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, 15
Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. . . . 15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty.)
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.”
It wouldn’t surprise me if Mary’s house was bigger than my uncle’s, which is quite large but probably wouldn’t accommodate 120 people; yet that’s how many had gathered at Mary’s house to pray. Now, Mary’s house appears to be the main meeting place in the early days of the church, for when the imprisoned Peter miraculously got out of jail, Luke tells us that “he went to the house of Mary . . . where many people had gathered and were praying” (Acts 12:12). So, my uncle and Mary have one thing in common: Being people of means, they gladly offered their spacious house for the work of the Lord.
It seems like a rite of passage for the average middle-class family to move up the social ladder, ostensibly through moving into a bigger and better house. Of course, the Bible is known to frown on things like that, backed by a myriad of verses that warn against ostentatious display of wealth. Probably the most graphic passage is Haggai 1:4, 9 (NLT): “Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? . . . You hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when you brought your harvest home, I blew it away.” Scary.
Does that mean the end of American dream for those who desire to be good Christians? We cannot God ask for a bigger and better house? Well, I think there may be one spiritual ground for asking God for one, that is, as long as we go about obtaining it the right away. What could that be? I think that if you are willing to use your house the way Priscilla and Aquila did with theirs, you can aspire to own a “mansion.” Paul, as he was wrapping up his letter to the church in Rome, wrote, “Greet also the church that meets in their house” (Rom. 16:5).
So, are you willing to use your space for the Lord’s work the way Aquila, Priscilla and Mary did? Then ask the Lord for a bigger house. Work hard to afford one but don’t cheat God—neither with your time nor your money—on your way to attain one. If spiritual compromise is what it will take to get one, then, don’t do it because once you have the bigger space, your faith will be nowhere to be seen. Plan wisely.
Prayer
Dear God, I confess that You are the King, Lord and Ruler of my life. I once again count all my blessings that I do not deserve. As I seek to rise in wealth, constantly drive this point to me: “Do good . . . be rich in good deeds . . . be generous and willing to share” (1 Tim. 6:18). Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Genesis 4
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.
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.
Thomas Sowell never knew his father who died before his birth; he grew up in the South, where his encounters with Caucasians were so rare that “he did not know that blond was a hair color.” After dropping out of high school, it seemed very unlikely that he would one day become a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author of 30 books.
When given a challenge or difficult task, the first thing we often say is, “I can’t; it’s too hard.” The outcome of Sowell and Luke’s life suggests otherwise. While hard work (Prov. 14:23) and determination (24:16) led to Sowell’s rise, Luke presents an additional component: God equips and empowers those who obey His call. In that context, we can proclaim, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Phil. 4:13).