Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
TO PONDER
When my wife and I were studying to be teachers, Elise had a job at a fast food chain and was given the role of shift manager. She often recalls the difficulty of that job, not because of the work she had to do, but because of the work all the young 15 year olds didn't do.
These young people had a job which paid them reasonably well. The company had taken them on without any experience or specific skills and had trained and inducted them to perform a task, and many would just decide not to show up at the very last minute.
Funny thing is, they then had the gall to complain when their more reliable co-workers got all the shifts on the following roster.
Sometimes I think we look at some heroes of the faith and complain in a similar way. "How come that person seems to always hear from God when they pray?" or "Why does Joe Bloggs get to help with visiting?" there's probably a whole bunch of others. The point is, why wouldn't God use someone who has a proven track record? Why are we surprised when people who dedicate themselves to reading God's word and praying to him, hear him speak to them more clearly? Why do we expect God to rely on us when we have not yet learned to rely on him? It's worth thinking about.
PRAYER:Heavenly Father, please help me to live a life worthy of the calling you have given me, that call to be your child. Help me to live in a way that recommends you to others as they see the difference that you make in my life. Please help me to trust you and rely on you more each day. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
TO PONDER
Anyone who has met me will probably be able to tell you that I enjoy my food. Now that I am in my 40's it tends to show around my belly a bit more than it used to and it's a bit more difficult to hide the fact that I have probably over indulged in the art of barbecue a little too often. But whether it's a perfectly grilled bbq steak, a tiny meal on a giant plate at a fancy restaurant, or even just one of your home-cooked favourites, there is something about a good plate of food.
I remember a scene from the movie, The Matrix. For those who are unfamiliar with it, it's a movie set in a dystopian future where robots have taken over the Earth and a small human resistance lives deep beneath the surface of the earth. These human resistance fighters mostly survive on a synthetic porridge, which contains a mix of all the vitamins minerals, energy and protein a human needs to survive. However, one of the characters is enticed to work with the robots simply by the promise of being granted the sensation of eating a juicy medium rare porterhouse steak. The vitamin slurry provided what was needed for life but the desire for 'real' food was ultimately this character's undoing. (those who have seen the movie will understand the air quotes on the word real).
Faith in Jesus is like baby formula, milk, or vitamin porridge. It give us exactly what we need for eternal life. We can not get it for ourselves, it has to be provided for us and it meets out immediate need of acceptance and forgiveness. Yet real life is what happens when we really sink our teeth into God's word. When we not only talk about it and try to understand it, but also put it to the test by trying to do it. As we constantly use and live the new life we have in Christ, the more we find ourselves hungering for it and like Charle's Dickens', Oliver Twist, we keep going back to the source and asking for more.
The good news is, when it comes to life in Christ, there's always more.
PRAYER: Jesus, Help me not to settle for the comfort of where I am in my spiritual maturity right now. Please help me to grow a hunger for more of your word and more of your life so that I might be filled and others might see you more clearly in me. Amen
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Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
TO PONDER
I have always loved this branches and vine verse, but perhaps not for the reason you think.
I have an uncle who owns and operates a vineyard in the Barossa Valley. From time to time, I have been visiting with his family when the vineyard is busy and have been able to help out on occasion. I helped him plant some of the vines over 20 years ago, different grape varieties in different patches, where the conditions were better suited to one kind of trap or another. I have been there during pruning season when excess brach has been trimmed to encourage maximum fruit production. The only thing I haven't ever been there for is harvest, but I have been there in the weeks and sometimes only days before picking has begun and I have seen the branches heavily laden with fruit. They get that way because of the work and effort of my uncle, the grape farmer (or more technically, vigneron).
Often I think we spend a lot of time striving to produce fruit in our own power. I strive to do the right thing, to have all the answers and tick all the boxes. However, it's the farmer who puts in all the work. The vine, and its branches, produce grapes by virtue of the fact that they are grape vines, all they have to do is be themselves, to be what they were created to be. In fact, generally speaking, the less stressed out the vines are, the better fruit they will produce (that's not always strictly true for wine grapes).
God is like the diligent vigneron, who attends to the needs of the vine and its branches, providing just the right amount of water exactly when it is needed. Giving a prune and cutting away unnecessary or unhelpful growth wherever it's needed. Maturity is about trusting the Farmer in his work, knowing that he is working on you to produce exactly the kind of fruit he wants. Don't spent too much effort trying to create the fruit you see in others in your own life. Let God produce the fruit that he needs you to produce in the way that only you can.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you that you know exactly what help and support I need and exactly when I need it. Thanks you that even when I feel like I'm not growing or producing much fruit, that you are still at work in me bringing about your plans for me and growing me deeper in your Son Jesus. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
TO PONDER
If this verse sounds familiar, it's because it is. We only looked at it a couple of weeks ago. Yet there is something else for us to consider here when it comes to maturity.
Jesus often used agricultural images to help people grasp spiritual concepts and they are very helpful. Think of a plant, for it to grow it needs to be rooted in soil. That's a good start but it it only the beginning. it needs to be nurtured and built up; it needs fertiliser and water so that the roots can absorb the nutrients and strengthen the plant, it needs protection from the elements, and pests that might eat its new growth until it has sufficient strength to fend for itself. Finally it needs sunlight to provide energy for all of those other things to occur.
Likewise, we begin by being taught the faith, usually by another person. Perhaps a pastor, or a teacher or youth leader, but for many of us it's just a friend or relative. Then we need to grow and be strengthened in the Word and usually also in community. Preferably, a healthy and productive community that encourages and supports us in using our God give abilities and gifts to communicate the gospel to others. And of course we always need the Spirit of Christ, the Son of God, at work in us to empower all those things to occur.
Then, just like a healthy and thriving plant, we too will be overflowing with joy and good fruit.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I know that at times, growth can be hard to see. I know that growth takes time and effort. I know that sometimes I don't allow myself the time or make the effort to be where you can help me grow most easily. Help me to engage with the process of my own spiritual growth and maturity. Give me a love for your word and for your people, so that we can love and encourage one another as we live our lives in you. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
TO PONDER
There are times when I wish I could just stop being and adult. There are days, when I just wish I could abandon all my adult responsibilities and just selfishly indulge just in the things that I love doing; fishing, barbecuing, somedays even just to do some more sleeping would be welcome! However, we all know that doesn't work, even when we take holidays, there are simply tasks that have to get done.
So I persist, I keep striving, I get up every morning because I have hope. Hope that today will be different. Hope that today I might help someone meet Jesus. Hope that today, just as every day before, no matter how bad that day might have been, Jesus will get me through it and see me safely to tomorrow.
I have noticed in my previous career as a teacher, that this is often a marker of maturity. Most children, up until a certain age (and an increasing number of adults too for that matter) have a tendency to just avoid or give nut on tasks that they find difficult or not enjoyable. "I can't do this, it's too hard" was not an uncommon thing to hear in the primary school classroom. I learned that a good way to correct that thinking was to simply remind students that what they were experiencing was certainly a challenge, but rather than allowing them to say "I can't do it", I'd remind them instead that, 'You just can't do it yet'. One little three letter word makes all the difference.
What you don't feel strong enough for today, you might just find you have the strength for tomorrow. The problem you can't solve today, might just have the solution present itself to you if you keep chasing it. Press on with whatever task God has called you to and equipped you for. You may not see how to do it yet, but God is growing and preparing you every time you get up and have a go.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, Sometimes it just seems like there is too much to do, or the mountain of tasks ahead is just overwhelmingly huge. Yet you told your disciples that if they had faith as small as a mustard seed, they could tell the mountains to throw themselves into the sea and it would happen. Lord help me to trust and have faith that you will see me through all the tings I have to do today and every other day also. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me
TO PONDER
When we are children, many of us can't wait to grow up. It seems so exciting. Going to bed whenever you want, no one telling you to eat your veggies, being able to drive and go wherever you want. It all seems so exciting.
When we are adults, many of us wish we could be children again. We look back and realise that when we were children we ;t have to worry about what was for dinner, food just miraculously appeared on the table. We didn't have to pay for fuel, insurance and registration to be able to go wherever we wanted, we just asked mum or dad to take us.
Growing up is a difficult task, as we grow in skill and maturity, our society gives us greater freedom and access to opportunities, but also expects us to take on greater responsibility. Sure you can now drive a car, but you are responsible for the safety of your passengers and other road users.
As children of God, we can sit back and expect God to do everything for us. And he certainly has done a lot, dying on a cross to take upon himself the punishment for our sin is a pretty big deal. however he loves us too much to leave us as children. Like a responsible loving parent, he leaves us things to do so that we can grow and experience more of the life that he has given us in Christ. He doesn't expect us to earn our own salvation, he took care of that completely because he loves us and knew that task was beyond us. but he does want us to leave the ways of spiritual childhood behind us and follow him into a greater experience of his life as he leads us into spiritual maturity and adult hood.
Are there spiritually childish ways that God wants you to put behind you today?
PRAYER: Heavenly Father thank you for calling me and making me your child. Please help me to grow as your child so that I might not always be a spiritual infant, but that I might grow in faith and trust in you and experience even more of the fulness of life you offer through your son Jesus. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
TO PONDER
Take a look and listen to the daily news. You'll usually be confronted by stories of groups of people who feel very strongly about an issue, shouting at and belittling another group of people who have an opposing view. These are usually adults who, if we are honest, are often displaying the kind of behaviour you would expect to see from two toddlers who both want the same toy. Even though one, or possibly both sides of the debate may have noble or just ends in mind, their cause is damaged by they way they promote it with aggression and violence.
There have been times in history when the church has acted in similar ways, and it has hurt the cause of the gospel also. Rather than winning people to Christ with his love and teachings, people have been beaten into submission and conversion with either physical abuse and the threat of death (during the crusades, various inquisitions, and in many 'christian' colonisation efforts), or through relentless application of God's law and threat of his eternal punishment.
The apostle Paul gives the Christian's at Ephesus a different approach. We are not to shy away from the truth; God's laws are good and should be followed, His judgement is real for those who refuse his grace and mercy, offered to us in Christ. However, we are to communicate these truths in love towards not only those who are not yet Christians but also to one another. Shouting matches don't usually win anyone to any side of a debate, but when we make our first priority communicating and demonstrating the love of Jesus, we then can speak the truth from that established platform of love and concern for others. That's how we become a mature community in Christ.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I know there are times when I act poorly towards others and fail to speak to them with your love. Help me to grow and mature in the way I communicate your love to those who you call me to love and serve in your name. Amen
Today's devotion by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
TO PONDER:
It was a time in my life as a young person when I was extremely angry. There was a tragedy in my congregation where a young 16 year old "learner" driver was backing out the car and ran over her baby sister. It was a shocking time for the family and for the girl. As she sat, sobbing uncontrollably in my arms, I heard someone in the room next door quote this exact passage - "Remember, God works for the good of those who love him." It was meant to comfort. But it brought anger, resentment. How could a loving God e er bring any good out of this? How good a loving God love me when he lets me go through this extreme pain? How could a loving God...you fill the blank.
Over the years, I have come to understand this verse so much better. This whole passage is in the context of prayer...of how we and indeed all creation are groaning with the pain and struggle, the change and decay of this world. As we wrestle with that darkness, that pain or tragedy, the unfairness and injustice of what we see happening all around us, God who is good...all the time...is working with or through those who love him, who have been called for his purposes, to be the very ones that reveal the light of God, which shines in every darkness.
So whatever you are facing at the moment. Whatever darkness overwhelms, ask yourself, "How is God working in this situation and through this situation to make me more like him (conformed to the image of his Son)?" "How is God teaching me through this difficulty or struggle or change to trust in him, who knows all things, sees all things, is in control of all things. even if I don't understand it or get it?" As you ask yourself that, remember the promise: "...in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us...For nothing can separate us from the love of God that is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord."
PRAYER:
Lord God, whatever happens to me today, remind me that you have a purpose for me and my life. Help me trust that you are working in me and through me for your good purposes. Amen.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
TO PONDER:
What a timely verse! Moses has handed the baton of leadership over to Joshua, and has just died. The weight of the task to lead God’s people, rests heavy on Joshua and so God speaks to him…”Have I not commanded you. Be strong and courageous”
It’s a command. When life is overwhelming. When the task to which God has called you seems to much. When you doubt that you can do it. Be strong and courageous, God says.
Notice that the strength and courage is not found in oneself. It is not found in your own resourcefulness or abilities, or acumen. But it is a strength and courage that comes from trusting in God. It’s a promise God keeps on repeating, keeps on reminding Joshua.
What’s causing you to be afraid or lack courage today? In what circumstance do you find your strength floundering? God is more than able and can do the impossible. God will strengthen you with what you need to do what he calls you to.
There is a beautiful song we sometimes sing in worship called “Sovereign over us”
The first part of that song says:
There is strength within the sorrow, there is beauty in our tears. And You meet us in our mourning, with a love that casts out fear.’
That’s his promise to you today. God invites you to turn your fear into faith. Rest in this truth: God will be with you wherever you go. You’ve got this…with him.
PRAYER:
Faithful God, give me the strength and courage I need today to face whatever arises, knowing that you are with me all the way. Amen.