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1 Samuel 12:3

Finishing Well

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 22, 2024

The prophet that anointed Saul had served Israel faithfully for his entire life. We remember the barren Hannah, his mother, who dedicated his life to serving God if He would bless her with a son. God gave her Samuel. She weened him and turned him over to the Priests. Eli was not the most faithful of priests, and his sons, Hophni and Phineas, were the worst possible priests. In spite of that, Samuel faithfully served God. In 1 Samuel 12:3, Samuel seems to be turning over the reins of the kingdom to Saul in his farewell address. He describes himself by saying, “I am old and grey, and my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this day… whose ox have I taken? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I taken a bribe?” The nation responds with the pronouncement of innocence of Samuel.” Samuel lived his life in a glass bowl for the entire nation of Israel to observe. In the end, there is no one to make a charge against him. What a wonderful way to finish.

Ogilvie comments, “The integrity of Samuel stands as a model for us today. I can still remember the shock that many registered when they learned that bribes are a standard part of doing business in many countries. There was almost a patronizing tone in the voices of those who insisted that though we do not believe in these practices, we have no other option if we hope to be involved in world trade. But in recent years, we have had stockbrokers imprisoned for insider trading, defense contractors fined for cheating the public out of hundreds of millions of dollars, enthusiastic alumni exposed for paying money under the table to college athletes, and countless public officials convicted for betraying the public trust. While we live in a high-tech society with amazing potential for improving the lot of people, improvement isn’t happening because there are too many people in too many high places whose lives and work lack integrity. To be able to come to the end of a career of any sort with Samuel’s ‘clean hands’ would be a noble goal for anyone.”

Well, I think it is probably too late for most of us. We’ve already messed up our lives and reputations in one way or another, but maybe we can finish well. Although I’ve had a rocky start in life, I sure would love to finish well. In the culture we live in, this is not an easy task. More than how you start, it is how you finish. One writer observed, “Leaving a rich legacy depends upon finishing well, and the odds are against you. Research on leaders from biblical and church history has documented the fact that few leave a positive legacy. In fact, according to Dr. Robert Clinton, only about one in three leaders finish well. The odds in the marketplace maybe even worse. From Enron’s corporate fraud to the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandals to the headlines of the local paper, we are bombarded with real-life reminders that it is difficult to achieve great things, maintain integrity, and finish well. Many capable people who have had worthy dreams have failed to leave a positive legacy because they could not overcome flaws in their character. This is the legacy challenge—the difference between achievement and character, the gap between doing and being.”[1]

[1] Moore, Steve. 2004. The Dream Cycle: Identify and Achieve God’s Purpose for Your Life. Indianapolis, IN: WPH.

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1 Samuel 11:2

Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 21, 2024

Saul is the first king of Israel. He’s anointed as such under the direction of the prophet Samuel. There is no unanimous support for Saul. He has his naysayers. Doesn’t everyone?  Although he didn’t end too well, I think Saul had a good beginning. Chapter 11 of 1 Samuel records Saul’s first official act as king. It also answers the critics of chapter ten who say, “How can this man save us?” Jabesh-Gilead is under attack from the Ammonites. They appealed for peace and offered the terms that every citizen must have one eye gouged out. If they submitted to this condition, the Ammonites would let them live. The elders of Jabesh sent a plea for help to all of Israel, but no one would come! They were too wrapped up in “everyman doing what was right in his own eyes” to get involved with other’s problems. But when the message came to Saul, He came up with a way to motivate the nation to defend their own. He sent pieces of a divided carcass to the cities with an angry response, “Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen.”

For the first time since Joshua, Israel received a command with authority from a central government. When the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul, it was made clear that the nation could not long survive with everyone concerned only about their own interests. It was absolutely essential for them to shift from “doing their own thing” to “I am my brother’s keeper.” Amos 6:1 tells us what God thinks of the complacent. “Woe to those who live at ease” while the nation suffers. The people recognized the evil being perpetrated on their own kin by the Ammonites, but for personal convenience’s sake, they didn’t want to get involved. Amos’ condemnation involves God’s indictment of those who stand by and watch when they could have helped.

In the middle of the great depression back in the early ’30s, Herbert Hoover said, ” Time and time again, the American people have demonstrated a spiritual quality, a capacity for unity of action, of generosity, a certainty of results in time of emergency that have made them great in the annals of the history of all nations. This is the time, and this is the occasion when we must arouse that idealism, that spirit. … This civilization and this great complex, which we call American life, is built and can alone survive upon the translation into individual action of that fundamental philosophy announced by the Savior nineteen centuries ago. Part of our national suffering today is from failure to observe these primary yet inexorable laws of human relationships. Modern society can not survive with the defense of Cain, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Saul’s first act was to mobilize the nation to defend its citizens against its enemies. He had a good start.

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Joel 3:14,

The Valley Of Decision

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 20, 2024

The minor prophets as a whole, and Joel very specifically, present God’s call to His prodigal children to repent and return to the God that saved us. His generation had to make a decision. Every generation has to make a decision. You and I have to make a decision. The third chapter of Joel informs us that God will one day make a decision regarding our decisions. In 3:14, Joel calls this the Valley of Decision. He says that there will be many in that valley. He writes, “Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.” Everyone has to decide!

I hate decisions! I can’t decide what kind of razor blades to buy anymore. There are just too many to choose from. But deciding what’s really important is inescapable for each of us. I’ve met people who have been introduced to the Gospel message yet have made no personal decision regarding it. They’d rather not deal with it. I know I put off the decision personally until I was nearly 32 years old. But not making a decision is making a decision. It’s deciding not to. Indecision is a decision for the negative. In the Valley of Decision, God will decide regarding our indecision and our decisions. Guzik says, “The idea of the ‘Valley of Decision’  has been used in countless evangelistic meetings to show people that they stand in the ‘Valley of Decision’ and must decide for or against Jesus. Joel’s context is exactly the opposite. Man does indeed stand in the valley of decision, but it is God who does the deciding, not man. It is a valley of judgment—and we should decide for Jesus right now, so we never stand in this valley of decision.”[1]

Ronald Reagan once had an aunt who took him to a cobbler for a pair of new shoes.  The cobbler asked young Reagan, “Do you want square toes or round toes?”  Unable to decide, Reagan didn’t answer, so the cobbler gave him a few days.  Several days later, the cobbler saw Reagan on the street and asked him again what kind of toes he wanted on his shoes.  Reagan still couldn’t decide, so the shoemaker replied, “Well, come by in a couple of days.  Your shoes will be ready.”  When the future president did so, he found one square-toed and one round-toed shoe! “I learned right then and there,” Reagan said later, “if you don’t make your own decisions, someone else will.” Joshua challenged the Israelites as they were struggling with the temptations of the gods of the land they were supposed to subdue. He said in Joshua 24:15, “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

[1] Guzik, David. 2000. Joel. David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible. Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

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Joel 2:28, Various

Pouring Out The Spirit

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 19, 2024

Joel talks about the future restoration of a repentant people. In Joel 2:28, There will come a day, God says, when “I will pour out my spirit on all people.” The “pouring out” is a fascinating concept. Samuel anointed David as the King of Israel by “pouring” oil over his head. At that moment, David is filled with God’s spirit for the task of leadership. At that same time, the Spirit leaves Saul. Without the Spirit, Saul becomes despondent and depressed and has fits of rage and irrational behavior. David, the one with the Spirit, comes to play music to soothe his ravaged psyche. It’s almost as if there is not enough of the Spirit to go around. But Joel tells us that one day, there will be enough for everyone. The passage goes on to say, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” As an old man, I can verify that we dream dreams, as Joel says. I’ve never had as many dreams as I have in the past year or so. They have not all been good, so I believe that Joel means something different than the kind of dreams I have.

Peter explains that the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. All Christians, upon coming to faith in Jesus, receive the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit is now freely given to all believers. There is enough for us all. Paul tells Titus that God “saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” (Titus 3:5-6) Lang suggests, “The significance of Joel’s prophecy is that in the Old Testament, the Spirit empowered only a select few people—prophets, military deliverers, and kings. The early Christians saw the Spirit empowering all who put their faith in Christ, fulfilling Joel’s prophecy.”[1]

It is the refreshing rain that the crops need to produce fruit. Isaiah puts it this way, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.”  With the pouring out of God’s Spirit, the ground is refreshed, and it produces fruit. With Christ as our Savior, God pours out his Spirit on us also. The refreshment of the Spirit brings forth fruit in our lives. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

[1] Lang, J. Stephen. 1999. 1,001 Things You Always Wanted to Know about the Holy Spirit. Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.

