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Romancing the Soul
A daily devotional of God’s unfailing love
Ray Bentley

Monthly Daily Devotionals:
Starting Jan. 25, 2007
February
March
April
April continued
May
June
July
August
September
October/November

January 1

“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” – Song of Solomon 6:3


One of the great passions of my life and ministry is to understand and communicate the love of God–and believe me, I know I have a long way to go.  I read the verse above, I study all the verses that talk about how much God loves us, and I want to believe it and live accordingly; I also want those I teach to really believe it, to experience and know that they are beloved.

Everything about the Gospel proclaims love, and everything about God’s actions demonstrates the ultimate romance of our souls, by the One who is the lover of our souls, desperately seeking to capture our hearts and bless our lives.

There’s no greater way to start the new year than to grasp the love of God —and to believe it so much that you can transcend the trials of life (not avoid them) and have confidence in the bigger picture, where God has a plan, and a purpose, founded in His love for you, personally.

Not too long ago, I endured a crisis of faith.  Everything in my life was challenged. Everything I held dear was threatened.  I had nothing to cling to but God’s love – and you know what?  It held me.  It kept me.  The Holy Sprit protected me, taught me, and comforted me—for that is what the Holy Spirit does:  comfort, and communicate, above all else, the personal, passionate love of God.

Can God’s love really help you survive a broken heart?  Can that love help you rise above personal, financial, and health problems?  Can the love of God give you the strength to endure and survive?  Can His love give you the abilty to cling to Him?  Can His Spirit give you the insight to understand some of the mysteries of life? 

I believe the answer to all those questions is yes.  God truly does romance our souls and that is what I want to explore in a myriad of ways during this next year.

I feel like Paul – constrained, compelled, to get this message across.  God’s love is a great love, full of depths, heights, and valleys and mountains that most of have barely begun to explore.  It is a love that corrects, convicts, comforts, teaches, and saves.

It’s a love that will transform and save our lives.

 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”— Romans 8:38-39


Romancing the Soul
A daily devotional of God’s unfailing love
Ray Bentley

January 2
Philippians 1:2-3 : “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you...”

There is something terribly wrong in the church today.  We are full of people who are devoted to God, committed to His work, willing even to burn themselves out in service of the Kingdom.  But we are somehow unconnected to the emotions and heart needs of our own lives, and of those around us. 

Paul was in prison when he wrote the passage above.  He knew the affect his imprisonment would have on his flock.  I believe he wrestled with the impact it was having on him!  We’ve all often heard expressions like “Grace to you and peace from God” in some form, to the point where they become meaningless, like saying hello.

But to Paul these words weren’t casual cliched greetings.  He meant them...he knew how important it was for his readers to trust in the grace of God, to experience His peace.  He wasn’t writing just as an apostle to the church; he was writing friend to friend; very warm, very personal.  He wanted to encourage his readers that yes, he was imprisoned, yes, his life was threatened, but we can count on God’s grace and peace.  And he wasn’t afraid to admit that he needed to count on them, because his life was hard and scary at the moment.

And, he was thankful for his friends.  Every time he thought of them, every moment he sat there in prison, alone, he knew someone cared, someone was praying.  And he stopped to thank God every time he remembered that.  Paul was connected to his brothers and sisters in Christ, emotionally, and spiritually, even if he was separated physically.

We need to be there for each other.  We are a body, and we can bless each other...or we can ignore each other.  Part of the secret of Paul’s strength and joy was the intimate, close fellowship he had with other believers.  I believe it’s what the Lord intends for us, and it’s one of the most powerful ways He demonstrates His love toward us.

“To live in prayer together is to walk in love together.” Margaret Moore Jacobs


January 3
Philippians 1:6:  “... being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”

This has to be one of the most reassuring verses in the Bible.  Paul says that he is confident that God is able to continue the work He has started. 

No matter how discouraged you feel about yourself or your circumstances, you can KNOW with confidence that God is working in your life.  As Pastor Chuck Smith says, “The work of the Spirit of God will continue in you.  It is based on the faithfulness of God.  He hasn’t taken you this far to dump you now!”

I know that we don’t always experience that confidence.  I worry – yes, worry, when I know I shouldn’t—that I might mess things up so badly that failure is the only outcome.  But you know what?  Sometimes failure is the only outcome.  Sometimes we just can’t make happen what we want to happen.  We can’t always change ourselves.  We can’t be who we want to be or live up to others’ expectations. 

It’s maddening—and sometimes depressing.  Paul went so far as to cry one day in sheer frustration and spiritual agony: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”( Romans 7:24).

Who?  We know Who. Hebrews 12:2 reminds us: “...looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”  Paul knew Who would never leave him nor forsake him.  Who would continue to work in his life. 

We can be confident that God, through Jesus Christ, will continue to work out the plan for our lives that He ordained from the foundations of the world.  He knows who we are.  He knows our weakness and vulnerabilities.  He doesn’t want us to ignore those parts of our lives or fear them  -- He knows what it will take for us to stay close to Him.  He will allow events and circumstances that will help us know without a doubt, that nothing will ever separate us from His love, and that until the day we go to heaven, He continues to work in our lives.

What a relief!

