Past Devotions

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.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/gq-magazine-puts-bible-on-list-of-classic-books-not-worth-reading-incurs-the-wrath-of-christians/ar-AAweGHY?ocid=spartandhp

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.

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.