Serving Others; Serving Christ

The titles given to posts here are meant to provide a framework from which you’re invited to view the entire article. They’re sometimes similar to what the author chose for their own website, and sometimes different in some way.

We don’t change the preferred translation of post authors. Today’s uses the KJV, but you’re invited to pursue the texts in the version you are best able to understand.

Today we’re introducing a new author to you, who goes by Humbled Overcomer. The idea of humility or humbled is important to today’s reading. The blog is titled It Starts Small. You’ll find today’s article there or by clicking the link in the title below.

The Heart of a Servant

The word servant is used hundreds of times in both the Old and New Testaments. What does it mean to be a servant of Christ? or a servant to the Lord?

Many people do not like the word servant. It means to have a life that inferior. In today’s world, the ultimate goal is to be king of the universe. To be the top dog in all of life. A servant is someone who is the complete opposite. The Bible, however, gives us a different picture of what being a servant is.

²¹ Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. John 20:21

This is one of my most favorite things Jesus spoke. Jesus says, my Heavenly Father sent me to start a good work, and I am asking you to come, be my partner, and join with me to continue my work. We have been appointed and called by Christ to serve his will and his ways, in order to live a better life. That better life is full of God’s goodness and blessing. Our contentment is not related to what we have, but who we have and who we serve.

In Matthew and Mark, we find the story of the disciples arguing with each other. They were trying to boast who was the best and who was going to come first. They did not understand Jesus’ teaching about his coming agony. When Jesus hears them arguing, he says,

⁴³ But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: ⁴⁴ And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Mark 10:43-45

²⁸ Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28

Jesus did not come unto this earth as a heavenly being. He came in flesh and blood. He did not come surrounded by angels ministering to his every need. No, our Savior was flesh and blood. He did not come so that others would fall all over themselves to serve his every need. He came to serve the people.

Jesus teaches us by His example, how to have a pure heart of servitude. Throughout the New Testament we learn about a servant’s heart, how to be faithful servants, and the meaning of being a servant. Jesus taught us what we needed in order to have a heart of a servant.

Compassion

Compassion is not completely defined in God’s Word, rather there are example after example of compassion. We define the word as to empathize with someone who is suffering and to feel compelled to reduce the suffering. The spiritual definition is the act of being moved to do something. Jesus was moved with compassion for the people he encountered. Compassion is not feeling sorry for people. Compassion is being moved by the Holy Spirit to not give people what they want, but to allow Christ to work through you to give them what they need.

Unselfishness

To be a faithful servant, there can be no pride in your heart. From the heart we act and speak. A prideful heart seeks only selfish ambition, motive, and desires. Jesus served with humility. This was not a posture of weakness, but a posture of meekness. He put the needs of others above his own need. Humility in our world is misunderstood. Humility is an attitude, not a behavior. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, rather it is thinking less about yourself. Instead of thinking what can Christ do for you, it is submitting to what can Christ do through me. I love the song by Zach Williams that says Lord, let em be a little less like me and more like you.

Your will, not my will.

This aligns with unselfishness. The heart of a servant does what it master asks. He does not seek to do his own desires. His heart is motivated by pleasing his master and being obedient to his master. When we walk the road of discipleship, our heart is motivated by the will of our Heavenly Father. His purpose and desire for our life becomes our purpose and desire. As Christ transform us into a new creature, our thoughts, words and actions change to match in step with his. Our desires turn from our inward, to the outward. What were once weaknesses, are now our strengths.

Love.

No one can serve without a heart filled with God’s love. What you love most is what you serve. Love is what we give and do, it is not what we feel. The world wants us to think love is a gushy feel good emotion. Joy is a byproduct of love, but love is an action. Love is what motivates us. As God fills our hearts with His love, we are moved with compassion to fulfill his purpose in our lives. Jesus, with the full power of heaven in him, loved all of us so much he paid our debt of sin we owed. His love built a bridge of redemption between us and our Heavenly Father. He calls us into partnership with him, that through him we serve to carry on his work. No work of Christ can be done without love.

Faithfulness

Jesus never quit. Jesus never gave up. Jesus never threw his hands up and walked away. We tend to think Jesus walked this earth in sheer perfection. We get blinded to the idea that Jesus and His disciples encountered many serious situations. They were on a ship in the middle of a storm that threatened to take them down. They encountered demon possessed people. The Pharisees sought to kill them. They went days without food. They slept outside. Jesus encountered every single situation we encounter in our lives. He encountered death. He encountered life. He encountered the sick and suffering. He encountered temptation of the devil. Jesus did not walk around and everything suddenly become perfect and uneventful.

The difference between Jesus and us, he never faltered in his faith. He remained faithful, and remains faithful to his Heavenly Father. He never stopped looking up. He never stopped getting by himself to seek and pray to his father. He never grew discouraged or bitter at the situations of hardship they encounter. He trusted His heavenly Father in ALL things. He trusted His Heavenly Father and that trust never grew thin.

A servant’s heart is fully reliant on our Heavenly Father. We give Him all we have knowing he will never fail us! He will always be with us, provide for us, and protect us!

Listening and Obeying

Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, has taught me the importance of solitude. To not just put God first out of ritual, but to really put Him first in all things I do. Listening is so important! We need ears that hear. Ears that are in tune to listening more than speaking. A servant is someone who train and tune their ears to listen to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is what makes God’s Word jump off the page. It is who brings us the will of God in our lives. You would laugh at me for something of the things I have asked my Heavenly Father, but he said in ALL things, come to me. We need to listen to the Holy Spirit so that we can obey. Obedience is the reaction to the Word of God. It can be in scripture or the speaking of the Holy Spirit. If we want to be obedient we need to learn to listen.

Worship and Thanksgiving

Jesus had a heart of worship and thanksgiving. In all he did he gave glory, honor, and praise to His Heavenly Father. He never took credit for the works he did. He humbly gave credit where credit was due. It was not by His hand miracles were done, but by the power of the Lord God Almighty. The Pharisees and people were shocked by this man named Jesus who did not boast of his own power to perform miracles. The pharisees were the exact opposite. They demanded credit be given to them. They sought to have a following of the people. Jesus was the complete opposite. He was not here to amass a following, for fame, or to be a celebrity. He came to bring his Heavenly Father glory and honor in all he did. He worshiped and praised his father. He had a heart of worship and thanksgiving. We need a heart that in all things, all circumstances, we praise and worship God with a heart of thanksgiving.

Paul said, life is Christ.

2 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, ² Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. ³ Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. ⁴ Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. ⁵ Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: ⁶ Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: ⁷ But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: ⁸ And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:1-8

Is there any sort of life that can outdo a life of servitude to Christ? What can honestly be better than a life of purpose where all your needs are met, you are protected, you are never alone? What has ever brought you pure joy and peace outside the joy and peace of God?

What stops you from being a servant of Christ? A partner to Christ in continuing His good works?

⁶ Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: Philippians 1:6

Attributes of Strength

Last year at this time we introduced you to a writer who blogs under the name Daily Echoes at Echoes of Heart. Clicking the title which follows will take you to where this first appeared and the option of listening on audio.

God’s Attributes

The enemy saw God’s attributes and considered Him weak. He really thought he could put himself next to God without breaking a sweat. I wonder, does he regret all he did now? The enemy hasn’t even seen half of what’s actually coming to him in the real near future. He doesn’t know yet, the actual extent, of just how wrong he really was, when he mistook God’s all-encompassing love, goodness, gentleness, kindness, mercy, self-control, patience, etc. as weaknesses.

To overpower a person or take advantage of their gentleness, kindness, patience, or their love, so often wins the battle. But each time someone wins like that, they grow even more blind to reality as they pride-fully bask in the illusion of having won.

Reality is God wins! The war is won by Christ Jesus and those who courageously take the abuse of others, still holding on to His Will, His purpose, His ways, refusing to let anyone shake their faith, they come share in His victory!

You may be able to hurt them, knock them down, break their heart, but you will never be able to take away their victory in Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:8-10 NLT — We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed but not driven to despair. We are hunted down but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

The attributes of almighty God are not weak!

► To turn the other cheek takes more strength than to fight back.

► To do good to those who hurt you takes more strength than to get revenge.

► To forgive seven times your brother or sister for the same wrongs they have done to you takes more strength than to disassociate.

► To continue to serve the selfish and ungrateful takes more strength than to throw up your hands and give up.

In a world that so aggressively teaches and applauds focusing on self, it takes a lot of strength to put aside your wants and needs for others.

I’m stunned at how many people seem to believe that those who live their lives emulating the attributes of Jesus are weak. Wouldn’t it be wiser to remember who is being emulated? Almighty God, Creator, Savior, Judge! If you ask me, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who is weak and who is strong! Does it?

You can win a battle with temporary strength, but to win the war, you need everlasting strength found only in Jesus Christ.

Galatians 6:8-10 NLT — Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

---

Enjoy a second helping from the same author: Dangerously Desensitized.

---

One of the passages of scripture that centers on the mystery of God’s divinity confined in a human body is Philippians 2:5-8 which we’ve looked at here and (in much detail) here.

The Realm of Mystery in the Kingdom of God

Some things — perhaps not as many as should be — make me smile, and one of those things is returning to a writer who we featured here a decade ago and find them still faithfully online. Such is the case with Charlie LeHardy, who writes at AnotherThink. Click the title which follows to read this where it first appeared.

Great mysteries and hidden things revealed

At that same time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and he said, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way.

“My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Then when they were alone, he turned to the disciples and said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you have seen. I tell you, many prophets and kings longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.” —Luke 10:21-24 (NLT)

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is an amazing achievement in science, engineering, and the human quest to unwrap the mysteries of the world we live in. On the engineering side, this gigantic telescope was lifted far into space on a rocket—not such an uncommon thing these days—and once it reached its position in space, it unwrapped and unfolded itself over a period of many weeks, precisely and flawlessly, all without the assistance of human hands.

Now that it is operational, its design allows it to return clear images from deeper into space than we’ve ever seen before, which means, because the universe is so inconceivably vast, that JWST is literally looking back in time to events that happened in the earliest days of the creation of our universe.

Already it has found something unexpected. If the interpretation of recent images is correct, JWST has spotted galaxies that are many times larger and more mature than the current understanding of the Big Bang Theory would allow. These particular galaxies, and perhaps many others not yet spotted, seem to have jumped into being ahead of schedule. It’s a surprise, a mystery, a puzzle to be solved.

There are many, many mysteries in life, aren’t there? From the biggest questions, like, how did the stars in the sky come into existence, to the smallest questions, like, why does my wife love me, we simply don’t know as much as we think we do. We certainly don’t know as much as there is to know.

It’s good that there are still mysteries. Mystery keeps us humble. We think of ourselves as “wise and clever,” as Jesus said, but just when we think we have a good handle on things, a wrench gets thrown into the works and our certainties crumble.

The world just went through one of the most terrible mysterious events of my lifetime, COVID-19. Was it a natural viral mutation or a bioweapon? How was it transmitted and what would slow its rampant spread? Did hand sanitizing work? Social distancing? Vaccines? Masks? Quarantines? Many millions of deaths later, these things are still being debated. What we know for certain about COVID is that it showed us how little we really know about infectious diseases and their treatments, among other things. And, it showed us how quickly modern society can be crippled, even in this age when we have such (apparently unfounded) confidence that we’re firmly in control of our lives.

Jesus says something interesting in this short and mysterious passage. First, he says that we cannot know God unless God chooses to reveal himself to us, and that God has chosen to reveal himself through his son, Jesus. That means that spiritual enlightenment is a dead end unless we begin seeking understanding by looking hard at the life and words and person of Jesus Christ.

Accept that or don’t, but it’s the unambiguous and rather bold claim of Jesus, the man who is so often credited uncritically as a somewhat interesting great moral teacher.

After saying that, he directly addresses his disciples and tells them that they are witnesses to a mystery that many prophets and holy people through history have longed to see for themselves. They did not see these things because God hid them, until that moment.

And what did God hide that he has now revealed? The mysterious plan of God, what Jesus calls the kingdom of God. He had hidden his plan to make a way for all of humanity to live with him, to know him, just as the first two people did in the garden at creation.

The mystery that has been revealed is that Jesus Christ is the way to be reconciled with God, to know God, and to enter into a life-saving relationship with God.

Here’s how the Apostle Paul put it in his letter to the church at Colossae:

God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. —Colossians 1:27 (The Message)

---

Previously, on his “about” page, Charlie shared this same theme:

The apostle Paul once wrote that we view life as if looking in a very tarnished and worn mirror, or “squinting in a fog, peering through a mist” (1 Corinthians 13:12, The Message). But one day, life’s mysteries will be explained. In the meantime, we puzzle and ponder. I hope you enjoy my puzzling, and that it leads you to ask important questions about the purpose of life and the identity of the man who claimed to be God, Jesus Christ.

Go Because of the Hurt; Stay for the Healing

^{I Cor 12:25 (NIV)} so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

^{I Cor. 12:25-26 (The Message)} The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

^{Romans 12::5 (Phillips)} Share the happiness of those who are happy, the sorrow of those who are sad.

^{Romans 12:15 (NLT)} Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.

I originally wrote this when several different people we knew were facing the anniversary of a loss. I copied The Message version of I Cor. 12:25-6 into an email and sent it to one such family. I respect Eugene Peterson’s credentials to do a translation like The Message, but I don’t know enough about his translation process to know how we came to “…involved in the hurt and the healing.” It’s certainly unique to his translation; but I like that it implies a sense of follow through; that we stick around not only for the hurt but for the better days that are to happen.

Think of this way: Presence yourself with someone because they are hurting, and still be there when the time of rejoicing comes.

This whole sense of bearing one another’s burdens is so contrary to western “me-first” individualism. We sort of get the idea of extending love and care to someone else, but we often miss the part of the concept where you and I are one. We sort of get the idea of the people in our church being family, but we miss out on the idea that as the body of Christ we are an organic unity.

It totally flies in the face of the Western mindset of individualism.

Even in marriages — the epitome in scripture of becoming one — it’s now common for husbands and wives to have separate bank accounts. I’m not talking about a situation where one spouse has a household account out of which to pay expenses as they crop up; I’m referring to situations where each keeps a portfolio of savings and investment accounts. Perhaps in an easy-divorce culture, it makes the separation of assets more simplified.

So the notion of weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice tends to miss the recurring word “with.” We often weep for, and rejoice for, instead of weeping with and rejoicing with; and by this I am referring to the full sharing of their situation, not something simply done in physical proximity.

In our business, we adopted a financial policy that is somewhat biased toward the people of like faith that we deal with. We pay all our bills on time anyway, but we like to use the following principle, and expect the people who deal with us — many of them who are churches — to carry a similar goal:

^{Gal 6:10 (ESV)} So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

The problem is, consider the following scenario: A and B are both Christ-followers and are involved in a financial transaction where A is performing a service for B that is part of his trade. A wants to give B a price break because she is a fellow believer, but B wants to pay more than A is invoicing her for because she wants to honor the Galatians 6:10 principle.

I’ve been involved in such transactions where each person thinks it’s them that is doing the other person a favor, and it’s not unlike the classic scene where two very polite people are standing on one side of a door trying to let the other person go through the door first!

The way we work out these things is going to be complex, and sometimes an exactly similar situation will be interpreted in different ways by the different parties, leading to different outcomes. Still, I believe that God is pleased when we are endeavoring to honor Him by preferring others in all that we do.

This also has embodies the idea of humility, which is a recurring theme in my writing. You adopt a mindset of habitually esteeming the other person.

Furthermore, I believe that what honors Him the most is when we truly view ourselves as part of a single collective body.

Paul used the analogy of parts of the body, but if he had jigsaw puzzles in his day, he might have said, “The bottom right corner piece of the puzzle cannot say to the middle piece, ‘I don’t need you.'”

The way we show there’s no preference is to prefer the other.

^{CSB.Rom.12.10} Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another.

It Took Time for the King to be Restored and Reinstated

The last time we shared a devotional from Alisa who blogs at On the Housetops she was looking at the Book of Daniel, and today we present a piece she wrote last summer about another section of that book. The title below contains a link which will take you to where this first appeared.

Daniel 4: The Most High Rules

I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me.
How great are His signs,
And how mighty His wonders!
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And His dominion is from generation to generation.

Daniel 4:2-3, NKJV

If you had asked me to guess who wrote the above verses, I probably would have listed some of the prophets or righteous kings of Judah. Or if I saw the reference, I would have guessed Daniel himself. But any of those names would have been wrong.

Nope, these words were first penned by the great king of Babylon: Nebuchadnezzar. The same guy who destroyed the holy city of Jerusalem, would lose his temper on a whim, tried to throw Daniel’s friends into a furnace, and tried to put himself in the place of God a chapter earlier.

What brought him to this point where he finally acknowledged the LORD’s sovereignty?

Was it Daniel’s interpretation of his dream in chapter 2? Or the miraculous deliverance of Daniel’s three friends in chapter 3?

No… in spite of such great signs, Nebuchadnezzar remained his same, prideful self.

So what happened?

The king himself chronicles it for us:

I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house, and flourishing in my palace.

Daniel 4:4

In other words, life was good. The king was enjoying a lavish and prosperous existence, without any needs or wants.

Until something disturbed the peace…

I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts on my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.

Daniel 4:5

So, Nebuchadnezzar looked for answers, but the world held no answers for him:

Then the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers came in, and I told them the dream; but they did not make known to me its interpretation.

Daniel 4:7

Instead of throwing a fit like he did back in chapter 2, the king turned to Daniel – to the person in his life who knew God. Nebuchadnezzar knew that if anyone could give him the answers he was looking for, it was Daniel.

Belteshazzar [Daniel’s Babylonian name], chief of the magicians, because I know that the Spirit of the Holy God is in you, and no secret troubles you, explain to me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and its interpretation.

Daniel 4:9

Let me pause here for a moment. If there is someone in your life who desperately needs God, but doesn’t want to turn to Him, don’t give up hope. Even if life is going well for them right now, there may be coming a time when, like Nebuchadnezzar, they realize they’re missing something. And if you have spoken truth into their life before, there’s a good chance they’ll turn to you for the answers they know you have, even if they rejected them previously.

Returning to the passage…

Verses 10-16 give us a glimpse into the dream Nebuchadnezzar had. In his vision, he saw a great tree: it was tall, beautiful, and fruitful, and it provided food and shelter for the whole earth.

Suddenly a “watcher” (an angel) came down from heaven and decreed that the tree should be chopped down, leaving only the stump “bound with a band of iron and bronze” (v. 15).

In the middle of the angel’s sentence, the subject suddenly switched from the tree to a person, speaking of a man who would eat grass and be given the heart of a beast for “seven times.”

The angelic decree concluded with the reason that it was being given:

In order that the living may know
That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men,
Gives it to whomever He will,
And sets over it the lowest of men.

Daniel 4:17

Daniel knew what the strange vision meant – and he knew that it wasn’t good news. But with the king’s prodding, he revealed the truth: the great tree represented Nebuchadnezzar, who would lose his mind and live like an animal for “seven times” [typically interpreted to mean 7 years], until he realized “that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses” (v. 25).

However, the stump being left behind symbolized that Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom would return to him once he regained his senses.

Can you imagine hearing such a prediction? Wouldn’t you want to know if there was anything you could do to prevent such a fate from happening?

Daniel begged the king to repent – perhaps if he turned away from his sins, there could be a lengthening of his prosperity, at the very least.

Well, the warning was given, but no mention is made of whether Nebuchadnezzar took it to heart.

A whole year passed, and the vision was probably long forgotten.

But one day, as the king strolled about his palace and applauded himself for his great success in life, a voice thundered from heaven, “the kingdom has departed from you!” (v. 31)

And that very hour, “he was driven from men and ate grass like oxen; his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws” (v. 33).

At the end of the fore-ordained time, the king’s understanding returned, and he immediately praised the God whose kingdom lasts forever, and whose will cannot be hindered.

For His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
And His kingdom is from generation to generation.
All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing;
He does according to His will in the army of heaven
And among the inhabitants of the earth.
No one can restrain His hand
Or say to Him, “What have You done?”

Daniel 4:34b-35

Nebuchadnezzar was reinstated to his throne, and this is the last we hear about him in the book of Daniel. So his final legacy in the Biblical account is that of someone who was brought low in his pride, but whose eyes were opened to who the true King really is.

Takeways

I find it amazing, this journey that Nebuchadnezzar took. From being full of pride and success, to being brought down to the lowest of the low. But then God opened his eyes, and he finally realized who God is. It took a lot of signs, a lot of humbling, and many years, but he finally got it.

What hope that gives us as we think about those in our lives who aren’t saved. Never give up hoping and praying for them!

I also find the whole theme of this chapter encouraging. Over and over, it is proclaimed that “the Most High rules” and that God gives the kingdom to whomever He chooses.

He gave Judah into Nebuchadnezzar’s hands.

Then he took Babylon out of Nebuchadnezzar’s hands.

Then to top it all, he gives it back to Nebuchadnezzar, who had just been completely out of his mind!

So as we look at the political landscapes of today, remember that. We can do our part to vote, but ultimately, “the Most High rules and gives the kingdom to whomever He chooses.”

The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord,
Like the rivers of water;
He turns it wherever He wishes.

Proverbs 21:1

But God is the Judge:
He puts down one,
And exalts another.

Psalm 75:7

---

The devotionals we present here are chosen largely because they fit a certain formula. Yesterday however, I spent some time reading a blog written by a former Christian radio personality which relies heavily on personal anecdotes, pop music lyrics, and photographs. Different from what we do here, but really well done. If you’re looking for some different reading today, might I suggest Alan‘s blog Fuel for the Race.

God Doesn’t Share His Lordship

Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. – Matthew 26:49

Today’s devotional is shorter, but I loved the story at the beginning which sets us up for what follows. (There’s an artist’s depiction of the event if you click on the title which follows.)

Last year at this time we introduced you to Hope who writes at Patiently Hopeful. Clicking the individual post titles like the one below sends the writers traffic, which in turn sends encouragement.

Crowning Himself King

“As the pope approached Napoleon with the crown, Napoleon took the crown and placed it on his own head. Napoleon did not want to answer to anyone.” Ray Notgrass, Exploring World History part 2, 2014, p. 580

He crowned himself king.

As arrogant as this action speaks to us of the pride of Napoleon, we dare not pass it off as merely one man’s error.

For arrogance is simply the offspring of self being allowed to rule within one’s heart.

We might fool ourselves or others, as to the extent we allow self to rule.

But God is never fooled.

Not only is He always aware of the complete standing of one’s heart, He is also seeking to teach us what is there as well.

Our teachability comes from who sits upon the throne of our heart.

“While Judas called Jesus ‘Rabbi’ (Matt. 26:49), there is no record that he used the term ‘Lord’. It has always been possible to claim allegiance to God without ever handling over the soul’s title deed…How many attend church regularly and give Jesus intellectual assent, but not their hearts? How many call Him King, only to assume their own thrones?” – Charles Stanley, The Life Principles Bible, Nelson Bibles, 2005, page 1257

Have I crowned myself king?

Or do I allow God to rule my heart?

The Lord knows the truth and we should be honest within ourselves as to that truth as well.

Because God doesn’t share lordship.

Either we grant Him the place He deserves our we don’t, it’s never a partial thing.

Luke 16:13 KJV — No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

“That faith alone is true which rests on God alone, that confidence which relies but partly on the Lord is vain confidence.” C. H. Spurgeon

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank You for Your faithfulness. Thank You for Your Word. Lord, please continue to show me my heart and the motivations there. Lord, I want You to rule and reign. I want my life to bring You glory. I want my actions, attitudes, and words to be honorable before You. Lord, I know You have everything in Your hands. Your ways are perfect and blessing comes from You. Please continue to teach me how to walk in today letting You be King, for You are the King of all kings. I love You, Jesus. Amen.

---

Second Helping:

In another piece of writing, Hope weaved together some scripture passages concerning the arrest of Jesus. It contained this quotation from David Guzik for your consideration:

“A sinless Man in an appointed garden was about to do battle with Satan’s representative (Luke 22:3). The first time this happened, the sinless man failed. The Second Adam would not fail.”

Click to read, When Surrender Was Victory.

The Quest of Fitting In

^{NIV.1Cor.1.10} I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. ¹¹ My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. ¹² What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

¹³ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴ I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵ so no one can say that you were baptized in my name.

For our sixth time visiting the website Preacher Pollard we’re today featuring another member of the family, Kathy Pollard. But before we go too far, we need to tell you that this is from their related site, Life And Favor. You can read today’s thoughts direct by visiting the website at the main link (above) or the link for this article (below).

The Christian Chameleon

Did you ever have that one friend back in junior high that acted like your best friend at church but then when you saw her at school, she acted like she didn’t know you? Perhaps she was ashamed of you when she was with her other friends because you weren’t cool enough for the school crowd. Do you remember how that made you feel?

That kind of juvenile behavior is unfortunate but not surprising. Young people can struggle with insecurities. They want to be seen in a certain light to be accepted by certain groups. And that objective becomes a stronger motivation than caring about how their actions might hurt or affect others.

Unfortunately, for most of us, that desire to be accepted doesn’t dissipate when we grow up. By the time we’re adults, we’ve honed our skill of reading the crowd and learning how to blend in to become part of it.

Some of that is natural and good. When we move to a new state or start a new job, we observe our new environment and learn how to find our place and fit in. We make friends by learning what others like and are interested in and then try to emphasize areas of common ground. A sense of community is important and we want to feel that our part in it is valued. Paul even said, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22). He observed people and found ways to connect with them.

The problem comes when our desire for acceptance becomes a stronger motivation than our determination to be Christlike. It’s a fleshly thing and I imagine that, even as Christians, we all struggle with it at some point or in certain situations. For example:

• When our conversations around the water cooler at work are different than our conversations in the fellowship hall at church.
• When we put all kinds of effort into befriending, helping, and hanging out with the “cool kids” at church but barely offer a nod to those who are on the fringe or those who were converted through benevolent outreach.
• When we use edgy or worldly humor around some to get a laugh but present a more spiritual tone around an elder’s wife.

What’s the difference between these scenarios and Paul’s declaration? Paul had one clear goal and that was saving souls. He never compromised his faith or integrity. He wasn’t trying to be liked or fit in or gain a following (1 Cor. 1:10-15). In all of his efforts to reach others, He first determined to look like the Christ he was representing.

So how does one “become all things to all people” without becoming a chameleon (presenting a different face in different situations)?

• Pray for pure motives. While being accepted is nice, our objective in all of our interactions should be, “What can I do to point the way to Heaven?” If we take the focus off of self, it will help remove the temptation to compromise in order to be liked (Gal. 2:20).
• See people as Jesus did. Think about everyone He interacted with. The Samaritan woman at the well (John 4). Zacchaeus (Luke 19). The woman who was a sinner (Luke 7). Jesus wasn’t worried about what other people thought about Him, even when His own disciples questioned His actions. Jesus could have blended in, like a chameleon, for self-preservation. But He was more worried about what others needed. Who’s sitting alone in the pew where you worship? Who goes to an empty table at the fellowship meals? Who can you invite to lunch that probably isn’t being invited? Who is being ignored where you work because their life got messy and it made them mean? Jesus SAW people and went out of His way to get to them.
• Be genuine. Paul was the same with everyone but Peter stumbled in this area. He was nice enough to the Gentiles until certain Jews came around. Then he snubbed them. He would “draw back and separate himself from them.” Paul rightly accused Peter of playing the hypocrite (Gal. 2:11-14). When others see us, it should be a given that we will be warm and friendly to them, every time, as often as we can, no matter who’s around. If we’re only thoughtful toward certain people, we’re not really thoughtful, are we?
• Protect souls. Peter’s actions lead others to ignore the Gentiles, too. Even friendly Barnabas followed Peter’s example. I imagine this had to leave a bad taste of Christianity in the mouths of those Gentiles. If we’re interested in getting others to Heaven, we will be very careful of our own influence when it comes to how we treat everyone around us. We will be protective of others. This means we will protect the souls of the worldly by trying to influence them with Christlike behavior. We will protect the souls of the less fortunate by doing our best to make them feel wanted and worthwhile. We will protect the souls of those who are on the social fringe by widening our circle to include them. We must lead the way in this!

Jesus had an inner circle but He often left them to make His way to the those who were shunned. Jesus had a comfort zone but He left it to come to earth to reach us. As much as He loved others, He didn’t always feel like being the one to make the sacrifice (remember His prayer in the garden?) but He did it anyway. And the result? Saved souls, genuine relationships, eternal acceptance.

“Who Am I, Lord, That You Have Brought Me This Far?”

Last night Saddleback Church honored Rick Warren and Kay Warren after 43 years of ministry. While the service could have easily been about giving credit to a person, but Rick turned it around and offered a number of scriptures where he used the Biblical writers to provide words for all that he was feeling. He said, “I’m not gonna preach, but I cannot stand to stand before you without giving you the Word of God.”

To his staff and congregation he said these words. :

God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. – Hebrews 6:10 NIV

Because we remember your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, – 1 Thess 1:3 LEB

I thank my God for you every time I think of you; and every time I pray for you all, I pray with joy 5 because of the way in which you have helped me in the work of the gospel from the very first day until now. And so I am sure that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it on until it is finished on the Day of Christ Jesus. – Phil 1:3-6 TEV

It took me a few copy/pastes of these verses to realize that Rick was using the TEV (aka Good News Translation).

