Devotions

Woke up this morning and wondered what kind of day would it be? Would it be a day of struggle and pain, or would it be a good day of peace with energy to do everything that I want to do.

David woke up one morning only to discover his day would be a very difficult one. His son, Absolom, was leading a rebellion against him, attempting to usurp the throne. [2Samuel 15-20]

According to St. Augustine, David wrote Psalm 143 during the period of Absolom’s rebellion. As you read the song, you can hear David’s deepening depression as he pours out his heart to God. And yet, amid the struggle and turmoil you can hear David’s hope.

“Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you…. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.” [vs 8, 10 NLT]

As you read those words, do you see what David promised God despite the struggle?

He promised first to listen … “Let me hear ….”

Then he promised to trust … “I am trusting ….”

He promised to focus on God … “Show me where to walk ….”

And that He would surrender … “I give myself to you ….”

David promised to learn … “Teach me ….”

And he promised to follow God … “May your gracious Spirit lead me forward ….”

No matter what our days hold, peace or struggles, pain or strength, when we pour our hearts out to God, let us always remember to respond to God with promise!

Before we moved to this house in 2007, one of our neighbors planted an apple and a peach tree on the other side of our fence. Since we’ve been here, the trees have never been pruned. No matter who lives in the house next door, (and we are on our fifth owner), those trees have been neglected. Five years ago, neither bore fruit. The past two years there weren’t even blossoms. What a shame because the first year we lived in this house apples and peaches were plentiful.

Jesus spoke in John 15 about vines and branches and about the work of the Father in keeping those branches healthy and bearing fruit. “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit…. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me…. by this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” [NKJV]

A few things are evident from this passage in John 15. First, we aren’t going to bear any fruit at all unless we stay connected to the true vine, Jesus Christ. Abide is the Greek word, meno, and it simply means to stay put.  So, we stay put in Christ Jesus.

The second thing is that we are expected to bear fruit.  That’s what vine branches are for after all — to bear fruit.

And the third, if we are bearing fruit, God is going to prune away anything that hinders the bearing of much fruit. Pruning is good for us.

Father, I need a little pruning!  I want to bear much fruit.  Amen and Amen.

Hebrews 12:10-11: “God disciplines us for our good …. it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

John 8:31:  Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.”

Isn’t it interesting that discipline and disciple are from the same root word? Discipline comes from discipulus, the Latin word for pupil, which also provided the source of the word disciple.

Raymond Edmond wrote, “Without discipline we are not disciples, even though we profess His Name and pass for a follower of the lowly Nazarene. In an undisciplined age when liberty and license have replaced law and loyalty, there is greater need than ever before that we be disciplined to be His disciples.”¹

That quote was taken from a book published in 1948! If 1948 was an age when “liberty and license have replaced law and loyalty,” “How much more” is that so today.

It is apparent that God disciplines those He loves. He does it with the goal of making us more like Jesus, true disciples of His Beloved Son. He does it so that we might have a good witness and testimony. He does it so that righteousness and peace bear fruit in our lives.

Do we like it? Probably not. Should we like it? Yes, we should, because it produces the character of Christ in our lives. When we cry out, “I want to be more like Jesus!” we are inviting God to make us more like Jesus. And that often requires His discipline.

One final thought about discipline today … the faster we respond to it, the easier it is on us.

¹Taken from V. Raymond Edman’s book, The Disciplines of Life, Van Kampen Press, Wheaton, IL, 1948

There is amazing technology developed for those who are red-green colorblind. Red-green colorblindness is the most common form with about five percent of the population having this genetic condition. People who have this condition do see color, but not like those without the condition. One person described the leaves on the trees as always being dull brown and dead looking.

The technology is glasses that allow the vibrant colors to be seen. I was reminded of this when I watched another video of a young boy who was color-blind. He received a set of these new glasses while outside among the trees and plants and flowers. He was so overwhelmed with emotion that he cried when he saw what nature actually looked like and what he had been missing all along.

To him God’s creation was dull brown and dead looking, he could not see the beauty that surrounded him. A genetic condition had blinded him to color. Only when his vision was enhanced did he see the way God intended.

I thought about our spiritual vision, about those whose spiritual eyes have been blinded by the god of this world so that they cannot see God the way He intends. The world teaches that we have evolved as an accident of nature – so we have no purpose. Some teach there is no God, no heaven, no hell – so we have no future, no need to be accountable for any thought or action. It isn’t until we come to Christ that our ‘spiritual-genetic condition’ is enhanced, and we see life the way God intended, full of purpose and having a glorious future.

2 Corinthians 4:6:  For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. [NKJV]

John 14:19-21: “Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.” [NLT]

God is doing such a work of love in my heart. It is a work that I am having a hard time explaining. That says something since I live by words. I bring messages made up of words, I write with words. My greatest desire is that my words speak with the power of the Holy Spirit to change people’s hearts.

So why am I having such a hard time explaining God’s love and His work of love in my heart? I think it is because God’s love is an experience, a deep experience, and an individual one. Communicating truth, right doctrine, encouragement, comfort, even conviction is easy. Communicating an experience of love is not. It leaves me tongue-tied, word-deprived. Nothing I say using words can truly communicate what I am experiencing.

Jesus promised that He would reveal Himself by His love. “I will love him and reveal myself to each of them.”

As I sit here, computer on my lap, staring at this screen as it waits for me to add my words, all I really want to do is lean my head back on my Savior’s breast, quiet my soul, and drink in His love. I want Him to reveal Himself to me in greater and greater measure.

So, I pray for you today, as you read these words¸ that you also experience the Love of God in greater and greater measure. Lean your head back, quiet your soul and drink in His love.

“Could we with ink the ocean fill / And were the skies of parchment made; / Were every stalk on earth a quill, / And every man a scribe by trade; / To write the love of God above / Would drain the ocean dry; / Nor could the scroll contain the whole, / Though stretched from sky to sky.”

That is the third stanza of the song, “The Love of God” by Frederick M. Lehman. Those words were found penciled on the wall in the room of an inmate in an insane asylum when he died, and it was thought that in a moment of lucidity, he had composed them. Lehman wrote later that those words were actually written by a Jewish songwriter nearly 1000 years before. The inmate may have simply remembered them and penciled them on his wall. Either way, they could not be truer words.

When Solomon’s temple was completed in 2 Chronicles 5, Solomon gathered the elders, priests, and Levites together to bring the Ark, the Tent of Meeting and all the sacred furnishings to install them in the new temple. They made many sacrifices along the route. At the temple site were the singers and the musicians who joined in unison to praise the LORD. Their song?  “He is good, His love endures forever.” 

Simple song. Following their song, God’s glory filled the temple in the form of a heavy cloud.  

We are now the temple of the Living God. His spirit fills our temple, but our song is still the same song.  “He is good, His love endures forever.”   

While Solomon’s Temple was eventually destroyed, and the glory of the Lord departed, we have the promise that nothing … absolutely nothing … will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  For all eternity, our song will be “He is good, His love endures forever!”

Romans 8:38-39:  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. [NIV]

Titus 3:3-5:  Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other.  But—When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. [NLT]

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about God’s love. I was raised in a denomination that didn’t preach much on the love of God. I was always afraid I wouldn’t quite live up to God’s requirements and would have to spend time suffering in that holding place, Purgatory. When I left that church and entered a Pentecostal Evangelical one, I carried that fear of not measuring up with me, even though I now knew that there was no such place as Purgatory.

However, it was not until I found Pastor Jim at the Loomis Assembly of God that I began to hear about the love of God. Jim preached that God’s love was ours—not because we merited it—but because of His great grace and mercy. In fact, we could not merit His love, it was God’s gift.  As I listened, my thinking slowly changed.

More importantly, I began to experience God’s love. As God’s love permeated my mind and heart, I changed. The fear that I would not live up to God’s requirements disappeared. The fear that God was always mad at me and looking for opportunities to punish me vanished. I stopped hating myself and began praising God, all the while knowing that I was—AM—unworthy to receive such love.

To live in the love of God, and to teach others about God’s love and grace, became a passion. Pastor Jim has gone to his eternal reward, but as long as I can, I will proclaim what he taught me … God’s love is ours, not because we merit it, but because of His love, great grace, and abundant mercy.

Father, thank you for Your life-changing love. Thank you for Your great grace. Thank you for Your abundant mercy. Thank you that Your great love has driven my fears far from me.  Amen.

When King Nahash of the Ammonites died, David sent ambassadors to his son to show sympathy. He did it because as he said, “Nahash was always loyal to me.”

The ambassadors were rebuffed and shamed, which angered David. You’ll find the story in 2Samuel 10.

The Ammonites, realizing they had angered David, hired Aramean warriors to help them. Together, they drew up battle lines to fight David. Joab, leader of David’s army realized that he had two fronts for the battle. He divided his soldiers and sent his brother Abishai to fight the Ammonites on one front (entrance of the city gates), while he took other soldiers to fight the Arameans on the second front (in the open fields).

Joab’s instructions to his brother Abishai contain an important lesson. “’If the Arameans are too strong for me, then come over and help me,’ Joab told his brother. ‘And if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will come and help you. Be courageous! Let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. May the Lord’s will be done.’” [2Samuel 10:11-12]

We need each other. The enemy is on the prowl knowing that his time is short. He is not shy and comes at people from all directions. In Isaiah 52 God promised Israel that He would go before them and be their rear guard. That promise is true for His children today.

Still, we need each other. When we are battling the enemy, we need our brothers and sisters to join us in the battle. We need to hear someone promise us … If the enemy is too strong for you, I will come and help you.