The AMI QT Devotionals for March 15-16 are provided by Joanna Tzen. Joanna graduated from U. Penn and currently works in Philadelphia. She married Paul in 2014, and they attend Grace Covenant Church. They are expecting their first child any day now!
Devotional Thoughts for Today
Luke 2:25-32
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: 29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”
Waiting is a part of life, whether it’s as simple as waiting for the bus or waiting for God to move in a particular area of our lives. Simeon was waiting to see the Messiah in his lifetime. This passage tells us he was righteous, devout, and filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit moved him to visit the temple courts where he saw Jesus. Verse 29 tells us Simeon was a patient man. He was an old man ready to go home to the Lord was waiting for his time to come. Once he saw Jesus, his purpose was fulfilled.
Have you ever waited with such purpose as Simeon did? I know when I find myself waiting, I get impatient, sometimes borderline hopeless, if I have waited for what I feel like is a long time. It’s easy for me to lose focus on what I am waiting for.
I currently find myself in a very different kind of waiting season. My husband and I are expecting our first child in April. There is a sense of purpose and expectancy, along with a lot of trepidation, but also joy! It’s a different kind of waiting because there is a due date in sight, but there is still the uncertainty of how life will change after the waiting ends.
I’ve often thought about prayer as birthing something into the spiritual realm. It requires waiting and trusting in God. As I count down the days until my child’s birth, I’m thinking about how my own spiritual birthing experience has prepared me to depend on God in a similar way.
Is God working in your life right now through a season of waiting? If so, how is He calling you to display the trust and focus that Simeon had in his life as he waited for the Messiah?
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me first (1 Jn. 4:19) when I was completely unlovable. Forgive me for the things I have put before You and trusting in others more than I trust You. Remind me of Your faithfulness. Thank you that You never let me go. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Judges 8
Lunch Break Study
Read Lam. 3:24-6: I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Questions to Consider
- What does it mean in verse 24 where Jeremiah says, “The Lord is my portion”?
- Why does this allow Jeremiah to wait?
- What can be learned while waiting? Do you recall what Abraham learned about himself while waiting for the Lord to deliver on His promise 25 years after it was made (Gn. 12:4, 21:5)?
Notes
- This refers to the territories that the tribes of Israel had. The Levites did not have a territory and the Lord was their portion. Jeremiah understands, in the same way, that the Lord is enough for him. The Lord is his security and his provision, much more so than anything that is physical.
- Knowing that the Lord is his portion, allows Jeremiah to wait because he trusts in who the Lord is. He knows the Lord is good (v. 25) and he keeps His promises. This hope (v. 25) allows Jeremiah to wait quietly (v. 26) upon the Lord.
- Abraham tries to fulfill God’s promise through his own human strategy: first, after waiting for 10 years he simply assumes that his servant Eliezar would be his inheritor (Gn. 15:2-3); then later he marries another woman who gives birth to Ishmael whom God rejects as the fulfillment of the promise (Gn. 21:10). What does this show about Abraham, the so-called the father of faith? No one has an unwavering great faith in God; that is to say, if we are to have great faith in Him, it will be the result of falling on our faces many times because of our lack of patience while waiting on God. As God was gracious to Abraham whenever he felt short, thereby never abrogating the promise made to him, it is through God’s infinite grace that we learn to trust Him and His goodness.
Evening Reflection
Lord, thank You that You walk with us in every season, particularly in times of waiting. The truth is that all of our waiting pales in comparison to waiting for Jesus. Fortunately for us, Jesus is already here. In every moment of waiting, may we have much joy and peace, because we understand the Messiah has already promised and secured for us our greatest need—a relationship with the Heavenly Father that can never be broken.
Twenty-two years ago, when my boyfriend Kirt (now my husband) informed me that he was coming to visit me in Taiwan with the intention of marrying me, my immediate thought was to pray and to call my college professors Dr. Gray and Dr. Charalambakis. They both knew me well through three plus years of college and also got to know Kirt when we began dating. Being the only Christian in my family then, I valued their counsel and blessing above my own mother’s approval and blessing, before I could move forward with the relationship. I didn’t fully trust myself with the decision, and I wanted confirmation on what I was hearing from God. Because of their genuine love for me and their solid witness of having an intimate relationship with Jesus and a Christ centered marriage, I knew I could trust them.
In today’s text, we see that God chose Saul to be the king over Israel. Saul rose to kingship overnight from a nobody to the first king in Israel’s history. The limelight of kingship soon revealed many flaws in his character. Essentially, the core of his character failed under the pressure of leadership. The most important test of Saul’s leadership was his obedience to God’s instructions. In 1 Sam, 13:8-12, when Samuel showed up later than expected, Saul gave in to circumstantial and people pressure and took matters into his own hands to perform a priestly job that was outside of his responsibility as a king. In 1 Sam. 15:17-26, he disobeyed God’s instructions again and attempted to justify his selective obedience to the prophet. Through his examples, we see that partial obedience in God’s eyes equals disobedience. Therefore, God could not trust Saul to carry out His will for the nation of Israel, and God was grieved that He appointed Saul to be King (1 Sam. 15:35).
The AMI QT Devotionals from March 11-13 are provided by Mei Lan Thallman. Mei Lan is originally from Taiwan and a graduate of Asbury College and Asbury Theological Seminary (M.A.) in Kentucky. She is the wife of Pastor Kirt, who serves at Grace Covenant Church (Philadelphia). They have two children, Nate (14) and Naomi (12).
Super Bowl 2018 marked the history of Philadelphia for winning its very first Super Bowl championship. This memorable win had a dramatic story of its own. The Philadelphia Eagles was the underdog team who fought their way up as the season progressed. Two games prior to the NFL championship, their star quarterback, Carson Wentz, tore his ACL and joined mounting casualties of injured key players out of the season. At the Super Bowl, they played against the legendary five-time reigning Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots and their super undefeated quarterback, Tom Brady. The Eagles’ backup quarterback, Nick Foles, faced the pressure calmly and courageously led the team with undaunted grit toward the epic win of 44 to 33.
Many Christians today consider the Sabbath to be an archaic, obsolete regulation that is out of touch with our busy and competitive work environments—not realizing that the Sabbath was designed exactly for this reason. For a moment in our week, we can allow God to remind us that our lives belong securely in His hands—that ultimately, we are not the authors of our own success, and we can stop striving for that unreachable goal. The problem that we find is that many of us look at church not as a place of rest but just another place to strive. We do this by reducing the Sabbath to just another obligation that we need to fulfill in order to prove that we are good Christians. This is what the Pharisees were guilty of, so Jesus tells them: “Man wasn’t made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man.” In other words, God doesn’t require the Sabbath for His benefit but for our own.
In this passage, we see Jesus calling Levi—better known to us as Matthew, the author of the first Gospel—to be one of His disciples. The first thing we learn about this man is his occupation, that he is a tax collector. Now, as much as we might dislike taxes and tax collectors, the typical Jew would have had a bitter hatred for tax collectors—especially if they were one of their countrymen. And this hatred would have been justified because tax collectors were employees of the occupying Roman Empire and their governors. The Jews absolutely hated Roman control over their land, and so collecting taxes for the Romans would have been viewed as a traitorous act. Therefore, the only people who would be willing to take such a job would have been those who were desperate for money and already outcasts of society. If you have already been rejected by society, what does it matter if you are cast out even further? At a certain point you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by betraying a society that has already betrayed you. Why Matthew chose to become a tax collector, we don’t know, but we do know that he was very comfortable being around other “sinners.”
In this passage, Jesus gives the crowd physical evidence of His spiritual authority to forgive sin. But in order to prove to the religious leaders and skeptics that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sin, He commands the paralyzed man to rise up and pick up his mat. From man’s perspective, we would conclude that it is far more difficult to command a physical healing, because you can’t prove if someone’s sins are forgiven. However, from God’s perspective, the forgiveness of sin comes at a far greater price and is a much more difficult thing—something only God can do.
A great number of evangelical, Bible-believing Christians don’t truly believe that God performs miraculous healings today. These views are largely shaped by the negative publicity of healing ministries and their leaders, who make a fortune on the misfortune of others. Investigations show little documented evidence of the names and illnesses that they have healed, and some even use actors to fake healings. These ministries seem to be a far cry from the way Jesus healed in the Gospels, and appear to be driven more by money than faith.
What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ? The topic of discipleship is something that I’ve thought about since my time in seminary. I vividly remember our New Testament professor asking the class, “How many of you consider yourself to be Christian?” I wasn’t sure if this was a trick question, but it certainly was the easiest question we’ve been asked in seminary; so all of us raised our hands confidently. But after our response, the professor asked the hardest question in my years of theological training: “How many of you consider yourself to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ?” I remember looking around the room, and at first no one raised their hand, and then about five of us in a class of twenty reluctantly put our hands up. Now you need to realize that this was a class of third year seminary students, many of whom had decided to make ministry a full-time career. Yet we were unsure and confused about what discipleship to Christ meant. And then my professor taught me a lesson that I will never forgot and one that I hope you will never forget. In the New Testament, there is no distinction between being a Christian and being a disciple of Christ—they are one and the same.
Each of the four Gospels begins with differing points of view and emphasis according to each author and audience. The Gospel of Mark begins the story of Jesus Christ, not by tracing His genealogy down a long list of names or even going back to a certain point in time, but it begins with a location. From the vantage point of this particular Gospel, I believe the Spirit of God is interested in teaching us that the gospel had its beginnings in the wilderness. And as we recognize this theme being played out here in this first chapter of Mark, we need to ask ourselves what is the significance of the wilderness.