Devotion.al

  • Untrashed

    Untrashed

    Malachi 1:6-9

    Perhaps you’ve heard an acquaintance, a friend, a family member say, “God won’t accept me until I clean myself up.” Or perhaps, “if I enter the , lightning will come down and/or the church will catch on fire.”

    Behave, believe, belong has long been the order in the church. That’s likely where these saddening responses likely come from. Even worse, some church-type folks might have said to clean up their so that God loves them.

    It’s strange. Long after the Reformation brought us back to saved through , it amazes and horrifies me that people who claim “the faith” still believe and (even worse) tell others that they must behave first before belief can kick in.

    The don’t, I think, lead us that direction. God has long pursued those who left God behind and does so today. Which leads me to Malachi.

    Malachi’s oracle is about people claiming to worship God, which was (per the rules, the Law) including a healthy animal and viable grain. Instead, people were God anything besides the “good stuff”. Set aside the whole part (that does tend to trip up we modern folks) and recognize the intent behind the actions. The people claimed to God and worship God, but deliberately chose not to, because the sacrifice of the good animal and good grain was too much.

    It could be tempting to equate the broken animals and rotten food to the people we see in the opening paragraph, but we must not. Such a person is bringing the best to God, themselves. If they are lame, God will love them. If they are blind, God will love them. If they are diseased, God will love them.

    God accepts broken people. I know this because I too am broken and was more broken still when I began my true with God.

    The sacrifices that are condemned in Malachi reflect the people who brought them. They were blind, lame, and diseased. Yet, they chose to neither acknowledge it nor of it. In fact, it seems they took pride in it.

    The blind, lame, diseased person who comes to God saying, “here I am, broken and all.” God says, “welcome, beloved.”

    ⁜ Reflection ⁜

    • How do you see yourself in this? Do you see yourself in this?
    • Does this challenge or how you view those whose life decisions (including lifestyles) and their place before God?
    • How often do we see the blindness, lameness, and illnesses of others rather than our own? Why does that matter?

    ⁜ Prayer ⁜

    Gracious God, help us to learn how to be gracious and welcoming to others, just as you have been to us, and because you have been to us. Amen.

  • Too Busy To Live

    Too Busy To Live

    Exodus 5:7-9; Romans 8:5-8, 12-17

    Recently, there was a song going around the called the “Rich Men North of Richmond”. It mostly speaks to the anguish of a working man who is striving and working and is not making ends meet, and, yes, there are some digs that many are questioning, and sometimes just questioning those who are supporting the song.

    There seems a lot of truth, or a lot of perception of that this is the truth, that below middle-class wage earners (and many middle-class ones, too) are working their fingers, bodies, souls, minds off to make ends meet. How many are the like the Hebrews at this point in Exodus, who are trying to make ends meet without a basic component previously supplied, and now not.

    In a culture that has idolized working hard to the nth degree, why are we surprised that rest and worship are viewed as a measure of luxury and a sign of laziness. There is, of course, too much rest, but our culture, at this point, does not value rest.

    COVID seemed to have reset the rest aspect, but we are now watching it fade away. Mindfulness and meditation apps were all the rage during COVID. It doesn’t seem so now. As worship, especially the type depicted in the Pentateuch of no work (arguments over what defines normal, aside), is not normal work (which, of course, is the point), it must be rest, and rest is not to be trusted.

    As the culture turns away from organized faith, it appears to diminish and deride worship as well. We can see this among people who used to call the a home. We know that the body itself cannot function without rest. Neither can the human mind. Binge-watching television, youtube, or tiktok, isn’t resting, or relaxing. It is, in so many words, medicating. It is helping us bury our lack of rest.

    I if many people are so leery of rest and so leery of a set time of difference, that times of gathered singing, , prayer, and thoughts (i.e., sermon or homily), are to be avoided. It may be that we are watching even many of whom were thought to be Christian walk away from gathered worship because it is different. And we avoid the different, and different includes worship and rest.

    Whether it is the drive to make , for person or corporation, would have fill our lives with activity without rest, we can see that we do not value rest, and that we are no different than pharaoh and looking at rest and worship it’s nothing more than laziness.

    We can see it in the old (in internet ) FOMO (fear of missing out) and YOLO (you only live once). FOMO has fear in its . YOLO is really the same, just with a positive twist. It seems we almost might fear rest.

    Whether we’re looking at the world or reading the Word, fear is not always fully understood (or desired to be understood). The fear noted in Romans may seem different that the fear of FOMO and YOLK, but the fear is still fear. The paarticular type of fear of YOLO and FOMO can lead to parents, meaning well, burying their children in activities so that they don’t miss out on something. What if my child is a hidden talent? What if my child is the greatest gift to humanity in something? They must know!

    However, perhaps they are missing out on what is most needed, us. What if, too, we keep them busy because we are to fearful of rest? True rest.

    ⁜ Reflection ⁜

    • How do you view and experience rest? How does worship (gathered singing, praise, prayer, and thoughts) fit into that?
    • Who in your circle of influence do you see as needing rest? How can you encourage them to take rest?
    • What activities in yourself and others do you see as attempting to be rest, but actually aren’t?

    ⁜ Prayer ⁜

    Jesus, you didn’t call us to work to the bone. You called yourself the Lord of the Sabbath while telling your disciples that Sabbath was made for humanity. Help us to continue to recover what it means to rest as was intended for us, not for how we see it. us the courage to say, “no” and help us not self-condemn when we seek rest. Amen.

  • Beautiful Words and Songs

    Beautiful Words and Songs

    20“Now as for you, Son of Man, your ‘s children keep gathering together to talk about you beside the walls and at the doorway to their houses. Everyone tells one another, ‘Please come! Let’s go what the Lord has to say.’ 31Then they come to you as a group, sit down right in front of you as if they were my people, hear your words—and then they don’t do what you say—because they’re seeking only their own desires, they pursue ill-gotten profits, and they keep following their own self-interests. 32As far as they are concerned, you sing romantic songs with a beautiful voice and play a musical instrument well. They’ll listen to what you have to say, but they won’t put it into practice! 33When all of this comes about—and you can be sure that it will!—they’ll that a prophet has been in their midst.”

    Ezekiel 33:30-33 (ISV)

    If you’ve been a Christian for a length of time, you’ve probably experienced heated discussions (or just overheard) on the appropriateness of certain songs or instruments (or for some any instruments or songs). There has been an ongoing focus on paid performance worship, which isn’t the reality for most churches.

    Most churches do not have recording artists (or recording artist worthy) musicians or singers. Some do, and are blessed.

    It’s not just the music and songs. In the Protestant circles—even in the Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, and Methodist traditions—there has been a sometimes pathological (hyperbole) hatred of anything even vaguely resembling stereotypical Roman Catholic services; whether it is , garments, candles, colors, keeling (or kneelers), crossing oneself, and so on.

    Read the words from Ezekiel again. What is your perception of what worship is? Is “seeking only (your) own desires”? Are they romantic (like much of Christian music, these days) with great voices and well played instruments?

    I have nothing against good playing and singing. I am my own worst critic in regard to that. Partially, I think, because I am my own worst critic, I have to myself, what is the purpose of our gatherings (in particular, on Sundays)?

    Is it romance? I can be caught up in it, too. Yet, we aren’t called to only enjoy well played and sung songs. We aren’t only called to have a few songs, a prayer (or even ten!), a sermon, a remembrance meal (i.e., /), and a benediction.

    We are called…perhaps, better said, commanded to put it into practice. If you go to a weekly (Sunday or whenever) gathering, a Bible study or discussion group, sing a dozen Christians songs a day…and don’t put it into practice…then Ezekiel’s words are for you. If think Ezekiel’s words don’t apply to you, then you still need them as a warning, to make sure that the words continue to not apply to you.

    ※Reflection※

    • What is an essential for you (This is your personal answer, not a test.) to experience proper worship? Why do you think that is? How does that fit (or not) into Ezekiel’s words?
    • Do you think that there is a disconnect between what you hear and participate in for your weekly (e.g., Sunday) gathering, and what you do the remaining 167 hours (approximately) of the week?

    ※Prayer※

    God, as we ponder what it means to rightly worship and honor you, please guide our thoughts and that we might be better today than yesterday at putting our actions at the center of worship. Amen.

  • Wise in Whose Eyes

    Wise in Whose Eyes

    Psalm 119:121–128, 1 Kings 4:29–34, Ephesians 6:10–18

    ‌We are often presented with the wisdom of Solomon. The seem convinced that Solomon was gifted wisdom beyond normal humans by God. Yet, Solomon retained his freedom to make choices contrary to God revealed instructions.

    ‌We cannot know the of Solomon. Perhaps he believed he was doing the wise thing (and he was politically) by marrying many foreign women for the protection of the nation. However, elsewhere, the Scriptures tell us that Solomon got a bit lost later in and would worship gods other than God with his foreign wives.

    ‌If you read the passage from the psalm, you can get either the mental image of a truly faithful and humble or the image of one who thinks they are.

    ‌Every time I read these verses, I ask myself if I (at the time of reading) am being the true servant or the self-deceiving one. I have learned, over time, that depending on where I am spiritually, I can be either or even both.

    ‌There is a temptation to automatically think one’s perspective of self is correct, and that even includes the question of being a true servant or a self-deceiving one.

    ‌There are many Christians who have been deceived (and self-deceive) that they are not faithful servants because they have not lived up to the archetypal perfect . Thus, they are accused of, or self-accuse, being hypocrites. While the “perfect” Christian is often thought to be only a legalistic issue with denominations (such as my own, the Church of the Nazarene), I have spoken to many people who have internalized this who were raised in completely different Christian traditions.

    ‌The Western World, with its Christendom history, has also internalized this to both its and the Christian faith’s detriment. I have met very few Christians (only 1, I think) who believed they had become the perfect Christian. The , well, the more they perceive that they have been shaped by Christ, the more they realize they have further to go.

    ‌At least for today, read ‘s words to the Ephesians in the context of realizing that we have allowed the world to falsely define what it means to be a Christian, and we ourselves, have created the ideal Christian in the mold of unachievable perfectionism, which is (really) legalism that destroys the .

    ‌Freedom in Christ is not truly possible when we are held in bondage to perfectionism or legalism. The external behavior may be seen as correct, but God wants the heart.

    ‌※Reflection※

    ‌What is your reaction to the psalmist’s words? Why do you think that is?

    ‌How does the wisdom the world differ from the wisdom of God? How are the two similar?

    ‌※Prayer※

    ‌Lord, as we ask for wisdom, help us to be able to tell the difference between the wisdom of the world and your wisdom. Help us not be discouraged as the world tries to define for us what it means to follow you, while we diligently and humbly seek you. Amen.

  • Wise Wisdom

    Wise Wisdom

    Psalm 119:121–128, 1 Kings 3:16–28, James 3:13–18

    ‌James’ words should deeply with us. His words should our conversations and even our thoughts. Let’s also be clear, and in and is rarely celebrated. Most celebrities, from actors to CEOs to politicians, are not generally known for their humility and wisdom. Humility, especially, is actually contrary to their functioning in their roles, and especially gaining their roles. It often takes a fair amount of (dishonest?) arrogance to persuade that the person in question is right for the position.

    ‌Theoretically, each should should be evaluated by their past successes and failures, yet, it just doesn’t seem to actually work that way. We Christians are often complicit in this. While we are called—whether by James, the wisdom of Solomon, or the Psalmist—to be wise, we often succumb to the world’s to follow the arrogant.

    ‌, rivalry, slander, partiality, hypocrisy are all things James brings to mind as contrary to pure, -loving, gentile, willingness to yield, compassionate, and good deeds.

    ‌The Psalmist reminds us that we are to seek God, especially in regard to getting rid of those patterns of behavior contrary to godly wisdom. We ought to keep asking for that; this includes not getting frustrated when it doesn’t happen immediately.

    ‌※Reflection※

    ‌Of James’ list, which one seems the easiest? Which one feels like it’s aimed at you?

    ‌※Prayer※

    ‌God, grant us the godly wisdom you want us to have so that we can draw people to you, and to make our lives into conformance with yours. Amen.

  • Enduring Soil

    Enduring Soil

    4 Now while a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from every city, he said in a parable: 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some seeds fell along the path, were trampled on, and birds from the sky ate them up. 6  fell on stony ground, and as soon as they came up, they dried up because they had no moisture. 7 Others fell among thorn bushes, and the thorn bushes grew with them and choked them. 8 But others fell on good soil, and when they came up, they produced 100 times as much as was planted.” As he said this, he called out, “Let the person who has ears to hear, listen!”

    9 Then his disciples began to ask him what this parable meant. 10 So he said, “You have been given knowledge about the secrets of the . But to others they are given in parables, so that

    ‘they might look but not see,
        and they might listen but not understand.’”

    11 “Now this is what the parable means. The seed is God’s word. 12 The ones on the path are the people who listen, but then the Devil comes and takes the word away from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 The ones on the stony ground are the people who joyfully welcome the word when they hear it. But since they don’t have any roots, they believe for a while, but in a time of testing they fall away. 14 The ones that fell among the thorn bushes are the people who listen, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries, wealth, and pleasures of life, and their fruit doesn’t mature. 15 But the ones on the good soil are the people who hear the word but also hold on to it with good and honest hearts, producing a crop through endurance.”

    Luke 8:4–15 ISV

    Reading the Scriptures (i.e., The Holy Bible) daily continues to bring my joy. It fills some of my curiosity, and often drives my researching desires. As a habit, I read a different translation each year for my daily readings (versus sermon prep). This year it is the ISV.

    Part of my rationale is that I believe it helps me see the same Scriptures differently. Whether it’s phrasing or vocabulary or punctuation, something gets triggered (in a good way) in my brain.

    I’ve read the Parable of the Sower many times. I’ve preached on it. Heard plenty of sermons on it. Verse 15 hit me today.

    What struck me this time, in particular, was “endurance”. When you go back and re-read the parable, endurance makes sense. It may indeed be the point of the entire parable (not saying it is).

    Endurance

    Endurance and resiliency are the new corporate buzz words coming out of COVID lockdowns and remote work. The has started to focus on them, too. It’s not a bad thing. Developing resilience might actually make the world a better place.

    Perhaps, instead of feeling attacked or belittled, instead…we endure. The good soil is the soil that endures.

    In church, we’ll often talk about the “good soil”. What is the “good” soil? We’ll talk about the Christian that overcomes adversity. We’ll talk about the one that doesn’t contain thorns and briars. We’ll about the one that doesn’t contain stones.

    Even when we talk about the good soil, we don’t often focus on the endurance. It’s not the soil’s fertility that is the source. It is the endurance.

    We don’t like to talk about endurance, because generally that comes along with difficulty. We see on the internet (and even, gasp, in bookstores) the latest book with the latest vital skill set that we must have today. There is the latest shortcut (with and without AI), so that we can get what ever it is done faster, and so we can minimize the time we experience difficulty.

    In other words, we avoid requiring endurance.

    Training

    Athelete’s train. Anyone who regularly participates in physical activity trains. Training produces endurance. We seem to get that when it comes to physicality. We actually do get it mentally with our focus on education. Even that, though, is often about regurgitation and not thinking. Rote and regurgitation do not produce mental endurance.

    We are truly awful about endurance when it comes to emotional, and (especially) spiritual. I’m still trying to figure out what happend with the emotional part. I don’t think that the “stiff upper lip” (British) or stoic (Germanic) tendencies and patterns were always healthy. Often they led to people burying their feelings. So, for those that claim “those were the days”…I disagree.

    It’s easy to blame the internet (currently) or television (previously), but is that really true? Have we really forgotten how to healthily emotionally endure, or did we just have yet another mask we wore?

    We have mental health counselors as a growing field (need far outweighs practitioners). I do think they are necessary because we have done such a poor job of being trained and training others.

    This also pours over into spiritual endurance. This is not about spiritual abuse, but just the straightforward to endure trials, perceived unanswered , and the horrors of a fallen world, without one’s being crushed.

    Just Believe

    Just believe is very similar to rote and regurgitational mental learning. It does not produce endurance. We struggle with endurance. I know I do. It’s okay to acknowledge that you struggle with endurance.

    The beauty of the current cultural emphasis on endurance (or resilience) is that the of faith (i.e., the church universal) can talk about it, too. Think about it. We have the ability to faithfully talk about God and an enduring faith, while the world is also struggling with endurance. There’s the open door…will you walk through it?

    Prayer

    God, we know that we are called to endure. We see throughout the Scriptures you provided examples of enduring faith from flawed beings just like us. We know through the of Jesus, that you understand our struggles, including our struggle to endure. Holy , please help us be the enduring soil that produces faith in ourselves and others. Amen.

  • Hanging on by a strand

    Hanging on by a strand

    Seth Godin recently posted the following…

    There are three strands, present for most everyone:

    (sometimes seen as status, or the appearance of status)

    Safety (survival and of mind)

    Meaning (hope and the path forward)

    The changes in our media structure, public health and economy have pushed some people to overdo one or the other and perhaps ignore a third. When a social network finds your button and presses it over and over, it’s hard to resist.

    New cultural forces catch on because they hit on one or more of these. And politics is understood through this lens as well.

    See the braid and it’s a lot easier to figure out why we might be stressed.

    “The Braid Out of Balance”, Seth Godin

    This brought to mind a passage in Ecclesiastes

    Then I turned to re-examine something else that is pointless on earth: Consider someone who is alone, having neither son nor brother. There is no end to all of his work, and he is never satisfied with wealth. “So for whom do I work,” he asks, “and deprive myself of pleasure?” This, too, is pointless and a terrible tragedy.

    Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. If they , the first will lift up his friend—but woe to anyone who is alone when he falls and there is no one to help him get up. Again, if two lie close together, they will keep warm, but how can only one stay warm? If someone attacks one of them, the two of them together will resist. Furthermore, the tri-braided cord is not soon broken.

    Ecclesiastes 4:7–12 (ISV)

    The long-standing “go it alone” mentality of US cultural history is still very much present, despite much of the US culture going through upheavals. The braid (Godin) or cord (Ecclesiastes) is a good image to use when we think of our lives, and the inputs we have, whether power, safety, and meaning (Godin) or friends and companions (Ecclesiastes).

    Bad Math

    One of the things one learns about ropes (or cords or braids), is that it is possible to use them where one strand breaks as it bears the brunt of the load. The other two strands then have to bear an additional 50% that were not planned or expected.

    We may all understand giving 100%. Yet, most of us understand that we are just not capable of doing that all the time (we do have to ). When that 1 strand is broken, the load is now 150%. Again, do-able for a short amount of time.

    It is when the last strand is broken that we experience a brutal reality of 300%.

    No one can sustain that.

    Strong Strand

    As I look around me, I see people within and without the faith in Jesus Christ1 who are leaning on something other than Jesus. Within the faith, in particular, the concern is those whose faith appears (for I cannot see their heart) to be more on a particular iteration of the Christian faith (not-so-essential theology), rather than Jesus. Even more concerning is when their iteration goes hand-in-hand with a particular political perspective (and this is not only those on the so-called right—or extreme right—of the political spectrum).

    As much as I am trying to elevate Jesus, much of our about Jesus is written in the Scriptures (i.e., The Holy Bible). That, too, may result in another extreme, though, and that is only looking at the Scriptures in isolation. If we (as an ) are the only reader, contemplators, and interpreters of the Scriptures, we will likely (as history repeatedly shows) get ourselves in trouble.

    Not that reading it together often seems much better, for the record.

    If you are looking for a faith to join in, or have one, always keep hold loosely. I don’t mean waver. I mean don’t hold so tightly onto your tradition that you are unable to the other branches of Christianity honestly (rather than listening to debate), and even other faith traditions all together (including secularism and atheism).

    Open Hand

    I know someone will read the above and try to say that the other Christian traditions or other faiths will lead people astray. It might be true. However, if we are unable to engage them, then if person gets one strand of their faith (Christian or not) broken, just as the opening quote, everything may well unravel.

    “I have decided to follow Jesus,” is a refrain from an old hymn, and it is my . Following Jesus means that I regularly have to wrestle with my faith, my faith tradition (Wesleyan-Holiness-Arminian), my political leanings and tendencies, my experiences. It also means I have to welcome the uncomfortableness of wrestling with the faith, (faith and cultural) traditions, political leanings and tendencies, and experiences of others.

    Growth and Strength

    I have one caveat to the strand/cord/rope illustration. Instead of a rope that breaks and frays over time, I would say that what makes up the rope is more like a muscle. If you work it (in harmony with the other strands), it gets stronger. If you don’t work it, it rots in place.

    1For clarity, faith in Jesus Christ as defined via the Apostles’ Creed, Creed of Nicaea, Creed, Chalcedonian Creed, Athanasian Creed.

  • Know Yourself. Know Your Idol.

    Know Yourself. Know Your Idol.

    The two latest tragedies that are in front of me are the school shooting in Texas, and the abuse scandal unraveling in another denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention. Both are incredibly painful. They should be. They are another example of how humanity has fallen and how determined, it seems, humanity is to stay mired there.

    Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

    1 John 5:21, New Translation

    It was this verse, however, that strikes me as the core issue…idols. Whether one is a Christian, in a Christian , or not a Christian at all, we each have idols or, more importantly, something that is so close to being an idol that it may not be one spiritually (though that may be debatable), but functionally is.

    I from ignorance regarding the shooter at the school tragedy, and deliberately so. Reading what pundits and talking heads have to say, even first-person testimonies aren’t particularly helpful and may be more damaging in regard to a solution. From a shepherd’s standpoint, I see . Whether it is generational pain, cultural pain, and/or personal pain, it seems to me that someone was in such spiritual and emotional pain that they reacted in a seemingly inhumane way.

    He responded inhumanely, but he responded far too humanly.

    One of the words I’ve seen applied to him, the accused SBC abusers, and the abuse enablers (in the cases of both shooter and abusers) is inhumane. That can be a misleading term. Humane is a moral stance that is, in the US at least, based upon cultural and supposedly Judeo-Christian frameworks. Humane from a Christian standpoint can best be framed by using Charles Sheldon’s words (culturally popularized in the ’90s), What Would Do?

    On the other hand, (i.e., less the “e”) is different. Frankly, both tragedies are emblematic of human-ness. Yes, both were inhumane, as are we. I bring this , as we often respond to inhumane as if it were the same as being inhuman, or not human. This is a grave danger for us, as when we remove the “e”, we tend to make out to be less than we are. This leads to tirades against others and the hardening of hearts.

    I’m convinced that the Gospel has not lost its . I’m equally convinced that we have lost the power of the Gospel. We are agents, it seems, of becoming more human and less humane.

    In What’s Wrong with the World, G.K. Chesterton wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” I might amend Chesterton and say, “it was found difficult and abandoned.”

    Each of us has an issue that ignites us. Each of us has a pain that motivates or chains us. These can be our idols. Pray with me that God frees us from them all and that we become more like Jesus (humane) and less a sinner (human).