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Pastor's Page
Getting Ready for Sunday
Devotions for August 30 through September 3
Monday: This week will be talking about the unity that God wants in His universal Church. This is a theme that starts in the Old Testament. Today we look back at Deuteronomy 7:6. Here we have read that the Hebrew people were chosen by God out of all the nations on the earth. In our culture we often think of ourselves as individuals first and then as part of the nation in which we live. But the People of Israel thought of themselves as a people before they thought of themselves as an individual. The person who didn’t follow the ideals that God had laid down for the People of Israel were often not allowed to be a part of the People of Israel anymore; they were in a sense excommunicated. And this was a terrible punishment for them as far as they were concerned. So this illustrates for us that being a part of the body of people that belonged to God was extremely important to them. Lord help us to be a close part of your people, a part of your community, surrounded by the love of your people. Amen.
Tuesday: Today we read from Psalm 33:12. We see that the Psalm says that the nation that God has formed is “happy”. The reason that they are considered happy is that as a group they are following God’s ways of peace and wholeness (God’s rules). This happiness is connected with the whole nation of God because you can’t be complete apart from God’s people. A lot of times people, picture heaven as a place where we do what we want. But all of the Biblical pictures of heaven have all the people of God all together like giant family, worshipping God and celebrating our lives in Him. This picture of heaven illustrates for us that to be happy we need to be in God’s nation, people, or family. We are incomplete without it.
Wednesday: Today we begin to turn toward a New Testament idea of the Old Testament “Chosen People”. We do so by reading Ephesians 1:4-5. Here we see the New Testament idea of being God’s chosen people. We are “chosen before the foundation of the world” --- “as His children through Jesus Christ.” Instead of being bound together as God’s people through the Law of Moses we are bound together through salvation through Jesus Christ. But other than that the image of being a chosen people does not change. We, as God’s people are still to be a part of God’s people. It is the only way we are complete in God, even as a Christian.
Thursday: Today we read from I Peter 2:9. Here we see that we aren’t just happy and complete as God’s people but God has a purpose for us as His family. As His chosen race we are a priesthood on behalf of God, a holy nation, and God’s own people. We are created as His people so that we can proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called us out of the darkness of our broken world. Through our proclamation we are inviting others to be a part of God’s own people to join in His wholeness as a family together in Jesus Christ.
Friday: Today we finish our look at our unity in God by reading Ephesians 4:4-6. This passage reminds us that we are to be together with the one God as “one body.” We, as the church, are that one body in Christ. This is the ultimate of the chosen people of God, to be just like “one body” serving Christ. We all together united as all churches of all time around the world as we serve the unifying purposes and goals of Jesus Christ. This unity allows us to be together as a family of God and find our purpose in Him, and at the same time it allows us to have His joy in the unity of people that we are a part of in our own local church.
Devotions for September 6 through September 10
Monday: Next Sunday we’ll be looking at our job to invite people into the Kingdom of God. We’ll start by reading Nahum 1:15a. Nahum gives us the impression that his eyes are looking desperately for good news and when he sees the bearer of good news coming he celebrates. Paul quotes this passage in referring to people who bring the best news of all. He celebrates in the Book of Romans those who bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the world. In fact Paul says, “Blessed are those who bear this good news.” And truly we are blessed as we share the good news that Christ has called us to share.
Lord give us the strength to share the good news that we are called to share. Amen.
Tuesday: Today we think about why we are blessed as we share the good news of God in Jesus Christ. We read today from John 17:1-3. In this passage we have read that salvation is knowing God the Father and Jesus, the son whom He has sent. How would a person come to know what salvation is (which is eternal life) unless they are have this told to them. As we share this good news with another and they receive this information with belief then they become a part of our family in God. To share the Good News and have it accepted is to have a brand new brother or sister. What a blessing that is!
Wednesday: The question that we might have about sharing the Good News of Jesus is Christ is, “Does Jesus want me to share this Good News?” There are many passages that tell us “yes” that we are to share this Good News but today and the rest of this week we’ll share a few of those passages that you might not have thought of. Today we read from Luke 9:1-2. In our reading for today we see that fairly early in his ministry Jesus sent out the twelve Apostles to share the Good News about the Kingdom of God, which is Jesus’ Kingdom as he is the Son of God. They were sent to share the news that God’s kingdom was coming upon the earth and they were to demonstrate that God’s kingdom was a reality by bringing healing and wholeness to those who believed.
As we share the Good News of Jesus Christ we too are sharing that God’s Kingdom is present on the earth, and as we do what we can do to bring healing and wholeness to God’s world, we show that God’s kingdom is truly present. Amen.
Thursday: Today we read from Matthew 28:5-10. What we have read, is Matthew’s telling of the discovery that Jesus was raised from the dead. Notice that the angel who shared this Good News told the women to go and share this news with the rest of Jesus’ disciples. So the very first thing that we read after people come to know that Jesus is raised from the dead is that this Good News is to be shared. But that is not all. As soon as the women went to share the Good News Jesus himself met them and he also called them to go and share the Good News as well.
It is no different for us. We too are told, “Go and share the Good News.” It is actually our joy to share what we have to share as we share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Friday: Today, as we finish our week of devotions, we read from Luke 24:30-33. Again we are reading a resurrection story of Jesus. In this story the resurrected Jesus meets two people on the road to Emmaus and he reveals to them that he has been raised from the dead. When they realize that he is indeed alive they say, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as we walked along the road with him?” It is this heart burning excitement that causes them to hurry back the many miles to Jerusalem late that afternoon to share their excitement with the rest of the disciples.
It is our excitement over who Jesus Christ is and what he is doing that causes our hearts to burn in excitement within us and share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Let us share and be blessed because of it. Amen.
Devotions for the week of September 13 through September 17
Monday: This Sunday we’ll be thinking about being a person who is balanced in God our creator. As we think about this idea we’ll be drawing on the understanding of God as a trinity. Today we recall Genesis 1:26-27, which reminds us that we are created in the image of God; also a triune being. By this we understand that to be balanced is to be copying our triune God as a triune being ourselves.
Gracious God, help us to understand more and more about you so that we can understand more and more about ourselves as we seek to be like you, our creator and heavenly Father. Amen.
Tuesday: We know that one of the main things about God, is that God created creation; so as we think about God the creator (the first part of the trinity) what do we learn? Today we read from Romans 1:19-20b. Basically this passage tells us that the finger prints of God are all over the creation that He created. We come to know so much about God through what we see. We come to know that God has created creation with great beauty and balance; we also see that God has a great love for this creation that He has given us. Through this we know that we too should have a great love and respect for the creation that that God has made for us, so we may feel ourselves called to be in ministries of care for our world and its resources.
Dear God as we see you in all that is created around us, help us to be good stewards of what you have given us in creation. Amen.
Wednesday: Today we read from II Corinthians 5:17-19. Yesterday we looked at the first part of the trinity as we talked about the creator God. Today we turn our attention to the second part of the trinity, Jesus, the Son of God. In the second part of the trinity we see that God has reached out to us to reconcile us with himself. From the scripture we understand why this reconciliation is necessary. We read in the scripture that all human beings have fallen short of what God has called us to be because of our rebellion against God; which is called sin. In the triune nature of God in Jesus Christ we see that God won’t just let us go to our destruction, which is what happens as we are separated from God through our sin. Instead God reaches out to us. From this we come to know that God also calls us to reach out to others so that they too may come to know the love of God in and through the second part of the trinity; Jesus Christ.
Thursday: Today we continue with thinking about the second part of the trinity in Jesus Christ. Today read Acts 4:12. There is salvation in no else but Jesus Christ; that is the important message that we read in Acts. This is the good news that we share and celebrate as we think about the second part of the trinity as we copy who God is in our lives. Amen.
Friday: today we read from Galatians 2:20. We often think about the third part of the trinity as the Holy Spirit and we realize that it is the Spirit that teaches us about God the Father, and helps us come to know the salvation that it is Jesus. But as we think about ourselves as a triune person made in the image of God, we realize that the third part of the trinity in our own character is the part that joins us to God, it is the essence of our current connection with God in our prayer time and in our spiritual development. So as we are in the image of God we need to develop the third part of our nature by allowing the Holy Spirit to keep us in connection with God.
To summarize our week of devotions; the first part of our character as we are made in the image of God is to be concerned with creation, because God has a great love for creation. secondly, we are to reach out to the world with the good news of Jesus Christ, because the second part of the triune nature of God is reaching out to the world. Thirdly, we are to be in connection with God because the third part of the triune nature of God is seeking to be in connection with us. As we do all three of these things we are in balance as a creature of God created in His image.
-Pastor Tim Haas
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