Set apart for special work!
Today’s devotion is based on Week 2 of “Resolve”: Live Your Baptism Identity! (WATCH HERE)
Set apart for special work
In just a few days, Donald Trump will be sworn in to be the 47th president of the United States. In front of the country, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will administer the oath of office and the country and world will know that Donald Trump is now set apart as the President of the country.
A public ceremony and proclamation is done to ensure there is no doubt or question that this person is legally designated to carry out this role of leadership in our country.
Imagine if there were not public component to it. Would their be certainty as to who was president? What if no one saw him take the oath of office, would there be confidence that he actually was willing to take on the awesome responsibility of the task. A public setting with a public proclamation make the transition of power in our country clear to all.
For a similar reason and because it was such a significant and important role for all humanity, the Father in heaven wanted the world to know that Jesus was his Son and he was the one being set apart for the very important task of doing all that was necessary to secure the salvation of all humanity.
The Gospel of Luke records it this way, “And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove” (Luke 3:21-22). The presence of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the Father left all who were there with no doubt that Jesus was being set apart by God himself for a special task.
Imagine if this didn’t happen. Would we be as confident that Jesus was the Son of God? Would we know for sure that the Spirit of God was on him and setting him apart for his preaching and teaching ministry.
The short answer is, “No.” We would not have the same confidence that Jesus was who he claimed to be or set apart for God’s special work if it was not publicly proclaimed at his baptism.
Jesus was filled with the Spirit and affirmed by his Father…the Trinity at work!
Perhaps there are days or seasons where we don’t feel important or special. Perhaps there are times we wish we could make a difference or make an impact in a positive way with the people around us.
When you feel this way, don’t forget your baptism. In your baptism, there as was public declaration that you are a child of God … and the Spirit came to live in you. The heavens maybe didn’t open and dove didn’t fly into the church, put with baptism there is a promise of God’s Spirit coming to set you apart as a child of God gifted to serve the Lord with your life. Peter understood this as he told the people at Pentecost:
Acts 2:38-39 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
Never forget that you are set apart by God’s Spirit for a life of purpose and meaning. The Spirit of God is on you to give you gifts and empowers you to use them.
Enjoy living in identity and gifts God has given to you in your baptism!
Apply: As you begin your day today, begin with the awareness that the Spirit of God is on you and in you to live today to the glory of God and the blessing of the people around you!
Prayer: Spirit of God, thank you for filling me with your presence and power and giving me gifts to give glory to God and be a blessing to others. AMEN.
Are you a pleaser?
Today’s devotion is based on Week 2 of “Resolve”: Live Your Baptism Identity! (WATCH HERE)
Are you a pleaser?
Most people don’t want conflict or people upset at them. One approach is simply to avoid situations that need constructive confrontation and hope the issue goes away. Another approach is to spend extraordinary effort to do what it takes to ensure the person who potentially could get upset is pleased with you. However, the challenge with this approach, is the “standard” is rarely identified and even less often achieved. The pleaser will continue to put self aside for the sake of doing things that people want, hoping they can keep that person happy and not upset at them.
This is a challenging way to live as life becomes lived in fear of someone else’s response and really letting people that have really little or no concern for you control your emotions and your actions…in a elusive hope they won’t get mad at you.
Unfortunately many of the people we spend our lives trying to please, really have little or no interest in your wellbeing, we just want their approval.
But some of those people can be more important in your life and you want their approval. Every child desires the approval of their parents. Most students want the approval of their teacher. A majority of employees want the approval of their boss.
When one of these people say, “I am very pleased with you,” it is a compliment that fills your soul and motivates you toward the next day.
So are these the people that matter most in your life? Perhaps.
But inside each one of us, we want God’s approval. Ask people about the end of their life situation and hear them say things like, “I think God will be happy with the way I led my life.” Others will say, “I’ve done more good than bad, so I’ve lived a pretty good life.”
Yet, the irony of these individuals is there is little or no certainty in claiming their performance as the reason that God would be pleased with them.
Why is that? Because we are all sinful and fall short of the glory of God. Period. We can’t earn our way into God’s good pleasure and avoid an eternal conflict with him because of our sin.
The solution? Again we are pointed to Jesus’ baptism where the Father said this: And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son,whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:23)
There was no question for Jesus or those around. God was well-pleased with his Son. There was nothing Jesus had to worry about as he went about his mission as the Messiah to bring salvation to all people. The Father was well-pleased with him. He was pleased that his Son was on mission to live a life that perfectly fulfilled the law. He was pleased that his Son was willing to carry the sins of the world to the cross. He was pleased that his Son would be at the cross hairs of conflict over sin so the people God so loved would experience forgiveness and grace.
Which they do in baptism when God the Father says of us because we are connected to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, “This is my child. With him/her I am well pleased.
We may have conflict in life with people around us that we need to handle with love and grace, but we can be sure of one thing, because of Jesus, our Father in heaven is well-pleased with you because you are covered in the perfection Jesus gave you!
2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Apply: How does it feel to know that God is well-pleased with you because of Jesus?
Prayer: Lord God, thank you for applying the perfection of Jesus to our account so that we might be a pleasure to you. AMEN.
We need love…
Today’s devotion is based on Week 2 of “Resolve”: Live Your Baptism Identity! (WATCH HERE)
To be loved…
Abraham Maslov, a famous psychologist of the 19th century, is best remembered for his “Hierarchy of Needs.” This study and report show that every individual has physical, psychological and self-fulfillment needs. The physical are food and safety. The first of the psychological is to be loved.
This is a secular psychologist who has made this observation about all humanity. Every human being desires to be loved and in fact needs to be loved to function well. Think of your past, probably some of the most difficult times were when you didn’t feel loved. I could have been as simple as a gradeschool friend who no longer wanted to be around you to a high school sweetheart that became an ex-sweetheart. Children who are abandoned or abused by one or both of their parents suffer for a lifetime because of the lack of love.
Not only is one’s psyche affected by the lack of love, when we are not loved, it is difficult to love others. One can only pour out so much love before their love tank is empty and it because extremely difficult, if not impossible to love others.
At Jesus’ baptism, And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son,whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:23)
The Father in heaven wanted his Son to know that he was loved.
Well of course, it’s the perfect Father loving his perfect Son.
But consider this, in many ways Jesus as he was set apart to be the Savior of the world would have to love to a much larger and greater degree than the love he would receive from the people around him.
What would keep him going when all those around him lacked love for him and his mission as the Messiah?
The love of his Father. He could always go back to his Father and know that the most important person in his existence was the first person of the Trinity, the Father in heaven.
What keeps us going when we do not feel loved, especially from the people we have counted on to love us? What keeps us going when we do not feel loved by the people we invest in and serve?
Our baptism allows us to go back to the one love that matters most, our heavenly Father.
1 John 3:1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
We can always go back to our baptism and know that we are fully connected to the love of our heavenly Father who showed that great love through his Son Jesus who demonstrated his love for us by his life and death.
No matter the people who love us or don’t love us, we can know always, that we are truly loved.
Apply: How does it make a difference when you don’t feel loved to know with certainty that you are loved by your heavenly Father?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for a great and lavish love that you have given to me, assuring me that at all times I am truly loved. AMEN.
It’s a boy!
Today’s devotion is based on Week 2 of “Resolve”: Live Your Baptism Identity! (WATCH HERE)
54 years ago today, the doctor in the hospital in Watertown, SD said to my parents, “It’s a boy!” I’m not sure how many times the doctor that helped bring me into this world said this to parents, but each baby he gave birth to, was not his. I was just “a boy’ to the doctor, but to my parents, I was THEIR son.
To have parents who claim you as their own and love you is a blessing. To have parents that are proud of you is a gift. These positive influences form a big part of your identity as you are growing up.
Ten days after receiving the identity of being the son of Gerald and Carol,, on January 24, 1971 I was given a new identity that is more important and significant than any identity parents can give you. In fact, it is an identity that can overcome the challenges of an identity that comes from people and events we encounter in years of life. It’s an identity that comes from our heavenly Father when he puts his name on us at our baptism.
It is similar to Jesus at his baptism, when the Father said:
And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son,whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:23)
To the people around, it was clear who Jesus was – the Son of God. The Father wanted all to know not only the identity of his Son, but that he was well pleased with him. He was the perfect Son of God.
To be sure, none of us can claim to be THE Son of God, but in our baptism we are given the gift of forgiveness. With our sins paid for on the cross, we stand perfect before the Lord because of Jesus’ perfect life and innocent death for us. The Father is well pleased with us too!
Our God-given identity tells us how God thinks of us. We are his children, loved by him and because of Jesus, he is well-pleased with us. This reality is a gift to combat the lies of Satan that come into our ears and lead us to believe that we are not loved, not wanted, and can do nothing that is a benefit to others. These negative identity statements can become part of our belief system and challenge us throughout our lives.. So we have to ask, “Are these the words of the Father who loves us or Satan who wants to lie to us?” The answer is clear. Anything that leads us to believe that we are not loved or valuable is not of God. On the other hand, the Father calls us his own. We are his children and dearly loved.
I am grateful for the 54 years of life God has granted me and a wonderful family around me to affirm me with their love and care. I also give tremendous thanks to the Lord for the identity he has given to me in my baptism.
I am his son, whom he loves, with me he is well pleased.
And that’s a gift worth living each day!
Apply: What makes up your identity? What happens when God’s Words to you in your baptism become more real? You are his son/daughter, whom he loves, and with you he is well-pleased!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for securing my identity with all you did to live a perfect life and take my sins to the cross. Give me the ability to live each day in the identity you won for me and gave to me, AMEN.
Who are you?
Today’s devotion is based on Week 2 of “Resolve”: Live Your Baptism Identity! (WATCH HERE)
Who are you?
Really. Who are you?
The question of identity is one that is front and center in the culture dialogue today. We have identity politics that takes a certain skin color or gender or ideology and assumes that everyone of that “identity” will vote a certain way. We have gender identity issues which leave very young children questioning whether they are male, female, cat, dog or dinosaur. To be sure, these are not issues to be made light of, but to recognize are very real in our society today.
At the heart of them? What is my identity and who gives it to me?
Identity has shifted away from some objective reality (Example: I am male – because I have the male chromosomes and body parts.) to personal feelings. Identity has become more what you feel about yourself than objectively who you are. Identity can become what others put on you to try to create a “group think” on a particular issue. Identity is complicated.
Listening to a leadership podcast (sorry can’t remember which one), identity issues were highlighted as a key struggle for young people. The issue is compounded by social media and the image that one feels they must portray on those platforms to have the “likes” and “followers.”
In fact, even in spiritual matters, identity has become a leading issue people are wrestling with. Why? Because identity goes down to the core of our being. We may “identify” with some surface issue, but identity is really who we are or who we believe we are.
So how can we take an unsettled, confused, misguided culture about identity and begin to establish truly godly perspective on the issue of identity at large, but most importantly for our own hearts?
We look to the one who really matters. Not to friends or family, but we look to the Lord God who created us. What does he say about our identity? Here’s just two passages:
Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
At our baptism, God made us his children. By faith in Jesus, we ARE children of God. This is an identity statement. You ARE a child of God. We don’t just “identify with” children of God…we ARE children of God. Why does this matter?
I can stop looking for an identity outside of God’s reality. When we came to faith in Jesus at baptism or later in life, God GAVE us the identity as his child. Embrace this reality to your core because here is the consequence (in a very positive way.)
As a child of God, I am loved, accepted, and forgiven…regardless of what other people say.
As a child of God, my identity is settled in Christ…not my social media platform.
As a child of God, I know he doesn’t make mistakes and he made me male or female.
As a child of God, I am not identified by my sins and mistakes, but by the blood of Jesus who made me perfect.
As a child of God, I am defined by the riches of God’s grace, not the riches of my bank account.
As a child of God, I am free to love others without need for them to fill in my identity by how they respond.
As a child of God, my identity is settled.
As a child of God, I live in the reality of grace that God so lavishly spread on me!
Grace settles my identity because grace makes me a child of God!
Apply: You are a child of God. How does that change how you show up in life today?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for lavishing your grace and love on me to make me your child. Let my soul always be settled in the identity you gave me, “I am a child of God!”