Year: 2022

Freewill in the Vineyard

Isaiah 5

Sunday, October 23, 2022

Editor: For the next three weeks we will be spending some time looking at the books of prophecy from the Old Testament – with at least one devotion for every book. Then, mid-November we will be ready to start Revelation, one chapter a day. And we will finish off the year with the last gospel we have not yet read this year: Luke. Keep Seeking God in His Word! SeekGrow(good fruit)Love!

We have all desired to be the plant lady/man at some point in our lives. We go to the store and get a cute little house plant, and then we put it on our windowsill and water it once or twice a week, depending on the type of plant.

            But, if you are anything like me, you do not have the greenest thumb, and most of the time your plant ends up looking… well, dead.

            My point is, that even though we may water that plant, and provide it with the best soil. If the plant were to cover itself up under a blanket and hide, it will never grow, and will eventually die.

            That is what Isaiah 5 talks about in the song of the vineyard.

            Isaiah 5:1-2

“I will sing about the one I love, a song about my loved one’s vineyard: the one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest of vines. He built a tower in the middle of it and even dug out a winepress there. He expected it to yield good grapes, but it yielded worthless grapes.”

            In this passage we are depicted as the vineyard, and God is the tender of us. He provides us with everything we need, and pursues a relationship with us, for us to live for him, and spread his word.

            It is because he gives us freewill that we can choose him and grow healthy fruit that can be shared. It is we who decide what kind of fruit we are going to grow in the vineyard with our actions, and what we focus on.

Jerusalem at this time was not following God’s commands. They were pursuing drunkenness, compound sinfulness (denying your sin), and amalgamation of land (combining of land together with small properties). Today we aren’t necessarily combining land, but we may be pursuing other things that are not what God wants us to pursue.

God wants us to consider this, just as he wanted Jerusalem to consider it.  Who was to blame for the worthless grapes? What caused the worthless grapes? And how can we produce healthy grapes?  We have the free will to choose what we want to produce.  Be the change.

-Hannah Eldred

Reflection Questions

  1. In what way/ways have you noticed your garden producing worthless fruit?
  2. How can you trust and grow closer to God, while letting him work your vineyard?
  3. How can you produce positive fruit and influence change?
2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading PlanDownload

Fight for the Faith

Jude

Saturday, October 22, 2022

We are in a battle right now.  However, that is not a unique characteristic of today.  In the New Testament, Jude recognized it and wrote in Jude 3, “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.”  He wanted to warn people so that they could be prepared.

It is no different today.  We live in an age that touts religious freedom and tolerance, yet people are still dying for their faith and the faith of many continues to fall further and further from the truth.  We still have a job to do.   

Though we may be seeing a change in culture in our own country, we are still fairly blessed when it comes to the freedoms that we have in our faith.  In looking at the whole world, there are many countries in which admitting to being a Christian is liable to get you killed.  In that way, the fight for the faith is considerably different. They are literally fighting for their physical lives as they fight for the faith. 

We have a different, less physical fight in the U.S.   A decline in church attendance, a falling away from the faith, a bending of the faith to fit what culture says.  Are we willing to stand up, to contend, for our faith?

Jude 3 tells us that the faith was entrusted to all of God’s holy people.  I believe that by accepting Jesus into our lives, we become one of those holy people.  That means we are entrusted with the faith.  We should be fighting for what is true, to hold on to that faith, so that at Christ’s return, we, and as many others as possible can be found faithful.

~Stephanie Fletcher

Reflection Questions

  1. After urging his readers to contend for the faith, what warnings does he give through the rest of his short book? What situations, sins, and characteristics of people is Jude warning against?
  2. What does Jude want to see from God’s people?
  3. Where do you see a battle for the faith taking place today? How do you think God wants you to participate?
2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading PlanDownload

Work Together for the Truth

3 John

Friday, October 21, 2022

In the third and final letter from John, truth is once again evidenced in his thoughts.  

John is writing, in part, to commend a man named Gaius.  John said of Gaius that he was walking in the truth and that he was being faithful in providing support for strangers who were traveling around sharing the gospel (perhaps like modern day missionaries?).  

While there are many who are called to travel around sharing the gospel – to be missionaries – most of us are not.  That doesn’t excuse us from the responsibility of the Great Commission (Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”).  We can all come alongside those who are called to do such work by providing prayer, encouragement, and financial support.  This makes us the “fellow workers” that John talks about in verse 8.

John then goes on to contrast the faithful and loving behavior of Gaius with the selfish and subversive behavior of Diotrephes.  In verse 11 he tells Gaius, and us, “do not imitate evil but imitate good”.   It’s not enough to just not imitate evil, but it is commanded that we imitate good.  The one who does good is from God.  

-Todd & Amy Blanchard

Questions:

  1. Do you know who the missionaries we, as a church, support?  You can learn about them and our organization for supporting them, Lord’s Harvest International here:  http://lhicog.com/
  2. Who do you know that you could imitate?  How?
  3. Are the choices you make (attitudes, actions, words, etc.) worthy of imitation?
2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading PlanDownload

Abiding in Truth

2 John

Thursday, October 20, 2022

For such a short letter, John really packs a lot into it.  The greeting, which, if I am being honest, often gets skimmed, offers some insight into what the letter contains.  He mentions truth or the truth four times in the greeting alone.  I think his point is that truth matters.  So, what is the truth that he is talking about?  Verse 9 talks about abiding in the teaching of Christ.  This is the truth that is empathized in his greeting.  Verse 7 says that a deceiver is one who does not confess (believe) that Jesus Christ came in the flesh – that he was a real man who lived on this earth.  No one likes to find out they were deceived, tricked, or made to look foolish because they believed a lie.  The truth is that Jesus is the Son of God, he did live on the earth, he did preach a message of the coming kingdom, he did die for our sins, he was raised up, and he will come back.  We are to abide in that teaching, in that truth.  

I looked up abide and was surprised at the many definitions it has.  Here are a few:

  • to accept or act in accordance with
  • to remain in a stable or fixed state
  • to continue in a particular condition, attitude, or relationship
  • to be able to live with or put up with

Not only are we to abide in this truth, but to NOT abide in it is to NOT have God.  That is a scary thought!

John provides a warning to us in verse 8 to “Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward”.  He warns us because there will be “many deceivers” – many people who won’t be abiding in the truth about Jesus.  The only way to know if you are being told the truth or if you are being deceived is to “test everything” (I Thessalonians 5:21).  In order to do that, we need to know the truth ourselves.  We need to “test” what we are being taught against what is in God’s word, the Bible. 

  • Todd & Amy Blanchard

Questions:

  1.  Have you ever been deceived by someone?  How did you learn about the truth and what steps have you taken so you aren’t deceived in that way again?  
  2. How can you apply that to being watchful with regard to your faith walk (walking in the truth)?
  3. Being aware that knowledge of the truth prevents deception, how can you share your knowledge to help keep others from being deceived?
2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading PlanDownload

Sharing the Victory

1 John 5

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

One more song this week – 1 John 5:4-5 “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

Those two verses are the song, but verse 4 picks up in the middle of a sentence & thought, so backing up a couple verses:

This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

When we have faith, we can overcome this world.  Our faith that Jesus is the son of God gives us victory and makes God’s commands not burdensome thereby helping us to keep His commands.  And by keeping His commands, we can love one another – the children of God.

Verse five is also a reminder that the victory is exclusionary.  Who overcomes the world?  Only those that believe that Jesus is the Son of God.  We have to strike a balance in our love for others.  Because if we love based on the world’s terms, we accept anything.  But to do that would not be love.  Because only those who believe that Jesus is God’s son overcome this world.  So if we in our “love” just leave our friends alone because we don’t want to make them feel uncomfortable, or we don’t want to feel uncomfortable, we put them in a position of not having that victory.  That isn’t real love.

