“But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” Acts 6:4. Always the ‘nerd’ I was the kid at my grandparents’ houses that would search through their old books to glean what information they had. I’d stay occupied with a science encyclopedia set while my parents visited. Summer vacation meant sitting outside on our deck with a stack of books beside me. So, you can imagine my joy when I got my first Bible at age ten! I obeyed the gospel in college while studying to become an English teacher and five years later took on the ministry of the word in a small mission work in upstate NY, where I learned to do everything associated with ministry. This might have worked when the church first began after Pentecost, but by Acts 6, the church had grown tremendously and the one-room schoolhouse approach was no longer effective. When a challenge arose, the twelve picked seven to see to the widows’ needs while they focused on the ministry of the word. How blessed I feel to be able to study, write, and present lessons every day now in a much larger church while God has provided so many with so many other gifts to minister in other ways here. Are you stepping up?

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” John 13:35. I’ve heard that the least favorite day to work for restaurant serving staff is Sunday. Why? Large groups from various churches are typically viewed as rude, demanding, and lousy tippers. It may shock many to know that such great people as we think we are are seen in such a terrible way by the very people that we’d hope to reach with the gospel of Christ. Knowing the love that we have for our brothers and sisters and the incredible message of salvation we have to offer, we try to blame the world for not being receptive. They’re too distracted … too in love with their sin … or just too uninterested. Yet, we’re called to win souls. So, we remodel or repurpose our facilities, offer secular programs and events, restructure and retrain staff to suit the world. And still they do not come, or if they do, we’ve become a compromised version of culture that sort of resembles the church. Jesus’ solution: love even those hard to love with the love He loves us with! He tells us this after he washes their feet and then says He’s given us an example to follow. Does your love show you’re a Christian?

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” Psalm 22:1. At a time the world is focused on love, we’re examining a psalm about the greatest love ever known. Wait! I’ve heard this before. Didn’t Jesus utter these words while wicked men were killing Him on the cross? Yes, indeed. But forsaking someone is the opposite of loving them, isn’t it? Yes, and God promises that He will never leave us or forsake us. So … He loves us that much! Does that mean He didn’t love His Son while He hung on the cross? No, look what the Father says of Jesus at His baptism (Matthew 3:17) and then at His transfiguration (17:5): “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Then, how is this a psalm about the greatest love ever known? John 3:16 explains, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” When Jesus uttered this psalm, written 1000 years before fulfilling David’s words, He was describing the process in which His Father would show the greatest love: He gave. Jesus allowed Himself to be forsaken—so you never would be!

“The LORD said to Gideon, ‘The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’’” Judges 7:2. Gideon has had a chance to test God a bit and found that He saved him in his hometown. Now, people are flocking to him to take on the Midianites who had been oppressing them for many years, and Gideon must have felt a lot of security in those numbers—32,000 fighting men to be exact! But God said it was too many. Concerned that His people who were just beginning to trust in Him might credit themselves instead, He has Gideon send the fearful home. How his heart must have sank when over two-thirds left. Perhaps resigning himself to fewer numbers in his growing faith in God to fight for him, Gideon must have been challenged when God said there were still too many. So, it would be with only 300 men and with trumpets, jars, and torches that God would bring about a great victory for His people and show them who He was and what they could do for them. We have the completed Word of God to tell us of Jesus’ work of the gospel. Isn’t it time we showed the Lord’s power to others?

“He asked life of you; you gave it to him, length of days forever and ever” Psalm 21:4. Attributed to David, he refers to himself in the third person as “the king” as he celebrates a major victory that God has given him. The king rejoices in the LORD’s strength and exults in His salvation. David asked for life on the field of battle, and God granted it. We too are on the field of battle each and every day. Our enemy is strong, but we trust in God to deliver us rather than the chariots and horses of the previous psalm. So, Christians can rejoice in the LORD’s strength and exult in His salvation as well. We ask for life to be granted to us, and He gives it to us through His Son on the cross. The battle truly does belong to the LORD as we often sing. We need only to be still and know that He is God. This doesn’t mean sitting back but faithful and obedient service to Him. Paul concludes a chapter all about how Jesus’ resurrection helps us by explaining the victory over death that we now have through God’s Son, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Help in our present struggles and eternal life with Him for eternity! Are you asking God for the victory in Jesus?