Wednesday Morning Devotional

The thief cometh not but to steal, kill, and destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.  – John 10:10

In John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian and Hopeful get trapped in the dungeon of the Giant Despair for a long time.  Giant Despair, along with his wife, Diffidence, beat them, starved them, and constantly encouraged the pilgrims day and night to end their lives.  They were miserable and constantly wishing they hadn’t stepped off the narrow path.  Christian and hopeful finally began to pray.  As it turned out, Christian had a key all along called Promise hanging around his neck.  Christian used the key to unlock every single door necessary to escape Doubting Castle.  They quickly got back on the road to Celestial City.

I have seen far too many people lately weighed down with fear and doubt.  Despair has attacked me an awful lot in the past year and a half.  I believe Satan has a goal for every believer who makes an honest attempt at following Christ; his goal is to keep the Christian defeated.  If there is never a smile on our face, never a joyful moment of the workday, always complaints coming from our mouths, always a focus on the things that are wrong, then he wins by keeping us defeated.  The lost, unsaved people of the world look at us and say, “Why in the world would I want to be a Christian . . . they are so miserable and unhappy.

Are you a Christian full of joy?  If not, I want to hand you a key today.  This key has already freed one of my friends from Doubting Castle.  At 10:10 a.m., I want you to read John 10:10, or speak John 10:10 if you have it memorized.  Then pray it.  Say something like this:  “Devil, you are a liar and a thief!  You are no longer welcome here!  I’ve allowed you to speak doubt in my mind long enough.  I will no longer be defeated by the lies that you speak.  By the blood of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I command you to leave!  Jesus, enter in!  Give me a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit.  May He reign supremely in my life and in my heart.  I want nothing more than to live the abundant life that you offer.  Help me always look to you and never at my circumstances.  Thank you, Jesus!  Amen.”

After you pray, you may or may not experience a breakthrough.  Well, we won’t let that keep us down.  In 12 more hours 10:10 pm will be here again.  Read or say the same verse, and then pray again.  Constantly speak life into your situation.  Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.  We must constantly and consistently call upon His Name if we want the abundant life that He offers.  The life He offers does not happen by accident.  Some people don’t just “get it” while others are left out.  It is a life lived on purpose.  It is a life taken by force using the tools Christ gave us at the cross.

Begin unlocking those doors.  Leave Doubting Castle today.

Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  – James 4:7

Later

Adam

The Owner of the Voice

And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for thy servant heareth. – 1 Samuel 3:10

Samuel heard the voice of the Lord as a young boy. From that day on, Samuel would learn to follow that voice and put his trust in that voice. I can only imagine how amazing it is for him now to physically be with the one who spoke that voice. What was it like to see the owner of the voice face to face?

I’m thinking of the day that Tonya became a mother. Almost 9 years ago, our little girl was born. Of all the stuff that happened, there is one moment that I will never forget. The nurse, after taking Caroline from Tonya, placed her under that lamp that keeps them warm. Caroline never cried. However, she was looking in all directions soaking in her new world and using her sight for the first time. I simply walked over and said “Hey baby,” exactly as I had said it to her inside of her mom countless times while placing my hands on her tummy. As soon as I did, she fixated on me. Her faith had become sight. She had never seen the owner of that voice until now, but she knew he was there all along.

In a very similar way, I hear God’s voice. I know He is there, but I have not seen Him face to face. I want to. I seek it with everything I am. One day, just as Caroline came into this world and matched her father’s face with that voice that had talked to her for months, I will step into eternity and match my Father’s face with that voice that ordered every step I took for my entire life.

What a day that will be

When my Jesus I shall see

When I look upon His face

The one who saved me by His grace,

When He takes me by the hand

And leads me through the Promised Land

What a day, glorious day that will be.

Later

Adam

And the dead in Christ shall rise first.  – 1 Thessalonians 4:16

This past Saturday, we buried my 84-year-old grandfather.  He was best known for being a working machine.  Some of my earliest memories of him are of him coming in from his plant job at Milliken, coming in for a bite to eat, then heading out to the woods to operate his chainsaw.  He believed a man should only work half a day, and he could choose whichever 12 hours he liked.

Papa would tell me stories about his dad.  From the stories he told, my great-grandfather was a very hard man.  I could definitely see how my papa turned out the way he did.  I asked him one time if my great grandpa knew the Lord.  Papa told me the story how near the end of his dad’s life, his dad did receive the Lord.  He talked about how it did make a difference, but also how he didn’t have a lot of time for the Lord to change those ways that had been locked in his heart for decades.

Papa and I would have a lot of the same conversations over and over.  My favorite was of the day he got saved.  He told me of the old country church in Salem and of a Pentecostal preacher named Paul Towe.  It was a simple story of him going forward to receive the Lord and then later being baptized in the river.  I always liked watching my Papa revisit all of that in his mind.

Just a few months ago, I got to take my Papa to my church.  He had never seen me preach before and I could tell he was excited to go.  He didn’t know where we met or really anything about Lifeline Community Church.  When we pulled up to the high school building, his jaw dropped and he said in a loud voice “this is your church?”  I quickly realized that he thought that entire complex was some sort of mega-church.   I said “No Pop, this is just a high school that we use until we can get in our building.” I still can’t help but laugh at that.

It is amazing how a man’s life will eventually be summed up into just a few sentences.  I mean, all you can really say about a person is what they did for a living, how they treated people, and what they enjoyed doing.  If I simply say, “Papa was a logger,” that is 4 words describing 40 years of him being in the woods cutting down trees.  If I say, “Papa really loved his grandson,” that is a decade of me spending the night with him and Granny as often as I could, especially Friday nights when we would watch The Dukes of Hazzard.  For several years, Papa would take up for me and have Granny fix alternative meals because I wouldn’t eat what was available.  Of course, this was despite my parents wanting me to eat what had already been cooked.  Every time my own children want something else to eat, I smile because I think of him.

If I say, “Papa was a Christian,” this means he simply trusted in the Lord for his salvation.  Papa could not read a Bible.  Therefore, he enjoyed going to church as often as he could.  He told me in nearly all of our conversations the last five years how he was looking forward to going home to be with the Lord.

I can’t imagine why people want to live life without hope in the Lord.  My Papa put absolutely no trust in his hard work, or the fact that he was a “good” person.  In fact, he knew all of his deeds were pitiful in the sight of a holy God.  Papa’s hope was not in his own work, but the work that Christ did for him on the cross.

Thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Corinthians 15:57

Later

Adam

Taking a Stand

“But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who shall deliver you from my hands?” – Daniel 3:15

Worship is defined as “the reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object.” Everybody worships something. You don’t have to hang out with someone very long to figure out what they are all about. In America, we have been free to worship pretty much what we want the last couple hundred years. However, for the first time in my 39 years of remembrance, America has forces making ultimatums like Nebuchadnezzar did 2,600 years ago: “Bow down to our agenda . . . or suffer the consequences.”

At one time, I could not imagine how hard it was for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to stand while everyone else was bowing down. Soon, and very soon, I believe every person who claims to be a Christ follower will get his or her chance to know exactly how it felt. When that day comes, there will be only two choices: stand or bow. Those three boys had decided long before the trial whether or not they would stay standing when the heat got turned up. You and I must decide as well.

As of right now, not bowing down does not cost the American Christian his or her life. However, it is beginning to cost his or her livelihood. Stand up for Christ, and you just may lose your job. Stand up for Christ, and you may lose your business. Stand up for Christ and you just may lose your social standing. Stand up for Him, and you stand to lose something of worldly value to you. Stand up for Him, and you will be one of very few standing.

Maybe that is the point. I’m beginning to believe Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego considered no worldly possession as valuable. God was and still is the only thing this life offers with eternal value. People just don’t truly recognize that. Nebuchadnezzar assumed that everyone feared losing his or her life. He was wrong. There were three men who feared rejecting the first commandment of an eternal God more than rejecting a temporary king making up commands as he goes along. Therefore, they stood. While everyone else bowed down, they stood.

As the furnace of this world gets heated hotter and hotter, what will be your decision? If it really came down to losing a job or missing out on a promotion, would you stand or bow? If it really came down to losing a relationship, would you stand or bow? If it really came down to losing your popularity or your social status, would you stand or bow? If it would really cost you your life, would you stand or bow?

I can’t imagine how many people bowed that day that disagreed with Nebuchadnezzar. I’m sure they did what countless American Christians are doing right now. While bowing the knee to the gods of this world, they take comfort in the fact that they “believe” in God.

Choose for yourself this day whom you will serve.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)

Later

Adam

When He Needs You

“Why do you ask Me? Ask those who have heard Me what I said, to them, indeed they know what I said.” — John 18:21

Jesus had been taken from the Garden of Gethsemane and was standing before the high priest. He had just been questioned about the disciples and His doctrine. Jesus responded with the above verse. Paraphrased, He simply said, “I never hid anything that I did, go and ask those I have helped.”

Isn’t it amazing how when we need God, we simply bombard His throne? As soon as we have a crisis in our lives, we petition God relentlessly. We come before Him expecting answers. Time after time, if we are willing to be patient, He will answer in a way that we will never forget. He will answer in a way that draws us closer to Him. He will answer in a way that makes us love Him even more. He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us.

However, in this particular rare moment, the tables have turned. Jesus asks for someone to be there for Him. “Ask those who have heard Me what I said, indeed they know what I said.”

Nobody responded.

Could you imagine how awesome it would have been had Lazarus came forth and said, “I was dead, yet now I live. Jesus raised me from the dead!” Follow that with one of the blind men, “I was blind, yet now I see because of this man!” Follow that with, “I was lame, yet now I walk!” What if someone had simply stood up and said, “I know He is who He says He is.” Instead, He has boastful Peter right outside who swore just a few hours earlier that he would die with Him denying that he even knows Him.

Here we are 2,000 years later. Morals are rapidly declining. The name of Jesus is not to be mentioned in public. Like Peter, associating yourself with that Name or even following His ways will cost you. It might be something simple like popularity. It might be something greater like your job. In many cultures, it costs you your very life.

As the name of Jesus once again becomes more and more costly to use, He says, “Ask those who have heard Me what I said, indeed they know what I said.”

What is our response?

The overwhelming majority does like Peter, and follows from a distance (Matthew 26:58). They try to get close enough to Jesus where they feel good about their chances of getting into Heaven. Yet, they remain far enough away so that it costs absolutely nothing to be associated with Him.

Think about it, we want Him to answer all of our prayers and meet all of our needs according to His riches in glory. Yet, when He asks us to live clean lives that honor Him . . . we simply say, “No, it is too inconvenient, the leaders don’t want to hear it, and it might cost me.”

Stand up for Him today. Be there for Him! Tell someone of His great love. Work like you are working for Him! Tell someone of His wonderful salvation. Proclaim the Name above all Names. Though most choose not to believe, you and I know the truth. I know He is who He says He is. He has opened up my blinded eyes. He has made me walk a new walk. He reached into my soul and washed me clean. I know Him! There is nobody like Him!

Do you know Him?

If you do, will the way you love, work, and behave today reflect it? Are you following Jesus closely? Or, do you keep Him at a distance because it might cost you to be associated with Him?

Jesus needs you and me today. He needs our lives to display a closeness to Him that will attract others to what we have. Unsaved others are not impressed with the way we follow Him from a distance. Unsaved others are counting on us to stay close to Him no matter the cost. They don’t need to be convinced that Jesus is who He says He is based on our words; they need to be convinced based on the way we live.

Later

Adam