Seventh Week of Lent – April 6, 2020 – Holy Week

Posted on Apr 5, 2020 in Devotions | Tags: ,

Lent Devotionals Week 7 – Holy Week

Monday

Read Matthew 21:1-11 and focus on verse 10, where everyone asks, who is this man who enters Jerusalem as a king and a messiah? Who is this? It is a critically important question for us to ask ourselves today as well. Who is Jesus? The common response in our world today is that Jesus was a good man, a good moral teacher, set a good example for us to follow, but is certainly not God and didn’t perform all of the miracles and stuff.

But a good man would never make the kind of claims Jesus made about himself if they were weren’t true. Which led C.S. Lewis to write this in his classic work, Mere Christianity:
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

As we enter this Holy Week, if you are not settled on who Jesus is, take this week to come to an answer to that question. And if you do believe that Jesus is who he says he is, then ask the Lord today how you can fully follow Jesus, your Savior, and Lord, as we look towards Easter.

Tuesday

Read Matthew 21:1-11 and focus on verse 9. As Jesus enters Jerusalem the crowds are crying out Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! This is a clear reference to the promised Messiah from Psalm 118. However, the problem for many in that crowd, including Jesus’ disciples, is that even if they believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah, they were looking for the wrong kind of Messiah. They were looking for a Messiah who was a military ruler, who would come and liberate Jerusalem and kick the Roman Empire to the curb. They were looking for a warrior, like King David, dressed in battle gear and ready to go. However, Jesus came as the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, one who came not to make war, but to die for the sins of his people. So while the crowd recognized Jesus as the Messiah, he was not the Messiah they wanted him to be. This may be why so many turned on Jesus to chant “Crucify him!” only a few days later.

It is easy today to make the same mistake, and try to make Jesus into someone he is not. We cannot fit Jesus into our box of expectations, we must come to him as he is, our Savior and King. Jesus is not a genii, prosperity guru, or a reflection of our own wants and desires. Jesus does not come to help us with our agenda, Jesus becomes our agenda!

Take some time today and think about who Jesus is. What are ways that you look to Jesus to fit into your plans and goals for your life, instead of submitting all of your life to his will and purpose for you? Ask the Lord to help you surrender your plans and goals to Jesus, and to follow his plan for your life.

Wednesday

Read Matthew 21:1-11 and focus on verses 1-8. The triumphal entry makes clear, both through visual demonstration and prophecy fulfillment, that Jesus is not only the promised Messiah, he is the promised Davidic king. And the question every one of us must ask is this: Is Jesus truly my king? Not just in my words, but in my heart?

We don’t do very well with the concept of submitting to a king in this country. The only king we let have free reign in our lives is the king of our own individuality. We are afraid that having a king rule over us would bring oppression, burdens, and that we would lose our sense of individual freedom.

However Jesus as king does not come to make oppress and make war in Matthew 21:1-11, he comes to make peace. He is riding on a colt, an animal that kings rode in peacetime in the ancient world. King Jesus comes not to punish, but to be punished for our sin. So this is a king who brings freedom, and liberation, and peace. If we want to find true joy and true peace, it will be through following Jesus as our king.

Take some time today and consider who Jesus is as your king, and how the peace and joy that we crave is found only in him. Ask the Lord to help you experience the joy and peace that comes only through following Jesus as King. Think about areas in your life where you are sitting on the throne of your life, and ask the Lord to help you get off the throne so that Jesus can have his rightful place in your life. And watch as your king gives you the peace and joy you are seeking.

Thursday

Read Luke 22:7-23. This passage is one of the accounts of the Last Supper, which took place on Thursday evening of Holy Week. The Last Supper is rich in symbolism; the bread representing Jesus’ body, the cup representing Jesus’ blood, and a new covenant, a new intimate relationship with God, brought about through Jesus’ sacrifice. It sets the pattern for how we celebrate Communion together as a church. It is clearly designed to point us to the cross, to Jesus’ love for us, and to his atoning sacrifice for our sins, in our place.

On this Maundy Thursday, take some time to reflect on the Last Supper. How does the visual symbolism of Jesus’ body and blood encourage you in your faith? How does it challenge you? Ask the Lord to do some spiritual house cleaning in your heart today to prepare you for Good Friday tomorrow.

Friday

Read Mark 15:21-41, and Isaiah 53:4-6. Good Friday marks the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. What is so good about Good Friday? Only the blood of Jesus covers our sins. Jesus died in our place, he bore our punishment, he bore God’s wrath towards our sin. That is good news! But one can only imagine the despair of Jesus, never having experienced any separation from God the Father, now to be completely cut off from him because of our sin. The words of Jesus in Mark 15:34, “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?” are painful to listen to when we understand that Jesus is bearing what we deserve.

On this Friday, do we see our sin holding Jesus on the cross? Jesus did not die for sin in general, but for my sin. For your sin. On this Good Friday, is there any sin in your life that needs to be confessed before the Lord? Ask the Lord to help you get rid of that sin, and even tell a trusted friend about the sin so that they can pray for you and encourage you. Let this Good Friday be a day both of repentance from sin as well as healing from that sin, as we see that Jesus’ blood has washed our sins away, made us clean, and given us a new life and a new righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Saturday

Take some time today to review the devotionals from this week and ask the Lord to prepare your heart for Sunday morning. How can you prepare spiritually to celebrate that Jesus is alive? Read Luke 24:13-35, and ask the Lord to help you walk in the disciples’ shoes from that first Easter Sunday, as we prepare to celebrate tomorrow.

Finally, take some time this Saturday to think about what the Lord has been teaching you during this season of Lent. Write down ways you have seen yourself grow spiritually during this season, and share them with a friend. Then invite someone you know to join us for our celebration on Easter Sunday!

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!


Third Week of Lent – March 9, 2020

Posted on Mar 9, 2020 in Devotions | Tags: 

Third Week of Lent

Ephesians 4:1-16

Monday

Read Ephesians 4:1-16. Paul begins this second half of Ephesians with this statement in verse 1: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Up until this point in Ephesians, Paul has been describing God’s beautiful grace that he has lavished on us; forgiving our sins through Jesus Christ, giving us new life and drawing us together into one body with Christ as the head. Now, Paul shifts gears and begins to give instructions for how we should live in light of this beautiful salvation.

This shift is important because it shows us that our obedience as Christians is directly tied to what God has done for us. It is often easy to think of obeying God as some difficult task. But obedience is really a response, a joyful response to our amazing, gracious God. In other words, obedience is not a burden, it is worship. Worship is far more than singing in church on Sundays. It is a joyful, willing, obedience to God’s will, in response to his great love for us.

Take some time today to think about obedience. How do you view obedience to God? Is it a chore? A burden? Or is obedience a joyful act of worship? Ask the Lord to work in your heart this week so that your obedience to him shifts from being a burden to worship. And then as we go through this season of Lent, ask the Lord to show you areas in your life where you can grow in obedience to him, and in doing so more fully worship him. And as your worship grows, so will your joy.

 

Tuesday

Read Ephesians 4:1-16, and focus on verse 3. Paul instructs the Ephesians to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Unity is one of those words that we hear about a lot, both in the church and in our country. People lament about the lack of unity we have in our country today. Ironically, we long for unity and at the same time attack people who disagree with us. Even in churches, there are so many threats to unity. Therefore Paul’s call for unity seems like a tough challenge.

Thankfully God has provided a way for us to maintain unity in the church. And that plan, which is laid out in this passage, is simple: A church that serves together, grows together. And we can pass that truth on to individual relationships. Friends that serve together, grow together. Spouses who serve together, grow together. Families that serve together, grow together. The way to maintain the unity of the body of Christ is to serve together, to build up the body of Christ together (verse 12), so that we are truly functioning as one unified body (verse 13). The things that threaten to divide us melt away as serve together and grow together.

We’ll explore this idea in our devotionals for the rest of this week, but for today, ask the Lord to help you be an agent of unity in our church. Ask the Lord to show you ways you can serve in our church, especially together with other people. And pray that as we grow together in unity, that our church will be able to faithfully and more effectively share Jesus with our surrounding community!

 

Wednesday

Read Ephesians 4:1-16, and focus on verses 12 and 13. Before coming to Mission Village Christian Fellowship, I looked at a lot of job descriptions for pastors. And some of them were terrifying. The pastor was expected to preach, lead worship and musical praise, evangelize in the community, teach Sunday School, offer counseling, visit all of the sick, coordinate community service projects, grow the church, and increase tithing. In other words, be everything and do everything. I wouldn’t have been surprised to also see those job descriptions include mowing the lawn and serving as the resident church plumber!

Now as a pastor, I enjoy many of the ministries mentioned above (not the plumbing part however!). But in this passage Paul makes it clear that the work of the ministry is NOT the pastor’s main job. The main job of the pastor and other leaders in the church in verse 12 is to “equip (God’s) people for works of service.” So the main job of the pastor is to equip others to serve and do the ministry of the church.

So if the job of church leaders is to equip, then the job of the congregation is to be equipped. So take some time today and think about how you need to be equipped in your Christian faith. Do you need to grow in knowing the bible more? Do you need help in knowing how to grow closer to God? Do you need to be equipped in how to do ministry? Or do you need help thinking through how to live out your faith in the workplace? How do you need to be equipped in your faith?

Ask the Lord today to show you the areas in your life where you need equipping, where you need training and growth. And then make sure that you tell me or one of the other leaders in the church. My job, the job of the Elders, and the job of our Leadership Council, is to equip you to serve. And then as we serve together, we can grow together.

 

Thursday

Read Ephesians 4:1-16, and focus on verses 12 and 13. Paul is clear here that the job of the pastor is not to do all of the work of the ministry of the church, but to equip God’s people to do the ministry of the church. And as the church serves together, it grows together. That is how the church cultivates and maintains unity (verse 3).

Therefore, the question every one of us should be asking ourselves is not should I serve in ministry at church, but rather, what ministry should I serve in? Serving in ministry is not an optional accessory to the Christian life, it is the Christian life! Just as every part of the human body works together to keep the body healthy and functioning, so every part of the body of Christ should be working together so that the body stays healthy.

There are several ways to figure out where you can best serve, and what your role is. Spiritual gifts tests can be useful to see what your strengths are. Often your natural skills and abilities translate well into some area of service in the church. Sometimes you just need to try serving in a ministry area to see if that is a good fit for you. But the best way I know is to ask the Lord to show you how he has gifted you, and then ask others what they see in you. Ask a friend at church, where do you think I could best serve? And then go with what they suggest. So starting today, pray about serving, talk to folks around you at church, and then dive in!

 

Friday

Read Ephesians 4:1-16. Throughout this passage Paul explains that as we serve together, we grow together. As we have seen this week, serving together is critical for the health of our church family.

But in the same way, serving together is also important for individual relationships. Marriages, friendships, families, can all be strengthened and grow together as they serve together. One of the best quality times I have had with my boys was serving together at a church work day. Serving together really can help build strong relationships, because the service provides opportunities for deeper conversations with people than you might normally have on a Sunday morning.

But serving together not only helps us build stronger relationships and be unified as a church (verse 13), it also helps us grow in spiritual maturity together (verses 13, 15). Serving together not only brings us together, it helps us to know and follow Jesus more and more. So if you have been walking with the Lord for a while, is there someone around you who is younger in their faith who you can serve with? Invite them to come join you in whatever ministry you are serving in. And if you are younger in your faith, find someone around you who is further along in their spiritual journey, find out what ministry they serve in, and go join them! And then watch what happens in your life!

 

Saturday

Read Ephesians 4:1-16 one more time and review the devotionals from this past week. Paul’s big idea in this passage is that as we serve together, we grow together, not only in unity, but also in spiritual maturity. As we serve together, we grow closer to Jesus together. And that’s our goal as a church: to help each other to know and follow Jesus.

Unfortunately, the reason many Christians do not grow closer to Jesus is because they are not growing together with other believers. We live in a highly individualistic culture, and it is easy to think that if I have Jesus and my bible, I’m good. But Paul is abundantly clear here…we need each other to grow closer to Jesus. There is no such thing as a lone-ranger Christian.

So the first step of application for you this week may be to reject the temptation to be a long-ranger Christian, and ask the Lord to help you see your need for Christian community, for brothers and sisters in Christ who can help to grow closer to Jesus. Before we can serve together and grow together, we may need to pray, “Lord, cure me of my independence and self-reliance.” That is a scary prayer, but it is also beautiful, because it paves the way for something far better, which is growing closer to Jesus with our brothers and sisters in Christ. 


02
Mar '20

Second Week of Lent – March 2, 2020

Posted on Mar 2, 2020 in Devotions | Tags: 

02
Mar '20

Second Week of Lent

Ephesians 3:14-21

Monday

Read Ephesians 3:14-21. Paul spends the first half of his letter to the Ephesians describing God’s grace: how we were dead in our sins, how through Jesus’ death and resurrection God made us alive, how we are saved with a new purpose in life, how we are brought into God’s family, and how together with other believers we reflect God’s love and grace to the rest of the world. Paul then spends the rest of his letter sharing various ways that we can and should live in light of God’s glorious grace in our lives.

But before Paul gets to the practical application, he prays. He is so overjoyed at God’s grace, so overjoyed that there are now followers of Jesus in Ephesus, that he spends these verses at the end of chapter 3 in prayer. Specifically, he prays for the health of the church in Ephesus as they grow in God’s grace. And Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian Christians is a prayer that we can and should pray for ourselves.

We’ll spend this second week in Lent exploring Paul’s prayer, and how we can pray this prayer for ourselves. But today, ask yourself this: what does your prayer life look like? What hinders you from having a deeper relationship with God through prayer? For some it is too many distractions in their daily lives, for others, it is not having a carved out time in their day to sit down and talk to God. Still, others struggle in prayer because they do not know what to pray, both for themselves and for others.

Take some time today to ask the Lord to strengthen your prayer life. And then, start practicing. Remember, prayer does not have to be eloquent, or well thought out. Prayer is just talking to your heavenly Father, who wants to hear from you. And just like any other relationship, the more you talk to God, the closer you will be to God. So let’s be a people of prayer!

Tuesday

Read Ephesians 3:14-21, and focus on verse 16. The first thing Paul prays is that the Ephesians would be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit. It is so important that we start here when we face any challenge in life. I don’t know about you, but when I am going through difficult times I am always tempted to rely on my own strength instead of being strengthened by God’s Holy Spirit.

But there are two problems with relying on our own strength. One, our strength is pitiful compared to God’s infinite strength. Why rely on ourselves when we have God’s strength available to us? And two, if we rely on our own strength to face life’s challenges, what happens when that strength runs out? We crumble, we fall. And then instead of pointing the finger at ourselves, we begin to wonder why God didn’t come through for us.

Take some time today to ask the Lord to strengthen you with his power through the Holy Spirit. Ask for forgiveness for the times where you have relied (or are currently relying!) on your own strength. Think of a difficult situation you are facing and imagine how the situation would be different if you truly relied on God’s strength. If you are having trouble doing this, talk to someone who has been a Christian for a long period of time, and ask them how they have seen God strengthen them in difficult times. And as you start relying on God’s strength, watch how your faith grows as well!

Wednesday

Read Ephesians 3:14-21, and focus on verse 17. After Paul prays for strength (v16), his prayer acknowledges that the Christians in Ephesus are rooted and established in love. Paul uses two metaphors (one botanical and one architectural) to show how important it is to be grounded in the love of God through Jesus. In other words, it is critical that we have a firm foundation of our faith. It is critical that we are grounded in the truth that can hold us firm, which is the Gospel, the good news that Jesus died for our sins, in our place, so that we can have a restored relationship with God.

Why are roots so important? Why is a good foundation so important? Without them, we crumble. A tree without a strong root system blows over in a storm, and a building with a bad foundation collapses in an earthquake.

Are you rooted and established in the Gospel? Are you grounded in the solid foundation of Jesus’ love for you? One way you can know the answer to that question is to ask this: what gives me the most peace in a difficult time? Is it Jesus? Is it knowing that no matter what happens, nothing can take me away from God because Jesus died for me? Or is it circumstances working out the way I want them to? It is so easy to pray, Lord, as long as such and so thing happens the way I want it to, I’ll be ok. Our prayer time turns into a desperate attempt to bargain with God. But if we are really rooted and established in Jesus’ love, we don’t need to make those deals with God.

Take some time today to ask the Lord to help you be more rooted and established in Jesus’ love. And as your foundation is strengthened, your peace will grow.

Thursday

Read Ephesians 3:14-21, and focus on verses 18-19. Paul prays that the Ephesians would know the deep love of Jesus. He prays that we would know Jesus’ love intellectually (v18: to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ), and that we would know Jesus’ love experientially (v19: to know this love that surpasses knowledge). And if we think of human relationships it makes sense that we should know Jesus’ love both intellectually and experientially. A child who only is told his parents loves him but never experiences that love will not have a close relationship with them.

Now obviously we will never be able to fully wrap our finite minds around the infinite love of Jesus. But we are still called to grow in knowing this love. Why? Because the more we know and experience Jesus’ love, the more we will be content to rest in that love. If we are truly knowing and experiencing Jesus’ love in our lives, we will be less tempted to seek that love from someone or something else.

Today, take some time to meditate on Jesus’ vast, infinite love. If someone asked you, do you know how much you are loved, what is your honest answer? Do you really know how much Jesus loves you? Do you really know that Jesus loves you unconditionally? J.D. Greear puts it this way: “There is nothing you can do to make God love you more, and nothing you have done to make God love you less.” Do you know this kind of love? And what are some ways your life might change if you really knew how much Jesus loves you? Ask the Lord today to help you know the love of Jesus. 

Friday

Read Ephesians 3:14-21, and focus on verse 19. Paul has prayed that the Ephesians would be strengthened by the Holy Spirit, be rooted and grounded in Jesus’ love, and that they would know and experience Jesus’ unconditional love for them. All of this leads to Paul’s final prayer: that the Ephesians would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. What an amazing prayer! Paul is not simply praying that God would fill the Ephesians with good things from him, but that God would fill the Ephesians with himself!

Now I don’t know how that will happen. How can an infinite God fit into finite human beings? It appears that Paul doesn’t even know, because in verse 20 he describes God as doing more than we can ask or imagine! But it is a beautiful picture isn’t it? It is a picture of a believer being filled with the fullness of God, with God’s grace and love overflowing in them and through them, shaping everything they say and do.

But sadly, far too many Christians never experience this fullness. We often settle for far less. Jani Ortlund puts it this way: “Are you settling for less than God has for you? Jesus didn’t die merely to save you from hell. He died so you could be filled with all the fullness of God…Ask God to awaken a greater thirst and hunger for more of Him…(and) let’s not limit God to the measure of our own smallness.”

This is a bold prayer: God fill me with your fullness. But it is a prayer that God wants us to pray and one he wants to answer. Ask the Lord today to fill you with his fullness, and then watch as the Lord does an incredible work in you and through you!

Saturday

Read Ephesians 3:14-21 one more time. Review the devotionals from this week and ask the Lord to take you deeper into this incredible prayer. Find some uninterrupted time to reflect on the glorious love of Jesus. And as you reflect, consider the words to the hymn that reflects this passage beautifully, O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of Your love
Leading onward, leading homeward
To Your glorious rest above!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Spread His praise from shore to shore,
How His love is never-ending,
And it changes nevermore;
How He watches o’er His loved ones,
Died to call them all His own;
How for them He’s interceding,
Watching o’er them from the throne.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Love of ev’ry love the best:
‘Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
‘Tis a haven sweet of rest.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
‘Tis a heav’n of heav’ns to me;
And it lifts me up to glory,
With You evermore to be.


25
Feb '20

Welcome Letter/1st week of Lenten Devotionals – February 25, 2020

Posted on Feb 25, 2020 in Devotions | Tags: 

25
Feb '20

February 25, 2020

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent. Lent is a 40 day (not counting Sundays) period of reflection leading up to Easter weekend. We want to be prepared to fully celebrate Good Friday and Easter, the cross and the resurrection, and this period of Lent helps us in that preparation.

Typically Christians have observed Lent by asking what they can remove from their daily lives so that they can focus more on following Jesus. However, this year, what if we add something to our lives to draw us closer to Jesus? Specifically, what if we added more time meditating on God’s Word? The bible is how God speaks to us, guides us, and corrects us…if we want to draw closer to the Lord during this Lenten season, what better way than to be more immersed in God’s holy Word?

So as we go through Lent, we will be sending out daily bible devotionals. You can begin working through and praying through these devotionals tomorrow on Ash Wednesday. And this devotional study will take us through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. I love the book of Ephesians for two reasons… One, Paul gives us such a clear, beautiful picture of God’s amazing grace. We cannot save ourselves, we can only come to God because of His grace in sending his Son to die for our sins. That is always a truth we need to come back to, every single day! And two, Paul gives so many concrete ways a follower of Jesus can and should be transformed by God’s amazing grace. From how we serve to how we speak to how we relate to each other, God’s grace should impact every part of the life of a Christian, and Paul explores this idea in depth. So this study in Ephesians is a great way to help us follow Jesus this Lenten season.

You can access these devotionals in a variety of ways…they will be available in the Sunday worship bulletin at Mission Village Christian Fellowship. We will also email the devotionals each week to our church family (the devotionals for the rest of this week are included with this email!). But we will also be posting these devotionals on the church’s Facebook page, to make it easier to share them with a friend or family member.

I am excited to see how God uses this time in his Word to draw us closer to himself as a church. As you read and pray during this Lenten season, please let me know how the Lord is working in your life, and how I can be praying for you. You can email me at stevedevos79@gmail.com or call/text me at 858-829-2097. May God bless you as you dive deeper into his Word this season!

Blessings,

Pastor Steve

p.s. If you do feel challenged or convicted to remove something from your life this Lenten season, please do so. It may be that in order to make room for this additional time spent in God’s Word, you need to remove something from your life anyway. The end goal is that we are wholeheartedly following Jesus and radically dependent on him, so if something needs to be removed from your life during this season in order to follow Jesus, then by all means remove it!

First Week of Lent

Ephesians 2:1-10

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Read Ephesians 2:1-10, and focus on verses 1-3. As I have conversations about God with people in the community, I have come across two general views that people believe about how we can how we can go to heaven when we die. One is the view that says that people are generally good, and that everyone, no matter what they believe, goes to heaven, because God is a loving God. The other view is that people are generally bad and messed up, but if you work hard enough at being a good person, and have the good outweigh the bad in your life, you’ll get to heaven. The first view depends on our goodness, the second view depends on our effort.

However, Paul’s statement in these first three verses destroys both of those views. Paul writes that without Jesus we are dead because of our sin. Not injured, not damaged, but spiritually dead. Dead people can’t do anything. They’re dead. A morgue is not a very active place! So dead people certainly can’t do anything good that would merit going to heaven. This is the condition of everyone who does not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

And not only are we dead without Jesus, but Paul shows us in these verses that before God intervened in our lives, we were not heading in a good direction. To the contrary, we were serving our own self-interests, in rebellion against God, and deserving of God’s wrath. So there is no way we can say that human beings are generally good people.

Now you may read this and say, this isn’t good news! And you’re right. This isn’t good news. But the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not good news unless there is bad news before it. Why would God send his son to die for our sins if we were good enough to get to God on our own? The cross is necessary because we cannot save ourselves! The world puts so much hope in the goodness of humanity. But our hope simply can’t be in spiritually dead people.

On this Ash Wednesday, take some time to reflect on the true nature of our humanity, that without Jesus, we are dead in our sins and deserving of God’s wrath. Without Jesus, we do not deserve heaven, we deserve hell. Think about the ways you have turned away from God’s path and chosen your own. Take some time today to confess that sin and rebellion to God, and ask for forgiveness. The more we realize and confess the sin in our lives, the more we will be ready for the good news that is coming!

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Read Ephesians 2:1-10, and focus on verses 4-7. If we have really done the work of confession and repentance from yesterday, these verses should be the greatest gift we could possibly receive. “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” Yes! This is the central message of Christianity. This is the Gospel. This is the Good News.

Notice how beautiful God’s work is here: God loves us. While God is a holy God and while we rightly deserve God’s wrath for our sin, God is also a God of mercy, and through faith in Jesus Christ (v8), God makes us alive. Notice that we don’t make ourselves alive, God makes us alive. God raises us from spiritual deadness to spiritual life. There is nothing we contribute to this process of being made alive. We do not deserve it (remember, we were dead!), and we didn’t contribute to it. This amazing gift of new life is entirely by God’s amazing grace.

So how do we respond to such an incredible gift that we don’t deserve? There are a couple of ways we should respond. One is to reject any idea that we do deserve it or that we can somehow earn it. We don’t and we can’t. If we affirm the worthiness of humanity without Jesus we deal a crippling blow to this incredible message of God’s grace. Two is to repent of our efforts to earn God’s grace or to get to God on our own. The sum of those efforts is like a person trying to jump across the Grand Canyon…they won’t get anywhere close to the other side, and it’s a long way down! Three is to believe in this amazing grace that is offered to us. And four is to joyfully thank God by living our lives not for ourselves, but for him.

Take some time today to ask yourself two questions, and talk to God about the answers to these questions. One, do I really understand this incredible message of God’s grace? Or is there some part of me that is still trying to earn God’s favor on my own? And two, does my life right now reflect this amazing grace God has lavished in my life? The more we understand and accept God’s lavish, unmerited grace, the more we will see that grace permeate into every area of our lives.

Friday, February 28, 2020

Read Ephesians 2:1-10 and focus on verses 8-10. It is clear in this passage that we are saved by grace, and only by grace. We don’t deserve salvation, nor can we earn it. Paul hammers home this truth in these final verses. But in verse 10 Paul also shows us that we are saved for a purpose: “to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” So not only have we been saved by grace alone, but we have been saved for a purpose. Which means that if you have trusted in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, if you have been truly saved by grace, then God has a plan and a purpose for your life.

Think about a line on a graph. When we accept God’s gift of grace that makes us alive, that is certainly a huge point on that line! But the line after that point does not continue in the same direction. That point is a hinge that takes us into a new life with a new direction and a new purpose. And that purpose, God’s purpose, is infinitely better for us than any purpose we can have for ourselves.

So why then do so many people never experience the joy of God’s good purpose for their lives? Often it is because we have trouble believing that God’s plan for our life is really better than our plan for our life. We all have goals, aspirations, and dreams for our lives, and probably for our kids’ lives as well! We have our own personal plans and agendas. Those plans are not necessarily bad things. But following God’s plan for our life may redirect those plans, or completely change them altogether. Following Jesus inevitably brings us to a place where we have to ask ourselves a question of who we trust more: Me and my plan for my life? Or God and his plan for my life? 

Take some time today and write down the plans you have for your life. What are your hopes and dreams? Then ask yourself that question: Who do I trust more? Ask the Lord to help you surrender your plans to him, and ask him to show you the good plans and purposes he has for your life.

Saturday, February 29, 2020

This first week of Lent we have reflected on God’s amazing grace. Take some time today to reflect on this amazing grace discussed in the devotionals from this week. Thank the Lord for his grace in your life. And if you have not personally experienced God’s saving grace in your life, please talk with one of the Elders or one of your friends at church tomorrow morning! 

And as you reflect and pray today, consider the words to the hymn Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace was written by John Newton, who was part of the British slave trade and all of the evils of that system. He accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior later in his life, and wrote these words:

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
   That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
   Was blind, but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
   And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
   The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
   I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
   And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,
   His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be
   As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
   And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
   A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
   The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below,
   Will be forever mine.