He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns midnight into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out over the face of the land—the LORD is his name. – Amos 5:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 31, 2026): Amos 5

We have watched the heavens from almost the very beginning of time. We noticed that when the sun, the greater light, was in the sky, our world was illuminated. When the moon shone, the lesser light, it was darker. If both great lights were absent from the sky, it would be even darker, though the stars would still give us some light. While there was one greater light and one lesser light, there were many stars. And so we looked and began to see patterns in the sky: the constellations. The stars began to tell us stories.

Ever since my early morning paper deliveries, Orion the Hunter has been one of my favorites. As I began my route, I loved looking up at the sky and seeing Orion above my head, imagining that the sword hanging from his belt could be drawn in times of danger.

Pleiades was another ancient group of stars, though it went by different names at different times around the world. In Japan, the star cluster is historically known as “Mutsuraboshi,” which means “six stars.” Today, it is known as “subaru” which means “to cluster together.” A quick look at the Japanese automotive company’s logo reveals the origin of the name with its familiar six stars clustering together.

Outside of Japan, most onlookers have noticed seven stars in the cluster instead of six. Therefore, the cluster has been known as the Seven Mothers, the Seven Sisters, or simply the seven.

Biblical interpreters have helped us understand what the author is talking about. I am unsure of what Amos would have called these stars, but he uses the word “keseel,” which means any constellation, but especially the burly one we call “Orion,” and “Keemaw,” which simply means “the seven stars.” By pointing to the Pleiades, the translators have helped us distinguish it from the other seven-star clusters that shine above.

Amos’s point is that it is God who has placed these lights in the sky, and so he is the God on whom we can still depend.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Amos 6

“I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD. – Amos 4:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 30, 2026): Amos 4

Have you ever been hungry? I know that after a long day, we often say we are starving, but the truth is, we are not really even hungry, let alone starving. We could go much longer without food; in fact, many do in various parts of the world. But I have been hungry, especially during my college days. There were times when I simply couldn’t afford food, and so I didn’t eat.

I remember a conflict I had with a roommate. In this case, I had been busy and hadn’t gone shopping. My roommate, who had borrowed and even destroyed many of my belongings, had left for a month-long work trip out of town. He left, and I felt I could use some food, so I went to the cupboard to see if there was anything left. I didn’t have anything, at least not anything I felt like eating, but my roommate had left a few tins of canned spaghetti. Not the best meal, but it was easy to make, and my roommate was gone for a month, so I had plenty of time to replace the can. I made myself some lunch, intending to do some grocery shopping that afternoon. The problem wasn’t that I didn’t go shopping, but that my roommate changed his mind and didn’t go away for work. He came home while I was eating his spaghetti, and he was none too pleased with his roommate. I did go shopping that afternoon and bought him a tin of spaghetti.

Amos speaks to the women of Samaria, the Capital City of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And Amos speaks with a theme. The prophet recognizes the trouble the Northern Kingdom has experienced and assures them that the trouble they have gone through had a purpose. Every struggle had been intended to bring the nation back to God. From the moment the divided kingdoms emerged, the north chose to step away from the faith of the people centered on the Temple in Jerusalem.

And so, God had allowed their choice to go it alone without him. He allowed the struggle because he loved them and wanted to bring them back to him. But the people had refused to return to the God who had brought them out of Egypt, and continued to follow the idols that their kings and priests had placed before them. They experienced hunger, but did not recognize it as an invitation to return to the faith of their fathers.

God still invites us back into faith. But we have to hear the invitation, and often we don’t.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Amos 5

When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it? – Amos 3:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 29, 2026): Amos 3

Why does God allow evil to happen? It is an important question, one that we seem to dance around when people ask it. Usually, I admit, even my answer is that God didn’t choose evil; we did. In every war, someone fires the first shot, and there are reasons why we go to war, some of which those in power seldom want to admit. There is a feeling in World War I that Europe was waiting for a reason to go to war. However, the framers of the conflict couldn’t imagine the devastating trench conflict that terrorized the territory for four years. But God didn’t do that. Kings and political leaders chose that path. I recently read a conversation between two soldiers, one from each side of the First World War, and according to the interview, conducted in the early days of the war, both soldiers felt that their side was on the right side of history, fighting for peace and freedom. That doesn’t surprise me. Defending the (fill in the blank with your country’s demonym here) way of life is the reason we are given whenever we go to war. I was recently reminded of a quote from former American President Jimmy Carter. “War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children” (Jimmy Carter).

So, we need to return to our question: why does God allow evil? Right now, several wars are being waged on our blue marble, and according to Carter, wars are always evil. The keyword here is “allow.” I am not saying evil originates with God; it doesn’t, it finds its genesis in us. But God still allows it. The understanding in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) is that God could have prevented it, so if he allows it, he caused it by not preventing it.

I am not sure that I know the answer to the question. Sometimes, going through times dominated by evil has caused me to rethink and reaffirm my faith. Sometimes these moments have strengthened me. Often, it has driven me to my knees in prayer for those who are affected. I would prefer to live in a world without an Adolf Hitler or even a Jeffrey Epstein. I dream of a world where we fight wars by exchanging flags and a bottle of liquor on a remote Island, as Canada and Denmark did in their most recent conflict over a piece of land. But I trust that there is a reason, even if it is just a reminder that this world is not my home, and there is something more for me in a place that God has prepared for you and for me.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Amos 4

They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name. – Amos 2:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 28, 2026): Amos 2

Jeffrey Epstein’s sins are still coloring our world almost a decade after his death. In Europe, heads are finally beginning to roll. Everyone seems to be doing their best to distance themselves from the sexual predator. It is too bad that more of them hadn’t fled in the days when Epstein was alive, rich, and powerful.

I have no idea how these men, and a few women, couldn’t have known that associating with Epstein would become problematic at some point, except that they were lured into the false comfort that the rules could not touch those who had both money and power. Epstein was a snake in the grass, but he was a rich snake in the grass. Sexual laws might “apply to thee but not to me.” It is an age-old double standard.

