Author Archives: Dawn Voskuil

About Dawn Voskuil

Although Dawn Voskuil has a degree in Education, she has spent most of her adult life in lay ministry. She has taught Sunday School, facilitated Bible Studies, and spoken at youth gatherings. She has chaired a Women's Ministry program and has led a Moms In Prayer group for many years. She has opened her home to the work of the Lord. During those years, others have commented on her ability to see things often missed in Scripture and her God-given talent of "bringing the Bible to life." They have encouraged her to write down and share her thoughts. Thus, the purpose of this blog. Dawn lives in Northern IL with her husband. She has three grown children, one of whom is married, and two grandchildren. When she isn't writing or ministering, she enjoys spending time with family and friends and being out in nature.

Seemingly Random Acts of Kindness

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“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Matthew 25:31-32 ESV1

Read Matthew 25:31-46

This morning, as I was working from a hotel room, pondering how to best put in writing what is on my heart and mind, I glanced over and read the words on a small sign next to me on the desk. It detailed the hotel’s policy for changing towels and bed linens as it related to their commitment to positively impacting the environment. The notice contained a quote from an unknown influencer.

“Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”

I know the hotel included this quote as a motivation for their guests to join them in their commitment to reduce their carbon footprint but I couldn’t help but think about how the truth of that statement applies to us as Christians and how it connects to the passage of Scripture I wish to highlight today.

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The Signs of the Times

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As He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the End of the Age?” Matthew 24:3 ESV1

Read Matthew 24:1-31, Mark 13:1-27 & Luke 21:5-28

For as long as I have lived in this house, I have gotten a great deal of pleasure out of viewing the huge trees in my neighbor’s front yard. Those trees have blessed that house with shade for generations. And they have been a great joy to me every Autumn when their leaves have turned such vibrant reds, oranges, and golds. But this year is different. This Spring, my neighbor had those trees cut down. Why? Because what appeared so impressive from the outside was completely rotten in the middle. One strong windstorm and any one of those trees could have toppled and caused great damage to their home and harm to their very lives. Retaining them because of their beauty wasn’t worth the risk.

Thinking about those trees reminds me of something I recently studied in the Bible.

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An Occasion for Germination

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“For they all contributed out of their abundance but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on.” Luke 21:4 ESV1

Read Mark 12:41-44 & Luke 21:1-4

During my life, I have never lived more than twenty miles North or South of the Western half of the Wisconsin-Illinois state line. It is a land of bright, green grass and dark, rich soil. In the warmer months, this area looks like God spread a monochromatic, patchwork quilt, stitched in forest green and tied in barn red, over the rolling hills. It is a land meant for growing things. I live in the country and if I look out any of the windows in my house, I can see flourishing fields.

Last Fall, my husband purchased a roto-tiller to pull behind his tractor. I watched him work up four separate areas in our lawn to prepare them for planting grass. It was beautiful, the way that roto-tiller worked up the ground. It broke up the soil into pea-sized or smaller chunks, evened out the dirt, and made these little tracks to collect the seeds and the water. My husband sowed grass seed in each of those areas. And every day, I watered those sections, dreaming about how beautiful our lawn was going to look when Spring came.

When Spring arrived, three of those sections had green, grass shoots appearing. But the fourth area produced only weeds. Even though that fourth section was given the same treatment as the other three, the seed in that place, for whatever reason, didn’t germinate.

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Perplexing Questions

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“What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” Matthew 22:42a ESV1

Read Matthew 22:41-46, Mark 12:35-37 & Luke 20:41-44

One Monday morning, in Geography class, we were given a pop quiz. Each of us students was presented with a blank map of the United States and was asked to fill in the names of the states in the correct position. Some students panicked because they were unable to perform the task. But relief spread over these students when they were told that the activity had been only a pretest. The actual test would come on Friday. We were given the week to study with the warning to make the week count because anyone who did not receive a perfect grade on the final test would have to study and retake the test while everyone else was attending the Friday afternoon special assembly.

Since I could quickly identify all of the states on the pretest, I didn’t bother studying. I wasn’t worried about the consequence because I was confident I could easily ace the test. But, to my dismay, when the test day came, I could not for the life of me remember the name of the tiny triangular-shaped state just east of Maryland. Humiliated, I was forced to stay back from the anticipated gathering and retake the test.

