Walking with God; June 26, 2025

Posted on June 27, 2025 by jgarrott

Psalm 86:11 Teach me your way, Lord,
    that I may rely on your faithfulness;
give me an undivided heart,
    that I may fear your name.

This particular prayer of David should be universal to every believer. We all experience “a divided heart” at times. We have the English expression, “I’m of two minds about that,” for when we are undecided about an issue. The Japanese expression is “two hearts,” and implies unreliability or even treachery. That’s why this verse is rendered, “Give me a single heart.” James said, “Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.” (James 1:8) That’s no way to live! However, we all have that tendency, so we need to pray this prayer of David. God will teach us His ways to the degree that we are committed to follow them. It is meaningless to ask God for guidance when you’ve already decided what you’re going to do, and it ignores Him. We need to be honest, with ourselves and with God, when we are torn, but our first commitment needs to be to Him. That’s why David speaks of fearing God’s name. If we don’t fear Him, knowing that He is omnipotent, omniscient, and holy, then our flesh is likely to make excuses for not listening to Him. It’s much like parenting. If the children don’t really respect their parents, they actually don’t love them very much. Too many parents seek to be loved by their children and overlook the respect angle. If the parents show themselves worthy of respect, then the children will both respect and love them. We can’t accurately say we love God if we don’t fear Him enough to do what He says. (John 14:15)

I am sad right now because a young man whom I baptized, but who currently lives quite a distance from here, has just contacted me, asking that the pictures of his baptism be removed from the church website, “for privacy reasons.” I don’t know what is behind that, but a child of God should be proud to proclaim that status. I think he is seriously struggling with a divided heart. I will seek to grant his request, but I’m not our webmaster, so I don’t know how easy that will be. I do know that I need to pray for him. The devil is ceaseless in his attacks on the minds and hearts of believers, and even mature Christians aren’t immune. I am indeed to submit to God and resist the devil (James 4:7), both for myself and on behalf of those under my care, so that more and more people may walk in Christ’s victory.

Father, thank You for Your patience with me over the years. I certainly don’t have a spotless record! Thank You that the blood of Christ is sufficient for all sin, when that sin is submitted to You. I do pray this prayer of David, so that I may walk in Your truth consistently, at all times, for the blessing of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Listening to God; June 25, 2025

Posted on June 26, 2025 by jgarrott

Psalm 85:8 I will listen to what God the Lord says;
    he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—
    but let them not turn to folly.

This should be the prayer of every believer, because we should want to hear what the Lord is saying to us. However, far too often we are oblivious to what He is saying to us, because we want to live our lives according to our own desires and imaginations. That’s what the Psalmist is talking about when he says, “folly.” We have an incredible capacity for being stupid! As the Psalmist recognizes, God speaks peace to those who are committed to Him, but if our hearts are rebellious, those same words of God can come across as judgment. There is no way we can fool God! His corrections are as gentle as our submission to Him, and as severe as our turning from Him. The author of the letter to the Hebrews got it right when he wrote about the Lord’s discipline in Hebrews 12:4-13. We don’t enjoy discipline, but the way to avoid it is to be listening accurately in the first place. We have the outline of God’s plan for mankind recorded in the Bible, so the first step is to become as familiar with the Bible as we can. When our hearts are committed to obedience, then we can hear His directions for increasingly granular areas of our lives, down to even such things as what clothes to put on in the morning. However, if we think of His words as suggestions, on a par with some social media “influencer,” then we aren’t likely to hear Him at all, until it’s too late. If we want to hear His words of peace, we need to start with repentance of our folly.

This is entirely logical to me, but it has taken many years to get it through my head – and I still have room to grow! My problem was pride, thinking that I could figure things out. I did acknowledge that God was a lot smarter than I was, but several years ago it finally got through to me that God’s smart and I’m not. It doesn’t matter at all what numbers might come up on an IQ test, the fact of the matter is that there is absolutely no comparison between God’s omniscience and my feeble intellect. I must not return to the folly of conceit, but rather seek God’s guidance in all humility and gratitude at all times in every way. I also need to be willing to hear Him through someone I don’t consider to be as “sharp” as I am! It is only in humility that I will be able to hear His words of peace.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the help from the Ricoh salesman yesterday in relation to our local computer network. Help me apply what I learned from him to correct the remaining issues there. That doesn’t seem to have great spiritual implications, but it affects our lives, so You care about it. Help me indeed operate in Your wisdom and not my own on all levels, so that Your will may be done in and through me in every area of my life, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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God’s Heart; June 24, 2025

Posted on June 25, 2025 by jgarrott

Psalm 81:13 “If my people would only listen to me,
    if Israel would only follow my ways!”

Asaph and his descendants wrote some very prophetic Psalms, in the sense of expressing the heart of God. This line certainly does that. God genuinely desires the very best for His people, and He gives us rules and instructions to make that happen. However, in our stupid willfulness we are all too prone to do something else, and it grieves Him. It has long been recognized that sometimes the best way to ensure that someone will try something is to tell them it’s forbidden. That’s the sinful impulse we’ve had ever since the Garden of Eden, and there’s no end to the trouble it gets us into. God made us this way because He wants children, not robots, so obedience is always a choice, and not automatic. However, when we make that choice, the rewards are essentially limitless. As John so clearly pointed out, “In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3) That comment is in the context of loving God and overcoming by faith, as he says in the next verse. We like the idea of overcoming, but we don’t care for the stipulation of faith, and expressing love by obedience really irks us! It really does come down to faith. As it famously says in Hebrews, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) We’ve got to believe that God indeed desires the best for us, and believe it enough that we listen to Him obediently. If we do that, we will be blessed indeed!

With my upbringing, I’ve always known what God’s path was, but that didn’t mean I always followed it. My mother had a very pithy expression that certainly applied to me: “Independent as a hog on ice.” I’ve never seen that scenario physically, but my imagination paints a pretty vivid picture! Like Paul, I’ve learned that it hurts to “kick against the goads.” (Acts 26:14) However, as the song says, “The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows.” At this point I desire to hear and obey Him in everything. Occasionally my hearing isn’t accurate, and my obedience is seldom perfect, but I know that God’s heart is as is expressed in this verse, and I am grateful.

Father, thank You for this reminder. As the little song says, help me to “love You more dearly, hear You more clearly, follow You more nearly, day by day.” Thank You. Praise God!

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Old Age; June 23, 2025

Posted on June 24, 2025 by jgarrott

Psalm 71:18 Even when I am old and gray,
    do not forsake me, my God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
    your mighty acts to all who are to come.

This Psalm has no attribution, but it certainly sounds like something David would have written. The whole Psalm is focused on God and His faithfulness, which the ESV says he experienced from before his birth! (verse 6) In point of actual fact, that is true for every human being, because we literally could not exist without God and His marvelous design for the universe. In this verse he extends that to his old age, and expresses something every believing senior feels, or at least should: he wants to share his experience of God with those who will come after him. When advancing years make awareness of mortality inescapable, we need a sense of purpose, and here we have it in a nut shell. Old people aren’t to stop living, preparing for the future and enjoying life, but if they are absorbed in their own pleasure and convenience, they have missed the whole point. All their life experiences find their true meaning when they are used to build other people up, drawing those other people to know and love their Creator. We should desire to live another day so that we can tell another person about God!

At 76, this is naturally very pertinent to me. Yesterday I was able to attend the ordination service of a young pastor of another denomination. There were naturally several other pastors in attendance, and we had good fellowship. However, I felt my major purpose in being there was something the Lord directed me to say to the young pastor. His given name means “Chosen,” and I told him that God had indeed chosen him to serve Him, and that God was pleased with him. That really felt good to be able to say, knowing that it didn’t originate with me. In the service here yesterday morning I learned that the grandson of one of our members, who suddenly became very faithful in attendance from a couple of months ago, wants to be baptized, at the ripe old age of seven. That was how old I was when I went to my parents with the same decision, so I felt very good about it. He will come to talk with me in depth about it in the near future, and I am to confirm both his repentance and his faith, but God is certainly faithful, so I don’t need to worry. I will need to be a mentor to him, but that too is a joy. However long the Lord keeps me here, I will have people with whom to share the grace and goodness of God!

Father, thank You for this reminder, and for Your incredible faithfulness over the years. A hundred years isn’t even a blink for You, but it feels long for us! Help me indeed use every year, every minute, doing what You desire of me, so that many will repent and believe for their salvation, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Time Perception; June 22, 2025

Posted on June 23, 2025 by jgarrott

Psalm 70:5 But as for me, I am poor and needy;
    come quickly to me, O God.
You are my help and my deliverer;
    Lord, do not delay.

Even David, as much as he had experienced God in many ways, had trouble with God’s timing. The idea of urging God not to be late seems almost amusing to me, but our human time frame feels that way fairly often. The thing is, we perceive time in proportion to what we have already experienced. For an infant, an hour is an appreciable fraction of their entire life! As we grow older, that ratio naturally changes, and days and even years seem to whip past at high speed. Since God is from eternity past, and will be for eternity future, He naturally doesn’t have that issue. The problem isn’t with His timing, but with our perception of it. (Actually, the problem is never with God, whatever it might be, but always with us.) Our perception of time varies with emotions as well. Various studies have been done of psychological time dilation, which is when time seems to slow down in moments of high stress. For example, earthquakes always seem to last longer for those experiencing them than they do in objective fact. I think that’s the sort of thing David was going through when he wrote this Psalm. Like David, we often need to take a deep breath, calm down, and ask God to enable us to see things more objectively. As God told Habakkuk, “For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” (Habakkuk 2:3) Our faith and trust need to grow until we are totally at peace with that, and that is a work only God can do in our hearts.

This certainly applies to me, but since I’ve made it to 76 so far, I have a rather different perspective than I did in my 20s! At this point, my bigger issue is with procrastination, putting things off when there is no reason to do so. Saying that, however, I realize there have been times when my delaying action was actually God’s plan to make things turn out better than they would have otherwise, so I’m not to be down on myself. My goal is to be so in tune with my Lord that I flow on His schedule, neither holding back nor champing at the bit. His timing is always perfect, whatever it might seem like to me.

Father, thank You for the training You’ve given me in this. Help me apply it fully, being and doing where and what You desire, in Your perfect timing, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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God’s Daily Care; June 21, 2025

Posted on June 22, 2025 by jgarrott

Psalm 68:19 Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
    who daily bears our burdens.

Some of the imagery in this Psalm is obscure to modern readers, but this verse hits home in any age. God isn’t just a God of sabbaths and festivals, He daily bears our burdens. David went through a lot in many ways, but in the process he learned that God is always there. We also tend to turn to God only in times of difficulty, not realizing that strictly on our own, we couldn’t even draw our next breath. We also need to realize that God isn’t just a “divine watchmaker,” as some in the “Enlightenment” period liked to think, creating the universe and putting it out there and then having nothing further to do with it. At least they realized that the universe couldn’t exist without intelligent design in the first place. However, God is intimately concerned with and for His creation, and specifically mankind. As John said, in the most famous verse in the whole Bible, He loved the world so much that He gave His only Son to redeem it from the sin of rebellion against its Creator. (John 3:16) We need to remember that love isn’t just for special occasions. As David says here, God daily bears our burdens. That truth bears repeating countless times! The better we grasp it, the more filled with gratitude we will be, and gratitude is demonstrably the key to joy and happiness. God is more than worthy of our worship, our obedience, and our love.

God has brought me through a lot over the past 76 years, and He has indeed been there through every minute of it, even when I wasn’t aware of Him. At this point, I have great peace in knowing He will continue to be with me, even if I go through the Great Tribulation described in Revelation. Compared to what He has for me, that will be no big deal! For as long as He keeps me here, I am to be sharing the good news of salvation with all who will receive it, in whatever ways the Lord directs. As a teacher, I delight to pour God’s truth into all who are hungry for it, but I must be careful to apply it to myself even as I do so. I must not be a Pharisee, speaking truth but not living it out! (Matthew 23:2-3) Thankfully, I have found that if I am humble before God, He will meet me where I am and lead me to where I need to be, and that is more than enough.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for Your daily presence! Help me live in daily submission and gratitude to You, so that all of Your purposes for me may be fulfilled, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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The Purpose of Grace; June 20, 2025

Posted on June 21, 2025 by jgarrott

Psalm 67:1-2 May God be gracious to us and bless us
    and make his face shine on us—
so that your ways may be known on earth,
    your salvation among all nations.

This principle is stated many times throughout the Bible, that God’s gracious blessings, specifically to the physical descendants of Abraham, are to let all mankind know of Him and His plans for us all. However, in practical terms, we have been quick to fall into elitist conceit, thinking that because God blesses us, we are better than all others. Here that applies to the Jews, but I have seen many Christians fall into the same trap. It is often the starting point for the stupidity of White Supremacy, which I have seen even in missionaries, who certainly know better. I am reminded of the statement attributed to Einstein: “There are two things that are infinite: the universe, and human stupidity. And I’m not so sure about the universe.” We are quick to “grade” people, placing some higher and some lower, most often so as to place ourselves in the higher category to feel good about ourselves. How utterly foolish! It is our Creator who decides our value. As Paul said, “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.” (1 Corinthians 4:3-4) We aren’t to complain about how God made us, but rather seek to fulfill His purposes for us. A plane ceramic dish that does its job perfectly is ultimately more valuable than one with ornaments and designs that interfere with its function. We are to be grateful for how God has blessed us, but we are to use those blessings as tools to draw others to Him, and not as “merit badges” to elevate us above others.

This has been an issue for me all my life, because I feel I have been incredibly blessed, by genetics, environment, and any number of other things. That has led to pride, even conceit, and nothing is more stupid than that. I have had to learn, sometimes the hard way, that it is all grace, and grace is unmerited favor. Even today, I am in remarkably good health for my age, but that doesn’t make me “better” than my wife, who has a list of medical issues. I’m not to preach at people, but rather proclaim the absolutely amazing grace of God, who loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for us. I am never to pass over the necessity of repentance, which is just as acute for me as for any hardened criminal, but I am to state unapologetically that the cross of Christ was sufficient to cover all sin, past, present, and future. God has been and continues to be incredibly good to me, and I am to give Him full credit at every turn, so that others too may praise Him.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for all Your blessings of yesterday, and for all You have planned for today. May those blessings flow through me to bless many others, drawing them to You, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Being Heard by God; June 19, 2025

Posted on June 20, 2025 by jgarrott

Psalm 66:18 If I had cherished sin in my heart,
    the Lord would not have listened.

The anonymous author of this Psalm went through a pretty rough time, but in the process he learned something very important, that he expresses here. God allows us to go through all sorts of stuff, but never to be mean to us. He always desires that we grow, that we learn to depend on Him and not on material things. We also need to learn that our choices and actions have consequences. If that weren’t the case, He wouldn’t have needed to send His Son to die, to take the penalty for our sins. The lesson the Psalmist expresses here is very simple: if you want God to listen to you, you need to put Him ahead of your sins. We all tend to have sins that are particularly attractive to us, that “easily ensnare” us. (Hebrews 12:1) That’s what the Psalmist is talking about here. With some people, that sin is obvious, and we often call it addiction. There are sometimes physical factors there, but the fundamental issue is spiritual. There are far more addictions than just the chemical ones to which we generally apply that term. What the Psalmist is saying here is that if you place your addiction ahead of God, you can’t expect Him to listen to you. In one sense He hears absolutely everything, but a favorable response depends on our heart attitude.

I had the awareness of God hearing absolutely everything from a very young age, but that didn’t keep my priorities straight! I cherished all sorts of things, letting them come between me and obedience to God. And in my stupid pride, I thought I was entirely justified in doing so! Thankfully, God has been incredibly patient with me, and at this point I pray the first few lines of the Lord’s Prayer frequently, sometimes several times in a day. I have learned that God’s name being acknowledged as holy and His rule and reign being established through His will being done is far more important, and better, than anything else at all. My priorities have certainly shifted, and I am deeply grateful. The fellowship with my Lord that I taste now gives me a huge anticipation of heaven, where nothing at all will stand between us. Until then, I must keep humble and careful watch over my priorities, so they won’t cause any break in our relationship.

Father, I keep coming back to amazement at Your grace toward me. I don’t deserve any of it, but then, that’s part of the definition of grace! Help me be a faithful steward of all You pour out on my, so that others as well may be drawn to You in repentance and faith, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Prayer; June 18, 2025

Posted on June 19, 2025 by jgarrott

Psalm 65:2 You who answer prayer,
    to you all people will come.

The Psalm as a whole is a paean to God for His abundant provision in nature, which is a reminder that David was first of all a shepherd boy, long before he was a fugitive in the desert or a king on his throne. However, this line, right at the beginning of the Psalm, is very significant. Addressing God as “You who hear prayer” is important indeed. Just about everyone prays, in one way or another, but I think that for the majority of people there’s just the feeling of “I hope someone’s listening.” The assurance that David expresses in many of his Psalms comes from a relationship that requires humility and trust. From David’s viewpoint, of course all mankind will come to God, because He’s the one who hears our prayers! We don’t know who first fostered such faith in David as a child, but it seems obvious that he exercised that faith and allowed it to grow as a shepherd boy, giving him the courage to fend off wild animals that threatened his sheep, culminating in his famous encounter with Goliath. (1 Samuel 17) God didn’t answer all his prayers immediately, any more than He does ours, but David knew He was listening. We need to have that same assurance, trusting that God’s answers will be far wiser than we could come up with ourselves, and that He genuinely desires the very best for us. When we have that understanding, prayer is a joy and not an obligation, a privilege and not a duty.

As I have commented many times, in the home where I grew up, prayer was as natural as breathing. That was a very blessed environment! I developed the conviction, that continues even today, that God is aware not only of our prayers, but of everything we say and even think. One time I heard Him speak in what seemed like an audible voice, it was in response to what I was thinking, and not a conscious prayer! It has become a polite cliché to express “thoughts and prayers” in the face of tragedy, to the point that some people make fun of it. It’s true that for a lot of people it is essentially meaningless, but from someone who has a direct line to the Creator of the universe – which is available to us all – it is a powerful statement indeed. People need to know that God is indeed the One who hears prayer, and accordingly, come to Him with everything, both gratitude and requests.

Father, thank You indeed for the privilege of prayer. I’m concerned that I take it for granted sometimes. Thank You for the people who will be gathering here this morning for the express purpose of prayer. May all the prayers offered here, verbally or silently, be led by Your Spirit, so that Your grace and love and power may be manifested in and through us, for the blessing of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Dread; June 17, 2025

Posted on June 18, 2025 by jgarrott

Psalm 64:1 Hear me, my God, as I voice my complaint;
    protect my life from the threat of the enemy.

For once, the ESV translation really struck me. The second half of the verse says, “Preserve my life from dread of the enemy.” The NIV and the Japanese say “threat” here, but often, what does damage isn’t so much as what our enemies do as it is our reaction to what they do and say. We generally have little control over what happens to us, but we have a lot of say over how we respond to it. This actually applies very broadly, even between nations. From many angles China seems to be falling apart, but their words strike fear in many other nations. Russia was thought to be a superpower militarily, but a much smaller Ukraine has fought them to a standstill. America is seldom if ever the aggressor, but if the government is seen as weak, all her military might won’t be the force for good that it could be. And of course, that applies on the personal level as well, just as David says here. Our enemies may or may not have actual power to harm us, but if we live in fear of them, we have handed them a victory they haven’t yet earned. That’s why what Paul wrote to the Romans is so important: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39) When we have that conviction, we are strong regardless of our circumstances. Dread will be a long-forgotten memory!

I have seen people paralyzed by dread, and have felt sorry for them. That’s not to say that I don’t suffer from “negative anticipation” sometimes myself! At this point, my greatest dread is of my wife being called to heaven before I am – but the reverse would be very rough on her, and I want to spare her that. If either of us succumbs to dread, that would ruin the peace and joy we experience with each other now. However, many things seem to point to Christ’s soon return, and that would completely eliminate that concern! In that line, some people seem to dread the world events described in Revelation. They won’t be fun to go through, but think of the climax! Pretty horrible things go on in the world all the time, but I don’t want dread of them to multiply their impact on me. That’s exactly what the devil wants, and I am to resist him on the basis of my submission to God. (James 4:7) Whatever happens to me, negative anticipation benefits no one.

Father, thank You for this reminder. I have been thinking a lot about, and praying for, the Shigetas, as the time of her homegoing is measured in days at the longest. I pray that they would be able to receive each moment from Your hand with gratitude, not dreading what is to come, but knowing that Your plans give them hope and a future, whatever happens in the short term (Jeremiah 29:11) May everything flow on Your schedule, for their great blessing and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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