March 14, 2023

Tuesday

Labor Pains

Romans 8: 22-25

²⁰ He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

Revelation 22:20

Have you seen videos of labor pain simulation? Electric currents to the abdomen of men cause muscle contractions that approximate the pain a woman feels during childbirth. Most childbirths are prolonged and painful. So it’s no surprise that Paul used labor pain as a way to illustrate the “groans and labors” that “the whole creation” is experiencing as it waits for the birth of the new earth (Romans 8:22-25).

But it’s not just “creation” that is groaning and laboring; “we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for . . . the redemption of our body.” It is painfully obvious that things are not right with the world. And if we are honest with ourselves, things are not always right with us either. We know the world needs to be fixed, and we long for the day when there will be no more tears, death, sin, or pain (Revelation 21:4).

But Jesus did not tell us when He would return (Mark 13:32; Acts 1:6-7). What to do in the interim? Pray as the apostle John prayed: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20) And live in a manner that proves our longing for His appearing (1 Timothy 6:11-16).

A point to ponder…

God’s people may groan, but they may not grumble.

Charles H. Spurgeon

Read the Bible through in a year

Joshua 12-15

I love you!!!

© 2000-2023 B. Michael Goerlich

March 13, 2023

Monday

The Cornerstone

Ephesians 2: 19-22

¹⁷ And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?”

Luke 20:17

In the ancient world, when a new stone building was to be constructed, the first stone set in place was the cornerstone. Great care was taken with the carving of the cornerstone since it determined the direction of the walls that were built out from it. The cornerstone was the most important stone in the building.

To the religious leaders of His day, Jesus intimated that He was the “chief cornerstone.” But of what? To what building was Jesus referring when He declared Himself to be the chief cornerstone? He didn’t say, but the apostle Paul did in Ephesians 2:19-22. Jesus initiated the building of what is becoming “a holy temple in the Lord”—that is, the Church of all true believers, also called “the household of God.” Jesus is the chief cornerstone, “the apostles and prophets” are the foundation, and we are the “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5) God is using to build the temple in which His presence dwells.

Everything depends on Jesus; He is the cornerstone that provides direction and structure to the Church. Our faith begins and ends with Him.

A point to ponder…

Christ is our temple, in whom by faith all believers meet.

Matthew Henry

Read the Bible through in a year

Joshua 9-11

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© 2000-2023 B. Michael Goerlich

Weekend Wisdom

March 11 – March 12, 2023

Strength in Weakness

⁹ And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

¹⁰ Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10

How do people do it? How do they withstand the Hurricane Katrina–like blows that pummel their lives? The wind, the waves, the surges of heartbreak, crashing one after another, unrelenting in their destruction. How do these people survive . . . and still lift their faces to the Lord? How can they be so strong when they are at their weakest?

I know the answer. I know it because I’ve lived it. Over the course of my life, some violent storms have hit me. But somewhere in the middle of each storm, God’s voice reminds me that He provides sufficient grace for this trial. And when I am weak, He is always very strong. “Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Note that connection between my weakness and Christ’s power. “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” It’s the hard times and the unhealthy times and the hurting times that reveal my weaknesses. And it’s also during those times that God shows up strong.

We often treat suffering like a game of dodgeball. When anything hard comes at us, we jump out of the way. We duck, dive, and hide. We spend our whole lives trying to avoid anything painful or hard. But there’s a better kind of life—a deeper, more fulfilling kind of life—that isn’t about avoiding pain. It’s about finding God faithful and sufficient in the midst of whatever trials or thorns He allows. There’s something about our weakness that opens the flow of God’s strength. In the midst of a trial, there’s a power coming into your life that you’ve never experienced before, because you never needed it so desperately before. Only when you’re personally weak can you experience this supernatural strength.

When you see a hard thing coming your way, try a different reaction: I may not want this, I certainly didn’t choose it, but I can accept it and be content even now. I know God’s grace is sufficient to get me through it. I’m going to see the power of Christ in my life in an incredible way. I’m weak, but He’s strong.

God never allows a thorn without providing sufficient grace and strength in our weaknesses. Sufficient grace is not just enough to survive, but enough so that we can have supernatural joy in the midst of anything He allows us to go through. That’s strength.

Points to ponder…

• “My grace is sufficient for you,” God promises. What does grace look like? Describe how you’ve received God’s grace during a trial.
• “For when I am weak, then I am strong,” Paul admitted. How are you weak? How does this actually make you strong?

Saturday’s Reading

Joshua 1-4

Sunday’s Reading

 Joshua 5-8

 I love you!!!

© 2000-2021 B. Michael Goerlich

March 10, 2023

Friday

Knowing the Future

Isaiah 46: 8-13

⁹ Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,

¹⁰ Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:”

Isaiah 46:9-10

In the fall of 2018, Business Insider ran an article on books that have predicted the future. For example, Gulliver’s Travels described a planet with two moons, and 150 years later astronomers noticed Mars had two moons. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea anticipated the invention of the submarine. H. G. Wells predicted the atomic bomb in his 1914 novel The World Set Free. Martin Caidin’s Cyborg envisioned bionic limbs. Science fiction writers use their imaginations to create scenarios that may later match reality.

But only one book predicts the future unfailingly, far in advance, and with a proven track record of total accuracy. God’s quality of omniscience (He is all-knowing) includes every future contingency and event. And He has revealed those future events for our preparation and anticipation. God has foretold the future because He knows it—and He controls it.

We have hope because God is in control of the future, and His every promise anticipates a fulfillment that will eventually culminate in His glorious return. Our hearts should overflow with gladness.

A point to ponder…

God, the architect of the ages, has seen fit to take us into His confidence concerning His plan for the future and has revealed His purpose and program in detail in the Word.

J. Dwight Pentecost

Read the Bible through in a year

Deuteronomy 32-34

I love you!!!

© 2000-2023 B. Michael Goerlich

March 9, 2023

Thursday

A Biblical Course in Anger Management: Words

Proverbs 15: 1-4

“A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.”

Proverbs 15:1

Roger Dawson is known as “America’s Premier Business Negotiator.” He’s spent his life training business executives to negotiate good deals in tense settings. His advice: “Be careful what you say at the beginning. If the other person takes a position with which you totally disagree, don’t argue. Arguing always intensifies the other person’s desire to prove himself or herself right.”

Solomon said something similar nearly three thousand years ago. Never has society so needed this advice! Our world is filled with angry words between heads of state, between political leaders, between politicians, between newscasters and commentators. Our electronic media doesn’t help; it often amplifies the anger. If we aren’t careful, the world’s angry spirit can seep into our marriages, homes, and churches.

Proverbs 15:1 teaches us to underreact. If someone approaches you in an angry spirit, you gain the advantage over them by remaining calm. When you argue with someone, it makes them defensive and locks them into their position. That’s not a winning strategy.

It takes the Holy Spirit’s calmness within us, but we should take Proverbs 15:1 as our guide: “A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare.”

A point to ponder…

Hot heads and cold hearts never solved anything.
Billy Graham

Read the Bible through in a year

Deuteronomy 30-31

I love you!!!

© 2000-2023 B. Michael Goerlich

March 8, 2023

Wednesday

First Responses

Psalm 107: 1-8

¹⁹ Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.”

Daniel 2:19

Sadly, “first responders” is a term we know all too well today. They are the trained technicians who are the first on the scene of a tragedy or disaster: police, medical personnel, fire fighters, wilderness and water rescuers, various military units, humanitarian teams, and others. What is the first response of the first responders? It is to save, to help, to give aid and comfort wherever needed.

Christians might be considered “first responders” in the world as well, offering whatever practical help we can to those in need. But what about our “first response”? Paul gives three good ones in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: rejoice, pray, give thanks. Specifically, how often do we couple prayer and thanksgiving together? When we pray, and God answers, what is our first response? In Scripture, it is often praise before anything else. When Daniel and his three friends prayed for God’s intervention in Babylon, the answer came and Daniel’s first response was to praise God (Daniel 2:17-23).

God is to be praised and thanked in all things, as Paul wrote—but especially when He answers our prayers.

A point to ponder…

When all Thy mercies, O my God, my rising soul surveys, transported with the view, I’m lost in wonder, love, and praise.

Joseph Addison

Read the Bible through in a year

Deuteronomy 28-29

I love you!!!

© 2000-2023 B. Michael Goerlich

March 7, 2023

Tuesday

The Need for Prayer

Daniel 2: 16-18

¹² And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.”

Luke 6:12

Officially, church historians recognize seven ecumenical church councils held between A.D. 325 and A.D. 787. The first, the First Council of Nicaea, met to agree on the nature of Jesus of Nazareth as both Son of God and Son of Man, as both fully divine and fully human.

The humanity of Christ, while at the same time divine, is hard to understand. But thankfully, Scripture gives us illustrations: Like us, Jesus suffered, experienced hunger, required sleep, ate food, and had limits on His knowledge (Mark 13:32). One of the most striking and helpful illustrations of Jesus’ humanity was His prayer life. We might think that, if Jesus was truly divine, He would have had no need to pray for knowledge, guidance, or help. Yet He did, following the example of godly men like Daniel in Babylon (Daniel 2:16-18). Jesus repeatedly said that He only did what the Father showed Him to do (John 5:19), and prayer was His means.

If Jesus, the Son of God, needed to go to His Father in prayer for strengthening and guidance, how much more do we (Psalm 32:6)?

A point to ponder…

Prayer and a holy life are one.

E. M. Bounds

Read the Bible through in a year

Deuteronomy 24-27

I love you!!!

© 2000-2023 B. Michael Goerlich

March 6, 2023

Monday

I’d Rather Be Hunting

Psalm 78: 70-71

⁷⁰ He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

⁷¹ From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.”

Psalm 78:70-71

When Jason Cruise was pastoring a church, he sometimes felt guilty because he wanted to be hunting. One day it dawned on him God was calling him to minister to sportsmen. In the NIV Outdoorsman Bible, he wrote of the moment, “God’s heart connected with mine and pushed me toward the idea that I could use my passion for hunting to bring him glory…. When I was a young boy stomping through the woods, I had no clue that God was preparing me to hunt with a purpose…or that I’d get the honor of speaking to hunters across the nation…and yet do it all in the name of Jesus.”

The Lord gives us passions, purposes, and life experiences—like hunting or shepherding—to prepare us for the personal and unique ministry He has for us. No experiences of life are wasted. He prepares us to stand up for Him, and every part of your background can fashion you for what He wants you to do today.

A point to ponder…

Monumental changes often occur in simple, quiet moments, and it’s in those few seconds that a person makes a clean break with an old way of living and never looks back.

Jason Cruise

Read the Bible through in a year

Deuteronomy 21-23

I love you!!!

© 2000-2023 B. Michael Goerlich

Weekend Wisdom

March 4 – March 5, 2023

Awakening Love

⁴ I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.

Song of Solomon 8:4

But why?

Why does God insist on our being married before we can pursue intimate, sexual experiences with someone we love? Does marriage magically flip a switch that causes eros to go from being forbidden and wrong, to being encouraged and celebrated? (Eros is my preferred term for sex. It’s the Greek word describing the physical, affectionate, intimate relationship between a man and a woman.) 

Most people’s plan for how to make their sexual decisions in life is . . . not to have a plan. When the opportunity arises, when the conditions are right, when the person seems special enough, it’ll just happen. Natural as breathing. But that’s not God’s plan. Eros has a right time and a righteous place.

So why does the context of eros matter so much?

• Because God says so.Again and again in the Bible, we’re told this in words similar to these, “Sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints”(Ephesians 5:3). “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5). The only way for us to live in clear-conscience relationship with God is to let the authority of His Word be able to take us down. May He forgive us “every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Simply let Him be Lord.

• Because when God says, “Don’t,” He means, “Don’t hurt yourself.”I’ve made this statement countless times, but the expiration date on its truth never runs out. Choose to sin; choose to suffer. Stop thinking you’ll be the first person in human history to find an exception to this rule.

• Because relationships built upside-down don’t last. Physical attraction can never support a lifetime of marriage. So when that’s where marriage starts--even beforeit starts--the structure will need to be torn down and rebuilt if it hopes to survive. The proper way to construct a marriage is by beginning with love for Christ, committing to live under the authority of His Word, and deciding to obey Him. Erosis the topping on the sundae of an awesome marriage, not the first layer that’s sure to melt away.

4) Because relationships that involve sex before marriage are difficult to break. The introduction of eros prior to the commitment of marriage can make you desperate to keep maintaining and pursuing the relationship, even if it’s fraught with trouble. Your family and friends may see the problems, common sense may be waving red flags, but you’ll fight to keep it going in an effort to avoid watching the precious part of yourself that you’ve given to this person become a discarded waste.

That’s why the Song of Solomon says not to “stir up or awaken love” until the time when eros can settle into its appropriate place, where it can function as a generator of pure love and blessing in marriage. To awaken it too soon will only cause it to get ahead of itself and to impose undue control and influence over you.

There’s a reason why God designed eros to work this way. There’s a method to this alleged madness of marital exclusivity. And when we wake up one day to find He’s right--which we will--how much better to let it fall on us with the grateful recognition that God’s ways are best, than with the costly sadness of a life lived outside of His pleasant boundaries.

Points to ponder…

• Spend some time in payer asking God to show you any areas where you resist the authority of His Word.
• Whether you’re married or single, what are some ways you could come into greater agreement with the Lord’s design for eros?

Saturday’s Reading

Deuteronomy 14-16

Sunday’s Reading

 Deuteronomy 17-20

 I love you!!!

© 2000-2021 B. Michael Goerlich

March3, 2023

Friday

Committed to Our Commitments

Proverbs 20: 7-12

²¹ For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings.”

Job 34:21

There’s an old folktale about a man who wanted to sneak into his neighbor’s fields to steal some wheat. He waited for a dark, moonless night, and he asked his young daughter to be the lookout. “Call if anyone sees me,” he told her. Just as he was stuffing grain into his apron, the little girl shouted, “Father, someone sees you!” The man dropped his grain and ran to her in a panic asking, “Who was it? Who saw me?” She replied, “Someone above is watching you.”

Proverbs 15:3 says, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” Maintaining our integrity in times of pressure brings glory to God.

But God isn’t the only one watching us. Others see us more clearly than we think, and we can’t hide our deceit and infidelity forever. Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who covers his sins will not prosper.”

We have to be committed to our commitments, to keeping our word and honoring our pledges. A heart of integrity remains committed to the holy and omniscient God who desires honesty in our hearts.

A point to ponder…

Integrity is not so much what we do as much as who we are.

John Maxwell

Read the Bible through in a year

Deuteronomy 11-13

I love you!!!

© 2000-2023 B. Michael Goerlich