We give a lot of reasons not to share the love of God with other people and I think fear forms the basis of a lot of it – fear of rejection, fear of being ostracized, fear of losing money/power, etc…

But when we read verses like this, we should be reminded that we have to push through that fear.  To show our love in actions (chapter 3), we need to share with others that while we have been separated from God, God provided an atoning sacrifice for our sins (chapter 4), and with this sacrifice, if we believe, we can overcome and have the victory (chapter 5).

And what is that victory?  As he wraps up his letter, John tells his audience – 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 

We need to believe in Jesus as the Son of God to be a part of that eternal life, and if we are loving others, we should be telling them so they can have that victory too.

~Stephanie Fletcher

Reflection Questions

1.”Who is it that overcomes the world?” (1 John 5:5a – see 5b for the correct answer). Who thinks they are overcoming the world? What are they missing? Do you fall into the overcoming category?

2. Who do you know who does not believe that Jesus is the Son of God? How can you truly love them?

3. What is the victory that you have to share? How would you explain it? How will you share it?

2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading PlanDownload

This is Love

1 John 4

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Kid play songs of the day are from 1 John 4: 9 & 10 “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin.” (Aaron Winner has a great song with these verses too).

Having grown up in the Christian church, I think this wonderful news is something that I can often gloss over.  God loved us, so he sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins that we might be saved.  Yeah, I know. 

But when you stop and read it, it is really amazing, especially from our human perspective.  It is pretty easy to do something nice for other people when they love you, when they are nice to you.  But God did this for a people who had turned away from Him, and for future people that would continue to turn from Him.

Thankfully, God’s love does not have a prerequisite.  Based on literally nothing we or anyone else has done, He loves us.  And loved us enough to put His son through excruciating pain to the point of death so that we might be reconciled to him.

How do we show our love?  Do we have requirements for who we show our love to?

The concept of loving someone no matter what they have or have not done goes against our human nature.  It is something we probably need to ask for God’s help for.  It’s ok if we can’t do it on our own.  Because of God’s great love for us, we can be reconciled to Him, and we can ask Him for help in loving others.

I don’t know about you, but I forget to ask for help sometimes.  It is not even always conscious, but my pride gets in the way.  I think I should be able to do what I’m supposed to do on my own.  But as humans, we are flawed.  And I do believe that it is ok to ask God for help in loving people the way we are supposed to.

~Stephanie Fletcher

Reflection Questions

  1. Take time to consider Stephanie’s questions: “How do we show our love?  Do we have requirements for who we show our love to?”
  2. How is God’s love different?
  3. How can we show our thanks for God’s great love?
2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading PlanDownload

Don’t Love with Words?

1 John 3

Monday, October 17, 2022

If you have never heard of G.T. and the Halo Express, 1) you are missing out on quality kids music/plays and 2) sorry, you won’t be able to sing along with my devotions for the next few days.

I encourage you to read the whole chapter of 1 John 3, but I am just going to focus on one verse, my favorite – 18, (thanks to memorizing it in this kids play growing up).  The translation I learned was “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 

I have been listening to this one with my daughter, and it has sparked some discussion.  The song breaks it up a little bit, and the line that is sung together is “let us not love with words or tongue.”  When we look at the whole verse, it is easy to know that we shouldn’t stop there.  But for a 4 year old who doesn’t quite understand all the subtleties of language yet, that was confusing.  Why should we not love with words?

This isn’t saying we shouldn’t use our words to be loving, but rather that it shouldn’t stop at that.  If all we do is say that we love someone, it really means nothing.  We need to show people that we love them in how we act, and by being truthful.

It reminds me of James 2:17 “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

My dad taught a memorable object lesson to our class when I was growing up.  He took us for a car ride in one of the many winter months (it’s Minnesota – they all blend together) with the windows rolled down.  As he drove, he asked us, “Are you cold?”  When we of course said yes, his response was, “I’m really sorry you’re cold!  I wish you were warm.”  And he kept on driving.  His point was that even if you say the right things, when you can make a difference in the situation (such as putting the windows up) but do nothing, what you say doesn’t matter.

Jesus truly showed his love in action by his sacrifice for us.  We ought to show others that we love them, not just tell them.

It is a good reminder for a 4-year-old to be loving in her actions toward her little brother and a good reminder for everyone to be loving in their actions towards anyone they interact with.

~Stephanie Fletcher

Reflection Questions

  1. When have you found yourself saying the loving thing – but not showing love with your actions? What problem is created here? How can you fix this?
  2. According to the rest of the chapter what else do our actions show?
2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading PlanDownload

Continue in Him

1 John 2

Sunday, October 16, 2022   

“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.”

That is how this chapter starts off.  Good plan, more easily said than done.  Thankfully, John doesn’t stop writing here.

“But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

If you are reading this, you probably already know it.  You have read it before – in this chapter, or elsewhere in the Bible.  But isn’t that a good reminder?  We are not perfect, but thankfully, we have an advocate. 

This whole chapter is full of “good reminders.”  And John presents them in little different ways.

In verses 12-14 he went about it in a positive way.  Instead of saying don’t forget this, don’t slip back into your old ways, he turns it to the positive and says “you are strong” and “you have overcome the evil one.”

He approaches it from the other side too in the next verse saying “Do not love the world…”

But throughout the chapter, I am drawn back to the positive affirmations that he writes to his audience.

20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth

24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.

28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

Good instruction can come from both telling people what not to do, but also telling people what to do, and telling them to keep doing the good they are doing.  It is an encouragement as well as a reminder, and that sticks with me today as I write this.

~Stephanie Fletcher

Reflection Questions

  1. Reread 1 John 2 looking specifically for the things John tells us to do, as well as those things we are not to do. Which instructions do you find easiest to follow? Where do you need a little push in the right direction to keep yourself on the right path – or off of the wrong path?
  2. What do you think our “advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One” sees you doing and would tell you to keep doing? What will you do today to keep doing that! How will you ‘continue in him’?
2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading PlanDownload

Spiritual Darkness – and Light

1 John 1

Saturday, October 15, 2022

It is impossible for me to read this opening statement in 1 John 1:1 without immediately thinking of its strong parallel to John 1:1. John 1:1 says in the beginning was the word and 1 John 1:1 says that all they have seen and heard and touched – that was from the beginning (what beginning?) concerning the word of life. John was with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry, so he may be referring to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. There is a lot to unpack here, so I will leave that for another day, but you can think about some of these correlations.

John says that they are proclaiming the word so that his readers may have fellowship with John and his community, as well as fellowship with God and Jesus through the ministry of the word (that is an implication of having true fellowship with John et. al.). Also, John emphasizes that he is writing these things so that joy may be made complete. True joy, that transcends all circumstances, is a direct result of having fellowship with God and Jesus in a life of faith (see also James 1 for insight into the relationship between authentic faith and joy).

John then gets into a dichotomy between light and darkness. God is light and in him there is no darkness, therefore if we are walking in darkness (not in the midst of darkness but having elements of darkness ingrained into our life) we do not have fellowship with God. We are deceiving ourselves if we think that we can live a dualistic life embracing both God’s will and abiding in the ways of the world. Purity of heart precludes us from walking in darkness. If we’re doing this (walking in darkness), the implication is that we are liars and live a life that is antithetical to the truth.

Conversely, if we walk in the light (i.e., the truth, abide in the word), we have true fellowship with one another and we have our sins cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Walking in light does not mean that we have no sin, that would be a ridiculous assertion, but it means that we do not live lives defined by sin. We all stumble, but there is a difference between falling short and living in sinful pursuit. Our self-deception can come from being double-minded, or from a false notion that being forgiven makes us sinless. We are free from the bondage of sin through Christ, but we still fall short of perfection. In confessing our sin (and repenting of it), we are cleansed and through our faith are counted as righteous. If we don’t acknowledge our sinfulness, how can we confess (we can’t!)? Worse than deceiving ourselves, if we deny that we sin, we make God out to be a liar!

It’s not a good look to make God out to be a liar, so I would strongly encourage each of us to take into consideration our behaviors and not try to explain them in a way that denies the authority of scripture to call out wicked behavior and attempt to justify our (sinful) behavior as acceptable. Sin is offensive to God, so we should not attempt to explain it away as inoffensive. Confession is a powerful tool, and we should be quick to utilize this, rather than explain away or double down on any sinful elements that encroach on our lives. It is better to suffer for doing what is right now (deny our sinful desires) than to embrace sin and deception now and miss out on the amazing Kingdom of God (which will trump all imaginable satisfaction in this life).

-J.J. Fletcher

Reflection:

1. Do I regularly confess my sin to God? Do I confess my sin to other believers (1 or 2 people who you can trust) and reap the benefits of having accountability in brothers or sisters (who likely have had similar struggles) that can speak truth into my life?

2. What am I doing that could constitute self-deception? How might you assess and address this?

3. What relationships do I have that allow people to speak truth into my life? Do I surround myself with yes men? Do I live in an echo chamber? What changes can I make in my life that can help me more effectively eliminate sinful habits?

2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading PlanDownload

Needed Reminders

2 Peter 3

Friday, October 14, 2022

“I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder” (2 Peter 3:1 ESV).

Not every letter written has the same intent. Some of the New Testament letters are written to address very clear and direct issues (I think of Paul addressing specific sexual immorality in 1st Corinthians 5). Sometimes they are multi-faceted – some specific – some more general teaching or correction. What Peter writes here makes another point – even if there is nothing specific that may need to be corrected, reminders are still valuable and necessary. When we aren’t reminded about things, we can lose track or lose sight of what is ahead of us… We can become passive, apathetic, or incredibly distracted. The tyranny of the urgent can cause us to put things on the backburner, and if you are like me, it can be hard to remember to pull them back to the front. Sometimes we just need to have our attention drawn to what we need to be doing in the present or near future (like when you think you are signing up to write devotions for October of 2023, but it’s really 2022). Much of what I view my role as in pastoral ministry is reminding people what scripture says – sometimes I address actual needs that I see in the body, but typically it is looking at a text, reminding my congregation of what it says, and then trying to highlight its significance in its historical context and how it is significant for us today.

In verse 3, Peter states that scoffers will come in the last days… I bet each one of us knows someone that would fit that description (maybe many people). You probably can’t turn on the tv, or radio, or fire up the old interwebs for very long without finding someone speaking out against or mocking a scriptural worldview. Why are they scoffing? Because a biblical worldview does not mesh with their sinful desires, and they must push back at it or try to discredit it in some way to justify their way of living (or to clear their conscience).

Peter points out that the promise of “this ‘coming'” (2 Peter 3:4) has been spoken about for a long time, but where is this promised day that things will begin to be set right through God’s anointed one? He says that they deliberately overlook in part that the world has existed for a long time, and that God has passed judgement before, but now God’s judgement is being stored up (and in the grand scheme of time, Jesus’ ascension isn’t that far back). Our conception of time is different than that of God and while sometimes we may wonder why this delay of the Parousia is happening, we must recognize this fact that Peter lays before us: God is not slow, but is merciful! God is not willing that any should perish, but he desires all to come to repentance (and he gives us so many opportunities to do so!). It would, however, be unwise to be cognizant of this fact and delay our repentance, because if we have placed that on the backburner, we might get distracted and forget to bring it back to the front. We don’t want to diminish the urgent need for repentance and reconciliation… If we are not paying attention to the things of God, we will be caught off guard, but if we are watching, we will be ready when he sends his son like a thief in the night and starts the restoration of the earth.

I’ll leave you with a few of the final verses or the chapter to reflect on.

“Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:14–18 ESV)

-J.J. Fletcher

Reflection Questions

  1. What reminders do you find in 2 Peter 3 that you needed to hear this week? What important things have you slid to the backburner that could use your attention today?
  2. What does God’s patience, mercy and timing mean to you?
2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading PlanDownload