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1 John 4:9, Various

God’s Compelling Love

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
March 11, 2024

One cannot love until he has experienced God’s love. Even John, the “love” apostle, explains this truth when he says in 1 John 4:19, “We love because God loved us first.” I’d argue that all the apostles truly grasped this truth. They understood that no real-life change can occur apart from a growing apprehension and experience of God’s love for us. Paul makes this crystal clear in his prayer for the Ephesians in 3:17-19, “And I pray that your love will have deep roots. I pray that it will have a strong foundation. May you have power with all God’s people to understand Christ’s love. May you know how wide and long and high and deep it is. And may you know his love, even though it can’t be known completely. Then you will be filled with everything God has for you.” We cannot “know” or “understand” it. But I believe we can experience it as we look at the cross of Christ. Paul tells us in Romans 5:8, “God demonstrated His love for us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

The woman that Jesus met at the well in John 4 is an interesting study. She is often described as a woman who looks for love in all the wrong places. She moved from man to man, from husband to husband, and never found what she needed until she encountered Jesus, who “knew all about her” and still loved her. She even left her water jar at the well and ran to town to call everyone to come see Jesus (John 4:28-30).  Why?  It wasn’t gratitude that would have kept her at the well. Was it a new understanding that Jesus was Christ? That should have kept her at the well with Him also. Most reasons you might consider lead me to think that she would have stayed with Him, not run off to get others. I would argue that what she found was so wonderful to her that she just had to share it with others. Boice says, “It was love, the love of the Lord Jesus already beginning to spring up within her. She had learned of this love from Christ. He had loved her, a sinful woman. Now she was to love as he loved. Before, she had loved in one sense only. It was an imperfect human love. Perhaps it was even largely sexual. Now she was able to love with a measure of the love with which Christ had loved her. This was a divine love, and it changed her completely.”

Robert J. Thomas was a missionary en route to Pyongyang in Korea when a fight broke out between the American sailors and the Korean coast guard. The ship was burned and all the passengers were killed. As the ship was sinking, Robert leaped into the water and struggled to make his way to shore. He staggered out of the water with an armload of books. They were Bibles. He thrust them into the hands of the Koreans, who clubbed him to death. It was through such love and commitment to his mission that the gospel first came to Korea in 1866. Today, Korea is one of the most Christian countries in the world. Today, there are over 12 million Christians in Korea. The biggest churches in the world in major denominations, including Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Pentecostal churches, are all located in Seoul.  Boice concludes his comments; “The Bible sets this pattern for us when it declares, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor. 5:14–15).

 

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Luke 19:10, Various

No Man Left Behind!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
March 10, 2024

God is always seeking for the lost.  He says, “I myself will search for my sheep”  (Ezek. 34:11);  “…seek me like a lost sheep!” (Ps. 119:176); “I will seek the lost” (Ezek. 34:16); “searching for the straying sheep” (Matt. 18:12); “you will be called, ‘Sought out, a city not forsaken’” (Isa. 62:12); “the Father seeks such to worship him” (John 4:23); “though they hide on the summit of Carmel I will search them out” (Amos 9:3); “I will search Jerusalem with lamps” (Zeph. 1:12).

In Luke 19, after just four chapters earlier telling the parables of the one lost son of two, the one lost coin of 10, and the one lost sheep of 100, he gives his mission statement: “I have come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). The parables emphasize the one that is lost. It doesn’t matter if there is another son at home, or nine more coins on the dresser, or 99 more sheep in the field. He wants and will search everything and everywhere until He finds the lost one. God’s heart is for each and every individual in the world. His heart is for me and you. In Matthew 18:14, He says, “So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” In 2 Peter 3:9, Peter describes Him as “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” It reminds me of the NMLB acronym. It stands for “No Man Left Behind.” It’s been the motto of the U.S. Rangers, but it is also used by firefighters regarding those trapped in a burning building. It’s a commitment to risk one’s own life to reach out and save others. April 30, 1975, was the last day of the RVN (Republic of Vietnam). While on a Navy Destroyer, we rescued many who fled for their lives when America withdrew troops. One eye witness wrote, “On the Republic of Vietnam’s final day, as I looked down into the … terrified eyes in the upturned faces of hundreds of Vietnamese nationals and citizens of other countries friendly to the United States, who were being left behind, I knew that I would be haunted for many years to come.” Our nation, unlike God, left them behind. We did it again when we withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.

Jesus’ followers, His Disciples, were given the same commission that Jesus had. In John 20:21, he says, “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” We are always on a mission to seek and save the lost. It’s often referred to as the Great Commission.  God calls us all to embrace His mission in the world and make it our own. I like what Bock says in his commentary on Luke regarding this truth. He writes, “Disciples… need absolute commitment. Their mission, even though others grumble at it, is to seek the lost, just as God does. God rejoices in finding lost sinners, so Jesus’ call is to pursue them as one would a lost sheep, a lost coin, or a wayward son. When the lost come, open arms are to await them. Celebration and joy greet them in heaven.”

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John 10:11, Luke 15

The Shepherd’s Love

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
March 9, 2024

When we say “God loves us,” we mean that all three persons of the Godhead are involved. The parable of the prodigal son instructs us regarding the depth of God the Father’s love for us. Bill MacDonald suggests that the parable of the lost coin might easily be understood as a story focusing on God the Holy Spirit’s love for us. The parable of the lost sheep then would be seen as an illustration of God the Son’s great love for us. It is often argued by commentators that John 10:11 is a direct reference by the Apostle John to Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep in Luke. Jesus says in John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus then says in John 15:13, “That no greater love than this has any man; that one lay down his life for his friend.”

These three parables, the parable of the lost son, the lost coin, and the lost sheep, all picture the Godhead’s great love for every single one of us. When John writes in 1 John 4:8 that “God is love,” he is referring to the entire Godhead. Love is the unifying force of three persons of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Jesus, as the messenger of the Godhead, clearly expressed His purpose in taking on flesh in Luke 19. He says, “I have come to seek and to save that which is lost.” When we read Genesis three, we see the triune God involved in the creation account, but He is not only involved with creation, but also He is intimately involved with our redemption. No matter how many souls there are in the world (currently approaching 8 billion), God’s focus of redemption is on you! The Father waits for your return. The Holy Spirit searches far and wide, holding his lamp high as he sweeps through the rubble in the world to find you. The Son, our Great Shepherd, becomes the sacrificial lamb to redeem you! I expect that Peter was referring to this parable when he wrote that we “were like sheep going astray…(who) have returned to the Shepherd of our souls.” (1 Peter 2:25).

God loves each and every one of us sheep.  Jesus tells us the difference between the hireling and the shepherd. The hireling is a mercenary in it for the money! The shepherd is in it because of his love for the sheep. One commentator writes, “Without love, there may be care, but it will not be tender care; there may be guardianship, but it will not be incessant, unwearied, jealous guardianship. The heavenly Shepherd loves the sheep of his flock with a deep, true, patient, and abounding love, surpassing far the utmost affection whereof man is capable; surpassing even the utmost conception that man can form of love.” It’s Love that holds the Father to the fence, longing for His son’s return. It’s love that moves the Spirit to search far and wide for his lost souls. It’s love that moved the great shepherd to give up His life for us sheep.

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Romans 15:30, Luke 15

The Loving Spirit

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
March 8, 2024

When Paul requests prayer on his behalf from the Romans, he appeals to them on the basis of “the love of the Spirit.”  Paul closes his letter to them and, in Romans 15:30, says, “I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf.” The love of the Spirit of God is not a frequently mentioned subject. But some have found it in the Parable of the Lost Coin. In the Gospel of Luke (Chapter 15), Jesus tells three parables that are often interpreted as being one parable in three movements: the lost son, the lost coin, and the lost sheep. There are two sons, and one goes astray. The father’s love yearns for his return and with perfect love and forgiveness welcomes him home. The mistress of the house has ten coins. It was only the lost one that caused such distress that she went to no end to find it. The shepherd had 100 sheep.  Again, only one needed to be lost to make the shepherd leave the 99 and search far and wide for the lost one until he brings it home. God always deals with us one at a time. Someone once said that when Jesus was on the cross, “you were on his mind.” These parables increasingly emphasize the importance of you and me, one person, in God’s total scheme of things. God loves each and every one of us.

Some would suggest that these three parables are pure depictions of the Godhead’s love for His children. The parable of the lost son speaks to us of God the Father and His great love for his wayward children. The parable of the lost coin tells us about the Holy Spirit’s love for us as well.  This is what the woman who lost the coin does, according to Jesus, “She will light a lamp and sweep the house. She will search carefully until she finds the coin. And when she finds it, she will call her friends and neighbors together. She will say, ‘Be joyful with me. I have found my lost coin.’” Jesus then adds, “I tell you, it is the same in heaven. There is joy in heaven over one sinner who turns away from sin.” The focus of this passage is on God’s love for “ONE SINNER” who turns from sin.

Bill MacDonald, in the Believer’s Bible Commentary, says, “The woman in this story may represent the Holy Spirit, seeking the lost with the lamp of the Word of God.” I recall that in Psalm 119 we read that God’s word “is a light to my path and a lamp for my feet.” To Bill this parable is situated in the context of the vast rejection of Jesus by the masses of His own people. God no longer deals with Nations. He will now only deal with individuals.  The Nation, the Religious leaders, and their religious system rejected Jesus, but there were the individuals that responded. Bill writes, “The nine silver coins speak of the unrepentant, whereas the one lost coin suggests the man who is willing to confess that he is out of touch with God.” It is the lost one that she is searching for. When she finds it, like the Father in the case of the prodigal son, she throws a great party to celebrate. When Jesus applies the parable he makes it clear that the lost coin represents a lost sinner.  MacDonald concludes his comments, “The lost coin which she had found brought her more true pleasure than the nine which had never been lost. So it is with God. The sinner who humbles himself and confesses his lost condition brings joy to the heart of God. He obtains no such joy from those who never feel their need for repentance.” The healthy don’t need a physician!

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Luke 15:20

The Father’s Love

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
March 7, 2024

I’ve often thought that the story of the prodigal son should be called the story of the “Loving Father.” In this story, we see not only the wayward son, but we also see the self-righteous older brother.  The Father affirms his love for both of his sons. The story of the wayward son is just one of three parables that talk about God’s passion for the lost. It’s nestled amongst the stories of the lost coin and the lost sheep. Some commentators even argue that the three parables are really one extended story about God’s heart for the lost.  The father is the central theme of the story and is mentioned 12 times in the story. Luke 15:20 gives us the heart of this father for his lost son. It says, “But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.  He ran, threw his arms around his neck,  and kissed him.”

This story illustrates God’s passion for the lost. He wants to save all that is lost. It is the father’s response to his wayward son that gives us a picture of the Father’s amazing grace. John Newton experienced this grace himself. We’ve all sung about this grace in his unforgettable hymn, “Amazing Grace.” One of the best-known lines of that hymn says, “I once was lost, but now am found…” Newton explained that he took this line from the story of the prodigal son. Upon the prodigal son’s return, the father said he “was lost and is now found.”  We get the idea that the father regularly looked down that long, lonely road that led away from home for any sign of his child’s return. The Greek text emphasizes the fact that the father saw the son coming “from a long way off” (Luke 15:20). David Jeremiah suggests, “From a distance, the father recognizes the walk of his son. He was no doubt dressed in rags, unwashed, bearded, hair a mess. Yet the father saw something that told him his son had come home. I can imagine what Jesus intended is to suggest that the father went to a vantage point outside the city and looked far down the road every day for any sign of his lost son.”

When the father saw his son, he ran to meet him. I imagine this as an incredibly emotional scene; the father, full of grace, embraces his prodigal son even before the son has a chance to repent and ask for forgiveness. We think that the son is the protagonist in the story because he makes the first step to come home, but when you study the story, we see that he did so not because of his love for the father but because of his need for food and shelter and the knowledge that his father loved him. The central theme of the story is the love of the father, who watches every day for the return of his son.  In all three parables, The Lost Son, The Lost Coin, and The Lost Sheep, the attention is placed on the searcher who would not give up until he found that which was his. Jesus said, “I have come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

 

 

 

 

 

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Genesis 1:1

The Glory Of God

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
March 6, 2024

The Bible begins at the beginning. It tells us how it all got started. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Many Hebrew scholars recognize that the phrase “the heavens and the earth” is a figure of speech known as a merism.  It means everything “there” and everything “here,” including everything in between. It’s like John referring to Jesus as the Alpha and the Omega. He does not only sum up the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet, he is also everything in between.

Genesis with the heavens, everything out there. With Telescopes, we have learned a lot about “everything out there.” Our galaxy contains more than 100 billion stars. Our sun is 150 trillion miles from the center of our galaxy. Our galaxy is one of a small cluster of 19 galaxies, the nearest of which is 30 million light years from us (150 million trillion miles – Got a yardstick?). There are more than a billion galaxies. The number of stars in these galaxies is close to 100 quintillion. Betelgeuse, the star, not the movie, is the largest in the universe. Its estimated circumference is four times the size of the Earth’s orbit around the sun! There has been much discussion lately about the existence of “intelligent life out there.” I don’t believe there is, personally, but that gets me in trouble. But even if there is intelligent life out there, it doesn’t change the fact that God created it all. But, there isn’t. God made the heavens and the earth for us. Man, he created in the image of God.

