Author Archives: revjaf

WHICH WAY? Proverbs 14

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My sense of direction plugs along utterly and hopelessly lost!  No joking matter when we’re navigating endless  English and Welsh roundabouts a few years back!  Nerve-racking.  Going the right way always the best choice.  Off-track can really mess up your day!

Reading Proverbs 14, two paths are clearly laid out.  Doesn’t take a Lewis and Clark to figure it out.  It’s right there in front of us.

So how come we wind up on dead-end streets so often?  In neighborhoods way too dangerous for God’s people?  Toying with short-cuts that cut us off from sweet fellowship with Jesus?  How come?  We know why.  That three-letter word–sin.  Plain and simple.  Rotten to the core.

Take a moment now to read Proverbs 14 if you haven’t already.  You’ll immediately note the great divide.  I’ve made a list contrasting the fool with the wise, the faithless with the good, the simple and the prudent, those who are full of hot air with those who work hard, the mocker and the discerning, the truthful and the fake.  On and on.

You get the point.  Choose to follow the Lord.  Get off your high horse.  It’s not all about me, I and myself.  That’s the fool’s way.

Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to discover that going God’s way is much better than going my way.  Sorry Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald!  But that’s the way it is.  Always has been.  Guess what?  Always will be!

Get in line.  Behind Him.  His shadow leads the way, protecting us as we traipse from here to there.  The views?  Just out of this world!

 

Thank you, Lord, for showing me the way.  May I take it every day.  For Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

 

HARD WORK U! Proverbs 13: 4

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Friends recommend that when we’re in Branson, Missouri that we have lunch at the Lodge of the College of the Ozarks.  We do, and how impressed we are with this Christian college known as ‘Hard Work U’!

Why the nickname?  Hard work!  Students labor on campus for their tuition, room and board.  They milk cows, wait tables, shovel manure, tidy up Lodge guestrooms.  That’s why it’s called ‘Hard Work U’.  And no one graduates with even a penny of Ozark College debt.

Likewise, the book of Proverbs calls us to get off our duffs and get to work.  Lazy and work-shy loafers get a bad rap.  After all, why does God give us potential and abilities?  To show off, lounging around, relishing that I’m better than you, though refusing to lift a finger?  Hardly.

I have the privilege to write for the Lord.  This is His gift to me.  Now, let me ask you a question.  Do these weekly devotionals magically appear on my WordPress webpage?  Do I get up in the morning only to discover that some ‘good fairy’ has finished my writing along with leaving money under my pillow for a cracked tooth?  Do I write willy-nilly hoping it all makes sense without exerting any daily editing work?  No way, buster!  Hard Work Me!

It should go without saying that the enjoyment of godly gifts comes from the using of them.  Satisfaction that only time and toil bring.  I’m a better writer because I’ve written, edited, rewritten, and re-edited so much.

Rewards come as we grease the wheels of God’s gifts.  Proverbs 13:4–‘The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.’  See?  Hard Work Us!

How about your godly gifts?  At work for Him?  Be honest.  No one will overhear.  Except the Lord who wants to get you off the dime using His gifts… for the good of others and Jesus’ Kingdom.

Ready to get up and go?  Good.  Don’t say you’ll do it.  Do it!

 

Lord Jesus, energize me so that I can do my best for you and others.  Amen.

LITTLE BY LITTLE Exodus 23: 20-33

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Stop grousing about reading from the book of Exodus.  I know.  Exodus has lots of chapters about the architecture and furniture of the Tabernacle, along with long sections of laws and regulations, which seem out-of-date to us modern know-it-alls.  Me…not you!

Today I notice a phrase in Exodus 23 that stops me in my tracks.  This happens frequently now that I spend more time in my Bible.

First, let’s consider the context.  God is instructing His people on worship and godly living after liberation from slavery in Egypt.  Here in Exodus 23: 20, God reassures them that He’ll be sending His angel to guide and protect.  All He asks for is obedience, a willingness to follow His ways.

