# 24 2016 Dev. I Cor. 14:1 The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

I Corinthians 14:1

“Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.”

This introductory verse to Ch.14 points back to Ch.13 as the basis for unity in the church and points forward to a comparison of speaking in tongues and prophesying by church members. Ch.14 is a long and diverse discussion of the pros and cons of speaking in tongues and prophesying and the need for order in church services. Paul tells us this chapter is a command and he expects spiritual discerning church members to “acknowledge what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command” (v.37).

This chapter also includes the principle of married women to defer to their husbands instead of speaking in church assembles, ignored today by 99% of churches. The discussion of authority in the church is beyond the scope of this devotional.

This chapter also includes the call for “good order in worship”. This is about exercising our spiritual gifts in an orderly way to allow individuals to speak and to be able to hear and discern the working of the Holy Spirit among us. Is that how we worship today?

The main principle in chapter 14 is spiritual gifts and how they are used. Verse 1 summarizes that principle and drawing on ch.13 puts Paul’s discussion on the foundation of love, the Love of Jesus Christ. Further, we are commanded to “eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit.” The fruit (gifts) of the Spirit is included here Gal 5:22-23. Also, Paul proclaims that “God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues”, (Ch.12:28) but the greater gifts are faith, hope, and love (Ch. 13:13).

These three Ch. 12,13,14 are very much connected one to an other and are part of the discussion of unity in the church.  Obviously the diversity of the gifts, the perceived importance of each gift and the personalities of those blessed with Spiritual gifts is the root of disunity in the church in Paul’s time.  So what do we take away from this verse and the context in which we find Paul’s discussion/command?

1^st. Love: spiritual gifts are practiced in the Love for God, love for each other, love for one’s self and love for those who do not know Jesus. You will recognize this first statement as the definition of “Christian Charity”.

2^nd. “Eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit”. Paul says be excited about the Spiritual gifts of God, find them in yourself, develop them, practice them, don’t be afraid to use them.  Use them or lose them, there is no room for being lukewarm! 

3^rd. Tongues is one of the lesser gifts. It teaches us that all gifts are from the same Spirit so there is not an order of importance, all that we do in Jesus’ Name is important in terms of eternity but there is a difference in impact of each gift. That is what Paul is saying here, prophecy has a greater impact when compared to speaking in tongues that many thought was the most important gift, a position some people still hold today.

4^th. We also learn that today we need the gift of prophecy, we again need to hear the voice of God that is being minimized in our approach to the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. Let us pray for God to give the Spiritual gifts to make clear the truth of God and to reject the half truths that have deceived some of us.  

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# 23 2016 Dev. Ps.25:4-5 The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Psalm 25:4-5

“Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths.
⁵ Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.”

The Psalter is a book of prayer and praise consisting of 150 psalms divided into five books. They were and are used as a liturgical resource in temple and synagogue worship and used extensively in churches today. Psalm 25 is part of a larger section, Ps. 25-33 highlighting prayer and praise. The Psalm is an acrostic poem that represents a prayer of David.

We know very little of the back story of David’s prayer. We don’t know the time of writing nor what precipitated this prayer but is was a time of loss and strong opposition to David and to Israel as well. The prayer is personal and intimate switching back and forth from the first person to the second person and ends with a plea for the whole nation of Israel.

The verses we have for this week are particularly intimate and are balanced with verses six and seven. Verse 4-5 are a plea for God’s instruction: “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths.” We live in a world where we are bombarded with every conceivable alternate way of living that are apposed to the way of the Lord. Christians and churches are not recognizing these alternatives as unscriptural. The whole issue of gender conflict in people that is front and center right now is an example of what followers of Jesus are faced with. God’s ways are clear in Scripture but now it appears that everything is open to interpretation. Therefore, the second part of this verse (prayer) is essential: “teach me your paths.” Teach us Lord how to walk in today’s world!

