Devotions For The Reconciled Life

Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. James 5:14-15 My son was born with an immune deficiency.  My older daughter was born with an exceptionally rare form of muscular dystrophy.  My mother-in-law is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease.  I have multiple sclerosis.  The risk of having a child with Duchenne muscular dystrophy is 0.002%.  The occurence of my son’s immune deficiency is less than 2%.  One in ten people 65 or older have Alzheimer’s disease.  The odds of have multiple sclerosis is 0.03%.  These are independent risks, so multiplying the odds of all of these is quite low (about 1 in 10 9 ).  Put another way, you are 10 times as likely to win the lottery. I have prayed at least dail...

"Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." John 16:24 b Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life. Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. (Chambers, The Purpose of Prayer ) Prayer is important to see amazing things.  The natural man expects natural things.  ( 1 Corinthians 2:14 )  They are just natural.  Oswald Chambers is right.  Our natural life will carry on without prayer.  We may not notice for quite sometime that our spiritual life is suffering because we cannot see spirit, only flesh.  We can, and do, ignore the life of the Son of God in us; we get consumed by the natural l...

Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2 I received a phone call at work one day that my dad had been involved in an accident and was being taken to a hospital about an hour away from where I was.  He was mowing and the mower turned over and cut off his hand.  As I hurried to the hospital, I first saw his boss there who told me how bad the injury was.  His boss informed me that he had picked up fingers and brought them to the hospital.  As I made my way into the surgery waiting to join my mom and a few close friends, I found my childhood pastor already there.  As he embraced me, there were no encouraging words.  There was a grief and sadness beyond spoken words in that embrace.  There was only a silent prayer uttered on our behalf in that embrace.  As the doctor came out and shared the details of the injury, I found myself physically ill.  My dad was to have at least two more surgeries in just the nex...

"By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was approved as a righteous man, because God approved his gifts, and even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith." Hebrews 11:4 There is a principle of creation.  Sowing and reaping.  If you want corn, you sow corn.  If you want wheat, you sow wheat.  If you want honest income, you sow hard work.  Scripture tells us, "Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap," ( Galatians 6:7 )  Cain and Abel give us examples of sowing and reaping and the actions they sowed were based in their hearts. Abel chose to follow God’s plan.  He recognized that all he received came from God and he showed his heart by his offering, the first of his herd.  Abel and his offering were received by God.  Abel sewed to God’s plan and he reaped the crop of being approved. Cain chose to follow his own plan.  He believed that the g...

In  Genesis 4:1-13 , we see Abel who was humble and obedient, and Cain who was self-focused and self-centered. Even when God confronted Cain with his self-centeredness, he refused to be broken over his sin, and we see the consequences of his action. He kills his brother and God issues to him the payment for his sin. Of course, Cain's response is typical of a hardened heart rather than acknowledging he deserved it and much more. " Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear." Recently I was reminded that our victory comes when we realize we are in control of our choices. Satan cannot make us choose sin, nor can anyone make us choose to be disobedient. Ultimately God is in control, but He gave us the freedom to choose. I believe He gave this to us so we would be able to freely choose Him or not. God didn't want to force us to choose Him although He is what is BEST for us. Just as we would never want to force someone to love us. We want them t...

For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. 1 John 3:11-12 Do not covet your neighbor’s wife or desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Deuteronomy 5:21 I’m not a fan of the color green.  I’ve never thought it looked good on me.  I don’t like Saint Patrick’s day because I’ve never had much green in my closet so I’ve received numerous pinches. Not liking green is a little humorous since I grew up on a farm.  I’ve always thought that green represents farms. Cain was a farmer.  He used his occupation and the fruit of it to worship God.  Cain’s offering to God was not accepted.  Why?  Cain presented “some of the land’s produce”.  Abel presented some of the “firs...

God has an occupational plan for your life.  You may be walking in that plan already.  You may be beginning that plan.  You may still be wondering what occupational plan is for you.  You might even find yourself in the middle of an occupational change.  After all, life is ever changing.   However, there is one thing that doesn’t change and that is God’s desire to use you in His ministry.  God desires to use you in your workplace.  God desires to use you in your family.  God desires to use you in the body of Christ. I love the Message version of this passage from Ephesians 4. 7-13 But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is, He climbed the high mountain, He captured the enemy and seized the booty, He handed it all out in gifts to the people. Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down t...

“Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Like many Christian students, I was consumed with the question, “What is God’s call for my life?”  I worried, wondered, and prayed about what college God wanted me to attend; what job God wanted me to do.  Those questions consumed me for years.  If I failed in employment and preparation I would be a failure and disappointment to God.  I believed that my career was THE most important aspect of my life.  I was wrong. I spent those years with unnecessary stress.  My employment, my education are not the most important aspects of my life as a follower of Christ.  I was not called to a job.  I was not called to a degree.  I was called to submit to the King and love Him. Israel was taught the prayer in Deuteronomy 6 that is known as Sh’ma ( שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ‎) , or Hear.  Jes...

Have you ever noticed that you can always count on change?  Some people embrace change and even look forward to new and fresh.  However, there are those who do not like change and even dread it.  Whether you want it to come or not, change is coming.   Sunday, we looked at Proverbs 3:1-8 where Byron showed us there are a few principles for us to help us deal with our transition in a healthy way.  The scripture reminds us to not forget what we have learned and to hold to the truth . Byron even went on to say that we need to bind it to us . We are to trust God with all that we are.  We are to put God first.  In doing that, He will lead and guide us if we will let him. To put God first, we need to be humble which was the last principle Byron mentioned.  Our wisdom is usually the thing that gets us into trouble.  As we learn to lean on God, lean on His wisdom, we begin to see His way, His will and maybe get a glimpse of His plan.  But l...

Read 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths...” What is the main command? To Trust in the Lord... Principle #3: The Best way to Handle Transition is by Never Forgetting, Gripping Truth, and Principle #3: Trusting God...Trusting God... Trust in the Lord not with just part of you...Or just with your plans or your money or ministry... But with all your heart ... Interestingly in Hebrew, the language of this section, there isn’t actually a word for mind...So, the Hebrews understood the Heart to be the very essence of a person...To be one’s knowledge, emotions and actions, personality...The heart encompassed all of man’s attributes... Solomon is saying Trust God...With every part of your being...with you knowledge, plans, emotions, personality...When times change, when seasons come, do not run from God but run to God... Then, Solomon repeats the same pattern with a main comman...

Hold on for dear life.  When I hear that phrase I think of riding a roller coaster and holding on tightly.  However, I do not ride roller coasters so I don't have that experience to draw off of for sure.  I can identify with another example of holding on for dear life.  I was blessed with two girls who refused to be left in the church nursery.  My youngest daughter, I have literally peeled her off of me at times.  She would hold on to me for dear life.  If I got one foot away from me her other leg was still holding tightly.  As soon as I would get one body part unglued there would be a new body part somehow attached to me.    Sometimes, I would stay in her class in hopes that she would decide to get busy and stay.  But I could move a muscle and immediately there were arms and legs surrounding my neck and body.  I could not escape her eyes, even when I thought her focus was elsewhere.  I think this paints a picture of...