2023-04-21
Exodus 3:7 NIV
For four hundred years, Israel was enslaved by Egyptian taskmasters who oppressed them and “made their lives bitter” (Exodus 1:14 KJV). And you can understand their feelings of helplessness when you consider the areas in your own life where you struggle for freedom from old habits. Whether it’s anger, food, alcohol, drugs, sex, money, or abusive relationships, we experience a sense of powerlessness in our struggle. And repeated bids for freedom can produce increased feelings of hopelessness that lead us to give up trying altogether.
But the Israelites cried out to God, and He responded: “I have… seen the misery of my people… I have heard them crying out… and I am concerned about their suffering.” Today God sees you, God hears you, and God is concerned about you. He said, “I have come down to rescue them… and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land… flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8 NIV). Notice, He had “come down” to “bring them up.” How did He do it? Their deliverance called for the death of the spotless Passover lamb. After applying its sacrificial blood to their doorposts, they cooked and ate the lamb while dressed in their traveling clothes, staff in hand, ready to leave captivity behind.
Today, God wants you to prayerfully prepare for your journey to freedom; not by your own futile human efforts, but by faith in the shed blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away our sins. “Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch… For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7 NIV). Aren’t you glad?
Soul food: 1 Cor 12-14; Matt 2:19-23; Ps 103:1-12; Prov 10:13
2023-04-20
Proverbs 30:1 NLT
Dr. Richard Swenson says, “You can go into the woods, select a ten-foot sapling, bend it over, and when you release it, it will return to its normal height. But if you keep bending it further and further, it will stay down. With stress, first you bend, and then you recover. With burnout, first you bend, and then you break – and you stay broken.
When the writer of Proverbs says, ‘I am weary and worn out,’ he is not referring to a figment of his imagination or a sensationalized diagnosis by psychologists. Exhaustion is real and it’s common and it’s dangerous; it leads to irritability, anger, paranoia, headaches, ulcers, depression, and suicide. Burnout causes something inside you to break; you don’t care who sees or hears, you just want out.
The good news is you can recover your passion, enthusiasm, productivity, and excellence, but it takes time and the healing is mostly by scar formation. Burnout is common among the spiritually minded who are sensitive… They see pain and internalize it. They want to help the wounded… they don’t realize they were never designed to carry the world on their backs.”
So what’s the remedy? “Rest in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1 NLT). But to receive Psalm 91’s benefits, you need to meet its conditions by making God your dwelling place, abiding in Him, and submitting to His authority. “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress… in him will I trust” (v. 2). Note the word “say.” What you say can mean life or death (See Proverbs 18:21). It can put you over the top or put you under. So today, read God’s Word, internalize and personalize and verbalize it, and your life will take an upward swing.
Soul food: 1 Cor 10-11; Matt 2:13-18; Ps 130; Prov 10:12
2023-04-19
Acts 9:11 NIV
Has everyone else written off your Saul? “He is too far gone.” “She is too hard… too addicted… too old… too cold.” Joseph believed one day he would be reunited with the brothers who betrayed him, and it happened. The prophet Hosea’s wife deserted him and became a prostitute. Yet, he kept the door open, and she came home. God believed in Saul. And he believed in Saul through Ananias: “Brother Saul, the Lord – Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here – has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (v. 17 NIV).
Max Lucado writes: “My favourite Ananias-type story involves a couple of college roommates. The Ananias of the pair was a tolerant soul. He tolerated his friend’s late-night drunkenness, midnight throw-ups, and all-day sleep-ins. He didn’t complain when his friend disappeared for the weekend or smoked cigarettes in the car. He could have requested a roommate who went to church more or cursed less or cared about something other than impressing girls. But he hung with his personal Saul, seeming to think that something good could happen if the guy could pull his life together. So he kept cleaning up the mess, inviting his roommate to church, and covering his back. I don’t remember a bright light or a loud voice. I’ve never traveled a desert road to Damascus. But I distinctly remember Jesus knocking me off my perch and flipping on the light. It took four semesters, but Steve’s example and Jesus’ message finally got through.”
