Month: March 2026

“That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”  Ephesians 3:16-19

Paul had wonderful apostolic prayers that he prayed for others that are also for us.  Paul understood that not only people around him needed prayer, but he needed prayers himself. The above verses from Ephesians help us to petition for our own needs and the needs of others.

There are some wonderful “whats” in this prayer followed by an even more wonderful “how.”  That is typical of God’s Word.  When He reveals a wonderful treasure to us, He doesn’t leave us hanging, but tells us where to find it and how to use it. In the verses above Paul prays that we will be strengthened 1) by the spirit 2) by being filled with the fulness of God 3) by being grounded in the overwhelming love of Christ.

If we want to experience the fulness of Christian living, we need to experience the fulness of Christ’s love.  In the same stroke of the pen, Paul says that we can comprehend the incomprehensible.  How is that possible?  He tells us that the love of Christ passes all understanding but that if we are filled with Christ, we will have the knowledge of this love. This is an example of faith in God’s grace.  We can’t understand Christ’s love but to understand it, we must receive it and then we will understand it.

In one of his sermons, D.L. Moody held up a glass and asked, “How can I get the air out of this glass?” One man shouted, “Suck it out with a pump!” Moody replied, “That would create a vacuum and shatter the glass.” After numerous other suggestions Moody smiled, took out a pitcher of water, and filled the glass. “There,” he said, “all the air is now removed.”

We cannot get the sin out of our lives by sucking it out of our own accord.  That would break us.  The only way to remove the sin from our lives is to be filled with Christ.  We can only empty ourselves by being filled.  We must allow the filling of the spirit to push the pride, conceit, false ambition, selfishness and other things that are contrary to God’s law out of our lives.

I think some try to empty themselves on their own to make room for the spirit of God.  But we cannot do that.  We must take in the Holy Spirit and allow Him to push those things out of our lives. When we are filled with Him there is no room left for those things of the flesh. Two different things cannot occupy the same space.  If we are filled with the Spirit, there is no room left for our evil desires.  The thing is, we have all the Holy Spirit, but sometimes He does not have all of us. We have all we need to push the evil from our lives, but sometimes we use more energy to hang onto the old things than we use to receive the new.

Charles Spurgeon put it well, “Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without the wind, branches without sap, and like coals without fire, we are useless.”  God has recreated us through the Son and His spirit.  We need not be useless any longer but useful.

A park ranger at Yellowstone National Park was leading a group of hikers to a fire lookout. The ranger was was so focused on the hike, he turned off his radio so there would not be any distractions. After a few hours the group was met by a nearly breathless lookout, who asked why he hadn’t responded to the messages on his radio. A grizzly bear had been seen stalking the group, and the authorities were trying to warn them of the danger.

Any time we tune out the Holy Spirit or ignore the warnings of the Bible we put ourselves and those around us in danger.

The key again, is as Paul says: “Be rooted in love” by “knowing Christ’s love” so we will be “filled with the fulness of God” and there will not be any room for anything else but Him.  Be both emptied and filled today.  Emptied of us and filled with Him.  Only then will our lives be all they can be on this earth.

• “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

Most of us will not be called on to put our lives on the line for others, but it happens every day in hundreds of ways throughout the world. The person who dives into icy water to save someone from drowning, the soldier who throws  his body on a grenade to protect his buddies, the fireman who rushes into a blazing building to save a child, a bystander that confronts a gang to extricate
an innocent person from their midst.  These are all real-life examples of people who put someone else’s safety above their own.  We like to think that we are all like this, willing to put

 thoughts of self out of the way for a moment in time, so that we can save another.

When I was attending Redwood School in Grants Pass, probably in fourth or fifth grade, the circus came to town.  As I sat in class I noticed the flag hanging in the front of the room and the small spear-like pole with a sharp tip which supported it.  I happened to be wearing my cub scout uniform that day, so I was in an especially gallant mood and started daydreaming about a lion escaping from the circus and terrorizing the school.  I saw myself jump on a desk, scale a bookcase, and pull the flag pole from its holder.  I took the flag off the pole and folded it neatly like any good soldier, oops, scout, would.  I took the pole outside and approached the lion.  Remembering lion fighting from several Tarzan shows I had seen, I held the lion at bay with the small spear.  When it became apparent the lion was going to charge, I broke the spear over my knee and jammed the longer part of the spear in the lion’s open mouth!  About that time the teacher interrupted my heroics by asking me a question.  I hadn’t heard  the question, since I was busily saving 400 kids and teachers, so I could not answer. My teacher then made the mistake of saying that since I was apparently thinking about something other than Columbus, maybe I would like to share it with the class.  That was probably a mistake on her part. Since I was saving the school, I said sure, and hustled up front to tell the tale standing straight and tall in my Cub Scout uniform.  The story went over really well with the whole class and opened the door for me to tell stories the rest of the year when we had a little extra time in class.  I don’t think was the outcome my teacher had hoped for.

Why, you might be asking, did I take this trip down memory lane and kidnap you along the way?  Well, besides the fact that I am telling a story of me saving the entire school, I am using it to illustrate that we have probably all dreamed of helping others with some heroic act during our lifetime (some of us might still be doing it!).  Seldom, however, do we picture ourselves doing something in a cowardly way. We never see ourselves as the chicken scrambling faster than his three little brothers just fresh out of the shell; or the whimpering child lying in the middle of the floor in the midst of danger sucking his thumb like a newborn, or on a sinking ship pointing out a fake Clint Eastwood to a little old lady so we can steal her life jacket.  No, we seldom say we want to grow up to be a coward someday, but in spite of this courage seems to be lacking today.  So many tend to wilt under the smallest of pressure.  We don’t like to take stands unless they are safe and we don’t speak up unless we are preaching to the choir.  Plainly speaking, in most cases, we are a bunch of weenies.

We are so concerned with our own happiness, our own wants, our own pleasures that even if we have a chance to help someone else, we probably won’t even notice him.  Eyes that are turned inward will seldom be aware of the things that are outward.  We like to believe that we would step up if needed- that we would the one in the crowd that would rush to the crashed car or the crumpled woman or the fleeing purse snatcher.  But the truth of the matter is that we have trouble even handling the smallest of deed needs- the person who needs an encouraging word, the neighbor who desperately needs prayer, the co-worker who needs to hear about Jesus, the friend who is caught up in sin, are all challenges that we seem to struggle with as much as pulling a tiny tot from the path of the oncoming train.  Thankfully, Christ did not hesitate to step it up for us.  He went to the cross knowing the pain that He would bear, but did it anyway.  He knew that He would be beaten beyond recognition, but He did it anyway.  He knew that he would face an excruciating physical death and the weight of all our sins in just a few hours span, but He did it anyway.  Why? So that we would not have to.  He went where we deserved to go, so we would not have to.  He went so that we could, in turn, have courage to do what is right- to stand in the face of great odds- to never give up and to sacrifice for others regardless of the cost.

One of the saddest but most compelling stories from WWII was about a group of about 20 prisoners under an especially cruel guard. Each day they would be required to take a shovel and go out into the prison yard and dig. At the end of each day the prisoners would come back to their barracks and line up their shovels against the wall for the guard to count. On this particular day when the guard counted, he only counted 19 shovels. “Who lost their shovel?” the guard shouted. “If the man who lost his shovel does not step forward I’m going to kill five of you at a time until he does step forward!”

It was at this point that a young 19-year-old POW stepped forward taking the blame for having lost his shovel. The evil, blood-thirsty guard immediately took out his revolver put it to the boy’s head and pulled the trigger killing him instantly. As the teenager’s dead body lay crumpled on the ground his fellow prisoners were aghast because of what had just happened.  But they didn’t know the half of it.

By mistake or on purpose, no one really knows for sure, the guard had miscounted the shovels. Twenty shovels were leaning against that barracks wall.  That 19-year-old POW knew that when he stepped forward, he was offering his life as a sacrifice for his fellow prisoners, but he did it anyway.  Nineteen years old, hundreds of miles from home, dying for something he did not do, to save men who would not be able to thank him, just a few weeks before the war’s end.  Some would call that stupid.  I would call that Christ-like.

If we were to prioritize things in our lives, how high up would our concern for others be.  Paul tells us to,  “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”  Philippians 2:3-4  When we follow our own selfish desires to the detriment of others, and then say we are brave enough save someone else, we are fooling ourselves.

We are like the man who is asked, “If you had two houses, would you give one to the poor?”

The man replies, “Yes.”

The man is asked, “If you had four cars, would give two to the poor?”

Again he replies, “Yes.”

He is finally is asked, “If you had two shirts, would you give one to the poor?”

The man quickly says, “No.”

“You will give houses and cars, but won’t give shirts. Why not?” he is asked.

“Because I have two shirts,” he replies.

We can say that we will do all kinds of things, but the truth of what we would do in tough times is probably previewed in the way we live our daily lives.  If we live our lives for ourselves in times of leisure how can we say would sacrifice in times of danger?  It is like the man who says he would die to protect his family, but can’t take the time to talk to his kids about their day.  It doesn’t make sense. If we are Christ-like, our world will not revolve around us, but Christ.  And as our world revolves around Him we will notice others needs before our own. And finally, we will be able live a life that is not obsessed with “numero uno.”  And finally we will find the contentment we have always searched for.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”  Deuteronomy 6:4-9

This portion of scripture is known quite well to the Jewish people as Shema which means “hear” in Hebrew. It is very important in Jewish family tradition.  It should be equally important to us, especially in these times when young people are being hijacked from the faith daily. But the Jews look at this passage much differently than we do, so to appropriately apply the verse to us today, we must first understand the verse.The Jews use the phrase “the Lord is one” to prove that Jesus can’t be God, but they don’t realize that this phrase actually supports our belief that Jesus is God.  We are not worshipping three Gods in God the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, but one God.  In Corinthians 8:6 it says, “yet for us there is one God.”  This is important because the rest of the verses are teaching us to pass this truth down (along with the others in the Word) to those who are younger, so that they can continue to hand the truths down to those who are younger than they.  It does us no good to pass down misinformation about the Word to our younger generations.  When I was coaching I always felt it was harder to undo something wrong that players had been taught than to  take players who knew nothing and teach them what was correct.  If we are going to teach, we should teach truth.

Our first step in continuing a line of knowledge about God down through time is take seriously the admonition to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  If we do not love the Lord completely and without reservation, our endorsement of Him will be suspect.  If we never speak of Him or pray to Him or converse with Him and then turn around and say that He is the most important person in our lives, few will believe it, especially those who are younger.  The most important step in sharing Him is loving Him with all our being. A model is a representation of the real thing.  We are supposed to be models of Christ.  Young people around us are getting their impression of who Christ is by who we are.  I had a portly old grandpa tell me once, “we are supposed to be role models, not just models with rolls.”  That is true.

The things of God then must be “impressed in our hearts,” not just present in our heads.  They must be etched deep within us. Our knowledge of God is not enough; it must be deeply seated in our soul.  It must be the inescapable truth that we base our lives on and then we can “impress them on our children.”  We cannot impress on others what is not impressed on us.  It would be like trying to mold jello without a mould.  When the verse mentions children, it might be speaking primarily of our own children if we have them, but it also means secondarily any children we have influence over.  It can mean nephews, nieces, grandchildren, neighbors, or even children of acquaintances.  We need to take every opportunity to share the “hope which lies within us.”

When do we share?  I think Moses covered pretty much all the time when he said, “when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”  So in the home and out of the home, at your leisure and on the job, we are to look for chances pass our love of the wonderful Triune God on to the younger set.  It only took two generations for the people of Israel to have forgotten the wonderful miracles in the desert.  How much more quickly can a love of God disappear when it is not accompanied by incredible signs and wonders, if we don’t “intentionally” keep it alive?

As the Jews always seemed to do, they took the line, “tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads” quite literally.  Many would wear phylacteries which were small boxes containing scriptures on their hands and foreheads.  Jesus condemned this ostentatious display of false religiosity.  The phrase above meant that our love for God and our desire to pass that love on to others should not be hidden, but should be apparent in everything we do. Somewhere between a hidden love for Christ and a thirty pound cross some wear to look spiritual is the truth of what God wants from us.  God wants a love for Christ that can’t be hidden, but not a love that slaps people it their faces with its heavy-handed hypocrisy.  Ironically, the anti-christ will someday test loyalty with marks on the forehead or hands, Christ never asks that of us.  For Him, it’s what’s inside that counts.

The Jews took the words, “Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” literally again, and it led to the Jewish practice of the mezuzah which was nailing a small container holding a passage of Scripture to a doorpost. But we must remember that hanging scripture on the wall does not make our houses Christ-homes any more than wearing a Christian t-shirt fills us with Christ. It is all about the trueness of what lies within.  The verse above has been the flagship verse for hundreds of children’s ministries and even more so, families. 

That is all well and good, but sayings on a wall do not make God’s truth reality.  We cannot pass on what we do not know.  What this verse is really telling us is, love the Word, learn the Word, live the Word and share the Word, especially to the young we have contact with.  Children are like wet cement waiting to have an impression left in them.  If we don’t leave the impression, something else or someone else will. If we love God, we must pass it on. If we do not pass Him along, He will go the route of the false gods of the past and his reality will be lost until He returns again to an unsuspecting world.  We must do all we can to protect our younger generation from that.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”    Philippians 4:6-7

I believe the Bible gives us preventative tools more than curative tools.  Unfortunately we too often use the words in the Word only when things get really bad and we are throwing darts at the problem-solving dart board.  God happens to be on the board with a host of other possible cures.  We wait until the flames are licking at our heals, head for the fire extinguishers and if the closest one happens to be prayer, we pull it down and pull the pin.  In this passage the Apostle Paul writes that we should present all things to Him, not just all big things.  After all, most of our big worries started as smaller ones.  We just usually don’t worry about praying until we start sweating a lot.  Typically, we try to handle things on our own first and then when our alternatives are all exhausted, we turn to God.  After all, why bring God in to sweat the small things?  He has enough on His plate.

Don’t ask me how, but God is the magnificent multitasker. We can’t overwhelm Him or bother Him. The instruction Paul gives us here is to take any request, concern, or worry to our Father, who is willing to listen and to give us peace.  Paul knew what he was talking about.  He wrote most of the New Testament not knowing whether the next day would be his last.  Essentially every day he spent in prison was on death row.  At someone’s instruction or even whim, he might have been taken out and executed. This eventually happened, but in the meantime, Paul wrote some of the most uplifting, encouraging, and beautiful words ever penned.  So as he wrote to the Philippians “to be anxious for nothing” and by extension is telling us “to be anxious for nothing,” he was illustrating the principle in his own life.

How do we present our concerns for ourselves or others to the Lord?  By prayer with thanksgiving.  If we present with thanksgiving, that reveals our trust in the Father.  We are thanking Him for whatever He will do, knowing that His will is perfect.  We don’t know what God will do.  Some prayers He cannot answer the way we might hope because there is an overall plan that cannot be thwarted  or it goes against His nature.  Some say that God can do anything, but that is not true.  He cannot lie or go against His nature. He cannot make a triangle with four sides, because that goes against His natural law. But within His plans there are many things that can be, and will be, adjusted according to our asking.  There are two major camps of thoughts out there when it comes to prayer, but I think both of them miss the point of the Philippians verse.  One group says the God is sovereign and everything  is planned out, so we puny humans have no say because we cannot change God’s mind.  The other group puts man in charge and if we request something, God must deliver because if we ask, He is bound by promise, to give us what we want.  In other words, on one side God is in charge and we don’t matter and in the other man is charge and God just waits for our instruction.  If these scenerios seem a little too simplified, they are, but they are, in essence, what many believe.  I believe neither of these extremes.

I believe that God is sovereign, because He is.  I believe prayer matters, because He says it does.  So the truth is our human understanding cannot understand what seems to be two diametrically opposed truths.  Since God never lies, these truths must be merged in such a way that both are true.  I believe there is a way that is actually understandable (somewhat) by our limited minds, but to go into that here would take much longer than a simple devotion (although I know some of these are very long!).  In one of the books that the apostle John gave us, he wraps up the sovereign nature of God and God’s desire to hear and meet our needs in one verse, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you” (John 15:16)  See, God is in control, but He still listens to our requests.

The second part of today’s Philippians verse is so beautiful.  He will give us a  peace that passes all understanding.  When we go through trials God can give us the peace of knowing that He is there and that nothing escapes His sight.  The peace He gives is what the world can’t give.  All the self-help books, Dr. Phils and Oprahs can’t give that peace. True peace can only come through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is wonderful that the verse says He shall shall keep our hearts and minds. People today will say to follow our hearts or trust in our minds. But God’s peace shall keep them both at rest so that we may walk in truth not guided by them, but by the Word. In an earlier devotion I wrote that we cannot trust our hearts or minds because they will lead us astray, but instead we must be led by God’s Word.  With His peace through His truth we can be assured that we are not walking on our own whims or thoughts, but instead trusting in our Shepherd to “lead us by still waters.” (Psalm 23:2 ).

We need not worry because He is there for us.  The song says, “don’t worry, be happy,” but more fittingly is God’s Word that says, “Don’t worry, be content.”  I may not be happy about all things, but I can be at peace with all things because God says He will supply that peace- and I believe Him.

Recently I listened to an “unconversion” story. A man, whose name is Paul, accepted (or felt he did) Christ when he was 16, married a woman who was a Christian (or felt she was) when in their 20’s, got involved in the church, went through some marital problems, rejected their faith, and became atheists. It was a sad story, but one I am sure happens with some frequency and for the same reasons that Paul mentioned as he told his story. I would say that it boiled down to two main reasons for him. The main reason was that he had never met anyone who seemed to live as though he or she had a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe. Secondly, he just could not reconcile the idea of a loving God and the violence that exists in the world and in the Bible. Both are common objections, but today I would like to share some thoughts on the first. The second will come up unexpectedly in a future devotion, I am sure.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

The Apostle Paul left us this admonition in Romans and it leaves little doubt that our lives should change once we are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Paul from the story I was listening to said that he had never met a “transformed” Christian.  He believed that there were good Christians and bad Christians, good atheists and bad atheists, and a whole bunch of good and bad people in between. He said he had never seen a Christian who lived like he or she had a personal relationship with the great God of the Bible. He had never seen “miracles” that could not be naturally explained or seen lives that were radically different because of a spiritual relationship with Christ. Even though he had spent almost 30 years in the church, he had always had his doubts and finally gave up on ever finding convincing evidence that Christianity had any advantages over any other life choice.

It was sad to listen to him. It was sad for him because so much of what he experienced was not my experiences in the church.  But I was also sad because at times I understood what he was saying.  If, as Christians, we do have a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe, our lives should be radically different, not only from what they used to be before we knew Christ, but from the rest of the world. Too often- they are not. When the Apostle Paul addressed the Christians in Rome he was encouraging them to not only act different but to be different. Conforming and transforming are totally different concepts and until we, as believers, get a hold of this principle of a Christ-filled life, many more will leave the faith for lack of evidence in individuals who call themselves Christians.

On the CRU site (formerly Campus Crusade) there is a wonderful page of testimonies  (http://www.cru.org/how-to-know-god/my-story-a-life-changed.html) from people who have had their lives changed by Christ. Some of the stories are incredibly moving and others very dramatic, but all tell of lives left behind in exchange for new ones. The Paul in our story would say that he doesn’t deny that some people change, but that the same things happen in all kinds of religions, clubs, and groups. He believes that Christianity doesn’t have a corner on the “changed life” market. His belief is that if someone is changed by Christ and someone is changed by being in the Lion’s Club there should be a difference between the two. One involves the great Creator and the other involves a bunch of guys that do good deeds for needy children. Yet, he says, being involved in groups seems to be as an effective life changer as being a Christian. He is right- in part. There should be a difference between Christians and the rest of the world. I disagree, however, that no one lives that transformed life. I know many people who illustrate a renewed life, but Paul is right- it is not as typical as it should be.

There is a saying that states, “Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.”  There is a positive selfishness that needs to take place in our relationship with Christ. In all cases but one we should put others first. However, in our Christian walk we should not be examining the walk of others before our own. It was once said that a sermon is the “wise words of God for the fellow sitting next to me.” Before we make complaints about those around us who do not live a godly life, we should look within ourselves to see if we are living the lives we should be living. I sympathize with Paul. He is right to say there are many people who profess Christ but do not illustrate Christ. However, he is wrong when he says that there are no people who illustrate Christ in their lives. The Christ transformation should not be just barely noticeable, but striking. Should the adjectives godly, loving, kind, and generous jump the forefront of people’s minds when they try to describe us? Do the words “very spiritual” find their way into the conversation on our behalf? They probably should… we are in league with the Creator of the universe. He desires a personal relationship with us. There is no other relationship like it. We should live lives that reflect that incredible uniqueness.

In 1987 George Gallup, famous pollster, found the following: “There’s little difference in ethical behavior between the churched and the unchurched. There’s as much pilferage and dishonesty among the churched as the unchurched. And I’m afraid that applies pretty much across the board: religion, per se, is not really life changing. People cite it as important, for instance, in overcoming depression–but it doesn’t have primacy in determining behavior.” This sad conclusion is probably even worse now. In essence, what Gallup’s findings show is that the churched are as unethical as unchurched, but seem to feel less stressed about it. It is not only our feelings that should change when we are indwelled by Christ, but also our behavior. After all, it is our behavior that others see, not our feelings.

Unfortunately, Paul (not to be confused with the Apostle Paul) did not see enough differences in the behavior of Christians to keep him in the faith. Of course, the differences he should have really looked for should have been inside himself, not others. But we cannot deny the fact that views people have of Christians will influence the views people have of Christ. Our verse for today gives instruction on how our lives can change after we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Conforming means to take on the appearance of another and transforming is an inside change that is not dependent on surroundings. Only when indwelled with the Holy Spirit can we discern the good, acceptable, perfect will of God. That is how transformation takes place. If we accept Christ but live our lives separate from Him, we will not look like Him and Paul’s criticisms of the Christian faith will seem valid.

I have witnessed transformed lives and have read hundreds of stories of those who have testimonies of God’s life-changing powers in their lives. On the flip side, I have also heard horror stories of people who purport to have Christ and live like the devil. How can it be that in some parts of this world there are Christians on their knees receiving the sword because they will not deny Jesus, and in other parts of the world there are Christians who avoid any behavior associated with Him. The Apostle Paul tell us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Why should we live like an old dying creature when we have become a new living one? Let us live lives that will not hinder the spread of the gospel.

I grew up in the sixties when being a radical was honorable pursuit to many. That kind of radicalism had ends that were very debatable. We need radicals today. We need those who will radically display the transformation that Christ can make in people’s lives. Raymond Williams, who was a writer-thinker and certainly not spiritual once said, “To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.” Without him realizing it, he spoke to the Christian experience. We live in a world that is permeated with despair. Christ gives hope and our portrayal of that hope is instrumental in its spread. Today as we go through our day, we might ask ourselves, “Do my actions coincide with my position? Do people want what I have or do they see me and continue their search?” No one will confuse the butterfly with the caterpillar from which it came. No one should confuse our new life with the old one from which we came. John said it best, “whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” (1 John 2:6) Let’s watch our walk today.