A New Devotion - Take Heart

Here's a new devotion that I wrote. You can find a recording of this devotion at the bottom of the page.

Mark 4:26-34

[Jesus] also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

Take Heart

Well, Americans just survived a contentious and often nasty election. A couple of weeks ago, there was, at the very least, a riot within the United States Capitol or, at worst, an attempt to overthrow the government. And in a few weeks, the Senate will start its second impeachment trial in the space of two years and although he’s been in office for less than two days, a congresswoman from Georgia has filed impeachment papers against President Biden. And all of that’s happened in the last four months. 

And you know, when you take all this together, as an aging American citizen, I feel very little optimism as I look at what my generation did to the country we inherited from our parents and will pass on to our children. And I recognize that I haven’t even mentioned a pandemic that’s contributed to the deaths of over 400,000 of my countrymen and women. Given everything that’s happening, I think it’s pretty easy for most of us to lose heart.

And maybe that’s the reason remembering this passage from Mark is so important. You see, it not only reminds us that we’re not in charge and that our ultimate futures aren’t in our control, but also that God and his kingdom will win. As a matter of fact, right now, it’s present with us and moving us toward our destinies. Of course, that movement may be difficult to see, but that certainly doesn’t mean that it’s not happening. You see, regardless of what we might see and hear and regardless of how we might feel, we can trust in God. And because of that, we have every reason to take heart.

A New Devotion - A Nice Backbone

 Here's a new devotion that I wrote. You can find a recording of this devotion at the bottom of the page.

Acts 13:4-12

So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John also to assist them. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they met a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God. But the magician Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now listen - the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind for a while, unable to see the sun." Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he went about groping for someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.

A Nice Backbone

Personally, I’ve always wanted to be a nice guy. I guess it was how I was raised. You see, my mom and dad imparted to me qualities that aren’t very popular now-a-days, like the importance of being humble and patient and kind. As a result, I believe I grew into a nice guy, something that I’ve seldom regretted. Still, one of the consequences of niceness is that sometimes it’s viewed as a sign of weakness by the not-so-nice, and since generally they’re not constrained by humility, patience or kindness, these folks will say and do things that I was taught are neither Christian nor acceptable. If we were in a playground, I think this behavior is called bullying, something nice guys often accept with silence.

But as the passage above should remind us, nice guys can also have backbones. And there are times and situations in which the truth needs to be told. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we stop being humble and patient and kind. Still, when confronted with lies, it may be up to us to speak up. And when facing violence and hatred, it may be up to us to take action. And when dealing with the devil himself trying to distract Christians from the words and example of Jesus, it may be up to us to stand up and stand firm for the Gospel of love and grace but also responsibility and accountability. You see, all this may be up to us, because if we don’t do it, no one else will. And if we do without compromising who we are, we’ll be well on our way to developing what I think you could call a really nice backbone.