God Alone Can Free Us

Readings:
Psalm 25
Ephesians 1:1-10

Focus:
Psalm 25:15: "My eyes are ever on the Lord, who alone can free my feet from the net."

Sometimes we are just in a real tangle. Everything seems to be going wrong. We need help.

We cannot get out of such circumstances without God. Our best efforts, and the best efforts of other people, will never give lasting relief. Perhaps the situation will improve; perhaps it will even seem like everything is fine. But our inner emotional well-being will not be entirely fine.

It is only when we turn our lives over to God and ask for his help that we can truly be free from the deepest troubles and sorrows. Outer things may not always be better, but inwardly, we will be free and happy.

It is God alone who can free our feet from the net.

I Will Not Let Anything Make Free with Me

Readings:
Job 9
I Corinthians 6:12-20

Focus:
I Corinthians 6:12b: "No doubt I am free to do anything, but I for one will not let anything make free with me."

When Paul says, "No doubt I am free to do anything," he is referring to the fact that the Corinthian Christians were relying on their freedom from many older religious laws. They had been set free from these by their new covenant in Christ.

However, Paul reminds them that not everything is good, and moreover, behaviors and habits can have a way of taking control of a person. As Paul says, "I for one will not let anything make free with me."

And Christ died for us, to make us look to God as if we were good. A response of gratitude would be for us to do our best to act good. In verses 19 and 20, Paul says, "You do not belong to yourselves; you were bought at a price." What a costly price it was, too. We owe it to Christ to give him our best efforts at goodness.

Serving God

Readings:
II Chronicles 27
Acts 28:16-31

Focus:
Acts 28:30: "He stayed there two full years at his own expense, with a welcome for all who came to him."

The Bible doesn't tell us how Paul died. The last we hear of him in the Bible is that he was in Rome under a sort of house arrest. Tradition has it, however, that he was eventually beheaded.

While he is under arrest in Rome, however, he does not spend his time lamenting his condition, or working full time on his own case. Instead, he welcomes all who come, and, as the next verse says, openly teaches about Jesus. He doesn't concentrate on himself; he concentrates on God.

Paul's goal in life was not to have the best life he could have for himself. His goal was to serve God as best he could, and to help others know about God, regardless of the effect on himself. That's an amazing goal, and one that I have a hard time making my own. It is something I know I ought to do.

It Hurts

Readings:
II Chronicles 21
Acts 26:1-23

Focus:
Acts 26:14b: "It hurts to kick like this against the goad."

When Paul is telling the story of his conversion to King Agrippa, he mentions that when he had the vision of Jesus on the Damascus road, that Jesus says to him, "It hurts to kick like this against the goad."

Jesus was saying to Paul that when he acted contrary to what God wanted, it actually hurt Paul. Paul (or Saul as he was then called) was working hard to do what he thought was right, but it did not actually lead to peace and happiness for him; it ultimately led to unrest, sorrow, and pain. The only way to find true peace and joy is by following God's way.

People may think that they know the best way to find happiness, and that they don't need to think about what God wants. But it hurts to kick against the goad. The only way to get rid of the hurt is to turn our lives over to God and do what he wants. What he wants is actually what will make us happiest, and we will never be sorry.

Because We Rely on God

Readings:
II Chronicles 16
Acts 22:17-30

Focus:
II Chronicles 16:8: "Did not the Cushites and the Libyans have a great army with a vast number of chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your power."

For most of his life, King Asa of Judah was faithful to God, but towards the end of his life he began to rely on military might instead. So God sent the prophet Hanani to him to rebuke him, and to remind him that God's strength was sufficient. God had helped Asa defeat the larger armies of the Cushites and the Libyans merely because Asa had put his faith in God.

It is true for us as well. God may not always help us defeat our foes as we at first define them. He may not always make us beat our rivals for a job opening, or do well in an interview, or put on a perfect dinner party, or stay healthy. But when we are faced with a foe that seems to be too much for us, God's strength will be sufficient for us. We will be able to handle the problem without utterly giving up. God will help us through.

And when we are done, we will know that we have in some way succeeded, because of God. We may lose a job, or still be desperately ill, but our spirits will be unconquered, and we will have unbeatable hope and bright happiness, because of God.

When we rely on God, because we rely on God, he delivers our enemies--failure, fear, feelings of insufficiency--into our power, and overcomes them.

The Lord Is Our God and We Have Not Forsaken Him

Readings:
II Chronicles 13
Acts 21:15-26

Focus:
II Chronicles 13:10a: "But as for us, the Lord is our God and we have not forsaken him...."

In opposing King Jeroboam of Israel, Abijah, King of Judah, great-grandson of David, remained true to God. Jeroboam, on the other hand, had turned to other gods, imitating the peoples around him.

It was surely easier to follow the prevailing cultures of the ancient middle East and set up statues of gods to be worshipped. The Israelites were alone in not having a physical representation of their god. Jeroboam succumbed to contemporary pressure and created golden statues of gods for his subjects to worship. (Jeroboam also had secret motives for doing this; if he kept his people from going to Jerusalem to worship, they would remain more loyal to him.)

Abijah, on the other hand, resisted the temptation to provide a visible "god" for his people to worship, and remained true to the commandments of God, in spite of cultural pressure. He did not forsake God. Neither do I want to.

Putting God First

Readings:
II Chronicles 7
Acts 18:12-28

Focus:
II Chronicles 7:21b-22a: "...they will ask, 'Why has the Lord so treated this land and this house?' The answer will be, 'Because they forsook the Lord the God of their forefathers....'"

Throughout the Bible one thing is very clear: we are to remain true to God. As Jesus says, the first and greatest commandment is that we shall love the Lord God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. And out of the Ten Commandments, the first is that we shall have no other god but the Lord.

The worst sin of all is that we should make anything--anything at all--more important to us than God. This includes ourselves. Pursuing our own goals, thinking of our own comfort or enjoyment, even putting other people before us or doing church ministry, all of these are secondary to our relationship to God and seeking to do his will.

This is a very hard thing to do, but if we get our priorities straight, the rewards that come from our relationship with God are enormous. It is always a struggle for me, yet when I am in a right relationship with God, I would not trade that for anything.

How Can We Stand in God's Way?

Readings:
I Chronicles 19
Acts 11

Focus:
Acts 11:17b:"How could I stand in God's way?"

Peter told the other disciples that he had clearly seen that God wanted to have a saving relationship with the Gentiles (the non-Jews) just as much as he wanted to have a saving relationship with the Jews. This was outside of Peter's initial comfort zone. It wasn't what he had learned about how God was to be worshipped. But God showed him that the old ritual law was no longer operative; after Jesus, only the moral law remained constant. Even if Peter and the other disciples weren't comfortable with that at first, how could they stand in God's way?

This can happen to us, too. Maybe in order to reach out to people we have to endure different types of activities or music while spending time with them than we would really prefer. Or we may end up moving somewhere we hadn't at first thought we would like, in order to take a job that we feel God wants for us. These things may not be what we thought we had in mind, but in each case, we may see that it is clearly God's will for us to do those things. How can we stand in God's way?

Like Peter and the other disciples, we will find that once we let God have his way, we will benefit from it too. It will turn out that there will be surprises of blessings that we never could have foreseen.

Deaf to the Truth

Readings:
I Chronicles 12
Acts 7:23-8:1

Focus:
Actss 7:51a:"How stubborn you are, heathen still at heart and deaf to the truth!"

When I read about Stephen saying this to the religious authorities who had arrested him, it's easy for me to think of the people he was addressing. They were continuing in the line of both secular and religious Israelite authorities who had murdered so many of the prophets after ignoring their messages.

It is also easy for me to think of various kinds of contemporary people who seem to be heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. There are those who ignore God altogether and live for their own pleasure or profit. There are those who say they follow God but distort his message in all kinds of different ways, using it to twist his teachings or to do wrong. These are the people, I think, to whom Stephen would be speaking today.

But I always need to remember that I could so easily be heathen at heart and deaf to the truth myself. I must never become complacent and think I know everything about what God has said and what he wants. It's one reason for regularly reading the Bible and thinking about it anew. It's also a reason for habitually praying, and by that I mean not making requests of God, but opening myself to hear what he has to say.

Living in close relationship with God, constantly asking him to show us what he wants us to do, is how we can be sure not to be heathen at heart and deaf to the truth.

We Must Obey God Rather than Men

Readings:
I Chronicles 8
Acts 5:11-32

Focus:
Acts 5:29:"Peter replied for the apostles: 'We must obey God rather than men.'"

