Solitary Place

 In today’s reading we are introduced to God the sovereign Creator - the great miracle maker. The miracles God empowered Moses to conduct were intended for those who witnessed them to believe. Even after YAHWEH does the miracles for Moses, doubt still creeps in and Moses effectively rejects God’s commission. This angers God. God is shown throughout Genesis and now in Exodus as justly righteous with a propensity toward anger for wickedness but also compassion and mercy, this is seen with God’s preservation of Ishmael or wrestling with Jacob then blessing him.  God does not tolerate wickedness in His presence. We as mankind must never doubt, malign or be critical of God’s good and faithful character as being unjust - trusting in the righteousness of God’s eternally good moral standard means we do not know all the ways and will of God though it demands that we tremble continually at His word living in fear of what we might do to anger or grieve his heart. 

The midwives in Exodus 1 are aspirational women because they did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and were properly oriented with the LORD.  Exodus 1:17 “The midwives, however, feared God…” This is crucial. Instead of carrying out infanticide as the Pharaoh instructed, the midwives feared God, their creator - The Creator, author and ultimate giver of life. God is pleased with their preserving of precious God-given life and despite the abortive orders from a violent and oppressive ruler, by defying the Egyptian Pharaoh’s orders and fearing the LORD Almighty, they declare the supreme sovereignty of the God of life.  Verse 20 says that God was kind to the faithful midwives and in verse 21 the fruit of obedience is abundant life. Exodus 1:21 “And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.” The favor of God rested on them because of their proper understanding and orientation of their place and role in preserving life - as a result, just as it is writ...

In Genesis 49 when Jacob blesses his sons I find it interesting how there are both blessing and curses spoken which are consistent with the behavior, personality or reputation of each son and the long-term implication of the blessing/curse to each family line through today. Sun has consequences and moral conduct affects destiny. The beauty of God’s grace is that He uses and works through man’s imperfections for greater good, we see this exhibited most clearly through Judah’s royal line beginning with the sin of Tamar, through King David and Solomon ending with Jesus - the Son of God. God wants us to participate willingly in His great redemptive plan for humanity, God uses man for greater good. It is our duty to trust and in faith walk obediently according to the purposes, commission and word of God. Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossible to please God…”

In Genesis 47 the exchange between Jacob and Pharaoh is most interesting - Jacob must’ve looked old and wise because the Pharaoh of Egypt asked how old he was. Imagine meeting one of the most powerful dignitaries in the ancient world and his first line of questioning is how old you are! At 130 Jacob settled into the area of Goshen in the district of Ramses in Egypt with the promise of God that he and his family would return to Canaan one day. What I find fascinating about Jacob and Pharaoh’s encounter is that Jacob blesses him.   Genesis 47:10 “Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence.” This act of Jacob blessing a gentile ruler harkens back to God’s original promise to Abraham that He would bless all those who bless him and curse those who curse him and that through him (Abraham) all peoples on earth will be blessed. This is true today as confirmed with what Paul writes to the Galatian church. Galatians 3:14 “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to...

Today’s reflection centers on Joseph making his identity known to his brothers in a private and personal revelation. There are parallels to God doing this to mankind through the first advent of his son Jesus in the first century.  Genesis 45:1 “…there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.” The God of the Bible is a God who reveals or makes known his character to humanity. I am reminded of Christ’s death on the Roman cross and how at the time of death the temple curtain tore from top to bottom, this is symbolic of the presence of God not being confined to a place and is demonstrative of the revelation of the new covenant with man through Christ alone. God the Father is revealed by Jesus in the way he lived, taught and loved. As Biblical expositor Matthew Henry states, “Christ makes himself and his loving-kindness known to his people.” God wishes for all men to be saved, so he draws the hearts of men into him by demonstrating his love for us by sending hi...

Fear the LORD and be filled with the Holy Spirit. After being sold into slavery by his brothers and falsely accused of sexual misconduct by his bosses wife, by his mid 20s Joseph surely went through his share of personal tragedy, tests, trials and temptations. As a son of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph had the blessing of God on him, the mighty hand of God’s provision, promotion and protection were very evidently on his life. At what would seem his lowest low scripture says, “the LORD was with him… because the LORD was with Joseph.”  Joseph was faithful to his conviction because he feared the LORD, this is even what he tells his brothers as they solicit grain from him in Egypt. Genesis 42:18 “…for I fear God.” The fear of the LORD produces a particular faithful obedience and blameless righteousness in living, you see it’s our awareness of our sinful state that allows us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and willfully submit to his purposes for the express need of u...

The consequences of little compromises lead to big spiritual implications. What I find the most significant in the story of Judah is his active choice to depart from the righteousness of his father Israel (Isaac) and faithful grandfather Abraham. Beginning with the plot to sell off Joseph as a slave to Midianites on their way to Egypt and then marrying a Canaanite woman, which symbolized unequal yoking morally, and then ultimately blindly deceived by desire to solicit a temple prostitute. Judah’s straying and didn’t happen overnight, it was a slippery slope beginning first in his heart as a sin of commission then manifesting in a sexual sin of omission.  The beauty of grace and God’s sovereignty is that despite our imperfections and unrighteousness God uses us to fulfill His divine plans. Through Judah and Tamar the lineage continues all the way through to King David and ultimately Jesus. God’s love and mercy are boundless and unending, it is foolish for me to try and measure the m...

We must endeavor to do what God is blessing rather than ask God to bless what we are doing. God’s will and ways are higher and better purposed than anything we could possibly come up with alone. Jesus emphasizes this most in the gospel of John in his yielding to the Father and when he taught his disciples to pray. John 12:49 “For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.” Matthew 6:10 “..your kingdom come, your will be done…” In our reading today when God commands Jacob to go to Bethel it says that God appeared to him again and blessed him. Throughout Jacob’s life we constantly see God’s blessing on him which is an extension of the blessing God gave to Abraham in Genesis 12. The blessing of God must be our guide as we navigate life and trust in the LORD moment by moment. A blessing is a word from the LORD, it’s a promise and a command. We must be faithful with the blessing the LORD has given through aggressive obedience because Go...

 Vengeance belongs to the LORD, sin has far reaching natural and spiritual consequences. Shechem sinned against God and Dinah personally which had far reaching consequences within both families resulting in the ruthless slaughter of every man in the city of Shechem by Dinah’s brothers Levi and Simeon. The sin of one man, and all sexual sin for that matter, will directly impact others. Even if there was no formal covenantal law from God regarding proper sexual conduct, we know God’s intent for sex in the sole context of marriage as evidenced in Genesis 2 as reiterated by Jesus in chapter 19 of the gospel of Matthew. We know that even without a written law that the requirements of the moral law are written on the heart of mankind. Romans 2:15 “The requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bear witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them.” While there are layers of cultural context to this account and the motivations behind Shechem’s sin, the ...

I am reminded again of what the LORD revealed to me earlier in the month of God being the ultimate giver of life. Genesis 29:31 says God enabled Leah to conceive, this is echoed in her naming of her sons and God’s blessing on Leah. Genesis 30:17 “God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son.” This supports that God is the creative power behind conception. After having Zebulun, her sixth son, Leah exclaims that God has presented her with a precious gift. Even Rachel’s barrenness is under God’s control: Genesis 30:22 “Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive.” The hand of God is all-powerful, nature proceeds by the will of God, the author of nature - God controls the order of nature and as C.S. Lewis puts it: “In a normal act of generation, the father has no creative function. The human father is merely an instrument, a carrier, in a long line back to creation. That line is in God’s hand. No woman ever conceived a child withou...

 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob faithfully obeyed God’s leading to the promised land. The author of Hebrews defines faith as the assurance of things unseen, with Abraham’s leap of faith in leaving Uz of the Chaldeans he lived as a foreigner in a tent for the rest of his life along with Isaac and Jacob.  Hebrews 11:9 “By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.” To what end am I willing to be faithful and obedient to the call of God in my life? Trusting in the LORD means understanding and acknowledging that the LORD knows the details and will provide strength and resources along the way in the face of circumstantial uncertainty. Because God’s plan never fails we can be certain that all things work together for His good - living counter culture, by faith, does not place importance in emotional or physical comfort, rather living counter culture according to t...

Today’s reflection in Genesis is in the appearance and word of the LORD to Isaac. While in the land of the Philistines in Gerar (modern day south-central Israel) God appears to Isaac and blesses him to stay in the land of the Philistines confirming the same blessing on his father Abraham that their descendants would be numerous and the land would be theirs. This is qualified in verse 5, Genesis 26:5 “..because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and instructions.” This is what God requires of us: trust and loving devotion as demonstrated through obedience. Abraham was faithful, even when building an altar to sacrifice Isaac to the LORD. Loving God requires an aggressive obedience, because God’s love for us through Christ was radical. There’s no other way to be satisfied than to trust and obey the Maker no matter the circumstance and at any cost, because our life cost God His son. 

Today’s reflection in Genesis 24 is about using reason to trust God. Abraham commissioned his senior servant to find a wife for his son Isaac in northwest Mesopotamia. Quickly upon arriving in the city of Nahor, the servant encounters Abraham’s brother’s daughter Rebekah who divinely fulfills the servants prayer and draws water not only for the traveling servants but also the camels. Genesis 24:21 “Without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the LORD had made his journey successful.” This is less about testing the LORD more than it is about correctly attributing answer to prayer to God using discernment and reason to confirm faith in the divine work of the Almighty. The senior servant of Abraham rightly feared God and believed he had access to the supernatural. I remember hearing a sermon on relativism given by scientist John Lennox where he contrasted reason and revelation, “Use natural reason to trust God, trust God and use the reason God gave you - but...

Today’s reflection in Genesis 19 is one of understanding faith over fear. Lot seems to be a righteous man but deficient in faith, even after the angels of destruction preserved his life from the sexual perversion of the Sodomites the night before, verse 16 says Lot hesitated when urged to take his family and leave the city.   The angels took his entire family by the hand and led them to safety outside the city, why? “For the LORD was merciful to them”  Fearful still, Lot protests that he can’t go to the mountains, so the angels make an exception. This fear in Lot is present in his wife who disobeys and looks back, his daughters also fear the stagnation of their bloodline and do the unthinkable with their father - while Lot and his family left Sodom, Sodom did not leave his family. Take God at His word, trust and obey faithfully, His will and ways are higher and better than any thing we could come up with on our own. Faith over fear. Where in my life do I hesitate to act on...

 Today's reflection in Genesis 17 and 18 is on how God said he wants Abram to walk faithfully and blameless, similar to Job in his blameless and upright life, I align my life in a way that pleases and honors God by being faithful (consistent, demonstrative of unwavering trust in action). Additionally, I found the comparison of God's will for the destruction of Sodom and Nineveh (in Jonah) to be interesting. In Abraham's case he pled for God to be merciful and spare Sodom, while for the Ninevites God intended to display the liberality of his grace all while Jonah wanted God to destroy the people.  Psalm 86:15 "But you LORD are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness." As an image bearer of God, we must aim to be faithful like God is. The mighty God we serve is unendingly faithful and full of unfailing love - I want to be more loving and faithful the older I get! 

 Meditating and journaled on Psalm 16 this morning, verse 2 and 11. Psalm 16:2,11 (NIV) "Apart from you LORD I have no good thing...you make known to me the path of life, you fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." Nothing in this world compares to the joy and ultimate satisfaction found in doing what we are created to do: forever glorify and enjoy God, our Creator and giver of life! 

 Today's reflection in Job 40-42 is on the symbolism of Behemoth representing human will and pride. "It ranks first among the works of God" selfish ambition is a strong act of the fleshly human character, yet even as Job acknowledged in chapter 1, "God gives and God takes away," God is Maker of all, made in His image we must humble ourselves under the Mighty hand of God. Daily surrender is required. What's beautiful is that it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4), each day we must walk with a repentant heart and humbly before the LORD. Yesterday I was reading 'On the Incarnation' by Athanasius and this quote struck a chord in me: "Of what use is existence to the creature if it cannot know its Maker? Knowledge of the Maker is for men the only really happy and blessed life." ~Athanasius, On the Incarnation ch. 3

 Today's reflection in Job 38-39 is God's sovereign nature as Creator and how our approach to knowing YAHWEH must be from a place of humility, worship and holiness which can only be through faith alone in Christ alone by God's grace alone. God speaks to us through His Word as revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Bible through Jesus- The Word who existed in the beginning. God created everything we see around us, while we use science to try and understand the world around us it points back to an intelligent designer: nature reveals the character of a loving God, therefore God speaks to us loudly through his creation.  Psalm 8:1 "LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens." "Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." ~Westminster Shorter Catechism

 Today's reflection in Job is Elihu's comments about God's voice thundering. God listens. God speaks. But am I listening quietly? Am I carefully waiting? Silence  ≠  indifference, and MOST importantly, silence  ≠  non-existence. God is present. God is not silent. Job 37:5 (NIV) "God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding." The problem is not that God is silent, the problem is that we are not listening to his voice, we can't hear his voice above the distracting noise of life. Fight to build quiet listening into my life. Do not mischaracterize God as apathetic by attributing his silence as anything more than a reflection of my own inability to hear him. God is never to busy. Why am I too busy to quietly listen to the voice of God? "How you worship God reveals how much you know and love him." ~David Ryu 

Today's reflection is from Psalm 12, I failed to mention that along with the chronological reading plan I read through the book of Psalms twice annually by reading a Psalm a day. Since today is the 12th I read Psalm 12 and Job 32-34.  In order to stay well rounded in scripture I also read and study other passages and books of the Bible, my aim is to read one gospel a month and currently I'm leading a Tuesday morning men's Bible study at Riverbank Church in White River Junction, VT through the book of Jonah.  Today's reflection is David's psalm which contrasts the faithfulness/consistency of men's words and the purity or in Hebrew the 'flawless' words of the LORD. Man's words are prideful and deceptive - God is consistent, and we can know and trust in the certainty that help comes from the LORD because His words are pure, clean and flawless. When men disappoint, deceive and lack faithfulness we can rest in the truth and trustworthiness of God's wo...

 Today's reflection in Job 29-31, he reflects consistently in his blamelessness to such a degree that it is self-righteousness and pride, Job self-justifies. He also seems to have "lost" God - these chapters depict how Job had intimate friendship with God (29:4) and then since the trials he constantly cries out to God but God seems to him silent and indifferent of Job in his suffering. We are made righteous in the eyes of God by grace alone, in faith alone through Christ alone. We are made anew in Christ through baptism because the old has passed away and the new spiritually awakened and alive man is here. We still war against the world, the flesh and the Devil - but we are to live counter culture or "contra mundum" against the world as redeemed men of God. Progressive sanctification is part of the transformative work the Holy Spirit does in our life: we are fallible, but when we surrender daily the strength of our flesh becomes weaker and we become stronger and...

 Today's reflection in Job 27; in all of his responses to the three friends Job continues to plead that he is innocent, while he agrees that all men wicked or righteous perish a physical death and succumb to trials and afflictions Job firmly declares a clear conscious before God. In my NLT stud Bible the excerpt from 27:6 says, "we can't claim sinless lives, but we can claim forgiven lives." God's grace covers a multitude of sin: Ezekiel 18:32 (NLT) "I don't want you to die, says the sovereign LORD. Repent and live!" Job knew how to deal with sin through the shedding of blood and burnt offerings, we turn from our sin and wicked ways and are transformed by the truth that Jesus paid the price for our sin so we could receive the free gift of forgiveness. We like Job can have a clear conscious before God knowing that we are justified in Christ alone through faith alone by God's amazing grace.  

 Today's reflection in Job 21:7, from life experience Job has observed that wicked sinful people grow more powerful and are not afflicted with calamity. This experiential observation totally destroys the mocking argument his friends pose that calamity is the result of sin. Why the wicked prosper and are not struck down is because God's ways are higher than our ways, again and again through Job we can take comfort in the truth that God's will is perfect - He makes no mistakes, our awesome God orchestrates His will with our participation or not! We must aim to be faithfully obedient to doing the things God is blessing - and in the trials know certainly that as John Calvin said: "It is preposterous to measure God's operations [will] by our [human] wisdom." This is echoed in today's reading:  Job 21: 22 "Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since he judges even the highest?"

 Today's reflection on Job 17:9, the righteous hold to their convictions amidst affliction, pain, troubles and difficulty. Trusting in God is active worship which is pleasing, declaring God's goodness, provision and character during painful times of life is choosing contentedness rather than the empty comfort of complaining. Praising through trials is faith-building because when the righteous remain properly oriented to God - no matter the circumstances - God faithfully supplies the strength, there will indeed be fruit from endurance and perseverance. As righteous men of God we must hold to our clean ways and please God. Psalm 34:19-20 "The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken." also see Psalm 91 There's a lot to reflect on in 18, 19 & 20

 Today's reflection on Job 15, Eliphaz is Job's most eloquently spoken friend - what he says seems to be true, but is ultimately on the wrong premise that calamity is the result of sin.  Interestingly verse 14 seems to point to the truth that mortals born of women are not righteous, but we know that God became man in Jesus who lived a PERFECT mortal life and died a mortal death - as a man - proving that he is the son of God by supernaturally rising from the dead on the third day! We can trust a God who became a pure and righteous man in Jesus who mediates our case to a holy and perfect God so that we can have a close and deep relationship with our Creator.

 Today's reflection in Job 10-11 is how Job correctly attributes character to God as the giver of life and omnipresence in 10:12, contrasted by Zophar's comments in chapter 11 that God has, "forgotten" some of Job's sin - which implies God is unjust if God is omnipresent. Throughout the various discourses by Job's three friends is the theme of logical fallacy: they make the invalid argument that calamity is the outcome of sin- this is wrong.  My takeaway is that I'm more careful to attribute the correct character to God which is consistent with and in His word. 

 Today's reflection in Job 6-7, honest words and reflections are painful. In your lamenting and contemplation take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and do not sin. Acknowledge God as all powerful but do not blame Him for evil - this is the worst thing anyone could do. In your anger and in your pain do not sin, be honest and speak painful honest words because God hears - he sees and hears everything we do. 

 Today's reflection in the book of Job is that a proper orientation and fear of God is non-dependent on materialism or tangible prosperity. Fearing God is trusting Him and praising Him no matter the earthly circumstance, because His will and purposes are greater than we can understand.  "It is preposterous to measure God's operations by our wisdom." ~John Calvin "THE INDIFFERENCE OF GOD AT ANY TIME TO HIS PEOPLE MUST BE APPARENT, IT CANNOT BE TRUE." ~Charles Spurgeon

 Today's reflection in Genesis is again regarding God's double command/blessing to Noah and his sons to be fruitful and increase in number on the earth. God governs our life as Creator, he makes no mistakes. He alone grants life, this is reflective in Eve's comments in chapter 4: Genesis 4:1 "With the help of the LORD.. God has granted me.." Here's a quote I remembered from C.S. Lewis' book Miracles  that I read back in May of 2025: "In a normal act of generation, the father has no creative function. The human father is merely an instrument, a carrier, in a long line back to creation. That line is in God's hand. No woman ever conceived a child without God. The bed is barren where God is not present." ~C.S. Lewis, Miracles  ch. 15, pg. 105  

 Today's reflection in Genesis is reminiscent of yesterday's muse that God alone has sovereign  authority over life as the Creator and ultimate giver of life. This is reflected in Eve's words:  Genesis 4:1 (NIV) "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man." To me this suggests that men and women cannot procreate/conceive without the divine help of God. I know many stories of marriages dealing with infertility, while we might be able to explain barrenness scientifically, I firmly believe that no woman ever conceived a child without God. The miracle of life is awesome, because we serve a miraculous God of life! What did the Lord reveal to you in His word today?

 Today's reflection in Genesis was on birth control juxtaposed to God's blessing on man to be fruitful and multiply. Specifically the truth that God is the giver of life and it's His participation that yields the miracle because God's will and purposes are greater than man's selfish ambitions.  Example: I am the result of a pregnancy my parents attempted to prevent with barrier method birth control. But God's plan and blessing will always prevail! What did the Lord reveal to you in His word today?

A theology of secret place is modeled by Jesus consistently throughout the gospels, my favorite in the gospel of Mark. Mark 1:35 (NIV) "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place , where he prayed." 22 years ago in 2004 my dad gave me my first Daily Life Journal from New Song Christian Fellowship, now New Song Nashville and while now in 2026 I follow a chronological reading plan and a simpler journal in a sketchbook with blank sheets, no lines, I am eternally grateful and thankful for the instruction and modeling of maintaining a consistent daily devotion to God in the secret place that my dad lived. For as long as I can remember dad was always up before the sun rose and faithfully every morning could be found in the upstairs homeschool room of our home in Murfreesboro, TN by lamplight studying the word of God, journaling, meditating and using concordances and commentary to understand scripture. If he wasn...