March 2 - Help My Unbelief

 Read today’s texts first: Numbers 30,31; Mark 9

 MAXIMize YOUR DAY

Our problem of unbelief must ultimately give way to simple trust in a God who knows far more than we do.

The father of the demon possessed boy probably speaks for all of us. When asked if he believed Jesus could deliver his son, he answers, “I do believe. Help my unbelief!” After walking with Jesus for over half a century, I still need help with my human doubts.

I’ve seen many undeniable miracles over those years, but I must admit to being shaken while watching a great church leader, a father of two young boys, succumb to the ravages of brain cancer. I do believe he is with Jesus right now, completely healthy and happier than we can ever imagine this side of heaven. But I still struggle with questions from my limited perspective, wondering why he had to go now and not after his sons had children of their own. I do believe Lord, but help my unbelief!

In both our readings today, questions are unavoidable: why are women’s vows subject to fathers and husbands (ch. 30), why did so many Midianites have to die (ch. 31), how did Moses and Elijah show up very much alive with Jesus (9:2-12), why was Jesus so fixated on His death (9:12,31), and why is there a hell for those who don’t believe (9:43-49)?

Some clues to our struggles with unbelief are found in what Jesus has to say about children (9:36,37,42). They simply believe - trusting those with more life experience to make the right decisions for them. Our adult problem of unbelief must ultimately give way to simple trust in a God who knows far more than we do.

“Lord, I do believe, but when doubts creep into my human thinking, help my unbelief! Like Peter, James, and John, who saw You transfigured before their very eyes, give me a glimpse beyond my limited perspective into eternity.”

March 1 - Sacrifice - The Antidote For Sin

 Read today’s texts first: Numbers 28,29; Mark 8

 MAXIMize YOUR DAY

When we give up our life for God and for others, we find out what life is all about! 

This is Gracie, my youngest granddaughter, at her Wee College graduation. It was wonderful cheering her on as she and her fellow grads quoted the verses they had been practicing all week long: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son...”; “A new command I give you, that you love each other as I have loved you...”; “God loves a cheerful giver”. There’s much more that they had memorized, and all of it has daily application.

Let’s face it - children are basically immature! Their conversations often center on two words: “me” and “mine.”  I could preach these verses to them when they fall short, but I prefer to hold my grandkids up as examples when they succeed, like when Kaitlyn was given a bottle of her favourite Gatorade for herself and promptly poured out two glasses first for her brother and sister.

That’s what our readings are all about today. The sacrifices called for in the OT chapters seem so onerous, but we need to be reminded that the costs of sin are high. Note the payment for sin had to be “without flaw” (28:31). That’s why we can’t atone for our own sin - we were born flawed, with a sinful, selfish nature. Our NT reading tells us that’s why Jesus came to earth, to become the perfect, sinless lamb sacrificed in our place to pay our debt of sin once and for all (8:31).

But there is more to the idea of sacrifice than payment for sin in the past. Jesus explains to His disciples that a life of sacrifice will keep them and us from sin in the future. Taking up our cross daily (34,35) and giving up our life (and Gatorade) to others, will keep us pure, uncontaminated by the “leaven of the Pharisees and Herod” (15). They were self-centered sign-seekers, looking out only for numero uno. Jesus reminded His disciples, when they were concerned about where their next meal was coming from (14), that when they were giving food away to others, they never lacked for themselves (17-21).

“Lord, thank You for reminding me today that my sinful past was forgiven because Jesus gave up His life for me, but avoiding sin in the future is possible as I follow Christ's example of selfless sacrifice. When I give up my life for You, I will discover what life is all about (34; Matthew 16:25).”

March Devo - Love Means Having To Say You're Sorry, A Lot!

As predicted in last month’s Buzz, February was the month for cheesy romance movies on TV, and yes, I watched too many of them!  But the one I didn’t go near was “Love Story,” from 1970, starring Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw.  That one line, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry,” is one of the most parodied movie lines in cinematic history, and for good reason.  It is so blatantly wrong!

Real love requires an unending supply of apologies and forgiveness.  We are human and we will make many mistakes in our relationships.  However, if we are secure in who we are and already assured that God loves us no matter what, a lot of hurt feelings can be avoided.

 God’s kind of love “is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Cor. 13:5b).  Another version says that “love hardly even notices when others do it wrong.”  Now that’s the best way to avoid misunderstandings, confrontation,  damaged feelings, and the need for forgiveness.  I learned a long time ago to believe the best about people.  If they say something or do something that may seem personally offensive, I quickly tell myself, that’s not what they meant.  My wife calls me the “boy in the bubble” (I don’t think she means it as a compliment but I take it that way!) and so far, no one has been able to burst that bubble.  The key is to forgive people even before they ask for it, like Jesus did (Luke 23:34). Lewis Smedes, author of “Forgive and Forget,” said that “to forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”  We try to use unforgiveness as a weapon to hurt others but like a knife without a handle, it only hurts the one who holds on to it!

 A more difficult challenge for me, as the insensitive bubble boy, is to not offend others.  The first part of that same verse we quoted earlier says that “love is never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way” (1 Cor. 13:5a).

When you are thinking about others and caring about how they feel, you are unlikely to cause an offense.  If you do, then love demands an apology – who is right or wrong is not the only issue.  It’s one of the most powerful principles we can teach our children and grandchildren.  And the best way to teach it is to provide an example for them to follow.  Have you ever made a mistake with your children and asked for their forgiveness?  This is not a sign of weakness, but of great inner strength.

Asking for and extending forgiveness is not easy.  Smedes goes on to say: “Forgiving is love’s toughest work, and love’s biggest risk …. Forgiving seems almost unnatural.  Our sense of fairness tells us people should pay for the wrong they do.  But forgiving is love’s power to break nature’s rule.”

 

February 28 - Make No Mistake - God Loves You!

 Read today’s texts first: Numbers 24-27; 1 Corinthians 13

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

We like to talk about God’s undying love,
but we cannot presume on that grace
or forget the great cost of that love.

It’s my nature and my job as an English teacher to find mistakes on paper.  It may even be a spiritual gift.  So I couldn’t help noticing that our readings today include 1 Corinthians 13 when we’re supposed to be in the middle of Mark. Coincidentally, we will read 1 Corinthians 13 again on March 28, and today is February 28 – it looks suspiciously like a mistake on the reading guide.  In case it was our mistake in the student handbook, I checked New Hope’s website and it is the same there.

Whether a mistake or not, I was glad to read about the unconditional love of God right after the slaughter of 24,000 Baal worshippers in Numbers 25.  I’m aware of how the justice of God was swiftly executed to protect His people from compromising with the sexual and idolatrous perversion of the Canaanite nations.  It’s appropriate that the setting for this flirtation with the daughters of Moab was called “Shittim.”  Israel was in deep!

It is sobering to read about the holiness of God and the dangers of “playing the harlot.”  We have our own battle lines of compromise within the church and among God’s people today.  Yes we are in a time of the new covenant where we like to talk about God’s undying love, but we cannot presume on that grace or forget the great cost of that love.  God’s wrath was poured out on His own sinless Son so that we could experience forgiveness instead of judgment.

“Lord, seeing Your justice and mercy together today was no mistake.  We want to live in that tension – aware of Your holiness, but grateful for the love that made it possible for that holiness to flow through us.”

February 27 - Let Us Bray

 Read today’s texts first: Numbers 21-23; Mark 6-7

 MAXIMize YOUR DAY

If you are nervous about speaking for God,
take heart - He can speak through any dumb ass! 

I often wonder why God chose me to speak for Him.  From my first panic attack at age 15 teaching open session in the Hastings Foursquare Sunday School to blanking out in speech class in Bible college, I’ve never found a public-speaking comfort zone.  Now as a senior citizen, after over 4 decades of teaching and preaching, I still get sick to my stomach every time I have to preach in church.

Today’s readings bring me some reassurance, I think.  The story of Moses should be inspirational enough.  Here is an octogenarian slow of speech with no aspirations as a public speaker leading 2 million plus very vocal Jews for over 40 years.  But the story he tells in Numbers 22 is the ultimate illustration of what God can do through any “dumb ass” (where else can you get away with saying that). 

Not only do we see God’s almost unbelievable power (how many of your unchurched friends would believe this story?), but His sense of humour is brilliant.  This scene is as funny as any exchange between Shrek and his donkey: “What have I ever done to you?  Am I not your trusty donkey on whom you’ve ridden for years right up until now? Have I ever done anything like this to you before? Have I?”  You know Balaam’s thinking it, “no, actually you’ve never talked back to me before, ever!”  Then the angel gets in on it: “Why have you beaten your poor donkey.   The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If she hadn’t, I would have killed you by this time, but not the donkey. I would have let her off” (30-33).   Balaam is out-staged by his donkey.  Eddie Murphy, eat your heart out!

Fast forward to the Mark passage and we see Jesus, coincidentally enough, making the dumb speak (7:37).  It doesn’t take a whole lot of deductive reasoning to see a possible theme developing - God is not limited by our inadequacies.  “Lord, may I never doubt Your ability to speak even through me.  You said if we don’t speak Your praises, even the rocks will cry out.  I believe it!” 

February 26 - Hitting the Rocks

 Read today’s texts first: Numbers 19-20; Psalm 28; Mark 5

 MAXIMize YOUR DAY

May we never measure our understanding of
God’s will by our degree of comfort.

If only Moses could have read my devotional yesterday.  After Jesus showed us how to safely navigate through the storms of life, Moses hits the rocks, literally.  Instead of obeying God and using his words to refresh his people, Moses did things his own way, lashing out in anger.  Using his staff to strike the rock, twice, is a classic metaphor for authority abuse.

Sometimes I think God was too hard on His friend Moses.  He let him outlive his whole generation and just when he’s about to enjoy the fruit of 120 years of hard labour, he’s barred from the Promised Land.  After 40 years of constant whining from 2 million ungrateful Jews, you’d think he’d be entitled to one angry outburst.  But God has a higher standard for those who represent Him in leadership.

Jesus, in Mark 5, shows us how to walk through the clamour of life with sublime peace.  Here is a man who is always in demand.  The only time He can pray is late at night or early in the morning.  He gets so tired that He can sleep on a rocking fishing boat in the middle of a life-threatening storm.  He is constantly being interrupted.  Even His interruptions are interrupted.  While ministering, Jairus pleads for Him to come heal his dying daughter.  While on His way, the woman with chronic bleeding reaches through the crowd around Him and grabs His garment.  Instead of being irritated, He takes time to find the woman and commend her for her faith.  That moment may have cost Jairus his daughter’s life, but that doesn’t seem to phase the One who is the “Resurrection and the Life”!

“Lord, I ask for that same kind of peace that only comes from doing what You ask me to do the way You tell me to do it and trusting that You will deliver on Your word.”