Devotion.al

Tag: planning

  • Rubble and Ruin

    Rubble and Ruin

    Psalm 142; Amos 9:1–4; Acts 23:12–35

    I don’t know about you, but I’m a little jaundiced about earthquakes. I grew up in Northern California. Earthquakes were…normal isn’t the word…to be expected. So much so, that the first earthquake my wife experiences was in the middle of the night. She woke me up in a panic, “Was that an earthquake!?” “Yes,” I responded sleepily and went back to sleep. The biggest earthquake I experienced was the Loma Prieta one. It was big. Things fell off shelves, but it was just an earthquake. Finally, my mom convinced me to turn on the radio. Then I figured it out. It was big.

    The coming earthquake in Amos was big. Unlike us who have a larger grasp of earthquakes and their reasons, ancient peoples had no such framework. Earthquakes were generational memories (and they didn’t live on the Rim of Fire, either). An earthquake was a momentous, God-sized event. According to scholars, the earthquake predicted in Amos happened around 2 years later and is mentioned in literature elsewhere in the region. The earthquake leveled a temple dedicated to gods other than God.

    The Israelites by this point were the 10 tribes of Israel that had separated from Judah and Benjamin. They had developed their own . While maintaining some concept of their original , during this particular era, they were a power of their own. The lowly southern tribes were nothing to them.

    Many years before near Bethel, a man had a dream. He dreamed of a “ladder of angels.” He had received a vision from God and a of descendants. He called the place Bethel. God called the man Israel (granted, that happened later). Where Jacob had the vision and received a promise to become a of nations, now his descendants turned away from God. The dream was broken.

    The vision (that came true) of the destruction of the temple at Bethel sounds pretty severe. It was. That Amos’ call was to this nation showed that God was not truly done with Israel. God still wanted these descendants of Israel and Abraham. Abandoning of the dream, the , and the .

    Paul was no Amos. For the Jews, he was something far worse. He destined change within the confines of their faith. Paul had no plan to be part of some new religion, but to be part of the ultimate fulfillment of the faith in which he was raised and trained. Planning an assassination is the of people who do not wish to be seen, or the strength of someone stronger (the Roman empire). The sad is that, yet again, the religious leaders were knowingly allowing, abetting, and therefore approving the murder of another. They could claim that they did not murder (and be truthful), but they could have stopped it. They chose not to.

    Whether Amos or Paul, speaking the words of God to people who don’t want to them (especially those that say they believe in the word of God) can be dangerous. Our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world deal with that very issue on a daily basis. While we dispute the (un)righteousness of a political party, president, or even nation, there are people that truly suffer for Jesus. This is not to say that our woes are minor, it is just a matter of perspective.

    ※Reflection※

    • What “earthquakes” (life shattering events) have you experienced? These can be both good and bad.
    • Why do “bad things” happen to believing people? What makes Amos’ Israelites similar to the church (Christians)? What makes them different (besides Jesus)?
    • What actions (or inactions) have you committed (or omitted) that resembles the religious leaders who countenanced Paul’s assassination?

    ※Prayer※

    God, you move mountains. Often it is easier to move mountains than the hearts of humanity. Forgive our hearts of stone. Give us, day by day, new hearts that beat only for you. Amen.

  • We Love Talking About It

    We Love Talking About It

    1 Samuel 15:7–15; Acts 5:1–11

    Every pastor’s favorite sermon topic is tithing/giving. Every pastor absolutely loves talking about you are to freely to God by giving to the church and other missional activities.

    In case you’re wondering, that was sarcasm. Most pastor’s hate it. And, most people hate hearing it, because they often feel guilty about it. Hatred of the topic may be a veneer over the fear of Christianly dealing with money.

    John Wesley had a famous sermon on money. From it was gained a saying, “…Gain all you can… all you can…Give all you can….” Part of the problem with this saying is all the “…” that are part of it. They show that there is far more than just these 12 words. The context of each set of 4 words makes a lot of difference in how one interprets them.

    “All you can” is the real crux of the issue. “All you can” at what cost? John Wesley had a distinct moral code regarding “Gain all you can.” Some of today’s business owners might be okay. Others might not. Still others would not be able to figure it out.

    John Wesley was concerned that people who sought to gain would do it at the expense of others. In many respects, we could call capitalism with a heart. On the other hand, we could view it as capitalism with a long view for the benefit of humanity.

    If the long view of a business, and its profit, is for the benefit of humanity, that’s a good start. Destroying the environment would be harming God’s , so it would fail Wesley’s test, too. Much of our modern profiting, though, is a lot grayer.

    Saving is the next thing. Saving is not hoarding. Saving is more along the lines of protection of the wellbeing of one’s and self. Hoarding is gathering as much as one can and preventing others from gaining.

    In John Wesley’s era, far too many people owed money. It was a way of life. For some, it was the only way to feed their families. Today we think of credit card debt, home mortgages, student loans, and car loans. The amount of most of those loans could have been greatly reduced with good and a willingness to delay gratification. This is (for example) one area that the Church could be both a better witness of and of prophecy.

    “Give all you can” can be a trip. Often, even those of us in the Wesley use it or perceive it as more of a guilt scale. Wesley, while big on charity, didn’t seem to be particularly guilt-driven. However, by some accounts, he failed the “save all you can” for his family, for he gave all he could.

    Gain(earn)/save/give is a balancing act.

    Many Christians are like Saul. “Oh, I’ll give the difficult or unwanted stuff to God.” Sounds like many people who give broken stuff to a church. The church then often must pay to dispose of it. Saul turned a commandment from God into we’ll benefit, oh, and maybe God will like a little bit, too.

    The path of Ananias and Sapphira was “look at what we did. We gave everything (oh, except that part we kept back).” They wanted the accolades about the total sacrifice, rather than just giving freely and joyfully. If they’d given 90% and kept 10% and were honest about it, everything would have been fine.

    Far too many preachers (and non-profit type) folks speak about a person’s checkbook as the litmus test. It isn’t. It would be nice if the 10% rule (from the time of Israel) had been sufficient. It wasn’t. When a person has a rule (10%), the heart doesn’t have to go along.

     It is the motive behind our use of money that is the point of tithing and giving.

    God created the world. God already has the money (as if God needed it). God wants our heart.

    ※Reflection※

    • When a church or non-profit person starts talking about money, what’s your first response? How about an entrepreneur, investor, banker, or politician?
    • What is so captivating about money and stuff?

    ※Prayer※

    Jesus, may you be the Lord of our heart. May the of mammon in us be overwhelmed and transformed by the of Holy Spirit. Amen.

  • Change of Plans

    Change of Plans

    Judges 2:16–23; Acts 13:16–25

    There is a saying that you are probably familiar with: repeating the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. When it comes to practice, that isn’t the case. When it comes to many other things in , though, it is very true.

    In manufacturing (where I work for pay), there is an expectation that we will always strive for continuous improvement. Continuing the same process, material size, tooling size, program configuration will not result in improvements after the first few runs. It is only when one analyzes and changes things there are improvements (and plenty of failures, too).

    The Israelites, post-Joshua, were not continuously improving their with God. They were a wrecking crew. God’s , however, was significant.

    When things were really bad, God would send a judge. Just as when Joshua was alive, they would be “good” God-followers (somewhat)…until that judge died. The process repeated itself, again and again. Sounds a bit like insanity.

    God changed it up. He let them succumb to the external forces (and internal ones, too). He wasn’t done with them. He just let them be free.

    Then God called Samuel. Samuel was, in many respects, the next judge. However, his was definitely a different kind. There really wasn’t a military side to Samuel.

    This time, the people might have learned something. They seemed to understand that they needed someone. With Samuel’s , they would be right back to where they were.

    God was mad (and hurt). Yet, God used this tiny turn in the hearts of Israelites, to bring, ultimately, the line of David into preeminence. From that line of David, the Savior came.

