From: December 3, 2025
“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’” (Psalm 122:1).
This psalm of David is one of the fifteen “Songs of Ascent,” a collection arranged in the Psalter for pilgrims to sing as they journeyed upward toward Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. These songs prepared worshipers for meeting with God, together with His people, in His holy house. Psalm 122 especially captured the joyful anticipation of believers who loved gathering with the covenant community. When others invited David to go up to the house of the Lord, he responded with gladness, not out of duty but out of devotion. His delight came not only from entering the sacred courts but from doing so with fellow believers, all traveling together toward Mount Zion.
Today, visitors to Jerusalem will often see fellow pilgrims, with Bibles in hand, pausing on each of the fifteen Southern steps leading up to the ancient Temple, reciting these fifteen Songs of Ascent. Having stood on those very steps myself, I can imagine David’s joy as he heard the call to worship and eagerly joined others on the upward path to meet with the Lord in worship.
Is your heart stirred with gladness at the thought of gathering with God’s people in worship? True worship flows from devotion, not mere duty. When we eagerly join with other believers in worship, we can experience a kind of spiritual ascent, lifting our eyes and hearts up to the Lord. Yet we must recognize the danger in our day, just as the book of Hebrews warned, of “forsaking the assembly” of believers (Heb. 10:25). Many have grown cold or complacent, exchanging joy-filled gathering for isolation or for other lessor things. Let us renew our commitment to love the fellowship of the redeemed, to seek the presence of God together, and to respond with glad anticipation whenever we hear the invitation, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
PRAYER: Dear Father, we thank You for the joy of gathering with Your people and meeting You in worship. Stir our hearts with glad anticipation and guard us from neglecting the blessing of assembling together. Make us a devoted people who love Your presence and Your house. In Jesus’ name, amen.
From: December 3, 2024
“Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece” (Daniel 11:2 ESV).
One of the most amazing prophesies concerning the future of human kingdoms was given to Daniel. Written around 530 BC, God revealed the rise and fall of kingdoms from the time of Daniel to the end times. The three kings predicted to “arise” in Persia was fulfilled by the reigns of Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius. The 4th and final king of Persia, the one “richer than all” before him, was fulfilled by Xerxes. As Daniel’s prophecy predicted over 200 years before it happened, Xerxes “stirred up” the Greeks which led to Persia being conquered by the “mighty king” (Dan. 11:3), Alexander the Great.
The rest of the chapter goes on to describe kingdoms that have come and gone in the following centuries all the way up to the present and beyond. The Lord pulled back the veil of time to show Daniel the kingdoms to come before Christ would establish His everlasting kingdom.
Therefore let us consider the areas of our life where we are struggling to trust God. Let us take time today to surrender those to Him, knowing that He holds the future in His hands.
PRAYER: Dear Father, give us strength and wisdom for today, while we leave tomorrow in Your hands. Forgive us when we worry about tomorrow, for our worry is a lack of trust in You. We cast all our care upon You, knowing You are able. In Jesus’ name, amen.
From: December 3, 2023
“Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions” (1 John 3:18 NLT).
When we receive Christ, we receive the love of Christ. This is the love that moved Christ to die in our place, so that we might have eternal life. Real love takes action. The evidence that we have received Christ is that the love that goes beyond mere words and takes action is suddenly ours. Christian love communicates itself through word and deed. It’s love that both shows and tells.
As John wrote in his gospel, “God so loved the world that he gave…” God’s kind of love, what the Greeks called “agape” love, is unconditional and sacrificial. God’s kind of love is love that gives. So “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Heb. 10:24) today!
PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for loving us and thank You for pouring Your love into us through our faith in Christ. The chief fruit of the Spirit is love and we ask You to increase our experience of this fruit in our lives. Make us more loving O Lord, we pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.
From: December 3, 2022
ABIDING WE NO LONGER MAKE A PRACTICE OF SINNING
John here describes the fruit of being born again, namely, that those with God’s life in them, no longer make a practice of sin. Sin is no longer their habit. This is not the precondition of salvation. For salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Yet, the fruit of having received this salvation is that the child of God is putting off the old nature with its sinful desires and putting on the new nature, which loves God and neighbor.
There is a positional truth and an experiential truth in view here. Positionally, the believer is already counted righteous before God in Christ. The righteousness of Christ has been credited unto the believer by faith. But experientially, that same believer is still working out their salvation in this world, putting off the old man and putting on the new.
So, perfection, complete sinlessness, will not be the believer’s experience until the glorified body is received. On that day, position and experience will be the same.
Yet until that day, let us work out what God is working in us (Phil. 2:12-13), knowing that Christ is our Advocate before the Father and depending on Him to complete that which He began in us until the Day of His return.
PRAYER: Dear Father, we confess our sins to You. We thank You that You are faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us. Fill us afresh with Your Spirit that we might abide in Christ today, putting off the flesh and walking in the Spirit. In Jesus’ name, amen.
From: December 3, 2017
A good reminder especially during the Christmas season. Don’t sit on your “worldly goods” while your brother is in need. If you have the love of God in you, then you will not “shut up your heart” and look away. You will give. Because love, God’s kind of “agape” love, always gives.
From: December 3, 2016
One of the most amazing prophesies concerning the future of human kingdoms was given to Daniel. Written around 530 BC, God revealed the rise and fall of kingdoms from the time of Daniel to the end times. The three kings predicted to “arise” in Persia was fulfilled by the reigns of Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius. The 4th and final king of Persia, the one “richer than all” before him, was fulfilled by Xerxes. As Daniel’s prophecy predicted over 200 years before it happened, Xerxes “stirred up” the Greeks which led to Persia being conquered by the “mighty king” (Dan. 11:3), Alexander the Great. The rest of the chapter goes on to describe kingdoms that have come and gone in the following centuries all the way up to the present and beyond. The Lord pulled back the veil of time to show Daniel the kingdoms to come before Christ would establish His everlasting kingdom. The future is in the Lord’s hands.