Archive for August 2016

Creation Will Be Redeemed

2016-08-07 Devotional with Hymn No comments

For all the elegant beauty of this natural earth, it is also a violent, tumultuous place where life is always in the grip of death. How can this be, if God rules all creation? How can a good God claim to be sovereign in a world such as this?

Genesis 1:26-28 proclaims two truths about God’s creation of the human race:

  1. He made us in His own image and likeness.
  2. He created us to rule over the earth as His stewards, sharing in His sovereignty.

We are inseparably connected to God our Creator, and we are inseparably connected to this earth, over which we rule. God subjected the earth to us.

When we rebelled against our Creator, we chose to use creation for our own selfish purposes (Genesis 3:1-6). When our relationship with the Creator was corrupted, so was the earth over which we ruled, now as unfaithful stewards (Romans 8:20). As our home and our responsibility, the earth shared in our fractured relationship with the Giver of all life (Genesis 3:17-18; see Psalm 104:27-30). The results were corruption, futility, and death, both for us and for our beautiful home.

Consistently in scripture, our obedience or disobedience to our Creator brings us either God’s blessing or His cursing, respectively. This blessing and cursing are shared by our natural home as well (e.g., Deuteronomy 7:12-15; 8:6-10; 28:4, 18). As Creator God subjected this earth to us, this earth unwillingly shares in the fruit of our rebellion.

We see the turmoil in our natural world and know that as violence, pain, and death shrouds all human life, it shrouds our natural home as well.

But the good news is this: the corruption, futility, and death that rule this earth are only a passing phase. Creation’s present turbulence is only the pain of childbirth (Romans 8:19-22). When we are redeemed and freed from our suffering, our earthly home will be as well (Isaiah 11:6-9; Revelation 21:1). Our destiny, God’s unchangeable promise, is that we and our beautiful home will be perfected to the full glory of God. As it has shared our curse, it will share our blessedness. All the earth will be permeated with His life, His love, His holiness, and His perfect peace.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Creation Will Be Redeemed
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IN HIS PRESENCE Devotional Tapestry

2016-08-04 Devotional Tapestries No comments

IN HIS PRESENCE Devotional Tapestry

Devotional Tapestries are short recordings designed to draw your heart and mind to the Living God. Each includes a devotional reading over instrumental music, leading into a hymn.

Listen to IN HIS PRESENCE Devotional Tapestry
Printed devotional & hymn
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Strengthen Yourself in the Lord

2016-08-02 Devotional with Hymn No comments

1 Samuel 30:1-6

On February 20, 2015, our 38-year-old son, David, took his own life. During the terrible grief that followed, the Lord led me to a lesser-known story in 1 Samuel 30.

The biblical David had been anointed as the next king of Israel, and as a result, the current king, Saul, was pursuing him to kill him. To escape Saul, David and his men had settled among Israel’s enemies, the Philistines, and had been given the town of Ziklag as their home.

David and his men had traveled a great distance to fight for their Philistine hosts. But when they arrived, they were mistrusted and turned away. So they had to turn around and make the long, exhausting trip back home.

When they arrived, a foreign raiding party had struck their town. They had taken all their wives, children, and possessions and had burned everything else to the ground. They had absolutely nothing left. They all wept until they had no more strength to weep. I identified with that detail.

When it seemed things couldn’t possibly get any worse for David, his men blamed him for their loss and talked of stoning him.

But here comes the important part of the story. With all this facing him, “David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (1 Samuel 30:6b, NASB). That one sentence grabbed me.

We go through times when the darkness is so deep that we can’t see God acting. We can’t feel His presence. We can’t understand what He is doing or not doing. Sometimes He just seems gone.

We have to remind ourselves who He is. We have to remind ourselves what He has done in the past. He has repeatedly proven Himself to us to build our faith for times just like this.

When life is overwhelming, strengthen yourself in the Lord your God. Grab hold of the truth. Cling to it. Claim it as your own, and act on it.

The psalmists express that idea over and over. When trouble and pain settle in and seem to block everything else, remember, remember, remember. God hasn’t changed. He hasn’t moved. He hasn’t abandoned you, and He never will.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Blind Faith
Recording
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