Devotion.al

Tag: love

  • Smite Me or Hug Me

    2 Kings 17:34–41, Psalm 27 (read online ⧉)

    This passage in 2 Kings is a little odd. To make sense in English, is not used in a manner consistent with the Hebrew. In the opening (v34) and closing (v41) verses, fear is actually a descriptor (adjective) of the Israelites. In the of the verses, “fear” is something you out. Now, the trouble is that fear has many layers to it. Another way to think of this passage is, “The Israelites did not fear, honor, or God enough to solely obey God’s ways, disregarding the covenants made between God and their ancestors. Instead, Israelites feared the false gods of other nations and tribes that did not them mightily and definitively from slavery in the land of Egypt. They feared those gods and viewed them as being at least equal to God. While they feared God, they did not honor or respect God exclusively as they were called to do.” This is not a perfect translation. It isn’t even really a good one. It does help to better understand what is going one when fear was involved.

    Fearing God as the punishing master was never the point. While obedience was required, it was to be out of devotion, admiration, awe, and . This is one of those cultural pieces that often get lost for us, especially when using the fear. The other one is the perception of many believers that God is capricious and vicious. What is truly sad is that the gods of the surrounding nations were truly capricious and vicious. How God ended up being cast in that is a peculiarity of nature.

    We know that by this point that the descendants of Israel had walked away from God in their hearts if not solely in their actions. This is an important concept to understand as when we read Psalm 27 we get a completely different image of God. If one was truly afraid, why would one view God as a protector? In addition, the psalmist says that his will not be afraid. So, fearing (as in terror) God is not a solid image of God.

    Where does this come from? Sure, some of it comes from the Israelites. However, much of it comes from Christianity. There are many old (centuries) and new sermons that abused the concept of fearing (awe) God, turning it into something truly terrifying. You may be one of those who was terrified by sermons delivering a concept of an angry God who was looking for some reason to smite you.

    1) Why would fear and awe get confused? How do you differentiate them when it comes to God?

    2) Why is the concept of overly fearing other gods still relevant today?

  • 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: , joy, , forbearance, , goodness, , , self-control.

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

    1 Timothy 6:11 has its own list of characteristics: , 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 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 . 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 “living” the Christian 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?

  • Another Test?

    Nehemiah 8:1–6; Luke 24:18–27; Acts 17:10–15 (read online ⧉)

    The Israelite Exiles have returned home, sort of. As Ezra reads the , the remnant of Israel learns what it means to be God’s people. Generations had already wandered away emotionally and spiritually. Then they went into exile in a foreign land with various gods and practices and unlearned even more. The confrontation with God’s was probably startling to many, and -wrenching for .

    Even when theoretically well-established with the Scriptures, and even being (outer) disciples of , disciples such as Cleopas still needed to have things explained further to him. Perhaps, like many of us, it needed that “one more time” to get. Perhaps Jesus said it the “right” way this time so that Cleopas understood. Maybe for Cleopas, it took the report of the and Jesus’ explanation and the breaking of the bread to “get it”. We just don’t know why it took so much for Cleopas (and we really can’t forget Cleopas’ companion) to get it, but each of us has had a similar experience, where we just need to go over it and over it and over it (whatever “it” is).

    This is what makes the Bereans a good example. They eagerly dug into the Scriptures to validate what they were told.

    1) When was the last time you eagerly dug into the Scriptures?

    2) The Israelites needed to test things against the Scriptures but didn’t. How is your habit of things against the Scriptures?

    3) Do you recall that we are to test the Scriptures through the lens of God’s for us as displayed by Jesus Christ? In what ways is this displayed by Jesus’ explanations to Cleopas and his companion?

    : take one opinion or commentary regarding or from the world and test it against the Scriptures.

  • The Sky Is Falling, Right?

    Psalm 27:1–6, Acts 9:1–22 (read online ⧉)

    The psalm may have stirred up a hymn or song in your mind. If wired a certain way, maybe you started singing. This psalm is from a person who is very weary. The psalmist feels as if there are neverending battles needing to be fought. The psalmist perceives that as long as God is there it’s okay. Now that doesn’t mean from a human perspective that everything will work out fine, just that as God is there it’s okay.

    The psalmist resorts to being in the house of God and in the . God is worth it, so thinks the psalmist. Is there hope and assurance that everything will ultimately work out? Yes. However, God often means not trusting ones’ own plans.

    American Christians, with some justification, are perceiving more and more that the culture (and maybe even the world) is turning against the faith. There has always been some opposition to the faith. It’s not a new thing. Perhaps what we are seeing is a to true balance, meaning that those that deceived themselves that they were Christians or misunderstood themselves as being Christians have begun to be free of those particular shackles. This in no way implies that Christianity is bad (just to clarify), but that many people misunderstood (and still do) what it means to be a Christian. Instead of mourning or getting defensive or getting angry about all the changes (including in our families) perhaps we ought to look to the psalmist for guidance. We are not called to win on our own, but to work on God’s plan and timetable (honestly, the hardest part). That of course, doesn’t mean we don’t have a part to play. Quite the contrary we each have a part to play.

    Paul (formerly Saul) had a part to play. He was one of those who was slandering and attacking Christians to purify the Jews of this sect. His became feared. His arrival meant nothing good. Except that God had a plan. It certainly, from the outset, didn’t seem like a great plan. Let’s have this guy harass and even endorse the killing of Christians. Let’s have him go from synagogue-to-synagogue and even town-to-town and the faith. All seemed lost or at least losing. Until Saul had a fateful encounter with Jesus. The event was so profound that Saul chose to go by Paul, meaning that he set aside the old and became new. , he was “the enemy.” Now, his writings are an essential part of the Bible.

    1) Politicians often use to motivate. Fear of “losing” Christianity is starting to grow. What should be the proper motivation regarding working for or expanding the Kingdom?

    2) If love is the reason for our faith, then why are we allowing fear to drive our decisions regarding our faith?

    : Pray the psalm, asking God for insight as to what it means for your faith and your world.

  • Rest or Death?

    Psalm 23 (read online ⧉)

    Psalm 23 is that one Psalm that even many non-Christians appreciate (if not ), and even those who have walked away from the still hold onto. Even with people who do not fully understand the imagery of a and grasp some of the very important pieces from it, even when they don’t believe in God.

    God loves them. Yep. That’s part of what makes this Psalm so amazing. People understand the caring and cherishing love that is conveyed in this Psalm. Those who don’t believe in God or have long struggled with the concept of a loving God versus a harsh God still get it! They want it!

    God cares about them. Making people . Places of calming. Places of . Who doesn’t want that? And it calls to the unbeliever too!

    Yes, there is a lot more in this Psalm that has called, drawn, nourished, healed people for generations. That is part of the problem. This Psalm is peaceful. It draws into a place of peace. That’s all good. However, it’s supposed to be a place of rest. If it is a place of rest, that means one needs to rest from something. Too often, though, we just want to rest. Rest is good. God built us that way. Too much rest is bad. We become more and more lethargic. We don’t want to /go. We want to remain at rest.

    At the risk of taking too much out of context, let’s look at the מְנֻחֹות [mânuchah /men·oo·khaw]. Depending on the translation it means still (KJV, ESV) or quiet (NIV, CSB). When applied to water, there is a concept of the water’s presence being relaxing. In a culture that did not view water as particularly relaxing (there was more fear), this is very important. We, on the other hand, have a more relaxed view of the water.

    Still or quiet does not mean stagnant. While the water is still or quiet, it is still “alive”. It moves. It has in it. Too often we believe we want still or quiet, but we up with stagnation. Water that is not stagnant has a cycle of its own. Stagnant water evaporates into nothingness. It ends up being nothing. It ends up being useless.
    Resting in God is essential. It is important. It needs to be regular. The purpose of God-based rest is to do God’s work. Far too many people rest and are resting too long.

    1) What does it mean to be stagnant in God’s Kingdom?

    2) People, programs, ministries, facilities, thought processes, and so on can all become stagnant, even the ones we love. Where do you see stagnation?

    3) What is the difference between stagnation and building up over a long period of time? How can you tell the difference?

  • The 3 Rs: Regret, Remorse, Repent

    Matthew 27:3–4, Luke 17:1–4, Acts 8:9–25, Acts 16:22–34 (read online ⧉)

    According to Merriam-Webster…

    regret means (1)(a) to mourn the or of, (b) to miss very much; (2) to be very sorry for

    remorse means (1) a gnawing distress arising from a sense of for past wrongs, self-reproach

    means (1) to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one’s ; (2)(a) to feel regret or contrition, (b) to one’s mind

    The words we use mean something. We often use regret and repent interchangeably when we talk about sin and forgiveness. How we use these two words really matter. The key to this is ‘ words. If the brother repents, then forgive them (and we won’t talk about the counting piece, as that is merely a distraction for today). We, understandably, question how we can tell that someone has repented. If we were to take Jesus’ words literally, we would especially question it if the person came back 7 times in a day repenting. If we use the understanding of feeling sorrow and changing one’s mind, it seems that the person really didn’t change their mind.

    Yet, if something has been ingrained and habituated, 1 day of repentance isn’t going to make a heart-, mind-, and behavior-deep change. If that were so effective, the percentage of people “breaking” their New Year’s resolutions wouldn’t be increasing day-by-day. Repentance (sorrow along with change of mind/heart) may not be a short road to walk for many issues. Sometimes the repentance for an may be jeopardized by other behaviors and habits that resulted in the behavior repented for. For example, one doesn’t just have an adulterous affair one day (with certain psychological issues being the exception). It builds up. Staring at the other sex. Flirting with them. Placing them above your spouse. It all builds on one another. While a person may repent (whole-heartedly) of their adultery, the other behaviors that lead to it still need to be addressed.

    Regret, on the other hand, is something different. People will often regret their bad actions, but only because they were caught. Or they might regret their actions because they perceive they lost out on something they wanted. Another way to think of it can be found in the current cultural phenomenon called FOMO, which is an acronym of Fear Of Missing Out. FOMO is a fear of the potential regret one might feel for not doing something. The reality is that we all have regrets.

    The difference between regret and repent is different than a similarity in the potential of both, which is often where we confuse them. Regret, by and large, is selfish. This is not always the case, granted. However, if one thinks about when feelings of regret (or conveyed) it usually is not about harm inflicted upon another (that is remorse), it is about how the bad thing affected the person feeling regret. Remorse lies between regret and repent. At least remorse is about another (i.e., less selfish), but there is still selfishness involved.

    Many Christians, probably most of us, love the repent until they need to repent. We don’t mind regretting, too much. We’re okay with remorse. The reason why regret and remorse are tolerable is they don’t really require anything of us. Repentance, on the other, requires all of us.

    1) What have you regretted in life? Why?

    2) What have you felt remorse for in life? Why? Did you make amends, or what happened?

    3) Skipping the often ingenuine “I repented of all my sins”, what have you repented of? If you committed the action that you repented of, did you really repent, or was it really regret and/or remorse?

  • Evangelizing the Body

    Proverbs 15:1, Proverbs 25:15, Isaiah 40:10–14, Matthew 12:11–21 (read online ⧉)

    The mission statement of the of the Nazarene is, “to make Christ-like disciples in all nations.” In case you’ve forgotten, though you probably haven’t, one of the tasks of Christians is to make disciples. The mission statement of the Church of the Nazarene is really the call upon all Christians. For many years, the culture of the United States appeared to have a deep understanding of Christianity and had embraced it. The formulation of evangelism has been firmly rooted in that. Techniques such as the Romans Road and 4 Spiritual Laws were developed for that culture. If these techniques were so effective, the religious landscape of our country would be very different. It is not that they were not effective, it was just that the presentation of their effectiveness is questionable.

    The reality is that techniques that rely on a particular time, place, and culture will only be effective for a short time. The time that many were effective was relatively short. There are many, however, that still cling to these ways. Much of the reason is that they were simple and straight forward. On the front end, they also appeared effective in the short term as people “came to Christ.” Yet, over time a large proportion didn’t “stick.” This actually why evangelism in today’s world has far greater potential.

    In today’s world, the fact that we can no longer rely on techniques and “quick-strike” techniques is actually a good thing. It’s a hard thing. It’s a very hard thing. It’s still a good thing. In today’s culture, is the single biggest “technique”. If we are honest with ourselves, we can look back even at the evangelism techniques and recognize that when it “stuck” a relationship was involved.

    Our two verses from Proverbs address speaking with others. Contrary to Proverb 15:1, the church (generally) has been characterized (with reason) as speaking with harsh words. In our worthwhile attempt to guide/direct people to live a God-honoring life, we instead scarred and hurt them with our words. Proverbs 25:15 shows us that will win for more people over, and if our goal is to win people over to Christ, then we should follow the wisdom of Proverbs. Here is the struggle point, however, with this wisdom; there is no guarantee and it will take time. In a quick-fix world like ours, the dedication of time becomes a stumbling block to Christians living out their mission.

    Gentleness and guiding are part of the image that Isaiah is trying to portray. Isaiah shows God’s heart for people. Who are we to not follow this guidance? Carrying lambs and guiding those nursing is not quick. It requires patience and . This guidance and care is placed in the middle of verses talking about God’s and . This tells us that power and glory go hand-in-hand with guidance and care. Of course, there is a human tendency towards condescension, of which we must all be cautious.

    This view of God is then applied to by Matthew (who was quoting Isaiah). It carries on the view of God above. There is the preceding story of a “sinful” healing on the . Where was the gentleness and guidance in this? There was only condemnation and condescension. The key for our thoughts on gentleness and guidance are really in Matthew 12:20. A bruised reed means the plant is already injured and hurting. One can easily break a bruised reed, rather than bandage and work to heal it. A smoldering wick means that the fire was blown out or the oil extinguished. One can more easily fully extinguish a smoldering wick rather than reigniting the or filling the lamp with oil.

    1) Due to many issues (both past and ongoing), evangelism needs to occur in the church, as much as outside of the church. Who is someone struggling with their faith or beliefs? Who can you stand next to and lift up?

    2) Many of the people that we outside of the church have been hurt by it. This can be by words or spoken actions taken. It can also be by stories told of the church. How can you work to build a bridge to those that have been hurt by us?

    3) When being confronted with a challenge to your views, especially your world view, how do you respond?

  • To Flourish

    Psalm 52, Colossians 1:3–14, 2 Peter 1:3–15 (read online ⧉)

    “But I am like a flourishing olive tree in the house of God…” Psalm 52:8 (CSB)

    Being and becoming a flourishing olive tree should be our goal. We, of course, are not trees. We are, however, treasured creations of God that God helps to nurture into Christ-like beings. There is that tension, though, about what God to us. The Wesleyan holds that God does not force us, yet without the Spirit working in us, we are doomed to be the same. How it works is a mystery. The theologians of many traditions (not just the Wesleyan) continue to robustly discuss this. This is not bad. It is often distracting though.

    The tree…

    …is in the house of God.
    …quests for water
    …strains against the wind, and grows stronger.
    …reaches for the sun.
    …produces fruit.

    It seems obvious what the house of God is. It’s church. Except that is an incomplete understanding. We often think of house as a building. בַּיִת [bayith /bah·yith/] is also used to describe household, home, family, within, descendants. What if instead of “flourishing in the house of God” we were to read it as “flourishing in the family of God?” If we were to do so, that would mean praying , groups, worship, and other related activities that we do together are covered, as long as that draws us closer to God.

    Water is always life (especially from a wilderness and livestock point of view). With Jesus referring to himself as the Water of Life it takes on an important , and it is one that we should take very seriously. Pursuing the Water of Life means that we follow Jesus, and do our best to cast off the world to become more like Jesus, and less like the world. Pursuing the Water (another title) would also cover reading the and praying.

    The wind aspect is a little different. The wind is both the world trying to knock us down and the Holy Spirit. We couldn’t escape some tension here. That would be too easy. The storms (the wind) of the world seek to uproot us from the solid ground that is God. The Holy Spirit pushes and shapes us to be stronger so that we can stand firmer against the world.

    Reaching for the sun would seem to be automatically related to the Son, yet the sun provides warmth (like ) and nourishment (trees need the sun to breathe and produce energy). The sun and its attributes can be found in things like families and friends.

    Lastly, though, the tree produces fruit which can take many forms (the list is far too long).

    All of this falls under the huge umbrella of spiritual growth. The two passages from Paul’s letter to the Colossians and the second letter Peter are deeply concerned about spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is not optional. In fact, to be a Christ-follower, we are (by definition) seeking to spiritually grow to be closer and closer to Christ. If you are not pursuing spiritual growth the question of being a Christ-followers rears its head.

    1) Looking at the list in Colossians 1:9–12 of spiritual growth, what pops out for you? Which area are you growing in? Which one are you weakest in?

    2) 2 Peter 1:5–7 is a list often used as a list of spiritual fruit. Where do you fall within the list? Do you think the list is exhaustive? Why do you think Peter ties the “fruit” together?

    3) How important do you view your spiritual growth? How about the spiritual growth of ? Why is that your view?