Category Archives: Devotions

Galatians 1:1-4

1Paul, an apostle— not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2and all the brothers[a] who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Galatians 1:3-4 – Verses 4 says that Jesus died for us to deliver us from this present evil age. Are we living in a way that demonstrates that we have been delivered from the evils of sin in our day? There is no reason, other than our own sinfulness, why we should be characterized by the sins of our times.

Some thoughts about this:

1) Holiness is accomplished first of all by the death of Christ on the cross for our sins. The Holy Spirit Himself will not sanctify anybody who is not a blood bought sinner.

2) There is no other way to holiness than through the cross. This is where Paul is headed in this text. He will get to verses 8 and 9 and say that to preach any other Gospel is to preach damnation on oneself.

3) Sanctification begins now. This text alone smashes any doctrine of grace absent of holiness. Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness (Titus 2:11-13).

4) We cannot be rescued from sin now except by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

5) The present age is evil.

6) We are called to be separated from the evil that marks the world. In verse 5 we are told that this deliverance is according to the will of our God and Father. This at least means that the Father and the Son are in complete agreement about what must be done; about their love for us; about the only solution. It means that the cross is the Father’s will (see Isaiah 53:10 and Matthew 26:39). We must never think that Jesus is the God of mercy in the New Testament while the Father is the God of wrath and justice in the Old Testament. We have the Gospel because God the Father loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son. In no way ever does the Son counteract the will of the Father. In no way ever does the Son do or try to do anything that is not what the Father wants Him to do. He and the Father are One. Jesus came into the world to do the Father’s will. He came to save those the Father would give to Him.

7) The evil of this present age takes the death of the very Son of God to overcome and it takes conscious, Spirit empowered effort to overcome it in our lives.

8)  We must not think of evil as only those big sins of murder, sexual immorality, drunkenness etc. It is also a matter of thinking unbiblically, conformity to the world in how we approach life and its problems, and how we view the world. We are all probably more conformed to evil than we are aware.

We need to get into the Scriptures and receive what God has for us there and know the benefits of being set free from this present evil world. What a great thing He has done!

Proverbs 28

Verse 1- The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.

To put trust in anything that has any potential of failing whatsoever is to have a trust that can fail at some point. If what you are trusting is able to fail then you will run away when things get tough since you cannot be sure that what you are trusting won’t also run away. Your faith is only as strong as the thing you are trusting. Those who trust what can never be overcome are the ones who have no need to fear – ever.

The problem with Christians who live in fear is the size of their God, their understanding of His absolute control over absolutely everything and, no doubt, their failure to look up when everything is taking them down. The wicked flee because they should. Against our God they should be terrified. The righteous who live in fear are denying the power that is theirs in Christ.

What causes you to fear? It is not as big as God and God is for you. There are many things that make people afraid – life threatening illness, unemployment, opposition, persecution. The list can get very long. Proverbs 28:1 says that it is the wicked who flee and it is the righteous who are bold.

Being cowardly is to be like the wicked. Those who trust Christ will not flee like the wicked. Why? Because the One whom we trust is greater than everyone and everything. All things come from Him. He works out everything for our good. He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. He has not given us a spirit of fear. The wicked fear even when there is no trouble. But we will not fear even when there is. Why? Because of the One we trust.

Only when God ceases to be in control will we give way to fear. And when will that be? Never. Christian, whether someone pursues you or not, you do not need to fear.

Psalm 23:1-6 (ESV)

A Psalm of David.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

[2] He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

[3] He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for his name’s sake.

[4] Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

[5] You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

[6] Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord

forever.

Psalm 23 continues in verse 4 with the song telling us why it is He finds his God such a wonder. No matter what troubles he finds himself in, no matter how close to death he comes, he does not need to fear because He knows that God is right there with him. Christian people have found great consolation and hope in these very famous words for a very long time. The sovereign God of all things is here right now with me in this horrible situation that I find myself in and therefore I do not need to fear.

