#41 Oct. 12, 2015

2015 Devotional. Our goal for these weekly devotionals is to grow in humility and to grow spiritually by memorizing selected passages, putting them into context, and by applying them to our daily living. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.

Psalm 30:5

“For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning”.

 This verse took on a new meaning for us today (Oct. 5). Three-year-old Hosea had been ill for a while and he responded very little to treatment. Sunday morning he was brought to us, he was very ill and we could do nothing for him. I and another teacher drove them to the hospital but before he could be treated God called him.

 It reminds me of the verse we are memorizing this week. What makes this so difficult for his father and mother is that their immediate relatives are not believers. They follow Traditional African Religion. Hosea’s father was told to dump his wife, apparently there is no love lost between his family and hers. He married her anyway, it was a church wedding in the Lutheran church approved by God. When he wanted to come to school they told him go to school but not with that woman. If you take her whatever happens is yours, it is none of our concern. Now in his last term of the English course God calls home his only son. With all that has happened with his family what is he to think now? Is his family right? No, No! But we also ask the question “Why Lord? Why this little boy?” There is no human answer; it is beyond our understanding of God’s allowable will. The one thing we know is that he is with you and we will see him Again!

 We can only pray for understanding, pray for comfort, pray that this couple will stay strong, she is expecting, may they be comforted. The other thing we do is turn to Your Word O God! We turn to v. 5. Truly God your anger is short, you called this couple to yourself. Even with this great loss may they see your everlasting favor! We know that in this very night you cry with them. O God may you return to them the rejoicing that comes in the morning after a very long and dark night. May you return them to us at the school! Amen.

                                                                                                           

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#40 Oct. 05, 2015

 2015 Devotional. Our goal for these weekly devotionals is to grow in humility and to grow spiritually by memorizing selected passages, putting them into context, and by applying them to our daily living. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.

I John 4:11

 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also aught to love one another.

 There was an early form of Gnosticism rearing its head at the turn of the century. John is concerned that false prophets (Cerinthus) taught that the material, the body as evil and therefore of no account. How does a body of no account break the Law? Well according to them it does not! Secondly, only the spiritual had value therefore Christ was Spirit and only seemed to have a body or Christ joined a human body at his baptism. The incarnation was thus denied and the way of salvation, Christ as our substitute on the cross, discounted. The truth is, only Christ as the Second Adam is able to stand in man’s place in God’s justice. Praise be to God!

 The first part of Chapter 4 is: “Test The Spirits”. We recognize the Spirit of truth in those who listen to us, writes John, he means here Jesus Christ and him (John) as the eyewitness. Those who do not listen to the “Word” have not the Spirit of God. Further, those who deny Christ as the “God Man” have not the Spirit of God. John calls the person who does not acknowledge Jesus as the Christ of God has the spirit of the antichrist that is now in the world (Jn 12:31-32). We overcome because the Spirit “who is in us is greater than the one in the world”. The Spirit always praises and promotes Christ. We are to be Christ like: practice his non-condemnation, to forgive, to be humble, to be merciful, to be self-sacrificing, and to always love in the power of the Holy Spirit.

 The verse we are memorizing is part of a section called: “God’s Love and Ours”, let us not be distracted by the context as important as that is. This verse is about God’s love, so infinitely perfect, so infinitely strong. Jesus said: “Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends” Jn.15: 13. Because Jesus laid down His life for us, His friends, we then must love one another. Praise God!

 

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#39 Sept 28, 2015

 2015 Devotional. Our goal for these weekly devotionals is to grow in humility and to grow spiritually by memorizing selected passages, putting them into context, and by applying them to our daily living. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.

 Psalm 100: 1-2

 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness;

Come before him with joyful songs.

 Psalms as a whole is a book of praise, prayer, and in many cases is instructive for Godly living. It consists of five divisions called books. The verses we are memorizing are part of two sections: first, they are part of book three, second, Psalm 100 is the last Psalm of a group of 11 Psalms starting at Psalm 90. The Psalms begin with prayer and end in praise. Further the series is framed in “You have been our dwelling place through all generations” Ps. 90 and “ His faithfulness continues through all generations” Ps. 100.  Dwelling place means more like a place of refuge from all the troubles and dangers of life and indicates that God’s love for his people has no beginning or end.

Psalm 100 is an amazing piece of Hebrew poetry. When my wife was teaching our son Steve in preparation for Hillcrest School we all memorized this Psalm, it has a cadence that makes it easy to memorize. To appreciate the first two verses we look at the whole Psalm. The Psalm has a progression of imperatives: “Shout for joy, Know that the Lord is God”, and “Enter his gates with thanksgiving”, Why? “Because God is our refuge and our strength”, He “is good” His love is endless, and God is faithful to his people. As followers of Jesus this is a Psalm we could meditate on every day of our lives and be drawn closer to Him. Praise God!

 

© 2015 cgvw all rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

#38 Sept 21, 2015

 2015 Devotional. Our goal for these weekly devotionals is to grow in humility and to grow spiritually by memorizing selected passages, putting them into context, and by applying them to our daily living. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.

 Matthew 19:26

 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The verse we are memorizing this week is part of a larger section in Matt 19: called “The Rich Young Man” or “The Rich and The Kingdom” After Jesus teaches about marriage and divorce and blesses the little children as those who have the Kingdom of heaven He is confronted by a young man who asks the question: “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” He must not have heard Jesus talking about the children. The children do nothing, are open, honest, simple, gullible, not ambitious, no agenda, and trusting, they were being children and they have the Kingdom!

Jesus says: “if you want to enter life keep the commandments”. Still the man presses on he did not have the peace he sought and asked which ones? Jesus gives him the commands that have to do with our relationship with each other. These I have kept he replies, “What do I still lack?” Assurance of eternal life eluded him. Was it because he was very rich? That appears to be the case because Jesus asks him to give his wealth to the poor and to follow him. The rich man could not do it, he trusted in his wealth instead of following and trusting Jesus. He was not like the children Jesus blessed who would have had no trouble with it. If only we would trust like children and not put our emphases on the things of this world.

Our culture is changing: donations are hard to come by and it has influenced the church, the people of the church. Important ministries are folding or consolidating because of the lack of funds. God has blessed followers of Jesus but it could be as it was with the rich man in our verses, we are not willing to part with the blessings, not the spiritual blessings or the material blessings. Are we really following Jesus?

The disciples are amazed at Jesus response to the rich man: “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴ Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” For many years the metaphor of the “Camel’s Gate” has circulated: There is a small gate in the wall of the city where unloaded camels and their owners can crawl though after the main gate is closed. A great example of trusting Jesus: get read of all that stuff and get on your knees. It is a great story but there is no proof that such a gate ever existed.

 What is true is what Jesus says to his disciples when they say: “who then can be saved?” “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” Jesus replies.

That is how we are all saved, we have nothing to offer, we simply must trust Jesus completely like a small child. Praise be to God!

© 2015 cgvw all rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

#37 Sept 14, 2015

 2015 Devotional. Our goal for these weekly devotionals is to grow in humility and to grow spiritually by memorizing selected passages, putting them into context, and by applying them to our daily living. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.

 Proverbs 22:24-25

Saying 3

²⁴ Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person,
do not associate with one easily angered,
²⁵ or you may learn their ways
and get yourself ensnared.

The use of the Proverbs in Scripture is to convey a truth or an established beneficial practice for those who are willing to listen and to apply these principles to their lives. In Hebrew the word proverb means “comparison”. The parallelism of Hebrew poetry is often used in couplets and triplets to compare a desirable and undesirable practice. The verses we are memorizing are part of a larger section called the “Thirty Sayings of the Wise” starting in Chap. 22:17-Chap. 24:22.

The introduction, “Saying one”, tells us to keep these “Thirty Sayings” in our hearts and on our lips so that we trust God, speak the truth, and give true report to those we serve. The closing saying tells us to be faithful: “Fear the Lord and the king, my son,
and do not join with rebellious officials,
for those two will send sudden destruction on them,
and who knows what calamities they can bring?”

Our verse tells us to stay away from anger, intolerance, and impatience. Anger does not build up but promotes more anger and discord. Anger is a response that is learned, destroys peace, and is closely linked to the refusal to forgive.  What we see here is a life of peace promoted by faithfulness, tolerance, and forgiveness “because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires”(James 1:20).

© 2015 cgvw all rights reserved.

 

#36 Sept 7, 2015

2015 Devotional. Our goal for these weekly devotionals is to grow in humility and to grow spiritually by memorizing selected passages, putting them into context, and by applying them to our daily living. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.

Matthew 5:7

 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.

 The verse we are memorizing is part of a larger section of Matthew known as the “Sermon on the Mount” (ch.5-7). This was at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry: He was baptized, was tempted, selected His disciples,  began to preach the “Good News of the Kingdom”, and He healed many diseases. Jesus’ ministry attracted large crowds from many areas and as Jesus saw the crowds he started to teach them about the Kingdom of God. The Sermon teaches the principles and the main tenants of The Kingdom of God, the principles of discipleship emphasizes perfection and concentrates on the condition of the heart. V.7 However, the “Beatitudes” is the first section of the Sermon.

The Beatitudes are about humility, charity, love for God, for self, and for others. Further, it is also about the inner life, the after life, and about the Kingdom of Heaven. The Beatitudes of Jesus also includes rewards for practicing the values taught by Jesus. This is not salvation by works, true followers of Jesus practice the principles of Jesus in response to His love for us. “You did not chose me, I chose you…” (Jn. 15:16).

“Blessed are the merciful”! Mercy means to show love to those in distress, the sick, the lost, the disenfranchised, and all those separated from Jesus for whatever reason. The Beatitude includes the promise: “for they will be shown mercy.” Taken from “The Eight beatitudes of Jesus”: The following are ways to be merciful to your neighbor as well as to be obedient in faith to Christ our Savior. “

The Corporal Works of Mercy
1 Feed the hungry
2 Give drink to the thirsty
3 Clothe the naked
4 Shelter the homeless
5 Comfort the imprisoned
6 Visit the sick
7 Bury the dead

The Spiritual Works of Mercy
1 Admonish sinners
2 Instruct the uninformed
3 Counsel the doubtful
4 Comfort the sorrowful
5 Be patient with those in error
6 Forgive offenses
7 Pray for the living and the dead

The whole point of the Sermon on the Mount is that we apply it to our daily living.  May all of us practice corporal  and spiritual mercy!

© 2015 cgvw all rights reserved.

 

#35 Aug 31, 2015

2015 Devotional. Our goal for these weekly devotionals is to grow in humility and to grow spiritually by memorizing selected passages, putting them into context, and by applying them to our daily living. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.

 Psalm 127:1

Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.

 Ps. 127 is one of the Psalms of “Ascents” (Ps 120 -134). These are poetic songs sung by pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem for the three required festivals; Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacle during the time Israel was a Theocracy (Exodus 23:14–17). In the Near East poetry is used to express what is important in life and culture. As all Scripture these passages are important for the Church today and for the followers of Jesus because these passages speak to the reality of life and to the problems we face in our culture. (see Calvin Institute of Christian Worship)

 The verse we are memorizing is part of a Psalm of Ascent. Psalm 127 includes much of our daily lives: the places where we live, our cities, our comings and goings, and half the Psalms speak to family. The Psalm flies in the face of Planed Parenthood, legal abortions, disregard for life, and hold up children as one of the major blessings of God. The Psalm starts with our personal environment, our homes. It moves on to our extended environment, our towns, cities, and our state, country, and world. It moves on to personal actions, eating and sleeping. The Psalm ends with the most personal of all our actions, intimacy, conceiving, bearing, and raising children. The overriding theme is that God is in control and we trust Him by following Jesus. Make God part of your life!

That is what verse 1 is talking about “unless the Lord builds the house the builder builds in vain”. When we retired we started an addition in 2010 that would take about a year. We did not know God was going to call us to do a very specific ministry overseas. Satan placed obstacles in our path, raising funds, illness, and militant Islam but the addition to our home was not one of them. We just received our Certificate of Occupancy, Aug. 2015. Praise the Lord! God builds our house by keeping our priorities of serving Him first! God also protects us in our cities and country. We are no longer a Christian country, yet God protects us. Make no mistake; God is in control of every situation either by His allowing or by direct intervention. Let us pray and ask Him to build our lives and protect our nation.

 

© 2015 cgvw all rights reserved.

#34 Aug 24, 2015

 2015 Devotional. Our goal for these weekly devotionals is to grow in humility and to grow spiritually by memorizing selected passages, putting them into context, and by applying them to our daily living. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.

 John 12: 46

 ⁴⁶ I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

 This verse is found in the section of this chapter labeled as, “Belief and Unbelief Among the Jews”. All four Gospels are about the work of Jesus during His life on earth. However, the Synoptic Gospels are very similar one to the other, about 75% of each Gospel is contained in the other two. Matthew, Mark and Luke were written between 50 AD and 60 AD while eyewitness were still available. John’s Gospel was written later, somewhere in the 90’s AD. John is an eyewitness to all of the time Jesus was on earth and he is an eyewitness to the major changes in the world, the fall of Jerusalem being a major event for Christians at the time. While the Synoptic tells the same story to different audiences, John is speaking to a persecuted church. Therefore, 90% of John’s gospel is not found in the other three Gospels.

 In the area of unbelief John quotes Isaiah 53: 1 and 6: 10 to explain why some leaders believed and some did not. Believing in Jesus is a choice; we choose to believe and ask for the faith to do so. Those who choose not to believe do not ask for faith. But John’s quote of the Isaiah passages makes belief much deeper than our choosing. The leaders of the Jews and the teachers of the law had Isaiah’s writings at hand and had much of it memorized, they had no excuse: They closed their eyes and minds, unbelievers and some believers as well “for they loved human praise more than praise from God“. We turn to Ephesians 1: 3-14 for the deeper understanding of choosing to follow Jesus. Belief is a “Spiritual Blessing in Christ”: “for He chose us in Him before the creation of the world”(v. 4). “In Him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works everything in conformity with the purpose of His will…” (v. 11-12). We must choose to respond to the Love of Christ!

Going back to the verse we are memorizing: Jesus is “the LIGHT of the world”, we see by His light with spiritual eyes and He is here for us always keeping us on the right path in a dark world.

© 2015 cgvw all rights reserved.

 

 

#33 Aug 17, 2015

2015 Devotional. Our goal for these weekly devotionals is to grow in humility and to grow spiritually by memorizing selected passages, putting them into context, and by applying them to our daily living. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.

Philippians 4:8

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

In this last chapter of Philippians Paul addresses a lack of unity between two co-workers (See Dev. 30). The verse we are memorizing is part of Paul’s “Final Exhortations”(v.4-9) to “dear friends” and co-workers, whose names are in the book of life”. Paul’s final advice is for followers of Jesus and has a duel focus.

Verses 4-7 advises us to cultivate a close relationship with Jesus; He is close to us, we rejoice in His presence, we trust His direction, and we pray continually, He gives us peace, and He “guards your (our) hearts and your (our) minds”

Paul’s second piece of advice, verses 8-9, highlights our own responsibility in cultivating our relationship with Jesus Christ. The peace of Jesus is not given wholesale but with our own good choices: truth in our lives, honorable actions, choose what is right and pure, “whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things”. We must concentrate on making good choices and we do so by following Paul’s and other followers of Jesus examples. God’s Word and our Praxis!

The above choices are not found in today’s culture, day in and day out we are bombarded by secular, selfish and often decadent examples. Staying close to Jesus, and cultivating a close relationship is the way to find and have peace in this chaotic world.

 

© 2015 cgvw all rights reserved.