Category: Daily Devotionals

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.  Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  Romans 8:7-8

I once witnessed a live panel discussion in Minneapolis where the theologian, John Piper, was asked, “Is it possible for an unbeliever to do anything that pleases God?”  John thought a minute and started enumerating wonderful things that people can often do; people even outside of Christ.  Charitable acts of compassion and kindness, sacrifices a parent makes for his children, and generous philanthropic outreaches.  Many are given with an open heart, are not  self-serving, and are even costly to the person who gave them.

So, does God see any of them as good?  Is He moved by them?  Does He acknowledge that we were created in His image  and, therefore, we are capable of genuinely demonstrating love for others?  And finally, isn’t there really such a thing as a good person and would God let someone like this really go to hell?

There are two inherent problems in this kind of thinking.  1.) The only thing that matters to God is what we do for His glory, with Him at the center of our motivation.  2.) And, a life comprised of many stellar gestures towards humankind does not fix the sinful nature that person inherited from Adam at his birth.  The curse must be reversed.  His sins must be  forgiven at the cross. He must acknowledge God as his personal Lamb, the One who takes His sins and promises to give back undeserved righteousness.  What ushers in this event?  Repentance and an admission of sinfulness, not goodness.

The best of people still sin and fall short of the glory of God. Consider the nicest unbeliever you know.  Put his wonderful deeds for others aside for a moment.  Try to picture how he might handle the rest of God’s precepts.  Would the ways of the kingdom even appeal to him?  Would living by the Spirit make sense to him?  Would he find joy in submitting to what is, to him, upside down?  To live, I must die to self.  To lead, I must first be a servant.  To get back at my enemy, I must love him and pray for him.  This is why Paul says that those who live by the flesh can not submit to God’s law.  That person is repelled by what his sinful nature cannot understand.  The nicest person will still live by his flesh and will perish eternally because of it.

The cause for such blindness is revealed by Paul.  2 Corinthians 4:4  The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.   

 Give us all eyes to see what’s behind Satan’s clever arguments, the ones that make us see you as one not worthy of our trust.  Amen

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  Romans 8:5

Many believe that a person is in one of three spiritual conditions; he is an unbeliever, he is a committed follower of Christ, or he is backslidden. I have always followed this line of thinking but after wrestling with Romans, perhaps there are only two categories; believers and unbelievers.  Those who live according to the flesh are unbelievers.  And, those who live according to the Spirit are believers. 

Could it be that simple?  We either follow Christ or we don’t.  The notion of God’s church being largely comprised of lukewarm, backslidden people could mean that we will all be surprised one day to witness ‘too whom’ Jesus says, “Depart from me.  I never knew you.”  It is worth asking the question ~ “Are we either followers of Jesus (with our minds set on the things of the Spirit) or are we hostile to Christ (having our minds set on the things of the flesh?) In just a few verses past today’s scripture, Paul will say that those who have their minds set on the flesh are hostile to God. He doesn’t call them backslidden.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that if I sin today, I am not God’s child.  I am going to sin – and I have already sinned even though it’s yet early in the day.  The question I must ask myself is this ~ “Did I sin with no regard whatsoever to the heart of God?  Did I sin without a conscience?  Will future sins follow today for which I will feel no tinge of remorse?”  The reason King David was called a ‘man after God’s own heart’ was not that he never sinned. It was because, when he did, his heart was pierced with remorse.

If I am a disciple, I will be ever conscious of the One I embraced as LORD.  If He never crosses my mind, then how, by definition, can I say that I gave my life to Christ?

God, please make things clear. If your child sins, He will think of you and be miserable. If someone else sins and does not think of you at all, is he simply lost? Bring me understanding. Teach me. I am your child. Amen

‘Build the bridge of friendship strong enough to support the truth.’

Jesus said, “The world will know you are my disciples if you have love one for another.” When unbelievers see us loving each other when it’s costly, when there is little appreciation, when the journey is long and complicated, they sit up and take notice. We become aware of what it meant when Jesus spoke of being ‘salt’ and ‘light’. It’s more than saying the right words. While that’s important, our speech has to lay against the backdrop of love.

Those who watch us love others like Jesus have to admit that this kind of love is unnatural. Who loves like that? They reason, most likely, that God may be alive and well after all. They simply can not explain the consistency and grace as someone being a really nice person. Especially if they see example after example and it’s coming from within a community of believers. And if they are the ones receiving our supernatural love and care, what an open door to lead them to the perfect love of Jesus! Love constrains. It is not God’s power and might that draw sinners, it’s His love. God could easily force people to worship Him, and one day He will, but for now ~ it is His love that reaches and draws us close. If we prioritize the spiritual skills we intend to strengthen this year, learning to love others well would yield the highest return for our labor. With our acts of love, we build a bridge that will support the truth. When it comes to loving unbelievers, they are never more open than when they are broken. The window of opportunity may be short. Which of the twelve skills might be the right one for today? Personalize. Apply. And always pray first.

* Would you like a PDF of this entire series? Perhaps you’d like to have it for a printout – to share with others. Here is a link.

VALIDATE!  DON’T HUMOR!

Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances.  Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear.  Proverbs 25:11-12

Jesus was a truth teller and Jesus didn’t sugar coat it.  He told it the way it needed to be told.  But He was Truth and He was also Grace so He knew perfectly how to marry the two.  I can call myself a lover of truth but, then in situations where my gift of mercy goes askew, I sometimes tone the truth down so that it isn’t more painful than it has to be.  In some cases, like in the following story with my mother, I could have easily invalidated what was true.

My mother had been battling cancer for more than a year.  She was painfully thin.  Nonetheless, on a weekend when our family was able to visit, she insisted on making the effort to go to church with us.  My mother, not a complainer about anything and prone to suffer silently to a fault, surprised me when she blurted out in frustration.  She had put on her favorite dress, looked at herself in the mirror and then said to me, “Look at me!  I’m a bag of bones in this dress.”  I wanted so much to protest.  “No, no, Mom.  You look beautiful in the dress.”  I caught myself before answering poorly.  I said, “I’m sorry you don’t look like you want to look in the dress.  These changes have to be horribly painful and I’m so sorry.”  

A believer in the midst of a very painful journey usually has a clear vision of this world.  What was once murky gray has become black and white.  What is frivolous doesn’t appeal.  What is most important becomes most precious.  And in the process of seeing life more clearly than most everyone else, they make truthful statements about life, Christianity, people, and religion that are usually true.  Their statements sound blunt and stark. Our first reaction is to protest, to soften it, thinking we are lessening the pain of what they’re vocalizing.  However, in protesting, we are not helping.  We are making it worse by accentuating their feelings of isolation.  Even if the truth was said in anger, there are ways we can validate them without matching their angst.  Not without prayerful wisdom though.  Jesus will give us words that smooth their ragged edges with grace.

God values truth and I should value truth and affirm it when it is spoken.  At times it will make me squirm.  It will challenge the common everyday deception that stares me in the face that I don’t see yet because I haven’t walked in their shoes.  Their statements will most often depict the hopelessness of this world, the futility of living life poorly, and can sound like the ‘last word’ of the day.  But after listening, after offering empathy first before words, after giving a creative gift, and laying a foundation of true friendship, there will be a time for me to frame their truthful words with the ‘hope that lies before us.’

Lord, I don’t want to fill the air with my words.  I want apples of gold to come forth – truth with grace, truth with mercy.  Amen

NETWORK WITH OTHER SURVIVORS

Our healing is never just for us. “God comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affiliation with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.  If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort.  II Corinthians 1:4-6

Paul, through every persecution he endured, found perspective and strength knowing that his suffering was more than just about Him.  It was too know Jesus better but it was also to help others.  The only way he, or I, can ever empathize with another person is to have gone through the same thing ourselves.  Human beings are intuitive creatures and we know when someone is speaking to us beyond their ability to understand.  The words sound hollow and the wisdom is usually trite.

If the best one to reach someone in pain is another who has survived the same pain, that should give me direction in knowing how to reach out to people I love with whom I can’t relate.  If I have not experienced what they are enduring, there is someone not too far away who has.  My role would be to network them.  Introduce them.  Plan a lunch or an afternoon just to hang out.  The survivor will quickly discern the needs of the one who is currently in the fire.

Each of us suffers but we have never suffered in all the ways one can suffer.  I don’t know how to relate to another mother who has a child with cancer.  I don’t know how to reach out to parents who are grieving their grown children’s sexuality.  I may not know how to truly empathize with someone who is surviving domestic violence.  I know that my encouragement can only go so far.  Knowing that, I ask God to do what only He can do by bringing someone to mind, to bring another child of God across my path who has endured a similar thing.  The resource may not even be a flesh and blood person, but a book.  God knows what they need.

For every kind of pain, there is a specific kind of comfort only God can fashion through the life of a saint who has walked this road before.  People who haven’t been through pain and suffering don’t usually write books about pain and suffering!  It would be a dry treatise and no help to anyone.  To take this further, if you have been through something awful with your faith in tact, if you have dug deeply into Christ for the treasures of wisdom, you have an audience.  Someone is waiting for you.  Someone is praying that someone like you exists to help them.  You can come to see the miraculous. What is that?  To experience what it’s like to see something that has been so bitter to your soul take on bittersweet properties.  Eventually, maybe even more sweet than bitter.

Network, network, network.  There is someone out there who is the answer to someone else’s prayer.  Maybe it’s you.

Bring your church together for purposes beyond what we’ve ever experienced.  Amen

CREATE A MILESTONE

A milestone is anything I can put on my hurting friend’s calendar that, when they see it, will  cause them to say, “I can make it until July  because I’ll get to go do ‘that’.’  The ‘that’ could be a picnic, a lunch, a concert, a trip.  The power of a milestone can’t be underestimated.

My sister, Nancy, spent some time in medical school on the island of Grenada during the time my mother was battling cancer.  For those of you near or around my age, you probably recall what happened in the early 80’s with the events on Grenada.  There was an attempted ‘coup’ on the island, widespread bloodshed, and the students and faculty of the American Medical School there were in harms way.  There was a short window of time for our military to go in and evacuate the several hundred Americans.  My sister was one of the last to board a military chopper inside the hot zone.  She had been trapped on another part of the island with a few other students and it took a while for our soldiers to find them and secure the area.   All this time, our family was glued to the news programs, waiting to see pictures of my sister getting off the C140 airlift plane at Fort Bragg, NC.  Finally, days after the evacuation started, she made it.

I’d like to tell you what was happening to my mother.  Her health and strength had regressed and she spent much of her days sleeping.  However, when Nancy was scheduled to come home, her strength revived.  The morning my sister was to arrive by plane, my mother got up, showered, put on a nice outfit, and looked/acted completely healthy.  She not only went to the airport but kept up (for a time) with all the celebrations and outings that were given in honor of my Nancy’s homecoming.  How could she do that?  Because of the power of a milestone.  It was life giving.

What is it you can plan for someone who is declining, one who is losing hope?  Maybe it’s to keep a single mother’s child for a day or a weekend.  Maybe it’s to take someone who is housebound on a long drive through the country.  Maybe it’s to take a music lover to a symphony.  Maybe it’s to treat someone to a nice lunch at their favorite restaurant.  Maybe it’s to take someone suffering from Alzheimers on a walk outdoors.  We take for granted the freedom to get out of the house, get some fresh air and feel energized.  The goal is to offer something that will help someone in decline, physically or emotionally, rally for a time because they have something to look forward to.

The Apostle Paul told the church leaders at Ephesus these parting words.  “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”  Acts 20:36   To remember the weak, the frail, the sick, the orphans and widows…we are not only inviting the favor of God on our lives but we bestow the favor of God on theirs!  When the milestone is behind them, it is not over for them.  They re-live it as a defining moment when God’s presence intersected their lives at a time when they probably felt forgotten.

Lord, show me what to do and for whom to do it.  Amen

GIVE CREATIVE GIFTS

Some years ago, I recall reading about a professional violinist named Ed Stanistreet. As he aged, arthritis crippled his fingers, causing him to lose agility and technical ability.  He retired from the symphony but didn’t lay down his instrument.  He loved music and knew its ability to touch people.  So, several mornings a week, he’d board a bus in downtown Philadelphia, go to the local hospital, take the elevator up to the neonatal floor, and play for the preemies. No matter our age, no matter our challenges, no matter our financial constraints, there are always things we can do to reach out and touch others.

When my mother lived out her two year battle with cancer, I was blessed to live less than two hours away and could visit her every few weeks. On those days, I made a habit of stopping at a store in upstate New York called The Silver Strawberry.  It was the place to go if you needed silk or dried flowers, baskets, pots and mosses.  My mother liked to go and browse there, often coming home with the makings for a small flower arrangement.  When she was no longer able to easily leave the house, I created a ritual for our visits.  I’d stop at the store on the way to visit her and purchase everything we’d need to create an arrangement together.  This became our shared experience for the day.  She’d have the coffee ready when I pulled in the yard.  As she became too weak to participate, she’d take a nap, I’d make the arrangement by myself, and watch her face get excited when it was time to see it.

Creative gifts do more than make momentary impacts.  The meaning attached to the gifts can give strength for days and years to come.  As you read and think about all of this, consider the interests of the person you’re trying to encourage.  What is their favorite artist, classical composer, garden flower, painter, dessert choice, even fresh fruit choice when the growing season is right?  Oftentimes, our best creative gift originates from our natural or spiritual giftedness.  I consider the value of David’s gift to a tormented King Saul.  I Sam. 16  “Whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand.  So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.  How unique was that!  Music was then, and still is, a way to bring God’s whispers to hurting souls without a need for words. Being a musician, I have sung over the phone to someone more than a half dozen times or brought my flute to play at someone’s bedside.

Any kind of gesture, big or small, prompted by the Spirit of God, will be accompanied by the Spirit’s energizing work and power.  If my idea is birthed and bathed in prayer, it has the potential to leave someone feeling that Jesus, Himself, has come personally to express His love to them.  Whether a pretty mug with a peach tea bag in it, a poem, or a well-timed prayer, God is hoping we will really believe that we are His hands and feet.

You are a creative God.  Help me think and pray outside the box. Bless even what feels radical.  Amen