At the start of the year, I tackled the task of being a sourdough mom. I purchased a dehydrated starter and set about trying to wake it up. After about a week, it was time to tackle actually making bread. There is so much that goes into it, but the best way to understand it is to jump right in, see the finished result, and then keep making tweaks from there until it’s exactly the way it should be. 

One of the tweaks I had to make was to start using warm water when I fed my starter and when I mixed the dough. Warm water will help the fermentation process much better because the temperature agrees better with the bacteria that causes the dough to rise. The warmth encourages more growth. Pair this with putting the dough in a warm place when it’s set aside to rise? Those are two tweaks that make for a more fluffy, delicious loaf of bread.

“Suddenly [the unwise man] went after [the adulteress], as an ox goes to the slaughter [not knowing the outcome], or as one in stocks going to the correction [to be given] to a fool, until an arrow pierced his liver [with a mortal wound]; Like a bird fluttering straight into the net. He did not know that it would cost him his life. Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, and pay attention to the words of my mouth. Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her [evil, immoral] paths. For she has cast down many [mortally] wounded; Indeed, all who were killed by her were strong. Her house is the way to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.” (Proverbs 7:22-27, AMP)

Back when I used to be a youth leader, we would spend the summer nights out in the church parking lot. Kids would bring their skateboards, scooters, and bikes and ride all around the property. We’d set up big firepits and volleyball nets for some good, old-fashioned goofing off after the meeting was over.

One night, I remember I was talking to a couple people by the backdoor of the church when I heard a scratching sound that would not stop. I looked all around the back stoop until I realized the scratching was coming from the gutter downspout of the church. This downspout went from the eave of the roof and continued underground and must have gone into some sewer system with the town. 

Quickly, me and a couple other people worked to get the piece of downspout disconnected from the pipe underneath. The pipe went down a couple of feet, so dark that we couldn’t see anything but a pair of panicked eyes at the bottom and lots of squeaking. Shining a light down, we realized it was a squirrel. He must have been on the roof of the church and fallen down the gutter into what was a sure death if we hadn’t came along.

We tried a few ways to get the little guy out of the hole, and we ended up feeding a piece of rope down the hole for the squirrel to climb up.

Our sin will entrap us in the same way. Like a little squirrel falling down a pipe that was hidden under leaves, or a bird in a net, or an ox to the slaughter, we often don’t realize the depths of our sin until we have been caught in it. To follow it to its end is certain death and without a Savior is as inescapable as that underground pipe. 

In Proverbs 7, Solomon depicts a young and inexperienced man that lacks the wisdom to turn from an adulteress. This adulteress tempts his every sense and beckons him to be with her. She lays her trap with a luxurious home and a sumptuous bed perfumed with oils and made with comfortable cushions and linens. She smoothly speaks to him and makes him feel desired. She tells him that their encounter will be full of love and delight– until morning. By the end of her invitation, the young man is completely allured and is persuaded inside. Solomon himself ends the tale saying, “He did not know it would cost him his life.”

Our sin separates us from God. It’s not a small thing. We can try to excuse it away or minimize it but if not confronted and given to Jesus, it will ensnare us. If not repented of and turned away from, it will consume us. We cannot claim to walk in righteousness and yet cling to our wrongs.

Solomon begs his son to listen to him and heed his warnings: Don’t let your heart turn to evil. Don’t allow your foot to even step in that direction. Remember, whatever is in your heart, your feet will eventually go. If your heart allows the temptation of sin to be entertained, if you do not guard yourself to be quick to identify the persuasions of the immoral, you will inevitably fall short. A mouse doesn’t usually sense the trap closing over its neck, they only see the bait. A crab doesn’t know it’s in a trap until the doors swing shut and the cage starts to rise off the sea floor.

If we lack spiritual, Godly knowledge, we will walk straight into the trap of our temptations. But if we gain God’s insight and listen to His word, we will be better equipped to be on guard against the sin that beckons us. Solomon warns his sons that the adultress’ home seemed inviting and promised delight, but that seemingly alluring home is the way to death. She’s led many others to it with the same smooth talk; that comfortable bedroom is a chamber of death.

Maybe today’s devotion doesn’t seem so encouraging. Maybe it’s blunt and a little heavy. But we need to be reminded of the egregiousness of our sin. Sometimes, we need to soberly take stock of where we fall short. Be encouraged. God’s Spirit desires to help you fight your sin. His wisdom is designed to help you root it out and live in a way that pleases Him. 

If our ultimate goal is to be spiritually wise and walk the path of righteousness, then we need to be quick to point out our struggle and allow God to transform it. The wise lean into instruction and correction so they can become more wise. The fool bristles against correction so that they can continue to ignore the ways they still need to mature.

Think of Godly wisdom as the rope we hung down into the hole to fish the squirrel out of the pipe. We had to try several times, feeding it in and out over and over before the squirrel finally caught the hint and grabbed onto the rope and climbed out. If we cry out to God for help and wisdom– if we seek the Lord and grab on to His understanding– we will find that wisdom is God’s hand extended to pull us up out of the trap of our sin.

It’s never too late to begin confronting the things we know we fall short in, to turn our direction back to a walk of faith and live a life in service and in the name of Christ.

We’ve all done it– we’ve all looked at the sin of someone else and judged it to be greater than our own. Maybe, in our own pride, we’ve even wished that God would pour out justice on that sin.

In John 8, we see a woman who is brought before Jesus to judge for her sin. John writes that she was brought to the temple and presented to Jesus as an adulteress and was caught in the very act– the punishment for which was to be stoned to death. The aim for these religious leaders was to put Jesus in a catch-22: condemn the woman for her sin thus painting Jesus as a strict, cruel judge, or for Jesus to condone the adultery which would make him wantonly lax on unrighteous, immoral sin.

Have you ever wondered how Jesus went from feeding the five thousand, to only have a handful of people at the foot of the cross when He died?

The truth is, Jesus had His twelve disciples that He hand-picked and called to ministry with Him, but there were other disciples that also travelled with Jesus to the different places that He went to in the three years He taught, ministered, and served. Not everyone went everywhere the way the twelve did, but Jesus had a way of attracting followers just by nature of what He was doing.

Imagine you have a huge debt. I’m talking six figures. Whatever it is– medical, educational, a mortgage– it is crushing and the interest rate on it means that you will be paying it off for the rest of your life. The payments on that debt are so high that you will have to work and work and work around the clock to try and make it. Forget about vacations, luxury items, and eating meals out. You’re just lucky to have food on your table. Everything you think about, do, and work towards seems to have that debt looming over it, shadowing everything. No hope, no relief, no peace.

As far as the disciples go, Peter is probably the most well known. He’s memorable, he’s relatable, and he’s known for both his passionate faith in Christ and his antics. He walked on water, but he almost drowned because he got wrapped up in the moment and took his focus off Jesus. He was a fisherman, the “rock” on which the early church is built, and one of Jesus’ closest friends. He cut off the ear of one of the soldiers who showed up to arrest Jesus. But probably most notably, he’s the guy that denied Christ three times mere hours after the whole group was together in the upper room at the Last Supper. It’s hard to imagine, but it took less than a day to go from that intimate Passover meal to Christ’s arrest and the subsequent scattering of all the disciples. By the time Christ’s trial in front of the Sanhedrin took place, only Peter was left to follow Him, and even then, he followed at a distance.

Blessed are those who mourn… It might seem sort of contradictory. How can it be possible to mourn and yet be blessed? If we’re mourning, it would mean we lost something, right? And losing something or someone to the point of grief can’t be something Jesus wants for us, let alone something He blesses us with. Yes, when Jesus says blessed are those who mourn, He means real and harrowing heartache. The word He uses in the Greek is “pentheó” which means a deep, personal grief over a death or a hope that dies. It is a grief so severe that it takes possession of the person and cannot be hidden.

When we’re little kids, temptation looks innocent. Maybe it’s the late afternoon, dinner is in the oven and the table is set, but your mind just can’t get off of that jar of cookies on the counter. You try to resist temptation, thinking of how your mother would tell you no, but then you think to yourself that just one won’t ruin your appetite. Maybe you can just sneak one and no one will ever know. So you reach your hand in and grab it, but then think to yourself that you’ll probably want more– because just one won’t be enough when you could have three– and you swipe two more. Maybe you get away with it. Maybe your mom doesn’t find out.

I always find it silly when I’m talking about Jesus to someone and they say something along the lines of, “I can’t be a Christian. God doesn’t want me. I’m too far gone for all that.” In theory, I can understand what they mean, and I can sympathize with the fact that someone thinks they are outside of God’s love for them or that they’ve done something to disqualify them from being a part of what God is doing. We might all feel like that at some time or another– caught up in our flesh and sin, knowing we have done wrong– and felt that there was no way Jesus could save us after knowing how despicable we are. To feel that way is to not understand what Jesus did on the cross, and the full extent of that salvation extended.

When it comes to the opening chapters of the Bible, Eve always gets a bad wrap. And no, I’m not looking to play a blame game today over who caused the fall of man, but this week, I re-read this story and a lot of things jumped out at me that I’d like to take some time to look at. I don’t necessarily want to call this whole thing a “series,” but I might possibly take more than one week to unpack it.

Hey Pops, I’ve been frustrated recently, remembering where I’ve been in the past and not feeling like I’m there before. I know that I shouldn’t compare where I used to be with where I am now, but sometimes, I can’t help it. I feel like I should be deeper, more confident, or more satisfied. To be honest, I can’t put my finger on exactly what I feel is missing or why I can’t seem to stir myself up to enjoy you more consistently.

So this whole time, we’ve been talking about the fig tree, and how the Lord never puts anything to waste in the scriptures. Everything thas a Kingdom-minded meaning. What might seem random to us, upon pressing deeper, turns out to have a much deeper meaning. What I think is so unique in Mark 11, is that we get to see one of those random, unassuming parts of scripture become the practical application in just a few short verses.

I think my favorite part about Jesus is that He does very intentional things in a roundabout way. The course of action He takes is almost never the one we would, but it always seems to work out better than what we could have ever forced together in our own strength. It’s because He sees the whole picture. We see dust, He sees an opportunity for life. We see a storm, He sees an opportunity to teach. We see a cross and a tomb, He sees grace and eternal life. So when the paralytic man in Mark 2 is lowered through the roof to sit right in front of Jesus, everyone expects Jesus to heal this man’s broken body. Instead, Jesus throws us a curveball.

When we enter into a relationship with God, we truly learn about ourselves. Being in union with our creator forces us to be self-aware and allows us to evolve into our true identity each and every day. In this process, we sometimes face a lot of hard truths about who we are and how we can act. We see the ugly that lies within us.

“It’s not a holiday. It’s a day of chocolate bunnies and eggs.” Those were the real-life words that came out of a coworkers mouth in my office this week. It was one of those things that pulled my mind straight out of what it was doing and into the world happening around me.

No matter how long you’ve been a Christian– whether you’re on day one or decades from the starting line– everyone that has ever followed Jesus is unified by at least this fact: none of us have ever graduated from the point of salvation. Because no matter how long your spiritual resume is, it is unavoidable that you will struggle with your own tendency towards sin until the day you die. Maybe that’s blunt or depressing, but it’s true. There will never be a point in this life where you will be able to think, “Well, that’s it. I’ve done it. I’ve obtained a wholly righteous and upright lifestyle. I will no longer struggle with sin.”