The AMI QT Devotionals from May 22-28 are written by Phillip Chen, college pastor intern at Church of Southland. Philip, a graduate of University of California, San Diego, is currently studying at Talbot School of Theology. He is married to Esther.
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS FOR TODAY
“Listen and Obey”
Revelation 1:1-3 (ESV)
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
As a teenager, I had a bad habit of leaving the lights on when I left a room—and my mom would constantly remind me of this. I certainly heard her say it—in fact, I can still hear it in the back of my head—and definitely understood why it was important to do so. But for some reason, it was in one ear and out the other, and I continued to forget to turn the lights off. In our passage today, John is writing this letter to the seven churches in Asia with specific instructions from the Lord. He starts out by reminding them that it’s not only important to hear these instructions, but to keep them. On a larger scale, we also must be reminded that it’s not only important to hear God’s Word, but also to earnestly obey what He has commanded us.
For the Jewish mind, there is no differentiation between listening and obeying. The Hebrew word Shema means to listen, but it could also mean to obey. However, as the Jews were scattered in the Greco-Roman world, they began to further divorce the abstract from the practical. The conceptual was split from day-to-day living so that they could mentally assent to something and yet disobey. Isn’t that why James has to remind us that faith without works is dead? If we’re honest, we can often read the Bible and hear God’s word, but we don’t really listen; we don’t obey—in fact, it has become natural for us to do so. We can agree that we shouldn’t gossip or slander, yet we still talk about others behind their back. We can believe that sharing the gospel is important, but we just don’t feel like doing it. We all struggle with this, and it’s not a problem that will disappear, but I believe that we can take steps towards bringing the abstract and reality closer together. We can choose to listen and obey, and experience the blessings God has for us. Furthermore, the phrase “The time is near” or “The Day of the Lord is near” is used both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. It is a well-known phrase that is used to command obedience from the listeners and to awaken those who were slumbering. John must have really wanted his listeners to pay heed to the Word of God!
Today, we are reminded that we shouldn’t just hear, but we need to keep what is written in it as well. Let’s ask ourselves this: How do we approach the Word of God? Do we read it and keep what is written? Let’s remember that the time is near, and so we should not only hear the word of God but seek earnestly to obey what is written in it.
** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KQLOuIKaRA << Helpful word study on “Shema”
Prayer: Father God, help me to not only hear Your word but also to obey them. Soften my heart so that my life is daily renewed by Your very word. I desire to live a blessed life, walking in faith as Your word guides me. Help me in my weakness. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Deuteronomy 17
LUNCH BREAK STUDY
Read James 1:22-25 (ESV): But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
Question to Consider
- What does James compare a person who hears the word only but does not do it?
- Why does James use the mirror and the law of God interchangeably in this passage?
- What is one thing that you have recently heard and been convicted of but have not yet done anything about it?
Notes
- He compares it to a person who looks intently into a mirror and notices his or her unkemptness but walks away forgetting and doing nothing about it.
- Simply put, the Word of God is a mirror to our soul. Through the word, we see all of the imperfections and the ways we fall short of the glory of God. We see our true self as we look into the Word of God.
- Personal reflection.
EVENING REFLECTION
In a society that places a high premium on knowledge and intellectual pursuits, perhaps we have spent too much of our energy in trying to know more and hear more. We can spend so much time reading different articles and listening to different sermons, but maybe we need to spend more time just being obedient in the simple things. Write down a few things that you want to be obedient in and start there.
Paul began his letter to the Corinthians with a benediction (literally means “a good word”) of grace: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 1:2); and now ends with a benediction of grace. His message begins with grace, the middle is full of grace, and again ends with grace.
The AMI QT Devotionals from May 15-21 are provided by Pastor Barry Kang, who heads Symphony Church in Boston. Barry, a graduate of Stanford University and Fuller Theological Seminary (M.Div.), is married to Sunny (an amazing worship leader, chef and math wizard). They are the proud parents of Caleb and Micah.
One of my seminary professors refused to give exams in his class because he had been scarred by all exams and tests he’d endured in his own education. Even though I did fairly well with exams, his class was still one of my favorites in the seminary! Few of us like the idea of exams: We delay going to the doctor; we dread what we will hear from our auto mechanics. There is even a school of thought in education that wants to eliminate high-stakes testing (i.e. state wide exams) in our public schools. But we know that—even if we don’t like it—exams at some level are necessary. They are necessary because sometimes we get off-course (even if we don’t want to acknowledge it). That’s why we need to check where we are and figure out where to go from there.
Humble yourself and God will exalt you (James 4:10); the first shall be last (Matthew 20:16); free from sin, slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:18); live through dying (John 12:24); lose life to find it (Matthew 10:39); when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor. 12:10)—the New Testament has many seeming paradoxes. Culturally and societally speaking, they don’t always make sense, but spiritually—they make all the sense in the world.
Everybody has a thorn. Your thorn is that place in your life where you feel most vulnerable or broken or defeated. You don’t want to talk about it; you’d like to pretend it’s not there. Paul says that he pleaded with God three times to take his thorn away. This was not a casual request. Paul poured his heart out before God, but the heavens were silent. We’ve all been there.
Let’s begin this morning by making sure that we not miss Paul’s main point: he is not trying to inform the Corinthian church about how much he has suffered for the gospel. Rather, he is using ironic rhetoric to demonstrate the absurdity of boasting. In verses 30-33, he will cap this remarkable litany of sufferings with a boast of how he once ran away from potential persecution!
“There is no such things as a free lunch,” my high school economics teacher loved to tell us. Many of us, over the years, have learned to become skeptical of anyone who will offer to give us something for free. “What’s the catch?” we wonder. The Corinthians, under the influence of “super-apostles,” were wondering why Paul labored as a tent-maker if this message he had was so valuable. If what is being offered is truly valuable, then it ought to cost something to the receiver.
Early in our marriage, Sunny would sometimes forget to wear her wedding ring. One time, she was in a grocery store shopping for groceries, when a good looking man approached her saying, “Excuse me, you look like you know how to cook.” She realized that this was a very sweet but clumsy pick-up line. As she told me this story afterwards, we laughed about the incident. I could laugh because Sunny had given me little reason to actually be jealous. I also sternly told her to wear her wedding ring from that time on!
If you have been following the NBA (National Basketball Association), there has been a notorious character flooding the sports news – Lavar Ball, the father of UCLA freshman Lonzo Ball. He has been making outrageous claims that his son, without being drafted onto a NBA team, is already better than Stephen Curry and Michael Jordan. More recently, BBB (Big Baller Brand), Lavar Ball’s apparel company, released Lonzo’s shoe to be valued at $500. To give readers some context of the situation, only NBA super stars release their own shoes, not undrafted college players. Even when NBA super stars release their shoes, they are at most $300—not $500!
If you have ever run a race at a track meet, you know that you are confined to your lane, which means you are not allowed to step outside of the lane assigned to you. If you do, you get disqualified. These lanes are there to keep you from hindering other people from running their race as well as to keep you safe.