Don's Devotionals: Learning to love God

John 13:4-5  so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Today we commemorate the Last Supper.  I am so grateful for the Gospel of John because it expands so wonderfully upon this intimate evening with Jesus and his disciples.  Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and this evening meal was critically important in preparing his disciples for what was about to happen.  Jesus knew what the coming hours would bring.

Some of the precious memories my family and I have of this special day are of the service that was held each year at St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Akron, Ohio.  The church has a semi-professional dramatic ministry called The Fisherpeople.  This ministry, founded years ago by a wonderful St. Luke’s couple, Bob and Suanne Crowley, has been powerfully used by God through the years to communicate His message through drama and comedy.

The service at St. Luke’s, commemorating the Last Supper was set up in the round.  All of the chairs surrounded the table where the disciples reclined and interacted with Jesus.  They weren’t up on a stage – but within a few feet of those sitting in the front rows.   It’s amazing how powerful it is to be in an intimate setting, seeing these actors, in costume, portraying Jesus and the 12 disciples living this event right before us.  The lights would be down and we were no longer observers but participants in the Last Supper.

Seeing and hearing Jesus interact with the disciples; hearing him teach; hearing him share with Peter the details of his coming denials – we became a part of it.  Watching the disciples relate to each other; seeing them respond as Jesus informs them that He is going to wash their feet – and then He does it.  It’s one thing to read about it or hear it – it’s another to see it being done right in front of you.

After washing the disciple’s feet, Jesus invites everyone in the audience to come get their feet washed.  I am in tears just thinking of how moving it was.  The disciples washed our feet!  Then when Jesus shared the first communion with them, we all were invited to come and share in that as well.  We all got to live out being a part of that special time.  What a powerful way to communicate the truth about our Lord!

Mark 14:27-31  ²⁷“You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written:  ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ ²⁸But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”   ²⁹Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”   ³⁰“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”   ³¹But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the others said the same.

Think of the impact of seeing the miracles that Jesus did and listening to all he said – getting to be with him three years and being one of the twelve.  Peter saw men and women and children beside themselves with joy after being healed or set free from demons or raised from the dead.  He even experienced walking on water with Jesus.  Then there was the triumphant entry into Jerusalem just a few days ago.

Now he’s not only hearing that Jesus will die but that they all will fall away.  So now Peter asserts his faithfulness and hears Jesus say how he will disown him three times.  Peter can’t believe that he could possibly deny his Lord.

A wonderful piece of this exchange at the Last Supper is included in Luke’s gospel (22:32) where Jesus says to Peter: “But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Later in the pain of having denied Jesus, Peter could have committed suicide like Judas did or totally abandoned the other disciples due to his shame.  But in his pain, these prophetic words would have come back to him and been a source of hope, “And when you have turned back…”

Just like He did with Peter, God puts us all into circumstances where things in our hearts will be revealed to us.  They might be things we aren’t aware of, or maybe we just have no idea how significant a problem something within us is.  Such experiences can be painful, as this was to Peter.  But we, like Peter, can and must respond to His Spirit and the hope we have in Him.  We must choose not to give up, but to respond to His grace and change.  He doesn’t show us these things to reject us, but to give us the opportunity to repent and become free.

Exodus 12:13-14  “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

Today is the first day of Passover.  The Lord told the Israelites that they were to commemorate it as a feast to the Lord for generations.  We tend to pronounce the word Pass’-over with the emphasis on the first syllable.  It is the name of an event that occurs every year.  But when you read this text, it is two words and we typically place the emphasis on the second.  The Lord says, “…and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.”  This might seem like a little thing, but it’s a helpful ‘trigger’ to recalling the richness of the event.

The Passover commemorates the Lord seeing the lamb’s blood on the sides and the tops of the doorframes and ‘passing over’ the children of Israel.  The destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. (Heb 11:28)  The key element in this is the blood of the Passover lamb.  This lamb, slaughtered by each family, was to be without blemish or defect and was sacrificed to protect them.

