A Time To Learn

Daily Devotional, January 28, 2011

A Time To Learn

2 Peter 1:3-11
Work hard to prove that you really are among
those God has called and chosen. Do these
things, and you will never fall away (v.10).

A video on GodTube captured a mother squirrel
trying to teach her baby how to scale a cement
wall. Over and over the mother squirrel patiently
showed how it was done, but the wall was simply too
big for the younger rodent to conquer.

Eventually, a few college students intervened. They first
placed a backpack up against the wall, hoping it would
function as a step for the younger squirrel. But it wasn’t
tall enough. Next, they made a higher step by placing
a couple of sandbags on top of one another. Finally the
little squirrel climbed on top of the sandbags and scaled
the daunting wall— having learned a valuable survival
lesson.

This little drama from the animal kingdom reminds me
of how God often deals with us. One of the reasons He
doesn’t instantly resolve our struggles or take us out of
seemingly insurmountable challenges is because they
provide valuable learning experiences. For instance,
after He brought Pharaoh to his knees through a series
of crippling plagues (Exodus 12:31-32), God didn’t pack
the Israelites’ bags and march them out of Egypt. They
had to do it themselves, learning the valuable lesson that
faith and effort often go hand in hand.

Too often the Christian walk is seen as believers
sitting back and letting God do everything for us. That’s
rarely the case. While God is always God, and we
can do nothing apart from Him (John 15:5), He’s not going to do all the work.
Sometimes He will provide a “backpack” or a “sandbag,” but He knows there
are lessons for us to learn through effort that will make us better in the long run.
—Jeff Olson

more›
Work hard to show the
results of your salvation,
obeying God with deep
reverence and fear
(Philippians 2:12).

Be sure to check out all of our Christian Clothing & Christian Shirts @ SoulHarvest.net!

Power Failure

Daily Devotional - January 27, 2011

Power Failure

1 Samuel 13:5-14

Your kingdom must end, for the Lord has sought
out a man after His own heart. The Lord has
already appointed him to be the leader of His
people, because you have not kept the Lord’s
command (v.14).

An impromptu high-wire act by a 26-year-old man
caused a portion of Dongguan, a city in China,to experience a blackout.

The man had lost his job and chose to drown his sorrows by drinking heavily.
After his binge, the drunken one climbed a high voltage
cable tower and began walking and hanging on the
power cables. When firemen couldn’t coax him down,
they ordered the electricity to be shut off so he wouldn’t
electrocute himself. Four hours later, the guy finally fell
. . . landing softly on a safety cushion where he was
“greeted” by police.

King Saul once had a power surge (1 Samuel 10:6), but
he lost it all due to a rash decision. In the span of just four
chapters, we find the prophet Samuel anointing Saul as
Israel’s king (13:1) and then informing him that God had
rejected him as ruler of His people (v.14). Why the abrupt
change? Samuel made it plain to Saul: “Because you
have not kept the Lord’s command.”

The command was clear. Samuel told Saul to camp out
at Gilgal for a week until he arrived there to “sacrifice
burnt offerings and peace offerings” (10:8). But the king
got uptight when the mighty Philistine army with “as many
warriors as the grains of sand on the seashore” (13:5)
caused his army to begin “trembling with fear” (v.7).
With his army defecting and growing smaller by the
hour, Saul (literally) chose to play with fire and did the
burnt offering himself (v.9). That’s when Samuel caught him red-hot-handed and
gave him the bad news—his days on the throne were numbered.
Have you been tempted to make a rash decision—one that doesn’t honor God?

Fear can cause us to short-circuit our faith and future. Let’s choose to obey God
instead. He’s got all the power we need. —Tom Felten

more›
If once wasn’t enough,
later Saul disobeyed
another divine command
(ch.15). Read verse 22
to learn what Samuel
told the fallen king about
what God truly values.

Be sure to check out all of our Christian Clothing & Christian Shirts @ SoulHarvest.net!

Follow Jesus...On Twitter

Daily Devotional, January 24, 2011

Follow Jesus...On Twitter

read›
Mark 1:16-20
Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow Me, and
I will show you how to fish for people!” (v.17).

Jesus has His own Twitter account. Well, actually,
hundreds of them. Search for “Jesus Christ” on the
social networking site, and you’ll find a plethora of
twitterers all tweeting in His name—some well-meaning
and many blasphemous. The most popular “Jesus” on
Twitter has over 34,000 followers!

Hmmm. Would the real Jesus use Twitter? I wonder.
“Follow me,” Jesus said to those first disciples (Mark
1:17). Unlike the rabbis of His day, Jesus wasn’t looking
simply for students—people who would sit at His feet
and ponder the law. And although it was His core
message to others (vv.14-15), Jesus didn’t even call
Simon, Andrew, James, and John to “repent.” He called
them to follow. This was a greater call than mere belief.
“I will show you how to fish for people!” Jesus added
(v.17). He had a vision for them, a calling that would
change their identity—no longer “fishermen” but “fishersof-
men.” This was a call to change.

“And they left their nets at once and followed Him”
(v.18). Jesus’ call claimed priority even over the disciples’
livelihood. This call would reorder their economic lives.
While crowds flocked to Jesus to receive healing
(3:7-10), such people were not His disciples. Demons
fell prostrate at His feet, but they certainly weren’t
His followers (v.11). To follow Jesus meant giving up
everything to do the will of God (3:35; Luke 14:33).

Would the real Jesus use Twitter? I don’t know. I do know that following the
real Jesus means surrendering our dreams, jobs, identities, and finances to Him
and choosing His plans for us (Matthew 22:37-39).
That’s not something you can do by simply pushing a button.
—Sheridan Voysey

more›
“Follow Me and be
My disciple,” Jesus said
to him. So Levi got up and
followed Him
(Mark 2:13-14).

Be sure to check out all of our Christian Clothing & Christian Shirts @ SoulHarvest.net!

Sin & Self-Worth

Daily Devotional, January 20, 2011

Sin & Self-Worth

read›
2 Samuel 16:5-14
God showed His great love for us by sending
Christ to die for us while we were still sinners
(Romans 5:8).

A youth pastor avoids telling his teenagers that
they’re sinners because he doesn’t want to leave
the impression that they “suck” (that they’re
bad or worthless). A popular author denies that infants
are born with a sin nature because that would mean
that “babies suck.” And a friend who confessed to an
especially offensive sin said, “I guess this means I suck.”
Despite their juvenile descriptions of sin, notice that each
person confuses sin with self-worth. They assume that sin
means they no longer matter, when in fact their sin matters
only if they do. Sin is rebellion, and rebellion is a problem
only when the rebel carries some weight. If we really were
worthless, our sin wouldn’t count for much.

When King David was fleeing Jerusalem, he met
Shimei, an enraged loner from Saul’s dethroned family
who hurled stones and insults at the king’s entourage
(2 Samuel 16:9). David’s men wanted to crush Shimei,
but David told them to leave him alone, in part because
he was not a threat (v.10). Far different was David’s
response to Absalom’s army. He knew that those men
could destroy him and his kingdom, and so David threw
all of his weapons at them in the fight of his life (18:1-2).
God isn’t threatened by our rebellion, but the cross
informs us that He takes us and our sin seriously. If we
had no value, would God have given His life to save
us? The cost of our salvation reminds us that we and our
sin matter to God. If we minimize our sin, we also minimize ourselves and the
salvation which rescues us.

The surest way to tell someone they’re worthless is to ignore their sin. Treat
them like a Shimei whose rebellion is of no account. If you want them to know
they matter, you’re going to have to talk about sin. —Mike Wittmer

more›
Compare Philippians 3:3-6 and 1 Timothy
1:15-17 to learn how Paul balanced a
positive self-image with an equal appreciation
of his own sin.

Be sure to check out all of our Christian Clothing & Christian Shirts @ SoulHarvest.net!

Investment Advice

Daily Devotional, January 19, 2011

Investment Advice

Luke 9:23-25
If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.
But if you give up your life for My sake, you will
save it (v.24).

A stock market consultant recently suggested, “People
should always sell when they have a better place
to put their money.” While true, the challenge is
recognizing when one place is better than another, which,
of course, no one can identify with any level of certainty.
I typically respond to this sort of financial advice with a
resounding “Duh! No kidding?” It’s like telling investors to
buy low and sell high. Please tell us something we don’t
already know.

Jesus once gave a crowd of people some fresh
“advice.” He said, “If you try to hang on to your life, you
will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you
will save it” (Luke 9:24). I doubt there were few, if any,
in the crowd who said. “Well, duh.” Instead, most stood
there scratching their heads, thinking, Huh?

Although Jesus drove home this thought on more than
one occasion (Matthew 16:25; Luke 17:33), it’s not exactly
the kind of advice people hear every day. And while it
caused them to stop and think, those who truly heard Him
understood He wasn’t talking about holding on to our
physical life. The word Jesus used for “life” is the word
psyche, which is the Greek word for the soul. He was
referring to our inner life and clinging solely to our own
efforts and plans to secure it. In essence, Jesus was saying
that without Him, joy and meaning will slip through our
fingers.

Self-reliance is a poor investment to hold on to because it never works out the
way we think it should. And it prevents us from discovering the life our souls crave
in a friendship with Jesus and living for His purposes (John 15:15).
What might you be hanging on to that you need to “sell” in order to find your
life in Him? —Jeff Olson

more›
For My people have done two evil things:
They have abandoned Me—the fountain of
living water. And they have dug for themselves
cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!
(Jeremiah 2:13).

Be sure to check out all of our Christian Clothing & Christian Shirts @ SoulHarvest.net!

Waiting For Rain

Daily Devotional, January 18, 2011

Waiting For Rain

read›
Joel 2:18-32
Rejoice, you people of Jerusalem! Rejoice
in the Lord your God! For the rain He sends
demonstrates His faithfulness. Once more
the autumn rains will come, as well as the
rains of spring (v.23).

Competing against the thwap-thwap sound of
the windshield wipers, the rain beat a rhythmic
pattern against the car. Driving out of town for
a retreat with our youth leaders, I was thankful for the
chance to spend time with them.

The rain outside, however, fell in contrast to the desert
condition inside my heart. His presence real, I felt that
Jesus was near, but I wrestled with feelings of significant
disappointment in ministry. Soil that had seemed to
promise such beauty now seemed hardened by relentless
heat and wind. Nettles of discouragement readily
flourished in the dry, wounded places of my heart.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, “Blessed are those who
trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope
and confidence. They are like trees planted along a
riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by
long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and
they never stop producing fruit.” In the moment of
adversity, however, we sometimes believe that something
has gone dreadfully awry. Wanting God to rescue us,
we cry out in our pain. We wonder at His timing, at His
seeming silence. All the while, in that place of confusion
and uncertainty, our spirit presses through the hardened
clay of surface living, pushes aside the gravel of selffocus,
and—in a refusal to give up—finds living water at
the point of desperation (John 7:38).

He is real, and so are His promises.

Jesus—who came and lived among us—“grew up in the Lord’s presence like
a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground” (Isaiah 53:2). In the certainty of
His grace and the steadfastness of His hand, He can be trusted. The refreshing,
restoring rains will come again. —Regina Franklin

more›
Read Psalm 52:8-9
to see where we should
be planted and what
the attitude of our
heart should be in all
seasons—especially in
those where rain
is scarce.

Be sure to check out all of our Christian Clothing & Christian Shirts @ SoulHarvest.net!

Illumination

Daily Devotional, January 17, 2011

Illumination

read›
1 Corinthians 2:6-16
For His Spirit searches
out everything and
shows us God’s deep
secrets (v.10).

It’s glossy and features the pics of people like Bono,
Angelina Jolie, the Dalai Lama, and Che Guevara.
If you glanced at the cover you might mistake it for a
fashion magazine. What is it? A New Testament called
The Bible Illuminated. The publishers, however, admit that
they don’t “support a specific faith.” Many of the images
of celebrities and well-known people are positioned next
to specific verses to make political or social statements.
The photos don’t “illuminate” the text. Instead, they
mislead and confuse the reader.

I’m grateful for the illumination that the Holy Spirit
brings, so that we can truly understand God’s Word
(1 Corinthians 2:10). He “shows us God’s deep secrets”
as we read and study it. Like a lens that allows us to see
what once was blurry and undefined, God’s Spirit helps
us grasp the truths in Scripture that nonbelievers can’t
possibly understand. To them it’s foolishness (1:18).
As the Holy Spirit illumines God’s Word for us, we
move from false and distorted views to the clarity of what
the Bible’s authors are actually communicating (2 Peter
1:21). Then, after the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes to
what the Word is saying, we can pray that He will also
help us take it to heart and obey it.

Now, when a particular passage of the Bible is
highly confusing or hard to understand, it’s good
to do two things: (1) Seek out helpful insights from
godly commentators and theologians who have studied the Scriptures and
experienced the Spirit’s illuminating ways; (2) pray for the Spirit to shed His light
on the verses in question. For “we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s
spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us”
(1 Corinthians 2:12).

Now that’s illumination! —Tom Felten

more›
In 2 Timothy 3:16-17,
Paul reveals that the
Scriptures came about
by God’s inspiration.
How does this differ
from the illumination
of God’s Word?

Be sure to check out all of our Christian Clothing & Christian Shirts @ SoulHarvest.net!