Archive for Devotional with Hymn

I Want to Know You

2013-07-07 Devotional with Hymn No comments

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. (Philippians 3:8, NIV)

My life is crowded with so many desires, so many goals, so many questions. But, Jesus, I’m realizing that I truly want only one thing:
          I want to know You.

All my ambitions and drives, my goals and dreams of glory, my preoccupation with my own comfort, I give them to You, Lord. I release them to You and cut the cord. Nothing else is worth holding onto. Nothing else is worth craving.
          I want to know You.

My eyes go to the future, my Lord, and I know that more storms are coming. What troubles await me in life? What does it matter? Whatever troubles come, they will bring new discoveries about You. They will bring a deeper, more personal knowledge of You, and a stronger faith that sees You more constantly and clearly.
          I want to know You.

My heart begins to leap at the possibility of being found always and entirely in You, with the baggage of self-interest forever buried and gone. Praise to You, my God! What a wonderful redemption that will be! My faith comes alive, knowing it will be. It is coming. You are doing it, and You always finish what You start. I know You now, Jesus, by Your goodness, and then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12, NIV).

Thank You, my Lord! Fill my heart now with the desire that will delight me throughout eternity:
       I want to know You. I want to know You, my Lord.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Lord, Life Becomes More Simple
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The Good Samaritan

2013-06-30 Devotional with Hymn 3 comments

“’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 

But the expert in the law wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 

In reply Jesus said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 

“But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return I will reimburse you for any extra expense you have.’ 

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:27, 29-37, NIV) 

I see myself in this story. But I am not always the Samaritan.

Sometimes I am the expert in the law. God’s wisdom for us is clear and simple: treat your neighbor the way you want to be treated. But when I fail, when the golden rule isn’t comfortable, I try to “justify” myself with questions and reasoning: “But who is my neighbor? How far does my responsibility really go?”

Sometimes I am the priest. Though a neighbor’s need is obvious, I have something more pressing to do, and more convenient. I pretend not to see.

But the closer I grow to God, the more His love grips my heart. The more I love Him, the more I care about those He loves. How can I ignore those that matter so deeply to Him?

Every parent, every loving spouse, every true friend knows that love has its own logic and its own agenda. It doesn’t always make sense to others. That is the logic and agenda my Father wants for me as I live in this needy world, full of people He loves. In every needy “neighbor” He wants me to see my child, my spouse, my dear friend…myself.

When I am needy and hurting, I am desperate to see that Good Samaritan come along. Father, help me to be a neighbor to the needy persons I meet.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: The Good Samaritan
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God Works through Us

2013-06-23 Devotional with Hymn No comments

From Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
(Romans 11:36, NASB)

Almighty God, unlimited in power,
delights to work through His creatures—
through angels (the word simply means “messengers”),
through human beings of all backgrounds and personalities,
through families, groups, races, and nations.

He works through
children and the aged,
warriors and sages,
rich and poor,
the weak and the powerful,
through those highly respected and
through the despised and ignored.

He uses both
joy and pain,
vast epochs and fleeting seconds,
wisdom and inexperience,
sickness and health,
the obvious and the mysterious,
the ordinary and the spectacular.
(Many such distinctions flow more from human ignorance than from eternal reality.)

Why would such a God,
infinite in resources and
without weakness or need,
choose to work through flawed and troublesome creatures like us?

Because He made us,
He knows us, and
He loves us.
As He shares His work with us,
we share more fully in Him.
We experience
His power,
His love, and
the privilege of being vessels of His ever-flowing, ever-giving life.

He is like a grandmother who asks her two-year old grandchild to
help her make cookies.
She doesn’t do it because she needs help with the cookies,
but to bring herself together with this growing person
in a common joy.
They’re still grandma’s cookies,
but the two have shared
a precious experience,
a common purpose, and
a bond that will outlast the lingering sweetness.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: God’s Mysterious Ways
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Simple Faith

2013-06-16 Devotional with Hymn No comments

You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.
(Isaiah 26:3, NIV)

In this world of darkness and uncertainty,
focus on the sure and certain path of faith.
The light shed by simple faith will warn you of the rocks
on which so many have shipwrecked.
They let themselves drift along the current of curiosity and imagination,
trusting only human guidance and
hungering for whatever is new.
Seek God alone, and
these perils are easily avoided.

