Keep Running!

“Roughly 60,000 competitors from more than 140 countries turned out for the New York City Marathon yesterday (Nov. 1, 2026 MJA) — marking the five-borough race’s 50th anniversary, its largest field yet, and the first route change in 15 years. Sweden’s Andreas Almgren won his first-ever marathon in the men’s race (2:06:01); Kenya’s Sheila Chepkirui won the women’s race (2:24:36). The 26.2-mile race changed course for the first time since 2011 this year, with runners seeing two fewer turns in the Bronx to accommodate local access to a supermarket and laundromat. Among the most notoriously difficult moments for runners are the Queensboro Bridge at mile 15 and the so-called Fifth Avenue grind at mile 24. Celebrity runners included actress Jennifer Connelly. The first NYC marathon in 1970 involved several rounds around Manhattan's Central Park, with the race expanding to involve all five boroughs in 1976.” (1440.com)

You may or may not like running. Perhaps it's been a while since you ran anywhere. That’s okay. Not everyone is cut out to be a marathon runner. If you let me set my own pace, I might be able to “run” 26.2 miles in two weeks, but certainly not in a little over two hours. I’ll leave that kind of running to the experts who know what they’re doing.

But if you’re a believer, you are a marathon runner by default. When you first put your faith in Christ, you begin a spiritual race that will end only when you draw your last breath. “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…” (Hebrews 12:1). A life-long marathon can only be successfully accomplished by keeping our eyes on the goal. The next verse in Hebrews 12 identifies Who we are to be running toward: “....fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith…” (Hebrews 12:2). Keep running!!!

God loves you!

Mike

Maxxing

“If it feels like the year 2026 has been filled to the max, this year's word of the year is fitting. Dictionary.com on Monday named the word "maxxing" as its 2026 Word of the Year, defining it as "a word that refers to the practice of pursuing an activity to the fullest or optimizing a certain aspect of your life." The word "maxxing" traces its roots back to maximum and max, according to Dictionary.com, and is most often used in combination with other words. One of the biggest examples of "maxxing" over the past year is looksmaxxing, a self-improvement practice focused on maximizing physical appearance…The word functions as a verb and is now used on its own, i.e. "I'm maxxing everything in my life."” (Katie Kindelan, October 26, 2026, abcnews.com). 

God specialized in maxxing before it was cool. Here are a few examples: The Son that God sent into the world is described by John as “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14) and that Son came in “the fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4). Jesus Himself said that He came so that people “may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). The church is referred to as “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:23). Paul prayed that the believers in Ephesus would “be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Ephesian 3:19). Peter desired that his readers would have grace and peace “in the fullest measure” (1 Peter 1:2).

God doesn’t do anything half-heartedly. He has the power and ability “to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20) and He has proved it over and over again. I’m so grateful to serve a God Who isn’t stingy and doesn’t scrimp when it comes to the needs of His children. I can abide in trust that “the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied” to every one of His children (2 Peter 1:11).

God loves you!

Mike

Are You Feeling Small And Insignificant?

David mentions one final way that God displays His glory in Psalm 8. We have already learned that God’s glory is revealed in His majestic name (8:1,9) as well as in His uncommon methods (8:2). In verse 3-8, we learn that the glory of God is seen in His care for humanity. Notice David’s words: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas” (Psalm 8:3-8).

Like David, it’s easy to feel small and insignificant when one gazes into the night sky. Scientific advancements have given modern humanity the ability to gaze into the distant corners of the universe in ways that David couldn’t imagine. And yet, the question remains. Why would God pay attention to us? Surely a God powerful enough to create the universe has better things to do, doesn’t He? Apparently not. These verses, like others in Scripture, present humanity as the crowning achievement of God’s creative work.

The writer of Hebrews quotes these words of David here in Psalm 8 with reference to Jesus Christ (Hebrews 2:6-8). Through His incarnational mission, He became the ultimate representative of humanity. The dominion that humanity lost due to sin would be restored through the work of the “Son of Man.” Jesus is the ultimate proof that God cares for humanity. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

God loves you!

Mike

Out Of The Mouth Of Babes

In Psalm 8, David offers praise to the glorious God he serves. As we work our way through the psalm, we discover that he emphasizes God’s glory in four different ways. Last week, we highlighted the first and last verse of the psalm where David writes of the praise due to God for His majestic name. He is worthy of praise just by virtue of Who He is.

Let’s move on in the text to focus on David’s second point: The glory of God is seen in His uncommon methods. Notice v. 2: “From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength because of Your adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease” (Psalm 8:2). The point here is that God can, and often does, use seemingly weak and insignificant things to display His glory and accomplish His will. I wonder if David had the story of Moses and the Exodus on his mind as he wrote this. Moses, the mighty servant of God, who stood toe to toe with Pharaoh and Egypt began his journey toward the confrontation as a crying baby hidden among the reeds of the Nile (Exodus 2:1-6).

I think Garrick Sinclair Beckett captures the point of the verse well: “Allow me to translate this for today: God doesn’t need influencers to win a fight. He doesn’t need power brokers or PR campaigns. He doesn’t flex like the world’s braggarts. He uses babies, who are weak and voiceless. The very thing our culture discards and dismisses, God uses to silence His enemies. That’s how He works. If that offends your pride and reason, good.”

The greatest example of all is Jesus. God’s grand plan to redeem a lost and dying world didn’t begin in the halls of power in Jerusalem or Rome. Although the plan was in place from the beginning, the outworking of the plan on earth began with a crying baby in the arms of a young mother. That baby would grow to change the world (John 1:29).

God loves you!

Mike

Praise The Name Of The Lord

In Psalm 8, David offers a poem of praise to God. The words overflow in amazement for the glorious Lord of the universe. The glory of God is illustrated in four different ways in this psalm and, over the next few weeks, we will consider each one in turn, Lord willing. Let’s look at the first one.

The glory of God is revealed in His majestic name. David makes this point in the first verse as well as in the last. Here is what he says: “O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!...O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:1,9) These verses, as we will see, serve as bookends for a psalm which showcases the sovereign work of God in the world. But what God does is ultimately rooted in Who He is, i.e. in His name.

The first “LORD” in each verse is the personal or covenantal name of God - who God is to His own people. It is translated in older bibles as “Jehovah” and more modernly stated as “Yahweh.” The second “Lord” is “adonai.” This name could be described as positional. It means master, ruler, or owner. David affirms that God is the One Who calls the shots.

Names are important. But God’s name is not like your name or my name. God’s name is “...majestic…in all the earth.” The God named in this psalm has displayed His “...splendor above the heavens!” Perhaps you have made a name for yourself in the world. Maybe your name is well-known and loved. There is nothing necessarily wrong with that. But your name or my name can’t compare with the majestic name of God. As children of God, we have a great Father with a great name. “Some boast in chariots and some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God” (Psalm 20:7). Praise the name of the Lord!

God loves you!

Mike

God Can Tell Time

A recent Facebook meme featured a picture of a man sleeping on a sofa and included the following words: “Jesus slept during a storm. Daniel slept in the lion’s den. Peter slept in prison. Elijah slept while running from his executioners. No matter what the circumstances, you should take a nap. The Bible says so.” We can smile at this satirical attempt at biblical interpretation because it is patently absurd. But, sadly, this same kind of reasoning is presented by many today as serious bible study. Random verses, yanked out of their original context and grouped together to form an unwarranted conclusion. Or one verse is used in a way the original author never intended.

Let me give you an example. “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” (2 Peter 3:8). This verse is often used as a “get out of jail free” card when encountering other difficult verses where God says something is “near” or will happen “soon.” In other words, you can’t trust God’s words of timing because He may or may not mean it.

But that’s not Peter’s point. Critics were mocking Christians for saying that God’s judgment was “ready” and “near” (2 Peter 3:3-4), just as Peter said in his first letter (1 Peter 4:5-7). If Peter was using the quote from Psalm 90 in v.8 like many modern interpreters, he would be telling the critics something along the lines of: “Now I know I said the judgment was near, but don’t take that literally. It could be thousands of years because God doesn’t tell time like we do.” But that isn’t what he does. In fact, in the very next verse, he tells them that “the Lord is NOT slow about His promise…” (2 Peter 3.9).

God isn’t restricted by time but He certainly knows how to tell it. He communicates timing to us in ways we understand. And we shouldn’t misuse verses to teach otherwise.

God loves you!

Mike

There Is No Place Like Home

Sabrina A. Matoff wrote a short piece entitled “Where You Call Home.” Here are her words: “In the end, it doesn't matter where you were born, but where you called home. Not how big your home was, but the strength of its foundation. Not where you studied books, but how much light guided your way. It doesn't matter what grades led you to college, but how college led you to experience life. Not whether you gained riches in currency, but emotional wealth in your relationships. Not how many people knew your name, but how many individuals knew your heart. Not whether you achieved fame in the public spotlight, but cherished value in your daily routine. In the end, is doesn't matter what goals were attained, but how many dreams you envisioned. Not what mountains blocked your roads, but what peaks opened your senses. In the end, it doesn't matter where you may wander as long as you know your way home…”

“Like a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man who wanders from his home” (Proverbs 27:8). The prodigal son in the story told by Jesus in Luke 15 couldn’t wait to leave home. The story itself doesn’t go into the reasons why, but we could imagine a few. Maybe he got tired of being told what to do. Perhaps he wanted to see the world beyond the horizon for himself. It could be that his older brother was getting on his nerves. Who knows? Whatever the reasons, he packed his bag and left. Who needs home, anyway?

But it didn’t take too long for reality to smack him right in the face. The home he was so anxious to leave began to look better to him. He began to long for the things he abandoned. And, thankfully, he had a father who was more than willing to welcome him home with open arms (Luke 15:20-24). How thankful we can be for a Father Who also welcomes wanderers home! Truly, there is no place like home!

God loves you!

Mike