Wednesday Morning Devotional

And then again, I say to you, it is easier to put a camel through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.  – Matthew 19:24

I was talking to my Algebra class a while ago about investing.  Probably around 2017, I heard about this new asset class called cryptocurrency.  I researched it a bit and decided that I had already missed the boat.  Bitcoin was almost $20,000 and I was like “Oh well, not buying any of that.”  I dug in a little deeper and saw these super cheap guys called Dogecoins.  I had no idea what it was, and didn’t really care, I just knew that I could buy around 5 for a penny.  I wound up with 424,000 Dogecoins that at the time were worth around $750.  I completely forgot for a few years that I even owned them.

Fast forward to 2021.  I checked my little Robinhood account and saw that my little investment was worth around $10,000.  I had more than 10x’ed my money, so I was one happy camper.  I sold them all, paid something or another off, and thought I was the next Warren Buffet.

Fast forward three months later, Elon Musk was talking about them on Saturday Night Live, and they were worth around 70 cents each.  I quickly did the math . . . $296,000.  I felt kind of sick. 

I was telling my class the story and one of them told me, “Don’t you wish you had waited?”

I said, “no.”

He said, “Why?”

I said, “Because I would have done something stupid like quit teaching and just do a bunch of stuff that I want to do.”

He said, “What’s wrong with that?”

I said, “You guys are one of the best and most fun Algebra classes that I have ever taught.  Had I cashed in for all that money, I wouldn’t even know your names.  God came into and began to change my life when I was around your age.  I know how much He cares about you.  Because He cares about you, I care about you.  Without Him, I’d be the most selfish dude on the planet.  He knew $10k was plenty.”

Lord, You are the only one in the Universe who knows the end from the beginning.  You are already there standing at the end of my life.  I look so forward to the day my faith becomes sight.  Help me hear the words “Well done, my good and faithful servant!”  If I hear them, it will only be because of You who led me, guided me, grew me . . . it will only be because of You.  Bless me, keep me, make Your face to shine upon me, and be gracious to me.  Bless me indeed and increase my territory.  May Your hand be with me as You keep evil from me.  Thank You, Lord!  There’s no one like You, Lord.

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.  – Isaiah 41:10

I know Isaiah was frying much bigger fish than this little story I’m about to tell, but I love how God teaches us great truths in the smallest of details.

I have loved my opportunities to play my acoustic and sing at the various places that has allowed me to do so.  Not only has it allowed me to make a little bit more money, but it has also afforded me an amazing opportunity to meet people that I would have never met otherwise. 

Sometimes I’ll play somewhere that I immediately recognize as having maybe “a rougher crowd.”  I don’t mean anything bad by this, I mainly mean that if a fight broke out . . . I’d probably get pummeled. 

At any rate, I have always made a conscious effort to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to prompt me at the right time to play a Christian song or a praise and worship song.  Sometimes He does . . . sometimes He doesn’t.  On this one particular night, at this one particular place, I just went ahead and assumed that God was not going to prompt me.  I’ve always asked before and kept my spirit open, but on this night . . . I didn’t. 

I didn’t think I knew anyone in the crowd.  I certainly wasn’t thinking anyone had seen me play before.  At the end of the night, someone said, “I love hearing you play.  I really love when you play a song for the Lord.  Did you play one for Him?”

Me and my assumptions.

Lord, You are the best teacher in the world.  Of course You are!  Thank You for the lessons you teach me that I’ll never forget.  I don’t want to ever be afraid to do something for You.  I don’t ever want to be presumptuous.  All too often, I simply do what I think is right and safe instead of asking You what to do that will often be different and adventurous.  I love the way You do things in ways that leave no doubt that it was You and You alone.  You deserve all praise, all honor, and all glory!  Help me constantly be sensitive to the Holy Spirit at work in me.  There is no reason to ever be afraid.  Amen.

