40 Days of Renewal Devotional
Renewing the heart by engaging the spirit
4/7/23 Devotional
Colossians 3:16-17 16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. As Easter Sunday approaches I want to ask you one simple question- Are you prepared? This season we have provided a devotional, podcast, and sermon series dedicated to the idea that we need to prepare our hearts for easter and allow God to work within us. Prepared for what though? Have you ever wondered why we celebrate Easter? Practically it helps us remember the important event that happened of course, but what does it do for our relationship with Jesus? What does it do for us? The point of celebrating Easter is to worship God and remind us who we are. We are God’s people. Rooted in Jesus, freed by his gift, focused on his message, loved without reservation, chosen while we were still sinners, and prepared to live as his children. We are his and he is ours. So when the story of Easter comes it is time for us to understand how monumental this gift was. It not only provided a way for us to be reconciled with the father, but it also allowed us to be a part of his story as we are grafted into the family of God. Being part of the story means we can welcome others into the family. How amazing is that? Easter is when we celebrate the coming of our King. King Jesus who announced God’s Kingdom, invited us to help build it and took his place beside the father as ruler over all things Heaven and on Earth. Prepare with worship. Worship God today. Today simply thank him for who he is and what he did for you. Take time to experience him in a way that gives you life. That could be a walk outside, worship music in the car, prayer, or reading scripture. The last challenge I have for you is to make a plan to continue meeting God daily. This might have been your first devotional this year or your first devotional ever. Now is the best time to make a plan to continue meeting with God daily. Make a plan by setting an alarm or reminder to read scripture and pray with God every day. Start small with a few minutes, but just spend this time being with God and preparing yourself for life with him each day. If you want a suggestion you can start with the Gospel of John. There are also a whole host of excellent devotionals on the “YouVersion” Bible app available for free. I sincerely thank you for reading the devotional and taking the time to further your relationship with Jesus. If you have any questions or would like to talk further please feel free to reach out to me. - Pastor Chris
4/6/23 Devotional
Colossians 3:12-14 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. In our week devoted to realizing God’s love for us, we talked through these verses in detail with some challenges associated with them. Today we are going to take these verses and use them to prepare ourselves for what lies ahead. Putting on the right clothes matter and this is our opportunity to prepare by putting on the right attitude. I’m involved in a podcast through Estero Church called “Connect Grow Serve” and it has been a blessing to Pastor Mike and me as we have been able to grow in it together. Over the past several weeks we have been talking about the process of renewal with Jesus and what that actually looks like. In one session we talked about this verse and I really liked the way Mike explained it in his words. He said, “ Putting on love means that when you walk in the room the first thing people will see and feel will be love from you”. How powerful and challenging that statement is for us, but I have no doubt in my mind that this was the way it was when Jesus walked into a room. It did make me think a lot about what people sense from me when I walk into a room though. On the hard days, I would guess it might come off as anxiety, impatience, exhaustion, and indifference. I imagine it is the same for many of us, but when we are not intentionally “putting on” the good things, people see the bad things. It’s so important that we are intentionally trying to put on love. So if we want people to see these things from us we have to prepare by putting them on. One of the best ways to realize this in your own life is by calling to mind these characteristics from people you already know and respect. The exercise for today will be a little bit longer than other days, but it will be a good opportunity to put on what matters. Prepare with love Grab a pen and paper or a word processor. For each of the qualities listed below, call one person to mind that reminds you of them. If you can’t think of people then feel free to use fictional characters to fill in the gaps. The point of the exercise is to give us a place to start and let's be honest- no one except Jesus is perfect. Once you have these people list them out like the example below. "Compassion- Sarah, Kindness- Scott, Humility- Steve, Gentleness- Emily, Patience- Barb" Now write down or consider what they do or how they act that makes you think they represent these traits. The next part is the cool part. Going forward when you are in a situation where you feel like one of these is required I want you to think about how the person you listed would respond. Calling these people to mind will give you a place to start as we try to love others well.
4/5/23 Devotional
Scripture: Scripture: Colossians 2:20 20 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world… Colossians 4:5 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Being a Christian means that you are free. Do you understand your freedom? Freedom in Christ means that when choosing who you want to be and how you want to act you get to choose to lean on Christ. Your own abilities in this life do not limit you, instead, you can lean on Christ trusting that he will grow you and not leave you. This means that when being prepared for what the world has for you, you are capable of more than you know. You have the freedom to walk with Christ and when you do you will become the best version of yourself. In this world we are often defined by what we do and, well... it makes sense, doesn’t it? If someone is a loyal, upstanding member of society then they are rewarded by being defined by that and if someone is a criminal they are, for the most part, justly punished by being defined by that. If the goal of a society is primarily just to preserve itself then this all makes a lot of logical sense. What about a community that has Jesus at the center though? If you know who Paul is then it won't surprise you to hear that this man was a murderer. We know by his writing that he considers himself the chief of sinners and yet he is the one writing the very letters that churches across the world use to worship God. How can this be? When Christ is the defining part of your identity then his identity takes over. This isn’t easy though. Those who follow Jesus are called to die to themselves and take up the cross. We are called to give ourselves over to his way of life and recognize our own sin, because here is the truth- we are all guilty and in need of help. This freedom will prepare us for whatever we are called to because it will help us see the world the way it truly is. When we are encountering people who don’t know Christ the gospel will help us serve them by reminding us that we are no better. When we encounter other Christians the knowledge of who we are will help us keep each other humble and propel us to heights greater than any human can go on their own. Knowing who we are will allow us the freedom to be who we are meant to be. Be prepared by your freedom For this exercise I want you to say two self-affirming statements to help you realize your freedom. If it helps to write these down then feel free to do so. “I am a new creation in Christ and I am capable of great things that glorify the Lord”. “I am no better and no less than any other person. I simply know that I need Christ and that knowledge sets me free”.
4/4/23 Devotional
Scripture: Colossians 2:6-7 6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Colossians 4:5 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. In the first week of our devotional, I talked a lot about my son, Isaac, and how it’s easy to see that he is rooted in his parents. When he is proud of himself he looks at us to share in his joy and when he’s sad he runs to us to get some comfort and reassurance. When thinking about being prepared I cannot help but think about being rooted in Christ. Whether that is being prepared to share faith, for life's hard times, or anything else, we must be rooted in Christ. When I was in Highschool I made many of the same dumb mistakes that every other teenager makes and probably a few extra for good measure, but one thing I did do well in was that I was prepared to have an answer for alcohol and drugs. I knew who I was and who I wanted to be when it came to substance abuse. So before I was ever tempted I avoided those particular pitfalls, but of course, fell into others I wasn’t prepared for. I’m sure we can all think of a couple of these things, but the lesson rings true- if you know your answer before the question is asked, you will have a better chance at avoiding the pitfall. This hasn’t changed much as I have gotten older, but the pitfalls may be harder to spot. For example, if I don’t want to be a procrastinator I need to avoid that pitfall by planning better, or if I want to be physically healthier I need to know my answer to “fries or a side salad” before the server asks. Or even if I want to be a better husband I should know how to love my wife well when arguments arise. In this scripture Paul says that we need to “Make the most of every opportunity” and I love this phrasing. The truth is that you and I WILL have opportunities around non-Christians to share Christ. That doesn’t even mean we are talking about Jesus, but it means that we are representing him through grace-filled words and deeds. When that time comes we make the most of it, by loving them well and representing christ well so that God will be glorified. If you want to do this well, you need to know how you’re going to act before you ever get there. Be Prepared by being rooted Spend some time processing how you can “be wise and make the most out of every opportunity” with non-believers. Write out on paper how can you make the most out of your time with people that might not know Jesus. Here is one example: “I can show grace and love in the school pick-up line, by being alert and open to conversation.” Here is another: “I can make the most out of my time at the check-out by being kind to the cashier and trying to brighten their day”. There are many ways to do this. Let your creativity run with it. An excellent first step is to write these scenarios down and be ready for them when they come up.
