Daily Devotions

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:14-17

Some things (like going to the bathroom) are best done when we feel like doing them. Other things (like saving money) are best done over time in a methodical, disciplined manner whether or not we might feel like it. Listening to God speak to us through the Bible is like saving money. It is best done over time in a methodical, disciplined manner.

The Bible is God’s gift to us. Certainly God can speak to us through music, through many types of literature. There is no end to the ways that the Spirit can tweak us with signs of God’s presence and loving power. But there’s nothing that speaks with the authenticity, or the authority, of the Bible.

Together with prayer, listening on a daily basis to “the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ” is a crucial discipline for spiritual growth.

So how do you do it?

After a few years of personal experience and working with others in growing their understanding and appreciation of the Bible, I have come to understand that the biggest hindrance is the idea that we have to “understand” all that we read in the Bible. People begin to read in a burst of spiritual enthusiasm and good intentions…and then quit because they “just don’t get it.”

But that really isn’t the reason why they quit.

The real reason isn’t that they didn’t “get it”, it’s that they didn’t “do it”! Their plan was faulty. They thought that reading the Bible was something they would do as long as their enthusiasm lasted. When they came to a day where they no longer felt like reading the Bible, they quit.

I’ve come to believe that the real key to using the Bible is just that – using the Bible. Nothing beats actually spending time reading (or listening if you get a Bible on tape for your car) to the Bible.

First, you begin with a goal, a specific, measurable, attainable goal. “I will read the entire Bible this year.” “I will read the New Testament from Matthew through Revelation three times in six months.”

Second, you create a means of marking your progress. You draw a chart that you fill in, a calendar that you mark off, or some other means of keeping track. For a few years, I used the “Daily Walk” Bible which is divided into daily readings that took me through the Bible in a year. Whatever works for you, the point is that you mark your progress toward a goal.

Third, you do it. You don’t worry about not understanding, you just concentrate on filling in your chart, doing your daily reading. You might also have opportunity for more disciplined Bible study if you are in a Sunday School class, a small group Bible study or, after you’ve been at it for a few years, you might be doing more intentional study on your own. But it’s best to begin at the very beginning – putting in the time, doing the work, to develop a sense of familiarity with the scope and sweep of the Bible’s stories.

I remember one day when I was driving down the road on the way to visit someone in the hospital. As I wondered what was going on with me and in me as I was preparing for my visit, a Bible story from John 9 popped into my head. It asked the question I was asking. Jesus spoke words which encouraged me. Had I not made the investment of growing in my use of the Bible, I wouldn’t have had that story in my “spiritual bank”, available to me when I needed it.

Just do it.

Let us pray: Your Word can be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. It can also be a complete mystery leaving us feeling inadequate and uninformed. Certainly there are Christians who live an entire lifetime and never develop much familiarity, appreciation or understanding of the Bible. But their spiritual lives are impoverished and they are missing out on one of the means of knowing you better. Create a fire in us to listen to you through the words of scripture in a daily, disciplined way. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Matthew 6:7-8

“What do people say when they pray?”

It’s a pretty straight-forward question – one we ought to be able to answer. If spending time in prayer each day is an important discipleship skill, we ought to have some sense of what to say.

And we also have to learn to listen.

I go with the 2/3’s, 1/3 plan here. 2/3’s of the prayer in my life is listening and 1/3 is talking. I guess that comes from the old “we have two ears and one mouth, use accordingly” principle.

Listening prayer is simply listening. It is spending time, consciously aware of God’s presence, wondering about life, listening to myself, trusting God to come to me in my internal reflections.

But then there is the other 1/3. What do we say? How do we make sure we aren’t just filling the air with meaningless prattle and empty syllables? Here’s one idea:

The following ten step prayer form comes from Herb Miller’s book, “Connecting with God,” (Abington Press, Nashville, 1994. Pp.66-67.) Print this out, put it in your Bible and begin trying it.

1. In preparation, set aside fifteen minutes in a location where you can be physically relaxed and there is little likelihood of interruption. Read one or two chapters from the Bible, listening for what God says to you. This helps erase distracting thoughts from the blackboard of your mind…

2. Close your eyes and give thanks for three personal blessings of which you are especially conscious today. This helps you move toward God by moving away from a sense of your own self-sufficiency.

