Weekly Devotionals

Tuesday, April 8th, 2014

Sorry for the respite - the regular schedule should resume beginning now!

Worrying – our passage (Matthew 6.25-34) talks explicitly about this. It sums it all up in the phrase “Do not worry.” If taken literally, we would all be sitting around doing nothing, because “God will provide.” However, we need to define “worry” and its sister-word “concern.” Worry will be defined as “the pressure of a situation wherein I can do nothing,” and concern will be defined as “the pressure of a situation wherein I can do something.” This concept of worry and concern helps us when trying to understand how God will provide, which is what He promises to do. God can provide in any way from a full-time job to last-minute providence. As men (which means leaders and heads-of-households), we are to be concerned about providing for those under our protection, but not worried about it. We are to seek out the avenue which God will provide for us. If we have no concern, then we are not doing our job as men by providing, albeit through God’s providence. Regardless of how God provides, we are to receive it with thanksgiving – every workday is to be seen as fulfillment of God’s promise. Do note, however, that God doesn’t say, “I will provide three meals a day, and a new set of clothes every week.” There is no quantity stated. God does not operate that way. Since our entire purpose for being here is to glorify God, then God will provide so that we can “do our job.” God wants us to strive, yet trusting that He’ll bring it to fruition.

There are four negatives to worrying that we discussed. 1) It can kill you. Since you personally can’t effect the situation, worrying will only make it more and more of your life, and pretty soon you’ll be dead, either physically or metaphorically. 2) You deny that God is omnipotent. You know you can’t do anything about it, yet you refuse to believe that God can. 3) You deny the inerrancy of Scripture and God’s faithfulness to His promises. You do not believe that God will do what He says He will do, which is revealed in Scripture. 4) You deny your Faith, and consequently yourself, making yourself a hypocrite. A professing Christian, by nature, claims to believe the Bible and God’s power. You, by worrying, deny the inerrancy of Scripture and omnipotence of God, the basis of Christianity, yet claim it is true. Sound strange to anyone else?

So, how do you overcome worry? Again, worry is defined as “the pressure of a situation wherein I can do nothing.” Therefore, ask Someone who can affect the situation, and, in fact, creates the situation. God sometimes reveals His will via answers to prayer. When a situation comes up, ask God to intercede. Then, don’t worry about it. You just asked the King to come and help.

-Josh Coder

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Tuesday, March 18th, 2014

Memory Verse Explanation:

Our memory verses for this week were 1 Timothy 5:21-24 ~ In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. 22 Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure. 23 (No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.) 24 The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.

Alrighty then, let’s break this down verse-by-verse. There were a couple in particular which we focused on:

v. 21. “Presence of God, and of Christ Jesus and the elect angels...” This is who you are accountable to. This ties in with v. 24 in relation to the sins of some coming to attention sooner, going before them to judgment, while others are less conspicuous. This prompts the thought: “Your character is who you are when you are alone.”

                This verse is also relatable to when a fellow believer stumbles - do not base your conclusion upon the judgments of others. For the sake of posterity, first listen to the actual person first, not some “reliable source.”

v. 23. This verse is believed to actually have been written specifically to Timothy. He was known to have had ailments and stomach problems, but it was not for this reason that Paul encouraged him to use wine. The real reason was, in Ephesus, water came in through aqueducts from two nearby cities. One city was on top of hot springs, and the other, cold springs. By the time that the water had traveled through the aqueducts and into the city of Ephesus, it was lukewarm and probably chock full of germs. Paul was telling Timothy to use some wine with the water to purify it. Why did Paul have to tell him to use the wine, instead of Timothy just using common sense? The answer: Timothy, in the process of using wine to purify the water, did not want to become enticed by the drink, and be pushed to overuse.

Study Verses, Matthew 6:1-4 ~ “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

                For me, a problem that has plagued me since an early age has to be giving or sharing. This may seem natural, when you consider that one of the first words a child will learn (and one of the most frequently used) is “mine.” The only problem with this... it does not resolve itself. In fact, in some cases, it gets worse as you grow older. Now, you may be thinking “Wait, this is a rabbit trail! These verses are about not wanting recognition for giving!” True, but only the people who do not want to give to help are the ones who want recognition.

                This brings us to a question that was raised during discussion. In Matthew 5:16 it says: “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” This presents a quandary, and a seeming contradiction. In the one verse it says to “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” Then you come to 5:16 where Jesus said to “let our light shine so that they may see your good works.” The difference is in the motivation. We should be seen doing good works, not doing them to be seen. As we go into this coming week, consider this - everything is God’s, and so it is His to give away. As you are pondering how you can bless those around you this week, ask yourself these questions:

1.) Why am I doing this? Is it to gain a reward from man, or a reward from God?

2.) I am helping or hurting this person through my giving?

-Aaron Spatz

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Tuesday, March 11th, 2014.

Memorization verses: 1 Timothy 5:17-20;

“Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially if they labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture's say you shall not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages. Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all that the rest may stand in fear.”

Verse explanation, Good pastors and elders should have our utmost respect, as they are in positions of immense responsibility. They therefore deserve more respect and honor.

As a laborer, think about your ‘wages.’ What are you earning? Even though 'All our righteous acts are like filthy rags,’ (Isa 64:6 B) 'No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is known by its own fruit,' (Luke 6:43 & 44 a) and 'Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right.' (Proverbs 20:11)

Study Verses, Matthew 5:33-37; 

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’

34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne;

35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.

37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”

Have you ever promised something Cross your heart and then realized that Oh whoops! Your fingers were crossed, I guess it doesn’t count after all! Or maybe your toes or legs or eyes were crossed! Or wait you SAID you heart was crossed! In our family it got so bad that now you are required to have a duly signed and witnessed contract or say "nothing counts not anything not even nothing itself!"

Well I found out this week that our family was not the only one to have this problem.

Imagine this. An entire nation like that! And not just the Kids but the adults too! In fact imagine a place where it is almost considered honorable to lie to a non-national! If not Honorable then certainly not a sin! Well I am not talking about Africa, I am talking about...

The Jews! Big surprise?

 They had this entire system of "Well since I swore by all that is in the Earth I won’t offend God by not keeping my commitment."

In these few short verses Jesus tells them not to do this anymore.

I myself have done the 'fingers crossed' thing more than once, but these verses were a good reminder to me about how important one 'word' is. Business used to be conducted 'with a word and a handshake'. Now we have to have contracts and such.

Also have you heard the phrase, "I kid you not!' or "I’m not kidding It really happened!'

If we cultivate a habit of always meaning what we say and saying what we mean people will believe us when we tell them something, we won’t have to say, I kid you not, I promise, or anything but 'yes' or 'no.’

A five, seven, ten, or fifteen year old should get the same level of 'Yes is Yes' and ‘now’ (which everyone else gets from us) not 'Later'.

Really think about what you are committing too, so that you don’t make one you can’t keep or shouldn’t have made in the first place. (e.g. Jephthah in Judges 12:30-40.)

-Nate Ludlow

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Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

Have you ever had a close friend or relative die? How did you respond? Did you get angry with God or accept this as part of His Will?

To answer these questions, we look at this verse, ” Blessed are they that mourn…”, and ask “what does it mean to mourn? Is there a right way and a wrong way? How does(or should) one mourn?” To answer these questions, we must look to God’s Word.

Mourn in this case comes from the Greek root ‘pen-theh-o’, meaning ‘to grieve or wail’. Mourning is a act o sadness or regret. After David sinned, by counting the nation of Israel, he mourned (I Chronicles 21).

Philippians 3:14 “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”So how does this verse apply? Because of the Fall, bad things happen. People get sick, some die all because of sin. These are the things we mourn for. There are different ways to mourn:

 1. Natural Mourning-this is mourning with/for others. This comes in many forms, depending on the person. Some prefer a quiet companion, some prefer a pair of ears to talk to, others prefer Biblical and prayer support.
 2. Sinful Mourning- this often comes in the form of “woe is me”. This is an ungrateful, untrusting way to face God’s tests.
3. Gracious Mourning-this is the most important and holy type of mourning. This is the mourning of a person realizing that he needs a Savior. It is very relieving to know where you’re going after you die. It also brings joy.

In Bible times, mourning was shown by fasting, wearing sackcloth, and putting ashes on your head. Today this is not the custom. Instead, we often wear black. We still mourn and wail, but it is not as necessary to show you are mourning.

Now that we have covered mourning, let’s go to the next part, “for they shall be comforted”. And then we ask, “what does ‘comforted’ mean? When a friend or relative dies and I mourn, I still feel sad, why?”

‘Comforted’ means in this case literally ‘to go to a place of safety’. When we are comforted by God, we feel safe and secure.

In summary, we all face ‘hard times’ and need to face them correctly. But we have no need to fear. John 16:33 says”These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. “ Are we mourning correctly? are we fearing tribulation?

-James Coder