October 15

Jeremiah 26:1-27:22, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-18, Psalm 85:1-13, Proverbs 25:16 

Pray: Father thank You for today. You are worthy of our praise and we thank You for providing for us each day. We ask for peace and grace today to deal with the struggles we have. Bless us with joy today and open our eyes and hearts to the community around us. 

Read: (Psalm 85:10-11) "Unfailing love and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed! Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness smiles down from heaven."

Edify: These verses are telling us what is to come. Israel is still in rebellion but these verses are showing what God's grace and mercy will look like. These verses also portray a relationship between God and His people. God is steadfast and faithful in His love of Israel and He asks the same faithfulness to be returned to Him. We must never look at God's commands as merely rules - we should look at His direction for us in the context of a covenant relationship. 

Practice: What is God asking you to be faithful with? God has blessed us all with gifts and talents to be used for His glory. The Psalm here is showing us what peace looks like when God's people live in truth and faithfulness to God. God has been faithful to His people. He has done His part. Now it's our turn to take steps of faith in becoming devoted followers. Maybe it's attending worship each week or beginning the steps of tithing and trusting God with our finances. Obedience will bring joy and peace to our daily lives. We build a relationship by learning, loving and growing in that relationship. God is ready to bless our lives when we are faithful to Him. 

October 14

Jeremiah 23:21-25:38, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17, Psalm 84:1-12, Proverbs 25:15

Pray: Heavenly Father, thank You for Your grace and mercy. I receive the gift of Your grace today. Help me to be thankful for how You have moved in my life and shown me the path of peace. 

Read: (Psalm 84:1-4) "How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Heaven's Armies. I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar, O Lord of Heaven's Armies, my King and my God! What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises."

Edify: Identity. We all identify with something and we get a measure of joy out of things that we feel included with. Whether it's your favorite sports team, where you work, or maybe where you went to college. There are lots of things we can feel connected to and feel like we "belong." In this Psalm we see the joy of experiencing and belonging to the dwelling place of the Lord. God has woven "worship" into our human experience because we were made to worship. Ultimately we are made to worship God. That is where true joy, peace, and strength are found. 

Practice: Make a list of the things you value. It can be people, possessions, sports, or anything you count as fulfilling. Now pray to God in a spirit of thankfulness, thanking Him for those blessings. We must also seek not to lift these things up as "ultimate" things. Today's obedience will be tomorrow's worship. What will you be obedient to today? Let us focus our daily efforts on God, be thankful for His blessings, and give Him our praise and worship that He is due.  

October 13

 Jeremiah 22:1-23:20, 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12, Psalm 83:1-18, Proverbs 25:11-14 

Pray: Heavenly Father, renew our minds, hearts, and spirits so that we may serve You and worship You daily. Bless us with discernment to see Your ways and dismiss and reject anything that gets in the way of a relationship with You. 

Read:(Jeremiah 23:16-18) "This is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies says to his people: "Do not listen to these prophets when they prophesy to you, filling you with futile hopes. They are making up everything they say. They do not speak for the Lord! They keep saying to those who despise my word, 'Don't worry! The Lord says you will have peace!' And to those who stubbornly follow their own desires, they say, 'No harm will come your way!' Have any of these prophets been in the Lord's presence to hear what he is really saying? Has even one of them cared enough to listen?" 

Edify: Listening to God and His ways and promises bring life. Listening to any other voice will bring darkness and death. These verses sound so much like those we find in Genesis 3:1-7 where the serpent is deceiving Eve (with Adam by her side). When most people think of the Old Testament they think of an angry and harsh God. We fail to see the truth though that the people of Israel have rebelled, they had stopped listening to God's word. They had turned their ears to the voices of false prophets and "....They encourage those who are doing evil so that no one turns away from their sins." (Jeremiah 23:14) God loves His children and is determined to pursue them with a lavish and truth filled love. That's the God we see in the Old Testament. 

Practice: Don't spend time thinking about how good you are and how angry and harsh God is, we get this backwards every time. Think about how good God is and how rebellious we are. Learn and apply the Gospel to your life. In the beginning there was Good News, God created us in His image and we had a perfect relationship with Him. Then there was bad news, in the Garden of Eden we rebelled and sinned - breaking that relationship with God. God in His divine wisdom knew we could not work our way back to Him. So He sent Jesus to live a perfect life, die for our sins, and on the third day Jesus rose from the dead so that we may once again regain a right relationship with God. Good News, bad news, and Good News. That is the Gospel, and the Gospel is a person - Jesus Christ.  

October 12

Jeremiah 19:1-21:14, 1 Thessalonians 5:4-28, Psalm 82:1-8, Proverbs 25:9-10 

Pray: Heavenly Father speak to me through Your word today. Lord You are the Good Shepherd, and You love us unconditionally. I pray for our leaders in our church and in our community. Bless them with Your wisdom as they seek to shape and move our culture for Your glory.

Read: (1 Thessalonians 5:11-13) "So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord's work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other."

Edify: Leadership is vital to growth. Every organization needs leadership and if that organization wants to thrive it must have healthy leadership. Even in our homes, healthy leadership can set up generation after generation to be leaders in our community. Christian leadership is "servant leadership." Leaders like Paul, Peter, Moses, Nehemiah, and even Jesus modeled biblical leadership by being humble and ready to serve those they led. 

Practice: Pray for your leaders. Pray for their families and their areas of influence. Avoid conversations that lead to gossip, instead build up our leaders with edifying words. Write a thank you card to someone who leads you or has invested in you. Be thankful for those who place a servant's towel on their arm ready to serve. 

October 11

Jeremiah 16:16-18:23, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-5:3, Psalm 81:1-16, Proverbs 25:6-8

Pray: God, You are perfect in every way. Your spirit is perfect. Your Son is perfect. God bless us today in the midst of our imperfect lives. Let the cravings of our souls be satisfied by You and You alone. 

Read: (Jeremiah 17:7-8) "But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit." 

Edify: We wake up each day with a new set of "needs." We want our jobs, finances, relationships, and health to all get better. God does want us to experience peace in our daily lives. However, we neglect to ask the most important question daily - "how is it with my soul?" The material world around us changes every day. God never changes and our souls are made for an eternity with Him, where the perfection we seek daily will become a reality. 

Practice: Take time today to reflect on your life. Think about the good experiences you've had and also think about the struggles life has brought. Now think about a forever where joy and love exist without interruption. Focus on the creator and sustainer of your soul. Give God praise today simply for who He is and what He has already done through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. 

October 10

Jeremiah 14:11-16:15, 1 Thessalonians 2:9-3:13, Psalm 80:1-19, Proverbs 25:1-5

Pray: Father give me new eyes and new ears today. Help me to see value in people and help me to love people enough to be truthful with them. Help me to submit and trust those in spiritual authority. Bring Your order out of the chaos in this world and let Your will always prevail.

Read: (Jeremiah 15:19) This is how the Lord responds: "If you return to me, I will restore you so you can continue to serve me. If you speak good words rather than worthless ones, you will be my spokesman. You must influence them; do not let them influence you!"

Edify: Results. We all want results. We want to put an effort in and see progress or success come out of those efforts. Jeremiah is often referred to as the "weeping prophet" because he saw no fruit from his efforts. But rather than give up and move on, he remained faithful. While false prophets were promising peace, Jeremiah remained faithful to share the destruction that was to come. No matter how harsh, Jeremiah remained a truth-teller. 

Practice: What's your favorite news source? Most often we gravitate to words or news that we agree with or want to hear. Our culture has created spaces that allow us to only hear what we want to hear. As Christ followers we have to be "set apart." Practice today sharing truthful words with those around you. Sharing the truth in love with people will build relationships far beyond today's troubles. Choose people in your household, workplace or community and practice "truth-telling." In sharing the truth, people will see your genuine care for them. Fight the passive nature of telling people what they want to hear. Rather, share what they may need to hear. 

October 9

Jeremiah 12:1-14:10, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-2:8, Psalm 79:1-13, Proverbs 24:30-34 

Pray: Heavenly Father, thank You for Your goodness and mercy. God help me to trust in Your goodness and trust in Your path for my life. Give me a vision of tomorrow but discipline me for today to be obedient to Your call in my life. Let Your Holy Spirit guide me today and give me words when I need words and silence when I need silence. 

Read: (1 Thessalonians 1:4-7) "We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you. So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord. As a result, you have become an example to all the believers in Greece-throughout both Macedonia and Achaia."

Edify: The Holy Spirit is the very power of God. It empowers us as believers to live a life that is pleasing to God. We often spend much of our time trying to please other people. How is that working for you? It's exhausting to try and please those around us. Paul ends chapter 2 in 1 Thessalonians by saying "We loved you so much that we share with you not only God's Good News but our own lives, too." 

Practice: Instead of trying to please others, share God's Good News with them. Everyone is looking for hope, literally every person you or I come in contact with today will be seeking hope. Whatever season of life we find ourselves in, we all need to be reminded that God moved heaven and earth to rescue and save us. Let our focus today be on the saving grace that we find in Jesus Christ.