Devotion.al

Tag: share

  • The Passing of Wisdom and Faith

    Proverbs 3:33–4:27, Genesis 3:21–4:7, Luke 3:4–18

    (Grand)Parents can pass on wisdom to their (biological, mentored, or spiritual) children and grandchildren. Sometimes the wisdom is things learned, sometimes it is survived. In Proverbs, we see a collection of wisdom sayings. Living a good has been twisted in our culture to be a life of collecting stuff and wealth. The proverbs gathered in the book of Proverbs, if actually read, can be an antidote/counterbalance to that. For a number of years, some Christians have taken to reading a chapter of Proverbs a day. At least chapters 1-28 are read every month. Wisdom can be passed on, even habituated, but both the person doing the passing and the person doing the taking must be working together. Often we can pass on and wisdom (think of all the hours students sit in classrooms). We can even test for knowledge. Ultimately, however, each person must choose to exercise the wisdom they’ve been given. The goal of passing on Godly wisdom is to silence the “wisdom” of the world, and the world is loud.

    Cain, only the second generation(!), succumbed to the world. The first murder happens in the second generation. Let that sink in. It was only the second generation. There is an important lesson in this. The next generation can lose it all. There is a modern proverb, “the (thus Christianity) is only one generation away from out.” We who pass the and our wisdom on to the next generation (and the generation that follows) can only do our best. However, if we understand God’s story, our small story in the middle of God’s story, and give that to those who follow, we increase the likelihood that the Gospel will pass to the next generation. There is a dark side to being the recipient, too.

    The Jews had had the faith passed on to them. They carried it proudly. While they were indeed God’s people, there was an arrogance in many that because their forefathers had passed on the faith and traditions to them, that they were still blessed and protected. John the Baptist wanted them to understand that while the faith was passed down, it wasn’t the rules and rituals that saved and preserved them, it was the grace of God. This grace-filled God wanted a , not empty rituals. While the Israelites had successfully talked to their children in their going and sitting, they had not (apparently) passed on a relationship. The church is often guilty of this same thing. There was a time where as long as the right words were spoken and the right doctrine passed on that all will be well. Except it wasn’t well at all. In , generations turned to an entirely relational view of God, which made new rules and often disregarded doctrine. Both were (and still are) extremes that the church—to pass on the wisdom and faith—must strive to overcome and find a balance between the two.

    1) What Bible story (or stories) can you ? What Bible stories do you think non-believers know?

    2) What did the stories teach you about God? What do you think those bible stories teach non-believers?

    3) In those stories, do you see relation, doctrine, or both? Are you able to those differences with others?

    FD) If you know what is right, do you do it? If not, why not?

  • Spirit of Ashes

    Spirit of Ashes

    Isaiah 58:1–12, Psalm 51:1–17, Matthew 6:19–21

    Ash Wednesday is the start of Lent, the reflective Christian journey to the cross. One of the symbolic pieces are the ashes themselves. The “official” tradition is that the ashes are from last year’s Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is the day that observes Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem with the pomp and circumstance of a ruler. This jubilation is crushed that same week with his crucifixion. The ashes, therefore, are a somber reminder of earthly pride, , and power crushed. Often they are a reminder of our own prides and joys and their short-term nature.

    In the “spirit” of ashes, the following is a modified form of the Book of Common Prayer’s Burial liturgy:
    In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to through our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to Almighty God oursleves—our very beings; and we commit our bodies and lives to serve your kingdom on earth; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless us and keep us, the Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious to us, the Lord lift up his countenance upon us and us peace.

    It seems strange and morbid to a passage from a burial rite, yet an integral part of Ash Wednesday is our mortality. Another part, the part which we often focus on during Lent, is our frailty. By frailty, we mean and the weaknesses inherent to the condition. What we may “give up” during Lent is a upon what we believe is one of our biggest “frailties” at the moment, meaning it can .
    The importance of understanding our finiteness, our mortality, is summed up in Jesus’ words regarding the storage of treasures. The earthly stuff is stolen or rots. It doesn’t last. Only treasures that we store in Heaven last forever. Those treasures are people.

    1) We are all “given” treasures that we are responsible for that are not our children, grandchildren, or other family members. Who are those treasures in your life?

    2) Why is important to the quickness of life when as we approach the cross in our spiritual journey?

    3) What do you value: time, money, things, people? All of these have value. Which has priority?

    FD) On Ash Wednesday a cross of ashes is put on our forehead. Why ashes? Why a cross?

  • The Why of Right

    Psalm 18:21-36, Deuteronomy 6:16–25, Hebrews 2:1–10

    Sometimes the greatest we leave is the little things we do. Where we were not shown love, we show love to others. Where people did not build up, we build up. We may never see any of these little steps, but if we are to follow God, letting him guide us, a Godly legacy comes naturally. When it becomes a Godly habit, we don’t have to ponder long to answer of why we do things.

    In Deuteronomy, we really are reading the legacy that Moses seeks to pass on, not just to his children, or his immediate tribe, but to the entire people called Israel. Imagine having such a potential legacy. The self-imposed pressure would be huge. Yet, the purpose of a legacy is not to bear the entirety of the burden yourself, but to it. It is shared with the leaders with whom you work, it also is shouldered by the ones to whom it is passed.

    Moses wants to make sure that it is not just the leaders or priests that bear the burden. The next generation (and the generations that follow) is the goal of passing on a legacy. Moses wants the parents to understand their place in passing on the legacy of God. The parents, leaders, and priests all have their place in passing on the legacy that they have received. It is not just passing it on, however, that makes it successful. Just passing on information is just that. It is out what was passed on that makes the legacy successful. Just as with the Psalm, there is a result that comes with the successful passing, God’s preservation and looking out for them.

    Right and True information and living is the expression of a legacy. The author of Hebrews, even after such a short time of Christianity, is already concerned in his writing that the Right and True information is being lost. The author of Hebrews would be already well aware of the memory that Israel experienced after escaping Egypt. The author reinforces the importance of the right information being passed along. Often this gets confused, too. People often turn to “right” without “right” belief (and vice-versa). When the “right” action is done it loses its long-term effectiveness and purposed when divorced from the why. Doing “good” things, for example, doesn’t earn one’s way to Heaven.

    1) What “right” thing(s) have you done without knowing the “right” reason(s)?

    2) With whom do you work (or have worked) to make sure that you pass on a legacy having?

    3) Why is it good for us to what legacy we are passing on and why?

    FD) Why is important to know why we do things?

  • Remembrance, Power and Identity

    Genesis 9:8–17, Psalm 8

    Remembering is an essential part of the condition. The philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Through technology, humanity is creating nearly 50 billion GB of data a day. At most, the Bible as is 10 megabytes. This means that if the bible is rewritten everyday, it is only .00001 of the data made in a day. It is quite easy to see that it takes effort to keep the Bible from drowning in the mass amount of data created everyday.

    ‌In the early days, when humankind was still relatively simple there was still a barrier between humanity and God. Through poor judgement and pride, humanity had separated itself from God.

    ‌As a result, humankind received punishment…the flood. While there are many arguments regarding the depth and extent of the flood, the that a majority of religions around the world have a flood story. There is something there that cannot be ignored. A story that is almost universal even today, and yet to many it is exactly that. A story.

    ‌Story is what binds humanity together. Story helps humanity know who it is, where it has been, and were it is going. So, why does God need to remember? After Noah, God set the rainbow to remember, or did he? Sometimes a parent has to say something like, “I’m doing this for me,” so that their children will remember. That is what God is doing here.

    ‌Think of the rain as sin. As it continues, it soaks us to the bone. It gets inside of us. Then the sun comes out and dries the rain. In the midst of from soaked with sin the comes to warmth us. The beauty/sign of that change is the rainbow.

    ‌Another way to tell the same story. The flood was the result of the mass of sin that humanity had committed. The rescue of Noah and the of the rainbow are the and restoration of us all.

    ‌Remembrance is power. Remembrance is .‌‌

    • 1) What stories do you tell, , or repeat? What do they tell you about your family and your identity?
    • ‌2) Our salvation stories can differ from person to person. Each is unique. Do you remember your story? Tell it to someone.
    • ‌3) In an attempt to share the story, we sometimes focus on the wrong parts. What elements of the story do you think of? How do they expand or limit the story?
    • ‌FD) What is/was you favorite bedtime story? Why?

    ‌

    ‌

  • Great Expectations

    Psalm 55:1–7; Luke 2:21–38; 2 Corinthians 11:18–30

    Families are often quick to share their expectations of a newborn (or coming) baby. The pressure can be on pretty quickly. The parents, too, have expectations of their children. They are often called “dreams” or “maybe someday.” As much as this can put pressure on the child, it can also put as much (or even more) pressure on the parents. Children are, through no fault of their own, the extension and of their parents. Social media puts pressure on both, for the child to be a star performer, and the parent to be the parent of the star.

    Pressure can take on many forms, but there are only 2 types: inside and outside. In the Psalm, we can almost feel the stress and strain that David is under. Many scholars think that this was written while Absalom was in the midst of the overthrow of David (2 Samuel 15–19). That being the case, it makes sense that David is feeling betrayed, and feels very much under pressure. He’s supposed to be the leader of the country and leader of his family, and now he is neither.

    In the days of Jesus, the firstborn son would receive the majority of the family property, take over the occupation of their , lead the family, and strengthen the family legacy. There was no expectation that the son would change occupation (more like pressure to retain the occupation of their father). Joseph and Mary would have this cultural expectation of their son. Yet, on top of it, there is this awareness that this son is not , and something unusual is foretold to happen with them. In honor of the Law and tradition, they go to the to have Jesus circumcised. If they had any expectation of this being just a normal thing, the words of Simeon and Anna remind them that all is not normal with Jesus.

    We can only imagine the interesting dynamic this created in the immediate family, but also the extended family. The extended family would have the expectation that Jesus would be the leader of his immediate family and follow in his father’s trade, and repeatedly reinforce that expectation. Joseph and Mary would have to be both soft and firm toward the extended family. They probably also lived with an underlying tension that the earthly expectation of Jesus was not the heavenly expectation they had been repeatedly told.

    Based on the gap in Scripture regarding Jesus’ life, we are pretty certain that Jesus did follow his father’s, Joseph, trade prior to commencing his ministry. For the family, this would have put off the inevitable, yet it was still coming. The longer Jesus did everyday things, it would be understandable for Mary and Jesus’ siblings to anxiously await for Jesus to up and leave. If we re-read the , it is quite understandable for the family to be concerned that their entire legacy would be lost, as the powerful don’t like to be taken down. With the example of the Roman around them, they could have been very afraid that Jesus’ would negatively affect them, if not cause them to die.

    In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul mentions all the troubles he has gone through as he has traveled. There are natural, criminal, and cultural troubles. Then are troubles of hunger and clothing. While it seems to be almost a tag-on of troubles, we read about Paul’s “pressure” regarding the . Other than following Jesus, Paul’s biggest concern, his biggest pressure, is regarding the churches. He loves them. He is concerned about and for them. While this phrase seems to be just tossed in there, Paul’s heart shows up in the 13 books of the New Testament that he wrote, THIRTEEN! His heart is for the churches and the people he loves that are in them. He feels responsible for them as leader, , teacher…and parent.

    Jesus came to earth as one of us. He took responsibility for us. As an infant, there wouldn’t be any pressure purposely put on him, but it would still be there.

    1. What puts the most “pressure” on you? Job performance? Child performance? Financial success? Material success?
    2. When you are under a high amount of pressure, what is your normal response? Do you “just deal” with the pressure? Do you work through to resolve the pressure? Do you surrender it?
    3. Jesus bore the “weight” of the world, yet said that his burden was . How do you think that works?
    4. [KD] Did someone ever tell you that you had to do something that you felt you should not do? What did that feel like? What did you do?
  • Peace and Holiness

    Peace and Holiness

    Ezekiel 37:24-28, Romans 12:9-18, Hebrews 12:7-15

    “I will make a of with them…”
    Ezekiel 37:26

    “Live in harmony with one another…”
    Romans 12:16

    “If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peach with everyone.”
    Romans 12:18

    “Pursue peace with everyone, and —without it no one will see the Lord.”
    Hebrews 12:14

    When God speaks to Ezekiel, the consequences of a outside of and away from God are showing up to the Israelites, and it is not a pretty picture. Something to understand throughout Ezekiel is that while the consequences of not living life with God is bad, God promises hope. Especially a hope which cannot be earned. God makes the new covenant of peace.

    We, too, have a covenant with peace to live out. It is the covenant of peace with . In Romans 12, Paul is talking specifically about the peace between members of the framily. However, this peace is supposed to also spill out into our relationships outside of the church framily.

    The author of Hebrews, however, makes what can be chilling ties to peace with others: holiness and divine life. Mercifully, the author of Hebrews uses the “pursue.” Other translations have it as “strive for” or “chase after.” As we read yesterday, peace requires effort.

    Peace and holiness are tied together by the author of the Hebrews. This is not unreasonable, as the ultimate peace is given by God who is . The importance of living at peace with one another—especially, but not exclusively, in the church framily—cannot be overstated. If the Children of God are not at peace with one another, what kind of peace can they with others?

    1) What does it mean to you that “no one will see the Lord” when it comes to being at peace with one another and holiness?

    2) Is being at peace with one another important to you? Why or why not?

    KD) We all struggle with being at peace with one another. Are you pursuing peace with others? What are you willing to give up to have peace?

  • Stirring Up

    Stirring Up

    Psalm 71:1-9, Ezekiel 37:1-14, Matthew 12:9-21

    “Be a rock of refuge for me, where I can always go…”
    Psalm 71:3

    “I will put my in you, and you will live… I have spoken, and I will do it.”
    Ezekiel 37:14

    “The nations will put their in his .”
    Matthew 12:21 (also see Isaiah 42:1-4)

    When we read Psalm 71, we read chronological age (birth to old), and that is as the Psalmist intended. Let’s look at it differently today. Let’s look at it as our life in Christ. Most people (not all, and that’s okay) when they first come to know Jesus Christ are eager to about their new life in him. Often huge life changes occur that bear to the life-change that is available through Christ. However, as our faith ages, often the enthusiasm goes away. We become “old.” In other words, our life in Christ is not very vigorous. Some people start out “old,” because they grew up in the , and knew nothing different, and those around them (having been in the church awhile) were “old” already and were thus not very enlivening to a new believer. There are some who appear “old” due to their personality. They, too, need better ways and habits to invigorate their spiritual lives and the spiritual lives of .

    By God’s , we don’t have to rely on ourselves. The Spirit that was promised to each and every believer will help us with our spiritual lives and help us help others with their spiritual lives. When we, in partnership with the and each other, stir up our spiritual lives, the world will look at us and our hope, and the world will hope in His name.

    1) Why is a strong spiritual life an essential component to hope?

    2) What is one thing you can start doing to stir up your spiritual life?

    3/KD) No matter how young or old you are, you are important to other people’s spiritual life. What is one thing you can start doing to stir up others’ spiritual lives?

  • Free to Feel

    Free to Feel

    Psalm 42, 2 Samuel 7:18-29, Romans 15:7-13

    “…Put your in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God.”
    Psalm 42:5

    “…Do as you have promised, so that your will be exalted forever…”
    2 Samuel 7:25-26

    The Psalmist and David have different emotions in their words. The Psalmist seems exhausted mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It would be reasonable to say that the Psalmist was very depressed. David on the other hand was -filled for God had made a to him that his family (his house) would forever have a place before God. In a culture where family was of greater importance than the , this was a big deal.

    Both Psalmist and David, regardless of circumstances, put their hope in God. Both understood that they were insignificant in comparison to God, but that they were not insignificant to God. That is hope built on solid ground. An individual’s daily struggles may be small in comparison to the big picture, but the God who continues to draw the big picture knows that every person has their right place in the picture, and because of that, they are significant to God.

    The social and cultural events that occur around Christmas (company parties, family get togethers, even church activities) can often exhaust and overwhelm us. Many of these activities can feel more like obligations, rather than times of joy and warm-heartedness. The times around Christmas can find feeling like both the Psalmist (exhausted/depressed) and David (joy-filled and thanks-filled). Sometimes the in moods can catch us by surprise, and we might even feel guilty for our feelings. As long as our hope rests on/in God, we are free to feel. We are free in Christ.

    1) How can you strengthen other people’s hope in ? How will you?

    2) The best “tool” we have to feel hope is the Holy . How can you “use” the Holy Spirit to strengthen your hope?

    3/KD) Christmas is a time to give and receive gifts. Not everyone gets presents. How can you show and that the best is Jesus?

    “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
    Romans 15:13