Revive Us Again

 

“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”

—Psalm 85:6

Praying for the Holy Spirit to sweep over our land and bring a true revival is a most worthy prayer for every believer to offer to God. Revival means a “coming to life again.” In terms of our relationship with God, both individually and corporately, revival brings a fresh wave of energy and devotion. The Psalmist captured the beauty of revival when he wrote in Psalm 85:6:

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?

Whenever I hear about revival, I think about the fresh spring rains that bring newness and vitality to our lands. A songwriter, D. W. Whittle, penned these words: ¹

There shall be showers of blessing:
This is the promise of love;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
Sent from the Savior above.

Chorus: Showers of blessing,
Showers of blessing we need;
Mercy drops ’round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead.

There shall be showers of blessing—
Precious reviving again;
Over the hills and the valleys,
Sound of abundance of rain.

Chorus: Showers of blessing,
Showers of blessing we need;
Mercy drops ’round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead.

There shall be showers of blessing:
Send them upon us, O Lord;
Grant to us now a refreshing;
Come and now honor Thy word.

Chorus: Showers of blessing,
Showers of blessing we need;
Mercy drops ’round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead.

There shall be showers of blessing:
Oh, that today they might fall,
Now as to God we’re confessing,
Now as on Jesus we call!

Chorus: Showers of blessing,
Showers of blessing we need;
Mercy drops ’round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead.

This day, and every day, we do well to humbly ask God to send us a great, sweeping revival in our land. Such a movement of the Holy Spirit would truly transform our nation and bring countless numbers of people back into fellowship with God. May our fervent prayer for revival become a reality.

 

______________________

1 Whittle, D. W. “There Shall Be Showers of Blessing.” Public Domain. This Hymn is included in various Hymnals that are copyrighted by the publisher of the Hymnal. Though this Hymn is noted to be in the Public Domain, in the case of someone claiming Copyright protection of this material, citation of any Copyrighted material is made on this blog post strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

God Guards Our Pathway

 

“The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”

—Psalm 121:8

I am one of the few people I know who appreciates, even applauds, the implementation of airport security. During my active work life, I traveled extensively by air throughout the United States. In fact, as I’ve reported on this blog previously, I amassed nearly two million flight miles on Delta Airlines.

I recognize that airport security poses an annoyance to most people. And, I also realize that many security experts believe that our airport security does little more than provide window dressing. I understand the points they make. In fact, I agree that it would be even better if we employed the same kind of tactics that Israel provides at its airports. Nevertheless, I like to feel safe. I was comforted during the last years of my working career that someone was guarding my safety, as I traveled by air.

During my years at what is now Houghton University (1965 through 1968), I worked at several jobs. One of them was as a nightwatchman. Although the principal purpose of nightwatch is to provide fire patrols through unoccupied buildings, we also took hourly walks through the dormitories, punching our regularly located key stations using a Detex watchclock. I often wondered, as I lumbered through the dorms, if the noise my heavy leather work shoes made on the squeaky wooden floors was annoying to residents trying to sleep.

One of my classmates cornered me after class one day and asked if it was true that I was one of the nightwatchmen. I admitted that I was. She told me how comforting it was to hear the steps of the nightwatchman coming down the hall. She said the presence of someone guarding the occupants while they slept offered a genuine sense of well-being. I’m fairly certain that this same kind of a sense of security is what the Psalmist had in mind when he wrote these words found in Psalm 121:8:

The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

God watches over us. He guards our pathway. He takes note of where we go and when we return. We should find that reality comforting, as we go about our daily tasks. As this new day begins, let’s rest comfortably and securely in the fact that God’s love extends to us in many ways. His watchful care over us is simply one of those ways He shows us His great love for us.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

No Slipping

 

“He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber…”

—Psalm 121:3

As we climb upward through the pathway of our lives, it’s important to do whatever we can to not slip and fall. I’m talking not only physically, but about “slipping” in regard to any of our four human modalities: heart, soul, mind, and strength—or, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical.

Sometimes, at least in the physical modality, we can take precautions in the kinds of shoes we wear, or the use of some ambulatory aid, such as a cane or walker or wheel chair. Taking steps to protect us from slipping in our emotional, spiritual, and intellectual modalities takes a markedly different effort. Speaking of God, the Psalmist offers this helpful declaration, found in Psalm 121:3:

He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber …

As we begin a new day, let’s pray and ask God to keep us from slipping in all four of our human modalities. Then, let’s take whatever actions we can to avoid those situations where we might slip. After all, by relying on the Holy Spirit to keep us on the proper pathway of life, we can remain so much more useful to God, to others, and to ourselves.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

My Help Comes From The Lord

 

“I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

—Psalm 121:1-2

Trouble always finds its way into everyone’s life. Even if we’ve led relatively peaceful lives, full of health and well-being, eventually we will have a time of trial in our lives. That just the way life is—sometimes quite peaceful and at other times a raging battle.

In our times of trouble, it is always appropriate for us to turn to God for help. After all, He is the One who created us. He knows every detail of our lives. He is the “Giver of Every Good and Perfect Gift.” He alone carries the destiny of our lives in the palms of His loving hands. We are not alone in seeking help from God when trouble knocks on the doors of our lives. Notice these words of the Psalmist, found in Psalm 121:1-2:

I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Today, as a new day begins, each of us knows the trouble that may plague our lives. And, if we’re fortunate enough to currently enjoy a time of peacefulness in our lives, we certainly know others around us who are battling difficulties in their lives.

Let’s take time today to ask for God’s help—if not for ourselves, certainly for others. If we do so, we will find the calm assurance that He is the source of true help. He will provide whatever we need. And, we will be able to echo the words of the Psalmist:

My help comes from the Lord …

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Nourishing Words

 

“The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of judgment.”

—Proverbs 10:21

Have you ever felt badly about yourself only to have someone, who doesn’t know how you’re feeling, offer words of encouragement, even praise? Please let me explain:

I have spent most of my life generally feeling badly about myself. Before you jump to conclusions and suggest I seek professional help, I’ve done that and found that so-called “help” was a flop. (I’ve written about that experience in other blog posts.)

My study of Psychology has allowed me to come to an understanding of the root of these feelings of inadequacy and failure. And, I learned how I have compensated for them all my life by becoming a relatively high achiever. But, in the deep recesses of my heart, I still have vestiges of these lifelong feelings.

