A Healthy Sweet: July 9th Devotional

A Healthy Sweet

Psalm 119:103

July 9th Devotional

      Warning; today's day in history will make you hungry and is not supported by any major donut corporation :-) Today's date in history is extremely sweet   :-) It doesn't matter if you are dizzy for Dunkin, crazy for Krispy Kreme, craving Krumpies, or hankering for Home Run we can all agree that donuts have a place not just in our hearts but also in our stomachs. On this day in 1872, John Blondel of Thomastown Maine received a patent for a donut-cutting machine. The spring-loaded device was used to punch out the center hole of the donut. It served as a hole punch for donuts. Donuts were probably introduced to the colonies by the Dutch but they did not receive their now common round shape until the 1840s. While Blondel didn't invent the donut his ingenious invention would dramatically increase the production of this tasty food and much to our delight also increase their consumption.  Who doesn't love a donut? They have captivated our culture and have become a staple in our diet.  Estimates show that Americans eat around 10 billion donuts a year, or about 63 donuts per person, per year!

      While donuts are fantastically delicious they are also extremely bad for our diets. Most things that are sweet or taste good are not particularly good for us. But the Bible speaks about something sweeter than anything else and should be part of our daily consumption. This extremely sweet thing is also beneficial for our life and can be consumed without any negative consequences. Psalm 119:103 says "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" The word of God is sweet to our taste because it provides us with the words of life and direction. It is inspired by God and meant to be read and applied daily. The word of God is not something that we merely carry around, allowing it to collect bulletins from church on Sunday, or collect dust in our home. The word of God, like donuts, is sweetest when ingested. No one enjoys going to Krispy Kreme and watching the donuts made without eating them, nor should we as Christians be content having the word without reading it.

Testing the Teaching: March 26th Devotional

Testing the Teaching

1st John 4:1

March 26th Devotional

      On this day in 1997, authorities entered a mansion near San Diego.  What they found that day would forever haunt them.  They discovered the bodies of 21 women and 18 men dead.  Their ages, education, occupations, and lives were all different, but they were all found that fateful morning wearing matching dark clothing and wearing Nike shoes.  Their bags were packed neatly by their beds as if they were going to take a trip.  There was no blood, no signs of struggle, or trauma.  Many of the victims wrote letters or sent videotapes home explaining what was going to happen.  How did nearly 40 people die, all in a similar fashion?  They were all members of a cult called “Heaven’s Gate.”  The cult was created in 1974 by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, also known as Do and Ti.  They claimed to be the two prophets in the book of Revelation.  Their perverse teaching hinged on UFOs, New Age philosophy, and twisting of Biblical truth.  This cult’s teaching revolved around the idea that the human body could be released from its limited bonds and go to the ‘next level of evolution.’  The belief was that the body was merely a container or a vehicle for their soul until they could become a form of extraterrestrial.  Applewhite gained a small but dedicated group of followers over the years.  The group would nearly become extinct after making multiple false prophecies, that is until the 1990s.  In the year 1995, Applewhite became convinced that the comet Hale-Bopp was hiding a spaceship that was meant to transport his followers from this world.  His followers were reclusive and were forbidden from having contact with others outside of the cult's compound. They were denied many necessities and some even castrated themselves because they would no longer need their human body.  Hale-Bopp reached its closest and the group began a very systematic and orchestrated practice of ritualistic suicide.  Members assisted each other in drinking a poison that would take their lives.  This lasted for several days until the final two members died. There is only one major common thread among those 39 people who tragically died, they were all deceived by false teaching.  False teaching has always been prevalent.  It existed when the church was in its infancy and it will continue through the future. 

      Some false teaching is obviously wrong. It’s easy for most people to look at a UFO cult like Heaven’s Gate and say “how could someone believe that craziness?” But most false teaching isn’t as blatantly out there. Most false teaching is packaged to look Christian and Biblical.  The most successful and longest-lasting cults are those that mix a bit of false teaching with the truth.  How can a Christian know what is true and what’s not true?  How do you know that a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness, or any other group is wrong?  What is the basis of right and wrong doctrine and how do we gracefully minister to those that are currently under false teaching?  The Apostle John challenges us with these words “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world (1st John 4:1).”  John first tells the believer to not be naïve: don’t believe every spirit.  He’s saying that not everyone will be right, if anything many will be wrong. But what is the measuring stick by which we determine if something is believable or not?  We test the ‘spirits’ or the teaching.  The word test is unique.  The word means to try or scrutinize something.  It was a word used to test see if a material was real or fake.  As Christians, we need to try all teaching based solely on the entire Word of God.  Bogus teaching falls apart at the feet of the Scripture.  Cherry-picked verses rot when compared to the full authority of God’s Word.  John tells us to test all teaching with the Word of God to see if it is true or not.  Let’s not run to the newest craze or the hippest new preacher, instead let’s discern the message with the unfailing, unchanging Word of truth.  Let us be testers of teaching, not tasters.

Adrift: December 4th Devotional

 Adrift

Ephesians 4:14

December 4th Devotional

     On this day in 1872 the Canadian ship, Dei Gratia found an American ship named the Mary Celeste adrift, without a crew near the Azores Islands (Portugal).  The story of the Mary Celeste is wrapped in mystery.  The ship was originally built by Joshua Dewis in Nova Scotia in 1861 and was called the Amazon.  The ship was built to travel across the Atlantic Ocean to bring loads of timber to and from England and France.  The ship had a checkered history during that time.  Its first captain became sick on the first journey and had to return back to Canada.  He died shortly after.  The ship would endure multiple other problems until it was wrecked and abandoned in 1867.  The ship was salvaged, repurposed, and sold.  It would be renamed the “Mary Celeste.”  The ship’s new captain was Benjamin Briggs.  Briggs was an extremely capable seaman.  He was well-respected among his peers.  He had considerable experience and had spent more time at sea than on land.  He had considered retiring from the sea shortly before becoming captain of the renamed ship.  The ship was loaded down with nearly six months of supplies and was employed to travel to Genoa Italy.  The crew consisted of only ten people, including most of Briggs's family.  It set sail from New York on November 7^th, 1872.  The journey across the sea was anything but easy.  The captain’s log records that they endured rough seas for roughly two weeks.  Captain Morehouse of the Dei Gratia (By the Grace of God) spotted a ship that was obviously adrift.  Ironically the Dei Gratia was stationed near the Mary Celeste prior to sailing.  There is even a rumor that the captain of the two ships dined before setting sail.  Morehouse sent two crew members onto the ‘ghost ship’ to investigate.  The ship had obviously endured a rough journey but it was 100% seaworthy.  For the most part, nothing was touched on the ship.  There were ample supplies and nothing showed any wrongdoing.  The only thing missing was maps and the captain’s navigational equipment.  The last captain's log was from ten days earlier and nothing seemed amiss in it.  Morehouse brought the ship to Gibraltar where it would again be repurposed and used until 1885 when it was purposefully wrecked off the coast of Haiti in an insurance fraud claim.  

      The mystery of the Mary Celeste remains unsolved to this day.  There are multiple conspiracy theories on what happened, but no facts.  The only fact that remains is that the ship was adrift and the crew was lost.  Being adrift is always a danger.  There is a greater danger though, being adrift spiritually.  There are countless people who are rudderless and directionless spiritually.  The Bible warns about this in Ephesians 4:14, which says “as a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every win of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by the craftiness in deceitful scheming.”  Paul talks about people who are adrift spiritually.  They are adrift spiritually because they are not grounded in sound doctrine/teaching.  Sound teaching is like an anchor for our life.  It keeps us grounded when life’s storms come our way.  We obtain sound teaching from God’s Word.  Not just owning God’s Word, but actually reading and instilling God’s Word in our life.  Doctrine, while not necessarily popular or attractive as other areas of our faith, is vitally important to keep us from going adrift.  The world will blow winds of false teaching in our direction.  New ‘theology’ will crop up.  It will be ‘desirable’ and ‘attractive’, but it is destructive to our spiritual growth and undermines true, sound teaching.  Get grounded in God’s Word or you will go adrift.

Our Guide: April 3rd Devotional

Our Guide

John 16:33

April 3rd Devotional

      On this day in 1953 Triangle Productions introduced the world to the first official version of the TV Guide. Another version of a tv guide was published years earlier but it only contained information relevant to New York City. The magazine was a huge success in NYC and Triangle Publications purchased the rights to produce it on a more national basis. The first guide cover featured Lucille Ball and her baby, Desi Arnaz Jr. The picture was far from flattering but the publication was extremely well-received. The first TV Guide appeared on the newsstands in ten cities, costing .15c, and would go on to sell over 1.5 million copies. The first TV Guide was naturally a smaller magazine, consisting of only four main articles, a few reviews, and a schedule for shows running from April 3rd through April 9th. At that time there were only three major tv networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS. It was the best-selling publication from the 1960s into the early 1970s. The magazine naturally evolved over the years and became a staple item in almost every American Home. A quick way to date yourself is by your knowledge of the TV Guide. Many of us can remember the red tv logo with the words TV Guide blazoned on the upper left front cover. We can remember our family picking it up at the local grocery store. We can remember some incredible front covers, we can also remember our grandmothers religiously looking over the contents (especially when Soap Opera time came). Or maybe some of us tried the crosswords at the end of the book. Or maybe we can recall it sitting beside some very dated couch with floral or forest designs. The TV guide would continue to be printed for 53 years until the final print run in 2006, selling countless millions of copies during that time.

      The TV Guide was used to help us navigate the mysteries of what was on television each night. We would simply turn a page, run our fingers down to the right listing, and find out what time our favorite show aired and a few details about the show. Over time the Guide became dated and irrelevant. There is another guide though that is far older, far more published, and is never dated.  That guide is the Bible. Each Christian needs to be committed to spending time in the Word of God. We need purposeful time set aside to dive into the Word, but our study in the world is not a single-person operation, we have a God-given guide that helps direct us. Jesus spoke out our Guide to God’s Word in John 16:13, which says “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth…” The word guide here means someone who will lead you on your way. So who is our guide to the Word? Jesus said “the Spirit of truth”, referring to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes up permanent residence in our life once we are saved. As a believer, we need the Holy Spirit’s help to navigate the Scriptures. We cannot simply study and understand them on our own. This week ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in your Bible reading. Ask Him to open your eyes to the truth and ask Him to help you apply it to your life. Ask Him to lead you.