Tag Archives: Devotion

January 14, 2016 · 5:55 AM

Our Mission

We live in a dog eat dog world. Most people are only out for themselves. When I was younger, you didn’t pass someone on the shoulder who had a flat tire. You pulled over and offered help. Now, we say, “They have a cell phone. I’m sure they’ll call someone for help if they need it.” We don’t give them a second thought because we are going somewhere and we don’t have time to be inconvenienced by someone else’s problem. That’s a spiritual problem that has bled over into our physical world.

  
The Church was founded and built upon helping those in need. It was a beacon on a hill because it was different. It was a group of people whose mission was to serve and help those who were broken down on the Road of Life. The Church fed the hungry. They clothed the poor. The people brought their extra money and possessions to the church with the intent of helping the whole community. When the Church did that, it grew by the thousands daily.

Now, the Church spends its money on many things and has lost its mission. Look at a giving envelope. Very few churches still have a line item for alms and even fewer people give towards it. I believe it’s the number one cause for the lack of explosive growth in the Church today. We have ceased to be a communal organization and have become more like an exclusive club you can belong to. We accept people who look right, act right, and live right. We’ve forgotten our mission to help the broken and hurting.

The military’s phrase, “Leave no man behind,” should be the Church’s mission statement. If we want to reach thousands, we have to get back to that communal place where our purpose and mission is helping others wherever and however they are broken down. It’s not our pastor’s responsibility to make that happen either, it’s ours individually. You can’t read the New Testament as if it was written to pastors, leaders, or even an individual. It was written to each of us as a community of believers.

In Ephesians 6:18, right after Paul tells us to put on God’s Armor, he tells us, “Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out” (MSG). That is written to you and me as individuals in the body. The burden is on us to heal the broken by loving them, to give to those less fortunate to help them along, to support those who are struggling in life, and to encourage those who are down. If each of us will do our part, we will revive not only the Church, but our nation and world.

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January 12, 2016 · 5:45 AM

The Tamarisk Tree

  
In Genesis 21, Abraham had been living in the Promised Land as a foreigner for a while. After he made a treaty with Abimelech, verse 33 says, “Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he worshiped the LORD, the Eternal God” (NLT). I don’t know if Abimelech was there for the planting or if it was just a sign to God, but it was no coincidence that he planted a tamarisk tree given the promise God had made to him about that land.

According to forestry.about.com, the tamarisk tree is an invasive tree that spreads rapidly. It has the ability to survive in harsh conditions. It is very adaptable to whatever conditions it faces. I can’t think of a better tree that depicts the Israelites and God’s plan for them. God had given them that land, and Abraham had been given the promise that he would have as many descendants as there were stars. His family would flourish and spread throughout that region one day.

The tree is also representative of how we as Christians are to be. God did not plant us where we are in order to be quiet about our faith. He expects us to advance the Gospel rapidly, even in the harsh conditions we live in today. In Mark 16:15, Jesus told us, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” He wanted us to be invasive with His message. It has never been about waiting for someone to come to you with questions about your faith. It has always been about us being proactive.

The tamarisk tree is also a survivor. It adapts to be able to thrive in the harshest conditions. Throughout history, it’s been in the harshest conditions that the Gospel has spread the most. With the social pressures and unfriendly conditions towards Christianity that we face today, you can expect that the Gospel is about to spread rapidly once again. We must be adaptable in the face of such pressure instead of allowing it to shut us down. As history begins to repeat itself, we need to be prepared for another Great Awakening. Our faith must become stronger than ever.

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January 11, 2016 · 5:30 AM

The God Who Sees

  
Have you ever felt like God doesn’t see you? Does it feel like He doesn’t see you or even know your name? It sometimes can feel like God has forgotten you when things aren’t going your way. Hagar, Sarai’s maid servant, felt that way. She had been handed over to Abram as a wife by her master with the intent of getting pregnant and giving up her child to Sarai. No one asked her or God if that’s what they wanted, but here she was pregnant with Abram’s seed. She was despised by Sarai and chased off.

She found herself going from a place of security to insecurity. She went from knowing where she was going to sleep and not having to worry about food to being homeless and hungry. She broke down in the desert. She wept and cried out to God. He sent an angel to meet her in the wilderness. He called her by name in Genesis 16:8. He said, “Hagar, where have you come from and where are you going?” (NLT)

The angel of God knew where she was and her name just like He knows your name and where you are. You may be crying in the wilderness because you’ve been done wrong as well, but God sees you. He will meet you in that place and bless you. He will not leave you in the wilderness unprotected and despondent. When you cry out to Him, He will answer because you are not forgotten. You are important to Him and are not hidden from His view.

In verse 13, she calls God by a new name, El-Roi. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” In that moment, the doubts fled. She knew that God saw her broken in the wilderness. If He saw her, then He sees you. Each one of us are important to Him. You don’t have to be living the blessed life for Him to know where you are. You can be a single mom who is homeless and not sure where to go or what to do like Hagar, and God will hear your cry because He sees you. No matter how bad things are, you are not forgotten. God sees you and will meet you in your wilderness.

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January 8, 2016 · 5:30 AM

A Bird In The Hand

  
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” is a proverb so many of us were raised with. From our childhood we are taught that we should hold onto what is certain instead of going for the unsure thing. We are taught that risk isn’t worth it through this proverb. I would even say that this proverb teaches against faith. It tells us to hold on to what we have instead of letting go to see what God might give us.

Abraham was a man who walked by faith. In Genesis 12:1, the Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s home, and go to a land that I am going to show you” (NLT). In this verse, God is asking Abram to let go of the bird in the hand. He had security where he was. He had his father’s inheritance coming to him and the protection of family too. God was saying, “Walk away from all of this, and I will give you more than you could ever imagine or think of.”

I believe God still speaks that to us today. I believe He calls each one of us to trust Him on a level beyond where we are so that He can give us more than we have. The promise is only good if we let go of the bird in the hand. Abram was promised descendants, a nation, blessings, and fame if only he would walk away from everything he knew. I wonder how long he wrestled with it. I wonder how long he questioned if he had really heard from God.

Because Abram was human, you know he had to struggle with these questions just like you and I. The difference is that he was willing let go of the temporary for the eternal while so many of us never let go. God called you and I to live by faith and not by site. He called us to let go of the bird in the hand and to trust Him. Abram didn’t know where God was sending him and his wife had already proven to be barren. What God promised didn’t make sense, but he trusted God.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” The Lord told Abram to leave his home and He would show him where to go. God tells us the same thing here. If we will trust Him, without over thinking it, He will show us the path to take to receive the blessings of His will for our life.

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January 7, 2016 · 5:30 AM

Dead End Relationships

  
Have you ever been in a dead end relationship? The kind where you know it’s going no where, but don’t know what to do. You can choose to keep going, but sooner or later, you know you’re going to find an abrupt halt because you’re getting nothing out of the relationship. All it does is take from you emotionally and drains you physically until you feel trapped in it. You feel like you can’t breathe the longer it goes on because it’s strangling you. That’s what continuing in a life of sin is like.

It might be fun for a while, but ultimately, it’s a dead end. Paul described it this way in Romans 6:20-22, “As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end” (MSG). The longer you live opposed to God’s way, the less fulfilled you become. You begin to feel trapped much like a dead end relationship.

The way out of a dead end relationship is to break off all ties. The same thing is true for ending your relationship with a life that is opposed to God’s way. You have to cut off the ties that would lead you back to that life. You have to embrace the freedom that God gives. The funny thing is that living for God is painted as a list of don’t’s that will keep you from really living. It’s the opposite that’s true. You will never know what true freedom is until you surrender your will to God’s and give up the sin you’ve been holding on to.

Living the way you want ends in spiritual death, but living the way God wants you to live ends up with spiritual life. Romans 6:23 says, “Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.” If you’re looking to have your life healed and put back together, break ties with sin, and submit to God. Live for Him and you’ll find the relationship you’ve been looking for that has no end.

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January 6, 2016 · 5:30 AM

Fight Or Flight

  
When things go wrong and your world starts to fall apart, it seems everyone is full of advice on where to go and what to do. David faced something similar in Psalm 11. His response was, “I trust in the Lord for protection” (NLT). They thought he should take flight to the mountains for protection. They painted a picture of a world that was collapsing and wanted him to trust in something else for protection instead of God.

David again responded in verse 4, “But the LORD is in his holy Temple; the LORD still rules from heaven. He watches everyone closely, examining every person on earth.” He knew that no matter what comes our way, God is still on His throne in Heaven. He is still in charge of everything, and nothing happens without His knowledge. David didn’t allow the circumstances around him to move Him from a place of security with the Lord.

When things get hairy, if we don’t take flight, our other natural instinct is to fight. David found his peace in knowing that the Lord provided his protection and that kept him from making the mistake of fighting or taking flight. He knew that God would fight on his behalf. Verse 6 says, “He (God) will rain down blazing coals and burning sulfur on the wicked, punishing them with scorching winds.” The Lord vindicates the righteous and fights for them.

The next time you find yourself in a situation where you want to fight or take flight, find your peace in trusting God for your protection. Don’t listen to those who would coax you out of that secure place. The only real protection we have is in the Lord. Other options may sound like a good idea in the heat of the moment, so decide now that you won’t take flight from the Lord’s protection or fight a fight that is His.

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January 4, 2016 · 5:30 AM

Giving The Best

One of the oldest stories in the Bible is the story of Cain and Abel. Cain was a farmer and Abel was a rancher. They both grew up in fellowship with God. They knew who He was and talked with Him. To show their appreciation of His provision, they each offered God a gift. At harvest, Cain offered God some of his crops. They weren’t the best crops or he first part of the harvest. There was nothing outstanding about them. It was just some of what he grew, and the Bible says that God did not accept Cain or his gift.

Abel, on the other hand, offered God the pick of the litter. Genesis 4:4 says, “Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock” (NLT). He wanted to give God his very best and the first pick. He knew that all he had came from God nod he wanted to show how appreciative he was. God accepted this gift because it wasn’t his leftovers or just a few lambs from his flock. It was the best lambs and the best cuts of meat.

Each of us have a choice in what we offer God. Are we giving Him the best part of our day or the leftovers? Are we giving tithes and offerings as soon as we get paid or are we just dropping a twenty in the plate? Are we using the talents He’s given us to further His kingdom or to fill our pockets and fill our house? One of each of these choices pleases God and the other causes Him to not only reject what we give, but to reject us as well.

This time of year, so many people make resolutions that they probably won’t keep because they don’t want to sacrifice. If they were going to make those changes, they’d already be doing them instead of waiting until the first of the year. They don’t make them because their heart isn’t in it. The same thing is true with our gifts to God. If God doesn’t fully have our heart, we won’t give Him the best of what we have to offer. If we trust Him and His Word, and we truly believe that all we have comes from God, we will give Him our very best.

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December 30, 2015 · 5:30 AM

Life Is A Journey

  
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” One of these things is certainty and one is not. It’s all the uncertainties that make our journey worthwhile. Life is anything but certain. No one is guaranteed anything and hard times fall on each of us. It’s God’s desire that we find Him on this journey and to find our purpose in Him. I Peter 1:18 says, “Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God” (MSG).

Even though life is not a destination, we all have one. Finding God, through His Son Jesus, determines that destination. Once we have a destination, we begin to plot our course just like any other trip. Even though we have a course laid out, there will be traffic, detours, pit stops, and other unforeseen events in our path creating the journey. Some of our best stories come from those things, and the same is true of our journey to Heaven.

Since none of us are perfect and all of us are incapable of living exactly like we are supposed to, our trip to Heaven gets a little bumpy. Those bumpy times are what creates our testimony. Even though we detour at times, go through construction, or find a bumpy road, God is there with us like a GPS constantly rerouting us and asking us to take a U-Turn. We make the choice of following His direction or our own.

In John 14, Jesus told the disciples that He was going away to Heaven and that they knew the way. They responded, “Master, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?” Jesus was inviting them and us on this journey to Heaven, but they were lost as we are sometimes. So Jesus responded, “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You’ve even seen him!” He was telling us how to have a deep consciousness of God. It through knowing Him.

Wherever you are in this journey, it’s important to gain a greater consciousness of Him. There is no one who has a full knowledge of Him so there is always room to grow. Each one of us has to find it on our own. It doesn’t just come through reading the Bible or hearing about other people’s journey. It comes through having a relationship with Him. It comes through spending time praying, walking by faith, and in mediating on His Word. He’s calling each of us to a deeper knowledge and consciousness of who He is. The more you know Him, the more meaningful your journey will be.

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December 28, 2015 · 6:29 AM

Risk Everything

  

With one year winding down and another about to begin, I think it’s always good to look back and reflect on the previous year. Ask yourself, “What went well? What do I wish would have happened differently? What changes do I need to make to have a better year next year?” You may be able to answer the first two pretty quickly, but take your time on the third. I would even recommend fasting and prayer so that you do the right things to get the right result.

When you read the story of Esther, you find that in the first month of the year, Haman sent out a decree to kill all Jews. Her first response was that she couldn’t do anything to change the course of her fate. She opted to stay silent and do nothing out of fear. What her uncle Moredecai knew was that if she did nothing, she would reap the consequences of doing nothing. If there was going to be a change, it required her to do what she had never done. It required great risk.

If you want a greater change in your life, you’re going to have to take a great risk. You can only guess what will result from the changes you make. Esther knew this too. That’s why she didn’t do it without seeking God first and having others pray with her. In Esther 4:16, she sent word to Moredecai saying, “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die” (NLT).

She was willing to risk everything to change everything, but she wasn’t willing to do it without fasting and prayer. If you feel like a major change is needed in your life next year, let me encourage you to seek God through fasting and prayer. Ask Him what you need to risk and change so He can do the miraculous for you. Ask Him to open doors that seem shut. Then, you will have to do what Esther did and take that step of faith that God asks you to do. Esther saved her people, not just because she prayed, but because she took a risk and went before the king uninvited.

I don’t know what stepping in front of a king looks like for you, but God can reveal it to you though fasting and prayer. Hebrews 11 is a chapter that reminds us of people who stepped out in faith and risked everything. They are the ones in the Bible who trusted God above all else, and they took risks without knowing they would get the reward. Verse 6 says, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” If you will have faith and seek God, He will reward your faith.

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December 24, 2015 · 5:30 AM

I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

This time of year, it becomes obvious that many of us don’t remember much more than the first verse of most Christmas Carols. As we lead up to Christmas this week, I want to explore some powerful verses in some of my favorite carols.

  
On April 8, 1966, the Time magazine cover asked, “Is God Dead?” In a world where we have a telescope in space looking to the far reaches of the universe and using the Hadron Collider to try to find the “God particle”, many people wonder if there is a need for God in order to explain the creation of the universe and our existence. They see God only as an uneducated person’s explanation of the universe instead of a diety involved in our lives.

When we reduce God to just an explanation of creation, we allow Him to be seen as of no use and dead to society. When bad things happen in our culture, people always ask, “Where is God? Why did He allow that to happen?” But when we fail to put logs on a fire, we don’t ask, “Where is the heat? Why are we being allowed to freeze?” We can’t kick God out of our culture, schools, and government then ask where He is when bad things happen.

He sent His Son into the world to bring life and light into our darkness. John 1:4-5 says, “The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it” (NLT). He was sent to right the wrongs of sin and to chase away the darkness that it brought. The star above the stable was representative of what He was doing. He was sending light into our world that will lead us to salvation.

There is a Christmas Carol called “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day”. It’s very powerful and moving. Here’s the verse that stands out to me:

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail

With peace on earth, good will to men.”

God is not dead, nor is He simply an explanation for our very being. He is a loving God who is involved in our daily lives. We were created with purpose and our lives have meaning. To think there is no God and that we are simply here by random chance is to say there is no right or wrong and that life has no meaning. God sent His Son to us to show us that we matter. He sent Him to show He cares about our struggles mentally, physically, and spiritually. He came to right the wrongs, to bring peace on earth, and goodwill to men. 

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