Editor’s Note: The AMI QT devotionals from Jan. 1-15 are provided by Pastor Ryun Chang (Ph.D.) who is the AMI Teaching Pastor. He and Insil have been married for 28+ years and they have three children: Christy (teacher), Joshua (grad student) and Justin (college freshman). They live in Philadelphia.
Devotional Thoughts for Today
Acts 1:12
Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city.
Genesis 4:16-8
Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. 17 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.
No one extolled the virtue of city life better than erstwhile Harvard professor Harvey Cox, who argued in his seminal work Secular City (1965) that modern city life is preferable over rural (traditional) life. Cox liked that in the city, “relationships are founded on free selection and common interest,” giving people a “wider range of alternatives,” unlike in rural life, where relationships are preset and any newcomer was held in suspicion unless one knew “where they came from and whether their family was any good.” Undoubtedly, he would prefer Sex and the City over The Waltons, a popular TV show in the 1970s featuring a large rural family.
Of course, the 21st century city doesn’t look anything like its 1st century counterpart: cars and trucks have long replaced mules and carts; people who talk to themselves used to be called crazy, but now it just means that a Bluetooth mic is clipped to their ear. But some aspects of city life have not changed: young people still flock to cities, seeking fame, fortune and love. Contrary to Cox’s assertion, cities continued to be a place of broken dreams and shattered relationships. No sooner do people come to cities than they find out that the competition is fierce and no one can be trusted.
In a symbolic sense, it makes sense why more city dwellers are victims of crime than anyone else: Cain, who “belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother” (1 Jn. 3:11), built the first city. And a city was where Jesus, just before his ascension, commanded his disciples to go. In Jerusalem, the disciples were to receive power through the Holy Spirit, after which they were to preach the gospel (Lk. 24:47) before venturing out to other nations.
A city was where the apostles first preached the gospel, and even today cities are often the seminal grounds for mission work around the world. In the 2000s, I served in Chihuahua, Mexico, a city of about one million people. I walked to stores, jogged daily (crossing 42 streets) and train urban pastors. And it was fun and rewarding ten years of our lives. How about you? Is God calling you to a city? There are still a lot of needs out there.
Prayer
God, on this day reserved for you, I thank You for the opportunity to serve you, which I often take for granted. Whether I live in the suburb or city, there is no shortage of people who need You. Help me to share what I’ve received from You: hope, meaning and eternal life in Christ. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Genesis 5
Lunch Break Study
Read Hebrews 10:24-5: And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Jn. 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
Prov. 18:24: One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Question to Consider
- Imagine a lonely city dweller. Based on these passages and our need to belong, how can we make her feel better?
- Define a good friend.
- What are some good ways to encourage a discouraged friend or acquaintance?
Notes
- A safe and secure place where she can interact with others; a meaningful friendship
- A good friend is someone who sacrifices himself to seek your good; someone who will stay with you through good and bad times
- We should begin with reminding them of God’s love, care and concern for them; and then we should invite them to our meetings while reaffirming our love for them.
Evening Reflection
Do you live and work in the city? Or do you live in a suburb but work in the city? Each day might be busier than the last for you. But we should do more than just spend the whole day in front of the computer and talk on the phone. Reach out! A simple yet sincere “How are you” can mean a world of different to your lonely coworker or fellow student. Do something unique for someone tomorrow. Pray about it.
My uncle had always been a man of bravado but not that day: he spoke slowly in a low voice following a grueling surgery to treat his cancer. A man of substantial wealth, he was living at a nice condominium during the treatment, but it paled in comparison to his house, a mansion. In fact, I had stayed at this sprawling property the night before while in town. As I was leaving, my uncle said, “Whenever you are in town, please stay at my house; in fact, it’s open for any Lord’s servant; I want my house to be used for the Lord’s work.”
Most evangelicals probably no longer care what Rob Bell has to say after he questioned the existence of hell in Love Wins (and later declaring, “Smile, there is no hell” ), but at one time he had their ears. Calling evangelical theology, “Evacuation theology,” he said, “Figure out the ticket, say the right prayer, get the right formula, and then we’ll go somewhere else.” That, he said, was “lethal to Jesus, who endlessly speaks of the renewal of all things.”
In effect, Bell points out: “Don’t be so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good”. In a symbolic manner, this is exactly what the men of Galilee gathered at the Mt. Olive were doing: “Looking intently up into the sky as [Jesus] was going.” You can hardly blame them for being glued to what was a spectacular scene, but they must have stared too long. The angels were dispatched and after tapping their heads, they said, “Why do you stand here looking into the sky?” Reading between the lines, you could almost hear the angels shout, “Stop staring and get to work.”
A recent Mexican Coca-Cola ad produced a storm of controversy because of its insensitivity toward indigenous people. The commercial begins with sad natives “mop[ing] around a hillside feeling rejected by society. Then a group of young white hipsters turn up to save them, with the aid of coolers full of Coke and a Christmas tree. . . . The indigenous people can only smile in wondering gratitude.”
Over the years, conservative Christians have rightfully called out liberal scholars for holding to a low view of Scripture that results in the denial of important Christian doctrines, such as Virgin birth and resurrection of Christ. But those who say they believe the Bible aren’t entirely guilt-free for doing the opposite. Despite being told, “Do not go beyond what is written” (1 Cor. 4:6), that is exactly what some do, especially regarding the time of Christ’s second coming. Even though Jesus disprivileged himself by choosing to be agnostic about it, and reminded the disciples, just before his ascension, that “it is not for [us] to know the times or dates the Father has set,” there has been no shortage of people who do just that: setting the date of his return.
A pastor’s worst nightmare is being told how ineffective his sermon is, and that’s what recently happened to a pastor to whom this college sophomore said, “I’ve gotten nothing out of your sermons.” To him, the problem lies squarely with the pastor’s alleged inability to preach or teach well; but that may not necessarily be the case.
Once, a theology professor and former academic dean of a Reformed seminary, who used attend my church, said to me, “There is no spiritual power in the seminaries.” So, there might be some truth to people jokingly mispronouncing “seminary” as “cemetery.” But behind the humor lies good reason: first, since the Bible is treated as a textbook to be studied in dry academic fashion, it begins to lose its luster as a sacred book “sent” from above; second, seminarians “forget” to pray while juggling a demanding course load, church responsibility and perhaps even a part-time job; third, some seminaries are so hell-bent on imposing their particular brand of systematic theology, that those students who believe it begin to disdain others who don’t. That’s being carnal, not spiritual (1 Cor. 3:1-4).
Atheist Sam Harris, in his book The End of Faith (2004), writes, “Religion preaches the truth of proposition for which it has no evidence. In fact… no evidence is even conceivable.” A demand for evidence before believing an extraordinary claim is fair, and Harris would find Christ’s disciples in agreement. After all, upon being told by some women that they saw the resurrected Christ, “they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense” (Lk. 24:11). What they demanded was “proof” as Thomas said, “Unless I . . . put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it” (Jn. 20:25). And Luke the physician states that that’s exactly what they got: “Many convincing proofs that he was alive.”
However, unfortunately for us, what were empirical evidences (i.e., based on sensual experience) for the disciples are now nothing more than a historical narrative to us, and in the hands of skeptics like Harris, mere myth or fable. So then, what makes resurrection, a scientific impossibility, a plausible event to us without having to check out our brains at the door before entering the sanctuary?
Today spectator sports aren’t limited to watching ball games while sipping beer and munching on popcorn; now they can go to church every Sunday, to be entertained by one talented individual who can do it all: sing, dance and even preach! A while back, a professional wrestler, standing at 6 ft 9 in and weighing at 450 lb, called himself, “The One Man Gang.” While the moniker might fit for him, it’s unequivocally unbiblical for us! That’s like saying, “The One Man Church.” Whether it’s a gang or church, no one single individual, however great he may be, should be its entire: it’s a recipe for an eventual defeat.
Certainly when religion is done wrong, Karl Marx is absolutely correct in saying that “religion is the opium of the masses.” Marx’s premise, of course, is that people in power manipulate religion to keep the people in line, so that the structure continues to sustain their advantage while the masses hold out for the pie in the sky. Thus, the flow of religion goes downward from the top. But that’s not how God designed it.
Contrary to Marx’s assertion, then, the flow of religion goes upward from the bottom. 1 Cor. 1:27 reads, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” No example better illustrates this truth than Daniel, a Jew exiled in Babylonia, whose bold testimony moved the hearts of King Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 4:34-5) and King Darius (6:25-7); ironically, the political conquerors became spiritually conquered.