Friday Morning Devotion (Gently Setting Someone Right)

Posted on July 20, 2007 by Henry Neufeld

1Brothers and sisters, if anyone is found in some transgression, you who are led by the Spirit must set him right with a gentle spirit, all the while watching yourself so that you are not tempted as well. 2Carry one another’s loads. In this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. — Galatians 6:1-2

It’s interesting how these devotionals come together. When Jody and I agreed that I would share the writing as she accomplishes several other things, including writing on her next book, I wondered how I’d manage to produce enough devotionals. Jody has been gifted for the five minute devotional thought—an important gift. I have been gifted for the five hour thought, also an important gift, provided I can get anyone to listen!

This morning I had barely started to think about a topic for the morning, and I reached over to the Bible I keep on a stand right next to my keyboard to flip pages. I was about to turn the page when my eye fell right on this passage. Now an earlier error had led me to turn to this page to look at a completely different verse, but there it was. I have found that in the weeks since Jody and I made the agreement to share in order to keep the devotionals going and yet give her more time to write, these thoughts keep coming to me. God is faithful to help in my weakness in order to accomplish his call!

Now I’m good at rambling, but I do have a connect. In these two verses Paul calls on us as Christians to do a couple of things that are extremely hard to do. They’re especially hard to do well.

“Gently correcting” is something many aspire to, and many claim, but few accomplish. There are a couple of easy ways out. On the one hand there’s a critical spirit, one that looks for faults in a brother or sister, and takes joy in pointing them out. Combined with cowardice, this results in gossip. We look critically at someone else’s behavior, but we don’t have the courage to tell them. Perhaps if we think about gossip as cowardice, we will refrain from doing it.

On the other hand there is a refusal to take the responsibility to help someone out. And it is helping! When I preach, for example, I appreciate all the folks who shake my hand afterward and say, “Good message, brother.” It’s nice to hear that. But what is really valuable is when someone comes out of the sermon and says, “I enjoyed that, but I have a couple of questions.” Then I know that I’m going to learn something new about how to communicate, or I may find that I’ve conveyed a message other than what I intended to say. The point is that the criticism (constructive!) is valuable. The other form of cowardice is the refusal to take on the task of correction when it is your responsibility and when it’s necessary.

Once we do realize that correction is necessary, and that we are the ones God has called to offer it, we still face the problem of doing it with a gentle spirit. Spiritual pride tells us that we’re better that this other person, because we don’t have the weakness we’ve identified in them. That’s one reason Paul tells us to be careful lest we fall into temptation ourselves. There’s nothing like a good dose of superiority to make one vulnerable to the devil’s attacks!

There’s a similar problem with bearing one another’s burdens. It’s quite easy for us to push a brother or sister aside in the name of bearing their burdens. There’s nothing that will destroy potential leadership in a church or business like a leader who either takes over the task at the first sign of difficulty, or who hands it off to someone else. Similarly, we can grab someone else’s job in the name of bearing their burden, and cut off their own growth as leaders.

And this brings me back to my opening. God’s commands come with God’s gifts. Paul addresses this to those “who are lead by the Spirit.” If you make it your determination to obey, and listen to the Holy Spirit, you will find the opportunities opening up, just as God helps me find one page devotionals each and every morning that I need them.

With God, command equals empowerment, if we’ll just receive it.

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Thursday Morning Devotion (Why Do You Want to Live?)

Posted on July 19, 2007 by Henry Neufeld

Before I quote today’s scripture, imagine that you’re ill and needing healing. If you are not healed, you will die. How would you fill in the blank in the following question? Don’t cheat by reading ahead!

Lord, let me live so that I can ________________________.

Now suppose you’re blind. You want God to give you sight. Fill in the blank again:

Lord, heal my sight so that I can see _____________________.

And again, what do you most hope God will not hide from you?

Here’s how the psalmist answers:

(17) Be merciful to your servant that I may live,
That I may keep your word.
(18) Unveil my eyes, so I can see,
Wonderful things from your law.
(19) I’m but a stranger in the land,
Don’t hide your commands from me. — Psalm 119:17-19

I’m often struck by the difference between what we say and Christians and what we do. Please note that the “we” in the sentence is inclusive. I’m talking to myself as well.

We say that we love God’s word. We claim to live our lives according to the Bible. We long for words from the Lord to tell us precisely what to do. But just how much time do we spend actually reading?

I love to read the Bible. I not only have dozens of Bibles in different versions and editions—I’m a collector—but many of those Bibles are marked and worn. But if I’m honest, and I’m thinking about why I would want to live, I can think of many things that would come before “I haven’t finished my last pass through Isaiah yet” or “I’ve got to get to the end of Matthew. I just love the part where Jesus comes back from the dead.”

If I was blind, there are many things I’d want to see. But do “wonderful things from your law” come near the top of that list? As a stranger, would me main concern be knowing God’s will?

I suspect that if we’re honest, God’s word and God’s will doesn’t play the part in our lives that the psalmist insists on in Psalm 119. Much of this is really foreign stuff to us. It’s not that important.

Psalm 19:10 says that God’s words are more to be desired than gold. I’ve frequently asked audiences to imagine that a gold bar and a Bible were left sitting on a church pew, which would go first? Now that may not be fair. The people who walk by might already have a Bible, and they don’t have a gold bar. (Though “thou shalt not steal” might be a consideration.) But if we look in our lives and consider the time we spend keeping our material lives going as opposed to the time we spend with God, the same consideration applies.

I’m not calling for big steps. How about we try adding just a few minutes a day to our reading time, spending just a bit more time studying the word and letting God speak to us? How about looking around your church and finding a regular Bible study and joining it? Perhaps you could read a chapter before you settle in to watch TV or to read secular materials in the evening.

Whatever works for you! My challenge to you is to take a step closer to the attitude of the psalmist.

PS: One of the entries from Jody’s Devotionals was included in this week’s Christian Carnival at Mere Orthodoxy.

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Wednesday Morning Devotion (Lord, Teach Me!)

Posted on July 18, 2007 by Henry Neufeld

(9) How can a young man keep his behavior pure?
By keeping your word.
(10) I have searched for you with all my heart.
Don’t let me wonder from your commands.
(11) I have hidden your word in my heart,
so that I won’t sin against you.
(12) You are blessed, YHWH!
Teach me your decrees.
(13) I have declared with my lips,
all the judgments of your mouth.
(14) I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies,
as much as in any amount of wealth.
(15) I will reflect on your instructions,
And keep my eye on your paths.
(16) Your decrees are my continual delight.
I will not forget your word. — Psalm 119:9-16

From time to time I manage to shock people by saying that I don’t believe that all pastors need to understand Greek and Hebrew. Since my own education focused on the Biblical languages, nearly to the point of excluding all else, people imagine that I think they are the key to life, the universe, and everything, especially theology.

And I do not minimize the benefit of studying the Bible in its original languages. But there’s a risk I take every time I preach or teach from my open Greek or Hebrew Bible. I can easily give the audience, and I suspect most readers of my wife’s devotional list, the idea that they really can’t understand the Bible because they haven’t studied Greek and Hebrew and so they are ever stuck with a superficial understanding of God’s word.

But that’s a lie.

You can study the Bible without knowing the Biblical languages, and you can get deep into your study. You can also be quite accurate, and have thoughts that are worth sharing and teaching. Your sanctification won’t suffer due to this particular lack.

We each have our gifts. The question is whether we will apply our gifts to our study. Frequently I find that in applying a Bible passage, or in figuring out how to teach it, Jody has the words and the experience that I need. Talking to my wife is one of my tools of Bible study. I have met any number of Biblical scholars who need a good dose of talking to somebody like my wife before they get up and teach.

Our passage gives us some suggestions here for meditating in God’s word. Let’s start with verse 9: Keeping or guarding God’s word. One of the key tests for you in discovering God’s will is obedience. Very often we wonder what God wants when we already know.

Then there’s verse 10 and searching. Too often we come to the Bible only when we have a question and we need an urgent answer. We’re in a hurry so we want to scan the concordance and find just the one text that deals with our problem. Try searching God’s word instead, and let your prayer be that God will keep you from wandering.

Verse 11 brings hiding the word in your heart. I know we each have different ways of remembering. For some memorizing the word is best. For others getting a strong grasp of the message of a passage so they can express it in their own words. Whatever works, get some of the word hidden away where you can get hold of it no matter where you are.

I’m going to leave verse 12 for last, so in verse 13 we get declaration. Often we read God’s word, we think about it, but we don’t actually speak. There is a great power in saying what it is that you have learned. Say it out loud. This is good reinforcement for you, it helps keep you accountable, since you have publicly declared the word and your intention to obey, and it might help someone else as well.

Verse 14 gives us rejoicing. Christianity is too often portrayed in our words, but more importantly in our lives, as a series of miseries we go through so we can get to heaven. Try rejoicing in God’s way. Do some rejoicing!

Verse 15 gives us reflection. I’ve already mentioned the emergency verse search, looking for that phrase that has the answer. This verse calls on us to think seriously about what we read over time. Let it sink in and become part of your way of thinking.

Verse 16 tells us not to forget. It’s easy to forget things, but if you follow the previous ideas from this short passage, you will become less likely to forget.

And note that not one of these ideas requires you to be a Biblical scholar, nor do they require you to learn Hebrew or Greek. Don’t reject whatever knowledge you can acquire, but don’t wait to be a scholar to learn from the word.

How does this work? Verse 12—ask the Lord to teach you. God doesn’t have prerequisites on the classes he offers, except that you ask.

Note: A blogging friend of mine wrote something related to this, titled Freaks Don’t Want No Greek. Racy title, eh? But he says some good things.

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Tuesday Morning Devotion (Who do you Serve?)

Posted on July 17, 2007 by Henry Neufeld

5For since there are indeed (things) called gods, whether in heaven or whether on earth, so that there are many gods and many lords, 6but for us, one God the Father from whom comes everything and we are in (to) him, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom comes everything and we through him.
1 Corinthians 8:5-6

In our passage today we find the apostle Paul in debate with the believers in Corinth apparently over food offered to idols. But Paul rarely answered questions such as these narrowly, with a “yes” or “no” only to the specific question. He liked to get down to some principles on which one could base other actions and further learning.

Here he tells us something about the nature of God, the nature of Jesus as part of his argument. Idols are nothing, because we know that there is only one God. But there is also one Lord, Jesus Christ. Paul manages to say some things about Jesus in these few words.

First, let’s look at what he says about God the Father.

  1. There is only one God. It is so easy for us to get our loyalties divided. It was even easier in the pagan world of Corinth, because there were many deities proclaimed and calling for attention. The idea that there was only one seemed very strange to many of these people. In the modern world, we often neglect this point, because we don’t have so many overt calls to worship other deities as deities. But we do have many things taking our focus off of what is ultimately important.
  2. God is the creator of everything. In the world in which there were many gods there was doubt about who was the creator and who was the sovereign. Many of the creation myths involved conflict between the gods, and left the gods subject to natural forces. God as creator of all is sovereign over all. His word is authoritative and does not return empty. He doesn’t have to fight for his place.
  3. We live for God. Paul’s audience may have expected him to start talking about God being in everything. But instead, Paul starts talking about us. We belong to God. We serve God. We are here to do God’s will. That takes the focus off of us and what we want or our rights. We need to look at what God wants.

But Paul now turns to Jesus, and in the way he phrases what he says about Jesus, he makes it clear that Jesus is the Lord, and that Jesus is due the same reverence, authority, worship, praise and service that belongs to God the Father.

  1. Jesus is the one and only Lord. As God is one, so Jesus is one. Jesus and the Father work together. Any notion about God that puts Jesus in opposition to God is false and should be rejected. He has all of the sovereignty of God.
  2. Through Jesus everything was made. Jesus is also the creator. This is a very early statement of some of the principles on which the doctrine of the trinity is based. Jesus and the Father function together, in agreement, in full authority and in full sovereignty. God the creator is also Jesus the creator.
  3. We also owe our service to Jesus, just as we do to God the Father.

Later in this chapter Paul will point out that sinning against one of the people for whom Christ died is a sin against Jesus. And if we understand this passage correctly, we will also understand that it is the creator—the sovereign of the universe that we sin against whenever we hurt one of the least of Christ’s brothers or sisters.

Where is your focus?

Whom do you serve?

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Monday Morning Devotion (Handling Scandal)

Posted on July 16, 2007 by Henry Neufeld

25Keep your eyes looking straight ahead,
Your vision focused straight on where you’re going.
26Examine where you’re putting your foot,
And you’ll be secure in where you’re going.
27Don’t go off to the right or the left.
Turn away from evil. — Proverbs 4:25-27

There have been a number of scandals in the news lately, some of them in politics and some in the church. When scandal comes, those who have to deal with the scandal and those who are not involved have quite a conflicting set of priorities. I’d like to suggest thinking about these a bit, as a way of checking whether we’re keeping in the proper balance.

The first priority I want to mention is revenge. Yes, you read it right: Revenge. (A critical attitude goes hand in hand with revenge.) I mention it first, not because it’s a first priority, but because we need to put a priority on laying that one aside. There is nothing about a situation of scandal in the church, in any community group, or in a government that is aided by the desire for revenge. Often, however, this is the driving force. We lose our sense of perspective. We forget our own weaknesses. We are offended that a person we trusted has fallen and has done something that is, for the moment, unforgivable. If we did not like the person, this can involve our desire for revenge for the ways they have led our church or country that we think are wrong. If you hang on to the motivation of revenge, to making yourself feel better (you hope) because someone has paid, you will find yourself less, not more capable of effectively dealing with the situation.

Second, we want to uphold standards. This one is important. In the church or the country we need to make it clear that certain behavior is wrong. That means something has to be done about the scandalous action that has taken place. Some may see this as contradicting my first point, but I don’t think so. In fact, I think you will find it hard to take action that actually upholds moral standards if your actual motivation is revenge. Get rid of the bitterness, resentment, and the feeling of betrayal, so you can see clearly how best to uphold the standards.

Third, we want to make healing possible for many people who feel betrayed with the loss of trust. People have trusted the fallen leader and looked up to him or her. So When we deal with the situation, we have to consider the impact on the people who feel pain, a type of grief. We can’t count on everyone coming quickly to forgiveness when they are feeling so much pain.

Fourth, we think of redemption. This is especially for Christians. In politics I think in most cases someone involved in a scandal needs to find some other place in which to serve. We cannot expect a society that is diverse in beliefs to truly judge redemption. It could happen, but don’t count on it. In the church, however, we are called to think of redemption. This doesn’t mean that we instantly restore a person involved in scandal to their place of leadership. It does mean that we will listen for God’s leading on ways in which that person, if repentant, can serve.

Now I said all of that so that you know that I understand that there are many issues involved here. But there’s something that is easy for us to forget. You see, very few scandals involve people doing things that they didn’t believe and teach were wrong. In fact, these events are most scandalous when the person involved was vocal about how wrong a certain type of behavior was, and then they are caught in it themselves.

We often almost gloat at how this other person got caught. Underlying that gloating is the idea that we are immune; that we ourselves will not get caught by the same temptation. The devil is going to use all of the things I mentioned—our desire for revenge, upholding standards, helping hurt people, and even redeeming the wrongdoer–to try to keep us from remembering our own weakness.

And that leads to our text today, and the most important response we can have to scandal. When something bad happens, examine your own life. Is there anything in the way you behave that could cause you to fall in a similar way? Is there anything that could cause you to fall in some other way? Are you living a life that is transparent to those around you?

Our text gives the advice. Keep away from evil. Don’t take one step in that direction! And there’s some advice that is even more important. Look straight ahead at where you are going. Many times I’ve had someone come to me to ask about whether some activity was right or wrong. Often the answer is maybe—it depends on the proportions, the purpose, and so on. But often the line is extremely clear for everyone. In either case, you are protected by the advice of Proverbs 4:25—keep your eyes on where you are going.

Don’t ask, “Is it wrong to _____?” Ask, “Is this the right way, the best way for me to behave?” Keep your eye on the ideal, and you’ll do much better avoiding the wrong.

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Friday Morning Devotion (Fun)

Posted on July 13, 2007 by Henry Neufeld

Here’s Jesus in church:

15Then they went into Jerusalem, and after they entered the temple he began to throw out those who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and up-ended those of the dove sellers. — Mark 11:15

And here’s Jesus at parties:

13And he went out again by the sea, and the whole crowd kept coming out to him, and he was teaching them. 14As he was going along he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s station and he said to him, “Follow me!” And he rose up and followed him. 15And he was reclining to dine in his house and many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were lots of them following him. 16But when the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17And Jesus heard and said to them, “Those who are strong don’t need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call righteous people, but sinners.” 18And John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisee’s disciples fast, but your disciples don’t fast?” 19And Jesus said to them, “The sons of the bridegroom can’t fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? No, while the bridegroom is with them they cannot fast. — Mark 2:13-19

Do you enjoy your life? No, I’m not asking whether after long consideration you have decided to accept your miserable call and thus are forcing yourself to look satisfied. Do you enjoy life? Is it fun? Ever?

Jesus had easily the most miserable calling. God had called him to give up everything, go to this annoying planet, filled with people who didn’t appreciate him, and eventually to allow those people to torture him to death. Downer, no?

But Jesus was a joyful person. Jesus had fun. How do I know? Well, I can tell you that a person who is miserable when he goes to a dinner or some other social event, will not be surrounded by people who just want to be in his presence. It’s unlikely such a person would ever be accused of being a “a glutton and a drinker” (Luke 7:34).

The place where Jesus was a wet blanket, where he really put the damper on what people were doing, was at church. Now I wonder why that was!

Sometimes we take the Christian religion as a means of making us miserable here on earth, but then finally getting us into heaven. We pay for joy in the next world through our sorrow and misery here. But it’s not necessary at all. We were created good, for a purpose, in God’s image, and “a little lower than God (Psalm 8:5, see REB, NASB). We have an exciting destiny!

Is it possible that you have a call that looks more difficult than the one Jesus had? I personally doubt any of us would trade lives with him. Yet he was joyful. Sometimes we think solemnity and seriousness is more holy. But the holiest one of all had so much fun that he was accused of gluttony and drunkenness. (Please remember the difference between accusation and reality!)

What about you?

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Thursday Morning Devotion (Celebrating YOUR Passover)

Posted on July 12, 2007 by Henry Neufeld

6Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the entire loaf? 7Clean out the old leaven, so taht you might be a new loaf, just as you are unleavened {already}. For also our passover, Christ has been slain. 8So that we might celebrate the festival not in old leaven, nor in the leaven of evil and wickedness, but in unleavened simplicity and truth. — 1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Today’s passage is one of those that compares Jesus, the lamb of God, with the Passover lamb. We often use this imagery as Christians, but do we take to heart what the imagery suggests about the sacrifice that was made for our redemption?

If we examine the context of this passage we see that Paul, in writing to the Corinthian church, is dealing with a case of terrible immorality. Instead of dealing with the problem, repenting, and cleansing themselves—or being cleansed—of the evil, the Corinthian believers were proud. Some of them, it seems, were celebrating their freedom, by behaving immorally. Others were accepting this behavior and were even proud of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they congratulated themselves on how accepting they were.

But in using the illustration of the Passover in connection with our redemption, Paul points out some very important things about the sacrifice of Christ.

1. The first Passover was a time of purification. Only those who submitted themselves to God, and followed the directions for the Passover were spared from the hand of the destroyer. In the same way, when we accept Christ as our savior, it is not merely an assent to a set of doctrinal statements. It is not just a transaction that alters or wipes out a record. It is an act of submission to God. When we accept Christ, we say, “I’m not going to follow my agenda any more; I’m going to follow God’s as presented through Jesus Christ.”
2. The first Passover was a time of liberation. Many Christians live their entire lives at the point of accepting the sacrifice of Jesus for them. Their Passover lamb has been sacrificed, but they don’t move on to the next step. If the Israelites had behaved as we often do, they would have had a powerful Passover experience as their firstborn sons were saved from death, but then they would have gone on living in Egypt. Next time you read the story of the Exodus, and you feel inclined to criticize the Israelites for their lack of faith at the sea, consider whether you yourself have even left Egypt and started the walk to the sea. Has your congregation taken that step? The liberating sacrifice has been offered. Have you accepted it?
3. The first Passover was a time of preparation. The Israelites were told to be ready to leave at any time. They were to have shoes on their feet and walking sticks in their hand. Do we get our walking shoes on when we think of Jesus Christ, our sacrifice? Is our time spent at the cross a time of preparation, or is it just a time of rest and relaxation? It’s good to rest, but when we rest we prepare also for action.
4. The first Passover was a time of celebration. The Israelites were told to remember how God had liberated them in this ceremony every year. They were to get together to worship and to commemorate this event. They were to tell their children what God had done for them in the past. They were to do all of this in the same attitude as at the original Passover.

When we think of the sacrifice of Jesus as our Passover lamb, we remind ourselves, that the Christian life is not a point in time. Walking with Jesus is a journey—a lifetime journey. We need to constantly purify ourselves, seek and accept God’s liberation, prepare for action, and celebrate the things that God has done for us.

As Paul was reminding the Corinthian believers in our passage today, it *does* matter how you live. It *does* matter what we allow in our congregations. We *are* witnessing to what the Lord has done for us.

Are we celebrating with leavened or unleavened bread?

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Wednesday Morning Devotion (Afraid of Joy)

Posted on July 11, 2007 by Henry Neufeld

10And he said to them, “Go, eat desserts and drink sweet drinks and send servings of them to those who don’t have any prepared, because this day is holy to our Lord. So don’t be sad, because the joy the comes from YHWH is what makes you strong. — Nehemiah 8:10

One of the great tragedies of the church today is that our places of worship are seen mostly as places for theology, for solemnity, and for dealing with difficult problems. Some churches are places that are only for those who have already dealt with their difficult problems and are living victoriously. Others find in every service a time for repentance, for weeping, and for reform of our disastrous lives.

Now there is a time for solemnity, repentance, weeping, and dealing with problems. There’s even a time for theology. But there’s a fundamental element of Israel’s worship that is missing from many of our churches, and it’s not a change for the better.

That element is joy. We don’t really go to church to celebrate, because we think that would be irreverent. We can have a covered dish lunch after church, but we still have to keep a bit of a “churchy” attitude. The children don’t want to get too noisy in close proximity to God’s house. That must be because God is a crotchety old curmudgeon who doesn’t like fun. We don’t need the Grinch that stole Christmas—we have God!

Now some of you are going “Oh no! He can’t say that about God.” And while I can say it, I’m wrong when I do. But be honest! Don’t we often act like God is more like the Grinch?

Jody wrote a blog entry last night for her new blog, titled Pills – People – and MORE Pills. She talks about people more and more taking drugs to make them happy, which is an increasing problem. She wonders whether people can seek help in our churches.

I want to add to that wondering. Do people avoid church because solemn people with looks of righteous determination on their faces are going to go after them until all their problems are fixed up? Now I’m not suggesting that we don’t pray for one another. But I am suggesting that if we displayed more joy, more celebration, and more appreciation for the Lord and one another, many of our problems would shrink to proper proportions. We could deal with them more effectively.

How often in your congregation does the pastor give the order that Nehemiah gave? Do you ever have a Sunday on which you say, “Don’t be solemn, don’t be grieved, don’t come cry at the altar. Today is a day of rejoicing!” On that day you have only the best food for the covered dish dinner, the kids play noisily and enjoy themselves, nobody gets put in their place by anybody else, and everybody just enjoys themselves.

We often wonder why church attendance drops. Perhaps it’s because we have tended to make church like the doctor’s or dentist’s office. It’s a place where you go when you have problems in order to get some work done, but you don’t enjoy it. Now doctors and dentists try to make their offices as nice as possible. They know that sometimes healing hurts, and so they try to help you relax and get some joy.

Perhaps we could learn a lesson from that for church. Sure people need to be corrected and challenged from time to time. They need to do the hard work of study. But sometimes, and I suspect many times, they need to be joyful and have fun.

Fun Sunday, anyone?

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Tuesday Morning Devotion (Life Cleaning)

Posted on July 10, 2007 by Henry Neufeld

8In the 18th year of his reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler of the city and Joah son of Joahaz the recorder to repair the house of YHWH his God.

14And as they were taking out the silver that had been brought to the house of YHWH, Hilkiah found the book of YHWH’s Torah {instruction} given by the hand of Moses. 15And Hilkiah said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of YHWH’s Torah in the house of YHWH.” And Hilkiah gave Shaphan the book. 16And Shaphan brought the book to the king, and he also gave the king the this message: “Your servants are doing everything that was assigned them to do.” 17And they poured out the silver that was found in the house of YHWH, and they gave it to the people who were supervising and to the people who were doing the work. 18Then Shaphan the scribe told theking, “Hilkiah the priest gave me a book, and Shaphan read from it before the king. 19And as the king head the words of the Torah he tore his garments. — 2 Chronicles 34:8, 14-19

Today I’m going to clean house. It’s not just an ordinary cleaning. I’m planning to move just about everything at some point, vacuum it all and clean the carpets. It will take quite a bit of time. Who knows what I’ll find!

King Josiah had a similar problem with his entire kingdom. He’d inherited it from his father Amon, who had inherited it from Manasseh, neither of whom were good kings. Manasseh did put on a temporary reformation. His son undid what he had accomplished. You can read the whole story in 2 Chronicles 33.

But Josiah went all the way. He wanted to purify the worship of the entire kingdom. Part of that plan involved cleaning out the temple, the house of YHWH and repairing it as a center of worship. But when you start cleaning out a building that hasn’t been in use for a long time, who knows what you’ll find? Josiah’s folks found a book of the Torah and they weren’t too happy with what it said. It demanded even more reforms of them than they had already been trying to accomplish.

Josiah’s activities and reform were an attempt to cleanse and revive a nation. My work today will be to clean up a house, a building.

What about your life?

It’s very easy to get into the habit of living the way we’ve always lived, and doing the things we’ve always done. We’re not certain why, but we just keep on keeping on. But have we examined all these things in our lives? Have we gone to clean out the temple of YHWH that is our body, soul, and mind? If we did, what would we find there?

I got my “Church Laughs” cartoon today from Christianity Today. Every Tuesday morning they send me an e-mail cartoon. (You can subscribe to there list by going to http://lists.christianitytoday.com/t/7507981/2729411/126949/0/ with your web browser.) Today they show a confused looking lady talking on the phone, and she’s saying, “They’re putting choruses in hymnbooks and projecting hymns onto the screen. It’s getting so I can’t remember what I’m not supposed to like.”

Is your spiritual life beginning to feel like that? Perhaps it’s time to do some “soul” housecleaning, to examine why you do the things you do. Perhaps somewhere in their God will guide you to a book of instruction from him.

Posted in 2 Chronicles, Bible Books, Devotional | Comments Off on Tuesday Morning Devotion (Life Cleaning)

Monday Morning Devotion (Worrying, Guarding, and Peace)

Posted on July 9, 2007 by Henry Neufeld

4Always rejoice in the Lord! Again, I say, Rejoice! 5Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6Don’t let anything make you anxious, but make your requests known in prayers and petitions to God in all circumstances with thanksgiving. 7And God’s peace that is beyond all comprehension will guard your minds* and thoughts in Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:4-7

* or heart. In Jewish thought, the heart was the seat of the rational processes rather than the emotions as it is used in literature today.

One of the hard saying of Jesus, at least hard to implement, is Matthew 6:23-34, in which he tells us not to worry about anything. Now I confess I’m an exceptionally good worrier. I am capable of imagining the worst possible outcome of almost any course of action. I can conjure up a mental picture of looming disaster merely because the phone rang.

But first Jesus, and then Paul both tell me not to worry. The message is similar in both cases—talk to God about it. No matter what is going on, no matter how bad things look to me, I’m supposed to rejoice, think about God’s kingdom, and go on praying. Now that can be a tough command to follow. I don’t think very many of us succeed.

Many people would consider both these texts as impractical. How are you going to live if you never worry about anything? How will you improve your circumstances if you rejoice and pray, but don’t plan? But I think that both Jesus and Paul are simply giving some very practical advice. No matter how bad your circumstances, worrying isn’t going to help you change them.

Sometimes people read these passages, especially the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:23-34 as a command not to plan or organize. “Tomorrow will look after itself,” can easily be read that way. But based on other things Jesus said, including his suggestion that we should count the cost, even the cost of becoming his disciple, suggests to me that he was not telling us not to plan. He was telling us not to worry. And there’s a big difference. When I plan, I take action. I sow seeds, I wait for a harvest. The difference can be illustrated in the field. Planning is when you plant the field; worrying is when you look at the field and wonder whether it’s going to produce anything this year. Planning is when you head out there with a plow. Worrying is when you wonder whether there will be a weather disaster this year that will destroy your crops in spite of your best efforts.

Now Paul leads us a bit further. Keeping a positive attitude, rejoicing in what God has given us is not only a good thing to do in itself, it is also the best attitude to have when going out to work. I don’t know about you, but if I look over the bills and worry about how I’m going to pay them, and let my mind get worked up over it, I find that my writing work doesn’t exactly flow when I get in front of the computer. I’m likely to try to run the figures around in my brain and worry, when the most practical thing I could be doing is working.

So I starting with an attitude of rejoicing, then with prayer. Then I’m looking for peace next. That means I put my trust in God and lay aside my worries.

And it is that peace, God’s peace, in Christ, that guards my mind. Here’s where we often get off track. It’s not just any peace, and it’s not just anywhere. It’s God’s peace and it is in Christ Jesus. That means that in that prayer time I’m seeking the filling of the Holy Spirit, I’m seeking to be one with Jesus, and Jesus is living out his life in me.

You can’t have any better planning than that!

Posted in Bible Books, Devotional, Philippians | 1 Comment