Seventh Week of Lent – April 6, 2020 – Holy Week
Lent Devotionals Week 7 – Holy Week
Monday
Read Matthew 21:1-11 and focus on verse 10, where everyone asks, who is this man who enters Jerusalem as a king and a messiah? Who is this? It is a critically important question for us to ask ourselves today as well. Who is Jesus? The common response in our world today is that Jesus was a good man, a good moral teacher, set a good example for us to follow, but is certainly not God and didn’t perform all of the miracles and stuff.
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
As we enter this Holy Week, if you are not settled on who Jesus is, take this week to come to an answer to that question. And if you do believe that Jesus is who he says he is, then ask the Lord today how you can fully follow Jesus, your Savior, and Lord, as we look towards Easter.
Tuesday
Read Matthew 21:1-11 and focus on verse 9. As Jesus enters Jerusalem the crowds are crying out Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! This is a clear reference to the promised Messiah from Psalm 118. However, the problem for many in that crowd, including Jesus’ disciples, is that even if they believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah, they were looking for the wrong kind of Messiah. They were looking for a Messiah who was a military ruler, who would come and liberate Jerusalem and kick the Roman Empire to the curb. They were looking for a warrior, like King David, dressed in battle gear and ready to go. However, Jesus came as the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, one who came not to make war, but to die for the sins of his people. So while the crowd recognized Jesus as the Messiah, he was not the Messiah they wanted him to be. This may be why so many turned on Jesus to chant “Crucify him!” only a few days later.
It is easy today to make the same mistake, and try to make Jesus into someone he is not. We cannot fit Jesus into our box of expectations, we must come to him as he is, our Savior and King. Jesus is not a genii, prosperity guru, or a reflection of our own wants and desires. Jesus does not come to help us with our agenda, Jesus becomes our agenda!
Take some time today and think about who Jesus is. What are ways that you look to Jesus to fit into your plans and goals for your life, instead of submitting all of your life to his will and purpose for you? Ask the Lord to help you surrender your plans and goals to Jesus, and to follow his plan for your life.
Wednesday
Read Matthew 21:1-11 and focus on verses 1-8. The triumphal entry makes clear, both through visual demonstration and prophecy fulfillment, that Jesus is not only the promised Messiah, he is the promised Davidic king. And the question every one of us must ask is this: Is Jesus truly my king? Not just in my words, but in my heart?
We don’t do very well with the concept of submitting to a king in this country. The only king we let have free reign in our lives is the king of our own individuality. We are afraid that having a king rule over us would bring oppression, burdens, and that we would lose our sense of individual freedom.
However Jesus as king does not come to make oppress and make war in Matthew 21:1-11, he comes to make peace. He is riding on a colt, an animal that kings rode in peacetime in the ancient world. King Jesus comes not to punish, but to be punished for our sin. So this is a king who brings freedom, and liberation, and peace. If we want to find true joy and true peace, it will be through following Jesus as our king.
Take some time today and consider who Jesus is as your king, and how the peace and joy that we crave is found only in him. Ask the Lord to help you experience the joy and peace that comes only through following Jesus as King. Think about areas in your life where you are sitting on the throne of your life, and ask the Lord to help you get off the throne so that Jesus can have his rightful place in your life. And watch as your king gives you the peace and joy you are seeking.
Thursday
Read Luke 22:7-23. This passage is one of the accounts of the Last Supper, which took place on Thursday evening of Holy Week. The Last Supper is rich in symbolism; the bread representing Jesus’ body, the cup representing Jesus’ blood, and a new covenant, a new intimate relationship with God, brought about through Jesus’ sacrifice. It sets the pattern for how we celebrate Communion together as a church. It is clearly designed to point us to the cross, to Jesus’ love for us, and to his atoning sacrifice for our sins, in our place.
On this Maundy Thursday, take some time to reflect on the Last Supper. How does the visual symbolism of Jesus’ body and blood encourage you in your faith? How does it challenge you? Ask the Lord to do some spiritual house cleaning in your heart today to prepare you for Good Friday tomorrow.
Friday
Read Mark 15:21-41, and Isaiah 53:4-6. Good Friday marks the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. What is so good about Good Friday? Only the blood of Jesus covers our sins. Jesus died in our place, he bore our punishment, he bore God’s wrath towards our sin. That is good news! But one can only imagine the despair of Jesus, never having experienced any separation from God the Father, now to be completely cut off from him because of our sin. The words of Jesus in Mark 15:34, “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?” are painful to listen to when we understand that Jesus is bearing what we deserve.
On this Friday, do we see our sin holding Jesus on the cross? Jesus did not die for sin in general, but for my sin. For your sin. On this Good Friday, is there any sin in your life that needs to be confessed before the Lord? Ask the Lord to help you get rid of that sin, and even tell a trusted friend about the sin so that they can pray for you and encourage you. Let this Good Friday be a day both of repentance from sin as well as healing from that sin, as we see that Jesus’ blood has washed our sins away, made us clean, and given us a new life and a new righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Saturday
Take some time today to review the devotionals from this week and ask the Lord to prepare your heart for Sunday morning. How can you prepare spiritually to celebrate that Jesus is alive? Read Luke 24:13-35, and ask the Lord to help you walk in the disciples’ shoes from that first Easter Sunday, as we prepare to celebrate tomorrow.
Finally, take some time this Saturday to think about what the Lord has been teaching you during this season of Lent. Write down ways you have seen yourself grow spiritually during this season, and share them with a friend. Then invite someone you know to join us for our celebration on Easter Sunday!
Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
Sixth Week of Lent – March 30, 2020
Sixth Week of Lent
Ephesians 6:10-24
Monday
Read Ephesians 6:10-24 and focus on v10-13. Paul tells the Ephesians to be strong in the Lord because they (and we) are in a spiritual battle. Satan wants to destroy what God has made. And Satan especially wants to keep us from being a light in this dark world…he wants the world to stay dark. And while Satan cannot touch God, he can and does go after God’s people.
There are two extremes we can err in when it comes to Satan. We can see the demonic under every rock and difficulty that comes our way. For example, we blame Satan when we hurt ourselves during a run. Honestly, I think that gives Satan too much power. But the other direction we can err in is to not see Satan in anything and to look at conflict in this world in purely natural terms. This is what Paul is warning the Ephesians against. Satan especially wants to destroy unity in families and in the church. When a small family conflict becomes a big family crisis, we should ask ourselves how this might be a spiritual attack before we attack our family members.
