God Gives Us What We Need, Not Necessarily What We Want

Today's Devotion: John 15:7 (New International Version) - If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

This particular verse is taken from the section in which Jesus uses the analogy of the vine and its branches to describe his relationship with his believers. It is often used to justify prosperity Gospel theology.

Today's Comments: What God gives to us is not necessarily what we ask for, but that which he feels that we need. For example, taking the analogy of the vine a bit further, we understand that for a plant to grow, it needs water and pruning. In the same way, God nurtures us, watching over us, making sure that we get that which we need for spiritual growth, while, at the same time, providing us with physical necessities. Just remember, Jesus and his disciples did not lead a normal life, in the sense that we do. Instead, they gave up everything--- their homes, families, and other good things in life--- and along the way Jesus provided them with nurture and their needs.

Blessings and Curses

Today's Devotion:Deuteronomy 28:1-2 (New International Version) - 1 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:

These are the words of Moses before the Israelites cross the Jordan River, into the promised land that God has given to them. It is a warning that God rewards those who obey Him and those who do not will receive their just punishment.

Today's Comments: Are we being punished for our misbehavior?

Yesterday, I attended a funeral of a long time parishioner. Father David, my pastor, asked me to do the graveside, my first true deaconal duty for the church. Although lay readers can perform commitments, this is not something that Father David asks us to do on a regular basis. The last time that I saw this done was more than twenty-five years ago, when I attended a graveside commitment done by Joe Arnold, a lay reader and Eucharistic Minister, like me, who was in the ordination process.

One of the guests, who was a minister in the Quaker Church was talking to me about the end times. He told me that he thinks that we are in them now. Of course, to the Lord, a minute can be a thousand years. But, will we see God's kingdom on earth within our lifetime? Is God becoming fed up with what he sees here, and is He ready to come back and take over. I reminded this guest, who also said that we Christians are moving to the left, away from God's will, toward man's, about the growth in orthodox and evangelical Christianity, especially in the Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist churches, while the mainstream churches are definitely moving to the left and are losing membership like the Episcopal Church.

So, will we finally right ourselves in our relationship with God, or will we continue in our apostasy as a nation and incur the curses that follow the verses in today's devotion? Only God knows, and only time will tell.

Man's Armor vs. God's

Today's Devotion: Ephesians 6:13-17 (New International Version) - 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The context of this message is in relationship to Paul's advice on proper Christian behavior. In his discussion, Paul points out that the devil's forces are at work in the Christian community and that we must arm ourselves with the protection that God has given to us in His word and in our relationship of prayer and worship. We cannot win this battle without His help.

Today's Comments: The Armor of God has been neglected in many, if not most, of the mainstream churches. Our total failure to understand this is leading us to ruin and depravity. Without our understanding and acceptance of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in scripture, we have absolutely nothing to put on except man's armor and shield. And man's armor and shield have chinks and holes that the forces of evil can penetrate. And man's sword is built for destroying man, not spirits of evil. Truth and righteousness come not from our reasoning, but from the breath of God. Without the Word of God working for us, we are doomed to dismal failure.

Jesus or Justice?

Today's Devotion: Colossians 3:17 (New International Version) -And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Paul, here, is talking about rules for holy living. And this is the summation of those rules that we should follow. If we do it in His name, then it will help us to be sure that which we do is good.

Today's Comments: As I think about Proposition 8, the Constitutional proposition that makes marriage a covenant or legal relationship between a man and a woman, I ask myself if that would be Jesus will. I think that the Bible certainly supports the fact that it is. Jesus' own comments in both Matthew and Mark refer the reader back to the book of Genesis and the reason in God's creation for men and women to be in relationship. What about those who opposed Proposition 8? I don't think that Jesus would support a boycott of Mormon and Christian organizations, nor would he want people to demonstrate in the streets, tying up traffic and police resources. This is a passage that applies to all of us. Whatever we should do, we should do in Jesus' name, not in the name of justice or anything else.

We All Need Mentors

Today's Devotion: 2 Timothy 1:4-7 (New International Version) - 4Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

This is the advice of a mentor to his mentee. It is the advice of a teacher to his student. It is the advice of the journeyman to his apprentice.

Today's Comments: Even sixty-five-year-olds need mentors. One of my mentors is Kevin Pittle, an intercultural studies professor at Biola who attends Blessed Sacrament, my home parish. Another is Larry Steele, a deacon in my church who is my spiritual advisor. Another is my priest, Father David, who has helped me to travel along this path. It is by our mentors that we become inspired and energized. Our mentors give us good advice, wisdom, and stir us to right thinking. Our parents are mentors. Our priest and pastors are mentors. For them, I thank God.

Today's Devotion: 1 Timothy 4:12 (New International Version) - Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

According to this passage, Timothy must have been younger than many of the other apostles. Age does not have a monopoly on wisdom. It is by our example that we are known as Christians.

Today's Comments: I haven't been much of a good Christian example lately. My girlfriend and I are going through a break-up, and I have said many things that I regret. At times, our anger consumes us, and it is difficult to set a Christian example when that happens. Our emails are nasty, and it sounds like two lawyers fighting a court battle. That is sad.

What is even sadder is that the Episcopal Church is doing the same thing. Except, instead of just emails, they are using real lawyers. Whether rightly or wrongly, parishes and dioceses have broken off from the Episcopal Church, and they are being prosecuted so that the Episcopal Church might reclaim and take over their property. Yes, this is very sad. Congregations who, with their hard earned money, have built churches are now seeing a denomination with which they no longer want to associate, take these churches away from them.

Our local bishop, Ed Little, who is shepherding my parish, Blessed Sacrament, under alternate Episcopal oversight says, "First, I believe that the withdrawals themselves are severely disordered. Schism never solves anything. When the unity which St. Paul talks about in Ephesians 4 is shattered, the Church’s ability to commend the Gospel is compromised, and almost inevitably further schism follows. Second, however, I am convinced that the Episcopal Church has responded to the withdrawals in an awkward and destructive manner. Since some of our brothers and sisters are leaving – that’s a “fact on the ground” – it is better, I think, to allow them to depart peacefully and without recrimination. Instead, the withdrawals have been accompanied by canonical actions. The House of Bishops deposed the departing bishops (Bishop John-David Schofield of San Joaquin, Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh, and retired Suffragan Bishop William Cox) and hundreds of priests and deacons have been deposed by their dioceses. In addition, lawsuits have been filed against departing parishes and dioceses, with legal fees whose price tag already runs in the multiple millions of dollars. These actions will sow a harvest of bitterness and may well close the door to the reconciliation for which we all yearn."

Trust

Today's Devotion: Luke 16:10 (New International Version) - Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. The parable of the shrewd manager provides the context for this statement. We are God's stewards, and if we properly carry out our stewardship, we must be as honest in the small things as we are in the big things.

Today's Comments: Interestingly enough, today's economy illustrates the example provided by the parable of the shrewd manager. What started out as a situation in which a few people decided to bend the rules of prudence and honesty resulted in the breakdown of our economic and banking system. The breakdown was progressive, probably starting with a few people bending the rules and then grew as greed set in and as they and others sought to bend the rules further. What we sowed became that which we reaped.

Preach Forgiveness, Not Justice

Today's Devotion: Ephesians 4:31-32 (New International Version) - 31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

In this passage, Paul is talking about God's people as children of light.

Today's Comments: Most people expect Christians to be different than non-Christians. Yet, sometimes we don't appear to be. Why? We are like all other humans: conceived in sin, and that same sin that affects everybody else affects us. It is only when we take the advice above that we are able to be a light to the world and to others who we would like to join us in our community of worship. Instead of preaching justice, we need to preach forgiveness.

We Are Branches of Christ

Today's Devotion: John 15:8 (New International Version) - This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. It is through our membership in Christ's body that we bear the fruits of our labor. Without Him, we are nothing.

Today's Comments: We are the branches of that vine that is described in John 15. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches, and it is God the Father, Himself, that is the gardener, clipping off the dead and decayed branches. It is through our relationship with Jesus that we bear fruit in our lives. If we separate ourselves from Him, we become nothing and will become a casualty of the pruning process.

I just received a call from the Headquarters of the Los Angeles Diocese of the Episcopal Church informing me of their formal intention to ordain me as a Vocational Deacon on January 24th of next year, at St. Michael's and All Angels Church in Studio City. I pray that God will find me worthy of this ministry and that I will be blessed with understanding and wisdom to do His will, and that my fruit will glorify Him.

Teaching

Today's Devotion: Hebrews 5:12 (New International Version) - 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! We can't be teachers until we learn what to teach and how to teach, can we?

Today's Comments: In my opinion, many of our churches are teaching the wrong things. We are teaching that man's call for fairness and justice are more important than God's call for sanctification. We are teaching that man's definition of marriage is more important than the definition that Jesus refers to in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, when the Pharisees questioned Him about divorce.

It is amazing that one of my fraternity brothers, who is a Presbyterian minister referred to the sin at Sodom and Gomorrah as one involving hospitality. If this is the kind of Christianity that we are teaching, no wonder we are having serious problems in this world. Instead, we need to pray that our learning gives us true wisdom and that we can use that wisdom for the proclamation of truth in the Gospel and the preaching of God's Kingdom here on Earth.

Today's Devotion: Mark 10:51 (New International Version) - "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." This is the story of Blind Bartimaeus, whom Jesus healed by giving him sight. In the next verse, Jesus says, "Your faith has healed you."

