Tag: Devotions

Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith

– Galatians 6:7-10  (MSG)

Dr. Brooks shared this passage with us yesterday in staff meeting.  It struck a chord with me and I thought it would be a good way to start a new year.

Planting has to be done with some measure of intentionality.  Otherwise, you don’t know what will come up.  Will your life be lived in passing this year, or will you live with intentionality?  Will you seek to make much of God or will you live as if you are in control coasting along or making plans and asking God to bless them after the fact?  What will you plant this year?  Whatever you plant, that is what you will harvest whether good or bad. These are some good questions to think about at the beginning of a new year.  As we think on these questions, let’s not give up on doing good and making much of God.

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. – Galatians 3:28 (NIV)

They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. – Acts 2:42 (MSG)

I have been thinking a lot about fellowship lately.  This is no surprise this time of year with the number of gatherings that take place.  The dictionary defines fellowship as “a community of interest or experience” and “a company of equals or friends”.

Today, I was reminded that you can be at a party or gathering and not have fellowship.  Certainly you can be at a gathering and not have Christian fellowship.  I say this because I returned from a lunch with some ladies with a sense of refreshing.  What struck me is that none of these women are people I “hang out” with (though I certainly am not opposed to that), and I don’t know any of these women like I know my close friends.  Not being a talker, I didn’t say much and not a whole lot what directed specifically to me, yet I felt encouraged and refreshed. Why?

I think we had fellowship because we were bound together by Christ.  We were equals because we each recognized that we were on a journey together even though our lives take us different places.  The message translates fellowship as living life together.  I love this because I believe, in Christ, we can live life together even if we are separated by location and life experience.

How I long for each of us, and the entire world, to know this kind of sweet, rich fellowship.  It is a fellowship where masks, if they are worn at all, become thin and guards are let down because we all know and share the unsurpassed love of Christ.

Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.  – Deuteronomy 6:7-8

Did you hear Dr. Brook’s message Sunday?  If you didn’t, I encourage you to take the time to listen.  You can go to the Resources tab on the website or download it through iTunes as a podcast.

One of Dr. Brook’s statements was that if we don’t take church home, our children will have nothing to take with them when they leave home.  I believe this is true and I believe it is true for us adults as well.  If we do not take church home, we have nothing to take with us into the world.  In other words, if the only time we worship, instruct, serve and evangelize is on Sunday mornings, we will not have anything with which to engage the culture around us.

The Hebrew word shanan is translated as “teach diligently”.  The NLT translates the word as “repeat”.  The idea is that we live out our faith and teach others to live out their faith as we go about life.  It is not a one-time thing. Nor should it be limited to one day a week.  Being a devoted follower of Christ is a commitment of more than 1 hour a week.  It’s not easy, but Jesus never claimed it would be easy.

So what about you?  What do you need to repeat today?  Is there something you need to learn again?  What do you need to take home?  Is there something God’s calling you to teach someone else?  Will you listen?  Will you repeat these things?  Will you follow Him?

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. – Deuteronomy 6:5

This is one of those verses we hear often in Christian circles.  It is familiar, poetic and sounds good, and for that reason, I think it is easy to skim over with little attention.  Today, as I read it again, God stopped me in my tracks and asked me “do you?”  There is a little word in there that makes a huge difference.  It is the word “all”.  More often, the truth is that I love the Lord with some (maybe even most) of my heart, some of my soul, and very little of my strength.

I’m so grateful for God’s grace—that He loves me and continues to work in me in spite of myself.  My prayer is like the father in Mark 9 who said “I believe. Help me overcome my unbelief”.  I say to the Lord “I love you, help me to love you with all of me.”

Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
– Deuteronomy 4:6

Moses had the attention of the people with “Listen, O Israel.”  Then he reminded them “The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.  You’d think they’d have gotten this by now, but they, like us had short attention spans and needed to be reminded of this truth. “This was an important insight for the nation of Israel because they were about to enter a land filled with people who believed in many gods.” The same is true today.  We worship together in a community of faith, but during the week, we are spread out all over this city.  Many of the people we come in contact with believe in many different gods including the god of self.  We must remember that the Lord alone is God and stand firm in our faith.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
– Deuteronomy 4:6-9

Last month, the Education Staff at Tallowood had the opportunity to go to the D6 Conference.  D6 stands for Deuteronomy 6. D6 is a conference created around a movement among churches to bring faith back into the home using Deuteronomy 6 as the spiritual formation model for the church.  Since this is something you will be hearing about in one form or another in the coming years, I wanted to take some time and share with you some of the things I am learning and re-learning from this passage known as the Shema.

Many people take this passage as an admonition for parents to teach their children and it is certainly that.  However, the passage begins with “Hear, O Israel.”  The message was for all of Israel whether priest or leaders like Joshua and Caleb, young or old, those with children and those without children.

In this day and age, just as in Moses’ time, God’s call to obedience and holiness is for all of the people of God. His calling is on all of our lives whether the fulfillment of that calling is as a minister in the church or workplace, whether we are young or old, and whether we are single, single again or married.

“Do this in remembrance of me.”

This past Sunday, we celebrated the Lord’s Supper.  It was an opportunity to remember who we were before Christ, to remember what He did, and to remember the cross.

Throughout the book of Deuteronomy Moses says “Listen Israel” and “Remember.”  Numerous times throughout Scripture the people of God are called to remember.  Why are we called to remember so much?  Because we are selfish and forgetful people.  We are so easily distracted.  Many times, we are even distracted by things that in and of themselves are good things: playing sports, studying to do well, working hard, spending time with friends and family.  The problem is that these good things often times take precedence over growing in faith and even crowd God out of the picture.  When this happens, these good things become little more than distractions.  It’s easy to make time for what is important to you.

Today, take time to stop and remember who God is and what He has done.  Remember when you accepted Him and called Him Lord.  Is He still Lord?  Remember that he called you to Him and He continues to do so.  Check out some of the Scriptures (Here are a few to start with: Deuteronomy 4:20, Luke 24:6, Ephesians 2:12, Psalm 77:1) that talk about remembering and ask God to help you remember.

And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. –Acts 17:11

I love to learn. It energizes me.  I believe learning is imperative for one’s faith.  If we are not learning, our faith becomes stagnant.  I also love listening.  However, while I might learn a few facts by listening, it is only one part of learning.  One speaker I heard recently said “the act of studying is completed when you do it.”  I thought about this today as I read the following from Henry Blackaby’s devotional “Experiencing God Day by Day.”  He writes,

“Sadly, many Christians today do not exercise their minds to be of service to God.  They allow others to do their spiritual thinking for them.  If they can find their theology from a book, they will not bother to study God’s Word themselves.  If a speaker makes an authoritative statement, they readily accept it without verifying whether it is biblical.”

I’ve been guilty of this.  I still am on occasion.  It is easier to listen and accept than to listen, question and see what God’s Word says.  Discipleship is not easy though and if we are to make disciples, we must first BE disciples.  We must be learning and growing in our faith and we must take an active part in growing our faith.  Another great quote from this past week… “We cannot outsource our faith.”

1/3 of the world doesn’t have the Bible, 1/3 of Christians don’t read theirs… http://ow.ly/2DswU