but she, out of her poverty, put in everything ~ Mark 12:44

I often foolishly offer that my happiness is in opposite proportion to my lack of debt. That is to say that I carry no debt, and believe that I live a happier, more content, and stress free life because of it.

Now the premise is that I don’t have money problems which relieves the weight, and stress, that accompanies them. My wife and I make our purchases in cash. We have learned to wait until we can afford an item before we bring it home.

Then again, we were brought up in a time when our parents paid over time and after the last payment brought home a brand new sparkling product. Today we bring home the product and by the time we pay it off, it’s old and needs to be replaced. Backwards huh?

But it hit me today that I’ve got a bit of it wrong. Yes, I have no worldly debt, and I love that, but I DO have a world of spiritual debt.

Everything I have is by grace. Just for clarity’s sake, the monies we save for the things we need are eyeballed to us by God’s grace, It’s really just borrowed from God, I don’t own it ...it could very easily be taken away by God at any moment ...in reality, I’m actually nothing but in debt to him.

Truly I tell you, this poor soul owes absolutely everything to his gracious father in heaven ... and so do you!

Pray on...

Scripture: Mark 12:44

Have you seen the money people are spending on collectibles lately? An amazing amount of money has been, and is, being spent on all sorts of things that have been in the possession of the famous (often worth more when they’re no longer with us). I don’t personally adhere to this behavior, but then again I’ve never been an autograph hound either.

So I’m reading in Mark 11 about the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem, and something jumps out at me. Something that screams ‘Ebay!’

Listen to this and see if you know where I’m going...

Mark 11:1–3 (NIV): As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’ ”

Did you hear it?  Did you notice it? The colt, the unridden colt, the unridden, prophetic colt (or donkey as it’s sometimes referred)! Are you gonna tell me that the colt wouldn’t be a collectors item in today’s world, that it wouldn’t be worth way too much money, that it wouldn’t garner a hefty profit for someone on Ebay?

Now what does that tell us about the world we live in? There has to be a message loud and clear in that revelation.

See, I understand the value of the colt. It served the Son of God. It transported him ...and no one else had ever ridden it (a virgin of sorts). But there’s a difference between valuing something and using it for a prophet. It seems to me that our world has blurred the line between the two.

Then again we live in a world that is so far removed from that Palm Sunday event so many years ago. But I can’t help but wonder about such things ...and that recognizing the world’s values, the careless loss of innocence ... and the basic disrespect for human life aren’t signs of how we’re treading down a dark path.

Lord, help us to regain our vision, our voice, and our love for the life that was won for us.

Pray on...

Song: It's Cold War (Album: Trio)

As the new year begins, and we welcome an unknown future of events, this seemed like a beneficial piece of scripture to begin with this week.

Each new day is unlike any we’ve experienced before, and to negotiate our way through it successfully we need some guidance, and that is what God reveals today in Isaiah 58:11. Not only does he say he’ll guide us, but he says he’ll always guide us.

Pray on,

~ E.M.

Song: Lead Me Down the Road (Album: Re:Prize)