David doubles down on this request in verse 5: “Guide me in your truth and teach me.” We tend to think we can do this: walking and living in todays world on our own, we can’t! Lord send us your Spirit to revive us, to guide us, to teach us again as in the past. “Open the eyes of our hearts Lord” so that we see.  Remove the scales of self will, of arrogance, of today’s culture pressure and our misguided desire to fit into it, from our spiritual eyes in our hearts. “For you are God my (our) Savior,” … When does our arrogance and our current cultural interpretation of Scripture become a matter of salvation? Is our hope in God all day long?

David balances his request for instruction with praising God’s mercy, asking God not to remember his sins but to remember his loving kindness to him and acknowledges that “God is good (v. 6-7). May we all pray this prayer David prays in v. 4-7  in these troubling times. “My hope is in you all day long”, O God!

 

 

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# 22 2016 Dev Rom. 13:4-5The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Romans 13:4-5

“4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.”

These two verses are part of a larger section labeled “Submission to Governing Authorities” Ch. 13. Paul is speaking to the church in Rome about the Roman government in control of the city and controlling most of the known world at that time. This is a hard saying to accept but we should not take it out of context. The government was unjust, anti Christian, adhering to multiple God’s and Caesar was considered divine.

The context is verse 1 “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” God holds leaders accountable to do good and to do justice. There was a lot of good done by the ruling authorities, such as the “rule of law” at that time but Paul opposed the ruling authorities when he and Silas were treated unjustly. Christians opposed the ruling authorities when told to burn incense in order to proclaim Caesar as the “God”. Many people died for their faith and Paul was executed as well.

What about today? We have a secular government that guarantees religious freedom but also allows things that Christians oppose because they are against God’s law. Followers of Jesus know what they are. Right now the political gridlock of the US leadership has rendered the Government ineffective in dealing with problems that should be dealt with. The political outlook for the future is particularly unnerving with what are three difficult choices for a new President.  What are followers of Jesus to do? We do what God’s Word tells us to do.

We turn to the verses for the week in the context we find it. We have hard choices ahead but this is not the first time. Way back during war times people got drafted and joined up but we all/I had to make a decision. For me this verse spoke as it did for many others and we celebrate and honor those decisions on May 30^th. We ask God to guide us into the choices ahead. Praise Him!

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# 21 2016 Devotional Is.43:1bb The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

 Isaiah 43:1

 “But now, this is what the Lord says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine”.

 Isaiah’s career extended through the reigns of four kings in the Southern Kingdom of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah from around 740 to 686 B.C. Isaiah addressed the sins of the people: idol worship, the oppression and marginalization of the poor for personal gain and underhanded business practices that undermined God’s law. Isaiah clearly pointed out that superficial worship was the beginning of lawless social ethics. God also addresses the sins of the nations around Israel.

The character of Isaiah’s ministry blends fore-telling (seeing far into the future) with forth-telling (preaching the truth to a sinful people).  The book ranges in its visions from Isaiah’s own times through to the end of time when God creates “the new heavens and a new earth” (Is. 65:17).  Further, Isaiah fore-shadows the coming of the Messiah in the the prophecy to King Ahaz (Is.7: 13-14) and (9:1-8) that God would give him the sign the virgin’s baby, Immanuel (God with us) fulfilled in Matthew 1:18-24.

Ch. 43 is part of God’s grace proclaimed in Isaiah, ch.40-45. Broadly speaking the rest of the book is about God’s glory, His election, God’s forgiveness, His grace, and redemption, God’s salvation through His Servant (Jesus) which includes Israel and all nations and all people.  God’s proclamation reaches back into the Old Testament Church, covers followers of Jesus today and reaches into the future to the end of time (Rev.7:9).

 We move to the verse of the week. There is no doubt that the book of Isaiah is God speaking. There is no doubt that God created his people the same re-creation we as followers of Jesus experience. Also, there is no doubt that God chooses his people (Eph. 1:4-5). Verse one points back to the end of Ch. 42 where Israel is under punishment but in the next ch. God tells us not to be afraid:” Do not fear”. Fear is becoming an issue today, overseas  Missions are curtailed, there is danger, we must deal with real danger, but there is also perceived danger that Satan is using to stop the work of the church. The level of danger in our own country is real, multiple people are shot every day, we only have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Do we really believe that God takes care of his own? Ask yourself? God goes on to tell us that He has redeemed us, He has called us by our names, this is personal. He dispels our fear with “you are mine”, “if God is for us who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31-39) Danger, real or perceived is in God’s hands and believing that sets us free, and if that freedom ends our earthly life it is with God’s knowing and with His Salvation.  Praise be to God!

