Daily Devotions

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

 Current Study: First Peter

 Today’s Topic: Good Citizens

 Scripture Reading:  1 Peter 2:13-15   Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.

 This is a call to humility. It is a call to trust in the sovereign rule of God. It is an opportunity to let the world see the heart of Jesus in us. It will require sacrifice. It demands balance. Extremism has no place here. It can only be accomplished if we first understand our true citizenship.

 As members of the family of God and devoted followers of Jesus Christ, we are first and foremost citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. That grace-bestowed citizenship must captivate us and dictate all responses to all other kingdoms. This causes great tension, because the Kingdom standard of love and grace so often conflicts with the application of righteousness and justice in a sinful world. But one thought helps me resolve this tension – our hope is in the return of the King, not in the return we get on our investments in other kingdoms. Our primary purpose as citizens of heaven is to recruit more citizens, not change the culture through political action. Jesus modeled that in His life on earth. We must live as He did.

 Granted, I am concerned about the political condition of our country and other countries around the world. My heart breaks for the people who suffer under tyrannical and terroristic rule. My soul cries for the millions of people who are starving because government leaders are greedy. My soul weeps violently for the millions of babies who are murdered every year because of the selfishness, sexual immorality, and pride of people. Yet my heart also mourns over the death of the doctor who provided those abortion services. All human life is precious – even those who have no regard for it.

 Do we not understand that God’s heart is more deeply affected by these things than our own? Do we think He does not care? Do we think He will not act? Do we think He is not in control any longer? O Lord, give us peace based on our faith in your sovereignty. Give us patience based on our confidence in your righteousness. Give us hope based on your Word and its promises. Give us love for others – especially those who reject you and rebel against you – that will model to them the love that Jesus has for them.

 Dietrich Bonhoeffer understood the balance between Christ-centered living and social action that must exist in the Christian’s life. He was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian. He was also a participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism. His involvement in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler resulted in his arrest in April 1943 and his subsequent execution by hanging in April 1945, shortly before the war’s end.

 Bonhoeffer states that there are three possible ways in which the church, or individual Christians, can act toward the state:

1. It can ask the state whether its actions are legitimate and in accordance with its character as state, i.e. it can throw the state back on its responsibilities.
2. It can aid the victims of state action. The church has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering of society, even if they do not belong to the Christian community, “Do good to all people.”
3. It can choose to not just bandage the victims under the wheel of government, but to jam a spoke in the wheel itself. Such action would be direct political action, and is only possible and desirable when the church sees the state fail in its function of creating law and order and bringing about the good of God.

 Unfortunately, many Christians jump to step #3 and do not model a humble, submissive, and servant heart towards their government. This is wrong. It is contrary to the commands of Scripture given to us by Jesus (“Give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, and give to God the things that belong to God”); by Paul (Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.  Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.); and by Peter (Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men.).

Good citizens of heaven make good citizens on earth. Why? Because they understand submission and sacrifice. They know what love is and how to live it out in everyday life. They live the life of Christ by loving others more than self. They win the culture war by influencing culture with Christ. No matter how bad it gets out there in the world, love will always conquer a multitude of sins. Let your citizenship be identified by the love of God others see in you.

 Pastor John

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Daily Devotions

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

 Current Study: First Peter

 Today’s Topic: Abstain From Lust

 Scripture Reading:  1 Peter 2:11-12   Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

 I will not be popular today. I will certainly not be politically correct. In fact, there will be those who may read this who will downright despise me. But that’s the price of truth.

 In today’s Scripture reading, Peter urges those who are in Christ to live as strangers in the world. He declares two general principles – first, stay away from sinful desires; and second, live good lives. I want to address the first principle today.

 The New International Version quoted above says that as followers of Christ and citizens of His eternal kingdom, we are to abstain from sinful desires. The King James Version calls it lust. Most of the time, when we hear or read the word lust, we relate it to sexual immorality. But it covers a much broader spectrum of desires that emanate from our sinful hearts. To lust is to desire anything forbidden. Unfortunately, in today’s modern society, we have chosen to believe that nothing is really forbidden. If it feels good, it must be right. If it’s available, then it must be okay. After all, who declared it forbidden anyway? It must have been Someone out of touch with who we really are.

 My friends, we are in a serious predicament. It’s not a new issue, but it is serious. God has been declared irrelevant, and man has been left to his own foolishness. This problem started way back in the beginning of time. The Apostle Paul reviewed the history of lust for us in Romans chapter one.

 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them…For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened…Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

 Lust is destroying the human race. I came across this incredible word picture the other day from the pen of author Calvin Miller. It has really caused me to think.

       Unbridled lust:

             A cannibal committing suicide

                    By nibbling on himself.

 Peter says that unbridled lust will war against your very soul. It will eat you alive. It will stop your spiritual growth and destroy your ministry effectiveness. Jesus reminded us of this truth in a parable he told about seed being sown by a farmer.

 “The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.”

 The desires for other things – lust – will choke out the word of God and make us unfruitful. Let us determine today, and every day, to bridle the lust of the flesh. We must choose to abstain from all that is forbidden by the Word of God, no matter what the world of gods says. Do not let the world decide for you what is forbidden. God has already declared it. Let us stand on His Word, and be fruitful. The world may accuse us of doing wrong, but on the day Jesus returns, and they must face the truth they have denied, they will have to confess that He is Lord and give Him glory for how we lived.

 Stand strong. Be faithful. The Lord your God is with you.

 Pastor John

Daily Devotions

Monday, June 1, 2009

Current Study: First Peter

 Today’s Topic: Actions Speak Loudly

 Scripture Reading:  1 Peter 2:11-12   Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

 Hello again! It’s good to be back. What a great week Denise and I had last week with some time off with family and friends. We got to attend our oldest grandson’s graduation from pre-school. He’ll be in Kindergarten in the fall. We spent two days in Duluth with our best friends and relaxed along the waterfront. I didn’t answer any phone calls, but I must admit I did do some business by email. I really need to ditch this Blackberry completely when I’m on vacation.

 While we were gone, I did some real hard thinking about actions and attitudes, and their affect on others. Peter addresses that issue in today’s Scripture, and over the next couple of days I want to share some practical applications of the truths presented. Let me start today with some quotes from famous people that will stimulate your thinking.

 Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.  Mark Twain

 Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.  John Wooden, former UCLA basketball coach,

 Faith and works should travel side by side, step answering to step, like the legs of men walking. First faith, and then works; and then faith again, and then works again—until you can scarcely distinguish which is one and which is the other.   William Booth, Founder of the Salvation Army

 Love talked about can be easily turned aside, but love demonstrated is irresistible.   W. Stanley Mooneyham

 Oh brethren, what abundance of good works are before us, and how few of them do we undertake to do. I know the world expects more of us than we do ourselves, but if we cannot answer the expectations of the unreasonable, let us do what we can to answer the expectations of God, of our own consciences, and of all just men. For it is the will of God that with well-doing we should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.    Richard Baxter

 In Conspiracy of Kindness, Steve Sjogren tells the true story of Joe Delaney and his eight-year-old son, Jared, who were playing catch in their backyard.

 Jared asked, “Dad, is there a God?” Joe replied that he went to church only a few times when he was a kid; he really had no idea. Jared ran into the house. “I’ll be right back!” he yelled.

 Moments later he returned with a helium balloon from the circus, a pen, and an index card. “I’m going to send God an airmail message,” Jared explained.

 “Dear God,” wrote Jared, “if you are real, and you are there, send people who know you to Dad and me.” God, I hope you’re watching, Joe thought, as they watched the balloon and message sail away.

 Two days later, Joe and Jared pulled into a car wash sponsored by Sjogren’s church. When Joe asked, “How much?” Sjogren answered, “It’s free. No strings attached. We just want to show God’s love in a practical way.”

 “Are you guys Christians, the kind of Christians who believe in God?” Joe asked. Sjogren said, “Yes, we’re that kind of Christians.”

 From that encounter, Steve led Joe to faith in Christ. Many people may be only one act of kindness from meeting a true Christian.

