We'd appreciate you allowing the use of cookies. They are anonymized while allowing us to see how the site is used.

Devotion.al

Tag: shape

  • A Time of Distress

    A Time of Distress

    Deuteronomy 4:25–31; Jonah 2:1–10; Matthew 9:35–38 (read online ⧉)

    Moses is not all that optimistic about the future spiritual health of the people of Israel. He’s downright pessimistic about what paths they will follow away from God. There is something in today’s opening verse that is important, “When you…have been in the land a long time….” We often focus on the acting corruptly piece. It is the underlying comfort piece that we should be aware of. Being in a place for a long time breeds comfort. Comfort often produces contempt (which is seems to be the thrust of Moses’ concern). Moses continues with how their descendants would, instead of worshiping the God that rescued them from Egypt, worship lifeless idols of wood and metal. What a mess!

    And then…DISTRESS! Honestly, as we understand reading the story of the fall of Israel, we understand just how much distress they experienced. Reading the prophets we understand just how much contempt they had, as well. Yet, the distress was a refiners fire for the Israelites, and that was a good thing.

    Jonah’s distress was also self-inflicted. He ran away from his call from God. When he finally acknowledged his responsibility to the call, he was tossed into the sea and swallowed by a fish. Not quite a refiner’s fire, but perhaps the gastric juices of the fish served the same effect. Jonah, in his distress, approached the throne of God. DISTRESS! It was a good thing.

    After all the Israelites and then the Jews (the last known identifiable remnants of Israel) had been through, they were still in distress at the time of Jesus. The crowds that followed Jesus were adrift on a spiritual storm-tossed sea. They were abandoned (without a shepherd). When Jesus had compassion on them, it was (in many respects) no different than God’s compassion on the lost Israelites. These people were in distress. The good news? That drew them to Jesus.

    Distress is not an uncommon thing. Sadly, it’s not uncommon at all. It is part of the human condition. It is what we do in and with the distress that is important. Distress can refine us. The refiner’s fire can often be an uncomfortable thing. We are now at a time when we all need to embrace the distress and the fire. For some, it the endless activities that have ceased. For others, it could be the shape of the church that was, is, and is to come. Then there are the economic and stability questions that desperately need answers.

    For all of these things, and more, there are assumptions that need to be questioned. Some will be retained (and that’s okay). Others we may change. There is a snarky comment directed at politicians…a good politician will never let a crisis go to waste. We shouldn’t either. In the case of a politician, it will usually be for power. For us, it needs to be so that we are made, re-made, and continually re-made into the image of Jesus Christ.

    Almighty God, we surrender our desire to control this crisis. We surrender our fears and anxieties. Help us to, most of all, surrender ourselves to your will and way. We know that you will to take our bad and turn it into good for us. Help, Lord, to embrace, accept and pursue your loving hammer and chisel that shapes our hearts of stone. Give us new life that takes any part of us that is stone and unyielding to you, and turn it into living flesh that brings you glory and honor. Amen.

    1) What is the biggest “obstacle” for you right now in the current situation? Is it an obstacle that is between you and God?

    2) How do you see the current COVID-19 situation being a “refiner’s fire”? How is it not a “refiner’s fire”?

    3) What other distress points are on your heart right now? What might God be using those to draw you to him?

  • Same Change, Different Day

    Galatians 1:21–2:10 (read online ⧉)

    The church often states that the message from God has never changed. That’s not entirely accurate. God’s amazing grace was before all and in all. God’s expression of grace was certainly in multiple forms from Adam to Jacob’s (Israel’s) sons. Through Moses, the message changed from a family group to a nation (we often miss this change). The nation and Law was not something we see as grace, yet it took a nation of slaves and transformed them into God’s chosen people. From there grace transformed them into a powerful nation. From there grace kept their identity as God’s people intact, even when they abandoned God, and ended up in other nations. The message always changed. The Truth did not.

    We Christians look at Jesus and the Gospel as the message that never changed. It is possibly more accurate to say that through Jesus and the Gospel that the message was expressed to its fullest. Yes, that is a nuance. However, that nuance is not small in any way, shape, or form. If it was small, Paul wouldn’t have gone to Jerusalem.

    Jesus’ first followers, and his core followers, were Jews. Everything was from a Jewish perspective. For them, therefore, this was a Jewish thing. It makes perfect sense that many would not be able to separate Jewish practices from their Messiah. Hence we ourselves need to be more grace-filled towards those we read about in the New Testament. Remember, they were learning just what all this meant. Paul was pretty sure what it all meant. He just had to convince others.

    This is a long preface to a new and old truth. Mode and method do not equal message. Not too long ago, we had church splits over worship music. Mostly, that’s over, though some still complain about one sort of music or the other. There is the comparisons between contemporary format (which all Generations Sunday services have) and “traditional” liturgical services. It seems so obvious to many now that these are merely different ways to still share the Gospel and gather together. Now there are digital churches. Then there are microexpression churches. This form of church caters to a specific interest group or demographic. Is it bad? In many respects, yes, for it continues the “one hour on Sunday is the most segregated hour of the week.” Granted, it is often no longer over race. It does reach people who would not otherwise be reached by “normal” church.

    The church has long needed to reinvent itself, perhaps not so much to reach new people (though that really does help), but to reinvigorate itself. The church seems to have entered a period of stagnation. Either the stagnation needs to be flushed out, or the church can suffocate. It seems harsh, yet in many respects that is exactly what Paul had to deal with. The church that was forming had to reinvent itself. It had to separate itself from the ways that kept in mired in the past. Once it broke free, the freeing message of the Gospel got wings.

    1) Why do people hold onto traditions? How do you know when a tradition is stagnate, and when it is life-giving?

    2) What “how church is done” thing do you hold onto? Why? How does it give you life?

    3) What is one “new” church thing that you enjoyed and/or found life-giving once you actually started doing it?

    Action: Take your “church thing” and explain not only what it is, but also how it builds up the church and fellow Christians.

  • Potential

    Deuteronomy 10:12, Deuteronomy 6:4–9, Deuteronomy 30:11–16 (read online ⧉)

    Tomorrow is not just another day. It could be, but why let it be? Why let the last year define you?

    Why allow the trials and tribulations to weigh you down? As we look at the coming year, there is plenty that could be feared. There are rumors of wars and threats of civil war. There are diseases. There is mindless killing. There are bad chemicals in many things we eat and drink and the air we breathe.

    For those who look back and think how great the year was, who is to say the year ahead will be so good? What would make the coming year as good or better than the year just passed?

    No matter what, something has (or many somethings have) shaped the us that we “see” today. Good and bad shape us. Good and bad can also define us. Should they?

    Oddly enough, the good in our past can be as harmful to our future as the bad. If something is held onto too tightly, it can cripple our future. An entrepreneur obsessed with the success of a past venture can often be as hobbled as the entrepreneur obsessed with the latest failure.

    This is not to say forget. It is more a matter of letting the past define your future. Look at the New Year as the next better step. The New Year has untapped potential and optimism. The New Year also has untapped potential pitfalls and sorrows.

    The Israelites about to enter the Promised Land had the same potentials ahead of them.

    1) As you enter the New Year, are you looking for the Promised Land or the Land of Giants (see Numbers 13:31–14:2 ⧉)? After reading the above passages in Deuteronomy, what strength do you have?

    2) How do you think valleys (failures, pain, loss, etc.) and mountains (success, happiness, etc.) could trap a person in the past? Have you ever had that experience?

    3) What is a spiritual growth resolution you could make for the New Year, even a small one?

  • To Be Called

    Psalm 34, Isaiah 49:1-6, 1 Corinthians 4:1-16 (read online ⧉)

    What does it mean to be called? That is a question many people ask themselves at various points in their lives. When we were children, the question could be, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Granted, in family businesses there could be an assumption of “call” which presents its own dangers. As we enter the teenage years, identity beings to become a focus (“Who am I?”). This will often take shape and be shaped by activities and friends. In the last decade, or so, we’ve seen a new trend, and that is “calling” children to more and more activities or to multiple seasonal versions of the same activity (often sports). Young teenagers are now being pushed to decide career paths while figuring out who they are, as certain decisions (such as the fantastic programs of Running Start, College in the Classroom, and AP courses) affect college decisions, and potentially financial-aid decisions, too. As the average lifespan increases, we are beginning to compress the childhoods that many of us treasured to resemble earlier eras. Also, as lifespans increase, career changes (not just jobs) are becoming increasingly common. That is one of the interesting pieces, as our jobs are increasingly less of our identity.

    Isaiah did not have a question of his identity to a great degree. Since he felt that he was called before he was born, it was likely that he followed seers or prophets or sages. He was probably often following priests and scribes, too. It was his identity. It was his calling. It certainly wasn’t an easy one. It might have given him resilience during his prophetic ministry, and it certainly isolated him from others. Paul describes himself as a “manager” of the mysteries of God. It is a strange calling, but it was his.