“We know that to those who love God, who are called according to His plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good.” —Romans 8:28 (J.B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English)




January 4
Philippians 1:8
For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.

The emotion in Paul’s declaration is strong.  He’s not just telling his friends he misses them.  He’s not just wondering how things are going at the office or in the neighborhood.  The words used here describe deep, inner affections.  He is separated from people he deeply loves and not afraid to say so.

Have you ever gone on vacation and just relished being away for those first few days?  New places and new people are interesting, distracting, and fill an emotional need, for the moment.  But if we are separated from people we love, eventually our thoughts and yearnings turn toward our true home, our distant family, and to friends of long standing whose lives are interwoven with ours.

Not everyone is blessed to be part of a close family, with parents, cousins, brothers, and sisters.  Some families are painful and difficult and maybe you don’t miss being away from them.  But a church family, fellow believers who love Jesus—while not perfect, and also difficult at times—can fill an important need in our lives.  In fact, the family of believers is meant to fill a need.

“The factor that most significantly determines my new identity as a Christian is not the blood of my biological family, but the blood of Jesus.  We are given a new name (Christian), a new inheritance (freedom, glory, hope, resources a hundredfold), and new power (the Holy Spirit)....and able to enjoy the absolute security and stability, freedom, intimacy, and confidence in prayer of children in God’s family,” Peter Scazzero writes. 1

When I think of the apostle Paul writing about his Christian brothers and sister, I can picture him, chained to a soldier, for he was still in prison, a wave of nostalgia sweeping over him, as he longed for the warmth and welcome of his friend Lydia’s home, for the hearty embrace of the jailer who had become his brother in Christ, and for the sweet hugs of the jailer’s children.  Little is mentioned in Scripture of Paul’s biological family. 

If you don’t have this kind of relationship with your brothers and sisters in Christ, then I encourage you to nurture those bonds of fellowship.  Get into small group studies, reach out to others, bear one another’s burdens.  Pray for each other, and soon you will find yourself loving each other, with a common bond of Jesus and His inexhaustible love.

“And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another...” (1 John 3:23).

1. Scazzero, Peter, The Emotionally Healthy Church, Zondervan, Grand Rapids Michigan, 2003, p. 98

January 5
Philippians 1:15-17
Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from good will: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.


The apostle Paul had a pretty good understanding of human nature.  He knew, no doubt from personal experience, all the sneaky little human motives and emotions that creep into our well intentioned ministries and work.  But he also knew that many shared their faith “out of love,” and for that he prayed, that their love would grow greater everyday.  

In other words, love can be learned!  You can get better at loving and at being loved!  That is tremendous news!  It brings hope to all of us who sometimes have difficult being that loving person we idealize in our hopes and dreams.

True love is more than giddy or warm feelings.  Love is a choice we make when we decide to follow Jesus and to love another more than ourselves. But it can be a hard choice, as we battle our human natures.

Sometimes I think we are afraid of true love – those warm, giddy feelings are easier to handle and less demanding.  In the Song of Solomon love is described as  “strong as death...it burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.  Many waters cannot quench love, nor can floods drown it.” (Song 8:6-7).

“Strong as death” seems like an odd description of love, until you consider that just as death cannot be held back and is inevitable, so love can be equally powerful and inevitable. Two potent forces, both capable of inciting joy, sorrow, anticipation, and fear.  Love and death are at opposite sides of the spectrum that often come around to meet each other.

Different yet alike —and the perceived “alikeness” is often what makes us fear the intensity of true love, the love that is ultimately from God.  Fear of totally giving in and giving up a part of ourselves are what make us run from love, hold it at arm’s length, and fail to embrace it.  But the alternative—the place we find ourselves when we push love away— is best described by C.S. Lewis:  “The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from the all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.” 1

I despair of my ability to love the way I want to —and I’m also probably a little afraid of it.  But I know that God’s love is so intense, passionate, consuming, and powerful that He was willing to give everything up, come to earth, and die—so we can learn and experience the joy of true love.

How do we grow in love?  First, if we love anything, we want to learn more about it.  If we love a person, we want to know more about him or her.  If we love Jesus, we will want to know more about Him!  But what if you don’t feel love?  That’s the good news.  Learn more about the one you love, especially, the Lord, and you will find yourself falling in love.

Secondly, love is sensitive to the mind and heart of the one who is loved.  If we blindly and blatantly hurt the feelings of the one we claim to love, that is not love at all. True love, then, is to grow ever more sensitive to Jesus, to His will and desires.  The more we grow to love Him, the more we will instinctively shrink away from evil and do what is right – and learn to love others. True love can be learned, nurtured by the Holy Spirit, and grow into something beautifully fulfilling.
JanJanuary 4Online Study Bible

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” —John 15:13

1. Lewis, C.S. The Four Loves (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1960), p. 169.

January 6
 Philippians 1:18
“What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”

Paul was in prison.  In prison!  Didn’t God make a mistake allowing this?  How could He allow this warrior of the cross to just be shut up like this?  Just when he was doing so much good.

Have you ever felt like that?  Just when things were going so well – wham!  It all comes to a screeching halt over some untimely circumstance.

And of course, when that happens, people start to talk.  And to judge.  Well, they say, God must really be dealing in his life...she must be doing something terribly wrong...makes you wonder what’s really going on...

Satan is called “the accuser of the brethren” (Rev. 12:10) for a reason.  He loves to stir up trouble among believers with innuendo, implied wrongdoing, gossip, and doubt about one another’s faith and character.  He loves to cause fellow believers to lay guilt trips on each other.  

Paul had his share of critics, who loved to accuse him of all sorts of wrongdoing and ill motives. Some were probably jealous.  Others just plain didn’t like him.  Some grieved over his imprisonment. Others were probably just as glad he was out of the way for awhile.  But Paul had learned a secret about rising above such circumstances.  He didn’t run from his despair or hardship.  He didn’t live in denial.  He lived in absolute faith that God knows what He’s doing.

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”  Romans 8:28

Paul knew his purpose; to preach the Gospel.  So no matter how it happened, in prison or out, through good motives or impure ones—he was able to rejoice because ultimately God was fulfilling His purposes in Paul’s life.

That’s how I long to live – rejoicing, in the midst of tears, laughter, pain or joy —knowing that in it all, God’s love never fails.


January 7
Philippians 1:20
"I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don't expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn't shut me up; they gave me a pulpit!" —from The Message


This is vital for each of our lives.  Paul knew his purpose for being alive, for existing on this earth.  He didn’t necessarily know what he was going to be doing all the time, but he knew why God created him.  And because of that, he was excited about life.  Listen to him:  “I can hardly wait to continue on my course.”  Oh that we would all wake up every day feeling like that!

Paul was free – even when he was in prison.  He possessed a kind of freedom I wish we all could know.  He had learned to be vulnerable, open, his weaknesses exposed, his faults on display, his failures open to public conjecture.  But he knew why he was alive.

The logo for a missionary organization has a picture of an ox on one side and an altar on the other.  Underneath are the words, “Ready for Either.”  Ready to work, ready to worship.  Ready for life, ready for death.  This was Paul’s motto.  He could be set free, physically.  Or he could be executed.  The door could swing either way, and he was ready.

Paul had one goal in life:  to bring Jesus closer to people.  To allow others to see Jesus through his life, to let people see His glory and grace. But we don’t usually see God’s glory and grace in people who seem perfect, intimidating and successful.  So Paul had to live his life in prison, and in public, letting the world see how Jesus would work in his life, strengthen his weaknesses, and work through Him in spite of his shortcomings.

Jesus had one goal during His life on earth: to show mankind the Father! He accomplished that through public ministry, or by just hanging out with people.  His life was filled with joy when He healed and taught people, or with sorrow as He wept for those who hurt.  He was admired and worshipped.  He was hated, He was rejected...and He was crucified. All so that we would come to know the Father more.

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.  We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the father, full of grace and truth”  (John 1:14. NIV).

“Man, made in the image of God, has a purpose—to be in relationship to God, who is there.  Man forgets his purpose and thus he forgets who he is and what life means.” —Francis Schaeffer




January 8
John 15:1-4

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit…Abide in Me and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

We’re a week into the New Year now, and have had time to reflect upon what God wants for us this year.  One of things that keeps coming up for me, is the Lord’s desire for a deep, personal, intimate relationship with us.  

We just celebrated Jesus’ birth, but have you really considered the means through which God chose to become human, to identify with us?  Birth! 
We can romanticize the scene with nativity scenes of a star-lit manger.  But as anyone who has ever witnessed childbirth knows, the reality is a painful, blood, sweat, and tears experience.  The Creator of the universe came to earth the same way all of us arrived—through the womb of His mother. 


Intimacy with God can be a bit scary, can’t it?  It reminds me of the story of Aslan in the “Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis.  Aslan the lion is an allegorical figure representing Christ.  One of the main characters, Lucy, asks Mrs. Beaver about Aslan:  “Then he isn’t safe?” 


“Safe?” said Mrs. Beaver.  “Who said anything about safe?  ‘Course he isn’t safe.  But he’s good.  He’s the King, I tell you.” 
 


No, God is not always “safe.”  He doesn’t allow us to remain as we are.  He challenges us to grow and to stretch and to deal with problems and issues head on. He takes us places we’re not sure we want to go.  But, as Mrs. Beaver said, He is good!  We can trust Him.  We can abandon our fears and go for intimacy with our heavenly Father, because we can trust in His goodness. 


I know the world is not a very safe place right now.  All of us feel the uncertainty, and all of us are dealing not only with world issues, but personal struggles as well.  Many of our lives are in crisis.  

The answer to that, and to finding intimacy with God, begins with the verse above, in John 15. 
Notice, the only responsibility of the branch (us) is to abide in Christ.  All the rest—the pruning, the cleansing, the nurturing, strengthening—all of it is the vinedresser’s responsibility.  And that is exactly what He is doing in our lives.  Pruning our hearts through circumstances, hardships and changes, so that we will draw closer to His heart.
 


Jesus was born in just such a time as this—a time of upheaval, turmoil and danger.  But, come to think of it, since that day in the Garden when Adam and Eve disobeyed and paradise was lost, when hasn’t the world been touched by hardship and tragedy? 
 