    ※Reflection※

    Have you ever had a big struggle trying to solve a problem or a goal, and continued to fight it? And, then, taken a pause (even a nap!) and the solution came?

    The rudder of a ship is small in comparison to the ship. Yet, this small thing guides the ship’s direction. What small thing, that seemed so small in comparison to the big things, changed your life completely? If you can’t think of anything, pray to God for a revelation (it’s amazing what that little prayer can do).

    Is there anything in your life right now that seems to be on an endless loop that’s driving you crazy? Have you asked God for clarity/ in the situation? Have you sought wise and/or different council to forward?

    ※Prayer※

    God, you have done big and small miracles in our lives, whether we see them or not. Even some of the smallest have changed our lives. Help us to be responsive to your nudge to be the agents of in the lives of . Amen.

  • Ready! Set!

    Ready! Set!

    Luke 5:1–11; Luke 6:12–16; Luke 9:1–6; Luke 9:28–36; Luke 24:44-49; Acts 2:14 (read online ⧉)

    What’s your 6-month plan? What’s your 12-month plan? What’s your 3-year plan? What’s your 10-year plan?

    Some variation of this question is often asked of high school students, college students, recent graduates, job interviewees. In this particular time of COVID-19, it seems a little far-fetched to even make a plan.

    Depending on your personality and training/learning, you may have a plan laid out for even 10- or 20-years. Others look at their past and the future, and say why bother? Who knows what the next monkey-wrench will be.

    Businesses have begun to , thanks to the start-up culture, that rigid plans are deadly. There is a term for it, agile. Businesses are now called to be agile by their stockholders. It’s a necessity as the next technological disruption is just around the corner. Other disruptions, like COVID-19, are much harder to be agile toward, however, companies that already had some agility were better able to .

    If you look at the verses from Luke in sequence and ending with Acts, you see a change in plans. Peter is a major focal point as he moves from fisherman, to acquaintance, to follower (i.e., disciple), to inner-circle follower, to healer and herald, to an even smaller inner-circle, to transformed (by the ), to preacher and leader. This was not part of Peter’s plan.

    At the point we meet Peter, his lifetime plan is fisherman. Three years later he’s the leader (of leaders) of a religious movement! Peter met Jesus, and the plan…it was gone.

    It’s not that plans are bad. Jesus even praised planning (Luke 14:28-32). However, we have to be and willing to toss out our plans when Jesus calls.

    Plans are our way to control our circumstances. This is why we have planning departments. This is even how we have modern agriculture. Planning is good.

    Planning still has to yield to Jesus’ . That’s where we often fail.

    There will be many churches, businesses, cities, and even families that will not recover from COVID-19. In many cases, no amount of planning will prevent that. On the other hand, churches (especially) chose to not be agile, because that is not the way we’ve done it before.

    Churches chose to die, rather than respond to Jesus Christ’s call for them to be agile in how they performed their mission. It could be, sadly, that they forgot the only mission that they had, “Go and make disciples…baptizing them…teaching them…”

    On a personal level, just like an organizational level, we need to be agile. Our plans (as much as we want them to be) cannot be rigid and inflexible.

    Whether it was the leaders (it was) or the people (it was) forgoing the mission for the sake of “the plan”, it means that “the plan” became the mission, and Jesus became a mascot.

    ※※

    Lord, give us your plans. Help us to release our plans. May we be the salt of the earth that you have called us to be. Amen.

    ※※

    1) What would be your response if God were to turn your plans upside down? What in your current life would you be willing to give up to follow God’s plan?

    2) What are your plans right now? If you have none, why not? Should you? If you do have plans when was your last time to renew/refresh it?

    3) Why do you think churches have a hard time changing plans?

  • Stone to Grace

    Exodus 28:15–30, Ezekiel 36:24–30, Luke 3:7–9, Luke 19:37–40

    “I’ve done too much.”

    “God would never forgive me.”

    “I would be [struck by lightening/catch on fire/combust/die] if I walked through the doors.”

