Devotion.al

Tag: share

  • Can You Relate?

    Can You Relate?

    1 Corinthians 3:5–9; Philippians 1:12–21

    “It can never happen here.”

    “No one respects God here.”

    “How could God in this [horrible] place?”

    You can probably think of a number of questions or statements that an excuse or justification for why you can’t be a missionary where you are. Let’s not devalue those statements. Let’s identify them for what they are…barriers to the Gospel.

    Missionaries have gone to foreign countries for generations. The Church of the Nazarene [the “umbrella” denomination for this devotional] has missionaries in “Creative Access” areas. The denomination does not publicly identify them. When they go home, they are not recorded or associated with their missional area. For many of them, martyrdom (killed because of faithfully the faith) is a real possibility.

    In comparison, our hard to reach areas are not so hard.

    Paul wrote the letter to the church(es) in Philippi from jail. Through a confluence of circumstances, he was able to about , both directly and indirectly. One could think that jail could be a pretty hard place.

    Yet, the Gospel is growing (yes, growing) in the prisons even today. Through methods such as Discovery Bible Study, cell groups (pun intended) are growing in the prisons. Some of the hardest prisons where the further separate inmates into pods are establishing groups.

    Did Paul start immediately preaching the Gospel to the guards? Probably not. He developed with them over time. Then as the guided, he shared.

    Where you are may be a place where you are called to only plant seeds. Perhaps you are in a place where you are called to water the seeds that others planted. It might even be possible for you to be in a place where you plant and water. Depending on the people, each person may be in a different place.

    Relational Evangelism is the new buzz-phrase. It shouldn’t be. This is the most effective way, at this point in history, to reach people for Jesus and deepen their (and our) with Jesus. Even 20 years ago, the most successful churches with the deepest discipleship were built on relationships.

    ※Questions※

    1) What relationship is the hardest for you at the moment? How could/might the Holy Spirit use that to bring Jesus into the picture?

    2) What kind of seeds are you planting right now? In whom are you planting them? What are some ways to plant seeds?

    3) What seeds/plants are you watering right now? How are you watering them? What are some ways to water the seeds of faith?

    4) How’s the weeding going? Are you having to pull some weeds in your or others’ lives? How might weeding work (or not) in the newly planted and/or watered relationships?

    ※Prayer※

    , from the beginning you have used the picture of planting and watering to convey deep truths to your Creation. Please guide us into how planting, watering, and weeding needs to be lived out in our lives. Amen.

    A quick summary and methodology outline for the Discovery Bible Study can be downloaded here, or you can go to the Discovery Bible Study site (not all views are necessarily the views of this site.)

  • Graveside Dancing

    Graveside Dancing

    Psalm 30; Hosea 13:4–14

    Yesterday was the birthday of my stepfather. He passed away years ago. For whatever reason, this year his birthday hit me kind of hard. He and I had our good moments. We had our bad moments. Just like any parent-child relationship. I was his only child.

    At his burial, the priest spoke about his baptism sealing him to Christ. This was spoken pastorally to people grieving. However, scripturally it has some weaknesses. His life, and to my , and beliefs were not of Jesus Christ.

    On his death bed, my wife shared the Good News of Jesus Christ. He was in a “non-responsive” state. Yet, she felt a to the invitation to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior. Only in Heaven will I if the baptism was “sealing” as the priest said, or whether the physical response truly was an acceptance of Jesus. I can only hope and in God.

    Why share the angst? “I cried to you for help, and you healed me.” In our and sorrow, God is there to “turn [our] lament in dancing”. Joy in Christ in the midst of the pains of life is the life we are called to.

    In lament and pain, it is easy for our faith in God to be shaken, while at the same time relying more firmly on God will help us through the pain.

    There are many kinds of . The verses of Hosea summarize loss. The people lost (walked away from) God. They had experienced blessing, then they lost it. The vision of loss sounds brutal. Think of it though from God’s anguished heart.

    “…like a bear robbed of her cubs.” Have you seen a momma bear (or many human mothers) separated from their children, with the feeling that the kids are threatened? I’ve seen a recorded version of one and lived the other. Don’t be the one that separates momma from the cubs. Just don’t.

    THAT’S GOD! Something is between momma (God) and the cubs (the children of God)! That is just not going to go well! It could be a that has the name Israel or Judah attached to it.

    THAT is the concept of ransom and redemption. Death and Sheol are not going to be forgiven for taking away the Children of God. The exact mechanism (despite a whole lot of theologians arguing over it for centuries) is unknown. All we know is that heart of God wants to turn our lament into dancing and our sorrow into joy.

    ※Questions※

    1) What’s do you think about dancing at the death of death?

    2) As Christians, why does death still frighten us? If we truly believe that a fellow Christian is in Heaven, why do we grieve?

    3) “Deathbed Conversions” will continue to decrease, as too many don’t know the basics of Jesus. How will you turn regular conversations into God conversations?

    ※Prayer※

    Father, thank you for redeeming us from death through the death and resurrection of your Son. May the guide our hearts to speak the words of Christ to the world. Amen.

  • Veritas

    Veritas

    Acts 21:34–22:28

    Have there ever been times in your when you knew speaking the would, at best, keep things the way they were? And, at worst, make things horribly wrong? Or, have you had the experience that no matter how much you the truth, only hear lies?

    These scenarios might seem far-fetched, yet, that was exactly what Paul experienced.

    “You speak Greek?”

    “Aren’t you the Assassin leader?”

    “You speak Aramaic?”

    “You’re a Roman citizen?”

    Yes, one the first is a literal question. The other 3 are just summarizations of other verses. Yet, the entirety is that Paul was dismissed. He wasn’t .

    People could share plenty of false information (that’s what started the riot, after all). Why bother to inspect the truth?

    We are in a weird time. Truth is questioned. Truth is questionable.

    Before you throw politics into this, understand that the Truth of our remains steadfast. It is the only Truth.

    Paul spoke the Truth. He did not speak the truth that people wanted to hear. This is the same thing that we are seeing now. It is place (schools, homes, churches, governments) agnostic.

    Many of you may have experienced those first when you think about spiritual/faith conversations you have had.

    Who are you? A child of God

    What is Truth? That God you so much that he sent his son to die to reconcile God’s lost Creation to himself.

    No, the Truth is not comfortable to many, or even most, people. Sharing the Truth will only become harder.

    ※Prayer※

    of all Truth, may we have the courage of our faith to share your Truth in with a world that does and doesn’t want to hear it. Amen.

  • Evangel

    Evangel

    Evangel

    28 September 2020

    Luke 1:68–80; Ephesians 4:7–16

    Many years ago, there was campaign against man-caused forest fires. The campaign “starred” a little bear cub that, while burned, survived a man-caused forest fire. The tagline for the campaign was, “Only YOU can prevent forest fires.”

    From a strict understanding, of course, it’s not just you that can prevent forest fires. It’s you and everyone else around whose behavior contributes to the amount of man-caused forest fires. Of course, you can only prevent forest fires when you are the contributor of the originating fire.

    That was the beauty of the campaign. Ultimately, it was just you that can prevent forest fires, it was you and your friends and everyone else working together to prevent man-caused forest fires.

    What, you may be asking yourself, have to do with Zechariah’s -driven prophetic over an infant John the Baptist? Re-read it, and where it says, “you, child…” say, “me, [your name]…”

    Just like the campaign starring Smokey the Bear, it wasn’t just John the Baptist who was called to go before Jesus. Each and every one of us is called to “go before” Jesus in our daily lives.

    How that works in each person’s life will, for most, remain a mystery. However, when we live out a faithful life that witnesses to the , , and love of Jesus Christ, we go before Jesus. Once we are asked a why or how question about our lives, then we get to announce Jesus.

    You probably never thought of yourself as John the Baptist. That’s probably a good thing, for none of us can be another person, nor did God call us to be that way. We are not called to be John the Baptist.

    You are probably not called to eat wild locusts and honey. Nor are you probably called to wear a hairy coat. We are called to follow in the “spirit of” John the Baptist by proclaiming through Jesus Christ.

    When we think of evangelism, we generally think about sharing Jesus with people who don’t know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Perhaps, however, we are just as called to Jesus with those in the Body of Christ (the church).

    Paul wrote to the Ephesians about the varying roles within the body. The overarching goal is, “…unity in the and in the of God’s Son…” He wrote that to Christians.

    Our (good) desire to reach people who don’t know Jesus may well have obscured something essential. We need to continue to evangelize (i.e., tell the Good News about Jesus) each other.

    ※Questions※

    1) Where and how do you see yourself evangelizing those that do not yet know Jesus? How about those who already declare they know Jesus?

    2) What scares you most evangelizing? Does that fear depending on whether they are already or not yet believers?

    3) What are some ways evangelizing is (or should be) performed within the body of believers?

    ※Prayer※

    Spirit, guide our hearts to always be evangelizing one another. Amen.

  • AntiPyros

    AntiPyros

    Proverbs 16:28; Philippians 2:1–13; James 3:1–13

    A pyromaniac is a person who continually fails to resist the to start fires, often as a sort of method to relieve tension or for instant gratification. Pyromania (the term for the condition) is an impulse control disorder. What should we call those whose (or keyboard strokes) cause firestorms of angst, hatred, fear, sorrow, etcetera?

    As Christians, perhaps one of the biggest acts of serving love we can do in these days is to be firefighters. This is not about “fake news”, “doctored news”, “spin”, or any other term being flung about these days to discredit those perceived to be from the so-called opposition.

    It wasn’t that long ago that the entire West Coast of the US was blanketed with smoke from many wildland fires. Millions of acres burned. Some categorize the amount of acreage burned as record-breaking. If we were to estimate the number of firefighters working to knock out the fires at 350 thousand (which is probably a quite high estimate), that would be around 1/10 of 1% (0.001) of the US population.

    Why do those numbers matter? A relatively small proportion of the US population put out so many fires over a large amount of acreage. That’s the way we should be.

    In the context of the church, fire is a symbol of the and a purifier/cleanser. However, the other side of fire is utter destruction. A purifying fire can be good, however, the church (and society, and history, and the world) has had too many instances when a purifying fire becomes corrupted, and all it does is destroy.

    There are far too many people like those in Proverbs 16:28 who seek to sow discord and conflict, and who spread gossip to tear down their intellectual opponents. The Scriptures certainly do not celebrate such individuals. Nor should we.

    Gossip and conflict-starting put oneself above others. When we look to ourselves and not others, there is a huge potential to sow hatred and derision rather than the love of Christ. When we in love and with the intent to build others up, the fire-starting tongue becomes a blesser rather than a curser.

    ※Questions※

    1) Where are you seeing brothers and sisters being unholy fire-starters and spreaders, rather than holy firefighters?

    2) What are some ways and words that you can use to help quench the unholy fires of words that are shared around you?

    3) What, if any, experiences have you had where what was (or was intended to be) a purifying fire turned into a destructive one?

    ※Prayer※

    Holy Spirit, we you to us up as beacons of your and love. Guide us to be the ones that share holy fire and extinguish unholy fire. Amen.

  • Solitudinal Gift

    Solitudinal Gift

    Mark 6:30–46

    The story of feeding 5000 people (or more, as many question if this 5000 was only counting the men, or everyone) is very impressive. Feeding the hungry is a good thing and should be celebrated. This story, though, is bookended by something that we often skip over so we can get to “the good stuff”.

    The disciples had come back. They had been sent. They preached. They healed. They shared the about and the . They were probably really excited to share.

    Jesus, however, knew they needed something they didn’t recognize they needed…solitude.

    In our day and age, solitude is a struggle. Theoretically, the quietest spot in the continental US is in Olympic National Park in Washington. There is a place in the Hoh Min rain forest that one is unable to hear the sounds of humanity. To protect this space there have had to be discussions with the FAA, airlines, and even the Federal Government about keeping it that way. It has been a struggle.

    As humanity’s technology has evolved, it’s effect upon solitude has been significant. Many people will suffer measurable hearing earlier than in previous generations due to noise. As hearing is one of our senses, and often the one that senses danger first, our hearing is active. Any noise, therefore, may disrupt our quiet.

    Now, people buy technological devices to quiet the sound around them, so that they can simulate quiet.

    The disciples were probably feeling a “high” of experience. Many of us have had those spiritual highs. We want them. We pursue them. We miss the next step.

    Jesus wanted his disciples to be removed from the excitement. They needed time to (as we say) decompress. It may have been a good time to process with Jesus what they did in his .

    Instead, people clamored and disturbed them. Out of , Jesus fed them.

    Jesus sent off the disciples. Not quite the same as being alone with them, but through that , a separation was made, and the disciples could be “off”. No one knows what they talked about (if anything) on the trip. It was away. Which is what mattered.

    There are ebbs and flow in . Jesus had his own ebbs and flows and wanted the same for his disciples. That applies to us, too.

    In an “age of distraction”, where even can be more full of noise that , we need to each take deliberate actions to seek God and to find our own solitude. Even the extroverts need solitude (maybe less than introverts, granted). You may not be able to go to the Hoh Min rain forest, but you can and should find a place, a way, and a time, to be alone with yourself (no matter how much that might disquiet you), and also find time to be alone with God.

  • Cryptic Inheritor

    Cryptic Inheritor

    Genesis 29:16–30; Genesis 49:29–33; Galatians 3:27–29

    Having been to many cemeteries over the years, whether in the US or abroad, it can be amazing to see what people do as monuments. A war or emperor may have one. Rich and noble families would often have such a monument, collecting the remains throughout history. It isn’t new, by any stretch. David and many of his descendants were buried near one another.

    Abraham may or may not have intended to buy a family burial plot, but it ended up being such for a few generations. What is peculiar about Jacob’s time is that his favorite wife, Rachael, was not buried there. His first wife, Leah, who wasn’t the preferred one, was the one buried there, and where Jacob would be buried alongside.

    Family land has been fought over long before walked the earth. Even today, families fight over land and property fraying (if not destroying) family ties and loyalties. In some places, the national lines that divide governments attempt to divide families, yet instead, the family ties override the national division.

    The bitter part of all of this is that people often fight over that which is dead and gone. Other times, their plans (buried with Rachael the favorite) are overridden by circumstances (buried with second best).

    All the battles and all the woes are only for a time. As much as an inheritance (even the simple family burial plot) may seem important at the time, it more often magnifies the pettiness of worldly affairs. -to-Dust.

    That has long been one of the hallmarks of the Christian …this world is not your home. Or, said another way, your true inheritance is not here.

    calls out this inheritance as something that crosses blood, and culture, and nation, and class, and gender. This imperishable seed of Abraham is not just something to grasp, it has already been given.

    ※Questions※

    1) When you hear “inheritance” what is the first thing that comes to mind?

    2) Why do Christians often fight over earthly inheritance or when they have the imperishable inheritance?

    3) How might a daily reminder of your inheritance change how you interact with others in the world? What can you do to put that reminder front-and-center in your ?

    ※Prayer※

    God, may we keep our eternal home perpetually in mind, along with all those with whom we want to it. Amen.

  • Things Change

    Things Change

    Exodus 20:1–6; Numbers 21:4–9; 2 Kings 18:1–4

    The Ten Commandments has been a political and religious hot potato for years. There are a number of times various parties have used the Ten Commandments to score political points. There have been those that state that the Ten Commandments are what the Constitution is based on. Some have even made, it seems, a political career about Ten Commandment statues and placements.

    Many Christians (cultural and actual) have claimed if we were to just follow the Ten Commandments, we would be fine. Yet, in the case of the statue above, the Ten Commandments seemed to have become more of an , rather than a definer of a relationship with God.

    In the Ten Commandments, God directs that the Israelites should not create an object of that resembles something created. This is so that people are not deceived by stone and wood, and that their hearts pursue the God who creates all and is uncreated.

    Something strange happens later. God directs Moses to create the bronze serpent. This is an object made to resemble a created being. Depending on how one interprets the Ten Commandments, this directive violates the Ten Commandments.

    The nuance is that the bronze serpent was not meant to be worshiped. It was a symbol of God’s , , and , and a reminder that the Israelites were reliant upon God. The living serpents were a punishment. The bronze serpent a tool of healing and a symbol of grace and mercy.

    However, as many good things do, the good became bad. The symbol of God’s grace, mercy, and healing became the exact kind of object that was prohibited by the Ten Commandments…an object of worship.

    There are many good things in the world. Many of them (trees, mountains, animals, etc.) have become objects of worship and have been elevated in thinking to the level of a god. This perversion of their nature does not make them bad, just as the perversion of the bronze serpent did not make it automatically bad.

    The story of the bronze serpent, however, is a morality tale that any God-follower should pay attention to. There are many who appear to hold the Scriptures, the Ten Commandments, the church in a way that is worship. This is where a non-church attender could reasonably say, “I can worship God in the middle of a stream, better than in a building with a whole bunch of hypocrites.”

    The moral of the story is that anything that was once good can become bad. Something that once led us to God can become our god instead. Something that used to give us the language to talk about God can become a barrier to the story of God.

    This is a serious matter. It also is not a new issue. One of the gifts that the Reformation gave us (along with many not-so-good things) is the concept of Semper Reformanda, always reforming. In other words, we should always be looking for anything—even the stuff we think is good—that keeps us from or inhibits our relationship with God.

    ※Questions※

    1) What does reform mean to you?

    2) What can you think of that is objectively good, but can also inhibit a healthy relationship with God?

    3) Why is the story of the bronze serpent important to your as a follower of and a member of Christ’s Body on Earth (the church)?

    ※Prayer※

    Heavenly , help us to chisel away any hardness or edge or characteristic that prevents us from fully following and worshiping you. Amen.