Tues Devo: The pairing of unity and division

Hello,

The last couple weeks I have been thinking about the unique pairing of ideas we are presented with as we follow Jesus. One of those is seeking unity, while knowing that our beliefs naturally bring division.

How can this be? Twice in the gospel of John the words of Jesus brought division in the crowd:

7:43 “So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him.” (NASB)

10:19 “A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words.” (NASB)

But, we are called to unity multiple times. Some examples:

Ephesians 4:3 “being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Colossians 3:14 “Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.”

So – what are we to do? Jesus brought division, but we are instructed to work towards unity. If you look at the verses about unity a couple themes will stand out. First is the audience. This is directed to believers. Many times this is also directed at believers towards other followers of Christ – though not always – we are also told in Romans 12:18 “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men” (NASB)

The second theme that stands out to me about unity is that is executed by love, and that love is driven by our relationship with Jesus.

This is where the division comes. A relationship with Jesus stands for something. He is absolute truth. Whenever you stand for something, there will be those who oppose. Our call to unity is not to be at the cost of our obedience.

Rather, our call to unity to act in love – without compromise towards sin – to all, especially those who are followers of Christ. The commitment to Him and continued displays of love will give us the opportunity to share our source – Jesus Christ as the hope for others.

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill

Unfailing Love and Faithfulness

But you, O Lord,
    are a God of compassion and mercy,
slow to get angry
    and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
Look down and have mercy on me.
    Give your strength to your servant;
    save me, the son of your servant.  Psalm 86:15-16

This weekend, we were reminded that the world we live in can be a sad and cruel place.  Some might look at the tragedy over the weekend and have a sense of fear or uncertainty.  Others may be filled with anger, and look to lash out against others who do not share our faith.  A select few may look at words of God, and say this is God’s judgment against those whose lifestyle is sinful.  In thinking of all of these, I asked myself, “Is this what God would want from me?”  My answer is that God would want me to look from what He has put within my heart, and respond outwardly.  As such, my focus is not on condemning or pushing for God’s righteous judgment of others.  It is instead to remind myself that we all are in need of God’s compassion and mercy, and it is me who is underserving of God’s love and mercy.  Yet, I am humbly grateful that He has been merciful on me.  Thus, I need to be an example of this; His example of this.  Not look to blame or spew hatred toward others who may have a different religion or lifestyle than mine.  Instead, it is to be slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness toward the victims and others no matter their affiliation or beliefs.

We serve a God that protects us in spite of our flaws and wrongful choices in life.  He encourages us not to be filled with hatred but to share his son’s message, which is one of salvation.  As we look at the tragedy yesterday, we should ask ourselves if the words we speak represent our beliefs or God’s.  Yes, God would want us to speak strongly against the type of violence that befell us, but He would also ask that we both act and speak lovingly with compassion and mercy as examples of Christ himself!  Furthermore, we are not to be fearful for what is to come or worry about things we have no control of.  We are to be reassured of God’s mercy on us and ask for courage and strength to serve Him faithfully in spite of all we see in front of us.

God will take care of us all.  Ours is not to worry, be fearful, lash out, or condemn.  Ours is to be merciful and compassionate filled with a seemingly limitless amount of love.  Lin-Manuel Miranda may have captured the spirit of this best at The Tony Awards ceremony last night saying,

We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger
We rise and fall and light from dying embers
Remembrances that hope and love last longer
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love
Cannot be killed or swept aside.

What do you chose to do today?  Would God be pleased with your response?  My prayer is that we do not question.  Instead we respond as God responds to us . . . with compassion and mercy filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.  Amen.

Forgive

Colossians 3:13

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Forgiving someone has times that it’s really easy.  For example, someone accidently steps on your toe.  They apologize and ask for forgiveness.  No problem, easy to forgive.  Other times, it really isn’t that easy.  Sometimes, it’s actually almost impossible, or at least that’s how it feels. 

I want you to think about a time that you did something wrong.  Something you knew you shouldn’t have done.  Maybe you struggled with an addiction, maybe you cheated on someone, you may have even committed a crime of some sort. 

Did you ask forgiveness for what you did?  Did the person you wronged easily forgive you? 

Each and every day, every single one of us sins.  Our sins nail Christ to the cross, over and over and over again. While we might not have been there when Christ was crucified, every single one of us is guilty of murdering him by our sins!

And yet, he has forgiven us!  So then, we are instructed to forgive as the Lord has forgiven us.  If any of you are holding a grievance against someone else, I encourage you today, to reach out to them and truly forgive them.

Thurs Devo: Great and Marvelous!

