But when she could no longer hide him, she got a basket made of papyrus reeds and waterproofed it with tar and pitch. She put the baby in the basket and laid it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile River. Exodus 2:3 (NLT) With Mother’s Day coming up, I want to focus on a Biblical figure who doesn’t get much attention: Moses’ mother. When Pharaoh put out an order that every Hebrew baby boy should be killed, Moses’ mother refused to give up her son. She risked hiding him for three months, and when that no longer worked, she left him in a strategic place along the Nile. To make a long story short, Moses was found and adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. …

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16 (ESV) Rules help us live together. Although following them does not determine God’s love for us, they do serve a purpose. For example, I absolutely love our family get-togethers. However, when the family all comes together at Grandma’s, what helps everything run smoothly? Grandma’s house rules. Now, we don’t follow her rules so that she’ll love us—we already know she does. We obey them because they create order and help all twenty-five people get along, with kids everywhere and a meal to serve. Imagine what frustrations would arise without the benefit of those rules! It’s the same reason we teach our kids …

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dishes, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence!” Matthew 23:25 (NLT) What’s on the inside matters most to God. The Pharisees and Sadducees didn’t get this. Though they outwardly followed religious laws meticulously, Jesus called them hypocrites and frauds. (See Matthew 23.) Why? It’s because the Pharisees did everything for public show (Matthew 23:5-7). Their focus centred around whatever looked good on the outside—but ignored the inside. Jesus said, “They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behaviour. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer” …

We love each other because he loved us first. 1 John 4:19 (NLT) God loves us before we do anything to earn it, just like loving parents do today. When a family welcomes a new baby, that infant hasn’t earned any love yet. They mess their diapers, keep their parents up all night and never say thank you. Actually, for the first few years, kids don’t earn anything at all. They don’t help out financially, clean the house or appreciate all the hard work their parents put in. Yet as parents, we pour our hearts and souls into our kids because we’re helplessly in love with them. We don’t pick up our new baby and go, “All right, kid, the jury is still out on …

They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” John 8:7 (NLT) Relationships cannot flourish anywhere other people expect us to follow a bunch of rules before they show us love. Whether it’s within a church or a family, if our acceptance is attached to rule-based performance, we will struggle with staying authentic for fear of being judged and rejected when we mess up. Jesus never operated like that. He showed people love first. John chapter 8 provides a perfect example of this. The Pharisees found a woman who had been caught committing sexual sin and dragged her before Jesus. While they waited for Him to bring the …