Wednesday Morning Devotional

I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you and continued My faithfulness to you. – Jeremiah 31:3

I am reading a book right now called “The Holy War,” by John Bunyan. I have read “The Pilgrim’s Progress” several times and I was super pumped to realize that he wrote another book. I’ve only read the first few chapters, but the story begins with a loving God, “Shaddai,” creating a perfect place, “Mansoul,” and the Devil, “Diobolus,” plotting and scheming to convince the inhabitants of Mansoul that Shaddai is not who He says He is. Of course, the plan of Diabolus is executed flawlessly, and the people’s view of Shaddai becomes distorted.

As I read the story, I thought of conversations I’ve had with believers and non-believers alike. Many have a distorted view of God. In the verse I have chosen for this week’s WMD, God says that He has loved us with a love that is everlasting. That is what He says, but if you talk to enough people about God, they reveal the opposite belief. Most believe God to be egotistical, someone who plays favorites, a manipulator, and someone who imposes His rules upon mankind. They certainly don’t describe a loving God who looks out for our best interests and is worth giving their life to.

I wonder where this comes from? There has to be a “Diobolus” element to it. I mean, if I were the devil and wanted God’s prized creation to hate Him, I would begin by ensuring that His subjects could not see Him as He really is. I would make sure there was a distorted view.

It took me a while to figure out that I had been deceived. When I first got saved, I did see God as the big tyrant in the sky who made all the rules and couldn’t wait to send people to everlasting torment. Since I really thought this was who He was, I did whatever I had to do to be right with Him. I asked Him to save me and asked for forgiveness every time I committed any sin that I knew about. After several years of this type of thinking making zero difference in my life, I almost gave up. I remember pressing on after hearing a sermon about how it was God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. The preacher flat out said that until you see God as loving and kind, you will never desire to serve Him.

He was right.

I want to please God right now with every fiber of my being. Yet, I know I don’t always please Him. I still make wrong decisions and do things that don’t represent Him well. Yet, I don’t feel a pressing need to rush and ask for forgiveness like I used to. I think of examples where my own kids have flat out done wrong, never asked for forgiveness, yet I have forgiven them. I forgive them always because they are mine. It is when I really get a sense of His presence that I just can’t stop crying and saying I’m sorry . . . I don’t even know what I’m sorry for, I just know that, in His Holiness, I feel so unclean, and so unworthy to be there. It is the greatest feeling this planet offers.

Every person that enters into this world must simply decide whether or not they want to be His. This is the real decision one makes to receive salvation. It is not a decision to automatically start following all of His rules and doing everything He says. It is a decision to allow Him to begin the step-by-step remodeling process. It is a decision to trust that He will restore you over time into what you were originally created to be. If you receive Him as your Heavenly Father, then He receives you as His son or daughter and pours out His love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness upon you. If you reject Him, then He continues to allow you to be the star of your own story. He allows you to call your own shots and live your life the way you see fit.

If you are rejecting Him, you do not know Him, nor do you see Him correctly. I am so sorry that countless preachers like me, and people who call themselves Christians have represented Him so poorly. He really is a good, good Father.

This goodness does not mean He is passive and just allows you to continue on the path that you are on, do whatever you want, and be however you want to be. Of course Dad has rules, but He doesn’t mind taking years to teach them to you as you grow in your faith.  He is not the abusive Dad who beats you up for every little mistake. He is perfect in all of His ways. Everything He does is corrective in the best possible way.

Would you really want Him to be any other way?

Later

Adam

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” – John 17:20-23

Isn’t it mind blowing that nearly 2,000 years ago Jesus prayed for us? We are the ones who believe today because of the Disciples’ message. When it comes to praying for us today, Jesus only prays that we will be unified. He goes on to say that this is the way the world will be convinced that He really is inside of us.

When I look at the church as a whole right now, it couldn’t be more divided. It seems to me that the places on Earth, who really love each other and even their enemies, are the places where Christianity is forbidden by law. In those places, Christians have no choice but to look out for each other. They are willing to give all that they have for one another. They want to keep each other alive so that God’s Word may be spread. They realize and are aware that each one holds a vital place and plays a vital role in God’s kingdom. When the unbelievers of those countries see what these Christians are willing to endure for one another, they don’t understand it, but it becomes very desirable. So many non-believers end up believing simply because they want in on this pure love that they’ve never seen before. Real Christianity spreads like wildfire.

Oh that we would have a true and pure revival in America today! If only we could truly love one another! As it stands, we are so far from being unified. We have denominations. The word denomination looks and sounds like the word denominator, which, in mathematics, is the number that represents division. I see churches not willing to help each other, pastors refusing to share resources, and an unbelievable lack of God’s love in the American church. No wonder Christianity is on the decline in our country . . . nobody wants what we have.

What would it look like if, right now, we stopped arguing over things like Bible translations? There are people who have stopped reading my posts simply because I have used NIV scripture references instead of KJV (like today). There are people who literally get upset with their pastor if he allows the service to go over some perceived one-hour time limit. There are people in churches who allow volunteers to accept positions in the church and literally allow them to grow old and die in those positions. It is even a running joke that if you ever volunteer for a church position, you will be stuck there for life. No one really looks after one another in the American church. We would rather criticize and tear down than praise and build up. Therefore, when the world takes a peek in and sees people who supposedly represent God Himself behaving just like the world, and in some cases worse than the world, they don’t want what we have . . . and I don’t blame them.

God, I echo your 2,000 year-old prayer this morning. Help us in the American church to be unified. Help us to truly love one another and want the best for one another. Help us individually to shoulder the load and not place so much weight on so few. Bring us to a point where, when others see us as Christians, they see us loving one another unconditionally and building each other up instead of tearing one another down. May the world see us wanting the best for one another. May they see something different that is so attractive and actually worth having.

May it all start with me. Help me to love those who don’t love me back. May the love that I have for them change them just as your love for me has changed me and still changes me. Give me a new heart that can contain and dispense your love. Give all who will read this a heart of real, genuine, Godly love. Let real Christianity spread like wildfire in America!

Hallelujah! Thine the glory.

Hallelujah! Amen.

Hallelujah! Thine the glory.

Revive us again.

Adam

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:10

Every once in a while, I start thinking about how far I’ve come as a follower of Jesus. When I think about how much my heart has changed, sometimes I forget to give Him all the glory. I forget that He and He alone is the author and finisher of my faith. I don’t think I voice it out loud, but I begin to think of the hours and hours of Bible study, prayer, listening to sermons, books I’ve read, and something in me takes credit for the great work God has done. It is precisely in these moments, when I lose this spirit of thankfulness, something usually happens to remind me of just how far I have left to go in my journey to Celestial City.

This past week, I seriously released a lot of anger and frustration out on a kid. He said the wrong thing at the wrong time, and I went to war. That situation resolved itself fairly quickly, so I never thought again about that monster that rose up within me. Then, a much more subtle thing happened. I went to pick up some food at a restaurant. When I was leaving, I was the only car parked in an entire row of spaces. There were at least 10 other spaces.   More importantly, there were at least 8 other spaces not next to me. While I’m walking to my vehicle, where does this couple decide to park? They park right next to me on the driver’s side. So, I force a smile and wait while they get out of their car. I wait for them to get out of the way so I can back out. This seriously aggravated me.

As I drove home, I wondered what in the world was wrong with me. Have I seriously regressed so much that I can’t take a kid’s smart mouth? Since when did I become so important that I did not have the patience to wait 45 seconds? I think God allows these moments in me to keep me from being prideful. I sit here this morning really thankful for these moments, for without them, I know I would start depending on my efforts instead of depending on Him and what He has already done.

He’s still working on me

To make me what I ought to be

It took Him just a week to make the moon and the stars

The sun and the Earth and Jupiter and Mars

How loving and patient He must be

He’s still working on me. – Joel Hemphill

Later

Adam

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. – Psalm 19:14

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say it at all.” I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know this saying. It is quite a noble goal. I know my tendency is to “go off” on people that I think deserve it. As I get older and hopefully wiser, the temptation to unload on people has lessened, but as I read today’s verse, I see a whole new level.

The mouth can only speak what is in the heart. I think things that certainly never make it out of my mouth (thank goodness!) Lately, I’m finding these not-so-good thoughts are actually being spoken out loud. I catch myself immediately sometimes. Other times, it is when I try to get alone with God that they are brought to remembrance. I so want to be holy as He is holy. I want to be Godly and different, but how can I when I speak no different than the world speaks and do no different than the world does?

With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. — Matthew 19:26

It always seems to come back to this, doesn’t it? There are some things I can fix on my own. There are things I think God expects me to fix on my own. Other things are just never going away unless God intervenes on my behalf. I believe this is what Jesus meant when He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” When you come to the realization that there are some things you do that completely violate His will for your life, and you can do absolutely nothing about it on your own, then it is time to pour out your heart to Him. Cry out to Him, “Father, if you don’t change me, I will not change.” Now you are in a position to be blessed. Now, you have access to the kingdom of Heaven.

Lord, I hate when I go through seasons of regression. I hate when I feel like I’m getting further away from You when all I want is to be as close to You as possible. I guess nobody is exempt from taking steps backwards no matter how many steps they’ve made forward. There is no way on my own that I can think pure thoughts continually. Will you help me? Will you make it so that the very things I think about are pleasing to You? It seems impossible. It is impossible. But, I have You. There is none like You. I love You. You are the Lord of my life. As Your eyes go to and fro searching for hearts that are perfect toward You, may mine be one of them, and may You show Yourself strong.

Amen

Adam

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. – Genesis 2:21

I didn’t meet my wife until I was 24 years old. On February 26 of the year 2000, Tonya and I went on our very first date. Up until that time, there were certainly some similarities between the Biblical Adam and me. Bible Adam saw that all the animals were paired up . . . they had a match. He quickly realized that he didn’t have a match. I remember only focusing on what I didn’t have. My friends were getting married and it seemed a constant reminder that I was alone. Would I be alone forever? Was I one of the ones God wanted to be alone?

Probably the worst thing this attitude does is make you come across as needy. As long as this neediness prevails, you will be a disaster to your new relationship. I look back on some of my relationships and see just how needy I must have seemed to them. No wonder they ran. I can also look back and see how this worked the other way. Some girls I knew I would never settle down with because of some glaring red flag that God must have been highlighting as if to say, “not the one I made for you.”

Genesis 2:21 says God took something out of Adam’s side before He introduced him to Eve. For me, God had me go through a yearlong process of not dating anyone. As soon as I committed to that, I had more opportunities to date than I ever could have imagined. But, I wanted to be obedient to God.

The “surgery” performed on me was successful. At the end of that year God changed me. I wouldn’t say that I wasn’t needy at all, but I was WAY less needy. I no longer needed a relationship to define who I was. In fact, I learned to enjoy being at home by myself and just spending time with God and the Bible. I realized that God had performed major surgery on me and took out a cancer that would have been devastating to a marriage.

Could you imagine if I had bought into Hollywood’s definition of love and looked for Tonya to “complete me?” No significant other will ever hold up to that kind of pressure or live up to that kind of standard . . . not in the long run. I don’t want Tonya to “need” me in order for her to be happy. I want her to find her fulfillment in God alone. I want Him to be all that she needs. Then, if I am doing the same, she and I are set for life. We will see each other as a gift from God and we will appreciate the gift and certainly take great care of it.

No matter what stage of life you are in, find your fulfillment in God alone. I wish I had done this from the time I was saved at 16 years old until the time I met Tonya. I wasted a lot of time trying to do things the world’s way. Do not do the same.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Adam

A Desire to Change

But you have done more evil than all who were before you, for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back. – 1 Kings 14:10

Jeroboam had about as good of a start as anyone could have. A man of God came to him during the reign of Solomon at precisely the time when Solomon began to build public altars to other gods for his foreign wives. The man of God made sure Jeroboam understood why 10 of the tribes were going to be stripped away and be under his rulership.   Unfortunately, just because he had a good start, it did not ensure he would have a good finish.

In order to keep people from traveling back to the temple in the southern kingdom of Judah to worship God, Jeroboam decided to do the very thing Solomon did to have the kingdom divided in the first place . . . set up altars of worship to foreign gods. Even though he was divinely warned, even having his arm wither in an instant and then restored in an instant, he refused to change. Once Jeroboam got a taste of power, he could not let it go.

I look back over my life on things that were so hard to change. I’m talking about things that seemed impossible to stop doing. Just like Jeroboam, I thought I’d lose the rulership of my own kingdom if I really followed what God was obviously asking me to do. Here’s the thing: I eventually did lose control over my own kingdom, and in the end, it was wonderful.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, I don’t know) for us, God never allows us to see what is on the other side of our obedience to Him. He didn’t show me my wife on the other side of obedience to Him regarding my boyfriend/girlfriend relationships. He didn’t show me the financial blessings on the other side of learning to tithe. He certainly didn’t show me true peace and contentment on the other side of studying and applying His Word to my life. Had He shown me the blessings beforehand, I might would have done them for the rewards and not the rewarder.

So what does a person do when sin has such a hold on them that they just refuse obedience to God? What do they do when they feel that they absolutely can’t let go of what little bit of perceived control they have over their own life? How do you avoid Jeroboam’s fate?

You become poor in spirit. Remember the Sermon on the Mount? Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3).

Nothing has transformed my life like the five words “Lord, I’m poor in spirit.” When what I want does not line up with what He wants, I just admit it. I pray to Him, “Lord, if you don’t change my heart, I will not change. I can’t do it on my own.”

I can’t begin to tell you how He honors this prayer. Don’t think that the prayer will “fix” you or your problems instantly. God has never been into instant. But, it will give you a sense of depending on Him like you’ve never had before. Then, over time, you won’t know how He did it, you won’t even know when He did it, but you will discover that He changed you.

You will discover that Jesus is everything He says He is.

Later

Adam

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. – 2 Corinthians 5:17

What makes a Christian “new?” What does it even mean to be “new?” I don’t know why, but I’ve been pondering this a lot lately. When I think of a new creation, I think of my two kids. When they entered this world, I had such an awe and wonder that absolutely everything on this planet was brand new to them. When my daughter was born and I said, “Hey Caroline,” and she looked at me with the most piercing eyes. I knew that she recognized my voice.

Here I am now 11 years into raising her. For 11 years I’ve been trying to win her heart. Sometimes I feel like I have it. Sometimes I feel a million miles away. Either way, I love the journey of pursuing her, teaching her, and instilling a holy fear of God inside of her. It is still amazing to me that 11 years ago, Caroline was brand new to this world.

Twenty-six years ago, I was born again. Ever since that day, God has been pursuing me, and my heart. A 16-year old clueless teenager called his youth group leader because he was too scared to raise his hand and “receive” Jesus in front of his friends. Even though all I did was repeat a simple prayer after him, it was actually the first time I entered the world of “prayer.” It was just crazy to me that I actually talked to God. I asked Him to forgive me for being the way that I was, for hurting the people that I hurt, and for doing the sinful things that I had done and was currently doing. I talked to God and felt the most overwhelming sense of “lightness.“ It was like my weight cut in half in an instant. It was like my soul was just pressure washed.

All of a sudden, I cared about stuff I never cared about before. Before Christ, if I cussed, I didn’t care or give it a second thought at all. But, here I was now with something going off inside of me saying, “We don’t talk like that anymore.” All of a sudden, I had the most intense feeling of “this is wrong” when I was sexually immoral in any way. I would look at my Bible and say, “I really need to read that thing.” I had never thought that before. These feelings were all so new.

I think Americans highly underestimate the value of that first prayer of repentance to God. A sinful, God-hating, Bible-hating, rule hating, sin-loving person just prayed and asked the God of the universe to change them. I believe it is still the greatest miracle that God performs today. It is absolutely astounding. A sinner just basically said, “I’m nothing like You, Jesus . . . make me like You!” It puts the new believer on the path of communicating with God for the rest of our lives, and for all of eternity.

Even after 26 years, there is still so much work left for God to do in my heart, mind, and soul. I’m still in the process of being made new. I think that is the beauty of salvation. A person who gives his or her life to God is in a constant state of being perfected. This perfecting process will go on for all of eternity. My only job is to hold on to Him for dear life. He is the one who makes all things new.

If you’ve never experienced the “newness” of God, there is no better day than today to find out just what that feels like.

Later

Adam