From Obscurity to Apostle

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

Have you ever been surprised by God with an opportunity you never sought, expected or imagined? It’s really cool with that happens, especially in the middle of what we sometimes think of as a ho-hum life. There was a character in Acts who may have felt the same. His name was Matthias. We know he replaced Judas as one of the Twelve, but that’s about it [Acts1:21-22]. 

What we do know is that he followed Jesus from the beginning of His ministry until His resurrection without recognition. He wasn’t one of the men Jesus selected as a Disciple, but he followed Him anyway. And kept following Him. He listened to the Lord’s powerful Sermon on the Mount, and ate supper with five thousand  people with what started out as a handful of bread and fish. He rejoiced in amazement as people were healed in Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida. He shouted with praise as Jesus rode a donkey down the Mt. of Olives to His final Passover. And just a few days later, he watched his world turn upside down when the One he had been following over three years was nailed to a Roman cross. He was a witness to it all—yet in obscurity. His name is not mentioned until the book of Acts, but he was there on every page of the Gospels. 

We see this a lot in Scripture. People who serve the Lord faithfully in the background, obscure, until God expands their influence for His glory. People like Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, the three Hebrew boys. Women like Ruth and Esther. Obscure, faithful, then, at the right moment, hand-picked by God for something significant. 

We see Matthias’ name mentioned only in connection with the replacement of Judas. He was an obscure Christ follower, he emerged for a moment, then returned to obscurity. He was a virtual unknown who followed Christ with a single motivation—faithfulness.

Just like us!

The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!”  Matthew 25:21

Where He Leads Me

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

For some, following God’s will is a wonderful thing as long as He is leading them in the direction they’re already going in. It’s much harder when God changes direction. That’s when they go into their “logical mode.” They find statistics to explain why it won't work. They’ll even search the Scriptures for verses that support their disposition. 

Do you remember when the Pharisees attempted to discredit Jesus? They claimed, “no prophet arises out of Galilee” [John 7:52]. True, or not? Well, the prophet Jonah came from Gath-hepher, a next-door neighbor of Nazareth. Both of these towns were in Galilee. 

Jonah is also a good example of someone who decided not to do the will of the Lord. He had no desire to see God’s forgiveness in Nineveh, so when the will of God led him in the direction of Assyria, he boarded a ship to Tarshish—the opposite direction!

In the series of events that followed, Jonah found himself in the bowels of a great fish. It was there he made a great confession, “Salvation is from the Lord” [Jonah 2:9 - meaning HIS salvation, not Nineveh’s]. 

I don’t have time in this short devotion for all the details, so take some time and read the story for yourself. God used a storm, a fish, a plant, a worm, and the wind to get him to change. 

We love God’s will when it makes us comfortable and safe. I’m glad Jesus didn’t cling to comforts when He came to do His Father’s will. He knew what Jonah learned: The difficulty of submitting to God is easier than the difficulty of running from Him.

Then I said, “Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, O God.”  Hebrews 10:7

Rise Up

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

Sometimes life gets us down. It isn’t that difficult because we live in such a sin-sick world. Everywhere we look there seems to be crime and cruelty. Terrorism brings stories of barbarism from around the world on nearly a daily basis. Domestic violence seems out of control. I read an article yesterday from the Baltimore Sun that 28 people were shot, nine of them killed, over the Memorial weekend in Baltimore, adding to the already record-breaking violence. It’s enough to make you hang your head in sadness and frustration. 

Isaiah lived in such a day. Oppressed by Assyria, hearts were heavy, heads were hanging. To them, and by way of application to us, the Lord said, “Awake, awake…put on garments of splendor…shake off your dust…rise up, sit enthroned…free yourself from the chains on your neck.”

Great encouragement, but how is it possible? Jesus! Jesus destroyed sin and death when He rose triumphantly from the grave. He would not live in the grave of doom, defeat, and despair, and neither should we. We are victorious by means of His victory. And to add icing to the cake, one day He will delivery us directly to heaven where we will experience a world and life that we only now see by faith. 

The words of an old hymn are appropriate here:

Rise up, O men of God!

Have done with lesser things.

Give heart and mind and soul and strength

To serve the King of kings.

Rise up, O men of God!

The kingdom tarries long.

Bring in the day of brotherhood

And end the night of wrong.

Rise up, O men of God!

The church for you doth wait,

Her strength unequal to her task;

Rise up and make her great!

Lift high the cross of Christ!

Tread where His feet have trod.

As brothers of the Son of Man,

Rise up, O men of God!

(This poem, written by William P. Merrill, was first published in the Continent, 1911)

Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again. Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Jerusalem. Isaiah 52:1-2

It’s What’s Inside that Counts

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

It wasn’t an eye-catching container; rather ordinary, really. A young couple in Concord, California found it while rummaging through an abandoned storage unit. It was merely a container. If someone stole it, you’d just shrug your shoulders and say, “Oh, well.” If it broke, you’d throw it away without a second thought. If you lost it, you wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. 

But when they opened it, what a surprise! It was filled with rare, gold coins worth about a half million dollars. Now the container was extremely valuable. Not because it was so special, but but because of what was inside it.

Christ followers understand this perfectly. We are painfully aware of how ordinary we are in so many ways. Catch us at certain moments in our lives and we’ll tell you all of our inadequacies. That’s what sin has done to us. It has ruined us, and emptied us of any value. In and of ourselves, we’re just an ordinary container left abandoned. 

But Jesus changed everything. He lived, died, and rose again to cover our less than perfect, broken lives. We were made clean, made anew—forgiven. We are in Him, and He in us. That changes everything. In fact, it makes us priceless. Not because of what we are, but because of who is in us!

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 2 Corinthians 4:7

Count on It

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

There are so many interesting characters in the Bible. As I was reading in my devotion time today, one such character stuck out in my mind; Naaman. He was an important man in the eyes of the world; commander of the army for the King of Aram. In those days, Aram was a strong nation. Soldiers under his command went into Israel, looting and taking prisoners. But something happened to Naaman. He got leprosy, an incurable disease in those days. 

One of his servants, a Hebrew girl, encouraged him to go to Israel and see a prophet there by the name of Elisha. I’m sure Naaman balked at the idea, but what other choice did he have? So off he went. 

He eventually got to the prophet’s house. Let’s pick up the story in our Bibles, 2 Kings 5:9-14: “So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, ‘Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.’ 11 But Naaman went away angry and said, ‘I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage. 13 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, ‘My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!’  14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. “

So simple, yet it worked. Why? Because God promised that it would work! God promised our sins were forgiven by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Count on it. He promised heaven to all who believe in Him. Count on it. He promised to work all things for our good and His glory. Count on it. Whenever God makes a promise, count on it. His promises are true!

Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”  14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. 2 Kings 5:13-14

Not So Great?

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

I read about a new church opening in San Diego, a rather large city compared to where I live in Julian, California [population less than 3,000]. The newspaper article gave the date and times of the first services, then added, “our special guest will be…” The special guest was a popular celebrity. Often, churches will do that sort of thing to draw a large crowd. It is a very common approach. 

When I look at the list of the twelve apostles, celebrity seems to be missing. None of them were famous, in fact, at least one of the names was infamous. In those days, I doubt anyone would come to the opening of anything if this man’s name was proffered. His name was Matthew. He was a despised revenuer, hired by Rome to extract taxes from the locals. In the mind of his countrymen, he was a traitor.

Tax collectors in his day were capable of accumulating an enormous wealth because the Roman tax system allowed them to keep anything they collected in excess of what was owed to Rome. That led to bribes, extortion, and other abuses. Those local tax collectors could levy taxes on anything they wanted to, such as, roads, animals, mail, merchandise - well, you get the picture.

Dear Christ follower, if you think God can't use you because of your past sin or because you are not famous, put that out of your mind immediately. God used Matthew and millions like Him, and He can use you too! Follow Paul’s admonition to live “soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age” [Titus 2:12], then allow God to bless your ministry as He sees fit. 

God can use you despite your sinful past.

Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.   [Matt. 10:2-4].

I Can Resist Anything Except Temptation

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

Picture the day our Lord was baptized in the Jordan River by John. Scripture says Jesus saw the heavens “parting - NKJV, “splitting apart” - NLT, “torn open” - NIV. Then the thundering Voice, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased [Mark 1:11]. Do you have that picture firmly in your mind now? OK, if you didn’t already know the story, what would you expect to happen next? People bowing before Him in humble adoration? Crowds coming down from Jerusalem to present Him with a golden chariot, proclaiming Him to be “King of kings and Lord of lords?”

If that’s what your are thinking, you are sadly mistaken. According to Mark’s account, Jesus was immediately “driven” into the wilderness to be tempted. Battle lines were drawn and for the next forty days, Jesus withstood every temptation thrown at Him by the devil himself. The author of Hebrews said that He was tempted in every way as we are, “yet without sin” [Hebrews 4:15]. Jesus didn’t give in. He never threw in the towel. 

That makes me think of the many times I have struggled/battled with temptation. On many occasions, I fought valiantly for a while, only to eventually raise the white flag in surrender. At other times, it seems I offered no resistance at all. How unlike my Savior. Do any of you understand what I’m talking about here? Has that been your experience too? 

The war Jesus fought in the wilderness would eventually lead to the cross of Calvary. There, Jesus would settle the score once and for all. Not for Himself, though. For you and me! Listen to Paul’s exhortation to the Roman Christ followers, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” [Romans 5:19]. The Lord’s victory over sin was for the many to be righteous. He invites us into His kingdom whole, restored, redeemed, FORGIVEN!

Inspired and empowered by our Savior’s victory over sin, we can confidently face our temptations knowing that, pass or fail, He is with us — He paved the way.

It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. 11 Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 12 Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. 13 And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him. Mark 1:9-13