Good Tidings of Great Joy

And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. And the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people. Luke 2:9, 10 (New American Standard Bible)

I was recently thinking about how those shepherds must have felt on the announcement of Christ’s birth. I wondered how I would react to something like the glory of the Lord appearing to me on a dark and quiet night with an angel suddenly telling me something momentous the Lord was about to do.

Thankfully I’ve not experienced a supernatural situation like that. If I didn’t run into a wall trying to exit the room, I might likely faint. The shepherds on this night were pretty scared. As I read this passage, I am struck by how the Good News is given to all people yet still makes many uncomfortable or even afraid.

If God sent His Son to ransack the earth, then I’d have a reason for panic. But the word is He sent Him to reconcile me to Himself through His Chosen Redeemer and that fills me with a great sense of peace. It’s an amazing story from a God with enough flexibility to do it any way He sees fit. 

He brought Jesus to us through a humble birth with the words “Do not be afraid.” I need not fear anything He offers, or for that matter, anything the world throws at me. The ever-present Jesus provides me with peace and not panic. After the shepherds heard what the angel said they went to check it out. They came back with great joy praising God for all the things they had seen and heard which were just as the angel had told them. Lowly keepers of the sheep were the first to proclaim the Good Shepherd and those who heard them were amazed. Still after all these years the Christmas story still amazes and brings continual peace and great joy. Jesus’ birth may have been of very humble origin but with the angelic host’s appearance He definitely had Heaven’s stamp of approval. The Word made flesh among us. Good tidings of great Joy to all mankind with an encouragement not to be afraid. That’s peace and not panic.

Ken

www.devotionstoday.blogspot.com

One in a Hundred

“What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.” Matthew 18:12, 13 (New American Standard Bible)

At times in my past I’ve viewed God as too preoccupied with other things to be concerned with my individual needs. Honestly, it wasn’t that I felt He wasn’t able to meet my need, I thought I didn’t have enough worth in His eyes to merit it.

Worth can be defined in many ways. There is my definition and there is yours. What might be of worth to one person would be something I would go out of my way to avoid-like tuna casserole. But my study of God has taught me that His view of my individual worth is very great, so-much-so that if I happened to wander away from the shepherd’s devotion He would drop what He was doing to find me and bring me back to His care. Jesus showed Himself to be that kind of Good Shepherd. My worth isn’t in being part of the hundred but being a worth of one.

When I have tended to wander I thought I was headed toward greener pastures but wound up in deepening darkness. It was at that time I found the Shepherd calling words of encouragement to me and felt His strong hands pick me up. How comforting and cozy it is to be cradled against His chest. There is no slow destruction when it comes to God’s sheep only safety and confidence in His presence. Even when I am the 1 who has wandered away Jesus is still willing to leave the 99 to bring me back into His care and safety. How can I define that kind of worth? The math doesn’t make sense at all yet it is altogether true. That is the worth of 1 and that’s the worth of me and you.

Ken

www.devotionstoday.blogspot.com

Uncle Albert's Amazing Story

Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. James 5:7, 8 (New American Standard Bible)

I was talking with a couple of good friends yesterday over lunch. We discussed at length how many messages today aim to cause guilt and a bleak outlook. Hopelessness is the underlying current of life on Planet Earth. When, Lord Jesus, are you coming back to bring hope and restore the earth from the curse?

Interestingly today’s verse has a parallel in lettuce. My Uncle Albert lived a lot of his years in Alaska. He used to tell me that on a quiet summer night in the Land of the Midnight Sun one could stand in a lettuce patch and hear the heads of lettuce grow. This story amazed me as a kid. “What did it sound like?” I asked. “It popped and crackled,” was his answer. Whether he was telling me the truth or pulling my juvenile leg I’ll never know. But if it’s true it sure took a lot of patience to stand in a patch of lettuce and wait to hear it grow. As I await the return of our Lord it seems at times like I am that farmer standing amidst what I have planted. It’s taking an awfully long time and I haven’t heard anything yet. I long for Christ to return and sort out everything in heaven and earth and make it right for eternity.

I’m still not absolutely sold on Uncle Albert’s lettuce story but I am convinced of the certainty of Christ’s return. Sometimes it seems like what I plant isn’t growing at all or that I will never reap a harvest of patient endurance. But as I look at what Jesus said would be going on in the world before His return (Matthew Chapters 24 & 25) I am more and more assured His words are true. I can determine through current events that His appearing is very close. What a blessed hope and unfaltering encouragement. He will return again and restore all things to Himself so lettuce all trust in that.

Ken

www.devotionstoday.blogspot.com

Lavender Delight

But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. Genesis 50:19, 20 (New American Standard Bible)

I saw something a couple of days ago when I was in Texarkana, AR. Coming out of a restaurant into an outside temperature of 40 degrees and a probable wind chill of 35 I passed a flowerbed where some lavender roses were blooming. It was the last thing I expected to see one week before Thanksgiving but it was a joyful discovery all the same. Good things can happen when the chill of life descends into our daily situations. In contemplating this I began to think about how many of the bad situations in my life were catalysts for my own growth and renewal. That bully who tormented me in junior high school, the high school teacher who mocked me before the class for a mistake I made, the boss who treated me badly and the brain tumor that took away a lot of my physical ability were all things that at the moment seemed really terrible. But were they really that bad? Was I left destitute and in rags? I admit I carried some temporary resentment and anger in most of the situations. What I’ve just begun to see in these things is the growth and maturity these situations brought to me. For some of these things it’s only taken me 40 or 50 years for it to dawn on me.

The case of Joseph has always been one of my favorite stories. If anyone had reason to be angry and bitter it was he. After being sold into slavery he spent 13 years of further mistreatment. You can bet during that time he wondered how it could all work together for good. He continually tried to do the right thing and basically found that no good deed went unpunished. I think it would have broken me. But at the end God vindicated him and showed His reasoning for all the heartburn He allowed Joseph to suffer. His family and an eventual nation were saved from death by famine. The people who brought the heartache on him meant evil but God turned it to good. The story is a triumph of patient persevering, release and forgiveness. The story is not only one of the great stories of the Bible but of all literature.

As I look back on my life God has turned a lot of my situations around by giving me great joy in the good times and strength of character and trust in the bad ones. Who knows but God how each thing that happens in my life can work for my greatest good, even the bad ones? It seems that every situation can serve to meld the crucible of pain into power, understanding and wisdom. Wherever the chill of life descends I believe I will continue to find God’s final confirmation to me standing like a lavender rose blooming in the first breath of winter.

Jesus, help me not be overwhelmed with today’s calamity but to trust in You that eventually I will see either a good outcome or if Your reason remains hidden how much You have strengthened my soul and spirit. Amen.
Ken

www.devotionstoday.blogspot.com

The Buck Starts Here

And the man said, “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Genesis 3:12 (New American Standard Version)

The term ‘passing the buck’ means to pass on one’s responsibility to someone else. Most of us are aware of the plaque Harry Truman owned that said, “The Buck Stops Here’ meaning that passing on one’s responsibility and accountability for someone else to do would not be tolerated if he were involved. As a human I am gifted at a few things. Unfortunately being accountable for my choices isn’t one of them. That I am at times responsible for my own failure is a particularly uncomfortable realization. When Adam failed in the Garden he passed the responsibility buck to Eve who immediately made change for the serpent. The devastation to both physical and spirutal relationships that rolled out of the mint of the human heart that day became the most inflated currency in history; lots of it and very worthless.

There’s nothing wrong in owning my own shortcomings and failures. Am I really fooled into thinking God doesn’t know about them? When He asked in the Garden where Adam and Eve were was He really lost? I believe He was giving Adam the choice to come lay the buck at His feet, ‘fess up’ and ask for forgiveness. Stopping the buck, as Harry used to say, is my choice. Laying the buck at the feet of Christ for my own choices puts me into the proper frame to seek forgiveness and initiate restoration both with brothers and sisters and with God.

God knows what my weaknesses and shortcomings are. He’s always known. So what’s new? In all the billions of years He’s known the poor choices I would make He has remained the same loving and compassionate Heavenly Father He was before I took my first breath and started crying. He is pleased when I confess all my faults and shortcomings to Him and take on the power of His Spirit for living. With a tenderness that only a loving Father could express He asks me to put the responsibility buck back in my pocket and deal in the currency of honesty and conscious accountability. The change I have returned to me is always in peace of mind and restored intimacy with Christ.

Ken

www.devotionstoday.blogspot.com

Chasing Rainbows

Finally, brothers, good-bye. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. 2nd Corinthians 13:11 (New International Version)

The word 'perfection' has always made me nervous and brought to mind many of my past failures. It’s a word I’ve always felt others expected of me but which I could never deliver. The majority of us were taught that being perfect means without mistake but the Greek word here (katartizō) means to complete thoroughly, repair or adjust. God’s idea of perfection is a lot different from the expectation of the world isn’t it?

For many years I lived under the falsehood that I couldn’t be a true servant of God and that He would not love me unless my life before Him was lived in flawless perfection. I stumbled along in my imperfection torturing myself thinking my acceptability to God was based on how good I acted. If I performed well enough one day I was happy but the next day when I didn’t I was depressed. Doing this has driven many folks into an insane lifestyle or into insanity itself. One day the truth of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans broke through to me when I understood the significance that Jesus died for me and you while we were still sinners (5:8). If He died for me while I was imperfect how much more would He accept me now clothed in His righteousness?

I’ve come to the conclusion that thinking I need to do everything without error to be significant before God is like chasing a rainbow. The idea sounds pretty good but no one I know has ever caught one. Neither has anyone ever needed to achieve perfection to be significant to God. Obsessing over it will only make us sick. There was only one perfect Person and all believers in Him are made perfect through Him. Perfection in God’s mind isn’t being without flaw but thoroughly completed and repaired on a daily basis through Christ’s work and Holy Spirit. Jesus reminds us that only the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are without blemish or error. The Deity of God takes our tarnished brass and shines it to burnished brightness. Restored and repaired daily through Christ. Now how perfect is that?

Ken

www.devotionstoday.blogspot.com

Still Faithful

The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3: 22, 23 (New American Standard Bible)

My daughter, Kenna, took my granddaughter to the doctor recently. Before the exam a nurse took some information for Dakota. Asking the typical questions “Has anyone in your family had…” she was answered each time by Kenna with “Yes, my Dad.” After the sixth or seventh answer of “My Dad” the nurse looked bewildered and asked “Is he still alive?” Kenna answered, “Oh yes, he’s still alive and even survived a brain tumor.” The nurse gasped and said loudly “Oh my!”

Many of you are aware of the answer to prayer I just had concerning a third brain surgery. I was having discharge of a clear fluid from my ear which the doctors thought was cerebral spinal fluid. My surgeon had planned on going into the ear from behind, through the skull, to fix the problem. After consulting with 3 neuro-surgeons who all said it needed to be done this way there was something that was nagging at my doctor. My family was very worried about this surgery going into an area that had already been insulted with 2 prior brain surgeries. When my surgeon came in to see me before the surgery he said to me and my wife, Tommie, “You know, I’ve been thinking about this surgery and I just don’t feel right in going into the skull to get into the ear area. I believe I’ll take another course.” He went on to tell me that instead of cutting into my skull he would first try going into the ear canal and see what he could find there and if he did find a spinal fluid leak he would then take the skull route into the back of my ear and fix the problem. To make a long story short when he went into my ear canal he found the two prior brain surgeries had caused the ear canal in that ear to fold over. When he lifted the fold he found a large lesion there that was running with a clear fluid. That was the problem. If he had gone the route through my skull he never would have found the lesion and the problem would not have been fixed.

Coincidence? After having the input of 3 different neuo doctors to go with the skull cut what was it that told my surgeon to hold up and try another avenue? I had a lot of people praying for me, my family and the doctor. I believe that nagging feeling wasn’t the doctor’s but was a direct answer to prayer and the Lord directing the surgeon to go the illogical ear canal route to get to the source of the problem. It didn’t make sense until Dr. Gardner lifted the fold in that ear canal then he marveled at what had happened. The problem was fixed and I spent 1 night in the hospital and was home the following day. It would have been easier if God had just healed me outright and no surgery had been needed but I never would have seen His hand in all this. He is a personal Savior and He works sweetly and individually with each of our needs. He might work differently for you in your need which is an awesome thought. As we pray He intervenes in our lives face-to-face taking care of our unique needs. This has been a good reminder of the power of prayer. Through it all He’s still faithful.

Ken

www.devotionstoday.blogspot.com