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Exodus 36:35

Come On In

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 31, 2025

Exodus chapters 36 and 37 introduce us to a remarkable man named Bezalel, handpicked by God to lead the construction of the tabernacle. God said of him, “I have filled Bezalel with the Spirit of God and have given him the skill, ability, and knowledge to do all kinds of work.” Bezalel was, in many ways, the Michelangelo of the Hebrews—perhaps even their Leonardo da Vinci—a master craftsman, architect, and artist all in one. He personally built the Ark of the Covenant, the very heart of the tabernacle where God’s presence would dwell. The Ark was a masterpiece of divine design—crafted from acacia wood, overlaid with pure gold, and crowned by cherubim whose wings overshadowed the mercy seat. But Bezalel also designed the enormous veil that separated the Ark from the rest of the sanctuary. His greatest creation, the masterpiece of his inspired craftsmanship, would remain hidden behind a curtain—seen only by the High Priest, and even then, only once a year. What a strange paradox for an artist: to labor on something so magnificent that no human eye would ever see it.

That veil, however, carried a message far greater than its woven beauty. As Max Lucado writes, “A great curtain hung as a reminder of the distance between God and man. It was like a deep chasm… God could have left it like that. He could have, you know. But He didn’t.” The curtain was both a symbol and a barrier—a constant reminder that sin separated humanity from the Holy One. But God had a plan to bridge that chasm. Lucado continues, “God Himself bridged the chasm. In the darkness of an eclipsed sun, He and a Lamb stood in the Holy of Holies. He laid the Lamb on the altar—not the lamb of a priest or a Jew or a shepherd, but the Lamb of God. The angels hushed as the blood of the Sufficient Sacrifice began to fall on the golden altar. Where had dropped the blood of lambs, now dripped the blood of life. ‘Behold the Lamb of God.’ And then it happened. God turned and looked one last time at the curtain. ‘No more.’ And it was torn … from top to bottom.”

In that moment, everything changed. What had once been hidden was now revealed. What had once been forbidden was now freely open. The veil that Bezalel so skillfully wove became the very fabric God Himself would tear apart to welcome His children home. Through Christ, the true and final Ark of God’s presence, the invitation rings clear and personal: “Come on in.”

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Ecclesiastes 1:3, 1 Corinthians 15:58

A Profit Motif

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 30, 2025

Benjamin Franklin is one of the most frequently quoted figures in American history—and quite possibly the only Founding Father who could also sell you a lightning rod, publish your almanac, and fix your printing press before lunch. His sayings are so familiar that people often mistake them for Scripture. I’ve even heard someone say, “You know, the Bible says, ‘Cleanliness is next to godliness,’” when, in fact, it was Brother Ben, not Brother Paul, who coined that phrase. Franklin had a knack for packaging common sense in catchy sound bites, most of which had a healthy dose of capitalism baked in. “Nothing but money is sweeter than honey.” “Beware of small expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.” “A penny saved is a penny earned.” He was America’s first motivational poster. Alongside his passion for thrift, he also preached the gospel of hard work: “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” And while that advice may not guarantee sainthood, it probably explains why Franklin became such a successful businessman, inventor, and statesman.

When you open the book of Ecclesiastes, you meet another man with Franklin-like tendencies—Solomon, the original philosopher-king, who also had plenty to say about work, wealth, and wisdom. He introduces himself as “the preacher” or “the teacher,” and right from the start he asks a question that would have caught even Franklin off guard: “What does it profit a man for all the hard work he does under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:3). Solomon revisits that question again and again, like a refrain in a melancholy song. The expected answer each time is simple: “Nothing.” All the sweat, struggle, and striving “under the sun” leads to no lasting gain. His conclusion? “Vanity of vanities,” or as we might say, “It’s all pointless.” But before you cancel your to-do list, notice that key phrase—“under the sun.” It’s unique to Ecclesiastes and crucial to understanding Solomon’s point.