On occasion, when I have felt particularly bad about myself, God has very graciously sent someone across my pathway to speak a word of encouragement without even knowing how I was feeling about myself. Such words always bring a smile to my face and lift my spirits. That’s the power of nourishing words.

King Solomon understood how important a kind word can be to someone in need. Notice what he wrote, as recorded in Proverbs 10:21:

The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of judgment.

It’s true that when we speak words of encouragement and kindness to other people, we provide nourishment for their souls. That’s why we should never withhold our words of genuine appreciation. It is one of the opportunities that God gives us to show His love to others and to follow in the footsteps of His precious Son, Jesus.

Over the years, perhaps because I have felt about myself the way I do, I have learned to speak as many kind words to others as possible. I can even remember the first time I felt God nudging me to do so:

My dearly loved and deeply loved sister-in-law, now home with the Lord, was a wonderful, multi-talented artist. She was a very kind person, a devoted wife, a loving mother and grandmother, and was a truly amazing person. But, I believe that she harbored a sense that she wasn’t quite as worthy as other people. I think she truly thought that she wasn’t as smart as other people. After high school graduation, she had attended one year of art school, but had not attended a four-year college.

Now, in actual fact, she was a very intelligent woman—far more intelligent than many of the people to which she may have compared herself. Her intelligence was expressed beautifully in her amazing artistic creations. But, I’m quite certain she never fully realized how intelligent she was. Her lack of formal education was not a hindrance in any way to her creativity and excellence expressed in her magnificent works of art.

Almost 50 years ago, I once overheard her remark about how dumb she felt. Soon after that, when I was alone in the same room with her, I had an overwhelming sense from God that I needed to say something that I had long felt. So, I said to her, in a very quiet voice, that I was so proud of her, of her art, of her role as a mom, of the way she was lovingly raising her children, of her obvious love and devotion to her husband, and of the way she treated everyone with such kindness.

I imagine my words probably embarrassed her a bit. She didn’t quite know what to say to me in response. But, I knew that I had been obedient to God in speaking the words He had prompted me to say. And, I learned a very valuable lesson that day. I learned that speaking nourishing words is one of the things God expects us, as His ambassadors, to do in this world.

As we begin a new day, let’s consider the opportunities that God may give us to speak words of encouragement to others. Let’s not hold back when God nudges us to say a word that might lift someone’s spirit—not words of false praise, but genuine words that express the feelings in our hearts toward that person. We may never know how important our words of kindness might be to someone in need. And, we may never know how speaking such words may very well be one of God’s ways of bringing healing to our own needy hearts.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

A Simple, Yet Profound, Benediction

 

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.”

—Philippians 4:23

The New Testament writers of letters followed a tradition of Koine Greek literature by ending each letter with a phrase of blessing. These benedictions were intended to serve a purpose similar to that of the best friend, who ends a letter with the words:

“In deepest friendship.”

In some ways, it may seem like a simple gesture of politeness. But actually, these words of closing in the letters from the Apostles meant a very great deal to those reading these letters.

Some of the words of blessing were longer than others. In closing the letter to the Christians gathered at Philippi, the Apostle Paul chose to use what at first may appear as a quite simple phrase. However, upon closer examination, we can see how profound these words really are. Notice what Paul wrote, as recorded in Philippians 4:23:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Here, Paul is asking God to grant to these new and struggling Christians the very essence of His grace, expressed through the death and resurrection of His one and only Son, Jesus. And, Paul is asking for this blessing to fall upon the innermost being of these new Christians.

As we begin a new day, let’s take these words of Paul and accept them by applying them to our own lives. Let us receive the blessing of Christ’s grace into the very depth of our own spirits. And, let’s allow His grace to enable us to will and to do of His good pleasure, as we faithfully serve as His ambassadors.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Give Ourselves Fully

 

“Therefore, my dear brothers (and sisters), stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

—1 Corinthians 15:58

“The only way you will ever learn this material is if you give yourselves fully to studying it until it sinks into the core of your brain. That’s the way with anything in life that you truly deem as important.”

It was the first day of Advanced Mathematics class my senior year in high school. The teacher was Frederick Rehm. He handed us a thick textbook that contained an introduction to Calculus and intoned the above warning. His point? If we wanted to succeed in learning Calculus, we would have to intentionally determine to commit ourselves to whatever study was necessary to learn this higher form of mathematics.

Mr. Rehm was also right that in order to achieve any goal in life, it becomes necessary to devote oneself fully to meeting the objectives that lead to satisfying that goal. This is exactly what the Apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote these words found in 1 Corinthians 15:58:

Therefore, my dear brothers (and sisters), stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

As Christ’s ambassadors in this troubled and needy world, if we want to become the best possible representatives of our Lord, we must devote ourselves to the work of His Kingdom. Our devotion must be unswerving. We must invest time, talent, and ability if we are to succeed.

At the beginning of this new day, it seems worthwhile to ask ourselves this question:

“Are we willing to give our all for God’s Kingdom?”

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

True Victory in Jesus

 

“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

—1 Corinthians 15:57

Every time I read the verse highlighted in today’s blog post, I remember a gospel song that we often sang at Wednesday night prayer meetings when I was growing up. Written by Eugene Bartlett with a delightful melody, this song expresses the essence of this verse of Scripture found in 1 Corinthians 15:57:

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here’s that song: ¹

I heard an old, old story,
How a Savior came from glory,
How He gave His life on Calvary
To save a wretch like me;
I heard about His groaning,
Of His precious blood’s atoning,
Then I repented of my sins
And won the victory.

Chorus: O victory in Jesus,
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood.

I heard about His healing,
Of His cleansing pow’r revealing.
How He made the lame to walk again
And caused the blind to see;
And then I cried, “Dear Jesus,
Come and heal my broken spirit,”
And somehow Jesus came and bro’t
To me the victory.

Chorus: O victory in Jesus,
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood.

I heard about a mansion
He has built for me in glory.
And I heard about the streets of gold
Beyond the crystal sea;
About the angels singing,
And the old redemption story,
And some sweet day I’ll sing up there
The song of victory.

Chorus: O victory in Jesus,
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood.

May our hearts resound in a song of victory this day and every day.

 

______________________

1 Bartlett, Eugene M. “Victory in Jesus.” Powewll, MO: Brumley Music Publishers (Albert E. Brumley & Sons, Inc.), 1939, renewed 1967. This Hymn is also included in various Hymnals that are copyrighted by the publisher of the Hymnal. Citation of Copyrighted material is made on this blog post strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

No More Sting

 

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

—1 Corinthians 15:55

Honeybees have a well-earned reputation for having only one shot at inflicting pain. That’s because God created them with a barbed stinger that stays in the stung person or animal. Once they honeybees lose their stinger, they no longer pose a threat. In fact, in certain cases, the tearing off of that stinger results in the honeybee’s death.

Because of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, death can only intrude into the lives of humans who belong to God just one time. When we pass from this earth to eternal life, that one-and-only sting is felt by all those we have left behind. But, for our own sakes, we are moving from this life to the next. We leave behind our sin-stained bodies and receive the final culmination of new life in Christ.

The power of the resurrection is expressed by the Apostle Paul this way in 1 Corinthians 15:55:

Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?

For believers, Christ has defeated death. He has overruled its power. He has turned darkness to light. And, we who belong to Him through faith receive a great benefit. So, at the beginning of this new day, let’s rejoice that death no longer has an eternal hold on us. Rather, because our Savior overcame death, sin, and Satan, we will find that death’s sting is gone forever.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Victorious

 

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

—1 Corinthians 15:54

How do we know when we’ve won? When the buzzer sounds at the end of the last period in basketball? When the last out is made at the bottom of the final inning in baseball? When the last hole is played in golf by the golfer with the fewest number of strokes? When the fastest runner crosses the finish line? When the king is captured in chess? When the shot is put the farthest at the Olympic games?

In most every contest in life, an endpoint arrives and a winner emerges. That’s true in our spiritual lives, too. Notice what the Apostle Paul writes, as found in 1 Corinthians 15:54:

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

At the end of the age, when the reality of Christ’s resurrection is fully realized, as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

The Protestant Reformed theology described in The Westminster Confession of Faith puts it this way:

32.1: After death the bodies of human beings decompose and return to dust, but their souls, which do not die or sleep, have an immortal existence and immediately return to God who created them. The souls of the righteous are then perfected in holiness and are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory and wait for the full redemption of their bodies. The souls of the wicked are thrown into hell, where they remain in torment and complete darkness, set apart for the great day of judgment. Scripture recognizes only these two places, and no other, for souls separated from their bodies.

32.2: Those who are alive at the last day will not die but will be changed. At that time all the dead will be raised with the very same bodies and no other than the same bodies they had before, although with different characteristics, which will be united again to their souls forever.

32.3: By the power of Christ the bodies of the unjust shall be raised to dishonor, but by his Spirit the bodies of the just will be raised to honor and be made according to the pattern of his own glorious body.

As we begin a new day, let us rejoice that, as the old gospel song by Albert E. Brumley states: ¹

“This world is not my home. I’m just a-passin’ through.”

Amen and Amen.

 

______________________

1 Brumley, Albert E. “ I Can’t Feel At Home Any More.” Public Domain. This Hymn is included in various Hymnals that are copyrighted by the publisher of the Hymnal. Though this citation is noted to be in the Public Domain, in the case of anyone claiming Copyright protection of this material, citation of any Copyrighted material is made on this blog post strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

We Will All Be Changed

 

“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.”

—1 Corinthians 15:51-53

You’ve likely heard of the mom who, with tongue in cheek and a smile on her face, painted the wall of the church’s nursery that faced the entrance door with these words from 1 Corinthians 15:51:

We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed …

Her wonderful sense of humor made many a parent smile, as they brought their little one to the nursery on Sunday morning.

But, the thrust of this passage of Scripture has far greater implications in our Christian lives than a mere wink at the ambiguities of the English language. In fact, part of the greatest expression of our faith in the life-transforming power of the living Lord Jesus Christ is contained in these words of the Apostle Paul found, more completely, in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53:

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

For now, we live on this earth as Christ’s ambassadors. God has chosen us to belong to Himself. He has redeemed us from the penalty of our sin through the shedding of the precious blood of His one and only Son, Jesus. God has claimed victory for us over sin, death, and Satan, through the resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

Once our sojourn on this earth is done, we will pass into glory and spend eternity with God. We cannot imagine what heaven will be like. Some believe that the Book of Revelation indicates we will actually spend eternity on this earth. But, it will be a new heaven and a new earth. All sin will be gone. Only light and life will remain.

Whatever eternity turns out to be for us, we know that spending it with God will be more marvelous than we can ever possibly imagine. So, as we begin a new day, let’s follow the instruction of the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, found in Hebrews 12:1-3:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Ineed! Let it be so! Amen.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Christ Conquered Eternal Death

 

“ For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”

—1 Corinthians 15:25

We have not experienced the last chapter of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. A careful reading of the Book of Revelation exposes the narrative that, in the last days, the reign of Christ will bear fruit on this earth. The Apostle Paul describes those coming days using these words found in 1 Corinthians 15:25-26:

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

As believers, we recognize that Jesus has been victorious over sin, death, and Satan. But, I wonder if we fully comprehend that, in addition to death serving as the personal enemy of human beings, death is also an enemy of the Kingdom of God. Eternal death results from sin. When sin is conquered by our Savior, He also conquers eternal death. The conquering of eternal death opens the way to eternal life.

At the beginning of another day, we need to pause to understand that our life with Christ begins at the moment we acknowledge God’s gift to us of salvation. But, our life with Christ becomes fully realized in those last days when He is on His throne and reigns over all the earth. Then, and only then, will we see the miracle of His love and grace fully at work in our world.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

The Task Completed

 

“Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.”

—1 Corinthians 15:24

Have you ever labored hard and long on a difficult assignment, finally completed the task, and then felt enormous relief that what you set out to accomplish you have finished? Please allow me to explain the point I am trying to make:

I once labored to develop a deeply detailed procedure for the protection of department stores against damage by fire and allied perils. It was an assignment that no one else wanted. There was nothing particularly intriguing about department stores. They were not as “cool” as oil refineries, or pulp and paper manufacturing, or automobile plants, or food processing, or just about any of the hundreds of other types of facilities that the insurance company for which I worked happened to insure.

But, my career had often been like that. I seemed to be assigned the facilities that no one else wanted to serve: department stores, hospitals, colleges and universities, radio and television broadcast facilities, tanneries, glue factories, paint manufacturing, museums, arenas, furniture manufacturing, computer data centers, electronics manufacturers, and so forth.

To further complicate my assignment regarding department stores, the Senior Vice President of Engineering, to whom I reported, had a technique where he would go to the company library and check out key resources that his staff might need to complete their tasks. He did this with the intension of trying to make us work harder and, in his mind, more thoroughly, so that we would have to struggle to complete our assignments. It was a stupid tactic. There’s no other way to describe it. As someone who later in my career became a manager of a relatively large number of people, I learned from this foolishness and devoted myself to making certain that I consistently provided my staff with all of the resources they might need to effectively complete their tasks.

It took me six drafts over the course of 18 months to finally gain approval for my detailed procedure. For reasons I never discovered, the Senior Vice President of Engineering rejected each draft. Ironically, the sixth draft was simply the very first draft resubmitted with a new date and a slightly differently worded introductory paragraph. Of course, I had ten or twelve other projects during this same time frame. But, this was an enormous learning experience for me. I lost all respect for this Senior Vice President. His techniques were roadblocks—and not just for me. When he retired, his replacement, who had also worked for him, changed things dramatically for the better.

Nevertheless, when that procedure for department stores rolled off the presses, I felt as if a great burden had lifted. I had been handed an assignment and I eventually handed it back to the one who had given it to me as a completed task.

While my meager accomplishment was absolutely nothing compared to the divine action of our Great King, the Apostle Paul described the torture, death, and resurrection of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, as it will be seen at the end of history, in startlingly similar terms to the example I have outlined above. Please take note of Paul’s words—speaking of Jesus—as recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:24:

Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.

God the Father sent His one and only Son, Jesus, to earth in order to walk in our shoes and become flesh, so that through Him we might become the children of God. Jesus conquered sin, death, and Satan through His birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus ushered in His Kingdom here on earth. We now inhabit that Kingdom because we belong to Him. As His ambassadors, we now testify about Him: who He is and what He has done.

At the end of this age, Jesus will return the Kingdom to the Father. All sin and darkness will be cast into the lake of fire. Only the perfection of Jesus’ holiness will remain. We who belong to Him will be fully transformed into His image. In that day, we will all rejoice.

As we launch out into this new day, let’s not forget that we are part of a pathway through history where Jesus has opened up a way to heaven, the Holy Spirit urges us and helps us along that way, and the Father waits to welcome us. May this reality make our hearts become filled with great joy and carry us through the task before us.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

A Firstfruits Resurrection

 

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

—1 Corinthians 15:20

As a member of a group, when faced with some new situation, are you the one who steps forward to have the first go at whatever task lies ahead? Or, like me, do you tend to hang back and observe how others tackle the issue, and then develop a strategy based on their success or failure?

There is something very special about those who will put themselves out there and go first. They have the joy of any initial success. And, they can comfort themselves, in any failure, because after all, they took a chance and did it first.

What if the situation was such that no one could ever have possibly tackled the assignment? No one else was worthy. No one else had the necessary power. No one else had the needed persistence. No one else had the grace and perseverance. In such a case, that one would always, and only, become the first, and the last, to take on the challenge. And, just possibly because that one had succeeded, others would be able to follow in those footsteps. That one blunted the roadblocks, created a pathway, opened up the possibilities, and helped guarantee the success of others.

We probably don’t think about the resurrection of our Lord and Savior that way. But, Jesus was, in fact, the only one who could have ever possibly taken on the penalty for the sins of the world. He alone had the strength, the power, the necessary holiness, the sinless perfection, the persistence, and the blessing of His Father. We cannot possibly imagine the pain He felt as the weight of the sins of all humankind fell upon Him.

In His glorious resurrection, Christ opened up a pathway for us to follow in His footsteps. Just as He conquered sin, death, and Satan, so we also will become conquerors. He became the firstfruits of the glorious vine of salvation. We become the fruit of salvation, too, because He led the way. As the Apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15:20:

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

As a new day dawns upon the world once more, let us rejoice that our Savior is risen from the dead. Let us praise Him for the sacrifice He made in our behalf. And, let’s move forward along the pathway that He opened up for us, through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit—a pathway that leads us to eternal life with Him.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Delivered From Eternal Death

 

“Ill-gotten treasures are of no value, but righteousness delivers from death.”

—Proverbs 10:2

As a child watching cartoons in the early 1950s at the dawn of the age of television, the “good guy” would often be captured by the “bad guy.” In one particular cartoon, a rich man was captured by a bad guy who punctuated his disdain with the words:

“You won’t be able to buy your way outta this!”

And that, my dear ones, is the exact state in which you and I find ourselves when we stand before a holy God, as the terrible, awful, horrible sinners that we are. We are so stained by the sin curse passed down from Adam to our parents and on to us, and by the stain caused by the sins we have committed on our own, that we will never be able to buy our way out of the eternal death that we deserve.

Fortunately, the One who loves us has already paid the price for our sins and redeemed us through His own precious blood. While we cannot save ourselves, we have been saved by the only One who could bear our sins, taking our place on the cross of Calvary. King Solomon put it this way, writing in Proverbs 10:2:

Ill-gotten treasures are of no value, but righteousness delivers from death.

The redemption price for our sins was certainly not an ill-gotten treasure. It was a divine plan of the very God whose holiness our sin has offended. He, and He alone, made provision for our salvation through the birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of His one and only Son, Jesus.

Today, as a new day begins, let’s celebrate the joy that is ours in Christ. We are redeemed! The price has been paid! We are free from sin, and death, and Satan! Hallelujah!

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

God Supplies All Our Needs

 

“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

—Philippians 4:19

As you read this blog post, if you sit in a lean-to made out of cardboard, if your stomach is empty and aching because you haven’t eaten in three days, if you have no money to buy food or clothing, if you have lost your family for a variety of reason, if … Then, my insistence that God will supply all our needs may fall on deaf ears, as far as you are personally concerned. When a person has genuine, heart-wrenching needs that remain unfulfilled, then it is difficult to imagine that God is a supplier of needs.

But, the truth remains that God does, indeed, supply all our needs. The context of what the Apostle Paul wrote in the Book of Philippians applied directly to his own physical needs. He was writing to the Christians at Philippi about the way they had so generously given gifts to help him in his time of significant personal need. After thanking them for their generosity, Paul ends with these words found in Philippians 4:19:

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

In other words, Paul is writing to the Philippians with great conviction:

“Just as you have so generously shared with me, so I know God will meet your needs, as well.”

And, of course, Paul was right. He was right regarding the Philippians, and he is right concerning you and me, too.

God will, and does, supply our needs. No doubt our greatest need is the need to be free from the penalty of our sins. God has supplied that need through the birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of His precious Son, Jesus. As His dearly loved children, God has given us new life. He has erased the stain of sin and embraced us as belonging to Himself for all eternity.

In the practical aspects of our human lives, God also supplies our actual needs. Time and again, when we are in genuine need, God comes to our aid with just what we truly need. We may not always recognize His gift. In fact, we may sometimes resist, or even resent, what He sends our way. But, we can be assured that, upon closer examination, we will learn that whatever God sends us is exactly what we need.

As we begin a new day, let us rejoice that God’s love so fills us with hope that we can say, without hesitation:

“Yes! God does, indeed, supply all our needs!”

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Gentle Patience

 

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

—Ephesians 4:2

Sadly, I am not a patient person. Ask anyone who truly knows me. They will attest to my decided lack of patience. And yet, I am often stopped in my tracks by someone who extends patience to me. Patience is, after all, an expression of grace. Please allow me to illustrate my point:

Recently, I encountered a situation on a website I visited that raised my hackles. I felt that the webmaster—whoever he or she happened to be—had done a very sloppy job in presenting information on what I felt was a critically important webpage. So, I reached out to someone I knew in that organization and made my opinion known.

Frankly, as I sometimes do when I’m impatient, I used hyperbole in describing the deficiencies with the website. I ranted. I raved. I poured out my strong opinion using many not-so-kind words.

The response I received knocked me back into my chair. The person wrote back the most patient, kind, even loving, note. He thanked me for my concern. But, in the most gentle possible way, he pointed out the excessiveness of my word choices and the lack of reasonableness in those portions of my complaint where I had gone “over the top.” He explained the reasons why certain choices had been made. All in all, without giving even one inch of ground, he acknowledged me and my complaint in a way that made it impossible for me to feel I had not been heard.

As I stated, he did not yield any ground whatsoever. He defended the choices his webmaster had made. But, he did so in such a patient manner that he truly extended great grace to me. I was taken aback by how effective his response was in diffusing my impatience. His patience became the perfect antidote for my impatience.

The Apostle Paul understood the value in learning how to extend grace at every turn. Notice what he wrote, as recorded in Ephesians 4:2:

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

As we begin a new day, let’s learn from Paul’s admonition. Let’s extend the grace of patience whenever we can, as we walk along the pathway of our lives. Let’s put away impatience and strive to allow the grace of Christ to manifest itself in what we say and what we do.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

A New Command

 

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

—John 13:34

The word “love” has become one of the supercharged words in our currwnt culture. In the English language this word has so many shades of meaning. We may say to someone we admire and appreciate: “I love you.” But, the word doesn’t hold the same meaning that it does when we speak of loving our spouse. When we say we love our children, the word has an even different shade of meaning. When we talk about something we favor—our native country, a car, boat, vacation home, ice cream flavor, movie, television program, restaurant, sporting event—the word “love” takes on yet another even different meaning. The problem comes from having a single word to express a whole list of various emotions.

Over the years, I have shared many times that the New Testament Koine Greek language has four distinct words for love: agape, storge, phileo, and eros. Each word has a very distinctly different meaning. In the English language, all four words are translated “love.” (It is important to note that only agape and phileo actually appear in the Koine Greek text of the New Testament.)

Speaking to His disciples, Jesus gave them this instruction, found in John 13:34:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

In this verse, our Lord uses the New Testament Koine Greek word agape—God-breathed love. This is a love that arises within someone because God has chosen to breathe His divine love into that person. Agape is a totally selfless, totally committed, totally unending love. It survives no matter what may happen. It deepens as time passes. It creates an inseparable bond between the one who loves and the beloved.

As we begin a new day, let’s ask God to give us His God-breathed agape love for our fellow believers. If we do this, we surely will experience a great outpouring of God’s grace in our relationships with each other.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

No Greater Commandment

 

“There is no commandment greater than these.”

—Mark 12:31

The most simply stated, yet hardest to follow, instructions from Jesus are summarized in Mark 12:30-31:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

It is hard for us to truly Love God with the totality of our beings. So many other distractions tend to pull us away from unswerving devotion to Him. The depth of love God expects us to show Him consumes all four of our human modalities: emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical. It is equally hard for us to truly love our neighbors because we humans simply do not consistently get along with each other very well.

Recently, I received a phone call from a friend asking for my comments regarding a situation my friend described, in his own words, as follows:

I was thinking the other day about someone I have known for a long time. Over the years, I have come to care about this person very much. But lately, this person seems a little irritated with me and acts a bit cold toward me. Of course, it could be my too-active imagination. But, I don’t think it is. I have racked my brain trying to figure out what I may have done to offend this person. I cannot remember anything that I did or said that would have prompted this reaction toward me. I’m sure other people would respond to my observation and just say: “Aw, forget about it!” But, I can’t. If I wasn’t so “chicken,” I would go to this person and try to find out what’s going on in our relationship.

In contrast to my friend’s dilemma, in my own life there are people with whom I do not particularly get along. And, the amazing thing is I strongly suspect that they don’t even know how I feel about them, or care. That’s the odd thing about human relationships: sometimes the people we care about get irritated with us and sometimes other people create irritation within us. So, it is hard—very hard—to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Another situation offers this illustration:

I have some dear friends who lately seem to have a difficult time loving God with all four of their human modalities: heart, soul, mind, and strength—emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical. Things have not worked out in their lives as they expected. They believe they have been uniquely faithful to God. But, they now believe He has failed to hold up His end of the bargain.

These dear ones are, in fact—deep in the core of their beings—angry at God. So, they now live in a way that seems to have created a new god, one who appears quite different than the God they formerly worshipped.

It’s easy for me to think that they should reevaluate the expectations they had of God in the light of Scripture. Of course, it’s easy to criticize from the sidelines when I’m not “walking in their moccasins,” so to speak. I sense the depth of their pain. But, I can’t help but believe they need to reconnect with the true God who loves them.

It is probably a good thing for us to do a spiritual checkup from time to time. Do we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength? Do we love our neighbors as ourselves? Then, we should ask God to help us implement the corrections we need to make in our lives. Why? Because Jesus told us that it is very important for us to follow these two greatest commandments.