    Do not judge yourself, or your calling, by Isaiah, Paul, or any others in the Scriptures. Evaluate your call against them for insight and wisdom. Each person in the Scriptures was unique and uniquely called, just like you.

    N.T. Wright (former bishop now educator and researcher) recently said, “…I think a lot of people feel guilty that there are some things which maybe when they were called…they thought they would be doing. And they either didn’t seem to be very good at it or they didn’t get the opportunity to do it. And I really want to say that we all have our particular gifts. And we shouldn’t be ashamed of the fact that there are some gifts that we might have thought we were going to be given in ministry or whatever, which we don’t have…I think of extreme examples of people who served God with everything that they’ve got, in a very what looks like to most of us a very bleak and obscure way. I think of Alexander Cruden, who did the great concordance couple hundred years ago. And, and he was, we would today say he was really far out on a spectrum. He was quite an unbalanced individual. But he needed to be like that for the very odd job that God had for him, which was producing—by hand—a concordance which served the church amazingly well for a very long time. And I possess my grandfather’s copy of cretins, concordance, and it was a great help before all the modern computerized stuff can So I really want to say if somebody has an academic bent or a bent for lexicography, or… if somebody has the real pastoral ability to spend hours working with, say, Children in Need or at risk or families that are in trouble, …that’s fine. God needs those gifts.”

    Sometimes we are blind to our gifts and/or our calling. Other times people will ask for our help and we realize that it isn’t our call, but something connected is. The question isn’t, “are you called?” The question is, “What are you doing with your calling?”

    1) Do you know what your calling is? If not, who are some mature Christians you know that could help you figure it out? If you do, how did you come to that conclusion?

    2) Do you think your calling has or will ever change?

  • Remember the Gone

    Matthew 22:23–33, 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18, Romans 8:26–30

    All Saints Day was established to honor the saints of the church. As we talked about yesterday, it is also a good time to reflect upon those that helped shape your faith. By so doing these people were doing the work of saints. Now, let us be clear, over the years, the church (whether it be the church universal, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant) has put saints on a pedestal that the saints themselves knew they didn’t belong. It is normal human behavior to do this. The saints are a “class” of people that when we think about it, we don’t believe we belong to that class. It is only by the grace of God that any could be called saint, for it is the work of the Holy Spirit in them that shaped them.

    One of the biggest common characteristics of saints is that they are dead. We have all lost people we loved to the ultimate consequence (on the finite side of things) of sin…death. Death is a fact of life. The reason to bring in All Saints Day is that some in the church lost the understanding of saint. So, the Saints (especially, those without their own named day) had this day to cover all of the Saints of the church. As a consequence, some traditions have a day for the (dearly) departed after All Saints Day. This day is called All Souls Day or Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. Really, it’s about all those day-to-day Christians that had more to do with your faith journey than the Saints seemed to have.

    We have inherited the legacies of the Saints and the everyday saints. What will we do with it? What is a saint? Well, the way Paul puts it, it seems we are all saints. It seems that Paul perceives all of the children of God as saints.

    1) Whose death do you mourn most at this moment? Were they a believer in Jesus as Lord and Savior?

    2) Why do we mourn those that knew Jesus as Lord and Savior?

    3) What is the difference, if any, between a saint and a perfect Christian?

  • Not All Good

    Lamentations 3:16–33, Job 2:11–13 James 1:9–18

    Wikipedia summarizes Nathan Robinson’s take on platitudes as:
    “A platitude is even worse than a cliché. It’s a sanctimonious cliché, a statement that is not only old and overused but often moralistic and imperious. … [they] have an aphoristic quality, they seem like timeless moral lessons. They therefore shape our view of the world, and can lull us into accepting things that are actually false and foolish.”

    By definition, a platitude is a “flat” saying that sounds significant but isn’t. However, Robinson’s take on the actual use of platitude is significant, especially as we look at Lamentations, or hear the mourning, grief, and pain of others.

    There is also another piece that Robinson may be unconsciously reacting to is that often platitudes hurt. The receiver of the platitude will often perceive the speaker as unsympathetic or unempathetic, at best, and dismissive or belittling at worst.

    The flip-side of a platitude is actually the heart of the speaker. Sometimes the platitude is to anesthetize the speaker! When they speak a platitude they don’t have to acknowledge the pain of the other or their own pain. Platitudes are often used because people just don’t know what to say, so it’s easier to say something seems helpful or profound (Especially if it sounds like it came from the Scriptures!) and just move on.

    The writer of Lamentations is miserable! Everything has fallen apart. However, in the midst of their woes, they hold on to God! The really important part to comprehend is not that the lamenter knows why, but that God loves them! The lamenter knows that God is present in the midst of it all.

    Job was in much the same state. What he needed was people to be present. These few verses of Job are the perfect symbol of what it means to be friends when one of the circle is grieving. Then these “friends” show why being present is the key…they open their mouths. While much of their speech would not seem to be platitudes, they actually were! Pointless, useless speech that was delivered as if it was profound, but it was heartfully and hurtfully false.

    James presents a more mature understanding of trials and grieving (don’t say it’s God’s fault), but he doesn’t diminish feelings. James, too, is fighting platitudes (people placing the blame on God, not themselves, for their failures). You can be mad at God. You can be sad. You can be upset. You can be confused (in our day and age, this one might be the most freeing). Perhaps in the midst of our pain our greatest temptation is to try to understand because when we seek to understand (and often feel that we do), we bury or hide the pain we feel. Burying and hiding pain might allow us to survive our pain, but it usually doesn’t allow us to thrive beyond it.

    1) Listening is often the alternative to platitudes. When has someone listened to your pain rather than give you platitudes? What about giving platitudes rather than listening? Which helped you more?

    2) An interesting struggle in our society is that those in pain look for answers prior to and often instead of grieving. Have you found yourself or others doing that? How can we help each restore a real and healing grieving process?

    3) Why is it so hard for us to merely sit with those who are in pain?

  • Spirit Movement

    Psalm 51, Isaiah 66:1–16, Acts 16:6–15

    How the Holy Spirit moves in our lives is both a mystery and very important. The psalmist requests to be restored. Attributed to King David after being confronted in his sin regarding Bathsheba and Uriah, there is definitely some restoration that needs to happen.

    While David as an individual was often not the shining example, at the same time he led the people of Israel to worship God fully. While we recognize David’s shortcomings and sins, we also have to recognize what he brought. Does that mean that what he did was okay? Obviously not. As we see in Psalm 51, David did repent.

    On the other hand, but the time if Isaiah, the rulers, and the people were not fully worshipping God. God was just another god, one of many. Many followed the prescribed outward practices but did not have the heart that was yielded to God. Isaiah wasn’t the only prophet calling to account, either. Contrast this to David. Nathan had a very short speech, and David was contrite. David was humble, submissive in spirit, and trembled at God’s world (Isaiah 66:2).

    David and the chided (by Isaiah) Israelites had very different responses to the Holy Spirit. Both had an experience of correction. David had additional experiences of support and direction.

    Paul, by this time in Acts, had had a number of interesting experiences with the Holy Spirit, but this might be one of the most important as it applies to us. Paul wanted to go to Asia. That was the plan. God wouldn’t let them. Think about that for a moment. Many in the church (rightfully) talk about the loss of evangelism. Paul was told not to evangelize. Then he tries to go to Bithynia and is again stopped by the Holy Spirit. Stopped. Prevented. No evangelism here.

    Then Paul received a dream from a (nameless) man to come to Macedonia. He does so and makes his way to Philippi. There he meets Lydia. She converts to Christianity and becomes a strong supporter of the church. Some have called her a deacon, and yet others claim that her role was more pastor or bishop. While who knows what could have happened in Asia or Bithynia, Lydia’s conversion along with the establishment of the church at Philippi is all pretty important.

    Sometimes the Holy Spirit, as some say, knocks a person on the head with a 2×4. Other times the Holy Spirit nudges and encourages by whispers. Other times, the Holy Spirit closes the door. Being aware, being responsive, and being obedient to the Holy Spirit is what will shape and change us. Also, this is how we are transformed to be more like Jesus.

    1) When you believe the Holy Spirit is telling you to stop, how do you test whether it is the Holy Spirit or your fear?

    2) When you believe the Holy Spirit is telling you to go, how do you test whether it is the Holy Spirit or your desires?

    3) When in the last week have you felt either go or stop from the Holy Spirit? If you haven’t, are you open to asking (and listening to) the Holy Spirit about what should be stopped or started?

  • Sown

    Lamentations 3:25–33, Matthew 13:3–9

    For there to be a harvest, there needs to be seed and sower. God’s love is both faithful and abundant. All too often, however, we treat God’s love as scarce. There is a concept called the “scarcity mentality.” This mentality is one that views things as a zero-sum game, and that there must be winners and losers, and supply is limited.