3. Ask God to help three other persons whom you feel need God’s help today. Ask God to help your pastor(s). This helps you move toward God by moving away from a sense of your own self-sufficiency.

4. Ask God to forgive your mistakes and sins, and give you the strength to forgive others.

5. Ask God to help one person you find it hard to like. Ask God to give that person insights into his/her personal problems, and ask for the power to let God’s love flow through you to him/her.

6. Ask that you be sensitive today to the needs of one person with whom you can share God’s love in word or deed.

7. Ask for insight into your personal problems.

8. Ask for help in achieving your personal goals.

9. Ask that God tell you the most important thing you need to do today in order to “seek first His kingdom.”

10. Conclude by listening intently (for the remaining time) to what God might say to you.

Give it a try – all you have to lose is your fear that you don’t know what to say when you pray!

Let us pray: Dear Lord, hear us as we pray. Speak your Word through our sighs as we struggle through our first baby steps into developing a prayer life. Encourage us to make the time that we can take to be with you each day in prayer. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:5-6

Lent has ended; Easter has come. We’ll spend the next 50 days thinking about post-resurrection life. But before we move on, let’s think a bit about what Lent taught us.

So how did you do? Did you climb the lofty heights of spiritual supremacy? Did you scale the cliffs of sublime humility? Did you taste the manna of religious ecstasy? Did you make it through a single week without kicking the dog?

The best ideas in the world eventually turn into work. So it is with Lent. If Lent teaches us anything, it is that following Jesus in a disciplined way requires discipline. There is an unalterable “one day at a time” character to our relationship with God.

This week I want to talk about spending time with God on a daily basis – how to work mini-retreats, little Lents, into our daily lives.

Today the reminder is to create moments of quietness on a daily basis.

Jesus invites us in Matthew 6 to “go into our room and shut the door.” Originally Jesus spoke these words to discourage spiritual pride and showing off. That is hardly our problem today when it comes to prayer – we are far more apt to simply not do it then we are to do it loudly, grandly and publically!

In our day, creating quiet moments of prayer falls more into the category of taking care of ourselves, tending our relationship with God and finding our center.

Parents of young children understand this principle – the room they most often retreat into is the bathroom. Ask any young mother and they will tell of a time when they cowered behind the locked doors of their bathroom – toddlers and others banging on the door looking for those precious items that mothers alone keep constant and vigilant track of – praying for the strength to make it through another day.

How do we find those moments?

We get up a little earlier in the morning. We designate a quiet place in our home and use it. We turn off the music in the car. We ask our secretaries to hold our calls. We discover the bathroom at work is just as private as the bathroom of a toddler’s parent. We walk at lunch. We make some time and take some time to sit quietly with God.

Use that time to lift up concerns for others or just wait on the Spirit to feed you in the quietness of your meditation. I absolutely guarantee that there are nothing but positive benefits on the other side of doing this discipline three to five days a week!

Can you find some quiet time in your day today?

Let us pray: Thank you for this new week, Lord. Thank you for the opportunities you will give us this week to stretch and grow as people of faith. Give us fresh insight into the growth places in our lives and help us try on new disciplines that will enable us to enjoy our relationship with you in positive, life affirming, life giving ways. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Wow!

My computer is back!  Apple Geniuses are geniuses.  The time capsule thingamabob really does work…as long as you have a genius to walk you properly through the restore process.  I didn’t lose a thing.  Whew.

I should have realized that anyone reading these devotions is probably as dependent on their computers as I am.  Thank you all for your notes and comments.

Greetings everybody,

For the second time in my life in the computer age, I had a hard drive crash yesterday.  I also had a very busy day yesterday.  So I didn’t write or send out a devotion yesterday or today.  I’m still trying to piece things back together on my computer.  The cost of installing a new harddrive isn’t measured in dollars (it was under warranty and therefore free) but in the loss of data that I thought was being regularly backed up.

I thought that my automatic backup system was automatically backing everything up.  I thought wrong.  It turns out that it was backing up data but it wasn’t backing up the software programs that I use to create the data.  And, evidently, what I think is really valuable data – like all of the photographs and music – wasn’t valuable enough to be included in the backup process.  Undoubtedly, that is a user error.  I must not have clicked something that I otherwise should have clicked to be backing everything up.

I also lost my organization plan with all of the email traffic that crosses my desk or starts with my fingers.  I had a very elaborate system to keep track of everything.  That is all gone.

I’m telling you all of this to explain why the daily devotion schedule that I hoped to follow through Holy Week won’t happen.  Until I get my computer back up and reasonably useful, I won’t be using it.

And I’m telling you THAT because I think I see the message I need to be seeing this Holy Week.

The “system” killed Jesus.  The harddrive of the worldly powers that be – the church, the government and the crowd – thought that Jesus was a virus come to wreak havoc on the whole.  He needed to be erased to keep the system going.  But in fact Jesus wasn’t a virus but an entirely different operating system. the original operating system.

Two days ago I thought my computer was running a little slow but basically was functioning as well as I needed it to function.  Come to find out that I was wrong.  It was on its last legs.  Now I have a brand new harddrive and I have to start many things over again.  Some of what I had still remains.  Some seems gone for now.  But clearly, although there are adjustments to be made,  I’m in a better place today than I was yesterday.

That is my hope for our common Holy Week.  I pray that somehow we might come to know this weekend that the systems that control our lives are not foolproof.  We aren’t either.  And sometimes something has to crash before things get better.  I pray that the right things crash in your life that there might be room for something brand new to be born in you  by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Happy Easter.  See you Monday.

Kerry

One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and telling the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came with the elders and said to him, “Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Who is it who gave you this authority?” He answered them, “I will also ask you a question, and you tell me: Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” They discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us; for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” So they answered that they did not know where it came from. Then Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.” Luke 20:1-8

The last week of Jesus’ life on earth in physical form was, to say the least, eventful. Each of the gospel writers tell the story a bit differently. While the rough movement remains the same, the details differ according to the information available to the writers and the writers’ individual perspective.

This year, we’ll prepare together for Easter by noticing some of what Luke chose to share with us about that last week.

It begins with Jesus being questioned by “the chief priests, the scribes and the elders.” The powerful ones, the religious elite, question Jesus first about his authority as a teacher.

“Authority” has always been an important concept in Jewish thinking. The very idea of “author” goes all the way back to the creation story and the faith that life itself is being written by a Creator. God alone is the Author of life and therefore the one authority worthy of both praise and obedience.

Becoming a scribe, a chief priest, an elder was about following in the footsteps of a teacher who had the authority to open the ancient scriptures, plant them in their hearts and minds, and model living according to them. Outside of the bloodlines of the Sadducees (the temple priests), the Pharisees only had their knowledge of the scriptures and taught as they had been taught. “Original thinking” was discouraged. To this day, Jewish worship resources trace the thoughts of others down through the ages. So for Jesus to show up and teach “as one with authority” was scandalous.

But Jesus sees behind their question. He sees that they aren’t concerned merely with propriety or tradition – they are concerned with power. They don’t ask questions of Jesus to discover the truth but to gather evidence to do what they really want to do any, to get rid of Jesus.

So it is that much of the conversations we have with Jesus have more to do with power than we otherwise think. We in the church argue amongst ourselves about church doctrine and practice and hardly throw a bone Jesus’ way. Those outside the church might have varying views about Jesus but, by rejecting the church, often (on purpose or not) merely justifying their lives in defense of the freedom to basically live any way they want. Either way, Jesus isn’t the authority in our lives that Jesus ought to be.

At the end of the day, it isn’t unusual that we care far more about what the neighbors think than we do about what Jesus thinks, much less about what it means in our lives to follow him. To follow by granting him the authority he already has, that is, to write the story of our lives along the plot of God’s will.

Let us pray: Dear Lord, we follow you now into Holy Week. We set aside time this week both to worship you in the gathered crowds, but also to be alone with you in our personal prayers. As we watch you and hear again about how you spent your last days, we pray for the insight to follow well through our own. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the LORD and relies upon his God? But all of you are kindlers of fire, lighters of firebrands. Walk in the flame of your fire, and among the brands that you have kindled! This is what you shall have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment. Isaiah 50:10-11

I’m mindful today, the Friday before Palm Sunday – Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and our entrance into Holy Week – of two things I always think about during this time of year.

First, I’m mindful of how much it bugs me that Palm Sunday isn’t simply Palm Sunday anymore and hasn’t been for some time. Somewhere along the way, the powers that be determined that too many Christians were treating Holy Week like spring break. They weren’t in church on Thursday night to remember the last night Jesus spent with his friends. They weren’t in church on Friday to remember the death of Jesus on the cross. Only the most hardcore liturgical types still held Easter vigils on Saturday. And then everyone showed up in their new spring wardrobe for pancakes, Easter eggs, and…oh yeah…the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

So they decided to reinvent Palm Sunday, renamed it “Passion Sunday” (because everyone KNOWS that “passion” means “suffering” – like “compassion” means “to suffer with” – and then made sure that everyone in worship the week before Easter would hear the whole story so that maybe, by next week, they wouldn’t celebrate the resurrection out of context.

To some degree, (referring back to yesterday’s devotion), this calls into question the degree to which we “set our face” toward much of anything as Christians.

Saving faith is supernatural, not superficial. If we skip the dark side of the Jesus story, perhaps we also shield the dark sides of our lives from the love of Jesus. We do our own thing to our own peril.

And then, secondly, I remember a story that I believe William Willimon shared in one of his books – the story of how God came out of hiding. In short, one day God wrote “I EXIST” or something like that in the sky. The words could be seen everywhere in the world. It spurred a religious revival unlike any in history. It changed lives and it changed the world. For a few weeks.

Eventually, everyone grew used to the words written in the sky and they all went back to business as usual.

Holy Week is one of the few times when the story of the Christian faith comes out of hiding. Jesus himself, no longer traveling about like an itinerant prophet, showed up on the steps of the temple in Jerusalem. He went public and then he showed us all how much that would cost.

Obviously there is more to living the Christian faith than showing up in worship and there is no red attendance book in the sky marking us “present” or “absent” for Good Friday worship…on the other hand, isn’t it better that we’re there?

“Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the LORD and relies upon his God?”

Let us pray: Bless us, Lord God, as we begin our walk into Holy Week. Rekindle in us the flame of your passion, of your passionate love for people. May we join the crowds who welcome, sit with the disciples as you gave them bread and wine, see ourselves in the crowds who call for your death, join the Roman soldier who saw your glory on the cross. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord GOD who helps me; who will declare me guilty? All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up. Isaiah 50:7-9

When Luke was writing the story of Jesus, in the 9^th chapter, he described Jesus as “setting his face toward Jerusalem”. This description is more than a compass setting, that Jesus turned his body toward the south. It is rather a reflection of his inner disposition, his determination that nothing was going to stop him from doing what he needed to do.

It is much like the servant reflected in these verses from Isaiah: “The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near.”

As the church marches toward Palm Sunday this week, the college basketball world is caught up in March Madness, the marathon of basketball games leading to the national championship. College basketball doesn’t mean much in the great scheme of things but, like all sports, it does put some of our deepest values on display – teamwork, honor, dedication, perseverance, and performance under pressure. At the end of the day, the teams which win prove willing and able to do what other teams can’t or don’t.

To what in our lives do we “set our face like flint?” Where are the lines we refuse to cross, or refuse to retreat? What do we stand for that prevents us from falling for anything?

When we identify those core convictions, those core values, those core behaviors that define us, we quickly realize that we’re talking about the places in our lives where we most need what God freely gives us.

Isaiah reminds us that the Lord helps us. We need not face the battle, or the opposition, or the temptation, alone. We can “set our face like flint” because we know that God has our back, for our own good.

No one will long remember who wins the national NCAA basketball championship. No one remembers more than a few of the names of those who wrongly accused Jesus. But – even as they have worn out like a garment; the moth having eaten them up – we will never forget Jesus.

He had no earthly power, privilege or position. He raised no army, conquered no territory, built no earthly palace.

But he has won us. Our allegiance. Our faith. Our trust. Our lives.

Let us pray: Dear Jesus, you lived your mission of love for us without quivering or quitting. Nothing could stop you. Those who falsely accused you accused only themselves. Give us just a portion of that determination to be your people and be about your work. Help us do that which we cannot do without your help. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens—wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. Isaiah 50:4-6

Who is this “teacher”, who is the “I” in the first verse?

This section of Isaiah falls within the portion that was written after the people of Israel had already been in Babylon for a significant period of time. The armies of Cyrus of Persia had defeated the Babylonians and therefore had become the new “big bully on the block.” Cyrus wasn’t particularly interested in the plight of the Jewish captives-become-refugees so the door was open for their return to what was left of Jerusalem.

The mood of the writing that shifts from purely “What did we do wrong to get here?” to “Who do we thank for setting us free?”. The Bible, the written Word, is about capturing the experience of the faithful in written form and in this shifting of perspectives it helps us see the movement in our own lives from bondage to freedom.

So again the question, “Who is this teacher in the first verse?”

Some would say that the community of Israel, the people of God, in their shared experience, are the teacher. They are the ones who capture God’s will in words in their sacred writings. They sustain the weary with their faith. They value learning as a spiritual discipline. They have learned through painful experience the hard consequences of rebellion. They have suffered the pain inflicted on them by their captors.

Clearly the earliest disciples of Jesus saw Jesus in these verses. With the poetry of Isaiah planted deeply within them, Isaiah’s words immediately came to mind in their reflections on the suffering and humiliation that Jesus endured. They heard stories of the way that Jesus quietly endured all that was done to him, without complaint or fighting back. Jesus was the teacher, the obedient one, the comforter of the weary.

Today, the writer of Isaiah makes all of this available to us. He brings us into the history of Israel. He reminds us of the language that the faithful have used to remember Jesus. He brings US hope, rest and a gentle reminder that following Jesus means carrying crosses. For we too often open ourselves to otherwise avoidable suffering because we are people of faith.

Let us pray: Gracious Lord, in every age we hear your Word in new ways. Today, when we find ourselves still living in bondage – to sin, to debt, to war, to idols – we long as well for words that bring comfort in our weariness and inspire us to follow with courage and focus. Thank you for not giving up on us, for delivering us from evil, and for guarding us in the face of worldly opposition. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Why was no one there when I came? Why did no one answer when I called? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? By my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water, and die of thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and make sackcloth their covering. Isaiah 50:2-3

As we take our “Lenten inventory”, we come across these questions addressed from God to us. “Why was no one there when I came? Why did no one answer when I called?”

These questions are communication questions. They are prayer questions. But they are framed in a very different way than we normally frame prayer questions.

Normally we would ask ourselves, “When do I reach out to God in prayer? Why do I reach out to God in prayer? What do I ask for?” Do you see, in framing these questions, how it seems that the “communication with God” thing seems completely up to us? Our questions put us in the center – what we do or don’t do – and therefore leave very little room for God at all. Prayer becomes all about OUR talking with no room at all for our LISTENING.

This observation strikes pretty close to home with me. I live my life in the communication business. (Isn’t that what a pastor does? Isn’t that what I’m doing with my fingers right now as I type?) But God has placed my wife in my life, and I in hers, as a blessed gift of God’s grace. And more often than not, Kelley helps me see (or at least tries to help me see) that I’m not always the communicator I think I am. Sometimes the block is I don’t talk enough, more often the block is that I don’t listen enough. I’m convinced this is one of the reasons God invented marriage in the first place – so that we could learn on a daily basis what it takes for relationships to work.

God’s question to us through Isaiah isn’t about chiding us for not talking enough with God but for not listening to God as God speaks to us.

How does God speak to us? I suppose that list is longer than this but clearly it would include listening to God’s written Word alone and with others, listening to God’s preached and proclaimed Word in prayer, praise and thanksgiving in public worship, and listening in the quietness of our meditative hearts. God speaks to us when we are attentive in our listening. (See 1 Samuel 3:10)

Have we been attentive to God’s attempts to reach us? Has God been getting a busy signal on our end of the conversation? Is our spiritual cell phone turned off, our land line disconnected?

Rest assured. God never tires of reaching out to us. He has promised that he will never leave or abandon us. God doesn’t give up on God’s end of the relationship. But how are we doing on our end?

Let us pray: Dear Lord, here we sit. Right now, mindfully in your presence. Quiet the rushing thoughts that pass through us. Cut through the noise of our lives so that we might be still in your presence. Speak to us and we will listen. Guide us and we will know the Way. In Jesus’ name. Amen.