Past Devotions

I was reading in Ephesians the other morning and as I passed Chapter 4, verse 32 (Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you), I came to a screeching halt at the next verse. “Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.” [CSB Ephesians 5:1]

Are you as shocked by that verse as I am? We are commanded to imitate the holy, righteous, all-loving God. Now, I realize there are some parts of God (such as His perfection!) that we will never be able to attain. And I also realize that Paul’s command to imitate God has nothing to do with our salvation, and everything to do with our sanctification (becoming more like Christ Jesus). Still it is a breath-taking command.

It drew me up short and made me question my heart’s motivations and desires. What am I modeling my life after?

When our sons were little, they were enamored with their father’s construction equipment. He had a backhoe and big truck, they wanted toys just like his. Bob was able through a dealership to get miniature backhoes exactly like his. The boys were ecstatic. Their “excavations” in the dirt outside modeled what Bob did on a much grander scale to make a living. They were so delighted to be able to imitate their father.

Paul reminds us that we are to be imitators of God – as His “dearly loved children.” Our desires are to be like Him as much as we can be. We are to desire His godliness, His righteousness, His wisdom, His grace, His love to flow not just to us but through us to touch others.

We should want people to see Christ in us. And we should work each day, with the power of His Spirit to achieve just that. “Be imitators of God.”

People and nations are anxious right now with the trouble rising in the world. Blame is being tossed about. Political parties and individuals are taking sides, so are many world leaders. No one seems to know when or how it will all end. I could tell them how it will ultimately end, all they have to do is read the Book of Revelation…the King of Kings and LORD of Lords returns and sets up His eternal Kingdom, but that probably is not what they want to hear.

 They want to know how it is all going to end in the here and now. Will we see more war? Will we send our young men and women to war in foreign lands? Or, perhaps, will the war come to us in our land?

Anxiety is rising. So, as Christians what are we to do. Peter tells us that we are to “Cast all your anxiety [care] on [Christ Jesus] because he cares for you.” [1 Peter 5:7 NIV]

The word for “cast” that Peter uses is significant. It is “epirrhipto” and it means to throw, to cast upon. Part of its root (rhipto) means to fling with a quick or deliberate toss.

Peter was a fisherman. He knew all about casting his nets out onto the water. He spent years quickly and deliberately flinging and tossing nets. When he says to “fling, cast or toss” our cares “quickly and deliberately” onto Christ Jesus that is noteworthy.

Oh, one last thought … when Peter cast his nets out, he expected to draw them back in with a return of fish. May I be so bold as to add, when we cast our care upon Christ Jesus our LORD, we too can expect a return … a return of peace and comfort and strength.

The recent events between the United States and Iran brought two Scriptures to mind this morning. The first was a warning from Jesus that “In the world you will have tribulation.” [John 16:33]

The second from Ps 120:7: “I am for peace; But when I speak, they are for war.”

Much (most?) of what happens in this world … in this life … is out of our control. We manage as much as we can, but ultimately bodies age and fail, or illness strikes, recessions hit, or wars break out when we must watch as we send our young men and women into harm’s way in foreign lands.

We can protest, vote politicians in or out, become active in a political party, and still tribulation and war happen. In this world not everyone (nor every nation) is for peace, in fact too many are for war.

Yes, in the world we will have tribulation, but Jesus didn’t just leave us with that sad warning. He surrounded that warning with words of hope. “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” [NKJV]

In Him we have a peace that goes beyond understanding. Even amid trouble we can possess “good cheer” because ultimately our Prince of Peace will return to set up His Kingdom and every and all trouble will be forever banished.

In the meantime, we wait, we pray, and, yes, sometimes we even grieve.

The Christmas decorations are down and put away for another year. One grandson has returned to Western Oregon, and our son, daughter-in-love and two other grandsons are back in California. The house is a little darker without the Christmas lights and our hearts a little lonelier without our loved ones.

We are blessed to have our youngest son, daughter and son-in-love here in Idaho. It’s still hard to have more than half the family in other places. And while I know that having everyone here is only a brief respite from the separations, I still get sad when life goes back to being what it is.

Now I am looking forward to spring when we will travel to California for a birthday, and early summer when we hope to travel to the Oregon coast for a vacation that will include a visit to our grandson. During the times of separation, I live on hope of the next visit.

Hope is a marvelous four-letter word. I can think of nothing worse in life than to be without it. I find it interesting that you don’t find the word hope (the Greek elpis) very often in the Gospels, but it is found repeatedly in the other New Testament books. I think that must be because when Jesus was walking among them, they didn’t need “hope.” It wasn’t until He returned to the Father that their need for hope became real and vibrant.

It is in our separations and sadness that we need hope. It is when life take a turn we aren’t expecting or one we aren’t pleased with that we need hope. It is when we feel lost or lonely or isolated that we need hope. Paul ends his marvelous letter to the Romans with a prayer. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” [15:13]

That is also my prayer for you (and for me) for 2020.

We’ve turned over a new year and a new decade – 2020. I am praying and hoping that in “twenty-twenty” our nation begins to see more clearly. I am praying and hoping that we treat each other with more compassion, kindness and courtesy, that we drop the labeling and name calling, and that we put to death that hypercritical spirit that seems so pervasive and acceptable in our culture, our politics, our media.

I wonder what would happen to our society if we truly embraced those words of Jesus in Luke 6:31, “just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.” [NKJV]

Unfortunately, we seem to have lost touch with that Golden Rule. Instead our culture (and yes, even our contemporary Christianity) has produced an atmosphere where all we really care about is ourselves. I often think we see a perfect visual illustration of that in the current trend of “selfies” – taking pictures mainly of ourselves instead of others.

This behavior has produced a people who cloak their self-righteousness in a display of false humility. We express our “concern” for others in a way that doesn’t really care at all about other people but seeks only to build ourselves up in our own eyes.

Someone asked me if I was making any resolutions for this new year. I said, no. I seldom make resolutions because I am perfectly aware of my record at actually keeping them. But I think I just might make a resolution for the new decade – that I work to have more compassion for people, display more kindness and practice more courtesy. In other words, that I live out the Golden Rule in every area of my life.

There was one last point in my message last Sunday. The first, God for us. The second, God with us. Now even more there is God in us.

When we understand the Incarnation, the central truth of Christianity, we must understand that it is more than the manger. For the baby Jesus in the manger would not even be remembered except for the cross. And the Jesus on the cross would have long since faded into history except for resurrection. And while the resurrection was glorious and earth and heaven shaking, it would have limited our relationship with Christ Jesus if it ended there.

It didn’t end there. Following the resurrection was the wondrous ascension of Christ Jesus to the Right Hand of the Father where He did as He promised … He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell those who come to God by grace through faith. Acts begins with the giving of the Holy Spirit, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” [Acts 2:4]

As we continue into the book of Acts, we read of that continual infilling of the Spirit into people who place their faith in Jesus. We must understand that God’s good, good purpose for His creation wasn’t just to restore relationship and then leave us alone, His plan was to make us like Him. His purpose is to once again be able to point to His children as “made in the image of God.”

Simple life-altering truth contained in nine words: God for us, God with us, God in us. If you are making any resolutions to begin 2020, it might be to never forget those nine little words and how much they have changed our lives here on earth as well as in eternity. Thank you, Father.

Not only is God for us (yesterday’s devotion), there was a second point to my message last Sunday. Three more words that should move us to praise and thanksgiving. They are: God with us.

God with us, Immanuel, is what we celebrated this past holiday season. The Incarnation, God becoming man, is the central truth of our faith. C. S. Lewis said that “Every other miracle prepares the way for this, or results from this.”

 God with us is what sets Christianity apart. If you remove the Incarnation, Christianity is just like every other religion.

Our God chose to demonstrate His love for us by coming to walk this dusty planet with us. Isaiah tells us that the child to be born is God’s Son given: “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” [9:6-7]

God with us experiencing our difficulties, our griefs, our challenges. He knew what it was to be rejected, misunderstood, scorned, and in pain. He understands poverty and even homelessness. (“Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Matt 8:20)

How can we ever think He does not understand what we go through each day? God for us, and God with us. But there is even more … tomorrow.

In Bible College I took a class that was to teach how to preach. The professor used the 3-point model. There was to be an introduction, three points and a conclusion. If you come to The Way in Middleton, Idaho, you’ll find I don’t follow that model very often, but I did last Sunday. Three Points expressed with nine words conveyed last week’s theme.

Over the next few days I want to look at those three points. The first is “God for Us.” Paul wrote in Rom 8:31-33: “What, then, shall we say in response to this? [Since] God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

 God is for us. Paul states that as a given fact. God is for us. Even before Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s goodness, (and passed that rebellion onto every member of the human race) God had a plan to restore us to fellowship. That’s God’s good, good purpose. Because God is immutable (never changes) He is constantly moving toward the fulfillment of His good, good purpose.

I am always humbled remembering God is for me. Whenever we sing the Chris Tomlin song, “Jesus Loves Me,” I cry. I cry especially at the lines “Jesus, He loves me, He loves me, He is for me; Jesus, how can it be, He loves me, He is for me.”

I truly believe that those words, “how can it be” should be emblazoned on our minds. How can it be that God loves us so, so, so much that He would give His only Son for us. Just thinking about Who God is and what we are should keep us from any pride, arrogance or thoughts of exclusiveness.

God for us. How can it be?

The hoopla of the holiday season is behind us. Most of football is also behind us with just a few championship games in the next few weeks. (In case I haven’t mentioned it, I love football.) January begins with a bang but ends much differently. Winter is setting in across the nation. Routine will be the theme of the next months.

Some will make resolutions; some might even keep them. At least for a while. We’ll go back to work, possibly lamenting the extra money we spent (or the extra pounds we gained). All the flashy sales are over; the great deals are gone. It’s back to “usual.”

Our “usual” might be health issues that we still must deal with, or problems in relationships. Maybe we’re still out of work or working but unable to keep up with our increasing economy. Maybe we’re struggling in school, or with addictions or with home situations that are volatile or dangerous.

Our “usual” might seem more than we can handle. If that is so, we need to remember God’s “usual.”

God is in His “usual” place, on the throne. He has not, will not, cannot abdicate His glorious LORD-ship. He is, “God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.” [1 Tim 6:15-16]

Nor will God ignore the plight of His people. How many times do we read the pronouncement in the New Testament? “Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” [2Thess 1:2]

So today, as we contemplate our “usual” in the new year before us – let’s never forget that God’s “usual” is always ours and that it trumps any and all difficulties and problems we might face. Blessed be His Holy Name.

I have one last thought about the past Christmas season. Recently I was discussing the on-going debates with a couple friends over just when Jesus was born. Some groups say April is a better option. Others says Jesus was conceived in December. I say, who cares.

I mean does it really matter when God came to be with us, Immanuel. What matters is that He did come. He did live and die and was resurrected the third day. He did ascend into heaven to be seated at the Right Hand of the Father. And He is coming again to receive His own.

 I think sometimes the enemy of our soul loves to get us down in the weeds arguing over some trivial fact rather than focusing on the grand scheme.

God sent His Son to us, in the fullness of time, meaning at just the right time. If that’s April, great. Or July, great. Or December, great. What is important to me at least, is not the when, it’s the why. “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” [Gal 4:4-5 NKJV]

God sent His Son so that I might be redeemed from the marketplace of sin to be adopted as His daughter. If the world wants to celebrate that fact on December 25 each year, I’m fine with that … because I’m celebrating that every day in every month in every year. I’m bound to get it right at least once a year!

Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.