In Europe, the double standard seems to be cracking, but in North America, and especially in the United States, this false belief seems to be holding. The warning I have for my North American friends is that, as the wealth gap widens in our society, this hypocrisy will likely spark a revolution at some point. As President Trump attacked Iran and invited the people of Iran to rise up and take control of their government, one commentator asked an important question in this age of hypocrisy. President Trump, would you allow your son, Barron Trump, to be one of those who would rise up if you were in Iran, or is that just the job of people with low incomes? It is an important question. Wars tend to be fought by people experiencing poverty and other visible minorities. It is one of the few paths that young men and women might see as a way out of their economic situations. The rich tend to run wars, but those experiencing poverty are the ones carrying their guns into battle.

Amos’s prophecy against Israel is that they are not a just society. They trample over the poor as a hiker walks on the dust of the earth. There is an active hypocrisy alive and well in their culture, where the rules that apply to the wealthy don’t apply to those without money or power. And apparently, Jeffrey Epstein was alive and well in the ancient world, and as a result, fathers and sons were having sexual relations with the same girl. It was an intolerable situation that went against God’s expectations for the nation, and a behavior that had to stop.

Bad behavior tends to catch up with us. It is something we who live in the Jeffrey Epstein era need to remember. And even if it doesn’t, God knows, and that should be enough to ensure that we stand up for right and oppose anything immoral or unjust, because God’s expectations of us haven’t changed. And our money and power will not save us in His Courts of Justice.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Amos 3

I will send fire on the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses. – Amos 1:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 27, 2026): Amos 1

The Gaza Strip is a narrow strip of land forty kilometers long and eight to twelve kilometers wide on Israel’s Mediterranean Coast, and it is rich in history. The name first appears in the military records of Pharaoh Thutmose III, who reigned in Egypt from April 28, 1479, until March 11, 1425 B.C.E. Then, the city of Gaza was indicated in the area. Today, it is a province whose capital city remains Gaza City.

Politically, it has been ruled by the Palestinian group known as Hamas since 2007. Hamas’s leadership has been problematic because they refuse to acknowledge the right of Israel to exist. Hamas supports a policy where they want Israel to be evicted from the area. This eviction from the area is the meaning of the phrase “from the river (Jordan) to the Sea (Mediterranean).”

On October 7, 2023, Hamas led an attack on its enemy, Israel. In the process, it killed indiscriminately, including youth who were attending a music festival. It was a horrible provocation. The killing of innocents is something that is universally condemned in our contemporary age. Hamas’s attack and the kidnapping of innocents were soundly denounced by world powers, as was Israel’s subsequent killing of innocents in its counterattacks.

As Israel rained missiles down on the Gaza Strip, it was hard not to think of this passage in Amos. Was Israel’s response a fulfillment of Amos’s prophecy? I don’t think so, although the sins in both cases might have had some similarities. In Amos’s case, the Prophet was speaking about the city. He accuses the Gaza leadership of taking “captive whole communities and [selling] them to Edom.” Bible teacher James Boice (1938-2000) explains it this way.

“The condemnation here is not against slavery in and of itself … The crime is not that soldiers were enslaved after being taken in battle, which was the standard practice, but that the Philistines used their temporary supremacy to enslave whole populations – soldiers and civilians, men and women, adults and children, young and old – for commercial profit. Gaza did not even need the slaves. She merely sold them to Edom for more money.” (James Boice)

Selling slaves was an even deeper stain than just the normal practice of taking slaves. However, we should note that wherever there is sin, there is a counter-response. In every act of war, there is a response, and someone will pay. It was true in Gaza, and it was true in Israel. Two wrongs never make a right. And maybe we should seek to live our lives in a way such that fire doesn’t have to fall from the sky to stop us from what we are doing. As we learned in the Gaza-Israeli conflict, fire from the sky rains down on everyone. Fire from the sky is not restricted to the most sinful, whoever that might be. In fact, those who bring the fire are often protected from the fire that falls on ordinary people.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Amos 2

Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. – 2 Chronicles 26:1

Today's Scripture Reading (March 26, 2026): 2 Chronicles 26

Names. We all have them, and reasons for why we like or don't like our names. Personally, I am okay with my name, though at times I would have preferred to be called David. I tried using my middle name during my teens, but I never got used to answering to it. I have a friend who is known by two different names, depending on the group of people he is with. One name is his given name, but the second name is made up of his initials. I am not sure how he decides which name to use in each group.

Royal people often choose their regnal name or the name under which they decide to rule. Charles III surprised some watchers when he decided to use Charles as his regnal name; after all, the reigns of Charles I and II didn't end well. His mother, Elizabeth II, also chose to reign under her given name. Her full name was Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. (Personally, I think she made the right choice.)

Elizabeth's father chose to use another of his names as his regnal name. King George VI was born Albert Frederick Arthur George. He had used Prince Albert throughout his life before becoming King. His decision to use the name King George VI was a way for the King to tell his people that he wanted to reflect the stability of his father, King George V, after the short, tumultuous reign of his brother, King Edward VIII. Edward VIII used his given name as his regnal name, although he probably wins the prize for having been given the most names at his birth; Edward VIII was born Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David. I wonder how old he was before he could even recite his name in the proper order.

