Leadership Problems. Micah 3:3.

My dad used to threaten my brother and me with a joke: “I’ll skin ya’ alive!” We barely knew what that meant. We just knew he was being silly, tickling us and teasing us. He would never have said such a thing in anger. If we were behaving badly, he would be serious and handle it in an appropriate way. My parents had little patience for the kind of scenes misbehaving children sometimes make in restaurants or on airplanes. My brother and I wouldn’t dare. (I saved my scenes for the classroom.)

You know what is worse than bad children? Bad parenting. Worse than lazy students? Lazy teachers. Worse than bad players are bad coaches. Worse than bad employees are bad managers. How do you lose a war, with bad soldiers and sailors? No. Wars are lost by bad generals and admirals. The one thing worse than selfish, evil people is selfish, evil leaders. Yet, we have all seen and suffered under poor leadership.

God sees our selfish, greedy, dishonest leaders—whether in churches, cities, or businesses—and he will punish them.

Until he does, hang in there and keep doing what’s right! Just as Jesus would later rebuke the priests, the teachers of the law, and the Pharisees, so the prophet Micah rebuked the priests, prophets, and leaders of his day.

“And I said, ‘Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house Israel. Aren’t you supposed to know sound judgment? You who hate what is good and love what is evil, who pluck the skin from off the people and their flesh from off their bones, who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and you break their bones, and chop them in pieces for the stewpot, and meat for the cauldron. Then you will cry for the Lord and he will not hear. He will hide his face from you’” Micah 3:1-4.

These are strong words! God, through Micah, accuses Israel’s leaders of cannibalism. They were doing such extreme harm to the nation that Micah says they might as well be skinning, cooking, and eating God’s people. Micah was fearless. He was not trying to win a popularity contest. He did not need the approval of City Hall, or a bridge named in his honor. Instead, Micah sought to please the Lord, no matter how violent the confrontation it would create between him and the nation’s corrupt leaders.

And Micah knew God would judge the leaders who had been derelict in their duties:

“Night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a VISION. And it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not DIVINE. And the sun shall go down over the prophets … then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded, yea, they shall cover their lips, for there will be NO ANSWER FROM GOD” Micah 3:6-7.

Because of their dereliction of duty, the prophets, priests, diviners, and seers, would be swallowed up in darkness. God would give them no visions, no prophecies, no dreams, no answers. All would be darkness. The so-called seers would see nothing. God would abandon them.

God holds leaders to a higher standard. He will judge them! “Let not many among you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such, we shall incur a stricter judgment” James 3:1

Dear God, grant us good, godly leaders! Send our churches, our schools, our businesses, and our nation leaders with integrity. Raise up leaders that love you and seek your face, leaders who honor your word and respect your law, leaders who will put honesty and good decisions before money, “legacy,” or fame. And make each of us the best leader we can be. Grant that we would be like “the men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” 1 Chronicles 12:32.

AΩ

When You Are Online: Don’t Cast Your Pearls Before Swine. Isaiah 39:4-6.

I am trusting and open. I tell everyone everything. My wife is the same way. We are talkers and deep communication draws us together. Indeed, communication is essential to all relationships.

But social media does not play by the normal rules.

On Facebook, I share more victories than defeats. Does my online presence create an image of myself as some perennial winner who never suffers? I don’t think so. More importantly, it does not matter. My friends scrolling social media should have enough understanding of human nature to know that we all have problems, no matter how perfect our “curated content” may appear online. Moreover, there are things both good and bad that should not be shared on social media.

If an interviewer were to ask Jesus his opinion about social media, he might say don’t throw precious things into the pig pen: “Do not cast your pearls before swine” Matthew 7:6.

There is reason to be cagey online.

Jesus warned his disciples to be “shrewd as serpents, but innocent as doves” Matthew 10:16. Criminals have used social media to lie, cheat, and steal from people and places they never could have reached without it. Every day thieves on the other side of the world steal from Americans they will never meet. Yet, as Solomon wrote, there is nothing new under the sun, Ecclesiastes 1:9. Criminals have been using the same techniques for centuries, but have modified them recently to take advantage of the worldwide web. Every online scam today is a re-tread of some con they have been working since time immemorial. To paraphrase Obi Wan Kenobe, the internet is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.[1]

When King Hezekiah was ill, he cried out to God and God gave him 15 more years to live, Isaiah 38:5. When word of the healing spread, the king of Babylon sent his men to King Hezekiah to deliver letters of congratulations and a gift. Hezekiah was so delighted by the gesture that he gave the Babylonian entourage the grand tour, showing them all the treasures of Israel.

“And Hezekiah was glad and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not” Isaiah 39:2.

