Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
TO PONDER
Turning grief to joy…how cool. But is it possible?
You’ll know that one of my interest, which often appears in my writing, is sport. Sport is one of those things where grief can quickly turn into joy.
From having a lousy round of golf, until your chip or putt unexpectedly goes in the hole. From chasing leather all day in 45-degree heat, until the final over of the cricket match, when the bowler takes three wickets. From being behind all game in basketball, until the final second when someone lands a three-pointer.
In these circumstances, the day hadn’t been going well. Mentally you had given up. You knew there was no way you would win from the position you were in…and yet, somehow you did. From feeling awful, to feeling fantastic.
This is also a reminder of what happens for people of faith after our time on earth is over. This text is sometimes used at funerals. For people of faith, a funeral of a loved one is a sad time. It most certainly is a time for grieving, but there is also a hint of rejoicing. You won’t feel like rejoicing, but you will know that the promise from God is that you will see that person again.
PRAYER:Comforter of all, thank you for emotions. Thank you that we can express how we feel, and that you have provided ways and people to help us deal with those emotions. Thank you for being a relational God. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mark Simpfendorfer, LifeWay Epping
Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.
TO PONDER
Can you have too much instruction? Not if it’s for your benefit. Usually, the instruction is for our own good. When I was in the classroom, children would sometimes complain about the rules. They would whine about the strictness of the classroom laws. This was usually after they’d broken one and were probably being sent from the class to the principal’s office.
There’s no point in being angry at the lawbreaker, and I would always try and explain why we had these rules. I would tell them that the rules were there, the instructions were there, because we loved them.
That stopped them in their tracks, because they would have been thinking ‘if you love me, why are you stopping me doing what I want?’ I’d go on. We want to keep you safe. We don’t want you hurting yourself or others. We want to help you to learn – even if you don’t want to – so that’s why these rules or instructions might seem harsh. They are there to help you.
Proverbs is a book of the bible there to keep us on the straight and narrow. To help us with the relational things in life, such as friendships and employment. And also, to help us grow. God wants to look after us, so we can answer the call of his, to care for others. It’s as simple as that.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us an instruction book on how to follow you, and live as your children. We don’t always get it right, so please forgive us when we muck up. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mark Simpfendorfer, LifeWay Epping
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 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.
TO PONDER
We generally use our motor vehicles to get us from one location to another. We have a route determined beforehand that we plan to follow. To date we don’t yet have practical autonomous vehicles that drive themselves, so we have to be actively involved in directing the vehicle along the planned route. Even on a straight road we need to be continually correcting the direction the vehicle is taking, otherwise it will veer off the road which could be quite dangerous.
In some ways, our lives are similar. God has a plan for our lives that includes taking us from the person we are today to a person more like His Son Jesus. This is a life-long process. It begins as we respond to God’s invitation and agree to surrender our lives to God’s plan for us. The Holy Spirit is given to us to guide us on the journey. But like the car, we have a strong tendency to wander off from the directions God is giving us. And as we wander off, we get hurt and damaged and need repairs. God then takes on a role similar to the tow-truck driver and panel beater to get us healed and back on the road.
But, of course, there are other “fun” things that a car can be used for, like street racing and doing burn-outs. Because of the potential for causing injury to people and property by these activities, they have been made illegal. Similarly, in our lives, there are lots of “fun” activities that can attract us away from God’s plan for us. Now God is definitely not a 'kill joy'. He designed us to enjoy life and Jesus definitely joined in the celebrations of life while he lived here on earth. However, activities that we may be enjoying to the detriment of others is not part of God’s plan. Rather, his plan is that we consider others and work towards their enjoyment of life, trusting that God would bless us with his joy while we are doing this. So, when we start getting off track, our loving God will work in the way he knows best to get us back on the route he has pre-planned for us.
What an awesome God we have who is so committed to us living life to the full and enjoying the journey he is taking us on.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for calling us to repentance, washing us clean in our baptism and giving us a new birth into your heavenly family. Thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit to be our guide in life, especially as you continually guide us back onto the path that leads us to eternal celebration with you in Heaven. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping
Do you take the kindness of God for granted? Do you see His patience and tolerance as signs that He is a pushover when it comes to sin? How could you not know that His kindness is guiding our hearts to turn away from distractions and habitual sin to walk a new path? (The Voice)
TO PONDER
In Chapter 2 of his letter to the church in Rome, Paul really speaks some harsh words. He stresses to his readers that God is a Holy God and His holiness has zero room for all failures to live to his standards. This would be horrendous news if we left out the Love of God where His Son stepped in to rescue us through his life, death and resurrection on this earth. Having been rescued and adopted into God’s family as His dearly loved children, God’s plan is that we now live in such a way that we demonstrate the characteristics of our Father God in our attitudes, our priorities, in effect, in all aspects of our lives.
But Paul is also aware of the temptation to take all the benefits of being God’s child, but not the responsibilities. There is this subtle shifting away of our focus of caring about the needs of others and sharing God’s love to needing to spend more time on the things that bring enjoyment to ourselves (sometimes at the expense of others). There is even the temptation to believe that being a Christian takes all the fun out of life.
If we look at Jesus’s life as recorded in the New Testament, we never find Jesus being a party pooper. He enjoyed banquets and wedding celebrations. God designed our lives to be enjoyed. But the joy and satisfaction in life is to be found in serving one another. And God, in his love, has set the example of how to carry out that service to others. What greater joy can we receive than to see how others are blessed by our service to them. But we don’t do it to receive that joy, but because our loving God has set us an example by the way he has first served us.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you again for all Jesus did here on earth to restore us as your dearly loved children. Help us to never take your love for granted, but please guide us with you Spirit to love others as you love us. Amen
Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping
Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
TO PONDER
My father was very typical of his generation. They had to be very sick or injured before they would go anywhere near a doctor or hospital. In the 17 years I lived at home, I cannot recall that he was ever in hospital. He had been though. He had quite a stint in hospital after being machine gunned in the second world war, and had quite a long recovery. And later in life, he had further surgery to relieve the pain of his war injuries. And, also, later in life he was in hospital for kidney stones (which people tell me are very painful). But otherwise, he was able to keep away from the medical profession. Then he died of a massive heart attack at the age of 68. The autopsy showed that his arteries were so bad that nothing could have been done to save him. I guess it wasn’t the thing to do 40 odd years ago to go to the doctor for regular check-ups. If he had, he may have been able to receive restorative treatment.
These days, we have probably swung to the opposite extreme with my GP wanting to see me every 6 months for regular check-ups. 18 months ago, the results of the check-up led me to being diagnosed with prostate cancer. Further checks showed it had been found early and it seemed to have not spread. After surgery to remove the cancerous organ, I am now back to essentially living the same as before the diagnosis. And now I am having even more regular medical tests.
Our spiritual health is very much the same – especially if we have been involved in the church for many years. Just as my father didn’t seek medical attention because he didn’t feel sick, so we can coast along in our Christian faith because we are not aware of our spiritual infirmities. As for our physical wellbeing, so for our spiritual wellbeing, we need regular check-ups, and not just every 6 or 12 months. We can get weekly spiritual check-ups at church services and we can get quick daily spiritual check-ups through daily reading the bible and/or devotionals. And God also speaks to us during our regular prayer times.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you that you know me intimately and that you know all about the things that are not right in my life. Thank you for all the ways to reach out to me to bring me the things I need to maintaining a healthy and intimate relationship with you. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping
But when he (John the Baptist) saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptising, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
TO PONDER
For the first 11 years of my life, I was very much surrounded by a very Christian society: over 7 years as a Missionary Kid in New Guinea and then over 3 years on a farm in South East Queensland. Just about everyone we knew went to the same church as us. Although I knew that there were other religions, my only experience of a religion was Christianity.
However, many years later, living in a very multicultural society in Sydney, I was exposed to many different philosophical ideas of the meaning and purpose of life. Since I was still a member of a Christian church, I was now being challenged to share my faith with non-Christians. Although I felt completely out of my depth in being involved in this evangelism work, the challenge I really faced was the question, 'are all religions valid, and if not, which one (or ones) are the correct ones?' Just because I was brough up a Christian, did that automatically mean that Christianity was the right religion for me? Or for anyone else for that matter? I knew Muslims, Jews and Buddhists who were rusted-on adherents to their faith, as much as a cultural connection as a religious connection. As with Christianity, each was claiming an exclusive path to salvation, so all couldn’t be correct. This led me to have a closer look at my own beliefs to check the foundation of the Christian faith.
Two factors led me to remain a Christian. The first was the fact the God himself entered his creation, took on our humanity and rescued us from the disaster we were headed for. No other religion offered that. This was the intellectual reason for remaining a Christian. The second reason was that God kept intervening in my life to show me he was real and that I was precious to him. This was the experiential reason for remaining a Christian.
Let’s now look at our reading for today. The Pharisees and Sadducees were the most committed people in keeping the religious rules of the day. They were also born into religious families (claiming Abraham as both their religious and genetic ancestor). But John the Baptism challenged them that this was not going to get them into God’s family. He called them to give up on relying on rule keeping and family inheritance for acceptance by God (this is the repenting part) and start living as true children of God (producing the fruit associated with this repentance).
From Galatians 5:22-23 we learn that the fruit God is looking for is love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. You might notice that these are all relational, and have nothing to do with rule keeping.
Keeping a set of rules may be difficult, but not impossible. The Pharisees and Sadducees felt quite snug in their ability to keep the rules. However, producing the fruit to the level of God’s standards is impossible for us, especially if we try with our own ability in an effort to look good to God. It is only as we acknowledge and repent of our utter failures to live to God’s standards and ask for His help through the Holy Spirit can the fruit be produced in us.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I admit there is no way I can live up to the standards you require of me. I accept you love, mercy and grace to me and ask your help in surrendering my life into your plans and purpose for me. Through your Holy Spirit please produce in me the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control so that other may see your transforming power in my life. Amen
Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping
Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall!
TO PONDER
How do you react when you become aware that you have offended a friend by what you said or did? Some of the methods I have tried are:
- Deny I did anything wrong and suggest that they are too sensitive for taking offence;
- Give a half-hearted apology and then stay away from them until they calm down and get over it;
- Ignore the situation by keeping very busy with something else (social media, hobby, alcohol or drugs) so that I don’t have to think about the pain of the situation.
- Sincerely apologise and spend time with them to understand more deeply how I have hurt them;
With our relationship with God, do we react any differently? One difference maybe our fear of punishment by God.
An incident in the bible I find very encouraging in dealing with failures to live to God’s standards is David and his infidelity with Bathsheba. If you want to make a list of which of the Ten Commandments he broke, they are at least coveting, adultery, lying and murder. When David was finally exposed by the prophet Nathan, he did not run away from God, but ran back to Him. (If you want to learn more about this episode in David’s life, read 2 Samuel: 11 & 12. You may also like to read Psalm 51.)
And that is just what another prophet, Hosea, is doing many centuries later in calling the Israelites to come back to the life God wants to give them. He loves them deeply, but they are committed to living a lifestyle that ignores God’s purpose for them. God sends prophet after prophet to them with a message of how to find meaning and purpose in their lives, but instead they went looking for excitement and fun that unfortunately caused deep pain and hurt to others, and to God.
When David admitted his failures, God restored him to that intimate and secure friendship that he had with God. God offers the same to us. No matter how much we have hurt Him and others, He has provided a way back to a close relationship with Him – by what Jesus did through his perfect life and sacrificial death.
PRAYER: (Psalm 51:10-12 (The Voice))
Create in me a clean heart, O God; restore within me a sense of being brand new.
Do not throw me far away from Your presence, and do not remove Your Holy Spirit from me.
Give back to me the deep delight of being saved by You; let Your willing Spirit sustain me.
Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.
TO PONDER
I don’t know about you, but when I face a disruption in my life that threatens my peace and security, my instinct is to immediately begin to work on finding solutions. It could be the failure of some important appliance in the home; it could be a large bill that wasn’t expected; it could be the diagnosis of a serious illness such as cancer; it could be being made redundant at work; it could even include a court summons accusing me of doing something that I was not aware I had done. Often, we have little time to come up with a proposed course of action to deal with the situation. The level of stress and insecurity can be quite intense.
Many of the Israelites of Isaiah’s day were living their lives as if they were completely in charge and could do whatever they liked – without any consequences. Then when problems occurred in their lives, they believed that they could perform some religious ceremonies and the gods (possibly even their god, Yahweh) would come to their aid to solve their problems. But, if the gods could not solve their problems, they could always offer their savings to some neighbouring nation and buy solutions from them (for example armies or mercenaries).
But, through the prophet Isaiah, God reminds the people that this will not work. He loves his people too much to let them get away with this way of responding to life’s challenges. God’s purpose for us is to live in relationship with Him, to be secure in His love for us, and to be actively living as his dearly loved children. But, our natural inclination, like the Israelites of Isaiah’s day, is to want complete freedom on how we live our lives. Unfortunately, this will eventually lead us to be living without any protection or care or love from God – a living hell, if you like. This is not God’s plan or purpose for us, and he works hard to draw us back into his life fulfilling plan and purpose for us.
The process God gives to us is one of life-long repentance. Firstly, acknowledging that our independent living is not giving us the rewards we are seeking we decide to see if God’s way works. We learn that through Jesus’s life and death, we have been given a new birth certificate that says we are now fully God’s children and we have the Holy Spirit to guide us in living as His children. There is absolutely nothing we could do to earn or buy this new birth certificate; it is a free gift.
But we do need to learn how to live as members of God’s family. We come into our new family with all our old habits and lots of baggage. Some of this baggage we have used for our security. Our repentance is an ongoing process of giving up our old habits, letting go of our baggage, learning new habits and finding our security in God’s love and commitment to us. But we are not doing this on our own. We have all the resources of God and of his other children at our disposal to help and support us.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for my new birth into your family. I want to grow and mature as your child. I entrust my life into your hands for you to keep growing and maturing me into the person you want me to become. Thank you for being there every time I mess up and try to take back control of my life. Thank you for your awesome love. Amen
Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping
Therefore this is what the Lord says: “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them.
TO PONDER
Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet to the people of Judah at a time when the people, from the King down, didn’t want to hear God’s message to them. So Jeremiah had a hard time which included being ignored, ridiculed and even physically abused. He is very disillusioned and ends up having a whinge session to God, even suggesting that God had tricked him into taking on this prophet gig. Today’s verse is part of God’s reply, which may seem to be a bit blunt. God wants Jeremiah to take the focus off himself and to rather focus on the people of Judah who had lost their way in following God’s plan for them. God still dearly loved these people, but their rebellion against God’s purpose for them would mean the complete destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple they so treasured. So the task is urgent. Jeremiah needs to stop feeling sorry for himself and concentrate on getting God’s message out to the people.
I wonder how similar our society today is to that of Jeremiah’s time. It may be that people today are not so much deliberately rejecting God’s message to them, but more that they have never heard it. So it is just as urgent to get God’s message out to people. And you may be thinking, Charles is now going to try to motivate (guilt me) to get involved in spreading the message. For most of my life I would get very defensive at this point and respond that God had not given me the gifts to do evangelism. So I couldn’t get involved. But God had me worked out. He got me to be at the right places and to say and do things that impacted other people’s lives in very positive ways – without me even realising what he was doing until much later. Slowly I came to realise that God had plans and a purpose for me. And I also learned an important message from Jeremiah and the book of the Bible named Lamentations. In this book, Jeremiah records his conversations with God (we might call it praying), but Jeremiah is very open and honest with God about how he feels – including his bitch sessions. Slowly I learned to talk to God about my fears of talking to others about my relationship with Him. His answers to me were: keep talking to my heavenly father about all my feelings, and GO to where he calls me to go. Once there, be relaxed and natural. Listen to people and listen to the Holy Spirit at the same time. And then just let the Holy Spirit do His thing.
So often we feel God is calling us to do things and then leaving us to do it on our own. How wrong we are. Wherever God calls us to go, His Holy Spirit goes with us and His Holy Spirit will guide us in what to say to people. And if we don’t believe that, then we need to openly tell God how we feel and open ourselves for him to change us. Of course, the Holy Spirit may use a whole lot of other people to be the channel of his transforming work in our lives.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, we want to be more willing to answer your call. Please help us with our fears and insecurities. Amen
Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping