Friday March 14, 2014

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Don Schmidt

John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will obey what I command.”

In our culture we tend to have an allergic reaction to certain words – obey and command are two in particular that Christians tend to react to.  Typical responses are to immediately think of such words as part of legalism or to counter with a ‘grace not law’ type of argument.

Picture yourself in a quiet time and suddenly Jesus is there with you – just you and Jesus – face to face.  With a loving yet serious look, eye to eye, he says to you, “If you love Me, you will obey what I command.”  I imagine that would catch your attention.  Afterward those words would likely burn within you.

“If you love Me…”  One of the problems we have in English is that there is one word for love.  That word love applies to everything around us.  We love our sports team.  We love fried chicken..  We love beautiful sunsets.  We love walks in the woods. It goes on and on.  We love potato chips.  We love God.  What does the word “love” really mean – particularly since we use it so frequently to describe such a wide variety of things.

“If you love Me…”  With these words comes the realization that God wants us to love Him.  In fact it’s more serious than that because there is an implication in this verse that is truly shocking.  At face value, the verse says if we love Him, we will obey what He commands.  But consider the implication of the reverse: If we don’t do what He commands, we don’t love Him.

It’s imperative that we understand this is not talking about earning our salvation.  It is coming to grips with the fact that the God of the Universe – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ – wants, and expects, His people to love Him.

Let that sink in.  Loving God is not optional, nor something to be approached casually.  It is at the very heart of our faith.  It is what defines us as Christians – the people of God.  The wonderful news is that He does not leave us to our own devices to figure out what loving Him means.  He gives us the answer!

Part 3 of 5

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Thursday March 13, 2014

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Don Schmidt

John 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

In yesterday’s devotional we saw that in order to receive the promise of John 8:32, you had to be a disciple of Jesus.  A disciple is one who holds fast to His teachings and lives in accordance with them.  Today’s verse, gives us a primary answer on how those around us will know if we are His disciples.  It is critical to note that the criteria focus on how we actually live our lives.

Back in the Jesus People days of the late 60s, my wife Donna told me of a phrase written as graffiti on a tunnel wall at North Carolina State University.  The phrase was, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”  Think about that for a minute.

Let’s take it a step further and place some restrictions on acceptable evidence: 1) Church attendance is only acceptable if it is backed up by other evidence, 2) Your verbal testimony is not admissible as evidence – only the testimony of others reporting what you’ve said and done is admissible, and 3) Evidence is primarily going to be provided by the testimonies of those who know you, work with you, interact with you or wait on you, i.e., clerks, waitresses, storekeepers, parking lot attendants, etc…

How will others describe you?  Simply put, what kind of person are you?  What kind of neighbor?  Friend? Acquaintance?  How do you treat people?  Suppose it goes further and they are able to identify everything you watch, read, or view – TV, phones, computers, whatever.

Will the evidence presented confirm that we are loving people?  Upon examination, will the testimony confirm that we hold fast to the teachings of Jesus – that we live our lives in accordance with them?  Or will the testimony present a picture where our Christian testimony (verbal) is at odds with our lives?

Part 2 of 5

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Wednesday March 12, 2014

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Don Schmidt

John 8:31, 32  To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The context in which a scripture is set is frequently very important to both the understanding of the verse and its application.  Unfortunately Christians and people in general have a tendency at times to over look this fact.   A good illustration of this point is Ps 14:1, which contains the statement, “There is no God.”  But the context makes a world of difference.  The entire verse reads, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

This importance of context really applies to today’s verses.  The portion that is so frequently quoted is the 32nd verse, “…you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  It’s usually presented as a Biblical promise that one is set free simply by hearing or recognizing the truth.   But a closer examination reveals that the context has a very important qualifier in verse 31.

This promise is part of an “If… Then…” situation.  If the first condition is true, then the benefit or desired result will follow.  If the first condition is NOT true, then it typically won’t.  The full context presents the two components of what Jesus is saying: 1) IF you hold to my teaching…2) THEN you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

The context provides a lot of clarity.  Jesus is also defining what is required to be a disciple, who then can be the recipient of the promise.  It’s not just a matter of acknowledging Him as Lord.  A disciple is one who holds fast to His teachings and lives in accordance with them.  The promise specifically applies to that individual who is a disciple.

