devotional

You Really Like Me?

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“Lord, when I don’t like me,

You still love me, You still like me, You still lavish me with acceptance.

When I am fed up with me, You invite me to Your feast,

When I am done — with me, with life, with everything,

You whisper, ‘Hang on — I am making *all things* — *you* — new.’ (Rev21:5)

And when I want to quit, You cup my face: ‘This great work I started in you? I won’t stop that beautiful work until you are fully, completely, gloriously beautiful’ (Phil1:6, 1Cor2:7)

So this becomes our brave & broken-hearted hallelujah, the one we sing into the dark, even when it’s hard to believe:

I am His Beloved, His Beloved, His Beloved… and even now I will be held.

In the name of the only One who loved us to death & back to the real & forever life… Amen” (Ann Voskamp).

I think we can have a harder time accepting the fact that God likes us than believing He loves us.

We can say that God loves me because He has to. He’s God. It’s His job. We can think of a million and one reasons why God must love us.

But saying that God likes us? That He actually wants to be around us and spend time with us? That’s a whole different story.

But it’s true. God loves me AND likes me. Even when my parents don’t like me? He does. Even when my spouse doesn’t like me? He does. Even when my kids don’t like me? He does.

God loves and likes you because He made you and redeemed you. He spoke you into life and then gave His life to bring you back to life.

Lord, thank Your for loving me. Thank You for liking me, You didn’t have to like me, but You did . . . and You still do. Everything I am is because of You. Amen.

Be a Tom

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I’m still loving my return visit to Downton Abbey. It hits different when you know how everything and everyone turns out, plus the setting and the extraordinary attention to detail still stands out.

My favorite character is probably Thomas Branson. I didn’t like him much when he first showed up, but he had the best character arc of anyone in the series. He mellowed quite a bit and lost some of the self-righteousness that made him a but annoying in the beginning.

I love how he comes to the place where he’s finally able to speak truthfully but in a loving way. And isn’t that what we all need — to have the truth spoken in love?

I think everyone should have a Tom in their lives. We need someone in our corner who goes to bat for us, so to speak. We need a champion who will fight for us and believe for us when we can’t believe for ourselves.

But we need someone who will tell us the truth. We need someone who will firmly but gracefully help us to see our own blind spots and gently remind us when we’re not our best selves.

It seems like the best movies and series are that way because they all point to something beyond themselves. In this case, the clear reference is that the character shows what Christ is like for us.

I don’t mean to imply that Downton Abbey is by any means a Christian series or that the character Tom is in any way a type of Christ. But it seems that the way he is able to show both grace and truth is something that definitely points to what Jesus does for us.

When confronted with a woman caught in adultery, Jesus showed mercy. He didn’t stone her or allow her to be stoned by others. He told those with rocks in their hands to throw them if they themselves were sinless. Not one did.

He also spoke to the woman to show that while He did not condemn her, He did not condone her. He told her to go and sin no more. She was free from the penalty of her sinful choices, but that was a freedom not to do whatever she wanted but to choose a better way of living — a righteous way of living.

We too should be willing to tell and be told the truth. I’d be lying if I said that I’m the first to say it and the last to receive it well when it comes my turn. I’d rather not be told that I’m in the wrong, but sometimes I need to hear it. We all do. To enable someone in a lie or concealed truth is not love but denial.

Lord, make us people who love truth because You Yourself said that You are the truth. Help us to be truthful always, but in as gracious and loving a way as You have been to us when You showed us the truth. Help us to bring out the best in each other because that’s what You do for us. Amen.

Wrong to Worry?

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“It is not only wrong to worry, it is real infidelity because it means we do not believe God can look after the little practical details of our lives; it is never anything else that worries us” (Oswald Chambers, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount).

First of all, I plead guilty. I am a worry wart much of the time. If I don’t catch myself, I can see myself imagining all sorts of worst case scenarios that almost never come to pass. I can work myself up into a good state of anxiety.

But what does my worry accomplish? Does it actually make my problem go away? Does it improve my situation even a little bit? Or does it keep me from making sensible and rational decisions?

Note: it’s one thing to worry and quite another to have anxiety brought on by chemical imbalances. Everyone has anxious thoughts, but what matters is what you do with them, or where you take them.

I heard the analogy that thoughts are like birds. It’s one thing to let them fly over, but another entirely to let them land in your hair and built a nest. The best way is to take them to God. The Bible calls it taking every thought captive. Don’t let it rule in your head and in your heart. Determine to think about things that are good and lovely like it says in Philippians 4:8.

You don’t want to worry. You also don’t want a Pollyanna type theology where you pretend that your anxiety doesn’t exist and manipulate your emotions into a constant state of faux peace. It’s best to be honest, and take that honesty to God like King David did in the Psalms.

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life’ (Philippians 4:6-7, The Message).

This Resurrection Life

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“This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike ‘What’s next, Papa?’ God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!” (Romans 8:15-17, The Message)

I think too many of us are guilty of thinking that eternal life starts after we die. We think that the resurrection life when the good stuff starts and that doesn’t start until we’ve been dispatched to our heavenly rest. But if I read my Bible right, it starts the moment we say YES to Jesus.

Too many of us go through our lives without ever tapping into that resurrection power. Too many of us are like that old lady back in the day who only turned on her electric lights so she could see to light her candles. We’ve settled for trying to do God-sized work with human-sized strength, and that never works.

Did you know that the same power that raised Christ from the dead now lives in you and me? It belongs to anyone who belongs to Jesus. Yet most of us live defeated because we either don’t know the victory has already been won or we’re too distracted to care. Our lives are small because our view of God is too small.

Lord, help us to remember how big You are. You’re bigger than all our problems put together. You’re bigger than anything we’ll ever face. You’re bigger than the whole world. Remind us that Your resurrection power is ours for the asking. Help us to live victoriously because the battle is already won. Be glorified in each and every one of us today. Amen.

Passing It On

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“Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you” (Phil. 4:9, NLT).

That’s discipleship. It’s not learning new information so you can impress others with your knowledge. It’s watching godly people and how they live and speak and act, then doing what they do. It’s called practice because you won’t get it right the first time — or the thousandth time. But a lifetime of watching others and doing what they do will lead you to maturity.

The Apostle Paul got it directly from Jesus. He literally had a blinding encounter with the Messiah on the road to Damascus. Paul later says that he spent three years in the wilderness after his salvation and before he began his ministry in earnest. That’s where he learned about faith. Plus, I imagine he spent time with the other apostles and older believers who had spent time with Jesus.

It may seem arrogant for Paul to say in essence, “Do what I do,” but that’s how we learn. I never have been one to learn how to do something by reading instructions out of a book. I do best by watching someone else who knows what they’re doing. Then I basically imitate what I’ve seen.

That’s why it’s vital to be in a church community and also in a smaller group within that community. It’s best if we have people older and wiser than us to show us how to be Christians and how not only to believe but to live out what we believe in real time. Obviously, you start with the Bible, but sometimes you need help in knowing how to practice your faith in obedience.

Lord, help us to spur each other on to godliness and maturity. Keep us mindful that as we watch those we want to be like in the faith, others are watching us and seeing if what we confess is what we really believe. Keep us humble and teachable, but help us to set a good example for those who will follow after us. In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.

The Cut-Out Bin

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Back in the day, they had a thing called a cut-out bin. Whenever an album didn’t sell very well, they’d put a notch in it and mark it down significantly in price. Usually, a band would have a super big record and then the next one for whatever reason just didn’t do as well. The point is that you could find some great stuff in the cut-out bin if you didn’t mind a little notch at the top left corner of the album.

Lately, one of my favorite pastimes is to flip through the cheap bins of records. At one place, they have a whole stash of $5 records underneath the regularly priced ones. I’ve been known to flip through every single one in search of the elusive and unique find. More often than not, I see a lot of easy listening music from the 50s and 60s, but once in a proverbial blue moon, I’ll find an old CCM album or a test pressing or something out of the ordinary.

1 Corinthians 1:27-31 says, “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of ‘the brightest and the best’ among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these ‘nobodies’ to expose the hollow pretensions of the ‘somebodies’? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, ‘If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God'” (1 Corinthians 1:27-31, The Message).

A lot of us were the human equivalent of the cut-out bin. Hardly anyone saw any value in us or thought anything about us was special. More often than not, we were the ones who were ignored and passed over. But God chose those nobodies rather than sticking exclusively to the Fortune 500 club. He chose those no one else wanted because He wanted us.

That gives me hope. That means that all of us that God chose matter. Maybe not to the in-crowd or the fashion police, but we matter to God. And what God thinks about us trumps what anyone else thinks about us. Period. You matter to God because He made You, and He don’t make no junk. Just remember that the next time you feel unworthy and unloved. God loves you. That’s all that matters.

An Excerpt from The Magician’s Nephew

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This is an excerpt from the story that tells of the origins or Narnia, though it wasn’t the first Narnia book written. This is in honor of (or in spite of) the new movie coming out soon:

“This is the Boy,” said Aslan, looking, not at Digory, but at his councillors. “This is the Boy who did it.”

“Oh dear,” thought Digory, “what have I done now?”

“Son of Adam,” said the Lion. “There is an evil Witch abroad in my new land of Narnia. Tell these good Beasts how she came here.”

A dozen different things that he might say flashed through Digory’s mind, but he had the sense to say nothing except the exact truth.

“I brought her, Aslan,” he answered in a low voice.

“For what purpose?”

“I wanted to get her out of my own world back into her own. I thought I was taking her back to her own place.”

“How came she to be in your world, son of Adam?”

“By—by Magic.” The Lion said nothing and Digory knew that he had not told enough. “It was my Uncle, Aslan,” he said. “He sent us out of our own world by magic rings, at least I had to go because he sent Polly first, and then we met the Witch in a place called Charn and she just held on to us when—”

“You met the Witch?” said Aslan in a low voice which had the threat of a growl in it.

“She woke up,” said Digory wretchedly. And then, turning very white, “I mean, I woke her. Because I wanted to know what would happen if I struck a bell. Polly didn’t want to. It wasn’t her fault. I—I fought her. I know I shouldn’t have. I think I was a bit enchanted by the writing under the bell.”

“Do you?” asked Aslan; still speaking very low and deep.

“No,” said Digory. “I see now I wasn’t. I was only pretending.” There was a long pause. And Digory was thinking all the time, “I’ve spoiled everything. There’s no chance of getting anything for Mother now.”

When the Lion spoke again it was not to Digory.

“You see, friends,” he said, “that before the new, clean world I gave you is seven hours old, a force of evil has already entered it; waked and brought hither by this son of Adam.” The Beasts, even Strawberry, all turned their eyes on Digory till he felt that he wished the ground would swallow him up. “But do not be cast down,” said Aslan, still speaking to the Beasts. “Evil will come of that evil, but it is still a long way off, and I will see to it that the worst falls upon myself. In the meantime, let us take such order that for many hundred years yet this shall be a merry land in a merry world. And as Adam’s race has done the harm, Adam’s race shall help to heal it.”

C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew

Wanted: Prophetic Voices

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Thanks to Audible, I’m revisiting No Compromise, the biography of the late Keith Green written by his wife Melody Green. From the beginning, it’s clear that Keith saw the world very much in a black and white kind of way. That means for him there were no grey areas. He could be a bit harsh at times, but he was always zealous for the truth.

It occurred to me that we could use a few prophetic voices like his in this day and age. We need those who will stand up to the culture and proclaim thus says the Lord, no matter the cost. We could definitely use some prophetic voices in Christian music who will guide us back to a biblical view of sacrifice and holiness.

I find it interesting that he had an idea that he wouldn’t live a long time. Toward the end, he mentioned how he was ready to meet Jesus face to face. Little did he know that his wish would come true sooner than anybody realized when he was killed in a plane crash on July 28, 1982 at the age of 28. He accomplished more in that short amount of time than many who live into their 80s and 90s because he made himself available for God to use.

Usually, those who speak prophetically aren’t very popular. Look at practically all the prophets in the Bible, many of whom were despised and rejected by the majority of those they tried to reach for God. It was not a calling that any of them chose willingly.

Lord, raise up those who will speak with a prophet’s voice to this generation. We are no better than those to whom you sent your prophets in days of old with a message of return and repentance. Help us always to be faithful and obedient to You in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, no matter the cost. Amen.

Praying for Your Enemies

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“In prayer we go to our enemies, to stand at their side. We are with them, near them, for them before God. Jesus does not promise us that the enemy we love, we bless, to whom we do good, will not abuse and persecute us. They will do so. But even in doing so, they cannot harm and conquer us if we take this last step to them in intercessory prayer. Now we are taking up their neediness and poverty, their being guilty and lost, and interceding for them before God. We are doing for them in vicarious representative action what they cannot do for themselves. Every insult from our enemy will only bind us closer to God and to our enemy. Every persecution can only serve to bring the enemy closer to reconciliation with God, to make love more unconquerable.

How does love become unconquerable? By never asking what the enemy is doing to it, and only asking what Jesus has done. Loving one’s enemies leads disciples to the way of the cross and into communion with the crucified one” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

Dietrich knew a thing or two about enemies. He stood up to the Nazis and Adolf Hitler and spend the last few years of his life in prison, dying by execution literally days before the Allies liberated the camp. He felt it was his moral duty to speak out against the evils the government was doing, especially in regard to the millions of Jews who were killed.

Jesus also knows a thing or two about enemies. The religious leaders plotted to kill Him, arrested Him under false charges, put on a mock trial, and then had Him executed as a common criminal in the most tortuous and painful form of death ever devised by humanity. He even prayed forgiveness for those very people while they were in the act of murdering Him.

We are called to love our enemies. We are called to pray for them like we would want others to pray for us. Ultimately, the hope is that they can find forgiveness and redemption through Christ and become family instead of enemies.

If you say that’s unfair, remember that’s what God did for you. While you were still enemies and sinners, God in Jesus died for you. While you were living in complete rebellion against the Almighty, He sent His only Son for you.

Even if your enemies never change, forgiving and loving them frees you from the captivity of toxic bitterness and hatred. They no longer occupy your every waking thought. Plus, forgiveness shows more than anything what God’s love looks like. That’s the best reason of all.

Taking it Back to 1850

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I ran across another hymn that I wish we could bring back. I’m a fan of modern worship, but sometimes I think we miss out by eliminating the old hymns completely. This is one that could possibly use a newer arrangement but the words are still powerful:

“Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;
the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see.
O thou who changest not, abide with me.

I need thy presence every passing hour.
What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who like thyself my guide and strength can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.

I fear no foe with thee at hand to bless,
ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes.
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks and earth’s vain shadows flee;
in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me” 1 Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;
the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

2 Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see.
O thou who changest not, abide with me.

3 I need thy presence every passing hour.
What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who like thyself my guide and strength can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.

4 I fear no foe with thee at hand to bless,
ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

5 Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes.
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks and earth’s vain shadows flee;
in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me” (Henry Francis Lyte).