Devotion.al

Tag: love

  • Salvation Praise

    Psalm 107:1–3, 17–22; Genesis 9:8–17; Ephesians 1:3–6 (read online ⧉)

    Destined to be a child of God. This is such a comforting phrase. As in all comfortable things, there is a danger. This comforting phrase is often, and understandably, taken as being directed toward individuals. Yet, if we use both Old Testament and New Testament phrasing, it is better (and more safely) understood as a corporate destiny.

    As part of Noah’s covenant, we are corporately covered insofar as God will never flood the entirety of the earth again. Just as the 12 Tribes of Israel were the of God, corporately, so too is the . How an individual behaved and responded toward God was, and remains, from the corporate selection.

    We are all part of the corporate destiny, and we have our place in it (accepting the of and salvation). To be clear, accepting the gift does not mean that the act required (Christ’s on the cross) for salvation was anything but God’s.

    There is a tension here. Salvation is also quite personal and individual. Salvation is best expressed and the saved best lived within the community of believers. There is a balance, and we don’t want to be overly weighted to individual or corporate salvation.

    We testify and give thanks through our worship and of God. As part of both our corporate and personal activity (our “liturgy”) is to praise “… his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us….”

    The psalmist declared…

    1O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
     for his steadfast  endures forever.
2Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
     those he redeemed from trouble
21Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
     for his wonderful works to humankind.
22And let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices,
     and tell of his deeds with songs of

    1) When thinking of your salvation do you tend to think of yourself as an individual?

    2) Have you ever thought of your salvation as being part of the Body of Christ (the Church)?

    3) Why do you think there is a difference? What difference does it make to you?

  • You, The World, God

    Exodus 20:1–17; John 2:13–22; 1 Corinthians 1:18–25; Psalm 19 (read online ⧉)

    The 10 Commandments in Exodus. The cleaned out with whips. The foolishness of the Cross versus signs and . All 3 passages are passionate reminders of who God is, and each tells so in different ways.

    Exodus establishes the foundations of the God-Israel (and speaks to ours, as well). The Gospel of John tells of the cleansing of the temple, removing man-made obstacles and the exposing duping of the faithful. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians encourages them that they cannot base on mere Greek “wisdom” and the Jewish desire for signs.

    God sets some ground rules for righteous and loving interacting relationship with God and man. summarizes it this way, “…‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your , and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” [Matthew 22:36-40]

    Through the cleansing of the Temple, Jesus cleared his Father’s house of that which distracted from worshiping God, and that which prevent right . Jesus made a point that his Father’s house has one purpose, worshiping God. He also called the leaders and merchants out on their corruption of a sacrificial law that was intended to bring people to God, while reminding them that they needed a bridge (blood) to cover their wrongs.

    Paul let Christians know that the world would never view them the same as it used to. Their interactions with the world would be strained, as they were considered fools by their beliefs. This church of Jew and Gentile was confronted by the Jew and Gentile outside faith in Jesus, and how they no longer quite fit into the world they left behind.

    Much of our journey in faith can be summarized into these three areas: our relationship with God; our with in the faith; our relationships with those outside the faith. We can even look at Jesus’ life with these three facets, seeing the ebb and flow.

    At the beginning of our walk, we usually try to balance these three facets, but unlike a triangle or tripod, the three facets are not really able to be balanced. We tend to extremes in them all, bouncing from one to another. Many people have found that the best expression is the three concentric circles, starting with a small circle, which is circled by a larger one, which is circled by even a larger one.

    Of course, the question is what is the order of the circles?

    1) Going from inner to middle to outer ring, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each ?

    a. God / Others in the Faith / Others in the World

    b. Others in the World / Others in the Faith / God

    2) Which one are you?

  • Giving and Moving

    Genesis 22:1-19; Hebrews 11:13-19; Psalm 105-37-45

    The almost of Isaac is, for many, one of the hardest passages of scripture to read. Those who are parents cannot imagine being God asking Abraham to do this. Those who are parents cannot imagine being Abraham and being asked to do this. Note the “ask”. In English translations, we often lose a Hebrew grammar article, נָא (na’). It makes the “take” into, “please take.” Then God says, “…your , your only son, Isaac, whom you …”.

    As the child of God’s , Isaac is Abraham’s “true” son. There is no other child of the promise. Isaac is not just a child of the promise to Abraham, but also to God. And God knows how much Abraham loves Isaac.

    Isaac. We don’t know much about either’s thoughts during their trip to Moriah. Isaac trusted his . At this point, too, Abraham was quite old—his prime behind him—and Isaac was probably an older teenager—entering his prime. Scripture doesn’t say that Isaac fought his father. Isaac trusted his father and allowed (it seems) himself to be bound and placed on the pile of sticks. Culturally, this was not abnormal. Child sacrifices to harsh and unpredictable gods was .

    As Christians, looking back, we cannot help but see Abraham as a vision of God the Father, and Isaac as God the Son (). The loving father sacrificing his son; the loving son his father.

    As the author of Hebrews notes, Abraham was promised that his descendants of the promise would come from Isaac. Abraham probably didn’t understand, but he had walked long enough with God, that even in the time of trial, , and confusion, he still trusted.

    1) Have you, or someone you know, had a crisis of belief, where your choice was to follow God or give up on your dreams or hopes?

    2) What did that crisis teach you about God?

    3) What did that crisis teach you about ?

    4) What did that crisis teach you about yourself?

  • The Tension of Pain and Joy

    Job 4:1-21, Psalm 77, Ephesians 2:1-10 (read online ⧉)

    Job’s friend, Eliphaz, was one of 4 friends that came to visit Job in his time of trouble. While, ultimately, they misspoke of God, at other times they spoke of God and Job. Eliphaz told Job that he was a teacher of God and a believer. Wouldn’t we all want people to say these things of us? Yet, then he lectures Job about Job lamenting his situation. This exact pattern is something we have all experienced, and probably even followed.

    There has been a tendency to lecture people who are in emotional, spiritual, and/or physical that they need to be more joyful, more trusting, more faithful. When we look at all the woeful, lamenting words of Job, including even his questioning of God (and where God was in all of his troubles), Job did not . It is not to say that Job never sinned, but in the words that we have from him, he did not sin. There is something important here. It is okay to mourn, , lament.
    Part of Lent is the aura of mourning, grieving, and lamenting. The overarching theme of Lent is that we know what is coming, . The reason for Good Friday is mourning, grieving, and lamenting. The reason is sin. Sin was so deep and so pervasive only God breaking in could fix it. On the cross, the Son of God died.

    Under it all, it wasn’t that Job stopped trusting God, it was that he was hurting. Despite the anguish of Lent, underlying it there still remains truth and .

    “…God, who is rich in , out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive with Christ…”

    We must disregard the mourning, grieving, and lamenting of Lent, for when we do, we undermine the truth of Good Friday.

    1) Do you find it difficult to be joyful while grieving, mourning, or while in pain?

    2) At what point, do you think, our lamenting (grieving, mourning or pain) turns into something that dishonors God?

  • Community of Friends

    Psalm 25:1-10, Psalm 32, Matthew 9:2-13 (read online ⧉)

    The story of the healed paralytic has been many times, mostly it seems, to point the finger at the scribes for their lack of . Let us look with upon the scribes, to their understanding and traditions, sins could not be forgiven without blood sacrifice. It was not that their faith was weak (or non-existent), but that their traditions and scriptural understanding did not match ‘ simple words.

    For many of the Jewish religious leaders, part of their understanding was that the paralytic was bearing the of his sins, his parents’ sins, and/or some ancestor’s sins. In Psalm 32, the psalmist speaks of acknowledging his sins, but what if the sins the paralytic was bearing were not his own? What could he confess? What if it was some hidden of which he wasn’t aware? What could be his ? His friends.

    His friends mirror the great trust in God that we read in both of the Psalms. Their faith was the key. Did you catch that? The faith noted in Matthew 9:2-13 was that of the paralytic’s friends. In a shame-based culture, they could have been despised because they dared to be publicly seen with this…sinner. They were declaring their of their friend to their village and to their religious leaders. They bravely, faithfully, and lovingly brought their friend to the prophet in expectation of a miracle.

    They received two miracles, a spiritual cleansing, and the healing of their friend. The paralytic learned who his true friends were, and the power and love of God that changed his !

    We can reasonably expect God’s grace and , not because we deserve it, but because that is a of God being love.

    We have to be humble and reflective as we approach the throne of God. When we do so we become ready to be guided and lead by the Creator.

    1) Why do you think Matthew, Mark, and Luke made it a point that it was the faith of the paralytic’s friends that Jesus praised?

    2) How does this recognition of their faith affect or challenge your perception or beliefs of what it means to be in a faith community?

    3) How does our perception of our faith community affect our interactions within it, and how we welcome new people into it?

  • Trust, Truth and Restoration

    Daniel 9:16-19, Psalm 25:1-10, 2 Timothy 4:1-5

    Daniel knows that God is and . Daniel knows that the people of Israel are in exile and hopeless because they chose to ignore God and the many prophets that He sent. They chose to follow their leaders who looking to earthly things to personal value and power. Daniel understood that the current situation was a consequence of unfaithful behavior.

    Yet, Daniel had enough in God to know that God would listen and that God, ultimately, wanted Israel restored, not just as a nation or people, but as a people of God. Daniel understood that it would only by God’s that Israel would be restored. He was confessing on behalf of an entire people that they had missed the mark, yet he still asked.

