Editor’s Note: The AMI QT Devotionals from March 14-20 are provided by Pastor Charles Choe of Tapestry Church, Los Angeles. Charles, a graduate of UC Riverside and Fuller Theological Seminary (M.Div.), is married to Grace, and they have three children: Chloe, Noah, and Camden, who was recently born.
Devotional Thoughts for Today
Acts 9:1-9
Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. [4] And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
I was arrested once in my lifetime. Before I knew Christ, I was in the throes of my youthful rebellion when I was picked up by the police for shoplifting at the local mall. I had been stealing for a long time, so when I was finally arrested, it was definitely “a long time coming.”
On his way to Damascus, Saul too, was apprehended by God. A great light from heaven, which Saul would have recognized as the glory of God, accompanied the words of Jesus. Jesus told Saul that persecuting the church was tantamount to fighting God himself. Saul thought he was doing the will of God, but God in His mercy, stopped him from continuing down that destructive path.
Do you remember when you were stopped by the Lord? He does it in a lot of different ways for different people. Some are overcome by the guilt of sin, and they call on the Lord, asking Him to save them from it, while with others, God allows them to smash into a brick wall in life before they see the light and call on the Lord for help. Very often, God will show us through failures and disappointments that we need correction in our life course.
This is because we do not very often call on God when things are going well in our lives. We usually have to hit rock bottom before we are willing to look up for help. It’s only when we humbly acknowledge we cannot do it on our own that God is able to come and help us. If it takes several hard knocks in life to produce humility, then God will allow that to happen for the greater good!
Paul saw the light, and He saw the errors of his way. How about you today? Do you sense God is trying to get your attention? Do you feel the Lord is trying to change the direction you are going? If so, turn to Him in repentance today!
Bible Reading for Today: Nahum 2
Lunch Break Study
Read Philippians 3:12-21 (ESV): Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. [13] Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, [14] I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. [15] Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. [16] Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
[17] Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. [18] For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. [19] Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. [20] But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, [21] who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Questions to Consider
- Paul’s life is purposeful, for he constantly aims toward a heavenly goal, but in verse 14, says he has not reached that goal. What is the prize of reaching that goal?
- Paul calls the Philippians to imitate him. What does this mean?
- Are you able to say “imitate me as I imitate Christ” to somebody today?
Notes
- The prize is the fullness of blessings and rewards in the age to come, more specifically, being in perfect fellowship with Christ forever.
- Paul is not saying the Philippians are to focus on him per se but rather for them to join him in humble, radical dependence on Christ.
- Personal Response.
Evening Reflection
“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” –C.S. Lewis
In a remote rain forest jungle part of the world, there were once two villages separated by a large mountain. One village had received the gospel, built a rough structure with a cross on top, started gathering regularly for meetings, and wonderful and amazing things happened there. News of these goings on reached the other village, but only in bits and pieces because of the whole mountain separating the two. They heard that this first village had built this structure, that they gathered there, that amazing things were happening. So they decided to try the same. They built a rough structure with a cross on top, started gathering there regularly, and they would sit in this structure and wait—wait to see what would happen next. The documentary that recorded this true story ended something like this: “At the time the editing of this film was completed, there was as of yet still no missionary working among the people of the second village.”
What can we tell about someone who chooses sorcery as his occupation in life? At the very least, he isn’t normal. In Acts chapter 8, we see an interesting portrait of this funny, unusual man. He enjoyed the attention of people, boasted that he was someone great, but when someone greater came along, he fell into line and started following this person everywhere. His character seems almost recognizable, like the man in the movies who boasts in a bar of his arm-wrestling ability only to make a quick about-face when the real champion walks in. The comedy is in how shamelessly he humbles himself in the blink of an eye – a seeming defeat – but in that moment, if he does it charmingly enough, he wins over the heart of the audience.
I didn’t understand the hurry many Asian parents seemed to be in to get their children married off until someone explained to me that in this culture, parents don’t feel like their job is done until they see their children married and settled down. A majority of American parents may feel it their responsibility to get their children through high school at least; for Asian parents, getting their children married was the stage they were responsible for seeing through. Once they did, they could say, “It is finished,” (i.e., be “done” with parenting).
Have you ever found yourself angered by someone’s words or actions only to realize later that they were right and you were wrong? If so, consider yourself fortunate as it is better than being insensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit to the end.
In some ways, all of the Kung Fu Panda movies are about the lead character Po’s search for identity. In the first, we know from the moment he calls a goose “Dad” that he is going to have to deal with this question of where he “really” came from some day. In the second, he begins to have flashbacks of seeing his panda mother, and in the third, he meets his biological father for the first time, and the recognition is immediate. They have the same coloring, build and appetite, and as his panda dad takes him back to the village to meet more of his species, we can feel with Po his sense of wonder, happiness and joy at discovering there are others like him.
Sometimes when children of immigrants visit the countries their parents originally came from, it can be both exhilarating and traumatic. They often go to visit because they are looking for their roots, a sense of belonging, but sometimes they end up being rejected by the very people they are longing most to find connection with. When they walk into a store and can’t speak the language quite correctly, people wonder what is wrong with them. If they inadvertently say or do something rude, people assume it was intentional and react accordingly. Through such experiences, they discover things are more complicated than they’d imagined.
“Don’t you even have any eyes?” It was an immature response from an immature person (I was maybe around nine or ten), but it came from a very real sense of frustration at a perceived injustice. An adult had “accused” me of not closing the screen door properly when I came into the house, but I obviously had – if the person had any eyes, she could see for herself that it was closed. I knew I was being a little out of line, but I thought that maybe when she saw that she was the one in the wrong, she’d see my frustration was justified and let it pass, maybe even laugh. Unfortunately, some nuance was lost in translation in the bilingual household I was growing up in (apparently the adult heard the word for “eyes” as something more like “brains,” and apparently, in her culture, calling into question an adult’s possession of brains was a particularly disrespectful expression), and I got into huge trouble. It wasn’t about the door anymore but what I’d said to an adult, at which I felt even more frustrated, because I hadn’t said “brains,” I’d said “eyes.” It just ended up being a terrible, mixed-up, no good day.
Jesus’ call to love our enemies has largely been swept aside as a utopian fantasy that is unrealistic in the real world. I recently heard a joke that highlights this point. A pastor was preaching to his church about loving their enemies and he decided to take a quick survey of his congregation. He asked how many of them could count 10 or more enemies in their life. A few guilty hands went up. Then he asked how many of them had 5-10 enemies and a few more repentant hands went up. Then he asked who had at least one enemy and this time nearly all the hands were raised. Finally the preacher asked, “Who has no enemies?” After a moment, the pastor saw the hand of one elderly man being raised and, wanting the church to hear the counsel of this godly man, he asked, “What is your secret to having no enemies so late in life?” The man replied, “I thank God all those jerks have died!”
Before becoming a full-time pastor, I spent a number of years in the corporate world as a biochemist. I spent the bulk of my time working in two companies. One was a publicly traded company, which relied on secular investors; and the other, a private firm owned and operated by Christian businessmen. On the surface, you would think that the company run by Christian ownership would have a better atmosphere, culture, and work environment, and that they would treat their employees better than a company without any sort of Christian ethic. To my surprise, it was the non-Christian ownership that was better on most of these counts. Unfortunately, this is a trend that I see as I compare the majority of Christendom to the world. The world organizes better, sings better, motivates better, administrates better, builds better, and leads better. The main reason for this is the fact that the world doesn’t accept mediocrity, while the church—in the name of God’s grace—is perfectly fine with the mediocre. While I was working at my first company, one of my co-workers sent me a pretty funny email about laziness in the workplace: