For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving
TO PONDER
I remember when 'the Simpsons' first aired on Australian television. I wish I had known this Babe very at the time because my parents sat and watched the first episode with me and at the end of it my dad declared, "what rubbish television, there is absolutely no point to watching that!" After that, I only ever watched the Simpsons while staying at a friends house. It's not that my dad ever 'banned' us from watching it, but the television always seems to get turned off when the theme song started. I wish I could have quoted this scripture to my dad at that point and tried to convince him to let me watch more Simpsons.
However there would have been one major flaw in that argument, 'the Simpsons' was not created by God. Rather they were created by cartoonist and animator, Matt Groening. Everything created by God might be good, but the same cannot be said about everything created by humanity.
God gave all of creation to Adam and Eve - all of it was good. Sometimes, as Christians, we can be tempted to live apart from the world and its evil and wicked ways. There are many who chose to live like that. I can only imagine the kind of fearful existence that cultivates - fear of the evil that lurks outside your doors. Perhaps, the better approach is not fear, but praise. Praise that God is at work restoring the brokenness of the world around us and thanking him for inviting us to partner with him in that work of restoration. After all, the only way to overcome evil is with good. If we hide from evil then it only looms and gets larger. Find the good in God's creation and give him thanks and praise, that's how we overcome evil with good.
PRAYER
God, sometimes good can be hard to find, and sometimes it appears in the most unexpected places. Help me to see the good in your creation and in your people. Help me to give thanks and praise even for those who view the world differently from me and who do not yet acknowledge you. Help me see them the way you do. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
TO PONDER
Recently, many of us saw Australia go mad celebrating the mostly American holiday of Halloween. My family and I don't usually celebrate it because it also happens to be my birthday on that day, but there is one American Holiday we have come to appreciate and have adopted for ourselves. For a number of years now we have chosen to celebrate an American style Thanksgiving. It's not always on the same day as the American celebration - after all we don't get a day off for thanksgiving like they do in America, but we usually do it toward the end of November.
For us, the historical factors of the American Thanksgiving holiday are not necessarily the reason we celebrate the day. Let's be honest, most people celebrating Halloween do not understand the meaning of the day beyond costumes and candy. But the time set aside to gather with family and friends and to be thankful together has a profound effect.
We invite all sorts to our thanksgiving dinner, church people, neighbourhood people, schools friends and their families. As we share together the things we are thankful for we often end up sharing too some of the things that have been a struggle for us over the year, and whether it is expressed explicitly or not, God is glorified as we who serve him, get busy serving our neighbours.
Let your life be marked by thanksgiving, let it be expressed publicly and see how God is glorified in the process.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, you have done more for me that I will likely ever know. Please help me to live each day full of thanksgiving and praise for you y God and King for all that you have done for me. May I always glorify you and lead more and more people to recognise your goodness in their lives also. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle.
With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:
“He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.”
And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
TO PONDER
Ezra had a tough gig working with the Israelites who had returned from exile to rebuild the temple of Israel, the place where God dwelt with his people. It was hard work, and many people complained that the new rebuilt temple was not as grand as the one that had been destroyed.
The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19, "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God." Sometimes the work of rebuilding your body and your life into something resembling a temple, a place where God dwells, is also difficult. Sometimes it involves hard work, sometimes it includes tough conversations or acknowledging truths that we would rather ignore.
But we can join with the shouts of praise offered by the Israelites because the foundation on which our lives as temples of God's Holy Spirit has been laid in the person of Jesus. Without the work of Jesus on the cross and His death and resurrection, we would have no hope of living with God's presence with us. But now because of him, the foundation has been laid and we can get busy dwelling with God as he dwells with us - His living temples.
PRAYER
Lord God, please help me always to remember that I am yours. Make a temple of my life so that others may be drawn to you as they see you at work in me. Amen
Today's devotion by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
TO PONDER
My brother and I used to share a bedroom when we were kids. One of our favourite things to do when we were supposed to be sleeping was to use our torches to make shadow puppets or shadow shapes on the wall. We were not very good at it, but we had fun trying to guess what shape the other person was trying to make.
I like how this verse reminds us that God does not change like shifting shadows. He gives good things, that is his nature, that does not change. This thought has potential to bring great comfort in the mids of our troubles and struggles if we can remember that even under the pressure of life in this broken and fallen world, God is busy at work for the good of those who love Him.
Our priorities about 'good' might at times be different from God's but you can always rest assured that God will bring something good, even ithough we may not always see it or recognise it.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, help me to see and to recognise all the good things that you bring into my life. Please help me to see, even in the tough times, all the ways that you have blessed me and all the ways you have equipped me to bless others. Amen
Today's devotion by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle.
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
TO PONDER
In this story of the 10 lepers from Luke's gospel, we are not told about the nationality of the other nine lepers. So why is it important for us to know this one was a Samaritan?
I believe that it is something to do with the 'outsider' view of the Jews towards the Samaritans. The Samaritans were descendants of the Northern kingdom of Israel after the split during the reign of King Rehoboam. During the course of this separation, the people of the Northern kingdom stopped traveling to the temple at Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, they began to intermarry with other nations against the command of God, and rejected many of the prophets and poetry of the Old Testament. The in Judea (the Southern Kingdom) rejected them as a result of their rejection of Gods commands and scripture.
Perhaps this is why the Samaritan is the only one to return in thanks to Jesus. The other 9 men had received physical healing that allowed them to return to their old lives, but for this Samaritan leper, Jesus' healing of his disease was an invitation into the people of God. It was an invitation into a life that was bigger and better than the one he had previously as an 'outsider'.
Too often and too easily, we can fall into the trap of viewing others as outsiders and fail to recognise how our own sin keeps us separated as outsiders from God. What better reason to give thanks and praise than for the way Jesus makes for us to be rescued from our sin and reconciled with God the Father so that we are no longer outsiders!
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, thank you that you came into our mess to help us out of it. To reach out to us and invite us into your death and resurrection and to share in your life now and forever as insiders of the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle.
“…and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”
TO PONDER
A quiet life, oh sometimes don’t we all long for that quiet life, filled with no yelling kids, no noisy traffic, no wonky fridge noise irritating me late at night at my desk, (hey, don’t we all have at least one irritating thing), barking dogs, email pings, whatever pushes our buttons. But that’s not really what this is about, I think.
We can make a lot of noise about important issues quietly, firmly, with deliberate care towards the feelings of others. We can quietly earn the respect of outsiders by our honesty and fair dealings, our integrity and reputation. We can hold our own and not be dependent on others for praise, propping up, sympathy or fixing because we know ourselves and who we are in Jesus.
A quiet life is not a dull life, an insignificant life, an ignored life. Its alive in Jesus, colourful in its complexity and is a haven for the searching souls God sends our way.
PRAYER
Be my quiet noise this week Jesus, colour my days with your complexity and simplicity, grow me into your stillness no matter what the day brings. Amen
Today's daily devotion written by Barb Niczynski, 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…”
TO PONDER
We all have a calling, a vocation, a task to do. Whether it’s a life long calling into a specialist ministry, or a day to day vocation of dealing with tangled relationships in the home, frosty neighbours or the stranger asking for help in the car park. Or all of the above every day!
And why… “so that the body of Christ may be built up”. Not us and our egos, our dreams, wants, shopping list, career or retirement plans.
It’s not even about knowing what I am good at most of the time, or volunteering for that task at church with a sigh. It’s the awareness of the soul that is in the person sharing the bus seat with me, the teacher talking to me about my son’s behaviour, the angry rebellious daughter, the father with dementia struggling to know my name, the woman asking me to volunteer for that task. God is aware of the soul in each person, and I want to be aware when he introduces his loved soul to me.
PRAYER
Jesus, Equip my hands and feet to accept your tasks, bless my eyes that I may see with your eyes, open my ears and mouth to really listen and ask what is going on, open my heart to feel your love for others. Amen
Today's devotion written by Barb Niczynski, LifeWay Illawarra
“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”
TO PONDER
Suffering is the pits. Sickness, acute or chronic conditions that just endlessly drag on, pain, aches in the cold weather, and its not just the physical. Mental illness, stress, depression, anxiety can plague our day and we wonder where God is. Spiritual dryness that goes on for months, doubts that cripple us, attacks from the enemy when we are our weakest. Watching others suffer. Our emotions become exhausted and fragile.
But suffering can also be transformative. It grows us into who we are as we look outside ourselves to a transformative God. Sometimes I hate the long slow journeys of healing in my life, but when I look back, I appreciate how they have given me strength, closeness to God, dependence on Jesus, a strong foundation that gets me through the dry times in my faith. I hold on to them like a dear friend. Like Jesus held on to his Heavenly Father in his suffering times. He knows… he is with us.
PRAYER
Jesus, you are with me in my suffering, your hand is upon me always, may I release my spirit and body to you daily, as I die to self and rise to you, and follow in your steps. Amen
Today's devotion written by Barb Niczynski, LifeWay Illawarra
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
TO PONDER
“Some days are diamonds, some days are stone”, who remembers John Denver singing that song. Come on, everyone must have at least one “Country” playlist or album. You must like at least one hillbilly Blue Grass song. Even Paul Kelly put out one Blue Grass album. And don’t tell me you don’t know who he is! Or how about Cajun music and zydeco from the Deep South. Orchestra perhaps or guitar riff? Bit of Opera, head banger beats, Beatles or a bit of Hip Hop, bit of sad blues or the weird Icelandic Cowboy song that goes very nicely with Icelandic Vodka.
You might feel you are becoming a prisoner of my music tastes! And isn’t this the Christian life, that as a prisoner for the Lord, we live with all the variety of ‘music’ that is out there, we embrace the good and look for the lovely in what at first glance seems ugly, we discern merit through the eyes of a compassionate Jesus, not our own tastes or judgements.
PRAYER
Jesus, Bless us with new ‘music’ to explore in all its complexity, give us budding ‘musicians’ to encourage, may we dance to the music knowing we are safe in the calling to be on the dance floor of life with you. Amen
Today's devotion written by Barb Niczynski, LifeWay Illawarra