Part 1 of 5…

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Tuesday March 11, 2014

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Don Schmidt

Psalm 122:6-7  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure. 7 May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has spoken out regarding the continuing efforts to terrorize Israel.

It seems that hardly a day goes by without verbal attacks on Israel.  So many governments seem to be preoccupied with doing Israel in.  We must be vigilant to pray for Israel and the peace of Jerusalem.  We must pray that the one true God, who is our God as Christians and is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will protect them and intervene for them; that His angels will surround them and form a wall of protection.  We need to pray that He will show Himself strong in Israel’s behalf.

Israel is very dear to us, as it should be to all Christians.  I am always moved by wife’s heart and passion for Israel and the Jewish people.  With weeping she passionately cries out to God for them.  While they are dear to me, Jesus has placed a passion within her that is wonderful.  We are thrilled that this summer we will go to visit Israel.

It sounds obvious but remember – Christianity is Jewish!  They are the people of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Our God is the Holy One of Israel.  They will discover that Jesus is the one and only Messiah.  I might not understand everything about the relationship of God with Israel, but I know that regardless of what some Bible scholars think, the nation of Israel is here today in fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.  God has not abandoned the Jewish people.  That is made clear by the 9th, 10th and 11th chapters of the Book of Romans.  The end times are unfolding around them.

Let us make a point to pray for them – and that our government will always support them and refrain from any actions that hinder their well-being.  This is so important given the situation with Iran and their pursuit of developing a nublear weapon.  That must not happen.  May God guide and direct Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli leadership in His path for them.  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

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Monday March 10, 2014

Posted on March 9, 2014 by Don Schmidt

Galatians 5:22-23   But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Have you ever considered the thought that we Christians should always be the best friends that anyone could possibly have?  We should be the best spouses; the best family members; the best workers; the best bosses; the best neighbors; the best strangers.

Taking this one step further, is the thought that anything less than that is missing our destiny of who God intends us as Christians to be.  Paul, in writing to the Corinthians describes the reality of what are lives are and are to be, “You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

Our lives, like letters, are read by all the people we encounter, only the messages we communicate are far beyond just words.  Think of how differently we respond to encountering a neighbor’s pet that is always friendly versus encountering one that is grumpy or one that can be friendly but will also snap at you.   With the second one, we stay away; with the third one our guard is up.  We don’t want to be snapped at.

Applying the ‘pet-factor’ to our lives, ask the question, “What are we like?”  Are we grumpy?  Do we have a tendency to ‘snap’ unpredictably?  Do we have a tendency to be undependable or worse, to be jerks?  Or are we consistently someone that people enjoy being around because we reflect the qualities of our faith identified in today’s Scripture?  If asked to describe us (in an anonymous and candid survey) there wouldn’t be a ‘but’ in their description.

It’s critical that we recognize that our lives are about so much more than us.  We are an intimate part of God’s plan to reach and transform the world.  How we lead our daily lives has a profound impact on what our lives communicate.  Our destiny, corporately and individually, is to be a love letter from Jesus Christ to those around us.  So what are they reading when they encounter us?

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Sunday March 9, 2014

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Don Schmidt

Jeremiah 3:19  “How gladly would I treat you like sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.  I thought you would call me Father and not turn away from following me.”

How can I describe the power of this verse and what it reveals?  I am not aware of any other verse in the Old Testament that so reveals God’s heart for His people and the pain of their rejection – its impact upon Him.  The context of chapter 3 is one of God calling Israel to come back to Him.  They would call out to Him but at the same time they were doing all the evil they could do.  They would say one thing and do another!

And Judah was just as bad!  In verse 3:12 He declares that Judah “did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense.”  He repeatedly calls for them to return to Him.  He will frown on them no longer and will be merciful; He will not be angry forever.  If only they will acknowledge their guilt and return to Him.

I don’t know how many times I read today’s verse before the Lord opened my eyes to see it as a window in to His heart.  The focus of the verse is Him – our God.  Yes, He’s speaking to His people and their failure to respond, but He’s allowing us to see how their rejection has impacted Him.  In spite of all He did, they did not call Him Father and follow Him with their lives.  It’s like His heart is bleeding all over the carpet.

This verse is such a powerful force to help me love Him.  More than anything else, God wants a people who love Him.  In addition, I never cease to be thrilled by the fact that my attitudes and actions can please Him.  Think of it!  We GET TO bring pleasure to our God.  Each and every day we have untold opportunities to say, think, act and respond in ways that tell Him of our love.

Our lives MUST NOT be ones that would cause our Heavenly Father to lovingly look at us and say, “I thought you would call me Father and not turn away from following me.”  Let us renew our commitment to have our lives vibrantly express the He is our Father and we are following Him!

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Saturday March 8, 2014

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Don Schmidt

John 15:18  If the world hates you, keep in mind in mind that it hated me first.

Have you ever been bullied?  Have you ever been one of those people that a bully looked for and as soon as he saw you he came running to mess with you?  Fortunately such things typically only happen to some of us when we’re children.  Plus we live in a western culture where such behavior is generally disapproved of.

But think of being in a culture where this type of behavior is a way of life and instead of the bully being an individual, it is a group, or mob or even family.  Worse still consider the reality that all ages are affected by such groups – not just children – and it includes anything from beating to burning to killing.  Becoming a target, results in the reality that it could cost you your life.  So, what makes a person a target of such groups?

In many places in the world today, becoming a follower of Jesus Christ makes one a target of such groups, resulting in severe, often bloody persecution.  Conversion to Jesus Christ requires a price that many in the West just don’t realize.  Fortunately Jesus is more than worth the price!

We encounter discrimination and persecution but it is more in the context Christian activities being excluded from all manner of places where they have always existed: Merry Christmas becomes Happy Holidays; Christmas vacation becomes Winter break; no prayers at graduation ceremonies; situations in the military where Chaplains are ordered not to pray in the name of Jesus.

We have had a rule of law here that has protected us.  But in too many other parts of the world that law doesn’t exist or is ignored.  There, becoming a believer in Jesus Christ often results in disowning, disinheritance, expulsion, arrest or death.  The hatred that Jesus spoke of (today’s verse) is alive and well in the world.

People all over the world – today – are being tortured, beaten, enslaved, imprisoned and broken because of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Recognizing the love of God and Jesus Christ as Lord & Savior, triggers a hateful revenge in so many places that we in the west are often clueless about.  But this is what so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are facing and experiencing.

We must remember the spiritual reality that exists in all this.  Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  Fortunately, Jesus has equipped us all to face and overcome such opposition, “because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4b)

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Friday March 7, 2014

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Don Schmidt

Proverbs 16:22a  Understanding is a fountain of life to those who have it,

About six weeks after meeting the Lord, I went up to Minneapolis for what I thought was going to be a youth retreat for high school and college age.   I had just turned 21 and hitched a ride up there with 3 other Western Michigan college students in a VW Bug.  I was in the back seat with a large suitcase and another large person.  That was a ride to remember!

When they dropped me off, I discovered the retreat had been cancelled.  The folks at the ministry center there were then wondering what to do with me – probably not the first time in my life that’s happened.  They had a Christian community / retreat center in northern Minnesota and one of the families was going up there for the weekend so they decided to take me along.  It turned out to be one of the most critically important times of my entire life.  I didn’t know it but I had a date with destiny.

The people at the community where we went were wonderful and very gracious to me.  The worship and ministry times were wonderful.  In my joy as a new Christian I was struggling with a serious issue that was warring within me.  During one of the services, the leader called me up to the front.  The Lord had divinely given him knowledge of my struggle and in a brief time of ministry my issue was dealt with and gone.  My war with this issue was over!

What followed next was profoundly important.  He said to me, “Don.  You cannot afford dating either spiritually or financially.  Seek Christian fellowship.”  Then he said, “I want you to pray for your wife – but don’t pray, ‘God, send me a wife’.  I want you to pray for her like this.  Lord Jesus, I thank you that you have the girl I am going to marry.  I pray that she will come to know you – that you will protect her and bless her.  Thank you that you are preparing us for one another.  I acknowledge that in your time and in your way, you will bring us together.  I commit her and our relationship to you.”

So I regularly began praying in this way for the unknown girl who would be my wife.  This enabled me to really release this whole area to the Lord.  Later the next spring I read an article by Billy Graham where he wrote about his children playing on a hillside.  He realized that on some other hillside were the children who would one day be the spouses of his kids.  So he prayed for their future spouses in the very same way.  We should do so as well.

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Thursday March 6, 2014

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Don Schmidt

John 15:8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

When I was a new Christian I remember being given some advice by an evangelist friend.  He said it was a good idea to identify those around me who were really like Jesus and to go rub up against them in hopes that some of it would rub off.  After we quit laughing, I took to heart the importance of identifying the qualities of Jesus in others and learning from them how to make them in my own life.

This led me to realize that I had to learn what the qualities of Jesus were.  It was a whole lot more than just someone who is nice or pleasant to be around.  Have you ever had a friend who was nice but cheated at games you played?  What about friends who would talk about Jesus in a great way, but then they would go out and involve themselves in immorality?

Or being a sales person and stretching the truth regarding their products in order to get the sale?  What about not following through on commitments made, leaving it to others to pick up the loose ends?  What about someone one who is nice with everyone but has a habit of taking their frustrations out on their spouse?  They might be wonderful to their spouse most of the time, but with some degree of frequency they let their anger fly wounding the one they say they love the most.

This was the one that I was so guilty of 20 years ago.  I was so blind to the anger I would let fly at home.  I had to come to grips with the reality that in spite of all wonderful things I did for and with my wife, this one “fruit” was undermining it all.  I was so embarrassed that my grasp of the obvious in this area was so totally malfunctioning.  Fortunately, God dealt with it and me, and our marriage became better and stronger than ever.  Using the fruit illustration we’ve been talking about, it was like seeing a beautiful apple and turning it in our hands and finding it rotten on the back.  Thankfully, repentance and forgiveness works!!  Jesus can touch that “apple” and make it rich and new.

The simple reality is that we don’t become perfect overnight – or in a lifetime.  But when we are truly disciples of Jesus, the Holy Spirit enables us to more and more walk in His ways.  We are continually being transformed into His image.  We learn to recognize our sins much more quickly so that Godliness flourishes in every area of our lives.  No matter where we are or what we’re doing or who we’re doing it with, we want our lives to glorify our Father in Heaven.  This comes by bearing the fruit consistent with being full-time disciples of Jesus.

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Wednesday March 5, 2014

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Don Schmidt

Isaiah 27:2b-3  “Sing about a fruitful vineyard: 3 I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually.  I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it.

I grew up in Southwestern Michigan in an area known as the Fruitbelt.  Orchards and vineyards were everywhere and the area had renown for its wonderful non-citrus fruit.  Strawberries, peaches, apples, grapes, plums, blueberries… – it makes me hungry just writing about them.  So many different varieties yet how wonderful they all were.

Every farmer and buyer wanted a fruitful season – as well as anyone who enjoyed fruit.  I remember walking through vineyards and seeing the vines loaded with ripening grapes.  It was particularly nice to be able to pick a bunch of grapes and eat them as we walked.  There is something very special about tasting sweet fruit out in the field; that juicy taste in our mouths that says, “YES! – I want another one!!”

But there is a well known expression that covers an experience that we don’t want to have.  That expression is ‘sour grapes’.  Think of walking along, picking a grape and when you bite into it, your mouth is filled with sourness! You spit it out!  Think of being in a fruit market where you are able to sample the fruit before purchasing it.  Does the fruit pass the taste test?

Today’s verse particularly applies to Israel, but I love its application to us, both individually and corporately.  I love the picture of being a vineyard that the Lord watches over and is sung about.  I want to be a fruitful vineyard and I also want to be part of a fruitful vineyard.  Jesus said He is the true vine; we are the branches; and the Father is the gardener (think vine dresser).  The goal is bearing much fruit – sweet fruit.  If we remain in Jesus we will bear much fruit and the Father will prune us so that we will bear even more.

Think of the people that are in our lives.  They can be anything from strangers to close friends or family.  Also think of our lives being a vineyard where they sample the fruit that we are bearing.  What if we have no fruit or if the fruit we have is sour?  That is our testimony no matter what we might say.  But think of the joy of having abundant fruit and the fruit is sweet.  Our lives glorify our Lord Jesus and He will work with us so that we bear even more.

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