Past Devotions

“…of a mild type or character that does not threaten health or life.” [Mirriam-Webster Dictionary]

That is a definition of the word “benign,” a word spoken to me at a recent medical appointment. It evoked an immediate response of relief and peace. Afterwards, as I thought about that response, I realized that with just the mention of certain words, there is an immediate reaction that often arrives before we even have a chance to think about it.

That also applies to the negative. Words such as “cancer,” or “divorce,” or “fired” will often evoke an immediate response of worry and fear.

There is also another word (a name actually), that arouses immediate reactions. Talk about “God” in a generic sense and most people are okay. But mention the name of Jesus and watch what happens.

For those who love Christ Jesus the LORD, there is a welcoming, joyful reaction that warms the soul. For others, there is a flinch or withdrawal from the conversation.

Jesus … the Name Above All Names, the Name before which everyone at some point will bow the knee, requires a decision—either For or Against.

I decided “For” 51 years ago. A decision I have NEVER regretted.

Now when I hear the name Jesus, my heart cries out … I love You LORD!

I am reading Peter’s first letter.  At the very beginning Peter talks about being God’s elect, about being chosen, about this new birth that we have obtained into a living hope through Christ Jesus.  Then I stumbled into the word, “therefore.”

1 Peter 1:13: “Therefore, prepare your minds for action . . ..”  [NIV]

Therefore means that as a result of what Peter just wrote, the following is an action that should happen. And the first thing that should happen is that we should “prepare [our] minds for action.”   I like the way the New King James translates that phrase, “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind . . ..”  [NKJV]

In Peter’s day men wore long flowing robes.  Any woman who has ever tried to run in a long skirt knows that it isn’t easy.  So, in Peter’s day, men wore a girdle.  The girdle was a belt through which they could hitch up their robe to be able to move or run freely.  Workmen, runners, warriors, travelers, all girded themselves up to prevent the garment from impeding motion.

As Christians we have a work, a race, a war, a journey to accomplish and that means that we must prepare our minds for such.  We can’t let our affections, our attitudes, our thoughts loosely hang around and hinder.   We are supposed to pull them in, gird them as it were so that we can obediently accomplish all that God has purposed for us.

Every thought that would hinder us is to be reined in and restrained, just like those flowing robes were reined in and restrained to allow the workmen and warriors to go about their necessary business.

Oh Christian, gird up the loins of your mind!  Prepare your mind for action!

I’m standing in the garage gazing at all the stuff that has accumulated since we moved here in 2007. Stuff has always been a pet peeve of mine (even my stuff).  You know stuff, the stuff in the stores, the stuff in our houses, the stuff we must rent storage sheds for since there is no more room in our garages to hold it all.

This is a consumer economy, so the one message aimed at us continually in this country is that we need more stuff, and bigger stuff, and better stuff.  Our stores have to be larger to hold all the new stuff as well as the old stuff.  Or they start selling more stuff online so they don’t have to build bigger stores to hold it all; they can just ship from warehouses or manufacturers. Shipping companies are thriving because we are sending so much stuff from one place to another.

Stuff … walk through a mall and just look at the stuff.  As I do so I usually have two thoughts … first, can I live without this; second, what would someone from a very poor village or refugee camp think about this stuff.

We have too much money in this country.  We have too much greed.  We fill our homes with useless pieces of things that have no meaning, purpose, or use, except to fill a desire or satisfy a whim.

Maybe I’m being too hard on us as a nation.  Maybe it’s okay to be surrounded with meaningless pieces of treasure.  Maybe God doesn’t mind us wasting our money, or buying bigger, newer, things constantly.  Maybe.

I don’t want to be a consumer.  I want to be a giver.  I want to share … not just my dollars and cents, but my life, my good news, my freedom.

Luke 6:38: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” 

Watching the summer Olympics, it is clear that only a few will receive medals. Many more go home empty handed. I wonder if they ever feel sorry for themselves not standing on the winner’s podium. I know that every now and again when I don’t realize my goals, the enemy of my soul tries to make me feel sorry for myself. When that happens, the Holy Spirit often redirects me to the Letter to the Philippians.

Paul wrote the Letter to the Philippians from prison and probably had every reason to feel sorry for himself.  Yet it isn’t self-pity which permeates the pages of Philippians, it is joy.  Sixteen times in four short chapters Paul mentions joy or rejoicing.

The reason Paul is so joyful is that he’s so full of Christ.  In addition to the many mentions of joy in those four short chapters, there are more than 40 mentions of our Savior.  Forty-plus times in 104 verses Paul refers to our Savior either by His name, Jesus, or His title, Christ, or a combination of the two.

There is more “Jesus per square inch” in Philippians than there is in any other book of the Bible.  It is only because Paul is revolving around Jesus that the JOY springs forth.  Paul doesn’t see Jesus in the heavenlies, as he did in Ephesians, sitting at the place of all authority and power.  Paul sees the all-sufficiency of Christ in day-by-day living.

Each of the chapters in Philippians presents a picture of what Jesus is to us in our everyday life.  Chapter 1 speaks of Christ our life.  Chapter 2 outlines Christ our mind.  In Chapter 3 we see Christ as our goal.  And last, in Chapter 4, Christ is our strength.

Our life, our mind, our goal, and our strength; Jesus is all sufficient for every part of our lives. Amen!

“Grab your coat and get your hat.  Leave your worries on the doorstep.  Just direct your feet to the sunny side of the street.”  That’s a line from an old, old song, “The Sunny Side of the Street” by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh.  It’s a song I love to sing, one line in particular: “I used to walk in the shade, with those blues on parade.  But I’m not afraid, this rover crossed over!”  

Colossians 2:16-23 is Paul’s version of “The Sunny Side of the Street.”  “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.  These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality [SONshine], however, is found in Christ.”

At the time Paul wrote this, there was a group of false teachers constantly dogging his footsteps and trying to undermine the freedom he preached in Christ.  They wanted to draw Christians back into the shadows (they still do).

Paul reminds his readers that to have a shadow, (altars, offerings, festivals, priesthood, etc.), you must have something of substance, and that substance [SONshine] is Christ.  Why return to the shadows when you can have the true substance.

In this passage Paul describes Christ Jesus (the true substance) as the “Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.” 

We are the body.  Christ is the head.  We can live without various parts of our body.  I’ve had a few surgeries in my lifetime and I’m living proof you can live with some pieces gone.  But get detached from the Head, and you’re dead.  Paul just called these false teachers with their “appearance of wisdom” dead, and warned his readers if they got caught up in these “human commands and teachings” they’d be dead also.

There’s one other line in that old song.  “Can you hear that pitter-pat? And that happy tune is your step.  Life can be complete, on the sunny side of the street!” 

SONshine (Jesus) or shadows, that’s the choice.

(I decided to end my offline time early)

Colossians 1:13-14: “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.”

God rescued us.  It can’t get any plainer than that.  God rescued us; we didn’t rescue ourselves.  It was His idea, His plan, and His Son that carried it out on Calvary.  If we ever get the feeling that God is lucky to have us, those three little words … God rescued us … should put all back in perspective.  We were dead; God gave us life through His Son. God rescued us from . . .

. . .the dominion of darkness.  I love that!  The Greek word for darkness is used throughout the New Testament as the equivalent of physical darkness, intellectual darkness, blindness, the place of punishment, moral and spiritual darkness, evil works, evil powers that dominate the world.  That’s the ugly stuff that held us in its powers.  But God rescued us, from the power of darkness and He . . .

. . . brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.  He didn’t rescue us from the power of darkness and drop us just anywhere.  He brought us into the kingdom, into the kingdom of the Son He loves, the Son who gave His life for our rescue.  And it is in God’s very own Son that we find we have . . .

. . . redemption.  “Redeemed!  How I love to proclaim it.  Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.  Redeemed through His infinite mercy.  His child and forever I am!”   We have been delivered and ransomed.  We are no longer captives, slaves to darkness’ power.  We have been redeemed and set free by the very blood of God’s own Son.  And even more, we have . . .

. . . the forgiveness of sins.  Forgiveness.  “’Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD.  ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’”  [Isaiah 1:18]

Forgiven.  God has forgiven my sins.  They will never be thrown up in my face, they will never be put on display, they will never be whispered about in heaven, they are forever covered by the Precious Blood of God’s Lamb.

Two short verses, a couple of lines in my Bible, a few words.  And held within those few words are our lives, past and present as well as the hope for a glorious eternal future.  Glory to God.