Editor’s Note: The AMI QT devotionals from Feb. 1-7 are provided by Cami King. Cami, a graduate of University of Pennsylvania, is about to complete her M.Div. at Gordon Conwell Seminary. She is currently serving as a staff at Journey Community Church in Raleigh.
Devotional Thoughts for Today
Acts 3:6-10
Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Very few Christians in America have ever seen a good old fashioned, New Testament healing. I personally have never seen a lame man get up and walk at a mere command. Part of me wonders if the infrequency of the miraculous is due to our lack of felt-need for God’s supernatural power. When Peter and John encountered the man in the passage above, he asked them for something – not healing, obviously, because he didn’t imagine that was something they could give, but money, a more reasonable request. However, Peter first responded by acknowledging his lack and what he didn’t have – I don’t have any money – and his dependence on God for provision – but I do have the power of the name of Jesus.
Self-reliance can lead us to miss the opportunity to experience the supernatural work of God in our lives. In some ways, it’s understandable – we have modern medicine and therefore don’t need to command healings. We have food and money and material resources and therefore can give of those things when we are asked. And that all makes sense, as these things are gifts from God. But I wonder how often we miss an opportunity to see God at work in ways beyond what we’ve imagined possible when we don’t stop to acknowledge our dependence upon Him.
No matter how much we have and how advanced we’ve become as a society, we are still dependent on God. Even in operating rooms and at ATMs, God is the ultimate provider of every good gift. And when we are asked by others for help, we might want to stop for a brief moment and ask the Spirit within us how He wants to meet that need through us. Oftentimes He will do the expected, and has already empowered us through our material resources to be a blessing. But every now and again, He may have something in mind that is immeasurably more than what we thought or imagined possible. May we not miss it because we never stopped to ask.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to remember that You are my provider and I am dependent upon You always. Thank You for the many resources You’ve given me and the many ways You’ve blessed me. May I use them wisely to be a blessing to others. And if there are ways You want to move through me that are outside of my material resources, make me sensitive to the promptings of Your Spirit within. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Genesis 33
Lunch Break Study
Read James 1:9-11
Now the believer of humble means should take pride in his high position. 10 But the rich person’s pride should be in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a wildflower in the meadow. 11 For the sun rises with its heat and dries up the meadow; the petal of the flower falls off and its beauty is lost forever. So also the rich person in the midst of his pursuits will wither away.
James 4:13-17
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 14 You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes. 15 You ought to say instead, “If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast about your arrogant plans. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows what is good to do and does not do it is guilty of sin.
Questions to Consider:
- Many people interpret James’s words in 1:13-17 as a condemnation of being rich. But with his words in 4:13-17 in mind (where he speaks again directly to the rich Christians), what is James actually condemning and why is it dangerous?
- How do James’s words in the 4:13-17 challenge you? What are the areas in your life where you tend to fall into this line of thinking?
- What would it look like for you to take a “if the Lord is willing” posture in your life (maybe in the areas you mentioned in question 2)?
Notes:
- James’s words are a condemnation not of being rich but of being prideful and self-reliant. Wealth and material resources often woo us into a false sense of independence. When we don’t have any felt need from the people around us, we begin to convince ourselves that we don’t have any need at all – even from God. We believe the lie that we are the source of what we have and find security in our wealth. This is dangerous because, as James explains, we are still dependent, even our lives are not our own, they will one day fade away and that’s completely out of our control. When we have the freedom that wealth affords in the material world, we have to be careful to remember our dependence on God.
- Most people in America have their basic needs met and have never experienced true hunger or poverty. Because we go to work and receive a paycheck on schedule, progress through school in a fairly pre-defined manner, begin a career and expect to advance on a certain time table, we tend to know what to expect from life. And we often make plans based on those rhythms with little consideration for God and what He may be up to and desiring for us. Not that it’s wrong to make plans, but it’s important to remember that we are dependent on God and to pause from time to time to give Him room to lead us according to His will.
- Spend some time in personal reflection. For most of us this comes down to creating greater margins – in our budget, in our daily schedule, in our plans for the year—and we need to leave room for God to do something different. For others of us it comes down to opening our hands – instead of holding our plans so tightly, we may need to be a bit more flexible when we do sense God moving us in a different direction.
Evening Reflection
While self-reliance often hinders us from experiencing God at work in and through us, there is another obstacle many of us face: busyness. When Peter and John were approached on their way into the temple, they took the time to actually have a person-to-person interaction. It’s not that they weren’t busy (they were “on their way” to do something), but they took time out of their schedule to be a blessing. Are there people in your life today who have needs that God may desire to meet through you? Ask the Lord to bring to mind a specific person and one tangible way you can be a blessing to him/her this week.