    1) In Psalm 25:6-7 (NIV), the psalmist writes, “, LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, LORD, are good.”
    Just like Daniel, the psalmist was appealing the consequences based upon God’s mercy and love, knowing that both preexisted the errors of the psalmist. Daniel, too, that God’s mercy and love existed long before he did, or the tribe and nation of Israel existed. The underlying thought here is that there was something that needed to be forgiven; there was something that needed to be repented of. Is there something that you think could be a problem, but aren’t certain that it is a problem that God is concern about? Bring it to God, anyways! That small thing could very well help you heal in other areas in your , or God may use it to show you what is really hampering your relationship with Him.

    2) In 2 Timothy 4:1-5, is warning Timothy that people will get to a point where they will not listen because they don’t want to. It is no different than what the people of Israel had done for generations prior to their exile. The very things Daniel was repenting of. We are often quick to say that there is false teaching all around us, even in our !

    Have you thought there was false teaching? What did you do?

    Do we ever something false teaching that does not conflict with scripture, but appears to conflict with our understanding or traditions?

  • Grateful In Ashes

    Joel 2:12-17, Psalm 51:1-17, 2 Corinthians 4:21-6:10 (read online ⧉)

    Through the prophet Joel, God sought to realign the life of the Israelites to Him. God was calling them to live a life oriented to Him. God didn’t want them to miss out on the life they were meant for. As we begin the Lenten season, it is a time for each of us to reflect upon what in our life is keeping us from being oriented on Him.

    From the early days of our faith, Christians have observed the remembrance of Christ’s passion (Good Friday) and resurrection (Easter) with great reverence. It became the custom to prepare for that observance by a season of and fasting, and the reconciliation of those who had been separated from the of faith. When keeping the season of Lent, we take to heart God’s to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and practice in our daily lives the work of reconciliation. You are invited to the observance of Lent through self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s Word.

    On Ash Wednesday, many people to receive the mark of , which is a reminder of our mortal nature and of God’s invitation to receive Christ’s redeeming work. The ashes are a sign of repentance, that one’s life is not as God-focused as it ought to be. It is a declaration that all is not well, that something needs to .

    As we walk together through Lent, through our paths of reflection, self-denial, and repentance, this is all part of our of gratitude to God who sent Christ, the ultimate letter, to us that we can see that God wants us as His Children.

    1) Giving up something (self-denial and/or fasting) is often practiced during Lent. The purpose is to grow closer to God. If you choose to do this, what will you give up? We challenge you to share whatever this is with someone who will hold you accountable.

    2) Other practices for Lent are focused prayer, self-examination, deeper scripture reading, all of which are intended to draw us deeper and to slow us down. What will you focus on this Lent to grow your walk?

    3) One of the newer trends is to give up something you know you need to give up already. Do you think that could be effective as a spiritual discipline? Why or why not?

  • Who Gets In?

    2 Kings 21: 1–18, Luke 13:31–35, Romans 11:1–12 (read online ⧉)

    Scripture leaves no question as to Manasseh. He was not a man after God’s own heart. While the image of God was in him, he in no way honored it. He led his people even further away from God. He is not alone in his . While he may have led the people away from God, they chose to follow. We could excuse their behavior by saying that they were afraid to oppose Manasseh, however, God does not excuse them. There is a lot to unpack there, but not for today.

    God does say that the people of Israel (and Judah) have done evil since they left Egypt. The time has come, it seems, for something to happen, and happen it did. The people of Judah were eventually sent into exile.

    By the time of , Israel was again in the clutches of a foreign authority. Just as during the exile, that did not mean that God stopped working, it just wasn’t as expected or often as desired. Jesus is quite blunt about the whole thing when he states that a true prophet of Israel (with some exceptions) will die in Jerusalem, by the hand of Jerusalem. That’s a pretty dark statement.

    A people who disregarded God and kill God’s prophets in the very city God “placed” his . What kind of could they possibly have?

    An amazing kind.

    had the unenviable task of sharing the with Jews and and placating the long-standing cultural frictions between the groups. Add into this the addition of Gentiles to God’s redemptive plan (despite it being in the Old Testament), and the tensions to cast out the “other” group(s) from the redemptive story was probably pretty strong. Paul had to well to the Gentiles who (at least some) seemed to think that now that they had received redemption, the Jews had lost it. Some Jews probably felt that Paul was saying that, too.

    Redemption is available to all.

    1) Have you ever thought or said that someone is beyond redemption?

    2) Reread Romans 11:12. Compare that to the behavior that Jesus noted. What does that tell you about God’s and ?

    3) Have you ever had to walk between 2 competing groups like Paul had to? What was it about? How was it resolved?