When Abigail’s parents died tragically in a car accident, she inherited a large real estate portfolio. She also learned that her parents had arranged to place the portfolio in a trust. For the time being, she could access only enough money for her college tuition. The rest would come when she was older. Abigail was frustrated, but she later realized her parents’ wisdom in planning a measured delivery of the inheritance.

In Galatians 4, Paul uses a similar example to illustrate Israel’s situation as promised heirs of God’s covenant with Abraham. God had made a covenant with Abraham to bless him, and circumcision was a sign of that promise (see Genesis 17:1-14). However, the sign wasn’t the promise. Abraham’s descendants would await a future descendant who would fulfill it. Isaac was born and pointed to the future birth of a Son who would redeem God’s people (vv. 4-5).

Israel, like Abigail, had to wait until the “time set by his father” (v. 2). Only then could Israel take full possession of the inheritance. What they wanted immediately would arrive in due time with Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. All who put their faith in Jesus were no longer slaves to sin, “but God’s child” (v. 7). A new covenant has been established. We have access to God! We can call him “Abba, Father” (v. 6).

When we built our home, it stood on little more than a muddy, empty lot at the end of a gravel road. We needed grass, trees, and shrubs to match the surrounding Oregon foothills. As I got out my lawn tools and set to work, I thought of the first garden waiting for humans: “Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, . . . and there was no one to work the ground” (Genesis 2:5).

The creation account in Genesis 1 repeats God’s assessment of creation: “it was good” (vv. 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). However, it wasn’t complete. Adam and Eve needed to cultivate the ground—to exercise stewardship of God’s creation (v. 28). They weren’t meant to live in an unchanging paradise, but one that needed care and development.

Since the beginning, God has been inviting humans to partner with him in His creation. He did it in the garden of Eden, and He does it with “the new creation” He makes of us when we put our faith in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Upon salvation, we’re not made perfect. As the apostle Paul says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world” (Romans 12:2). God works in us as we pursue a life pleasing to Him, “conformed to the image of his Son” (8:29).

Whether it’s caring for the earth or caring for our new life in Christ, God has given us a gift we need to cultivate.

For years, fitness experts have stressed the importance of running for cardiovascular health. But recent scientific studies have demonstrated that daily walking also has a range of health benefits. According to the US National Institute of Health, “Adults who took 8,000 or more steps a day had a reduced risk of death over the following decade than those who walked only 4,000 steps a day.” Walking is good for us.

Throughout the story of the Bible, walking is used as a metaphor for communing with God. In Genesis 3 we’re told how God walked with Adam and Eve “in the cool of the day” (v. 8). Genesis 5 shares the story of Enoch, who “walked faithfully with God 300 years” (v. 22). Enoch’s regular time spent with his Creator led him to be taken directly to be with God. In Genesis 17, God invited Abram to “walk before” Him as He renewed His covenant with him (v. 1). And Jacob, near the end of his life, described God as his shepherd and spoke of his ancestors who had “walked faithfully” (48:15). In the New Testament, Paul instructed us to “walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16). 

Like Enoch and the patriarchs in Genesis, we can walk with God daily. We do so by surrendering our lives to Jesus and being guided by the Holy Spirit. That’s the path to true health.

How’s your walk?

When I was a young boy in Ohio, we lived near several construction sites. Inspired by them, my friends and I gathered leftover scraps to build a fort. Borrowing tools from our parents, we hauled wood and spent days trying to make our material serve our purposes. It was fun, but our attempts were poor reflections of the well-constructed buildings around us. They didn’t last long.

In Genesis 11, we encounter the first recorded building project. “Let us build ourselves a city,” said the people, “with a tower that reaches to the heavens” (v. 4). A big problem with this effort was that the people did it to “make a name for ourselves” (v. 4).

This has been a recurring issue for humans; we build monuments to ourselves and our achievements. Later in the biblical narrative this story is contrasted with Solomon’s motivation for building God’s temple: “I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the Lord my God” (1 Kings 5:5).

Solomon understood that what he built needed to point to God and not himself. This was such an important lesson that he even wrote a psalm about it. Psalm 127 opens with “unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain” (v. 1). Like my childhood fort-building, what we build will not last, but God’s name and what we do for Him has lasting significance. 

The state of Mizoram in northeast India is slowly climbing out of poverty. Despite their lack of income, since the gospel first came to this area, believers in Jesus have practiced a local tradition called “handful of rice.” Those preparing meals each day set aside a handful of uncooked rice and give it to the church. Mizoram churches, poor by the world’s standard, have given millions to missions and sent missionaries around the world. Many in their home state have come to Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul describes a similarly challenged church. Believers in Macedonia were poor, but that didn’t keep them from giving joyfully and abundantly (vv. 1-2). They saw their giving as a privilege and gave “even beyond their ability” (v. 3) to partner with Paul. They understood they were merely stewards of God’s resources. Giving was a way to show their trust in Him, who provides for all our needs.

Paul used the Macedonians to encourage the Corinthians to have the same approach to giving. The Corinthians excelled “in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love.” Now they needed to “excel in this grace of giving” (v. 7).

Like the Macedonians and the believers in Mizoram, we too can reflect our Father’s generosity by giving generously out of what we have.

English Romantic painter John Martin (1789-1854) is known for his apocalyptic landscapes depicting the destruction of civilizations. In these fantastic scenes, humans are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the destruction and powerless against the approaching doom. One painting, The Fall of Nineveh, depicts people fleeing the coming destruction of mounting waves under dark rolling clouds. 

More than two thousand years before Martin’s painting, the prophet Nahum prophesied against Nineveh foretelling its judgment. The prophet used images of mountains quaking, hills melting, and the earth trembling (Nahum 1:5) to symbolize God’s wrath on those who’d oppressed others for their own gain. However, God’s response to sin is not without grace. While Nahum reminds his listeners of God’s power, he notes that He is “slow to anger” (v. 3) and “cares for those who trust in him” (v. 7).

Descriptions of judgment are hard to read, but a world where evil isn’t confronted would be a terrible one. Thankfully the prophet doesn’t end on that note. He reminds us that God desires a good and just world: “Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace!” (v. 15). That good news is Jesus, who suffered the consequences of sin so we can have peace with God (Romans 5:1, 6). 

A friend had violated the vows of his marriage. It was painful to watch him destroy his family. As he sought reconciliation with his wife, he asked my counsel. I told him he needed to offer more than words; he needed to be proactive in loving his wife and removing any patterns of sin. 

The prophet Jeremiah offered similar advice to those who’d broken their covenant with God and followed other gods. It wasn’t enough to return to Him (Jeremiah 4:1), though that was the right start. They also needed to align their actions with what they were saying. That meant getting rid of their “detestable idols” (v. 1). Jeremiah said that if they made commitments “in a truthful, just and righteous way,” then God would bless the nations (v. 2). The problem was the people were making empty promises. Their heart wasn’t in it.

God doesn’t want mere words; He wants our hearts. As Jesus said, “The mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Matthew 12:34). That’s why Jeremiah goes on to encourage those who would listen to break up the unplowed ground of their heart and not sow among the thorns (4:3).

Sadly, like so many people, my friend didn’t heed sound biblical counsel and consequently lost his marriage. When we sin, we must confess and turn from it. God doesn’t want empty promises; He desires a life that’s truly aligned with Him. 

For more than two centuries, the hymn placed first in the Methodist hymnbook was “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing.” Written by Charles Wesley and originally titled “For the Anniversary Day of One’s Conversion,” the song was composed to commemorate the radical renewal sparked by his faith in Jesus. It has eighteen stanzas proclaiming the glory of God’s goodness to those who repent and follow Christ.

Such faith is worth celebrating—and worth sharing. In 2 Timothy 2, Paul encourages Timothy to remain steadfast in his faith and to persevere in sharing it. He noted, “This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal” (vv. 8-9). Rather than second-guess his choices, Paul reminds Timothy to remember the good news message: “Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David” (v. 8), came not to rule but to serve and ultimately to die for the sins of the world so that we may have peace with God. Death didn’t win. Jesus rose from the grave.

And just as it set free those who believe, the message itself isn’t bound. “God’s word is not chained,” said Paul (v. 9), not even from places where death seems to have won: prison cells, hospital beds, gravesides. In Jesus, there is hope for all people. That’s news worth celebrating!

A few years ago, our church was invited to host refugees fleeing their country after a tumultuous change in political leadership. Entire families came with only what they could fit in a small bag. Several of our church families opened their homes, including some who had little room to spare. 

Their gracious hospitality reflects God’s command to the Israelites when they entered the promised land (Deuteronomy 24:19-21). As an agricultural society, they understood the importance of the harvest. The crops were essential to get them through until next year. This makes God’s command to “leave [some] for the foreigner, fatherless and widow” (v. 19) also a request to trust Him. The Israelites were to practice generosity not by giving only when they knew they had enough but giving out of a heart that trusts God’s provision. 

Such hospitality was also a reminder “that you were slaves in Egypt” (vv. 18, 22). They were once oppressed and destitute. Their generosity was a reminder of God’s graciousness to them in freeing them from bondage.

Believers in Jesus are similarly urged to be generous. Paul reminds us, “Though [Christ] was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). We give because He gave to us. 

It had been years since we left the Oregon town where we raised our family. We’d made great memories there, and the visit reminded me of moments I’d forgotten: our girls’ soccer games, our old home, church gatherings, and our friends’ Mexican restaurant. The town had changed, but there was enough of the familiar to spark my desire to return.

When the Israelites went into Babylonian exile, they missed the familiarity of people, landmarks, and culture. They forgot they’d been exiled for rebelling against God. When false prophets told the exiles they would return home soon (Jeremiah 29:8–9), they found a receptive audience. It was easy to listen to the slick words of false prophets who promised a return home.

God didn’t take kindly to these peddlers of the past and their false promises. “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you,” He said (vv. 8–9). He had plans for His people, “plans to give you hope and a future” (v. 11). The situation was challenging, difficult, and new, but God was with them. “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart,” He told them. God would bring them “back to the place from which I carried you into exile” (vv. 13-14).

Nostalgia plays tricks on the mind, making it easy to long for what once was. Don’t miss what God is doing right now. He will fulfill His promises.