    Sadly, in many human relationships, there is a scarcity of love, trust, belief, value, acceptance. Our human relationships shape how we relate to God. So, when our human-to-human relationships are skewed, our relationship with God is, too.

    The problem is how that affects our ability to be the laborers in the fields of the Kingdom.

    The sower parable is interesting in that it represents God (to some degree). The sower isn’t sticking to a row of surety, but casting seed all over the place! What a mess! What a waste! What abandon! God already knows that much of the seed will not “bear fruit.” God does it anyways.

    We, however, often sow in scarcity or in nice, neat, controlled, little rows, stingily putting down seed, calculating the best yield for our efforts. The issue isn’t the yield, but the heart that sowed. We think we are being wise in our resources, however, one of the greatest risks is that our stinginess reflects our view of God.

    1)What is your view of God’s love and faithfulness? Does that view match your life?

    2) How do you see a scarcity or generosity mindset in others?

    3) How can you encourage the generosity mindset in others?

  • Avoiding Shaping

    Psalm 103, 2 Peter 1:3–11, 1 John 1:5–2:2

    Have you ever whittled, shaping a piece of wood cut-by-cut, flick-by-flick, putting something into life that was only in your mind?

    While God does not use a knife to whittle on us, through others and life’s trials God does shape us. Sometimes it is to bring something new and good out of us that we didn’t know we had. Other times God removes things and we don’t like it. It doesn’t happen all at once. Part of who we are is our flaws, personality traits, and our unredeemed nature. As we work with God, these are changed and transformed into something new.
    Peter reminds us that God’s divine power (i.e., not our efforts) gives us everything we need. We have to be willing sharing that power. It sounds strange. Share God’s power. However, if we look at human nature, humanity often will avoid that as it seeks its own way through its own power. Peter gives us the blueprint of adding to our faith. With this adding, there is a bit-by-bit transformation. There is an end goal, and it is to be fruitful. When we speak about our transformation it is so that we are able to add to God’s kingdom.

    Sometimes (okay, maybe every day), we have to do a self-check on what we’ve done and not done. Sometimes we can not love others as ourselves. Sometimes we don’t love God first. It is all part of our human condition. As we are “added to” (per Peter) every day, we hope that we will be improved. However, we all know that there will be missteps, mistakes, and sins. While God gives us the power to avoid sinning, sometimes we lack the wisdom and maturity to not misstep or make mistakes. We do not have to be down on ourselves or be too harsh on ourselves. John tells us to have a life of confession. We need to confess our sins. Does it fix everything? No. It does, however, remind us where the true orientation of our heart needs to be.

    1) Why do you think Peter uses “adding to” when he talks about the path of holiness he is laying out?

    2) What does it mean to you that you share God’s power?

    3) How does confession help to bring us to the Very Good Life?

  • Community Rhythm

    John 16:16–22, Galatians 4:8–20

    How often when we know the story so well do we look down on those who don’t get it? The disciples certainly didn’t get it. Jesus often spoke in parables, and because we think we know the answer, we find it easy to impose our understanding onto Jesus’ words.

    If we think of the disciples’ time with Jesus as an extended “mountain-top” experience that seemed to be never-ending, we can understand their confusion. What could possibly go wrong? We know the ending, but they didn’t.

    Part of the mystery and rhythm of the “church” year is the annual repetition of the joy, pain, heartache, and (again) joy that is Jesus’ life. It is also not just Jesus’ life. It is ours as well.

    Not all that long ago, we celebrated the birth of Jesus, less than (but almost) 2 weeks ago was his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Just 8 days ago Jesus died on the cross. Just 6 days ago, Jesus rose again. This ebb and flow like life. Was Jesus belittling his own painful sacrifice on the cross, linking it to the labor pains (not that such are small or minor in anyway), or (more likely) equating the short term pain with the joy that comes with new life. With the joy of such new life overriding the anxiety of the pain just experienced. We know what the new life is of a mother giving birth. What about Jesus?

    When Paul speaks to the Galatians, he expresses the heart of Jesus insofar as the new life that Jesus spoke of. It is you. It is me. It is the extended framily called the church. This new life is a community called to worship God with one another in love and truth.

    1) What do you think when you think of the “church year”? Is it a new concept to you? How does it shape your life, both in and outside of church?

    2) Do you find it difficult to separate your knowledge from the story? You know what’s going to happen. Are you able to “live” with the disciples as they walk with Jesus?

    3) Paul states that his “birthing pains” continue as he awaits Christ’s formation in the Galatians. Aren’t the Galatians Christians? What do you think Paul means?