Archive for Magnificent God

Children: God’s Living Promise

2021-06-04 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

Children are a gift of the Lord. (Psalm 127:3, NASB)

Why does our loving God continue to send helpless infants into this horrific world? They arrive totally dependent, entering every conceivable circumstance, including the most cruel and inhumane. There they are too often neglected and brutally victimized by the darkest human evil.

Why does God continue to send us children?

Remember God’s promise to Noah. Faced with the relentless evil of the human race, God gave us a new start through Noah and his family. Then He promised all life on earth that no matter how awful evil became, death would not win. Life would win. Then He gave the rainbow as His beautiful reminder of that promise.

Children are God’s living rainbow. They are His gift of life, of future, of hope. They are His beautiful, tender, tangible assurance that, in the face of all that evil can do, LIFE WILL WIN.

Evil seems powerful and pervasive.
But its time is strictly limited.
It is a beast that
charges in and rages
but is doomed to die.

Hymn: Snowflakes

Live Love

2021-05-28 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

All those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.

Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. (Acts 2:44-47, NASB)

Imagine a world where everyone loves everyone else, sincerely, from the heart.

Imagine a place where people speak of each other only what is true, and only what will build each other up;

  • a place where everyone treats others the way they themselves want to be treated;
  • a place where self-centeredness, greed, and fighting are gone;
  • a place where people live each day as joined to everyone else, as part of each other, as members of one body;
  • a place where gentleness and kindness are highly prized;
  • a place where forgiveness, patience, and forbearance are the norm;
  • a place where need is no more, since each person shares what they have, freely and unafraid;
  • a place where everything, everything is done in love.

Wouldn’t you like to live in such a place? That’s the kind of world our Creator is building. And that’s the kind of life He wants for you. He wants to grow it in you. He wants to help you live such love in your home, on your job, in your neighborhood, among your friends. And He wants to start today.

But how could anyone live such a life in this world of greed and brute force? What’s more, how can we live that kind of love when selfishness is so deeply rooted within us?

The good news is this: God is love (1 John 4:16). Our Creator is love. The One who designed this world designed it for love. The One who designed us designed us for love. Love is our purpose, our heritage, our destiny. Love is the rich life, the full life, the natural life that He is giving to every one of us.

A life of love is not an heroic feat of self-control. As we trust Him simply, step-by-step, we grow in Him. As we grow in Him, He grows in us. His love grows in us. It begins as a tiny seed and grows into a beautiful tree that gives shelter and nourishment to everyone around.

Look around you.
The entire earthly kingdom that runs on
greed and
self-indulgence,
now so dominant and pervasive,
will be judged by Almighty God and
utterly destroyed.
He will create a brand new society.

Hymn: Lord, You Are Love

Invest in Forever

2021-05-21 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

“Lift up your eyes to the sky,
Then look to the earth beneath;
For the sky will vanish like smoke,
And the earth will wear out like a garment
And its inhabitants will die in like manner;
But My salvation will be forever.”                                                 
(Isaiah 51:6, NASB)

Earth is temporary.
God is forever.

Don’t invest your life in material things.
Their satisfactions are shallow and temporary.
Don’t fear people.
Don’t focus on pleasing them.
They are here for only a breath.
God and His marvelous blessings
will last forever.
No matter how this temporary world looks or feels around you,
invest your life in Him.
Seek Him.
Worship Him.

Father, our physical world seems so
lasting and
all-encompassing,
but You know it will
burn away like
a morning mist.
Don’t let it seduce us.
Keep our hearts fixed on You.
You are truth.
You are forever.

Hymn: Great Lord of All Reality

All in All

2021-05-14 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:17, NASB)

Christianity is not a philosophy. It is faith in a Living God who acts in human history.

He is the Creator, the source and fountain of all reality. All that is flows from Him.

In him we love and move and have our being (Acts 17:28, NIV). Life is His personal gift to us, and He constantly works to enrich it in us. To all who will simply trust Him, He offers His own Spirit, with all His peace, love, and sufficiency. All that is good happens through Him. We could not seek Him, know Him, or come to Him on our own, but He relentlessly works to draw us to Himself.

He is the goal of all life. He is our destiny, our culmination, our heaven, the sum of all reality. All creation is moving toward Him. As we trust Him, each of us is becoming one with Him and in Him.

From him and
through him and
to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever!
(Romans 11:36, NIV)

Human history seems to be
an endless parade of
conquerors,
wars,
famine, and
death.
Victims are forever awaiting justice.
But all this is not
our source or
our destination.
Creation began in God Almighty,
high and exalted.
It will culminate in Him.

Hymn: I Cannot Tell

Praise

2021-05-07 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

I will extol You, my God, O King,
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised,
And His greatness is unsearchable.
(Psalm 145:1-3, NASB)

The more I know God, the more I realize that my response to Him is cold and inadequate. He is the Sovereign God, the Creator who overflows our sprawling universe, the One who holds insignificant me in His hand and in His heart, who constantly lavishes on me His attention and His most tender love and care, the One who poured Himself out and groaned and bled and died for me. Yet my response to Him is so occasional, so shallow, so distracted, so half-hearted.

I don’t necessarily want more emotion in my worship. I want to be more aware of God…to always be centered on Him…to have an open line of communication between us every moment…to trust Him simply and constantly.  I want to spend less time longing for what I don’t have and more time thanking and praising Him for all that He constantly gives me. I want a living praise, a continual response to His presence.

The Psalms prod me toward such praise:

Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name. (103:1, NIV)

I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. (146:2, NIV)

I have no hope that I can give Almighty God adequate praise. But His Spirit is faithfully drawing me to Him. The closer I live to Him, the more natural and heartfelt praise becomes. Read Isaiah 6 and Revelation 5. Those who stand before God’s throne need no prodding to praise Him. How can they possibly do anything else?

That is my destiny. That is the destiny of all who trust Him. We will live in His immediate presence together, forever, responding to Who He is:

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”
(Revelation 5:13, NIV)

One day, the reality of
all Jesus is and
all He has done
will sweep all creation up into
one mighty response of praise,
full heart and
full voice,
forever and ever!
Even then, His greatness will
far overshadow our small response.
For eternity His
overwhelming magnificence
will draw us into lives of
ever increasing worship and love.

Hymn: Psalm 148

You Are God

2021-04-30 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

God,
You whom I see so dimly and
trust so haltingly,
trust so haltingly,
You are GOD.
I look up and around me,
backward, then forward,
as far as my imagination can stretch,
and You are there.

Creator God,
You greet me when I rise in the morning.
God of Goliath and Jericho,
You invite me to trust You
when life seems impossible.
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
You will introduce yourself
to my great-great-grandchildren.
You will be God for them as well.
You wrap each of us,
with all time and space,
in Yourself.
And when You speak Your name,
it is Compassion,
it is Faithfulness,
it is Father.

O Lord, my Lord,
how excellent is Your name in all the earth!
Let me hope in nothing else,
let me long for nothing else,
let me worship nothing and no one else
but You,
Everlasting Father,
my God.

We fail to fully grasp the
wonderful reality of God because
in our small and self-centered hearts,
we cannot conceive any Being
so much greater than ourselves.

Hymn: All-in-all

One Thing I Seek

2021-04-23 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

Whom have I in heaven but you? . . .
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:25-26, NIV)

When I can finally see God for all He is to me –
            all that He always has been and always will be –
            so that anxiety and fear are lost in total trust;
When I have truly grasped His love,
            so that joy, rest, and belonging
            are deep and rich and constant;
When I am filled and dominated and totally led by His Spirit
            so that every desire, every thought,
            every motion of my being
            is in Him and prompted by Him;
What hunger will be left?

Psalm 27 expresses it this way:

One thing I ask of the Lord,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the Lord and to seek him. (v.4, NIV)

When I see Him fully and trust Him completely, the only thing I will still hunger for is Him. All the beauty, glory, and abundance of heaven will come from one Source: God himself. We will never be anything but completely dependent on Him – not on His gifts, but on Him.

Revelation 21:22-23 says that in His immediate presence, we will need no sun, moon, or temple. He himself is our warmth and our light. Our worship is face-to-face.

In His personal presence, Jesus’ simple statements about himself become personal truth:

I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35, NIV)

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness. (John 8:12, NIV)

I am the resurrection and the life . . . Whoever lives and believes in me will never die (John 11:25-26, NIV).

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. (Revelation 21:6, NIV)

Your heart can be captured by the living beauty and simplicity of the personal Christ. That beauty holds a bonding that grows stronger and stronger, prayer by prayer. As we trust Him and love Him, we find our needs and hungers met in Him. Every lesser desire gradually disappears into Him.

And in knowing and interacting with such a wonderful, infinite God, we never get to the point of feeling, “OK, that’s enough.” Even in our joyful satisfaction, the hunger remains, continuing to draw us into fuller friendship with Him.

All of history, all the vast universe – seen and unseen – and all the desires and hopes of humanity are summed up in Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10). That summing up is also an individual process. Let Him start it in you now. Let Him begin it in your heart, and He will spread it throughout your thoughts and feelings, your attitudes and lifestyle.

He has not put eternity’s best blessings out of your reach. They are as near as His presence, as near as looking to Him in simple faith.

Father,
I look forward to the day when we
see You,
know You, and
respond to You for
all You are.
That will be heaven!

