Daily Devotions

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Current Study: People Who Made a Difference         

Today’s Topic: Obedience

Today’s Scripture:   1 Samuel 15:20-22   But I did obey the LORD,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”
But Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

King Saul is in trouble. After being told by the LORD to destroy all of the Amalekites and their possessions, he is now trying to justify his disobedience by saying that God should honor good intentions. After all, shouldn’t God be pleased that they had selected all the best of the cattle and sheep so they could be sacrificed to the LORD? If God had instructed them to do that, then yes, He would be pleased. But good intentions do not make up for disobedience. Besides, Saul only came up with the idea of sacrifice after he had been caught with the goods.

There is an old saying of disputable origin that says, “Hell is paved with good intentions.”  In our modern day it has been amended to state, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  But it is action that proves the heart, not intentions. An ounce of accomplishment is worth a ton of good intention. But being the people we are, stuck in the rut of self-affirmation, we prefer to defend our actions with the justification of our intentions. Unfortunately, we don’t treat others the same. Ian Percy, a modern day motivational speaker and leadership guru, said it this way – “We judge others by their behavior. We judge ourselves by our intentions.”

This was true of Saul. He preferred, as I suspect we all do, to be judged by his intentions rather than his actions. But that is not God’s way. The truth is that actions are always the reflection of intentions. Like Saul, we have simply learned how to generate justifiable intentions after the fact of the action, thus attempting to defend our honor and image. This simply won’t cut it with God, and Samuel let’s Saul know it. He states very clearly to him and to us that the end never justifies the means, especially when the end is revised from the original intent. The only thing we are ultimately responsible for is obedience to the LORD. Explicit obedience. Unquestioning obedience. Trust-in-the-One-who-knows-the-end obedience. There is to be no self-justification. No mid-course compromise. Just obedience.  “In the fulfillment of your duties, let your intentions be so pure that you reject from your actions any other motive than the glory of God and the salvation of souls”  (Angela Merici, early16^th century).

We don’t honor the intentions of the priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side of the road when a man lay in the ditch fighting for life. We honor the Good Samaritan, who acted. God did not honor the intentions of Saul; He was looking for action. You see, what you do is what you really believe to be true. Want proof? Read carefully what Saul says to Samuel as he tries to defend his actions with imaginary intentions. “The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.” Did you catch it? Saul referred to the LORD as Samuel’s God, but not his own. His actions were the product of what he believed to be true, or in this case didn’t believe to be true.

So the next time you do something spontaneous and then try to catch up to the consequences with imaginary intentions, remember this – your actions prove what you truly believe. Your intentions may indicate what you want to believe, but your actions prove what you really believe. Maybe your intentions simply prove who you want others to think you are. Either way, it’s pretty discouraging and downright dangerous to live such a double life. Make some changes. Start thinking about intentions before you act. Let the LORD be your God, and let His life be lived in and through you. It’s called sincerity, and the obedience it produces is what God delights in.

Pastor John

Daily Devotions

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Current Study: People Who Made a Difference         

Today’s Topic: Trusting God

Today’s Scripture:   Psalm 84:15-17   Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD. They rejoice in your name all day long; they exult in your righteousness. For you are their glory and strength, and by your favor you exalt our horn.

Yesterday’s devotional stimulated several responses from readers, and I would like to share one of their stories. It comes from a former member of our church who now lives in the Twin Cities. She writes,

I’ve been asking God for more faith and to help me be more faithful. He brought that to mind today as I was unexpectedly lying in an MRI machine. He showed His faithfulness to me by getting me into an open-sided machine within 2 hours of ordering the test (I didn’t have the chance to get too worked up about it). It was for my right wrist and, no, they could not put only my arm in. I asked!  After 2 tries to get me in, (I’m BIG time claustrophobic!) I was finally in for 45 minutes. I started out so panicked that I couldn’t even remember Psalms 1, which I have had memorized for years. So I just talked to God, sang songs, and quoted what scripture I could remember. By the end of the 45 minutes my left arm, that had been holding on to the outside of the machine so that I would not be dragged further in, was almost resting by my head with just my fingertips holding on. I had remembered all of Psalms 1 including my new verse in 1 Cor 2:12. I was still a little stressed but no longer panicked. God just kept reminding me that He was still there and in control and as long as I stayed focused on Him, everything was going to be OK. And it was!

The moral of the story is: God will not let me be put into a situation above what, together, He and I can handle…and keep reviewing my Scripture verses.

