Our Great Intercessor

“And the Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon!

Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that

he may sift you as wheat. But I have

prayed for you, that your faith should

not fail; and when you have returned

to Me, strengthen your brethren.”

     Luke 22:31-32 (NKJV)

 We may think that Jesus is only there to cheer us on when we’re doing well, but that’s not true.  Passages like this assure us that Jesus knows our weaknesses and He prays for us in them. (See also John 17 for Jesus' prayer for His own.)  It’s amazing to realize that the Creator of the universe is not only mindful of us but that He prays for us.

 Jesus knew Peter would deny Him three times and yet He assured Peter that He was praying for him. Jesus also encouraged Peter that despite the sifting by Satan, Peter would ultimately be victorious in the trial.  And that did come to pass. Although Peter failed miserably, his faith was never overthrown.  

It is reassuring to know that Jesus knows when we will stumble and fall, and that He prays for us during those times. Nevertheless, we must remember that Satan is our foe, just like he was Peter’s, and we must be on guard against his snares and schemes. But if we are a child of God, Jesus is our great intercessor.  We may fail Him but our faith will not fail because of His faithful prayers.  May that knowledge sustain and strengthen us during our times of trial.

P.S. I came across a hymn written by John Newton (composer of "Amazing Grace," etc.) that is based on Luke 22:31-32. I've never heard it but the words are inspiring. The Believer's Danger, Safety, and Duty

Thursday Devotional - Love and Judge

When you tell people about God and Jesus, do you focus on their love or their judgment?

I think some people probably focus on one or the other. Paul, of course, did a wonderful job of highlighting both. As we talked last week, he was courageously consistent to all audiences, whether commoners or top officials (such as with governor Felix).

Acts 24:24-26           ²⁴ Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁵ As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.” ²⁶ At the same time he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe, so he sent for him frequently and talked with him. ²⁷ When two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, but because Felix wanted to grant a favor to the Jews, he left Paul in prison.

Like Governor Felix, people often don’t want to talk or hear about God as Judge or that they may need to make changes in order to follow Christ. Earlier this year, James had several conversations with his fellow gymnastics’ peers and coaches. He told them God was real, loved them, etc. He was so saddened that many of them blew him off, didn’t believe in God and didn’t want to talk about Him. In one conversation he shared that if they didn’t believe in God then they would go to Hell. I first cringed, thinking he was a bit harsh. However, he was sharing the whole truth! He also did it out of a heart of love and not trying to scare them into belief.

May we be like Paul and James, able to consistently share the whole truth of God with those He places in our path to hear. May we gently and lovingly share God’s love and the truths of Him as the perfect Judge.

Lord, help us follow your lead for your words and timing.   

Alice

Lessons Learned

When the people heard these stern words, they went into mourning and stopped wearing their jewelry and fine clothes.  For the Lord had told Moses to tell them, “You are a stubborn and rebellious people. If I were to travel with you for even a moment, I would destroy you. Remove your jewelry and fine clothes while I decide what to do with you.”  So from the time they left Mount Sinai, the Israelites wore no more jewelry or fine clothes.  Exodus 33:4-6

The worst grounding I ever got was in the Summer of 1981.  It was the end of my Sophomore year in high school, and I was so looking forward to the many things me and my friends were going to do.  Bike rides, basketball in the backyard, and talking with girls were all on the agenda.  So, I came into this time in my life with a pretty big chip on my shoulder.  So much so that I thought I could talk to an adult like I was their equal when they asked me to take out the garbage.  “Why don’t you take out the garbage,” I said to my mom’s friend.  Big mistake!  My mother would make sure I learned a lesson from that.  She grounded me during that summer … for a month!!!  The only joy I would have would be my birthday and listening to Detroit Tigers baseball on the radio in my room.  A couple of things came out of that.  First, I grew to love a Hall of Fame broadcaster named Ernie Harwell as he was my only friend that talked to me most of that summer.  Second, I never was disrespectful to an adult again.  It’s a lesson I never forgot.  It’s a wonder that people used to compliment my mom. “Your son is so kind and courteous,” they would say.  If they only knew 😊

In our relationships with God, it is often at our lowest point that we show our greatest understanding of who He is.  Today, we are into the moment after Moses had punished the people for sinning against God.  The punishment was that those Israelites who stood with God had to kill those that chose not to.  This included relatives and neighbors; three thousand in all.  You want to talk about making tough choices?  It had to be incredibly painful to do what was asked of them.  Being honest, I guess listening to Ernie Harwell was pretty light in comparison to this, but I digress.  So, in the aftermath they stopped wearing jewelry and fine clothes because God told Moses to tell them.  No hesitation.  No deviations from the plan.  As stated, “they went into mourning and stopped wearing their jewelry and fine clothes.”  That was a pretty dramatic shift from previously where in Exodus 32:6 it spoke of their worship of the golden calf noting, “The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.”  Thus, the rather subdued Israelites now disdained anything that harkened to that dark moment.  Giving up jewelry and fine clothes was a reminder to never go back to that life again.  The many things God had done to earn give them freedom was not yet enough for them to be obedient.  But following a false God and having to slaughter their brethren clearly had the desired impact that they would not veer against God again.  It was this low point that drove them to be a people truly intent on following God and His laws.  I once wrote that God had to drive me down to my knees where I would say to Him, “God, I have no place else to go but to you,” and then He made a way for me.  We can always sing praise on God when things are going well and everything is in order.  But it is when things are bad and our character is broken down where we truly find God, and it is there we both submit to His will and follow Him.

God wants us to grow in our relationship with Him.  More times that not, it is with love, grace, and appreciation.  But sometimes, we must endure some hard times to truly see His glory.  Tom Hanks’s character in the movie ‘A League of Their Own’ summarizes dealing with difficult times in a great way.  When questioned about the difficulties in the game of baseball, he said, “It’s supposed to be hard.  If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it.  The hard … is what makes it great.”  Let us remember the hard times where God showed His light brightest in our lives.  What do you remember about your relationship with God in your most trying times?  How can that inspire you to a closer relationship with Him?  My prayer is that we are humbled by God’s grace in those lessons learned.  Amen.

Tough Talk

Lots of guys are about tough talk, talking smack, and bragging, or whatever you want to call it. Their team, their dad, their accomplishments are always better than anyone else's. But their days are also worse, they've endure worse stuff, no matter what you've been through, they've "been there, did that". It's almost sociopathic. I think it was Bill Cosby who once joked about Americans and pets, "You could have a rhinoceros, walking it down the street, and someone from the United States would meet you on the sidewalk, and say, 'You have a rhinoceros? I used to have a rhinoceros.'" We're so silly.



I used to think it was just guys who play the "one-up-manship" game, but I've heard women do it too. Hearing people play it used to bug me (because I lost all the time), but now I find it comical. Part of the change in me was because of this one time when I was complaining to Jesus, you know, the Son of God who endured the crucifixion? I totally lost that storytelling competition. He didn't even have to say anything. But it's not just me. Lots of people have had that experience. In fact, there's a popular "meme" about it:

 

If this is you too, keep in mind, it's been believers since the first century. See how the writer of Hebrews puts it:

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 13:1-3 NASB)

Consider Jesus and what He endured so that we don't grow weary. We follow the One who gave all, endured the unimaginable, and overcame the insurmountable, for us. And we're only worth it because He says we are. In the economics of heaven, our value is set by our Creator, not our location, condition, or history. And He calls us to follow where He went, do what He has done, and wind up where He is.

So, let us not grow weary and loose heart. This is nothing compared to what we have to look forward to. And that's true regardless of whatever this is for you, whether it's the other person you work with, your neighbor, or buddy, or friend, or that one person who simply rubs you the wrong way. Whatever you endure, it's nothing compared to what we have coming in Jesus. Which is cool, if you think about it. So, think about it.

Tune In

"Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, and

apply your heart to my knowledge; for it is a pleasant

thing if you keep them within you; let them be fixed upon

your lips, so that your trust may be in the Lord; I have

instructed you today, even you. Have I not written to you

excellent things of counsels and knowledge, that I may

make you know the certainty of the words of truth, that 

you may answer words of truth to those who send to you?"

     Proverbs 22:17-21 (NKJV)

We're bombarded these days with all kinds of messages that vie for our attention---from politicians, medical experts, government officials, scientists, protesters, pundits. What's worse is that their narratives are conflicting and in this overload of information, it's hard to know what to believe. This generates a lot of noise in our lives if we let it. 

Maybe we need to dial down these voices or even turn them off.  We don't want to miss whatever the Lord wants to say to us each day. Jesus is "the truth" (John 14:6) and He has been made wisdom unto us (1 Corinth. 1:30).  "Thus saieth the Lord" is the most important voice we should be listening to.  The above passage from Proverbs is so fitting; let us incline our ears and hearts to the Lord for he has the words of truth.  

"I will hear what God the Lord will speak,

for He will speak peace to His people

and to His saints; but let them not turn

back to folly: surely His salvation is near

to those who fear Him, that glory may

dwell in our land."  Psalm 85:8-9 (NKJV)

Thursday Devotional - Courageously Consistent

Have you ever been frustrated to tell the same story over and over? Have you had to tell your symptoms to the front desk person at your doctor’s office, then to the nurse and then again to the doctor? Or maybe it was a computer problem to the help desk, or instructions to a child/spouse, etc.

Paul had to tell his story over and over again. He didn’t get frustrated, though, and saw it as an opportunity to share God’s truths over and over to different people!

After Paul was seized in the temple, he spoke his defense to the crowd about meeting Jesus and told them Jesus gave him a mission to be a witness to the Gentiles (Acts 22). Then, the next day he spoke before the Sanhedrin regarding the same charges (Acts 23). As we saw last week, he was then secretly escorted to Caesarea. A few days later, his case was heard by Governor Felix. He calmly, courageously, and consistently continued to speak truth.

Acts 24:12-16           ¹² My accusers did not find me arguing with anyone at the temple, or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city. ¹³ And they cannot prove to you the charges they are now making against me. ¹⁴ However, I admit that I worship the God of our ancestors as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets, ¹⁵ and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. ¹⁶ So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.

Paul was never ashamed of who he was, what he believed, or what God said. He consistently and courageously took opportunities to speak the truth. With whom do you and I need to be courageously consistent to speak the truth, even if it’s the same thing over and over?

Alice

Have A Heart

And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.  Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’”  Exodus 32:9-13

Loretta, my wife, is wonderful in so many ways.  She loves me despite my flaws, and is a great mother and grandmother.  One of those things that has driven me crazy all these years is how she advocates for our children when they have done something wrong.  She knows that I come from a family of disciplinarians (my Dad was in the military, and my mom should have been 😊), and as such, they had very little tolerance when I did anything wrong.  So, as my children failed to meet an expectation or did something clearly out of the guidelines of what they were supposed to do, I was ready to come down with an iron hand.  Then, here comes that artist known as my wife.  “Kent, you can’t be so hard on him all the time,” or, “You have to see things from her perspective,” she would say.  “Seriously?!?!?” I responded.  After a lengthy back and forth, I often relented to her sound advice.  It’s not that I did not have strong conviction.  Trust me.  She will tell you that.  Nonetheless, it is her heart for our children that has always won me over.  In fact, it is how she won me over for when people tell me how big of a heart I have, I humbly deflect their kind words saying, “If you think I have a heart, you should get to know my wife.”

God has a heart for us.  My focus today is on the relationship between Moses and God.  The Israelites had grown restless from Moses being in the mountains talking with God and assumed that he must be gone.  Thus, they needed a new god to worship.  Aaron built a Golden Calf from gold jewelry they had given him, and the people worshipped it as if it were God.  If you question how bad a sin this was, remember I wrote about how God set the stage telling Moses, “Remember, you must not make any idols of silver or gold to rival me.” (Exodus 20:23) (see https://trdailydevotional.blogspot.com/2020/03/you-dont-want-none-of-this.html).  It is a bit funny because one can see God having this ‘I told you so’ moment with Moses.  Now, God is ready to dare I say ‘go nuclear’ on the Israelites ((T)hat my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them).  But like Loretta strolling up to me when our son got suspended for fighting, Moses pleaded his case to spare the Israelites.  It is pretty amazing to hear as we have watched Moses grow from this soft spoken man who claimed to be a poor speaker and asking God, “Who am I,” to a man who actively petitioned God to spare the Israelites from His rightful wrath.  Moses knew God was right to be angry and righteous to punish His people with death.  But Moses’s heart for them and the journey they had gone pushed him to advocate for them and remind God of His promises to them.  There are a couple of things we can take from this.  First, remember the promises the Lord has made to us.  The appeal Moses made had a logic through the prior promises He made.  And second, love onto others.  We can’t go to God on behalf of others without loving them.  Many Christians will say the heart is bad noting Jeremiah 17:9 (The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?).  However, David was a man after God’s own heart (see 1 Samuel 13:14), and Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” This implies that if your heart seeks God, all good will flow from it.

God wants not only our minds but also our hearts.  Paul summarized this so well saying, “If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing (1 Corinthians 13:3).  When James said, “Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works,” (James 2:26) the ‘good works’ is defined as action through love for Christ.  This is what it means to have a heart for God, and Moses had a huge heart for God and His people.  Therefore, let us be inspired to have a heart for God to serve Him and others.  How can you keep your heart focused on Him?  What practice will you keep ensuring your heart is for God?  My prayer is when we look at others and their struggles, we put on a Godly lens and have a heart.  Amen.

By Name Only

There are jokes we know so well, only the punchline is needed to get us laughing. They're not that funny, honestly, it's the memory of the laughter and fun they brought. And then there are those who had never heard the joke, but, often from peer pressure, laughed anyway. Over time, the joke was lost, but the punchline is remembered, and funny, but nobody can remember why. "Rectum? Dang near killed 'em!", will usually bring a smile, but no one remembers the joke (although you can look it up).

In the same way, we can remember stories of characters simply by naming them. And yet, often, we can't remember the story, only that the name is important for some reason. It's like history: it happened, and we remember the names, but the details of what they did are fuzzy, and we can never remember the dates. Again, we can look it up if we like.

The writer of Hebrews, toward the end of the "Role Call of Faith" stops telling stories, and begins listing names. And it is supremely ironic to me that most of the names are from a book which most disciples of Jesus consider a collection of faithless mistakes of Israel.

And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. (Hebrews 11:32-34 NASB)

Four of the six names are from the book of Judges. And of the Judges listed, the writer seems to have chosen the ones we consider the worst examples of faith. Gideon needed to test God three times, Barak wouldn't go into battle without a woman present, Samson is simply famous for his mistakes, and few people remember Jephthah because he's so embarrassing pastor's don't teach on him. And yet, there they are, considered paragons of faith to God, held up as examples to follow.

Is it possible that we've become so jaded by what we have been told about these men that we have missed the perspective of their Savior? Oh wait, you don't think they were saved, you say? Samson and Jephthah clearly didn't get it, and can't possibly be saved?

Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. Hebrews 11:35-40 NASB

These were looking for a better resurrection. Why look forward to disaster? They were looking forward to the Savior, as we do. Yet, their names made the list. Maybe just their names, maybe not their stories, but I wish their stories were told. I want to know how the writer of Hebrews understands their stories. We are ashamed of them, and our Savior isn't. That should tell us something. That should shout loudly to us. A man who sacrificed his only daughter to Yahweh made the list. How is that? Perhaps we miss something in their stories.

Are we missing something in other stories? What about the stories in the lives around us? Is it possible that we have become so judgmental that we consider common what our Savior has sanctified (Acts 10:15)? The context of Acts 10 should scream at us that we, as Gentiles, would have no part in the Kingdom unless those in the Kingdom followed whatever God deemed holy.

These listed here in this collection of failures were considered holy by our Savior. Maybe we should revisit their stories to discover what we missed. It seems the punchline isn't enough, we need the whole joke to truly get it. And once we have a better grasp of our Creator's perspective, perhaps we will understand those around us better as well.

Just a thought.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation

Now and Then

“For God so loved the word that He gave

His only begotten Son, that whoever

believes in Him should not perish but have

everlasting life.” 

     John 3:16 (NKJV)

“He who believes in the Son has everlasting

life; and he who does not believe the Son

shall not see life, but the wrath of God

abides on him.”

     John 3:36 (NKJV)

This virus seems to have highlighted people's natural fear of death.  As believers, we don’t look forward to death but we should not fear it because death is merely the portal to heaven.  We should live with our spiritual suitcases packed and ready because we know where we’re going when our earthly lives are finished.  It's important to be prepared every day for our last day, when we will stand before our Lord and give an account for how we lived. This should cause us to fear God but not fear death as long as we are in Christ, because we have the glorious promise of eternal life with Him.

God's word promises that whoever believes in the Lord Jesus “has” everlasting life.  Not that we “will have” eternal life but that we "have" it when we believe. If we’ve accepted Jesus as our Savior and Lord, then we are “partakers” of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Because Christ is eternal, we share in His eternal life when we become children of God through His salvation. From what I've read, this is a now and then reality—we experience the divine quality of eternal life now when our new life begins and we abide in Christ, and then we will possess the full manifestation of eternal life at our death.

Let's make sure we're prepared every day and live in light of the eternity we share now and will enjoy in the future with our great God.

Thursday Devotional - Trust the results to God

There are a lot of unknowns these days. We don’t know if we and our loved ones will remain healthy, we don’t know what plans we can make for the summer, we don’t even know what groceries we’ll be able to get in our next pick-up order!

We do know God is Sovereign, in control, sees all and is active. Last week we saw Paul demonstrate his active and courageous faith by sending his nephew to the commander to tell him about the plots to kill him. Paul did what he could with the information provided and trusted God with the outcome.

God had the commander act quickly to protect Paul.

Acts 23:23-24, ²³ Then he called two of his centurions and ordered them, “Get ready a detachment of two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea at nine tonight. ²⁴ Provide horses for Paul so that he may be taken safely to Governor Felix.”

470 armed men protected Paul all the way to Caesarea! God was going to fulfill His plan to have him testify in Rome (Acts 23:11)!  

We can trust God with our lives, too, as we actively follow His commands and direction. I think right now that means wisely using the information we know to protect ourselves our family and those around us from the virus. If we must go somewhere, we can follow the laws of wearing masks and keeping the recommended social distance.

My sister and her family were planning to come for a visit in June. However, we are all praying for direction to make a wise decision. We want to be like Paul, wisely using the information we have and then trusting God with the result.

Where do you need to trust God for provision or direction? How will you be like Paul? Let’s not react in fear nor sit back and do nothing, but respond in active faith and then trust the results to God!   

Alice