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Psalm 127:1 – Vain Life: Your House

Christian Walk, Devotions, Family, Jesus

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain. (Psalm 127:1 ESV)

In the previous devotion, we discussed the definition of vain and an overview of our series. You can read it here.

From Ryan:

I n the Bible, the building of a house can often be referred to as your life or family (Genesis 16:2, Ruth 4:11, 2 Corinthians 5:1-4). The most important part when building a house, or any building for that matter, is the foundation. I have a favorite Starbucks where I live because of how big and open it is unlike the other two Starbucks in town. The reason it is so much larger and open is because it was built from scratch. They were able to lay the foundation they wanted for it while the other two Starbucks were built on foundations that were previously used for fast food joints. They were constrained by the size of the foundation they were using.

All of our lives are built on foundations which determine their direction. If our goal in life is to retire early, then we Continue Reading →

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2 Thessalonians 1:3 – Love: A Faith Barometer

Devotions, Family, Love, Relationships

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. (2 Thessalonians 1:3 ESV)

Have you ever said to yourself, “I need to increase my faith”? Maybe you have read a book or listened to a sermon series that gave you steps or ideas to increase your faith. Most of the time these are great ideas and steps, but don’t necessarily focus on the outward expression of our faith, which is love. Do you look at your life and say I am not loving others enough, therefore my faith is lacking? Faith isn’t simply head knowledge of the Bible or Jesus. Think of it this way, even Satan and his demons believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead (James 2:19).

We must realize Continue Reading →

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Jonah 1:14-16 – Man Overboard

Devotions, Family, Relationships, Sin

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

Therefore they called out to the LORD, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.” So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. (Jonah 1:14-16 ESV)

Jonah was running away from God and affecting the life of these sailors. The storm was so great that they were afraid. These were experienced sailors who had gone this route many times and experienced plenty of storms. But, there was something different about this storm. They did everything they could and it came down to one person causing the storm, Jonah a man running from God. The only way to keep from capsizing and drowning was to throw him overboard.

Does this sound familiar to you? Continue Reading →

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Psalm 127:1 – The Vain Life

Christian Walk, Devotions, Encouraging, Family

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
(Psalm 127:1 ESV)

From Ryan: 

I am at a point in my life right now where I am being asked to make some big decisions. These decisions will affect where I am living, what I am doing in the next few years, and maybe where I will spend the rest of my life. This is scary for my wife and I. I have a great paying job, a nice place to live in, a wonderful wife, awesome son, and a dog named Sparky. Things are going well. Obviously, it can be scary thinking of leaving the good setup I have going right now. After reading this verse in Psalm 127 there was a sense of peace that came over me. It doesn’t matter where I go, where I stay, what I do, as long as it is what God wants me to do. If I do what God wants me to do, then it won’t be in vain.

There is nothing worse then spending days, weeks, months, on a project and it not coming together. You spend your time, blood sweat, and tears on a project for nothing. Continue Reading →

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Jeremiah 29:4-7: Doing Life in the City

Christian Walk, Devotions, Encouraging, Family, Relationships

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jeremiah 29:4-7 ESV)

Living in a broken world it’s very easy to adopt a “fortress mentality” wherein we withdraw from the culture and community around us to guard ourselves and simply wait for Jesus to return or die and go to heaven. Some may adopt the mindset, “The culture is the cesspool of human sin, so we should just abandon it to its own ways and keep our children as far from it as possible.” Others say, “Things are predicted to get worse before the Lord comes back, so why seek the welfare of the city?” In Jeremiah 29 the Hebrew people are battling a similar mindset. They’ve been taken captive by their enemies, and transplanted to the extremely pagan city of Babylon. They’ve been told by some of their prophets that in the very near future God will deliver them, so they should withdraw from the city around them and wait for God to return them to their homeland.

Jeremiah challenges them with a radically different attitude. Jeremiah wants the Hebrew people to realize that God has placed them in Babylon on purpose. He challenges them to… Continue Reading →

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Luke 17:10 – Our Simple Duty

Christian Walk, Church, Devotions, Family

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” (Luke 17:10 ESV)

It is extraordinarily easy to think too highly of ourselves. As Christians, we often feel a certain satisfaction when we can look back on a week knowing we did our devotions everyday, attended church, went to Tuesday night small group, and even took the kids to youth group on Wednesday night. After all, we’re doing far more than most of the other Christians we know, right? Here’s the sobering truth: we shouldn’t get puffed-up with pride when we’ve simply done what is required of us as disciples of Jesus! Here are three reminders of our simple duty: Continue Reading →

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