Devotional: We are not home yet: Isaiah 25

Devotion for: Tuesday November 5

Devotion By: Daniel Harrison called by God to be an evangelist!

OPENING:  An appropriate beginning to each day is to remember your baptism and say the words “In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY: Isaiah 25:7,8: 7On this mountain he will destroy
 the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations; 8  he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.

A BRIEF THOUGHT ABOUT THE LESSON: For today we live in a land that is not our home, we live amongst a people who do not follow God and we are in disgrace. In the US we may forget this but daily those who follow Christ face persecution for the name of Christ. Perhaps that day is not as far away as we think. Even now we all face the pain and suffering of this world. Our hope is that the Lord’s day is coming the future and home we long for in God. In Isaiah here it talks about the mountain or the place where we will be with God and God will make all things right. God will take away the disgrace and persecution from his people who stood for Christ. God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes acknowledging the pain we have been through allowing us to enter our home with him where we will be without sorrow.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER:  Do we think about the suffering and disgrace our brothers and sisters in Christ face everyday around the world? How can we be faithful with the freedom we have to worship God perhaps by encouraging and praying for our brothers and sisters around the world? Are we setting our hopes in this world or in our real home with God?

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank you for giving us a hope and a future. May our whole lives bring praise to you. Amen. (Ephesians 1:11-12)

A BLESSING TO GIVE: May you be given the wisdom and understanding that come from the Holy Spirit, so that you grow to know God better. (Ephesians 1:17)

MEALTIME PRAYER: Lord, as we await our home in heaven, bless our home on earth. As you fill our stomachs with food, please fill our hearts with faith. Amen. 

The love of Christ is so immensely rich!

This is my prayer for myself as Paul prayed for the Saints in Ephesus for i too am discouraged:

that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, (Ephesians 3:16)

God I feel so weak and selfish on my own - so I ask for our help even to remember you even to want to seek you. I trust in your power to strengthen me!

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19 ESV)

Christ dwell in me on my heart and pour out from there to flood my life, my routines, my action as, my words, my thoughts and my desires would be life giving and satisfying in you Christ! But as this prayer says let me not focus on the outward too fast or depend on my own strength. It's amazing how I much I need you God even to have the beginning of roots and understanding to fathom the immeasurable riches and love of Christ. Let Christ and the knowledge of Christs abundance fill me that I need nothing else!

Amen

Our Calling: Make Disciples

Jesus last command:

Matthew 28

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

They worshiped him for the first time!

Yet some doubted. Did they continue to doubt. They doubted when they saw the risen Christ. How much more does it make sense that we doubt. Jesus helped some to be convinced, but here doesn’t seem worried that some doubt.

Instead Jesus focuses on the mission.

Out of the authority the Father has given Jesus over all the earth he sends us to invite. Instead of commanding all the earth to obey, he allows us to participate in his work and kingdom. Working through us comes at a cost.

I have come to believe this is the defining calling for us as followers of Jesus! We are called to make disciples of all nations. I think this means an increasing discipleship in our own lives and then an outward piece of evangelism: making other disciples.

This comes by preaching the Word of God and the good news of Jesus to ourselves and others everyday. For we each daily need a reminder. For others they may not have the chance to hear the gospel unless we preach it. Romans 10

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”[f]

14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!

These two verses sum up well my life and calling. This is why I do InterVarsity staff life.

This is my prayer that InterVarsity and our community would be defined by this purpose. Often Christian community is defined more by focusing inward rather than outward, but I think it is out of fear rather than health. God make us a people like Jesus who live out all of your commands. Let us be a people who make disciples of all nations. Guide and grow me to do this more and more out of love and your calling God.

Amen

Why is this what matters: faith working through love?

In my young adult and men's group our topic this week as a gospel centered community is found in Galatians 5

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. (Galatians 5:1-8 ESV)

Particularly 

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Galatians 5:6 ESV)

What does that mean? 

How does that apply to the gospel and to us.

What does it look like for faith to be worked out through love?

Who is that love being worked out towards?

How is this different from works based salvation?

What is Love? 1 Corinthians 13

Last night Ivanna and I read 1 Corinthians 13 about love.

