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.