In the Crosshairs

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; 

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  

-Jesus, John 10:10

Our enemy, the thief, works in opposites: 

If God is giving it to us, watch for the enemy to work at stealing it;

if it’s living, be alert for him to try his hand at killing it; 

if it’s growing, notice how he’s gradually or suddenly destroying it. 

Once we recognize these reverse tactics, we know what’s in the enemy’s crosshairs: 

What God gives, the enemy aims to steal:

• Sleep 

  “...He gives his beloved sleep.” Psalm 127:2

• Children 

  “Children are a gift from the Lord…” Psalm 127:3

• A godly wife 

  “...a prudent wife is from the Lord.” Proverbs 19:14

• Seed of Truth

  “…the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown…” Matthew 13:19

• Salvation’s source 

  “...this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8

• Spiritual gifts 

  “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another…” 1 Peter 4:10

What God makes alive, the enemy aims to kill:

• Humanity 

  “He…breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7 

• The Word  

  “For the word of God is living and active…” Hebrews 4:12

• The church 

  “You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house…” 1 Peter 2:5

What God grows, the enemy aims to destroy: 

• Creation

  “He prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills.”

  Psalm 147:8

• Gospel ministry

  “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” 1 Corinthians 3:7

• The body of believers 

  “...the whole body…grows with a growth that is from God.”

  Colossians 2:19

“Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” Ephesians 6:13

Make Yourself at Home

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, 

and we will come to him and make our home with him.” John 14:23

In the past 4 years, we’ve called technicians to our home to make repairs: once, in the dead of summer when our A/C gave up, and then, in the dead of winter, when our furnace quit. In both situations, whether sweating or shivering, I was pretty desperate for the problem to be solved asap so I could get back to normal life. 

When he came, I didn’t say to the repairman, “Make yourself at home - here are the keys. Wander around, check out each room, and stay a while. The pantry is yours, the fridge is yours. If you feel like redecorating, go for it.” No. I didn’t invite him to settle in; I just needed him to work on one thing, and I pointed immediately to it. I was not trying to make him comfortable. Actually, I was expecting him to make ME more comfortable.

And I wonder how closely that parallels our relationship with God? We invite Him to fix something that’s broken so we can be comfortable again and get back to our normal life, but we’re not asking him to come make himself at home.

That God is willing to make himself at home with us should be shocking. 

God, at home with me?! 

God himself smiling and sighing, “Ah, now this feels like home”?!

Jesus’ statement in John 14:23 follows a promise he had made just a few verses earlier: “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”  John 14:2

The Greek word in verse 2 for rooms is the same word used in verse 23 for home (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words). It means abode or dwelling-place.

While we wait for Jesus to prepare a home for us, we can live in such a way that God makes his home in us, here and now. Jesus explains how: it’s obedience to His word that signals genuine love, flinging the door open, handing God the keys, and inviting him to settle in. 

Obedience to His word doesn’t bring God the Holy Spirit into my life, but it’s the invitation for him to be more than a repairman. Obedience lovingly says, “Come check out each room of my heart, stay awhile, renovate and redecorate, and do whatever it takes to make yourself at home.”

Top 3 Books, 2025

Where the Light Fell, Philip Yancey

From a disturbing childhood shaped by fundamentalism and racism, Yancey emerges as a portrait of God’s gentle pursuit.  He says, “I assumed that surrender to God would involve a kind of shrinking - avoiding temptation, grimly focusing on the “spiritual” things while I prepared for the afterlife. On the contrary, God’s good world presents itself as a gift to enjoy with grace-healed eyes.”

Answers to Prayer from George Muller’s Narratives, George Muller 

Muller’s life message to believers was this: no matter the century in which we live, God’s care and promises apply to us. Journaling about this, Muller writes, “So many believers with whom I became acquainted were harassed and distressed in mind or brought guilt upon their conscience on account of not trusting in the Lord…[so] the first and primary object of the work was (and still is) that God might be magnified by the fact that the orphans under my care are provided with all they need only by prayer and faith, without anyone being asked by me or my fellow-laborers, whereby it may be seen that God is faithful still and hears prayers still.”

From Strength to Strength, Arthur Brooks

Brooks outlines the path to joyful purpose later in life, courageously transitioning from a career based on fluid intelligence to one grounded in crystallized intelligence, inspired by the fact that, “The people who are happiest and most satisfied in their fifties, sixties, and seventies are those who made this leap.”

Let me know if one of these makes it on your 2026 list!

The Lambs in our Lives

“Like a good shepherd, he takes care of his people. He gathers them like lambs in his arms. He holds them close, while their mothers walk beside him.” Isaiah 40:11 (ERV)

I don’t know who the vulnerable are in your world right now. Maybe you’ve experienced the Good Shepherd’s care for you, but you’re wondering about your sons or daughters, nieces or nephews, mentees or disciplees, foster children or co-workers: does God notice them? Do they notice Him? 

Is He considering their fragility and development as He leads? 

Does He realize how much their welfare weighs on you, and yet how incapable you are of carrying them through life, noticing each and every danger and defending them from it? 

Nestled in a chapter of scripture that begins with comfort and ends with strength, comes this pivotal image offering us both: 

A Shepherd, most attentive to the vulnerable and weakest.

A Shepherd, carrying them where they’re most secure. 

A Shepherd, setting a sensitive pace for the concerned mom to walk beside Him.

A Shepherd, intervening in ways that she cannot. 

Sheep, who are with young, as other versions translate it, cannot carry their young. It’s physically impossible for a sheep to pick up her lamb and take it along with her, and it’s improbable that she even knows where safety might be found. To bleat in complaint that she should be the one bearing the lamb’s weight herself would be senseless, so the only thing left for the sheep to do is follow the shepherd who takes her lamb in his arms and trust that He does a better job at holding them.

When you’re burdened about the vulnerable in your life, it isn’t your responsibility to carry them, but to walk beside Him.

Water & Power

A friend recently texted that their town was replacing their neighborhood pipes, so they’d be without water for a short time. Ugh! If you’ve gone without water or electricity for a day or longer, you know that not having something so essential, highlights how essential it really is! Suddenly, its absence makes the heart grow fonder, and we tell ourselves we’ll never take it for granted again.

For me, familiar scripture can be like running water or electricity in our home - it’s there, and it’s nice to have, but sometimes I take it for granted and forget why it’s so crucial.  But what if the Living Water didn’t flow in my life and my power source was cut off? To imagine life without the truth of a familiar passage, I re-write the verses stating the opposite reality. For example, here’s what life would be like without the Shepherd of Psalm 23:

The Lord is not my Shepherd; I lack everything.

No one settles me down in green pastures;

I just keep pushing on through barren deserts.

No one leads me beside still waters;

All I can find are turbulent ones.

No one restores my fatally sick soul.

No one has any reason to point out the right path to me;

I always pick the wrong one.

When I’m trapped in the valley of the shadow of death, 

I fear all the evil, because I’m all alone.

There are no guides or guardrails to comfort me.

I’m starving, but there’s no food around - 

only my enemies are before me, and they consume me.

I’m dry and empty.

Truly, wickedness and steady hatred have chased me down all the days of my life,

and I’m far from the Lord, homeless forever.

If you need fresh appreciation for familiar verses like these, try taking their truths and writing what your reality would be if the opposite were true, because the water and light of the Word become even more precious in their absence.