Devotion.al

Tag: word

  • Fearing or Embracing the End

    Joel 2:1–11, Mark 13:1–8, Mark 13:32–33 (read online ⧉)

    “We believe that the Lord Christ will come again; that we who are alive at His coming shall not precede them that are asleep in Christ Jesus; but that, if we are abiding in Him, we shall be caught up with the risen to the Lord in the air, so that we shall ever be with the Lord.” Article of 15, 2017—2021 Manual of the Church of the Nazarene

    With the coming of a New Year, and with any year that has a strong potential for being tumultuous, there will be plenty of people who will loudly and proudly proclaim that the is coming. They are right. The end is coming. They are wrong, however, when declaring when.

    If Jesus Christ, the Son of God doesn’t know when, then why would anyone dare to suggest they do?

    It’s not a new thing. Prophets such as Joel foretold a “Day of the Lord.” Generally, while it was often interpreted as some form of judgment, it was really a foretelling that God was coming in a supernatural way, and that the way of things would be changed.

    So, why do people focus on dates? The primary pieces appear to be and control. Generally, those that focus on the impending Day of the Lord also appear to be concerned about being rule-followers and obeyers of the Law. This is definitely part of the fear that many have been taught regarding God. Those that have been trained to think far more about God as judge and punisher than about God’s grace, , and .

    The other piece, control, is a little trickier, but overall, by putting a date on it, it seems to lose that “lack” of control, and maybe even some fear goes away. There is the constant human desire to quantify, qualify, and define everything, even that which God says is not for humankind to know.

    There will be those, especially in this election year, that will declare the end of the world if such-and-such is (re-)elected. There are those declaring the end of the world due to environmental catastrophes, economic breakdown, or many other things. We are not called to merely react, we are called to listen to and read God’s . We are called to be more like Christ every day. We are called to wisely act with Godly discernment.

    1) When “your” side (regardless of issues/person) is “attacked” what is your initial ? What is your follow-up response?

    2) What is something you fear? Why? How do you deal with that fear?

    3) What is something you want to control? Can you? If you can’t, how do you deal with that desire to control?

  • Whose Will

    Genesis 12:1-7, Hebrews 11:1–12 (read online ⧉)

    “I will” is a major component in God’s sending statement for Abram. God will be doing a lot. It’s not, though, as if Abram will be doing nothing. He’ll be doing a lot of traveling, caring for his herds, caring for his people. In fact, much of his daily was caring and leading .

    There have been 2 major trains of thought when it comes to God’s sovereignty. The first (overly simplified) view is that God sets everything in motion, and we are effectively puppets. The other (again, overs simplified view) is that God gave free will to humankind with God’s will (i.e., “I will”) still very much in play. How this later view works out is somewhat of a , which is why many oppose it. On the other hand, with what we know of God through the , this understanding (despite the mystery) is the most harmonious with God’s nature/.

    The balance between I did and God did is not always a hard line. For example, if the doubled in attenders next week, would it be God or would it be of mouth or would it be advertising? Or would it be a combination of them all? That’s the rub for many. People want a cause and effect so they know the path they are and will be walking on. Yet, that’s the whole point of Abram’s story, including how the author of Hebrews refers to it.

    We are called to walk by faith in the direction that we have discerned (for few have had that “God encounter” that can provide some guidance). We have to walk the best we are able, including reading the Scriptures, talking to friends, and talking to those who are also on their own walk to follow .

    Whether we a looking to the next decade, year, month, week, day, hour, or even second, all we possibly do is to step forward in faith, one step at a time.

    1) What things in your life are you having to “ in faith” right now? Why?

    2) What can you do to make sure that you are doing your part to follow the path of faith? Why do you think that is your part? Are you sure you have no other part? How?

  • Full Joy

    Psalm 126, Isaiah 12:1–6

    Around Christmas, is used a lot. Many Christmas songs use the , a lot. What is joy? Without defining it, we leave it to the world to define it for us, which is dangerous, for the world misses so much without God. For us, we need to look at joy as a deep-seated emotion that provides assurance, resolve, positive outlook, and is – through building up of self and and is based upon the and nature of God—, Son, and .

    Is this an all-encompassing understanding of joy? Probably not. In fact, joy is often used, even in Scripture, to mean something different. This is why it is so important to set our expectations for joy and what we are actually looking for when we seek joy.

    True joy is fully dependent upon our with God. A person who touches on the joy of God (such as having children) gets a taste, but it is not the full expression of joy. In many respects, we will not fully understand joy in this life. Even the most devout believer still only gets a taste of joy on this side of things. So, imagine the person who doesn’t have that depth with God. The “taste” they get is even less than the taste experienced by believers. It makes sense that joy is often confused in the world.

    1. Why should we put such a strong point of God being integral to joy?
    2. If you were to change the definition of joy given about, what would you add, remove, or change?
    3. Why is it important to look for joy?

  • Receiving Peace

    Luke 12:49–53, Luke 14:31–35, Luke 19:32–38 (read online ⧉)

    Jesus has the title of Prince of , yet our first passage today from Luke certainly causes one to question that. Some scholars align this with the Jewish zealot party, which sought the overthrow of the Roman Empire in Israel by (primarily) violent methods. However, it is prefaced by fire. Again, it sounds strange, unless we recognize that this is a cleansing and purifying fire. The sad truth is that many will be confronted with Jesus’ words and make a decision that has the potential to destroy relationships. This is the division that Jesus brings. Some will follow Jesus, the will follow the world.

    The title of should probably be more properly, the Prince (of the people who live by and on and believe in the of the Lord) of Peace (knowing that the Creator of the Universe is overall). It’s a lot wordier, but it helps us understand the seeming conflict between Jesus’ title and the first words we read.

    Certainly, war would not be the function of the Prince of Peace, would it? Yet, here Jesus uses that analogy. It’s not because Jesus desires war, but because the people were surrounded by war and its legends, meaning that this was an effective way to to people. On the other hand, we could look at it as the weaker party (us) seeking peace with the stronger party (God), and, oddly enough, the negotiation and sealing of that agreement is through Jesus Christ.

    The reality is that the ultimate culmination of peace will not happen here. Peace is in Heaven. However, when we spend time meditating on God’s about peace, and meditating on who Jesus is (the Prince of Peace), we receive God’s peace here on earth.

    1) What are your thoughts about being a purifying image? What concept, if any, in Christianity is symbolized by a flame? How do they work ?

    2) Does it bother you that Jesus uses war imagery to make a point? Why or why not?

    3) If the ultimate peace only happens in Heaven, why pursue it here on earth?

  • Peace is in Heaven

    Luke 12:49–53, Luke 14:31–35, Luke 19:32–38

    ‌ has the title of Prince of , yet our first passage today from Luke certainly causes one to question that. Some scholars align this with the Jewish zealot party, which sought the overthrow of the Roman Empire in Israel by (primarily) violent methods. However, it is prefaced by . Again, it sounds strange, unless we recognize that this is a cleansing and purifying fire. The sad truth is that many will be confronted with Jesus’ words and make a decision that has the potential to destroy . This is the that Jesus brings. Some will follow Jesus, the will follow the world.

    ‌The title of should probably be written more properly, the Prince (of the people who live by and on and believe in the of the Lord) of Peace (knowing that the Creator of the Universe is over all). It’s a lot wordier, but it helps us understand the seeming conflict between Jesus’ title and these first words we read.

    ‌Certainly war would not be the function of the Prince of Peace, would it? Yet, here Jesus uses that analogy. It’s not because Jesus desires war, but because the people were surrounded by war and its legends, meaning that this was an effective way to speak to people. On the other hand, we could look at it as the weaker party (us) seeking peace with the stronger party (God), and, oddly enough, the negotiation and sealing of that agreement is through Jesus Christ.

    ‌The reality is that the ultimate culmination of peace will not happen here. Peace is in Heaven. However, when we spend time meditating on God’s word about peace, and meditating on who Jesus is (the Prince of Peace), we receive God’s peace here on earth.

    1) What are your thoughts about flame being a purifying image? What concept, if any, in Christianity is symbolized by a flame? How do they work ?

    2) Does it bother you that Jesus uses war imagery to make a point? Why or why not?

    3) If the ultimate peace only happens in Heaven, why pursue it here on earth?

  • You…Priest…You

    Malachi 2:1–9, Colossians 3:5–17, 1 Peter 2:1–8 (read online)

    In a number of bibles (both translations and iterations), this passage in Malachi has the header of Warning to the Priests. You may have read that yourself. This passage is indeed to the Israelite priests, who fulfill the forms of worship, , supplication, and , but do not fulfill the of any of it. Tying the heart of worship to honoring God’s should any of us pause. Look at what God is equating to the behavior of their hearts: animal poop and entrails. In other words, what’s coming out of them is crap. Pretty harsh.

    The problem that many Christians have reading this passage is, “this doesn’t apply to me.” Except if you read ‘s and Peter’s letters, the category of Israelite/Jewish Priest actually does apply to all of us. Paul’s letter removes the human-based barriers between people. Peter removes the concept of non-priest. In other words, the warning of Malachi does apply to each of us.

    Now, we could say that the Law doesn’t apply to us. Okay. Yet, the “Law” of (love the Lord your God) would seem to wipe that argument out in context. While we use and have the titles of priest, pastor, reverend, minister, and while they have a certain place within the , that does not spare us from the priesthood of all believers.

    Re-read Malachi. Replace “you” with “me”, and “your” with “my”. Take this personally.

    1) How have you violated what God calls on us to do/be according to the words in Malachi?

    2) Scripture is pretty down-to-earth. This passage in Malachi shows it (along with a little rephrasing). Why is it important that the Scriptures are so down-to-earth? What happens when we over gentle the of God?

    3) Barriers are a common tactic. Why do you think it is important that Paul and Peter removed them? What barriers need to be removed in your , particularly with how you categorized and interact with other people?

  • Obedience of Faith

    Nehemiah 9:26–38, John 5:19–29 (read online)

    We struggle with obedience. We struggle with rules.

    We often don’t like the rules created by , especially if we are to live by them.

    The reality is that rules do govern our lives. Sometimes the “rules” are not truly rules but are descriptions of reality. The laws of gravity, entropy, magnetism and so on follow this.

    Using the “law” can be deceptive as they are a description of behavior that is perceived that all things follow. Yet, in many respects, these are the only laws that everyone obeys. These laws of physics aren’t something we think about. They are just part of our lives.

    By and large, all the legal laws we have, we don’t really think about, either, other than some of the driving ones.

    We don’t think, generally, about laws of incorporation, franchises, utilities, building codes, commerce, in fact, all sorts of things.

    Sometimes, we might have to deal with some of them, but not always. When we do we recognize it, it is as a societal hoop we jump through if we want to move forward.

    What ties all of these rules and laws is that there is no component in them. There might be some sort of different faith in regards to the underlying system (e.g., capitalism, democracy), but the laws themselves require no faith.

    Unless he obeys, a man cannot believe.
    — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

    The Israelites didn’t have enough faith to obey, apparently. Or was it something else. What is Dietrich Bonhoeffer getting at? It appears to be a catch-22. The Israelites didn’t have faith, because they didn’t believe, because they didn’t obey? Does faith have anything to do with belief? Time and time again, the Israelites did not obey.

    Disobedience became a way of , and so did unbelief. The ultimate consequence was being slaves in their own land, that they had been given by God. By the time came, while the Jews (the descendant of the Israelites) were oppressed, they weren’t (by in large) slaves. Their position within the Roman structure wasn’t by our standards, granted. However, their religious leaders created new and enforced old laws that enslaved their hearts. What about obedience? And, that, is where we get to the rub of things.

    Jesus put his obedience out there in a way that was different than the religious leaders. Jesus could not do anything on his own. He bound himself to God the Father. This is the kind of obedience that Bonhoeffer is getting at. It’s not rules for rules’ sake (which is what the Jewish law had devolved to), but for the of God. Obedience for obedience’s sake, or to get something, is not Godly obedience. Godly obedience is doing as we are called to do by God because we were called to it by God.

    1)What do think when you think of obedience?

    2) Which is easier, obeying laws, or God’s laws? Are you sure?

  • Fields of God

    Matthew 9:35–38, John 4:34–38, 1 Corinthians 3:5–11

    For a culture that is generally separated from the people and land that provide its food, the imagery of harvest can be hard to grasp. Many of us drive by hay, alfalfa, and cornfields. We have no idea when the crop is , but the farmers do. One thing that could be a similar situation would be investments.

    Through our retirement plans or other investments (such as homes), we “” our . However, in reality, the growth of those investments largely relies on the work of . Homes can be the only exception, yet the value of the home is often deeply affected by the surrounding area (location, location, location). So, even with all the remodels, you are reliant on others.

    All the money managers are outweighed by the number of their customers. In other words, there are few working to grow the investments that many of our retirement and dreams for our children (and grandchildren) are based. The laborers are few. The interesting part of this is that many (with reason) perceive that these money managers are not actually “earning” value, yet we all yet still look to them to grow what we have entrusted them with.

    The underlying reality is that God is constantly seeding the world with the . God uses people to do so. Relatively, there are very few that know and the Word. In other words, not much has changed. Even in the “great” American- Era, those that truly know Jesus were outnumbered. The harvest (the world) is huge, and there are relatively few workers.

    We are all called to labor in the harvest. We may gather little, for where we have gathered few have sown. Or we may gather much because where we are was well-tended by those before us. We truly do not know who was before us, or what they did to labor for God. We are to do our best. The harvest was happening before we were born, is happening now, and will continue to happen after we are gone (depending on when Jesus returns, of course).

    We are both workers and the harvest. This is the symmetry of the reproduction of .

    1) Who are you working within their faith journey? Who is working with you?

    2) Why is the discussion regarding Apollos and important? What are your takeaways?

    3) Jesus says we know when to harvest. Have you ever harvested too early? What happened?