Life can be hard—but that’s why we need to cling to the hope that is in Jesus.  To all who are weary, frightened or unsure of the future, Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled,” and “Follow Me.”  

Jesus is God’s love manifested to the world in human form.  He is the Father’s way of saying, “I love you, I want to bless you and I long to draw you closer and closer to Me, to give you a life of joy, peace and love.”
 


May we all cling to the Vine in this new year! 




January 9
Philippians 1:21
“For me to live is Christ...”

“For me to live is...”  If someone asked you to finish that sentence without much time to think, what would you say?

For me to live is...sports?  Shopping?  Music?  Family?  Work?  The person I’m in love with?  Fill in the blank.  

But if I am able to say in all sincerity “to live is Christ”...then I can follow that bold statement with what Paul said next:  “to die is gain.”

Paul lost a lot before he was able to make such a bold statement.  I don’t know if I can honestly say that I always feel like “to die is gain.”  I love my life and want to hang onto it and to the people I love.

Paul was a guy who, even though he came from a place of prestige, education and respect, had a radical conversion.  Then his life began to unravel.  He was mistrusted, persecuted, reviled -- even hated.  He developed a physical infirmity which no amount of prayer healed. “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me,” he said (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).  “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’”

Becoming a Christian made Paul weak in many respects – or at least made him capable of recognizing his weaknesses. He was honest, vulnerable and broken.  He shared freely how difficult, fractured, and broken he was. He had no need to protect his image, or misrepresent who he was. And yet, indeed, the Lord worked through Paul as he ministered to strengthen and build the people God loved.  

In all this, he was content, happy, and so committed, that he could exclaim, “for me to live is Christ!”   

He had discovered what it means to be truly alive.

“Fear not that your life shall come to an end, but rather that it shall never have a beginning.” —John Henry Newman

January 10
Philippians 1:22-26
“But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.”

Caught between two worlds.  That’s how we live.  Bishop Moule put it, “I am held in suspense on both sides.” We are suspended between two glorious alternatives:  To enjoy this wonderful gift of life, working, serving God, bringing others to Christ.  Or...go to heaven!  But we need to take a cue here from Paul.  There are reasons we are here, even when our hearts say it’s time to go to heaven.

The apostle said he DESIRES to be with Jesus in heaven.  The literal translation of that desire is an intense craving, a deep longing.  It is what he wants most.  But, he realizes that God has a call on his life.   To stay, he says, “is more needful for you.”  We are here for people.

A friend of mine was saying recently that he has trouble sitting in church because sometimes he feels like after so many years, he’s heard it all.  But then, he said, besides acknowledging his own need for weekly fellowship and the Word, he also needs to be there for others.  Every week, he makes it a point to be available to someone who needs to talk or pray or just greet a friend.

God does not give us this desire for heaven (“eternity in our hearts,”  Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:11) just to cruelly deny us year after year.  He leaves us here on earth, suspended, so that we may be vessels of His love and grace to others.  And so that we can experience His love for us through other people.

“We are all strings in the concert of His joy.”  —Jacob Boehme


January 11
Philippians 2:2-4
“...fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.  Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”


Do you know that connecting with people actually fills us with joy?  Giving, receiving, and thinking about things together is the best therapy for our own angst and dissatisfaction. “ I hope to visit you and talk to you face to face,” wrote the apostle John (2 John 12), “so that our joy might be complete.”

 We are to look out for one another and care about each other’s interests. But we are also warned to be careful how we do it.

Truly connecting and engaging people in our lives is more than just being with other people and interacting. Mike Mason writes of a time when he sat on a plane, and being in a good mood, struck up a conversation with a young man. The time passed quickly and they covered a lot of conversational territory. Then he says, “It dawned on me that as much as I enjoyed our conversation, it was not the young man I had enjoyed so much as my own charm and conviviality. I’d been absorbed in being interesting without being truly interested.”1

I hate it when that happens. Haven’t we all been guilty of being “interesting without being truly interested?” That reduces people to becoming mere reflections of us, our ego, and our interests – rather than us seeing other people as reflections of God and His interests.

“In lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself,” the apostle wrote (above).  Wow.  Do we really look at others with admiration and esteem, thinking, “You know, she, in spite of her problems and trials, is better than me.  She handles her lot in life better than I could.”  

But what joy we will find – indeed we are promised – if we can take these Scriptures to heart and look at other people with a genuine desire to care for their cares, to see them as God sees them—and as the reason we are still here on this earth.

“There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” —Vincent Van Gogh

1.  Mason, Mike, Practicing the Presence of People (Waterbrook Press, Colorado Springs, 1999).




January 12
Mark 9:33-35 (NIV)
"They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?"  But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.  Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

Last...and the servant of all.  Those are hard words to live.  

Mother Teresa taught us a lot about servant hood; she represents what I know to be a host of believers scattered throughout history and the world, who will never be famous, will seldom receive acknowledgment for their service, but who are great people. Period.

To be that kind of servant—how do they do it?  What motivates their hearts?  How can someone like Mother Teresa give up so much, spend so much of her life amongst the poorest, dirtiest, most forgotten segments of humanity?