My pride in thinking I knew all the answers for this particular test is what got me into trouble. I really did not know what I thought I knew. The Pharisees, a prominent religious group during Jesus’ time on Earth, thought they knew more about the coming Messiah than they really did. It was their pride in their knowledge of Scripture that caused them to have issues with Jesus, the very One they thought they were ready to welcome.

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Two, Yet One

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“On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:40 ESV1

Read Matthew 22:34-40 & Mark 12:28-34

Sometimes two or more items are grouped to make one new entity. A mixture combines different elements, kinds, or quantities to form a unique blend. A merger joins two or more businesses into a single enterprise. An alloy is a composition of two or more metals, or a metal with a nonmetal, making a new substance. This incorporation of two into one is not only found in the physical realm but in the relational and spiritual realms as well. One of the interactions between Jesus and the Pharisees is evidence of this.

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Say It Isn’t So!

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Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?” Mark 12:24 ESV1

Read Matthew 22:23-33, Mark 12:18-27 & Luke 20:27-40

It might be possible for any person to use the Bible to defend any position he/she may hold. For many points of view, one would have to ignore much of the Scriptures to accomplish such a task. But it is a very real possibility as well as a significant danger for any of us, even those who are devoted Christians, to take Scriptures out of context and attempt to bend them to our purposes.

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Faithful Rendering

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Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God, the things that are God’s.” Mark 12:17 ESV1

Read Matthew 22:15-22, Mark 12:13-17 & Luke 20:20-26

To faithfully render something is to accurately represent it. But one can faithfully render something without rendering faithfully at all. To explain this phenomenon, let’s turn to an account recorded in the synoptic Gospels.

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The Answer is Always “Yes!”

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“Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Mark 11:24 ESV1

Read Matthew 21:18-22 & Mark 11:12-14, 20-24

I have been praying since I was a wee, little girl. My relationship with God began with prayer. And over the years, my relationship with God has been sustained by prayer. In my five decades of almost constant prayer, I have had thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of prayers answered. But that doesn’t mean I have never been disappointed in my prayer life. What often baffles me is God’s almost immediate answers to many of my little, insignificant prayers, like helping me find my lost car keys, but in other bigger, more important pleas, like healing my loved one from cancer, He doesn’t seem to hear. This is frustrating especially when God promises over and over in His word that if we will but ask, His answer will be, “Yes.”2 Following is a passage where Jesus made such a claim.

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Holy House Cleaning

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 “Is it not written, ‘My House shall be called a House of Prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” Mark 11:17 ESV1

Read Matthew 21:12-16, Mark 11:15-19 & Luke 19:45-48

Ah! Spring! The birds are chirping. The sun is shining. The days are getting longer. After a long, cold winter, it is time for Spring Cleaning. Now is my chance to open up the windows and air out the house allowing the warm breeze with its earthy smell to penetrate every room. Now, I have the opportunity to move every piece of furniture and clean from behind and under all that has been hiding during the previously dark and dreary season. Now, I can finally wash the windows inside and out removing all the grime that has collected upon them over the last few months. I love that fresh, inviting feeling my home emanates after a thorough cleaning. I’m not the only one who realizes the need for this type of deep cleaning. Jesus was known to do a little Spring Cleaning Himself. One Spring day, just before Passover, …

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The Key to Unlocking the Mystery

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His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about Him and had been done to Him. John 12:16 ESV1

Read Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-40 & John 12:12-19

Have you heard of Escape Rooms? Escape Rooms work like this: people allow themselves to be locked into a room to play a game of solving a series of puzzles within a certain amount of time to accomplish the goal of finding the key that will unlock the door and release them from their self-imposed captivity. The first Escape Room was created in 2007 in Japan out of the desire to participate in a real-life adventure like that found in point-and-click video games. The idea quickly caught on; within the next ten years, Escape Rooms began popping up all over the world. Because of the widespread interest, entrepreneurs have made businesses out of providing Escape Room experiences. Escape Rooms may be a relatively new phenomenon but the desire to solve mysteries and discover solutions to seemingly impossible predicaments is an innate human longing. Indeed, I would say it was placed in us by God Himself.

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