December 2011

transparent

Read > Acts 5:1-12

The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God! (v. 4).

Early for my lunch appointment, I was enjoying the quietness of my commute despite the bumper-to-bumper traffic. Suddenly, the ringing of my cell phone broke the silence. I answered it and heard my sister’s cheerful voice say, “I’ve been waving to you for the past 5 minutes! You must be lost in thought!” “Where are you?” I asked. “In the car in front of you,” was her incredulous response. I hadn’t seen her waving because her rear window is darkly tinted.

As the body of Christ, we’re called to live in community with one another. The idea of people watching us or knowing about the junk in our lives can make us uncomfortable. But being known by others is necessary, not only to meet our basic relationship needs, it also affords us a measure of safety from the enemy’s devices.

Ananias and Sapphira had a well-known problem. They lied about giving all the proceeds from the sale of their property to the church. Judgment came because they pretended to be something they weren’t. Playing a role to imitate the sincerity of those around them (Acts 4:34-37), they forgot that God knows the true condition of our hearts (Proverbs 24:12).

Believers who take seriously the presence of the Holy Spirit living in them recognize that transparency means:

·         Pursuing “holiness and sincerity in all our dealings” (2 Corinthians 1:12).

·         Being honest with others about where we are spiritually (Ephesians 4:25).

·         Being willing to be admonished by those who love us (Proverbs 27:6).

Tinted windows may keep our cars cooler by allaying the sweltering summer heat, but tinted lives leave us open to the enemy. – Regina Franklin

More >

Everything that is hidden will eventually be brought into the open, and every secret will be brought to light (Mark 4:22).

Next >

What have you tried to hide from those around you? How does fear play a role in keeping us from being transparent with other believers?

December 2011

On whose terms?

Read > Jonah 2:1-10

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. He said, “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and He answered me” (vv. 1-2).

Let’s consider a couple of hit songs from country singer Carrie Underwood. In “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” she sings about a young mother whose car is sliding on an icy road, and just as she is about to crash she cries out for Jesus to save her. “Jesus, take the wheel,” she sings, “take it from my hands ‘cause I can’t do this on my own.”

In “Before He Cheats,” Underwood sings the lyrics of a scorned woman and what she did to her unfaithful boyfriend. While he was off romancing another woman, she was demolishing his car, slashing its tires and leather seats, scratching the paint on its doors, and smashing its headlights with a baseball bat. “Maybe next time,” she sings, “he’ll think before he cheats.”

Both songs resonate with people. Who hasn’t cried out to God in desperation, and who hasn’t plotted revenge on those who have hurt us? And yet it seems that we want to have it both ways. Why do we sing “Jesus, take the wheel” but not “Jesus, take the bat”?

We are too much like Jonah. He begged God to take the wheel of his life when he was swallowed by a huge fish (2:1), but he also wanted to hold on to the bat and take a few swings at his enemies in Nineveh.

When they repented and God relented, Jonah angrily complained to God, “Didn’t I say before I left home that You would do this, Lord? … You are eager to turn back from destroying people. Just kill me now, Lord!” (Jonah 4:2-3).

Likewise, we want God’s help, but on our terms. We want God to forgive and rescue us, but we reserve the right to “smash the headlights” of those who have sinned against us.

God won’t be played. If you have given Him the wheel of your life, hand over the bat. – Mike Wittmer

More >

·         Proverbs 20:22

·         Matthew 5:38-41

·         Romans 12:17-21

Next >

What is the difference between standing up for you and sinfully seeking vengeance? How can you tell if you’re fighting for justice or simply being selfish?

Made in God’s image

Read > Genesis 1:24-28

God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God He created them; male and female He created them (v. 27).

My wife, Merryn, and I once visited a large market in Sydney. On that day a man was cutting out small silhouettes of people’s faces from black cardstock. He would complete one in two minutes for two dollars. We gave him the money and his shiny scissors went to work, his eyes darting between us and his handiwork. Within two minutes he handed us our silhouette.

Seeing our profiles was a strange experience. Mr Scissorhands had certainly captured our characteristics, but some features weren’t quite right. My chin was a little pointy and my nose a bit too round – and so was Merryn’s. Our eyes lifted off the card and to our scissor-clutching friend’s face. Sure enough, that’s where we found in the flesh those false features. With pointy chin and rounded nose, the grinning artist had “snipped” us in his own image!

“Let Us make human beings in Our image, to be like Us,” the famous record of origins states (Genesis 1:26). We are the portraits, God is the original. Reason, emotions, creativity, speech, plus the responsibility to “reign over the fish … the birds … the livestock” (v. 26) all originate from our being made in God’s likeness. This immense honour (Psalm 8:3-8) makes all humans worthy of dignity and respect. Even after the fall, when sin marred our image, it wasn’t completely lost (Genesis 9:6). This explains why murder is out of the question and why even cursing another person is wrong (James 3:9-10).

Divine features are reflected in everyone you see. The image may be scarred through neglect, distorted by greed, and smeared by selfishness, but it is there. And one day, for those willing, it will be fully restored – transformed into the image of Jesus, the true and complete image of God (Colossians 1:15). – Sheridan Voysey

More >

·         Romans 8:29

·         1 John 3:2

Next >

How might seeing others as God’s image-bearers help you to treat them with respect? How might the truth of our destiny (conformed to the image of Jesus) help you reach out to those around you?

seasons

Read > Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven (v. 1).

The Great Migration is considered one of the grandest spectacles in the natural world. More than two million mammals participate in this annual parade. The seasonal conditions of the Serengeti, a vast East Africa ecosystem that spreads from Tanzania’s plains to Kenya’s Masai Mara, establishes the timing of the event.

Leading the procession are the zebras, usually about 200,000 in number. The striped beauties are followed by the main attraction, about one-and-a half million wildebeests. And bringing up the rear are nearly 500,000 Thomson’s gazelles.

The Great Migration is a brilliant display of God’s creativity and His execution of perfectly timed seasons in the lives of all things, including four-legged herbivores.

Seasons were created by God in the beginning, when He said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them mark off the seasons, days, and years. Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth” (Genesis 1:14-15).

The psalmist acknowledged that it was God who “made the moon to mark the seasons” and ordained when the sun would set (Psalm 104:19). And Daniel chimed in with: “[God] controls the course of world events” (2:21).

Regarding the precision of the seasons on earth, God Himself asks us: “Can you direct the movement of the stars – binding the cluster of the Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion? Can you direct the sequence of the seasons or guide the Bear with her cubs across the heavens? Do you know the laws of the universe? Can you use them to regulate the earth?” (Job 38:31-33).

Today, reflect on the seasons of life you’ve journeyed through thus far and thank God for His perfect timing. – Roxanne Robbins

More >

·         Exodus 34:21

·         Deuteronomy 11:11-12

·         Ezekiel 34:25-27

Next >

What season of life has God brought you through? How have you experienced the perfection of His will?

startled

Read > Isaiah 52:13-15

From His appearance, one would scarcely know He was a man (v. 14).

No matter which country you visit, when places of power come into view, you generally find what you would expect: foreboding architecture, opulent surroundings, symbols of strength and prowess. Whether it’s the Kremlin, the Pentagon, or Red Square, governments exert massive expense and energy to send the visible message that they are powerful and ought to be feared. It’s the same for those who hold positions of power. Rarely do we see a leader on the world’s stage appearing disheveled or out of control. Image is power says common wisdom.

Into this reality (which was no less true in AD 30 than it is today), entered Jesus: the carpenter, the man from the backwater town of Nazareth, the one who would come to be known as the suffering Servant (Isaiah 52). There was absolutely nothing about Jesus’ family connections, educational pedigree, or life station that commanded respect or projected the image of worldly power.

No wonder, then, that the prophet Isaiah tells us that Jesus would “startle many nations” (v. 15). The nations of the world (and their leaders) would be flabbergasted at the prospect of such an unassuming, unbecoming man holding any claim to be the King of kings. It makes sense that the mighty and the powerful would “stand speechless in His presence” (v. 15).

I’ve come to believe that God’s movement in His world will most always startle us. We see so little. We understand so little. Truthfully, we hope for so little. We are so little. We need a God larger than ourselves, far larger than what we could imagine. A God who will come and redeem us in ways we could never have dreamed.

But herein lays our true hope. When God comes to us in His way, we “understand what [we] had not [even] heard about” (v. 15). – Winn Collier

More >

·         Isaiah 53

·         1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Next >

How has God startled you? Where is God overturning what you expect (or even demand)?

provision

Read > Genesis 21:22-33, 23:1-18

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he worshiped the Lord, the Eternal God (21:33).

Four years ago, Egypt was at the top of our list of dream vacations. Scheduling conflicts, however, left Egypt on our wish list as we chose another destination. We still hope to visit Egypt one day.

I especially would like to see the Valley of the Kings, a series of tombs tunnelled in the rugged and harsh mountainside. Having held their secrets for more than 3,000 years, the tombs’ discovery in 1881 revealed a wealth of knowledge about Egypt’s earlier dynasties.

While in captivity in Egypt, ancient Israel kept hope alive partly because of a tomb in Canaan (Genesis 50:24-25). Scripture tells us of two covenant transactions Abraham made while living in the land. Securing water for his livestock, Abraham dug a well and gave Abimelech seven lambs “to show [his] agreement” that the well belonged to Abraham (21:30). The second occurred when Abraham bought land for a burial plot after his wife Sarah’s death. In the agreement, a plot of land at Machpelah became Abraham’s possession (23:17-18).

A stranger in the land, Abraham was able to water his flocks and bury his dead as God had promised. Having been told of the captivity of later generations (Genesis 15:13), Abraham possessed by faith what would eventually belong in reality to his descendants. Centuries later, Joshua would lead Israel back to the Promised Land according to what God had spoken: “Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you” (Joshua 1:3).

Beginning with a well and a tomb in Canaan, the promises of God have become manifest in Christ. No visible well is required because the life He provides causes us to “never be thirsty again” (John 4:14-15), and a tomb becomes a promise because “anyone who believes in [Him] will live, even after dying” (John 11:25). – Regina Franklin

More >

·         2 Corinthians 1:20

·         Galatians 3:29

·         1 Peter 1:3-4

Next >

How does the life of Christ in you make your life a spiritual “promised land”? What are the specific promises you are waiting for God to fulfil? What are the manmade “wells” or “tombs” that keep you from seeing God’s promises?

Being there

Read > 1 Corinthians 13

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal (v. 1).

Last week my wife had five teeth removed – all in one morning. Ouch. Needless to say, it’s been a painful and – due to difficulties with some of the pain medication – nauseating experience for her. As she’s been pretty much bedridden over the past several days, my caregiving repertoire has included ice packs, warm washcloths, liquids, soft foods, and simply spending time with her. She has wanted me to be there.

As I’ve strived to love Lynn sacrificially, I’ve been reminded of 1 Corinthians 13. This chapter, a perennial favourite for wedding texts, presents God’s agape love. Three times in verses 1-3, Paul writes that even if we exercise our spiritual gifts in amazing ways, but don’t “love others,” it amounts to “nothing.”

It is interesting that the “Love Chapter” is sandwiched between two chapters focusing on spiritual gifts and how believers should use them for a “way of life that is best of all” (12:31). Paul’s point is that God has given us spiritual gifts to use, but they must be exercised in love – real love that is kind, humble, forgiving, and persevering (vv. 4-8).

God reveals that kind of love in the way the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share a deep and permanent affection for one another. This is the agape that He wants us to show to others – especially our spouses.

If I had simply brought Lynn my “gifts” of comfort this past week, but didn’t have God’s love in my heart, I would have been a “noisy gong” (v. 1) and truly clueless. Loving those closest to us as well as others in the body of Christ requires a sacrificial spirit that flows from God.

It isn’t merely bringing your gifts; it’s being there because of love. – Tom Felten

More >

·         Isaiah 1:10-17

·         Amos 4:1-5

·         Mark 12:28-31

Next >

Not everyone who is kind to a neighbour also loves Jesus. What is unique about our service to others that makes it count as loving Jesus? Why is it important to love others and spend time alone with Jesus?