The AMI QT Devotionals for July 31-August 6 are provided by Christine Li. Christine, a graduate of University of Pennsylvania, currently lives and works in New York City. She serves at Remnant Church in Manhattan.
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS FOR TODAY
“Theory vs. Execution”
Philippians 4:8-9
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
For more than ten years, I have followed food bloggers intently. Whenever I tell people, they become acutely interested and ask, “Are you a good cook?” Unfortunately, I must say no. I have acquired a lot of knowledge through these blogs, their videos, and eating, but I’ve spent very little time actually practicing any of those things. I can throw fancy words around like “julienne” and “batonnet,” but I am totally unable to follow through in reality. What a waste it is to know so much and be so terrible in execution. Because it’s never translated from my head to my hands, all this knowledge is essentially useless.
In one of his closing passages, Paul exhorts the church of Philippi to intently fill their minds with godly things. However, he follows by saying that they must also practice what they have seen and heard. It is not enough to merely know the right things and to spend time pondering them. These truths and ideals have to be lived out with their lives.
There is no shortage these days of commentaries and insights about the Bible and spiritual life. But when we read them, have we only built an encyclopedia of interesting facts about God, or have these truths taken hold of our lives?
Since you and I are reading this devotional this morning, it’s likely that we try to habitually fill our minds with thoughts of God. But let’s not just settle for good thoughts! We want the truths to transform us. Let’s focus on one or two things we have learned recently that we can put into practice today. Slowly then, as we make our thoughts about God cohere with our activities, we will find that He draws near as we reflect Him in our lifestyle.
Prayer: Father, thank You for teaching us so much about You. We repent of having settled for just collecting information about You when we could have truly encountered You instead and been transformed through applying what we know. Let Your Word transform us so that we can truly live up to what we know. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: John 10
Lunch Break Study
Read James 1:19-27 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Questions to Consider
- James draws a distinction between true faith and religiosity. What should we expect true faith to look like?
- What does it mean that God’s word could be a “perfect law that gives freedom,” when James has written so many stipulations and rules about holy living?
- What is our role in making sure we have true faith? Let’s reflect on whether we are intently doing this.
Notes
- True faith results in a transformation of our inner being – not merely rule-keeping but an above-and-beyond character. True faith results in an extraordinary patience, an extraordinary generosity, and a great desire to set ourselves apart from the world.
- James writes that the word can save us; it is planted in us, but its growth and fruition is not up to us. The perfect law gives us freedom because now we are under Christ alone. Instead of a burdensome Law with many rules and regulations, we have been given a perfect righetousness that is impossible for us to acquire on our own. Therefore we are free to take part in God’s righteousness, knowing that He has already made a way for us.
- James suggests that we must first humbly accept the word. Not only should we be intently familiar with what it says; we must also stay humble to be obedient to it and what it asks of us.
Evening Reflection
Let’s spend time in response to the passage–training our minds to think about what commendable, godly things we saw or learned. Then, let’s ask God for wisdom and obedience to carry out some of these in our lives tomorrow.
I had a co-worker who had some very expensive travel luggage. I was marveling not only at how expensive it was but also how beaten up he had allowed it to get—it was scuffed over, with bumper stickers messily taped around. He assured me that that the whole mess was deliberate—you had to show off that you’d done quite a bit of traveling. His luggage, therefore, publicly bore the battle scars of wear and tear.
Last year around this time, the game Pokémon Go was released. It sent a flurry of students and working people exploring their neighborhoods, searching for Pokémon to collect. Wouldn’t you know—an empty park or hotel lobby in real life actually teeming with Pokémon! Who knew that a game could turn such common landmarks into places of treasure?
weekly Sunday service when the police raided our church. As the police rushed into our meeting, our members did their best to make it appear like we were simply having a casual gathering; however, the police knew exactly what we were doing and immediately ordered us to stop. With my heart pounding in shock, I looked at the worried faces of the locals and the leadership, and it was in that moment when I finally began to understand what it meant that there’s a cost in following Jesus.
Jennifer Kim, a graduate of Boston University, spent a year in Shanghai as one-year intern from 2013-14. She is currently serving as a staff at Catalyst Agape Church (New Jersey) while attending Alliance Theological Seminary.
While many have heard the testimony of my time serving in Shanghai, not as many people know about the long two-year journey I had wrestling with God before I obeyed Him to serve overseas. On a regular Friday night worship service, our church was singing the song, “How Great is Our God,” and while I was meditating upon the words, I was so encompassed by the truth of the lyrics of how majestic and awesome our God is. Captured by His presence, I prayed to the Lord, “There is nothing more that I want than to serve the awesome God You are for the rest of my life.” Immediately after, I heard the Lord say to me, “Then will you go.” While this was one of the greatest moments of my faith, it also became one of my most shameful moments, because while I had just prayed this prayer of submission to the Lord, the moment God asked me to go overseas a fear came upon me, and all I could say was, “God I can’t do that.”
The word “compromise” probably isn’t popular among some believers who see themselves as committed to Scripture. To them, the compromisers lack the backbone to uphold their convictions. While that may be true in some cases, it isn’t always so. Now, upon seeing this image, some will see either a duck or a rabbit, initially. But, unless a person is dogmatically committed to his/her preferred position regardless of evidence, most people will see that the image contains both animals.
Recently, our church hosted a friendly yet competitive kickball tournament to help raise funds for our short-term missionaries. During the game, someone in the crowd started booing to one of the teams on the field! So, when I asked her why she was booing, she responded, “Because my team was losing.” In truth, I wanted to know why she thought it was necessary to demoralize a group of college students at missions’ fundraiser, but her answer reminded me of how there is an innate part of us that always wants to be on the winning side.
Most of us would dismiss prosperity gospel as unscriptural since it presents health and wealth as the divine right of all believers. But when it comes to our understanding of God’s blessing, are we all that different from those who advocate this theology.
experience God’s power, particularly as it relates to our own lives. In today’s passage, we see that Jesus uses the fig tree as an object lesson to show His disciples that “with God all things are possible” (Mt. 19:26). And that’s the lesson I learned in searching for jobs in Boston and Philadelphia.
Today’s AMI QT Devotional is provided by Lily Jang (in corroboration with Pastor Ryun) who attends Grace Covenant Church in Philadelphia. Lily, a graduate of Emory University and teacher by profession, spent a year in Pekanbaru, Indonesia, from 2011-12. 
Many of us, millennials in particular, too easily pull ourselves toward achieving a performance-based faith. It seems King Saul was too, since he was concerned more about actions to gain the approval of his soldiers (1 Sam. 15:24) rather than obeying God. Saul was oblivious to what God wants from us: our obedience, not performance.