Category: Published

Ephesians 2:8-10 Phillips But even though we were dead in our sins God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, gave us life together with Christ—it is, remember, by grace and not by achievement that you are saved—and has lifted us right out of the old life to take our place with him in Christ in the Heavens. Thus he shows for all time the tremendous generosity of the grace and kindness he has expressed towards us in Christ Jesus. It was nothing you could or did achieve—it was God’s gift to you. No one can pride himself upon earning the love of God. The fact is that what we are we owe to the hand of God upon us. We are born afresh in Christ, and born to do those good deeds which God planned for us to do.

Observation

“It is by grace and not by achievement that you are saved… It was nothing you could or did achieve—it was God’s gift to you.”  This is a difficult concept for those of us raised in a culture that so highly values – even worships – achievement.  Worldly fame brings power and influence that are not rooted in the character and wisdom to unselfishly wield them.  How else can we explain the adoring fans of singers or sports figures who accept whatever might be said or done by these icons as guidance for living life?   This letter of Paul is written to Ephesian Christians who are struggling with what they are being taught as good and normal by their achievement-based culture and religion.  Paul is saying to them, “Why would you go back again to the dead “wisdom” of the world when you have access to the living wisdom of our God?” 

When I was a child, would I hand a gift back to my parent and say, “I am not worthy to receive this.  I can’t believe I have the privilege of receiving this gift.  I have not worked to earn it.”?  Of course not!  Refusing a gift would be doubting my parents’ love and ability to care for me.  As children, we are dependent upon our parents for everything.  This is like the covenant of old where a stronger person makes a promise to adopt, protect and provide for the weaker as his own family.  This relationship, this adoption into God’s family, is what Jesus offers to us through the Cross – a covenant relationship where we can be safe and secure, cared for and loved, not because we are worthy but because He is.    Ephesians is full of who we are and what is promised when we are “in Christ” – something so priceless that it must be given free for us ever to receive it.  To refuse the free nature of the gift devalues the Giver’s love and purpose in the giving.

Impact on Me

This free gift of grace – unearned and priceless – seems too good to be true.  The nature of it truly goes against the natural order of things.  So much of the time, worldly gifts come with an expectation of return in kind, tit for tat.  How can such an incomparable gift, such a windfall of grace and mercy, truly be mine without working for it, earning it or providing pay back?   How can I accept that God’s love for me is that deep, wide and full, that unconditional, that enduring?   This is the covenant, the promise, of provision, protection and relationship we are provided by being in Christ.  How grateful am I?  Can I rest and trust in a relationship where I get all the benefit and, out of gratitude and love, my return gift is my life?  Can I truly submit to Him and, regardless of the cost, commit to fulfill His will and purpose in my life?  Only with the strength, courage and commitment provided by God in all His persons can I hope to do so.

Devotion

Lord God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, how wondrous is Your love for us.  In Christ, we are adopted by You as children, family, blood relatives, through grace and grace alone.  May I never reduce the value of the gift by trying to earn Your favor.  How can I truly show my gratitude except by living and being in the gift because of the faithfulness and love of the Giver?  Teach me to surrender to You in all things so I may be an instrument in Your hand to offer the same gift of salvation to those who do not yet know You.  Remind me to depend fully on You to lead and guide me in what I say and do so that I always bring mercy, grace, healing and deliverance into every place I am.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

Mark 5:36 (MSG)  While he was still talking, some people came from the leader’s house and told him, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?”  Jesus overheard what they were talking about and said to the leader, “Don’t listen to them; just trust me.”

Mark 5:35-36 JPB  While he was still speaking, messengers arrived from the synagogue president’s house, saying, “Your daughter is dead—there is no need to bother the master any further.”  But when Jesus heard this, he said, “Now don’t be afraid, just go on believing!”

Observation

This chapter has Jesus on the offensive with what was considered the impossible – free a  man who has become famous for unbridled madness, raise to life a girl who is dead, and heal a woman with a long history of incurable illness.  The impossibility of changing these conditions is perfectly obvious and accepted by everyone else.  BUT overcoming and reversing the impossible doesn’t give Jesus the slightest pause.  Was He sure that everyone He prayed for would be healed or did He only choose to pray for those who had the faith to receive the healing?  Certainly, the madman and the dead girl did not exhibit faith and, yet, they were still healed.  Apparently, the parents’ faith was enough for their daughter.

I remember in Matthew 13:58, when Jesus was in His hometown, that “He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”  Did only a few see past the boy they watched grow up to be a miracle worker and the Messiah?  Or was it because He chose not to pray for many?  Did He only pray for those who He perceived had faith to believe?  There were certainly those He invited to follow that refused (the rich, young ruler).  There were times when He healed many, which seems not to be all.  Were there also those who were offered healing and refused to receive it?  These are questions with answers that are only speculation on our part.  Perhaps we need only to lean on the grace and mercy extended to the father in Mark 9:24, “²⁴ “I do believe,” the boy’s father burst out. “Help me to believe more!” (Phillips)

Impact on Me

“Now don’t be afraid, just go on believing!”  I want to take the admonition of Jesus in this verse seriously – always, but especially when the situation is dire.  How many times have I hesitated to pray the impossible even when I feel that internal urging to “keep on believing”?  Is it because of fear or pride?  Have I rationalized giving up or in by assenting to “I don’t want to get my hopes up in case nothing happens”.  I don’t think that was Jesus’ motivation or the instructions He gave to His disciples or what He said to those who came to receive. 

I am not suggesting that we run amok by foregoing medicine and doctors or abandoning the other resources available to us.  I am suggesting that we see our enemy through Jesus’ eyes.  I do believe He wants us all to seek Him out, listen for His instruction, be completely submitted to Him, and faithful to obey the voice of the Holy Spirit when He asks us all to go on the offensive against the sin, sickness or tempting situation we face. It must be the same faith and effort extended when I have been asked to agree in prayer for another in Christ.  I never want to forget that Jesus died to provide for me to be a working part of His Body, ready to defend, protect and support the other parts.

Devotion

Lord God Almighty, Holy, Eternal, Father, let me never forget to worship You in all I do.  May I see with the eyes of Jesus and perceive with His heart so I never forget that “impossible” is not part of Your vocabulary.  Also, I never want to forget that my wants, my desires, my assessment of what should be must always be subject to Your plan and purpose.  Although some will refuse what You offer, Your grace and power to save, heal and deliver is never diminished, never insufficient, never inadequate for those who will receive.  May I be faithful to reach out at Your command without hesitation and allow the eternal results to rest with You whether I see visible results or not.  In Jesus’ name, I pray.

Luke 9:12-17 MSG. “As the day declined, the Twelve said, “Dismiss the crowd so they can go to the farms or villages around here and get a room for the night and a bite to eat. We’re out in the middle of nowhere.” “You feed them,” Jesus said. They said, “We couldn’t scrape up more than five loaves of bread and a couple of fish—unless, of course, you want us to go to town ourselves and buy food for everybody.” (There were more than five thousand people in the crowd.) But he went ahead and directed his disciples, “Sit them down in groups of about fifty.” They did what he said, and soon had everyone seated. He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread and fish to the disciples to hand out to the crowd. After the people had all eaten their fill, twelve baskets of leftovers were gathered up.” 

Observation

Earlier in this chapter, Jesus commissioned and sent the 12 disciples out on their own to preach the Gospel and heal the sick.  He sent them out with nothing and said to them, “Don’t load yourselves up with equipment. Keep it simple; you are the equipment.” (MSG) (ESV Luke 9:3 And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics.”).  They had personal encounters with the power of God through miracles of healing and provision for them along the way – without Jesus present.   Now comes the test to see what they learned. “’You feed them,’ Jesus said.” 

Had they learned from their previous journey to think in the supernatural when faced with the humanly impossible?  Would they understand that the supernatural power to heal and provide for one or a few was just as easily able to translate to provide for the 5000?  Would they be defeated or discouraged by the overwhelming task because the crowd was so large and their thinking was stuck in the natural and humanly possible rather than the miraculous?  Were there 12 baskets of leftovers as a sign – one for each of the 12 disciples – to engrave a mental picture reminding them to think outside the possible box?

Impact on Me

I find that I need to be reminded to think outside the possible box when events or circumstances seem overwhelming or impossible or out of my control.  Honestly, I don’t need a group of 5000 to go there.  In ministry settings, I see and hear of things daily that are humanly impossible to manage or change and require a miracle to fix – both visible and invisible – sickness and disease, broken hearts and spirits, emotional wounds that will not heal, those who are desperate and hopeless or will not be consoled, those running away from God, mental illness, incurable diseases, financial crises and so on.  There have been many times in my life when I have experienced the miraculous provision and witnessed the unmistakable exercise of the power of God to save, heal, deliver and redeem – all humanly impossible, but very natural for our God. 

Like the disciples, I know that the power exists and can do all I have seen it do before; BUT will I fail the test if Jesus asks me to believe the impossible that I have not yet seen?  Am I able to keep my thinking outside the possible box and respond according to God’s possibilities rather than my own?  Can I learn to live outside the possible box in His supernatural possibilities?  If I can make this leap of faith, can He use me in ways He never has before?  I am grateful for my own big baskets of leftovers to remind me to have the mind of Christ and think supernaturally no matter what I face.

Devotion

Lord God, All Powerful, Jehovah Jireh, my Provider, full of grace and mercy, You are our firm foundation, ever faithful.  I was raised to be an overachieving perfectionist, so it is so easy to rely on my own strength, abilities and everything I’ve done before rather than consult You regarding Your plan for this moment and whether You have something different in mind this time. In this instance, I would have been working and stressing in the possible – running off to town to try to find food – when You had a different plan and purpose for providing the need and demonstrating to me how to operate in the supernatural where all things are possible.  Help me to stop to consult You first and put my trust absolutely in Your way so that I can be simply Your hand to accomplish Your will and purposes. Make it so in Jesus’ name.

Matthew 26:36-39, 41 (Phillips). Then Jesus came with the disciples to a place called Gethsemane and said to them, “Sit down here while I go over there and pray.” Then he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be in terrible distress and misery. “My heart is nearly breaking,” he told them, “stay here and keep watch with me.” Then he walked on a little way and fell on his face and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from me—yet it must not be what I want, but what you want…Watch and pray, all of you, that you may not have to face temptation. Your spirit is willing, but human nature is weak.”

Observation

This passage always reminds me that Jesus was fully Man (body and soul) and fully God (perfect and sinless). It was not the God nature in Him that asked, “My Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from me,” and it was not the Man of Flesh nature that insisted, “yet it must not be what I want, but what you want.”  He experienced first-hand the life-long struggle of our souls – choosing between the insistent selfish demands of the Flesh (self-fulfillment, recognition, pleasure, survival, significance before Men) and the selfless urgings of the Spirit (to choose total submission to God, willing self-sacrifice, obedience in faith, joy over happiness, true peace over compromise, significance before God at the cost of being shamed before Men). 

It may seem impossible for us to overcome our human nature to be more like Him.  He never sinned, so He always made the right choices when temptation arose. Because He was fully human, He knew we would not.  So, from before He created humans, He had a plan to redeem us.  This was Plan A and there is no Plan B.  The cost was so very high that none of us could ever pay it and, so He offered up Himself to pay the price that provided redemption.  And, wonder of wonders, He offers this salvation as a free, gracious, glorious gift to us. How much He loves us!

Impact on Me

“Watch and pray, all of you, that you may not have to face temptation. Your spirit is willing, but human nature is weak.”  I am so grateful for both the path of repentance and the forgiveness, grace and mercy Jesus provided through the Cross!  I am also grateful that these do not expire, pass away or have a lifetime limit on number of times I can return to offer the one and receive the other.  Jesus knows me because He experienced life being tempted as I am tempted, choosing between right and wrong, selflessness and selfishness, passing pleasure or productive sacrifice, serving my pride or serving God’s eternal will and purpose, remaining faithful or proving faithless. He knew that there would be times when my human nature won the argument, when I would rationalize that I have rights or that the Spirit’s request was unreasonable, unsafe or impossible for me to do. 

So, He chose to drink a cup of sacrifice, suffering, sorrow and love for me (and you) so I would be able to recognize and confess my failings, my weaknesses, my doubts and fears.  He encourages and strengthens me to be able to choose to leave the shame and power of my sins behind to sincerely return and repent, and then choose more wisely. This journey of repentance and grace teaches my soul (where I make my decisions) the wisdom of letting the Holy Spirit in me win the argument rather than my human nature. Hopefully, I will live long enough to be wise enough to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Devotion

Oh, Lord God, Redeemer, Lamb of God, You alone are worthy of worship and praise.  What kind of God would leave the glory of Heaven to become like me, experience human life, and, then, even sacrifice Himself that I might live with Him through eternity and even be adopted as Your own child?  I do not want the human nature in me to be the source of my choices.  I pray that You will work in me to allow the Jesus nature in me to make me understand what choices You would have me make in all things.  Change my perspective so I see with the eyes of Jesus and am moved by the heart of Jesus to be that better witness of the wonder of the life-changing power of Jesus in me. Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

Acts 15:10-11 NIV “So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear?  We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of Jesus.”

Acts 15:10-11 MSG “So why are you now trying to out-god God, loading these new believers down with rules that crushed our ancestors and crushed us, too? Don’t we believe that we are saved because the Master Jesus amazingly and out of sheer generosity moved to save us just as he did those from beyond our nation? So what are we arguing about?”

Observation

Paul was presenting his case to the Christian leaders in Jerusalem.  Today, he would have been appealing to the Board.  He was not asking to throw out every tradition and teaching of the past.  The new Gentile converts had no experience with Jewish rituals as they were coming from idolatrous religions with their own heavy load of rituals and traditions.  He was asking for a determination of what was eternal and important, and asking new Gentile believers to hold only to that.  He wanted the new converts to experience the freedom, release, adoption and grace that Master Jesus provided.

Empty tradition does not bring joy; it brings legalism and bondage.  Rituals and tradition can be beautiful and uplifting, but should not be treasured just because they have been around for a long time.  The teachings of Jesus often flew in the face of established ritual and traditions and religious laws because they delivered the wrong message, defamed the generosity and love of God, and created a soul-breaking burden for the people.  He went back to the basics, showing God as merciful, loving, kind, a healer, a provider, and full of grace for the hopeless, sick and sin-ridden.   He asked that we simply worship and honor God in spirit and in truth, trusting in His love and grace.

Impact on Me

I grew up in a church environment heavy with ritual and tradition.  I learned to respect spiritual authority, be faithful in attendance, to serve others, to care for the sick and abandoned, and so much more.  There are lots of traditions and rituals that have value in helping us to be reverent, worshipful and focused on the God we serve.  However, I also found many church laws, traditions and rituals became anchors to keep me fixed, crushing weights impossible to bear, interfering with a soul that should be dancing with the joy of salvation.  I had a picture of a distant God Who was mostly displeased with me and wanted me to try to earn His favor by following the rituals and rules. 

When I discovered that salvation was free, God loved me just as I am AND wanted to be an active part of helping me to become more like Him despite my human tendency to fail, I started to dance to the symphony of His salvation, the harmony of Jesus in me, the melody of the Holy Spirit’s work song as He began to change me into a living sacrifice, a loving and obedient child of God.  I woke up to the freedom there is in Christ and willingly became that living sacrifice, trusting in a loving Father to equip, protect and assign me for His purposes.

Devotion

Lord God, Heavenly Father, Jesus Messiah, Holy Spirit, my Helper, how beautiful, holy and blessed You are.  Search me, find any old weights and chains, and break me free to be all You desire for me to be.  Speak to my heart in a way I cannot deny is You with Your assignment for me.  Let me never walk by someone who will hear Your voice speak through me to bring the knowledge of Christ.  Help me always to be an encouragement to others, allowing You to be to them what they need You to be, expressed in the way they need to have You “appear” to them.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.