Shaped By Jesus - Love

This week we want to share with you a devotion written by Matt LeRoy entitled, “Layers of Love” Matt LeRoy is the co-pastor of Love Chapel Hill Church. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

1 Peter 4:8–11 (NIV)

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Reflect

Ask the average person, loosely familiar with the story and Jesus’ life, and he or she will likely remember Peter most for one thing above all else. He denied Jesus. Yes, he was among the inner circle of disciples. He was the disciple who first articulated that foundational confession that Jesus is more than a prophet or teacher, but he is, in fact, the Christ, the very Son of the living God. Peter was the one who stepped out of the boat and onto the waves, who preached the inaugural sermon of the church at its birth, and who became a pioneer in the rising kingdom tide.

And yet we remember his denial above the rest. Why? Because in our way of keeping score, sin covers a multitude of love. But not so with Jesus.

After his resurrection, Jesus directly confronted this defining sin of Peter’s life. With what? With love. “Peter, do you love me?” he asked. Not once, but three times. Jesus covered the one moment Peter would have died to have back with the moment he would never forget. “I love you,” Peter affirmed, once for every time he had denied. And then, in the strength of this love and the power of the Holy Spirit, three thousand people joined the movement of Jesus as Peter preached at Pentecost. Three thousand. One thousand transformed lives for each of his denials.

“Love covers a multitude of sins,” Peter wrote. This isn’t poetry. It’s experience. And once you’ve experienced it, you can’t go on seeing others according to their defining sin. You will see them covered in thick layers of holy love, as Jesus beacons you to join him in piling it on.

Pray

Jesus, thank you for your love. It has not only covered our sins but transformed our hearts. Please keep moving us into deeper awakening until we are defined by our devoted love for God and others.

Shaped By Jesus - Obedience

This week we want to share with you a devotion written by J.D. Walt entitled, “Why Obedience Is Not What We Think It Is.” J.D. Walt is the Executive Director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

1 Peter 1:22 NIV

22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 

CONSIDER THIS

I don’t like the sense of the NIV here as it seems to put the onus on the believer to clean themselves up. The Gospel is just the opposite. You present yourself to God, just as you are, and God cleanses you. And this is not a mere moral kind of cleansing, as in you need to be cleansed of your bad behavior. The issue is the heart, the seat of our affections and dispositions. The issue is not our unkindness or impatience or jealousy or lust or anger or any of the things that present themselves as our problem. Those are merely the symptoms. We have all tried hard enough to be patient and kind and pure and all the things we know we need to be, yet we still struggle, because we are working at the level of the symptoms rather than the heart. Jesus works at the heart level. He treats the sickness, not the symptoms. In other words, NyQuil doesn’t cure strep throat. You are going to need a Z-Pack (for our global family: a Z-Pack is shorthand for a particular antibiotic medication.) The Word of God is the deep medicine. Jesus is the Great Physician. 

We see this same word for purify, (pronounced hag-nid-zo) in James 4:8, which says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” Note the order there. 

Now, let’s take v.22 the next step:

22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth

We have such a preexisting concept of obedience it is again quite easy to miss the sense of the biblical notion of obedience. We tend to carry a negative connotation with the word “obey” because we immediately associate it with authoritarianism, which is the notion of an authority figure powering down on us. (i.e. Don’t ask questions. Just do what I say.)

The Greek term for obedience, hupakoe (pronounced, hoop-ak-o-ay) means in the most literal sense (hypo) “under” and (akouo) “hear”; to hear while sitting under. You recognize the term “acoustics” as coming from this Greek root. Obedience is all about hearing. So to obey the truth means to sit under the sound of truth “to hear while sitting under.”

Obedience does not mean compliant submission to an authoritarian leader. It means a deep kind of submissive listening to the authority of the Truth—which is the Word of God and the God of the Word. Before obedience ever takes a step, it sits down. Before the first hint of activity it is surrendered attention. 

This is what is so remarkable about Jesus. Over and over in Scripture the people speak of him as having an astonishing authority very unlike the religious leaders of the day.

Also fascinating is how Word of God repeatedly references Jesus not as a mere teacher of the truth but as The Truth personified; of being “full of grace and truth.”  

One more bit here. Remember the time Jesus visited the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany? This was the time Martha was so busy trying to get everything ready for everybody. Look what is said concerning Mary:

She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.Luke 10:39 Jesus would go on to say, “Mary has chosen the only necessary thing.”

This is precisely the thing we are attempting to do every single day with the Daily Text. We are sitting at the feet of Jesus, under his authority, listening to his Word, and the Holy Spirit is training us to stand under and under-stand his ways. We sit under. Then we stand under. Then we walk under the Light. 

Sitting, standing, walking. It sounds strangely familiar to another text showing us what happens when these all-inclusive activities of our lives get reversed. 

Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.

Shaped By Jesus - Made For This

This week we want to share with you a devotion written by J.D. Walt entitled, “The Real Meaning of Holiness.” J.D. Walt is the Executive Director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

CONSIDER

How did holiness get such a bad rap? 

The word usually gets associated with people who are uber-religious, dour, prudish, judgmental, and otherwise the kind of Christians no one would ever want to be.

So I ask again, how did holiness get such a bad rap? Because everything I just described has absolutely less than nothing to do with holiness. So what exactly is holiness? This is one of those places where the Sunday school answer is exactly right. 

Jesus.

Holiness is Jesus. All of his ordinary human nature and all of his extraordinary divine nature and all of this inextricably intertwined together in an indivisible mystical union—holiness is Jesus. And because holiness is Jesus it should have the best possible reputation imaginable. 

Holiness. . . It’s Jesus wrapped in strips of cloth and laid in the feeding trough because there was no room in the inn.

Holiness. . . It’s Jesus standing in the river with his cousin, hearing the voice of his Father in the river, “My son. My beloved. With you I am well pleased.” 

Holiness. . . It’s Jesus saying things like love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Holiness. . . It’s Jesus contributing 750 bottles of fine wine to a wedding party run dry.

Holiness. . . It’s Jesus breaking all the religious regulations and casting out demons on the Sabbath in the synagogue.

Holiness. . . It’s Jesus showing up at a magic fountain to heal a man waiting thirty eight years for a cure. 

Holiness. . . It’s Jesus filling two boats to overflowing with fish for fishermen who fished all night and caught nothing. 

Holiness. . . It’s Jesus putting his healing hands on a leper when a word would have sufficed. 

Holiness. . . It’s Jesus showing up for dinner at a banquet filled with tax collectors and every other kind of person who had been cancelled by the culture.

Holiness. . . It’s Jesus walking on water and later filling a bowl with it and washing his disciples’ dirty feet. 

Holiness. . . It’s Jesus forever sharing his reputation with people who had forever ruined theirs. 

Holiness. . . It’s Jesus mocked, stripped, rebuked, beaten, crucified, saying, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” 

Holiness. . . It’s Jesus, raised from the dead, brandishing radiant scars and unlimited redemption. 

Holiness. . . It’s Jesus, seated at the right hand of the throne of God, pouring out the Spirit of Holiness on all who would receive him, and making them uncannily and irresistibly holy as he is holy. 

THE PRAYER

Jesus, you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. You are the Holy One of God. There is none like you and yet you have so shared yourself with us that anyone can become like you. Thank you for showing us what holiness most truly is; for cutting through all the pretense and posturing and hypocrisy and showing us that holiness is love and love is holiness. That’s what I want. The holiness that is you. It’s what I long for. It’s all I need. Holy Spirit, make it so. Praying in Jesus’ name, Amen. 

THE QUESTION

What has been your understanding of holiness? Why? How is that changing and growing? 

Prayer Basics

This week we want to share with you a devotion written by J.D. Walt entitled, “Learn the Prayer—It’s Better Than Yours.” J.D. Walt is the Executive Director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

CONSIDER THIS

As I have tried to “Listen to Jesus” through these days of Lent, I am learning things I have never understood before. The interesting thing about understanding is there’s always more to be had. The life, words, deeds, miracles, signs, moves, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus is ever revealing more Truth and releasing more meaning. Remember, he reveals in the midst of relationship.

Today’s text brings us to the famed “Lord’s Prayer.” Let’s work to “Listen to Him” as he teaches us to pray.

I used to think the measure of a prayer was the sincerity of the one praying.  While sincerity is surely a good thing, I now think the measure of a prayer is its substance. This prayer Jesus teaches us is so stocked and layered with substance I am convinced we will never exhaust it all.

I want to share some brand new insights that are coming to me as I try to listen and learn from Jesus in this prayer.

He said to them, “When you pray, say:

“‘Father,

1. Prayer begins with knowing what to call God. There are so many names by which God is called in Scripture. He is Yahweh, Elohim, Jehovah, Adonai, and on we could go. My late grandmother-in-law once gave me a book entitled, “The 365 Wonderful Names of our Wonderful Lord.” The interesting thing we learn from Jesus is how Jesus doesn’t call God by name but according to their relationship:  Father. He invites us into his extraordinary relationship with his Father which graces us to say, “Our Father.” In life, we call just about everyone by their name, except when it comes to our parents. As my children are growing up, life is constantly changing. Our relationship seems to change by the day as they mature. What most pleases me is what hasn’t changed. They still call me “Da-Da.” That’s not a name. It’s a term of profound endearment. Jesus actually used the term Abba, an exquisitely intimate and endearing term. 

2. So he teaches us to address God in terms of our relation to him and not by a name, and then, interestingly enough, he says this: “Hallowed be your name.” We are about to find out just who our Father happens to be. The God we are privileged to call Father, actually has the most holy name ever uttered. In fact, (If I am remembering right) the people of Israel, so lived in awe of the name of God they would not speak it except by the high priest once a year on the day of atonement. By teaching us to hallow the name of God, Jesus reminds us that though we call God by this intimate term of relationship, we must remember that our Father is the King of the Universe, the Creator of all that is, and the Righteous Judge, who lives in Heaven. This God, who is our intimate Father, happens to be the high and exalted Creator of the Heavens and the Earth.

3. Watch what happens now. What I have always understood to be a series of essential petitions, I am now beginning to see as so much more. Rather than series of “asks” this prayer is a full court celebration of our entire relationship with God. Because God is our Father, everything else that God is, becomes a gift to us.

When we say “Thy Kingdom Come,” we are declaring our Father as the King of the Universe.

When we say “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are declaring our Father as Jehovah-Jireh, our Provider.

When we say, “Forgive us our sins or trespasses,” we are declaring our Father as merciful Judge and a gracious healer. 

When we say, “Lead us not into temptation,” we are declaring our Father as Mighty Deliverer and Protector. 

I am beginning to understand the Lord’s Prayer not so much as a collection of petitions but as a profoundly powerful declaration of faith.

And it all comes together in the word, “Father.” In fact, when we speak this term to God in prayer, we are saying all of this and more. Not only does Jesus teach us to call God, “Father,” he shows us exactly what a true and loving Father looks like. For the many whose fathers served as a source of brokenness, Jesus reveals a Father who will heal with blessedness. Jesus brings all the attributes, character, roles and names of God under the covering of a perfect Father.

Rather than a rote recitation, the Lord’s Prayer is a revelatory declaration. If I will really “Listen to Him,” this is how I will now pray. I will rely more on the substance of Jesus teaching and training than on my best efforts at sincerity. In fact, I think this is the substance that creates true sincerity.

Closing Thought: Jesus is teaching us to pray with Divine Substance. When we put substance ahead of sincerity our faith will begin to form our feelings. When we put sincerity ahead of substance, we will depend on our feelings to form our faith.

Special Guest - Pastor Mark Morrison

 
 

Every so often, we will have a guest speaker at CrossView Church. We are so grateful for the gifted women and men that serve the Lord through teaching the word. This week we hear from Pastor Mark Morrison. Pastor Mark serves As the director of Shepherd Ministries. You can find out more information about Shepherd Ministries here.

Usually, when we have a guest speaker, we will not have a weekly devotion. We encourage you to watch the message again at some point throughout the week and listen to the discussion podcast.

Blessings on you and your week.

Pastor Kyle

Sarah & Hagar - Pastor Holly

This week we want to share with you a devotion written by Casey Culbreth entitled, “Out of the Rock: The God Who Sees.” Casey Culbreth is the worship pastor of Grace Church in Cape Coral, Florida and a writer for Seedbed. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

“As we walk with God through our own personal desert journeys, our stories are added as a few threads of the great tapestry of God’s story – the story of God’s faithful presence with people.”
— Casey Culbreth

During this past year, God has held my hand through an unexpected journey of experiences that have at times brought me to mountains of wonder and excitement, and at other times have led me into valleys of deep darkness and ambiguity. I have written about this journey in my previous articles [here and here], likening the path I’ve been walking to a pilgrimage in the desert.

We all go through seasons in life when circumstances become especially unsettling: change comes unexpectedly, a health diagnosis leaves us reeling and confused, a relationship ends, or the provision of employment becomes uncertain.

When faced with the threatening expanse of sand, I have found that my natural tendency is to feel abandoned and alone, to fear that God has left me, and to despair of a good purpose in the midst of the uncertainty. Like the Israelites in the Exodus story, my default in the desert is distrust.

And yet God has continued to prove Himself faithful, even when I have felt faithless. God is the one who sees, the one who remembers, the one who is near.

The God of the desert is the one who never abandons us there (Deut. 31:6).

The one who parted the Red Sea, who led the people by cloud and fire, who provided the necessities of life in a barren land – this is the God who sees and cares for you and for me.

Lately, the stories of God’s encounters with Hagar in Genesis have particularly ministered to me. Here is a woman who was taken away from her home as a slave, forced into a pregnancy with Abraham, and tangled up in a power struggle with Sarai that she never asked for. We don’t know her history, how she became a slave, what family she came from, what her dreams for her life had originally been. But we do know that when she runs away to the desert, God comes and finds her there. And we know that she is the first person in the Bible to give God a name: “The God who sees me” (Gen. 16:13).

I’ve needed God to have Hagar’s name lately. I’ve needed God to be the one who sees me. And through a myriad of little and not-so-little ways in the past year, God has been meeting me in my desert like God met Hagar in hers, proving Godself to me as the God who sees.

As I look toward the coming months and the next steps of my desert journey, the moments in the past year when I have recognized the presence of the God who sees are encouragement to carry on. Even when I have run away, the God who sees has come to find me.

Perhaps you need the God who sees too.

The story of God’s great work in people’s lives didn’t end with the Bible, but it continues to unfold – through my life and through your life.

As we walk with God through our own personal desert journeys, our stories are added as a few threads of the great tapestry of God’s story – the story of God’s faithful presence with people. We may not be able to see the full piece of artwork now, but we can be confident that God is intricately weaving our stories with those of Abraham and Moses – and Hagar – creating something beautiful through all of our desert encounters with the God who sees.

My intention in the coming months is to continue naming and recording my personal threads in the tapestry of God’s great story. Perhaps meditating on how past threads have been woven with precious care will offer encouragement in my current moments of uneasiness and alarm. These moments too are pregnant with future stories of God’s love and faithfulness.

I invite you to join me in this practice of recounting our personal encounters with the God who sees. May our hearts find strength in the great works of God that our eyes have seen, and may our spirits be comforted by the One who always sees us, even when all we see is desert.

Special Guest - Mark Morrison

 
 

Every so often, we will have a guest speaker at CrossView Church. We are so grateful for the gifted women and men that serve the Lord through teaching the word. This week we hear from Pastor Mark Morrison. Pastor Mark serves As the director of Shepherd Ministries. You can find out more information about Shepherd Ministries here.

Usually, when we have a guest speaker, we will not have a weekly devotion. We encourage you to watch the message again at some point throughout the week and listen to the discussion podcast.

Blessings on you and your week.

Pastor Kyle

Walking With Jesus - In the Garden

This week we want to share with you a devotion written by J.D. Walt entitled, “The Second Prayer of the Cross” J.D. Walt is the executive director of Seedbed. We hope this devotion encourages you this week.

“This Gethsemane Prayer is a powerful prayer of THE CROSS. It will lead us in the way of Jesus every single time, beginning with faith, moving to hope and landing on love.”
— J.D. Walt

Today we turn to the second great prayer of the Cross, which we will call the Gethsemane Prayer. Gethsemane, as you know, is the place Jesus frequently visited with his disciples as a sanctuary place of prayer. It is located on the Mount of Olives just across the Kidron Valley from the walled city of Jerusalem. It was and is to this day a grove of ancient olive trees. It is often referred to as the Garden of Gethsemane.

The original fall into temptation and disobedience occurred in a garden. It is no coincidence that Jesus resisted the final temptation and demonstrated the ultimate obedience in another garden. It is fitting that the name Gethsemane means oil press. Jesus faced the unimaginable press of freely submitting to the gravest and most incomprehensible injustice the world has ever witnessed. We see it in the Prayer of Gethsemane.

“Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Note the way he begins, “Abba Father.” To speak this name is to enter the house of prayer. It is a term of endearment and intimacy. My children are getting older at 12, 14, 16 and 18. The younger three still frequently and affectionately call me DaDa. Something about that touches my heart at a depth beyond sentiment. Somewhere along the way we tend to stop using that kind of language that came naturally and even instinctively to us as young children. Most of us were never taught or discipled to draw on this kind of language and imagery when it came to our relationship with God. Jesus uses it consistently and because he wants for us to share his relationship with God, we would be well served to use this kind of language too.

Next he makes the declaration we see on the lips of saints throughout Scripture from Abraham to Jeremiah to Mary: “everything is possible for you.” It is one thing to claim this as an affirmation of faith, as in, “Nothing is impossible with God.” It goes to the next level when we make it a personal declaration to God in prayer. “everything is possible for you.” It is more common to hear people lift up their hopes in their prayers. Jesus begins by lifting up his faith.

Now watch where he goes next. “Take this cup from me.” He lifts up his hope to God. Jesus feels enormous anxiety, isolation and despair on this night. He knows what has been set in place. He understands his mission. He knows there will be resurrection on the other side of death. But still, he is a human being. He shows us, particularly in the facing of our little crosses, that it is ok to ask for a pass. It’s understandable we would want to opt out of suffering even when it is for a greater good. The fact that we would want to escape it makes an ultimate decision to endure it all the more powerful. Beware of the person who wants to suffer. Jesus hopes something can change. He prays his hope.

He starts with faith, shifts to hope and now you see where this is going. “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” B.I.N.G.O. LOVE. Jesus prays his love in an act of utter surrender and ultimate trust. Love is not resignation to a foregone conclusion. Love means a trusting surrender of one’s life to God, over and over and over and over. Though trust deepens, it never gets easier, because there always seems to be more at stake to lose. Jesus makes the conscious decision not to trust in his human hopes but in Divine love.

And let’s not miss the renunciation in the prayer. In the Disciples Prayer, we train our hearts to beat to the rhythm of the prayer, “Your Kingdom come. Your will be done.” Jesus takes it a step further here by renouncing his will.

“Yet not what I will[.]” 

Again, it is one thing to make the claim, “I want to do God’s will and not my own will. It is quite another to renounce one’s will speaking directly to God in prayer. “Yet not what I will[.]” Note also the difference between this and the tepid prayer of, “If it is your will to (fill in the blank), then please do (fill in the blank).”

This Gethsemane Prayer is a powerful prayer of THE CROSS. It will lead us in the way of Jesus every single time, beginning with faith, moving to hope and landing on love.

Once more from the top; and this time . . . . you know the drill:

“Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Walking With Jesus - Outside the Walls

This week we want to share with you a devotion written by Ken Schenck entitled, “Jesus Christ Is God’s Definitive Word.” Dr. Ken Schenck is is dean of the School of Theology and Ministry at Indiana Wesleyan University, as well as a professor of New Testament. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

“We are about to know the secret to the universe from the beginning to the end of time.”
— Ken Schenck

Understanding the Word

The book of Hebrews is in many ways one of the most puzzling books in the New Testament. We do not know who wrote it, and we are unsure of the church to which it was written. Experts on the book disagree on when it was written and whether its recipients were primarily Jewish or non-Jewish. Many think that its first twelve chapters were meant to be read as a sermon to a congregation the author hoped to visit in the near future.

The first chapter begins majestically, with an almost hymn-like contrast of Christ with the angels. Next to God himself, surely angels are the most exalted of God’s creations. Yet next to Christ, they are nothing. They are only servants in the kingdom of the universe. To show the glory of the age that Christ is inaugurating, Hebrews 1 shows us how much more glorious Jesus is than the angels, the stewards of the age that is now passing away.

The first two verses of Hebrews present a contrast. In the past, God spoke to his people in many different ways. He spoke to his people through human prophets in Israel. He spoke to them through angels. He led them through the wilderness with a pillar of fire and a wandering cloud.In days recent to the author, God had inaugurated a new Word: Jesus. He is not just one of many but the one Word. This final Word was the Son of God, the King to restore the rule of God on earth as it is in heaven. For centuries Israel had been without a king. They had hoped for God to give them full control of their land back.

In Jesus, they received a King greater than they could have possibly imagined. They received a people that was much bigger than those who had Jewish blood. They became part of a kingdom that was not only bigger than the land of Israel, not only bigger than the Roman Empire, but a kingdom that consisted of the whole universe, of all things both seen and unseen. The previous ways that God had spoken were “many and various.” Now God had spoken a singular, final Word in Jesus.

Jesus the Son spans the whole of history. On the one hand, he is the “heir of all things.” Everything that exists in the creation will be his when the kingdom fully comes. God has bequeathed it to him as his Son. In 1 Corinthians 15:26–27, we learn that God has destined everything in this world to be put under Christ’s feet, including death. So when Hebrews says that Jesus is the heir of everything, it truly means that Christ will rule over everything that God has made.

Then we learn that Jesus was actually at the beginning of the creation as well. This Son who is heir of everything was also the One through whom God created the worlds. Christians have long taken this statement to mean that Jesus must have existed before he came to earth as Christ. In fact, we believe that Jesus is God. In some mysterious way, even though there is only one God, God exists as three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 1:2 tells us that Christ was the agent of creation. Some Jewish writings from the time of the New Testament speak of God creating the world by means of his wisdom. An Old Testament example of this way of thinking is Proverbs 8:22–31, where God’s wisdom is pictured at his side helping him create the world.

Might the author of Hebrews have been hinting to this congregation that Jesus was God’s wisdom for the world, the One who gives meaning to everything? Jesus is the Word God spoke to heal the world. So begins this majestic sermon. Jesus is at the beginning and end of history. Jesus is God’s last Word for the universe. We know that we are about to hear God’s answer to all the world’s questions and problems. We are about to know the secret to the universe from the beginning to the end of time. That answer and that secret is Jesus Christ.

Walking With Jesus - Stuck At The Wall

This week we want to share with you a devotion written by Matt LeRoy entitled, From Deeper to Dependance. Matt LeRoy is co-pastor of Love Chapel Hill, a church plant in downtown Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

“We are moving, breathing temples, home to the holy God himself.”
— Matt LeRoy

Hebrews 10:19-23

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Reflect

“Confidence” and “Most Holy Place” are not words that should fit well together in the same sentence. In fact, the Most Holy Place was so revered, so respected, seen as so intensely and utterly holy that no one was ever allowed to enter it except on the holiest of occasions. Only one priest on only one day of the year was allowed to go in. And when he did, he wore bells on his robe and had a rope tied around his ankle. Why? Because the people were afraid the priest might drop dead under the weight of glory as he stepped into the presence of the Most Holy God. And if he did, no one would dare go in after him. If the bells fell silent, they would drag him out by the rope. Again, not exactly an image that inspires confidence.

Yet, we are told that because of the completed redemptive work of Christ, we may now enter into the Most Holy Place. Even more, because of Pentecost, the Holy Place has entered into us. We are moving, breathing temples, home to the holy God himself. This deeper life within us creates a sense of full assurance and confidence, and yet leads us into a total surrender and dependence.

Pray

Holy God, make yourself at home in me and teach me to make myself at home in you. Fill me with confidence and assurance in your presence as your presence fills every part of me. Amen.

Conference

How does it change your view of your world to realize that the Holy God fills you? How does it change your home, work, relationships, community?

Walking With Jesus - Lessons from the Lake

This week we want to share with you a devotion written by Todd Cepica, Lead Pastor at Melonie Park Church in Lubbock. Texas. We hope you will find these words to be helpful and encouraging.

“Don’t just stand there! Jump out of the boat and go sit with your Savior. He is waiting for your fellowship and He is willing to feed your soul.”
— Todd Cepica

The last few days for the disciples have been a whirlwind. They walked into Jerusalem with Jesus in a triumphal entry. People lined the street and palm branches were laid at their feet as the jubilant crowd called out for Jesus to be their king. This was a glorious day and one the disciples had long anticipated. The Messiah has come and He will reign forevermore.

But as soon as they crested the hill of rejoicing and entered the city of Jerusalem, they began a descent into a pit of despair. It began with treachery of Judas - a trusted friend and fellow disciple. His seed of deceit would being in a harvest of betrayal as the crowd who called out to have him crowned as a king now turned and demanded his crucifixion as a criminal.

The disciples were lost in despair, Peter denied his association with Jesus and they all wondered what just happened as the One they believed to be their Savior now hung on a cross. His life had impacted so many but His death was not helpful to anyone…or was it.

Three days after having kneeled at the cross, they now stood at an empty tomb. This was even more confusing to the disciples than the crucifixion. But then the resurrected Jesus appeared to them in the upper room and even Thomas was able to verify that Jesus would have the last word. He had risen from the grave trampling over death by death.

But what now? There was silence in Jerusalem and the religious leaders walked proudly I the streets with a haughty smile. Peter couldn’t take it anymore and so he went to do what he knew best in hopes that he could get back to life as he once knew it. Something simple and predictable again. Fishing.

He launched his boat onto the Sea of Galilee. He had not done this in the past 3 years but it all came back very naturally to him. Peter cast his nets, one after another, and pulled them into the boat. But like the emotion in his heart, they all came up empty.
And then a voice called out from the shore with instructions for the fishermen in the boat. They did as the strange man suggested and the nets where filled with fish and their hearts overflowed with joy.

The man on the shore was not a stranger…it was their Savior.
He had not forgotten them after all. This was not the end of the story. In fact, as they sat and listened the risen Messiah, they would learn that it was only the beginning.
We too reach those moments of despair, where life seems confusing and our expectations of our Savior don’t match our experience. We may even find solace in the routine – something simple and seemingly meaningless. And yet, that is where we find Him. Our nets are empty but He can make them full. Our life is aimless, but He gives us direction. Our circumstances seem desperate but His life gives us hope.
Don’t just stand there! Jump out of the boat and go sit with your Savior. He is waiting for your fellowship and He is willing to feed your soul.

Walking With Jesus - City on a Hill

This week we want to share with you a devotion entitled “Holy Christianity Batman! Bruce Wayne and the Sermon on the Mount.” This devotion was written by J.D. Walt, Executive Director of Seedbed.com. We hope you will find these words to be helpful and encouraging.

“The outward fruit reveals the inward truth. It’s the deep congruence, or agreement, between the inner person and the outer life that defines the Christian.”
— J.D. Walt

Matthew 5:13-16

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

CONSIDER THIS. . .

“Batman Begins,” the first installment of director, Christopher Nolan’s, epic Batman trilogy comes to mind after today’s reading. A particular exchange between Bruce Wayne and his childhood friend Rachel Dawes captured my attention, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Bruce Wayne, aka “Batman” struggled in a deep and dark identity crisis leading him to waste the first half of his life. At a critical moment in the story, in a heated exchange between Wayne and Rachel , she spoke these words,

“Deep down you may still be that same great kid you used to be. But it’s not who you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you.”

I immediately wanted to cry foul and say, “No, Rachel, it’s who you are underneath that defines what you do.”

My reading of THE SERMON with Wesley’s tutorial now convinces me otherwise. He refers to this idea of a soul divinely crafted with the beauty of holiness and yet withdrawn from the world of social interaction and engagement with others as a, “pleasing delusion.” Then he adds:

In order fully to explain and enforce these important words, I shall endeavor to show, first, that Christianity is essentially a social religion, and that to turn it into a solitary one is to destroy it; secondly, that to conceal this religion is impossible, as well as utterly contrary to the design of its Author. I shall, thirdly, answer some objections; and conclude the whole with a practical application. p.70

Wesley solves this by destroying the dichotomy of inner and outer, private and public, by declaring Christianity “essentially a social religion.” By this he means if faith is not acting itself out in love in the real every-day world, it is something other than Christian faith. One’s religion is not a “private” matter but decisively social in character. It requires other people. Deeply personal, yes, but decisively social.

Holy Christianity Batman! It’s not what you do that defines you, nor is it who you are inside. It’s more like, “what you do reveals who you are inside.” A person can think they are poor in spirit, meek, hungry for righteousness, merciful, and pure in heart and yet be far from it. Later in the sermon on the mount, Jesus employs the analogy of trees and fruit to get at this (Matthew 7:16-20). The outward fruit reveals the inward truth. It’s the deep congruence, or agreement, between the inner person and the outer life that defines the Christian.

Christmas 2021 - Take Loving Action

This week we want to share with you a devotion entitled “The Coming of Jesus in Our Midst.” This devotion was written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We hope you will find these words to be helpful and encouraging as you read.

“We are faced with the shocking reality: Jesus stands at the door and knocks. He asks you for help in the form of a beggar, in the form of a ruined human being in torn clothing...Will you keep the door locked or open it to him?”
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

When early Christianity spoke of the return of the Lord Jesus, they thought of a great day of judgment. Even though this thought may appear to us to be so unlike Christmas, it is original Christianity and to be taken extremely seriously. When we hear Jesus knocking, our conscience first of all pricks us: Are we rightly prepared? Is our heart capable of becoming God’s dwelling place? Thus Advent becomes a time of self-examination. “Put the desires of your heart in order, O human beings!” (Valentin Thilo), as the old song sings. It is very remarkable that we face the thought that God is coming so calmly, whereas previously peoples trembled at the day of God, whereas the world fell into trembling when Jesus Christ walked over the earth. That is why we find it so strange when we see the marks of God in the world so often together with the marks of human suffering, with the marks of the cross on Golgotha. We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God’s coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God’s coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us.

God comes into the very midst of evil and of death, and judges the evil in us and in the world. And by judging us, God cleanses and sanctifies us, comes to us with grace and love. God makes us happy as only children can be happy. God wants to always be with us, wherever we may be – in our sin, in our suffering and death. We are no longer alone; God is with us. We are no longer homeless; a bit of the eternal home itself has moved unto us. Therefore we adults can rejoice deeply within our hearts under the Christmas tree, perhaps much more than the children are able. We know that God’s goodness will once again draw near. We think of all of God’s goodness that came our way last year and sense something of this marvelous home. Jesus comes in judgment and grace: “Behold I stand at the door…Open wide the gates!” (Ps. 24:7)…

One day, at the last judgment, he will separate the sheep and the goats and will say to those on his right: “Come, you blessed…I was hungry and you fed me…” (Matt. 25:34). To the astonished question of when and where, he answered: “What you did to the least of these, you have done to me…” (Matt. 25:40). With that we are faced with the shocking reality: Jesus stands at the door and knocks, in complete reality. He asks you for help in the form of a beggar, in the form of a ruined human being in torn clothing. He confronts you in every person that you meet. Christ walks on the earth as your neighbor as long as there are people. He walks on the earth as the one through whom God calls you, speaks to you and makes his demands. That is the greatest seriousness and the greatest blessedness of the Advent message. Christ stands at the door. He lives in the form of the person in our midst. Will you keep the door locked or open it to him?

Advent 2021 - Week 4 - Love

“Start small, right where we are. The next opportunity to proclaim the gospel of Jesus is not waiting in the spotlight on the biggest stage, but right in front of us as we walk down the street, hiding in the form of outcast or neighbor or stranger.”
— Matt LeRoy

This week we want to share with you a devotion entitled “Love Local (Go Small and Go Home).” This devotion was written by Matt LeRoy. Matt LeRoy is co-pastor of Love Chapel Hill in downtown Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We hope you will find these words to be helpful and encouraging as you read.

It was one of those mornings. My twin sons, Luke and Sam, were about 5 or 6 years old. And they once again transformed the drive to school into an open forum Question and Answer session where no theological curiosity was off limits. I did my best to answer in a way they could grasp. It went something like this:

Luke: Dad, if Jesus is in my heart, how can he be in heaven at the same time?

Me: Great question, buddy. Because Jesus is God and he can be everywhere at once.

Luke: But Dad, I thought there was only one Jesus. How can one person be everywhere?

Me: Another great question. He is so big that he fills up everything everywhere so he can be everywhere and right there with you at the same time.

Sam: But Dad, if Jesus is so big, then why can’t we see him?

These Kindergarten / Kingdom sized curiosities are answered in Advent. This season of mystery invites and awakens childlike faith. Not just to grasp the right answers. But to keep asking the right questions.

Author Madeleine L’Engle employed the phrase, “the irrational season” to describe this journey we’re on. This moment that asks us to believe the impossible and stake everything on it. That the massive God who fills all things makes Himself small enough to see. For all the times He reveals Himself through fire and flood and plague and blinding glory, in this moment we see Him most clearly. As the Transcendent descends. The Universal localized. The image of the invisible God.

In addition to my role as theology student under Luke and Sam, I’m also one of the pastors at a quirky little church called Love Chapel Hill in downtown Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Our name is our mission: Love Chapel Hill with the heart of Jesus. In the early days of planting this church, we often heard hyped up strategists and leadership experts repeat the rallying cry, “go big or go home.” Instead, we took on the counter approach of “go small and go home.” In other words, start small, right where we are. Love Local, we like to say, as a reminder that the next opportunity to proclaim the gospel of Jesus is not waiting in the spotlight on the biggest stage, but right in front of us as we walk down the street, hiding in the form of outcast or neighbor or stranger. Every moment is an opportunity to make the highest truth and deepest theology and largest love small enough to see.

Of course, this no innovation. It is simply an imitation of the image of the invisible God. The One in whom all the fullness of God dwells, and yet He comes and dwells with us. The massive God who fills all things and makes Himself small enough to see.

The Prayer

God of fullness who fills all things, make Yourself small enough to see through me. And give me eyes to see You made small through others.

The Questions

How can you Love Local, or go small and go home?
What is one small way you can help one person to see the love of Jesus in you?

AND THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND MADE HIS DWELLING AMONG US.

Advent 2021 - Week 3 - Joy

“Advent is a season focused on preparing for the coming of Emmanuel. It is both a beginning and an end to the Church’s pilgrimage through the life of Christ – a time to recall the world’s expectation and longing for the first coming of Jesus Christ into our humanity and a time to anticipate his second coming in final victory.”
— Johnathan Powers

This week we want to share with you a devotion entitled “Joy to the World: A Reflection on Advent” This devotion was written by Jonathan Powers. Dr. Powers is Assistant Professor of Worship Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. We hope you will find these words to be helpful and encouraging as you read.

One of the most popular and well-beloved hymns of the Christmas season is Isaac Watts’ “Joy to the World.” Not only is it common in the weeks surrounding Christmas to hear the song played on the radio and sung in the church, but the words “Joy to the World” are also frequently found imprinted on Christmas cards, displayed on banners, and woven in Christmas sweaters. Undeniably, it is difficult to find better words that sum up the jubilant celebration of Christ’s incarnation than “Joy to the world!” Yet, as wonderful and fitting as the words are, the song was not originally written as an observance on Christmas.

The hymn, “Joy to the World” first appeared in 1719 in a hymnbook of psalms for congregational singing published by Isaac Watts entitled The Psalms of David: Imitated in the Language of the New Testament and Applied to the Christian State and Worship. Much of the congregational singing during Watts’ time was limited exclusively to metrical paraphrases of the Psalms. This practice was established by John Calvin, who, during the Reformation, translated the Psalms into the common language of the people to foster congregational singing. Watts was not satisfied with the practice of psalm-singing, however, and felt a lack of joy and emotion among congregants as they sang. His father therefore offered him a challenge – write a different hymnody for the church. Taking up the challenge, Watts began a lifelong practice of composing lyrics that wed personal and emotional subjectivity with theological and doctrinal objectivity. 

Isaac Watts’ inspiration for “Joy to the World” came via a Christological meditation on Psalm 98. Verse 4 of the psalm especially grabbed his attention: “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.” As Watts thought about how the verse could be understood through the person and work of Jesus Christ, he believed the psalm was to be rightfully interpreted through the lens of Christ’s second coming rather than his first. Particularly, Watts believed verses 8 and 9 frame the psalm in a future-orientation rather than a past event: “Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.”

Take a moment and read through the lyrics of the hymn (which are provided below). Note that the opening line is not, “Joy to the world! The Lord has come,” as if Watts was talking about a past act, but rather “Joy to the world! The Lord iscome.” Also note that none of the typical Christmas imagery is present. There is no explicit focus on Christ’s incarnation or birth. Rather, the lyrics speak more about Christ’s rule and reign. Not that the reign of Christ is an unfitting topic for the Christmas season – see Charles Wesley’s “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” for example – but it is also a very fitting topic for another season in the church calendar, the season of Advent, a time of anticipating Christ’s final rule and victory.

Advent is a season focused on preparing for the coming of Emmanuel. It is both a beginning and an end to the Church’s pilgrimage through the life of Christ – a time to recall the world’s expectation and longing for the first coming of Jesus Christ into our humanity and a time to anticipate his second coming in final victory.

Take a moment and read through the lyrics again. Think about them in light of Christ’s second coming. When interpreted primarily through the final chapters of Revelation instead of the first chapters of the Gospel of Luke, the lyrics take on a different dynamic meaning for the church today. The words bring hope in the midst of darkness, trial, and tribulation. They anticipate the joy that Christ’s reign will bring. They proclaim the cosmic doxology that will occur when heaven comes to earth. They remind us that sin will be eradicated and truth and grace shall rule.

May these words find their way into our eyes, ears, mouths, and minds this Advent and Christmas season. And may we all be filled with joy as we look forward with hope, as did God’s people long ago, to the coming of Emmanuel.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love.

Advent 2021 - Week 2 - Peace

“Your peace will come from the trust and assurance of this truth: no matter what you face, no matter what you are afraid of – God is bigger.”
— Andy Stoddard

This week we want to share with you a devotion entitled “Can We Really Have Peace?” This devotion was written by Andy Stoddard who serves as the Lead Pastor of St. Matthew's United Methodist Church in Madison, MS. We hope you will find these words to be helpful and encouraging as you read.

I’ve been thinking a lot about peace recently.  We are in the midst of Advent, a season of hope, peace, love, and joy.  It’s in this season when we proclaim the words of Isaiah 9:6-7:

For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

The Prince of Peace is born!  That’s what we say.  That’s what we believe.

That’s what we believe: as Christians, as the church, that’s what we believe. And in the world that we live in, that makes us look different.  Off.  Odd.

And you know what?  Good.  We are supposed to.  We aren’t supposed to be like the world.  We aren’t supposed to be like the culture.

We are supposed to be different.

As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:10 – we are fools for Christ.  We are supposed to look differently, believe differently, act differently.  We are called to have a different hope, joy, love, and peace.

As I regularly say, if you tell folks you are Christian and they say, “really?”  that’s not a good sign.  We have to look and to be different from the world.

I’m not saying that there aren’t things to be afraid of.  I’m not saying that there aren’t things that can take our peace, take our joy, take our hope, take our love.

Of course there are!  There are big, scary, worrisome things.  But please hear me.

God is bigger.

God is stronger.

God is more mighty.

He is bigger than your fears.

And as Christians, believing that is who we are.

And the world needs us to believe it and know it.

Your peace will not come from an absence of conflict or absence of things that are you are afraid of.

Your peace will come from the trust and assurance of this truth: no matter what you face, no matter what you are afraid of – God is bigger. And God is good.

Jesus Christ is the prince of peace.

Yesterday.

Today.

Forever.

He is our peace.

Will you trust him today?

Advent 2021 - Week 1 - Hope

“What can the Church do? It seems as if there is no hope. But that is precisely the one thing we do have. We light a wreath of candles as an act of defiance against the darkness. ”
— Matt LeRoy

This week we want to share with you a devotion entitled “Anthem of Advent: The Disruptive Genius of God with Us.” This devotion was written by Matt LeRoy who serves as co-pastor of Love Chapel Hill in North Carolina. We hope you will find these words to be helpful and encouraging as you read:

“O God that you would rend the heavens and come down.” (Isaiah 64:1)

These are the words of Isaiah, the prophet laureate of Advent. We hang on his words this time every year, waiting for the arrival of the promised Savior. And no one casts that vision quite like Isaiah. But here in chapter 64 of his book, he breaks from the familiar tones of expectant hope and instead pours out a lament.

To “rend a garment” in ancient Jewish culture was a sign of deep despair and mourning, an outward physical representation of what was taking place in the soul. In this lament Isaiah draws on this imagery as he pleads for God to mourn with us, to ‘rend the heavens’ like a garment. Look at the chaos of the world, Lord, and grieve alongside us.

But Isaiah asks for more. Don’t just grieve over what is wrong, come down and set it right. Don’t just share our pain, be active in healing it. We know you are working behind the scenes, directing the play. But we need you to step onto center stage and take the lead role.

And this, of course, is exactly what God does. God answers this prayer through the scandalous mystery of The Incarnation. God becomes human.

Of course Jesus is fully God. We wholeheartedly proclaim his divinity and worship him for it. But Jesus is also fully human. And, perhaps there is more mystery here than we realize, he becomes a very particular kind of human. In the Old Testament, God repeatedly makes covenant with the Jewish people. At the dawn of the New Testament, he becomes one of them.

We understand that Jesus was born for all people, but perhaps sometimes we forget that Jesus was born into a specific race of people, into a long cultural heritage and history. He carried distinct physical features (the tone of his skin, the color of his eyes, inherited family traits) that identified him with that people and he always fully embraced that identity. He was born into a race of people who had experienced hundreds of years of slavery, a trial they could never forget. He was born into a race of people who knew what it meant to be conquered by force. Repeatedly they were violently attacked and carried away from their homeland and into exile.

At the time of his birth, his people were living under the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire. The very dust beneath their feet had been promised to them by God Himself. Yet Caesar, in all of his might, claimed it as his own and instituted a reign of systematic injustice. Taxes, laws, enforcement tactics—Jesus’ people were at the mercy of the system. From the very first glance of his face and skin, from the very first sounds of his accent, from the things that he ate and the ways that he worshipped, it was undeniably clear that Jesus was firmly located and numbered among the oppressed. And that is exactly where he wanted to be. And that is exactly where we still find him.

The mystery of the Incarnation will always baffle and amaze anyone who is even half-awake. But perhaps it’s this particular part of the mystery that is asking to be explored in days like these.

This Advent season, we find ourselves in the throes of turmoil again. Tensions over race and injustice are exposed with every news cycle. The plight of refugees is reduced to divisive political debate. Reports of terrorism and human trafficking and senseless violence dominate our screens. Catastrophe has become common place.

What can the Church do? It seems as if there is no hope. But that is precisely the one thing we do have. We light a wreath of candles as an act of defiance against the darkness. We raise our voices and cry out with the prophet Isaiah, O Lord that you would rend the heavens and come down. And we look for him where he has always been found— With us in the thick of oppression and chaos, located among the broken and outcast and exiled. Like a shoot from the stump of Jesse, a small shock of green growing out of the wasteland. Rooted where you least expect him. Where is God in times like these? With us.

This is the time for the Church to proclaim the anthem of Advent, the disruptive genius of God With Us. With us in our pain, our tragedy, our longing. With us to empower premeditated love, even in the face of fear. With us to form his people into a living protest against the way things are, and a prophetic vision of what should and one day will be.

He is with us as we wait for Advent all over again, watching and hoping for the return of our long-expected Jesus. When he will once again rend the heavens and come down.

The Book of James - Week 3

“According to the Bible, our words may be the most powerful thing we have.”
— J.D. Walt

This week we want to share with you a devotion entitled On Sticks and Stones and Words. This devotion was written by J.D. Walt of Seedbed. We hope you will find these words to be helpful and encouraging as you continue to pursue a life of “pure religion”, truly devoted to God:

CONSIDER THIS

Everyone has heard and remembers the childhood adage, “Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.” It’s a lie. James puts it poignantly: but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

Indeed, our words have the power to build up or to destroy. According to the Bible, our words may be the most powerful thing we have. Hear these words from the book of Proverbs.

From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things,
and the work of their hands brings them reward. Proverbs 12:14

The words of the reckless pierce like swords,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Truthful lips endure forever,
but a lying tongue lasts only a moment. Proverbs 12:18-19

Gracious words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24

The words of the mouth are deep waters,
but the fountain of wisdom is a rushing stream. Proverbs 18:4

The tongue has the power of life and death,
and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21

Like apples of gold in settings of silver
Is a word spoken in right circumstances. Proverbs 25:11

I am fond of asking others, particularly friends, this question: “Do you have a word for me?” My expectation is they will give me one of two possible words; either a word from God for me or a word of God to me. In other words, a word of prophecy or a word of wisdom or if neither of these, then a word of scripture.

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind,  but no human being can tame the tongue.

“No human being can tame the tongue.” The good news is the tongue can be tamed. We just can’t do it on our own. The tongue can be tamed as it is trained by the Word of God and the Spirit of God. It’s a critical aspect of our discipleship to Jesus. Always remember, one of the greatest powers you have resides in your tongue. Use it boldly yet with great care.

THE PRAYER

God, our Father, I want to be a real Christian. I want my words to reflect your Word and be inspired and empowered by your Spirit. Awaken me to the power of my tongue. Train my tongue to be a source of great blessing for you and others. In Jesus name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

1. Can you remember the last time you intentionally built someone up with your words? Not words of flattery but of truth. How did that impact you? How about them?

2. Remember a time when someone’s words hurt or wounded you. First, have you forgiven them? What would it look like to become a person who does not return curse for curse but blessing for curse?

3. Are you coming to grips with the power of your words? How will you grow in the days ahead as a person who blesses others with words? How about today?

For the Awakening,
J.D. Walt

Six Practical Steps for Controlling Your Tongue (from Pastor Kyle & Pastor Holly’s Discussion):

  • Dedicate your heart, mind, and tongue to the Lord, daily.

  • Pause before you speak.

  • Surrender your “right” to complain.

  • Ask for accountability.

  • Ask forgiveness for unloving words & apologize.

  •  Practice speaking words that will encourage.

The Book of James - Week 2

“What if “true religion” is the only way out of false faith?”
— J.D. Walt

This week we want to share with you a devotion entitled The Way True Religion Breaks the Self-Deception of False Faith. This devotion was written by J.D. Walt of Seedbed. We hope you will find these words to be helpful and encouraging as you continue to pursue a life of “pure religion”, truly devoted to God:

The Way True Religion Breaks the Self-Deception of False Faith

James just can’t leave this business of deception behind.

At 1:16 he warned, “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.”

At 1:22 he warned again, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.”

Now today he says it again at v.26, “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.

Chances are no one reading this (or the one writing it) actually thinks they are being deceived. That’s how deception works. We don’t know it when its happening. So what are we to do? Should we go around suspicious of everyone and wary of being tricked? No. The danger is not from other people. It is from ourselves. The issue is self-deception. Anyone who has lived any amount of time knows that a human person has an almost infinite capacity to deceive themselves. It’s why people cheat on their taxes and steal from their employers. It’s how people rationalize extramarital affairs. It’s how preachers find their way into pornography. It’s why virtually everyone in prison today considers themselves innocent. When it comes to self-deception, there are infinite shades of gray. In all of these situations people manage to talk a good game when it comes to religious faith.

Back in 1:21 James gave us a helpful admonition. “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.”

Look at the seemingly disconnected admonition he offers today: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

What does looking after widows and orphans have to do with overcoming self-deception? Maybe it has something to do with our inability to think our way or read our way or pray our way out of the grip of self-deception. Could it be that self-deception can only be broken by the sobering activity of selfless giving? What if “true religion” is the only way out of false faith? The crazy thing about impure and faulty religion is people can hold all the right beliefs and maintain all the right religious motions yet still be steeped in false faith.

I mostly see this happen when church people go on a mission trip. They find themselves in an orphanage somewhere south of the equator, far from the wiley comforts of suburban seductions and small town distractions. An inescapable confrontation begins to happen. Their hearts begin to break over the kind of human need and suffering that breaks the heart of God. A kind of awakening begins to happen. True religion, in the way James identifies it, has a way of exposing the self deceiving ways of false religion like nothing else can.

THE PRAYER

God our Father, I want to be a real Christian. I don’t think I am deceived, which is likely a good sign that I am. Break the deception in me. Show me the path toward true religion, which is selfless giving to those who need it the most. Break me out of the hall of mirrors that my life so easily becomes. In Jesus name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

1. According to today’s text, we don’t “keep ourselves from being polluted by the world,” by escaping the world. It happens as we enter into the broken world in a different way. Does this make sense to you? How?

2. Have you had an experience of practicing “true religion” as James describes it? Did it open your eyes to see the world and faith differently? How? Can you think of a person whose life and faith was transformed by helping others in need?

3. How does looking after orphans and widows in their distress break through the smoke screen of self deceived religion? What does it expose about our churches? Our own faith and values?

The Book of James - Week 1

“James is an agent of awakening. His life and words operate like a reverse snooze bar. As we start to drift into sleep he is a wake up call.”
— J.D. Walt

The older I get, the more I appreciate friends who tell it to me straight. You know, those people who are lovingly and brutally honest about the state of things in my life. These people can look me in the eye and show me where I might not see a situation correctly or where I'm be judging someone too harshly. Do you have those kinds of people in your life? I hope so. 

The book of James is a bit like those people. One author I read this week said that "James is an agent of awakening. His life and words operate like a reverse snooze bar. As we start to drift into sleep he is a wake up call."

What a great way to capture the character of this important and powerful book. James offers the wisdom of a life significantly changed by Jesus and calls each of us to account. He asks, "Has Jesus changed you? Then your life better reflect that on every level." James doesn't pull any punches.

J.D. Walt writes, "After scarcely saying hello, he [James] offers this: 'Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.' (James 1:2); how about this one? 'Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.' (James 1:22); and he caps off the first chapter with this: 'Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.' (James 1:27); finally, in chapter two he cuts to the core letting us know in no uncertain terms that: 'faith without works is dead.' He settled for nothing less than the genuine article." 

Walt continues writing, "While much of the New Testament concerns itself with the general spread of the Gospel, James offers us something of an advanced course in discipleship—the real Christianity, where the proverbial rubber meets the road of faith. He will not pander to the "easy believism" of our time. Rather than coddle us in our catastrophes, James will challenge our loyalty to Jesus to the very core of our being right in the middle of them."

James is concerned with real change in the life of a believer and how that believer reflects the image of God. Part of James' concern comes from the fact that he is writing to a group of primarily Jewish Christians who are facing significant persecution. The hard reality is that people facing real difficulty won't make it unless their faith is genuine, tested, and lived out.

I think this book is timely for our current reality. The past few years have been difficult, and the cultural struggle continues and likely will for some time to come. James' voice rings loud and clear in the difficulty of our age. "Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing" (James 1:1-4).

A bit later in chapter one, James writes: "Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves." (James 1:19-22). It's incredible how relevant scripture can be for our daily life and work.

Here is my encouragement. Read James a lot over the next three weeks. That's how long this short series is going to be. Then we come to Advent and Christmas, but before we get to the holiday season, let James's words give you wisdom and bring the changing conviction of the Holy Spirit as we reflect and let this book challenge us to reflect the image of God more truly.