Category: From Pastor

This week’s devotions are based on Week 1 of the Series Ephesians: Becoming Who You Are (CLICK HERE)

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Ephesians 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. 

God chose us.

We have all experienced being chosen.  When you are selected for the kickball team or the promotion at work there is a sense of joy and satisfaction.  However, most of the “choosing” we have experienced is probably based on some performance factor determined by the one choosing.  If you are chosen for the sports team, it’s probably because you have skills in that sport.  If you are chosen for a job, it is probably because your experience and skill set are a good match for the new position.

So it would be easy to transfer this human experience of being chosen to God’s decision to choose us.  In fact, many have tried to understand God’s choosing based on his foreknowledge of what he knew would happen…i.e. He chose us because he knew we would believe or he chose us because he knew we would have strong works of faith.

This then makes the teaching of election or predestination a teaching of personal effort that warrants the choosing of God and the mercy of God.

This is a deviant lie of Satan and satisfies the sinful pride of our hearts that wants to claim in some way the mercy of God is based on our merit.

The fact that God would choose us is one of the strongest testimonies to his grace the Bible proclaims.  It leads us to marvel that we were in the mind of God before the creation of the world and he orchestrated an amazing plan in time to communicate to our hearts the message of the Gospel and work faith in our heart to believe it.  This fact of being chosen by God is simply a strong testimony to the love of God that would want us to be part of his family…apart from and in spite of our sinful performance we exhibit each and every day.

How could he do this?

Because his choosing of us was done “in him” not “in us.”  He chose us IN HIM….to be holy and blameless.  Who is the “him”?  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of all.  God in eternity had planned the saving work of Jesus and orchestrated the connection of that work to our hearts.  Only because Jesus lived, died and rose again could God’s choosing be possible.  Only through Jesus does any sinner, including you and me, have any ability to carry the status of “holy and blameless” in the sight of God.

Here’s an excerpt from an article written by John Piper, a baptist pastor who also is Calvinist (and not always congruent with the Bible’s teaching on predestination, but I thought this was well worded:

2. Therefore, the basis of God choosing you is not in you, but in grace.

Take God’s Old Testament people Israel, for example. Why did God set his favor on Israel above all the peoples of the earth? What was the basis of God’s calling them “my chosen” (Isaiah 45:4)? Here’s Moses’s answer:

The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers. (Deuteronomy 7:6–8)

This is amazing: “The Lord set his love on you and chose you . . . because the Lord loves you.” He loves you because he loves you! That’s the deepest, and ultimate, basis of God’s choosing Israel.

Paul underlines the wonder. Why was Jacob, the father of the nation of Israel, chosen over his twin brother Esau? Paul answers, “Though they were not yet born, and had done nothing either good or bad — in order that God’s purpose to choose might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls — their mother was told, ‘The older will serve the younger’” (Romans 9:11–12).

And the principle holds today. Paul would say, “So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace” (Romans 11:5). So it is with every true Christian. Behind our believing — behind our coming to Jesus — is grace alone. There is no ground for our being chosen beneath the all-wise and incomprehensible love of God. Oh, the vastness of the repercussions of this unfathomable truth! 1

Enjoy the status of being chosen…knowing the simple reason you were chosen is because God loves you!

 

Apply: Think of a time you were chosen.  How did you feel?  Was it based on your performance or simply because the person wanted you?  How does it feel to be chosen by God?

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for your profound grace and mercy that would choose me to be holy and blameless in your sight through Jesus, my Savior.  AMEN.

 

1. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/ten-reasons-to-revel-in-being-chosen

This week’s devotions are based on Week 1 of the Series Ephesians: Becoming Who You Are (CLICK HERE)

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The question of “who are you” perhaps is one that people of all eras, nationalities and culture have asked at some point in history.  In America, in recent years, the question of identity has become more pronounced as heated discussions can ensue around gender identity, racial identity or political identity.  While individuals have to answer this for themselves, we find ourselves having identity imposed on us as individuals are lumped into groups, or suggestions are given that might lead someone to question their identity.

So where do you find your identity?  What shapes your answer to “Who are you?”  Rightly so, there are many factors that come by nature or nurture that may come into play in answering this question, but in the end who gets the final say in your mind as to who you believe you are?

Will it be someone from your childhood that said you would never amount to anything?

Will it be a teacher who believed you had unlimited potential?

Will it be the media that puts your demographic in a lump sized identity?

Will it be your first boss who fired you for underperforming?

Many voices and situations can cause us to question our identity or make us overconfident in our identity.  

I appreciate art and literature, but there was always something frustrating about studying both. Often the professor would ask, “What do you think the artist was trying to convey?” or “What was the author trying to communicate?”  As we went around the class, there were as many opinions as there were students.  Inside I was thinking, “The only way we are going to know for sure is to ask the artist or read what the artist wrote about his piece of art or what the author intended to communicate.”

While identity can be a fluid thing in our society, why don’t we just ask the one who made us?  Why don’t we ask the Creator of the universe what our identity is to be and the purpose for which he made us?

When I understand it straight from the one who formed me and died on the cross for me, I have a much more stable sense of self and identity than any news pundit, well-meaning parent, or bottom-line driven boss.  I will have a deep sense of who I am which then will communicate what I am to do.  Identity informs our activity.

The book of Ephesians is written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the Apostle Paul.  He was one who was finding his identity in his religious effort and zeal to eliminate followers of Christ until Christ himself changed his heart and perspective and gave him not just a task, but a new identity that was wrapped in the grace of God and the peace he had through Jesus Christ.  It gave him a new perspective on the people to whom he wrote as he saw them as saints and faithful believers in Jesus.  Like Jesus no longer saw him as the identity of sinner, he saw them as Jesus saw him, “a saint.”

As we journey through the book of Ephesians, I pray that we begin to see all that God has done for us to create in us an identity that settles our soul with a peace only Jesus can give and is lavished in the grace that God loves to give.

 Ephesians 1:1      Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, 

To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: 

2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Apply: When you consider the question, “Who am I?” what answer do you give and what has influenced that answer?

Prayer: Thank you for loving me to call me your child and give me an identity and purpose that is rooted in you! AMEN.

One of the afternoons that we were at the beach, our girls went down to the beach on their own while my wife and I had a little bit of work that needed to be done (I know, you’re not supposed to work on vacation).  When we got down to the beach, our girls met us with a smile on their face and said, “Meet Alfred!”  No this wasn’t some cute guy they met, but it was a small elephant molded from some clay they found on the beach and ornamented it with seashells.  

They explained how they thought the gray chunks they saw on the beach were rocks, but then they realized they were pliable and able to be formed into different shapes.  The next day, my brother-in-law who works in the oil industry suggested they were actually tar balls from an oil spill or oil rigs, but investigating a little further, they do seem to be clay balls that wash on shore from dredging of ship channels in the area.  So while it may have traces of petroleum in it, it would seem harmless clay chunks from the bottom of the Gulf washing on shore.

I’ve included a picture of Alfred.  He made it home ok.  The moisture from the clay has mostly left and the firmness of his form has set in.

Admittedly, not every beach has clay balls on them, but a popular activity of going to the beach is taking the wet sand and molding it into a castle, a creature, or just a giant crater.  There is something about the pliability of clay or sand and the creativity of one’s mind that make for a good mix.

The Bible uses clay and the potter as an example of our relationship with God.  If you are like me, I thought first of the verse in Isaiah 64 “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” 

This is Alfred being content to be Alfred because that is what the “potters” made of the clay. But it’s interesting in looking quickly at the Bible passages that speak of the potter/clay relationship that we (the clay) don’t always want to be content with what God (the potter) has made of us.

Our sinful nature wants to rebel against what God is doing in our lives to mold us into his likeness.  We like to tell the potter what he should do for us and with us.  We like to get angry against the potter when we feel like he hasn’t made us the way we think we should have been made.  In fact, we would rather be the potter and make God the clay.  We would like to mold God into the God we want him to be and tell him what to do.  This is how the Lord answers this in Isaiah 45:

“Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’? 10  Woe to the one who says to a father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you brought to birth?’ 11 “This is what the Lord says—    the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?

While our sinful nature rebels against the work of the Potter, the Spirit working inside of us leads us to marvel that the Lord made us just the way he wanted with our faith, gifts and talents.  He took a lump of clay and gave it purpose and definition along with his love and grace.

So this may be a silly question, but would you rather be a lump of clay lying meaningless on the seashore or an Alfred carefully crafted, taken home, and treasured by the ones who made it?

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be God’s “Alfred” than just a lump of clay.

Apply: In what ways do you wish you could be the potter and make God the clay?  After you repent, what blessing is it to know God is the potter and you are the clay that he has lovingly formed to be you?

Prayer: Lord, forgive me for wanting to be the potter and command you what to do with me.  Rather I thank you for molding me with your tender love and skillful hands to be me with a purpose to live with you and for you.  AMEN.

 

NOTE TO READERS:

This devotion sets up well the next two months of devotions based on a new Sermon Series beginning this Sunday, June 30 on the book of Ephesians entitled, “Becoming Who You Are in Christ!”  The book of Ephesians beautifully outlines our new identity we find in Christ and the new purpose we have to live for Christ…I look forward to the journey through it together!

One of my hobbies is metal detecting.  As a young person growing up in California, I remember visiting the beach in Santa Cruz and watching individuals pull out dimes and quarters from the sand with their metal detectors.  What a cool thing to find buried treasures!  The interaction intrigued me so much that one year in grade school (6th or 7th grade?) I bought a metal detector and developed my science project around how the detector worked.  It was a fun presentation to see how the detector would respond to different metals. 

For years, I would use that detector when I had opportunity and eventually found enough coins to cover the cost of it.  Along the way I had a couple simple silver rings, silver coins and a few wheat pennies.  I actually just sold that detector last year – it still worked.

I sold it because my family got me a new detector for my birthday, which is much better in technology and easier to use.

So of course I took it to the beach this weekend!  Since the ladies of my family like to sleep in on vacation, I got a couple of hours each of two mornings to see what treasures I could find on the beach. Coins added up to just over $3.00.  Bottle caps and junk probably weighing over three pounds. 🙂  While I’m getting better at determining what is a “good target” and what is not worth digging, the irony is that gold rings can sometimes ring up similar to aluminum bottle caps or pull tabs…so in search of the elusive gold ring, I clean up the beach.

As I’m swinging my detector, of course there are others that are intrigued and ask things like, “Have you found my diamond ring yet?”  Or, “What treasures have you found?”  Others just looked from a distance.  (It was fun last winter when we were in Galveston to find a one ounce silver bar…in case you were wondering what my best find has been recently.)

Searching for lost treasure is fun.  The hunt is intriguing.  You never know when the detector will go off and find something of value. 

It reminds me of a story Jesus told of a lost coin and one who hunted for it.

Luke 15:8-10 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” 

Some may say about metal detecting, “Why bother?”  Some may see it as more work than it’s worth.  But when you find something of great value, people are intrigued and excited.

Jesus compares this to the work of his kingdom.  There are so many people in the world who don’t know Jesus.  They are hidden behind their work, their activities, their hard facade, or their financial value.  It is not always easy to bring the Gospel to them. It is not always rewarding when the sharing of Jesus is met with resistance.  But when the Gospel changes a heart and an individual turns from a life of sin to follow Jesus…it’s like finding the lost coin that has utmost value!

Maybe metal detecting isn’t your idea of fun, but I pray that the idea of finding lost souls and sharing Jesus with them is an activity we are always willing to engage in!

 

Apply: Is there someone in your sphere of influence that doesn’t know Jesus?  Pray boldly for God to set up an opportunity to talk about Jesus with them.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for engaging in a deliberate search to find me.  I rejoice that I am part of your kingdom and humbled that you use me to find other lost souls.  AMEN.

This past weekend my family and I went on a mini-vacation to the beach in Galveston, TX.  It was my wife’s birthday on Sunday and we enjoyed the time away as a family.  The rest of the devotions this week will simply give some devotional thoughts on some beach observations.

Genesis 22:15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

I can’t imagine trying to count the sand particles on the seashore…just in a square foot…or even on the bottom of my Croc’s when I got back to our condo.  They are small and many…and really impossible to count.

When the LORD came to Abraham with a promise of descendents as numerous as the “sand on the seashore” was he talking about a one-to-one correlation between a grain of sand and one person who could trace his lineage back to Abraham?  Or was he getting Abraham to realize as was said by the Apostle Paul,

Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

When the LORD is at work for the benefit of his people, his Church, he is able and more than willing to do more than one could ask or imagine.  

From a human standpoint, there was little chance that Abraham would have any descendants, let alone so many that one could not count or would lose count of them.  Yet, the power of God would be at work in the life of Abraham to bring a son named Isaac, and from him many more descendants that would be hard to count at this point.

Why? To bring glory to his name throughout all generations and to see that the people of God would always have their roots in the power of God.  To this day, the promise to Abraham is still seen as a miracle and a testimony to the power of God.  The ultimate descendent of Abraham was Jesus Christ who would also carry out the miraculous by bringing life out of what was dead and bring about spiritual descendants of Abraham that also are too many to count.  The reality of Jesus is still bringing change in people’s hearts and giving glory to the power of God at work in and among us.  God can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.

The Gulf and its power and immensity of its shore is impressive enough.  However, when you pause long enough to consider how many grains of sand there is on the shore, it is truly impressive reminder that God’s power and ability to build not just his world, but his Church is a testimony to his grace.  Each one of us, by faith, is one of those grains of sand.  Individually, a grain of sand is pretty insignificant, but combined with a multitude of others creates the shoreline of the coast.  

Perhaps its the same for us.  Individually maybe we feel insignificant like a grain of sand, but remember God takes the insignificant and that which seems so small to make something so significant.  So next time you find yourself on the beach, take a look at the grains of sand and remember the promises and power of a glorious God who takes you and reminds you that you too are a recipient of his promise of grace!

 

Apply: What things around you remind you of the promises of God and his faithfulness to follow through on those promises?

Prayer: Lord, thank you for your grace that includes me in your promises! AMEN.