Just a few days ago we read that Peter and John had been cautioned by the authorities not to teach in the name of Jesus, and they had replied that it would not be right for them to obey men rather than God. So they continued to teach about Jesus, and the community of believers grew. The power of the Holy Spirit among them was so strong that many people were healed from various sicknesses.

The reputation of the Christians and the power of the Holy Spirit became so well known that it eventually became too much for the authorities, and they had the apostles arrested again. But when the apostles were miraculously freed through God's power, they continued to teach out in the open in the temple. They did not hide in fear. So it was easy for the authorities to lay their hands on them again.

The authorities then said, basically, "What on earth is this? We told you not to teach in this man's name, but you're just doing it all the more, plus you're blaming us for killing him!" But Peter and the other apostles, although they had reason to fear, because they had just been shown that the authorities meant what they said about trying to stop them, had equally just been shown, by their miraculous freeing from prison, that God was going to be with them no matter what. So they were able to again boldly proclaim, "We must obey God rather than men."

This is the confidence that we can gain the longer we build our relationship with God, and the deeper we make it. It was something I found out when I had cancer. We know God will be with us. So we too can boldly proclaim, "We must obey God rather than people."

Throw the Net This Way

Readings:
II Kings 20
John 21:1-14

Focus:
John 21:6:"He said, 'Throw out the net to starboard, and you will make a catch.' They did so, and found they could not haul the net on board, there were so many fish in it."

There are so many things to think about in this passage and the following verses, sometimes it's hard to know what to concentrate on. For example, I love the image of Peter just throwing himself into the lake in order to get to Jesus as fast as he can. That's how Peter always was--he plunged in wholeheartedly.

What strikes me about this passage at the moment, however, is how the disciples had been fishing all night, and had caught nothing, after all their hard work. What they had done on their own had been fruitless.

But when they follow the directions of Jesus for what they are to do, everything is different. Suddenly the results of their work are incredible and overflowing! Giving Jesus control makes an amazing difference.

It may not always be so obvious and overwhelming in our lives. But when we let Jesus be in charge of what we do, the results, whether long-term or short-term, will always be better, more satisfying, and more fruitful, than anything we could achieve on our own.

Worshipping Only the Lord God

Readings:
II Kings 17
John 19:31-42

Focus:
II Kings17:35b-37:"Do not pay homage to other gods or bow down to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, but pay homage to the Lord who brought you up from Egypt with great power and with outstretched arm; to him alone you are to bow down, to him alone you are to offer sacrifice. You must faithfully keep the statutes, the judgments, the law, and the commandments which he wrote for you; you must not pay homage to other gods."

I am going to concentrate on the Old Testament passage because this is, to me, such a key part of what God is communicating throughout the Bible. I have recently thought that the main message of the Bible can be summed up in this way: "I love you, I will save you, obey me, and don't have any other gods but me." And this last part--"don't have any other gods but me"--is very important. God emphasizes it throughout the Bible.

In our day we don't usually think about worshipping idols instead of God, but we might be tempted to worship things that might replace God in our lives. We might put reputation, or success, or family relationships, or money, or any number of things ahead of God in our lives. When we do, we are worshipping another god instead of the Lord God.

We need to put God first. We need to make even little decisions with God in mind. Maybe we need to stop before we make an angry answer to something. Maybe we need to swallow our pride and forgive instead of getting even. (If we do, we may find richer rewards than what we expected.) There are all kinds of ways that we can put God first, and when we do, we will be eager to do it more. And this is God's great desire for us. In my life, I have found it to be actually exciting, and I bet it will be true for anyone.

Where He Is, There Should We Be

Readings:
I Kings 20:1-21
John 12:20-26

Focus:
John: 12:26a:"If anyone is to serve me, he must follow me; where I am, there will my servant be."

It's important to remember that we are not to choose where to go and what to do and then ask God to be with us. Those are fine ways to proceed, of course, better than just going on our merry way without God at all. But if we are really going to live as disciples of Jesus, then we need to turn things around. Instead of making our plans and then asking God to bless them, we ask God for his plans and then we follow him.

How do we do this? We pray a lot. We read the Bible a lot. We keep God uppermost in our minds all the time (or, we try to.) And then when it's time for a decision, we do specific praying about it. Often we will know where God is leading us or what he wants us to do. And when he is in charge of things, we can know that where we are, there the best guide and protector of all is, too.