Devotions

I had my yearly required Medicare physical a couple weeks ago. I love my doctor.  She is great and will tell it like it is, explain things, answer any question I might have, and help me to formulate ways of caring for myself apart from just prescribing more medicine. At this appointment, we reviewed everything and then she said something I shall never forget. “Don’t lose any more weight.”

I just stared at her. Huh? She then asked what was wrong. I told her that in my nearly 72 years, that was the first time any doctor had ever told me not to lose any weight! She laughed and said that since I’m “aging” (there’s that tell it like it is part of her), I need to maintain a small cushion of weight in case I get seriously sick.

The thing is I feel good at this lower weight, and a side benefit is that I’m looking good also.  I have more energy and can do a lot more.  Feel good. Look good. Do good.

Last Sunday we continued our study out of 2 Peter 1:3-8 … adding to our faith, goodness.  Unfortunately, we don’t really recognize true biblical goodness any more.  We dwell on feeling good, looking good and sometimes, even on doing good.  But God’s requirement is that we be good.  Scriptural goodness is moral goodness.

Peter uses a Greek word for goodness (arete) that describes essential, intrinsic goodness. It is what we are when no one is looking.  Where and how do we develop that kind of goodness?  More tomorrow!

I moved a small electric clock from the bedroom to the television stand in the living room. The clock had operated perfectly when it was on the bedroom night stand but was no longer needed there since I use my cell phone as an alarm now. Bob, however, wanted a clock in the living room. So, I unplugged in the bedroom and re-plugged in the living room.

At first, I thought I had set the time incorrectly, so I reset it. Then I thought maybe I still hadn’t set it correctly, so I reset it again. A few days later it was wrong once more.  Since being moved this silly clock keeps rushing ahead in time. I reset it last Saturday and in the meantime,  it has gained 1 ½ hours. Good grief, time moves fast enough without this clock robbing me of 1 ½ hours every few days!

It’s time to throw this time-keeper away and get one that counts the hours, minutes and seconds correctly.  It’s also time for something else, to understand the present time.  “And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” [Romans 13:11-12]

We would be foolish to not understand that time is running out. We are closer now to the coming of the LORD than any generation. Every moment we are one moment closer. And every moment is one that we will never have again. Keeping that in mind, church, we need to wake up!  We’ve been asleep much too long. We’ve grown drowsy and lethargic. We have allowed ourselves to be lulled into a stupor all the while time is moving on – it’s even racing on, and we must get ready.  It’s time for the Bride of Christ to prepare herself, to keep her lamps burning brightly.

The one sure thing about working in an office setting and handling boxes of papers and files that need to be shredded, is paper cuts.  Lots and lots of paper cuts.  By the of each week my hands are sore, with lots of little cuts. In addition, there is the constant irritation that comes from handling things like old paper stored in boxes.  My hands are also red and itchy.

Not much I can do about the red, itchy problem except wash often in hot water, then rinse in cold and apply lotion. I found that works okay. I have found a solution to the paper cuts though, “New Skin.” New Skin is one of the products of super glue made for things like small cuts and scrapes. When I get a paper cut, I apply New Skin. It stings like heck, but it closes the cut and keeps it closed allowing it to heal.

As I was applying my New Skin to a cut last week I remembered the verse from 1 Peter 4:8: “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” 

Love covers sins. We know that is especially true of the love Jesus displayed for us when He took our sins to the cross and received the punishment and condemnation we deserved. But love covers sins in other ways too. When I love someone, it’s like putting new skin on the wound caused by sin. It covers them, allowing time to heal from the inside out.

God gives us time to heal by the love displayed in our Savior and LORD from the wounds sin inflicted upon us …. We must also give time for the wounds of others to heal, and we can do that by loving them as Christ loves us.

As I wrote yesterday, we cannot let the current climate of hate, violence and fear overrule the commands of God to speak the truth of the LORD. As I also wrote, however, we must not respond in like manner.

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” [1 Peter 3:15-16]

I have always found Peter’s words in these verses to be challenging.  First, we are exhorted to always be ready, be prepared to respond to people who ask us why we can be hopeful when so many are not. That is especially challenging because you actually have to have the hope before people will ask you about it!  If you are as hopeless as they are, you won’t have to be ready for anything.

The second thing of note is that our response must be gentle and kind. It must be respectful. We live in a Democratic Republic. Our constitution grants people certain rights to live and worship in ways with which we may not always agree. Our job is to love people and through that love point them to Christ, who also loves them. Our job is not to condemn nor justify – when we do that we usurp God’s prerogative as Creator and Savior.

The last thing to note? It may be the most difficult of all. We must keep a clear conscience. We must have “good behavior in Christ.” Our behavior needs to be above reproach and when it’s not, there needs to be repentance.

Hate. Violence. Fear. There is one thing those three have in common. They have a way of spreading. The media has been all over the violence spawned by hatred. In the last couple months, I’ve seen people assaulted because they have on a hat or shirt or their car has a bumper sticker for a specific person or political party. The other day I watched video of women participating in a peaceful Pro-Life protest being attacked by those who disagreed with the protest.

The climate of hatred and violence is spreading and being touted by various leaders as a way of getting what is wanted. When hate and violence spread, fear also spreads. We lose the freedom of being able to express our views on life, politics, or God without the fear of reprisals. When we fear reprisals, we will often simply not speak.

The LORD, however, does not want us cowering in a corner somewhere, voluntarily mute because of our fear.  In fact, the LORD, commands us to speak, to tell others about His wonderful works. “Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.  Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.” [Ps 105:1-4]

One of the favorite sayings of Jesus was, “I tell you ….”  The Gospels are full of the things Jesus told about His Father, His own work, His Kingdom.

Beloved, we cannot let the current social climate command our response. We must obey the LORD rather than men.  But let’s remember that our response to hatred and violence cannot be in like manner. More on that tomorrow.

I love the story of Gideon … the one I’ve dubbed the “Who Me?” Mighty Warrior. When the Angel of the LORD came to Gideon and called him “mighty warrior” in Judges 6:11-12, Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress. What that means is that he was hiding. Threshing floors were open areas where the wheat could be beaten, allowing the heavier kernels to fall to the floor while the wind carried the chaff away. Winepresses were probably in cool hidden places, like caves. Gideon is hiding away from the those invading the land. God finds him anyway and calls him a mighty warrior.

The part I really love though is a few verses later. In verses 17-18, Gideon replies to the LORD’s calling to be God’s instrument to defeat the enemy. “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.” And the LORD said, “I will wait until you return.”

Gideon goes home and prepares a meal, a young goat and bread. Ever wonder how long that took? There were no freezers with meat ready, nor bakeries down the block. He’s got to catch the goat, kill the goat, skin the goat, cut up the goat and put the pieces in a basket and grab a pot with broth to cook. He’s got to get the flour and make unleavened bread and bake it. All the while he’s left the LORD waiting in the winepress for him to return.

I don’t know if God waited for an hour or four, but the LORD did wait. And when Gideon returned, the LORD accepted the sacrifice and consumed it with fire in an instant. That was Gideon’s sign.

What a gracious God we serve, He is willing to wait for us. Let’s not keep Him waiting too long while we are off finding our goats and baking our bread!

“The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.’  [Judges 6:11-12]

“Who me?” Now that’s probably not what Gideon said, but from the debate with the Angel of the LORD that follows, that’s pretty much the gist of the conversation.  Every time the Angel of the LORD said something, Gideon began to debate … usually beginning with the word, “but.”  [If you haven’t read the story of Gideon, you’ll find it in Judges 6-8.]

God eventually won and Gideon, after some testing that what he was hearing was coming from the LORD, did what the Lord said. He followed God’s instructions, tore down the altar to the vile false god, Baal, and defeated the Midianites with a handful of men using trumpets and torches.

“Who me?” That is often the way I respond to God. Can God really use an aging woman (72 in a couple months), a small church in a little-known community in a small state to change anything?

God seems to think He can. My response is to get on board with God’s thinking and move as the Spirit moves. I want to see our generation, our nation, turned to God in righteousness and truth.

For some people, music captivates soul and spirit. I am one of those people. I can listen to a good sermon and come away contemplating a lot of things. I can read a good book and do the same. But when I hear or sing a good song, I find my soul and spirit soaring with the words and music. That is why I love my worship walks, with my MP3 player playing the songs I love, praising and walking. That is what I miss the most when I work.  I get my steps in, surely, but I don’t get my worship.

We sang a song last Sunday during the service that touched my soul. “Draw Me Close” was written by Michael W. Smith.  The lyrics begin: “Draw me close to you, Never let me go, I lay it all down again, To hear you say that I’m your friend.”

And the chorus declares: “You’re all I want, You’re all I’ve ever needed, You’re all I want, Help me know you are near.”

As I sang, I was captivated by that line, “I lay it all down again.” I realized in that moment, that I often pick up what I’ve surrendered to the LORD. I go to the altar, I cast all my cares upon Him. Then I turn around the next day and pick them back up again. I draw close to the LORD, and then I move away. He continually calls me to draw near. He continually urges me to lay it all down again.  He knows that all I need is Him.

Oh, Lord, help me to lay it all down again. Help me to realize how near You are to me, how much a friend You are to me.  Amen.

As you read through your Bible (and you should do that once a year), you will notice that God reminds His people, especially when they begin to stray from Him or allow things in their lives that may cause them to fall or fail.  In the Old Testament, He continually sent prophets to remind them that 1) He had delivered them from slavery in Egypt; and, 2) He had brought them into the Promised Land. They, apparently, often forgot those things.

In the New Testament, the Apostles used the same approach. They reminded the Christians that 1) God had sent His Son, Jesus the Christ, to save them; and, 2) that salvation had a purpose, that they might live obediently and serve the Lord faithfully.

“This is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them.” [1 John 3:23-24]

What is our purpose as Christians? Is it simply to escape judgment? Is it to avoid hell? If that is all it is, we will go through this life unfulfilled. We might gain heaven, but we will not live up to all we are in Christ Jesus.  We will fail to realize how abundant this life can be. I want to be all I can be now … I want to be faithful and obedient to the One who saved me.

God calls me His child. I pray I can live worthy of that title. I pray that my life will honor Christ Jesus my Lord in every way, not just in eternity, but in the here and now.

One day Jesus and His disciples decided to leave Judea and return to Galilee. Jesus took them through Samaria because He had a supernatural “appointment” to meet a woman by a well.  Tired and weary, Jesus rested there while His disciples headed on down to the city to look for something to eat.  You all know the story from John 4. Jesus began a conversation with a woman, that alone was very unusual. The conversation turned from well-water to living water and Jesus tells her that He is the Messiah that all have been anticipating.

It is at this point that the disciples return and are shocked that Jesus is talking to a woman. When the woman leaves to tell the town what she has heard, the disciples urge Jesus to eat. But Jesus says to them “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

The disciples are thinking literally, that possibly someone else brought Jesus something to eat. But he clarifies things for them. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”

Finish. It means to complete, perfect, accomplish, in both English and Greek. Jesus’ greatest desire was to finish the salvation for which the His Father has sent Him. Paul expressed the same desire in Acts, “if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.” [20:24]

What is our greatest desire? Is it to finish well what God has given us to do?