Sarah Habben

“There couldn’t possibly be just one way to God. There are billions of people in the world!”

“What about Jesus?”

“What about Jesus?”

So went a 2008 interview with Oprah, who feels every religion beats a path to the same bliss. Heaven is for anyone who lives with love and generosity. Jesus is optional.

But Oprah doesn’t get to make the rules for heaven. God has his own rules for reaching his heaven—Option A: through Jesus. Option B: be perfect.

Heaven is accessible if we show perfect love and generosity toward every person (telemarketers and tailgaters included), in every thought, at every moment.

Are you perfect? Me neither.

I can’t earn heaven by my own innocence. But what about Jesus? As a man who is also God, he lived under God’s law without ever sinning.

I can’t pay for my own sins, let alone someone else’s. What about Jesus? As God who is also man, Jesus’ holy death paid for the sins of all people of all time. His resurrection is proof of that.

I can’t reach heaven by following the Way of Good Deeds. That just puts me on a collision course with Satan and hell because I’m not good enough. What about Jesus? He says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Billions of people. Billions of lifestyles. Billions of ways to hell. Only one way to God and eternal life in heaven.

Option A: through Jesus.

Devotional used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Pastor Mark Jeske

Satan just cannot abide Christians walking peacefully and happily along the middle of the road of our lives. He will either try to shove us or shame us or intimidate us into sliding off into the ditch of insecurity, despair, and depression on one side. Or he will lure and flatter and entice us into the other ditch where smugness, arrogance, and pride rule. He loves it when we attempt to make ourselves look bigger by making other people look smaller.

“Gnôthi sautón,” said the ancient Greeks. “Know yourself.” Easy to say; hard to do. How can we cut through the fog of Satan’s lies and the fever dreams of our sick culture and our own strong tendency to self-deception and actually accurately assess ourselves? “By the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you” (Romans 12:3). 

God has given us several important gifts in self-understanding. One is his Word and the faith in our hearts that listens to and trusts that Word. The Bible is a corrective word when we are wrong and weak and a commending word when we are aligned with God’s ways. Another is our family. Who better has the confidence to tell us when we’re out of line?

You generally can’t go wrong when you make other people feel important.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Pastor Daron Lindemann

Your influence grows in others like a seed growing into a strong tree. People hear your faith in Jesus; even more so, they see your faith in Jesus. 

Your friends on social media. Your neighbors waving and watching. Your children developing character based on your patterns of behavior. Your church family aware of your life decisions or how you act when your church is making decisions.

“For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations” (Isaiah 61:11).

You are sowing Jesus seeds all the time: by the way you drive in heavy traffic and by how you treat checkout clerks at the store. By showing kindness to those who hurt you. By the way you remain calm when others panic. By the way you obey your parents, study for exams, post on Instagram, or party. 

You are constantly sowing seeds. 

The “righteousness and praise” of the Lord starts small in your heart by his grace and then grows to become a towering way of thinking and living. Like acorns falling from an oak, you drop seeds of the Lord’s righteousness and praise all around you.

You never know who’s watching. But you do know this—your Lord God is watching. He smiles when the oak drops its acorns, doing what it’s supposed to do, praising him. And he smiles when you do the same.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Jason Nelson

The mark of good coaches is that their teams get better the more coaching they do. Not perfect, just better. They see potential in each player and coach ’em up to get better individual performance and good team results. Effective parents, pastors, instructors, directors, managers, and other shepherding types have the same knack for upping people’s game through the way they interact with them. They know that everything they do has the potential to elevate admirers whose silent plea is “please say or do something to lift us up.”

That yearning is in all of us whose existences are typically inclined to the downside. We want our children to leave home in the morning happier than when they came in the night before. I want my wife to wake up and look at me with a smile. I wanted my students to walk out of every class feeling better than when they walked in. I want to leave church more hopeful than when I rolled up because I encountered an uplifting God in Word, sacrament, and song. And I want you to be more devoted to him by the end of this little reflection than you were a dozen lines ago.

Jesus lifts us up. There is a powerful updraft that flows out of his Word, his work, and his presence in our lives. Playing for him will renew our strength so we can soar on wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, walk and not be faint (Isaiah 40:31).

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Pastor Mark Jeske

If you are a fan of the movie series Pirates of the Caribbean, you know all about Captain Jack Sparrow’s magic compass. His compass did not point to magnetic North. It pointed toward the thing your heart most wanted at the time.

How appropriate for our age, the Age of Me. People today don’t want a moral compass to tell them the truth about their Creator’s behavioral expectations. They want shortcuts to get them what they want. Rejecting the idea of absolute truth, people today prefer relativism, i.e., each person can work out his or her morals, values, and “truth.” There is no True North anymore, only many desires and many opinions.

It is radical and countercultural that the Bible should claim to be the vehicle of absolute truth. It reveals the mysteries of human existence—where we came from, what we’re doing here, and where we’re going. Unlike Captain Jack’s compass, it doesn’t pander to whatever an individual wants it to say. It is an infallible guide to right and wrong human behaviors as well as the main power source for living a godly life:  “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (Psalm 119:105).

No pirate captain ever found the fountain of youth. Arrgh! Scripture alone reveals our Savior Jesus Christ, who not only gives us the daily forgiveness of our sins that we must have but who also unlocks the gates of heaven for all who believe and grants us a drink of the Water of Life.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Pastor Mark Jeske

When people repent of their sins and come to faith in God, their capacity for spiritual judgment and action changes. Scripture tells us that unbelievers are spiritually dead. But the corollary is that believers can discern good from evil, can understand consequences, and can make good choices. And so God expects that of us. When spiritual amnesia sets in and God’s people start to forget who they are and for whom they are working, God will sometimes allow hardships to come upon them—not to punish or destroy, but as an exercise in refreshing their memories. 

The prophet Shemaiah once spoke to the Israelites to help them understand that God still loved them but was going to use the Egyptian Pharaoh Shishak as a schoolmaster for an important lesson: “When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: ‘Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them but will soon give them deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak. They will, however, become subject to him, so that they may learn the difference between serving me and serving the kings of other lands’” (2 Chronicles 12:7,8).

This is a big deal. As Bob Dylan once said, “You gotta serve somebody.” Other masters are cruel, unloving, abusive, expensive, and destructive. They promise everything and deliver nothing.

Wouldn’t you rather be serving God?

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Pastor Mark Jeske

If you are a believer in God, I can assume that you believe in God’s power, control, ambitious plans, sovereignty, holiness, eternity, and command of 10,000 times 10,000 angels. You know that he made the universe, holds the hounds of hell at bay, protects his children, and will ultimately crush all evil.

But here’s the thing: does he love me? Am I just a microscopic chess piece on his insanely large chessboard, or is he really my Father? Am I just a thing he has made, a tiny, tiny cog in an immense machine, or do I matter? Does he care how I’m doing? How I feel? What I have to deal with each day? Does my success or failure matter to him?

St. Paul ached to know these things too, and the Spirit of the Lord gave him this confidence: “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38,39).

Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter clinched it for Paul. If God’s Son, divine and holy from all eternity, would take on human flesh for me, obey the commandments for me, suffer and die for me, and rise again to guarantee my forgiveness and resurrection, there can be no doubt.

He loves me.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Pastor Mark Jeske

You weren’t planning to spend all day in an auto repair shop. You weren’t planning on a connector flight getting canceled and having to fork out for an unexpected hotel stay in a city you didn’t want to stay in. You weren’t planning on another child, on having to find a job again, on having to be single again so soon.

Life happens. We try so hard to be organized and control things, but our plans sometimes just blow up. Paul had a wonderful vision of how beautifully his next Jerusalem visit would go: “Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed” (Romans 15:31,32).

What actually happened was that a riot broke out in Jerusalem, he was arrested, detained in a Caesarean prison for two years, and then shipwrecked. But God ironically did get him to Rome, and his prisoner status actually got him a hearing before governors and developed relationships in the Praetorian Guard in Rome that would never otherwise have happened.

God sometimes gets his best work done when there is chaos in our lives. Don’t panic when your plans blow up. It may just be a platform for God to do something significant. Keep your eyes open to see what he might be up to.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Jason Nelson

The resurrection wasn’t proved by forensic science. The empty tomb gave up only so many clues. Those on the scene came to different conclusions when they saw the evidence. Mary Magdalene thought the tomb was empty because a gardener moved the body to clean up the place. The presence of angels didn’t establish the fact for others. Thomas had to see it for himself. But over time many came to believe Jesus rose from the dead because the testimony of witnesses was so convincing.

That is the irony of Easter. The pretext for killing Jesus was based on just enough false testimony by a few witnesses to make the case against him. But it was the convincing testimony of a growing number of witnesses that established the fact he was alive. It was the only case the apostles needed to make. “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it” (Acts 2:32).

That is also the legacy of Easter to us. The case for Jesus never rests. Many are still not convinced. We are called to testify by Jesus himself who lives on high and in our hearts. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). 

I’m ready. Jesus is alive and well. I have seen it myself.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Pastor Mark Jeske

Death and dying freak people out. They deal with that fear in various ways. Some people can’t go into a hospital to visit someone, even a close friend. Some have phobias about funeral homes. Many refuse to take even the first step in making out a will, the basic building block for preparing a legacy for those who will survive you. Surveys report that two-thirds of Americans would die without a will if today were their last day. Yikes!

Christians who read even a little of the Bible have learned that they are managers and stewards of their money and possessions. This is an essential feature of the Christian life to which we have been called, but it includes not only our day-to-day spending decisions. God is very interested in our legacy plans: “A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children” (Proverbs 13:22).

That legacy can take various forms. One is financial. The older generation has had more time to accumulate some assets and give the youngsters a boost to help them out of debt, get a house, or get a business started. One aspect is educational. Education has always been important. In today’s information-based economy, it is urgent.

The greatest of all legacies is spiritual. It is your greatest gift to leave behind the example of one who loved the Lord, loved his Word, loved people, loved to give, loved to serve.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Sarah Habben

Should I do it now? Is now the right moment to share my faith? No . . . I’m so bad at explaining things. She’d probably take offense. Or worse, she’d scoff.

Have those thoughts ever flashed through your head during that suspended moment after an unchurched friend vents about some mess in her life?

Perhaps, like me, you’ve chosen to murmur words that steer clear of anything too theological, afraid that you lack the wisdom and eloquence to do your faith justice.

The apostle Paul wants to convince us otherwise. The philosophers of his time delighted in clever oratory. Paul, however, spoke the simple message of the cross: “For Christ [sent me] to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Corinthians 1:17).

Paul knew it wasn’t his cunning choice of words that would bring anyone to faith. It wasn’t his words at all. It was the work of the Spirit in the message of the cross.

It’s a simple message, but it’s packed with the power to quell fear, anger, and grief. It’s the message that Jesus is the Son of God. He knows the sin that crouches in every heart, wounding every life. And so he chose to be born as a human baby, to live perfectly in our place, to pay for our sins with his life, to rise again and rule on our behalf.

Now is the time. Fill that silence. Speak of Christ’s cross.

It’s simply powerful.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Sarah Habben

Consider what you’ve endured for the sake of a future joy. The drudgery of pregnancy and the pain of delivery take a backseat to the joy of holding a newborn. Twenty hours crammed into an economy car are bearable when you’re en route to your dream vacation. But to endure life’s journey, we need a bigger, better joy in sight than Disney World. We need a heavenly joy—won for us by Jesus’ endurance.

Jesus bore countless crosses before he felt the nails of Golgotha: the limitations of human flesh, the temptations of Satan, the hostility of those he came to save. And yet, 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 (Hebrews 12:1-3).

When the whip fell on Jesus’ back, he remembered the peace he was making between his Father and us. When the crowd screamed Jesus’ guilt, he focused on the not guilty verdict he was winning for sinners like you and me. When the cross loomed, Jesus willingly endured its shame—because being pinned to its planks would gain our salvation.

Consider what Jesus endured for the sake of our future joy. Consider the price he paid to make us his children. Consider his extraordinary love. It will fill your weary soul with strength. It will give you joy for the journey.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Andrea Delwiche

There are times when we want a safe place to go and let someone protect us. We wish someone would shoo people away when we’re sick or feeling besieged. Perhaps we’re preoccupied with bad news, and we’d like someone to take our problems and hang them on a hook so we could be free from the burden for a little while. 

For David, the Lord himself was the ultimate place of refuge. David needed rest and protection. He asked the Lord to fulfill that role for him: 

“Lord my God, I take refuge in you; save and deliver me from all who pursue me, or they will tear me apart like a lion and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me” (Psalm 7:1,2).

What does this mean for us? Can we enter this refuge? Yes! We’re part of God’s family, already under his protection. Sometimes, though, we struggle to live as if this is the ultimate reality of our lives.

David wrote down his conversation with the Lord. He took time to articulate what it meant that the Lord was his refuge. We see that conversation worked out in many of the psalms. David asks that the Lord would rise up and protect him; vindicate him; and provide refreshment for his soul, rest for his body, and delight for his heart. 

If you were to write a request to the Lord asking for refuge, what would you say?

Be assured that God’s arms are already around you. He’s eager to be your sanctuary.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Pastor Jon Enter

At most Christian funerals, the peace-filled words of Psalm 23 are spoken: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (verse 1 ESV). Jesus loves you, provides for you, and is there for you. Such comfort! Such peace! 

Then verse 4 hits: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death” (ESV). If you’ve been to a funeral, you’ve likely felt these words thud in your heart. One cold, harsh word jumps out. Death. How could it not? 

But death wasn’t the focus for God or King David as these words were written. We make it the focus with our sadness, but it’s not. God calls death a “shadow.” That’s all it is! A shadow can’t hurt you. It has no substance. A shadow can only scare you if you let it, but it can’t hurt you! 

That’s why God proclaims in 1 Corinthians 15:55, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Death is a shadow for a believer. It can’t hurt you eternally in Jesus.

The pain you’re feeling from the loss of a loved one is real. And it’s difficult. And it hurts. But there’s an end; there’s peace in Jesus as you walk with him through that valley of sadness knowing and remembering our loved ones who die in faith live! They live! They live forever already with the Lord. 

May that truth give you peace as you walk with your Good Shepherd, Jesus!

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Jason Nelson

I’m starting to get how this blessing works: “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). Because I’m a Christian, I’ve been expecting some peace. But I still have trouble sleeping. I still don’t have everything done. I’m still concerned about so much violence in our world. I still bounce my foot up and down constantly. But I see this blessing isn’t about the peace of Jason. It’s about the peace of God. It’s about God remaining perfectly calm as he deals with things that cause our innards to roil because they are out of our control. The apostle could have said, “Here you go. Have some peace when it makes no sense.”

God never gets rattled. He is Jehovah Adonai. He has always been here and always will be. He has seen it all, sees what’s coming, and is unmatched in directing how it will play out. Even when hell breaks loose, he doesn’t get rattled. He is El Shaddai. He shatters satanic revolts against his authority with his power. He is the wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, and the Prince of shalom. Nobody gives peace like he does. No matter what, he guards our hearts and minds through faith in Jesus Christ. Because God says, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14), we can have some peace when it is what it is.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Pastor Mark Jeske

“Born as man with man to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel”

-Charles Wesley, 1739

Wesley’s magnificent Christmas carol celebrates one of the most precious names that Scripture gives to our Savior. As Joseph was waking from his incredible angelic dream, the evangelist Matthew links the stunning news to messianic prophecy from Isaiah chapter 9: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’)”. (Matthew 1:22,23).

Here is more Hebrew: Im means “with.” Immanu means “with us.” El is the name of our God. The name that Isaiah and the angel wanted you to know and appreciate and use is based on God’s powerful promise never to leave or forsake you. Jesus’ “Immanuel” name celebrates the astounding fact that God came in person to bring about the rescue of the human race. Without Immanuel, all people caught up in Satan’s rebellion would also be caught up in the devastating condemnation and punishment that are hanging over his slimy head.

When you are fearful and depressed, call out Immanuel’s name. When you feel guilty and unworthy, call on Immanuel. When you feel overwhelmed and alone, call on Immanuel and rejoice at the absolute certainty that because he came here for us in person, we will spend eternity with him. In person.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Pastor Mark Novotny

If my research is right, there are 8 billion sparrows on earth, and God knows every feather on every flying creature. In addition, there are 7.8 billion people on earth, and God knows every hair on every head (including the clump stuck in your brush!). Jesus once said, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Luke 12:6,7).

The fact that God knows everything about everything is why we fear him. Because God knows what goes on in your mind. God knows the words you typed into your phone . . . and then backspaced because they were so bad. God knows what you say on the car ride after church. God knows how you treat the people under your roof, no matter how much religious art hangs on your walls. God knows. 

Which is why God knows that we need grace. Jesus continued, “Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Luke 12:7). The reason we don’t fall apart with fear of what God knows is because God has given us worth. When Jesus, the Lamb who was slain, erased your sins, he made you worthy to stand in God’s presence. The God who counts every bird and every hair stopped counting the reasons why you shouldn’t be with him. Instead, his face shines on you and is gracious to you.

What a gift! What a God!

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Pastor Daron Lindemann

I’m a rule keeper. A rule giver. That’s a confession more than a boast.

I reflect on the many rules I laid down for my sons. Pick up your shoes. Get out of bed for school. Say your prayers. Get good grades. Make 80 percent of your free throws. Flush the toilet. Keep it quiet while I’m napping. Mow the lawn. Keep it quiet while you’re mowing the lawn.

The rules themselves weren’t always bad or wrong. But what did my sons grow to believe about my expectations? Keep my rules, and I approve and accept you. Don’t keep them, and I don’t approve and accept you.

Ah, parenting is a difficult thing when it comes to laying down the rules.

Kids need them. Families need them. But rules must not be the master. They must be the servant. Rules must be administered in a spirit of forgiving grace.

So I appreciate Jesus’ parable of the lost son (Luke 15:11-32) whose loving father broke the rules. He broke the rules of legalism (rules are master, not servant) that often force themselves into relationships. He refused to scold, “I told you so!”

God my Father forgives me and promises I can be a gracious father too.

What is more powerful than laws? Love. What is more powerful than rules? Relationships where forgiving grace is the best “rule” of all. Then all other rules have their proper place as servants, not masters.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Pastor Jon Enter

Hours before Jesus’ death, facing down the cross, he used some of his final breaths to give Christians a warning and a blessing: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Jesus’ words poured peace into millions of Christians before being murdered for their faith. In 2016 every six minutes a Christian died for believing in Jesus (nearly 90,000 deaths). It’s impossible to count how many more endured mockery, ridicule, and abuse for the faith you share with them in Jesus.

How have you been mocked at school/work?

What fights happen in your family over religion?

Persecution is going to happen and increase as our world walks steadily away from honoring God’s Word. So Jesus warned, “In this world you will have trouble.” Jesus knows. He knows the pain you’ve felt; he’s experienced it himself. He knows the mockery you’ve faced. He knows your trouble, so he promises peace and protection. That’s why he went to the cross. Christ assures you, “But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

If you are persecuted for your faith, you’re in good company. You stand with Jesus as Jesus stands before you. He is your shield and your deliverer. He is your Good Shepherd who fought back that roaring lion looking to devour you for eternity. He won! He lives! He reigns! In this world you will have trouble; persecution will be here, but take heart because Jesus has overcome the world. You are his . . . forever!

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org

Sarah Habben

Grandparents. You have a bit of a reputation, you know. You hand out cookies before dinner. You obey the bedtime plea, “Just one more story!” You fork over change for bubblegum machines and Happy Meals. You hug instead of lecture. You cheerfully push swings, occupy bleachers, make muffins, buy pizza, chauffeur, tutor, and send birthday cards.

Thank you, dear grandparents, for your legacy of love.

But thank you infinitely more for your legacy of faith. Biblical grandparents left this legacy too. As death neared, Jacob/Israel made it a priority to pray over his grandsons and ask God to bless them: “When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, ‘Who are these?’ ‘They are the sons God has given me here,’ Joseph said to his father. Then Israel said, ‘Bring them to me so I may bless them’” (Genesis 48:8,9).

Thank you, grandparents, for all the grandkid prayers that have gone from your hearts to God’s ear.

In another Bible account, Paul reminded young Timothy that his faith was a legacy from his grandma: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also” (2 Timothy 1:5).

Thank you, God, for the “sincere faith” that our Christian grandparents have so carefully shared from their laps, over coffee, through the mail, and on the phone . . . so that one day we can share a home with them in heaven.

What a precious, priceless inheritance.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org