Archive for Devotional

The God of Life

2015-01-29 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Genesis 1

God gave both plants (vv.11-12) and animals (vv.21, 24-25) the ability to reproduce themselves. He made life self-perpetuating. What an amazing gift! He shared a portion of His life-giving ability with each of His creatures.

My wife will often ask me what is the purpose of some particular animal. I don’t really have an answer, except that life is the purpose. God is a God of life! Overflowing, abundant, infinitely varied life! Life fills earth’s macro-systems (some look at this entire earth as a single, living organism). And life fills our micro-systems, with tiny drops of water containing varied communities of their own.

When God created non-human life forms on this earth, He said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of creatures” (v.20, NASB) or “Let the earth bring forth living creatures” (v.24, NASB), but with human beings, He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (v.26a, NASB). All living things derive their life from God, but we in a special sense. 

God…breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7, NASB).

He patterned us after Himself – not physically, but spiritually, intellectually, morally. He shared Himself with us. He even shared a bit of His sovereignty, allowing us to rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (v.26b, NASB).

Life is a gift. We human beings didn’t originate ourselves, nor did we ask to be created. What’s more, our physical lives are in many ways self-perpetuating. Most of our physical functions are automatic and self-administering. Our heart beats without our input. We breathe without deciding to do so. Our cells do their work without our conscious involvement. About all we need to do is feed and water ourselves, and for that we’ve been given powerful drives as reminders. Life is truly a gift!

Even our physical bodies point to God as a magnificent, powerful, all-wise, and deeply-loving Creator. How should we respond? By thanking Him sincerely and often, and by treasuring His image in all human life, both in ourselves and in others.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Praise to You, Giver of Life!
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Perfect in Every Detail

2015-01-28 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Genesis 1

As I read Genesis 1, not only does God’s youthful enthusiasm strike me, but the orderliness of His process.
In days 1-3, God prepares the earth, layer by layer.
In days 4-6, He goes back and populates the earth, layer by layer.

Or to put it another way:
In days 1-3, He sets the stage, room by room.
In days 4-6, He goes back and brings in the furniture, room by room.

The two halves of the process parallel each other. Specifically:
On day 1 (vv.3-5), He creates light.
On day 4 (vv.14-19), He creates the sun and moon.

On day 2 (vv.6-8), He places the sky as the separation between the waters above (the heavens) and the waters below (oceans, seas, etc.).
On day 5 (vv.20-23) He puts life in the water and sky.

On day 3 (vv.9-13), He creates the dry land and vegetation.
On day 6 (vv.24-26), He creates living creatures on the dry land, including man.

He creates our home as would any careful builder: layer by layer, starting from the general and working to the particulars.

This brand new, uncorrupted home speaks His love and careful attention in every detail. As Isaiah 45:18 says, “He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited.” (NASB)

Examine human handiwork under a microscope, and the closer you look, the more rough edges you find. It’s inevitable. Our tools and manual abilities are limited. But look at God’s handiwork under a microscope, and the deeper you go, the more organization and detail you find.

Look at His creation from a broader and broader perspective, and you find more and more order and meaning. Look at smaller and smaller levels, and the same is true. His wisdom and care extend to infinity in both directions, to galaxies and beyond, and to sub-atomic worlds and below. His marvelous world speaks truths about Him that words cannot capture.

Our Relationship with God

2015-01-23 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Genesis 1:26 – 2:9

What is the basis for God’s claim on us? Why is He interested in us, and why are we obligated to Him? Why can’t we simply ignore Him the way we ignore many other beings in our universe? Does He demand our obedience because of His raw power? Does He get attention because He’s simply the biggest bully on the block?

God created us. We cannot ignore Him because we are His. We are permanently, totally, inescapably linked to Him.

Specifically, He created us from Himself. We are patterned after Him. To understand ourselves, we must understand Him. He is deeply, unavoidably relevant to us. He is the source, the pattern, and the goal for all we are. Our entire existence, our whole being is wrapped up in Him.

In Him we live and move and exist. (Acts 17:28, NASB)

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

Get the big picture: dwelling in unmeasured eternity is a self-existent Being, complete and at peace in Himself. He is complete in power, wisdom, and love. His love comes not from need – need for us, or for fellowship, or for anything else. The opposite is true. His love comes from His fullness, not need. He is forever full to overflowing. From this overflowing, this giving, this love, He conceives the idea of creating…creating a race of beings somehow like Himself. He sets about to create a home for these beings, a home that meets all their needs – not just physical needs, but needs for beauty, order, rulership, challenge, discovery, and responsibility…the need to know their Creator.

God created all that is, and specifically, He created us from Himself and for Himself. That truth should transform our entire understanding of Him, ourselves, life, and all of reality.

Help Me to Know You

2015-01-15 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

You are the Creator.
I am Your creature.
Help me to know You.

You are Spirit.
I am dust.
Help me to know You.

I want to see You,
but You overflow every object and every image.
Help me to know You.

I am small and fragmented.
You are beautifully, wonderfully complete.
You are Father and Friend,
Warrior and Shepherd,
Potter and Teacher and King.
You speak Your truth through stories.
You express Your heart through songs.
You show me Yourself
through history and law,
through poems and visions,
through every season and every sensation of life.

Unseen God,
Who You are determines
who I am and
who I am becoming.
Help me to know You.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: The Truth of God Is Greater Far
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Printed Music & Lyrics

Why Study the Old Testament?

2015-01-13 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Matthew 5:17-19; 13:52; Luke 24:13-27

Jesus Christ is the full and final picture of God, and the New Testament is the definitive account of His life and teachings. So why should we study the Old Testament? Isn’t it completely outmoded and replaced by the New Testament? Isn’t it now irrelevant?

Without the Old Testament—without the law, the history, the Psalms, and the prophets—we cannot fully understand and appreciate Jesus Christ. They form the necessary backdrop for all He is and all He has done. Without them, we can’t fully receive Him as the fulfillment of all God’s promises and purposes, as our Sacrifice, our Great High Priest, our Redeemer, and our King. The Old Testament places Jesus in the full context of God’s magnificent plan to save us, bless us, and draw us to Himself.

Remember:

  • In Matthew 5:17-18, Jesus said that He didn’t come to replace the Old Testament but to fulfill it…to accomplish it…to bring it to its full importance.
  • The Old Testament was the Word of God for Jesus, Paul, and all the New Testament writers. It fully informed their understanding of God and salvation.
  • The Bible is a history of God’s dealings with His people. We watch as God interacts with them…with us…in all kinds of settings and needs. The New Testament provides about 60 years of that history. The Old Testament provides over 1,000 years of that history. It is a vast picture of our unchanging God. Actually, it is many pictures. It is the foundation and context for everything the New Testament says.

If you long to know Jesus better, read the Old Testament. Its beauty, depth, and importance will speak for themselves.

Does It Matter How We Picture God?

2015-01-08 Devotional, Pictures of God One comment

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Hosea 6:1-6

If all our mental pictures of God are inevitably incomplete, does it matter how we think of Him? If knowing Him fully is impossible, why try?

Think about this:

  • If we believe that God is like the Greek and Roman gods, powerful yet as flawed and selfish as human beings, how will we live?
  • If we believe that He is violent, heavy-handed, and vengeful toward his enemies, how will we live?
  • If we think of Him like the deists, as a cosmic clock-maker who created the world, wound it up, then walked off to let it run on its own, how will we live?

Some people picture God as a harsh, narrow-minded taskmaster, always pushing them around, always eager to swoop down on them whenever they do the slightest wrong. Often such people live fearful lives, never learning to love and trust Him. They never find peace, acceptance, and belonging in His arms.

For others, God is like Santa Claus or a kindly old grandfather. His only role is to smile and hand out treats. But if our God doesn’t provide or demand discipline, how will we withstand the onslaught of temptation?

But what is more, knowing God is not just a means to an end. It is not just a path to a good life. Knowing God—not simply knowing about Him, but knowing Him—is itself life’s greatest privilege, joy, and fulfillment. Knowing Him aligns us with the truth, with reality. It puts us in harmony with Him and at peace with Him.

God has fully invested Himself in helping us to truly, deeply, personally know Him. Does it matter how we picture Him? Does it matter how we think of Him and how well we know Him? It matters. It matters very much. It matters now, and it will matter throughout eternity.

Revealed by Mystery

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

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Psalm 19:1-6

If you were to draw a picture of God, what would He look like? How would you picture a God who cannot be pictured?

He is spirit, unlimited by matter. But we are material creatures living in a material world. To us, matter is reality. Sight is one of our main ways of perceiving the world around us. So how do we know an immaterial God? How do we picture Him, grasp Him, imagine Him, relate to Him?

Realize this: God created matter to reveal Himself, not obscure Himself. He conceived and created this material world and the senses that perceive it in order to point us toward Him, not away from Him. Sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste were designed to draw us toward the God Who is far beyond them all.

This magnificent, material, sensual world points us to a Source profoundly greater than itself. Its wonders prod us to look up. They challenge us to imagine something or Someone beyond imagining. They introduce us to a God who is far more than our God-given intelligence can fully grasp. This majestic, intricate universe is just the appetizer, the teaser, the opening phrase of the symphony that is our Glorious God Himself.

God’s mystery doesn’t hide Him. It begins to reveal Him. The Unknowable One is intent on being known. He is intent on being known by you.

Which Is More Valuable?

2014-12-25 Devotional No comments

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 

For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 

But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(1 Corinthians 13:8-13, NASB)

Imagine how our society would rank the following in value:

  • an intelligent person
  • one who could foretell the future
  • a loving person

It’s obvious. Highly intelligent people are put on a pedestal. Those who can foretell the future are almost gods. Being loving is “nice” and admirable, but it’s not highly sought or greatly esteemed.

But read the scripture above. Knowledge is partial and temporary. Is anything more riddled with error than an outdated science textbook? True prophecies are rare. But even they, once fulfilled, simply become part of yesterday’s newspaper.

Love is the one treasure that time and change will never supersede. It becomes more precious as the years pass.

Keys to Happy Relationships

2014-12-18 Devotional No comments

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:31-32, NASB)

Good relationships within the Church aren’t automatic. They require effort: compassion, patience, forbearance, and forgiveness. Good relationships in the Church require the same effort as good relationships in the home:

  • Remember to think of the other person’s feelings and welfare first, and yourself second.
  • Be willing to “go the extra mile” again and again and again.
  • Give of yourself freely, without keeping a balance sheet.
  • Even in their weakest moments, when they seem the most annoying and unreasonable, even when you are absolutely positive that the blame is entirely theirs, go out of your way to understand them and care about their feelings and see the situation through their eyes.

It Doesn’t Matter

2014-12-11 Devotional 2 comments

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. (Philippians 4:11, NIV)

For many years I played volleyball or basketball almost daily. I was a mediocre athlete on my best day, but I wanted to play well. When I didn’t, when I made stupid mistakes, I was frustrated.

But eventually I realized that what was bothering me was of no real consequence. I realized that If it doesn’t matter to me, it doesn’t matter. Once the game was done and life had moved on, no one else cared. No one around me was affected one way or another. If I released the question, it would be gone forever.

Lord, how many of my concerns still fall into that category: If it doesn’t matter to me, it doesn’t matter. Help me to set aside these meaningless concerns. Free me from self-centered fears, and let love guide all my concerns.

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