Archives by: Gary Hoag

Fasting Day 26 of 40 | Fifth Thursday of Lent

“Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight and so arousing his anger.” Deuteronomy 9:18

Yesterday, we read about the forty martyrs and one who fell away losing heart in 320. Today we notice that Peter of Damascus (c. 1156) recounts the response of Basil the Great (330-379) regarding the one who fell. Basil seems to take the posture of Moses in today’s Scripture – humble, grieving, and praying for people not to fall away into eternal fire.

“One of the forty martyrs lapsed, as Basil the Great says, ‘Gleefully the prince of evil entrapped the mean-spirited Judas, one of the twelve; he snatched man from Eden and ensnared one of the forty martyrs.’ Grieving for him the same Basil the Great says, ‘Foolish and worthy of our tears is he, for he went astray in both lives: in this life he was destroyed by fire and in the next went to eternal fire. And I see many others, numberless, who fell; not only unbelievers, but also many of the fathers, in spite of all their labors.”

Peter of Damascus (c. 1156) in Philokalia 3.111 (Holy Books) p. 679.

This post teaches us lessons about life and prayer.

For life, it’s not how you start but how you finish that matters. For prayer, we learn that we can finish well with God’s help or follow the lapsed one to eternal fire.

God, I want to finish well and not fall away. Please help me. Amen.

Think about your weaknesses. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you not fall but stand firm in the face of trial and generously aid others on the way.

If you want help in this area, you can freely download my ebook entitled, Finishing Well, here.

Fasting Day 25 of 40 | Fifth Wednesday of Lent

“More than forty men were involved in this plot.” Acts 23:13

Even as soldiers plotted to kill the apostle Paul in today’s Scripture, we have record of forty Roman soldiers from the Legio XII Fulminata in 320 whose comrades executed for refusing to renounce their Christian faith.

“After they had been torn by scourges and iron hooks they were chained together and led to a lingering death. It was a cruel winter, and they were condemned to lie naked on the icy surface of a pond in the open air till they were frozen to death. But they ran undismayed to the place of their combat, joyfully stripped off their garments, and with one voice besought God to keep their ranks unbroken. “Forty,” they cried, “we have come to combat: grant that forty may be crowned.” There were warm baths nearby, ready for any one amongst them who would deny Christ. The soldiers who watched saw angels descending with thirty-nine crowns, and, while they wondered at the deficiency in the number, one of the confessors lost heart, renounced his faith, and, crawling to the fire, died body and soul at the spot where he expected relief. But a soldier was inspired to confess Christ and take his place, and again the number of forty was complete. They remained steadfast while their limbs grew stiff and frozen, and died one by one.”

The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (320) in The Lives of the Saints by Alban Butler (Benziger Brothers: Global Grey, 2019) reading for March 10.

Pray for the persecuted church today. Ask God to help them persevere and receive their crowns. Remember them each day for the rest of Lent.

Jesus, help the persecuted church persevere to the end. Amen.

Make a gift today to support workers who serve the persecuted church.

If you need inspiration, click here send a gift to the Generosity Monk Fund to support my April 2026 trip to Pakistan to serve workers there.

And in Jesus name, I hope to return to China later in 2026.

Fasting Day 24 of 40 | Fourth Tuesday of Lent

“The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.” Exodus 16:35

“I feel that we are in such a hurry that we do not even have time to look at one another and smile. Today it is very fashionable to talk about the poor. Unfortunately, it is not fashionable to talk with them. The Irish aid workers, though, reach out to the desolation of the poor – not only their material poverty but also their spiritual wounds as well. They know the best way of satisfying our brethren’s hunger is to share with them whatever we have – to share with them until we ourselves feel what they feel because the poor do not need our condescending attitude or our pity but our love and tenderness. They also know that the less we have, the more we give. It seems absurd, but it’s the logic of love. When they place themselves at the service of the poor, it causes an authentic revolution, the biggest, the most difficult one: the revolution of love.”

Mother Teresa (1910-1997) in Mother Teresa: The Irish Connection by John Scalley (Dublin: Poolbeg, 2010) excerpt from chapter 5.

Teresa says to slow down. Lent helps us do that. We see life differently and experience the revolution of love.

God supplied manna every day for the Israelites for forty years. Why? He cares for those He loves. God wants us to do the same for us as His people.

The Irish aid workers modeled the way as conduits of love. Like the Israelites, we do well to trust Him for daily bread and not try to store it up but to share with love.

Jesus, teach me to serve the poor with love like Patrick. Amen

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Research how Patrick returned to the land of his captors not for revenge but to serve them. He won the nation of Ireland with a revolution of love.

Years later, Mother Teresa won India the same way.

Each of us can start a revolution where God has us.

