Category Archives: Devotions

encountering God

at the well“Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from His journey, sat down at the well. It was about six in the evening.  A woman of Samaria came to draw water.” John 4:6-7

“Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Then the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush.” Exodus 3:1-2

My point this morning is this:  both Moses and the woman at the well had an unexpected encounter with God, while they were going about their daily routine. Neither of them were in the middle of any kind of religious activity when God showed up. They were simply doing what they did every day.

We don’t have to pray that someone will come to church so that they can encounter God. We can pray for those we love to have God encounters right where they are, doing what they do everyday.

Is there someone you know who desperately needs to encounter God? Pray that He will show up, right where they are, during their daily routine. Pray that they will encounter Him in such a way that their lives will never be the same.

It happened too many times in scripture for us to believe that it won’t happen today. Jesus went through Samaria on purpose, even though most Jewish travelers went around it to avoid encountering Samaritans. I believe His encounter of the woman at the well was planned, and purposeful.

In other words, no one accidentally encounters God.

our crowd

“When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary and worn out, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.  Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:36-38

refugeesI thought about the refugees this morning when I read this passage. Our crowd. Many of us see one thing while Jesus sees another. The crowd is a crisis, a reason to fear, something to debate from a safe distance.

Weary, worn out, wandering people move the heart of Jesus. He is not afraid they will move in and take over. He’s not closing His borders to keep out the bad apples in disguise.

He sees a harvest of Gospel-ready people and feels compassion toward them. And far from telling His followers to “Be careful. Consider the implications. Keep yourselves and your land safe. Don’t get too close.”, He tells them to pray for people who will go to the harvest.

We know what it looks like. We know the risk. We know what could happen. But we are His people. His Church. We can trust that He sees what we can’t see. We can’t all go, but we can all pray for God to provide workers for this harvest. We can open our wallets and give the funds required to send them. We can stop choosing fear and start looking at how Jesus is responding to worn and weary people who have no shepherd.

And then do that.

[P.S. – I know many people who are going to engage the refugees with compassion. If you want to know how you can give to help them get there, contact me.]

 

give no advantage

“If you forgive anyone, I do too. For what I have forgiven—if I have forgiven anything—it is for you in the presence of Christ. I have done this so that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan. For we are not ignorant of his schemes.“ 2 Corinthians 2:10-11

Paul is talking to the Church about restoring a sinner back to fellowship, but let’s not miss the implication.  Our unwillingness to forgive gives the enemy an advantage and is part of his scheming against us. In other words, unforgiveness on the part of a believer is a bona fide weapon in the hand of the enemy.

demonic eyesSome offenses are easy to forgive, while others are not. But forgiving someone does not depend on the size or impact of the offense, but on the willingness of our heart. Because forgiveness, like love, is a choice we make, not a feeling we feel. The key, for me, is in recognizing that forgiveness is not just an issue between me and the offender. There are spiritual eyes watching to see if an advantage will be given or not.

Forgiveness is a spiritual game war changer.

 

don’t be lazy

crossing-the-finish-line-4-dr-diva-verdun“Now we want each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the final realization of your hope, so that you won’t become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.” Hebrews 6:11-12

We go to church every week, spend our quiet time with Jesus almost every day, attend bible study, attend all the events, and we talk about Jesus, like, all the time.  So we can skim over Paul’s warning not to become lazy, because we are, spiritually speaking, pretty. darn. busy.Continue reading “don’t be lazy”

pearls

“Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.” – Psalm 116:7

My soul gets restless. It wanders through the mundane places and the places of need and want and longing and becomes dissatisfied.

My soul gets overwhelmed. It feels the passing of time and the adventures not yet lived and all of the undone things and my soul wants more.

This morning, this scripture called out to my restless, overwhelmed soul and peace was mine again. Return to your rest, my soul. Remember His goodness to you. Remember that you are loved. Come, my soul, and consider all of the ways your Father has lavished you with love and blessings.Continue reading “pearls”

where He doesn’t lead

“The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.” Psalm 23:1

I had a moment a while back. A moment of understanding that came rushing out of my mouth as confession to Jesus.

“Lord, I did not follow You here.”

Follow-meIn order for us to be led by Him, we must follow Him. I found myself in a place that I knew He had not led me. It didn’t mean I had stopped loving Him, trusting Him or that I was no longer His. It meant that I had followed my flesh and found myself where I did not want to be.

Don’t get me wrong — Jesus will lead us into difficult places. We cannot read His word and come away thinking that following Him means long walks on the beach for the rest of our days. But there are certain places we can wander into that we didn’t get to by following Him.

He will not lead us into sin. He will not lead us into the captivity that He freed us from. He does not lead us into despair, hopelessness, or complacency. He won’t lead us away from His Body, the Church. He won’t lead us to hold grudges, to slander or to demand our own way. He won’t lead us into a victim mentality or self-righteous thinking.

We follow our flesh into those places and most often it never occurs to us that we had stopped following Jesus.

But with our very next step, we can follow Him again. We can turn around, obey His Word, die to ourselves and get covered in the dust of His feet once again.

first love

Love-Day-PS1180-770x398“I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil…You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.  Yet I hold this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.” – Revelation 2:2, 3-4

You’ve done good things, endured much for My name. You haven’t given up the fight, and you hate what I hate. On the outside, all is well. But.

Love. ἀγάπη. Agape. Denotes the love which springs from admiration and [reverence], and which chooses its object with decision of will, and devotes a self-denying and compassionate devotion to it. Love in its’ fullest conceivable form. (Bullinger’s Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English & Greek New Testament)

This is not an outside kind of love. It’s the love that accompanied your first ‘yes’ to Me, full of fire and hope. It’s the devoted love, the love that doesn’t care what anyone else thinks, the love that made you want to risk everything for Me. In the beginning, that love was the reason for everything you did.

Come back to your first love.