NO MORE LOCKED ROOMS

SCRIPTURE
Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.
-John 13:17 (NLT)

Jesus appeared to his disciples several times after his resurrection. At least two of those times, the disciples locked themselves in a room for protection. They knew that the Jewish leaders wanted them dead. They had been marked as subversives who were threats to Jewish tradition just as Jesus had been. They still lived more afraid of what was outside instead of more confident in who had called them.

Where do we cower behind our own version of locked doors on this day after Easter Sunday? The climate in our communities isn't always kind to Christians. Like the disciples, we are also afraid to speak up, for fear of retribution. So what does the resurrection of Christ mean to people who live afraid of put-downs and rejection?

First, it means that nothing keeps Jesus away from his disciples. Can you imagine the disciples' surprise when Jesus appeared inside their locked room? Isn't that a bold reminder we need in these days of cultural chaos. Jesus is present. No angry mob, threat, or locked doors can keep him away. He knows how to come to where we are sitting in fear.

The second reminder is what Jesus brings when he comes. He brings peace. He brings his recognizable, saturating, present peace. This peace is a person, not a feeling. This peace is our victor, our defense, and our security. This peace goes with us wherever we go. Christ himself woos us out of our locked rooms to be representatives and spreaders of his peace. His peace shares forgiveness, reconciliation, and compassion. It shares strength, commitment, and perseverance as we live in resurrection power, not locked-room fear.

Are we bolder because of our journey to the cross? Is there an unquenchable fire in our hearts to live and share who Jesus is as we talk, connect, question, and love? As we transition into living the lessons we have learned from this journey, may we live them with the humility we learn from Jesus, who grabbed the towel and basin but never traded on his right to be served. May we live so closely connected to his peace that it becomes the first quality people notice about our lives. May we never confuse protest with proclamation. May we become the people of the resurrection because too many people around us are living dead, and Jesus wants to raise them to life too.

It is a bold and humbling mission. But people who follow the resurrected Christ will always find the empowerment they need to meet the challenge. Then none of us will need to cower behind locked doors.

PRAYER FOR THE YEAR AHEAD

Resurrected Lord,
Make me resurrection strong,
Empowered to live the fleshed-out Word of God.
I want to be your salt and light
Spreading forgiveness as generously as you did.
I want my life to burn into a flame for you
That turns to ash whatever I do not need
To live as your servant.
With this new look into the empty tomb
I face my broken world
To share this consuming fire in my heart
with whoever you bring my way.
Show me where to start
And how to keep burning for you.
Amen!

TAKE ANOTHER LOOK

SCRIPTURE
He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.
Come and see the place where he lay.
-Matthew 28:6

The sun rose on Sunday after Sabbath, just as it did every Sunday. But something was different today. The world changed, and the witnesses to the change each saw something different.

Think about the soldiers who drew the short end of the stick for all-night duty. They guarded a tomb to keep people from getting inside. They never expected that they needed to guard the tomb to keep someone from getting out!

Think about the women on their early-morning trek. They wanted to prepare the body of Jesus as a last way to honor the one they loved. They didn't know they had been invited to a welcome-back party.

Think about Peter and John running to the tomb with anger and disbelief boiling as they tried to make sense of what the women had reported--that Jesus's body was not in the tomb, that he was alive. They would take no one's word for it, but they never expected to be able to confirm what the women told them.

And what of us this Easter? What do we expect as we celebrate the story we know so well? What do we expect because we know the tomb is empty? That is the Easter question we must answer.

God wants us to see the full force of his power to change the end of our story. What could have happened didn't happen because God showed up! Every day beyond Easter is a day of empty-tomb discovery, a day we can find out how God wants to change the end of our story. Every day that we wake up, the empty tomb reminds us again that God works behind the scenes.

Today is a day to leave death clothes in an empty tomb and rediscover how the resurrection changes our story with more victory than defeat. Today, we look inside the empty tomb and leave our emptiness there too. We dare to believe that Jesus gives us whatever we need to live his way. Take another look at the empty tomb. What does God want us to know? When he speaks we will find the rest of our story.

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. Which of the first witnesses to the Easter miracle are you most like?
2. How will you keep Easter truth burning in your heart?

AFFIRMATION
Easter proves that I can live in the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Risen Lord, help me live out the full meaning of your resurrection in the coming year.

WAITING IN THE DARK

SCRIPTURE
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
-Genesis 1:2

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
- Luke 23:44-45

Darkness is our enemy when it comes out of order and unexpectedly. A power outage that wipes out electricity and our quick access to light makes us feel helpless and vulnerable.
We arm ourselves with flashlights and candles and wait for the light to return. This is the picture of Saturday's vigil following Friday's crucifixion. People went home, lost in a darkness they had not expected. The hope that had walked into their world as a person who healed and taught and stood up to Jewish leaders was dead. Darkness covered their lives as never before. It was the darkness of questions without answers, the darkness of absent hope, the darkness that made normal impossible--maybe forever. They did not expect the light to come on again.

It was like the darkness that covered the earth before the beginning of creation. That darkness was a void and an emptiness so thick and pervasive that nothing else existed. That darkness covered the earth and was the sum and substance of everything. In this dark beginning before our world came to be, God stepped in and created what had not existed: light. In a similar act of creation, God was about to do something with the darkness of this Saturday that would forever become a dividing line. It would either give us something to believe or something to reject.

