Today’s AMI Quiet Time is provided by Pastor David Yoon of Tapestry LA Church.
Devotional Thought for the Day
“Stand in the Gap”
Ezekiel 22:30-31
“And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. 31 Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord God.”
When I was a youth pastor, I led a team on a short-term mission trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. For two weeks we partnered with local churches and organizations and helped host several Vacation Bible Schools. One day the pastor we were working with requested our team to do a one-day VBS program for a group of 30 orphaned and abandoned children. When it was time for lunch, each of the children received a small Styrofoam box with rice and one piece of fried chicken—each boxed meal was less than 25 cents.
After we prayed for the food we told them to start eating, but none of them would open their box. Confused, we asked a child why he wasn’t eating. He replied to the pastor’s wife, “Auntie, can we eat all of this? Will we get food later?” She assured the children that there would be more food later and the children began to eat. Our team learned that there were times when the children would receive only one meal a day so they wanted to save it. Our hearts broke and I left the room to pray. In tears, I asked God why these children had to suffer, and deep inside my heart, I felt the Holy Spirit convict me, “David, this is why I brought you here. Will you love these children?” Have you ever experienced a tremendous burden for the lost?
In today’s passage, Israel’s reputation has become “an infamous city full of turmoil” (22:5). They were worshipping false gods, defiling the name of God, and the cities were full of violence and idolatry. God sought for an individual who would be willing to stand in the breach when the nation was in moral and spiritual crises. In the past, He found Moses, Deborah and Daniel who were willing to stand in the breach; but here in this passage, we see that God couldn’t find anyone. The word “breach” can be translated as an act of breaking a law, an agreement, or code of conduct, as well as a hole that has been made in the walls. If you stepped into the breach, you stood in front of the hole in order to stop enemies from entering. God’s plan for reaching ungodly people and nations is still the same today. He is looking for godly men and women to stand in the gap: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
In light of this, let us pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give us the strength and boldness to stand in the gap today. Whether it’s in our workplace, home or nation, may we have the heart of apostle Paul who said, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers….” Let us look to Christ who stood in the gap, demonstrating His love towards us through His death and resurrection.
Prayer: Father God, Your mercies are new every morning. Will You forgive me for the wickedness in my heart. Open my eyes and heart to see the brokenness around me. Give me the boldness to live out my faith and shine the light of the gospel. I pray for those who have yet to hear of Your Name. Allow me to be Your hands and feet wherever I am. In Jesus’ Name. Amen
Bible Reading for Today: Job 27
Lunch Break Study
Read Isaiah 40:29-31: “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
Questions to Consider
- Why does Isaiah remind us that one day our human strength will fail?
- What does it mean to wait for the Lord?
Notes
- This is a time when the Jews have been exiled in Babylon. They have lost their home and have been in captivity for many decades and are living in despair. They believed that God had abandoned them and have lost sight of hope. At this time Isaiah prophesizes and reminds them to not doubt but to trust in God and redirects the people of Israel toward renewal in hope. Isaiah reminds us that we are no match for the demands of life but God will renew our strength.
- To wait on the Lord is not a matter of willpower but of expectancy. There are times when God will delay His answer and we wonder why He is slow in intervening. But waiting on the Lord means that we trust that He will come at the perfect moment.
Evening Reflection
Find a place suited for silence and solitude. Acknowledge the presence of God. Read and reflect on Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Upon seeing Serena William’s rage during the U.S. Open Finals, I got a glimpse of what I must look like when I have had those episodes—a huge difference being that William’s meltdown happened before the eyes of the world, while mine happened before my wife and kids. Like Serena, I typically felt that my anger (later rage) had a just cause. But, the Holy Spirit always has my ears, reminding me, first, “man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires” (James 1:20); and second, “now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror” (1 Cor. 13:12)—meaning, my anger was in part due to not seeing everything that truly happened. I chose to see only what I wanted to see, so that I could win over my wife and kids. Perhaps that also played a part in Serena’s implosion. But life doesn’t need to be lived out that way—”winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”—instead, we can place compassion and decency above winning, whether in marriage or playing tennis.
Who wants to be average, right? We all have an image of the ideal “me” that serves a template for all that we do. So, here is how an average guy stacks up against the ideal guy as they both start the day:
When I was 13 years old I went on my first short term mission trip to China and South Korea. Towards the end of our trip we visited a memorial for Reverend Son Yang-won. Rev. Son is remembered as a martyr of love who embraced the burden of colonial oppression and war. At his memorial, I saw a large painting of Rev. Son embracing the communist soldier who killed his two sons whom he later adopted. But the painting that really caught my attention was the one that showed Rev. Son removing blood from the infected wounds of lepers with his mouth. I had learned about leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, in Sunday school but it was my first time seeing how terrible the disease was. The paintings and the love of Christ that was practiced by Rev. Son would leave a lasting impression on my life.
The AMI QT Devotionals from September 9-15 are provided by Pastor David Yoon. David, a graduate of California Baptist University and Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.), is serving at Tapestry LA Church as the college pastor.
Do you remember a time when we had to use a physical road map to find our way from one place to another? We would carry multiple foldout maps in our car’s glove compartment and could never fold it back the way it was when we purchased it. Today, with the advancement of technology, we use a navigation app on our smartphone or car’s GPS. When we miss or take a wrong turn the GPS notifies the driver, “recalculating” with an updated estimated time of arrival.
How many of us would be willing to endure persecution and suffering in order to proclaim and preserve God’s truth? If there was a law that was passed in our country that called for everyone to turn in their copy of the Bible, and it became punishable by death to possess the Scriptures, who among us would be willing to pay such a price? The answer to that question is something that I wrestled with as I read through a book entitled Wide as the Waters. The book chronicles the history of the English Bible and details the lives of the men who made it possible for every English speaker in the world to have copy of the Bible in their own vernacular.
I’m not proud of this, but when I was a youth pastor, I burned a few pages of the Bible as an object lesson to highlight how we often disregard and dismiss the commands of God. My hands were literally shaking as I tore out a few pages and lit a match to burn the paper. My intention was to make the point that our lives would be greatly diminished if the word of God was lost to us. Besides really scaring the students and making a few of them cry, I think I got the point across—maybe a little too well.
Foundational to the Christian faith is what we know and believe about the Scriptures. As we read and study our Bibles, there are some core values that must be taken into consideration if we are to get the most out of our time in God’s Word. These values will affect our attitude towards the subjects that we encounter, many of which are controversial in our society, and this in turn will affect our desire to read and obey the Word of God. Central to the correct handling of the Scriptures is understanding the inherent authority of God’s Word and approaching the text with the right attitude of the heart.
Many people wonder how the Bible came to be, and how we received what we now consider to be the Holy Scriptures. This chapter of Jeremiah gives us an inside view of how the revelations of God spoken to man became the written word of God that was later canonized and passed down from one generation to another. In fact, this is the only chapter in the entire Old Testament that reveals how the oral message of the prophets took on its written form. As such, this passage represents one of the keys to understanding why it was so important that God’s word be written down.
One of the most important Hebrew words for understanding our relationship with God is the word shema, which is the command to listen or to hear. The first few statements of the Bible remind us that all of creation came into existence as it listened to the voice of God. By the mere breath of His word, countless millions of galaxies were formed, an endless variety of life was created, and the vastness of the universe came into existence. All of creation heard His voice and obeyed. Therefore, it makes sense that a people set apart for Him would be identified by those same characteristics: created by His word, always attentive and ready to listen to that same voice. It also makes sense that the greatest failure of God’s people would be to ignore His voice and refuse to answer when He calls.