Then Isaiah the prophet came to Hezekiah and asked him about the visit:

Isaiah: What did you show the Babylonians?

Hezekiah: I showed them everything!

“Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. Behold, the days will come when all that is in thy house, and that which thy fathers have stored up until this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, saith the Lord” Isaiah 39:4-6.

This story reminds me of a phishing scam on the internet. The king sends a lovely gift. But it’s actually a chance to spy out the land of Israel. And Hezekiah is so flattered by the gift from Babylon (an on-again, off-again enemy) that he leads the group on a tour of the royal palace, the temple, the secret treasuries, everything. He was proud of his wealth, and this tour group from the east was a chance to indulge himself, show off a little, and let those Babylonians know how wealthy the nation of Israel really was.

King Hezekiah may as well have snapped a few pics of the golden temple and posted them on the Insta, right? This is the same thing. King Hezekiah was too trusting, too open, and he shared too much on social media. And soon the entire treasure would be carried off to Babylon.

You don’t have to share everything!

Don’t cast your pearls before swine!

AΩ

[1] Five tips for security online: First, consider restricting most of your content to friends only. The world is filled with scammers, conmen, liars, and thieves. Why invite them into your world? Second, be careful posting names and photos of children, whether your own or those of others. Never give the public access to first names, addresses, and other information about children. Third, turn locations off; otherwise, hackers can track down your home address by gleaning hidden location data from photos posted online. Fourth, do not post vacation information until you are home from vacation; otherwise, criminals may discover that your home is empty and “ripe for the picking.” Fifth, be cautious posting anything that indicates a sudden windfall: avoid showing off new jewelry, new cars, new boats, new houses. Again, “you must be shrewd as serpents.” If, like me, you have always been too trusting, let me say it again: you must be shrewd as serpents.

The Bible is the Story of Human History. Hebrews 4:12.

The Bible is not some dusty, ancient book about some forgotten land, none of which is relevant today.

The Bible is a cross-section of human history, a cross-section of humanity. When we get to heaven and look back on all of human history, we will see the Bible differently: it is a detailed record of over sixty books, by forty authors, written across a span of almost two thousand years. And yet, amazingly, all sixty-six books are consistent with each other, no small miracle.

Are you familiar with ice cores? Scientists have used drills to lift thousands of feet of ice from Antarctica, and the ice can be dated just as sedimentary rock can be dated: the deeper the ice is, the older it is. Thus, studying the molecular composition of ice from various depths reveals facts about the earth’s climate at various times in history.

The Bible is a bit like an ice core, providing us a cross-section of human history. It is not a dusty, ancient text. It is an observation window through which we can look into the past. You might compare it to a time machine. When you look deeply into the core of the Bible you are watching the story of human history unfold. That history is one seamless whole, one single beautiful story.

The Bible’s seemingly irrelevant collection of old books filled with other people’s stories is not irrelevant at all. And those stories are our stories too, just as those people are our people. It is all a seamless whole.

Here are two bits of evidence indicating the Bible is a seamless, timeless whole. First, the genealogies…

The Bible contains over twenty of these lengthy accounts of who-fathered-whom, some going on for pages and pages. They are nearly always dull reading. But imagine if your name were in one of those lists. Your father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, and so on. That would be amazing. And what if after your name it listed your son, your grandson, your great-grandson, your great-great-grandson, and so on?

Would you still find the genealogy dull reading? Of course not! It would be incredible! You would lift that page from the Bible and frame it, probably hanging a copy in your home, a copy in your office, and then you would send copies to all your friends. Because God has recognized you and your family line. Somehow, you matter to him, so much so that he put your name in his book.

But wait. Your name is in his book, the Book of Life, Revelation 20:15! Jesus said, “Rejoice that your name is written in heaven” Luke 10:20.

More importantly, your name is in the genealogies. Not written down perhaps—after all, those things are long enough, right? But you descended from Adam. And you descended from Noah. And you come from the line of Shem, Ham, or Japheth, or perhaps all three. In fact, the Bible names dozens of your ancestors. And while your name and mine are not listed in its pages, you can be sure that God knows every branch in your family tree. He knows every single person, every name and all their biographies.

God’s attention to the hundreds of names that are listed in the Bible proves his interest in family lines. He is interested in your family line. He knows the entire story of your life and your origin—everyone who came before you and all who will come after. One day, you will know it too.*

The second piece of evidence that the Bible and human history are part of a seamless, timeless whole is the nations it mentions.

Clearly God is interested not only in individuals, and in the groups created by family lines, but also in the groups we create when we build villages and nations, synagogues and churches, and even businesses and corporations. God enjoys both our individual life and our corporate life.

If people were asked what nations are discussed in the Bible most would say Israel, Egypt, and Rome. A few might remember Ethiopia, Greece, or even Spain.

But the Bible actually addresses a long list of nations, and God does not merely name them, but rebukes them for their evil ways and warns of judgment to come. Today I read about six in only six chapters:

“Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia” Isaiah 18:1. “And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians … kingdom against kingdom” Isaiah 19:2. “The king of Assyria shall lead away the Egyptians” Isaiah 20:4. “Babylon is fallen” Isaiah 21:9. “He called me out of Edom” Isaiah 21:11. “In the forest of Arabia shall ye lodge” Isaiah 21:13. “Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years” Isaiah 23:15.

The Bible actually names some two dozen nations.

There are many regions and nations on earth that are not mentioned, of course. But again—this is a cross-section, what pollsters and statisticians might call a “representative sampling.” As with the genealogies, the Bible does not pretend to record all of human history. But it provides a picture so thorough that everyone can find themselves within its pages.

America, for example is not mentioned by name. Yet, elements of our nation can be found throughout the Bible’s many books, from idolators to the devout, from professors and intellectuals, “the teachers of the law,” to those who live only to drink like patricians and fight like gladiators. America has Rome’s imperialistic impulses, and Rome’s moral decay. America sends missionaries around the world, and America battles Corinthian immorality in some of its best churches. America builds hospitals and charities to nurse the suffering like the Good Samaritan, and America’s rehab centers are filled with Prodigal Sons.

Imagine again the view from heaven. When you look back with heaven’s understanding of the story of humanity, you will see how perfectly the Bible reflects that story.

You will understand creation, the fall, and the thousands of years of history, of lives, cultures, villages that grew into nations, of wars and peace, conquests and revolutions, and “in the fullness of time” Jesus came, at the crux of history, to hang on the cross and rescue us.** The church was born, missionaries shared the message, new empires appeared and disappeared, and one day you were born. And the Biblical story is that story. Your story. My story. History’s story. It is all a seamless whole.

God’s story is long and thorough, encompassing every man, woman and child who ever lived. The Bible is a truncated telling of that story—the same story, only shorter and more manageable. No wonder Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon a rock” Matthew 7:24.

When you study God’s word, you are studying his story—our story. Your own story. Do you need wisdom for your life? You will find it when you read the Bible—which is the story of your life. It is all a seamless whole.[1]

“The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates to divide soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” Hebrews 4:12.

AΩ

* Yes, I believe you will fully know and understand your earthly family tree when you get to heaven. I could be wrong, but I believe the attention God gives family trees in the Bible is evidence of his deep interest in family lines. Otherwise, why spend so many pages of sacred scripture detailing who-begat-whom in Hebrew names most of us cannot pronounce?

**Crux, n. the decisive or most important point at issue. “The crux of the matter.” The word crux comes from the Latin word for the CROSS, the existence of the word itself pointing to the fact that nothing in history is more important than the CROSS OF CHRIST. You might say, the Cross is literally the crux of history. “The fullness of time” comes from Galatians 4:4. “In the fullness of time, Christ came.”

[1] This article is so good, I should probably delete mine and simply publish this link (but I wrote mine before I found this). Check this out: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/bible-says-about-itself/

P.S. Finally, one might argue the Bible cannot be the story of human history because it does not include modern man. There are no telephones, computers, automobiles, airplanes, oil wells, televisions, or atom bombs. There are not even any cathedrals or popes or Presbyterians or Baptists (other than John The). To that, I offer a sincere shrug. Perhaps our modern age is not as significant as we would like to believe. At the same time, I would happily add that I believe God is absolutely engaged in our world, fascinated by our nation building, our inventions, our engineering and more. In fact, surely he is at the root of our best work, from democracies to internal combustion engines to antibiotics. But the Bible story is complete nevertheless.

Psalms: a Book About the Heart. Psalm 149:4.

Do you ever think about how easy life is in the United States? We find ourselves on the wrong side of a political decision and say we are being persecuted. Yet we know nothing of real persecution. Or we wallow in a bad mood (I’m in a funk today!), never realizing how mild an American mood swing is, compared to growing up under an oppressive fear of evil spirits.

Today I read two stories in The Voice of the Martyrs magazine[1]. The first story detailed the struggles of a woman in Ethiopia named Damitu. After Damitu became a Christian, she and her husband shared the gospel in their village and began pastoring a small church. Some of their fellow villagers threatened them with violence and eventually broke into the home, killed Damitu’s husband in front of Damitu and her children, and set the house on fire. Damitu has faced violence and persecution few Americans can even imagine. But she knows God is with her.

“Times have changed. I am free. God has made free.”

Then I read about Khoi, a 95-year-old woman from a village in Vietnam. Khoi and her husband grew up practicing a blend of animism and ancestor worship. People in their village made costly sacrifices to keep the spirits happy and lived in three-room houses built on stilts with animal horns mounted around the house to keep evil spirits away. Khoi lived her young life in “bondage to capricious spirits.”

This fear of angry spirits motivates attacks on believers around the world every day. When locals begin to believe a Christian’s “betrayal” of traditional religion is making the spirits angry, then they blame the Christians for everything that follows: failed crops, illnesses, unexpected accidents, natural disasters, deaths.

Much of the third world is terrified of hostile spirits; if anyone they know stops making sacrifices and begins preaching salvation through Jesus, persecution will often follow.

On top of that, tyrannical governments continue to actively persecute Christians around the world. Khoi’s husband went to town one day in 1975 and never returned. Fifty years later, the government has still given her no information about his disappearance. Not only that, after her husband disappeared, the Vietnamese government took Khoi’s home and property, leaving her destitute with eight people depending on her. The years that followed were miserable, but she never lost faith.

“God is my shepherd. He takes care of me and he protects me.”

The Bible covers many genres: books about history, law and ethics, creation, the life of Christ, letters about church doctrine and practice, and more. But Psalms, the poetry book and hymnal of the Bible, is unique:

Psalms is a book about the heart.

Psalms shows us how to worship, how to pray, and how to praise God. But Psalms is also a book filled with encouragement. It is filled with reasons to feel courage, reasons to feel confidence, reasons to feel peace. When your mind has questions about the life of Adam or Abraham, you go to Genesis. But when your heart needs the courage to face fears, you go to Psalms.

Imagine the lives of believers like Damitu and Khoi, women robbed of their husbands and homes. Read these verses through their eyes and you will see that Psalms is a book that encourages the fearful heart:

“I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help. My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth … behold, the keeper of Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep” Psalm 121:1-2,4. “Unto thee I lift up mine eyes, O thou that dwells in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of their mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until he has mercy on us” Psalm 123:1-2.

If you had grown up in “bondage to capricious spirits,” imagine how encouraged you would be to now serve a forgiving God:

“If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee” Psalm 130:3-4.

If you turned to Christ, but your neighbors wanted you to return to idol worship, you would be encouraged by Psalm 135:

“The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not, they have eyes, but see not. They have ears, but they hear not, neither is there any breath in their mouths. They that make them shall be like them. So is everyone who trusts in them” Psalm 135:15-18.

Do you ever feel alone in your faith, as if the whole village were against you? Read Psalm 148 and remember the “great cloud of witnesses surrounding us”[2]:

“Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and ice, stormy winds fulfilling his word. Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars. Beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl. Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth. Both young men and maidens, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name is excellent and his glory is above the earth and heaven” Psalm 148:7-13.

Finally, serving Jesus means serving a God who loves you. He does not simply forgive you, then remain aloof, like a child struggling to get over it. He adores you! He enjoys being with you. You bring God joy, do you realize that?

“For the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meek with salvation” Psalm 149:4.

God loves you. His word is filled with proof. Christianity is not a faith for rule-followers. It is not a legal system or a system of governance. This faith–this relationship with Jesus–is a life-changing deliverance from rules, sacrifices to earn forgiveness, and the life-long terror of never being good enough. Faith in Christ redeems your broken life and delivers a life of joy and hope and purpose. God gave us sixty-six books to teach these lessons. The Book of Psalms—a book about the heart—is filled with God’s treasure.

“I rejoice at thy word as one that findeth great treasure” Psalm 119:162.

AΩ

[1] See The Voice of the Martyrs, April, 2025 (Vol.59, No.4).

[2] Hebrews 12:1.

The Ringing Voices of Ten Thousand Maniacs on Social Media. Psalm 118:5-6.

Image generated with A. I.

Scrolling through social media is something like walking through a carnival:

There are crowds everywhere, people of all ages, all types. Some beautiful, some that make you cringe, some violent and dangerous. There are artists and writers and thinkers and experts and there are clowns and buffoons and scumbags and scalawags.

And the booths! Everywhere someone is hawking their wares, selling something: three tries for a dollar, win your lady a giant teddy bear! And they sell so much more than carnival games: in fact, they sell everything you want, with smart ads that seem to cover everything you have ever talked about.