What is love like God's love? How is it different than the love of the world?
God teach me to love like you love us!

1 Corinthians 13

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ² And though I have the gift ofprophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, it profits me nothing.

⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never fails.

This is a radical love! This kind of love is only possible with God I believe! For the love of the world easily loses hope. It seeks its its own interest. Love that Hollywood and the majority of human culture these days does not endure hardship. In fact once the going gets rough the philosophy of the world is that this must not be real love. Shouldn't love be easy and magical and require no work the world assumes. So when it gets rough then its time to give up and find another fleeting love to last as long as it suits us. 

But God as your son I ask you to teach me to love like you. Through faith you can give me strength to persevere and hope and trust despite the seasons and the ups and downs. For this kind of Love never fails! 

I thank you that through my relationship with Ivanna I get to see and experience a tangible experience of how great your Love is God!

Amen

Lets have real talk: evangelism?

Today I went around campus and had real conversations with people about Jesus: 

I had "real talk" as one of the students I met called it. 

We talked about this passage from Luke 18:

⁹ To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray,one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

¹³ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

¹⁴ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Its all about faking it. 

And I wonder how do we sometimes approach evangelism in a fake way? 

1. When we think we are righteous and better than others. 
2. When we don't have compassion, but just want to check this hard obligation off our list of being a "good christian"

I am excited and challenged by this campaign and the scripture and how it relates to doing evangelism. 

I think my struggles in evangelism is to try to do it in my own way instead of how the Spirit leads. Also I have found that in rejection that I begin to doubt God. This is a struggle especially as I work in ministry. I find that when things go well and lots of people join InterVarsity I feel good about myself and trust in God. But when our numbers are down I begin to doubt. I wonder if God is not good. I ask how can God be real and good if so many reject him and don't even care about him? 

These are the real questions I bring to you God. This is the real attitude I bring to evangelism. Teach me to be real with my doubts and real about you God! I pray you would use evangelism to teach me more about you and your character God! 

I believe you are calling me and developing me as an evangelist! That is my prayer that I would not do evangelism or force it. I pray I would not lose heart but be a man of God trusting in you Lord. Let me not do evangelism but become more and more an evangelist who can't help but share about Christ, and through that let me see you change hearts God to follow Christ!

Amen

God's call to ministers of the gospel: be faithful first personally!

I have been in an in depth study of 1 Timothy with my friend Jonathan. We have been listening as young men ourselves to Paul's instruction to Timothy. What we have found again and again is:

We can't focus on outward ministry to others unless we are seeking God ourselves.

The way we call others to hard things and the truth has to be rooted in us believing and also living out this lifestyle. We are called to set an example. When we live this way we are not hypocritical and we have the character needed to be worth following.

Here is Paul's final charge to Timothy a young church leader in this letter to him.

1 Timothy chapter 6

¹¹ But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. ¹² Fight the good fight of the faith. 

Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, 

I charge you ¹⁴ to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶ who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. 
Amen.

God I confess I have often especially in the past year been inconsistent and unfaithful in my own serious devotion and seeking of you God. I have tried to lead others while not first seeking you and your words and life in my own personal life. 

But you God are faithful. You continually call me back into deeper fellowship with you. And you continue to call me to leadership. You do not let my failure disqualify me or others from ministry or evangelism. 

And you have given me tangible ways to live this call out. On a prayer walk last week you gave me the idea to add hours to my work week with InterVarsity and use them to first spend time in devotions, study, prayer etc with you God each day before I go try to lead others. Lord I pray that you would help me to be faithful and disciplined in seeking you. But let it be joyful and just a relationship. I want my love for you God to be as beautiful and diverse and life giving as my dating relationship with Ivanna! For I want to love you first God! But I admit it is hard and I often don't put you first God. God you are such a faithful Father to love me even as I often don't love you back well at all. Change my heart. I want to fight the good fight of faith and fight for my faith in you God!
Amen

Take hold of the life that is truly life!

1 Timothy 6

¹⁸ Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. ¹⁹ In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

God help me to see that the life that is truly life is in the coming age in the new heaven dwelling with you forever. It is a challenge when you made beautiful things in this life for us to enjoy. And yet we also look for satisfaction in this life that we will never find except in Jesus and the hope we have because of him. We look for identity and worth in so many other things. 

Like Jesus himself said in John 6:

³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 

God you sent Jesus your Son that we might be fully satisfied in him. For he promises us all we need. Because you God created us and know what we need. Yet Jesus knows we struggle to believe even after we have seen. 

I am sorry that I continue to struggle to believe in Jesus in you God and that you satisfy everything we need. 

God I pray you would teach me to believe, to do your work and to lay up treasure that lasts. I want to build my foundation in you God. Let me take hold of the life that is truly life in you!
Amen

Godliness with Contentment 1 Tim 6

^{God thank you for this study of 1 Timothy and the lessons you have for me as a young leader in the body of Christ. Continue to challenge me and convict me of sin in my life and ways that my leadership is not good and right.} 

1 Tim 6

⁶ But godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷ For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. ⁸ But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. ⁹ Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

God teach me as your Son Jesus set the example to seek godliness with contentment. God help me not to just seek contentment in other things or to seek to make my own righteousness and end up in despair.  God you have given me everything I need in this life and everything you need for me to enter eternal life by your Son Jesus Christ! 

I confess I think my struggle is similar but ironic to this. I seek success and feeling important in ministry! I look for numbers and feeling good about what I do. Lord free me of that sinful desire. Help me to know I have approval and purpose in you God that is not affected by the success or failure of my outward ministry. Remind me I don't and can't earn your love or approval God. You welcome me home as your son by my faith in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. 

God I thank you that we can have contentment in this life despite our circumstances! God teach me to be content with what I have. Little things go wrong and not always to my plan. Yet I am so blessed to have life. I have food and clothing. And yet you have given me above and beyond that with wealth, friends, a wonderful girlfriend, work etc. Help me to be thankful for those things yet not expect or put my hope in them. Set my hopes on you alone God! 

Let my work for InterVarsity be out of you and your abundance not my own heart searching for approval or importance. Let your kingdom advance even through me and my impure motives!

Amen

My Cry: God bring me back to you.

I have been on and off feeling lost for weeks/ months even. Its hard to admit. And I am not trying to get attention. I just want you to heal me God and bring me back to you and your light.

I don't want my weeks to be up and down good days and bad. I want to be with you and have hope and comfort even in the hard things. And I want to celebrate the blessing with you God.

God many things have drawn me from you. I think in some ways I have made mission and sharing the gospel an idol before you. God break down anything that keeps me from you. In doing your ministry let my first priority be you.

Luke 10

²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’^[c]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[d]”

²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

God help me to do these in the right order to put you first God and then to love other people and myself. God teach me to love you with all I am. Let my ministry be out of my love for you and your love for others filling me. 

God help me to first do this and to invite others to do this to believe in Jesus!
John 6

28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”

²⁹ Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

God help me to not seek my own rightousness but believe in Jesus Christ our savior and to trust in his righteousness. 

Lord in these hard times help me to endure. Both in my faith and in my personal life dealing with the flood aftermath, ministry, balance, rest etc: 

Hebrews 10:

³⁶ You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. ³⁷ For,

“In just a little while,
    he who is coming will come
    and will not delay.”^[f]

³⁸ And,

“But my righteous^[g] one will live by faith.
    And I take no pleasure
    in the one who shrinks back.”^[h]

³⁹ But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

God I belong to you and I want to persevere in faith! Give me strength!

Bring me back to you and don't let me stray so far. 

Amen

Shining or complaining? Choose one

This is a hard calling to live up to:

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky (Philippians 2:14, 15 NIV)

It's so tempting to complain or at least justify other because of the circumstances that happen to us. I am tempted to argue or complain after this morning at least to my roommates or God. After all I have important work to do and a busy day and this and that. I am sure any of us could go on most days and think of something to complain about.

But attitude is a choice! Will I choose to focus on what happened or will I let go and rejoice and try to shine!? The funny thing is my day is worse when I complain too. And when I can let go and give things to God and move on I actually have a better day!

God help me to be thankful for what I have and to not focus on grumbling or complaining but just to accept what you have given me and ask for your help. Shine your light through me!

Amen