See God’s hand in all the events of life.
Set aside your will,
misguided by ignorance and selfishness, and
love His will instead.
You’ll find that such simple faith brings
a clarity and beauty to life
that lasts through every storm.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Everything I Need
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A Real Person

2013-06-09 Devotional with Hymn, Evangelistic 2 comments

I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
(Psalm 73:23-25, NIV)

The most moving, eye-opening, transforming point in my life came when I realized this one simple truth: God is a real Being. He is not a mythical figure, an impersonal force, or the creation of our minds. He is a real “person,” a living Being. I can interact with Him. In fact, He delights to interact with me.

What’s more, He loves me–He deeply loves me. He provides for me and works in my life. He patiently teaches me and changes me from the heart. He forgives me when I do wrong.

And He is with me. He is personally, constantly, intimately, actually right here with me, all the time.

For me, the real attraction of the Christian life is not the lifestyle, although I’ve found that it’s the best, wisest, and most natural. What’s compelling about being a Christian is Jesus Christ himself.

I find it so sad: when people hear the term “Christian,” they too often think of stuffy religion or perhaps a certain political persuasion or cultural flavor. They think of living by lots of rules. Or saddest of all, they think of people who sometimes seem self-righteous, narrow-minded, and condemning.

Being a Christian is none of those things. Believe me, it isn’t. Christianity is simply this: knowing Jesus Christ as a real person, face-to-face.

Christianity is the simplicity and warmth of a personal relationship. It is knowing the One who created you. It is knowing the One who loved you from the moment He conceived you, long before you were born. It is knowing the One who suffered and died to remove the evil from within you. It is trusting an intimate Friend who is always loving, always wise, and always with you.

Walking with Him, step-by-step, is making my life more wonderful than I ever dreamed life could be. I can talk to Him anytime throughout the day and know that He hears me and is pleased that I’m talking to Him. When I’m concerned, I can turn to Him, talk with Him, and lean on Him. When I’m happy, I can thank Him. When I’m wrong, I can ask forgiveness, knowing He gives it gladly and completely.

In myself, I’m no more perfect than anyone else. But because He is with me and in me always, He is making me more loving. He is helping me love others at home and wherever I go.

He brings wonderful gifts to my life–genuine love, deep peace, a sense of security, a joy that isn’t dependent on circumstances. But none of His gifts are as wonderful as He is. He is peace. He is beauty. He is life itself.

I have been reunited with the One who made me, and the reunion is marvelous.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Almighty God Is Near!
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Mercy

2013-06-02 Devotional with Hymn One comment

Almighty God, I don’t need a major moral failure to experience Your mercy.
I experience Your mercy every time you give me what I don’t deserve.

You are an unbounded Being,
complete in Yourself,
the source of all life and all that is.
My existence is a mercy.

You are infinite in excellence,
perfect in power, wisdom, and love.
You graciously gave me fellowship with You.
I rejected You and chose myself:
a speck of dust,
a breath,
utterly corrupt.
I chose death,
yet You continue to give me life.
Every moment is a mercy.

I am insignificant.
Living in Your presence, sharing existence with You,
I deserve to be completely ignored.
Your attention is a mercy.
Even Your anger, Your judgment, Your condemnation
are mercies.

Holy and just God,
You know all that I have thought and said and done.
Condemned, I deserve whatever punishment can be inflicted
on such a miserable creature as me.
Your total forgiveness is
an unspeakable mercy.

Though I am marvelously forgiven,
my response to You continues to be
lukewarm,
inconsistent, and
ungrateful.
I deserve Your disgust.
Instead, in mercy
You fill me with Yourself and
tenderly grow me toward You.
Day by day,
every breath is a mercy.

This beautiful earth is a mercy.
Every chance to know You better is a mercy.
Your faithful Spirit is such a mercy!
The amazing privilege of prayer is a mercy.
Your unfailing patience with my ignorance, weakness, and selfishness is a mercy.

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)

Almighty God,
my Father,
You are compassion.
You are kindness and goodness.
You are deep and enduring love.
My entire existence, every moment and forever,
is enfolded in Your unending mercy.
Praise to You!
All praise to You,
my Savior and my God!

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Sea of Mercy
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Holy Pride

2013-05-26 Devotional with Hymn No comments

This is what the Lord says:
“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom…
or the rich man boast of his riches,
but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me.”
(Jeremiah 9:23-24, NIV)

Lord, I grow proud at the slightest excuse.
It doesn’t take much for me to start imagining
how great and wonderful I am.
It sounds foolish, God,
but You know it’s true.

Who makes you different from anyone else?
What do you have that you did not receive?
And if you did receive it,
why do you boast as though you did not?
(1 Corinthians 4:7, NIV)

Lord, You’ve left me with only one thing to brag about:
You and all the wonderful things You’ve done!
I will take pride only in You.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Isn’t He Good?
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Shifting Light

2013-05-19 Devotional with Hymn No comments

That spider web over there is so beautiful, so delicate and orderly.

Or at least it was when I could see it. The light has shifted, and now all I see is a couple of anchor cables, out near the plants where they’re attached. And I can see the spider. It’s in the middle and seems to be hanging in midair, all by itself.

The light shifts in my life also, Lord. At times I see Your beauty and order surrounding me and supporting me, and I feel at rest and safe. Then the light shifts, and I seem to be hanging in midair by myself, with no support. When I look, I can glimpse the foundational anchors, and I tell myself that the web is still there. But I see nothing.

There it is again. I see part of the supporting web–more of it–but not all of it.

But I know it’s there, Lord. The anchor cables are straight and firmly attached. Though I seem to be hanging out here, I haven’t fallen. And I know I won’t. I know You’re still with me, and underneath me are Your everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:27).

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: I Cannot See the Light, My Lord
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Our All-encompassing God

2013-05-12 Devotional with Hymn No comments

No matter how we stretch, we cannot wrap our imaginations around Almighty God.

He is God our Father and Creator. The physical world is a picture of His generosity, His wisdom, and His unbounded power. The seasons and centuries sing His faithfulness. The heavens are a tiny window to the mystery and infinity of His being. Every moment, from birth to death, He wraps us in the light and texture of His love.

He is God the Son. He is all of God become completely human…just like us but without sin. He emptied Himself to become our Brother, our Savior, our Sacrifice, our Healer. He is the new Adam, inviting us to be born again into a whole new race of holy, glorified beings filled with His endless life.

He is God the Spirit. He is the breath of God within us. He is love, wisdom, and power uniting with who we are, giving us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3, NIV).

Our imaginations cannot encompass the Almighty Triune God. But He encompasses us, body and soul, imagination and spirit, every breath and throughout eternity.

The prize held out before us is
not material blessings—
not in this world and not in the next.
The prize God offers is Himself,
with all the life and love that are in Him.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Trinity Hymn
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The Spirit of Jesus

2013-05-05 Devotional with Hymn No comments

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.
“The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
(John 14:16, 26, NIV)

The Holy Spirit is to us what
the physical presence of Jesus was to His disciples.
He is teacher,
comforter,
encourager,
companion,
advocate,
intercessor, and
friend.

The Spirit is to us what Jesus was to His disciples,
but more.
Jesus was limited by a physical body.
The Spirit is Jesus unbound from any limitations.
He is Jesus with us, among us, and within us
every moment, always and forever.

The Spirit is our teacher.
We understand so little and remember even less,
but the Spirit patiently instructs us.
He reminds us of what is important.
He takes us by the hand and leads us into all truth.

The Spirit helps us know Jesus—
not just know about Him, but know Him personally,
face to face and heart to heart.
This knowing, this sharing
is closer than any human friendship.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: Spirit of Christ
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