Month: September 2023

Our Scripture for today is Proverbs 22:7

“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.”

We live in the richest country in the world and at the richest time in history.  Despite this, in 2016, one study showed that 66 million people have zero savings for an emergency. That is nothing, nada, zilch, or zero for an emergency. That means they are one emergency away from being in a panic. Can you guess what percentage of people will face an emergency? If you said 100%, then you are right. Of course, they can probably borrow, but then, “The borrower is slave to the lender.” At least, that is what the Bible says.

After 50 years of preaching and decades of counseling folks who deal with financial struggles, I’ve heard a few rules. Here’s one:

While I was still in college and living in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, a salesman drove to my house to sell me some expensive cookware. I couldn’t afford it, so I listened but declined to buy what he was selling. When he was leaving, he looked at me, a young, newly married, broke, college kid, and offered me these “wise” words: “People say that if you can’t afford to pay for what you want, don’t buy it. They are wrong. As long as you can make the monthly payments, then get it.”

He sounded wise to me, but now I know he was either financially stupid or lying. According to today’s Bible verse, he was saying that it is okay to be a slave to the lender. Maybe he just did not know the number one rule of being a good money manager. Here it is:

“If you always spend all you earn, you will always be broke.”

You may know someone who seems to be an exception to this rule, but wait until tomorrow, or the next tomorrow. The emergency is on the way. That’s life.

These are not scare words. They are reality. The Bible tells me so!

Lonnie Davis

Our text is Romans 8:26

“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

The standard commentary on this is  that “Even when you don’t know the right words to pray, the Holy Spirit prays with and for you, and God answers.” I accept this understanding but would like to add an additional thought. 

A small child has no problem knowing what to pray about. If you have ever heard children pray at the dinner table, they will pray for every item on the table. At night they pray for each loved one by name. A simple child’s prayer is surely loved by God. As adults, life is a little more complicated. When one gets older life has more struggles. There are days and times when you want to pray but do not know what to pray for. At times like these, God knows what we need just by hearing our groaning to God.

If that sounds odd to you, I challenge you to think about the knowledge of a mother. A mother with a baby does not need to hear the baby say what it needs. A mother can listen to a baby’s cry and tell whether it is hungry, or hurting. She can even tell when the baby is simply throwing a fit. She knows her baby and can interpret its cry.

This verse is telling us the same thing about God. He knows us and knows our groaning. His spirit intercedes for us to answer the prayer when we didn’t know what to ask or what we needed. 

In John 10:27, Jesus said, “My sheep know my voice.” That is a profound thought, but isn’t it sweet to know that it works the other way also. My God knows my voice also. Because he does, he answers my prayer. So when you don’t know exactly what to pray, pray anyway. God knows exactly what you need.

Lonnie Davis

Our text for today is  Matthew 4:1–4.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Did you ever wish you had just the right word to say at just the right time.? Of course, we have all been there. As Solomon said, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” It is a beautiful and valuable thing to have.

In today’s text we will see that Jesus had the right word. He knew just what to say to overcome temptation. He could heal the sick and raise the dead because he was God. Having just that right word of Scripture at just the right time, I think is different. He had just the right word because he had put Scriptures into his heart. 

We often long for more information about Jesus as a child, but we do know that as a Jewish child, he grew up being instructed in the Old Testament. 

This was God’s command for all Godly Jewish parents (See Deuteronomy 6:6-9). I cannot imagine that God would call two parents to raise his child who would ignore this.

More evidence of this is the fact that when he was 12 and lost in Jerusalem, he went to the temple. In fact, when Mary and Joseph hunted him elsewhere, he asked them, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”  (Luke 2:49).

Because of this kind of upbringing, when Jesus was confronted with temptation by the Devil, he had the Word of God in his heart to answer the devil’s twisting of the Scripture. He had just the right word at just the right time.

We need to let that be a lesson for us on how to have the right word.

Lonnie Davis

Our text for today is Matthew 6:14

“If you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”

If you are human, you need to forgive someone at some point. The truth is that you may have needed to do this today. While sometimes this is not too hard to do, other times it seems like we are trying to forgive the unforgivable. Yes, there are things that seem unforgivable to us, but for the Christian, those too must be forgivable. 

I still remember her like it was yesterday. She came to see me with tears in her eyes. She and her husband had an argument and in the middle of the argument, she mentioned an old hurt to him. He snapped back, “You told me you had forgiven me, but you lied! If you really forgave me, you would have forgotten that!” Feeling guilty, she wanted to know how one could forget old hurts. How do you do that?

For the times when you feel the weight of that question, let me give you two answers: 

Answer #1. It Takes Time

There are no Bible passages that can erase memory. Old wounds heal, but healing is a slow process. Most of the time, old wounds do not really disappear. They just fade from view.

Answer #2. You Don’t Really Forget

Even God does not truly forget. I know He said, “I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34)  God did not lose his omniscience. He made a decision not to call the old sin to mind. That is what He meant when he said, I will “remember their sins no more.”

When we forgive and forget that is what we do. We forgive and then choose not to call the old offense to our memory.

As several of us were helping a newly blended family move to a new house, I took a picture off the wall and there was a big hole behind it. At first, the lady was startled and then she confessed, “That is where my husband knocked me into the wall. I just put a picture over it.”

That is the way to forgive and forget. The old wound is there, but we just have to put a new picture over it.  The new picture helps both parties.

~Lonnie Davis

Our Scripture for today is Psalms 116:2

“Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.”

In this short verse of only 17 words, we find the truths about a great prayer life.

#1. God Listens Intently:

“Because he turned his ear to me” (Psalms 116:2, NIV). These words paint a vivid picture of a loving and attentive God. Imagine the Creator of the universe leaning in, his ear inclined towards you, listening intently to your every word and the whispers of your heart. God is not just listening; he is leaning into our whispered thoughts. God pays unwavering attention to our prayers. He is not distant or aloof; He is ever-present, ready to hear our cries and petitions.

#2. Prayer as a Lifelong Practice:

The Psalmist promises, “I will call on him as long as I live.” Prayer is not a fleeting moment but a lifelong journey. The psalmist’s commitment to pray throughout his entire life underscores the idea that prayer is an ongoing practice, an unbreakable thread connecting us to our Creator. It’s not a one-time event but a continuous conversation with the Divine. In every season of life, in moments of joy and sorrow, in times of abundance and scarcity, prayer remains our steadfast practice.

#3. Prayer is a Personal Relationship:

The verse places strong emphasis on the personal nature of our relationship with God. Notice the frequent use of “I” and “me.” It reminds us that our faith and prayer come from deeply personal relationships. Our connection with God is unique, and He longs for us to approach Him individually, just as we are. In our deepest struggles and our highest triumphs, God is there, ready to hear our hearts poured out in prayer.

#4. Why We Pray:

As I read and reread this verse, I learn both why we pray and why we fail to pray. We pray because we know He hears us. Doubt in God’s attentiveness will kill our prayer life. Those who believe that God is distant or uninterested may struggle to approach Him in prayer.

In conclusion, may we echo the psalmist’s commitment, calling on Him “as long as we live,” knowing that our prayers are cherished by the One who turns His ear to us.

Lonnie Davis

“Back in the day,” the games you played at home were board games. There was even a game called “The Game of Life.” Before you could play this game, you had to read the rules because the “Game of Life” could only be played if you knew the rules.

Do you already see where this is going? Life runs on rules. I was once trying to point this out to a teenage girl whose parents wanted me to talk with her. At 14, her life seemed out of control. She was making bad grades, bad decisions, and bad friends. She was not totally uncooperative, but certainly did not understand what was to be gained from counseling.

I asked her, “Have you ever seen a car driving down a Texas highway on a hot day in August with its windows rolled down?”

“Yes,” she answered.

“Why are the windows down?” I asked.

“Their air conditioning is broken,” she answered.

“Why don’t they fix it?” I asked.

“They don’t have the money,” She answered.

Then I asked one more question, “Why don’t they have money?”

She didn’t know the answer, so let me answer. There are some who have bad luck, but for the great majority, that is not the real problem. The real problem is that we spend money on things and stuff and junk, then when an emergency arises, we are out of funds. That is a rule.

If you do not live on less than you earn, then when an emergency comes you will suffer the consequences. That is the rule!

Life has many more rules just like that. The wise person will take note of what these rules are. If they are wise they will remember them. If they are wise they will live by them. If they are really wise they will write them down.

Remember them or write them down, but you will live by them. Each of them is a life rule that brings success or failure.  You will keep repeating the failures until you learn the rule and live by it.

Lonnie Davis

Some Bible verses are so beautiful that reading them causes us to lose sight of the beauty of the verses around them. For example, Isaiah 40:31

They who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Today, I want to help you fall in love with the verses around this verse. Let’s go all the way back to verse 25.

The passage starts with God asking,

25 To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

To help us see the incomparableness of God, He challenges us to:

Verse 26: Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

So folks, if you want to see the power of God, look to the skies on any clear night. The sky lights up like that special neighborhood at Christmas. Actually, that comparison does not do justice to the glory of the heavens. God made the nightly light show. It is always there.

Next, he addresses those who complain that God does not help them.

27 Why do you complain? Why do you say,

“My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”?

Some believers felt that having God in their lives was not helping them with their struggles. For those who’ve ever felt this way, God continues:

28 Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding
is beyond comprehension.

29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;

But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

The whole context of this verse is telling us to simply trust God. We might not understand why things are happening as they are, but he does, and in the end, He will do what is best for us.
Lonnie Davis

Our text for today is Galatians 6:14

“For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

When you raise kids, you eventually hear the question, “Why can’t I do that?” Followed by “It’s not wrong.” When you get older in life, you have that same question to yourself about the things you want to do. I mean, if it is not wrong and you want to do it, then do it! Right?

Well, maybe, maybe not.

To challenge that thought, think about the following truth.

In the 18th century, a blind man was found sitting at the corner of a street in a large city. The fact that he was blind is significant because he had a lighted lantern sitting beside him. Someone went up to him and asked why he had a lantern since both darkness and light were the same to him. He replied, “I have it so that no one may stumble over me.”

When it comes to right and wrong, we all should think like that blind man. There are things we can do that do not bother us personally. We have overcome that problem, but someone watching us may not be where we are. They may stumble and fall.

So, here is the point of the story: Some things are wrong because they are wrong. Some things are wrong not because they are wrong, but because our own actions may cause someone else to stumble. We don’t do wrong things, because they are wrong. We don’t do some things that are not wrong, because we love others.

I think this is part of the meaning of Romans 14:7, “For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself.”

Lonnie Davis

Every adult who attended church as a kid, has memories of those first days of attending church. Mine revolved around attending church with Jesus.

My earliest memory of “going to church” was when I was about 5 years old. There was an older gentleman who often led parts of the worship. Nearly every Sunday, he sat in a chair on the stage. He had white hair and a white beard. I thought he was Jesus. Later we attended another congregation and that man wasn’t there. I thought it was sad that that church didn’t have Jesus worshipping with them.

I know this was the story of a young kid, but there is still a part of that story that is relevant to each of us. We are called to live our lives in such a way that when people see us, they think of Jesus.

This is the meaning of Matthew 5:14-16.

“You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can’t be hidden. Neither do you light a lamp and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house. Even so, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Look at those last words again, “Even so, let you light shine before men, that they may see you good works and glorify your Father.”

We are identified not by a white beard and setting on the stage at a church, but by the way we live our lives. When the world sees how a Christian lives, they will give glory to God.

When we live that way, little kids will be seeing Jesus at church.

Lonnie Davis

Our scripture for today is Genesis 2:24

“A man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

If you ever played sports, you will know that the first rule is “Be prepared.” When you are in the outfield, you have to know what you are going to do even before the ball is hit to you. That rule has applications for real life. Maybe by reading this story, you will be ready when faced with a similar situation. 

One day I came home from the office and my two teenage girls met me a the car. They felt for sure that Momma had wronged them. Liz was a gentle saint who lived like one. It had to be significant for the girls to both be upset. We went up to the bedroom and I started to listen, They began talking at the same time. I stopped them and said, “One at a time girls.” They stopped and so I continued, “Each of you tell me what mother did and then I will go down and listen to what your mother says. After I have heard all sides,” I told them. “I will then side with your mother.” 

They were shocked. What is the point in telling the story since I already decided I was going to take their mother’s side? I explained my rationale to them, “One day you are going to leave me and go start a family of your own. When you do I will be here with your mother. I am not going to mess my life up with her, just to take your side right now.” 

I still think that is one of the wisest decisions I ever made. To be fair, if Liz had really been awful, she and I would have figured that out and I would have urged her to correct it, but the kids didn’t need to know that. That was between her and the girls.

Keep that arrow in your quiver. You will need it someday.

Lonnie Davis