Today's Comments: Has our faith healed us? Today, we live in such a messy world that we need our faith to heal us more than ever before. We need to ask ourselves, "What do we want Jesus to do for us?" And then, when he does it, we must follow Him in obedience to do His will, remembering that he has already told us to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind" and, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Be Imitators

Today's Devotion: Ephesians 5:1 (New International Version) - Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children. The writer of this book is telling us how we should behave as Christians. We have a model in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Today's Comments: In Verse 21, the Epistler states: "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." I am afraid that neither I nor others whom I know do a very good job of this, for if we followed the writer's advice, we would not have the conflict in our church that we are experiencing. Yesterday, the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas officially separated from the Episcopal Church USA and realigned itself with the Southern Cone Province in South America. Next Saturday night, Greg Peters, my esteemed colleague and my Anglican Studies Professor, is going to be ordained as a Deacon in the Anglican Province of Rwanda. Both Fr. Earle Fox and Fr. Jeff Logan (LCDR, USN) are assistants at my church but now belong to Southern Cone. Does God wants His chosen people to scatter, or does He want us to profess one faith in one Church? I think that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews is giving us good advice, when he says, "15Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is."

Paul's Advice to Timothy

Today's Devotion: 1 Timothy 6:11-12 (New International Version) - 11But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

This is Paul's Charge to Timothy. It is also God's charge to us. It is also Paul's charge to the new minister, Timothy, whom Paul has entrusted as a minister of the faith.

Today's Comments: Last Friday, I received a call from my Spiritual Shepherd, Larry Steele, who told me that the Committee for the Deaconate had recommended my ordination to the Standing Committee on the Ministry. One more hurdle to ordination had been eliminated. Then, on Saturday, I went to a Deanery meeting (Episcopal parishes within our geographical area), and I ran into somebody that I had met at a Blessed Sacrament dinner. I didn't know her name, but I know that she was a friend of Father David's my Pastor, and asked me how I was doing in my ministry. I told her that Larry had called me, but I was still waiting for an OK from the Church's Commission on Ministry. Her reply was that I should not worry, because the Commission was aware of my ministry and would definitely approve it. It turns out, she is the chair person of that commission. So, the reader of this blog can see that this passage is applies to me as much as it applied to Timothy, then. I pray that I will be worthy of the calling that God has given to me.

Apostasy Continues

Today's Devotion: Malachi 3:16 (New International Version) - Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name.

In this chapter, the prophet has been talking about those who continue to turn away from him and the few that have kept the faith among the Israelites. It is the few that will be rewarded.

Today's Comment: Apostasy continues, just as it did during Old Testament times. God's chosen people continue to ignore their God. Isn't it amazing that even after the Babylonian Exile and the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple, that God's people continued to disobey Him? While Malachi spoke to those in his day, he still speaks to us today. We have forsaken God for worldly wealth and sexual pleasure, for greed and gluttony. We have spoiled ourselves and shoved our God from the center of our lives. It is time to bring Him back.

God Gives Us What We Need

Today's Devotion: Psalm 112:1-3 (New International Version) - 1[a] Praise the LORD. [b] 2 His children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.

Some use this psalm as justification for their preaching on the prosperity Gospel. Whether God intends to bless us with spiritual wealth or physical wealth is up to Him. Suffice it to say, God will always give us what He thinks that we will need, if we just ask him.

Today's Comments: Today, we often fail to ask God to give us what we need. Instead, we ask God for those things that we think that we need. No wonder we have so many problems. I think that the hardest thing that we can learn to do is to give things to God and then take His advice when he answers us.

Today's Devotion: Hebrews 12:1-2 (New International Version) - 1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

This doesn't mean that everything is going to be easy. For, the chapter goes on to say that we will face adversity and there may be discipline by God involved. After all, as it later states, "God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?"

Today's Comments: Today, how much do we really run that race that the writer talks about, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus? Sometimes it seems like our eyes are fixed on man's desires, not God's. And our failure is one of the reasons this world is in such a fix. We will continue to have angst and anger among ourselves and toward each other. And God will find it necessary to discipline us even more. Because if he does not discipline us, then he will abandon us, and we will no longer be His children.

God's Protection for His People

Today's Devotion: Isaiah 54:17 (New International Version) - no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me," declares the LORD.

God spoke these words to His chosen people. The power of the Lord is on our side. He keeps his promises and protects his chosen people.

Today's Comments: I have been rather remiss in keeping up my blog. My primary excuse is because I have been so busy with school work. However, for the first time in a long while, I feel a bit less pressure and so I am going to try to make a better effort to continue my writing.

Suffice it to say, we are also God's chosen people, and we are protected by God's power and might. War is not physical; it is spiritual, as well. And there is a lot of spiritual warfare going on around us. As a result, we need to pray for God's protection, and we need to obey his commandments.

Proposition 8 is a good example of one of the issues that is eating at our very souls. I just finished my term paper for Theology 1 entitled The Doctrine of God and the Definition of Marriage. In it, I attempt to show that there is nothing biblical about same-sex marriage. Instead, in my opinion, our society has become so corrupted since the fall of man, that which is considered by God as vile and sinful, has become acceptable, because man has put himself at the center of his worship and has pushed God away. And, considering the escalation of court ordered social changes, we may need God's protection before the whole thing is over. Let us pray, therefore, that, in our acts of disobedience, that God does not abandon us as His people.