Useless

Seriously, Ezekiel is not an easy book for me to get through.

5 Notice, even when [the grapevine] was whole, it was good for no work; how much less shall it be useful and profitable when the fire has devoured it and it is charred?  Ezekiel 15

It's a short chapter.  To sum it up, God is explaining that a grapevine's sole purpose is to be burned.  We're talking only about the vine here, not the fruit.  It's not strong enough to be used as a rope substitute.  It cannot be used for "any work."  That's pretty useless.  Then, to make it even better, it's explained that Jerusalem is like the grapevine.  

Have you ever felt like that?  This goes a little beyond Kent's devotion earlier this week about mistakes.  When you feel useless, you feel as though you can't do anything.  Nothing good, nothing bad, you're stuck right where you are.  You have no impact on your surroundings, no matter what you do.  It's a horrible place to be in.  In fact, I feel like this right now.  

Where's the silver lining?  It's ok to be stuck.  It's ok to feel that you're ineffective against your problems.  We all have someone bigger and more powerful than us on our side that's making an impact where we can't.  Someone who is able to see the whole playing field and move things into place when we think we are stuck.

I'm sure you know who's doing this. 

Thurs Devo: Drama Drama!

Do you know a drama queen? Maybe you have one in your family. (Boys can be “drama kings” too!) Well, Joe and I were playing with some foster children at a park on Sunday and one of them was quite a drama queen. She also seemed to fear the worst case scenario. Knowing some of her background, I can see how easy it would be to have that perspective. She hasn’t had loving, caring and dependable parents.

In today’s passage, though, the Israelites are even more dramatic, and they had a loving, caring and dependable God leading them!

Numbers 17:10-13   ¹⁰ The Lord said to Moses, “Put back Aaron’s staff in front of the ark of the covenant law, to be kept as a sign to the rebellious. This will put an end to their grumbling against me, so that they will not die.” ¹¹ Moses did just as the Lord commanded him.

¹² The Israelites said to Moses, “We will die! We are lost, we are all lost! ¹³ Anyone who even comes near the tabernacle of the Lord will die. Are we all going to die?”

 Sigh… Are the Israelites not listening???! God didn’t say they would die. He gave them yet another sign so they would remember not to grumble against Him so they would NOT die. He gave them a visual to help them. When will they learn???

It’s easy to see how ridiculous someone else’s fear is (i.e. the Israelites’ fear), but harder to spot my own irrational fears. I’m not only a child of loving, caring and dependable parents, but a child of a loving, caring and dependable God!

What drama are you and I facing right now? Let’s take our fears to God and ask for His help to see the situations from His perspective. Just as God gave the Israelites instructions and visuals to help them live a life filled with joy, He has done the same for us. Instead of being dramatic or running away in fear, we can listen to God’s instructions and learn from Him. 

Alice     

Love Above Our Mistakes

For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.   Galatians 2:19-20

Do you ever feel as if you can do nothing right?  There was a time at work where I felt everything I did was wrong.  Even the things I did right I would question.  I would double and triple check to ensure that even the things I normally did well were correct.  It got to a point that it became difficult to function.  Then after making yet another mistake, I asked myself, “What am I doing?”  Here I was focusing more on trying not to make mistakes than trying to learn more about doing things better.  It reminded me of when I first gave myself to Christ to become born again.  When I made the choice, it did not matter how wrong I was living.  It mattered that I was forgiven of past (and future for that matter) sins, and I would focus on how to live a life that God had both intended for me and honored Him.

God’s intention for our lives is to look forward to serving Him better and not focusing on our mistakes.  In reading the verses today, it should serve as a relief to all of us.  We all should aspire to live for God and to follow His laws and commandments.  The verses above are not meant to make us feel good when we sin.  Instead, it is to unburden us when we realize the gravity that we have sinned.  We all fail to meet God’s perfect example, and if we are truly followers of Christ, there should be a certain level of self-disappointment.  However rather than dwell on that which we have faltered, Jesus died on the cross both to say that we are forgiven and to grow spiritually from those failures.  We should fully understand that the gospel of Christ is one of continual growth and an ever closer walk with Him.  Paul’s statement confirms as much for he aspires for His will (life) less and Christ instead to dwell within him more.

The laws of God is what we aspire to live by, but it is not the purpose of our relationship with God.  Jesus said, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40).  Thus, we are to above all love God and His people, and if we continually grow learning His word with those two loves in mind, we are indeed living ‘trusting in the Son of God.’  Where do you struggle with God’s laws?  How can you focus on Godly love instead of Godly judgment?  My prayer is that we focus on God’s love for us above our mistakes.  Amen.

Tues Devo: Feeling like you're failing

Ever been there? Are you there now? That feeling of failure – you just can’t seem to get more than 0.5 out of every 10 things right.

Things are moving too fast for you – even if they aren’t moving fast at all…you just can’t seem to find your footing.

I think in these times, there are some key Biblical principles that we need to remember. (All quotes taken from NASB)

1)      We don’t set the standard for failure; God does – and we are not alone.

a.       Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

2)      God chose to love us in the middle of all our failures – when we had no hope of changing.

a.       Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

3)      God’s love cannot be changed!

a.       John 10:28-30 “and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

b.      Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

4)      We have God’s permission to move forward.

a.       Philippians 3:13-15 “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you;”

b.      Philippians 2:12-13 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

Thanks – prayerfully this will be an encouragement to some of you even today,

Will Hill

Run with Perseverance

Hebrews 12:1

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

I won’t lie, I am not a runner!  However, every single one of us has a race we are running.  This is the race of life.  It’s not a matter of who finishes first.  We don’t even all have the same race path to follow.  We do however all have the same finish line.  It is our goal to cross that finish line that ends at Heaven. 

Along the path, there will be many witnesses that we will pass.  There will be some that will try to slow us down or steer us off the path.  There will be obstacles in the path that will cause us to stumble. 

We have not been called to be the first to cross the finish line or even expected to run a perfect race.  We have been called to run with perseverance. 

What are you doing today to throw off the things that hinder you and the sin that so easily entangles you?