Past Devotions

Went to the doctor last Wednesday as a follow-up for an urgent care visit a month ago about my neck. The initial diagnosis was a muscle strain. Was given a treatment protocol and told to see my regular physician if it didn’t improve. Well, it did improve somewhat (the muscle strain seemed to lessen), but I was still having some discomfort.

As I talked with my doctor, she said I had probably strained something, slept wrong, etc., but she’d do a baseline x-ray so that if I ever did need an MRI, insurance would be more likely to cover it. We discussed some other issues and then she sent me down the hall for the x-ray.

I wasn’t back in the exam room for very long when she came in wide-eyed and with half a smile. Her first words were, “how are you even holding up your head?!”

Apparently, I have severely degenerative discs in my neck, and even have bone fragments that have broken off and are irritating the surrounding muscles. She said, “I’ve never seen anything like this!” Well that made me feel good.

I left the doctor’s office with that diagnosis and a second possible one called polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) – neither of which I expected.

Life does throw you a curve on occasion. At the same time, I left that office the same way I went in, a child of God greatly loved by my Father. None of this took God by surprise. He’s not up in the heavenlies wiping His brow saying, “Boy, I didn’t see that coming!” or wondering “now what am I going to do?”

This diagnosis did not change even one iota of the truth found in Ps 23:6: “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” Thank you Father.

Wow, the last day of September. Boy, did that “ber” month fly by fast. I love the “ber” months (September, October, November, December) better than all the other months. (If you are like me, you just ran through the rest of the months checking to make sure there are no others!)

Autumn is here. Football is back. The dog days of summer are behind us. Trees will be turning soon, some have already and the smell of fallen leaves is in the air again. From now through December is my very favorite time of the year. Even more so this year since I’m skipping over Halloween and going straight to Thanksgiving.

As I walked once again by a display of Halloween in the local store, I praised and thanked God for all He is. My heart is filled with more joy than I thought possible.

Studying for yesterday’s message, I was reminded that we can’t follow Christ only during the good times and call ourselves the church. Being the church means we remain faithful to Him even during those times that involve suffering. No matter what life hands us … even when things are bad … God is still good.

It is God’s goodness that I am focusing on today. It is His goodness for which I am thankful and praising Him. We are probably familiar with, “God is good. All the time. All the time. God is good.” But do we really believe that? Do we act like we believe it? Or are our moods governed by life, rather than by God’s goodness. David wrote in Psalm 31: “How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you.” [v19]

Doesn’t that make you want to sing. God’s goodness is stored up for us – just waiting there for us to make a withdrawal!

After leaving the library on Monday and my encounter with the “lady of joy,” I decided to stop at Dutch Bros for a coffee. I usually stop for coffee once a week on Sunday after church, but I wasn’t feeling very well that day and just wanted to get home and put my feet up.

As I drove in, a young woman, maybe 18-20 years old ran up to my window. I told her I wanted a “Medium Nitro Cold Brew, iced, straight up.”

“Straight up” means nothing added, just plain strong black coffee. The server laughed and said, “you are a hard-core coffee drinker.” The rest of the conversation went like this:

Me: Yes, I am, drinking coffee strong and straight up since I was 13. (Almost six decades now)

Her: So, what are you doing today?

Me: Nothing much, it’s my day off.

Her: What do you do when it’s not your day off?

Me: I pastor a church in Middleton.

Her: Oh wow, I live in Middleton. Which church?

Me: The Way, on Hawthorne down the block from the Post Office.

Her: The log cabin! Is that a “regular” Christian Church?

Me: Yep, a regular Pentecostal Christian Church. I like my Christianity the way I like my coffee–strong and straight up!

She laughed and said that I made her day.

As I left I thought—I really do like my Christianity as I like my coffee, strong, and straight out of the Bible, with nothing mixed in!

I had a few errands to run last Monday. One was to return a library book and pick up two new ones. As I was walking out of the library with my books, I met a lovely lady coming in. She was probably in her 50’s, and she was almost skipping. As she drew close, she smiled and said, “I am so blessed. God is so good to me!”

I smiled back and said, “Yes, He is good to us. He loves us.”

To which, she replied, “He does love us.” Then she laughed and said, “and most of the time all we do is get in His way!”

She waved and turned back, continuing her joy-filled skip into the library. I smiled and turned towards my car; my heart surprisingly more lighthearted than when I went in. As I got in my car, I remembered a verse that I used to include with my signature on my work emails. It’s a verse I’ve tried to incorporate in every part of my life. (When I retired from St. Luke’s, a friend had this verse inscribed on a beautiful silver bookmark, which I cherish.)

“A merry heart does good, like medicine.” There is also a second half to that verse, “but a broken spirit dries the bones.” [Prov 17:22 NKJV]

Throughout life I have found that if we keep our hearts joyful before Him, we are healthy, even if our bodies are not. Joy in the LORD gives us the ability to handle what comes our way, whether good or difficult. But if we allow the struggles of life to drive out the joy, we will be unhealthy, even if our bodies are fit.

When joy disappears, the enemy of our soul builds a stronghold in our life of negativism and dryness. The opposite of the Joy of the LORD is not sadness, it is weakness and defeat.

One of my favorite chapters in the NT is Romans 12. After all the deep theology of the previous chapters, Paul gets in our face right from the beginning … “offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.” [vs 1]

Then he goes on to show us exactly how to do that. I was struck by verse 13 this morning. “Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”

I had been reading the story of Jasmine, the greyhound who was rescued from a life of neglect and abuse and taken to a British wildlife sanctuary. Jasmine was an amazing animal example of Paul’s words to us. She was not only a rescue, she turned to providing love to many of the other rescues that came into the sanctuary. She practiced hospitality. You can read her story at http://www.nuneatonwildlife.co.uk/jasmine/

Each one of us is a rescue. We have been rescued from the realm of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of Light – the Kingdom of God’s Dear Son. We have been adopted as sons and daughters into God’s family. Now it is our turn to welcome other rescues, those who are in need, those who are lonely, or hopeless, or different.

 When people come into our churches, they should be met with hospitality – our love, our welcome, a hug, a smile. Often people are unsure of how they will be treated, whether they will “fit in” or even if their presence will be noticed or received. As Believers, let’s be aware of those who come to us in need and practice good, honest, welcoming hospitality within our churches.

Jesus welcomed us. Now it is our turn to give that welcome to others.

Remember that beautiful love story of Isaac and Rebekah from Genesis 24 that I wrote about yesterday. It started out so good, but then the “happily ever after part” got a bit skewed. That’s because these were real people, not fairy tale or romance novel characters.

The troubles really began after Isaac prayed for Rebekah. She was unable to conceive initially, but after Isaac’s prayers for his wife, she became pregnant with twins. They jostled in her womb and drove her to consult the LORD about her condition, “if everything is all right God, why am I thus?” [25:22]

God granted Rebekah’s request and told her why. The LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, the older will serve the younger.” [Gen 25:23]

That was so true. Over the next few chapters in Genesis, those twins, Jacob (who would be renamed Israel) and Esau caused their parents a lot of trouble. They fought and schemed and tried to outdo each other. They even got mom and dad involved in their squabbles. (To this day, their descendants are still squabbling.) Eventually Jacob and Esau achieved a measure of peace between them and found that living far away from each other served them well.

When I read the story of Isaac and Rebekah and their offspring, I often wonder if there were times when Isaac regretted asking God for children. Had it been me, I just might have!

And I also remember that the people and great heroes in the Bible were just that, real people. Not made up fairy tales, super heroes or characters in a novel. They were people who had struggles in everyday life just as we have. God walked was them through each one. That gives me hope.

I like love stories. I’m not too big on things like romance novels, but I like a good, honest, love story about real people with all their foibles and quirks. Having been married for nearly 53 years, I’m not much into “and they lived happily ever after.” I figured out that was a fairy tale about three months into it. But a good story about real people with problems to overcome is something that will win my heart. One such is the story of Isaac and Rebekah in Genesis.

Abraham sought a wife for his son by sending his top servant to his relatives in the city of Nahor. There, through divine “coincidence” the servant found Rebekah and brought her back to wed Isaac. You can read the story in Genesis 24. I love the final verse in that chapter: “And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” [v67 KJV]

Isn’t that a beautiful story? And had it ended there we might add “and they lived happily ever after.” But we’d be wrong.

Initially Rebekah was barren until Isaac sought the LORD for his wife and she conceived. Twins. Then the trouble started. “The children struggled together within her; and she said, ‘If it be so, why am I thus?’ And she went to inquire of the LORD.” [Gen 25:22 KJV]

I can never get past that verse without chuckling. “Why am I thus?” is one of those verses that so often speaks to our lives, even our spiritual lives. We’ve been adopted into the family of God, made part of the bride of Christ. We’ve been given new life … so why do we still struggle … why isn’t it “happily ever after” instead of “why am I thus?”

I know that our struggles work for us a weight of glory we would not have without them. I know the times in my life when I struggled brought great spiritual growth. And I know that there are still times, even after all these decades when I must run to inquire of the LORD and ask, “Why am I thus? What’s going on God?” Bless His Holy Name, sometimes He tells me why, sometimes He doesn’t, but either way, He walks with me through it all.

I saw a meme on FB the other day that said something like that, “The Bible is not granola mix, you can’t pick out only the pieces you like.”

For those of you who are suddenly wondering what a meme is, its contemporary definition is “a humorous image, video, piece or text, etc., that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.”

Memes are everywhere, and I must admit that while some are humorous, I am still not sure I like them. They often attempt to define complex issues with few words. I think they have trivialized and shallowed the way in which we think. We no longer take the time or effort to read long passages or articles that investigate issues to help us form legitimate positions. They lead us to think that all we need for understanding is a cute saying or “piece of text.”

My next thought is a question … is that the way we treat the Word of God? Do we find cute little Scripture verses that we can pull out and turn into a meme and then think that we know what God is saying? Paul was quite clear to Timothy that it was going to take more than memes to handle the Word of God correctly. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” [2 Timothy 2:15 NKJV]

The KJV translates it this way, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God ….”

Study. Be diligent. Rightly dividing the Word of Truth. There is an implied work ethic in those words. We are to spend time in the Word not just reading, or searching for memes to post, we are to study diligently. That means picking up reference books alongside our Bibles, reading things in context, understanding original word meanings, and seeing what great commentators down through the centuries have said about those passages.

Let’s not treat the Word of God like a FB post, let’s dig into it and discover all it holds for us so that we need not be ashamed before our God.

No doubt about it, I’m a reader. I love reading. I remember as a young child sitting at the kitchen table reading the cereal boxes before school. Since I’ve retired, I have re-discovered the local library. Our city library isn’t large as libraries go, but it is part of a system. As such, I can go on-line, find the book I want and submit a request. If it isn’t housed locally, it will be shipped out to my library and I can pick it up there when it arrives.

I was reading a library book the other day and discovered that someone had taken a pen to the book and “corrected” the language of some of the characters in it. I thought who has the audacity to do that?

Seeing those corrections, however, took me back to my college days and English class. The professor abhorred “run on” sentences and there were always scribbled corrections on papers that contained them. I wonder what she would have done with the Apostle Paul’s writings.

If you have your Bible handy, turn to Ephesians 1 and read verses 3-14. In the original language that is one long run-on sentence. And a most marvelous “sentence” it is. There are no breaks in that sentence. It is as if Paul got started thinking about our wonderful relationship to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and all the blessings that are ours, and couldn’t stop.

As you read, dwell on some of his words … blessed/blessings, adopted, pleasure, praise, glorious grace, redemption, forgiveness, riches, lavished, love, hope, truth …. What a list. I think Paul was writing from the depth of his heart and it just poured out as he tried to convey all that God had done for him … and for us.

If you can, read it a couple times. Get in the middle of Paul’s stream of thought and let it carry you straight into the heavenlies and deposit you at the feet of our LORD.

Got a mountain in your life that never seems to move? One that always seems to accompany you wherever you go? Maybe it’s an emotional mountain, one such as anger, pride, jealousy, lust, negativism, pessimism, anxiety, bitterness, apathy, entitlement, or greed. Maybe your mountain is more tangible such as drugs, pornography or materialism.

These mountains are strongholds, fortresses that the enemy builds to try to secure his rule over us. Paul promised us in 2Corinthians 10:4 that God gives us weapons to combat these strongholds. We can use these weapons to “tear down our strongholds.”

Zechariah reminded us that we can’t do it in our own power, it is not by earthly might, nor by self-power, but by the Spirit of God that mountains in our lives will be become level ground. When the stronghold is destroyed, God will bring out a finishing stone, a capstone. God will bring out that stone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” [Zechariah 4:7 NKJV]

I am a preacher of “grace, grace to it!” I love the grace of God. Some people mistakenly believe that grace simply lets us off the hook and we can then keep on doing the same old things. But grace, God’s grace is the power to change our lives so we don’t “end up on another hook!” Or even , God forbid, “the same hook again!”

Grace begins our walk, grace is the power to continue our walk worthy of God’s calling, and one day as we stand before our Precious LORD, grace will put the finishing touches on our lives. There will be shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” reverberating through heaven for all eternity! Hallelujah!