Category: Devotions

Disappointed but not Discouraged

Christian counselor Jeremy Pierre impacted me by writing “We don’t project on God things from our experience. He reveals himself to us, by which we then understand our experience.”

Here’s how I see the quote working out at the start of 2022:

I am disappointed with the renewed covid rampage. Various groups & meetings are being forced back onto Zoom.

In view of that crummy development, it is easy to start to complain – asking “God why are you are doing this letting the pandemic resurge ??”  and to descend into discouragement.

Yes, if I base it on my experience, then it might seem that God is mad at us or judging us or indifferent to our plight. Might figure it’s a miserly God that we have.

But what if I look to what God reveals about himself, and then apply that to our experience.

In Scripture, God says he is loving, caring and sovereign.

In view of that, God is telling us something along these lines: “I am the Lord your God. Regardless of how long the pandemic lasts or any new variants that occur, I remain your loving and compassionate father.”

Those words keep my disappointment from turning into discouragement. To be discouraged is to lose sight of God being in control and God loving us. While during disappointment we know God IS in control and loves us even when we haven’t yet gotten what we are asking for. There is grace for what we are walking through.

May the Spirit empower you to walk in that grace of God in Christ going forward in 2022!

Weird or Welcoming?

 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.” (Matthew 11:18-19)

Are we feasters or fasters?

John is John the Baptist. He exercised a strict self-control and people mocked him. And Jesus (the Son of Man) enjoyed a good party and was falsely accused of being a drunk who liked to pig out.

In what ways are today’s Christians like John the Baptist? There are several ways we seem to be weird and strict in today’s culture. First, as we rely on guidelines from the Bible, we’re falsely accused of being puritanical, tyrannical, and narrow-minded.

Another way we seem a little weird…. who ever heard of fasting nowadays? (Especially when it’s not even part of a health food craze!) One day a bunch of us were fasting because we wanted to pray for God’s blessing on the church as we entered the fall activities for 2021.

And finally, we have a cross in our church sanctuary. Yes, it is weird to rely on the sacrifice of a Jewish carpenter on a cross two thousand years ago. But life today too often leads to people being angry, depressed, alienated and lonely. The weirdness of the cross propels us into a love that ends up in feasting.

This Christmas week our church1 had our second outdoor Christmas Village with joyous music and delicious goodies…. as representatives of Jesus, we were joyfully eating the best German bratwurst, drinking hot cider, and crunching fresh-made kettle corn. We welcomed anyone from town who wanted to join in. So, in answer to today’s title question: Both these things are true — we are both weird and welcoming!

  1. https://www.thechapel.org

The God who made these cliffs cares for you ! 

In Psalm 65:6 the Psalmist tells God “you are the one who formed the mountains by your power.”

Reading this recently, I thought of the Palisades of the Hudson River. I grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey where the Palisades, at the eastern edge of our town, are the most dramatic natural feature.

Earth scientists tell us that amazing geological shifts formed the Palisades. Regardless of exactly how and when these changes occurred, I know they show the outworking of God’s might.

Isaac Watt captures that might in his hymn I sing the mighty pow’r of God:

I sing the mighty pow’r of God, that made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at His command, and all the stars obey.

Yet this sweeping and majestic powerful God of the universe is not hands-off and remote:

You care for the land and water it;
    you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
    to provide the people with grain,
    for so you have ordained it. (Psalm65:9)

Our mountain-forming God provides food and harvests and gives us our daily bread. It is easy to lose sight of that truth in this day of high-tech agriculture on far away farms. But why does agrobusiness even work? It’s still due to God’s power.

 And this God who created the mountains and provides our food is a personal God who answers prayer and takes care of our sin problem!

You who answer prayer,
    to you all people will come.
When we were overwhelmed by sins,
    you forgave our transgressions. (Psalm65:2,3)

 Best of all is how he invites us to live under his care: 

 Blessed are those you choose
    and bring near to live in your courts! (Psalm 65:4)

What a privilege to be invited to live as one of God’s people! Yes, this mighty God who made the Palisades is the same God who walks with us and talks with us and dwells with us in the person of Jesus.

                                Merry Christmas !

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You’ll get a beautiful bride if you capture that city!

In the book of Joshua, Caleb promised to give his daughter Achsah in marriage to whomever captured Kiriath-sepher. Othniel led Israel to that victory and married Achsah.

Pressed by Achsah, her new husband requested and gained a field from her father. Achsah then went even further when she saw her father and asked “Give me a blessing. Since you have given me the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. (Joshua 15:19) And that’s the inspiration for today’s song.

The prosperity gospel says you can speak something good into existence by naming it and claiming it, thereby cashing in on guaranteed material prosperity. That’s bogus and I avoid it. But because of my steering clear of that, I risk going to the other extreme and not asking for what God really does have for me. Sometimes it is OK to ask for, and receive, more material blessing!

“Springs of Water” includes material blessings for us but then it goes far beyond that:

O Lord, together let us overflow,
We see the harvest field shining in the sun.
Lord, let the river overflow,

We see how the blessing of God’s grace has spread beyond the original promised land in the Middle East to a worldwide outpouring!

Postscripts

This song’s content leads to a couple of observations on what makes a good worship song. First, it’s hard to go wrong when you put Scripture to song. You are singing timeless truths!

A good worship song has biblical imagery even when the lyrics are not quoting bible verses. Take “overflow” from today’s song. The song is not quoting a verse here, but you can indeed find the idea of overflow quite often in Scripture. For example, anyone who is growing in Jesus is
“rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Colossians 2:7. 

The content of todays’ song contrasts nicely with the bizarre imagery often found in contemporary worship songs. It’s often so different from what’s in the Bible that it makes you scratch your head. Here’s a parody of this kind of imagery, where the worship song even includes avocados! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cst1YYQZwsM

We first sang today’s “Springs of Water” song decades ago and it still brings tears of joy. Today’s video was sung in the United Kingdom in 1985 and the song was popular in the charismatic renewal on this side of the Atlantic, too. The link to view it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NCNlJorNME

Finally, as a bonus, you can find a good devotion with another slant on Achsah on the website my wife and her friend keep, Dig Deeper Devotions.

https://www.digdeeperdevotions.com/2021/04/22/acsah/