The Love We Desire; The Love We Can Share

Yesterday, our quest for new writers took me a most interesting blog, The Will to Wake Up written by Hannah Chung. I read several of her pieces and even listened to some songs by one of her favorite music artists. You’ll find articles indexed by category using the tabs at the top of each page. The title which follows contains a link to her site, and encourage you to send her some traffic and read it there instead of here.

How Do You Want to Be Loved?

When you understand how you want to be loved, you will no longer find yourself drawn to inauthentic relationships.

To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”

-Timothy Keller

We speak a lot about love in this world. In society, we are taught that self-love is most important. At church, we are taught that no one can love perfectly except God, but that true love takes sacrifice, a dying to our flesh. These ideas intermingle in our minds, but often feel unclear.

We are born with the desire to be loved. Why else would we be in community? Why else would we have friends or romantic partners and partake in ceremonies that celebrate undying love, like weddings?

There is something so beautiful and so incomprehensible about love. As humans, we want to explain what love is. We want to put borders around love. We like to say that love means acceptance or second chances or blind trust.

But we cannot explain love because God is love and God cannot be fully explained, at least to our humble minds. And God’s abilities are limitless.

However, it’s not wrong to explore what love means to you. Perhaps it can even help you grow in your understanding of God, too.

Even those who have never known or heard of God crave His unconditional love. This is the love spoken of in the quote by Timothy Keller. A love that knows, chooses, liberates, challenges, and ultimately betters us for the kingdom of God.

This love is so rare in the world. We cannot love perfectly, but we can still try. And when we fail, we can turn to the one who loves us perfectly and ask for His help.

When you understand how you want to be loved through a godly lens, you will no longer find yourself drawn to relationships that aren’t built on authentic love. You will recognize who in your life only “loves” you for what you do for them or who they think you are, even if you are someone completely different. You will no longer gravitate toward superficial love, but pursue deep, soulful love.

There might be times when there aren’t people in your life who can love you this way. Those times are lonely and painful, but they are also times when, if you allow yourself, you will experience God’s love in the deepest way possible. He will meet you in these moments. God is not afraid of the darkness because He is the light.

And these times of loneliness will not last forever.

But how do you know what kind of love God offers and what kind of love we should extend upon others?

Spend time with God and ask Him. Search His word. Study Jesus’ interactions in the New Testament. Listen to God’s promises in the Old Testament.

God promises to heal us (Isaiah 57:18), provide us hope (Romans 15:13), sanctify us (John 17:17), prepare a place for us believers in Heaven (John 14:3), and love us for all eternity, going so far as to sacrifice His own Son for a relationship with us (John 3:16).

The fruits of the Spirit are born out of the love God has for us, and He offers us these fruits when we choose to follow Him:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance [patience], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

-Galatians 5:22-23

Once we accept the love God has for us, we are equipped to love those around us. Imperfectly, yes, but through God’s grace and power, they may still experience God’s perfect love through us.

Now the question is, how are you being called to love others today?

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

-1 Corinthians 13:1-3

---

Same author; same subject: Click this link to read Hannah’s preceding article about Unconditional Love.

Giving Him Room in Our Hearts; Following Him with Our Lives

While sorting bookmarks in our “C201 Vault” I again was drawn to the writing of Josh Blakesley only to find out after deciding on these two articles that he had just appeared here in January. The blog is currently inactive, so while we can, I thought I would go ahead and share two more of his pieces. Click the links in the titles below to read these where they appeared first. (More about Josh appears at the end of each article in the original posts.)

Make Some Room

“The most sacred invitation that a person can extend to us is to invite us into their pain. But that means that we have to choose to knock on a door that we often prefer to pretend is not there.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

John 2:1-11

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. 9 When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

A word about a wine story

Probably you’ve seen this story before. It’s one of Jesus’ “7 miracles” in the Gospel of John. This one is the first, and it’s pretty fun and dramatic. Jesus of Nazareth, having a grand old time at the wedding reception, discovers that there is about to be a wine shortage [OH NOOOOOOO] so he figures out a way to turn water into wine.

Well, that’s the short version.
There are a lot of things within this story to unpack, I’m just going to hone in on one thing:

In order to fill jars with wine, some of the original liquid [water] had to be poured out. To make room for the wine. Oh, and not just any wine–the best, finest wine.

Those water purification jars had to be emptied a bit to make room for the wine.

How about that for a human metaphor?
You and I are jars of clay, vessels, containers.
And in order to make room for the “good stuff” we will periodically need to empty out what’s already filling our vessels.

This is what Jesus of Nazareth offers us. Notice that it’s not an invitation to feel bad about the mistakes you’ve made or a judgmental statement about what you lack or how you fall short. No, this invitation is just to empty and make room. Empty yourself and make room. That’s all.

So how will make room for the good stuff to fill and restore you? There is great freedom in this, my friends. You don’t have to be what you were, you don’t have to define yourself by your past, and you get to welcome in something fresh that is meant to heal.

Your Following

“To follow Jesus means to follow Jesus into a society where justice rules, where love shapes everything. To follow Jesus means to take up his dream and work for it.”
— Scot McKnight

Where are you being called to follow?

The concept of “following” holds unique meaning in this era of social media. When you “follow” someone, it means you sign up to receive notifications or you at least agree to “see” when they post something on Facebook, Twitter, etc. And, as you probably know, who you follow and the content they post matter. Soon enough, you start to scroll. And you see different content–such content that is curated for you based on who you follow.

Following, before the internet and social media, was looked at quite differently. If you followed someone, it was because you would otherwise get lost and needed directions to your destination. So you walked behind or beside them, or followed them in your car or bike. You followed them to arrive safely and well.

Also, people followed teachers and spiritual leaders. They chose to follow them because they felt that what they said and taught resonated or helped them in some way, or inspired them. Thus, people might say: “I follow the teachings of…”

So when you think about Jesus of Nazareth and following, consider that for those Jesus encountered, they were invited to both follow physically and spiritually. They would actually walk with Jesus, travel with him, eat with him, live with him. They would follow by tangibly caring for the marginalized. They followed by healing. Likewise, they followed Jesus’ teachings and his call to justice and love work that began in the mind and heart and was lived out in actions.

So friends, at this moment, how are you being called to follow this love and justice? How are you following physically with your hands and feet, skills, and gifts? How are you following spiritually, with your mind, spirit, and attention?

Humble, Obedient Surrender to God

We are once again back with one of the longest-used sources here at Christianity 201, Kevin Rogers who writes at The Orphan Age. Kevin is a pastor in Windsor, which is a Canadian word meaning Detroit East. (Not really.) Click the title which follows to read this where it first appeared last week.

Understand The ‘S’ Word

Do you know about the ‘S’ word? The one that some people have a hard time with. It is the word ‘submission’.

When people tell you that they follow no-one but Jesus, they need to consider that Jesus grew by learning obedience to his parents, by learning to serve the customers in the family business and the teachers in Nazareth. In learning submission and servanthood, he discovered the true nature of Father God.

To be careful and selective about whom you follow is necessary to grow in wisdom and authority.

When we talk about submission, we need to understand what it is and what it is not.

Keep in mind that many Greek words have different meanings based on their context. It is no different in English. I may submit a proposal or submit to a search before boarding a plane. Words take on different meanings based on how they are used.[1]

What does submit mean to you? And what does God ask of us in the context of human servanthood and submission?

There are six Greek words that are used in the New Testament for the word submit or subjection.

The word most commonly translated submit or subjection is hupotasso. Hupotasso is a military term used to signify a surrender on a battlefield. Its’ non-military usage is different.

It can mean any of the following depending on context: 

• Arrange under
• Yield to admonition or advice.
• Obey [2]

Submission in the New Testament is not the blind obedience of military command, and this is never used as a model of church leadership.

Hupotasso, as it relates to members of the church interacting with each other is “a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden.”[3]

Here are some verses that use hupotasso.

Hebrews 12:9 “Besides, we have experienced discipline from our earthly fathers, and we respected them; shall we not submit ourselves all the more to the Father of spirits and receive life?”

Romans 10:3 “For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”

Romans 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment, and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God.

1Peter 5:5 In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

James 4:7 “So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

The world will know you have been with Jesus when you have learned obedience and submission the same way he did. Let’s voluntarily cooperate, take responsibility, and bear the burden that a disciple is known by.

Your submission will be evidence of whom you are with.

---

[1] https://coveringandauthority.com/covering-and-apostolic-authority/difficult-questions-about-covering-and-authority/biblical-submission/

[2] https://coveringandauthority.com/covering-and-apostolic-authority/difficult-questions-about-covering-and-authority/biblical-submission/

[3] https://www.studylight.org/lexicons/eng/greek/5293.html

---

Second (and third) helping: In two more recent articles from April 22 and April 26 this year, Kevin looks at the practice known in the church as “laying on of hands.” If you commonly thought of this phrase, as I did, more in terms of someone being set apart for ministry service, you’ll find this examination of the phrase in a Levitical context in the second article most interesting, and you just might, in the last paragraph, see a connection between the two meanings.

---

Worship song: Although Kevin used “submission” as the “S” word, I kept thinking about “surrender.” Click here for the song I Surrender by Hillsong.

I Need Patience, and I Need it Now!

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience…  – Galatians 5:22a CEB

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance… – same vs. NIV

---

But we are hoping for something we do not have yet, and we are waiting for it patiently. – Romans 8:25 NCV

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.– Colossians 3:12 NLT

A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel.- Proverbs 15:18 NIV

Love is patient… 1 Corinthians 13:4 various

This is our thirteenth time featuring the writing of Chris Hendrix at Devotions by Chris. You can learn more about his story through his About page which you can link to through the link in the blog’s title, or the one in the devotional title which follows.

The Fruit Of Patience

One of the Fruits of the Spirit that we don’t like to talk about is patience. We like to talk about love, joy, peace and kindness, but we tend to forget about patience being one. Have you ever thought about the fruit that patience and impatience yield in our life? When we’re impatient things escalate and complications arise. Our vision of the future gets clouded and we make dumb decisions. Impatience also comes with negative feelings that create negative behaviors for which we have to apologize.

However, patience yields a different crop in our life. By being patient, we develop endurance and resilience. We Also build up future success because we learn to have delayed gratification. Finally patience creates better relationships. Would you rather be around an impulsive and impatient person or a calm patient one?

There were plenty of people in the Bible who were impatient.

■ Think,of King Saul who couldn’t wait for Samuel to do the sacrifice. His impatience cost him the kingdom.

■ Abraham and Sarah grew impatient waiting on God’s promise of a son and created a work around. That decision is still causing wars to this day.

■ Also, the Israelites got tired of waiting for Moses to come down the mountain and created a golden calf causing God’s anger to fall on them.

Even though we have these examples, we also have examples of patience.

■ Look at Job. He was patient through his trials and God restored everything he lost and then some.

■ David patiently waited to be king even while running for his life. He became the most famous king of Israel.

■ There was also Hannah who was barren. She continued to pray year after year and God answer with a son named Samuel.

Psalm 40:1 says, “I waited and waited and waited some more, patiently, knowing God would come through for me. Then, at last, he bent down and listened to my cry” (TPT).

What crop do you want to grow in your life? Both patience and impatience create long lasting results. A moment of impatience can cause a lifetime of sorrow. If God hasn’t answered yet, keep praying and believing. If you’re waiting on God to fulfill His promise, don’t jump the gun. He will do it in His time, not yours. I know the clock may be ticking, but switch your focus from the humdrum of the ticks and tocks to His Word. Watching the time yields the fruits of impatience, while His Word reminds us of His character. Let the fruit of patience grow in your life as you wait for God to come through.

---

The key verse in today’s devotional reminded me of a song which we first featured here back in 2010. This is from the Psalms Alive project by Maranatha! Music.

I waited for the Lord on high
I waited and He heard my cry

He pulled me out of my despair
He showed me where to walk
From fear into security
From quicksand to a rock

There’s a new song in my heart to sing
A new song praises to my King

I’ll sing to let the people know
That I have been restored
And they will kneel and understand
To return and trust in the Lord

by Bill Batstone © 1982 Maranatha Praise, Inc. (Admin. by Maranatha! Music)

 

There’s No Such Thing as a “Nominal Christian”

“The biggest threat to the church today is fans who call themselves Christians but aren’t actually interested in following Christ. They want to be close enough to Jesus to get all the benefits, but not so close that it requires anything from them.”
― Kyle Idleman, Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus

---

“Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? (Luke 6:46 NASB)

The mechanism by which the hammers strikes the strings in an acoustic piano was, in its day, a revolutionary invention. To that point, no matter how softly or heavily one engaged the keys, the sound would always be heard at the same volume level. When this new keyboard action was created, the resulting instrument was called a pianoforte which literally (in Italian) means “quiet-loud.” An oxymoron.

A few years ago at Thinking Out Loud, we looked at the idea of a “nominal-Christian.” After I write an article, I usually come up with a sentence or two to promote the piece on Twitter, and sometimes those ‘teasers’ have an extra level of clarity. I said,

“I’m a Christian, but I’m non-observant.”
Theologically speaking, that makes no sense at all.
And yet… there are people for whom this fits.

Truly, Jesus doesn’t give us the option of half-hearted service.

I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! (Rev. 3:15-16NLT)

A pianoforte can be quiet or loud and even both at the same time, but the Christian has no such luxury of spiritual ambiguity. To push the analogy to its limits, we need to be loud all the time!

Mark Batterson posted this summary of his 2013 book All In on his website:

The Gospel costs nothing. You can’t earn it or buy it. It can only be received as a free gift compliments of God’s grace. It doesn’t cost anything, but it demands everything. It demands that we go “all in,” a term that simply means placing all that you have into God’s hands. Pushing it all in. And that’s where we get stuck―spiritual no man’s land. We’re afraid that if we go all in that we might miss out on what this life has to offer. It’s not true. The only thing you’ll miss out on is everything God has to offer…

…The message of All In is simple: if Jesus is not Lord of all then Jesus is not Lord at all.  It’s all or nothing. It’s now or never. Kneeling at the foot of cross of Christ and surrendering to His Lordship is a radical act of dethroning yourself and enthroning Christ as King.  It’s also an act of disowning yourself.  Nothing belongs to you. Not even you…

In the book he also writes,

We all want to spend eternity with God. We just don’t want to spend time with Him. We stand and stare from a distance, satisfied with superficiality. We Facebook more than we seek His face. We text more than we study The Text. And our eyes aren’t fixed on Jesus. They’re fixed on our iPhones and iPads – emphasis on “i.” Then we wonder why God feels so distant. It’s because we’re hugging the rim. We wonder why we’re bored with our faith. It’s because we’re holding out.

We want joy without sacrifice.
We want character without suffering.
We want success without failure.
We want gain without pain.
We want a testimony without the test.
We want it all without going all out for it.

and

There is a fine line between ‘Thy kingdom come’ and ‘my kingdom come.’ If you cross the line, your relationship with God is self-serving.

You aren’t serving God. You are using God.

You aren’t building altars to God. You are building monuments to yourself.

In a 2011 book, Not a Fan, Kyle Idleman emphasized that Jesus is looking followers not fans. Many who heard him teach were fans, but when the going got tough, the tough got going. Scripture tells us that many walked away. The ominously verse-referenced John 6:66 says, From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. (NIV)

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. (James 1:22 NLT)

Yet many of those people could have been said to have a fairly good knowledge of what Jesus was teaching. (In fact that was the issue, some of them knew exactly what he was teaching, and exactly what this was going to cost them.)  Kyle writes,

Fans have a tendency to confuse their knowledge for intimacy. They don’t recognize the difference between knowing about Jesus and following Jesus. In Church we’ve got this confused. We have established systems of learning that result in knowledge, but not necessarily intimacy…

…Now don’t get me wrong, studying and learning from God’s word is invaluable. Jesus referenced, read and quoted all kinds of passages from the Old Testament, ample proof that he had studied God’s Word with great care and diligence. The problem isn’t knowledge. The problem is that you can have knowledge without having intimacy. In fact, knowledge can be a false indicator of intimacy. clearly where there is intimacy there should be growing knowledge, but too often there is knowledge without a growing intimacy. …Knowledge is part of intimacy, but just because there is knowledge doesn’t mean there is intimacy.

And of course intimacy is developed over time and time involves an investment. Kyle also notes,

For many Christians the concept of denying themselves was not part of the deal. They grew up with the message that such a radical decision really isn’t necessary. So they signed up to follow Jesus, but if denying themselves was part of the explanation, it was definitely the fine print. That’s especially true of American Christians. In part, this due to the collision of Christianity with American capitalism. It has created a culture of consumers in our churches. Instead of approaching their faith with a spirit of denial that says, “What can do for Jesus?” they have a consumer mentality that says, “What can Jesus do for me?”

…One of the reasons it’s so hard for us to deny ourselves is because the whole idea seems to go against our greatest desire in life. Most everyone would say that what they want more than anything else is to be happy. We’re convinced that the path to happiness means saying yes to ourselves. Indulgence is the path to happiness, so to deny ourselves seems to go in the opposite direction of what will make us happy. The right to pursue happiness seems to be in direct conflict with the call to deny.

…That’s what the story of the Rich Young Ruler is really all about. It’s not just about giving up money and the things that money can buy; it’s about giving up, period. That’s what it means to deny yourself and follow Christ.

 

 

 

 

Paul’s Example in Living the Christian Life

…”I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee…”
– Paul in Philippians 3:4-6 NIV

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, and I was brought up and educated here in Jerusalem under Gamaliel. As his student, I was carefully trained in our Jewish laws and customs. I became very zealous to honor God in everything I did, just like all of you today. And I persecuted the followers of the Way, hounding some to death, arresting both men and women and throwing them in prison. The high priest and the whole council of elders can testify that this is so. For I received letters from them to our Jewish brothers in Damascus, authorizing me to bring the followers of the Way from there to Jerusalem, in chains, to be punished…”
– Paul in Acts 22:3-5 NLT

…anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
– Paul in 2 Cor. 5:17 NLT

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ
– Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 NIV

After the Gospels, the New Testament proceeds to give us a glimpse of what following Christ will look like after He ascended and after He sent the Holy Spirit. Much of this was written by Saul/Paul who is personally completely absent from the gospel accounts.

What we know about his life can be instructive.

The Apostle Paul:

Shows us what following Jesus means when you didn’t see it firsthand.

In a way, Paul is a stand-in for all of us. There’s nothing in either the gospels or Paul’s own writing to suggest he was part of the crowd when he taught in Capernaum or Bethsaida or Sychar or Bethany or performed miracles in those places. There is a natural skepticism when you didn’t see something extraordinary up close and personal. Even Thomas doubted after following Jesus for three years. Paul would be in this category. Because he never met or conversed with Jesus, in I Cor. 15:8 he goes so far as to call himself “one abnormally born.”

Shows us what following Jesus means when you follow an other religion.

Paul is an example of what it means to convert (verb) or become a convert (noun.) Here was no nominal Jew, but a man steeped in religious training who knew his faith inside-out and would go on to boast about this aspect of his life even after committing to Christ. He in effect becomes the poster boy for conversion; his life allows the possibility for anyone to walk away from their spiritual past into a new chapter.

Shows us what following Jesus means when you are an intellectual.

Even if Paul had never boasted about his training, the grammar and sentence structure of his writing betray his thorough education. I personally believe that the “Philippian hymn” which is set off as poetry citation in most of our Bibles could be an example of Paul quoting a popular early Church song written by someone else or it could be Paul quoting Paul, since training in music was part of that classical education. Today we see objections from people who think they are ‘too smart’ to believe the Gospel, but Paul showed that formal education doesn’t make one too sophisticated an intellectual to reject the simple concepts of faith.

Shows us what following Jesus means if you were formerly opposed to Christianity.

It’s one thing to be atheist or agnostic, or to follow another faith, but if you’ve been particularly vocal about it, you have to be willing to swallow your pride and say you were wrong. Most biographers of Paul characterize what happens to him in the wake of the Damascus Road encounter as being a dramatic, 180-degree turnaround. This is the simplest definition of repentance: ‘My life was going in one direction and then, in a moment, I changed trajectory and started walking toward a completely different objective.’

Shows us what following Jesus means when you are being spiritually formed.

None of any of the significant events in Paul’s post-conversion life happens until after he has been inactive while undergoing a time of discipleship and spiritual formation and simply considering the claims of Christ in a world about to be turned upside down by the life of Jesus. Some put this as a three-year period, while others have it as high as 14 years, though the latter number might have some overlap with early ministry. This might have been a tough period of Paul who would have been anxious to share his post-Damascus testimony, and it shows us that just because people aren’t entering into high-profile Christian service right away, it doesn’t mean their life hasn’t been dramatically changed.

Shows us what following Jesus means while you are suffering.

We can only speculate as to Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” though some commentators are more certain than others. There can be little doubt that it dogged Paul continually, three times bringing him to a point where he either enlisted the fervent prayers of other or spent time apart crying out to God to take the condition away. If anyone had time to wrestle with the question as to why God allows suffering, it was him. And let’s not even talk about being hungry or shipwrecked. He is convinced that when we are weak we are made strong.

Shows us what following Jesus means when you are now the one facing opposition.

From a literary perspective, the story comes full circle; the man who opposes the teaching of Jesus ends up facing the same type of opponents; the proverbial shoe is now on the other foot. Many of the epistles are called “Paul’s prison letters” because he spends a section of his life under house arrest. A faith in Christ needs to be anchored firmly and be resilient in the face of challenge.

Shows us what following Jesus means … period.

From Paul’s famous love chapter, to the fruit of the spirit, to his message of economic, ethnic and gender egalitarianism, to his imagery of living the Christian life as one running a race, to his theological treatise in his letter to the Romans; in all these things Paul shows us what it means to live the Christian life.

Plans Divinely Dashed

We’re back once again with Pastor Kevin Sanders, who is a Texas pastor. This is the third of three articles I considered for today, and if you have the time, I hope you’ll consider reading all three. Click the title below to link to this one.

When God Wrecks Your Plans

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
    but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

Proverbs 19:21

“How many of you know what it’s like to have God wreck your plans?”

I asked this question while preaching a couple of weeks ago. Several hands were raised, and even more smiled and nodded. This is one of those nearly universal Christian experiences. Our lives rarely go exactly the way we thought they would, and we find ourselves wrestling with God for answers–answers that He doesn’t always seem eager to give.

Let’s be honest: sometimes God wrecks our plans because we never included Him in the first place. Our plans were motivated by selfish ambition, foolish desires, or some other toxic source. Sometimes our faithful Father lovingly disrupts our lives in order to expose our idols and offer us an opportunity to repent. Hopefully we get the message and start over with godly priorities.

But this is not always the case. God reserves the right to do as He pleases, even with our best intentions. I can think of no better example than Paul’s itinerary, found in Romans 15.

I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints.

Romans 15:24-25

Paul had been preaching for around 25 years by the time he wrote Romans. He had planted churches in several of the urban centers on the eastern side of the Roman Empire. Paul now had his sights on Spain, the western edge of the Roman Empire.

His plan was to stop by Jerusalem to bring financial aid to the believers there (money he had collected from other churches). From there he would pass through Rome and spend some time with the church there before heading to Spain.

That was Paul’s plan. It was prayerfully created and energized by Paul’s ambition to preach Christ where His name had never been heard (Romans 15:20-21).

But God shipwrecked Paul’s plan–literally. He encountered hostile opposition in Jerusalem and was placed in Roman custody for his own protection. He appealed his case to Caesar before the Roman authorities. They granted his request and arranged for a sailboat to take him to Rome. The boat encountered a storm strong enough to crash it upon a reef. Paul and his fellow prisoners swam for their lives or rode planks to the shores of Malta.

Paul eventually made it to Rome, but his stay was not brief. He spent two years under house arrest, preaching and teaching those who came to visit him.

The events I’ve just described (recorded in Acts 21-28) were clearly not what Paul had in mind.

We don’t know, in fact, if Paul ever made it to Spain as he had planned. Here’s what we do know: Paul wrote the “prison letters” during this time of house arrest in Rome. These letters are recorded in our New Testament: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. These scriptures have blessed and instructed millions of believers–far beyond the geographical borders of Spain and long after the Roman Empire had fallen. God, as always, knew exactly what He was doing with His trusted servant.

This quote comes to mind:

God places His saints where they will bring the most glory to Him, and we are totally incapable of judging where that may be.

-Oswald Chambers

Lord, teach us to trust in Your greater purpose–even when this requires You to change, disrupt, or even destroy our plans.

---

Second (and third) Helping:

From the same author, I invite you to read, If Your Eye Causes You To Sin, and The Parable of the Lost Sheep.

What it Means to “Sow to the Spirit”

My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same. – Job 4:8 NLT

What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! – Romans 6:21 NIV

Sometimes in the rush to translate scriptures into more reader-friendly forms, we can lose the context of what the writer is saying. When Paul talks about “sowing to the flesh” and “sowing to the spirit” we can try to make that understandable, but can forget that in the overall passage, the Apostle Paul is using agricultural imagery.

We have readers here who are new to Christianity, or new to the Bible, so here’s the contrasting image — sowing to the flesh — from the key verses below in two other translations:

Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. (verse 8a; NLT; notice the image of harvesting is preserved)

If you plant in the field of your natural desires, from it you will gather the harvest of death. (verse 8a, GNT; notice the use of planting instead of sowing)

Hope that helps. Now on to the devotional itself.

Today we are again highlighting the writing of Bernie Lyle who writes at Musings from an Idle Mind. Clicking the title which follows allows you to read this at its original site.

Sowing to the Spirit

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭6‬:‭7‬-‭10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

The days are increasingly evil. The prevailing tendency of humanity is to sow to the flesh; performing deeds, not or the benefit of others, but advancement of self. There is little concern for the law of sowing and reaping, for many have long lost the ability to consider the ultimate spiritual consequences of our actions. The natural man sees only what gives him pleasure and personal gain.

The eternal being; one who has thoughtfulness regarding the longterm consequences of life; is aware of the cost and takes actions that serve to glorify the lord they know that. This is especially true of those who are in the household of faith. Christians know that they are a part of something far greater, for they are part of the household of faith, and all that is done in the body affects everyone. The air.

We are entering a time when the church of Jesus Christ will be dependent upon itself, for the world will turn away, becoming an adversary.

Even now there those who are struggling as the world that surrounds them reflects the prince and power of air. Yet it is crucial that all be like the early believers just beyond Pentecost.

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭42‬-‭45‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

The world we live in consumed with the idea of sowing to self, laying aside the commandments and mission that the Lord has given us; instead seeking to created ones own comfort. The things that we allow to consume us that lend themselves to the flesh; ultimately become corrupted.

Brothers and sisters, we are not receiving that which is perishable, but that which is enduring and eternal. All that we did for the glory of God will not perish, and ultimately builds the body. Let us be mindful to do all that we do for the eternal, making sure we do good for all, for we are all called to the mission of sharing the gospel.

Let us also do good to those in the household of faith, for there will be no help from the world. Do not be weary in doing good, for the Lord has great blessings for many who meet the needs of the weak among us.

May we walk as those who are filled with the Spirit of God; demonstrating and abundance of fruit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬-‭26‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

 

Faith that Saves; Faith We Continue to Receive

Today we begin our 15th year of Christianity 201!

Two years ago we introduced you to Gary Moore, who writes at Rock Excavation Service. (I love that, at his site, today’s article ends with “No part of this article was produced by artificial intelligence [AI];” though I fear to think that something might someday find its way onto our pages that was!) Click the title which follows to read today’s article where it first appeared earlier last month.

Note: If you’re not familiar with the story of Gideon, referenced in the introduction, here’s Judges, chapter 7, in an easy-to-read translation.

How’s Your Faith Doing?

A Faith Moment in My Life

As a young man learning to live by faith, God led me to a Gideon moment – Gideon was a young man whom God asked to lead 300 men to attack an army described as “thick as locusts” with camels “as countless as the sand on the seashore.” In my case, God asked me to walk away from the best job I’d ever had in my life. This wasn’t foolish faith, like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. It was faith validated by God.

I spent many nights wrestling with God about what He asked me to do. Finally, I stepped out in faith. I gave my two weeks’ notice with no prospect of employment. On the last day of my job, “from out of the blue,” I received a phone call from the head of the Electronics Department for IVY Tech (known then as Indiana Vocational Technical College), asking me if I would consider becoming a full-time instructor of advanced industrial electronics! As fast as a New York minute, I said yes.

I finished my last day of work, and the following Monday, I started a new career that eventually led me to become the Chief Technical Officer for a multinational corporation. Only God could have done that.

This all happened because God had a gift for me, but it was only available through faith in Him.

Getting Faith

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Romans 10:17 ESV – Bible Gateway

Getting faith needs to be clarified. The faith we get from hearing the word of Christ Jesus is saving faith. It is a gift that stays with God’s children forever.

The meaning of “the word of Christ” is the message of the gospel, first delivered by Christ Jesus and then propagated by His believers. Our faith is quite amazing. As we see, faith is a gift. This gift from God remains with us throughout all eternity. We don’t receive gifts of faith, getting a new one when the old one runs out. No, this gift of faith that we receive brings us salvation and remains with us throughout eternity.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Ephesians 2:8 ESV – Bible Gateway

The faith we receive from hearing the Gospel is the same faith God uses to save us. It is this same faith that justifies us being saved while not being subject to the Law of Moses. It is this same faith that is “Not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

The End Goal of Faith

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ

Romans 5:1 KJV – Bible Gateway

The faith we receive is the same faith that “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” It is this same faith we received when we heard and first believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is that faith that brings us peace with God. That peace is effective because, by the faith we receive, we are reconciled to God; we no longer remain estranged from God. It is this faith that Jesus perfects. Perfecting means that Jesus brings our faith to its intended goal, which is worship that is acceptable to God and presented in His presence. 10:14; 11:40; 12:28)

Throughout all of our new life and on into eternity, we have the same gift we received at the very beginning of our life in Christ Jesus. So, how is your gift of faith doing? Are you growing as a Christian? Do you see evidence of your faith being in a process of perfection? I pray the same for you that I pray for me: Jesus, use all of me!

Don’t Let Your Faith Waver

Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters,a of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. – 1 Corinthians 15:1 NLT

And what value was there in fighting wild beasts—those people of Ephesus—if there will be no resurrection from the dead? And if there is no resurrection, “Let’s feast and drink, for tomorrow we die!” Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.” Think carefully about what is right, and stop sinning. For to your shame I say that some of you don’t know God at all. – same passage, vv32-34

Breaking (inadvertently) our “six month” rule, we return yet again to the writing of Thom Fowler and his interestingly-named website, More than Useless. Click that link, or the one in the title which follows to read this and other good devotionals.

Steady and Firm

Coming into this week, I knew it was packed, pretty much from start to finish. There is something every single day – Sunday through Saturday! Father, I ask for Your strength, Your love, and Your wisdom. As I’ve mentioned several times to my congregations over the last few weeks, our resources run low or dry up, but Yours are unfathomable! And You are more than able and willing to share!

1 Corinthians 15:29-34 (<<click here to read the passage in parallel in three translations)

Going a little further with what I said in my opening prayer, there are many instances where, in all honesty, we are going against the flow of humanity. What many hold to be true may not be so.

In this particular passage, the Apostle Paul addresses his readers’ battle against those who denied Jesus’ resurrection. (Yet today, our world is also full of naysayers.) There are multiple things in which we hold to what we believe is the right and proper way to do something, while others cast caution to the wind and bend rules and regulations left and right.

For example, telling the truth. I was raised always to tell the truth and would still be hard-pressed to tell a “white lie.” One incident that I still get teased about is when I was supposed to get my wife to a local eatery for a “surprise” birthday get-together for her. Her family was going to be there, as well as mine. When she asked why we were going to that particular location, all I could think was that my mom really enjoyed their soft-serve ice cream. (I asked Karen about it again this evening, and she still thought it was hilarious that I couldn’t come up with something more “creative.)

Now, that is more humorous than serious, but you get the idea. We could talk about sneaking out to party with friends as a teenager, or pilfering office supplies from work because “everybody” does it, and many other scenarios, but there are times when we can’t go along with the crowd and have to stand up for what is right.

You might think these examples are trivial, but what about matters of the heart that could have long-lasting impacts on our faith?

Paul, quoting a famous Greek dramatist Menander (342-291 B.C.), states,

Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” v33

My Life Application Study Bible says,

Don’t let your relationships with unbelievers lead you away from Christ or cause your faith to waver.

I don’t know about you, but often, I just run out of resources. In going against the crowd, I grow weak—Jesus is strong. My patience wears thin, and my love wanes—Jesus is the epitome of love! My knowledge and understanding of circumstances become inadequate – Jesus knows everything (that’s what omniscient means!)

Jesus – He is all we need. In Him, we can stand steady and firm in our faith; that is the only way we cannot falter in our interaction with the world!

God Allows Things to Happen Because He Wants us to Listen

This week we discovered Mike Ward‘s blog, The Warden of Truth. In turn, he has been posting a series of devotionals by Darren Ricketts, who authored today’s piece. We liked Darren’s writing enough to secure permission to bring you today’s thoughts. Click on its title which follows to read at source.

Why God? Why?

Oftentimes we have an incomplete view of God.

Well let me rephrase we always have an incomplete view of God. However, in today’s society we think of God so many times as a genie in a bottle who loves us and gives us our will because he loves us entirely.

This belief system is the reason many leave the church. They believe that saying a sinner’s prayer fixes all wrongs. We have to understand something, the act of redemption is a legal action, not a physical action. When we receive his free gift of salvation our slate is wiped clean. We are adopted into the family, but now we have to learn the family’s way. We still have old habits to change.

This incomplete view of God was the destruction of Israel. They misunderstood the legal/love combination.

In the book of Leviticus chapter 26, beginning at verse 4:

I will send rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. Your threshing floor will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land. I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you….and the blessings continue…

This is amazing! These are God’s promises and things like this are taught in American church every week. You can turn on the television many times and hear about the good things God has for his people. But the key to these verses is the verse before them. Verse 3:

If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands.

But we have to read this entire chapter to understand…verse 14

But if you will not listen to me and carry out my commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and by doing so violate my covenant….

God begins to list things like panic attacks, Alzheimer’s, fever, blindness, weakness, and poverty. But he then says in verse 18 – If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over.

Then he describes making it worse…the earth will not produce fruit, I will not hear you, the trees of the land will die…

Then again verse 21 if you continue to remain hostile toward me.

Verse 27 in spite of this if you will not listen to me.

What is the point? Many things people, even people of God are going through are because they refuse to obey the voice of the Lord. God DOES love us. God DOES want you to be blessed in everything you do. People who were raised in church and are now backslidden, are living the most miserable lives. If they are refusing to conform to God’s words they are walking uphill, in a snowstorm, with swords against them, only to fall off a cliff.

God allows bad things to happen to us in this life….why? Because he wants you to listen to him. God will allow bad things to happen to you in this life, in order that your eternity is better. God cares more for your eternal position than your earthly comfort. Few people in the body of Christ do true soul searching when they struggle. Many ask why? Many blame God, but it is God who is trying to keep them from walking such an awful road. Jesus said my way is easy, and my burden light. Righteousness has a price, but the price is way better than the alternative.

Serve him HARD when it is going good. When it is bad, find out what YOU need to change. Sickness, disease, poverty, failure, being under are all evidences of a broken covenant. God wants the best for you in this life as well as the eternal. But he WILL sacrifice this short life if necessary to keep from losing you. That is true love.

A Fish Story: Sorting the Catch

Today we’re pleased to introduce a new author to you. Doug writes at Engineering the Bible. He has been writing this blog, about the intersection of the Bible and science, since September, 2017. Click the link in the header below and send him some traffic as you read this where it appeared first.

Bible Stories, A Story from Matthew

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 13:47-50 NIV

In today’s lesson, Jesus is with his disciples and is again using a parable to explain the kingdom. I can say with great confidence that I know very little about fishing. I have only fished three times in three different locations.

The first time was at my Uncle’s Midwestern farm, by his little fish pond on the edge of his property, past the plots of corn. I was around five years old, and I was the only one to get a bite that day. My uncle grabbed the fishing rod and did most of the reeling.

The next time was close to the house where I walked over to nearby lake. According to Wikipedia, the lake is stocked with fish species including largemouth bass, tiger muskie, channel catfish, sunfish, perch, and crappie. None of those or any other fish took the bait that day. And the last fishing trip I did was on I real fishing expedition on the Chesapeake with a skipper we called Captain Salty because of his “salty” language. I did get a Rockfish and a little bit seasick.

In this parable, Jesus discusses a type of fishing known as net fishing, where a large net is used to catch a whole lot of fish in a single go. One end of the net is typically connected to the shore while the other is connected to a fishing boat, and the net is “dragged” across the sea, scooping up the fish (and anything else) along the way.

When thinking about this parable, two scripture references come to mind. The first is Psalm 139:14 where the psalmist (probably David) says he praises God because he is fearfully and wonderfully made. And the second is in Acts 17:25-27 where the apostle Paul says God doesn’t need anything from us, but he gives all people life and puts us into a place where we can reach out and find Him.

These passages show God’s care in making humankind. I say this as an inference to today’s message in Matthew about the separation of good and bad. From the beginning of the Bible in Genesis, God has ordered things on this earth in His way and for His glory and our benefit. He ordered that the seas be separated from the land (an ordering of place) and the night from the day (an ordering of time).

Jesus’s definition of “good” fish versus “bad” seems to be indicated in verse 49, where his angels are separating the “wicked” from the “righteous”. To be honest, I am not sure that it can be assumed that Jesus’s followers are necessarily totally righteous per se. If you look back at verse 41, Jesus is also separating ungodliness from the godly within His kingdom.

So, then “Why” is Jesus doing this separation? In the sower parable, he says he will remove the worries, distractions, and deceitfulness of riches that choke the word, which bears good fruit. The deceits are coming from wicked people. And in the parable of the weeds, he says he will send his angels to remove all who practice evil by leading others to sin. This, then, allows the righteous to shine forth and bring forth new life like the sun.

Let us pray: Dear Lord, thank you for ordering and shaping our world to bring forth good things for us, including the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Bring to us your righteousness and let it shine forth abundantly in our lives. Amen.

---

From the same author: Use the Archive menu on Doug’s blog to drop into various months and explore different series. You might enjoy the “God and the Natural World” series of posts; if you’re interested in Theophanies, check out three posts in August, 2021.

Waiting: When You Look Back and Say, “The Time Had Come”

Two years ago we introduced you to a new writer. Simply going by the name Wills, his site is named With Wills. He grew up in Southern California and now lives in Portland, OR, and has been involved in various types of ministry. Today is his third time here, and we chose an older post from over a year ago. Clicking the header which follows will take you to the place where we located it, which we encourage you to do.

God’s Things Take Time

God’s things take time. Often a lot of time.

I don’t like waiting. Especially for things that I deem “good.” Shouldn’t it follow that if I’m “good” and I ask God for a “good” thing, he should give it to me without delay? I think it should, but unfortunately, this doesn’t happen very often. Why is this? Why does God seem to withhold “good” things from his people? Why, at other times, does he wait so long to give his people the “good” things they desire?

It’s because God has bigger and better plans than we do. (Plans that include things like saving people from their sins; not just delivering us from our seemingly shabby circumstances.) And God works according to his own timetable to bring his plans to pass.

(It is beautiful to note, though, that his plans are often enacted in such a way that our desires are met in the course of time!)

Consider the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth. In Luke, this couple is described as, “righteous in God’s sight, living without blame according to all the commands and requirements of the Lord” (Luke 1:6). Wow! They were good people. And this righteous, obedient couple had a deep desire: they wanted to have a baby. For some reason, though, God chose to not allow them to have one- at least not on their timeline. This, unfortunately, caused Elizabeth to feel disgraced. (It’s likely¹ that her neighbors were saying things like, “if she really were righteous, God would certainly have given her a child by now…” Of course, her neighbors were way off in their estimation of her, but God’s people and God’s ways are often misunderstood and misinterpreted.) So, as the years rolled by, they offered their prayers to God, followed his commands, and waited.

After a long time, when Zechariah was an “old man” and Elizabeth was “well along in years” (1:18), an angel appeared to Zechariah to let him know that good things were in the works. He told them that their “prayer [had] been heard” and that “Elizabeth [would] bear… a son” (1:13)! After many years of obedience to God’s law, combined with heart-felt prayer, God let this couple know a little glimpse of what was going on behind-the-scenes.

(We might assume, by default, that God was just testing them. And now, having passed the test, he was giving them the desires of their hearts. Interestingly, that’s only a small part of it. In fact, the bigger, more important reason God was granting their request was because the “time had come.” It was time for him to send his “beloved son” (3:22) into the world and his son needed a forerunner! God’s desires went so far beyond the good desires of this righteous couple.)

While giving Zechariah the promise of a son, the angel assured him, “there will be joy and delight for you” (1:14). But God had bigger plans for this child. There was more going on behind-the-scenes. He certainly wanted to bring joy to Zechariah and Elizabeth, but this child would do much more than that. In fact, John, as the boy would come to be called, would be used in a very special way in the story of redemption! He would be used by God to fill the role prophesied many years before by Malachi, the role of the “messenger” who would, “clear the way before [him]” (Malachi 3:1). He would be used to, “turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God… [to] go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people” (1:16-17). Zechariah and Elizabeth’s son would be Jesus’ forerunner!

God was at work; and Zechariah and Elizabeth were chosen to be the parents of the Messiah’s forerunner. They were qualified for the task: they were righteous, obedient, patient, and full of faith. Yet God waited for the right moment to move his plan of redemption forward.

(Of course, if you know this story, you remember that Zechariah questioned the angel and became unable to speak until the child was born- but the child was born. Elizabeth, however, when she realized that she was pregnant, rejoiced, saying, “The Lord has done this for me. He has looked with favor in these days to take away my disgrace among the people” (Luke 1:25).)

About 40 weeks later, a baby boy was born. About 30 years after that, John began his ministry of “[preparing] the way of the Lord” (3:4). (And about 3 years after that, Jesus died on the cross to take away the sins of the world.)

So, why do good things often take so much time? It’s because God has bigger plans than we. And he is at work to bring about his plans to redeem a fallen humanity. If, in the enacting of his plans for saving sinners, we get to have the desire of our heart- praise the Lord! If, however, our desires do not factor into his plans, we persevere.

Are you waiting on God to do something in your life? Don’t give up.
Don’t lose faith. Don’t resort to disobedience. Don’t give up on prayer. And don’t grow discouraged if that “good” thing doesn’t come in this lifetime-  God’s goodness extends into eternity.

---

¹  Ὄνειδος, the word here translated “disgrace” means: “loss of standing connected with disparaging speech” BDAG, s.v. “ὄνειδος,” 711. https://accordance.bible/link/read/BDAG#16439

---

By the same author: Here’s a link to the most recent article on the site which talks about an experience he had in college and how it related to an experience he had years later in youth ministry. “You Hurt My Heart.”

When Shame is Necessary

Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in.

“You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter.

He replied, “I am not.”  – John 18:15-17 NIV

---

Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?”

He denied it, saying, “I am not.”

One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow. – John 18:25-27 NIV

---

Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And he went away, weeping bitterly. – Matthew 26:75 – NLT

Sometimes we return to a website from which we borrowed material long ago, only to find it has become inactive. At the same time, we often find an abundance of un-mined treasure. This piece was written in 2018. At the time Byron Myers was a Christian high school principal. You’ll find this and other great articles still available at Weekly Devotional Thoughts, or you can click the link in the title below.

Does shame have a place…?

In our current Bible class at Church, the teacher has been covering the theme “Encounters with Jesus”. Recently, the teacher led us to the story in John chapters 18 and 21 where Peter denied Jesus and then Peter’s reinstatement after the resurrection.

During the discussion, the teacher spent some time defining the difference between guilt and shame. I believe it is a safe assumption that Peter experienced both. Here are the working definitions of each:

Guilt – This is something I have done. The message I hear is, “I’ve done something bad.”

Shame – This is something about me. The message I hear is, “I am bad.”

Guilt is important to help us to grow and move toward re-establishing integrity and righteous living. This re-establishment is based on what we have done. Shame on the other hand, many times, drives us to re-live our sin. We begin to take on a negative message about ourselves instead of living in our God-given giftedness. When I stay in a place of shame, I do not believe I have value. I do not believe I am redeemed. It affects my relationship with God and others. For the most part, shame can be damaging.

I was having a recent conversation with a friend I was mentoring. The subject of “Does shame have a place?” came up. It must have some place in our restoration…I could sense that in my soul. However, I could not get past the damage that shame has caused in my life and in the lives of some many others I have coached, mentored, and ministered. Yet, I know it has a place. Where is this place? How does shame produce goodness?

During this Bible class, my eyes were opened to Peter and his guilt and shame. Should Peter have felt guilt for his choice to deny Jesus three times? Yes. Should Peter have felt shame for whom he was in that moment? Yes. Guilt pointed to what Peter had chosen to do in that moment. Shame exposed a part of Peter’s character that needed an adjustment and healing from Jesus. The mistake many of us make is not bringing our shame to Jesus so that we can recognize possible “problems” in our character that need addressing. Furthermore, when we do not bring our shame to Jesus, then we cannot receive healing for our heart, soul, and character.

Let us look at what happened with Peter:

• Peter denies Jesus three times. Guilt exposes what he has done. We assume shame exposes something in Peter’s character. Peter weeps bitterly (Matthew 26:75). Peter is at a crossroads, he could allow shame to deceive him into believing he cannot be redeemed.
• Peter returns to what he knows. Peter met Jesus while fishing. He goes back to fishing. He goes back to something familiar. Moreover, possibly, like Jacob, returns to a place where he encountered God through Jesus (Jacob set up altars and pillars to represent his encounters with God and revisited them. Other Old Testament characters have similar experiences).
• Jesus meets Peter in that place. Jesus speaks truth into Peter about his true character. Jesus re-instates Peter.
• Peter goes on to be a great leader. Filled with the Holy Spirit and armed with his gift of passion, Peter establishes the Church.

I would love to say that is how I handle shame in my life. Unfortunately, I typically allow my shame to get the best of me. I begin to believe that my character is flawed rather than believe the truth about how God has gifted me. However, Peter gives me a great example of how to handle shame. His story gives me hope in the midst of my failings. Using Peter’s example, here is a great way for me to approach my shame:

First – Shame can be useful to expose areas of my character that may need work. It can show me where I am moving away from who I truly am. I can choose to believe I am flawed, or use it to begin deeper growth work toward moving to be God’s man.

Second – I can do something about what shame has exposed. The other choice is to stay stuck. It is time to take action that is different from how I have handled shame in the past. It is time to choose truth.

Third – I need to go back to what I know. I need to go back to where I encountered Jesus. Going back to something I am familiar with and capable of accomplishing will put me in a place to invite Jesus in to help.

Fourth – I pay attention and listen for Jesus. I allow him to show me the truth about my character. I begin to allow his healing touch to help me move forward with what He has planned for me.

Shame and the messages associated with it is very powerful. However, with practice and intentionality, shame is useful to expose and motivate. The key, like Peter’s story is the pointing to Jesus. Peter was so excited to see Jesus that he jumped out of the boat and swam ashore to be with him. When I am burdened by the messages of shame that I am “bad”, it is an indicator that I need to go to Jesus and hear truth.

How have you let shame burden you? Where do you need to go to encounter Jesus? Make a commitment to spend time with him in a familiar place. When you do, listen for His truth and healing voice.

Contending for the Faith: The Book of Jude

A year ago we introduced you to a new author, Jesse Hoffman who writes at The Coin Jar. Clicking the title below will take you to where the article appeared first. Also, note that if you do online research, you’ll see four or five theories as to the identity of Jude. You’re encouraged not to let that debate distract from the theme of today’s devotional.

Jude Ruminations

The book of Jude in the Bible is only 1 chapter long, quite an easy read, and contains a powerful message that I have been thinking of quite frequently the past several days.

Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, writes in the beginning verses “although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints”.

We see that Jude wanted to write a happy letter, but instead he ended up writing a warning to his believer audience. He reveals his desire is peace and his heart is cordial, but the encouragement he desires is less important than the warning he bears. The word that catches my attention in this brief opening statement is contend.

Contend means to strive in controversy or debate; dispute.

Why would Jude say this? Because there are false teachers sneakily embedding themselves in the church. These people pervert the grace of God, using it as an excuse for sinful indulgences, and they deny Jesus as Lord.

Too often we don’t contend for the faith. The popular options most Christians take are to either stay quiet and ignore the criticism, lies, and slander that bombard the faith, or to defend themselves personally, giving a generic reason as to why they follow God. This is not contending. To contend is to push back on false statements and ideologies regarding the Word of God.

You don’t have to be ultra-confrontational, but you do have to be willing to state what you believe and defend it. We aren’t attacking, we are sharing the truth with a winsomeness the world is unfamiliar with. As Christians, when contending with lies we should not end up defending ourselves, nor should we remaining quiet, but we should dispute them for the sake of God’s glory. If we do not dispute the lies perpetuated about our God, how are we honoring Him or helping others come to know Him?? Entreat others to follow the truth.

Jude then reminds his readers that, while God is merciful, He will judge those that abuse His mercy. Even though God led Israel from Egyptian captivity he ended up destroying those who refused to believe! Deceivers want to belittle the significance of sin, tricking people into unrepentant lives that lead to captivity in sin.

Today do we see “Christians” belittling sin? Do we see Christians not repenting from sin and/or saying that sins aren’t really sins? YES! Jude then follows up with a call for Christians to persevere. He reminds them of 2 Peter 3:3-4 that says “in the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions” and then says “it is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”

We are meant to know the battle we are in as Christians. We are called to contend for the faith. To push back on the lies that pervade our culture! Resist the lies that are thrown your way by examining the truth and following it! Persevere through the power of the Holy Spirit that you have as a Christian. Know the mercy God has for you and don’t abuse it!