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Psalm 112:7

Happy In The Lord!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 10, 2024

Psalm 112 is a fascinating presentation of God’s good intentions towards people who turn to him. It is the Psalmist’s equivalent of the teachings of Solomon. Solomon says it’s “The fear of the Lord” that is the foundational thinking for those who live healthy and happy lives. The Psalmist agrees. He writes in Verse one, “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. We know that the word, in the original language, blessed, is the same word for happiness. The Psalmist goes on to explain what makes the person who fears the Lord blessed or happy. His children will be mighty in the land. Wealth and riches are in his house. It is well with him as he deals honestly with others. He will not be afraid of bad news. Instead, “his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord” (Psalm 112:7).

Success in life does not make us happy. Wealth does not make us happy. Possessions of any kind bring happiness only temporarily. Pleasures are only for the moment. The kind of happiness that the Psalmist is talking about is a different kind of happiness. The type of happiness that the fear of the Lord initiates is more of a sense of security in an unstable world. There is no security in things.  In fact, things are deceptive: they appear to be satisfying and lasting when they are actually temporary and unable to satisfy the deepest needs of life. … Certainly, God wants us to enjoy the blessings of life.  There is nothing spiritual about sitting morosely in a corner and saying, “These things will not last anyway!  Why enjoy them?” God wants us to enjoy his good gifts, just as we want our children to enjoy what we give them.  But God does not want them to replace our confidence in Him. We were not made in such a way that the things of this world will fully satisfy us. They will not. We will always be disappointed if we look to them for ultimate happiness. God does not want us to depend on things–He wants us to depend on Him.

Verse seven is the key to understanding this Psalm. The one who fears the Lord “is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.” It’s faith in the God of the universe that saves us. The New Testament makes that clear. It is by grace we are saved through “faith.” Faith is not just believing that God exists. It’s trusting God to have our best interest foremost in mind regardless of our life circumstances. It’s saying with Job, “Naked I came into the world. Naked from it, I shall go. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Though he slay me, I trust in Him. The New Century Version of the Bible translates Psalm 64:10 this way, “Good people will be happy in the Lord and will find protection in him.”

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John 14:9, Psalm 103.13-14

What Is God Like?

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 9, 2024

The existence of God is not really the problem in our world today. Most of the wars and disputes in the various cultures are religious in nature. The struggle is not about God’s existence. I think the problem is more fixed on his nature or character. We want to know, more than anything else, what God is like. Tozer explains, “One of our great woes as fallen people living in a fallen world is the constant warfare between the eternity in our hearts and the time in our bodies. This is why we can never be satisfied without God. This is why the question, ‘What is God like?’ continues to spring from every one of us. God has set the values of eternity in the hearts of every person made in His image. As human beings, we have ever tried to satisfy ourselves by maintaining a quest, a search. We have not forgotten that God was. We have only forgotten what God is like.”[1]

As we live our daily lives in this world under the sun, it’s easy to get the wrong concept of God and to carry that concept into all we do and think. We can easily lapse into the view that God is like a policeman, hiding behind a billboard, waiting for us to do something wrong so he can give us a ticket or arrest us. Sometimes, we feel like he’s our foreman, using his talents and skills to get the most out of us as possible. Sometimes, he’s like a landlord expecting his payment in season and threatening eviction if we’re ever late. This is not how the Bible describes Him. It’s good to read Psalm 103:13-14 to be reminded by the inspired words of the bible of what God is really like. It says, “The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he understands how weak we are; he knows we are only dust.”

But when it comes down to a fuller understanding and appreciation of what God is like, we must look to Jesus Christ. “The supreme revelation of God in history is in Jesus Christ. ‘No man has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known’ (Jn. 1:18). The question, ‘What is God like?’ is ultimately to be answered through a study of the person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament records, which is left to the reader.”[2]  God Himself has given us a final, complete answer. Jesus said, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). So Tozer concludes, “For those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, the quest of the ages is over. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, came to dwell among us, being ‘the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person’ (Hebrews 1:3). For us, I say, the quest is over because God has now revealed Himself to us. What Jesus is, the Father is. Whoever looks on the Lord Jesus Christ looks upon all of God. Jesus is God thinking God’s thoughts. Jesus is God feeling the way God feels. Jesus is God now doing what God does.”[3]

[1] Tozer, A. W., and Gerald B. Smith. 1987. Jesus, Our Man in Glory: 12 Messages from the Book of Hebrews. Camp Hill, PA.: WingSpread.

[2] Glaser, Ida. 1982. “Towards a Mutual Understanding of Christian and Islamic Concepts of Revelation.” Themelios 7, no. 3: 21.

[3] Tozer, A. W., and Gerald B. Smith. 1987. Jesus, Our Man in Glory: 12 Messages from the Book of Hebrews. Camp Hill, PA.: WingSpread.

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1 Samuel 12:5-7, Various

A Slap In The Face

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 8, 2024

As a kid, I used to walk the seven blocks every Saturday afternoon to 30th and Ames. The Beacon Theatre showed the popular movies of the week every Saturday. I loved the Westerns. I loved Shane, High Noon, The 3:10 to Yuma (The original one!), and The Gunfight at O.K. Corral, to name a few. I learned very early in life to identify with the good guys in movies. Like everyone else, I always loved it when the bad guys got what they deserved. I guess that’s just human nature. The movies always present the good and bad guys as very distinctly different. We knew who to relate to immediately. They were all very simple characters. In real life, it’s just never that way. Every player in the game of life is a very complex character, and there are times in our lives when we are all the bad guys. It’s difficult for us to see sometimes and even more challenging for us to admit. Sometimes, it takes a smash in the face to bring us to our senses.

One of the greatest heroes of the Old Testament, King David, had seduced another man’s wife, had her husband murdered, married his widow, and went on with his life as if nothing was wrong.  His life went along all right for a while! David seemed almost oblivious to what he had done. Then Nathan, the prophet, comes for a visit. He tells David about a poor man who owned nothing but a cherished little lamb. He had been robbed of even that by a wealthy neighbor who used the stolen lamb to feed his friends. David became indignant! In 1 Samuel 12:5-7, we read, “As the Lord Lives,” David swears! “That man must die!” Here is a man secretly guilty of a terrible, unconfessed sin and raving against the sins of another. Imagine what Nathan thought! What God thought! David needed a slap in the face. Nathan looked him in the eye and said, “David, David, David, you are that man!” This knocked some sense into David, and he became remorseful rather than indignant. When the religious leaders confronted Jesus with the woman caught in the act of adultery, He said that the one who had no sin should be the one to carry out the law and cast the first stone at her. When Jesus bent down to write in the sand, many believed he was writing what was needed to remind each of these religious leaders of their particular sins. With a finger in the sand, Jesus slapped the religious leaders in the face. Being confronted with their own sin, each of the adulteress accusers slowly walked away, leaving the only one without sin to cast the stone. But Jesus chose to show her mercy instead of judgment and sent her on her way with the admonition to sin no more.

Sometimes, it takes a slap in the face or a hardship of some kind to help us understand and acknowledge our sinfulness. God sent a terrible storm and a big fish to slap Jonah in the face. God allowed the prodigal son to work his way into the gentile pig pen to eat the food that was fed to the pigs. God sent Nathan to David with his bony finger pointing straight at David, saying, “You are that man!” Like Jonah and David, we need to repent of our sins. Like the prodigal son, we all need to come to our senses.  We cannot receive God’s healing if we do not see ourselves as sinners. Jesus came only for the sick. Isaiah teaches us that Jesus came to take God’s slap in the face for us, and “with His stripes we are healed.”

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Ezra 1:1f

The King Of The World

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 7, 2024

Ezra begins with God’s direction to Cyrus to send the captive children of Israel back to their own land. We don’t know much about Cyrus other than he was the King of Persia, and he conquered Nebuchadnezzar and took all Babylon captive. Archeologists have discovered what has become known as the “Cyrus Cylinder.” It’s part of his personal memoirs. In 2010, new texts with the same inscription were also discovered. According to these texts, this is what he wrote about himself: “I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king, legitimate king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four rims (of the earth)… ”

Remember Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias?

“I met a traveler from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Nothing besides remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

The truth revealed to us in Ezra is that this “Great King” was a pawn in the hands of only the Great King, the Lord God Himself. He used Cyrus as an instrument to accomplish His purposes with His own people, and when God was done with Cyrus, he let him go the way of all nations before him. God alone is sovereign. He is sovereign over the kings of the earth, and he is sovereign over the lives of men and women as well. Richison rightly observes, “God is sovereign over the affairs of man.  God sets up nations as He wills.  He can do this to even the lowest of men, so why should any king assume pride in himself?”[1] Just as Ozymandias’ kingdom lay waste and bare, so did Cyrus’ kingdom. He lived and reigned only to accomplish God’s purposes in the world.

[1] Richison, Grant. 2006. Verse by Verse through the Book of Daniel. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems.

