Tag: God is love

Perfect Love

OLD TESTAMENT: Jeremiah 14 & 15

POETRY: Psalm 117

NEW TESTAMENT: 1 John 4

There are some pretty confusing messages about love out there in the world. I’m sure you’ve seen some of them. Oftentimes it’s defined as an emotion, a feeling. (How vague and disappointing a definition.) Some say it’s something you cannot help. You fall in and out of it, with little to no control. (Yikes. No accountability there.) Some say it’s something you have to work at, and that love takes effort. (Ok, I have to agree with that one a bit.) The Greeks separated love into 8 categories: eros, ludus, philio, agape, storge, mania, pragma, and philautia. (Talk about complicated.) I very clearly remember listening to a lot of DC Talk as a kid in the 90’s and they told me that love is a verb. (Or maybe that was Luv. It has been a long time since I was “d-d-down with the DC Talk.”) And then there’s the currently popular, on bumper stickers everywhere, “Love is love.” (Not super helpful, thanks.) 

John here tells us God is love. And if that doesn’t tell you how amazingly wonderful and powerful real, actual love is, then I don’t know what will. And fortunately for us, John goes into this a bit more.

 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  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.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

We know what love is when we know God. And we know God by listening, and learning, and understanding exactly what kind of sacrifice was made in order that he could have a relationship with us. I think we sometimes miss the gravity of this. When you sit and truly contemplate it, it sits heavy on your chest and chokes you. This love is devastating. 

I have a son. I love him dearly. I would die for him without hesitation. And there’s not a person on this planet that I want a relationship with badly enough to put my son through the torture and death that Christ suffered. I can’t fathom it. My heart breaks with the thought. 

God did not love his son any less than I love my little Oliver. In fact, God, in his perfect love, loves his son more, I’m sure, though that’s hard for me to understand or admit because I feel like I love my boy without end. But God is love, and God is perfection, and God loved his son Jesus. And yet he offered his son as a sacrifice. 

WHY!? Why would he do that!? If he loved his son so much, HOW could he do that!? 

That same perfect love extends to each of us as well. Though we are imperfect, ungrateful, selfish, and sinful, God’s perfect love covers us. He loves us SO MUCH, that he gave us his son. Jesus Christ was the model of all things good and perfect and brought us hope of a kingdom and eternal life with God and then he willingly suffered and died to make that future a possibility for all of us. And God allowed it. God gave us everything. And that is real Love, with a capital L. That is God’s Love. 

And God asks us to show that Love to others. I’ll admit immediately that I’m not capable of that kind of perfect Love. It hurts. It’s difficult. I don’t always understand it. My imperfect self, with my petty thoughts and frustrations and impatience… I’m only capable of love with a lowercase l. I’m not sure I can Love like God Loves.

But even when I’m not able to Love like that myself, I am VERY capable of sharing God’s Love with others. My version of love fails, but my God never does. 

“This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.  If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.  And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.”

We must know and rely on the Love God has for us. We are not capable of this kind of Love on our own, but God grants us his Spirit, and we know what his Love looks like. Share His Love with others. Love your neighbors enough to share God’s true and perfect Love with them. 

Reflection:

Who do you struggle to love? Do you have any relationships in your life where you find it difficult to love your neighbor? 

With whom can you share God’s perfect Love? Who do you know that desperately needs to see that Love in action? Who do you know that needs to hear that they are loved SO MUCH that God wants a personal relationship with them? 

Do those around you see God’s Love in your actions and in your words? Do they recognize God’s Spirit working in you? If not, or if not often enough, how can you do a better job of allowing God to work in you? 

My friends, I hope that this was a message of Love to you today. I pray that God’s perfect Love overcomes you this week. I pray that it overwhelms you so much that you have to share it with others.

– Jenn Haynes

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Ultimate Good

Old Testament: Judges 14 & 15

Poetry: Psalm 58

New Testament: 1 Corinthians 13:8-13

            When we began this week on Sunday we read about Spiritual gifts in chapter 12. We saw that there is no “I” in “team” and that everyone in the church has gifts and needs to be using their gifts to help the church grow and carry out its mission.

            There is one key transitional sentence at the end of chapter 12 leading into chapter 13: “And I will show you a still more excellent way.”  The more excellent way is the way of love.  From Monday to Friday, we have looked at love, not as an abstract idea but as a concrete set of actions.  Love is made up of behaviors that are patterned after God.  When we love we show people who God is and what God does.

            Today, we look at how Paul closes out this “Love chapter” in verses 8-13:

            Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

            Here as Paul brings this section to completion he brings home the point.  It’s important to be gifted, to use your gifts and talents to serve in the Church and to serve God in the world, but as important as those gifts are, they are not the ultimate or final good, they are penultimate or next to last good.  To speak a prophetic word to exhort a congregation is important, to exercise the gift of speaking to the world in ways that are understood by people of different languages is valuable, and knowledge is a necessary good to a flourishing life and church, but all of these are penultimate good, not ultimate.  They will give way to the eternal, but love will outlast everything.  At the end of all things love for God is love.

            I’m getting older and I have some serious health challenges which remind me that I am a mortal person.  Unless Jesus Christ returns very soon I will one day join those who have gone to “sleep in the dust of the earth” (Daniel 12:2) awaiting the resurrection.  As I get closer to my personal end, I am more aware of that which is truly most important in life.  It’s not my accomplishments, it’s not how much money I’ve earned, at the end of the day what matters most is “Did I love?” Jesus summed up the entire teaching of God with 2 things: “Love God and Love others”.  Paul is adding more depth and clarity to what love looks like and what we all should aspire to be.  Every morning we should ask, “God, how can I love well today?” And at the end of the day ask “God, how well did I love today?”

Reflection Questions

  1.  When you hear the words “Love never ends” what comes to your mind?
  2. Why do you think Paul says that being loving is even more important than being gifted?
  3. When will you start to begin your days asking “God, how can I love well today?” And at the end of the day ask “God, how well did I love today?”

Pastor Jeff Fletcher

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Abounding in Love

*Old Testament: Exodus 33 &34

Poetry: Psalm 33

New Testament: Matthew 28

As a child, I remember making an emergency run to the neighborhood store with my Mom for a box of cereal. It was the night before Valentine’s Day. Our teacher had told us to decorate a cereal box to transform it into our personal Valentine’s Day mail box. Of course, I had forgotten all about this class project until the night before it was due. Everyone in our class would buy a pack of cards. I liked opening my box of cards and reading through each one as I addressed and signed them. I was so excited to drop the cards in the other boxes for my classmates. The class card exchange has been a long-standing tradition and a fun way for kids to express fondness for classmates. Expressing fondness, admiration or appreciation for others is definitely a skill that I want to pass on to the next generation. And more importantly, I want all of us to be able to express our love to God and show the love of God to others. In fact, Jesus taught us that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and the second commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves.(Mark 12:29-31)

The LORD has always shown human beings His love. He created us, cares for us, provides for us, sustains us…His interactions show His love because God is Love. The love that God shows us is perfect love, agape love. You know that perfect love of God: love that is patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud. Love that doesn’t dishonor others, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, and doesn’t keep a record of wrongs. This love doesn’t delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. (1 Corinthians 13) You know. That kind of love. The love that never fails.

Moses had many opportunities to experience the LORD’s love through his own life and through the LORD’s interaction with the Hebrew people. But leading this rebellious group had Moses seeking God more than ever. He pleaded for His presence to go with them on their journey and he asked to see God’s glory. God grants his request. Early in the morning, Moses heads up Mount Sinai with the new stone tablets in his hands. We see Moses being rewarded for seeking a close, loving relationship with the LORD. The LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him. He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”  (Exodus 34:6 & 7)

Just like Moses, we are so thankful for who the LORD is-abounding in love and maintaining love to thousands. But the LORD also states that He is just. He does not leave the guilty unpunished. That is the part that might scare us. After all, every one of us has sinned and come short of the glory of God. But the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and it is wise to realize that God is bigger than we are and has our lives in his hands. But as we grow closer to God, we realize that He wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. He truly wants only the best for us. What Jesus called abundant life. Our fear of the Lord should motivate us to repentance and acceptance of His Son.  As 1 John 4:18 states, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” His amazing love for the world was so great that He gave us His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. In love God offers us the opportunity to believe in Jesus and receive eternal life. (John 3:16) So it is time to walk closely with the LORD allowing Him to fill us with His perfect love.

-Rebecca Dauksas

Reflection Questions

  1. How would you describe God’s abounding love? 
  2. How did Moses experience it?
  3. How have you experienced it?
  4. How can you express your love for God today?
  5. How can you show the love of God to others today?
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When God Celebrates

Old Testament: Judges 17 & 18

Poetry: Psalm 115

*New Testament: Luke 15

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is a perennial favorite in Sunday School lessons. As a child, how many of us studied this lesson on God’s forgiveness? I imagine most hands being raised! As adults, how many of us have taught our own children or other youth about redemption through this parable? Again, I can envision many nods of agreement!

Between you and me, I intensely disliked this parable in my youth and early adulthood. Don’t get me wrong; I understood the meaning and value of the parable. Through it, we learn that no mistake can separate us from God’s love and that He will always desire for us to return to the sanctuary of that love. 

However, a part of me always sympathized with the older brother. I understood his indignation, albeit misplaced, over the celebration of his wayward younger brother. Can’t you just hear the anger and self-righteousness dripping from his words in verses 29-30? “Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!”

Minus the part of being given a kid or killing a fatted calf, those words could have been mine. As the youngest of four girls, I understood the older brother’s resistance to the celebration. Throughout my childhood and young adulthood, I strived to be the “good child,” not giving my parents cause for grief, assisting them in old age, and caring for them in sickness. As I devoted my time to my parents’ needs, my sisters’ seeming freedom and my parents’ unconditional love towards them caused my resentment to grow unchecked.

It was during my father’s last months when I had my “Aha” moment. In one of our final conversations, he told me, “We always loved all of you girls. You all just needed our love in different ways.” During our conversation, I realized that my parents’ love for my sisters didn’t diminish their love for me. Love wasn’t meant to be a competition in the way I tried to make it. Love isn’t something to be given to a sole recipient, hoarded and kept from others. In fact, love isn’t something to be earned or gained through works. Love is given freely in spite of ourselves and our works. 

I hope the older son of this parable also had an “Aha” moment. Based on the final verses, I’d like to think he did. Read verse 28 in the parable again. When the older brother had his temper tantrum, his father “came out and entreated him.” His father so desired for him to be part of the celebration that he left the party to go find him. Then in verse 31, the father says, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” In his words, we see that the father’s love is multifaceted. Just because he loves one brother and rejoices in his homecoming, doesn’t mean that he loves the other brother any less. In fact, he acknowledges that he appreciates the older brother’s hard work and is already blessing him for his devotion. But the father confirms that he also loves the younger brother and that this love is freely given, in spite of each brother’s work or personality.  

If our earthly parents can love all siblings with equal love, imagine how much greater it is with God’s love! In those final verses of the parable, we are reassured that God’s love has room for everyone, whether it is a faithful worker or someone returning to Him. Throughout 1 John 4, we are reminded that “God is love.” In this chapter and in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we see that the very nature of God is to love and do all things within the scope of His love for us.

We should not possess envy or resentment towards others in their faith journey because we are reminded in 1 John 4:20-21, “If any one says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.” From now on, as I read the Parable of the Prodigal Son, I’ll be reminded to focus my eyes on the father of the story. Do I rest in the love of God? And, how do I show that love to others?

Throughout your walk this week, how can you share God’s unconditional love with others? Is there someone, like the younger brother, who could use your encouragement as they seek their way to God? Or, is there someone, like the older brother, working hard but needs a gentle reminder that we are saved by faith not works?

~Jen Siderius

Reflection Questions

  1. Focusing on the Father – do you rest in the love of God? And, how do you show that love to others?
  2. Throughout your walk this week, how can you share God’s unconditional love with others? Is there someone, like the younger brother, who could use your encouragement as they seek their way to God? Or, is there someone, like the older brother, working hard but needs a gentle reminder that we are saved by faith not works?
  3. Through Jesus’ parables what do we learn about the heart, motives, purposes, desires, words and actions of his Father?
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Will it Be Okay?

Jeremiah 14-17

Jeremiah 14 19 b NIV sgl

I’ve been a pastor for 35 years.  As a pastor I’m often present for the happiest moments of people’s lives – when they get married, when they have a baby and want to have that baby blessed, when they give their life to Jesus Christ and are baptized, and when they celebrate great milestones like graduations, 50th wedding anniversaries and other joys.  I am privileged to “rejoice with those who rejoice.”

At the same time, I am also there during some of life’s most painful moments- when a loved one has died after a long illness, or suddenly in a tragic accident, when someone has just been told by their spouse that they want a divorce, or when their child has been arrested for possession of illegal narcotics.  I am there to weep with those who weep.

When people are going through the most painful or difficult challenges of their lives- when they are waiting for a loved one in major surgery, or for the test results to come back, I try to help them and provide a voice of calm assurance.  “It’s going to be okay.”  And of course, I want it to be okay.  But to be honest, sometimes it’s NOT okay.  Sometimes people don’t make it through surgery.  Sometimes couples don’t reconcile and marriages aren’t saved.  Sometimes test results come back and it’s bad.  Sometimes prodigal children don’t come back home, or back to Church or back to God.

Let’s be honest, 2020 sucks!  Covid-19 has killed a lot of people and has a lot of people scared.  A lot of people are out of work and the economy has tanked because of it.  A lot of people are scared to go anywhere including church.  For a time many states told people they weren’t allowed to go to church – what’s up with that?  And in the midst of that we’ve also had racial protests (or sometimes riots), murder hornets, great white shark attacks and now for more fun – its hurricane season.  Some people joke about, “What’s this month’s plague going to be?” but it’s getting to the point where it’s no joke.  Something’s going on.

The caring pastor part of me wants to take you by the hand and say “it’s going to be alright.  We’ll get through this.”  But can I be honest for a minute?  I don’t know that for sure.  For all I know Covid-19 could get a lot worse.  Or the vaccine they make to cure it could turn us all into vampires.  (Just kidding, I just watched the movie I Am Legend where the cure for cancer turned almost everyone into vampires.)  You get my point, I can’t guarantee that in a few weeks or months it’s all going to get better… it might not.

Can I be more honest?  God may be really angry right now.  “Oh, now Pastor Jeff we don’t believe in an angry God anymore- that Angry God of the 18th and 19th century has been replaced by a much more liberal and chill God, haven’t you heard?”  Well, I hate to break it to you but there’s only one God.  The God we worship today is the same God who was around in 600 BC when Jeremiah was walking around on the earth.  It’s the same God who got so angry with Israel for years of unfaithfulness that he sent a drought.  Yep, no water.  He’s the same God who said I’m going to call your neighbors to come and go fishing and hunting… for you, Judah.  It’s the same God who told Jeremiah that all the prophets who were out there telling everyone “It’s all going to be all right, we’re gonna get through this together” were spreading “fake news.”  They were false prophets telling people it was all going to be okay, when clearly God was not done smiting His very disobedient nation.

Make no mistake about it.  America has changed a LOT in the last 50 years.  It’s changed a lot in the last 10 years… or even 5 years.  Things that for a long time everyone agreed were bad, wrong, sinful have been declared ok.  Things that God used to say were important, like getting married BEFORE you have sex, and being faithful to your spouse after you get married, those kinds of things aren’t so important now.  Protecting the lives of the unborn, those aren’t so important either.  In Psalm 139 David says that God is the one who, “knit me together in my mother’s womb” but now it’s okay if the woman chooses to murder that unborn baby.  (“Pastor, you don’t sound very nice anymore, I don’t think I like where this is going?”)

I’m telling you the truth because I love you.  Don’t just listen to me, go back and read the actual verses in Jeremiah 14-17.  God was angry.  God told Jeremiah to tell the people “don’t even bother to pray to me for help right now, because I’m not helping you.”

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I believe that God is love and that everything God does is because of His great love for us.  That’s why he sent His Son to rescue us from our sinful ways.   God wants to rescue us from our sinful ways.  What we are doing collectively is WRONG.  It is hurting us.

I read an interesting article recently.  So called progressive elites, those liberal professors who say that traditional morality is bad or outdated, those who say that people should be free to do whatever they want.  Yeah, those people, the highly educated, the elites, the 1%.  They aren’t the ones having babies out of wedlock and whose children are being shot by gangs or dying from opioid addiction.  Those people who are “successful liberal elites” actually get married, then have children, work hard, live in good neighborhoods and do the kinds of things that actually lead to successful lives.  The people who suffer from living in a society that has tried to do away with God and with Biblical morality are actually the poor, the uneducated, those without power and privilege.   What we need to be telling people is the truth.  If you want to thrive and live a flourishing life you should do things the way God says to do it.  Adopt God’s values and live by them.  Turn away from evil.  That’s how you thrive.

Now, after telling Jeremiah that he won’t answer their prayers and things are about to get really bad for them, God does offer this hope.  After all the punishment is over, after the exile has passed, after you have repented and you’ve changed and are willing to start doing things the right way, I will take you back home and restore you and everything will eventually be okay.

So yes, ultimately, everything will be okay.  Someday God will restore this earth to its original state of perfection.  But first, God’s got to do some major housecleaning.  God loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to leave you that way.  God wants to make you to be like Jesus.  Follow Him. Turn away from your sinful ways – do not follow this world into judgment, follow Jesus into the Kingdom of God.

Pastor Jeff Fletcher

 

Today’s Bible passage, Jeremiah 14-17, can be read or listened to at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+14-17&version=NIV

Tomorrow’s reading will be Jeremiah 18-22 as we continue seeking God and His Ways on our 2020 Chronological Bible Reading Plan

Surrender – to a Great God

Psalm 131, 138- 139 & 143-145

Psalm 145 5 NIV sgl

Throughout these chapters we see surrender, submission, exultation, and countless reasons to put our trust in God. Recognizing God’s glory, David humbly came before God and put his hope and trust in God while praising Him all the way.

 

By learning about who God is, we can then begin to see why He deserves all our attention. God’s attributes are a great place to start. God is omniscient, he knows everything. There is nothing you can hide from Him, ask Adam and Eve. “You discern my going out and my lying down. You are familiar with all my ways.” (Psalm 139:3) God is omnipresent, he is always present. “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7) God is omnipotent, all powerful. And therefore worthy of all our praise and worship. In reading Psalms we can see nothing but how Great our God is. God knows me better than my family does, or even my best friend, He knows all the hairs on our head, and even the number of tears we have cried. He knows where we are and is present at all times. These attributes of God should be such a comfort to us because He is such a loving God whose kindness reaches all. “The LORD will vindicate me; your love, endures forever.” (Psalm 138:8) His love endures forever. The same loving God we see throughout the Bible loves us. God loves us so much that we can be certain He has our best interest in mind. 

 

“When I called, you answered me, you greatly embolden me.’ Psalm 138:3

“The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” Psalm 145:18

 

Many times in the Psalms we can see this similar wording over and over again but I think it is important to point out that it starts with you seeking God first, and once you do and call on Him, He will answer. The fact that God cares about me enough to listen to and even answer me shows how Great a God He is. 

 

We are God’s workmanship, servant, and masterpiece. We are His people, and He is our God. Our creator, He knit us together in our mother’s womb, and because of that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. So find your worth in God and trust in Him, who, unlike the world, will give you the truth. 

 

It is so fitting that David ends Psalm 139 with a beautiful surrender to God. David sets the example of opening your life up to God and letting Him lead you in this walk called life. God deserves all our trust, hope, and praise. “May they sing in the ways of the LORD for the glory of the LORD is great.” (Psalm 138:5) Sometimes it can be easy to forget just how much God is deserving of all our praise because in reality he deserves so much more than we could ever give Him. Follow David’s example. Ask God to teach you His will and His ways. Ask Him to search your heart and thoughts. Then surrender to Him and give him all your praise and worship. 

Makayla Railton

 

Today’s Bible reading can be read or listened to at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+131%2C+138-+139%2C+143-+145&version=NIV

Tomorrow’s reading will be 1 Chronicles 26-29 and Psalm 127 as we continue the 2020 Chronological Bible Reading Plan

An Eternal Perspective

Thursday – Judges 10-12

Judges Devotions-4

Growing up, every evening my dad returned home from work I would run to him shouting, “Daddy!” I would jump into his arms, sometimes nearly knocking him over. Judges tells about another dad’s return home after a day of work, but what happens next is heart-breaking.

Jephthah, in a battle against the Ammonites, makes a deal with God, “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering” (Judges 11:30 & 31).

God delivers and the Israelites triumph over the Ammonites. As Jephthah returns home from his day of work, his daughter, dancing, runs through the door to greet him. Knowing he must deliver on his promise, Jephthah tears his clothes, weeping. In a beautiful act of obedience, his daughter agrees, retreats to the wilderness to grieve, and dies.

The Bible only refers to this young lady as Jephthah’s daughter. Despite how little we know of her, she did have a name. She had a family. She had friends. She had talents. She had dreams… but she gave up everything.

This story really used to anger me. How could God require an innocent, young girl to die? When I considered just that moment, it was hard to really believe the essence of who God is: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). The image of the loving God I had constructed in my head would never require Jephthah’s daughter to die. I looked for loopholes in the story and read commentary after commentary, but I was still unsatisfied—still devastated by how this story damaged my view of who God is.

Later, I had a realization; the story of Jephthah’s daughter didn’t end the day she died. While her story may be paused, it’s not finished. In fact, the climax of it all is still to come when God will raise her from the dead to spend eternity together. With an eternal perspective, it’s incredibly obvious that God really is love. The everything Jephthah’s daughter once had is nearly nothing in comparison to how abundantly God is going to bless her in His Kingdom.

The best part of this story is that we get to share in her reward. Like Jephthah’s daughter, God wants our everything, but He also wants to give us His everything.

You, me, and Jephthah’s daughter—we’re like kids with only a few dollars to our name, and God asks us to hand over everything in our piggy banks. As children, it can be painful to see those few dollars go because we can’t yet comprehend ever having more than that. However, I am confident that God’s return on our investment will surpass our greatest expectations.

With an eternal perspective in mind, what will you give up to God today? Would you be willing to die for Him? What does it look like to truly hand over your life to God? Remember, He wants your everything, and in return will give you His everything.

Mackenzie McClain

 

Today’s Bible reading can be read or listened to at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=judges+10-12&version=NIV

Tomorrow’s reading will be chapters 13-15 as we continue through Judges on our journey through our 2020 Chronological Bible Reading Plan.

 

God’s Timing: God’s Patience: God’s Love

2 Peter

2 Peter 3 9 (1)

I normally like to focus these devotions on verses we sometimes don’t pay too much attention to. 2 Peter sure has a lot of those verses. But today, I want to focus on a verse we have read a dozen thousand times.
The verse is, of course, 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.”
The Lord does not delay His promise. The promise of God is that the Kingdom will be restored to Israel and that sin will be eradicated on the earth. God is not slow in bringing that about. He is not delaying it just because he is putting it off. He is not waiting till the last minute by divine fiat alone. Instead, God is patient with US. With each and everyone one of us. He is waiting for us to come to him. He is waiting for us to repent, but he is also waiting for those who are far off. He is waiting for repentance to be found the world over. Why is he so patient, even now, 2000 years after Jesus walked the earth, 2000 years of church history and many hundreds of years of corruption and war and poverty and hate and greed and problems and sin even after the death of Jesus on a cross?
Because God doesn’t want any to perish. He does not want a single person to miss out on the promise of eternal life in the Kingdom, the gift given through Jesus. He doesn’t want any to perish, but he wants them all to come to repentance. Will they? No, this verse doesn’t say all will come to God. He does say that any who come to repentance, any who turn from the ways of sin to do righteousness, will not perish, but will experience true life.
I don’t have much more to add to that. If we remember this verse, lock it away, hide it in our hearts, it reminds us that God is love. That God cares about every person. That every person is a step away from salvation. That the time we have waited for Jesus is the patience of God made evident to a waiting world.
May we remember this verse and come to repentance to have life.
-Jake Ballard

Love and a Consuming Fire

 

Deut 4 24

John 4:24 does say that God is a spirit. But let’s not assume that he is only a spirit. 1 John 4:8 says God is love and we all love that aspect of God. Deuteronomy 4:24 also says that God is a consuming fire. That’s because he is an awesome God. So awesome that when he was on Mount Sinai the Israelites were sure they were going to die from the sound of his voice but when Elijah was at the same mountain God spoke to him in a still small voice. But still the same God.

Therefore its no wonder that he is both LOVE and a CONSUMING FIRE even at the same time and all in righteousness. This is why he is a spirit. We must use other verses to help us understand the physical nature of God. Spirit is not a description of physical resistance in any form. The GOD of the Bible is awesome and he does have a voice.

-Larry Rankin