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"There was never anyone like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LordHe behaved in the vilest manner" 1 Kings 21: 26, 27 There's one detail in the story of Ahab and Naboth that I just can't get out of my mind. Ahab said to Naboth, "Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden since it is close to my palace." A story filled with so much sin bega...
Keep ReadingAnd when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, "Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son's days I will b...
Keep ReadingHe lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat.1 Kings 21:4b Each of our kids had moments of engaging in typical toddler warfare. There were plenty of time-outs and privileges revoked for their behavior, and I recall having to leave a few cart loads of groceries at the store due to the magnitude of the tantrums thrown when they didn't get what they wanted. Outbursts still h...
Keep Reading1 Kings 21 Sin saddens. Sin is more than sadness and does far more than manufacture and multiply sadness. But as we have spent time these last weeks in the story of Babel's Tower, David's terrible affair with Bathsheba, and, this week, with an entitled, greedy and insecure king, it is hard to avoid feeling overwhelmingly sad as we read each one. This will be the third a...
Keep ReadingAfter the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord (2 Samuel 11: 27). In his goofy science-fiction book, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", author Douglas Adams talks about learning to fly. You simply throw yourself at the ground and miss. It's just that...
Keep ReadingBut the thing David had done displeased the Lord. 2 Samuel 11:26b Sometimes in books or movies or television shows, the beginning is the end. The first scene opens on a major catastrophe, usually with a main character looking around at the carnage with a look on their face that says, "How did I get here?" The story then zooms out and backs up 24 hours, a week, a yearto th...
Keep Reading2 Samuel 11 Ok, it's spring, and you probably don't want to think about snow. But please bear with me as I use the soft stuff as a metaphor for a hard reality. Remember what it's like to grab a handful of snow, pack it firm, then start rolling it in more snow, and more snow, until eventually you have a ball that's no longer budge-able? We're going to use that snowballing...
Keep Reading2 Samuel 11 The past few weeks, Mosaic, the middle school youth group, has been studying a series called "This or That," which is all about comparison. It shows how comparing ourselves with others pulls us away from our relationship with God. As I thought about the youth group study and this week's passage, I felt that the topics of comparison and jealousy fit hand-in-han...
Keep ReadingBut David remained in Jerusalemand saw a very beautiful woman bathing(2 Samuel 11:1, 2). Welcome back to the second week of our Fractured series. This week, the epic tragedy of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). Take a few minutes to revisit this familiar story now. King David has had twenty years of success, spiritually and as a king, so this season, "when kings go off ...
Keep Reading*Join in CCC's Season of Prayer! CLICK HERE for the prayer guide.* "Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a towerthat reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves;otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth'" (Genesis 11: 4). I'm very career-focused, sometimes to a fault. I don't want to just be good at my job,...
Keep Reading*Join in CCC's Season of Prayer! CLICK HERE for the prayer guide.* Genesis 11:1-9 The Tower of Babel I'm a member of the micro-generation born between 1977 and 1983. We're sandwiched between Generation X and the Millennials, so we're called Xennialsthough the occasional "geriatric Millennials" will float around. (Nope. Don't like that!) There are lots of interesting th...
Keep Reading*Join in CCC's Season of Prayer! CLICK HERE for the prayer guide.* Fractures and Casts Debbie Kiser "Come, let US build OURSELVESa cityso that WEmay make a name for OURSELVES."(Genesis 11:3, emphasis added) If I asked you to define fracture, you'd likely say to break something, maybe immediately adding, like a bone. Bone or not, anything fractured is damaged, ruptured,...
Keep Reading*Join in CCC's Season of Prayer! CLICK HERE for the prayer guide.* Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens,so that we may make a name for ourselves (Genesis 11:4a). Of all the Connect Devotional themes I've delved into, this Tower of Babel one saddened me the most. At least at first. Here is a scenario from the pr...
Keep Reading*Join in CCC's Season of Prayer! CLICK HERE for the prayer guide.* Genesis 11:1-9 A new week, a new-ish month, and a new season (spring!) just ahead and the start of a new series. These weeks leading up to Easter have some contrary currents. On the one hand, winter is ending, spring is blossoming, the days are brighter, longer, fairer. On the other hand, we are moving ...
Keep Reading*Join in CCC's Season of Prayer! CLICK HERE for the prayer guide.* Acts 2 "God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." When they heard this, they were cut to the heart. They asked, "What must we do?" (Acts 2) The beginning of the church, as recorded in Acts 2, will be the final Scripture passage in our Holy Spirit: Presence, Purpose and Power ...
Keep Reading*Join in CCC's Season of Prayer! CLICK HERE for the prayer guide.* "God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear." Acts 2: 33-34 As I traveled this week, I passed an advertisement in the airport that challenged me t...
Keep Reading*Join in CCC's Season of Prayer! CLICK HERE for the prayer guide.* Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" (Acts 2:12) The good folks in the center of our country are known for their "Midwestern nice," and most of them are also known for their independence. (I can say that, because I've spent most of my life in the Midwest, and I can confirm ...
Keep Reading*Join in CCC's Season of Prayer! CLICK HERE for the prayer guide.* All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven (Acts 2:4-5). each one heard them speaking in his own language (Acts 2:6b). "--we hear them declaring the wonders ...
Keep ReadingActs 2:1-41 Welcome back to this new week of Connect Devotionals! This is the final week in our Holy Spirit: Presence, Power and Purpose series, and we'll be looking at the second chapter of Acts. This chapter moves from an upper room to the open public streets of Jerusalem. It starts with a gathering of 120 souls, and ends, less than twenty-four hours later, with a chur...
Keep ReadingGive us each day our daily bread lend me three loaves of bread because of his boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs you wouldn't give your hungry child a snake instead of a fish, a scorpion in place of an egg, would you? How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Luke 11:1-13). This week's passage is a hungr...
Keep ReadingSo I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knockand the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds;and to him who knocks, the door will be opened (Luke 11: 9-10, NIV). And don't you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him? (Luke 11:13b, MSG) I wondered: Are ...
Keep Reading"Because of this man's persistence he will get up andgive him whatever he needs." (Luke 11:8) To usurp one of Pastor Alex's favorite sermon illustrations, let's play MadLibs where you fill in the blank. Teaching His disciples about prayer, Jesus says, "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven ...
Keep Reading"For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds;and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened" (Luke 11:10). When my wife and I took our three young children on their first airplane flight, we fretted over the trip. We packed extra bags with candy, snacks, pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, books, video games, and movies. Our goal was to anticipate every ne...
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