Category Archives: Wednesday

A Visible Part

Posted on May 13, 2020 | Leave a comment

I Peter 2:1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  ESV

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At one point in time I took daily devotional walks and would pick up a stone [mostly unremarkable] everyday to put in a jar at home as a reminder to me of the purpose of the walk.  I’ve collected stones for many years now and they have become a visible part of my living room decor.  Most are just plain stones I’ve either found or been given but there are some I’ve purchased because they’re polished and show the beauty of what is underneath their natural exterior.  Both have meaning to me.  And therein lies the reality that makes this Word live for me. 

A stone is not like a book that’s known by it’s cover.  The significance of a “living stone” is this: “in the sight of God,” He saw the beauty beneath your natural exterior and gathered you up from the rubble pile of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and all slander, to be a “living stone” in His  “spiritual house.”  You were purchased and polished by Him and His Word to be a very visible part of “a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” …in plain sight.

 

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Posted in 1 Peter, New Testament, Wednesday

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You Shall…

Posted on May 6, 2020 | Leave a comment

I Peter 1:13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” NASB

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We’ve seen the reality of many people who’ve chosen to overrule their natural anxiety during this coronavirus.  People in many places and many jobs prepared their minds for action, and with sober spirits were willing to do what they were called to do.  Some have openly done that in the name of Christ but others have come forward out of an intuitive obedience and goodness they’ve not yet assigned to Jesus.  But…they’ve revealed a greater truth that I don’t want any of us to miss. 

Some might call that the human desire of goodness.  I am only an observer but I see an impact on too many hearts to believe only human goodness is involved here.  Hearts have NOT been been called out of familiar patterns of life by the power of an enemy virus but by the intuitive memory of their Creator.  Our hearts in this exile are being reshaped by God, NOT coronavirus!

Our hearts have witnessed something about holiness that in our human ignorance we never expected to see.  The power of holiness isn’t always clearly identified but it’s never absent.  We’ve seen a deeper truth that still motivates the intuition of the human heart to respond.  “…Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 

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Corporate Grief

Posted on April 29, 2020 | Leave a comment

I Peter: 1:6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

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We are all are experiencing corporate grief right now.  Many of us are fortunate enough to only experience it second-hand through TV coverage of Covid-19 but there are so many more who are terrifyingly closer to it.  God bless them.  God bless us all.  Even from a distance we see the evidence of grief that impacts hearts in varied ways.  We see the productive side through testimonies of determined sacrifice and service.  We see tears of courage that will not bow to anxiety and loss.  We hear real stories of creative compassion that finds ways to bridge the circumstances of isolation in life and death.  We also see willful denial that balks at being told what we should be doing.  We see angry protests redefined as personal freedoms.  We see choosing risk over reality because it’s beyond the walls that isolate us in our own homes and neighborhoods.  These are how varied the responses are that define corporate grief during this very real trial.

All the elements are in place right now for Jesus to redeem the evidence of our corporate grief and make it productive, not destructive.   Grief that teaches us to put the other “person” back  into “personal” lives. Grief that reveals Jesus to the hearts of those who love, serve, weep and mourn as well as those deny and protest.  

Lord Jesus redeem our grief so that it will not be what defines our hearts, but what refines them.  May it be “though you have not seen him[Jesus], you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”  May it be so!

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Chastened to Pray

Posted on April 22, 2020 | Leave a comment

John 14:1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me…” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

I can’t escape associating coronavirus and John 14.  These are times when watching the news can result in tears escaping from a heart troubled by reality it sees.   My tears are my longing for their victory: “overcoming an enemy or antagonist, achievement of mastery or success in a struggle or endeavor against odds or difficulties.”  That’s what I want for those who are dreadfully ill without their families at their side and for the safety of those who pursue victory for them over covid-19 despite putting themselves at risk.  And yes for you and I.

I’ve found I’m left feeling pretty chastened by this passage. Our eyes can see the unholy turmoil Coronavirus has created for our world and that certainly needs prayer.  Jesus doesn’t get the same media coverage but through those heartfelt tears and this passage I’ve found a solution.  I’ve been chastened to pray differently.   Jesus’s own words are the most important words of prayer for those who are ill, those who care for them and all the rest of us too: “Let not your hearts be troubled…I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

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Posted in John, New Testament, Wednesday

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Comfort

Posted on April 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  [NIV]

This is the middle of the week between Palm Sunday and Easter for us.  The memory of that first “Palm” Sunday crowd raising their Hosannas for the Messiah of their own imagination along with this quote from John Piper is my reminder for today.  “Many of Jesus’s followers [in AD33] thought Jesus came to rescue and reign now. They anticipated a physical and political freedom from the oppressive Roman rule. For them, the Christ was the key to their immediate, this-world issues.” [Your Sorrow will Turn to Joy]  

Re-read that quote from Piper and replace “Roman rule” with coronavirus. As believers in Christ we are confronted today with the same challenge of that long ago crowd – choosing imagination or reality.  We can’t imagine how Jesus will rescue us from the deadly coronavirus but we can find comfort in the reality of His own words “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  Choosing to let Jesus’s Word be the reality of comfort for us is better than letting our imagination for this-world confront us in the midst of this coronavirus week between Palm Sunday and Easter [2020].

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God Knows!

Posted on April 1, 2020 | Leave a comment

Jeremiah 29:10 For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. [NKJV]

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I’m still concentrating on Jeremiah 29: 10-12 and the Spurgeon sermon from 1887.  I found a meaningful difference in the New King James Version’s translation of a phrase from verse 10: “I will perform my good word toward you.”  The Bible is more than history, wisdom and recorded answers to allow us to learn how to live according to the expectations of God.  It’s His “good Word“ written to reveal His intent to intervene and perform it in the life of His leading characters [you and I] as we navigate through the emotional and unexpected circumstances of life.  We are a performance oriented culture, well-trained over most of our years to figure things out but today our unexpected circumstance is a deadly virus.   Coronavirus is now daily confronting our ability to figure out what we do know and what we don’t know. 

God knows!  That is the one thing Spurgeon has reminded me over and over as I’ve read his sermon. “When Moses came out of Egypt, he had no plan as to the march of Israel. He knew that he had to lead the children of Israel to the promised land, but that was all. He probably hoped to take them by the shortest cut to Palestine at once…Brother, you do not know what is to be done, but the Lord knows for you. O, body of Christ, let your head think for you! O, servant of Christ, let your Master think for you. “I know,” says God “the thoughts that I think toward you.” AND “I will visit you and perform My good Word toward you…”

∞ Look back and thank God…Look forward and trust God ∞

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Posted in Jeremiah, Old Testament, Wednesday

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Plans

Posted on March 25, 2020 | Leave a comment

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

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I found the sermon on Jeremiah 29 by C.H. Spurgeon last week [http://www.spurgeongems.org/sermon/chs1965.pdf]. I feel like I stumbled onto something very special.  It was delivered in 1887 but it’s wisdom has stood the test of time.  It’s long and I keep rereading it because it has more ideas than I can absorb in one reading.  “These people in captivity were likely to fear that their God had forgotten them; hence the Lord repeats His words in this place, and speaks of thoughts and thinking three times.”  Plans, plans, plans.

Plans are the tricky part for humans because we trust what we know and we just don’t know it all. So here we are in this time of Coronavirus faced with the conflict of who’s plans to believe and what actions to take.  Consider this second truth from Spurgeon “Unbelief misinterprets the ways of God; hasty judgment jumps at wrong conclusions about them, but the Lord knows His own thoughts.  We are doubtful where we ought to be sure, and we are sure where we have no ground for certainty, thus we are always in the wrong.”  

Pay attention today to the plans for dealing with Coronavirus, take every action based on their limited wisdom and act in an abundance of caution on the knowledge of men you don’t know AND then put your trust and hope in the plans of the God you do…”plans to give you hope and a future.”

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Posted in Jeremiah, New Testament, Wednesday

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Life-Saving

Posted on March 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

Colossians 4:5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

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Could there be a more timely message for all of us today?  Harsh and divisive language and behavior have invaded our culture to the point it’s expected, if not accepted.  Recognizing the wisdom of opportunity, words and behavior matter now more than ever.  Most of us are embarrassingly aware there is a distance between our willingness to share the Gospel truth freely and how we live our daily lives.  There’s a reason for that.  It’s reminiscent of the dynamic that happened way-back-when in the Garden of Eden when a clever snake successfully confused those first two messengers by questioning the clarity of God’s truth.  

We are the messengers today and unfortunately we’ve taken a bite out of that apple of deceit.  We are reluctant to “make the most of every opportunity” because that same clever deceit has left us believing consideration and tolerance are in conflict with the broad outreach of the life-saving Gospel: that wisdom and conversation can be “full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”  

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Peace from Colossae

Posted on March 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

Colossians 3:15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

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Whose peace are we called to?  Re-read the verses above, then take a deep breath and give thanks to God that the “peace of Christ” is the gold standard we’re expected to live by, not our own.

We are confronted with novel circumstances in our world right now that impact our lives enough to alert us to remember, that is truth.  And this is reality: all our riches, and peace, dwell “among” [in the company of] “the message of Christ” that lives in our hearts.  Our hearts are where the groundswell of gratitude reveals our understanding of the vast truth of what His peace really means to us.

“In the company” of your hearts and daily lives “the message of Christ” is completed by the simple recognition of this absolutely timeless truth that makes peace possible:  

❤️Christ holds your heart in His own❤️

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Designer Wardrobe

Posted on March 3, 2020 | Leave a comment

Colossians 3:12 As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

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My first thought was Colossians 3:12 sounded like the Designer version of the armor of God.  A new wardrobe filled with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, forgiveness, love, peace, thankfulness, wisdom and gratitude.  This is not the armor of medieval times.  It has the same complete coverage as the heavy metal version but it looks quite different.  This wardrobe honors the qualities the Designer Himself has chosen to display what His impenetrable protection looks like.  It covers every vital thing necessary to win over the opposition at the same time it reveals Love is the thrust of outreach that makes this “armor” a thing of beauty that still wins ❤️s.

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