Devotion.al

Tag: redeemer

  • People Past

    People Past

    ‌Read: Psalm 25; Isaiah 25:6-9; Philippians 3:20-21; John 6:37-40

    ‌‌🔎 Focus

    ‌“This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal , and I will raise them up on the last day.”

    John 6:40 (NRSVue)

    Those who have died, that have been a direct part of our lives, they still live. Our hearts and memories hold them close (or far). Their good and bad helped shape us, for good and bad.

    ‌‌✟ Devotion

    Today is All Souls Day. The day that is also termed as the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. However, even those who do not believe that Jesus is Lord and Savior have had an impact on those of us who do so believe. It might be a stretch to want to take a church tradition and expand it, but the is that many of us have that person who is gone, who we miss.

    ‌They may have not been a believer. They may have been baptized as infants or children, but were either not raised in the , or lapsed. Depending, of course, on one’s tradition/theology, that may or may not seal them to Christ. Ultimately, it isn’t up to us.

    ‌This is a little personal, I suppose. My stepfather died a number of years ago (my mom has since remarried to a good man). I realized all the conversations we didn’t have, and they are a source of regret. I remember learning that my stepfather had been baptized as a child. That was news to me. I learned it as he was being lowered into his grave.

    ‌Then I looked at his library. He was an avid reader. He read far more broadly than I ever have. What shocked me was the books about the Bible and . As an English teacher, they shouldn’t have surprised me. They were read. They had not been ignored or put on a shelf and forgotten (like many of my books), though they may have not been read in quite some time. Who knows where is heart really was with Christ? I could assume. I do .

    ‌Did my stepfather and I have issues? Of course! Yet, he still formed me. It is not unreasonable to that he is gone. He was long part of my life. There is a hole where he was. My mom, dad, stepmom have their own places in my life, so this is not exclusionary, which is also important. No person can ever take the place of another.

    ‌Another can help you heal from the damage of bad history (including abuse), but they cannot replace someone else.

    ‌Perhaps today ought to be the day we set aside in our calendar to remember, mourn, celebrate, reflect, upon the lives of others and how they touched us. If you’re reading this, you are likely a believer in Jesus Christ. As such, we who believe also call Jesus the Redeemer. We can take solace, hope, and joy in that. Jesus can redeem both the joys and pains in regard to those who have touched our lives.

    ‌May it be so.

    ‌🤔 Reflection

    ‌Which deceased person has affected your walk with Christ (for good or bad)? How did they affect your walk? How do you imagine their life through the eyes of Jesus?

    ‌‌⏏️ Act

    ‌Ask another person who the most impactful deceased person has been in their life, and share yours. As you talk , where can you see the redemptive of Jesus?

    ‌🙏 Prayer

    ‌God, you have place people in our lives to help guide us into your ways. Some of them have been undisguised , some are so through the redemptive power of your Son. Holy Spirit, guide our hearts and thoughts to see the power and influence of others in our lives. Amen.

  • Examples and Warnings

    Examples and Warnings

    Psalm 107:1–16; Numbers 20:1–13; 1 Corinthians 10:6–13

    Imagine saying, “ thanks to the Lord because he is good, because his lasts forever,” to the Israelites at Kadesh. Those words would have been grating (at best) the ears of all the lashing against Moses and Aaron.

    The Psalmist also wrote, “So they cried out to the Lord in their distress, and God delivered them from their desperate circumstances.” Except that is not the story in Numbers. Instead of crying out to God, the condemned, blamed, and judged Aaron and Moses. Instead of crying out to their and Rescuer, they passed around blame and bemoaned their freedom from slavery.
    The Scriptures are full of stories. Many of them include the failings and failures of families. We witness the bad choices that people make, including followers of God, that are nowhere near the intent or desire of God.
    There have been many people that have claimed that God endorses many things (slavery, abuse, polygamy, etc.) that appear in the Scriptures, solely because they appear in the Scriptures. This has been the case with Christians and non-Christians alike. It also is a really bad idea.
    Just because it shows up in the Scriptures certainly does not mean endorsement by God. comments on this. Paul notes that the intent of the descriptions of human failures is intended to be descriptive and instructive. They are not to be prescriptive.
    Paul reminds and encourages us to remember that we are not alone in any temptation or failure. We are in quite the company, in fact. The lie we tell ourselves and others that others couldn’t possibly be tempted like us, or that have succumbed as we have is put on display by Paul.
    Paul, while displaying the lie, also encourages us to recall that God did not tempt us, just as God did not endorse or encourage the sins of those in the Scriptures. Ultimately, it is the weakness of our fallen condition. Which is not unique to an , but is part of the state of all of humanity.

