When you think of acronyms, what comes to mind? Maybe something like VDOT, DMV, UFO. Maybe you think of universities like UVA, JMU, or even UNC. When it comes to these acronyms, we know exactly what they are without a second thought.

One of my favorite acronyms is one that you may or may not have thought of. I hadn’t until a few years ago. It’s BIBLE. I’m not sure who came up with it, but I remember where I first saw it. It was just on a small piece of paper on a coworker’s desk that simply said BIBLE- Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. This was just a reminder for my friend of where to go when she needs answers to life’s questions.

The Bible is one of God’s greatest gifts to us. In addition to the scriptures that help to encourage and comfort us, we can learn so much from the people and stories. At this time of year, as we read and hear about Christ’s death on a cross and his resurrection, let us focus on his word daily and seek his guidance in all that we say and do.

Revelation 1:3 NIV: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”

“The Ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months.” 1 Samuel 6:11

Obed-Edom had no knowledge of the Ark showing up at his door. Things were sad and shocking for him. Uzzah had tried to save the Ark from falling and he died trying to save it when the ox stumbled. That violated the holiness of the Ark and Uzzah paid the price by touching the Ark.

David and all the people were filled with fear and brought the Ark to the house of Obed-Edom where it stayed for three months. This was a great surprise to Obed- Edom to have the Ark in his house.

As he and his family saw God’s blessings pour out on them, he must have felt gracious for the chance to serve God in this way and be His servant. It was by undeserved grace that he and his household were blessed.

Prayer:
Dear Holy Father, we are amazed at your gifts of undeserved grace. Help us not take granted all the blessings you have provide for us. We are forever grateful for Your love and mercy.
AMEN

“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

While I do try to avoid repetition in my quiet time prayers, I do have one thing I tend to say each day: I usually start by thanking the Lord for another day of life. Every day, if you read the news, you’ll see reports of someone’s life being cut short, and you remember that we’re not promised tomorrow. So I try to express gratitude for each day I have.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t always prevent me from being happy that some days are over and behind me. Sometimes the busyness or the pressures of the day, or just the way I feel (especially if I’ve had trouble sleeping) lead me to be grateful that some days are in the rearview mirror, looking forward to tomorrow.

But the Psalmist reminds us that every day is a gift from God, and is worthy of our rejoicing and gratitude. That means the ones where everything goes our way, as well as the ones where it seems like the world is conspiring against us.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been planning Christi’s and my 30th anniversary trip we’re looking to take this summer. And the more I immerse myself in those plans (I’m one of those weird people who enjoys the planning as much or more than the trip itself), the easier I find it to wish away the days in between now and then. But God reminds me that every single one of those days is a precious gift, and I need to rejoice in them, and make the most of the precious time God grants me, because that’s 24 hours—1440 minutes that I’ll never get back.

As you pray today, rejoice and be glad for the blessing of another day, and ask the Lord to help you see each day—even the challenging ones—as the gift from Him that it is.

One of the most powerful little words in the English language is the word but. It’s powerful because it usually negates, diminishes, or renders moot whatever has come before it. “He’s a nice guy, but he’s too short.” “The car is beautiful, but the transmission’s shot.” “I was going to clean the kitchen, but the game went into overtime.” “She’s cute, but she’s a Red Sox fan.”

The sentence starts out one way, then the word but is inserted, and the entire direction of the thought changes.

And that’s why I think it’s the most powerful word in Scripture—especially where it’s found in 1 Corinthians 6.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NIV ’84) Paul, writing to the church at Corinth says, “Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders ¹⁰ nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” 

Paul’s been addressing some behavior among people in the church that needs to change—specifically in this passage, the fact that some church members have been cheating each other. And he warns them of several types of people who won’t be part of God’s kingdom. And while it’s not an exhaustive list, it’s one that’s very personal to them, because it’s describing a life a lot of them have lived. Thankfully, though, that’s not the end of the story. He goes on,

^11 “And that is what some of you were.” [Past tense. That was you. You were guilty of these things and living a life characterized by these sinful behaviors. Thankfully, though, that’s changed. It says that’s what some of you WERE. And here’s the big word:] “BUT you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

That little three-letter-word, especially when combined with the word “were” here, provides hope. “That is what some of you WERE—BUT not anymore. That is what some of you WERE, BUT you’ve been changed. That is what some of you WERE, BUT you’ve been forgiven; you’ve been restored.

Their repentance and willingness to change allowed God to work in them to not only forgive them, but to CHANGE them. So, while some of them USED TO BE drunks, they aren’t anymore. While some of them USED TO BE thieves, they aren’t anymore. While some of them USED TO BE sexually immoral—whether gay or straight—they aren’t anymore. They repented, and God has made a change in them. Their past done, their present has been made new, and their future looks so much better, because they have eternity with Christ to look forward to.

Such a small word; such a big impact. Maybe the biggest example is this: “Christ died… BUT He arose.” That’s what we look forward to in this Lenten season. So, as you pray today, thank God that Jesus’ death wasn’t the end of His story, and that our sin doesn’t have to be the end of ours.

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

A couple of weekends ago, my wife and I were watching my niece’s children, ages 6,5, & 3. At one point, I put on some Bugs Bunny cartoons, because, tragically, they had never seen these classic comedy treasures. I was excited to introduce them to these treasures from my childhood. What made it sweeter was that they all wanted to sit with me.

After 45 minutes of them climbing over each other—and me–, pushing, pulling, squirming, tattling on someone who wasn’t giving the others enough legroom, and constant questions about who the characters were and what they were doing, I was exhausted! I’ve never gotten so tired just trying to sit still! I told Christi to take the kids so I could get a nap.

In her book, Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Harrison Warren writes, “In a culture that craves the big, the entertaining, the dramatic, and the shocking (sometimes literally), cultivating a life with space for silence and repetition is necessary for sustaining a life of faith.”

I think that most people find sitting still before the Lord tends to take them some work too. There are so many things tugging at us and trying to get our attention, filling up our schedule and crowding out the things of God. And all of that commotion only makes having a daily time of getting still and alone with Him that much more important. We need that time where we talk to Him in prayer, and where we listen to Him, through meditating on His word.

As you pray today, Ask the Lord for His help in shutting out the demands and the noise of this world, so that you can be still before Him.

“Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.” Lamentations 3:40 (NIV)

Every day—often several times a day—we engage in self-reflection. We stand in front of a mirror and look to see if there’s anything about our appearance that needs to be changed. And as a result of this self-examination you may comb your hair, shave, touch up your makeup, or change your clothes.

If only we did this as much with our character as we do with our appearance! The goal of a Christian’s life is to become more like Him—not in our appearance, because (despite all the paintings we see) we don’t know exactly what Jesus looked like—but in our character.

As you pray today, take the time to look at the character you’ve displayed recently and ask God to point out the things you need to change, as well as for the strength to bring about those changes.

Everyone, of us from the time we were young until now have always valued friendship in our life. Facebook is a fine example of this many of us have Facebook friends with people we have never met. Some of us try to have more Facebook friends than everyone else, again how many of them do you have a real relationship with.

As Christians I want each of us to give some thought about our relationship with God. God wants us to have a daily relationship with God, family and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our relationship with God should deepen as we grow as Christians. Studying the word, our prayer time, how we treat others, teaching and mentoring each other, how we love and serve others in the name of Jesus.

God offers each of us a relationship that covers all the different types of friendship. God sits with me in silence, rejoices with me, celebrates with me, walks with me in my day-to-day walk. Each day we spend with a focus on God deepens our understanding of God’s love for us.

As a Christian I also need to understand that our relationship with God is not a one-way street. We need to offer God our presence. Pay attention to the word, don’t be thinking about your grocery list during class or during worship.

I can offer my love, my gifts and talents to God by serving others, helping those in need, being there to support my friends during the hard times and rejoicing with them during the good times. In this mutual giving of ourselves to each other and receiving from each other we develop a deep friendship with each other.
Spending time in prayer, spending time reading our bible’s and understanding what we are reading will strengthen our relationship with God.

Read Mathew 4: 1-4
For 40 days Jesus fasted and was tempted by Satan in the desert. Satan’s objective was to get Christ to submit to him and take the easy way out of a difficult situation. He tries to use doubt to deceive Christ at one of His weakest moments. This has been one of Satan’s tools throughout history and it is still at the top of his list today, “DID GOD REALLY SAY_??????

Satan’s temptations fall into three categories, pleasure, popularity, and power. Mathew 4:3 says: The tempter came to Him and said “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Christ is fasting and His hunger is great. Satan appeals to the pleasure of food to interrupt His focus, but Christ knows He cannot bypass His purpose, to die for the sins of the World. Dying on the Cross is the only way to defeat Satan and reunite Mankind with God.

When we are tempted, remember the sacrifice that has been made for your soul. Christ died and was resurrected so we can escape the punishment for our sin.

Luke 3 says, “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (vv.1-3 NIV).

John the Baptist’s job was to prepare the way for Jesus by preaching about repentance. Repentance is a change in the way we think that leads to a change in our actions. It’s easy to think of repentance as just feeling sorry. But repentance isn’t about feelings—it’s about thoughts and actions. Repentance is looking at the things we’ve done and recognizing that they’re wrong, and changing our behavior accordingly.

If you’ve ever used GPS for navigation, you know what happens when you make a wrong turn—You hear an endless nagging to make a U-turn so that you’ll be going in the right direction again. That’s what repentance is.

Lent is all about preparing our hearts for the celebration of Easter, and Ash Wednesday reminds us that we are God’s creation, formed from the dust of the ground, and we need to align our behavior with His will. And that requires repentance.

As you pray today, ask God to help you to have the strength to truly repent of any actions that aren’t pleasing to Him.

A few weeks ago, I was playing with my three-year-old great-niece, and she said, “I love you,” and I responded, “I love you more!” And that launched a long back and forth of “No, I love YOU more.” “No, I love YOU more!” Many of you have probably been that same friendly “argument” with your kids or grandkids yourself.

If only we all made our lives a contest to show each other who loved whom more! Imagine how this world would be different! Imagine if you went to work tomorrow and made it your goal to demonstrate to everyone you met that you love them more, like it was a competition, and you were determined to win. Your coworkers, your clients, your boss, the person in the checkout line at the store, your neighbor, everyone.

As Christians, that should be our M.O. That’s what we’re supposed to do. Jesus told us to love others as He loved us. Unfortunately, we all fall far too short of the standard Jesus set for us. In fact, sometimes it only takes us as long as the drive between church building and the restaurant where we eat lunch on Sunday to forget that we’re supposed to be ambassadors for Christ.

Jesus’ entire life was telling us, “I love you more.” He said, “I love you more” by living as one of us, and enduring everything we do, so He could show us how to navigate the travails of life as God would have us to.

He said “I love you more” by teaching us how to follow God, and attain “Life in all of its abundance,” as He came to give us.

And He said, “I love you more” by sacrificing Himself for us, taking the punishment we deserved, so we wouldn’t have to. In fact, He loved us SO MUCH MORE that Romans 5:8 tells us it was while we were still sinners that He died for us.

Imagine someone slapping you in the face, and you forgiving them. Now imagine offering them forgiveness while they repeatedly continue to slap you in the face. But that’s what Jesus did for us. He was offering Himself up on behalf of the very people who were shouting, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” The very people who were taunting Him, saying, “He saved others, but He can’t save Himself!” And He was doing it for us when our sins against Him hadn’t even started yet.

1 John 4:10 says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Being a Christian doesn’t mean you’re perfect, it just means you’ve found the source of forgiveness for all the times you’ve fallen short, and you’re working to become more and more like Christ. And part of growing to be more like Christ is having the determination to show those around you, “I love you more;” not in a prideful way, but as the flood of love from God fills us to overflowing, that love overflows from us onto those around us.

And I can’t think of a better way to start the Lenten season than to follow Christ’s example, and demonstrate to those around you, “I love you more!”