Past Devotions

Some things never get old. A baby’s laugh. Spring flowers. Autumn trees. Fresh snow. Holding hands.

Some things never get old. No matter how many times I read Ephesians 2:8, no matter which translation I read, the marvels of that verse never get old.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” [NKJV]

I never tire of reading of God’s gift of grace. It never loses its wonder. We have been saved by God’s gift of grace. We do not merit salvation. We do not earn it. We were God’s enemies. And then God said, “here’s a gift for you, purchased with the life’s blood of my Precious Son. A gift of grace to become my child.”

During this season, my thoughts turn to the cross. There were many people around the cross, watching Jesus die. Some wept. Some reviled. God reminded me once to not be so sure I would have been among the weepers.

I know my sin. I know my shame. And now I know God’s gift of grace … I am a sinner saved by grace. How amazing is that!

Ever noticed how many books are written, how many songs are sung, how many stories are told about “love.” This country has an entire day devoted to “romantic love” (Valentine’s Day). There is a cable channel that is devoted to love movies (Hallmark). One of the angsts of life is finding someone to love who loves us back.

It’s been proven that babies thrive on love and suffer in its absence. And it’s not just babies who thrive on love. Ever spend time in a home for the elderly where there is only cold sterile assistance? I remember going to a convalescent home as part of a group that ministered with music, the Word, and lots of hugs … and the joy on the faces of those we ministered to was evident.

We need the touch of other people. We need to love and be loved by others in this life. But I venture to say that we need the love of God more than any other love.  ^“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation [atoning sacrifice] for our sins.” [1 John 4:10 NKJV]

“In this is love.” It is not my flawed, feeble love of God where the greatest love is found, it is His marvelous, awesome, unconditional, never ending, reckless love that sets the standard for love. He loved us when we were enemies. He loved us while we were shaking our fists and shouting “we will not have this God rule us!” He gave His most precious Son to die for us – to bring us back to Him.

“In this is [truly] love.”

Resurrection Sunday is a week away. I want to think about Christ Jesus in the days leading up to it, perhaps not in the way we usually think during this time of year, but instead about grace, and love and abundance. I want to begin with the description of Christ Jesus in Colossians 1, what may be the most profound and concentrated passage of doctrine about the Son of God in all of Scripture. (Read 1:13-20]

“For by him [Jesus] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” [vs 16-17 NIV]

Paul’s purpose for writing this letter was to refute the false doctrines that were beginning to invade the church, which acknowledged Jesus as a “prominent emissary” in salvation, but not the “preeminent author and finisher of salvation.”

Even in our modern-day churches, there are some who deny the deity of Jesus. You cannot deny Jesus’ deity and still have salvation because everything hinges on the truth that Jesus is divine, the second person of the Triune Godhead, fully God and fully man.

I may not understand how that is, but it stands true as the foundation of salvation. No man, no angel, no emissary, nothing apart from God Himself could save us. It doesn’t matter what else we may all have in common (faith, good works, love, etc), if we do not have the deity, the divine nature of Christ in common, then we have no common ground on which to stand.

One of my favorite books in the New Testament is Colossians, and my favorite chapter is Colossians 3. I love the beginning where it admonishes us to “seek those things which are above,” and the middle section which sets the character of our new nature in Christ Jesus. Part of that new nature is to sing “with grace in [our] hearts to the LORD.”

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” [Colossians 3:16 NKJV]

The NIV says we are to sing with “gratitude in [our] hearts,” and the NLT says we are to sing with “thankful hearts.”

The word there is Charis which we always say is the unmerited favor of God. But Strong’s says that charis [NT:5485] can also mean “especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude.”

It takes a heart filled with grace to sing with gratitude and thanksgiving. It takes a heart of grace to sing when we are in pain, or when circumstances seem to be against us. It certainly took grace for Paul and Silas to sing in that Philippian prison [Acts 16:22-25].

My “Valley of Vision” prayer this morning ended with “Let me never lose sight … of the exceeding wonder of grace.” Amen & Amen

When Israel was released to return to the Promised Land from Babylonian captivity to rebuild the temple, their enemies decided to have a go at them. They wanted to make them afraid to go on building the temple and even hired “counselors” to work again them to frustrate their plans. And it worked. They put down their axes and hammers and walked away from their mission. [Ezra 4:4-5]

 “Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. They hired counselors to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.” [NIV]

 Discouragement. Ugly word. Ugly concept. Here the word used is OT:7503: raphah (raw-faw’); meaning to be weak(ened).

The enemy is wily, he is still hiring all kinds of ‘discouragement counselors’ to try to stop the work of the people of God. We must be aware that discouragement can blindside us. We are walking or working and suddenly the unexpected happens … something we thought we were past, something we thought would never hinder us, something that takes our minds off God in the work and places them on the difficulty in the work, something that cause us to stop and move from triumph into fear.

It wasn’t until years later that a couple brave Jews picked up their axes and hammers again and began rebuilding, and only after they did so, did a letter come from the king with his approval and protection to rebuild.

I have been thinking about that heartbreaking declaration in Jeremiah 2:13: “For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me—the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!” [NLT]

I wrote about it in yesterday’s devotion, noting that Christians must cling to two values. One, is that we believe the Bible to be the true word of God no matter how unpopular that view is. Two, is that Jesus ministered and fellowshipped with sinners, and in the end, we are those sinners now saved by grace.

Too often, Christians think that because this country was founded on Christian principles, all its citizens think and act like Christians. Then they are surprised when the world acts not like a Christian but like the world. Why do we expect the world to act like the Church when it is often difficult to get the Church to act like the Church?

Jeremiah’s declaration was not calling out the world for two evil things … it was calling out “my people,” God’s people.

We must be so careful that we do not substitute our ways (cracked cisterns) for His Ways (fountain of living water.) We must hold to the True Word of God no matter how unpopular that view is in our society.

The subdivision where we live has irrigation water. The snow melts, fills the lakes and dams where it is funneled into canals that cross the Treasure Valley. Depending upon location, farmers and homes have access to this water to irrigate crops and yards. Our subdivision has irrigation water. It usually begins to flow in April and ends in October.

Every year my husband eagerly awaits the filling of those canals so that he can plant his garden and flowers and water his lawn. That water is a wonderful blessing to him.

Water in the Bible is symbolic of many things. It symbolizes life and growth both physically and spiritually. It also symbolizes the Word of God and highlights its life-giving power. That is why the declaration found in Jeremiah 2:13 is so heartbreaking. “For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me—the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!” [NLT]

Christians must always cling to two values. The first is that we believe the Bible to be the true word of God and no matter how unpopular that view is, we uphold it. Truth doesn’t change just because you don’t agree with it! The second is that Jesus ministered and fellowshipped with sinners, and in the end, we are those sinners now saved by grace.

The tension in our lives will be where those two values meet. To hold to the truth and love those who don’t is never easy. Yet that is absolutely necessary if we want to live like Jesus.

Have you thought about the desires of your heart? What are yours? Today, I would have to say the greatest desire of my heart is to see the LORD powerfully present in our midst. We have been praying at CFC Middleton that the City of Middleton would be won for Christ. We are waiting, and expecting, and continuing to pursue Him in prayer. I know He is going to reveal Himself to us, I just don’t know when or how it will happen.

How can I be certain? Because God has promised to give us the desires of our heart. Ps 37:3-4:  Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. [NKJV]

What does it mean that God will give us the desires of our hearts? Does it mean God gives us everything we want? Does it mean He will give us everything we pray for? Of course not. I’ve had a lot of strange desires in my lifetime, which had God given me would have made me miserable for years to come! No, God doesn’t give us everything we want.

He gives us the desires of our heart. What that means is that He placed His desires in our hearts so that they now become ours. How do I know the LORD will reveal Himself to us in what some have termed “Revival?” Because that is my greatest desire … and I know that desire was not conceived in my fallen nature, nor even in my saved one! It was birthed in the heart of God and transplanted in mine.

Since He placed that desire in me, I can trust Him and delight myself also in Him. And I can know for certain that He will fulfill that desire.

I have been writing daily devotions off and on (mostly on) since 1993. That’s a lot of words about our Lord. I’ve tried to look around me and see God’s moving in the daily part of life, as well as in the Word. I think over all those years and with all those words I have surely repeated myself—a lot! If you’ve been reading these devotions for very long, you can probably testify to that.

For me, my daily devotion is just that a daily, current thought about Christ Jesus, my Lord. It’s like daily bread, fresh, new, each morning. I sit with my laptop, I read Scriptures, I look at the world around me, and I think about Jesus.

Yesterday, I was reminded of God’s faithfulness to us … as seen in the flowers blooming all around me. Today I was reading what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, and I was overcome with wonder.

“It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us.”  [2 Cor 1:21-22 NLT]

God enables us to stand firm for Christ. God commissioned us (anointed us). God has placed the Holy Spirit in our hearts. God has promised (and guaranteed) an inheritance!

 I’ve probably said all that before. And I will probably say all that again. But today, right now, I am basking in all that as if it were the first time I’ve heard it.  It’s my daily devotion.