Thursday, March 15, 2012

Roller Coaster Favorite Ride


3/15/2012
Acts 1:7- “He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”

Interpretation: We always want to know when God is going to do something for us. We sit and pout and as our eyes remain focused on the not yet filled promise we sigh at our empty hands. Although our hands aren’t usually empty at all, just filled with all these other things we try and hold on to for comfort or contentment, which if we would only let go of, could make room for the things God is waiting to give us. Maybe it’s not that were waiting on God as much as he waits on us. He waited 20 years for me to stop messing around and start living for him and within the first month I had a list of requests I wanted God to do for me, or I at least wanted to know the times or dates, set by his own authority, that they would happen. I still do. God keeps reminding about Psalm 37:4, to “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” I think about waiting in line for a roller coaster. The line is long and when I keep looking at the roller coaster day dreaming myself on it I become anxious and excited, and the waiting becomes uneasy because I am looking ahead to things I shouldn’t even be trying to imagine because I am not yet there. It’s funny that even when I do, it’s never quite like I pictured it. Mostly because we don’t actually de-rail and go flying into the ground crashing and burning after all. If I take my eyes off, however, and focus on the friends who I’m standing with in the line, not only do I feel more comfortable, but the line goes faster! I also think of Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God.” I think about the fall of man, the first lie Satan ever told to Eve was crafted to make her feel as if she was missing out on something, that God was withholding something good from her. I don’t want to fall for that lie. There are things I want in life but I need to continue to delight myself in the Lord, and before I know it I’ll be on that ride.

Application: Today I will write in my journal to God in the morning and throughout the day read the Bible and Out of the Comfort Zone. If I catch myself over thinking about when something I want is going to happen, I’ll read the word instead knowing it’s not for me to know. And that is not a bad thing.


When??


3/14/2012
Acts 1:6- “So when they met together they asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’”

Interpretation: The people of God have been asking this question of Him since the moment the promise was given. Why do we always want to know what God is doing behind the scenes? And, if we did know, would it even help us to be more patient with Him? We always seem to want answers, but sometimes we’re even unhappy there. They were desperate for Israel to be restored. And I could not even imagine the excitement and mind-blowing and incomprehensible feelings they must have had as they traveled around with Jesus, the messiah, God himself in human flesh. They watched his resurrected body travel around town and now, finally, or so it seemed, Jesus was going back to the one who sent Him, and was coming back the same way he left, in the sky in a cloud of glory. Is it going to be in a few days Lord? Is it at that time you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Of course we know the answer is no, but they must have been thrilled. I remember before coming to Potter’s Field I was planning on going to the program in July. I was looking for a black and white answer, a yes or a no in scripture, or someone to tell me exactly what I needed to hear. When it came to be crunch time I decided to pray for God’s will, instead of an answer. And here I am. So God, you’re going to bring me that money I need in a few days right? When I go home? It’s like we can’t see how God is going to accomplish something so we just fill in the blank. And our attempts of trying to figure out how or when or why God is going to do something always fall short, if not backspin in the opposite direction. Something Pastor Don said when we were going through Philippians 4 was on the peace that surpasses all understanding. He said that we try to find peace by reasoning with our own minds. We try to create scenarios or conjure up thoughts that will supply our own peace for ourselves. God, you’re going to restore the kingdom to Israel…must be in a few days, right? But this would not be God’s peace. It would be the peace of man, not the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. We need to continually trust in God’s promises, while letting God be God in our lives.

Application: I’m going to do my 365 day devotion today to continue to stay in the word and focused on God’s promises.

Pour


3/13/2012
Acts 1:5- “For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Interpretation:

Pour out your rain on my thirsty soul
Pour through my veins and cleanse my soul
Pour out your rain drown me down inside your love
Pour out your Spirit; send down your Holy dove

Pour on me
Pour through me
My soul was dirty
I need pure, I need pure, to see a rainbow.

Pour down your rain on this dusty old body
Pour through my brain, I want your living holy water
Cleanse my soul, rain down on me your love
Baptize me in the Spirit, transform me from above

Pour on me
Pour through me
My mind was dirty
I need pure, I need pure to see the rainbow

Rain down your grace on my bitter, hardened heart
Drench me in Spirit, come set your church apart
Cleanse my thoughts, and rescue me from pain
Baptize me in truthful streams, my loss becomes my gain

Pour on me
Pour through me
My life was dirty
You gave purity
I need pure, I need pure, I need pure to see your rainbow.           

Application: Turn into a song by next Monday.

Love you Scituate...more than you know.


3/12/2012
Acts 1:4- “On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift of my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.’”

Interpretation: The gift Jesus is referring to which the Father had promised them is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who he had spoken about before. In John 16:7 he says, “But I tell you the truth: It Is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” So what was the importance about the disciples staying in Jerusalem? The significance was great. Jesus continued to tell them in Acts 1:8 that they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on them, and will be his witnesses in “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The implications of them staying in Jerusalem at this time may have scared some of the disciples. At this time there was great chaos around the disciples because of the resurrection of Jesus. They could all expect to be persecuted for proclaiming the good news, yet Jesus tells them to stay until they receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost and Peter and John defend themselves before the Sanhedrin. Many miracles are done and many believers are added to the church. Stephen is martyred later on, and in Acts 8:1 it is written, “On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.” It is God’s will that we stick around our hometowns and spread the good word. If not a specific place of birth, our hometowns could be considered our family, and our network of friends and the people that we know. It is his will that we, as a group of believers, reach to all ends of the earth, without forgetting those people closest to us. Persecution may eventually allow us to brush the dirt off our sandals and move on, but it is important to know where our faith, hope, and power come from. Matthew 10:19-20 says, “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” The Holy Spirit is God living inside of us, and it is by his power that the work of the Father will be completed.

Application: My Jerusalem is my hometown in Scituate. God has put it in my heart to commit to visiting my high school while I’m home to be a witness to my old teachers, knowing that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit speaking through me and living in me that lives will be changed. 

A man reaps what he sows.


3/8/2012
Galatians 6:7- “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”

Interpretation: Farmer Joe spends all summer planting corn seed on his 5 acres of land. When the fall comes, farmer Joe is excited to go out and see what kind of vegetable he will reap from spending all that time planting corn seed. Maybe potatoes will grow, or carrots, or if he’s lucky a couple apple trees will even shoot up. Of course this is not how things work. I wonder why we believe it is any different with the seeds we sow? Even non-Christians have a concept of karma, where you get what you deserve, re-incarnation, where your new life lines up in accordance with how well you did in your previous one, or even justice, where the good guy in the movie should win and the bad guy should go to jail. How interesting is it that we have this blatant understanding that a man reaps what he sows, and corn seed will grow into corn stalks, yet we put our faith in something as silly as the universe existing due to completely random, dumb chance? If the very reason we were here is for unsystematic reasons, why would anything have order or make any sense? We can all relate to a man reaping what he sows. And God cannot be mocked. People can profess to be Christians and they can make all sorts of claims about themselves, but God sees the heart and tests its genuineness. An amazing thing about Christ is that he doesn’t just give us what we deserve, good or bad, for we could never do anything “good” enough to deserve eternal life, but he gave us beyond that when he decided to die for us 2,000 years ago. Now we can sow belief, or we can sow disbelief, but in the end we will all reap what we have sown, and no one is going to get apple trees out of corn seed.

Application: I need to sow more of God’s truth and love into my heart. I will do my daily devotion book today, and IBS the scripture it gives me. I haven’t touched it for about 3 weeks but I want to be good. And so I must sow the right kinds of seed in my day.



Give


3/6/2012
Galatians 6:4- “Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else.”

Interpretation: Why do we do the things we do? God tells us to test our actions, so we can see the real motives in our hearts when we do specific things. In the last 2 months I have been praying for God to help me improve at playing the guitar, and he has surely been gracious to respond to my requests. I could move different directions with this knowledge. I could look at someone who can’t play guitar as well as me and feel proud of what I have accomplished, setting God’s intervention aside for my own personal gain. Or, I could look at someone who plays guitar better than me and feel slighted and envious, and my pride would still destroy me. Here is the truth of what God asks us to do. God asks us to test our actions. To evaluate and become conscious of the way we speak to others or react to certain situations. He wants to create in us an awareness of the reasons behind our deeds. So while I’m playing guitar, I am being attentive of why I am playing it. He wants me to be proud in him and what he can do for his children, not proud of my own ability, which I know I would not have without him. He doesn’t want us to look to other people to determine where we fit in on a scale of 1 to 10. He wants us to keep our eyes on Him alone. When we stop comparing ourselves to others there is such a freedom, and we can take pride in the things God has blessed us with, instead of our arrogance eating us up and ruining the good work he is doing. I have nothing to be proud of apart from God. As Paul continues to write in Galatians 6:14, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Application: I love playing my guitar. The next opportunity I have to play it when someone else is playing, instead of pursuing my own desires I will give helpful instruction to someone else, knowing I couldn’t play guitar without God, let alone even own one. 

I am nothing. What a relief.


3/5/2012
Galatians 6:3- “If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

Interpretation: This reminds me of a verse Jordan and I read on the plane ride to Montana. Proverbs 12:9- “Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food.” Why do we pretend to be something when we are nothing? Well, frankly, because everything that I have I have worked so hard for. Oh, wait, James 1:17 says “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Well I only have those good and perfect gifts because I have had such great faith that I was going to receive them. Only, Ephesians 2:8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Okay. Well these things I have I deserved. Except 1 Corinthians 4:7 says, “For what makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” So why do we think that we are something when we are nothing? Nothing that we have makes us different from anyone else, we didn’t do anything on our own to require it and we didn’t even supply our own faith to receive the gifts we have from our gracious God.

Application: Tonight I will write out a list of things God has done for me since I have been here. I want to reflect on these to remind myself that I am nothing, and God is everything. 

I have only done my Duty


3/2/2012
Luke 17:10- “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.”

Interpretation: I have said a lot of things about what I’m going to say or do when I enter heaven. I think they’re all pretty cliché, like, “When I get to heaven, I’m gonna have a couple questions for you God.” Or saying I’m gonna dance around but…

You created the stars Father,
So all this beauty could be ours, Father.
I’m gonna sing to you, and you’re gonna listen to me.
You watch me like a hawk
With patience like a broken watch
I gaze at your creation,
And you gaze back at me.
You hear me when I cry,
And bottle up my tears until my face is dry.
You sweat blood for me, a master, a servant,
I didn’t deserve it. 

And then, after all that,
You took throne of my heart, sat
And you never grow tired of hearing my voice
God you love me so I can rejoice.
And my love for you is a small tarnished penny,
But you take my mustard seed and turn it to plenty.
You created the stars Lord, set the earth into orbit
And kept your eyes carefully upon it.
We have never been alone.
You send the rain to flourish life
Blood and water forgive strife
You even let me be your wife.

Rags to riches, sin to saint
The only way to appreciate
Is to bend and flex and move in the breeze of your call
Surrender it all.
A sweet smelling aroma of living sacrifice
Take my weaknesses and shine.
You stretched out the heavens and you’ll never forget us.
You,
The maker of everything from nothing,
The very essence of your existence is excellence,
every action, thought, and good and perfect gift from above.
You are the gift of love.
Let me love you with all of my heart, mind, and soul
Though I’m just a worthless speck of pointless
Floating down a sinkhole.
You are glory you are light,
You’re victory in the fight,
Though you’re peace you are still might,
You’re creation is raw and beautiful,
And all your words are right.

What can I say to you when I give you an account for my years?
You’re presence drops me to my knees in tears,
I don’t deserve a thank you, for truly
I am an unworthy servant, and have only done my duty.

Application: I will turn this into a song by next Friday and if my team is willing ask them to help be a part of it. 

Thank you


3/1/2012
Luke 17:9- “Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?”

Interpretation: Do servants get thanked for the work that they do? A master might show his appreciation by treating them with respect, but a true servant is doing their job and doesn’t wait for a thank you. My mother is a servant if I’ve ever met one. Always placing the wants and needs of her family before her. She sees it as part of her job of being a mother and does it without waiting around for a thank you. In fact, what matters even more than a “thanks” to her is the way we show her our appreciation. She would much rather me be excited to spend a day with her and treat her with admiration than to give her a plain “thank you” which could easily be taken as empty words without an action behind them. We serve the living God and Christ. We don’t sit and wait for God to say “thank you” to us in order to continue responding to His call on our lives, but He shows His love for us in so many different ways. Besides the biggest thing which is often over looked and over cooked! Dying for us! He showed us what we meant to Him before we were even conceived of in the minds of men. Other than that, we get to live a life of adventure hand in hand with the one true God of the heavens and the earth, have prayers answered and our faith strengthened, and at the end of it all we get to go to Heaven. We are all waiting to hear that Matthew 25:21, “Well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your masters happiness!” That is not the end game though. The end game is Psalm 30:12, “…O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.” God the master doesn’t need to say thank you to us, because above being God the master, He is God the ultimate servant. As servants of God, we don’t need to be thanked for doing what we were told to do because our lives are just a response of His true servant’s heart choice to come to earth and suffer persecution and death so that we may live. That is why God is the best master.

Application: I will email my mom tonight and tell her I look forward to spending quality time with her while I’m home, in order to show my gratitude that she has been a Godly master and servant to me in my life. 

Wait


2/29/2012
Luke 17:8- “Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’?”

Interpretation: We are servants of the Lord, and He has told us to build his kingdom on earth and be prepared for his return. After He is finished with His work, we may find eternal rest in Heaven with Him. A lot of people, including myself, have been found yearning for the return of Christ. Since the time in Acts 1:6 when the disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus’ replied in v. 7-8, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” In Matthew 28:19 Jesus gives the call to the great commission, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Revelation 19:9 says an angel told John to write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” We are invited to that supper, and it is our job as servants of the Lord to prepare that supper for Him by responding to the call of the great commission and co-labor with God to bring as many souls to repentance and faith in Christ as is asked of us. Jesus tells us in Mark 13:33 about his return, saying, “Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.” We are to prepare the Lord’s supper, and also get ourselves ready by ever abiding in the Spirit and staying aware to what is going on around us, looking for the signs of the return of Christ while ever-continuing to obey what is asked of us, and wait on God while He eats and drinks. When everything has been played out to the fullest, and God’s will is entirely completed, Jesus will return to us and we may finally eat and drink with him at the supper of the Lamb. Until then, we must continue to walk step by step following the Lord’s lead in the faith that God will complete the good work he has begun in us, and follow what Paul says in Acts 20:24, “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me- the task of testifying the gospel of God’s grace.”

Application: There are so many more people that God has put on my heart to write letters to and pray for. I wrote my brother a letter two weeks ago and he hasn’t responded, I will write him again today because God has put him in my life to love him and true love never fails. We don’t have a relationship, but I refuse to give up and let the enemy win his soul. I will ask God to write this letter through me, and after that I will know the rest is in God’s hands and in his timing, and I’ll wait for the next step. 

Watch


2/28/2012
Luke 17:7- “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘come along now and sit down to eat’?”

Interpretation: A servant serves until the work is finished. The master inviting the servant to eat before the work is completed is missing the point. As servants of the Lord, we are called to build the kingdom, and God doesn’t want us to stop working until there is nothing left to be done. There are Christians who go to church on Sunday’s and then live like death Monday through Saturday. There has even been a term coined “The sleeping Christian.” Someone who has salvation for themselves but doesn’t understand to go out and share the blessing is like a servant who is trying to eat before the master is finished. Mark 13 speaks on the return of the Son of Man to earth to gather the church into the Heavens. It proclaims that no one knows when that day or hour will happen except God, and compares it to the return of an owner to the house he asked you to watch. V. 36-37 says, “If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you I say to everyone, ‘Watch!’” When I was a baby my mother had to play the role of my servant, simply because I did not have the abilities to take care of myself. She would spend all day watching me and giving me what I needed, and would feed me and get me settled before she even thought about sitting down and enjoying a meal for herself. As Christians, we have to both plow over the enemy’s lies that have this world entangled, and look after other sheep who share Jesus as a shepherd. That doesn’t mean that we are done serving God there. Ecclesiastes 5:12 says, “The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much…” We are servants of the Lord, and we have been given a job to do. We will not be asked to sit down and eat nor shall we desire to do so until our work is accomplished and God’s will is fulfilled.

Application: There is an old friend who I have been putting off writing to. I’m seeing now that it’s really not my choice- it is a task given to me by my good master that I need to walk in. I will write it today and pray for my friend’s salvation. 

Mustard Seed


Luke 17:6- “He replied, ‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it will obey you.’”

Interpretation: Here Jesus is telling his disciples about the amount of faith they need in order for God to do great things after they ask him to increase their faith. I think the more common verse I hear about faith the size of a mustard seed is Matthew 17:20 when Jesus tells the disciples, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” I guess these things are exciting, but don’t get their full point across until we understand what a mustard seed is. Jesus says in Mark 4:31-32 that the kingdom of God “is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.” The mustard seed was in fact the smallest seed in Israel, so everyone who heard Jesus speak would be able to understand the amount of faith Jesus was talking about. I’m sure this blew everyone away. I often feel like I need to literally, “muster” up a great deal of faith and find scriptures to support me and put all of my focus into believing something, when that is not really what faith is all about. Hebrews 11:1 tells us “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see,” and verse 6 tells us, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists.” I had faith when I flew to Montana that the plane was not going to crash, and I had faith this morning that the sun was going to rise. I must have faith each time I approach God that he loves me and he hears my every prayer. I feel like the obvious things come with faith that doesn’t acquire much of me, but when my true desires and wants are on the line I begin to question if God is going to let me have them. I need to take this application of small true mustard seed faith and apply it to my mulberry trees and my mountains, instead of things that aren’t that personal or vital to me. God wants to do great things in my life, not just mediocre, and I need to play my part and have faith that he is going to do that.

Application: I will IBS Hebrews 11 Pastor Steve style and learn how others had true faith so that I can hold more of God’s powerful word in my heart. 

"Use Yo Mouth. Word To Yo Motha!" - Brown Boy


2/24/2012
Proverbs 31:8- “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.”

Interpretation: King Lemuel’s mother has told him in the four previous verses not to partake in drunkenness and to leave that for those who are perishing lest he forget what the law decrees and deprive the oppressed of their rights. Here she takes it one step further than just a warning to not deprive the oppressed of their rights, but tells him to actually speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves, and to speak up for the rights of those who are famished or impoverished. People who have no money and no solid source of income really have no say in where their lives are leading them. They do everything they can just to survive and people pass by their empty cups on cold street corners with judgmental hearts and refuse to give them what they need. So it is with the spiritually starving. There are people in this world who live in lies and bondage lacking the freedom that comes only in a relationship with Christ. Thus they have no understanding of where their lives are taking them, and how devastating spiritual bankruptcy is. They drink to fill the hole that is “God deficiency,” but it never holds true sufficiency. They get drunk to forget their misery, and scrape by day by day simply surviving on this earth, but eternally going nowhere good. It is so easy to pass a quick judgment on someone who does not know the Lord, or someone who even claims to hate him, like a homeless man who refuses to eat the food someone buys them, but we must remember that Jesus came to show us his love for us, even if that meant his life as he knew it would end. I think of being in the grocery store- how many people sit waiting with empty cups? How many people sit begging outside the gate called Beautiful when really all they need is someone to offer them a say in things, give them the truth, and to have the boldness to share the saving truth of Christ? King Lemuel’s mother tells him it is not okay for kings and rulers to drink. As for us true leaders and disciples, we should abstain from drinking like those who are in anguish, and reach out and share hope, give a voice to the voiceless, and fight for the rights of those who are spiritually, physically, and emotionally destitute, oppressed and controlled by the enemy without a say in what they shall do and an awareness of what they truly need.

Application: I shared Christ with a boy I went to high school with a few nights ago. He is like the homeless man wandering the streets- trying to survive but never understanding that God wants us to come into his home and be at rest. I will pray for him throughout my day today, I will be a voice for him because he cannot use his own voice to defend himself before God. I will pray for the softening of his heart and ultimately his salvation.