Fathers; January 31, 2019


Luke 1:17 “And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

This declaration by Gabriel about John the Baptist is a direct reference to the last two verses of the Old Testament. “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6) That’s one of several reasons we need to pay close attention to what it says. In Malachi it says fathers to children and children to fathers, but here it says fathers to children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous. To me, that says that God wants righteous fathers! In any case, it points out the vital importance of the father/child relationship. For one thing, it’s an unavoidable fact that our physical fathers greatly influence our image of Father God. That doesn’t mean that we can’t have a good relationship with God if we didn’t have a good father, but it does become more difficult. However, I know someone who is a very strong, vibrant believer with beautiful fellowship with Father God, and she has said that she knew that God couldn’t be anything like her physical father! God is gracious indeed. That said, this explains why the devil seems so set on destroying families, and especially fathers. Some people who bemoan the crime and incarceration statistics for minorities in the US refuse to connect that to the breakdown of the family in those minorities, but statistics show that an intact, functional family is perhaps the best protection against poverty, crime, and a host of other evils. All those evils would seem to correlate closely with the “curse” mentioned in Malachi! Today, even “strong Christians” seem to take marriage very lightly, removing what God intended as “marital intimacy” from the context of marriage entirely. That is clearly a work of the devil, who wants to destroy one of God’s most beautiful creations, the family.

As I am frequently reminded, I was hugely blessed to be raised in a strong family that was dedicated to serving God. This verse coming up today seems extremely timely, because someone is coming today to interview me in relation to a biography they are writing about my father, W. Maxfield Garrott. I will be eternally grateful that my father was indeed a fountainhead of “the wisdom of the righteous,” and I am pleased that others want to make that wisdom more accessible. I must certainly remember that today’s activities aren’t about me, but I am to be fully involved, out of gratitude and submission to both my physical father and my heavenly Father.

Father, words fail me to express how blessed I know I am to have been born and raised in the family I was. I pray that I would be an open and effective channel for those blessings to be poured out on all whom You intend them to reach, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Time and Schedules; January 30, 2019


Mark 11:11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

It just struck me, reading this, that Jesus wasn’t in a rush. He did things very deliberately, and not just on impulse. Here, He was seeing how the merchants had taken over the Court of the Gentiles in the temple, but He didn’t immediately jump into driving them out. Rather, He saved that for the next day. We have great difficulty keeping in mind the reality that God is outside of time and so is aware of everything at once. To Him, the moment of Creation and the end of the world are equally, now. That’s why Peter could very rightly say, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (2 Peter 3:8) I’ve always thought it was remarkable that an uneducated fisherman like Peter would have such depth of insight into an issue that scientists struggle with even now. Time and our perception of it are very much objects of research, because there is much we do not know. The thing for us to remember is that God has the precise right time for everything, as the Bible points out repeatedly. Our frustration comes when God’s time doesn’t agree with ours. We decide how things “ought to be,” and then get upset when they don’t follow that schedule. That’s not at all to say that we aren’t to plan, but it is very much to say that we are to hold all plans loosely, recognizing that God is sovereign and He always has a better idea than we do. Our best plans always come from listening to Him!

This has been an issue for me all my life. I’m not big on planning and preparing, but at the same time I hate to be late for anything, and get uptight about schedules. Both of those are weaknesses! I need to be diligent in planning, but at the same time relaxed about when things happen. That’s very difficult for me! There are indeed things that must happen at a specific time, but I need discernment and peace about what things fit that category and what don’t. It is perhaps fitting that I live in Japan, where you can set your watch by the trains, but people might show up for a meeting half an hour late. (Incidentally, formal functions are very much on the “trains” end of the scale. I have been irritated by public meetings being plotted out by the second, literally.) The whole issue of time is important because that’s how our lives on earth are measured. However, it should make a huge difference to me personally that I have eternity ahead of me, so I have no reason to be uptight. My focus must be on listening to my Lord and doing what He says, when He says to do it.

Father, thank You for this reminder. I have a number of things to be done today, but no set schedule for any of it. Help me recognize and follow Your schedule, being neither lazy nor anxious. As You have told me, help me indeed rest, relax, and rejoice in You, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Change; February 29, 2019


Mark 6:4 Jesus said to them, “Only in his home town, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.”

Jesus here states a fairly universal phenomenon, another expression of “Familiarity breeds contempt.” Human beings are funny that way. However, it all comes from our expectation of things continuing as they have been, however that is. When things don’t go as we expect, we get frustrated. Change is stressful. However, change is part of the definition of life itself, so we had better accept and get used to it. Over the past century the rate of change has accelerated greatly, particularly in terms of knowledge and technology, and we have a very hard time keeping up. That has led to a sharp rise in both mental illness and a dependence on distractions, either chemical or behavioral – which is another way of saying the same thing. When things around us don’t go as we expect or want them to, we try to retreat in some way. When Jesus, the home town boy, started speaking and acting in unexpected ways, those who thought they knew Him best shut Him out, and Luke records that they even tried to kill him. (Luke 4:28-30) That same reaction dogged Jesus throughout His ministry. Being a vassal state of Rome was hardly ideal, but it was what they were used to, and the prospect of changing things was upsetting, particularly to those who profited from the situation. (John 11:48) Change is a major part of the definition of repentance, so we had better be willing to accept it! It is often most difficult to accept change in people, just as people were having trouble accepting Jesus here. (Actually, He hadn’t changed, but people’s perception of Him changed.) However, the possibility of change is one of the most glorious things about being in Christ. As Paul said, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) We don’t have to stay as we have been, and neither does anyone else. However, for that change to be good, we have to submit to God and allow the Holy Spirit to work in us. That is indeed what repentance is all about.

Well! I have really opened a huge topic! I need to consider it prayerfully and allow the Holy Spirit to show me what I am to do and what and how I am to share with others. Former students seem to find it comforting that “I don’t change,” making me a point of stability for them, but I really need to keep changing, keep growing as well, because stagnation is never desirable. Also, I tend to dismiss people as “that’s just the way they are.” I need to pray for them that they too may grow and change as God desires. As I have told people for years, I am not to expect good things of people, but I am always to expect good things of God, even using people. God has not left me alone as I have been, and I’m not to abandon people either. Sometimes circumstances require physical and/or emotional distance, but I am to remember that nothing is too difficult for God, as last year’s Verse for the Year proclaimed. (Jeremiah 32:27)

Father, thank You for this reminder. Many things are going on, and the rate of change indeed makes me want to retreat at times. Help me look at people and at situations with Your eyes, trusting You to work with things as they are to change them to how they should be – and that includes changing me, too. May I not resist what You are doing in any way, but rather act as Your useful agent, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Faith; January 28, 2019


Mark 5:34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

There is no question that the power that healed the woman came through Jesus, because He Himself was aware of it happening, as it says in verse 30. However, it was this woman’s faith that allowed her to lay hold of that power, so Jesus’ statement was not inaccurate. We get all tied in knots sometimes when it comes to faith, often enough devolving into faith in faith, rather than faith in God. I was talking to someone just yesterday about the incredible things we are capable of at times, if doubt doesn’t get in the way. That’s the whole principle behind hypnosis, and some amazing things can be done with that. However, the object of our faith actually makes a huge difference. There is a Japanese proverb that says that even a sardine head can be an object of worship. That is meant to say that it doesn’t matter what you believe, so long as you believe something. Many people would like that to be true, and effectively proclaim it to be so, but it is a lie from the pit of hell. We are designed for faith, but if we believe the wrong things we just get into trouble and end up destroyed. That’s a big reason why fathers are so important, because our image of Father God is greatly shaped by our experience of our human fathers. That’s why the devil is so viciously attacking the whole idea of fatherhood in society today, telling women they don’t need a father for their children and telling men they have no responsibility to the children they have sired. Paul stated clearly, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) When we have faith in faith, we misinterpret what Jesus said to the woman and take pride in our faith. We need to realize that God alone is the source of all power, and place our faith firmly in Him.

I got involved in hypnotism in high school and continued through college, but not really after that. I know from experience some of the remarkable things that can be done with it, but I now wouldn’t go near it because I realize that it makes a plaything of human will, and our free will has got to be one of the most valuable things in the universe, because Jesus died to preserve it. God could have ordered us to obedience, but instead He arranged it so that we choose to obey or not. If human free will is that important, I must not play with it! Since being involved in the Charismatic Movement I have been exposed to all sorts of teaching on faith, some of it good and some of it, as I said, encouraging faith in faith. As Paul said, we are to walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7) However, I’ve got to be careful that my focus is on Christ and not on myself, or any human instrument. There is quite literally no limit to what God can do, but it is all too easy for me to try to dictate what He does, and dress it up with claims of “faith.” If I am to walk in all that God has planned for me, my focus has got to be on Him and not on what my imagination comes up with.

Father, I’m still learning about faith. Thank You for teaching me! Thank You for all that You are doing in and around and through us in these days. May I not interfere with any of that through unbelief, but trust You totally, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Seeing Jesus; January 27, 2019


Matthew 23:39 “For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'”

At first glance you might think Jesus was referring to Palm Sunday, but this is recorded has having taken place after that, which is described in Matthew 21. I personally feel that no one is going to see Jesus until they welcome Him as the Messiah. Jesus is present today by His Spirit, but only those who have the humility to repent of their sins can recognize that on a personal level. Of course, even then we don’t see Him with our physical eyes, but countless people have been strongly aware of His presence at various times. In this verse Jesus is quoting Psalm 118:26, which has other Messianic references as well. Both Jesus and Peter quoted Psalm 118:22-23 as referring to Him. (Matthew 21:42, 1 Peter 2:7) It is only when we recognize that He is God’s provision for our salvation that we can see Him for who He is. The whole matter of salvation is both simple and complicated. It is simple because the transaction involved is very straightforward: repent and believe. (Mark 1:15) It is complicated because both our repentance and our faith tend to be very deficient. We confuse repentance with simple regret. The Japanese expression for repentance is very helpful here: “regret and start over.” If we don’t make the clear choice to start over, we haven’t really repented, but of course we aren’t going to make that choice in truth until we regret how we have been or what we have done in the past. For too many people “repentance” is simply regret that they got caught, or that they have to face the consequences of their actions. Our faith likewise is often deficient, more like believing in Santa than in a Creator who is both totally holy and love itself. Our faith is never perfect on this earth, but it should continue to grow as we exercise it. It is by faith that we can indeed see Jesus, and rejoice in Him indeed.

I have never been granted a vision of Jesus, as some have, but I have had moments of being more sure that He was real than that I was. With that assurance, my task becomes helping others acknowledge Him as Messiah as well. Japanese seem pretty willing to accept Him as a historical figure, as I think the majority of cultures world-wide do, but there’s a great difference between that and submitting to Him as your Lord, and that is the definition of salvation. (Romans 10:9-10) The biggest problem for Japanese seems to be in grasping His connection with them. Not only did He walk the earth 2000 years ago, He wasn’t ethnically Japanese, and they have an extreme sense of racial identity. Only genuine Christians are really comfortable with Paul’s statement that “Our citizenship is in heaven.” (Philippians 3:20) I am not to be discouraged, but keep acting as “Jesus with skin on” for those who see me, speaking the truth in love so that the Holy Spirit will have maximum opportunity to get through the lies of the enemy with His truth that will set people free.

Father, thank You for Your salvation. Thank You for my being aware of Jesus by faith. Thank You for the Holy Spirit to live in me. May I be totally yielded to You, so that others may indeed see Jesus in me and be drawn to repentance and faith for their salvation. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Conflict; January 26, 2019


Matthew 22:46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on on one dared to ask him any more questions.

I would imagine the disciples got a huge kick out of this. Verse 34 says that He had “silenced the Sadducees,” and here He has taken care of the Pharisees as well. However, I really think this incident was one of the motives behind Jesus’ arrest, flogging, and crucifixion. Human beings are all too prone to resort to violence when they don’t have logic or truth on their side. We certainly see that today, in very sad abundance. Japanese has an expression that translates as “violent words.” In America today, you can’t turn on the news without being flooded with such, and often the violence doesn’t stop with words. We must be careful to respond as children of God, and not go on the attack ourselves. That’s not to say that we are to be foolish, or that we are not to defend ourselves, but it is to say that that we must remember that God is our fortress, and not get all anxious and defensive. We are to speak the truth in love, not trying to “make points” as such, but praying that the truth will penetrate and set people free. (John 8:32)

I am all too familiar with using words as weapons, because I did it myself when I felt inferior as a child because of my lack of athletic ability. Pride of intellect doesn’t ultimately do anybody any good. As an adult, and particularly as a teacher and pastor, I have learned the damage my words can cause, even when damage isn’t intended. It is much like a parent, whose words have enormous power in their children’s lives, for either good or bad. I have both built people up and torn people down with my words, and I must keep close watch on them. James talks about the irony of both good and evil coming out of our mouths. (James 3:9-10) My mouth should be a spring of life-giving water, not of brine. I have never liked conflict, but I have had to learn the hard way that conflict avoidance does not lead to conflict resolution. I am indeed to speak the truth in love, but I am also to allow the Holy Spirit to control when I speak and when I remain silent. I am all too prone to speak whether it is appropriate or not!

Father, thank You that You are continuing to train and grow me. Thank You that I have more control than I used to over the impulse to just say something. May I not run from conflict any more than Jesus did, but rather speak and act in total obedience to You, so that Your name may be acknowledged as holy and Your kingdom come as Your will is done, for Your glory alone. Thank You. Praise God!

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Speaking for God; January 25, 2019


Matthew 17:5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

Here we have a repeat of the Father’s pronouncement at Jesus’ baptism. (Matthew 3:1-17) However, here He adds something: “Listen to Him.” Rather than continuing to speak from a cloud, the Father makes it clear that Jesus is His mouthpiece. Likewise, when Jesus was about to be crucified, He told His disciples, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” (John 16:12-13) In other words, the Trinity is in complete unity when it comes to what to say. When we listen to the Holy Spirit we are listening to Jesus and to the Father as well. It is a major step down, but believers are also to speak what God is saying. That is what prophecy is all about, but this certainly isn’t limited to what we think of as prophecy. We are to express God’s character and His will in all that we say. That’s why Paul said, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.” (Ephesians 5:3-4) Even some ministers today fall into speech patterns like that, thinking they are being “more relatable.” Peter made it clear that the way we speak should be appropriate for God’s representatives. (1 Peter 4:11) God often chooses to speak through human instruments, but when He uses us, it shouldn’t have to be drastically different from how we speak all the time.

I have had many times of realizing God was speaking through me, and sometimes He has done so when I wasn’t even aware of it. I remember a time a Japanese pastor spoke to me and thanked me for something I had said to him years previous, because it had completely shaped his ministry for the better. I didn’t remember ever having done so! Of course when I speak from the pulpit I seek to be an open conduit, accurately transmitting whatever God wants to say, but my focus must not be limited to such formal occasions. Just yesterday someone was pouring out their frustrations to me by texting, and I felt led to respond simply by texting them that their value was not defined by the person who was frustrating them. They might have taken that as a complete non sequitur, I don’t know, but I believe it was God’s word to them. I know full well that when I speak out of my own heart and mind that there’s nothing special about it, so I am never to be proud or presumptuous about God sometimes speaking through me. Rather, I am to seek His help to live in such a way that I am available to Him at all times, for either speech or action, to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8) and otherwise do His will, for His glory.

Father, thank You for the incredible privilege of speaking and acting as Your agent. Help my whole life be appropriate to that, so that I may not be deceived and so that You alone may be glorified. Thank You. Praise God!

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Opposition; January 24, 2019


Matthew 11:1 After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.

I think the NIV translators did their readers a real disservice here by saying, “in the towns of Galilee,” when in a footnote they do say, “Greek in their towns” Thankfully the Japanese sticks with the Greek, because I think it’s significant. The context of this verse is extremely important, and the Japanese picks that up better, too, using “cautioning in this way” instead of “instructing.” Chapter 10 is all about how Jesus sent out the 12, and the content is worthy of an entire seminary course, in my opinion. He told them all about how they would run into trouble with their own families, and even be arrested, but that God would be with them. It was specifically on that basis that He then went to teach in their towns. I’m sure there were several disciples, if not all of them, who were pretty nervous about that. He was going to make waves, and they might get caught in the undertow! It was in this context that John the Baptist’s disciples showed up. He of course had been imprisoned, and would shortly be killed, for failing to be politically correct in speaking the truth. That was a graphic example of the opposition the disciples too would face over the years of their ministry. We tend to hang back at the prospect of backlash, but Jesus had no such hesitation. We need to remember that the disciples were mostly from right around where Jesus Himself was raised, and people had already threatened to kill Him in His own “home town.” (Luke 4:14-30) It is generally far easier to proclaim truth to strangers than to those close to us, but Jesus makes it clear that we aren’t to back off from either.

I am something of an anomaly, because I have always been considered an outsider even in my own home town, simply for racial reasons. Also, my immediate family were and are believers, so I’ve never had any conflict there to my following Christ. Cathy likewise grew up in a Christian family and of course lives in Japan, but when we visit rural Virginia where she grew up, she gets a mix of awe at being a “real live missionary” and distrust that she might “show them up” for their lukewarm Christianity. Right now she feels more “at home” here in Omura! All that said, I have a strong streak of conflict avoidance; I don’t like to fight. I have backed off of far too many situations where I needed to be more assertive as a representative of Christ. I need to be willing to be disliked! I’m to deal with everyone with “gentleness and respect,” (1 Peter 3:15-16) but accept that people aren’t always going to treat me that way.

Father, thank You for this strong Word. Right now I feel fairly universally liked, and that’s nice, but at the same time I haven’t brought very many people into Your kingdom. I ask You to show me when and how I have backed off when I shouldn’t have, so that Your Word may penetrate more hearts to cut off their chains. (Hebrews 4:12) May I always speak the truth in love, but also never fail to speak the truth, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Kingdom Principles; January 23, 2019


Matthew 10:39 “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Many things about the kingdom of God fly in the face of normal human thinking, and none more so than this. These days we have lots of “self-help” programs that promise to help you “find yourself,” when Jesus says that focus is totally counter-productive. We have public figures that gain huge followings by promising “your best life now,” when Jesus says that’s an illusion. Each human life is precious from the moment of conception, but modern society, under the influence of the devil who wants to steal, kill, and destroy, (John 10:10) teaches us that the lives of others may be discarded; it’s all I, my, me, mine. Actually, nothing could be more empty than that. It is when we relate rightly to our Creator that we discover the value in those around us, and ultimately in ourselves as well. Nothing declares the bankruptcy of society more than the passion some people display for the “right” to abortion. That is sacrificing another human life for the sake of your own, and really, your own convenience. Nothing could be more outside the kingdom principles Jesus proclaimed. It is when we choose to let go of things, releasing them to Jesus, that we receive them in truth. Our minds can’t parse that on their own, so the way to understand it is in terms of priorities. Here, Jesus has just said that we aren’t to love our family members more than we love Him, but that doesn’t mean at all that we aren’t to love our families. Paul points out that “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8) When we genuinely “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” (Mark 12:30) then everything else will fall into place behind that.

This is as important for me to remember as it is for anyone else. The devil tempts me to focus on myself just as he tempts everyone else. I have the huge advantage of having been raised in a home where my parents genuinely placed Christ first, but they weren’t perfect either. Toward the end of his life, my father said that his one regret was that he hadn’t prioritized his family ahead of his work. For those in “Christian service,” that is an easy deception to fall into. Loving God doesn’t mean ignoring my family! I am to seek God’s will at all times, allowing Him to order my priorities, knowing that only in Him does my life have the meaning, the value, for which it was created. I am to look at others as having equal value with me, and act accordingly. Words alone don’t cut it. Christ is my life, and I must never forget it.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me indeed leave my life in Your hands, living each moment under Your direction so that Your purposes may be fulfilled on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Joy; January 22, 2019


Matthew 3:17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

It is going to be interesting over the next several months to figure out where in the passage the Greek preposition “in” appears. More literal translations might preserve the form, but at the expense of understanding for most readers. If memory serves me, the King James does say, “In him I am well pleased.” The Japanese expresses it as, “I rejoice [because of] him.” However, the point of reading the Bible each day is to hear what God is saying to us, not just gain academic knowledge. What this says to me is that if the Father finds joy in Jesus, how much more should we do so? We find joy and pleasure in all sorts of things, but many of them are fleeting indeed. The Bible, and human experience down through the centuries, tell us that the deepest joy is found in relationships, and most especially in our relationship with our Creator, our heavenly Father. The Father was fully pleased with Jesus because they were perfectly aligned, and Jesus was fully obedient – though fully human. Our greatest joy comes when we partake of that alignment by being in Jesus by faith. Conversely, that is when we are most pleasing to the Father. The study of joy in the Bible is a fascinating one, but what comes immediately to mind is John’s statement in his third letter, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (3 John 1:4) That joy came to John because not only he but his spiritual descendants were in alignment with Jesus, who is Truth. (John 14:6) That is the joy we should seek, because it leads us into eternity.

I can never forget the moment of pure, unadulterated joy I had in a time of worship in a small prayer meeting several years ago. It was so intense that I asked God to back off a little, if He had anything else for me to do on this earth, because I didn’t think my physical body could take it. That was just a moment, but I have an eternity of such joy to look forward to! Addictive drugs are so powerful because they give tastes of a counterfeit joy that leaves people craving for more. When fentanyl, for example, is so deadly, you wonder why people would go near it, but they are hooked on the deadly euphoria. I’ve never tried drugs, but having tasted God’s joy, I’m certainly hooked! I have the privilege of telling people such joy is available, but I can’t force them to accept it. Sadly, “Just say no” seems to be the motto of too many people, spiritually speaking, when the opposite is true of physical pleasures. I am to speak God’s truth in love, praying that it will penetrate to set people free from the lies of the devil, who only wants to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10)

Father, thank You for Your joy. I have no words that are adequate to express that, so help me live in such obedience and fellowship that You find joy in me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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