She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” 

“The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.  – Mark 6:24

King Herod really liked John the Baptist.  King Herod’s wife, Herodias, hated him simply because he preached that it was unlawful for them to be married to each other according to Leviticus 18:16.  One day, when the daughter of Herodias pleased Herod greatly, he made an offer to give her whatever she wanted.  He made an oath in front of his guests to give her up to half his kingdom, and thus thought that there was no way he could go back on his word.

I read this story recently in a Teen Study Bible.  There was an application that I sure wish I had read when I first started following Jesus.  When asked to chop off the head of his friend, Herod thought he had to keep his word.  But the truth was, he simply didn’t want to look bad in front of his friends and guests.  The study part of the Bible said that Herod could have simply said something like, “I said I’d give you up to half my kingdom, not commit murder!”  The point being, there was a way that he could have played this off and saved his friend’s life and saved face in front of his friends. 

I remember very early in my teaching days overhearing two girls berate a boy for still being a virgin in high school.  I knew him and his family to be very solid Christians.  Instead of giving into the peer pressure and worrying about it, he gave the best response I’ve ever heard to this day: “I can become like you anytime I want, but you can never become like me again.” 

What a better ending!

Lord, I have messed up so much in this life.  I messed most of it up as a Bible believing saved Christian.  I’ve given in to so many temptations.  I’ve kept promises and dumb oaths that I’ve made simply because I said I would and felt like I had to back up my words.  All this to the detriment of my well-being and to the detriment of honoring Your Name.  You are truly the Savior.  You are truly the Lord of all!  You are truly the Author and Finisher of our faith.  Thank You for loving me, for being patient with me, and for simply working in my heart, mind, and life.  You are and always will be the best thing that has ever happened to me.  I look so forward to the day when my faith becomes sight.  I love You, Lord!  Thank You for loving me first!  Amen.

Thy word is a lamp unto thy feet, and a light unto thy path.  – Psalm 109:105

When I buy someone a new Bible, I usually sign it with, “May this Bible be a lamp for your feet, and a light for your path.”  I was handed my own copy of the Word when I was 16 right after I was saved.  Unfortunately, I didn’t seriously start reading it for quite a few years.  I wondered why my life seemed to get worse after I was saved.  Looking back, the reason is simple:  The Bible was providing me no light at all because I wasn’t reading it.

Today, the Bible is God’s primary way of speaking.  I know we live in a world where “God told me” and “I’m going to speak from my heart” seems to be what church goers want to hear.  I’m not going to pretend like I haven’t fallen into those traps, because I have.  The older I get, the more I realize God’s Word stands on its own and needs no man to offer his interpretation.

Last week, I was with two other people who knew little of God’s Word.  I did nothing but simply read Daniel 3.  It was a study Bible, so I read a paragraph that talked about how, if we really decide to live for the Lord, some people might praise us for doing so, but others might make fun of us.  Receiving praise is easy, but we must be willing to be thrown into the fire. 

I can’t even begin to tell you how that one maybe 10-minute message has begun to spread like wildfire.  I really can’t believe it myself.  I’ve spent hours and hours studying God’s Word.  I’ve spent hours and hours outlining sermons to preach.  Nothing has brought people to the Lord like the simple reading of God’s Word.  Sermons have profited me, but nothing has grown me like the diligent reading of His Word over the years.

As many of you know, I’ve been preaching at Oconee State Park since Memorial Day.  This past Sunday was my last park sermon of the year.  Tony Grant, whom most of you probably know, will be doing the last one this Sunday.  This is bittersweet for me.  On one hand, I’ve known where I was going to be every Sunday for these past three months.  Now, I don’t know where I’ll be.  I must trust that God’s word will light my path and create a circle of light around my feet.  I can only see my next few steps living this way.  God has never revealed any kind of long term stay for me.  I’ve never really been offered the consistency of a church home.  It does make me a bit jealous of those who do have that sometimes.  But then things happen like they have these past couple of weeks, and I realize that I have so often been exactly where I needed to be at exactly the right time.

Lord, there is no one like You.  Forgive me for treating You way too often like You are Burger King instead of the King of Kings.  I so often want things “my way right away.”  You simply want me to live by faith.  You simply want me to trust You.  You’ve lit my path and have provided light for my feet.  I don’t know where I’ll be weeks from now, but I know that I can go to work here in a little bit and honor You with the way that I teach, the way I react, and the way that I give my best for You.  Fill me with the Holy Spirit, Lord.  Search me and know my heart!  If there be any wicked way inside there, please clean it up, Lord!  I’m more than aware of some wickedness in my heart.  Take care of it, Lord.  Cleanse my heart in a way that glorifies and magnifies Your Name.  May I take no credit for cleaning myself up.  If not for You . . . I’d be so lost.  Thank You for Psalm 109, verse 105.  Amen!

Rejoice in the Lord Always: and again I say, Rejoice.  — Philippians 4:4

This has been a rough couple of weeks.  I’m not going to act like a lot of it hasn’t been self-induced, but it has been rough.  I’m also more than aware that, what I call rough, another could probably call a cakewalk.  My mind keeps going back to Philippians 4:4 . . . I want to rejoice.  The words at the end of the previous verse say, “whose names are written in the book of life.”  I know that my name is there.  I’m holding onto that more than ever right now.

I looked back at 2 Samuel 12 when the worst happened to King David.  He lost his child.  He was fasting and praying like he probably never had before for his and Bathsheba’s child to live.  When the child died, what helped him more than anything?  Simply knowing where he was going at the end of his life.  “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” (2 Samuel 12:23). I hope and pray that I, nor any of you, have to endure anything like this.  But it is pretty amazing that we are told what to do:  keep our minds on the eternal, and not the temporary. 

Philippians 2:14 says that we should do everything without grumbling or complaining.  I haven’t been too great at this lately.  The verses do go on to tell me why I should get good, though.  God wants me to be blameless and pure.  He wants me to shine like the stars.  He wants this because other people are watching me live.  Why would anybody want the eternal life and the peace that I say I have if it obviously makes little difference in me when life happens?

Verse 16 says that the Day of Christ is coming.  We will all stand before Him one day.  It is appointed unto man once to die; and after this to face judgement. (Hebrews 9:27).  It just feels like life is on an accelerated pace right now.  It feels like we are racing towards the end.  I remember hearing in church all the time when I was younger that the Lord would soon return.  I thought of Christ’s return all the time, especially when I was somewhere I didn’t belong doing something I shouldn’t be doing.  I haven’t thought for a while that He could really return in my lifetime. 

I’m sure thinking it now.

Lord, it is not for us to know the day or the hour of your return.  It is for us to live this Christian life with joy.  You found me at my most sinful and wicked.  You knew the path of destruction that I was on.  You picked me up, cleaned me up, forgave me of all my sins, and to this day You are teaching me how to live.  Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me, Lord.  Bless me, keep me, and make Thy face to shine upon me . . . be gracious to me.  Help me to truly be a light that so shines before men.  Help me truly be prepared for the day that I stand before You.  Help me truly help others be prepared as well.  There is and never will be another like You, Lord!  Amen.

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  – Matthew 7:25

This week has been quite a week . . . and it isn’t even half over yet.  It started off Sunday by absolutely feeling the glory of God in such a tangible way.  I couldn’t have asked for a better start.  By Tuesday afternoon, I saw just how destructive Satan and his demons can be in the lives of young people and families that don’t know God.  Sometimes things happen to me, and I cry “Why me?”  I can throw the quickest pity party.  Then I see things happen to others and quickly think, “man, things could be so much worse.” 

I am so glad that I have God as my foundation.  Recently, I saw a young woman who had just lost her boyfriend.  She was so crushed and felt such genuine despair that I could feel it too.  I felt so badly for her because I remember what that felt like . . . a couple of times.  The difference was that I always had Jesus and church to fall back on.  Thinking about it now, I hate that I used Him as a fallback, but I think that is the point of the story.  No matter what has happened in my life that crushed my spirit, I’ve always known that God was working in my life and had Romans 8:28 to keep things in ultimate perspective.  My will and God’s will so often just isn’t the same.  I felt for the young lady because I could tell she had no such foundation.  Her hopes and dreams were in this young man.  He was her foundation.  I thought, “a teenaged boy makes for a terrible foundation.”  In fact, any noun, other than Jesus, is a foundation made of sand.  Everything else is temporary . . . He is eternal.

The other day, I just wasn’t feeling the most spiritual.  I opened the “guided prayer” on the Bible app.  I just followed the prompts.  It did its job . . . it led me to the throne room of God.  But at the end, it asked me a question.  It asked, “What are you going to do to keep Jesus close throughout the day?”  I thought of how I haven’t been very close to Him throughout the past several days.  So, I made a plan.  I picked a couple of sermons to listen to, and I picked an old hymn along with a newer praise and worship song to listen to.  Instead of turning anything else on the tv or radio, I simply followed my plan. 

It worked!  By the end of the day, I was thanking and praising God because He had been ever so near to me for the entire day.

How awesome is the Rock of our foundation?

Lord, I’m thinking of a kid sitting in a Columbia prison right now who simply doesn’t have a clue about your transforming power.  He doesn’t know that you transform lives and give peace in the midst of storms.  I sure pray that You will send the right person to tell him about You, and I sure pray that he will listen.  Where would I be if You hadn’t come into my life at the exact same age?  Please do for him what you did for me!  Show him that there is a God in heaven who cares and grants eternal life.  Keep giving me peace amid my own storms.  I know it takes me longer than it should, but I always realize that on Christ the solid rock I stand, and that all other ground is sinking sand.  I pray for my own family, may the shield of faith block and extinguish all the flaming arrows that the enemy releases towards us.  I pray for the families of every person who took the time to read this little devotion this morning.  May You bless them, keep them, and make Your face to shine upon them.  Be gracious to them, Lord.  May Your countenance turn towards them . . . and give them peace.  Amen.

How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? – Romans 10:14

I experienced something new in trying to tell someone about the Lord recently.  I heard the word “holy” being used wrongly, so I took the opening to say that “holy” simply meant “set apart” and “consecrated to God.”  I was met with being the “word police.”  I pointed out that I had simply given a definition and that the word “holy” meant something to me.

I was then told that I was “virtue signaling.”  Of course, I had to look this up.  Basically, I was accused of trying to puff myself up and flaunt my own morality through our conversation.  I said that this was not my intent and that I’ve come to know the Lord, love the Lord, and appreciate that He has changed me.  This, I said, is why I came in to defend the word “holy”.  Some words are reserved for God and God alone.

At this point, in his mind, I was still virtue signaling through false humility.  I ended the conversation by saying that I was simply trying to ultimately point the conversation to Jesus because we all need Him to go to heaven. 

Most of the time, I have wonderful conversations with people about the Lord, even with non-believers.  I love when I can visibly see the Holy Spirit at work.  This conversation made me wonder just how many people out there are truly turning an intentional deaf ear towards Christianity.  I don’t know, but it can’t stop me from trying.  Even now, I like to think that my new friend is laying down at night and thinking “I wonder why he said I need Jesus to go to heaven.” 

I’m sure praying for him.

Lord how can people believe in You if they haven’t heard about You.  The older generation of today was pretty much brought up in church.  They know the stories and know that the wages of sin is death.  So many in the younger generation know nothing about the things of God.  They simply don’t know.  Help us to tell them in a way that allows You to work on their hearts.  I don’t want to be the Holy Spirit, but sure am asking Him to be ever so present when I open the conversation about Jesus.  I can’t thank You enough for coming into my life.  Come into the lives of many, many more before it is too late.  Amen.