Wednesday Morning Devotional

Let your light so shine before men that others may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven.  —  Matthew 5:16

The Bible says that God put light bearers in the heavens.  They separate the day from the night, help us count the days, years, and seasons.  Genesis 1:14 says they do one more thing as well . . . they give us signs.

Today, I watched an amazing event.  I watched the moon completely block the Sun’s light from being seen.  It happened in a little band all the way across the United States of America.  The Sun, even though it was right where it has always been, giving off the same light it always has, got blocked.  For a few minutes, the moon allowed no light to pass to the inhabitants of Earth. 

I believe it was a sign.  Right now, our great nation gives off no light to the rest of the world.  It seems like there used to be an overall caring about people.  We would hurt with hurting people and weren’t so quick to finish off a person while they were down.  News stories weren’t mostly negative.  We were once a nation that really cared about reaching the lost, healing the sick, and helping our fellow man.  Yet, right now, in a country where 75% of the people identify as being Christian, we are way more concerned with politics than we are being a light.  We are in the direct path of the Son blocking His light.  We’d rather be right than lay down our own lives for another.  Greater love hath no man than he give his life for a friend (John 15:13).  Read the main verse up top one more time.

I don’t really get where it all went wrong.  I guess it’s like anything else; it’s just a slow, gradual fade.  If I had to attempt to put a face to it, I think we have fallen for an American version of Christianity.  It is basically the American Dream sprinkled with the bits and pieces of Christianity that we like.  We think we can have Him plus this comfortable, prosperous (our version of prosperity, not His) life, and we can have it all right now with little to no effort.  Just repeat a prayer and all the work is done.  We are now entitled to a great life here and a great life in eternity.  We think we can live however we want and get whatever we want, just continue to believe in your own version of who Christ is, and he’ll “bless” you.  The only problem with that is it isn’t in the Bible.  He calls for laying it all down at the foot of the cross.  He calls for death, burial, and resurrection.  He calls for exchanging your desires for His desires.  Selfish, entitled Americans don’t like that very much.

But here we are.  People who supposedly know Jesus and are supposed to be representing Him aren’t allowing His light to be seen by others.  We have Christians who think that homosexuals, drug addicts, prostitutes, cursers, drinkers, and liars can’t be saved.  If they do get saved, we immediately condemn them if they don’t change immediately.  All I know is that it took me 15 years after receiving Jesus Christ to overcome sexual immorality.  It took almost 10 years to stop lying on a consistent basis.  It even took me 5 years to even pick up a Bible and read it for myself.  I certainly didn’t mature as a believer immediately.

Sometimes I wish I had overcome these things quicker.  I beat myself up an awful lot for not overcoming basic spiritual hurdles more quickly.  I still hate the fact that I just wasted 5 years and I could have studied and possibly know Him right now even better than I do.  But, then again, I turn around and I thank Him for taking so long.  I thank Him for being so patient with me.  What this does is make me love Him so much more.  It makes me want to be patient with others.  I don’t care if it takes years.  I just want to keep shining His light and pray that it changes the people I come into contact with.  I pray that as I preach, the light in me just shines brightly.  I pray that as I teach, my light shines.  I pray that this light I have inside of me affects every person I meet.  I have to believe that it can do for others what it did for me.  I have to believe that it changes people.

For a couple of minutes, just about everybody stopped hammering on each other to witness in the heavens exactly what the people on earth, especially in the United States of America, are doing . . . blocking the light of Jesus Christ.

In seven years another eclipse will cross this great nation.  Their paths make an X.  The X could mean the U.S. is a target of destruction, and God is crossing out our once great country.  I am reading Jeremiah right now.  He pled and pled for Israel to turn from their wicked ways.  But, because they went to church and did religious things for God, they all thought they were exempt from His wrath.  Nobody would listen to Jeremiah and it sure seems that nobody is listening right now.  Then again, the X marks the spot of treasure on some maps.  Maybe over these next seven years we as a nation turn back to Him.  Maybe revival falls upon us once more and a spiritual awakening occurs. 

Today, if you call yourself a Christian, let your light so shine before men that others will see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will restore their land.  – 2 Chronicles 7:14

Later

Adam

If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.  – Matthew 5:41

There is nothing that Jesus said that would have possibly frustrated Jews more than this verse right here.  Romans could force Jews to carry their belongings for one mile.  Jews hated the fact that they could.  So what they would do is teach their children to count their steps that equaled exactly one mile.  Nobody ever, ever went a single step further.  Roman law required one mile, so that’s what they would give to the Romans.

Here we are starting a new school year.  I’ve been back at it for a few days now.  Students will start back later this week.  One more time, we are in a sense “forced” to go to school, or to work.  Sure, there are kids who love it, but there are also kids who’d rather do absolutely anything else.  There are teachers who love it, and then there are those who are ONLY showing up because they need to get paid.  I want you to think of this “having to show up” as the first mile.  We have to do that.

Right here in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “go two miles.”

Why?

I believe it was a strategy to win the lost.  It was a strategy that if every believer in Christ bought into, absolutely everyone who didn’t believe would say, “There is nobody like those Christians!”  Imagine someone begrudgingly carrying a Roman Citizen’s stuff.   Suppose that Roman citizen had one particular person he liked forcing.  This person would count off the steps, hate every moment, seethe with hatred, and then drop the stuff on the ground and stomp off.  They had fulfilled the minimum requirement.  Now, one day, after encountering Jesus Christ, he remembers these words.  The same Roman comes along and forces the first mile, but instead of some sort of sour, scoffing attitude, he smiles and says, “I’ll be glad to.”  Then, after 5,280 feet, or 1,760 yards (a little math lesson for you students), instead of dropping it with their normal attitude, they just keep going.

This would absolutely astound the non-believing Roman citizen!  It would show them something they’ve never seen before.  It would compel them to ask, “Why?”  At this point right here, you’ve earned the right to tell them about Christ.  Now, you can tell them just how much He has worked in your own life and changed your attitude towards everything.  You do NOT get to say, “I’m right, you’re wrong, you’re going to Hell.”  This attitude of “I’m better than you because I believe something you don’t” has prevented a multitude of non-believers from ever becoming Christians.  If you want to win the lost, do it by example.  Eventually, they will have to ask why you are the way you are.

We have to go back to work.  It is the first mile.  Think about what it would look like for you to go above and beyond the minimum requirements, and go the extra mile.  Then, when someone asks, return all the glory, honor, and praise to Him.  Point them to Him.  There is just no one like Him.

Later

Adam

After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am sitting in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.” — 2 Samuel 7:1-2

My favorite picture of worship is David alone in a field, tending sheep, and playing and singing about the greatness of God. No doubt the beloved Psalm 23 exists because he found such fulfillment in being alone playing and singing to his Lord. He loved and protected those sheep. In a moment of clarity, David realized that God absolutely took care of him in the same we he took care of his sheep. “The Lord is my shepherd,” he exclaimed. “I shall not want.”

David kept this posture of worship all the way up until the slaying of Goliath. Then, people began to sing David’s praises, not the praises of God. “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands,” the women would sing. Satan had used his favorite tactic to turn a 212-degree burning heart down to 211 so that it no longer boils . . . pride. Time and time again, David would fight for God, but you don’t hear him speak of God with the same devotional fervor he once did.

That brings us to this moment in this verse. He’s fought for God and won mightily. Victory after victory was his with God’s mighty hand upon him. God has brought David full circle to a place of being alone with Him . . . no leading armies, no wars. What does David’s heart lean towards?

Doing something else FOR God. “I want to build You a house Lord!” Basically, he said, “I want take on another endeavor where I can do something great for You!” Even the prophet Nathan thought it sounded like a great idea, “Go ahead, do as you wish” he said to David. But then that very night God came to Nathan in a dream and shut it all down. “David is NOT to build my house!”

Why would God shut down such a good sounding thing?

God brought about a mighty victory when David slew Goliath because David was the only person on the planet that truly loved Him and fully trusted in Him. His one act of war ignited faith and stirred up a renewed trust in God for so many who saw the small, ruddy, adolescent shepherd defeat the mighty warrior from Gath. David fought from a place of love. Years later, after being given rest from his enemies, I believe God simply wanted his heart back. Not that David didn’t believe, of course he did. He just got a little taste of American Christianity 3,000 years in advance of us. He started going to church and doing things for God instead of being alone with God. At this point, God didn’t want David to do something else for Him . . . hence, He denied this seemingly good request. God wanted David’s heart back.

I feel like I’m in that very place right now. I feel like I could do great things FOR God. I feel like I could preach great sermons FOR Him. I feel like I could write great things FOR Him. I feel like I could dive into the church world and build something successful . . . grow a ministry. Keep in mind, I didn’t say I could, just that I feel like I could. But, here is my point: sometimes I get wrapped up in the church world, a few weeks go by, and I haven’t really been alone with Him. It hasn’t been just Him and me alone.

I guess I’m really trying to return to my first love. Like God counseled the Ephesian church in Revelation 2, I want to do the things I did at first . . . when I just loved Him. I didn’t need anybody to know who I was, didn’t need to do anything great for Him . . . I just needed and wanted Him.

I love You so much, Lord. Unfortunately, this realization comes in small doses lately. I can so easily mistake doing things FOR You with being alone WITH You. I can so easily get away from a real heart of worship. Help me desire Your love and Your praise and value it so much more than the praises of men. You are holy!

Help me to be holy, and may my motives remain pure all the days of my life.

Amen

Just so you don’t worry about me, I want to let you know that I probably won’t post anything again until school starts back next month.

Due Time

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you. – 1 Peter 5:6 (ESV)

Years ago, I was the king of needing exaltation. There is no way there was a needier guy on the planet. I just didn’t feel that I was receiving the rewards for all that I was doing. Then, I read this verse along with Colossians 3:23 and knew that I had to make a change. I prayed to God and asked Him to help me start working for the right reasons and to help me humble myself. For the first time in my life, I began to work for His approval and not the approval of people.

So, I did a couple of things. I asked another teacher to teach me how to teach. I listened to him and then did the stuff he suggested. I stopped reading all these coaching books written by these folks with the best of the best of everything and I just figured out how to maximize my team’s potential and play to their strengths. I cannot explain how much I enjoyed those next few years. Along with enjoying work and life, I was as close to God as I had ever been. Then, at the end of the school year when awards were given out, He just decided to exalt me like crazy. I’ll never forget it because I really felt like those awards were all straight from Him.

The more I think about this, we American Christians live in a world where it is almost impossible for God to exalt us. We are too good at exalting ourselves. Facebook has become such a tool for self-exaltation. It is practically our own shrine to ourselves where we actually believe others are supposed to care what we think about anything and everything. We are constantly trying to get the world to look at us and what we do and what we are accomplishing.

Now, I’m not saying there is necessarily anything wrong with posting on Facebook. It’s certainly not a sin, but surely you see how it could be. I’ve heard students talk about “likes” on Facebook and thought, “Their entire self-worth is based on how many people click on a stupid button.” If you really think about it from the perspective of the Bible and the fact that there really is nothing new under the Sun, then we are basically idolaters saying, “Bow down to me and this shrine I’ve built to myself!”

Ok, so maybe that was a little extreme, but the point is that I had way too long of a spell where I cared about how many people hit the “like” button on my posts. That is the opposite of humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God. Worse, I have really been convicted about teaching “Facebook approval” to my kids. I’ve posted videos of my kids and basically said, “Look at what people are saying about you and how much they approve.”

What was I thinking?

The opposite of 1 peter 5:6, I know that.

Recently, my daughter did something really good by the world’s standards. My first inclination was to get my phone and plaster it on Facebook. I knew she’d be exalted. But, I thought of this verse and did something else instead. I told her myself how proud I was of her and that I thought we should celebrate. I told her she could pick the place and the whole family would go out for lunch. She enjoyed that and probably got tired of me hugging her, kissing her, and telling her how much I loved her and was proud of her. Tonight is our “date night” and you can bet that I’ll be doting on her some more.

My prayer is that as she gets older, she will not need man’s approval, but only the approval of Her Heavenly Father. The best thing I can be is a picture of humility that she can look at constantly.

Lord, help me to be an example of humility in a world where arrogance is exalted. Help my kids learn how to be from me. Help me live a life that you exalt in due time. I can’t imagine better words to hear than, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Later

Adam

Taste and see that the Lord is good.  – Psalm 34:8

When Tonya and I were dating, I only ate ketchup on pretty much everything.  I was 24 years old and wouldn’t even try any other sauces.  Chili’s was our favorite restaurant for a spell (I asked her to marry me after a date at Chili’s).  We both really liked Chicken Crispers.  She would eat them with honey mustard, and I would eat them with ketchup.  One day, she just said, “try it.”  I acted like a 4-year old having to eat veggies for a bit, but then I tried it.  I think I could have drunk it straight up.  I could not believe I had never tried it before.  To this day, even though we rarely eat there, Chili’s has the best honey mustard.  All I had to do was taste it.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget the first time I was in a church service and the Spirit of God was just moving like crazy.  Absolutely everyone seemed to be in on this amazing experience but me.  I got home and hit my knees, “Lord, whatever they have . . . I want in on it.”  I didn’t want to watch others enjoy His Presence; I wanted the Presence for myself.  Sure enough, within a couple of weeks, I got in on it.  To this day, it is the greatest treasure I continue to seek.  When you really find God, when you really taste and see that He is good, then everything else life offers pales in comparison.  There is simply no one and no thing like Him.

Real Christianity, at first, is the most unnatural thing in the world.  I mean, nobody wants to give up the sin that they enjoy, or the lifestyle that seems to work for them.  I enjoyed playing and listening to music that did not honor God.  I enjoyed being immoral, even after hurting a lot of people in the process.  I enjoyed partying, cussing, telling lies, and simply living for me, myself, and I.  That came natural to me.  God’s call was clear:  “Walk away from all that, and put your trust in me.”

“Taste and see that I’m good.”

It took a few years to answer that call, but I finally did it.  I won’t say that I didn’t have regrets for a few years after answering that call, because every once in a while, I would. When I saw my old friends living it up, I thought God was ripping me off big time.  There was and occasionally still is, a voice that tries to convince me that He just isn’t worth it.  But now, right now, I can’t thank Him enough and I love Him so much.  The relationship I have with Him, the wife I have, the children I have, the church I have, the job I have, and basically the life I have right now, I simply would not have had I never gotten that first taste of His Presence.

Thank You, Lord for giving me a taste.

You are so good.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.  – Psalm 34:8

Later

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Adam