Devotion 7.31.23

Habakkuk 2

"2 Then the Lord replied:

“Write down the revelation

    and make it plain on tablets

    so that a herald may run with it.

3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time;

    it speaks of the end

    and will not prove false.

Though it linger, wait for it;

    it will certainly come

    and will not delay."

Matt Peeples is a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod pastor located in St. Louis, MO. He is over what is called the Oikos Project and helps develop online materials for evangelist training and other ministries. He has a phrase he has used that is very true: "Mission happens at the speed of relationship."

That phrase is so well liked that the Lutheran Hour's speaker, Rev. Dr. Michael Ziegler, used it as the central theme for yesterday's message based on Habakkuk 2:3.

We are not a patient society. We want answers to come at the speed of our digital world we have created. We want solutions to our problems yesterday. Ziegler points out the length of time it took to rid some countries of the disease known as cholera, which can still have a grip on some areas of this world. The disease devastated Bangladesh, Ziegler notes, until people slowly developed trust in the medical professionals over a period of years. Those medical professionals intentionally fanned out person by person, day by day, to establish a relationship with them until they would believe in the cure.

As Matt points out, evangelism used to be a knock on a door inviting a stranger to visit your church, and maybe even worse, the popular method in the 1960s and 1970s would be to go door to door and ask, "If you were to die today, would you go to heaven or to hell?" But we learn from scripture that evangelism and mission outreach happens "at the speed of relationship."

God's revelation, Jesus Christ, came a really long time after the fall of man in the garden, and wasn't just around the corner when Habakkuk spoke on behalf of God as a prophet. God was building and refining His people from whom a savior would come, and He does that today with us. He brings us to faith and refines us for His purpose (Ephesians 2:8-10). As Matt notes, people aren't likely to respond to a stranger who comes to them unannounced, but rather someone who cares to get to know you, speak to you, learn about you and develop a relationship with you based on love (your neighbor as yourself) and care.

As we get to know our neighbors, pray we share with them that Good News as we develop those relationships. Ask God to give us words to use to share and to speak to them boldly and with confidence as we get to know them and walk with them. Mission outreach is not just the role of the pastor. It is each of ours to nurture and develop in our daily walk. Pray we fulfill the Great Commission Christ set before us. 

Devotion 7.26.23

Hebrews 12

"“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,

    and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

    and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

I have been listening to a digital copy of Jordan Peterson's "12 Rules for Life" (Canada, Random House, 2018). It is fascinating. I first heard Peterson interviewed a year ago, but I had heard favorable comments about him.

Peterson is fascinating in that he's very well-educated and well-read, a clinical psychologist by trade, but he's grounded. He isn't the random professor in front of the class who is absent-minded and wanders off topic, then wanders from the room because his mind switched to a phone call he forgot to make before he came to class. Peterson is clear, concise, and he makes his point which may offend the listener yet is hard to argue with. 

His chapters in his book are the rules themselves, and chapter five is, "Don't let your children do anything that makes you dislike them." It's a trip down how to raise your child well, and also it is a painful reminder of those things I failed to do as a parent.

In the chapter, he notes what a parent does that makes a child adapt behaviors that can, in the long run, be detrimental to their mastery of life skills. Allowing your child to behave in a manner that is unfit for the occasion is one such area he discusses, The fit being thrown for the world to see and hear, while the parent remains passive, counts to three, then four, five and six while the child remains loud and out of sorts as people begin to take notice. The parent who sets few or no boundaries for the child leaving broad latitude for the situation is another area he discusses. Rules and boundaries are meant to be set, not negotiated with by a two- or three-year-old (or older).

Not disciplining your child, actively, leave him or her unable to master life skills to deal with the chaos we call life, as Peterson notes, God's discipline His children, us to help us master skills necessary to navigate the chaos of this world, a chaos created at the Fall of Adam. God created order in the six working days of creation in Genesis 1 as Robert Kolb notes in his book on faith, The Christian Faith (St. Louis, Concordia Publishing, 1993). Chaos was reintroduced thanks to disobedience by Adam. God has been disciplining us ever since.

As a parent, we do these things because we love our children. Our sinful nature makes us resistant, but God, who is faithful and just, does the same with us because He loves us as well.

Pray for wisdom and guidance as a parent, mentor, guide or one who is turned to for advice. Ask God for strength, because kids will test those boundaries (especially in those teen years). Ask God for clarity, because, as Peterson notes, in the end, we want to "like" our children.

Devotion 7.12.23

Psalm 62

1 Truly my soul finds rest in God;

    my salvation comes from him.

2 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;

    he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

Summer is the time for vacation traditionally. That was the message the Sunday I led our service with our pastor and his family out on the great American vacation. We plan vacations, and more often than not we find ourselves much like Clark Griswold, with the greatest laid plans gone awry. 

Why is that? Over expectations can be one reason. We hope for perfection and when it, like life, is less than perfect, we find ourselves disappointed. Poor planning and not really knowing what lies ahead or how to get there, or too much planning and little room for moments that arise and surprise us. Poor budget planning for the unexpected. Today with air travel, that itself can lead to problems. Family dynamics also play a part. Being together that long will certainly find a way of getting into the cracks and crevices of relationships.

Where do we go to rest and escape? In this life, any earthly refuge we seek will have ups and downs, highs and lows, and the potential to disappoint.

David, today's psalmist, tells us where he finds refuge. Christ, too, invites us to turn to him to seek rest in Matthew 11. Christ is our refuge, our rock, our salvation. In Him, we find rest.

July 4 2023 Devotion

1 Peter 2

16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

"My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth."

— Abraham Lincoln

We cannot serve two masters is how Christ taught us. As Christians, we live in two kingdoms, God's and our earthly kingdom. Most of us reading this are in the United States of America which is a land that ensures certain rights for its citizens.

Many people talk about battles in the Revolutionary War as "the shot heard 'round the world," but in my humble opinion, it was the ideas expressed by our leaders of that day that carried forward through present day that are the "shots heard 'round the world." Words matter, as do ideas that words center around.

However, we know as citizen's of God's kingdom, our work here is to bring people to Christ (Augustine), Scripture is silent on government in terms of rights and citizenship in this world, only acknowledging that governments are placed here by God to keep and maintain order (Paul). There is a scene in 1 Samuel 8 in which Samuel laments that Israel insists on an earthly king because, well, everyone else has one, and God tells Samuel to take heart, it's not his fault. God then tells Samuel exactly what we get when we ask for a king (government) which reads like Jefferson's quotes in the Declaration of all the "sins" the king in his day committed to justify this separation.

President Lincoln notes during one of the more stressful times in our nation's history of his hope in the restoration of liberty which attracts people to our nation. However, our hope is in Christ. Peter notes that we "fear God, honor the emperor." 

Think today of the liberties we enjoy and are entrusted with as a generation handing the next generation the rights and privileges we enjoy. Pray that God watch over us and keep us secure in those "freedoms" of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and pray that God help those who are of faith in lands that are openly hostile to that faith to the point of imprisonment and death. Pray that one day all the saints are together in God's kingdom in His presence. God is our ultimate sovereign and to Him be the glory.

Have a blessed 4^th of July.