Devotion.al

Tag: pain

  • Life Vessel

    Psalm 71, Isaiah 55:1-13, Acts 9:19b-25

    It is easy to get lost in . It is easy to let the troubles of this world get you down. When the world especially tries to drag you down with, “if there really was a God…” The psalmist feels overwhelmed and opposed. There is even some feeling of being abandoned by God. Yet, the psalmist does not lose hope, and trust God, even when questioning. It’s okay to question what’s going on. God’s big enough to handle the question. It’s not that we question. It can be how we question. Really, it is who we look at when we question. Are we looking at ourselves? Are we looking at ? Or, are we looking, really looking at God?

    Isaiah has questions. The people of Israel have questions. They have lots of questions, and heartache, and , and pain, and anger, and despair, and…a whole of issues. The words shared by Isaiah are really the question…who/what are you looking at? When we look at God, we can receive – water and life. When we look elsewhere, it goes out of us. That can be good, as long as we keep looking to God to receive. However, the longer we are open to receiving, we end up leaving ourselves open to being changed. Some people take a touch. Others take tap. Others require a spiritual 2×4. It is what happens afterwards that is the difference: our and how we look at God.

    Paul got the 2×4 (or something bigger). He had an experience that was so powerful that he changed. He went from a man successfully penalizing the (including being an accomplice to murder), to being an obvious and outspoken support of Christ and his church. So much so, that it is not an unreasonable question to ponder, if he was so quickly able to successfully defend Jesus as the Messiah, why couldn’t have figured it out earlier? What if…a powerful question, that has no real answer.‌

    • ‌1) Being a vessel of God’s living water (spirit) can us deeply. Why can that be scary to people?‌
    • 2) What do you think of the life in the light of Isaiah’s words? Should your Christian life be changed?
    • 3) We often think of Paul being alone. Yet, he was never alone. What does that tell us about Paul, ourselves, and how we view important people?
    • FD) Sometimes we don’t understand God. Is that okay? Is it okay to not understand, and still love and trust God?

  • A Child-Like Gift

    Psalm 26, Matthew 18:1-4, James 4:7-12

    A child-like . That is the greatest an adult could for. All too often, however, we get caught up in our own heads, hearts and hurts. A child can look to God in faith and .

    We are not talking naiveite or ignorance. We are talking about innocence.

    Think of a baby. A parent tosses them up in play, smiling at this bundle of . The baby smiles, too, imitating the parent. Yet, for the first few times they are tossed up, they instinctively understand that this sensation is wrong. Despite that, their parent, their trusted person, is smiling. Trust overrides. A child-like faith.

    We actually have more child-like faith than we think, but it’s : engineers, mechanics, military and first responders. Even with other we have child-like faith that those around us know what they are doing, even though the traffic and accidents should teach us otherwise.

    James takes the “adult” approach. He’s working with those adults. He has to unwind the ways of the world from their minds and hearts. Cast aside your worldly ways, he says. When he talks about mourning and weeping, it is to recognize what we are in the world. Mourning and weeping are signs of grieving; grieving for our worldly selves; grieving for the world.

    So much of what we have to unwind is ourselves. Some have claimed that it was pride that led to the Fall of Adam and Eve (and thus mankind). All of what James writes of comes from our pride. A child of faith has pride…pride in God, not self. This is not to diminish self, for we are made in God’s image. We are not to see ourselves as better than others, for all are equal before God.

    An untrained (or untainted) child will treat others equally, no matter how different they are. Only when adults condition them to judge those different than themselves that children become cruel, and then we all have to deal with the of that cruelty.

    1) What does child-like faith mean to you? How do you live that out in a world that is “adult”?

    2) Why do we often put ourselves in the role of lawgiver and judge?

    3) Why do we judge when we ourselves don’t want to be judged?

    KD) What do you do when kids treat others differently then they would want to be treated?

  • Flourishing Love

    Flourishing Love

    Psalm 36, Psalm 42, Psalm 52

    We see people all around us who do not believe in God. There are those who know of God, but do not have a relationship with God. There are those whose relationship with God has been confused by the world or others. There are those who knew God, and for many reasons walked away. God loves them all.

    In Psalm 36:5 we read, “…your faithful reaches to heaven…” A love that reaches to the heavens does not abandon those not now in the fold of God. Also, God is faithful, and remains true to himself. The love of God is always there, even for those in full opposition to God. God’s love is faithful.

    In the midst of heartache, the Psalmist of Psalm 42 notes that God continually sends his faithful love (v. 8). This in God flows from the Psalmist’s recognition that he thirsts for the living God (v. 2). In many respects this is a key to understanding those inside the fold and those outside the fold of God. Searching and aching (or thirsting) for God is no . It is recognition that we are not the masters of our domain, as we like to think. It is a realization that our pride is nothing in comparison to the glory and of God.

    This is when we become the flourishing (not just surviving) olive tree in the house of God (Psalm 52:8). The flourishment is in God’s eternally faithful love. This love praises God through storm and sun, through good times and bad, as it is not based upon situations, but a relationship with God.

    This understanding of flourishing helps us when we to Psalm 42:8. “…[God’s] song will be with me in the night…” When we understand that night (lack of light) represents death and/or evil, we see that the Psalmist is not speaking/singing during a time of and freedom, but from the depths of . Yet, the Psalmist’s joy is based upon God, therefore it is a firm foundation.

    1) Why do you think flourishing is tied to God’s faithful love?

    2) Much of what we strive for is just for survival. How do we often confuse that with what we need to flourish?

    3/KD) There are many people near and far who are protecting us. Those in the Armed Services are away from their families, often in foreign countries. Police, and EMTs are nearby. We don’t see them much of the time, unless 1 or 2 are or friends. We trust them to protect us and we don’t know most of them. We can know (or do know) God, who we cannot see. Yet, we seem to often not trust God to help us flourish. Both are remote and/or invisible. Why is it often easier for people to trust the military and first responders and not God?

  • Beyond Hope

    Beyond Hope

    Luke:1:46b-55, James 5:7-10, Hebrews 12:1-2

    Mary’s song/poem of praise is often called the Magnificat in the Protestant/Roman Catholic tradition, or the Ode of the Theotokos (Bearer of God) in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. It is a -filled response to God by Mary that appears to be a response to Elizabeth’s joy-filled pronouncement of the Sprit-filled joy of John the Baptist (in utero, of all things) to hearing the of the Mother of God ().

    The double-meaning of Mary’s praise of “…my spirit rejoices in God my savior…” is the Jewish understanding of God (the Father) as the savior of their people, along side the coming of Jew and Gentile through the death of Jesus (God the Son). There is the reality of God as past, present and savior.

    The Jews knew many experiences of God as savior. The for the coming Messiah was built upon an understanding of a God that was faithful and would fulfill promises made.

    As a Jew, James had the same Jewish understanding as pregnant Mary, and he had seen fulfillment of the Messiah’s coming and salvation. Now James is passing the on. It is the expectation based upon God’s faithfulness that the Messiah will come again and the hope that remains strong in the face of adversity.

    In Hebrews, the author notes that Jesus went to the cross joyfully, not because Jesus was looking to the pain, anguish, betrayal and death. Jesus was looking beyond the cross, beyond the grave, and even beyond the . The author notes that Jesus’ prize was the throne of God. Though the author doesn’t say it here, the other prize was you and me before the throne of God, not in fear of judgement, but as Children of the Most High God.

    Elsewhere, the author of Hebrews notes that Jesus, our Savior, is continually interceding on our behalf and for all eternity. No matter how you feel about yourself being worthy, it doesn’t matter. As shirts and bumper stickers read, “I may not be perfect, but Jesus thinks I’m to die for.” That is our hope and joy.

    1) Are hope and joy the same thing?

    2) Why are having hope and joy important for a ?

    3) Why is it important to look at the Old Testament in regards to salvation?

    KD) Why does the author of Hebrews compare faith to running a race?

  • Quenching Our Light

    Quenching Our Light

    Isaiah 9:6-7, John 8:12-19, Philippians 4:4-9

    We are sheltered from the dark. For the most of us, is but a moment away, whether it is the dining room light or a flashlight. If you’ve ever spent a night out in the wilderness with a new moon (i.e., completely shaded by the Earth, and not off light), you experienced a wild . In darkness, even in the “safe” darkness of our homes, our hearing becomes more sensitive, and we have a tendency to jump at noises that we don’t even notice in the day.

    “It is better to light the candle than to the darkness,” said William L. Watkinson in his sermon, “The Invincible Strategy.” The Christian doesn’t turn a blind eye to the darkness that covers the world. Instead, the Christian chooses to bear the light of Christ into the world. In a dark room, a candle can shed enough light to make us feel more comfortable. When confronted by darkness, light brings us .

    In a similar way, Jesus Christ, the of God, brought light into the world, and our lives. The light of Christ, if we allow it, burns away the darkness inside of us that often seems to overtake us. When the light of Christ pushes away the dark, we can rest in the warmth of Christ and find peace. How this works is a spiritual . That it works is testified to by generations of Christ followers.

    Yet, we often are the worst quenchers of Christ’s light in ourselves and others. Whether it’s through envy, greed, pain (physical/emotional/spiritual), accident, or error, many things can quench the light of Christ in others. We can quench our own light by putting too much emphasis on the ways (and errors) of the world and others, and continually looking left, right, backwards, forwards, instead of looking up to Christ.

    1) How is our in the dark at home, similar to the struggles we have a Christian ?

    2) We often compare ourselves to others, or hold ourselves to a very high standard, when carrying the light of Christ. How is that good? How is that bad? What is the dividing point between good and bad?

    3/KD) Being the light can be quite simple, but we often make it hard for ourselves, and for others. What is something simple that you will do today to be the light of Christ for someone else? What will you do tomorrow?