Last week we saw how God called His people in the last days to endure patiently, even to the point of death. He promised blessings for it. This week, we see God follow through on His promise!

Revelation 15:1-4     I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. ² And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God ³ and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:

“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
    Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
    King of the nations.
⁴ Who will not fear you, Lord,
    and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
    and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Those who endure patiently will be victorious and live a great and marvelous life with God in heaven. They will understand, experience, and worship God for all that He is!

I haven’t patiently endured the last days, but Joe and I have endured (sometimes patiently and sometimes not) infertility for over 8 years (as many of you already know). However, come June 18^th, the 2 foster kids we’ve gotten to know this past year will be placed with us for adoption! They are a sibling pair – 3 ½ year old boy and a 2 year old girl.

We are praising God for His help to endure as we awaited His timing, His plan and His children!!! Victory (both great and small) belongs to the Lord God Almighty! He is Great and Marvelous! 

Alice

Do I Make You Proud?

I am a special messenger from Christ Jesus to you Gentiles. I bring you the Good News so that I might present you as an acceptable offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit. So I have reason to be enthusiastic about all Christ Jesus has done through me in my service to God.  Romans 15:16-17

About a year ago, I sat down with my mom just to talk about life in general.  I feel incredibly blessed to have her as my mom, and am so thankful for all that she taught me.  I thanked both her and my Dad for loving me, and thanked God for giving me such wonderful parents.  Then, I asked her a question that probably caught her off guard.  My question was quite simply, “Do I make you proud?”  She happily smiled, and said yes understanding where my heart was in asking.  Like most children, I did not make life easy for my mom, and yes, I certainly took more than I gave her.  So the genesis of my question was that I understood both how challenging I was to raise and what she had sacrificed for me.  As such, the question meant did the man I had become measure up to the hope the hard work and sacrifice both her and my father made when God decided to make me their child. Many might say God blessed them with me, but again, I feel like I got the far better end of the deal.

God gave us so much in grace through Jesus Christ, and through this rebirth, our mission is to dedicate our lives in servitude toward Him.  When we were first forgiven of our sins by God, it was liberating.  Yet, we may lose perspective of the weight our forgiveness carried.  The sacrifice by Jesus Christ was immense, and none of us could ever hope to repay the debt.  This was where the Gentiles were when Paul gave them the Good News.  However in Paul’s mind, it was not just about forgiveness. It was about the hope he had in them having been transformed through Christ.  They would not only know who God was but also joyfully serve Him sharing the Good News to others.  This was the hope instilled in Paul when on the road to Damascus Jesus appeared to Him.  Thus the gift of grace much like the love and sacrifices our parents offered to us are not to be repaid.  They are to be remembered and honored as we to give to others greater than we were once given.

Our lives are to be loving offerings of gratitude to God for all that He has given us.  Deuteronomy 12:28 says, “Be careful to obey all my commands, so that all will go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and pleasing to the Lord your God.” This is what we aspire to be as God’s children.  Do not take God’s gift of grace for granted.  Instead, make all that you do as ‘an acceptable offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit.’  Do you humbly accept what Jesus Christ’s sacrifice?  Is your life given in servitude for all God has given you?  My prayer is that our lives are reflective such that when we look up to Heaven, God will smile when we ask, “Do I make you proud?”  Amen.

Tues Devo: Same plan

Acts 20:28-20 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.” (NASB)

Hello,

Did you know this is the only section in scripture to use the phrase “savage wolves”? OK, not the point of today’s devo…….

As we fight the spiritual battle that we are in, we sometimes miss the predictable patterns of Satan and his allies. The enemy is looking for a quick sequence of two things: 1) Your forward spiritual momentum in some way and then 2) You being momentarily away from the positive influence(s) that brought that spiritual momentum.

Paul knew this – he knew that as soon as he stepped away, Satan would step in and try to destroy what God was doing. Paul knew it in advance – he spent 3 years admonishing them day and night (and you thought your parents/spouse were all over you….) to try and build up their resistance and reinforce what God wanted from their lives on a daily basis.

I know I have seen this in my life too. I see progress or get motivation, then not long after I find discouragement in my life that goes against the forward momentum I was building spiritually. Satan’s plan has not changed. But neither has our defense! We must stay connected to the things that bring us the positive spiritual momentum. This could be people or things we are listening/watching. But it certainly also includes constant prayer and frequent intake of the Bible.

So – Satan has a plan….and he has stuck with it for longer than any of us have been alive. But our plan to be on guard has been around just as long, we just need to follow the plan!

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill

Harsh words

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:1 NIV

Have you ever tried to reason with a 3 year old?  This verse really reminded me of life in our house lately.  My son is at that stage of wanting everything he sees.  And of course when you tell him no to something, he starts into a temper tantrum.  While it certainly doesn’t always work, we try to give him a gentle no, to prevent stirring up anger. 

While I know it’s not the best way to deal with him, the times that I lose my cool and tell him a bit more harshly that he is not going to get what he wants, anger is certainly stirred up in him. 

Today I encourage you to think about how you speak to others.  Are you turning away wrath by giving a gentle answer or are you stirring up anger with a harsh response?

Thurs Devo: How's Your Endurance?

How well do you and I wait? What about for something simple like our next meal? If I’m hungry, but busy, I might not think about it too much. If I’m hungry and standing in the kitchen waiting for my food to finish cooking, sometimes I’m not so patient and can get cranky. The same goes for the foster kids we’ve been keeping some weekends. If they are busy playing, they’re fine, but if they are standing in the kitchen or sitting in their chairs waiting for the meal to be fixed, they keep telling me how hungry they are. We endure until our next meal, but sometimes we don’t patiently endure. J  

There’s a difference between enduring something and patiently enduring! God calls us to patiently endure, especially those who will be here in the last days.

Revelation 14:9-13    ⁹ A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, ¹⁰ they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. ¹¹ And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” ¹² This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

¹³ Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”

“Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”

What will patient endurance look like in the last days? I think it will include staying busy doing God’s work, obeying Him without compromise, not giving in to the pressures of the world to worship the beast or take his mark, trusting God’s plan and His timing, not having a complaining or grumbling attitude, not having a pity party, and persevering in faith (even to the point of death).

James 1:12    Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

What difficulty, hardship, or trial (whether big or small) are you and I going through right now? How will you and I seek God’s help to not just endure it, but patiently endure for His glory?


As a child of God, I know that no matter what happens, I’m guaranteed eternal love from the Creator of the universe and eternal life with Him! 

Alice

Have A Talk With God

When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.  Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!  Matthew 6:7-8

People who know me say that sometimes I talk with myself.  Often it is in response to something that I did not do as well as I should (Gee Kent.  That was brilliant), and other times it is for self-motivation (Come on, Kent!).  Someone told me after a workout session at the gym that they enjoyed hearing me talk out loud because it actually motivated them.  People at work would say that they enjoy hearing me speak noting that I have ‘the gift of gab’ you could say.  I’m always humbled to hear that because I was pretty introverted growing up (maybe closet extrovert closer to the truth J).  Lately, I have been challenged to be more prayerful both openly and behind closed doors.  This is not to say that I do not have conversations with God.  In fact, that’s where I’m good.  Yet, what I am referring to is the heart wrenching, totally vulnerable, completely transparent talk with the awesome, Alpha and Omega, all knowing one true living God.

Prayer life is more than just the Lord’s Prayer.  It’s a habit of confessing struggles, thankfulness, failures, and hopes.  It is a total unveiling of those things that you love and those things you struggle with.  It should mirror your life as a Christian; evolving, ever growing, painful, and filled with joy.  A little advise to those of you who feel like you do not know what to say to God.  Don’t get caught up in the order and what are the right things to tell him.  Today’s verse is not meant to discourage.  It’s to encourage that you might not have it all right today, but with each day, you will get better.  My father use to be a man that could pray on anything, and I would marvel the words he would use never ever thinking I could hope to sound like him.  Then one day, I sounded just like he did as the Holy Spirit began to take my words and turn them into His.  Trust God that as today’s verses state, He knows what you need even before you ask, and your goal is to just reach out to Him with an open mind, heart, and spirit.

Prayer changes things.  These are not just idle words to convince one of what God can do.  They are a reminder that you cannot expect change without putting in the work.  Do not focus on where you are in your prayer life.  Focus on the relationship you have with God and your willingness to open up to Him.  Then and only then will you see God truly work within your prayer life and everything else.  How is your prayer life?  If yours is good, how can you make it more heart felt and intentional.  My prayer is that no matter where our prayer life is, we learn to better have a talk with God.  Amen.

Tues Devo: That place

Proverbs 30:5 “Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.”(NASB)

Hello,

Things may be going well or poorly – but in either case we all want the place. The place where we can go, and just take a breath. The place where we can express our joy or our sorrow. The place that may not bring explanation – but can bring peace. God and His word is that place. We see here in Proverbs that every word has been tested – those words hold up under any circumstance.

We know the place is there. We know that place is reliable. But, are you there enough? Do you go there regularly and quickly?

I hope the answer is yes – if not, I pray this encourages you to make it more yes today than yesterday.

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill