The AMI QT Devotionals for February 4-5 are provided Jasmin Izumikawa. She is a member of the Church of Southland and is currently a high school teacher. She has lived the miracle of healing through the prayers of her AMI church family through her battle with lymphoma.
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT FOR TODAY
Psalm 77:19 Your way was in the sea and Your paths in the mighty waters.
Recently, our drought in California had been broken for a few gloriously rainy days. As nice as it was to have the rain, driving on the road was dangerous. Roads were flooded and my windshield wipers were not doing much to clear my view from the penetrating rain. Larger vehicles would splash waves of water onto my windshield, blocking my vision for a few seconds at a time. It felt like being in a carwash but at 45 miles an hour! It occurred to me that the most frightening thing about driving in the rain was not so much sliding around but the lack of peripheral vision around me.
Sometimes, when we do not have excuses or complaints to hide behind anymore, and the only way out is through the stormy sea, we begin to learn how to trust in the LORD. Maybe you can relate to this now in your job, relationship, or lack thereof that has you feeling doubtful of God’s favor or direction in your life.
Is there someone you need to forgive and show grace to at this time? Perhaps we need to start by asking, What is the LORD strengthening me to do now? LORD, will you give me eyes to see Your handiwork today? What will you show me today? Wherever we are, let us not lose sight of where God leads us this year.
Your way was in the sea
And Your paths in the mighty waters,
And Your footprints may not be known. . ..
You led Your people like a flock
By the hand of Moses and Aaron
(Ps. 77:19-20).
Prayer: LORD, Your way sometimes looks like a challenging journey, but I know Your way is right—Your way is forgiveness, humility, grace, and hope. Give me sight to see where You want to lead me. I place my trust and faith in You, LORD. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Judges 13-14
The AMI QT Devotionals for February 4-5 are provided Jasmin Izumikawa. She is a member of the Church of Southland and is currently a high school teacher. She has lived the miracle of healing through the prayers of her AMI church family through her battle with lymphoma.
Waking up in the mornings was easy to do when I was home recovering from chemo, because I barely slept at all. Those days of silence were spent in countless sleepless hours late into the night and into the early morning. Although I was finally finished with treatments, I had little to celebrate in my heart. Sorrow had silenced me for many months. So in the days and weeks to come, I spent my sleepless nights staring at the ceiling and watching the light from passing cars sweep across my dark room until it was morning again.
The AMI QT Devotionals from February 2-3 are provided by Pastor Mark Chun of Radiance Christian Church in S. F. Mark, a graduate of University of California, San Diego, and Talbot School of Theology (M.Div.), has been married to Mira for 20 years; they have two children, Jeremiah and Carissa. 
This philosophy stems from the ideas of Margaret Sanger, who was the original founder of Planned Parenthood. Sanger wrote that women are enslaved through their reproductive powers by men who dictate and control the standards of sex and morality. “No woman” she said, “can call herself free who does not own and control her own body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.” This seems eerily close to the reasoning that Ahaz must of have had when deciding to sacrifice his own son. For power and control, there was no price he was not willing to pay.
While I squirmed over having to present a morning devotional based on a passage dealing with infanticide, we, as followers of a holy God, need to deal with the horrifying nature of sin head on.
When “Jorge”—originally from Puerto Rico—saw me jogging in Chester Park this December, he was happy to see me, since we hadn’t seen each other for over three years—I had moved away from that neighborhood. As we were chatting, my ears perked up when Jorge, a naturalized citizen who has long retired, said that he voted for Trump, since only a quarter of Hispanics voted for Trump. Seeing my surprised reaction, he added, “I was going to vote for Clinton, until the third debate made me realize that her position could make any abortion legal at any point during a pregnancy.” Then it dawned on me that most foreign-born Hispanics (i.e., immigrants), certainly more religious than the general population, are socially more conservative. About 60 percent of them (PEW Research Center 2014), perhaps still bearing the influence of Catholicism, continue to hold that what’s inside the womb is life.
One can be tempted to think that justice is synonymous with “social justice,” that it is all about maintaining fair social and political relations. But in Christianity, the primary aspect of justice is about how the individual relates to God; the word “justification,” which is at the heart of salvation, is just another form of the Greek word for “justice.” Christian justice is mainly about how a person can be made right before God, which is through faith in divine grace and exemplified by good works.
In our world, there seems to be a new name above all names, the purpose above all purposes—the almighty ideal of social justice. It would be troublesome, however, if social justice is viewed in the same light as the saying, “One man’s art is another man’s pornography.” Yet there have been many different conceptions of justice throughout the ages. Thrasymachus in Plato’s Republic says that justice is simply whatever the strongest in society have deemed to be just (“Might makes right”). The 18th century philosopher David Hume said that justice is a human convention invented for the collective self-interest. Popular, contemporary theories of social justice revolve around ending the oppression of identity-categorized minorities based on race, gender, and sexuality.
Somebody is terribly mistaken here! As Isaiah 1:17 indicates, a desire for justice is good, but if predicated on a reckless theory of justice, such passion can be a great force for injustice. We can have all the fervor of a patriotic warrior as we march off to the grand, glorious war for social justice, but if we have pledged allegiance to the wrong ideological king, we may find ourselves making the nations much worse off. An earnest search for wisdom, knowledge, and God’s justice can go a long way toward making sure our social justice arrows hit the right targets.
The AMI QT Devotionals for January 28-29 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.
Yesterday, we talked about Sabbath, but maybe there is the question of whether this is even necessary, practical, or applicable in today’s world. I know that in my own life, there were instances where I misinterpreted the need for Sabbath as a weakness. Clearly, I was equating my worth to my productivity. So if I saw a need or an opportunity was presented, I quickly accepted. Though some good still came out of those decisions, it often came at the greater expense of my relationship with God or others, or other priorities to which I was committed.
I’ve been reading a book titled Emotionally Healthy Leader, where the author interestingly brings up the topic of the Sabbath. So what exactly is a Sabbath? Is it an Old Testament practice that we no longer observe as Christians?
The recent United Nations Security Council’s resolution to condemn Israeli settlement in territories taken during the Six-Day War (1967) continues to stir passion on both sides. While U.S. support for Israel may not be what it used to be, Christians who believe in the literal fulfillment of end-time prophecies are squarely on the side of Israel. Yet, in the midst of this bitter conflict, we have forgotten a people whom the believers have more in common with than the Israelis.
In 2015, while attending a conference on theological education in Turkey, I befriended a theological educator named Jiries from Jordan. He is a Palestinian. Never having met a Palestinian Christian before, I cautiously asked, “How do you feel about American Christians unilaterally supporting Israel?” Jiries answered, “It’s a matter of human interpretation of the Bible on the one hand, and God’s justice on the other.” I understood what he meant by “human interpretation,” but since I didn’t get the justice part, I asked for an explanation. The following is his story.