Tues Devo: Team Player

Hello,

I am currently involved in conducting some interviews for a couple of open positions on my team. One of the things I want to see is a true team player. Someone who sees that big picture is more than them. Someone who knows the role they play, and is confident in that.

I guess I need to hire John the Baptist!

The first chapter of Mark tells some of the story of truly great team player.

Mark 1:4-8 “ John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. And he was preaching, and saying, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”” (NASB)

A couple things stand out here:

1.  John knew his role (point others to someone else)
2. He was more concerned with the team than himself (*this is admittedly my interpretation based on his choices of clothing and diet)
3. He recognized the accomplishment of Jesus was going to be greater than what he could accomplish (baptism of water vs. Holy Spirit)

Are you and I team players? Do we live out knowing our role and being more concerned with the goals of Jesus than ourselves?

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill

Thursday Devotional - Slavery

We are all slaves to something – whether it’s work, wealth, weight, status, security, service to God, pleasure, possessions, perfectionism, family, food, fashion, etc.

Is slavery always bad???

Romans 6:16-18, 22-23   Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness… ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul says slavery to sin results in death, but slavery to God results in righteousness, holiness and eternal life!!! Where is your and my allegiance?

What sin of mine do I justify, ignoring the destruction it has or will cause? What sin of yours do you justify, ignoring its destruction? What negative consequences might we (& others) experience if we continue in that sin?

Let’s value righteousness, holiness and eternal life! There’s freedom in slavery, slavery to God! There’s freedom from sin, earthly consequences, and eternal death.

Alice

Precious Possession

But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you.

    O Israel, the one who formed you says,

“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.

    I have called you by name; you are mine.

When you go through deep waters,

    I will be with you.

When you go through rivers of difficulty,

    you will not drown.

When you walk through the fire of oppression,

    you will not be burned up;

    the flames will not consume you.

For I am the Lord, your God,

    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I gave Egypt as a ransom for your freedom;

    I gave Ethiopia and Seba in your place.

Others were given in exchange for you.

    I traded their lives for yours

because you are precious to me.

    You are honored, and I love you.  Isaiah 43:1-4

At the end of last year, I decided to get my daughter an iPhone.  I had told her that if she did well with her grades for the semester, she would get one, but I really wanted her to have it as a gesture of kindness because she’s my daughter.  Spoiling her?  Sure, some might say that, but regardless of anyone’s view, she’s still my daughter, and I love her unconditionally.  She knows it even when she is upset after being disciplined or getting a reprieve.

God’s love for us is beyond doubt because He gave to us without condition.  Last week, I spoke of a father’s love as to our focusing on relationship with God to not disappointing Him.  Today, I want to spend more on this relationship, but focusing on God’s love for us.  Through Jesus Christ, He paid ransom for our sins.  We neither earned it nor can we repay it.  It is a gift for the opportunity to have Him with us.  Today’s verses are further proof of Jesus being both God and with God, but the focus today is on how God makes it clear that He is with us in trouble and difficulty and oppression and pain no matter what.  Why is this important?  In the last part of the fourth verse, God answered “because you are precious to me.  You are honored, and I love you.”  Meditate on that for a moment.  The God of wonders, the Alpha and Omega, the great ‘I Am,’ says we are precious to Him and loved.  To fully understand the depth of this is twofold.  First, we can walk boldly with confidence that we are indeed valued by the greatest of all.  Second, we are to be humbled knowing we not only are not deserving of this but also are no better than anyone with or without salvation.  It may seem like a delicate tight rope to walk, and you are right.  We must let the love of God give us strength and the grace of God make us humble.

God has wanted a relationship with you all along.  Even when we feel off the train tracks in our relationship with Christ, remember that He paid the ransom in His blood so that we could be one with Him no matter what.  And He did it for the simplest of things; love.  That is why we should not focus on repayment.  Rather, our relationship is as a statement of devotion and love for Him.  Let us cherish the selfless act of God who loves us no matter what.  What level of reflection will you have in your relationship with Christ?  How can your understanding of being His make you both stronger and more humble?  My prayer is you remember that you are God’s precious possession.  Amen.

Tues Devo: Accessible

Hello,

This past week I have been reading through Leviticus. While not exactly at the top of the books in the Bible that excite me, it seems each time I go through it something new strikes me. This time I was caught by the accessibility God presents to those seeking forgiveness and restoration.

When you read through Leviticus, you see the precision and details of many areas, as the priest roles and sacrifice systems are put in place through Moses and Aaron. But as you pay attention, you notice several instances like these 3 (NASB):

Leviticus 5:7 ” But if he cannot afford a lamb, then he shall bring to the Lord his guilt offering for that in which he has sinned, two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering.”

Leviticus 12:8 “But if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.”

Leviticus 14:31 “He shall offer what he can afford, the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, together with the grain offering. So the priest shall make atonement before the Lord on behalf of the one to be cleansed.”

Twice the exception is made for a less expensive sacrifice, and the third time it is a matter of what they can afford. You see, forgiveness and relationship are not out of reach. They require sacrifice-  but it is a sacrifice that is within our means from the Provider.

I hope you have a blessed day, and are encouraged by the accessibility of our God’s forgiveness.

Will Hill

Thursday Devotional - Sin and Death or Victory and Life?

We just remembered Jesus death on the cross this past Friday and celebrated His resurrection on Sunday!

After a Good Friday service, we came home and got baths and then had our evening Bible reading and prayer time in a dark bedroom (instead of in the well-lit den). I used a flashlight as we read the crucifixion story together from the book of Luke. It’s a new tradition we started last year, remembering the utter darkness God sent while Jesus hung on the cross to pay for our sins. The kids had clear memories from a year ago (when we read the account from John)!

It’s hard for us to grasp all Jesus did in those dark hours on the cross. His death freed us from the penalty of sin and His resurrection freed us from the power of sin.  

Romans 6:1-5                     What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Are you and I truly living in the new life Jesus provided and looking forward to our resurrection someday?  Or, is there some habitual sin that reflects a lack of union with Jesus’ death? Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us overcome those sins, living in the victory Jesus has already won!

Alice

A Father's Love

Then the brothers killed a young goat and dipped Joseph’s robe in its blood. They sent the beautiful robe to their father with this message: “Look at what we found. Doesn’t this robe belong to your son?”

Their father recognized it immediately. “Yes,” he said, “it is my son’s robe. A wild animal must have eaten him. Joseph has clearly been torn to pieces!”  Then Jacob tore his clothes and dressed himself in burlap. He mourned deeply for his son for a long time.  His family all tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “I will go to my grave mourning for my son,” he would say, and then he would weep.  Genesis 37:31-35

I remember when my youngest daughter was growing up, and she struggled to enunciate words.  She had a speech impediment, and it made it very difficult for us to understand her.  It also had to be frustrating to her because we often struggled to get her what she needed.  As a father, you struggle because you see how your older children were able to easily do things, and this young adorable child would cry as you fought to get her to that same understanding.  It saddened me because at times I feel I was too hard on her.  I still can see the pained look on her little face and her tears when she felt I disappointed her.

Today, I can’t get her to shut up.  Now I have to fight her about keeping her room clean and why she got put out of Social Studies class.  “I was in the right, Dad,” she would explain.  She’s taller than me, and she loves to wrestle with her Dad.  Not because she’s fragile.  She’s a base for a cheer team and arguably the strongest of them.  But in a way, it reminds her how her Dad will always fight for her.  It may be just a small reminder that I love her.  And I do.  I would be so incredibly sad without her.

God loves us such that He too would grieve if He lost us to the world.  In the story of Joseph in Genesis, he is sold into slavery by his own brothers.  The focus is not on Joseph in these verses.  It is on Jacob, his father.  As his children deceive him about his favorite son, Joseph, we see the level of sorrow with Jacob.  This is incredibly sad, and one might wonder how to endure such grief.  As we look at our relationship with God, we are right to focus how we should better serve Him.  Loving Him above all things, loving others as ourselves, and breathing life into His word through our actions are just some of the many things we do as proof of our servitude.  But what if we reflect not on our own actions but also how God would feel?  What if our actions disappoint Him?  What if we chose not to follow Him?  Yes, God punishes us for our failings, but as our Heavenly Father, we must realize our failings disappoint Him as well.  When making decisions, we should take time to reflect on what impact it has on our relationship with God for He loves us more than we can ever imagine.

You are a precious gift of God.  Jesus in the ‘Parable of the Lost Sheep’ said, “… it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.” (Matthew 18:14b)  Our relationship with God hinges heavily on our willingness to submit to His will.  Our successes brings us toward a more rewarding relationships.  Our failures bring us opportunities to grow.  But whether we succeed or fail, let our understanding of the depths of our Heavenly Father’s love be a driving force in our actions.  How can you meditate on the love God has for you?  How can what breaks God’s heart be motivation in your life?  My prayer is that we never forget what it means to have a Father’s love.

Tues Devo: The effect

Hello,

This Easter weekend got me thinking about something a little different. The start of the church service I was at began by talking about creation, and how our world today was not as it was designed. There is an effect of sin – and it leads to death and destruction. We see it with the garden of Eden, we saw it with Cain & Abel, we see it with the death of Jesus – in fact, we even see it with Judas who was so overwhelmed with what he had done he killed himself.

Even our “small stuff” has an effect. We tell a small lie, and lose trust. We get angry quickly and damage a relationship. We are selfish, and lose impactful time with our children.  

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NASB)

God took sin seriously, and paid a seriously painful price for us – let us take it seriously too.

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill

Thursday Devotional - Maundy or Holy Thursday

Do you already have plans made for Easter? Are you planning a big feast at your house or cooking certain items to take to someone else’s?

We do a pot-luck brunch at our church before the Easter service. Joe and I haven’t even talked about what we are taking. We haven’t planned that far out, even though I know it’s only 3 days away!

Well, God and Jesus had everything planned out for Easter well in advance. In fact, Jesus’ “Last Supper” with His disciples was planned out, too.

Luke 22:7-16 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. ⁸ Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

⁹ “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.

¹⁰ He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, ¹¹ and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ ¹² He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”

¹³ They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

¹⁴ When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. ¹⁵ And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. ¹⁶ For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”

Wow, what sovereignty, selflessness, love and care! He took the time to give miraculously specific details! He was thorough and orderly even with the greatest weight of death on his shoulders.

None of us will suffer the way Jesus did. However, how will you and I look to ease the preparations and work of others, even while we prepare to suffer or are suffering?   

Alice

The Great Physician

Matthew 9:20-22

Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.  She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”

Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

Starting next week, you will notice that Erin will be writing Friday’s devotion for a while.  The reason for this is I will be out on medical leave.  During Lent I have been writing about how Jesus has done extraordinary things while he was an ordinary man here on earth.  Today’s devotion is no different really. 

You see, throughout Christ’s time here on earth, we read of numerous times where he performed miracles and healed the sick.  We now call him the great physician for a reason.  Of all of these miracles, today I chose the story of this woman as it really aligns with what I am going through.  When people hear that I am going to be having surgery, I hear a lot of people respond with, “I’m sorry”.  What they don’t know is that I have been dealing with issues for almost 17 years.  So really, I’m not sorry, I am ecstatic.  Just like this woman, I feel like I have been just trying to get close enough to touch the edge of Christ’s cloak. 

As I go through the next month or so of healing, I know that through it all, I have the great physician taking care of me.  So, while I covet your prayers, I do not fear as my faith will heal me.

What miracle in the Bible do you most relate with? 

Open Space

Isaac’s servants also dug in the Gerar Valley and discovered a well of fresh water.  But then the shepherds from Gerar came and claimed the spring. “This is our water,” they said, and they argued over it with Isaac’s herdsmen. So Isaac named the well Esek (which means “argument”).  Isaac’s men then dug another well, but again there was a dispute over it. So Isaac named it Sitnah (which means “hostility”).  Abandoning that one, Isaac moved on and dug another well. This time there was no dispute over it, so Isaac named the place Rehoboth (which means “open space”), for he said, “At last the Lord has created enough space for us to prosper in this land.”  Genesis 26:19-22

How many times in your life have you dealt with a seemingly ‘no win’ situation only to find out there was an option not previously considered?  Not too long ago, I had a conflict where a colleague and I seemingly could not see eye to eye on a situation.  We both had the right objective but differing motives.  We were so caught up in our own views that neither of us could see past it.  After taking a step back and getting some good guidance, we sat down again, and still seemed to be at warring sides of the equation.  Then, an open space for compromise occurred to me.  I asked what is it that they needed, which was the right to manage the situation within their team.  My goal was to ensure the situation fit within the framework of the bigger group’s standards.  Once I was able to get assurances their management of the goal fit within those parameters, we were able to agree.  Without patience and persistence to meet the objectives of both sides, we never would have been able to achieve success.

Sometimes, God wants to test your patience and persistence to help you realize there is something better.  In this story of Isaac, he can never seem to find a place for his group to settle.  One place created an argument, and in another, hostility was found.  How often do we face situations where we encounter arguments and hostility?  Perhaps Esek and Sitnah could be names of a conference room at your location in the near future  J  Back to the point.  Isaac could have very well fought for the land, and in fact because the land was promised to his father Abraham, he was entitled to it.  Yet, Isaac showed restraint and patience having faith God would deliver as He had numerous times before.  Of course, Isaac persistence was rewarded as they not only found space to prosper but later another space where God would appear and bless him to build a great nation.  In reading these verses, you do not hear God promising anything to Isaac that would have guided him to move as many times as they did.  But what we can pull from this is through patience and persistence, God will show up and provide as He did for Isaac.

God always delivers without fail.  It may not be at a time we either expect or want, but we should have faith it will always be on time and usually better than what we can see.  So if you are dealing with a situation where things are not quite working out or there is outright hostility, step back, and look for the open space where God lies.  Then, watch as He allows for you and those connected to you to prosper.   What conflict is troubling you that may require more patience and persistence from you?  How can you trust God to be your provider at all times?  My prayer is that we apply a practice of patience and persistence knowing that God will always find us ‘open space.’  Amen.