Devotional

What God Loves and Hates

The title of this devotion may give you pause and perhaps alarm.

We have been conditioned by modern ‘Christianity’ to speak only of God as a God of love.  God is absolutely Love and in fact God is the definition of Love:

“Whoever does not love, does not know God, because God is love.” (‭‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭8‬)‬‬

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’  (John 3:16)

But have you stopped lately to process that God hates sin?  That's right, hate.  Not dislike or ignore, but hates.

Isaiah 61:8, says: “For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing.”

If God hates sin, including ‘robbery and wrongdoing’, we should too.  We are called as Christ followers to love people and hate sin.  We often say this like a well-rehearsed mantra, but do we really apply it?

In recent weeks our attention has been drawn to the uncovering of robbery and wrongdoing of epic proportions in Minnesota and similar unravelling in other states.  This isn’t speculation but rather documented robbery that is under investigation at the highest levels of the US justice system.  Billions of dollars of tax funds have been stolen through daycare and other fraud, with some of the proceeds possibly funding terrorism abroad.  This is robbery which we should hate.

Yet I was reminded to pray for Minneapolis and specifically the Somalis there. I pondered whether there were even Somali Christian churches in Minneapolis. They are none public to be found online except mentions of fellowships that are secretive ‘for security and social‑pressure reasons.’  We send missionaries to Somalia yet here in America we hide the gospel. What a shame.  I had a vision of a revival (awakening) happening in Minnesota to turn many to Christ and I was prompted by Holy Spirit to pray for this.  God was reminding me to love justice, hate sin, and love people at the same time, as He does.

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” (Romans 12:9)

P.S.  After writing this devotion I learned that evangelist Sean Feucht is planning a ‘Riots to Revival’ event in Minneapolis on Feb 6th.  Please pray for him and for the revival of that city and state.

Financial Update

Precious Metals Commotion

On January 30th, the precious metals market experienced perhaps one of its most volatile days in decades. Silver retracted by 31%, its sharpest decline since 1980, while gold experienced a nearly 9% decline. 

Shortly before this, both precious metals were experiencing significant gains and had set all-time highs; silver achieved a 135% increase in price in 2025 alone, and gold itself wasn’t too far behind percentagewise. Needless to say, the intra-day action generated a lot of attention on a global scale.

The immediate trigger was President Trump's nomination of Kevin Walsh as the next Federal Reserve Chair, which eased concerns about monetary policy and strengthened the dollar. 

However, that wasn’t the only catalyst; the precious metals market had become overheated with both attention and new capital rushing in. Worries of inflation, geopolitical woes and, of course, the fear of missing out, all combined to create a tailwind of attention.

The open interest in silver futures surpassed levels not reached in well over a decade. When a metric like this is triggered, it usually signals that the asset has achieved massive speculation. With the reversal came the need for leveraged investors to sell as margin calls were also triggered, adding additional sell pressure.

Looking Ahead: What Investors Should Consider

The January volatility offers several practical lessons for anyone involved in precious metals markets. First, momentum-driven rallies can reverse just as quickly as they form. 

Leverage can be a good tool, but like all tools, it can either help us or hurt us. The traders who used margin to maximize their exposure during silver's run-up faced unnecessary downside risk when the market turned. 

Diversification remains crucial. For ages, the recommended rule of thumb by investment professionals was to allocate no more than 10% of one's entire portfolio capital towards precious metals. While the exact % is subject to the individual investor and their investment goals, we can still use the 10% rule as an “anchor” guideline to help guide us, and not just for our precious metals investments. 

Analysts are split on where precious metals head next. Bulls point to ongoing monetary uncertainty, the need for precious metals in consumer goods, and of course, having a “real store of value” asset. Bears counter that normalized monetary policy, reduced inflation expectations, and profit-taking after strong multi-year gains could keep a lid on prices.

Regardless, as believers, we should remain neutral in emotion and not let hype or even fear get the best of us.

Tech Update

AI and Jobs Update

Back in July last year we published the article AI and a Renaissance of Labor to describe the dramatic shift underway in the labor market due to AI and Automation.

Just last week, Amazon announced layoffs of 16K more employees in addition to 14K last October. While AI is not explicitly mentioned as the reason, it has been implied as a contributing factor. The Amazon CEO had made reference to this last year, as noted in this article: “As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today and more people doing other types of jobs.”  The cuts are focused on corporate roles (program managers, designers, engineers, applied scientists, etc.), not warehouse or delivery workers. Another confirmation that ‘blue collar’ jobs are on the increase as ‘white collar’ jobs decline.

Is your Job at Risk?

If you have a career that is behind a desk you should take note of these trends. A leading analyst predicts that AI will contribute to over 10 million lost jobs in the US alone by 2030 as noted in this report.  These include office administration, finance, marketing, sales, customer service, data analysts, programmers and much more.

What to Do?

Career development, a decade ago, may become a thing of the past in a few years. In the past, most workers could find a niche to work in and develop skills that advanced them over their career, usually through on-the-job training and education.   

As job functions get absorbed and morphed with technology, it’s vital to develop skills ‘outside the box’ so to speak.  The more apt you are to learning and adapting to new types of roles and environments, the better off you’ll be.  Also, always be working on or looking for something that is mentally challenging you.  If you find your work has become routine, then look out for advances in AI and automation to invade and perhaps displace it.

Most Importantly

The absolute most important thing you can do for your career is to seek God’s wisdom and direction, as we encourage you to do in every aspect of life. God wants to participate in your ‘work life’ if you let Him, just don’t check your faith at the office door.

His wisdom, which I like to refer to as ‘anointed intelligence’, will never be superseded by the artificial version.

Health Nuggets

Sabbath Rest and Living Longer

I recall watching a documentary on the ‘Blue Zones’ which examined 5 communities around the globe where people lived longer than average. One of these is Loma Linda, CA, where people routinely live up to about 10 years more than average. One reason Loma Linda is known for health and longevity is it’s a largely (30-50%) Seventh‑Day Adventist community that practices the Sabbath rest on a weekly basis.

God designed the Sabbath for man and showed us how to put it into practice in the first week of Creation. This was centuries before it was written in stone as the fourth commandment:

I’m currently reading through Charlie Kirk’s book titled “Stop, In the Name of God”, the central theme of which is the importance of a Sabbath rest. In it he unpacks not just the Biblical aspects, but details social, mental and scientific studies that validate the benefits and importance of scheduled weekly rest. It’s not only critical for healthy living, but in the case of Loma Linda residents, can prolong your earthly life.

Note: Health Nuggets are opinions and not medical advice.

Trivia Corner

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