A Few Brilliant Ideas...: devotions

Showing posts with label devotions. Show all posts

Devotions

"At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you uturn and vbecome like children, you wwill never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 xWhoever humbles himself like this child is the wgreatest in the kingdom of heaven.

5 y“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 butzwhoever causes one of these alittle ones who believe in me to sin,1 it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."

Today is Matthew 18. I fell asleep last night promising myself I would read my devotions when I awoke. Unfortunately I woke up at 4 PM, so here I am. This evening I was struck by the audacity of the disciples. They openly ask Jesus who is the greatest in God's kingdom for the obvious purpose, I first thought of becoming the greatest. I mean that's why I would ask. However, as I thought over the question again, it occurred to me that the disciples might be asking Jesus something much more serious. Was it possible the disciples were asking if God was the greatest in heaven? This claim was equally audacious, however, as I ponder it further, I realize this can't be the case. The context of Jesus's reply implies that the disciples question was indeed geared at the former. Besides, at this point in the scriptures the disciples would have had to be blind to realize that Jesus was not synonymous with God, what with the dove descending upon him, His commands for the winds and seas to stop, and most recently the transfiguration where he tabernacled with God, Elijah, and Moses. The disciples knew for certain that Jesus was God. Peter we know for sure as he confesses it back in Matthew 16:16 "Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”" It would be silly for the disciples to ask this question for any other reason than to find out how they could obtain greater position in God's kingdom. However, they also asserted Jesus as God, once again, for only God knows the nature of heaven.

I've often pondered what I'd ask Jesus if I ever got to meet Him on this earth. "Jesus, why did you make mosquitoes?" But honestly, this is one of the better of the disciples' questions. All over the Bible we see the questions regarding how to defeat our sin, and the answer is always to become like Christ. Since Christ, God, is the greatest in Heaven, by reason we must become more like Him. This makes Jesus's answer interesting, as it tells us a piece of the nature of God. Jesus says that only those who are like children will enter the kingdom of Heaven, however, the greatest is he who "humbles himself like this child." God is the greatest of all, because he is the one who has most greatly humbled himself. If you think the magnitude of God's glory, and how much greatly above us He is in his attributes: perfect, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. God is infinitely more glorious than we are, and yet he humbled Himself as a child, in the form of Jesus. Not only has He humbled himself into human form, but into the form of a babe in swaddling clothes, born in a stinking stable. The other day I was thinking about how different the Bible story would be if Jesus was a prince rather than a poor child. I came to the conclusion, He would no longer be God, at least not the God I know. God is the greatest because He has most greatly humbled himself. We should therefore make ourselves more like Christ, humbling ourselves to be like Him. At the Resolved retreat I just got back from, the preacher talked about Jesus washing the disciples' feet. We need to be willing to wash one another's feet, perhaps not literally, but doing equally undesirable tasks in order to humble ourselves.
God connects himself with children here, or perhaps more accurately all the virtuous traits a child has, is similar to the nature of God. God is not limited by social boundaries. He is innocent. He loves to make things. He is enthusiastic. God is childlike in nature. We should become more like Him.
The last point of the passage is God's overwhelming love for children. You can see in the passage Jesus's severe warning for someone who harms children. God has a blazing, fire-filled, passionate love for children. This is true for those who are very young, who do not belong to Him, but it is also true for those that He has adopted into His family. The church. The body of Christ. The next time you face a challenge, remember this, God has not only chosen each one of us as one of His children, not only ransomed us from sin. God loves you passionately, with an undying love. His wrath against those who assault those who believe in Him is great. He will take care of us. None of us needs to fear.
So live encouraged, children of God. When you feel small, God is big. He is with us in the valleys and the peaks. Give praise to Abba, our heavenly father.
Sincerely,

Thoughts of a Wayfaring Child

Sounds like a book title doesn't it? Well, the reason behind that is it probably could be a book. Unfortunately, I have neither the time or resources to write a book at the moment, so you'll just have to settle with a blog post. Sorry.

Have you ever tried to engage someone about their devotions? Why not?

If you don't there's probably two reasons, one being that you haven't done your devotions and therefore you instantly feel the guilt overwhelm you in that instant and banish it to the back of your mind. The second reason relates to a fear of man, you are aware that the chances are the other person hasn't done their devotions and therefore to ask would create an awkward situation where you feel like you'll have a one sided conversation.

I'm sorry to bring you some bad news. It's your duty to ask anyway.

As Proverbs 27:17 says: "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another."
Colossians 3:16 says: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."

So much for pushing that question of devotions to the back of our minds. The reading of God's word is vital to our growth in him. Prophecy, tongues, prayer, these are wonderful gifts given to us, prayer is even essential as it is our way of speaking to God. However, if prayer was all that we had, we would be maintaining a one sided relationship with a distant God that remains separate from us. Christ came and died for us and then rose again and was carried to heaven. Which leaves us with the question, how do we maintain our relationship with God?

The answer? God's holy authoritative word. You've probably heard the word "authoritative" used in relation to the Bible. What does it mean? Authoritative means: Able to be trusted as being accurate or true; reliable." If we accept the Bible as authoritative then we must remain obedient to it.
John 1:1 states: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

The Word is God? What is the Word of God? Surely it can be spoken by the prophets as a divine inspiration but primarily it appears to be the Bible as it is fully proven as inspired by God in its authoritative sense.

2 Timothy 3:14-17

14. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,
15. and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
16. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17. so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

In order for us to be "thoroughly equipped," we must be spending consistent time in God's word! This is of the utmost importance. Too often when I ask that question, "How are your devotions going?" the response is either: "Uhm... They're not," "good," or that awkward silence that follows up a question they don't want to answer. The second answer would be fine, except that when followed up, they can't even remember what book they're reading in. Christians MUST READ GOD'S WORD! I cannot emphasize this enough.

One of the best responses I've ever heard in reply to a person telling the asker they haven't been reading God's word was this:

"How can you breathe?!"

God's word is what should dictate our lives down to our last breath. If we aren't remaining in our word, we aren't remaining in contact with God. How would you respond to someone who says, "I'm an avid blog-writer" if you asked them about their last post and they told you it was a month ago? You would be incredulous! You would ask them how they use a word like "avid" if they aren't really dedicated.

They'd probably respond: "it's hard to remember" or "it's hard to find time." Sound familiar?

The word Christ-ian implies your life centers around "Christ." If you aren't remaining in God's word, you aren't staying in contact with him and you aren't developing a relationship with your savior. Therefore it is vital that if you are a "Christ"-ian that you remain in contact with your savior through the Bible.

If you feel convicted about your Bible reading habits not being frequent or regular enough, that's FANTASTIC. There's good news for you. God has placed you in a church filled with other believers to hold you accountable to your reading of scripture. It's even easier to do so throughout the week with the gift of technology. I promise you that if you dive into God's word that he will meet you, but even better than my promise is his. Psalms 27:3-4

zTrust in the Lord, and do good;

adwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.2

bDelight yourself in the Lord,

and he will cgive you the desires of your heart.

Let me encourage you to read your Bible with your hearts open and with your hands ready to act on his prompting. If God speaks to you through his Word, will you be prepared to follow his commands? Will you struggle on through the dry seasons, when he feels so far away?

God doesn't promise a life of ease, but he does promise he will never foresake or abandon you.

I will sextol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up

and have not let my foes trejoice over me.

(Psalms 30)

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )

A Few Brilliant Ideas...

featured Slider

Devotions - Who Is the Greatest?

How Long?

Afraid

Christians-An Explanation for Misconceptions~Spoken Word

John Piper-Mind Blowing. 2nd Comic

The Importance of Devotions

Dug Down Deep

Search This Blog

Blog Archive