Devotionals @ The Mount Church

Ten years ago this summer God introduced me to three friends. One I married; the other two are marrying each other in a month, but what is most significant is that, even after several years, sometimes a thousand miles away from each other, and often at different times in our life stories, these friendships are still going strong. The four of us have quire different personalities, hobbies, and interests; however, a shared faith in God and a desire to serve him and the people around us have held us in an ever-changing, ever-growing relationship. During the first year we knew each other Ecclesiastes 4:12 became a significant explanation of the special bond we all felt:

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” (NIV)

Ecclesiastes 4:12

The understanding that God was the vital third strand of any sincere relationship has taught me much about developing and maintaining friendships throughout my life. In these particular relationships, he was an obvious catalyst for our connection and continued to gently remind us of his presence over the last decade.

As I recently sat down with this couple, I was reminded that, in addition to our faith, another significant item has held us together when it could have been easy to lose touch with each other, literally and figuratively. This glue was ministry, a dedication to serving God together wherever the need arose. From summer camps to bible studies, our mutual desires to be servants together has always brought us spiritually and emotionally closer, even when we don’t realize it, and has often made doing “hard work” for Christ much easier.

My reflection on these three people reveals much to me about Jesus as an example of the perfect friend:

1. He’s faithful, protecting his followers from a stormy sea, for example, despite their distrust.
2. He’s sacrificial, surrendering his physical life to secure eternal friendships.
3. He’s forgiving, pardoning Thomas’ doubts and Peter’s denials.

I am by no means a perfect friend, but I am thankful to know that as I attempt to walk in wake of Christ’s example, I not only have the chance to develop lasting relationships on earth, but that I can also be called a friend of Jesus. How amazing it is to imagine hearing these words which the Son of God shared with his closest companions”

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

John 15:15 (NIV)

questions to consider

1. Have you taken the first fundamental step in creating lasting friendships with Christ and others, accepting Jesus as the Savior he claims to be?
2. What deliberate steps are you taking to preserve the relationships in your own life? How can Jesus’ life help guide you in this area?
3. How are you and your friends serving Christ together? And, if you are not, how will you begin to after today?

prayer

Father God, how gracious is your companionship and guidance in our lives, despite our sin and disobedience. Thank you for desiring intimate relationships with each of us and for offering friendships here on earth as a chance for us to learn how to love each other and the world around us. Your Son was our perfect example; please help us work together in ways that would make us worthy of being called friends as well as servants.

My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body. Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Proverbs 4:20-23

I have to give my cat a pill. Every day. If you’ve never tried to give a pill to a cat, let me tell you: cats do not wish to take pills. But, I am almost one of those crazy cat ladies and I love my cat. I know it is for his own good and I buck up and do what I have to do to make sure he gets the medication he needs. It’s not like giving a pill to a dog - tricking them by sticking it in a piece of cheese or hot dog or something. The cat isn’t falling for that. He knows. It’s been a few months now that I’ve been having to do this, and over the course of time I’ve figured out some tricks to get it done. Sometimes he senses me approaching and he’ll run and hide under the bed. After he gets his pills, he’s mad at me for a while. But before the evening is over he’s back in my lap, loving on me and has obviously forgiven me.

My cat was diagnosed with blood clots due to a heart condition. I have noticed that since I have been treating the heart problem, his health has improved in other ways. His fur seems to be softer, and he doesn’t seem to shed as much as he used to. He no longer seems to have stomach trouble, and his appetite has increased. Because of the changes made to his heart, his general overall health has changed for the better.

How the heart goes, so goes the rest of the body. when my mother was ill and her heart was failing, other things began to fail as well. She began to have problems with her lungs, her eyes and mouth, her feet and ankles. When your heart isn’t working properly, nothing else functions properly either.

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

Luke 6:45

Before I became a Christian - before I accepted Christ into my heart, it was as if my life wasn’t functioning properly. I felt lost, without direction and guidance, and I felt a void. My heart wasn’t in the right place, and I was not right with the Lord. Aspects of my world were failing, and i was alone and didn’t know how to deal with it. But then I made a diagnosis: I needed salvation. The daily dose I need to take? Prayer and Bible reading. Every day - so that I can know what is true, and I won’t be fooled into thinking I’m getting a hot dog or cheese - something phony, untrue, theologically unsound and incorrect.

Sometimes when I sense God approaching to work in painful areas of my life, I want to go and run away and hide under the bed. I don’t want to take the medicine that He knows I need, that is for my own good - He’s gotta do what He’s gotta do. And it has happened that after I’ve received a dose, well, I might not be all that happy about it. But I have to trust in the Lord that He loves me and that I should give thanks in and for all things. My cat doesn’t understand the reason behind why I’m so “mean”, grabbing him and forcing this nasty pill down his gullet. And me in my humanness, I don’t often understand God’s reasons why I have to experience pain, hardships, struggles, and difficult situations. but it is all about the process of overall change in my life - and if I believe in Him, I should know that he works all things for the good. And because I know that, I love Him.

to consider

Think of a time when you felt God was giving you and unpleasant dose of medicine - a difficult time period or situation. Looking back, do you feel this experience changed you for the better overall?

Have you been treating your spiritual maladies every day, with quiet times of prayer and reading of God’s word?

prayer

Lord, hear our prayers. We come to you expectantly. By faith we know that when we come to you, you hear us. When we ask, we shall receive. We trust that when we prayerfully, humbly ask you to come into our lives and work for change, we can expect change - more, and different than we could ever imagine. Heal our hearts - strengthen our spirits. Unite us with the common desire for changed lives.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

2 Corinthians 5:17

Everyone can read the stories of Jesus and see the portraits painted by the words of those who knew him. but not everyone sees truth and beauty and infinite wisdom…”seeing they do not see”…if you do not prize him above all things, you haven’t apprehended his true worth.

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ

My prayer today is that we might know Christ’s character intimately. When we know his character, when we know Him, we are overcome by his greatness. We stand in awe. And in this we know God and His glory. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” Jesus was both fully God and fully man-he was the most visible, tangible picture man has had of God. In looking at his life, we learn the nature of God himself.

In his book, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, John Piper examines the life of Christ and challenges you to truly see Him-to know Him and to be changed in knowing. Many can look at the Bible and point out the “good” things of Christ-his love and compassion, his mercy, his gentleness. What we rarely think of, however, is his great power, his majesty, his wisdom which commanded respect. The former view alone paints a portrait of a weak but kind man, the later view alone is a God to be feared, but not one who is accessible. In order to gain a glimpse of the true Christ, we must recognize that He, by his very nature, is both.

As Piper aptly puts it, Christ is a “lion-like Lamb” and a “lamb-like Lion”, and this strange dichotomy of characteristics are found within one Person. That is the greatness of God. The Lion of Judah is both strong and majestic (as seen when Christ is glorified in Matthew 17)-in the face of a glorified Lord the disciples, who had known and walked closely with Christ, fell on their faces in fear (17:6). And yet, this same man, the Lamb of God, is described as gentle and meek. Meekness in and of itself is a characteristic of greatness-one who is meek is patient under injuries, there is a great sense of humility combined with the idea of power under control. Piper further explains that Jesus both demonstrated an uncompromising justice and great mercy, He was great and yet submissive to God, Jesus baffled scribes and teachers of the law and yet had a deep love for the children. All of these characteristics are fully true of our God, without ever being in contradiction. This is His greatness, this is His glory.

He goes on in his book to explain the beauty in the suffering of Christ, “the only person in history who did not deserve to suffer, suffered most”. Piper explains that suffering is the design of God-Isaiah 53:10 confirms this, “For it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord make his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.” Christ’s suffering was God’s design from the beginning-the only way in which we could have true fellowship with the Father. And though Jesus did not long to suffer (Mark 14:32), he responded in perfect obedience.

The closer we look at Christ the more we learn of our God. He was worthy of all glory, yet he humbled himself like a servant. He alone held the right to condemn and yet chose mercy. My prayer is that we might be amazed by his love, in awe of his goodness, and humbled by his power and perfection. That we might know Christ is of greatest value. That we might be like Christ is our utmost ambition.

application

Read one chapter from a gospel. What do you learn about God and His character through Christ’s actions?

You may freely download Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper from http://www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/books_bscp/bscp_all.pdf.

prayer

Father, may we be a people who know you. I pray that we would be thoroughly dissatisfied with living on the surface. Lord, may we come before you with renewed awe, may you open our eyes to your greatness, and may we be changed. I pray that you would enlighten the eyes of our hearts that we might truly see you in the scriptures and savor you. Make us hunger for you. Give us knowledge of you, draw our hearts near.

“Just who is the Holy Spirit and what kind of power can he make available to us?” I remember asking my youth leader that question more years ago than I care to number. I grew up in the church and had heard about the Holy Spirit - or the Holy Ghost, as he was often called - but I really had no idea what he did. He was just that third name the pastor mentioned when he baptized people, “in the name of…” It all seemed a little spooky to me, to be honest. I really did not want a ghost (Holy or otherwise) in the room with me. But our leader was explaining how to be “filled” with this Holy Ghost, so I needed to understand just who he was. My leader sat down and explained the following truths to me, and quite honestly, my life has never been the same…

The Holy Spirit is God’s permanent presence with us. When Jesus left this earth, he told his followers that God was going to give them “another Counselor” to be with them forever (John 14:16-17). This was the Holy Spirit - the form of God that we receive when we accept Christ into our lives. He has several jobs that He accomplishes in our lives, but one of them is to enable us to understand the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:12). He also gives us assurance of being a child of God (Romans 8:15-16), helps us glorify Christ with our lives (John 16:14), and gives us the ability to speak to others about Christ (Acts 1:8). As you can see by the scripture references, the Bible actually has a lot to say about the Holy Spirit, even though many of us are not aware of his purpose.

We are unable to live a life pleasing to God OUTSIDE of the power of the Holy Spirit. We may want to really badly. We may try very committedly. But we will always fail eventually, because we just don’t have it in us to live that kind of life. Our own strength is inadequate. While I was growing up in the church, I must have “re-dedicated” my life twenty times. It was necessary all those times because even though I truly wanted to please God, and even though I could start out successful in my attempts, I always ended up failing because I was trusting in my own efforts to live the Christian life. So, I would find myself moved by a speaker, and headed down the aisle again to re-dedicate myself to being a better Christian. And I did it again, and again. My spirit was willing, but my flesh was weak.

Only when we use the correct power source are we able to live that Christian life. That source is the Holy Spirit, and when we are “filled”, or directed and empowered, by Him we are finally able to live a life pleasing to God. Will that life be perfect? No. Will we still sin, fail, and disappoint God and each other? Yes. But these failures will come much less frequently as we grow in our relationship with God and learn how to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are filled with the Holy Spirit by faith. God’s word commands us to be filled with His Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), and then promises that if we ask according to his will, God will answer our prayers (1 John 5:14,15). So, we can know that when we come to the end of ourselves, and ask God to now direct our lives, He hears our prayers and will give us the power through His Spirit to live for Him.

When we apply this truth to our lives, something remarkable happens. When we remember to ask for His abilities all through the day and not rely on our own, we will see real changes. We will find our lives producing the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22,23). We will find that our prayer life and study of God’s word is more meaningful. We will experience His power over temptation and sin (1 Corinthians 10:13; Romans 6:1-16). And we will view ourselves and our responsibilities through God’s eyes and not our own. Our purpose in life will change forever.

So, if you want to truly experience His presence in your life, if you want to begin to think, speak, and act like you are His child, then all you have to do is “practice His presence” by being filled by His Spirit. It is not an emotional experience. It is a day to day–no, a moment by moment walk where we consciously choose to use His strength in our lives, rather than our own. You may find yourself able to handle the pressures of your job better. You may find yourself thinking more about scripture, and praying throughout the day. You may even find yourself speaking to family and friends about how they can know Christ personally, too. Walking in the power of the Holy Spirit won’t be spooky or scary, but it will be supernatural, and beyond your expectations.

points to ponder

1. Are you depending on your own strength to live the Christian life?
2. Have you experienced an up and down spiritual experience, leading to frustration in your life?
3. Are you willing to surrender the control of your life to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to direct your life?

prayer

Father, I need you. I know that I do not always allow you to control my life. I do desire to be filled by your Spirit and to experience all that you have for my life. I confess the sin of directing my own life, and ask you to give me a surrendered heart. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, and show me how you can change my life and make me the kind of person you want me to be. I want to please you in every respect. Give me the faith to trust you more. I love you. Amen.

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

1 Corinthians 12-13

My college basketball team was awesome. (Sorry, folks - I’m not talking about Clemson!) Our college basketball FANS, however, were notoriously bad - myself included. Individually, we were perfectly nice, well-mannered young men and women - on our own outside of the arena. But in the throes of “mob mentality,” we became sort of an entity. Local papers regularly ran articles, editorials, and letters to the editor chronicling our antics. We chanted, yelled, booed, hissed, & threw things. We had a horrendous reputation that visiting teams dreaded and opponents did not welcome at away games.

As individuals, probably none of us would have at any time screamed rude epithets, hurled bananas (yes, that’s what I said) and quite frankly, by ourselves would have made a really boring *wave.* Alone I could do something, but I couldn’t make as much of an impact. But as a mob - one body - or as I say, an entity - we were making news, scaring children, and affecting people and the way they felt.

At one game in particular, two of the Special Olympics teams were scheduled to play basketball during halftime. Given the reputation of our rabid fans, school officials were nervous. Moms of Special Olympians were nervous. The halftime game started - and I felt a shift. This crowd of riled-up college hooligans began to watch the game - and really started getting into it. Rude screaming was replaced by shouts of genuine encouragement. Good plays were met with excited cheers, and fumbles with good-natured collective groans.

To this day I remember a letter to the local papers from a parent of one of the Special Olympians. The letter expressed her initial trepidation in allowing her child to participate - given what she’d heard about us. The letter went on to state how grateful she was to the body of college students - their enthusiasm, and the way her son felt - beaming - after that game. And she encouraged the community not to write off these fans because of the way we tended to come off - that we were really a bunch of people with decent hearts.

As a church - or, THE church - the world-wide body of believers in Christ, we are an entity, a mob, a physical body. Alone, individually, as Christians we can and should do something - as we are commanded- to make what impact we can where we are, amongst those around us. But we are “better together.” United as one, we can have a positive - or a negative effect rippling out from around us. Do we want to be written up in the papers as a poorly-behaved mass or as an enthusiastic, encouraging team? Do we want our visitors to dread coming? Do we want our visits (our “away games”) to be unwelcome? Notoriously bad or influential and genuine? Together we are stronger, united together.

What are we able to do on our own? How can we as individuals in our unique situation be influential - being a Christ-like example?
What are some of the ways your own uniqueness benefits the body? Why is that important?
Why do you think it is crucial to have both in your life - personal quiet alone-time with the Lord as well as the experience of authentic corporate worship?

This week, set aside some special time to pray for unity of the church body - both here and worldwide - that yourself, those around you, and Christians everywhere will truly, genuinely love one another and that we will all regularly worship together as one, lifting up His holy name.

Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

1 Corinthians 14-27