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Devotion.al

Tag: church

  • Resurrection Avoidance

    Acts 24:14–21, 1 Corinthians 15:29–38, 1 Peter 1:13–25

    Resurrection. It’s kind of important to what it means to be a Christian. However, in our scientific age, it’s often hard to convince non-believers of it, and even a lot of church-goers (who do call themselves Christian) struggle with believing it. Why is it? Really, it’s kind of unbelievable from a scientific point of view.

    When Luke (Acts), Paul (Corinthians), Peter (Peter) wrote the Resurrection was abnormal, but it wasn’t out of the realm of all religions. In fact, a Jewish group (the Pharisees) did believe in the resurrection of the dead (Paul was one of them). It was a point of argument between Jewish groups. Roman and Greek religion had a form of afterlife (the Elysian fields or Hades, depending on your life). Again, the Resurrection wasn’t that odd.

    It is now. The Resurrection of Jesus (and, by extension, us) is a core belief of Christianity. Yet, people try not to talk about it. They avoid it. How can we avoid this? It is human to avoid uncomfortable topics, especially when we struggle believing them.

    A better question of the era is if you do believe in the Resurrection, what does that mean for you in the here and now? That, my friends, is quite the question, and it is definitely worth wrestling with. Far too many Christians, for far too many years, believed that once they “surrendered” to Jesus, they got the Resurrection in return. Which is true, to a great extent. It is also sadly mistaken from a complete Christian life sense.

    The Resurrection life is not a future life (after we’re dead), it is a life that is to empower us for the now.

    1) What do you think the Resurrection Life looks like?

    2) Why do you think people skip to the end (the Resurrection Life), rather than the now?

    3) Do you believe in the Resurrection? How would you defend it, if it came up in conversation?

  • God’s Broken People

    2 Samuel 13:11–39, Ephesians 4:13–19

    Parenting is hard. Parents struggle with their own failures personally and with their children. For the deeply afflicted parent (and child), parenting is not just brutal, but it is unending pain. For a normal parent, having children is a blessing and one of the hardest jobs ever (there is a harder one, but that is for another time).

    David—the so-called man after God’s own heart—was actually a pretty bad father at times, maybe even a lot of the times. This story is actually heartbreaking. Quite heartbreaking. Disgusting, nauseating, and so on. It is also another example that the Scriptures don’t hide the brutal failure of humanity to live up to its potential.

    What was David thinking to just things remain? Why did he do nothing? Doing nothing may have been David’s greatest fault. Maybe. That his children, less Solomon, had gotten to the states they were in says much about the guidance he provided to the next generation. If there had been one “bad apple”, perhaps there wouldn’t such a disastrous family tale. On the other hand, we cannot pin the sins of the sons on the father. They chose their path.

    It is hard as a parent to not blame oneself for the resulting lives of one’s children. Parents may try to harden their hearts as their children make life-altering decisions, but the hardened heart is only on the outside as their hearts ache on the inside. It’s not that David’s heart didn’t ache. As we look at his story, how would we have behaved?

    Would Paul’s “speaking the truth in love” made a difference here? How about building each other up? Unity? Promoting the growth for building up in love? These are all questions that the church—you—needs to wrestle with. The reality is that the world is full of broken people. Lots of them. In fact, there are probably a few such broken people in our framily. There might be some in your family. You might be broken. It’s not whether you know, meet, interact with people who are broken…it’s how many.

    1) Brokenness equals hurt. We are all hurting. Thinking about Paul, what can we do help our fellow broken human beings?

    2) We evaluate people and their stories by our story. How can that help us help them? How can it keep us from helping them?

    3) Paul’s words about building up are especially true when talking about our hurts and the hurts of others. What do Paul’s words teach about walking with others in the midst of their (and our) brokenness?

  • Respond How?

    Haggai 1:4–14, Amos 7:10–17

    It would be nice if nice things just happened. It would be nice if all the stuff that needs to happen, just happened. It doesn’t work that way. Someone has to take responsibility.

    God had fulfilled his promise that the remnants of Israel would return from exile. Now they were starting to recover and thrive. They had homes, buildings not tents. They were rooting themselves back into the land. At the heart of their thought processes, one would think that God would be front and center. It seems, however, that this wasn’t the case. Despite their return to the land and their homes, they were merely surviving, not thriving.

    Haggai goes to them and pronounces that they have their shelter. God should now have a place for them to worship Him. To their credit, they listened. The house of God was rebuilt. God blessed the people again.

    Amos, on the other hand, did not receive a positive reception. The response of the powerful was antagonistic, at best. Amos was a prophet when the nations of Israel and Samaria were at relative peace, had mostly restored the boundaries of David and Solomon, and were doing well. The nation was doing well. Actually, the powerful were doing well. The powerful were living lives of excess, and not thinking about tomorrow.

    God did not respond well to their selfishness. God informed them that the exile was certain and that all they treasured would no longer be there. That made them very unhappy to hear these words. They wanted to silence them.

    Haggai and Amos faithfully delivered God’s words. The people responded quite differently.

    1) How are you responding to God’s call on your life? Are you more like those who responded to Haggai or those who responded to Amos?

    2) We often look at the superficial and say we’re fine. We often do not see the truth. Where are we not fine? Where are you not fine? Where is the church not fine?

    3) Being faithful to God’s house, and being faithful to God’s church often have tension between them. Why do you think that is? What can you do to ease it?

  • Starting at Home

    Psalm 2, Colossians 3:1–17, Acts 11:19–26

    One of the blessings and one of the curses of being American is the freedom to decide who we are. One of the biggest struggles between immigrants and their children is the change of identity. As much as most immigrants truly seek to join their new country, there are things that just don’t work for them. Their children walk the line between new and old, along with all the stress that goes along with that (think differences over worship music but over everything).

    The church was that second generation, and then some. A way to think of it is the child of a Tibetan immigrant and the child of an Argentinian getting married. The strains of their parents’ cultures, plus their new adopted (American) culture, plus the different culture of their spouse. That was the church.

    The “children” of Judaism, Greece, Asia Minor, Rome were, by-and-large, no longer part of their “native” culture, and could not really be part of a “different” culture. The Followers of the Way (the name prior to Christian) were following a weaving and winding path between multiple cultures, nations, and languages. They lived in between. Even their identity as “Followers of the Way” was still deeply tied to Judaism, so even that was not particularly solid.

    The key to identity was made in Antioch. Only God knows who coined the term Christians. They could have been called Nazarenes, but Christians became the label. Even with a “formal” label, it still took years, and even today it seems that while the label is active, there is not a unified Christian culture. If there were a truly united Christian culture, the hour on Sunday would not be the most segregated hour of the week. If there were a truly united Christian culture, Facebook, Twitter, and other places wouldn’t be in the state they are in.

    If the church were united, as Christ calls us to be, we really could be the healer for a culture and country in pain. Instead, we are just as miserable, angry, bitter, and pained as everyone else. We are not perfect, we just need to be better in how we treat people especially fellow Christians for it starts “at home”.

    1) As people are quick to jump on bandwagons, praying for the hurting (good), questioning violence (good), discussing freedom (good), trying to be the light (good), be even quicker to pray and discern prior to posting. What witness are you presenting to your fellow Christian? How about the world?

    2) As the country, and world, seems to be tearing apart, we Christians are still to be Followers of the Way, winding our way between people, cultures, and perspectives. What skills and practices do you need to develop to be better walking on the Way?

    Why do the nations rage
    and the peoples plot in vain?
    The kings of the earth take their stand,
    and the rulers conspire together
    against the LORD and his Anointed One,
    Let’s tear off their chains
    and throw their ropes off of us.
    —Psalm 2:1–3

  • The Church Walls

    Matthew 5:1–12, Matthew 13:1–9, Luke 4:16–21, Acts 16:11–15, Acts 16:23–34, Acts 17:22–29

    Mountain, boat, synagogue, riverside, prison, Areopagus (formal public forum)

    What do all of these have in common? Nothing.

    What happened at each of these, according to the Scriptures? Messages were delivered regarding the Kingdom of God.

    Only one of those places was a formal cultural place of worship. And the list above doesn’t cover them all. City gates, roads, public plazas had it happen there, too.

    What we call the church (building) is only supposed to be a place to hear messages about the Kingdom of God, not the only one. Today, church is happening at bars (even Nazarene churches), the racetrack, the truck stoop, private homes, barns, coffee shops, and these are the organized churches. This doesn’t include other places of gatherings where the message is heard. However, despite the Scriptures themselves bearing witness to the diversity of places to deliver the message, the church today is pretty stuck on the church building.

    So that we are all on the same page, this is not to say that the church building is bad. Quite the contrary. The issue at hand is that there is an unconscious (and conscious) thought process in the Western World that the big moving and shaking happens at the church.

    However, when missionaries talk about changing lives it is so much more than the church. So much of the work of missionaries must be outside of the church, and not even on the grounds. As we progress more and more quickly away from the so-called Christian America, it is wise to look beyond the church walls. It is wise to look beyond the church. It is wise to look at our missionaries. They already work where we are headed.

    We talk (rightfully) about bringing the Kingdom of God. Humanity, however, needs more than a concept, it needs a place. We each need to find places where we can meet with people where they feel comfortable so that their hearts are more open to hearing about God.

    1) What places have you heard a church being held that bothered you? Why did it bother you? What about that place created an atmosphere of hearts being more open to God?

    2) Why do you think we focus on church buildings as the place where church occurs?

    3) Why is the church building often as dangerous to our spiritual growth as it is a barrier to those who don’t know God?

  • Kingdom Come

    Psalm 102, Matthew 6:9–13, Matthew 13:24–33, John 13:1–17

    “Kingdom work” and “Work of the Kingdom”

    Often these two phrases are used when people are (rightly) trying to teach people that they can bring people to God and can be people of God at work. This is a good thing. However, there is usually a problem with this, it is an attempt to see seeding the temporal so that the crop can be reaped in the everlasting world. This is true, but it is a partial truth.

     Your kingdom come
      Your will be done 
      on earth as in heaven

    …on earth. We are not planting seeds for only the life everlasting, but the life today. It is often hard work, and we often cannot see the growth.

    Whether it be war, violence, disease, death, politics, selfishness, and so on, these are all things, events, realities that need the Kingdom on earth now, not later in Heaven.

    There is a world out there, my friends, that needs YOU. This is not about me, your spouse, your children, your friends, the church. This is about YOU bringing the Kingdom. How, you say?

    “Jesus is the one who does for me what I would never do for somebody else…and then he calls me to do for others what I would not have done for them apart from Him and His spirit.” —Rafael Rodriguez

    1) How can YOU make God’s Kingdom and Will present here on earth?

    2) How does Rafael Rodriguez’s words fit into bringing the Kingdom?

    3) What is one thing YOU will do TODAY to bring the Kingdom?

  • Power to Divide or Unite

    Matthew 5:3–12, Romans 13:1–10

    Authority is an issue. Authority is not the same as power. Plenty of people have power. In fact, most of us have power. We may not be aware of it, but we have it. One of the greatest powers we have on earth is our vote. It often doesn’t seem like it. Politicians, traditional media, social media all try to convince that we need to make the right choice, and then tell us how our vote doesn’t count because someone else has the power to change our vote or take it away.

    Often we confuse power and authority. Power can make people do things. Authority, however, is the right (as in righteousness) to give orders, commands, and make decisions.

    We have a mutual agreement between our fellow citizens here in the United States. It is actually a mutuality of submission. We don’t think of it that way. We think of it as our “rights”. Through that mutuality of submission, we give authority to others.

    As much as we may not like politicians we still, collectively, elected them. We don’t like that truth. It doesn’t change it though. In comparison to the era in Paul wrote, we do have power and authority in regards to our government. As much as we feel we have no control, in comparison to Paul, we do.

