Archive for Devotional

Fulfilling a Dream

2016-03-01 Devotional No comments

At age 59, the Lord began fulfilling a dream He had been pressing on my heart for my entire adult life: reading the Old Testament in the original Hebrew. I had taught myself Greek when I was ages 23-25, and the process went relatively smoothly. (I still use it daily.)

So soon after I tackled Hebrew. I got through the initial grammar, but then life’s other demands moved in, and I couldn’t make the time to continue into reading from the Hebrew Bible. Without that exposure to the Hebrew text itself, the grammar was soon lost.

That pattern repeated itself perhaps a half dozen times over the following decades. I would get through the grammar, only to lose it because I couldn’t carve out enough time to continue into translation.

Finally, at age 59, having been forcibly freed from my “day” job, I had the time to tackle Hebrew and follow through with it. But as I began the grammar again, I found that I no longer had the memory to master the myriad of verb forms involved. They just wouldn’t stick in my aging mind. Sadly, reluctantly, in great disappointment I began to face the fact that my lifelong dream would never be fulfilled.

But the Lord wouldn’t let the dream die. He continued to prod me toward learning Hebrew. Then He made clear to me that while I no longer had the memory to forcibly conquer Hebrew, if I repeatedly exposed myself to it over a period of time, I could gradually absorb it.

I began using that approach, with the help of some excellent tools (first, A Reader’s Hebrew Bible from Zondervan, then Hebrew tools for my Kindle from OliveTree.com). At first I read two-to-three verses per day, then worked up to ten verses per day. As a bonus, since I knew Greek, I decided to daily read the same Old Testament passage from the Greek Septuagint immediately after reading it in Hebrew.

I began reading straight through from Genesis 1, and as of this writing (November, 2015), I am in the last chapter of 1 Kings. Am I a Hebrew expert? Not by anyone’s definition! But what an enjoyable process! I’m finding that having to patiently plow through the text a word or phrase at a time has some of the benefits of meditation. Such a slow, systematic approach to the text, necessitated by my primitive Hebrew skills, is helping me see many truths that I would have missed during a quick reading in English.

This process is helping me realize again several important truths:

  • The Lord delights to give good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11).
  • If we allow Him, He will bring to completion every good desire that He instills in us (2 Thessalonians 1:11).
  • God’s Word is absolutely marvelous and will richly repay all the time and effort we invest in it.
  • The Old Testament is a treasure house full of riches. God is a God of action, and He reveals Himself by what He does. If you want to understand Him better, watch Him in action. In the Old Testament we watch Him over a period of perhaps 1,500 years or more (compared to about 60 years in the New Testament). All the foundations of the New Testament are in the Old Testament. If you want to more fully understand the New, read the Old.

Interesting postscript: during these recent years while learning Hebrew, I listened to an audiobook of a biography of the hymn writer, John Newton (writer of “Amazing Grace”). I was fascinated to hear that my fellow hymn writer, born two and a half centuries before me, also felt compelled to teach himself Greek and Hebrew. He conquered both, even without the wonderful language tools available today. It seems that God is very serious about giving His hymn writers broad and deep Biblical training.

The Life of a Shepherd

2016-02-04 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Read Psalm 95

The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. (Psalm 23:1, NASB)

Imagine the daily life and work of a shepherd.

They lived in tents. But lack of rainfall meant lots of moving around during the summer season. They often had to be away from their home base for days or weeks.

They carried a large leather bag which contained all their food and daily supplies. A large staff or stick, sometimes with a knob on the end, was used both as a club and as a walking stick, very helpful over rough, uneven ground. Like David, some shepherds were rather good with a slingshot, since it provided effective, portable protection. It was a way to ward off predators from a distance.

Shepherds had to stay ready for emergencies. If a sheep was injured, they were its only source of medical help. Sheep got so focused on grazing, with their head staying down, that they often wandered off. A sheep was so valuable that it had to be found. The shepherd would leave the rest of the flock and look until the lost sheep was located and returned (see Luke 15:4-7).

The days were long. The nights were long. The life was lonely. Some shepherds made music on a hand-made reed pipe. Many entertained themselves by talking to the sheep, and thus the sheep grew to recognize their shepherd’s voice. He had to keep constant count of them, sometimes even calling them by name (see John 10:3).

Good shepherds would never kill and eat their sheep, no matter how hungry. Shepherds had to be strong and resourceful for times of danger, yet keep a gentle, caring, patient disposition. At night, after gathering the sheep into a fold for protection, he would guard the opening with his own body (see John 10:7-9).

Good shepherds worked hard for little pay and less respect. They did strenuous and important work.

“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” (John 10:11, NASB)

Jesus Is God with Us

2016-01-07 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Read Matthew 1:18-25; 28:16-20

Jesus is God with Us. He is the loving God who eagerly comes to His people, even when they don’t deserve Him or His grace. That is the clear message of Matthew 1, the first chapter of the New Testament. Matthew opens with the genealogy of Jesus, showing that Messiah descended from a family with its share of moral outcasts. He then applies to Jesus the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, “Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel” (NASB). This son of a disgraced Jewish maiden, conceived before marriage, was indeed God with us.

Matthew 2 continues with the same theme, showing that gentiles from far outside God’s people were among the very first called to worship this King of all Kings.

Jesus’ earthly ministry ends the same way in Matthew’s last chapter, with Jesus commanding His disciples to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19, NASB). This God with us was to be the Father’s gift to all people, including those who had never known Him and never sought Him.

Jesus’ life was thus framed with His purpose to be God with us. All the days in-between were filled with the same. He only did the Father’s works:

“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does…By myself I can do nothing.” (John 5:19, 30, NIV)

He only spoke the Father’s words:

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

Jesus came saying what the Father would say and doing what the Father would do among us: healing, teaching, cleansing, feeding, and calling us to join Him in His work. The Father sent His only Son out of His burning desire to be truly with His people.

His Treasured Possession

2015-12-17 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Read Deuteronomy 7:6-11; 14:1-2; 26:16-19

God makes clear throughout scripture that He wants us to fear Him. That is, He wants us to believe that He is all He says He is, and to respond to Him accordingly. He is our Creator. He is holy, almighty, and all-wise. He is transcendent and sovereign, unbounded by matter, space, or time. How can we not trust, obey, and worship such a God?

But He also wants us to know how much He cares for us and how much He values us. He longs for us to glimpse how wonderful it will be for Him to be truly, fully with us.

“You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:4-6, NASB)

The word translated above as “own possession” is a fascinating and meaningful one. Generally, it refers to personal property.

It can also be translated “special treasure”. For example, it is sometimes used to refer to the vast personal treasures of a king. Ecclesiastes 2:8 says that accumulating such treasures is sheer vanity.

But God repeatedly states that His people are “His special treasure” (see Deuteronomy 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Psalm 135:4). In Malachi 3:16-18, He says that those who fear Him become His personal possession, His special treasure, and He will never forget them.

These passages are the original inspiration behind several familiar New Testament scriptures:

[Christ] gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. (Titus 2:14, NASB)

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9, NASB)

When we trace this term, the inescapable truth is this: the greatest wealth is not anything we possess. It is being possessed by God.

Walk with God

2015-12-10 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Read Genesis 5:21-24; 24:40; 48:15; Malachi 2:6

In the Garden of Eden, before God’s open, natural fellowship with us was destroyed by sin, it apparently was God’s practice to walk with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day.

Now read the brief account of Enoch in Genesis 5:21-24. According to this list, Enoch was the seventh generation of Adam’s line. Twice in four verses we’re told that Enoch walked with God (vv.22, 24). As a result, Enoch did not die as most other men did and do. God was so pleased with Enoch that He took him directly to Himself.

But Enoch was not the only person who walked with God:

  • The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless.” (Genesis 17:1, NASB)
  • When Abraham was nearing death, he summarized his life by saying that he had walked before God (Genesis 24:40).
  • Just before Jacob’s death, as he was blessing Joseph, he said that his fathers Abraham and Isaac had walked before God, and that God had been his shepherd all his life (Genesis 48:15).
  • God’s priests were to walk with Him in peace and uprightness (Malachi 2:6).
  • The prophet Micah summed up our whole obligation to God this way:

He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8, NASB)

All these people from various ages and times were to please God by walking with Him or walking before Him. Such walking suggests something done regularly, repetitively, continually, day after day. It suggests living in God’s presence, in ongoing fellowship with Him, in contact with Him and in response to Him.