So, no matter what, don’t give up on your Saul!
Soul food: 1 Cor 7-9; Matt 2:1-12; Ps 127; Prov 10:11
2023-04-18
Psalm 41:1 NIV
Three-quarters of the world’s income ends up in the pockets of 20 percent of its population. Think of it this way: Ten dairy farmers live in the same valley, and among them they own ten cows. But the cows aren’t evenly distributed, one cow to one farmer. It’s more like this: Two farmers own eight cows, while the other eight farmers share two cows. Does that seem right? The two farmers who own eight cows might easily say, “I worked for my cows.” But the question is, what responsibility does God place on the “haves” with regard to the “have-nots”?
First, that you allow yourself to feel concern and compassion. Second, that you get out of your comfort zone and do something about it. “Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble. The Lord protects and preserves them – they are… blessed in the land – he does not give them over to the desire of their foes. The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and restores them” (vv. 1-3 NIV).
When you bless the poor, God blesses you. So, as one leader wrote, make this your prayer: “Lord, you promised we would always have the poor among us. Help me to make sure that the reverse is also true: that I’m always among the poor – helping, encouraging, and lending a hand wherever I can. Enable me to love the invisible God by serving the very visible poor in my corner of the world. Help me to be creative without being condescending, encouraging without being egotistic, and fearless without being foolish. May the poor bless You because of me… amen.”
Soul food: 1 Cor 4-6; Matt 1:18-25; Ps 43; Prov 10:10
2023-04-17
Jeremiah 22:16 NIV
When he was a seminary student, Jim Wallis and some of his classmates took scissors to the Bible and cut out every verse about poverty, wealth, justice, or oppression. And would you believe it, by the time they had finished, there were some two thousand verses lying on the floor! The fact is, when you cut concern for the poor from your Bible, you cut the heart right out of it! Here is one such verse: “‘He defended the cause of the poor and needy… so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?’ declares the Lord” (v. 16 NIV).
Jesus often quoted Scripture, but only on one occasion do we find Him selecting and reading from it. And what portion did He choose to read publicly? “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor… to proclaim freedom for the prisoners… recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18 NIV). Here was His to-do list: help for body and soul, strength for the physical and spiritual, and therapy for temporal and eternal.
Now some people (albeit a minority) are poor because they’re lazy and need to be taught that God’s Word says, “those unwilling to work will not get to eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10 NLT). But others are poor because parasites have weakened their bodies, or they spend six hours every day collecting water, or rebel armies have destroyed their farms, or AIDS has claimed their parents. These are the people God has assigned us to care for!
Soul food: 1 Cor 1-3; Matt 1:7-17; Ps 56; Prov 10:8-9
2023-04-16
Acts 6:1 NIV
Since the government didn’t care for widows and orphans back in New Testament times, the church took on that responsibility. Unfortunately, bias raised its ugly head and Jewish widows and orphans were given preferential treatment over Gentile widows and orphans. How did the church leaders respond? They could easily have dismissed it, like we so often do. They could have said, “We’re called to feed souls, not stomachs. We deal in matters of sin and salvation, not sandals and soup.”
Instead, here is what they did. First, they called a meeting to resolve the problem (See Acts 6:2). They let every member know that their church took poverty seriously, and they were each personally responsible before God to do something about it. The Scripture doesn’t endorse forced communism, but it clearly teaches Spirit-led volunteerism. Second, they assigned the problem to their brightest and best. They selected seven men – well respected, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom – and gave them this responsibility (See Acts 6:3 NLT).
Instead of grooming our children for “important” fields like medicine, law, politics, or government, let’s teach them that caring for the needy is one of God’s highest callings. Why do a billion people go to bed hungry each night? Or thirty thousand-plus children die every single day (one every three seconds) from malnutrition and preventable diseases when we can do something about it? No one can do everything, but God has called each of us to do something! “Pure and genuine religion… means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let world [systems] corrupt you [into believing that it’s not your responsibility]” (James 1:27 NLT).
Soul food: 2 Kings 6:1-23; Eph 1:15-23