    ※Reflection※

    Why is it important to understand that we are all tempted? How does that mean we should treat others who have succumbed? What should we do when we succumb? Why and how are these related both in our interactions with fellow Christians and those who are not ?

    ※Prayer※

    Lord, you set us free from the ultimate consequence of …. Help us in our lives to be free of sin and help others to break their chains and to heal their wounds from sin. Amen.

  • It Is Written

    It Is Written

    Job’s words of optimism amid the words of anguish provides quite the contrast. The context seems to be that Job wants his words of in God to be recorded ( on a scroll). Then he goes further and wants them engraved on stone. The implication being that a scroll is not permanent (or significant enough) to encapsulate the mercy and of God.

    The Book of Job is often thought of in the context of Job’s trials and misery. It might be that these few words of Job here show the of Job that every follower of God should also have. Imagine…if you can…how the church would be known…how the followers of Christ would be known…if they had the same trust as Job.

    As people of “the Book” (as Christians are known in the Arab world), we speak as if we believe the Word (the Bible) was engraved in stone. Yet, we often don’t that same way. The way we live out our lives often seems (and is) in conflict with the Word.

    This is Paul’s concern for Timothy and the church in general. While the CEB (the primary translation being used for these devotionals this year) individualizes behavior (e.g., “you”) while other translations are more generic (e.g., “one”). The Greek as neither. Both “you” and “one” are interpretations of the “space” between the words (this really is an English problem).

    I see the phrasing as being more like, “this is the required to live rightly as part of the household of God.” In the Greek, Paul is making clear that all who are known as/by “Christian” have certain rules and expectations to be part of the household of God.

    In the current secular culture, the church has found itself in an awkward place. It wants to be welcoming to all (as it should be). On the other hand, it is also called to have expectations of behavior and spiritual growth (which it must be).

    The sad reality is that the church may have to suborn the expectations to earn the reputation of being welcoming. Yet, the church cannot keep kicking that can down the road, either.

    Ultimately, our hope is that our Redeemer lives, and our Redeemer seeks to redeem all of humanity.

    ※Reflection※

    • From your , how does the knowledge of permanent redemption (from Job) affect, influence, and guide your understanding of and living out the obligations of being part of the household of God?
    • Do you find yourself to be more “welcoming” or more “” oriented? How is that lived out in the ? How is that lived out in the wider (i.e., non-faith) community?

    ※Prayer※

    Jesus, guide our actions through your example. Thank you for being our Redeemer. Amen.

  • Power Granted

    Power Granted

    Isaiah 41:14–20; John 1:29–34

    ♫ Nobody likes me; everybody hates; just because I eat wo-oorms ♫

    I don’t know if you remember that song from your childhood. I recall it as some weird camp song. Really, who would eat worms?

    At the same time, I did that other cultures ate maggots, caterpillars, and even worms. They would fry them up or even eat them raw.

    Still, though, as being raised in the US, we’re not really into worms as part of our diet. One of our biggest things about worms is, “the early bird gets the worm,” and the first robins of spring eating worms.

    With that in mind, let’s be happy we’re worms!

    Isaiah’s words are odd to us. Which is understandable. Why would someone want to be a worm? I remember kids saying they’d like to be an eagle, or a horse, or a wolf. I don’t recall someone saying they wanted to be a worm.

    For us, it is strange to be called a worm or an insect. Yet, in comparison to the Glory and of God…we are. That is point of Isaiah’s words. Today we might say something like, “we know everything is crazy. We know the world is not making any sense right now. We know that you are hurting or have been hurting. We want you to know that God is bigger than all of that.”

    Worms and insects may not be attractive to you. However, it sums up a far larger number of words. All of it to say, God’s got this.

    That was God’s message to Israel. God is their . God is their redeemer. If they are looking elsewhere…failure!

    The language God uses is fascinating. The Israelites would flatten and mountains! For us that is solved by explosives and earth movers. In fact, it’s not all that impressive to us. To the Israelites, this was a huge indicator of power! God wouldn’t just redeem them (though that was good), God would them the power to shape the world!T

    he promise wasn’t just . This is key, especially as we look at Jesus’ coming, along with the story of Jesus’ baptism. Being baptised into the and resurrection of Jesus is not only about redemption. That’s still great! That’s just not all.

    In fact, one of the greatest weakness of the modern is redemption and forgiveness has been the evangelistic focus. The power was kind of missed. Some of the charismatic churches displayed “power” through being “slain in the spirit” or “speaking in ”.

    It might sound dismissive, but…that’s it?

    In Isaiah, God ties redemption to power, and not just any power, the power to change the world. Of course, just because one has the power, doesn’t mean you should use indiscriminately. We are called to first, and the power should be motivated by the sacrificial love for others.

    ※Reflection※

    • What’s your power? (Note that the question wasn’t, do you have power?)
    • Why do you think the church (as a whole) surrendered the power, and was satisfied only with redemption?
    • Why is it so important to know, believe, and act with the understanding that redemption is only the beginning?

    ※Prayer※

    God, you gave us the power to move physical mountains, emotional mountains, and spiritual mountains. Help us remember that you also gave us the responsibility to use it wisely and with love, and leave it withering away. Amen.

  • Broken Family; Broken Community

    Genesis 38:1–30, Deuteronomy 25:5–10, Ruth 4:1–10, Mark 12:18–27

    Migration has long been the story of humankind. People would from place to place. The United States mythos includes a strong migratory component, from the theorized migration of First Nations peoples over the Bearing Land Bridge to the European migration to the Western Expansion, along with 2 Gold Rushes and the huge population shifts with the Great Depression and World War II. This creates a strong cultural influence on dynamics and in the wider society. The Census Bureau estimates that from 2013-2017, 41.5% of the US population did not live in the same state (or country for foreign-born) as they were born in. How can this not impact our with people, family, and place?

    Until the last 70 years, or so, when people moved from a different country to the US or even state-to-state, the family ties were broken or became perfunctory rather than profound. If you are one of those that have remained in the same state you were born in, it is still likely that your parents, or grandparents came from. Advances in transportation have allowed for some of these familial ties, but this is more likely for middle- and upper-class people. With the of more and more connective technologies, there is greater potential to maintain these connections. It is too soon to tell if that will actually happen, though based on current evidence it doesn’t look likely.

    What does all of this have to do with our passages? They show a huge difference between ancient cultures and our own. That is part of the problem. In the first 3 passages from the Old Testament, the significance of the “kinsman ” (an epithet we get from the book of Ruth) is lost in today’s culture. Put your siblings or your children into these stories as either kinsman redeemer or needing such, and gauge your responses. Most people have a negative to it. We generally don’t get it. Many centuries later, this is still a question, as we can see with Sadducees’ question of .

    Connections. . Obligation. Sense of place. This should help us understand why we have such a problem with ekklēsia (ἐκκλησία). This Greek word is often translated as “”. It originally meant a public gathering. Through the resilience of God’s Word, church as a gathered community became the dominant definition. Community.

    In many respects, the church became more of the ekklēsia during the Westward Expansion, as it was the only common gathering place. However, as transportation “improved” and the suburbs became a reality, community began to fade. Now, in the Pacific Northwest, even the ekklēsia isn’t really a community. In many churches, and some say ours, many people do not feel that they are part of the community. For some, the ekklēsia is a fancy word for an hour-long meeting on Sunday, that doesn’t really feed into the other 6 days of the week.

    1. What do you do to build community? To build community, do you think you should look to yourself, first? Or do you need to look to others?
    2. If you were to describe your ideal church community, what words would you use? If you were to describe your ideal community where you live, what words would you use? How are the words and intent both the same and different?
  • Through the Hurt

    Through the Hurt

    Psalm 97, Hebrews 1:1-2:9, Galatians 4:4-7

    During this Day, in the midst of -giving, , loneliness, heartache, healing, hurting…look to God.

    Two holidays often are the most bittersweet, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The of (Thanksgiving) and celebration of the Savior (Christmas) can get confused with family struggles, financial struggles and family losses. These two gatherings will often stir up our deepest emotions, both good and bad. It can make the holidays some of the most stressful of the year.

    It’s okay. Joseph and Mary were expecting their first child. The mysterious and amazing circumstances only heightened that expectation. They had to travel in the midst of that. The stress of bearing the probable condemnation of their families, plus the confrontation with the Roman authorities (they were traveling to be counted and taxed) would have strained their joyful expectation.

    If you are questioning how could a person be stressed during this time… !

    If you are questioning your value or faith or walk, because you are stressed during this time, give yourself a break. The mother and earthly father of God were stressed, too. You are not alone.

    Stressed or not, Christmas is time to be present. Spend time with one another. If you know someone is alone, invite them. If you are alone, it’s okay to ask to come and visit. This day is for Framily.

    Heavenly Father, continually make us glad and joyful in this remembrance of the birth of your only Son, Jesus Christ. As we receive His Advent, help us receive him as our Redeemer. Help us, through the Holy , be assured of our salvation and life with you. May your through Holy Spirit help us look to the earthly return of our Messiah. Give us confidence to bear your light into the world. This we pray in the grace and love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

    May you have a Merry and Blessed Christmas!