Thursday Devotional - Love in Word and Action

Last summer James was constantly telling us he loved us. It was great to hear most of the time, but it got to be excessive. Maybe he needed to hear it from us that much! Before my Grandfather passed away last July, he gave us great advice to try to beat James to the punch, at some point each day. That way we were initiating the “I love you” and not always saying it in response to his “I love you.”

I think James still says “I love you” more than most children, but it isn’t constant anymore. He’s a genuinely loving and caring boy. So, this year we’ve talked numerous times about how our actions show our love. If we truly love God, we will listen and obey. If we truly love our parents, we will listen and obey.

Jesus challenged Peter to live out his love in action.

John 21:15-17         ¹⁵ When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

¹⁶ Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

¹⁷ The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”

Saying “I love you” can be easy, but living a life of love is quite challenging. Peter did spend the rest of his life living out his love in action (feeding Jesus’s sheep).  

Do you and I love God as Peter did? What would our all-knowing God say about our love? If you and I do truly love Him, how has He asked us to show and live out our love in action? How well are you and I caring for His people?

Alice

Indivisible

But some Pharisees saw them do it and protested, “Look, your disciples are breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath.”

Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry?  He went into the house of God, and he and his companions broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat.  And haven’t you read in the law of Moses that the priests on duty in the Temple may work on the Sabbath?  I tell you, there is one here who is even greater than the Temple!  But you would not have condemned my innocent disciples if you knew the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’  For the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”  Matthew 12:2-8

We live in a country divided.  I do not need to read the paper to know it or a Facebook post to feel it.  I see it on my face as well as others, and I feel it in my heart and soul.  With every protest and slur or statement and dissention, we know something is not right.  We choose sides thinking the other side is to blame.  I found myself in the book of Matthew, where, “Jesus knew their thoughts and replied, “Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed.  A town or family splintered by feuding will fall apart.” (Matthew 12:25) I prayed knowing that it won’t get better anytime soon.  However, I was reminded of one of my favorite movie scripture lines, “Even youths grow tired and weary.  Even young men will stumble and fall.  But those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will walk and not grow faint.” (Isaiah 40:30-31/ movie: 'Remember The Titans') So while I realize there is trouble ahead, I continue to remember these basic truths.  First, God’s word is true.  Second, we are His children.  Third, He loves us.  Finally, He is always with us.  Those are the things that carry and drive me to create greater unity among those who would try to divide us.

You see, God is greater than any dissension that we may have among us.  I kept reading today's verses over and over again, and said it can’t be that simple can it?  Here was Jesus and the disciples harvesting grain on the day of the Sabbath.  Were the Pharisees worried that they were hungry?  No, they focused on them breaking the law.  There’s a reason Jesus was called ‘teacher,’ right?  He points out examples from scripture (David and the sacred loaves of bread – See Samuel 21:1-6) and priests working on the Sabbath.  Then the part that really hits home; I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.  The verses Jesus is referring to is Hosea 6:6, which says, “I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.  I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.”  We often get caught up into ‘what something means,’ and immediately jump to the conclusion that someone else is wrong.  Examples include, “you must be racist,” “you need to stop being overly sensitive,” or (the latest, sorry) “You are disrespecting my flag.”  But how often are we focusing on the act instead of the person?  It's more important to prove 'I'm right' instead of knowing who they are, where are they from, and why do they feel this way?  If God were to respond as we do, there would be no grace, and we would never have a relationship with Him.  Instead as Jesus tried to teach the Pharisees to do, we are asked to do something that is somewhat a mantra start with ‘why.’  This is not to necessarily agree, but through understanding, we gain clarity.  And when we have clarity, we lose an enemy and gain mutual respect for each other.

God did not mean for us to be divided.  I once told a person God would not want you on His side.  I was wrong to say that.  God wants all of us on His side.  It does not mean we will always agree.  If we did, we would never gain a wider perspective, and more importantly, greater understanding of God’s plan for us.  If everyone sees what we see, wouldn’t we potentially miss something?  One nation under God does not mean we see everything the same.  Let’s stop trying to impose our meaning on someone else.  Instead, let’s understand the other side to broaden our horizon and expand God’s future kingdom.  Who can you be more gracious to and less condemning of?  How can you be more loving and less judging?  My prayer is that even when we don’t see eye to eye, we focus on how God sees us; a nation indivisible.  Amen.

Tues Devo: Find and replace

1 Peter 2:1-3 “Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.” (NASB)

Hello,

We have all had “those” interactions. You know, the ones where you just want to react super quickly…without mercy…with full aggression…”those” interactions. The interactions where we are driven to quickly pull together all possible ammunition and resurrect the things we have ‘forgiven’. It seems that the quicker our desire to respond (react) likely the more critical it is that we slow down and measure our response against scripture. These verses challenged me this week. We are to put aside “all” – doesn’t leave much room for holding on now does it? But the counterbalance here is what is so critical. If we put something aside, we have to replace it with something. Here Peter tells us to replace those things with an insatiable desire for the Word of God. Why? Sure, it is good to desire God’s word – but His word is what will help us finish putting  aside all of these things – the counterbalance isn’t just a place holder, but a value bringing item in keeping those other things down and away from us.

I hope this both challenges and encourages you today.

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill

A Warning

Romans 15:7

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I want to caution you as it is so easy for people to misunderstand the Bible and use scripture to go against what God has intended.  The verse above is one that often gets misused.  We hear it said that we should accept everyone, despite their life style choices.  This can be very dangerous!  The Bible is very clear about certain topics and while we are to love everyone, we are not told to be accepting of their choices. 

When you love everyone and accept them as Christ accepted us, you are praising God.  We do want to show them Christ and show them how Christ died for each and every one of us.  We have all been called to live a life that pleases God.

I just want to encourage each of you today to keep your eyes on the cross as there are many around us that will try to use our faith to actually break us down.  

Thursday Devotional - "Just Because" Miracles

Last Tuesday night we had 52 new women come and register for the Bible study I help lead! It was a good problem to have, but meant several of us stayed late that night to prayerfully figure out in which of our 16 groups to place each woman. So, I didn’t get home until late that night and then forgot to set my alarm for the next morning. However, God woke me up at 5:50 am!

I rarely wake up before my alarm, so I kept thanking God for waking me up! He didn’t need to do that. I didn’t have an early morning meeting. I think my boss would have understood, as I’m not a tardy employee and I’m conscientious about my work. God waking me up seemed like a “just because” miracle simply to remind me who He is, He’s always there, He loves me and He even cares about the little details in my life!

I think this next miracle in the book of John might have been one of those “just because” miracles for the disciples, too.

John 21:1-6  Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: ² Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ³ “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. ⁴ Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. ⁵ He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. ⁶ He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

It doesn’t sound like the disciples “needed” to catch fish, but Jesus miraculously gave them more than they could even haul just to remind them who He is! He is the all-powerful, all-knowing Son of God that rose from the dead to offer us freedom from sin! Yet, He’s also personal, compassionate and caring in our day-to-day activities.

What “just because” miracles has God done in your life to remind you of His power and presence?

Alice 

The Dumb Question

“It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.”  Philippians 1:15-18 NLT

One of the favorite things that I do in discussions (if your name is Loretta, my wife, call it an argument ☺), is what I call the ‘Kent dumb’ question.  These are questions that usually do one of two things.  One is to blatantly point out the obvious, which usually ends the discussion.  The other is when I feel there is something obvious that I am just plain missing.  For example when my daughter claims not to know where the missing cupcake is, the Kent dumb question is, “Mya, why is the cupcake wrapper in your bedroom?”  However, there are times where that so called ‘dumb’ question becomes a great one.  It’s great because often it is the dumb question that reveals something in a plan that no one has thought of.  These are important because it often is the difference between a great plan and a plan that sinks because no one ever asked that question.

It brought me to the very obvious question that we as Christians often wonder.  Am I doing what God asks of me?  When I make a stance on something, is it because it’s what God wants or what I want?  You see, these seem like dumb questions, but they are smart especially when we are not balanced in our approach to them.  Sometimes I allow my heart rule over me too much, and end up not doing what God wants me to do.  Other times, I let my literal sense lead because that’s what God’s law says, but in those cases, I am not as loving of others as God is as loving of me.  As a comedian once said about being a father, “We are dumb, but we are not so dumb.”

It is important that we always check our motives to ensure they are God driven.  God’s law is perfect, and so is His love for us.  But what if one conflicts with the other?  What do you say to the gay person who’s lost his loved one to AIDS?  Now I have not had to deal with this, but this is the dilemma.  How can I show God’s love without accepting or approving of the lifestyle?  You see for one side, it sounds simple.  God does not approve of the homosexual lifestyle, and as such, anything I do to uphold that is a sin.  Period.  That’s easy enough, right?  That’s exactly what happened in the South when they said slavery was acceptable (Note: They used scripture to prove that God approved of it because it wrote it explicitly God’s acceptance of it – see Exodus 20:10, 17 as prime examples).  The fact I bring this up does not mean I condone homosexuality.  It does mean that if we are not approaching it with God’s heart for the person, we are not following Christ for while He did love us for the person we would become, He also loved us right where we were.  I’m merely trying to point out we must truly understand our motives prior to saying one is right or wrong.

