Rumination Journal

“Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with gladness; come into His presence with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and bless His name. For the LORD is good, and His loving devotion endures forever; His faithfulness continues to all generations.” — Psalm 100:1-5     There is something beautiful about beginning a new month with an invitation to give thanks. Psalm 100 calls God's people to approach Him with joy, gladness, praise, and gratitude. The psalmist does not begin by asking us to consider what we lack or what we hope to receive. Instead, we are invited to recognize who God is and what He has already done. “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.” These words reflect the worship of ancient Israel, when people gathered to approach God's presence in the te...

“Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” — Romans 12:1     For an entire month, we have considered what it means to be called to serve. We have thought about the gifts God gives us, the needs of people around us, the example of Jesus, the importance of generosity, the pursuit of justice and mercy, and the quiet faithfulness that makes a lifetime of service possible. On this final day, Paul brings all of those ideas together in one sweeping invitation: “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices.” In other words, offer God your life. The word “therefore” at the beginning of Romans 12 is important. Paul has spent the first eleven chapters of Romans describing the grace and mercy of God. He has written about sin and forgiveness, faith and justification, life in the Spirit, the love of God, and the astonishing mercy through which God welcomes us. Then P...

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’” — Matthew 25:21     There are many things we might hope will be said about our lives. We may want to be remembered as successful, accomplished, generous, wise, loving, or influential. Yet for a follower of Jesus, few words could be more meaningful than these: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Jesus speaks these words in the Parable of the Talents. A master prepares to leave on a journey and entrusts his property to three servants. One receives five talents, another receives two, and another receives one. In the ancient world, a talent was a very large amount of money, so Jesus is describing significant responsibility. Each servant receives something entrusted by the master and must decide what to do with it. An important detail appears near the beginning of the story: the master gives “to each ...

“We always thank God for all of you, remembering you in our prayers and continually recalling before our God and Father your work of faith, your labor of love, and your enduring hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” — 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3     When Paul thought about the Christians in Thessalonica, he remembered three qualities. He remembered their faith, their love, and their hope. These words appear together repeatedly in the New Testament because they describe something essential about Christian life. But Paul does not speak about them as abstract beliefs or private feelings. Each one produces something visible. Faith works. Love labors. Hope endures. The Christians in Thessalonica were relatively new believers, and their circumstances were not easy. Paul later refers to the severe suffering in which they had received the gospel. Yet something had begun happening among them that Paul could see and remember with gratitude. Their relationship with Christ was changing the way they l...

“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” — 2 Corinthians 9:6-8     Giving reveals something about the heart. We can give because we feel pressured. We can give because we want others to notice. We can give reluctantly while wishing we could keep what we are sharing. Or we can give because gratitude and love have loosened our grip upon what God has entrusted to us. Paul invites us into that last kind of generosity. The setting of this passage is important. Paul was encouraging the Christians in Corinth to participate in a collection for believers in Jerusalem who were experiencing need. This was more than a financial campaign. C...

“When He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.’” — Matthew 9:36-38     Jesus saw crowds differently from the way we sometimes do. A large group of people can easily become anonymous. We see numbers rather than individuals. We speak of populations, communities, statistics, trends, and needs. These descriptions can be useful, but they can also create distance between us and the actual people whose lives they represent. Matthew tells us that when Jesus saw the crowds, “He was moved with compassion for them.” Jesus saw more than a crowd. He saw people. He saw their weariness, confusion, vulnerability, and need for guidance. Matthew describes them as “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus did not respond with irri...