Devotion.al

Tag: providing

  • Prayer Signs

    Prayer Signs

    Psalm 65; Exodus 7:14–24; Acts 27:13–38

    Do the right thing! Then, do the next right thing! If there is a question of what the right thing is? You’ll just know. Right? Sounds completely rational. You’ll just know.

    Except it doesn’t always (or even often for many) work that way. Many times awe-inspiring stories are told of how God answered prayers or provided guidance. If it hasn’t worked for you, yes, perhaps your needs some work. On the other hand, perhaps God is expecting you to work it through yourself.

    Moses and Paul are great examples to look at. They are also not.

    Both Moses and Paul are powerfully connected to God. Although the Scriptures tell us all the high and powerful points. They also don’t tell us the times between.

    Were Moses and Paul always deeply and intimately connected to God? No. While we can be sure that Moses learned about the God of the Israelites from his biological mother, his life in the court of the Pharaoh would have definitely tempered some of that (though likely there was some warmth for the of his mother).

    Paul was a strict observer of the Jewish Law. So strictly did he follow the Law, that he vigorously attacked the fledgling faith of the Way (that became later identified as Christian). We could easily say he was an observant Jew. However, his pre-conversion life would not have had the same connection to God based upon his conversion.

    This is not to say that your relationship with God is not significant or deep. It is to say that each of us lives different lives, and how that affects our relationship with God may be significant.

    What we can do is to temper ourselves by reading the Scriptures, prayer, and a group of fellow believers that we can be fully open with all our flaws and failures. As we become more shaped by the Scriptures, prayer, and the lives of , we can begin to expect to understand the guidance that God has been to this point, but we were unable to grasp it.

    Lastly, though, is the hardest part…and it’s all ours. It is our free will. We can choose to pursue God and God’s will. We still may choose our own.

    ※Reflection※

    • What is the one thing you are looking for an answer from God about?
    • What about it is something that you cannot determine yourself?
    • What have you done in finding wise Christian counsel to work through this?

    ※Prayer※

    Lord, we pray and wait for . Yet, while we wait, you still call us to walk day by day trusting in you. Guide us into your will, and mold our hearts to to it.

  • The Fruit We Yield

    The Fruit We Yield

    Psalm 52; Jeremiah 22:1–9; Luke 6:43–45

    Have you ever been somewhere with a beautiful bowl filled with fruit, then picked up a piece of fruit, and realized that it was fake? It looks pretty and improves the ambiance, but beyond that, it is useless for .

    Christians have a discrepancy (okay, we have many). We understand the “” of following Jesus. We also have a general understanding that we cannot earn our way into Heaven (i.e., “works righteousness).

    Yet, here we are stuck in words of actions. There is the reality that actions can form us. This is why the ancient focused so much on disciplines of behavior (bible reading, confession, etc), not because they, in and of themselves, reformed us, but so that the pattern of lives became set. Through that setting, we are more and willing to let the Holy transform us.

    Despite those intentions—we see this in Jewish and traditions—the rules intended to guide the heart became rules to follow. By following the rules, people were able to appear transformed, but their hearts were anything but.

    Jeremiah’s call to live a just continues from yesterday’s scriptures (Jeremiah 21:11–14). The battle being waged upon the hearts of Judah is about living life versus following rules. When we only follow rules, rather than live, we are only going to die unfulfilled (Romans 7:5, Romans 8:2). We also will be no better than the fake fruit in the bowl.

    When Jesus talks about “good” fruit—kalos—there is actually a play on words that our translations miss and thus we do not connect other phrasings. Kalos (the Anglicization of καλός) has a focus on the outward appearance, which is similar to Jesus’ accusation of the teachers and Pharisees about being whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:27). At the same time, there is also the implied meaning that there is still some use for the fruit despite the focus on outward appearance. A lot of big supermarkets have buyers who view the outside of the fruit, because they know what will sell at the market, and it is pretty fruit. That doesn’t mean that the fruit is necessarily really tasty, nor does that mean that there are not hidden issues. You, too, may have experienced buying a “nice to look at” piece of fruit, and then found something less than appealing after a bite or two.

    We have to be careful when we draw too much on the good/bad dichotomy as (for example) good fruit goes rotten, too (thus becoming bad). The agricultural aspect of the “bad” fruit is more along the lines of being grown from a seedling (or volunteer) rather than controlled grafting.

    The fruit from such trees is often inedible and so good for nothing but fertilizer. These trees will always produce fruit that is not edible. There is nothing to be done about it. A good tree will not always produce good fruit. The bad tree will always produce bad fruit.

    Another way to think of this is ornamental fruit trees. They are beautiful. Their fruit is often beautiful to look at (weeping cherry comes to mind). The fruit, though, is not good, nor is there much fruit to go with the seed and skin. The tree is good as an ornament. It is not good for life- food.

    ※Reflection※

    • What challenges you regarding good fruit and good trees versus bad fruit and bad trees?
    • How is the appearance of good fruit similar to a whitewashed tomb? How is it different?
    • How does living a strictly law-abiding life lead to “” (as Paul calls it)? On the other hand, how can it lead to life?

    ※Prayer※

    Holy Spirit, only you can transform us from bad trees to good. We give you permission and we ask for your aid to become good trees producing good fruit beyond measure. Amen.

  • Burning Light

    Burning Light

    As the more reclusive type (i.e., sitting alone, or with my wife, quietly in a space without other people), it is easy to fall into a rhythm of not interacting with people. In fact, it’s too easy. These times of non-interaction, however, can produce new thoughts.

    Joni, my wife, baked springerle this Christmas. Springerle is a traditional anise-flavored German cookie that has, for generations, been made by rolling dough into intricate hand-carved molds. She only found a “rolling-pin” style, but it got the job done.

    Springerle molds often served the same purpose as stained-glass windows: telling the story of God through pictures to people who could not read. In preparation for next year (maybe I’ll help do something other than eat the cookies), I started looking for springerle molds.

    One of the websites I found was in German (which makes sense). They had many molds. One of the ones I found was for a lighthouse. In German, lighthouse is “leuchtturm”. Look at that word for a moment.

    Perhaps it is just my mind. I saw lectern. According to learned people, lectern’s root is the Latin word “lectus”. However, as the term lectern was (supposedly) only used for the reading of the , perhaps leuchtturm is the true origin of our lectern.

    Just as “Star of Bethlehem” drew Gentiles (the “wise” men or magi) from afar, so does the speaking and reading of the Scriptures bring into the world that is in pain and . Similarly, a lighthouse casts its light into the dark seas, guidance and the promise of security to ships.

    While writing devotionals can be difficult, I’ve now spent enough ‘s word burning that I cannot help but write.

    I will never be that “great” pastor/writer that people talk about. I am only beginning to understand God’s call on my , knowing that it is still growing and changing. I’m okay to not be okay with not knowing, yet still .

    Those magi “trusted” that something amazing was going to happen. “trusted” that God’s call on his life was to the Gentiles (people he himself once viewed hostilely). I “” that God is using me through these devotionals.

    ※Reflection※

    What is God calling you to do more of? If you already have a ministry, what is God calling on you to change to fulfill His commission for you?

    What new thing might God be calling you to this year?

    ※Prayer※

    God, Epiphany calls upon us to remember that even Creation (a star) will draw people to you. Help us to remember that the Gospel is for all people, and that you desire that all people come to know you. Help us to be your , trusting, and open servants. May we be ready and responsive to your call on our lives. Amen.

  • What’s in the back?

    What’s in the back?

    Matthew 6:5–9; Mark 9:43–50; 1 Corinthians 5:9–13 (read online ⧉)

    Prayer closets are a thing for some people. They have taken Jesus’ words in such a way to step into a private and personal space to pray to God. This is not a bad thing. Most do not pray solely in a prayer closet. If they do, that means it is quite difficult to pray with and over , which we are called to do.

    Jesus’ words were primarily a counterpoint to the ritualistic attention gathering prayer performed by so-called pious people. Their piety was merely a mask for the selfish desire for acclaim. By a very private alternative to the public activities, Jesus was making the point that prayer is a relational activity between a person and God, rather than an to be seen. One thing to keep in mind though is that in First Century housing a private room was unlikely for poorer people, who primarily shared communal spaces, so Jesus’ words aren’t inherently what we often interpret them to mean.

    The other aspect of this is the other stuff we keep in that “prayer” closet. The prayer closet we should be using to bring requests, needs, praises, and so on is often contaminated by the of our hearts.

    Jesus’ harsh words about cutting off your hand or plucking out your eye or cutting off your foot aren’t really about the hand, the eye, or the foot. It is about the heart. What is in our hearts that we try to hide in our closets?

    Another way to think of this is our “Christian” walk. We look good on the outside, but perhaps we are merely whitewashed tombs who look clean and fresh but are filled with death and decay. This may seem harsh. However, each of us has certain things that we try to contain that come out of the darkness and wounds of our lives.

    Perhaps, if we used the closet for prayer rather than unmentionables, and put our unmentionables out on the streets, we might not have to cut off our hands or feet or pluck out our eyes.

    The real question is what are the things that are in our closets. Paul’s list seems pretty straightforward, yet it is a list with a spirit, rather than a list of crimes. The list is more about the heart of the sinner, rather than the act itself. Yes, the act is bad. It comes from the heart.

    We are not immune to any of these crimes. How they are expressed may be different in each of our lives. It could be the manner of we have with our interested gender. It could be how we treat and interact with others. It could be just how we look at another as a step toward our goal, rather than a child of God.

    ※Prayer※

    Lord, break our hearts for what breaks yours. Break our hearts for the darkness in them. Heal our hearts from the wounds the bind. Let us be your free and children. Amen.

    ※※

    1) [This is a private and personal question] What has God brought to mind about yourself in this? How will we confront and redeem it?

    2) How does hiding the bad stuff in our prayer closet affect our relationship with God, especially our prayer ? How might this affect our lives with others?

    3) Submission to Jesus Christ (yesterday’s, 11 June 2020, devotional) includes the stuff in the closet. Why do we often not want to submit it to Jesus Christ?

  • Silence is Not Always Golden

    Deuteronomy 5:1–31; Matthew 26:57–62; Acts 6:8–15 (read online ⧉)

    Perjury is a crime. Knowingly providing false witness under oath is a criminal offense, as it should be. Knowing our system, however, perhaps the penalty is not severe enough. People speak “white lies” thinking they are doing the right thing (again, in a court case). People speak blatant falsehoods to the results.

    Depending on the falsehood can result in a guilty man being freed and an innocent man being sent to death. One of the other oldest legal codes—Hammurabi’s Code—sets the penalty for such perjury as death.

    There is no question that bearing false witness was a sin according to God. Yet, in the 2 instances that we read today— and Stephen—that “minor” sin, that could easily be blotted out with a “minor” sacrifice, resulted in the death of innocent men.

    Matthew and Luke (the author of Acts) make it a point to state that the witnesses are knowingly bearing false witness. Was this an incidental miscarriage of , or was this a systemic one? While we really can draw too firm a conclusion, this is an indication that justice and truth were often not met.

    We often why we have so many laws, and then we read stories like this (and these are not that unique in history). There were the false witnesses. Those who either paid or otherwise recruited the false witnesses. There were those who were the “lawyers”. Then there were those who were the leaders of this travesty.

    All were party to it. All had culpability in it. By the letter of “the Law”, only those who were “actual” witnesses would be “guilty”. This would also that those who knew they were guilty actually did something about it. Of course, they didn’t for they achieved their goals.

    We all struggle with those who lie. It is that which empowers the lies that is the greater issue. With no culture of lying, lying becomes rare. A culture that disgraces the truth encourages lying. A power structure that encourages lying creates a culture that sends innocent people to death or punishment.

    This is also a culture that ceases to honor God. Instead, it uses God to strengthen the perception of itself, so that no one will struggle or oppose it. God becomes a —a tool—and the relationship that the word is supposed to represent dies.

    Holy , as we walk through this life, counsel our hearts and tongues to speak truth and to be truth-seekers. Guide our hearts and minds to bring the light of Jesus’ Truth into our lives and the lives of others. May all that we do bring honor and glory to you, oh, God. Amen.

    1) Why is it important to talk about more than just the lier? How does its relative importance to the commandment of false witness mean for you?

    2) What do you think other tribunals in front of these people were like for day-to-day things?

    3) How can and will you encourage a culture of truth?

  • Thankful Reset

    Psalm 147, Deuteronomy 26:1–11 (read online ⧉)

    There are plenty of tales around Thanksgiving. While historians try to break out the supposed of what “really” happened, people are still adding pieces of their own making to the legend and story that surround the “first” Thanksgiving. There will be people that will try to paint the Puritans (and other colonists) with a wide disparaging brush (not without some justification). There will be people that will paint the First Nations Peoples with an overly generous brush. Regardless, there were people involved that, for whatever their reasons, gathered to gather to thanks.

    When Lincoln called for a national observation of Thanksgiving, it was during the Civil War. Some viewed it as a calculated political , and it probably was. However, there was also the beginning of exhaustion with the whole thing. This was around the time when the Union realized that the war was not going to be quick. In the midst of such turmoil, a time of thanksgiving helped the people to , even temporarily a horrible situation. Also, this is a way of resetting the mind and to look at a picture bigger than oneself.

    Thanksgiving in helps to lighten our hearts, especially when we carry the heavy burdens of loss, trial, finances, and so forth. How it works is somewhat of a , yet science is confirming that and gratitude help to rewire our brains. These re-wired brains are more resilient to trials and tribulations. In other words, we are able to withstand the emotional turmoil of trouble when thankfulness and gratitude are foundational elements of our regular practices.

    Take Psalm 147, for example. Say it out loud. Does something happen inside? If yes, great! If no, then it’s time to meditate on this Psalm. Recognize who God is and what God has done. These should not be empty words. If they are empty words for you, then you will likely struggle deeply with developing gratitude and thanksgiving.

    Moses’ direction to the Israelites prior to the entry into the Promised Land was to set a tone. They hadn’t yet worked for the fruit of the land. They were not to make assumptions. They were not to be arrogant. With the land promised to be fruitful, they were to be thankful that it was. Their hearts were to be full of gratitude toward God for it. If we follow along with the story of the Israelites, their focus on themselves and their own ways quickly lead them away from God.

    1) Why might ingratitude lead a person away from God?

    2) Why do you think gratitude changes your perspective and improve your resilience?

    3) Do you think it is important that we have a national observance of thanksgiving? Why?

  • From the Heart

    Colossians 3:12–17

    οἰκτιρμοῦ (oiktirmou) :: mercy and concern with sensitivity and

    χρηστότητα (chrēstotēta) :: giving to or for a person as an act of kindness

    ταπεινοφροσύνην (tapeinophrosynē) :: humble attitude and without arrogance

    πραΰτητα (prautēta) :: gentleness of attitude and behavior / not harsh with

    μακροθυμίαν (makrothymian) :: emotional despite provocation or misfortune, and without complaint or irritation.

    So, why the Greek lesson? English misses so much. The one that triggered this particular Greek lesson is οἰκτιρμοῦ (oiktirmou). In the most used translations, this is only translated as compassion. A few translations (e.g., HCSB, ESV, and NASB) add in some form. This is an important qualifier.

    Compassion can be an act of obedience (with or without being a loving ). For many people, that is exactly what it is. Almsgiving (giving money and/or aid to the poor) is common in a number of religions. It is, for example, 1 of the 5 pillars of Islam (called Zakat). In the church, it is titled Compassionate Ministries (Church of the Nazarene organization). It is Blue Bucket Sundays at Generations Church. People give out of obligation, too. It’s not that obedience or obligation is bad, but what about the heart.

    Think of χρηστότητα (chrēstotēta). Giving to give is fine, sort of. If we were to give a poor the best birthday party for the youngest child or feed the family for the month (and, based on the bills of some birthday parties, that isn’t a stretch), which would we choose? Both are giving as kindness, but which has the potential for the greatest kindness.

    Why is this important? It’s about our lives with one another. Our lives with one another are to exemplify love…and compassion of the heart.

    1)Taking the of the Greek, how do they each apply to your walk, whether for yourself or for others?

    2) In Churches, compassion is often the mission of a ministry. That is not how we are called to live. How can you deepen the compassion in your Christian walk? How can you help others to deepen theirs?

  • Blindly Seeing

    Luke 24:13–35, John 20:1–18, John 21:2–14

    Poor Cleopas. Literally walking with and he didn’t have a clue. Luke’s choice of words makes it pretty clear. Cleopas couldn’t have been that oblivious. He had to have been prevented from recognizing Jesus. That makes perfect sense from Luke’s .

    What is it about this resurrected Jesus that is so hard to see?

    Was Jesus hanging around at the tomb, and only Mary Magdalene saw him? And she saw him as a gardener? If Jesus really was there the whole time, the disciples were painfully oblivious. Mary, probably hanging back away from the other disciples, sees a gardener. She was distraught. She almost missed it.

    John tells another story about the resurrected Jesus. It echoes the original calling at the Sea of Galilee. This time though it is a calling beyond the grave to a truly new . You would think that the setting would trigger their collective memories, but it was only John with whom it clicked. Only John. Yet, in many ways, Peter is the star (second to Jesus) of the story. Peter didn’t get it.

    Why bring this up? Yesterday, we talked about identifying when the is us some sort of nudge (whether go or stop) and we miss it. Here we have a case in point of people who knew Jesus really well and they missed it. They missed Jesus!

    “When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or without clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit you?’ “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” (Matthew 25:38–40)

    1) What decisions have you made based on how you see Jesus? As you look back, were they good/bad/valid ways to look at Jesus?

    2) Why is it important to acknowledged that we don’t always see Jesus?

    3) We could fall back on Luke’s reasoning for them not seeing Jesus (they were made to). However, that is only Luke’s take regarding Cleopas and his accompanying . What are other possible reasons why didn’t see Jesus in front of them? What insight does that us about our lives?