Category: Devotionals

You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean.
-Leviticus 11:47 NIV

Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains … an unuprooted small corner of evil.

Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.

-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in ‘The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956‘

This ain’t easy business.

I can’t improve on Solzhenitsyn, but I can ruminate on the Biblical challenge to discern between good and evil.

They are mixed together in each of us. Just as the balance of good and evil moves in others, it moves in us.

Watching my internal dance between good and evil and order and chaos (different dances, yet interrelated) is key for me to discern between good and evil in the world.

I commune with my heart in the night; I meditate and search my spirit
-Psalm 77:6 RSV

I can only seek the constant good of God once I have come to know the ever changing nature of myself. Another dance. I commune with God and know myself better. I commune with myself and know God better. The journeys are intertwined.

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He got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.
-John 13:4-5

I don’t have a lot of words to share about Jesus washing the feet of his students. It is one of those examples that I struggle to follow. I love to serve others, but am I always doing it in the name of the Lord?

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When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.
-Judges 2:10 NKJV

Home education and fatherhood center around modeling. As I learn, my sons not only learn, but are shown how to learn.

My faith is grown through learning. Not only by studying the Word, but by praying openly for wisdom and guidance.

I don’t know how my boys will grow in their beliefs. That isn’t up to me. All I can do is be honest and outspoken in my faith journey.

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Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
– 1 Peter 5:8 NKJV

When I was attending Alcoholics Anonymous there was a guy who said that the devil wasn’t on his back, he was outside doing push ups, getting ready while we sat around getting fat and lazy in our sobriety.

That stuck with me. I don’t live with a devil on my back and I’m not getting fat and lazy in my sobeiety. That’s in no small part to the knowledge that the devils are always getting stronger.

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
-Hebrews 12:7 RSV

God doesn’t let us get away with sin because he loves us and wants us to let go of sin. We face consequences and confront our choices. We are made more whole through the healing.

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The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.
-Hebrews 12:6 NLT

God as judge. God as conscience.

When God is in our hearts, it hurts to do wrong. To sin is to miss the mark and that applies to every word, thought, and action not created in love.

When you are loved, you feel a responsibility toward that love. You wish to honor it and be worthy of it.

We all fall short of that worthiness and that hurts. The hurt comes from not stepping up into God’s awesome love and projecting it into the world. That awesome love is unshakable and rallies around us when we fall.

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Then he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
-Matthew 4:19 NKJV

I’ve recently been given the opportunity to help my community through some difficult and personal conflicts. I have prayed for guidance and been humble in my approach. I can’t “fix” problems between my friends.

I can, however, minister better and share the wisdom that I have been blessed with through God’s Word. I haven’t been as vocal about my faith as our “official” group isn’t religious, but open to all beliefs. Sometimes I err on the side of being quiet about my relationship with Christ and I endeavor to become a more vocal follower.

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For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need some one to teach you again the first principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food; for every one who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.
-Hebrews 5:12-15 RSV

White belt mentality in all things. I’m better at listening and learning than teaching. I can model once I learn, but I am cautious to instruct.

Even more so when it comes to God’s Word. The stakes are high and I work hard to act and speak with humility. I might be getting it all wrong, I try to remind myself of that whenever I speak.

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Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
-Colossians 3:21 NKJV

Peaceful parenting is a long journey out of ancestral trauma. It’s multi-generational. My father broke a cycle of violence perpetuated by his father. It is my task to continue that exodus out of fear and into love.

It is imperfect and I do it wrong in all types of ways. My sons will be charged with carrying on better than I have.

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Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
-1 Corinthians 16:13-14 ESV

The Greek word used for “love” here is “agapē.” This the highest, most selfless, form of love. Without interjecting Ego, we can love each other as God loves us.

I pray to love others in this way.

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