Tagged: daily bread

“Your souls will find rest.” –Matthew 11:29 We disciples labor under the yoke of Jesus (Mt 11:30; Lk 9:23). Jesus therefore calls us to rest in Him (Mt 11:29), yet even that demands effort on our part. Each day we have to “strive to enter into that rest” (Heb 4:11). Mysteriously, disciples often rest better when they are most diligent. There’s a balance to entering Jesus’ rest. We can’t strive too hard, for our efforts alone are futile (Is 26:17-18). We must let God’s rest be done unto us (Lk 1:38). We yield to His grace, but avoid laziness, since...

“Father, Lord of heaven and earth, to You I offer praise; for what You have hidden from the learned and the clever You have revealed to the merest children.” –Matthew 11:25 The Father reveals what has been hidden. The Son reveals the Father (Mt 11:27). God’s revelation is so precious. Contrary to the old saying, what we don’t know does hurt us. However, what we do know can do more than help us; it can transform us. For example, Moses was a victim of Egyptian oppression. He never knew his parents. He had a speech defect. He was a murderer...

“When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, who adopted him as her son and called him Moses; for she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’ ” –Exodus 2:10 Pharaoh’s daughter named Moses. This is very significant because in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, to name a person means to give them their identity. Thus, the Lord often changes the names of people in the Bible. However, the Lord did not change Moses’ name but let him struggle for most of his life with his identity. After God revealed His own name to Moses,...

“Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase.” –Exodus 1:10 We live in a modern-day Egypt. Many groups conspire to stop our increase: doctors, nurses, therapists, talk show hosts, magazine authors, government agencies, groups such as Planned Parenthood, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances. At the head of this conspiracy is Satan, who is still dealing shrewdly with God’s people to keep children from being conceived, birthed, and raised to healthy Christian maturity. Shrewd remarks and putdowns may stop increases as effectively as artificial contraception, abortion, and sterilization. Satan has used his pawns to shrewdly attempt to take control...

“In Him…” –Ephesians 1:4, 11, 13 St. Paul is completely preoccupied with being in Jesus. In today’s passage from Ephesians, Paul mentions benefits and blessings that come from being in Jesus numerous times in twelve verses. Paul is underscoring the critical differences of our location: it makes an eternal difference whether we live our life in Jesus or outside of Jesus. Paul proclaims that in Jesus we: have “every spiritual blessing in the heavens” (Eph 1:3), have been “chosen” before the world began, to be holy and blameless (Eph 1:4, 11, 13), have been chosen “to be full of love”...