The upward call

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TODAY'S SPECIAL: Philippians 3-4; Psalm 12

TO CHEW ON: "Not that I have already attained or am already perfect, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me." Philippians 3:12

For those of us who believe God has a plan and purpose for each individual life, this is an interesting verse to puzzle over and explore. It sounds like Paul here is striving ("press on") to  understand ("lay hold of") that destiny, purpose, or life work for which God "laid hold of" him (love the wordplay!).

Don't we all want to discover the same thing? Why did God draw me to Himself yet leave me on this earth? How am I meant to spend my time here?

Pressing toward the goal of the resurrected life

A question we ask as we begin to slice and dice this verse is, what is Paul referring to when he says, "Not that I have already attained" - Philippians 3:12? To what has he not attained?

A hint of what he is striving to attain is found in Philippians 3:11: "… if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead."

He seems to be telling us he hasn't attained to the resurrection of the dead (obviously, because he's not dead) but also, if we read further on, that to a point this resurrected life can be realized in this life ("Nevertheless to the degree that we have already attained…" - Philippians 3:16) though the real essence of it is to come ("For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior … who will transform our lowly body…" etc. Philippians 3:20,21). So he appears to be striving, as much as possible, to live the resurrected life during his mortal life.

How to make progress toward that goal

Paul goes on to list some things he does to make progress toward the goal of living the resurrected life here on earth:

• He leaves the past behind - Philippians 3:13.

• He keeps the goal in mind, that final goal of getting "the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." In other words, receiving God's commendation for fulfilling the destiny for which he was saved - Philippians 3:14.

• He works for unity with fellow Christians - Philippians 3:15,16.

• He seeks to live what he preaches, i.e. set an example that others can follow - Philippians 3:17.

• He reminds himself of his real citizenship - Philippians 3:20.

In the light of today's passage I ask myself, what is my goal? What is yours? Some earthly glory or perk, comfort or pleasure? Or does it involve some of the things Paul dreams of: God's "Well done"? The resurrection life future, and present? And what does how we live say about the goals we really have (not just claim to have)?


PRAYER: Dear God, please tattoo permanently into my spirit the truth of my identity and destiny in You. Help me begin living out the resurrected life here on earth. Amen

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 12

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Three life lessons from Jeremiah

Jeremiah - Artist unknown

Happy Father's Day!

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Jeremiah 1-3; Psalm 13

TO CHEW ON: "But the Lord said to me: 'Do not say "I am a youth,"
For you shall go to all to whom I send you
And whatever I command you, you shall speak.' " Jeremiah 1:7

In ten short verses Jeremiah gives us three lessons for a lifetime. They were truths from God to him that would guide, comfort, and goad him on through the reign of Judah's last five kings.

Lesson 1 - His life was planned - Jeremiah 1:5.
God told Jeremiah he was no accident. His ministry and assignment were part of God's design. Before he was even conceived God knew him and set him apart for his unique job as a prophet to the nations.

Lesson 2 - His natural shortcomings were no problem - Jeremiah 1:7.
Jeremiah objected to this assignment. He wasn't a speaker. He was too young. God allayed all his fears with the promise of His presence.

Lesson 3 - His ministry could have an impact far beyond what would be expected - Jeremiah 1:9,10.
Who would listen to a young, single prophet of Judah? Yet God's promise that He would supply Jeremiah's words meant that they would have divine authority over nations and kingdoms.

Though God will not give any of us the assignment He gave Jeremiah, I believe the lessons behind the specifics of Jeremiah's life apply to us too.

1. We are not accidents either. God has a plan and destiny for each one of us. I love Ephesians 2:10 in this regard:

For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us] - AMP version.

2. Neither are our shortcomings a problem to God. Our excuses (I'm too old, too uneducated, too poorly connected, too old-fashioned etc.) might just be a benefit in that they show off who is really working through us.

But we have this precious treasure [the good news about salvation] in [unworthy] earthen vessels [of human frailty], so that the grandeur and surpassing greatness of the power will be [shown to be] from God [His sufficiency] and not from ourselves - 2 Corinthians 4:7 AMP.

3. Our lives can also have a way bigger impact and our words have more authority than common sense says they should. Jesus' many teachings on the power of prayer  (e.g. Matthew 6:6) as well as His words to Peter and the disciples come to mind:

I assure you and most solemnly say to you, whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful] on earth shall have [already] been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit, declare lawful] on earth shall have [already] been loosed in heaven - Matthew 18:18 AMP.

As we face our life assignments and big and little, let's relate the life lessons God gave Jeremiah to our lives and find purpose, courage and hope in them.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You that You knew me before I ever existed, that You have a purpose for my life, and that You are and will be the means of fulfilling it. Amen. 

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 13

The Bible Project VIDEO: Jeremiah (Read Scripture series)





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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.


Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible,
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

My destiny: God's choice or mine?

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TODAY'S SPECIAL: Romans 9:1-18

TO CHEW ON: "As it is written, 'Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated'" - Romans 9:13

"Loved"? "Hated"? Paul is here quoting the strong words of the prophet Malachi (Malachi 1:2-3). They bring up a lot of questions.

"'Loved ... hated' are not to be understood in their normal sense. They are best understood 'chose...rejected' based on the fact that God knew Jacob would better further His will," Wayne Grudem, study notes to Romans in the  New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1564).

In today's reading we bump head-on into one of the mysteries of the Bible and Christianity: If God makes everything, knows everything, is righteous and loving, how is He fair when He rejects some (like Esau), or when He creates some for destruction (like Pharaoh - Romans 9:17)?

Paul himself acknowledges the logical difficulty:

"So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?”

When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? - NLT - Romans 9:18-21.

Apparently you and I don't have any choice in the matter—or do we?

When we think it through, we realize that God's appointment of our final destiny is only the ultimate in a myriad of decisions God has made about us from the decision to give us life in the first place, to which family we belong to, country we're born in, what sex we are, whether our eyes are blue or brown, our IQ low or high, and on and on. It's impossible for us as creatures to comprehend the whys and wherefores of an all-knowing, all-powerful, all righteous, and all-loving Creator. From God's viewpoint, my life is entirely planned and set, as if it had already happened (Psalm 139:15-16).

However, from my viewpoint as a creature, I have choices and the Bible also bears that out: John 7:17; Hebrews 3:7-8; Hebrews 4:7.

H. C. Thiessen, in his Lectures in Systematic Theology, describes a way of reconciling God's sovereignty and man's choice in this bit:

"Man's part and God's part seem to be brought together in John 1:12,13: "But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe in his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Man has the grace to accept Him or to reject Him. If he accepts Christ, God gives him the right to become a child of God by regenerating him; if he rejects Christ, he remains under the wrath of God. God's grace enables man to accept Christ, but it does not constrain him to do so.


"'As they went, they were cleansed' (Luke 17:14) is a principle that applies here also. As a man shows the least willingness to obey God, He gives him repentance and faith" - H. C. Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, p. 231.

I personally don't spend time worrying about whether I'm one of the chosen or rejected, from God's point of view. Rather I do what is in my seeming power and ability to do. I chose to accept His salvation when I was eight years old and daily try to make the choices that confirm Him as Lord of my life.

What about you?

PRAYER: Dear God, Your ways are beyond my comprehension. Help me to daily accept and live in the grace You extend, making choices that are in line with Your will as revealed in Your word. Amen.

MORE: Calvinism vs. Arminianism

Throughout church history Christians have tended to coalesce around two opposing viewpoints regarding the sovereignty of God and the free will of man in the matter of salvation. Calvinists emphasize God's sovereignty while Arminians focus on man's freedom of choice.

"Calvinism vs. Arminianism - which view is correct?" is a brief explanation of the position of each.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Your life—a finished story

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Ephesians 1:1-23

TO CHEW ON: "… He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Ephesians 1:4

Do you realize that your life's course is old news, a finished story, a foreordained destiny to God? One word the Bible uses to describe this is predestine (predestined/predestination).

[Predestine, from pre - before, and destiny. It means to destine or decree beforehand. Predestined: to foreordain by divine decree or purpose - Funk and Wagnall's Dictionary]

Here are some things the Bible says about His predestination (some other words used to express this concept are election, foreknowledge and foreordained):

1. God has something in mind for each person He created - Proverbs 16:4. For example, Paul explains the fate of Jacob and Esau on the basis of each having a foreordained place in God's plan - Romans 9:11.

2. God's plan of salvation as it unfolded in history with all its characters playing their parts was predestined - Acts 4:27-28.

3. Jesus was "foreordained before the foundation of the world" to be our sacrificial "lamb without blemish and without spot" - 1 Peter 1:18-20.
 
4. We—Paul's first century readers, down to us Christ followers all these millennia later are chosen, were chosen "before the foundation of the world for holiness" - Ephesians 1:4 (our focus verse).

5. We're called to be changed people, known and predestined to "… be conformed to the image of His Son" - Romans 8:28,29.

6. We're predestined to adoption as Sons by Jesus Christ to Himself - Ephesians 1:5.

7. God has good works planned beforehand for us to accomplish - Ephesians 2:10.

8. Our inheritance is predestined according to His purpose - Ephesians 1:11.

10. The church is part of God's predestined plan and the means, Paul says, to make God's plan known to demons and angels - Ephesians 3:10.

When we try to completely understand the idea of God's predestining of events and lives, we run smack into a wall of human thought limitation. We ask, how can a just God predestine some lives for wicked evil purposes that will take them to a bad end? Isn't that unjust? On the other hand, we ask, how can an omniscient God not know the path that every person will  take, the choices they will make?

The way I harmonize the Bible's teaching on God's predestination / foreknowledge / election with His justice is to reflect that as far as I'm concerned I have choices. I am not aware of a Divine Puppet-master, pulling my strings.  You too have choices. Everyone on this planet has choices. The choices we make in this life reveal and prove what God knew/knows about us all along—our pre-destiny.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for being bigger than my mind can comprehend. May my life today, the way I live and the choices I make, demonstrate that I am Yours. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

A Christian's call

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Galatians 1:13-24

TO CHEW ON: "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you …. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace…" Galatians 1:6, 15

A little over a week ago we began our reading in Galatians by looking at Paul's strong sense of authority ( the devo "Who says so?").

In our reading today he continues to give his credentials. He refers to God's call on his life (Galatians 1:6,15). It was a call that began, for him, with a dramatic conversion (Acts 9:1-19). It also involved some one-to-one time with God (Galatians 1:17,18). For instead of going for instructions about this change of direction to the apostles, he went to Asia where "God revealed to him the substance of the gospel" - Jerry Horner, study notes on Galatians, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1632. 


God's call on a life

God's call on a Christian's life is a theme that runs through the Bible. It is especially present in Paul's writings, but in others too. What does it mean to be called? Do we in the 21st century have a similar 'separated from my mother's womb' mark on our lives?

I did a brief survey of Bible passages that refer to calling (defined in the Thompson Chain Bible under the category "Calling" as "a sense of divine appointment"). Here are some things I learned:

1. It is God who calls.

• Paul talks about God choosing him from before birth (Galatians 1:15) and choosing people for salvation (2 Thessalonians 2:14). He begins Romans with the reminder that his readers are "called to be saints" (Romans 1:7).

• It is a choice based not on our merits or good works but "according to His own purpose and grace" (2 Timothy 1:9). In fact the reason God chose us may make no sense us and others (1 Corinthians 1:26).

We can look at God's call from two points of view: God's and ours.

2. From God's point of view, His call involves:

• His foreknowledge and are our pre-destiny. They are the basis of the assurance that no matter how badly things seem to be going,  "all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28-30).

• God's call is good and allows us to live with hope (Ephesians 1:18).

• Peter talks about the called as those destined to experience Jesus' "eternal glory" (1 Peter 5:10).

3. From our point of view, God's call will impact the way we live.

• Paul urges the Ephesus Christians to walk worthy of their calling (Ephesians 4:1,2).

• In another place he describes the called as Christ's slaves (1 Corinthians 7:22).

• Peter urges his readers to "make your call and election sure" by living like called ones. Even though we may suffer, the perseverance of our calling will establish, strengthen and settle us (1 Peter 5:10).

• Peter also lists the positive fruits that will grow in the lives of the called—knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, and love. (2 Peter 1:5-7).

4. But the called can also forsake their calling.

• Many of Jesus' early disciples did (John 6:65).

• Paul in our reading is surprised that the Galatians are doing that very thing (Galatians 1:6).

The mystery of whether those who forsake their call (e.g. backslide) were never called in the first place (God's election and predestination) is in God's hands. As far as we are concerned, we have choices to make. Let's affirm God's call on our lives by living like called ones.

PRAYER: Dear God, what an amazing thing it is to think about Your call on the lives of unworthy, unlikely people. Thank You for making this life of hope and a wonderful eternal destiny available to me. Amen.

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The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. - Used with permission.

God's voice in the key of nature

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 29:1-11

TO CHEW ON: "The voice of the Lord is powerful;

The voice of the Lord is full of majesty." - Psalm 29:4

I loved thunderstorms when I was growing up on a Saskatchewan farm (loved with just a tinge of fear). My parents treated them with respect. If one rolled in overnight, they herded us all from our upstairs bedrooms into the living-room to sleep on pullout couches, so I knew they could be dangerous. (In fact, some tall prairie houses were built with a lightning rod. Ours didn't have one so perhaps our parents' fear for our safety on the upper story was well founded).

I remember not being able to keep my eyes from the window as I waited for the next burst of light followed by the crack-crash-rumble of thunder. I felt safe and secure, like an onlooker, curious, even excited to see how bad this would get. (The wind, with its ability to knock things down and rattle them around, scared me more than the thunder.)

David in this psalm seems to write from a similar vantage point of safety, even detachment. With poetic details he word-paints cataclysmic acts of nature:

• Storm: "The God of glory thunders / The Lord is over many waters" (vs. 3).
• Earthquake: "The Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon / He makes them also skip like a calf" (vs. 5-6).
• Wildfire: "The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire" (vs. 7).

However, nowhere in this Psalm does David attribute God-like qualities to nature in a pantheistic way. A footnote in my Bible comments:

"There is no evidence of superstitious fears as in pagan cultures (Jonah 1:4-6), nor is God equated with the storm and thunder as polytheistic religious depict; but here God is above and over nature commanding it with His spoken word as at creation (Genesis 1)" - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 707.

We all know that natural events can bring with them devastation and death to believers and nonbelievers alike. The note of peace on which this psalm ends ("The Lord will give strength to His people; / The Lord will bless His people with peace.") reminds us that we can ultimately trust God who is behind and allows both the calm and the storm. They are part of His conforming us into the people of His destiny:

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son" - Romans 8:28, 29.

PRAYER: Dear God, Your power in nature can be fearful. I have only to see the after effects of an earthquake or tsunami to remind me of how puny I am. Help me to face whatever You allow into my life with peace, knowing that Your purposes for me in going through it are good and constructive. Amen.


MORE: Nature's power in pictures

The website Boston.com runs a feature called "The Big Picture: The News in Photographs." It contains sets of newsworthy photos. Below are links to some of the natural disasters our world has seen within the last few years (be patient; these are large files which take a little longer to load than some):

"Massive earthquake hits Japan" - photos of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami off the east coast of Japan.

"Remembering Katrina, five years ago" - photos of the August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina that devastated the Gulf Coast, centered on New Orleans.