Hymn: Psalm 84

Fearing Change

2021-04-16 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

“Listen to Me…
You who have been borne by Me from birth
And have been carried from the womb;
Even to your old age I will be the same,
And even to your graying years I will bear you!
I have done it, and I will carry you;
I will bear you and I will deliver you.”
“I, the Lord, do not change.”
(Isaiah 46:3-4; Malachi 3:6, NASB)

God of unfailing, unrestrainable love,
how often do I
resent and
resist
the blessings You send me!
I hide.
I argue.
I lash out.
I whine and complain like a child,
fearful of change.
I cling to my poverty because it is
familiar and
safe.

O Father, forgive me!
Forgive me for mistrusting Your love!
You are the unchanging God,
always only wisdom,
always only good,
always only bringing our best.
Through all the changes and seasons of life,
I will look to You.
I will bring my concerns to You.
I will trust You.
And then, even in my ignorance,
I will rejoice in what
Your omniscient love is doing for me.

You are good, Father!
You are always good, and
Your love endures forever!

Wars,
betrayal,
persecution,
deception,
disasters, and
death
are part of the inevitable course of this world.
But stay confident:
God is still in control of the outcome.
All will serve His loving purpose.

Hymn: Unchanging Father

Dangling Threads

2021-04-09 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

As for me, I trust in You, O Lord,
I say, “You are my God.”
(Psalm 31:14, NASB)

Father, I bring You all the dangling threads of my life.

I bring you that annoying little task that has me stuck.
I can’t move forward, and
I can’t walk away.

I bring you that matter where all I can do is wait.
I am totally dependent on someone else, and
they are in no hurry.

I bring you that huge project that I’m just beginning.
I feel swamped with unknowns and
in over my head.

I bring You that threat hanging over me
that seeks to steal my peace.

I bring you that unique idea, that deep desire
that has long weighed on my heart.
It keeps calling me,
pulling me.
It has never gone away after all these years.
Father, I believe You have planted it in me.
I believe You have set aside this task for me.
I’m convinced it would glorify You and
draw other people to You.
But every time I try to press ahead,
You seem to check me.
I feel nine-months pregnant,
but I can’t give birth.

And Father, I bring You that person
whom I love with all my heart.
They are so painfully, tragically incomplete.
O Lord, You know.

Father, I bring You all these dangling threads.
They keep my life unsettled.
They daily, hourly make me feel
ill-at-ease and
out of control.

Maybe that’s one reason You allow them to stay.
They keep me turning to You,
depending on You,
crying out to You.
You are the First and the Last,
the Source and the Goal.
You not only see the end from the beginning,
You are the ending.
All things are flowing from You and to You.
All things are complete in You.
At the perfect time and
in the perfect way,
You will beautifully finish everything You have begun.

I am a small-minded,
anxious,
time-bound creature,
at sea in a world beyond my understanding and control.
You are sovereign, wise, loving, and just.
You always do what is good and right.

Father, I will wait on You.

Who are we that we should ask God,
“Why are you doing this?”
It is the Lord—
that is enough.
Let him do what seems good to Him.
Let Him wound or heal,
bring pleasure or pain,
give life or death.
He is always the Lord.”
(paraphrased from Francois Fenelon)

Hymn: I Cannot See the Light, My Lord

Nine Months Pregnant

2021-04-02 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

“Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the Lord.(Isaiah 66:9, NIV)

I remember when my wife, Gloria, was pregnant with Jason, our first child. As we attended childbirth classes, she felt the insecurities that I’m sure most mothers-to-be share: Will I be able to do it? Will something go wrong? Even though I was only a coach and hand-holder, I too was apprehensive about the whole process.

I remember the teacher repeating to the class the same basic assurance over and over: childbirth is a natural function, and one way or another, the baby will be born. Unless you’ve been through it, that probably sounds laughable. But during the long months of waiting and wondering, we clung to those statements. And even when the day came, as Gloria’s intense pain gnawed relentlessly, and the hospital staff seemed so unhurried, we wondered if the delivery would ever really happen.

I’ve been through those times in my life. The relief that I desperately need, or the dream I cherish as deeply as life itself, doesn’t come for years…or decades. Most of us endure times when, in some important area, we feel nine months pregnant, with discomfort and pressure that won’t quit, but no relief in sight. We feel full term, but God is in no hurry.

During my “labor”, Isaiah 66:9 brings me assurance that helps me not only endure, but rejoice. I can testify that God never begins anything in our lives that He won’t finish – beautifully, completely, and perfectly. All that His love has conceived, He will deliver, and at the right time.

If you’re feeling nine months pregnant, learn to rest in Him more constantly and completely. He is drawing you to Himself. Even as you wait, He is working all things for your good and for the blessing of those around you.

God,
I cannot trace all Your ways,
but I know that You will always be the
all-powerful,
all-wise,
all-loving Father
that You are right now.
I trust You.

Hymn: Wait on the Lord

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