Archive for Devotional with Hymn

A Fascinating Person

2015-12-31 Devotional with Hymn, One with Our Father No comments

from the book, ONE WITH OUR FATHER 

John 2

We hear a lot about Jesus from various sources. But have you ever been personally curious about Him? Have you ever wanted to decide for yourself? Just get a Bible and read one of the gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.

You’ll find Him a truly unique, fascinating individual. He was always His own person, but in an unselfconscious way. Talk about “marching to the beat of a different drummer,” He lived with an open line to God His Father. Jesus listened to Him and talked to Him freely. He loved Him and lived to please Him. He only said what the Father told Him to say, only did what the Father led and enabled Him to do. Jesus made Himself totally dependent on His Father. He trusted Him completely and constantly.

As a result, He was amazing. He was radical. He was confrontive and fearless. He was natural. He was gentle.

He taught grand truths by telling stories – simple stories drawn from common, everyday life.

The needs of people moved Him to compassion. And when He was moved, He always did something to meet the need. He taught. He healed. He fed. He gave of Himself and whatever He had.

His ministry lasted only three short years. There was so much to do, and He was always active, always about His Father’s work. Yet He never seemed hurried or tense. I guess that’s one of the things I admire most about Him. While He was single-minded and focused, He never bristled at interruptions. He was always open to people and their concerns.

Jesus came to show us what God our Father is like and how He feels about us. The picture is a beautiful one.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Knowing the Father in the Son
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Lust

2015-12-29 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Too often we approach the Bible fearfully, with this question in mind: “How much would it cramp my lifestyle if I followed the Bible?” We seem to assume that we’ve already found the happiest way to live. We wonder how much we’d have to compromise that to please God.

But are we really perfectly happy? Doesn’t our loving Creator know the happiest, the best, the most natural way to live?

For example, Jesus spoke these words:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28, NIV)

Seems like a tough standard, doesn’t it?

But if you’ve tasted lust, you know that it’s like any other addiction. It starts with an offer of pleasant stimulation. So simple. So innocent. But it’s progressive. It pulls you in, step by step. It demands more and more, and before you know it, you’re on a downhill slide with no power to stop.

The result: shame, humiliation, corrupted thoughts, and a tarnished relationship with the one dearest to you. Unless you find a way to uproot the lust, it will one day bear very bitter fruit.

So what is Jesus saying to us here? “If you want to do yourself one great big favor, don’t take that first look.”

If you’ve been down that road, you know the wisdom of what He’s saying: If you want to be happy with your mate, never allow yourself to be stimulated in any other direction. Even in our sex-soaked culture, that one simple principle applies. It’s practical. It works.

Focus all your love – body, mind, and spirit – on that person alone. Devote yourself to pleasing him or her. Reserve for yourself life’s greatest sexual pleasure: loving only one person for a lifetime.

That’s your Creator’s precious gift to you. Treasure it. Cherish it. Protect it.

And if you’ve traded that gift, turn back to Him. Repent and ask for forgiveness and restoration. You’ll find Him a God who loves to give second chances. He is glad to heal, renew, and restore.

Your Creator has a happier life for you. He really does.

Turn to Him. Trust Him.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: As I Trust You
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Words That Never Pass Away

2015-12-27 Devotional with Hymn No comments

John 14:24; Matthew 24:35 

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35, NIV)

Have you ever stopped to consider these words of Christ? How incredibly, unbelievably bold a claim!

In August 2010 Google estimated that there were nearly 130 million different books in the world. Millions more are released each year. That’s right, millions! Visit any used bookstore, and you’ll get a tangible, sobering view of the fate of most published words. Walk past the dusty shelves and peruse the dated, decaying books. Welcome to the graveyard of human “truth”! With lots of focus, hard work, and “luck,” publishers occasionally get a book that survives in active circulation for a few decades. Rarely does anything last beyond that.

Here is a Jewish peasant in a tiny corner of the world, never published, never holding any position of influence in society, many centuries before the printing press, with absolutely no means of mass communication, simply speaking words out into the air. Only a handful of His closest friends were listening, and in society’s eyes they were as unlettered and unimportant as He. Yet He claimed that His words would never pass away, even when heaven and earth were long gone. Not even the greatest human classics could pretend to such a status.

