Category: Devotionals

Rejoice in the Lord in the New Year

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

I though it right to start the New Year off with a dose of Spurgeon. Read what he has to say about rejoicing in and magnifying our Savior in the New Year. May we all see our salvation in Jesus as a cause to rejoice in the New Year.

We will be glad and rejoice in thee (Son of Solomon 1:4)

Be Glad and Rejoice in the God

We will be glad and rejoice in God. We will not open the gates and begin the new year on a note of sadness. Rather, we will sing to the sweet strains of the harp of joy and the high sounding cymbals of gladness.

O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise unto the rock of our salvation (Psalm 95:1).

We, the called and faithful and chosen, we will drive away our griefs and set up our banners of confidence in the name of God. Let others lament over their troubles.

Magnify the Lord with Joy

We who have the sweetening tree to cast into Marah’s bitter pool will magnify the Lord with joy. Eternal Spirit, our perfect Comforter, we will never cease from adoring and blessing the name of Jesus. Jesus must have the crown of our heart’s delight. We will not dishonor our Bridegroom by mourning in His presence. We are ordained to be the minstrels of the skies. Let us rehearse our everlasting song before we sing it in the halls of the New Jerusalem.

We will be glad and rejoice – two words with one meaning – double joy, blessing upon blessing.

Should there be any limit to our rejoicing in the Lord even now? What riches are laid up in Jesus! What rivers of infinite bliss have their source and every drop of their fullness in Him!

Concluding Prayer

Sweet Lord Jesus, You are the present inheritance of Your people. Favor us this year with such a sense of Your preciousness that from its first to its last day, we may be glad and rejoice in You. Let January open with joy in the Lord and December close with gladness in Jesus.

Resource

Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: January 1, Evening

What’s Next?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals8 Comments

Last Friday, I graduated. After a two and half year sprint to the finish, I finally walked across the stage to receive my degree. After which, a celebration with friends and family ensued. Amidst all the fun, excitement, sadness, and recollection of memories, a question continued to arise: Now what? To which I answered: I don’t know.

Truly, I do not know what is next for my wife and me, but as I ponder and pray for the Lord’s will to be done, I am reminded of a few verses from the book of James. He writes,

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” – yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord will, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15)

As I reflect on these verses in James, my answer to the question posed by my family and friends must not only be I don’t know, but also I will do whatever the Lord wills. Since I do not know the Lord’s will, I now wait patiently in prayer asking the Lord to reveal His plan to me.

May we all cast our future on the Lord, seeking His will for our lives instead of our own, not seeking to take what is in the world for ourselves, but to serve others by attending to both their physical and spiritual needs.

Does Christianity Provide Advice or News?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals1 Comment

Often times people will ask me if I am religious, or to what religion do I adhere. I do not say it, but I want to respond by saying I am not religious; rather, I am gospel, but that sounds funny. Even though it sounds funny, I think the distinction is worth making.

Advice Vs. News

Religion tells us what we must do in order for God to accept us, which is advice. When someone gives you advice, they often are telling you how you can be accepted by someone. For example, if you go on a job interview, a recruiter will usually tell you to get a hair cut, put on a suit and tie, bring a professionally printed resume, smile, shake their hand, and be polite to everyone you meet. Essentially, they are giving you advice on how to get your potential employer to think you are a worthy candidate.

In contrast, the Gospel tells us not what we must do, but what God has done, which is news. Think about it like this: When the 10 o’clock news comes on, they are not providing you with advice on what should happen in the city, they are telling you what happened that day. Likewise, the Gospel does not provide us with a set of rules or rituals we must follow in order to be accepted by God; rather, it tells us that God sent His Son, His only begotten Son, Jesus, to pay for the sins of mankind, which He was able to do because He lived a perfect life, enabling Him to be the perfect sacrifice for mankind. He willingly faced the cross, dying in our place, in order to reconcile mankind to God. The judgment we deserve, Jesus took in our place, so our relationship with God could be restored, and so God could remain a God of justice.

So then, when all other religions tell us what we must do in order for God to accept us, they are essentially giving us advice; not so with Christianity. Instead of giving us advice, Christianity gives us news, good news, that when believed, will restore man’s relationship with God.

We Often Live As If Christianity Provides Advice

So if Christianity provides news instead of advice, why do those who call themselves Christians live as if Christianity is providing advice? Christians often live like Christianity is giving advice by asking questions such as:

How often and for how long do I have to read my Bible? How many people do I have to tell about the gospel? How much money do I have to tithe every month? How many times do I have to forgive others? How far is too far when it comes to sex before marriage? How many times a month do I have to go to church?

All of these questions, and others like them, show that one is treating Christianity as advice instead of news, and proves they do not understand the gospel message. They do not understand we, as Christians, should live differently not in order for God to accept us, but because we are already accepted. As Christians, we should want to live lives that reflect the commands in God’s Word because we have been redeemed and our hearts have been changed. As a result, we should see God’s law and commands, not as a set of rules we must follow or else, but as guidelines for how to live as those who are God’s people.

Conclusion

If you are questioning Christianity, then you need to understand that it is not like other religions. Christianity does not give a set of guidelines or rules one must follow, it gives good news that Jesus has accomplished what we could never accomplish, which is to reconcile man’s relationship with God.

On the other hand, if you are a Christian, you need to understand that obeying God’s rules do not earn you favor with God, nor do obeying His rules secure your salvation. Rather, one should obey God’s commands and law because they delight in God and want to bring Him glory.

Thanksgiving: A Reminder To Give Thanks For Everything

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals4 Comments

Thanksgiving is almost here. As I gear up to travel back to my home town to visit with friends and family, I am thankful for all the Lord has given me in my life. Even though I am thankful for what the Lord has done, my thoughts of thankfulness might just be too fleeting and ordinary. As I sat in church yesterday listening to the sermon, our pastor read a quote by G.K. Chesterton that caused me to see my fault in lifting up thanksgiving to the Lord. Chesterton says,

You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.

Chesterton says grace before all these events because he recognizes the Lord is sovereign over all things, and provides him with all things, even the ink in his pen. It was then that I realized I do not always thank God for everything I have or participate in.

Challenge

So let me challenge you, and myself as well, to not just lift up a thanksgiving prayer before the meal the Lord provides, but to lift up a prayer of thanksgiving for all the Lord has done in your life at all times. Give thanks to the Lord always since:

He sustains the seat you are seated in because He is the sovereign ruler of the universe, He allowed you to be born into the family in which you are apart, He provides you with the job you so often take for granted, He has given you your beautiful wife and children, He provides you with the church you attend, the car you are driving, the clothes on your back, the turkey you are going to set on the table, and even the coffee you are going to drink, while eating the dessert He gives the provisions to purchase. He also provides you with the ability to exercise, play sports, and even watch your rivals play football.

Instead of thanking God once over our Thanksgiving meal, we should thank Him always for everything He has graciously and mercifully given us, including the gift of His Son Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins; thus, making a way for us to be reconciled to God.

Praise and Thank the Lord Like the Psalmist

Since the Lord provides for us in every area of life and at all times, we should lift up praises to Him like the psalmist in Psalm 100:

Psalm 100: A Psalm for giving thanks.
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5 For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

The Wilderness Temptation

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals4 Comments

Have you ever thought about the purpose for the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness? Have you ever wondered why immediately after He is baptized He is driven into the wilderness for 40 days by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil? The temptations themselves seem odd and random, what holds them together?

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all present us with the temptation of Jesus. Matthew and Luke provides us with the details of the temptation, while Mark gives us a short summary telling us Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. Since Matthew and Luke both provide us with a more detailed account of Jesus’ temptation, we will focus in on those texts; specifically, we will look at Matthew’s account.

Parallel with Israel and More

Besides the obvious parallel with Israel, who was in the wilderness 40 days and failed and Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days and succeeded, showing He is the new Israel – the chosen and anointed one, what else can we learn from this event? In looking at the temptations Jesus faces, we see that they all are self serving temptations that would take glory away from the Father. Let’s look specifically at each temptation to see Jesus’ response and what we can learn from it.

Stones Into Bread

Jesus had been in the wilderness for forty days fasting, He would have been extremely hungry. Satan comes to Him and tempts Him to turn some stones into bread (Matt. 4:2-3). But in doing so, Jesus would have rejected God as the sustaining power of life. Look at what He says in response to Satan: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Jesus was sustained by His relationship with the Lord, He did not need to create something else in order to serve Himself, He knew the Lord would provide and would sustain Him.

The Pinnacle of the Temple

After Jesus refuses to turn the stones into bread, He is taken up to the pinnacle of the temple and is tempted to jump off, so that God will rescue Him (Matt.4:5-6). Jesus was sent to do the will of the Father, which was to go to the cross to die for the sins of mankind, so that man’s relationship with God could be restored, if man believes in Christ as their Savior. To jump off of the pinnacle of the temple, in order for God to have to save Him, would be putting the Lord to the test (Matt. 4:7). More pointedly, He would not be seeking to glorify the Father; rather, He would be serving Himself by seeking to show how important He really is to the plan of salvation.

The Kingdoms of the World

In the last temptation, Satan takes Jesus to the top of a high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He then tells Him He can have all these kingdoms if He will worship him (Satan). To which Jesus says, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve'” (Matt. 4:10). Here Jesus tells us who He is working to glorify and serve, namely, the Father.

Author’s Strategy

Jesus is not concerned with exalting Himself, He is concerned with glorifying the Father in Heaven and serving Him alone. He does not need to exalt and glorify Himself because He is perfectly content in His relationship with the Father and the Spirit. A relationship where mutual love and service has existed before the foundations of the earth. Matthew, Mark, and Luke seek to highlight this fact with their narratives. They want their readers to see that Jesus did not come to serve Himself, but to serve the Lord. In addition, in serving the Lord, He is perfectly content and joyful. He does not need to elevate Himself to a place of glory in order to find joy and happiness because He finds joy and happiness in His relationship with the Lord.

Application

We too can experience this type of love and joy. The gospel tells us that we are more of a sinner than we ever dare thought, but at the same time it tells us that we are more accepted than we ever could imagine. By finding our acceptance in God and not in the world through self-glory or power, we will be more content and happy than we ever thought we could because we are more loved by God in Christ than we ever thought possible. Whereas the world seeks first and foremost to use others for their own benefit, the gospel places service to others at its pinnacle by showing us that Jesus was perfectly content with serving the Lord and seeking His (the Father’s) glory over His own because He loved the Father unconditionally, and He understood the joy associated with His relationship with the Father, as well as the love and service the Father reciprocated to Him.

We too can experience the same lasting eternal joy and love Jesus experiences. All we need to do is believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, that our sin separates us from God and without Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our sins, we could not have a relationship with the Father. If you would like to learn more about the gospel message, you can read an earlier post I wrote by clicking here.

Image: prozac1 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Lord Directs Our Paths

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals1 Comment

Psalm 139:13-16

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my
mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths
of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every
one of them,
the days that were formed for
me,
when as yet there was none of
them. 

Personal Reflection

As graduation from seminary approaches, I have been reminded that the Lord has a plan for each and every one of us, and that His plan was forged before I was even formed.  In the hustle and bustle of the business world, or the endless assignments, papers, and tests of school, we often become so consumed with what is due next, we forget that God is the one directing our steps. However, when we are in between jobs, finishing school, or starting a new phase of our lives we are quickly reminded that the Lord is the Sovereign ruler of the universe, which includes the jobs we take. He is the one who has sustained us through the countless hours of projects, papers, and tests. He is the one who has placed those difficult circumstances in our lives, shaping and molding us into the men and women He would have us to be, so He can use us how He sees fit. He is the one who will direct our steps into the next phase of life.

As I near the end of my studies, I am thankful for the sustaining power of the Lord, but more importantly I have learned that wherever the Lord places me, He has truly called me to be there. The same is true for you as well. This means, when the Lord provides us with a job, career, or ministry opportunity, we should recognize it for what it is, a calling from the Lord to a particular place, people, and responsibilities. As a result, we should serve Him diligently in the role He has placed us.

A Few Questions to Ask Yourself

In order to serve the Lord in our positions and community best, we should ask a few questions of ourselves:

  1. Why would God place me in this position at this time?
  2. What is it about this city, state, or region that God would see fit to place me there? In other words, do I know a lot of people in this area, or does my skill set suit these people particularly well?
  3. What do I believe God would have me accomplish for His kingdom in this particular place or position?
  4. What skills has He been developing in me that could be used to meet the particular needs of those He has called me to serve, or could be used in the surrounding community?

Conclusion

The Lord directs our steps and sustains us, as well as He uses us to accomplish His will. This means every place we live and every position we are given is from the Lord. As a result, we should seek to understand how we can best serve Him there, and then work that out until He calls us somewhere else. May we all remember this week that the Lord will provide a position for us, as well as that our future position and the position we currently hold, or community in which we currently live, was designed by God, and serves as an opportunity for ministry.