In verses 2 and 3 we saw that God leads us to the still waters and that He leads us to the paths of righteousness. When we get to verse 4 are we to believe that God had nothing to do with leading the writer to the valley of the shadow of death? Could not God have arranged things so that David did not get to such a place? Does God take us to the place of peace and righteousness and fall asleep when the valley of the shadow of death approaches? Of course not. He led us there and while we are there we need not think that the still waters are far behind us and that the paths of righteousness can be forsaken. The God who leads us beside still waters and into the paths of righteousness is the same God who takes us to the valley of the shadow of death. Part of the purpose for this is so that we can demonstrate the peace and righteousness that are to always mark the true followers of Jesus Christ, no matter where we are found and in what circumstances we encounter.

Trust is easy when everything is going our way. God tests faith. It is no real faith that only sings the praises of God when all is going well. To abandon God or charge Him with doing us ill when things go awry is to show that our faith was not in God but in what He was doing for us. What a marvel it is when we can find fearlessness and comfort even when everything seems to be going against us. Verse 4 makes no mistake that God is as much with us when things are going badly as when they are going well.

And then consider this. If you have a problem with another believer, then God is with him as well. God is working in both of you.

Don’t miss the point He is bringing you to see. He has not abandoned us and He will not. The God who cannot lie has promised not to leave us or forsake us. It is when things are good that we need to know that the most and it is when God causes us to experience it most strongly. The reason why so many do not feel it is because they are often too busy complaining and panicking and trying to come up with their own solutions to the problem. Allow this verse to take you to rest in the God who will do far more beyond what you can ask or think by putting you into the horrible situations that life throws at us. What are you travelling through today? Know that God has not taken a break. He is there with you. He has put you there for a purpose and that purpose is very good. Do not allow this situation to lead you off the path of righteousness or away from the still waters. That is not the reason you are there. God wants you to know that even in this bad thing the still waters are still there for you and that your righteous living is a more powerful testimony.

Oh what God can do through you today if you show that your faith is as thrilled with your Saviour in difficulty as it is in peace and safety. May God be glorified in you today.

Proverbs 22

1 (ESV) – A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,

and favor is better than silver or gold.

In a culture that measures worth and importance and value and influence in terms of how much money one has, living a transformed life, not conformed to the world, is a difficult task. And make no mistake. What our culture values is money. It worships money. Greed, said the Apostle Paul, is idolatry and that just about sums it up for the society in which we live. Those who work to ensure that all people are paid equally for work of equal value are involved in a very good thing. The temptation to which many have succumbed, however, is that the one’s value is determined by the pay. If a person is not paid the equal amount for work of equal value the argument is made that the person should get it because he/she is just as valuable as the person earning more. And it may indeed be that the reason they are not being paid equitably is because the employer sees them as not as valuable. This is just one example of the twistedness of our culture and what the love of money has done to us.

But what if a person had the reputation of being a loving individual who cared for people, sacrificed for the good of others, didn’t strive after recognition and found happiness in knowing that he had genuinely been of some good in the world? Such a man would be revered, respected, popular and even envied. But he would not likely be emulated.

The Proverb before us says that given the choice between money and a good reputation, we should always choose the reputation. This is counter-cultural. Not that there are no people who do not chase after such things. But it is not the default position of our society. The general understanding is that if we cannot have both a good name and riches, then we will take the riches, thank you very much. Who cares whether people respect us if we have millions of dollars to make us happy? And since the culture places so much importance to money, having more of it would garner the good name regardless. So let’s chase after the dough. The respect we want can be bought.

The solution to this is the upward look. The first place we want to have a good name is with God himself. “We make it our goal”, Paul said “to please Him”, and that is to be our goal as well. If we know that God is pleased then the good name in other places will follow. It will not win everyone to respect us. But when the sovereign ruler of all things is pleased with us, the fact that others may not be really pales into insignificance. It is a wonderful thing to travel through life knowing that God is pleased. It is an act of grace and we should pray that it permeate all our being. It is to be desired more than riches.

Psalm 27:1-4 (ESV)

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

of whom shall I be afraid?

[2] When evildoers assail me

to eat up my flesh,

my adversaries and foes,

it is they who stumble and fall.

[3] Though an army encamp against me,

my heart shall not fear;

though war arise against me,

yet I will be confident.

[4] One thing have I asked of the Lord,

that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

and to inquire in his temple.

The church of Jesus Christ shall conquer. That is a simple Christian axiom which is true and which will prove itself out over time and is not being denied in any measure anywhere in the world today by the troubles that plague it.

Psalm 27 is a war Psalm. David claims that he shall not be afraid of his enemies because God is on his side. The enemy may surround him (verse 3 ), assail him (verse 2), and war against him (verse 3), he will not fear. The full application of this is not warfare, at least not warfare in the sense we normally think of it. This Psalm is for the church of Jesus Christ in its battles against principalities and powers in heavenly places (Ephesians 6:10-19).

The warfare we are in is more serious, more deadly and its consequences more dismal and exhilarating than mere physical warfare. Our goal is the house of the lord (Verse 4) and the enemy’s plan is to ensure that we do not achieve it. We are in a war for our souls (I Peter 2:1). Our weapons are not the weaponry of warfare (II Corinthians 10:3-4). Our enemies are not human beings or countries or armies (Ephesians 6:10-13). Our tactics are not the well learned lessons of thousands of years of battle (II Corinthians 10:5). Our protection is not armour or embattlements (Psalm 119:114; Ephesians 6:16).This war is real and it is fierce and it has severe casualties. And for all those who are truly His the outcome is guaranteed victory.

Every battle verse in Psalm 27 relates to the spiritual warfare we are in against the enemy of our souls. We do not need to fear him (verse 1, 3), for God has already defeated him and we are safe. He stumbles when we resist (verse 2 and James 4:7). We can be confident in this war for the outcome is certain (verse 3). We must never lose sight of the goal in this war (verse 4). God is our protector (verse 5). The devil may be the prince of the power of the air but we shall turn his territory into a place of worship (verse 6).

There is another legitimate way in which to take these verses. It is true that they speak of our spiritual warfare against the evil one. But they also tell us about Jesus who has defeated him. He has no fear of Satan. He has already dealt him the death blow. He has no fear at all. When He was here winning the war for us He looked ahead to the reward awaiting Him and was able to finish His work (Verse 4 and Hebrews 12:1-2). He is now enthroned as the reigning king of all things (Verse 6).

What a glory it is to be a child of God, or, in the metaphor of this Psalm, a soldier of the King. We follow the Captain who has already guaranteed the victory, who still fights for us, who works out everything out after the counsel of His own will and for our good. There is simply no better place to be than in this army of rescued soldiers.

Psalm 26:1 (ESV)

Of David.

Vindicate me, O Lord,

for I have walked in my integrity,

and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.

I do not know when Psalm 26 was written. If there is any chronology to the Psalms at all, then we might be able to assume that it was before the sin with Bathsheba and the sins surrounding it. Was it before he married badly and let work manage his life so that he neglected to raise his sons? We are a frail lot. Sin sneaks up on us. We can start out so well and assume that doing well is our default position and neglect to guard our hearts and minds. When David says, in Psalm 26, that he had trusted the Lord without wavering, he knew that he was not perfect. In verse 11 he asks God to redeem him and be gracious to him. But he could honestly say that in whatever circumstances he had been in to this point he had not forsaken God or forgotten about Him. He has been faithful and his faith had not weakened through things that had tempted it.

We can surmise a few things about some of the temptations that had come David’s way that helped prompt this psalm.

a)He had opportunity to align himself with liars and hypocrites and enjoy the fruits of their deceit (verse 4-5). One pictures a group of young men planning or discussing sexual escapades or shady business deals or simply partying themselves into a stupor. David distanced himself from such things and no doubt paid the price of being ostracized.

b)What David chose to do instead was evangelize those he could have consorted with (verse 7). One can only imagine how well that would have gone over. David would have been ridiculed. His peers would have rolled their eyes when they saw him coming. “Here comes Mr. Goody Two-Shoes”.

c)David’s response was to find solace in the tabernacle in Jerusalem. Who knows? Perhaps even then he began thinking how good it would be if God’s house was a more permanent structure than a tent.

d)David was a real man with real feelings and real temptations and he felt the longing for acceptance that all of us feel and so he prayed that he would not be swept away into the sin that others were immersed in (verses 9&10). It is so hard not to give in to the pull to be accepted by the crowd and by one’s peers. So he resolved not to fall into their ways (verses 11-12).

David was a remarkable young man. And yet we know that after he became king he became a little less vigilant and got infected somewhat with the sense of entitlement that being the head honcho can bring. He took a man’s wife, a man’s life, a woman’s integrity, a country’s trust, his own heart and more.

Psalm 26 is an amazing example of what God can do in even a young man. We do not have to go with the crowd. God can and will enable all who trust Him to endure with joy. But we all need to remember that yesterday’s victories cannot be borrowed from for today’s battle. We need to keep our armour on and keep our weapons ready and know that our enemy is relentless and devious and smart. It is easy as we get older to think that there are some sins that we have mastered and will not commit. We can think that because we are more experienced or more knowledgeable than we used to be that there are certain sins that we cannot commit. This is the height of foolishness. We may grow more mellow, but we do not become more holy simply on the basis of age and experience. We are in constant need of the grace of God.

As a young man David prayed for grace and redemption and was therefore able to claim that he stood on good ground (verse 12). Somehow he let go of that God given confidence and fell. The whole episode of David’s sin and rescue is testimony to the great grace and mercy of God. Even when we are doing well spiritually, we are in need of God’s redemption and grace (verse 11). But we can easily fall into thinking that our sins are small and that we will never fall into “big” sins. It is the devil’s lie. Let us resolve to stand faithful and never forget that the day we let our guard down is the day that we will start drifting away from our God and into a life that is being run without him. The result will be ruin and rebellion. God will be there for us and His almighty grace will rescue, but only if we truly repent and who can say that we would want to do that? The best thing is to make sure that we never relax until the war is over. And that is when we see Him face to face.

2 Tim. 4:1-5 (ESV)

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: [2] preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. [3] For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, [4] and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. [5] As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

There is great temptation when it is denied that God punished His own sinless Son for the sins that others, to gloss over that aspect of the Gospel for the sake of keeping an audience. In a day when saying there is only one way to God is misunderstood in many ways, there is great temptation to conveniently leave that out when we speak of Jesus to lost people.

II Timothy 4:2 says “…preach the Word…” and then verse 3 says “for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching…” This is mind warping stuff. Paul says that in view of the fact that there is coming a time when people will not listen then we better preach what they do not want to hear. This could mean that the Gospel better be preached before the time comes when no one will listen any more. It can also mean that in view of the fact that people will not listen to sound stuff that we better be committed 100% to delivering it even when they do not want it. It must mean the latter as well as the former.

If there is only one Gospel and it speaks of the only way to peace with God, then we must preach that and nothing else. It does not matter what people’s reactions will be to the preaching – we have nothing else to preach. We must not allow the unresponsiveness of people to stop us from giving the Gospel.

The days are here when people do not put up with sound doctrine. So what shall we do? Preach it and then watch in stark wonder as God takes the message preached and brings people who did not want to hear it into belief in the Gospel. It is a miracle.

Do not believe that delivering the Gospel is useless in the face of all that works against it. The Gospel is the power of God and you will see it in the lives of some who hear it. You will see it in all those the Father chooses to give to the Son, for Jesus shall lose none of all that the Father gives Him. Go with hope and confidence in the Gospel that is such power.

Proverbs 4:1-4 (ESV)

Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction,

and be attentive, that you may gain insight,

[2] for I give you good precepts;

do not forsake my teaching.

[3] When I was a son with my father,

tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,

[4] he taught me and said to me,

“Let your heart hold fast my words;

keep my commandments, and live.

Proverbs 4 is the counsel of a father to a son regarding the pursuit of wisdom. Here in this Proverb we have a father urging his son to chase after wisdom, insight and righteousness. We need to receive this as God’s instructions to all of us. God wants all His children to embrace wisdom. We are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ, whether we are male or female. We are sons with the full rights of inheritance that first born sons receive.

Quite often we can be like rebellious adolescent sons who believe that they know better than their fathers. Like the Prodigal son we want what we want and we want it now. And like a loving father, God offers us much better than what we ask for.

What is much better is insight (verse 1), wisdom (verse 5), instruction (verse 13), righteousness (verse 18). One does not need to be a young person to benefit from such instruction. We live in a culture that values money, fame, popularity, reputation etc. It is a great act of non conformity to the world to take what Proverbs 4 offers and value it like it says we should. As Christians however we believe that what God says is better than anything anyone else may say.

It is better to have wisdom and poverty. It is better to have wisdom and sickness. It is better to have wisdom and loneliness. In the Proverbs wisdom is quite often to be taken as Jesus Christ and we can see that in this chapter. Verse 5 – wisdom is to be chased after and greatly desired. Verse 6 – wisdom will keep you, she will guard you. Verse 8 – wisdom will honour you if you embrace her. Verse 9 – wisdom will bestow on you a beautiful crown. Jesus is our wisdom – I Corinthians 1:18-27.

Too much has already been said about Harold Camping and his foolish prediction that his view of the rapture would happen last Saturday. Perhaps I will write about my understanding that Camping’s understanding of the rapture will actually never happen, but that is for another time. But allow this one last thing.

In all that the secular media have had to say about Camping’s prediction, they always get one thing wrong. They all talk about the “good” people being raptured and the “bad” people being “left behind”.

One Toronto magazine put it this way:

“The gang’s all here, which means one of two things: we are all horrible, horrible people who were deemed unworthy of Rapture, or—and this is more likely, we hope—Christian radio host Harold Camping lied about being a prophet on his résumé”

Thet got the part right about Camping not being a prophet. But they couldn’t be more wrong about who gets to be with Christ when He comes. We believe that Jesus will one day return in power and glory. We do not know when. It may not be for thousands of years yet. But it will not rescue the good and damn the bad. There is not a person on the planet who will be deemed worthy of seeing Christ.

The saved are not “worthy” of anything. Hear Paul in Romans 3.

Romans 3:10-18 (ESV)
as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
[11] no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
[12] All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
[13] “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
[14] “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
[15] “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
[16] in their paths are ruin and misery,
[17] and the way of peace they have not known.”
[18] “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

This fundamental Christianity. It is one of the most basic, most emphasized, most preached truths of the Gospel. But those outside the faith still do not hear it. They still hear that the good will live forever and hell is for really really bad people.

Christians are called to give the Gospel. Let’s make sure we get it right. We are not saved because we are better than anyone else. We do not believe because we are smarter, more spiritual, more holy, more good or more anything. We do not deserve to be saved. We do not deserve to live. We did not deserve to wake up this morning.We are saved, not because we are good, but because God is merciful. We believe because God has given us faith. We did not choose Him, He chose us. Salvation is a work of God, not us. The New Testament compares the act of God in saving us to His creative work of bringing light into the world.

2 Cor. 4:6 (ESV)
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Salvation from sin is an act of grace. It does not come because of us but because of Him. It is appropriated by faith, not works. We simply trust Jesus Christ to do for us what we cannot do.

We are still here on planet earth, not because we are all so bad that we don’t deserve heaven, but because God is patient with people and still calling people to faith in His Son. This message is foreign to the thinking of the unbelieving world. That is why it needs to be delivered by those who have come to see its truth.