What a beautiful way to live! Many have experienced it, and God wants it for you and with you.

Everyone is Invited

2015-11-26 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Read Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus often described the Kingdom of God by telling stories, or parables. Two of those parables talk about the Kingdom of God as being like a wedding feast, and in both, Jesus casts Himself as the Bridegroom. Both parables tell us something about our relationship to the Bridegroom, and both contain a surprising, even shocking, twist.

The first parable is recorded in Matthew 22:1-14. In it, a king had planned a wedding feast for his son. When all was prepared, those honored by an invitation from the king were unwilling to come. They all claimed to have something more important to do. They all treated the king and his servants with total indifference and disrespect…even to the point of violence. The king responded appropriately.

But he was still intent on filling his banquet hall. How could he celebrate the wedding of his son without guests? His honored, invited guests had proven themselves unworthy of his generosity. So here comes the shocking twist: since the honored guests had disqualified themselves, EVERYONE was invited. The king’s slaves were ordered to go throughout the whole city and urge everyone, high and low, good and bad, to come to the wedding celebration. Everyone could come and feast with the king!

But here comes another twist: one guest is thrown out for being inappropriately dressed. He hadn’t even bothered to dress in his best clean clothes, in a way fitting for such an event. Like those originally invited, he had treated his king and his king’s invitation with indifference and disrespect, so he too was excluded.

So what is the point of the parable? It is summarized in v.14: Many are called, but few are chosen. (NASB)

God’s wedding invitation goes out to all. All may joyfully, freely celebrate with Him and enjoy His abundance. But not all are “chosen” – that is, not all will actually be allowed to taste the feast. Those who insult their King and arrogantly spurn His hospitality will never taste His provision.

The King’s invitation is free, but it carries conditions. We must realize that we have received an invitation from our Sovereign King, and respond with the respect due Him.

Ezekiel 16

2015-11-19 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Unclean. I was unclean to my very core – thoroughly, completely unlovely.
I had no hope or thought of ever being anything else.

You came to me and saw me for exactly what I was, yet You loved me.
You loved me because of who You were, not because of who I was.
There was not a scrap of worth or attractiveness in me.
You loved me because You are loving, not because I was lovable.

You tenderly, thoroughly cleansed me, and I was clean.
You began to share Yourself with me.
Because You loved me, something of You came to life in me.
You made me something other, something more than I had been in myself.
Your life, Your beauty, Your purity began to glow in me,
though before You, I had not a breath of any of these things.
Because You loved me, I grew lovely,
though the loveliness was Yours, not mine.

You proposed marriage. Such wonderful promises You made!
You promised to envelop me in Your love,
to love me deeply, completely, and forever.
You promised to make me more in You than I could ever be on my own.
You asked only that I be faithful to You—
that I give myself completely and exclusively to You.
You lavished more and more of all Your best on me—
all that You had and all that You were.

Sometimes I forgot that my loveliness was actually Your loveliness, and
I took what You had given me, what You had made me,
and used it selfishly, proudly to serve myself.
Though You were faithful, I was not.
Sometimes You had to let me taste the bitter fruit of the choices I made.

But Your love never gave up on me.
You forgave me, and You drew me back to Yourself.

My Lord, my Love, You are still drawing me closer,
and I am still discovering how Your love can change me, cleanse me, and renew me.

I love You, my Lord!
I am Yours, completely and forever!

Psalm 45: The Bride

2015-11-05 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Read Psalm 45:10-17

Let’s imagine that Psalm 45 was written for the wedding of the ultimate King, Jesus Christ, and His bride, the people of God. The wedding song has begun with a description of the magnificence of the Bridegroom. Now what does the psalmist say to the Bride-to-be, to God’s people, the Church?

  • Don’t cling to your past (v.10). Don’t look longingly at what you’re leaving behind. Your future is infinitely better! Turn forever from what was and rejoice in what is about to be!
  • The King is deeply in love with you. You are stunningly beautiful in His eyes. Honor Him as your Lord now. Give yourself completely to Him (v.11).
  • Even the rich and powerful will honor you because you are the King’s bride. Your King and Husband is so important that you will be important as well simply because of your relationship with Him (v.12).
  • You are about to experience what it means to be the bride of the Great King. You will be adorned with all His finest, with clothing interwoven with gold and artistic embroidery. You will have your own train of attendants, and you will all be led into the King’s palace, with cheering crowds all around you. His entire realm will rejoice at your wedding (vv.13-15).

Christ…loved the church and gave Himself up for her…that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory…that she would be holy and blameless. (Ephesians 5:25-27, NASB)

This wedding song ends with a look ahead. What does the future hold for the King?

  • Sons. Fruitfulness. New life (v.16).
  • Honor and glory that will never fade (v.17a).
  • The peoples will give thanks for You forever and ever (v.17b).

What an honor, what a joy to be loved by the King as His chosen bride! What a glorious future we have in Him!

The Father’s Only-begotten Son

2015-10-15 Devotional, Pictures of God, Uncategorized No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Read John 1:1-18

In the Old Testament, we first hear God calling Himself Father in relationship to the whole people of Israel. Then when the nation of Israel is formed and becomes a monarchy, God’s fatherhood is applied specifically to the king. God blessed the king as His “son” in order to bless all His people. This father-son relationship began with King David, then was extended to all David’s descendents on the throne. It reached all the way to Messiah, the Ultimate King. He would be a Son of David, and in that sense a Son of God, like His predecessors.

However, when Jesus Messiah arrived, He proved to be God’s Son in a deeper and richer sense than anyone had dreamed. He had not been created by God, then adopted as His Son, as David and all his descendents had been. He was the only-begotten Son of God.

John 1 affirms that Father and Son were together at the very beginning.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. (vv.1-2, NASB)

There was never a time when the Father existed that the Son did not also exist. The Nicene Creed states their relationship well:

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.

The term “only begotten” refers to a son or daughter who is “unique,” “one of a kind”. John uses it to describe Jesus’ father-son relationship with God.

The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. (John 1:14, 18, NASB)

Because Jesus had spent an eternity in intimate, undivided fellowship with the Father, He revealed Him to us in a unique, complete, and beautiful way.

Questioning God

2015-10-01 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Read Isaiah 45:7, 9-12

How often have you heard God accused of injustice, cruelty, or indifference? How often has He been blamed for the actions of us sinful people?

How often have our shallow, selfish expectations caused us to complain about His treatment of us or mistrust His love? How often have we acted as if He were unreal, or at least unresponsive to our needs? Secretly we have sometimes doubted whether there was anyone there listening at all.

“Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,
to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.
Does the clay say to the potter,
‘What are you making?’…
Woe to him who says to his father,
‘What have you begotten?’…
Do you question me about my children,
or give me orders about the work of my hands?” (Isaiah 45:9, 11, NIV)

How vital it is that we get a renewed vision of the transcendence of God. We get so saturated with our small, self-centered thinking that we forget how tiny and brief and inherently, inescapably ignorant we are.

All being, all existence flows from Him. This unimaginably vast universe, this reality, seen and unseen, is but the smallest expression of all He is. All that is, is His. All that is, is from Him, through Him, and to Him. He is the Source and Goal of life, of history…of creation itself.

Our ignorance is understandable. Our misunderstanding is understandable. Our flawed thinking is excusable. We need not repent of our weakness and smallness. They are part of who we are.

But we should repent of our mistrust of Him. Yes, it is difficult for us sight-oriented creatures to put complete faith in an unseen God. But He repeatedly, faithfully gives us every reason to trust Him. He patiently teaches us and reminds us, even as we fail to grasp the wonderful things He is doing right before our eyes.

Make it your goal and deep desire to trust and reverence and love your Father more simply, constantly, and completely, day by day.

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