of people around us dying is a terrifying thought. We all know that death is a part of life, but we do not usually spend a great deal of time thinking about it. Yet most of us are tuning in to a news station at least once a day right now to hear the death toll that COVID-19 has taken in different parts of the world, different parts of the country, and different parts of our state. It’s a pandemic, the likes of which we will probably not see again in this century. It’s new and unknown and unpredictable. And it’s scary.
 
When Bryan and I first started on the journey of his unknown disease, meeting with doctor after doctor to understand it’s nature, the prognosis, and why he was suddenly unable to hold oxygen in his bloodstream or inflate his lungs, it felt surreal. Life got turned completely upside down, and no one could explain it to us or offer us any viable path to take through it. But we learned some things during those first couple years of illness that are impossible to learn in any type of “normal” life situation; this knowledge and understanding can only be forged by trials. 
 
I believe we have a similar opportunity for growth in this present crisis, and I know the Lord wants to encourage us all to take heart. 
 
We ALL like to see the path in front of us before we take a step. And when possible, wisdom would tell us to do exactly that! But living by faith means sometimes we have to take a step before we know where our foot will land. 
And so we take that step.
And we take the next step.
 
And we keep on doing that until we grow a little more accustomed to trusting the Lord with all our unknowns- with facing our feelings of fear, sadness, confusion, and helplessness; and asking Him to show us what to do with them – and we do this until we finally land in a space where the path becomes a little clearer again, and perhaps we reach a different season of life where we have a reasonable sense of knowing where we’re walking. But sometimes that doesn’t happen for a long time, and our ONLY security is knowing that the One whose hand we are holding will not let us slip and fall. He is there for every part of the journey, and we can let him do the heavy lifting when we can’t see anything around us but fog. He calls us to Himself, to a great love that gives us unexplainable peace even in the midst of chaos and heartbreak. He sees the big picture that we cannot see, and He knows we aren’t even capable of handling such knowledge. And He doesn’t ask us to. 
 
One of my favorite books is The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom, who survived the Holocaust but lost many of her family members and friends during it. There’s a passage in this book where Corrie recounts a time she and her father were riding on the train together when she was 10 or 11 years old, before things in the country got really bad. She had read a line of poetry in school that she didn’t understand, and she knew she couldn’t ask her questions at home without all of her aunts joining in the discussion. Corrie had a special relationship with her father, and she took any chance she could get to have time with him alone.

And so seated next to my father in the train compartment, I suddenly asked, "Father, what is sex-sin?"
He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but to my surprise he said nothing. At last he stood up, lifted his traveling case off the floor and set it on the floor.
Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?" he said.
I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning.
It's too heavy," I said.
Yes," he said, "and it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It's the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger, you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you.”
 
“And I was satisfied,” she writes in the book. “More than satisfied—wonderfully at peace. There were answers to this and all my hard questions—for now I was content to leave them in my father’s keeping.”
 
As Corrie faced concentration camps and experiences too horrible to imagine, she said “it was father’s train case once again. Such cruelty was too much to grasp, too much to bear.” And she would cry out, “Heavenly Father carry it for me!” And she would let Him do exactly that.
 
So we must let the Lord carry our fears and worries and questions during this time where so many are sick and dying or living on their last available paycheck.
 
One of the most important things I learned during the first couple years of Bryan’s illness- and something I still continue to learn- is how to experience competing emotions and thoughts and allow myself to be okay with that. One of the illustrations we use for helping people in grief counseling is that of holding a hot coal in one hand and an ice cube in the other. The brain struggles with this; it doesn’t know what to focus on. We sometimes think we have to choose. But that really isn’t the case. We just might need to focus on one for a minute, then focus on the other, and back and forth it goes. They might not be able to register at exactly the same time, but they can still both register.
 
And so it is with emotions and varying circumstances.
 
At the start of Bryan’s illness, when we realized we would just be taking home the new machines and equipment and then told to just live the best we could, I wanted to know how in the world I would ever be able to be both heavy-hearted- filled with sadness for Bryan’s pain and his sudden change of ability- and also able to celebrate life with our children and enjoy their laughter and happiness? How could I possibly feel such opposite things at the same time and actually be present with either feeling? Was it being untrue to Bryan for the kids and me to still go out and do things that he couldn’t? Would I hurt the kids if I didn’t learn to do exactly that? Where was the fairness in it all, and what were we to do? I felt such deep sorrow over the family member who was sick, and also grief at what that meant for all of us as a family; but at the same time, there were small children to be raised who were not sick. I knew it would take courage and faith to be present with the laughter and free-spirited, adventurous nature of my children and also to keep in touch with the feelings Bryan and I were needing to face and process and feel together. And I wasn’t sure I could do that.
 
So it is during this time of quarantine, with so many facing trauma and with such widespread panic and sorrow all around us. Is it okay for us to still be happy while working out in our lawn? To smile and turn our face towards the sun when there are people dying by the thousands? Shouldn’t we all be sad all the time, or glued to the t.v. in case somehow our worry and sadness can help ease that of others? That is not what I find when I look at the lives of the early Christians. Of course there are times when we will be filled with grief and sorrow. Those times are often when we draw closest to the Lord and seek His face the most. But when I look at the early church, I find people who were determined to take joy in simple blessings and who went on singing praises even when locked in jail cells. I see people who stood alongside each other in their times of grief and sorrow but who also had a firm grasp on HOPE that springs eternal. It’s the idea of “and/both” rather than “either/or”. We can be devastated for the sorrows around us and still grateful for the comfort of our Father. We can be happy that our legs are strong enough to take us on a walk and also sad about all the places they can’t take us during this time of quarantine. And in all situations, we can take everything we’re thinking and feeling to the Lord, and we can KNOW He is able to handle it. God’s got this. Whether we can make any sense of it or not, He is God and He is able. His thoughts are so far above ours, and his ways are beyond our understanding. 
 
So take heart, dear friends. In all things, the Lord of the universe is still in control, and He is working in each of us to do great things. There is beauty in the process! I truly believe that learning to live in peace even with the waters raging all around us is possibly the most important lesson in faith we - and our children-- could possibly have.
--

Take a moment and think back a few thousand years to the people of Israel as they’re leaving Egypt. They spent over 400 years in Egypt. Generation after generation grew up in slavery. Day-in-day-out, hard labor. It would have been deeply ingrained in their subculture that hard work was key to survival. How was their worth measured? By how many bricks they produced. The more you produce, the more valuable you are to your owner. The less you produce… well, that’s where the beatings started.
As they left Egypt and prepared to enter the land promised to them, God gave his people several laws to guide how they were to live out their freedom. One of those was a law commanding rest. Rest is something, from the Israelite perspective, that is holy. Even God rested on the 7th day in the creation story(Exodus 20:8-11). 
Resting is not something that, as a society, we are very good at. At least, I know I’m not. I often use my “time off” to work around the house, work on my side business, or “get things done” in general. We tend to view leisure time as a guilty pleasure, indulging from time-to-time while feeling beating ourselves up about it.
In our culture, we value production. Your salary is based off what you produce for your employer. If you want to make more money, then you better produce more value. Work some overtime, become more efficient, think of a way to make the business more money. That’s capitalism, after all, and that’s fine, as far as it goes. Let’s face it, though, folks. We don’t stop there. We don’t just value jobs based on production; it’s how we value people. Who is the most respected, most celebrated in our society? I don’t even need to answer this for you.
By commanding the Israelites to dedicate one day each week to rest, God was ordaining a day of non-production. I think the Sabbath was one way God was reminding his people that they weren’t valuable because of what they produce; they were valuable because they were made in the image of God. God needed to help the Israelites redefine their identity. 
I think we need to redefine ours, too. We are valuable because we are made in the image of God. You are valuable, not because of what you produce, but because you are made in the image. 
Now, I’m not saying we need to observe the Sabbath in the same way the Israelites did. I am saying (and Jesus said as much: Mark 2:27) that Sabbath has immense value to us a human beings. Often, we find ourselves stuffing every moment of our lives with activities. As COVID-19 has cancelled most of these things, many of us are left with more time with our families and more time at our homes than we’ve ever had before.  
I’d like to encourage you to set apart some time over the next couple of days to be non-productive. Watching Netflix or browsing Instagram doesn’t count, either. Take some time to reflect on the fact that you are valuable, not because of what you do, but because you are a unique expression of God’s image.

Ruth –
“Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, ‘We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem.’” (Ruth 4:11)
Ruth is one of our best examples of someone who had faith her circumstances would get better, even though her story begins when everything is wrong. Ironically, the word Bethlehem literally means “house of bread,” but when we begin reading in chapter 1, Elimelech is having to leave Bethlehem to find food in Moab because of a famine. Ruth’s story begins backwards, but by chapter 4, God has flipped the story around and Ruth lives the life God purposed her for.
The most interesting part of this story to me is the meaning behind Elimelech’s name. It means “God is my king.” I think that is important—even in Elimelech’s death—because throughout Ruth’s story God reveals one of the most important ways he is King of our lives: kingship over our circumstances.
God used the hard circumstances of a Moabite widow to continue the lineage of his own Son. If that doesn’t prove that God is faithful to us, I don’t know what does. As we travel to Bethlehem this week, I want us to see how God is constantly turning seemingly terrible circumstances into life-changing experiences. I hope this will motivate you to stay faithful to your King. A passage that can be helpful is 2 Timothy 3:11-13.

David –
“The LORD said to Samuel, ‘How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.’” (1 Samuel 16:1)Have you ever been through a fast food drive-thru and thought to yourself, “Man, I sure am glad I don’t have to work that job?” Often, we have the mindset that just because we might come from or are headed towards a higher socioeconomic status than someone else, we are better than that person—whether we mean to or not. But this is not the attitude Christians are expected to have.
Instead of seeing people as just people, we should see them as souls. Paul gives us a perfect example of this in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. Christ died for the poor, downtrodden criminal the same as he died for me and Danny. If we are to be about the mission of Jesus, then we must realize that God is not concerned with where people start, but where they are headed. To Him, we all have the potential to be kings (2 Tim. 4:8).
David’s father didn’t even consider him when bringing his sons to Samuel. But in 1 Samuel 16:10-13, Samuel anoints David as God’s chosen one to rule Israel; he was just a shepherd from Bethlehem! If the creator of the universe can see shepherds as kings, then why can’t we (1 Sam. 16:7)? Let’s be faithful to our King’s call to make more kings. Sometimes, it is through our hardships that he is looking to crown us (Jas. 1:12).

Jesus –
“Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name ‘Immanuel’” (Matthew 1:23) “And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.’” (Luke 2:10-12)
Some call the life of the Jesus the greatest story ever told, but it’s more than just a story. Christ’s whole life is the culmination of God’s plan to redeem humankind from their sins, beginning on this very night in Matthew 1. The Creator of the universe (John 1:1-3), our Living Hope (Col. 1:27), the One who Isaiah prophesied about (Isa. 9:6) … born in a barn. Wow. God repeatedly uses Bethlehem to show us His sovereignty, regardless of what people may think. He uses unlikely individuals, in unlikely places, during unlikely times to progress His plan. The same is true for us today; if we will allow Christ to be King of our lives, and remain faithful to Him, He will use us to reveal His glory to the world.
I hope we can all reflect on these thoughts and use them to see past the circumstances we currently find ourselves in. Don’t let the Enemy use this time to sever you from our purpose. Let’s use this time as a point in our lives that we can look inwardly and see what is blooming within us: a Bethlehem waiting to burst.
No matter what situation we find ourselves in, God can always use us to further His kingdom. Don’t be drawn into Satan’s lie that you are too good or not good enough. God loves all of us (Rom. 2:11), and He can’t wait to see if you are willing to be a Bethlehem; if you are willing to be His unlikely means to change the world for the better.

April 2nd Daily Devotional


Scripture: Psalm 46

One spring night in 2012 , in a hotel room several stories high in the foggy Chicago skyline - I had tagged along with Bryan for a work conference - we were fast asleep while my cell phone kept ringing, and ringing, and ringing. Normally I'm a light sleeper, but that evening I didn't hear a thing until Bryan shook me awake, having heard his phone when it began to buzz. "Hey, babe," he whispered as he handed me the phone, eyes still scrunched closed, "it's your mom." I pressed the phone to my ear and heard my mom's voice, tight and afraid, telling me my grandma had suffered a stroke. My sweet Grandma Zella, who had lived my mom and I since I turned 16, could no longer talk or move her right side. She was admitted to the hospital. I bought a flight home at 4am with the last scraps of our savings account.
The flight didn't leave until the following afternoon, so later that morning I wandered into the airy, high-ceilinged hotel lobby, trying to force something down for breakfast. Everything tasted like sand. I remember sitting in an uncomfortable chair, people all around me perusing newspapers, straightening neckties, laughing over eggs and waffles while I sat in a daze, opening my Bible on my lap and staring at the words, willing them to help me understand how my reality could have warped so suddenly, without my awareness or permission. I prayed that wherever my Bible opened, it would be the words I needed.
I looked down at Psalm 46. I instantly recognized the words and began to cry. "God is our refuge and strength," it read, "an ever present help in times of trouble." (vs. 1) I'd relied on these words before. And in the years since I wept in that hotel lobby, I've leaned on them time and time again. Verses 2-3 describe a feeling that's becoming all too familiar the longer I live: the feeling of the very earth giving way beneath your feet, of life being violently jerked sideways, of sure and steady things becoming wobbly and unwieldy. COVID-19, tornadoes, elections, heartbreak, grief, outnumbered hospital beds - we have no shortage of reasons for feeling turned upside down.
Verses 4-5 offer us an anthem. "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. God shall help her, just at the break of dawn."

When all else gives way, you shall not be moved.
When one more life circumstance blows up in your face, you shall not be moved.
When you've given up hope and the night seems its darkest, a Light will shine at daybreak.

My grandma Zella died two weeks after I held her hand in a sterile room in ICU, after I pounded the tiles in a hospital bathroom and yelled at God for letting this happen, after I stroked her snow-white hair and sang all the verses I could remember to "Abide with Me." She died without seeing me walk at college graduation, though she had already reserved her hotel room, had already told me how excited she was to come to Tennessee. She died without meeting my babies, both of whom would have adored her, and she them. Even still - when I came to see her in the hospital, she smiled. She cried when I sang to her, touched my face with her one good hand. I knew for whatever time we had left, at least a part of her was here, with me, and she loved me. And that has been enough.
Psalm 46 doesn't promise freedom from pain or immunity from suffering. It promises presence. A God who is in our midst. "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge." (vs. 7, 11). Our God doesn't run when life lists sideways. Our Jesus doesn't flinch when we crumble in fear. He remains. He is steadfast. And for all my days thus far, that's been enough for me.

- Bethany Welborn

This past two weeks did not gone like I planned and I fear this week won’t follow my plans either.

You see, I was supposed to have been in Tanzania two week’s ago speaking at a conference and working with a mission hospital in that country. Then I would come back home to work at the hospital for a couple of days before on to Florida to speak at another conference. My kind of whirlwind schedule! Filled with busy-ness.

God, however, had other plans and within a couple of hours all was cancelled and since I wasn’t scheduled to work, I was forced to be still. Not something I enjoy. 

I don’t know about you, but the last two weeks have felt a bit like a whirlwind.  The rapidity of the news, the changes to daily life, and the inundation of information have at times been overwhelming and sometimes downright terrifying. 

Someone in our own community and within our larger church family became our area’s first critically ill victim last week. It will only get worse and I fear this past week was that eerie calm before the whirlwind really hits. 

Does anybody else wonder why God is allowing this to happen?

What is God doing in this global pandemic?

I think one of the biggest lies we believe is that:  “I love Jesus, so nothing bad will happen to me.”   

That’s what we expect. We work hard, expect good health, build our nest egg, and hope to enjoy it. 

Job did. “So I thought, “I will die in my own nest and multiply my days as the sand” (Job 29:18 CSB). Just like us, he worked hard building his nest and just wanted to enjoy it.

God had other plans. “Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.” (Job 1:8 CSB)

Then the whirlwind that destroyed his family, his health, and his wealth came and Job was forced to be still and contemplate, why.  An answer, however, arose from the whirlwind.

“Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind” (Job 38:1 CSB).

What is God doing in the whirlwind?

What is He doing unleashing pain and suffering?

The problem of pain and suffering has been used as an argument against the existence of God.  It is a difficult one to answer, but there is an explanation.

We live in a fallen world that is groaning for the promised restoration.

“Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” (Romans 8:20-22 NLT)

Notice who cursed it. 

“But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things. Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets.” (Acts of the Apostles 3:18-21 NLT)

Notice the promise of a restoration of all things.

It will be made right.

But how did this happen?  

Notice the suffering involved. In this case, the suffering of the Messiah.  Suffering had to happen, so that restoration could occur  

And therein lies an odd and painful paradigm, restoration comes through suffering.

Think of some of the great stories of suffering in the Bible.

The Flood:  “Then God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth.” (Genesis 6:13 CSB)

The Ten Plagues that struck Egypt:  “The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!” (Exodus 16:3 CSB)

General unpleasantries:  “I may shut the sky so that there is no rain, or command grasshoppers to devour the countryside, or send an epidemic among my people.” (2 Chronicles 7:13 GW)

The destruction of countries:  “The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will never leave the guilty unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath his feet.”(Nahum 1:3 CSB)

His path is in the whirlwind.

He is in the pain.

He is in the suffering.

The question is, what do with do with Him?  

How do we respond to Him?

Jesus prophecies in Matthew 24:10 that when pain and suffering comes at the end of the age: “Many will lose faith.”

Having faith in times like this is difficult if you don’t understand what God is doing in the whirlwind and will continue to do after it has passed.

We don’t study suffering much.  It isn’t a fun subject to think about, but the New Testament writers certainly thought a lot about it.

“And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5 CSB)

“After they had preached the gospel in that town and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch, strengthening the disciples by encouraging them to continue in the faith and by telling them, “It is necessary to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:21-22 CSB)

“Resist him [the devil], firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world. The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while.”
(1 Peter 5:9-10 CSB)

“The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs — heirs of God and coheirs with Christ — if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:16-18 CSB)

Suffering in this age is normal, it should be expected.

Suffering should be endured with patience. It cannot be completely eliminated in this age.

Suffering is not wasted. It prepares us for our inheritance in the kingdom of God.

In light of God‘s eternal reward, suffering in this age is relatively brief.

Suffering will come to an end at God’s appointed time when He takes action, brings his judgments, and restores all things.

In the meantime, we have an opportunity.

“However, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, pray, search for me, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear ⌊their prayer⌋ from heaven, forgive their sins, and heal their country. My eyes will be open, and my ears will pay attention to those prayers at this place.” (2 Chronicles 7:14-15 GW)

In Hosea 6:1, a promise of healing is made when a return occurs:  “Come, let’s return to the Lord. For he has torn us, and he will heal us; he has wounded us, and he will bind up our wounds.” 

Throughout history, we see God‘s primary method for waking up the nations to repentance is through man-made and natural disasters. It is God’s primary method for bringing lost people into the path of His people and into relationship with Him.

There will be opportunity in the whirlwind.

It is also because of man’s very rejection of God that He sometimes must bring about large scale calamity to turn man’s heart back to Him.  Like a father, He loves us and sometimes needs to get our attention.

In the stillness I experienced this week due to the expectation of the looming whirlwind, I had a lot of time to think about this.  Like Job, I was building my nest by my plans.  This week has given me the opportunity to fall face down with arms outstretched in prayer.  It has given me the opportunity to spend time with the ones I love the most.  It has given me the opportunity to refocus on what’s important.

The whirlwind is coming.

- Scott Guthrie, MD

The importance of hand-washing is all over the news and social media right now—how to wash hands, how long to wash hands, when to wash hands. I’m glad it is. It has always been important, but it can literally be the difference between life and death right now. I don’t know about you, but my hands are dried out and cracked in places from frequent hand-washing and use of alcohol- based hand sanitizer.

One of my many jobs I have had as a nurse was teaching nursing students at FHU. I loved teaching those bright, eager students both textbook information in the classroom and nursing skills in the lab and real-life hospital settings. The very first skill we would teach our students was proper hand-washing. It’s not a particularly difficult skill to learn compared to others, but an extremely important skill. It was viewed as so important, that students had to perform the skill in front of an instructor for a grade just like more difficult skills such as IV insertion. In a hospital setting, proper hand-washing has always been a high priority.

I find it very fascinating that our understanding of how hand-washing works is only a few centuries old. One of the more interesting (and quite frankly, gross) accounts of how physicians started to realize exactly how this practice works took place in Vienna, Austria in 1847. A young physician named Ignaz Semmelweis was assigned over a maternity ward for impoverished mothers. This maternity ward had an alarming death rate of 13-18% from mothers dying of a mysterious fever after delivery. Another maternity ward at the hospital which was staffed only by midwives had only a 2% death rate by fever. Semmelweis was alarmed and started investigating why there was such a high fever and death rate at the ward he was overseeing. He found the doctors in training at his maternity ward were performing autopsies between delivering babies. He theorized that these doctors were bringing “cadaverous particles” into the delivery rooms on their often still foul-smelling hands. By having them scrub their hands in a chlorinated lime solution before patient contact and especially after contact with the corpses, he was able to bring death rates in his maternity ward down to only 2%. When he attempted to introduce this concept to the rest of the medical community at the time he was instead ridiculed. He became angry and began writing hostile letters to his collages calling them “murderers”. It wasn’t received well and he was eventually thrown into an insane asylum where he died from gangrenous wounds after being beaten. It wasn’t until much later when he was posthumously recognized for his discovery. We were slow to learn.

Did you know that God addressed this with children of Israel some 3,500 years ago? God gave Moses and Aaron orders for the people to wash their hands and a recipe for the soap to be used after anyone had contact with a dead body. Don’t take my word for it, rather I would encourage you to read Numbers 19 yourselves for a full account of the story. The children of Israel may not have even understood at the time what God was having them to do. You see, washing their hands after touching a corpse wasn’t just a symbolic washing the unclean (death) from themselves. It was a literal washing away of microorganisms and this happened thousands of years before we understood germ theory. What seems like a strange concoction of ashes, hyssop, cedar, and scarlet wool combined with running water is actually a wonderful antibacterial method of washing hands. Today we know that you can make lye (a soap our great-grandmothers would have used) by a method that involves running water through ashes. Hyssop contains a chemical called thymol which is a known anti-septic. Cedar wood contains an oil that would have been a minor skin irritant and would have encouraged scrubbing. The scarlet wool would have added fibers to the mixture much like some soaps that we use today that have pumice or walnut shell to provide additional removal of dirt and grime. We also now know that the use of running water to wash hands is far superior to using stagnant water. God was commanding them to wash their hands with soap and water after having contact with a dead body. This would have prevented the spread of diseases among the Israelites.

I love God’s word and it is especially exciting for me when scripture proves itself to be thousands of years ahead of science. I hope you can find time during this health crisis to draw near to God by spending much time in His word. Now is a great time to binge read your Bible.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments by call or text at 731-225-0719 or by email at shannongu3@bellsouth.net .

In Him,
 Shannon Guthrie, RN, MSN