The Lord will go ahead of His people to clear the land of the ungodly.  To give His own a country.  This freeing up from enemy peoples will not happen in the twinkle of an eye.  No.  ‘But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you.  Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land’ (Ex. 23: 29-30).

There’s the phrase that gets my attention.  ‘Little by little…’–repetition drives home the point.  God’s goals for His people will take time.  Many years in their case.  Not lickety-split.

I don’t want to hear this.  I crave it now… or how about yesterday?  I’m not getting any younger.  Come on, God.  Get going.  Get moving my way!

Oh how I need to remember that God works at His own pace…in His own time.  May not be to my liking, but His will is always far better.  The best really.  Which is why I need to hear that phrase again– ‘little by little…’  Slowly but surely.  He’s not done yet.  ‘Little by little…’

 

Thank you, Jesus, for perfect timing.  Amen.

 

ON OUR BEHALF Hebrews 6:20-7:28

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Many, many years ago, one of the most stressful times in my life occurs when sued by a neighbor over trees and roots.  The circumstances are bazaar.  The entanglements almost choke the life out of me.  Worry, anxiety, fears take an upper hand.  I can think of little else.

Until I decide to let our homeowners insurance attorney carry the load.  Also, I determine not to roll over and play dead.  I seek no revenge, but neither will I kowtow to anyone.   Pray and go about doing what I need and want, as best I can under this loaded gun.

At the same time, I need Jesus as my attorney and advocate.  The One who acts on my behalf.   Hebrews 6:20–‘…where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf’.

I love Hebrews 7:25–‘…He always lives to intercede for them.’  Jesus, our attorney, 24/7, 365.  Leap year and holidays included!  He’s there for us–‘always’.  And ‘always’ still means always, praise the Lord.

Heb. 7:25 proclaims that He ‘lives’.  No dying, requiring a brand-new lawyer.  Hebrews 7:24–‘…because Jesus lives forever…’  We come and go.  Not Him.  He’s our ‘forever’ helper.

Never a time when I need to fret over life’s wrong turns.  Never?  Really?  Get that through my thick German-Irish skull!

I’ve found another reassuring verse.  Hebrews 9:24–‘For Christ…entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence’.  Notice that itsy-bitsy phrase–‘For us’!  He’s in heaven, seated at the Father’s right hand, working salvation for His own, acting on our behalf.  Again, ‘for us’!

Here’s something to do this week.  Get personal with our Lord.  Repeat over and over–Jesus is for me.  Whatever bind we find ourselves in–Jesus is for me.  Loved ones disappoint and hurt–Jesus is for me.  Failures come out of the blue–Jesus is for me.

Maybe this will sink in for more than a week.  Maybe.

 

Thank you, Jesus, for all you do for us.  In your name.  Amen.

GONE Psalm 32

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It hit me when I least expected it.  Let me explain.  At the funeral for a dear friend, her adult children spoke about what a super mom she truly was.  Very moving tributes.  But like a knife through my soul, I start feeling sad that I’ve been far less a parent than I could have been.  Even worse, far less a Christian than I or the Lord had hoped for.

Guilt surfaces.  Wish I could disappear.  But I don’t.  Even though it’s been decades of a growing relationship with Jesus along with fairly (!) faithful service to Him, it’s that time before that eats away at me.

The day after that funeral, I’m reading Psalm 32.  And there it is.  Smack dab in front of me.  God’s Word for a needy soul.  Me.  Whispering that I’m forgiven, which grabs my attention, being exactly what God does for those sorry as sorry can be.

Psalm 32: 1-2–‘Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him…’  The biblical Hebrew uses three different words for sin.  ‘Transgressions’ in verse one refer to open rebellion against God.  ‘Sins’ in that verse mean turning away from God’s path.  In verse two ‘sin’ denotes distortion of the truth coupled with disrespect for God.

Taken together these three Hebrew words sum up our sinfulness rather well.  Cover the bases.  No exceptions or loopholes to squirm our way out of.

But we need none.  We’re forgiven.  Period.  Sins forgiven… and forgotten.  Slate wiped clean for those who are God’s own through faith in Jesus.

So, plug up your ears when Satan shouts recriminations at you.  Blinders on when you visualize bygone failures.  Be blessed and happy trusting God’s Word!

That’s the rub for me.  To concentrate on Jesus.  Putting Him first in my thoughts.  Intently listening to Him.  After all, He’s carried my sins away, even hurling them as far as far can be, where they can never come back to haunt me…or you.

Forgiveness.  Believe it or not.  No, believe Him!

 

Lord Jesus, in spite of everything tough in this life, I want to trust you.  Amen.  

GOOD RIDDANCE! Luke 22

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Jesus and His followers are in Jerusalem for what will be their last Passover celebration together.  He’s performed miracles like no one’s ever seen.  For three years He tells stories that engage people like no rabbi ever has.  Reaches out to the most abject outcasts.  Shows love and forgiveness that turns heads.  Rumors float in the air that Jesus is God’s Son and promised Messiah.

Nevertheless, the religious high-and-mighty gather to plot His overthrow.  To move Him off center stage.  Marginalize His competitive advantages.  As Luke writes–‘…(they) were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus…’ (Luke 22: 2).

What to do with Jesus.  Good riddance!  Adios, amigo!  Sayonara!  Au revoir!  Auf Wiedersehen!  Alright, enough already.

Here’s a question I ask myself.  How many times have I wanted to do much the same?  Hardly asking for God’s input.  Thumbing my nose at His commands.  Turning my back on what’s right so I can get more for me.  In effect, getting rid of Jesus.  Am I alone?

Throughout history people want to deep-six Jesus.  Sin with abandon.  Without restrictions, paying a price for being plain stupid and selfish.  Going my way is a one-way ticket to disappointment and frustration.  And yet how many of us, and how much of our culture, ride that same hellbent bus to the very outskirts of hell.

There’s more.  Satan enters the picture.  Ever since those temptations in the wilderness (Luke 4), Satan lurks in Jesus’ shadow.  Ready to pounce when given the chance.  Judas nods his permission, and a flood of evil enters to his utter ruination.  Getting rid of Jesus ultimately slides the unbeliever to darkness unimaginable and more and worse.

So, let’s be in the company of those eleven remaining disciples.  Did they understand everything about Jesus?  Not by a long shot.  Yet they know whose garment to hold onto.  In whose steps to follow.  Whose voice to listen to.  Whose love to count on.

Take Jesus’ hand.  Hold on tight.  He’ll never let you go!

 

Jesus, we cling to you for dear life now and forever.  Amen.

 

 

 

RENTERS Luke 20: 9-19

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When renting apartments, I always felt that the monthly payment was tossed down the storm drain or worse.  Wasted money.  No equity builds up except for the apartment owner.  As a financial planner, I decide early on to do something about rubbish rent.  Every month I would deposit the same dollar figure into my own investment account.  Why?  To build equity.  When Sue and I marry, I have enough to buy our first home.  No debt.

So what does this have to do with the Jesus’ last recorded parable in Luke’s Gospel?  Good question!  Let’s look at Luke 20: 9–‘…A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time.’  The vineyard farmers give back some of their harvest to the landowner as rent payment.  Jesus says–‘At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard (v.10).’

But these ingrates refuse to cough up even a small portion of the rent they owe.  They want it all for themselves.  Violent promise breakers, losers weepers.

After sending a servant or two to collect the rent, neither of which return alive, the owner decides to send his son.  You know what happens.  ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours’ (v.14).

They hanker for the whole schmear, kit and caboodle.  Give back nothing.  Kill if necessary.

As a believer, I know that God has given me much.  Not to hold onto tightly.  More like we’re renting our time here, during which we willingly and joyfully give the Lord His due.  Turning ears to Him.  Listening.  And eyes.  Looking.  Reading His Word daily.  Applying what He says, knowing that forgiveness is but a prayer away.  He’s well aware that we’re made of clay and dust.  Oh, how He knows!

While renting here, also build up equity in heaven.  How?  Turn your eyes upon Jesus.  Look full on His wonderful face.  Love Him. Talk with Him.  Relish His lavish grace and mercy.  Share Him.  Spiritual equity builds and multiplies.

Jesus has a home for us with Him.  No rent.  Equity has been sent ahead, invested in God’s Kingdom.

Renters?  Here, yes.  But there, a paid-for home awaits those who wait upon Jesus!

 

Thank you, Lord, for a mansion over the hilltop.  Because of Jesus.  Amen.

SHADOWS AND SURPRISES Luke 12: 35-40

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Contracting polio at the age of two casts a long shadow over my life.  My parents, seeking a better life in the suburbs after World War II, buy a home about 20 miles away.  Unfortunately, I catch the polio virus a day or two before the move out of Jersey City.  When the worst gets confirmed, I’m transported back to be quarantined in the Sister Kenny Polio Center at Jersey City’s Margaret Hague Hospital.

Shadows make their first appearance in that move from my earliest home.  Then immediately finding myself in a frightening institution.  My parents decide to visit me from behind closed curtains as they don’t want me to see them, crying and reaching out to them, who are utterly helpless to hold and comfort me.  All my family– gone?  Dead?  Abandons me?  Who knows what goes through a 2-year old’s mind?

Isolated yet trapped by hot packs, boiling water, bossy nurses, endless exercises, other screaming children who I don’t know, dark nights accompanied by ceaseless tears and sobs.  When the lights go out, the fears do not.  Shadows rarely dissipate.

Best news happens at age 16, listening to my radio on a Sunday evening, I hear about God’s love through Jesus.  His offer is given.  I gladly accept.

After a university and Bible school education, a seminary advanced degree, ordination, serving four churches, hosting a local evangelistic TV show, authoring two devotional books, I still feel like I have to earn God’s love.  Keep doing more to warrant His acceptance.  But it’s never enough, is it?  ‘Lord, please don’t abandon me.  I’ll be good.’  Shadows again.

Just when I need a booster shot of reassurance, certain Bible stories enter my system.  Like this week, reading Luke 12.  The parable of the master who returns from a wedding feast, with his servants prepared, waiting and ready.  Verse 37–‘It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.  I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.’

Did you get it?  Took me a couple of times, but then it hits home.  The master serves his servants.  Jesus waits on me!  It’s not my good works that matter, but His.  Nothing about my achievements, even those for His glory.  Just get ready and watch… and be waited upon by Jesus!

As He did in washing His disciple’s feet (John 13).  And when God sings precious songs over His own, as found in Zephaniah 3:16-17.  God takes the first step.  He initiates.  ‘We love because He first loved us’ (1 John 4:19).  His love… first and foremost.

He loves me and will never, ever forsake me…or you!  Chew on that for awhile.  I am.  Little by little, that message sinks in.  That’s something.  Shadows recede a bit, surprising even me.  We’re His work in progress!  Mainly we’re His.

 

Lord Jesus, thank you for always being there for us.  Amen.

 

FOR THE BIRDS Genesis 15

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Genesis 15 tells the story of God making a pact, a covenant with Abram.  A mutual promise which God initiates, requiring belief on Abram’s part.  A pledge of countless offspring for Abram and Sarai, a barren old couple.  What good can come from God’s promises without even one heir?  Abram wonders if maybe his foreign servant will be the one to inherit.  Eliezer of Damascus.  Him?  Some promise.

Ever feel like your living with God’s left-overs?  Not quite what you expected?  Second-best?  Passed by and overlooked?

Abram exhibits faith in God (v.6).  However, he begs for reassurance–‘O Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?’ (Gen. 15:8).  Abram has tiny, mustard-seed faith.  But it’s enough for now.  So God tells him to gather some animals for a ceremony.  Abram collects them.

