A few weeks ago (March 14 to be exact) I took a friend of mine out to celebrate her 89th birthday. The night before I had gone to bed with the forecast of possible rain. I woke up to snow!


​When I picked my friend up, she had the best description of March that I had ever heard.


“It’s confused,” she said.


It is indeed, for since then we have had 35 mph winds, drenching rains, and beautiful sunny days. 


While the March forecast might keep us all a bit “confused,” it is comforting to know that “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” I Corinthians 14:33.


And of clarity. And nowhere do you see this clarity more than in God’s personal love for us and the simple path to salvation. It’s not rocket science and it’s not confusing.


“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” Jeremiah 1:5


“But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Matthew 10:30-31

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23


“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Matthew 25:46

No, God is not the author of confusion, but Satan is, and he will twist and manipulate these simple, clear truths so that people will not call sin, sin. That people will believe that if there is a god, he is unknowable. They will claim that there are multiple ways to get to heaven (all of which require being good enough or doing enough) or that everyone will go to heaven. And finally, that there is no hell.


Confusing these simple truths robs people of an intimate relationship with God and a life of peace, but worst of all, sets them up to spend  eternity in pain and torment. 


​Though we have no control over March’s mercurial temperament, or any responsibility for it, we do have an obligation to make sure God’s simple, clear, and life-giving truths are made known to all.
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I recently read a devotion by Liz Hetzel called “shape.” She relates that because she was a professional Rollerblader that her leg has taken on the shape of her boot. She says, “My ankle is skinny, but just above that my leg curves out like a ballon . . . . [because I] have skated so much, for so long, . . . my leg has permanently shaped to the curve of my Rollerblade boot.”

I think about our world today, the number of people who want to get in “shape,” and who spend lots of dollars and time to achieve this goal. Then I think about all those who blame the “shape” of their current life to the struggles of their youth, the neglect of their parents, or any number of circumstances that were not in their control. Then there are those who take full credit for the successful "shape" of their lives. 

I am not discouraging us to get in shape, nor am I minimizing the effects our prior experiences have on us as adults, or our part in our achievements. However, as Liz states in her devotion, our focus should be on another shaping.

She concludes by saying, “I truly hope that, in the same way my boot has shaped my leg, Christ is shaping my heart. I hope I have worn His love so much, for so long, that my heart looks transformed. I hope that my heart looks like Him in the way I show love, grace, and mercy.”

Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64:8)

Let us allow the Potter to do His work and shape us into the Christlike people He desires us to be.

After four years of drought, I decided to take out the grass that was my front lawn and put in a drought tolerant front yard. What this means is I have extended my front patio then split the remaining area with drought tolerant plants and artificial turf.

I have to tell you, that artificial turf looks great! Green! Perfect! And I don’t have to do anything to maintain it!
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But—I have learned something else. That such perfection has come at a cost—and I’m not talking about the monetary cost for instillation. I am talking about the life cost. There is no life on that front lawn. 

Now my backyard is more work intensive. It needs to be fertilized and the weeds and insects need to be dealt with. But there is life in and on that back lawn. Every morning the birds are looking for the worms, and the cats (not my cats) are looking for the birds! But there is life.

My two “lawns” have reminded me of the Christian walk. We can have an artificial one—one that looks great from a distance—perfect, in fact. No maintenance needed because Satan doesn’t have to worry about the artificial Christians—they’re lifeless, so no one will be drawn to them.

However, a vibrant Christian, always needs to be vigilant and proactive. Satan will constantly be out to weaken and destroy and to toss temptations into those lives in an effort to get sin to grow. Therefore, we need to make sure we are well watered, fertilized, and tended. We need to stay in God’s Word, stay in communication with God through prayer, and stay in fellowship with other believers.

A vibrant Christian life may not look as perfect as an artificial one, but it will certainly draw the attention and questions of others. Don’t just look alive—Be alive.

​“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean” Matthew 23:27.

Our family book club just finished reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. One of its themes centers around the idea of “thin-slicing”—the ability of those with experience and expertise to be able to make rapid and accurate assessments and judgments on extremely limited information. The antithesis of this is thin-slicing by those who are not experienced or experts in the area that they are judging and who may also be hindered by unconscious biases.

That is a mouthful to try and describe a 250+ page book, but the truth of the concept became clear rather quickly.

There has been a lot of buzz about a recent political press conference, or I should say, the last five minutes of this press conference, and many have had an opinion and wanted to share it. That was their mistake. Mine was even greater. I hadn’t even seen it, but when told what happened, I tried to comment. 

When I realized my mistake, I decided to go back and watch it — not the five-minute engagement, but the entire 50 minute press conference.

Doing so didn’t change the words spoken in those final five minutes or the emotions behind them, but it did put it into context.

After I had watched the entire press conference, I went back to some of these same individuals and asked if they had watched the entire thing. To a person they said no, and their reasons were that they either didn’t need to or didn’t have time to.

Which is exactly what the media is counting on—regardless of which side it aligns with. 

But this took me to an even greater truth. Satan loves thin-slicing. Not only does he use it for division in domestic and world affairs, but it is one of his primary weapons in his spiritual warfare.

Non-Christians and Christians alike will take verses out of context to prove their particular point. Also, when asked, we as Christians will often feel obligated to comment on a verse that we might not be familiar with or know the context of because we feel we must defend the Bible immediately, which can often lead to more harm than good.

I am currently reading Barry Mequiar’s book Ignite Your Life and in one part he says, “No one expects you to be a Bible scholar, and knowing every answer can actually be annoying. I know it’s counterintuitive, but you actually build credibility by not being a know-it-all” (p 73). Then he encourages us to pray and search the Scriptures for God has promised to provide us with the answer (Matthew 7:7-8).

Let’s not let the Father of Lies lure us into thin-slicing where we shouldn’t.  While the concept might have a place in some areas and for some people, for most of us, we need to listen to something or someone in its entirety, then pray for discernment and understanding before ever offering a comment.

I bought myself a book lovers desk calendar. The days rotate between a picture of an interior of a library, a clip from a book, or a quote about books, libraries, or reading. Just the other day I came across the following quote:

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”  Joseph Brodsky

I have to agree with that. Books have no power unless read, and while book burning is a travesty, apathy is a greater one.

Then this got me thinking about the Bible. It is the best-selling book of all time, and is consistently a best seller throughout the year. 

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Satan has used the destruction tactic before. Burning of the Bible (in its earliest form) started in 100 BC with Antiochus IV  burning all the scriptures he could find. Then the Roman Emperor Diocletian burned thousands of copies and on and on throughout the centuries. 

But I think Satan knows that this is a futile endeavor as the Bible itself says, "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” Isaiah 40:8

Then in 1 Peter 1:25: "But the word of the Lord endureth for ever . . . .”

And again in Psalm 119:89: "Your word, O Lord, will last forever; it is eternal in heaven.”

Anyway, Bible burning draws attention to itself and to the Bible. No, a much better ploy is to let people buy the Bible but just not read it. The message inside is powerless if the cover is never lifted and the words never read.

As Elie Wiesel wrote: "The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”

Let us not let the tactic of indifference negate the power of God’s Word. If it is sitting on the coffee table or is in the nightstand, merely chronicling our family trees or gathering dust, let’s pick it up or pull it out, open it, and read it.