Thursday Devotional - One Constant in Change

Did you know that the parting of the Red Sea when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt wasn’t the only time God miraculously parted water? After the spies scouted out Jericho with the protection of Rahab, Joshua led the people to the Jordan River where God stopped it up, too, so they could cross on dry ground. Not only did it display God’s power to this new generation of Israelites, but it confirmed to the people that God had chosen and was with Joshua, just as He had chosen and been with Moses.

Joshua 3:5-13     Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”

⁶ Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took it up and went ahead of them.

⁷ And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.⁸ Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’”

⁹ Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. ¹⁰ This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. ¹¹ See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. ¹² Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. ¹³ And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”

With all the reorganization taking place in our company, there are a lot of changes happening. Change often triggers confusion and insecurity. As unstable as things feel, there is always One constant and that is God Himself!

God revealed His continued presence with the Israelites while they experienced significant change in leadership and location! He can do the same for us. We can trust Him and His plans. Our powerful God provides all that’s needed for His purposes.

When has God revealed His unmistakable power to show you and me He’s trustworthy? With whom will you and I share it?

The One constant - God - is the Lord of all the earth!  

Alice

Love And Prayers

Come and listen, all you who fear God,
    and I will tell you what he did for me.
For I cried out to him for help,
    praising him as I spoke.
If I had not confessed the sin in my heart,
    the Lord would not have listened.
But God did listen!
    He paid attention to my prayer.
Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer
    or withdraw his unfailing love from me.  Psalms 66:16-20

Lately, I have been in an unusually thankful mood.  It is not because the world has become a more certain place.  It has not. It is not because I have no feelings of anxiety and concern in my world for there are plenty.  There is a feeling that God is preparing to rock my world, and not in a way that will make me comfortable.  That being said, I have felt such an outpouring of love toward others.  I am reminded of the incredible love my wife has for me, and she has simply been the best!  She has not done anything special or changed something that has made me notice her more.  It’s just that the spirit has tapped me on shoulder to remind me there is this fascinating and amazing woman who has loved me for most of my life.  God also provided me with great parents that have raised me in such a way that I knew beyond a shadow of doubt who He was.

Love is not limited to those who I am thankful for.  As I wrote previously about gifts from God, love is a gift to be shared with others.  It pushed a gentleman to share the fears we have for our children, and a young lady to find common ground in love for God even as we disagreed about other things.  Sharing struggles in our lives made us not only more connected with each other but also God.  I’ve prayed for others more this week than I have in a while.  There is so much pain and anguish out there, one cannot help but be prayerful hoping God will guide and protect strangers as well as close family and friends. I prayed that He not only lay His healing powers on them but also use me to provide inspiration, warmth, comfort, and anything He feels I can offer.  Furthermore, I prayed for awareness that I respond in a way that truly honors Him.

Our connection with God should be an intimate one.  In reading today’s verses, you have a sense of the closeness David has with God.  David acknowledged his imperfections and sinful nature.  Furthermore, he was repentant and filled with praise for God, and reveled in God’s attentiveness to his prayer and ‘unfailing love.’  There was sincerity in the words and genuine affection that he shows for Him.  It is an example of what our walk of faith should resemble.  We are not only speaking of God’s word but also acting out in deeds.  We see people as God does, and we are compelled to act as if He is with us every step of the way.  Therefore, David’s message to those who fear God is impactful; it is an example of a Christ-centered walk.  It is a message that we all are to hear and respond to.

God is always with us whether we recognize it or not.  David understood this, and Paul, as one fearing God, reiterated this fact stating, ““But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.’” (Acts 13:22)  When we both acknowledge our own sin and show adoring affection for God, He not only responds.  He delivers.  Let us embrace this example of who we aspire to be; responding to God’s calling and delivering as He has for us so often.  How intimate is your prayer life with God?  How does God’s love for you prompt you to act on His behalf?  My prayer is that our relationship with God is very active filled with love and prayers.  Amen.

Come as you are

John 6:35-37

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.  All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.

Just As I Am by Charlotte Elliott

Just as I am - without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am - and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am - though toss'd about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am - poor, wretched, blind;
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need, in Thee to find,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am - Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am - Thy love unknown
Has broken every barrier down;
Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am - of that free love
The breadth, length, depth, and height to prove,
Here for a season, then above,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Thirty-one years ago, today, I attended a good old-style revival.  At the end of the service, the song “Just As I Am” was sung.  That was when I went forward and declared Jesus Christ was my Lord and Savior and I devoted my life to following Christ.  I was only a nine-year-old child.  Many may have thought I was too young to make this decision, yet I knew.  It is a day that I will never forget. 

In John 6, we hear Jesus declare that he is the bread of life.  We do not see him say that you need to be at a certain point in your life, living a perfect life or anything.  All we have to do is believe.  Many of you have already accepted Christ, and for that, we are all grateful.  Some of you may not.  You may be following our devotions because you know that you want to but you are waiting until your life is cleaned up.  Today I want you to know that there is nothing that you need to wait for.  Come, as you are.  Come to the cross, he is waiting for you. 

Thursday Devotional - Certainty in God

After 2 heart surgeries, including a defibrillator/pacemaker implant, my Dad is home recovering. It was a scary week for all of us. As I cried out to God for help, direction, healing, etc., I knew I could trust God. I wasn’t sure I could trust all the doctors or any of our own research and wisdom, but I could trust God who sees all and knows all and is in control of all. He’s the only Sovereign One over all creation.

As God prepared Joshua and the Israelites to enter and take over the promised land in Canaan, He had the spies enter the home of someone who had already believed in God’s sovereignty (His power and control over all things).

Joshua 2:1-11            Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

² The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” ³ So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”

⁴ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them…

⁸ Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof ⁹ and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. ¹⁰ We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. ¹¹ When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.

As the spies were in good hands, so is my Dad. God goes before us. He paves the way, just as He did for Joshua and the spies. My Mom and sisters and I had moments of doubts this past week. At times we doubted the right decisions were made or the right care was done. However, God reminded us of the ways He had provided when we had asked for wisdom and direction.

 

When has God gone before you in the past?

How can you and I remember that as we trust Him to go before us in the future?

We’re in the best hands with God. Only He is Sovereign.

We can have certainty in Him!

Alice

My 'Dr. Phil' Gift

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.  1 Peter 4:10-11

Lately, my life has been inundated with a wave of sadness, tragedy, and heartbreak.  The thing is none of it is directly relating to me.  It is as if somehow God has given me this ‘Dr. Phil’ gift.  Some of you know exactly what that means.  People seemingly come to you because in their mind they have no place else to go.  Being honest, I’m unsure how I got it.  However, I am grateful God gave it to me.  It is a privilege that I do not take lightly because it is like all other gifts God has given me.  They have a purpose that is not for me to question.  They are to be given and used as He sees fit. 

I knew God had gifted it to me one fall evening.  While visiting my mom in the hospital, I had left something in the car.  As I entered the hospital parking garage, a man was sobbing uncontrollably because he lost his child and needed to know why.  I felt his anguish and pain, and could not muster words to say to him because I did not have an answer to his question.  But I did have a shoulder.  I hugged and assured him it would be alright.  While I felt terrible for the gentleman, I could sense I was there at that moment just for that reason.  This is what it is like when you know God is using your gift.

God gifts us with abilities for His will to be done.  My pastors over the years have provided guidance as to what my gifts are.  Through greater awareness, those gifts have grown to where people rely on me for them.  If you have not taken note of what your gifts are, first pray to God for wisdom and discernment.  Ask Him to highlight those times where God showed up not for you but through you.  Then, take time out to ask someone who knows you.  Ask what they rely on you most for.  See if there are recurring trends.  I am not saying seek out and ask, “Kent, do you think I’m an empathetic person?”  Sincerely go up to someone who knows you well, and ask open-ended questions.  What makes me a great friend to you?  What do you come to me for?  Why?  Finally, ask God to give you clarity what on His will for you going forward.  Do as 1 Peter said; give freely.  You’re doing it right when the spirit in you moves positively with each act of generosity.  The goal is not for you to be perfect.  It is to grow in Christ as you continue to give that which He has gifted you for.

God gives us so much.  He gives us unconditional love, and provides us with protection.  He gives us grace and His Only Son to ensure we would have no barriers between Him and us.  When you think of it in that context, it sounds silly to keep that which you are gifted for your own personal gain.  Let us give share our gifts such that as God said in Matthew 25, “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities.” (Matthew 25:21a)  Do you know your spiritual gifts?  How can you go about both learning and utilizing them?  My prayer is we give of our gifts willingly and freely as my ‘Dr. Phil.’  Amen.

Tues Devo: Prove it

Hello,

We say we trust…but do we? We trust for the eternal and things beyond our control, but do we trust in the short term where we feel we can control?

I don’t have much to add to this – but just encourage you to reflect on how you reacted the last time something didn’t go your way. Did you scramble to control and fix, or was prayer and real openness to God part of your approach? Let’s prove our faith through our responses.

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” (NASB)

Philippians 4:19 “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (NASB)

Psalm 46:10 “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (NASB)

Psalm 57:2 “I will cry to God Most High, To God who accomplishes all things for me. (NASB)

Will Hill

Make a Choice

I must admit that what I am sharing today is not my own.  I read this when someone else posted it this morning and I just thought it was good to share.

By Max Lucado

Maybe your past isn’t much to brag about.  Maybe you’ve seen raw evil – and now you have to make a choice.  Do you rise above the past and make a difference?  Or do you remain controlled by the past and make excuses?

Healthy bodies.  Sharp minds.  But retired dreams.  Back and forth they rock in the chair of regret.   Lean closely and you’ll hear them.

If only I’d been born somewhere else…

If only I’d been treated fairly…

If only I’d had more opportunities…if only…

Put down the scrapbook of your life and pick up the Bible.  Read Jesus’ words in John 3:6: “Human life comes from human parents but spiritual life comes from the Spirit.”

God has not left you adrift on a sea of heredity.  You have a choice in the path you take.

Choose well!

Thursday Devotional - Courage in Uncertainty

My family and I are studying Joshua through Solomon (People of the Promised Land, Part I) in Bible Study Fellowship this year (last year was Romans). No matter what we are studying, it always applies to our particular situation!

Over the last couple of weeks we have and continue to face several health challenges. One big one is my Dad’s heart. He is having heart surgery again today because of a possible complication from his heart surgery earlier this summer. When fear surfaces, we keep clinging to several of the following verses in Joshua 1.

Joshua 1:1-9            After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: ² “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. ³ I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. ⁴ Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.⁵ No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. ⁶ Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

⁷ “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:1-9 

God prepared Joshua for the task He had given to him. None of these commands or promises were new (see Genesis 13, Deuteronomy 11 and 31). Joshua had heard them before. However, for Joshua’s benefit, God reiterated His plan, His promise, His presence and His principles.

When I start worrying about our family health challenges, these verses remind me that God will never leave us, we aren’t to be afraid or discouraged, and we are to trust in Him. He will enable us to accomplish what He has planned for us to do as we continue to study and meditate on His Word.

Where are you facing uncertainty? How do these verses challenge and encourage you?

We can have courage in God, despite uncertainty!

Alice

Enough!

Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food here into my bedroom so I may eat from your hand.” And Tamar took the bread she had prepared and brought it to her brother Amnon in his bedroom.  But when she took it to him to eat, he grabbed her and said, “Come to bed with me, my sister.”

 “No, my brother!” she said to him. “Don’t force me! Such a thing should not be done in Israel! Don’t do this wicked thing.  What about me? Where could I get rid of my disgrace? And what about you? You would be like one of the wicked fools in Israel. Please speak to the king; he will not keep me from being married to you.”  But he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her.

Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, “Get up and get out!”

“No!” she said to him. “Sending me away would be a greater wrong than what you have already done to me.”

But he refused to listen to her.  He called his personal servant and said, “Get this woman out of my sight and bolt the door after her.”  2 Samuel 13:10-17

“What’s wrong with you,” said my mother with clear disdain in her voice.  “What’s wrong, mom,” I replied.  She says, “Didn’t I teach you better than that?  Don’t you ever go through a door without opening it for the woman,” she said.  “Yes, mom,” I replied without hesitation.  As I grew older, there would be one day where a woman would look at me and become upset for my opening the door for them.  “Don’t you think I can open the door on my own,” she would ask.  “Yes, but I was just being polite as I would to anyone else,” I replied.  If you live in the Midwest, opening doors for each other is almost like standard operating procedure.  But, that never would have started if it were not for the first lady in my life: my mother.  You see, I open doors for men because it’s the courteous thing to do, and I open them for women because it’s the right thing to do. My mother taught me to have a higher bar of respect for the opposite sex.  

My heart is deeply troubled by the state of our nation in lieu of the treatment of women as of late, and to be honest, I have had enough of it.  In today’s world, we fight over who to believe when there is any act of misconduct.  Women who have been abused speak up, and we want to fall into the ‘he said/ she said’ line.  We somehow decided to blur the line as to who to believe strictly because it is expedient to ‘what we want to believe.’  The mistake I work hard to avoid is not to jump to a political, gender specific, or even personal view. Instead, I focus on a Godly one.  Why do we need to tear her story down so much?  Do we believe the other side is up to some ulterior motive?  Is our team’s record at stake?  Do we not realize just how wrong that thinking is?  What does it say to the women in our lives?  Here’s the thing.  To those who wish to make this a political issue, I will just say this.  It comes back to one simple thing.  All women are to be respected whether we believe them or not.  If I am ever accused of wrongdoing, my confidence has always been that my actions reflect what my mother taught me, and that and God would handle the rest.

God expects better than us.  Somewhere along the line, decency got lost.  I do not look to a side to blame because it is all of us.  We have somehow substituted doing the right thing for ‘they did it, and so I can do it’ mentality.  Well another thing my mother used to say is if everyone jumped off a cliff, you should too?  God does not want to hear your excuse.  He wants your submittal to His way of doing things.  In a discussion with a friend, we centered on the word ‘integrity.’  Our actions must be above reproach.  We have no control over what the world does to us.  We do have control of how we show love and reverence to God.  I was not comfortable writing this.  Not one bit.  But God made me uncomfortable to the point I had to because I am tired of women living in fear and us as men (and in many cases women) ignoring it like we had no stake in the game.  I love the women in my life far too much to let this lie any further.  If a woman comes forward regardless of your belief, stop tearing her down!  Period!  This must end immediately!

Women must always be respected and heard regardless of their motive.  I look at my wife, and I think of Ephesians where it says:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. (Ephesians 5:25-28)

While this only applies to my wife, it is the standard that I pray we uphold of all women.  I want to be clear.  There are zero acceptable excuses for disrespecting a woman making an accusation of abuse.  If you sense yourself looking for one, focus on Jesus saying, “But I say, do not resist an evil person!  If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the other cheek also.” (Matthew 5:39)  How will you respond the next time a woman claims abuse?  How can you be more respectful of women as a whole?  My prayer is that God has prompted your heart to simply and unequivocally say, “Enough!”  Amen.

Tues Devo: Lessons from a slinky

Hello,

So I am excited that all 3 of my kids are talented…too bad it is at ruining slinky toys in a matter of seconds….

So this weekend as I was unraveling and repairing one of their slinky toys, I got thinking about restoration from sin. Like the toy, we are unable to fix ourselves from the sin we are in. We need outside involvement – but more than involvement, we need the involvement to be from someone with both knowledge and ability. Knowledge of what restoration looks like, and power to make it happen.

Without knowing what the slinky looked like at the outset, I couldn’t restore it. Without the ability to reshape and think about the end game, I would not succeed in my execution.

God knows what we are intended to be – He as the creator has that intimate knowledge. He also has the ability to reshape our lives. He showed this through Scripture time and time again, culminating in Jesus taking the weight of our sin to die on the cross, only to raise from the dead 3 days later.

Are there scars? Sure. When I finished fixing the slinky you could see where the worst impact was….slightly out of round, the color a tad off. It functioned despite the illustration of having a past.

Jesus maintained His scars. The account of John 20:26-28 relates this “After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into my side; and do no be unbelieving, but believing.’ Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘ My Lord and my God.’” (NASB)

Why do I bring all of this up?

• If you are needing restoration, Jesus can restore
• We may keep scars  - but that doesn’t change our status as restored
• Scars are part of our story, part of the identity to who we are and further illustration of the restoration power of God

I hope this challenges and encourages you today in whatever you are walking through.

Will Hill