Past Devotions

Growing up I remember going to a bunch of movies that were based on biblical themes. Some were directed by Cecile B. DeMille, such as The Ten Commandments, The Sign of the Cross, and Samson and Delilah. My favorite was Samson and Delilah staring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamar. I liked it because Victor Mature was so handsome and for his day–buffed.

When I looked up the movie this morning, this was the description: “When strongman Samson rejects the love of the beautiful Philistine woman Delilah, she seeks vengeance that brings horrible consequences they both regret.”

When I read the original story, it is just a bit different. Samson was the one in love, Delilah was a prostitute who seems more interested in the money offered to her by the Philistines for the secret of Samson’s strength than she is in Samson. (Judges 16:4-31.)

Which raises the question, if Samson was as buffed with muscles as he is always portrayed in the books and movies, why would anyone question the source of his strength? It would be evident! Personally, I think Samson might have been a bit puny. After all, the source of his strength was not his muscles, it was his God.

As the angel told his mother when he announced to her that she would have a son, “the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” [Judges 13:5]

There were special conditions to be a Nazirite (Judges 6). One of which was that he was not to cut his hair. All the conditions were outward signs of an inward separation to God. The strength was not in the outward signs of that separation, nor in the muscles of the body, the strength came from God through dedication and obedience to God.

Like Samson, our strength is not in the outward signs. It too, comes from God through our dedication and obedience.

When I think of Bible heroes of faith, I immediately think of Daniel. Daniel and the Lion’s Den. What fun it is to read the story of how Daniel was thrown in with a bunch of hungry lions and how God send an angel to keep the lions from harming him. It’s a great story, one that all the little kiddies love. [Daniel 6]

I love it too, because when I think of Daniel and the Lion’s Den, I focus on what got him tossed in there in the first place. We could probably define it with two words, integrity and jealousy. The integrity was Daniel’s, the jealousy belonged to all those around him.

Daniel had defined himself as man of integrity. He always did what was right in the sight of God. While God was pleased with Daniel’s integrity, those who worked with him were not. Daniel’s integrity had captured the attention of the king, and because of it, the king wanted to put him in charge of everything except the throne.

That made those who worked with Daniel jealous. He was getting what they wanted. So, they conspired against him and even deceived the king who loved Daniel into setting him up. The plot was to turn Daniel’s own integrity again him. How ironic that his enemies actually relied on Daniel’s integrity to indict him under their sentence of death.

Of course, we know the story. Daniel worshipped his God just as he always did, in his window where all could see. He didn’t stop, nor did he hide, he was true to his God. That got him thrown in with the lions. The best part however, is that Daniel’s God was also true to him.

I wonder as I think about Daniel, what I would have done … I wonder even more about my own integrity. Would it be enough to get me tossed in with the lions? Do others even notice?

Oh Lord, help me to live with the integrity of Daniel!

His name is James. He’s not James, the brother of John, who were sons of Zebedee and Apostles of Jesus. He’s the James of Mark 6:3, “James, Joseph, Judas and Simon,” the oldest of Jesus’ brothers. He is also known as “James the Just” and in Acts we see him leading the Jerusalem church. Many scholars attribute the Epistle of James to him.

Growing up with Jesus as a brother couldn’t have been easy. We know that the brothers were not exactly thrilled when he left the carpentry shop and took off preaching.  John reports that “his own brothers did not believe in him.” [7:5]

A couple times they even dragged their mother along and came looking for him to bring him home. They thought he was crazy. But then something changed for James. Jesus appeared to him following the resurrection. Paul gives that account in his great chapter on the physical resurrection of Jesus, 1 Corinthians 15. He reminds his readers of the evidence of Jesus’ bodily resurrection by citing those who saw Him afterwards. Jesus appeared to Peter, the Twelve, to more than 500 brothers (most of whom were still alive), then to James, and finally to Paul himself. The James that Paul mentions is believed to be Jesus’ brother James.

What was James thinking when Jesus came to him? Here was his brother, the one he thought was crazy, the one he wanted taken out of ministry, the one who was crucified as a common criminal, now standing before him in glorious splendor, resurrected from the dead. I wonder what they said in that personal private moment.

For all who come to call on Jesus Christ as Lord, to each there is a “James-moment,” a personal private revelation of Christ Jesus who comes to us resurrected from the dead. Whatever we may have thought of Him before, it all changes in one glorious moment as it did for James.

Thank you, Lord, for coming to each of us in a personal “James-moment.” Amen.

Everyone has a story. You do. I do. And so do all those people in the Bible. We tell “Bible Stories” to our children so that they might learn about God as they see Him work in the lives of Bible “Heroes.” Maybe we should take a few days and look at some of those Bible Stories ourselves. I am certain we have not outgrown them. I know I haven’t.

How about starting with two women who played a pivotal role in beginnings. First, Eve; then, Mary. Both have a story. Both had a choice to make.

Eve, alongside her husband Adam, had walked with God amid perfection and beauty. They were given one rule, don’t eat the fruit of the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” When Satan in the form of a serpent visited Eve while she was alone one day, he convinced her that God was wrong, and that God’s one rule was keeping her from knowing everything she should know. She bit. Then she gave the fruit to Adam, who also bit. And that was the beginning of the sin, death, struggle and pain that has since plagued humanity. Gone was the perfection and beauty, replaced now by frustration and hopelessness. (Genesis 3)

Mary was a young maiden, engaged to Joseph, a carpenter. Alone one day, she had a heavenly visitor who gave her the news that God wanted her to bear His child. She was to give this child the name Jesus for He would save His people. Mary was afraid, after all she was probably just a teenager, and while every young Jewish woman desired to be the mother of the Messiah, this was still a very strange message. Mary didn’t completely understand, but she responded, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said.”  (Luke 1:26-38)

And with Mary’s response came a new beginning, one that would bring the offer of forgiveness, healing, life, peace and redemption to humanity.  Gone was the frustration and hopelessness that entered with Eve’s choice. Now purpose and hope would be available to all who respond as Mary did, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said.”

Two women, each with a story. One disobeyed what God said and brought death, the other obeyed in faith and gave birth to life.

What’s your story?  You do have one. Everyone has a story, and December seems to be a time when we reflect on our story. Today, we begin the last month of the year, rapidly approaching the end of 2018. It seems to me as if we just began this year and we are now getting ready to put it in the record books.

What story are you going to tell this year? Is it a light-hearted one, filled with success, joy, peace and prosperity? Or has it been a devastating year, one filled with struggles, griefs, failures or affliction?

God is a master storyteller Himself. Instead of handing us a book of instructions, He gave us a book filled with people, all of whom have a story. From Genesis to Revelations, people with stories capture our attention.

Adam, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, Habakkuk, Mary, Simon Peter, Saul, John, and many others tell their story in God’s book. There is much we can learn from them, beginning with the amazing fact that we do not have to be doomed by our story.

In God’s book, every story can end in redemption. That’s God’s business. When we allow Him to be part of our story, He is eager and able to redeem it. “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” [Col 1:13-14]

What’s your story? Everyone has one. Perhaps the more important question is, have you allowed God to be a part of your story?

“Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.” [Ps 144:15]

I saved this one to end my November week of blessing. I saved it for last for one reason, this one is corporate. We have seen blessed is the man (person) and we have seen blessed are those. This one, however, speaks of us as a “people,” a group, perhaps a body of believers, or possibly a nation that has turned to God.

To be part of God’s people is one of the greatest of all sources of “How Happy!” blessing.  I think everyone carries within them a desire to belong to something greater than themselves.  When we come to “the fear of the LORD”—that very first blessing we looked at to begin this blessing week—God does not leave us isolated, struggling alone to find our way in Him.  He puts us with others, people of like faith in Christ Jesus.  Peter describes it this way …

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” [1 Peter 2:9-10]

Once we were not a people, now we are the people of God. And blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.

Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with the church. Even with all her faults and failings, I am so much better by being part of the church than if I was standing alone, struggling on my own. I love your church, LORD! How blessed I am to be part of the people of God. Amen.

“Blessed is he who is kind to the needy.”  [Prov 14:21b]

I departed from the songs in the Book of Psalms this morning and grabbed this proverb of blessing. The entire verse reads, “He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed (‘esher “How Happy!”) is he who is kind to the needy.”

Kindness. If there is one attitude that seems to be disappearing it is this one. I say seems to be disappearing. Kindness is certainly not seen in our media, nor heard in the rhetoric of our politics. It has disappeared in many places, but in other places, kindness can still be found.

When the fires swept through California recently, people opened hearts and homes. The Salvation Army went to work, Convoy of Hope, and other aid agencies were on the scene as quickly as possible. Heroes drove patients out of the Paradise Hospital in their cars, and a school bus driver and two teachers rescued 22 students from the elementary school, driving through the flames for five hours (30 miles) to return these children to their parents.  Kindness flourished in crisis.

If there is any place where kindness should flourish as part of its nature, it is the church. When we see the hungry and the homeless, we should respond. When we see the struggling, the addicted, the despondent and discouraged, we should meet them with kindness.  Jesus was quite clear about how we are to treat the needy. We won’t find that “How Happy!” blessing until we do.

Thank you, LORD, for blessing me when I bless others. Amen.

I was complaining the other day and a bit ungrateful. I made the mistake of voicing that to a friend and to my daughter also. I should have simply taken my frustration to the LORD.  I needn’t have worried that God would miss my attitude, however, He did not. Before I went to bed that night, I had to get right with Him. I repented and asked forgiveness. He gave it, then helped me to change my attitude the next morning.  Perhaps that is why this next blessing is so important.

“Blessed is the man you discipline, O LORD, the man you teach from your law; you grant him relief from days of trouble….” [Ps 94:12-13]

“How Happy!” we are in the midst of discipline. Most of us would shout “Not!” at the end of that statement. Discipline isn’t usually something that we associate with happiness. And yet, when discipline is received correctly, when we allow ourselves to learn what God wants to teach us, discipline can create happiness in us.

The psalmist tells us how that happiness takes shape after discipline … it becomes “relief from days of trouble.”

God was gracious to me the other day. He did not allow that ungratefulness to linger in my life. He did not allow it to take root and bring deeper and more lasting problems. In the space of a few hours, He grabbed my attention, poured out a spirit of godly sorrow over my actions, and brought forgiveness to me.

Thank you, Lord, for blessing me in discipline, for restraining my wayward ways and bringing me relief from days of trouble. Amen.

November 26

“Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts! We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple.” [Ps 65:4]

“How Happy!” (Hebrew: ‘esher) are those you bring near.  Is that not the goal of every true Christian – to be “near” to God. David, in writing this song, reminds us that being near to God fills us with the good things of God’s house, the good things of God’s holy temple.

When David wrote about the good things of God’s house, God’s holy temple, Solomon’s magnificent temple had not yet been built. The Ark of God dwelt in a tent. David must have understood that “the good things of God’s house” was the very presence of God Himself.

The writer to Hebrews wrote: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith….” [Heb 10:19-22]

When the writer of Hebrews spoke of the Most Holy Place, he, too, was not looking at an earthly temple. He was looking to that heavenly house which was opened to us by the blood of our Savior and Lord.  He too, understood that the “good things of God’s house” was the presence of God Himself.

“How Happy!” we are that God has chosen to bring us close to Him. When our sin blocked entrance into His presence, He, Himself, came and opened the way for us to be near to Him.

Thank you, Lord, I am blessed to be near to You. May I always seek the good things I find in You. Amen.