Perhaps, as we begin a new day, it would be helpful to make today a day for a spiritual checkup. How about it?

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

God: The Wisdom Giver

 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

—James 1:5

Proper decision making requires four very distinct, but necessary, qualities:

• Knowledge
  
  
• Wisdom
  
  
• Understanding
  
  
• Discernment
  
  

The only possible way to make the right decision, except by mere chance, is to employ all four of these qualities, balanced within the context of the four human modalities: emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical—or, heart, soul, mind, and strength.

• Knowledge provides all of the factual information needed to make a decision
  
  
• Wisdom takes into consideration the factual information that Knowledge provides and adds into the factual information one’s emotional connections, or feelings, about those facts
  
  
• Understanding considers the effect that the decision will have on the broadest possible context of the situation, or circumstances, involved
  
  
• Discernment adds a spiritual, or supernatural, dimension to the decision-making process—it sees beneath the surface and interprets the motives and true agendas of others involved in, or affected by, the potential decision
  
  

If we fail to employ all four of these qualities, balanced within the context of the four human modalities, we can significantly diminish the “rightness” of the decision we make. That’s why we should always do our best to become as knowledgeable as possible, obtaining all the facts relevant to the potential decision. We should not rely on what we are told second-hand. We should always seek out first sources and rely on multiple sources to validate the facts we collect.

We should study those facts until we see how they all fit together. Then, we need to have wisdom to understand how the facts interconnect with our feelings about the facts. Sometimes, that’s the hardest part of the decision-making process: correlating the facts and our feelings about the facts. That’s likely why the Apostle James wrote these words to the early Christians, as recorded in James 1:5:

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

God is the “Wisdom Giver.” He is the one who can best correlate for us the facts and our feelings about the facts. In any, and every, situation, God’s guidance will help us make the best decision that we can make.

Finding God-given wisdom will help give us understanding of the context in which we must make our decision. Finally, we must rely on the Holy Spirit to give us discernment, so that we will know the motives and agendas of others, and even more clearly know our own motive and agenda.

So, as we begin another new day, let’s do what James suggests. Let’s ask God for wisdom for this day and every day. Let’s ask the One who loves us the most to give us this important quality. He will gladly do so. And, as a result, we can move forward employing all four qualities necessary to make excellent decisions.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

No Harsh Words

 

“To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.”

—Titus 1:15-16

No one likes to hear someone speak harshly against him or her. Over time, one of the biggest criticisms leveled against we followers of Jesus is that:

“Those folks are just too judgmental.”

In fact, that’s the way our culture encourages people to view “Christ’s-ones”—as judgmental, bigoted, and hateful.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Christians are not inherently judgmental. If we choose to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we generally extend God’s mercy, grace, and love to all we meet. Why? Because that’s what Jesus would do.

But, what our critics fail to understand when they look at us as Christians is that the message of the Gospel balances two critically important elements.

• On the one hand, we are all sinners. We inherited the sin of Adam and compounded our sinfulness by our own actions.
  
  
• On the other hand, God has so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sins.
  
  

Those two elements are both fundamentally necessary to an understanding of the Gospel.

Yes, when He was here on earth, Jesus extended great love to people who desperately needed it. But, He also spoke out against unrepentant sinful behavior. And, He did not hesitate to point out the dangerous path on which those who chose to sin persisted to live their lives. So, part of the great love of our Savior for sinners is His willingness to speak out against sin.

Obviously, it seems far better if—in following this “love, but don’t fail to call sin, sin” posture of Jesus—we always speak with a gentle firmness, using words bathed in God-breathed love. And, frankly, that’s hard to do consistently. We walk a tightrope in this regard and always must seek to maintain a balance between mercy, grace, and love on the one side, and honesty about sin on the other side.

The Apostle Paul sent Titus to Crete so that Titus could “amend what is defective” in the struggling church on that island. To do so, Paul had to give Titus some clear marching orders, and also make certain Titus knew what to expect, once he arrived at his destination. This prompted Paul to use words that many in our culture today would label as “harsh.” Notice what Paul wrote to Titus, as recorded in Titus 1:15-16:

To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.

Wow! Startling! But, was Paul wrong to call out the members of the church on Crete for their sinful behavior? No! In fact, Paul’s devotion to the Gospel, and his desire to display Christ-like love, required him to do so.

Of course, in directly addressing the sinners of whom he speaks, Paul would likely use more gentle words laced with kindness and love. But, when sin persisted, Paul would, no doubt, take the same kind of strong stand as the one he took in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5:

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

So, what can we do about the charges laid against us by the culture in which we live? I’m not at all certain we can do anything. Speaking to God, His Father, Jesus clearly told us in John 17:14:

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.

We cannot do anything that will appease the hatred of the world toward us. But, we can fairly and accurately represent Jesus by making certain we rely on the guidance from the Holy Spirit to assure that we always balance mercy, grace, and love in contrast with an honest declaration against the sinful behavior that permeates our present culture.

Let’s begin this new day by determining to stop pretending sin no longer exists among those around us. No, I’m not urging us to get up on a soapbox in the marketplace and speak harsh words. That would only make us into the clowns that the world would far too easily despise.

But, when faced with the opportunity to gently and tenderly speak words of love in a situation where sin is rampant, let’s choose to state the truth of God’s written Word without fear. In so doing, we become instruments that the Holy Spirit can use to force sinful behavior to come out from the darkness and into the light.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

The Hand of Peace

 

“Consider the blameless, observe the upright; a future awaits those who seek peace.”

—Psalm 37:37

Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ should serve as peacemakers whenever possible. As the Holy Spirit nudges us, we should willingly step in to promote peace. And, we must recognize that we promote peace in a variety of ways.

I am heartbroken over some of my fellow believers who have become so strident, even hateful, in their attacks against political forces that do not align with their preconceived ideas of how our nation should be governed. I can’t help thinking about the oppressive government of Rome at the time Jesus walked this earth. The Roman government was far more vile than we can even imagine, especially toward any person who was not a citizen of Rome. And, if you lived in a land that Rome had conquered, it was very difficult, if not impossible, to become a citizen.

At the same time, Jesus spoke of our need to recognize the value of making peace. In Matthew 5:9, Jesus told the crowd gathered around Him:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Some interpret this passage to mean that Christians should never go to war to protect their nation from threatening foreign powers. I personally believe that Jesus was talking about a much more intimate setting than a national threat. After all, He was speaking to people who were politically powerless and were living under the captive hand of Rome.

