The good news of Christ
Father, thank you for quiet of heart, for resolve of mind, for strength of will, by your Holy Spirit.
Thank you for opportunity to share your word, to serve my neighbor, to edify your spiritual family.
Thank you for your constant stream of blessings, your expansive hope of life, your presence that expels the evil that would win against us.
Thank you that Jesus has paid our price, that the Spirit goes to bat for us, that you have steadfastly pursued our salvation at every step of history.
As Christians in the 21st Century, we have more leisure time than any other people living in any other time period in history. Technology and inventions have drastically cut down what we need to do just to survive. But, greater time doesn’t equal better choices. If we’re honest, we’ve become spiritual couch potatoes–especially if we compare ourselves to the pioneers who worked fifteen hours a day cutting trees and pulling stumps just to plow the ground to grow food to eat. It was only then by oil lamp that they would study God’s Word to know His will.
I. 1 Timothy 4:6-8. The process to get into spiritual shape is much like getting into physical shape. Just as we must choose to deny ourselves unhealthy foods and exercise regularly, so we must deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Jesus (Mark 8:31-35). Neither happens from the couch!
II. 1 Peter 1:13-16. To get spiritually in shape we must be holy as God is holy–and this too is part of God’s spiritual training program. Even though it’s hard, we must choose to be trained by it (Hebrews 12:7-13). Sexual holiness is a big struggle for us today in this sin-soaked culture (1 Corinthians 6:12-20).
III. Romans 12:9-13. Someone who only works out at the gym serves only himself if he doesn’t use those muscles to help a friend move or carry in the groceries … so do those who only have a vertical relationship with God through prayer and study of His Word. God wants us to serve others (Galatians 5:13). What personal ministry does your spiritual training propel you to do?
We can either watch the spiritual Olympics from our spiritual couches with the spiritual remotes in our hands or we could participate in them. Are you in training?
God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Give me deep acceptance of where I am at this stage in my life and of my struggles, trials, and challenges.
Thank you for them all.
Help me to see beyond self, to give up the importance placed on my own thoughts and plans, and to deny self for the experience of the cross.
Thank you for calling me out of self.
Save me from the temptations of Satan, from the pull of the world, from the desires of the flesh.
Thank you for power and will to resist.
Use me to put forward the Good News of our Savior, to make a clear case for faith, to urge others to action according to your revelation.
Thank you the calling of service.
There are certainly many sections of Scripture that most of us would admit we skip or at least skim. When the unpronounceable names and unfathomable numbers pile-up, we shrug, not knowing these people, and look for the next bit of story. But, every once in a while a spiritual gem can be mined from these passages. This week while skimming (I admit it!) such a chapter in Nehemiah that mentioned who was rebuilding the wall next to whom, I found one that made me almost fall out of my chair:
“And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.”
Nehemiah 3:5.
First, let’s look at the context. In successive waves, starting with the best and brightest who had skills or could oppose him, Nebuchadnezzar had brought the inhabitants of Judah into captivity in Babylon, where they would become ‘Jews.’ Seventy years later, Cyrus allowed all those who would want to return to go back and make a life out of the burned rubble of Jerusalem. They didn’t need to and many chose not to. Those who did, we would think, would have a pioneer spirit, willing to do whatever was necessary to survive and serve God who, in His mercy, had allowed them to return to the promised land.
But not these nobles! As the very defense of what little life they and their neighbors had managed to scrape together was at stake, they “would not stoop to serve their Lord.” It was beneath them. These nobles would be that friend who you take camping who sips iced tea from a lawn chair while you pitch the tent. They are Mr. and Mrs. Howell on Gilligan’s Island. As some who returned were alive when the city and temple were destroyed, it’s hard to imagine that they believed they were coming back to the Golden Age of Israel under Solomon when the Queen of Sheba was so impressed with what she saw that surpassed the reports that she proclaimed, “Behold, the half was not told me.” No, this Jerusalem required sweat and the rolling up of sleeves.
