Devotions to Help you Marvel at our God!

Tuesday 11.3.09

There are few smells in the world that compare with fresh-baked bread.   The soothing aroma may find you while standing in line at a bakery or while strolling past a pretzel store in the mall.  Either way, it always seems like the natural response is to take a deep breath and then say, “That smells sooooo good.”

Now, hold on to that feeling for just a moment – the feeling that makes you want to close your eyes and forget about all the stresses in your life – yea, that one.  That is the power of a pleasant smell!

In Numbers 28-29, God shares with us what He likes to smell.  In these 2 chapters He is giving the nation of Israel instructions concerning offerings and sacrifices.  And, many instructions are followed up with the noticeable phrase that it will be “a pleasing aroma to the LORD.”  In fact, this phrase is repeated 11 times to make sure we do not miss the point (28:2, 6, 8, 13, 24, 27; 29:2, 6, 8, 13, 36)!

So, just what is it that makes a pleasant smell to God?  It is the smell of His people acting in faith and it is the smell of pardon from sin.  You see, God instructed the Israelites to offer up sacrifices in confident trust and glad obedience to Him.  And, it was no small amount of resources.  For example, Numbers 29:12-38 describes what was to be sacrificed only at the Feast of Booths:

• Day 1 – 13 bulls, 2 rams, 14 lambs, and 1 goat
• Day 2 – 12 bulls, 2 rams, 14 lambs, and 1 goat
• Day 3 – 11 bulls, 2 rams, 14 lambs, and 1 goat
• Day 4 – 10 bulls, 2 rams, 14 lambs, and 1 goat
• Day 5 – 9 bulls, 2 rams, 14 lambs, and 1 goat
• Day 6 – 8 bulls, 2 rams, 14 lambs, and 1 goat
• Day 7 – 7 bulls, 2 rams, 14 lambs, and 1 goat
• Day 8 – 1 bull, 1 ram, 7 lambs, and 1 goat

Adding up these numbers brings the entire 8-day amount to 71 bulls, 15 rams, 105 lambs, and 8 goats.  Think about this for a moment – that is a lot of animal sacrifices, a lot of burning, and (we even might be tempted to think) a lot of waste.  But, obeying God is never a waste.  In these sacrifices God was teaching a most vital lesson – the reality of redemption, substitution, and pardon.  It was a picture of what was going to take place in the death of Christ.  Therefore, it brought satisfaction to God.  Mercy, forgiveness, and pardon was a sweet smell to Him.

In Romans 12:1, Christians are commanded to, “Present our bodies as a living sacrifice.”  This means offering up our time, our resources, and our obedience to God.  We might be tempted to downplay the importance of these duties with thoughts like:

• It’s not really a big deal if I “let up” on my Christian walk today.  I can just pick it back up tomorrow.
• I’m not going to obey God on this issue because I just don’t see the purpose of it.
• I give up.  I’ve been trying really hard to obey God, but it doesn’t seem to be changing anything in my life.

Let’s not be fooled…we cannot downplay our walk of spiritual sacrifices for this main reason – our life of service brings a pleasing aroma to God. Why?  Because when we present our bodies unto Him, we are magnifying the new life that was given to us through Jesus Christ.  Through faithful obedience, we are living out the reality of the new birth.  We are picturing what took place in the death of Christ.  So, we must in faith, keep this task going even when the purpose or results of it are blurry in our mind’s eye.  We do it because we make it our aim to please the God who delights in mercy, forgiveness, and pardon.

By faith, Christians make spiritual sacrifices unto God, namely we place our lives at His disposal.  In faith we obey and in faith we are pardoned.  When this takes place, God is pleased and a soothing aroma finds Him.

Alive2Christ,

Kendall C.

Tuesday 10.27.09

Yesterday, my wife and I became the legal parents of 2 new children – Addis and Micah.  When we received the news that the Ethiopian court had approved the adoption, my mind kept repeating with hesitant confidence, “I can’t believe they’re ours!”

Throughout the day as my emotions settled down, I began to fixate on some of the spiritual parallels of the moment.  Ephesians 1:4-5 took on fresh and intense meaning, “In love He [God the Father] predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”

I want to highlight just a few of the ways that our recent earthly adoption can help us understand a believer’s spiritual adoption by God:

