Thursday Devotional - Jesus is Truth – Desiring Our Presence (3/7/24)

 Before we met, Joe lived in Italy for a couple years. It was an amazing experience for him to live in Rome with so much history! He talked about it a lot. It was hard for me to understand all that he talked about, since I hadn’t been there, much less lived there. However, we had an opportunity to go to Italy and France our second year of marriage. Joe was excited to show me where he had lived, what he had seen, and who he had met!

We usually don’t want to keep our amazing experiences a secret, but want to share them with others, especially those we love. Jesus has the same desire! He wants us to join Him in Heaven and experience all the blessings of knowing His full character and creation as it was intended.

John 17:24-26         “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. ²⁵ “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Oneness with and nearness to the perfect and righteous Father in Heaven is the greatest experience anyone will ever have! Jesus wants to share that experience with you and me for all eternity! Will you be joining Jesus for this forever marvelous experience? If so, who will you pray for today about joining you and Jesus?

Our Journey to Adoption, Part XV - Completion

After the final piece of adoption paperwork was approved, our adoption hearing was set for October 24! It had been over 16 months since we met the kids, 11 months since we started keeping them on weekends, and 4 months since we had kept them full time. It had also been just over 9 years since our miscarriage, 7 years since God laid it on our hearts to consider adoption, and 2 ½ years since we officially started the foster license process (when we didn’t get locked out of the building J).

The morning of our adoption, James asked to pray at breakfast and thanked God that we were adopting them. He then added “and thank you God that we get to adopt Mommy and Daddy.” I smiled. I guess in a sense we were all adopting each other! We didn’t make them call us Mommy and Daddy, but they chose to call us that over time. James called us Alice and Joe at first, then Mommy Alice and Daddy Joe and then finally just Mommy and Daddy.

Jesus has always been able to call God “Father,” but we only have that right because Jesus completed the work of atonement so we could be adopted as God’s children and receive eternal life.

John 17:1-5   After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. ² For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. ³ Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. ⁴ I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jesus finished all of the work for our adoption. Have you chosen to accept it and call God your Father? If so, how well are you and I getting to know our perfect Father? Our eternal life starts now, as we get to know the only true God! How are you and I living in such a way that brings glory to our Heavenly Father?   

Alice

Bigger, Bolder, and Vigilant

I write today praying for guidance and wisdom, and ask you as a reader to have patience and maybe even a little grace and understanding if you struggle with or may even be slightly offended by today’s devotion.  I grew up as a child who was heavily involved in civil rights.  I remember being taken to conferences for the NAACP at the bright young age of eight, and hearing stories from a mother who was chair for the civil rights commission in the state of Michigan.  I also grew up in a school system where every year, the Detroit Police Department would have a band that came to the school, and for one hour or so play, tell jokes, and bring smiles to our faces.  To me, they were my friends.  They would protect my crew and me later on after being robbed at gun point.  These are the images in my mind that I had coming into last week.

While those are the images I cling to, I walk into a reality today that is very different.  I am saddened and frustrated by tragic deaths that both raise questions of my family’s safety and look deeply in my own heart for grace and understanding for those who disagree with me.  Am I safe even if I do the right things all because I might fit the description of someone who did wrong?  Do I lash out because someone unwilling to take a deeper look into a cause looks at me and says or writes ‘All Lives Matter’ failing to understand that ‘Black Lives Matter’ does not mean all other lives do not?  Do I fail to show enough love and appreciation for the job of those who protect and serve in my community?  These are the questions that have swirled in my mind for almost a week now as conversations have continued both with and around me.  At a time like this many of you have asked for love, prayer, and God’s guidance.  However, today’s devotion will simply ask something that has been lost like fad that has come and gone.  What would Jesus do?

Jesus would challenge us to be bigger, bolder, and vigilant in the face of such uncertainty.  Rather than have us focus on our fears as to what may happen, He would harken on the words of David saying:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  Psalm 23:3-57 (KJV)

He would look at our own lack of understanding of others and ask us to be accountable for our own sins saying, “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?  How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?  Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5)  Jesus would remind us of the Golden Rule (Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12) and greatest love (This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.  There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  John 15:12-13).

You see as followers of God, Jesus does not allow for us to retreat to the safety of our own lives.  Our discomfort is a sign that God is challenging us to grow.  Jesus never ran away from what God asked of Him so He could be comfortable.  Instead, He followed knowing who God was; our Heavenly Father, and did it because that is who He is.  I’m encouraged by the song ‘Good Good Father’ that reminds us:

You're a Good, Good Father
It's who you are, it's who you are, it's who you are
And I'm loved by you
It's who I am, it's who I am, it's who I am

We are valued and loved by the Great I Am.  I will not be silent to injustices, and will continue to pour out love to others even if they do not agree my stance.  I mourn with sadness over all wrongful deaths, and yes, I still love my police (especially that band that plays in the schools).  Do not be discouraged.  Our love of Christ will help others see the light as well.  What is Jesus asking of you now?  Are you willing to embrace the discomfort God has placed in your heart, mind, and spirit?  My prayer is that the tragedies of this past week will remind us our mission as followers of Christ.  Be bigger, bolder, and vigilant.  Amen.de

The Case for Vulnerability - Pt. 2 (Vulnerable As A Child)

About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”

Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them.  Then he said,“I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Matthew 18:1-3

My pastor talked about some of the ugliness in our lives that we would not want others to see.  God sees all this, and yet, we will still play naïve thinking we can somehow justify this to Him.  For me, I know that I should be honest with God and look to Him saying, “Lord, I am so weak.  I do not know why you love me, but help me in my weakness.”  That is the epitome of being vulnerable; being at the point where you are so desolate and helpless that you can only go to Him and admit your faults.  It sounds sad, but here is the most amazing thing about this point.  That is exactly where God wants us!  He wants us to acknowledge our dependency on Him, and in spite of our flaws, we are perfected through Jesus Christ.  We are wonderful, amazing, and beautiful both through Him and to Him.

If we are to realize that being vulnerable to God is a good thing, then we must also acknowledge that we are both weak to the world and cannot survive without Him.  Jesus clearly spells out where our dependency on God should be at the beginning of Matthew 18.  I often asked myself, “Why would Jesus want us to be like little children?  Doesn’t He want us to grow spiritually to become mature?”  The answer to this is of course yes, but the point Jesus is trying to make is not for us to act like little children that are naïve to the ways of the world and indulgent to it like not knowing when to stop eating cookies from the cookie jar.  It is to understand that little children are both incredibly vulnerable and dependent.  They need nurturing and love from their parents to be taught right from wrong.  Similar to this, we are susceptible to the ways of the world, and thus incredibly vulnerable.  However, we have an all knowing Heavenly Father who we can depend on, and He provides us with both love and protection should we reach out to Him.  Furthermore, His word teaches us how to live a fulfilling and righteous life.

Surrendering all to God is our goal as Christians, and we simply cannot do so without admitting to our own vulnerability and weakness.  Paul took pleasure in His vulnerability in last week’s verse, and this week, Jesus says we all must acknowledge that without Him, we are spiritually weak and vulnerable to attack from the world.  It is only through this admission that we gain access to God’s Kingdom.

Over the next few weeks, I will cover a lot of ground on how God uses our vulnerability to make us strong.  In the meantime, ask yourself these questions.  How can you like Paul find God’s strength in your vulnerabilities?  What parts of your life can you display a child-like dependency on God more?  My prayer is that we spiritually mature into vulnerable children serving an awesome loving and forgiving God.  Amen.

Thursday Devotional - What's Your Temperature?

Are you hot, cold or lukewarm? Physically speaking, I’m usually cold. Spiritually speaking, I desire to be hot for God!

As Jesus addressed the seventh church, He rebuked them for being lukewarm.

Revelation 3:14-22    ¹⁴ “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. ¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷ You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

¹⁹ Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. ²⁰ Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

²¹ To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. ²² Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Jesus rebuked the Laodicean’s for their prideful reliance on their own material wealth. Kent talked about prosperity yesterday and I think today’s passage relates. Jesus seems to be telling the Laodicean’s that their spiritual depravity is significant. Maybe they thought God was pleased with them because of their material blessings and lack of troubles, but Jesus made it clear that was not the case.

I love how Jesus said he was “about to spit” them out. He is so loving and patient, that He gave them a warning. Out of love for them, He called them to repent and return to Him. Then, He would provide what they really needed – fellowship with Him.

What would Jesus say to you and me? Where do you and I think we have it together or are in control of our life? What would God say we really need from Him? Would He call us hot, cold or lukewarm? With His help, we can change our temperature!

Alice