Wednesday Morning Devotional

If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. – 1 Corinthians 3:14

One of the many things that keeps me on track with the Lord is the idea of forever.  I’m watching my classmates turn 50 left and right.  I remember the birth months of many of them.  My turn is coming up in June.  I’m incredibly aware that I have less life in front of me than behind me.  I want to serve God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.

Yet, I can still get caught up in the temporary.  I can gravitate towards books, tv shows, and YouTube videos.  The only way I can describe it is that it is like filling my soul up on junk food.  Then, I get back to the presence of God and that temporary stuff seems so stupid and futile.   It seems like something to keep my mind numb and away from what is important.  I must ask myself:  What am I really building that is of eternal value?  It takes a lot of time and effort to build something of lasting value here on Earth.  How much more should it take to build something of lasting value in heaven?

I’ve watched several people be set free in the past several months.  They’re free from needing a relationship, free from addictions, and free from their past.  They’ve confessed the Lord as their Savior.  But as weeks have gone by, they’ve sprinted back to what had them bound.  The temporary overshadows the eternal in weak moments.  This world is designed to keep you away from God and His Word.  

Of course I empathize with them.  I did the same thing as a teen and young adult.  I distinctly remember knowing that I was finally going to be free from a certain addiction.  Yet, it was hard to let go of because God always convicted me when I did it.  I knew that God was always present in that way, even though it was disciplinary.  I wondered if He would truly show up in other ways on the other side.  Was there something more outside of conviction?  Thank goodness there was, but it took faith to find out.

Today, let’s work for the inheritance that God says we can have if we work as unto Him!  Today, let’s use materials that will be refined in the fire as opposed to be burned up.  One day, a select group of people will hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”  May you and I work today as if we want to hear these words.

Lord, please help this generation!  They are absolutely addicted to vapes, games, relationships, and basically ease and comfort.  They get clean and run back to the pigsty so fast.  I’m not condemning, for I was one of them.  Fill us with Your Holy Spirit!  Give us new hearts and new minds that want to seek after You and truly follow You.  Make us so different from this world.  May we simply remain about the Lord’s business.  Amen. 

And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him.  Some said, “He is good,” others said, ‘No, on the contrary he deceives the people.” – John 7:11-12

“You can’t please everybody,” is a phrase that I’ve heard my whole life.  As a math teacher, there are students that absolutely loved me and think I was great.  There are also students who think I was terrible.  As a minister, I’ve been called “the real deal,” and I’ve been rejected and never asked to come back.  If Jesus couldn’t please everyone, then I don’t have a chance.

I live now in what I imagine is the most toxic political environment that has ever existed, though I’m sure that is arguable.  In the next verse after John 7:12 it says, “However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.”  How nice would it be for no one to speak openly of people today?  Social media has become a shrine to ourselves and our opinions.  I think we honestly believe that if everyone thought like us and believed as we do that the world would be just fine.  Lately, I’ve adopted more than ever Hebrews 13:14, “For this world is not our home, we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven.”

When I first became a Christian, I honestly hoped the Lord wouldn’t return.  I didn’t want to go to heaven yet.  There were things I wanted to do in life.  There was stuff I wanted to accomplish.  Jesus was someone I could put on the backburner and follow later.  This is all an indictment to the fact that I didn’t have a clue about my new life in Christ.  Now, more than ever, I’d sure like to be with my Lord in glory.

I’ve been meditating on John 7:11-12 every day since Saturday.  In the previous chapter, Jesus fed five thousand people from five loaves of barley and two small fish given to him by a young lad.  That was enough for many to follow Him.  However, others could only question His motives.  When Jesus refused to do the miracle a second time only offering Himself as the bread of life, the Bible in John 6:66 says that “many who believed in Him went back and followed Him no more.”  Obviously, there is nothing worse than a human who doesn’t get his or her way.

All that to say, it doesn’t matter who is in authority.  Israel had good kings, and it had bad kings.  I’m sure someone who lived under a good king thought they were bad, and someone who lived under a bad king thought they were good.  Today, I want to put my whole trust in Jesus.  I’m finishing up the gospel of John this week.  Jesus has never done anyone wrong.  I don’t think He is about to start now.

Lord, thank You for the breath in my lungs.  I’m sorry it took so long for me to trust You.  I’m sure even now that things could happen to me, and I’d begin to doubt.  You parted the sea for the Israelites, and they so quickly thought You’d let them starve afterwards.  May Your Holy Spirit continue to dwell in me.  Fill me afresh.  Without that life source . . . I know what I’d quickly become.  Lead, guide, and protect Your people today. Strengthen the host of heaven that evil may be easily defeated.  There is and never will be another like You, Lord. You are Holy, Holy, Holy!  Amen.

My cup runneth over – Psalm 23:5

If I am full of the Holy Spirit, how can I not pour into others?  

Over the years, I’ve seen so many people “dial it in,” during their last few years teaching.  It’s like this attitude that says, “I don’t really care if I get reprimanded or fired, I’m out of here anyway.”  In addition, they don’t give the best of themselves anymore to what they were generally great at for their entire career.  They don’t mind “burning days” and staying out because they have them to burn.  This ends up causing other teachers to cover their classes and places a substitute in the room that has not the understanding that the teacher does.

I never understood this temptation to “dial it in,” . . . until now.  I’m the one who could treat my job like I’ve described in the above paragraph.  I’m not going to act like I’m not tempted.  But when I get up in the morning and spend time with God, I realize that I’m in my last days of even having a chance to honor God in what it is He gave me the ability to perform?  How could I possibly take these last opportunities and pour into these kids more than ever?  Why in the world would I want to stand before my Lord and answer for why I gave Him less than my best at the very end?  Whatever it is that I do, I am to do it with all my heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. (Colossians 3:23)

I watched the movie “The Forge” recently.  The part that stuck with me more than anything was when Isaiah’s mentor told him, “Be a fountain, not a drain.”   Fountains pour into others and help others be the best that they can be.  Drains only take from others and make the lives of others more difficult.  I hate looking back and think of years where I was a drain to my wife, a drain to my profession, and even a drain to the God that I said I loved and served.  But by His grace, I sit here this morning loving Him more than ever.  At the beginning of this year when I asked Him to undo my spiritual paralysis, I don’t think that I thought that He would.  I knew He could, I just didn’t know if He would.  As with everything He has ever done in my life, I don’t know how He did it, I don’t even know when He did it, but In true God fashion . . . He did it.

If you’ll just take a look at where you are now, and where you’ve been.

Hasn’t He always come through?  He’s the same God as then.

You may not know how, you may not know when . . . but He’ll do it again.

(Look up the Karen Wheaton song, “He’ll do it again.”  You won’t be disappointed.)

Lord, as always, there is and never will be another like You.  Nobody else turns drains into fountains.  Help me do my job each day like it is the last chance I’m ever going to get to do it.  I know people dream of pulling a David Allan Coe and telling their boss to “take this job and shove it,” but I would hate to stand before you having treated another like that.  I want to use my job to make others better.  I know I’d never do it on my own, so God, please keep pouring in Your Holy Spirit that I might be Your fountain.  I love You so much!  Thank You for everything . . . and I mean everything.  Amen.

Blessed are the Pure in Heart, for they shall see God – Matthew 5:8

During the month of January, God really cleaned me up.  He has restored so much in my heart that I didn’t even realize was gone until it returned.  My love for reading His Word, the “downloading” in my mind of these wonderful messages, my zeal to tell others, my desire to truly live for Him, and just a pure love of listening to songs about Him.  These are just the tip of the iceberg.  It is like I was fully charged, but let my battery drain to about 10%.  I plugged back into God and He is keeping me charged.

Starting the beginning of this month, I went to trucking school.  If you know anyone who wants to drive trucks, run heavy equipment, or be a lineman for the power companies, Tri-County Tech will absolutely pay for you to complete the program free of charge.  I don’t know about the other two programs, but if you want to drive trucks, here is the catch . . . you better be drug free.  Also, you better have a clean driving record.  The reason truckers are needed all the time is that companies will not pay the high liability insurance once a drug test is failed, or too many points are added to a license because of reckless driving.  

Put it this way:  If you want to reap the rewards of trucking, you’ve got to stay clean.  You’ve got to stay pure.  Sounds like the trucker version of Matthew 5:8.

Here is the crazy thing:  I heard someone say that even though they were not clean, they knew how to pass the drug test.  Several have tried to convince our instructor to break rules and take short cuts in teaching us.  I think most of us want to learn and do it right, but there are still those who think they are going to be able to do wrong but still get credit and reap the rewards of doing right.  

I’m not judging at all . . . last year, I know now that my spiritual life was on autopilot.  I wasn’t doing the things that maintain a pure heart.  Right now, the Spirit of God is my sustainer.  I’m teaching and driving busses from 6:30 – 3:30 and then riding to trucking school from 5:30-10:30. It is a lot, but the joy of the Lord is my strength.  The long drive allows me to praise and to listen to Godly men preach the word.  

Just as those who try to cut corners when they become truckers won’t reap the rewards . . . those who call themselves Christians and cut corners will not reap the full benefits of knowing Christ.

Let’s you and I ask us these questions today:  Am I really living for Jesus?  Is He really first in my life?  Or am I really just a corner cutter hoping that it all works out in the end?

Lord, I’m just amazed at how You work!  I picture the dirtiest glass that had anything and everything in it but pure water.  The water of the faucet of the Word begins to flow into it and clean it little by little.  It doesn’t take long before the inside is so clean and so pure.  Oh, the blood of Jesus . . . it washes white as snow.  Bless me indeed, increase my territory, that Thy hand would be with me, and that You would keep evil from me.  Help me keep and maintain this joy that You have so freely given.  There is and never will be another like You!  Amen.