Thursday Devotional - Love and Laws

Romans 3:19-24            “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”    Romans 3:19-24

God’s laws in the Bible point out our sin in light of His righteousness. If we have faith in Jesus Christ and have accepted God’s free gift of salvation, we will desire to show our love to Him through obeying His laws. 

I frequently tell James and Sarah that they show love for God and for me, when they listen and obey the first time. James is quick to verbally say he loves us and he gives hugs generously which shows he loves us. He’s working on the immediate obedience part! J If we’re honest, we all struggle with immediate obedience.

Knowing God’s laws are necessary so we can obey immediately and identify and avoid sin.

How well do you and I know God’s laws?

If we were to ask God, what would He say about our knowledge of His laws? 

What sins in your life and my life have recently come to light and how are you and I obediently addressing those sins?  

Alice

Godly Love

A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape.  So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.

Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.  Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!  The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself.  But Paul shouted to him, “Stop! Don’t kill yourself! We are all here!"

The jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.  Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  Acts 16:22-30 

The most difficult thing to do is to love someone when you have no love in your heart for them.  It is not often that I encounter such a feeling, but indeed it does happen particularly when I have been wronged by them.  The mere thought of feeling any kind of warmth, sympathy, or compassion for that person has me in knots inside.  Furthermore, it usually impacts my feelings with those in the middle of them and me.  When this feeling occurs, I hearken back to when a person in the middle became my saving grace.  It was him who brought into my sight God’s vision; one of His Kingdom, love, and grace.  Those things led to my finding love for my rival because God’s love filled my heart such that I could not do anything else.

To be filled with Godly love is transformative.  I say this not because it sounds easy.  In today’s verses, Paul and Silas are beaten and jailed, but are given the opportunity to escape.  Why did they not run?  The answer was quite simply love for their fellow man.  You see, the guard, who awoke to find the prison doors open, knew the government would find him responsible for the prisoner’s escape, which is why he would attempt to commit suicide.  Obviously, so did Paul.  Thus, Paul, Silas, and the other prisoners stayed giving up their own freedom to save another. 

As we recently celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Day, I was pushed to read his letter from a Birmingham jail cell.  Here is a man who is jailed for civil protest, and he too is being called a troublemaker by … other pastors?  Kinda hard to have love for your fellow man in that situation.  Yet, here he is not only addressing them, but doing so with both conviction for his cause and civility toward their dissenting opinion.  How could one could pull off such a feat.  The answer is simply love.  Here is the closing to his letter:

If I have said anything in this letter that is an overstatement of the truth and is indicative of an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me.  If I have said anything in this letter that is an understatement of the truth and is indicative of my having a patience that make me patient with anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.  

You can have love for your people and cause, and yet still love those who would oppress you.  Love for your jailer?  That’s Godly love.

We all have an opportunity to embrace the love God has shown us.  While one might consider being cold and hard toward someone who has wronged you, loving them is a much harder one to master.  However if you are willing to see the bigger picture of God’s Kingdom instead of your current circumstances, you will find that He has plans for you.  Let’s all have greater vision beyond our circumstances and focus on His love for us that is enduring and stronger than even our worse circumstances.  What challenge do you have today that needs a more loving perspective?  How can you replace your disdain with God’s love?  My prayer is that we focus on that which never fails; Godly love.  Amen. 

Pray with Faith

James 5:13-16

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.  Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.  Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

It seems that everyone around me, at home, at work, at church, has been sick lately.  My son, still too young to really understand, sat crying because he was so miserable.  He kept telling me that he didn’t want to be sick and didn’t like it.  As a parent, you just want to fix things, you want to make them feel better.  Yet there are times that you really can’t do anything.  After having been up with him for hours through the night, I sat on the couch with him, just praying over him.  While there was nothing that I was really able to do, I prayed that God would give him rest.  Of course I prayed for healing as well. 

When you pray, do you have faith that your prayer will be answered?  This is one that I am not always great about.  It isn’t even so much that I don’t believe God will answer my prayers, however sometimes those answers aren’t exactly in line with what I’m hoping for so sometimes it seems like the prayer is not being answered, even though it is, just not how I had hoped. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are told to pray for one another.  We are told to pray in faith.  Each of us is sick.  We are sick with a very deadly disease called sin.  How often do you pray that God will heal you from those sins? 

