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By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres.  For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”  How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?    Psalm 137:1-3

Not all Psalms were written by David.  This one was written by a Jewish exile living in Babylon.  Having seen his homeland destroyed and then taken as a captive into the foreign culture of the Babylonian Empire, he struggled to get his spiritual bearings.  His new homeland was corrupt and excessive, and the people of God stuck out like sore thumbs. 

They were invited to sing their simple songs of faith to the taunts of the crowd, not unlike the Jews who were made to perform in the camps for Nazi soldiers.  Brilliant violinists, violists, cellists, and bass violin players formed string quartets to pacify the military tyrants who despised them. 

The song of the redeemed is being rendered just as peculiar against the backdrop of these unsettling days.  As we continue to witness rapid decline into the abyss of godlessness, we must not conform.  God’s grace will enable us to stand and to sing.  Our allegiance is to the kingdom of heaven and His culture of holiness.     

There is an ongoing emotional and spiritual adjustment for what we’re witnessing and what we know will come next.  In our grief, God invites us to sing the songs of the exiles. We are clearly outsiders and the brunt of society’s jokes, but our voices must not be silenced.  The noise of evil must not prevail over the praise of God’s people.  It’s not time to close the piano lid.  It’s not time to retire the pen of the poet.  It’s not time to put away the instruments.  Never has the music of faith been more important and never are the songs sweeter than when saints raise their joyful voices with tear stained faces. 

You are my joy.  Let my hope sing.  In Jesus’ name, Amen

The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. Psalm 33:10

Walls are meant to keep enemies out, but they can also keep prisoners in.

Ask those who lived under the shadow of the Great Wall, behind the barbed wire of North Korea, or in the long shadow of the Berlin Wall. A barrier can feel like protection, or a sentence.

God, in His severe mercy, sometimes builds walls in the life of a wayward son or daughter. That comforts us when the prodigal we love is racing toward destruction. But it is agony to watch them pound their fists against an invisible barrier. Nothing quite works. Doors that seem to swing open for others stay shut for them. Job applications vanish into silence. Savings meant to fund their dreams are swallowed by unexpected expenses. The pattern is too consistent to be coincidence: they are being lovingly hemmed in.

This is often where we step in and say, “Turn to God. He can turn your life around.” That is true. But if we are not careful, we can present God as a cosmic genie whose main role is to sponsor their plans. Telling them simply to “pray and ask for what you want” overlooks the deeper issue: they want everything but God. If He granted every request in that state, the very gifts would harden into idols, glittering just enough to keep them from facing their real spiritual poverty.

When we recognize that God Himself is thwarting a path, we are invited into a different kind of love. Here are three ways we can respond:

1. Pray first, then speak with holy tenderness.
2. With humility, help them see that the resistance they keep meeting may not be bad luck, but the loving hand of God blocking a destructive road.
3. Our instinct is to problem solve, to open doors, to smooth the path so they can finally “succeed.” But if God is the One doing the thwarting, our interventions can become interference. Love sometimes means stepping back and letting His wall stand.

Our deepest prayer is not that they “catch a break,” but that they bow the knee. We ask God to bring them to the place where they want Him more than they want their plans—even if the road to that place is rugged.

Lord, I will be Your prophet and their intercessor. Amen

Your testimonies are righteous forever; Give me understanding that I may live.  Psalm 119:144

When are the Psalms normally read?  When someone is hurting.  Whether sickness, betrayal, danger, or the pain of being falsely accused, we can be sure there will be a Psalm that correlates.  But if a Psalm is read-only to gain comfort and validation, we are missing out on a goldmine. 

The honesty of the Psalms has intimidated me.  I have historically been afraid of extreme complaints.  I’m shy of being called a drama queen if I join David in exclaiming that ‘my tears have been my food day and night,’ even if it’s true.    But I would do well to read the Psalms aloud when I’m in distress, to train myself to speak with gut honesty to God.  The Psalms show me how to well order the expressions of travail. 

The Psalms not only encourage me to own my feelings, but they also instruct me on how to think in the midst of them.  They unveil the kinds of things I should praise God for when I need to worship yet don’t feel like it.  

The Psalms challenge me to be balanced.  If I lean toward reading them for intellectual enjoyment, they will challenge me also to have a heart response.  If I lean toward a cathartic release of my heart, they will challenge me to espouse theology and to risk faith beyond tears.  Ever balanced, they instruct me on how to think and how to feel like Jesus. 

Shape my thoughts and free my heart to beat like Yours.  Amen

By faith Joseph, as he was nearing the end of his life, mentioned the exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions concerning his bones.  Hebrews 11:22

Joseph never forgot the stories of his great grandfather.  They had been passed down to him while sitting at the feet of his father, Jacob.  Though Joseph was rejected by his brothers and sent into slavery, and then lived most of his life in Egypt, he wasn’t fooled about God’s promise concerning the promised land.  When his people came to Egypt and enjoying a period prosperity and then unbearable suffering, he never thought this would be their permanent home.  He could foresee the exodus of his people years down the road even though he did not know the details.  He knew they were headed for the land God had shown Abraham.

Joseph envisioned it, and that is impressive enough. But then he put action to his faith through the plans he put into motion regarding his own death and burial.  He made no ‘just in case’ caveats. “I’d like to be buried with my people if they leave Egypt but if they don’t, here’s what I want done with my bones.”  No, so sure was he of the word of his God. This is one of the reasons he makes it into the hall of faith.

When I begin to distrust God’s promises, I will jump to make alternate plans in case God doesn’t come through.   Joseph had reasons to wonder if God had changed his mind about the destiny of His people as he reviewed the drought that nearly killed his clan, their migration to Egypt, and their prosperity since they integrated into Egyptian culture.  Yet Joseph wasn’t fooled by appearance.

Once God has made His will for me clear, I should never have a backup plan just in case.  Despite the tumultuous political year ahead of us in 2024, despite personal challenges I can’t yet anticipate, God’s Word still stands. His plans for me and for you prevail.

Lord, nothing will deter my footsteps.

After three days, his parents found him in the temple.  His mother said to him, ‘Son, how could you treat us this way?  Your father and I have been anxiously looking for you.’  And He said to them, ‘Why is it that you were looking for Me?  Did you not know that I had to be in my Father’s house?’  Luke 2:46,48

Every parent knows what it’s like to momentarily lose sight of your child in public. Your stomach drops like lead when you realize that they are not where they are supposed to me. The word ‘kidnap’ assaults your mind immediately.

Mary and Joseph brought twelve-year-old Jesus to the temple. While on their way home, they realized that Jesus was not with them. They searched frantically for three entire days.  Re-tracing their steps, they ended up back at the temple and were shocked to find him there. He was listening in to the many spiritual conversations that took place in God’s house. Still distraught, Joseph and Mary asked Him how he could have done such a thing. His answer? “Did you not know that I had to be in my Father’s house?” He seemed shocked that they would have looked elsewhere.

In all the times I’ve read this story over the years, it never occurred to me that Jesus would feel something far different than anyone else when in the presence of God. Jesus left His Father to come to earth and hadn’t seen Him for twelve years. There had to be homesickness in his soul for His Father’s company. The memory of being near God was in his spiritual DNA. To visit the temple and to approach the holy of holies, the place where God’s Spirit called ‘home’, re-awakened the feelings of being home in glory. He was near His Father again – yet on earth. Did His heart break at the thought of leaving Him? His attachment to Mary and Joseph had to pale in comparison.

I don’t know if you believe in near-death experiences. While a few seem exaggerated, I believe many have been real. There is a common theme in the stories where people experienced time in the presence of God; they didn’t want to return to earth. Yes, they loved the people they left. Yes, they even knew their death would be grieved. Yet, the magnetism of God’s presence drew them. The memory of it changed their lives forever. For their remaining days, they dream of the day they will again be eternally in the presence of their Heavenly Father.

Are my times with You as life-changing?  You are drawing me with an everlasting love so how could I ever want to be anywhere else!   Amen

In 2026, I’m going to be writing from the Psalms because they give language to what many of us sense but can’t always express, such as desire, grief, longing, or wonder. For us who live deep and love hard, the Psalms are a sanctuary. They are a place to pour out our hearts without performing, to let God meet us in the hidden places, and to come out more grounded than we went in.

These songs keep us honest in prayer. Empathy and concern can turn into intercession. Overwhelm can turn into honesty. And inner turbulence can culminate in worship.

Daily, we will each be invited to rest yet again in the faithfulness of the One who shelters us.

The best part is that we will be together for another year. I’m grateful for your company.

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ” Matthew 2:2-6

Herod knew who to ask about a new baby King, the one he feared would threaten his throne.  He went straight to the Jewish priests and scribes who knew the scriptures.  When asked, they immediately quoted this passage from Micah about the Messiah being born in Bethlehem.  These men didn’t need to consult with each other for an answer.  It was on their tongue.  They knew the scriptures.

So where were they at the birth of Jesus?  We don’t read that any religious leaders came to bow down and worship.  Jerusalem was only seven miles away from them.  (The Magi traveled a thousand miles!)  The gate is wide for those who reject the Messiah and narrow for anyone who seeks Him out.  Never was this more clearly seen than in the scarcity of worshippers at Jesus’ birth.

Knowledge and passion can be mutually exclusive.  I can know my Bible as well as a Pharisee and easily become as callous as they were.  They lived around the corner from Mary and Joseph, and they were also the ones who weren’t spiritually alive enough to see if Jesus was the One they had been longing for throughout their entire Jewish history. 

Jesus, You are the end of my quest.  Whatever it takes to journey to You is worth any effort and any sacrifice.  Amen

Why would God send His Son on a death mission?  Because you and I were under a curse.  As macabre as Walt Disney’s plots are for children, as high as the suspense is after the hero drinks poison, is cursed and sent to a dark land, our plight was much worse. We had no possible way out of our predicament after the Fall.  There were no loopholes, no one making us a promise that if we did this or that, we could leave the land of banishment.  Paradise was lost.  The once lush, evergreen landscape of our beginnings became as gloomy and as ravaged as an abandoned house falling in around itself.  If not for Jesus, we would live and die there.

So, I consider Jesus. He saw His Father’s tears when the curse was explained to Adam and Eve.  He foresaw the implications of the curse and all that it would bring about, things that Adam and Eve could never know.  He saw the great chasm between His Father and the whole of creation under His wrath. There was only one way to save them.  The wrath that fell on them must be lifted off and borne by someone else.  The person would have to sacrifice himself, but that person had to be perfect to do so.  That disqualified every single candidate except one.  Jesus.

Jesus didn’t hesitate.  Within the omniscience of the Trinity, this had been foreseen.  Jesus had weighed this decision way before the earth ever felt the breath of the Spirit upon its cheek.  He knew He would be the Lamb as His Father whispered it across the empty spaces of time.

Every time I am overwhelmed by my past, I consider my High Priest who signed up to remove God’s wrath and offer me brand new mercy. I enjoy the wonder of a clean slate every single morning I awake.  When I am pierced by the sins of others, I consider Jesus, the One who was pierced for my own sins.  There is nothing too dark, too tragic, too hopeless, too confining, too defeating, that can define my life or my future.  Paradise has been restored.  The curse has been lifted.  My inner landscape, once eaten up by the twisted vines of a darkened forest, is now a stunning landscape. 

All things flourish, and the song of Paradise is the song I sing.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole. … When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing.  Galatians 3:13

Jesus wasn’t born to be just a teacher, or to just tell stories about the kingdom, or just to perform miracles, or even to be king of Israel.  He was born to reverse the curse pronounced in the Garden of Eden. 

The curse came upon Adam and Eve when they failed to believe God about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  When they fell for the serpent’s deception and sealed it with an act of disobedience, they ushered in immense consequences for them and every one of us who descend from them.  Is it any wonder that Jesus grew up to say, “Whoever believes in me, though He dies, yet shall He live.”  Unbelief brought the curse upon us.  Belief in Jesus would free us from it. 

The sin of unbelief was carried out in a garden.  Thirty-three years after little Jesus was born, He would enter another garden to deal with the weight of our curse.  He knew what it would mean to die in our place.

Everyone who embraces this Savior and believes in Him, with their life, is no longer cursed ~ but blessed.  The theme of our life is not ‘paradise lost’ but ‘paradise restored.’  Barren landscapes, once brown and decayed by sin, are now lush and green.  In kingdom places, we dare walk barefoot in tender grass without fear of cutting our feet.  We dare drink water from any pond or water source without fear of contamination.  Wherever God is ~ is paradise, and this little Savior, who slept in the hay, shook our world to lead us there.  Condemnation was instantly banished with His words, “It is finished.” 

I still believe You and choose to live by faith every day of my life. Amen