Note: Today’s AMI Devotional is written by Jane Oak who serves at Tapestry LA. Jane, an immigration lawyer, and her husband Harry were married last year.
Devotional Thought for Today
Philemon 1:6
“I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good things we have in Christ” (NIV 1984).
One Sunday before worship service, I went to Starbucks with a few friends from Tapestry LA. While ordering my coffee, I saw the cashier wince and say quietly to himself “Oooh, my back hurts.” I paid him and then went over to the other counter to pick up my coffee. While waiting, I sensed the Spirit telling me, “Jane, you need to pray for his back to be healed.” I responded with, “I know you have healed my friends and cell group members, but this is a total stranger and he is busy working”; nevertheless, I felt that I had no choice but to obey.
So, after getting my coffee and waiting for the line of people to clear out, I walked up to the cashier, at which point he turned around to wipe the back counter. Having seen his name tag earlier, I said in a gentle voice, “Javier?” He turned around and said, “Yes?” I asked him, “Can I pray for your back to be healed?” Since he was surprised that I knew about his back pain, I explained how I had seen him wince earlier and muttering something about his aching back. I then told him, “My friends and I have prayed for people to get healed, and they get healed. So, if you would like, we could pray for your back right now. It will only take about 10 seconds.” He paused, looked into my eyes for a couple seconds, and then said, “Yes, I would like that.” I excitedly ushered him to the side where we could lay hands on him. I called out to the others to come pray for Javier’s back. They came over and when Sol asked Javier, “Is it muscular or spinal?” Javier answered spinal. Then, we laid hands on him and I spoke the words, “Lord, heal this back in Jesus’ name.” There was no time to pray longer than those 7 words because we had to make sure he could get back to work. I then stood in front of Javier and asked, “Javier, how does your back feel?” He started moving around and exclaimed, “Oh my goodness, it doesn’t hurt at all!” Sol got excited and asked him to bend down and touch his toes just to make sure. He bent down a couple times and said there was no pain at all. We all started rejoicing, but had to quickly let him get back to the cash register.
The worship service that followed was amazing for us because we knew we were worshipping a living God who loves to heal. He is just waiting for us to do our part of laying on hands and praying in Jesus’ name. Our part is actually quite easy; God, of course, does the hard part of bringing about the healing. What I have learned through this and other healings is that God has chosen to partner with us in bringing healing to others (physical, emotional, and spiritual) because He wants to strengthen our faith and deepen our intimacy with Him through these wonderful, supernatural experiences with Him. Thank you, Lord.
Prayer: “Lord, I pray that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened so that we may perceive the needs of the people around us in order that we may minister to them in a tangible and fruitful manner. May our lives be full of adventure and excitement as we join You in your work. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Proverbs 17
Lunch Break Study
(Provided by P. Ryun Chang)
Read Eph. 6:19-20: Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Colossians 4:3-6: At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. 5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.
Questions to Consider
- We know the apostle Paul to be a very competent and fearless preacher of the gospel. In light of that, does this passage surprise you in any way?
- Paul asked for an open door—what would that mean to us? What did it mean for Jane?
- In light of the morning devotional, in what sense did Jane make the best of her time?
Notes
- Paul’s request is surprising because he asked the Ephesians to pray for boldness and apt words to share. Since these were two of Paul’s strong points, how much more we need to ask as many people to pray for us to be bold and knowledgeable when sharing God’s word!
- We ought to pray that God will lead us to people whose disposition is more receptive to God’s word than others (perhaps because they are going through a difficult moment). For Jane, catching the cashier’s groaning became an open door (added with boldness).
- Jane could have left it at that: pay the bill, drink the coffee and off to Tapestry. But she complied with the Spirit’s tugging by deciding to turn a mundane visit to a coffee shop into an experience with God for both the cashier and Jane. How about you?
Evening Reflection
Close your eyes for a moment and relive this day while asking this question: Was there at least one person in your office, school, or the grocery store you visited whom you could have ministered? What kept you from recognizing it at that moment? What could you have done differently? Pray that you will respond differently the next time.
If you are like most Americans, you probably watched your share of movies this holiday weekend. You younger and hipper folks out there probably went to the theaters; cheap and lame folk like myself just turned on the television and found a Star Wars marathon on TBS, a bunch of superhero movies on TNT, more action movies on FX, and of course rom-coms on Oxygen. Because I am male, I am slightly ashamed to admit that I’ve watched my share of rom-coms. One somewhat common theme we see in this genre is the bad guy turned good by the right girl. In theory, it’s a cute plot, but now that I have daughters, I hate it. I hate it because Hollywood is trying to sell us a love story that the guy in these movies has no business buying. Example, when Jack Nicholson tells Helen Hunt in the 1997 film As Good as It Gets that “She makes me want to be a better man,” the audience is touched and everyone hopes these two get together. We neglect the fact that Nicholson played an OCD, narcissistic, jerk who was not good enough for Hunt’s character. I would never want my daughter dating a guy like that! Don’t try to convince my daughters that this is a great love story! By the way, I’ve heard many a college student and young man use that cheesy line to make would-be girlfriends swoon. Ladies be warned—it comes from a movie!
On Thursday, I shared how we implemented chores and rewards for my seven-year-old, Simon. From that system, Saturday became his payday. In his first week of work, he made a whopping $3. Small oversight on my part, I only had $2 in my wallet. So, I gave my son the two bucks and told him that I’ll give him the rest later. I figured no big deal, right? Not so fast… for some reason, my son did not believe that I would’ve made good on my IOU. (I don’t know why Simon doesn’t trust me; perhaps it’s because whenever my family gives him money, Dad puts it away for “safekeeping”.) Anyway, the next day Simon asked me for his dollar, but of course I didn’t have it, because I wasn’t about to go to the bank for one dollar. This went on for a few days until I found a convenient time to come up with a buck—I think it was the following Wednesday.
Being a father of “suspicious” children helps me, in some small measure, understand why faith pleases the Lord, and conversely, why lack of faith is so annoying. I feel like I am constantly trying to convince my children that I am not completely incompetent, or that I have learned something in my life. The other day, my seven-year-old looks at me like I’m from Mars because I tried to convince him that the platypus, despite laying eggs, is a mammal. Apparently his first-grade teacher taught him that one of the characteristics of mammals is that they give birth to their young. Sometimes, I want to shout, “Your dad is smart too! I went to an Ivy League university!” Pathetic I know. (Editor’s note: I know what you mean!)
My wife and I are trying a new thing with our seven-year-old son (Simon): chores with cash rewards. So, we give him a quarter for things like throwing out the trash, recycling or setting the table for dinner, etc. In a huge week, he can make about three to five bucks (that’s big money for the little guy). We are doing this for several reasons, but my primary motivation is that I want him to learn the value of a dollar and earn his next Lego set. My hope is that my son will look at his new set and realize that it took him three to four months of “hard work” and savings to get it; then, he’ll appreciate it more, and hopefully I won’t have to see Legos all over the floor.
My old youth pastor told a great story of how once, when he was jogging around the track at his local high school, some big guy jumped him from behind, put him in full-nelson, and began questioning/berating him about his ethnicity. Apparently, this person had lost a member of his family in the Vietnam War, and because he thought that my youth pastor was Vietnamese, he assumed that somehow my pastor was responsible for the tragedy (which happened over 30 years ago). After diffusing the situation by convincing him that there was a difference between Vietnam and Korea, my youth pastor, who was understandably very upset, went home and grabbed a wheat sickle from his garage and started to leave the house, determined to do something bad to his attacker. Thankfully, his mother cut him off (get it?) and was able to calm him down. At one point, his mom—trying to reason with him—asked him directly, “What about your Christianity? What would Jesus think?” to which he replied, “I don’t care!” His point in telling this story was that he was so angry and humiliated by what had just happened, he didn’t care about his actions, his faith, or anything else. I know the way the story reads, it sounds really intense and scary, but the story was meant to be comical, and all of us were laughing as he told it.
I never understood the fascination with gangster movies. Sure, movies like The Godfather or Goodfellas are entertaining, but I know people who think these are two of the greatest films ever made and just flock to the genre in general—maybe you are one of them or have friends who are. But I have a theory that explains some of the appeal of gangster movies: it has to do with this concept of loyalty. In every gangster movie there is a collection, group, or family to which all must pledge their loyalties. The expectation is that everyone must be willing to do or sacrifice any price for the “family,” and betraying it is the unpardonable sin. Of course, in the context of these movies, these loyalties are stretched to criminal levels; yet people are attracted to outrageous displays of loyalty—even if it is exhibited in a twisted manner. Deep down we all want to be a part of a group that is utterly loyal to one another; we want to be around people who would do anything for us; and we want to have friends for whom we would do anything. We are both fascinated and attracted to great loyalty.
Note: The AMI QT Devotionals for November 21-26 are provided by Pastor Yohan Lee of Radiance Christian Church in San Francisco, CA.
How does the phrase “fantasy football” make you feel? For the men (sorry to stereotype) who play it, you probably got a little giddy, because to you, FF represents your last bastion of childish fun in your otherwise mature, pressure-packed, overworked, and utterly responsible existence. For the wives, girlfriends, children, or people who like to have normal conversations with the men in their lives (again, I know women play FF), the term “fantasy football” makes you roll your eyes (or convulse violently), because you know that from mid-August to late-December, your men will be engulfed by this nerdy addiction (think of it like the 21st century’s version of “Magic, The Gathering”).
In college, after late nights of studying (or, according to our pastors, just hanging out), our church brothers would walk the sisters home to ensure that we made it home safely. I lived less than two blocks away from where we used to study; there probably would have been very little danger going home alone, but it was still a very nice favor. Now, as a more-grown person living far from my friends, getting home in the evenings can feel a lot less safe. I appreciate those memories more than ever – what a difference an extra presence can make in a dark situation!
Note: The AMI QT devotionals for November 19-20 are provided by Christine Li. Christine graduated from University of Pennsylvania and currently lives and works in New York City. She attends Remnant Church in Manhattan. 
In middle school, I gained a pen pal when one of my closest friends moved to Japan. For two years, we kept in touch by sending snail mail to each other. It was exciting to send a letter or a package to her, but the anticipation of waiting for a response was a nightmare for my insecure, teenage self. With each passing day of nothing in the mail for me, I would worry: What if she didn’t like what I had sent or shared? What if her letter to me got lost? What if she got tired of corresponding and didn’t want to continue?