 Several weeks ago I had 1,000 cards printed that give our church people an opportunity to show the love of God to others by paying for their drive-through purchases at fast food restaurants. Some of us have started using the cards already. I’ve had the opportunity to meet three people who were thankful for the gift of love they received. I pray that God will use the gift they received to open their hearts to the greatest Gift they could ever receive – Jesus Christ.

 Let your actions speak loudly for Jesus.

Pastor John

Daily Devotions

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Current Study: First Peter

Today’s Topic: I’m Not Worthy

Scripture Reading:  1 Peter 2:10   Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

I must spend one more day on this verse. Something deeply troubles me about the attitude of the “average” Christian in our world today. It troubles me most because it tends to be true of me. There is an epidemic disease from which most of us suffer. I call it deservism. I know that’s not an official word, but it is an official problem.

It’s clear that an inseparable relationship between grace and praise has been established by Peter. After declaring that we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people belonging to God, he tells us that those truths, when properly understood, will produce praise in our lives. Then, so that we might fully comprehend His incredible grace, he reminds us to consider our condition prior to being chosen. We were not a people. We were without mercy. In other words, we were worthless.

Some will cry foul at this point. How dare I state that anyone is worthless? But the truth is, without Christ, we are.

Yesterday I used an illustration of being chosen for a sports team. The illustration falls apart at this point. You see, when a sports coach or captain chooses players for his team, he does so based on a person’s abilities and performance. In contrast, when I stand in line before God, I have nothing to offer. All my past performance is as filthy rags, says the prophet Isaiah. But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. We are not chosen by God based upon our abilities or past performance. We are chosen completely as an act of His sovereign will and by His grace and mercy.

In his mercy God chose not to give us what we deserve – the punishment of our sin. By His grace, He gave us a gift we could never earn – eternal life. But we have decided we are deserving people. Our western civilization has corrupted God’s grace. We have been told that everyone has worth. Materialism has infiltrated our basic belief system so that our salvation, while we claim it is free, is really something God owed us. Our pride, manifested in the disease of deservism, has destroyed our ability to praise.

 Here’s a simple test for you to run on yourself. Think about the last gift you received. Be honest – how truly grateful were you? How long did it take you to send a thank-you note? How enthusiastic were you about the gift? Think now – was there any level of deservism that kept you from being as appreciative as you should have been?

 Even the slightest sense of deservism will destroy a thankful heart. Deservism delivers a death blow to praise. We must go back and discover that we deserve nothing from God, and that it is only by His mercy that He was able to choose those who by their very nature stood opposed to Him.

 I found the words to a song by Curtis Stephan. I encourage you to listen to the song. You can listen to it at http://www.spiritandsong.com/musicondemand/songs/66239. Read the words carefully. Then fall on your face before the Lord and ask for healing from the disease of deservism. When we confess that we are unworthy, we will become the people of praise that God has called us to be when He chose us.

 Though I’m not worthy to see your precious face

I bow before thee pour out your holy grace

For you alone can wash my sin

And cleanse my soul so deep within.

Heal me, wash me in your mercy

Mend these broken pieces of my heart

Love me though I am not worthy

Cleanse my soul and make me whole again

Only say the word and I shall be healed.

Though I’m not worthy in your grace I long to stand

And bow before thee, stretch out your healing hand

For you alone can purify

and heal these wounds so deep inside.

Though I’m not worthy to feel your love, oh Lord

I bow before thee, my Savior be adored.

For you alone break hardened hearts

And bid old bitterness depart.

Pastor John

Daily Devotions

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Current Study: First Peter

 Today’s Topic: I’ve Been Chosen

 Scripture Reading:  1 Peter 2:9-10   But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

 Conjunctions. They are an important part of language. Conjunctions are words that connect thoughts and ideas. Sometimes they are comparative, as in the case of the word “also”. Sometimes they highlight a contrast, like “however” and “but”. Peter starts today’s Scripture with a contrasting conjunction. What he is about to say is to be considered as opposing what he just said. He has just stated that the Living Stone of Jesus Christ is a stumbling block to some, and because they choose not to believe, they will fulfill their destiny which was in them from birth because of their sin nature.

 But – there it is, the contrasting conjunction – those who believe in the Living Stone have a different destiny: one chosen by Christ Himself. He will not stumble because he belongs to God.

 Way back in the early 1800’s, Pastor John Keble, after whom Keble College in Oxford, England is named, wrote this poem –  

            Look in, and see Christ’s chosen saint

            In triumph wear his Christ-like chain;

           No fear lest he should swerve or faint;

           His life is Christ, his death is gain.

                                             John Keble (1792–1866)

 When I was a little boy, I hated standing in line while a boy much bigger and more athletic than I served as the captain of a team to which He would choose players. I hated it because I knew that my skinny, scrawny body would not appeal to him as a potential team member. I had been the last one chosen too many times, but I kept getting in that line. I wanted to be chosen. I wanted my name to be called.

 Even though it really hurt to be called last, I learned that once I was on the team, I was able to improve my skills by playing the game. I would go wherever the captain said and do my best. Soon, I wasn’t the last one being called.

 I understand and am overwhelmed by the knowledge that God chose me and then called me. He made me somebody when I was nobody. He gave me a place to belong and an identity when I had neither. Oswald Chambers, the great devotional writer, said, “‘I have chosen you.’ Keep that note of greatness in your creed. It is not that you have got God, but that he has got you. Why is God at work in me, bending, breaking, moulding, doing just as he chooses? For one purpose only—that he may be able to say, ‘This is my man, my woman.’” Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)

 I like that – God wants to say about me, “This is my man.” Peter says that my response to being chosen is that I will say, “This is my God.” We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people belonging to God for one primary purpose of God – to declare His praises. Unfortunately, in the church today, most people live as though they’re frozen not chosen. I would suggest that those who act frozen don’t comprehend the magnitude of being chosen.  

 Keith Robinson, in The Encourager, writes: “When God wanted to authenticate Himself to the ancient world, He called His nation Israel as witness. ‘You are my witnesses,’ He said, testimony that ‘I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the Lord’ (Isa. 48:10). The people of God served as the undeniable proof of God.

“God’s people still offer the most basic and best proof of God. A changed life is still the best testimony of God’s power. Divine love reflected in a Christian heart which accepts, forgives and loves the unlovable is still the best witness of the nature of God. Hope that will not die is still the best proof of eternal life. Faith which cannot be shaken even in the face of death is still the best demonstration of the immutability of God’s promises.

 “We who have been granted the imponderable privilege of partaking in the divine nature, are the witnesses, the demonstration, the proof of the divine presence in the world. Books and lessons and sermons and reason may have their place, but the real test is in the lives of God’s chosen people. If that proof is not clear and constant, everything else is just hearsay.”

 I close with this poem from John Milton –

Let us, with a gladsome mind,

Praise the Lord, for he is kind:

For his mercies aye endure,

Ever faithful, ever sure.

Let us blaze his name abroad,

For of gods he is the God:

He, with all-commanding might,

Filled the new-made world with light:

All things living he doth feed,

His full hand supplies their need:

He his chosen race did bless

In the wasteful wilderness:

Let us then with gladsome mind

Praise the Lord, for he is kind.

 You have been chosen. Live like a chosen child of God.

 Pastor John

Daily Devotions

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

 Current Study: First Peter

 Today’s Topic: Two Stones In One

 Scripture Reading:  1 Peter 2:6-8   For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”  Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,” and, “A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

 Pastor Fred Musser tells an interesting story in The Tabernacle. He writes, A few days before I left home to prepare for the ministry, my gray-haired pastor, Rev. Temple, told me this story.

 When my son was small, we often walked together out through the fields and neighboring pasture behind the parsonage. At first, the little fellow would hold onto my little finger, but he found that when he stepped into a hoof-print or stumbled over something, his grip would fail and down he’d go in the dust or snow. Not giving it much thought, my mind on other matters, I’d stop and he’d get up, brush himself off, and grab my little finger again, gripping a little harder this time.

 Needless to say, this occurred frequently until one day as he was brushing himself off, he looked at me and said, ‘Daddy?’ I replied, ‘Yes, Son, what is it?’ He said, ‘I think if you would hold my hand, I wouldn’t fall.’

 Pastor Temple then turned to me and with a tear in his eye he said, “You know, he still stumbled many times after that, but he never hit the ground. Now, as you walk with God, don’t try to hold on to Him, let Him hold on to you. You may stumble but He’ll never let you fall.”

 The one who trusts in the Living Stone, the chosen and precious Cornerstone, will never fall. They will never be embarrassed or ashamed. Our strength may fail, and we may stumble, but we will never fall because His strength cannot fail. It all depends upon whether you’re trying to hold on to Him, or if you’ve trusted Him to hold on to you. Those who trust in their own strength and works to hold on to God will find themselves flat on their faces. Those who by faith allow God to hold on to them will walk and never grow weary.

 The Apostle Paul twice quotes this same Old Testament passage from the prophet Isaiah in his letter to the Romans. It’s the passage in Romans 9 that really helps us to understand how Christ can be both a living stone and a stumbling stone. Paul says, “…the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the ‘stumbling stone.’ 
As it is written: ‘See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’”

 One stone. Different effects on people. Those who by faith alone trust in Christ for their salvation will stand on the Rock and be exalted in eternity. Those who try to earn their way into eternity by their works will trip over the Rock and fall to their doom. It is the grace of God in Christ that becomes the stumbling block for most, while for us it becomes the rock of our salvation.

 People have trouble receiving unconditional gifts. Several years ago, my wife and I stood for 45 minutes in the parking lot of a tourist attraction trying to give away tickets that we couldn’t use. Each ticket was worth $18.00. Dozens of people walked by and would not extend a hand to receive the free gift. Some just ignored us. Others asked, “What’s the catch?”  All of them refused the gift, went inside the attraction, and purchased their own tickets. Finally, one couple decided to take advantage of the offer.

 What a perfect example of how the free gift of salvation is rejected by so many because they will not believe it is truly free. How sad!

 But even after we receive the free gift, we often stumble because we are prone to be prone. We tend to take back into our own control what we claimed to have given to Christ. We trust ourselves rather than trust Him. We choose to grab God’s little finger and hang on with all our strength, when we could just let God grab our hand with all of His strength. The first step is a scary one, because it requires us to let go. But you can trust God. He is your Living Stone.

 Pastor John

Daily Devotions

Monday, May 18, 2009

Current Study: First Peter

Today’s Topic: Convenience or Commitment?

Scripture Reading:  1 Peter 2:4-5   As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

 Right after Easter, I started a series of sermons on Sunday mornings on the topic of Knowing God Through Genesis. The book of Genesis is incredible. In it, we find not only the foundations of the world and of civilization, but also the revelation of the nature and character of God and His work on behalf of mankind. There is nothing more deeply satisfying to any of us than the knowledge of God, and so far, after only four chapters, we are becoming overwhelmed with awe at the splendor of God.

 Each week, as I study, I discover things that have real significance to me. Yesterday we spent time studying the murder of Abel by his brother Cain. One part of the story stood out to me and made a point that has been with me for days now – the sacrifices that were offered by the two brothers. One was acceptable to God, and one wasn’t. Why?

Many have stated that the reason God accepted Abel’s sacrifice was because it was a blood sacrifice of an animal. Cain’s was rejected because it was grain. This belief is based on the need for a blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin, which God demonstrated to Adam and Eve when He clothed them with the skins of animals after their sin in the Garden of Eden. I completely see the connection and the significance of the symbolism, but I think that we stretch the meaning when we think this way. Nowhere in the passage does it say that the sacrifice they were bringing was for the forgiveness of sin. They were bringing an offering, not making a sacrifice.

 Interestingly, when God passes on His laws to Moses, grain offerings were fully acceptable. Therefore, it was not the offering that caused the problem for Cain. So what was it? It was the attitude of his heart towards the glory of God. Cain did not truly respect God as the provider and sustainer of his life. He simply came and made an offering of convenience. Abel, on the other hand, gave God the best of the best that he had. Cain brought some of the harvest of his fields. Abel gave of the fat portions of the firstfruits of his flocks. Cain did not honor God as His provider, but kept the best for himself to provide for himself. Abel showed trust in God’s provision by giving up the first born of his flock, thereby limiting his flock’s reproductive potential.

 This has deeply impacted my heart. I want it to touch you as well. Open your heart to think about this principle in light of your current commitment level to Christ. Are you offering Him only what is convenient? Do you give Him only the time that doesn’t interfere with your plans? Do you give Him offerings of resources that don’t restrict your buying power?

 We live in a modern world of convenience. Everything is about making life easier. Unfortunately, easy living comes at a huge price. It costs us our sacrificial spirit. Easy living becomes the passion of our pursuits, and the motivation of our decisions. If we carefully and honestly evaluate it, easy living is the product of our own invention and is accomplished in the strength of our own will. As a result, we make very few if any true sacrifices, because all choices are based on return value.

 Peter tells us today that together we are to grow as a spiritual house to be holy priests that offer spiritual sacrifices to God. I cannot justify convenience with spiritual sacrifices. Cain’s sacrifice of convenience didn’t represent commitment. Abel’s sacrifice of income potential did. We must each decide if our relationship with Christ is one of convenience or commitment. We may call our service in the church a commitment, while it may be nothing more than a convenient way to continue to appear spiritual.

 Sacrifices of convenience grow out of a spirit of self-fulfillment. Sacrifices of commitment come from a heart that is already fulfilled in Christ and needs nothing more. Convenience is all about gain for self. Commitment is all about gain for God. Convenience demonstrates trust in self. Commitment models trust in Christ.

 My friends, this is an urgent word for the day in which we live. We cannot any longer live as materialistic-minded people. Giving God what’s left of our time, our energy, and our finances is nothing more than convenient Christianity that benefits self. We must…I repeat, we MUST understand that God requires compliance when it comes to commitment. Anything less is an unacceptable offering. Give God your best – the best of your best. As the Apostle Paul said, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)

 Pastor John

Daily Devotions

Thursday, May 14, 2009

 Current Study: First Peter

 Today’s Topic: Eat Well

 Scripture Reading:  1 Peter 2:1-3   Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

 Today is one of my favorite days of the year. I’m up early so I can start the day right by spending time with my Savior and Lord. I’ll grab some breakfast around 7, and then I’ll head to Hillcrest Country Club for a day of fellowship with men and women who are committed to sharing the Good News of Jesus with the youth of the Chippewa Valley. We have made calls and sent out letters to raise money for Young Life, a youth ministry that reaches students through small group Bible studies. I love what they do, and I love the team of people who support it.

 When I get to the course around 7:30, I’ll head to the driving range to review the fundamentals of my swing. I’ll spend lots of time on the putting green to review the basics of putting and chipping. I deeply understand the necessity of review. There are certain fundamentals that serve as foundations that have to be in place for everything else about the game of golf to work right. I’ll spend time in review this morning.

 Peter reminds us to review in today’s Scripture passage. He starts with a word that demands review – therefore. Someone once said that whenever you see the word therefore, go back and look at what was just said so you know what is about to be said is there for. Let’s review what Peter has just said prior to chapter two. His emphasis was on two things – sincere love for others and the Word of God, which he described as living and enduring. If you want to review those subjects more deeply, read the devotionals from Monday and Tuesday.

 With the foundation laid in our lives of God’s Word and our obedience to its truth, Peter says that we are to get rid of anything that contradicts those fundamentals.

• Malice – the desire to do harm to another person because of our anger – contradicts the fundamental of love for others.
• Deceit – a term used to describe a decoy intended to ensnare in a trap – contradicts the fundamental of sincerity.
• Hypocrisy – to be two faced – contradicts integrity and transparency in love.
• Envy – to desire what someone else has so one’s value is increased – contradicts the fundamental that by God’s Word we are made alive and complete in Christ.
• Slander – to defame another person – contradicts the fundamental of love others and building them up by putting their needs ahead of our own.

All of these things are contradictory to the very nature of God as revealed in His living Word. When they’re gone, there’s room for us to grow in what accompanies our salvation.

 I love Peter’s analogy of food. Let’s face it – I love food. Once I taste it, and if I like it, and I want more of it. Much more. It makes me grow…in all the wrong places, and that’s not good. But feeding on the living Word of God brings growth that’s good. God never intended us to stop growing. There are no spiritual diets. We can have all we want of God’s food. It’s our choice how much we want to grow. Little food brings little growth. Much food brings much growth.

 Some people claim to not have much of an appetite. What a sad predicament of their own making. Somewhere along the line, they forgot how good God tasted. They chose to not savor His flavor. They chose to seek out other sources of nutrition, none of which ever satisfies. It’s not that they don’t have an appetite; it’s just that they’ve chosen to feed their hunger with something other than God. They need to go back and discover the taste of the Lord again.

 Every once in a while I get the urge to have a mango. It truly is the world’s best fruit. I will try to satisfy my hunger for one by buying one locally. It was picked from the tree well before it was ripe, and when I did into the first bite, I am totally disappointed. Nothing beats tree-ripened fruit. Unfortunately, there’s no way to grow mangoes around here.

 I first tasted a tree-ripened one in the Philippines. The people of the mission I worked with on three different occasions understood my love for them, and provided them for me at every meal. If I want that satisfying taste again, I’ll just have to go back there. It will be costly, and take a huge commitment of time and resources, but it would be worth it.

 It may cost us to get back our spiritual appetite. It will take sacrifice, and a huge commitment of time and resources to go back to the place where we once fed on the fruit of the Tree of Life – but it will be worth it, for nothing else will ever satisfy. Let us search our memories and rediscover the place where we first tasted that the Lord was good, and let’s go back there to find all the food we could ever want. It’s time to start growing again.

 By the way – please pass the mangoes.

 Pastor John

Daily Devotions

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

 Current Study: First Peter

Today’s Topic: It’s Alive

Scripture Reading:  1 Peter 1:23-25   For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.

 In the “library” at my house is a cupboard that has a variety of things in it. One shelf of that cupboard is primarily for magazines. The selection includes In Fisherman, Golf Magazine, and a few Cabela’s hunting and fishing catalogues. I’ve been reading the golf magazines a lot lately because Thursday is the annual Young Life golf outing and I want to be ready to play my best. (By the way, if anyone has not yet had the opportunity to contribute to this important and life-changing youth ministry in the Chippewa Valley, you can contact me before Thursday.)

 One thing I’ve discovered while reading magazines about fishing and golf is that everyone has their own tested and proven technique for success. Month after month, the tips keep coming to catch more fish, add more yards to your drive, or make more putts. The problem is that in any given month there will be at least three articles that contradict what last month’s “experts” said. Where does a person go to get solid information that never fails?

 There is only one source of truth – God’s Word, the Bible. Here’s a quick synopsis of what Peter says about it in the verses printed above.

It’s alive. In Thayer’s Greek Definitions, the word living, when applied to something other than a person or animal, means, having vital power in itself and exerting the same upon the soul. Later in this same letter, Peter calls Jesus a Living Stone, and then says we are living stones also. Hebrews 4:12 says, For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Here’s the point – when something is called living, it carries the very essence of its Creator. It has the same power. It represents the same nature and character. So when God speaks, His words carry the very essence of His being. They are the exact representation of who He is. They are alive. That’s why John calls Jesus the Word in his gospel. In Hebrews 1, we read that God has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. God’s Word is alive, and will bring life to you!

• It’s enduring.  Twice in this passage, the Word of God is said to be enduring. In the NIV version above, the second time the word is used it is translated as stands forever. The Greek word has three meanings that are significant to our understanding:
  • The first application is in reference to place. When something endures, it remains in place. When you read, study, and apply His Word to your life, it will never leave you. It becomes a part of your living soul. Actually, it is what gives you life. God’s Word will never lose its place in you.
  • The second application is in reference to time. When something endures, it never gets old. I wish I was enduring. Because God’s Word is the exact expression of His being, which is eternal, the God’s Word is eternal. It is not subject to time. It remains forever. Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.(Psalm 119:89)
  • The third application is in reference to condition. When something endures, it never changes. The Word of God never changes. It cannot, because it is the living expression of an unchangeable God. It is constant truth. James, the brother of Jesus, says, Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

 Every day we get to choose what light to let shine on our life. It may be the light of a golf or fishing expert. It may be the light of a spouse. It may be the light of a pastor. It may be the light of a boss. Every day we choose to walk in someone’s shadow. The trouble is, those lights are not consistent, and the shadows are always shifting.  But God’s Word is the one true Light. Jesus came as the Light of the world, because He is the Living Word of God.

 So the answer to our initial question is this – The Bible is where you will always find solid and trustworthy information that will never fail. Maybe it’s time you started spending more time reading it. My words are not alive. The books you are reading right now are not alive. But God’s Word is alive, and it will make you alive!

 Pastor John

Daily Devotions

Monday, May 11, 2009

Current Study: First Peter

 Today’s Topic: Love Liberates

 Scripture Reading:  1 Peter 1:22b   …love one another deeply, from the heart.

 Have you ever wondered how birds teach their young to fly? Well, using various forms of the same basic method, they generally push them off their perch. Eugene Peterson tells how he saw a family of birds doing just that.

 Three young swallows were perched on a dead branch that stretched out over a lake. One adult swallow got alongside the chicks and started shoving them out toward the end of the branch—pushing, pushing, pushing. The end one fell off. Somewhere between the branch and the water four feet below, the wings started working, and the fledgling was off on his own. Then the second one.

 The third was not to be bullied. At the last possible moment his grip on the branch loosened just enough so that he swung downward, then tightened again with bulldog tenacity. The parent was without sentiment. He pecked at the desperately clinging talons until it was more painful for the poor chick to hang on than risk the insecurities of flying. The grip was released, and the inexperienced wings began pumping. The mature swallow knew what the chick did not—that it would fly—that there was no danger in making it do what it was perfectly designed to do.

 Birds have feet and can walk. Birds have talons and can grasp a branch securely. They can walk; they can cling. But flying is their characteristic action, and not until they fly are they living at their best, gracefully and beautifully.

 We have been designed to do lots of things well, but loving is what we do best. It is the air into which we were born. It is the action that was designed into us before our birth. Some of us try desperately to hold on to ourselves, to live for ourselves. We look so pathetic doing it, hanging on to the dead branch of self-worth, turning life upside down. We’re afraid to risk ourselves on the untried wings of loving others. We don’t think we can truly give ourselves away because we have never tried. But the sooner we start the better. Some day we are going to have to give up our lives, and the longer we wait, the less time we have for the soaring and swooping life of grace.

 When we love, we are most free. When we live for self, we become prisoners in our own bodies. When we seek to protect who we are and what we have, we become bitter and cynical. We hang on to for dear life to what is no life at all. If we would just let go, the nature of God in us would set us free to fly in love.

 That requires us to stretch ourselves a little – or a lot. But that’s exactly what Peter said in today’s Scripture verse. You see, the Greek word for “deeply” in this verse means, in its root form, “to be stretched out.” Peter is telling us to love each other in ways that stretch us, and to stretch out our lives to love as God loved us. Just think of how far Jesus stretched out His arms in love when He died for us. That’s how deeply we are to love others.

 I love this story which makes the point most clearly for me. Years after her concentration camp experiences in Nazi Germany, Corrie ten Boom met face to face one of the most cruel and heartless German guards that she had ever contacted. He had humiliated and degraded her and her sister. He had jeered and visually raped them as they stood in the delousing shower. Now he stood before her with hand outstretched and said, “Will you forgive me?”

She writes: “I stood there with coldness clutching at my heart, but I know that the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. I prayed, Jesus, help me! Woodenly, mechanically I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me and I experienced an incredible thing. The current started in my shoulder, raced down into my arms and sprang into our clutched hands. Then this warm reconciliation seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. ‘I forgive you, brother,’ I cried with my whole heart. For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard, the former prisoner. I have never known the love of God so intensely as I did in that moment!”

 To forgive is to set a prisoner free

             and discover the prisoner was you.

                            To love that deeply is to be free to fly.

                                           It’s what God designed you to do.

Pastor John