June Devotional - Graduation Day

June is a month to remember milestones, especially Graduation Day.  My home church always uses this month to recognize our children moving up a grade in Kid’s Church, and to honour our high school and college grads.  The photo below is of my youngest granddaughter, Gracie, when she graduated from Wee College, a 3 year Bible training program.  You can see it in her face - Graduation Day should always stir up gratitude for past accomplishments and hope for an even better future.

Unfortunately, reality can often burst the bubble of youthful ideals. You have to smile at this story I heard at a recent graduation ceremony:  Having just graduated from Yale, a young man is fired up to meet his best friend for lunch and map out their futures.  He opens his Uber app and calls for a ride. The car shows up, the young man hops in, and the driver says, “Nice day. How you doin’?” The graduate replies, “I just got my diploma from Yale. I’m off to go conquer the world.” The driver comes back with, “Congrats! Nice to meet ya. I’m Howie, Yale 1999.” 

As we live our lives, putting one foot in front of the other, we really have such a limited view of the horizon in front of us.  Today at Buchanan, when I wrote this, we had just finished singing one of our most requested hymns, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”. The story behind this great song is fascinating: Thomas Chisholm, who wrote the hymn, trained well to become a minister but on the day of his hope-filled graduation he had no idea his career would last only one year.  Chronic illness led to a life of being cared for, selling insurance when healthy enough, but ultimately spending much of his adult life in a nursing home.  Yet, his gratitude to God inspired this line from the hymn’s last verse:

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine with ten thousand beside. “Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!” Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided - “Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

The best advice we can find about graduations at every stage of life comes from the highly educated St. Paul, inspired by God Himself, when he wrote:  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14).

“Heavenward” - now that’s a “graduation day” we should all look forward to!

May 31 - Loud and Proud

 Read today’s texts first: Proverbs 16-18; Romans 12

 MAXIMize YOUR DAY
 God chose to invite all of us into His family
but we must choose to accept His invitation. 

Yesterday we talked about the themes emerging out of what seems like a random collection of proverbs. The theme that first came to my mind today fits neatly into the Romans reading. Paul is addressing the destructive pride he sees behind Jewish resistance to Gentiles being welcomed into the church. Today we let God’s Word speak for itself.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought....Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves....Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited (3,10,16).

Solomon wisely echoes Paul’s warnings, under the inspiration of the same Spirit: The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: they will not go unpunished....Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall....Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud (16:5,18,19); A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions.... A fool’s lips bring him strife, and his mouth invites a beating.... Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor (18:2,6,12).

Two things I noticed: pride shows up in words and those words destroy unity among God’s people. That may be why God “detests” pride. The proud are often loud, voicing opinions and stirring up strife. Unfortunately the destruction they leave in their wake affects more than themselves. “Pride goes before a fall” - we joke about it all the time, but it’s no laughing matter. Just as love is at the core of God’s nature, pride is at the core of Satan’s.

“Lord, I’m quick to notice pride in others but slow to see it in myself. But I know it’s there. I sometimes hear it in my words and see it in the strife I stir up. Forgive me and help me to take pride as seriously as You do!”

May 30 - Sleepy Sluggards

 Read today’s texts first: Proverbs 13-15; Romans 11

MAXIMize YOUR DAY
 All hard work brings a profit,
but mere talk leads only to poverty. 

Proverbs is so filled with practical wisdom that you could post a year’s worth of journal entries from this book alone! The wise sayings come fast and furious after chapter 9 but there are themes that emerge. One of my favourite themes is encapsulated in one of my favourite words: “sluggard”. Some of the modern versions use “lazybones,” but that makes a serious problem sound too cute.

Whenever we can, we like to teach our grand kids, the value of work. When we were putting in new lawns we combined the reward of a wheelbarrow ride with 10 shovels “full” of topsoil. Kids will love to work when you make it fun – and in my mind, work is fun! Proverbs speaks for itself when it comes to hard workers vs. sleepy sluggards.

How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest - and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man (6:9-11); Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son…. As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is a sluggard to those who send him (10:4,5,26);

One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed (11:24,25); He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment….

Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor (12:11,24); The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied (13:4); He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who is kind to the needy…. All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty (14:21,23); The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway (15:19).

“Lord, thank You for parents who taught me to love work, especially Your work. Help me to pass that legacy on to my grand kids. There will be no ‘sleepy sluggards’ in our family!”

May 29 - Whosoever Will

 Read today’s texts first: Proverbs 10-12; Romans 10

 MAXIMize YOUR DAY
 God chose to invite all of us into His family
but we must choose to accept His invitation. 

Now that I’m serving as a chaplain for seniors, I finally get to sing the hymns again. One came to mind when I was reading in Romans today. The composer is the prolific hymn writer, P. P. Bliss (I used to laugh at his name as a kid in church), and he clearly had chapter 10 in mind:

Whosoever heareth, shout, shout the sound!
Spread the blessed tidings all the world around;
Spread the joyful news wherever man is found:
“Whosoever will may come.”

“Whosoever will, whosoever will,”
Send the proclamation over vale and hill;
’Tis a loving Father calls the wand’rer home:
“Whosoever will may come.”

This is why context is so important and why I recommend reading the whole Bible throughout the year. After reading chapter 9, it’s easy to see why reformers believe God determines who will be saved and who will not. But they miss the point of what Paul was saying. Many of the Jews in Paul’s day believed they were the only chosen people, the elect, but God can choose to include whoever He wants, just as he did Jacob over the rightful heir, Esau. In this chapter we read, “anyone who believes” (10:11), “all who call on him” (10:12), “everyone who calls” (10:13 – “whosoever will” in KJV). 

God chose to invite all of us but we must choose to accept His invitation. That’s why the Spirit of God inspired Paul to make this plea: How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach , except they be sent? (10:14,15). Another choice is involved - will we go and invite “whosoever will” to come to Jesus?

“Lord, thank You for the opportunity to offer the hope of eternal life to those who have only a short time left to make that choice!”