    “If you (or God) knew what I had done…”

    Have you heard any of these statements from people?

    It is so completely human to not understand God’s amazing grace. It is even more human to not accept it.

    The stones representing the tribes of Israel were only a mere representation. Yet, as the story of Exodus continues into Lamentations into Judges, the people of Israel often seem to have brains and/or hearts of stone. How sad! We all, at times, have hearts of stone. Look how we treat one another. Our hearts could easily be stone (metaphorically, of course).

    The metaphor of a of stone has a couple of facets. The first, facet is that stone does not “live”. The implication being that we aren’t as God intended. We are dead. The second facet is a heart that does not feel. One of the biggest struggles that humanity faces is and grace. As the comments at the beginning show, we often have neither compassion nor grace for ourselves, and then we treat others the same. The third facet and God’s greatest concern is that a heart of stone has no active part in God or God’s will.

    Ezekiel’s words were intended to show that God was willing (and planning) to things up. The Spirit was coming.

    John’s words to the descendents of Israel alluded to Ezekiel’s words but even touches on the place of the stone tablets upon which the 10 commandments were . For the descendents, there would also be an attack on their pride. THEY were the chosen of God. John pokes a huge hole in their pride. God doesn’t need them (he still wants them). The stones the walk on could be as worthy as them. They would have felt that in their bones.

    During ‘ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, stones come up again. Instead of merely being prideful due to heritage, Jesus talks about stones praises to God. Were the hearts of the leaders so dead that they could no longer praise and glory to God? That’s the implication. Yet people if God has a place for them? If God can make stones into “true” descendants of Abraham and into people who praise and glorify God, then why not?

    1) What lies have you heard people tell you (but mostly themselves) as to why God would not accept them?

    2) What can you do to change the narrative about God and the overwhelming grace of God?

    3) What do you do to keep your heart from being so concerned about “God’s work” that your heart becomes hard toward God?

  • What God’s Will?

    Genesis 37:16–27, Deuteronomy 30:15–20, Matthew 12:46–50

    One of the most heartbreaking things taught by certain Christian traditions is that God wills bad things to happen to people. One of the reasons they draw that conclusion is that we are able to look back at stories like Joseph’s and say, “God knew/planned/designed this to happen.” For people who have no faith or have believed themselves betrayed by God, how could such a bring them or joy? In fact, it is not surprising that they would never trust such a God.

    One of the other presumptions often followed is blind faith. Blind faith often means “following your heart” without any . This is not Joseph’s faith, or at least scripture doesn’t provide that description. Part of the other problem with our looking back and imposing our own stories is that we forget or neglect a basic reality—and it certainly was Joseph’s— is hard. What Joseph experienced is probably not that different than others experienced in the same era. We can draw that conclusion fairly easily, for selling into slavery is still a story being experienced today in many parts of the world. It doesn’t make it easy, though.

    When Moses sends off the Israelites to the promised land, he presents a choice: life or . One would think that was an easy and simple choice. As the story of the Israelites unfolds, however, we can see that it isn’t the case. Yet, again, the conclusion could be drawn that God planned that the Israelites would not choose life. Yet, that isn’t God’s intent, purpose, or God’s heart (as revealed by his prophets). Yes, God knew, and God them anyway. God knew, and he loved everyone so much that he permitted awful things, even while he cried out to them to return.

    God did not seek to send Joseph to death or slavery. Joseph’s brothers had a choice. There were plenty of choices that could have been made differently, Israel (or Jacob) could have made different decisions, as could have Leah and Rachel. Joseph definitely could have made different decisions. It’s not what God directs or allows, it’s what God redeems that is the real story.

    What is God’s will for us? Well, God’s will for Joseph was that Joseph interpret dreams that God gifted him the ability to interpret. God’s will for Moses that he guide the people to the Promised Land. They both did it, but not fully and in the best way.

    God’s will for ‘ family was that they raise and the Messiah. They did, but as the “blooming” of the Messiah occurred, they weren’t so happy. What was God’s will for them? They partially succeeded but had a slight of heart. Did they fully oppose God’s will? No. They just made things a little more difficult for the Messiah. Being true to form, Jesus redeemed it, teaching us what it means to be Jesus’ family.

    1) Why is “being in God’s will” so attractive? Why is the view of God controlling everything the opposite of “being in God’s will”?

    2) What is the difference between being in “God’s will” and blind faith? What are the similarities?

    3) Why is redemption such an important piece of understanding “God’s plan” versus God redeeming our choices?

  • Holy Monday

    Ecclesiastes 8:8–15, Psalm 51, Mark 11:12–18

    When the writer of Ecclesiastes notes that no one has authority over the wind, he had no concept of the wind generation farms we have. We may have harnessed the wind to provide power for us, but we have no authority over it. We put the wind farms where the wind goes. We don’t build our wind farms and tell the wind where to go. The writer of Ecclesiastes, though, is really referring to the rich and powerful who as if they have all the control and power. Often we play right into the hands of the powerful, just as the powerful do for each other. As the writer of Ecclesiastes notes, the rich and powerful people go in and out of the with people praising them. Because of how the rich and powerful got there, all their and is absolutely nothing.

    The Psalmist speaks to the reality of this empty praise when he writes about God not wanting or burnt offerings, but humble people. The rich and powerful praised on their way back from the temple were (generally) not there for worship.

    When comes and clears the temple, the rich and powerful have set up a system that keeps people from praising God as prescribed. Think of tourist traps. The burger might cost $15 there, but $6 at home. That is what is going on in the temple. When Jesus accuses the priests and moneychangers of being thieves, it is because they have added on a huge cost that negatively affected people. They filled the temple courts with something that didn’t belong.

    Are you expecting or something that doesn’t belong in the courts of the house of God?
    1) People leave (or go to) churches for reasons that often have nothing to do with God. Have you ever done so?

    2) What things do you think should be cleared out of ? Now, is it because it actually is a barrier between people and God, or is it because it is something that you are not familiar or comfortable with?

    3) Do you think the powerful learned anything from Jesus’ actions in the temple? Why or why not?

  • Worthy Legacy

    Psalm 84, 1 Chronicles 28:1–29:9

    When we speak of legacy, it is usually about what we leave behind. In Shakespeare’s play Julias Caesar, Anthony says, “The that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.” That sad is that often the bad that people do (even if simple, stupid mistakes) outlast the good. Even the awareness of the good (even good that outweighs the bad) fades, as we seem to be attracted to the bad.

    your legacy is important. If you are a parent of younger children, start thinking about it now. If your children are middle- or high-school, it takes a different kind of planning. If your children are out of the house, yet a different. If you have no children, pour into those younger than you. Legacy isn’t a thing, it is an action for the now.

    David wanted to now to build a for God. He made the building plans. He probably started storing supplies for the building. He was to go! Then he was stopped by God. Was his legacy to be stopped by God? In a way. There is definitely Godly separating the warrior king and his warrior ways from God’s temple. One can infer that while God (because of humanity’s fallen nature) tolerated and used war to preserve the Israelites, it really wasn’t the goal or intention. Despite being stopped, however, David’s plans still came to fruition.

    When David’s , Solomon, became king, the temple project went from plans to fruition. The temple is still referred to as Solomon’s Temple, yet David designed (with Godly inspiration) and provided for its construction. While it was “Solomon’s Temple”, it was still David’s legacy. Through David’s legacy, people worshiped God. David just didn’t get all the credit.

    1) Our best legacy can often be what could have had our name attached but doesn’t. What legacies can you think of that would still be worthwhile even if you are forgotten as part of it?

    2) It’s never too late to start a legacy. Even if your family is broken, or you are broke. You choose your legacy. What legacy will you choose?

    3) We all leave a legacy. It may only last a generation in a form we recognize. How can a legacy transform and grow beyond what we ourselves did?