Today I pray that each of you will start or will continue to pray with faith.  Know that God answers prayers, even when it’s not always the way that we had hoped for.  

Thursday Devotional - Double Standards

Romans 2:19-24     “if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, ²⁰ an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— ²¹ you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? ²² You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? ²³ You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? ²⁴ As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”           Romans 2:19-24

Here, Paul is bluntly confronting the self-righteous Jews. Sometimes I skim over these verses thinking I’m not like these Jews. I don’t think I set expectations of others that I don’t set for myself. However, if I really examine all my behaviors and thoughts, I am hypocritical. I don’t always meet my own expectations for myself, much less God’s expectations.

Just last night I got on to James and Sarah several times for talking at dinner with food in their mouth. One of the times I realized I still had some food in my mouth when I was telling them to wait to talk until they had finished chewing!!!

In your and my areas of responsibility, what are you and I teaching others (co-workers, spouses, children, peers, communities, church members)?

Are you and I holding ourselves to the same expectations? 

Do you and I expect our co-workers to be diligent and not waist time, but do you and I waist time in different ways?

Do you and I expect our family members to be considerate, but do you and I always think of their needs first?

Let’s ask God to help us recognize (and address) where we are being self-righteous, hypocritical, or holding double standards.

Alice

It Ain't Easy

After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”  Matthew 4:2-4

We all have household chores that we either love or hate.  For example, I love shoveling snow.  It’s not that I look forward to it, but when I have to go out there, it feels a fun challenge to shovel the area around the house.  However, I absolutely hate cleaning the garage.  One never knows what crawls out from under a bag or the dust the flies up agitating my allergies.  If there is something I can avoid doing, the garage is it.  In either case, the task must be done whether I like it or not, and it is for the good of the household once completed.

Being in servitude to God means there are going to be times where we do what we would prefer not to do.  In today’s verses, Jesus is tempted by the Devil in the wilderness.  As we see, the Devil tempted Jesus like he often does us; at His weakest point.  If you are like me, we typically are not thinking straight when we are hungry.  Here was Jesus who had fasted for forty days!  Pretty safe to say that hunger might have been an issue here.  So the Devil appealed to His ‘son of God’ side noting nothing is impossible for Him.  Why not indulge yourself a bit, and make some bread to eat.  One of Jesus’ greatest attribute is His devout servitude to God at all times.  His response was predictable noting it is of greater importance to live on God’s word than it is to serve myself.  This story reminds us of that simple phrase, “Easy to say, and hard to do.”  The reason it is so difficult to uphold is we love so many things that it at times clouds our judgment as to what do we love more.  I love God, but sometimes I feel like I love my wife, my children, and even more troubling, myself more than God.  I say this as admission of my own flaws hoping others might ask themselves the same question.  We must always remember that serving God when it conflicts with other wants and needs is an absolute must.  We may not like or enjoy it.  However, our spiritual growth is dependent on it.


Serving God is both humbling and a blessing.  He does so much for us in terms of love, grace, forgiveness, and protection that we may not truly understand the depths of the blessings given to us.  Furthermore, He gave us a shining example of how we are to live through His son Jesus Christ.  This is indeed a tall order for as Paul humbly wrote why is it so difficult to do what I ought not do (Romans 7:15).  However, Jesus took that burden on the cross so that we would be able to connect with God in spite of those and other flaws of ours.  So get out of your own way, and serve as He is worthy to serve.  How will you respond when your wants conflict with God’s?  What steps can you take to ensure your love for God supersedes love for other things?  My prayer is that we continue to grow in our love for God realizing that at times, it ain't easy.  Amen.

Tues Devo: Me focus

Hello,

Last week I wrote about reliance on God’s amazing power – and us trusting Him. This week I want to take the opposite angle, and talk about ourselves and the things we can control. While it may not feel in this culture that we need encouragement to spend time on ourselves – we really do. But instead of time on our self-promotion and self-indulgence, we need that time on self-building and self-control.

There are things in our control – are we focused on working on those? Are we willing to be accountable before God on those things, and commit to growth?

Ephesians 2:29-32 “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” (NASB)

I hope this challenges all of us!

Will Hill

How do you Worship God?

Psalm 19:1-4

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.

I was actually looking up another verse to write about this morning when I saw this.  It hit me and I have no clue why but I decided to use this verse instead. 

What a mighty God we serve!  When you look at the world around us, remove the people for just a minute and truly look at the beauty of the earth, you can see how it was really meant to be.  David wrote this Psalm and if you stop and think about it, we can see how everything that surrounds us is worshipping God. 

Worshiping God does not require speech or words.  No sound is needed at all.  We can worship God in our thoughts, prayers, how we choose to live our lives.  And those are just silent ways that come to mind for me.

Today I want to encourage you to think about how you worship our Lord.  Are there subtle ways that you could worship him more?  Share with the group ways that you enjoy worshiping God, silent or out loud.

Thursday Devotional - Hearing Only?

I often ask the kids “what did I say?!” Sometimes I ask it in response to them asking the same question they’ve just asked, hoping for a different answer! Other times, I ask it when I catch them not picking up after I asked them to pick up their toys. In either scenario, my kids heard and knew what I said but didn’t listen and obey.

Similarly, I can hear, read and know God’s Word, but what difference will it make in my life unless I apply and obey it?

Romans 2:13-16     ¹³ For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. ¹⁴ (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. ¹⁵ They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) ¹⁶ This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

Whether you plan to read the whole Bible in a year this year or have some other Bible study plan, end your time with at least one application question for yourself. I often write out my application question in a journal and then write out the answer. Sometimes I have to think about it and answer it the next day (or later).

James 1:22 & 25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says… But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.

Alice

Washed Away

“Then he told me, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and hear him speak.  For you are to be his witness, telling everyone what you have seen and heard. What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized. Have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord.’  Acts 22:14-16 

The new year is filled with resolutions that we plan to do differently.  The sermon I heard this weekend talked about such things as well as preparing for your future.  Reflecting on this, I heard my inner voice saying, “What about your past?”  There was a lot of good in my past, but there was also the times where I was most distant from God.  These were when I felt unworthy and ashamed of myself.  That was where I was when I came to God; hopeless and humbled hoping to do some good.  Then, I remembered getting in the water to be baptized.  Apparently, the water was cold enough that I was vocalizing it, and my pastor at the time looked at me and jokingly said, “Man up.”  As I rose up from the waters, my mother, who watching in the audience, said I raised my arms in victory.  The moment signified my decision to follow Christ and that I was clean from sin.  Forever.  This is what I carry with me into the new year. 

We should remember that through all our moments both good and bad, we are all made clean through Jesus Christ.  I love this testimony by Paul speaking of his experience coming to follow Christ.  We read in the early part of Acts when on the road to Damascus, Jesus spoke to Paul asking why was he persecuting Him, and how Paul met Ananias, who helped Paul regain his sight.  Now, Paul gives his testimony detailing how Ananias told how his sins would be washed away by calling on the name of the Lord.  We thus learn that no matter what we have done or where we have come from, we are free from sin's bondage through Jesus Christ.  Like the calendar points out the change to a new year, we too are changed, and our sins are washed away if we call out to Him.  This makes us new, and we must both put those things that drag us down away and move toward the future with our eyes fixed on the one who is pure, blameless, and the perfecter of our faith. 

Through Christ, we have endless possibilities.  We have been blessed by God's gift of grace.  Our goal thus is to seek Him at all times humbly asking Him, “Oh Lord.  Open my eyes to those things you want me to see, and let my heart ache for those things that break your heart.  Help me to do your will and find joy in each and every moment I am with you.”  As we start a new year, let us remember the new beginning we have been given.  What do you need God to release you from today?  What will you do with your new found freedom through Jesus Christ?  My prayer is that we remember that our past sins have through Jesus Christ been washed away.  Amen. 

Tues Devo: 2018 Reliance

Hello,

While not a big person for resolutions, I am big on goals. I wanted to share with you about one of my goals for this year. This year, each day I will be praying for something – something that is completely out of my control. It is specific, and will be able to be identified when it happens…but when it happens, it will be God’s hand behind it all. It is also fully in line with what Scripture says God desires.  (No, I am not telling exactly what it is).

You see, last year I feel like I fell into the trap of trying to muscle myself into things – not truly depending on God. This year, I want to ensure I am continually putting myself in a position of dependency, and trusting the size that is truly God.

Paul ends the third chapter of Ephesians (v20-21) with a stark reminder that God is well able to handle God-sized things: “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (NASB)

Will you join me this year? Is there something fully in line with the Biblical desires of God that you cannot control, but will commit to pray for each day through this year?

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill