Deeper Still by phil mccallum | Archive

No Comments 30 March 2009

Press the arrow to listen to Hillsong Church sing “All for Love” as you read about secure in God’s love.

Scripture
“I will always trust in the unfailing love if the Lord.” Psalm 52:8

Observation
Who is the most confident man in the world? The person who is loved. Money doesn’t make a man confident, only anxious. Power does not make a man secure, only fearful. What gives a person courage in the face of the insurmountable is God’s love. Someone who is loved will be defended, rescued, sought after, and looked after because God has focused a loving eye in his direction.

Application
When we feel vulnerable, our thoughts should move immediately to God’s love for us. We should remember how he has shown his love by rescuing us in times past. We should put our minds at rest with the mantra, “I am so loved.” We should look at difficult days with some expectation of how the Lord will prove his love toward us again.

Prayer
Father, use the day if trouble to renew and deepen my understanding of how loved I am. Amen

Courage, Endurance, Stress

It’s Not All Up to Me

No Comments 26 March 2009

Press the arrow to listen to Newsboys’ “In Christ Alone” as you read about today’s fight.

Scripture
One of your men puts to flight a thousand, for the LORD your God is He who fights for you, just as He promised you. Joshua 23:10

Observation
Life is not a shuffle, it’s a fight, so we cannot approach it with halfheartedness. We must fight to win, for the Lord and his cause matters. This fighting spirit should infuse everything that we do.

But if we could view our day from God’s point of view we would quickly see that we are not alone in this effort of living. There are unseen angels. There is the gust of the Holy Spirit blowing behind what we do. Overarching all is our Father, so secure in his power that he need not fight at all.

Application
The greatest reassurance to me today is that this fight is not up to me. I am responsible to fight in the zone God has chosen for me. I am charged to throw my whole heart into the fray. But really the pack behind my punch is from Christ.

Prayer
Father, there is a part of me that retracts from the fight. Sometimes it is reluctance. Sometimes it is laziness. Sometimes it is the feeling of being overwhelmed. Sometimes I prefer peacemaking. But I wrap myself with the promise today that you are working through me to fight. I give you my sword. Use me. Amen.

Challenge, Fruitfulness, Plans, Potential

Developing Potential

No Comments 24 March 2009

Press the arrow for NewsboysÂ “In the Hands of God” while you read about developing potential.

Scripture
“How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you? Provide for yourselves three men from each tribe that I may send them, and that they may arise and walk through the land and write a description of it according to their inheritance; then they shall return to me.” Joshua 17:3-4

Observation
Most of us die with undeveloped potential. We occupy only a small beachhead of the continent that was given to us at birth. God has laid out potential for us that few fully inherit. So we end life wondering if we ever lived.

How can we avoid a superficial life? By making an assessment of the potential that God has given to us. Here are some questions to ask to find that potential.

1. As I look across my life, where is God’s hand of blessing resting?
2. What responsibilities have been entrusted to me and what is yet to be developed in them?
3. What strengths do I have that are unused.
4. What areas am I working in that are not designed for me?

Application
I’m writing my list right now!

Prayer
Father, I want to use all of my inheritance from you. I often look at what’s not mine and ignore what is given to me to develop. Help me to work within the fences you’ve blessed me with. Amen.

Challenge, Endurance, Troubles

Discouraging Opportunities

No Comments 23 March 2009

Press the arrow to listen to Jeremy Camp sing “There Will Be a Day” as you read today’s devotion about the challenges of new opporutnities.

Scripture
“…the hill country shall be yours. For though it is a forest, you shall clear it, and to its farthest borders it shall be yours….” Joshua 17:18

Observation
I cried most of the day of my 25th birthday. Just two months into my first pastorate, the pincers of a divided church had pierced through to my heart.Â In my prayers I imagined that I had been dropped off on the shore of an island covered with sharp thorn bushes and it was my job to clear the land.

The Lord has no problem giving us opportunity. But we have a problem with what stands in our way. It may be a forest to clear, or hard leadership calls to make, debt to clear, conflict to resolve or paint to scrape before we can experience all that God has for us.

Opportunities can discourage us when God gives them. There is always an obstacle he deliberately puts in our path. Why does he do that? Is he against us? No, the challenges are proof that he is for us. He knows that these obstacles will bring the best out of us.

Application
I served long enough to see the thorn bushes in my first church pulled out by the roots. In time a new church building was built and the the congregation multiplied five times in size. I am glad that my ministry started the hard way, for that past endurance gives me today present strength to dig up the thorn bushes God has put in front of me.

Prayer
Father, help me to claim all of the land you have intended for me. Amen.

Family

God Does Real Estate

No Comments 22 March 2009

Press the arrow to listen to Hillsong Church sing “Home” as you read today’s devotion about home on earth.

Scripture
Moses also gave an inheritance to the tribe of Gad, to the sons of Gad, according to their families. Joshua 13:24

Observation
Forty years is a long time to be homeless. Rampaging warriors can handle camping life. But housewives complain. Little children want a backyard. The God of heaven’s armies has a soft spot for families. When the battle smoke cleared he switched from Commander in Chief to real estate agent. The Father wanted his children to find home.

Property was divvied up not by buying power, but by family size. God gives a right fit in the answers he supplies. Usually the Lord gives just what we need, just in time.

Application
God is concerned for my family. He has a place designed for our needs. My prayers to be settled can be focused on this tender part of his heart. When the battle is over he will lead me home.

Prayer
Father, today, lead my whole family home. Amen.

Peace

The Man of Peace

No Comments 18 March 2009

Press the arrow to listen to Hillsong Church sing “Mighty to Save” as you read today’s devotion about peace.

Scripture
There is a future for the man of peace. Psalm 37:37

Observation
What is the opposite of peace? It is not war. War is a symptom of the other side but it is not the opposite of peace. The antithesis of peace is craving. The restless gnawing hunger of unfilled desires is what causes us to fight and struggle. War is the result of these unfilled desires.

The man of peace is a person who has a future. That must mean logically that a man of craving does not have a future.Â Immediately he might grasp something, but in the long term he will come up empty.

A man of peace, on the other hand, has a future. His life is absent from craving. It isn’t that he has everything that he needs in life. He might be hungry. He may have debts. He may need a vacation. But he isn’t craving these things. He has found completeness from a contentment with God and God alone. He is aware that friendship is more valuable than possession.Â God is enough.

Peace attracts more peace.

If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. (Luke 10:6)

When we let the fullness of God come into our emptiness we become the rock in the desert that makes the sand dune grow. Peace gathers at our doorstep. This is why a person who has stopped craving prospers. It is safe for God to give to a person of peace, because the gifts will never replace the deepest human desire for relationship with God.

Application
I want to become a man of peace. My prayers are often pockmarked with desires instead of contentment in the Lord. “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4) By taking my attention off of the things I crave and becoming content in the abundance of God strangely my desires are fulfilled. That is a man of peace.

Prayer
Today, Lord, make me a man of peace. I let your peace in. Amen.

God's Voice

God’s Got Something Up His Sleeve

No Comments 17 March 2009

Press the arrow to listen to Hillsong Church sing “Still” while reading today’s devotion about God’s secrets.

Scripture
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him”â€” but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. 1 Corinthians 1:9-10

Observation
Secrets are not heard in the noisy street with crowds and activity. Whispers from God are heard when we find quiet places to listen to him speak. Then when we are in the busy places we are not distracted by the plans of others, but have a clear focus on what we are called to do.

No one has a clue what God has in mind, yet he wants to tell us if we will listen. There is so much that the Lord has up his sleeve for our future. There are people, places and things for us to do. When I study the jet trails of my own life, Iâ€™m amazed with the Father has done so far. What else does he have planned? My job is to get close enough to listen.

Application
I have this sense when I get quiet that God is getting ready to tell me something that heâ€™s been keeping to himself for a few thousand years. I need to stop and to listen.

Prayer
Father, today I chose to listen not just in the major times of quiet, but also in the little quarter rests in the music of today. Help me to hear you as much at a 2 minute stop light as in an hour alone with you. Amen.

Older Entries »

I'm Phil McCallum, a husband, father and most of all one of the people Jesus loves. I'm privileged to serve Evergreen Community Church in Bothell, Washington as Senior Pastor where people love enough to believe "it's all about relationships." In 1982 I made a vow to read God's word daily and apply it to life. Each day I write out my reflections. Some days I post those on my blog. It's a little personal but it's my hope it will stir you to go deeper still. Learn how I do my devotions. These are my thoughts and not necessarily those of the ministry I serve. By the way check out the computer study Bible Glo. I highly recommend it.