It is hard to know how the disciples felt and what questions they asked on this day of darkness. More than one probably hurled an accusation into God's face. Others grieved what was lost. We want to tell them that God was bringing light that would be as dramatic and miraculous as the light of creation. We want to give them hope for what is coming. Yet what do we do in the dark times we encounter? We need to remember that darkness is never God's last word. Nothing is so hopeless that God cannot use it as raw material to make something new.

Today we sit in darkness, but we sit with hope because we know Light will come.

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. Where are you afraid that some darkness in your life is here to stay?
2. How has God brought light to a past darkness of yours, and what hope does that give you for a dark time now or in the future?

AFFIRMATION
If I persevere, I will see God turn my darkness into light.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Creator of light, give me patience to wait for the light you will bring to my darkness.

WHY, GOD?

SCRIPTURE
About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" (which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?").
-Matthew 27:46

We prefer our saviors to look like saviors. We echo Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of the first verse of Isaiah's great prophecy: "Who would have thought GOD's saving power would look like this?" (Isaiah 53:1, MSG). We look with disgust at images of Jesus nailed to a cross, the crown of thorns pressed into his forehead deep enough for blood to stream down his face, which is swollen from the abusive blows that had nothing to do with justice. He slumps, shoulders bowed, gasping for breath. And he says nothing.

He is the teacher who spoke with authority. His words delivered people from blindness, paralysis, death, and hopelessness. He commanded the wind and demons. But when he is the victim of injustice—he says nothing.

Our senses aren't prepared to see anyone nailed to wood, suffocating on a cross, losing blood, dehydrating, gasping for air with painful, inefficient results. Yet we can't take our eyes off Jesus. We must look. That's when we hear the cry that cuts us to the bone--words of utter abandonment. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Here is the dark night of the soul. The comfort and assurance Jesus needed before his last breath was not there. It made the darkness even darker.

But here also is where we realize what Jesus did for us and how far he went to do it. Jesus carried the sin of the world and took on the full effects of God's unrelenting repulsion of sin. In that moment, Jesus took what we need never experience—the total turning away of God from sin. In this moment, the heavens did not open. The dove did not descend. There was no voice affirming the Son who did what his Father asked. There was nothing but silence, darkness, and absence magnifying the agony of Jesus in ways we can never truly understand.

But don't stop looking--because here is where Jesus does the unbelievable. Jesus does not rail against what his Father did not do (save him from this pain). Jesus takes the darkness of God's absence and uses his last breath to commit himself into his Father's hands anyway.

I have heard the cries of many who blame God for not doing something. The darkness they live with is painful. But God does not withdraw his presence from us--not since Jesus took that darkness for us. We never need to know a single moment of abandonment in the way that Jesus experienced it.

So what will we do as we stand before the cross this Good Friday? Will we take all the whys we've hurled at God and leave them where Jesus did—in God's hands?

 Since today is a solemn day of reflection, consider praying this prayer several times today:

Understanding Lord,
You know the whys l've lived unsuccessfully.
Today I stand before the cross
Where Jesus took the full impact of my sin.
How can I be anything but grateful?
Because of what you did for me,
I place my unanswered questions in your hands
Because keeping them will destroy me.
I confess that living without your presence
Is worse than living without the answers I want.
Today, I begin a new journey.
I will seek my answers
In the answer you gave all of us
Through the cross where you surrendered all,
Even your why.
Amen

SEEDS OF BETRAYAL 

SCRIPTURE
Greatly distressed, each one asked in turn, "Am I the one, Lord?"
-Matthew 26:22 (NLT)

Betrayal is a subtle visitor--until it isn't. On the night Jesus was betrayed, only he saw the darkness lurking. He gathered with his disciples to eat the Passover meal. Jesus always used every moment to open hearts to the truth. He took the towel and basin and washed his disciples' feet. Peter, outspoken as always, protested the inappropriateness of his Master acting like a servant. Jesus looked into Peter's eyes and helped him realize this washing was not just about dirty feet. It was an invitation to surrender more of Peter's raw and misguided enthusiasm.

Judas was also there with dirty feet and misguided assumptions. Jesus gave Judas the same opportunity for surrender that he gave the other disciples. However, seeds of betrayal had already been growing. We saw them at Mary and Martha's house when Mary washed Jesus's feet with expensive perfume and Judas called it waste. It was betrayal hidden behind logic and reason.

We also must ask what seeds of betrayal might be buried in our own lives. Where do we use logic to identify mission and minis-try? Where do our needs or insecurities betray the call of Jesus? Where do we follow him with reticence? Where have we allowed Jesus to wash our feet but not our hopes and dreams? A heart that burns for Jesus willingly and honestly allows Jesus to bring any hint of betrayal to the surface, where we can reject it. The issue isn't ranking its severity; the issue is rejecting the seed so it does not grow.

We don't usually put ourselves in the same category as Judas. However, his betrayal didn't start on the night of Passover. It started with an attitude, an interpretation, a rationalization, and many secrets.

The important question we ask as we journey toward the cross is whose response we will choose--Peter's surrender or Judas's betrayal. Unlike Judas, we still have time to choose surrender.

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. Where do you resist Jesus's call to surrender, and how is that a form of betrayal?
2. Where are you vulnerable to developing a seed of betrayal, and how can you eliminate it?

AFFIRMATION
I refuse to grow a seed of betrayal because betrayal ultimately turns on me.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Faithful Lord, may my obedience demonstrate a disgust for betraying you in any way.

AM I AN ANSWER TO JESUS’S PRAYER?

