Thursday Devotional - Faith and Righteousness

Did any of you take AP (advanced placement) classes in high school and then get college credit for it? You didn’t have to take or pay for the class in college, but were given the credits as if you had!

With God’s righteousness, we won’t ever meet His standards. However, for those who place their faith in His work on their behalf, He credits with Christ’s righteousness. He treats us as if we were righteous and have met His standards.

Romans 4:1-8     What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? ² If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. ³ What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

⁴ Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. ⁵ However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. ⁶ David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷ “Blessed are those
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.
⁸ Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”

For believers, our sin is treated as if the punishment has been paid. We didn’t pay for it, but Jesus did on our behalf. He paid our punishment and we get His righteousness!!! Fair, huh?! No. What love, grace and mercy!!!

Alice

Love, Love, Love!

Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate?  Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.  Philippians 2:1-5

It’s St. Valentine’s Day, and of course, love is in the air.  One might think it is stating the obvious that I would write about the topic of love.  Well, there were many topics that I thought of writing about.  I thought about how humble it is to be . . . loved by God.  Then I thought about how my wonderful wife is such a shining example of . . . God’s love for me.  Then I reminded myself that I must be true to God’s word because . . . I love Him.  And to be funny, God decided to instill one of my favorite Beatles song in my head, “All You Need Is Love.”  No matter how I tried to get around it, I found myself back at love.  So here I am choosing to talk about the obvious: love.  What could I possibly say about love that is not already known?  Nothing really, but I can remind us of what God’s love is all about.  It is a gift to be given much like the candy boxes and red roses today.  It is not shallow or something you say in passing.  It is a feeling that can be overwhelming and the greatest you can ever experience.  So today, I want to share this reminder on Valentine’s Day.  Love is a verb.  Not a noun.

Godly love is an attitude that goes beyond just the words.  Someone once told me that they loved me because God commands us to love each other as we love ourselves.  I agreed that is true, but that is not what Godly love is.  Today’s verses give insight as to what Godly love truly is.  You cannot have love for your brother or sister unless you know them.  Yes, you can love people, but God did not intend for us to love others like a check mark on our ‘Being A Good Christian’ checklist.  Godly love forces us to do better.  It requires an attitude that says, “I will love on someone today as if they are my brother or sister.”  Now I am not going to hug strangers as if they are my oldest brother.  I will, however, make a deliberate and sincere effort to get to know them.  We must learn to dig beyond just the surface and get to know people beyond just a simple hello.  Godly love requires that we be involved in the discussion, and share in others’ successes and failures.  It is not easy, but since when did anything worthwhile ever become easy?  Now before someone says there are some things that comes easy to them that they enjoy, I would then say God expects much more of you.  Godly love is in a way is like spiritual growth.  It stretches beyond the boundaries of what we ourselves normally could reach, and expands our ability to be more like Christ.

We should always be encouraged by the love Jesus Christ has for us.  Whether you have a significant other to celebrate today with or not, know that He said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)  Jesus calls us friend even as we are not always His.   That’s special and should be celebrated on a day like today.  So let us make an effort to truly love others as He, who sacrificed His life, first showed love for us.  Who can you show greater love to?  How will you commit to displaying more Godly love to others?  My prayer is that we embrace the spirit of today, and from a more Godly (and Beatles) perspective, be all about love, love, love!  Amen!

Tues Devo: Just a little bit

Matthew 16:1-6 “The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away. And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread. And Jesus said to them, ‘Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’” (NASB)

Hello,

I was reading through Matthew 16 this weekend, and had trouble paying attention to the end of the chapter after reading verse 6. Jesus is with His disciples after 2 events: 1) feeding over 4,000 people with seven loaves of fish and a few small fish (chapter 5) and 2) being tested here in the first bit of chapter 6 by the religious leaders.

Coming from the miraculous work with bread, a leaven comment is not out of place.

Leaven, or yeast as the modern day equivalent, is a strong ingredient. It doesn’t take much, and it spreads through the dough to have it rise. Without the leaven, the bread dough doesn’t change as much as with the leaven. But notice that the comment wasn’t directed at having an absence of leaven, but rather which leaven we are folding in.

It doesn’t take much mis-aligned teaching to sway and impact our choices – we have to watch and be careful of our sources. I think we see this a lot today from a culture perspective. We allow a cultural or political opinion (left or right – either direction) to start to drive our view of God and Scripture. We need to really put a guard up for our sources of influence, and vet them against Scripture – not our feelings or opinions.

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill

Jesus Always

A friend shared a devotion the other day that I enjoyed so I thought I would share it today.  I do not know the source so I apologize for not giving credit to the actual writer.

Jesus Always

My Love will never let you go!  It has an eternal grip on you.  You live in a world that is unpredictable and unsafe in many ways.  As you look around, you see landscape littered with broken promises.

However, My Love is a promise that will never be broken.  Though the moutains be shaken and the hill be removed, yet My unfailing Love for you will not be shaken.  The prophet Isaiah is painting a picture of dire circumstances: quaking mountains and disappearing hills.  No matter what is happening, My Love is unshakable.  You can build your life on it!

Sometimes My children believe I care for them but still find it difficult to receive My Love in full measure.  I want you to learn to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is My Love for you.  Ask My Spirit to empower you to know this Love that surpasses knowledge.  Break free from faulty self-images so you can view yourself as I see you – radiant in My righteousness, wrapped in luminous Love.

Isaiah 54:10

Though the mountains be shaken
    and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
    nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
    says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

Ephesians 3:16-19

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Isaiah 61:10

I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Thursday Devotional - Faith and Superiority

As we talked last week, if we have true saving faith, then there’s no place for boasting. If there’s no place for boasting, then there isn’t any place for superiority either.

Paul points out in Romans that faith eliminates human prejudice, like between the Jews and Gentiles. God is God of both. He justifies both by the same faith.

Romans 3: 29-30         Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 

The Jews thought they were better. They worked hard to prove it, too. Superiority divides, but faith unites. Faith stops discrimination. God saves all sinners the same way, by grace through faith in Jesus. No believer is more God’s child than any other believer.

Are any of my sisters’ biological children more of a grandchild to my parents than my children? No! They may have come first (and biologically), but they aren’t better. My parents love all of them the same. How much more does God love each of His children the same?!!

 

Where do you and I think we are better or worse than someone else? 

Or who do you and I think is beyond receiving God’s justification?

Is there someone you and I would be upset to see in Heaven?

We were all guilty before God, yet God pronounced you and me not guilty, if we’ve placed our faith in Jesus!

Romans 3:22      This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile.

Alice

Perfect Peace

Open the gates to all who are righteous;
    allow the faithful to enter.
You will keep in perfect peace
    all who trust in you,
    all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Trust in the Lord always,
    for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.  Isaiah 26:2-4

I would like to share something that many of you might be startled by, and I rarely share these stories because it’s hard for me.  Hard because I typically prefer not to touch topics based on race.  Someone decided they would, and would attempt to use God to point this out.  A gentleman told me that I should be thankful that (please forgive the language) white people gave me the gospel, and I should be thankful ‘his’ people had shown my people who God was.  I had a choice right then and there.  I could lash out in bitter anger.  Or, I could choose to respond with God’s heart and wisdom.  I chose the latter responding that even if his claim were true, God is big enough that I am pretty sure He would have gotten the word of Christ to me.  After that response, he said that I clearly have a hatred for white people because I would not acknowledge that fact.  I simply smiled ending the conversation saying, “That’s interesting.  I will make sure to tell my white pastor that.”  You see, it does not bother me that there are people who would hate me just simply because I am a black man.  As long as I find peace with God, I can respond with His love in my heart and wisdom in my mind.

Finding peace with God can lift you up beyond your situation or circumstance.  There are many who say God sees us all the same.  I agree with that idea with the understanding that while He sees us all the same, He made us different so that we would not see Him the same.  I’m sure there is that ‘What’s Kent talking about now’ thought in your mind.  Here’s the thing.  There are differences in races.  In fact, I would say that God intended us to be different culturally because He is too big to see from just one perspective.  He is peace to two people but for two different reasons.  One may be because He provides peace from an unjust world.  Another may be because He provides peace when the world doesn’t make sense.  Two different views, but yet, the same awesome and amazing God.  Remember our stories of how we came close to God are rarely the same, but yet, we all ended up under the same umbrella.  Perfect peace does not explain our journey.  It is our destination.

God is our perfect peace.  Whether it is due to our falling short in one area or suffering duress in another, God is always there to pick up, comfort, strengthen, and reinforce us.  Our difference does not make one more or less perfect than the other.  It makes us all perfect under Christ for He is the perfecter of our faith.  Let us all choose to embrace each other’s difference realizing this is what God truly intended.  How can one’s different story of faith be of encouragement to you?  How can you be more embracing culturally of another’s view of the same loving God?  My prayer is that no matter who we are, we embrace God’s perfect peace.  Amen. 

Thursday Devotional - Faith and Boasting

Did James and Sarah do anything to become part of our family? Do they have any room for boasting about earning their new status as a Rea? Can anything they do make them more of a Rea or more a part of our family? No, no and no!

The same is true in the family of God. We don’t do anything to become a part of His family and have no room to boast about our status as a believer.