“Everyone will be forgotten, nothing we do will make any difference, and all good endeavors, even the best, will come to naught. Unless there is God. If the God of the Bible exists, and there is a true reality beneath and behind this one, and this life is not the only life, then every good endeavor, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God’s calling, can matter forever.” (Tim Keller)
The late great preacher S.M. Lockridge once said, “A sermon should do at least four things for you. One, a sermon should stretch your mind… You ought to be able to learn something from a sermon. Two, a sermon should tan your hide. A sermon should correct you. Three, a sermon should warm your heart. It should inspire you. Four, a sermon should provoke the will. It should challenge you to do what the Lord would have you do.”
My journey into Christian faith consisted largely of wrestling with the truth and trustworthiness of Scripture. One of my dearest resources during that time was my dad who graciously spent inordinate amounts of time answering my questions and helping me process my thoughts. One phrase I’d constantly repeat in our conversations was, “Yes, but how do you know that?” I wanted to understand how he had become so persuaded that what Scripture was saying was true. How could he be certain? Among the slew of things that bolstered his assurance were the prophesies. I remember reading a compilation of promises and prophesies of God from the Old Testament listed beside accounts of their fulfillment (both in Scripture and in the life of the Church). It didn’t convince me at the time, but I remember one day when it clicked. I was amazed. One prophesy come true I could chalk up to coincidence, maybe even two or three. But after a while, it would have taken more blind faith to believe it was mere coincidence that aligned so many Old Testament prophesies with New Testament realities.
Editor’s Note: The AMI QT devotionals for today are provided by Mei Lan Thallman. Mei Lan Thallman is originally from Taiwan and a graduate of Asbury College and Asbury Theological Seminary (M.A.) in Kentucky. She is the wife of Pastor Kirt, who serves at Grace Covenant Church (Philadelphia). They have two children, Nate (13) and Naomi (11).
War Room is one of my favorite movies of 2015. What I love the most is its portrayal to the audience of this essential, foundational truth that: prayer is the battleground on which we wage and win wars. If you have not seen it, please make a point to watch it with your family, friends and small group. It will open your eyes to see prayer in a new way.
Several years ago, while we were serving in South Carolina, we took the kids on a family vacation to Disney World in Florida. We thought we were making Nathan and Naomi’s childhood dreams become a reality—they would remember Disney as the magical place. But we were shocked to hear Naomi make the declaration upon arriving home, “It’s so good to be home; I love my home better than Disney.” In our sincere effort to give them a magical experience, we had pushed ourselves over the limit by doing too much with too little time.
What’s the point of the virgin birth? Some say that since the original sin is transmitted through the father, if Jesus had been conceived in a natural manner, He could’ve been neither perfect nor sinless. Paul probably would have disagreed since he wrote, “Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner” (1 Tim. 2:14). While we can debate this point to no end, there is another compelling reason why the virgin birth was absolutely necessary.
Perhaps no one ever feared death quite like Thomas Donaldson, then 46, who was afflicted with brain cancer in 1990. Hoping that someday science would provide a cure for cancer, he sought for cryogenic (science of the effects of low temperature) specialists to freeze him, and then sever his frozen head to store it for the future. At $35,000, freezing a head was cheaper than the cost of freezing an entire body for $100,000. Wishing also for the development of brain transplantation, the plan called for his head to be implanted to another body. “I am dying,” Donaldson said, adding, “I might later be revived and continue to live.” Ironically, he beat the disease until finally succumbing to it in 2006.
I disagree with most of what Richard Dawkins wrote in The God Delusion but not the following story. He cites a clergy who told his dying colleague, “Congratulations! I wish I was coming with you.” Noting that this clergy seemed like a sincere believer, the famed atheist says, “It is precisely because it’s so rare that his story catches our attention. Could it be that [religious people] don’t believe all that stuff they pretend to believe?” To some extent, this is true. One reason is that believers are more enamored by the men of this world who are getting all their “rewards” now, than the rewards of being with God.
Which animal you see in the picture depends on where your focus is: a gaze to the left will show a duck, to the right, a rabbit; but as whole, this image contains both a duck and a rabbit. I first saw this image in a book extolling postmodernism that, to ensure that Eurocentric thoughts no longer dominate the rest, has relativized all truth claims. This is why religious pluralism— belief that all religions lead to the same God—emerges as a child of postmodernism.
Now, in church history, one of the fiercest theological battles has been fought between the Calvinists and the Arminians. Regarding God’s election (that God predestines some to be saved), whereas the Calvinists posit that its basis is His deliberative plan (Eph. 1:11) that has nothing to do men’s merit, the Arminians say that the basis is God’s foreknowledge (1 Pet. 1:2). That is, God, “having foreseen men’s potential faith” chose “those who would turn to Him when they heard the gospel” (Hammond). But they do agree on one thing: this is a matter of either/or, and that both positions cannot be right at the same time. But Peter’s sermon suggests otherwise. Talking about those who played a critical part in crucifying Jesus, he says that it was done based on God’s “predetermined plan” as well as His “foreknowledge” of men’s future action.