March 2010
Thanks for the memories
Memory - it's that precious gift that we so often take for granted. It became all too real to me and my family as we watched our mother disappear as the ravages of Alzheimer disease consumed her. Sadly the disease took her memory from her and, in turn, she was taken from us.
God has given us memory. Admittedly there are those things we would prefer to forget. Scripture does teach us however that remembering is the gateway to a growing and maturing relationship with God. Repeatedly in the Bible, He allows us to listen in on conversations by those who are remembering and who are being reminded.
Abraham remembers the Lord’s words of promise about giving His people a land of their own and it encouraged his present situation. Genesis 24:7
The Israelite nation was told to remember the things they witnessed from the Lord. Why? So they would be confident in their knowledge of who God is! Deuteronomy 4:35
Remembering those times when God has amazingly provided for us builds a trust in the present that is not easily shaken.
Promises
The word promise is full of hope. As a child when my parents promised that we’d go on a picnic, I knew we would spend a day enjoying the outdoors, punctuated with a hot lunch cooked on a Coleman stove. I could count on it!
Spring is a time of promise, a time of hope. As the willow trees take on a golden hue, we are promised warmer days ahead that will turn the trees to lush green crowns of foliage. We can count on it! As pussy willows open and forsythia bushes bloom we are promised greenery that wipes away the winter’s dullness. We can count on it!
These magnificent promises in nature are but a mere shadow of the promises that we have in God through Christ Jesus.
Jesus promises us eternal life through faith in Him --John 3:16. We can count on it!
Jesus says we will have trouble in this world but He has already over come it --John 16:33. We can count on it!
Promise is the hallmark of this season of Easter. We are promised that death has lost its sting. God has given us victory over the penalty of sin through Jesus Christ --1 Corinthians 15:57. We can count on it!
Devotion This Week: 'Teach With Your Life'
"Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity." 1 Timothy 4:12 (The Message)
I studied Mass Communications and English Literature for my undergraduate degree. It took at least 18 professors, 20 or more term papers and over 200 readings (including books, articles and white papers) to teach me what Paul elegantly instructs Timothy in 15 words: The medium is the message.
My professors were teaching incarnation.
They wouldn't have used that word anymore than the great novelists, poets and communicators I studied would have, but incarnation it was -- wrapped up in poems, essays, communication and organization theories and literature. The medium is the message: how you communicate is as important as what you communicate.
Paul's instruction to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12 is also about Incarnation:
Word The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood. (John 1:14)
Devotion This Week: 'Exercise daily in God'
Exercise daily in God -- no spiritual flabbiness please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever. I Timothy 4: 4 (The Message)
Welcome to your day!
When Paul, in 1 Timothy 4, instructs Timothy to exercise daily in God, his context was clear: "Timothy, how will you be able to cut through the clouds of faith-abandoning confusion and spiritual calamity that will surround your congregation if you don't pray, give thanks, chew on the Message of faith and follow its teachings . . . daily?"
In this chapter, Paul doesn't say what time of day or for how long, to pray, give thanks or chew on the Message of faith. He just says . . . daily.
Every day.