Colossians 3:12-17 | Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

When Bill Husted walked into his 40th high school reunion, he shook hands and hugged people for 20 minutes before realizing there were two high school reunions in the building that day and he was at the wrong one.

Husted, a technology writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, used that experience to illustrate one of his enduring axioms of computer troubleshooting: Check the obvious first.

Before you replace the sound card, make sure the volume control is not turned down. If the modem isn’t working, check to see if it’s connected.

“Check the obvious first” can be a good principle for spiritual troubleshooting as well. Colossians 3:12-17 lists a dozen spiritual qualities that indicate a healthy soul. Prominent among them are compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, love, and thankfulness.

Before criticizing our church or other Christian groups, we might ask the Lord to reveal our own shortcomings. Prior to ripping out the wires of relationships, we could check to see if patience and forgiveness are connected in our own heart.

It’s good to look inside our heart—to check the obvious first—even when it feels as if all our problems are caused by others. — David McCasland

I’ll check within my own heart first,
The obvious to see,
That faults I find in others
Are really faults in me. — D. DeHaan

Christlike love is patient with the faults of others.

Devotional from YouVersion Bible App – Our Daily Bread.
Contact Pastor Rod Lindemann at RodL@TimothyLutheran.com on how to use the Bible App for additional readings and topics.
We would like to thank Our Daily Bread for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: https://odb.org/
What if you could spend time meeting quietly with someone who loves you—and who accepts you just as you are? Millions of readers around the world have turned to Our Daily Bread for moments of quiet reflection with God. In just a few minutes each day, the inspiring, life-changing stories point you toward your heavenly Father and the wisdom and promises of His unchanging Word.

1 Ephesians 1:15-23 | For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

My 2-year-old grandson was fascinated by the bubbling mud pool, the result of geothermal activity in Rotorua, New Zealand. On moving to another spot and seeing no bubbles there, he remarked, “No batteries?” He was so accustomed to his electronic toys that he attributed even natural phenomena to battery power!

Christians can make a similar mistake—they look to their own puny power to live righteous lives. But the high moral and ethical standards of a holy God prove impossible to live up to. The result is joyless Christians, hopelessly burdened and defeated.

Paul’s prayer for the believers in Ephesus was that “the eyes of your understanding [be] enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling . . . and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Eph. 1:18-19). He wanted them to see that the power available to help them live God-honoring lives is the same power that “raised [Christ] from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (v.20).

The power to live according to God’s standards comes only when we plug into His inexhaustible power. How do we do that? By daily seeking His face and asking Him to fill us with His Holy Spirit.

Fill each heart and reign alone,
Break the idols we have known;
Lead us to confession true,
Give us strength Thy will to do.
—Peterson

The Light of the World knows no power failure.

Devotional from YouVersion Bible App – Our Daily Bread.
Contact Pastor Rod Lindemann at RodL@TimothyLutheran.com on how to use the Bible App for additional readings and topics.
We would like to thank Our Daily Bread for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: https://odb.org/
What if you could spend time meeting quietly with someone who loves you—and who accepts you just as you are? Millions of readers around the world have turned to Our Daily Bread for moments of quiet reflection with God. In just a few minutes each day, the inspiring, life-changing stories point you toward your heavenly Father and the wisdom and promises of His unchanging Word.

Isaiah 1:11-18 | “The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the LORD. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

When my computer greeted me one morning with what is ominously referred to as “the blue screen of death,” I knew it was broken, but I didn’t know how to fix it. I read a little, tried a few things, but finally had to call an expert for help. Knowing that something was wrong was only a small part of the problem; I couldn’t fix it because I didn’t know the right thing to do.

The ordeal reminded me of the many pundits who appear on television news programs. All of them are “experts” at proclaiming what’s wrong, but most are clueless as to what is right.

This happens in relationships as well. In families, churches, and workplaces, nothing gets fixed because we get fixated on what’s wrong. It doesn’t take an expert to know that something is wrong when people quarrel and hurt each other with unkind words and behavior. But it does take an expert to know how to fix the problem.

God revealed to Israel’s prophets not only what was wrong but also what was right: “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isa. 1:16-17).

Instead of focusing on what is wrong, let’s obey the One who knows what is right.

Lord, grant me grace throughout this day
To walk the straight and narrow way,
To do whatever in Thy sight
Is good and perfect, just and right.
—Huisman

Like a compass, the Bible always points you in the right direction.

Devotional from YouVersion Bible App – Our Daily Bread.
Contact Pastor Rod Lindemann at RodL@TimothyLutheran.com on how to use the Bible App for additional readings and topics.
We would like to thank Our Daily Bread for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: https://odb.org/
What if you could spend time meeting quietly with someone who loves you—and who accepts you just as you are? Millions of readers around the world have turned to Our Daily Bread for moments of quiet reflection with God. In just a few minutes each day, the inspiring, life-changing stories point you toward your heavenly Father and the wisdom and promises of His unchanging Word.

Acts 17:24-31 | “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

When our boys were small, we played a game called “Sardines.” We’d turn out all the lights in our home and I would hide in a closet or some other cramped place. The rest of the family groped about in the darkness to find my hiding place and then hide with me until we were squeezed together like sardines. Hence the name.

Our smallest family member at times became frightened in the dark, so when he came close, I would whisper to him softly: “Here I am.”

“I found you, Dad!” he would announce as he snuggled against me in the darkness, not realizing that I let myself be “found.”

Likewise, we have been made to search for God—to “grope for Him,” as Paul put it so vividly (Acts 17:27). But here’s the good news: He is not at all hard to find, for “He is not far from each one of us.” He desires to make Himself known. The truth is that He’s always with us, we don’t have to find Hm. “There is a property in God of thirst and longing. He hath longing to have us,” wrote Dame Julian of Norwich centuries ago. Before we come to know Christ, we grope for God in the darkness. But if we search for Him in earnest, He will make Himself known, for He rewards those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6). He will call to us softly: “Here I am.”

Man gropes his way through life’s dark maze;
To gods unknown he often prays,
Until one day he meets God’s Son—
At last he’s found the Living One!
—D. De Haan

Devotional from YouVersion Bible App – Our Daily Bread.
Contact Pastor Rod Lindemann at RodL@TimothyLutheran.com on how to use the Bible App for additional readings and topics.
We would like to thank Our Daily Bread for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: https://odb.org/
What if you could spend time meeting quietly with someone who loves you—and who accepts you just as you are? Millions of readers around the world have turned to Our Daily Bread for moments of quiet reflection with God. In just a few minutes each day, the inspiring, life-changing stories point you toward your heavenly Father and the wisdom and promises of His unchanging Word.

Luke 23:32-43 | Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

On my wife’s T-shirt is a cartoon of a sheep walking on two legs and addressing a wolf who is barring the sheep’s passage through a gate.

Standing by the sheep is a familiar-looking man. He has a beard, compassionate eyes, and a look of authority. The sheep speaks to the wolf as he gestures toward the man and says, “I’m with Him.” The sheep’s trust in his Shepherd gives him great confidence.

On the day Jesus died, three crosses were raised. Jesus hung on the center one between two criminals. One of the men mocked Jesus, but the other said to Him, “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus answered, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).
Imagine the man’s thoughts as he took his last breath. He had paid a horrible penalty for his crimes. But now, because he put his faith in Jesus, he was welcomed into heaven as a child of God. Perhaps he said with confidence, “I know I don’t deserve to be here, but I’m with Him!” gesturing toward Jesus. And Jesus would have confirmed it: “He’s with Me.”

Like the thief on the cross, we all face a choice. Have you dedicated your life to Christ and surrendered to His will? Can you say with confidence, “I’m with Him”?

We are with Him and He with us;
Great confidence this gives
To face life’s trials and even death
Because our Savior lives.
—D. De Haan

Devotional from YouVersion Bible App – Our Daily Bread.
Contact Pastor Rod Lindemann at RodL@TimothyLutheran.com on how to use the Bible App for additional readings and topics.
We would like to thank Our Daily Bread for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: https://odb.org/
What if you could spend time meeting quietly with someone who loves you—and who accepts you just as you are? Millions of readers around the world have turned to Our Daily Bread for moments of quiet reflection with God. In just a few minutes each day, the inspiring, life-changing stories point you toward your heavenly Father and the wisdom and promises of His unchanging Word.