Author Archives: revjaf

LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF!… I Timothy 1: 12-17

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Could the Apostle Paul have been the worst sinner ever?   He said– ‘…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.’  The worst one of all?  Really?  Worse than Judas Iscariot?  Stalin and Hitler?  What about Satan?  Of course not.

The Apostle Paul is looking into a spiritual microscope, one focused on every aspect of his life.  Like gazing at a mirror, seeing every blemish, showing us as we truly are.   He’s looking deeply within,  without pretense or excuse,  noting how far he misses the mark of God’s holiness and perfection. The comparison?  Well, there really is none.

As a believer in Jesus, God has sensitized Paul to every part of his life.  We humans, since Adam and Eve, are far away from God.  As far as far can be.  Truly one of the ironies of the Christian life is the closer we get to God, the more we know that, of sinners ‘I am the foremost’.   When we thought we could hide it, He nails us with the truth.

Times when I wasn’t particularly close to the Lord, even though a believer, I glibly headed out the door doing my own thing.  Sin didn’t seem to bother me very much.  Not really.  Maybe a twinge or two.

Now,  the closer I get to Him, the farther away I feel.  Like Paul’s foremost and chief of sinners.  Let me introduce myself.  I’m an old sinner saved by grace.  That’s me.  My salvation has nothing to do with my goodness. Nothing.  Neither does yours.  It’s all of God’s love and mercy,  forgiveness and grace.  All those words that lead directly to Him alone. ALL OF HIM, OF JESUS CHRIST.

I’m an old sinner…saved by God’s grace.  Let me introduce myself…no, let me introduce the One who gave Himself on the cross for you and me!  Have you met Him?  Welcome Jesus into your life…today!

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for making us new in Jesus Christ, your Son and our Savior.  In His name.  Amen.

WASTE NOT… Proverbs 5: 7-14

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‘Waste not, want not’.  Good advice!  Don’t waste your life , and you’ll not want for meaning and purpose in the short years we’re given.  Seems like life is on the fast-track in the latter years.  Know what I mean?  Like the ride uphill was not as fast-and-furious as the downhill slope and slide!  Time flies by… but you don’t get any frequent-flier miles!

As I look back, it bothers me about all those opportunities I’ve squandered.  Time wasted, the living for the Lord that was in name only.  With that in mind, I was hooked and dragged to shore by Proverbs 5:9–‘lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless’.

I can’t blame others for the wasted times.  I’d like to, but I gave them away.  And  I can’t get them back.  Words said that are forever out there.  Words not said that would have helped and maybe healed.  Who knows?  Too late now.

Things done that can’t be undone.  Things not done forever incomplete.  Given away.  Tossed to the wind of whim and whimsy.  Proverbs warns against giving away our honor and our years.  We have choices to make in life.  The way of wisdom or the way of folly.

I’m not blaming someone else for all the times I’ve given away.  I’d still like to!  Certainly, there have been many times when others have wronged me, causing pain and mess, not of my own making.  For you too?  Not much you can do about that except to let it go, to move forward and let the Lord take care of them and their malicious designs; and,  in some cases,  to walk out of their lives for good.

What the Bible is saying is to get focused,  get on track with the dreams and desires of my life.  A life for Him.   A life for others– not for me alone.    Find out more about who God made us to be. Try,  as best you can,  to follow the star of Jesus to make the most of the best that God has in store for us. And when we fail, we find Him to be merciful and gracious,  loving us like no one has ever loved us before or since.    Amen?  Amen!

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for a life worth living.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

I CAN STILL HEAR HIS VOICE………..Read John 10: 7-18

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DON’T USE THIS BLOG….A REPEAT!!                                                                                          I can still hear his voice!  Clear as a bell.  I’ll never forget it.  It was in 1957 or ’58 when my Dad and I first went to, what we called  back home in New Jersey, ‘the Stadium’.  Must I spell it out that that is Yankee Stadium, the house that Babe Ruth built.  The Babe was such a giant in the game of baseball that I thought maybe he really did build it!  We drove to the Stadium in my father’s 1956 blue Lincoln Capri, and parked it in just the biggest parking lot I had ever seen.  And all the people streaming toward the multiple gates all around the stadium.  We passed all kinds of vendors selling Yankee hats, daily schedules, buttons and ribbons with players’ pictures on them, you name it.  After we passed through the old-fashioned turnstiles getting back half our ticket from the old ticketvendor, we walked up and up those concrete ramps of inner Yankee Stadium to be greeted with tantalizing smells of hot dogs and sauerkraut, hot-roasted peanuts, and just lots of city sights and sounds.  It was magical to say the least.  And then as we walked through cavernous tunnels, it all opened up. There it was–the infield and the outfield with baseballs being hit all over the place.  Lights were on everywhere with everything bright and  green and loud and heavenly to this little boy holding the calloused hands of his dad.  We were then told where our seats were.  My father wanted a hot dog as badly as I did.   Brought right to us by a hot dog vendor carrying  a large box of steaming franks that took but a few gulps to consume.  And there they were!  My team!  My Yankees!   And my favorite players, ever–Mickey, Yogi, Whitey, Phil, Billy, Moose, Gil, Roger…But then there was that voice.  I can still hear it.  Like it was yesterday.   Bob Sheppard announcing, ‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Yankee Stadium’.  His resonance, clarity, respect and just plain majesty of simplicity, I could  never forget.   Decades later when I took my boys to the Stadium, and 10 years ago for Sue and myself, we heard that same voice, the voice of the Yankees for over 56 years.  He was 97 when he retired as the team announcer.    Derek Jeter had Bob Sheppard’s voice recorded to be played as he came to the plate  in Yankee Stadium, so with Jeter’s  retirement from the game, Bob Sheppard’s voice will no longer be heard at the Stadium.  But there’s another voice that I’ll never forget.  And His voice will never be silenced.  Never, ever.  That, of course, is the voice of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.  He tells us in John  chapter 10 that He has other sheep to bring into His fold, that’s you and me who believe in Him.  When we accept Jesus into our hearts we become part of His growing flock and family.  He says, ‘…I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.’  Can you hear Him calling your name?  Introducing you to the crowd and cloud of heavenly witnesses?  Listening to Him and learning from Him in your Bible, His Word?  Such a joy to hear the voice of the Shepherd.  Jesus, the Good Shepherd…I can still hear His voice!  I’ll never forget it.  Never.

NO MORE, NO MORE! I’LL SAY IT AGAIN. NO MORE! …Rev. 18: 21-24

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We live in a scary, violent world, which is getting worse and worse all the time.   If we read the Book of Revelation and take it to heart, we wouldn’t be surprised at all.  Forget all the interpretation disputes and hobby-horse theories about this book, it’s going to get worse before it gets worse.  Aren’t you glad you read this devotional today?!

Wait a minute.  I did say to take the Book of Revelation to heart, didn’t I?  There are some really amazing verses that should give us lots of hope and confidence for the days ahead.  Not that the worst won’t get worse (for it will),  but that Satan will be defeated once for all.  Revelation 12: 7-12– you’ll find out that the devil, called a deceiver and destroyer, will be totally conquered by Jesus through His blood on the cross.

There’s more good news: Satan knows that his time is short (v. 12).  Times will deteriorate, but it will be for a short season ending with the forces of evil crushed and defeated.  Without a doubt.   Beyond even its shadow.

God has promised.  He has given His Word.  Revelation says it again in chapter 17:10–talking about coming beasts and wicked kings.  At the end of that verse it says, ‘…and when he does come he must remain only a little while’.  Did you hear that?  Only for a little while.   The forces of evil have but a short time.

Now read Revelation 17:14–‘They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with Him are called, chosen and faithful’.  Jesus reigns triumphant…and we,  His followers,  are right there with Him!  Safe and secure.  They may kill the body but not the soul!   Our souls are with Him.  Safe and secure.

Have you read those verses in Revelation 18 yet?  This whole chapter pictures the fall of evil in all its forms;  political and economic, in particular.  Six times it uses the phrase ‘no more’ to spell the end of this wicked, godless world. Six is a symbolic number for Satan in this last book of the Bible.  You know the infamous 666– a number referring to Satan.  No more…no more…no more evil.    For the enemy of God and his devilish allies, time will be no more.

But for us, who know Jesus, who have received His new life, no matter what,  no matter where, no matter when, our time will be in His hands.  With no looking back over our shoulders ever again!

Prayer:  Thank you Lord, for ultimate victory in Jesus your Son.  Amen.

