And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the day approaching.
TO PONDER
I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard the line, ‘I can worship God without going to church!’. It raises so many warning bells in me. Which God are you worshipping? Who is helping to keep you honest about that and on-focus? Who told you church was a time and place and not a people? Y’all are the church. That y’all is really taking a hold in me. We are the church. We, people of God not a building, nor a ritualised time in the calendar, but whenever and wherever we find ourselves together as God’s people, planned and unplanned. In a building or under a tree, at the football or in the mall, around the kitchen table or in a café. Wherever two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name, there is the church.
The Day is approaching. The great and dreadful day of the Lord, the day for the last opportunity to call Jesus Lord and King over your life. Regardless of which is first, death or Jesus return, time is short and there is no possibility of warping time back to our youth. Time is fleeting. Let’s not miss the opportunities Jesus provides for us to come together for laughter and joy, for food and drink, for bread and wine and worship: in private spaces and in public spaces. For doing good for Christ’s sake.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, only your mission matters. Only loving you with all my heart, mind and strength and loving my neighbour as myself; loving as I have been loved, serving those who serve others, only these matter above everything else. Create a new heart in me again today, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today's devotion written by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra
I will extol the Lord at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.
I will glory in the Lord;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
Glorify the Lord with me:
let us exalt his name together.
TO PONDER
I have a general dislike of Christian songs that begin with, ‘I will praise’, or I will do this or I will do that. My complaint sits around the fact that I often don’t and often can’t out of my own strength or wisdom do anything God-like. I prefer songs that keep God as the centre of praise and not the egocentric, ‘I’.
However, here we have the psalmist, in God’s Word, doing exactly the thing that so often makes me cringe. Verses 1 and 2 are so much like modern Christian songs but it is verse three that changes the nature of this ancient song and should serve as a salient reminder that worship and service are not a solo act. True worship cannot be sustained in isolation. Yes, we can and should give praise and honour and glory to God in our private prayer and devotions but, and this is a huge and life defining, but. Worship is at its most powerful and most unifying when it is given together. Worshiping God together unifies us with him and with each other if, and only if, we surrender into the mutual accountability that it inspires. ‘Glorify the Lord with me: let us exalt his name together.’ Worship is a universal dialogue that brings disparate people together before God in loving, respectful unity.
PRAYER:
From all that dwell below the skies let the creator’s praise arise: Alleluia, alleluia!
Let the Redeemer’s name be sung through every land, by every tongue. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Amen. (Isaac Watts – 1674 – 1748)
Today's devotion written by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra
But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.
TO PONDER
I’ll start by recommending the You-Version Bible app for your smart phone or tablet. It has several useful utilities and the capacity to read the text to you is among the best.
I was wondering what it was that caused Ruth, a Moabite (modern day Jordanian) and an enemy of Israel to commit to Ruth, her nation, and her God. I was looking for character traits like resilience and determination and the ability to make a commitment and stick to it, but after listening to her story on the You-version Bible app. I realised that I was looking in the wrong direction.
The story is not about Ruth in the first place, it is about God and his plan for the salvation of all things and all people.
The book of Ruth serves to confirm the genealogy and therefore, the legitimacy of David as Israel’s King. Ruth was the great grandmother of David and, David and his line of succession are God’s legitimate kings of Israel. Jesus, the King of kings, is a descendant of both David and the Moabite convert, with the huge heart, Ruth.
Ruth, for all her wonderful qualities, was playing her part in bringing unity to humanity, through the promised saviour, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God. This story is about God who recruits people like Ruth who are willing to surrender and serve God. God, who calls us to go where he goes, and for his people, to be our people.
PRAYER: Father, people are too often untrustworthy, so submission is not a strong quality for me. I often fear the unknown and the unpredictable and yet you invite me into a full and fulfilling life. For this I need to trust you. Forgive my unbelief and heal my doubts. To you be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Today's devotion written by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra
I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.
TO PONDER
Is this not the most unrealistic request that you’ve ever heard? And it’s a request from the apostle Paul, a voice of God, none-the-less.
Sometimes English is not up to the simultaneous tasks of achieving both accurate and concise translations of the Biblical languages. Reading Paul’s words above in English may sound as if we are required to be altogether compliant and uniform in all aspects of our lives and should be achieving it right now. However, unity is not uniformity and uniformity is not what Paul is asking of the disordered Corinthians, nor of us.
Good and Godly unity however, among human beings is a gift of God. Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection achieved unity for us as he conquered the devil, death, and our sinful natures. In the course of time, we realise this gift in stages as maturity of spirit grows within us. Firstly, we must admit that we are all missing the mark daily, despite not wanting too. This is followed, by persisting in peaceful discussion, asking questions of God and of one another, seeking answers together for the common good under the rule of heaven.
It's not at all about easy answers and quick solutions, but through a willingness to be accountable for our own failings and daily choosing to be in a loving relationship with God and with all people. Unity is a creative act by those who are created and living in the image of our creator God. It is the lifelong task of enduring, of persistent compassion and respect: of love in action.
PRAYER: Father if unity with you and all people is our purpose and our destiny. If it is love in action that gives meaning to my existence and is the fulfillment of Jesus resurrection life for me, then keep me faithful and full of hope, so that today, with Christ’s help I may hit the mark. Amen.
Today's devotion written by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
TO PONDER
There are several words in Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek that are either translated as ‘sin’ or are meant to be understood as sin. Trespass, debt, rebellion, evil and wicked are some, but in the New Testament the cover-all word for sin is ‘ha-ma-tia’, which means to miss the mark. In Romans 3, St. Paul says, ‘all have missed the mark (sinned) and fallen short of the glory of God’. The mark that we want to hit is the new life we have in Christ Jesus. A life that is dead to the old self and now alive and free in and with Jesus through his crucifixion and resurrection. By faith, your old self was nailed to the cross with Jesus and died with him. By faith, your new self was raised to life with Jesus in his resurrection. This is the gift we receive when we are born again through God’s gift of baptism. Baptism, of course, is daily dying to our old life and daily rising with Jesus into the new. Living the new life is the deliberate daily discipline of a disciple of Jesus.
In this daily discipline, we choose to live in peace and unity with God and with one another by allowing God to be our strength, our guide, our hope and our freedom.
PRAYER: Father, help me daily to surrender myself to your loving and all sufficient grace, so that I may freely live to love and serve you and those who serve others. Amen.
Today's devotion written by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
TO PONDER
OK. Wow. Alright, buckle up. This is a verse so much for our time. We have become very used to the model of church we practice and the cultural perception of hierarchy from bishop down to pastor, down to the people we call ‘lay’, but that hierarchy is an illusion that only exists in our imaginations. Bishops have a function to fulfil, but they are not rulers over the church. Pastors also have a function to fulfil but neither are they to rule over anyone. (check out Matt. 20:25-27). And here is the big surprise, there are no lay-people in the church because all are called, chosen, appointed and ordained to the mission of the Good News and of loving service to those who serve others – loving God, neighbour as yourself – loving as we have been loved.
Everyone is called! Apostles go and plant churches, even now, not only the first twelve witnesses. Prophets speak out the Good News of God to the people of God. Evangelists draw those in darkness into the wonderful light by seeking out people of peace. Pastors care for groups of people and guide them into the truth of Jesus. Teachers equip Y’all for life and your part in Jesus’ mission. NO MORE LAYPEOPLE, only the priesthood, the church.
We will all share in the above roles at least in small ways on different occasions, but some among you will find it to be your primary role, as the role was intended by God and not as a particular denomination has limited that role by defining the Spirit and freedom out of it.
Apostles may well go to lead a church plant, but they will need the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, teachers and God’s people, the priesthood of all believers, to build the local church.
PRAYER: Lord God, Holy Father, keep me from false humility and from denying your call to serve those who serve others. Give me a greater capacity for faith, hope and love, so that I may serv you with courage and determination. Amen.
Today's devotion written by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra
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. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
TO PONDER
You have been chosen, or should I say Y’all because the ‘you’ here is plural in the Greek of the New Testament. You people of God are chosen to be a royal priesthood together as a holy nation.
To be a holy nation is to be set-apart together for God’s purposes. To be a priesthood is to stand together as intercessors for the world before the throne of God and together make the personal sacrifices necessary for the mission of love and Good News. The Good News that Jesus leads people out of darkness into his wonderful light to receive his mercy, which is his tender, abiding love, and his generous provision in all circumstances.
There’s a lot to take in. Being a holy nation, being a priesthood, being God’s special possession. But we don’t have to fathom it out alone because we are a part of the ‘Y’all’, united in Christ through his resurrection for Y’all and your neighbour. Yippee and yeehaw. Life as it should be!
PRAYER: Father, in the midst of dying church structures, outdated human hierarchies and ancient, redundant cultural norms, open our hearts and minds to the truth of Jesus and his eternal life-giving Word. Help us to heed his call to go and serve those who are serving others. Amen.
Today's devotion written by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
TO PONDER
Have you prayed for our politicians before? What about your boss? Your parents? In this letter Paul is encouraging the people to pray and be thankful for the people who have authority over us. We know that the decisions these people make ultimately affect all of us. Lately the reaction to authorities who make decisions we don’t agree with has been to shout, protest and ‘blast them’ on social media. While this may make us feel a little better in the short term, Paul reminds the readers of this letter (and us) that in fact the opposite of this, a peaceful and quiet life may be the better goal. Coming to God with thankfulness and praying for wisdom and understanding for both us and those who are placed in authority over us, helps all to live in godliness and holiness. Once again, our decision to live a holy life is not for our benefit, it is for the benefit of those around us. So, take some time today to be thankful and also pray for those who have authority over you.
PRAYER
Jesus, I thank you that you have placed people in authority over me, to care for me, guide me and look after me. Give me patience in the times when I don’t agree with their decisions or style of leadership. I pray that you would give them wisdom and gentleness to lead with purpose and a generous heart. Amen.
Today's devotion written by the Monday Night LifeGroup, LifeWay Newcastle
And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it.
TO PONDER
The highway is the quick, fast route. We experience this in Newcastle. The councils are constantly putting in ring roads and bypasses. These roads allow the heavy traffic in the mornings and evenings when everyone's trying to get to a similar place, to avoid suburban streets and hopefully arrive quicker, without so many stops and speed limits. Where possible, you should try and travel on a highway, you will get there faster (so the theory goes). It is true that highways are without stoplights and T-junctions. The traffic flows freely and quickly.
Jesus said He is the Way the Truth and the Life. If we walk Jesus Way it is the highway of holiness. It is free of speed bumps and give way signs. But how do we walk that way? Only with the help of Jesus, it’s His road and He has travelled it without an incident. He guides us back onto it, when we take an early exit and He will lead us to our destination of holiness.
PRAYER
Jesus, thank you that you have travelled the highway of holiness before me and you travel it with me today. I am sorry for the times when I have veered off your road for my life. Thank you that you are always there to put me back. Help me to stay on the road today. Amen.
Today's devotion written by the Monday Night LifeGroup, LifeWay Newcastle