With microscopes, we have learned that of the things “here,” there exists a multitude of things invisible, which is just as vast and just as complex. It is even more remarkable than what we see through the telescope. We have discovered DNA, which enables us to identify every human person from a pool of billions. We know about cells and how they split. There are even smaller things than the Amoeba. Mathematicians have discovered things that we cannot see even with the microscope, like the atom and its protons and electrons.  My point is that whether we look upon the sun (positively charged), holding the planets (negatively charged), or whether we examine the nucleus (positively charged) at the heart of the atom, holding each electron (negatively charged) in its sway, we sense the wisdom, power, and grandeur of God. In the light of all this, we bow before our Creator in awe and genuine dedication and pour out worship, adoration, thanksgiving, and unrestrained praise. It’s not only the heavens that declare the glory of God, but the earth as well.

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Romans 8:28, Various

The Complex Good

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
March 5, 2024

God’s promise is to make all our life situations work out for good. Paul tells us in Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God.” This is a promise for a complex good, not a simple good. C. S. Lewis distinguishes between the two. He discusses in his book, “The Problem of Pain,” that most of life’s pains are simple pains. There is nothing complex about the loss of a loved one, the death of a child, or an injury, disease, or sickness. They are simple evils. We all understand them, and it takes very little intelligence to understand them. Yet, God promises to mix all the simple evils of our lives into a more complex good. It’s the “working together” of both the good and bad and the blending of the specifics into a whole that will always work out for our good. It’s not a simple good, i.e., winning the lottery, getting that promotion, enjoying a great meal, or just appreciating the sunset. It’s a complex good, a mixture of the good things and the bad things in life that will, in the end, result in a far greater good than one can imagine.

Complex goods are far greater than simple goods. One Theological Journal article said, “God is not the author of evil. He does not promote evil, but permits it to bring about a greater good (Rom 8:28). ‘In the fallen and partially redeemed universe we may distinguish (1) the simple good descending from God, (2) the simple evil produced by rebellious creatures, and (3) the exploitation of that evil by God for His redemptive purpose, which produces (4) the complex good to which accepted suffering and repented sin contribute.’”

Coming out of Vietnam and later wars, there has been a great deal of literature and discussion on PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.)  I like what one writer said about it, “…there needs to be much more dialogue about PTSG (Post-Traumatic Stress Growth!). When seen through a biblical lens, nothing God allows into his children’s lives is an accident. It is not all good, to be sure, but difficulties can be used to bring about some greater (complex) good in the person being developed. This may sound trite, but even in such traumatic experiences as war, we can look for God’s good. It can change us for the better, “growth.” Or it can change us for the worse, “disorder.” I think Joseph meant this when he expressed his attitude about all the suffering his brothers put him through in the book of Genesis. After it is all said and done, Genesis 50:20 tells us what Joseph said to his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.” Roses grow in rose gardens where they are pruned, but human beings grow through hardship, trials, and adversity. Even Jesus grew in his humanity this way. The Father made the Son (in his humanity) perfect, complete, and mature through suffering (Hebrews 2:10).

 

 

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Romans 5:3-4

The Refiner’s Fire

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
March 4, 2024

God uses problems to direct me, inspect me, correct me, protect me, and God also uses the problems in my life to improve my faith. In Romans 5:3-4, Paul tells us, “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us – they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady.”

In the New Testament, we seem to find the picture of the Gardner or vinedresser with Jesus representing the vine itself, and we’re the branches. God, the great horticulturist, does the pruning.  Jesus teaches us that pruning seems to be for productivity. It’s the pruning that helps us become more fruitful. The Old Testament writers seem to use the idea of the refiner to talk about God’s work in our lives. Just as the silversmith purifies the silver through his furnace, God also purifies His people through the furnace of affliction. This refinement process is designed to make us holy rather than productive. So, both processes are designed to perfect us. Pruning makes us better at producing fruit. Refining makes us more like Christ.

The thing to remember is that both processes are painful, but both processes can work out for the best in all of our lives. The determining factor, however, is always how I respond to my life’s problems. Responding biblically will always bring great advances in character and productivity. I love what the old commentator, Alexander Maclaren, said, “The true meaning of life is not to be found by estimating its sorrows or its joys, but by trying to estimate the effects of either upon us. The true value of life, and the meaning of all its tears and of all its joys, is what it makes us. … He who carries away with him out of life a character molded as God would have it does not go in all points ‘naked as he came.’ He bears a developed self, and that is the greatest treasure that a man can carry out of the multitudinous toils of the busiest life. If we would think less of our hard work and of our heavy sorrows and more of the loving purpose that appoints them all, we should find life less difficult, less toilsome, and less mysterious. That one thought taken to our hearts and honestly applied to everything that befalls us would untie many a riddle, would wipe away many a tear, would bring peace and patience into many a heart, and would make still brighter many a gladness. Without it, our lives are a chaos; with it, they would become an ordered world.”

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