I MUST ADMIT IT!… Ezra 9: 8-9

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I really don’t want to admit it.  I’m ashamed in some ways.  You’ll forgive me, won’t you?  But I must.  I can’t hammer a straight nail if my life depended on it.  There it is.  I’ve said it.  The cat’s out of the bag!  Anyone who knows me is snickering and sniveling as they could have guessed it all along.  Smarty-pants!

My brother, Robert, can hammer straight on with his eyes closed and one hand tied behind his back.  Mechanically-inclined, to say the least, is that older brother of mine.  And he’s always let me know it, as if I had one iota of doubt.  He’s gifted that way.  The Lord made him with both a steady eye and hand.

But I wonder how his book is coming along?  How his sermons are being received by a congregation week after week for years and years?  Put that shoe on, brother of mine, if it fits?!

God has gifted each of us in different ways.  And I thank the Lord for the gifts given Robert, and the ones given me, different as they could ever be.  That’s fine with me.  Whether you or I can or can’t, I know that God can hammer a straight nail!  Did you read those 2 verses in Ezra 9 yet?  Not sure what your translation says but mine says that ‘(God gives) a secure hold within His holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving…'(ESV).  See where it says ‘secure hold’?  In the original Hebrew that phrase is really one word– nail or tent-peg.  God was promising His remnant people, returning from exile in Babylon, that He would nail them in securely, bind them tightly to Himself.

When in England we were renting a 15th-century manor house.  This house was built in the late 1400’s making it over 600 years old.  And we think our house back home in the States is ‘old’ having been built in 1945!  The Old Manor House has timber framing, post and beam construction with squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers secured by large wooden pegs. It’s lasted century after century.

Like what God has done for us.  Tight and secure, carefully fitted and joined…by the death of His only Son, nailed to the cross.  Nails and pegs.  The nails that have left an eternal mark in Jesus’ hands and feet are the nails that keep us safe in Him not for 600 years but forever.  Nails that secured our forgiveness, salvation and future glory with Him in heaven.   Whether you can hammer a nail straight or not, He can.  He did.  He still does.  I must admit it, God is so good…at whatever He does!  Agreed?

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your Jesus.  In His name.  Amen.

NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!… Psalm 108: 1-4

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I’ve always wanted to thank Billy Graham in person.  After all, he was the one I heard speaking  on that radio program a Sunday evening many years ago.  For some reason I heard the ‘Hour of Decision’ with Billy Graham. I had gone to Sunday School sporadically, but never really liked it or the church that I attended!

You ask why I didn’t go somewhere else?  I didn’t know that you were supposed to enjoy church. I  had questions about God and Jesus, but no one I knew had any answers.  Anyway, ‘you just don’t talk about those things’, even in church.  You don’t?  Really?  We didn’t.

I had no idea that some people did and that there were answers to my questions.  No idea at all.  Until that night.  I focused on his every word.  He said that Jesus loved me.  Jesus knew who I was.  He cared…about me.  And wanted to be in my life.  Are you kidding?

In a way, I didn’t know what Billy Graham was talking about, but something within said to ‘go for it’.  I  responded to that message.  The next day I got the Bible, never opened, that  I received when I was 8 years old  and started reading the New Testament.  Had Mr. Graham  told me to?  I don’t remember.

Then I discovered a couple of teachers in high school who were Christians.  One was an older woman that we would make fun of.  She was not so weird once I discovered that she also knew the Lord.  In 1964 my father and I loved going to the New York World’s Fair.  We went 12 times!  It was there that I got my very first Bible Study, the Gospel of John, from the Billy Graham Pavilion.  How exciting– and from that same preacher.

I’d like to thank him in person.  I almost have.  Was a counselor at a New York City crusade but he was too far away.  Saw Anne Graham Lotz, his daughter, at the Pike Place Market in Seattle and asked her to thank her Dad.  I’ll bet I’m the only one who ever asked her to do that!

While at the Cove, Billy Graham’s Conference Center in Asheville, North Carolina,  I sat next to his first cousin, Ed Graham, at dinner.  I asked him the same…please tell your cousin what his ministry has meant to me.  I’d still like to thank him… in person.  But it’s not going to happen.

No problem really.  He didn’t save me.  He would tell me that also.  Jesus did.  And I can  thank Him whenever I feel like it.  Direct and personal.   Like it says in Psalm 108:3–‘I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.’  And someday I’ll get to thank Jesus in person for all He’s done for me…and you can join me as well!

Prayer:  Thank you, Jesus, for saving us.  Amen.

ME AND MY SHADOW!…Psalm 23

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You can recite this psalm from memory,  and probably in King James English.  I’m keying in on that phrase:  walking ‘through that Valley of the Shadow of Death’.  Death…lots of it in the news these days.  Disease, terrorism, famous people (who have so much of this world’s goods) choosing to end their own lives.

I have no idea how many times I’ve read the 23rd psalm at hundreds and hundreds of funerals during my 40 plus years of ministry.  No idea.  Somewhere, I remember reading that in the Holy Land there is an actual place called the Valley of the Shadow.  It’s a narrow ravine where sheep have to travel through single-file nudged by the prodding of the shepherd.  One by one, which sheep do not like.  It spooks them.

So, the shepherd, who knows that the good grazing land is on the other side of the ravine, gets them through using his shepherd’s crook and his very familiar voice.  You can see where I’m going with this, can’t you?  Once we were driving through the lovely Cotswolds of rural England when we spotted a Norman church off in the distance, off a narrow road.  We turned onto an even smaller road, certain that no one would be coming the other way.  Out of nowhere comes a large truck unable to push too far over to the side.  So, I did or I hoped I could.  I braced myself, put my head down, prayed for a miracle…and the shadow of that truck totally blocked our vision as it passed over us.  Whew!

We were fine.  Our rental car was fine.  It turned out to be only  a shadow of trouble. Death is the same.  It’s scary,  unknown,  big and dark,  our vision clouded,  we’ve never been down that path before, we travel it alone (or so it feels), we leave loved ones and lots of unfinished dreams and business.  So we imagine.

But death will only be a shadow– for in Jesus Christ  ‘death has been swallowed up in victory…But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 15: 54-57).  Death has been defeated.  The shadow will lift and we’ll see our Shepherd holding our hand guiding us to the best pasture land we’ve ever seen with satisfaction like we’ve never known.  I will fear no…well, anything!  And singing will be better than ‘Me and My  Shadow’, and with interesting true stories much better than Lamont Cranston of old-time radio days for ‘The Shadow Knows’!  We know…because the Bible tells us so!

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for being our good Shepherd.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

FOREVER IS A VERY LONG TIME… Psalm 107

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That first verse of Psalm 107 ends with the word ‘forever’.  That’s a very long time.  Forever and ever and ever… ad infinitum.  And what is it that lasts forever?  God’s steady love for us.  A love central to Old Testament covenant teaching.

Some keep saying that the Old Testament God is a God of vengeance while the New Testament One is of love.  We don’t worship two Gods.  The word ‘love’ appears many more times in the Old Testament than the New.   The exact content of Psalm 107:1 is found in the Torah of Moses, the writings of the Psalms and other wisdom books, also in the Prophets as well.  Throughout the entire Old Testament.

His love endures…forever.  That’s a very long time.  I retired from the United Christian Church on Grays Harbor, Washington State, having served 14 years.  Almost twice as long as the next longest serving pastor in the church’s 110 year history.  Yet at the bottom left-hand corner of every weekly pay check was written ‘Guest Speaker’!  For 14 years!  That’s a long time to be a guest speaker!  Maybe they just wished I’d take the hint and go away!

I never minded in the least.  After all, in this world, as finite human beings, we are all guests for a brief period of time in whatever we’re doing, even work for the Lord.  I loved being a guest speaker!  But my 14 years were nothing compared to our church secretary, Ruth Wayman, and our church organist, Roberta Cleland, who combined serve the Lord for over 100 years!  But even their long service is dwarfed by the longevity of God’s love for His children and His church.  The warranty on His love has no end date at all.

Yet, I still have a hard time believing that I don’t have to perform for Him to receive His love.  That I must tow the mark,  making His love conditional.  Sure there are consequences for when we veer off course in sin.  But as His child, if I have received Jesus into my life,  His love will mold me in discipline.  He allows me to trudge down that wrong path only to find out that I need His help big-time bringing me back to where I ought to be.  Then He blesses us with His mercy and grace that knows no end.   Forever is a very long time.  Aren’t you glad?

Prayer:  We look forward to being with you, our God, forever.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

SOMETHING WORTH REPEATING… Psalm 106

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I love reading mystery novels.  Agatha Christie, P. D. James, Anne Cleeves to name but a few.  I was reading a new author the other day.  The book’s setting was the Shetland Islands, off the coast of northern Scotland.  We were there a number of years ago.  We especially enjoyed the town of Lerwick.  We were greeted by a warm and friendly man who welcomed us to his town, giving us a local map.    On the back of this helpful map was the Gospel message of Jesus Christ!  Never had that happen before.

Back to this recent mystery book that I read,  the author made reference to church singing in the isles of Scotland.  It’s called Gaelic Psalm-singing.  I had never heard of it before.  Have you?  So, I searched the internet, and low-and-behold  there were lots of references to this regional form of congregational singing by the Presbyterian Scots.  Another name for this form of corporate singing  is precentering, where either a cantor or the pastor reads a phrase from the Psalm of the day and then the congregation responds to it with a very different melody or sound. Some think Psalm-singing began in response to a largely illiterate people who couldn’t read but could repeat what they heard, singing from their hearts in worship to the Lord.   It is quite remarkable and beautiful.

Psalm 106 has a verse that is well worth repeating.  Verse 1 says ‘Praise the Lord!  Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!’  Does that verse sound  familiar to you?  It did to me, so I looked it up in my concordance– and it is sung throughout the Old Testament.  And I mean throughout!  Check it out for yourself.

When the Ark of the Covenant is brought into the Tabernacle in 1 Chronicles 16:34,  there it is–God is good and His love is steadfast, sure and stable, sincere and secure.

Then 2 Chronicles 5:13, the same is sung by all at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple.  When the Temple is rebuilt following return from exile in Babylon, as the foundation is being laid, the people sing again about God’s goodness and His love which knows no bounds.

When the prophet Jeremiah writes about the coming redemption of the Lord in chapter 33: 10-11, there is that same call to thank the Lord who is so good and loving.  There are more, but the ultimate  is Psalm 136, where that phrase ‘for His steadfast love endures forever’ is the 2nd part of each and every verse. All 26 verses have the congregation repeating that same thought… each and every time.   Why not make today a day of praise and thanksgiving to our God, who is good as good can ever be, and more loving than we can ever imagine.  That’s something worth repeating!  Psalm-singing by all God’s children!

Prayer:  Lord, you are so loving and good.  Thank you.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

THOSE PRECIOUS PRAYERS…Revelation 5:8 & 8: 3-5

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It’s such a joy to hear our grandsons pray before a meal.  So sweet.  So simple. So believing and trusting.  Means so much to us.  Our treasuring of our little one’s prayers is but an inkling of how precious our prayers are to our Heavenly Father.  If we knew how much our sharing with the Lord means to Him,  I guess we’d never stop praying at all.  That’s an idea worth pondering.

Have you read those verses in the Book of Revelation yet?    They speak of our prayers to the Lord.  Our prayers.  Yours and mine.  God’s children calling out to Him, crying to Him, and praising Him.  Prayers of all kinds, using a myriad of languages, by all kinds of different people, all over the world.  Doesn’t matter how you pray or what exactly you say–what matters is our desire to be with and share our hearts with our God as His chosen children.

In Revelation 5:8 the Apostle John, in exile on the Island of Patmos, is having a heavenly vision and sees a large scroll, four living creatures and twenty four elders falling down in worship of Jesus Christ, each with a harp, holding bowls made of pure gold full of incense, burning with a sweet, pleasing aroma.

Wafting in the air, more than a scent,  these are the actual prayers of the saints.  Ours are there as well.    Your prayers and mine– so precious to the Lord that they are held in large golden bowls, held only by God’s most trusted worshippers… with all placed at the feet of Jesus.  Only the very best can contain and handle our prayers.  Only the best.  Did you hear that?  How precious our utterances are to Him.

Then in Revelation 8 we see angels standing before God, and one of them has a censer made of pure gold,  which burns incense where its smoke gets mingled with our prayers, all rising to the very presence of God.  Then something totally unexpected happens.  The angel takes the censer,  fills it with fire and throws it to the earth, resulting in tremendous cosmic thunder, lightning and earthquakes.

Not only are our prayers precious, but they are very powerful.  Like it says in James 5: 16–‘the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working’.  I think I’ll pray a lot more.  Our prayers do a tremendous work for God for others. Imagine all that can come by praying.  Precious…and powerful.  Our prayers to God–that’s something worth doing more and more.  Do I hear an ‘amen’?

Prayer:  We love to pray to you, our God.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.