Worry by Bill Crofton

This devotion is for:

• all of you who have worried in the past.
• all of you who are now worried.
• and, all of you who are making plans to worry soon!

Worry is no laughing matter. Quite frankly, it is a sin. However, it is a sin. Yet, it is one of those "acceptable" sins in the Christian life. For instance:

• we would never smile at a Christian who staggered into his home night after night drunk and abusive. [we often smile at a Christian friend who worries]

• we would not joke about a member who stole someone's car. [but we regularly joke about our worrying over some detail in life]

My mother was worrier. My wife is one. Must be a mother thing. Matthew was going to Costa Rica last summer to surf. He took along his younger brother. His mother's objections were:

• your going to be kidnapped by Costa Rican Rebels.
• your going to drink the water and die of dysentery.
• your going to fall off your board, get tangled in the reef and cut to shreds.

• a hostile wave is going to carry you to Hawaii. [personally, I don't think

• that's a bad thing]

Of course, Matthew's reply was deeply reassuring - "Mom, if its my time to go (death), I'm ready". He really means it! Didn't seem to help his mother a lot.

Bottom line, in this world we have to make a choice. Whether wealthy or poor or somewhere in between, trust God. The rich are tempted to trust in their possessions. The poor are tempted to doubt God's provision. Are you going to trust the world (riches) or the God who made everything?

You get the feeling Jesus saw the age we live in. 16 of 38 parables deal with money. 1 out of 10 verses on prayer, 500 on faith and over 2,000 on money. The heart of Jesus' message in our present passage is: Don't worry—not even about the necessities. He gives the command, Do not be anxious three times - (Matt 6:25,31,34) and gives four reasons why worry, being anxious, is wrong:

1. it is unfaithful because of our Master;
2. it is unnecessary because of our Father;
3. it is unreasonable because of our faith;
4. and, it is unwise because of our future.

So, make a choice. Trust the God who seeks to encounter you. Don't worry, be happy.

ENCOUNTER: What do you have to worry about? What does worry say about who is in control of your life?

View the Master by Jeff Gang

WORD: "He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." - John 3:2

THOUGHT: One of my favorite toys growing up as a kid was the View Master. Maybe you remember this toy. It was this strange looking contraption that looked like demented binoculars. There was a slot in the top where you were supposed to put this cardboard wheel with mini-slides around the disc. Then you pulled down on the lever to advance the slides while peering through the lenses and you had your own private 3-D slide show--from cartoons and comic book heroes to tours of Africa. It was great!

We've all been given a View Master. Its called the life and teachings of Jesus. He came to show us how to live the Kingdom life. Nicodemus recognized Him as a teacher sent from God. More importantly Nicodemus recognized, as did many others, that what Jesus was teaching said a lot about how we are relate to God and one another. The Gospels continually refer to people being "amazed" by what they witnessed in the life and teachings of this simple man from a town called Nazareth.

Jesus is the ultimate View Master. He shows us how to live a life of connections--connections with God and people. One of the key things He taught us was how to worship. Worship for Jesus didn't just happen at the synagogue on Sabbath. But He lived a life of worship. It was state of being. It meant that He related to His Father and His brothers and sisters differently. True worship does that to you. It changes your perspective. So make sure you View the Master today.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, You are my teacher, may I learn from You today. Help me to see things through Your eyes. Change my perspective. May I View Your Life today and follow after Your ways and Your methods.

ENCOUNTER: What do you see when you View the Master? What are some things that He did that may change your perspective on living a life of worship vs. viewing worship as simply a once a week act (e.g., prayer, etc.)?

Making Atheists

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle.  That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” – Brennan Manning

It seems like everywhere I turn, I am confronted with anger, hatred, and lies.  Some days the torrent seems endless. It comes by mail, it’s every other commercial on TV and the radio.  It’s billboards and yard signs and bumper stickers.  People who say they are Christians, but are screaming louder than everyone else, not about God, but about hating the politician they don’t like.

“The greatest single cause of atheism…”

What depresses me most of all though is the constant onslaught of social media posts that scream louder and are most often meaner than anything in the outside world.  I’ve seen such vitriol posted from ordained elders and pastors it makes me physically ill.  People who lead worship, lead prayer, and preach about God’s love, posting things so awful it makes me sick even to think about it.

“…is Christians…”

I’ve stopped going on Facebook these days, I just can’t take any more of the hatred and filth being posted there by both church leaders and officials and folks who are in the pews every week, singing praises about God.  The Apostle James got it right when he exclaimed, “So blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right!” (Jas. 3:10).  But every day, almost without fail, hateful things are spewed out and posted for all the world to see.

“…who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him…”

I’ve stopped going to church, too.  I just can’t do it any more.  How can I find God when the people leading prayer and worship walk out of church and post hateful, vile things on the internet.  Maybe even FROM church, with smart phones and iPads and what have you.  If they can say such horrible things about our elected leaders, whom they’ve never met, what must they be saying about me?  And what does it say about the church? 

“That is what an unbelieving world simply finds…unbelievable.”

Jesus wasn’t like that.  Jesus loved people.  One of the final instructions He gave us before He died was “Love each other.  Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” (Jn. 13:34).  That means, as Peter reminds us, “You must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, ‘You must be holy because I am holy.’” (I Pt. 1:15).  So why aren’t we?  Shouldn’t we be showing people the love of Jesus by how we treat each other?  Instead, we seem to be doing a lot better job of making atheists. 

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’” (Matt: 25:40)

Encounter: In your speech, your online posts, and your lifestyle, are you making disciples for Jesus, or are you making atheists? 

-Todd G

Does Jesus Love Those Who Aren't Lost?

There is a lot of discussion out there about how to "reach people" for Jesus.  Groups like the Passion Network, Purpose Driven, It Is Written, the One Project, GODencounters...each spending countless hours trying to figure out the next "big thing" that will really draw people back to Jesus.  The plan events with titles like "youth rally," "Christian concerts," even that old stalwart "evangelism," and so on, hoping to be the catalyst to finally open someone's eyes to a God who loves them so much He died to be with them.  When someone turns to Jesus, it's a time to celebrate!

In Luke 15 Jesus tells us a parable about the these lost people, and how God looks out for each of them.  The first part of the parable is about the lost sheep who is a happy member of the flock, then goes off for the grass just over there and suddenly realizes he isn't with the flock any more.  The sheep bleats and cries out, hoping for a response from the flock to guide him back, but to no avail.  However, the shepherd realizes he is a sheep short and goes out in search of that sheep until he finds it, and then the shepherd brings the sheep safely back to the fold.

The next piece of the story is about a lost coin, and not just any coin, but a dowry coin.  It rolled off away from the rest of the coins, but being a coin it has no idea it's lost at all.  When the woman comes home and counts up the coins, she sees one is missing and turns on every light and sweeps under every piece of furniture until she finds it, and then she and her friends rejoice because all of the coins have been reunited.

The final (and probably most famous) part of the story deals with a rich man and his two sons.  The youngest gets filled with wanderlust and in an extreme insult to his father, asks for his inheritance so he can go do what he wants.  The father, lovingly, grants his request and the young man wanders off to live the high life.  And live it up he does!  Penthouse parties that go non-stop with more friends than he can count....until the money runs out that is.  Then the young man realizes he is all alone, too, but is to ashamed to go back home.  So he gets a job as a pig farmer, and is so hungry he shares the pig slop with the pigs.  He finally swallows his pride and works out a speech where he will work as a servant for his father, but as he gets near home he finds his father waiting for him.  The father is so excited that his lost son has returned that he throws a great party!  

The older son is upset, though, to the point where he avoids the party altogether.  When the father inquires why, he says it's because he did what he was supposed to do all these years, and yet the runaway brat gets the huge party.  The father doesn't reprimand him, though.  He tells his son that everything he has is this son's, and at no point does he ever condone the younger son's actions.  He is merely happy that his lost son returned, and wants everyone to share in the joy.

Jesus is pointing out a couple of things.  Obviously when someone who is lost from him, either by accident, without even knowing, or willfully, and that person returns, God is thrilled.  When someone is lost by accident or doesn't even know they are lost, God actively seeks after that person, and when someone willfully turns their back on Him, even though it hurts, God lets them go and doesn't chase them....but He waits every day for them to come back.  How great is it when we, as a church, can put on a program that turns out to be a catalyst for bringing a lost person back to God?

But that's not the only part of the story.  It is about more than just the three lost things.  There are ninety-nine other sheep who stayed in the fold, nine other coins who stayed in their place on top of the dresser, and there is another son who did what he was supposed to do all along.  These are the things that the church doesn't like to talk about.

Jesus does.  Jesus cares as much about the ninety-nine sheep, the nine coins, and the older brother as he does about those that were lost.  He even goes out of the way to address those who have remained faithful in His story, reassuring them that they are blessed with everything God has to offer because they were faithful.  Yet you don't hear about that promise very much, because the focus is on the lost, at all costs.

While I appreciate all the effort being put into reaching those who may be lost, I see this other alarming trend emerging.  So much time, focus, and effort is given to being the next "thing" to make ourselves attractive to outsiders that those who have already found their way in the door are neglected....even run out of the church.  If the ninety-nine sheep can't see the importance of being "hip" or "cool" so we can get the one lost sheep back, then those sheep should just go some place else, there's no place in the fold for them.  It's as if the father is telling the older son that if he doesn't like the party, he can just leave.  There is nothing more demoralizing and destructive to person than being shut out because they care about those who aren't lost as much as those who are.  For most, they would leave and NEVER come back, so we create ninety-nine lost trying to save one.  But hey, we got one, and that's what REALLY matters!

Not to Jesus, we ALL matter to Jesus.  We matter so much that just before He died (for us!) He prayed for us!

"My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory. Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are. During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost..." - John 17:9-12

Jesus does not want even one of us to be lost!  How awesome is our God!

Encounter: Will you focus on the one and be willing to sacrifice the ninety-nine, or will you work to create that loving community of believers that will be there with open arms to welcome everyone into the fold?

Going Old School: No Bloody Meat!

Continuing on in Leviticus, we come to the start of what is often referred to as the “holiness code” because the focus is on living a holy life, pleasing to God (because He is holy). 

Leviticus 17 prohibits the Israelites from sacrificing outside the Tabernacle area and also from eating or drinking blood.  These things might not seem related at all, particularly since we’ve seen that the sacrifices could be rather bloody and gross.  As we’ll see, there is a good correlation between the two things.

So why the prohibition on sacrifices beyond the Tabernacle (vv. 3-9)?  Well, as you’ll recall God had set specific times and places for sacrifices, and each instance meant something special to help a person focus on God and also to live a better quality of life for themselves and their community.  If the people were to go off and sacrifice wherever they want and however they wanted, they would feel emboldened to change the focus God gave in His commandments to better suit their own needs and their own lifestyles.  This type of permissive sacrificial system  is what the pagan nations surrounding Israel did (the Egyptian goat idols, for example, v. 7).  The focus was ever to be on God, not on self.  When the Israelites stopped following God and started following idols, it was because “all the people did whatever seemed right to them.” (Judges 17:6)

Now then, as we’ve studied in Leviticus (and from the New Testament), blood is what makes atonement for sin.  The blood that was shed made it possible for the person’s sins to be covered up and forgiven, and ultimately the blood of Christ to wash the sins away completely.  The blood both represented the sinner’s life that had become infected by sin (recall Lev. 12-15 on dealing with infection and the like) and at the some time the blood represented the innocent life that was sacrificed in the place of the sinner.  This fulfilled the sin penalty, which was death, and restored a person to a right relationship with God.

Given what blood represented (and does for us today in Communion), is it any wonder that God would prohibit the drinking of it?  This wasn’t a new rule that God gave to His people in the wilderness, but had been prohibited since at least the days of Noah (Gen. 9:4).  There are a a few reasons that God had for not wanting His people to eat or drink blood:

1. The pagan nations did it, and Israel was supposed to be different from those nations (to be an example of Godly living).  Many pagan warriors would ingest blood before a battle, hoping to gain the strength of the animal they had killed.  But the Israelites were to rely on God, the Creator of ALL things!
2. To preserve the meaning of the sacrifice.  If the innocent blood that was spilled was to take the place of a sinner, what would it be to drink the animal’s blood?  Wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of the sacrifice and render a right relationship with God moot?
3. Health.  There are quite a few diseases of the blood (ex. Mad Cow), and God did not want His people to become infected and die (or cause others to be infected.

You can imagine the horror of the disciples when Jesus told His disciples to drink His blood (John 6:53-56).  As the disciples would come to learn after spending three years with Jesus, He was really saying that He was THE sacrifice for sins, and He was them to let Him be totally and completely involved in their lives forever.

The same is true for us today.  When we take Communion, it is to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for each one of us.  More than that, it is to invite Him to share His life with us and to be an active participant in our lives.  Who can ask for a better friend than Jesus?

Encounter: The next time you take Communion, stop and reflect about what Jesus has done for you…not just about the stale wafer and grape juice!

Church of the Broken

Have you ever noticed that there is something wrong with church?  Church is full of happy, well-dressed people.  The atmosphere created is perfect so that people have a perfect time, have the perfect amount of God, and can leave church having been through a perfect service to live their lives perfectly.  Inside church, there are no people with problems, and if a problem does come up they pray and it magically goes away, out of sight out of mind.

Welcome to the Sin Free Zone!  Inside church, you’ll not ever find a sinner (beyond the obligatory acknowledgement that everyone sins)!  Church is truly the most perfect, happiest place in all the world!

Is it any wonder most people don’t want to go there?  Would it surprise you that Jesus doesn’t either?

When Jesus was here, He pointed out that everyone one of us, no matter how broken, is beautiful to God.  Jesus came to show us that everyone can enter God’s Kingdom, not matter what they’ve done or how bad off they are.

In Jesus’ church, everyone is blessed: the drop-outs and burned-out.  Both the broke and the broken, the druggies and the divorced.  The HIV-positive and the STD-ridden.  The brain-damaged, the handicapped, and the terminally ill.  The barren woman and the pregnant teenager.  The person with three jobs, the part-timer barely making ends meet, the unemployed, and the unemployable.  The homosexual and the homophobic.  The cheated, the displaced, the replaced.  The parents with children living on the street, the children with parents not dying in the “rest” home.  The lonely, the incompetent, and the stupid.  Those craving any kind of emotional connection and those who are completely dead inside.  THIS IS THE CHURCH OF GOD.

The Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal!  THAT is what the Kingdom is all about!  And the best part?  You don’t have to wait until you die to get there!  Jesus offers to ALL people such as these the blessings of the Kingdom in their life NOW—regardless of their circumstances.

Jesus had a friend named Matthew.  Now Matthew was a pretty universally despised person because he was a tax man.  Not like the IRS, but someone who collected taxes AND intentionally raised them beyond what Rome wanted so he could skim the extra off the top.  A Jew cheating Jews on behalf of the Gentiles…and willfully profiting from it.  Yeah, not a popular guy in town.  So what does Jesus do?  Does he condemn Matthew like everyone else, including all the “church people” did?  Nope!  Jesus asks Matthew to be one of His disciples…and then He goes and eats at Matthew’s house with all his tax collector friends!

Needless to say, the religious establishment was not pleased.  They pulled a couple of Jesus’ other disciples aside to inquire how Jesus could stomach eating with those people…you know….SINNERS.  Ick!  Ew!  Gross!  And you know what Jesus said to them?  He said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.”  Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” (Matt. 9:12-13)

You know what else?  Later on when Jesus was going through Jericho, He had dinner with another tax collector, and not just a tax collector, but the director for the WHOLE REGION!  This guy skimmed off of all the guys skimming off of their fellow Jews!  But Jesus went to Zacchaeus’ house and called him blessed!  (Luke 19:9-10)

Which brings us back to church.  If Jesus spent His time talking to “bad people” like tax collectors, adulterers, lepers, and the like, why aren’t we?  Why is it that SIN is something that is not allowed in church any more?  Why aren’t we encouraging people and helping them through their struggles?  Where did the notion of “you must be perfect in church” even come from?  One of the most prolific New Testament authors, Paul, freely admits that he sinned all the time even though he tried not to (Rom. 7:14-25) and found salvation in Jesus!  Why aren’t we sharing that with people?

James gives a piece of advice that should be at the root of all churches who claim to follow Jesus: “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16)  So let’s stop hiding our sins from each other in order to appear “good” and admit that we’re not and pray with each other!  Let’s tell the world that they can be blessed no matter who they are, what they look like, or what they’ve done. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is ALL of ours!  Why not start living it?

Encounter: Are you willing to share the good news about Jesus with those around you, even if it means being vulnerable and admitting your faults and mistakes?