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Never in a Thousand Years

Never in a thousand years could I
Imagine your tender lovingkindness toward me.
Never across a thousand worlds of space
Could Science’ wisest minds measure your greatness.

How small am I! Yet you see every step —
Every stumble — every turn and tear.
How great you are! The smallest inch of faith
You use to pull by the roots the stubborn mountain.

Keep complaints from blocking the flow of power,
For I — yes, I! — can cancel the Spirit’s work!
Oh, God, let not my enemy be myself!
I ask you crush my last reserve of resistance.

Shine — shine — shine with fullest glory!
Fly me to the high transfiguration,
Where Jesus stands alone among the mute.
Put words of praise upon my silenced mouth.

  • Please share this prayer with your loved ones.
  • What verse does this prayer call to mind?
  • What phrase or stanza stands out to you?
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Rushed Upon Him

Throughout the Avengers series, Bruce Banner struggled to control the Hulk from taking over.  That’s how many believe the Holy Spirit acts in our lives.  Samson seems to exemplify that, but with a closer look we see that those with the Spirit of the Lord choose their actions.

I.  Judges 14:1-20.  It’s clear from the onset of Samson’s story that God knows our terrible choices ahead of time and uses them for His will.  The ‘lawless men’ who sent Jesus to the cross were not thwarting God’s plan but falling into it (Acts 2:22-24).  It’s also clear throughout all of Samson’s life that despite having the Spirit of the Lord that he acted out of selfish motives and anger, something that could not please God.

II.  John 2:13-17.  Jesus had God’s Spirit (Matthew 3:16-17), and many might have thought that there was another Samson in their midst when He overturned tables and drove money-changers out of the temple with a whip.  But, John explains that the source of Jesus’ anger was different.  Jesus who never sinned (Hebrews 4:15) had an anger not rooted in sin (Ephesians 4:26) but rather zeal for His Father’s house.  Like Samson, though, Jesus chose His actions.

III.  Acts 2:16-39.  We too choose our actions.  Given the Spirit of the Lord as a gift at baptism, Christians choose to either take the route of Samson and grieve the Spirit by our sinful choices (Ephesians 4:30) or serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13).  With His Spirit, God has given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-21) to bring others to Christ the choice of waging spiritual war differently than the world does (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).  But we have to choose these!

If you have obeyed the gospel, you have the Spirit of the Lord.  With it dwelling in us, teaching us, and equipping us in various ways, we each need to choose what we will do with this new life we have been given.

 

 

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So Many Needs

So many needs have I, O Lord,
Not merely two or three.
Of all of these, I can’t afford
To lack humility.

I’d be like you, the Sorrowed Man,
Who bore my sins away.
Remind me how my life began:
I’m but unworthy clay.

I glory in your eternal Name,
In me no good resides.
Let me your holy promise claim,
To find a life that abides.

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Greater Things Than These

Usually a death bed promise works the other way.  The one who will continue on promises to do something after the loved one is gone.  As further proof of the resurrection, Jesus, while still alive but soon to die on the cross, makes a promise to His church that through Him (alive again and interceding for us at the Father’s side) we will do greater things than He did while on the earth.

I.  John 14:12-14.  There’s no doubt that Jesus did great things in His three-year earthly ministry.  After all, He was God in the flesh.  But the King of Kings showed Himself to be the servant of servants with great compassion: touching the leper, raising the widow’s only son from death, multiplying food to feed the hungry masses following Him, casting out demons from a man long bound.  And while He did these things, He spoke of how we would become parts of His body (Matthew 16:18), bought with His blood (Acts 20:28) and disciplined to share in His holiness (Hebrews 12:7-11).  Why?  So that we might serve as He did (Galatians 5:13).

II.  Romans 12:4-8.  Belief in Him is essential for the various body parts to work together to do great works (John 10:37-38).  We are to walk by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7) and walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:6).  Not awkward like the participants in a three-legged race, we are to move together as one body, seeing ourselves as parts of the body contributing to its working and connected to the Head (Colossians 2:19).  Whatever your function, you are essential to Christ’s body serving properly.

III.  John 13:12-17.  We stand in awe of what the Amish can accomplish in just one day by working together … and without power tools.  But Jesus promises the body that we will do even greater things than what He did while in his body.  We certainly see His enemies powerless from the start (Acts 4:14-16) to thwart a unified body.  Even their efforts to smash the hornet’s nest in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1-4) backfired as the scattered disciples preached the gospel wherever they went.  So, as an individual body part, how are you serving in your personal ministry?  And, as a member of Christ’s body, how are you working together with others to serve and function as one body?

Jesus built His church with His own blood so that Christians around the world could serve together in local bodies and together be the body of Christ with Him as its Head.  It starts with you.  How are you serving as Christ did?

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Our Lives for Heavenly Homes

The world is awash in lies and deception.
Guide us in your truth, O Lord.
Greet us with your eternal love.
Faithful is your every promise.

Keep us from the father of lies.
Our humble hearts would hear your word.
Make us faithful servants of Christ,
Giving our lives for heavenly homes.

Father of lights, let peace settle
Upon our souls with gentle signs.
We sing your praise for full salvation,
For growing hope in cleansing blood.

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Teach Us What We Are To Do

As we brought our first child home from the hospital, we wished newborns came with instruction manuals.  To live our lives, we have one–it is written by God and is full of His perfect teaching!

I.  Judges 13:1-12.  When the angel explained the rules to govern Samson’s life as a Nazirite, his father was wise enough to ask God in prayer to teach them what they were to do.  Before the age of synagogues, what would a man of the fields know about the Lord’s instruction except that many years before, a covenant with God had been made on Mt. Sinai that God’s people had agreed to obey (Exodus 19:5-8)?  Yet, this father-to-be, faced with a great challenge, knew not to trust in his own understanding.

II. John 16:12-13.  Since Eden, we have understood the world through learning (Genesis 3:22), and so the first covenant God made with His people came by instruction (Exodus 24:12), and promises that God would teach us for a second covenant were made (Jeremiah 31:31-34).  God’s Son came as a master teacher (Mark 10:1) and just before the cross promised that God’s Spirit would lead his followers into all truth.  Indeed, the Thessalonians were told that they were taught by God to love one another (1 Thessalonians 4:9).

III.  Proverbs 3:5-7.  The big question is–will we submit to God’s teaching or lean on our own understanding?  Like the man who assembles something from a box without consulting the instructions, if we do this with our lives, we’ll end up with a pocketful of extra parts and a product that doesn’t work well or at all.  Instead, we need to delight in God’s teaching (Psalm 1:2) and not be a fool who despises it (Proverbs 1:2-7).  We must say with the Psalmist, “Teach me” (Psalm 25:4-10).

We are surrounded by sources of teaching that would have us living our lives in many different ways, some that even sound wise, but the only instruction for life and godliness comes from God.

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Transform My Mind

© 2019 J. Randal Matheny

O God, transform my mind,
Give power to leave behind
All worldly ways and timid days,
Be to your will aligned.

Create your life in me,
The Spirit’s full degree
With joy untamed and hope ordained —
Of earthly suffering free.

Perfection my desire,
Your holiness my fire —
The Savior’s zeal my close ideal
To move me higher and higher.

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You Would Not Save Me

“In God We Trust” is printed right on our money, yet do we trust Him or the money itself?  Most of us would exclaim that we trust God, but in reality trust in others, circumstances, or ourselves.  We trust that the money we’ve paid into Social Security will be there to fund our retirement; we insist that we do certain jobs because “if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself; and Grandma always believed this, so it’s good enough to get me into heaven.

If we truly examine our motives, we might be surprised what we truly trust in!

I. Judges 12:1-7.  A gentle word is supposed to turn away wrath (Proverbs 15:1), but Jephthah learned with first the Ammonites and then the Ephraimites that that doesn’t always work.  He had tried to put his trust in his fellow Israelites to save him from a foreign invader, and they didn’t like him putting his trust in God when they refused his request.  You may experience friends’ or relatives’ pressure for you to follow their advice or examples, but often their ways run counter to God’s Word.  Adam and Eve experienced this in Genesis 3:1-6.  As a Christian, we must always follow God’s way.

II. 1 Samuel 13:8-12.  We can misplace our trust by putting it in others, circumstances, or ourselves.  When Samuel was later than he said he would arrive and King Saul was watching his army grumble and disperse, he justified in his own mind that offering the sacrifice, a job only for the Levites, was okay for him to do.  God ripped the kingdom away from him because of his disobedience.  Sin is not trusting in a good God to follow His perfect plan in His perfect way in His perfect timing for you.  Worry is trusting only in ourselves (Matthew 6:25-33) as is having little faith (Matthew 14:28-31).

III. Psalm 20:4-7.  A Christian will firmly place his trust in God, knowing that His ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8) and that God never forsakes those who put their trust in Him (Psalm 9:10).  Indeed, for that which is most important–salvation–Jesus Himself tells us to put our trust in Him (John 14:1-3).

We might examine ourselves in light of Scripture and ask if we are placing our trust in God and He is just using the people and circumstances around us as tools for His plan or if we are trusting in those people, circumstances–even ourselves–to save us.

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We ask and pledge

Our Father who abides in and reigns from heaven,

  • Cause your word to bear fruit. We will teach at every opportunity.
  • Give your people wisdom. We will study your word daily.
  • Sanctify us in truth. We will live in your holiness.
  • Abide in our hearts. We will obey the commands of Christ.
  • Gladden our homes. We will fulfill our marital and family roles.
  • Make us courageous in our faith. We will open new frontiers.
  • Come for your people. We will live with an eye to Jesus’ return.

These things we ask and pledge in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

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Thank You for Relief

Lord, thank you for relief
From suffering, pain, and grief,
From mental anguish, harm,
And sharp emotion’s alarm.
Thank you, God, for rest
From labor and cares; for blest
Eternal hope — I give
All praise to you, to live
And move and deeply breathe —
O Father, I believe!