You’re Invited!

ALL – Psalm 150:1-6
ALL – Proverbs 31:25-31
OT – Malachi 3:1-4:6
NT – Revelation 22:1-21

Interesting passage for the day: The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ Let each one who hears them say the same, ‘Come.’ Let the thirsty one come—anyone who wants to; let him come and drink the Water of Life without charge. – Revelation 22:17, The Living Bible

Thought: It’s always nice to be invited. Especially to be invited by someone important. I think God and His kingdom might possibly fit into that category.

When someone important invites you over, don’t you usually do everything you possibly can to go?

With God, there’s no excuse for rejecting His invitation. He sent His Son to die so that we could accept His invitation. He’s sending His Son again to escort us home. His final words in the Scriptures are words of invitation and grace, and He’s so serious about the message getting across that He leaves a stern warning for anyone who tries to change things up.

If you’re reading this, you’ve received an invitation from God: “Come.” Come to Jesus. Come to His Spirit. Come join His people. Come home with Him. Come.

Question: Are you coming?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Prayer-Fueled Wrath

ALL – Psalm 136:1-26
ALL – Proverbs 30:7-9
OT – Nahum 1:1-3:19
NT – Revelation 8:1-13

Interesting passage for the day: And the perfume of the incense mixed with prayers ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out. Then the angel filled the censer with fire from the altar and threw it down upon the earth; and thunder crashed and rumbled, lightning flashed, and there was a terrible earthquake. – Revelation 8:4-5, The Living Bible

Thought: Often when I wake up in the morning, part of my prayers to God include these lines from the Lord’s (or disciples’) prayer: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Those prayers are beginning to be answered. In the hearts, souls, minds and strength of thousands upon thousands and even millions upon millions of people, our Father’s name has begun to be reverenced, His kingdom has come, and His will is being done.

But when will these prayers be answered fully? Why are some of our prayers going unanswered? Why do men and women get away with wickedness and evil? Where are all our prayers (and I’m talking about the godly ones, not the foolish and selfish prayers) going?

In Revelation, we see that they are being stored up to be poured out before God’s throne, mixed with incense. Our prayers for God’s righteousness to overwhelm the wickedness around us and finally reign supreme will be brought before God and presented as an offering that pleases Him. And in imagery that cannot help but communicate the connection between our prayers and God’s wrath on our rebellious world, the very censer that was once the container of our prayers, now emptied before God, becomes the tool by which fire from heaven is poured down upon this sinful earth in wrath.

Our prayers matter. God hears them. He sees our suffering. He knows our misery. He hears our sobs. He hates the injustice, oppression and wickedness that we endure. As we cry out to Him through His pure and wonderful Son Jesus Christ, God is preparing to act. He will save us completely and finally from the pains of this life, and His answer to our prayers will be a wrath against sin that makes us wonder why we ever doubted that God cares about our troubles. He cares, and in His love for us, He will respond to our prayers in His wrath.

Question: Instead of asking what you pray for, I’d like to ask: What do you pray against? Have you grown impatient because God hasn’t dealt with it the way you wanted Him to deal with it yet? When you read Revelation 8 and see the results of your prayers, are you willing to wait for God’s timing?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Love-Loosed Wrath

ALL – Psalm 134:1-3
ALL – Proverbs 30:1-4
OT – Micah 1:1-4:13
NT – Revelation 6:1-17

Interesting passage for the day: And when the fourth seal was broken, I heard the fourth Living Being say, “Come!” And now I saw a pale horse, and its rider’s name was Death. And there followed after him another horse whose rider’s name was Hell. They were given control of one-fourth of the earth, to kill with war and famine and disease and wild animals. – Revelation 6:7-8, The Living Bible

Thought: I’m sorry, but this is simply not a pretty picture. Who wants to face the horrors that Jesus Christ revealed in this verse? And not just in this verse. All of chapter six is filled with clip after clip of doom.

And you know what’s really ironic? Look back at yesterday’s passage and thoughts. You’ll see what I’m talking about. Yesterday, we saw Jesus Christ, the Lamb who has eclipsed all other beings by dying and shedding His blood as a payment to buy people from around the world for God, and that He was the only one worthy to take and open the scroll in God’s hand. Today we see what it is that only Jesus the spotless Lamb was worthy to open: a scroll of war, anarchy, killing, famine, disease, wild animals, vengeance, natural disaster—a scroll filled with the wrath of God.

Only Jesus is worthy to unleash God’s wrath. And He is worthy precisely because He shed His own blood for us—in other words, Jesus’ infinite love makes Him worthy to unleash overwhelming wrath.

You might think that these two realities wouldn’t meet up in Jesus Christ, but you would be wrong. This is how the perfect God planned the course of creation all along. He knew that His creatures would rebel against Him and deserve to die, but He withheld His wrath. He locked it up in a secure chest that could only be opened with the key of love. Only when so much love had been poured out on mankind that humanity had absolutely no excuse for their rebellion would God’s wrath be unleashed. And no one in all of creation was ever worthy to unlock that chest. Humanity (which really had no excuse already) could still hold up one piece of evidence against God: “You knew how painful life would be and how sin would take us captive, but You did not prevent it and you have not done enough to save us from our sins and their curse! YOU DON’T LOVE US.”

People still charge God with not loving us enough. And I just don’t get it. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” When God sent Jesus to earth that first Christmas, God sent Him to demonstrate the fullest possible extent of love—a love that would nullify every accusation against Him. Jesus’ death on the cross was a shout of divine love, a shout that declared, “I see your slavery to sin. I see your suffering. I see your pain. I see your fears and sorrows. And I will not let them last. They’re done. I’m willing to lay my life on the line for you, to die for you to live.”

And the love expressed through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, finally provided the key to the chest of God’s wrath. No one ever has to experience God’s wrath, because everyone can be saved from it through God’s loving Lamb. God, in His love, chained up His wrath until all could be saved from it through Jesus Christ.

So the worthy and loving Lamb of God unleashed the wrath of God. But He did it only after providing for the safety of all who trust in Him.

Question: Which do you see more clearly, God’s love or God’s wrath? God’s wrath fell on Jesus so that God’s love could fall on you. But rejecting God’s love will still get you God’s wrath. What’s your take on it? Will you receive His love?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Heaven’s Posthumous Purple Heart

ALL – Psalm 133:1-3
ALL – Proverbs 29:26-27
OT – Jonah 1:1-4:11
NT – Revelation 5:1-14

Interesting passage for the day: They were singing him a new song with these words: “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it; for you were slain, and your blood has bought people from every nation as gifts for God. And you have gathered them into a kingdom and made them priests of our God; they shall reign upon the earth.” – Revelation 5:9-10, The Living Bible

Thought: The Purple Heart award is an honor given in the name of the United States President to soldiers who have been wounded or killed during their service to our country. Yes, it is an honor that can be given to a soldier after death. Facing death in service to other people deserves honor so much that our government does not consider the posthumous award to be a waste.

Here in Revelation 5, Jesus Christ, the Lamb, is found to be worthy of an honor that no one else—not a single living being in all of creation—could claim, the honor of taking the scroll from the hand of the “one who was sitting on the throne” (Rev 5:1), to break its seals and to open it. Why did the Lamb merit this great honor?

The twenty four elders sang the reason for His honor. “You are worthy,” they proclaimed, “for you were slain, and your blood has bought people from every nation as gifts for God. And you have gathered them into a kingdom and made them priests of our God; they shall reign upon the earth.”

Jesus has gone to war for us. He marched straight to the front lines and battled for our lives. And Jesus Christ did not leave the battle field in defeat. He won the victory! We who trust in Him are being gathered into His kingdom and have become priests of God!

This victory was not won without cost. Jesus Christ died on the field of battle. He laid His life down to gain the ultimate victory.

And yet, in this heavenly scene from Revelation 5, Jesus Christ did not need a next-of-kin to step forward and claim His honor for Him. Unlike the United States’ posthumous Purple Heart awards, Jesus Christ is an honoree who can stand to personally receive the posthumous praise He deserves. He has risen from the dead and lives forever. And so the victory that He won by His death is forever secure because He lives.

Question: How grateful are you to Jesus for His death for you? When you hear about the honor He receives, do you yawn? Clap politely? Or cheer at the top of your lungs? If you could award Jesus an appropriate posthumous “Purple Heart” award of your own, what kind of reward do you think He would deserve?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Don’t Bite the Hand that Feeds You

ALL – Psalm 132:1-18
ALL – Proverbs 29:24-25
OT – Obadiah 1:1-21
NT – Revelation 4:1-11

Interesting passage for the day: “O Lord, you are worthy to receive the glory and the honor and the power, for you have created all things. They were created and called into being by your act of will.” – Revelation 4:11, The Living Bible

Thought: Did you hear the awful news back on November 23rd? About the actor who killed his own mother, chasing her around the home and hacking at her with his sword? It’s just wrong. No child should turn on the very person who gave him life. But that’s just what Michael Brea did.

Betrayals like this happen all too frequently. There’s a reason that everyone understands the phrase, “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” But most of us don’t think we’ve done anything nearly as awful as what Michael Brea did.

That’s why it’s so interesting to read the reason that the twenty-four elders in heaven give for worshiping God. “O Lord, you are worthy to receive the glory and the honor and the power,” they sing. But why? “for you have created all things. They were created and called into being by your act of will.”

If God is truly our Creator, then He is more motherly than any mother and more fatherly than any father. He is eternal, so He had no need to pass all His accumulated wealth to an heir. He never sins, so He need never have felt the pain of rebellion, betrayal or hatred; He could have gone without creating us, and He would have been fine on His own. God didn’t need someone to care for Him in His old age. There wasn’t even any pleasure-based motivation for God, the way there is for a young married couple that’s really thinking more about their brief evening together than about (surprise!) an eighteen-plus year commitment to a third party. No. God deliberately, voluntarily, sacrificially chose to create. He created you, me and everyone, and He created us with more love and tenderness than any human mother could offer.

Have you turned your back on God? Have you treated Him like dirt? Have you decided to attack Him and hate the very sound of His name? Have you disowned God or killed Him off in your life (even if you can’t in reality)?

If you have, Michael Brea’s atrocities can’t hold a candle to yours. As God’s creation, your sin against Him leaves you useful for nothing except to be thrown out and burned like rubbish.

The good news? This wonderful Creator, through His Son Jesus Christ, can turn rubbish into treasure. He can make a new creation out of you. And He wants to.

Question: Why did you turn against your Creator? Have you come back to Him yet? Will you admit how wrong you were and live to give Him all that He deserves for creating you?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Firefighting Gear

ALL – Psalm 127:1-5
ALL – Proverbs 29:15-17
OT – Hosea 10:1-14:9
NT – Jude 1:1-25

Interesting passage for the day: Save some by snatching them as from the very flames of hell itself. And as for others, help them to find the Lord by being kind to them, but be careful that you yourselves aren’t pulled along into their sins. Hate every trace of their sin while being merciful to them as sinners. – Jude 1:23, The Living Bible

Thought: Just as I was drifting off to sleep two nights ago, I had a horrible dream/imagination: flames had broken out in Emma’s and Michael’s room and they were trapped. They needed help. Fast.

I imagined myself diving, unprotected, through the flames in the doorway to snatch my screaming children out of their room. None of us made it out unhurt. All of us were scorched by the flames.

When we Christians go on our search and rescue missions to turn parents, neighbors, co-workers and children from the flames fueled by their sins to the life given us by Jesus, we can and should be more prepared than I was. We should be more like firefighters and less like desperate parents working to save children from flames. Both parents and firefighters are vulnerable to the very flames they’re fighting. The difference between them isn’t an inherent flame resistance. The difference is their readiness and protection.

As Christians battling to save other people from their sins, we too are vulnerable. It’s important that we protect ourselves from falling into other people’s sins. None of us is strong enough to walk through the flames of sin on our own without being burnt. We need Jesus for every step of the mission. We need to be depending on His salvation ourselves. We need to commit our minds and hearts into His hands to keep us holy, staying within the limits of His protection by obeying what He tells us to do. We need to belong fully to Jesus, who protects His children.

Question: Have you found that sometimes when you’re trying to pull people out of their sins, you end up falling into some kind of sin yourself? What kinds of sin do you usually fall into? When we fall into sins, we’ve reached beyond the limits of Jesus’ protective commands. Where do you find yourself stepping outside of Jesus’ commands in your efforts to save others?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Salvation: We’re Not Missing the Point

ALL – Psalm 123:1-4
ALL – Proverbs 29:2-4
OT – Daniel 11:36-12:13
NT – 1 John 4:1-21

Interesting passage for the day: Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now tell all the world that God sent his Son to be their Savior. – 1 John 4:14, The Living Bible

Thought: I was reading a book recently called Adventures in Missing the Point, and the authors were discussing what it really means for us to call Jesus our Savior. The one writing this particular chapter said that salvation in the Bible was not really about being set free from sin—at least, not until after Israel and Judah were sent into exile. Before being sent into exile, salvation was about being freed from oppression, slavery, famine, starvation, and threats—mostly about other people’s wickedness and often simply about hard times. The author wrote that it was only after the exile that the Jews, struggling to understand why God had given them over to their enemies, came up with the answer: our sin. And that it was then that they began to seek to be saved from their own sinful ways.

I agree with the authors on the point that salvation is about much more than our sins. God has sent His Son to be our Savior not just from our own personal sins, but from the hostilities of other people’s sins and from the curse that has fallen upon creation because of our sins. And I agree that more of us need to realize that when we talk about salvation, we’re talking about more than just being set free from our sins.

But I disagree that the Jewish people’s cry for salvation wasn’t really about salvation from sin until after the exile. Or at least, I disagree that the kind of salvation God was revealing to His people ever since the first sin was more about their personal well-being in the face of systemic and pervasive sins than about their freedom from personal sins.

Following Adam and Eve’s sin, God Himself performed the first sacrifice, killing some sheep to provide clothing to cover the shame of their nakedness. And He promised a time when their descendant would crush their tempter’s head—I’m pretty sure this was all about destroying not only sin’s consequences, but also sin itself. Going down the pages of history a bit, but still right at the start of the Bible, we come to Noah’s story. Noah wasn’t being oppressed by his neighbors and calling on God for salvation, but God judged them for the sinful inclination of their hearts. So Noah was saved from the flood, yes, but more importantly, he was saved from God’s judgment against sinners by having been kept pure in his heart. Joseph’s story shows God’s work to keep Abraham’s descendants alive so that the promised descendant, not just of Adam but now of Abraham, too, could come one day to crush the serpent’s head. No sooner were the Hebrews saved from the sinful oppression of their Egyptian masters than God led them to Mt. Sinai and commanded them not to sin on penalty of destruction and death. During that same journey, God gave them His instructions on how to be saved from their sins via the sacrificial system—a system that pointed them to their ultimate Savior from sin, Jesus Christ. So it through the pages of Israel’s biblical history: over and over, when God saves them from some external curse, He is also calling them to find salvation in Him from the internal curse of sin. Even in Esther, a book about how God delivered the Jews from the threat of extinction in the Persian empire, the question of personal sin arises: Will Esther sinfully and selfishly seek only to save herself while the nation faces annihilation, or will she be faithful and sacrificial to God and His people? And it is through her submission to the divine providence of God that she avoids sin and its destruction, not just for herself, but for multitudes of Jews.

God has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. Jesus died to save us from our sins and from their curse. So we who have been set free from our sins should be more and more a part of defeating sin’s curse in this lifetime. But we look forward to the day when our Savior comes again to complete the salvation He began two thousand years ago.

We’re not missing the point when we think that Jesus died to save us from our sins. We might not be seeing all the implications of this salvation perfectly yet, but we’re not missing the point. Our Savior has saved us to be His people—and His people are people who have been freed from sin. We may need to step further into His salvation, but we’re not missing the point.

Question: Have you been saved from your sins? Has your salvation been a blessing to anyone else, saving them from being under-provided for, abused, or otherwise sinned against? What has it meant for you and those around you that God’s Son Jesus Christ is our Savior?


To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Impossible Commands

ALL – Psalm 122::1-9
ALL – Proverbs 29:1
OT – Daniel 11:1-34
NT – 1 John 3:7-24

Interesting passage for the day: And this is what God says we must do: Believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another. – 1 John 3:23, The Living Bible

Thought: Easier said than done. That’s what I think anyway. Believing in Jesus. Loving people. Both are definitely easier said than done. In fact, apart from God’s gracious intervention in our lives, they’re both impossible for any of us.

Humanity will not easily believe in the true God. He insists on His own sovereignty, not just in outward behaviors but inwards. He cannot be manipulated. If it is His will that we learn patience through suffering, then even though He fully intends to end all suffering for His people one day, He will not end it for His pleading child until patience sprouts like a lily from the suffering-tilled heart. We may willingly believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but believing in Him is another matter entirely. That requires submitting our rights, choices and desires to our Lord without bitterness. Believing in requires unconditional trust. And our hearts will not give anyone, even the Creator of the world, our unconditional trust unless the Holy Spirit has first given them the supernatural gift of faith.

Nor will our hearts love one another easily. We will shower love upon attractive people—at least, until they scorn us. We will devote ourselves to those who have blessed us—at least, until they harm us. We will commit ourselves to our families and friends—at least, until they betray us. We will serve those who pay us—at least, until they ask us to shoulder more of a burden than we think their pennies are worth. But to love one another unconditionally is hard. In fact, it is pretty much impossible. We do not easily love the unattractive. We shudder at the thought of doing a kind deed to our enemies. We boil with rage against those who have betrayed our close relationships. And we view our employment as a mere business transaction rather than as an opportunity to love; in business, love always has a price. But to love one another truly and unconditionally, regardless of seeing “what’s in it for me”—there is no human love that achieves this goal apart from the Holy Spirit’s gentle, strong re-creation of our hearts.

Believing in the name of God’s Son Jesus Christ. Loving one another. Do you hear these commands and think, “No problem!” If so, I pray that your life is soaring along on the Holy Spirit’s wings. Because otherwise, you are grossly misunderstanding the nature of true faith and the nature of true love. And if so, you are swiftly approaching the greatest failure of your existence.

Question: Has Jesus asked you to do something the risks of which you’re not sure you can trust your Lord to handle for you? Will you call on the Holy Spirit for help and believe in Jesus? Has Jesus commanded you to love someone you simply cannot love? Will you call on the Holy Spirit for help and love that someone?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Lion Taming Faith

ALL – Psalm 118:1-18
ALL – Proverbs 28:2
OT – Ezekiel 39:1-40:27
NT – James 2:18-3:18

Interesting passage for the day: Fool! When will you ever learn that “believing” is useless without doing what God wants you to? Faith that does not result in good deeds is not real faith. – James 2:8, The Living Bible

Thought: What is belief? Our relationship with Jesus depends on it, so we had better understand a little bit about what it means, right?

Is belief something we do when there’s a story we know is totally false, but we want to have a little fun and play make believe?

Is belief a choice we make about which God we think will take the best care of us and serve our interests the best?

Is belief a set of religious principles we believe are true, a religious formula that will always keep us safe just like the mathematical formula 2 + 2 will always give us the answer we expect?

Is belief something that we can contain in a book or a paper, an official statement that lists the core truths of the universe, but that is only meant to be discovered and doesn’t require any change in our lives? Is belief about a list of principles that govern our lives whether we know it or not, like the fact that the earth revolves around the sun and the moon around the earth?

Not according to James. James doesn’t deny that truth exists, and that it is important to acknowledge and know the truth. What James denies, though, is that believing the truth is a passive activity. Belief doesn’t sit in a recliner looking up at a plaque of creeds on the wall. Belief depends on the truth enough to risk everything on it, like a skydiver depending on a parachute. Belief submits to the truth, like a lion tamer submits to the principles that keep the lions from ripping him to shreds. Belief obeys the call and command of the truth. Belief follows the truth. As Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Belief goes wherever truth leads, because belief can find life nowhere else.

Anything less is not really belief.

Question: How much do you need your beliefs? If what you claim you believe were suddenly proved entirely false, would your life be changed at all, or would it continue pretty much as it is right now?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Weekly Sermons in Swanton: Take the Most Excellent Way

The message, preached on November 28th, 2010, covered 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13, and it can be heard via streaming audio at http://www.swantonalliance.org. The most excellent way, as far as Christianity goes, has nothing to do with amazing gifts, roles and talents. The Christian life is not about gifts. The way of love is the most excellent way, because love offers a taste of heaven. Note: Past sermons can be accessed through the resources page.

Weekly Sermons in Swanton: Seek Greatness

The message, preached on November 21st, 2010, covered 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, and it can be heard via streaming audio at http://www.swantonalliance.org. Although the church is made up of many people, we share one common passion: to make Christ’s greatness known. Jesus has fused us together, and God wants us to feel like a body. God has given each one of us a role to help us to seek Christ’s greatness. Note: Past sermons can be accessed through the resources page.

Betrayal

ALL – Psalm 121:1-8
ALL – Proverbs 28:27-28
OT – Daniel 9:1-10:21
NT – 1 John 2:18-3:6

Interesting passage for the day: And now, my little children, stay in happy fellowship with the Lord so that when he comes you will be sure that all is well, and will not have to be ashamed and shrink back from meeting him. – 1 John 2:28, The Living Bible

Thought: Every one of us will have a garden of Eden moment. You know what I’m talking about. After Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree, God came back.

And all of us will have a moment when we meet our God face to face, just like Adam and Eve did. It will be the moment of truth. We will either be able to greet our Lord Jesus happily, or we will feel a need to hide, as Adam did.

That’s why John encouraged these believers to stay “in happy fellowship with the Lord.” It’s not like Jesus was physically present with them right then. Otherwise John wouldn’t have said that they needed this fellowship “so that when he comes you will be sure all is well.” No, staying in fellowship means something much deeper than just physically being within sight of Jesus. Staying in fellowship means living like someone who values Jesus and wants to please Him.

That’s what went wrong with Adam and Eve. When God was out of sight, they neglected to live like a relationship with Him was more important than anything else, no matter how desireable. They didn’t lose their fellowship with God when they could no longer see Him. Adam and Eve lost their fellowship with God when they betrayed His trust.

Let’s not betray Jesus’ trust. That way, when we see Him face to be face, we’ll be ready.

Question: What kinds of things tempt you to betray Jesus’ trust? Are they really worth the loss of fellowship with Jesus? How can you pursue fellowship with Him and seek to please Him, rather than following desires that lead you astray?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.