As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
TO PONDER
Do you have an ‘origin story’? You know a story about how you received your calling, the story where you discovered your holy discontent. Holy discontent being the burning discontent within your heart which inspired you to make a change, to answer God’s call.
I was thinking about mine recently and it has to do with today’s verse (no I was never in prison) but rather the calling Paul is talking about here, the calling to be family, to be one body.
I was frustrated that what I experienced in church wasn’t the self-sacrificing, grace filled, community we are called to be by Jesus (John 13:34-35). The church community whereby ‘everyone will know that you are my (Jesus) disciples’ because of how we love each other within the church. What began as frustration became a discontent, a desire to become that type of church, so I began planting churches.
In the LifeWay universe right now we are looking at ‘Operation Gospel’ and what that means, so please bear with me as I tell you a brief gospel story;
I have friends (married couple) who I take every opportunity I can to invite them to our house whenever we have other followers of Jesus over for a meal. I take great delight in introducing these friends to my LifeWay family. After about the third or fourth time this happened, this couple went out of their way to communicate how amazed they were at how loving and real these ‘church people’ were!
This is our gospel calling Paul is talking about in today’s verse, as a church our calling is to love each other, to simply be the church and love each other as Christ loves us.
PRAYER
Loving Jesus, I thank you for calling me into a relationship with you and your body, into a community of sacrificial love and grace. I pray that others will see your gospel message in my love for my brothers and sisters in the faith. Amen
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
TO PONDER
Have you ever travelled to foreign country and felt that sense of not belonging?
I lived in Canada for almost 17 years, with 16 of those years as an resident alien, a foreigner with a special card declaring I didn’t really belong. Now to be fair, I was afforded the majority of rights a Canadian was entitled to except I couldn’t vote and I couldn’t call myself Canadian. Every time the Canadian anthem was sang I was reminded of my non-belonging.
But after paying a significant financial price, proving my eligibility by taking a test, proving I was worthy through police record checks and references from real Canadians, I was invited to swear my allegiance to Canada on April Fool’s Day (1st of April) 2014. I was Canadian, on that day I got to proudly sing the Canadian Anthem as one who belonged.
Two words stood out to me when I read today’s verse they were; ‘chosen’, and ‘called’. God chose us, He called us by name to belong, for a purpose to be proud representatives of His ‘nation’ and what’s more He paid the price, He took the test and, He declared us worthy.
Let that sink in, God specifically selected you and me to be His representative to a world that doesn’t know him, He appointed us to live out His gospel message. As proud members of God’s nation we can proudly sing His gospel anthem of grace and belonging.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I thank you for calling me to be a chosen citizen of your kingdom, for paying the significant price I owed and declaring me worthy. I ask that empowered by your grace I would proudly sing your gospel anthem of grace to everyone. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
TO PONDER
One of my top five most dreaded things to do in life is and has always been to talk to strangers, to actually have a conversation with someone I don’t know fills me with dread, awkwardness and an inability to English…
That’s correct, I am an introvert, not just an ordinary introvert but rather an extreme introvert which is a problem. See, I’m a ‘professional’ Church Planter, I get paid to pretty much talk to strangers, I have officially been ‘sent’ out by you LifeWay to preach to them, to strangers.
Today’s verses are talking to someone like me, a ‘sent’ one, one who apparently has beautiful feet. But I have something to tell you, something that for some requires a warning that it may trigger you, so be warned; You have also been ‘sent’!
As a follower of Jesus He authorises, empowers, calls and yes sends you to have the same beautiful feet as us professionals because you also bring good news to everyone you come in contact with.
So for now just remember you have been sent by Jesus to bring the Gospel where ever you go.
PRAYER
Almighty God, I thank you for the privilege of being sent out as your representative, as one who gets to carry your good news of grace daily to those who need to hear it. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
TO PONDER
The church on earth, that’s us team, is to boast in the hope of the glory of God. What a brilliant job description. We have a job for life, called and appointed by God to daily discover things about God and his glory to boast about to the people we meet as we go about our day.
How has God answered your prayers? Boast about his glory in that, how wonderful! How has God been transforming the way you understand him, yourself and the world around you? How glorious? What are his promises to you and to all people? Do those promises excite you? Are you filled with a sense of hope and joy at those promises?
What joy, what a privilege, what an honour to stand in such grace, such undeserved favour.
PRAYER
Open my senses to your glory Lord. Give me a heart of thanks for the grace that I find myself in. Amen.
Today's devotion written by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
TO PONDER
King David ends his psalm with, ‘wait’. We spend so much time waiting; for the doctors, on hold, in traffic, in lines, for computers to re-boot, for tardy friends, and for all kinds of other things too.
The gift of waiting is often received with a frustration that makes us irritable, sharped tongued and a pain to be around. If that is our experience with waiting, then we will not like waiting for God as it is likely to bring out our worst, unless we wait with faith, hope, love and a coming expectation of the glory of God at work among us. We wait expecting God to act. Something huge is going to happen.
Wait for it, wait for it ……..
This waiting is the anticipation of the Glory of God renewing the earth. Renewing his church, his people. Be strong and take heart and fill the waiting moments with prayers for all His creation, and wait.
PRAYER
Lord, you have established your Kingdom for ever and ever, your one holy church is alive in Christ, its head, forever and ever. Come and transform your people in their temporary outposts in every city and nation. So, we wait, and hope. Amen.
Today's devotion written by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra
… but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
TO PONDER
My body is not one of an athlete’s and never has been, nor am I twenty-one anymore. I often ache with weariness. Sharing the Gospel is joyful, but it can be hard when persisting in it over time. The soul may grow weary without refreshment. Life is hard and hope can often seem to be absent.
Isaiah wants us to know that true hope, weariness healing and life-giving hope, is always available to those who ask for it. Hope is in the Lord and since our lives are hidden in the Lord, so must be our memories, our store house of hope from trials past. God always turns up! Remember your past experiences and how your prayers were answered, and your trials resolved. Remember that God is good.
Jesus said that we should remember him when we eat his body and blood in bread and wine. We remember his sacrifice for our forgiveness and healing, and we remember all the times his sacrifice and his presence with us, has lifted us up and filled our tanks with hope again.
PRAYER
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand. Amen.
Today's devotion written by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
TO PONDER
The Greek word for faith is variously translated as ‘faith, ‘trust’ and ‘believe’. It is a word that incorporates our whole being: heart, mind and soul. Believing in our gut not just in our head. Faith that holds fast with enduring loyalty and a trust that is child-like, and entirely reliant upon God. Without this faith, we would crumble in our calling and duty.
In these times of extraordinary cultural change and so, to the way we relate to each other, we need faith as never before. Faith of the God given kind that has confidence and a steady assurance in the face of an unseen future. Without this gift of faith, that embraces our entire being, we cannot see how Jesus is leading his church and sending each of us into an entirely new landscape, but powerfully equipped to carry the Good News. It is by faith that we are saved and transformed into people of far-sightedness, of hopeful courage in the face of great change and with a deep assurance in God who is creating all things new.
PRAYER
Father, I want to see as I have never seen before. Transform me according to your original design. Amen.
Today's devotion written by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra
For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.
TO PONDER
Power!? What does that mean? When St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, Jesus was no longer physically present to speak powerful words or exercising power in miracles that would change the hearts and minds of people. Paul was in the same situation as we find ourselves in. No visible Jesus, but still, a desire to serve the Good News.
It is that ‘deep conviction’ that Paul speaks of that is the conduit of the Spirit’s power. It is evident in our willingness to pray for people in all kinds of needs, just as Jesus did, and in our willingness to speak into the hearts of those who are ready to hear, just as Jesus did.
This ‘deep conviction’ is trust and faith in Jesus and a belief that he is who he has proven himself to be to generations of Christians before us. God with us and God for us. The Greek word for ‘power’ here is ‘dynamis’ from which we get ‘dynamite’. The power of God is no small pop, but the big bang needed to move mountains. Do you believe? Are you deeply convicted? The Spirit within you is.
PRAYER
Come Holy Spirit, fill me with new life again today. Create in me the power to believe and to become more deeply convicted of your faithfulness day by day. Amen.
Today's devotion written by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
TO PONDER
‘That you may believe’. This is powerful Good News. John begins giving his testimony by drawing our attention to Jesus the Eternal Word of God who was there at the beginning forming the cosmos. As John continues, we find the Living Word being love in action, for God is love.
Many hear and yet don’t believe; many see but don’t understand. How about you? Do you move through life with your senses dulled to the work of God around you? Psychologists and sociologists have demonstrated that we only truly register the things we already know and understand but are blind to things that don’t fit our world view. We are naturally deaf and blind to the Word of God because it doesn’t fit our world. The Word active in love can only be truly understood through eyes attuned to the Kingdom of God.
Jesus says in John 14, ‘whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these’. Do you think that the ‘even greater things’ may be evidence of true deep conviction, of belief? I do.
PRAYER
Open the eyes of my heart Lord, so that I may see you at work and have confidence that you have called me and all Christians to partner with you for love in action. Even in the ‘greater things.’ Amen.
Today's devotion written by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra