Past Devotions

Eleven hours of driving last Thursday from Boise to Modesto. Friday morning was Grandparent’s Day at school for our youngest grandson. Then more than three hours driving up to South Lake Tahoe on Friday afternoon for a night football game, followed with three hours returning to Modesto after the game. We got back to our hotel around 1:30 AM. Saturday, we headed out for the 10-year old’s football game (and what a great game that was!). Because we had so much crammed into just a couple days, we decided to do the return trip in two stages, Modesto to Reno, then Reno to home.

We thought we got a good deal on a “deluxe suite” at one of the well-known hotels in downtown Reno. That “deluxe suite” was anything but. The carpeting was stained, dirty, and frayed. The furniture was nicked and outdated and dirty. Not only was our room disappointing, the entire facility was dirty.

We left our hotel to go to another where we knew there was a nice restaurant, not too expensive, but with good food – and clean! We had to walk a couple blocks to get there, right through the heart of downtown Reno, literally under the “Biggest Little City in the World” sign for which Reno is famous. What a heartbreaking walk.

The street was littered with the hopeless. People were begging, holding signs, selling junk. The streets were filthy, garbage was everywhere. There were signs on storefronts advertising things I don’t even want to think about, let alone see. For maybe the first time, I understood how Lot felt.

I’ve never had much respect for Lot, Abraham’s nephew, but as I walked around I remember what was written about him in 2 Peter 2:7-8: “Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented [vexed] in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard).”

Sin is ugly. It is destructive. It shatters lives and families. It produces addictions, crime, hopelessness, death. It should “vex” us as it vexed Lot. It should make us weep and cry and do everything in our power to bring others to the Sinless One who died for our sins. There is no hope for sin apart from Christ Jesus our Savior. He alone can remove sin and sin’s stains. Praise His Wonderful Name.

I have enjoyed watching football since I was a freshman in high school – that was 1960, nearly six decades ago! So, this past trip to California to visit family not only included Grandparent’s Day for our 10-year old grandson, but it also included a football game for him and one for his older brother—a high school varsity game that required a 3 ½ hour trip into the mountains. When we arrived that night, it was cold, damp, bone-chilling windy cold.

That was the good part. What followed was anything but good. In six decades of football, this was one of the worst officiated games I have witnessed. The officials called fouls that weren’t there and missed ones that were. They got penalties wrong, moved chains when they should not have, and lost control of the game mid-way through the second quarter. That was evidenced by the fact that the third quarter (15 minutes of playing time) took more than an hour.

The officials threw flags constantly and then stood around and talked about them – all the while visitors who had driven more than three hours to witness this fiasco were turning into popsicles in the stands. I can honestly say that this was anything but a good game.

And that is perhaps the most telling statement of all. It was the one job these officials had – to make this a good game for everyone. They were supposed to follow the rules, hand down justice (penalties) when and where earned and be impartial. They failed to do that, but they did remind me of something we recently studied at The Way Assembly – the Justice of God. “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face.” [Psalm 89:14 NKJV]

Thankfully, our God is just. Our God is righteous. Our God is good. The rules (God’s moral law) don’t change according to any whim, nor any political or social climate. It is God’s job to set the rules for His creation, and to mete out justice when and where earned. It is because God is just that God is also good. If he were not just, He would not be good. He’d be like those officials who were anything but good last Friday.

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” [John 14:26 KJV]

That’s a promise of Jesus. Some of the other translations replace “Comforter” with “Helper,” or “Counsellor.” The Greek is parakletos and means an intercessor, consoler, advocate, or comforter.

I think I like the translation “Comforter” the best. So often I need comfort. I need to feel the loving arms of God around me and know that I am protected, secure, and loved in His care.

We walk in a dark, often evil world. It is not always a safe or delightful place to be. Loss often accompanies our walk here. Loss of loved ones, relationships, financial security, health … the list of losses is endless and personal to each one of us. Sometimes it is difficult to simply get out of bed in the morning knowing what the day is going to bring.

“But the Comforter .…” God’s Spirit is always with us. He never leaves. Never departs or ignores or neglects. And I know that it is especially during those difficult times that I need Him most to be “my Comforter.”

I need Him to teach me and remind me of the words of my Savior, Christ Jesus. Words that say that I have not just a present with Him here on earth, but a future where every tear and pain and distress and grief will be wiped away.

Oh, yes, how I love that word “Comforter.”

Halloween is a week away. Thanksgiving one more month. Christmas about a month after that. I guess everyone has already bought what they want for Halloween, and except for some candy displays and a few meager children’s costumes left on the shelves, Christmas decorations have taken over. Christmas. Christmas arrives 62 days from today. The crazy season has begun.

What was on my mind this morning, however, wasn’t Christmas. It was the cross. “And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him.” [John 19:17-18 NKJV]

Almighty God. The Great I AM. Yeshua. The Son of God. The Sinless One. Bearing the weight of His cross. Bearing the weight of our cross. Went out to a place. There they crucified Him.

There we crucified Him. Because it was for us that He went. For all of us. For each one of us He went. And because He went, we can come.

We all come to the same place. We all come in the same way. In surrender and sorrow. None of us stands in front of the cross. None of us have more to bring than others. None of us is worthy to be there.

We come on our knees. We come with heads bowed. We come with hearts broken. We come knowing we have nothing to bring. Nothing to boast about. Nothing to offer.

And He looks down from that cross. Down from the Place of a Skull. Down from Golgotha. And He says, “Welcome.”

Oh, sweet Jesus, He says, “Welcome”

Faith. The Bible speaks a great deal about faith, about saving faith, about the Gift of Faith resident in the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the faith we are most familiar with is that day-to-day faith we exercise as Christians. Jude calls it our “most holy faith.”

“Dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.” [Jude 20-21]

This is faith that grows. It is supposed to become stronger and grow bigger, especially as we see God working in our lives through every trial, tribulation, problem and test. As we experience the love of the Father, as we see every promise a “yes” in Christ Jesus, our faith becomes solid and sure.

Jude reminds us that part of that build comes when we pray in the Holy Spirit. That means praying according to the direction and desires of the Holy Spirit as He will always lead us higher and deeper into Christ Jesus.

We are also to “keep [ourselves] in God’s love.” I found that command quite interesting. That word for “keep” means to watch and guard against loss or injury by keeping your eyes upon something.

I know that our Father God who called us is able to secure us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. I also know that we can lose our perception of the Presence of God in our life. We can flounder around in our doubts and denials. We can let our emotions drive us so that we begin to focus on the wrong things instead of keeping our vision solidly on our Father’s love.

God has His part in “keeping” us. We also have a part … and that is to “keep” our vision upon Him and Him only.

Last week Bob went hunting for a few days with a friend. (Turned out fewer than anticipated as the water pipes in the RV froze. A couple other things froze also (including Bob) so they returned early, without a deer. In the meantime, while they were suffering up there in the mountains, I was home really enjoying my time alone.

On Thursday, I had absolutely nothing planned. I was not going out, except for a worship walk, and no one was coming over. I planned on a day of reading, writing, praying and praising. The morning started as usually, time alone with God. Then I showered and dressed and spent the next few hours doing exactly what I planned. After lunch I went for a walk.

By late afternoon I decided to turn on the television. I noticed that the volume was a bit lower than normal, so I turned it up, and up, and up, until I realized I was hearing sound in my left ear but not much in my right one. Wow, did the battery go out in my right hearing aid while I was walking? Maybe the noise of the wind as I walked masked the warning. So, I took it off to replace the battery only to discover there was no battery. It had fallen out in the case in the morning and I never noticed. I was without power that entire day.

Even though I wore that hearing device all day I wasn’t getting any help hearing on that side. And, since I wasn’t talking with anyone, I never noticed until I turned on the television. Funny how you can be disconnected from the power source and never notice.

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” [Acts 1:8]

Maybe we should make sure every day we’re connected to our spiritual power source!

Last week, many Northern Californians (some of our friends included) woke up with no power. A total of 800,000 customers were expected to be affected. The utility company, in the face of a strong wind event that could trigger wildfires, decided to simply shut the power off to those in threatened areas. It didn’t want a repeat of the recent years where fires ignited by defective electric power and distribution lines, conductors and the failure of power poles caused massive devastation and loss of many lives.

800,000 customers, several million people, without power because it was intentionally shutoff by the largest power company in the nation. I guess it thought that it was easier to control the “symptoms” than to fix the “source” of the problem … defective distribution lines, conductors and aging power poles, etc.

I know we need to take care of “symptoms” as they arise, but that does nothing for alleviating the “source” of the problems. Unfortunately, man is very good at focusing on “symptoms,” rather than “sources.” Not only do we do that with the problems of this world, we do that with the problems of our souls.

God reminded Jeremiah that the heart of man is “deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” [17:9]

God promised Ezekiel that He would remove hearts of stone and replace them with “hearts of flesh.” [11:19]

Jesus declared that the way to the Father to receive that new (tender) heart is through Him alone. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” [John 14:6]

This process of redeeming the heart, of going to the source of our ills, is all of God through His wonderful grace. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.” [Eph 2:8-10]

Maybe power companies can simply deal with symptoms, but man’s inner problems must be dealt with at the source – his very own heart. And only God’s grace can do that.

Oh Joy! I am being very purposeful in my avoidance of Halloween this year, skipping right over it as if it doesn’t exist and heading straight to Thanksgiving. (I even have a “thanksgiving” table set up in the church.) Each time I walk past a home decorated for Halloween I have been praising aloud for something God has done for me; doing the same thing in the stores (but with a little less volume). I really thought I had it covered.

Thursday morning when I awoke, I peeked out my living room window. It was still dark outside at 5 AM, but what should I see but that my neighbor across the street, directly across the street, decorated their home for Halloween. There are ghostly figures dangling from their tree along with other such “treats” scattered about. Oh Joy!

One of my favorite pastimes is to open my front curtains and my front door and allow the fall and winter sun to come through the large window and glass storm door to warm the house. Now when I do that, my first vision is my neighbor’s newly decorated “Halloween” house.

The devil thinks he’s so smart, doesn’t he? He’s put his ugly nose right in my face. What he doesn’t realize is that now I don’t even have to leave my house and walk around the neighborhood to be reminded to praise God for all the good He’s done for me. I just need to sit in my chair, lift my head to look out the window and right there is my reminder to praise God’s goodness and light and love and life and beauty.

“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-the fruit of lips that confess his name.” [Hebrews 13:15]

Oh, what God has done! He has taken rebels and made them children. He has taken the fallen and raised us up in Christ!

Our current Bible Study at The Way is Paul’s Prison Epistles. We began with Ephesians. Last Wednesday night we studied Ephesians 2:1-10. Paul describes us as dead, dead in our transgressions (sins of commission) and sins (sins of omission). He said we used to follow the ways of the world and the cravings of our own fallen nature … influenced by the ruler of the kingdom of darkness. As such we were deserving of nothing more than God’s wrath meted out to us in His justice.

“But God ….” Oh, what God has done! “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” [Eph 2:4-6]

Oh, what God has done! He has done for us exactly what He did for Christ Jesus in His Resurrection (made Him alive), Ascension (raised Him up) and Exaltation (seated Him at the Right Hand of the Father).

Now we too are made alive in Christ. We are raised up with Christ. We are seated in Him and with Him in the heavenly realms. Oh, what God has done!

If you have nothing in your life for which to be thankful right now … if you are enduring pain, trouble, hurts, anxieties, confusion or defeat … remember this! Oh, what God has done! You are alive. You are raised up. You are seated at this very moment in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, Savior, Lord, and King. Oh, what God has done!