Devotional for Monday July 7th

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Here I am today, 85 years old. I am still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out. My strength for battle and for daily tasks is now as it was then.” Joshua 14:10-11 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “What kind of old person do you want to be?”

 

It’s a good question, really – “What kind of old person do you want to be?” Although unfortunately not everyone has the privilege of growing old because some people die young, statistically most of us will grow old. So, what kind of old person do you want to be?

 

I know what kind I do not want to be – I don’t want to be a grumpy old man. I don’t want to be the guy who is sour and petulant, always complaining about the younger generation and constantly going on and on about his health problems, and what medicines he’s on, and how much his gout is bothering him today, and so on. I don’t want to be Mr. Wilson from the Dennis the Menace comic strip.

 

I want to be like Dallas Willard who, the older he got the more peaceful, joyful, and serene he became. I want to be like Dick DeGrow, a retired pastor who at 75 years old joyfully cleaned the restrooms at church every week simply because he loved being useful in the house of the Lord. I want to be like former President George H.W. Bush, 90 years old and still jumping out of airplanes. And I want to be like Caleb (see Joshua 14:10-11 above), 85 years old and still ready to storm the gates of hell with a water pistol.

 

But here’s the thing – none of those men woke up on the morning of their 75th birthday to discover they had suddenly, magically, become the men they now were in their old age. No, they became those men slowly, progressively, over the course of many years. Here’s an important truth to consider and embrace – “In order to be the person you want to be then, you must be in the process of becoming that person now.” Think about that: “In order to be the person you want to be then, you must be in the process of becoming that person now.”

 

This is the business of spiritual formation. This is what soul-care is all about. It’s about the process of slowly but progressively – over decades of transformation, becoming the man or woman God wants you to be. Ideally, after walking closely with Jesus for decades, and by paying careful attention to the health of your soul, you should be at your very best spiritually in your twilight years. The twilight years should be the highlight years. Physically you might be in decline but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually you should be a champion prize fighter. But that will only be true if the growth and transformation is taking place now.

 

It really is true that in order to be the person you want to be then, you must be in the process of becoming that person now. That happens when you do the things necessary, on a daily basis, to take care of your soul.  What kind of old person will you be?

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Saturday and Sunday July 5-6

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, dedicated to the Lord.” Exodus 31:15 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “The soul needs the Sabbath”

 

This year the fourth of July fell on a Friday and therefore many people get to enjoy an extended weekend. That’s good because most of us can use the rest. Just start thinking about a three day weekend and you can feel the stress and strain begin to melt away – just the thought of it causes your body to begin to relax. Why is that? Because we need regular extended down times just to rest and relax. Our body needs it and our soul needs it too.

 

This was one of the two reasons God established the requirement of Sabbath. First, it’s a day when His people are to gather together for worship and to focus especially and specifically on Him. But it’s also intended to be a day of rest. It’s a day when our labor is to stop, we are to put all the busyness on hold, and we are to be intentional about resting in the Lord – physically resting but also spiritually resting. This is a time for renewal and refreshing.

 

When we observe a weekly Sabbath it helps to establish a healthy rhythm to life. It causes us to be intentional about unplugging from life and allowing the body and soul to rest. And as the term “rhythm” implies, once we have it down to a regular and consistent habit, it becomes part of the natural flow of our life. This is when we’re at our best. We humans are creatures of habit. We’re at our best when we’re in the groove and we’ve become conditioned to smooth and regular cycles in life. Faithfully observing the Sabbath keeps us in that groove; it establishes that smooth and healthy rhythm.

 

And once we have that healthy rhythm of life in place on a weekly scale, we can shrink the pattern down to fit our daily routine. As part of our daily rhythm of life we also need a regular time of rest and renewal. We often call this “quiet time” but it is in effect a daily Sabbath.

 

The soul needs Sabbath, weekly and daily. I encourage you to observe yours this week, and then every day.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Friday July 4th

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

Our Bible verse for today: “Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.” Psalm 61:1-3 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “God calls us to higher ground”

Have you ever stood at the bottom of a high mountain and contemplated what it must be like up on the peak? You imagine that it would be a great adventure to get there and that the view at the top would be spectacular, but you also imagine that the space at the top would be small and limited, so-much-so that you might even be in danger of falling off. But then once you make it to the top you’re surprised to discover that what appeared to be a tiny peak from the bottom, actually turned out to be a wide plateau at the top and that if you wanted to you could actually have spread out, set up a tent, and safely camped out.

Higher spiritual ground is like that too. When the Lord is calling us to join Him at a higher spiritual place it can seem like a great adventure, and we can anticipate the prospect of a spiritual mountaintop experience, but we also often envision it as being constricted and limited. Surely the spiritual discipline required to get to that height with the Lord is not something we can or would want to try to maintain. We’re not cloistered monks after all.

But lo and behold, once we get there we discover that just like the physical mountaintop I described earlier, this new and higher spiritual ground also turns out to be a vast plateau where we can easily and comfortably spread out and live a full life with the Lord. The difference is that we are now at a new and better place with the Lord. This higher ground with the Lord is a better and safer place to live than where we were before. The predators that live and thrive in the lower lying regions of life aren’t such a threat in this new higher place. Oh, sometimes they may still manage to make it there where we are, but they’re out of their element and we are in a stronger place of refuge with the Lord.

Spiritual formation, and the associated soul-care, helps to bring us to new higher ground with the Lord and when we get there, we discover it’s a much better, and a much safer place to live. I encourage you to move up to higher ground with the Lord today.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Thursday July 3rd

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

Our Bible verse for today: “God has made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.” Ecclesiastes 7:29 TEV

Our thought for today: “We need a simpler lifestyle”

One of the books I was reading while on vacation was called “Replenish” by Lance Witt. The subtitle is “Leading from a Healthy Soul”. It was written primarily for pastors but the lessons apply to all of us. In one chapter Lance told a story that I and every other pastor can immediately identify with. It was about the phone call that comes at 3:00 AM regarding an emergency someone is going through. Lance told the story on himself but I’ve been guilty of this identical thing. The caller begins with “Pastor, I’m sorry to wake you but …” And I interrupted with, “That’s ok, I wasn’t sleeping”.

That, of course, was a lie. I was sleeping. I was sound asleep and I was enjoying it. So why did I say I wasn’t? Let me be clear that I did not intentionally lie to the person. The words were out of my mouth before I even realized I was saying them. However after thinking about it I realized I made that statement for two reasons. One was that I didn’t want the person to feel bad about waking me up, so I told them I wasn’t asleep anyway. But the second reason was I realized that I kind of liked projecting the image that I’m Super Pastor, I don’t sleep. Even at 3:00 AM I’m awake and I’m praying for you.

Many of us, me included, wear our busyness like a badge of honor. We think it makes us look important. People need us, we have responsibilities, things won’t get done (or get done right) without my involvement. However by living like that, over time we develop a hurried spirit. Even in those rare moments when the body is still, the mind is racing and the soul is unsettled. This is toxic. It damages the soul.

Lance tells the story of how when white men first started to come to Africa the Swahili invented a unique term to describe them – “mazungu”, or “one who spins around.” Many of you reading this, and the one writing it, could fairly be called “mazungus” – we spend much of our time spinning like tops.

In the NIV Psalm 46:10 only contains eight words, twenty four letters, but it is profoundly convicting, “BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.”

Quiet time with the Lord helps to remind us that we don’t have to be productive all the time, we don’t have to always be doing things. In truth, we would actually end up being more productive and more effective if we would just spend a little more time doing nothing except sitting quietly with the Lord. We would then be refreshed and refocused and reenergized.

God has made us plain and simple, and that’s the way He wants us. We’re the ones who have made ourselves so darn complicated.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Wednesday July 2nd

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.” Revelation 2:4 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “Our soul must return to it’s first love.”

 

Do you remember what it was like shortly after you placed your faith in Jesus? Do you remember how enthused you were, how eager to learn and grow in the Lord? I do. I felt like I had wasted the first thirty-five years of my life and I wanted to make up for all that I had missed. So I read the Bible cover-to-cover twice in my first year as a Christian; I memorized Scripture; I listened only to Christian music; I was in church virtually any time the doors were open. And I’ll bet your post-conversion story is similar.

 

It’s a common story, this passionate pursuit of God shortly after conversion. Our soul is thirsty for God and our growth comes in leaps and bounds. Unfortunately somewhere along the journey many people begin to lose touch with what’s going on inside them. The practice of the Christian faith becomes routine and even dull, our passion for the Lord ebbs, and in time we become lukewarm spiritually. And we know how Jesus feels about that. In Revelation 3:14-16 He says lukewarm spirituality is repulsive to Him to the point that He wants to spit it out of His mouth. 

 

Being mindful of the condition of our soul, and intentionally engaging in soul-care, is essential. Our world is filled with pressures and demands which draw our attention away from the interior life. We are surrounded by seductive distractions which combine to desensitize us spiritually. Further, we’re fooled into believing that a little outward religious activity, such as being relatively faithful to attending a one hour service on Sunday, will suffice in keeping the soul healthy. It just isn’t so. Spiritual health is an inside-out job. It doesn’t happen as a result in engaging in a little outward religious ritual. It occurs only when we intentionally invest the time to be with God in solitude so He can change us on the inside. It will then manifest itself in outward things like corporate worship and acts of service, but it starts on the inside and works its way out.

 

But here’s the thing: Once we begin experiencing God like that – really experiencing Him – we discover the joy and enthusiasm is returning. That love and passion for the Lord that we had at first – that first love – begins to come back. In that respect our relationship with God is no different than our relationship with any other person. The more you love them, the more time you will want to spend with them. And the more time you spend with them, the more you will learn to love them.

 

Many of us have lost our first love for the Lord. Oh, the love is still there, sort of. But not like it used to be. We need to return to our first love and we do that by simply spending time with Him.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim
 

Devotional for Tuesday July 1st

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.” Psalm 23:1-3 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “The soul needs times of renewal”

 

As I write this I’m nearing the end of a short time of vacation. The year that just passed was unusual in the amount of stress and pressure and difficult problems it included. Also, the sheer pace of life and the amount of daily busyness was intense. And so I was physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually running on fumes. It was time to shut down for a while. My soul needed rest.

 

But I know my life is really no different from yours. Many of you live at an even faster pace and your pressures are greater. You need soul-care just as much as I do, even if that doesn’t involve an actual vacation at the moment. That’s why I’ve decided to continue our study of taking care of the soul for an additional month. Writing the devotionals on this topic has been helpful and therapeutic for me personally, and many of you have said they have been helpful for you as well. That’s also why I’ve used this passage from Psalm 23 again – because it so beautifully describes what the Lord calls us to, and what He does for us. He calls us to stop with Him, to rest, and to be restored.

 

We live in a world today that presents special challenges to those of us committed to taking care of our souls. The pace of life, the constant pressures and demands, the noise and distractions, can all have a detrimental effect on the interior landscape of the soul. We have to be careful. We have to be intentional. We have to guard our soul.

 

This is not just true for pastors. Yes, a healthy church will need to have a healthy pastor. But a healthy church must also have healthy church members. Those who study church life in the USA are becoming increasingly aware of the truth that the central and most important issue for a church is not growth but health. While it’s true that numerical growth will often be an outgrowth of spiritual health, it’s truer still that having a small number of spiritually healthy people is more important and more meaningful than a large number of spiritually sick people. A large church full of spiritually sick people is just that – a large church full of spiritually sick people. Health is what matters most.

 

The soul needs times of renewal. And so together we’ll spend an additional month devotionally exploring ways to help us all achieve a healthy and well cared for soul.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Saturday and Sunday June 28-29

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

Our Bible verse for today: “A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” Proverbs 25:11 (NIV)

Our thought to today: “Words nourish the soul”

Words are like food to the soul. Words communicate profound meaning and on the receiving side they impact us in the deepest place, the soul. That’s why Solomon portrays them as being as appealing as decorative apples made of gold and displayed in a silver setting. A kind word aptly spoken is beautiful and deeply pleasing; it has the capacity to warm the heart and bless the soul.

Not only do words come from the soul but they are also received in the soul. They come from deep within us, reveal our innermost thoughts, and are received by the hearer at that same deep level. This is what Jesus was referring to in Matthew 12:34-35 when He said that it is out of the overflow of our heart that our mouth speaks.

The impact words have on the soul is also what makes the reading, hearing, and studying of God’s Word so important. Psalm 19:7 tells us that the Word of God revives and refreshes the soul.

This Sunday you will be gathered with your church family and there will be many words spoken. Some of those words will be spoken in idle conversation; some may be shallow clichés; some of them may even be harsh words. But what if the words spoken in all our churches this Sunday are life-giving words? What if we were all intentional about speaking life and encouragement to one another and at deep levels – soul to soul? 

Your words come from your soul and the souls of those who hear those words will feed on them, good or bad. I encourage you to make it a point to speak words of life and encouragement and nurture.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Friday June 27th

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

Our Bible verse for today: “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.” John 16:33 (HCSB)


Our thought for today: “Suffering strengthens the soul”

You may remember from previous devotionals this month that when this life is over, the only thing you get to take with you is your soul. Everything else gets left behind. Your house, your cars, your jewelry, your friends and family, even your physical body, it all stays behind and you go forward into eternity with only your soul. That being the case, the most important thing we can accomplish in this lifetime is the achievement of a healthy soul to take with us into eternity.

And so we come to the subject of suffering. Does suffering really strengthen the soul? Yes it does. Suffering draws us to Jesus. When we’re hurting it causes us to realize how much we need the Lord and it draws us to Him. I have known many people over the years who had to travel through the valley of serious illness only to find that in the middle of the pain and suffering they found comfort and assurance in the Lord. They came out of that time of sickness stronger in their faith. I’ve known others whose lives unexpectedly came crashing down around them as they lost a marriage, a job, a home, their savings, and were left with almost nothing. But they found solace and support in the Lord and in a good church family. They ended up coming through that time stronger in their faith than before that experience. C.S. Lewis once wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures but shouts to us in our pain.” Yes He does.

I can think of so many examples of sickness, suffering, and tragedy turning out to be life altering events for the better. That’s because when a tragic event cuts us right to the bone, the superfluous stuff of life falls away and all that’s left is that which really matters. Rick Warren wrote, “We are more likely to change because we felt the heat than because we saw the light!” That’s very true. It’s often in the furnace of adversity that we learn out greatest lessons.

Romans 8:28 assures us “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, those who are called according to His purpose.” (HCSB) That doesn’t mean that all things are good – obviously not all things are. But it does mean that God is at work on our behalf in the midst of tragic circumstances to bring some good thing out of it for us. One of those things can and often is a stronger, healthier, more mature soul. Suffering often strengthens the soul.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim
 

Devotional for Thursday June 26th

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

Our Bible verse for today: “This is why I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be provided for you.” Matthew 6:25; 33 (HCSB) 

Our thought for today: “A healthy soul has learned to relax in the Lord”

Recently I have been studying the writings of the great devotional writer Oswald Chambers. When referring to the passage above from the Sermon on the Mount, Chambers made an interesting observation about the person who has learned to rest and trust in the Lord. He wrote:

“The Christianity of Jesus Christ refuses to be careworn. Our Lord is indicating that we have to be carefully careless about everything saving our relationship with Him.” This is exactly what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote in Philippians 4:11 “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.”

Over time, as we consistently and persistently do the things necessary to properly care for our soul, not only do we mature in our relationship with Christ but we also become the kind of people who are relaxed and content. There is an unhurried air about us we navigate the turbulence of life with a quiet confidence in the Lord. It’s like Dallas Willard used to teach, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry and anxiety from your life.”

That doesn’t mean that we dismiss our problems and don’t do anything about them, it simply means that we trust in the Lord to help us deal with them. We know that He is Sovereign over all the situations of our lives, He has a perfect plan, and that He has the power to influence situations and people as needed. And so, we simply and confidently walk through the situations with Him.

This is what both Jesus and Paul were referring to. It is the fruit of a healthy soul that has learned to relax in the Lord.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Devotional For Tuesday June 24th

Good Morning Everyone,


Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”


Our Bible verse for today: “Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.” Mark 6:31-32 (NIV)


When it comes to taking care of the soul, Jesus set a great example for us. Jesus – God in a human body – made it a point to take care of Himself spiritually, and then He instructed His followers to do likewise. Matthew 14:13, Mark 2:35, and Mark 6:46 are just a few of the passages which show us Jesus withdrawing for personal quiet time. Matthew 17:1-13, Mark 3:13, and Mark 6:31-32 are a few where we see Jesus including His closest followers in a sort of group retreat.  As author John Ortberg explained, the point is that Jesus set an example for us with respect to properly caring for the soul and He engaged in specific identifiable practices towards that end:


1. He prayed.

2. He had a close circle of devout friends who walked through life with Him.

3. He engaged in regular corporate worship in the synagogue.
4. He was very familiar with the Word of God and referred to it often.
5. He enjoyed and marveled are God’s creation.
6. He enjoyed the solitude of long walks and personal quiet time.
7. He sometimes included others in His special times with the Father.


The lesson we learn from Jesus’ example is that we need to engage in practices which connect us to God’s grace and energy and joy. In other words, we need to take care of our soul. I encourage you to follow Jesus’ example and to do some of those things today.


God Bless

Pastor Jim