When Jesus urges peacemaking, I believe He is talking about a daily attitude of extending compassionate peace toward the people who cross our pathway in the normal course of daily life. It is so easy to turn our faces away from those in genuine need, particularly those who foment conflict against us. Whenever we do so, we help rob these ones of the opportunity to experience the peace that we can bring to their lives.

Sometimes peace comes in a quiet word of thoughtful explanation, or in a helping hand, in a gift of a meal, in the provision of a place to live, in an assistance with a legal problem, in a monetary gift to tide someone over, in an advocacy for someone who cannot advocate for himself or herself, and in a dozen other ways in which we can promote peace to flood into someone’s life. Please allow me to share an example:

I once knew of a woman who had lived on the streets for three years. She had lost her home and her family because of her addiction to alcohol. She told me how she had abstained from drinking for all of her early life. Then, in her mid-thirties, at a casual neighborhood party, she took her first drink of an alcoholic beverage. She took that drink mostly so that she wouldn’t stand out from the crowd, or become a target of mockery. That one single drink led her down the path to more and more drinking, until alcohol ruled her life and, subsequently ruined her life. But, she told me that she learned God had a different plan for her life.

One day, a businesswoman passing by in a car on her way to work saw this down-and-out alcoholic woman in her peripheral vision. The woman was living in the corner of a vacant lot. Her only shelter was a stitched together series of corrugated boxes. Suddenly, the businesswoman felt God nudge her to stop. She pulled her car to the curb, got out, and approached the homeless woman.

“Can I help you?” the businesswoman asked.

“Nobody can help me,” the woman replied. “I’m beyond help. Leave me alone.”

“I’d really like to help you. What can I do?”

“Go away! Leave me alone! There’s nothing you can do for me. Can’t you see that?”

Reluctantly, the businesswoman returned to her car. But, the image of that homeless woman would not leave her mind. Over the course of the next few hours that image moved from her mind to her heart. At lunch time, the businesswoman left work, went to a grocery store and bought some food. Then she stopped at a used clothing store and bought a warm coat. Then, she returned to find the homeless woman still sitting in the corner of the vacant lot. The businesswoman approached and said:

“I’ve brought you some food and a warm coat.”

“I don’t want your charity!” the homeless woman shouted. “Leave me alone! Go back to where you came from!”

The businesswoman set down her packages and went away. As she started her car, an enormous grief came over her. Tears streamed down her face. When she finally composed herself and started to drive away, she noticed that the homeless woman was putting on the warm coat. That small act made the businesswoman smile. A bit of hopefulness arose in her heart.

The next day, and the next day, and the next day, week after week, the businesswoman would stop on her way to work and give the homeless woman some food or clothing. The homeless woman stopped yelling at her and they began to have small conversations. Over time, the homeless woman started to tell a little of her story—how she had become enslaved by alcohol and lost everything.

After several months of building a relationship, the businesswoman finally convinced the homeless woman to seek help at a nearby parachurch-sponsored shelter for women. That began a long process of the homeless woman getting sober, and clean, and ready to get a job. The businesswoman acted as her sponsor, eventually helped her find a small apartment, and helped the formerly homeless woman settle into a new job.

After working for just over a year, the two women talked one day about the family the once homeless woman had lost. The businesswoman found an attorney who would help make a reconnection with the lost family. A period of carefully supervised visitation began. A lot of healing of many hurts started to take place.

Today, the formerly homeless woman has a solid job, has developed a relationship with her children, found some equilibrium with her former husband, who had remarried, and has seen her life turn around. Why? Because that businesswoman, a follower of Jesus, extended peace into the life of someone who so desperately needed peace.

It is my sincere belief that, if each of us would set his or her heart toward becoming the kind of peacemaker that Jesus was talking about in His “Sermon on the Mount,” we could change our world—the world immediately around us. If every “Christ’s-one” did that, we could change all of the world.

King David wrote Psalm 37 in response to evildoers, political opponents, and others, that he found inhabiting his world. He writes eloquently about all the various aspects of a righteous response to sin, corruption, and degradation. Among the stanzas of David’s song are these words found in Psalm 37:37:

Consider the blameless, observe the upright; a future awaits those who seek peace.

As we begin a new day, let’s seek peace in our own lives and in the lives of those whom God brings across our pathway. Let’s become peacemakers by putting away harsh, disruptive words, and by embracing an attitude of trust within us that assures us God remains in control. He has given us specific work to do. And, we must begin to do it for the sake of His great Name.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Come to Me

 

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

—Matthew 11:28

Have you ever worked hard on a project for several hours when someone who cares about you comes to you and says:

“Hey! Why don’t you take a few moments to rest? You’ve been working hard all day.”

Those are comforting words and wise ones, too. Sometime we get so involved in the tasks at hand that we forget that all four of our human modalities—emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical, or heart, soul, mind, and strength—need to pause and recharge. It’s good to have someone who cares about us enough to remind us that rest is a vital part of effective living.

In our spiritual lives, we are constantly battling the forces of the enemy, Satan. He wants to destroy us, turn us against ourselves, bring us to our knees with weariness and despair. We need to be reminded that it is very appropriate to make certain we pause in our battle long enough to get the rest we need.

Someone who cares about us the most is our Lord and Savior Himself. Jesus extends this invitation to us, as recorded in Matthew 11:28:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

As we launch out into another new day, let’s listen to Jesus and come to Him for the rest we need. Even on a day when we are working on behalf of His Kingdom, Jesus wants us to make certain that we make a determined effort to pause, so that He can restore us to top condition. What a marvelous indication this is of how very much He loves us.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Turn Around Time

 

“Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”

—Psalm 34:11-14

If you’re traveling along in your car or truck and you miss a turn, how long do you continue to drive forward until you turn around and go back to the place where you got off course? Please allow me to share an example:

One day many years ago, I rode from Hartford, Connecticut, to Rochester, New York, with a business associate—a trip of about seven hours. He was, and is, a fine man. Trained as a chemical engineer, he has a really sharp brain, and he is also a very kind and considerate man.

Along the way of our trip, he decided to get off the interstate highway and take some back roads. He stated that he wanted to have more pleasing scenery than the interstate afforded. We had plenty of time to get to our destination. As a passenger, I did not feel it was appropriate for me to object. So, we were soon cruising along at a much more relaxed pace looking at the central New York State countryside.

We didn’t have a map. But, we both knew the general direction to our destination and felt we would arrive without a problem. Then, suddenly, we encountered a detour. A flash flood the day before had caused the main road to cave in and a construction crew was in the midst of repairs. The detour took us out across the nearby rural landscape. We went over several different back roads.

At one point, I thought I spotted a detour sign that someone had knocked down. It was almost out of sight. It was only by chance that I saw it. As we cruised by, I told my colleague that I thought we had missed a turn. Instead of stopping immediately and driving back to the spot where I had seen the downed sign, he continued onward. I truly believe he thought we would find another road that would takes us back to the main road.

We drove for miles and miles. He made several turns onto various country roads. Finally, we realized we were desperately lost. He stopped, walked up to a nearby house, and asked for directions. After a long conversation, he returned to the car and we continued to drive, making numerous turns along the way.

An hour later, we were back on the main highway. But, in just a couple of miles, we once again came upon the road crew repairing the damaged pavement. We had gone backward in a huge circle and had burned 90 minutes in the process. Off on the same detour, we did so more carefully, came to the downed sign, made the turn, and in just a few minutes were back at the main road, well beyond the repair site. The detour had taken ten minutes this time.

I wonder, in our spiritual lives, how many times we keep going along a wrong pathway when, instead, we should stop, turn around, and go back to the place where we first lost our way and take the better pathway. King David understood the necessity of turning around, when he had taken the wrong path. Notice what he wrote in Psalm 34:11-14:

Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

As we begin another new day, let’s determine to seek peace and pursue it. If we find ourselves on the wrong pathway—one that leads us into sin—let’s stop, go back, and determine to stay on the pathway that God has opened up before us. Let’s not become tricked into taking a wrong turn that will lead us away from God’s best for us.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Trust Begets Trust

 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

—Proverbs 3:5-6

Some people are naturally trusting. They enter every relationship with a positive attitude and always look for the very best possible outcome. It doesn’t ever occur to them that the persons with whom they have developed relationships might, at some point, prove untrustworthy. Frankly, I envy these open, accepting, and positive-attitude people.

Then, there are people like me. Because of my personal history, dating way back to childhood experiences, and because I am inherently and extremely shy, for all of my adult life I have approached every relationship with suspicion. I expect any new person who crosses my pathway to eventually betray me. It is quite likely that my generally negative attitude toward trust has proven so off-putting to many people that it has created a self-fulfilling prophecy, time after time.

Nevertheless, I have decided to put aside my own predispositions and prejudices and see if I can share with you the importance of trust. If we are going to faithfully and persistently share with other people what God has done, is doing, and will do in our lives, we have to be viewed by those other people as individuals who are worthy of trust. The Prophet Isaiah has made this statement in Isaiah 26:4:

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.

In our relationship with God, we must learn to trust Him implicitly and continually. He will never betray our trust. He will never let us down. He will always surround us with His loving care. We can count on Him in every situation.

If we are to become trustworthy—with God’s trustworthiness as our example—where do we begin? By trusting in God we will find that, more and more, we will become worthy of trust ourselves. That’s because trust begets trust. Furthermore, we can and should follow the example of King Solomon, who wrote these words in Proverbs 3:5-6:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

We begin to learn trustworthiness by depending or leaning on God. He has given us His Holy Spirit to come along beside us and lead us along the pathway that God has opened up before us. If we set aside our own selfish wills and place the entirety of our beings into God’s loving and tender care, we will begin to experience the reality of trusting in Him. Out of that experience, we can develop within us the kind of trust that will prompt those around us to begin to listen to what we have to say and perceive that our words come from hearts that are worthy of trust.

Let’s begin this new day by redoubling our efforts to trust in God and build within us a trust that has as its foundation His trustworthiness. If we do that, we will become more and more effective in our role as ambassadors of the Great King.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Foolish Anger

 

“Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.”

—Ecclesiastes 7:9

Have you ever yelled at the television set in your living room or family room? Are you sure? I’m quite confident that you have. Okay. Maybe you didn’t yell out loud. But, in your spirit, you yelled at the TV. I know that you did. Why do we do that? The people on the TV, who provoke us to anger, can’t hear us. Right? And, by yelling at the TV we are disturbing the other people in our home—not to mention that we may well appear very foolish.

Anger is a powerful emotion. It is one of the emotions that our enemy, Satan, uses to try to knock us off the pathway that God has opened up for our lives. And, right now in our nation, there seems to be plenty to be angry about, especially if you find yourself at one extreme or the other on the political spectrum.

It is very easy for us to forget that, as Christians, we are, first and foremost, citizens of God’s Kingdom. Yes, I know that God is a God of justice. He does want His children to stand up for righteousness. But, I am not at all certain that He condones the use of harsh words in our Facebook posts or Twitter tweets, or Instagram photos, or Pinterest Pins, or Snapchat conversations, or even on our TikTok rants. Even if you feel you are expressing “righteous indignation” on behalf of some person or some group you believe has become disenfranchised, you dare not “fight fire with fire” because that’s not God’s way of mercy, grace, and love. King Solomon, at the end of his life, penned these words of wisdom found in Ecclesiastes 7:9:

Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

As we begin a new day, let’s determine to control our anger in a renewed way. Let’s not allow Satan to provoke us to anger about things over which we have no control. We can’t change the mind of some pundit on television. We can’t change the mind of most of the people who read our posts on social media, either.

But, we can exhibit God’s abundant love when we carefully and reasonably share the concerns we have with whatever we observe in our culture or society. We can do so without harming others. Even when we feel that we have been attacked by those who categorize all “Christ’s-ones” as bigots, racists, homophobes, sexists, fascists, magas, progressives, or whatever label is currently in use.

If we allow the Holy Spirit to guard our hearts and minds, we will be able to extend every grace to those who think differently than we do about politics, culture, even church and our fellow Christians. We do not need to be at war with anyone. In a gentle and tender way, we can stand for righteousness without needing to resort to behaviors that mimic the way of the secular world.

As citizens of God’s Kingdom, our residency has been bought with a terrible price—the very blood of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s enough violence with which Christians should have to deal. Let’s become instruments of God’s peace, even in a world that is going off the rails. Let’s put aside anger and embrace holiness. That will make God, who loves us with His everlasting love, break out with a big smile.

 

_{Copyright © 2025 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}