SCRIPTURE
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
-John 17:11

Have you ever heard someone pray for you who did not know you were listening? The closest I ever came was seeing my name written in my mother's Bible with a date. I knew my mother prayed for me and, because I recognized the date, I knew how God answered her prayer.

Printed on the pages of our Bibles, captured for us in black and white, we can eavesdrop on the prayer Jesus prayed for us before he went to the cross. Think about it. Before Jesus paid the price as our sacrificed lamb to take away our sins and return us to the loving arms of our Creator, Jesus carried us to his Father's heart.

Before anything else, Jesus prayed for our unity (vv. 20-21). He asked his Father to help us establish oneness so deep and unbreakable that the world would know us by our unity instead of our protests (v. 21). He didn't only want us to be one with each other; he also prayed for oneness with God that would mirror the relationship of Jesus with his Father (v. 20-21). He prayed fervently that the world would come to know who he was and what he came to do because of the way his followers understood and carried out his mission (v. 23).

Are we living answers to this personal and intimate prayer of Jesus? Each part of Jesus's prayer shares a sobering question we must answer before we take our places before the cross on Good Friday. Jesus didn't die for our excuses or complacency; he died for every way we have rejected or replaced God's ways. The call of the cross comes to us through Jesus's prayer. Ultimately, we must answer whether it has become our prayer as well.

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. How are you answering Jesus's prayer for you and your faith community?
2. How can you address any areas where you are not an answer to Jesus's prayer but want to be?

AFFIRMATION
The more I am one with Jesus and his purpose, the more I participate in the unity he prayed for.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Sovereign Lord, I want to be an answer to your prayer for unity. Show me where to begin.

WHEN JESUS TURNED THE TABLES

SCRIPTURE
For we are the temple of the living God.
- 2 Corinthians 6:16b

When I was six or seven years old, my father pastored a small church. There was no money for janitorial services. On Saturday nights our family cleaned the church. While I didn't always enjoy it, there was something special about getting the building ready for Sunday. It was a feeling I've never forgotten. One of the lessons I learned was that it was always worth getting ready for God to do his work.

What did Jesus see when he walked into the temple and turned over the tables of the money changers? Did he see entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on religious needs? Did he see selfish greed masked as ministry? Something was wrong, and Jesus was having none of it. Jesus called for his Father's place of worship to stop peddling religion and make every square inch a place where people and God could connect easily, intimately, and with transformation.

Today we must remember that we are God's temple. We are the living stones that God wants to use to raise a people who share God's light in our dark world. Sometimes we need a few tables turned over in our hearts. We know we carry too much unnecessarily. We crowd out the work Jesus wants to do in our temple hearts.

The temple-cleansing story is not only about the people who misuse God's house. The story also reminds us that Jesus wants to clean our hearts from unnecessary work and worries that will not grow or produce God's fruit. We must welcome his work to edit our thoughts, perspectives, and priorities. How would Jesus respond if we let him?

I don't think Jesus left the temple angry that day. I believe he left broken-hearted. Did anyone understand his message? Did anyone change? Probably not the money changers, who likely took their broken tables home to repair them for another day. Let's not be like them--more upset about how Jesus messes with our plans than we are about realizing we have failed to learn and do what he wants. Let's determine to accept any table-turning that Jesus asks us to do.

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. What table does Jesus want to overturn in your heart to get more of your attention?
2. How can you be a worshiper who makes God's house a house of prayer?

AFFIRMATION
I am God's temple, and Jesus has my permission to clean it.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Freeing Lord, my heart is an over-crowded closet. Help me reduce the clutter.

ARE WE PALM SUNDAY PEOPLE?

SCRIPTURE
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 2:5

Jerusalem was crowded with people shouting a hopeful song. Were they celebrating Jesus as one who was like a Messiah, or did they understand that Jesus was the Messiah? Palm Sunday won't answer that question. The answer comes with what they did with their praise on Monday. We know what happened on Monday. They put away their praise palms and returned to life as usual.

Are we Palm Sunday people? Are we content to join the crowd on Sunday and sing our praise, only to turn back to our week without living out the truth we praised?

We must change the story. We must be the same praising people on Monday. We must turn deaf ears to half-truths and twisted arguments. We must raise our voices for Jesus in our family and work relationships. We must take our Sunday praise to the places where people suffer, struggle, protest, and bury dreams. We must see Jesus riding into our days and join the angels who sang at his birth, "Glory in the highest. Peace has come!"

We must live as people whose Sunday praise is as vibrant and magnetic on Monday as it is on Sunday. Our world needs us to be more than Palm Sunday people. Let's surprise them and live our praise the rest of the week.

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. Whom would you have been in the Palm Sunday gathering, and why would you have joined the parade?
2. What difference does Sunday praise make on your Monday morning?

AFFIRMATION
I have every reason to join the praise of Palm Sunday and even more reasons to keep living it on Monday!

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Worthy Christ, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart Lead me to keep praising who you are and what you have done.

A HEART THAT BURNS

WORSHIP FOCUS
Remember

SCRIPTURE
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
-Zechariah 9:9

We look at the last week of Jesus's life before the cross. We know that everything he says and does carries weight. This is not the time for the trivial and mundane.

Each day we must continue to look for how our commitment and obedience will help us grasp what Jesus's death on the cross means. We must ask ourselves if our hearts burn with what carried Jesus to the cross. We cannot only review how this event changed the world. We must also ask how it reorients our own lives. How does it share hope, no matter where we find chaos or conflict?

Ask Jesus to guide you as you take these questions into this week. Let him confirm new understandings and show you how to live new insights. No matter how often we have reviewed this story, we need a new surrender to what Jesus did and why.

BURNING QUESTION
What difference has it made that Jesus brought salvation that you cannot negotiate or reproduce?

SUNDAY PRAYER
Life-giving Jesus, help me review the events of Holy Week to rekindle and sustain a consuming fire in my heart for all that you want me to live because of the cross.

WILL YOU REALLY LAY DOWN YOUR LIFE?

SCRIPTURE
Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you."
-John 13:37

Jesus knew his time with the disciples was limited. He did not waste words as he spoke about going where they could not go (see John 13:33). What waited for Jesus and his followers wouldn't be easy, and Jesus wanted to prepare them.

Bumbling Peter tried to prove his allegiance by promising, "I will lay down my life for you." We stand there with Peter and want to say the same. However, like Peter, we don't always understand what it will take. Laying down our lives for Jesus is not simply a promise to stand up for Jesus in a cultural conflict. It is about laying down our will and right to control our own lives. This laying down of our lives doesn't begin in the big moments. It starts with the little ones. It starts with the words we use, the motives we act on, the priorities we choose, and the rights we protect.

I like the way The Message paraphrases the laying-down invitation in Romans 12:1: "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering." Now that's a lay-down for sure. No strings attached. Here I am, Lord! Use me, move me, or tell me to stay.

If we learn to lay down our lives in small ways, we won't know any other way to live when a crisis comes. We won't miss the moment that holds more eternity than we imagined because we will already be in laying-down mode.

We can't brush Peter's boast away without recognizing where we have made our own empty promises. But we can start with the simple moments and learn what happens when we give them to Jesus without our expectations connected. Hear the question again: Will you really lay down your life? How are you answering it today?

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. How will you lay down your words and actions before Jesus without claiming your rights to them?
2. What has Jesus taught you about laying down your life that has grown your faith?

AFFIRMATION
I will surrender what Jesus points out to prepare me for whatever Jesus directs.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Life-giving Jesus, because you laid down your life for me, I have every good reason to lay down mine for you.

USEFUL WASTE

SCRIPTURE
Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages."
-John 12:3-5

Jesus and his disciples enjoyed leisure time at the home of Lazarus after Jesus brought him back to life. Mary entered with a jar and stood behind Jesus, who reclined at the table. Before anyone noticed, she broke the jar and poured the expensive oil on Jesus's head. Confusion settled in the group. Judas believed she was wasting expensive oil that could have been sold to help the poor.

Before you point a finger, think about taking a year's worth of your take-home pay and splurging on a thank-you gift for the surgeon who saved your loved one's life. Would it be irresponsible or generous? The problem is that there is no formula here.
However, we do have Jesus's response, which indicates that he thought she had done a beautiful thing.

The story reminds us that there is a time when waste is generous and hoarding is closed-hearted. There is a time when pouring it on is better than giving up merely a drop or two. There is a time when monetary value is irrelevant and only the heart can measure the gift.

Whom would we have been in this scene? One of the indignant witnesses who saw the waste? One of the quiet ones waiting for Jesus's response? Or someone who wished they had thought of doing such a beautiful thing?

Jesus's teaching here is that we will lose what we hold too tightly and gain what we think we have given up. It is the practice of useful waste. Sometimes useful waste is playing with your children instead of trying to get ahead on bills, groceries, or maintenance projects. Sometimes useful waste drops everything when a neighbor needs a ride to the doctor. We can't choose opportunities for useful waste; they choose us.

Jesus reminds us that what we do for others in these unexpected moments, we do for him. We anoint him with the oil of thanksgiving for what he has brought to our lives. We follow him to the cross, where there is no place for our will to take priority. It is useful waste, and to Jesus, it will always be a beautiful gift.

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. Who are you in this scene: the one who practices useful waste or the one who criticizes it?
2. How can you live more generously with your time, money, skill, or energy?

AFFIRMATION
The more I acknowledge Jesus's generosity toward me, the more I want to be generous to others.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Merciful Lord, teach me where I can give more love, forgiveness, and second chances in the extravagant ways you continue to give them to me.

DEAD MAN WALKING

SCRIPTURE
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
-John 11:43-44

The story of Lazarus is a personal and dramatic healing by Jesus. Lazarus was dead for three days. They wrapped him in burial strips and had every reason to believe rigor mortis had set in. We know that Mary and Martha, Lazarus's sisters, were unhappy about Jesus's delay. They knew Jesus could have healed his illness, but three days dead in the tomb made them believe it was too late.

Maybe that's the first lesson from this story: it is never too late for Jesus to make a difference. Not in illness, marriage, work, or anything that feels hopeless. But there is a companion lesson too: don't try to tell Jesus what he could have done better!

In this grief-filled scene, Jesus shared a sentiment we don't see in other stories. He cried. I don't believe his tears were about what could have happened or even the three-day agony his friends had endured. His tears went deeper as he experienced the tug-of-war between the confines of humanity and the unfailing love of his Father. With a startling shout, he called Lazarus out of the tomb with the authority of heaven. The call woke Lazarus, restarted his heart, returned his blood flow, and removed all evidence of physical death except for the grave clothes he'd been wrapped in. It must have been frightening to see Lazarus shuffle out of the tomb—even more frightening when Jesus instructed people to remove the binding cloths.

We live bound up too—not with grave clothes but with pressures that could take us to the grave before our time. We live restricted in ways Jesus never wanted. We point fingers and share Martha's accusation, "If you had been there."

