Practicing the Presence of God at Work, Part 3
I might have called this series of devotions “A Week with Brother Lawrence.” If you’ve been with us on Monday or Tuesday, you know that I’ve been using Lawrence’s classic book, The Practice of the Presence of God, to help us grow in our experience of God’s presence in our daily work.
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Practicing the Presence of God at Work, Part 2
In yesterday’s Life for Leaders devotion, I began to share with you some reflections based on the classic Christian book The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. This book will help us, I believe, to think about how we, like Jacob in Genesis 28:16, might recognize God’s presence in our workplaces, even if we have been unaware of his presence in the past.
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Practicing the Presence of God at Work, Part 1
I spent much of last week reflecting with you on Genesis 28:16. After encountering God in a dream, Jacob woke up and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place—and I did not know it.” I suggested that many of us might say the same thing about our workplaces, when we discover that God is present there.
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Seeing New Things in Scripture
Sometimes our life experiences help us to see things in Scripture we have never seen before. This happened to me as I read Genesis 26 in order to write today’s Life for Leaders devotion. I was struck by how much the theme of water runs through this chapter. In fact, eight times in Genesis 26 (26:15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 32) the narrative mentions wells for water. Wells are dug and filled with earth. Wells are celebrated and fought over. We understand, of course, that wells are necessary for the people in this story because without wells they would have no water. They and their livestock would either move away or perish.
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Oh, No! Not Again!
Like father, like son. This can be a good thing, or a not-so-good thing. For example, people have often told me that my son, Nathan, looks like me. Now, I don’t know if he thinks this is a good thing or a not-so-good thing. But it certainly is a real thing, at least according to many people. (Of course, it’s hard for me to see the resemblance. But you can decide for yourself on the basis of this rather grainy, recent photo of Nathan, Kara, and me. Okay, okay, I know there is a slight hair color difference here.)
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Uh-Oh. That’s Not Good! Part 2
In yesterday’s devotion, we noticed a problem in the family system of Isaac and Rebekah. Isaac loved his son Esau, by implication, more than he loved his son Jacob. Why? Because Esau was a skillful hunter who would bring game for Isaac to eat. This kind of “love,” love that is earned by the performance of a child, isn’t really love and doesn’t reflect God’s own fatherly love for us. Moreover, it leads to negative behaviors in children and brokenness in families.
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Uh-Oh. That’s Not Good! Part 1
In today’s and tomorrow’s devotions, I want to speak specifically about parenting. These devotions will be directly relevant to those of us who are parents, of course. But even if you do not have children, these devotions can help you to be an encouragement to your friends who are parents and also to help them raise healthy children who know the love of God.
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The Conviction of a Leader
We often think of leaders as those who take charge, who set the course, who boldly establish direction and call others to follow. Yet, research on leadership has found that effective leaders are also good listeners, people who solicit and receive input from others, who are willing to change course on the basis of new evidence or wisdom. We who lead, therefore, must determine what kind of leadership is required at any given moment.
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Blessed in All Things
If someone were to sum up your life when you’re in your final days on Earth, wouldn’t you like it to sound something like Genesis 24:1? Someday, I hope it might be said of me, “Now Mark was old, well advanced in years; and the LORD had blessed Mark in all things.” Blessed in all things! Now that’s the kind of life I want to experience. In fact, I’d be happy with “Blessed in all things” as the epitaph on my gravestone.
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Owning a Bit of the Future
Genesis 23 begins with the sad news of Sarah’s death and Abraham’s mourning for her. Yet most of the chapter is taken up with the story of Abraham’s securing a place to bury Sarah. As a resident alien in Canaan, he did not own property and, therefore, lacked a suitable burial site for his wife.
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When God Tested Me, Part 4
After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Take your son, your only…
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When God Tested Me, Part 3
This week, my devotions are based on the story in Genesis 22 of God testing Abraham. Today’s devotion is really a continuation of yesterday’s devotion. For the full story, you should read it first. But today’s devotion stands on its own.
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When God Tested Me, Part 2
This week, my devotions are based on Genesis 22, the story of God testing Abraham. Yesterday, I shared my belief that, during my years as the preacher for Irvine Presbyterian Church, God would often test me by presenting me with unusual and unexpected opportunities to do what I was going to preach about. The following story offers an unusually dramatic example.
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When God Tested Me, Part 1
As you probably know, one of the distinctives of the Life for Leaders devotions is that they are biblically based. Most of the time, this means that each daily devotion includes explicit exposition of the biblical text. Every now and then, however, it seems to me that some additional narrative might help you connect scriptural truth to your own life. So, the rest of the devotions of this week will tell some of my own stories of being tested by God. I hope these will help you see in a fresh way how God is at work in your life as well.
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Why Does God Test Us?
I spent much of my life as a student. During those many years, I took hundreds of tests. All in all, I did just fine on them. But the thought of taking a test still makes my stomach churn. Truthfully, I still have nightmares about having to take a test for a class that I forgot to attend.
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