"Two Words that Change Everything" October 7 Readings: Jeremiah 17-18, Ephesians 2, Psalm 113, Proverbs 24:21–22

Today's Readings - Jeremiah 17-18, Ephesians 2, Psalm 113, Proverbs 24:21–22

Devotional - Two Words that Change Everything 

It would be comforting to know someone who was immensely wealthy - and generous. I wouldn't have to worry about mortgages, student loans, credit cards, medical bills or anything else. If I had a problem, my wealthy and generous friend could take care of it. I wouldn't have to worry about what I didn't have; I could rely on what he did have.

I have a wealthy and generous companion, except, in Ephesians 2:7 it is not money or power that comprises his wealth, but grace. In Christ (there's that phrase again) he demonstrates to us the "immeasurable riches of his grace."

And it's a good thing that God is rich in grace because that is exactly what we need. Ephesians 2:1-3 described our natural condition as humans. It's not a pretty picture.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

Sin rendered us spiritually dead - that is serious, wouldn't you say? Because of our inborn sin, we tend to follow the ways of the world, going along with what everyone else is doing. We are subject to that deceptive spirit that is rooted in the work of Satan himself and enslaves humanity. Just as the first human pair, we choose what is wrong based on those lies and mess our lives up royally. Instead of living according to the righteousness of God, we follow the desires of our minds and bodies. The horrible result of that is found in verse 3 - we were "children of wrath" - awaiting the awful day when we would receive the just reward for our sinfulness.

Not a pretty picture, is it? 

But verse 4 has the two most important words in the Bible. "But God." God interfered to stop the victory of sin. He intervened to change the course of history. He did not leave us as we were, but went to war against the sin that had separated us from him. By sending his Son to die on the cross for our sins, God poured out the riches of his grace if full and unstinting measure. He didn't just give us a little grace. He didn't just give us a lot of grace. He lavished the riches of his grace on us, pouring it out in full measure. 

We didn't get a garden hose of grace, we got the firehose. No, we got Niagara Falls!

Verses 8 and 9 sum it all up in a very familiar way. 

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast. 

There is no room for me to boast. All I contributed was my sin, my failure, my depravity. God did everything else. It is all by grace without any mixture of my own works. What an amazing salvation we have been given by the riches of God's grace. 

We are the workmanship of the master craftsman, who builds us by his grace so that we might be ready to do the good works he has prepared us to do. From start to finish, it is all by God's grace - his immeasurable riches of grace. 

Father, I thank you that my life, my hope, my future does not depend on my own abilities or my own goodness. I rejoice that I am bathed in your immeasurable grace.

Think and Pray

Which of the readings spoke most powerfully to you today?
Is the Spirit of God moving you to repent of something you are doing, to begin something new, or to change something about your life as a result of your readings? What?

Rejoice today that God has interfered in your life with his grace!
Have you ever heard someone say, "But for the grace of God...." Think for a moment where you might be if God had not intervened, if he had not poured out his grace.
Thank God for all he has done for you.

"Blessed" October 6 Readings: Jeremiah 15-16, Ephesians 1, Psalm 112:7–10, Proverbs 24:19–20

Today's Readings - Jeremiah 15-16, Ephesians 1, Psalm 112:7–10, Proverbs 24:19–20

Devotional - Blessed

I really need a blessing today; how about you? Maybe, if we are good, God will pour out more and more blessings on us today, more than he did yesterday.

That's the way we think, isn't it? We long for blessings. We seek blessings from Jesus. We struggle to attain blessings from him. We wonder what we have to do to get more of them. But there is a problem with this view - it runs counter to what God's word says in Ephesians 1:3.

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.

Did you see that? It says that God HAS (past tense) blessed us with EVERY spiritual blessing we can expect. I already have every blessing I will ever receive from God.  

The key words in this passage appear here and several times throughout this section (verses 3-14) - two words that change everything. "In Christ." (Or, in him.) In him, we have every blessing God can give us. Why? Because Jesus doesn't give us blessings, he IS the blessing. When God gives us Christ, when we are "in him," we have everything we could want, everything we need. Our blessing is Jesus. 

What are some of those things we have "in Christ?" This passage tells us a few of them. 

• He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. (God chose us for his own and determined to make us blameless!)
• In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. (In Christ we are now part of God's heavenly family.) 
• In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. (We are forgiven in Christ.) 
• Making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (God has a plan to consummate history in Christ, and we are part of it!)
• In him, we have obtained an inheritance. (In Christ we inherit the riches of God's grace.)
• In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. (The Spirit is ours in Christ.)

So, when I have Christ, I don't really need anything else. He is all the blessing I will ever need. In him, I have all the blessings of eternity. 

Father, thank you for your great blessing, Jesus Christ my Savior and Lord. All I need from you I have in him. 

Think and Pray

Which of the readings spoke most powerfully to you today?
Is the Spirit of God moving you to repent of something you are doing, to begin something new, or to change something about your life as a result of your readings? What?


Do you think of Christ as a means to an end, a way to get stuff from God, or do you realize that Jesus is the blessing you have from God?
Meditate on that principle today!

"Comforting Liars" October 5 Readings: Jeremiah 13-14, Galatians 6, Psalm 112:1–6, Proverbs 24:17–18

Today's Readings - Jeremiah 13-14, Galatians 6, Psalm 112:1–6, Proverbs 24:17–18

Devotional - Comforting Liars 

In the Garden, Satan challenged the Word of God and claimed that God was not speaking the truth. God had said that on the day that they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die. "You shall not die," the Serpent countered. God won't really judge you. Your sin will not have consequences. 

He has been telling the same lie ever since. "A God of love wouldn't judge people." "God made you just like you are - he won't be angry if you just do what makes you happy." We hear it all the time. It has become a mantra of progressive evangelicalism today - de-emphasizing sin and denying that God will judge sin. 

Jeremiah observed the same thing among the false prophets of Judah in the days before the destruction of the Temple, in Jeremiah 14:13-14. 

And I replied, “Oh no, Lord God! The prophets are telling them, ‘You won’t see sword or suffer famine. I will certainly give you lasting peace in this place.’”

14 But the Lord said to me, “These prophets are prophesying a lie in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, worthless divination, the deceit of their own minds.

To curry favor with their hearers, the false prophets denied the coming judgment of God. They created their own fantasy version of God that had no basis in the true revelation of God. It is the most common critique that the true prophets give of the false prophets in the Old Testament era. While God was warning his people of the consequences of their sin and calling them to repent, the false prophets were comforting God's people that all would be well no matter how they lived. 

No proclaimer of God's truth enjoys preaching judgment and condemnation, but if one is loyal to the word of God, it is unavoidable. God is holy and sin is an offense against his nature. It must be punished - the wages of sin is death. Every sin we commit carries with it the eternal death penalty that God promised in the Garden. 

Is God mean? Angry? Spiteful? No! But his holiness is undeniable. and it is this foundation upon which God's love is most clearly seen. Jesus died to pay the price that we owed God. Without a proper understanding of God's wrath, the crucifixion of Christ loses meaning. God demonstrated his love for us by sending his Son to pay the price his holiness demanded for our sins. 

False prophets ignore this. They preach an empty salvation without judgment or repentance. They preach God's love without providing the background of God's holy wrath as the Bible does. They excuse sin. They affirm our natural condition without calling us to repent of our sins. 

False prophets have not changed much since the first one seduced the first humans. Still, they proclaim a message of love without standards, of salvation without repentance, of a grace that ignores sin instead of overcoming it, of the absence of wrath and judgment instead of the substitutionary atonement of Christ. 

Father, my sin is real. I thank you that Jesus did not ignore my sin, but he defeated it. 

Think and Pray

Which of the readings spoke most powerfully to you today?
Is the Spirit of God moving you to repent of something you are doing, to begin something new, or to change something about your life as a result of your readings? What?

Do you listen to the word of God, even the hard things it teaches, or do you ignore it and only hear what you want, what feeds your ego and affirms your lifestyle?
Do you listen to preachers who say what you want to hear?

"Spirit vs. Flesh" October 4 Readings: Jeremiah 11-12, Galatians 5, Psalm 111, Proverbs 24:13–16

Today's Readings - Jeremiah 11-12, Galatians 5, Psalm 111, Proverbs 24:13–16

Devotional - Spirit vs. Flesh 

Are you walking in the flesh or in the power of the Spirit? It is not hard to tell. In Galatians 5, Paul describes both clearly and the difference is not hard to discern. Those who have been redeemed are called to walk in the freedom of Christ and not under the power of the flesh.

In verse 1, Paul warns the Galatians against regressing from the high standing they have achieved by God's grace to a life lived by the works of the law and the slavery that brings. In verses 2-15, Paul explains the tragedy of such a choice - having experienced God's grace and then returning to walking in the flesh and living by works.

Then, in verses 16-24, Paul clearly differentiates the life of the flesh and the life of the Spirit. He begins with a warning against gratifying the desires of the flesh because they stand in opposition to the fruit of the Spirit.

Simply put, there is a clear and unmistakable difference between how someone acts when they are walking in the flesh and walking in the Spirit. It's one or the other. Paul lists the things that mark those who are walking in the flesh.

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy,outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (19-21)

But the Spirit produces a different kind of fruit. 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The law is not against such things. (22-23)

Are you walking in the flesh or in the Spirit? It's not that hard to discern. If your life is marked by the behaviors on the first list, you are squandering the grace of God by walking in the power of the flesh, the old nature that Jesus died to defeat. If you are walking in the Spirit, your life will evidence love and joy and peace and all the rest. 

Father, may your Spirit produce fruit in my life, the fruit of Christ, that the works of the flesh might be destroyed. 

Think and Pray

Which of the readings spoke most powerfully to you today?
Is the Spirit of God moving you to repent of something you are doing, to begin something new, or to change something about your life as a result of your readings? What?

Read through the two lists - the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. Which list best describes your life? Are you walking in the power of the flesh or the fullness of the Spirit?

"Adopted" October 3 Readings: Jeremiah 9-10, Galatians 4, Psalm 110, Proverbs 24:10-12

Today's Readings - Jeremiah 9-10, Galatians 4, Psalm 110, Proverbs 24:10-12

Devotional - Adopted

The Bible has many metaphors of salvation, each of which tells a grand truth and is a unique part of the work of Christ in us. God SAVES us - rescuing us from the threat brought on by our own sin, which separated us from God and destined us for eternal hell. He also REDEEMED us, purchasing our lives with the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ. That blood CLEANSES us from sin. We are BORN AGAIN by God's grace - given new life and made new creatures in Christ. 

Then, in Galatians 4:4-6. Paul used another metaphor for the grace of God that brings salvation - ADOPTION. 

When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” 

Adoption is not a difficult concept. A child is born into one family, then another family comes along, for a variety of reasons, and adopts the child. That child now is a part of the new family and ties to the old family are generally severed. You cannot get a better picture of salvation than that. 

Because of sin, we are born into the family of this world - this sinful, fallen, hell-bent world. We are part of the family - looking like our family, acting like our family, living like our family. Then along comes God the Father, who says, "I want you to be part of my family." He sent Jesus Christ into the world (at just the right time - see below) to do everything that needed to be done to secure our salvation. Then, he sent the Holy Spirit to woo us and invite us to join God's family. When we repent and believe in Jesus Christ, the adoption papers are signed and we who were part of the family of sinners are now part of God's family of grace. 

And that carries with it a beautiful privilege. We get to call God our "Father." Abba. God is not some distant ruler who cannot be accessed or approached. He is our Abba, our Father in heaven, who loves us and receives us and provides for us and...well, so much more. 

Oh, and one more thing, revealed in verse 7. 

So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.

We are not only part of God's family, but we are heirs of the Father, destined to inherit what belongs to him. Think about that - Dave Miller, a sinner, weak, unworthy, flawed in so many ways, destined to inherit the world because I have been adopted by grace into the Father's family. 

Wow. Wow. Wow. Did I mention, wow? 

Imagine a child born to a family of impoverished, low-class thieves and con artists. His destiny is to grow up and join the family business. But one day a rich man traveling through town sees the poor child and "redeems" him from his family. He adopts the child and brings him to live in his glorious home, in a place of privilege. He instructs him about how things are in this new home, using love and discipline to cause him to leave behind the dishonest ways of his birth family and to adopt the ways of his new home. He is an heir to all that his new father has and slowly becomes a part of his new family, living out their values. 

That is pretty much what salvation in Christ is like. Thank God, today, that he took you from your birth family - the world of sin - and brought you into his glorious family through adoption. 

Father. Father. Father! The privilege of calling you that is beyond anything I deserve. Thank you for adopting me, for including me in Christ and in your family. May I, every day, became more like you and live out the values of my heavenly home!

Think and Pray

Which of the readings spoke most powerfully to you today?
Is the Spirit of God moving you to repent of something you are doing, to begin something new, or to change something about your life as a result of your readings? What?

Thank God today that you are adopted in Christ, that you are a joint-heir with him and part of God's eternal family through the grace of God.

"United" October 2 Readings: Jeremiah 7-8, Galatians 3:15–29, Psalm 109:28–31, Proverbs 24:8-9

Today's Readings - Jeremiah 7-8, Galatians 3:15–29, Psalm 109:28–31, Proverbs 24:8-9

Devotional - United 

Human beings have a natural compulsion to divide. It is part of our fallen nature, I suppose. Sometimes it is harmless - like the way we divide up on fall Saturdays and Sundays to cheer for our favorite teams (and to hate our rivals as well). Sometimes, it can be pretty serious, such as political divisions. Sometimes, division is shameful, like the social and economic divisions that politicians prey on so often - us vs. them, rich vs. poor. Sometimes those divisions become downright evil. Hitler divided the world between the Aryan and non-Aryan races. For hundreds of years, American society treated blacks as just a little below human. Division is a part of our nature.

It is nothing new. Paul addressed these divisions in Galatians 3:27-29. 

 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.

When Christ enters a life, human divisions mean nothing before the Cross. There was an ancient hostility between Jews and Greeks, but in Christ, the enmity falls away. Jews are still Jews and Greeks are still Greeks, but racial divisions become less significant than spiritual unity. In Christ, the slave and the free came together in unity. The slaves (generally an economic structure in that culture) did not automatically become free when they came to Christ, but the unity that Christ brought meant more to them than the economic structures that divided them. Men and women were still men and women, but in Christ, they are one. This does not negate other biblical teachings about the roles of men and women, but it teaches that at the foot of the Cross, whether one is a man or woman matters not at all. What matters is that you belong to Christ. 

In the church, that which unites us - our common experience in Christ - ought to matter more than anything in this world that tears us apart. 

Would that it were so. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3 that division and schism are markers of immature Christianity. If that is so (and it is), then American Christianity is badly in need of maturity. We are so quick to divide based on human factors rather than uniting around our spiritual experience in Christ. We elevate cultural preferences to the status of biblical mandates. We exalt our denominational differences to extreme levels. 

A friend of mine, Alan Cross, made a point that is very important. We sometimes talk about "building unity in the Body of Christ." That statement misses an important biblical reality. Christ died to redeem One Body. We have unity in Christ - we are joined together as the redeemed in our city, in all the world, even in all of time. We are united in Christ unless we allow our sinful and divisive nature to take over and we divide what God has united. We don't build unity, Christ does. We destroy unity when we allow the flesh to do its work. 

In Christ, human and cultural factors are never allowed to divide the redeemed. If we divide, it is because we are walking in the flesh instead of in the Spirit. When we do that, we destroy the unity of Christ in the church. 

Father, thank you for the unity we have in Christ. May I do nothing do destroy the unity in the Body that your Son died to build. 

Think and Pray

Which of the readings spoke most powerfully to you today?
Is the Spirit of God moving you to repent of something you are doing, to begin something new, or to change something about your life as a result of your readings? What?

"Curse of the Law" October 1 Readings: Jeremiah 5-6, Galatians 3:1–14, Psalm 109:20–27, Proverbs 24:5-7

Today's Readings - Jeremiah 5-6, Galatians 3:1–14, Psalm 109:20–27, Proverbs 24:5-7

Devotional - Curse of the Law 

It seems a strange statement when you realize that God himself inscribed the Ten Commandments on a stone tablet. They were not a human creation but divine revelation. How, then, can Paul look at the Law of God and call it a curse?

 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse.  Galatians 3:10

The Law of God, written by God's finger, becomes a curse to those who rely on it and live their lives by it - the words of God are a curse to those who hear them. Strange and strange.

Fortunately, Paul explains exactly what he means by this statement, in the second half of verse 10.

“Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed” 

There is no flaw in the Law - it reveals the character of God and his commands for how human beings ought to live. If you want to earn the favor of God and work for a ticket to heaven, all you have to do is follow the law. Verse 12 says, "the one who does them shall live by them." The Law presented a path to human salvation by works. Follow the Law and you can earn heaven.

But that is the curse! You can't do it and neither can I. If you do not continue on a daily basis to do everything that is written in the book of the law, that which was a path of life becomes a source of condemnation.

Imagine that I have a million dollars (it will take some imagining!) and I offer that million to you. All you have to do is walk across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope like that guy did a while back. If you can walk across without falling, you get the million. One of you takes off and only makes it about 3 or 4 steps. Splat. Another walks 50 feet. Thunk. A third person walks a quarter of a mile. Plop. A fourth person walks all the way across the canyon until he is within 25 feet of the other side before he loses his balance. Is he any better off than the others? He made it farther but his fate is still sealed. Unless you can walk ALL THE WAY across the canyon, it doesn't much matter just how far across you can go.

You may be a better person than I and keep the law more carefully. But unless you can make it all the way, unless you can keep the law perfectly all of your life, the law is a curse. It condemns you not because it is wrong but because it reveals your sin and shows that you do, in fact, fall short of the glory of God.

But there is a reason for praise today, not despair. None of us stacks up against the Law, but "the righteous live by faith." God devised a plan in which we could receive salvation by grace and not by works. In fact, Paul makes it clear that not only are we saved by God's grace, but we live by it daily. Look back at verse 3.

Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh? 

The same God who saves us by grace through faith helps us to live daily by his grace through faith, by the power of the Spirit who dwells within.

That is the goodness of our God. He knew we couldn't make it across the Canyon, so he sent his perfect Son to walk across for us and give us grace - grace to live by now and forevermore.

Father, thank you for grace that saves me when my flesh failed. The law was a curse because of my sin, but you, through Christ, destroyed the curse and gave me life. praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Think and Pray

Which of the readings spoke most powerfully to you today?
Is the Spirit of God moving you to repent of something you are doing, to begin something new, or to change something about your life as a result of your readings? What?

Do you seek to please God in the flesh, in your own power, or do you rely on the power of Christ?
Thank God today that you have been freed from the curse of the law and been given life through the work of Christ on the cross.