Click here for today's Bible reading: Psalms 63-65.
Click here to see the complete one-year schedule.
16 May 2009
Click here for today's Bible reading: Acts 3-5; Proverbs 15:1-11.
The LORD detests the way of the wickedClick here to see the complete one-year schedule.
but he loves those who pursue righteousness. —Proverbs 15:9
15 May 2009 | Being a Witness
Click here for today's Bible reading: Acts 1-2; Proverbs 14:25-35.
You Will Be My Witnesses
This week, Ed Dobson, my former pastor, has been posting updates about the sermon he’ll be preaching at Mars Hill Bible Church on Sunday. His topic is witnessing. As one Facebook friend suggested, Ed’s name is synonymous with the subject. Mine is not. For years I felt guilty about my inability to learn and use all the helpful witnessing tools that have been promoted and presented at various churches, camps, and conferences I have attended.
Then this morning, when my devotional reading was on the same subject (see Acts:1:1-8), I decided it would be a good time to post an excerpt from my book that tells how I finally resolved (for the most part) my guilt by realizing that it was based on years of faulty exposition (not by Ed) of the word witness.
Click here to see the complete one-year schedule.
You Will Be My Witnesses
This week, Ed Dobson, my former pastor, has been posting updates about the sermon he’ll be preaching at Mars Hill Bible Church on Sunday. His topic is witnessing. As one Facebook friend suggested, Ed’s name is synonymous with the subject. Mine is not. For years I felt guilty about my inability to learn and use all the helpful witnessing tools that have been promoted and presented at various churches, camps, and conferences I have attended.
Then this morning, when my devotional reading was on the same subject (see Acts:1:1-8), I decided it would be a good time to post an excerpt from my book that tells how I finally resolved (for the most part) my guilt by realizing that it was based on years of faulty exposition (not by Ed) of the word witness.
Whenever I sit down in front of my computer to write, I wish I could make my words sound like those of Henri Nouwen or Anne Lamott or Philip Yancey. They don’t. If anything, my words sound more like those of an impatient preacher. I want to be soothing, not scathing; amusing, not accusing; inspiring, not indicting. Sometimes I wonder if the prophet Jeremiah wanted to write like David, the singer and songwriter, or like Moses, the historian. Or was he content to speak in the style and for the purpose that God assigned him, even though his message was unpopular?Also see “Just Be Yourself.”
My failed attempts to use someone else’s voice when I write is similar to what happens when we try to use someone else’s story to witness. To be an effective witness for God we cannot use someone else’s voice or talent or experience. Being a witness is telling others the truth about myself and my personal encounter with God; it’s not memorizing the plan of salvation so that I can explain it to strangers. Being a witness means being able to say “I once was,” but now “I am.” In the words of the hymn writer, “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”
One summer I worked at a Christian camp in upstate New York, and one of our duties was to go to a nearby resort town and do street evangelism. The idea of stopping total strangers on the street and “witnessing” to them about God seemed phony to me. And it was. To be a witness a person has to have seen or experienced something. The Bible is clear about that. One of the Ten Commandments is “do not bear false witness.” Standing on those lakeside streets, I felt like a false witness—even though I was a Christian who believed God, did not deny my sinfulness, and gratefully trusted Christ for forgiveness.
But I did not have the kind of dramatic conversion experience that I thought was needed to make a convincing case for God. I became a Christian at age eight—before sin had a chance to reach the fullness of its ugly potential in my life; the “was but am” aspect of my testimony was not at all compelling.
Since then I have learned that my testimony doesn’t have to be dramatic. My witness is the simple story of my life. It’s my first-hand account of how God is taking the “me” that he created and is gently and lovingly transforming and restoring it to its full potential for his glory. Slowly but surely he is turning me from a clump of clay to a work of art.
The Greek word translated “workmanship” in Ephesians 2:10 is poiema, from which we get the English word poem. This means that we are God’s poem, his artistic expression. We are God’s good work!
I still feel some residual guilt from those early failed witnessing attempts. But, looking back, I believe that I was being required to do something I was not equipped to do. I was being sent to “go, tell” before doing the prerequisite “come, follow.” I had not yet seen what God had done, was doing, and could do in my life. I didn’t realize that I had not simply been saved from the consequences of sin but also saved for the cause of righteousness. —adapted from Above All, Love
Click here to see the complete one-year schedule.
14 May 2009
Click here for today's Bible reading: 2 Samuel 5-8; Proverbs 14:12-24.
Perhaps you have witnessed something like this in your church. Perhaps this describes how you sometimes feel when you come to worship . . .
On the left side of the aisle, three people sat stiffly in the pew. When the congregation stood to sing “Shout to the Lord,” they kept their arms folded across their chests. On the right side of the aisle sat a man in a wheelchair. When the congregation stood, he needed help getting up on his feet, but then he willed his weak arms toward heaven. As the song swelled to a crescendo, he closed his eyes and tried to make his mouth form the words of the song; the three on the right stared straight ahead, their lips sealed.
Obviously, I do not know the hearts of anyone in this story, but I cannot help but see myself in it. I sometimes do more pouting than praising in church. Instead of concentrating on the God I worship, I criticize the way others are worshiping.
When King David worshiped the Lord exuberantly, his wife called him shameless. David said, “I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight” (2 Sam. 6:22). David knew that a proper “God-consciousness” could not co-exist with prideful self-consciousness.
Taking worship seriously means taking ourselves less seriously, for worship is not about holding onto our dignity; it’s about letting loose our praise. —Adapted from “Let Loose Your Praise.”
Click here to see the complete one-year schedule.
Perhaps you have witnessed something like this in your church. Perhaps this describes how you sometimes feel when you come to worship . . .
On the left side of the aisle, three people sat stiffly in the pew. When the congregation stood to sing “Shout to the Lord,” they kept their arms folded across their chests. On the right side of the aisle sat a man in a wheelchair. When the congregation stood, he needed help getting up on his feet, but then he willed his weak arms toward heaven. As the song swelled to a crescendo, he closed his eyes and tried to make his mouth form the words of the song; the three on the right stared straight ahead, their lips sealed.
Obviously, I do not know the hearts of anyone in this story, but I cannot help but see myself in it. I sometimes do more pouting than praising in church. Instead of concentrating on the God I worship, I criticize the way others are worshiping.
When King David worshiped the Lord exuberantly, his wife called him shameless. David said, “I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight” (2 Sam. 6:22). David knew that a proper “God-consciousness” could not co-exist with prideful self-consciousness.
Taking worship seriously means taking ourselves less seriously, for worship is not about holding onto our dignity; it’s about letting loose our praise. —Adapted from “Let Loose Your Praise.”
Click here to see the complete one-year schedule.
10 May 2009
Click here for today's Bible reading: Psalms 54-56.
Happy Mothers’ Day.
Jay, Julie, Mom, Dad
Click here to see the complete one-year schedule.
Happy Mothers’ Day.
Jay, Julie, Mom, Dad
Click here to see the complete one-year schedule.
9 May 2009
Click here for today's Bible reading: John 19-21; Proverbs 12:15-28.
Tomorrow is Mother's Day, and today we read how Jesus honored his mother.
Tomorrow is Mother's Day, and today we read how Jesus honored his mother.
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. (John 19:25-27)Click here to see the complete one-year schedule.
8 May 2009
Click here for today's Bible reading: John 16-18; Proverbs 12:1-14.
John 17 is my favorite chapter in the Bible. I especially like reading his prayer for all believers, because it includes me!
John 17 is my favorite chapter in the Bible. I especially like reading his prayer for all believers, because it includes me!
"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.Click here to see the complete one-year schedule.
"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." (17:20-26)
6 May 2009
Click here for today's Bible reading: 1 Samuel 16-19; Proverbs 11:12-21.
The LORD detests men of perverse heartClick here to see the complete one-year schedule.
but he delights in those whose ways are blameless.
Be sure of this: The wicked will not go unpunished,
but those who are righteous will go free. —Proverbs 11:20-21
3 May 2009
Click here for today's Bible reading: Psalms 51-53.
Have mercy on me, O God,Click here to see the complete one-year schedule.
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions. —Psalms 51:1
But I am like an olive tree
flourishing in the house of God;
I trust in God's unfailing love
for ever and ever. —Psalms 52:8
2 May 2009
Click here for today's Bible reading: John 13-15; Proverbs 10:12-21.
Click here to see the complete one-year schedule.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” —John 13:34-35
“If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” —John 14:15-21
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