Don's Devotionals: Learning to love God

Genesis 1:1   ¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

If a person is an atheist, they definitely have a problem with the concept of God creating the world.  Likewise those who might believe in some kind of divine ‘entity’ but hold the view that that ‘entity’ is and has always been uninvolved in this world.  Maybe once upon a time it (the entity) initiated a spark that set a process in motion but that was it.

The Theory of Evolution is about the only thing you’re left with if your foundational assumption (belief) is that God (any divine entity) CANNOT be a part of the process.  (That becomes the starting point.)  Over the past few decades evolution proponents have accomplished moving it from theory to accepted fact – at least in their minds and in academia.  This is their faith venture.

Consider some Evolution terms:  (But note how positive they all are)

Evolve = change, grow, progress, advance, go forward, develop

Evolution = development, growth, progression, advancement

Mutation = change, alteration, transformation, modification

Enter my college Genetics class that I took my senior year – big class with over 500 students in it.  [FYI – The professor happened to be an atheist. I learned that, months later through discussions with him.] I had been a Christian a little over a year and hadn’t given a lot of thought to the evolution / creation issue.  But from earlier college courses, I knew that mutations were the foundation of the Theory of Evolution.  It couldn’t exist without them.

In Genetics class we dealt with the subject of mutations and that provided a stunning eye-opener.  Most mutations are harmful or negative – or at best neutral.  Let’s say that again but in a different way – Most mutations are NOT beneficial or positive!!!  In addition there is the whole issue of dominant and recessive mutations.  The rarest ‘critter’ out there in the world of mutations is the ‘dominant and beneficial mutation’.

Yet, that very ‘critter’ is what the whole evolution house of cards is built upon.  We read and hear how evolution is predicated upon mutations – zillions and zillions of them – and unlimited time for them to occur.  But the theory is based upon the ‘given’ (read fiction) that the mutations are all overwhelmingly positive, beneficial and dominant.  This is the very opposite of the reality.

While this whole experience was helpful, I don’t believe in Scriptural creation because of it.  My belief is settled firmly on the Rock that is Christ:

John 1:1-3  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with  God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

The good news was that the more I experienced the power and wonder of God, it became a no-brainer that God could do anything! – except lie, sin, be unfaithful, be caught off guard, and a few other things.  Experiencing His supernatural power can have a profound impact on a person.

Come to think of it, creation pales in comparison to what was accomplished through Jesus: His life, death, resurrection, freeing us from a life of sin and making us new creatures in Him.   Creating the world and everything in it was not a big deal – maybe the equivalent of God snapping his fingers.

Note:  My atheist Genetics prof felt he was comfortable with his own explanations for describing most of my experiences with Jesus, that also included genuine miracles.  BUT – I remember him looking at me and saying with a serious thoughtfulness, “I don’t know what to do with the miracles.”

Isaiah 12:5  Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world.

We arrived at the Christian Camp on Sunday that was held in Georgia.  Donna was from North Carolina and I was from Michigan.  We met and were engaged on Monday (see Devotionals for past 2 days).  But the best was still to come.  The Lord had something scheduled for Donna on Tuesday afternoon that would change her forever.

Donna’s attendance at the camp was a last minute occurrence, just like it was for me.  She was invited by a college classmate to go with her to a “dumb old Christian camp” that her folks were making her go to.  The friend’s parents would pay her way to come.  Donna, on the other hand, was excited to come to the camp because God had been wooing her to Himself.

Donna had spent the previous two school years at St. Mary’s in Raleigh, NC- a private Episcopal Girl’s School.  She was there for her senior year of high school and her freshman year of college.  At St. Mary’s she found herself attracted by the Church’s Liturgy and enjoyed being an altar girl.  Both the morning service and Evening Prayers on Sunday were important to her.  She thought the sense of peace and the beauty of the services that she experienced there was as close as she could get to God.

Donna’s honest answer to my question regarding whether she was saved, revealed the fact that she was still in the process of being drawn to God.  In her short time at the camp she was already a bit confused by the way people talked about Jesus.  They spoke of Him as though He was actually there with them.  Donna believed in God but thought of Him as an ethereal being up there somewhere.  When she asked people why they spoke of Jesus in this way, they just smiled and said that she would find out, which did little to help.  Little did she know the miraculous vision that God would give her in order to reveal the Truth to her.

The following afternoon after we met and were engaged, Donna was in the little chapel for a meeting.  After the teaching, people were being prayed for to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to become more effective Christians.  When she was prayed for, nothing happened to her as it had for the others in the room.  She was sitting in the front row of this small chapel and was too embarrassed to get up and walk out so she just sat there.  There was an empty life-size wooden cross hanging on the wall in the front of the chapel and as she sat there looking at it, God gave her a vision.

