Category: Devotionals

Are You a Church Consumer?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Church Life, Devotionals, Quotes1 Comment

One of the hallmarks of the modern mindset is individualism. We instinctively focus on the freedom and the rights of the individual to do or say whatever he or she chooses. This attitude has inevitably spread into Christian culture, where my commitment to God’s people has been replaced by the idea that a church should serve and fulfill me, providing the teaching, music, friendship and sub-culture that I desire.

Yet really, this is only an expression of our sinfulness, a way of putting ourselves at the centre of our own lives.

When God rescues people, however, He puts them together to live for the benefit of one another. This means that my greatest concern should not be how a church could serve me, but how I may best serve that church, using the gifts that God has given me.

Question for Reflection

  1. How can you best serve your church with the gifts God has given you?

Resources

Read/Mark/Learn Romans, 232

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What is Salvation?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals3 Comments

Salvation involves much more than being delivered from earthly ruin or loss. It involves deliverance from God’s Wrath and everlasting punishment.

Our Need

Deliverance is something we all need because we are all sinners who have rebelled against God. That’s our natural position because we are all born connected to Adam — the father of the human race. Adam’s rebellion against God — in what is known as the Fall of man — plunged this whole world into sin (1 Cor. 15:21). As a result, we deserve to be punished by God.

God’s Plan

God, however, had a plan to rescue and save us from punishment. His plan is Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 15:22, Paul says,

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.” (1 Cor. 15:22)

Jesus Christ came, lived a perfect life, and even though He wasn’t deserving of death or punishment, He died on a cross. As terrible a death as the cross was, that wasn’t the only punishment He faced. In fact, He faced a punishment much more horrifying — the wrath of the Father. The reason the Father’s wrath was poured out on Him was so He could pay the penalty for our sin.

Our Response

All those who believe Jesus paid the penalty for their sin that day on Calvary by dying the death and facing the punishment they deserve, and all those who admit they are a sinner, repent of their sin, and believe Jesus is their Lord and Savior, will be saved from God’s wrath, and they will experience eternal life with Christ. As well as they are called into God’s mission. He uses us as His instruments to make more disciples, which is simple amazing, because we were once God’s enemies, who were bound to face His wrath, but we are now drawn into His mission.

Question for Reflection

  1. Do you believe Jesus is your Savior?

Resources

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Post adapted from my sermon: Only in Christ are our deepest longings fulfilled

Our Deepest Longings are Only Fulfilled in Jesus

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

As soon as I was able to hold and swing a bat, my dad had me in the backyard hitting off the tee. As soon as I was old enough, I was playing coach pitch baseball on a city league team. I played baseball every year thereafter until high school, when I finally gave it up for soccer. 

Save

The two positions I played were shortstop and pitcher. As a pitcher, I mainly started the game, but sometimes I was brought in as a reliever. For relieving pitchers there is a statistic known as a “save.” A save, as you can guess, is earned when the reliever comes in and finishes out the game with his team still in the lead. 

Celebrate

If you watch the nightly ESPN highlight reel, you will notice saves are highlighted over the myriad of other statistics, and that’s because we love to hear and celebrate salvation stories. Stories where the relieving pitcher enters the game in the bottom of the 9th with the bases loaded, no outs, and strikes everyone out to win the game for his team. We love to hear and celebrate stories like that, because salvation is the natural longing of the human heart.

While it’s exciting to watch your favorite closer save the game, the excitement and joy we feel in that moment doesn’t last. It doesn’t last because we long for a greater salvation, a true and lasting salvation. Something we can put our faith, our trust in, knowing it will not let us down.

Lasting Fulfillment

The only One who can provide us with a true and lasting salvation is Jesus, because He is the only One who could pay the penalty for our sins, repairing our relationship with the Father (Col. 1:19-20). So the next time you celebrate your favorite pitchers save, remember that there is an even greater salvation available that will eternally fulfill the deepest longing of your heart, and that is the salvation Jesus provides through His cross.

Question for Reflection

  1. What are you trying to fulfill your God sized hole with?

Resources

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Post adapted from my sermon: Only in Christ are our deepest longings fulfilled 

 

Shadow Versus Substance

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals, QuotesLeave a comment

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ (Col. 2:16-17).

Tempted to Envy

We might envy the old covenant saints because we do not usually see great seas parted, manna falling from heaven, and other “spectacular” displays of God’s power. But we are in a far better position than the old covenant saints, for we see Christ more clearly than they ever did.

Should Be Grateful

Let us be grateful for the era in which we live and never try to go back to life under the legal bondage that characterized those who lived before the coming of Jesus.

Question for Reflection

  1. Do you realize many practices and acts in the Old Testament point to Jesus?

Resources

Table Talk Magazine, Shadow Versus Substance, February 14, 2011 (headings mine)

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Get More Out of Scripture Today

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals, Quotes1 Comment

I am convinced that the greatest devotional need for most of those reading this article – even those committed to spending time in the Bible every day – is to meditate on Scripture.

It seems a common experience for people to read the Bible and then, as soon as they close it, to forget everything they’ve read.

People are seldom changed by what they immediately forget.

Why Can’t We Remember?

Do most people somehow lack the mental equipment necessary to remember something they just read? I think the forgetfulness occurs mostly because people spend two or three seconds reading one verse, then two or three seconds with the next verse, and so on until they are finished. How much does anyone remember of thoughts they considered for just two seconds?

Reading the Bible was never intended to be the primary means of absorbing the Bible. Reading is the starting place, but meditation is the absorption of Scripture.

And it is the absorption of Scripture that leads to the experiences with God and the changes in our lives that we seek when we come to the Bible.

Why is Our Time In Scripture Not More Profitable?

The main reason more Christians don’t find their daily time in the Scriptures more profitable has little do with the strength of their memory, the level of they education, or their IQ; rather, the problem is very simple: a lack of meditation on Scripture.

How Do We Meditate on Scripture?

There are many ways to meditate on the text of Scripture, such as:

  • Repeating the verse or phrase with emphasis on a different word each time.
  • Rewriting the verse or phrase in your own words.
  • Looking for applications of the text.
  • Formulating a principle from it.
  • Asking what question is answered or problem is solved by it.
  • Praying through the text.
  • Select something from your reading and ask: “How does this text relate to the gospel and the Jesus?” Maybe you will select a single word, a character in the narrative, or the main idea of the passage. From it you may see, for instance, (a) something that shows our need for the gospel, or (b) an example that points to something Jesus is or (c) something Jesus did in an even greater way, or (d) an illustration of one of the effects of the gospel upon those who believe.

Challenge

If you spend just sixty seconds meditating on a verse of Scripture, do you realize that may be ten to twenty times as long as you would normally consider that verse? Reserve at least a minute in your Bible reading time today, choose a verse, and [meditate on it using one of the means above. You may start by] ask[ing], “How does this text relate to the gospel and to Jesus?”

Questions for Reflection

  1. Do you spend time meditating on God’s Word?
  2. How could meditating on God’s Word change the way you do your daily devotional reading?

Resources

Table Talk Magazine, Seeing the Gospel in the Word of God, by Donald Whitney, February 26-27, 2011 (headings and bullets mine)

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The Soul Shaping Reality of the Gospel

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals, Quotes4 Comments

We need a little perspective here. Our situation in the U.S.A., relative to Christians elsewhere, is not unusually difficult. It is true that we are now moving away from a time when Christianity has had some cultural acceptance. After all, consider how popular it has been to be “born again.”

But let us remember that outside the U.S.A., there are Christians who live under tyrannies, such as from Islam, or in extreme poverty, or surrounded by horrible political corruption, or are subject to rampant crime. Our situation is really not that bad!

What the Message Isn’t

What it requires is that we have some conviction about biblical truth, some savvy about the culture in which we are living, and the spine to preserve our identity as believers.

It is a temptation to think that by being nice and accommodating we can make the Christian gospel seem like a great little addition to everyone’s life.

But the gospel is not a great little addition. It is a soul-shaking, costly demanding reality. The church cannot hide this fact!

The gospel is not about self-therapy. Despite our pressured, taut, nerve jangling age, the Christian message is not there just to make us feel better about ourselves or more able to cope.

What the Message Is

It is about coming before our great God and Savior, confessing our sins, entrusting ourselves to Him, and surrendering our claim upon ourselves to Him.

What is Needed

What is most needed, and what is most lacking in the church, is a little character in differentiating its message from self-help therapies and marketing strategies. Our deficiency is not that we lack the right technique. It is that we often don’t have a real alternative.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Do you see the church as an alternative faith community to the culture?
  2. How can we live as an alternative faith community?

Resources

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David F. Wells, The Soul-Shaping Reality of the Gospel, an interview in Table Talk Magazine, January 2011.