Pray for those who think they need to clean up their lives before they can come to church. Jesus died for our sins, period. Come as you are!

Thank the Lord today for the cross. We don’t deserve his gift of grace, yet he offers it anyway. Let that truth soak into your spirit.

Do you compare yourself to others? We all do, sometimes. Focus today on seeing your life from God’s perspective. What needs to change?

Q:  Which weighs more: a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks?

A:  They each weigh one ton.

Why do questions like this trick us? We know intuitively that bricks are heavier than feathers, but a ton is still a ton. Granted, it would take a whole lot more feathers than bricks to make up a ton, but the unit of weight is the standard measurement.

Side note: I couldn’t remember exactly how many pounds equal a ton, so I Googled it. Would you believe that I found three different answers? It could be 2000, 2240 or 2204, depending on whether you are counting short/net tons, long/gross tons or metric tons. There goes my illustration about consistency!

Come to think of it, though, this is a good segue to what the Bible has to say about consistency versus bias. Here are a couple of passages that stood out to me:

“Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin’? Differing weights and differing measures—the LORD detests them both.” (Proverbs 20:9-10)

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:1-3)

You might say that God isn’t a big fan of preferential treatment. His standard of measurement is holiness, and none of us can measure up. You may feel like your mistakes add up to a ton of bricks and someone else’s screw-ups are only feathers (or vice versa), yet both are still sin. The good news, though, is that we don’t have to carry around the burden of our past … Jesus calibrates the scale back to zero!

What is going on in your life that you need to thank God for – in advance – before it is resolved?

Reflect on what God has done in your life over the past year. Jot down your blessings & thank God for each and every one!

If you haven’t been baptized, what’s keeping you? Why not talk to our pastors, staff, elders or a Life group leader about your concerns?

Like John the Baptist, we need to prepare the way for others to meet Jesus. Ask God today to help you be his voice in the wilderness.

Leading a church is much more than a one-day-a-week job. Let’s thank God for our pastors, staff and their families today.

Who has been influential in your spiritual growth? Offer thanks to God today for them.