You may have read this text before, “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.” 1 John 4:7,8

I find mystery in this text. We probably all know people who do not profess to believe in God, but who are loving people, and take action to share their love and compassion for others. So based on John’s text, God is working through them.

I have also recently been reading and hearing comments from leadership experts and business thinkers who are not coming from a religious perspective, but are expressing the importance of love in leading people and sustaining business.

Maybe God is using this to provide fertile ground for us to plant the ultimate story of love, Jesus Christ.

Something to think about.

Dear Lord, Help us be part of your love in our world. Help us look for opportunities to show others, who love but may not be Christian, the message of Jesus’ love and salvation. In his name we pray. Amen.

Do you ever notice that people who are true professionals and outstanding performers in their field embrace difficult challenges? Professional athletes enjoy a very difficult workout or practice, scientists and academics enjoy challenging and technical problems to solve, musicians enjoy the hours of work to master a piece of music. The opposite I am sure you have also seen, the people who are always trying to cut corners, cheat, and avoid facing up to the challenge.

In many ways, this is what James describes in James 1:2-4, where he writes, “Dear brothers, is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy, for when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow. So let it grow, and don’t try to squirm out of your problems. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in character, full and complete.” TLB

To master our lives as Christians we need to face our difficulties and temptations the way Jesus taught us to with faith, prayer, and confidence; knowing God is right there with us and these tests are helping us master our Christian lives.

Dear Lord, it is hard to be happy during the difficulties and temptations we face, but help us remember to use the things you teach us, faith, prayer, and confidence in your love for us, to face our difficulties. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

We all occasionally wonder why God allows certain things to happen the way they do. Why do bad things happen to us and our friends? Why does he take some people away so early in their lives?

In the Bible also God works in ways that seem strange to us. Why did he choose simple people like Peter to be his disciples? Why did he choose Paul who was a persecutor of Christians, to become one of the most significant Christians?

From our limited viewpoint and simple frame of reference on earth, we can only speculate about God’s reasons.

Isaiah writes in chapter 55:8,9, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

It is good for us to think about and discuss why God may do things the way he does, and possibly he will provide us some enlightenment. Whether he does or not however we can know that all things are working according to his plans.

Dear Lord, We thank you for the knowledge that you have control over all that affects us. Help us play our part with faith in your will. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

I have heard it said, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. Though it is important for us to be responsible people, have goals and plans, and work diligently in our activities, sometimes God steers us in directions we did not expect. Often these unexpected directions have tremendous impacts on our lives, sometimes for just a couple minutes or hours, and sometimes for our whole lives.

Solomon, considered to be the wisest man in history, wrote in Ecclesiastes 11:4-7 “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. God’s ways are as mysterious as the pathway of the wind and as the manner in which a human spirit is infused into the body of a baby while it is yet in its mother’s womb. Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow – perhaps it all will. It is a wonderful thing to be alive!”

With joy, we need to live every day of our lives looking for the direction God has for us.

Dear Lord, help us live in the joy and expectancy of your involvement in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

One of the questions people have about the accuracy of the Bible is, how can we be sure there is no transmission error, meaning error in the message between the time the events occurred and when they were recorded in the writings we have today.

I came across an interesting way to answer that question in “Why Trust the Bible?” by Greg Gilbert, he uses the following example.

Can you recite the words to the nursery rhyme “Jack and Jill?” “Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch…..” Did you learn this by reading it? Most of us learned this by hearing it told to us by our parents, and we told it to our children, but we remember the words verbatim. Do you know when this was originally composed? 1791, over 200 years ago.

So we obviously have a clear example of people’s ability to maintain the original words of a story for many years without having to have the original text available for reference. This is a simple example that gives us more confidence in what 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”

Dear Lord, thank you for giving us the wisdom in the Bible. Help us to find strength and confidence in its teaching. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.