Category Devotionals

Laughter in Surprising Places: Sunday Share from Steve Brown

Todd R Leave a comment

Gospel literally means “good news.” What impact should receiving that news have on you and I, and on how we approach all the bad news around us?

This article by Steve Brown at Key Life is worth the read. I’ve been thinking a lot about joy, and part of the journey toward that is taking what the Bible says about it seriously (apparently an oxymoron, but really it’s not). If Paul said he had joy in prison, he actually did. If you don’t believe joy is possible, it will never happen.

Full article linked below. Check it out.

(Estimated reading time 5 minutes)

Laughter in Surprising Places

Eavesdropping for Kindness and Encouragement

Todd R 1 Comment

One of my favorite quotes on kindness is pretty simple: “Be kind.  You never know what someone’s going through.”  In their 1984 book Encouragement: The Key to Caring, Dr. Larry Crabb and Dr. Dan Allender write about how much of our interaction with others happens between layers we put on to hide our true selves, rather than between the deepest parts of our selves.  We intentionally don’t let others know what we’re going through.  Although the above quote probably wasn’t common when the book was written in 1984, the authors definitely had the idea in mind when they wrote about how we might imagine eavesdropping on the thoughts of others as we arrive at church on Sunday morning.  Such imagining might help us realize how much people encouragement and kindness everyone really needs.  They wrote that we might hear thoughts like these:

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

“Oh, no! There’s Fred pulling up in his car. If he sees me, he’ll ask me for that committee report I haven’t done yet. I’d better move inside quickly and get seated.”
“I wish my husband weren’t away on that business trip. It’s really uncomfortable coming to church without him. Well, I’ll just sit in the back and leave as soon as the service is over.”
“I sure hope the preaching is better than it’s been the last few weeks.”
“This should be a really good day. No work that needs to be done. I like our church and the football game is on TV at 3 this afternoon.  That gives me time to take the family out to dinner and still be home for the kickoff. I really like being a Christian.”
“I wonder if I should keep coming to this church. I really haven’t made any friends and the sermons don’t do much for me. Well I’ll keep praying about it and see how it goes today”
“Look at that happy young family. It really hurts when I realize my kids are grown, gone, unsaved, and mixed-up. Boy, I wish I could have a few years back. Well I can’t start crying now. Cmon, smile-here comes Nancy to say hello.”
“People think of me as a pretty spiritually together person. I’ll make a point to interact graciously and to respond in a biblical way to whatever happens.”[1]

While we can’t (and shouldn’t) eavesdrop on thoughts, imagining it reminds us that we really don’t know what’s going on behind other people’s layers, and they don’t usually know what’s behind ours.

Therefore, “Be kind.  You never know what someone’s going through.”

[1] Crabb, Larry and Dan Allender.  Encouragement: The Key to Caring (1984).  P. 95-96.

What’s in Your Temple?

Todd R 2 Comments

When describing His holiness, God provided pictures like the one in Isaiah 6:1 – “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.”  Because “the train of his robe filled the temple,” there is no room in the temple for anything that isn’t holy.  Or in Revelation 15:8, which says: “and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.”  Until God’s judgment was complete – both on the unrepentant and on the cross for His people – there would continue to be no room in the sanctuary for anyone but the Lord.

How do these pictures apply to us?  Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 – “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”  Therefore, we ask ourselves: does the train of the Lord’s robe fill our temples?

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

A transformative moment came in my Christian life when I understood sin in contrast to holiness, rather than as a list of “don’ts.”  It’s possible (perhaps even easy) to convince ourselves we are not sinners in need of grace by defining sin as things we don’t do.  However, much of the time, the word “sin” in the New Testament is a translation of the Greek word hamartia, which means “to miss the mark.”[1]  The word has athletic connotations, such as if an archer couldn’t hit the bullseye, they wouldn’t win the competition and the prize.  As we all know, archers are supposed to be accurate, and if they aren’t, they’ve “missed the mark.”

Therefore, when Paul writes in Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” he is not saying everybody failed to follow a list of dos and don’ts, but that we have not fully lived the life God intended us to live.  Romans 3:23 declares that while we wouldn’t set up idols in our church building, all of us tolerate some idols in our soul, which is where the Holy Spirit of God chooses to dwell.  The train of His robe does not fill our inner temple, and we too often trod on it with dirty feet.  We’ve “missed the mark” any time there’s other stuff in our temple, directing our thoughts and actions.  However, by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we have both a hope of living with God and a future where His metaphorical robe does fill us.

In Paradise, God’s people will – individually and collectively – “hit the mark” perfectly for eternity.  His perfect temple will be completed in Paradise, with the living stones of all His people.

Paul returns to holiness again in 2 Corinthians 6:16 to 7:1, quoting several Old Testament passages, since holiness of His people has been the plan from the beginning –

“What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
             ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
                        and I will be their God,
                        and they shall be my people.
            Therefore go out from their midst,
                        and be separate from them, says the Lord,
            and touch no unclean thing;
                        then I will welcome you,
            and I will be a father to you,
                        and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
            says the Lord Almighty.’

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”

Amen

[1] Greek Strong’s Dictionary

Pictures of Holiness and Grace

Todd R 2 Comments

A picture can be, as they say, worth a thousand words.  To make an impression, sometimes God uses pictures or images, and one example is how He lets us know just how holy He is.

When calling Isaiah to be a prophet, God gave him an image in Isaiah 6:1 “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.”  In this vision of a throne room, why bother to mention that “the train of his robe filled the temple”?  Because in this image of God’s presence, there is no room for anything that isn’t holy.  If anyone tries to walk into the temple, they will tread on the Lord’s robe with their dirty feet, and any lord would be immensely offended at that.  James Boice commented on the verse, that: “This suggests that there is room for no one else at the highest pinnacle of the universe.  It is not just that Jehovah reigns, therefore, but also that no one else reigns beside Him or in opposition to Him”[1]

Photo by Wonderlane on Unsplash

A similar picture of holiness comes from Revelation 15:8, which says: “and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.”  Until God’s judgment was complete – both on the unrepentant and on the cross for His people – there would continue to be no room in the sanctuary for anyone but the Lord.

A third picture, which was not just a vision, but built in actual, physical form, is the “Holy of Holies.”  During most of the Old Testament period, priests implemented an elaborate sacrificial system to illustrate God’s requirements for meeting with sinners: an innocent creature had to die.  These animals symbolized the later sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  But the “Holy of Holies” was the ultimate statement of how serious approaching God is.

This innermost room of the temple was only entered once per year (on the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur), and only by the high priest, who only can enter after hours of preparation.  Once there, the high priest would sprinkle the blood of a sacrificed bull on and in front of God’s “mercy seat”, the cover of the ark of the covenant and a sign of His presence.  Later Jewish tradition (not found in the Bible) indicates that others would stand outside the room holding a rope that was tied to the high priest, who also had bells tied around his waist.  If those outside heard the bells jingling, followed by silence, they would assume the high priest did not atone properly for the sins of the people, died in God’s presence, and needed to be dragged out by the rope.  God’s holy presence was to be taken seriously.

So Isaiah, presented with God’s holiness, cried out “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”  Isaiah’s “Woe” comes down to current times in the expression “Oy!”  Isaiah knew instinctually that being in God’s temple was a bad idea.  However, God provides redemption for His people, which He pictured for Isaiah like this: “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.  And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”[2]

Isaiah was not saved by a burning coal, but by what it represented: the future sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  In God’s steadfast love for His people, He offered Jesus once for all, and the only sacrifice necessary and sufficient for us to know God.  Therefore, there is no longer a barrier to His holy presence for God’s people, so the writer of Hebrews says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”[3]

Yes, God is holy and must be honored as holy, but when we feel insufficient or feel like yelling “oy!” when things go wrong, we can come “with confidence” to Jesus in His temple and ask Him to reassure us of His provision for our sin.  That we may know, like Isaiah, that “your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Amen

[1] From “May 9.” James Montgomery Boice and Marion Clark. Come to the Waters: Daily Bible Devotions for Spiritual Refreshment.  (2017).
[2] Isaiah 6:6-7
[3] Hebrews 4:16

Wisdom, “in Quotes”

Todd R 1 Comment

Corporate training booklets are great sources of interesting quotes.  I came upon this one from Greek philosopher Socrates (470 to 399 B.C.) in a training session on presentations: “The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.”  This makes a lot of intuitive sense because if people can’t agree on something as basic as definitions, it’s difficult to move forward.

However, I think there’s something even more fundamental – closer to the real beginning of wisdom -than the “definition of terms,” and that is: who gets to define the terms?  Doing that requires wisdom, so we can’t really be wise until we find someone worthy to define the terms.  Socrates probably considered himself a good candidate to provide it!  For most of us, in moments of honesty, we might admit that most of the time we are either trusting our own judgment, or maybe just improvising.

There’s another necessary factor.  If we find someone we can trust to define wisdom for us, but when it comes time to act we go against their advice, their definitions do us no good.  Therefore, we don’t begin to be wise without having the will to choose rightly.  Although we say we trust someone’s wisdom, by not acting on it we disrespect them, and perhaps Wisdom itself, by not following through.  We might have more knowledge, but not more wisdom.

So, I’ll suggest a better quote (there were no Bible verses in my training booklet).  In the Old Testament book of Proverbs, Solomon – another historical figure (like Socrates) famous for wisdom – wrote that:

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
         and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” – Proverbs 9:10

Solomon neatly fills in what the earlier quote is missing, because:

  • There is a Holy One, whose very character of holiness is the definition of terms we need.  His decision making has no flaw and is trustworthy.
  • He is the LORD, who has authority, and uses it to lovingly advise His people on how to live wisely.
  • Fear of the LORD means that respect for Him is required for us to not just go off on our own, but to follow His perfect advice.  This fear turns the abstract knowledge into useful wisdom.

Wisdom ignored isn’t wisdom.  As I’ve written earlier, “Wisdom is about taking the right action, not about accumulating facts.”  The verses leading up to Solomon’s above saying are Proverbs 9:7-9, which say:

“Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse,
         and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you;
         reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;
         teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.”

We cultivate wisdom by considering God’s works and His will for our lives (through the law and the Holy Spirit).  We cultivate wisdom by allowing Him to define our terms as only He can.  It is the presence of the fear of God – respect for His wisdom – that determines whether we scoff at correction (verses 7-8 above) or increase in learning (last verse).

Tomorrow I will re-post an old article on the definition of love, but today close with an echo of today’s idea from the Psalms:

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
         all those who practice it have a good understanding.
         His praise endures forever!” – Psalm 111:10