New Testament

Returning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 6 – VOTD.02.07.17

Be diligent that none of you fails to take hold of the grace of God; for if he does there can very easily spring up in him a bitter spirit which is not only bad in itself, but can also poison the lives of many others.  Hebrews 12:15

Returning to our first love. We’ve talked about loving the Lord with all our hearts and loving Him with all our souls, loving Him with all our mind and loving Him with our strength. But there are a few other areas that have Christians trapped in 2nd love experiences.

Firstly, bitterness. Christians are bitter because their trust has been betrayed, feeling cheated because their church hasn’t lived up to all the promises it makes; resentful because people with the “Christian” label don’t live like it; cynical because they know it should be better and it’s getting worse…

This is especially easy for people who have been in the faith a while. When everything was new, everyone seemed so godly, so fresh and loving. We were encouraged to follow the characteristics of these “super-Christians” to become a better Christian ourselves. It’s possible that that is reasonable short-term advice, but in the long run, it won’t last. As time goes on, we see kinks in the “super-Christians” and that can be pretty disheartening. Cynicism sets in…Bitterness isn’t far behind. (more…)

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Returning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 5 – VOTD.02.06.17

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first (most important) commandment  Mark 12:30

Last time we talked about loving the Lord with all our hearts and loving Him with all our souls. Today I want to hit on loving Him with all our mind and strength.

“With all your mind.” When our minds, wills, and emotions wander from devotion to God, be careful. Our minds are so adept at hoodwinking ourselves with logic-plays that seem so air tight but miss the truth by miles.

As we saw last time, our relationship with God deepens as we spend time in communion with Him. But if we forsake this communion, our understanding of our true condition before God will grow dull, and often our minds will be the last to realize it. Our spirits are glum, we’re bored, we’re tread-milling through life and our minds are telling us that we’re OK, or that all we need is more discipline, a better job, an on-fire church… After all, maybe it’s normal to be bored in the Lord. Our minds rationalize right into a lost first-love and we never even know. (more…)

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Returning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 4 – VOTD.01.31.17

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first (most important) commandment  Mark 12:30

“With all your heart”. Several things can indicate that we’re wandering from our first love (Rev 2:4). But a dead give-away is our hearts: We delight in someone or something else more than we delight in the Lord.

Have you ever been around someone who is so intent on their new job or their favorite sports team, or a new relationship or hobby…that it seems like whenever you’re with them the subject always turns to whatever they’re obsessing on? That’s their delight.

The idea of our first love is that our delight is in the Lord (Ps 37:4). Taking delight in the Lord means that our hearts truly find fulfillment, satisfaction and worth in Jesus. He’s foremost in our hearts, exceeding the bond of any other relationship, activity or pastime. Jesus identified the greatest of all commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart…”.

If we find ourselves obsessing over other things, we really need to get God’s perspective on their role in our lives. Note: that thing we delight in is not necessarily wrong. God may have brought those things into our lives. But we still need His perspective or it can “own” us. And He doesn’t want that. (more…)

Continue ReadingReturning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 4 – VOTD.01.31.17

Returning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 3 – VOTD.01.30.17

God has said: “I will never leave you, never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Hebrews 13:5,6

Last time I mentioned that sometimes when I meditate on the words to the worship chorus, “How Great is Our God,” I insert the words ‘How big’ into the song. The size of our God has a lot to do with why we have so much trouble with the ‘first love’ thing. Loving a Big God takes less effort and less discipline, but it requires more faith.

Doctrinally speaking, we all know that God is all-powerful—He’s stronger than the devil; He’s stronger than our problems. But if you talk with many Christians who say they believe this, practically speaking, their devil is bigger than their God, and their problems are too. Some, because of their low expectations of God, have not only shied away from seeking their first love for themselves, they’ve actively discouraged other Christians from pursuing their Lover God.

After all, history shows us many times when Christians were rejected, persecuted, even martyred. When we focus on that, fear becomes our master and we end up walking by fear instead of by faith. History also shows us many times when Christians have seen God rescue them out of certain death. When we focus on that, our confidence in God is fed and we end up walking by faith instead of fear.

Those who focus on our need to protect ourselves and our flocks will always be overwhelmingly aware of the power of the devil. Their God will always be small in their experience of Him. But if our hearts are completely fixed to the One who promises to never leave us nor forsake us, our God grows in our experience and we find Him almighty. We live by faith, not by fear. (more…)

Continue ReadingReturning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 3 – VOTD.01.30.17

Returning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 2 – VOTD.01.24.17

You have forsaken your first love. Revelation 2:4

 

“The good is ever the enemy of the best.” Think about it. Even in military warfare, an opponent will allow their enemy to win a series of small skirmishes to distract them from readiness for the big battle. They’re so busy taking and occupying acres that they miss the enemy advance on miles. Our enemy employs this tactic against Christians all the time. It’s one of the enemy’s oldest schemes.

However, the Bible tells us that we are not unaware of our enemy’s schemes. Wherever God is at work, you can be certain that the devil is not far behind. He is our enemy who like a roaring lion is seeking whoever he can devour. One of the enemy’s more common schemes is to “defeat us with victory.”

In the context of today’s verse, Jesus applauds his followers in Ephesus for many things: they were serving, discerning, and persevering (vv. 2-3). They were ministering to the practical needs around them; they pursued the truth of good doctrine with care; they faced opposition with diligence, standing firm in their faith. So what’s the problem? (more…)

Continue ReadingReturning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 2 – VOTD.01.24.17

Returning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 1 – VOTD.01.23.17

As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 1 Peter 2:2,3

Some of us can remember what it was like when we were new to the Christian faith; that’s why I always feel a little awkward thinking about “returning to (my) first love”. I’m afraid my “first-love” days were pretty uninspiring. But I’ve learned something along the way…

Returning to our first love isn’t so much becoming a Bible-ignorant newbie again, but growing in true and deep intimacy and passion for the Jesus we once had a superficial (though real) crush on. Babies aren’t supposed to be adults. They have diapers—lots of diapers. They are self-focused. They need constant attention and lots of milk—and spit up a lot of the milk that their caregivers so selflessly supply. That’s all as it should be—for babies. For spiritual babes, too.

But babies don’t just turn into adults one day—not without going through childhood and adolescence. Those teen years can be pretty tough…and when they finally find themselves out in the “real world” with “adult” plastered on their foreheads they’re still growing up, really. (more…)

Continue ReadingReturning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 1 – VOTD.01.23.17

The Culture of Sameness – VOTD.01.10.17

God has placed each part in the body just as he wanted it to be. If all the parts were the same, how could there be a body? As it is, there are many parts. 1 Corinthians 12:18-20

You’ve probably heard it said, “Imagine how boring the world would be if we were all the same”. And most of us would agree. It’s not a pleasant thought to imagine a world or a local church or business where everyone just like you or me.

And that’s not just because clones of you or me would be…uh, kind of weird, but also because there would be no one to fill in the gaps in our knowledge, experience, or abilities. Just as the body consists of various parts all working together to achieve different things, we Christians achieve the most for God’s Kingdom when we are being ourselves.

But it rarely works out quite that simply: Cloaked in nice spiritual terms like “we are one in the spirit” and “like-mindedness” is the idea that we all have to be in lockstep with each other or there’s ‘disunity’ or even ‘confusion’. There are scads of biblical examples where God debunks this idea. David wasn’t supposed to be in lockstep with his brothers even though he was youngest. Peter tried to press Jesus’ plan for his life on John and Jesus put him in his place. Lots of other examples exist, including Uzziah deciding to be the same as a priest…it didn’t go well for him.
(more…)

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Be Who God Made You in 2017 – VOTD.01.09.17

We are being transformed into the likeness of the image of Christ; from glory to glory. This happens by the Spirit of the Lord.  2 Corinthians 3:17

You’ve probably heard the expression: “A fish out of water.” The beauty and grace we see when we watch a fish in the water is lost when you catch it and throw it up on the shore. The beauty and grace is not in the fish, it’s in the environment. Once you take the fish out of the environment God made it for, it flops around and looks clumsy.

If we are to exhibit the beauty and grace that God wants for us in 2017 we need to be in the environment He has made for us. If we go off into some other environment, we lose the beauty and grace because we weren’t made for that environment.

I’m sure you have seen people who have either left the place God has for them, or have never found the place God has for them, and they are “like fish out of water”. They never operate in the beauty and grace that God has for them because they’re up on the shore flopping around trying to survive in a hostile ecosystem. (more…)

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Hope in the Word, 2017 – VOTD.01.03.17

For whatever things were written before were written to instruct us, so that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:4

One of the points of these meditations which come to you each week is that “through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures (we) might have hope.” Yes, Bible teaching (like reading the Bible) is supposed to give us hope…and it does.

For example, we can turn to God’s breathtaking promises in His Word like this one: “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” (Heb 13:5-6). There are times in life when being reminded of God’s faithfulness can make all the difference between hope and despair.

We can follow the example of those in Psalm 107. This psalm recounts all the troubles of people without any hope at all. In each case, “They cried out to the Lord in their trouble” and He delivered them (vv 4-6, 13, 19).

In His Word, God “has given us his exceedingly great and precious promises” (2 Pet 1:4) both for now and for the future. Knowing how God has worked with people in the past and His promises for the future can encourage us and give us hope. (more…)

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Hope for 2017 – VOTD.01.02.17

“Be very careful then, how you live—not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Eph 5:15-17)

Happy New Year, 2017. Some of us have had an awesome 2016 and are hoping for even better next year. Some of us have been beaten up this past year—we’re excited about a new start—to press the reset button. In today’s verse, Paul has a few thoughts on new starts. If one year from now we’re going to look back on 2017 as a good year, there are a few things we might want to consider:

“Be very careful then, how you live”. Some things we’ll bring on ourselves in 2017, and some things will be unavoidable. This is true of joys as well as problems. For the things we bring on ourselves, “live—not as unwise, but as wise”. Living wisely is simply living in such a way that we minimize the regrets we will be experiencing a year (or years) from now. Do that and many of the “unavoidable” problems in 2017 will be less severe, or maybe even dodged completely. When we live wisely, unanticipated blessings will find us.

“Making the most of every opportunity”. Whether we’re faced with blessings or problems— Either way, we don’t squander the opportunities God puts in our lives. We change the things that we can change, and trust God in those unavoidable problems:
•       we trust Him to be with us (Matt 28:20)
•       we trust him to be working it all for the good (Rom 8:28)
•       we trust Him to see us through (2 Thes 3:3) (more…)

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