Wednesday Morning Devotional

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.

Lord or Teacher?

Now as they were eating, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.”  And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?” – Matthew 26:21-22

Then Judas, who was betraying him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?”  — Matthew 26:25

A lot of Christians love to go to church and listen to someone teach about the Bible and Jesus, including myself.  But the real question all people who say they believe must answer is this, “Is Jesus really the Lord of my life?”  Each of the disciples called Jesus “Lord” in the above verses . . . all but one.  Judas called Him “Rabbi,” which is to call Him “Teacher.”  Hearing Jesus say that He knew who would betray him didn’t deter Judas one bit.  He still went and collected his 30 pieces of silver.

When you and I read the Bible, we aren’t to set it down and say, “that was good teaching.”  We are to set it down and say, “What does this look like applied to my life?”   I remember being confronted with the Bible’s teaching and having to decide if I was going to apply it.  I didn’t want to change my adulterous ways when confronted with Matthew 5:28, but I had to because I called Him the Lord of my life.  I didn’t want to work with the right attitude when confronted with Colossians 3:23, but I had to because I called Him Lord of my life.  I don’t want to deal with it when greed rises in me, but I must because I am told that I can’t serve God and money.  I don’t want to forgive the people inside the church who have hurt me the most, but if He is Lord, it isn’t optional.  Read the parable of the unmerciful servant, if you want to go to heaven, forgiveness is never optional.  None of His commands are suggestions, they are commands.

Sometimes we learn of things in the Bible that we didn’t even know were wrong.  Paul says in Romans 7:7, “I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”  Like Paul, I wouldn’t have thought it a big deal if I simply desired another person’s possessions.  But now, I say “I’d like to have a car like that one.”  I don’t say, “I’d love to have his car.”  I know it seems trivial, but I want to follow the commandments.  If we love Him, we will obey His commands (John 14:15)

The first few days of a fast are so difficult . . . I hate the headache and the withdrawals from all the junk I’ve eaten, but at some point, it is like the stone is moved away and Jesus is ever so real to me.  I find that it is all worth it.  I know I would never in 10 lifetimes choose to fast on my own.  But I read the bible one day and it said, “When you fast.”  It didn’t say, “If you decide to,” or “If you ever feel like it,” it said, “When you fast.”  I’m never going to feel like it.  In fact, I’ve rarely felt like obeying any of His commands.  

Yet I look back over my 33 years of following Him . . . I couldn’t be more thankful for all that He has done in me and for me.  There is no one like the Lord.

Lord, I could not be more thankful right now.  You are so good to me.  Despite my failures and despite that it took and sometimes still takes me so long to obey Your commands, You always get me there, and I always look back and say “Thank You . . . You knew what You were doing all along.”  You are and forever will be the best thing ever happen to me.  Help many who read this today go from calling You “Teacher,” and start calling You, “Lord.”  In 2025, may every person who calls themselves “Christian,” truly make You the Lord of their lives.  Send revival, Lord.  The harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few.  Amen.

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him:  — Psalm 37:7

This has been the strangest start to a New Year I believe I’ve ever had.  I’m not sure I’ve ever been so glad to leave a year behind as 2024.  Not that things were horrible, but I just felt probably as lost, powerless, and helpless as I’ve ever felt.  Most of it was certainly self-inflicted.  I went my own way and followed my own desires more than I’d like to admit.

Here is the thing:  Through it all, when I felt God’s presence, it might have been more real than it has ever been in my life.  I knew He was there; I knew He was with me, and I knew that He had me.  If there is any resolution that I have for this New Year, it is simply to rest in the Lord.  I’m all the time thinking I must do something for Him, be telling someone about Him, and what has happened is, somewhere along the way, if I’m not doing these things, I think I’m disappointing Him.  I think I’m letting other people down.  I’ve become a performance-based Christian.  The thing is . . . I know there are no judges.  I know that the only opinion that matters is the Lord’s, and He has taken not one iota of His presence and realness from me.

I was praying before the New Year began that I’d care a lot less about what others thought of me and care much more about just living my life knowing that He’s got me.  Immediately, in two straight days, I had two people question me as “a man of faith,” and “a pastor.”  Both believed I was behaving in a way that disqualified me from those titles.  It bothered me at first, but then I thought, “well, this is what I prayed for.”  God never left me, His presence has remained, so it is more than time for me to simply live for my audience of ONE.  I can’t change people’s hearts . . . I wouldn’t really want to be able to something like that.  I can only live for Him and trust that He will do all the heart changing.  I can only trust Him.  I can only listen to that still small voice that leads, guides and directs me.

Lord, may You increase, and I decrease in 2025.  I want to know You, experience You, and serve You with every fiber of my being.  Let me move forward this year in confidence, not in myself, but in the God that I’ve been serving since my 20’s. You’ve grown me.  Remove the weeds suffocating my life so that I might grow even more.  There is no one like You.  May you bless each reader and his or her family.  Make Your face to shine upon them and be gracious to them.  Turn Your countenance towards them and give them peace for the New Year.  May we, Your people, find pure and true rest in You.  Amen and amen.

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. – Luke 2:7

Life is hard. One of the many reasons that I believe the Bible is because, when man sinned in Genesis 3, it says one of the consequences was, “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground” (Genesis 3:19). Eating was easy up to that point; all they had to do was simply eat from any tree that was available in the garden. I imagine they were abundant. Now that sin had entered in, if you want to eat, well . . . go to work!

In this little verse of the Christmas story, it was finally time to deliver Jesus. Imagine how hard the journey was until it was finally time to deliver Jesus. All the stress of traveling, finding a place to stay, and wondering how in the world all this was going to play out. It was a long journey. It was a hard journey. It was an uncomfortable journey. Mary was great with child . . . you know she wanted rest.

I’ve been alive exactly 49.5 years. It has been a lot of toil and a lot of strife. I worked for seven years at a golf course, 17 years at the school I graduated from, and have now been working 10 and a half years at an alternative school. I’m so thankful that God gifts us with ways to earn a living, but like He said in Genesis, if you want to eat, you’re going to work, and you’re going to earn it.

I feel like sitting here on Christmas morning a bit like Mary. She survived the journey. She delivered the Lord and Savior of the World. She saw the face of God and held Him in her arms. This has been a tough year. A lot of it has been because of my own selfishness, but it feels like I just grinded through this year and didn’t take nearly enough time to simply slow down and enjoy my time here and enjoy walking with God. Much like I’m doing now, I sat with God a lot, but then I got up and just plowed through my day. I forgot to invite the Lord to be with me as I pushed the plow.

On the last day of school, none of my riders rode the bus, so I thought to ask Jesus to ride with me . . . that was a sweet ride! It reminded me that, next year, I want to remember to enjoy my work, to ask Him to be with me in the midst of it all. I have so few years left to work. I have so few years left on this planet. I went to visit my Granny yesterday. She only made it to 53. I was in the 10th grade when she left this world. I thought, “What if I only had 3 and a half more years to live?” What would I do different? I think I would spend a lot more time just drawing nearer to the Lord. I would spend the time learning to enjoy Him here before I left to enjoy Him there forever.

If nothing else, for right here, right now, as I wait for my family to get up and tear open gifts, I have the Lord’s presence. He is right here with me in as tangible of a way as I’ve ever known. Oh, how I want to love Him, serve Him, and have Him at the very center of my life. It has been a tough year, but the days were accomplished and now He is here.

Lord, I feel like most of the year that I have simply gone through the motions of being a Christian. I have dutifully read Your word. I’m sorry that too often I’ve looked at it as work. But this morning, I really enjoyed it. I didn’t have to read this morning, I wanted to. Most of all, I enjoyed it because I feel like You just sat with me. Your love filled this room, and I pray that I am conscious of it for the rest of the year, for all of 2025, and for the rest of my life. You came that I might have life, and not just plain life, but abundant life. Fill me with the Holy Spirit and lead me in the way everlasting. Merry Christmas, Lord!