Thursday Devotional - Jesus is Truth – The Unique Provider (12/14/23)

 

Jesus often did things in unique and unexpected ways. He certainly did with the healing of the blind man! My daughter, Alexis, thought Jesus’s method was quite gross.

John 9:1-7 ¹As he went along, he [Jesus] saw a man blind from birth. ²His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" ³"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. ⁴As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." ⁶Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. ⁷"Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Jesus wasn’t even present when the blind man received his sight! Yet, he healed the blind man for God’s glory!

 

As I was giving a lecture on this passage yesterday, numerous technology aspects didn’t work out as planned. First, we couldn’t get the projector to turn on for the PowerPoint slides to display. Second, the music was muted so we ended up singing a cappella. Third, the recording device we normally use was missing. God did eventually provide a way to get the projector to turn on with the help of someone remotely. Then, He had my husband and I brainstorm an alternative recording method that worked. It certainly wasn’t a smooth Bible study, but God gets the glory for being the unique provider once again!!!

 

How about your challenging situations? Will you look for ways God might accomplish His purposes through it? He is aware and has a plan!

The Best Wingman

One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!”

But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die?  We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.”  Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”

And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  Luke 23:39-43

The wingman.  One of my favorite movies was ‘Top Gun,’ which is a movie about fighter planes.  In the movie, there is a reference to the expression called ‘the wingman.’  The role of the wingman is quite important.  They were there to help or intercede in case the other person was engaged in fighting with one plane and an enemy plane would come in.  The wingman could thus either prevent trouble that might erupt or ensure success if it was in jeopardy.  That person was on your side, and when you went into a situation where danger lurked or something required you to have a backup, they were with you.  Now if you’re someone on the dating scene, the term ‘wingman’ may mean something different, but it amounts to a similar role.  In thinking about this spiritually, I asked myself, “Could one say that Jesus might very well be a wingman?”  Maybe.  In fact, might He be the greatest wingman ever?  Then answer is quite simply … yes!

Jesus is the best wingman we can ever have.  In today’s verses, let’s focus on the plight of the man on the cross accepting guilt.  Here he is.  Humbled.  Admitting of guilt.  Rightfully punished.  Understanding that, he could very well have been like the other man scoffing at Jesus and looked to blame someone else for the things he ultimately was responsible for.  But instead, he accepted responsibility for his crimes, and only asked that Jesus remember him when His Kingdom would come.  The reason why these verses are such a favorite of mine is because it should be very easy to see whose story this is.  It is mine, and for many of you, it’s yours too.  Broken.  Saddled with guilt.  Feeling unworthy.  That is where I was when I looked and said, “I am not deserving of such grace, but maybe what I have learned can be of use to someone so that they may learn how wonderful God is.”  And Jesus answered much like He did to the humbled man on the cross.  “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise,” He said.  Here is the thing.  This is not just a story about coming to Christ.  It’s about having the assurance that the one true living God is always there.  Watching.  Protecting.  Providing.  Loving.  There is no danger we can’t go into, and He is there to intercede when trouble is present.  That’s ‘wingman’ type stuff!

It is so good to know God is ours and we are His.  The first time I ever spoke on these verses, I spoke of the man being Jesus’ right hand man.  Well I was right, and I was wrong.  I was right that he understood Christ was the leader and he was the supporting cast looking to do right by Him.  Where I was wrong was that in our lives, Jesus is our right-hand man.  He makes all things possible, and though we are not perfect, we are made perfect through Him.  You might argue that Jesus is the leader of your life, and you would be right.  But God can’t lead unless we allow Him to.  We must want that, and while God has the script, the book of our lives is … well … ours.  Even Mercutio had a story in Romeo and Juliet.  Let us own our story being God’s humble servants and trusting He will be there for us.  How can you change your scoffing toward being more accountable for your life?  How can you better humble yourself before God in your confessions?  I pray we lead a life as Jesus would want us to knowing He is always there as our ‘wingman.’  Amen.

My Provider

“How much bread do you have?” he asked. “Go and find out.”

They came back and reported, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish.”

Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass.  So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred.

Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share.  They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish.  A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed.  Mark 6:38-44

My wife and me will often write notes to each other as affirmation of our wonderful and amazing love for each other. Sometimes, we will write on the envelope of the note positive words of affirmation describing the love the writer has for the other.  For example, one envelope I wrote her recently was from an old Barry White song simply saying, “My first, my last, my everything.”  I know for older ‘Ally McBeal’ fans, you are about to have that tune in your head for the rest of the day 😊  We often place these notes in areas of our work places to remind us when we are away just how much we mean to each other.  One which hangs in my area was of comfort the other day.  I looked at it, and on the corner of the envelope it said, “My provider.”  Those words are humbling to read even to this day.  It’s not that she does not realize that God is our ultimate provider, because she does.  However, it is the meaning of the word that she wanted to acknowledge.  It is to say she appreciates I give her the love, affection, and comfort she needs.  That means a lot to me because it goes back to that famous Rick Warren ‘Purpose Driven Life’ opening sentence that has become a guiding light for my walk of faith; it’s not about you.

God’s often underappreciated but incredibly important attribute is that He is a awesome provider for us. One of my recent devotions talked about God always watching over us.  In that case, the focus was on how God is there when we do not notice.  In this case, we focus on those times where we truly know He delivers.  For the disciples in today’s verses, they have thousands to feed and little to offer.  Or so they thought.  Jesus simply does what he does, and all the people are fed.  It really sounds too simple, but we often find that it is the simplest things that are the most powerful and profound.  In our lives, we often do not know how we will get through life’s trials, or we struggle to find a way through a situation.  Then low and behold, God shows up often in an awesome way.  A check comes in the mail just as you realize you don’t have anything in the account, or a friend stops by when you are at your near breaking point asking, “Are you ok?”  Sometimes, it’s just a word or scripture from the Bible that gives your strength and courage to carry through another day.  We should always expand our understanding of who God is beyond just the ‘He gives me stuff’ realm.  Much of His provision is well beyond material things or what we can understand.  Like my wife knows, it’s His love, nurturing, protection, and so much more.  What we as followers of Christ should aspire to do is become more aware of those things, and most importantly, give thanks for it!

God’s provision is unlimited! He gives us so much, and yet, asks for so little.  Obedience to God to some may seem to be a bit much, but if we have a relationship with Him, we see clearly all that He does in our life.  Let us spend more time reflecting on God’s gifts to us no matter what form they may come in.  Where might you give God the glory for gifts received?  How has God provided for you beyond what you see?  My prayer is that we see God today for all the blessings He has given as ‘my provider.’  Amen.

Taken For Granted

See what great love the Father has for us that He would call us His children. And that is what we are. For this reason the people of the world do not know who we are because they did not know Him.  1 John 3:1

My wife and I will celebrate our first date together next week.  It will have been over 32 years since that day.  We worked together, and were at a company Christmas party.  Afterward, we would decide to officially date each other one month later.  I never really appreciated that moment then.  I do today.  She has hung in there with me through a lot of ups and downs, and she has been the epitome of the 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (Love is patient, love is kind . . . love never fails).  I was not always a good husband to her, and there were times where I simply took her love for granted.  But even as we fight over what’s best for our daughter or she nags me for umpteenth time about something I did not do, I am incredibly humbled that she chose me as her husband.  I strive to never take her love for me for granted. This brought me to where my appreciation is for God’s love for me, and do I take it for granted.  Am I serving Him out of love?  Do I do things without even focusing on or appreciating it?

The greatest of all things God provides us with is His love. There are times we might focus on how God has given us grace and done miraculous things leaving us wondering how it was even possible.  He has carried many of us through rough times so often that we could not remember them all if we tried.  Yet, today I wrote with this feeling of unending warmth from the love God has for us.  We get caught up with so much going on around us, and we often go to God for help, thanksgiving, and affirmation.  However, one thing we should really focus on is just how overwhelming His is.  If you take a moment to pause and feel His presence, it’s as if His arms are wrapped around you holding you like a father holds his infant child.  God’s love is not something we place figuratively in our hip pocket.  As His children, His love should be at the forefront of everything we do.  It is the air that we breathe.  Without it, we cannot survive.

There is nothing we cannot overcome if we approach things with the love of God in our hearts.  1 Corinthians 13:13 (NLT) goes on to say, “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”  Why would we ever let anything else take its place?  While there are many things that go seemingly devoid of it, we must dedicate ourselves to always remember the love God has for us, and then love Him and others fueled by it.  What situation requires you to invest more love into it?  How can you remind yourself how much God loves you?  My prayer is that we put God’s love at the forefront in our lives and never ever take it for granted.  Amen.

The Humor of Our Dumb Questions

Late in the afternoon the twelve disciples came to him and said, “Send the crowds away to the nearby villages and farms, so they can find food and lodging for the night. There is nothing to eat here in this remote place.”

But Jesus said, “You feed them.”

“But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. “Or are you expecting us to go and buy enough food for this whole crowd?”  For there were about 5,000 men there.

Jesus replied, “Tell them to sit down in groups of about fifty each.”  So the people all sat down.  Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people.  They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers!  Luke 9:12-17

When I was young, I found myself asking a lot of dumb questions.  At times, it led to some level of embarrassment, but other times, it made a difference in someone’s life.  Once before my 10^th birthday, I asked my mom a simple dumb question, “Why do you smoke?  Isn’t that bad for you?”  My mother would soon thereafter stop smoking altogether, and I have not seen her smoke over the past forty years.  My wife and I were arguing with each other in the very young days of our marriage.  It got to be so loud once that our son came in crying asking why we were yelling at each other.  I promised to never yell at her mother like that, and have not since to this day.  Sometimes, a simple dumb question can lead to powerful change.

God will sometimes wait for us to ask him the question so that He can show us something powerful and amazing.  I have heard many times the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand people with the loaves of bread and two fish.  However, I realized reading it today how the amazing feat did not occur until the disciples had ‘asked a dumb question.’  I laughed because you can hear the incredulous doubt in the disciples’ voices as they said, “Or are you expecting us to go and buy enough food for this whole crowd?”  It’s like when I ‘brilliantly’ ask my wife after work looking at the counter and seeing nothing thawed out for dinner, “So what are we going to eat for dinner, honey?”  Of course, I do not notice dinner is already on the stove!  Ok, back to the story!  So they asked Jesus this question.   These were not the Pharisees who have been looking to trip up Jesus since He started preaching the Good News gospel or the Gentiles who had no idea who Jesus was.  These were the disciples who were as close to Jesus as they come, and they had seen Him do all these miraculous things.  Yet, they ask the dumb question anyway!  So Jesus instructed them, and it said, “He kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples.”  It was as if Jesus was looking at them with a confident all-knowing smile saying, “Now watch this!”  He of course fed the crowd not only until they were full but also where there was “twelve baskets of leftovers!”

God is waiting for us to reach out to Him and ask what it is we need from Him because He is the great provider!  How often do we look at our situation going to God saying, “I can’t do this?”  We need to stop looking at what we cannot do and focus on what God can do because frankly that is what He expects from us; total dependency!  Jesus said, “For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.” (Matthew 19:14b)  Jesus said this because He understood children are dependent on their fathers just as we should be on our Heavenly Father.  What is it that you need to ask of God today?  What seemingly audacious dream or problem can you take to God?  My prayer is that we can all laugh at our big situations knowing God is the answer to our ‘dumb question.’  Amen.

Thurs Devo - God Provides for His Work

This past weekend Joe and I went on a short trip and I packed some snacks (or lots of snacks, according to Joe). As I was packing the snacks and overflowing our food bag, Joe asked when I was planning to eat all these snacks. I said we would need lunch or a snack on the way out and maybe snacks on our flight back home. I wanted to make sure we had enough for any possibly scenario. As it often turns out, we ended up returning home with still half the snacks uneaten. J

God does not guess at what might be needed. He knows exactly what is needed and when it will be needed.

Numbers 7:1-4          When Moses finished setting up the tabernacle, he anointed and consecrated it and all its furnishings. He also anointed and consecrated the altar and all its utensils.² Then the leaders of Israel, the heads of families who were the tribal leaders in charge of those who were counted, made offerings. ³ They brought as their gifts before the Lord six covered carts and twelve oxen—an ox from each leader and a cart from every two. These they presented before the tabernacle. ⁴ The Lord said to Moses, ⁵ “Accept these from them, that they may be used in the work at the tent of meeting. Give them to the Levites as each man’s work requires.”

After the tabernacle was completed with all the generous materials provided by the Israelites (as we read last week), God further provided for the transportation of all the tabernacle pieces. Since the Israelites didn’t stay in one place during their 40 years in the desert, each time they moved, the tabernacle had to move. It had to be disassembled and transported to the next location. So, God provided specifically for this part of His work, too.

God didn’t provide for everything all at once. He first commanded the people to give for the building of the tabernacle and then once it was completed he asked the leaders to give for the transportation needs. He provided for each step of the way, at the time needed.  

How will you and I trust God to provide for the ministries He’s told us to be apart of?

Will we trust Him to provide what He knows we need at just the right time?

We can look back and remember how He’s provided in the past as encouragement to trust Him in the future. God will provide for His work.

Alice