According to the United Bible Societies’ Handbook for Translators, “under the sun” can also be rendered “in this life.” From that perspective, Solomon’s argument makes perfect sense—when life is viewed purely from an earthly vantage point, nothing we achieve truly lasts. Yet the Handbook also notes that Solomon eventually hints at something beyond “this life.” In other words, there is meaning—just not here, not “under the sun,” but “above” it. The Apostle Paul picks up this very theme when he writes about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. After proving that our labor has eternal value, he concludes in verse 58 (New Living Translation), “So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.” Franklin might have said, “A penny saved is a penny earned,” but Solomon and Paul remind us that a life lived for God is an investment with eternal dividends.

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Genesis 27:5, Hebrews 11:16

He is not ashamed of us

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 29, 2025

Numerous religious leaders throughout history have fallen into sins of immorality, and every time I hear of a pastor or spiritual leader caught in scandal, my first thought is always, “What could have happened?” Then, almost immediately, I’m tempted to say, “That could never happen to me.” But Paul warns us not to think that way. “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” Given the right circumstances, any of us could stumble. It’s sobering to remember that sin is no respecter of titles or positions. I once read that if the right pressures and circumstances were in place, most people would have obeyed Hitler. That’s chilling—but it reminds us that we all share the same human frailty. When famine struck in Isaac’s time, he ran to Egypt for help, just as his father Abraham had done. Egypt seemed to be Israel’s go-to escape plan whenever things got tough. And sure enough, on his way there, Isaac stopped in Gerar, where, in a moment of fear, he pulled an Abraham classic—telling the locals that his wife Rebekah was his sister to save his own skin. Like father, like son.

But the family drama didn’t stop there. It seems eavesdropping was a favorite family pastime. Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was known for listening in on her husband’s conversations—she even laughed when she overheard God’s promise of a son. Rebekah, apparently, inherited that same curious streak. In Genesis 27:5 we read, “Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau.” When she realized Isaac was about to bless Esau instead of her favorite, Jacob, she cooked up a plan faster than you can say “goat stew.” Her scheme worked, but at a great relational cost. Families are supposed to support each other, not deceive each other. Love—not lies—is the glue that’s meant to hold homes together. But it’s hard to love truthfully when deceit runs in the bloodline. Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel all learned manipulation and mistrust from their families. It was practically a family heirloom.

The pattern is clear—Isaac learned to lie from Abraham, and the women learned from their parents, too. It’s in the genes. Actually, it’s in our genes. We’re all children of Adam, carrying the same flawed DNA. Yet the beautiful truth is that God loves us anyway. Despite all the deception, fear, and moral failures, Hebrews 11:16 says that God “is not ashamed to be called their God.” What an astonishing statement! The same God who wasn’t ashamed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel isn’t ashamed of us either. We fail, we fall, we repeat family mistakes—but God’s grace remains steady. Even when our lives don’t live up to our sermons, He still calls us His own. Now that’s what I call comforting grace.

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Genesis 28:12-13, John 10:9

The Stargate

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 28, 2025

I’ve always loved the story of Jacob’s Ladder. Genesis 28:12-13 says this: “And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it…” I love the Hebrew word for “ladder.” It might be translated as “road,” “way,” or even “access.” It is sometimes used to refer to a “breach” as a door or opening in a wall. I like that. It’s a vision of the world beyond. It reminds me of “stargate.” Jacob’s ladder is the passageway from this world into the next, from the physical realm into the spiritual. Through that doorway, God could be seen at its head, with the angels coming and going from their homes to ours. They were the messengers of God. In both Hebrew and Greek, the word “Angel” literally is “Messenger.”

In John 1:51, Jesus quotes from Genesis 28:12-13. Nathaniel was surprised that Jesus could see him when he was sitting under a tree. But Jesus proceeded to tell him something much greater than that. He told Nathaniel about the great things that lie ahead for him. He said to Nathaniel, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” His point is clear. Just as Jacob’s vision was of an access to God’s abode in heaven, he told Nathaniel that he would have a vision also. The vision was of the angels ascending and descending from the spiritual realm to the physical through another doorway, that doorway was Jesus himself. It helps me understand what Jesus meant when said “I am the door,” “I am the way,” No man came come to the father but through me.” He is the access, the breach from the physical into the spiritual, the road, the way, the eternal life.”

Jesus is the “stargate.” Not only is Jesus the doorway to our eternal home he’s the doorway to true life in this world. I think that’s what he meant when he said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). He’s the living water that quenches our thirsts in this life. He’s the bread of life which satisfies our hungers. He’s really the way to life; both here and now and forever more!

