Faith

# 18 2021 Dev. Psalm 111:2. Piety! Read all of Psalm 111 first. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Psalm 111:2 “Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.”

Ps.111 starts a new series of 9 Psalms, they are framed by two acrostic poems, Ps.111 and 112 and by one acrostic poem Ps.119 that poem is an acrostic by themes and has 176 verses. The series is the Egypt “Hallalu Yah” (Hallelujah) meaning rejoicing to praise God for His salvation. Not superficially but as a matter of the heart, true piety! The series has a close connection with the songs of Miriam and of Mary Ex.15:1-21, Lk.1: 46-56

Ps 111 is divided into two section of four verses each with a prelude and postlude. V.1 The Hallalu Yah: “Praise the Lord. I will extol the Lord with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly.”

Vs. 2-5 describes God’s works: glorious and majestic, righteous, gracious and compassionate, He provides for His people and “remembers his covenant forever.”

Vs. 6-9 describes the effect of God’s works on His people: God shows his power, He is faithful and just, He is trustworthy, establishing His people in eternity, He “provided redemption for His people”. His covenant is forever.

What we take away from this Psalm is the importance of piety, not only recognizing God’s faithfulness but the desire for our faithfulness to God and our thankfulness for God’s care: “He provides redemption for His people…” Piety is not much talked about today and not often practiced, by all appearances, yet it is an integral part of daily worship and is essential to our witness to the people around us. Amen!

V. 10 is the postlude to parts one and two: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.” Wisdom and understanding is not temporary but is forever, thanks be to God!

© cgvanwyk, all rights reserved

# 17 2021 Dev. 1 Jn.3:16. Love! Read all of Ch.3 first. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.

1 Jn.3:16 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

Chapter 3 is divided into two parts: God’s children, “that we should be called the children of God!” and practice what you preach, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”  Both sections revolve around love. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us,” and part two: “We should love one another.”

John opens for us a way of living and a way of being that is antithetical to the current environment where we live and where are churches are located. We are God’s children but the world does not know Him (“world” meaning every thing and every person who have rejected God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit). In our life and thought, or in our life and world view, we are to be like Christ by faith, living as He lived when He walked on this earth. John has first hand knowledge of how children of God ought to live but even John does not know the end result of God’s children’s lives; “what we will be has not yet been made known.” But what he knows he tells us; ‘We shall be like Him,” and “All who have hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”

John assures us before he moves on to sin. He is not speaking of a sinless life while we are in this life. We are children of God because our hearts and souls belong to God’s Kingdom but our bodies are still in this broken place, we still sin but in Christ we confess and make every effort to avoid sin. Our comfort is as John says: hope in Christ, purifies us.

The next section is about love, a radical love. There is no neutral place in this life, we either pass from death to life because we love one another or we stay dead not loving as Jesus loves. According to John, the opposite of love is hate, is like murder. Love is to be sacrificial as we read it in v.16 to the point of self sacrifice, it is a difficult concept but that is the way of Jesus’ Love. True love always means action and truth, not feelings, feelings and emotions are involved but the truth of love is an unwavering commitment. We commit to Jesus, we commit to each other and we commit to our spouses, our children and to how we serve God in this life. For the children of God all of life is worship!  God “sets our hearts at rest in his presence”.  “And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”

Amen and Amen!

If we are Eloquent, Prophetic, Faithful, Generous and self-sacrificing, but do not love, we are nothing! 1 Cor. 13

© cgvanwyk, all rights reserved

# 15 2021 Dev. 1 Jn.2:17. Eternity! Read verses 15-29 first. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.

1 Jn.2:17 “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”

In the second half of chapter two John gives his people and gives to us as well, three warnings: be careful as you live in the world, be intentional in proclaiming Christ and be righteous.

Vs.15-17 We live in this world but we are not of the world. Does that mean we live in a bubble away from all the problems and deceptions of this world? No, we live here and we are to engage with the people around us, God calls us to change the world around us. It seems like an imposable task but by the power of the Holy Spirit the world can be changed and does change one person at a time. Amen! John warns us about the influences of this broken world. Coming off Holy Week and Easter we see the disregard for the true meaning of this religious calibration. Only 5% of Christians see Easter as important. We are to influence the world and not allow the corruption and deception of this world into our lives or into our churches.

Vs.18-28 John is concerned about those who have fallen away from the fellowship of believers, Like Paul, John is convinced they are in the last days. In-fact, Jesus announced that we are in the last days, but as we now know, our time is not God’s time. We now have the lowest percentage of people claiming church membership, around 49 %, all religion is in decline today. Does that mean we are in the last days? John also mentions the antichrist as all those who deny God and Jesus as the Christ, Christ as the Savior of the world. Today, particularly during a crisis, God comes to one’s lips, Jesus, not so much. 

This is an important issue for the church: Vs. 24,25 “As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is what he promised us—eternal life.” What have we known from the beginning? This simple truth: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (Jn.3:16-18).” As followers of Jesus we need to be intentional in proclaiming Jesus as our Savior, use words if necessary.

John recognizes that all followers of Jesus are sinners, we don’t want to hear it but it is a reality in this broken world. He also gives us the answer to achieving righteousness in this place and time: When we are born again, new creatures believing in Christ, we take on His Righteousness. Thanks be to God! 

© cgvanwyk, all rights reserved

# 14 2021 Dev. Psalm 109:21,22. God’s Care! Read all of Psalm 109 first. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Psalm 109:21,22 “But you, Sovereign Lord, help me for your name’s sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.²² For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.”

Ps. 101 starts a new series of 10 Psalms. This series is like a Psalm within the Psalms. The series is complementary from front to back: Ps. 101 corresponds with 110 and 102 with 109 and so on. Psalms 105 and 106 are the center of this 10 Psalm series. 

Ps.109 is closely connected to Ps.102: both are Psalms of David, both appear to be “imprecatory” Psalms, but 102 is titled “A prayer of an afflicted man…”

Vs. 1-5 is the opening request laying out the conspiracy against him. He appears to cry out, how can this be? “but I am a man of prayer”. As followers of Jesus we are able to identify with the Psalmist; we are people of prayer, we worship, we serve, we do good and desire peace. Yet, there are times in our lives we are overwhelmed with sorrow, with Illness, with conflict and we do not understand why. God’s ways are not our ways but like the Psalmist we continue to lean on our God.

Vs. 6-20 is a long accusation tirade in the first person directed to one person ending with, “May this be the Lords payment to my accusers…”   It may also be a long list of what is happening to the Psalmist or a list of appealing to God to find comfort in the thought of retribution. At times of conflict, opposition, a broken marriage, or relationship we may be tempted to find relief in this way. But God’s way is: “be still before the Lord and wait!”

In vs. 21-25 the psalmist comes back to requesting for help: “Sovereign Lord help me… out of the goodness of your love…” But he is still very concerned about himself, “I am poor, I fade away, I am shaken off like a locust, I am the object of scorn…” We tend to concentrate on ourselves in time of conflict.

In vs. 26-31 the Psalmist request comes all the way back to putting God in the center: “It is your hand” Lord, “May you bless…” Along with the psalmist, when in conflict, we also go through the stages in this psalm but in the end like the psalmist we need to come to this place: “With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord; in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him. For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save their lives from those who would condemn them.” Praise the Lord, we can count on God’s grace, comfort and protection!

© cgvanwyk, all rights reserved

Light and Dark

# 13 2021 Dev. 1 Jn.2:1,2. Atonement! Read verses 1-14 first. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.

1 Jn.1:1,2 “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. ² He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

John is writing to followers of Jesus in the Roman providence of Asia between AD 85 and 95.  The first two verses is the introduction to chapter two. John’s intention is to encourage us to avoid sin, yet he knows for himself, and for us, that as long as we live in this broken world sin is too much with us.  He therefore reminds us of our advocate, Jesus interceding with the Father and He stands in our place making complete reparations for all our sins. He is capable of forgiving everybody’s sin. It is therefore, a great source of comfort when we confess all our shortcomings. 

In vs. 3-11 John speaks of love and hate. “Whoever says, ‘I know him’, but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.” John, not only uses contrasting language, he uses strong language as well. Those who hate live in darkness and those who love live in light. Those living in the light of love see the way clearly but those in the darkness of hate are “blinded.” It is not a new command because, love is rooted in God’s love for us, yet, it is new and radical. We are to love all, not only brother and sister but the unlovely, the reprobate and the enemy. That means not to love means to hate, there is no in-between. In today’s world and now also among followers of Jesus, to have a different opinion makes one the enemy, cancel culture is with us, it is the worst kind of hate disguised as righteousness.

Vs. 12-14 is the reason for writing: “I am writing to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.” He writes to the fathers and mothers, to the young men and women and to the children and it all is repeated for emphasis in v,14. He is writing to us, we are reminded that our love is rooted in God’s love for us, that we live in the light because of the love of God, we live in forgiveness because of God’s love, and we live forever because of the love of God. Amen and Amen!

© cgvanwyk, all rights reserved

# 11 2021 Dev. 1 Jn.1:5. The Light of Life! Read chapter 1 first. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.

1 Jn. 1:5 “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” 

John is writing to followers of Jesus in the Roman providence of Asia between AD 85 and 95.  John tells his people and us today that Jesus is the “Word of life” and “God is light”. He begins as he began his gospel: Jesus as “The Word of Life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.” John is speaking out of experience, he saw the power of Jesus, he saw His love, His grace, His healing and had the privilege to participate along with the Spirit of Jesus throughout His life. What John is telling his people and those of us who follow Jesus that by faith we are also able to experience all that John is telling us. The Word of God is alive, powerful and effective and must be on display in our lives!

John likes to provide opposing images, as in the next section of this chapter: “Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness”. John says you cannot say you have light if you walk in darkness. He is speaking of sin. Is there anyone without sin? John’s answer: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all^[b] sin.”

John also is addressing specific heresies that are starting to rise among those who claim to follow Jesus; Gnosticism and Docetism (salvation by true knowledge) and rejecting Jesus as truly man and truly divine) Both of these heresies separate the spiritual from the physical and are opposed to each other. This is still going on today; we are starting to hear that the fall was moral and did not change the physical world at the time, assuming that death was in the garden from the beginning. The Bible disputes that idea; I will quote only one:

Rm. 8: ²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” Death and sin was introduced to this world by the fall; forgiveness, salvation and eternal life is introduced to all who believe in the living Word of God. In the end there will be a New Heaven and a New Earth. That is our comfort and our hope, Praise be to God!

 © cgvanwyk, all rights reserved

# 10 2021 Dev. Psalm 107:2,3. God’s Story! Read all of Psalm 107 first. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Psalm 107:2,3 “Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,³ those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south”.^[a

Ps. 101 starts a new series of 10 Psalms. This series is like a Psalm within the Psalms. The series is complementary from front to back: Ps. 101 corresponds with 110 and 102 with 109 and so on. Psalms 105 and 106 are the center of this 10 Psalm series. 

Ps. 107 is about God’s faithful love and His care in different situations written as a story. It also introduces Book V of the Psalter. Vs.1-3 is a call to worship and to give praise for His redemption. Our stories are important, in every twist and turn, in every valley and mountaintop God is with us by the power of the Holy Spirit of Jesus.

Vs. 4-8 addresses both our physical situations and our spiritual struggles. “Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle.”That is a real issue at that time and in that place. But it is also a metaphor for losing your way in life and for wandering off the path. All of us at one time or an other did not find “a straight way” until God intervened. Now we are heading for that city not built by hands, praise the Lord.

Vs. 9-16 In our journey through this life we make mistakes, sin is too much with us, causing physical or spiritual imprisonment. But there is way out. “They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.” God stands ready to forgive anyone, for any wrong, by believing in Jesus.

Vs. 17-22 repeats the same story: problems of our own making, “they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them;” God’s word, Jesus, and His written Word give life!

Vs. 23-32, the story is repeated: “they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them from their distress.” Whatever situation you find yourself, know that God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit is walking with you, Amen.

Vs. 33-38 contain the main message the Psalmist is giving his people and us, he gives us a contrast that many people have experienced: “He turned rivers into a desert, flowing springs into thirsty ground, ³⁴ and fruitful land into a salt waste,
because of the wickedness of those who lived there.” He also gives us the contrast of those who invite God into their story: “³⁵ He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs; ³⁶ there he brought the hungry to live, and they founded a city where they could settle.”

Vs. 39- 43 includes a warning that seems out of place, he is anticipating what so often happens with much prosperity: we of all people should understand from what we are going through right now, God is not only forgotten as our Redeemer, He now is directly opposed by our leaders and cancel culture.

May we all take verse 43 to heart; “Let the one who is wise heed these things and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord.” Amen and amen.

© cgvanwyk, all rights reserved 

Psalm 107:2,3 “Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,³ those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south”.^[a

# 10 2021 Dev. Psalm 107:2,3. God’s Story! Read all of Psalm 107 first. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Ps. 101 starts a new series of 10 Psalms. This series is like a Psalm within the Psalms. The series is complementary from front to back: Ps. 101 corresponds with 110 and 102 with 109 and so on. Psalms 105 and 106 are the center of this 10 Psalm series. 

Ps. 107 is about God’s faithful love and His care in different situations written as a story. It also introduces Book V of the Psalter. Vs.1-3 is a call to worship and to give praise for His redemption. Our stories are important, in every twist and turn, in every valley and mountaintop God is with us by the power of the Holy Spirit of Jesus.

Vs. 4-8 addresses both our physical situations and our spiritual struggles. “Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle.”

That is a real issue at that time and in that place. But it is also a metaphor for losing your way in life and for wandering off the path. All of us at one time or an other did not find “a straight way” until God intervened. Now we are heading for that city not built by hands, praise the Lord.

Vs. 9-16 In our journey through this life we make mistakes, sin is too much with us, causing physical or spiritual imprisonment. But there is way out. “They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.” God stands ready to forgive anyone, for any wrong, by believing in Jesus.

Vs. 17-22 repeats the same story: problems of our own making, “they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them;” God’s word, Jesus, and His written Word give life!

Vs. 23-32, the story is repeated: “they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them from their distress.” Whatever situation you find yourself, know that God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit is walking with you, Amen.

Vs. 33-38 contain the main message the Psalmist is giving his people and us, he gives us a contrast that many people have experienced: “He turned rivers into a desert, flowing springs into thirsty ground, ³⁴ and fruitful land into a salt waste,
because of the wickedness of those who lived there.” He also gives us the contrast of those who invite God into their story: “³⁵ He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs; ³⁶ there he brought the hungry to live, and they founded a city where they could settle.”

Vs. 39- 43 includes a warning that seems out of place, he is anticipating what so often happens with much prosperity: we of all people should understand from what we are going through right now, God is not only forgotten as our Redeemer, He now is directly opposed by our leaders and cancel culture.

May we all take verse 43 to heart; “Let the one who is wise heed these things and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord.” Amen and amen.

© cgvanwyk, all rights reserved