Waist Deep 2018 - A Daily Dip in the Bible

I Peter 3: 15 Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. (NIV)  Most people are not looking for someone with all the answers. They just want to hear from a fellow pilgrim a couple of steps in front of them on the journey. When all is said and done, evangelism is as simple as that.* When I took the CPR certification class, it was clear to me that I would never be able to perform the life-saving procedure under the pressure of an emergency. I worriedly asked the instructor, “What if you do it wrong?” His answer was reassuring – and not: “If you don’t do anything, they’re going to die anyway. Don’t worry about doing it wrong.” Rather than fearing that we aren’t properly prepared to give an answer for the hope that we have, we should remind ourselves that people are going to hell if we say nothing; so worry less about saying the wrong thing. I say this, not...

I Peter 3: 3, 4 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment. . . . Instead it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. (NIV) It’s our differences from the world that makes us attractive, not our similarities. If we look just as grungy as the world, what’s our draw?* Some people get all caught up in the first part of these verses and get the idea that outward beauty is ungodly. As someone has observed, tongue in cheek, if Peter was prohibiting all “adorning,” he would be prohibiting clothing!*   Surely we shouldn’t believe that Peter meant that it is wrong to look good. His goal was to caution us about our priorities, not to discourage us (women and men) from making the most of what we have to work with. And, as Peter points out, we all have more work to do than can be seen from the outside. For myself, I am somewhat successful in putting on the mind of Christ in my at...

I Peter 2: 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God. (NIV) A Christian should do good works, not to be seen of men but because we are seen of men.* When my sister was a toddler, she got mad at me once and, having a limited vocabulary, she announced that I was “decent.” She did not mean it as a compliment.   In this world, I would like for people to speak well of me – but, if they can’t speak well of me, then I wish that they would at least speak the truth. I think this is what Peter is telling us. Your life can be a testimony even when it is being criticized and belittled. I read somewhere that early Christians were accused of being atheists because they didn’t believe in gods . By denouncing them for not believing in multiple gods, their accusers were testifying to the Christians’ belief in the one true God. But Peter’s admonition is about more than how we look to...

James 5: 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. (NIV) Whenever we pray together, God’s power manifests.* That awkward moment at prayer request time when someone shares TMI . . . we’ve all “been there” but hopefully not “done that.” Is that the kind of confession James wants from us? For most of us, the word "confess" calls to mind  the need to confess our sins to God. Some may be reminded of the practice of confessing to a priest. But James is not referring to the kind of confession that brings forgiveness; nor is he calling for indiscriminate airing of every shortcoming.* In this passage, James urges us to participate in the type of confession that heals .  “Confessing to one another” sounds more like a one-on-one experience than a group activity, but a group can be an appropriate setting. Ask God for discernment in choosing the right person or the right group with whom to share your confessio...

James 4: 7, 8 Submit yourselves, then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. (NIV) When a soul sets out to seek God, God sets out to meet that soul.* Notice the action words in this passage: submit, resist, come. The tense of these verbs in Greek indicates that they are things to be done and over with. You should submit and stay that way. Resist and never give in. Come and never go away. Satan has an action word, too: flee. We underestimate Satan’s power and overestimate our ability to resist him. We’ve seen too many movies and we think the powers of darkness are only special effects.   But, if we submit and resist, Satan doesn’t just back-off; he runs away. Picture that! In the words of another: “Strong as . . . [Satan] is, God never permits him to conquer the man who continues to resist him.”* And then there’s God’s action word: come. If we submit, resist and come, God will come near to ...

James 4: 2, 3 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (NIV) God will never bless a man in his sins.* Some of James’ readers wanted things they couldn’t get (and shouldn’t have), even though they quarreled, fought, coveted and killed for it. He doesn’t tell these people that they “have not because they ask not,” in an attempt to encourage them to pray. His message is, “If you are willing to do all that in an attempt to get what you want, are you really going to ask God for it?” And what if they did ask God for what they wanted? James says that whether they don’t pray at all, or whether they pray with wrong motives, they will not receive what they want from God. He is not a genie in a lamp to grant our wishes and fulfill our shallow ...

James 2: 13 Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. (NIV) Mercy stands higher than the law as the guiding principle of God's relationship with men.* I find it challenging to show mercy to those whose problems are brought on by their own bad choices. My occasional opportunity to distribute groceries from our church’s food pantry helped to temper my judgmental attitude somewhat. Meeting the people face-to-face has opened my eyes to this truth: Poor choices or not, hungry people are still hungry. Jesus didn’t stop to ask the needy how they managed to get themselves into their predicaments; he fed them. My sinful condition is a result of my poor choices. God does not roll his eyes and shake his head when he looks at me. He doesn’t remind me that if only I had listened to him, I wouldn’t be in the mess I’m in. He shows me mercy. James doesn’t mention how we’re supposed to feel toward the one who needs our mercy. Many times (m...