I think author Mike Mason might have uncovered the secret behind such service.  About Mother Teresa he wrote:  “She went to gutters and garbage heaps, to places where humanity itself had been thrown away and left to rot, and she set to work patiently and tenderly restoring to people the dignity of being human.... Mother Teresa’s days began in prayer, and after meeting God in prayer she went out into the streets of Calcutta to meet Him in the form of people.... her primary goal was not to better the lot of the poor, not to alleviate the suffering of the sick, not even to save lives. Rather, her goal was to recover the image of God in people.”1

Mother Teresa accomplished her mission, one person at a time, looking into the dirty, smudged faces of the sad, the poor, and the diseased of this world (which is really all of us in some form), and by gently wiping away the dirt, cupping a small face in her hands, and smiling into those eyes, she communicated love and acceptance. And then, I just know, she saw the reflection of God; she restored the image of God in a person who the rest of the world would have thrown away.

Can we do any less with the people around us? All of us are surrounded by people whose lives are marred and smudged with burdens that weigh them down, and create in them anxiety, unrest, and unhappiness. Can we love and serve one such person back into God’s image? Can we walk out of our doors every morning and expect to witness God’s glory in the lives of our family, friends and co-workers?  Can we throw down our egos, our lives, our self-importance, and be “the servant of all”?

1. Mason, Mike, Practicing the Presence of People (Waterbrook Press, Colorado Springs, 1999).

January 13
Philippians 2:5-7 (NIV)
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”

It’s a classic example and most of us have been guilty of it in some form at some time.  A guy comes into the church, says he wants to serve God and is available – what can he do?  Well, once when this happened at our church, the most pressing need at the moment was to get the front sidewalks swept before church that evening – they were a mess. The guy reluctantly took a broom, did a halfhearted job, thanked us for the “opportunity” and left.

There was no intention to insult him, but he much later admitted that his attitude was pretty unservant-like.  “I was fuming,” he says.  “I tell you guys I want to serve the Lord and someone hands me a broom. I’m thinking, I HIRE people to sweep my sidewalks...don’t they know who I am and how much I have contributed to the church? I just didn’t get it—until later when I began to understand the nature of Jesus.”

Picture Jesus as he lived, touching the lepers, the lame, the unlovely, healing the sick and befriending the poor... Jesus dining with sinners, ministering to prostitutes, surrounded by clamoring throngs of people who wanted to touch the hem of His garment.  Jesus walked amongst humanity, not afraid to “get dirty” or to pour love into their lives.  Earlier I wrote about how much God loves us, woos us, and pursues us.  This was part of His great pursuit—denying Himself the power of the godhead, the glory of heaven, and becoming one of us. He denied Himself to love us...so that we can deny ourselves to love Him back, and in turn, love others.

“We can do little things for God: I turn the cake that is frying on the pan, for love of Him; and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before Him who has given me grace to work; afterward I rise happier than a king.” —Brother Lawrence

January 14
Philippians 2:8
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Jesus manifested His greatness by taking steps down. While the rest of the world is intent on climbing up...up the corporate ladder, up to a better neighborhood...up to higher education...higher office—Jesus stepped down, for us.

He was God, equal with God, and He deliberately emptied Himself and came to earth in the form of a humble servant.  Jesus stepped down from glory and equality with almighty God, to the cruel Roman cross, where He hung for our sins before an angry, jeering mob, despised and rejected by mankind.

That’s a big step down, from the highest height, to the lowest, most humiliating death known to the world at that time, death upon the cross. 

It’s hard to step down. To give up something you’ve worked hard to attain or let go of a position that you know isn’t right for you.  Or to volunteer for a job that seems beneath your level of education or competence.  But if you feel that tug of the Holy Spirit, calling you to let it go, to humble yourself, let go of the ego or the need to be in charge, and step down to serve others, remember what Jesus did for us.  And through obedience, you will also know great joy.

“There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart.” —St. Augustine


January 15
Romans 8:1
“There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave us one of the most celebrated lines in modern speech making and literature.  Quoting an old spiritual, he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial one day in 1963, and proclaimed to his listeners:

"Free at last!  Free at last!  Thank God Almighty, we are free at
last!"

I know that he was referring to a hope and a dream of a day when “all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing” those now famous words. He was talking about freedom from prejudice and discrimination, freedom to live as God intends us to live.  I believe he also understood spiritual freedom, and nowhere is spiritual freedom more proclaimed than in Romans 8:1, one of the boldest, most freeing and revolutionary statements found in any sacred writing: “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ.”
Do you know what it means to live with “no condemnation?”  Or to be “in Christ?” Condemnation is a curse.  It is a poison on the planet that leads to despair, and discouragement and even the kind of religious fanaticism that leads to terrorism and racism.  Condemnation is the sad result of a spiritual life gone wrong.
How do you know if you are living under condemnation? Condemnation is easy to recognize because:
• You feel guilty all the time, like you’re just not quite good enough. 
•  You’re fearful, sensing that somehow things are not quite right between you and God and you’re afraid that someday, somewhere, He’s going to get you. 
•  You live with a profound sense of rejection.  You might know in your mind, intellectually, that God has accepted you and forgiven you, but in your heart you always feel not quite loved or accepted.  This translates into how you view and interact with other people as well—and causes you to reject others through prejudice or fear.
The Christian life is an exchange.  We exchange an old life for a new one.  We replace bad habits with new ones.  We exchange a sentence of death for the gift of eternal life.  We replace fear with freedom.
Fear is one of the last great strongholds in many of our lives.  We can know we are saved, relish a new life in Christ, rejoice over newfound joy, peace and love—and yet we can still be haunted and nagged by the shadow that follows us, threatening to ruin everything.
Do you know what the answer is to fear?  Romans 8:1!  “There is no condemnation…” There is no doom, no gloom, no reason to be afraid.  When you are “in Christ,” He is also “in you,” the hope of glory, filling you with His Spirit, driving fear away. 
You can’t be free and be controlled by fear.  Fear is the worst kind of tyranny and oppression.  It hinders life and paralyzes its victims.  Fear quenches the Spirit, and deceives us into forgetting that we have a Heavenly Father, who promises, “For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).
Romans 8:1 is one of the most liberating statements to ring through eternity.  And, for those who have given their lives to Jesus, it is the truth—the truth that will set us free. 
When I contemplate the meaning of this powerful Scripture, I want to echo the words of Martin Luther King, and cry with joy,  “Free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”1


1. Martin Luther King, “I Have A Dream Address,” August, 1963.

For a more complete study on the subject “Why We are Free”, see Pastor Ray’s article HERE

January 16
James 4:10
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord...

We talk about being humble a lot in church.  We see Jesus’ example.    We see people we regard as humble. But I’m not sure it’s that easy to wake up one day and decide to be...humble.  We may desire to be, but becoming humble is a work that I believe God does in our hearts, often through circumstances that remind us of just how human we really are.

Uriah Heep is a villainous character in Charles Dickens’ novel, “David Copperfield.”  Known for rubbing his hands together and declaring , “I’m so ‘umble.” Uriah Heep’s name became synonymous with a hypocritically humble person.  He personified false humility.

Now that’s an extreme example, and none of us intends to be a “Uriah Heep.”  But what is the one thing that can keep us from being humble?  What is it that Jesus let go of?  He let go of everything that would tempt Him with pride. He let go of His position, His strength, and the invulnerability He possessed as God.  He allowed Himself to be broken and vulnerable.

Pastor Peter Scazzero writes, “...leadership in the kingdom of God is from the bottom up, not a grasping, controlling, or lording it over others.  It is leading out of failure and pain, questions and struggles—a serving that lets go.”1

Spiritually —and emotionally—healthy people are humble, because they allow themselves to be real, and to be broken, vulnerable, and to let go, because Jesus did.

1. Scazzero, Peter, The Emotionally healthy Church (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2003.

January 17
Philippians 4:10b
...and He will lift you up.

The Christian life is a paradox.  We die to ourselves to live.  We give to receive.  The first shall be last.  We can only be lifted up if we willingly step down.  And we can’t do any of the first steps with the sole intention and motive of receiving the second part of the paradox.  We are called to abandon ourselves to faith – but not to be stupid just for the sake of testing God and getting what we want.

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it, “ Jesus said, explaining how this works (Matthew 16:25).

Jesus stepped down from Glory – and was ultimately lifted up.  His resurrection was prophesied and promised. “...because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay” (Psalm 16:10). 
Jesus went from Glory to Glory – but in between, there was the Cross.

The Lord will not abandon us to a grave of despair or failure, nor will He allow our lives to be decayed by sin. He died for us, that that we might live in victory, in the abundant life He longs for us to live.  First comes brokenness, vulnerability, humility —then the tender mercy of God as He lifts us up to live in the comfort of His grace and love. 

January 18
1 John 3:1
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us...

Who are you?  Do you ever stop and wonder about why you are here and what your life means? 
 
A young man, college student age, nervously fiddles with the edge of the big Bible on his lap.  He sits in our church counseling office and tries to explain that he’s confused.  About life…about his future…about God.  “I just don’t know who I really am,” he finally admits.
 


A middle-aged man suddenly realizes that the course of his life hasn’t followed his dreams.  He’s feeling his age.  He‘s tired of his job.  His kids are growing up and growing distant.  He begins to question everything about his life from his marriage to his faith.  He looks in the mirror and wonders who that person is and what his life is all about. 
 


A busy woman, with a family, a job, and lists of commitments that keep her running and worn out often stops in her rare quiet moments and wonders, “Is this who I am?  Is this what I am meant to be doing?”


The human race suffers from a huge identity crisis!  Most of us don’t realize who were are, and who we are meant to be. 
 


We are God’s creation, made in His image, according to His likeness.  Thousands of years of sin, corruption, sorrow and disease may have broken us down into something barely recognizable to anyone who had known Adam and Eve in their before-the-fall state. 
 But we are still God’s creation! He sent His Son, Jesus, to restore us and to make us alive once again through His Spirit.  When we ask Jesus into our lives, He makes us “new creatures”  and gives us a new identity. We may carry the outward marks of living in this world, but our souls and spirits are once again back in the garden with Him.


Who are we? 
 
We are “children of God” (John 1:12) and friends of God (John 15:14).  We are servants of the Almighty, and we are heirs to all that He has to give us (Romans 8:17).  The Bible says that through Him we are “renewed in the spirit” of our minds (Ephesians 4:23), that we will never thirst (John 4:14), never perish (John 3:16), and that we can know and experience the width, length, depth and height of the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:18-19).
 


Who are we?  We are BELOVED. 
Throughout the Scriptures, God calls His people “beloved.” 
King Solomon, in the Song of Solomon, wrote of human love, but the Song is also an allegory of God’s love for us.  “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine!” he proclaimed. 
 


Remember who you are. God’s beloved.


January 19

Mathew 27:46
Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus, God’s most beloved, knew all about glory and power and love; He also knew great sorrow.  And He didn’t run from it, gloss over it, or pretend  that sadness and distress weren’t present in His life.  He wept over Lazarus, He cried over Jerusalem.  And on the cross, He cried the ancient cry of the psalmist as He poured out the words that came from His broken heart.  “My God! Why have You forsaken Me?”

I am all for praising God.  I believe in the power of praise and worship.  But I also know there are times when God knows we need to grieve, and we need to be honest about our sorrow.  Jesus on the cross didn’t cry out, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow!  Victory is mine!” or any such thing.  He cried in agony and flung His pain and heartache out to His Father.

Will there be victory?  Will there be healing.  Yes.  God promises it. Here, and in the hereafter. There is a resurrection after the crucifixion.  But in the meantime, it is no sin to honestly hurt and grieve.  In fact, it is a sin not to.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. —Revelation 21:4


January 20

Luke 5:4
Launch out into the deep...

For most of my adult life, I saw the majority of the mass of humanity as a river of suffering —a persistent flow of poverty, famine, disease, and heartache—while I stood on the shore, gamely throwing in an occasional life preserver.  Then I would turn away, unable to bear the suffering.

I couldn’t stand to watch the pictures of famine, and of suffering; of children with distended bellies and mothers with dried up breasts futilely trying to feed their babies. I saw these images and clicked the channel or turned the page.  I told the Lord I couldn’t handle the heartbreak.  That surely I would die.

Meanwhile, God put people in my life who were doing what I could only fear.  They were in the middle of that massive river, engaged, involved, and making a difference, one person at a time. They were challenging me, inviting me to jump in.  I resisted for the longest time, until I couldn’t.  My time had come.

So, I went to Africa.  I went the first time, armed with knowledge and encouragement and a boyish sense of excitement.  I was going on safari!  But I was not prepared for how the Lord would change my life. The next trip pulled me in. God was pulling me into the river, urging me to “go deeper.”

Jesus often challenged His disciples to “go deeper.”  Once when Simon Peter and his fellow fisherman had experienced a frustrating night of fishing with little in their nets to show for it, Jesus came along and gave them some unusual instructions.  Now, these fishermen usually worked at night, when it wasn’t so hot, and they fished close to shore in the shallows where the fish gathered.  But Jesus told them to “launch out into the deep,” in the day time, and then cast their nets.

Peter argued a bit, no doubt tempted to flaunt his many years as an experienced fisherman.  But by now, he had come to respect Jesus, so after a mild protest, he responded, “at Your word I will let down my net.”

So they went deep, and their nets were filled to the point of breaking. Peter ended up throwing himself down at Jesus’ feet, and Jesus prophesied Peter’s future, declaring, “From now on, you will catch men.”  Peter and friends “forsook all and followed Him” (Luke 5:1-11).

So we went to one of the hardest places in Africa.  We went deep, pulled into the river, where I thought I would surely die.  And you know what? My heart was broken, and I was grieved at the pain and suffering I saw, but I did not die.  In fact, our nets were filled to overflowing with the beauty of the people we met, whose lives touched ours as much as we ministered to them.

The children who gathered around at the orphanages blessed us.  They would grab our hands, five or ten at a time, just to feel some reassuring adult contact.  It was an honor to be there, to be “Jesus with skin” to the children who have so little.

Don’t be afraid to go deeper, to launch out where the Lord directs.  Don’t stand on the shore of life and watch the river flow by.  Don’t harden your hearts to the sounds and needs of humanity.  Jesus didn’t.  He heard it all.  He wept, He prayed, and He gave Himself.

Look around you—whether it be overseas or right in your own neighborhood, the river flows constantly, the needs are great.   Is it messy?  Uncomfortable? Tiring?  Even dirty and painful at times?  Oh yes. But you won’t die from the heartache or the giving.  You’ll find joy. In fact, only then will you be truly alive.

January 21
Philippians 3: 12-14
...I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Press on...I can almost hear the theme song to “Chariots of Fire” when I read these verses. The apostle Paul was running a race which began by being struck down on the road to Damascus, surrounded by a heavenly light and the voice of Jesus.

Again, the paradox. He began his race by falling down, overwhelmed by what he was experiencing.  Then when he finally got up, he was blind. For three days he was without sight, until the Lord sent another believer, Ananias, to lay hands on Paul so that Paul could receive his sight, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and be baptized into the faith.  From there he went on to fulfill God’s purpose for his life.