King Uzziah became king at the age of sixteen. Uzziah had a personal name and a regnal name, so it can be confusing, especially when the biblical writers aren't consistent with which name they use when speaking about him. It seems likely that Uzziah is his regnal name, while his personal or given name is Azariah. Second Kings uses both names, but is more consistent in using his personal name, Azariah. Second Chronicles uses his regnal name, Uzziah, exclusively. With Uzziah, there might be a reason why his biographers used different names to refer to him. And here it is: during the reign of Azariah/Uzziah, there was a High Priest with the same name. Officially, he was Azariah II to differentiate him from Azariah I, who was the High Priest during the reign of King Solomon. Second Kings doesn't mention this priest, but Chronicles includes his role in the story of Uzziah's sin at the Temple and the king's resulting leprosy. So, for the Chronicler, using the King's regnal name, Uzziah, allows the reader to distinguish between the King and the High Priest.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Amos 1

He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done. – 2 Kings 15:3

Today's Scripture Reading (March 25, 2026): 2 Kings 15

Succession is never an easy process. And it is an error to think it is only a royal problem. Succession occurs whenever a significant leader steps down from a position or dies and is replaced by another person. The problem is that separating the new leader from the old is almost always impossible. If the previous leader did a great job at whatever the task was, then the new leader is forever trying to measure up to the leader who came before. In many ways, this is precisely the task with which King Charles III has been presented. Queen Elizabeth II turned out to be a significant and long-reigning monarch. And everything that Charles does will be compared to her legacy, whether or not that is fair.

But if a leader follows a bad or incapable leader, then a level of trust must be earned before the new leader is allowed to move forward. Neither of these situations presents an easy solution, but they are the reality of life, and new leaders often have to learn to overcome the reign of the one who went before.

The biblical record indicates that Amaziah had been a good king, at least for the most part. The hesitancy in discussing Amaziah's reign stems from his refusal to remove the high places. And toward the end of his life, he made a series of bad decisions. He was the first Judean king to hire mercenaries; specifically, Amaziah hired 100,000 soldiers to help him wage war against Edom, an act for which an unnamed prophet condemned him. Amaziah repented and didn't use the mercenaries in his fight with Edom. Instead, he depended on God for the victory, and he defeated Edom. But the mercenaries didn't react well to being left out of the battle. They turned to attack and loot several of the towns in Judea. Amaziah, elated by his victory over Edom, decided to attack Jehoash, King of Israel. In the moment of his arrogance, Amaziah was soundly defeated by Israel and taken captive by the Northern Kingdom. Then the Northern Kingdom attacked Jerusalem, tearing a portion of the city wall down and looting the Temple for some of its treasure. When Amaziah was finally released from Israel and returned home, he was murdered, suffering a similar fate to that of his father, Joash.

And it was into this situation that the sixteen-year-old Azariah stepped. That the biblical historians can assert that Azariah did what was right in the eyes of God is a bit of a miracle considering what was going on in Judah. The addition of "just as his father Amaziah had done" is a bit of a mystery. There is no doubt that Amaziah had started well. But his finish was a bit of a disaster, something that Azariah would want to avoid in his reign.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 26

See also 2 Chronicles 26:4

After the kingdom was firmly in his control, he executed the officials who had murdered his father the king. – 2 Chronicles 25:3

Today's Scripture Reading (March 24, 2026): 2 Chronicles 25

A friend of mine was murdered almost two years ago. I have tried to keep informed about the fate of the two people who were charged in his death, but I haven't been able to find much information on their fate. Unfortunately, I also knew one of his attackers. It is hard to know people on both sides of a crime, but the attacker I knew tended to be a drug user and a manipulator. He certainly tried to manipulate my friend and was often successful in getting what he wanted.

I have my opinion on what should happen in my friend's case, but I suspect things won't go quite the way I think they should. I believe that the person I don't know who is charged with the crime is likely the ringleader. Whether or not she was involved hands-on with the actual murder, I suspect that she shaped events in such a way that the murder could take place. I also suspect that the most appropriate charge might be manslaughter, a crime that in my part of the country probably means four to fifteen years in jail. It could be longer, and I am told in minor cases (if someone died, what makes a "minor case"), jail might not even be pursued. I think ten to fifteen years in this case makes sense for my friend's attackers. But I recognize that it could be much shorter.

In some murders, especially mass shootings where the shooter is a minor, we have begun to charge the shooter as well as the parents if it is determined that there were warning signs to the crime. I get it. Sometimes, it seems that parents have as much blame as their children, even if they didn't pull the trigger. But it could extend even further.

I admit that, in the case of my friend, I wonder if I did enough to prevent his murder. The problem is that I think there were warning signs, but as an outsider, I am not sure what I might have done to change the unfortunate outcome.

Penalties for all murders in ancient times were extreme. Even involuntary manslaughter or accidental killing could result in the execution of the guilty. But the law was very specific. Only the one who killed could be executed for the crime. "Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin" (Deuteronomy 24:16).

Amaziah followed the letter of the law and executed the officials who were involved in the killing of his father. But he did not go any further. In this, he was following precisely what the law allowed.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 15

He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but not as his father David had done. In everything he followed the example of his father Joash. – 2 Kings 14:3

Today's Scripture Reading (March 23, 2026): 2 Kings 14

Rules. I am convinced that we have a love-hate relationship with them. We like to complain about the many rules and regulations we have to follow, but the reality is that staying within them is easy. We know if we are right or wrong at a glance. Maybe we can decide that, in this instance, we want to be in the wrong, or we can rationalize why the rule is incorrect, but the point is that we know. Knowing we are right or wrong is something that rules can do for us.

I had a friend who has not always been on the right side of the law. He has lived a life where the police are often seen as the enemy, and these officers are always trying to prove that you have lived outside of society's rules. And if they can't find anything, they are not beyond inventing crimes to accuse you of because they know you are guilty of something. Recently, a visitor to his house called the police to do a wellness check on him. My friend was not amused. He knew where he had been outside the law in the past, and he understood where he was living outside the rules now. Police officers were nothing more than people who brought with them more rules he would have to live his life by or risk arrest. Since the visit, my friend has lived looking over his shoulder, worried about the next rule-keeper to enter his life. And yet, in his own way, my friend is also a rule keeper, and he lives by rules, often keeping regulations to which I am not even faithful.

I know the whole thing is complicated and hard to understand. So let me complicate it a little more. The main focus of our lives as Christians is not to follow rules but to live in accordance with the heart of God. The rules can get us part of the way, but not all the way we need to go with our spiritual lives. Please, don't be offended, but if you are following rules as a Christian and worrying about the rules you break, then you are still in the infancy of your faith. God wants so much more for you and from you.

