http://woh.org/index.php en sue.vanotteren@woh.org Copyright 2010 2010-07-28 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/28 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/hope1/#When:21:24:49Z We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul . . . Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf. (vv. 19-20) Lord, teach me to anchor my life in the promise of your resurrection. On the front lawn of my Alma Mater, right outside the chapel, stands a giant anchor with the words of the college motto written below: Spera in Deo, “Hope in God.” The motto comes from Psalm 42:5: “Hope in God . . . my salvation and my God.” Emily Dickinson once wrote that “Hope is the thing with feathers/that perches in the soul,” that sings even through the fiercest storm. But Christian hope is not quite like that. It is not an internal emotion, a sort of wishful thinking or whistling optimism that helps us endure the vicissitudes of life. Christian hope is the knowledge that one day we will see God face to face. There are times when hope comes easily. When I see the sun set across the impossibly beautiful San Francisco Bay, I long for the beauty of another country, a heavenly one. And there are times when I find hope difficult, when the world appears ugly and gray and irredeemable. But hope is not the product of my feelings: it is the promise of redemption. That is why the anchor is such a fitting symbol for hope. As Christians, we anchor our lives on the reality of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. God has raised Christ from the dead, and one day Jesus will return. Hope is not a subjective feeling; it is the acknowledgment of a historical fact: Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. Hebrews 6:13-20 2010-07-28T21:24:49Z http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/27 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/faith1/#When:21:21:18Z Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. (12:1) Lord, give me the endurance to live a life of faith. The last three virtues (faith, hope, and love) are called the theological virtues because they are gifts of God that cannot be attained apart from grace. Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the “author and perfecter of our faith.” Faith isn’t something we generate on our own; it is the product of a relationship with Christ, a relationship that he initiates. The most famous definition of faith comes from Hebrews 11, verse 1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is betting your life on the promises of God’s Word. This does not mean that we wake up every morning feeling faithful. Faith isn’t really a feeling; I can’t make myself feel faithful anymore than I can make myself feel truthful. Honesty is the product of the habit of truth-telling. Faith is the product of living faithfully. Hebrews 11 lists the heroes of the Old Testament who died before ever seeing Christ. They endured hardship, persecution, and even death, living their lives in the expectation that God would fulfill his promise and send the Messiah. The author doesn’t give us descriptions of the inner lives of these saints – their doubts, their dark nights of the soul. Instead, he describes what they did; their actions reveal their faith. Hebrews 11:1-12:2 2010-07-27T21:21:18Z http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/26 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/justice1/#When:21:17:42Z Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (v. 21) Lord, teach me to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with you. There is a great debate in legal and philosophical circles about the nature of justice. The ancients defined justice as giving others their due. Modern theories of justice often talk about fairness and equality. Micah 6:8 says, “And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” God calls us to be agents of his justice on earth. But doing this requires deep, prayerful humility. Christian justice has no place for vengeance, self-righteousness, or “getting even.” Instead, justice requires us to seek the good of others, even those who have wronged us. And though that may still require us to take legal action against wrong-doing, we are called to do it in a spirit of love and mercy. For decades, Sister Helen Prejean, subject of the film Dead Man Walking, has counseled both death-row inmates and the families of their victims. In her work, she has accompanied six condemned prisoners to their deaths. She does it, she says, so that these human beings can see a loving face at the moment of their death – a reminder of the One who loves them, despite the terrible things they have done. Christian justice does not mean turning a blind eye to wrong-doing; it means looking at those who have committed injustice with eyes of love – a love that hates the sin, while still loving the sinner. Romans 12:14-21 2010-07-26T21:17:42Z http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/25 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/fortitude/#When:21:14:24Z For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. (v. 36) Lord, grant me the fortitude to persevere in the faith. Fortitude is a word rich in meaning. It is derived from the Latin word for strength, and it means the strength of mind that allows a person to withstand fear, bear pain, or face adversity. Fortitude is “stick-to-it-ive-ness”; it is equal parts courage, perseverance, and patience. When my own fortitude is lacking and I am tempted to throw in the towel, I take great comfort in the testimony of other Christians who have persevered in the faith. A few years ago, I spent the summer volunteering on Cyprus, working with the refugee and immigrant population. While there, I was struck by the testimony of Filipino guest workers – women who had come to Cyprus to work as domestic servants in the homes of the wealthy and powerful. These women endured abusive working conditions: long hours, low pay, and little to no time off. Some of them were separated from their husbands and children, leaving their families back home so they could provide for them by working abroad. But on Sunday mornings, they arrived at church early to practice a few simple Christian songs to sing to the congregation. Worshiping God gave them comfort and the strength to endure the difficult week ahead. Their fortitude reminds me of the lines of one of my favorite hymns: “No storm can shake my in-most calm/While to the Rock I’m clinging/Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth/How can I keep from singing?” Hebrews 10:19-39 2010-07-25T21:14:24Z http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/24 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/temperance/#When:20:59:31Z For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with . . . love. (vv. 5- 7) Lord, by your Spirit help me gain self-control. In America, we tend to associate temperance with history lessons on the era of Prohibition. But temperance really is just an older word for the spiritual gift of self-control. In fact, temperance doesn’t mean prohibiting anything; it means knowing when to say yes or no to our desires. In that way, temperance is the practical application of prudent thinking. As Christians, we affirm that the pleasures we receive from things like food and drink are good. The problem comes when we pursue pleasure at the expense of everything else. Then a good pleasure becomes a deadly sin. The early church believed that temperance was an indication of spiritual maturity and that practicing temperance led to the cultivation of other spiritual gifts, including love. In fact, Peter tells us that self-control is a sign that we are growing in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. Temperance is a spiritual discipline. Those of us who struggle to control our appetites know how much of a spiritual battle self-control can be. We are in good company. Many holy people have struggled with temperance. St. Augustine once prayed, “Lord, give me chastity, but not yet.” But God does not leave us on our own. He has given us his own Spirit to keep us from falling, and to help us when we fail. 2 Peter 1:3-11 2010-07-24T20:59:31Z http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/23 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/prudence/#When:20:56:28Z The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (v. 7) Lord, teach me the wisdom that comes from knowing you. The first four of the seven virtues (prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice) are called the cardinal virtues. The word cardinal comes from the Latin word for hinge; according to medieval thought, the cardinal virtues were pivotal to living a moral life. Prudence is the first of the cardinal virtues. Nowadays, when we think of prudence, we may imagine someone who is cautious – someone who plays it safe. But prudence really means the sound judgment that is born of wisdom. A prudent person can determine when it may be necessary to take a risk for the sake of a greater good, whereas a foolhardy person risks without calculating the cost. Prudence is the practice of applied wisdom, determining what is virtuous, and what is not. In the opening to Proverbs, Solomon tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Those of us who wish to be prudent must first show respect and reverence to God, submitting our reason and our will to his guidance. I once asked one of the wisest men I know how I could become wise. He was a high school principal for over forty years and, over the course of his career, had made difficult decisions that affected the lives of countless students and their parents. When I asked him, he laughed gently and said, “Well, I don’t know about being wise. But I do spend a lot of time in prayer.” Proverbs 1:1-7 2010-07-23T20:56:28Z http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/22 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/pride/#When:20:49:10Z For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. (v. 14) Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. Help me to realize my dependence on you. According to St. Augustine, pride is the sin that led Satan to rebel against God. The medieval church believed that pride was the root of all sins and was therefore the most dangerous. In his epic poem Paradise Lost, John Milton imagined that Satan’s fall came from his refusal to serve anyone but himself. “Better to reign in hell,” Satan says, “than to serve in heaven.” Pride is the sin of forgetting – or ignoring – our need for God. This is why C. S. Lewis described pride as “the complete anti-God state of mind.” Some of the proudest people you meet may also be the most religious. Consider the Pharisee in this parable: he fasts, he tithes, he prays. But the sad truth is that the Pharisee hasn’t prayed at all, not in any real sense, because he has created a god who is too small to require worship. The Pharisee’s version of god exists to reassure him that, because he’s such a great guy, he doesn’t really need God. Real worship demands humility. It requires us to acknowledge our utter dependence upon God for salvation. That is why the tax collector goes home from his prayer justified. He knows he needs God’s mercy. What kind of a God do you worship? Has your pride made God a member of your claque – there to cheer you on, or cheer you up, but never to bring you to your knees in repentance? Luke 18:9-14 2010-07-22T20:49:10Z http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/21 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/envy/#When:20:44:23Z Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. (v. 25) Lord, teach me to desire you above all else. Shakespeare famously described jealousy as “the green-eyed monster.” The sin of envy warps our ability to see clearly, blinding us to the blessings with which God has filled our lives. Envy is not merely wanting what our neighbor has; it’s anger at his having what we don’t. Envy is equal parts covetousness and resentment. Envy tricks us into thinking that our feelings are just – that the person whom we envy doesn’t deserve to be wealthy, or powerful, or popular, and that we do. If the object of our envy falls from grace, we feel justified in the joy we take from it. Think of the secret pleasure we feel when a tabloid headline broadcasts the disgrace of a Hollywood star. “Ha!” we say to ourselves. “Serves them right!” Like the psalmist, we must realize that envy blinds us to two profound truths. First, that the lives of the rich and powerful are precarious. The very things that we envy others for are ephemeral; those who put their trust in earthly things should be pitied, not envied. Second, envy keeps us from seeing God’s unwavering provision in our lives. If we do not acknowledge and repent of our envy, we will be incapable of gratitude. God is the only thing large enough, strong enough, and permanent enough to fulfill the desires of our hearts. To be able, like the psalmist, to say, “God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” is the sure antidote to envy. Psalm 73 2010-07-21T20:44:23Z http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/20 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/wrath/#When:20:28:11Z Let all bitterness and wrath and anger . . . be put away from you. (v. 31) God, teach me to be merciful, that I may receive mercy. P>In Robert Frost’s poem “Fire and Ice,” he writes, “I think I know enough of hate/To know that for destruction/Ice is also great/And would suffice.” We often think of wrath as a fiery emotion – being red in the face, shouting at the top of our lungs, threatening violence. But wrath can also be served ice-cold. Think of the stony heart of the servant in Jesus’ parable, who refused to forgive a debt even after he had been so generously forgiven. Dante identified wrath as stemming from a perverted sense of justice, twisting a good desire into spite or vengeance. It is an unrighteous anger that assumes God-like infallibility. There are plenty of times when Christians are called to be angry – angry at injustice, or angry at the effects of sin in the world. But our anger must always be tempered with a knowledge of the great mercy God has extended to us. Otherwise, we risk bringing down God’s wrath – an unsparing, unflinching judgment of our true, sinful condition – upon ourselves. Who of us could stand in the presence of the Source of all justice, were it not for the blood of Jesus Christ? It’s important to remember God’s mercy not just when we are angry with others, but also when we make ourselves the focus of our wrath. When we are destructively self-critical, we forget that God’s mercy extends as far as the east is from the west—including over us. Ephesians 4:25-32 2010-07-20T20:28:11Z http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/19 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/sloth/#When:20:13:33Z Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. (v. 14) Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Sloth is a tricky word to define. Medieval monks called it acedia. To them, it was “the noonday demon” that often visited in the afternoon during their times of work and study. Imagine the harshness of monastic life – the early morning prayers, the monotony of copying manuscripts, the discomforts of a cold cell. Acedia is the creeping feeling that the spiritual life is ultimately futile – that there is no point to our worship, work, or prayer. St. Thomas Aquinas defined sloth as a sadness of heart that prevents us from experiencing a spiritual good. It is a spiritual haze that envelops our soul, convincing us that our redemption (or the world’s) is a lost cause. Unchecked, sloth becomes despair. We moderns think of sloth as laziness, but sloth can strike even the busiest people. Sloth is a sin of the heart, not the will. When we are guilty of sloth, we doubt that God has the power to save us, or that he can use us as part of his redemptive plan for the world. To combat sloth, meditate on Scripture. Before you despair, consider all the screw-ups and lost cases whom God redeemed and used as builders of his kingdom – Jacob, Moses, David, Paul. If he could do that with them, what’s to stop him from doing the same with us? Psalm 90 2010-07-19T20:13:33Z http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/18 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/greed/#When:20:10:50Z You cannot serve God and money. (v. 24) Lord, teach me to trust you to provide for all I need. My church, like many Christian organizations, is undergoing a financial crisis. Recently, our head pastor announced that the church may have to cut $70,000 from the missions budget due to a drop in congregational giving. To prevent this, he exhorted us to give sacrificially. As I sat listening, I felt a bit smug. After all, I gave faithfully to the church. But when I thought about the word sacrificially, I paused. Am I willing to give till it hurts? When you hear the word greed, perhaps you picture Ebenezer Scrooge hoarding piles of money in a dark, cold room. But you do not need to be rich to be greedy. You’re greedy when your money is more compelling than your relationship with God. Examine just how much of your life is preoccupied with money: worrying about it, acquiring more of it, managing it, spending it. When the offering plate passes at church, do you give cheerfully, or does part of you resent it? Greed signals a crisis of faith. When we are stingy with our money, it is because we fear what will happen if we allow Jesus to be Lord of our finances. Will we have enough to pay our bills? Will be able to do what we want? This is what Jesus meant when he said, “You cannot serve God and money.” If money is the source of your security, then you have made it your god. Matthew 6:19-24 2010-07-18T20:10:50Z http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/17 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/gluttony/#When:19:53:45Z Their end is destruction, their god is their belly. (v. 19) Lord, forgive me for the times when I’ve put my own desires ahead of my desire for you. It is rare for someone in the West to go more than a few hours without eating, although occasionally our busy lifestyles will cause us to skip a meal. Whenever I do, and I feel my stomach grumble, I complain, “I’m starving!” Hyperbole aside, I have never experienced hunger that is even close to the pain of starvation. I bet the same is true for you. St. Thomas Aquinas defined gluttony as eating (or drinking) too soon, too much, too expensively, too eagerly, or too daintily. Gluttony, like lust, is not a sin because the thing desired is evil in itself. Sex, food – these are things God created for our good. The problem comes when our desire for these pleasures is warped in comparison to our desire for God. Think about how much time you spend in a given day thinking about food – when you’ll eat, what you’ll eat, how you’ll eat it. How does that compare to the time you spend in prayer or reading the Bible? There is a darker side to the sin of gluttony too. When we consume too much food and drink, or when we spend a disproportionate amount of time and money on it, we compromise our witness. Last year, Americans spent over $46 billion on diet products. What if that money had been used to feed the hungry? When our chief end in life is satiating our desires, we have made our god our belly. Philippians 3:17-21 2010-07-17T19:53:45Z http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/16 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/lust/#When:19:49:07Z If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. (v. 29) Lord, teach me how to avoid temptation, and give me the strength to do it. A student of mine approached me as she faced a difficult decision. Her father had recently left his family of four, and his marriage of twenty years, to marry his co-worker. Now dad wanted Megan and her sisters to spend the weekend with him and his new wife. Should she go, she wondered, out of duty to her father? Or should she stay home, out of solidarity with her mom? In his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, Dante devises a poetic punishment for those guilty of committing the sin of lust. In his version of hell, the lustful are whipped around by an eternal whirlwind – a symbol of the passions that controlled their lives. But sin doesn’t merely have personal consequences. Uncontrolled passion wreaks havoc on the lives of those around us. Jesus is unsparing in this condemnation of lust. What begins as a “harmless” look has the power to ruin individuals and tear apart families and communities. Think of the people you know whose marriages have been destroyed by lust. Think of the congregations that have been fractured because of affairs between church members. Think of friends who have debased and humiliated themselves through addictions to pornography. Combating lust requires drastic tactics. Be honest with yourself: what situations tempt you to lust? Do you need to change what you watch? Where you work? “Better to lose an eye,” Christ says, “than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” Matthew 5:27-30 2010-07-16T19:49:07Z http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/15 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/the-seven-deadly-sins/#When:19:20:56Z But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (v. 16) Lord, all sin is deadly and separates me from you. Teach me to walk by your Spirit. The seven deadly sins are hot these days. Oxford University Press released a seven-book series where famous authors weighed in on each of them. A few years ago, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman starred in a horror film called Se7en. And last week in the grocery store I saw a wine for sale named “Seven Deadly Zins.” Americans are interested in the seven deadly sins, as long as that interest remains shallow and commercial. For centuries, the Christian church has believed that taking these deadly sins seriously can help believers avoid gratifying “the desires of the flesh.” The church identified seven sins that are especially harmful to our spiritual lives: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. It also recognized seven virtues (prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice, faith, hope, and love) as antidotes to these sins. As reformed Christians we believe that all sins are equally “deadly.” All sin separates us from God and requires Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross. Bearing that in mind, we can still benefit from studying the seven deadly sins if we think of them as seven habits that the human heart is especially prone to – habits that result in our estrangement from God. Over the next two weeks, we will study each of the seven deadly sins and the seven companion virtues. Acknowledging our inclination towards sin is the first step in walking by the Spirit. Galatians 5:16-24 2010-07-15T19:20:56Z http://woh.org/word/devotionals/2010/07/14 http://woh.org/word/devotionals/four-kings-in-babylon/#When:15:53:01Z King Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, . . . brought him out of prison. (v. 31) Lord, thank you for ancient words that speak to modern times. As we reach the end of the book of Jeremiah, we find ourselves in Babylon, sharing the city with four kings. Two of them were kings of Babylon: Nebuchadnezzar, who brought the Israelite kingdom to an end, and his son Evil-merodach, who succeeded him twenty-four years later. They form part of the historical backdrop to the story of the Old Testament people of God. Of more interest to us are the two kings in Babylon, former kings of Judah whose names are linked with theirs, and who underline the message of the great prophet whose ministry we have been following. Zedekiah, captured by Nebuchadnezzar, was blinded, chained, and carried off to die in a prison in Babylon. To all like him, who have had a glimpse of the truth, even a hankering after it, but never quite get round to letting it re-shape their lives, Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet,” speaks with tears, in agony of spirit, of the doom that awaits the sinner. Jehoiachin, his nephew, taken into captivity after an earlier campaign, was just as bad a man, but for some reason Evil-merodach showed him a kindness he didn’t deserve. Neither the Jewish king nor his Babylonian captor would have known that reason, but we do: from him would spring not only leaders among the returning exiles, but a continuing line of the family of David, and ultimately our Lord Jesus himself. Thus would the Lord work out his plans, fulfilling Jeremiah’s vision of restoration and hope, and establishing a new covenant of grace. Jeremiah 52:1-11, 31-34 2010-07-14T15:53:01Z