Instead, we need to hear the life-giving call to leave behind what keeps us from life in Christ, for him, and with him. I'm not sure we're ready for resurrection truth unless we hear Jesus's call to Lazarus as his call to us as well. Don't pass this story too quickly without asking what has bound you. Perhaps if we sit listening long enough, we will hear Jesus's compassionate and life-giving invitation to us: "Come out!" Then we will be ready to live resurrection truth.

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. What binds you today or in this season of life?
2. How can you obey Jesus's call to come out and live in his way?

AFFIRMATION
Jesus demonstrated power that I can live in today.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Powerful Lord, when you call me, I will come out of what has bound me.

ONE OF TEN

SCRIPTURE
Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"
-Luke 17:11-13

By this time in Jesus's ministry, interruptions weren't new. He was no longer nameless or unrecognizable. Crowds followed him. He was a magnet for the sick and disabled, so there was nothing unusual about ten lepers respectfully keeping their distance yet crying out to him for help. Pity isn't much help, but maybe it was all they felt capable of asking for. Leprosy made them outcasts, robbing them of family, worship, and identity. Leprosy gave them no rights in the community.

In this encounter, Jesus didn't touch the lepers. He didn't even pronounce them healed. He only instructed them to go see the priests. It meant another journey, but they obeyed, and on their way to see the priests, they noticed that their flesh-eating sores disappeared. They were healed! Each man experienced life-changing healing that would allow them to return to their families and normalcy but only one returned to Jesus to say thank you (vv. 15-16).

The point of this story is not the healing; it is the gratitude. And the question we must ask of ourselves is whether we would have returned to Jesus to say thank you. Where does gratitude live in our relationship with Jesus? Are we always asking for more of something we think will make a difference? Are we takers or thankers?

If gratitude ruled our lives, no one would suffer in silence because grateful people would notice and help. Every child would know love, and every home would be safe. Work would be a joy, not a taskmaster. We would live in God's blessing, and the end of life on earth would be more of a benediction. If only gratitude ruled the world!

We can change that by practicing gratitude today. Don't let a good gift pass by without saying thank you to God. The man who came back to say thank you to Jesus went away with more than physical healing. What waits for us if we practice more gratitude?

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. When have you held back your gratitude until you had the answer from Jesus you wanted?
2. How can you make gratitude your first response today?

AFFIRMATION
I am not self-made or self-powered.
Everything is a gift, and I will live with gratitude.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Awesome Father, with all my heart I say thank you. Help me live my gratitude.

RICH OR POOR?

SCRIPTURE
Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
-Matthew 19:16

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem when he was interrupted. Not one to ignore a person, Jesus stopped and directed his attention to the wealthy man. When this intruder had Jesus's attention, he called Jesus "teacher." Clearly this man had already heard enough about Jesus to know that if anyone could answer his burning question, Jesus could. So, he asked. He was looking for a kind of security he did not get from money or status.

Aren't we all? We grab what we think will secure--us the next promotion, investment, relationship, or some other opportunity that promises more than we currently have (and usually more than it can actually provide). Here is where our perception of security is flawed, just like this man's.

Jesus pointed the man to God's commandments. "Which ones?" the man asked (v. 18). His response showed his ignorance. He wanted to be sure he obeyed only the right commandments that would secure his eternal life--as if he could pick and choose his obedience.

Jesus didn't let him play word games. Instead, he tested his desperation, telling him to sell his possessions, give to the poor, and follow Jesus. It was a chance for this supposedly rich man to live with less while experiencing more. However, because he had "great wealth" (v. 22) and was apparently unwilling to give it up, he left Jesus's presence feeling sadder than ever.

We point fingers at this man for his foolishness, but we should be pointing at ourselves. What is something Jesus has asked us to surrender that we questioned or refused? What are we supposed to learn from this story? Perhaps we should remember that every good and perfect gift comes from God (James 1:17). What God gives us, he also helps us use most effectively. Less is more when God is in charge. Let God prove it.

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. How do you demonstrate that everything you have and value is a gift from God?
2. If God reveals what you hold too tightly, how will you let God show you where it belongs?

AFFIRMATION
Every good and perfect gift is from God above! (See James 1:17.)

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Wise Giver, help me be open to your gifts and practice obedience about where they belong in my life.

THE TAX COLLECTOR IN ME

SCRIPTURE
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
-Luke 5:27-28

Jesus's disciple whom we know as Matthew--called Levi in this passage from Luke—was a tax collector. He was hated, snubbed, and considered to be a Jewish traitor. He over-collected Roman taxes with no remorse. Numbed to his social isolation because he lived well, he probably rationalized his actions with gray-area thinking. Did he believe Rome owed him? Or maybe he thought he was doing it for his family. We can always find a reason to do what we want.

What disarming look did Jesus give him? What made Matthew see the contrast between the lie he built his life upon and the truth that could free him? What made him leave his tax-collecting post and follow the teacher who saw into his heart? It was love--love so great and permeating that Matthew's life completely changed. He no longer desired to take from others. Instead, he lived to give more than he took.

Sometimes our insecurities push us into tax-collecting ways. We expect others to give us the confidence, the understanding, the security we need. We can take our tax-collecting postures until Jesus looks us in the face. He reminds us that when we let others supply what should come first from him, we stay needy. We have the same opportunity Jesus gave Matthew. We can leave our tax-collecting folly to follow him into a deeper security we can't know any other way.

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. Where do you take more than you give?
2. What do you need to leave behind in order to follow Jesus today?

AFFIRMATION
When I am in need, Jesus is my first responder.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Promise-keeping Lord, protect me from taking from others what you have promised to give more generously.

BURNING ENCOUNTERS WITH JESUS

WORSHIP FOCUS
Responding

SCRIPTURE
My heart has heard you say, "Come and talk with me." And my heart responds, "LORD, I am coming."
-Psalm 27:8 (NLT)

The more self-sufficient we think we are, the more we fool ourselves. We are needy people. Perhaps that's why the extravagance of God sometimes feels unrealistic or out of our reach.

This week, we will review encounters people had with Jesus. Each story is part of our own story and will help us uncover needs we have not recognized or that we have tried to meet our own way.

It is time to take a lighter journey to the cross by leaving behind what we don't need and receiving from God what we do.

BURNING QUESTION
How will you prepare to encounter Jesus today?

SUNDAY PRAYER
Gracious God, burn away what doesn't belong in my heart to prepare me for a fresh encounter with you.

PRAYING WE

SCRIPTURE
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition... and confessed... we have sinned and done wrong.
-Daniel 9:3a, 4a, 5a

Our worldview changes when God's unfailing and scandalous love permeates our hearts. We take God's perspective. There is no them and us. We all need God's forgiveness. That's where Daniel's prayer for his people is a good model for praying for our community, nation, and world. Daniel prayed we. Daniel became a representative of his wayward people and confessed not just his own sins but all of their sins. This is intercessory prayer at its deepest level. However, praying we isn't for the faint of heart.

We live among many who do not understand God's unfailing love. We live among people who consider God's laws to be narrow-minded and restrictive. They refuse anyone who would dictate morality, for fear they might lose their autonomy. Daniel lived with the same kind of people. He didn't talk against them; he prayed for them and confessed their brokenness as his own.

We need more people like Daniel who will carry the subtle and blatant ways people have turned away from God and his Word.

We have sinned as a group. We have sinned as a neighborhood. We have sinned as a church. We have lived for ourselves. We have tried to fit into our culture. We have run after other gods. We have participated in actions that make it difficult for people to see the glory of God living in us and among us. Therefore, we must confess.

If we prayed Daniel's prayer, we would share the suffering that took Christ to the cross to die for people who do not love him or understand his love. We pray this way if we want God to use us as magnets and transformational examples for anyone who is confused about who God is. Until sin breaks us wherever we see it, until we stop talking about them and start praying about us, the awakening God wants to bring won't come.

Today, learn to pray we from the burning in your heart that only God can ignite.

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. How can you pray Daniel's prayer for your community?
2. How does praying we change your attitude toward people who live against God's love and life?

AFFIRMATION
What breaks God's heart breaks mine and compels me to pray we.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Lord of all, help me pray more we prayers and become an agent of healing in this mixed-up world.

THE SALT AND LIGHT EFFECT

SCRIPTURE
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.
-Matthew 5:13-14

The TV commercial for a popular salted chip brags that you can't eat just one. Salt creates an appetite for more. Is that why Jesus used salt to remind us how to live our lives to help people develop an appetite for God? It's the salty-chip response. We are to be God's bag of salty chips for the world around us. Will our neighbors--the soccer family we see at games, people we get to know at the gym--get a taste of God's love by interacting with us?

And what did Jesus say would happen if we lost our saltiness? We would get trampled. Have you been feeling a little trampled in this world? If so, could there be a connection with our lack of saltiness?

In case we didn't get the message, Jesus went on to talk about the light effect. We know that we need light to see. But Jesus wasn't telling us to carry flashlights or pay our electric bill. He wants us to make sure the light of God lives in us. This is light that needs no words to be recognized.

Don't misunderstand here. This isn't a vote for a silent witness. This verse reminds us to keep God's light in our lives with our words, attitudes, and perspectives--not by pointing our fingers and using words that repel, divide, or destroy people. We need words of light that speak the truth in love.

The world is filled with bland and dark lives. We are called to be salted people with light that shines out in every way possible. It is a counter-cultural way to live, that's for sure. But it can't be artificial. We begin with more of God in us. We look for his light wherever we experience darkness.

Jesus living in us is the hope of this world. But it will take a lot more salt and light. Are we up for the challenge?

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. How can you monitor the saltiness of your Christian witness? What would make you saltier?
2. Who needs you to be God's light in their darkness?

AFFIRMATION
The closer I walk with Jesus, the more of his salt and light I can share.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Holy Lord, help me exchange my complaints about this world for more salt and light that I can share to make a difference your way!

HE TOOK MY CASE

SCRIPTURE
You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life.
- Lamentations 3:58

As an awkward teenager, my mouth usually got me into more trouble than my actions did. I tended to argue a point to the despair of everyone else in my family. My sister used to take me aside and plead, "Why can't you just stop arguing and leave it alone?" I couldn't answer then, but I think I can now.

I wanted someone to stand up for me and take my side. I fought for self-worth that I thought someone else had to give me--preferably on a silver platter, and a trumpet would be nice! What I didn't understand was that what I wanted the most would never come from an argument; it would come because the Creator of this world stood up for me.

What God did for me, he did for the whole world. At just the right moment, God took our case. He opened his heart and showed us Jesus to help us know his love as the purest, most healing, most redeeming love ever shared. He knows our self-centered, sinful history, can see our future, and wants to love us into eternity with every good and perfect gift along the way.

God took our case and argued our worth by giving us Jesus. God willingly became human to experience rejection, betrayal, and humiliating death. His argument for us enables us to live deeply loved so that we can love others honestly and selflessly in ways that do not empty us. We can live with healed self-concepts birthed in God's love for us. We can live knowing someone is always standing up for us with an argument of love that no one can silence except ourselves.

Today is a good day to live in the love of the One who took our case to the cross. We can live loved, in order to love more fully. We can live loved, in order to serve without needing something in return. We can live loved, and enjoy the original intimacy model with God, without fear of anything he already knows. Why would we want to live any other way?

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. What difference does it make that Jesus carried your case to the cross?
2. What does Jesus deserve from you because he died to save you from living without God?

AFFIRMATION
Jesus took my case, and I need no other argument to know I am loved.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Eternal Litigator, remind me how you stood up for me, and help me stand up for you.

DEEP AND WIDE

SCRIPTURE
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.
-Ephesians 3:17b-18

I've seen the Grand Canyon with its abyss where the river below looks more like a stream I could jump across. I sat on rocky ground with my tennis shoes staunch against a boulder because I knew I would not survive a fall into that crevice. It was immense but not limitless. As wide as an ocean is, as long as a journey around the sun might be, as high as a space launch might reach, and as deep as a volcano might--go God's love is wider, longer, higher, deeper.

I sit in my small corner of the world and cannot fully imagine the limitless reach of God's love. But I know this in the deepest way possible: God's love reaches me. His love reaches every hidden place where thoughts, hopes, dreams, and motives are born. He knows me from the inside out and loves me limitlessly.

I didn't always believe that. I remember a Bible teacher who counseled us to sit silently until we understood that God's love was enough for us at that moment and for that day. I completed that exercise every morning for several weeks. To focus on God's singular and comprehensive love for me was life-changing. From a place of being completely loved, I loved others better, more willingly, and without expecting anything in return.

Too many times we try to love on our own, when our love bank has been depleted. Instead, we must start with how much God loves us. We can't simply tuck this fact away in our heads. It must be a truth we experience, fresh with each sunrise. God always gives us enough love to love others. He knows where our love can make a difference. We follow God's leading because self-willed love is often self-serving.

Whom is God calling you to love? Don't love with your needy, self-protecting love. Love from a fresh awareness of God's wide, long, deep, and high love that replaces your best effort with his limitless love. Then you will discover that, the more you share God's love, the quicker your love bank gets refilled.

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. What is your biggest hurdle in believing in God's limitless love for you?
2. Where do you try to share your love instead of God's love? How can you change that today?

AFFIRMATION
I can share more love with family and friends when I know how limitlessly loved by God I am.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
God of limitless love, remind me how your love heals where I have been hurt or betrayed by others.

SCANDALOUS LOVE

SCRIPTURE
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
一John 3:16

I feel like a pinpoint in the world whenever I find myself in an airplane flying over open land or cities. My larger-than-life world reduces me to ant status from this viewpoint. I echo David's cry, Who am I that you pay attention to me? (see Psalm 8:4).

But God paid attention to all of us when he sent Jesus. We practice the story without understanding the truly scandalous act of love this was. God—who has the power to destroy the unreceptive and the stubborn—acted in all love for every person born on this planet. Think about it. God gave his love away outrageously, generously, and selflessly when he sent us Jesus. And what happened? Jesus was rejected, despised, and crucified.
It seems scandalous to give more love than you get back. But really, we are the scandalous ones--always loving with reserve, calculating our return, hoarding more than we give. That's not a picture of God's love.

A true encounter with God's great love changes us. His love transforms us from the inside out. Knowing that we are loved wholly by God because of who he created us to be, we are freed to love ourselves in healthy ways and love others in productive ways.

Are we ready for God's love to empower every loving thing we do? When God's love is our pivot point in relationships, we understand that loving God's way never empties us. His love fills us again and again. Scandalous, isn't it? And all God wants in exchange is first place in the loves of our lives. Can we give him what he wants the most? Aren't we the scandalous hoarders if we don't?

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. When has God's generous love supported you in the past when the way you tried to love didn't?
2. Whom could you love better if you loved with God's love?

AFFIRMATION
God loves me with a scandalous love that empowers me to love myself and others God's way.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
God of unfailing Love, help me look to you for love before I look anywhere else.

UNFAILING LOVE

SCRIPTURE
Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord's unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him.
-Psalm 32:10

God is not a stranger to our mishaps in love. He sees every rejection, every betrayal, every argument, every separation. He longs for us to know that he is the God of unfailing love. It's not just one of his traits; it's the trait that binds everything we know about God together. He loves deeply, with empowerment and healing, and his love does not fail. Ever.

It's time to stop wishing God would give us what we want and let God give us what we need--his unfailing love. He wants his love to be our first love because no other love can give us what God can give so completely. Who would we be if we completely believed in God's unfailing love? What would happen if we fully accepted that we are worth loving for eternity? Who could we become if we accepted how God values and believes in us?
Wouldn't we live with more security and less fear? Wouldn't we reflect our original, God-given identity and stop chasing someone else's idea of who we should be?

Lent gives us space to review the loves in our lives that pull us down, frustrate us, or hurt us. Sometimes they are people; sometimes they are activities or habits. We can't always remove them, but we can, with God's love, reassign their priority in our lives. We can ask God to give us what we need to protect us from frustrating and self-destructive detours. We can receive unfailing love that empowers us to receive and give love from a healed place and not a wounded one.

Let God love you today. You--the needy, wanting-to-do-better you; the you who needs to know that when God loved the world, he directed that love personally and unfailingly to you. You are not just another prayer request. You are the apple of God's eye, God's treasure, God's reason for getting involved in the mess of this world.

Live knowing that the unfailing love of God is your armor, your home, and the lap of a doting father of a prized child. Live loved. Deeply loved.

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. Where do you feel the most unloved? Ask God to bring his unfailing love there.
2. Whom do you have trouble loving? Ask God to bring his unfailing love there.

AFFIRMATION
I am loved beyond my understanding, and I am also empowered to love others more with God's unfailing love.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Compassionate Father, sometimes I feel under-loved because I don't allow you to love me with your unfailing love. Show me your love today.

A BURNING LOVE

WORSHIP FOCUS
Come for Love

SCRIPTURE
And that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.
- Deuteronomy 30:20a

The Bible is a love story. It is the story of God's love with backbone, determination, persistence, and uncompromising boundaries for our protection. He does nothing without us in mind-and not just us from this generation. His actions and instructions are for all of us, from the beginning of time to the end of it on this earth. His love burns deeply for us. No one will ever love us more strongly, more purely, or more completely than God.

We bring our hearts to God for examination to hear from the One who loved us first. When we have a fresh encounter with the burning love of God, we have more love to share. This week, take the journey to review God's burning love for you and let his love set your heart burning for those who don't yet understand how much God loves them.

BURNING QUESTION
Which action do I need today in worship: loving, listening, or holding fast?

SUNDAY PRAYER
Great Lover of my soul, awaken my desire to recognize and receive more of your love so that I may listen more and obey quickly.

HONESTY WITH GOD

SCRIPTURE
You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
-Psalm 51:6 (NRSVUE)

My husband and I enjoy many places in our community where we can walk. I especially love the wooded trails just minutes from where we live. Regardless of the season, the trees are our allies and secret keepers as we walk and talk together. It reminds me of the garden walks Adam and Eve took with God. They enjoyed an unforced relationship with God that we long for.

We can have the same intimate relationship. However, it must grow from honesty, vulnerability, and obedience. Developing intimacy with God is sometimes a painful learning curve. We aren't always honest with ourselves about our motives and per-spectives. How can we be honest with God if we aren't honest with ourselves?

Too many times I have come to God upset about something or someone. What I wanted from God was agreement. Instead, I received his honesty about my motives, my closed mind, or my self-absorption. God shared honestly from a heart of love, and although I did not feel shame, I felt exposed in a way that I could recognize God was right. The more I accepted honesty from God, the more I wanted to give honesty back to him.

As God models honesty with us, we can learn how to be more honest with ourselves. It means we ask more questions of God rather than telling God what to do about something. Remember that God "will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart" (1 Corinthians 4:5a).

Anything but honesty is an unnecessary interchange with God. He already knows what's in our hearts anyway. Honesty with God brings new growth and self-awareness. Honesty with God makes us stronger, not weaker. It creates the closeness we crave. This is where we return to the walk in the garden with God, who never wants to find us hiding. He wants us to recognize what he knows about us and how he uses it to transform and protect us. All God needs from us is a spirit that seeks the truth and knows we will always find it in his loving words.

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. Where do you fear honesty with God or yourself?
2. How can you practice honesty with God today?

AFFIRMATION
As I learn to be more honest with God, I will learn to be more honest with myself.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
God of all honesty, I need your honesty to help me be more honest with myself and those I love.

A WORD OF FAITH

SCRIPTURE
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel."
—Luke 7:9

I love the story Luke told of the centurion's faith. The centurion was a gentile asking for help from Jesus, who was Jewish. This Roman officer sent Jewish elders to deliver a message to Jesus that the officer's servant was desperately ill. Jesus, always ready to help, began walking toward the centurion's home. The centurion must have seen Jesus coming because he sent other messengers to tell Jesus to just "say the word" (Luke 7:7).

If I put myself in this story, I wouldn't be the centurion or one of the elders. I would be one of the messengers pushing Jesus to walk faster and get to the house before the servant died. That's why the centurion's faith humbles me. He only wanted a word from Jesus. But there is no record to tell us what that word was. Jesus didn't stop, raise his head toward heaven, and say, "Heal," elongating the vowels to guarantee there was no mistake about what he asked. This was a lesson about faith, not about healing!

Real faith acknowledges the presence and power of the Word made flesh. All arguments to persuade Jesus about how great the need is are unnecessary. He already knows. We want Jesus to say the word that brings change, healing, or help. The problem is, we don't know what that word is. But isn't that where faith comes in? Jesus knows the right word. Say the word becomes a simple prayer that gives Jesus all control. We don't direct; we receive.
Our faith is in who Jesus is before it is in what can do. He will do whatever is right, true, best, empowering, holy, and eternal. Nothing more, nothing less.

We need faith-building experiences like the centurion had. Maybe some are waiting on the other side of our asking Jesus to send us his word for the moment, the day, or the hardship. Perhaps it's not a word with vowels and consonants because he himself is the Word. His presence means we need fewer words because we recognize the power of the Word himself.

Today, pray with confidence: Say the word!

BURNING QUESTIONS
1. How is it backward to connect faith to what Jesus does for you rather than connecting to who Jesus is?
2. How can you learn more about who Jesus is to you today?

AFFIRMATION
The Word became flesh and still speaks the word I need to hear.

PRAYER FOR TODAY
Speaking Lord, say the word I need today. If I listen more, I need fewer words.