Desserts and Disobedience: November 20th Devotional

Desserts and Disobedience

November 20th Devotional

1st Samuel 15:23

      Almost every one of you have read a Golden Book in your life.  You remember the hardback children’s books with the gold spine.  Most of them were located near the front of grocery stores.  The books are icons in the world of literature.  They are a staple in most of our reading journeys.  Golden books were first introduced in 1942.  The nation was still coming out of the great depression and money was tight for a lot of families.  Books were an unheard-of luxury, especially kids' books.  The average cost of a children’s book at that time was roughly $2-3, which doesn’t sound like much but if we figure in inflation, those books would cost $38-$50 today.  Most of us wouldn’t buy a book that expensive.  A man named George Duplaix wanted to change that.  He worked for Western Publishing.  He felt that children’s books should be colorful, quality, and cheap.  The books originally rolled out with a .25c price tag!  The company decided to publish twelve original titles, some of which included: Three Little Kittens, Mother Goose, Prayers for our Children, The Little Red Hen, and The Animals of Farmer Jones.  The books were a phenomenal hit, selling over 1.5 million copies in one year.  Today there was over 1200 different Golden Book stories, but none quite as popular as the Poky Little Puppy.  The Pokey Little Puppy was part of the original run of twelve.  It was written by Janette Lowrey and illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren.  This book would be the ONE BILLIONTH Golden Book printed on this day in 1986!  Golden books then crossed the two billion threshold in 2002!  The Poky Little Puppy itself has sold over 15 million copies making it the best-selling hardcover children’s book of all time.

      Most of us are familiar with the story of the Poky Little Puppy.  It follows an inquisitive and disobedient little brown and white puppy who is anything but Poky.  The story tells us of a family of puppies who were warned by their mother to not wander or dig holes under fences.  “But, the five little puppies dug a hole under the fence, just the same, and went for a walk in the wide, wide world” and find the terrible punishment of not having dessert!  Each puppy that is but one.  The poky little puppy also disobeys his mother but he isn’t present for his punishment because he was out exploring bugs, grass, and lizards.  He would return when everyone was asleep and would eat the dessert.  This continued a few times until the Poky Little Puppy is caught red-handed and isn’t given any strawberry shortcake.  This cute little story ends with a sign on the fence “Don’t ever dig holes under this fence.”  Puppies are not the only things that are prone to being disobedient, we as humans have a bend toward defiance.  Disobedience against God is us going against His clear will for our life.  It is doing the opposite of what God teaches.  It is a failure and a refusal to bend the knee to God’s authority in our life.  God takes disobedience seriously.  The prophet Samuel comes to a rebellious King Saul with serious words in 1^st Kings 15:23, “For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.  Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”  God considers rebellion against God as equal to witchcraft and idolatry.  If we were to grade the seriousness of sin, we would probably think that those two sins were much worse, but not in God’s eyes.  The sign on the fence gave a warning against digging holes, God’s Word warns us not to disobey.  Disobedience cost the puppies a loss of dessert, disobedience for us costs something far worse, our fellowship with God, our relationships with loved ones, our jobs, our testimony, our integrity, and the list could go on and on.  Nothing good comes from our rebellion against God.  It brings loss, pain, and suffering.  Disobedience is a black hole for everything good in our life.

The Inner Battle: November 13th Devotional

The Inner Battle
November 13th Devotional

James 1:14-15

      On this day in 1850, Robert Lewis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh Scotland.  Robert was an only child who was very ill.  His fragile health even lasted into his adult years.  He often missed multiple months of school.  Because of this, he struggled with reading and the ability to make friends.  He developed a love for writing despite his educational struggles.  Stevenson would go to the University of Edinburgh to study engineering.  Most of his father’s side of the family were lighthouse engineers and designers, but Robert found the classes quite boring and would often skip lectures.  After college Robert became an atheist, which broke his parent’s hearts.  During this time, he started to study law and was officially called to the Scottish bar in 1875, but he never practiced.  The only thing that brought him fulfillment was writing.  He became a household name with the swashbuckling adventure “Treasure Island” but his most famous novel was the “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”  The idea of this gothic horror novel came to him in a dream (more of a nightmare).  Robert originally wrote the manuscript to the book in three days but his wife suggested that he make some changes.  Robert, who was bedridden at the time decided to burn all the manuscripts, forcing him to start from nothing.  He labored for six weeks on the book until it was finally sent to the publisher.  The book skyrocketed in popularity and became one of Stevenson’s best-selling books.  He would go on to publish 13 novels, 8 books on travel, countless collections of essays, poems, letters, and he even wrote over 120 musical pieces (some set to his own poems).  Robert would tragically die of a stroke at the age of 44, leaving behind many unfinished pieces of literature.

      Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a tale familiar to most of us.  It follows the story of what seems to be two very different men.  A man named Edward Hyde was a villain and murderer.  The other main character is Doctor Henry Jekyll.  Hyde would often commit violent crimes but Dr. Jekyll would have to bail him out.  These events go on for quite some time in the book.  Dr. Jekyll’s friends were flabbergasted by this.  They thought that Hyde was blackmailing the good doctor.  Finally, Doctor Jekyll’s butler informs his friends that Henry had locked himself inside his lab for weeks.  His friends break into the laboratory only to find Hyde wearing Dr. Jekyll’s clothing.  They find a note that gave a grim tale.  The note detailed how Dr. Jekyll often battled the urge of good versus evil.  He tried to repress these terrible urges.  Thus he created a serum that would change him into Edward Hyde.  His alter ego Hyde would then go on a spree of evil and violence.  Eventually, Hyde started to take over without the serum.  Dr. Jekyll determined there was only one way to be free; by tragically taking his own life.  This fictional horror story has an all too real-life feel though.  The story reminds us of the dangers when we allow sin left unchecked in our life.  When we allow sin to domineer our life we will find that it would devour us.  Our sin nature is a monster with a seemingly insatiable appetite.  The draw of sin can derail a life of faithfulness.  Think of how many people have thrown away their families, careers, ministries, or testimonies because sin had become such a dominant force.  The Bible warns of us this in James 1:14-15, which says “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.  That when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin: and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”  Those are some very sobering words.  Each Christian has an inner battle; the old man versus the new man, light versus darkness.  It is quite literally a war, but it is a war we need to be aware of each day.  We cannot afford to allow our sinful nature or our ‘inner Hyde” to control us.  We need to regularly be in God’s Word and prayer.  We cannot allow sin to grow in the darkness of our hearts.  Dr. Jekyll’s battle with Hyde consumed him and destroyed him.  Are you battling against the ‘inner Hyde?’

Marching on the Impossible: November 6th

Marching on the Impossible

November 6th Devotional

Joshua Chapter Six

      On this day in 1854, John Philip Sousa was born in Washington DC.  Sousa was the third of ten children.  Both of his parents were immigrants.  Sousa’s father had a passion for music which he instilled in his son.  John started to study the violin at a young age and enrolled in music theory classes taught by some of the most talented musicians in the D.C. area.  He loved music and excelled at it.  He even attempted to create his own orchestra when he was 11.  Despite his talents, he still wanted to try other pathways.  At one time he aspired to be a baker and at the age of 13, he wanted to run away with the circus.  His father noticed how unsettled young John’s heart was so he signed him up as an apprentice to the Marine Corps Band.  John’s father was a trombonist in the band and the Marine Corps tent was only a short distance from their home.  He served the band for seven years.  After leaving the band he became a violinist and eventually a conductor, but nothing could replace the burning that he had for marching music.  He returned to the Marine Corps band in 1880 as their conductor and would remain in that role until 1892. It was during this time that he wrote the Marine Corps Marching band song called “Semper Fidelis” which is still the Marine Corps song.  He led this particular song for the inauguration of five presidents.  He revolutionized the Marine Corps Band.  He expected nothing short of excellence.  The band started touring and recording music.  After leaving the band he became a band leader in the civilian world.  He did this until he died in 1932.  He conducted nearly 16,000 concerts in his lifetime.  As a matter of fact, he was conducting a practice for “Stars and Stripes Forever” the day before he died.

      Sousa will forever be remembered as the “March King.”  His marches, especially his patriotic ones are still played today (typically on the fourth of July during fireworks).  His baton is still passed down to each new conductor of the Marine Corps Band.  The Bible mentions a march, but one without music.  Joshua, the newly appointed leader of Israel had a daunting task set before him, Jericho.  Those walls had to look intimidating.  This was a large city with a mighty army.  The task was considered impossible.  One might assume that they would lay a siege against the city.  To literally starve the people out.  But God had a different plan for the Israelites.  In Joshua 6:2 God told Joshua “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.  March around the city once with all the armed men.  Do this for six days.  Have seven priests carry trumpets of ram’s horns in front of the ark.  On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets.  When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout, then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”  Joshua even told the people, “do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout…”  Joshua and the army obeyed.  They marched around the city for six days, and finally, on the seventh day the city walls fell down and the army marched right inside.  The walls of Jericho should have been completely impenetrable.  The task should have been impossible.  The mission seemed silly, but Joshua and the Israelites obeyed by faith.  As believers, there are times when Jericho’s walls are still in front of us.  Maybe God is asking you to do something hard, impossible, or maybe something out of your comfort zone.  He isn’t asking you to attack the wall, to dig under the wall, to flee from the impossible, He is asking you to simply obey Him.  He is asking you to trust Him.  What Jericho is in front of you right now?  What seems impossible?  Your marriage?  Your calling?  Your purpose?  Jesus said, “with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  March on the impossible.  March in obedience.  March in faith.

Remedy for Panic: October 30th Devotional

      

The Remedy for Panic

October 30th Devotional

Psalm 55

   While children were preparing for a fun Sunday evening of trick or treat the Columbia Broadcasting System was airing an updated version of H.G. Well’s “The War of the Worlds” on their 8:00 PM slot.  The year was 1938 and most Americans were gathered around their radios for their evening entertainment.  Dramatized radio theater was extremely popular during that time.  Most famous Hollywood actors were also narrators for radio stations.  The narrator for this particular broadcast was a young Orson Welles.  Welles was only 23 at the time but was already famous for his voice on “The Shadow.”  Welles theater group, the Mercury Theater, wanted to update “The War of the Worlds.”  H.G. Wells, the writer, was a famous English author who penned over fifty pieces in his lifetime, the most famous of which were his science fiction novels, which included “The Time Machine” and “The Invisible Man.”  He is considered to be the father of science fiction novels.  The broadcast started as a faux newscast; it included daily news along with a weather forecast.  Anyone who didn’t know it was a dramatization would have thought it was simply the evening news mixed in with music from Ramón Raquello and his orchestra.  But as the broadcast continued there were interruptions by explosions on Mars, interviews with scientists, and eventually a crash landing near a farm in Grover’s Mill New Jersey.  It was there that the Martians began their attack against the human race.  The program was acted so perfectly that many people felt that the broadcast was real instead of fiction.  It was reported that many people panicked.  People were calling into the station and the producers were so shocked that they had to interrupt the program to announce that it was fiction.  The damage was already done.  Police rushed to the station and attempted to stop the broadcast.  This act was investigated and highly criticized for weeks, but it made Orson Welles a household name.  He was cast as the lead in the movie Citizen Kane shortly after this program (Kane is considered to be one of the most famous films in cinematic history).

      The listeners of the program panicked.  I mean let’s be honest, if we thought Martians were attacking I’m pretty sure we would panic too.  What about panic?  The Bible doesn’t use the word panic per se, but it does give situations when people were panicked.  A good example can be Psalm 55:3-8 “My heart is in anguish within me, the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.  And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!  I would fly away and be at rest; yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.”  This rings clear of a time of panic.  You can almost picture the writer’s blood pressure increasing, his chest tightening, his fear rising and his faith sinking.  We can picture it because we’ve been there.  We live in a world full of trouble and stress.  It can be overbearing at times.  It can almost leave us handicapped.  Some of you reading this might deal with panic regularly, maybe even resulting in panic attacks.  What do we do in the face of such a fearsome and powerful enemy?  What did the Psalmist do?  In Psalm 55:16-17 the writer tells us “But I call to God, and the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.”  The cause of the panic doesn’t magically go away, but the Psalmist finds his strength in the Lord.  He cries out to God, and the promise is that God listens and God will help.  It doesn’t make sense for us as Christians to act like there is nothing in this world that will cause us panic and fear.  God understands that we are prone to worry and panic, that’s why He’s always readily available to listen and aid us.  Our prayer to God helps to protect us from being overpowered by fear and panic.  It guards our hearts and minds.  Apply prayer to your panic and you will find peace.

Good Things Come in Small Packages: October 23rd Devotional

Good Things Come in Small Packages

October 23rd Devotional

Proverbs 30:25

    On this day in 1930, J.K. Scott won the first-ever miniature golf tournament.  The game of golf was invented around 600 years ago but the game of mini-golf is a relatively new invention.  The game of mini-golf was created by an entrepreneur named Garnet Carter.  Carter developed a hotel on Lookout Mountain called Fairyland Inn and wanted to create an 18-hole golf course.  The course construction took much longer than he expected and he wanted to create an attraction for his guests, thus the birth of mini golf, or as he patented it, Tom Thumb Golf.  Originally, he thought that the fairyland course with elves and gnomes would only be played by children but much to his surprise the course was overrun by adults.  Carter patented the game of mini golf and within three years of its invention, there were over 25,000 ‘putt-putt’ courses in the United States.  The game skyrocketed in popularity.  The Tom Thumb Open mini-golf tournament took place in Chattanooga in 1930.  Qualifications playoff games took place in all 48 states at the time.  The total purse available was $10,000, with $2,000 to the winner (which would be valued at $32,000 today).  Over 200 players from 30 states participated.  The game was intense and the score was close, but in the end, J.K. Scott came out as the winner.  The great depression hit miniature golf pretty hard.  Most people could not afford luxuries or entertainment during that time and it faded away into memory.  It didn’t pick up in popularity again until about the 1970s.

      Most of you can remember playing miniature golf.  We would grab our favorite color ball (mine was always orange), get a putter that seemed to match our height, take a scoring card with a tiny pencil, and prepare to conquer the green.  You know how the game starts.  The first hole is typically a straight shot straight down the middle, an easy par 2.  But as the course goes on it gets incrementally harder.  Soon we are battling sand traps, rocks in the middle of the course, windmills (got me every time), jumps, and shots that only a person with an advanced math degree can figure out.  We pretended we had skills but at the end of the day, it was just pure, plain dumb luck.  Some of it might have been a bit of cheating as we scooted our ball closer to the hole (you know you're guilty).  Truly, mini golf was one of those good things that come in small packages.  The Bible talks about miniature or small things.  In Proverbs 30:24-28 Solomon writes about four small things that should astonish us, one of which is the ant.  He writes “The ants are not a strong people, but they prepare their food in the summer (verse 25).”  Biblically the ant serves as a direct rebuke against the sluggard, or the lazy man.  The ant is hard-working and prepared.  He knows the summer is short and the winter is quickly coming.  Likewise, we as a believer must be prepared people.  We might not currently be suffering through a winter season, but someone in the future will.  What should we as Christians be prepared for?  Temptations, trials, and Christ’s return.  Sadly, we spend more time preparing for vacations and retirement than serving Jesus and looking for His return.  How are you preparing yourself to live for Christ each day?  Are you intentionally setting time aside for prayer?  Are you putting on the whole armor of God?  Are you daily spending time in the Scriptures?  Are you daily decreasing yourself and increasing Christ in your life?  What, if any preparation do we have to live a Christian life?  It’s not always the ‘big’ things, somethings it’s the small things that matter most.

The Lion's Story: October 16th

 

The Lion's Story

October 16th Devotional

Revelation 5:5

      On this day the “Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” was published; this would be the first of seven different books encompassing the Chronicles of Narnia.  Narnia was the creation of C.S. Lewis, or as he was better known by his friends, Jack.  Lewis was an academic genius during his time.  He served as a professor at both Oxford and Cambridge, writing extensively.  He was also an agnostic and a critic of Biblical truth.  All of that changed in 1931.  It was in that year that Lewis miraculously trusted Christ as his Savior.  This dramatically changed his life.  His “Paul” like conversion sent waves through academia and his purpose in life changed from denying God to speaking about the existence of God.  He is considered one of the most proficient apologists of our time period.  His books Mere Christianity and The Screwtape letters are considered masterpieces in the Christian writing genre but none would compare with the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  The idea for the book came to Lewis when he was 16 years old.  He started to write about Narnia in 1939 but didn’t finish writing the book until 1949.  At the time fantasy literature was looked down on.  It was looked at as childish as best and one critic said that fantasy literature would damage young readers' minds.  Lewis's publisher, Geoffrey Bles also thought the book was going to be a complete flop.  Narnia literally opened the wardrobe for many young people’s love for reading.  We can recall the four Pevensie children who are sent to the English countryside to live with the professor because of the dangers of WW II.  It was there that Lucy entered a wardrobe during a game of hide and go-seek.  She found herself in the snow-covered woods, by the lamppost, being greeted by a friendly faun named Mr. Tumnus.  The story unfolds when all four Pevensie children enter Narnia only to discover it was under the curse of the White Witch named Jadis.  An epic battle ensues between her and the land’s creator, a Lion named Aslan.  Through a twist of fate, Aslan would lay down his life on the stone table in order to rescue Edmund, the brother who betrayed them to the witch.  You will have to read the story to find out the enchanting ending!  

      The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe launched a seven-book series that has sold millions of copies, brought forth multiple film renditions, and has stolen the heart of many a reader.  Lewis purposefully wrote the book as a Christian allegory, with Aslan, the lion, standing as a ‘type of Christ.’  The Bible refers to Christ as a Lion in Revelation 5:5 which says “And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”  The Apostle John was given a vision of heaven while he was suffering as a prisoner on the island of Patmos.  It was here that woe-filled heaven because none of its occupants were able to open a scroll…everyone that is except for one.  There was in the midst of the heavenly host the Lion of Judah, the only one who was worthy to open the scrolls.  In verse nine we find that this lion was also the lamb of God who bled and died to ransom the people, buying them back from the clutches of sin.  This description can only refer to one person, Jesus Christ.  Christ is the Lion of Judah, which is a direct fulfillment of prophecy from Genesis 49.  The image of a lion here shows a leader who is powerful, who is a conqueror, who is victorious!  As Christians, we can rejoice that Christ isn’t just the Lamb of God but also the “Lion of God.”  He didn’t just die as a perfect unblemished Lamb, but He rose as a victorious Lion defeating sin, death, the grave, and Satan for us.  He still remains the Lion in our life, roaring out the echo that we are more than conquerors through Him.

Head of the Church: October 9th Devotional

  Head of the Church

October 9th Devotional

Colossians 1:18

      On this day in 1635, Pastor Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Colony because of his ‘extreme Christian’ and separatist views.  The late 1500s and early 1600s were politically charged times in the colonies.  The Protestant Reformation was only slightly over 100 years earlier and England’s break from Catholicism even less time.  Christianity was in a moment of major flux.  While the Church of England proudly boasted its freedom from the Roman Catholic Church it still had many vestiges of Catholicism.  A group of people called the Separatists, better known as Puritans, felt a need to purify the church from what they called the rags of popery.  This particular group stood against the existence of a state-run church and felt that a church should have no authority over it except for the Bible and God.  This early group of Separatists were punished heavily for their opposition.  They would be jailed for failure to attend state-run church services, have their possessions removed, and some of them severely beaten.  One such Separatist was named Roger Williams.  Williams was born in the early 1600s.  The persecution against those that were Puritans in England was harsh.  Many were beaten and some were even burned at the stake. Williams fled to Massachusetts to find religious freedom.  He arrived in 1630, a mere ten years after the landing of the Mayflower.  Within those ten years, the Church of England dug its heel into the young colony and began to punish anyone who stood against the state church.  They claimed that the church’s independence was a doctrine of Satan.  Williams started to pastor in Boston but had to flee because of his views on the autonomy of the local church, along with his sympathy for the Native Americans.  He would then travel to Salem to pastor.  The congregation as a whole loved him but the magistrates did not.  They forced him to leave the colony under the penalty of death.  He left in the bitter winter.  He traversed 55 miles through the frigid and unforgiving terrain during a blizzard.  A group of Native Americans gave him aid and he legally purchased land from them.  It was on this site that Providence Rhode Island would be formed.  This land became a place for everyone fleeing religious persecution and seeking religious freedom.  This site would also be where the first established Baptist Church in America was formed.

      Williams's view 400 years ago was considered heretical.  It was extremely dangerous to question the state’s authority over the local church.  But, if the state isn’t the authority of the church, then who or what is?  The Bible doesn’t hesitate to tell us who is the authority of the local church.  Paul writes in Colossians 1:18, “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.”  Paul uses the metaphor of the head to describe Christ’s position in the local church.  The head, or brain, controls the rest of the body.  What the brain does, the body responds in obedience.  If the body does not respond to the brain's requests then there is a serious medical issue.  Christ is the head of the church which means He is the leader of the church.  He controls every part of the church.  He provides it with life and direction.  Most of you reading this wouldn’t argue with the theological truth of Christ’s headship over the church.  The issue isn’t doctrinal, it’s application.  Does Christ have absolute authority in our local church?  Do we allow Him to lead and guide the church?  Does our church look more like a New Testament Church or a business model/pyramid scheme?  How do we place Christ as the head of the local Church?  It isn’t something a pastor or a counsel does, it’s something that individual believers do.  A church cannot have Christ in His preeminent position as leader unless He is first leader of each of our lives.  He must be the Lord of our hearts and homes before He is the Lord of our churches.  Honestly, do you allow Christ to lead your life and the life of your local church?