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Isaiah 7:14, Acts 7:9-10, Judges 2:18

O Come, O Come…

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 6, 2018

Immanuel! We hear this word a lot during the Christmas season. In Isaiah 7:14 the Lord promised Ahaz a sign, “behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” It means “God with us.” This verse has been a key one for establishing the deity of Christ. Jesus was not a created being but the “only begotten son” of God himself. Jesus was God in the flesh and he left his home on high to pitch his tent “tabernacle” with us, to be with us, to enter into our experience. Jesus was in a very real sense God with us in the flesh. But what does it mean for “God to be with us.”

Acts 7:9-10, tells us that God was with Joseph when his brothers sold him into slavery. That verse says, “God  was with him and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom…” The book of Judges teaches us that “God was with” all of the Judges. Judges 2:18 says, “Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies…” The name “Immanuel” might mean a lot of things but we have good reason to believe that it means God will rescue us from our afflictions and he will fight for us and give us victory over our enemies.

My favorite Christmas Hymn is “O Come, O Come Immanuel…” One of the lessor known verses of this hymn is the prayer for the Christ, the Messiah, to rescue us from our afflictions. It goes like this, “O come, O Bright and Morning Star, and bring us comfort from afar! Dispel the shadows of the night and turn our darkness into light.” Another verse addresses his victory over our ultimate enemy. It goes like this, “O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free Thine own from Satan’s tyranny. From depths of hell Thy people save And give them victory o’er the grave.” My point is that “Immanuel” has come in the person of Christ. He is indeed with us through faith as he was with Joseph in his trials and as he was with the Judges in bringing them victory.  In Christ we find eternal comfort amidst our trials. In Christ we find eternal victory over the last and greatest of our enemies.

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Luke 6:46

Why did you do that?

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 21, 2018

I remember doing some pretty stupid things as a kid. I stole some ball-bearings from a neighbors garage to use as ammunition for my sling shot! I was to find out they were precision bearings used for sophisticated machinery and were very expensive. My dad asked me “what in the world were you thinking?” I was caught cheating on a midterm exam while taking a makeup summer school course in bookkeeping at Tech High School back in 1961. My dad asked, “why would you do such a thing?” My answer for both of these questions was “I dunno.” I’ve heard my kids answer similar questions that I’ve asked them about “why” they did or did not do what they were supposed to and the answer was, “I dunno.”   But the question is not really a question seeking an answer, is it? It’s a condemnation of said behavior and when you hear that question you don’t think about the answer.  You understand the question to be a rebuke to drive home the “errors” of my ways to inspire me to try harder.

After teaching about loving enemies and doing good to those that wrong you and the folly of judging others and other difficult instructions, Jesus asked his followers a question.  In Luke 6:46, He said, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you to do?” Almost every commentator I read on this verse suggests in one way or another that this is a question of condemnation. It’s not a true question calling for reflection and self-examination.  I think they are all wrong! I think Jesus was pointing out a truth about ourselves that would shake us to our very foundation.  Why don’t we obey Jesus’ commands? It’s really very simple! We can’t! We might want to and long to but the truth of our very make-up makes it impossible for us to do so. This is what the Bible means by true “repentance.”

The commentators suggest that Jesus is asking this question to guilt us into becoming better people. I think that’s what my father’s questions to me and my questions to my kids were. But I do not see Jesus doing that. I see him lovingly prodding us in our thinking to come to understand a state of affairs in this life that He had to manage for us on the Cross of Calvary. As long as we keep reading the Bible as instructions for becoming better people, we’ll never understand God’s loving interaction with us through His Son that can save us from ourselves.

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Jeremiah 7:9, Genesis 3:1, 2 Corinthians 11:14

All That Glitters is not Gold!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 10, 2018

As I was studying Jeremiah Chapter 7, verses 8 and 9, I remembered some lyrics from an old song from 1970.  I remember way too many of the popular songs from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. I’ve always enjoyed Linda Ronstadt’s music. One of my favorite songs that she made famous is titled, “A Long, Long Time.” In this song she sings to a man she has loved for a long, long time but who had never loved her back. She says she has been living in the memory of the “love that never was.” In the course of her indictment of her false lover she says, “I can’t say you hurt me when you never let me near, and I never drew one response from you, all the while you fell all over girls you never knew.”

The last phrase of verse 9 is what brought this to mind. Jeremiah is speaking to God’s false lovers. God wanted nothing but an intimate loving relationship with his people but they weren’t interested. He did not draw the kind of response He wanted from them. They focused on ritual and rites and religious expressions but had no true heart for God. Jeremiah says that the people of Judah had forsaken their one true God and have been chasing “…after other gods that they have never known.”

That’s the hidden core of all temptation – the mysterious unknown! And what is even more attractive is the forbidden unknown! We are all there in some way and it began with Adam and Eve. We often wonder what was so attractive about a talking snake. But that was not the case. The Hebrew word in Genesis 3 that introduces us to Satan literally means “to shine.” As a noun it means “the shining one.” I guess that’s why Paul called Satan an “angel of light” in 2 Corinthians 11:14. Genesis calls him the most deceitful and beguiling creature in the world. He promises one thing but delivers another. He presents sin as something desirable hiding its ultimate destructive nature. But Jeremiah ends his indictment of Judah with the warning that following enticing, forbidden lovers will always end badly. It did for Judah and it will also end badly for us. Truly, all that glitters is not gold!

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Jeremiah 7:5-7

Religion Kills – Jesus Gives Life!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 5, 2018

Religion has been the deadliest thing throughout the entire history of the world. It’s the ugliest thing today as well. Convictions around specific doctrines, practices, and ideas coupled with intolerance for any other doctrine, practice or idea, has shed more blood and aroused more hatred between peoples, countries and races than anything else except maybe money. If you want to get a picture of that just study the progress of Christianity from the first Century to the present. Fox’s book of Martyrs tells the protestant side of the story but consider Constantine’s bloody conversion of the world in the name of Christ, the Holy Roman Empire’s battle with heresy and the inquisition. The Islamic move to convert the world with the sword, an effort not totally abandoned in some circles today.

Jesus did not come into the world to set up another religion that would put itself at odds with all the rest of them. He hates a system which promotes war between Protestants and Catholics or Christians and Muslims. I am convinced that Jesus hates religion! God loves the whole world. He loves all of His children, red and yellow, black and white; Hindu, Buddhists, and every other title you might slap on a “religious” system. He came, apart from Religion, to bring every one of His children into a loving relationship with the Father. No religion is any better than any other. They all fail! That’s why Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man can come to the father but through me.” Salvation has nothing to do with religion, but everything to do with God’s love for us as expressed on the cross.

Only grasping the Love of God will change us or the world. God’s greatest command has always been to love Him and each other. But it’s not that we loved Him, but “He loved us first.” We cannot give love away if we don’t have it. God lifts up His son on the cross and says to us “I love you with an everlasting love.” There will be a time when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. We will have a new Jerusalem; a new order when He is acknowledged as the king of kings and Lord of Lords and will dwell together in harmony as intended from the very beginning. It’s not religion and rituals that God wants! Jeremiah doesn’t applaud their religion. He condemns it and explains that God truly wants love. Consider this when you read Jeremiah 7:5-7. It says, “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.”

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Jeremiah 7:4, Romans 5:8

Don’t Kid Yourselves…

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 5, 2018

Many preachers like to say that biblical Christianity is not a religion but a relationship. I’ve always been one of those preachers. I do believe that is true and has always been true of God and man. God wants us to be open and honest with Him. He is always open and honest with us. Before Jesus speaks, He often says “truly, truly I say to you…” But we are not always open and honest with God. That’s strange to me because it’s truly impossible to hide anything from God. He is omniscient! That means He knows everything. But “omniscience” is not merely a theological doctrine; it’s a truth about God meant to bring about an open and loving relationship. When we say that God knows “everything” we must realize that it is a truth designed to draw us to Him, not drive us from Him in fear and guilt. We read that God knows the number of hairs on our head. That statement is presented to convince us of how close attention God pays to us. That’s a loving relationship.

The truth of God’s omniscience is something that lets us know that He knows all about our past. We have no skeletons in the closet with God. He loves us anyway. He knows all about our future! He knows how many times and in what ways we will fail Him tomorrow and He has chosen to love us in spite of it all. He knows all about our present. He knows that we all are failing Him in some way right now! Romans 5:8, says “while we are sinning” he demonstrates His love for us on the Cross. Everything about God and His revelation of Himself to us on Calvary in His Son shout “I love you with an everlasting love.” But unfortunately, most of us are satisfied with a connection with God founded in rituals, rites, ceremonies, and religious recitation of some formulas.

This is what Jeremiah indicted the people of Judah for. Religion was really not what God desired. It was an honest, open, and close relationship with His people. But the word of the day from the religious leaders was that we are safe in our rituals, rites, and ceremonies. “Don’t worry,” the Priests were telling the people, “we have the one true religion with its rituals and rites and we’re safe.” In Jeremiah 7:4, he tells them in so many words, “Don’t kid yourselves…” He writes, “Do not trust in these deceptive words: this is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.” God is not out for rituals, rites, rules, and religious words. He wants a loving relationship with each of us. If we can’t see that in all our blessings in life, surely we can see it on the cross of Calvary. But we so often miss it and look to some religious observations or rituals to be our connection with God. That’s too bad.

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Jeremiah 7:1-3, Romans 3:19-20

Ways and Deeds

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 5, 2018

In Chapter 7 of Jeremiah, God instructs Jeremiah regarding the message he is to deliver to the people of Judah.  God directs Jeremiah to the entrance of the House of the Lord, the Temple, where he is to call Israel to change their ways. The first three verses explain Jeremiah’s commission. It says, “The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD.’ Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.’”

Many sermons on this passage (and I’ve preached a few!) use it as an exhortation to rededicate ourselves to living more righteous lives and obeying the laws and commandments of God. If becoming personally more righteous ourselves is our goal, we’re doomed to failure. We must not forget the part of the Law that involves the sacrificial system. That system is designed for sinners! It involves trusting God’s ways in light of our failure under the law. But Judah didn’t acknowledge their sinfulness and their need for blood sacrifices. Instead they trusted in worldly resources to resolve their problems. They thought mobilizing a bigger army, or entering into treaties with the other nations around them and aligning with other religions would protect them from the Babylonian invaders. The “ways and deeds” involved trusting in the flesh (worldly solutions) to save them in their time of need. It’s easy to do that.

But God promised to save them if they changed their “ways and deeds.” God wanted them to first acknowledge their sinfulness. That was the ordained purpose of the law. Paul explained that in Romans 3:19-20. He says, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” God wanted them to recognize their failures under the law and trust Him to rescue them from their fate according to His promises. It’s similar today! God doesn’t call us to try harder to keep the law but to recognize our radical failure under the law and trust God to rescue us from our fate through His promised redeemer. The ultimate purpose of Jeremiah is to tell us how God will graciously save all sinners in spite of their disobedience, through the Messiah and the New Covenant (Jeremiah 30–33). The call is to trust God’s promise of redemption from our fate through personal faith in Jesus Christ.

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Isaiah 50:4-6, Matthew 11:28

Ears to hear

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 1, 2018

The Prophets are usually thought of as being those who “forth tell” God’s truth. Forth-telling is usually associated with instructions regarding man’s responsibility under the Law of Moses. It most often contains an element of condemnation for his hearers’ failure to live up to God’s standards. The Prophet is the “in your face” preacher who exposes your sinfulness and calls for you to change your ways.  The other aspect of an Old Testament Prophet seems to be the foretelling of judgment that will fall upon the wretched sinners for their forsaking God’s ways. The judgments are severe and devastating and sometimes very specific.  Also, they will speak with great authority using phrases like, “thus says the Lord.”

But it seems that in the later chapters of Isaiah we see a different and new element coming with the promise of the Messiah. We make most sense of these passages by seeing that they are messianic. They speak of the coming of the last “Word” from God heard in the proclamations of the Messiah and the struggle he will have with the acceptance of his message. Look at a couple verses from Isaiah 50:4-6. It says, “The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.”

In this passage we see that God instructed this prophet to say something very different. He doesn’t say “thus saith the Lord.” Instead he suggests that God had given him the “tongue” of an encourager and up-lifter of broken hearts. God didn’t give him the words, but gave him the tongue of the one who knows what words to use to sustain the weary. God has made his ears teachable and he can’t get enough of this wonderful message that he is blessed with sharing with others. Jesus is this prophet who does not bring the word from God but is the “Word” of God. It was the forth-telling and foretelling prophets that used a cat of nine tails on his back. It was the self-appointed spokesmen from God that slapped his face and pulled out his beard and spit in his face. But the Living Word of God, Jesus, never changed his message: “Come to me all you who are weary and burned out on religion and I will give you rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28)

 

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Jeremiah 6:29-30, Matthew 5:48, Romans 3:22-23

Measuring Up to God’s Standard

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 14, 2018

According to the dictionary, “When you refine something, you make it better. Whether it’s sugar or an essay, refining it requires fixing its flaws. You may think you created a masterpiece on the first try. But there’s always room to refine. More than just working out the kinks, refining something means you’re going to fine tune it, hone it to perfection, and make it more precise. In scientific terms, to refine something means to reduce it down to a pure state.” If there is always room for further refinement we might say that making something perfect will be impossible. We might make something better but can we ever really make it perfect?

This seems to be true in the refining process of people. Jeremiah speaks of refining people as if they were metal in Jeremiah 6:29-30. He writes, “The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed.  Rejected silver they are called, for the Lord has rejected them.” It’s impossible for man to “refine” himself to the perfect standard that God demands according to Jesus’ comment in Matthew 5:48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Paul addresses man’s inability to attain to perfection also in Romans 3:23 when he says, “All have fallen short of the glory of God.”

In our own religious efforts we attempt at times to refine ourselves. I think we know we will never be perfect but we can go from “lead” to “silver” maybe even if we fall short of “pure gold.” When the disciples heard Jesus’ exchange with the rich young ruler who was unable or unwilling to give up everything he had to follow Jesus, the disciples were confused. They understood that exchange with the rich young ruler to be a call to perfection. If we’re honest with ourselves, like the Apostles were at that moment, we know we’ll never achieve perfection. We’ve already failed too many times! In Luke 18:26-27, he tells us, “Those who heard this asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’ But Jesus said, ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God.’” No, the refining process will never make us perfect. Refinement won’t make us perfect.  Rehabilitation won’t make us perfect! Only trusting in Christ can we measure up to God’s standard. In Romans 3:22, Paul explains this truth. He answers the question, “how can we achieve the high standard of perfection of righteousness?” He says it is “…the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”

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