See you back here May 6! Have a wonderful week Pursuing the Presence of our Lord Jesus!
Past Devotions
You are probably pretty old if you remember this song … “He floats through the air with the greatest of ease, the daring young man on his flying trapeze. His actions are graceful, all girls he does please, and my love he has taken away.”
I remember going to the circus and watching the trapeze artists. If you missed seeing them at the circus, you can now see them in church. Yes, you read that right, in church. Recently, an Atlanta church added aerialists as a regular part of their worship service. It would be hilarious, if it wasn’t so sad.
Churches around the world have embraced entertainment. Strobe lights, smoke machines, black backdrops that display all kinds of images have become part of the “show.” I find it interesting that AW Tozer was lamenting the inclination of Christian churches in our nation adopting entertainment practices in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I can’t help but wonder what he would say about adding aerialists to worship.
Paul warned Timothy to keep the pattern of sound teaching he learned from Paul. “What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you-guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” [2 Tim 1:13-14 NIV]
Have we abandoned the “sound teaching” of Paul and need trapeze artists to hold our attention?
Oh Father, forgive us! Send a spiritual awakening to Your church! Amen.
And the word of the day is “mollycoddle.” At least it was last Thursday. It means to treat with an excessive or absurd degree of indulgence or attention.
If I were to use this in a sentence, I might say, “In the last century, the Church in America has stopped teaching and modeling the precious disciplines of obedience, self-discipline, patience, personal holiness, cross carrying, and discipleship and instead mollycoddles her members.”
Unfortunately, we have become a generation of Christians devoted to our own pursuits and enamored with our own pleasures. In an effort to “keep” attendees, those attitudes have infiltrated our churches. We have done everything we can to make Christianity entertaining and comfortable – and as a result have cheapened the grace that amazed our forefathers and brought them to their knees trembling in reverent worship.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theological martyred by Hitler, wrote a book called “The Cost of Discipleship.” In it he warned of something he labeled “cheap grace.” He wrote, “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace.”
Cheap grace is defined as forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, and communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.
May we never settle for cheap grace. May our churches cease mollycoddling attendees and begin to teach and model discipleship … obedient, holy, cross-carrying discipleship.
I’ve been reading in Jeremiah the past few days. Chapter 9 has a familiar passage. “This is what the LORD says: The wise man must not boast in his wisdom; the strong man must not boast in his strength; the wealthy man must not boast in his wealth. But the one who boasts should boast in this, that he understands and knows Me – that I am Yahweh, showing faithful love, justice and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things.” [9:23-24 Holman CSB]
Paul wrote, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” [Gal 6:14-15 NIV]
Those scripture verses made me question, of what do I boast? I boast of my grandchildren for sure! Love those guys. Do I boast of other things? I know I don’t boast in wisdom, I’m not all that wise. I don’t boast in strength, not at 71 years of age anyway. And I certainly don’t boast of wealth! But I probably do boast about other things on occasion.
Do I boast that I know God? Do I boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ? Yes, I think I do. I am in love with the Savior, with my Lord and King. I am constantly amazed that God loves me and that He has called me and shown His faithful love to me. I am overwhelmed at times just thinking about what it means to walk with Him in this life and the promise of eternity with Him.
I will boast only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ—His sinless life, His death on the cross for me, His resurrection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaNUsY5ft1U
A W Tozer is one of my favorite authors. I have been reading for a second time “The Crucified Life; How to Live out a Deeper Christian Experience.” It is a book of the writings of Tozer compiled and edited by James L. Snyder. Tozer wrote, “The only Christians you want to listen to are the ones who give you more of a hunger for God.”
That is my greatest desire. When I bring a message on Sunday or write a daily devotion, I don’t just want to inform or spoon-feed my thoughts or ideas, I want to make you hungry, hungry for more of God.
I walked into a store the other day and was assaulted with the most delightfully sweet fragrance, and immediately I was hungry for what they were baking. The aromas emanating from the ovens triggered something in my brain that overrode the fact that I had just eaten! I should not be hungry, but oh, I surely was.
That should be the way it is with us spiritually. Our preachers should be creating in us a hunger for more of God. They should be making the love of Jesus our Lord the all-consuming desire of our life. We should walk away from our church services wanting more of what we experienced there.
It was at the end of Paul’s life, after walking with and serving the Lord for so long, that he wrote: “I want to know Christ.” [Philippians 3:10]
May we be like Paul, even more hungry for Christ at the end of our life than we are now.
Enough, I’m tired of thinking about the things bombarding Christianity. Today I want to think about something beautiful and lovely instead. I want Good News, not the news proclaimed by the ‘god of this world’ who seems very adept at blinding the eyes of unbelievers.
I want to think about Jesus. I want to think about the fact that when sin abounds, grace will abound even more! I want to think about falling in love once again with the Savior of my soul. I want to sing the great doxology with Jude, a servant of the Lord and a brother of James (both of whom were “brothers” of our Lord Jesus).
“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” [Jude 24-25 NIV]
He will keep us from falling … even while the enemy of our soul is doing everything he can to trip us.
He will present us before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy … even while the enemy of our soul is doing everything he can to tempt us to sin and load us with guilt and shame.
Our Savior, the only God, reigns with all glory, majesty, power and authority, now and forevermore. And we are secure in Him. Yes, that is what I want to think about today. Amen and Amen.
Well, well, well. While searching for an article on Jerry Brown (CA’s Governor) and the CA Legislature banning the Bible, I came across this one. MSN reports that GQ magazine added the Bible to their list of books you don’t have to read. Here’s an opening quote from MSN’s article:
“GQ magazine, a bible of ‘grooming’ tips, gadget suggestions and style advice, has sparked a social media conflagration by calling the Christian Holy Bible ‘foolish, repetitive and contradictory’ and placing it on a list of ‘21 Books You Don’t Have to Read.’” [You can read the entire article using the link below *]
The MSN article continues: “’The Holy Bible is rated very highly by all the people who supposedly live by it but who in actuality have not read it,’ novelist Jesse Ball writes in the magazine. ‘Those who have read it know there are some good parts, but overall it is certainly not the finest thing that man has ever produced.’”
Ah, therein lies the problem! GQ magazine and novelist Jesse Ball think man produced it! They think it is old, dead literature. We know it to be God-inspired – the true Word of God.
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. [Hebrews 4:12-13 NIV]
It will be extremely sad to hear some of the excuses people will use for rejecting God when called upon to give their account before Him.
Most of us are familiar with Paul’s instruction to Timothy in his second letter. “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction.” [2 Tim 4:2 NIV]
When I read through my Bible each year, I use a different translation, sometime the NKJV, other times the NIV or American Standard. This year I’m reading the Holman Christian Standard Bible. When I came to 2 Timothy 4:2, I really enjoyed how their translators phrased it. “Proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct and encourage with great patience and teaching.”
“Persist in it whether convenient or not.” We are a convenience people. We are surrounded with convenience. We have convenience stores; prepared food; drive-thru food, dry cleaning, wedding chapels; one-day shipping and on-line everything! We don’t even have to leave our chairs to turn the thermostats up or down, lock our doors, or turn on our music.
Being prepared and persistent in proclaiming the Good News, however, is rarely convenient. It requires study time, experience with the Giver of the Good News, and a heart that is willing to let everything else go just to bring one soul to Christ Jesus. At our church we are praying for Revival—it’s not convenient. It requires our time and diligence and desperation to see a spiritual awakening.
I wonder, when we appear before the Lord Jesus at the end of our lives if “it just wasn’t convenient” will be an acceptable excuse for not persisting in sharing the Good News?
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.