December 8 - Ransom for All

 Read today’s texts first: 1 Timothy 1-4

 MAXIMize YOUR DAY

There is a time and a need to take a stand
for the purity and simplicity of the gospel. 

Timothy, Paul’s young protégé, was facing disruptive and, possibly, destructive, false teachers infiltrating the church of Ephesus. Paul urged him to instruct his church in sound doctrine, and to boldly correct those who were pursuing “strange doctrines” and “mere speculation” (1:3,4).  As a born diplomat, my inclination is to downplay doctrinal differences and encourage everyone to just get along. But as Paul and Timothy learned, there is a time and a need to take a stand for the purity and simplicity of the gospel.

One example jumped out at me in the reading today. It seems clear to me that our Saviour “desires all men to be saved” and, because of that, “gave Himself as a ransom for all” (2:4,6). These Scriptures, and many others, are obvious in describing God’s impartial love and sacrifice, which is available to all. But there are some who speculate that God has predetermined some for salvation, and by logical extension, others for damnation. There are others, especially today, who take the opposite extreme and interpret these verses to mean all will be saved (universalism). 

There are deliberate tensions in Scripture that help us understand how much greater God is than our limited thinking. We must find a balance in understanding God’s sovereignty and man’s free choice, God’s justice and His mercy. And we must be quick to correct false, or at least misguided, teachings which can flow out of proof-texts and not the “whole counsel of God.”

“Lord, the love and sacrifice You have made available to all of us is far too wonderful not to defend against mere speculation. While You have called me to work together interdenominationally, You have also asked me, like Paul, to encourage my protégés toward sound doctrine.”

December 7 - Peace In!

 Read today’s texts first: Colossians 1-4

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

When faced with a decision which might
compromise your peace, let peace rule. 

For a while “peace out” was the cool way to end a conversation. Paul was cool well before “cool” was cool, but he often started and ended his letters the same way (well, variations like “peace to you” or the very cool “peace to the brothers”). But his letter to the Colossians shows us that the only way to have “peace out” is to start with “peace in”: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful (3:15).

While it seems every beauty contestant wishes for world peace, real peace, like real beauty, starts from within. We can wish all we want but nothing changes on the outside until we make drastic changes on the inside. The sins of our words and actions (3:5-9) bring unsettledness. When we miss the mark (the definition of sin), everything feels off. Temptation promises that we will feel good, but sin, after the fact, always makes us feel bad; it brings chaos to our hearts.

Paul urges us to put off our old self (3:9) and put on the new self, the image of our Creator (3:10-14). We put on fresh clothes every day but how often do we start our days putting on a renewed spirit. When we start our days allowing God to renew our spirits and fill us with His peace, we are ready to let that peace guide us through the rest of the day. If we’re faced with a decision that will compromise that peace, we know what to do – let peace rule.

Oh, and here’s a helpful tip to maintain that peace throughout the day – be thankful. Complainers lack peace on the inside and outside.

“Lord, this word is true every day as well as in the longer seasons of our lives. As I face major adjustments in my life and ministry, I will let Your peace guide me. Peace in!”

December 6 - Joy to the World

 Read today’s texts first: Philippians 1-4

 MAXIMize YOUR DAY

Real joy doesn’t depend on what’s going on outside.
It’s all about what, or rather who, is on the inside!

Most think joy, or at least happiness, is dependent on circumstances, like health and wealth. Immigrants arrive in droves to Canada and the US in their “pursuit of happiness,” which usually means finding financial comfort. But the arrival of the Son of God to planet earth, compared to the American dream, seemed more like a Jewish nightmare!

Chapter two chronicles what Jesus left behind to become our Saviour, giving up His palatial home in glory, His rights as God, to become not just a man but a servant, not just any servant but one obedient to death, and not just any death but the most tortuous death imaginable. With that end in sight, His inauspicious beginning makes more sense: showing up as a baby, in an insignificant town, dependent on poor parents, dressed in rags, laid in a feed trough, housed in a barn, and announced first to shepherds, who were right up there with tax collectors in reputation. Not exactly the circumstances you would expect with “good news of great joy!”

Paul had learned by following Jesus that his joy was independent of his circumstances. That is why he writes his most joy-filled letter (1:4,18,25,26,2:2,17,18,29;3:1;4:1,4) while being held as a Roman prisoner awaiting execution. Real joy doesn’t depend on what’s going on outside. It has everything to do with what’s on the inside, or rather, who’s on the inside. There’s joy because the Lord has come - to us and in us.

I’m learning that in new ways now that I’m no longer doing the things that I once thought were the source of my joy. “Lord, thank You for showing me again that there is joy in my world because the Lord has come to me!”

December 5 - Family Matters

 Read today’s texts first: Ephesians 5,6; Psalms 119:1-80

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

Family matters to God and the more you walk with Him, the more your family will matter to you.

I love the lofty, grand images of Jesus and His church that we see so clearly in the book of Ephesians.  But those principles are worked out in the mundane decisions of everyday life.  Maybe they’re not so mundane after all, especially when the end of the book turns its focus on the family.  Family relationships are the proving ground for all ministry and authority.

• Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord
• Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
• Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right
• Honor your father and mother (this is the first commandment with a promise), that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.
• Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord

Sometimes we place church concerns ahead of our own families thinking that we are honouring God first.  But the ministry God has called us to begins at home.  One of the qualifications of an elder (pastor) is to manage their own household well.  Family matters – it’s where we learn to love unconditionally and make disciples.

“Lord, I’m still learning how to love my family unconditionally, regardless of the choices my children and grandchildren make.  But family matters to You and the more I walk with You the more my family matters to me.”

December 4 - The Real Authority

 Read today’s texts first: Ephesians 1-4

 MAXIMize YOUR DAY

We rule with Christ now!  It is the church, not the
politicians, who determine the future of our nation. 

While our politicians debate over who is really in charge of our country, my Bible reading provides the answer:  the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come (1:19,20).  The source of all authority is Jesus.

It would be easy to say that Jesus is in charge and sit passively by while we wait for Him to intervene in our current political crisis.  But authority is distributed to us as well: but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (2:4-7).  We rule with Christ now!  It is the church, not the politicians, who determine the future of our nation.

“Lord, I will assume the position of authority You have given me to be a leader, a model for others to follow, and a prayer warrior that exercises Your authority in my nation.”

December 3 - The Right to Rule

 Read today’s texts first: Romans 13-16

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

Submission and service lead to increasing authority.
Rebellion leads to the opposite.

It’s always fascinating to read the Bible alongside the newspaper.  Today our new government is committed to wider spending and deeper debt.  Our laws seem to be drifting from their Bible-based moorings. And our culture seems to be embracing the foreign gods of our immigrants while suppressing our founding faith in the one true God. We see that as we approach Christmas, or should I say the “winter holidays”?

Compare these seemingly godless and divisive decisions to the first part of our reading for today: Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.  Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment (13:1,2).  Jesus said that if you are faithful in a few things God will make you ruler over many things.  Submission and service lead to increasing authority.  Rebellion and usurpation will lead to a loss of authority.

But how does this all apply to me?  I’m not the problem – they are!  Maybe I should replace the newspaper beside my Bible with my journal.  These verses especially apply to me. Believers in God’s Word must model for the country an attitude of selflessness and submission to authority and encourage others to adopt the same attitudes.

“Lord, will You please guard my heart and mouth as I model a godly response to the current disunity among our elected leaders.  The only debt I want to have is the continuing debt to love one another (13:8).”

December 2 - Stop – You’re both right!

Read today’s texts first: Romans 9-12

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

God chooses and so do we -
it’s not "either/or" but "both/and"!

Working in a Bible College with students and faculty from over 20 different church groups helped me understand and appreciate divergent viewpoints.  One is the Calvinist/Arminian spectrum, embracing the sovereignty of God and the free-will of man.  This section of Romans helps us understand that it’s not one or the other – they are both true.  Some tensions are just supposed to be there (eg. justice and mercy, faith and works).

God is sovereign and He chooses, as in the illustration of Jacob and Esau (9:16-18).  This was intended to help the Jews (who were like the Calvinists of that day thinking they were the only chosen ones) understand that God could sovereignly include the Gentiles as children of promise (25,26), calling those who were not His people to become sons of the living God.  But God’s choice accounts for man’s choice to accept or reject His provision (9:33; 10:9, 11-17).  The grafting, cutting off and regrafting of chapter 11 (12,15, 20-23) are all dependent on man’s free choice.

“Lord, I am so glad You are not limited by our theological attempts to understand You.  We do know that You have chosen us because of Your unconditional love for us.  But we also know that for love to be reciprocated there must be the ability to choose to respond.  I choose to believe both of those statements are true and I choose You!”