Worship as you read this devotion by pressing the arrow. Song: Michael Card Listen
Scripture On the way they were asking each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?†But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside. Mark 16:3-4
Observation
Sometimes the best way to deal with a problem is to walk away from it and to leave it in the Lord’s hands. Without brooding over our worries, our absence gives God room to do his work on our needs. The Friday night before the women had left their grief behind and traveled home to rest. On Sunday morning they returned and found their problem solved. Sometimes we do need to take a trip away from our troubles in order to thoroughly leave them in the hands of the Lord. It is not the choice of abandonment, for we will return. Rather it is the decision to release and to give the Lord the space that he needs to work.
How silly the women must have felt when they thought back on their talk in transit to the tomb. They fretted over the stone, that huge slab of hopelessly heavy rock that none of them could budge. Little did they know they were driving into the headlinghts of the resurrection. There was a miracle ahead. Perhaps it is when we leave our problems that we imagine that God comes with us and leaves our worries behind. But this is not the case. When we release our troubles the Lord not only goes before us but he also stays behind to solve the matters we cannot reach. We should not be surprised to return to find the door opened that we thought was sealed tight.
Application
Journeys change us and they change our home conditions; it is my prayer that my journeys will be the same.
Prayer
Father, you have my journey today. Use it for your glory. Amen.
Worship as you read this devotion by pressing the arrow. Song: Michael Card Joy in the Journey
Scripture But they approached Moses and said, “We simply want to build pens for our livestock and fortified towns for our wives and children. Then we will arm ourselves and lead our fellow Israelites into battle until we have brought them safely to their land. Meanwhile, our families will stay in the fortified towns we build here, so they will be safe from any attacks by the local people. Numbers 32:16-17
Observation
They could have gone farther, but in their imagination the chieftains of Reuben and Gad had gone far enough. It had been a 40 year march through the desert. At last they spotted green grass, open fields and homes empty and ready to move into. It was easy to say yes and hard to say no. What they did next showed their immaturity. They asked for the favor of jumping to the front of the line, dodging the draft, avoiding the war and putting down roots. Mature leaders would have fought the battles first then taken what God had to give. But the green fields and empty houses were alluring.
Sadly, they got what they wanted as well as what they needed. It works that way when we ask for an easier way. The Lord hears our prayer and he answers with yes. We think it is because of his great love to pamper us, when from God’s point of view he blesses us to try us. Reuben and Gad were given the land but with it came a centuries long division between them and the rest of the nation because of the river between them. Somehow they were always on the cold edge away from the center of action in Jerusalem. It was easy for them to dilute with the neighbors. Centuries later, Jesus would visit this region and find Jews in the pig business. They lived high on the hog and asked Jesus to leave. Comfort turned out to be a bad choice.
There is a human yearning to be comfortable and to have ideal conditions. We want to be home. We want open fields. We want ideal circumstances. As Christians we combine that with plenty of Bible and come to the conclusion where God is life is perfect. When conditions are less than ideal we become dissatisfied. We chafe. Ideal circumstances can become an idol that take us away from the Lord. From Genesis 1:1 it is clear that the Lord works best in chaos. The presence of God is not displayed in perfection but in a mess. Are conditions unfair, confusing, incomplete, disorienting? Yes, and they are perfectly God. We need to learn to live with discomfort this this is what motivates us to move ahead.
So what should we do in imperfect conditions? Continue to move forward under God’s direction and then see what comforts he offers to us. The people of Gad and Reuben would have been better off fighting for their kinfolk and then seeing what God would give to them. He would have given to them land chosen to make them into the people he wanted them to be.
I read this the other day from Henri Nouwen, “We all have dreams about the perfect life: a life without pain, sadness, conflict, or war. The spiritual challenge is to experience glimpses of this perfect life right in the middle of our many struggles. By embracing the reality of our mortal life, we can get in touch with the eternal life that has been sown there. The apostle Paul expresses this powerfully when he writes: “We are subjected to every kind of hardship, but never distressed; we see no way out but we never despair; we are pursued but never cut off; knocked down, but still have some life in us; always we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus, too, may be visible in our … mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:8-12). Only by facing our mortality can we come in touch with the life that transcends death. Our imperfections open for us the vision of the perfect life that God in and through Jesus has promised us.”