Amaziah did what was right, but he didn't go all the way. When compared with David, he didn't compare favorably. But when compared with Joash, Amaziah lived up to Joash's example in the first part of his reign, but he also fell away from God just as Joash had during the latter portion of his reign. Amaziah, like Joash, was a rule follower. He followed the letter of God's law but never bothered to go beyond the rules to search out the heart of God. Amaziah was a king who kept his roles compartmentalized. He lived up to the expectations placed on him but never allowed those expectations to take him any further in his personal life. He made the worship of the God of Abraham important, while never bothering to remove the high places where the people were sacrificing to pagan gods. He loved his people, but his commitment to God never made him want what was best for them. He followed the rules but not the heart of God.

Rules are always a great starting place, but we need to seek the heart of God so we can become more like him. And that is something that rules will never do for us.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 25

Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet. – 2 Kings 13:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 22, 2026): 2 Kings 13

The Christian Church has, throughout most of its history, sought after relics from the lives of Christ or the Saints. These relics are often thought to possess miraculous powers both in the past and in the present. Maybe the most popular of those relics is found in the search for the Holy Grail, traditionally identified as the chalice from which Jesus and his disciples drank at the original Lord’s Supper on the night Jesus was betrayed. But we haven’t found it. And without some miraculous power, any cup that was declared to be the grail would be a nightmare to authenticate.

But there are other relics that have shown up through the pages of history, and some of them have been really strange. One of the more logical ones is the wood from the one true cross. Helen, the mother of Constantine the Great, visited the Holy Land from 326 to 328 and discovered three crosses, believed to be those of Jesus and the two thieves, Dismas and Gestas. The cross belonging to Jesus was labelled, but according to the story, even Helen was skeptical that it was the one true cross until she witnessed a miracle associated with it. I am not sure what that miracle might have been, but something happened to convince Helen of the cross's authenticity.

Some of the stranger relics include Jesus’s foreskin, from his circumcision. These pieces of skin began showing up in Europe, mostly in France, about the year 800 C.E. However, not just one of these foreskins has shown up in European churches, but more than a dozen. Obviously, they weren’t all genuine. And then they were stolen and showed up somewhere else. Miracles associated with these pieces of skin included foreskins that continued to bleed at times, especially during worship services. All of these relics have disappeared, and Pope Leo XIII grew tired of the whole story and decreed that anyone who refers to these foreskins will be excommunicated. (I guess that means I will never be a Roman Catholic. Oops!)

Another strange relic is a baby tooth of Jesus. Maybe the tooth fairy picked it up from Nazareth and dropped it off at the Abbey of Saint-Medard of Soissons, once again in France, where the baby tooth was housed, at least for a while.

Here we have a strange story of a group of friends burying a man when they are confronted by raiders. To save the body from desecration, the friends make a decision to hide the body in the tomb of Elisha. The body touches Elisha’s bones, and the body comes back to life. Maybe the question that we ask is, if it happened, then why not now with modern-day saints? Most theologians look at this strange story and say that this happened, but it was not repeated. Sometimes, God does things once and then never again. Biblical scholar Adam Clarke (1762-1832) sums up the story and leaves us with this thought.

This is the first, and I believe the last, account of a true miracle performed by the bones of a dead man; and yet on it and such like the whole system of miraculous working relics has been founded by the popish Church (Adam Clarke).

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 14

See, I am going to rouse them out of the places to which you sold them, and I will return on your own heads what you have done. – Joel 3:7

Today's Scripture Reading (March 21, 2026): Joel 3

I recently conducted an experiment. I asked my computer's Artificial Intelligence to compile a list of ten Roman Emperors who persecuted Christians. My AI came up with an interesting list of names. The first Emperor on the list was Nero who was the Roman Emperor from 54 to 68 C.E. My computer's list continued with Domitian (81-96 C.E.), Trajan (98-117), Hadrian (117-138), Marcus Aurelius (161-180), Septimus Severus (193-211), Maximus Thrax (235-238), Decius (249-251), Valerian (253-260), and concludes with Diocletian (284-305). I admit that I didn't have my computer do the work on a whim. I possessed another list, compiled by the Theologian John A. Trapp (1601-1669). This list was obviously composed long before the computer era, and I wondered how close the two lists might compare.

Of the ten Emperors on these two lists, my computer and John Trapp actually agreed on eight of them. Trapp left Emperors Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius off his list, replacing them with Emperors Aurelian and Maximian. Unfortunately, I can't question either compiler of these lists to find out why they arrived at their lists; Trapp has been dead for over three and a half centuries, and my computer refuses to answer any of my queries. But I have a cynical answer. In compiling his list, Trapp sought to prove a point: that the emperors who persecuted Christians met unfortunate fates. The problem with both Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius is that they didn't die by violent means. Hadrian died of Ill health, maybe coronary artery disease, and we don't know how Marcus Aurelius died. Aurelian, on the other hand, was murdered by his own men while he was out on campaign, and Maximian was forced to hang himself under the orders of Constantine the Great.   

Maybe that is an unfair comment. But it seems rare when we see the perpetrators of sinful actions pay for their sins in this life. Even Jesus reminds us that "He [God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45). To be blunt, it is hard to find Emperors who, like Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, didn't die under questionable circumstances or at the hands of their friends. That violent kind of death seems to be the norm, not the exception.

Joel prophesies that he will rouse those who have been persecuted and return that persecution on the heads of the perpetrators. It is an interesting proposition. And while trying to prove this assertion with a list of Emperors who persecuted Christians seems like a fool's errand, all empires that have ever existed on the earth have fallen. Every one of them sowed the seeds of their destruction in their behavior, including their willingness to go against God's dictates. The current American Empire might be the next one, and it might fall quicker than anyone believes. Unfortunately, the North American Church might quickly follow suit, because we seem to have lost our love for the things Jesus loved: loving each other, building community, and taking care of "the least of these."   

