Today’s Verse: My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: ~1 John 2:1 The term “going to bat for you” has the idea of someone coming alongside to help you in a major or legal matter. It is someone standing up for our rights, our insufficiency, and our representation. First John 2:1 is an awesome reality that we have an Advocate Who goes to bat for us. There is the def

Today’s Verse: Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone. ~Hosea 4:17 Sometimes, a little child throws a temper tantrum. As part of his correction, his parents might leave him alone for a little while so that he understands what he did was not pleasing to them. Our passage for this morning is one of the saddest verses of the Bible. It centers on the tragic consequences of living an unrepentant and sinful lifestyle. In this verse, God said to have nothing to do with Ephraim, o

Today’s Verse: Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer. ~Proverbs 25:4 If you are in possession of a precious metal such as silver or gold, it is very important that your metal is 100% free of contaminants that will lessen the value of it. In the old days, business transactions would be done using weights and measures for the weighing of metals and other items used for buying and selling. Dross in silver or gold could make it app

Today’s Verse: Then Jael Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died. ~Judges 4:21 One of the basics of carpentry is the use of a hammer and nail. Nails are essential for putting and keeping an object securely fastened. A hammer is needed to pound the nail into the object so that it can be secured. Sometimes, we

Today’s Verse: And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known. ~Exodus 2:14 When I was about nine or ten years old, I was throwing a rubber ball around in the small house that we lived in. I missed while throwing it to another person and the ball flew towards the fireplace mantle, hit a picture frame, and broke it. I tried to glue it back together, but it

Today’s Verse: Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, ~Hebrews 12:1 I am a moderate runner. I enjoy the benefits of running. All serious runners know that any kind of running requires commitment, discipline, good eating, focus, and adequate rest. When running competitive races, it is imperative that a

Today’s Verse: If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. ~Genesis 4:7 Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you did not know what to choose, and someone told you to flip a coin? The idea behind flipping a coin is that when someone is at a crossroads in making a difficult decision, the flipping of a coin makes the decision for him. Using a nicke

Today’s Verse: And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not? ~Exodus 17:7 How strong is your faith in God? The strength of our faith is best determined during times of difficulty and testing. It is always when our resources are lacking and there are no immediate answers. It is when we receive unexpected news and we feel like our world has crash

Today’s Verse: And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. ~Genesis 35:3 Jacob made a costly mistake in moving down to Shechem. From the moment he pitched his tent there, one mishap after another happened. The final blow was when Simeon and Levi took swords and killed all the incapacitated men of Shechem. Jacob told his sons, “Ye have troubled me to make me

Today’s Verse: That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man. ~Judges 16:17 Most people are very particular about the cutting or styling of their hair. Getting a haircut is not just simply walking into a hair shop and letting anyone cut it. If we have the same person cut

Today’s Verse: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. ~Psalm 51:10 Psalm 51 is one of the more well-known psalms. It is David’s psalm of confession after he was confronted about heinous sins in his life. In this psalm, we are given humbling insight as to how sin affects us in our fellowship with God, and how we must respond. Foremost of the things David needed was a clean heart. We see the remorse. “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy l

Today’s Verse: Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. ~Isaiah 1:18 Here in Northern California, we are within a close driving distance to the Sierra Nevada mountains. After a snow storm, the Sierra mountains are a beautiful, white landscape that appears to go for miles upon miles. Everything is covered in snow. We use a snow-covered scene to d

Today’s Verse: And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. ~Hosea 2:15 There are some locations that will be memorialized or remembered as places of tragedy. I think of the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the site of the bombing of the federal government building that resulted in 168 fatalities and hundreds of inju

Today’s Verse: For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. ~2 Peter 2:20 One of the big social emphases in our world is to “save the earth.” The goal of this group is to save the earth from climate change, erosion, pollution, and harmful toxins being put into the environment. Everyone understands the d

Today’s Verse: Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? ~Luke 13:4 Luke 13:1-5 addresses the question, “Are all tragedies the judgment of God?” Perhaps you, like I, have considered a tragic calamity such as an accident, natural disaster, disease breakout, or other unexpected, unfortunate event as the judgment of God upon people. We may have thought, “This most likely is God’s j

Today’s Verse: A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away. ~Proverbs 6:33 Years ago, when I was about 9 or 10 years old, I rode a friend’s go-cart down a steep driveway. I navigated a sharp turn too quickly and fell off the cart. Among the injuries I sustained were cuts and abrasions to my right shoulder, elbow, hands, and knees. I had numerous bruises. You can say that I had many wounds from my experience. The Bible describes the aftermath o

Today’s Verse: And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out; therefore they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king. ~Esther 2:23 Sin is our willful disobedience against a holy and just God. Sin is defined as missing the mark, breaking God’s law, and going contrary to the direction that God has prescribed that we should follow. All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. However, we don’t want

Today’s Verse: And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him. ~Judges 16:20 In the sport of boxing, a boxer is considered beaten and defeated when he falls to the canvas and does not get back up. He is “down for the count.” As soon as he is on the canvas, the referee will count to ten. If he is not up on his feet by the e

Today’s Verse: And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion. ~Judges 14:8 The harvesting of honey has always been interesting to me. I am amazed at how meticulous and careful beekeepers are in dealing with the beehive and the bees when it is time to extract the honey. I have no reason to question honey I purchase at a store because of the generally acce

Today’s Verse: Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. ~Psalm 51:1 One of the most practical and loved inventions that many have used is Wite-Out®. With it, we can blot out mistakes on paper as if the mistake never happened. The correct letters or words can be inserted, and the sentence and document is good to go. David used two words to describe how he wanted God to deal with h