God wants all of us.  Mind, heart, and soul.  These will take us to places where we will feel very uncomfortable.  It will make us think when our hearts have led us astray, and soften our heart when our heads are stubborn.  Our goal is to love God and His word, and ask prayerfully for guidance.  So let us not be too simplistic in our approach to situations.  Let us always be willing to make God’s word truly living!  My prayer is that before we jump to the seemingly obvious answer, we pause to check our motives and ask The Dumb Question.’  Amen.

Tues Devo: Bend, but don't break

1 Peter 1:13 “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (NASB)

Hello,

I was watching some football this weekend (not a surprise) and saw a couple team change up their defensive strategy in the 2^nd half when leading. They backed off being aggressive and just kept stuff in front of them. They were trying to avoid ‘the big mistake’. While they did that, the offense changed up and just took chunks of yards available to them and would move down the field with little resistance. This ‘bend, but don’t break’ style of defense is maybe a little effective – but often ends up putting you in a position at the last minute with the opponent about to score that you have to change styles and suddenly get aggressive again – and sometimes momentum has already swung, making that very difficult.

We can’t get this way spiritually. We can just be passively bend but don’t break – we will lose ground and before you know it be found in a tight spot. We must always be action ready!

Not too late – change it up and be action ready today!

Will Hill

What kind of image do you cast?

James 3:1

Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

I am friends with a number of teachers, both in public schools and private schools.  My son goes to a private school currently however we are not sure if he will continue to go there after this year.  Right now he is in Pre-K so we are trying to decide if we want to continue the drive (30 min one way) to take him there or allow him to go to public school in our district. 

My husband and I have been talking about this and finding that while we love what is taught in my son’s school, we feel very frustrated with the life style the teachers live and post all over social media.  While each has a right to their own private life, when posting these things all over social media, especially when friends with parents that have kids at the school, it gives a negative perspective of that person and ultimately, the school they work for.

This got me thinking that as Christians, we too are held to a higher standard than that of non-Christians.  It is my prayer that the things that I post will leave others with a positive perspective of me and what it means to be a Christian. 

Would others know that you are a Christian by what you post to Social Media?

Making Old Things New

The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away.  Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life?  If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God!  In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new way.  So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever!  2 Corinthians 3:7-11

Change is never easy.  The other day, I was looking at my work routine, and realized there was something that I was not making enough time for.  Now I know how to incorporate changes in my routine.  That’s the easy part.  However, the challenge for me is to do something new.  How can a person with a successful regular routine start to do something new?  Anyone who tries a new diet or starts an exercise routine knows that the journey is easy to start but challenging to consistently continue or finish.  It was in that I focused on those things that God makes new; namely me!  The day I was born again meant that I was made new.  However as I look back, I am far different from the person I was then.  So perhaps trusting God to change me was the ‘new’ then, and knowing God intimately is the ‘new’ today, and in the future, I will find another ‘new.’

God continually makes old things new.  We spend a great deal of time focused on the words of God.  That may very well be the ‘new’ part of a follower’s journey.  Perhaps it is how the word changes one’s heart, or it could be acting on God’s prompting sooner.  Maybe you might be at a stage where you’ve done all that, and are trying to prayerfully figure out what is next.  All of this is change inspired by God, and it is important to take a moment to stop, pause, and reflect on what God is doing in your life.  Think about where you were when you gave your life to Him.  How about the last greatest challenge where hope seemed lost and you thought you’d lost faith.  Maybe you are thinking about the first time you trusted God and He showed His faithfulness.  We have all grown to know God better, and proof of that is looking back to know how He has shaped us step by step.  That is exciting stuff!

Surety of eternal life through Jesus Christ is truly the best change ever!  I love Paul’s excitement in today’s verses telling us of both our sad punishment and God’s grace.  As we focus on the law that sentenced us to death, through Christ, we are given a new life that with greater faith and growth changes us into new people willing to follow Him out of love.  Let us rejoice over an awesome God who continually changes us to resemble the one who saved us in the very beginning; Jesus Christ.  What changes in your life would you like to give thanks to God?  How can your encourage another’s change through sharing your transformation?  My prayer is that we celebrate God’s grace that continually makes old things new.  Amen.

Tues Devo: No motion

1 Peter 1:1-5 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (NASB)

Hello,

Do you ever wonder why things don’t seem to move forward? It seems to be a mental battle I face often. Things feel stuck in neutral – not terrible, but not actually feeling like they are moving forward in any positive direction. When this happens to me how long it lasts often is dependent on how long I wait to remember that I am not in charge of forward motion! The God who is in charge of the long term, is also in charge of the short term. I can’t push on my own to get to heaven – that was done through the work of Jesus. Apart from Him I can’t see the kind of forward motion that I desire (or should desire) in my life. When you get stuck in neutral, pause and look back to your relationship with God. He is in charge of the motion, and remember He has already taken care of the end game for us!

I pray this encourages someone today.

Will Hill