4/3/23 Devotional
Scripture: Colossians 2-6 2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. In this last week of the devotional, I want to spend some time talking about our past five weeks and how we can use what we talked about to be prepared for what lies ahead. Have you ever had an event in your life that you spent time overpreparing for? I am a chronic over-preparer. If there is something that I want to do I will commit to it and then spend time preparing myself so I look like I know what I’m doing. My first time out offshore fishing, I was pretty nervous. That might sound silly to you, but growing up in a family that didn’t fish meant that I didn’t know how any of it worked. So I jumped in my default mode of overpreparing. In the days ahead I spent time watching videos of how properly utilize various reals, what I should wear, what I should bring, and how to bait. I even wanted to know what kind of fish we were going to be around. When we got there I met the captain and he was a really chill guy and I knew right away that our day was going to be a lot of fun. For those of us who were new, he gave us a 30-second lesson and then baited our hooks for us all day. It was pretty much impossible to mess it up and the only person who caught more fish than I did that day, was my dad and it was also his first time. He caught a huge kingfish and we even ended up with a great fishing story about the sea monster that got away. However, because I overprepared I was ready for any kind of captain that could have shown up that day. Here is some not-so-surprising news for you- You will have opportunities to share your faith in your life after you finish this devotional and now that I have told you, you can’t say you didn’t see it coming. Knowing it is coming is a blessing though because it allows us to be prepared. Yes, it won’t be exactly what you think it is, but it will allow you to be ready when the time comes and like my fishing trip, I promise it won’t be as hard as you tell yourself it is. Be prepared Paul’s advice here is straightforward when it comes to being prepared so today start with these things. First, pray that God would open doors for you to share your faith and pray that what you share would be clear. Second, he says that we have to be wise in the way we act to outsiders. The first step to faith sharing is treating other people well before we ever get to that conversation. Third, he encourages us to let our conversation be full of grace. Your first task in being prepared is simple: Pray that God would open doors for you. My advice here would be if you are thinking on the inside thoughts like “ I don’t actually want this to work” then pray a prayer more like “God open doors for me to share my faith and open my heart to share with others.” It’s never a bad time to let God work on your heart in the process.
3/31/23 Devotional
Colossians 3:18-19 18 Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Devotional In my short 5 years as a pastor, I have taught many controversial passages and this is not the first time I have had the chance to talk about these specific verses. Honestly, I like teaching the hard stuff, because it’s sadly taught improperly so often. This passage is important because it demonstrates Jesus calling to us as we try to renew ourselves. The whole point of Paul’s letter is encouragement and correction. He is writing as a trusted leader to a specific group of people that are dealing with specific problems 2,000 years ago. The context for this letter is important because it should play into how we read it. At this point in time, women had almost no rights in Roman and Jewish culture. They were more or less considered property to many people and often less than full members of society legally. Put yourself in this context and now read this passage. What Paul is saying is actually revolutionary for the time. He calls husbands to love their wives! Love? “Who cares about love? Why would God care that we Love our wives?” God does. Paul is calling husbands to love their wives in the same way Jesus loves the church! So what about submitting to the husband? This can be a challenging passage, but let’s talk about what this is NOT saying. It’s NOT saying that the wife should allow the husband to do anything he wants simply because he’s the man. In fact, the submittal to the husband should only depend on the husband doing his part- actually loving his wife well. And what does that look like- how does a husband love his wife well? It’s the same way Jesus loves the church well and that is self-sacrifice. I don't have to tell you that that is a huge calling and should cause us all to pause and recognize what that actually means. Jesus gave up everything and died for the church. The focus in these passages is never “who has more power? Or “who can win the argument?” The focus is always on “how can both the wife and husband live in sacrificial harmony?” In this context, Paul is asking these women to submit to loving husbands and then asking husbands to sacrifice everything for their wives out of love. The Church is the bride of Christ and we are called to submit to our loving husband, Jesus. We are called to submit to the one who humbled himself and gave everything for us because he is our savior, King Jesus. Focus on King Jesus today. Renewal Challenge- Focus on Christ What is one thing in your heart right now that you need to be willing to submit? For some, it will be anger, pride, laziness, or gossip. For others, it might be something like fear or prejudice. Pray that God would reveal that part of your heart that you haven’t given up to him yet. Take your time with this and write it down a piece of paper. Be as specific as you want to be. It might look like “My anger about my father” or “ My prejudice against x”. Then pray that Jesus would take it from you. As you are praying this tear it up and give it over to him.
3/30/23 Devotional
Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Devotional What is your calling? When I was in seminary there was some required reading that changed how I viewed my life. The book is called “The Call” by Os Guinness. The central idea of the book is that we all have both a primary and a secondary calling in our lives. Now typically we think our calling is our career or family status right? We assume that God is calling us to specific job roles and family roles in order to be everything that God wants us to be. Os Guinness proposes a different way to look at this calling. The primary calling for every Christian is the same. That is right- no matter who you are, what job you have, or your family status you have the same calling as me. Our central and primary calling is to God and to the gospel. Everything else is secondary. This was interesting to read in a room full of current and potential pastors because we have all felt a certain calling and together realize that the calling to be a pastor is a secondary calling. This is important to realize because it puts us all on an even playing field, but it also gives us freedom in our secondary calling. This is an incredible truth: you can do your primary calling no matter what your other callings are. If you feel like you are waiting for a calling, or you missed a job or relationship, or you're not in the right line of work- God STILL calls you to the primary purpose. “whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” The truth for me is that I don’t always know that I will be a pastor. My secondary calling could change and that would have its own areas to be processed, but my primary calling to serve God would still be the same. This is the same for you. Perhaps your value resides in the status you have, a career you have achieved, or in being a parent. When those things change it is difficult to process, but you can find comfort in knowing that your primary calling doesn’t change. Renewal Challenge- Realize you’re chosen Let’s orient ourselves today. “What is important to you?” Answer this question by writing it down on paper or a word processor or even just list it verbally. Be as exhaustive as you want or as simple as you want, but answer this question before moving on. Chances are good for most of us, that “ Sharing the Gospel and worshiping God” or something like that wasn't something we added enthusiastically if at all. That's okay because we can ask God for help. Today take time to pray that God would help you understand your Primary calling to follow him first. Remind yourself of this truth going forward when anxious about your career, status, or role in your life.
3/29/23 Devotional
Colossians 3:16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Devotional At the time of writing this, the Asbury Awakening is in full swing. If you don’t know what that is I encourage you to look it up, but the president of Asbury, Dr. Timothy Tennant defines a church awakening as: “where God begins to stir and awaken people up from their spiritual slumber.” Christians at Asbury University have been meeting for weeks on end now to pray together, listen to hear teaching, and then fundamentally worship God with music. A couple of days ago I went on the Asbury awakening live stream to see it in action and it was beautiful to behold so many people worshiping God with everything that they have through song. Of course like anything else, some people didn’t agree. On the Live Stream, there were Christians in the chat calling this kind of worship an act of the devil. These were people that believed that appropriate worship of God should not involve that kind of emotion, instruments, or style of music. While it initially made me mad to read these comments and I wanted to jump to correct them, it eventually just made my heart sad. God is worthy of worship. That’s a fact that all Christians know and the text for today calls us to musical worship, but we of course disagree on what that music should sound like. I’ve been in churches will all types of music that glorified God. I have sung classic hymns that brought me to tears, once I heard spoken word poetry that made me more in awe of God than ever before, and I’ve been in dark sanctuaries with high production that made me connect with God in a way that changed my heart for worship. As a musician, I have respect for many forms of worship, but of course like you, I have my preferences. Above all what I am certain of is that God can be glorified with any type of music if the right heart is behind it. God is bigger than our preferences and that is SUCH good news because God demands our worship. We were chosen to worship him. Renewal Challenge- Realize you’re chosen You have been chosen to worship God. He is worthy of our worship. Today I want you to do two things. First I want you to worship God with your preferred worship music. Do this throughout the whole day if you can. If you frequently do this consider changing it up and worshiping God this way in a different place. Secondly, I want you to pray for the church. Pray that God would continue to be worshiped in all types of music. Pray that his name would be glorified through all styles and that your heart would grateful for all types of people worshiping God.
3/28/23 Renewal Devotional
Colossians 3:16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Devotional “One of the most significant and important points to understand about worship is that it’s the point of the church’s being, not just a part. If worship is true to God’s purpose and plan, it will serve as the “front line” of Christ’s power to change and restore human lives.” – Dr. Jack W. Hayford According to Dr. Jack W Hayford and many other Christian authors, worship is the point of the church! That is a pretty radical statement, but I think he’s right about this because worship includes most of what we do as a church. The point of us meeting, learning, serving, and singing is all to glorify God. We do all of these things out of love for God and with the expectation that God is with us and that is worship. What is the lesson here then? The lesson is that God calls us to worship together because we are chosen for a community. There are unique aspects of you that are designed to operate in the church community and all of our individual gifts contribute to worshiping God in the community. That’s the hard part though- gifts are meant to be used in a community. Hospitality, leadership, musical ability, empathy, teaching, discernment, etc. None of these will have value if we try to do our faith on our own because they are designed to be used in a community. God demonstrates the need for a faith community from the very beginning of time by introducing himself to us in three persons: Father, Spirit, and Son. For humanity, we are shown that God is always calling people to community in scripture. We see the importance of this from the beginning of humanity with the creation of Adam and Eve all the way to Jesus with his close community of disciples. So what does it mean that we are called to worship together? It means that we’re not alone and others are worshiping the God of everything alongside us. Renewal Challenge- Realize you’re chosen Practice collaboration with other Christians. Reach out to a fellow Christian and offer to pray with him or her. In that prayer make sure to pray for not just wants and needs, but also praises for what God has done. Take in your surroundings next time you’re worshiping by song in a church. Realize that you are part of a group of people that Love God and he continues to choose all of you.
3/27/23 Devotional
Colossians 3:15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. What does it mean to have the peace of Christ rule in the heart of the church? This devotional is a good opportunity for us to be honest with ourselves. Ask yourself honestly right now- do you feel at peace with all fellow believers? And not just those that are in your individual church, but with believers that you might not know. My guess is that the answer for you is the same as it is for me- I don’t feel that peace completely. What do we do about the fact that there isn’t peace? The easy option is to just convince ourselves that it is the fault of the other side, but of course, this leads to more division which leads to fewer people drawn to the family of God. Now more than ever people are turning away from religion. 29% of all adults are not affiliated with any religion, but the number is much great at 42% for just young adults (18-34). In other studies, people that have turned away from the faith cite that one of the top reasons is an increasingly politicized and divided community. I believe that has been largely affected by our public displays of strife. Who wants to be a part of a family that is publicly showing so much hatred toward itself and others? Before we move on to what we should do, let me address the elephant in the room. Whatever we do in seeking peace should not come at the cost of our faith. That being said there is a reason that Jesus had both a tax collector working for Rome and a Jewish freedom fighter in his 12 closest friends. Jesus cares more about relationships. Jesus calls us to do the same thing he did. We are meant to be at peace with fellow believers who see things differently, and I am calling on us to be willing to take the first step just like Jesus did. We are called to seek peace with fellow believers and while this may seem hard it is also good news! In Paul's day, he is not calling believers to divide themselves up- how awful would that be? Rather he is calling us to peace and that is wonderful news. Renewal Challenge- Realize you’re chosen You are chosen for peace. Taking the first step toward peace isn’t easy it requires prayer, thoughtfulness, and time. Today I simply encourage you to pray for peace in the church a few times today. Pray that God would allow you to seek healthy peace when controversy comes up. Set a timer, sticky note, alarm, or whatever reminder works for you, and do this a few more times today. When the reminder comes up just ask God to bring peace to his church. Pray for peaceful leaders and support for peaceful solutions.
3/24/23 Devotional
Colossians 3:12-14 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Devotional The point of the devotional for this week is for us to realize God's love for us. I should have warned you that this is ultimately impossible because God’s love is too great for us to fully understand. That is good news though- that is the Gospel. We might never be able to fully understand God’s love for us, but we can understand how it affects us and what it requires of us. We are called to love like God loved us and even more than that we are called to love first. In this study, I included all of the verses from the previous days of this week because it’s important to see what Paul is saying here. We are called to compassion, kindness, humility, patience, and forgiveness, but that ALL comes from love. The secret formula here is that if you start with love, all of these other things will follow. However, I understand that this is simple to say and not so easy to do. God understands this too because he shows us how to love by loving us first. God’s people did not deserve his compassion when they worshiped Idols days after being rescued out of Egypt. God’s people did not deserve his kindness when they chose a human king named Saul to lead them instead of God himself. God’s people did not deserve the humility and gentleness of Jesus that came and lived among us knowing he would be killed by the people he showed grace to. God’s people do not deserve his patience when, even after the resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we choose ourselves over him. We do not deserve any of these things, but God gifts them to us because he loved us first while we were still sinners. God chooses to love us abundantly and then asks us to do the same for each other. We are called to love others and that looks like compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. It’s all bound together by love. Renewal Challenge- Realize God’s Love Reflect on God’s love for you. Thank him for it and ask him to help you love others better. Do these two things over and over today. As often as you can say “Thank you for your love, Lord. Help me to love others in the same way.”
3/23/23 Devotional
Colossians 3:13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Devotional What are you willing to forgive? The Bible talks so much about forgiveness that it almost gets annoying. (Am I allowed to say that?) I think that repetition is by design. The whole story of the Bible hinges on the story of forgiveness. From the Story of Adam and Eve’s lack of trust in God to David’s poor impersonation of the messiah king and then to King Jesus’ sacrifice for the ones that killed him. Everything in Scripture centers around the forgiveness that comes with God’s love. Humanity is broken by eternal sin and the only thing that can save us is the forgiveness that comes from the death of Jesus on the cross. Forgiveness is so integral to the faith of a Christian that if you took it out of the story- there wouldn’t be any story of substance left. So the question we then have to ask ourselves is- what are we supposed to do with that? Well God calls us to forgive as we are forgiven… That is a big deal. Forgiveness can mean a lot of things and it’s important that we define what it means to forgive before we challenge ourselves to do so. You see by the world’s standards forgiveness often feels like giving someone a gift after they do something that hurts you, but by the standard Jesus sets, forgiveness actually means giving someone else the gift that Christ gave you. This is hard and forgiving does not mean forgetting. Oftentimes in our world, there are cases of abuse and harm and to be blunt, even if those people are forgiven, we cannot and should not brush it all under the rug. Overall though we are called to forgive, and while that will look different for every single situation, we have to explore that process in a safe and prayerful way. Renewal Challenge- Realize God’s Love. Forgiveness is a journey. It took me years to forgive someone that I would probably never see again and even with that I had to have help, but it was worth the effort. Today you might have someone that you haven’t forgiven in life and I ask you to just start the journey. There are ways to forgive people that are past and those you see every day, but today just open the conversation up with God and see what he does with it. Take time today to reflect on the forgiveness you were granted by God. Thank him for it.
3/22/23 Devotional
Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience Devotional We all have that one person in our life that exemplifies patience. For me, it’s most often my wife. I think that statement would shock her because she does not consider herself a patient person. The reason her patience is so miraculous to me is that the areas in life where she is able to be patient are the very areas that make me blow a fuse. For instance, how can someone be patient when your child cries for the 18th time that morning because they keep breaking the train toy they want to play with after you have fixed it 17 times? Or what about when your husband hides the train toy in the closet because it now bothers him? Yeah… My wife is a patient person. I think we all share some aspect of patience that I’m talking about. There are some things that we can be patient all day about that would drive others crazy. What is it for you? For most of us when it comes to helping people with something we understand we can be patient, true patience though is the ability to work through those things that really grind your gears and let your love overwhelm your frustration. Why is patience important? It is one of the most valuable characteristics that we can have and one of the ones that I am most thankful for. Imagine for a moment if God did not have patience. What would the world look like? What would life be like for us? If we really consider it I think we would all come to the conclusion that it just wouldn’t work out well for us, and most likely wouldn’t be here right now. Why? Because we are frustrating to deal with. Yes, humanity is frustrating. God gives us power, relationships, abundant resources, and even emotions like compassion and then what do we do? Fight, hoard, argue, and separate. If God didn’t have patience, we would be toast. So why do we need to have patience? We have to have patience for each other because as Christians we know that the world God made is supposed to look a lot different than it does and that is frustrating. It’s frustrating to see our leaders squabble, to see the poor ignored, to see people die for no reasons other than greed, and it’s frustrating to see people turn their backs on God’s word. Without patience, we give up and simply consider people “unworthy” or “un-reachable”. We say to each other “I’m glad I’m not like them” or “those _____ are going straight to Hell” instead of doing what Jesus did- meet them with patience. Renewal Challenge- Realize God’s Love. I can’t predict what your week will look like, but I know that you will have an opportunity to be patient. Today- the next time you would normally be frustrated or angered by a person, specific group of people, or idealogy, pray God would grant you his patience and care for those people. Take that time to pray for them instead of writing them off. Remember the Gospel is for everyone.
3/21/23 Devotional
Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Devotional Much like our devotional from yesterday, the world tends to define humility as a weakness. We tend to value strong, overconfident, brash people, but why? Well, society tends to value winners over losers and we have decided that you’re winning if you’re rich, famous, strong, etc. To be honest- if those are your standards for winners then humility is absolutely a weakness. But if we change what it means to win to the Biblical standard then humility is a crucial component. To find what winning looks like we only have to look at the person of Jesus. Jesus won. He defeated death and restored our relationship with the father. But he did it in the most upside-down way possible. Jesus won by allowing himself to lose by every human standard. He was poor, humble, hung out with outcasts, was ridiculed, was beaten until he was too weak to stand, and then was killed. He was the exact opposite of what succeeds in leaders today. Jesus’ life shows us that the way for us to succeed in life is not to be wealthy, strong, and brash, but rather to live a life of servant leadership. This isn’t to say we should just let others walk all over us, but it does mean that we seek to honor others and serve them well. It means that when we have a choice we choose to build others up and not put them down. It means that when God gives us amazing blessings we don’t shove them in other people’s faces, but instead, we use those gifts to lift others up. Jesus may not have had much, but his ministry was funded by money. There is evidence that there were wealthy people that supported and followed Jesus daily. Being humble doesn’t mean giving up everything, lying about your talents, and living on the streets, but it does mean that you understand that your value is the same as everyone else. We are all worthy of God’s love and he seems to think we are worthy of sacrifice. If he is willing to be so humble as to sacrifice for us then we must also be humble enough to sacrifice for others. Renewal Challenge- Realize God’s love Practice humility. Pray that God would give you a chance to be humble. Humility is being willing to take the backseat in some areas of life and put others’ needs before yours. The first step is admitting that the church can benefit from you giving to someone else or letting another person lead, make decisions, or “win” in areas you usually do. I would encourage you to come back to this and practice it often.
3/20/23 Devotional
Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Welcome back. You might remember that in chapter 3 we see Paul discussing the unity in the Body of Christ and that we are called to that unity. However, Paul shows us that in order to have unity we must first “take off our old selves”. Our verse for today is now teaching us what we must replace our "old selves" with. In other words, Paul is saying to take off “anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language” and put on “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience”. Today we are going to focus on the ideas of putting on compassion and kindness. It is interesting that compassion is often seen as a form of weakness today, but it is the first thing Paul lists when describing christlike attributes. As a boy growing up in America, this was something I saw perpetuated in the media a lot. The idea that the hero or the manly men are impervious to feelings like compassion was just part of the deal. It has affected many men I know personally to the point where some of us have a hard time processing even basic emotions because we were expected to hide them. It has perpetrated many areas of culture to the point where we put callous men on pedestals and praise them for their anti-compassion stances. Out of everything that society is turning into I have to say that I’m glad that there is more room for boys and men to express feelings. God is the embodiment of strength, courage, morality, and justice, and through Jesus, he demonstrated that he is also the embodiment of love and compassion. Compassion is not a weakness. If you think it is then I want to ask you how can God be weak. Look to the story of Lazarus where Jesus Cries, or the Garden of Gethsemane, or even his love for children. Compassion is a strength that the best of us will be well versed in, just like Jesus. Renewal Challenge- Realize God’s Love. For many Christians, it is very hard to reconcile a God of judgment and a compassionate God as the same person. How can a completely good and holy God care about us? How can he have compassion for us when we choose sin so often? Simply put- it’s the power of his Love. Jesus demonstrated the power of that love on the cross. Write yourself a note that simply says “God Loves you and cares about you”. Put it somewhere that you will see it every day. This is going to be a little awkward for my fellow “manly men”, but you need this- trust me.