Every ruling family had a skill or had some form of knowledge that they hoarded, astronomy for example or medical knowledge. Something that the rest of the culture needed to survive but that the family wouldn’t share with anyone else. In the palaces, there is a throne area with a long, wide courtyard in front of it. I took a picture from the throne when I was in Tikal in July 2011.

View from a family palace throne - Tikal, Peten, Guatemala

What’s really cool about this is the acoustics. The guy in the red shirt is my friend, Jim Dinsmore, and from where he is standing, he could speak in a quiet voice, and I could hear him clearly. This area was designed so that the person sitting on the throne could hear everything that was whispered in the courtyard.

I can only imagine what it must have been like for people to approach the head of one of these families. I’ve never been in a situation where I had to address anyone like this. But I have an active imagination, and I can feel the fear and trepidation something like this might cause. To be so small and so far away from someone so much bigger and more powerful than me would terrify me. I’m not sure how these situations played out in Tikal, but I know that the Mayans weren’t exactly known for their mercy. So putting one toe out of line probably resulted in a particularly painful death.

Today’s verse is Hebrews 4:16.

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

This verse is out of a passage in Hebrews that is talking about Jesus as our High Priest. In the Jewish religion, there was a High Priest who was the intercessor between God and people, who followed a strict set of guidelines and fulfilled all required expectations to be able to approach God on the peoples’ behalf. When Jesus came and died for us, He became our High Priest. He is now the intercessor between God and Mankind. And what the end of Hebrews 4 and the beginning of Hebrews 5 is talking about is our ability to come before God and speak to Him.

If you have chosen to follow Jesus, that means you have full access to God Himself. He isn’t some distant ethereal being floating out in the universe somewhere who doesn’t care about your everyday life. He is a real, living Person who wants to help you and who wants to know you.

Hebrews 4 says was can approach God’s throne with boldness. The Amplified Version uses the adverbs fearlessly and confidently.

Think about that. And think about this photo from Tikal. If I were in a Mayan’s position, there would be no boldness in me, not in approaching the head of a family on a throne like that. I would be as far away as I possibly could be. Put that in perspective and imagine approaching the throne of the God of the universe. It doesn’t even compare. But Hebrews is saying that we could walk right up to the throne of God and talk to Him.

And we won’t be shunned. We won’t be mistreated. We won’t be punished.

We will receive mercy and grace when we need it most.

Can you wrap your head around that? Because I can’t.

So wherever you are today, whether you’re having a good day or a bad day, just remember that as a follower of Christ, you have free, open access to God Himself. You can walk boldly up to His throne and tell Him what’s going on in your life. Yes, He already knows, but He wants to hear it from you, in your own words. And He’ll help you.

If what you’re going through is something you don’t deserve, He’ll help you. If what you’re going through is something you do deserve, He’ll help you. Even if the trouble in your life is of your own making, He’ll help you. There may still be some consequences, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have to face them alone.

Be bold. You can. God wants you to.

Sunrise behind trees - Haven, KS

Today’s verse is Lamentations 3:23.

Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

I had intended to stop there. Because how can you top that? God is so faithful and so awesome and so kind to us that even if we screw up royally, He still forgives us and still gives us another chance the next day to get it right. He’s the God of second chances and third chances and fourth chances.

Mercy is withholding punishment that a guilty person deserves. And God gives us new mercy with every sunrise. Not old mercy. Not mercy that drags up the past and shoves it in our faces but new mercy that doesn’t even remember the sins of yesterday.

How can anything be better than that? Well, I kept reading. And then I read the whole passage in context, and I felt the need to share because this really touched me today. This is Lamentations 3:19-27 in The Message:

We all struggle. Everyone. It doesn’t matter who we are or where we come from or how rich we are or how poor we are or if we’re gainfully employed or not. Everyone has trouble. Everyone hits the bottom. Everyone despairs. And that despair can be hard to forget.

But there’s one thing we need to remember: God’s mercy is new every morning.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve hit rock bottom and feel like you can’t stand up anymore, God’s mercy is new with the sun. His love never runs out. And it’s a good thing to wait for Him because He is good to those who wait with passion and seek with diligence.

And if we can remember that, we can have hope. Not the loud, obnoxious hope that people brag about when they’re trying to show others how spiritual they are. But quiet, confident hope that God will come to your rescue even in the darkest of times.

That kind of hope makes all the difference in the world.

We’re nearing the end of January 2012. February is just over the horizon, and I know people who are struggling to keep their chins up, whether for economic reasons or health reasons or emotional reasons. Just remember it’s a good thing to quietly hope for help from God. It’s good because it gives God the chance to show you He knows what He’s doing.

People forget things all the time. I forget things all the time. I get so bogged down and crazy in my day that I forget all sorts of things, and even when I write down the things I want to remember, I usually end up forgetting something anyway. Best example is when I go grocery shopping. I will make my list out, and then I’ll forget my list. Or even if I don’t forget the list, somehow I still end up forgetting something I really really needed.

Why is that? Me, I think I’m scatterbrained. I know I’m busy. I think it’s a lack of focus too. There’s so much going on that it’s difficult to concentrate on just one thing. But sometimes concentration is what we need to make sure that we don’t forget something truly important.

Elephant - Sedgwick County Zoo, Wichita, KS

Today’s verse is James 1:25.

But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

I think people forget (or maybe they never knew) that the Bible is an instruction book on how to live. It’s not just a collection of old stories that talk about God and miracles and people who dressed funny and floods and catastrophes. It’s one big story about how to live–and how not to live–and about the consequences people who made really poor choices had to face.

It’s full of wisdom. Practical wisdom. Step-by-step instructions on how to get through a day in some instances. But people don’t think about that. Even Christians get it in their heads that the Bible is a book we use to convince people that Jesus is God. And that’s true. The Bible does offer evidence that Christ is God. And the Bible offers all sorts of evidence about its own viability. But the Bible isn’t just a body of evidence. It’s God’s direct words, spoken to you and to me to teach us how to live and how to have a relationship with Him.

You can read technical articles and biographies about great Christians and 12-step programs about how to clean your life up all day long, but nothing else will teach you how to get close to God better than the Bible. And it works the same way as all those other books: you have to read it, you have to do what it says, and you have to keep doing what it says.

That’s it. Just like any other instruction book.

What good is an instruction book if you don’t read it? What good will it do you if you don’t do the things it tells you to do? If you’re building a table and it tells you to put Leg B into Slot B and you decided you want to put Leg F in Slot B, your table is going to look funky. Why? Because you didn’t follow the instructions.

No one gets upset at the instructions when they don’t follow them and their project doesn’t turn out. They just realize that they didn’t follow them. But when we don’t read the Bible and our lives go crazy, we turn on God and claim He doesn’t love us. What? How can He not love us? He gave us an instruction book. It was our choice not to apply it in our lives. And we have to face the consequences of that choice when things don’t turn out the way we expected.

The Bible is here for us. God gave it to us so we can know how to live.

Read it.

Do what it says.

And keep doing what it says. Don’t forget. Don’t set it aside like a checklist or a grocery list like it’s something so unimportant that you can remember it without effort–because you probably can’t.

And God says He’ll bless you for it.

So what happens when a Christian gives in to the old desires that he or she used to live by?

I’ve seen this happen a lot and most of the time Christians don’t react right. Maybe many of you know this from personal experience like I do, but Christians can be the meanest people on the planet. Wow! People who profess Christ as their Lord can be vicious — and not just to unbelievers but to others who profess Christ. To their brothers and sisters in faith. Sometimes Christians are more cruel to each other than we are to people who don’t believe. Personally, I feel that’s a big reason why those who choose not to believe stay away from us. Because if we can’t love each other, how could we love anyone else?

For Christians who stumble back into old sins, their Christian support groups usually turn on them. And even those Christian support groups that mean well still go about it the wrong way. They use guilt and manipulation. They preach and thump Bibles. And pretty soon the “offender” is so beaten down about the wrongs he or she has done. they have no joy left at all. All thanks to God’s loving people.

Is that the way it’s supposed to work?

The steps toward Tikal - Tikal, Peten, Guatemala

Not according to Galatians 6:1, which is today’s verse.

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.

See how the Bible says we’re supposed to help? Gently and humbly.

The Amplified Version says it this way: without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness.

To me, it all goes back to the golden rule. We need to treat each other like we want to be treated. Put yourself in that “Fallen Christian’s” shoes. How would you feel if suddenly the people who said they would always support you turned their backs on you? How would you feel if someone kicks you while you’re down, when you’re already feeling guilty?

Hey, Christians. It’s not our job to make other people feel guilty. We aren’t the ones who are in charge of convicting people. That’s God’s job. Our job is to love people and live lives that point to Christ, and God will take care of the rest.  The rest is between that person and God. And when someone stumbles and falls back into sin, it’s our job to help them up again — not kick them in the ribs. And we’re to do it gently and humbly.

Why? Because it could be you.

The paths we walk in this world aren’t easy. It’s an uphill climb. It’s a tough battle everyday to live the kind of life we’re supposed to live. And it isn’t a matter of if you will fall; it’s a matter of when. You and I and any other Christian are just as fragile. We can fall any time, and we have no concept how far we can fall, how wrong we can be, how badly we can act, how sinful we can become. If we aren’t prepared, if we aren’t ready for temptation, if we aren’t armed to stand against it, we will fall. There’s no if involved.

And, yes, we need to be vigilant. We need to keep a watchful eye on ourselves to make sure we aren’t pulled into the same sin alongside the person we’re helping, but that’s another topic for another day. We are help others and we are to be gentle about it and humble, understanding that we’re all in the same boat.

We need to remember that when we encounter another Christian who has fallen, it could have been us.

Example? Do we leave our home and travel to a foreign land to love others? Or do we stay home and do the same thing for the people who are hurting all around us? It’s the same concept. Both are obedient. But the choice whether to stay or go has major ramifications. It’s a big deal. How do we know what to do?

The really awesome thing about God is that He doesn’t hide Himself. He never hides from us. It’s the other way around. Even from the beginning, it was Adam and Eve who hid from God after they did wrong, not God hiding from them. And if we ask Him to help us, He will. We just have to be willing to accept the answer.

Scarlet Macaw - Sedgwick County Zoo, Wichita, KS

Today’s verse is James 1:5.

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

I think there’s a perception sometimes that we shouldn’t ask God for things because He’s already done too much for us. Or because He’s too busy to listen. There couldn’t be anything more untrue. God wants us to ask Him for things. He wants to give us good gifts. He wants to tell us how to live our lives, but we are rarely interested in listening.

Most of the time, I think we seek Him and seek the path He has planned for us and then, when He answers us, we get scared or full of insecurity and doubt and we shut Him out and convince ourselves that He didn’t really answer us. After all, surely He couldn’t be asking us to do something that is so dangerous or so out of the box! Right?

I know I’ve had this argument with myself many times. I get lost and confused and turned around. I worry and I stress, and I’m at the end of my rope. So I ask God for help (I should have asked for help first before worry and stress set in) and God answers me. But the answer He gives me is something I don’t want to hear. It’s an answer that pushes me beyond what I’m comfortable doing. It’s an answer that requires me to trust Him on a level I haven’t experienced before. So what do I do?

I tell myself I heard Him wrong. I tell myself that I am making up crazy ideas and I go about my day, wondering why God isn’t showing Himself to me. Sound familiar to anyone else?

God wants us to ask Him questions. He’s a wealth of knowledge and information and He loves us so very much. We have access to the Creator of the Universe. We can speak to Him like He’s our Daddy, but many of us don’t because we think He doesn’t want to hear from us. And the rest of us are so petrified by doubt and insecurity, we don’t do what He tells us to do.

Sometimes we have big decisions to make. Other times, our decisions aren’t so big but we still need help making up our minds, especially if the choices we have are both good. God wants to help us make that choice. There are so many ways He speaks to us, through His Word, through other believers, even through nature. He cares about the decisions we make. But He can only do so much for us if we refuse to listen.

Little purple flower - San Francisco, Peten, Guatemala

 Today’s verse is Philippians 4:6.

Duck splashing - Sedgwick County Zoo, Wichita, KS

 Today’s verse is Ephesians 2:10.

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

First off, if God is calling us His masterpiece, I want to know what a masterpiece is. When I think of the word masterpiece, I think of art. I think of a portrait or a landscape or something that a painter spent his life creating and perfecting. For a composer, it would be his magnum opus. A masterpiece. A work so incredible it can’t be duplicated and it defines the creator’s entire career.

That God would call me His masterpiece is stunning. Because I don’t feel like a work of art, especially not at this time in the morning. I have a million things wrong with me. I have all sorts of issues and problems. So how can God consider me a work of art at all, let alone his masterpiece?

Well, I have some personal insight on masterpieces. As a writer, I have dozens of masterpieces. Or at least, they will be. I just have to finish them. These novels that are sitting around have the potential to be the greatest work I’ve ever done. I just have to spend a little more time working on them.

A masterpiece doesn’t happen overnight. Rarely. Even The Messiah took days to write, although it marked the end of Handel’s composing and his life. A masterpiece takes time and effort and sacrifice. Creating a masterpiece is a process.

But an artist doesn’t see things the way others do. An artist can see what a block of marble or a canvas or a stack of paper has the potential to become. And an artist knows that he is creating a masterpiece even though he just started the process. And even though it looks like he’s just making a mess or that he’s just wasting time, that artist knows what he’s doing because he has a plan. And if you ask an artist what they’re doing, they’ll tell you that they’re working on their masterpiece (unless they have a sense of humor, and then they’ll tell you they’re taming a monster). Because in their eyes, that project — even uncompleted — is still a masterpiece.

We Christians in 2012 America want God to finish His process on our time. We want Him to finish painting or sculpting or writing or whatever it is that He’s doing in our lives now so we can move on to other things. It’s uncomfortable. When God is working on us, it’s painful. I mean, if a block of marble could feel, wouldn’t you think it would squeal every time that chisel and hammer make contact?

But God doesn’t work on our time, thankfully. He sees the big picture. And He has a plan. And His process will produce a work of art that can never be duplicated. When God is done with us, we really will be masterpieces. But getting to that point will take time.

I’m including a link to a YouTube video by the Skit Guys called “God’s Chisel” because this morning’s verse made me think about it.

Peacock on sand - Sedgwick County Zoo, Wichita, KS

I think that’s how living a real Christian life should be. Today’s verse is Matthew 5:16.

In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

People get caught up in good deeds and good works a lot of the time. I that’s because we judge each other by our works. Our works are usually an indication of the state of our hearts, which is something we can’t see.

Let’s be honest. If you are really interested in serving God and living a life like Christ did, you will serve others. You will put others before yourself. Your life will demonstrate that you believe in Jesus. Your checkbook and your calendar will demonstrate that you believe in Jesus. Or it will demonstrate that you’re just faking it.

But in the end, good deeds don’t save you. You can do all the good deeds in the world and they won’t make you perfect. They won’t excuse you from your imperfections. Only Christ can do that, and He doesn’t excuse you from imperfection, He became perfection for us and took our punishment so we didn’t have to.

So if you’re a Christian and you do a good deed, what do you say if someone asks you why you did it?

Do you say that it was the right thing to do? Sure. It probably was. Do you say it’s because you wanted to be a good person? Well, I’m sure that’s true, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be a good person. By as a Christian, why do we do good things for other people?

Isn’t it because God has told us to? Isn’t it because the Bible says to value others more than ourselves? Isn’t it because that’s how Christ lived?

Good deeds make you stand out. Caring about others makes you stand out. So why, when people ask us the reason for our regard, do we backpedal and say it was only right to do something nice for them?

I can say, from personal experience, that’s it’s easier to just shrug it off and say it was the right thing to do. It’s easier than looking like a freak and saying, “God told me to hold that door open for you!” or “I bought your lunch because Jesus would have done the same!”

But what happens when you take the motivation for a good deed and turn it into something that was just the right thing to do? Suddenly, that good deed is no longer about God or about living a Christian life. It becomes about you. Doing a good deed becomes something that was done to make ourselves feel better or look good. And that’s not why we are to do good works and good deeds for other people.

This verse today, Matthew 5:16, comes from a larger passage where Jesus is talking about how believers are like a city on a hill. You can’t hide a city on a hill. The lights shine into the darkness and can’t be covered up. That’s the way a Christian is supposed to be. We’re supposed to live in a way that we are undeniably obvious, living like Christ and giving God glory for everything.

It’s difficult to give God credit among people who don’t know Him. But as believers, we are to let our good deeds point toward God. Don’t let the opportunity to introduce someone to God pass you by because you’re afraid they’ll look at you funny.

If you do a good deed, be ready to explain why.