Past Devotions

I’m tired and my legs are weary. I wear a Garmin Vivofit to count my steps each day.  When I first started using it, I was getting around 3K steps each day with a goal of eventually reaching 10K steps. I got to that goal, only to discover that the Garmin kept adding steps; recently my goal was at 14.5K.  I kept up with that goal until last Sunday. When I went to bed that evening with almost 15K steps logged, I realized that I’ve exceeded what my 71-year old body can do right now.  So, I dialed it back to 11K as my self-imposed goal. It’s time to rest a bit.

I was talking with someone before prayer the other day. She said that she had spent the day before doing nothing. Her life has been very hectic and she was tired. She felt guilty. I told her not to accept that guilt. There are times in our life where rest is just as spiritual as work. Jesus called His own disciples to rest after a time of ministry in Mark 6.

Psalm 91 opens with a promise of rest and refuge.  “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’” [NIV]

The enemy of our soul loves to drive us to exhaustion so we cannot minister or lull us into complacency so we will not minister. I truly believe God expects us to be wiser, to discern when we need to move, but also when we need to rest.

Father, today I rest my spirit, soul, and my body in Your Presence and grace. Amen.

April 22

Driving down the boulevard the other day I spotted another odd sign.  It said, “$795 Complete Cremation” and advertised a local funeral home.  My first thought was, “so if $795 gets you a complete cremation, does $500 get you an incomplete one?”

That had me thinking about that word “complete” so I checked it out in my concordance. What I found was that Paul used it a lot.  He left a special word for Archippus at the end of his letter to the Colossians.  “Tell Archippus: ‘See to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord.’” [Col 4:17 NIV]

Some other translations use the word “fulfill” instead of “complete,” but both mean the same thing. In other words, “Archippus, finish the job God gave you!”

Finish the job … complete the ork.  We know from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that we were “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  [2:10 NIV]

God created us for a purpose. That purpose is both the same and yet different for all of us.  The “same” part is that we are called to worship our Lord and Savior in spirit and in truth.  The “different” part is how that worship is manifested in our good deeds. Some of us are called to do things publicly and some are called to do things behind the scenes. It doesn’t matter, our good deeds are uniquely ours, prepared individually by God for us.

Complete the job we must. I don’t want to stand in the presence of my Lord and King having left anything undone. Amen.

One of my favorite Bible Stories is in Mark 4, the storm on the Sea of Galilee. I’ve been studying it this week as it is part of my message for tomorrow.

Jesus had a long day of teaching the crowds and as night was falling he told his disciples to get in the boat and go to the other side, a trip of about eight miles. Mark tells us what happened when they obeyed him and got in the boat and started for the other side.  “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” [Mark 4:37-39 NIV]

Isn’t that the most amazing picture of Jesus!  He was so physically exhausted that within minutes he was fast asleep on a cushion in the back of the boat. Wind is howling all around him, waves are coming into the low-sided boat. I imagine the disciples were also shouting orders to each other to “bail!” And He sleeps through it all.

In their fear, the disciples must have shaken Him awake. They chide Him for what appears to be a lack of concern for their welfare. He arises, then amazingly, rebukes the wind and speaks to the waves and they obey His word.  It suddenly becomes eerily silent and calm.

Ps 148:7-8: “Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding…” [NIV]

The disciples were more afraid in the calm then they were in the storm. They would know that only God can command winds and waves to obey. This Jesus, exhausted in His human body, fully man, was also fully God with the power of the Creator to command His creation. No wonder they were “terrified.” [Mark 4:41]

Repent! Gk: Metanoeo:  It means “to perceive afterwards, implying to change.” Think of it as making a “Spiritual U-Turn.”

If you read Jesus’ messages to the seven churches in Revelation Chapters 2 & 3, you will see the word “repent” used eight times. The only churches not called upon to repent are Smyrna and Philadelphia.  Poor Ephesus and Thyatira are each told twice to “repent!”

One of the first things I’m learning about Pursuing His Presence in Revival for our church today is that the call to repent is still very much alive.  There is a convicting awareness of personal and corporate sin. As seekers for God’s presence to awaken the church, there is a consuming recognition of sin both in the church and in our nation.  While that sin may not be mine personally, it is mine by association. I am a Christian and I am a citizen.  Just as Nehemiah, Samuel, Daniel, Moses and other intercessors identified with their nation in their day – and interceded in repentance – so must we if we want to see a spiritual awakening.

Repentance, as I said, requires a convicting awareness of sin. We don’t talk much about sin anymore. We talk about personal choices and discuss gray areas of behavior and attitudes. Sin, obedience, are words that are disappearing from our vocabulary – even in the church!  It’s time to resurrect them, beloved. If we don’t have an awareness of what it means to obey God, or a conviction about the consequences of disobeying God (sin), we will not have a spiritual awakening.  Honestly, I’m tired of slumbering through life.

Awaken! Repent!

I opened Facebook on Sunday morning and saw pictures of our youngest grandson. He had a birthday last week and we missed being there.  He also had a speech contest at school and scored a “red excellent ribbon.” We missed that also.

We have always lived far away from two grandsons; we are in Idaho and they are in California.  To drive there requires a full day going and another returning. It isn’t a trip we can make very often, thus, we miss a lot of their day-to-day lives.  Sometimes, like last week, we miss the special occasions also.

I hate being separated. I become envious when I look around and see other grandparents having everyday relationships with their grandchildren.  Yet I know that many of us are separated from our families; we are a very mobile society. People move and travel with job changes and economy fluctuations. Some of us have also suffered the loss of family members and the depth of that separation is so much greater.

As I ruminated over all this Sunday morning, I was reminded that the ugliest of all separations is the one we can experience because we have rejected God’s call to salvation. Hebrews 6 reminds us of some of the fundamental, basic elements of Christianity: repentance, faith, baptisms, the laying on of hands, resurrection, and one other – eternal judgment.  [vs 1-2]

Unfortunately, the modern church seldom reminds people that there is a significance to rejecting God’s salvation. Salvation is two-sided, to accept is resurrection from the dead into the very presence of God; to reject or ignore is eternal judgment. We need not constantly preach “hell fire & brimstone,” but we must acknowledge that there is a consequence to every choice—especially the decision regarding Jesus the Christ.

I was reading Paul’s letter to Philemon the other day – I know, who reads Philemon? I guess I do. I was reading in the new Christian Standard Bible. “I pray that your participation in the faith may become effective through knowing every good thing that is in us for the glory of Christ.”

The NKJV reads: “that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.” [vs 6 NKJV]

We are to know [acknowledge] “every good thing that is in us” to the glory of Christ Jesus. By knowing these things our faith becomes effective. That led me to two questions. Just what are those good things in us?  And, if we don’t know or acknowledge those good things, does that mean that our faith is ineffective?

I can list a host of good things that comes from the Father. Salvation, redemption, righteousness, mercy, restoration are perfect gifts from the Father through Jesus the Christ; but, I look at those things more as done for us rather than a good thing which is in us. [James 1:17]

When I think of what is in us, I think of the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart; I think of the fruit that is produced and abides.  “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”  [Gal 5:22-23 NIV]

When we know those good things and acknowledge their existence in us (through cooperation with God’s Spirit), then our participation in and sharing of our faith truly become effective and bring glory to Christ Jesus. In other words, when people see that we walk how we talk, they’ll listen.

Last week was emotional for me.  I wanted to be in California for our youngest grandson’s birthday, but we couldn’t quite pull it off. Add to that other issues and by week’s end, sadness was my prevailing mood.

The Scriptures do not use words like sad or its opposite—happy. No matter which translation I searched, there were only a couple dozen references to “happy.” The Scriptures focus much more on “joy,” with hundreds of references in each translation.

My sadness last week was based on circumstances that were out of my control. Many times, circumstances produce either sadness or happiness.  The thing we must remember, however, is that our relationship with the Lord in any and all circumstances produces “joy.”

In his first letter, after Peter addressed the fiery trials his readers were experiencing because of their faith in Christ Jesus, he reminded them, “Though you have not seen [Christ Jesus], you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”  [1 Peter 1:8-9 NIV]

That inexpressible and glorious joy [joy unspeakable and full of glory] resides deep within us even while our circumstances produce sadness or happiness.  That joy is produced by love and faith and salvation and our relationship with our Lord and King.

Father, I thank you for the deepest joy that resides always. Amen and Amen.

Every now and again I see a verse that simply reminds me of what we have in Christ Jesus – all those benefits for which Psalm 103 tells us to “Bless the Lord, O My Soul and do not forget!”  One such verse appeared as my daily reading in my email last week.

“He Himself [Jesus] bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; you have been healed by His wounds. For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.” [1 Peter 2:24-25 Christian Standard Bible]

Jesus bore the punishment for our sins.  We have been healed by His wounds.  The Great Shepherd has found us and brought us into His flock.  He now guards our souls.

Just those four benefits alone should be enough to bless the Lord down through the ages.  I especially love the one that “guards my soul.” Heaven knows I tend to expose it so often to things that would damage without that protection.

Too often, beloved, we approach God constantly demanding to be blessed. There is no doubt that we are blessed by God abundantly, but instead of grateful thanksgiving and blessing God for all He’s done, we act like little children in a toy store focused on getting more and more. Maybe it’s time we bless (praise and worship) our Shepherd and Guardian of our souls more abundantly.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits.”  [Ps 103:1-2 NKJV]

Fifty-one years married, as of today at 2 PM PST. The church we were married in was in the shape of a cross, with a raised altar in the very center. It was very large, so the crowd looked sparse with just a couple hundred attendees.

I remember it was raining and I had to run from the car to the church in my wedding dress and veil. I remember the rain drops spotted the satin dresses the attendants wore. I remember that the communion cup contained “real” wine, not grape juice! And I remember how difficult it was to kneel during the service in a wedding dress.

But the thing I remember most was the look on the bridegroom’s face when he turned around and saw me coming down the aisle. It was one of love and amazement and tenderness – so much so that it is hard to describe and impossible to forget.

I wonder, church, what it will be like when our bridegroom, Christ Jesus, turns and sees His bride. I have a feeling it will be a look we will never forget, one that is hard to describe, but impossible to forget.

“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” [Rev 19:6-8 NIV]