Devotional for Tuesday September 23rd

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Boundaries”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “We are restricted by boundaries, but God is not.”

 

As human beings we are limited, hemmed in, by the boundaries of our humanity. We have the five senses of sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste but each of them only to a limited degree and we have nothing beyond that. There is no Spock-like sixth sense of mental telepathy which enables us to plant thoughts into the minds of other people or to read their minds. Telekinesis – the ability to move and lift objects simply by thinking about it – is the thing of science fiction movies.

 

We are also limited by our intellect. The human mind is an amazing thing but even the smartest person in the world doesn’t know everything. Likewise and most importantly, we are limited in our ability to understand God and His ways. We have very little understanding of anything supernatural. Being finite physical human beings with only five senses, we have great difficulty grasping the infinite and the spiritual.

 

I hate that. There’s so much I want to know and understand that’s just beyond me. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Can God create a rock that’s so heavy even He can’t lift it? Will the Titans ever make it to the Super Bowl? So many questions, so few answers!

 

But on a more serious note, why do innocent children get incurable cancer? Why would a good God allow bad things to happen to the people who love and obey Him? Why is it that when we’re hurting and struggling, God often seems a million miles away?

 

There is so much we simply do not have the capacity to understand. We’re hemmed in by the boundaries of our humanity. But this is where faith comes in. It’s true that we are limited and restricted, but God is not. God sees all, knows all, and has control over all. God is good and He loves us. He will guide us when we cannot see, carry us when we are weak, and protect our interests when the problems are too big and too complicated for us.

 

“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you. I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 (HCSB)

 

While it’s true that we are limited by the boundaries of our humanity, it’s also true that God is not. In His divinity He is without limit or restriction and He is Sovereign over all the situations of our lives. And so, since He is boundless as well as infinitely good, and since He loves us without limit, we can walk by faith and simply trust in Him even when we cannot see and do not understand.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim
 

Devotional for Monday September 22nd

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Boundaries”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Thanks to our freedom in Christ, the boundaries for Biblical living are very wide.”

 

The great Christian writer G.K. Chesterton once wrote an essay about what he called “The problem of pleasure.” His thesis was that many Christians don’t know how to deal with the fact that pleasure is good because God created pleasure. God was the One who created taste buds so we could enjoy our food. It was God who came up with the idea of humor and laughing. Sex was God’s invention. But many Christians are suspicious of pleasure and just a bit uncomfortable with it. This problem of pleasure was the basis upon which the Old Testament Pharisees constructed the huge volumes of rules and regulations designed to govern and regulate virtually every aspect of Jewish life.

 

A careful study of Paul’s letter to the Galatians helps us to understand that Jesus has freed us from the problem. Christ did away with the heavy yoke of the Old Testament Law which produced a highly regulated and extremely narrow way of life. He replaced it with the freedom in Christ that Paul taught us about. It turns out that in the New Testament, the boundaries for Biblical living are extremely wide. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit Christians can learn how to fully enjoy the incredible array of God-created, God-ordained pleasures that life is so full of.

 

But this is not a license to sin. There are limits, there are boundaries. However a mature Christian, following the leading of the Holy Spirit, can enjoy the pleasures of life as a gift from our Father in Heaven without crossing the line into sin. One of the rewards of a mature Christian faith is the ability to fully enjoy the pleasures of life in the right way. This is a gift from God. It is part of our freedom in Christ. But it can only be done under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

 

Praise God that thanks to our freedom in Christ the boundaries for living a life blessed by God are very wide indeed. We will all be better off, and a lot happier, when we learn how it is that an obedient Christian, living a godly life, can still joyfully embrace life in all it’s fulness.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Saturday and Sunday September 20-21

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Boundaries”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Our life must be lived within the boundary of faith”

 

According to the dictionary “Faith” is: “Confident belief or trust in a person or thing.” It also says that in Christianity, “faith is the secure belief in God or the acceptance of God’s will.” According to the writer of Hebrews, faith is our certainty in the reality of the One in whom we have placed our hope.

 

Faith is a decision we come to, whether there is physical proof to support it or not. It is a certainty we have chosen to embrace. In terms of boundaries, if our faith is strong then by an act of our will, and as the result of an intentional choice, we will confine our thoughts and actions within the boundary of our faith. In the life of Job we find a good example of this.

 

Job was a man who endured a terrible and extended trial which made no sense from a human perspective. In worldly terms, Job could not explain or understand what was happening to him or why. But his thoughts and his entire life were kept within the boundary of his strong faith in God. And so despite his circumstances, he maintained his faith. “Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him.” Job 13:15 (NKJV). “Yet I know that my Redeemer lives …” Job 15:25 (NKJV).

 

The great devotional writer Oswald Chambers observed that Job refused to make excuses for God. He admitted that he could not fathom why God was either causing or allowing these things in his life, but he (Job) repeatedly asserted that despite his circumstances, he knew that God is good and right and just and that when all was said and done, and when all the facts were known, God would be proven to be good and right and just.

 

That’s an example of life and thought experienced wholly within the boundaries of faith. When our faith in God is the starting point from which we view all the rest of life, then no matter what the circumstances are it will be our faith in God which determines how we think, speak and act. It will also be our faith in God which determines how much anxiety we feel about current events, and how much hope we have for the future. Job viewed it all from within the boundaries of his strong faith in God – and so can we.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Friday September 19th

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Boundaries:

 

Our Bible verse for today: “… and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “We need boundaries to govern our thoughts”

 

For many people the life of the mind is the least structured and the most unruly part of them. While they may manage to impose physical boundaries on themselves which control their outward behavior, inwardly their mind is a chaotic mess. Many people have developed the bad habit of “living inside their head”. In other words, while their physical body exists and functions in the real world, inside their head they’ve got a whole other life going on. It consists of wild imagination and fantasy situations. They see themselves winning arguments, wooing lovers, staring in movies, fabulously beautiful (or handsome), and so on. It’s a whole other life going on inside their head which is pretty much divorced from reality.

 

Another common mental mistake is to brood over our conflicts with people and allow them to grow in our mind to exaggerated proportions. This will result in the situation being much worse in our mind than it is in reality.

 

The unrestrained mind can be a wild thing. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 Paul reminds us that we must have well established boundaries to govern our thinking. He writes about the necessity to actually take every thought captive and force it to honor Christ. Imagine a bucking bronco which has to be lassoed, restrained, and then brought under control. Yup, that pretty much describes many of our thoughts.

 

The way we do this is with the help of the Bible and the Holy Spirit. We intentionally fill our minds with Biblically inspired and Biblically guided thoughts. This comes from spending lots of time reading the Bible, listening to Christian music, memorizing and reciting Bible verses, and keeping ourselves immersed in good Christian fellowship. When we do enough of that, we will find that over time we become intentional about keeping our mind occupied with things that honor Christ. This will be true even when, and most importantly, when we are alone and not reading the Bible or listening to Christian music. It’s when we’re alone and our mind is not intentionally engaged, that our thoughts will take off on us.

 

The most important boundaries in our life are the ones that restrict, provide structure for, and govern, our thoughts. Romans 12:2 instructs us, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” (HCSB) We need to be intentional about gaining control over our thoughts.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Thursday September 18th

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Boundaries”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “But the fruit of the Spirit is … self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “We have to take personal responsibility for our choices.”

 

I once knew a person who had a long series of conflicts in the workplace. During that time the boss and others in the organization attempted to work through the conflicts with that individual and find ways to meet that person’s needs, while maintaining peace in the workplace and accomplishing the goals of the organization. Unfortunately the individual eventually decided to leave the organization. When they made that decision, the boss and others attempted to convince the individual to stay and to continue attempting to work through the issues. But the person declined and left anyway.

 

That was ok, except that once the individual left they then began to bitterly complain to others that they had been “driven out” and “forced to leave” – which was of course, untrue. From that point forward the individual went to great lengths at every opportunity to try to portray themselves as a victim of unfair treatment.

 

Assuming a victim mentality can often be attractive because it relieves us of personal responsibility for the choices we have made. And therefore of course, the consequences of those choices are then not our fault either. In their book “Boundaries” Henry Cloud and John Townsend caution us against crossing the boundary out of personal responsibility and into the realm of the “victim mentality”. When we go there, we have in effect disowned personal responsibility for our choices and we’re attempting to lay the blame at the feet of others.

 

In Galatians 5:22-23 Paul tells us that one of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit which should be evident in the lives of Christians is “self-control”. To have self-control implies personal responsibility. We realize and acknowledge that we do in fact have control over our choices and we are then responsible for them. A mature Christian faith allows no room for blaming others or for living as a victim. We own our choices – and the consequences of them as well.

 

There is a clear boundary in play here. It’s a line which separates personal responsibility/self-control/mature faith, from life as a victim. We do have to take personal responsibility for our choices.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Wednesday September 17th

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Boundaries”

Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.” Galatians 6:7-8 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “We must not violate the boundary of God’s law of sowing and reaping.”

The “Law of Sowing and Reaping” is a Biblical principle created and ordained by God to govern human affairs. It maintains that what you sow determines what you will reap. It is built upon the example of farming and reminds us that if a farmer wants a good crop, he must sow good seeds. He will not get a good crop from bad seeds. Likewise if he wants an abundant crop, he will have to sow lots of seed because if he sows sparingly, he will reap sparingly.

God has ordained that this same principle will govern all of life. If you are lazy and refuse to work, you have no right to expect a life filled with abundance. If you are mean to other people, other people will be mean to you. If you abuse your body with drugs and alcohol, your body will respond by getting sick and ceasing to function. You will reap what you sow. The Hindus call it karma. Conventional wisdom labels it a basic law of nature. But we know it’s a Biblical principle established by God and we can see it at work every day.

Since the law of sowing and reaping is a Biblical principle established by God, it’s important for us not to interfere with it. God established this law for a reason and we therefore need to be careful we don’t try to override its effects in other people’s lives. Doing so constitutes “enabling bad behavior”.

You know exactly what I mean. When someone we love and care about is reaping bad consequences as a result of their bad behavior, we instinctively want to jump in and minimize those bad consequences for them. But when we do that we are interfering with God’s work in their lives. They need to experience those bad consequences so they will stop the bad behavior. If they’re never allowed to feel the pain of their bad choices, they will have no incentive to make better choices.

Bad behavior should have bad consequences. If you and I take action to lessen that experience for the wrongdoer, we have interfered with the working of a Biblical principle – we have crossed a boundary and entered into an area we have no business being. God established the law of sowing and reaping for a reason. You and I need to get out of the way and let it have its intended effect in other people’s lives.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Tuesday September 16th

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Boundaries”

Our Bible verse for today: “Watch out and be on guard against all greed because one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions.” Luke 12:15 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Do you own your possessions or do your possessions own you?”

Job was one of the wealthiest men of his day. In fact, the Bible describes him as having been “the greatest man among all the people of the east.” (Job 1:3). In terms of land, sheep, camels, oxen, donkeys, and children (all standard measures of wealth in his day), Job was richly blessed. On top of that, he was a godly man who prayed and worshipped frequently.

However at one point Satan was allowed by God to attack Job and to destroy all of his possessions. Job went from being the richest guy in town to sitting in dust and ashes completely destitute. Job didn’t know it at the time but this was actually a test of his faith, and it had been allowed by God to prove a point to Satan. The purpose of this adversity was to test the sincerity and depth of Job’s faith and, if he handled it well, to hold him up as an example of great faith even in tough times.

How did Job respond when every worldly possession which he held dear was lost? His response is recorded for us in Job 1:21-22, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Praise the name of Yahweh.” Through it all Job did not sin, or blame God for anything.

The question for us to consider is how much of a hold do our possessions have on our heart. Do you own them or do they own you? If you lost it all today would you still praise God, would your faith still be intact? It’s vital that we build a boundary around our heart that prevents our love for our possessions to penetrate too deeply. Like Job, we are free to enjoy what the Lord has blessed us with, and certainly we can want to keep it, but we cannot allow our love for those things to become so strong that if we lose them, we are devastated or destroyed.

The great writer Oswald Chambers once wrote, “When Jesus Christ talked about discipleship, He indicated that a disciple must be detached from property and possessions, for if a man’s life is in what he possess, when disaster comes to his possessions, his life goes too.”

How deeply into your heart does your love for your possessions go? Do you own them or do they own you?

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Monday September 15th

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Boundaries”

Our Bible verse for today: “Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character.” 1 Corinthians 15:33

Our thought for today: “Some people cannot be allowed into our lives.”

So far this month we’ve learned why boundaries are important and we’ve learned about different types of boundaries. We’ve also been considering various strategies for developing and maintaining good boundaries. Today I want us to consider the most drastic and probably the most effective type of boundary and that is, distance.

The sad truth is that some people simply cannot be allowed into our lives. In some cases the only effective boundary is geography – we have to make them go away and stay away. For example, simply as a matter of safety a woman in an abusive relationship has to make the man get out and stay out. In such cases a safe boundary requires distance.

When I work with the men in the jails whose problems stem primarily from drug addiction, I always explain to them that once we get them out of jail we have to get them into a brand new environment and keep them surrounded with people who do not use drugs. If they return to their old surroundings, filled with their old drug using friends, they will quickly return to their old habits. Again in this case, the appropriate and most effective boundary is geography. We have to create a substantial amount of distance between them and their old environment.

In 1 Corinthians 15:33 Paul cautions us regarding a basic truism of human nature: “We become like those we associate with.” Over time you will be influenced by and become like those you spend the most time with. If you spend enough time with bank robbers, soon you will probably be robbing banks too. If the people around you commonly use profanity, before long you probably will too. If your child is hanging around with the troublemakers at school and now he is starting to be a troublemaker too, it’s time from him to get some new friends. Again in those cases a boundary has to be created and maintained which removes those people from your life.

It’s sad and it can seem to be a drastic measure, but sometimes there are people who simply cannot be allowed into our lives. In those cases the appropriate boundary is a geographic one, we have to make them go away.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Saturday and Sunday September 13-14

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Boundaries”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.” 1 Timothy 6:6-8 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Sometimes we need to downsize and simplify”

 

More often than not, when we feel as if our lives are as full as they can be and are actually overflowing, it’s because we haven’t established and maintained good boundaries. Very often the reason that happens is because we have become caught in the trap of believing that if a little of something is good, then more is even better. But the truth is, more is often not better. Many times more turns out to be too much.

 

If a full-time job of 40 hours per week is good, then 60 hours per week is even better, right? We could easily think so simply because 60 hours of work probably produces more income than 40 hours does. But working 60 hours will also substantially impact our overall quality of life. It will leave us tired; it will take away from our family time; it will reduce the time we have for rest, recreation, and renewal; it may interfere with our exercise routine (I’m preaching to myself here).

 

If having our children involved in Little League and karate is good, then having them involved in Little League, karate, gymnastics, and music classes is even better, right? Well, probably not. That kind of a schedule will wear out both the kids involved in them, and the parents who have to take them to all those events.

 

The point is that many times more is not better, more is often too much. Frequently the best answer is to simplify and downsize. If we work fewer hours we may end up with a smaller income, a smaller house, an older car, and shorter vacations, but we will also end up with more family time, more rest, better physical health, and more time for church activities (Amen! Said the pastor writing this.)

 

Many years ago Richard Foster wrote a wonderful little book entitled “The Freedom of Simplicity”. In it he makes the case for the very thing Paul calls for in the verses from 1 Timothy cited above. Foster maintains that when we simplify our lives and learn to be content with less instead of more, we suddenly discover a sense of freedom that we never experienced before. We come to realize that we had actually been held captive by our complex lives of packed schedules, never ending demands, and huge financial burdens. Breaking free from that is liberating. We may end up with less money and fewer possessions, but the quality of life actually improves substantially.

 

It’s true, godliness with contentment can be a great gain for us. Sometimes we need to simplify our lives by downsizing.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Friday September 12th

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Boundaries”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “The one who will not use the rod hates his son, but the one who loves him disciplines him diligently.” Proverbs 13:24 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Enforcing boundaries is an important part of loving someone”

 

Many years ago Dr. James Dobson from Focus on the Family coined the phrase “Tough Love”. Tough Love is a parenting concept which teaches that when we love someone we sometimes must be tough with them for their own good. With respect to children, they need firm boundaries in order to learn right from wrong, and they need to experience discipline when they violate those boundaries. If the parent fails to discipline the child when needed, the parent has failed in their role as teacher, mentor, and trainer. Sometimes tough love is the highest form of love.

 

But the concept of tough love doesn’t just apply to the parent/child relationship. It actually spans the spectrum of relationships and ages. Whether we’re dealing with a minor child, an adult child, a spouse, a relative, a friend, or a co-worker, sometimes tough love is needed, and failure on our part to initiate that tough love translates into enabling bad behavior.

 

In recent years I’ve been devoting a lot of time to working with men in various levels of incarceration, helping them to break free from the endless cycle of drugs, crime, jail, and then repeating the sequence. Currently I’m reading a book by Donald Smarto entitled “Keeping Ex-Offenders Free!” In one section he writes about applying “tough love” in our efforts to help ex-offenders get their lives turned around:

 

“The type of structure the church needs to provide ex-offenders is not unlike that provided by parental authority. Love must nurture and understand, but it must also provide boundaries, limits, and standards. The parent who never communicates values to the child, who never says no, is not helping the child grow. Without guidelines, the child drifts into an environment without boundaries and fails to develop mature values and a sense of responsibility.”

 

Smarto concludes with this: “Real love for ex-offenders must include discipline. But discipline does not concern itself merely with punishment. That is a common misconception. The word discipline has at its root the word disciple, which means to show people the right way through example and modeling.”

 

Regardless of the relationship we’re talking about, clear and firmly established boundaries, the enforcement of those boundaries, and appropriate consequences when those boundaries have been violated, is actually one of the highest forms of loving someone. For us to do less for them is to fail them.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim