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Today’s devotion builds on the thoughts from Sunday’s Sermon – Week 5 of “Fan or Follower – Invest Wisely”  (LISTEN HERE).

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“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)

The Lord loves to talk about wealth and material things.  In fact, he is the greatest owner of wealth in the world…the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.

So wealth and material things aren’t bad, wrong or sinful.  The Lord would not engage in such things.

However, all the good things which the Lord has created and allows us to partake in can be a threat to the heart of every individual, including yours and mine.

So he takes time out of love to guide our heart and our relationship with possessions so we invest our time, energy and effort wisely.

Treasure has a one-to-one correlation with our heart.

Our heart has a one-to-one correlation with our treasure.

What do I mean?

Simply what Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Do you find this verse seemingly backwards?  Didn’t Jesus mean to say, “Where your heart is, there your treasure will be also”?

Nope.

Jesus knows that what is most important, what we spend our time on, what we invest in, will be the path our heart follows.  What we treasure, we love. 

So where is your treasure?

A short answer would be, “Of course, my treasure is with the Lord!”

I would say the same thing, until I consider Jesus’ words to the rich ruler in Mark 10:21: 

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 

There is a word I have always missed in this encounter, “Jesus looked at him and LOVED him.”  What Jesus says to strike his heart is because Jesus LOVED him enough to point out what was threatening enjoying the greater riches of heaven.

Jesus LOVES us enough to do the same.

He loves us enough to ask, “Where is your treasure?”

What if you were in hurricane Ian and lost everything of earthly wealth? (Maybe you as a reader experienced that).  

Look around your home and/or business.  Could you sell it all and give it away? (Wow…tough!)

Does material wealth represent a level of safety, security, or stability? (Am I trusting wealth for something I should be trusting God?)

Jesus LOVES us enough to get us to contemplate where our treasure is.  He’s not just “talking about money again.”  He is working on our heart to reorient us to the treasure that is lasting and eternal…heavenly treasures.  He wants us to enjoy the created things he has given to us, but he doesn’t want what he intends to be a blessing to be a curse to us following him and spending eternity with him.

So he calls our hearts away from earthly treasures to himself…because he LOVES us!

Apply: Consider the question, “Where is my treasure?”  Let God reveal what is being valued more than our relationship with him.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for LOVING us enough to challenge the loyalty of our hearts.  Forgive us for treasuring the temporal over the eternal.  Reorient our hearts to the heavenly treasures that are eternal and everlasting.  AMEN.

Today’s devotion builds on the thoughts from Sunday’s Sermon – Week 4 of “Fan or Follower – Deal with Division”  (LISTEN HERE).

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What do I do with injustice?

Romans 12:18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 

As the Lord is so intent on doing, he is working to remove from our heart emotions of revenge, envy and hatred for those that wrong us.  Yet by removing these emotions and replacing them with love for our enemies and encouraging us to show kindness to those that want to harm us, there still lingers a question about resolving an injustice that comes our way.

Can a Christian seek recourse when they are wronged?

Seeking recourse is different than seeking revenge.  Revenge is driven by anger to make the person hurt.  Recourse is driven by justice to seek what is a fair retribution for the wrong incurred.

For example, if one is injured in a car accident by a drunk driver, one might seek a settlement that cares for the injury for the life of the person.  While we are encouraged to forgive the driver, that doesn’t inherently mean they have a jail sentence or their license to drive revoked.

Our judicial system is a legitimate avenue to bring a fair retribution for harm incurred.

But the Lord checks our heart as we proceed or if we proceed.  We pray for the person who wronged us.  While we can seek justice, we seek the desired change and pathway to change that will keep that person from harming others in a similar way.  

These situations are probably more rare in our daily interactions.  It’s the little wrongs that irritate us, lead us to lash out, and in small ways seek revenge.

It’s these situations that this teaching of Jesus encourages us to work to repair relationships that are broken or strained.

The Apostle Paul encourages a similar approach:

Romans 12:18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, 

It may not always be possible, but we give it our best effort to repair relationships that are broken and live at peace with everyone.  Revenge is not an option.  Repair is.

However, there may be situations in your life where it seems like the one who harmed you just gets away scott free.  The temptation is to do what you feel the judicial system didn’t, or to make the person pay when it seems like no one cares.

This is a real temptation…yet, one to fight against.  Revenge is not ours to engage in.  

So what’s the solution?

Romans 12:19b “…but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 

Finally anyone who wrongs us or others will have to face the Lord.  If there is vengeance to be meted out, the Lord, in his perfect justice will.  He knows the situation and he knows the heart. He will avenge or repay, if it is needed.

So we can release the situation to the Lord and trust he will carry out what is just and fair.  In releasing the situation to the Lord, we also release our heart from seeking revenge.

So as a follower of Jesus, we will work to repair relationships and let God deal with revenge.

Apply: Is there a situation from your past or present where thoughts of revenge still linger? Turn the situation over to the Lord and let your heart be at peace and know God is perfectly just and will deal with revenge.

Prayer: Lord thank you for your perfect justice and grace and the promise that you will apply both perfectly.  AMEN.

Today’s devotion builds on the thoughts from Sunday’s Sermon – Week 4 of “Fan or Follower – Deal with Division”  (LISTEN HERE).

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Tough love.

I’m not talking about doing something for a person that will really help even when that person doesn’t want it.  I’m talking about loving someone who hates you and in the moment stands in opposition to you.

It’s tough to love.

Jesus challenges our paradigm and our actions when it comes to our enemies:

Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. 

What helps us meet this challenge is to reflect on both the love the Father has shown to us, and the love he shows to others.  Read Romans 5:6-10 slowly.

Romans 5:6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Did you catch our status when God loved us?

Ungodly.

Sinner.

Enemy.

Let me guess. If someone said, “Mike, I have someone here who is ungodly, a sinner, AND your enemy.  I’d like you to spend your day with him showing him around town and buying him dinner and anything he wants.”

What would you do?

Love an ungodly sinner who is my enemy?

Tough love.

Yet, that is the very love that God showed to us in Christ.  While we were ungodly, enemy sinners, Christ died for us.  Christ lived his life for us.  Christ showed his love for us.

This is how we are to love ungodly, enemy sinners in our lives.

Tough love.

But that’s why God loved us first. So in turn we could love others.

 

Apply: Who fits the description as an ungodly, enemy sinner in your life?  What is one small act of love or kindness you might show to them?

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for loving me when I was your enemy.  Empower me to show this same type of love to those I perceive as my enemies.  AMEN.

Today’s devotion builds on the thoughts from Sunday’s Sermon – Week 4 of “Fan or Follower – Deal with Division”  (LISTEN HERE).

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When is the last time that a problem has been solved through rage and revenge?

The last time you had an argument/fight in your marriage…did rage solve it?

The last time an individual expressed rage against a political policy or figure, did the issue resolve?

The last time someone cut you off in traffic and you reacted in rage…did it make the other person or you a better driver?

The Proverbs say this, (Proverbs 29:11) Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.

Here’s a story I mentioned in the message yesterday of Bud Welch (his daughter was killed in the Alfred Murrah Federal Building Bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995.  She was 23, not 3 as I mentioned in the sermon …sorry for the mistake!)

Bud Welch fought his rage and desire for retribution when his daughter Julie was killed along with 167 other people in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Welch had opposed the death penalty before his daughter was killed, but he reversed his stance as he tried to cope with his loss in the weeks following the bombing.

“People used to tell me, particularly when Julie hit her teenage years, that ‘Bud, you’d change your mind [about the death penalty] if your daughter was murdered,’ ” Welch said. “After the bombing, I was so full of revenge and retribution, I didn’t even want a trial for [Oklahoma City bombers] McVeigh and [Terry] Nichols. I thought the federal government and prosecutors were useless and I just wanted them fried.”

Welch, who owned a service station in Oklahoma City at the time, said he was so grief-stricken and had such a hard time dealing with his loss that he would go home and drink to try to get himself to fall asleep. His drinking gradually increased.

One day, about 10 months after Julie’s death, Welch went to the bomb site — which he routinely visited because that was the last place where his daughter was alive — and began to examine himself and search for a way to get past his grief. He found that he was being consumed that the same rage and thirst of revenge that had driven McVeigh and Nichols to blow up the Murrah Federal Building and kill his daughter.

“I finally asked myself three questions: Do I need to have a trial right away? Do I need to have a conviction? Do I need to have McVeigh and Nichols executed?” Welch said. “I came to the conclusion that none of those things needed to be part of the healing process I had to go through to get past this and stop the alcohol abuse and stop smoking three packs of cigarettes a day.

“It was hate and retribution that drove McVeigh and Nichols. They were getting revenge for what happened in Waco, Texas, exactly two years earlier on April 19, 1993″ — when U.S. government agents began storming the Branch Davidian compound, and the sect’s stronghold went up in flames.

“It was out of rage and retribution that Julie and so many fine people are dead today,” Welch said. “After I began to realize what drove McVeigh and Nichols, I realized that I didn’t want to let my rage and revenge get out of control like it did with them.”

Bud Welch was able to release his rage and bring calm through wisdom given to him.  It is just one practical example of why the Lord encourages us as we follow him to release our rage.  The Apostle Paul writes, Ephesians 4:31-32, Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Again our example and forgiveness is in Christ.  He released his rage against us and the world and chose instead to love and forgive.

Challenging?  Absolutely!  Yet our soul is blessed with calm, forgiveness and peace when the Spirit enables us to release our rage.

Apply: Is there a situation past or present that still causes rage in your heart?  What might happen as the Spirit releases you from that rage and replaces it with compassion and forgiveness?

Prayer: Lord forgive me when my heart is filled with rage.  Replace my rage with your compassion, love and forgiveness.  AMEN.

Today’s devotion builds on the thoughts from Sunday’s Sermon – Week 4 of “Fan or Follower – Deal with Division”  (LISTEN HERE).

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I wish Jesus had said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth’…I tell you, ‘I agree!’”

I wish Jesus had said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy’…I tell you, ‘I agree!’”

In the judicial world of Israel, and perhaps any society, “you do the crime, you do the time.”  Some judicial punishments are more separation from society and some are more separation from some part of your physical body.  Each is a deterrent for the perpetrator to do something more or to harm someone else.

Judicial codes and systems are necessary and should a Christian choose to use the judicial system to bring justice to a wrong that was incurred, there is nothing wrong with it.

However, the challenge is this: WE want to play judge and jury AND executioner!

We want the “right” to settle the score and get even with people who wrong us.  We don’t want to wait for the judicial system.  We don’t want to wait for someone else to act.  WE want to make sure the person who hurt us is hurt the same or worse as we were, and are willing or wishing to carry it out ourselves.

Revenge is rage in our heart that desires retribution for wrong that was done to us.  Revenge is most often triggered when we perceive, and often rightly so, that what happened was not deserved.  Injustice desires justice.  Revenge seeks swift ‘justice’!

That’s why we wish Jesus would give permission to hate our enemies and extract revenge however we see fit.  We want to feel justified to make the person who hurt us, hurt worse.

But Jesus didn’t say the above.  Instead he said this:

Matthew 5:39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

Tough, for sure.

But a follower of Christ follows the example of Christ. 

The Apostle Peter was more than ready to extract revenge.  As Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was quick to take out his sword and swing at the nearest person.  The servant of the high priest ended up with his ear cut off.  Jesus healed it and reprimanded Peter for “living by the sword.”

Years later as Peter reflected on these events and was inspired to write his letters, he shared this observation about Jesus:

1 Peter 2:23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

Of anyone who walked the planet, Jesus had the right to carry our revenge and retribution, yet he chose to not engage and entrust himself to the one, his Father, who would judge justly.

Jesus did not seek revenge.  He instead loved and forgave.  He hung on the cross for the very ones that were seeking to hurt him.  He forgave the ones who unjustly nailed him to the cross. He did this not just as an example, but to bring forgiveness to us.

He went to the cross to receive the revenge for sin that we deserved from our holy, righteous God in heaven.  God hurt his Son so he would not have to hurt us for our sin.

And…so we could do the same to those that hurt us.

So, to the ones that hurt you, love them as God has loved you.

Apply: What happens when ruminations of revenge are replaced with prayer and love toward the one that hurt you?

Prayer: Lord Jesus thank you for taking the vengeance of the Father for my sin, so that I would not have to.  Thank you for showing your love to me so I might show the same to those who hurt me.  AMEN.