She saw Jesus nailed to the cross—so clearly that she felt that if she could have stood, she could have touched him!  As she looked on, she noticed blood dripping from His hands and feet.  Suddenly it was personally real to her that Jesus had died for her!  She began to weep and couldn’t stop as she realized that Jesus had loved her enough to die for her, not just “the world” but her, personally.  Later she recalled experiencing the feeling of being in a waterfall, only the waterfall was inside her rather than outside her.  Afterwards she says she felt scrubbed clean on the inside.  Nothing was the same again.  She was a different person.  Though she couldn’t articulate it clearly, she knew it was true!

To God be the glory great things He hath done! (August 25, 1969)  Continued from yesterday…

After my incredible encounter with Jesus the previous fall, I received some wonderful advice about praying for my wife.  The leader instructed me, “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 was the framework of my declaration of “THAT’S HER!”

When we finished dinner, David asked Donna to go with him to take some film to be developed.  Great was my relief when she said no.  After he left, I asked if we could go for a walk and she said yes.  Even though I was beside myself with what was going on within me, I wanted to tell her about Jesus and how I met Him.  She wanted to find out what was the glow that was around my head in the meeting.

I was telling her about Jesus while we walked but my mind was in a whirlwind.  There was a popular song at the time with the line, “Then I went and spoiled it all by saying something stupid like I love you.” And it was running through my mind.  We walked to a stone bench under the pines next to a stone chapel and sat down.  What was going on within me was so consuming I finally couldn’t continue talking.  So I said to her, “There is something I have to tell you.”  Donna said, “Go ahead.”  I replied, “I love you.”  She replied, “I love you too.”

At that point, I said, “Let’s pray.”  My prayer was simply this, “Lord Jesus – If this is not of you, stop it.  But if this is of you, please confirm it.”  And “heaven landed with a thud!”  That is how I have described it for 55 years.  We were immediately surrounded and embraced by a manifestation of God’s presence!  He imparted (downloaded) everything into both of us – the knowledge, the thrill, the excitement, the affection, the commitment, the utter joy and the complete settledness.  It was done!!  We knew, sitting on the bench praying, that God had chosen us for each other and we were to be married.  We belonged to each other.

From that moment, there has never been any doubt that God chose us for each other – not the slightest doubt – ever!  I always knew that I was capable of loving someone.  I never dreamed that anyone could or would love me the way Donna does.  This was and is something beyond my wildest dreams.  Later I discovered that Donna had been proposed to by a friend the weekend before but had to tell him no.  She was unable to say she loved him.  She could only say that to the man she knew she would marry!

God impressed on us we were to be married – He didn’t say get married.  I still had my senior year of college to go and He knew that I needed to be loved not married.  Now I was able to focus on my studies.  We were married 13 months later just following my graduation from college.

Tomorrow – Donna’s amazing vision of Jesus on the cross the next day….

To God be the glory great things He hath done!  August 25, 1969

Thanks to what can only be described as the miraculous intervention of God, Donna and I were engaged 2 hours and 15 minutes after we met!  We’ve joked that the reason it took so long was the first hour was in a meeting and the second hour was at dinner.  God supernaturally communicated, independently to each of us that we were His choice for each other and were to be married.  It’s as though we had been betrothed to each other without ever knowing it.

God imparted (in computer terms, think “downloaded”) knowledge, understanding, wisdom and a passionate affection for each other – into each of us.  He not only imparted this to us, but He gave us the incredible experience of a manifestation of His presence as confirmation to us as we sat on a park bench together in prayer.  He gave us in a moment what many don’t experience in a lifetime.

“But what exactly happened?” is a response we have received when friends and acquaintances hear about this.  Neither one of us knew that we were coming to this Christian camp in Georgia until the last minute.  Donna, from North Carolina, was invited by a college classmate to go with her to a “dumb old Christian camp” that her folks were making her go to.  Donna, on the other hand, was excited to come because God had been wooing her to Himself.  I received an invitation to come and be one of the youth counselors just one week before the camp began.

On the second day of camp, as I approached the auditorium for the afternoon meeting, I saw David, a young man I had met there the day before.  As we were talking, up walks this lovely young lady named Donna.  She too didn’t know hardly anyone there, but like me, she had met David the day before as well.  So she joined us and we went in to the meeting.

After sitting down in the auditorium, I asked Donna if I could ask her a personal question.  She said yes, being curious what I would ask.  I asked her, “Are you saved?”  She replied, “If you tell me what you mean, I’ll tell you what I think.”  I then said, “If you were to die or if Jesus returned, would you go to heaven or to hell?”  She gave me the answer when she said, “I’d probably go to hell because I haven’t done anything good enough to go to heaven.”  I knew I wanted to tell her about Jesus.

During the course of the meeting, the speaker said something funny and everyone laughed.  While we were laughing Donna looked at me and there was a bright glow around my head.  She was startled by it and wondered what it was? I was totally unaware of this phenomenon.

The three of us went from the meeting to the cafeteria to have dinner.  David sat to her left but the thought struck me to sit across from Donna so I went around the end of the table, put my tray across from her and sat down.  As I looked up, our eyes met and my heart exploded with “THAT’S HER!”  I was beside myself, not knowing what to do – except play with my food for the rest of the meal because my appetite was sure gone.  A stunning, tumultuous event was going on inside of me.

The rest of the story tomorrow….

1 Peter 3:15  But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

Imagine sitting in any kind of class or gathering where the speaker/instructor belittles a particular belief.  If there is an individual in the group with that particular belief and he makes it known, the focus likely shifts to him.  Typically it probably isn’t mean spirited, but more in the category of “Oh my!  How can anyone still believe that??!!”  Laughter, polite ridicule and condescension are a powerful combination.

Unfortunately if the person proves to be resistant to the ‘accepted wisdom’ or political correctness, the speaker/instructor can manipulate the nature of the atmosphere to become more aggressive, ‘seasoned’ with anger, intimidation and biting ridicule.  In a classroom setting, a subtle intimation can be communicated that good grades are not obtained by those with such beliefs.

This phenomenon can occur over a vast range of subjects depending upon the views of the speaker and the group.  Consider some topics: abortion, homosexuality, same sex marriage, voter IDs, enforcing immigration laws, government healthcare, God, Jesus, faith, evolution, the Bible, the list is long.  If we are that person and the recipient of such treatment, how we respond is critical.

Our faith identifies such situations as opportunities not victimhood.  Christ is our rock and it’s upon Him that we stand.  Sometimes we might hesitate to speak up because we don’t want to be a recipient of the verbal attack.  That might be wisdom or it might be fear of what people might think of us; or fear of persecution.  Maybe we’re just too casual with our faith and feel too inadequate to speak up, or to stand with another believer.

We have a hope that is grounded in eternal reality.  We must be prepared to express our faith in ways pleasing to God – not attacking those who oppose but sincerely allowing our light (His light within us) to shine.  We must be spiritually and prayerfully prepared to glorify our Lord when such opportunities arise.

John 12:42-43  Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; ⁴³ for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

We have this problem today that we encounter everywhere –  and it is a major problem.  In Scripture it is reflected by Nathanael’s blunt comment to hearing Philip excitedly telling him about Jesus of Nazareth, the one written about by Moses and the prophets, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” (John 1:46)

Substitute the word Christianity into Nathanael’s sentence for Nazareth and couple it with an attitude of condescension and we have the problem we are facing nearly everywhere in Western Civilization. It’s in academia, business, media, government, courts – basically everywhere.  It’s similar to evolution in that it’s poor theory that’s accepted as true (I will deal with evolution this coming week).  Religion is viewed as a waste if your ‘given’ is there is no God.

But this perception and accompanying attitudes don’t exist in a vacuum.  They are rooted in forces that have no doubt as to the deadly threat posed to them by scriptural Christianity that is truly lived out. Most of the world has no idea they are pawns in the hands of evil powers. Paul addresses them 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.

Their goal is to stamp Christianity out!  Do anything to keep Christians from tapping into the power they truly have in Christ.  In the face of this politically correct societal dismissal, the issue becomes how are Jesus followers going to respond?

Unfortunately, when our walk is weak, we have a tendency to follow the path painfully described by today’s verse – we respond out of fear because we love the praise of men more than the praise of God – OUCH!  That’s why we have been provided with the armor of God and the command to put it on. (Ephesian 6:10-18)  This armor is vital to being strong in the Lord and able to stand.

When we stand, we don’t respond with anger, shaking our fists at those who oppose us.  But we stand strong and secure in our Lord with our response reflecting our faith, rooted in righteousness and glorifying Jesus.  At times we’ll suffer negative consequences, but even then we must do so with fruit of the Spirit attitudes.

After all, our joy and our lives are centered in pleasing God – not men.

Hebrews 1:3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

I have really enjoyed some of the Indiana Jones movies.  A couple of my favorite scenes are in The last Crusade when they get to the cave and encounter the old Crusader still guarding the ‘Holy Grail’ – believed to be the cup used by Christ at the last supper.  There is only one problem – the room has a whole bunch of cups without any indication which is the right one.

Of course the wealthy, learned leader of the bad guys insists on choosing and picks out a magnificent ornate cup, in his mind worthy of the Lord.  He drinks from it expecting some sort of heavenly wonder but unfortunately he chose the wrong cup.  He ages a few hundred years in a few seconds and is no more, to which the old Crusader responds, “He chose poorly.”

Due to the wounding of Indy’s father (Sean Connery), Indy has to choose quickly among the cups.  The story line attributes miraculous power to the cup – like the Ark in the Old Testament – and Indy needs to get it to his father to heal the wound that would kill him.  Well, Indy learned from the bad guy’s mistake and scours the table for the cup of a carpenter and chose a very humble plain wooden cup; to which the old Crusader responds, “You chose…wisely.”

We find ourselves in a world filled with gods – all being represented as the true God. When we look at all of these competing gods, how do we know what He (the True One) looks like?  This isn’t simply an intellectual exercise – this is true reality!  While He doesn’t put a gun at our head or a sword at our throat forcing us to choose, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

The good news is that the One True God didn’t leave us to our own devices to figure out which ‘cup on the table’ was Him.  He has made everything available for all to ‘choose wisely’.   He even works with us to guide us in the path that leads to finding Him.  He has communicated that it’s not His will that any should ‘choose poorly’!

Fortunately, He has given us a vibrant, living picture of Himself.  He even enables us to recognize that it is Him – we then, simply have to choose.  And when we do, He confirms our wise choice by allowing us to experience the wonder of Him.

Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being!  When we become His, He begins the transforming wonder whereby we become like Jesus.  The more we are transformed, the more others will see Jesus when they see us – and they too will be drawn to Him.

Luke 5:10b-11  Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” ¹¹ So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

Picture yourself a fisherman.  That is your livelihood.  You and your partners have just spent the entire night fishing and come up empty.  You’re on shore washing your nets when this new friend, a carpenter by background who is doing some amazing things comes up with a crowd around him listening to him teaching.

He sees two boats at water’s edge and gets into one of them – yours – and asks you to push it out a bit.  He then sits down and teaches from the boat.  When he finishes speaking (to the crowd) he says to you, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”  I wonder what goes through your mind at that moment; maybe something like, “Yea – right!”

Maybe you roll your eyes, but who he is gets the better of you – although you do let him know the facts of the situation.  “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.

Maybe you’re thinking that he should stick to what he knows.  Even so, you go along with it.  All of a sudden you and your companions catch such a large number of fish that the nets began to break.  You signal your partners in the other boat to come and help, and they come and both boats are filled so full of fish that they began to sink.

To say everyone is astonished is an understatement!  But this strikes you in a unique way.  This is a miracle and it involved you.  You’re struck by your own unworthiness to be in the presence of something divine.  You fall at his knees and say, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”

But instead of listening to you, he says something far more profound than what you’ve just experienced! These words come from his mouth addressed to you, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” The group of you that hear this, pull your boats up on shore, leave everything and follow him.

The marvelous thing about this story is that Jesus is inserting himself into the everyday lives and situations of his followers today – just as he did then.  He will do something to get our attention – causing us to turn aside and focus upon him.

We might not understand everything that is going on but we know it is Him.  Then he calls us to be fishers of men – just as he did with them by the shore.  And we get to follow Jesus just as they did into the callings he has for us.

Colossians 3:13  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Do we understand that forgiving someone is a simple decision of our will?  Better still is the fact that once done, once we forgive someone, it cannot be undone – no matter how upset we are or want to take it back.  It’s done; a fait accompli!

Think of cracking open a raw egg.  It is a decision of our will and once done it can’t be undone.  No matter how we might want to take it back, we can’t put the egg back in the shell.  Remember Humpty Dumpty, the egg that sat on the wall and had a great fall?  “…All the King’s horses, and all the King’s men – couldn’t put Humpty together again.”

This is beyond good news – it’s great news!  Unforgiveness is to be avoided like the plague.  It’s been described as a person putting arsenic in their own body to hurt someone else.  Unforgiveness is avoided by forgiving – particularly by making the practice of forgiving others into a daily habit pattern.

But what if we don’t feel forgiving?  And what about all the other ‘stuff’ that comes with situations where the need to forgive occurs?  Stuff like anger, resentment, hurt, disappointment, frustration, desire to get even (to name a few) that readily accompany such situations.  Fortunately forgiveness isn’t subject to us feeling like it.

If we are out walking and have an umbrella and suddenly it starts pouring, no matter what is going on, we immediately put up the umbrella – it’s second nature.  It keeps us from getting wet!  When hurts and disappointments come, immediately forgive – just like putting up an umbrella.  It keeps unforgiveness away and allows God’s grace to have unrestricted flow to enable us to handle all the ‘stuff’ in the situation redemptively.

Immediately forgiving others enables us to get our focus off them and our own hurt.  We shift our focus to the Lord.  He is the one we turn to – to help us with all of the accompanying emotions and difficulties.  If we recognize that our responses are sinful, we can confess that and receive forgiveness.  He, and his grace and mercy are at the center of our response.

It’s amazing how readily forgiving those who hurt us enables us to pray redemptively for them.  The healing process proceeds more freely.  Our motivation can become one of glorifying the Lord in the situation.   What a gift being able to readily forgive is!

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.