Romans 3:27-28           Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

True saving faith isn’t wishful thinking but trusting on God’s plans and promises and acting on that trust with courage. When I have true saving faith, I’m not boastful. I remember all I am, all I have, and all I’m capable of comes from God. I don’t earn faith or justification.

  

What do you and I cling to, to deserve a right standing before God?

Are you and I boasting in our confessions/prayers/works/faith or in God’s justification?

True saving faith results in gratitude, and not pride or boasting.

Alice

Fixing Our Disconnect

So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.  This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.  So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.  Hebrews 4:14-16

Some things are easy to do and hard to maintain.  For example, I tend to be a pretty good time manager.  I have days, weeks, and months planned so that I can get tasks done.  Notice that I said, “I tend to be good.”  Every so often, I get caught up into things that drive me to where I am not as focused as I should, and as a result, my management of time goes awry.  I will lose my place and things seem to not be where it should be.  However, when I can sense things don’t look well, I devise a plan, and ask myself what I need to do to get back on track.  Then, I can fight my way back to where I should be via taking out more time or rearranging things.

This brings me to a situation we all can at times attest to; losing our connection with God.  I’m not talking about feeling like God is not there.  It’s that feeling where you do not feel in sync with Him and His will.  You are off in your thinking, and you react to things as if you do not even know He existed.  It is at that point we need to figure out our own plan.  What disciplines consistently connect us with God?  What is ‘Plan B’ if our normal ‘go to’ does not seem to work?

We should always be adaptive to changes in our lives to ensure we stay connected with God.  Now I am not saying to change daily rituals like prayer and bible readings.  However, we should be aware of when those very things become ‘things to do’ and not ‘time to experience.’  Sometimes our rituals may become just that; a ritual.  It is not true connection with God.  For me, I look to connect with people when things like reading the Bible becomes fruitless.  It helps me connect with God because it forces me to live out what He says, and that creates a connection when focusing exclusively on His word is not working.  You see, God should be something we feel in our head, hearts, and spirit.  We should gain knowledge through His word, and experience His love for others as well as ourselves.  Then, we must connect to our spirit through church, friends, Bible reading and other means.  That is how we maintain a firm grip onto what we truly believe in; a loving and forgiving God we are blessed to serve.

God is all knowing.  When you don’t feel connected with Him, trust that He knows that.  Don’t fall into the helpless trap of ‘I’ve fallen, and I can't get up!’  Remember God is there even when you may not quite feel or see Him.  Furthermore, know the great treasure that awaits us once we have finished our race; our place in Heaven with Lord Jesus Christ.  So, let us hold firmly to this belief.  What signs tell you that you are off track.  When disconnected from Christ, what’s your Plan B when Plan A doesn’t work?  My prayer is that we continue to focus our belief in Christ and not move to self-doubt as we move toward fixing our disconnect with Him.  Amen.

Tues Devo: Waiting is not always fun

Genesis 40:21-23 “He restored the chief cupbearer to his office, and he put this cup into Pharaoh’s hand; but he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.” (NASB)

Hello,

As I was reading more through the story of Joseph, the repeated theme of waiting in a not-fun circumstance struck me about Joseph. Almost all of his life was about the promise of what was next – but having to wait through tough circumstances to get there. In this story we see Joseph in jail interpreting dreams for 2 of the king’s servants. The cup bearer and the baker both were told by Joseph what their dreams meant. After he told both their dreams and the meaning he said to the cup bearer (who was to survive) that he wanted to be remembered….but he wasn’t. Later – this finally happened, and the cup bearer was able to be a part of his release 2 years later – 2 years of waiting in jail.

Don’t get discouraged – keep doing what is right before God. His time is not our timing, but His timing is best.

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill

Thursday Devotional - Faith and Forgiveness

The other day I got angry with James for throwing snow in Sarah’s face soon after I asked him not to do that. In my anger, I went back to vigorously shoveling. A few minutes later James came up to me and asked “Mom, do you know about forgiveness?” “Yes,” I said, “do you know about forgiveness? You could ask Sarah to forgive you.” I overheard him walk back to Sarah and ask for her forgiveness. Later that night he also asked for my forgiveness and said he had prayed and asked God to forgive him. I had to ask God and James for forgiveness, too… 

As we talked last week, we show our love for God by obeying Him and His laws. Just like children don’t always follow their parents’ rules, we don’t always obey our Heavenly Father. What do we do with our sin? What will God do with our sin?

God is holy, so He must punish sin. He can either punish us for our own sin or we can accept His punishment of Jesus.

Romans 3:25-26                   God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Do you still stand guilty in your own sin or has God justified you? Have you accepted His punishment of your sin on Jesus? If so, then you have been forgiven and justified!

Alice