Devotion.al

Tag: faithfulness

  • Let It Be

    Psalm 112:1–9, Colossians 3:12–17, James 3:13–18 (read online ⧉)

    Galatians 5:22–23 lists the following as fruits of the spirit: , , , forbearance, kindness, goodness, , , self-control.

    2 Peter 1:5–7 lists the following characteristics to pursue: , goodness, , self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, love.

    1 Timothy 6:11 has its own list of characteristics: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.

    Psalm 112 starts with praising of God, and then fearing God. How does this fit with the above? The same way as testing the spirits. Praising of God and (not punishing, but of awe) are foundational to testing the spirits. You cannot test without having an idea of the ideal. What is interesting is that the Psalmist goes on to that there will be a “natural” result of a legacy. However, as we all know, there is always free will, and those that follow may not continue the legacy that they were handed.

    Colossians continues this with cloth, bear, forgive, let (peace), thanks, let (Christ’s message dwell), teach, admonish. The reason this passage of Colossians is important we continue thinking about testing the spirits is the concept of “let”. Far too often we try to do, and do not “let” God be God who dwells in us richly.
    James, too, has the concept of let. Granted, it is a let show, but that still means don’t make a show. Let what comes out of you be natural not forced. Let it be God coming from you, not be “fake it till you make it.”

    1) When it comes to “” the life, do you perceive it as natural to you, or is it “fake it till you make it?” Why do you feel that way?

    2) Why is “let” important for the Christian life? Do you tend toward the opposite?

    3) What is the danger of “letting” it being all that is part of your Christian walk?

  • Stars of Hope

    Genesis 22:15–18, Deuteronomy 1:10, Isaiah 54:1–10, Romans 4:13–25 (read online ⧉)

    Twice God promised Abraham (and once for Jacob) that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. Imagine all the stars without our modern lights drowning them out. For Abraham that was a beyond , and certainly beyond anything that God needed to promise for Abraham’s obedience. God made this promise of God’s own free will.

    As inheritor’s of God’s promise, Moses reminded the Israelites of God’s promise prior to their entry into the Promised Land. The Israelites were the result of Abraham’s . That God was gave them as they entered the promised land, as long as they listened to God.

    Often keeping the of hope going is a challenge while everyone else’s life seems to be a huge successful bonfire. The promise of uncountable descendants is extraordinarily painful when one is childless. Isaiah speaks of Israel that has no children. This symbolic Israel is God’s faithful . She has no children of faith, for they have all left the faith. The enemies of and in the world have drawn her offspring away from the Water of Life. God, however, promises the now barren Israel will have innumerable children.

    This is what Paul is referring to as the Promise of Faith. Being the of Nations (Abraham) is no longer an issue of blood, but the fulfillment of the faith that Abraham showed to God and those that put their hope in Jesus. Through Jesus, we all become part of “the blood” of Abraham, and part of the “nations” that he fathered.

    1) Why do you think Isaiah used barren as a of hope?

    2) Why is important to recall the fulfilled promises of God? What does it do for us?

    FD) Why do you think hope often symbolized by a flame?

  • A Covenant Of Life and Peace

    Micah 5:1-5 ,Haggai 2:5–9, Malachi 2:4–7 (read online ⧉)

    One of the biggest problems with …is us. Peace often does not reside well in our souls. We bear the world’s concerns as if they were our own. It is not that we are not to care about the world, but only God is capable of caring for all the concerns of the world. Our “peace” on the other hand is usually pre-occupied with what we think we give us peace: whether it is food, clothing, riches, , things, “friends” or whatever else. Somehow having the burden for caring for all these things is supposed to give us peace.

    In Micah’s time, Israel perceives that the world is against it. It (as Micah says) is cutting itself in . It is an odd time for an origin prophecy. Yet, here we are with the promise that God’s proxy ruler (the Messiah) will come from Bethlehem. This Messiah will be a . The shepherd is a caretaker who loves the sheep. The shepherd will not control or direct by force, but by . This shepherd will be their peace. The language is peculiar. The shepherd will be their peace, not the shepherd will bring peace or enforce peace. Be peace.

