April 20, 2011 … Compassionate Loyalty

Passage of the Day: Matthew 27: 55 … Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for His needs.

My Journal for Today: In this passage we read of women, who follow Christ loyally as He had commanded in Luke 9: 23. Yes, these were true “disciples,” living out Christ’s commands in that passage, offering their special gifts/services for their Savior, … women who deserved special recognition in God’s word, which was provided by God’s Spirit through the Gospel author, Matthew in today’s highlight passage. Most certainly they will have Christ’s recognition in Heaven; but in today’s verse we see the women who followed Jesus (in the background as he traveled in His earthly ministry) receiving singular recognition as they followed their Lord all the way to the cross.

And by the way, it’s interesting to note that the women followers of Jesus didn’t bolt and run in fear as did His close male disciples. To some degree this is still evident today in the preponderance of female service and involvement in most Christian churches in America – the women serving Christ faithfully and the men, with some exceptions, of course, exhibiting a “bolt and run” attitude when confronted with the truth of Christ’s rigorous commands toward discipleship/ministry/mission (see Acts 1: 8, Matt. 28: 19-20, and again – Luke 9: 23).

The women who faithfully serve God’s will and in His work have their role models in these women of Matt. 27, who, though crushed in despair, still ministered to their Lord’s needs, even in light of His hanging on the tree at Golgotha. We read about three of them further in John 19: 25 – 27 … women who loved their Lord and of Christ’s love for them …

SCRIPTURE: John 19: 25-27 … Near the cross of Jesus stood His mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," 27 and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

In today’s church, as I alluded above, we see the counterparts of these loyal and compassionate warriors, … women who, in today’s church, quietly and faithfully follow Jesus even through incredibly rough circumstances. They pray for others diligently. They work quietly with little or no up-front recognition, using their gifts for God’s glory. And they share their faith, through Christlike action, even when they are not sharing the Gospel verbally (which many of them do very effectively as well). More often and often more effectively than Christian men, I believe, the Sisters of God’s family are more faithful in their witness and true to Christ’s Great Commission (see Matt. 28: 19 – 20) than are today’s Christian men.

As an Elder in our church, I am blessed to be able to see this in action. As a blessed husband of one of these “faithful warriors,” I see this every day. In so many ways, my wife and the women of our church are faithful as surrendered servants in God’s kingdom. We are also blessed in our church to have many men who are servant-leaders for Christ; but more men need to be more active in God’s kingdom; and they, the men, are outnumbered as core members of our church – probably 3 to 1.

The women of my church, however, live both sides of the model given to us by Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary, close friends of our Lord during His earthly ministry – giving faithful service and devoted worship as their personal ministry and witness, tirelessly using their gifts for the betterment of God’s kingdom and for His glory. If you’re a man and reading this, I would hope that this convicts you, as it does me, and directs you to be more faithful and to take the servant-leader role in God’s kingdom very seriously in your local church home.

But … Hail God’s powerful and dutiful women!! And I am blessed to married to one who embodies all that today’s passage captures.

My Prayer Today: Thank you, Lord, for Your servant, Elly Berry, whom You gave to me to be my helpmeet. Amen

April 16, 2011 … Christlike Compassion

Passage of the Day: John 19: 26 … 26 When Jesus saw His mother there, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, "Dear woman, here is your son [John],"…

My Journal for Today: Yesterday in my devotional journal I wrote how Jesus, in the midst of horrible agony and strain on the cross, stress which certainly is beyond our comprehension, was still able to focus on the spiritual needs of the thieves who hung there beside Him on Golgotha. And now, in today’s verse and from Dr. MacArthur’s devotional in Strength for Today, we read of our Lord, hanging there on that tree, speaking of His concern for the temporal needs of His mother, Mary.

I must admit that this is very convicting for me. Usually when circumstances make it difficult for me physically or emotionally, I have to admit that I lose my focus on the needs of others and I become very selfish. My wife could relate that when I get sick or have physical pain, I get very wrapped up in my suffering and often a “pity party” ensues; and the last thing I end up thinking about would be the needs of those around me. And yet, in the most dire emotional and physical pain imaginable, Jesus tenderly and unselfishly reaches out to see that the needs of His mother will be protected. What a model of selflessness we have in our Lord.

And though this model may be almost impossible for this humble Christian to reenact … or even imagine for that matter … it is still one to which I can (no, I must!) aspire. It may seem like “mission impossible;” but I believe the truth of Matt 17: 20, which says that, with my faith, nothing is impossible for God. And I also have the teaching of Paul, exhorting me onward from 1st Cor. 10: 13, which tells me that no matter what the challenge (i.e., test, trial, temptation, or tribulation) God is faithful to provide a way for me to endure and also from Paul [in 2nd Cor. 12: 9] that I have the strength from God’s very sufficient grace to do what it takes reach out and help others … yes, even when I would rather think of myself first.

May we all, therefore, recognize His truth … that God, the Holy Spirit, will continue throughout our lives to shape us into the Christlikeness we may have trouble envisioning for ourselves (but take the time to mediate on Phil. 1: 6 and Eph. 3: 20). God can and will do for our character much more in reshaping us into Christ’s image than we can ever imagine. But we must have faith that God can, and will, reform our character of compassion into that exhibited even by Christ on the cross.

My Prayer Today: O Lord, may I be ready, when tested, to be able to be compassionate to others. Amen

2010 – May 2 – The Compassion of Human Frailty

Study from God’s Word… Psalms 103, 104, 113, 114, and 117 … Passage for Reflection: Psalm 103: 13 – 14 … NIV 8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. 9 He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever; 10 He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him; 14 for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.

My Journal for Today: As God’s timing would have it this morning, here on the Little Red River in Arkansas where our men’s group has come for a weekend fellowship retreat, my Sunday morning quiet time with God has me, as often is the case, listening to Christian music on my Ipod; and the song which just came through my headphones to hear is a wonderful song by Phillips, Craig, and Dean, I Want to Be Just Like You, which depicts a father standing over his little boy in bed at night and praying to God that he (the earthly father) can be like his Heavenly Father because his little son wants to be just like his earthly father. And then I realized how closely that song fits in with the Psalm King David wrote and sung so many centuries before and the Scripture I was asked on to focus on this morning [Psalm 103].

And now the next song I listen to by these three contemporary Christian singers is He’ll Do Whatever It Takes, which is about the patient love of God and how the Lord will follow us through life with His compassion and caring until He (God) completes in us what He desires for me to become as His son. I hope I never lose the awe of God’s timing in these moments I invest with Him each day as He matches so perfectly, “by coincidence,” what my mind/heart have been given from His Holy Word with what I’ve chosen to listen to that morning (like this morning) on my Ipod, trying to go deep with my time with my Lord in God’s word as well as with praise music which worships Him.

And now back to the words from God through David in Psalm 103: 8 – 14 is such a simple song but so deep that I can’t really comprehend its depth. And that is the way, as Dr. Smith points out in his devotional book this morning, many of the paradoxes of the Bible present. How can the human mind fully grasp the compassion of God being as far as the east is from the west? I grab onto it; and I cling to its truth; but I don’t think, this side of glory, I’ll ever be able to completely receive this truth in its height, depth, and extension. But I accept the truth of it; and I trust in its implication for my soul. As base as I have been and how sinful I remain, God forgives me and His compassion continues to shape me into the image of God, The Son.

And this morning David’s song and those from Phillips, Craig, and Dean are telling me that I can receive God’s compassion and the extent of His forgiveness unto salvation; and then I can go forth and choose to forgive others and extend my human compassion, as far as I’m able, so that the love of God moves out from my heart, from God, the Father, and is offered – and prayerfully received – by others.

May it be so?

My Prayer for Today: Lord, may it be so … that I can be a reflection of Your compassion and love in my walk through this life? Amen

2010 – Mar. 5 – Acts of Compassion

Study from God’s Word… Lev 19: 9-10, 23: 22; Deut 24: 19-22, 24-25; Lev 25: 35-38; Deut 5: 16; Lev 19: 3a; Ex 21: 17; Lev 20: 9; Ex 21: 17; Lev 20: 9; Deut 21: 18-21; Lev 19: 32; Ex 22: 22-24; Ex 22: 21, 23: 9; Lev 19: 33-34; Lev 24: 22; Lev 19: 14; Lev 19: 16-18; Ex 23: 4-5; Deut 22: 1-4; Deut 5: 21; Deut 25: 4; Deut 22: 6-7; Deut 20: 1-20; Deut 23: 9-14; Deut 24: 5; Deut 21: 10-14; … Passage for Reflection: Deuteronomy 22: 6 – 7 … NIV 6 If you come across a bird's nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. 7 You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.

My Journal for Today: Today’s study was a review of the Old Testament social welfare laws and principles God passed on to His people to aid them interacting with one another and promoting compassion, which is the focus virtue highlighted in today’s study verses. And when you, as I did, read these verses, you might have a tendency to say, “Well, … how quaint!” And we see that God cares even for His little birds; and then we extract the argument from the lesser to the greater … that if God so cares for birds the way He does, how much more does He care for you and me? And wow, in the Person of Christ we certainly see the answer to that one, don’t we?

In today’s study we see that structure, laws, and social principles were set in motion to provide for the poor, to help the handicapped, to honor the elderly (especially our parents), and even to take in foreigners when they were in need of accommodations. And F. LaGard Smith, in raising these issues, asks a couple of very pointed questions of his readers, “Can you even begin to imagine a world without daily acts of compassion? Indeed, what would you and I be like if we were devoid of compassion?”

And it was just yesterday, while I was going through my physical therapy in rehab after my shoulder surgery, the TV was on in the PT clinic; and I saw a segment from the Dr. Phil show (wow, such enlightenment!] where a Pediatrician had sexually abused over 100 little girls by taking advantage of them while he was examining them in his clinic; and there was another segment where three security guards in a shopping mall watched – and did nothing – to aid a young girl who was being pummeled by four other girls. And the question “Dr. Phil” was posing with his show was, “How can people act like this?” And there you and I have the answer to Dr. Smith’s question above. If the world was compassionless, anarchy would rule; and we’d see that the man with the biggest stick would rule.

And if we let – as a culture – the family degenerate into a structure God did not intend; or … we – as a people – are unwilling to take care of the Samaritan who is lying on the road, beaten down by the world [Luke 10: 25-37 - linked], we will become what I was viewing yesterday on that Dr. Phil show – a world devoid of compassion; and that my friends, would be sad, beyond measure, and personally intolerable. But that, my dear ones, is where we’re headed as mankind begins to live out what Paul wrote about in Romans 1: 18-32; and if we’re unwilling to live with compassion and promote caring love in our laws and culture, we will become an unlivable world.

So, as Dr. Smith asks today, ”Whose life might be uplifted today because of some compassion I might show?” A good question to move us to become what Christ would have us become … like Himself.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, Help me to live beyond self and to act like You toward my fellow man. Amen

2009 – Day 242.Aug 31 – Needed Grace

Passage of the Day: Job 15 … Linked for study …

My Journal for Today: Chuck Swindoll closes his devotional entry today with the words from John Newton’s wonderful hymn, “Amazing grace – how sweet the sound.” But that’s certainly not what we read from the words of Eliphaz to Job in today’s highlight passage. No, Eliphaz now gets downright hostile in his tone toward the same man whom he had grieved with and sat with patiently just a few days earlier.

It’s remarkable to me how human feelings and understanding can be so fickle. At one time the three “friends” of Job had been so patient and loving and seemingly supportive; but then in their advice and counsel with Job, they seem to turn into graceless ogres. It is so, so true that we all need God’s grace; and this would especially be true when we are hit with a series of calamities like those which Job was enduring. But here are Job’s close friends somehow blinded to what he needs, trying to give him a pompous set of dogmatic reasons why Job is going through these trials. Job needs grace; and all he gets from his “friends” is folly.

We need to remember that the person we sit next to in the pew at church may be going through trials about which we have no clue; and what they need is grace, not groundless information on social doctrine or speculations about why God does what He does. That dear one needs grace. And if I read the truth of Romans 3: 23 correctly, we “are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God.” Therefore, we ALL need God’s grace. How and when and to whom God gives it out is God’s business. So, … when we need grace; and we humble ourselves before our loving and merciful God, as Job was doing, God’s agents of grace, His church, needs to be there to help our suffering friends, doling out as much of His grace as we can.