Application
We are not to become comfortable until God gives the comforts to us. If I ask for what I want, God will give me what I need, and I don’t want that. So it is better to wait until God gives me what I need, then I will have what I really want. I really want that.
Prayer Father, I choose today to be content in you, not just at the end but on the way there! I give up the notion of ideals and the fallacy that all should be just right. I embrace the unevenness of life and follow you. Amen.
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Song: Mercy Me Word of God Speak
Scripture The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that the Israelites were approaching on the road through Atharim. So he attacked the Israelites and took some of them as prisoners. Then the people of Israel made this vow to the Lord: “If you will hand these people over to us, we will completely destroy all their towns.†The Lord heard the Israelites’ request and gave them victory over the Canaanites. Numbers 21:1-3
Observation
When life goes badly is God against us?
Many think so. Their motto is: “Life bad equals God mad; life good equals God glad”. That is the human race’s most basic theology. The crippling motto transcends every culture and religion. Even Jesus did battle with that corrosive thought. Such a theological proposition sounds plausible enough, but it is deadly wrong. This page from the desert journals of the Jews enables us to leapfrog over this pathetic concept.
Why use the word “pathetic”? Because when we take hard life circumstances as a reflection of God’s face toward us, we freeze in place afraid to move forward lest we cop it more. Instead of moving forward, using the strength God has given to us and the love he showers on us, we grovel in suspicions of the Lord’s intentions toward us. We who are favored sons and daughters of the Most High, behave as the friendless and fatherless. That is pathetic.
The Israelites were still in shock from a hit and run raid by their enemies. Blitzkrieg snatched up friends and family. At that point the people could have given into their feelings of vulnerability. It had been a rocky road through the desert. They had littered the wasteland with grumbling. There was ample evidence that they had ticked God off. They could have huddled in their tents like children afraid of daddy coming home. Instead, they stepped beyond their fear of God’s intent toward them and trusted his love enough to bargain.
Their deal was this: if God would put their enemies into their hands they would in turn scrape the map clean of every town they inhabited. They would have their loved ones back and God would have for himself the beginning of space to create a new nation. God liked the deal and delivered.
To make that deal with God the Jews had to step over the shriveling theology of God’s displeasure. The people risked rejection by probing God’s heart to find out his heart for them. It seemed as if God were against them, but they dared to ask for more. In the asking they discovered what is true for us: God is for us.
We will not discover the smile of God by stalling in the dust of our disaster. We must move beyond setbacks and ask in the road ahead if God will indeed open doors.
Application
There have been tough days in my life when I have believed the criticisms of those who had no interest in my progress and have taken their words as the voice of God. As I reflect over the past I see that God’s eventual blessings proved them all wrong. You loved me…and them…far more than I imagined. I have discovered that when life is bad, God is still good. Faith is the ultimate act of bravery to open the door and to see who is on the other side. The risk of asking a little bit more can open to us kindness brighter than we could ever imagine.
Prayer Father, no failure is final, including mine because your Son is my Savior. Give me the courage to step past the barricades erected by the fearful and to join where you are fighting for my future. The precious words today are “with” and “for”. God is with me. God is for me. That is reassuringly enough. Amen.
The word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. Luke 3:2-5
Observation It is easy to gloss over this rough grain story of John the Baptist and miss the courage of the man.In a society saturated in legalism John broke every social rule to follow God. It was a time for conformity to at least one of the three major religious groups. Take your pick: Pharisee, Saducee or Essene. But there was no room for start ups. John joined none of them and launched out living far from the establishment in the desert.
John didn’t go to the world; John went after God and the world came to him. Hidden in the wilderness people found John the Baptist best.
This lifestyle had its advantages, for John could speak his message without dilution. His word was as uncompromising as a laser beam level. Valleys must be filled, crooked must be straight, and pot holes must be filled in. Notes on John’s sermons could be taken in phrases not paragraphs. He was simple and to the point: God is coming so get ready. The only way to build a road through a rugged place is to have a simple message that creates one straight pathway. Let others follow and add side streets. Let the pioneer build simply the main road. John did not have tangents just a target and with that he built one road that today we call the Christian faith.
There are times to launch out on nothing more than a personally perceived word from God. There is the danger of misinterpretation. There is certainly the misunderstanding of others. But the world needs more like John the Baptist to be like Daniel Boones for others to follow their trail. The “word of God came to John in the desert” and there he followed God. We would do well to do the same. There will be times that God will call us to follow him before the road exists. We must alert others to a road that must be built and by example inspire others to join the highway crew in construction. If God has spoken yet there is no road then the only option is to make one.
Prayer Father, today I want to be more than a road builder; I want to inspire others to build the road for themselves. There is a desert around me where there is no way; yet one is needed for other leaders to follow. Help me to become the road builder that you need me to be. Amen.
When he had proved himself faithful, you made a covenant with him to give him and his descendants the land….Nehemiah 9:8And now, our God, the great and mighty and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of unfailing love, do not let all the hardships we have suffered seem insignificant to you… Nehemiah 9:32
My Mind Thinks
Our track record is significant to the Lord. Our history of obedience and the chronicles of our heartaches all have bearing on the choices he makes with our lives.There are job interviews for doing God’s work. These employment interrogations do not take place around long board tables. Instead God examines the resume of our daily activity. Every moment we are under review. When we face the steep grades of life challenge how we perform under pressure makes a difference in what God has us to do next. Abraham went through just such an extensive candidacy to be the father of many nations. The encouragement of his story is that he was human with doubts and setbacks, but he kept moving on. After 25 years of job interviews, a head hunting team of three angels came to visit Abraham and Sarah and within a year Isaac was born.
There are also promotions for pain. No life pain is meaningless if we wrap it with faith. If the Lord puts our tears into a bottle, then our hardships do matter. The hardships mentioned in Nehemiah are actually all the result of the sin of the people and their just punishment. Yet even that matters to the Lord. He does not punish forever but he comes to remember us in mercy. The record of our punishment and the change of heart it brings does cause him to move our lives into better days.
My Heart Responds
I have courage to believe that all of my life matters to God and that all of it counts in what he will do next with me. He has seen my faithfulness mixed with the sawdust of my mistakes. He has seen the hardships of my life and the improvements they have brought to me. I believe God will open a door and it will be somehow connected with the track record of my life.
My Spirit Prays
Father, remember my track record and open a door for me. Amen.
Along the line of scrimmage, before the ball is snapped players tackle their opponents with razor sharp words. It’s the game that boxers play when they throw verbal punches before they step into the ring. Dictators know before they can win a battle they must first win the propaganda game of psychological warfare. The Devil is no dummy either. He know that he need not stop anyone, all he needs to do is lob a few well chosen words into our minds. Listen in on this conversation Satan inspired to stop Nehemiah and crew from finishing the city wall.
Sanballat was very angry when he learned that we were rebuilding the wall. He flew into a rage and mocked the Jews, saying in front of his friends and the Samarian army officers, “What does this bunch of poor, feeble Jews think they’re doing? Nehemiah 4:1-4
Words have remarkable power. God designed them that way. All that we see and touch he created by speaking words. Those same words can also destroy. The words of Sanballat on the scrimmage line did their job. Listen to what the team said next:
Then the people of Judah began to complain, “The workers are getting tired, and there is so much rubble to be moved. We will never be able to build the wall by ourselves.†Nehemiah 4:10
Tired is often a state of mind. This explains the miraculous healing my teenage son often experiences. Though he is threadbare with exhaustion when the magic wand of an Xbox controller is placed in the palm of his hand he experiences instant recovery. Nehemiah’s workers had the strength; someone needed to remind them.
What Quarterback Nehemiah pulled out of his playbook next is a classic maneuver that we must remember and use again and again. Study this astute gameplan:
Then as I looked over the situation, I called together the nobles and the rest of the people and said to them, “Don’t be afraid of the enemy! Remember the Lord, who is great and glorious, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes!†Nehemiah 4:14
Two things will protect us from the mind games of Satan. First, remember who God is. The strength isn’t in us, it is in the Lord. Second, remember the “why factor†of the work you are doing. For these people the “why factor†was the protection of their loved ones. They weren’t building a city wall, they were building their back fence. Mom, pop, brother and sis were all at stake. When the why factor is held in the hand when we work we too will experience an amazing recovery of strength.
Remember God! There is nothing you can remind him of that he has forgotten. There is no panic in heaven, and your job in prayer is not to get God as worried as you are. Instead, remember God great and glorious. Then connect whatever it is that you are called to do with the names and faces of those you love most. Then the wall will be finished.
Father, thank you for the struggle of Nehemiah. His life is the greatest textbook on leadership. Help me to finish the work you have asked me to do. Amen.
Jesus sent Peter and John ahead and said, “Go and prepare the Passover meal, so we can eat it together.†“Where do you want us to prepare it?†they asked him. He replied, “As soon as you enter Jerusalem, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. At the house he enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal.†They went off to the city and found everything just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal there. Luke 22:8-13
What My Mind Thinks
What is the most important meal in human history? It was not a state dinner in the White House, or escargot on a Paris avenue, or even tea at Buckingham Palace. The most memorable meal of all time was the last meal of Jesus with his disciples in the Upper Room. That story would be told and retold in cathedrals and church halls around the world, week after week over the 100,000 Sundays since it was first experienced.
Think of it: the experience of billions of future Christians in the 100,000 Sunday communion services since that day depended on 12 men cooking dinner. The disciples cooking is a scary thought. Peter could catch fish and burn them too, that’s why in the beginning he had Jesus heal his mother-in-law so she could cook. Matthew could count money but slice his finger chopping veggies. While John and James quarreled about about how much thyme and cumin to throw in the soup, the pot boiled over.
But Jesus left dinner up to 12 men.
Notice how Jesus started: he gave the instructions without any provision. Jesus told them to prepare the Passover meal but gave the disciples no place to host it. Jerusalem during Passover week was as busy as Macy’s on Christmas Eve. The city was booked out. Finding a restaurant with a banquet room at Passover would be like finding a hotel room during the Superbowl. But Jesus gave the disciples no directions, just the instruction to go and make ready the meal.
Nothing has changed today in the way that Jesus works. He often gives us staggering responsibilities without filling in the details. This isn’t a kindergarten class trip where the teacher holds the tells the kiddies every little thing in triplicate. No, Jesus gives us responsibility and then watches to see what we will do next.
The disciples responded well. They had matured enough not to say, “Come on Jesus, where do you expect us to find a spare room at a time like this?†Instead they asked Jesus for more details. It’s comforting that Jesus was okay with their questions about building and budget. He’s comfortable with our questions about his commands. Jesus wants us to ask him about the details.
What happened next is…well…just out of the box. You need to understand a little about the do’s and don’ts of daily life in Jerusalem in those days. Women carried objects on their heads, but men did not. A man with a water jar on his head in Jerusalem was as likely as seeing a football player with a purse in your hometown. So a strapping Jewish man parading down Main Street Jerusalem with a water jar on his head would have stuck out.
When Jesus calls us to do the difficult we should have our eyes opened to see the unexpected. On our way to obey Christ we will find the man with the water jar on his head who can lead us to where everything has been prepared. What a contrast the disciples experienced as they left the jostling streets where there wasn’t a place to sit let alone stay for dinner and stepped into a banquet hall with linen pressed, pantry filled, pots and pans and dishes waiting. Jesus had been at work ahead of time. They had only to follow the man with the water jar to find out.
How My Heart Responds
Overwhelming responsibilities should cause us to look for the unexpected. I’m opening my eyes today.
How My Spirit Prays
Father, today open my eyes to see as my feet move forward the things you have prepared for me before I have even arrived. Help me to see the man with the water jar on his head. Amen.
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.