    Be peace. God promised that Israel would have God, granted as long as they wanted God. As they wandered further and further away from God in their hearts, while still fulfilling the trappings of , peace in their hearts and in their lands ceased. God wasn’t done with them though. Despite all the troubles they brought upon themselves in the world, God would provide peace.

    We can look at the archetypal Levi in Malachi to understand. Those who are called to God directly (Levites in Israelite culture, all Christians) received a of life and peace. All that was required was reverence, which often seems to be sadly lost even among those who say they “” God. Out of the reverence words of were to come, and turn those living in sin away from it.

    1) What is reverence?

    2) Do you think reverence and peace go together? Why or why not?

    3) Why do you think the shepherd being peace is important? What does that mean to you?

  • Trust But Verify

    Luke 19:1–10, 1 John 4:10, Romans 8:22–28 (read online ⧉)

    You may or may not have heard that a famous person has publicly proclaimed that he has “found” Christ. Many Christians have not accepted this person’s conversion. It’s not as if this is a new thing. Not really. Over the years there have been many conversions that have been questioned. Many of them have been questioned because they were “-bed” conversions.

    It’s not so much that these conversions are questioned, for conversions should be questioned, but it was the attitude that often goes along with it. The that such-and-such a person’s conversion could not possibly be real, or that it is questionable should raise our internal flags. Who are we to determine that?

    Let’s take the tale of Zacchaeus. In it we see Zacchaeus promise to return what of his gains were ill-gotten. Jesus says has come. Great! If we were to look at the tale of Zacchaeus with the same amount of skepticism as we look at death-bed or famous people conversions, well, we wouldn’t just “see it” with Zacchaeus. The guy has been a thief (say many today about taxes) and colludes with the government (which people don’t trust). How could such a person’s conversion ever be trusted?

    Yet, one of the first responses to questioning Zacchaeus’ conversion is, but the Bible says so! Well, it tells that Jesus said salvation came but were you there to see that Zacchaeus actually did what he told Jesus? Really, what about all those other people that you know about that said it’s all for Jesus, but didn’t change?

    Sounds really cynical, doesn’t it? Jesus said salvation came. One would think God would know, as only God knows the heart. Yet, people are as cynical (or even more so) today about conversions. Sadly, we’ve had plenty of examples of false conversions. We have plenty of examples of Christians doing appalling things. Why so cynical? We know humanity for we see it in ourselves.

    So, what are we to do? We do have a pretty simple way to evaluation conversions…the fruit. There are the fruits of the (, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, , gentleness, self-control). There is also the fruit of . Are there people being discipled by the converted? The fruit of discipleship and the fruit of the spirit, however, can be a long time coming.

    1) How would “trust but verify” work in this situation? Does this concept help or hurt?

    2) Many of those we would fathers and mothers of the questioned their own salvation. Why do we think we would know somebody else’s conversion?

    3) What are the ways that we can encourage recent conversions and help to maintain them?

  • Attending Well

    Deuteronomy 30:15–20, Acts 4:5–22

    If someone were to us a about being given the way to or , there would likely be an automatic naysayer response. This is the case when the “way” is exercise, healthy eating (including the latest fads), life philosophy. In the context, we understand the is that “way”. To many of us who have heard and believed, this is obvious.

    Yet, there are many in the church and the world that when they something along the lines of, “See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity,” they turn off. You, too, might have that exact same response. It’s an understandable response because we see the saying it, and we know humans. They don’t really understand the “way”. How can they, they’re only human.

    The way of life and prosperity is empowered by the faithful attention to the Holy . Man cannot do it alone. Man needs to be in humble partnership with God, letting God lead. The importance of humility cannot be overstated. If we were to take, for example. prosperity to its extreme, we all understand that it is an issue. Really, the that was given was that Israel would have enough.

    Yet, to have even enough, they would have to walk in harmony with God. That is often the hard part. The leaders of the Jews were so strongly focused on the right checkboxes that they could no longer see the way. With the disciples, we also see a transformation of the promise. The prosperity was not of this world (except, one hopes, in framily).

    The other darker transformation of the promise is that the way often leads to adversity and death. The disciples experienced both, as do many Christians around the world today.

    1) What do you think about the promise changing? Do you agree, or disagree? Why?

    2) Financial prosperity has often been used to judge God’s blessing and a person’s faithfulness. What is your take on that?

  • Faithfully Blind Together

    Leviticus 21:16–24, Matthew 20:29–34, 1 Corinthians 1:26–29

    Even today people struggle with blindness. Granted, today those who are blind have legal protections, braille, technology, and acceptance that wasn’t part of other cultures. In the New Testament era, the only “job” the blind could get was begging. Doesn’t sound very fulfilling or enjoyable.

    Our story in Matthew takes place on ‘ last journey to Jerusalem. Whether the large crowd was only because of Jesus or also because of the approaching Holy Days is somewhat up for discussion. Regardless, though, the blind men were probably looking to having a more successful attempt at begging, due to the emotional high that people would have had, and the affiliation of almsgiving with Holy Days.

    Instead, they Jesus is coming. They probably had already heard the stories of the miracles he performed. That Jesus would be near them would be exciting and would be -filled. They cried out, but the crowd tried to silence them. Some commentators take a symbolic view of this. The crowd is the world (and Satan) trying to drown out the coming of Jesus. The blind men, like Christians, have to the world to meet Jesus. It might be taking a few too many liberties, but the reality is these men overcame the crowd.

    In all likelihood, this was not normal behavior for them. They would generally be meek so as to not be bullied. Yet, they went for it. They took the risk. Opposed the crowd. They could now see.

    The weak. desires. The despised. Yet, Jesus heard their cries and healed them. notes that the world has a different form of evaluation and valuing people than the Kingdom of God.

    1) What have your thoughts been (whether now or in the past) of people who were not fully as capable ( or mental) as you?

    2) People are quick to value people based upon their physical bodies. Why do you think that is?

    3) Why do you think Paul concludes with, “…so that no one may boast in his …”?

  • Sown

    Lamentations 3:25–33, Matthew 13:3–9

    For there to be a harvest, there needs to be seed and sower. God’s is both and abundant. All too often, however, we treat God’s love as scarce. There is a concept called the “scarcity mentality.” This mentality is one that views things as a zero-sum game, and that there must be winners and losers, and supply is limited.

    Sadly, in many , there is a scarcity of love, , belief, value, acceptance. Our human relationships shape how we relate to God. So, when our human-to-human relationships are skewed, our relationship with God is, too.

    The problem is how that affects our ability to be the laborers in the fields of the .

    The sower parable is interesting in that it represents God (to some degree). The sower isn’t sticking to a row of surety, but casting seed all over the place! What a mess! What a waste! What abandon! God already knows that much of the seed will not “bear fruit.” God does it anyways.

    We, however, often sow in scarcity or in nice, neat, controlled, little rows, stingily putting down seed, calculating the best yield for our efforts. The issue isn’t the yield, but the that sowed. We think we are being wise in our resources, however, one of the greatest risks is that our stinginess reflects our view of God.

    1)What is your view of God’s love and ? Does that view match your ?

    2) How do you see a scarcity or generosity mindset in ?

    3) How can you encourage the generosity mindset in others?

  • Frameworks

    Genesis 35:9–15, Genesis 37:1–2

    While the “ of the story” appears to mostly be about Joseph, it is incredibly important to understand that from a familial , this is the continuing story (in comic book terms, the “origin” story) of Israel, both the man (born as Jacob) and the people (the 12 male descendant lines of Israel).

    Laying the groundwork is very important to understand the framework of the story. In many respects, the story of Joseph and his brothers is told within the larger framework of Israel, which is part of the larger framework of Abraham, and God’s to Abraham and his line.

    In fact, we can look at the of Abraham as a single line (which it was), until the sons of Israel. With the sons of Israel, the line branched and become a fuller, more complete version of itself. What it also bears a testament to is God’s faithfulness in the midst of brokenness.

    This was a heritage that was anything but healthy. It was, by any account, a complete and utter mess. God did something beautiful with it.

    1) Have you ever thought that your was too messy for God to fix? Do you have friends or family who think that?

    2) Imagine if God waited for the Israelite family to get it “all ”. Why do you think people believe that God will only accept them after they have it all together? What can we do to the that says, “come as you are”?