After a musical presentation, Rick returned to share the passage I really wanted to share with readers here, and from which the title of today’s devotional is formed. We’ll give the final word today to King David; take time as you read:

^{TEV.1-Chronicles.17.16} Then King David went into the Tent of the Lord‘s presence, sat down, and prayed, “I am not worthy of what you have already done for me, Lord God, nor is my family. ¹⁷ Yet now you are doing even more; you have made promises about my descendants in the years to come, and you, Lord God, are already treating me like someone great.^{[a] 18} What more can I say to you! You know me well, and yet you honor me, your servant. ¹⁹ It was your will and purpose to do this for me and to show me my future greatness.

²⁰ Lord, there is none like you; we have always known that you alone are God. ²¹ There is no other nation on earth like Israel, whom you rescued from slavery to make them your own people. The great and wonderful things you did for them spread your fame throughout the world. You rescued your people from Egypt and drove out other nations as your people advanced. ²² You have made Israel your own people forever, and you, Lord, have become their God.

²³ “And now, O Lord, fulfill for all time the promise you made about me and my descendants, and do what you said you would. ²⁴ Your fame will be great, and people will forever say, ‘The Lord Almighty is God over Israel.’ And you will preserve my dynasty for all time. ²⁵ I have the courage to pray this prayer to you, my God, because you have revealed all this to me, your servant, and have told me that you will make my descendants kings. ²⁶ You, Lord, are God, and you have made this wonderful promise to me. ²⁷ I ask you to bless my descendants so that they will continue to enjoy your favor. You, Lord, have blessed them, and your blessing will rest on them forever.”

 

 

Seeing Ourselves Through the Lens of Jesus

Today we’re introducing you to the blog at Annville, Pennsylvania’s Bridge Faith Community, the author of this devotional is Pastor Chad Slabach. Click the title below to read this where it appeared there; then explore other items on the site.

Not Better…

“I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.” Rom. 12:3 MSG

This is from the Eugene Peterson’s Message translation, and before we go one step further, let’s just take a quick second to think about what a gigantic undertaking it would be to write your own translation of the Bible!!! He’s writing his own translation of the Bible, and for me, some days the sink is so full of dishes, it’s hard to know where to start.

Anyway. Romans 12 begins with offering ourselves, our bodies, as a living sacrifice, not conforming to the world but being transformed by the renewing of our minds, then moving into “understanding ourselves.”

I have been sitting for the last few months thinking on the universal struggle between pleasing people and pleasing God, or just how big the audience is: either One or a million. The crazy thing with this ‘pleasing’ confusion is that it always circles back to that old familiar space, where I am “not good enough.” If the thing I want most is to please my neighbor and my boys and the Angel and you and the guy next to me at the gym and the driver in the car next to me and on and on, at some point, I won’t and then I’m forced to face the shocking fact that I am not, in fact, perfect at all. And if I’m not perfect, if I let them (anyone) down, if I am not good enough, then what am I? What is my value? What am I worth?

That’s when the rotten tapes begin to roll, deafening in my head, like they have a billion times before, with the answers. “You are worthless. You are nothing, pathetic. You will never be enough. (Repeat with different words, examples, tones, different levels of urgency.)” These answers very nearly irreparably broke middle school me. I still hear them from time to time, the difference is that I now see them as the lies they are. But if they aren’t true, then what is?

The NIV states verse 3 as: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” It was that “but rather think of yourself as…” that hooked me and kept me from thinking of anything else.

How am I to think of myself? That is exactly the question. The verse begins, “not too highly,” and that’s not a problem usually. Maybe some of us fight that battle, but mostly, I think we remain mired in the sludge of contempt. (I do recognize that this is another facet of idolatry – to think that we are the exception to God’s love/redemption/acceptance is awfully arrogant. Different sides of the same ugly coin.) But to be honest, I don’t understand the rest of the verse. I immediately thought it meant that maybe we should think of ourselves the way God does – but is that actually what this verse says?

That’s how I found myself in the Message, and as it turns out, I was sort of right. Generally, I think that is exactly how we should see that beautiful child of God in the mirror.

But this verse says, “by what God is and what He does for us.” As if we are covered with His skin, and it is no longer possible to see ourselves without the lens of Jesus Christ. And if we follow this line of thinking, we arrive at a surprising destination where all of the questions we’ve been asking have done nothing but prove how misguided we’ve been.

Is our goal to please God or to please our co-workers?

Either way, we then “misinterpret ourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God,” seeing ourselves as “what we are and what we do for Him.”

The passage continues with a cool body analogy, where we bring our gifts to the table for Our God and each other – and why? Because we have been set free from all of our have-to’s, all of our questions, where all that’s left is Him and His infinite grace. We are His and they are His gifts with which to bless us all.

Asking questions about worth and value, wasting time on perfection, seems to just keep us trapped in the old skins that simply don’t fit anymore. We are not better, we’re brand new.

Letting Christ Be Seen

Throughout all the times we’ve borrowed material from writer Kevin Rogers, I really hope some of you have taken the time to become subscribers to his blog, The Orphan Age. It’s one of the best sources that we use here, and through social media — including re-posts by online friends — I’m always reminded of his newest articles and often click through. Kevin is a pastor in southwest Ontario, Canada.

Clicking the header which follows will take you to today’s devotional. While it’s written for fellow-pastors, there is application here for everyone.

When Preachers Get Out Of The Way

I apologize for any time that I have preached in ways to make myself look good or have tried to convince you through logic alone that I had the truth. If I have lulled you to sleep with my soothing voice and my words had no effect on you, please forgive me for thinking that it was important that you somehow owed me an audience.

The idea that preachers should be elevated to celebrity status is a temptation for both the pastor and his greatest fans. Paul started a church in the city of Corinth, a place where professional communicators were in demand.

Here’s an example of the showbiz side of philosophy and rhetoric.

A speech by the orator Favorinus (c. a.d. 80–150), who came from Arles in the south of France, is preserved in the corpus of speeches by his teacher Dio Chrysostom. Although the speech was delivered sometime after Paul’s day and in a period when the colony was becoming more Greek, it provides detail about the way in which orators addressed their audiences. After talking about the colorful and eminent visitors who had visited the city—including Arion, who was saved by a dolphin, Solon, the great lawgiver of the city of Athens, and the historian Herodotus—Favorinus recalled this about his second visit to the city:

You were so glad to see me that you did your best to get me to stay with you, but seeing that to be impossible, you did have a likeness made of me, and you took this and set it up in your Library, a front row seat as it were, where you felt it would most effectively stimulate the youth to persevere in the same pursuits as myself.[1]

Still today, there’s no mania like ego mania. When rappers brag about their status, wealth, sexual prowess, or clever way with words, it is entertainment. When preachers brag about their ministry and authority, it falls short of what God is looking for.

1 Corinthians 2:

¹ And this was the way it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I didn’t come with fancy words or human wisdom. I preached to you the truth about God’s love. ² My goal while I was with you was to talk about only one thing. And that was Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. ³ When I came to you, I was weak and very afraid and trembling all over. ⁴ I didn’t preach my message with clever and compelling words. Instead, my preaching showed the Holy Spirit’s power. ⁵ This was so that your faith would be based on God’s power. Your faith would not be based on human wisdom. (NIrV)

When I have preached effectively in my estimation, it is because Holy Spirit was hovering over listeners and whispering truths that they needed to hear more than my words. I have often had people tell me a message was meaningful and when asked to elaborate, they will tell me things that weren’t fully developed or just given a passing mention in the sermon. They are most affected by the things that I did not say. This is God’s power at work, not mine.