So, when you need God’s grace, be willing to set aside pride and ask God and your friends for grace. When you see someone needing grace, give grace. How much intelligence would it take you, seeing Job’s loss and his horrible pain, physical and emotional, to see that he needed grace, not explanations, and certainly not harsh accusations as we read from Eliphaz in today’s passage.

Now I remember why I like to call these three pseudo friends of Job “the three stooges.” I don’t claim to know God’s full intent when He, the Holy Spirit, guides His writers to tell the stories of the Bible. And I may be a bit pompous to say that it seems clear to me that God is giving us examples of the exact opposite of grace in Job’s three companions. This, to me, is a lesson which screams, “Don’t do it this way, fool!”

So, from this I learn to ask God to give me the sensitivity to see when a friend needs grace; and then to dole it out as much as I’m capable of giving it. And then, … to give even more grace; because there’s just no giving too much when it comes to being the agent of grace for God.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, bless me by being able to give Your grace to someone today who needs it. Amen

2009 – Day 231.Aug 20 – God’s Presence In Suffering

Passage of the Day: Job 2: 11 – 13 … 11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him. 12 And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. 13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.

My Journal for Today: As I sit here and meditate and contemplate on this passage for another day’s devotional, listening to soothing contemporary worship music, I can feel God’s glory being expressed in the music and this scene where Job’s friends shared Job’s grief and sat quietly with him for several days. And I agree with Pastor Swindoll, who expresses the message from this, that this scene is much more expressive of a true relationship with God rather than what will transpire when these same three compassionate “friends” become the voices of isolated religion and worldly wisdom.

You’ve probably read the upcoming speeches of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, where they move from contemplative compassion to intellectual speculation. To illustrate the difference between these two approaches to our witness when we, as Christians, happen upon a friend who is suffering, Swindoll relates the story told to him by a friend of his, one Joe Bayly and his wife, who were grieving the loss of their third child. They had lost a baby years before, a second child at five to leukemia, and, at the time of the story, their 18 year old boy had died in a sledding accident, from complications of hemophilia. Joe related to Swindoll that one Christian friend had come to him and waxed as eloquent as he could, speculating as to the reasons God would allow all of this to happen. Joe said that he understood, in his head, that everything the friend shared was true. But, after some time, the man left; and Joe reported that he was glad to see him go. But then another friend came to their home and just sat with Joe and his wife. They shared tears. They shared prayers. And they just shared togetherness. Joe said when this friend left, he was sorry to see him go.

And that my friends is the difference between Christianity where a relationship with God is shared, … where God’s love is shared with His grace and mercy being the empowering element of fellowship. However, when religion is the motive for sharing, Swindoll reports that the fellowship shares, “… answers without personal relationship, intellect without intimacy.” And Chuck extends this word picture with a poignant sentence about today’s passage and the sharing Job would get from his three friends. Swindoll writes, “The answers [that Job’s friends would give to Job] are slapped on Job’s ravaged life like labels on a specimen bottle.” And that is very expressive of religion without relationship.

When we share God’s love with another, especially one who suffers, it becomes hollow and meaningless to the one with whom we’re sharing, if they cannot feel the love being offered through the personal relationship we have with that person being shared through the empathizing grace of who we are in Christ. At the moment our story for today ended, Job was likely feeling the love and grace of God being administered by these three friends. However, as we move into future passages in Job’s book, we see Job’s questions of God’s wisdom being sparked by the hard, speculative answers which these same three friends would offer to Job thereafter.

These three had done enough at the point our story ended today. They should have shut up and left Job to seek his “WHY” answers directly from God, which, as we know from the book of Job will ultimately transpire. When we offer religion to a friend who suffers, we offer them nothing. But when we give a suffering friend relationship and the dignity of silence in sharing time in empathy, we share God with another. Let us take this lesson from God’s book on the dignity of suffering and make it reality the next time we encounter the suffering of a friend.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to be a real friend and share the tears of my sadness rather the words of my head when I find a friend who suffers dearly. Amen