Category: devotional

2 Kings 19:34-35

34 “For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
35 And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

[This was one of the passages I pondered that turned into a devotion I put together for a team leader meeting this week at Super Summer.[

The situation was terribly grim. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and his forces were conquering everything in their path. They were the nation that it seemed was destined to dominate the world. No one could stand in their way. The Assyrians had taken Samaria and the entire northern kingdom of Israel captive.

Now, the massive Assyrian army had their sights set on Jerusalem. Hezekiah, the king of Judah at that time, had nothing, absolutely nothing, that he could do to defend himself. The Assyrians were even taunting Judah by saying that they would give them 2,000 chariots if they could find enough men to man them.

But Hezekiah turned to the Lord, and God spoke to him through the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah made it known that the King of Assyria would not take Jerusalem. He would not even fight at Jerusalem. Though a gigantic army was massing near Jerusalem, they would not even nick the wall with an arrow.

Then, that night, what we already read came to pass. The Lord sent a single angel, one single servant, and the angel struck down 185,000 soldiers of the Assyrian army. The battle was over. God won.

Here is the thing that I think we need to grasp this morning: we serve that very same God. Too often we think of things in terms of whether or not they are possible. Too often we think of things in terms of whether or not we have the strength to pull them off. But we fail to remember that we serve a God who did not strain himself when he took out an army of 185,000. We serve a God who spoke the stars into existence, created a universe out of nothing, and who certainly has the power to do more incredible things than we could ever imagine.

This morning, take time to remember the power of the God you serve. He can do anything. Yes, we say that easily, but do we buy it? He can do anything. Nothing is hard for God. Nothing makes him break a sweat. God can and will do amazing things.

And, what motivates God’s amazing action? It was for two sakes in verse 34. He did the amazing thing that he did for his own sake, for the sake of his glory, and for the sake of his servant David, his covenant faithfulness. God does amazing things when the point at issue is the glory and faithfulness of God. He will do amazing things to display for all to see the absolute awesome power and beauty of his glory. God will do awesome things for the sake of his covenant people.

So, this week, let’s have our minds set on two things. God can do absolutely anything. He is not limited. Do not let yourself think for a moment that nay task, any student’s problem, any struggle is too big for your God. Instead, dwell on the fact that the God who tossed the stars into the sky, who spoke the planets into being, who designed subatomic particles, and who struck down 185,000 soldiers in a moment is the God you are communicating with and serving this week. Second, remember that God shows his power when the purpose for that display is his own glory. So let’s focus ourselves on the person, the faithfulness, the glory of God, and let’s expect that we will see our God do what we never dreamed possible.

Luke 6:20-26

20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
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One of the sermon points from this morning’s message will involve the need for Christians to become courageous by thinking eternally. So, it is wonderfully affirming to read these words from Jesus.

When I think of the beatitudes, I don’t always think of them as a call to an eternal perspective, but in this case, I see it quite clearly. Jesus points to those who are faithfully following him, even suffering for him, and he lets them know that one day, they will find their souls completely satisfied. The truth is, that satisfaction will only fully come when those who follow Jesus are fully satisfied in eternity. Having an eye on that gloriously coming eternity is something that Jesus uses here in Luke 6 to encourage his followers to stand strong, to stick with it, to do the work, or, as the sermon will say, to stoke the fire of their gospel courage.

The audio from our panel discussion from Wednesday evening is available in the sermons section of www.fbccolumbia.com.

There were 6 of us on the panel, and we were presented with a wide variety of questions. Some of the topics included:

How can we trust the Bible?
What happens to our souls when we die? (soul sleep? directly to heaven?)
What is the difference between Protestants and Catholics?
Should Christians homeschool?
What is a biblical response to the push for homosexual marriage?
What happens to the soul of a God-fearing Jew who dies without knowing Jesus?
Why is there evil?
What would you tell a second-grader who asks about dinosaurs?

And much more!

To get the download, go to

http://sermon.net/fbccolumbia

1 Samuel 13:12-14 – 12 I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” 13 And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
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Just a quick thought: Saul decided that he would offer the sacrifice because time was growing short. Besides, “God wouldn’t get all worked up about something so small as the lineage of the man who makes the sacrifice would he? Isn’t the important thing that the sacrifice is made, not how it is made?” And, as you see, Saul was wrong. Let’s be very, very careful in ever saying something like “I don’t think God is really all that concerned about whether we. . . “ God is holy. His holiness makes him concerned about every intimate detail of how we worship him.

The following is a post from Saturday, May 03, 2008. I simply could not help re-posting this after rereading this particular passage.

1 Samuel 6:3-5 – 3 They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you.” 4 And they said, “What is the guilt offering that we shall return to him?” They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. 5 So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you and your gods and your land.
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One of my all-time favorite movie lines is Dr. Teeth from the original Muppet Movie saying, “Golden teeth and golden tones; welcome to my presence (heh heh heh).” It was just plain funny. But I have to tell you, the concept of a group of people making golden tumors and golden mice, that ranks right up there too. And, when you realize that the Hebrew word there translated tumors has also been translated as hemorrhoids, it really is hard to keep a straight face. Can you honestly imagine fashioning a golden hemorrhoid in order to pacify the wrath of an angry deity?
But before we get too snarky with the Philistine religious leadership, let’s stop and pay a little closer attention. How often do we fashion our own forms of worship or our own personal acts of penance as if those should satisfy God? How many people do you know who are thinking to themselves that they will earn their way into heaven through religious practices, personal good works, or simply not being bad on the level of a mass murderer, rapist, or climate-destroying SUV driver? Remember, God has told us that our most righteous actions are filthy in his site (Isaiah 64:6). He has told us that there is only one way to get to him, through Jesus Christ (John 14:6). He has told us that salvation is by grace through faith and not by our works (Ephesians 2:8), and yet millions believe that they are going to heaven because they are basically good people. This is no different than a golden hemorrhoid.
Or how about in the area of worship? God has commanded us to preach the word (2 Timothy 4:1-ff), but many have re-envisioned the worship service so as to completely remove any faithful teaching of the Bible. Hip groups have turned preaching into a “conversation” or have set up alternative “worship” stations in the place of worship. But, if you look at the fact that God commanded preaching, is it not a little like a golden hemorrhoid to tell folks that they can go feed themselves communion, finger-paint a nice abstract, or make shapes with the chocolate syrup in the whipped cream of their decaf white chocolate mocha instead of actually hearing and responding to the authoritative word of God?
Many will be tempted to respond to the above critique of off-the-wall froofy worship styles by pointing to the large crowds that such styles can draw. Let’s be careful, however, about thinking that the results of a particular religious activity are how you can tell whether or not you have worshipped God or made a golden hemorrhoid. Once the Philistines sent the Ark of the Covenant back to Israel with their “offering,” they stopped experiencing the plagues. They very well could have concluded, “See, that particular god likes mice and tumors as offerings.” They did not realize that they were in direct violation of the second commandment by making little idols. The reason that the plagues on the Philistines stopped was not the tumors and mice, it was the fact that God graciously chose to stop plaguing the Philistines after the Ark went back to Israel. The Philistines did not do anything that would make them right with God, they simply stopped experiencing their symptoms of being under his wrath. So, without question, pragmatic criteria are no way to judge whether or not one’s acts of worship are honoring to God.
We live in a world where every nut case with a word processor, blog, or a few minutes with Oprah seems to think he, she, or he/she has come up with a new way to get in good with the divine (be that divine within or without him, her, or him/her); however, all of our creative attempts at religion really amount to golden hemorrhoid-making. Thankfully, God has not consigned us to the smithy to fashion for ourselves a new religion every time we get the notion. Instead, he has given us his word. That word tells us how to be right with him. That word gives us principles by which we discern how to worship him in spirit and truth. That word tells us that this life is not about a conversation with God, but is rather about becoming God’s child by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. That word is solid, perfect, without error. God’s word is not up for post-modern reinterpretation, feminist revision, or Jeffersonian redaction. God’s commands are his commands.
So, how about this for an idea: Instead of creating a religion out of our own minds, why not use God’s holy word, his perfect revelation of himself and his ways, to learn who he is and how we should please him? Why not put away the golden mice and tumors of our own imaginings, and simply live to glorify God by obeying his commands, preaching his word, sharing his gospel, and loving his church? And in the midst of this, let’s give thanks to God for revealing to us how we can be made right with him by grace through faith in Christ and keeping us from having to make up our own crazy ways to please him.
*PS*
For you who might think I’m advocating the “regulative principle” by calling us to follow the scriptures in worship, let me simply say that I’m not. This is not about attempting to restrict all acts of worship to spelled out commands considering that the Bible says nothing to us about the use of hymnals, microphones, or electricity in worship. We have freedom in Christ to a certain degree; however, we do not have such freedom that we can simply ignore what God has called us to do, change his meaning as it is revealed in his word, or make up new and totally unrelated activities and declare them to be as valid as those which God has clearly commanded.

Joshua 20:1-3

1 Then the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Say to the people of Israel, ‘Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, 3 that the manslayer who strikes any person without intent or unknowingly may flee there. They shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood.
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Many people pay very little attention when reading through the latter part of the book of Joshua. After all, it’s all maps and land allotments and stuff like that, isn’t it?

Second Timothy 3:16 tells us that all scripture, not just some scripture, but all scripture is inspired by God and useful. That means that the end of Joshua is, according to God, useful to us to help us to grow in him. So we want to be careful not to glaze over when reading through something that is unfamiliar to us, because we might miss something important.

Now, take a look at the verses above. Here we see Joshua setting aside the cities of refuge. These cities, as the scripture describes, are places where a man who has unintentionally killed another person can run so as not to be put to death by a relative of the person he accidentally killed. That man would flee to the city, present himself to the elders of that city, and ask to be protected there from the one who would come to do justice on him.

How much is this like a picture of us before God? Really, there is one striking difference, we have sinned against God intentionally, not unintentionally. However, the rest is quite similar. All of us have sinned against God (Romans 3:23). All of us are guilty, and we deserve to die because of our sin (Romans 6:23). And, if you understand scripture rightly, we all are being pursued by an avenger—God himself—who rightly should punish us, pouring out his wrath on us for our sin against him (Ephesians 2:3).

Where shall we run? There is no town of safety, but there is something much like a city of refuge for us. While we were sinners, guilty before God and deserving his wrath, God chose to make a way for us to be forgiven. God sent his Son, Jesus, to be the sacrifice for our sins (Romans 5:8). If we will run to Jesus, like a city of refuge, and plead with him for shelter, admitting all the while that we are guilty of our crime, he will take us in and put us under his protection (Romans 10:9-10, 13; John 3:16). We cannot pretend that we do not deserve God’s wrath. We cannot pretend that we are not guilty of our crimes. We cannot pretend that there is anything that we can do that would ever make us worthy in God’s sight. All we can do is run to Jesus, our refuge, and take shelter under his care.

The amazing thing is, when we get to the city of refuge, we will find that the one who set up that city for our protection is the very God we have so offended. God set up a refuge for people he knew would sin against him and deserve his wrath. Why did he do this? He is glorious, loving, merciful, and just. He chose to pay our penalty himself and offer us a way to be rescued, saved.

Next time you are reading through the Old Testament and come across the city of refuge, perhaps it would do you good to pause and think about the fact that we have our very own city of refuge, the Savior, Jesus Christ. He shed his blood so that our souls would be saved. He is kinder than anyone we have ever met. He is worthy of our praise. He is truly glorious.

And if you do not yet know Jesus, I urge you to realize your condition. You are guilty before God. You have committed sin against God that places you under his wrath. He has established a refuge to which you can run. Fly to Jesus, confess your sin, place yourself under his protection, and commit yourself to live in him for the rest of your life. He will forgive all who come to him seeking his grace in truth. He will be a city of refuge for guilty sinners like you and me.

Deuteronomy 32:45-47

45 And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. 47 For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”
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What do you love? What do you treasure? It is easy to discover. To what do you devote your time and energy? To what do you give your attention? To what do you listen when conflicting voices arise?

Here near the end of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses gives the people of God a command that is worthy of our attention. HE calls the people to take God’s word, his law, to heart. They are supposed to look at the law as something real, something important, something sacred. They dare not ignore it. They dare not give it too little weight.

How important is God’s word according to God’s word? Moses says, “For it is no empty word for you, but your very life” (v 47). You cannot overemphasize this issue. The law as Moses presented it to the people of Israel was no empty word, it was their life. With the word of God and in obedience to it, the people of God would live. Apart from God’s word or in disobedience to it, they die.

Now we think about this issue from a gap of over 3,000 years. And, you know what, the value and importance of God’s word has not changed. We now have more books than Moses wrote. We now have the entire canon of God’s written revelation to man. We now have the words of and about the Lord Jesus Christ. But these words of God still hold true. We are to take God’s word to heart. His word, all of it, is no mere collection of empty words, it is—it must be—our life.

What do you love? What do you treasure? Do you love and treasure the word of God? How can you tell? It’s easy to determine. Do you spend time with God’s word? Do you take God’s word seriously? Do you receive God’s word as authoritative on all issues of life? Does God’s word guide your thinking on every issue? When you have an opinion, do you judge the validity of your feelings based on the written revelation of God? Do you allow God’s word to govern your actions and motives?

What is the alternative to loving God’s word? The result is death, but what does that alternative look like? Such a person would ignore God’s word. They would look at God’s word as a mere collection of writings of fallible men who are no longer in touch with our modern realities and sensitivities. Such a person would give the Bible only the most cursory of readings, or would not read it at all. Such a person would allow his or her own opinions and emotions to overrule anything written in the scripture. Such a person would find ways to justify the ignoring of clear commands of God. Such a person would be able to say that the word of God will not interfere with his or her day-to-day decision-making.

Are you a believer in Jesus Christ? If so, do you love God’s word? The Bible is no mere collection of words, it must be your very life.