When I read about the Passover lamb, my thoughts go immediately to John the Baptist’s declaration when he saw Jesus.  John declared, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)  Later, Peter writes regarding our redemption that is was not with silver or gold, “but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”  (1 Peter 1:19)

Paul declares Christ to be our Passover lamb that has been sacrificed for us. (1 Corinthians 5:7)  But best of all, Jesus is the Lamb of God who was slain and is alive!  John refers to Jesus repeatedly as the Lamb in Revelation.  One of my favorites is his description in Revelation 5:11-12:

”Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. ¹² In a loud voice they were saying:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

Little did the disciples realize that when they celebrated Passover with Jesus at the last supper, that they were about to witness the sacrificing of the Lamb of God, once and for all, to bring salvation to mankind.

Mark 10:33-34  “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, ³⁴ who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”           

Jesus and his disciples were on their way to Jerusalem when He told them this.  Can you imagine what their response was?  He had told them this before and it just never made sense to them.  How could it be?  They were so distressed by the words about his death that the words about rising thee days later never seemed to register with them.  Later, when they saw the empty tomb, John records in 20:9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Even though they knew the Jewish leaders had such animosity towards Jesus, this ‘ending’ that Jesus spoke of would have seemed unbelievable.  Their frustration had to be amplified by the fact that they couldn’t talk him out of it.  Imagine if we had been some of his disciples; had been with him for three years and had seen and heard everything that had happened.  We would have been in denial about this too.

Then there was the triumphal entry of Palm Sunday.  How could someone who was receiving such acclimation become the object of condemnation and death?  The Pharisees have even described the situation as “the whole world going after him”.   Each day Jesus was teaching in the Temple, surrounded by crowds amazed by what they were seeing and hearing.

As we go through Holy Week, let’s put ourselves in the position of his disciples.  On the one hand we see all of the positive going on; the crowds, the teachings, the magnitude of the response to Jesus – from early morning until evening.  On the other, we have the nagging apprehension of his brutal words about his death.  It strikes me like trying to grapple with mutually exclusive ideas.  How could both be true?

We have the advantage of knowing the ending of this week.  But let’s try to grasp what the disciples were going through; caught between the crowds and the leaders; struggling with the words that Jesus himself had told them.  They did not understand what was going on.  They even had to contend with Jesus’ words – how they all would flee from Him (Mark 14:27).  Imagine the pain of being told that you would betray the one you loved – being afraid that what Jesus said would be true.

Matthew 13:16 But blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear.

Today we celbrate Palm Sunday when Jesus entered Jerusalem to the cheers of the crowd.  But the week that followed proved that many were deaf and blind to what was before them.  I do not have difficulty believing in the miraculous or any of the events recorded in the Bible.  What I find so difficult to comprehend is how the leaders could see the miracles performed in front of their very eyes and not respond with joy and wonder.   They had their Messiah right in front of them and missed Him.  They were made deaf and blind by their own hearts.

Years ago a friend of ours named Paul bought a home that had been through a fire.  He was good at construction and was able to do most of the work himself.  The plumbing had to be redone for most of the house so he had a plumber friend come and handle all of that.  When the plumber was about finished he came to check out his work.  Paul was amazed by what happened.

As they were walking down the stairs into the large basement, the plumber stopped.  He asked Paul, “Do you hear that?”  They were both quiet and Paul didn’t hear anything.  The plumber said it’s over there and pointed toward a corner of the basement.  Paul asked him what was over there.  His friend said, “A leak” – as he motioned with his finger the timing of the drips.

Sure enough, when they got to the corner, behind a bunch of stuff, there was the leak.  Drops of water were falling to the floor at a frequency just like the plumber had indicated.  Paul asked him why he (the plumber) could hear them while Paul couldn’t.  The plumber responded, “This is my business.  I have my ears trained to hear such sounds.”

Historically, a major problem with God’s people is that through their attitudes and actions they have allowed their hearts to become calloused.  This resulted in spiritual deafness and blindness and not loving God.  Isaiah described it as “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.”  The frightening fact is that the same thing can happen to us.

Do you hear the Holy Spirit speak to you?  Are you learning the ways of Scripture?  Are you training your ears to recognize to His quiet whisper and His nudgings as He leads us to repentance and to choose rightly!  On this Palm Sunday let’s recommit ourselves to our Lord and seek to truly have eyes that see and ears that hear.

Psalm17:7a  …the wonder of Your love….

Let’s think about some things that produce a sense of wonder within us.  In the spring I am so blessed by seeing everything begin to bloom after the winter season.  The redbuds and dogwood trees never cease to strike me with their beauty and color.  I love seeing the woods take on the hint of green with the coming of the first leaves.

One cannot escape a sense of wonder at the mountains.  Their size, beauty and majesty are awe inspiring.  One of my favorite memories is of salmon fishing with my dear friend Jon out in Seattle.  We were in the boat fishing before dawn on a clear morning.   In the midst of the darkness, we beheld the sight of the first rays of dawn reflecting off the snow capped peak of Mt Rainier.  It was absolutely breathtaking and its wonder caused us to sit and behold the dawning of the morning light.

The ocean and the seashore are particularly special to Donna and me.  One of the great joys of my life is to walk along the seashore listening to the surf – enjoying the sights, sounds and smells.  We both love to be in a hammock, on an ocean-front cottage porch, listening to the sounds and feeling the breeze as we read or simply rest.

It’s not just that these things are pleasant or enjoyable – but there is a sense of wonder within us that is present even just thinking about them.  And as great as all these things are, they pale in comparison to the wonder we experience over the love of our God for us.  It is a tangible sensation within us that produces such joy.

The wonder of our God is far beyond the simple fact that He made the things that bless us so.  He has shown us – and repeatedly shows us – His great love for us.  That is the stunner!  The God who made everything – the entire universe – loves us and makes Himself known to us!  Through Jesus, we are His family and dear to Him.  He enables us to experience the exquisite pleasure of Him becoming dear to us each and everyday of our lives.  Oh, the wonder of it all!

Philippians 4:19  And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Donna and I were married in the fall of 1970 right after I graduated from Michigan State.  That next January we were involved in a coffee-house street ministry called The Master’s House in downtown Lansing, MI.  We were open evenings and late into the night.  While we had no salary, we were provided with a little 2 bedroom home across from the Oldsmobile forge plant on the west side of town.  We got to pray everything else in and were so blessed by God’s provision.

We went an extended period where we had no money – not a dime.  Groceries, gas, everything was provided – just no money.  One evening Judy Potter, a college friend who was helping with the ministry, came up to me and said with a little embarrassment that the Lord had told her to give us $1 – not $5 or $10 – just $1.  I grinned and took the dollar and placed it in my shirt pocket and told her is was $1 more than I had.

Later that evening another helper came and asked if we could give him a ride home when we closed.  He lived on the south end of Lansing.  I was a bit concerned because we were low on gas but I agreed to take him home.  Our old Ford had about 8 gallons below empty and we had been on the empty mark for a couple of days.

After dropping him off after midnight, we were near home when we had to stop at a railroad crossing for a train.  I no sooner stopped when I ran out of gas.  But much to my relief, next to us was a police car!  I got out and went over and asked them to call AAA.  Fortunately, at Christmas we had been given an AAA membership.

The officers pulled behind us with their lights on and we waited.  When the AAA guy arrived, he didn’t say a word but he took a 5 gallon gas can, poured it in my car and then walked up to me and his first words were, “That will be $1.”  (Gas cost 19.9 cents/gallon.)  I took the $1 out of my shirt pocket – the only dollar that we had – and handed it to him.  We rejoiced all the way home!

Our friend didn’t give us $5 or $10 but she sensed the Lord said to give just $1 – the exact amount we would need.  Here 40 years later I continue to be thrilled by the amazing power of this experience with God.

Romans 15:13  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Imagine going into a coffee shop to have a cup of coffee and being told that they were all out of coffee – not just a particular flavor we wanted – but out of coffee.  That would be strange if it happened once but suppose it happened again and it wasn’t because they were so popular that they sold out.  We’d suspect they wouldn’t be in business long.  Coffee shops are supposed to have coffee.

Now imagine going into a coffee shop and ordering coffee and they serve you but the coffee doesn’t taste good.  We try different choices they have, but they all were unpleasant.  Again, we’d think it strange and wonder how they were going to stay in business.  We wouldn’t go back.

With these examples in mind, let’s consider today’s verse.  There is such beauty contained in it.  It talks of God’s people trusting in Him and being filled with joy and peace and hope.  These are qualities that people long for and are very apparent when they’re present.  From one perspective, we as Christians have the blessing and excitement of recognizing that this is the life God has for us.  These are qualities that He wants us to have.  But there is another side to this coin.

These are qualities that He expects us to develop in Him.  They are required of us and not optional.  We are the ‘coffee shop’ and theses qualities are the ‘coffee’.  The world and those around us might not realize that they are asking for ‘coffee’ when they encounter us, but God has placed within them a hunger for this ‘coffee’ – real joy, real peace and real hope.  They want someone or something they can truly trust in.

We are surrounded by people in all stages of coming to know our God.  If these qualities are absent in us, or if they are ‘sour’, important opportunities are missed and negative perceptions result.  But, when people are able to ‘taste’ these qualities in our lives, they are attracted to Him even though they might not know it (think salt making someone thirsty).  They want more.  As noted yesterday, we are, “Blessed to be a blessing”.  God uses us to bring people to Himself.

Proverbs 12:25  An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.

When I worked in a garden center I didn’t have the regular responsibility of watering the plants.  Occasionally though I would need to help out.  One of the things that I learned was with thousands of plants to water and with frequent interruptions to help customers, it was all too easy to miss some of the plants.  I developed an appreciation for the individuals who regularly watered the plants and did it well.

Given my love for flowers, it became a habit of mine in my daily routine to spot plants that had been missed.  It wasn’t time consuming – it was simply a matter of training my eyes to spot wilting plants, and quickly water them.  I don’t like to see plants die; and it brings such pleasure to see formerly wilting plants revived and blooming.

Kind words are like water – they need to become a part of our daily life.  We all need to speak them to one another.  It’s important that we say them – and that we hear them.  They help in keeping our Christian ‘garden’ of relationships vibrant and blooming.  Anxiety and the stresses of life are all around us, and at times we all succumb to them.  Any of us can become ‘wilted’ and in need of ‘water’.  At such times we can be unaware just how wilted we’ve become – and a kind word can do wonders.

We need to make it a regular habit to speak kind words in our daily interactions – like regularly watering a garden.  It’s also important that we train our eyes to spot those who are ‘wilted’ around us.  God gives us wonderful opportunities to touch them with simple, kind words.  He blesses us so that we might be a blessing to others.   St. Luke’s, the church we attended for years in Akron, Ohio, has as its mission statement, “Blessed to be a blessing”.  Speaking kind words is one important way to accomplish that.  It is also a way to keep ourselves fresh and vibrant by focusing on others rather than upon ourselves.

Habakkuk 3:19  The Sovereign LORD is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights.

Have you ever watched videos of deer or mountain goats up in the mountains on rocky terrain?  How these animals move is amazing.  I saw one involving snow leopards.  The leopard went after a ram and it was unbelievable how that ram kept its footing and moved at high speed where I couldn’t even imagine walking!

They have the ability to walk and run in very precarious places.  Such places are part of their lives.  Walking and running on the heights is normal for them.  I never thought that much about the running aspect of it until I saw the video of the leopard chasing the ram.  Given that such precarious places aren’t my thing, I could only imagine moving slowly and deliberately.

But, when we recognize that the Lord is our strength, He does things to us.  He gives us abilities that we wouldn’t otherwise have.  The more we trust Him and walk in His ways, the more we are able to handle whatever comes, whether good or bad, with grace and confidence. This includes anything that life can confront us with even if it be a tsunami, earthquake or terrorism.  There are times when decisions need to be made rapidly.  He will make our “feet” like the feet of a deer to handle them, even if things are moving faster than we would like. 

No matter what happens, our desire is to always respond in a manner that glorifies our Lord.  Whether we receive great recognition, or great loss, He is our strength.  He is the One we rejoice in.  He is the source of our joy.  The Lord wants others to see Him in our responses.  He wants to use our example to create within them a thirst and hunger for Him. 

Isn’t it wonderful that we have so many opportunities to bring pleasure to Him, by responding faithfully in every situation we face!