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Nehemiah 1:4, Various

The Importance Of Prayer

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 6, 2024

When Nehemiah learns about the deteriorating condition of those living in Jerusalem, he immediately goes to prayer. Nehemiah says in 1:4, “As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” He continued fasting and praying! This began “as soon as he heard.” There was much emotion associated with Nehemiah’s prayer, but the first step in his life was fasting accompanied by prayer. When the Philistines threatened the lives of the Israelites, they looked to the prophet Samuel first for prayer, not weapons. They pleaded with Samuel. “Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.” Paul tells the Thessalonians to “pray without ceasing.” James tells us that the prayers of a righteous person can accomplish much. In my case, prayer is usually a much later step in my affairs. I will get angry, find someone to blame, try to do something about it on my own, and then I’ll get a hold of myself and finally look to God. Nehemiah begins by looking to God.

God doesn’t always answer our prayers in the way we think He should, but I’m convinced he always answers our prayers. Sometimes, God says “No”. Sometimes, He says, “Not now.” Sometimes, God says, “Yes.” Regardless of how God answers our prayers, we will all benefit from praying. Prayer will calm my emotions as I entrust my daily life and problems to God’s care. Another one of the huge benefits of prayer is that it makes me stop and think. I can’t act or even re-act until I’m done talking with God about the problem. Prayer is how I can wait and reflect before reacting or overreacting. Prayer will help me understand my problem better and bring clarity to the issues. I cannot pray and worry at the same time. Lucado says, “Knees don’t knock when we kneel on them.” Prayer also recruits God’s involvement in all my daily problems. It brings to bear an inexhaustible resource for all my life problems and daily concerns. Prayer is a clear demonstration of my faith in God’s daily presence and interest in the activities of my life.  Like Nehemiah, I want to look to God first, then act. When all is said and done, the answer God gives to my prayer isn’t as crucial as my prayer in itself.

Jesus placed a very high priority on His own prayer life. He would go out of His way to find time to pray in times of trouble. This is clearly seen in the Garden of Gethsemane when he had to face the pain of the crucifixion. But we also see that Jesus would separate Himself from his disciples early in the morning to find time to commune personally with the Father. Boice says, “Prayer is important at all times. Paul instructed the Thessalonians to ‘pray continually’ (1 Thess. 5:16). He told the Ephesians to ‘pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests’ (Eph. 6:18). But especially we must pray in times of great sorrow. Jesus did! He prayed at length and fervently. John Ryle said that ‘prayer is the best practical remedy that we can use in time of trouble.’ Should we suppose that we have a better cure for it than Jesus?”[1]

[1] Boice, James Montgomery. 2001. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

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John 15:4, 4:10

The Connection

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 5, 2024

Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who remains connected to me, that is the one who will bear much fruit” (John 15:4-5).  What does it mean to “remain connected” to Christ? It makes me think of the sap that runs from the vine into the branches. It reminds me of the Holy Spirit. When we abide or remain connected to Christ, the Holy Spirit flows from Him to us, producing his fruit. I’d like to produce many different kinds of fruit in my life, but first and foremost are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. You know them well: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  I’ve often found I cannot force this fruit to grow. The harder I try, the less I see. I get frustrated and lose my patience. I become self-centered in my focus and lose my love and joy. I become cranky, and kindness & goodness are something I cannot even see from where I am. Gentleness? Don’t even talk about it!

I once read about when Lawrence of Arabia was in Paris after World War I with some of his Arab friends.  Rasnake tells this story well: Lawrence “showed them the sights of the city: the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, Napoleon’s tomb, the Champs Elysée’s, but none of these things impressed them. The thing that really interested them the most was the faucet in the bathtub of the hotel room. They spent much time turning it on and off. They found it amazing that one could turn a handle and get all the water he wanted. Later, when they were ready to leave Paris and return to the East, Lawrence found them in the bathroom with wrenches, trying to disconnect the faucet. “You see,” they said, “it is very dry in Arabia. What we need are faucets. If we have them, we will have all the water we want.” Lawrence had to explain that the effectiveness of the faucets did not lie in themselves but in the immense reservoirs of water to which they were attached.”

Jesus goes on to say in the next verse, “Disconnected from me, you can do nothing.” Jesus also said “I am the living water.” You and I are just like a faucet by itself. No fruit comes forth from me until I’m connected and abiding in Christ. He is the source of nourishment through which we can grow the fruits of the spirit. The woman at the well in John Chapter 4 was fascinated by Jesus’ offer of living water that will never run out and that quenches one’s thirst permanently. Like Lawrences’ Arabic friends, she wanted to take it with her. Jesus told her in verse 10, “If you ask, He will give you the living water.”