Before God puts him into a deep sleep, Abram is ‘bewitched, bothered, and bewildered’ by nasty birds of prey.  Possessing keen eyesight, they grasp and kill their prey for a meal.  My wife and I were walking in a lovely state park, when a bald eagle swoops down quite close to us grabbing a frog, swallowing it whole.  Yuck!  So much for the romance of seeing bald eagles.  Predators!  I hardly overate at dinner that evening!

When Abram has everything in place, then come those pesky birds to steal and kill and destroy (Gen. 15:11).  Does that phrase sound familiar?  Check out John 10:10.  Satan and his rotten forces love to mess up our joy both in life and in the Lord.  Ever notice that?  Of course you have.

Don’t be surprised or caught off guard.  Get ready.  James has the right idea–‘Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you’ (James 4:7).  As Abram did in his day–‘Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away’ (Gen. 15:11).

Do your best to shoo them far off.  Stop your ears to their doubting whispers.  Walk away from temptations you know are eating away at you.  Resist.  Drive them away.  Odious birds of prey.  Shoo.

And then get closer to Jesus.  Keep a short account of sins needing His forgiveness.  Go to Him as soon as possible.  Give no room for Satan, who can’t wait to barge in as the crook, terminator, blaggard and braggart he truly is.

Cuddle up a little closer…to the Lord your God where you’ll find there’s no room for the enemy.  None.  With Jesus you’re safe, free and peaceful!

 

Thank you, Jesus, for giving us life in its fullness.  Keep Satan far away from us.  In your name.  Amen.

 

 

WHEN JESUS SAYS ‘NO’ Luke 8: 26-39

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Isn’t it the pits when your prayer receives ‘no’ for its answer?  After all, you’re so sincere and needy.  Maybe it’s concern for someone else that brings you to Jesus in prayer.  Would He deny us anything?  Can’t imagine that.  But He does.  Though we know His will is best, yet we bristle and gripe at the seeming insensitivity.

Spending time in Luke 8, we discover a man in distress.  He’s possessed with many evil maladies.  Disturbed being an understatement.  Rips off his clothes, breaks the chains that bind him while he roams around in caves and tombs.  A desperate character.

As Jesus walks by, this troubled man shouts out– ‘…Jesus, Son of the Most High God’ (Luke 8: 28).  You know what happens.  Jesus casts out those legion demons into hillside pigs, who stampede down a steep bank into a lake, drowning all.

People come running to see what’s happened.  Oh, no!  Cash crops float away.  Livelihoods destroyed.  Fear engulfs the populace.  Their world crumbles.  So they tell Jesus and His cohorts to ‘get out of Dodge’ before they ‘tar and feather’ them!

But before they sail away, this newly restored man begs Jesus to allow him to tag along.  Why wouldn’t he?  After all, everyone who knows him probably will still make fun of him and always see him as he used to be.  Plus, blaming him for the economic mess they now find themselves in.  He’s trouble before and no better after.  No wonder he wants to flee.

But Jesus says ‘no’.  Of course, He wants this man to experience fullness of life (John 10:10).  Yet, Jesus also knows that no better work can be done for God’s Kingdom than for this man to go back home, tough it out, stand his ground, sound of mind and body, and tell others about Jesus’ healing him, seeing his own family, friends and neighbors come to know the Healer and Savior for themselves!

When Jesus says ‘no’ to our prayers, know that following Him will not always be easy.  We don’t invariably get our way, even though we accept that His ways are best.  Whether I can see it or not.  Like it or not.  Or if it makes any sense to my ‘pea brain’ or anyone else’s.

Trust Jesus.  Repeat that phrase as often as it takes.  Trust…Jesus.  Make yours a ‘no matter what’, ‘nevertheless’ faith!  I’m not there yet.  Not by a long-stretch.  But He’s not done with me…or you.  Hang on!  Hold on!  Trust…Jesus!

 

Lord, thank you that we can always trust you.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.