Psychologists call it “projection” when I see so quickly in others what’s really in myself.
If I see sin in others, my first response would be to hit my knees and ask the Holy Spirit to search me to point out the same sin in myself.
It’s only after confessing my sin and receiving God’s complete forgiveness that I am equipped with the empathy and mercy to help someone else find the same freedom I have found.
Lord, may I be more sensitive to the sin in my life than I am aware of the sin in the world.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
The Jordan River was a powerful border guard. For years it had served the Canaanites well, protecting their eastern border from large-scale attacks from their enemies. Now the Jordan was all that stood between the Israelites on the east side of the river and their promised land on the west side.
Joshua gave some unusual instructions to the priests that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. He told them to carry the ark while they walked into the middle of the flood-level river. He said they should trust that God would stop the flow of the river while they stood there (see Joshua 3:1—4:11).
I can imagine the two priests carrying the ark at the front stepping into the water, feeling the current rush around their ankles, and holding their breath as they took their next steps deeper into the river.
Step after step the two priests in front waded into the Jordan. Until finally they walked far enough that the priests carrying the ark from the back stepped into the Jordan.
And all of a sudden, the water levels begin to go down! Lower and lower until the priests were standing on a damp riverbed that had been completely covered by water just a few minutes earlier. To their left, as they looked downstream, no water was to be seen. To their right, as they looked upstream, they might have glimpsed the wall of water piled up as the invisible Hand of God held it back.
Only then did the Israelites began crossing the previously uncrossable river. Family after family, tribe after tribe began to march at long last into their promised land.
And while all Israel passed over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan. … For the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to tell the people…. (Joshua 3:17, 4:10)
It was only after every Israelite had crossed the Jordan, and memorial stones had been gathered from the riverbed and carried to the shore, that the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord came across themselves. It was immediately after this that the mighty Jordan River began flowing again at full strength.
Second, godly leaders stand their ground until all the people enter into God’s blessing. Remember that God is patient, “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
So leaders, let me encourage you—
Keep going first in obeying God, keep standing firm in His promises, keep showing others the path they need to follow to step into God’s blessings, and keep encouraging people to walk into that blessing.
Don’t be slow in obeying. Don’t fear going first into the unknown. And don’t become weary or frustrated or nervous and walk away too soon.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
It is so much easier to complain than to compliment. We can slide into the negative conversations almost without thinking about it.
In one of the last things that Paul wrote to Timothy—as he’s in prison, quite possibly awaiting execution—he warns his friend against the darkness of the last days (2 Timothy 3:1-5). We need to engage our minds, our wills, and our emotions to not go with the flow of culture’s negativity.
Remember the wise words from George Santayana: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” The apostle Paul said this before Mr. Santayana (1 Corinthians 10:1-6). We need to learn the lessons of the dangers of forgetfulness that leads us to ingratitude.
Even before Paul, the Old Testament is filled with repeated reminders to remember God’s blessings and gratefully look to Him to supply every need. Let’s unpack some lessons on the importance of gratitude from Israel’s history in Psalm 106.
In Psalm 106:7, the Israelites forget what God has done for them in Egypt. Now that they appear to be pinned between the Red Sea and the onrushing Egyptian army, their forgetfulness becomes grumbling against God (Exodus 14:10-12).
In Psalm 106:13-14, instead of being grateful for the miraculous supply of manna, the Israelites are grumbling about the meat they don’t have (Numbers 11:4-6).
Here’s the lesson for us to learn: God wants to teach us to be thankful for His daily provisions for us (Joshua 5:12; Matthew 6:11).
In Psalm 106:21, 28-29, the next generation of Israelites didn’t remember to be thankful because they had seldom heard their parents express gratitude (Judges 2:10-11).
Here’s the lesson for us to learn: Our daily thankfulness fortifies future generations (Psalm 37).
Here is the repeated pattern we see—
Thankfulness → Forgetfulness → Fearful / Selfish attitudes → Susceptible to the temptation to grumble against God
Thankfulness → Remembering → Joyful / Secure attitudes → Fortified against the temptation to grumble against God
Jim Cymbala said, “Ingratitude to God is the first step toward backsliding and departure from God. So, it is to our benefit to have a thankful heart toward God.”
Let’s put into practice this lesson from King David: “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget bot all His benefits” (Psalm 103:2).
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
In the 40 days between His resurrection and His ascension, we read that Jesus was with His disciples “giving instructions through the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:2).
I think this word “instructions” in the NIV is too soft. The other translations say things like:
commandments (NKJV)
orders (NASB & NET)
instructed and commanded (AMPC)
The Greek word Luke uses in Acts 1:2 is entellomai and it is a word that carries weight. Throughout the New Testament this word is used to identify…
…the words of God (Matthew 4:6, 15:4; Luke 4:10; Acts 13:47; Hebrews 9:20)
…the words of Moses (Matthew 19:7; Mark 10:3; John 8:5)
…the words of Jesus (Matthew 17:9, 28:20; Mark 11:6; John 14:31; 15:14, 17; Acts 1:2, 13:47)
…the words of recognized leaders (Mark 13:34; Hebrews 11:22)
In other words, these aren’t just any words, but they carry an awesome authority with them. These are binding commands. They are not merely wise counsel or suggestions for godly living. They are indispensable to the Christian life.
Luke points out that Jesus gave these commands “through the Holy Spirit” because it is only through the Holy Spirit that you and I can understand them, apply them, and be empowered to obey them.
Jesus uses the same word entellomai in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:20) as well as in Acts 1:2. Clearly, the Scripture is telling us that we are powerless to understand and powerless to obey without the Holy Spirit’s daily empowerment. Jesus would never give us commands that we were unable to carry out, which is why He gives us instructions through the Spirit, and then the Spirit gives us the power to joyfully obey those commands.
Don’t ever think that you are on your own in trying to figure out what Jesus said, and how you are going to live it out.
I discuss the role of the Holy Spirit in a Christian’s life in much greater detail in my series called We Are: Pentecostal.
Leaders should be able to use mistakes as growth opportunities. Check out these wise words from the book Spiritual Leadership.
I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
T.M. Moore encourages Christian to be ready to help their neighbors answer their burning questions: “Christians, Charles Taylor insists, must not be guilty of crushing human flourishing by a too-small vision of God and an unloving or unenergetic approach to our neighbors. Instead, we must study and prepare to ‘respond most profoundly and convincingly to what are ultimately commonly felt dilemmas.’ We must be ready to guide our neighbors out of the dark woods of wrong belief into the radiant meadows of the Sun of Righteousness, risen with healing in His wings. But to do this, we must be ready guides. We must anticipate the questions our groping neighbors will ask and prepare to answer them clearly and intelligently (1 Peter 3:15).”
True strength and courage only come to the one who thinks God’s thoughts and does God’s deeds (see Joshua 1:7). The strong and courageous leader is never self-made, but unshakably God-dependent.
On the latest Craig and Greg Show podcast, this the quote from Andy Murray that I shared: “A great team begins to happen when you have the right people on the bus in the right seats and the bus breaks down…. They work through the crisis, they get back on the bus, they’re sweating and tired. All of the sudden something magical happens: They begin to talk to each other. Culture happens through crisis. Unfortunately, many team environments have structured the crisis out.”
Mabel Dean went to Egypt at 40 years old and stayed there for nearly 40 years without taking a single furlough! “All of Dean’s life, people did not expect her to amount to much. Despite what others said, Dean believed that she had a mandate from God for missions work in Africa. She later stated, ‘I was the only homely one in my family. Yet I was the one that He chose for His work.’”
One of the prayers in the Songs of Ascent calls us to mature (or ascend) in our prayers for those who have hurt us.
“There is always a better way of doing things, and either you or your competitor will find it.” —Brad Anderson
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Let’s review the historical background for the Psalms of Ascent. The Jewish people made four pilgrimages to Jerusalem each year, which sit about 2500 fee above sea level, so this was a physical climb. But this also has a spiritual lesson for us today: We are to continue progressing in our walk with God—upward and onward!
The songs of ascent that these pilgrims sang give us life-changing lessons that we can still apply today.
I’m sure there were some pilgrims who thought, “We have to go to Jerusalem.” Just as there are some people today who may something like, “I have to tithe.” But when you have experienced the blessing that comes from obedience, your “have to” turns to “get to” really quickly!
There is a longing in Psalm 128 for God’s blessing. In fact, we see it in nearly every verse: blessed (v. 1), blessing and prosperity (v. 2), blessed (v. 4), bless and prosperity (v. 5), and peace (v. 6).
We have to remember that our obedience doesn’t earn God’s blessing, but rather our obedience keeps us in the place where we can receive God’s ever-flowing blessings. When I have experienced the blessing that followed even my “have to” attitude, I now joyfully “get to” obey because I know that keeps me in a blessed place.
But even knowing that these blessings are flowing for us, sometimes we still get weary. Sometimes it seems as if we are being faithful but we aren’t seeing the results that perhaps we saw before.
Think about these pilgrims ascending 2500 feet year after year after year. It was challenging enough during the golden days of King David and King Solomon, but can you imagine the feelings of futility during the dark days? Perhaps during the exile when the temple was in ruins, or after the exile when the temple didn’t look as it did before and there were overlords ruling Israel? And then it was unquestionably true that the older a pilgrim got, the harder the climb became for them.
But the struggle keeps us reliant on God. Like Solomon said, “The way of life winds upward for the wise, that he may turn away from hell below” (Proverbs 15:24). The longer I walk, the more I get to rely on God’s help, and the sweeter He becomes to me!
I love the line in the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness, “Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow—blessings all mine with ten thousand beside.” Because of God’s blessings that I’ve already experienced, I can trust Him for more, even in the struggle of the climb.
Look at some of these promises that come out in other biblical translations.
Blessedare those who fear God (NIV) = “How joyful are those who fear the Lord” (NLT)
Blessing and prosperity will be yours (NIV) = “You will enjoy the fruit of your labor” (NLT) and “You will eat what you worked so hard to grow” (NET)
The middle of this psalm is in verses 3-4. Remember above when I said nearly every verse contains a word of blessing? I didn’t list verse 3, but there is language in this verse that makes it pregnant with blessing—Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons will be like olive shoots around your table.
You may ask, “How is this a blessing?”
The phrase “under their own vine and under their own fig tree” appears throughout the Old Testament. It described a blessed, prosperous, happy, and peaceful home. It was a home at peace within because there was also peace without.
This described the golden era of King Solomon—During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, lived in safety, everyone under their own vine and under their own fig tree (1 Kings 4:25).
After the northern kingdom of Israel fell and the southern kingdom of Judah was surrounded by the Assyrian forces of King Sennacherib, the king’s field commander tried to entice them the people with similar words—
Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: “Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death! Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’” (2 Kings 18:31-32)
Notice that he said the land would be “a land like your own.” He was trying to get them to compromise, to no longer listen to God’s voice, to no longer climb up into God’s presence. Much like satan tempted Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit with the promise, “You will be like God.”
But these blessings in Psalm 128 don’t come from fearful “have to” obedience to man, but from reverencing God above all else. So the longing of verses 1-4 become the prayer of verses 5-6 (notice the word may used three times in these verse).
The focus of our longing—where we need to keep our eyes—is on God’s heavenly throne: Zion, Jerusalem, Israel (vv. 5-6; Micah 4:1-5).
In an earlier story, Caleb may have gotten tired while he waited for God to fulfill His promise to him, but he always trusted God as he walked on (see Joshua 14:9-12).
What promises of God are you still praying for?
What are you longing to see accomplished?
What has God already done that you can look back on?
The Hill, though high, I covet to ascend, The Difficulty will not me offend; For I perceive the Way to life lies here. Come, pluck up Heart, let’s neither faint nor fear;
Better, though difficult, the Right Way to go,
Than wrong, though easy, where the End is Woe. (John Bunyan)
Don’t give in.
Don’t give up.
Keep climbing.
Like Caleb say, “It may have been 85 years of walking and climbing, but I’ll keep climbing. GOD, GIVE ME THIS HILL!”
If you would like to check out the other songs of ascent that we’ve already studied, please click here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
On Mother’s Day, I mentioned that Proverbs 31 might be an intimidating description for Moms, but it doesn’t need to be that way. This chapter lists what is possible when a woman is fully committed to God, her husband, and her children.
Her faithfulness is her superpower which unleashes so many good things for those around her. Or as we said it: Her nobility helps her be a king maker.
I concluded by saying that men have an important role to play in order to honor the king-making power which the godly women in his life have unlocked. This is a man’s superpower! Together, God-fearing men and women can create a legacy of king makers. But separated or self-focused men and women can create a legacy of king breakers.
The Hebrew word for noble is used five times in Proverbs: three times for the godly superwoman (Proverbs 12:4, 31:10, 31:29), and twice for the godly superman (13:22, 31:3).
Remember that this word is also translated in different versions of the Bible as excellent, virtuous, and strong in character.
In Proverbs 31:3 the word vigor for men is attached to that same Hebrew word. In this context, the word can be defined as strength, efficiency, ability, or wealth.
On Mother’s Day, we said that Eve is the “help meet” (as the old King James Version says), which means that she is the key that unlocks Adam’s potential. The teaching throughout Proverbs says that men can squander this unlocked potential by…
…forgetting God’s laws—Proverbs 31:4-5
…not stewarding the unlocked leadership opportunities in our marriage, parenting, work, or community involvement (Proverbs 5:15-20; 2:1-5, 12-17; 22:29; 31:23).
In essence, we cancel the definition of vigor that we saw above, changing strength to weakness, efficiency to inefficiency, ability to inability, and wealth to poverty.
On Mother’s Day we looked at virtuous Ruth who used her godly superpower to unlock the potential for Boaz, the man who would become her husband. Let’s look at his example:
he was called a man of standing because his righteousness was well known in Bethlehem—Ruth 2:1
he was obedient to the smallest details of the law—Ruth 2:3; Leviticus 19:9-10
he honored his father by following his example—Matthew 1:5; Joshua 2:1-24, 6:23
he was an honored employer—Ruth 2:4
he was also (just like Ruth) called a man of noble character—Ruth 3:7-11, 14
A Dad’s superpower looks very similar to a Mom’s superpower. The godly woman unlocks the potential, and when the godly man carefully stewards that potential, he is also using his godly superpower (Luke 12:42-43, 48)!
Guys, when we use our God-given superpower, we honor Him and the godly women in our lives who have made this possible for us. We do this by…
…faithfully loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength—Proverbs 31:4-5; Mark 12:28-31
…caring for our bride like Jesus cares for His bride—Ephesians 5:25
…honoring the legacy of our parents—Ephesians 6:2-3
…passing on a godly heritage to our children—Ruth 4:21-22
This is God’s design. And it is God’s delight when we live this way. So we must make the choice to either carry on the godly heritage that was handed down to us, or reverse the ungodly heritage that we may have inherited.
Godly men and women unlock and perpetuate their God-given superpower by giving their heart, soul, mind, and strength to God. And then God will continue to empower us as the spouses, parents, and leaders in our community that He desires for us to be!
But we also read that twice Joshua acted without consulting God or receiving directions from Him, and the results were not good at all!
(1) The initial attack on the city of Ai.
If Joshua had sought God first, I believe God would have revealed Achan’s treachery before 36 men were killed in battle (7:1-5).
(2) Making a treaty with the Gibeonites.
These clever people deceived the Israelites into making a treaty of peace with them. ”And [the Gibeonites] went to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, ‘We have come from a far country; now then, make a covenant with us.’ … So the men of Israel took some of their provisions, and did not ask for the counsel of the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live; and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them” (9:6, 14-15).
Presumption is a tricky thing. Just because something was successful in the past—even something directed by God Himself—that doesn’t mean we can simply repeat it again without consulting God again.
Paul wrote, “In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6). I looked up the word “everything” in the Greek language, and it means: Each and every thing!
God doesn’t want us to seek Him for just the big things—but for everything.
Beware of prayerlessness. Never simply assume you know what to do next, but pray about everything. God loves to give wise counsel to those who ask Him for it.
We are to love the sinner but hate the sin. This is hard to do, especially when the sin they are doing is directed at us and making us angry! Jesus gave us a great example in these times of high anger: withdraw. Check out my full message “A Christlike Response to Skeptics.” I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“In many pagan religions the purpose of worship is to placate the gods—to keep them happy and to stay on their good side, lest they mess with, you know, the harvest or procreation or whatever. Worship is thus a work pagans do to earn or keep the favor of their deity. Christians don’t worship to placate God or earn His favor. We don’t worship to make God happy or bring Him pleasure. God is all-satisfied, all-happy, and all-pleased in Himself alone. We add nothing to Him when we come together to worship. At the same time, as we worship, God adds Himself to us. He deigns to commune with us, inhabits our praises, and brings us into His presence and joy in ways that transform all we are, think, feel, value, say, and do. … In worship, rightly conceived and conducted, our minds and imaginations expand beyond their everyday thoughts and dreams, stretched and molded to fill up with the glory of the heavenly throne room, to be conformed to the mind of Christ, and to see the world as He does (1 Corinthians 2:16).” —T.M. Moore
J. Warner Wallace shares two reasons why we can still consider the Bible relevant today.
My grandpa had honey bees on his farm, and I’ve been intrigued by them ever since that time. In fact, honey bees were subject of my semester-long research project in my ecology class. So I’m always fascinated to read more discoveries about these amazing insects!
The level of a leader’s strength and courage is directly tied to the leader’s meditation upon God’s word. God’s wisdom transforms a leader’s heart and sharpens his thoughts. This is what gives the leader the necessary courage to lead people in a God-honoring way. I have a whole series of posts on godly leadership where I expand more on these thoughts.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Without a doubt, Jesus had the most robust mental health of anyone who has ever walked planet Earth! Dr. Luke, a trained physician, captures this in just one verse (Luke 2:52) where he talks about how Jesus grew in a wholly healthy way, and Luke lists Christ’s mental health as the first priority.
I’m sure there have been plenty of times when someone asks you about something you like or dislike or why you do something the way you do, you probably don’t tell them the facts but you tell them a story. We have a story for everything we like, everything we do, and everything we avoid.
It’s good to rehearse these stories and to really listen to them. If we don’t really listen to them, we cannot learn from them; if we don’t learn from them, we rob ourselves of robust mental health.
From some of our stories, there is a regret that comes from three enemies. These enemies are all tied to our stories about our past and they are would’ve, could’ve, and should’ve—“If only I would’ve…” and “Things would be different today if I could’ve…” and “I should’ve known….”
One of the ways we need to talk back to those thoughts is like this, “I only know the would’ve, could’ve, and should’ve now because I’m older and more experienced. I didn’t know those things in the past so it was impossible for me to have done something differently.” Even the apostle Paul noted, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me” (1 Corinthians 13:11).
If we don’t talk back to those regrets of yesterday, we will have doubts about today: Will I make another mistake today? Do I have what it takes to meet today’s challenges? What will others think of me if I mess up? If we don’t address those doubts we have today, that will cause us worry and stress about tomorrow.
Regret … doubt … worry … stress. Those don’t really sound like words that contribute to positive mental health, do they?
Here’s the thing we need to remember—Learning from our yesterdays is healthy, but trying to relive our yesterdays is both unhealthy and unproductive!
Dr. William Osler said, “If the load of tomorrow is added to that of yesterday and carried today, it will make the strongest falter.”
Four times in just ten verses, Jesus told His followers not to worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:25-34). He ties that worry about tomorrow to having little faith. That lack of faith comes from our doubts, and those doubts come from our past regrets.
T.G.I.F.—thank God it’s Friday!—is an escapism. It’s not wanting to deal with the regrets, doubts, and worry by trying to push them to some distant time. It doesn’t allow us to really concentrate on today. The Bible constantly brings us back to the present.
Today is used 203 times in the NIV Bible
Tomorrow is mentioned 56 times
Yesterday is only used 8 times
Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us today our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11) so that we won’t let past regrets spiral downward into daily doubts and then anxiety about tomorrow. Elizabeth Elliot wisely counseled, “One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today.”
Christians that want to be mentally healthy should continually replace a T.G.I.F. mindset with T.G.I.T.—thank God it’s today!
Taking a line from Joshua who said, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15), here are four things we need to choose to remember each day.
Choose to remember that God uses all things—even our would’ve, could’ve, and should’ves—for our good and for His glory (Romans 8:28).
Choose to forget those old, self-limiting, stress-causing stories (Philippians 3:13).
Choose to believe that God is doing something new—something I never could have planned (Isaiah 43:18-19).
Choose to believe that God can help you tell a new story about your past (Genesis 41:51).
You have to choose each day to say “Thank God it’s today! Thank God that I’m not who I was yesterday! Thank God that He is using my would’ve-could’ve-should’ve moments from yesterday to prepare me for today! Thank God that He is teaching me a new story!”
If you’ve missed any of the previous messages in our series on a Christian’s mental health, you can find them all here.
![Joshua 3.5 and Psalm 19.12 [commentary]](https://i0.wp.com/craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/joshua-3.5-and-psalm-19.12-commentary.jpg?w=386&h=386&crop=1&ssl=1 "Joshua 3.5 and Psalm 19.12 [commentary]")
Craig T. Owens 