How could He say that?

“These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” (John 14:24, NIV)

Jesus’ confidence was in His Father. He knew that the word of the sovereign Lord of all reality would never pass away. He speaks, and it is so. Matter obeys His will. No force can oppose Him. No change touches Him. As long as Jesus spoke the Father’s word, His words would never pass away.

God’s Word is our confidence as well. The very best of human “truth” is permeated with ignorance and weakness, selfishness and change.

Do not put your trust in . . . human beings, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing. (Psalm 146:3-4, NIV) 

God’s Word is pure, sovereign, and unchanging. As we trust Him, we are on immovable ground.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Your Sovereign Word
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God Born Among Us

2015-12-24 Devotional with Hymn, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Isaiah 8:19 – 9:7

Isaiah 8:19-22 describes the fate of those who ignore God. When times get tough and they face the ultimate issues of life, they will know only distress, despair, and darkness.

But what a contrast in the verses that follow, Isaiah 9:1-5! Isaiah strains to adequately communicate wonderful, unbelievable blessings that will come to the neediest of God’s people – blessings that are far beyond their experience and imagination. These blessings will be like:

  • A Great Light where there had been only gloom and darkness (vv.1-2)
  • A gladness and joy as at a bountiful harvest, or as when they receive a financial windfall (v.3)
  • A sense of complete freedom as when we’ve finally been released from a long and difficult oppression (v.4)
  • A deep and permanent peace as when war has ended forever (v.5)

What will bring these indescribable, unimaginable blessings? The birth of a child – a child who will become a great, eternal, magnificent, and righteous King.

In the Bible, names often signify who a person truly is – that person’s character, purpose, and importance. A name is more than a label for someone. It is the person’s identity. And if names could describe this magnificent King, what would His names be?

  • Wonder of a Counselor
  • God of Might
  • Father of Eternity
  • Prince of Peace 

He will rule forever with perfect justice and righteousness. He and His decisions will always be just and right as God Himself is just and right. The peace, harmony, and complete well-being of His Kingdom will grow and grow forever.

How can we be sure that these incredible promises will actually be fulfilled? Because the burning, unquenchable love of the Unchanging God, I AM WHO I AM, Lord of All the Heavenly Armies, guarantees it!

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Isaiah 9
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Luke 6:1-11

2015-12-23 Devotional with Hymn No comments

 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge…
who are you to judge your neighbor?
(James 4:12, NIV)

Lord, when I judge others, I am like the Pharisees. My “righteousness” is cold and small, unloving and unlovely.

I criticize rather than encourage.

I push others down that I might pull myself up.

I condemn and analyze rather than love and give.

I am proud rather than repentant.

My small, narrow notions try to force Your great mercy into my tiny box.

Who am I to judge or criticize someone else? I am unqualified. I am unworthy. I need Your mercy as much as they.

Forgive me, gracious Lord, forgive me.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit
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Look to the Horizon

2015-12-21 Devotional with Hymn No comments

As you trust yourself to God,
what is your destiny?
When His purpose is complete,
who will you be?

Look to the man Jesus Christ.
See His moment-by-moment relationship with the Father.
See His calm sufficiency in every situation.
See His complete dependence on the Father,
His full submission,
His calm confidence,
His unbroken peace.
See His selfless love toward everyone around Him,
both friends and persecutors.
See the Father’s goodness and greatness
radiating from Him.

See Jesus Christ.
He is the Father’s desire for you and
His promise to you.
He is the grand horizon toward which our race is moving.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Christ Is Our Horizon
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Loving Difficult People

2015-12-15 Devotional with Hymn No comments

We who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. (Romans 15:1, NASB)

Lord, I’m glad to love and serve other people…as long as it’s convenient and reasonably comfortable. I’m willing to give a little money to feed the hungry.

But You want me to bear with those who are weak in other ways, ways that may be inconvenient and uncomfortable for me. You call me to love those are who struggling with emotional scars, blind spots, moral problems, and disordered lives. You call me to be compassionate when hidden fears cause unpredictable and volatile reactions.

Lord, You have always fully accepted me, with all my problems. Help me do the same for others.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Your Thoughts, Your Words
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Share in Christ

2015-12-13 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Consider the people nearest to Jesus during His life on earth:
His mother,
His father,
His disciples.
Those closest to Him shared His sufferings.
In their own degree, they bore what Jesus bore.
Their relationship with that one man cost them everything.

For them, the mysteries of the transcendent God weren’t abstract and far away.
They witnessed those mysteries close up.
They tasted them.
They journeyed through them.
They wrestled with them daily –
the light, the darkness,
the privilege, the pain,
the waiting, the questions, the wrenching self-sacrifice.

For each, it started with a personal call.
They sensed it was the call of the Living God,
and that decided their response,
though they couldn’t see the end from the beginning.
Mary answered the angel,
“I am the Lord’s servant…May your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1:38, NIV).
Joseph obeyed a dream and took a pregnant woman as his fiancé.
The disciples, average working men with deep local connections,
dropped everything familiar and
followed a homeless, itinerant teacher.

The price was real,
but the result was life rich beyond imagination,
permeated with truth and peace,
love and fruitfulness,
eternal meaning and undying glory.
That is still the price and the reward for all who share in Christ. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Partners in the Mystery
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Love’s Wisdom

2015-12-08 Devotional with Hymn No comments

It was getting late on a weeknight, and I had to pick up my children at church after an activity. When I arrived, I found they had volunteered me to take one of their friends home – one who lived a number of miles in the opposite direction. To me, that was totally illogical. Why should I forfeit so much time when she had a parent at home who should pick her up, just as I had picked up my kids. So I politely suggested that she should call her mother to come get her.

But when I saw her strained smile as she walked away from our van, I knew I had made the wrong decision. I felt cheap and unkind.

Life is filled with situations that force us to decide how far we will extend ourselves for others, whether the “others” are family, fellow workers, or starving people half a world away. Often what seems “right” and “logical” is doing what seems best for us.

But the New Testament speaks of two sets of ideas about what is right and wrong – two kinds of “wisdom”. The Bible says the world’s wisdom is based on selfishness.

This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. (James 3:15, NASB)

Unfortunately, as Christians living in this unspiritual world, we often follow that selfish, unspiritual wisdom in dealing with others. We instinctively and jealously protect our comforts, our “rights”.

But another kind of wisdom exists:

Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.
The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:13, 17-18, NASB)

I’m discovering that love has its own wisdom, and the wisdom of God is the wisdom of love. It is peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy. The peace that it brings blesses not only the giver and the receiver, but those around them.

That’s the kind of wisdom I wish I had followed that night at church. I’m sure it whispered its guidance, but I only listened to m own anxieties. If we listen to love, it will brings this beautiful lifestyle:

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NASB)

I want this wisdom to guide and fill my life every day. Fortunately, it is not dependent on our intellectual ability. God’s wisdom doesn’t just impart information. It guides and shapes our thoughts, our emotions, and our reactions. It shapes us, from the inside. This living wisdom flows from His living presence in our hearts. And because it is His wisdom, it makes us think and react more like Him.

His Spirit makes this wisdom constantly accessible for all the ordinary moments and normal demands, as well as for the crisis times. It is part of the living treasure of Christ in us.

But we must look to Him, and ask, and trust.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given him. (James 1:5, NASB) 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Live in Love
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Pictures of the Messiah

2015-12-06 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Hear these descriptions of the coming Messiah:

He will endure as long as the sun,
as long as the moon, through all generations.
He will rule from sea to sea…
to the ends of the earth. (Psalm 72:5, 8, NIV)

He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth. (Isaiah 42:2-4, NIV)

“Here is your God!”
See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and his arm rules for him…
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young. (Isaiah 40:9-11, NIV)

When we think of Christ at Christmas,
we picture an infant in a manger.
But that is only one small part of
the living, eternal Christ.
The Psalms and the prophets draw many pictures of
all He is and
all He is to us.
He is a king,
a warrior,
a mighty champion,
a priest,
a prophet,
a shepherd, and
a servant who suffers willingly, horribly for His people.
He is the glory of God,
a light to the nations,
the cornerstone chosen and precious.

As you think of Him this Advent and Christmas,
as you celebrate Him,
celebrate all He is and
all He is to you. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Christ Is Come
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