As you think about the relationships in your life, how is Satan attacking you? What is he using to discourage you from following Jesus? How is he trying to keep your family from following Jesus together? How is he attacking your relationships in the church? And how do you need to be strengthened in the Lord (not in your own strength!) so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes (v11)? Take some time today and ask the Lord to strengthen you. Then as we go through the rest of this week, studying the armor of God that we need for this battle, ask the Lord to help you put this armor on every single day!
Tuesday
Read Ephesians 6:10-24 and focus on verses 14-17. Every piece of armor that Paul tells the Ephesians to put on for this spiritual battle is about the Gospel. The idea is that the deeper we go into the Gospel, the good news that we are saved only by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9), the more we will be strengthened to stand against Satan’s schemes to destroy us and our relationships. The helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness speaks explicitly to the saving work God has done in us. We are saved, not because of anything good we have done, or because we go to church or because we grew up in a Christian home. No, we are saved only when God has made us alive by his grace (Ephesians 2:5). And while our actual righteousness goes up and down in our lives, the righteousness by which God accepts us is not our righteousness, but Jesus’ righteousness transferred to us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
This is good news! Sadly, however, so many professed Christians live in constant fear of their salvation, especially when they have failures in their life because they wrongly believe that God’s acceptance of them is based on their actual righteousness at that moment. Satan will try to keep us in that fear. But when we believe in Jesus, God gives us Jesus’ righteousness, his perfect track record, and that is the basis by which God accepts us.
So, take some time today and ask yourself some questions. If you died today, would you go to heaven? Why? How can you know for sure that you are saved from eternal judgment and the penalty of sin and death? And when you do sin (we all do!), are you still confident in your salvation? Why or why not? Ask the Lord to help you really understand what salvation by grace alone (not your works) is really about, and if you don’t understand, make sure you talk with a trusted friend who can help you this week!
Wednesday
Read Ephesians 6:10-24 and focus on verses 14-17. Another piece of Gospel armor that Paul instructs the Ephesians to put on is to have “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace (v15).” When we are saved from our sins, we can truly experience peace. This is a peace that comes from knowing that no matter what happens in this life, I know that my future is secure, that I will spend eternity in heaven with Jesus, and that nothing can steal that away from me. That gives me peace to go through whatever trials I experience in life right now.
But Satan loves to get us to focus on our circumstances, and in doing so tries to steal our peace. We play into Satan’s hand when we tell God, “I’ll be fine as long as my circumstances work out in such and such a way,” or “as long as this one thing doesn’t happen, I’ll be ok.” Satan cannot steal our salvation, but he can mess with our circumstances. Just look at Job in the Old Testament! Then when things don’t go the way we want, instead of trusting God, we get mad at God and mad at anyone else who encourages us to trust God.
A friend of mine used to own a tech start-up company. You can imagine the stress being head of a small company in an industry where, statistically, the vast majority of companies fail within the first few years! But my friend always said this with regards to his peace: “My top 2,000 biggest problems were taken care of when Jesus died on the cross for my sin. And if God loves me so much that he did that for me, he’ll take care of everything else.”
Take some time today and ask the Lord to show you what the foundation of your peace is. Is it Jesus’ finished work for you on the cross? Is it knowing the promise of eternal life? Or is it your circumstances? Ask the Lord to give you his peace in any circumstance, so that you can stand firm when Satan tries to steal that peace.
Thursday
Read Ephesians 6:10-24 and focus on verses 14-17. As part of this Gospel armor, Paul instructs the Ephesians to take up the shield of faith so that we can extinguish “all the flaming arrows of the evil one (v16).” There are times in our lives where Satan tempts us with doubts and gets us to question what we really believe. That is why faith is such an important part of this Gospel armor for this spiritual battle.
But what kind of faith? Faith is sometimes wrongly taken to mean having more faith in yourself. Or others would say that if you have enough faith, if you believe hard enough, God will do for you what you want. Satan would love for us to focus on these unbiblical concepts of faith! But the faith Paul is talking about here is saving faith: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith… (Ephesians 2:8)” Satan tries to get us to doubt our status as a child of God, and instead tempts us to measure ourselves by comparing ourselves to the people around us. Satan tries to get us to question our salvation, and to get us to live in fear because of our sin, instead of believing that Jesus died for my sin and that his blood covers my sin. Satan tries to get us to doubt that we can ever overcome an area of sin in our lives when in reality, God is in the business of renewing minds and hearts (Ephesians 4:23, Romans 12:1-2). Everything that God has done and is doing for us through Jesus Christ, Satan will try to get us to doubt.
Take some time today and ask the Lord to strengthen your faith so that you can stand with confidence against Satan’s attacks. Think about areas where Satan is trying to get you to doubt your faith and belief in Jesus and pray that the Lord strengthens your faith specifically in that area. And ask a trusted friend to pray for you for your faith to be strengthened. As your faith is strengthened, ask the Lord to show you someone who you can encourage so that the Lord might use you to strengthen their faith as well.
Friday
Read Ephesians 6:10-24 and focus on verses 14-17. The last piece of Gospel armor we are looking at this week is the sword of the Spirit, which Paul says is the word of God (v17). Knowing God’s Word is critical because it points us to Jesus. It points us to the cross. It strengthens us in all the other pieces of armor we have looked at this week. And it is the best weapon to defend against Satan’s attacks. When Jesus is tempted by the devil in Matthew 4:1-11, Jesus, tired and weak from fasting in the wilderness, did not use logic, or a well-crafted philosophical argument, nor did he appeal to his own strength (in his humanity he had none!). He responded and defeated every temptation with three simple words: It is written. It is written. He responded to every temptation with God’s Word from the Hebrew Scriptures, what we know as the Old Testament. And because of God’s Word thrown in his face, Satan gives up and leaves.
But today we face a crisis of biblical illiteracy in our churches. People simply do not know the bible as they did in generations past. We have the greatest weapon available to use in our battle against Satan, and yet we do not know how to use it, or in some cases, even know that it is there available to us.
Take some time today and ask yourself: Do I know God’s Word? Do I know what is written in my bible? Do I know that the bible is one story from cover to cover, and do I know what that story is? Do I know where it begins and where it ends? Do I know how the plot unfolds to point to the climax of the story with Jesus dying for our sins?
If you realize that you don’t know very much of the bible, or hardly any at all, let me point you to two resources to get you started. One is the Bible Project (https://thebibleproject.com/). This resource has illustrated videos of every single book of the bible so that you can see how what you are reading in the Bible fits into the larger story of the bible. The other is Open the Bible (https://openthebible.org/). This resource has 50 passages from the bible that tell the overall story of the bible (1-2 chapters each), and you can listen to or read the passage, listen to or read a brief explanation of that passage and how it fits into the story, and then look at a few questions that are great for personal reflection or small group discussion.
If we are armed with God’s Word, then we can really participate in this spiritual battle. So, take up your sword!
Saturday
Read Ephesians 6:10-24 one more time and look back through the devotionals from this week. Also, take some time to ask the Lord to show you anything else from this passage that we couldn’t dive into this week. Then spend some time in prayer and ask the Lord to prepare your heart as we enter Holy Week. How do you need to prepare your heart this coming week as we look to the cross on Good Friday and Jesus’ glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday? Easter stands at the center of the Christian faith, it is the reason we can have any hope at all in this world, and so we want to be ready to celebrate that truth with our entire being!
Fifth Week of Lent – March 23, 2020
Fifth Week of Lent
Ephesians 5:21-6:9
Monday
Read Ephesians 5:21-6:9 and focus on 5:21. “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” This is Paul’s thesis, his topic sentence for how we as Christians build and maintain healthy relationships. While it is easy to read this passage and get into discussions about what this means specifically for husbands and wives, or parents and children, we must first stop and reflect on this challenge: Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
To submit is to sacrifice. In the first century Ephesus, Paul’s words in this passage can be read-only as a call to radical, self-sacrificial, self-giving, self-emptying love. Paul even goes so far as to tell husbands (who were in a position of authority and power) in 5:25 that their love for their wives should be the same as Jesus’ love for the church, giving himself up for the church. This kind of love is seen only through self-sacrifice. The kind of love that should shape every Christian relationship is a self-sacrificial, cross-shaped love. This kind of love was a radical concept in first-century Ephesus, and it is radical today.
Take some time today to think about the various relationships you have in your life. Do you think of loving each other in this radical, self-sacrificial way? Why or why not? What relationships in your life need to have a more cross-shaped, self-sacrificial love? Ask the Lord to develop a cross-shaped, self-sacrificial love in your heart this week for the people in your life. And ask the Lord to show you what this kind of love looks like practically in each of your relationships.
Tuesday
Read Ephesians 5:21-6:9 and focus again on 5:21. We have seen that the key to building and maintaining healthy relationships is a cross-shaped, self-sacrificial love. But there is a huge barrier to having that kind of self-sacrificial love, and it is our own self-centeredness. Whether it is a marriage, friendship, or family relationship, self-centeredness is a torpedo that can blow up any relationship. Couples in marriage counseling often come with a litany of problems and grievances about their spouse, but the root of the problem most often is their own self-centeredness. Tim Keller suggests that when two spouses say, “I’m going to treat my self-centeredness as the main problem in the marriage,” that is when they have the prospect of a truly great marriage. The same applies to all Christian relationships.
Take some time today and ask the Lord to show you areas where your self-centeredness is impacting your relationships. If you are having trouble thinking of examples, be brave and ask your friends, your spouse, or if you are brave, ask your kids. They will certainly be able to tell you where your self-centeredness is keeping you from having a truly cross-shaped, self-sacrificial love. Then ask the Lord to kill that self-centeredness in you and ask the Lord to show you how you can love selflessly in that relationship instead of selfishly. This may be an uncomfortable spiritual exercise, but the result is not only stronger relationships but relationships that point us to Jesus’ self-sacrificial love for us.
Wednesday
Read Ephesians 5:21-6:9 and focus on 5:22-33. Paul first applies this principle of cross-shaped, self-sacrificial love to the institution of marriage. Paul’s exhortations to both wives and husbands in first-century Ephesus were a radical challenge for how spouses love each other in marriage. And these words on self-sacrificial love in marriage are as needed today as they were when Paul wrote them. Sociologists have now coined a new term to refer to marriages today: “The Me-Marriage.” Today, so many people see marriage as an accomplishment, something that enhances my life, the cherry on the already self-established sundae of my life. In other words, marriage today is not about self-sacrificial love for the other, it is about the other making my life better.
If you are married, how can you love your spouse with a cross-shaped love? What are some practical ways you can love your spouse with this radical, self-sacrificial, self-giving, self-emptying love? Ask the Lord today to show you practical steps you can take in this area, and then go do them! Ask your spouse for practical ways you can serve them. And if you are not married, how can you encourage this kind of love in your friendships and the relationships around you? When this kind of cross-shaped love defines us, every relationship in the church will be strengthened, not just marriages. So, pray today that every relationship in our church will be shaped by this radical, cross-shaped love!
Thursday
Read Ephesians 5:21-6:9 and focus on 6:1-4. Paul now applies this principle of cross-shaped, self-sacrificial love to families, specifically the relationship between parents and children. Children are called to obey their parents, and parents are called to bring their children up in the “training and instruction of the Lord.” Obviously, this requires self-sacrificial love all around, for there are times where kids want to do what they want to do, and there are times where parents want to focus on their own self-interests rather than the disciplined task of raising their kids to know and follow Jesus.
Now all of us have different family situations, some good, some difficult, and everywhere in between. Therefore, the application of these verses will be different for all of us. Ask the Lord today to show you practical things you can do to love your family with a cross-shaped, self-sacrificial love. And be willing to put things on the table and let the Lord make changes if necessary, with regards to your family. Is your family too busy to devote the time necessary to know and follow Jesus together? Does your personal time need to change so that you can be more intentional about your family’s spiritual growth? Are there things in your life that need to be given up so that you can invest in what really matters? All these things involve sacrifice, giving up what is easy for the sake of what is important. So, ask the Lord to keep growing this self-sacrificial heart in you, so that our families, as well as our entire church family, can grow closer to Jesus together!
Friday
Read Ephesians 5:21-6:9 and focus on 6:5-9. Paul’s final application of this principle of cross-shaped, self-sacrificial love is the area of slaves and masters. This is a little difficult for us to apply, as we live in a context where there is no institutional slavery. But most of us do work for someone, and some have people working for them. There are power structures to navigate on a regular basis, and we must figure out how to honor the Lord in those various relationships. Therefore, the principle of self-sacrificial love here in these verses can apply to our work relationships. For those in positions of service, Paul’s call is to obey and serve wholeheartedly as if serving the Lord, not just serving for personal gain. And for those in positions of authority, Paul instructs them to care for those under them “in the same way.” So regardless of what side of a work-relationship you are on, the goal is the same: Serve wholeheartedly and selflessly. When we serve others wholeheartedly and selflessly in the workplace, people take notice. Self-sacrificial love and service in a context where people are looking out for number one cause heads to turn.
Take some time today and ask the Lord how you can serve wholeheartedly and selflessly in your workplace, regardless of what position you are in. Ask the Lord to also reveal your heart about work. Do you view work as a necessary evil or as an opportunity to lovingly serve others? Even as you grow in the area of self-sacrificial love in relationships at home and church, ask the Lord to grow that self-sacrificial love in you at work, so that you might have opportunities to tell others about Jesus’ love for them.
Saturday
Read Ephesians 5:21-6:9 one more time and review the devotionals from this week. Share with a friend or family member what the Lord has been teaching you this week and share with them the practical steps you are taking to grow in this area of self-sacrificial love. Ask them to pray for you and hold you accountable for these steps.
Given that self-centeredness is so ingrained in us, both by our nature and by our culture, practicing this selfless, self-sacrificial love will likely take some time, practice and discipline. This is likely a “two steps forward and one step back” scenario for most of us. But don’t be discouraged. Instead, as we get closer to Holy Week, turns your eyes to the cross. Think about what Jesus has done for you. Think of the pain and the mockery he endured to die for you. Think of the excruciating pain he endured when he bore the full weight of the sins of humanity on the cross. Think of the agony he endured when he was cut off from his Heavenly Father. Why did Jesus do this? Because he loves you. And if this is how Jesus has demonstrated his love for us, we can love each other in the same way.
Fourth Week of Lent – March 16, 2020
Fourth Week of Lent
Ephesians 4:17-5:20
Monday
Read Ephesians 4:17-5:20, and focus on 4:17-24. Paul instructs the Ephesians to not live like the world around them, to put off their old self, and to put on their new self. In other words, when we begin to follow Jesus, we begin an entire new life. So our lives should look different with Jesus.
The question becomes, how do we put on this new self? Is it as simple as putting on a new set of clothes? How wonderful it would be if putting on the new self was as easy as cutting tags off of clothes we just bought and putting them on! But experience tells us it’s not that easy. Old habits die hard. It can be very discouraging to look at the teachings in this long passage and say, I’m trying so hard to do all of this, but I keep going back to my old ways.
Thankfully, putting on the new self is not a matter of simply trying harder to live the way God wants us to live. Notice what Paul writes in 4:23: “..to be made new in the attitude of your minds…” To be made new is a passive action; it is something God does in us, not something we actively do by ourselves. Now to be sure, there are areas in our lives where we can work hard and grow in self-discipline so that we can live for Jesus. But we have to remember first and foremost that this process of putting on the new self begins with God doing a transformative work in us.
So instead of beginning this week trying harder to follow Jesus, ask the Lord to do a powerful work of transformation in your mind and in your heart. Ask the Lord to help you change. Make your prayer today similar to the words of David in Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” And then watch this week as the Lord does a work of renewal in you.
Tuesday
Read Ephesians 4:17-5:20, and focus on 4:25-5:2. The first major area Paul addresses in this passage is the area of speech ethics. How we speak to each other is critical for having healthy relationships. Paul is clear that the words we speak should only be for building others up, not tearing others down. But often we use our words to build ourselves up, usually at the expense of others. James describes the tongue as “a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” (James 3:6). Sadly, we have all experienced this, both when we have been hurt by someone’s words, and when we have hurt someone with our words. Words tend to be used as weapons and not as loving tools that build relationships.
How can we grow so that our words are building up those around us? In Scouts, my boys learned knife safety before they could get their whittling chip and use a pocket knife. They learned how to make a safety circle to ensure no one is within arm’s reach of them as they use their knife. Now clearly there is no speech safety class required before people learn to speak. But what if we as followers of Jesus learned to ask some simple questions in our head as we speak? Are the words I’m about to speak helpful to others? Encouraging? Focused on loving others or focused on myself? Am I about to speak with love or with anger? If we were to ask these kinds of questions as we go through our day we would very quickly see whether our words are building or killing relationships.
Take some time today and ask the Lord to help you grow in the area of your speech. Pray that the Lord builds a filter into your mind and heart so that you can think before you speak, to ensure that your words are building relationships, and not killing them. Ask the Lord to help you get rid of anger and bitterness that may be behind your words (4:31). And if you realize that your words have been destructive, ask for forgiveness from the people you have hurt, and forgive those who have hurt you (4:32).
Wednesday
Read Ephesians 4:17-5:20, and focus on 5:3-14. The other major area Paul addresses in this passage is the area of purity, specifically sexual purity. Paul says in 5:3 that “there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality…” Relationships get built up and strengthened when we follow God’s plan for sexual purity.
Today we live in a culture where decisions about sexuality are not made based on God’s Word, but based on what feels right. The saying, “as long as you’re not hurting anyone” has become the permission slip to justify almost anything. But many of the decisions made under the umbrella of “as long as you don’t hurt anyone” actually do hurt people. Pornography is not harmless. It rewires the brain and makes real sex and intimacy in marriage more difficult, not to mention the horrible damage it does to women caught up in that industry. And even sex before marriage, seen by many as harmless, or even beneficial, hijacks the natural emotional development of a romantic relationship, which is one of the reasons the woman in Song of Songs pleads with the daughters of Jerusalem to “not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.” (Song of Songs 3:5). That’s a poetic way of saying, “wait until after the wedding!”
As followers of Jesus, what if we were radical in our commitment to sexual purity? What if we were radical in considering what we allow our eyes to see, and what boundaries we cross in our romantic relationships? Not only would our relationships be strengthened, but we would be able to serve younger generations of believers, especially our youth who are faced with all kinds of temptations, and share with them that God’s way really is better!
Ask the Lord today to help you grow in the area of purity. Ask for forgiveness for the times you have struggled in this area. And if you need help in this area, ask a trusted friend who can help you follow Jesus with regards to your purity. It is worth being radical here. Because as we grow in purity, our relationships will grow as well.
Thursday
Read Ephesians 4:17-5:20, and focus on 5:15-20. In this passage Paul has focused on the actions that destroy relationships, specifically the areas of speech and purity. You probably read at least parts of this passage with conviction, realizing there is room for growth in these areas. The question naturally arises then, how can I change? Thankfully Paul finishes this section with the answer in 5:18: “be filled with the Spirit.” The more we are filled up with God’s Spirit, the harder it is to hurt each other with our words and the harder it is to give into temptation that would compromise our purity.
So how do we get filled with God’s Spirit? Paul tells us in verse 19 and 20. He teaches us to speak to each other “with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.” Then he tell us to praise the Lord in our hearts and to give thanks to him for everything. As we grow in praise and thankfulness, and we encourage others to praise and be thankful, we get filled up in a way where we can bless others and build healthy relationships.
Take some time today and ask the Lord to fill you with his Spirit. If you are struggling in the area of thanksgiving and praise, take a sheet of paper or a journal and write down everything you have to be thankful for. Then take that list (it’s probably longer than you thought!) and praise God for everything he has done for you. As you praise the Lord, watch as your heart becomes more inclined to the Lord, and watch as he fills you with his Spirit, and gives you more of a desire to honor him in these areas of speech and purity.
Friday
Read Ephesians 4:17-5:20, and focus on 4:32. Every single person can read this passage and see areas where they have failed. And it is easy to look at our failures and experience shame and guilt for how we have rebelled against God and against his plan for healthy relationships. And sadly, many Christians live under that heavy burden of guilt and shame every single day. You may be at the end of this week, having worked through these devotionals and are feeling that burden of guilt and shame, saying, wow, I’ve messed this up in every way imaginable.
What we must remember when we experience this burden is that Jesus died for our sins. 4:32 is a reminder of what Paul has been talking about throughout Ephesians, that through the blood of Jesus, God has forgiven us. So while this passage shows us how serious our sin is, and how damaging it can be to our relationships, it also shows us that the blood of Jesus covers that sin, and that when we confess our sin and turn to Jesus, he takes that sin and removes it from us. Jesus took the punishment we deserve. So instead of feeling guilt and shame for our sin, and living under that burden, we can experience freedom and joy, because Jesus has removed that burden from us!
So take some time today and receive God’s grace. Let God remove the burden of your guilt and shame. And then as you experience the freedom that comes from living in God’s grace, ask the Lord how you can live radically for him going forward. Regardless of past failures, you can live radically for him today. And this is something we can do together. Ask the Lord how you can help someone else experience God’s grace, and how you can live God’s way together.
Saturday
Read Ephesians 4:17-5:20 one more time and review the devotionals from this week. Thank the Lord both for the conviction he brings through this passage, as well as for his forgiveness and grace he offers for our failures revealed in this passage.
Earlier in the week we saw David’s prayer in Psalm 51, asking the Lord to give him a pure heart. These verses are the foundation for the song Create In Me Clean Heart, by Keith Green. Take some time today and let the renewing power of God’s grace, seen in this song, sink deep into your heart!
Create in me a clean heart, oh God
And renew a right spirit within me
Create in me a clean heart, oh God
And renew a right spirit within me
Cast me not away from Thy presence, oh Lord
And take not Thy holy spirit from me
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation
And renew a right spirit within me
Third Week of Lent – March 9, 2020
Third Week of Lent
Ephesians 4:1-16
Monday
Read Ephesians 4:1-16. Paul begins this second half of Ephesians with this statement in verse 1: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Up until this point in Ephesians, Paul has been describing God’s beautiful grace that he has lavished on us; forgiving our sins through Jesus Christ, giving us new life and drawing us together into one body with Christ as the head. Now, Paul shifts gears and begins to give instructions for how we should live in light of this beautiful salvation.
This shift is important because it shows us that our obedience as Christians is directly tied to what God has done for us. It is often easy to think of obeying God as some difficult task. But obedience is really a response, a joyful response to our amazing, gracious God. In other words, obedience is not a burden, it is worship. Worship is far more than singing in church on Sundays. It is a joyful, willing, obedience to God’s will, in response to his great love for us.
Take some time today to think about obedience. How do you view obedience to God? Is it a chore? A burden? Or is obedience a joyful act of worship? Ask the Lord to work in your heart this week so that your obedience to him shifts from being a burden to worship. And then as we go through this season of Lent, ask the Lord to show you areas in your life where you can grow in obedience to him, and in doing so more fully worship him. And as your worship grows, so will your joy.
Tuesday
Read Ephesians 4:1-16, and focus on verse 3. Paul instructs the Ephesians to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Unity is one of those words that we hear about a lot, both in the church and in our country. People lament about the lack of unity we have in our country today. Ironically, we long for unity and at the same time attack people who disagree with us. Even in churches, there are so many threats to unity. Therefore Paul’s call for unity seems like a tough challenge.
Thankfully God has provided a way for us to maintain unity in the church. And that plan, which is laid out in this passage, is simple: A church that serves together, grows together. And we can pass that truth on to individual relationships. Friends that serve together, grow together. Spouses who serve together, grow together. Families that serve together, grow together. The way to maintain the unity of the body of Christ is to serve together, to build up the body of Christ together (verse 12), so that we are truly functioning as one unified body (verse 13). The things that threaten to divide us melt away as serve together and grow together.
We’ll explore this idea in our devotionals for the rest of this week, but for today, ask the Lord to help you be an agent of unity in our church. Ask the Lord to show you ways you can serve in our church, especially together with other people. And pray that as we grow together in unity, that our church will be able to faithfully and more effectively share Jesus with our surrounding community!
Wednesday
Read Ephesians 4:1-16, and focus on verses 12 and 13. Before coming to Mission Village Christian Fellowship, I looked at a lot of job descriptions for pastors. And some of them were terrifying. The pastor was expected to preach, lead worship and musical praise, evangelize in the community, teach Sunday School, offer counseling, visit all of the sick, coordinate community service projects, grow the church, and increase tithing. In other words, be everything and do everything. I wouldn’t have been surprised to also see those job descriptions include mowing the lawn and serving as the resident church plumber!
Now as a pastor, I enjoy many of the ministries mentioned above (not the plumbing part however!). But in this passage Paul makes it clear that the work of the ministry is NOT the pastor’s main job. The main job of the pastor and other leaders in the church in verse 12 is to “equip (God’s) people for works of service.” So the main job of the pastor is to equip others to serve and do the ministry of the church.
So if the job of church leaders is to equip, then the job of the congregation is to be equipped. So take some time today and think about how you need to be equipped in your Christian faith. Do you need to grow in knowing the bible more? Do you need help in knowing how to grow closer to God? Do you need to be equipped in how to do ministry? Or do you need help thinking through how to live out your faith in the workplace? How do you need to be equipped in your faith?
Ask the Lord today to show you the areas in your life where you need equipping, where you need training and growth. And then make sure that you tell me or one of the other leaders in the church. My job, the job of the Elders, and the job of our Leadership Council, is to equip you to serve. And then as we serve together, we can grow together.
Thursday
Read Ephesians 4:1-16, and focus on verses 12 and 13. Paul is clear here that the job of the pastor is not to do all of the work of the ministry of the church, but to equip God’s people to do the ministry of the church. And as the church serves together, it grows together. That is how the church cultivates and maintains unity (verse 3).
Therefore, the question every one of us should be asking ourselves is not should I serve in ministry at church, but rather, what ministry should I serve in? Serving in ministry is not an optional accessory to the Christian life, it is the Christian life! Just as every part of the human body works together to keep the body healthy and functioning, so every part of the body of Christ should be working together so that the body stays healthy.
There are several ways to figure out where you can best serve, and what your role is. Spiritual gifts tests can be useful to see what your strengths are. Often your natural skills and abilities translate well into some area of service in the church. Sometimes you just need to try serving in a ministry area to see if that is a good fit for you. But the best way I know is to ask the Lord to show you how he has gifted you, and then ask others what they see in you. Ask a friend at church, where do you think I could best serve? And then go with what they suggest. So starting today, pray about serving, talk to folks around you at church, and then dive in!
Friday
Read Ephesians 4:1-16. Throughout this passage Paul explains that as we serve together, we grow together. As we have seen this week, serving together is critical for the health of our church family.
But in the same way, serving together is also important for individual relationships. Marriages, friendships, families, can all be strengthened and grow together as they serve together. One of the best quality times I have had with my boys was serving together at a church work day. Serving together really can help build strong relationships, because the service provides opportunities for deeper conversations with people than you might normally have on a Sunday morning.
But serving together not only helps us build stronger relationships and be unified as a church (verse 13), it also helps us grow in spiritual maturity together (verses 13, 15). Serving together not only brings us together, it helps us to know and follow Jesus more and more. So if you have been walking with the Lord for a while, is there someone around you who is younger in their faith who you can serve with? Invite them to come join you in whatever ministry you are serving in. And if you are younger in your faith, find someone around you who is further along in their spiritual journey, find out what ministry they serve in, and go join them! And then watch what happens in your life!
Saturday
Read Ephesians 4:1-16 one more time and review the devotionals from this past week. Paul’s big idea in this passage is that as we serve together, we grow together, not only in unity, but also in spiritual maturity. As we serve together, we grow closer to Jesus together. And that’s our goal as a church: to help each other to know and follow Jesus.
Unfortunately, the reason many Christians do not grow closer to Jesus is because they are not growing together with other believers. We live in a highly individualistic culture, and it is easy to think that if I have Jesus and my bible, I’m good. But Paul is abundantly clear here…we need each other to grow closer to Jesus. There is no such thing as a lone-ranger Christian.
So the first step of application for you this week may be to reject the temptation to be a long-ranger Christian, and ask the Lord to help you see your need for Christian community, for brothers and sisters in Christ who can help to grow closer to Jesus. Before we can serve together and grow together, we may need to pray, “Lord, cure me of my independence and self-reliance.” That is a scary prayer, but it is also beautiful, because it paves the way for something far better, which is growing closer to Jesus with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Second Week of Lent – March 2, 2020
Second Week of Lent
Ephesians 3:14-21
Monday
Read Ephesians 3:14-21. Paul spends the first half of his letter to the Ephesians describing God’s grace: how we were dead in our sins, how through Jesus’ death and resurrection God made us alive, how we are saved with a new purpose in life, how we are brought into God’s family, and how together with other believers we reflect God’s love and grace to the rest of the world. Paul then spends the rest of his letter sharing various ways that we can and should live in light of God’s glorious grace in our lives.
But before Paul gets to the practical application, he prays. He is so overjoyed at God’s grace, so overjoyed that there are now followers of Jesus in Ephesus, that he spends these verses at the end of chapter 3 in prayer. Specifically, he prays for the health of the church in Ephesus as they grow in God’s grace. And Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian Christians is a prayer that we can and should pray for ourselves.
We’ll spend this second week in Lent exploring Paul’s prayer, and how we can pray this prayer for ourselves. But today, ask yourself this: what does your prayer life look like? What hinders you from having a deeper relationship with God through prayer? For some it is too many distractions in their daily lives, for others, it is not having a carved out time in their day to sit down and talk to God. Still, others struggle in prayer because they do not know what to pray, both for themselves and for others.
Take some time today to ask the Lord to strengthen your prayer life. And then, start practicing. Remember, prayer does not have to be eloquent, or well thought out. Prayer is just talking to your heavenly Father, who wants to hear from you. And just like any other relationship, the more you talk to God, the closer you will be to God. So let’s be a people of prayer!
Tuesday
Read Ephesians 3:14-21, and focus on verse 16. The first thing Paul prays is that the Ephesians would be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit. It is so important that we start here when we face any challenge in life. I don’t know about you, but when I am going through difficult times I am always tempted to rely on my own strength instead of being strengthened by God’s Holy Spirit.
But there are two problems with relying on our own strength. One, our strength is pitiful compared to God’s infinite strength. Why rely on ourselves when we have God’s strength available to us? And two, if we rely on our own strength to face life’s challenges, what happens when that strength runs out? We crumble, we fall. And then instead of pointing the finger at ourselves, we begin to wonder why God didn’t come through for us.
Take some time today to ask the Lord to strengthen you with his power through the Holy Spirit. Ask for forgiveness for the times where you have relied (or are currently relying!) on your own strength. Think of a difficult situation you are facing and imagine how the situation would be different if you truly relied on God’s strength. If you are having trouble doing this, talk to someone who has been a Christian for a long period of time, and ask them how they have seen God strengthen them in difficult times. And as you start relying on God’s strength, watch how your faith grows as well!
Wednesday
Read Ephesians 3:14-21, and focus on verse 17. After Paul prays for strength (v16), his prayer acknowledges that the Christians in Ephesus are rooted and established in love. Paul uses two metaphors (one botanical and one architectural) to show how important it is to be grounded in the love of God through Jesus. In other words, it is critical that we have a firm foundation of our faith. It is critical that we are grounded in the truth that can hold us firm, which is the Gospel, the good news that Jesus died for our sins, in our place, so that we can have a restored relationship with God.
Why are roots so important? Why is a good foundation so important? Without them, we crumble. A tree without a strong root system blows over in a storm, and a building with a bad foundation collapses in an earthquake.
Are you rooted and established in the Gospel? Are you grounded in the solid foundation of Jesus’ love for you? One way you can know the answer to that question is to ask this: what gives me the most peace in a difficult time? Is it Jesus? Is it knowing that no matter what happens, nothing can take me away from God because Jesus died for me? Or is it circumstances working out the way I want them to? It is so easy to pray, Lord, as long as such and so thing happens the way I want it to, I’ll be ok. Our prayer time turns into a desperate attempt to bargain with God. But if we are really rooted and established in Jesus’ love, we don’t need to make those deals with God.
Take some time today to ask the Lord to help you be more rooted and established in Jesus’ love. And as your foundation is strengthened, your peace will grow.
Thursday
Read Ephesians 3:14-21, and focus on verses 18-19. Paul prays that the Ephesians would know the deep love of Jesus. He prays that we would know Jesus’ love intellectually (v18: to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ), and that we would know Jesus’ love experientially (v19: to know this love that surpasses knowledge). And if we think of human relationships it makes sense that we should know Jesus’ love both intellectually and experientially. A child who only is told his parents loves him but never experiences that love will not have a close relationship with them.
Now obviously we will never be able to fully wrap our finite minds around the infinite love of Jesus. But we are still called to grow in knowing this love. Why? Because the more we know and experience Jesus’ love, the more we will be content to rest in that love. If we are truly knowing and experiencing Jesus’ love in our lives, we will be less tempted to seek that love from someone or something else.
Today, take some time to meditate on Jesus’ vast, infinite love. If someone asked you, do you know how much you are loved, what is your honest answer? Do you really know how much Jesus loves you? Do you really know that Jesus loves you unconditionally? J.D. Greear puts it this way: “There is nothing you can do to make God love you more, and nothing you have done to make God love you less.” Do you know this kind of love? And what are some ways your life might change if you really knew how much Jesus loves you? Ask the Lord today to help you know the love of Jesus.
Friday
Read Ephesians 3:14-21, and focus on verse 19. Paul has prayed that the Ephesians would be strengthened by the Holy Spirit, be rooted and grounded in Jesus’ love, and that they would know and experience Jesus’ unconditional love for them. All of this leads to Paul’s final prayer: that the Ephesians would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. What an amazing prayer! Paul is not simply praying that God would fill the Ephesians with good things from him, but that God would fill the Ephesians with himself!
Now I don’t know how that will happen. How can an infinite God fit into finite human beings? It appears that Paul doesn’t even know, because in verse 20 he describes God as doing more than we can ask or imagine! But it is a beautiful picture isn’t it? It is a picture of a believer being filled with the fullness of God, with God’s grace and love overflowing in them and through them, shaping everything they say and do.
But sadly, far too many Christians never experience this fullness. We often settle for far less. Jani Ortlund puts it this way: “Are you settling for less than God has for you? Jesus didn’t die merely to save you from hell. He died so you could be filled with all the fullness of God…Ask God to awaken a greater thirst and hunger for more of Him…(and) let’s not limit God to the measure of our own smallness.”
This is a bold prayer: God fill me with your fullness. But it is a prayer that God wants us to pray and one he wants to answer. Ask the Lord today to fill you with his fullness, and then watch as the Lord does an incredible work in you and through you!
Saturday
Read Ephesians 3:14-21 one more time. Review the devotionals from this week and ask the Lord to take you deeper into this incredible prayer. Find some uninterrupted time to reflect on the glorious love of Jesus. And as you reflect, consider the words to the hymn that reflects this passage beautifully, O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of Your love
Leading onward, leading homeward
To Your glorious rest above!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Spread His praise from shore to shore,
How His love is never-ending,
And it changes nevermore;
How He watches o’er His loved ones,
Died to call them all His own;
How for them He’s interceding,
Watching o’er them from the throne.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Love of ev’ry love the best:
‘Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
‘Tis a haven sweet of rest.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
‘Tis a heav’n of heav’ns to me;
And it lifts me up to glory,
With You evermore to be.
Welcome Letter/1st week of Lenten Devotionals – February 25, 2020
February 25, 2020
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent. Lent is a 40 day (not counting Sundays) period of reflection leading up to Easter weekend. We want to be prepared to fully celebrate Good Friday and Easter, the cross and the resurrection, and this period of Lent helps us in that preparation.
Typically Christians have observed Lent by asking what they can remove from their daily lives so that they can focus more on following Jesus. However, this year, what if we add something to our lives to draw us closer to Jesus? Specifically, what if we added more time meditating on God’s Word? The bible is how God speaks to us, guides us, and corrects us…if we want to draw closer to the Lord during this Lenten season, what better way than to be more immersed in God’s holy Word?
So as we go through Lent, we will be sending out daily bible devotionals. You can begin working through and praying through these devotionals tomorrow on Ash Wednesday. And this devotional study will take us through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. I love the book of Ephesians for two reasons… One, Paul gives us such a clear, beautiful picture of God’s amazing grace. We cannot save ourselves, we can only come to God because of His grace in sending his Son to die for our sins. That is always a truth we need to come back to, every single day! And two, Paul gives so many concrete ways a follower of Jesus can and should be transformed by God’s amazing grace. From how we serve to how we speak to how we relate to each other, God’s grace should impact every part of the life of a Christian, and Paul explores this idea in depth. So this study in Ephesians is a great way to help us follow Jesus this Lenten season.
You can access these devotionals in a variety of ways…they will be available in the Sunday worship bulletin at Mission Village Christian Fellowship. We will also email the devotionals each week to our church family (the devotionals for the rest of this week are included with this email!). But we will also be posting these devotionals on the church’s Facebook page, to make it easier to share them with a friend or family member.
I am excited to see how God uses this time in his Word to draw us closer to himself as a church. As you read and pray during this Lenten season, please let me know how the Lord is working in your life, and how I can be praying for you. You can email me at stevedevos79@gmail.com or call/text me at 858-829-2097. May God bless you as you dive deeper into his Word this season!
Blessings,
Pastor Steve
p.s. If you do feel challenged or convicted to remove something from your life this Lenten season, please do so. It may be that in order to make room for this additional time spent in God’s Word, you need to remove something from your life anyway. The end goal is that we are wholeheartedly following Jesus and radically dependent on him, so if something needs to be removed from your life during this season in order to follow Jesus, then by all means remove it!
First Week of Lent
Ephesians 2:1-10
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Read Ephesians 2:1-10, and focus on verses 1-3. As I have conversations about God with people in the community, I have come across two general views that people believe about how we can how we can go to heaven when we die. One is the view that says that people are generally good, and that everyone, no matter what they believe, goes to heaven, because God is a loving God. The other view is that people are generally bad and messed up, but if you work hard enough at being a good person, and have the good outweigh the bad in your life, you’ll get to heaven. The first view depends on our goodness, the second view depends on our effort.
However, Paul’s statement in these first three verses destroys both of those views. Paul writes that without Jesus we are dead because of our sin. Not injured, not damaged, but spiritually dead. Dead people can’t do anything. They’re dead. A morgue is not a very active place! So dead people certainly can’t do anything good that would merit going to heaven. This is the condition of everyone who does not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
And not only are we dead without Jesus, but Paul shows us in these verses that before God intervened in our lives, we were not heading in a good direction. To the contrary, we were serving our own self-interests, in rebellion against God, and deserving of God’s wrath. So there is no way we can say that human beings are generally good people.
Now you may read this and say, this isn’t good news! And you’re right. This isn’t good news. But the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not good news unless there is bad news before it. Why would God send his son to die for our sins if we were good enough to get to God on our own? The cross is necessary because we cannot save ourselves! The world puts so much hope in the goodness of humanity. But our hope simply can’t be in spiritually dead people.
On this Ash Wednesday, take some time to reflect on the true nature of our humanity, that without Jesus, we are dead in our sins and deserving of God’s wrath. Without Jesus, we do not deserve heaven, we deserve hell. Think about the ways you have turned away from God’s path and chosen your own. Take some time today to confess that sin and rebellion to God, and ask for forgiveness. The more we realize and confess the sin in our lives, the more we will be ready for the good news that is coming!
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Read Ephesians 2:1-10, and focus on verses 4-7. If we have really done the work of confession and repentance from yesterday, these verses should be the greatest gift we could possibly receive. “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” Yes! This is the central message of Christianity. This is the Gospel. This is the Good News.
Notice how beautiful God’s work is here: God loves us. While God is a holy God and while we rightly deserve God’s wrath for our sin, God is also a God of mercy, and through faith in Jesus Christ (v8), God makes us alive. Notice that we don’t make ourselves alive, God makes us alive. God raises us from spiritual deadness to spiritual life. There is nothing we contribute to this process of being made alive. We do not deserve it (remember, we were dead!), and we didn’t contribute to it. This amazing gift of new life is entirely by God’s amazing grace.
So how do we respond to such an incredible gift that we don’t deserve? There are a couple of ways we should respond. One is to reject any idea that we do deserve it or that we can somehow earn it. We don’t and we can’t. If we affirm the worthiness of humanity without Jesus we deal a crippling blow to this incredible message of God’s grace. Two is to repent of our efforts to earn God’s grace or to get to God on our own. The sum of those efforts is like a person trying to jump across the Grand Canyon…they won’t get anywhere close to the other side, and it’s a long way down! Three is to believe in this amazing grace that is offered to us. And four is to joyfully thank God by living our lives not for ourselves, but for him.
Take some time today to ask yourself two questions, and talk to God about the answers to these questions. One, do I really understand this incredible message of God’s grace? Or is there some part of me that is still trying to earn God’s favor on my own? And two, does my life right now reflect this amazing grace God has lavished in my life? The more we understand and accept God’s lavish, unmerited grace, the more we will see that grace permeate into every area of our lives.
Friday, February 28, 2020
Read Ephesians 2:1-10 and focus on verses 8-10. It is clear in this passage that we are saved by grace, and only by grace. We don’t deserve salvation, nor can we earn it. Paul hammers home this truth in these final verses. But in verse 10 Paul also shows us that we are saved for a purpose: “to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” So not only have we been saved by grace alone, but we have been saved for a purpose. Which means that if you have trusted in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, if you have been truly saved by grace, then God has a plan and a purpose for your life.
Think about a line on a graph. When we accept God’s gift of grace that makes us alive, that is certainly a huge point on that line! But the line after that point does not continue in the same direction. That point is a hinge that takes us into a new life with a new direction and a new purpose. And that purpose, God’s purpose, is infinitely better for us than any purpose we can have for ourselves.
So why then do so many people never experience the joy of God’s good purpose for their lives? Often it is because we have trouble believing that God’s plan for our life is really better than our plan for our life. We all have goals, aspirations, and dreams for our lives, and probably for our kids’ lives as well! We have our own personal plans and agendas. Those plans are not necessarily bad things. But following God’s plan for our life may redirect those plans, or completely change them altogether. Following Jesus inevitably brings us to a place where we have to ask ourselves a question of who we trust more: Me and my plan for my life? Or God and his plan for my life?
Take some time today and write down the plans you have for your life. What are your hopes and dreams? Then ask yourself that question: Who do I trust more? Ask the Lord to help you surrender your plans to him, and ask him to show you the good plans and purposes he has for your life.
Saturday, February 29, 2020
This first week of Lent we have reflected on God’s amazing grace. Take some time today to reflect on this amazing grace discussed in the devotionals from this week. Thank the Lord for his grace in your life. And if you have not personally experienced God’s saving grace in your life, please talk with one of the Elders or one of your friends at church tomorrow morning!
And as you reflect and pray today, consider the words to the hymn Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace was written by John Newton, who was part of the British slave trade and all of the evils of that system. He accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior later in his life, and wrote these words:
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!
Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.
Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below,
Will be forever mine.
2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (NIV2011)
1 Corinthians 15:1-2
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. (NIV2011)
Trust in The Lord
It’s simple. It’s short. Yet it’s incredibly powerful. Proverbs 3:5-6 is one of the most familiar passages in the Bible–with good reason. It sets forth a life-changing truth that is worthy of our attention. Spend three minutes reading this article, and see if you agree.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Trust in the Lord.
It starts with trust. Any real relationship has to start with some level of trust. It’s the only way a friendship will endure. It’s the only way a marriage will work out. It’s the simple reason why an employer hires workers, or why the workers stay employed. It’s all about trust. Trust in the Lord, however, takes on an entirely new dimension. This is our trust in an eternal, all-powerful, all-wise, all-loving God. He is worthy of our trust. The trust is important, not just because of who God is, but because of the way in which we must trust him: with all your heart. It involves every fiber of your being. That’s the kind of trust we can have in God–a complete, unshakable, deep, abiding trust.
Read part 2, Don’t Lean On Your Understanding