Wednesday Morning Devotional

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. – Mark 1:35

What does your time with God look like?  I think it is amazing that we have this verse that tells us how Jesus spent time with His Heavenly Father.  Right after that, it says Peter and the guys went looking for Him.  “Everyone is looking for You,” they said.  I bet they were!  He was healing diseases and casting out devils.  Jesus immediately told them that it was time to go elsewhere.  The guys would have to Him to stay, God told Him to go.

Spending time with God brings about so many situations like this.  He has told me often to do the exact opposite of what people would have me do.  It wouldn’t have been bad at all if Jesus had stayed.  The things people would have us do so often are not bad.  For example, I felt God calling me to the alternative school.  Many people thought that was a bad idea.  Granted, after my first year, I thought it was a bad idea.  But God has used those kids to teach me more than I could ever teach them.  I’m so glad He calls us to go to places we might never choose for ourselves.  

Right now, I get up around 5 am.  I read a chapter or two of Andrew Murray’s “The True Vine.”  If I understand it, I read another chapter.  If I don’t, I read that same chapter again.  That is why I say one or two chapters.  I just completed the book of Romans.  I read one chapter a day.  I’m contemplating my next book of the Bible, but I think I’m going to read Romans again.  I then try to memorize scripture.  It took me about two weeks, but I just finished memorizing Psalm 19:7-11.  I will try to do it here:

The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.

The commandment of the lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.

The judgement of the Lord is true, and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold.  Sweeter also than the honey, and the honeycomb.  Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping them there is great reward.

I will check for mistakes, but I won’t correct them here if I messed up.  I find it pretty difficult to memorize this stuff and keep it in my head.  But the Lord helps me without a doubt.

After all this, I pray.  I’ve been praying the Lord’s Prayer and stopping after each sentence to talk to Him.  I may write about this next week.

But for now, what does your time with the Lord look like?  I think this is something we should be sharing with each other.

Lord, there is no one like You.  Thank You for growing me, leading me, guiding me, and correcting me.  I know I’ve probably spent more days not praying to You than praying to You, but I do love You and couldn’t be more thankful for You than this moment right here.  Help all those who claim to know You really begin to spend time with You.  Transform us, then use us to transform the World.  Only You can do it.  Amen!

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  – Matthew 5:8

The media loves to report on fallen ministers.  I just saw one this past week where the minister didn’t even do anything wrong, but his son did.  There are many who read these stories and apply the wrongdoing to all ministers.  You will see comments like, “There is another one,” or “Too bad all these so-called preachers are like this.”  If I didn’t want to follow Jesus, God, or the Bible, I too would use things like this as fuel to keep me from feeling that yielding myself to God was necessary before I die.  Jesus said that the pure in heart exist, I’d rather focus on them and try with all my heart to be one of them.

I heard one of the best answers I’ve ever heard on situations like this earlier this year.  Someone asked a preacher, “What do you think of all these ministers in the news with all this junk on their computers, sleeping around, and stealing all this money?”  He merely responded, “Planes that land safely don’t get reported.”  He went on to describe many wonderful things specific pastors and groups of people were doing in the name of Jesus.  We don’t hear of those because those headlines don’t get clicks.  

I want to encourage you (and mostly me) to keep following Jesus.  It seems like time has sped up.  I remember when I was a kid that we would all say that time drags on by.  Even the kids in my classes today say that time is flying by.  I don’t know what the deal is, but it more than likely has to do with social media, games, and never being disconnected from a steady stream of content tailored by algorithms to make you never think about God or eternity.

Lord, help me be one of the planes that land safely.  I don’t need recognition.  There were times in my life where I craved it, but now I simply seek to have a pure heart.  I want to spend eternity with You.  While I’m here, help me live for You and tell as many others about You as I can.  I pray for everyone who reads this today.  Lift them up and let them feel Your presence and realize there is nothing and no one greater than You.  There isn’t even a close second.  Amen.

Changed

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, old things pass away and all things become new.  – 2 Corinthians 5:17

I remember hearing a preacher say, “If there has been no change, there has been no salvation.”  This statement would not leave me alone.  It seemed that no matter how hard I tried, change avoided me.  I wasted so much time telling God how much better I was going to be and do.  My efforts never lasted more than 72 hours.  

It was during a revival service that I was introduced to being filled with the Holy Spirit.  Somehow, I knew that was exactly what I needed.  I expected to speak in tongues, but all I left with was a hunger to read God’s Word and get to know Him for the first time in my life.   As I read the Bible over the next 15 months, I found that I had avoided a lot of my favorite sins for weeks.  Somehow, I had changed and didn’t even ask for it.  There was no man, preacher, or even myself that could take credit for the changes that had been made in my heart, mind, and life.  God had done the greatest miracle He still does today . . . take a sin loving, world following, God hating heart and transform it.  To this day, I look back in absolute awe and amazement.

Today, it is rarely preached that change is inevitable for a believer in Christ.  Most Americans believe that if any decent thought about God has ever occurred over the course of a person’s life, then they are bound for heaven.  I cannot even begin to describe the fear for a person that I have when they describe their own goodness as the reason they will enter into God’s glory.  I tell them that it is better to simply get to know God through reading His Word than it is to try to be good.  I say this because becoming Christlike is a byproduct of getting to know Him.  

Do you know Him?

Lord, I’m so thankful that You didn’t let me fix myself.  The only effort You allowed me to make was picking up my Bible and reading it diligently.  As I read, You were truly the vine and I was simply a branch.  You began to produce love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness in me.  It is so strange now to think that I can produce any of those on my own.  Bless me and keep me connected to You, Lord.  I could disconnect from the vine and wither so fast.  Please help those who truly think about You to not rely on their own works.  Help them to get plugged into Your word and grow in their relationship with You.  I pray for many that I’m counseling right now . . . help them leave the wide path that leads to destruction, and step on the narrow path that leads to life.  Amen

For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.  – Galatians 1:13

I’ve been doing some research on the foundation of the Methodist Church.  I knew very little of it save the fact that it had a lot to do with John Wesley.  I’m only about 10 hours invested as I write this, but I found a story I hope I never forget.

John Wesley was almost killed twice.  The first was when he was five years old and his house caught on fire.  Everyone was safe outside except for John.  There was no way inside and John was on the second floor unable to get out.  A man stood on another man’s shoulders and saved his life.  John’s mother amped up the spiritual significance of him being snatched from the fire and taught him about God with even more fervor . . . a lesson he never forgot.    

Work conditions were horrid the second time John was almost killed.  He had been kicked out of many churches simply because he preached that every person was a sinner saved by grace.  Church people didn’t like being associated with sinners.  This makes me wonder how accepting modern Methodist churches would be of John Wesley today.  Because he wasn’t allowed in the churches, John would “open-air” preach to any and all would listen.  He especially loved the working class.  

As more and more people got saved under John’s preaching, they were less and less willing to risk their lives for money.  People took on the attitude that God would provide.  This infuriated businessmen who no longer had an abundance of cheap labor willing to work in terrible conditions.  One particular man hired a hitman to kill John Wesley.  When the hitman found John, he had planned to rob him first.  He was angry when he saw that John had very little money.  John simply told him, “My treasure is in heaven.”  The man was even more frustrated at John’s lack of fear while being beaten and threatened with death.  With a calm and confident demeanor, John told his would be assassin that God had a much better life for him to live.  The man found himself unable to murder John Wesley.

Years later, a man dressed very respectably approached John and asked him if he remembered almost being robbed and killed.  When John said yes, the man told him about how God had dealt with his heart and now he was saved and living for the Lord.  Both men enjoyed telling that story throughout their lives.

Lord, put it in our hearts to really live out a life that pleases You.  If we simply could not care less about material possessions and we were perfectly fearless in our walk with You, how many lives would be changed?  I know this is easier said than done, but with You all things are possible.  Help all who read this fall in love with You a little bit more and follow You a little bit closer.  Thank You for men and women in the past who light the way for us in the future.  Amen

The acts of the flesh are obvious:  sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.  – Galatians 5:19-21

For years, I thought that making mistakes and learning from them was life’s best teacher.  I still believe that, but increasingly I’m learning that other people’s mistakes are an even better teacher.  All one really needs to do is find an older person, ask them what they wish they had done differently, and apply their experience appropriately to his or her own life.  The Bible is full of examples of what not to do and how not to be.

When I was in my late teens, I was saved, but I loved rock music.  God sent absolutely everything I needed to stop feeding that addiction.  He first sent me a man that I remember as Jimmy.  He had a conversation with me about how he went down the same road as me, and God delivered him.  He gently told me that I should stop feeding my mind with the bands I wore on my t-shirts.  “What does he know?   It doesn’t affect me,” I said, along with a lot of other stuff that justified my actions.  I randomly turned the tv channel and watched a documentary called “The dangers of rock music,” I even read a book called “The Devil’s Disciples.”  It made me think, but I still just couldn’t let go of it.  It would be at a small Church of God service that I would ask the Lord to fill me with His Holy Spirit that I would receive deliverance.  It wasn’t a magic wand wave; it was a switch that cut on where I replaced my vegging out to music with reading God’s Word.  Over the next 15 months, I read the entire Bible and listened to very little music.  I finally understood what Jimmy was trying to tell me.  I just didn’t have eyes to see and ears to hear back then.   

Fast forward to today.  I’m the one trying to tell these teens not to constantly fill their minds with all the music and media that is out there.  There was some bad stuff in the eighties, but today so much of it is extremely vile.  Try this:  the next time you are at a high school ball game, ask Siri to tell you the name of the songs playing as the teams warm up.  Read the lyrics of the songs.  Many times, you will find that they are muting out cuss words, and you will find they mute a LOT of them.  No wonder we have a generation who has no problem using such language.  I’ve encouraged a lot of teens to stop cussing, particularly the ones who claim to follow God.  So many are in disbelief that it is wrong (See Colossians 3:8). Their music talks that way, their heroes talk that way, and many times even their family allows them to talk that way at home.  I realize that I sound like a weirdo when I’m the first person to bring this to their attention.  

It’s just crazy to me how things work out.  Here I am pleading with people to follow the Lord, and most of them care about as much as I did when people were pleading with me when I was their age.  I just try to remember that something must have clicked inside of me.  At some point, God began to do His transforming work.  I can only pray that He will do the same with those I share the Gospel with.  

Lord, I so wish You didn’t let us be fools for so long.  Almost everyone wastes their youth.  I know I did.  And maybe I’m wrong, I certainly don’t get to see things from Your perspective.  Just because I wasted mine, doesn’t mean others are wasting theirs.  You are the great God of the Universe . . . nothing is too hard for You.  Send revival across this nation like never before.  Raise up young folks who rebel against this world and its wicked ways and give themselves wholeheartedly to You.  Fill them with the Holy Spirit and make their light shine ever so brightly in this dark world.  Mold me and make me after Thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.  Use me to bring many to You.  Let me not waste any more life.  Help me help others not waste anymore of theirs.  Amen.

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”  — Psalm 16:11

This past Saturday, I found myself getting up early to drive a sports team a couple of hours away.  I got up and read the Word of the Lord along with this preaching book that I’ve been reading.  I prayed kind of a draggy prayer and was honestly wondering what in the world I was doing choosing to work on a Saturday.

As I started to drive, the team crashed out on the bus pretty hard . . . they certainly were prepared for it with their pillows and blankets.  The morning light began to fade in, and it was like my soul just woke up.  Suddenly, I had a goal to give the team the smoothest ride possible.  I began to think of how the Lord cares for me like that.  That team completely trusted me and my driving whether they thought about it or not.  I do the same with the Lord.  My trust is in Him.  I know at times when I’m not thinking about Him and all He does for me . . . He still wants to give me a smooth ride and to bring me to my destination.  I couldn’t help but begin to praise Him in my spirit and tell Him how much I love Him.  

As the sun rose, the light was reflecting off the lakes and trees.  The beauty seemed to be magnified tenfold.  I became aware of how much the Holy Spirit inside me was enjoying it all.  It made me, who took that stuff for granted all the time, enjoy it more than I have in a long time.  It is like we were looking at it all together.  I was experiencing true joy.  Out of nowhere I asked, “Lord, would You like to drive?”  In my mind, I allowed the Spirit to take the wheel and just enjoy driving like I had been.  I thought about how I wanted and needed to do that more in my life.  Too often, I want God to be with me while I do what I do.  How much more wonderful would life be if I’d swap places?  I’d like to be with Him while He does what He does.

Lord, thank You for bringing back to life what following You is really all about . . . a relationship with You.  Help me get on board with what You’re doing and stop trying so hard to lead my own life.  I want to stay in Your presence and remain in this fullness of joy.  You have guided my path for thirty-four years now, and that includes so many times where You had to place me back on the path because I wandered so far away from You.  You really do take care for me, even when I’m not thinking about it.  You really do love me.  Help anyone who reads this experience this fullness of joy.  This world is not my home.  Help me be a light that so shines before men, that others see my good deeds and want to glorify You, my Father in heaven.  Amen