Fasting Day 23 of 40 | Fourth Monday of Lent

“At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.” Numbers 13:25

After God’s people surveyed the Promised Land, the book of Numbers recounts the even distribution of land. Larger tribes got more parcels and smaller tribe received less so each person had enough.

In 1862, the Homestead Act allowed Americans to settle on 160-acre quarters of land divided into forty-acre quarters for deeds. Soon after, Leo Tolstoy wrote How much land does a man need? in 1886.

Therein Tolstoy writes, “Pahóm chose out a farm of forty acres…so he became a landowner, plowing and sowing his own land, making hay on his own land, cutting his own trees, and feeding his cattle on his own pasture. When he went out to plow his fields, or to look at his growing corn, or at his grass-meadows, his heart would fill with joy… Pahóm was pleased with it all, but when he got used to it he began to think that even here he had not enough land.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) in How much land does a man need? (Maclean: Trinity Forum, 2007), pp. 14, 17.

Pahóm’s quest for more contributed to his demise.

Read the short story to see how the Devil used the insatiability of greed and the desire for more land to destroy him. Be warned.

Download it here. It’s only 4 pages long. Share it with your children. Read it to your grandchildren! And find contentment in your humble homestead.

God, teach me to find contentment in having enough. Amen.

Take inventory. Do you have less than you need, enough to live, or surplus? What could you give to make sure greed does not destroy you?

Feast Day 4 of 7 | Fourth Sunday of Lent

“There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.” Proverbs 6:16-19

Today’s Scripture reports the seven things the Lord detests. We observe Lent, in part, to cleans us from these sins. But the work needs to happen on the inside, not the outside.

In The Seven Storey Mountain. Thomas Merton parallels his spiritual journey with the ascent of a seven-tiered mountain representing the purification of the seven deadly sins. Merton, writes. “It can be said, as a general rule, that the greatest saints are seldom the ones whose piety is most evident in their expression when they are kneeling at prayer, and the holiest men in a monastery are almost never the ones who get that exalted look, on feast days, in the choir.”

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) in The Seven Storey Mountain (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1948), p. 440.

As you feast today, give thanks for the work of Christ which sets you free from slavery to these sins. And be sure to direct your piety inwardly. While Lent is made up of a series of external observances – giving, prayer, and fasting – they are designed to transform us from the inside out. They wash away the sins that so easily beset us.

Lord, rid my life of the seven deadly sins, inside and out. Amen.

The work of Christ on the cross frees us from the penalty and the power of sin. Give thanks for that as you feast and practice piety for Him alone.

Fasting Day 22 of 40 | Fourth Saturday of Lent

“During Gideon’s lifetime, the land had peace forty years.” Judges 8:28b

As I write this, I am 58 years old. When Brother Lawrence was that age he wrote of a divine favor that he experienced at 18. It shaped his life for the next 40 years. I hope this reading does the same for you.

“The first time I saw Brother Lawrence was upon the 3rd of August 1666. He told me that GOD had done him a singular favor, in his conversion at the age of eighteen. That in the winter, seeing a tree stripped of its leaves, and considering that within a little time, the leaves would be renewed, and after that the flowers and fruit appear, he received a high view of the providence and power of GOD, which has never since been effaced from his soul. That this view had perfectly set him loose from the world, and kindled in him such a love for GOD, that he could not tell whether it had increased in above forty years that he had lived since.”

Brother Lawrence (1614-1691) in The Practice of the Presence of God, excerpt from the First Conversation.

For those of us reading this during Lent in the Northern Hemisphere, Spring is upon us. We see new buds form and the life appear on trees. We see this all over the world. Next time you notice it, consider the providence and power of God at work in them. Ask God to have that same providence and power at work in you to enable you to live, give, serve, and love generously like a fruitful tree.

God, thank you for your love, providence, and power. Amen.

Take a walk today and look for favors, signs of God’s love, providence, and power. Tell someone what you saw.

Fasting Day 21 of 40 | Friday Thursday of Lent

“For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’” Psalm 95:10

As we practice the discipline of prayer during Lent, we do well to read the Psalms. We find God’s heart there. Today’s Scripture reveals how much He wants us to stay on track and know His ways.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes this about the Psalms and prayer. “The Psalter is the great school of prayer. Here we learn, first, what prayer means. It means praying according to the Word of God, on the basis of promises… Second, we learn from the prayer of the psalms what we should pray… Third, the psalms teach us to pray as a fellowship. The Body of Christ is praying, and as an individual one acknowledges that his prayer is only a fragment of the whole prayer of the Church. He learns to pray the prayer of the Body of Christ. And that lifts him above his personal concerns and allows him to pray selflessly… The more deeply we grow into the psalms and the more often we pray them as our own, the more simple and rich will our prayer become.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) in Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community (San Francisco: HarperOne, 1954) 47-50.

When we pray the Psalms, we align our ways with God’s ways and our hearts with God’s heart. We welcome His care and join the fellowship of believers praying around the world. This lifts us beyond our personal concerns and positions us for generous living rooted in His promises.

God, teach me to pray by praying the Psalms. Amen.

Take time to read at least one Psalm today as a prayer. Journal about your experience. Tell at least one other person how it made you feel.

Fasting Day 20 of 40 | Fourth Thursday of Lent

“But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God, I did not act like that.” Nehemiah 5:15

In his effort to rebuild the walls and God’s people, Nehemiah had to set a different example than the gluttonous governors before him. For many of us, this passage rings relevant. We serve in places where people in authority abuse their power and privilege. What do we do?

In his Pastoral Rule, Gregory offers this answer. “The gluttonous are to be admonished, that in giving themselves to the enjoyment of dainties, they pierce not themselves through with the sword of lechery; and that they perceive how great loquacity, how great levity of mind, lie in wait for them through eating, lest while they softly serve the belly they become cruelly bound in the nooses of vice.”

Gregory the Great (c. 540-604) in The Book of Pastoral Rule (Popular Patristics Series; New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2007) p. 119.

We fast in Lent because our human tendency leans toward serving our belly. Pastors and people in authority or oversight do well to remind others that when we serve our belly we become “cruelly bound in the nooses of vice.” Our desires control and destroy us. It took place in the days of Nehemiah and still happens today. Don’t let it happen to you.

God, teach me to act different like Nehemiah. Amen.

Fasting tells our body that we will not be ruled by our desires. It builds discipline in us. Sit with the Holy Spirit. What areas of your life needs this discipline. Do games, social media, TV, or other desires control you?

Fasting Day 19 of 40 | Fourth Wednesday of Lent

“In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba.” 2 Kings 12:1

The biblical record of Joash tells us that good mentors spoke into his life, that he repaired God’s house, and that he reigned 40 years.

If we also find ourselves surrounded by disrepair, we do well to listen to Gregory of Nazianzus, who served as Archbishop of Constantinople and Doctor of the Church. “The next thing is to look to ourselves and polish our theological self to beauty like a statue. The first point to be considered is: – What is this great rivalry of speech and endless talking? What is this new disease of insatiability? Why have we tied our hands and armed our tongues? We do not praise either hospitality, or brotherly love, or conjugal affection, or virginity; nor do we admire liberality to the poor, or the chanting of Psalms, or nightlong vigils, or tears. We do not subdue the body by fasting or go forth to God by prayer; nor do we subject the worse to the better – I mean the dust to the spirit – as they would do who form a just judgment of our composite nature. We do not make our life a preparation for death, nor do we make ourselves masters of our passions.”

Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390) in Oration 27.7, trans. by Stephen Reynolds (Estate of Stephen Reynolds, 2011), p. 7.

We do Lent to polish ourselves and subdue our flesh. This positions us to rebuild God’s house where we serve and to write a new future!

God, polish me to rebuild Your house where I serve. Amen.

Journal on this: What do you want God to polish in your life? How is God’s house broken down where you serve?

Write a prayer of surrender to God. If God can use Joash, He might want to work through you.

Fasting Day 18 of 40 | Third Tuesday of Lent

“For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.” 1 Samuel 17:16

In the story of David and Goliath, we learn that Goliath taunted the troops of the Israelites morning and evening for forty days. This left them all gripped with fear. But when David visited the front lines and heard the giant, he responded in faith, this led to his historic victory.

Let’s think about fear today. It keeps us from doing the things God wants us to do. It shows up when we think about giving during Lent. In his classic work, Money Thoughts for God’s Stewards, Andrew Murray writes, “The world asks, what does a man own? Christ, how does he use it? The world thinks more about the money getting; Christ about the money giving. And when a man gives, the world still asks, what does he give? Christ asks, how does he give? The world looks at the money and its amount, Christ at the man and his motive.”

Andrew Murray (1828-1917) in Money Thoughts for God’s Stewards (Holistence Publications, 2024), p. 3.

Like the gibes of Goliath, the world bombards us daily during Lent with such messages about money. Don’t listen. Choose to give generously by faith and watch God show up and fear topple like the enemy.

God, teach me to live without fear and give by faith. Amen.

Talk to someone close to you about what you are learning about giving by faith as you go through Lent. Why do this? These talks can bring about change that lasts a lifetime.

The enemy tries to keep you isolated to grip you with fear and hinder your growth. Don’t let it happen to you. Respond courageously like David did.

Need inspiration? Money Thoughts for God’s Stewards by Andrew Murray freely here.