Challenge, Expectation, Potential, Self-Image, Small Beginnings

Just Jump

No Comments 27 December 2009

I just put together this slideshow about my wife Leslie. She is one incredibly competent woman.

Scripture
Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Revelation 1:17-18

Observation
We are afraid of not being good enough. It is no use hiding. Over performance is as much insecurity as is hiding in the shadows. Life is a stage and all eyes are watching. We can pretend that it doesn’t matter what others think, but we have the sneaking feeling that we aren’t up to par. If others knew that our silence was not wisdom but stage fright maybe they wouldn’t seek out our help.

What are we to do? The answer is simple. Let all of your inadequacies be swallowed up in the competency of Jesus Christ.

Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Revelation 1:17-18

In Jesus Christ is there from beginning to end. He shows us what it means to be completely human. He can outlive anything that comes against him. Nothing handcuff him, for he holds the keys. Within the person of Jesus Christ is unlimited competency. He calls us to look into the infinite vault, warehouse, reservoir and reserves of his infinite being. He is our all in all.

Application
What would happen if we flung ourselves headlong into the unreasonable call of God and dared to discover what Jesus could do through one life yielded to him? Part of me wants to say, “You go first!” But he calls me.

Come to the edge, He said.
They said, We are afraid.
Come to the edge, He said.
They came. He pushed them… and they flew.
Guillaume Apollinaire

Prayer
Father, because of Christ, there is more in me than I know about. It will only know it exists in me by being put into conditions beyond my ability. So here I come. Amen.

Anger, Challenge, Overcoming, People Skills, Uncategorized

The Power of a Question

No Comments 29 October 2009

Press the arrow to listen to Phil Stacey “You’re Not Shaken” as you read today’s devotion about handling confrontational moments.

Scripture
How can Satan drive out Satan? Mark 3:23
Who are my mother and my brothers? Mark 3:33

Observation
Jesus was hit with the old “one two” punch. First came the preachers and next came his mother and brothers. Both thought that Jesus was out of his mind.

Jesus was backed into a corner. He was called a madman and he had no one to defend him. The establishment had turned their backs on him and he had lost the confidence of his own kinsfolk. It would have been easy for Jesus to have become defensive, but he didn’t make himself look pathetic.

Instead, Jesus turned to the power of a question. Questions are like hot water on ice, they melt through hardness with a power stronger than a speaker’s personality but from the weight of the question mark. After a question is asked it will keep on asking in the mind of the opponent. Questions beg to be asked. Once spoken they are sent out the door like child beggars into the street. They won’t relent until satisfied.

Question marks are hungry things.

Application
Jesus is fascinating because he is God showing us how to be a human being. There is a better way than defensiveness. There is a power of a question. If Jesus could defend himself without appearing defensive, even when accused of insanity, and still come out looking wise, then there is in this an example for me to follow today.

Prayer
Father, in the heat of the moment, when this devotional moment is long forgotten, help me to remember and to do what Jesus did and still does. Amen.

Challenge, Disappointment, Endurance, Faithfulness, Overcoming, Problems

Feet for Climbing

No Comments 06 August 2009

Press the arrow to listen to Mercy Me sing “Finally Home”

Scripture
The righteous will live by their faithfulness to God. Hab 2:4

The Sovereign Lord is my strength!
He makes me as surefooted as a deer,
able to tread upon the heights. Hab 3:`0

Observation
On a morning walk, time froze as a young buck with velvet antlers crossed my path. I was down wind so he didn’t smell me coming. For a moment both of us were surprised to see the other. The moment unthawed and with a pogo bounce, I watched the deer bound up the hillside. Rocks and undergrowth didn’t phase him. He moved with confidence through uncertain terrain.

As he mounted the hill, I thought to myself, “His feet are my feet.” God’s blessing to us is not always that we can conquer troubles but that we can walk over the top of them to a better point of view. Those with the feet of a deer do not need a paved road to reach the summit. The surefooted do not remove boulders; they bounce over them. The path is not on the ground but in their feet. Their ability to navigate four wheel drive country gives them a vista few others will see.

Application
What keeps the righteous man alive is his record of faithfulness to the Lord. What he sows, he will also reap. As he has been faithful to the Lord, so in turn, in days of need, the Lord will be faithful to him. The greatest investment we can make in our tomorrows is to put one foot in front of the other for today.

Prayer
Father, I have the feet of a deer now help me to use them. I ask not for a better road, but for agility to clamber up to a better point of view. Help me to scamper to the heights and receive the reward of those who take the rugged incline. Amen.

Challenge, Weakness

Hugging Your Thorn

No Comments 12 April 2009

Press the arrow to listen to Natalie Grant sing “Hope Endures” while reading a devotion about overcoming weaknesses.

Scripture
That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10

Observation
I just got done doing my morning exercises. I’ve developed a plan that works so well for me. It will sound weird, but between every piece of clothing I pick out to wear or iron I do a set of three exercises. Before I take my morning shower, I’ve done 150 push ups, sit ups and pull ups. I’m 48 and fighting middle age. It works for me.

At nearly the half century mark (yikes that is scary) I don’t try to promote my inabilities. I fought wearing glasses since 2002. Reality hit when I couldn’t see people coming down the hall at church. Now with glasses, I’m considering Laskik surgery. :)

Like all in the human condition, I want to appear strong and put make up over my weaknesses. Paul, however, surprised me this morning with his talk of taking pleasure in weakness. That is a new level of maturity I have yet to grow into. But I think I get his perspective. I take pleasure because my emptiness makes room for more of the fullness of Christ.

Application
The older I get the weaker my body becomes. And yet, I can take pleasure in my weaknesses because Christ’s power is at work in me. He did not just raise up from the dead, but he punched through the demonic realm and while the grave is empty, the throne at the Father’s right hand is not. Hallelujah.

Prayer
Father, today I squeeze my weaknesses tightly. Hold onto me. Amen.

Challenge, Fruitfulness, Plans, Potential

Developing Potential

No Comments 24 March 2009

Press the arrow for Newsboys  “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.  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.

Challenge, Courage, Desire, Endurance, Overcoming, Surrender

The Strength of Clinging

No Comments 26 March 2008

Press the arrow to listen to this worship song while reading this devotion.

Matthew West “You Are Everything” 

Scripture
Rather, cling tightly to the Lord your God as you have done until now. For the Lord has driven out great and powerful nations for you, and no one has yet been able to defeat you. Each one of you will put to flight a thousand of the enemy, for the Lord your God fights for you, just as he has promised. So be very careful to love the Lord your God. Joshua 23:8-11

Observation
Soldiers should love their General. It is not enough just to obey him. Warriors must love their commanding officer so that their heart is fully engaged.

The General, of course, is the Lord, the recruits naturally are us and the war is life around us as we now find it. For men, it’s great to have Joshua in the Bible. Let the girls have Ruth; Joshua is a boys book of heroes and blood baths. In this book men learn how to follow God.

But the description of trekking after Jesus doesn’t sound very masculine. We are told to cling to God. That sounds weak and dependent until we understand the strength of the Lord. Our heavenly Father is so strong and caring that it is safe for a man to be weak in his presence. There is no where else that it is safe for men to be weak except in the presence of God. He will never abuse our vulnerability instead he will always use it.

Application
God is the one who can drive out nations, send a legion running and help us to face another day. All of that strength can be ours if we will do but one thing: love him violently. The word “cling” also means to run in pursuit of the Lord and never letting go. If we are allowed as men to do any strong thing it is to lay down every ambition we have and to run hard after God. In desperation is true power.

Prayer
Father, today I cling to you because all of this comes from you and not from me. Amen.

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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.

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