Category: Daily Devotionals

And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.  Luke 4:27-28

I may not want something and even turn up my nose at it but at the same time, I don’t want anyone else to have it either.  Jealousy has many manifestations.

When Jesus read Isaiah 61 in the synagogue and revealed that He was the fulfillment of the prophecy, the Jews were furious.  They rejected Jesus and though He called them “His people”, they did not call Him ‘their Savior’.

He reminded them that God’s grace had often been sent to the Gentiles, the ones the Jews believed to be spiritually inferior.  They knew the stories but their jealousy erupted at the reminder.

Jealousy is not rational.  The Pharisee’s  teaching was probably lifeless, full of rules and regulations. They were proponents of the law and sticklers for keeping every “i” dotted and “t” crossed.  The spirit of their listeners sunk as they increased the heavy yoke on their shoulders.  The only ones who enjoyed their company were like-minded legalists.  They didn’t want Jesus but they also didn’t want Him to be desired outside of their circles.

Today, a similar jealousy can be among us.  Those who have been the spiritual fathers of a certain church can come to see the church as ‘their church.’  But when the move of the Spirit is quenched by familiarity and tradition, God takes the fire and zeal to a new generation.

Those who look, dress, and worship differently suddenly occupy their seats, once considered to be reserved for pillar families in the congregation who had claimed them as their own spot Sunday after Sunday.  There can be an indignant and unrighteous response, believing that God has done wrongly in extending the Gospel to an untamed and undeserving crowd.  God uses jealousy to stir up the pot and allow the impurities to come to the surface.

To personalize:  Am I rejoicing over the ways the Gospel changes all lives?  Am I grateful for the favor God puts upon others if I am in a wilderness?  Can I express my joy over the providence of God and trust His sovereignty?  If any twinges of jealousy stir in me as I read or write this, I have an issue with God and He invites conversation in prayer.

Bless my enemies and help me mean it in all seasons of my life.  Amen

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.  Matt. 22:36

Only a fool thinks that walking according to God’s precepts is confining.  It’s only because that person hasn’t tried it.  I used to be a fool.  I put discipleship on hold; the kind of discipleship that sought after God and His Word with a single-minded passion.  I considered myself neutral.  I wasn’t consciously running after Satan’s precepts, nor was I running after God’s.

I failed to realize that neutrality doesn’t exist.  To not hunger and thirst after righteousness is to settle for the ways of my soul, which are really the devil’s counterfeit.  I found out the hard way that doing my own thing, even though I was moral in my behavior, led to confinement.  I hadn’t counted on the minefields of the mind, the unstable grounds of the heart.  My internal world looked nothing like the composed, controlled outward exterior I showed to the public.  Inside, I was scared, threatened, lonely, and lost.  Without the precepts of the mind of Christ, I was subject to my own rudder, or lack of.  I ended up in a prison of my own making.  Confinement to say the least!

Now, as a matter of daily discipline, I bind my mind to the mind of Christ.  I loose my mind from the grip of my flesh.  As long as God’s precepts rule my world, inside and outside, I know the freedom of living in a spacious place.  The vistas are expansive.  The view is breathtaking.  The roads available to me are endless.  The mysteries are intellectually and intuitively challenging.  There is no graduation, then coasting into retirement before taking my last breath.  There is wonder for the keenest centenarian.

The doors inside the castle of the kingdom are only available for the one who enters by the narrow gate.  To come by way of Jesus is to come initially through the narrow way – which then opens to the wide places the psalmist describes.  David said in another Psalm.  “He brought me out into a spacious place and rescued me because He delighted in me.”  God’s precepts don’t lead to an imprisoned life.  They lead to an endless array of exhilarating choices.

I think I’ve only just begun to see what spacious really means, Lord.  I want it all.  Open my heart fully to your kingdom.  Amen

 

The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.  Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women.  What do you say?”  They said this to test Him so that they might have some charge to bring against Him.  John 8:3-6

Questions were asked of Jesus for many reasons.  Some were curious, wanting to be enlightened, adding to their intellectual prowess.  Some were seeking, drawn toward the Light because they had tasted the torment of the darkness.  Some were testing, wanting to discredit Jesus by trapping Him between, what they thought might be, only two possible answers.  Either of those answers would implicate Him.  Truth was never trapped however.  Knowing the hearts of men, He answered outside the box in the genius of deity.

If Jesus said that the woman should be stoned, His message of grace and forgiveness would be compromised.  If He let her go free, He would violate the law of Moses.  What a bind He was in.  If I had been in the crowd, I would have been holding my breath.  Learning from Him, I add to my repertoire of people skills.

1. Not every question or comment needs to be answered, even though posed.

2. Some are driven by personal agendas to ask inappropriate questions.  By answering, it feeds their boldness.

3. Questions can be wonderful things if the one asking is truly seeking and there is no ulterior motive.

4. Questions can be dangerous if the intent is entrapment.

Oftentimes, my own body language will tell me what I need to know about the one asking the question.  For instance, I could be asked the same question by two different people.  One would feel safe and I’d love answering it.  The other would feel invasive and I would scramble to know what to do with it.  Listening to my gut, which is where the Spirit often moves and speaks in a believer, is important.  I must be like Jesus and never answer on the fly.  He was constantly listening to His Father; discerning, unrushed, willing for others to bear the uncomfortable silences if necessary.  He was not manipulated by the schemes of men, nor should I be.  Though tongues can often set a trap, I dwell in a spacious place with a God who rescues me, moment by moment, because He delights in me.  (Ps.18:19)

If ever I needed to know Your mind, it’s in this area, Lord.  I want to think like You, discern like You.  Give me the courage to speak the truth, sit on the truth until it’s an appropriate time, or fall silent.  Clothe me the surpassing power You promise each of Your children.  Amen

Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving. Mark 10:21-22

My husband’s father used to preach a message about the rich young ruler’s visit with Jesus. After asking Jesus what he had to do to gain eternal life, Jesus told him to take all his possessions and give them away to the poor. He went away from Jesus feeling sad because the price seemed too steep. The point of my father in law’s sermon was this: Everyone leaves Jesus sad, mad, or glad. I used to think it a bit simplistic but now, many years later, simple is right. Are there more reactions to Jesus than this? Perhaps not.

Sad ~ You’re attracted to Jesus. You see the light. You know you’re in the presence of holiness. You know your life will never be the same but after weighing everything involved in following Him, it’s just too costly. The sadness is so great that you walk away and suspect you missed something beautiful.

Mad ~ Your pride is offended. How dare Jesus say that you’ll never be good enough. How dare He call you a sinner. How dare He require that everything you love and everything you want come second to Him. The offense is so great that you walk away and believe you missed nothing.

Glad ~ You find a treasure. You recognize, in Jesus, what you’ve always longed for. Real love. Lasting forgiveness. A second chance. Eternal beauty. A cause bigger than yourself. Though you lay your life down, it is nothing in comparison to what you gain.  The joy is so great that you walk away celebrating.

Is there someone in your life who is fighting Jesus? There are a few people close by to me who are. One is mad ~ offended at the thought that God forgives too recklessly. He wants others to pay for what they’ve done to him. Another is sad ~ offended because there would be loss of control. Trust in anyone, including God, seems wrong. And the last person is also sad as she believes that she’s too much of a loser for God to love her.

As I re-read the scripture for today, I notice that before Jesus told the young man to give everything away, it said that Jesus felt love for him. I can often believe that what Jesus asks me to give up is driven by something other than love. It’s not. He knows that my joy will be full when I love Him most of all.

For every one of us today who are seeing ‘mad’ loved ones, or ‘sad’ loved ones, help us model the joy of having found you as the pearl of great price. Amen

And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers seated.  And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple.  John 2:14,15a

Jesus is God.  Because of that, He knew the great significance of the Passover, the holiness of the temple, and the sacrificial system of offering the blood of animals for the forgiveness of sins.  He didn’t view any of this as man would, but as God would.  Consequently, I can only begin to imagine His reaction when He made his way to Jerusalem, entered the temple court and saw the commerce being carried out there by greedy men.  Outrage must have been instantaneous.

Two sins were being committed.

1.) To pay the temple tax, one had to have temple currency.  Jews who had come from long distances only possessed Roman currency. Money changers were needed to convert one kind of currency into another, much like what we see in airports when we travel abroad.  The problem was, the money changers had inflated the rate of conversion, perhaps giving priests a cut of the profit.

2.) If an animal, brought to be sacrificed, had a blemish and was considered unsuitable, temple businessmen would sell a Jewish man a replacement at ten times the cost. In response to all of this, Jesus turned over the tables and sent coins flying.

I find that most people, including me, have a distorted view of a God who gets angry. Either I re-construct an angry God into a passive and loving one, or I fashion Him to be one who is angry and unreasonable all of the time.  No middle ground. Both views are rooted in the erroneous conclusions we made about God because of painful relationships here on earth.  The ones who represented God to us didn’t do a very good job. We experienced great permissiveness or great oppression under their reign.  Satan loves imbalance and doesn’t have to work very hard to thwart our intimacy with God when this kind of foundation is laid.

My desire is to follow Jesus in all things.  That means that I can get angry, as He did, yet not sin.  I must hate the things that He hates yet love the people who commit them.  Most of the time however, my anger is tainted with my flesh. I am angry over injustice, how sin destroys, and at that point, I am like Jesus. But then, if the offense is personal, I am angry at the one who hurt me.  I must constantly sort anger issues out with the help of the Counselor, the Holy Spirit. If I’m going to turn tables over anywhere in my life, using my tongue and some decisive action, I must be sure that I have bathed the issue in prayer, searched my heart, and allowed God to sift out any unholy qualities in my response.

So much of this issue feels like a graduate course in the life of the Spirit.  Like everything else, I approach Jesus with the heart of a child and say, “teach me!”

These are hard lessons, Jesus.  There are times I have longed to see your anger over injustice.  Other times, my sin has been the object.  Help me see anger asYou see it.  Teach me.  Amen

Many of the people believed in Him.  They said, “When the Christ appears, will He do more signs than this man has done?”  John 7:31

Miracles can bring confusion.  If I am hungry and Jesus miraculously feeds me with a boy’s lunch, does that mean that I’ll never be hungry again?  If I am Mary or Martha and I’ve watched Jesus raise my brother, Lazarus, from the dead, does that mean that he will never be sick again?  That he won’t die a second time?  Many people came to Jesus because of the signs they saw Him perform.  They believed in Him and wanted to crown Him king.  Yet, they were not prepared to take up their cross and follow Him in the paths of discipleship.  When things got hard, they became disillusioned and abandoned Him.

My faith can be that shaky unless I know how to cultivate something deeper, a faith that can’t be shaken by false expectations.  When I cry out in my need and see Jesus come through with a miracle so personal and powerful that I declare His glory from the rooftops, I can be lulled into entitlement.  I believe He will do that every time.  It never occurs to me that the next time, He might answer in a different way.  I forget that I am also called to suffer as He did in order to show a world, who also suffers, that God’s presence is the greater miracle.  His love and grace sustain no matter how many, or how few, signs and wonders I may see in my lifetime.  The real miracle is my new birth, my awaiting destiny, and a relationship with a God who knows my name and draws near to me no matter what.

If many of God’s children were honest today, they would admit to preferring a financial miracle to the presence of Christ.  Miracles can appear to have far greater value than the presence of One I can’t see, can’t touch, can’t look in the eye.  This is a childish preference.  However, that is how we all begin our walk with Jesus but we are to mature past that point.

God loves His children and has promised to meet all their needs.  Sometimes it will be in the form of physical bread.  Other times, it will be grace to endure hunger.  Peter, when crucified upside down for his faith, experienced a Savior who provided for him.  Though he didn’t deliver him from martyrdom, he provided Himself as a companion through the experience.  Paul, imprisoned many times for his faith, saw deliverance happen two ways.  One time, his jail cell sprung open.  The next, he was beaten savagely.  Would he say that one time Jesus came through, and the next, He didn’t?  Hardly.  Our spiritual father’s faith was built, not on signs and wonders, but on kingdom realities.  The were mature enough in their faith to know that ultimately, it’s not about what happens to us in this world.  It’s all about the next.  Until I get safely home, Jesus is with me.  That is the greatest miracle of all and one I can depend on.

I pray there will be nothing in my life to bring my faith to a crisis of belief.  Lord, it’s not about deliverance from pain every time.  It’s about grace through the pain. I walk behind You, trusting in Your Father as you did.  Amen

Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”  John 3:3

Nicodemus came for a private teaching instruction from Jesus.  Instead of getting what he anticipated, Jesus changed the topic entirely.  I can imagine Nicodemus was greatly confused.  He was one of the most brilliant of the Jewish religious leaders, schooled his entire life in the scriptures, yet Jesus spoke of things for which he had no knowledge or experience, something as elementary as being born into the kingdom.

What I perceive as my greatest spiritual need can be way off base.  Though I think I know myself, I never see myself as God sees me.  I think I need one thing; God would say that I need another.

Some years ago, I was aware that I was losing the edge of my singing voice.  I prayed diligently for some years for God to heal it. He didn’t.  I was asking for one thing but God needed to address another, a subject related to my voice.  He was not concerned, necessarily, about my singing as He was about the strength of my voice in general.  My boldness was veiled under a layer of fear of perception.  God’s agenda was to take me on a journey of healing so that my voice, whether speaking or singing, was strengthened to say what I was born to say.  It was a seven year adventure.  Asking for one thing but God addressing another has certainly been my experience.

Perhaps you are there today.  Your frustration with God is high.  You might even assume that He’s not listening to you when you ask for what you think you need.  He most surely is.  He is the great Physician of the soul and though he cares about your desires, His passion is for your greatest good and that overrides your limited view of yourself.  Just as Nicodemus had to stretch beyond his expectations of this short visit with Jesus to go to an uncomfortable place of spiritual need, God’s children must do the same.

Jesus, I trust You to give me what I need.  Show me if what I’m praying for is stuck because my ears need to hear You about something else.  Amen

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6

I contend that every person hungers after righteousness. Who doesn’t want things to be fair? Who doesn’t want a childhood where they are cherished and affirmed? Who doesn’t want loyal friends? Who doesn’t want injustice made right? Who doesn’t love to see something breathtakingly beautiful? Solomon said that God placed eternity in our hearts. Indeed. But the root of all righteousness is a holy God and I need to be made righteous with Him in order to love the righteousness that is in Him.

And is this not the stumbling block? To be made right with a righteous God, I need to align my beliefs with His. I must see my sinfulness and need for a Savior. This is the very point where mankind is offended, defensive, and turns his hunger and thirst elsewhere. We seek to fill the empty void with everything but God. It never works.

I think of many sumptuous spiritual meals I have consumed over the years. Many of the moments have been personal, probably most of them. But some have been corporate. A good number of them happened while standing in worship at Desiring God conferences in Minneapolis. The teaching had been superb and then we worshiped. When I remember those moments, I long for them again. Since Jesus promised that we would feel full after hungering after righteousness, I was very aware that I felt full at the end of the conference. To be full is to have had so much poured into your spirit that you don’t even know where to start to talk about it. Some of it could be put into words but much of it went to a place inside where God moves freely, and deeply, but where there is no definition to any part of it yet. You just know you were changed. The leaves of sanctification are swirling up into the air but haven’t landed yet to make a form.

I must do whatever it takes to stay in touch with my spiritual hunger. If I feel dull and don’t know why, I must ask God what’s wrong. Living spiritually full was God’s plan for His creation. I contend that He loves to reveal whatever would be standing in the way of my joy. I was created to enjoy God forever.

Fed by Your hand. It’s the abundant life and I can’t believe it took me so long to get it. Amen

But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” Luke 4:25-27

The people of Nazareth wanted Jesus to work His miracles in Nazareth, not elsewhere to their exclusion. But Jesus tells them that prophets are not welcome in their own hometown. He gave them examples from stories they knew from history.

When Israel was experiencing famine, Elijah was not sent to Israel’s struggling widows. Instead, he was sent to Zarephath to a Gentile. Later, even though there were many lepers in Israel, Elisha, was sent to Naaman, also a Gentile. I wonder if Jesus’ hometown audience was aware that He was speaking prophetically as well. Jesus would not only be rejected by the people of Nazareth but by the nation of Israel at large. He is predicting that His Gospel message will also go to the Gentiles.

The Spirit of God goes where He is wanted. If not America, then China. If not my city of Athens, then another. If not my family, then the family next door. We might protest. “But we’re the ones that are sick and we need Him to come and heal us.” Can you hear the entitlement of the Nazarenes? The question begs to be asked. Is it the miracle they wanted or was it Jesus they really desired?

On the other side of healing, Jesus told many people to go and sin no more. What did sinning have to do with physical healing? Everything. To want Jesus is to embrace who He is and the salvation He came to offer. To only want healing is not becoming a disciple.

Lest Jesus’ actions and words offend us today, let’s stop and think a moment. When was the last time you felt used? Your value was in what you could do for someone rather than who you were. When did that knowledge come to you? Probably when you were tired, or busy, or felt led to direct your energies elsewhere. That’s when anger and entitlement usually surface and it isn’t pretty. But we are different than Jesus. We withdraw because we’re angry and hurt. Jesus went elsewhere in obedience to God.

I test my own love for Jesus today. If He gave me nothing but salvation and companionship until heaven, would I love Him just as much? What if He didn’t rescue, provide, heal, and do the myriad of things I often ask of Him, how would I respond? If I erased petitions from my prayers, would there be anything to talk about? I spend time with people I love all the time without asking them for a thing. My relationship with Jesus shouldn’t revolve around asking.

I love You for You. Amen

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