Numbers 6:1-7:89 ~ Mark 12:38-13-13 ~ Psalm 49:1-20 ~ Proverbs 10:27-28   Prayer:  Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.  God, we thank you for the treasure of having your words speak into our lives each day.  We thank you for the power in that.  We thank you for the authority of Scripture.  We thank you for revealing yourself through your word.  We invite your Holy Spirit to come and sow good seeds into the fertile soil of our lives as we open ourselves to you.  As we close this week, we recommit ourselves to the coming one.  We walk expectantly into what you have for us in the coming week.  We consecrate ourselves to following you wholeheartedly.  We pray this in the name of Jesus, amen.    www.dailyaudiobible.comis the website, but it is more than that.  It is the community meeting center.  It is where we meet.  You are invited to come get involved in any way that you can or will.  Come be a part.       I will remind you that at the website is the WindFarm Prayer Room, [Read More]

Leviticus 22:21-23:44 ~ Mark 9:30-10-12 ~ Psalm 44:1-7 ~ Proverbs 10:19   Prayer:  We come before you, Heavenly Father, with the proverb in mind.  So often throughout scripture we see the theme that what we say matters and matters a lot.  This is one of those times.  When we walk into a room and fill it with words, transgression is not lacking.  Teach us, God, to restrain our lips.  Teach us, Lord, to consider the implications before we speak.  Teach us, God, to understand that the power of life and death is in our mouths.  Holy Spirit, come.  We yield ourselves to you.  Help us to have that moment of pause before we start spouting off words of transgression.  Help us to have that moment of pause to restrain our lips and listen to what it is you have to say rather than what it is we want to say.  Help us, God, because this is unmanageable.  We can’t do this on our own.  Emotions fly and create regrets and things we wish we had not said.  Help us to be prudent people who restrain [Read More]

Leviticus 15:1-16:28 ~ Mark 7:1-23 ~ Psalm 40:11-17 ~ Proverbs 10:13-14   It is interesting how we go through ritual uncleanness in the book of Leviticus, but then we move over into the book of Mark and allow Jesus, our Savior, to clarify this, because what had happened is thousands of years of tradition eliminating the purpose of the law.  This wasn’t so much about washing away germs from your hands before you eat something.  This had gone far beyond what the law was trying to show besides just cleanliness and had become nothing more than mere tradition.  Although I believe tradition is utterly beautiful and roots us into the past for thousands of years and allows us to experience something that has been carried forward over many thousands of years, losing its meaning, in other words, doing it because that is what you’ve always done but you don’t know why or understand why makes it virtually meaningless.    Well, Jesus was getting ridiculed because his disciples hadn’t ritually [Read More]

  Exodus 35:10-36:38 ~ Matthew 27:32-66 ~ Psalm 34:1-10 ~ Proverbs 9:7-8   So we have this somber scene, first time we experience it this year in the gospel of Matthew of Christ’s crucifixion.  It is so sobering to think about that kind of execution and to know that it was not just his physical death.  He was carrying with him the weight of the sin of the world.  Our salvation was purchased right there in what we read today, our whole reason for fellowship with God at all, right there in the reading today.    I was also struck by what occurred in the book of Exodus today.  I had pushed pause after reading the last of Proverbs and just kind of sat here quietly thinking.  I had meant to talk to you about something next week, to begin to reveal some plans and invite you to be involved in a community experience here.  I just took a few minutes to just kind of pray, ‘Lord, is this the day?  Would this be a better day to begin to talk about this?’ and I felt no resistance or any lac [Read More]

    Exodus 34:1-35:9 ~ Matthew 27:15-31 ~ Psalm 33:12-22 ~ Proverbs 9:1-6   I’m struck again by the presence of the Lord.  We talked about this yesterday, but it kind of expands through the Scriptures today and I just began to really sense it in a way that I don’t know that I ever have before.    Moses goes back up on the mountain, summoned by the Lord, and he stays there 40 days and 40 nights.  When he comes down, there is something different about him.  His face is aglow.  The people shrink back from it.  He has been in the presence of the Almighty God.  The people can see it.  He veils his face from then on and goes in and unveils his face, but there is something different that happens to Moses from his prolonged time in the presence of God.    We look at Jesus and he is right at the point of being crucified and yet through this whole thing, as painful physically as the torture was and as painful mentally and spiritually, as the understanding of the weight of the world’s si [Read More]

