Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord.
TO PONDER
My Bible has the heading prior to verse nine – Love, and to the end of chapter twelve, Paul speaks about living in harmony with those around us based on Jesus’ teaching; our words and actions need to be authentic as we face situations that arise in our everyday lives.
Paul writes about ‘spiritual fervour’ in the text; it’s an active word, a bit like water boiling in a pot with bubbles bursting everywhere. When we totally embrace the Holy Spirit living within us and serve others using the gifts of the Spirit [Galatians 5:22-26] we can become like that pot of boiling water. Every word and action as we serve others has a richness of Holy Spirit coming from God’s word at work in us. We cannot catch one of those bubbles from the boiling pot of water but as they burst, we can feel some droplets; as we serve others, no matter what their need, may the droplets from our bursting spiritual enthusiasm infect them with a desire to know God and love him and grow in them a desire to serve him.
PRAYER: Thank you, Lord, for your gift of the Holy Spirit living in me. May I always cherish this gift and share it wholeheartedly with others as I serve you by serving others using the gifts of the Spirit. Amen
Today's devotion written by Maureen Macpherson, LifeWay Newcastle
As the deer pants for streams of water so my soul pants for you O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
TO PONDER
This morning, I went to read my emails, only to find someone trying to scam me. It was not a pleasant experience giving rise to many negative thoughts; things I considered were interfering with my life; I just wished I was elsewhere.
King David expresses how his soul is thirsty, just as he can see the hunted deer in the desert panting and searching for water, so does he want refuge from his oppressors, and his soul thirsts for the living God. He wants to seek God in his temple, to be able to worship him and find rest.
I needed that comfort this morning; we all need that comfort at times. When Jesus died on the cross and rose again, he made it easy for us to approach God. Jesus referred to himself as “Living water" [John 4:10] and the promise of eternal life. Jesus himself said his soul was troubled “to the point of death” [Mark 14:34] and again in John 12:27 “Now my heart is troubled and what shall I say….” Jesus’ reaction was to pray to his Father.
This is our starting point, taking those things that take our peace away to God in prayer. Like we said in yesterday’s devotion, have that deep truthful spiritual connection with God, share your cares with him. But like the psalmist we need more, we need to seek God, this God who is alive. King David sought God in his temple, we need to seek him through his word. By listening to his word and joining with other believers we are drawn into his presence and find our souls being sated. It becomes natural to want to give thanks and praise to God, to want to serve him, honour and obey him every day of our lives.
PRAYER:Gracious God, you are the person I flee to when pressures of this life burden me and I long to be in your presence. I thank you for Jesus death and resurrection so that I can bring my burdens to you and find peace as I share them with you. I ask for your forgiveness when I decide I can fix things on my own and usually end up making things worse. Amen
Today's devotion written by Maureen Macpherson, LifeWay Newcastle.
Yet a time is coming, and has now come, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks; God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.
TO PONDER
Jesus spoke these words during his meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well. The Samaritans worshipped the true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but failed to accept much of his revelation beyond the first five books of the Bible. This meant they really knew very little about him. Jesus told them salvation would come from the Jews, in fact it had come at that present time, in the person of Jesus himself.
We can be challenged by Jesus’ next words which indicate a move in the understanding and practice of worship; he speaks of specific qualities rather than being confined to physical locations or external rituals. Jesus says we will worship in spirit and truth; God is spirit and he seeks people who will worship him in spirit and truth. His desire is that our worship is genuine and heartfelt and that it goes beyond mere religious practices. The challenge here is to evaluate our understanding and practice of worship.
God knows our inmost thoughts and desires and it is from this place we can begin to connect with God in spirit, we are to seek a genuine encounter, not just going through religious motions or seeking personal fulfillment. We are to approach God with reverence, humility and an authentic desire to honor and adore him. We know God is spirit so he is everywhere, thus we can seek him at anytime no matter where we may be, our workplace, our home or as we negotiate a crowded place. We need to seek him with sincerity and a desire to know him intimately and as our hearts align with his, we can worship him wholeheartedly; we will find peace and comfort in our lives as our spirit connects with God’s and then making and keeping this connection will become a very natural and necessary part of our lives.
PRAYER: Father God, I yearn for a close and intimate relationship with you. Jesus has explained that this also your desire, that I come to you and speak the truth from the deepest part of my being, that my spirit connects with yours. May I always remember and practice this so that it becomes as frequent and easy as taking a breath. Amen
Today's devotion written by Maureen Macpherson, LifeWay Newcastle
One thing I ask of the Lord. This is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
TO PONDER
Anxiety and sadness are my companions as I write this devotion. I get through each day by seeking God’s face, as I share with him situations that only he can change I am comforted knowing he is love and in him is forgiveness and peace. So I can empathise, to some extent, with King David who wrote the beautiful words of the Psalm we are contemplating today
King David wrote these words while he was in the desert with his enemies pursuing him. He was only asking one thing of God, he just wanted to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life.
In those days the temple was seen as God’s home, it was safe, secure, a refuge against the turmoil of life, giving him not only physical safety but spiritual and mental refuge as well. He wanted to live with God, serve God, sit at God’s feet learn more about his ways; he wanted the peace that only comes from loving and trusting God.
This is the season of Lent, a time for soul searching, repentance and drawing closer to God; a time to have those difficult discussions grounded in the conviction that God is real and God is good and he sent his Son into the world that we may be saved. The horror of the cross is what allows us to seek God with our one request – to live in peace with him all the days of our lives.
PRAYER: In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time; All the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime. Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, By the cross are sanctified; Peace is there that knows no measure, Joys that through all time abide. Amen. - Lutheran Hymnal 171
Today's devotion written by Maureen Macpherson, LifeWay Newcastle
Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”
TO PONDER
The Greek language has several words to describe ‘love’, all the way from the simple affection of friendship to something much, much, deeper. In the above verses the verb used was ‘agapao’ – the commitment of devotion that is directed by the will and can be commanded as a duty. Jesus’ words leave little doubt that to love our Lord above everything and with our whole being is a command.
In Sunday school I can remember we were taught this verse and it always was with the First Commandment – ‘You shall have no other gods’ What does this mean? We should fear, love and trust in God above all things.
When Jesus died on the cross, he bore all our sin and we, with our sinful nature, are no longer abhorrent to God and can approach him in prayer anytime, all the time, knowing he will hear us. When we share our cares and worries with God, we are trusting him and can find peace. When we try to fix things ourselves, we have taken our eyes off God and our issues become our idols. Daily we are faced with situations, and people, that can take our eyes off our God. However, the more we include God in every aspect of our lives the more we learn to love and know him, to entrust our lives to him and the stronger our devotion to him becomes
When God is the sole object of our devotion we want to serve and please him. When we look at how his son Jesus, served his Father while he lived on earth, we see the kind of love we are commanded to show. We see our love of God requires us to love our fellowman and not to discriminate; it demands that we help those in need, care for the helpless and share generously God’s word, telling our stories of how God has blessed us and enriched our lives and how much he loves us, wanting to live in close loving relationship with us. - this is the first and greatest commandment.
PRAYER: God of love, I thank you for my parents, teachers and so many of your faithful children who have explained, taught, and shown by example what wholeheartedly loving you means. I thank you that with the help of the Holy Spirit you continue to help me trust you more completely and talk with you about my joys and sadness and every other issue, knowing you hear me, I praise and thank you for that. Amen
Today's devotion written by Maureen Macpherson, LifeWay Newcastle
Then Mary took a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume, she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
TO PONDER
This event took place six days before the Passover, Mary and Martha were guests at the home where Lazarus was staying, for a celebratory dinner. We have read before that Mary preferred to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen and she loved him in preference to sharing hostessing duties. We do not know Mary’s exact reasons for her action when she poured the expensive oil over Jesus’ feet but in those times, anointing was done to appoint kings and chief priests, to help with healing or also before burial.
She most certainly would be giving thanks to Jesus for restoring her brother, Lazarus, to life. We can perhaps read some symbolism into her actions, anointing Jesus’ feet may have been acknowledging Jesus’ Kingship or High Priestly role. But Jesus himself interprets her actions as anointing him for the task ahead of him, his death.
But then, shock, horror Mary wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair – feet were dirty, washing them a servant’s task. She did this out of love not worrying at all about convention, a few days later Jesus would display his role as a servant by washing the apostles’ feet.
Now what about this expensive oil that caused Judas so much angst? It was called Spikenard, grown in the Himalayas and transported through the East India trade route, the roots and wooly stems were used to extract the fragrant oil, so precious it was sealed in alabaster jars. Mary’s jar would have held about 325mls and it would not have been possible to save any once the jar was opened, but Jesus intervened and said to leave her alone, it was meant for his burial.
How do we stack up against Mary in the devotion Stakes? We can never meet the cost of the Cross, we can never love so completely that we serve Jesus selflessly, we will always be conscious of others who will sneer or criticize our efforts to live a life that shows our love and commitment to God. We will always be tempted to think we haven’t done enough. We might not always spend quality devotion time with God. The answer is in the Cross – we recognize our faults and failures, we acknowledge what was done for us and ask forgiveness and it is given.
PRAYER: Forgiving and loving Father, I thank you for all of your servants that you have gifted to commit your word to be written for everyone to read and learn from. I know that there is a gap sometimes between what I want to do and committing myself wholly to you and what actually happens. I ask that with the help of the Holy Spirit, my devotion to you would grow in all areas of my life and become wholehearted and steadfast. Amen
Today's devotion written by Maureen Macpherson, LifeWay Newcastle
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
TO PONDER
I remember when our children were younger, a couple of occasions where they appeared to experience a similar, though undoubtedly less intense, feeling as Jesus as he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane on the night he was betrayed and arrested.
The most vivid memory I have was when Elise and I insisted that a particular Saturday was to be dedicated to tidying up the kids bedrooms and that no other fun weekend things were going to be done until the bedrooms were sufficiently tidy and clean. After a few initial 'niggles' of resistance, and some stern words for both parents, one of our kids, fully devastated at the prospect before them, began crying and having a full meltdown shouting, "I don't want to" at the top of their lungs while at the same time dutifully getting the process of cleaning the room underway. They clearly expressed their desire for another option, but ended up doing their parents will when it was obvious there was no other way.
It made me wonder then, and many time since, how often I act like a child having a tantrum when God asks me to do something I don't want to do or wish could be done another way. I suspect it's more often that I would like to admit. This prayer of Jesus usually puts things into perspective for me. If Jesus can pray this prayer in the face of the pain and suffering of crucifixion, then surely I can pray it and act on it too when I feel God asking me to give the last $20 in my wallet to the person on the street, or when I sense he wants me to serve my neighbours when I know there issues are likely to spill into my life when I do that.
If Jesus can go through what he did to bring about God's will for my sake, then surely a bit of discomfort so that God's will might be done in my or someone else's life is not to hard a thing to accept.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, today I simply pray the words Jesus taught his disciples to pray, "your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". May your will also be done in me. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
TO PONDER
Humility can be hard sometimes. In fact, I have to confess that as my two older children enter into their teenage years and start believing that they already know everything, it is increasingly difficult to not want to demonstrate my superior intellect and experience just to take them down a peg and put them back in their place.
The funny thing as I reflect on this thought is that God doesn't do that with us. In Romans chapter 1, the apostle Paul tells the Christians in Rome that God allows people to choose to ignore him, to indulge their wrong thinking and sinful desires and to set themselves up as masters of their own destiny. He also mentions the folly and consequences of that approach, but it is an option, and it is one which more and more people seem to be wanting to make for themselves.
There are many ways to define or think about humility, but I think one of the most helpful is to define it as having a correct view of your standing in the order of things. If we can recognise and acknowledge God as 'Lord of All' and stop trying to place ourselves in that position, then many of the problems or challenges that we think we face simply take care of themselves.
Maybe God then lifts us up to some greater position in this life, but maybe for us 'being lifted up in due time' is simply another way to talk about being raised to life in Christ when he comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And won't that be a wonderful day for those who recognise him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, sometimes it is hard not to consider myself as somehow 'better' than others. Sometimes it is easy to forget that I am not master of my own destiny, but that you have plans and a purpose for my life and that the only place I can find fulness of life is in your son Jesus. Please help me to be humble and to remember you are Lord of All, and that includes me. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
TO PONDER
Whether they are in our workplaces or our classrooms, our sports teams or our social groups, we all know these people. The ones who will say yes to your face to stay 'in' with the group or in favour with the boss or teacher, but then when no one else is looking would also be the first one to stick a knife in your back. We might call them 'fake friends' or 'fair weather friends', they only stick around when there is something for them to gain from the situation.
So let me ask you a difficult question, are you a fair weather friend of Jesus? Now I know most of us will immediately say, "No! Of course not!" but I want you to think deeply about this for a moment. Are you only friends with Jesus, do you only follow him because of what you get out of it?
Just sit with that question for a moment. Don't get me wrong, there are certainly some significant benefits and promised rewards for those who follow Jesus and put their hope and trust in him as their Lord and Saviour, but is that the only reason you believe? Let me put it this way, if you were convinced that Jesus was the son of God, but that was it - no salvation, no atoning death, no promise of the Holy Spirit or eternal life, would you still follow Jesus just because of who he is?
Jesus is worth following simply because he is Jesus, the son of God and all power and authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to him and he loves us. Fortunately for us, his love for us also means he has invited us to share in his victory, to receive his resurrection life for ourselves and to participate in his mission to bring that life to all the world by proclaiming the good news of his death and resurrection. Only when we accept that invitation completely, both the benefits and the work of participating in his mission, do we really begin to experience now, all that Jesus has for us.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I'm sorry for the times that my relationship with you is completely one-sided. When I expect to receive everything from you but fail to do or offer anything to you. I know your gifts to me are offered freely as gifts of grace and there is no obligation to earn them, but I pray you will help me to show my thanks and gratitude for all you have done as I strive to follow you each day in humble obedience. For you alone are worthy of all glory, honour, and praise. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle.