daily devotional

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Preparing a Manger

The book of Isaiah contains some of the most cherished, most quoted, most triumphant promises about God coming. Coming into our world, into our lives. Healing our brokenness, lighting our darkness. It’s a book of hope.

But I had forgotten about the first half of the book. The first thirty-some chapters are preparing my heart this Christmas. And the preparation has been hard.

Almost every chapter portrays people who have turned their backs on God, despise God, laugh at God. They worship things their own hands have made. They congratulate themselves on what they’ve accomplished, on the security they’ve built into their own lives, and even think they’ve found a way to cheat death. They believe in lies, because the lies are more pleasant to the ear than the truth.

In His anger and judgment, God repeats two words again and again, and they stay long in my mind … arrogance and pride.

Because He alone is God. He is sovereign.

God says the arrogant and proud are fools. I have a plan for the whole earth, He says, a hand of judgment upon all the nations. It will all happen as I have planned. It will be as I have decided.

Yet, we think we are in control. We think we have accomplished, and we’ve decided our plan is better than God’s plan. We worship what we create; we look to human alliances to protect us and give us power. If we have not yet conquered death, we at least think we can evade it or deny it for quite a while.

God even has a bit of a laugh at this picture. Such people have made their bed, He says, but lying in it will not be as pleasant as they think:

The bed you have made is too short to lie on,
     the blankets are too narrow to cover you.

He alone is God. He is sovereign.

The sober warning to rebellious hearts is this:

Because you despise what I tell you
     and trust instead in oppression and lies,
calamity will come upon you suddenly —
     like a bulging wall that bursts and falls.
In an instant it will collapse
     and come crashing down.
You will be smashed like a piece of pottery —
     shattered so completely that
there won’t be a piece big enough
     to carry coals from a fireplace
     or a little water from the well.

A grim picture: The folly of anchoring to something other than God. The futility of scrambling to order and control our own lives. The hopelessness when we build on anything other than the foundation God placed when Mary laid a baby in a manger.

Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem,
      a firm and tested stone.
It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on.
     Whoever believes need never be shaken.

There is our answer and our hope. There is the One we can cling to. There is the Rock to build upon that will not collapse. There is true security and stability.

He alone is God. He is sovereign.

My heart is pounded as I read and He forges His new creation. Daily, I must give Him my pride and my arrogance to shatter and pulverize.

Because Christ came to the stable. He did not come to a powerful palace or the proud temple. He could not enter the inn, full of the world’s business. He came to the manger, to the lowly and the meek, the broken and the humble. I want to prepare just such a place for Him now.

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Scripture: Isaiah 14:26; 14:24; 28:20; 30:12-14;28:16 (All NLT)

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Transformation in the Sanctuary

Take a look at Psalms 73. It opens with a verse about the pure in heart.

You might immediately hear that voice in your head saying, “Well, I would not fit in that category.”   Or perhaps you’re remembering some of your definitely un-Christlike moments this weekend. Maybe already this morning you’ve blown it, yet again.

If so, you’ll identify more with verse 2:

But as for me, I almost lost my footing.
My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone.

The writer of Psalm 73 knows his heart is not pure. He’s bitter and envious; the bad guys are not getting the punishment they deserve. They seem to be living trouble-free lives and have everything anyone could ever want, while I seem to have nothing but pain and trouble. Where’s the justice, God?

So he takes his questions and complaints to God. Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked.

Psalm 73 is about a cleansing of heart, and here’s the key: Then I went into your sanctuary.

In the psalmist’s time, all kinds of regulations determined how and when one could approach God. When Christ died, He ripped all barriers away. Not only did He give us access to God, but now God comes and lives with us. The sanctuary where we meet God, where He opens our eyes and transforms our hearts, is no longer a literal building. It’s where you are sitting right now. Immanuel!

But back to this sad soul who knows his heart is not right and that he’s not doing so well in his walk with God.

In His sanctuary, God does have some answers to the writer’s questions about the wicked. But we’ll leave that for now. Something even more important happens: in God’s sanctuary, the psalmist sees his own heart: 

Then I realized my heart was bitter,
    and I was all torn up inside.
I was so foolish and ignorant —

Sound familiar? How many times I have said that about myself!  How many times I have denied myself inclusion in the “pure in heart” category. How many times my feet have slipped.

And that brings us to the good news. Yes. Good news in spite of what we may think about our failures. Good news, my friend, that you will hear in the sanctuary when you go to your Father. 

Yet still I belong to you;
     you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
     leading me to a glorious destiny.

Wow. I belong to Him. He knows I am dust, and still He claims me. This is a look at God’s heart.

And because I belong to Him, He continues to hold me by the hand, guide me with His counsel, and — doesn’t this just take your breath away? — lead me on toward a glorious destiny!

When we hear those words in the sanctuary, when those words picturing God’s love for us settle into our hearts, we are transformed. We go from feeling as though we are almost gone (v. 2) to knowing this:

My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,
     but God remains the strength of my heart;
     he is mine forever.

The psalmist opened by saying, “But as for me … I’m slipping and almost gone.” Now, after that transforming meeting with God in His sanctuary, he says, “Yes, I see that anyone who deserts God will be destroyed, will perish …

But as for me, how good it is to be near God!
    I have made the sovereign LORD my shelter,
    and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.

What comfort it is to be near God, to take shelter in Him, to know that we belong to the Father and He does not desert us.  We come into His sanctuary, and we are changed.

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Come into His presence without . . .

A guest post today from Kathy. Her questions have me thinking about making some changes myself.  Add your own ending to the above title once you’ve read her thoughts.

 

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When she picked up the phone and answered my call, I said, “I hope I didn’t wake you.” 

Her response was, “Even worse.  You’re interrupting my Bible reading.”
I pictured a teasing smile on her face.
 
I have gone back to her comment a number of times since that morning, asking myself some questions, WITHOUT a teasing smile on my own face.
 
Why do I allow phone calls or other “pressing” details of life to interrupt my conversations with the Father?
 
Why do I even take my cell phone along to my place of quiet, when my desire is to spend those precious beginning moments of the day with my Savior?  The One who has given His life in my place?  The One who knows me and loves me more than anyone in my life?
 
After all, I do have voice mail. What message is so important that I let it disrupt preparing myself to listen to HIS message for me, for that particular day?
 
I know that I can have constant communication with Him as I navigate each hour of the day and night. He is always available.  But there is something luxurious and special to me about a time and a place set apart for reading, praying, listening, journaling.
 
For me, neglecting to take a block of time set apart with God and depending instead on little messages from Him through other means is like snacking and eating fast food for a period of time.  After a while, I crave a solid, healthy meal.  I need and want that block of time.
 
Without the phone.  Without other voices.  Without the laundry or the kitchen calling me.

 
Just stillness.
 
Hmmmm.  Such a privilege.

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Ban the teaspoons!

Is there anything that fills you? Yes, I know. We talk about being filled with love for someone. Filled with compassion. Filled with anger. But are we speaking perhaps more of floodings than fillings? A span of time when the feeling or motivation floods through us but later ebbs? Even food fills us physically only for a time.

Can we say there is anything that truly fills us?

Our women’s Bible study is looking at Scriptures on joy. Jesus said He intends to fill us with His joy. Fill. Not just a wave of joy here and there, an hour or so of God-bequeathed happiness once a week, a drop or two on a cloudy day. No, He wants to fill us with joy.

Someone in the Bible study group suggested that there are buckets and barrels of joy available. “But,” another woman pointed out, “we just go to God with little teaspoons.”

God says He will supply and bestow overwhelming abundance, buckets and barrels of gifts and mercies and grace, but we arrive at His throne with just a teaspoon in hand.

I propose that we ban all teaspoons from the Kingdom.

When God tells us what He has for His children, he uses words with meanings of enormous and unlimited proportions. Here’s a sampling. Many of these passages we can rattle off by memory, but do we understand the extravagance, completeness, and perfection they detail? Try hard to grasp the beyond-measurement of the words I’ve bolded in these familiar phrases.

… that your joy may be complete

hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace … so that you may overflow with hope …

the God who gives life to the dead

The earth is filled with your love, O Lord

to know this love that surpasses knowledge

the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds

he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion

Grace and peace be yours in abundance

with God all things are possible

him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine

rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us generously

this all-surpassing power is from God

out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness

He is able to save completely those who come to God through him

the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time

ask God, who gives generously to all

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

And this is what he promised us — even eternal life.

he who promised is faithful

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches

I am come that they may have life, and have it to the full

God’s abundant provision of grace … brings life for all men

How priceless is your unfailing love!

They feast on the abundance of your house.

the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him

his incomparably great power for us who believe

How our lives would be changed if we understood the depth and breadth of these statements!

God apparently does not deal in drops or smidges or smatterings or pinches or trickles or dabs or teaspoons. Not even in buckets and barrels. He pours and fills; He promises and is faithful and completes.

God’s vocabulary of abundance saturates Scripture. What if we start looking for the hugeness of His promises, start thinking in His dimensions … start believing and living in God proportions?

That’s impossible, of course. As long as we dwell in these human tents, we can never fully understand the reservoirs of God. But we can ask the Spirit for a glimpse … and then we can begin to believe-live.

Let us go to Him with more than teaspoons.

　

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Scriptures taken from: John 15:11; Romans 5:5; Romans 15:13; Romans 4:17; Psalm 119:64; Ephesians 3:19; Philippians 4:7; Philippians 1:6; 1 Peter 1:2; Matthew 19:26; Ephesians 3:20; Titus 3:5-6; 2 Corinthians 4:7; Ephesians 3:16; 2 Peter 1:3; Hebrews 7:25; Titus 1:2; James 1:5; Isaiah 1:18; Psalm 103:12; 1 John 2:25; Hebrews 10:23; Philippians 4:19; John 10:10; Romans 5:17-18; from Psalm 36:5-10; Psalm 32:10; Ephesians 1:19 (All NIV)

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Finding — again — our first love

The Spirit gave me ears to hear yesterday morning, and I heard the Scripture from Revelations 2:1-7: “You have left your first love. Repent.”

But how do I do that, Father, Jesus, Spirit?

If you live in the same area I do and you saw the early morning sky this morning, I would like you to know that God did that sky just for me. Yup. You might have been a spectator this morning as the sky-message unfolded, but it was meant for me. He was reminding me, “I can do everything and anything I want … ”

Because, you see, the sky this morning was a month of beautiful skies rolled into one. Like an autumn cornucopia spilling all kinds of bounty, the sky pageant this morning included every imaginable cloud touched with dawn color. High, wispy mare’s tails; a few billowing cumulus; ridges of clouds, like mountains in the distance; clouds that wash across the sky like sand scattered by the tide; and even a trail of those cloud dabs, the ones that look like a child’s fingerprints across the blue — All those clouds, touched with rose and gold and orange in the east, blues and grays and yellow and white in the west.

Such a morning!

And it came after I asked Christ, “How can I love you more, love you better, always keep you as my first love?”

I asked that question this morning, then stepped outside and saw the sky. God, reminding me who He is.

This week, I’m determined to find some answers to my question. I’m going to ask, seek, knock. I want to know.

The first answer came as I walked under that sky-message. As I went east, something prompted me to glance west … and I saw the sun glowing in the western sky.

A water tower climbs into the sky in the center of our town. Almost a blemish against the beauty of our hills, it’s a drab gray-blue orb that looks like a UFO hovering overhead.

But at that moment, it was glowing orange. And I know this might be hard to believe for those of you who know that tower. But … seriously … it was a fiery ball, another sun rising above the trees!

And there was my first answer. I learn to love Christ more, my love for Him comes alive, when I position myself directly in the rays of His love.

That tower caught the sun because it stretches above the trees, stretches high. Below, the houses wore their usual white and brick, the trees green, the fence gray, all untouched by the sun. But the tower was glowing.

Those places or positions where we stretch and expose ourselves fully to God might be different for you than for me. For all of us, surely it is in prayer and Scripture. But I have learned there are also other places that open me up to God, like early morning walks, quiet times in nature’s hideaways, reading certain authors. For you, it might be in music, on your knees in a chapel, fellowship in a Bible study group.

If repenting is key to returning to my first love, then repentance means I need to change what I am doing now. In this case, I want to consciously change how I position myself throughout the precious minutes and hours of every day. Too many days slide by, full, busy, thoughtless, without my once stretching to catch fully the rays of His love.

I believe our faith is a gift from God and belief is begun and perfected by the Spirit. I believe He holds His children securely. But I also believe we have a choice in whether or not we cling to the Life-Vine. I cannot explain how those two things work together. But I believe both statements are truth.

We do have a choice how we spend our days. We do have a choice whether or not we position ourselves in the rays of God’s love, whether we stretch toward Him, asking Him to set us aglow.