Value God’s Communication with you!
This week’s devotions are based on the Week 7 “Explore God” – Can I Know God Personally? (WATCH HERE)
Proverbs 4:10 Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many. 11 I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. 12 When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble. 13 Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.
Do these words sound like ones your parents would say to you? Perhaps you have words of wisdom that you maybe didn’t appreciate when you were younger, but now looking back, the words carried more weight and wisdom than you ever realized at the time.
A marker of a relationship is that there is care and conversation between the individuals. This is very true of God’s relationship with us. Really the whole Bible are his words that he wants his children to hear, take to heart and put into practice. In these few verses from the book of Proverbs, you see God using the author of Solomon to speak to his sons, and people in general, the words and wisdom of God.
Here’s a few things about the words of God which them so amazing and important in our lives.
- They bring blessing and longevity to our lives. Following God’s word and wisdom certainly bring blessing to our lives as we listen to them and put them into practice. They keep us out of trouble, replace stress and anxiety with peace, foster healthy relationships and much more. The result is not only blessings emotionally and spiritually but also physically.
- God’s Words guide us in ways of wisdom. The world has a lot to offer in the way of wisdom and philosophies and teaching that are easy to buy into, but do not convey accurate and life-giving truth. God’s wisdom guide us along a path that has dangerous ditches on either side. One ditch can lead us away from God’s truth and the other side of the ditch can make God’s Word say something it wasn’t intended to.
- Life has fewer obstacles. Parents have the perspective of life experience and in the sharing of information simply wish to prevent their children from experiencing the same challenges in life they faced. How the child responds is not in their control, but the purpose is to prevent them from getting in trouble and experiencing hardship they could have avoided. So it is with the Word of God. God speaks into our lives with the perspective of eternity and infinite experience to guide us in a way where we will not stumble or face unnecessary obstacles. Life will still have its challenges, but perhaps we can avoid many of them simply by listening and putting into practice the loving words of God.
- The wisdom, teaching and insight it gives is priceless. Social media, the internet and bookshelves are filled with individuals sharing human wisdom. Reading or listening to some of it may provide some value for this life, however, the Word of God communicates both great value for this life, but most importantly the words of God speak into our hearts eternal life. It’s this value that is priceless.
Apply: What aspect of God’s communication to us in his Word is the most significant for you? Which aspect is one you maybe didn’t think about much, but encourages you to put the Word more actively into your life?
Prayer: Lord God, thank you for initiating and preserving your relationship with us. As you speak to us in your Word, help us to find the joy and blessing of you taking the time to speak to us. AMEN.
God has made you his child!
This week’s devotions are based on the Week 7 “Explore God” – Can I Know God Personally? (WATCH HERE)
Galatians 6:6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
Can you have a relationship with God…is like asking the question, “Can I have a relationship with my dad.” I get that there are all too many kids who do not know or have a relationship with their dad. This is a terribly sad state of affairs in our country and world. However, one of the reasons God established the family unit with a committed marriage into which to bring children is so that individuals could experience a microcosm of his relationship with us and our relationship with him. How so?
Parents are always the one who establish the relationship with their child. A child doesn’t choose their parents, the parents’ love for a child establish the relationship with their child. The child may not always appreciate it or may question it or even walk away from it, but a faithful parent will never walk away from their child.
When God makes us his child by faith, he is the one who takes the initiative to bring us to himself. He gives us his Spirit in the waters of baptism and puts his name on us, making us his child.
The result? We get the privilege of calling God our Father. Like every attentive parent can pick their child’s voice out of the crowd, so God, our Father, tunes in whenever his children pray to him. We can be assured as children of God that when we cry out “Abba, Father” that the Lord hears and will respond for the best of his children.
The result? We are given the status of heir. This is a big deal. Like a parent who writes into their will a portion of their estate to each of their children, so God writes us into his will and ensures us a portion of his estate…a room in heaven. Again, the child doesn’t earn a spot in the will, the will is an expression of the parents’ love for their children and the fact they want to bless them after their death. However, a child can turn against their parents and say, “I don’t care. Take me out of the will.” This response is not the fault of the parents, but the fault of the child. In a similar way, God in his love and grace write us into his will, a promise of his grace that he has a spot in heaven for us. Of course we can break the relationship by indicating to God that he should write us out of his will, that would be entirely our doing.
The reality of our relationship with God is that he gets the credit for establishing it and we get the benefit of living in the relationship with our Father who loves us immensely. The relationship is secure, not because we have earned or deserved the relationship, but because God is our Father, and our Father loves us, loves you tremendously.
Apply: What changes when you know God is your Father and he is the one who initiated and secures your relationship with him?
Prayer: Father, thank you for your love that never fails and never gives up on me. AMEN.
Sainthood and my relationship with God…
This week’s devotions are based on the Week 7 “Explore God” – Can I Know God Personally? (WATCH HERE)
How do you become a saint?
Today in the historic Christian church year is “All Saints Day.” In the 1500s when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the Catholic Church in Wittenberg, Germany, he did so on October 31, 1517, knowing people would come to church on November 1 in observance of All Saints Day. This was a day where the saints of the church were honored and the relics connected to them were put on display.
The saints that were honored and recognized were ones that had “earned” the title by a great performance in life, a miracle attributed to them, and recognition by the Pope of the supernumerary works. In essence the saints were individuals who got a straight pass to heaven (do not go to purgatory) because the amount of their good works were determined to give them life in heaven AND they actually had extra works that the church could assign to you or a loved one if you paid the right price. Their status was revered and their performance was one to emulate.
But the very thing that people came to church to honor is what Luther was challenging on November 1, 1517. The question was if the status of “saint” was one that was earned through life of good works or if it was one that was given by the grace of God. As we looked at yesterday, Luther was becoming convinced that a saint was not one that the church deemed a perfect person by their life of performance, but one that God gave the title of saints because he applied to them, by faith, the perfect life of Jesus Christ.
The church at the time of Luther was encouraging and challenging every sinner to strive for sainthood. If they didn’t quite get there in this life, they could keep working at it in purgatory.
Sadly this mindset is still around…even in our own hearts. We find ourselves more in “control” when we can determine our destiny by our performance. It happens in sports. It happens at work. It happens in the classroom. The harder you work, the higher status you achieve. Wouldn’t it make sense that God would operate this way? To us, yes, it would make sense.
But reason doesn’t always drive the will of God. God’s love for sinners does. God knows that there is no one perfect, not even one. He does not lower the standard of perfection, but rather upholds it and then chooses to do something no one could have determined. He gives perfection to those who believe in him. He MAKES us a saint, in spite of our performance. This status is one that is graciously and legally ours.
Heb 10:12–14 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13 Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, 14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
Romans 4:4-5 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.
So, today as we observe “All Saints Day” we can joyfully realize that our status before God is one of “SAINT”! This title is evidence of the gracious goodness of God that was willing to embark on the task of a perfect life so we could be given the status of sainthood.
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Enjoy your relationship with God today. You are a saint because of Jesus!
Apply: What makes it hard to embrace the status God has given you as “saint”?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for making me a saint through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection! AMEN.
Reformation Day and My Relationship with God!
This week’s devotions are based on the Week 7 “Explore God” – Can I Know God Personally? (WATCH HERE)
Open for debate.
506 years ago today in Wittenberg, Germany a catholic monk named Martin Luther sparked a debate in the church and among people about the core tenets of Christianity. At the heart of the question he challenged was, “How does one have a personal relationship with God?”
In the Catholic Church of Luther’s day, the answer to this question was that the only way a person could get right with God was by a pattern of life that was filled with acts of penance (paying something for your sins), trips to “holy” places on pilgrimages, or the paying of money for indulgences (pieces of paper that were signed by the pope declaring sins forgiven).
Martin Luther struggled mightily inside his heart and outside in his environment of the monastery to find peace with God. He would deprive his body of its needs; agonize in prayer and yelling at the devil; and meticulously carrying out the duties of a monk. Yet, even though he was following the path laid out by the church to find peace with God, he had no peace.
One of the unique privileges Luther had as a monk and also being asked to be a professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg and so had access to a Bible. Access to the Bible was a big deal because the average person would have to rely on what the priest taught about the Bible but never had access or ability to read it for themselves.
As Luther struggled to find peace with his relationship with God, he knew God knew him personally but saw him as a righteous judge who could and would punish him for all his sins. Terror filled his heart until he discovered this truth in Romans 1:16-17:
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
In the reading of this Scripture the reality came to heart for Luther that the righteousness that God demanded was not to be found in the works of man, but in the works of Christ. Trusting the work of Christ is yours give the certainty and the peace that salvation, eternal life in heaven is yours.
When God’s Spirit solidified this truth in Luther’s heart, he went from doubt and fear about his relationship with God to one of peace and hope. When the focus shifted from his performance to the perfection of Jesus, his conscience finally found the rest it had.
But Luther was not settled with this truth just for himself.
He saw how the hearts and consciences of individuals all around him and under the teaching of the Catholic Church were being tormented by fear. People were afraid of the punishment of God and so they were being convinced to buy indulgences that were guarantees from the church that their sins would be forgiven. Not only were they encouraged to buy them for themselves, but for their loved ones who they were taught were languishing in purgatory until enough forgiveness could be earned or bought to free them. People were spending the little money they had to fill the coffers of the church based on a false teaching that forgiveness could be earned or bought.
Luther could not stand by idle.
So he wrote 95 statements or Theses regarding the sale of indulgences and posted them to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg Germany to begin a debate and what he hoped would be the return of the church back to the clear teaching of salvation and forgiveness by grace through faith in Jesus. The day he did this was October 31, 1517 on “All Hallow’s Eve” or All Saints Eve. He knew that people would come to church on November 1 for the celebration of All Saints Day, so he ensured the issues for debate were made available for all to see.
October 31 is recognized in the Lutheran Church as Reformation Day. On this day, the debate was started, but instead of the Catholic Church returning to the truth of the Bible, they dug in their heels and the Lutheran Church was born standing on the clear truth that our relationship with God is secured FOR us by the perfect life, innocent death, and glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s in the grace of God that we are secure in our relationship with God.
Apply: What changes for you when your relationship with God is based on Christ’s performance for you rather than your performance for God?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the truth of your word and the message of salvation by grace alone. Thank you for faithful and bold servants of yours to always teach and rely on the truth of your holy Word to bring the comfort, joy and peace of your grace to the hearts of people. AMEN.
Can I know God Personally?
This week’s devotions are based on the Week 6 “Explore God” – Is the Bible Reliable? (WATCH HERE)
1 John 3:1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!
What’s in a relationship?
Do you remember the first time you asked someone out on a date? You were nervous, a bit clunky and deathly afraid of being rejected. When the individual said, “Yes” you were happy inside and enjoyed going out on a few more dates after that. Then, perhaps, the questions got more serious as you wondered, “What is the status of our relationship?” “Are we just friends? Are we boyfriend/girlfriend? Are we exclusive? Etc.”
Relationships are a key part of our earthly interactions. We not only have a relationship with our spouse, but we have relationships with friends, co-workers, neighbors etc. Some people you have to have a relationship with and others you choose to have a relationship with and still others you desire to have a relationship with.
What makes relationships challenging is when you have to guess where you stand with that person. Are they a friend or foe? Are we good or not?
As we consider our final question of the series, “Can I know God personally?” one realizes that the intellectual answer to the previous question, while important, is not complete if there is not faith to believe the answers God gives to the questions.
Can I know God personally?
The short answer is, “Yes, you can.”
However, perhaps the place to start is not with the 10 steps to get to know God, but rather the answer to the question, “Does God want to know you personally?” This answer is “Yes, he does.”
Perhaps when we start with the question, “Can I know God personally?” we focus on what I have to do to get to know God. However, when we start with understanding how much God does because he personally knows and loves you, it quickly engenders the reaction, “Yes, I want to know this God who knows and loves me so well and so much.”
The Apostle John wrote in his first letter, “We love, because he first loved us.” This is true with every aspect of the Christian faith and life. It is always God’s love and relationship with us that leads us to have a relationship with him. When I see and understand God’s deep love for me, a natural response is, “Why wouldn’t I want to have a personal relationship with him?” God becomes the coolest kid on the block that everyone wants to be friends with. God becomes the most popular kid at the dance that everyone wants to dance with. He moves our response of faith by simply being the God who loves you so much.
And when he establishes his relationship with us in our hearts, we begin to see more clearly the wisdom and truth of the answers he gives to the six previous questions.
Apply: What aspect of God’s relationship with you moves you the most to believe more fully in him?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for doing all that was necessary to have a relationship with me. Lead my heart and my life to always live for and follow you. AMEN.