Don's Devotionals: Learning to love God

2 Peter 1:19  We couldn’t be more sure of what we saw and heard—God’s glory, God’s voice. The prophetic Word was confirmed to us. You’ll do well to keep focusing on it. It’s the one light you have in a dark time as you wait for daybreak and the rising of the Morning Star in your hearts. (MSG)

Many of these devotionals were written early in the morning before the day gets going.  I usually begin by making a fresh pot of coffee.  I have a great memory of being at the kitchen sink and hearing what sounded like a bird chirping convention outside.  It was still dark out so I couldn’t see anything but I could sure hear them.  The first thought through my mind was a statement about faith that I have written in the front of my Bible.

“Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings while the dawn is still dark” (Tagore). There are a couple things about this experience that really blessed me.  The first was to experience something entirely normal – birds chirping when it’s dark out – and my mind immediately going to a statement about faith.

The second blessing in the experience was the reminder to respond in faith even though things might seem dark – not evil, just reflecting our inability to see.  Those things or situations we’re praying for or waiting for God’s intervention / provision haven’t happened yet, but this experience refocused my mind and heart upon the faithfulness of Jesus.  No matter what happens – or doesn’t happen – God is faithful.

In terms of the statement above, our attitudes and actions can reflect a belief that the ‘dawn’ is never coming; darkness is here to stay.  We become ‘me’ oriented, centered in disappointment rather than keeping our focus on the Lord.  I love the faith response of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to Nebuchadnezzar,

¹⁷ “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”   Daniel 3:17, 18

“But even if he does not…”  WOW!  Isn’t that powerful!!!  Our faith is in our God, no matter how ‘dark’ things might be.  Our faith is not predicated upon Him rescuing us.  Whatever He has for us or allows to come, our faith is in Him.

Let’s also remember Paul and Silas, in the Macedonian jail, in the middle of the night, having been beaten and flogged; they were “praying and singing hymns to God”.  Another WOW!!!  Our focus is upon Jesus.  He enables us to sing praises to Him, in the midst of darkness because He is the light of our lives.

Mark 10:21  Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”  ²² At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Yesterday, when I was pondering about the woman caught in adultery who was set free by the Lord with the command to “leave your life of sin”, I thought of the rich young ruler and a favorite movie.  The movie is Frequency, a 2000 science-fiction film that contains elements of time travel, thriller and alternate history, starring Dennis Quaid and James Caviezel as father and son.

In the movie, the father, Dennis Quaid is a fireman killed in a warehouse fire in 1969.  His son, Jim Caviezel is in 1999, and even though it’s 30 years later, he is still hurting from the death of his father.  He has his father’s ham radio and due to unusual aurora borealis (northern lights) activity, they are stunned to be talking to each other on the radio, although separated by 30 years.

For the father, the conversation occurs the day before the warehouse fire that kills him.  For the son it is the day before the 30^th anniversary of that fire.  Though the father doesn’t believe that it’s his son that he’s talking to on the radio, the son is able to shout out a warning about the fire that took his life the next day.

Sure enough a day later as he tries to escape the burning warehouse he remembers his son’s warning to not go the way his instincts and training tell him to.  He goes the opposite direction that at the time looks like the worse alternative and escapes safely.  His original direction led to death; the alternate way led to life.  This time he made the right choice!

“Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” For the rich young ruler, this was the alternate way out of the “burning warehouse”.  This was the way for him that led to life.  Unfortunately, due to his wealth he went away sad.  Jesus communicated a precise way to life that specifically addressed his situation.  Hopefully, he later repented and obeyed.

Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”  She too was in a ‘burning warehouse” and the way she was going would result in death.  But Jesus gave her a way out that led to life.  Jesus does the very same with all of us.  By His Spirit we are warned to turn, to repent, to follow Him in a new direction that leads to life.  He has redemptive, life giving paths for us to take no matter where we find ourselves.

John 8:3-4  The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴ and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.”

In another time and another place this woman would have been stoned to death. In the midst of her sin, she was caught and had the good fortune to be brought to Jesus by these leaders.  They weren’t concerned about her well-being, but were interested in using her and her adultery to set a trap for Jesus.

There she was, in the temple courts, standing with the leaders and Jesus but also surrounded by “all the people who had gathered around (Jesus)” to be taught by Him.  As she stood there, this possibly could have qualified as the worst moment of her life.

I wonder what was going through her mind.  Did she know who Jesus was?  Maybe she had heard of Him or heard Him teach.  Maybe she had been amazed by the miracles He’d done.  If she had known of Him, this would not have qualified as the way she would have liked to meet Him.  That is until this experience unfolded.

Jesus dealt with the leaders and with her.  His comments to them forced the leaders to recognize their own sin.  Imagine her amazement as all of the religious leaders slowly began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.

Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”   “No one, sir,” she said.  “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”  (John 8:9-11)

Jesus not only freed her from condemnation, better still, He offered her the opportunity of leaving her life of sin; no, make that He commanded her to leave her life of sin – just as He does with us.  When Jesus saves our lives and instructs us on the way to go, do we really think or behave as though His words are just suggestions???

I can see her eyes irresistibly drawn to His and her heart filled with the overwhelming desire to follow Him.  She might not have had any idea what the future held, but following Jesus would change everything.  Can’t you see her in the days ahead tearfully sharing her testimony of how Jesus saved her life – both physically and spiritually – and recounting this event, moment by moment, that led to her becoming a follower of Him?!

Proverbs 11:5  The righteousness of the blameless makes a straight way for them.

The Lord wants a man to be a farmer so He gives him a farm.  He provides him all the tools, equipment, seed, fertilizer and instructs him how to do everything.  The Lord also provides him with willingness, ability, health, strength, sunlight and rain.  He even expresses the desire to assist him in everything.  When the man is obedient and he produces a wonderful crop, whose crop is it?

The crop provides food, money, great blessing and more opportunities. The man’s actions produced it, so in one sense it is his.  Even the Lord considers it the man’s as He gave it to him.  But without the Lord choosing him and giving him the opportunity, he would have nothing.  The man has a choice to make – and he will make a choice.

If the man claims the crop as his own, pride is at work.  His primary view is there would be no crop without his hard work and obedience to the Lord; his attitude is one of “it is mine”.

On the other hand, the man recognizes the goodness of God and has a heart filled with gratitude for the great blessing from the Lord.  Even though he worked hard, he knows he would have nothing without the Lord’s generosity and blessing.  His view is one of humility – everything that He has belongs to the Lord.  He is merely a steward of it.  His concern is how to use the blessing in a way that pleases the Lord and is an instrument of blessing to others.  It is all His!

The fascinating thing is the Lord considers the crop, the farm, everything to be his – the man’s.  The Lord gave it to him.  The issue is the attitude of the man: pride or humility.  Likewise, when we consider the righteousness associated with the obedient and righteous acts that we do, we have a choice to make.  Is the righteousness our own?  Or is it His?

Exodus 19:18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently,

Can you imagine the excitement, wonder, awe and fear that we Christians would experience if God manifested his presence like this before us?  This is our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Holy One of Israel.  We have His Spirit within us and we belong to Him.

This verse describes what the Israelites saw and experienced.  After spending their lives as slaves in Egypt, God rescued them miraculously.  They were witnesses to the supernatural plagues that He sent upon Egypt.  They experienced His presence daily in the cloud and pillar of fire by night.  They experienced the parting of the Red Sea and walking through it.  They knew that God considered them His.

The experience of the Israelites who saw and heard this on Mt. Sinai was dominated by fear.  In response, Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” (Ex 20:20).

There is a strong message in this scene for us – as Christians today.  This is our God and He hasn’t changed.   On the one hand He can be frightening beyond imagining.  On the other, He tells us not to be afraid.  He tests us, far more than we think He does.  We experience His incredible love through Jesus yet He offers us the opportunity to fear Him in order to keep us from sinning.  I think of the Apostle John falling down as though dead upon seeing Jesus in Revelation 1:17.  Jesus then put his hand upon John and said, “Do not be afraid.”

The fear of the Lord must be a vital part of our lives.  It is one of the most important gifts that He has given us. It is not just awe and respect – it involves recognizing God for who He is.  It is not in conflict or at odds with the love of God that we have experienced in Christ Jesus.  It is the opposite side of the same coin.

1 Corinthians 16:14   Do everything in love.

This verse today is particularly interesting because of something we will get to in a moment.  It instructs us to do everything in love.  Think about that.  What is excluded from everything?  And how do we do everything in love?  What exactly does it mean?

But something else struck me about this verse.  Do we men have a tendency to view a statement like this as being more feminine?  Is it more “manly” to talk about the armor of God – shield and sword and breastplate?  Think of Mel Gibson as William Wallace in Brave Heart when he was riding back and forth challenging the men to fight.  “I am William Wallace! And I see a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny. You’ve come to fight as free men… and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight? “

Or how about Aragorn, who in Return of the King, challenges the men just before the last battle in front of the gates of Mordor?  Aragorn begins by saying, “Hold your ground, hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day.”

There’s no question that we have been strongly impacted by our culture.  We’ve also been affected by a lack of understanding of what love really is.  The interesting thing that I referred to about this verse, is it’s context – specifically, verse 13 in front of it.  Today’s verse is the last item in a list of five specific commands given by Paul.  Picture yourself in a group of believers being challenged with these five commands:

• Be on your guard
• Stand firm in the faith
• Be men of courage
• Be strong
• Do everything in love

Wallace and Aragorn were talking to men about to fight with swords and spears.  We must recognize that we too are in a battle – a spiritual one – and that a primary weapon that we are to live with and fight with, is love.

Proverbs  8:17  I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.

Donna and I are going to celebrate our 55^th anniversary this year.  They have truly been wonderful years and my heart is to learn to love her more and more with each passing day.

But in the early 90s we went through a time of difficulty that could have ended our marriage.  I loved Donna, or so I thought, except I was doing all kinds of things that were a mass of contradictions.  I would tell her of my love, take her on dates and trips, buy her cards and flowers, help around the house, etc…

On the other hand, I would walk away from her when she was talking to me or just ignore her.  I would lose my temper with her.  My frustrations with work were taken out on her.  My anger would flare and she got so she never knew when I was going to vent or even why.  There was no infidelity or physical abuse – it was all thoughtlessness, carelessness and blindness on my part.  All too often I was a real jerk. This all exploded out as my oldest son John and I were leaving for a few days on the Outer Banks.  Fortunately, a Northeaster arrived just as we got there so I got to face this situation instead of fishing.

I have a notebook from that weekend with pages of things I was doing wrong – things that were communicating “I don’t love you!”  These things were effectively undermining and obliterating all the good things I was doing that were speaking of my love.  God in His goodness turned me every way but loose that weekend!  He opened my eyes and let me see all the contradictions between my expressions of love and the actions of my life.

The Lord just did a wonder in me at the beach, and I needed it because I came home to a very hurting wife.  Fortunately, our commitment to Jesus and to each other trumped everything.  The Lord provided a marvelous Christian counselor who was priceless.  Although it took months, the Lord brought us through.  Our marriage wasn’t put back together – it was transformed – from a caterpillar to a butterfly!

This experience with Donna had a profound impact on my relationship with the Lord.  It made me aware of how blind I could be – how my expressions of love could be negated by my actions.  The good things I do being trumped by my sin – sin I could be blind to see.

Loving God is the most important thing we can ever do.  We don’t want anything in our lives that undermines that.  We want to love Him more and more.  The marvelous thing is that the more we genuinely love Him, the more we experience His love for us.