Category: devotional

Springtime in our little city means it’s time to do the annual flushing of the fire hydrants.  It doesn’t make one overly happy if you just washed your car and have to drive through a huge spray of water.  This afternoon I saw people turning onto side streets to avoid the baptism.  However, there was one very inventive fellow doing just the opposite.  Apparently his car was still salty from the winter streets and he saw a hydrant spouting into a parking lot.  First he drove through it very slowly and then turned around and drove through it again getting the other side, then he pulled up to it and got a good dousing over the front end.  He got a $12.00 wash for free. 
 
It reminded me of someone being baptized by immersion.  You want to make sure you get them completely wet.  Not long ago I had the joy of baptizing my niece’s husband. He is about 6 feet 7 or 8 inches tall.  I couldn’t reach high enough to get my hand over his head.  Because he is a retired navy diver, he figured out how to get low enough for me.  I still couldn’t bend him backwards and bring him back up so he knelt and I splashed water over the remaining top of his head that wasn’t submerged.  I must admit I completely understood the hearable snickers from the congregation.  But it was a very happy, joyous experience.  It was a time for laughter.
 
Baptism is a public expression of having given one’s life to Jesus.  It is not a ticket to heaven.  It is a joyful way of saying, “Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of eternal life and the forgiveness of all my sins.”

(Sorry to have not written this past week.  I enjoyed Easter Weekend and the following days in the hospital.  All is well.  Home again.) 
 
While in (“the” for Americans) hospital someone was outside my door with a baby.  Have you ever listened to people talk to a baby?  The voice was the sweetest, syrupiest sound I have ever heard.  I wish I could accurately describe the incredible variations of a woman’s falsetto.  The vocal range was wonderful.  Since we learn to talk by mimicking the language of adults I wondered how it is that we don’t permanently talk baby talk all our lives.  I think there is currently a Haribo gummy candy commercial with adults talking like babies.  I think it is so creepy. 
 
It did remind me of I Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.”  I wondered if God uses “baby talk” to communicate with us.  Because He knows everything and we know so very little, does He condescend and make things as simple as possible when He wants us to know something?  It seems as though that would out of necessity have to be the case.  Yet Isaiah 1:8 says, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”  Hebrews 1:1 says, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son . . .”

And Jesus said to His disciples, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.”  John 16:12.   There it is.  While God does NOT speak to us as babies, He does note our limitations and adjusts for each of us individually.

One of my Christmas presents this year was a port under the skin on my right shoulder.  It was supposed to reduce the number of needle sticks.  Instead of trying to find and missing a vein they just stick the needle into the center of the lump on my shoulder.  It still hurts when they stick me but at least it is limited to one stick.  The port provides access to a large central vein thus creating a more efficient way into my heart.
 
We have all heard the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, which is a fairly accurate metaphor.  Jesus loved using metaphors.  Over and again He applied them to Himself.  John 14:6 is one that was used by the early Christian church.  He called Himself The Way.  He was and is the way into the heart of His Father.  “The Father loves the son and has placed everything in his hands.”  When I was a pastor I learned the way to a church members heart was by learning the names of their children and greeting each child by name.
 
The Way was the name for the early church.  When I was a boy the church I attended used to ask, “How long have you been in the truth?”  Early Christians asked, “How long have you been in The Way?”  Jesus is the way to the Father and the way to eternal life.  Often we become so obsessed with the destination we forget there is much joy while we are on the way.  Overcoming obstacles, negotiating detours, growing wiser by allowing Jesus, The Way, to be in us makes us stronger and better people.  

I was raised with the idea that one can only love things that are alive.  I really can’t love my car.  But I come really close to love when I think of my GPS.  I am directionally challenged and until I got a GPS I was a master at getting lost.  Statistically one should only turn the wrong way at an intersection 50% of the time but I am sure I destroyed that stat.  It got so bad that I would choose which way to go and then go the other way.  And sure enough I was right the first time.
 
Fortunately when it comes to major decisions in life I had help.  I always counted on Proverbs 3:6.  “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”  That’s not to say I haven’t made some poor choices through the years.  But the really important choices worked out and I thank Him for being my divine GPS.
 
The secret to making this work is not magic. It is a matter of prayerfully asking for guidance when studying His word. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105   Paul had a template for his letters.  He started with a greeting and almost immediately got into some heavy theology.  Before he finished he almost always spent considerable time talking about practical Christian living.  The close of Romans and Ephesians are especially rich with directions for living a Christ-like life.   Treat yourself to a careful quiet reading of Ephesians 5 & 6.  The man was amazingly smart.
 
So I love my GPS and really, really love my spiritual GPS.   Use it and never worry about getting or being lost.

It is easy to confuse one’s culture with one’s faith.  Our culture is about customs and socially acceptable practices and behaviors.  Our faith is about our relationship with God and growing and becoming more like one’s God.   Culture is about the way we dress and what music and foods we enjoy or don’t enjoy.  Faith is about morality and how we treat each other.  How often through the years have I not only seen immorality thrust upon others in attempts not to make people like Jesus but to make them like us.
 
I have been guilty.  In my mistaken zeal I championed that all our students at our school in Africa wear neckties when coming to church.  I sent young men back to their dorms to “finish dressing” before they could be counted present at church.  How often have I judged people by the items in their grocery carts and chastised a fellow faculty member for his politics.
 
Now years later I realized how misguided and unChrist-like I was. Jesus’ brother James wrote, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”  Please note the admonition is to keep oneself unspotted and not our neighbor.  Paul wrote, “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:14.
 
We all have personal tastes, likes and dislikes.  That is okay.  We just need to be careful not to censure someone because they like vanilla and we like chocolate.  Since we cannot go back and undo we can rejoice that God understands and is quick to forgive.

I startled myself today.  As I started to type my eyes went from the screen down to the keyboard and my father’s hands were sticking out from my shirtsleeves.Those were the hands that toiled to care for our family.  Those were the hands that played marbles with me by digging holes in the ground.  Those were the hands that wiped away the blood from my knees while I was learning to ride a bicycle.  Someone might add those were the hands that spanked you.  But, no.  He never did.  My mom did that!
 
Some of my favorite texts are about hands.  Psalm 19:1 is great. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”   And then there is Psalm 119:73, “Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands.”
 
My favorite hand text is John 10:28.  It is about a hand much better than any ordinary hand. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.”  This must gall Satan.  He had eternal life and threw it away.  The idea that you and I have it has to fill him with disgust because he knows what awaits us.  He knows what wonders we will receive.  And there is nothing he can do about it because Jesus’ hand is so powerful and so loving.  The only way to get out of Jesus’ hand is to ask and surely we are not that stupid. 
 
I loved my human father’s hands because they made me feel safe.  Jesus’ hands do that a hundred times over.  If it isn’t cloudy tonight, step outside, look up and see the work of our heavenly Father’s hands.

One of the things we discussed this morning in psychology class was pattern recognition.  We looked out the classroom window when a student, a good 85 yards away, was walking on the other side of the quad.  The person was walking away from us so we could not see his face.  I asked if anyone of my students recognized him and 75% of my students immediately told me who it was.  They explained it was the way the person walked, the way he carried his head and his basic body profile.
 
It set me to wondering if people ever see Jesus in us because of pattern recognition. Do we deport ourselves with a caring demeanor?  Do we walk with dignity?  Do we speak supportively toward others?  Are we more interested in promoting others instead of me me me?  It really can happen.  We are not slaves to our environment or heredity. There is no question that those two factors can make it more difficult for some than for others.  But the promises are real.  “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.”  Philippians 4.  And just how can we do this?  Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
 
A grandmaster chess player can easily memorize the placement of the pieces during a game.  It is very difficult for them if the pieces are randomly placed.  The patterns are wrong. They don’t fit expectations.  It is the pattern of our lives that enable people to trust us and want to be like us because the pattern of Jesus radiates in our speech and behavior.  

I heard something today that was so outrageous I backed up the television program to listen again to make sure I had not imagined what I heard.  I had not imaged it.  On a “Christian?” program the speaker inferred that we should be rejoicing that certain environmental programs are being reversed or not funded.  His logic was the sooner we destroy our planet the sooner Jesus will have to come to rescue us from our manmade mess. Whatever happened to the idea that God made Adam and Eve stewards of their garden?  How could this man ever again sing, “This is My Father’s World”?  How could he ever again pray for or raise money to help the victims of violent storms or rising oceans?  I was flabbergasted!  If I thought this was mainstream Christianity I would be so embarrassed I should have to call myself something other than a Christian.
 
Jesus told a very interesting parable about a man who left on a journey and gave funds to three of his servants to attend to while he was gone.  Two of them did fine.  But the third did nothing with his.  Upon return the master said to the steward who did nothing, “Evil and lazy slave! So you knew that I harvest where I didn’t sow and gather where I didn’t scatter?”  It gets worse.  Next the master said, “Throw that worthless slave into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 15
 
Somehow I have the feeling that the proper way to prepare the world for the second coming of Jesus is to fulfill the great gospel commission and spread the Good News.  Trashing our Father’s world is not only wrong, it is sick.

Twice a day from Monday to Friday from first grade to eighth grade I rode school buses and I heard a lot of nonsense. One remark that still stands out in my mind came from a nerdy little kid proclaiming that his father knew everything. Even as a child I knew how impossible that was so I said so. I said, “No he doesn’t. That’s impossible.” You can be sure what came next.  “Yes, he does.”  After a few minutes of “No, he doesn’t” and “Yes, he does” we came to his stop and he got off.  
 
Strange how things reverse when we get older because my Father knows everything. Yes He does. I quote from Romans 8, “For those who are led by the Spirit are the children of God. . . the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” . . . Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” 
 
There it is.  Paul says it again in Galatians. And where did Paul get this marvelous truth?  From Jesus Himself who taught His disciples to pray, “Our Father, which art in heaven.” 
 
Now it gets even better.  My Father can also beat up your father.  I also heard that on the school bus.  My Father is not only all-knowing He is all-powerful. I just love being a part of this family. If I were back on that school bus I would be a real braggart. 

When I was a little guy I often found sermons to be tedious and very long.  Occasionally I would fill the time by paging through the hymnal which contains almost 700 songs.  I wondered how long it would take to sing all of them and discovered if it took five minutes for each song with a one minute break between songs it would take 2.9 days if we did not sleep or eat.  I realize that is very meaningless data but when you are 8 years old it makes the time go a bit faster.
 
Time moved so slowly then.  When I sent off for a Dick Tracy decoder ring offered on a cereal box it took six weeks for the mailman to deliver it.  That was a lifetime.  When I was that little I understood what eternity was.  It was getting from 8 to 75.  Now I no longer understand eternity but I am most anxious to give it a try.  I would absolutely love having you try it with me.  It sounds so beyond comprehension you might think I am crazy.  But quoting the great philosopher Sheldon Cooper, “I’m not crazy. My mother had me tested.”
 
It is a matter of faith and trusting Jesus.  His promises are so vivid.  He said in John 5:24, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”  That is just a sample.  I once had a pastor really go after me for saying we can skip judgment.  How dare I make heaven so easy to obtain.  Well, sorry about that, I was only quoting Jesus.  And guess what.   He never lies.