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Joel 2:21-25, Various

Rejoice In The Lord!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 18, 2024

Joel calls the people to rend their hearts rather than their garments and to return to the God who loves them, and He will multiply His blessings upon them. If they respond accordingly, God will turn His judgment into His blessings. God is a gracious and merciful God ready to forgive and restore at any moment. Because this is the kind of God we worship, Joel says in Joel 2:21-23, “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things! …Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God.”

When Paul said, in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord,” he was not coining a new phrase. He was simply quoting an Old Testament command that appears in Psalm 32, Psalm 64, Psalm 104, and here in Joel 2. The Hebrew word for rejoice has as its root meaning to shine or be bright. So, the exhortation to rejoice means to “brighten up.” Put on your happy face! Smile! Lift up your countenance. Why? Joel goes on to speak for God in 2:25. We should rejoice and be happy and smile and brighten up after repentance and turn back to God because God says, “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,  my great army, which I sent among you.”

It took Michelangelo 5 years of lying on his back to produce his masterpiece on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Within a century, no one remembered the bright, brilliant colors of the original work. In 1936, another painter, using a special solution, cleaned the frescoes for the first time. No one had imagined that beneath centuries of grime lay such vibrant colors. The complete restoration of the Sistine Chapel was completed in December of 1989. The result was breathtaking. For the first time in 500 years, people viewed the masterpiece the way it was intended, with all the color and beauty. This is what God does for the repentant soul. Jeremiah 30:17 says, “For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the LORD.”

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Ephesians 6:2-3

Live Long And Prosper

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 17, 2024

Only the good die young! We’ve heard that a thousand times. It’s a very popular saying, and Billy Joel made a million dollars on a song by the same name! Whenever we see someone die before his expected time, we often say that.  Does that mean that those who live to be a ripe old age are not good? The Bible says differently. The patriarchs all lived to “ripe old age.” Furthermore, one of the Ten Commandments promises that children will live long if they honor their parents. Some argue that the Commandment, as recorded in Exodus doesn’t refer to a physical long life, but rather to a long occupancy of the land that God was personally giving to Israel. I wouldn’t deny the truth of that promise, yet the focus on this Commandment, along with the associated promise, was repeated in Deuteronomy 5:16 with a focus on individual lives. It reads, “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” Paul further uses the Deuteronomy passage and implies the promise is one of long physical life. Ephesians 6:2-3 says, “Honor your father and mother. That is the first commandment that has a promise. Then things will go well with you. You will live a long time on the earth.”

It’s heartbreaking to see someone die at a young age. I think of miscarriages that don’t get to see life. Abortion stops a life before it’s even begun. Kids are all good in God’s eyes. There are adults that die before their time that are good also. But the natural order is to live a long life. Whereas the good often do die young, the good more often live a long, healthy, productive, and happy lives. Even Spock knows that one of the most profound blessings that can be pronounced on someone is to “live long and prosper.” It is a true honor and privilege to see your children’s children and even more to see your children’s children’s children.  Through all the pain and suffering that Job endured, the final verses record God’s blessings on his life. It says, “And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations.  And Job died, an old man, and full of days” (Job 42:16-17)

It is not easy for some to honor their fathers because of their history. Some fathers have not been all that they should have been. Some have even maliciously harmed their children and have so alienated them that there is little if any, hope for reconciliation.  Yet, the Bible tells us to honor our parents. It doesn’t say that they deserve it.  The three biblical reasons for honoring Fathers have nothing to do with the worthiness of the parent.  We should honor our earthly father because it’s the right thing to do (Ephesians 6:1). Colossians adds another good reason: “for this pleases the Lord” (Colossians 3:20). But the reason that God gives in the Commandment itself is that honoring our parents serves our own best interests in the long run. Even though God’s greater purposes sometimes bring about untimely deaths of good people, anyone who wants to live long and prosper should take advantage of this special weekend to honor their father regardless of their perceived worthiness.

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Romans 5:12, Genesis 3

“Adam, Where Are You”?

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 16, 2024

This weekend, we’ll be celebrating Father’s Day.  It comes after Mother’s Day. That’s so the bills for Mother’s Day will arrive just in time for Father’s Day. A small boy’s definition: “Father’s Day is just like Mother’s Day, only you don’t spend as much on the present.” In my collection of illustrations for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, I find that there are way more jokes about fathers than about mothers. Mothers are honored more, while fathers are exhorted more.  Everywhere I look, I find fathers being exhorted and challenged to be better fathers in all the facets that entails. I’ve been troubled about it more than once. I think I’ve found the answer! It’s simple: men “ARE” responsible. This will sound very sexist. I don’t care!

In Romans Chapter 5, Paul contrasts Adam, the first man and the father of all humanity with Jesus Christ, who he calls the second Adam, the founder and father of a new humanity. In verse 12, he says, “Therefore just as through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world and death through sin …” If we would just consider the implications of this verse with reference to Fathers in General, I think we’d see a certain responsibility for the act of rebellion that condemned all his ancestors to death.  Further, even though Eve was the one, Satan picked to tempt with the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and even though she was the first one to eat of the tree, that didn’t make any difference to God in Genesis 3, nor to Paul in Romans 5. God and Paul both hold the man responsible for the rebellion. In Genesis 3:9, we read, “The LORD God called the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He didn’t call the couple. He called Adam. The responsibility was his. And when Paul talks about how sin entered the world and how we are all now sinners because of that first sin, he looks straight to Adam and not to Eve as the responsible one. Men have a spiritual obligation that cannot be passed on to others.

This has been demonstrated over and over again in studies on the Family and spirituality.  According to a reliable and popular study, we find that if both your parents worshipped with you regularly while you were growing up, there’s an 80 percent likelihood that you’ll worship God regularly as an adult. If only your mother worshipped regularly with you, there’s only a 30 percent probability that you’ll worship regularly as an adult. If only your father worshipped regularly with you, the likelihood that you’ll worship regularly as an adult increases to 70 percent!  Fathers have an enormous impact on their children’s faith and values. One of a father’s most important ministries is worshipping with their kids! Yet, in the church (including mine), there are more women in attendance, more serving, and more in most ministries. I think God is still asking, “Adam, where are you?”

 

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Joel 2:13, Malachi 3:7

Return To Me!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 15, 2024

My favorite verse from the book of Joel, from the Old Testament, is 2:13. To understand it fully, you must understand the context. Joel points out the sin of Israel in that they have turned from worshipping the one true God to serving the gods of the peoples in the land. Thus, the curses of Deuteronomy 28 and following are about to fall upon them. He uses the powerful image of a plague of locusts that devastate the land at the time of harvest to picture the destruction that will fall upon the entire nation at the hands of their northern enemies. This destruction that’s coming is the result of God’s judgment on his people. But Joel calls them to repent. It’s not too late. He says, “Yet even now, declares the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”

Ezekiel teaches us that God takes no delight in judging the wicked. Rather, He longs to extend grace and forgiveness to all. The only requirement is a “broken heart.” Rending of one’s clothing was an external display of grief, sorrow, regret, and remorse. To “rend your heart” signified inward, spiritual repentance and sorrow for sin. God’s primary requirement from sinners is given in Psalm 51:17. It says, “The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” Ogilvie says, “One moving experience of reading the Bible in Hebrew is to see the word repent used both of people and of God and to realize that this word is used more often of God’s response to people than of people’s response to God. The word implies a complete change of direction or change of mind. When we turn from disobedience and return to the Lord, He changes His mind and direction from judgment to blessing. In this sense, the will of God is not immutable. He has given us the awesome responsibility of choice and takes our choices seriously, responding accordingly.”

The message I like most of all is the part that tells me it’s not too late. I have a print (19.95 on Amazon) of Rembrandt’s “Prodigal,” which pictures the repentant son returning from the faraway land where he squandered what he had been given by the father on sin and riotous living. Worn and haggard, He is on his knees before the father. The father is welcoming him home with open arms. The prodigal son waited until there were no more resources for him to squander before returning to the father. He expected just to be a servant in his father’s house, but his father would have none of that and welcomed him home as the son that he was. It wasn’t too late for him, and it wasn’t even too late for the thief on the cross. He only said a couple of things. He said that Jesus was innocent, and he and the other thief were getting what they deserved. Then, he asked Jesus to remember him when He entered into His kingdom. Jesus said, “It’s not too late for you. Today, you will be with me in my kingdom of Paradise.” The father of the prodigal son never gave up on his wayward son. God never gave up on the thief on the cross. God never gave up on his people, Israel either. He’ll never give up on you or me, either. Malachi reminds us, “Return to Me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts.” Malachi 3:7

 

 

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