Langdon's Devotional

So I've become a lot more intentional about spending time in the Old Testament over the past couple years or so, and it's been super rewarding for my perspective on various seasons I've experienced since I revived this blog. There were plenty of things that I learned from the New Testament as well, but like most young Christians, I'd considered a lot of the Old Testament to be more or less uncharted territory. When I finally took the time to read through all of Scripture from start to finish, I was surprised by how relevant some Old Testament concepts were to my own life. Probably the most impactful of those concepts that I read about was the concept of  offerings . If you've read any of the books of the prophets (or really any Old Testament book), you're at least a bit familiar with the fact that God's people made sacrificial offerings to find favor with the Lord. These were intertwined with what we know as the Law, as the biggest way that followers of Yahw...

There was clearly a huge gap in between posts for this, and like I said in an update, it really was just because God had been doing so much around me, including a lot in my Scripture life. Specifically, I had started a reading plan for the first time, going through the entire Bible, front to back. And while I was doing that, it made it difficult to devote time to writing these posts, too  –  not just because of time, but also because of what felt like some kind of "spiritual burnout." I was very intentional about going through that reading plan  –  highlighting passages and reflecting on each day's reading, so that once I got to the end of it, I hadn't just marked up my Bible, but I "marked up" my heart and mind to an extent, too. By the time I got through my reading for the day, it was difficult to put the same kind of energy and thought into my writing. It wasn't a sacrifice that I necessarily wanted to make, but when I tried to work on posts while I w...

I've spent some time lately reading a book called Pleasing People by Lou Priolo. He writes about how our desire to please man manifests itself in our lives, and he offers Biblical solutions for it. I think it's an important read for anyone who struggles with any kind of social anxiety, or for anyone who falsely believes they're immune to it. So everybody. This might only end up being the first post of multiple on people-pleasing, because as I've gone through the book, I've discovered more perspectives of that whole pursuit since I started this post.  Regardless, the concept of valuing man's approval more than that of the Lord's is obviously all over the place in the New Testament. There was plenty of time between the final prophet of old and John the Baptist (and Christ) for corruption to enter the Church and harden the hearts and motivations of the God's people. Being a Pharisee was more of a status symbol than anything, and God had slowly been pushed o...