    When Paul tells us to submit it’s not quite the same for us. Yet, there is a truth. We are not called to beat our chests or shake our fists. We are called to reach out with open hands. The sad part is that right now the two “sides” have split Christians. Both sides (the parties are a completely different issue) have ideals that are Christian. We have allowed ourselves to be divided.

    1) Politics and religion are two “bad” topics in social settings. How can we talk about them with the grace that we are to have through the Holy Spirit?

    2) Why do we allow ourselves to be torn apart by politics, especially when we are called into unity by Jesus Christ as his bride (the church)?

    3) How can we balance the freedom and responsibility we have as citizens of the United States with the submission to authority that Paul calls for?

  • Seeking Reliably

    Psalm 24, Isaiah 55:1–13, Romans 11:33–36

    Many folks are obsessed with picking apart the Scriptures to find any issues or incongruities. Some do this out honest inquiry, some do it in an attempt to discredit the Scriptures. The reality is that we have to look at the Scriptures as the writers intended (which can be difficult) and literary type. Often people view the Scriptures as something they are not.

    This is an important concept to understand, especially in light of the last couple of days discussing the Holy Spirit and Jesus. The Scriptures are the starting point to understand God and our relationship with God.

    Psalm 24 is a victorious Psalm. Yet, God is no mere victorious general entering the city of Jerusalem. God is so much more. Tucked in the Psalm is “Such is the generation of those who inquire of him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.” This seeking is the next step. We are called to seek God and we start with the Scriptures. As we seek God and read the Scriptures, only then can begin to grasp just what it means to know the “King of Glory.”

    Isaiah’s is the call of God to each and every one to seek Him. In the midst of trials, exile, and destruction, God is still calling people to turn to Him. Will they all escape the judgement? No. That isn’t the point, and never was. The purpose of seeking God—to have our hearts turned to Him—is not to escape the pain, misery, and fallenness of this world, it is to place it all into the redeeming power of God.

    Redemption and reconciliation are very much a part of Paul’s message. When Paul speaks about the depth of the riches, it is not—again—to escape, but to put into perspective our experiences in the world. In comparison to God, what we think is small. In comparison to God, we are insignificant; from a human perspective, that is. God cares for us all. It is not that God diminishes our troubles or joys. It is that while what revolves around us is hugely important, there is still a larger picture.

    Knowing God means not just the Holy Spirit or Jesus or God the Father, but seeking God fully and doing our best to understand God. We have the tools and gifts: the Scriptures, the church (framily and tradition), our minds, our experience.

    1) What is one area of the 4 (Scriptures, church, mind, experience) that you rely or focus most on? Why? How might that be disadvantageous?

    2) What is the one area you are the weakest in? Why? How could you strengthen that area?

    3) As inheritors of the Protestant tradition, we often hold the Scriptures extraordinarily high to the detriment of the other 3. Yes, holding the Scriptures highly is a good thing. However, balance is required, so why is that a bad thing?

  • Spirit Movement

    Psalm 51, Isaiah 66:1–16, Acts 16:6–15

    How the Holy Spirit moves in our lives is both a mystery and very important. The psalmist requests to be restored. Attributed to King David after being confronted in his sin regarding Bathsheba and Uriah, there is definitely some restoration that needs to happen.

    While David as an individual was often not the shining example, at the same time he led the people of Israel to worship God fully. While we recognize David’s shortcomings and sins, we also have to recognize what he brought. Does that mean that what he did was okay? Obviously not. As we see in Psalm 51, David did repent.

    On the other hand, but the time if Isaiah, the rulers, and the people were not fully worshipping God. God was just another god, one of many. Many followed the prescribed outward practices but did not have the heart that was yielded to God. Isaiah wasn’t the only prophet calling to account, either. Contrast this to David. Nathan had a very short speech, and David was contrite. David was humble, submissive in spirit, and trembled at God’s world (Isaiah 66:2).

    David and the chided (by Isaiah) Israelites had very different responses to the Holy Spirit. Both had an experience of correction. David had additional experiences of support and direction.

    Paul, by this time in Acts, had had a number of interesting experiences with the Holy Spirit, but this might be one of the most important as it applies to us. Paul wanted to go to Asia. That was the plan. God wouldn’t let them. Think about that for a moment. Many in the church (rightfully) talk about the loss of evangelism. Paul was told not to evangelize. Then he tries to go to Bithynia and is again stopped by the Holy Spirit. Stopped. Prevented. No evangelism here.

    Then Paul received a dream from a (nameless) man to come to Macedonia. He does so and makes his way to Philippi. There he meets Lydia. She converts to Christianity and becomes a strong supporter of the church. Some have called her a deacon, and yet others claim that her role was more pastor or bishop. While who knows what could have happened in Asia or Bithynia, Lydia’s conversion along with the establishment of the church at Philippi is all pretty important.

    Sometimes the Holy Spirit, as some say, knocks a person on the head with a 2×4. Other times the Holy Spirit nudges and encourages by whispers. Other times, the Holy Spirit closes the door. Being aware, being responsive, and being obedient to the Holy Spirit is what will shape and change us. Also, this is how we are transformed to be more like Jesus.

    1) When you believe the Holy Spirit is telling you to stop, how do you test whether it is the Holy Spirit or your fear?

    2) When you believe the Holy Spirit is telling you to go, how do you test whether it is the Holy Spirit or your desires?

    3) When in the last week have you felt either go or stop from the Holy Spirit? If you haven’t, are you open to asking (and listening to) the Holy Spirit about what should be stopped or started?

  • Faithful Asking

    Genesis 18:17–33, Colossians 2:6–19

    There are two different amazing streams of thought in this vignette of Abraham and God. The first is Abraham’s audaciousness. That a faithful person is free to ask God for clarification is beautiful. This shows us that when we are faithful toward and trustful of God, it’s okay to not understand, and to ask clarifying questions. There has long been an undercurrent in some Christian traditions that any sort of questioning is wrong and even sinful. This is not the case.

    The other stream is God’s respect toward Abraham. God could have hidden things from Abraham and chose not to. God seems to think that while God is God, Abraham is an important piece and has a place in this story. It is almost as if God wants Abraham to have a place in the story for Abraham’s development.

    Questioning authority is fraught with perils. Abraham questioned THE authority. There is a place for it. It is important to understand the point of questioning in our faith: to understand, to clarify, to see our place in the big picture (to some degree).

    There are those who struggle with “question authority”. There is a reason why it is healthy. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul is having to unwind rules and regulations. There are Jewish and Romans and local pagan customs that all need to be unwound from the Church. Paul alludes to Jesus questioning the religious authorities. His questions “disarmed” their control over “proper” God-honoring life.

    What’s interesting here is that Paul is not just talking about food. He is also talking about ascetic (think monks) practices, worship practices, sacrificial practices. As a holiness denomination with its own “peculiarities”, the Church of the Nazarene is showing signs of growing out of the same tendencies that Paul opposed. It’s not to say that the holiness path is out of date or wrong, quite the contrary. It’s that the Church is re-learning the lessons that Jesus and Paul taught.

    What’s interesting here is that Paul is not just talking about food. He is also talking about ascetic (think monks) practices, worship practices, sacrificial practices. As a holiness denomination with its own “peculiarities”, the Church of the Nazarene is showing signs of growing out of the same tendencies that Paul opposed. It’s not to say that the holiness path is out of date or wrong, quite the contrary. It’s that the Church is re-learning the lessons that Jesus and Paul taught.

    The Church of the Nazarene has had people condemn others because their lifestyle did not meet their standards, just as those causing trouble in Colossi. Some of these practices have been held in a tighter embrace than those heart-oriented practices that are in the Scriptures. No denomination has been spared. Both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox have long held the ascetics very high. Any good practice used to diminish others is no longer a good practice.

    1) Have you ever questioned someone’s maturity of faith because they don’t do a practice that you think is better?

    2) Have you ever questioned someone’s maturity of faith because they have a practice that you think is pointless or lifeless?

    3) When was the last time you looked at the Scriptures to add a new or revitalize an old practice for your spiritual growth?