Paul needed to forge ahead.  He had a history of pride, of persecuting the saints, of being hated and reviled.  He did a lot of things wrong!  But he repented, and now he had a purpose for his life.  Paul had to deal with his past, and in the beginning of his ministry, many believers didn’t trust him. But now he had a chance to make amends, and to demonstrate the sincerity of his faith and love for others. He couldn’t let the past hold him back or bog him down.

My brothers and sisters, I know our lives are filled with past mistakes, sin, pain, and hurtful things done to us or by us.  I also know that God forgives and redeems and urges us forward.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” —1 John 1:9

“Life can only be understood backward; it must be lived forward.” —Soren Kierkegaard




January 22

Psalm 147:3
He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds.

What becomes of the broken hearted?
 
I heard that old song on the radio the other day and the lyrics rather haunted me.  I know there are many people who have to deal with all the things that old song speaks of:  broken dreams, disillusion and confusion.
 A broken heart is a wound to the soul, inflicted through loss, betrayal, misunderstandings, and fear of the unknown. 

Circumstances at home, work, or in your community can so deeply affect you that you literally feel a pain in your chest and wonder how you will bear it.  Sometimes we grieve for another’s sorrow or pain and make it our own.



I’ll tell you what becomes of too many broken hearted people.  They hurt.  They run, they try to cover their wounds with false bravado or phony optimism.  They numb their pain with busy work, drugs, drink, entertainment…whatever works for a while.   But those things are temporary band-aids for a wound that needs deep cleansing and healing.
 
I’ll tell you what becomes of the broken hearted when they allow God’s Holy Spirit to reach into their hearts.  God promises to heal the broken hearted and tend their wounds. 
 Does this happen in a second?  Do the pain and the problems disappear at the utterance of a prayer?  Not usually.  Notice that the Scripture above promises healing and binding.  The binding process is like caring for a physical trauma.  Recognizing the nature of the wound, understanding what caused the damage, then cleansing the wound and ridding it of infection are crucial to the process. 
 God will do a similar work in our hearts.  No quick band-aids and temporary pain relief.  Rather, we will experience a deep, life-changing work of the Holy Spirit which drives us closer to God, our Great Physician.

 He will take us to the foot of the Cross, where His blood was poured out for the very sins that inflict such pain and heartache upon the world.  He will expose this wound for what it is, root out its causes and cleanse us from the infection of bitterness and sin.
 In the midst of it all, God sends His Comforter, the Holy Spirit. The Spirit holds our hands and lets us know we are loved as we go through this process, reminding us that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)!
 


And then, blessed relief!   His promises are true.  He will bind and heal our wounds.  And from the depths of our tender and healing heart, He can now begin to manifest the attributes of His Spirit:  love, joy, peace, patience and all the gifts God wants us to have.  All the reasons He allows such trials into our lives.
 
 


What becomes of the broken hearted?   In God’s kingdom, ultimately, good things.
 


 “Let God cover your wounds, do not do it yourself.  For if you wish to cover them, because you are ashamed, the Physician will not come.  Let Him cover; for by the covering of the Physician the wound is healed; by covering the wound yourself, the wound is merely concealed.  And from whom?  From Him who knows all things.”
 —St. Augustine


January 23

Philippians 4:4
“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”

Just reading those words –“ rejoice in the Lord always!”—puts a melody in my mind, and a picture of children singing their Sunday school lessons.  It’s a happy sound.  But not a simplistic thought.

The apostle Paul’s answer to life’s problem was simple – rejoice in the Lord—always! Rejoicing is an act of will, not always in agreement with what’s in our hearts.  But rejoicing in God’s love actually creates a climate change around us.  Discord dies when people are rejoicing together.  Distressing thoughts are replaced by thoughts of the Lord, His love, His nearness, His comfort, wisdom, power, and care.

The truth is, that life can be grim.  There are times when we are called upon to carry a burden that threatens to crush us to dust.  Painful grieving over lost ones or fearful circumstances can cause us to even long for death.

Regret can eat away at our insides; remorse may tear out our hearts until we groan the agony of a soul in pain.

Paul’s answer was not meant to be simplistic or denying reality.  He knew the secret to surviving such crushing pain.  Rejoice – rejoice in God’s power, His love, His ability to carry us through terrible times.

I have been through such a time, when “rejoicing” was expressed through gritted teeth and bitter lips.  When there is NOTHING to rejoice in except the Lord, because all else seems to have failed. God understands when we are humanly incapable of rejoicing.  It is His power and His Spirit that give us the inner joy that bubbles to the surface as “rejoice!”

That’s when we learn that the Lord is too wise to make mistakes in our lives, too loving to ignore us, too powerful to have His purposes thwarted, too involved in all that concerns us to be aloof and distant.  The Lord can “restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25),  “heal the brokenhearted” (Isaiah 61:1), and turn evil into saving grace. 


“He who obeys the command 'rejoice in the Lord,' has a hallelujah in his soul every minute of the day and night.” —A. C. Dixon (1854-1925)
your comments:  media@maranathachapel.org


January 24
2 Chronicles 20:21-22
“And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: ‘Praise the Lord, For His mercy endures forever.’  Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.”

King Jehoshaphet of ancient Judah faced a great crisis—one that could destroy his nation and cause him to die.  Three en