The Daily Devo with Steve

This didn't post correctly the first time...sorry about that!

Well, Romans 9 is going to take at least a couple of days to cover, because in my read-through I bumped into a comment by Paul that really is great for thinking about, and I am going to focus on that today, and then do the more comprehensive chapter review tomorrow.  But here is that comment from Paul that caught my attention:

21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

An idea I have heard expressed before, that is a similar thought, goes like this, “You can tell a lot about the painter by looking at the painting, but you can’t really know the painter.”  Between that idea and Paul’s comment in v21, I think we come to a fantastic idea - the idea that we can’t and won’t really ever truly understand God or all of His purposes, at least not until we meet Him.  We shouldn’t pursue God with that goal in mind.  It is fine to want to know more, and to seek more information, and to learn and to grow spiritually...those are all good things; great things.  That being said, the pursuit of that knowledge shouldn’t be the end game; not the goal.  It isn’t going to bring us satisfaction ultimately though, and that is for 2 reasons.  One, it isn’t meant to...if God wanted us to be able to understand Him, all His intentions, all His plans, He would reveal them to us.  And two, we are to pursue God’s vision for our lives and for the world by pursuing Him, and it is made clear to us in scripture that THAT is the point of the pursuit...knowing Him.

I think there is another important idea in this passage though - the idea that this is God’s world, and He can do with it what He wants.  God created it.  God can judge it.  God can end it today.  God can do whatever He wants.  And that can be an un-nerving idea, or almost a cold and unloving idea, if we separate it from what God has already done.  If we look at what we have been given to use to understand God, we have the Bible and the world around us...and it would be hard to say that God’s character has revealed anything but love for His people.  God has pursued us for as long as we’ve been on this earth, and we have basically run from Him that entire time.  Sure, God has judged the world in various ways that we don’t understand, and sometime we look at events happening around us and blame God, but we have to remember that when God had the world just the way HE wanted it, in the Garden of Eden, it was ultimately the same way WE want it...and then WE messed it up.  That’s on us.  Now, we can say that God could fix it with one little swipe of His finger, and that thousands of years of suffering wouldn’t be needed, and we can say that the method God has been using to bring us back to Himself isn’t needed...but then we are assuming we know everything there is to know...we are committing the same sin that got us kicked out of the garden in the first place!

Looking around, we can see the beauty of this world like someone can see the pot created by the potter, or the painting by the painter, and we can understand that God MUST love us...and there really isn’t any evidence to suggest that God has any other purpose for us rather than to have us know Him.

Well, I am excited to be back into reading Romans today. Although today is more of a recap, but I’m excited for where we are going. I think I’m going to do a deep exploration into John’s Gospel next.

For today though, let’s remind ourselves that Romans is a manuscript that was written by Paul to the church in Rome, a larger church that was going to serve as a jumping off point to allow Paul to get over to Spain eventually. That never materialized, but what we see here in this letter is Paul riding to a church that has become fractured between more of a group of legalists, Jewish Christians, and more liberals, mostly the Gentiles.   One great thing about this manuscript is that it can inform us a lot as to how Paul might address some of the issues we see in the church today. No doubt, that’s part of God‘s intention for giving us this book.

These first eight chapters that we have gone through can really be broken into two sections, four chapters apiece. The first four chapters starts with the theme that all humanity is trapped in sin and needs to be rescued. It goes on in chapter 2 to prove that rescue won’t happen by trying to obey the laws of the Torah, we are hopeless in our efforts in that vein in chapter 3 we are shown that God‘s righteousness has rescued the world though, through Jesus.  And then, chapter 4, the end of section 1, Paul shows us that the purpose of God’s rescue is to create a faith based, multi ethnic family of Abraham. As a result of our placing our faith in Jesus, we are given a new status as being right with God, a new family as being included in God’s people, and a new Hope for a transformed life through our walk with Jesus.  So this section serves as a theological foundation for the rest of the book.

Then, in section 2, chapters 5 through 8, we see in chapter 5 a retelling of the story of Adam. Adam‘s name literally means “humanity“, which Paul contrasts with Jesus who is called “the new Adam”, or a new humanity. In chapter 6 Paul teaches that following Jesus marks a transition from that old humanity and Adam to a more Jesus-like life; the idea being that we are somehow transformed in that process.  In chapter 7 Paul poses a question that most Christians will eventually ask, which is a question of why even bother with having the first five books of the Bible, the law, and the 613 commands of Moses - if the law was not the way back to God, why even bother?  This is a great question, and it proves something about God. The law was not for God’s benefit, it was for ours.  The Law demonstrated God‘s goodness and his intention, and it illustrated that evil has hijacked the human heart and that we are incapable of fixing the problem ourselves.  People tried and tried and failed continually to live up to God‘s standard. Only one person ever pulled that off, and in chapter 8 we are shown that this was the purpose of Jesus, to be the solution, that he became what we are that we might become who he is, justified in God’s eyes.

Those are eight heavy chapters. Romans, in general, is a pretty dense manuscript. But, it is Paul’s most theological writing, and he has covered quite a lot of ground in about as succinct of a fashion as a person could ask.

So, we are off and running with chapter 9 tomorrow!

Well, it is day 21...unfortunately, I find that the devotional and the passage selected are unrelated.  Haha.  So, in the end, there were some really good days in this devotional, Lead Like Jesus, and there were some definitely ideas the author was wanting to convey and was reaching for scripture to support.  No big deal.  Tomorrow we will dive back into Romans, and I will start with a summary of where we have been and then we’ll dive right back into it...I am excited.

For today though, reading the devotional, I thought about a song called “You Say” by Lauren Daigle.  It is a really good song, and has a fantastic set of lyrics - which are below.

This song really speaks to this topic of leadership though...at least to me.

As a leader, I need reminding that God has commissioned me.  I need a reminder that God is leading me, that I am only a good leader when I am a good follower, and that I my direction and my intention is from God.  In other words, I am entrusted with what I have, with whom is under my care; I am responsible and accountable for all I am given.

Further, as a leader, we are beaten up in this world.  Life is hard.  Leadership is hard.  God gives me one message, the world gives me another.  This song is about choosing to listen to God’s message.  I think that’s an opportunity for many people, especially my fellow type A personalities, as we can be unrelentingly hard on ourselves.  I say things to myself that I would never say to anyone else...and that’s not fair.  God has the proper perspective, the words I need...I just have to seek them.  That’s me reminder for today.

Song on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIaT8Jl2zpI

Lyrics - You Say, by Lauren Daigle

I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I'm not enough

Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up

Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low?

Remind me once again just who I am, because I need to know, ooh oh

You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing

You say I am strong when I think I am weak

And You say I am held when I am falling short

And when I don't belong, oh, You say I am Yours

And I believe (I), oh, I believe (I)

What You say of me (I)

I believe

The only thing that matters now is everything You think of me

In You I find my worth, in You I find my identity, ooh oh

You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing

You say I am strong when I think I am weak

And You say I am held when I am falling short

When I don't belong, oh, You say I am Yours

And I believe (I), oh, I believe (I)

What You say of me (I)

Oh, I believe

Taking all I have and now I'm layin' it at Your feet

You'll have every failure God, You'll have every victory, ooh oh

You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing

You say I am strong when I think I am weak

You say I am held when I am falling short

When I don't belong, oh, You say I am Yours

And I believe (I), oh, I believe (I)

What You say of me (I)

I believe

Oh, I believe (I), yes, I believe (I)

What You say of me (I)

I believe (oh)

Alright, well, we were on a great streak there for a few days, this devotional and me...but today took a left turn.  In reality, the gist of what is being communicated is great, it is just the nuance associated with this idea that gets under my skin a touch.  So, let’s talk about it.

Here is the passage being cited:

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12

Alright, so, here is the rub for me...the Bible seems to be framed up by so many people as this super sacred thing, called God’s Word, and honored and revered as God-breathed, inerrant and without error or omission.  I understand all of that, but we have to keep in mind that WE, people, not God, came up with all of that.  We have to humbly accept the fact that people wrote the stories that are in it...yes, I believe God led these people, and yes I believe God helped to direct the putting of all of this together, and yes I believe that the Bible contains everything God intended and nothing He didn’t; my issue is how we act like ‘the Bible’ is the center of our faith.  It isn’t...and I truly believe God didn’t intend it that way either.  The Bible is A tool that God gave us.  He also gave us the Holy Spirit.  He gave us Jesus.  He gave us a whole host of tools.

Besides that, here in this passage, when it starts with ‘the word of God’, it isn’t talking about the Bible...the Bible didn’t exist that the time this was written.  Heck, the Bible didn’t exist for a few hundred years after this was written.

As for this passage, I DO believe God’s word is amazingly powerful, and I DO believe the Bible contains some of those words...but that isn’t what the Bible is...the Bible is a story about God’s love for His people, about His plan of redemption.  I think God’s word is much bigger than that.  It is the answer to a prayer.  It is a nudge I feel when I asked God to help me and I get a sense, in the moment, that He is there.  God’s word is that moment of clarity in the midst of chaos, the sense of peace...God’s word is way bigger than the Bible.  Or, at least that is my sense of the matter.  I know I am picking on some of the words here, and perhaps I am in the minutia with this, but some of these ideas that pervade the Christian church bug me because I think outsiders to our faith look at some of these ideas, without the veil of our faith, and they see some of THESE ideas as being a turn-off to faith, and I don’t want that.  It is always true that groups of people, whether Christians, cyclists, runners, comic book readers, classmates at school, fraternity brothers, etc., get kind of an inside language that becomes invisible to them, it is just a part of how they operate, and they become blind to some of the silliness that can become a part of that language...they sometimes can’t see it for what it is.  That’s really all I am getting at.

God’s word does everything this Hebrews passage says, and way more.  God’s word has certainly shaped me over time.  I am a different person, headed in a different direction than when I submitted my life to Jesus roughly 18 years ago.  I am better for it, no doubt.

Today we see one of the few genuine promises of God.  There aren’t many things that God truly promises to us - not to keep us from harm, to make life full of happiness, etc...those aren’t in scripture anywhere.  But God does promise His presence, and here, today, we get another explicit promise...it is found here in John 14:27, buried and a very wordy and almost ‘touchy-feely’ kind of chapter:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 14:27

We see this promise implied in plenty of other places in scripture too...the promise of peace.

What is peace?  And, what isn’t it?  Peace is NOT a promise to avoid trouble.  It isn’t a promise of happiness.  It is a promise that we’ll be able to rest in the moment, to breath a sigh of relief WHEN the struggle comes.  It is really the symptom of God’s major promise - the promise of His presence.  When we know that God is with us, when we sense it...peace is what happens.

So, continuing on the theme of the last couple of days, the theme of really slowing down, enjoying the moment, enjoying and sensing God’s presence...today we turn to looking for that symptom of those ideas...the symptom of slowing down, the symptom of God’s presence...peace.  Today I am going to look for it...I am going to try to sense it.  I am going to look for those moments where I feel that peace, because I have slowed down to enjoy life just a little more.

Yeah, I have given this series a hard time, but the last few days have cut to the heart of me...haha.  Today is another of those...today is talking about balancing living in the future and living in the now.  I am definitely a futurist.  I am always thinking about what is ahead, and I daily struggle with living in the moment.  It is exhausting, if I am being honest.  I think about the next thing, the next day, the next opportunity...it is always our in front of me.  Here is the passsage for today, one of the most famous and one of my personal famous lines from scripture:

Psalm 90:12

“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

I feel like I am always in a rush; like I am always headed somewhere other than where I am in a moment; like I can’t really enjoy this moment because it is fleeting.  When I am here, I am actually thinking about being there.

Jesus was a great example of someone who was headed somewhere, who had a mission He was fulfilling, but who also had the ability to ‘stop and smell the roses’; meaning, He would constantly turn His attention to the moment, to the current need, to the person in front of Him.  He was able to balance the now and the then.

For me, for today, I am going to try something...for today, I am going walk slower, talk slower, eat slower, listen to podcasts at less than 2x speed...I am going to slow down and try to see if I can make time slow down around me.  I want to see if my mental facilities will follow the lead of the my physical.  It is the old “act yourself into feeling” idea.  Living with numbered days isn’t just about being sure you are moving towards your ultimate destination, but that you are squeezing all of the perversion juice for the lemon of life.  I am so blessed in so many way...it is time to not only recognize those blessings, but to enjoy them.  That’s why God gave them to me.

The thing about faith is that it is often most visible to others in our response to times of great difficulty.  And, luckily, God isn’t asking us to live in perfection, clearly, because many of these folks from this chapter had struggles and sin issues of their own.  But, in the end, they are remember as having been faithful.  Here was the key verse from the chapter, and it is right at the end of it:

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.

Hebrews 11:39

The biggest difference between all of these folks and us is that we live on this side of the cross...meaning, we have the messages and the promises of Jesus to lean into, and these folks didn’t.  That is a big advantage.  If they were able to hang onto their faith without Jesus, it seems like I should be able to live in faith...I have the Bible, the Holy Spirit, organized church, history full of support for my faith...I mean, I have it easy by comparison!

God wants us to live by faith, leaning into and trusting in Him, assuming He’s going to do what He says He will do.  Practically speaking, I think that really just means trying to live the life to which we are called, living as Jesus modeled for us, and looking for those moments when we feel like we just can’t do it - because we are tired, or weak, or scared, or have lost motivation, etc. - and then doing anyway, with the expectation that He will give us what we need to take each subsequent step.  I think that is the most practical application of this idea of living by faith.

So, that’s my goal for today...to lean into what God is teaching me, where He is leading me, and to trust that even when I can’t or don’t want to, He is equip me.  I didn’t get my lunch scheduled with an old friend from yesterday’s challenge, yet, so that is on the docket for today as well!

Today’s devotional touches on probably the second ‘weakest’ area of my personal spiritual life - close personal friendships.  If prayer is my weakest area, this is a close second.  I am a person who enjoys alone time by my nature, but I also have a level of connection that I need and actually crave, but it is typically easy for me to ignore it.  And, it is easy for me to treat my time of connection with others as a time for my own development, which is true, but it is also me giving to others...which means I am being selfish with my time, in a way.

The passage for today comes from the introductory section of Romans, where Paul is getting the letter to the church in Rome kicked off, and it reads:

I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.—Romans 1:11-12

As strong as Paul was in his faith, and as well-versed as he was in Jewish Law and in the teachings of Jesus, he was equally as well-centered on personal relationships.  He valued them, as is evidenced by his writings.  He leveraged them to make himself better, but also to sharpen others, and to use what he had to serve others.

Today, I am going to schedule some time with a couple of old friends that I haven’t seen in a while, to reconnect, and to re-establish some friendships that are important to me, that are developmental to me, and that I actually do crave deep down.  Today is a great reminder that we are made for community...and I can’t go on cutting myself short in this area of my spiritual development.

Today’s devotional is about this idea that it can be uncomfortable to follow Jesus.  The Thessalonians passage is Paul speaking to church in Thessalonica, offering encouragement, and it reads:

16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

Reading this passage though, I am reminded of a passage from John chapter 6, where Jesus offers up some hard teaching about His real identity and purpose, and He is challenging the disciples’ minds to get them to understand the REAL reality of what’s to come.  He did this on occasion, but the disciples struggled to understand until action Jesus had died and returned...it was then that they really started to understand what he was saying before.

And this passage from John is another one of the foundational passages, which encapsulates a foundational idea that I think it really important to faith; because there will be times when maintaining faith is hard.  Paul is offering comfort to the church for this very reason.  Jesus knew it too, and John captures this moment so well, and the response from Peter, as is often the case, is so powerful:

67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

You see that?  To whom shall we go?  Once you accept the fact that Jesus died, was buried, raised from the dead and appeared to hundreds of people, all for the sake saving you from your sin...what are you going to do, NOT believe that?  Just we discussed yesterday, very rarely have I heard anyone deny Jesus because they have real evidence against the resurrection...and rarely do people leave Jesus for that reason.  We leave because we are worn out...worn out by trying to do better, by trying to be better, by trying to be more like Jesus.  But Paul is offering up encouragement to this church, reminding them that God will hold us and carry us and encourage us and keep us...but we have to pursue that just as we pursue the ‘getting better behavior stuff’.  After all, God doesn’t want to behavior, he wants our hearts.  When he really gets hold of our hearts, the behavior will happen anyways.  Today I am reminded by Peter that when it is hard, I need to remember his words, “...to whom [or to what, or to where] shall we go?”.  There is no better life than the life lived for God, under God’s care, and in pursuit of God’s purposes.  I shouldn’t get weary...and if I start to feel that way, I need to pursue God for the motivation to carry on that only He can provide.