A Birthday and a Callling

A Birthday and A Calling

Today marks 41 years to the day since I accepted Jesus as my Savior and Lord. I wasn’t naughty. If you lived in my home, you didn’t dare be naughty. I didn’t take drugs or drink alcohol. I made mostly A’s in school. I was working on being self-sufficient. It’s necessary in today’s world to take care of yourself because no one else would, right? Still, I was like most people; I ran from God as He pulled on my heart.

I don’t know of what I was afraid; I had experienced love in the church and from the church staff for years. No one in the church had ever hurt me, but instead showed and taught me about God’s love. I learned the endearing songs “Jesus Loves Me” and “Jesus loves the little Children” as a preschooler in church. I heard the stories of Jesus’ birth, Lazarus’ resurrection from the dead, Jesus turning water into wine, and His healing of people-the leper, the blind man, the woman who bled for years. Still, when God called to my heart and mind, I ran. When I say I ran, I mean I literally ran. I couldn’t tell you who was at the door, but I knew it was church people when the bell rang. I ran upstairs to my room, out the back door, and down the fire escape.

Why did I run? I really don’t know still. Maybe it had to do with that drive to be self-sufficient. Maybe I didn’t want to lean on anyone. It’s possible, the Father figure of God scared me, like my father scared me. I think the biggest reason I ran from God is why most people run. I was afraid of what He would ask me to do.

Remember all the stories in the Bible of which you’ve heard. God called Abraham to be His man. He told Abraham He would make him the father of a great nation, then told him to go to a land he would show him. God told Moses to go to Egypt and set His people free. God called Samuel while a little child and used him to be His prophet. He called Isaiah, convicted his heart of his sin, then sent him out to be a prophet. Jesus called each of the disciples to follow Him. They didn’t know they would follow Him to the cross. You get my point here. It seemed when God called people, He called them to sacrifice themselves, their lives, and their stuff. I had my whole life ahead of me. I was afraid of what God would call me to do. I was afraid. That’s how I re-entered my parent’s house at 14 years old.

I remember nothing else about that night except that I didn’t run from God anymore. My life started revolving, by my choice, around church-choir, youth group, Sunday School. I didn’t go to church anymore just for a haven or to be with people who loved me. I went to church to know God more. I couldn’t get enough of Him. When the youth played on a Friday night, I read my Bible on the church steps. When a special youth week occurred, I was there devouring the Word. During that week, I sensed God telling me I would be a minister’s wife. That was the second time I realized God was speaking to me. Then I remembered, when I was nine years old and in Sunday School, I felt God softening my heart for missionaries. My teachers taught about them that day and the page they gave me to color was about Thailand.

That fourteenth summer of my life one other thing happened that brought me to the foot of the cross. A young adult woman took an interest in me. She was ten years older than me, but she decided to include me in her life. This young lady picked me up and took me to the mall, to burger restaurants, to choir, and to church. One snowy day, we arrived at her apartment to sled down the hills around her apartment complex. After sledding, we made hot chocolate in her kitchen and then sat on the floor. After some quiet (remember, God was working on my heart), I asked her why she cared about me. I had never known her before she chose to care about me. Her response changed me forever. She said, “I love you because Jesus loves you and me.” My glass wall shattered! Why? Because someone loved me when she didn’t have to.  She chose to love me.

God’s love through Jesus Christ shattered my wall and I have never been the same. His love shattered my defenses of self-sufficiency and fear. I realized without Him I could do nothing. Paul said this positively in Philippians 4:13 when he said, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Jesus stated it explicitly in John 15:5. He said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

At that time, I realized I need not fear. God loves me more than anyone. His love wants only the best for me, so why should I fear what He may call me to do. The greatest Bible verse we all have memorized expressed God’s love. John 3:16 tells us how great God’s love is for us. It says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Since God loves me enough that He sent His Son to die for me (for my sins), and for the whole world for all time, then I can trust Him and not fear. David wrote about the coming Messiah throughout the Psalms. In Psalm 27:1, he declared his faith in Yahweh. He said, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread?”

At that point in time, when I was 14 years old, God told me He loved me enough to send His Son to die for me. He told me He is my light and salvation; I have nothing to fear. Through the Bible, God also told me that without Him, I can do nothing. Faced with these three absolutes, I realized my mortality, sinfulness, and need of the Savior and Lord. Without fearing to what He would call me in the future, I walked into His loving, open arms and gave my heart and life to Him. God gave me a new birthday, a spiritual birthday. Today, I say, “Happy birthday, to me. Thank you, Jesus.”

We don’t know to what God will call us. Neither do we know what we will face in the future without God. The future without God is unknown. A future with God, we understand, holds love, guidance, strength, and provision. There is nowhere we can go that God won’t find us. Likewise, there is nowhere God can send us that He won’t love, protect, provide, and guide us. What is fear? It is fearing the unknown. With God, nothing is unknown. We realize He loves us. That is what is important. I didn’t know where God would call me to walk or work in the future, but I trusted Him and His heart implicitly.

Where do you stand today? Are you afraid of the future? Do you feel unloved? God loves you now, just as you are. Go to Him and His love and you will never need fear what will come against you, or of being alone and unloved. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31 [NASB])

We know that God causes all things to work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Just as it is written, “For your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:28-39 [NASB])

Lord, God, I realize I am a sinner in need of a Savior. Thank You for dying for me and for Your forgiveness. Thank You for Your love that never gave up on me and never will give up on me. Please take my heart today and make it anew for Your purposes. I trust You and have no fear. You are God and know all things. Whom shall I fear? I am Yours for Your purposes. Amen.

Created for a Purpose (Jeremiah 1)

Jeremiah 1:4-8, 19 (NASB)

4 Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." 6 Then I said, "Alas, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak because I am a youth." 7 But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am a youth,' because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak.” 8 “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you," declares the LORD.
19 “They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you," declares the LORD.

          In first looking at the book of Jeremiah, you wonder what God would have you learn from such an old book. After all, the book of Jeremiah is about the Israelites’ idolatry and God’s punishment upon them, their future restoration, and the coming Messiah. For Christians today, seeing God’s activity in the world of that time reminds us that God is active and He requires faithfulness from His children. Before Jeremiah spoke of these things, though, we read of his call by God and His plans for him before He formed him in his mother’s womb (verse 5). Before God tells Jeremiah he is His chosen prophet to the children of Israel and other nations, God tells Jeremiah He created Him for a purpose. Is that not what we each want to hear? God created you because He has a purpose for you, which requires being in a relationship with Him, the omnipotent and omniscient LORD. It matters not if you are young, old, a poor speaker, a persecutor, weak, sick, strong, poor, or just plain human. What ultimately matters is God created you because He loves you. He can accomplish what He wants through a yielded heart and life.

          Let us consider the lives of Samuel and David. Samuel was an answer to the prayers by a tearful woman (1 Samuel 1:1-20). His name came from Hannah’s tearful prayer to God. Hannah named him Samuel, which means, "God has heard" (vs. 20). He was a young boy of three or four years of age when Hannah gave him to Eli as a minister to the LORD (1 Samuel 1:11 & 28). Did Samuel do anything of great value? Did he own anything of great worth at this tender age? No, Samuel did not, but whose he was became why he was important to God. When Hannah birthed Samuel, she gave thanks to the LORD. Hannah gave him back to God for His service because God listened to her cries for a child. Samuel was important because He was God’s.

Jesse loved David. His mother, Nitzevet, doted upon him. David was the youngest of eight boys in his family. He was the lowest on the totem pole in his family and given the most menial jobs in the family - guarding the sheep and serving his brothers. God did not choose David for his great physical stature or for being the best guard of sheep. He chose David for his heart (1 Samuel 13:14 & 16:7). David was the least important man in his family. He owned no riches and won no accolades. David was just a young man with a heart for God.

          We can continue to look at others called by God for His purpose. Consider Esther. She was a young woman with whom the king fell in love. Through Esther’s position with the king, she could thwart prejudice and injustice towards the Jews (Esther 8:4-10). Did she have anything of personal or monetary value? Esther had a heart for God.

Consider Paul, too. He held a high public position as a Pharisee who had great learning and zeal for the LORD. Paul was an enforcer of the law and a persecutor of the followers of Jesus. It looks as if he had great knowledge and wisdom to offer God. Did God need any of these things for His Word to spread and believers to come to Him? No, God just needed a heart tuned to Him. Paul, though well educated, had nothing to offer God but his heart. His teachers trained him to perceive and listen to God’s voice. Through this doorway, Jesus came to him. Paul heard Jesus on the road to Damascus. Jesus did not ask Paul to enforce the law. He told him to proclaim the truth of the Gospel. Jesus gave him the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 9).

          Now, let us go back in time again to Moses. God called him to His service through the burning bush experience (Exodus 3). Moses’ mother and people taught him about the God of the Israelites. Pharaoh’s daughter raised him in Pharaoh’s home. Moses had the advantage of an excellent education. He had the power of being Pharaoh’s second in command. When God crossed Moses’ path via the burning bush, Moses was a shepherd for his father-in-law, Jethro. By then, He lost his stature, his power, and his money, but he did not lose Yahweh. God stood with him and called him to his service. Moses objected to the LORD’s calling because he felt unprepared and an inadequate speaker. God did not let him go that easily. He appointed his brother, Aaron, to speak for Him. Moses became the leader of the Israelites leaving Egypt. He knew who God was. Moses recognized the sound of God’s voice and was in awe of His presence. He recognized he was in Yahweh’s presence and removed his shoes, covered his face and in humility, stood before God’s presence in the burning bush.

          Finally, let us consider Jeremiah. Jeremiah was the son of a priest of Israel. His father and the priests taught him about Yahweh since his birth. Jeremiah learned how to perceive and listen to God’s voice and how to make petitions and sacrifices to God. His teachers taught him the purpose priests since he would one day become a priest in the temple. What he did not realize was that God knew him before He formed him in his mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5). God had a plan for his life before Jeremiah existed. He dedicated and set Jeremiah apart to be His prophet to the nations, not just to Israel. God had plans for this young man from before his birth. What made God desirous to use him? Was it how he looked? Was it his position as a priest’s son? Did he have great wealth that God might need? No, it was none of these. God needs nothing because He is the creator of everything. What God wanted was Jeremiah’s heart, which God consecrated for His holy purposes before He created and birthed him. He wanted to use Jeremiah as His voice calling out to the Israelites and other nations to stop worshipping idols and turn to Him. Nothing Jeremiah did, said, or owned was the reason Yahweh picked him for His service. God prepared him to be His servant from before his creation. He set him apart for His purposes.

          What does this mean for us? Nothing we have done, are, or own can make us valuable to God for His use. Whose we are determines our value, not who we are. God chose David because of his heart for Him. He chose Esther because of her love for Him and His purposes. God chose Paul because of his heart and his ability to recognize, hear, listen, and obey Him. He chose each of these people because they had a heart for the LORD. Nothing they did, were, or possessed convinced God to use them.

God calls each of us because of His grace and mercy. This brings us to our final point. God does not call people today because of who they are, what they can do, or what they own. He calls us because He loves us, has mercy on us, and knows our hearts. We each must decide what is important for our own selves - money, power, stature, beauty, possessions, deeds, or relationship and love. I hope, after reading this lesson, you choose the latter. The former five things you do not own; they own you. The last indwells you through the Holy Spirit and you become a relational person seeking God’s heart of love, mercy, and forgiveness. We must decide for ourselves who we will serve. God has gives us life, food, shelter, clothes, protection, guidance, love, and salvation. We ultimately come to where Joshua arrived at the edge of the Jordan River and spoke to the Israelites. Whom do we serve - ourselves and our idols or God? Joshua made a definitive statement in Joshua 24:15,

If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods, which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

          What matters to God is a yielded heart and life to Him, not who we are, what we have, or what we have done. God loves us and chooses us because He created us. David said, “I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14 NASB). God made us in His image. We are His glory and show His glory. WE must choose whom or what we will serve.

For whom will you decide your life is to be devoted - yourself or the LORD?

 

Hearing and Knowing the Voice of God

1 Samuel 3:1-10

What I notice first in this passage of Scripture is Samuel resting in the temple after he helped Eli to bed. Why was Samuel in the temple? Maybe he was there to make sure the candles on the altar did not go out. Maybe Samuel was in the temple because there was no room elsewhere for him to lay. Maybe God designed it that way so he could be even closer to Eli. I am not sure any one of these is correct nor if all of them are incorrect. God’s ways are mysterious. We do know Samuel was close enough to Eli to be able to hear him should Eli call out for him. If he was close enough to hear Eli, was he close enough to hear God? We are soon to find out.

We see three times Samuel ran to Eli, assuming Eli called him. We see Samuel as a dutiful boy. He took care of the elder priest, even to being willing to wait upon him instead of sleep. Who was Eli that Samuel would live with him and obey him? Eli was not his father. Eli was the priest who prayed over Samuel’s mother, Hannah, when she cried to God regarding not having a child. He prayed for her and told her within the next year, when others came to the temple, she would have a child from her own body. This raised the spirit of Hannah. Hannah did have a child and Samuel was that child. When Hannah weaned Samuel, she did what is very difficult for mothers; she gave her son back to the Lord, in prayer and in action. She took Samuel to the temple one day and gave him into Eli’s care to use for the service of Yahweh in the temple. Hannah experienced the blessing of God and wanted to give the blessing back to Him for His use. What a great thank you to God. She gave back to Him 100% of what He blessed her with, a child, so Samuel began his service to Eli. Samuel helped Eli as he aged with things an old man finds difficult to do. Eli taught Samuel the ways and rituals of the Lord’s temple. He taught him how to read the Torah and to write. Eli was raising Samuel to be a priest.

At the time of this chapter, Samuel was perhaps aware of how God spoke to prophets of old based on his learning from the writings in the Torah and from stories handed down by Eli. Samuel was aware of God’s love and mercy through the stories of His love leading the Israelites out of Egypt. God shows He is a covenant God through the stories of Adam, Abraham, and Noah. I am sure Samuel was told, as well, of Yahweh’s personal interest in the lives of His people by the example of his own conception in Hannah. Samuel was acquainted with God through what he learned and read. Do we share the stories of God’s care, love, and mercy to our children or to the children of God with whom we have contact?  

Eli continued to teach Samuel; he was not finished with his job on earth yet. On this night in chapter 3, we find a voice calling out to Samuel three times and, each time, Samuel ran to his master, Eli. Eli did not scold him for waking him, but sent Samuel back to his bed. On the third time Samuel heard someone calling out to him, Eli discerned Samuel must have heard the voice of the Lord. When was the first time you heard the voice of the Lord and understood it to be God? Samuel was acquainted with Eli’s voice but never before heard Yahweh’s voice. Eli knew God’s voice and discerned God was calling for Samuel, the child given back to God by his mother. Eli instructed Samuel to answer God that he was listening and for Him to speak. Did Samuel follow Eli’s instruction without question or did he query Eli? Scripture does not say Samuel questioned Eli and he had no reason to doubt Eli’s instruction; Eli had been faithful to him these few years of Samuel’s time with him. Samuel trusted Eli. That is why Samuel responded the fourth time to God by saying he was listening. Samuel learned for himself the sound of God’s voice because Eli, his master, taught him. Samuel trusted Eli; long before he knew the sound of God’s voice, he trusted Yahweh because of Eli’s teaching. He trusted His heart. Do we teach others to trust God’s heart? Do we go beyond even that and teach them to take notice of God’s voice? 

Eli may well have been afraid and refused to teach Samuel to discern God’s voice; yet, he was still faithful to Yahweh and to his charge, Samuel. He doubtless understood, though, if Samuel was hearing a voice and he, the priest, was not, the message doubtless had something to do with him and his family. Remember, Eli’s sons were corrupt in their service to the Lord in the temple. Eli ignored this issue and did not reprimand his sons. God took issue with Eli for not disciplining them and with the sons for being unfaithful to Him and corrupting the temple worship. God spoke to Eli in the past and said he, his sons, and his bloodline would no longer be priests in the temple of God. To this date, God’s punishment had not occurred. Eli sensed, by God speaking to Samuel and bypassing him, God would be talking to Samuel regarding him and his sons. Eli was curious the next day and requested Samuel to tell him what God said to Samuel. The message from God was as Eli expected; God had told Samuel of the evil in the house of Eli and His punishment of them. 

There had been prophetic silence in the land of Israel for many years. The Israelite’s hearts were hardened and their ears were deaf to God. God spoke to them in the past, but they did not heed Him and listen. By being closed to the Israelites, God was possibly disciplining them. We do not know for sure, but we do know through Samuel, God began speaking to the Israelites again. Samuel would become a prophet for almighty Yahweh in the midst of a hardened nation. God wanted to speak with Israel. He wanted to be in a relationship with them. The Israelites would not hear Him; they could not hear Him. God had to remove from the Israelites the evil that led them, the priests, and raise up a prophet who would give voice to His words. God determined Israel would hear from Him.

With this story come questions. Are we training our youth to recognize God, to know His heart and to be still and know and heed His voice? If we do not teach them to discern His voice, we are failing them and the Lord who tells us to teach our children to know Him and to love and serve Him. Are we as the Israelites, unable to perceive God anymore, or do we strive each day to keep in tune with Him so we can take notice of and be acquainted with His voice amongst the many others that clamor for our attention? With your consideration of this last question, you may have realized your heart has become hardened. Are you ready to turn around and open yourself for Yahweh God to remold you to be His child, to hear His voice? I challenge you today to ask yourself when the last time was you heard God’s voice. It is not too late today to turn around and look to God, to reacquaint yourself with His ways and His word. He wants to be familiar with you and you to Him.

 

Stones - For Glory or Dishonor?

   

            I have been pondering Absalom's treasonous act against David, the divinely appointed king of Israel, and Absalom's death and burial. Specifically, I have been pondering the significance of his dishonorable burial under a pile of stones instead of under the pillar he erected as a memorial to himself or in the burial place of kings and princes. While considering these things, I began recalling the significance of stones in the Bible. These daily devotions take you through what I have read and considered. Hopefully they will lead you to your rightful place, the Church of God, where He has provided the Cornerstone. 

Monday: Read Genesis 32:22-33:20. Altars were called Ebenezers, too. Ebenezer translated from the Hebrew means “stone of help.” Who set up a stone altar? Why? What was the place named because of it? El Elohe means “mighty is the God of Israel.” What did this ebenezar show about God? This was a spiritual marker of an important place where Jacob had an encounter with God. Jacob gave God a sacrifice of praise here.  

Tuesday: Read Genesis 35. Who set up this stone altar? Why? What was the place named because of it? Bethel means “house of God.” This altar/ebenezar was also set up because of an encounter Jacob had with God. God is given a sacrifice of praise here, too.  

Wednesday: Read Joshua 4:5-9. Who set up a stone altar here? Who told them to do it? Why? This altar was set up as a reminder, as a spiritual marker, an ebenezar, so the Israelites always remember God gave them the victory and their own land as He had promised. 

Thursday: Read Joshua 7:20-26.  What was the pile of stones a reminder of in Achor? Achor means “trouble.” Not the spiritual markers/reminders/ebenezars we will have as Christians will remind us of good things God did for us. Sometimes God disciplines us to get us to go on the right path and grow. These will be spiritual markers, too.  

Friday: Read 1 Samuel 7:1-12. Who set up a stone altar here? Who told them to do it? Why? This altar was set up as a reminder of how God gave them the final victory over their enemy. This stone was a remembrance to Israel that “thus far the Lord has helped us.”  

Saturday: Read 1 Peter 2:4-8. Who is this Living Stone? Are we supposed to be reminded of God by this stone, too? Is this stone special for everyone? No, these spiritual stones of the past and this Living Stone are special only for those to whom God has taught/helped/called. God calls each of us to come to Him. If we call Jesus our Living Stone, then we also become stones built according to the Father to become an altar proclaiming His praises and calling others to come out of their darkness to “this marvelous Light.” We become the stones making an altar of praise to God for people to see God and come to His light. Are you letting Him do that, to use you as a lighthouse beacon for His Light? Have you decided to become a part of His Church to be built in the way He wants others to see Him? You are a “chosen” person, a loved child. He wants to shelter, lead, and forgive you, too, just as David wanted to shelter and forgive his son, Absalom, who chose not to accept it. Absalom’s grave with stones mounted upon it became a marker for Israel to remind them not to run away from God, but return to Him. God had to discipline Absalom for attempting to overthrow the divinely anointed king, David.