LEAVE ROOM FOR GOD - January 25th, 2014

But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me... Galatians 1:15-16a (ESV)

Chambers devotional references the King James Version of this verse, which begins But when it pleased God...  This slight change in phrasing emphasizes God's timing more than we might notice in some of the other translations.  When it pleased God.  Not when it pleases us.  Not when we hope or expect or sometimes even pray.  But when it pleased God.  I must admit that I sometimes find God's timing frustrating.  But God's timing is not based on hubris, or some sort of tyrannical power-trip, but rather His overwhelming, unfathomable love for us in combination with His omniscient consideration of our past, present and future.

Chambers opens today's reading:

As workers for God we have to learn to make room for God – to give God "elbow room." We calculate and estimate, and say that this and that will happen, and we forget to make room for God to come in as He chooses...Do not look for God to come in any particular way, but look for Him. 

God almost never does things the way I think He will. I see my situations and circumstances solely through the lens of my own experience and somehow fail to take into account the truth of Isaiah 55:8-9:

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
    “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. 

I sometimes joke that I have such good ideas for God, but He never seems to use any of them.  Sometimes I become so caught up in how I expect (or want) God to work that I fail to see His work unfolding when it comes about in the way HE intends.  As believers, perhaps we should focus less on the logistics of HOW he's working and instead, as Chambers says, simply look for HIM.  Am I immersed in His Word?  Am I praying over my situation?  When the answers there are "yes" then we need to let God work as He will.  He will show up in His time in the way He intends for His purpose.

And let us not forget that God's purpose always takes into account factors that we do not know or understand.  I want God to work in a certain way because of my own perceptions and those perceptions are almost entirely based solely upon my circumstances and/or the circumstances of those I know and love.  But God is all-knowing.  He sees the way my life intertwines with the lives around me and He sees the way my life WILL intertwine with the lives around me.  He knows my past and present, but also my future, and sometimes I forget that part. 

As believers, we were set apart before we were even born.  God saw us in the womb and knew, even when we were but a few cells, who we would be and how He would call us for His glory.  I don't deserve to be considered for this call.  I'm weak, impulsive, self-absorbed and short-sighted so much of the time.  But God, by His grace, chose me, just as He chose you in spite of your faults and failures, and revealed His precious Son so that we could share in the promise of salvation.

THE OVERMASTERING DIRECTION - January 24, 2014

But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you,  Acts 26:16 (ESV)

Paul had a powerful, life-changing encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus that day, and Jesus was clear as to why he chose to reveal himself so dramatically to Paul: "to appoint you as a servant and a witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you." 

Many of us have become so accustomed to Paul the apostle, we may sometimes forget that he was first Saul the Pharisee, whose passionate dedication to his Jewish faith drove him to be a well-known and feared persecutor of the early church.  To say this encounter was life-changing is a gross understatement.  Through it, Paul realized all he had stood for in defending his God was actually persecuting his God.  Black became white, dark became light, heresy became truth, and Paul "was not disobedient to the heavenly vision" (Acts 26:19) but lived the remainder of his life as a servant and a witness to the Gospel. 

Chambers explains:

When we are born again we all have visions, if we are spiritual at all, of what Jesus wants us to be, and the great thing is to learn not to be disobedient to the vision, not to say that it cannot be attained. It is not sufficient to know that God has redeemed the world, and to know that the Holy Spirit can make all that Jesus did effectual in me; I must have the basis of a personal relationship to Him. Paul was not given a message or a doctrine to proclaim, he was brought into a vivid, personal, overmastering relationship to Jesus Christ...There is nothing there apart from the personal relationship. Paul was devoted to a Person not to a cause.

Paul was devoted to Jesus, not "the cause" of Christianity and there is a difference. This has tremendous implications for us as believers in this day and age.  It is so easy to become devoted to a church, a ministry, or a particular teacher and while we should certainly serve in our churches, listen to and learn from theologically sound teachers, and involve ourselves in those causes for which God has given us a passion, our devotion should be reserved for Christ alone.  Our primary focus should always be on nurturing our relationship with Jesus, first and foremost, through time in the Word and prayer.  As we become more and more Christ-like, our service to our churches and our communities is more effective.

My Prayer today:

Heavenly Father, reveal those places in my life where I am more devoted to people or causes than I am to your precious Son.  Help me to grow my relationship with Jesus above all else so that I am a servant and a witness for the Gospel. 

February 23, 2010 THE DETERMINATION TO SERVE

Matthew 20:28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve…
Christ’s only concern with status was that no one concern themselves with it. It was simply irrelevant. But in our humanity, we always seem to be looking out for the best for ourselves.

Just a few verses before, James and John show up with their mother who asks Jesus if he would seat her two sons in the most honored places in his kingdom – one on his right and the other on his left. I’ve often wondered - Did James and John ASK her to ask him? Did they think that asking their mother to make the request would make them look less brazen? Were they anticipating the kingdom as an earthly one with their places of honor ensuring privilege for the rest of the family? It is impossible to know for sure, but it is interesting to note, I think, that when Jesus gives his answer, he answers James and John, not their mother. I always marveled at the audacity of this woman – and of James and John, whether they instigated the question or simply felt no shame in going along with such a request. But like so many other places in the Bible, I've found that my position of superiority might not be so superior as I thought.

Most of us living in this country have more than enough food to eat, a roof over our heads, a car in the driveway and enough clothes and shoes to keep us adequately covered. And yet, I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve, at times, found myself complaining that my situation simply isn’t “good enough.” Am I not then doing something just as presumptuous as what James and John’s mother did? Am I not suggesting to God that I deserve a “better place” than where he’s put me? When we think our cars aren’t good enough, our houses aren’t big enough, our closets aren’t full enough, aren’t we really telling God we deserve to be in a better place – in a place of more “honor”?

I’m not suggesting that a broken down car should never be replaced or that we should never aspire to live in a house that is in good repair in a safe neighborhood, but in this country of excesses, I think we need to recognize that constantly grasping for “more” simply isn’t at all what Christ called us to as believers.

Jesus always emphasized service and our call to it as Christians simply trumps every other thing. Chambers calls this being “broken bread and poured out wine” – it is being utterly and totally given to that which God has called us. But Chambers warns that even in service we must be sure that we don’t seek our inspiration from a love of our fellow man, but rather our love for God. He explains:

If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be crushed and broken-hearted, for we shall often meet with more ingratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow men.

We don’t serve just because we like the people in our church or because our neighbor is so friendly or because the other volunteers at an organization are such fun people. It isn’t about that at all! There will always be people who aren’t pleasant no matter what we do for them, there will be times when we stretch ourselves to the limit to go over and above and receive nothing but stony silence and a sense of entitlement in return, but we don’t serve other people for THEIR sake, we do it because we are called to be Christ to others, and that is what he did for us. Chambers closes today’s devotional saying:

Paul’s realization of how Jesus Christ had dealt with him is the secret of his determination to serve others. “I was before a perjurer, a blasphemer, an injurious person” (1 Timothy 1:13) – no matter how men may treat me, they will never treat me with the spite and hatred with which I treated Jesus Christ. When we realize that Jesus Christ has served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin, nothing that we meet with from others can exhaust our determination to serve men for His sake.

When I recognize how Christ has welcomed me with love in spite of the way I’ve treated Him and the times I’ve done no less than stomp on the gift He offers, I am truly humbled, and truly overwhelmed by His love. How then can I do anything except that to which He has called me? How can I do anything less than serve?

Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves (Luke 22:27)

February 22, 2010 THE DISCIPLINE OF SPIRITUAL TENACITY

Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God…

In a world consumed by worry and uncertainty, these eight little words can – and should- ease our souls in even the most troubled of circumstances. Whatever our struggle, whatever we are facing, God gives us these simple instructions:
     1) Be Still
     2) KNOW that I am God
We must understand that the second is absolutely dependent upon the first – to think that we will truly know God as the Almighty without taking the time to “be still” before Him is to delude ourselves. Are we overwhelmed by worry? Are we afraid? Uncertain? We must ask ourselves honestly then: Are we being still before Him?

I used to work with a very nice woman who was, well, a talker. I’d go into her office to drop off a bit of paperwork and I’d be in there for 20 minutes while she told entertaining anecdotes and dispensed bits of her personal wisdom. She was always pleasant and upbeat, but after I’d worked with her a while, I noticed something - she never asked how I was, or seemed interested in hearing about anything in my life, and I noticed this was the case no matter who she was talking to. The comments of others were mostly ignored and seemed simply to serve as a springboard for more stories of her own. I’ve come to realize that this is often how I approach God. I’m so busy prattling on about my own life that I never provide an opening for Him to speak. Being still isn’t easy to do – we can become distracted, impatient, we can feel as if there are simply dozens of things that need to be done and our time before God is spent simply dispensing our “to-do” list for the Almighty. To say it like that almost sounds disrespectful, but if I’m honest, that is exactly what I’ve been guilty of doing all too often in the past.

There is certainly a place for petition to our Lord. A critical part of our relationship with Him is expressing our needs, our struggles, our frustrations, hurts and questions – and understanding that he cares DEEPLY about all of those things. But we must also give Him the opportunity to answer those – we must be still before him.

It is in that time of stillness that we will come to know, truly and without reservation, that He is God. He doesn’t say “Be still and hope…”, “Be still and wish…”, “Be still and believe…” He says: Be still and KNOW with a certainty that leaves no room for question.

It is from here that Chambers pulls today’s devotional as it relates to our Spiritual Tenacity:
Tenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire. Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be but the weakness of being too afraid to fall off. Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered.

Absolute certainty: is that how we feel about our God? Are we absolutely certain of who He is and do we know beyond a shadow of a doubt know that HE will conquer all? It is those moments of failure to recognize God as God that leave us worried, afraid and uncertain. When we KNOW that He is the Almighty, the Ancient of Days, the Alpha and Omega – it is then that we can be completely at peace because we know that He has it all in His holy hands. And when we struggle with that knowledge? Be still before Him, that we may know.

February 19, 2010 THE INITIATIVE AGAINST DRUDGERY

Isiah 60:1 - Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.

God does not pick us up, we must rise of our own volition and there he will meet us. Chambers says:
We have to take the first step as if there is no God. It is no use to wait for God to help us. He will not; but immediately we arise we find He is there. Whenever God inspires, the initiative is a moral one.
If our plan is simply to wait around for God to start something supernaturally, we’ll be waiting a very long time. We must “Arise” and begin whatever it is we feel God is calling us to. When we step out in faith in this way, we will be amazed at how God will meet us there and help us continue the work once we start it.

Chambers primary message in today’s devotion, though, deals with “drudgery” – those “uttlerly mean grubby things” of the faith. He instructs us to read John 13 – the story of Christ washing the disciples feet. Our Lord and Savior placed a towel around his waist, poured a basin of water and washed the feet of his disciples. We must take ourselves back in time to fully realize what a dreadful job this must have been. These were men who wore sandals and walked along hot dusty roads everywhere they went – their feet were undoubtedly stinky and very dirty.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them (John 13:13-17)

How many of us have considered certain jobs “below” our service? Sing on the worship team? Of course! Read scripture during the service? Sure! Lead the team to organize a building project? Absolutely! Clean the bathrooms this week because the regular janitor is on vacation? Um, I’m afraid I’m busy.

Several years ago, I went to a class at a church I attended briefly, and after the class they served a variety of snacks and beverages. After the class, I noticed that only one woman had stayed to clean up. I helped her pick up cups, wash dishes, clean coffee pots and put away chairs and tables. I wasn’t even a member of the church, yet not one other person of the 40 or so that attended the class thought to stay after and help clean up. Was that job just too small? How often do we like to have the recognition that comes with the “glory” jobs, but when it comes to the feet washing we think it just isn’t big enough for us.

Our Lord has shown us that even an act of drudgery can be forever transformed when done for the glory of God. Chambers says: When the Lord does a thing through us, He always transfigures it.  

 Let us never fail to take on the small, thankless jobs.

February 18, 2010 THE INITIATIVE AGAINST DESPAIR

Matthew 26:46 Up, let’s be going…

When Christ went to Gethsemene to pray, he sought support from His disciples. He told them “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me” (Matthew 26:38). But the disciples failed Jesus miserably. While Jesus poured out His anguished heart to the Father, Peter, James and John fell asleep. When he returned and found them sleeping he chastised Peter “Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!” (Matthew 26: 40-41). Christ knew that not only would He face trial and temptation, but that Peter would as well. Peter needed to be on His knees before the Father, praying for strength. And yet, Peter failed to see his need to pray and slept instead.

When Judas arrived to betray Jesus, Peter, James and John were fast asleep. Christ woke them saying “Up, let’s be going!” He didn’t dwell on the fact that they were sleeping when they should have been praying. He didn’t say “you fools! You’ve failed me and yourselves! Now watch what disasters will befall us.” No, he simply said “Come on, on to the next thing. Let’s go.”

All of us have squandered opportunities to do the right thing. All of us have failed to see our desperate need to pray and have fallen asleep instead - both literally and figuratively.  All of us have failed God. And yet, the Lord doesn’t dwell on those failures and neither should we. It isn’t that we shouldn’t care, but rather that we learn from those times and move on to the next opportunity. If we dwell on our failures and they paralyze us from doing anything else, we’ve compounded the sin of the first loss. Chambers sums it up beautifully:

The disciples in this instance had done a downright unforgivable thing; they had gone to sleep instead of watching with Jesus, but He came with a spiritual initiative against their despair and said – “Arise and do the next thing.” If we are inspired of God, what is the next thing? To trust Him absolutely and to pray on the ground of His Redemption.

Never let the sense of failure corrupt your new action.

February 17, 2010 THE INITIATIVE AGAINST DEPRESSION

1 Kings 19:5 Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!”

Sometimes the solution to our problem is very ordinary. Elijah was a man at the end of his rope. He was marked for death by Jezebel the pagan queen. He was trying to do everything right, and yet his efforts seemed pointless. The Israelites had abandoned their faith and he watched as everything he’d worked for crumbled. Feeling beleaguered and defeated, he finally laid down under a tree and prayed for God to just take his life. Elijah was completely overwhelmed by his circumstances. The Lord sent an angel to Elijah, not to give him a vision or proclaim some scriptural wisdom, but to say to Elijah simply “Get up and eat!” It was something so basic and ordinary that one would almost never see God in it. And yet, he is.

Chambers says:

When the Spirit of God comes He does not give us visions, He tells us to do the most ordinary things conceivable…whenever God comes, the inspiration is to do the most natural simple things, the things we would never have imagined God was in, and as we do them we find He is there.

All too often we think that God can only be in the big things – the supernatural things and that he can’t possibly turn up in the every day. And yet, that is exactly where he is. If we find ourselves overwhelmed by worry, stress or the pressures of everyday existence, don’t be so sure that the only place God can show Himself is in some supernatural vision or miracle. Rather, simply “get up and eat” – do the every-day things and look for God to reveal Himself there. He will.