Lately my internet feed has been bad-tasting but impossible not to consume, an ill-prepared stew of ingredients ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous:

Encouraging words from Bible teachers followed by people fist-fighting on subway platforms; multi-fatality accidents recorded on dashcams followed by feel-good clips of pop-music talent shows; children and dogs doing amazing things then a comedian making jokes about something he shouldn’t; ads for yoga, holistic medicines, and yet one more children’s book from a celebrity trying to build his brand. There are posts about local politics, national politics, riots at home and wars abroad. And conspiracy theories from both sides of the aisle—so many conspiracy theories! It is too much. Sometimes it is all just too much. But then that next short clip is the most perfect golf shot ever and now I’m scrolling again. And Oh look, another captivating story from Mr. Ballen. And so it goes.

When you finally turn it off, do you hear your ears ring? No. I’m serious. If you listen closely, I swear you can hear the noise ringing in your ears. You have put the phone down. The screen is dark and all is silent. But, like trying to sleep after a rock concert, you can still hear the ringing voices of ten thousand maniacs on social media. If you listen closely, you will hear them. They are still there in your head.

And after scrolling for an hour or two, you can’t possibly sort the voices out. Oh, you might remember a face here and there or an especially violent car crash, or an outrageous prank, or something funny that you had not already seen a hundred times before. But most of the noise is just noise, just a ringing, pounding noise of voices, drowning out your peace of mind.[1]

The cacophony of voices will also drown out the voice of God.

Is God bigger, stronger, and infinitely louder than the internet? Of course. But he will not compete with our culture’s non-stop entertainment. If you fill your head with the world’s whirlwind of noise, you will not be able to hear the still, small voice of God, 1 Kings 19:11-13. And because that noise draws your eyes, your ears, and your attention away from him, it will leave you feeling alone and small and vulnerable. How do most people deal with those feelings? They pick the phone back up as soon as possible. Social media entertains us while it hollows out our minds like beaters whipping cake batter in a mixing bowl. Social media entertains us, we fill up on it, and it leaves us feeling empty. So we consume more, and it leaves us emptier still.

One answer is to put down social media. Really put it down. Take a few hours off. Take a day off. Take more than a day. My friend Scott regularly takes an internet fast. It does wonders for his peace of mind.

Nevertheless, few of us are going to give up social media entirely. We must learn to use it in moderation.

Turn it off, read books, talk to people, and do active things (fishing, hiking, surfing) that make it impossible to surf the web at the same time.

And when you do use social media, put it down with finality. (I leave the phone in the house while doing yard work, for example.)[2] Then as you walk away, listen to the quiet. Do you hear the voices in your head? Do you see the violence, the commotion, the all-out battle for your attention? There is no peace in that moment.

You can settle your mind and re-gain your peace by spending some time praising God for his greatness. You can use your own words, simply by talking to God about his great attributes, and you can also use words from the Bible. Here are examples of both.

Read these words aloud to God. Afterwards, notice the way it settles your mind:

(Praise in My Own Words.)

Dear God, I praise you for your power. You are the Omnipotent Creator of Man’s first breath*. You made us. You love us. You save us. You are in control of all things. You are seated on your throne. Nothing that happens to me today is beyond your control.

You are the sovereign lord of the universe. Before you, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” I praise you because you are all knowing. You are the God of truth. You possess all power. And you deserve all praise.

(Praise Using Scripture.)

“But God is in the heavens. He has done whatever he pleased” Psalm 115:3. “Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man that fears the Lord, that greatly delights in his commands … he shall not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting the Lord. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid” Psalm 112:1,7-8.

“Tremble, Oh earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. Who turned the rock into standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters” Psalm 114:7-8. “I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications … for Thou hast delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling” Psalm 116:1,8.

“Praise the Lord, all ye nations. Praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever” Psalm 117:1-2. “I called upon the Lord in distress. The Lord answered me and set me in a large place. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Psalm 118:5-6.

AΩ

[1] Not only does social media chip away at your peace of mind. There is also a junk food quality to social media (in fact, to all of the internet—even the things that seem “good for you.”). Even at its best, the internet is generally restricted to the surface of things. Some articles are deeper than others. But to truly reach the depths, you need a different medium. You need a book. Because it takes several hundred pages to journey to the bottom of the sea. You can’t get there in five minutes. Thus, the internet itself is a limited medium. It is easily accessible, it has its lauded “democratizing” effect on culture. But it cannot deliver true depths of thought and analysis. Only books can do that. There are millions of deep books in thousands of fields. The Bible is the best of them.

[2] When you walk away from surfing the web, think about what you consumed. Was it valuable? Worthy? Was it made with quality and was the message true? For example, videos of road rage that lead to fighting never encourage anyone to be a peacemaker. Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers” Matthew 5:9. But social media is more like the Roman coliseum. It is a blood sport and no one wants to make peace. The ones trying to break up the fight are getting in the way of the fun. Read the comments: the audience signals a collective thumbs down. Kill him! We are only watching violence on our phones in the hope of seeing more and more violence. The videos are empty of meaning or value or purpose. They are, by definition, vanity. Pray the words of Psalm 119: “turn away my eyes from looking at vanity” Psalm 119:37.

* The phrase “omnipotent creator of man’s first breath” comes from the song “The Champion,” by Carman.

Jesus said the end times would be characterized not only by “wars and rumors of wars,” by earthquakes and famines and the beginning of the birth pangs, but by DECEPTION. “Take heed that no one misleads you” Matthew 24:4. I have never seen such a chorus of misleading voices. Between anti-intellectualism, social media, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Fakes, incompetent Influencers, the predatory wellness movement, biased reporting masquerading as journalism, the ignorance of expertise, plagiarism and other factors decimating scholarship and the peer-review process, the rise of false religions, cults, and new age spirituality, I am more inclined to call ours the end times than ever before.

Love Him … in the in-Between Time When You Feel the Pressure Coming. Job 19:25-27.

The title is a line from an excellent song from 1974: “All Day Song (Love Him in the Morning)”
from the album Still Life, by John Fischer (a credited founder of “Jesus Music”). The image is Mr. Fischer in more recent years. https://johnfischer.bandcamp.com/track/all-day-song-love-him-in-the-morning

Have you ever prayed or spent time praising God or worshipping Him, yet doubted your own motives?

Do you ever hear the voice of the skeptic in your head saying something like what the devil said about Job: It’s easy to worship God right now—everything in your life is going so well! (see Job 1:9-11).

I have had such thoughts. I ignore them easily enough—but when I suffer, I remember them, and I know that praising God while suffering is the best praise of all—because I do not have mixed motives. I am not praising God because my life is great, or because I think God will instantly fix things if only I praise him. Instead, I am praising God even though I am deeply upset by one situation or another. Worshipping while suffering has been some of the sweetest, most special times of worship I have had.

Job worshipped while suffering also. After losing his health, wealth, and his ten children, Job praised God. Oh, he complained too, bitterly and deeply. But then he stopped and forced himself to praise God, in what is surely one of the greatest statements of praise (not to mention mature faith) in the Bible:

“I know that my redeemer lives! And that in the end, he will stand upon the earth. And, after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes—I and not another. How my heart yearns within me” Job 19:25-27.

Give us the faith of Job, to see your truth and talk about it and praise you for it, no matter how difficult our circumstances. Teach us to praise you in all things and to rejoice always, 1 Thessalonians 5:16.

Praise: Talk to God About His Greatness, Part 2 of 2. Job 19:25-27.

Suffering is a universal truth of life.

Everyone suffers, whether rich or poor, powerful or weak. As Jesus said, “He … causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust” Matthew 5:45. Suffering does not become easier as you get older. When it hurts, it hurts! But handling suffering becomes easier—because with experience, you gain coping skills. And I have good news! You don’t have to learn all your skills through the school of hard knocks. That is, you don’t have to learn everything by experience.

The best strategy for handling suffering is to prepare for suffering in advance.

And the best way to prepare for suffering is to memorize Bible verses about suffering.

Find a half dozen or a dozen scriptures[1] about overcoming adversity, write them down, and memorize them. Go over them, rehearsing and practicing them every day until they transform your thinking about suffering.

A second way to prepare for suffering is to develop a habit of talking to God about his greatness every day.

Make praise a habit—and then when tragedy strikes, you will be able to praise God in spite of your circumstances.

Consider Psalm 102. The writer complains about how badly he is suffering, but then he forces himself to stop complaining and praise God anyway.

“Hear my prayer, Lord … My days vanish like smoke, my bones burn like glowing embers. My heart is blighted and withered like grass. I forget to eat my food. In my distress I groan aloud and am reduced to skin and bones … I lie awake. I have become like a bird alone on a roof … For I eat ashes for my food and mingle my drink with tears. I wither away like grass. But you, Lord, sit enthroned forever. Your renown endures through all generations. You will arise and have compassion” Psalm 102:1-13.

The psalmist is clearly suffering, yet he takes control of his own thoughts and forces himself to praise God in spite of his suffering. You can do the same thing: arrest your thoughts and make them obey: “Take your thoughts captive so they obey Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:5.

When everything around you seems to be falling apart, you will find an oasis of peace during the few minutes when you train your attention on God’s greatness, his success, his victory, his power, and his love for you. Read the following verses to God, speaking them to him as a prayer:

“The Lord reigns. He is clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength … Your throne is established of old, thou art from everlasting … The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waters of the sea” Psalm 93:1-2,4.

“For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth. The strength of the hills is his also” Psalm 95:3-4.

“The Lord is great, and [deserves] greatly to be praised [by me!] … He is to be feared above all gods … the Lord made the heavens … Give unto the Lord the glory due his name” Psalm 96:4-5,8.[2]

Dear God, teach us to praise you. Teach us to praise you when things are good, and to praise you when they are not. Help us memorize scripture about hope and praise during adversity.

AΩ

[1] Six verses on suffering worth committing to memory: Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, Proverbs 3:5-6, Philippians 4:12-13, 1 Peter 5:10, James 1:2-4.

[2] I have always enjoyed the ten psalms between 90-99. They include many great lines of praise spoken directly to God.

Praise: Talk to God About His Greatness, Part 1 of 2. Psalm 22:3.

Praise is an essential part of your prayer life. Praise has so many benefits!

  1. Praise leads to blessings. “Let the people praise thee, O God. Let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even God, shall bless us” Psalm 67:5-6.
  2. Praise improves your countenance (it makes you more attractive!). “Praise is comely for the upright” Psalm 33:1. (There are actually a number of verses about this.)  
  3. Praise can ease mental health struggles. If you worry, praise will help. If you are angry, praise will help. If you feel betrayed, praise will help. If you are paranoid, praise will help. If you are lonely, praise will help. How? Speaking strictly on a human level, praise takes your focus off of yourself and your problems and puts it on God.
  4. Praise draws us closer to God. Speaking on a supernatural level, God “inhabits the praise of his people” Psalm 22:3. When you praise God, he draws near to you. Have you ever felt your prayers were not going past the ceiling? Spend some time praising God. Give several minutes of your mental energy and your thoughts to God’s greatness. It will make a difference.

The Bible is FILLED with words praising God. Use them. Praise God right now by reading the following words to the Lord:

Dear God, we praise you for your grace and forgiveness: “You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin. You have taken away your wrath. You have turned from the fierceness of your anger” Psalm 85:2-3.

We praise you because you are so great and so compassionate: “Glorious things of thee are spoken” Psalm 87:3. “Thou art the helper of the fatherless … the Lord is KING forever and ever” Psalm 10:14,16.

God, we praise you for your wisdom: “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations” Psalm 33:11.

God, we praise you because you watch over us every day: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy” Psalm 33:18.

God, we praise you because in a world of evil and corruption, we know you judge righteously. “Thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations of the earth” Psalm 67:4.

God, we praise you because you take care of us throughout our entire lives. “O God, thou hast taught me from my youth … Now, when I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not until I have shown your strength to this generation and your power to everyone who is to come … my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness all the day long” Psalm 71:17-18,24.

Dear God, we praise you. Teach us to praise you daily. To talk to you all the time about your amazing attributes. To remind you—and remind ourselves—that you are sovereign, you are the Almighty, you are holy and loving and good, and you are taking care of us every day, at all times. We praise you for your infinite love and grace and mercy. May we lead lives worthy of your salvation.

AΩ

Praise and Thanksgiving: Two Keys to Mental Health. Psalm 46:9-10.

We understand the value of gratitude because it is talked about so often. Many non-believers in our culture talk about the “healing power of gratitude” and are dedicated to regularly giving thanks. Americans know that a posture of thankfulness helps us feel happier and more at peace. But there is another practice that may have an even more powerful impact on our emotions, anxiety, and overall mental health: PRAISE. Do we understand the value of praise? Do we practice it?

“Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you depressed within me? Hope in God! For I shall yet praise him, the help of my countenance and my God!” Psalm 42:5.

The psalmist repeats this verse twice more on the same page, in Psalm 42:11 and Psalm 43:5. The Bible says the cure for depression and despair is praise. Put your hope in God and spend some time praising him.[1]

That’s what praise is, after all. It is not a feeling. It is not some Christian-candle aromatherapy situation.

Praise is something you do.

Praise is not sitting by a warm fire with a cup of coffee and a good book. It is not some kind of a bubble-bath feeling with smooth jazz playing in the background. Praise is hard work! But it is work that makes a difference. Just as giving thanks means actively thinking and talking to God about specific things for which we are thankful, so also praise means actively thinking and talking to God about himself and his amazing traits.

Praise is telling God how great he is.

And doing that serves to remind you of his greatness. If you are worried, for example, and you spend three minutes talking to God about his power over the entire universe, when those three minutes end, you will be noticeably less anxious. Praise requires you to talk to God about his amazing qualities. But the one who benefits most is not God but you! Praise can turn your entire mental outlook around.

Consider the war in Ukraine. We have friends who have been missionaries there for thirty years—and unlike many missionaries and foreign aid workers, they did not leave Ukraine when Russia invaded. I cannot imagine what they face each day. But God is the God of peace. There are words in the book of Psalms that we can use to praise God during war—and those words provide hope.

“For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all day long, and praise thy name forever” Psalm 44:6-8.

Can you see the way praising God can give courage to one who fears? But you don’t just read the words—you say them to God.

Praise is me telling God how great he is.

I use these words to have a conversation with God about his attributes. I give God praise and God gives me peace.

Consider war again:

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea … He makes wars to cease unto the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow, and cuts the spear in two. He burns the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted in the earth” Psalm 46:1-2,9-10.

Imagine reading these lines to God, or better yet, memorizing them and praying them to the Lord. That is the essence of praise, and it can bring peace during a storm. And what if you are not in a storm? Even when all’s well, we should praise God.

When I was a child, I was taught to pray using five-points drawn on a hand. We would trace our hand, cut the drawing out with scissors, and write one word on each finger: 1)Praise, 2)Thanksgiving, 3)Confession, 4)Intercession (for Others), and 5)Petitions (for Me).*

When your prayer begins with praise and you are not in the midst of war, you might begin this way:

“O clap your hands, all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible [awesome]. He is a great King over all the earth” Psalm 47:1-2. 

Do you see the way praise can bring a person joy, hope, and mental well-being? Talking to God about these truths give us peace, reminding us that God is on his throne and he is taking care of everything!

A cliché is a phrase heard so often, it has lost its original impact. One churchy phrase that has lost its original impact is “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised” Psalm 48:1. What does the second clause mean: “greatly to be praised”? This is inverted grammar in which the you is understood. A modern translator might phrase it: The Lord is great and is to be praised greatly by you. The next time you hear the verse, make a mental note to thumbtack the missing words to the end of the verse:

“Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised [by you!]” Psalm 48:1.

God tells us to praise him. Psalm 150 begins “Praise God in his sanctuary,” and goes on to command praise twelve times in only six verses.

Even Jesus begins his model prayer by praising his Father in heaven: hallowed be thy name. Begin today using praise in your prayers. Talk to God about his attributes. Make praise part of your daily life. It will bless you greatly.

AΩ

[1] Some cases of depression require a physician’s care and are best treated with medication. There is no shame in having a problem with your brain chemistry any more than there is shame over illness in another part of the body. Follow your doctor’s orders: take the pills and get better! But add thanksgiving and praise to your regimen.

  • A good acrostic for prayer is ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication.

Have You Lost Your First Love? Don’t Give Up! 2 Chronicles 31:4-8.

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus dictates letters to seven young churches in modern-day Turkey. Jesus says that the church in Ephesus has done many things well, but “you have lost your first love” Revelation 2:4. What can you do if you have lost your first love? What is the solution?

The loss of first love feels like an emotional problem.

In romance, it often means the end of the relationship. When exciting feelings fade—or when the initial pursuit is over—people become discouraged. Because they are new to romance, young people particularly can feel lost and have no idea why feelings have changed or what to do about it.

It’s the same in other areas: the love for your new job wears off, so you want to jump ship. Your new workout plan is not producing results, so you want out. You feel unappreciated in your volunteer efforts and wonder whether you should look for something else. Quitting is not the answer. But neither is trying to change your feelings.

When Hezekiah became king of Judah, he inherited a nation of idol worshippers. His own father had locked the doors of Solomon’s Temple 16 years before. There were few signs of any “first love” left. The spiritual life of Judah had not merely grown cold—that candle had been blown out.

But King Hezekiah got to work. He brought in the priests and Levites and had them consecrate themselves. Then he made the men clean and refurbish the temple. Next, the nation gathered to rededicate the temple. Then the nation celebrated the Passover for the first time since the reign of King Solomon, some 200 years before, 2 Chronicles 30:26. Finally, King Hezekiah commanded the people to step up:

“He commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord. And … the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field and the tithe of all things brought they abundantly. And concerning the [citizens of other cities], they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of holy things which were consecrated unto the Lord their God, and laid them in heaps … And when Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord, and his people Israel” 2 Chronicles 31:4-8.

What do you do when you lose your first love? You put your head down and get to work. That is, you remember your purpose and focus on the tasks that matter most. If you do that, the feelings will take care of themselves.

“You have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first” Revelation 2:4-5.

If you have lost your first love, go back to the basics! Do the deeds you did at first, and soon the feelings you felt at first will probably return. On top of that, always practice gratitude. Recognize what you have been given and thank God for it!

AΩ