Give Thanks…for Fellow Christians!
Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “Thoroughly Equipped”
Week 4 of 4: “Christ Who Rules Over Us!”
Full Sunday message: CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: Five Reasons to Give Thanks!
When’s the last time you’ve been to church?
Do you miss it?
I hope you say, “Yes!” CoVid precautions have encouraged us to stay home or given us pause to go out in public. Going to church has been affected as well.
Being able to sit in your PJ’s on a Sunday morning and “attend” church might be becoming the “norm” or at least a comfortable second to coming in person.
Content and teaching can be delivered via the internet. But one thing is missing…a very important aspect of a church family.
The Apostle Paul understood.
Yesterday’s devotion mentioned Paul’s shipwreck on the island of Malta. He and the crew wintered there for three months. Finally, they were able to complete the last part of their journey and arrived in Rome. Read what happens:
Acts 28:11 After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island. It was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux. 12 We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days. 13 From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli. 14 There we found some brothers who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome. 15 The brothers there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged.
Here’s a link to see a map of these places. (https://bibleatlas.org/full/three_taverns.htm).
It appears that Paul disembarks the ship in Puteoli. In the port city they find some fellow Christians who invited Luke and Paul to stay with them (remember he’s still under guard). They stayed a week and then traveled north on the Appian Way (a Roman ‘highway’) north to Rome. Word had gotten to the Christians in Rome and so they traveled south and met Paul enroute near the Forum of Appius (same ruler after which the Appian Way was named) and the Three Taverns. (Great place to meet friends…right? Actually it can also be translated the “Three Shops”…let’s go with Taverns!)
The location didn’t matter. The people did.
“At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged.”
In a strange area and land, under guard of a Roman centurion, seeing brothers in the faith of Jesus was exactly what Paul needed. They encouraged him. It doesn’t say how, but perhaps it was one or more of these reasons:
- Perhaps he was encouraged to know others were holding firm in the faith, even while he was in chains.
- Perhaps the brothers shared the reminder that God had a purpose and plan for Paul, even when it might be hard to see.
- Perhaps the Christian friends asked if Paul needed anything and offered to help fill physical needs, as they came up.
We have missed during CoVid the blessings of getting together. The writer to the Hebrews wrote, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:23-25).
Online worship is a great blessing…however, I miss seeing everyone on a Sunday morning. There is nothing more valuable than seeing and interacting and being encouraged by your brothers and sisters in Christ. Give thanks for these fellow Christians! Look forward to seeing them again soon!
Apply: Who is a brother and sister in Christ that brings you encouragement? Perhaps take time this Thanksgiving week to reach out to them and let them know how valuable their presence and encouragement is to you.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for fellow Christians who know the right time to show up and speak to give my heart encouragement. AMEN.
Give Thanks…Give Witness!
Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “Thoroughly Equipped”
Week 4 of 4: “Christ Who Rules Over Us!”
Full Sunday message: CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: Five Reasons to Give Thanks!
It’s natural to complain.
It’s easier to focus on what is wrong.
2020 provides many reasons to complain…we could fit right in with others and find multiple reasons to do so.
But giving thanks…for CoVid? For unrest? For loss of jobs? For hardship? For….(you fill in your own).
What do you think the reaction on social media would be if you posted thanksgiving for all the “bad” things of 2020?
If done with genuine gratitude and trust that God can and does work ALL things for the good of those who love him, it might just be a powerful witness.
One such example was the Apostle Paul. Talk about a litany of reasons to complain…he had them. He was persecuted, beaten, left for dead, falsely accused, and more. At the end of Acts another “misfortune” befalls him as he is being transported to Rome to face trial for accusations leveraged in Jerusalem. On the voyage from Jerusalem to Rome, the trip didn’t go as planned. The ship was going to sink. Some were ready to jump ship into the lifeboat…but Paul said “Unless we all stay, no one will survive.” Throughout the night, the sailors wondered what would happen. Before the sun rose, here’s what Paul did:
Acts 27:33 Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. 34 Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” 35 After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. 36 They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. 37 Altogether there were 276 of us on board. 38 When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.
All 276 sailors heard Paul GIVE THANKS to God. He did it in front of them all! Perhaps it was just for the bread they were going to eat, but I can’t imagine Paul not including thanks for the sailors, the promise of safety, God’s protection and providence…all in the middle of a horrible situation! In the end all 276 on board survived.
The irony of Paul’s prayer is that it was not the “fox hole” prayer. He didn’t cry out in a panic to make a deal with God that if God would save them he would… He simply took the opportunity to thank God for the situation and the provisions they had. He gave thanks.
The simple act of giving thanks to God can be a public witness to your faith and the God in whom you trust.
I read a comment recently (sorry can’t remember where) which quipped, “20/20 is clarity of vision. Perhaps all the challenges of 2020 are God’s way of focusing us clearly on him.”
How true! When we focus on the Lord, we can be confident he is working for our best interest…
…and for that we can give thanks! When you do, it might surprise others. That’s OK, giving thanks becomes your opportunity to witness to others!
Apply: Take time this week to post or speak an “unexpected thanksgiving.” Take something that most others would complain about and find a reason to publically give thanks to God for it.
Prayer: Father thank you for the confidence that no matter what the circumstance I face, you have given me a reason to give thanks. Let this expression of gratitude be a witness to all around that your goodness supersedes our challenges. Amen.
Give Thanks…for Jesus!
Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “Thoroughly Equipped”
Week 4 of 4: “Christ Who Rules Over Us!”
Full Sunday message: CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: Five Reasons to Give Thanks!
Who would have ever thought we would be discouraged from celebrating Thanksgiving?
I know we can still celebrate Thanksgiving, but Covid-19 certainly has put a damper on things. Travel discouraged…seeing family discouraged…wearing a facemask between bites…encouraged?
Satan would love to focus us on what we DON’T have and reasons NOT to give thanks. Let’s not fall for it. The reasons to give thanks will always supersede reasons not to be thankful. I pray the devotions this week will help keep us focused on at least a few of the many reasons God gives us to give thanks…this week and every week.
Let’s start with the most important.
Did you know there is a greater pandemic infecting our country and the world than CoVid-19?
The CDC doesn’t recommend guidelines concerning it. No mask will stop it. The President doesn’t have a task force to fight it. Social distancing doesn’t work. Staying at home doesn’t slow the infection rate.
This pandemic didn’t start in China, Europe or the United States, it started in Iraq and Iran…OK, not really, but that’s about where the Garden of Eden was. J
Sin entered the world. The infection rate is 100%. The mortality rate is 100%. Pfizer and Moderna can’t develop a vaccine.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—
The outlook looks bleak. A solution to this spiritual pandemic seems to escape us as hard as we try. For this certain death sentence God works a solution.
Romans 7:21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Thanks be to God…through our Lord, Jesus Christ!
When a cure seemed impossible and healing seemed improbable, God sent his Son Jesus into the world to win the victory we could never win on our own. His perfect life…made ours. His death on the cross…applied to us. His glorious resurrection…the final blow to sin and death.
He didn’t need 100s in a clinical trial…just one perfect person on trial. He didn’t need to learn from the deaths of 1000s…he simply sacrificed himself once for all. He didn’t need FDA approval…he had his Father’s approval.
For you.
No matter what has happened in your life this year, God wants you to know your biggest problem in life, sin and its consequences, has been solved by Jesus Christ.
Give thanks…it’s the greatest gift ever given!
Apply: Make a list this week of all the things that have happened in 2020. Next to each one write one blessing God has given you through that event…whether you perceive that event as good or bad.
Prayer: Father, thank you for ALL the reasons you have given to me to give thanks this week and always. Thank you most of all for sending Jesus to win a victory I could never win on my own…thank you for providing me with a solution for my sin. AMEN.
FAITH: A Source of Power!
Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “Thoroughly Equipped”
Week 3 of 4: “Faith that Defines Us!”
Full Sunday message: CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: Five Blessings of Faith!
It’s easy to be a victim or feel like a victim.
When we are a victim, it is easy to feel like we have no power over anything in our lives. Our company downsizes or closes and we lose our job. Our school has an increase in COVID-19 cases and we have to learn from home. Our political candidate loses and we have to accept the results.
We can legitimately be a victim when we are unjustly wronged by heinous crimes of abuse, murder, blackmail, etc. Hopefully justice will be done to prevent the injury from coming to another person.
However, in any circumstance real or felt or both, we don’t have to live as a victim.
Living as a victim allows the events in our life to define us as not worth anything, a failure, or fear people are just out to get us. Living as a victim can turn into blaming God for our circumstances and questioning his love for me.
We may not have had control over a certain event in our lives, but we don’t have to live as victims.
We can live as victors…no matter what has happened to us.
Why? Look at what Paul writes:
Ephesians 1:18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know … his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Faith connects us to a source of power unlike any other. Faith connects us to the power of God, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and then put him over EVERY other power!
When everything else seems to render you powerless in the world around you, DO NOT forget that faith connects you to the Power at work over all over the world. This power, our Lord Jesus Christ is at work for you.
You are not a victim…you are a victor!
If I am a victim to the abuse of another…in Christ, I am a victor with a Savior who loves me.
If I am a victim to loss of income or job…in Christ, I am a victor in possession of the treasures of heaven.
If I am a victim to governing officials and policy…in Christ, I am a victor as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven that supersedes any temporal government.
If I am a victim to a relationship that is broken, in Christ, I am a victor to be included in the family of God.
If I am feeling a victim to my sin and guilt, in Christ, I have the victory over sin and death!
Never think you are powerless. Faith has connected you to the power of the Almighty God!
1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Apply: What area of your life do you feel like a victim or have been a victim? What promise and power of God will help to turn that area of life from victim to victor?
Prayer: Lord, while I may fall victim to evil and its results in this world, remind me always that I have a connection to your power by faith…which always makes me the victor!
FAITH: A Promise of an Inheritance!
Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “Thoroughly Equipped”
Week 3 of 4: “Faith that Defines Us!”
Full Sunday message: CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: Five Blessings of Faith!
What would you do with an unexpected inheritance?
Here’s an interesting story:
Brothers Zsolt and Geza Peladi were homeless in 2009, living in a cave outside Budapest, Hungary, and scavenging junk for a living in Hungary when they learned they had inherited a fortune from a grandmother in Germany. The siblings were located by charity workers and put in touch with the attorneys who were handling the estate of their maternal grandmother in Baden-Württemberg, The Telegraph reported.
The once-penniless brothers received 4 billion pounds. Today, that would be equivalent to more than $5 billion in U.S. dollars. (Source: https://www.moneytalksnews.com/slideshows/heirs-chosen-at-random-and-6-other-incredible-inheritance-tales/)
Can you imagine going from penniless to billionaires overnight?
This is what God has done for us. The Apostle Paul is like those charity workers that comes to the brothers and lets them know what they have inherited. He wants us to realize the “Riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.”
Our story of faith is a rags to riches story.
Without a connection to the love of God and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we were spiritually broke and penniless.
1 Corinthians 1:26-30 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
Yet God decided to give us an inheritance…not because we have earned or deserved it, but because he chose to give it.
James 2:5 Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?
Realize nothing this world has to offer could buy a spot in heaven…yet God has GIVEN to you an inheritance that is worth far more than all the wealth of the world and far more glorious than any experience the world has to offer.
Ephesians 1:18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,…”
Apply: What would you do if you inherited five billion dollars? How does your life change knowing you’ve inherited something far more valuable?
Prayer: Lord open our eyes so that we can see the riches of the glorious inheritance you have given to us. AMEN.