1. When the judge officially stamped the adoption papers and declared these children to be ours, it became a fixed reality.  It was a settled fact.  These 2 children became our legal and binding joy and responsibility.  They immediately became, in every way possible, our children.  Similarly, when God the Judge declares us to be His children through Christ, the decision becomes a fixed reality. It cannot be reversed.  It is a settled fact.  We are instantly His.  This is the beauty of the doctrine of justification…God makes a legal declaration that in Christ, we have been made righteous.  Therefore, we become His adopted children.  Nothing can separate us from this reality (Rom 8:38-39).  And, when He takes legal possession of us as children, we become heir to all the riches of His eternal blessing.
2. We are currently working on travel plans to fly to Ethiopia and pick up our children.  To put it another way, we are waiting for the moment when the thing that is true will become a reality.  They are fully/legally our children, but we have not yet taken physical possession of them.  The children are completely ours, but in a sense, not yet.  In the same way, we are fully/legally God’s children.  He has taken possession of us spiritually, but not yet physically.  As Christians and sojourners in this world, we are awaiting the culmination of what is spiritually true.  God will bring us to heaven to be with Him.  We are completely His, but in a sense, not yet.  We have a window of time to wait for our Father’s arrival…and so we do this with great hope and expectation.
3. We have never seen our children.  Yet, we have great love for them.  We can’t wait to see them and talk with them and be in their presence.  In a similar way, the Apostle Peter commended the believers of his day that, “Though you have not seen Him [Jesus Christ], you love him” (1 Peter 1:8).  Our hearts should leap with excitement at the thought of one day being face-to-face with Christ.  We should long for a conversation with Him, to be in His presence and have a new appreciation for Him – the kind that comes only by sight.  One day, we will see the One whom we love.

I want to encourage you today, Christian, with the reality of your adoption.  Know that once you were lost, impoverished, orphaned, hopeless, and dead in your sins – but, God selected you.  He chose and predestined you for Himself – to be your Father.  He secured legal and binding possession of you by the giving of His Son, Jesus Christ.  There is a place in His heaven prepared for you.  It is real, it is there, and it is yours.  And, at just the right time, God will bring you to your new and eternal home.  All this He did for you in love.  You are His adopted child!

Alive2Christ,

Kendall C.

Tuesday 10.20.09

The annual Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain is one of the world’s most recognizable events.  The goal of the event is simple – to run in front of 12 bulls and beat them to a given destination.  But, not everyone has been successful in their attempts.  Over the last 100 years, there have been 15 confirmed deaths, and each year hundreds more are injured during the run.

The fascination of this event is obvious – breakable, human bodies are pitted against the unmatched strength of a seemingly unbreakable animal.  For the person participating, it’s really more about cheating death rather than a display of courage.  But, one thing is clear in the minds of all those watching, the horns of a bull are an unmistakable picture of strength.

In Numbers 23:21-22, a unique description of God is used that likens His strength to that of a bull’s horns.  We are told that, “The LORD their God is with them…God brings them out of Egypt and is for them like the horns of the wild ox.”  The ox spoken of here is the now extinct aurochs (search online to learn more about it).  In ancient times this ox was the traditional picture of supreme power and dominance, for who was able to take on the strength of the ox and win?  The obvious answer was no one. He stood alone in strength.

The wonderful promise of this verse is that God is for His people like the horns of a mighty ox.  He is for us in power and protection.  He is for us in love and forgiveness. He is for us in help and success.  As Robert Murray McCheyne has beautifully written, “Under a sense of your sin, flee to the Savior of sinners.  As the timid dove flies to hide itself in the crevices of the rock, so flee to hide yourself in the wounds of your Savior.  And when you have found Him, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, when you sit under His shadow with great delight, you will find that He has slain all the hostility, that He has accomplished all your warfare.  God is now for you” (The Best of Robert Murray McCheyne, Edited and Compiled by Stephen W. Sorenson, p. 54).

No longer running helplessly to avoid the bullseye of His wrath, we now have become beneficiaries of His great strength.  Because of Christ, God is now for us!  His strength runs before us and clears the way. How much better to be behind the horns of a bull than in front of them!

This is the strong God in whom we trust.  Evil scurries and scatters before Him.  His light breaks through and divides the darkness.  His horns have demolished the demonic powers and authorities.  He has triumphed over sin, and death, and hell.  Be at peace today, Christian – for, when God is for us, nothing can be against us (Rom 8:31)!

Alive2Christ,

Kendall C.

Tuesday 10.13.09

“Why do men kill?” That is the question my young son put to me one afternoon.  To be honest, my first thought was a hope that I could somehow shelter him from the graphic sins of the world.  Murder, abuse, rape, and the like are words I wish he’d never know.  Frankly, I wish they were words none of us would ever know.  But, we live in a sinful world, and so we seek somehow to make sense of it all.

I paused for a moment and then put a question back to him, “Well, have you ever been angry?”  “Yes,” he replied.  “Did your anger lead to hate,” I asked?  Again, “yes” was his admission.  “Then you were already on your way to killing,” I advised.

I went on to share with him that most likely, no one ever grows up with a life goal to kill.  It always happens slowly, and it happens because sin is deceitful.  Sin lies to you.  It tells you that you can control the inner sin (thoughts of it) and it will never go all the way to the action.  Sin promises that you can knock down only 1 domino, and leave the rest standing.  It might happen that way hundreds of times.  But then in a moment’s notice, the whole line of dominoes tumbles out of control.  And then you realize you were grossly misled.  Sin was, in fact, deceiving you.

So, that afternoon, I took the time with my son to obey the words of Hebrews 3:13, “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”  Then, I shared this little formula:

• Anger leads to hate,
• Hate leads to harm,
• Harm leads to murder.

If anger is stewing in your life today, get rid of it.  It will not remain satisfied.  It will crave harm.  It will crave revenge.  It will crave hurt and  misfortune for the one with whom you are angry.  May you never be forced to speak the words of thousands before you who have said, “I never intended to kill.”

The only way to avoid the last step is to avoid the first.  And, the only way to avoid the first is to have your eyes fixed firmly on Jesus.  He alone will keep your heart soft towards what is good and right.  May your love and desire for Christ triumph over your love for anger and hate and revenge and murder.  In the strength of Christ, confess your anger and let love and patience rule your relationships.  I am exhorting you today, do not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin…instead be softened by the truth that Christ loved you and gave Himself for you (Gal 2:20).

I leave you with a thought from the great John Owen, “Sin is modest in its first motions and proposals, but having once got footing in the heart, it constantly makes good its ground, and presses on to some farther degrees in the same kind.  This new acting and pressing forward makes the soul take little notice of what an entrance to a falling off from God is already made” (Overcoming Sin and Temptation, p. 53).

Alive2Christ,

Kendall C.

Tuesday 10/6

Scripture paints a very gloomy picture of our lives prior to God.  Leviticus 26:13 says, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves.  And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.”

In this verse, God is heralded as our great rescuer.  He comes upon us in our desperate and trapped condition unable to hear or obey the commands of anyone but our current evil master.  And then He intervenes.  With a strong arm, He breaks the yoke of severe bondage and servitude that is draped across our shoulders.

This yoke – placed upon all humanity at the garden of Eden when sin entered this world – is a bitter and heavy master.  Consider a few descriptions that our passage implies about this yoke:

1) It is a yoke of slavery.  This is slavery to Satan, and it manifests itself in our acts of sin.  Before God breaks us free of this yoke, we are forced to do the works of the evil one (see Romans 6:17-18).

2) It is a bitter yoke. This is why the Jewish people eat bitter herbs while partaking of the Passover (Ex 12:8).  It is to remind them of the bitter taste that was left in their mouths from their slavery to the kings of Egypt.  How bitter is the aftertaste of our former life of sin as well.

3) It is a heavy yoke.  This yoke of sin causes us to live a hunched-over life.  It is heavy on our souls.  Our faces, countenances, and lives bear the weight of sin and guilt.  We have no freedom to serve God – just oppression and heaviness as we do the bidding of our evil slave master.

4) It is a yoke controlled by God’s adversary.  At the helm – the slave driver – is none other than Satan himself.  He wants us to plow his fields, do his work, and plant his kingdom.  We are yoked under his command with no hope of escape.

5) But, it is a yoke that is smashed apart by God’s mercy!  How wonderful of a phrase that God uses in Leviticus 26 – “I have broken the bars of your yoke.”  The heavy and taxing service to Satan is ended.  The yoke is broken from our shoulders and left to lie upon the ground where it belongs.  We are free!!  Free at last to stand upright.  Free to turn and gaze upon our Deliverer.  Free to praise and thank Him.  Free to learn of Him.  Free to worship.  Free to follow this Good and Great Deliverer!

Christian, take joy and delight in the God who approached your sad and helpless condition, stretched out His arm, and broke to pieces your life of slavery and doom.  May the thought of Jesus Christ and His work on the cross (Col 2:13-15) bring you much strength and encouragement for your soul.  May you walk with upright shoulders and a light and happy heart today!

Alive2Christ,

Kendall C.

Tuesday 8.4.09

A good God does not always mean for us a smooth road.

A good God does not always mean for us an easy path.

A good God does not always mean for us a short and painless journey.

Sometimes, a good God brings a dark cloud over us.

When this happens, the road will be rough.

The path will be hard.

And the journey will be long and painful.

But, when that dark cloud settles in, our good God does not abandon.

For, when the road is rough – He is there to encourage.

When the path is hard – He is there to strengthen.

And, when the journey grows long and painful – He is there to comfort.

When God moves the dark cloud over us,

It is never without His strong arm around us.

Exodus 15:2

Alive2Christ,

Kendall C.

Thursday 7.30.09

A church I attended years ago had an annual outreach to our local state college – it was a pig roast for the football team.  That was quite an undertaking.  Feeding 85 Division I college football players is probably the same as feeding like 1,000 normal citizens.

I remember one year in particular when I was assigned to the serving line.  There I stood, spoon in hand, ready to feed these hungry lions…or elephants depending on their position.  Now, up to that point in my life I had watched plenty of football on tv.  And, I was mentally familiar with the size statistics that flashed across the screen telling me how big they were.  But, until you actually see what 6′8″ and 340lbs. looks like next to your own frame – I can honestly say, you have no idea what those numbers mean.

So, as the team began their stampede towards me, I truly began to appreciate the size of these guys (and all-the-while thanking God that I never had to be tackled by one of them).  Finally, this one offensive lineman approached my station.  He is probably, to this day, the biggest human I have ever encountered in my life.  Seriously, grizzly bears would run from him.  Anyway, he stopped in front of me and held out his plates – yes, I said plates.  I faintly remember asking him some stupid question like, “You hungry?”  To which he responded with a determined and emphatic, “Oh, yea!”

Well, I scooped some potatoes onto one of his plates and expected him to move on.  But, he just stood there…as if he was still waiting for something to happen.  I probably insulted him.  It would be like asking a friend if they wanted some M&M’s and then giving them a chocolate sliver from the bottom of the bag.  Thankfully, and probably mostly out of fear, I quickly picked up on his body language.  I shot back with, “Oh you mean hungry like that!”  6 scoops later he seemed to be satisfied and moved on to the next station.

Now, in my mind, that’s a picture of hungry.  Not like a small twinge in the stomach or even a shallow growl.  It’s a thunderous I-need-4-plates-of-food-and-a-gallon-of-drink-to-satisfy-me kind of hungry.  It’s a college football player kind of hungry.  The type of hungry where little old ladies are in danger of being run over.  The type of hungry where padlocks on food closets have no chance.  They type of hungry where leftovers and doggy bags are unheard of.  It’s a determined hungry that stops at nothing until satisfied.  It’s the type of hungry we are called to be in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

As followers of Jesus, we are called to hunger and thirst after something.  It’s not food and drink, but righteousness (right standing with God).  This hunger does not come naturally, it must be sought and pursued.  It’s the type of hunger that interrupts our schedules.  It’s the type of hunger that and runs over pursuits of lesser importance.  It’s the type of hunger that stops at nothing until satisfied.  It’s the type of hunger that desires and seeks God, His kingdom, and my own holiness.

When we hunger like that…after things like that…we have the promise that our souls will be satisfied.  Spiritually speaking, we can pat our stomachs in glad delight and fulfillment, for God has served us an everlasting, soul-satisfying meal.  He has placed Christ into our hearts.

Alive-2-Christ,

Kendall C.

Thursday 7.16.09

Imagine a razor-sharp sword.  Peering at it through a glass case, you carefully examine its beauty, integrity, craftsmanship, and wonder about its abilities.  As the light careens off the edge of the blade, you can nearly hear it slicing through any obstacle that stands in its path.  A small chill runs up the back of your neck.  You are in awe of the potential of this weapon.  There is an intrinsic fear that comes merely from investigating this sword.

Now, imagine that the owner removes the sword and holds it above your head, as if to drop it.  How would you feel?  Threatened?  Trapped?  Afraid?

After beads of sweat form on your face, the owner then repositions the sword so that it is in front of you – the blade facing away from your body.  How would you feel then?  Relieved?  Secure?  Maybe even protected?

What changed?  The character of the blade remained the same.  It is still the same weapon that demands your fear and respect.  But, the position of the blade is different.  No longer is it against you…it is now with you.  You still fear the sword because of what it is, but you are no longer afraid of it because of where it is in relation to you.

In Exodus 19, the children of Israel were able to examine the chilling presence of the Lord.  They peered at His majesty and power and splendor.  Scripture describes the scene this way: “There were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled…Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly (19:16-18).”

Moses ascended the mountain with Aaron and there received the 10 commandments from God.  Upon his return, the people of Israel made an understandable request of Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die” (20:19).  Their frightening view of God saw Him above their heads in a threatening position.  They were afraid of Him presuming He was against them.  They feared for their lives.

But Moses replied with comforting words, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin” (20:20).

How were the people of Israel supposed to fear God, yet not be afraid of Him?  It had everything to do with the position of God towards them.  Because they were His chosen and redeemed people, He was not against them as an executioner.  Rather, He was before them and with them as a guide – leading them away from sin and towards godliness.  Thus, they were instructed to keep their fear of His person, but not be afraid of His condemnation.

This is the great news of the gospel.  Boldly, we can know this very God who causes the earth to tremble.  How?  Through Christ, God removes our condemnation and becomes our comfort.  His posture towards us changes from Judge to Father.  As Romans 8:1 beautifully says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  Christian, fear the Lord…but don’t be afraid!

Alive2Christ,

Kendall C.