Rooted and Established – The Start of a Relationship

Dec 18 – Made New

This time of year seems to invite people to consider where they are spiritually.  There is more quiet time than usual (or maybe the quiet just seems louder because everyone gets so busy) and that quiet sometimes gets us to thinking.  What does it mean to invite God to be a part of my life?  Is that something I’m ready to do?  What might change about my life if I did that?  Lots of questions come to our minds.  Paul, the guy who wrote today’s scripture was praying for some specific things for people as they began their relationship with God.  One thing Paul alludes to that really can change our lives when we ask God to be a part of them is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is part of God.  It is His unseen presence in our lives that allows for God to speak to us in ways we don’t understand and His power in us that can change our lives for the better.

The other thing Paul prays for is that we would be able to grasp the vastness of God’s love and that we would be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”  That is one intense request!  He prays that we might do this by being “rooted and established in love.”  What do you think that means?  I’m not even too sure but here’s how I think of it – Think about a plant.  If you pour water into the soil where its roots are, what’s going to flow throughout the plant?  Water.  If you put soda into the soil instead, what is (presumably) going to flow through the plant?  Soda.  So…if we are rooted in love, what is going to flow through our lives?  Love.  When that is our foundation, it affects every part of us.  What else do roots do?  They hold the plant in place.  When the plant has been “established” – been planted long enough for it to have a chance to grow – the roots keep the plant from moving around too much and from collapsing.  And so it is with us…

Have you been rooted and established in love?  What would it look like in your life if you started planting those roots now?  In this Christmas season, I encourage you to spend some time thinking about where you are in your relationship with God.  Consider taking another step closer to Him and allowing Him to be an even greater part of your life.  Spend a little more time with Him and start giving Him control over some of the things in your life.  Then you really will begin to see the power of God living inside of you…

Does It Really Matter?

Finally.  Finally finally FINALLY, the DevoZines for November/December arrived!  Woohoo!  I’m starting on the entry for today, December 13th.

Dec 13 – What Really Matters?

It’s a sobering thought to me that so much of what I spend my time thinking about and worrying about and wanting will not matter at the end of my life.

The verse for today is a great one.  Mark 8:36 from the Message says this: “What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you?  What could you ever trade your soul for?”  Solomon experienced this very thing because he did get everything he wanted.  Check out Ecclesiastes 2:4-11.  It’s pretty crazy.  He has everything he could want at his fingertips and then says that it’s all meaningless.

This Christmas season, I’ve been trying to think outside myself a little bit more.  I’ve been working on letting go of some of the things I wanted and instead help provide for some people’s needs.  Because those people WILL matter in 10 years and they will matter at the end of my life, even if I don’t see them ever again or ever at all.

Regardless of your age, what matters to you now?  What mattered to you 5 years ago?  What will matter in 10 years?  And if it won’t matter to you at the end of your life, is it really worth spending time and energy on?  That’s a hard one.

Lord, help me to spend my life thinking about things that concern You.  Help me to pursue You first and always, the one thing I know matters at my life’s end. 

God With Us

Dec 11 – Isaiah 7:14

 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 

I have mentioned before that I believe familiarity to be a dangerous thing.  It destroys the sense of wonder and awe that can be found in so many things.  This verse is one of those familiar things to me.  I have heard it so many times but one things stands out as amazing this season – “Immanuel.”That one word changed everything.  Immanuel means “God with us.”  Imagine the perspective of the Israelites.  They had this unbelievably powerful and other-worldly perception of God – He had parted the Red Sea for them, shown up as a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire, kept them alive through miracle food for 40 years in the desert, and given them strict laws of sacrifice that would still honor His holiness – to disobey could mean death.  And THAT God would be with them???Yes, THAT God.  The God who created man and woman.  Born to a virgin.  The God who shaped mountains and spoke oceans into existence.  Spent His first night in a small-town feeding trough.  If I try even for a minute to remove the familiarity, the story sounds stranger and stranger.  But that God wanted to be WITH US, and not only to be with us, but to be LIKE US.  Why?…With Jesus, God unleashed the power of His presence into the world.  May we live knowing that His presence is with us still. 

Resurrection Living

Dec 7 – John 11:25

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies…”

Another “I am” statement.  I AM the resurrection.

Resurrection.  I’m going to be honest with you – there is so much power in that word, but I do not even begin to understand it.  I know that somehow “resurrection” means hope for me and hope for this world of ours.  I know that somehow, it speaks of a loving God who exists above and beyond death and who gives us the opportunity to experience part of his nature in that way.

“He who believes in me will live, even though he dies…”  What if it’s true that we don’t live until we die?  Not in the literal sense (though I think that may be true as well) but in the figurative sense.  Until I am willing to give up the things I want in order to pursue the things of God, I haven’t lived.  Maybe people from other religions who try so hard to live without wanting anything, who push away their senses to attain some different level of reality – I think maybe they missed the point.  The point of our lives is not be devoid of emotion or of desire but to surrender both of those things to God.  2 Corthinthians 5:17 says that “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”  New emotions, new desires come!  THAT is the abundant life Jesus talks about.

What better “alternate reality” to live in than a world where we experience only the things of God.  Our desires die, not in a way that removes our humanity but in such a way that what we want is replaced with stronger and purer desires of the One who created us.  That is when we begin to experience life – once we have put aside the desires we are born with that we can often sense are not of God and allow them to be upstaged by the glorious passion of a Father and a risen Savior who wants to live in and through us.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20

Thankful for the Joy in His Presence

Nov 20 – Psalm 95:1-2

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.  Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.

Today was a good day.  Today was a needed day.  I spent all of yesterday distracting myself – sleeping, eating, playing frisbee, listening, etc. – but I have to admit that I was not yet ready to sit down with God.  But today, I was.  And as blissful as yesterday’s day full of slothful nothingness (or relaxing rejuvenation depending on your perspective) was, it still is eclipsed by the joy of being with God again.  To talk to Him again and write to Him again, to let Him guide my thoughts and my processing, to allow Him to be gently honest with me – that kind of day is the one I will take time and again.  I found myself driving with a smile instead of tears of frustration and soon afterward, tears borne of praise.  “Let us sing for joy to the Lord…Let us come before him with thanksgiving…”  Yes!  What a wonderful gift our government gave us in scheduling a day of thanks-giving, a break from the daily routine to take time for family and friends and to honor the God who gives us all things.

There is so much to be thankful for.  What comes to mind in your thankful heart this year?

A Confession – Oh, To Love Well

Nov 19 – Psalm 1:1-2

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

It has been quite the weekend for me.  I had the privilege of taking some of the wonderful youth from my church on a camping trip to a campground not so far away for their first experience with church camping.  A lot is asked of them, in terms of serving and cooperation and, overall, they really rose to the occasion.  Sunday morning, each of three groups presented a portion of our camp-style worship service.  The last group shared some verses that really caught me off-guard about Jesus who was rich making Himself poor for us.  At that point, I realized that, when I leave my job where I am now, the one thing I want to leave them with is some beginning knowledge of just how much they are loved – because, to some extent, I think every Christian believer has to start there.  God enabled me that morning to share my heart in the way I wanted to but something slammed me between the eyes later in the day - despite just how very much I want them to know they are loved, I’m not so sure I have demonstrated that love to them.

It is so easy to lose focus on the WHY.  It is so easy to concentrate on the actions in ministry.  I try to build the best group I can build and help individuals be the best individuals they can be…and I forget to just be Jesus to them.  I want to be one who “delights” in the Lord.  I want to show that to them.  I want to love them well so that, in time, they become the ones mentioned in these two verses who delight in the Lord.

What is your focus?  Where is your heart?  And if your intention are good, do your actions coincide with where your heart is?  Think about it.

And if you are any of my youth reading this, know that you’re hearing my heart.  I hope you will see Jesus in me more in the next month than I have shown you in the past.

When Christianity and the World ‘Crash,” It Can Be Pretty Great

Oh man.  I did it again.  I skipped a day!  I’m sorry.  I’ve been very scattered these last few days.  I hope you don’t hold it against me. 

Nov 14 – 1 Peter 3:18

For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.

I love that Christian lyrics are not solely found in “Christian” songs.  Take a look at these lyrics from Daughtry’s song “Crashed”:

Well I was moving at the speed of sound.
Head-spinning, couldn’t find my way around, and
Didn’t know that I was going down.
Yeah, yeah.
Where I’ve been, well it’s all a blur.
What I was looking for, I’m not sure.
Too late and didn’t see it coming.
Yeah, yeah.

And then I crashed into you,
And I went up in flames.
Could’ve been the death of me,
But then you breathed your breath in me.
Then I crashed into you,
Like a runaway train.
You will consume me,
But I can’t walk away…

From your face, your eyes
They’re burned into me.
You saved me, you gave me
Just what I need.
Oh, just what I need.

Now, make that song about crashing into God.  Hebrews 12:29 (quoting from Deuteronomy) says that “our ‘God is a consuming fire.’”  Our old way of life is consumed, our earthly human desires are consumed, and God breathes His breath into us to raise us to life, just as Jesus was, only our resurrection is one of the Spirit.  And this is Chris Daughtry singing this!  I love it!

What things outside of immediate Christian culture speak to you about the truth of who God is?  What messages do you see in “secular” music or movies or TV that remind you about who God is and who He created people to be?  Discuss 

*If you want another great song related to these lyrics, check out “Consuming Fire” by Third Day.  It’s one of my all-time favorites!

What Do You Leave Behind?

…I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me. – Phil. 1:25-26

Sometimes, Paul makes statements that can be taken as being pretty arrogant.  But let’s just step outside of that for a minute and look at the heart of what he is saying.  Regardless of where you are in your faith, if you’re a leader or a beginner or possibly both, what effect does your presence have on other people?  When you walk into a room, what is people’s first reaction?  If you go to visit somewhere you haven’t been in awhile, what is the response of the folks you see?  Here, Paul says that his presence among the people will cause the people’s “joy in Christ Jesus to overflow” because he is there with them.

What a challenge this is to me.  We are not called to be people pleasers but we are called to be people lovers.  Do people find joy in Christ when you talk to them?  Do they walk away thanking God for your presence in their lives?  I know what I want the answers to those questions to be and I know who those people are in my own life, but I’m not exactly sure where I fall in this striving.

I encourage you to take stock of the impression that you leave with people.  If you are honest with yourself and genuinely believe that you are an encouraging presence, praise God!  But if you find that you may be a little overbearing or a little rude or a little self-centered, then step back and ask God for the wisdom to recognize when you’re slipping into those habits.  When you leave a room, leave a taste of love behind.

Finding God in Your Desires

Hello friends.  I haven’t abandoned you all!  The latest DevoZine hasn’t arrived yet due to some paperwork confusion but I realize that that is no reason to neglect writing a devotion.  You get to enjoy just my free-form thoughts this time! 

At some point in this past week, I talked about Living (as opposed to just living), and I want to talk a little bit more about that.  My friends, God has given you great and wonderful gifts.  I don’t have to know you to know that because we serve a faithful God who provides for and blesses every person He creates.  He has given you a passion and a desire for something.

When have you felt the most alive?  What happens in your life that awakens something inside of you, makes you feel uniquely joyful and thankful unlike anything else can?  What does it take to stir your heart?

Pursue that.  Whatever that is, (as long as it is not harmful to you or to others), go after it.  For some of you, it may be writing.  For some, it may be playing basketball or football.  For some of you, it may be encouraging people younger than you and for some it may be talking to people older than you.  And there may be some of you who haven’t experienced that feeling yet.  Don’t worry.  It will come.  And when it does, you will know.  Take note of what it is that brings you to Life, even (and especially) if it’s something that is unlike the things other people love.  I don’t care if you’re reading this when you’re 10 or 68, I beg you to go after that which makes you come Alive.

Psalm 37:4 says “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  I believe that, my friends.  But our desires are not the surperficial things that we crave fleetingly and lust after.  Our desires are often quieter than that.  They sometimes (frequently?) take us by surprise, even to a point that we may want to deny them.  I believe that those desires are where we find God.  I caution you so strongly here – This concept can become so very twisted because desires take so many different forms.  But when our hearts and lives are lived chasing after God and allowing Him to reveal Himself to us, the quiet whispers of our hearts become the place where He speaks to us the most clearly.

Know that you have a deep heart.  Know that God has placed longings there that only He and His purpose for you can fulfill.  By whatever means you choose, get to know yourself, your God, and your heart.  Journal.  Pray.  Read.  Talk to other people – and listen to other people.  When you begin to recognize your true desires and allow that the voice of God is spoken clearly in those desires, you will find joy and abundance and Life.  He created you.  He has placed those desires inside of you.  Pursue them for His glory.

When Struggles Make You Whole

Oct 26 – Made Whole By A Hole

It’s not something I mention just for the heck of it because it really doesn’t matter too much.  If you’ve met me, you probably noticed – or maybe you didn’t.  Whatever the case, I’ll fill you in.    I’ve got a rare skin disorder that I’ve had a lot of surgeries for.  I have quite a few scars on me, primarily on my left hand and arm but elsewhere as well.  My left hand only has four fingers and there’s some unusual looking skin around my fingernails.  Some kids think it’s “gross.”  Some adults think having 22 surgeries is “brave.”  I think it’s neither.  It is simply life the way God arranged for me to have it.

I don’t really know where I stand on this theologically.  Some say that God doesn’t desire for any of His children to endure the pain and struggles of physical or mental imperfection, be that through Down’s Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, or through a skin disorder similar to or worse than mine.  But another part of me – the part that has lived through surgeries, skin grafts, insecurity, teasing and the like – says that God knew exactly what He was doing.  I would not be who I am today if not for those experiences and I very much feel like a part of me would have been missing.

What is it that you feel like is missing from your life?  Or on the flip side, is there some struggle you’ve faced that you see the beauty in now that you wouldn’t go back and change?  Take a minute to think about those things today. In John 10:10, Jesus says “I have come that you might have life and have it to the full.”  A good friend of mine and I describe this kind of abundant, joy-filled living as “Life” or “Living.”  In our minds, to Live is far different than to live.  Write down what you think it might mean or what it might feel like to Live.  Let God fill up those parts of you that feel missing or empty and ask Him to be able to recognize how He is using your difficulties to make you whole.