A Devo a Day: 8

Luke 18

"9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 

10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 

13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” 

There is something so simple and practical in this parable that I love. 

As 2013 comes to a close and I think about all that this year held, I want to stand before God like the Pharisee did but instead of boasting in all that I did for Him, I want to boast of all that He did for me! 

And He did amazing works in my life this year! 

• He provided me with amazing jobs that I love.

• He has blessed Corey and my relationship 

• He has done healing in many of my friend's lives as well as mine

• He has entrusted to me Ignition Youth Group and provided wonderful leaders and great kids

• He has financially made a way for me time and time again

• He gifted me with an affordable place to live

• He has gifted Corey recently with an affordable place for him to live

• He has gifted many in my life with the blessing of new life

• He has continued to unite my family

and on and on and on. 

As this new year comes I want to be boasting in the Lord and also choose a humble stance before God, believing in His grace where I have fallen short and for His strength in this coming year. 

Thank you Lord. As we welcome 2014 we boast in Your works in 2013 and thank you in advance for all that You will do this year. 

Amen. 

A Devo a Day: 7

"1 I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry.

2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.

3 He has put a new song in my mouth— Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the Lord. 

4 Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust, And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. 

5 Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered. 

6 Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. 

7 Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. 

8 I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.” 

9 I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness In the great assembly; Indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O Lord, You Yourself know. 

10 I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth From the great assembly. 

11 Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord; Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me. 

12 For innumerable evils have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; They are more than the hairs of my head; Therefore my heart fails me. 

13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me! 

14 Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion Who seek to destroy my life; Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor Who wish me evil.

15 Let them be confounded because of their shame, Who say to me, “Aha, aha!” 

16 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, “The Lord be magnified!” 

17 But I am poor and needy; Yet the Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God."

-Psalms 40:1-17 NKJV

A Devo a Day: 6

"36Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. 

37And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. 38But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” 

39Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. 40But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” 

41And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!” (Mark 4:36-41 NKJV)

As much as I like to read this passage and think about how foolish the disciples must have looked to Jesus, I'm sure I could come up with more than a few scenerios where I'm the one wearing the dunce hat. 

Reading this passage actually made me think of a question: what would the appropriate response have been from the disciples?

In college I rowed on a crew team that made this scenerio easily relatable for me. In our 8-person shell with a coxswain in the front it didn't take much to literally rock our boat. We'd talk about it on a daily basis in fact! "Who's off to port because I couldn't get my oar out of the water?" Daily.

I remember being in the boat while waves in the heart of Lake Union crashed against our long, thin boat in the dark of the early morning and I'd laughingly think, "God, don't you care that we're sinking?" 

So. The disciples didn't respond as well as they could have, but what was it that Jesus said they lacked in all of it? 

Faith. 

I've been turning through the Gospels and reading about Jesus marveling and being moved with compassion at certain people's faith. Many of their responses to crises were similar: they had faith-filled statements and actions. 

The leper in Mark 1: "If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean."

The paralyzed man in Luke 5: "19 but they couldn't reach [Jesus] because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in front of Jesus."

The woman with the flow of blood in Matthew 9 "She touched the fringe of [Jesus'] robe, for she thought,'If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.'"

Maybe the faith-filled response for the disciples could have been waking Jesus and instead of accusing him of enjoying their inevitable doom (been there). They could have said, "Lord, you can speak to the sea and command the storm to cease" and they could have been rewarded for their faith in that moment. 

Now for us, what will our response be to our next crisis, however big or small? Will we flail and swear and scream and resort to calling through our phone book for an answer? 

Or will we come to God with the faith that He not only will provide but also that He WANTS to provide for you. 

I'm sure I'll have an opportunity within the hour to turn these words into a reality in my life. In faith I hope I'll turn towards my loving Savior and provider with faith. 

A Devo a Day: 5

I was thinking today about my Phillipians fighter verse, the verse from Phillipians that I picked out in my small group at Ignition Youth Group. 

My fighter verse was this:

"6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:12).

I have this verse up in my office and it often comes to mind, like today. 

Instead of a realization about this verse, I had a memory. 

Three summers ago when I started going back to church there was a group of girls in their late teen years that wanted to go on a missions trip to Nicaragua that summer. I jumped right on board.

That trip is interesting to look back on. It was a week-long adventure where I got so caught up in having a life-changing experience that I really missed the point for a good portion of the trip.

Our last day of going out and evangelizing had come and I awoke with a bad stomach ache. I was given the option: go or stay back at the motel with the AC. I wanted to stay, I was ready to go home, but when I prayed God said, "If you stay, I'll still meet with you, but I have something just for you if you do go."

So I went, griping and grumbling. We went to two different parts of Managua and then we were supposed to go home. I went through the motions, made it back to the bus and our missions leader suggested one last trip. We voted, I didn't, the vote was we go.

It was a little church in a tiny community full of native Nicaraguan Christian women and children worshipping. 

We came in, heard a small sermon and got offered as resources for prayer afterwards. 

My Spanish is so-so so I mostly prayed for the women in English as they praised God in Spanish. 

The last woman I prayed for was someone's abuelita, their grandma. She had tears painted on her cheeks and she was praying aloud. I walked over to her, asked how I could pray for her.

She said her daughter's husband was an alcoholic and she just wanted him to come home and take care of her grandchildren. I nodded and began praying.

This woman had her hands raised and all while I prayed she was saying, "Santo, santo, santo" which means holy, holy, holy. I could hear her as I prayed and she kept thanking God for His goodness, for His provisions for her family, thanking God for her family and her son-in-law. 

That woman changed my view of prayer. Heck, she changed my view of God too! 

Here was a woman whose family was struggling to survive because as is common in impovished Nicaraguan families, when the men struggle to provide they grow depressed and to turn to drinking, wasting the family's money and making it impossible for the family to thrive. 

And yet, this woman prayed to a holy and kind God who saw her sufferings and knew that He would provide. 

I remembered my fighter verse today and thought of my faith-filled friend from Nicaragua whose prayer meant more to me than it probably did her. 

"6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:12).

We can choose today to use our shield of faith to press onward. So gather what I learned from this woman, believe in the power of prayer and in the God you are praying to. That will revolutionize your prayer life. 

Choose today to believe God for the unthinkable. And remember prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving as the perfect recipes for coming to our relatable and yet Most Holy God on High. 

A Devo a Day: 4

Christmas has come and gone and it hasn't taken me long, in the midst of all of the blessings I've previously mentioned, to wake up with worries.

How  long will it take me to pay off my credit card in this new year?

What can I do to earn more money?

I should call my grandma.

I should go to the gym.

How? How? How? I should. I should. I should. 

Then God led me to Luke, chapter 12, verse 22. 

"22Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. 23Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. 

24Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? 

25And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 26If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? 27Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 

28If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? 

29“And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. 30For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. 

31But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you" (Luke 12:22-31 NKJV).

In moments like these I'm always reminded of Peter walking on water towards Jesus. When Peter's eyes were on Jesus he was what? Walking in faith! It was only when he took his eyes off of Jesus and saw the waves lapping at his feet that he began to sink. 

The more I looked at my phone and my house and my to-do list the more that sinking feeling welled up inside of me. The more I read His word and remember that His promises are true I feel lighter, much like walking on water would feel like I'd bargain.

So yes, our houses must need cleaning after the holidays and of course there are tasks to be done, don't get me wrong, but in the midst of them if we keep our faith in Him and not us, we needn't have the burden that we put on ourselves.

Walk lighter this holiday season. Don't let yourself get caught up in what brings worry and doubt. Trust in the Lord.

Seek the Kingdom of God and all these [good] things will be added to you. 

A Devo a Day: 3

"1And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. 

4Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. 6So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:1-7 NKJV).

The Good News this Christmas is not only that a Savior was born to us, not only that he escaped the decree that would have killed him as an infant, not only that he lived a perfect life and willingly fulfilled a sacrificial death that redeemed us to the Father, but the Good News of the Gospel is that Jesus' death set us free in order to have a relationship with the Father. 

So as I look at the nativity scene in my dad's lawn and see baby Jesus surrounded by his earthly parents, I don't just see a Gerber baby that glows like a Light Bright, I see a Father that wants a relationship with me today. 

What good news indeed!

Driving home today with a car full of earthly gifts, I remembered that the biggest blessing I am going home with tonight is that relationship.

So as we make room in our houses for our bountiful gifts this Christmas, let's also ask God to make room in our hearts for our free, whole and perfect connection with Him.

Merry Christmas family.

A Devo a Day: 2

"1Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. 2And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3So He spoke this parable to them, saying: 

4“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:1-7 NKJV)

It's Christmas Eve. In my family we have old traditions and new traditions that allow it so that I start and end the day with my family.

Tonight though I am going along with new traditions and attending a Christmas Eve Candlelight Service with my in-laws-to-be. 

This thought crossed my mind while reading this passage: were Jesus to appear in human form tonight and roam around my hometown, where would he go?

My thoughts immediately went to the candlelight service I'm about to attend. Why not? We're his followers, bringing him glory tonight, why wouldn't he stop in for a guest appearance?

He might. But in this parable we see Jesus' heart. Would he really stay the whole service, sipping hot caramel apple cider and socializing when he knows that there are Lost Sheep still out there?

Remember, the shepherd in this story left his 99 for the 1. He would do the same today. 

He would visit the homeless, the widow, the orphan, those with no where to go tonight. He might even bring them to the rest of the flock where they're socializing and sipping hot cider. 

Isn't that Jesus' heart? To go after the lost, to bring them into whole standing in community and to rejoice over the one who's heart is turned to him?

So here's my practical application tonight. If you have a place to go, even a service or a tradition that you follow, can you pray tonight, reflect over the Lost Sheep in your life, some who you know are lost, and those who may seem fine but the Lord brings to your heart, can you invite them with you tonight? Can you open up your home, your traditions, your quaint service enough to do what a Jesus would do, bring the Lost into loving community? If we did that there might be grateful hearts choosing a relationship with Jesus tonight. 

Merry Christmas Eve.

A Devo a Day: 1

Since the Christmas season lends itself to restless nights, wondering if you've shopped for everyone in your immediate family and schedule mastering with all of the events and holiday parties, I decided to write up a devotional a day to bring us (starting with me!) back to the reason for the season.

Just this morning I had the decision to roll out of bed and leap back into the maze of presents and wrapping paper at my bedside or to start my morning meeting with the Lord. Thankfully for the both of us, presents could wait.

Day 1:

Let's start in Luke chapter 13, verse 22:

The Narrow Way

²² And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. ²³ Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”
And He said to them, ²⁴ “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. ²⁵ When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ ²⁶ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ ²⁷ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ ²⁸ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. ²⁹ They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. ³⁰ And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”



The narrow gate.

 

 

My Bible footnote says that the suggestion here is that we have to enter into salvation on God's terms. Those of us that seek to enter and are not able are those who seek entrance on their own terms. We seek to enter into God's presence and ultimately into His kingdom based off of our achievements or how many bad life choices we avoided in this life. But how true is it that God's terms are this: we come to know Him through our relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

There's a reason why Jesus says, "“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6 NKJV).

 

 



Another way of looking at the path now is like this:

 

 

 

What? But Jesus is in the way, the cross is in the way. No. Jesus is the way. The cross was Jesus' means to bridge the gap between humanity and God.

 

So how do we find the path? We find Jesus.

 

How do we follow the path? We follow Jesus.

 

In this holiday season when we could spend more of our time this Christmas break spending the money we've saved and baking and cleaning and staying busy, here's the synopsis of day 1 of devo time:

 

Slow down. Start your morning finding Jesus, following Jesus. I found him this morning in the Bible, you could find him in prayer or in singing worship while you do left over dishes. You could spend the entire Christmas break doing all of the things that can bring us close to people: baking with family or friends, having people over, giving out of love, but let's not neglect the relationship that this season is built around: the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Spend time with Him and you'll find that you're on the path that you were looking for all along.

 

He desires a relationship with you today.