Thursday Devotional - Advantages Appreciated?

Sarah is much better at entertaining herself than James. When she thinks to play with a particular toy, then sometimes James decides that’s the toy he wants to use, too! Funny how that works, no matter how many other toys are available!

 

As adults, we sometimes don’t appreciate and use the advantages and blessings we have. In fact, can you think of someone who has received numerous blessings and lots of advantages but doesn’t recognize, appreciate or use them? Paul could.

Paul wrote the book of Romans to primarily Gentile believers in Rome. God had appointed him to be an apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 15:16). Yet, in the following passage Paul grieves over the Jews’ lack of belief, despite all their advantages.

Romans 9:1-5          I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— ² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, ⁴ the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. ⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

The Jews had so many advantages, but didn’t recognize, appreciate or respond appropriately.

What advantages has God given to you and me? How are (or will) you and I appropriately use them for God’s purposes in our own lives and the lives of those around us?

Let’s take time to recognize the advantages He has provided and give Him thanks!

Alice

Finished

Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.”  A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:28-30

“Are we done yet,” asks my daughter as we go down the path of her impending punishment. This is the conversation we seemingly have over and over again.  We discuss something along the lines of, “You need to take responsibility for your own actions,” or, “It’s not about what you want.  It’s about what we expect from you.”  We try to be careful realizing one day this strong-willed child will be a force for good.  But yesterday, I simply wanted the little girl who tried to please her Dad with little tears running down her face.  So, we get to her punishment, and then, we are finished.  She storms upstairs frustrated that I have been harsh (in her eyesight), and I am hopeful she understands the right things to do in the future.  While we are finished with the conversation, it is part of the bigger picture of helping one young girl become a young woman.  My wife and me understand one of our purposes is to help her make that transition from young girl to a God-fearing woman, and we pray she will one day appreciate that.

Trusting God is key to ensure His purpose for our lives is fulfilled. This past week, I kept reflecting on today’s verses on Jesus’ crucifixion.  Why did He say, “It is finished,” when He knew He would rise from the grave?  Jesus had done all that He needed to do on earth.  He showed He was the Messiah through teachings and miracles.  He gave the hope of the Good News to come.  He took on all that the world could offer, and most important of all, He gave His life in sacrifice for us.  He submitted His free spirit to God.  There was nothing left for Him to do.  So, His work here on earth was … finished.  But we know it was not the end.  How often do we continue to fight and claw through a situation without an end in sight?  Perhaps now is the time to focus both intently and with clarity what God’s next move is for your life.  Our work or efforts in a situation may be indeed ‘finished,’ but we must remember that just because our work is finished does not mean it is the end.  Only God makes that determination for as written in the book of Isaiah, “When He opens doors, no one will be able to close them; when he closes doors, no one will be able to open them.” (22:22b)

God has a purpose for everyone.  Sure, the journey may seem endless, and sometimes, we may not even feel like we know where we are going.  But if we trust in God, we know there is a bigger plan.  So let us focus on continuing to both seek and fulfill our purpose such that when the end is truly in sight, we can speak as Paul wrote:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:7-8

What Godly purpose do you have left unfulfilled?  How can you make steps toward finding God’s purpose for your life?  My prayer is that we continue to follow God unconditionally until we can say to Him, “It is finished.”  Amen.

Honoring your Mother

Proverbs 23:25

May your father and mother rejoice;
    may she who gave you birth be joyful!

I know it is the day after but to all of you Mother’s out there, Happy Mother’s Day.  For those who are not Mother’s, maybe don’t even have any children or you’re a guy, you might not think all too much about Mother’s Day any more.  I have been guilty of not doing much more than sending my mom something and a quick phone call. 

This year was different.  My mom, sisters and I took a weekend trip.  We didn’t get home until rather late last night so we did not get to spend much time with our own kids however it was a complete joy to spend the weekend celebrating our mom and watching her be filled with joy.  She wasn’t showered with lavish gifts at all.  We just spent a great weekend together. 

We often think about the commandment to honor our father and mother.  While that does mean to obey them, that is not all.  Honoring them is so much more.  It brings them joy when you honor them. 

How can you honor your mother, whether she is near you, miles away or even no longer with us? 

Thursday Devotional - No Separation from God's Love

Romans 8:35-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39 

Last night James thanked God for His love for us and that He always loves us. What a difference it would make if we could all remember that all the time!!! Nothing can separate us from His love. Believers aren’t exempt from troubles and times of suffering, but we know that in the end we will be more than conquerors through Christ who made it possible for us to have eternal salvation!   

Do you ever feel like the world is against you? What about family members, friends, co-workers, etc.? 

When feelings like this surface, how can you and I remind ourselves and claim the fact that God always loves us? 

What encouragement will you and I receive by remembering that NO ONE and NO THING can separate us (who are children of God) from God’s love?

Alice

Each And Every Day

And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, "If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”  1 Samuel 7:3

When I got married, I was convinced in every word that was said in our wedding vows.  To love and cherish.  To have and to hold.  In sicknesses and in health.  Until death do us part.  All that stuff was about Loretta and me.  We didn’t get there overnight.  We had ups and downs, and times where family and my own silliness pulled us apart.  But we always ended back up together.  She stood above all as the best thing that ever happened to me.  I couldn’t say that back when I was going through it with her.  But now, it is crystal clear.  She is worth every fight, argument, disappointment, and tear that we went through to get to today.  And the funny thing is our love grows every day.  This is who we are, and we are committed to making our love for each other better.

When we have a relationship with God, we are bound to a relationship that will continue to grow and have value.  We always think of our relationship with God as at times ‘hot and cold.’  The people of Israel were in their ‘cold’ stretch, but this one lasted for twenty years!  Ouch!  Samuel’s words were to help the Israelites understand that those things that divided them from God were within their control (FYI – Ashtoreths were idols representing the Canaanites goddess Ashtoreth – see https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/ashtoreth/ for more details).  Shortly after following Samuel’s instruction, God defeats the Philistines when they attempted to attack Israel.  When reading the chapter, it should serve as a reminder of our commitment to God.  If we are too proud or focused on things that detract from Him or His will for our lives, we are destined to be in the cold stretch like Israel.  However if we remove those obstacles that could separate us from Him, we will have our great and awesome defender who will move mountains and protect us from harm.  We must ask ourselves, “Why is this so easy to understand and yet so hard to attain?”  The commitments that we have in our lives range from ‘what shirt to where’ to ‘do I want to be saved.’  How difficult the commitment is to God boils down to one thing: Who are you committed to?  Are you committed to the Lord, or are you committed to yourself?  Only you can answer that question, and it is only you who can make the decision.  Any great relationship has struggles.  Whether it gets repetitive or we see something more exciting or new, we can get distracted.  But if we focus on what matters to God, we will always find His faithfulness reassuring and His wisdom filled with something new.

God is constant.  Yes, there will be times where we do not make sense of what He wants from us, and we may stray away.  But whether it be for a day, a month, or even years, He is always there.  Waiting.  Loving. Saying to you as Jesus said to disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”  (Matthew 16:24b)  Let us remove those things that inhibit our connectivity to our one true God.  What obstacles inhibit your connection with God?  How will you focus on what God wants above what you want?  My prayer is we recognize our relationship with God, and commit to growing our love for Him each and every day.

Tues Devo: Who decides what is important

Mark 10:13-16 “And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.” (NASB)

It is not uncommon to find ourselves making priority choices. We do it every day at work and at home, we teach out kids about the impact of making priorities. One thing that struck me in this section of Mark was how we tend to put priority around the things that make us feel important. Picture these disciples (doesn’t say which ones) who are travelling with Jesus and He is THE person/sight to see. If you need help, He can help….if you just want to see something cool and unique, you go see what He is doing. So these disciples have some authority around Him and the crowds. They start to act as the gatekeeper, deciding what is important enough to get to Jesus. Whatever gets His attention they were part of this. I don’t know for sure, but I can see myself in that situation and starting to place my value/worth on the things Jesus was doing when I was there….so I very likely would have tried to just have the most impressive things be associated with my time with Him.

I don’t know if that was their motive or not, but I feel like this lesson is key for us. Our decisions of what is important are often selfishly motivated instead of Christ motivated. I hope this challenges all of us to check our motives, and align them with Christ.

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill

Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks

First of all, I’d like to thank Erin for covering devotions for me in April as I was out.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Normally when I put the scripture in the devotion, I remove the numbers.  Today however, I wanted to leave them as I love how this breaks it out.  We are instructed to do three things here.

1.  Rejoice always – This is not something that is always easy to do.  Rejoice means to be very happy, be delighted, exult; to feel joy (Wiktionary.org).  There are certainly times that I don’t feel like rejoicing.
2.  Pray continually – I must admit that there are times I forget to pray over my meal, let along remember to pray continually.  Without ceasing! 
3.   Give thanks in all circumstances.  – Giving thanks when something bad happens?  This is extremely hard! 

As many of you already know from what I’ve shared in devotions in the past, I had a miscarriage before my son was born.  Recently I was talking with my son, who is 5.  He asked me, “Mommy, is it true that if my sister would have been born, that I wouldn’t be here?”.  I told him that it was true.  His response made me smile.  He told me that he was sorry that I had to lose my baby but that he was really happy that Jesus gave me him.  It was in that moment that I realized that I need to follow the instructions here in 1 Thessalonians and remember to rejoice always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances.

Today I’d like to have you think about something that you could improve in your life if you lived by these three instructions.  Have a blessed day!

Thursday Devotional - Suffering in Anticipation of New Life!

Normally I write the devotionals on Wednesday evening after the kids go to bed. However, I was “in” Connecticut (via FaceTime) last night while my youngest sister gave birth to her 2^nd child (Heidi Elizabeth, 7 lbs. 15.2 oz, 21 inches and 9 days late). My sister, Mary, had complications with this pregnancy due to a large hemorrhage. They thought they lost the baby several times, but now they have a healthy baby girl that even nursed in the first 30 minutes!

It’s a huge answer to prayer after lots of concern and waiting. God graciously blessed Mary with strength for an all-natural deliver of only four hours of labor and 1-2 pushes!  Sarah has been praying for “Aunt Mary’s side not to bleed and the baby to live” for many months now! She will be very excited this morning when she wakes up!

As children of God, we are eagerly awaiting our complete salvation and fulfillment of eternal life! Just like childbirth, suffering proceeds blessings.   

Romans 8:16-25     The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

As God helped Mary focus on the impending blessing as she persevered through suffering, we can do the same as we patiently and eagerly await our full inheritance as God’s children!

Alice

Godly Discomfort

But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.  Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them.  But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.  1 John 4:4-6

I had a great conversation the other day with a new friend in Christ. We talked on several topics touching on faith.  We discussed things we believed, and they spoke to me about preaching God’s word and not false teachings.  I let them know that I humbly pray that the things I speak of are truly God’s thoughts and not my own.  This is a huge part of my devotion writings.  My prayer is always that the words used speak for God and not me.  The use of my experiences is to give only context toward what God is trying to teach me, and many times, my devotion topic and its meaning have changed specifically because my understanding of the word challenged my belief at the time.  Why?  Because my original stance was Biblically unsustainable, and it made me uncomfortable staying with that original belief.

God should at times make us uncomfortable because that means He is changing us for His greater purpose. We often focus on our life and what makes us comfortable.  Along those lines, we at times expect God to make us feel comfort.  My devotion last week focused on relying on Jesus to give us rest in the storm.  That’s one comfort, but the comfort that is dangerous is the one that says, “I will do what I am currently doing because it makes me feel good.  And what feels good must be right.”  These have been some of the most difficult debates I have had within myself.  The question as I mentioned above is, “Am I doing what I want, or what God wants?”  We should spend time in His word and prayer confirming we are on the narrow and righteous path Jesus would ask us to follow.  Of course, we will never perfectly follow that course, which is why we need Jesus as our savior in the first place.  However, we should continue striving to make Christ centered choices such that we consistently choose His way more than we had previously.  This is what spiritual growth sounds and feels like.

Following Christ is a life transformative process. This choice does not mean all is a garden of roses.  Then being said, it resembles it in that before a rose bloom, it’s going to have thorns.  Knowing the time had come for one of His disciples to betray Him and His eventual crucifixion, Jesus prayed, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Matthew 26:39b) These are the words of a God who intimately knew His Heavenly Father, and would follow His will even if it meant sacrificing Himself.  This is where we must be with God; willing to surrender all He (Jesus) wanted to do for what He (The Father) wanted.  Let us put in the work to ensure we follow this example.  What area do you struggle to surrender control to God?  How will you embrace the discomfort in your faith?  My prayer is that we continually work to the find a place of Godly discomfort.  Amen.

Tues Devo: Take accountability

Romans 14:11-12 “For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall give praise to God.” So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.” (NASB)

1 Corinthians 3:10-15 “According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” (NASB)

Hello,

So yesterday, I confronted my oldest child and raised my voice too much. During our interaction, I realized that the very thing I was upset with him about – I had just done. After apologizing to him and talking about why it was wrong, I decided that the discipline he was getting (we do lots of up-downs in this house), I would also do – since I was guilty too. He looked at me funny to see if I was serious. While the discipline ended up feeling light hearted to him, he also had the chance to see someone take accountability for their actions.

It got me thinking about accountability. There are a couple elements of accountability – knowledge and ownership. When we know and are in control of at least part of that item, we become accountable for our actions in that area. In the case above, I knew right response and as an adult I am in control of how I respond. In the same way, when we come to know Jesus and claim Him as our Savior, we are accountable for how we handle that relationship. Do we give Him time? Do we give the relationship the respect and position it deserves? Since we know the impact that relationship has both now and for eternity, are we modeling and sharing that with others?

I pray this challenges you as it did me to be each individually accountable for our relationship with Christ and what we are doing with it.

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill