Category: devotional

Jared Wilson gives us a very sweet answer to the question of whether or not God can make a rock so big he cannot lift it.

 

Tullian Tchividjian has some helpful things to say about Christian calling and whether or not we should all move to foreign lands. His point is that, though many are called to go, many are called to stay where they are and live out their Christianity.

Jeremiah 5:14

 

Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:

“Because you have spoken this word,

behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire,

and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.

   

            As Jeremiah continued to tell the people the truth from God, the people continued to rebel. But God made it clear to Jeremiah that nobody will refuse the word of God without consequence. Oh, it may seem for a time like people get away with disobeying the commands of the Lord, but it will not last.

 

            The imagery of verse 14 is terrifying. God tells Jeremiah that his words, the word of God, will be a fire to the people who will be kindled like wood. Just as we see in Revelation 11, where the two witnesses breathe out fire against the enemies of God, so here we see that the word of God, spoken by a servant of God, becomes the fire of the wrath of God against those who reject that word.

 

            The word of God is a beautiful gift. It is amazingly kind of God to show us his word and allow us to know him and his ways through it. However, the word of God is also deadly. God giving us his word makes us even more accountable to obey it. As we hear the word, we have a choice: either we obey and are blessed or disobey and find ourselves in trouble with the Creator.

 

            What will God’s word be to you? Will you hear God’s word, obey it, and find the blessing of being his child? Will you follow God’s word, run to Jesus for grace, and obey his commands for joy? Or will you be like a twig in the fire? Will you allow the word of God to pronounce your judgment because you refuse to humble yourself, repent of sin, run to Jesus, and obey the word of the Lord?

Jeremiah 1:17 – But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them.

 

            It’s hard to say things that people will not want to hear. That was going to be Jeremiah’s job. The people of Judah were not following the Lord. In fact, God was about to tell them that he was more angry with them than he was with the northern kingdom that he had allowed the Assyrians to overrun a century earlier.

 

            When we have hard things to say, we have two choices. We can either choose to say the hard thing and upset the people to whom we speak, or we can choose to ignore what needs to be said. Often we choose the latter option, because we do not have to hear the voice of God expressing his disappointment.

 

            This is why what we see here in Jeremiah is of such value. God lets Jeremiah know that, should he choose to ignore God’s command and keep the people happy, he would be in deep trouble. God tells Jeremiah not to be dismayed by the people so as not to speak the truth. If Jeremiah is too afraid of men, God will make Jeremiah even more afraid. God basically tells Jeremiah, “if you think they are scary, wait until you have to deal with me.”

 

 

            Saying hard things to people is hard, but facing the discipline of the Lord is harder. God calls his servants to speak the truth of his word. If we refuse to speak the truth, we show that we fear people more than the Lord, that we are more willing to disappoint God than man. Let us learn to be bold. Yes, it is sometimes difficult and uncomfortable, but the alternative, dishonoring our Lord, is far worse. And, if we will honor God, he will fill our souls with the joy of seeing his glory.

1 Corinthians 1:17 – For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

 

            Paul was a genius; almost any reader of his will confirm that fact. He made deep, powerful, logical connections between thoughts that still leave us marveling thousands of years later. He was able, had he chose, to out-argue anybody around him.

 

            Fascinating, then, that Paul does not choose to argue with clever or sophisticated speech. Instead, Paul chose to build his ministry by preaching one thing, one simple thing. Paul preached Christ Jesus and him crucified. This made the Jews stumble, as they could not imagine the Christ being crucified. It was a problem for gentiles who simply thought the concept of God forgiving us based on Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection totally nuts.. Yet Paul chose to preach this simple gospel in order that the cross of Christ not be emptied of its power.

 

            Christian, do you see the wisdom of this “foolish” plan? When we preach the gospel, the true gospel, and nothing but the gospel, and when people are changed by that gospel, it is obvious that they have been truly, supernaturally, spiritually converted. However, when we persuade people by our strong personalities, our perfectly designed programs, or our powerful rhetoric, we actually have no idea what happens when they claim a conversion. In order for us to see that God is the one who did the work, we need to be sure that what the people we preach to hear is the gospel that the lost world finds to be insane.

 

            This is no call to be foolish in your activity. This is no call to avoid planning, to be disorganized, or to fail to communicate in a way that your listeners will understand. We want a wisdom about how we approach people. However, we dare not tinker with the gospel. We dare not call people to respond to something other than the Jesus of the Bible, crucified and raised. We must not empty the cross of its power by making the faith about moral changes, political positions, or one country’s values over another. No, we must let the cross be the cross, a deadly, bloody, substitutionary atonement. This makes no sense to the lost world. It confuses them, makes them laugh, or makes them angry. Guess what, that is what the cross should do. Because there will be some who, when they hear about this cross, will be made alive in their hearts, will respond in faith, and will truly be saved by God to the glory of God.

Isaiah 49:6 (ESV)

he says:

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

to raise up the tribes of Jacob

and to bring back the preserved of Israel;

I will make you as a light for the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

 

            Do we set our sights too low? Have we forgotten the power and sovereignty of our God? Do we settle for meager survival when something glorious is before us?

 

            Reading that little paragraph, it sounds like a prosperity preacher. All that needs to follow is some call to “claim the promise” and you too can have the material wealth you have always dreamed of. But I’m not thinking about health, wealth, and prosperity. No, I’m thinking of God’s plan to win the world and build his kingdom.

 

            In Isaiah 49, God tells Isaiah that there is more to his life and mission than Isaiah ever knew. Isaiah was not merely called by God to bring Israel back to their Lord. No, that would be too small a thing. God was going to use Isaiah and the divinely inspired message that God gave Isaiah to bring the nations to the Lord. Isaiah would be a tool in the hands of the Master to bring about the building of God’s global kingdom.

 

            In the Old Testament, such a plan was mysterious. How could God rescue the gentiles too? But by the time we see Jesus Christ, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, lay down is life for all who will come to God from any nation, the global vision becomes more clear. God truly has always intended that his kingdom be filled with people from every nation on earth. God will not fail. Christ did not fail. God’s kingdom will be established.

 

            Now, back to my question of small thinking. Do we think too small? God told Isaiah that the return of Israel would be too small a task. That would be too easy, too little. No, God had a gigantic task for Isaiah. Isaiah would be a voice calling the nations to their King.

 

                But Isaiah is not the only one with such a call. Jesus commissioned his disciples by calling us to take the good news of Gods’ forgiveness to the nations. We are to make disciples of all peoples. A vision of a surviving church, or even a thriving church in a local community, is too small a vision. We need to think like God thinks. We need to pray for God to truly glorify his name. Would God not say to us just as he said to Isaiah, “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth?” And if God would say this to us, how do we obey? It is time that we think bigger, pray bigger, and direct our plans globally. Yes, we are to reach our communities with the gospel. But we are also to take the gospel to the next town, the next county, the state, the nation, and the globe. O Christians, do not think too small when thinking about the building of the kingdom of our God.

Isaiah 30:15-18

 

15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;

in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”

But you were unwilling, 16 and you said,

“No! We will flee upon horses”;

therefore you shall flee away;

and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”;

therefore your pursuers shall be swift.

17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;

at the threat of five you shall flee,

till you are left

like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,

like a signal on a hill.

18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,

and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.

For the Lord is a God of justice;

blessed are all those who wait for him.

 

     In the days of Isaiah, the people of God were under a great threat. Assyria for the northern kingdom and Babylon for the southern kingdom were great dangers. God was going to send enemies, allowing them to punish Israel for her sin. But God also promised deliverance. If the people would trust in him, rest and be still, he would be their rescuer. Sadly, Israel did not wish to trust in the Lord. Instead, she would run away to attempt to save herself.

 

     There are great lessons here for us all. If you are not yet a believer in Christ, there is something for you to learn. It is human nature to think that you will rescue yourself, saving your own soul. Most people who believe in God also believe that they will be OK with God if they can manage to live up to a certain set of moral standards. But the Bible makes it clear that none of us are good enough in ourselves to please a holy God. No, the only way to be right with God is not to try, but to trust. God sent Jesus to live the perfection we could not live and to die the sacrificial death that would have kept our souls in hell forever. You cannot be good and get Jesus. On the contrary, all you can do is repent of sin, trust in Jesus, and ask him to save your soul. In quietness and rest is your salvation—quietness from personal works and resting in the person and work of Jesus alone.

 

     For the Christian, there is also a lesson. It is tempting, when we face hardships, to fix everything ourselves. But we are not always wise here. God is active in our lives. Sometimes the best policy for us is to rest in him and allow him to defend us, protect us, and provide for us. Of course this is not about laziness or quietism. However, there is truth in the fact that there is peace for the Christian when he or she will stop trying to run the world and allow God to be in charge (as he will be in charge no matter what we think we can do).

2 Chronicles 30:12 (ESV)

The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the Lord.

 

            During the time of King Hezekiah, the people of Judah turned from much of their former sin to obey and seek the Lord. For the first time in a long time, they kept a proper festival to God with proper sacrifice. Most of the remnant from the northern kingdom laughed at this worship even though they had already experienced the punishment of God who used the Assyrians to demolish that kingdom. Yet some from the north humbled themselves and repented.

 

            What is beautiful to me is the unity of heart that was present in the southern kingdom. As a people, the people of Judah repented and sought God. For a time, a short time, the southern kingdom turned from idols and to the Lord. They sacrificed, they prayed, and they sought God’s face. God blessed them and showed them mercy.

 

        How did this happen? How did Hezekiah convince the people to do what was right? He didn’t. Hezekiah was used by God here, there is no doubt. He was a tool in the hand of the Lord, but he is not the one to glorify for the heart change in the people of Judah. No, look again at verse 12. God did the work in the hearts of the people, “The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the Lord.”

 

        When a person turns from their sin to seek the salvation of God, that is the working of God on a dead heart. God may use a pastor, a friend, a missionary, a teacher, or whomever he wants, but the fact is, it is always God alone who changes the hearts of sinners. This is to God’s glory. He is the one who ought to receive 100% of the praise for anyone’s salvation, anyone’s heart change. This does not diminish the work of believers that God uses. Hezekiah was important in the lives of the people of Judah. Whoever shared Jesus with you was important in your conversion if you are saved. Missionaries are important in taking the gospel to the nations. But only God awakens dead hearts, replaces hearts of stone with hearts of flesh, and brings people to salvation. That is his glorious work for his sweet praise.

Isaiah 26:3-4

 

3 You keep him in perfect peace

whose mind is stayed on you,

because he trusts in you.

4 Trust in the Lord forever,

for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

 

     Trust in God. Trust in him, because he will give peace to the one who does so. Trust in him, because he is an everlasting rock. Trust in him because he is steady and strong. Trust in him because he is sure and always right. Trust in him, and you will find rest.

 

     What a glorious call. Our God promises that he will give rest and peace to the one whose trust is in him. The one who trusts in God, truly trusts in God, is one whose life has been changed by God. The one who trusts in God is one who has been brought from darkness to light. The one who trusts in God is one who will receive from God great peace, great joy, great hope. Even when the circumstances of life are dismal, the one who trusts in God for real has a sweet comfort and confidence that the Lord will bring glory to his name.

 

     How can we trust God? We know that he is our rock. God does not change. The circumstances of the world around us do not sway him. His plans are certain. No evil force can put God off balance. No “natural” disaster can take him by surprise. No clever trickster can change God’s mind. No variant in the moral thinking of man will change what God has declared to be right. God is perfect. For him to change would mean to go from less perfect to more or from more perfect to less, and these things the perfect one cannot do.

 

                Do you trust in God? Is he your hope for salvation? Is he your hope for your future? Have you found yourself truly believing that he is your one and only sure foundation? Have you seen him as your only way to have peace and joy? Have you trusted in Jesus, God the Son, for eternal life? Do you trust in God in your hardships for peace and hope? “Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”

Romans 2:4

 

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

 

     Many people in our world have done a bang-up job of refashioning God into someone he is not. This should be no surprise, as this has been going on since the very first human sin. Consider Cane who found himself furious with God for not accepting a sacrifice that Cane thought was just fine.

 

     One of the reshapings of God that is most common is the thought of God as all love with no judgment or wrath. People see the Scriptural declarations of God’s love and they fail to see the total picture. God is gloriously loving, and there is no doubt about that. God has shown kindness to all humanity. He did not kill us after our very first sin, and that shows a great deal of mercy and forbearance on his part.

 

     But Romans 2:4 tells us that God’s kindness has a purpose, and if you are not careful, you might miss it. One of the reasons that God is kind to those who sin against him is in order to bring them to repentance. When you and I, who by nature are evil, do what our evil nature demands, we should be judged by God. When God chooses to show us kindness instead of the judgment we deserve, that should provoke in us a reaction. The proper reaction is not to glory in our sin and to go on sinning. No, the proper reaction is to see the kindness of God, understand the ugliness of our sin, and turn from that sin while crying out to God for his pardon.

 

     Perhaps it would be good for you, today, to recognize some of the kindness that God has shown you. He did not kill you and judge you the moment of your first sin. He has let the sun shine on you and the wind blow around you. He has let you experience the rainfall that feeds the crops that feed your body. If you are reading this, you have Internet access for goodness’ sake, that’s pretty kind of God to let you have such technology.

 

     God has been kind to you in more ways than you can count. How have you been toward him? You have sinned against him; we all have. He does not even require you to be good to be saved. He simply calls us to turn from sin and trust in Christ. There is nothing in that about making yourself good. In fact, it is about rejecting your wrong and crying out to him for mercy to make you right. Look at the kindness of God, and let it lead you to repent of sin and love his mercy.

Micah 2:1-3

 

1 Woe to those who devise wickedness

and work evil on their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it,

because it is in the power of their hand.

2 They covet fields and seize them,

and houses, and take them away;

they oppress a man and his house,

a man and his inheritance.

3 Therefore thus says the Lord:

behold, against this family I am devising disaster,

from which you cannot remove your necks,

and you shall not walk haughtily,

for it will be a time of disaster.

 

     Do you scheme? Do you plot? Do you lie in bed and think to yourself how you are going to get at somebody, how you are going to tell them off, how you are going to make them look foolish? Do you daydream of things you could say to somebody to show how stupid they are? Do you consider in your brain how you can spin the story of what somebody said or did to make yourself look good and them bad?

 

     God hates such scheming. Micah makes it very clear that such schemers are in great danger. Whether you scheme at home, at school, in the workplace, or—heaven forbid—in the local church, God hates it. Plotting to hurt others, to put others down and lift yourself up, is evil, looking far more like the devil than like Jesus.

 

     Be careful here. Do not assume that you could not possibly be a schemer. It is amazing how easily this comes into our lives. We most often talk with people who are like us and who think like us. Our simple conversations can very easily turn into strategy sessions for changing the world into something that pleases us. Sometimes this is good, when it is gospel centered and biblical; but more often than not, our little planning sessions become dangerous times of self promotion and fighting for personal preference.

 

     What is the solution to this? Go read Philippians 2:1-11. Jesus was our example of one who humbled himself in order to sacrifice himself for the good of others. Follow that pattern. Once you have put your trust in Jesus for your salvation, strive to look like him. Let go of your perceived rights in order to consider others better than yourself (Phil 2:3).

 

     Don’t get me wrong here. The call to self sacrifice is not a call to a works-based Christianity. You do not need to simply work harder to be a good little boy or girl. But, if your heart is filled with scheming and plotting to get your own way, you are working against the sanctifying hand of God. If you are working to put yourself forward and put others down, you are battling against your source of ultimate joy. Fight for joy. Fight for peace. Fight against your own tendencies to self-promote. Fight to glorify God by loving others as Christ loves you.