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Genesis 25:22-23, Romans 9:13-16

The Wrestler

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 27, 2025

The concept of total depravity is a theological debate that has long intrigued many. The question at the heart of this debate is whether depravity is intensive or extensive. If it’s intensive, it suggests that we’re depraved in every part in every way. However, I align with those advocating for the extensive depravity view. This perspective still acknowledges the presence of some good in man, yet it aligns with the biblical descriptions of how our will, emotions, and intellect are all affected, but not destroyed, by sin. This ‘infection’ is like a disease that’s passed on from generation to generation in the womb. The sinfulness of man begins in the womb. All children inherit Adam’s sin nature. It might take a while for it to become apparent, but they all have it. It’s in the genes. We’ve inherited it.

The biblical story of Jacob and Esau serves as a vivid illustration of the concept of total depravity. In Genesis 25:22-23, it is written, “The children struggled together within her.” Rebekah sought the Lord’s guidance, and He revealed to her that “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” The strife in the womb foreshadowed the lifelong conflict between Jacob and his brother Esau. Neither of the two brothers exhibited commendable traits. Esau is often criticized for his indifference towards his birthright and his worldly ways, but in truth, they both displayed the characteristics of their depravity even in the womb. Yet, God chose Jacob over Esau. It’s a decision that may seem unfair, but it’s all part of God’s sovereign plan.

In Romans 9:13-16 we read about God’s love for Jacob. As God’s love for Noah, and God’s love for Abraham, it truly was not bestowed on him because he was someone special. When we consider Jacob’s life we see that, as Strassner says, “…Jacob was a lying son, a stealing brother, a cheating husband, a selfish father, and a mud-slinging son-in-law. Not much to be impressed with.” Jacob not only wrestled with Esau in and out of the womb, he wrestled with his father. He wrestled with his father in law. He even wrestled with God. But that’s what makes this passage so impressive. It says, “As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” Please note the last phrase. God truly dealt with Jacob in much the same way he deals with us. He wanted Jacob to know that God’s blessings in his life had nothing to do with his goodness. He didn’t deserve it. But God, in his loving mercy, gave it to him anyway. We get it the same way!

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Genesis 22:7-8

On A Hill Far Away!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 26, 2025

If Abraham’s Love Test was designed to reveal to us the depth of our Heavenly Father’s love for us, as I believe it was, we must also see the test from Isaac’s perspective. The three days of journey to the “hill far away” (Mount Moriah) seem to have been made in silence. There is only one recorded conversation between the father and the son. Genesis 22:7-8 says, “And Isaac said to his father Abraham, my father! And Abraham answered, here I am, my son. Isaac said, I have the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So, they went both of them together.” Yes, the Father led the Son up the hill of Calvary and offered His own son as a sacrifice for our sins.

Isaac was a young man, full of strength, and could have rebelled against his 120-year-old father. But he obeyed! Imagine the scene of Isaac crawling up on the altar, knowing his father’s intention. Could there be a stronger picture of the son’s faith in his father? Paul teaches us that Jesus fulfilled this picture of Isaac for us. It’s hard not to think that Paul had the story of Isaac on Mt. Moriah in mind when he wrote these words to the Philippian church and to us: He says that Jesus “…emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7-8). Jesus could have called a legion of angels and delivered Himself from the cross, but He chose to surrender to the father’s will.

Both Isaac and Jesus were sons of promise. The angel had announced to Abraham that he and Sarah would bear a son. Likewise, the birth of Christ was announced beforehand by an angel to Mary and Joseph. Even the very names of these boys were given before conception. Both were born miraculously. God “tinkered” with a woman’s womb to cause a supernatural conception in both cases. Both Isaac and Jesus were called the only begotten sons of their fathers. Both Isaac and Jesus carried the wood up the hill on their own backs. It was the wood on which they were to be sacrificed. Both were to be offered as a burnt offering for sin. Both willingly allowed themselves to be placed on the wood they had carried on their backs to the top of the mountain. Both became obedient unto death. Both Isaac and Jesus had fathers who were willing to sacrifice their sons “on a hill far away.” It was the same hill! That’s why Genesis 22 keeps emphasizing the particular site of the mountain chosen by God (vv. 2, 3, 9, 14). “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” On the Mount of the Lord it was provided! The sacrifice for our sins!

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Genesis 22:1-2, John 3:16

A Test of True Love

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 25, 2025

There is much to be said about Abraham’s maturing faith. But I’m convinced the story of Abraham is not so much about Abraham as it is about God. God called Abraham. He initiated the personal relationship. He stayed with Abraham through all his numerous trials and failures along the way. God made an unconditional promise to Abraham, explaining that it wasn’t about Abraham, but about God and God’s word to him. The ultimate experience in Abraham’s life came in Genesis 22. It begins by saying, “God tested Abraham…” Tests are always designed to reveal some important truth that cannot be clearly seen otherwise. This is the “test” that was given to Abraham, “God said, take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Genesis 22:1-2) What was this test designed to reveal?

Kent Hughes writes about Abraham’s response to this trial. He says, “Immediate horror fell on Abraham’s soul, and revulsion repeatedly welled up in dark waves of emotional nausea. God was calling him to put Isaac to death with his own hand and to then incinerate the remains as a burnt offering to God. This divine command was contrary to everything in Abraham—his common sense, his natural affections, his lifelong dream. He had no natural interest and no natural sympathy for this word from God. The only thing natural was his utter revulsion!” Hughes goes on, as most commentators do, to exhort their readers to have that kind of blind faith in God. Trust Him even in times when He demands huge sacrifices in our lives. They usually end with something like “we must learn to trust God like Abraham did.”

As noble as this exhortation is, I truly believe that this story is not designed to teach us to sacrifice our own children or whatever is most precious to us in this life to demonstrate our faith and love for God. It’s a test designed, not to expose our love for God, but a test designed to expose God’s love for us. The “Horror” that Hughes writes about, was not Abraham’s but God’s! He, the only true Heavenly Father, did that very thing on Calvary. God stopped Abraham’s sacrifice and provided one Himself – a lamb caught in the thorns. The name of that place became “God will Provide.” Abraham, whose name includes the word for “father,” is a perfect picture of our Heavenly Father’s love for sinners. It was on this same mountain that God offered His only Son, crowned with a thicket of thorns, as the sacrifice for our sins. Romans 8:5 says, “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this; while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” And of course, we must not overlook the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.”

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Genesis 17:10-11, Ephesians 4:30

Marked By God

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 24, 2025

God put a mark on Cain. This mark would identify him as the murderer yet would also serve to protect him from the vengeance of others. It served as a sign of God’s promise that no vengeance would be taken on Cain. God put a rainbow in the sky after the flood as a sign that the world would never be destroyed by a flood again. God called Abraham to “mark” himself and all the males of his household as a sign that they, too, were part of God’s covenant with Abraham. It’s recorded in Genesis 17:10-11. It says, “This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.” The mark would be the sign that they are God’s people.

The “mark” was a guarantee. In Ephesians 1:14, Paul says, “The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.” When Paul addresses his first letter to the believers in Corinth, he says (1 Corinthians 1:2), “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.” In his commentary on this passage Richard Hays says, “This does not mean that the Corinthians have some special vocation that sets them apart from other Christians; rather, they—along with all other Christians—are set apart from a confused and perishing world, marked by God as God’s people. Paul regards all the members of all his churches as “the saints,” the elect of God.”

In Ephesians 4:30, Paul exhorts his readers not to grieve the Holy Spirit. It’s possible for true believers to live contrary to their calling as saints, but that does not jeopardize their status as saints. He exhorts believers to live lives worthy of their calling, not by threatening to remove them from God’s favor, but by reminding them of their secure status. He says, “Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.” Louis Berkhoff says, “…the fact that they are said to be sealed unto the day of redemption clearly indicates that the sealing of God secures their safety that they are thereby rendered sure of their final salvation.” John Stott explains the significance of this for us. He writes, “What the Christian life is not, is a bondage to the law, as if our salvation hung in the balance and depended on our meticulous and slavish obedience to the letter of the law. As it is, our salvation rests upon the finished work of Christ, on His sin-bearing, curse-bearing death, embraced by faith.”

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