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Romans 12:3, Matthew 5:5

Thinking Of Ourselves

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 4, 2024

In Romans 12:5, Paul teaches us that believers make up various parts of one body. It says, “So, we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” What Paul was trying to get the Romans to do was change the way they think about themselves. We love to think of ourselves as independent, unique individuals. There is a sense in which each of us brings something of value to the table, but no one is better than anyone else. We love to hold up our index finger and shout, “We’re number one!” But remember, Chapter 12 begins with exhortations about not being conformed to the image of this world but being transformed by the renewing of our minds. It’s really all about the way we see or think about ourselves. That’s why verse 3 of Chapter 12 tells us “not to think of ourselves more highly than we should.” This is a key teaching in the Bible. All disputes, all contests, and all competitions were responded to by Jesus when he heard his disciples arguing about which of them was the greatest. The Bible answers that question by teaching us that there is neither male nor female. There is neither rich nor poor. There is neither Greek nor Gentile. All are one in Christ.

This is highly counter-cultural in our country. America dearly prizes individualism, and we always hold up the famous, the glamorous, and the rich as the epitomes of success.  They are always on the news, in the papers, and on the television. Our culture despises anonymity, while Christ honors it. Like those at the tower of Babel, we want to make a name for ourselves, while God has given Christ the name above every other name. God calls us to lose ourselves in and for Christ, but the world calls us to make ourselves stand out. If we can make a name for ourselves, we will be successful. Alan Richardson says it well: “The hatred of anonymity drives men to heroic feats of valor or long hours of drudgery, or it urges them to spectacular acts of shame or of unscrupulous self-preferment. In its worst forms, it tempts men to give the honor and glory to themselves which properly belong to the name of God.”

Truly, this is what Paul is referring to when he talks about not being conformed to the thinking of this age but being transformed in how we think. He wants us to put Christ first in our thinking and our service. If we’re truly going to be successful and hear “well done, good and faithful servant,” we have to put the advancement of Christ ahead of self-advancement. This begins with changing the way we think. A. W. Tozer writes, “We can never get too weak for the Lord to use us—but we can get too strong if it is our own strength. We can never be too ignorant for the Lord to use us—but we can be too wise in our own conceit. We can never get too small for the Lord to use us, but we can surely get too big and get in His way.” God always favors the weak and foolish things in the world over the strong and wise, according to the world. Jesus adds to that idea in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, in Mattew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

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Acts 4:12, Various

No Need For A Second Opinion

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 3, 2024

If my doctor gives me a diagnosis with “bad news” and recommends a particularly difficult treatment or radical surgery, I’m free to seek a second opinion.  Some doctors will often recommend that you get a second opinion because they realize their own fallibility and want to be sure they haven’t missed something. That’s admirable. The Bible makes it clear that every human being will die. Not today, thankfully, but one day, you and I will die. No need to seek a second opinion on that one. It’s been the experience since Adam and Eve took from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The greatest physician has given each of us a diagnosis. He says the “wages of sin is death.” He says that you and I have sinned. It is “appointed to man once to die…” There is a time for everything; “a time to be born and a time to die.” Our diagnosis is fairly settled.

But this great physician came to heal the sick. He didn’t come for the healthy. They don’t need a physician. He came to heal sinners. Those who are righteous in their own eyes don’t need to be healed. The great physician brought the balm of Gilead, which heals the sins of the world and brings eternal life to all who will allow Him to treat them. Luke records Peter telling the world, in his sermon recorded in Acts 4:12, “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” We may not like what the Great Physician tells us about ourselves and our sin. But where else can we go? Peter learned this from Jesus firsthand. When many people were deserting Jesus, He asked Peter if he, too, would leave. In John’s Gospel, Peter responds, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter had no need for a second opinion because Jesus was the one and only way to the Father and eternal life. Only Jesus had the “words of life.” Like Peter, I don’t need a second opinion. I know I’m a sinner, and physical death will be the wages of my sin. But Jesus brings a saving message to the sin-sick and dying.

I’ve read many testimonies of men and women who have spent their lives seeking a second opinion. They travel the many roads offered by many religions, all promising some kind of “salvation” from life’s situation. None of them have the words of life. There is a very narrow road that leads to eternal life. Few find it. Jesus is that one and only road. While many religions profess their own kinds of salvation and prescribe a particular treatment, there is none that offers what Jesus offered. They teach a wide variety of rituals and practices designed to help us live a healthy, happy, and moral life. They also deal at great lengths with the rituals associated with death and burial. They all fall short of what Jesus offers. R. A. Torrey wrote, “What men need is not morality, but life; not to make death respectable, but to receive the gift of eternal life; not decent interment, but a pathway out of the realm of death. Many men have brought forward their schemes for the “uplift of humanity” (though the results thereof are not yet discernible), but there is only One Man who makes, or ever made, the offer of eternal life. None other has ever said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on Me though he were dead yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth on Me shall never die” (John 11:25, 26). He only claims to be the “Fountain of Living Waters” (Jer. 2:13; John 4:14; 7:37) and says to all who are suffering the thirst of death, “Come unto Me and drink” (John 7:37). Peter understood it well, there is none other that offers the gift of eternal life.

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