Category: Published

Matthew  8:5-12 MSG  ^5-6 As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.”  ⁷ Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.”  ^8-9 “Oh, no,” said the captain. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I’m a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”  Taken aback, Jesus said, “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how He works.  This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions – streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Then those who grew up ‘in the faith’ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.”

James 2:14-17 MSG  Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

Observation

Wouldn’t that be the worst – to grow up “in the faith” but have no outward evidence of faith?  This Roman captain recognized the authority Jesus had over sickness and disease.  As a Roman, it is unlikely that he knew much about Jewish faith and practice.  Nonetheless, he recognized the absolute and supernatural authority resident in this man, Jesus, because of the visible results of His faith.  The Jewish religious leaders, those who “grew up in the faith,” completely missed it because Jesus challenged their traditions, their training, and the accepted knowledge of the day.  Jesus just was too radical and didn’t live up to the Messiah they expected.  Their education and traditions would not bend to allow for the God of grace and mercy to be Himself in and through Jesus.

We need to be careful in how much emphasis we put on gaining knowledge (pursuing education, degrees and training) without an equal emphasis on serving, which is the substance of the Gospel.  Knowledge alone can set our perspective in stone so we become like the religious leaders – more interested in form than substance.   If we are not giving evidence of our faith by witnessing, reaching outside the church walls, serving the needy, and putting ourselves out of our comfort zone, we are missing it by the same mile as those religious leaders.  Jesus asks us to depend on the Holy Spirit to flow in and through us to rescue, redeem, and restore those in need.  The faith that brought me to salvation through Jesus should mature through me continually exercising faith to make me more like Him.

Impact on Me

I marvel at the Roman who could make the leap between the authority he wielded to the authority he saw exercised in and through Jesus, an itinerant Jewish rabbi.  This Roman believed that there was no distance, no need to touch, but only the word of Jesus needed to be spoken for it to happen.  Do I have this same faith when I pray?  Do I insist on telling God how to answer, placing my expectations on Him or do I make sure to pray in a way that allows for God’s will to supersede and set aside my plan for the answer?  Do I tend to be so spiritual in my response that I ignore the physical or emotional need of those He brings to me? 

“Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?”  How tragic to believe that I followed, loved, and served well to find that I completely missed the mark!  When I stand before Jesus, how will He judge my faith?  Will He say that my actions matched my professed faith in Him?  Will He say I kept the faith while fulfilling what He required of me?  Will He judge that, as I promised, I honored Him with all I am and all I did?  Will my repentance bring real change, real submission to His will and purpose?  When it all been said and done, will I be more like Jesus?

Devotion

Lord God, Merciful, Gracious, Loving Father, I worship You.  I want to always be becoming more like Jesus.  Stretch me in my faith.  Keep me uncomfortable enough that I will always be submitted to Your authority, seeking Your answers, exercising Your power, and listening for what You would have me say and do rather than depending on my own strength, ability and education.  I want to believe when I pray that You are able, willing and will do what You have promised no matter how impossible it may appear to me AND whether Your response fits my expectations, my plan.  I lay down my pride, my rights, my dreams, all I have and am, for to serve You for Your will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven.  Keep my feet to the fire on this.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

Matthew  15:32-37  (NLT) Then Jesus called His disciples and told them, “I feel sorry for these people.  They have been here with Me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat.  I don’t want to send them away hungry, or they will faint along the way.”  The disciples replied, “Where would we get enough food here in the wilderness for such a huge crowd?”  Jesus asked, “How much bread do you have?  “They replied, “Seven loaves, and a few small fish.” 

So Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground.  Then He took the seven loaves and the fish, thanked God for them, and broke them into pieces.  He gave them to the disciples, who distributed the food to the crowd.  They all ate as much as they wanted.  Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food.

Observation

Jesus presents a need to His disciples born of compassion and care.  This crowd is 4000 men plus women and children, which could easily bring the crowd over 10,000.  In the previous chapter, Jesus fed a crowd of at least 5000, walked out to their boat on the water, had Peter walk on the water, saved Peter from drowning, and calmed the turbulent seas.  After all that, His disciples could have said, “Okay, here’s what we have to contribute to the cause.  We trust you to make it enough.  Let’s start handing it out”.  But they don’t.

Instead, they state the impossibility of complying with Jesus’ request from a human standpoint.  “Where would we get enough food here in the wilderness for such a huge crowd?”  Jesus then asks, what they bring to this table (have to offer) to help meet the need.  “Not enough,” is their reply.  Jesus then proceeds to send them out to take their insufficient supply to meet the overwhelmingly impossible need.  He used their hands and their “not enough” in hand to deliver the miraculous provision.  In the end, the leftovers are much more than what they had to offer to meet the need in the beginning.

Impact on Me

It is easy for me to be amazed at their lack of faith.  After all, they have seen Jesus overcome the impossible with their own eyes many times.  However, if I am honest with myself, I find myself in this same place so many times.  I can recount many miracles that I have experienced (seen with my own eyes) in my life.  Yet, how many times do I see an overwhelming need born of compassion and then become discouraged when I look at what I have to offer?  In this, I limit God by attempting to meet the need with only what can be humanly brought to the table.  Jesus is not limited by what we bring, but only by what we will offer to Him for His use.

How many times have I allowed my faith to shrink and my courage to fail because I thought, “This is all I have, Lord, and it is not enough!”.  Why doesn’t my faith, the trust born of the experience of Christ in me, lift up what little I have and say, “Lord, here is what I have.  It is Yours.  Use it and me as You will to meet this need.  Nothing is impossible for You.”  The best thing I bring to the table is faith and obedience.  When I do, He has always been faithful to deliver exceedingly abundantly above all I could ask or think.  Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

Devotion

Lord God, Eternal, All Powerful, Miracle Worker, Never Changing, I worship You.  You stay the course with me regardless of how many side trips I take from Your pathway set before me.  Please remind me always that I am not the real answer to any need; You are the only answer to them all. May I always remember that it is not what I bring to Your table, but, rather, how freely and completely I offer it up and allow You to use it.  I pray that You will use me as You used Your disciples to distribute Your grace, healing, provision, love, mercy.  BUT never let me forget that I am just the servant distributing what You provide.  In Jesus’ name, I pray.

1 Kings 12:26-30 (MSG) But then Jeroboam thought, “It won’t be long before the kingdom is reunited under David. As soon as these people resume worship at The Temple of God in Jerusalem, they’ll start thinking of Rehoboam king of Judah as their ruler. They’ll then kill me and go back to King Rehoboam.”  ^28-30 So the king came up with a plan: He made two golden calves. Then he announced, “It’s too much trouble for you to go to Jerusalem to worship. Look at these—the gods who brought you out of Egypt!” He put one calf in Bethel; the other he placed in Dan. This was blatant sin. Think of it—people traveling all the way to Dan to worship a calf!

Observation

First, can I just draw a parallel here?  The serpent in the Garden twisted God’s words by saying, ““Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”  He knew this was not true, but used lies to deceive and lure Eve and Adam into sin.   So, Jeroboam has done the same, twisting the truth (downright lying!) to serve his own purposes – “He made two golden calves. Then he announced, “It’s too much trouble for you to go to Jerusalem to worship. Look at these—the gods who brought you out of Egypt!”  His fear and greed for power has driven him to lie and lead the people into sin.

When we lose sight of the knowledge that all we are, all we have and all we have accomplished is of and by The Lord, we fall into a trap, a hole in our road that we did not see. Fear of losing face or praise or position causes us to dig the hole deeper, even to the point of leading others into sin with us, rather than humbling ourselves, repenting and seeking the Lord’s arm to lift us out. This is just what Jeroboam did when he allowed fear to drive his decisions. He was appointed as king of the 10 tribes by God but he did not trust God’s word or His ability to sustain His promise. He started to look for ways to please and attract the people, pandering to their unholy desires, serving their pagan cultures, in order to maintain his popularity and secure his rule. I am sure that God was not surprised, but was giving Israel the king they deserved; after all, we reap what we sow.

Impact on Me

I suspect I am not alone in experiencing this same fear of rejection, loss and disgrace or being challenged to compromise for the sake of favor with the people around me. I want to be liked, respected, loved, but I pray never at the cost of being faithful to truth, never twisting that truth to suit my selfish purposes.  I want to be faithful to Jesus Who lives in me and keep my worship of God pure. 

I wonder what concessions have I made to culture that have become altars to another god?  What compromises have I allowed to creep in and become altars to the idol of convenience or complacency or people-pleasing?  Where have I protected or promoted myself at the cost of truth?

Prayer

My God and Father, Source of all Truth, Justice and Mercy, I pray that my life before You will become ever more holy.  Search me, examine my motives, reveal any fear or pride that is tempting me to alter Your truth for my purposes.  Help me to recognize those serpents hanging out of the trees who would want to lead me astray.  Show me the places in my soul where I might have a golden calf that has been substituted erected in place of surrender to You.  May my life be a crystal clear lantern for Your light as it shines forth to bring Your redemption to those  I meet.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

John 4:46-53 MSG Now he was back in Cana of Galilee, the place where he made the water into wine. Meanwhile in Capernaum, there was a certain official from the king’s court whose son was sick. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and asked that He come down and heal his son, who was on the brink of death. Jesus put him off: “Unless you people are dazzled by a miracle, you refuse to believe.”

⁴⁹ But the court official wouldn’t be put off. “Come down! It’s life or death for my son.” ^50-51 Jesus simply replied, “Go home. Your son lives.”  The man believed the bare word Jesus spoke and headed home. On his way back, his servants intercepted him and announced, “Your son lives!”  ^52-53 He asked them what time he began to get better. They said, “The fever broke yesterday afternoon at one o’clock.” The father knew that that was the very moment Jesus had said, “Your son lives.”  ^53-54 That settled it. Not only he but his entire household believed. 

Observation

Here is a case of believing before seeing.  This man has heard about Jesus and His healing ministry, the signs and wonders occurring when Jesus would reach out and touch someone.  This was miraculous and wondrous enough, but Jesus is asking this man to stretch his credulity even further, challenging him to believe that Jesus’ authority can effect healing over long distances.  We humans are a funny lot.  The healing is impossible, miraculous, but, because the impossible is happening through the touch of Jesus, that touch now becomes for us a ritual necessity of the miracle.  Why?   Isn’t all of it impossible?

Up until Jesus touched and healed, it was impossible regardless of method; now, the touch becomes married to the method in the minds of those watching.  Here is a man who knows that believing and trusting Jesus’ word is his only hope, and so, he chooses to believe in this new impossible thing, which is what he came to do in the first place, even though he probably headed home disappointed because he did not get the response he thought he came for.  How many times do we come to Jesus with our plan for how He should respond and, then, are disappointed because He does not go with our plan? 

Impact on Me

How many times have I missed God because He doesn’t answer the way I planned or do things the way I think it must be done, insisting on and disappointed if He doesn’t perform as I think He should?  What sacred cows, traditions, religious protocols and strongholds keep me from experiencing the miraculous in my life?  How have I rewritten the Covenant (contract) between the Lord and me, inserting my expectations as necessary to His fulfillment of what He has promised?  Do I believe without first seeing or, like Thomas, do I need God to prove Himself to me?

If I want to live in God’s possible, I need to examine why and what I believe.  Is my faith based on what He has done alone or on my willingness to believe regardless of what I see?  Am I willing to allow the Holy Spirit freedom to examine and evaluate my sacred cows, traditions, religious protocols and strongholds so I can believe without seeing, trust regardless of my judgment of His performance?  This requires surrender and the desire to have a pure heart that worships Him in spirit and in truth.  I want this to be what marks every footstep of my journey of life in Christ.

Prayer

Lord God, Spirit of Truth, Teacher, Lover of my soul, I am so grateful for You and the grace You have for me.  Search me and expose every place that does not honor and please You, every place that is a barrier to the free flow of Your Holy Spirit.  I want to be one who believes that nothing is impossible for You and live accordingly.  Open my eyes to recognize when I am putting You in my possible box and limiting Your ability to act by my unbelief.  Help me to know Your voice and quickly, gladly, freely obey without question.  May I always believe in hope.  Make it so, in Jesus’ Name.

1 Samuel 16:6-7 NIV When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”  ⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 MSG Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”

“Authentic spirituality is to follow Jesus and become wholistically human! One look at Jesus’s life reveals the intense humanity of authentic spirituality. Jesus is a carpenter’s son; He eats and drinks with sinners; He laughs and weeps. He teaches, tells stories, observes the seasons, prays, worships, and experiences love, joy, strength, friendship, weakness, and sorrow. How refreshing to realize that God has created us and redeemed us to be authentically human.”  Mark Slomka, Western District Supervisor, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel

Observation

We were created to be human by God.  As humans, we have the capacity to be fickle or faithful, false or true, unwise or wise, emotional or rational, and all the other roller coaster emotions and responses built into our human nature.  These are molded and shaped from childhood by our community and family values, culture and ethics.   We either embrace or rebel against the human expectations placed upon us by our upbringing.  If we are raised from childhood in a church, there will be standards which judge our level of spirituality and make you a “somebody” or “nobody” in the congregation.

When Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse to anoint the next king of Israel, God told him that it was not the outward appearance that moved God.  None of the big strong sons of Jesse were to be the next king. The one God chose as the future king was the youngest and smallest son, David, who was called “a man after God’s own heart.”  God is looking for character, not achievement.

Paul, who certainly had been a “somebody” in the Jewish faith, is telling the Corinthians (and us) that Jesus does not judge by compliance with outside standards of spirituality or achievement (the brightest and the best, the influential, the rich, the rigid rule follower) but looks on and chooses whom He uses by the heart (those who are faithfully rooted and grounded in God’s grace, mercy and love). Just as Jesus was wholly human – experienced joys and sorrows, considered of low birth, judged a friend of sinners – we, too, can honor and praise God with our lives. “How refreshing to realize that God has created us and redeemed us to be authentically human.”

Impact on Me

“Authentic spirituality is to follow Jesus and become wholistically human!”  How do I become whole in my humanity – fully loving and serving God and loving and serving others?  How do I avoid the shallow spirituality of judging by outward appearances and achievements? How can I truly be a person after God’s own heart? How do I – without shame and withholding areas – allow the Holy Spirit to truly search me, know my heart, and remodel and remake me?  How do I freely and fully submit to Him the taming of my roller coaster of human emotions, remaking the values and cultures imprinted on my soul from childhood, and healing the pain, sorrow and wounds inflicted upon me?  How can I emotionally survive the exposure of all of that?  Will He still love me after He sees my darkest secrets?

This seems to me to be a wholly heart (soul) choice.  It began with choosing Jesus by embracing the salvation He provided and changing my position from in and of the world to in and of Christ.  I then began the lifelong process of sanctification – the searching, knowing and remodeling by the Holy Spirit.  Every move, every change, every healing He makes requires my submission, my willingness to give over to Him permission to open and clean out the closets hiding the shame, guilt and pain of my past.  When I am tempted to say no because I do not want Him to see what is in there, I am reminded that He already knows and will graciously forgive whatever is exposed.  How do I deserve such a God Who loves and treasures me to such extent?  I am forever grateful.

PRAYER

Father God, Savior, Precious Holy Spirit, I worship You.  You are Love too vast to understand.  I pray that You will give me the courage to say yes and strength to endure in that yes when my darkest moments are exposed for You to see.  You will not be surprised, but I will be ashamed.  Forgive me.  Help me to be authentic in my response to Your love, grace and mercy as You make me into the best human I can be – one that reflects and represents You in all my ways and words.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.