Devotional for Monday November 18th

Good Morning Everyone,
 
Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”
 
Our Bible verse for today: “Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different activities, but the same God activates each gift in each person. A demonstration of the Spirit is given to each person to produce what is beneficial.” 1 Corinthians 12:6-7 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Trust that God has given you the spiritual gifts, the skills and the abilities that He wants you to have.”
 
“Gift envy” is often a problem in the church. That’s especially true when it comes to the higher profile gifts like preaching, teaching, singing, or playing a musical instrument. Often people who don’t have those gifts wish they did and they’re frequently left feeling as if they don’t have as much to contribute to the cause of Christ.
 
Nothing could be further from the truth. Once you’ve read this short devotional message I encourage you to open your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and read the whole chapter. There Paul makes it clear that just as the human body needs every part – from fingers to toes and from spleen to kidneys, so too does the Body of Christ need every part. God has endowed each of us with different gifts, skills and abilities, and they are all needed.
 
Those of you who know me know that I can preach and teach a little bit, but I can’t fix anything. If something has more than two moving parts then I’m confused. Auto mechanics is a mystery to me. Leaky faucets are left to drip until I can find someone who knows how to operate a wrench. Electrical problems, stopped up drains, burned out light bulbs – I’m so grateful for those at the church who understand those things and take care of them so I don’t have to! (Ok, I can change a light bulb but you get my point.)
 
God in His wisdom has created us all different and He has given each of us different gifts and abilities that we can then contribute to the overall effort and for the common good. Rather than wishing we had someone else’s gifts or abilities we need to focus on using well the ones we do have. We have to trust that God has given us what He wants us to have and we are to then use it for His glory and for the benefit of others.
 
God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Saturday and Sunday November 16 & 17

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb, I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well.” Psalm 139:13-14 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Trust God for who you are.”

When I was a young boy I secretly wanted to be Timmy the boy on the show “Lassie”. He had a nice home, a great dog, and he was always involved in some perilous adventure that was dangerous, but always ended well. As a teenager I wanted to be Desi Arnez Jr. No, not Lucy’s husband, that was Ricky Ricardo, I’m talking about their son – “Little Ricky” on the show but “Desi Jr.” in real life. I wanted to be him. As a teenager he was rich, good looking, and he had a band with one of the sons of Dean Martin. He was also frequently on the cover of “Teen Beat” magazine. Desi was cool. And I was not.

Since then I’ve only wanted to be 6′ 3″. That’s it. Not anybody else in particular, just tall.

If you’re willing to be transparent and honest about this then I think you’ll admit to having similar thoughts about yourself. Why do we do that? Why can’t we be happy with who God created us to be? The truth is that those people we’re thinking we would like to be like they’re almost certainly wishing they were different too.

The Biblical truth is that God created us to be the person He wants us to be. He determined who our father and mother would be. He knit us together in our mother’s womb. He was the one who decided how tall we would be, the color of our eyes, the natural abilities we would be endowed with, and everything else about us. And since He is sovereign, since He is all-knowing, all-wise, and since He loves us fully and unconditionally, we can relax and just trust Him for who He created us to be.

Of course that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to improve ourselves in areas that need improvement, and it is ok to work to develop skills and talents that we weren’t born with, but we still need to learn to be happy with who we are. The blues singer and actress Ethel Waters put it well when she famously said, “Honey, God don’t create no junk!”

The fact is that I’m never going to get those extra five inches of height and so I need to be happy at 5′ 10″. And for the most part, you are going to continue to be you, just as God created you. How much better would this world be if all of us simply learned to be comfortable in our own skin?

I encourage you to simply trust God for who you are.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Friday November 15

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. I will be with you when you pass through the waters, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you.” Isaiah 43:1-2 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “You can trust in God’s presence”

As a Pastor I often have the privilege of praying for people in distress. As we sit in my office talking about some bad situation they’re experiencing in their lives, or as I’m visiting with them in the hospital, or the nursing home, or worse, with the family in the funeral home, I will often pray and ask God to give them an increased awareness of His presence in their lives. At such times we need the assurance that God is with us.

The beautiful truth is that He is always with us whether we sense His presence or not. In the Bible He has actually gone to great lengths to convince us of that truth. Someday I want to do a personal Bible study of this. I want to start in chapter one, verse one, of Genesis and slowly scan every verse in the Bible – all the way through to the last verse in Revelation, and count up the number times God has reassured us in writing of His presence with us.

“Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 (HCSB)

“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)

“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20 (HCSB)

I could fill many pages with similar promises from God but the truth is already evident that He is always with us and He wants us to know it. There are a lot of things in this life that you cannot trust in, but one thing you can always be sure of is God’s presence with you. It’s a great and reassuring truth that we can always trust in God’s presence.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Thursday November 14

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His faithful love toward those who fear Him.” Psalm 103:11 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “We can trust in God’s love”

Sometimes when life is hard, especially during times of tragedy or great suffering, we can be tempted to doubt God’s love for us. Oh, we probably wouldn’t voice those doubts, or even admit them to ourselves, but down deep they’re there. In the back of our mind and deep in the heart we find ourselves wondering that if God really does love us completely and unconditionally, then why would He allow this thing into our lives. “It hurts so much and is creating such problems that surely if God loved me as much as He professes to, and since He could do something about this if He wanted to, does He really love me?”

I wish there was a quick and easy answer to that issue but there isn’t. God does love us, and He is all-powerful, and so yes He could prevent or correct whatever the issue is – and you would think He would want to, and yet He often doesn’t. But that doesn’t diminish His love for us. At such times we must appeal to the truth of Scripture:

“Steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts the Lord.” Psalm 32:10 (ESV)

“The mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you.” Isaiah 54:10 (ESV)

“For God so loved the world that He gave His One and only Son …” John 3:16 (NIV)

“For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” Romans 8:38-39 (HCSB)

“God is love.” 1 John 4:8

Regardless of what you’re going through in life at the moment, God’s love for you has not changed. His love for you is perfect, it is unconditional, and it is everlasting. You can trust in God’s love.

God Bless, Pastor Jim

Devotional for Wednesday November 13th

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

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 in 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 can trust God because He has infinite wisdom.”

Here’s a truth that I have always found very comforting: “God is smarter than I am.” Yup, it’s true. God is smarter than me and therefore His wisdom far exceeds my own; His perspective matters more than mine does; and I can trust Him a lot more than I can trust myself.

Since it is true that God is smarter than me (He’s smarter than you too by the way), and since His ways are better than my ways, then it makes sense for me (and for you) to seek His ways instead of my own. The reasons for that are pretty obvious. For example, there are some real knuckleheads in this world who sometimes make me pretty mad. If I simply ignore them then I’ll probably end up living happily ever after anyway. But if I give into my impulse and actually do go ahead and strangle them (thereby breaking the sixth commandment), I’ll end up going to prison. So there you have it, God’s way is better than my way.

Likewise, sometimes the lazy side of me gains the upper hand and I start thinking about how nice it would be to not have to work. But then I’m reminded of what Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 that if a man doesn’t work he has no right to eat. That in turn causes me to think about how much I love my chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and I’m reminded that said ice cream is not free, and off I go to work. Once again God is proved right.

The point in all this? God is smarter than we are. He knows what is best for us in every situation. We can trust Him because He has infinite wisdom and therefore His ways are always best.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Devotional for Tuesday November 12th

Good Morning Everyone,
 
Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”
 
Our Bible verse for today: “The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:1-2 (HCSB)
 
Our thought for today: “God protects us.”
 
As you’re reading this I’m preparing to get on an airplane to fly from Knoxville, TN to Atlanta, GA. Then I’ll take another to fly from Atlanta to Lima, Peru. Then a third will take me from Lima to Cusco. While in the city of Cusco I’ll be riding in taxis driven by Kamikaze drivers in a city with crazy traffic schemes and governed by traffic laws that nobody obeys anyway. After a few days I’ll take another plane down into the Amazon basin where I will get in a 50 foot canoe for two days of travel on the river up into the rainforest. There will be alligators, piranhas, snakes, and malaria bearing mosquitoes. After a few days of that we’ll reverse the process and head home.
 
Of course I’ll take appropriate precautions and use common sense. If the pilot arrives for the flight and is noticeably drunk I won’t get on the plane unless they replace the pilot. I’ll try to select taxi drivers who don’t appear to have a death wish either for themselves or for me. And I will take my malaria pills.
 
But am I really putting my trust in sober pilots, save drivers, and little white pills? I’m foolish if I am. There are too many variables in play there. No, my trust is in the Lord who is sovereign over airline pilots, taxi drivers, and mosquitoes – and over every other event in my life as well. My God is the One who knew me before I was formed in the womb; He is the One who numbered all my days before a single one began; and He is the All-knowing, Always-present, and All-powerful God of the universe. While it is up to me to use common sense and to take appropriate precautions, ultimately He is the One in control of it all.
 
That’s true in your life too. The next two weeks in your life may look a little different then what I’m looking forward to, but yours will also be filled with risks and dangers – some of them seen and known to you, but many of them not. Who or what are you putting your trust in? I encourage you do you part – be smart and be safe – but then turn it over to the only One who is really in control anyway.
 
God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Monday November 11th

Good Morning Everyone,
 
Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”
 
Our Bible verse for today: “Trust in the Lord and do what is good.” Psalm 37:3 (HCSB)
 
Our thought for today: “Trust the Lord, but do your part too.”
 
One lesson the Bible makes very clear is that God works in and through His people. It’s very much a partnership. It started in the Garden of Eden when God gave Adam the responsibility to care for the Garden. It’s not clear from Scripture what exactly Adam’s stewardship of the Garden involved, but it is clear that God tasked him with some amount of responsibility for caring for his environment.
 
Since God is Omnipotent it was certainly within His power to take care of the Garden Himself – He really didn’t need Adam’s involvement, and yet God clearly wanted Adam’s participation. In some way it would be good for Adam to have that responsibility. The same is true for us. God does bless us, and God does provide for us, but those blessings and provisions almost always come as a result of our active participation with God. Like Adam, we too have responsibilities assigned to us by God and we must be faithful to them.
 
The Bible never allows the people of God to use our utter dependence on God as an excuse for being lazy. God makes His feelings about that pretty clear. “The slacker does not plow during planting season; at harvest time he looks, and there is nothing.” Proverbs 20:4 (HCSB) “If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10 (HCSB)
 
It’s true that every good thing, every blessing, comes to us from the hand of God. It’s also true that we can trust God to care for us and to provide for us, but we do have a responsibility to be involved in providing for ourselves as well. We can trust the Lord, but we must do our part too.
 
God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Saturday and Sunday November 9-10

Good Morning Everyone,
 
Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”
 
Our Bible verse for today: “For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised.” Hebrews 10:36 (HCSB)
 
Our thought for today: “Trust God to help you persevere”
 
Author Jerry Bridges writes, “Perseverance is the quality of character that enables one to pursue a goal in spite of obstacles and difficulties. It’s one thing to simply bear up under adversity. This in itself is commendable. But the Christian life is meant to be active, not passive. We’re called to diligently pursue God’s will. He calls us to do more than simply bear the load of adversity; He calls us to persevere (to press forward) in the face of it.”
 
God wants us to live well in spite of obstacles and difficulties. He wants us to “run with endurance” (Hebrews 12:1). This is a theme many of the New Testament writers addressed including Paul (Romans 5:3) and James (James 1:3). In Paul’s case he portrays endurance and perseverance as part of a growing process that makes us stronger and more mature. Similar to an exercise program that progressively results in bigger and stronger muscles, perseverance makes us stronger in character, it gives us confidence to face future difficulties, and it makes us more spiritually mature.
 
The Christian life has often been compared to a marathon race. That’s a good metaphor in that it expresses the long-term nature of the effort and the endurance required to complete it. But as Jerry Bridges observed, “The Christian life could be better described as an obstacle course of marathon length.”
 
Imagine a marathon twenty-six miles long but instead of a long flat course it includes walls to climb, streams to forge, hedges to jump over, and mean dogs chasing after you (demons). That description probably better captures the essence of the Christian life. This stuff isn’t for sissies.
 
However we’re not necessarily talking about strong physical bodies and physical fitness here. This is spiritual. It’s about strong faith and spiritual maturity and while it may be found in a physically fit twenty-five year old athlete, we’ll more likely see it in a seventy-five year old grandmother who has lived a long life of faithfulness filled with good spiritual disciplines. Sandwiched between his calls for perseverance and endurance in Hebrews 10:36 and 12:1, the writer included an entire chapter on faith, Hebrews 11. It’s strong faith that enables and empowers perseverance and endurance.
 
Perseverance and endurance are essential elements of the Christian life lived well. Through faith and obedience you can trust God to help you achieve it.
 
God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Friday November 8th

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “You can trust God to guide you.”

Christians who love the Lord will genuinely want to know His will and then be obedient to it. However in my years as a pastor I’ve discovered over and over again that well-intentioned Christians often allow themselves to get tied up in knots with worry about whether or not they understand the Lord’s will in any given situation. That then causes them to fret and worry and to hesitate to take any action at all.

Proverbs 3:5-6 is a verse that has helped me personally and it’s one of those Bible promises I frequently point others to. Let’s take a closer look at it. First, Solomon urges the reader to trust the Lord with all your heart. He’s talking about having a heart that is fully and truly surrendered to the Lord. This is a person who genuinely desires to understand and obey God.

He then urges us to not rely on our own understanding of the situation. Our own perspective is often skewed by personal biases, emotions, our own desires, and just plain wrong thinking. Instead we are to think about Him in all our ways. In other words our question needs to be, “What does God have to say about this?” And the way we discover what God has to say about it is through the Bible. We seek His will and His way in His Word. We should also rely on the counsel of a trusted Christian friend or two, and perhaps our Pastor as well.

Then we can trust Him to guide us on the right paths. My friend, God does have a purpose and a plan for you, and He does want to be understood by you. If your heart is right and you are making a sincere effort to understand Him and obey Him, then you can trust that He will not allow you to go astray. You can trust God to guide you.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Devotional for Thursday November 7th

Good Morning Everyone,
 
Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”
 
Our Bible verse for today: “For I know the plans I have for you – this is the Lord’s declaration – plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 (HCSB)
 
Our thought for today: “You can trust God for your future”
 
In a previous devotional this month I have written about God’s Sovereignty – the fact that God is in absolute and total control over everything and that He functions as He pleases. If that’s all we knew about God, that He is All-Powerful and does whatever He wants, it could potentially terrify us. After all, an all-powerful being with less than noble intentions could be a really bad thing.
 
However God is not only Sovereign but He is also good and just, He is perfect in love and infinite in mercy. God always exercises His power for His own glory and for the good of His people. That’s what He was saying in Jeremiah 29:11.
 
This is an important understanding and God wants us to grasp it, so He repeats it over and over again all throughout the Bible. In Ephesians 1:11 Paul tells us about the wonderful inheritance God has willed for us. In Romans 8:28 we are assured that even in the worst of situations God is at work in the middle of them bringing some good thing out of it for us. Ephesians 2:10 says that we are actually the workmanship of the Father’s hand created to do good works for Jesus. In Psalm 138:8 King David writes of his confident assurance that God will act as necessary to fulfill the good plan He has for us. In Joshua 1:9 He specifically commands us to not be afraid because He is with us, and He will continue to be with us, and therefore we can be confident about the future.
 
Here’s the truth to hold onto today: “You can trust God for your future.”
 
God Bless,
Pastor Jim