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 13

"Even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." – Joel 2:12

Today's Scripture Reading (March 20, 2026): Joel 2

I recently spent some quality time with my dentist. Unlike some, I don't like going to the dentist. I had one dentist tell me stories of patients who had fallen asleep while he was working on them. I can't imagine that happening. Everyone at the dentist's office seems to enjoy taking a perverse pleasure in the act of inflicting pain. I have heard people say they love how their teeth feel after a good cleaning, but I don't even enjoy those appointments. I have decided that these dental fans are commandment-breakers, focusing primarily on the one that says we should not bear false witness. My teeth feel fine before I get them cleaned, but afterward, it takes two or three days, and sometimes longer, for the pain to go away.

A while back, I read an article on Joel 2, focusing on verses 12 and 13, by Rev. Dr. Janet Hunt, and her opening quote came from her dentist. According to Rev. Dr. Janet Hunt's dentist. "If you look for the pain, you will find it.  Don't go looking for it." Apparently, this insane advice was given to her during a root canal.

Except, maybe it is not all that ridiculous. Sometimes we miss the purpose of our pain. Sometimes we even miss the cause of our pain. My doctor's technical diagnosis of my back pain is that it is "full of arthritis." I am not sure which medical school he went to, but when your back is "full of arthritis," what I want to do is take lots of pain drugs and watch old M*A*S*H reruns. However, according to my Dr., what I want to do is wrong. When my back hurts, I need to step away from my desk and go for a walk.

Pain is a constant in all of our lives. If we want to look for pain, we won't have far to go. And what we sometimes discover is that even the most well-adjusted among us suffer from emotional pain. We don't want to admit that, but it is true, and emotional pain often acts as a focus and a multiplier of our physical pain.

I am not saying that we don't need drugs to handle some of our pain. However, Rev. Dr. Janet Hunt's dentist might be right. If we look for pain, we will find it. So, don't go looking for it. And definitely don't focus on it. Have you ever noticed that if you are in pain, it gets worse at night or when you are alone? That is because it is at night and when we are alone that we start to focus on our pain. And when we do that, the pain becomes unbearable.

It is always dangerous to play amateur psychiatrist, but I think King Saul had an inferiority complex. When Samuel went to him to anoint him, King over Israel, this was Saul's reply. "But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me" (1 Samuel 9:21)? It might have been just humility, but I don't think so. Saul was young, and his tribe, the Tribe of Benjamin, had just about been wiped out in Israel's first civil war after the incident at Gibeah and the gruesome murder of a Levite's concubine a few generations earlier. Just imagine being Saul; a few generations ago, all of Israel took up arms against your ancestors, almost wiping them out, and now Samuel says that someone from that tribe will rule over all of Israel. Sometimes I wonder if Saul didn't get out of bed every day trying to prove that he really was worthy of being King; that God was right to place the nation's leadership in his hands.

Then, Saul has a chance to avenge Israel against one of their earliest enemies. Surely that would prove that he was worthy of being King. Surely that would ease his pain. The problem was that Saul's inferiority could not be solved by defeating the Amalekites. It could not be solved by taking their king, Agag, prisoner, proving that he was greater than the Amalekite King. But taking their possessions as his possessions could not ease his pain. Only reducing the distance between him and God could do that. Saul didn't understand the source of his pain. Instead, everything that he was doing was making his pain worse.

If only he could have heard the words of Joel - "Even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning" (Joel 2:12). God asks Joel to understand that at least part of your pain is because you have wandered away from me. I know you have real pain in your life, but it is amplified because you are far from me.

We need to be reminded of the same message. Our pain is magnified because we have wandered away from God. It is this pain that we try to concentrate on during Lent, not so that we can increase our pain, but so that we can find the solution for our pain. We commit, with all of our hearts, to accept the invitation to return to God. And we do it with fasting and weeping and mourning, because in the midst of our sin, we have lost so much.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Joel 3

  

Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. – Joel 1:13

Today's Scripture Reading (March 19, 2026): Joel 1

Joel begins his prophecy by talking about locusts. Scholars have debated what these locusts represented to Joel. Some have suggested that a massive army was attacking Israel, possibly the Assyrians or Babylonians. Part of the problem with discerning which army is that we have difficulty dating Joel's prophecy; there are no date clues in Joel's words that anchor it to a specific date or era.

Some scholars have talked about a natural disaster. Joel talks about drought, lending credence to the idea that it might be a natural disaster Israel is fighting against. And it might be about a plague of locusts. But here is the point: Joel's words are a prophecy. Prophecy naturally has different levels. However, on one level, a prophecy usually points to a specific situation that had caught the Prophet's attention.

In Joel's situation, maybe we can concede it was probably locusts. But God takes this prophecy and makes it about an army that is coming or about a disaster that is on its way. And then he takes this picture, applies it to our situations centuries later, and asks this question: What are you struggling against that you have no control over? What need are you suffering through that could be declared in your life? Where are the locusts? And as we declare our need, maybe we will recognize that we need God.

Pastor and author John Ortberg tells the story of serving as the chaplain at a professional baseball training camp. At one point in the camp, he is asked if he wants to take batting practice. John says he had never played organized ball, but as a kid, he hit against the best pitcher on his block and did pretty well, better than anyone else. Well, there was only one other kid on his block, and she was in grade 1 – but…

What guy doesn't want to take batting practice at a pro camp? Who doesn't want to face a pro pitcher? So, John gets a helmet and a bat and walks out onto the diamond to face the pitcher. The first ball is thrown, and John says that he heard it hit the back of the net just as he was getting ready to swing at it. At that moment, John realized this guy is playing for real; he is giving me his best.

John started swinging earlier; he actually started his swing before the pitcher had started his forward motion, and he even fouled a few balls off. Then the pitcher asked if he would like a couple with a little zing, and John realized that he had been lobbing the ball in to him.

John said, "Sure," and the pitcher threw one more pitch. John says he never did see the ball, just heard it hit behind him. Later, the pitcher wrote up a scouting report on John, which read:" John Ortberg, hits right, fields right, and, as a baseball player, he makes a good pastor."

Here is the problem: we live in that batter's box. We have problems that come at us so fast that we never even see the ball coming. We are overcome, the locusts are too many, the army is too great, and there is nothing that we can do except to declare the need. However, instead of declaring the need, most of the time I think we say it isn't fair or we make excuses. I love Benjamin Franklin's quote, "He who is good at making excuses is seldom good at anything else" (Benjamin Franklin). Somehow, we need to get beyond the excuses, beyond the reason why something can't be done, and stand before the Creator of the Universe and say, "This is the need, these are the locusts in my life, and there doesn't seem to be anything that I can do about it. God, I need You."

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Joel 2

 

The officials who murdered him were Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer. He died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. And Amaziah his son succeeded him as king. – 2 Kings 12:21

Today's Scripture Reading (March 18, 2026): 2 Kings 12

Joash's reign began with such promise, but it ended in disappointment. Joash made the right decisions as long as Jehoiada was present to help him, but after Jehoiada died, Joash lost the rudder that had steered his life. The rest of Joash's reign is marked by disaster after disaster. Finally, he empties the Temple of its treasure so that the Arameans would leave and go home. It was at this point that some lost patience with the King and had reached the end of the road with Joash. Jozabad and Jehozabad assassinated the King and placed his son, Amaziah, on the throne.

Although the experts seem to disagree with me, I do see some conflict between 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles in how they tell the story. Second Kings seems to downplay the negatives of Joash's reign after Jehoiada's death. The story in 2 Chronicles relates to the reader a tale that is a little clearer on what those negatives were.

But more importantly, the contradiction between the two stories is clear in the tale of the King's burial. According to 2 Kings, Joash "was buried with his ancestors in the City of David" (2 Kings 12:21). But Ezra in 2 Chronicles makes this comment; "So he [Joash] died and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings" (2 Chronicles 24:25). The conflict seems to be whether Joash was buried with the Kings or whether the end of Joash's reign and the murder of Jehoiada's son Zechariah had disqualified the King from such a burial.

Part of the problem is likely tied up in the place where Jehoiada was buried.

Now Jehoiada was old and full of years, and he died at the age of a hundred and thirty. He was buried with the kings in the City of David, because of the good he had done in Israel for God and his Temple (2 Chronicles 24:15-16).

After Joash ordered the execution of Zechariah, it no longer seemed appropriate to bury Joash in the same place where Zechariah's father had been buried. So, while 2 Kings doesn't mention it, 2 Chronicles reminds the reader that while Joash was buried in Jerusalem, it wasn't in the same place as his ancestors, because Jehoiada was buried there. It was Jehoiada who had been responsible for all the good that had taken place during the reign of Joash.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Joel 1

 

King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah's father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son, who said as he lay dying, "May the LORD see this and call you to account." – 2 Chronicles 24:22

Today's Scripture Reading (March 17, 2026): 2 Chronicles 24

Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. He did not attend the award ceremony; he couldn't, he was in a Chinese Prison at the time. Xiaobo was the first ethnically Chinese person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and the third person to receive it while in prison. The illegal activity for which he was being punished was "inciting the subversion of state power," or as the Nobel Committee phrased it, "his long and non-violent struggle for Fundamental human rights in China." For most of his life, Liu Xiaobo had tried to speak truth to power. However, those in power often didn't want to hear what he had to say.

In our contemporary world, part of being in power is often more like a magic show than we really want to admit. Politicians often try to convince us that something is true that really isn't, distract us from the problems in society, and really celebrate what the politician believes is important. It is true in China and around the world as well. Welcome to life in the twenty-first century.

While the priest Jehoiada was alive, he was able to focus King Joash on the correct things, the things that mattered to God. Jehoiada lived a long and productive life, dying at the age of 130. But once Jehoiada was no longer with him, Joash lost that focus. Without the priest's help, he was shaped by advisors who didn't have the heart of God and instead pushed actions that went against God but served their own goals.

Zechariah was the son of Jehoiada, and he felt he had to do something about what was happening in the nation. Zechariah channeled his father's beliefs and attitudes; he tried to focus Joash as his father had, but he didn't possess the King's respect that his father had enjoyed. All Joash seemed to see was that Zechariah was going against the things that the King had grown to want to do. Joash's heart no longer belonged to God, and rather than return to God, the King decided to go all in on the corruption that surrounded him and kill the prophet God had sent to call the King to repentance.

Joash orders Zechariah to be executed, and he is killed at the very spot where his father, Jehoiada, had anointed Joash, making him the King. He had answered the kindness that had been given to him by Jehoiada with the cruelty that Joash gave to Zechariah, all because Zechariah had attempted to speak truth to power.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 12

Jehoiada the priest sent out the commanders of units of a hundred, who were in charge of the troops, and said to them: "Bring her out between the ranks and put to the sword anyone who follows her." For the priest had said, "Do not put her to death at the temple of the LORD." – 2 Chronicles 23:14

Today's Scripture Reading (March 16, 2026): 2 Chronicles 23

The debate over capital punishment still rages in our society. Those in favor of the death penalty seem to reside on the political right, while those against capital punishment seem to congregate on the political left. What amazes me is that the argument for and against abortion, or what some would call the murder of unborn children, is actually reversed, which means that those who want to kill criminals are the same people who argue against the killing of children, often arguing that every life matters. Those in favor of abortion, killing unborn children, often stand against the use of the death penalty for even the worst of our criminals. I recently had an interesting conversation with one of these people. For him, abortion and even suicide, which he defines as not doing whatever is necessary to stay alive, including not taking the appropriate medications, are sins. He argues that God gives us life, and only God should be able to take it away. But he also emphatically asserts that the death penalty, which has been abolished in his area of the country, should be reinstated. For me, it is an interesting incongruency.

As for me, I am one of those on the right who are uneasy with the death penalty. I understand the logic behind it, but taking a life is never something I think we should do easily. And with the injustice already embedded in our legal structures, maybe it is something we should put in the rear-view mirror. I am not sure how many innocent people we execute in our world every year, but one is too many. There has to be a better way.

Jehoida, the Priest, orders the execution of Athaliah. And maybe there were no other options available other than taking away her life. She had lived a violent life, putting many, including her family members, to death for the crime of simply being in the way of her dream of being the Queen of Judah. One commentator remarked that her death was prudent. And I agree, it likely was. We could assert that Athaliah got what she deserved. But then again, if we all got what we deserved, there would be very little joy in this world.

Athaliah killed her family to get the throne, but Jehoida, the priest, had hidden one grandson away from her evil clutches. And that one grandson was all that was needed to dethrone this usurper queen. Athaliah died just outside the Temple. And while the action might have been prudent, we can't forget that God loved and had a different plan for Athaliah's life than the one she chose. And because of that, the prudent death of Athaliah is also a tragedy.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 24

See also 2 Kings 11:15

Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri. – 2 Chronicles 22:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 15, 2026): 2 Chronicles 22

Intermarriage is nothing new in Royal circles. One of my favorite historical photographs is entitled “Nine Kings.” The picture was taken on May 20, 1910, at the funeral of Edward VII of the United Kingdom. It is the only photo of nine hereditary monarchs gathering in one room. But not only were these nine men, they were all men, kings over different nations, but the photo was also a picture that could have been taken at a family reunion. Every person in the photo is related to the others, either cousins and nephews or related by marriage. The picture could have featured ten kings, but the embattled Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, a nephew of Edward VII, felt that leaving Russia at that time and reinforcing his relationship with the other Kings of Europe was an unwise course. A couple of years later, another king could have been added to the list as he married into the family. European royalty was dreadfully intermarried.

Many of these monarchs traced their ancestry back to Queen Victoria. Victoria is often referred to as the Grandmother of Europe, and her lineage continues to fascinate historians. Of course, Victoria married the love of her life, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Victoria and Albert were first cousins, so most of European royalty can trace their lineage back to a pair of cousins who sat on the British Throne.

Not only were Victoria and Albert first Cousins, but the intermarriage of this family continued. Victoria’s son, Edward VII, at whose funeral the “Nine Kings” photo was taken, married his third cousin, Alexandra. George V, the son of Edward VII, married Mary of Teck, his second cousin. George V’s granddaughter, Elizabeth II, married Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, her third cousin and second cousin once removed, depending on which route through the family tree you decide to take. Both Elizabeth and Philip were descendants of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. King Charles and Lady Diana were seventh cousins once removed, but King Charles and Queen Camilla are second cousins, and, once again, Charles and Camilla are both descendants of Victoria and her son, Edward VII.

A judgment has been pronounced on the House of Omri of Israel. In fact, the descendants of Ahab, Omri’s son, were exterminated by King Jehu. Some believe that Jehu was possibly a great-grandson of Omri. So, while the house of Ahab was wiped out, it is possible that the lineage of Omri continued through the reign of Jehu.

King Jehoram of Judah married Athaliah, a member of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Athaliah was either the daughter of Omri or the daughter of Ahab and granddaughter of Omri. But either way, the lineage of the evil King Omri, because of this intermarriage, continued in the line of the Kings of Judah, starting with Ahaziah, and then Joash, Kings of Judah, but descendants of Omri, King of Israel.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 23 

When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family. – 2 Kings 11:1

Today's Scripture Reading (March 14, 2026): 2 Kings 11

In 2023, CNN released a special documentary series titled "Giuliani: What Happened to America's Mayor," which examined the life and career of Rudy Giuliani, his ascent to power, and his demise during the Trump Years. Maybe the one line of the documentary that we all need to hear is that "power changes you." And the words don't just apply to Rudy, but to all of us. Maybe we all question why our politicians do what they do, and often we think that we would do things differently. We would work with politicians from different parties, so why can't they? We would reward good ideas wherever they might arise, so why can't they? And maybe the answer is the same for all of us. We really don't know what we would do because now we don't have the power, but then we would. And power changes us.

I am tempted to wonder about Athaliah's emotional state, or maybe her mental capacity, that she was willing to kill her grandchildren and anyone else who might be in the line of succession to the throne of Judah. As I read the story of Athaliah, I honestly can't imagine a grandmother who would be willing to kill her grandchildren so that she could be Queen. My grandchildren are precious treasures to me. All I want for any of them is the absolute best this life has to offer. Yet, that is precisely what Athaliah does. She kills anyone who might have reason to claim that she isn't the rightful Queen of Judah.

But the real reason why she is willing to do any of this is that power has the capacity to change us in a very fundamental way. Once we have had power of any kind, the human race seems to be willing to do anything to get it back. What was once unthinkable suddenly becomes not only thinkable but a logical response to the situation. We will do anything to keep the power that we have. The story of Queen Athaliah killing the members of the Royal Family, including her own children and grandchildren, and some of the seemingly incomprehensible actions of Rudy Giuliani have the same cause; they are a result of power changing us in ways that we could never imagine in the days when we lived without that power. The story of Athaliah, as well as the contemporary tale of Rudy Giuliani, is a cautionary tale of which we all need to be aware. Only if we remember these stories will we be able to safeguard ourselves from doing the unthinkable in our lives if we ever gain the kind of power that changes us.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 22

See also 2 Chronicles 22:10

 

When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel. – 2 Kings 10:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 13, 2026): 2 Kings 10

I admit that one of the historical mysteries that has captured my imagination is the fate of King Edward V of England and his brother, Prince Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. When we use the title King Edward V, if we don’t know the story, we might get an image of a grizzled old King with a list of enemies he has built up throughout his reign. But Edward V reigned for two and a half months, and he was only twelve at the time. Yes, it was a different era, and twelve-year-old boys were closer to adults than they are today, but a twelve-year-old boy who has just lost his father, even in the 1400s, is still in a vulnerable position. Richard of Shrewsbury was only nine at the time of his disappearance.

We might know these boys better as the Princes in the Tower. The two boys disappeared into the Tower of London in July 1483, never to be seen again. The majority opinion is that Uncle Richard, the regent and protector of the boys, had them murdered soon after their disappearance so that he could become King Richard III. But the truth is that we don’t know. Bones were found while a stairway was being rebuilt in 1674, and it was assumed they belonged to two brothers. However, that understanding is far from certain, and animal bones were found mixed in with the human bones.

Some have wanted to believe that the boys lived, or at least that Edward survived the Tower. It is hard for us to understand how the protectors of the princes could have decided to kill them. It has been suggested that Edward made a life for himself in the rural Devon village of Coldridge, living under the name John Evans. Others have sought a different fate for the boys, out of a desire to prove that Richard III could not be the monster this story portrays him as. But the reality is that we just don’t know what happened to the boys. It still seems likely that they died in the Tower in July or maybe August 1483. However, we can’t say that with any certainty.

It was a different age. And it was a different age when Jehu sent a message to the leaders of Samaria regarding the seventy sons of King Ahab. This number would likely have included the sons of Ahab, as well as the grandsons and possibly even great-grandsons of the King; any male who could trace his lineage back to Ahab. So, there was also a wide age range among these male descendants; some, if not a majority, might have been boys.

For me, the hardest part of this story is that it was the men, leaders, who had raised and protected these men and boys who were left with the task of killing them. Yes, Ahab had been an evil king made even worse by his wife, Jezebel. His sons would probably have been just as evil; after all, they had learned their lessons in life from King Ahab. Yes, this was the societal expectation of the day. It is an interesting parallel that the King who demanded the grapes of Naboth be placed into baskets had the heads of his descendants placed in similar baskets. And some of those heads were likely young children.

Jehu would not be much better than Ahab. Even though he had been anointed to become King, chosen by God to replace Joram, the son of Ahab, he would not make the most of his opportunity. And maybe this beginning hinted at the evil Jehu would continue to do as he led from the throne of Ahab.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 11

Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the prophet poured the oil on Jehu's head and declared, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anoint you king over the LORD's people Israel. – 2 Kings 10:12

Today's Scripture Reading (March 12, 2026): 2 Kings 9

What did you want to be when you grew up? I must admit that I wish I had a clearer idea of what I wanted to be when I was younger. I wish I had applied myself more in one area rather than scattering my time across several areas of interest. Sometimes I think I lived the bridge of Albert Hammond's hit song "Free Electric Band."

Well, they [mom and dad] used to sit and speculate upon their son's career
A lawyer or a doctor or a civil engineer
Just give me bread and water, put a guitar in my hand.
'Cause all I need is music and the Free Electric Band (Albert Hammond).

I think the only occupation I didn't consider was that of a civil engineer. But I gave serious thought to becoming a doctor or a lawyer, and of course, the dream was always the Free Electric Band.

David had been anointed as King over Israel while he was still a child. He didn't become King for a couple of decades, but he knew where he was going. He lived with the assurance that he would be King; he prepared himself for that moment, yet he was also able to wait for it; at no point did David feel he had to press the issue. David seemed to have an amazing trust that he would become King; God had already declared that. But he also trusted that he would become King at the time God had chosen, not at a time chosen by David. All of this gave David time to prepare to become king.

A young prophet is charged with the task of anointing Jehu as the next King of Israel. He is the only candidate for the highest office of the Northern Kingdom to be anointed as King. The prophet separates Jehu from his compatriots, then anoints him, giving the general a prophetic message about what comes next. But it doesn't happen right away. By doing it in private, he allows Jehu the time necessary to prepare for and assume the position without having to defend himself against King Jehoram's attacks, the son of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.

Jehu would become King, but later. Until that moment, he would gather strength and prepare for the moment, without wondering if there was another path. But there was no doubt now in the mind of Jehu that he was not intended to become "a lawyer or a doctor or a civil engineer." Jehu's "Free Electric Band" had arrived; he would become King over the Northern Kingdom."

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 10

Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land. Gehazi said, "This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life." – 2 Kings 8:5

Today's Scripture Reading (March 11, 2026): 2 Kings 8

In the early days of planting a church, I was looking for a place where the new church could meet. One of the leaders of the church had a line on a small church that might be looking for a tenant. The small church was being underused by another local congregation in the area. As a result, I arranged to meet with the pastor who was in charge of the church building. This local pastor and his church board agreed to meet with my leadership and me one evening at the church property in question. We gathered outside the church's front door, waiting for the pastor to arrive.

As we waited, a man in jeans and a T-shirt arrived and joined the conversation. What we didn't realize at the time was that no one knew who this guy was. We both assumed that he was a part of the other delegation. Then the pastor arrived, and the two of them exchanged greetings, and we moved inside the church. The mysterious man who had joined us was the Director of Church Planting for the denomination that owned the building. The Director happened to be driving past the building, noticed a group of people, and decided to stop. He was an uninvited guest at that first meeting. He became a significant part of bringing the church plant into the denomination—just another serendipitous moment in what sometimes seems like a sea of spontaneous moments.

So much of life seems to be about timing. We meet significant people in our lives through an accident of timing. Unexpected moments change our lives, sometimes for the positive and sometimes for the negative. People waltz into our lives for a brief moment, but leave us changed in ways that we couldn't have predicted or planned. As I write these words, a pantheon of images comes to mind of people I met by chance who left me changed. And I am indebted to every one of them.

Gehazi was the servant of Elisha. For some reason that the story doesn't reveal, this servant has an opportunity to speak with the King. Not only is Gehazi able to speak to the king, but the king is asking Gehazi questions. "The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, 'Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done'" (2 Kings 8:4).

Gehazi answers by telling the story of Elisha resurrecting the Shunammite woman's son, just as this Shunammite woman is ushered into the king's presence. It was a serendipitous meeting in a couple of ways. First, Gehazi has firsthand testimony that the story he is telling the king actually happened. And second, the woman hopes the king will restore the land that was taken from her during her absence.

Both situations are transformed amazingly by a chance meeting with Gehazi, and that unexpected, God-ordained moment changes everything.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 9

Personal Note: Happy Birthday, Dad.