Archive for Devotional with Hymn

From Every Nation

2014-07-01 Devotional with Hymn No comments

[Jesus said:] “People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places…in the kingdom of God. (Luke 13:29, NIV)

At the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, I was struck by the many languages, nationalities, and religious traditions that filled the church. They were like children on their first day in heaven, rushing from place to place, bubbling with excitement. Most had traveled long distances at great expense to be there.

What a vivid reminder that people come to faith in Christ through many avenues. Those avenues are as varied as the cultures and personalities of all the people of all the ages.

With each of us, our understanding of God is so partial and so marred by ignorance. But God’s goodness comes in many flavors, and His incarnation has so many beautiful faces.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: God of All People
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Consider the Seed

2014-06-29 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Jesus said:

 “Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds…fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.” (Matthew 13:3-4, 8, NASB) 

Consider the seed.
It’s so small…and hard…and dry…
very unspectacular in appearance.
We bury it in the earth.
We water it. We tend it.
We protect it. We watch it.
And do you know what happens?
Nothing.
Nothing happens… at least not immediately.

But hidden in that seed is a mysterious, powerful, irrepressible life.
And if we wait patiently,
one day a tiny, tender sprout begins to push up through the earth.
That sprout becomes a little stem,
and after much more watering and tending and protecting,
it produces flowers for us to see and smell.
It gives delicious fruit for us to eat and enjoy.

But do you know what else it produces?
More seeds!
Our one seed is now hundreds, even thousands of seeds.
And if those seeds fall to the ground and die,
some will bear flowers and fruit
and give more and more seeds.

The entire earth could become a beautiful, fruitful garden
from one seed.

Jesus Christ was one seed.
Each of us is just…one…seed.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Bless This Seed
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Freedom

2014-06-24 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
(Lamentations 3:22-23, NIV)

When I fail to trust God, I fail.
And I have failed so often.

Sometimes it’s been a troublesome, recurrent sin.
Sometimes pride,
worry,
selfishness, or
unkindness.

But in all these years, I have never used up His mercies.
We draw on them over and over, and
they are never diminished.
They are “new every morning.”

I feel ashamed and presumptuous to come to Him again for forgiveness.
But He asks me to come, and
I come in obedience.

Lord, in obedience,
I trust Your mercy once again.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Daily Confession
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Freedom in Christ

2014-06-22 Devotional with Hymn No comments

 “Come to Me…Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, NASB)

The Apostle Paul wrote:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  .  .  .  Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1, NIV)

Lord Jesus, in what ways am I still in bondage?
In what ways am I not enjoying all the freedom I have in You?

Give me the freedom from self that
only Your Spirit,
only Your love brings.

Give me freedom from binding lifestyle patterns and habits
that limit me from walking constantly in You.

Give me freedom from the anxiety
that is unnecessary for me now as a child of God.

I come to You, Lord Jesus.
Help me to walk more completely and freely in You.
I am Yours.
I am listening.
I will obey.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: We Come and Rest
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Forgiveness Is Always Available

2014-06-17 Devotional with Hymn No comments

When I kept silent, my bones wasted away.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you…
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”
and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
(Psalm 32:3, 5, NIV)

Are you unsure of your relationship with God?

You don’t need to let uncertainty put a cloud between you.
You don’t have to wonder.
You don’t have to wait.

If you think you’ve failed Him, talk to Him right now.
Forgiveness is always available.
He makes it available to you every moment.

 

Jesus, I accept
today’s forgiveness for
today’s failures.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Song of Confession
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Living Without Guilt

2014-06-15 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Jesus said,

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
(Matthew 11:28, NASB) 

1 John 1:9 promises this:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (NIV)

I know about guilt. I know about the shadow deep inside, the heaviness, the darkness. I know about being deeply, unforgettably aware of the wrong I’ve done.

I’ve tried to deal with that guilt in a variety of ways.

I’ve tried to deny it: “It’s just a state of mind…an emotion…it’ll pass.”

I’ve tried to rationalize it: “Everybody does wrong once in a while…I’m no worse than most people.”

I’ve tried to blame it on others and escape it: “It’s just the way my parents raised me…society’s false standards…If I ignore their rules, I’ll eventually get past this feeling.”

I’ve tried to make up for it somehow: “I will be nice to people…do good deeds…give money…That will make up for the wrong I’ve done…My good deeds will outweigh the bad.”

But none of that lifts the blackness. None of it makes me clean. None of it changes the person I know I am. My wrongness is not a feeling, or a fiction, or a passing phenomenon. It’s a fact.

But thank the Lord, I also know what forgiveness feels like. Years ago friends told me about Jesus. At first, hearing about Him only made the guilt worse. I felt painted in a corner. My wrongness, my sin, was bigger than ever. It loomed over me. It stared me in the face.

Finally, in desperation, and in feeble hope, I turned to Jesus. I just opened myself to Him. I admitted how wrong I was, and I asked Him to help me.

And you know what happened? He didn’t scold me. He didn’t punish me. He just forgave me. Forgave me! Freely, completely, unconditionally forgave me! I was a brand-new person! I felt bathed in His love inside and out.

I can’t describe the freedom. I can’t describe the cleanness, the joy, the rightness of life.

I’m not talking about a feeling. It was a fact. I was a different person, and everyone who knew me knew I was different.

No, I wasn’t perfect. I’m still not perfect–not by a long shot. But I’m learning to trust Him, and He’s helping me to live a clean life, a loving life, above the wrong that once dragged me down.

And when I fail, I just ask Him to forgive me, and He does, as freely and completely as ever.

If you’re living with guilt, let me tell you: you don’t have to. You don’t need to deny it. You don’t need to rationalize it. You don’t have to make up for it. Jesus forgives sin. Jesus takes away guilt completely. Jesus makes new people. Jesus can make you a new person.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Come, My Friends!
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One in Christ

2014-06-12 Congregational Song, Devotional with Hymn, Hymns No comments

This is the 20th in a series of Friday posts on congregational song.

There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to one hope when you were called–one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4-5, NIV)

Communion was being served at our local church. Servers stood at the head of each aisle with a plate of bread and a cup. All the church rose and filed down together, waiting to receive the elements and hear the words, “This is my body. This is my blood.”

Being on the far side of the sanctuary, I looked across and saw all those people standing together, filling the aisles–people of every shape, size, and personality imaginable–the elderly and the children, the brilliant and the mentally handicapped, every background, every life situation, every problem and struggle. Each had been personally invited by Jesus Christ, and there they were all together, coming to Him.

What a stunning picture of redemption! For each of us, Jesus has become the bread and wine of life. We have come together in Him. We are one body and one Spirit in Him. We have been lifted to one hope. We cling to one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father who is over and through and in us all.

Unity is largely unexplored territory for us. It is an undiscovered blessing. Let us pray that the Lord will burn into our hearts its possibility and its glowing promise. More and more let us see other people in Him. Let us react to them in Him and love them in Him.

Remember, this picture of redemption is just a glimpse of a day soon to come:

I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
          “Salvation belongs to our God,
          who sits on the throne,
          and to the Lamb.”. . .
They are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.
Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst…
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;
he will lead them to springs of living water.
          And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
(Revelation 7:9-10, 15-17, NIV)

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: See Them Come
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Forever Faithful

2014-06-10 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Jesus, I know You are here with me.
I know I can pray anytime.
I know that life’s purest joy and peace are only a breath away.

But I forget.
I get wrapped up in my own little world.

Still, You keep coming to me.
You prompt me through a need or a crisis,
through some anxiety or
through my own inner neediness.
You prompt me through a blessing,
then You remind me to thank You for it.

Through my busyness,
my worry,
my weakness, and
my foolish pride,
You keep calling me,
drawing me, and
welcoming me to You.

Thank You, Jesus.
You are forever faithful!
You are forever with me.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Almighty God Is Near!
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Knowing Jesus Better

2014-06-08 Devotional with Hymn No comments

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ…
may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation,
so that you may know him better.
(Ephesians 1:17, NIV)

If being a Christian is knowing You, Jesus,
then growing spiritually is knowing You better.

I don’t want to just know about You, my Lord.
I want to know You.
I want to know You as You really are—
as You really are right now, here with me.

Saul turned from killing Christians
to vigorously arguing for You in just a few days (Acts 9:1-22).
The difference wasn’t additional study.
The difference was meeting You.
He saw You as You are,
and it changed him radically, forever.

Jesus, my Lord God, I want to know You.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Come and Follow Me
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Knowing the Unknowable

2014-06-01 Devotional with Hymn No comments

 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever–the Spirit of truth. 

“I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:15-17a, 20, 23, NIV)

Who completely understands the Trinity, how Three Persons can be One Being and One Being can be Three Persons?

Yet all who receive God’s Spirit experience the Trinity. We share in their love and unity. We taste their oneness and their individuality.

The Father showed His heart, His mind, and His deep love for us beautifully and completely in Christ. The Holy Spirit speaks this revelation to individuals all over the world. He makes the truth in Christ universal, constant, and personal.

The Father made Himself human in Jesus. He became small, earthly, and touchable. The Holy Spirit takes Jesus beyond the limits of a physical body and breathes Him all around us and within us.

God has wrapped us in Himself—
Father Creator,
Human Son,
Universal Spirit.

The life of God the Father is breathing through us. The Word that spoke all worlds into existence is recreating us. The Spirit that brooded over the waters is reshaping us. We share the love and unity of the Father, Son, and Spirit, becoming one with them and, in the process, one with each other. We are becoming more like Christ yet more truly ourselves, more individuals yet more one.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: One with God
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