Marian Green

Practical applications of trust. We all experience such opportunities daily. We choose to either prod through problems feeling deprived or pass through them focused on God’s promises. Every circumstance of life is an opportunity for the practical application of trust in God.

In just a few days, 13 to be exact, our church will lose a couple of valuable people. Dudley and Inge Donaldson will be leaving for a minimum of two years for the mission field in Swaziland. God has called them to this great adventure and miraculously provided almost all of their funding in less than 8 months! Hallelujah! But they will be greatly missed and hard to replace. Inge has been our office administrator for almost three years now. We thank God that He has provided a gifted and qualified replacement. Through this entire process we have all learned to trust God and stand on His promises. We are so blessed to be their sending church, but we will miss them so much.

Just the other day Inge was having a tough day, and experiencing one of those “issues” that drags us down. Then she remembered something she had been told by a former spiritual mentor – five steps to handling tough situations. She has printed these five steps out on little yellow cards and carries them with her as a reminder to trust God. Let me share them with you.

1. Give the situation to God – turn it all over to Him and trust Him with the outcome.
2. Do the right thing – no matter how you are tempted to manipulate the situation for your own benefit, always and only do the right thing.
3. Be honest with your feelings – tell God and tell others how you really feel. Don’t cover up.
4. Tell yourself the truth – focus on what you know to be true about the situation and the people involved, and let those truths control your emotions.
5. Exercise grace – always grant the benefit of the doubt.

What great advice. I’m going to carry one of those cards in my pocket. Make one up for yourself and laminate it. Then practice the steps. Then you will experience the promises of Psalm 84, which says, Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD. They rejoice in your name all day long; they exult in your righteousness. For you are their glory and strength, and by your favor you exalt our horn.

Pastor John

Daily Devotions

Monday, December 01, 2008

Current Study: People Who Made a Difference         

Today’s Topic: Trust God

Today’s Scripture:   Psalm 84:10-12  Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.

What a week it was. I sure missed my time at the computer each morning. I thought I would be spending the days deer hunting and using up my vacation time. Instead I spent three days sick in bed. It was the worst gun deer season ever. But I really didn’t feel all that bad about it because I just kept thinking about the big buck I got during the archery season. He will be on my wall soon. Life is a lot more fulfilling when we are thankful for what we have instead of envious of what we don’t have.

There are blessings to be found in every circumstance of life. Sometimes we need to be reminded of simple lessons like that. We need our attitudes adjusted. I received a reminder like that yesterday in church. My attitude wasn’t bad, but my cold was really annoying me. I had made it through the first service with only two coughing spells, and they weren’t bad. Well, the first one was because I missed the mute button on my microphone and coughed right into it, bringing a collective gasp from the congregation. I think several of them were frustrated that I had awakened them from a nice dream. As I sat in the front row for the second service, a young man named Tom leaned forward during the offering and told me he had a story for me. It’s just what I needed to hear.

Tom is a new believer, and is serious about his faith. He told me that he had been having a bad day at work on Saturday. He works in a fast food restaurant, and the customers had been frustrating him all day. Imagine that – on the weekend after Thanksgiving customers being annoying. Anyway, several of his previous customers had paid for their food with quarters. He had grown tired of counting change. Why couldn’t someone just be normal and hand him paper money? He turned around from his station and confessed to the Lord that he was frustrated, and asked God to bless him. He turned back to his cash register to help the next customer. After taking the order, the customer handed him a five dollar bill. He looked at it as he placed it in the cash drawer, and there, written in hot pink ink on the bottom of the bill, were the words you are blessed.

As he told me the story, he showed me the bill. He had exchanged one of his own for it, and said he was going to carry it in his wallet as a reminder to trust God. I could see in his eyes that God had taught him an incredible lesson. I needed the reminder as well. You see, no matter how frustrated we may be at the circumstances of life, we are blessed when we trust in God. It’s so simple. So why is it so hard to practice every minute of every day? It’s because we are more envious of what we don’t have than we are thankful for what we do have. I didn’t get to shoot any deer. I didn’t get to hunt as much as I wanted to. I didn’t get to see my boys shoot any deer. I did get to see all of my grandchildren. I did get to spend three days watching sports center and football. I did get to spend extended time meditating on God’s word and preparing for Sunday’s sermon. I did get to see God use that to touch several lives and initiate change. It’s our choice what to dwell on. We get to choose what to think about. We get to choose our attitude. The great preacher Chuck Swindoll said it this way.

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.

As for me, I will choose to remember that I am blessed, because I trust in the LORD. How about you?

Pastor John