#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.

 

32. Aug 10, 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 25:40

 ⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

 Matthew 25 is about Jesus teaching in parables. Jesus teaches in parables so that only those having the Spirit of God will be able to understand and access the Kingdom of God (Mt. 13:10-17). The passage we are memorizing is in the context of the parable of the sheep and the goats (Mt. 25: 31-46). Jesus puts himself in the parable and he is teaching about the judgment; it is about the separation of believers and unbelievers at the end of the time.

The parable is unnerving giving the impression that a person is saved or lost by a person’s works. However believers are only saved by Jesus’ love and the work He does for us, and we are not condemned by our works but our work is judged. Unbelievers however are condemned by their work, apart from Jesus no work is acceptable to God no matter how good that work may be for mankind.

 Believers do their work in the name of Jesus Christ out of gratitude to Him, that work follows them to heaven, lasts forever, and become building blocks in the New Heaven and the New Earth.

Take note that believers and unbelievers give Jesus the same answer when told by Jesus what they did and what they did not do for Him. Lord, when did we see you hungry, homeless, jailed, and needing clothes? The difference is the power of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life: Believers see Jesus in the needs of people because “they are the body of Christ” and Jesus came to save people physically and spiritually (Lk. 4: 18 and Isa. 61:1). Without the Spirit of God we cannot see! The Spirit of God is his gift to all who respond to His love (Jn. 3:16-21), the promise we must accept and believe.

 

© 2015 cgvw all rights reserved.

#31. Aug 03, 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.

Luke 6:37

³⁷ “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

This passage we are memorizing is set in the context of Jesus choosing and teaching his disciples when they went up on a mountain to pray. After that Jesus teaches a large group of diverse people gathered there on a level place (Lk. 6:20-49). We know it as “The Sermon on the Mount” (Mt. 5,6,7). Luke’s rendering is not as comprehensive as in Matthew who fills three chapters but the gospel of Mark does not cover it at all. The corresponding passages to Lk. 6:37 we find in Mt. 7:1-5, Matthew adds the parable of: “the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye”. Luke adds two more parables: “give and it will be given to you” and “Can the blind led the blind”. Luke puts the emphasis on Jesus as the perfect human and the way of salvation for Jews and Gentiles alike. Luke also emphasizes the family and the poor. Matthew puts the emphasis on Jesus as the King of the Kingdom.

Verse 37 is Jesus’ Word and He tells us not to judge, do not pronounce judgment. This is a legal term, meaning censure, giving us the modern term “acting as judge and jury”. We must discern what is right or wrong but judging is not a believer’s right, judging belongs to God. We must not condemn or pronounce guilty or you may be guilty and condemned, only God truly condemns. Instead forgive, especially if forgiveness is not asked for, and be set free. Unforgiveness destroys a person in three ways, it is like a prison that separates you from life in the community, separates you from your spiritual life with Christ, and slowly eats away your quality of life. Life is too short to let yourself be hampered by what other people do! Forgive and be free!

 

© 2015 cgvw all rights reserved.

 

#30. July 27, 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 4:4

 ⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Chapter 4 is the final chapter of Philippians. and begins with “Therefore” pointing back to ch. 3. Paul is dealing with disunity among his sisters in Christ. He addresses them by name, and urges them to look to his and other followers of Christ’s example. This passage addresses disunity among us as well. Paul instructs us to “have no confidence in the flesh” nor in our own accomplishment (Php. 3: 1-11) but “take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (of us). Christ by the power of the Spirit takes hold of us in order to bring us back to God, to belong to Jesus and, to be like Him (Php. 3:17-21).

 Apart from Christ our “mind is set on earthly things”.  Paul tells us: “but our citizenship is in heaven”. To be like Christ and to exemplify Him we are called to be “of the same mind in Christ.” This sends us back to Chapter 2: 1-8. How are followers of Jesus like Christ and what is the example we are called to present? It means to display Jesus’ humility, His acceptance, His grace, His love, His non-condemnation, and His forgiveness into every area of our lives.

 Christ’s love for us is the reason Paul urges us to rejoice not only in good times but he emphasizes his command: “I will say it again: Rejoice!” I see that emphasis as: to rejoice always, in every situation and in every season of life. Praise be to God.

© 2015 cgvw all rights reserved.

#29. July 20, 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 15:11

 ^“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

Recently we memorized verse 9 of this chapter that summarized the main theme: The first division of chapter 15, “The Vine and the Branches” is the introduction to verse 9 and to the rest of the chapter. This chapter is about being with Jesus, more specifically being in Jesus and “remaining in His love”. The introduction tells us to stay in Christ like a branch to the vine. Apart from the vine the branch is dead and so with us we cannot do anything apart from Jesus Christ. The verse we are memorizing this week is about joy: joy that is full, complete joy.

 Joy is a theme that runs throughout Scripture, one example being; “in your presence there is fullness of joy” (Ps. 16: 11). “The joy of the Lord is our strength”. (Ne. 8:10). Joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5: 22-23). “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Php. 4:4) and also in John, I John, and 2 John. Joy comes with God’s presence. Is God’s presence with us today? Yes!

Followers of Jesus who seek God experience His presence, “Come near to God and he will come near to you” Jas. 4:8, The Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit lives in us (Jn. 14:15-21). One reason we may not feel God’s presence is that we are able to suppress the Spirit in us or the world may be too much with us. The Spirit does not force himself on us. God wants a close relationship with us in all aspects of our lives. God gives us His Spirit and He gives us faith. The result is God’s constant presence and increasing joy, joy that is full and complete. Praise is to God!

 

© 2015 cgvw all rights reserved.