  Exodus 26:1-27:21 ~ Matthew 25:1-30 ~ Psalm 31:1-8 ~ Proverbs 8:1-11   I find that to be utterly true.  As I slow down and spend a couple days of downtime, wisdom from every corner, every crevice, every mountain peak, every valley, everywhere wisdom is calling and we will hear if we will listen, listen with ears of our hearts, slow down, jump off the world for a second as it spins like a merry-go-round and makes us dizzier and dizzier and dizzier.  If we’ll step away for a second from the chaos that is meant to just keep us dizzy and distracted, sick to our stomachs, nauseous even, and just listen, slow the whole thing down, we can hear the whisper of wisdom, wisdom calling to us.  I have the answers, everything you desire.  I have.  Follow me.    It’s interesting what Jesus said, in the parable of the talents today.  One of my favorite of Jesus’ parables, but one that never fails to hit between the eyes.  Three men are given a portion of their master’s treasure.  One, 5 bag [Read More]

Exodus 8:1-9:35 ~ Matthew 19:13-30 ~ Psalm 24:1-10 ~ Proverbs 6:1-5

So we’re watching God pummel and dismantle Egypt and Pharaoh just stands there and takes blow after blow. Some of the blows kind of hurt and he is, like, “Yeah, I’m sorry. I’ll let you go. Ask God to take this away,” and then he recants. You wonder why he is not getting the picture, but you have to understand that God is humbling him. When the Bible says God hardened his heart, it is that Pharaoh’s identity is coming into question, not only in his own mind, but before his people, for Pharaoh thinks he himself is a god descended from deity and now another God is questioning his godly authority. So as the story continues, we see that Pharaoh is not only being humbled, he is being humbled in front of his people and the entire country is being humbled before the God of the Hebrews. It is causing a painful reorientation of their entire identity, which is exactly what happens in the book of Matthew today [Read More]

  Genesis 35:1-36:43 ~ Matthew 12:1-21 ~ Psalm 15:1-5 ~ Proverbs 3:21-26   So amazing insight from the book of Psalms today.  It is just a question and answer with Scripture basically.  The question is who can dwell in your tent, Lord?  Who can live on your holy mountain?  In other words, who can remain in your presence, intimately with you, close to you, living with you?  Then the answer is given.    This is the thing about the Bible.  So often we approach the Bible going, well, this is so cryptic.  I don’t know how to understand it.  I don’t know how to apply it to my life, but I really, really want God to bless me.  The way to that blessing is in the Scriptures and it is laid out in black and white very, very clearly, but somehow we try to over-blow and over-dramatize the whole thing.    Who can be in your presence, God?  Who can stay with you?  Who can live with you and walk with you?  The Psalms lays it out:  The one who lives honestly, practices righteousness, acknowled [Read More]

Genesis 23:1-24:51 ~ Matthew 8:1-17 ~ Psalm 9:13-20 ~ Proverbs 3:1-6   Prayer:  Heavenly Father, this is what we called on you for yesterday as we listened to the words of Jesus telling us that we must be people of action.  We called on you for your direction.  Your word speaks very plainly what that actually looks like.    Trust in you with all our hearts, not most of our hearts or occasionally from our hearts, or from our hearts when we can see clearly the outcome, but trust in you with all our hearts and lean not, do not depend on what we think we understand or know.  In all our ways we acknowledge you and, therefore, you will direct our paths or make them straight.    This is what we cry out for, clarity in the journey this year, clarity in the doing as we set forth to advance, to forward march, to be a part of the advancement of your kingdom on this earth this year, both in our own lives, and in the lives of those who are in our spheres of influence.  So it begins here, tr [Read More]