This morning's devotion deals with how we should begin our prayers with inspiration and desire, and how once we have mastered this we will understand the way that they should end. Pastor E.M. Bounds used what was written to the Laodicean Church in order to awaken us to the danger of feeling a sense of self-sufficiency when we pray, and the negative impact which it has on our spiritual and prayer life.
Seeking after those things which are of God like a starving man seeks food is, as my morning devotional reading puts it, "the proof of a renewed heart and the evidence of a stirring spiritual life." It goes on to say that this unquenchable thirst drives prayer. We will find that today's scripture reading is a blessing among blessings. It comes from The Sermon on the Mount, and specifically the beatitudes and speaks to us about thirsting for righteousness.
This morning the title of the devotional that I read was "Love Grows as Gratitude Grows" and the author’s message was that as God answers prayer our gratitude grows which causes our love to deepen, then, as a result, our prayers themselves increase. Quite honestly I have never considered this type of relationship, between answered prayer, gratitude and love, to be true. My love for God has always been founded and centered on how powerful His love is for me, and that it is so intense, this incredible love He has for me, that He would sacrifice His only begotten son to redeem me. My love for God isn’t because I am grateful for this (although I am), it is a reflection of the love that He has for me.
04/02/2024
I am fortunate that my home is in Nashville, TN because I am surrounded by music. Although not all of this music is suitable for worship (or worshippers), the influence of the music business here bleeds over into churches across the city. In this city of music, my current and previous churches have both stood out for the quality of their choirs, soloists, and musicians.
04/01/2024
Passion, desire, and prayer are the topics of our devotional study this morning. In my morning reading E.M. Bounds wrote that he found them to be interrelated to one another, and he called prayer "the verbal expression of desire." He went on to say that "Without desire, prayer is a meaningless mumble of words."
As a writer I love words, but sometimes the silence between them reveals more of their truth and emotion than I can ever express, and I feel them more perfectly as I silently breathe in and out amidst their absence. Easter has always been like that for me. I find the heartfelt completeness of my relationship with God and Jesus Christ between each word of scripture as I breathe and the tears well up. Today is Easter, Resurrection Sunday, and my own words will be few.
Jesus said “it is finished”, died, was taken down from the cross, and then placed in a borrowed grave, but what happened on the day between Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday? This has been debated by theologians through the ages with many believing that Jesus rested in the grave, others, like John Calvin and Martin Luther, believe He suffered in Hell to atone for our sins, and, many Christians (including the Eastern Orthodox church) believe that He marched into Hell and redeemed all those righteous souls who were sent there before He was crucified and made their sacrifice. The simple fact is that there is very little biblical evidence regarding what Jesus did at this time, with scripture provided by Peter, and the conversation of Jesus with the thief on the cross, being held at the center of this debate. Most mainstream beliefs have been founded on the interpretation of these, and opinion. Listen to the evidence…
This morning our devotional contains many questions regarding prayer, Jesus and, his position as our Great High Priest. Yet for each question the answer is always the same “Yea”. Let’s listen as Pastor E.M. Bounds asks us a few of these questions, and then answers them, and let’s listen to Andrew Peterson’s modern day song in which he asks some amazing questions and then responds to them in song… “Is He Worthy”. These are questions regarding who, why, and what was given for us atop Calvary on this Good Friday, and there are so many more.
This morning, the day after I wrote about my encounter with the stock clerk at Publix, I couldn't sleep and rose early to pray. I was drawn out of bed for a very specific prayer... On the day before I had written about a man I met at Publix whose nine year old son was in a life or death battle against cancer. Now, on this the morning after, my prayers are focused on this boy and his family, and this led me to pray about the trust I have that God heals.
Something happened this week that shook me, and took me back to the year 2016 when I was in what I hoped were the final stages of dealing with cancer. A couple of days ago I learned that someone very close to me, who had battled cancer once before, had been told, following a routine check-up, that the doctor had found two places which appeared to be cancerous tumors. This is a moment that anyone who has ever had cancer fears… the return of their old nemesis. The return of Satan to sift us yet again.
What is it about The Golden Rule, and God's Law of Love that make them so hard for us to adhere to in certain situations? Perhaps we have forgotten what makes them so precious, or maybe they have faded in our memories. Just in case we might be unfamiliar, confused, or have forgotten what these rules are comprised of let’s revisit them by taking a refresher course this morning (I need one myself from time to time)... love is like all things, we must practice it if we are to keep it fresh in our lives.
A couple of days ago I wrote about those who are young in Christ, and how they energetically worked in the church and elsewhere but confused this with devotion. Today I would like for us to study a thought that E.M. Bounds wrote, and which takes this a step further as he speaks directly to the clergy, and to church workers. He is concerned about the enthusiasm for the physical activities becoming our focus at the expense of our prayer life and faith in general.
The bible draws so many comparisons between plants, trees, and our faith or works. Knowing this makes today's scripture reading all the more special as we look at Jesus not as the branches, but as the vine. The vine consists of the trunk and its root, and although we consider the branches to be the most beautiful part of a plant, and the root to be unsightly, it is the root and trunk from which all new branches grow, and from these comes the nourishment that produces the fruit. Jesus is the vine.
As I thought about how we sometimes come face to face with our doubts, or suffer from a dwindling faith, I looked back on my own life as a Christian and could see how I had experienced moments like this too. Then I would come to the point where I realized that moving about and doing works doesn’t insure that I am devoted to my faith in God and Jesus. Over the years I have watched as people professed their faith, began frantically working in the church, and for church causes, then suddenly disappeared from the pews. They had missed the most important part of their conversion... that we can't earn it... it is a gift, and a free gift at that.
On this very morning in 2016 I was sitting in the common area of Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee waiting for my wife to complete physical therapy on her leg. She was rehabbing after knee replacement, and I was enjoying having this time alone in the waiting room which allowed me to contemplate my prayers and devotional reading from earlier in the day. Pastor E.M. Bounds had written that prayer should be aflame and it struck me as being truth. Here in the southern United States we would say, with quite a strong accent, "don't pray no milk toast prayer!" Truly, a prayer without emotion, or intense devotion, demonstrates very little sincerity and passion.