Monthly Archives: August 2015

You (and your gifts) Matter

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Last night at St. Matthew’s we had the opening kickoff for our Wednesday Night Live programming!  It was a great time, featuring the best food around Madison County, and our District Superintendent, Rev. Dr. Connie Shelton sharing with us.  Last night Connie shared with us parts of these verses found in 1 Corinthians 12: 14-21.  Listen to what they say:

14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

thebodyofchrist1Two things stick out about the body to me.

First, you have a gift.  You do. Everyone in the body has a gift.  There is no ungifted person.  Now, your gift will not be someone else’s gift.  It will be unique to you.  It will be something that you possess.  It’s not better than someone else’s, it’s not worse that someone else’s.  It yours.  Be thankful for it.  God has given it to you for a reason.  Live into it.

You are special.  You are unique.  And you are gifted by God for something that only you can do.

And that leads us to the second thing, your gift matters to the church.  You were created not to live alone, but to live in the body of Christ.  You have a special place that God has created for you, and that the church needs for you to live into. Until you are doing that, you won’t be living into the total purpose of your gift.

You are gifted.  You really are.  And your gift is needed by the church, not just for the community that you will receive in it, but for the purpose that God for you.

You matter.  Your gifts matter.

So, what are they?

One of the things that Connie shared with us was a really good, and really easy, spiritual gift assessments.  Click here and take it for yourself.  What are you gifts?  What has God given you?  And are you using it in the church?

Your church needs you. It needs your talents, your gifts, your passion, all that you, for the building of God’s kingdom.  Plug in, serve, live!

Today, you are so gifted!  May we use those gifts for God’s glory!

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Realizing our Need

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What is the first step in our walk with God?  It can be a variety of things.  For some of us, its beautiful.  When we see something beautiful in life, we are reminded that there is beauty in life and God is that thing that is beautiful.

Perhaps it is passion. Maybe we feel God move in some powerful way and we want to be a part of that.  We want to know that thing that is deeper and bigger and more alive.

In so many ways, those that thing that draws us to Him is this.  Need.  We realize that in some deep way, we need Him.  There is a need, there is a gap, there is something that is missing in our lives.  Realizing that many times is that first step towards Him.  Look at what happens today, through in Mark 10:17-22:

17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 18Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19You know the commandments:”You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.”‘ 20He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ 22When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

reachReading this today, this is what jumped out to me.  First, the man comes up to Jesus and calls Him good.  Notice Jesus’ response.  No one is good but God.  Now, Jesus is a good and holy and God Himself.  So He had every right to properly receive that title of “good.”  But he acted with humility.

The man asks Jesus what he had to do to enter the kingdom.  Jesus give a bunch of commands and the guy says – I’ve kept all these since my youth.  In other words, I’m awesome.  I’m pretty holy.  I am good.

See the contrast?  Jesus passed on the glory to God, and the man says, nope.  I’ve got this down pat.  I’m got it, it, I’m good.

He didn’t see that he needed God.  Coming to God is not about “doing” more, it’s about realizing that we need Him.  And when we realize that we need Him, He will give Himself to us.  But we can’t receive Him until we know that we need Him.

The man in the story thought he needed to do more and that he could do it one his own.  So Jesus told him to do something that he couldn’t do on his own; something he could only do through God. And he couldn’t do that.

Because he couldn’t do it.  Not on his own.  Only thought God could he do it.

He didn’t realize that he needed God.  And so he walked away shocked.

Because he didn’t realize his need for God.

He thought he had it.

May we not make that same mistake today!  May we realize our need for God, and may we understand just how He will meet those needs.

If you’d like to receive these thoughts by email, be sure to click here and join my email devotional group!

Like a Child

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Sometimes when you read a familiar passage of the Bible, you’ve really got to slow yourself down and pay attention.  Sometimes it’s so easy to just think, I’ve read this before, and quickly read through it, and then move on to the next passage.  When we do that, we can miss that unique thing that God may want to say to us today.

For instance, one of today’s readings was like that for me.  So I had to go back and reread Mark 10: 13-16 several times.  Listen to what it says:

13 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ 16And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

When I was reading today this is what jumped out to me.  In verse 15, if you don’t receive the kingdom of God as a little child, you will not enter it.  I just sat and stewed on that for a little bit today.

By the way, that’s one of the ways that you can really hear God’s voice in Scripture. When you are reading, what jumps out to you?  What catches your eye?  God back and stay there for a while.  Go and listen.  Keep going back to it.  And listen to what jumps out.  Pay attention to words. To thoughts.  To ideas.  To images.  What pops off the page at you?  That’s where God is speaking to you.

christmas-treeToday for me, it was receiving the kingdom like a little child.  Know what I thought about?  Christmas morning.  The excitement.  The joy.  The anticipation.  The “waking up at 3 in the morning” type of passion that every child has a Christmas Eve.  The fact that you can’t wait, you can’t can’t wait, you can’t wait to get that present.

Look out work, here we come!

Our kids feel that way about Christmas, don’t they?  Honestly, don’t we still?

Do we feel that way about the Kingdom?  Do we feel that way about grace, about mercy, about Jesus?

This world makes us grow up, doesn’t it?  And that’s a little sad. We can lose that that joy for Jesus and His gift. This world as a way of dampening that fire.

Jesus today wants to light that fire in our hearts.

Today, you are not condemned.  You are forgiven.  You are loved.  You are treasured.  You are valued.  You are His prize, His joy, His love.

And He wants you to receive that today.  With child-like joy!

Today, may we receive His love like a child.

If you’d like to receive these thoughts by email, be sure to click here and join my email devotional group!

Who Do You Trust?

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I was reading one of the Psalms, Psalm 146 today, and these words just leapt off the page at me.  Listen to what it says in verses 3-9:

3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
4 When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.
5 Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
6 who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
7 who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

shutterstock_250176199We have two contrasting visions in this Psalm.

First we are told this – do not put your trust in princes.  Don’t put your ultimate trust in humans, no matter who they are.  No matter if they are princes.  Or preachers.  Or teachers.  Or leaders.  Or whoever.  No matter how great they may be.  Now matter how perfect they may seem.  No matter how much you admire them.

Remember what it says in verse 4.  Their breath will fail.  The body will return to the earth.  The mortality rate is 100%.  All of us will reach that end.  Me, you, all of us.  All of us are imperfect.  All of us will get it wrong. All of us will fail at some point.

Even the best of us.

But the Lord, He sets the prisoner free.  He opens the eyes of the blind.  He lifts up the orphans.  He upholds the window.  He made heaven and earth.  He set the sea in place.

He is God.  Mortals will fail.  God will not.

Today, remember that.  God will not fail you.  Who do you trust today?  Where is your trust?  In mortals?  In humans?  Even in the best, even the princes, they will draw their last breath one day.

But God is eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, great and strong, mighty to save.  He is worthy of all our praise, our worship, all our very lives.

Today, who do we trust?

May we place our hope and faith in all areas of our lives in our God.  In Him, we can truly trust.

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Remember Who He Is

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One of the things that we so often in the Gospels is we see the lengths that God went to, through Jesus, to bring us back home.  We see Jesus, who is both fully God and fully human (a term called the incarnation) walk among us, suffer, go through everything that we go through as human, live, die, and be raised again.  And through all this He overcomes sin, death, and the grave, and through His power, allows us to overcome sin, death, and the grave.

That’s how we see Him in the Gospels.

But there are moments, moments of divine glory, where we see Jesus in all of His power and might and majesty.  Moments where we truly see Him for who He is.  Today’s text is one such moment.  Listen to what happens in the Transfiguration as found in Matthew 17: 1-6:

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.

6.-Window-34-Transfiguration-HagopianHere, we see Jesus as He truly is.

Sometimes in an effort to understand Him and relate to Him, we can take the majesty away from Jesus.  Not on purpose, mind you, but just in treating Him so common and ordinary.  Sometimes faith gets ordinary.  Sometimes the stuff of faith becomes ordinary.

Sometimes we can take for granted or not really even think about who it is we pray to.  We can forget the majesty of who Jesus truly is. We can forget His power.  Forget His might.  Forget His strength.

Not on purpose, mind you.  It just becomes so regular and ordinary, we just forget.

Today, remember who is it we pray to.  Remember who has saved us. Remember who has sustained us. Remember His power, His grace.  See Him as He is.

He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  He sits at the right hand of God will judge the living and the dead.

He is Lord.

Remember who He is today.  And let us be thankful He hears our prayers and in on our side!

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Doubt and Faith

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To have faith means that you are unflinching, right?  No doubts, no worries, none of that.

That’s what we think. That’s what we feel like we have to believe.  If I’m a believer, I can’t have any doubts, any of those things.  That’s what we make ourselves believe, or feel like we have to believe.

Today in our reading, we read one of my favorite prayers in the Bible.  Listen to what happens in Mark 9: 21-24:

21 Jesus asked the father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.” 23 Jesus said to him, “If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

doubtThe father of a child came to Jesus, knowing that Jesus could help.  And Jesus said all things are possible when you believe.  And look what that father says – I believe.  Help my unbelief.

We would read later in the text that Jesus does just that.  He heals the child.  He brings life back to this family.

Faith is not the lack of doubt.  Faith is believing more than our doubt.  Because faith is a jumping off of a cliff.  Faith is coming to the edge, walking off of it, and trusting God to catch us.

Even when we know that He will, we can believe that, we can have that faith. But in the back of our minds we can still wonder.  What if.  What if He doesn’t catch.  What if  it goes wrong.  What if.

Faith is this.  Haven’t those thoughts and time. Having those worries. Having all that. And still jumping.

Because we may worry and we may have those voices trying to get us not to do it.  But faith says this.  God is bigger.

And He will be there.  Even if I doubt.  Because my doubts don’t negate the truth.  Faith is sometimes an act of will.  Faith says, I choose to believe this, even if I doubt. Because I know it’s true.  I know it is.  I believe.  Help my unbelief.

And what did Jesus do?  Just that.

Today, believe the truth, even if you doubt it. Because it is true.  Hold on, hold fast, and hope. God is good, even when we doubt.  May we have the will and the grace to believe.  Even when we doubt.  May God increase our faith.  Today, and always.

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The Mystery of Suffering

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One of the mysteries of life is suffering.  No one likes suffering.  No one.  It’s awful.  It’s painful.  It hurts.  It’s lonely.  It’s just one of the awful things that we go through in life.

That we go through in life.

That we all go through in life.

All of us.  Me.  You.  All of us.  It’s part of the human condition. It’s part of the human experience.  It’s part of something that every last one of us walks through.  And it’s not just us.  It’s something out God, through Jesus Christ, went through.  Listen to what we read today in Mark 8:31-33:

31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

3632426859_70b61ae665_b2Jesus teaches the Disciples that He must undergo suffering.  He had to.  It was part of God’s plan. It was part of His purpose on the Earth.  To suffer.  To die. And to be raised.  To ascend. And to one day return.

But to get to the good stuff (Easter, Ascension, Return), He had to go through the bad stuff (betrayal, mockery, and the cross).

The divine mystery of suffering.  I don’t fully understand it.  I really don’t like it. And I wish that I could keep those I love from going through it.

But in this world there is trouble and pain and hurt. And instead of running away from our suffering, part of the divine mystery is that God, through Jesus, entered into it with us.  So, even when we suffer, remember this.

God walks with us through it.  He has tasted it our pain, our loss, our hurt.  He has hurt as we hurt and wept as we weep.  We do not suffer alone.

And in some way, perhaps ways that we don’t understand right now, and may never fully understand, God will bring something good out of it. What is it?  I don’t know. But I know out of the suffering of the cross, God brought the empty grave.  I know out of this pain that we go through, God will bring something good out of it.

The power of God is not that He stops bad things from happening. The power of God is that He can bring good out of anything.

In suffering, we hold on.  He gives us grace. And we trust.

Today, to all those that are suffering, we pray peace.  And mercy. And strength. And hope.  May you feel the arms of your saviour wrapped tight around you, whispering you are not alone.  And may you feel and see His church walking with you every step of the way.

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Different Plans

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You ever felt like there was something that you really wanted to do, maybe even something you needed to do, and you weren’t able to do it?  Maybe things came up and kept you from doing it.  It could have been a million different reasons, a million different things.

But for whatever reason, it doesn’t happen.  We’ve all be there.  We really have been.  It can be frustrating when God has different plans.  Listen to what happened to David today in 2 Samuel 7:4-6,12-13:

4 But that same night came to Nathan:5Go and tell my servant David:Thus says the LORD: Are you the one to build me a house to live in?6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. . . . 12When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.13He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever

man-thinkingDavid wants to build God a Temple.  You know what? That’s a good idea. That’s a good thing. David says it’s not right for him to have a beautiful house, while God’s Ark of the Covenant stays in a tent.  That’s just not right, and he wants to do something about it.  So he wants to build a Temple.

All sounds good.  But God says no.  That’s not his place, that’s not his calling.  One will come after him that will build that Temple for God.  But that person will not be David.

God had different plans.  God had better plans; even better than David’s dreams.

Here’s the thing.  God’s plans for your life are better than your dreams for your like.  No matter what it is that you think is best or we think that we want to do, trust me, what God wants is better.

We just have to trust, especially when it doesn’t make sense.

God’s plans for your life are better than your dreams for your life.  Trust in His plans, even when they are different plans.

God knows what He is doing.  May we have faith to hold on, even when aren’t sure of what He is doing.  May we trust, even with those different plans.

If you’d like to receive these thoughts by email, be sure to click here and join my email devotional group!