05.18.09
“ONE FEAR-OBJECT”
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This devotion was written by Neil T. Anderson, Daily in Christ
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ONE FEAR-OBJECT
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It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread . Isaiah 8:13
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A severe storm hit the East Coast, and the Coast Guard was summoned to respond to a ship in crisis. A young sailor, new on board, was terrorized by the prospect and proclaimed, “We can’t go out. We’ll never come back!” The seasoned captain responded, “We must go out. We don’t have to come back.” Duty called and responsibility overcame fear.
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If we’re going to walk by faith, there can be only one fear-object in our lives, and that’s God. We are responsible to Him. He is the ultimate fear-object because He is omnipotent and omnipresent. The fear of the Lord is healthy because it is the one fear that expels all other fears (Isaiah 8:11-14). All other fear-objects pale in comparison to our holy God. We need to be like David who proclaimed before Goliath, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26). The Hebrew army saw Goliath in relation to themselves and cowered in defeat. David saw Goliath in relation to God and conquered in His strength.
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When the 12 spies checked out the Promised Land, 10 of them came back and responded, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us” (Numbers 13:31). They didn’t see God in the land; they saw giants (verse 33). With that perspective, “all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night” (Numbers 14:1).
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Joshua and Caleb responded, “Do not rebel against the LORD; and do not fear the people of the land, for they shall be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them” (Numbers 14:9). The people did rebel. They accepted the majority report instead of listening to Caleb and Joshua. By accepting the Canaanites’ will over God’s will, they elevated the power and eminence of the Canaanites over the omnipotence and omnipresence of God. To honor God as the ultimate fear-object is to worship Him. To be controlled by any other fear-object is to allow it to usurp God’s place in our lives.
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Prayer:
Lord, I want to be a God-pleaser in all I do today, not a man-pleaser or a coward.
05.12.09
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This devotion was written by Charles R. Swindoll, Day by Day
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Resting Our Minds, Part Two
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3 You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.
(Isa 26:3-4 NIV)
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How could Joseph forgive his brothers who had mistreated him so badly? We saw it yesterday: plain and simple, he left all vengeance to the Lord. To use our terms, Josephrested and relaxed, trusting in His God.
At the climax of this great story, we read the secret of Joseph’s life:
His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” (Genesis 50:18-20)
Question: How could Joseph respond like that? Why didn’t he feel angry and seek to have them punished? Answer: He could forgive them because his mind focused on the sovereignty of God. Rather than nursing hatred and plans for revenge, he deliberately took the long view and realized that God, who “causes all things to work together for good” (Romans 8:28), had a plan for saving Joseph’s own family—and that would never have happened had Joseph not been in Egypt where he was promoted to a role of leadership that gave him authority of that vast food supply.
To use our terms, he mentally rested and relaxed. Because he made the Lord his God the center of his focus, good resulted from all that evil. And in the meantime, Joseph enjoyed an inner peace rather than inner torment. It’s exactly as the prophet Isaiah once wrote:
“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace,
Because he trusts in You.
Trust in the LORD forever,
For in God the LORD , we have an everlasting Rock.” (Isaiah 26:3-4)
So much for Joseph—now it’s your turn. For you to have that kind of “perfect peace,” for you to enjoy a life of mental rest and relaxation, you need to lay aside the hatchet, erase your mental hit list, and forgive all those who have done you wrong. Start that process today.
Like, NOW.
03.25.09
“POSTMODERN POTTER”
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POSTMODERN POTTER
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Isa 45:4-9 NIV
4 For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. 5 I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me,
6 so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.
8 “You heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it; I, the LORD, have created it.
9 “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?
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Accountability and criticism go hand in hand with democracy. Given human nature, measures must be taken to ensure the integrity of government that is of, by, and for the people. But for the hyper skeptical, how do you go from a system where every decision is scrutinized to one of absolute trust in an absolutely good and wise leader?
Despite our technological prowess, those of us operating out of the massive distrust of authority so endemic to the postmodernic perspective find ourselves hamstrung in our key relationships. Trust is a rare commodity for those who have clung to altar of hyper critique.
To reach us, God comes to us; in the flesh. But He remains not sequestered at our level; rather He ascends to His rightful place, i.e. the heavens. And for our very good, we are reminded that we are but clay in the potter’s hand.
In this morning’s passage from Isaiah, God’s people in exile are balking at God’s choice of deliverer, i.e. Cyrus the King of Persia. Putting God in a box, they refuse and reject the choices of Sovereign Yahweh. In response, a rebuke is leveled their way. Who are you, and who am I? Who creates light and darkness? Who engineers the movements of celestial bodies, and determines precipitation levels? Who orchestrates prosperity and disaster? Who is Creator and Redeemer?
Like Job needing a loving rebuke to open up blessing; the people of God are then rightfully prepared to take upon the New Exodus path to redemption.
Is this same dynamic at work in our context? For are we not similarly rebuked in our modernic arrogance; that creation and redemption are in our hands?
As absolute potter, by both power and right God rules with unquestioned sovereignty. The surprise for the us the clay is that the result is our unimaginable good. For this potter works his craft with transcendent genius and love; as we yield to the pressure of His hand.
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QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
- This morning, will you delight to be in the Master’s workshop; that He has you on the wheel with grand designs in mind? Will you praise His skill, His love, and His power in shaping you, and even every facet of the universe?
- How might have you drunk this culture’s Kool Aid in arrogantly critiquing God’s rule? What might it mean for you to recant in dust; and yield to the pressure of His hand in your life?
- Will you take time in silence to attend to what God might want to show you or share with you this morning?
This devotion was written by Pastor Martin
03.23.09
“BLIND GUIDED”
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BLIND GUIDED
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Isa 42:16-20 NIV
16 I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.
17 But those who trust in idols, who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back in utter shame.
18 “Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see!
19 Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one committed to me, blind like the servant of the LORD?
20 You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing.”
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John 9:39-41 NIV
39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
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The ability to see is an ability oft taken for granted. It enables one to assess unfamiliar terrain, and plot a course through a series of navigable options. Bereft of such, one who is blind must either remain in the familiar, or trust in the leadership of a trusted guide. How foolish would it for one without sight to traverse precarious topography from which even sighted novices would refrain. What’s worse, how irresponsible, even criminal would it be for the blind to assume the role of guide.
This is the situation that Yahweh decries in Isaiah 42. The very people who were tasked to be the light to the world ended up deaf and blind. Idolatry dulled their spiritual senses, morphing them to be like that which they worshipped: with eyes but unable to see God; with ears but irresponsive to God’s voice. Having cut themselves off from God, how were they to lead others to the very fountain of salvific life?
The Pharisee’s confronting Jesus model this very travesty. Demanding that they have spiritual sight, they do more than mislead others looking for God; they actively seek to keep them from the sight giver.
They are doubly offended by Jesus: first for healing the blind outside their authority, then for being called blind themselves. Their very attestations to self sufficient sight before the giver of sight indict them of their idolatrous guilt.
On the flip side, acknowledgment of blindness and the willingness to be led by the God of life results in the miraculous. New creation comes into play. Eyes and ears are freshly formed: eyes that behold the countenance of God’s face, and ears that resound with His sweet and thunderous voice. Eyes to survey the broken terrain of the world, ears to hear the cries of the forlorn; empowered to guide the blind to foot of the cross of Christ already in their midst.
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QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
- This morning, will you worship in Spirit and in truth; revering the one who delights to cause the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to break out in dance, and the mute to cry our praises?
- Will you reflect, is there any idolatrous activity within your heart; i.e. trust in counterfeit gods for security or significance? If there is, would you turn away from that death dealing drug, and turn to Jesus? Will you ask God for a new sensitivity to see and hear Him this morning?
- Will you pray for new creation in the hearts, eyes, and ears of those wracked by sin and its consequences around you? Will you ask that God would reveal the cross of Christ in their midst, and lead them to Himself?
This devotional was written by Pastor Martin
03.14.09
“SUBLIME WISDOM”
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“SUBLIME WISDOM”
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Isa 55:8-9 NIV
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
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1 Cor 1:18-25
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
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To the physicist limited to a Newtonian understanding of the world, quantum mechanics ala Albert Einstein makes no sense at all. How can regular observable laws shift the closer you get to light speed, and the smaller you go; down to the subatomic level? Though Einstein’s wisdom is foolishness to the absolute Newtonians, it opens up a whole new way of understanding the world.
Now when it comes to a wisdom debate between God and man, the rift is even greater. For we are unable to even grasp the spiritual physics, much less argue it before God. But in God’s astounding grace, he distills His love and understanding to us; in as simple a form as e=mc2. He reveals that which we could not see, and opens up a whole new world through the crucifixion and resurrection of his sinless Son.
In response, ought we not draw all the more from the sublime wisdom He reveals in Christ? Instead of arguing with God about how to live our lives, ought we not all the more apply the spiritual quantum physics of love and forgiveness, humility and holiness which flow from the cross?
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QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
- As you come to Him this morning, will you bow in humility before God; acknowledging that His wisdom is so far higher than yours? Will you adore the splendor of your God who is consummately wise?
- Will you revoke your established infrastructure of wisdom, in order to receive a new one? Will you ask for His sublime wisdom to flow through your thoughts, decisions, and relationships?
- For those who are stuck in a truncated, pre-Christ worldview; will you pray that God would pull back the curtain and reveal the crucified, resurrected Messiah to them?
This devotion was written by Pastor Martin
01.20.09
“HE DID NOT TAKE THINGS PERSONALLY”
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Laurie Beth Jones, Jesus in Blue Jeans. A Practical Guide to Everyday Spirituality (New York: Hyperion, 1997), pp. 22-26.
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HE DID NOT TAKE THINGS PERSONALLY
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“The Lord Yahweh comes to my help, so that I am untouched by the insults.”–Isaiah 50:5-7 (New Jerusalem Bible)
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Jesus did not take the insults and accusations of the scribes and the Pharisees personally. He saw their words as emanating from impure hearts, so he didn’t agonize over the mud they slung. He knew their bitterness was rooted in their own misery and not caused by him. He concentrated on his mission, despite their insults. His refusal to take their attacks personally extended even unto death. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
IN his poem “The Wood-Pile” Robert Frost describes his experience of walking through a forest. “A small bird flew before me. He was careful / To put a tree between us when lighted. / …He thought that I was after him for a feather–/ The white one in his tail; like the one who takes / Everything said as personal to himself.” Frost finds the self-centeredness of the bird amusing, as if in the entire forest there is only one thing worth seeing or having–the bird’s tail feather. Yet haven’t we all encountered people like that, people who seem to think that every comment or action exists for the sole purpose of doing them harm?
A friend of mine had a boss who used to spend hours every day monitoring everyone’s phone calls. Newly appointed to his position, he was sure that the team was now out to get him and would use every opportunity to make him look bad. Granted, the team did not care for him much, but the truth was, their phone calls did not concern him at all–or contained only the slightest references to him, as one might wave off a fly at a picnic. I remember once being offended because a man sitting next to me on a plane seemed unresponsive to my jokes. Only when we were exiting did I realize that he was deaf.
Maturity is realizing that we are not the center of the world…or the office…or the team. Maturity is realizing that not every word spoken or action taken centers around–or is directed toward–us.
Several years ago I attended the final sermon of a minister who was retiring. She was exhausted and wanted to replenish herself with a long-deserved sabbatical. She was a flamboyant woman who often spoke the truth from the pulpit in highly personal and entertaining terms, and her tenure had been attended with much attention from the media not a small bit of controversy. As I stood in the vestibule after her farewell, I couldn’t help but overhear various comments from the people who had been in the congregation. A man who I knew had recently gone bankrupt said, “Yep–it’s the system that beat her. She just couldn’t take the financial pressure.” A woman who was in the throes of a divorce remarked, “I’m sure it’s her husband who pushed her to this. You can’t carry such a heavy load without support at home.” The florist who decorated the halls of the church gushed, “Could you believe that yellow dress? Wasn’t she just like an Easter lily up there?” A reporter who was mingling in the crowd commented, “I’m sure there must be some ulterior motive behind her resignation. You know her. Why did she really leave?” It was suddenly apparent to me that this minister’s decision was being interpreted by everyone according to his or her personal circumstances. Probably none of us could clearly see her for who she was, because she was in so many ways being used as a mirror by each of us. We were taking her actions personally.
On a recent tour of Europe I was flabbergasted when one of the local guides in Italy began hurling insults at our guide, upset by something she had said. In response, she simply smiled, tilted her head and walked away. When I asked her later why she had ignored his insult, she replied, “Many of the guides hired by that particular agency aren’t — shall we say — refined. What he said was merely a reflection of him. It had nothing to do with me.”
Proverbs 12:16 (The Living Bible) tells us “A fool is quick tempered; a wise person stays cool when insulted.”
A friend of mine told me that as she advanced toward her dream of getting a PhD, certain family members actually tried to stop her, telling her that she was acting “out of her element.” “I just kept saying to myself, Nancy, these insults aren’t about me, they are about them–and their own fears and feelings of inadequacy.”
Jesus did not have the time to pay heed to every insult or track down every rumor. His mission was very important and he stuck to it, despite the distractions that presented themselves.
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“The Lord Yahweh comes to my help, so that I am untouched by the insults.”–Isaiah 50:5-7 (New Jerusalem Bible)
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Jesus did not take things personally.
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Question
Do you let insults “wound” you, or let them pass right through?
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Question
What insults are being or have been hurled at you?
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Question
Could you use others’ insults as sources of information about their needs, flaws, and personalities?
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Question
Name a time when the restraint of someone’s temper saved the day.
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Question
Name a time when the loss of someone’s temper escalated the situation.
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Power Connection:
Dear Lord, help me not to be so quick to assume that everyone is talking about me, or that every insult or oversight is meant to do me harm. Help me not to be like Frost’s bird in the forest–certain that everyone is interested only in getting the white feather from my tail. Help me realize that I am just a small part of the forest, and that in general people are hiking through with their own , much larger agendas. Help me feel invincible and invisible when slander or insults are hurled at me. Help me remember not to take things personally. Amen
12.30.08
“WATERS OF TESTING”
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Exodus 17:3-7 NIV
3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
4 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
5 The LORD answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
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Isa 43:16-21 NIV
18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.
20 The wild animals honor me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the desert
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
21 the people I formed for myself
that they may proclaim my praise.
22 “Yet you have not called upon me, O Jacob,
you have not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel.
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Potable water is and has always been a precious commodity. But in the desert, it is the difference between life and death. The people of God who were delivered from Egypt during the first Exodus were accustomed to a plentiful and steady supply of water via the river Nile. But facing the arid desert without visible sources of water threw them into fits. In a tantrum of disbelief and doubt, they are ready to hurl stones at Moses; the only tangible sign of God’s leadership.
Rather than respond to their railing and rage with judgment, God grants a merciful miracle. From the very rock stricken, flowed water to satisfy the thirst of the whole community. In full view of those who would stone God if they could, God brings forth life giving water from a rock.
The place was called Massah and Meribah, which are loosely translated “testing” and “rebellion” respectively. It was a place of testing; legitimate and illicit. The waters represented God’s rightful test of His people’s hearts; and simultaneously reflected their rebellious testing of God.
This very brood, which witnessed with their own eyes the turning of the Nile into blood and the splitting of the Red Sea somehow could not bring themselves to trust God for water to drink. They somehow could not discern that God was making a way in the desert, and manufacturing miraculous streams in the wasteland.
Are we in any place to judge them?
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REFLECTION /RESPONSE
- This morning, will you join in with the jackals and the owls, in proclaiming the praise of the Sustainer of life? Will you stand as one beloved and chosen; who call upon the Lord of desert streams?
- Will you put yourself in the shoes of the Israelites? Prolonged thirst has driven you and your family to near panic. Where is there going to be enough water for the multitudes traveling through the desert? What could enable you to lift your hands in prayer, rather than in rage?
- Where are you experiencing God allowed thirst? Where are the waters of testing that God is engineering in your life? Will you call upon God in faith; that already streams in the desert are springing forth? Will you pray that the water tapped from the rock in your midst would satisfy the thirst of even those around you?
11.08.08
“COUNTER INTUITION”
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Isa 55:8-9 NIV
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
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Matt 5:3-10 NIV
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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For the natural, sinful mind; God’s ways are in many ways counter-intuitive; e.g. the last shall be first, and the first shall be last; treat truthful rebuke as a gift, love your enemy.
When it comes to a wisdom debate, it really is no contest. For God loves to trump the wisdom of men with His foolishness. But far too often we choose our truth grids, then overlay them on God. But God is infinitely more creative than us in revealing His truth, despite our persistent attempts to put Him in a box.
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- As you come to Him this morning, will you bow your head and heart; acknowledging that His wisdom is so far higher than yours?
- Reflect on the beauty and wonder of creation; and how it speaks volumes of a God of consummate design. As you think of your story in how you came to God; delight in marvelling at his creativity, even when it comes to your redemption.
- Ask God to reveal to you His higher wisdom about the choice/choices that lay before you. Ask in faith that He will is thrilled to impart His wisdom on you.
