Tag: Devotions

The instructions of the Lord are perfect,
      reviving the soul.
   The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy,
      making wise the simple.
The commandments of the Lord are right,
      bringing joy to the heart.
   The commands of the Lord are clear,
      giving insight for living….

They are a warning to your servant,
      a great reward for those who obey them.

                                                                       -Psalm 19:7-8, 11

I love to learn.  In fact, I took a strengths finder test a couple years back and learning was one of my top 5 strengths.  It is one of the reasons I like to read so much and often think about taking more classes.  That said, I can’t say I have often thought of instruction as being reviving to my soul-even God’s instruction.  I think that’s why this hit me fresh today.  God was reminding me.  The note in my Life Application Bible says,

“When we think of instructions, decrees, and commandments, we often think of rules that keep us from having fun.  But here we see the opposite:  God’s laws revive us, make us wise, bring joy to the heart, give insight, warn us, and reward us.  God’s laws are guidelines and lights for our path, rather than chains on our hands and fee.  They point at danger to warn us, and then point at success to guide us.”

God’s instructions do guide, warn and point us in the right direction.  This doesn’t guarantee a life of ease.  It does however keep us from some harm and gives a measure of peace in the midst of conflict. So who are you learning from these days?  What books are you reading?  I hope you are continuing to learn.  First and foremost, I hope you are continuing to learn from God and reading His book.  You can’t beat God’s Instruction.

Wickedness never brings stability,
      but the godly have deep roots.
                                                              -Proverbs 12:3

My senior year of college, an F5 tornado hit the town.  I remember helping with the clean up afterwards and seeing trees with massive roots pulled up out of the ground like toothpicks.  I was in awe of the power that could uproot those trees.

Over and again in Scripture, we see the godly described as being rooted and strong, standing firm.  Psalm 1 describes the righteous as being ‘like trees planted along a riverbank”.  Ephesians describes the mature Christian as one “not blown about by the wind.”

As I read the above verse today, I wondered what my roots look like?  How ‘bout yours?  Are they deep and strong or are you uprooted with the slightest wind of opposition?

How do you strengthen your roots?  I could answer that for you, but I think it’s worth thinking about.  What do you think?

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. -Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)

Have you worshipped today? Mark Roberts says worship is “our response to God, in which we offer God our praise, adoration, gratitude, and most of all, ourselves.” This is one of several definitions of worship we learned in a Seminary class on the topic. I like this definition because I see throughout Scripture in connection with giving ourselves.

Worship is not something we do on Sunday mornings when we come to this building at 555 Tallowood. Certainly, we worship here, but worship should not end when we walk out the door Sunday morning. When we love God with all our heart, soul and mind and strength, we worship here, at home, at work, when we are exercising, when we are on vacation… When we love God with our all, we worship God all the time.

That’s something to think about. If this sounds familiar, yes, Dr. Brook’s did preach on the subject Sunday. If you missed it, listen online. The subject is worth repeating. If you are interested in a little more study in Scripture, check out the following verses courtesy of my Seminary notes.

Genesis 4:3-16

Genesis 12:1-8; 22:1-14

Genesis 36:24-25

Genesis 28:10-22; 35:1-7, 14-15

Exodus 3:1-12; 4:29-31

Exodus 14:29-31; 15:1-21

Exodus 19:3-25; 20:1-11, 22-24

Exodus 23:13-17, 20-25, 32-33; 24:1-18

Exodus 29:38-46

Exodus 32:1-25

Leviticus 1-9

Deuteronomy 6:4-15

Deuteronomy 7:1-6; 8:10-20; 12:1-7

Deuteronomy 29:16-18, 24-26; 31:30-32, 43

Psalms 29, 30, 33

Psalms 42, 46, 47, 48, 63

Psalms 84, 92, 95, 96, 98

Psalms 103, 111, 136, 145, 150

Isaiah 1:2-4, 10, 18

Jeremiah 10:1-6

Daniel 3:1-4:3

Amos 5:1-24

Zephaniah 2:8-11; 3:17-19

Malachi 1:1-14

Matthew 2:1-11

Matthew 14:25-33

Matthew 28:16-20

Mark 7:1-8

Luke 1:45-55

Luke 1:67-79

Luke 2:13-14 and Hebrews 1:6

Luke 2 25-32

Luke 4:1-8

Luke 4: 14-20

Acts 2:42

Romans 1:21-25

Romans 12:1-2

Romans 15:5-6

I Corinthians 11:17-34

I Corinthians 14:26-40

Philippians 2:1-11

Colossians 2:18-23

I Timothy 2:1-10

Hebrews 12:28-29

Hebrews 13:15

I Peter 2:4-9

I John 5:18-21

Revelation 4:1-11

Revelation 5:1-14

Revelation 7:9-17

Revelation 11:15-17

Revelation 13:1, 5-8; 14:9-11

Revelation 14:6-7

Revelation 22:8-9

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.  – Luke 9:23

Do you remember the following question from Dr. Brooks’ sermon Sunday: Do you like Christ or are you like Christ?  I’ve been thinking a lot about this.  I was reminded of a message I heard John Ortberg give about the difference between being an admirer of Christ and a follower of Christ.  He said, “An admirer is impressed.  A follower is devoted.  An admirer applauds.  A Follower surrenders his life.”

An admirer likes Christ.  They may go to church and tithe but if God asks them to give up something dear to them or if things don’t go their way, they draw the line.  A follower leaves everything on the table.  If God asks for their time, money, position, or anything else, they are willing to give.  If life doesn’t go the way they want it to, they cling closer to Him, trusting in His plans.

It is hard to examine your life in this way.  I don’t know about you, but the truth is that I fall into the category of admirer more often than I think.  When I examine the choices I make each day about how to spend my time and resources, it becomes clear what’s more important.

The good news is that God is not finished with me yet.  He’s not finished with you either.  So the question is do you want to be like Christ?  In the coming months, we’ll be talking more about this.  I’ll be asking you some questions.  Feel free to ask me some as we journey together in faith.

There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan
       that can succeed against the LORD.
                                                               –Proverbs 21:30

Did you read the verse?  Read it, or read it again.  Nothing succeeds against the Lord.  Whatever you are dealing with in life, this is good news.  It’s good news that we often, sometimes, conveniently forget.

Our plans don’t cut it.  Neither do the plans of others.  This Proverb proves true time and again in Scripture, and in history.  Men devise their own plans.  Sometimes God thwarts their plans.  Sometimes he uses them to fulfill his plans.  Haman’s plot to destroy the Jews ends in his own death.  Joseph’s brothers sell him to a caravan and he ends up saving their lives.  Saul sets out to kill more Christians, God turns him into one of the greatest advocates for Christ.  The Pharisees plot the death of Jesus and in doing so, play right into God’s plan.

We know that God’s plans succeed, but sometimes we find it difficult to trust.  We want to trust, but we don’t want to be thrown into a fire.  We don’t want to go through the dessert to get to the Promised Land.  We want our inheritance and we want it our way, right away.

What we need to remember is that God’s wisdom is greater than ours.  His insight…well He is the creator after all.  His plans and purposes are being worked out each and every day.  Nothing, not even death stands in His way.

Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these things, and I do it to safeguard your faith.  – Philippians 3:1

As a sophomore in high school, I was required to take biology. It was memorable for several reasons: the textbook weighed 3 lbs, it was the same textbook AP classes in the U.S. used and, my mom spent every evening re-teaching the material until I understood it. I was fortunate to have a mom who had taught biology. I think I might have flunked had it not been for her tireless efforts.

Mom wanted me to succeed in biology, so she repeated the things I was learning in different ways until I got it. Paul wanted the people he taught to succeed in their faith journey and continue to grow so he never grew tired of teaching the truths God taught him.

There’s a lesson here for us. First, the truth of Scripture is always worth repeating. Just because we have heard something before doesn’t mean we don’t need to be reminded of it. God uses Scripture to show us how to live and walk with Him. Secondly, as we disciple others, we must never grow tired of teaching the same truths again and again. The Holy Spirit may use your teaching at the moment to convict someone who has heard the truth before.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!  And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”   -2 Corinthians 5:17-20

Have you ever experienced what it is like to be a foreigner?  Many times, people look at you funny or are suspicious of you.  I spent my formative years as a foreigner in a country that I called home, but whose language I did not speak and whose customs I did not always follow.  I was fortunate to mostly be looked upon with curiosity rather than disdain.  On the other hand, I have come back to and live in the country of my citizenship and, in many ways, I am still a foreigner.  I understand the language and I look like I belong, but there are cultural things that I do not appreciate because they are not a part of my experience. 

They call people like me Third Culture Kids because we don’t quite fit in the culture of our citizenship or in the culture where we grew up.  I was reminded of this as I began praying through this week’s devotional.  I worked through several of Paul’s letters and kept hitting on phrases like “brought near”, “new creation” and, “one in Christ.”

Isaiah uses “brought near” to refer to a convert to Judaism.  Prior to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, this was the only way to know God.  Even Jews were divided into classes which determined how far you could go into the temple-how close you could get to God. 

Christ’s death on the cross brought us all near.  In Christ, we are no longer outsiders or enemies of God.  We are new creations.  We are not divided into classifications limited in our access to God.  In Christ, we are one.  In a sense, we are a Third Culture-something entirely new and different.

You may never have had the experience of being a foreigner.  However, all of us have, at some point; experienced what it is to be an outsider.  We know the pain of not being in the inner circle.  This week, take time to think about what it means to have been reconciled to God.  You are no longer an outsider.  You are a child of God with the full inheritance available as one of God’s children.  Don’t you want to tell people about that?

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. – Ecclesiastes 3:1

I have really enjoyed the weather this last week.  It has been warmer and sunny and everything is beginning to bloom.  I have even noticed the grass beginning to get green again.  I don’t remember a time when I enjoyed watching things blooming more, even though my allergies are going haywire.

I have wondered why I suddenly noticed this year.  I think it is because the winter was longer and harsher this year.  The gray, colorless cold affected me more this year than any I can remember. Because of this, I have been ready, anticipating sunny blue skies and green.

God has reminded me as I have watched that seasons do change in nature and in life.  Growing up in Nigeria, we had only two seasons: rainy and dry.  Sometimes, the dry season lasted longer than usual, but the rain always came.  Sometimes, the winters of life are longer and harsher, but God is still God.  He created the seasons and He knows the seasons of our life.

Whatever season you find yourself in today, know that God is there.  You may be enjoying a wonderful spring or summer.  It may be that you have found yourself stuck in winter.  Wherever you are, God is there with you even if you can’t feel the sunshine of His presence.

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  -Philippians 2:9-11

Last Friday, I woke up with sore legs.  I hadn’t been exercising, so I wondered what was going on.  Then I realized it was because I had done some kneeling during the revival services.  Thursday evening, in particular, I spent much of worship with my head bowed and given the opportunity, kneeling at the altar.

One of the things God taught me last week is that I need to kneel more both physically and spiritually.  I do not believe you have to kneel to pray but there is something about the act of kneeling that puts feet to your heart, so to speak.  Therefore, it is something I am compelled to do more. Whether or not you are physically able to kneel, I have no doubt that we could all kneel more spiritually.  What does this mean?  It is a heart attitude of submission to God, to His plans and purposes.  It is an attitude of availability to God to do His work for His kingdom and glory and not for our own gain.

I want to practice kneeling physically so that my legs are not sore afterwards.  More than that, I want to kneel spiritually so that my heart is not sore from struggling against God, but rather refreshed with every encounter.  I want it to be my nature to kneel, so I plan to practice.  Will you join me?