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Exodus 20:8-11, Luke 6:1-2, Mark 2:27

Do No Work!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 4, 2019

During our various trips to Israel, we had the opportunity to observe the Jewish people observing the Sabbath day. As in the days of Jesus, the religious leaders today have set some clear standards on what could and what could not be done on that day. The elevators at our hotels were set to stop at each floor on the Sabbath because pushing buttons in an elevator was considered work. The Rabbis would run string along the telephone poles to show the limits that citizens could walk on the Sabbath. Guzik observes in his commentary, “In observant Jewish homes today, one cannot turn on a light, a stove, or a switch on the Sabbath. It is forbidden to drive a certain distance or to make a telephone call—all carefully regulated by traditions seeking to spell out the law exactly.”

It was worse in Jesus day. From what I read, ancient Rabbis taught that on the Sabbath, a man could not carry something in his right hand or in his left hand, across his chest or on his shoulder. But he could carry something with the back of his hand, his foot, his elbow, or in his ear, his hair, or in the hem of his shirt, or in his shoe or sandal. Or on the Sabbath, Israelites were forbidden to tie a knot—except, a woman could tie a knot in her girdle. So, if a bucket of water had to be raised from a well, an Israelite could not tie a rope to the bucket, but a woman could tie her girdle to the bucket and pull it up from the well. In Luke 6:1-2, Jesus disciples’ were accused of breaking the Sabbath because they were picking and eating corn out of a field. They broke four different rules: they reaped, threshed, winnowed, and prepared food! Can’t do that!

All of these specifications made man a slave to the Sabbath. Jesus intentionally went against these traditions in order to set man free. In Mark 2:27, amidst one of his disputes with the religious leaders, Jesus explained “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” He continues in that verse and says, “The son of man is Lord of the Sabbath.” During the course of his life on earth, Jesus broke the Sabbath rules numerous times. He clearly wanted us to understand that it’s not about rules and regulations. It’s about realizing that God is sovereign over the works of man’s hands. The commandment goes on to say we shouldn’t work on the Sabbath to commemorate the fact that God’s work is what really matters. This is true for Christians today more than ever. Jesus did the work of our salvation. There’s nothing our hands can contribute to that. Stop all the business of life in this world of sowing and reaping and “rest” (that’s the meaning of the word “Shabbat”) in the work that God has done for you.

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Exodus 20:8

Keep the Sabbath Holy

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 3, 2019

Exodus 20:8 says “Remember the Sabbath to keep it Holy.” What does it mean to be “Holy?” It means to consecrate it, or to set it apart as special. So it may be expressed as “dedicated to God” or “belonging to God.” If you ask “what does it mean to be Holy” in Google, you’ll find this list of synonyms: sacred, consecrated, hallowed, sanctified, venerated, revered, reverenced, divine, religious, blessed, blest, dedicated.” But the key biblical idea of “Holy” is that it’s set apart. It’s different than anything else.

There was one special thing to the Jews that was exceptionally holy. It was holy, or different, from anything else in their life. That was the Tabernacle and later the Temple. When you read the description of the tabernacle in Exodus, you find that it’s built from the most luxurious and beautiful materials imaginable. Only precious metals: gold, silver, copper, brass. It had glorious colors: red, scarlet, purple, blues and yellows. It had incredibly creative images. There were angels sown into the curtains. There were bronze and gold and silver candle sticks and lavers and chalices. There were jewels and gems embedded throughout the ornate objects. And there was one other thing that truly made a difference in the Tabernacle. There was a smell. Yes, only the tabernacle could burn this special incense. Everything about the place where God was, was holy or different from everything else in life. In the drab world of the desert this was a place that looked different, felt different, and smelled different. It was holy! I really like what Ashby said in his commentary on this passage. He wrote, “Someone has called the Sabbath a ‘holy space, a sanctuary in time.’ It was as holy as the Temple, which was a sanctuary in space. Just as a holy place provides a space for celebrating God and praising him, so does a holy time.”

In the Old Testament economy, there was one day in seven that was to be dedicated to the Lord. It was a day when they were to remind themselves that they were not self-originating, self-sustaining, or self-authenticating. The idea of setting aside time to remind ourselves that God has done everything for us is crucial to a happy, wholesome, and healthy life. In our economy, that should be the Lord’s day, Sunday. We have six days to live in a world of sowing and reaping. We have six days to bear the burdens of life. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy. It’s not about what we’ve done, are doing, or will do! It’s all about what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do!

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Luke 24, John 5, Exodus 20:8-11, Luke 22:19

Remember the Sabbath: Think about it!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 3, 2019

Jesus revealed to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus that the Law and the Prophets were all about Him (See Luke 24). Jesus told the religious leaders that they search the scriptures because they think they find in them eternal life, but it is the scriptures that teach them about him (see John 5).  Let’s look at the Law.

In Exodus 20, God gives Moses the ten commandments. You know them or you know of them. The fourth commandment is the most thoroughly discussed. Whereas adultery, murder, stealing, and lying are some of the shortest single verses in the Bible, the 4th commandment covers 4 long verses; Exodus 20:8-11. It goes like this: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

The first word in this commandment is “remember.” I forget a lot of things! It is getting worse the older I get. Kathy will often remind me of the things I need to do. I’ve taken over some of the cooking during the week and have really enjoyed doing that but I have to remember to take frozen foods I intend to cook out of the freezer early in the day. Just this morning Kathy said, “take out the chicken.”  I said, “I will.” She said, “do it now because if you don’t, you’ll forget it.” As much as I hate it when she’s right, she is right. I will get busy doing any number of other things and the next thing you know it’s 5:30 and the chicken is still in the freezer! So, I did it right away. You only tell people to remember something when there is a tendency to forget.

The passage goes on to tell us that we have six days to do all of our work. The “Sabbath” is one day in seven! It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the day to day life of making a living, meeting expectations of others, taking care of ourselves and others, and a plethora of other things, that when we come to the Sabbath, it’s really easy to forget what it’s all about! It’s not about all that I do! It’s about what God has done. Step aside from your focus on doing for yourselves and focus on what has been done for you. Just as God did all the work of giving us the world and everything in it, Jesus did all the work required to save our souls for all eternity. Isn’t this why Jesus took the bread and the cup and said “do this in remembrance of me” (See Luke 22:19). Think about it.

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I Timothy 6:17, Psalm 63:3, Galatians 2:20, Eph 3:17

Because we are loved

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 3, 2019

I really do enjoy life. I enjoyed the coffee in the morning, the early lunches, the evening entertainment, playing games with my grandsons, and just about every other thing in my life. I like to fish, drive my corvette, sit with friends over coffee, casually working on my stamp collection, and yes, even playing Fallout4 on my Xbox1. I’m learning to relax in retirement and enjoy the freedom each morning of being able to do whatever I want (for the most part!). Yes, we really do enjoy our lives. That’s what God intended. In one of his letters to Timothy, Paul exhorted this young man to relax and enjoy life. He tells him to trust God “Who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (Amplified Bible 1 Timothy 6:17). I know there are some perverted exceptions but the standard norm is that we all  love our lives and cling to them. We’d rather give up our money or any other possessions to thieves in order to save our lives. I read of a farmer recently who cut off a leg in order to save his life. We will submit our bodies to treacherous medical procedures to extend our lives for even one month. The truth is, we love our lives and will do almost anything to sustain them. It’s interesting as James Montgomery Boice observed, “Satan used this truth to slander righteous Job: ‘Skin for skin! A man will give all he has for his own life’ (Job 2:4). For nearly everyone, life is the most precious of all possessions.”[1]

Yet the Psalmist David exclaims in Psalm 63:3, God’s “steadfast love is better than life.” The sad thing about all the wonderful blessings in life that we enjoy so much is that none of them can truly touch our being, our souls. They provide temporary relief from the pain in the world. They offer momentary physical pleasures. They bring partial satisfaction to our search for meaning. They serve to pass the time for us. But they never touch us where we need it most. Jesus told the woman at the well in Samaria that earthly water will only satisfy for a short time. But He then says, “if you knew who it is that is speaking with you, you’d ask him for the Living water from which you will only need to drink once and be fully satisfied.” (John 4).

The steadfast love of God is the living water. It quenches our soul’s thirst for all time. Paul prayed for the Ephesians that they would “sink their roots down deep into God’s love” (Ephesians 3:17). He went on to explain that this is how we produce good fruit in our lives. Actually, Christ produces the fruit through us. That’s how Paul could say, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

[1] James Montgomery Boice, Psalms 42–106: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 519.

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Psalm 63:1-4, Matthew 11:28

Rest for the Soul. Think about it!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 31, 2019

If it’s true that God’s “steadfast love is better than life” as the Psalmist David claims in Psalm 63:3, isn’t it interesting that we spend so much more time on things of life than on pondering and meditating on God’s steadfast love. I’m thinking about our spiritual lives not our normal day to day lives.  We all live in the world of “sowing and reaping” and we must make a living. But our spiritual lives get swallowed up by the “sowing and reaping” world of our physical lives and we live as if God is our employer who tries to get the best performance out of us, or a policeman hiding behind a billboard to catch us doing something wrong, or a teacher trying to motivate us to try harder. We act as if, even if we don’t think it, our spiritual lives are determined by our own efforts. In other worlds, there doesn’t seem to be any difference between our spiritual lives and our lives in the flesh.

In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said “Come to me all you who are weary and burned out on religion, I’ll give you rest for your souls.” (Check out the Message translation.) Religion gives us all a way to better ourselves. There are laws to keep, duties to perform, and rituals to observe. But those things are all part of the world of sowing and reaping. The Eastern world religions refer to this as Karma. You get what you deserve either in this life or in the next. I’m suggesting that Jesus calls us to leave the religious life and enter into the life that trusts in Him. We’ve all sinned. Yes, we’ve all made our own beds, but Jesus came to earth to sleep in them for us. If we continue to subscribe to either western or eastern Karma, we will never experience rest for our souls. We will spend eternity in the world of sowing and reaping. There will be no escaping our failures. But it’s while in the world of sowing and reaping, Jesus calls to us: “Come to me,” He says, “I’ll give you rest for your souls.” This is why believing in Jesus is not just another religion. He satisfies all the laws, duties, and rituals on our behalf. Don’t you want to sit down for a minute with Jesus and rest?

I hunger for that! My Dad used to say that he wants nothing more than peace of mind. That’s just another way of saying “rest for your souls.” In the first verse of this Psalm, David talks about how much he wants to experience God’s love. He writes, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you.” There are many other Psalms which contain the same idea. Consider one of the most famous Psalm passages, Psalm 42:1-2, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” Nothing in this world satisfies our souls. We have good times, pleasure, prestige, positions, and lots of possessions, but none of them touch the deepest part of our being. It’s to people like us that Jesus says, “come to me…” Think about it!

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Psalm 63:1-6

And it came to pass. Think about it!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 29, 2019

Psalm 63:3 says that “God’s steadfast love is better than life.” It might help for a moment to remember that David was the Psalmist and that he wrote this Psalm when he was in the wilderness. He was either running from Saul or he was running from his son Absalom. Those were the two times David was living in the desert. I’m of the opinion that it was the latter period, when his son Absalom raised up an army and took the city of Jerusalem by force. David fled from the comfort of his home and escaped into the desert with his general, Joab. Verse 1 of Psalm 63 describes the situation for us. David writes, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” It seems to me that this describes not only the state of his soul, but also his physical surroundings. Can you imagine having a son that you love attempt to kill you in order to take your place in the world? What a painful time for David it must have been.  He was not only driven from the comforts of his home, but driven from the family he loved and trusted to support him. What a desperate time it must have been for him.

It’s in that context that David makes the statement that “God’s steadfast love is better than life.” Life can be the most disappointing adventure one can imagine at times. I think it was for David. My Dad used to mention that the five most repeated words in the Bible are “and it came to pass.” He wasn’t a real Bible scholar and I can’t say I remember him reading it at all, but somewhere along the way he picked up that statement and kept it with him. I think it’s because of how true it is. Everything comes, but nothing in life comes to stay. It comes only to pass. All our successes, all our accomplishments, all our joys and all our pleasures will come to pass. In other words, I’d say that the difference between “life” and “God’s steadfast love” is that one is only temporary and one lasts forever. Which one is better? Think about it! Nothing in life is completely satisfying and fulfilling.

However, God’s “steadfast love” is! That’s what David means in verses 5 and 6. He writes, “My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night.” You know that our souls are not satisfied by food. David is really saying that as a great meal satisfies my body, feasting on or tasting “God’s steadfast love” and meditating on that is the only thing that truly feeds his soul.  Not every little boy can grow up to be an NFL or NBA star. Not every little girl can grow up to be princess or a ballerina. No matter how much we might want to encourage the dreams of our children we all must recognize that life is going to be a disappointment in many ways. Even if we accomplish great things, our successes and victories only come to pass. God’s steadfast love is the only thing that came to stay! Think about it.

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Psalm 63:3, Ephesians 3:18-20

Think About It…!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 29, 2019

In Psalm 63:3, the Psalmist says that “God’s steadfast love is better than life.” What exactly does that mean? I would say that Toasted Almond Fudge ice cream is better than Vanilla. This is simply a qualitative comparison. It means if I had the choice, I’d chose one over the other. Is that what the Psalmist is saying? If he could only have one, life or God’s steadfast love, he’d take God’s steadfast love. There is something that the Psalmist perceives that I must be missing. I just can’t really get a hold on God’s love for me as profoundly as the Psalmist did. I’ve tasted Toasted Almond Fudge ice cream and I’ve tasted Vanilla. I know from experience that if I could choose only one, it would be Toasted Almond Fudge. I’m 72 years old and I’ve tasted life in many different ways, but I’m not sure I’ve ever really “tasted” God’s steadfast love. It’s hard for me to say which I would choose, if had to choose between one or the other. It would be a difficult decision.

I don’t doubt God’s love for me simply because that’s the key message of the Bible. The written word is God’s message of His love for us. Jesus Christ is the “in flesh” demonstration of that love for me, but I still have trouble “tasting” it. I want to taste it! I want to experience it somehow. Yet there is something in my being, character, or makeup that makes it incredibly difficult for me to grasp the fact of God’s love.  I’m not sure what that is but I have an idea that it’s related to the fall, and the fact that our nature isn’t fully capable of comprehending the things of God, especially something as profound as His Love for us. When Paul prays for the Ephesians he wants them to sink their roots down deep into God’s love so that they may be able to understand how high, wide, deep and long it really is. Yet he adds in Ephesians 3:19 that he wants all believers to “experience” God’s love even though it’s “too great to understand fully.”

Watching the sun go down the other night was glorious. This huge ball settling graciously into the horizon. It didn’t take 15 minutes for it to disappear. I had to stop and remind myself that the sun wasn’t moving at all. I was moving! The earth was turning and where I was standing was rotating away from the sun. I had to change the whole way I was experiencing the event. It was hard to do! I had to force myself to think about that because what I saw appeared completely opposite. The sun was going down! Thinking about, meditating on, God’s Love for us can be a fruitful endeavor. Paul finishes his prayer for the Ephesians in chapter 3 by explaining that only through experiencing (tasting) God’s love, sinking our roots deep into it, can we “be made complete (mature) with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Instead of exerting our energy on trying to make ourselves better people, more disciplined, better organized, more successful or more dedicated and committed, maybe we should spend more time focusing on God’s love for us and let the Spirit do the work in us. Rest in what God has done for us, rather than in what we do for God. Let’s trust in Jesus, not in religion. Think about it!

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Malachi 3:6, Pslam 119:159, Romans 5:8, 8:38, Psalm 63:3

God’s Unchanging Love

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 28, 2019

I love my walks in the morning. It gives me time to meditate on God’s character. One of the most prevalent characteristics of God is referred to by theologians as His “immutability.” That means, God never changes! Think about that. Is there anything God can’t do? Ha, a trick question! Yes there are several things. The bible teaches us that God can’t lie. It teaches us that God can’t sin and it teaches us that God can’t change. OK that’s cool, but what difference does that make to me.  Well, think about it. God is not capable or susceptible to change either by increase or by decrease. There will never be any quantitative change. He’ll never get bigger or smaller. There will never be any qualitative change. He never gets better or worse.  You can’t take away from God and you can’t add anything to God. There will never be less nor will there ever be more of God. He is unchangeable, invariable and permanent. In other words God is immutable. God even says this clearly in the last book of the Old Testament. In Malachi 3:6 the prophet records God’s words, “I, the Lord, do not change.”

There is no room for improvement with God.  I’m a selfish kind of a guy and like to try to understand how God’s characteristics relate to me.  The thought struck me that no matter what I do in my life, good or bad, I can’t change the way God feels about me! It doesn’t matter if I win or lose, succeed or fail, feel good or feel bad; He always feels the same way towards me. To the losers and the sinners that’s good news. To the winners and the righteous that’s offensive. But there is no escaping that truth in the Bible. God loves me! God loves you! And He does so with an unchanging love! Jeremiah 31:3 tells us “God has loved you with an everlasting love.” Well, if it’s going to go on forever that means it will never end. The Psalmist sings about it in the massive Psalm 119 and verse 159. He writes of God, “your love never changes.” And Paul makes the clearest presentation of that truth in my opinion in Romans 8:38. He writes, “Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God.”

What is the best and most important message from God to mankind? I have always insisted that the Bible is God’s love letter to mankind. It speaks to us of how God feels towards us. “He so loved us” that he sent His only  begotten Son to die for us on the Cross. Romans 5:8 interprets that for us. Paul writes, “But God demonstrates His love for us in this, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” The Bible is often referred to as God’s written Word, while Christ is referred to as God’s living Word.  Both are expressions of God’s love for each and every one of us. One in word and one in deed. What’s the best message in the world? What’s the best news for all people? Well, the Psalmist in Psalm 63:3 says, addressing God, “your steadfast love is better than life.” Religion focuses on what we do for God. Biblical faith focuses on what God has done for us.

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