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I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life. ~ John 8:12 (NLT)

I had an incident which happened to me a while back that was both painful and a bit embarrassing. Back then I lived only a hundred yards or so from the church where I pastored, so I often times ventured over to the building to do miscellaneous things. Often times this involved going over to open or close all of the windows (there’s a lot of them) to either help the church building cool off or keep the warmness in. One evening, a thunderstorm was coming through the area and I knew that the windows at the church were open. So, I decided to go over and get them closed up, lest the wind blow things around inside the church or slam windows shut (We already had one break due to a previous windstorm). Though it was dark outside, I had walked this path many times, so I didn’t grab a flashlight. I headed out into the dark, trotting towards the church. At about the halfway point, things went very wrong. My toe tripped on something unseen and caused my body to fall at a rapid pace toward the ground. In fact, I fell so fast, I wasn’t able to get my hands out to brace myself. I ended up doing a header into the gravel road I was trotting down – skinning up my knee, wrist, and face in the process. So, there I lay bleeding and in a lot of pain. Luckily the wounds healed and nothing was broken. But, next time I venture out into the darkness, I’m taking a light with me.

When it comes to living this life in this dark world, we have two choices. We can stumble around in the darkness, or we can actually allow the light of Jesus to shine into it, lighting our path as we go. As Jesus stated in our verse today, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

So, you have a choice to make. You can choose to navigate this life without Jesus, and you will stumble and fall. You will get hurt and you will never find your way to eternal life. Or you can walk in the light of a relationship with Jesus. Walking side-by-side He will point out the trip hazards. He will light up the path in front of you. He will help to minimize the self-inflicted pain we experience. He will lead us to our eternal home with Him.

Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." ~ John 14:6 (NLT)

When I was a freshman in college, long before the advent of the Internet, smart phones, and GPS, my girlfriend and I decided to take a road trip into San Francisco to see the sights and maybe do some shopping. Right before we left, my girlfriend told me she needed to stop by the bank to grab some cash for our trip. I asked which bank and she rattled off a name that I wasn’t familiar with. I asked if she knew where this bank was located in the greater San Francisco metro area. Her response? “Not really, but how hard can it be to find it?” Let me tell you. We spent what seemed like hours looking for this bank. It was nowhere to be found. I was getting really angry; she was getting majorly defensive. Let’s just say that the words we were using towards each other were neither loving nor encouraging. We were so upset with each other that neither one of us wanted to spend any more time together. So, I turned the car around and drove back to the college and dropped her off at her dorm. The trip was off.

Far too often, our spiritual life can feel like that trip. Now, I’m not talking about a trip to see the sights and get some city swag. Instead, I’m talking about our Christian journey. Notice that I call it a journey, because that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be. Though we may know the ultimate destination (Heaven), we have no idea how to get there.

The only being in the universe who actually knows every twist, every turn, every hill, and every valley that we must take to join Him in heavenly splendor is Jesus. But, here’s the deal. He wants to journey with us. He doesn’t want to just give us a roadmap and say “good luck.” He wants to be with us as we see the sights. He wants to help re-direct us when we take a wrong turn. He wants to point out the wonders of His creation along the way. He wants to build a solid, intimate relationship with us which is built over time and experiences.

This is why He gave us our verse today, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” In other words, unless He is along for the ride, we have no shot at getting to our final destination in Heaven. Only with Jesus joining us on the journey can we experience the perfection which awaits.

Jesus replied, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." ~ John 6:35 (NLT)

It’s one of life’s ironies. In the USA, we tend to be obsessed with our weight. I mean, just look at the dieting industry. There are tons of diet plan options out there (Paleo, South Beach, Keto, etc.). There are diet commercials on TV, on the Internet, radio, magazines, newspapers, and basically everywhere the marketing industry thinks we’ll be looking. The diet industry rakes in billions of dollars per year off of people wanting to lose weight and get in shape. Here’s the ironic part: The majority of people in the USA are either overweight or obese. (Read here for more: https://bit.ly/1nL8c3i) In other words, we’re spending billions of dollars per year on dieting, but we’re not actually following through with the diet plan.

Beyond our physical issues, there is also a problem when it comes to our spiritual diet. The vast majority of Americans own a Bible, but very few actually read it. (Check here for more info: https://bit.ly/2oDFwTN) In other words, we’re good at saying we need the Bible, but we don’t actually follow through with reading it. This results in people whose lives are spiritually out of shape; dying.

Jesus put in simple terms how this needs to work. As He stated in our verse today, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again.”

Our lives are built to be spiritually hungry. But the stats don’t lie. We fill our lives with junk food rather than the actual bread of life. We spend hours watching TV, gaming, and social media, rather than spending quality time learning about our Savior. We fill our lives with things that replace the spiritual nutrition we need. As a result, our spiritual lives gets out of whack. Spiritual disease takes over and we begin to die spiritually.

Family, it’s time for a diet. Dust off that Bible that’s been sitting on your shelf. Open the pages and just start reading. Start simple. Read a chapter or two per day. Read it slowly. Ask questions: What is God saying here? How does this apply to my life? Pray about what you’ve read. Ask God for His wisdom to understand. Get your diet lined up to help you regain spiritual health.

Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. ~ Romans 6:13 (NLT)

We have an epidemic in the world today. Because of our greater connectivity, stress doesn’t just come into our lives every now and again. It streams through every device we own and into our lives. We hear about bad news through our phones the moment it happens. We get called out on social media. Shaming has gone from the school yard to the globe. The keyboard permits people to say things about us globally which they would never say in person. In short, we are saturated with messages of stress everywhere we turn in the modern world.

So, tip # 1 is to take a Sabbath rest from your devices. Stop the flow of stress.

Tip # 2 is to get off your rear. One of the greatest issues with mental health today is that we as a society have stopped exercising. As a result, we are left alone with our thoughts, dwelling on the negative day after day. It eats away at us. It leads us to sinful behavior in an attempt to relieve the pain. We dwell on the evil rather than allowing our bodies to heal through natural stress relief. I don’t have time to detail all of the science here, but Google “benefits of exercise.” The top results will tell you about stress, anxiety, and depression relief.

I believe the issue goes beyond just the physical, however. I believe not taking care of our bodies is a spiritual one. As Paul tells us in our verse today, “Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.” Did you catch that last part? Use your whole body to bring glory to God. But, can we say we’re doing that if we don’t keep it healthy?

Here's my challenge: For the next two weeks, exercise each day. Get your heart rate up. So, go for a walk at good pace, or run. Go for a hike that involves some incline. Hit the weights. Just do something which elevates your heart rate for 30 minutes. Oh, and as you do it, either listen to some good praise music or spend some time talking with God. Invite him into your workout. The results will be obvious: Better mood; better sleep; more positivity; and on and on.

A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body; jealousy is like cancer in the bones. ~ Proverbs 14:30 (NLT)

A few years ago, I was away at pastor’s meetings. Overall, it was enjoyable. I got to hang out with some friends. The food was amazing. The male pastors who didn’t bring their families got to live together in a bunkroom, we had a good time. We also got to rough it a little – as in we had to bring sleeping bags and sleep on mattresses which are built for 10-12-year-old weighted people, not middle-aged dudes. As I was packing to leave, I began to shove my sleeping bag into its stuff sack. At first, everything went in very easy. But, as the bag got fuller, I had to push harder and harder to get everything in. On the first attempt, I didn’t close the sack quickly enough and the sleeping bag started to slither its way back out. After a few times of this happening, frustration set in, and the bag now became my mortal enemy. (Second only to camping tents. If you’ve never set one up, ask someone who has. They’ll explain.) I crammed harder and harder until it finally all stayed in.

Sometimes, we treat our lives like stuff sacks. When we experience issues in life, sometimes we stuff our anger and jealousy way down deep and pretend everything is OK.

Here’s the issue: Eventually all of that stuff will come back out. And, when it does, you will have no control over it. It might exit in a tirade of anger and foul language which costs you friends, or even a job. It may show up in your relationships, slowly destroying the trust that has been built over the years. It may cause issues with mental health which require long-term therapy or prescription medication. It may drive you to addictive behaviors like self-harm, eating disorders, sex, porn, drugs, alcohol, to numb the pain you thought was dealt with. In short, stuffing our stress, our anger, our jealousy down deep doesn’t make it go away. It causes it to grow stronger and stronger until one day, it comes bursting out in very unhealthy ways.

King Solomon, who was a pretty wise dude, put it this way, “A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body; jealousy is like cancer in the bones.” In short, we need to stop stuffing everything deep down inside and need to deal with those things in healthy ways. So, how do we do that? That will be the topic of tomorrow’s devo.

There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death. ~ Proverbs 14:12 (NLT)

It was my sophomore year of high school. I thought things were going pretty well for me socially (I was an introvert back then – go figure!). I felt confident that this would be a great year. So, I arrived at the first banquet of the year feeling good. It was luau-themed party in the large backyard of one of the family’s homes. Within minutes of my arrival, some of the senior guys were actually hanging out with me. Usually they just made fun of me, so this was a welcome change. That changed after about five minutes when they all gave each other a look and nod. Suddenly, I was lifted from the ground by this group of “friends,” carried through the middle of the entire student body, to the pool where I was thrown into the deep end. This of course brought a lot of laughter and cheers from the rest of the senior class who were in on the hazing. I should’ve known that they were up to something. But I bought their deception.

We have an enemy who is far more crafty and deceptive than a group of teenage boys. He’s been watching each one of us, getting to know our patterns, our personalities, our wants. He’s watching for an opening to begin his deception. You see, Satan knows our weaknesses, our wishes, our desires. So, he crafts plans of deception which feed into those desires. He approaches us through someone or something to present a plan which seems awesome of the surface. It appears like it will help us in our life. It’s not until we are half-way down that path, however, that we realize it was all a deception. As a result we suffer pain, heartache, and sorrow. We develop addictions we wish we never had. We get loaded with emotional baggage.

King Solomon knew this all too well. This is why he wrote our verse today, “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” In other words. Satan’s plans always look good on the surface, but will destroy us if we follow them.

So, how do we know which path is Satan’s and which is God’s? There are a few skills we need to develop. 1) Stay close to God. The closer we are to God, the louder we hear His voice. 2) Get into the scriptures. God won’t contradict what He has told us to do in the Bible. 3) Prayerfully consider choices when they are presented and submit to God’s directions. 4) If it appeals to your emotions, be suspicious. God doesn’t manipulate us.

Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong! ~ 1 Peter 3:17 (NLT)

Have you ever woken up to a raging headache, a sore throat, and runny nose? It feels miserable, right? Your mind is foggy, and you know that today’s going to be horrible.

Have you noticed that often times we can tend to blame God when we hurt? For example, we could sit there and lament the fact that God could have prevented us from catching that horrible cold. I mean, He’s supposed to protect us, right? This is really His fault, not ours. Nope. In reality, this is the fault of at least two people: The person who decided to spread their germs and us individually, for either getting too close or not washing our hands enough to prevent contamination.

Unfortunately, though this case is pretty cut and dry, we tend to blame God for the consequences of other actions which take place in our life. I’ve heard people blame God about getting pregnant, despite being on the pill. You had sex. One of the side effects of sex is pregnancy. The pill only works 99 percent of the time. I’ve heard people angry with God because they are suffering withdraws as they recover from a drug addiction. They blame God for not taking away the pain in an instant rather than having them work through the pain to recovery. The list goes on and on. All of those consequences have a common element: Humans.

Because God is love, He has given us humans freedom to do whatever we want. We can choose to do things His way, or we can choose to go our own way. It’s our choice. But we are not free from the consequences of those actions. And, please note, often times those consequences are forced upon someone else due to our actions. Humans hurt humans.

As Peter put it in our verse today, “It is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!” In other words, there are consequences for doing good or doing bad. The consequences for doing good help others and lead to an eternal relationship with God. The consequences of doing wrong bring pain and separation from God.

Today, and every day, before you take action, lay your plans at the feet of Jesus. Talk them over with Him through prayer and by reading the Bible. His truth will always lead to positive consequences.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)

I enjoy playing a round of golf every once in a while. And, by that I mean I get to play maybe once every couple of years. I’m not that great at it. Occasionally, when I hit the ball, it goes where I want it to. And, on those rare occasions, it not only goes the direction I want it to go, but the distance as well. In reality, however, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out which patch of weeds or bushes my ball landed it. I’ve lost a lot of golf balls over the years.

One thing I’ve learned is that golf has its own language. An eagle isn’t bird, it means you got the ball into the hole by taking two less swings than the person who manages the course thought it should take. A birdie isn’t a small bird, but it means you got the ball into the hole in one less swing than thought. Par means you got it in the hole in exactly the number of swings. There are a bunch of others, but you get the idea. Golfers have corrupted the English language. Then there is this word: mulligan. To take a mulligan is to basically get a do-over on your last swing. Your ball flew into the lake? Mulligan! Try again. That last shot isn’t recorded, and you get a new attempt at doing it correctly this time.

God offers each of us a mulligan. In fact, God offers us unlimited mulligans when it comes to our sins. But He is more interested in our soul than our mistakes. The only difference is that God’s mulligan isn’t a do-over for some game we play. Instead, His mulligan redeems us from a life of sin, separated from Him, and restores an eternal relationship with God. As the Apostle Paul put it, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun.” We get a do-over.

However, unlike the mulligans of this world, we aren’t left to figure out how to live life better, we receive a Coach to guide us in everything we do. So, this “new life” which Paul is talking about isn’t on our own. God is with us every step of the way. He’s telling us how to avoid the pitfalls in life. He’s holding on to us as we walk through the darkest valleys. He’s cheering us on when we celebrate the victories of life. This new life isn’t apart from God. It becomes a part of Him. It is the greatest mulligan the universe has ever seen.

On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. ~ Genesis 2:2 (NLT)

I have a coworker in ministry who likes to use a particular word in his sermons, bible studies, books, online presence, and basically anytime he is talking about the Kingdom of God. That word? “Marinate.” For those who have never barbequed or grilled anything, this idea of marinating something might be a foreign concept. Basically, to marinate something, you cover it with a sauce or dripping of some sort (like barbeque sauce) before you put the item on the grill. Often times you do this hours in advance so that the seasonings from the marinade soaks in to the item to be grilled, which will add some great flavor once it is. Master chefs even have secret recipes for their marinade which gives their products a distinctively awesome and unique flavor. So, how does this word marinate apply to the Kingdom of God? Let me show you.

As people, we marinate on all kinds of things during the week. The stresses of our career marinate us with stiff necks, sore shoulders, back aches, headaches, and a hundred different things. The stresses of school marinate us in stress and worry about that next test, project, or the homework we didn’t get to in time. The relationships that surround us day in and day out marinate us in either sweet goodness or sour bitterness. Our finances (or lack thereof) marinate us in anxiety about whether or not we can pay that next house or school payment. Basically, every waking minute of each day marinates us in sweetness or sourness. Then comes Sabbath.

God created the Sabbath as a gift for you and me. He instituted it at creation, and, just to be sure, the Bible says He blessed it. In other words, it’s an extra special day unlike any other. You see, the Sabbath was meant to allow us to shift our focus off of the day-to-day grind and to help us marinate on the goodness of God and what it means to belong to His Kingdom. When we observe the Sabbath, God marinates us with peace, calm, hope, joy, and a million other things that can be in short supply during the week. If we allow Him, by keeping His Sabbath, His goodness soaks into us and prepares us for the fires which await us during the coming week.

Every seven days, God has built in a time to let go of work, of school, of drama, and given us a day to soak in His glory, His goodness. This Sabbath, marinate on that fact.