Paul

Lights: On! (Prayer Devotional for the week of October 19, 2014)

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Four mornings a week, I drive my 8th grader to school at 6:45am for Jazz Band practice. I don’t really mind; it offers us some rare one-on-one time together in the car, and it holds me accountable to get up on time in the mornings. What I do mind are fellow drivers who think that just because sunlight is barely peeking over the horizon, they don’t need to use their headlights.

I believe the technical rule is that you must use headlights from 30 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise, so perhaps these dim drivers (pun intended) are legal, but they certainly aren’t safe. The thing is: they might think they can see oncoming cars without their own headlights on, but we can’t see them. Using headlights during those “iffy” times of day are for the benefit of others, if for no other reason.

Hmm … kinda sounds like the light we Christians are supposed to be shining in the world, eh? There are aspects of our faith-walks that are intimate, private times between the Lord and us as individual believers: personal prayer and Bible reading are examples that come to mind. Yet, our lives should also illuminate the world around us. In a very real sense, our bright presence should direct others to Christ.

In 1 Timothy 4:15-16, Paul advises his mentee to set a positive example for those around him, because they are watching. “Remember these things and think about them, so everyone can see how well you are doing. Be careful about the way you live and about what you teach. Keep on doing this, and you will save not only yourself, but the people who hear you” (CEV).

And in Luke 11:36, Jesus explained to a crowd, “If you have light, and nothing is dark, then light will be everywhere, as when a lamp shines brightly on you” (CEV). Don’t drive through life relying on the light of others. Reflect the light of Christ!

Discussing Dark Things (Prayer Devotional for the week of August 17, 2014)

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Our Lord is an awesome, miracle-working God who loves, heals, saves, and provides for us, yet I also believe that he entrusts us with imagination and knowledge to develop and invent things to make our lives better. Thanks to modern medicine, for example, I feel pretty confident that I can take ibuprofen when I have a headache, and it will go away. Most Christians would not criticize my faith for taking a couple of over-the-counter pills to alleviate minor aches and pains.

 

Of course, we still pray for healing – and we’ve witnessed God do remarkable things! – yet, cancer patients still go through chemotherapy treatment. We ask God for provision, yet we still take insulin, blood pressure medication, multivitamins, etc. to keep our bodies regulated properly. Why then, when we have access to pastoral and professional counseling, not to mention a wide array of medications, do we often brush off diseases of the heart … or, to call a spade a spade: mental illnesses? Why do we only really talk about dark things when a celebrity dies, yet people all around us are suffering every day from the same problems?

 

If you want to read about a guy who had a lot to cope with in his adult life, check out 2 Corinthians. In chapter 11:23-27, we learn that Paul was flogged with 39 lashes (the max was 40) on FIVE separate occasions. Can you imagine the rumpled scars on his poor back? And that’s only part of the story: in the first chapter of his letter, Paul explained that things had gotten so bad on one of his journeys that he felt like he’d been sentenced to death row and didn’t even know if he’d make it home alive.

 

Paul didn’t have the advantage of modern medicine to help manage any anxiety or depression that he may have suffered from, but one thing he tried to do was to surround himself with supportive, godly people. Repeatedly in his letters that we read in the New Testament, Paul recognized various individuals and expressed his appreciation for them or asked others to pass messages of encouragement along to them.

 

Depression is a monstrous liar, and I can’t pretend to understand it any more so than a naturally skinny person can understand what it’s like to live in my body. We think we know how to “fix” each other, but we don’t truly know what it is like to live in another’s skin. All we can do is support each other. I would submit that it is much more difficult to drown out the lies when you are alone than when you are immersed within a caring community. If you are dealing with issues of the heart, talk to a pastor or life group leader, and let them know what you are suffering. Don’t go it alone; people do want to help.

What is your citizenship worth? (Prayer Devotional for the week of July 13, 2014)

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We talked last week about Paul’s peculiar testimony. In Acts 22, he shared the outrageous story of his conversion with the religious leaders who brought him in for questioning. The folks in charge were not too happy with Paul’s comment that God had sent him to minister to the Gentiles (i.e., non-Jews), and they ordered him to be flogged.

Paul cooperated and let them stretch him out and chain him up to prepare for his flogging, then he turned to the guy strapping him down and casually asked if it was legal to flog a Roman citizen who had not been proven guilty. The stunned guards were terrified. They could have gotten into big trouble for beating a Roman citizen!

They tattled to the commander who came and questioned Paul about his citizenship (verses 27-29). The commander made the smart-aleck retort: “I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship,” as if flaunting his wealth would trick Paul into admitting that he was lying about being a Roman citizen. Paul answered him simply, “But I was born a citizen.” Back in those days, being a Roman citizen carried with it special privileges, and the commander was rightfully frightened about the possible repercussions for having put Paul in chains.

As for us, I would venture a guess that most of us were born on American soil and gained our citizenship by birth. Others waited, studied, waited some more and then took a test to earn citizenship by naturalization. The latter way is expensive and takes a lot of time and effort. The naturalization process carries most of the perks of citizenship, but birth citizens still have more privileges—like the ability to run for President.

I am proud of and thankful for my American citizenship, but what about our heavenly citizenship? What is it worth? Is it worth the time, effort and potential backlash to let the world know that we’re followers of Christ? This story in Acts 22 was just the tip of the iceberg for Paul; he spent much time in prison and getting beaten up for the sake of the gospel. What is heavenly citizenship worth to you? It was worth more than life to Paul.

Originally posted August 21, 2011

Proof of citizenship (Prayer Devotional for the week of July 6, 2014)

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I let time get away from me (again) and just realized that I forgot to schedule this week’s devotional posts! Here ya go …

 

Do you know which documents are acceptable as proof of citizenship in the U.S.? Birth certificate, passport or naturalization certificate are the commonly accepted items. Other government-issued forms of photo identification, such as driver’s license, military ID, etc., are useful to demonstrate that you are who you say you are, but they do not validate your citizenship.

We may have photo IDs to prove where we go to school or work, certificates to show that we’re married, framed diplomas to display our college degrees and notarized papers to explain legal matters … but none of those documents prove our citizenship.

In his letter to the Philippians (chapter 3), the apostle Paul gave a litany of his qualifications as a religious leader in order to drive home the point that none of it matters – not the accolades, not the bragging rights, not the pedigree. He went so far as to call his credentials “garbage” (verse 8) compared to the joy of knowing Christ. Paul, formerly known as Saul, was an unabashed weirdo; in fact, he embraced his peculiar testimony so that God would receive the utmost glory.

The thought of Paul’s former life as an “enemy of the cross” brought him to tears (verse 18) as he pleaded with the Philippians to focus their sights heavenward. Our worldly credentials pale in comparison to heavenly glory! Paul describes our true citizenship as being in heaven (verse 20) – will we embrace it?

Originally posted August 14, 2011

Outgrowing Habits (Prayer Devotional for the week of May 25, 2014)

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What are some of your habits? Brushing your teeth twice a day? Checking your smartphone at stop lights? Sitting in the same spot at the dinner table or church? Going to the gym after work? Kicking off your shoes when you get home? Watching certain TV shows? I reckon that most of our daily habits are simply routines that we’ve developed over time.

Other habits, though, can be detrimental to our health – not only physically, but also spiritually. We don’t care to admit such habits to ourselves, much less talk about them openly. These are the ones we go to when we’re upset, when we want to escape, when we feel down … the things we expose to our bodies, our eyes, our minds, under the guise of making us feel better, if only temporarily … or the things we say, do, and think when we feel threatened, hurt, or entitled.

God calls us to a better life than this, dear friends. As we grow closer to Christ, we need to break the habits that used to ensnare us. Check out what Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians (3:8-10, ERV): “But now put these things out of your life: anger, losing your temper, doing or saying things to hurt others, and saying shameful things. Don’t lie to each other. You have taken off those old clothes—the person you once were and the bad things you did then. Now you are wearing a new life, a life that is new every day. You are growing in your understanding of the one who made you. You are becoming more and more like him.”

I would be lying through my teeth if I claimed to have mastered all of this. I have too many habits that I still struggle with, and I’ve been a believer for nearly 30 years. If eliminating poor choices was easy, then we’d all be fit, no one would struggle with addiction, gossip would be unheard of, husbands and wives would model Christ in their marriages, kids would obey their parents, and we’d all manage our tempers and finances.

If it sounds too good to be true, remember that the objective isn’t necessarily perfection. Reread the verse from Colossians above. We are growing; we are becoming more like Christ. Change doesn’t always happen overnight, but as the poet wrote in Psalm 119:55, we choose every day whether to follow God or revert back to our old ways: “Lord, in the night I remembered your name, and I obeyed your teachings.”