Past Devotions

Reading what John wrote to his friend Gaius in 3John is a delight. He calls Gaius “friend” four times in his letter. He addresses him that way in the salutation and then writes “dear friend” three more times.

He begins with a prayer for his friend, a prayer for good health and a prosperity that encompasses his entire life. Then he goes on to commend Gaius for his hospitality and love. “Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love.”  [3 John 5-6]

I think one of the most important parts of friendship is to tell those we love what we appreciate about them. John told Gaius he appreciated his hospitality for their brother Christians, even the ones Gaius did not know personally. These brothers then told the church about Gaius’ love.

We are often eager to comment on the things we think others are doing wrong. We do it sometimes under the guise of “requesting prayers” for a brother or sister going through struggles or temptations. Believe me when I say that people outside the church notice such things. One of the primary “reasons” people give me for not attending a church is that “Christians tear each other down.”

Beloved, Paul reminded us that God’s purpose for us is to build each other up. “Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.” [Rom 14:19 NKJV]

Let’s make doubly sure that is what we are doing!

Today is my dear friend’s birthday. I will give her a call sometime today and tell her how much I love and appreciate her. A couple years ago she experienced a health crisis and we weren’t sure she would continue this journey with us, but she overcame that and even some subsequent issues and is with us. I thank God for His abundant mercy.

Friends. One of the most neglected letters in the New Testament is 3John. John, who now refers to himself as “the elder,” writes to “my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.” [vs 1]

John wrote these letters in his old age. Some scholars say perhaps as many as 50 years after the resurrection of Christ. In John’s old age, he may have found friendship even more important then he did when he was younger. And he, of course, had the example of Jesus who called the Twelve “my friends” on more than one occasion.

We don’t have a clear indication of just whom Gaius was, but at some point, he became John’s friend. And I would think a rather close one since he addresses Gaius that way not just in the salutation, but three more times in the body of the letter.

Today, as I think of my friend’s birthday, I will pray for her John’s prayer for his friend. “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.”  [3John 2-3]

The pain of our pasts always seeks to force its remembrance into our present. By doing so, it can change the course of our future.  I’m finding that happening in the natural with the wounding of my little toe. A falling razor in the shower landed on it and took a good size chunk out of it. The pressure of a shoe still brings some pain and forces me to limp to try to relieve it. Once that shoe is removed, I have found I still limp, even though the actual pain is gone. I must make a determined effort to again walk naturally.

That doesn’t just happen in my body, it also is a pattern in my heart. Pains, wounds, things I thought healed often try to return and cause my heart to “limp.” Paul reminded his Philippian readers that one thing he did was to forget what is behind. He made a conscious determination to put the past in the past and forget it. But just telling the past to remain there isn’t always enough. Paul said there’s another step, and that step may be even more important.

“But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”  [3:13-14]

Paul shifts his focus. He strains toward what is ahead.  The word he uses means to “stretch oneself forward.” He adds that he presses on toward the goal, the prize that awaits him. Pressing on means, literally, “to pursue.”

The only way to prohibit the past from forcing itself into our present, is to focus on the future prize that waits for us just beyond that finish line. When I picture that in my mind, I see those runners in Olympic races pushing out their chests and almost throwing their bodies forward as they reach the finish. They know the gold, silver, bronze accolades that await just beyond race’s end. For me, I know what awaits beyond the finish line, my Savior and Lord Christ Jesus. I can see Him in my mind’s eye calling me, encouraging me, holding out His arms to me. So, like Paul, I stretch myself forward to Him.

I had a freak incident happen in the shower last Thursday. I accidently knocked my razor off the hook where it hangs. It did a flip and then a very lovely swan-like dive and landed on my little toe. First it made a cut, then it “shaved” off a large section. It really bled and didn’t seem to want to stop. I finally got a pressure bandage on it, taped it to my other toes, stuck it in a shoe and headed off to work. Walking wasn’t easy. It was still bleeding lightly when I replaced the bandage that night.

Friday morning, I was a bit wiser and while I still had to wear a shoe to and from work, I brought a pair of soft ballerina slippers to wear at work. I could walk a little easier. I had errands to do after work, however, and the shoe had to stay on for a while. That toe does not like a shoe. As of today, it still does not like a shoe. It reminds me how much it doesn’t like a shoe every time I put one on.  It is still recovering from its wounding, and still causing me to limp whenever I put it into a shoe. I walk a little like Chester did following Marshall Dillion around on Gunsmoke.

The crazy part is that once the shoe is off, I find myself still limping even though the pain is gone. After a few minutes of hobbling, I catch myself and must consciously determine to walk normally without a limp. My body has trained itself while in the shoe to accommodate for the pain – so much so that even when the pain isn’t there, I am still limping.

I thought about how our hearts, what we might call our minds, wills, emotions, also makes accommodations for the pain of life. Even when that pain is removed, we are still “limping” through life until we make that conscious effort to stop. Paul wrote about making that effort to the Philippians, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind ….” [3:13]

One thing I do, I forget. That requires effort. Pain, even past ones, leaves us wounded, and trains us to protect ourselves. So, we must determine to not let pain from the past rule our present and determine our future. Paul tells us what else to do … tomorrow.

Sometimes I act like Jonah.

I was walking to the end of the block and back on one of my afternoon breaks when I came across a small dead sparrow on the sidewalk. My heart went out to it and I quietly said, “God, one of Your little sparrows has fallen.”

I heard Him whisper to me, “Yes, child, I know. Have you noticed the thousands of people in this city who do not know me?”

And I remembered Jonah.

At the end of the Book of Jonah, the prophet sat down, and God caused a plant to grow and provide Jonah shade from the hot sun. The next day God caused the plant to wither. When that happened, Jonah became upset. God’s response, was, “Jonah, you have more concern for this plant than you do for the thousands of people in this city who do not know me.”   [Jonah 4:10-11-paraphrased]

I walk to the end of the block and back almost every day on my afternoon break. Until today, when I saw that little dead bird, I wasn’t really concerned over anything—not one of the people who walked past me, not the ones in the cars that drove past, not the hundreds working in the offices around me, not the ones in the university across the street.

Yes, Father, sometimes I act like Jonah. Forgive me. Amen.

I knew this past week was going to be a tough one. First, I do not do the time changes very well. My strong internal clock rebels when we go from Standard Time to Saving Time or back again.  It always leaves me feeling wiped out and takes me a good week to recover. I am also at mid-point in my temporary assignment with the State. Mid-point of anything is the most difficult—at least for me.

To top it all off, Sunday’s message is on Peter’s fourth virtue to add to our faith—perseverance. Peter puts that virtue at the mid-way point in his list of seven. And I knew going in to this week I would be flooded with situations and thoughts of just giving up! [You know what preachers say: Got to learn the lesson before you can teach the lesson.]

Focusing on perseverance for today’s message, I understood that I would be tempted with giving up – giving up everything! By mid-week I just wanted to sell everything, go off somewhere and get a small apartment. All I wanted was to read and write and crochet and forget everything else. But then I remember Jesus’ question to Peter, and his response.

Jesus had said some tough words to His followers and many had decided to walk away, to quit!  So, He turned to the Twelve and asked: “You do not want to leave too, do you?”

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” [John 6:67-69]

That’s pretty much perseverance—knowing that you have no where else to go. There is only one road to life and if we are on it, how can we quit?

It’s November, the month that reminds us to be thankful.

I seldom listen to the radio; I enjoy quiet. The world is a noisy place. As I drive home from work, however, I turn my car radio to the local Christian station mainly to catch the traffic report. Then I leave it on the rest of the way home. In doing that I’ve come across a song that I never heard before. It is “Reckless Love,” sung by Cory Asbury.  (There is a link below to access the song on YouTube.)

There is a line in the song that keeps running through my mind. I’ve heard it in my sleep and in my waking hours for weeks now. “Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God ….”

The chorus goes on and acknowledges, “I couldn’t earn it. I don’t deserve it. Still you give yourself away. Oh the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God!”

I weep as I think about God’s overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love. I weep as I remember how I deserve nothing from Him but punishment for the sinner I am. I weep as remember I was that lost sheep, the prodigal son, the lowliest of sinners. I weep because now I have been found by that overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love. I weep because I am now a child of God.

November, the month that reminds us to be thankful.

Oh Father, why me? Why would you come after me? I cannot explain, nor even understand that kind of love. I can only be eternally thankful for Your overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love that found me and embraces me.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc6SSHuZvQE

Peter wrote two letters. The first was addressed to “God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout….”  The second was addressed to “those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours.”

The first letter’s theme is “adversity,” the second letter’s “knowledge.” While Peter writes that self-control is to be added as one of the virtues to faith in his second letter, it is really in the first letter dealing with adversity and suffering that Peter defines self-control. He does it three ways.

As you read those passages, you’ll notice one thing right away, self-control never stands alone; it is always matched with a quality of the mind, such as, alertness, attentiveness, clarity.  (1 Peter 1:13-16, 4:7, 5:8-9)

Biblical self-control really has little to do with “self.” It is generated by God’s Spirit in us. As we grow and become grounded in God’s Word and cooperative with His Spirit, we learn what is truly important. Self-control allows us, it enables us, to live and move not by sight but by faith. We can disregard the danger we see because we abide in the refuge we can’t see. We learn to pray, and to resist the enemy of our soul that prowls around looking to devour the unsuspecting and unaware.

Self-control, combined with the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and with the goodness and glory of God’s character, built on the foundation of faith in Christ, keeps us in the fight so that we will end even better than we began.

There was a Halloween Day potluck where I work. There were soups of all kinds, chips and dips, salads, and desserts … lots of desserts. The food hung around the office for the remainder of the week. Every time I’d go into the breakroom, there they were on the table and in the fridge. Desserts. Sugary, luscious, rich desserts and cookies! Lots and lots of cookies. I like desserts. I like cookies. They, however, do not like me.

At this stage in life I am paying the price for liking desserts way too much. Sugar is not a friend. Carbohydrates have morphed into enemies. My glucometer (which measures the sugar in my blood) now reigns over my menu.

Yet, in the breakroom, there they sat for days, desserts calling me. You would think by this time in life I would also have developed some self-control. Nope – not enough when it comes to desserts.

Self-control. Peter tells us in his second letter that self-control (temperance in the KJV) is one of the virtues to be added to our faith. First goodness. Then knowledge. Then self-control. “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control….” [2 Peter 1:5-6]

Self-control doesn’t sound like a virtue to me, especially since it begins with that little word “self.” I didn’t think there was any virtue in “self.” So, is biblical self-control simply the self-generated willpower to resist our “self” desires and curb our natural impulses – like I must do when I walk into that breakroom and start to salivate over those desserts?  Or is it more than that, much more than that?

It is more – much more! More tomorrow!

While in California, we were privileged to watch our youngest grandson, 9-years old, play his final regular season game. If they won, they were headed to the playoffs. (They did, and they are.)

I like football. I like my Pittsburgh Steelers even if they lose. I like watching Boise State play. I really enjoyed watching the High School Junior Varsity game where our 15-year old grandson played his last game before heading off to the varsity squad.  But I really appreciated the novice football game with the 9 to 11-year-old players. Why, you ask?

First, they are just so darn cute. There is a big disparity in size among 9 to 11-year-old boys. Some are tall, some are not. Some are large, some are tiny. For many the helmets seem bigger than they are. Some run fast, others lumber. It is great!

But beyond cute, there is a profoundly deep experience in watching these novice games. These little boys are forming character that may carry some on to high school, college or even pro-football, but will carry all on in life.  I watched as these little guys stood there waiting to catch the ball on a kickoff knowing they were going to get hit. I watched as they blocked so others could run with the ball and get the applause. I watched as they got tackled and fell, got up and got right back into the next play.

Character. It is the character that is being formed in these little guys that will carry them through to bigger games against stronger opponents, both in sports and in life. I would venture to guess that there are few pro or college players that did not forge their metal in novice sporting events.

It is not only in novice football that we teach our children of the things that will promote them in life.  Even more importantly, it is teaching them the things of the Lord. The Bible is full of commandments to teach our children the ways and commandments of the Lord.  “Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”   [Deut 4:9 NIV]