Sadly, we have those in the church who believe themselves ‘too good for God.’ While many labor around them rebuilding the walls of broken lives, these ‘nobles’ will not stoop to serve the Lord. Too wrapped up in their own lives to feed the hungry, clothe the needy, or teach the lost, they only warm a pew for an hour on Sundays and gain a smug checkmark on the attendance roster.
But, the way up is down on our knees. If God is so beneath us that stooping to serve Him is detestable to us, then how can we expect Him to lift us up? After all, if Jesus, who was God in the flesh, could stoop to wash feet and then die on the cross for us, can’t we follow His example?
Our Father in Heaven, glorify your name this day in us and in our speech and actions.
Save me this day, O Father, that I might live in your presence and serve you, for your pleasure.
Show me, Father, how to pray more for your kingdom.
Open my eyes to needs. Reveal the opportunities to help others, for I am often focused on my own affairs.
Put power in my hands and humility in my heart.
Wash me constantly in the blood of Jesus my Lord.
Breathe in me the desires of the Holy Spirit.
No measure can be taken of your greatness. You explode all our categories of thought and dimension.
Open my ears to your word. Let your blessed strength enter my heart to transform and empower.
Bring your fellowship near. Make the joy of your presence real. Let us as your people live in true communion.
Break out your song of salvation among us.
A 65 year-old grandmother, who cares for two disabled siblings and houses several adult grandchildren on the bank of the Saranac River, just lost everything in recent ice jams and subsequent flooding. Although it has been years since she and some members of her family have come to church, I have been connecting her with various agencies with which I have contact and of course with her church family that wants to know how to help.
We all have a need for intercession and in turn need to intercede for others. I have come across both givers and takers in my twenty years of ministry, and it is certainly the givers who have the hardest time accepting help.
I. Exodus 32:7-14. When God wanted to destroy the Israelites He had just saved out of Egypt because they had fallen into idolatry, Moses interceded for them, even offering to take God’s punishment upon himself. Concerned for God’s Name, Moses even turned down God’s offer to make him into a great nation in place of Israel. Being an intercessor can often take self-denial and sacrifice.
II. Hebrews 7:23-25. No one would know that more than Jesus, who as our High Priest, laid down His own life to intercede for us at the right hand of the Father with His own blood. Like He did for the Israelites, God did not wait for us to repent first, but rather, before we realized our need, while we were still enemies to Him, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).
III. 1 Timothy 2:1-3. Because of the intercession that we have received, we in turn intercede for others, regardless of how they have conducted themselves towards us or the church in the past. This is how God loved us, and so we in turn love others (1 John 3:16-18). This pleases God who wants all men to be saved, and who knows that your intercession might lead them to a knowledge of the truth?
Will helping this giving grandmother lead her back to God? Only God knows. But, already she has acknowledged that the church has always been there for her–even when she was not attending.
Lord, thank you for giving us work which provides for physical needs, gives us meaningful activity, and allows us to glorify you by our word and example.
Thank you, heavenly Father, for making the curse of the sweat of the brow into a channel of blessing of salvation in Christ.
When least expected, the lion roars,
My strength fails in the straits of suffering;
Rescue me, O righteous God,
My weakness cries from wounds of service.
Faithful, consistent, unfailing—this,
O Lord, is what you are and what
I want to be—never amiss
In duty, doing what I ought,
Loving, kind, committed—waste
Not, want not, nothing in the wind,
Feet firmly planted, no foolish haste,
Nor laggard, but with a focused mind
I’d serve, with never a selfish thought,
I’d daily heft my cross—with gladness,
Redemptive pain, approval sought
From you and only you—I’ll banish
Desire for shallow human praise—
Your truth my company’s colors to raise.
Father, help us to look ahead, in order to prepare for future opportunities, to be ready for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us lay aside worries about tomorrow in order to take up the hope of your promises.
Let us forget ourselves, for our joy.
Let us focus on serving, for the blessing of others.
Let us follow the Lord Jesus, for your glory.