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#20 2016 Devotional Eph. 3:20-21. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Ephesians 3:20-21

²⁰ “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen”.

These two verses are part of Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, this is the second prayer, the first in Ch. 1:15-21. Both prayers point back to what Paul says before and they end the chapter. What Paul is talking about before this second prayer is “God’s Marvelous Plan for the Gentiles”. Paul was jailed at the time he wrote this letter. What is God’s plan? Paul is revealing the mystery of God’s grace to not only Israel but to all people of the world. That always was God’s plan as he revealed to Abraham, that his offspring would be a blessing to all the families of the earth (Gal. 3:8). Through faith in Jesus we who follow Jesus are the children of Abraham. Now, according to Paul God works through the church of Jesus Christ to redeem the world. Verse 11 sums up God’s grace to all people: “according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence”. Every obstacle both real and imagined are removed! Praise be to God!

This is the heart of Paul’s prayer: “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,” (v. 17b-18). May we who follow Jesus understand the depth of God’s grace and pray this prayer whenever we think about those whom the Spirit is moving closer to Christ.

We move to the verses of the week. These verses make up the benediction: to proclaim God’s blessings and/or to pray for a blessing on the people this letter is written to. This benediction is not only a blessing proclaimed, it is an encouragement to them and to us.  “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine”. Think about that statement! With the reality of a world broken pressing in on us daily we tend to forget that God is in control and can do what is impossible for us to do even more than we can imagine.  He does it in the power that is at work in us, His Holy Spirit to glorify the church in Christ because we are His Body in the world not only for today but forever and ever reaching back into eternity. What marvelous blessings we have!

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# 19 2016 Dev. Prov. 31:10-11 The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

^[b]”A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
¹¹ Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.”

In Ch. 1 Proverbs begins with a “Purpose and Theme which we read in the first 6 verses: 1. “The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:² for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight;³ for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair;⁴ for giving prudence to those who are simple,^[a] knowledge and discretion to the young—⁵ let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance—⁶ for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise”. The writer of Proverbs lays out the purpose and theme that keeps us on track when reading proverbs.

Verse seven is an antithetical (directly opposed or contrasted; mutually incompatible) statement that gives us the perspective and the basis for wisdom:  ^7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools^[c] despise wisdom and instruction.”

 The Psalmist continues with a prologue: an extensive antithetical introduction for the book beginning in Ch. 1:8 -19. Take note that the main body of the book begins with a father exhorting his son on the moral benefits of seeking wisdom. Ch. 31 ends the book with a mother exhorting her son, the king ending it with a very Christ like statement, verses (Prov. 31: 1-9).

 The Psalmist ends the book with an epilogue, a summary (v.19-31) praising the noble wife and mother. He gives women an awsome example of dedication as an equal partner in marriage.

 The verses for the week (10-11) come from the epilogue which is an amazing description of a woman that serves the Lord and is written as an acrostic: twenty-two verses, each beginning with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  A wise choice for a a son is to find a woman of noble character. Nothing is said about appearance or about erotic attraction. She is valuable, much more than possessions, more than gold and silver.

A husband is blessed by her, she supports him, he trusts her, he depends on her. Because of her he lacks nothing, his wealth is increased, his status is enhanced. Verses 30-31 sum up the epilogue: “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.³¹ Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate”. Thank God for our mothers and wives, they deserve our praise and our support, we thank God for them.

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#18 2016 Devotional Eph. 2:10. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

 Ephesians 2:10

 ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Chapter 2 is about being “made alive in Christ”. It fallows on what we may call the foundation of the church both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Chapter one sets the justification of God’s grace alone: God, “who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight (v 3b,4). The love of God in Christ Jesus is the foundation of the church (Ch. 1:5-7). Therefore, we build on the foundation of Jesus to be the church, His Body in the world today!

Chapter 2 also is about “made alive in Christ” as Jews and Gentiles. Today, Jew and Gentile is not an issue but the truth that God’s grace is extended to all people of the world is an issue in many denominations.  For followers of Jesus it is easy to look at that decedent amoral person at work or in the neighborhood as not redeemable. Humanly speaking that is a comfortable place but it flies in the face of the purpose of the church. Evangelism is not the only purpose of the church; we are to praise God with songs of worship, fellowship and love for fellow church members, draw closer to God by His Word and living for Christ in our personal family life. The comprehensive purpose of the church dictates that as followers of Jesus, all of life is worship (Ch.2: 19-22). The verse we pick for this week makes that very clear.

 “For we are God’s handiwork”, We have nothing to do with who we are. It is God’s grace and the power of the Spirit in us that gives us the faith to believe and thereby being who God makes us to be. Many of us want to shrink back from that truth; what about our short comings and down right sinfulness? The amazing thing is that God makes us who we are but He also allows us to make choices. We are not robots, we have a free will, Jesus wants us to choose for Him; in a mysterious way not humanly understood God’s choosing (Ch.1:4) works together with our choosing Him.

The verse goes on with: “created in Christ Jesus”. God’s creation was perfect, in peaceful harmony before the fall, now we are recreated in our spirit (heart) to bring us back to God in harmony and peace. Re creation is a process, on going, “I am making everything new!” (Rev. 21:5).

The verse continues with “to do good works”. As followers of Jesus what are good works? Good works are whatever we do in the name of Jesus, we do them out of gratitude not out of obligation or to work for our salvation. We cannot earn credit with God in this life, our faith in Jesus is our credit and is our guaranty of salvation. Yet, going back to our verse “which God prepared in advance for us to do,” that takes us back to God choosing us before creation. There is a much larger purpose, God wants to take all his people back to Himself. God has chosen us to be a part of that purpose.  We are blessed and God is glorified!

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#17 2016 Devotional Prov.16:3. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Proverbs 16:9

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.

Proverbs 16 is part of a large section of individual two line proverbs not always connected one to the other, often the thoughts expressed are antithetical. It is a large section starting at Ch. 10 through Chapter 22.  Chapter 16 is about the inability of man to control his destiny and the control of God in the affairs of men. The chapter is framed in two verses v.1 and v. 33, God gives the answer to man’s inner thoughts and He directs the visible attempts to find one’s way.

 The first 9 verses are about the Lord working out the courses of our lives. For those who follow Jesus we trust the leading of the Holy Spirit, we make decisions informed by our faith.

 Verses 10-15 form a unit, the King here seems to be in the place of the Lord. The proverbs are connected and are about the acceptable actions of men; practice justice, honesty and righteousness. The King speaks words to the wise.

 Verses 16-32 continue with the values the King commands: wisdom, guard your way, be humble, trust in God, and speak gracious words of healing.

At verse 27-30 there is antitheses: plotting evil, causing conflict, promoting violence and perversity. Verse 31-32 brings us back to the values of the King: righteousness and patience.

 We turn to the verse for the week, verse 9. People have dreams and desires, we plan, we work hard towards goals and benchmarks. We all want to be successful but often our success is measured by, or at the very least influenced by the values of the world. As followers of Jesus what should be our course in this life? How should we measure success? Scripture teaches that all meaningful and honest work done in the name of Jesus is acceptable to God. It becomes successful when done in the Spirit intentionally and obviously not financially successful, not quantitative but measured spiritually.

 The second part of the verse is about God’s guidance, His will is done in our lives. There is is a delicate balance in our lives where God’s will and our dreams and desirers informed by our faith coalesce. What a blessing when we are in God’s will, it is as verse 20 teaches: “Whoever gives heed to instruction, prospers, and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.” Praise be to God!

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#16 2016 Devotional Hebrews11:1. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

In the first ten chapters the author of Hebrews glorifies Christ and explains why He is the Saviour of God’s people foreshadowed in the Old Testament beginning in Gen. 3:15. Hebrews 11 is an introduction to chapters 12-13 and is a definition of the gift of faith as it is exemplified by those who the author of Hebrews calls: “a great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12 :1-3). These are the heroes of faith in Scripture; men and women who practiced the gift of faith. They believed God and the promises of God but did not fully understand the promise until fulfilled in Christ.  They are made perfect along with us (Heb. 11:39-40) because Christ’s Salvation reaches back into eternity. Hebrews 12:1-3 hinges on chapter 11 and encourages us to practice the faith of the Old Testament church. We are encouraged to deal with sin, to persevere in the task Jesus had given us and to keep our eyes on Jesus so that we are not discouraged and not give up.   

We turn to the verse for the week. We can see two parts: first “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for…” Is faith the same as hope? Yes, and No. Hope springs up from our hearts, from our imperfect desires, yet, one cannot live without hope. We hope for something better, we hope for healing if ill, we hope for reconciliation in conflict, and as followers of Jesus we hope in Christ. On the other hand, hope is as faith does, we have confidence of the guiding of the Holy Spirit, we expect His leading and trust His leading; leading that informs our hope and builds our faith!

Second: “…and assurance about what we do not see.” Faith is about what we do not see and about what we cannot see. The author gives us an example: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” (verse 3 Ch. 11) We lack faith when we do not see what is obvious even when we can’t see it. To me it it obvious that the Holy Spirit is working at Acre Bible School. Are we afraid to see it, are we blinded by preconceptions, or blinded by an ill perceived level of difficulty of working in that part of the world? It seems to be all of the above!  It is human to question the creation of the world as God presents it to us because there is physical evidence that the world is older and has gone through major changes not mentioned in Scripture. The Bible is not a science book, but faith dictates that we believe God created it (Ex nihilo) out of nothing. Do we understand it all? No! Do we understand how the Holy Spirit works? No!

That is what this verse is all about, faith informs hope, unwavering confidence, and absolute assurance that God will accomplice His purposes and that by His Grace He equips and empowers us as is exemplified by God’s people in Hebrews chapter 11. Love drives out fear, may God increase our faith! Amen and Amen.

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#15 2016 Devotional Psalm 42:8. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Ps. 42:8

By day the Lord directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.

Psalm 42 is the first of Book II of the Psalms. Psalm 42and 43 go together and is found that way in some translations. Ps. 42-45 form a unit and 42-43 seem to bracket Book II with Ps. 69-72. but we look only at Ps. 42 and only at verse 8. Before we do that we need to look at Ps. 42 as a whole. The Ps. is a liturgical song (see title) and a prayer for deliverance and restoration as well as praise, it is in the first person. It appears to be a leader, the King perhaps, pleading for the community that feels abandoned physically and spiritually. The Psalm divides at verses 6 and 7. Verses 1-6 the Psalmist feels abandonment and longs for God’s presence.

Verses 7- 11 the Psalmist expresses his complete helplessness and is overwhelmed, verse 7, but verse 8 expresses his faith in God. The rest of the Psalm is an argument with himself and he comes down on the side of faith he has already expressed:” Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God”.

Following verse 7 verse 8 is a wonderful confession of faith. The psalmist acknowledges God’s love for him. We all must practice faith in what every situation we find ourselves whether in want, danger, or overwhelmed with the task. Faith develops around God’s love for us his followers. His love dictates His care and His pouring out of the Holy Spirit in obvious ways when we need it while serving him. “at night his song is with me” we fall asleep pondering God’s love for His people and awake with His love song on our lips         (Jn. 3:16-18). Our Nigerian Christian friends start every day thanking God for waking up in this life. We all need to again and again express our hope in Jesus in this life. Verse 8 is not only a call to develop our faith and to hold onto our hope we have now but it is “a prayer to the God of my life”. As followers of Jesus our lives are completely wrapped up in God who sustains us, forgives us, saves us and gives us life forever with Him. Is Jesus the God of your life? Praise be to Him!

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