Archive for the ‘Devotionals/Commentaries’ Category

Pouring out for others..over and over

Posted: June 18, 2013 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, June, Philippians
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PourWater1John Piper on Philippians 2:17-18:

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Paul loved this church. He loved all the churches. And he died every day to serve them. “I die every day!” (1 Corinthians 15:31). He compared his life to a drink offering poured out on the sacrifice of their faith. In other words, he didn’t take thought just for his own interests; he took thought for their faith and was willing to deny himself over and over, and in the end die, that their faith would be strong.

How should disciples relate to sinners?

Posted: June 18, 2013 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, June, Luke
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And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them.  And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”  And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Coty Pinckney on Luke 5:

The Pharisees ask the disciples – not Jesus – why they are eating and drinking with sinners. What is the implied characteristic of a disciple? “Don’t mess with sinners! Stay away from sinners! Keep yourself pure!”

Clearly Jesus doesn’t agree with their judgment. But is there truth in this characteristic? If we just change two words in my paraphrase – indeed, if we just drop eight letters – we would have a true statement: “Don’t mess with sin! Stay away from sin! Keep yourself pure!”

We know this from other Scriptures. Paul tells the Corinthians, “Flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:14) and, “Flee from idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:14). He instructs Timothy, “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace” (2 Timothy 2:22). We are to run away from sin.

Furthermore, clearly fleeing sin sometimes means fleeing from sinners or avoiding sinners: Joseph tried to avoid Potiphar’s wife and then ran away from her when he couldn’t avoid her. Similarly, if you are tempted by gambling, you know you are not called to witness in casinos. You are to stay away from those particular sinners, for they will draw you into their sin.

But the fact that you avoid some sinners does not imply that you stay away from all sinners. In verse 32 Jesus says,

“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

We can’t serve as His ambassadors, His disciples, unless we do the same. A disciple does not avoid sinners. A disciple is cognizant of his areas of weakness, and so avoids tempting situations. But like Jesus, a disciple is engaged. A disciple goes out. A disciple seeks the lost. A disciple lives a holy life before those who need Jesus.

Always right; actively light

Posted: June 18, 2013 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, June, Psalms
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Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalm 119:137, from the Treasury of David

This passage deals with the perfect righteousness of Jehovah and his word, and expresses the struggles of a holy soul in reference to that righteousness. The initial letter with which every verse commences in the Hebrew is “P”, and the keyword to us is PURITY.

Psalm 119 Verse 137. Righteous art thou, O LORD. The Psalmist has not often used the name of Jehovah in this vast composition. The whole psalm shows him to have been a deeply religious man, thoroughly familiar with the things of God; and such persons never use the holy name of God carelessly, nor do they even use it at all frequently in comparison with the thoughtless and the ungodly. Familiarity begets reverence in this case. Here he uses the sacred name in worship. He praises God by ascribing to him perfect righteousness. God is always right, and he is always actively light, that is, righteous. This quality is bound up in our very idea of God. We cannot imagine an unrighteous God.

How much does God hate sin?

Posted: June 18, 2013 by Pam Larson in 2 Kings, Devotionals/Commentaries, June
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Bob Deffinbaugh on 2 Kings 10, in a message, “The Life and Times of Elisha the Prophet—Jehu Cleans House (Ahab’s House)”

Some might be repulsed by the events of our text as violent and bloody. I would agree that what Jehu did was violent and bloody. I would suggest that this should warn us as to how much God hates sin, and as to how severe God can be in the judgment of sinners. Is this just “the Old Testament God,” as I have sometimes heard? I think not:

17 Then another angel came out of the temple that is in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 Another angel, who was in charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to the angel who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes off the vine of the earth, because its grapes are now ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes from the vineyard of the earth and tossed them into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 Then the winepress was stomped outside the city, and blood poured out of the winepress up to the height of horses’ bridles for a distance of almost two hundred miles (Revelation 14:17-20, emphasis mine).

Judgment is bloody. Israel’s sacrificial system made this very apparent. Our Lord’s death on the cross was a cruel and bloody death. He suffered in our place, to bear the penalty for our sins. If we acknowledge our sin and guilt and trust in the death of Jesus Christ, we will not suffer God’s eternal wrath, because Jesus has already done so. But if we reject His work on Calvary, our judgment will be severe. Jehu’s dealings with the sins of the house of Ahab should be a warning to us concerning how serious God is about judging sin and sinners.

Looking to the interests of others

Posted: June 17, 2013 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, June, Philippians
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Look at Philippians 2:4- “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

John Piper comments in a sermon, “The Mind of Christ: Looking Out For the Interests of Others”:

The word interests is a filler. In the original, it’s open-ended. All that is specified is “your own (something)” or “the other’s (something).” So it could be, “Let each of you look not only to your own financial affairs, or your own property, or your own family, or your own health, or your own reputation, or your own education, or your own success, or your own happiness—don’t just think about that, don’t just have desires about that, don’t just strategize about that, don’t just work toward that; but look to the financial affairs and property and family and health, and reputation, and education, and success, and happiness of others.”

In other words, verse 4 is a way of saying the words of Jesus, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Matthew 22:39). That is, make the good of others the focus of your interest and strategy and work. Find your joy in making others joyful. If you are watching television and your child says, Would you play with me? don’t just think about how tired you are. By an act of gospel-fashioned, Christ-exalting will, put the child’s interests before the pleasures of your relaxation.

Unfolding God’s Word

Posted: June 17, 2013 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, June, Psalms
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The unfolding of your words gives light;
it imparts understanding to the simple.

Psalm 119:130

suitcasesUnfolding…unpacking….brings to mind an image of a suitcase full of stuff.  Now a suitcase full of stuff does not have much practical use until you unpack it.  Your toothbrush and toothpaste can’t be used until you take them out of the suitcase and are in the vicinity of water.  Your cell phone charger can’t be used until you take it out and plug it in to an electrical outlet.

John Piper uses the term “unpack” on a regular basis to describe how we come to the Bible.  We “unpack” passages to get understanding.  Bible studyWe take our Bible, open it up like a suitcase and begin to “unpack” the passage, unfolding each item until we can see it clearly.  We ask questions and begin to understand what God is revealing to us about Himself, our condition, His amazing grace.  Each time we read our Bible, ask God to help you “unfold” or “unpack” its meaning, and to give you understanding. And use that understanding to “fight the good fight” to “run the race set before you.”

The Surpassing Value of Knowing Christ my Lord

Posted: June 16, 2013 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, June, Philippians
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John Piper on Philippians 1:21

….the inner essence of worship is cherishing Christ as gain – indeed as more gain than all that life can offer – family, career, retirement, fame, food, friends. The essence of worship is experiencing Christ as gain. Or to use words that we love to use around here: it is savoring Christ, treasuring Christ, being satisfied with Christ. This is the inner essence of worship. Because, Paul says, experiencing Christ as gain in death is the way he is exalted in death.

If you have ever wondered where I get the slogan: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him,” this is the place. Christ is magnified in my death, when in my death I am satisfied with him – when I experience death as gain because I gain him. Or another way to say it is that the essence of praising Christ is prizing Christ. Christ will be praised in my death, if in my death he is prized above life. The inner essence of worship is prizing Christ. Cherishing him, treasuring him, being satisfied with him.

Now to confirm this, focus with me on the other pair of words. Verse 20: “My expectation is that Christ be exalted in my life.” Verse 21: “For to me to live is Christ.” So the reason Paul gives for why Christ is exalted, or worshipped, in his life is that for him “to live is Christ.” What does that mean?

The Surpassing Value of Knowing Christ my Lord

Philippians 3:8 gives the answer. There Paul says, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.”

“To live is Christ” means to count everything as loss now in this life in comparison to the value of gaining Christ. Do you see the word “gain” turning up here again in 3:8 just as it did in 1:21? “To live is Christ” means experiencing Christ as gain now, not just in death.

So Paul’s point is that life and death, for a Christian, are acts of worship – they exalt Christ, and magnify him and reveal and express his greatness – when they come from an inner experience of treasuring Christ as gain. Christ is praised in death by being prized above life. And Christ is most glorified in life when we are most satisfied in him even before death.

The authenticating, inner essence of worship is being satisfied with Christ, prizing Christ, cherishing Christ, treasuring Christ. When we say that what we do on Sunday morning is to go hard after God, this is what we mean: we are going hard after satisfaction in God, and going hard after God as our prize, and going hard after God as our treasure, our soul-food, our heart-delight, our spirit’s pleasure. Because we know from Philippians 1:20-21 that treasuring Christ as gain magnifies him, exalts him, worships him.

To read or listen to the rest of the sermon, click here:

The leper asked and the Lord gave.

Posted: June 16, 2013 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, June, Luke
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We read in Luke 5 today about Jesus’ encounter with a man full of leprosy.  John Bloom, Executive Director of Desiring God Ministries comments in the January 2009 Newsletter:

He was one of the walking dead. It had almost been three years since the priest examined that suspicious spot on his left arm and looked at him with sympathy, “I’m so sorry. It’s leprosy. May God have mercy on you, my son.”

Leprosy made you die many times before it killed you. It cut you off from those you loved most in the world. It forced you to live with other unclean people in a hopeless colony away from the town. Those with more advanced cases showed you what you had to look forward to. It forced you to call out “Unclean!” whenever people approached, and suffer the humiliation of watching them cover themselves and hurry by, cutting you a wide swath. And worst of all, it excluded you from the worshiping community that once had been the center of your life.

He had once prayed that God would protect him from this disease. Then he had prayed that God would heal him. God had done neither. What had he done to deserve leprosy? It must have been some sin. But it didn’t make sense. He knew others who were living in sin and were perfectly healthy. He was confused and increasingly despondent.

Then news reached him that the Rabbi Jesus was in the area. Word was that Jesus’ teaching was controversial. But apparently he had healed sick people in Capernaum—some of them lepers. This was worth checking out. So he joined the crowd on the mountain, keeping his distance, to listen to the rabbi teach and see if the healing stories were true.

What he heard transformed him. Jesus was different—from everyone. He spoke with power and authority. It was as if his very words coursed with life. He talked about the kingdom of God and the end of death and the promise of eternal life. And Jesus claimed that he could grant it!

Normally he would have written Jesus off as another delusional “messiah.” A dying man didn’t have time for delusions. Yet here he was, hanging on Jesus’ words.

Maybe it was because Jesus wasn’t just talk. People he knew as sinners repented and received forgiveness. Demon-possessed people received deliverance. And diseased people received healing. But it was more than that. The joy his followers had seemed to go deeper than good health. They were clean inside. They were free. He wasn’t sure what it was, but the hope he tasted in Jesus’ words made him long for something beyond healing.

So he made up his mind. Whatever it took, he was going to get to Jesus and ask him to cleanse him from his leprosy and anything else that defiled him. And if Jesus granted him this gift, he was going to follow him.

So he trailed Jesus down the mountain, looking and praying for the right moment. He had an anxious knot in his gut. What if the moment never came? What if it came and Jesus said no?

It came just as Jesus reached the bottom of the mountain. So he moved quickly and dropped on his knees before the rabbi and blurted out, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”

He amazed himself at the confidence with which he said those words. Strangely, he somehow knew that Jesus had the authority to speak him clean.

Jesus looked at him. It seemed like a long time. All the conversation nearby stopped. The man could feel everyone watching. Then the kindest smile spread across Jesus’ face as he stretched out his hand and touched him. “I will; be clean.”

The first thing he felt was Jesus’ mercy. He had not been touched by a non-leper in three years. Then he felt heat course through his whole body. Then tingling! He felt tingling in the tips of his fingers—fingers he had thought would never feel again! There were gasps from the crowd. He pulled up his sleeves. No spots! He looked up at Jesus with stunned, speechless joy. He knew he was clean.

Jesus helped him stand up and firmly instructed him to tell no one, but to go show himself to the priest with the gift commanded by Moses “for a proof to them.” Nodding, the man stammered, “Thank you!” And with another smile Jesus was off.

This healing account in Matthew 8 is an illustration of what Jesus taught in Matthew 7:7-11: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” because our Father in heaven loves to give good gifts to his children. The leper asked and the Lord gave.

We cannot be too grateful

Posted: June 16, 2013 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, June, Psalms
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Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love,
and teach me your statutes.

Psalm 119:124

Charles H. Spurgeon said,

For our ruler to become our teacher is an act of great grace, for which we cannot be too grateful. Among our mercies this is one of the choicest.

Floating Axeheads?

Posted: June 16, 2013 by Pam Larson in 2 Kings, Devotionals/Commentaries, June
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Pastor Heath Taylor posted at his blog, “The Pulpit and the Pew,”

Do your axe heads float? I have found that many of mine don’t. Before you get too confused or frustrated to continue reading, I should tell you that I was reading through the ministry of the prophet Elisha recently. (1 Kings 19 – 2 Kings 13) He did some pretty strange stuff. I mean, he does the kinds of things that if you don’t believe Genesis 1:1, they’ll make you think that the Bible is just ancient Jewish folklore.

He really is quite an amazing prophet. After the spectacular departure of his master Elijah (2 Kings 2) he goes on to perform stunning miracles. Consider this…early in his ministry he made water rush into and fill a dry creek bed to water the armies of three kings. Next he took up the cause of a widow who was about to be sold into slavery along with her son and caused her single small jar of oil to fill enough jars to pay off their creditors completely. Then there’s the Shunammite woman’s son. He literally lies down on top of the dead boy and the child comes back to life! He goes on to purify a pot of deadly stew so the sons of the prophets can eat during a famine and he healed Naaman from leprosy.

Floating AxeIt’s among these amazing, almost outlandish miracles that I came across one that made me stop and think. (as if the others didn’t spin the wheels a turnin’ in my mind) It’s found in 2 Kings 6. The sons of the prophets go down to the Jordan River to cut down trees and built a place to live. Elisha goes with them. While cutting down the trees one of the men looses an axe head that he borrowed for the task. The man tells Elisa who cuts off a stick, throws it in the water and makes the iron axe head float to the surface. The man who lost it reached out his hand and picked it up.

This is what I don’t understand. It was just an axe head. Okay, it was borrowed.So just replace it. Now I know that it required perhaps more money than the man had but there was a company of prophets there. Surely among all of them they could find the funds necessary to replace the borrowed axe head. It just doesn’t seem like such a big deal to me. Not exactly in line with watering three armies from a dry creek bed, saving a widow and her son from slavery, raising a child back to life and curing a Syrian commander of leprosy. This floating axe head feels out of place here. It’s just not important enough. That’s what caught me off guard with this story.

I think that far too many times in my life I fail to take the little things that stress, worry, concern or bother me to God because I imagine that they are too small and I don’t want to ‘inconvenience’ God with my unimportant matters. But if they’re unimportant, why do they stress me? And if they bother me, why wouldn’t I take them to God?

Isn’t God busy being concerned with the AIDS epidemic in Africa, the sex-slave traffic in Asia, the persecution of Christians around the world, the plight of the gospel among unreached people groups, wars, famine and injustice around the globe? You know, the important things that are happening every second on the planet? The things He had Elisha engaging in during his brief ministry?

I mean, it’s not like my child is dying, or I am suffering from a life-threatening disease or my family is going to be sold into slavery. It’s more like…we need a building for our church…I need to get a project done for work and the pieces aren’t falling into place…I’m overcommitted but I need to honor my word.

These are the little ‘axe heads’ in my life. And rather than taking them to God, I just often just let them sit there at the bottom of the river and try to figure out how I’m going to replace them. Meanwhile, God is sitting firmly on His throne.And yes He is engaged in the AIDS epidemic and everything else mentioned above. But He is not ‘busy’. Not like we, or at least I, sometimes think.

While He is present and actively engaged in all of those things He is also present and engaged with you and me. He’s watching as our axe heads fly out of control toward the river. He’s waiting for us to take our problems and concerns to Him.He’s wondering why we go out and busy ourselves trying to replace them. He’s wishing that we would just turn and release all of our cares and concerns to him.(Phil. 4:6-7)

So many of my axe heads lie lifelessly at the bottom of the river. All the while God stands ready to throw a stick into the water and make iron float. He wants me to marvel at His power over the physical laws of nature. To wonder like David did that the God of the universe knows my name. To experience His peace that surpasses all of my pitiful understanding. To experience Him as He provides for my simple needs.

You’re axe heads can float. So can mine. Just like the son of the prophet in 2 Kings 6. This week, give them all to God. Ask and allow Him provide for you.Worship Him as He meets with you. He is worthy! He is waiting!

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