Paul was undoubtedly referring to his first journey to Corinth when the local church was established. The letter he now writes will address his pastoral perspective on all of the ways that these Jesus followers were struggling. It would appear that these Christians were wanting their preachers to be brilliant orators. Paul will now address that.

His first mission to Corinth was very focused. He communicated with one aim. The truth about God’s love in Jesus was all he cared about. For them to understand who Jesus is and the importance of his scandalous death meant everything.

Why was Paul coming in fear and trembling? Was it some medical condition or mental stress? Was preaching a trigger event that reminded him of the time he had the crowd throwing rocks to kill him or being flogged for preaching the gospel? Paul had been on the side of the oppressor and injured many of the early Christians. Now he was one and perhaps the irony was not lost on him.

Paul reminded the Corinthians of his aim. He wanted them to trust in God and not in the messenger God had sent. If Paul had depended on human wisdom and presented the plan of salvation as a philosophical system, then the Corinthians would have put their trust in an explanation. Because Paul declared the Word of God in the power of God, his converts put their faith in an experience: They knew God’s power at work in their own lives.[2]

---

[1] Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary of the New Testament ©2002

[2] NKJV Wiersbe Study Bible ©2021 by Thomas Nelson. All Rights Reserved

---

Note to C201 readers: Today Kevin is using the NIrV, a simplified version of the NIV which uses shorter sentences and a more limited vocabulary; ideal for children, and those for whom English is not their first language.

Humble Circumstances | An Everlasting Agreement

Today we have another double header for you!

Once again we’re back highlighting the writing of Jay Mankus at Express Yourself 4 Him. Among his accomplishments, Jay has written a film script of his own life story, which includes overcoming a speech impediment, and accomplishments in various sports. Click the headers which follow to read these devotionals at his site.

Humble Beginnings

King Solomon was the first to state what many people tend to think following an epic collapse or fall from grace in Proverbs 16:18. Pride does call before the fall and results in a reboot or as the Bible suggests a humble beginning. No one likes to start over. Whether this refers to a job, life or video game, being forced to turn the clocks back and start from scratch can be deflating. Yet, humility puts life into its proper perspective.

Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his elevation [as a Christian, called to the true riches and to be an heir of God], ¹⁰ And the rich [person ought to glory] in being humbled [by being shown his human frailty], because like the flower of the grass he will pass away James 1:9-10.

One Old Testament prophet writes about the nature of death in Isaiah 40:8. Each spring flowers bloom, grass grows and trees become covered by leaves. Unfortunately, by the end of fall, lawns become dormant, leaves fall to the earth and flowers disappear for the year until this cycle repeats itself annually. If you own a house or maintain a property, keeping up weekly maintenance can lead to humble beginnings.

For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [which my moral instinct condemns]. ¹⁶ Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it. ¹⁷ However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me  Romans 7:15-17.

Yet, beneath the surface of every human being, there lies an internal battle that never ends. The apostle Paul writes about this wrestling match in the passage above. Whenever you discover that you’ve become a hypocrite, doing the exact opposite that you want, conviction, guilt and humility will follow. In this age of mental health awareness, your own sinful nature is often the source of your problems. Therefore, the next time you mess up, use this humble beginning as a teachable moment to rise from the ashes of despair.

The Everlasting Agreement

There are various forms of agreements that you will make over the course of your life. This may be a handshake between friends, a business deal, a pledge you make to a local church or charity or a mutual consensus. Unfortunately, some of these agreements are temporary, contain escape clauses or are broken by someone who feels like they got the short end of the stick.

Now may the God of peace [Who is the Author and the Giver of peace], Who brought again from among the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood [that sealed, ratified] the everlasting agreement (covenant, testament). Hebrews 13:20.

The phrase “all good things must come to an end” comes from a medieval poet. The origin of this expression was first written by Geoffry Chaucer in Canterbury Tales. While this is true in the context of life and death, the Bible speaks of an everlasting agreement. The apostle Paul uses the analogy of receiving a gift in Romans 6:23. However, the key is accepting this free gift as your own by taking ownership of it.

And this is that testimony (that evidence): God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹² He who possesses the Son has that life; he who does not possess the Son of God does not have that life. ¹³ I write this to you who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) the name of the Son of God [in the peculiar services and blessings conferred by Him on men], so that you may know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that you [already] have life, ^[d]yes, eternal life, 1 John 5:11-13.

First century Christians referred to this everlasting agreement as the gift of eternal life, John 3:16-17. In the passage above, one of Jesus’ disciples believed that you could know for sure about your eternal destiny. There was no hopefully or maybe, but an absolute guarantee based upon your belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 10:9-11. As 2022 begins this week, make sure you secure this everlasting agreement.

---

For those wondering, the texts here appear similar to The Expanded Bible or The Amplified Bible but are either something similar, or the author’s own notes nested in-text.

Doctrinal Humility

I have to confess I’ve not read John Stackhouse’s book Humble Apologetics, but I do resonate with the title. The publisher blurb in 2006 seemed to indicate that he was writing more about evangelistic, or conversion-focused discussions.

Stackhouse argues that the crucial experience of conversion cannot be compelled; all the apologist can do is lead another to the point where an actual encounter with Jesus can take place. Finally, he shows how displaying an attitude of humility, instead of merely trying to win religious arguments, will help believers offer their neighbors the gift of Christ’s love.

Sometimes the discussions we have are with fellow-Christians, a first-time confession of faith is not the focus, and the topics can become rather thorny.

Last week I stood in a light rain in a grocery store parking lot speaking with two people who had left their church when both the number and degree of differences became too much for them to bear. Much of it focused on a single issue, a second one contributed to it, and a third was mentioned in passing, though I know it’s high on their list of concerns.

The thing is, when it was all said and done, all I really took away from it was their cockiness; their arrogance. They were not at all impressed that the weight of church history is not on their side. Neither is the support of present-day churches in our community. You can only get to their position through misunderstanding the context of certain scriptural passages; through proof-texting; and through a belief that some poor translation work done in the past on key words outranks Biblical scholarship.

The Apostle Paul would be the first to admit that the waters are sometimes muddy. In the oft-quoted “Love Chapter” of his first letter to the church at Corinth he writes,

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.  (13:12 NLT)

Two chapters later, as he speaks of the resurrection of the church, he says something with great clarity, but it’s still, to him at least, part of the realm of what he calls mystery:

Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, (15:51 CSB)

At other times there is no doubt at all in his mind or the readers’ minds:

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. (Phil. 3:13 NLT)

In other words, he hadn’t mastered this in his own life, but there was absolute conviction about the spiritual destination in front of him.

If the phrase “one thing I do” sounds familiar, it’s a lot like, “one thing I know,” the phrase uttered by the man born blind after receiving sight. Referring first to their charges against Jesus,

He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”  (John 9:25 NASB)

It was, quite literally, black and white; and today we use the blind man’s confession as a model for the conversion experience

I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind but now I see.

This type of certainty stands in contrast to “seeing through a glass darkly” (KJV) or “seeing things imperfectly” (NLT, as above). But here’s a truth

We don’t have to know and understand everything to know and understand the things that count.

Paul writing to the Philippians said,

I am convinced and confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will [continue to] perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus [the time of His return]. (1:6 Amplified Bible)

Other translations use the word confident. Obviously, some things were not seen imperfectly to Paul. He could say some things with confidence.

There is a book by Peter Enns called The Sin of Certainty. Having followed Enns online for years and read several of his books, I have no doubt (ironic use of phrase here, don’t you think?) that he is certain when it comes to the deity of Christ and the fact of the resurrection.

Rather, the book was a response to what was a growing body of people who expressed their intransigence online; the type of people who will defend to the death some sacred pet doctrine on social media. Unintentionally — and I am being gracious here, perhaps it was intentional — they are modeling for new believers a stance where one must be absolutely certain of everything. That’s just not possible when you haven’t had time to work out your salvation and it forces people to simply parrot rote responses or take ownership of parts of a catechism not through life experiences, or Holy Spirit leading, but because of their ability to call up key words and phrases.

Eventually, this can lead to a spiritual arrogance. When reviewing Enns’ 2016 book, I wrote;

Peter Enns basically catalogs some of the various less-certain elements one might find in the sphere of Christianity, and rather than resolve all of these necessarily, creates a climate where the reader can say, ‘Oh yeah! That’s me! At last someone who gets it.’ Some of the book draws from his personal experiences of dealing with the doubt/certainty continuum, either internally or in his family or academic life.

There is however value in creeds. When we remind ourselves that Christ was

…conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried.

and that

He descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
and sits on the right hand of God the Father almighty…

Those times, we are discussing the things that are non-negotiable and these are things which the body of Christ around the world should agree.

But what if your faith is in that creed and not in the one to whom the creed points?

A book similar to The Sin of Certainty released three years earlier. About that one I wrote,

With… Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty (Baker Books), Gregory Boyd presents the thesis that far too many Christians — at least in North America and western Europe — are committed to a set of spiritual propositions more than they are committed to Christ; and that in fact the thing they worship and place their faith in are these ‘certainties,’ far more than they worship and have their faith secured in “Christ, and Him crucified.”

…While the book clearly intends to shatter the idol of theological over-confidence, its equal purpose is to give some peace and comfort to people who, although they are long on the journey with Jesus, still don’t feel they have all the details of the contract worked out. He is writing to those of us who perhaps know people for whom all doctrinal and theological matters are settled once and for all…

What is the ultimate expression of God’s position and power? What words does he say? What doctrine does he clear up for all time?

Nothing. Just as the orchestra builds to a crescendo we get this:

^{John 13:3-5}Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him… ^{… 12-14} When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.

Utter, absolute humility.

Six months before reading the Boyd book I wrote,

…each one of us needs to be developing a personal, systematic theology so that we can respond when asked what we believe. We should know the ways of God; truly know what Jesus would do. But we should write our theology in pencil, not pen; remaining open to the possibility that what we see as through frosted glass will become clearer over time and therefore subject to change…

This devotional is messy because our attempts to do theology are often messy. There is a balance between the things on which we can place our trust — think of the hymn “Standing on the Promises” if that helps — and the things which we will never see with perfect clarity.

To the person in the parking lot last week, I would say, “You lack a humble apologetic, and that may be your spiritual downfall.”

---

“…it is a mark of imbecility of mind, rather than of strength; of folly, rather than of wisdom; for any one to dogmatize with an air of infallibility, or to assume the attitude of perfect intelligence on any one subject of human thought, without an intimate knowledge of the whole universe...”

– Alexander Campbell in The Christian System

 

 

 

Humility as Demonstrated by Jesus

As I’ve stated previously, several years ago I set out to memorize the “kenosis” passage of Philippians 2, also sometimes referred to as “The Philippian Hymn.” I’ve also written several of my own paraphrases of it. It’s a passage that I highly value, just as I highly value humility and people who demonstrate humility. But first, some words from John’s gospel.

 

^{John 13:3} Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him… ¹² When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. ¹³ “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.

In most of our Bibles the passage above has a subheading such as “Jesus washes His disciples’ feet.” This is true as far as it goes, but I think “Jesus demonstrates humility” would make a better focus. We often use this passage to talk about “servant leadership” and many have suggested that in addition to the cross, the towel and the basin should be the symbol that represents Christianity.

However, I feel that it’s so easy to miss the full impact of verse 3:

• Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God (NIV)
  
• Because Jesus knew that the Father had handed all things over to him, and that he had come from God and was going back to God (NET)
  
• The Father had put everything in Jesus’ control. Jesus knew that. He also knew that he had come from God and was going back to God. (God’s Word)
  

What a contrast between that set-up and the action that follows. It’s like a symphony that is building in a giant crescendo, and just as it reaches the penultimate note of the scale and you wait for that grand chord that resolves everything, the orchestra suddenly is silent, and you’re left with just the sound of a single violin or piccolo:

• he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet

I say all that as a setup for some verses I’ve covered here many times:

^{Phil 2:3} Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

The progression is rather simple in verses 7 and 8

• took the nature of a servant
• entered into the human condition
• was obedient even to experiencing human death
• and a death of the worst kind at that

If you look at the study we did on this in May, 2017, you’ll notice I switched the order of the first two clauses in these verses. Surely, God enters humanity first — that’s the point of incarnation, the season we are about to celebrate — and then does so as someone whose birth lineage is controversial, whose occupation is that of a carpenter’s son, and whose short career as a rabbi is marked by things like foot washing. Right?

But then I started thinking about it, and recognized that the humility of Christ begins prior to the incarnation. Before the moment when “he left the splendor of Glory,” he has already taken on the role of a servant inasmuch as the incarnate Christ is submitted to the Father.

Although doctrinally the Father and Son are co-equal, and equally divine, in the incarnation we see passages such as:

^{John 5:19} Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.’

and

^{Matthew 24:36} “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

not to mention the passage where Jesus prays at Gethsemane Garden for the Father to introduce a Plan B that won’t involve the torment of crucifixion.

In other words, the humility of Jesus extends even so far as humbling himself before the Father, the One with whom he co-created the universe.

That’s submission. That’s humility.

In a devotional from June, 2019, writer Keith Giles notes that it won’t be long (in the book of Acts) until the disciples decide to off-load some of their more menial responsibilities to a second tier of leaders. He writes,

Instead of remembering this essential lesson from Jesus, the Apostles in Acts are seen coming to the conclusion that they are too important to wait tables and feed widows and orphans. Instead, they decide to elect some lowly people to do this menial task so that they can devote themselves to the Gospel – forgetting that, to Jesus, this serving of the widows and orphans; waiting tables; WAS the Gospel in vivid, vibrant 3-D…

But then Keith goes on to point out that the martyrdom of Stephen would have had a humbling effect on the disciples.

…I can’t help but feel that it’s the Holy Spirit’s attempt to remind those Apostles what their mission is really all about. See, up to that point, we read that Peter had become a local celebrity and that his fame had spread through the land; that even those who were pagans would lay their sick out on the street whenever the Apostles walked by in hopes that their shadows might heal them.

But then came Stephen. Not an Apostle. Not one who walked with Jesus for three years. Not one whose feet had been washed in that room by Jesus. Not one who was too proud and important to wash feet. But one who was humble, willing to serve, and even willing to die – with joy – for the Lord Jesus he loved so much.

…As I was preparing this, I was also listening to a sermon by Andy Stanley on pride, which is of course humility’s opposite. Nebuchadnezzar learns this the hard way and basically says that you either are humble or you get humbled.

^{Daniel 4:37} Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

In my personal life and ministry I do encounter people who are arrogant, and I also find myself having to guard against arrogance and pride. God help me and all of us to develop a spirit of humility without having to be humbled. God help us to learn from Christ’s humility that is not only symbolized by a towel and basin, but by submission to God the Father’s will.

Our Desire for Servanthood Status

(if the last two words in the above title strike you as an oxymoron, you’re on the right path for today’s devotional)

Last year at this time we shared a quote from a decade-old article by Ben Sternke and in preparation for today’s devotional I’ve been reading some of his articles and really like his take on things. He spent years in Charismatic churches and now finds himself leading worship and church-planting in a liturgical setting.

Clicking the link in the header which follows will take you there, and I hope you will, and then click his blog title to discover more helpful thoughts.

The Gospel Disrupts Our Status Games

“Many who are first will be last, and the last first” (Matt 19:30).

Jesus speaks these words to his disciples after promising that the sacrifices they’ve made to follow him will indeed be worth it in the Age to come, which comes after shocking them by saying it will be hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of the heavens, which follows directly on the heels of a wealthy young man walking away in sorrow because he was unwilling to part with his wealth in order to follow Jesus.

Jesus then tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard, where the master of a household hires workers at various times throughout the day to work in his vineyard. Some work the whole day, others work for only an hour or so, but at the end of the day, they all receive the same amount for their work. The workers hired at the beginning of the day don’t like this, but that’s the way it is. The master wanted to give everyone the same pay, and that’s that. “Thus,” Jesus concludes, “the last will be first, and the first last.”

Measuring ourselves against each other

It’s a parable about the Kingdom of the heavens, and Jesus speaks the aphorism about the first and the last at the beginning and the end of the parable. He’s clearly trying to help his disciples understand something important about the nature of the Kingdom. Jesus is emphasizing a crucial aspect of the “life of the Age” that the wealthy young man wanted so badly to have.

In the Kingdom, in the “life of the Age,” the radical generosity and self-giving love of God moves toward everyone indiscriminately, and this disrupts our status games. Everyone receiving equally from the master upends all the ways we seek to measure ourselves against each other, all the ways we calculate who is better and who is worse, who’s on top and who’s on the bottom, who is worthy of honor and who can be disregarded.

Too offended to enter the Kingdom

By declaring that all are loved, the gospel demands that we leave these status games behind, lest we become too offended to enter the Kingdom. In God’s economy, we all receive out of the overflow of God’s generous love, and thus we must cast aside all the ways we attempt to distinguish ourselves as better than others. We must lay down all the ways we try to prop up our own egos in order to receive the gift, or we simply won’t enter the Kingdom at all.

Thus it would appear that the first are last and the last first, because the old order of things has been completely upended. The workers who started at the beginning of the day would have been fine with their pay until it became apparent that others “worse” than them were receiving the same pay. For them, it was all about status. They didn’t actually need more money, they just wanted recognition that they had worked harder than all the other workers. They wanted assurance that they were better than others. But the Kingdom of the heavens is like a master who upends the whole game by giving to everyone equally.

This is the work the gospel does relentlessly, which is why it’s so hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of the heavens. It’s the reason it’s hard for anyone who feels they’re on top of some kind of status game to enter the Kingdom: it’s hard to let go of the story that you really are better than other people, and you have the receipts to prove it (wealth, or intelligence, or humor, or good looks, or right belief, or moral purity, or popularity, or influence).

What game do you play?

What status games do you play? What kinds of comparisons do you make to figure out who’s better and who’s worse? What would it look like to lay aside those games today and enter the Kingdom of the heavens?

---

Second Helping: In Charismatic worship, prophetic visions can take many forms, including this allegory of Jesus as a pirate!

Worship Leaders: For something a little less “out there,” here’s an article contrasting taking time to explain liturgical forms in a worship service, versus simply “going for it” and inviting people to participate. (Ben’s experiences are very diverse!)

---

Ministry Models: What if a Christian ministry organization with a 100+ year history were to totally re-shape what it does? The Gideons International in Canada did just that over the past ten years. From my other blog, Thinking Out Loud, read about their journey to becoming ShareWord Global.

Jesus: Inside or Outside the City?

It’s been nearly a year since we last connected with veteran Christian musician and author John Fischer who is still writing faithfully at The Catch. This time around, there were two consecutive devotionals which were somewhat related, so I’ve taken the liberty of including both. Click on the headers which follow to read these where they originated.

Note: We usually offer bonus devotionals from some authors after you’ve finished reading, but if you want some earlier posts based on these same verses in Hebrews before you get started, click here and here.

Where grace meets disgrace

And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. Hebrews 13:12-13

What happened?

According to this verse there is something disgraceful about meeting Jesus outside the camp. Did we miss something? Do you feel like you are walking around in a state of disgrace? I think we are trying everything we can to avoid disgrace.

Have we so bought into the American myth of success that we are attempting to “market” Christianity as helping make you wealthy, healthy, and successful, when none of that is guaranteed in the Bible? In fact, the truth is more likely to call us into failure in order to learn how to depend on Him. Failure is a far better teacher than success.

I think some of this grows out of our culture. We’ve tried to make Christianity cool thinking we could attract people to Christ. I remember in the early years of my ministry I used to like making Christianity cool because then I could be cool, too. But Jesus was never cool, and following Him guaranteed nothing except a wild ride and eternity.

But ultimately, following Him was all about disgrace. Why is that? Because of the way it ended. He took on my sin, and when I meet Him there outside the camp, I realize it was my sin that did it. So a large part of my disgrace is my sin that crucified Christ, but if I continue through the cross to the other side, I am met with His grace. Jesus meets my disgrace with His grace, and nothing can take that away.

So this is where we live, where grace meets disgrace. A guarantee that grace remains fresh. It’s not that my story is: 20 years ago, Jesus saved me. It’s more like 20 minutes ago, or 20 seconds ago. I live and walk in my deliverance. And my disgrace — His disgrace — plays an important part in that. And believe me, when you’ve been met on the other side of the cross by His grace, you have to tell the whole world about it!

No enduring city

For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Hebrews 13:14

Outside. Everything happens outside. Jesus died outside the camp. We go to meet Him outside the camp where He meets our disgrace with His grace. Once that’s happened and that grace has turned us outward toward others, why would we want to go back inside? Everybody’s out here. People inside already know, and they’re pretty much just sitting there. Outside is where the action is.

Jesus is outside the camp, but most people who don’t know Him don’t know that. They think He’s inside some building because that’s what we’ve told them (“This is God’s house”); we’ve even invited them into the building to meet Him. Now of course that isn’t necessary because He is already outside the camp. We only need to introduce Him to people. But it’s important that we know how to do this. Positioning is everything. Are we looking down on people when we introduce them to Jesus? No. Are we looking across at them? No. We are looking up to them. We are looking up to them because that’s what grace does to us. It puts us with the lowest of the low. Like the publican on his knees crying out for God’s mercy, while the Pharisee is thanking God he is not like that poor miserable man. Until I realize that I am that poor miserable man, I do not know what grace is.

But once you know, how beautiful is this? You look up to everybody! Everybody looks good to you. No matter who they are, you’re looking up to them and telling them about God’s grace that’s bound to reach them because, lo and behold, it reached all the way down to you. So, as Marti says, you love them like no other.

And so the reason for our existence is not to stay inside and win some spiritual look-alike contest, but to turn grace outward to all those within our sphere of influence who have yet to know who Jesus is and what He has done for them. Otherwise, why are we here? We’re not here to set up camp, but to go outside the camp. That is why the writer of Hebrews says, “For here we do not have an enduring city.”

Your city — the city you are living in right now — will not endure. Everything here is temporary. That isn’t to say we abandon all responsibilities here on earth and wait for eternity. It’s really all about perspective. We have responsibilities to our address here in our city, but we need to remember this is not an enduring city. Our life does not end here. Turn up the fire under us! We are preparing for and helping prepare others for the enduring city that is to come.