Don’t you love flat tires? No, me either. The sad fact is, they are a part of driving. The good fact is, car companies know that and have created a way to survive the unfortunate experience. Every car gets a spare tire. I was recently on a trip and needed that spare. The spare tire has an interesting history. Cars used to have a spare tire that was the same size as the other tires. At some point, automobile manufacturers decided that they would save space and money by including a spare tire that was smaller than the other tires. These are called “donuts.” A donut will work in a pinch, but you still need to get your flat tire repaired or replaced. There are basically two limitations that come with a donut spare. · Speed - You should not exceed 50 miles per hour while driving on a donut spare. You aren’t to treat it as if it is normal equipment. Go slow with it. It wasn’t designed for high speed applications. · Distance – You should not drive more than 75 miles on a donut spare. The donut is not designed to take you across the country. It is designed to get you to a place where the original tire can be repaired or replaced. Again, the donut is vital to a safe journey. It is everything you need to get you out of a jam. It is entirely sufficient for emergency use. But in the end, it is a ‘workaround’, if you will. You would not start out on a trip and outfit your vehicle with four donut spares. But you’d give anything to have one if you have a flat. In the spiritual realm, God knows that we will have troubles on our Christian journey. We will sometimes need to refuel. We will overheat at times. And we will end up on the side of the road with a flat tire from time to time. So God has equipped us with ‘workarounds’. One such workaround is available in the event that we sin. Now some people think that you are going to sin every day. I don’t believe that is true anymore than I believe that you will get a flat tire every day. If you are getting a flat tire every day, there is likely something wrong with your tire manufacturer or the way you drive. If you are sinning every day, it isn’t an acceptable Christian life. But God knows that we have the innate ability to stumble along the way. Sometimes we stumble unintentionally. Other times it is because we are reckless. And then there are times when we stumble because we don’t care and are okay with a different path that leads to constant falling. God knew that when a believer sins it can leave him or her discouraged and on the side of the road. The enemy will make you think that you have messed up too many times and there is no hope. The apostle John wrote to the early Christians about this scenario. “I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ the Righteous One.” (1 John 2:1) This is what I call a ‘spare tire verse’. It is good in an emergency, but you don’t want to have to use it all the time. Notice John doesn’t say “When you sin…” He says, “If anyone sins…” In other words, most people can drive months… even years without a flat tire. But when they do eventually have that experience, they expect to be able to go to the trunk, install the spare, and get back on track. Let’s face it… no one wants to have to change a tire every day. Frankly, I would be fine with never having to use the donut. But we are extremely grateful the spare is there when we need it. The same should be true with God’s mercy and forgiveness. I don’t want to have to ask God for forgiveness every day, just as I don’t want to ask my wife for forgiveness every day. If I am constantly breaking covenant with her, the relationship is doomed. But I am grateful that there is mercy when needed. If along your journey you sin, whether by carelessness or by rebellion, do not be discouraged or hopeless. The same Jesus who gave you new life will intercede for you with the Father. Don’t drive away from the scene at break-neck speed. And don’t try to travel for years on mercy. Receive renewal, be healed, and continue on your way. [Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.] Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry. Memorial Day is a day to remember. Specifically, it is a day to remember those who have fought and died during battle for the cause of freedom. It is one thing to die in freedom. It is another thing entirely to die for freedom. We value sacrifice. Not as much as we used to, and not as much as we should. But we value those who volunteer to pay the ultimate price so others may live in liberty. Human freedom is an illustration of spiritual freedom. Neither is without cost. They are bought with the sacrifice of people who believe in the idea that humans should be free from oppression. Human freedom is paid for in natural war. Spiritual freedom was paid for with holy blood. But they both have elements of the other. There is a truth that human freedom is ordained by God, and secured with prayer and righteousness. Likewise, spiritual freedom is extended through human efforts by evangelism and various ministries. I am very appreciative for those men and women who have given the ultimate gift (their life), so that I can live free from communism and socialism. I can’t imagine living in a country where I am not at liberty to travel as I like, spend money as I wish, and worship and serve God without threat of jail or death. I do not take it lightly. I also value the spiritual aspect of my natural freedom as well. I am glad that our forefathers saw the truth about where liberty comes from and how it is secured. I am grateful that they created and died for a country where righteousness could flourish and bring forth the greatest nation the world has ever seen. But nothing is sweeter than the sacrifices made so that I can live in spiritual liberty, alive in new life, free to walk away from the pathetic mistakes of the past, through the pressing temptation of the present, and focus on the fulfilling future I have in Christ. This reality is made possible by the life and death of two people… the Son of God, and the sons of God. Jesus is our greatest war hero. He in no way died for himself. He was perfect with perfect holy freedom. He died so that we might live. As a perfect sinless man, He laid His life down so that we imperfect sinful people could be cleansed from and live above sin. He did not have to die. But He did… for us. We must never forget that act. We must remember it. We must treat it as a memorial. It is our key to freedom. There are some people in this world who do not see the sacrifice of Christ simply as a special altar to remember, but as a sacred act to reproduce. Just as He offered Himself for the mission, they too have gone above and beyond the normal expression of love to a place of self-sacrifice. Men and women of God have given their lives so others may live eternally. Though their eternal freedom had been won at the cross, they took up their own cross and followed Jesus to death so others may step into their own lifestyle of spiritual liberty. It has been said that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” (Tertullian) The Bible tells us that God remembers those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for the cause of spiritual freedom, and it tells us to remember them as well. The apostle Paul tells us that Christ, “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name.” (Philippians 2:8-9) God valued the sacrificial death of His only Son. A Psalmist puts it this way, “The death of His faithful ones is valuable in the Lord’s sight.” (Psalm 116:15) Think about that. God doesn’t just look at us and say, “Yep… you have been delivered from the penalty, power, and pollution of sin. So you should just go out there and happily die for your faith.” No… God takes special care in recognizing sacrifice, even in frail creatures. In the book of Revelation, the apostle John gives us a glimpse into the future when saints of God defeat Satan, and saying of them, “They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not love their lives in the face of death.” (Revelation 12:11) These people, like many who went before loved their faith in Christ more than they loved their own lives. So today I remember the sacrificing soldiers who handed me freedom drenched in their own blood. I remember Jesus, dying (and rising again) so I may live. And I remember the believers who have sacrificed so much so I may hear and experience the Gospel of peace. [Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.] Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry. For most Christians this is a day set aside to worship God. People go to church with different attitudes. After a week of various interactions with family, coworkers, and strangers, it is easy to go to church only wanting to receive a blessing and refreshing. Many people go to church to experience worship. But in reality, we are to go to a worship service with a focus on who God is as opposed to how we feel. Here is how one worshiper encouraged other believers to enter into worship… "Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Acknowledge that Yahweh is God. He made us, and we are His —His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. For Yahweh is good, and His love is eternal; His faithfulness endures through all generations. (Psalm 100) What can we learn about how to worship from this passage? There should be a sound of victory in our worship, regardless of our circumstances. Everything should praise God… yes… even those who are not saved. We should be glad to obey God to validate our worship. This gladness should be expressed in what we sing. Make it known that our God is God… and the only God worthy of worship. To worship properly we need to understand our position to Him. We are the created. He is the Creator. He owns us and created us to be His. That understanding should enhance our worship. He is in a special place. We can enter into His space, but as we go in we should be giving thanks. In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, we should be giving thanks and praising Him. Sometimes we give thank because of what is going on in our life. But we should praise Him because of who He is. God is good. Life is not always be good. People are not always good. Health is not always good. Work is not always good. Finances are not always good. But God is good. His goodness is not dependent on anything but the fact that He is. His love is forever. Some people don’t love you. Some people only love you sometimes. But God’s love is forever. Not only is His love forever. He is faithful forever. Again… people are not always faithful. But God is. When we are truly immersed in these truths, we can begin to worship God without the baggage of the problems in our life. Whatever you focus on is what you will see. If you go into a worship time thinking about you, your worship will be limited by you and your situation. But if you go into worship today focused on God, you can go into His presence where there is love and faithfulness that will restore your soul to the place it was created to be. [Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.] Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry. Dreams are interesting things. Some are silly. Others are nonsensical. Some are downright scary. And others still are almost informative. And there are even dreams that have a mixture of all these elements. Dreams often leave us wondering what, if any true meaning existed in the experience. I actually believe that dreams can have deep meaning. They can give us insight into our past. They can even give us a glimpse into the future. I have actually awoken from dreams with nearly complete sermons. So I think dreams can be meaningful. I also believe they can be the workings of a late night concoction of pizza, candy bars, and grape soda. In other words, some dreams are just random movies in our mind. Sometimes people fall asleep praying. Praying can lead to sleep. But what if sleeping led to praying? I think God gave us the ability to dream, and uses dreams to cause us to think about things in a way we may resist when we are wide awake. What if we dreamed as freely in our waking hours as we do when we sleep? Or what if we found more meaning or purpose in our dreams upon waking up? I’ve tried to do that. Late at night, if I can’t sleep, I will start asking God to reveal to me who I should pray for. He knows what everyone is going through. I don’t. He may not reveal specifics of their situation, but He can and does impress upon my heart who needs special prayer. I’ve also begun praying for people about whom I dream. Recently I had a dream, and several of my friends were in it. They were traveling on a plane and had informed me of their plans. But there was another one of my friends on the plane who did not let me know he would be stopping in Nashville for an extended layover. In the dream, I found out he was on the plane and decided to surprise him at the airport. While I visited with him I also gave him a friendly chewing-out for not letting me know he was passing through. The next morning I connected with Sean and told him about the dream. He let me know that coming to Nashville is on his bucket list, and he wouldn’t visit without getting up with me. I don’t know how Sean ended up in my dream. But just thinking about him gave me a reason to pray for him. I don’t even know what is going on in his life that may require prayer, but God does. Dreams may be silly. But I choose to believe that God lets me see people in my dreams that I should pray for. I mean, who doesn’t want an extra ‘random’ prayer sent up on their behalf, right? I have awakened from dreams to pray for family members, friends, missionaries, well-known athletes and actors, politicians, etc. The Bible talks about prayer a lot. It also deals with dreams many times. We spend a fair amount of time praying for our needs. But one thing we find in Scripture is, the apostle Paul encouraged people to pray for others. He wrote this to the Christians at Ephesus, “Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.” (Ephesians 8:18-19) In another place Paul writes that we should ‘pray without ceasing.’ In other words, we should always be in a spirit of prayer. What if we were to stop writing off dreams as weird elements of our life, and start using them as a prompt to pray for the people involved in our dreams.. as weird as they may be?… the dreams… not the people. I would encourage you to not waste a time when someone is brought to your mind… even if you don’t know why they came to you. God knows. And God hears your prayers for others. Perhaps you have had a dream recently and you don’t know why a certain person was in it. Pray for them. I’m sure they are going through something that requires divine intervention. If nothing else, when you get done with this devotional, pray for me. Thanks in advance. [Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.] Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry. Every Friday I am a contributor on a radio show. It is called the “Clergy Question” segment. It is part of the daily show, ‘Mighty Good Day with Lady Shaunte’. Bishop Kelvin Leavy, (a pastor colleague) and I field questions from listeners submitted via Facebook, Twitter, and live on-air. The questions cover a variety of issues from Bible facts, to church issues, to philosophical issues, family, marriage, and even sexuality concerns. Oh… and Lady Shaunte does not give us a heads-up regarding the questions. This can be, and sometimes is a little daunting. Listeners want a Bible-based answer that at least attempts to resolve the issue. We don’t get to research topics. We also do not have the right to just talk off the top of our head. People may not know everything about the Bible, but they often know when you are ‘feeding them a line.’ Neither one of us act like we have it all together or know all the answers. We don’t come across like we know the Bible backwards and forwards. We just have a sincere confidence in four things… 1 – There is no area of life into which God has not spoken. 2 – There is no area of life into which the Bible does not speak. 3 – There is no question to which the Holy Spirit will not guide us into truth. 4 – At the end of the day, we must follow God by faith, even when the answer seems incomplete to us. We were both raised in homes of pastors, in the church every week for decades, and have studied the Word in preparation for decades of ministry. At the risk of sounding arrogant, let me say that between the two of us there is a great amount of knowledge and wisdom in regards to God/Bible/Christian truth. There isn’t too much we haven’t come across in our contexts of ministry. We are students… true disciples of the Word. Beyond that we have both been gifted by God to guide people into truth. That being said, we do not have a hotline to the throne that is not accessible by everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord. I’ve often said, “God is not playing ‘Hide & Seek’. He’s playing ‘Seek & Find’ with us.” Christ doesn’t want us wandering in the dark, hoping we run into a ‘wise old religious sage’ who can answer our life and God questions. If you are a believer, redeemed and restored, you have within you the Holy Spirit. God resides in you. He speaks to you. He loves to answer your questions through the Bible and through His Spirit. Just like a loving mother or father, He wants to guide you. Jesus was the ultimate Teacher/Rabbi while He was on earth with His disciples. He knew the Scriptures (Old Testament). Christ knew how to answer the questions of those around Him… even if that meant asking the right questions so the disciples could find the right answer within themselves. But when He left to return to Heaven, He was not going to be walking beside them all the time. That wealth of answers would be gone. But He would not leave them abandoned. At one point He told them, “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you. Everything the Father has is Mine. This is why I told you that He takes from what is Mine and will declare it to you.” (John 16:12-15) Look at that… The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. Wow. How awesome is that?!? It is incredibly valuable to have a person (or several) in your life who can help you find truth that is kind of difficult to figure out. God uses people. But I hope you know today that any answer you need can be found in God. And as a believer, God can be found in you. Today I encourage you to have confidence in these four things… 1 – There is no area of life into which God has not spoken. Be in a relationship with God. If you aren't saved... much of life won't make sense. 2 – There is no area of life into which the Bible does not speak. Read the Bible. It isn't just a normal book. It is a life-giving read. 3 – There is no question to which the Holy Spirit will not guide you into truth. Be a person of prayer. Talk with God. He won't force truth on you, but He will lavish it on those who seek Him. 4 – At the end of the day, you must follow God by faith, even when the answer seems incomplete to you. Just keep walking... even when the answer seems elusive. [Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.] Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry. |
AuthorMy name is David, and I want to know God more, and help other people find Him. Archives
March 2019
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