Daily Devotions

WedWednesdayFebFebruary22nd2012 "And you are to love those who are foreigners"

Posted Wednesday, February 22 2012 @ 5 AM byJonathan Ziman Tagged Local Impact 0 comments Add comment

To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. (Deut. 10:14-19)

I am a foreigner in this country. Although I am now finally a fully naturalized citizen, I will always feel slightly out-of-place here in my adopted home. I absolutely love it here, but I can never lose sight of the fact that I was born and raised in London. It’s in my blood, regardless of the flag on my passport.

So, having come from another country and gone through the immigration system myself, I have a vested interest in the debates that are raging in America today and in what the Bible says in regard to the ways in which we should treat “foreigners” or “sojourners.”

We’re not going to solve all those questions in a brief devotional thought, (a good resource for that is the website, http://www.undocumented.tv), but this passage in Deuteronomy is a good place to start thinking them through.

Here we find a reminder that we serve a Holy God whom we are told to love and worship with fear and obedience. The repeated thought is that we did not choose Him, He chose us. If we have any favor or standing in His eyes it is because of God, not because we are special or better than anyone else.

In fact, it is part of God’s character, a core component of His very identity, to care for “the fatherless and the widow.” Our God doesn’t just tolerate or accommodate the foreigner, He “loves the foreigner.” His heart is filled with care and concern for foreigners.

The question then becomes, what about us? How will we respond to the increasing numbers of foreigners, documented and undocumented, living right here in our community? What are we to make of the Hindu and Muslim places of worship sprouting up all around us? How can the Church take a stand against atrocities such as human trafficking? How can we reach these people with the gospel?

I encourage you to join Local Impact Pastor Chris McElwee and hundreds of other people at the 2012 “Mission On Our Doorsteps” conference, March 16-17. This incredible event will be an opportunity to honestly wrestle with these issues and more as pastors and church leaders gather to discuss what the Bible says about “justice” for those living right here among us. http://www.missiononourdoorsteps.com/ You can watch a great summary video here:

TueTuesdayFebFebruary21st2012 Fighting hunger is easier than you think

Posted Tuesday, February 21 2012 @ 5 AM byJonathan Ziman Tagged Local Impact 0 comments Add comment

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

when you see the naked, to clothe them,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

(Isa. 58:6-7, NIV)

Feeding the hungry is important, but doesn’t earn us our salvation. After all, atheists can feed the hungry and still be lost in sin. Providing the poor with shelter is a fantastic humanitarian goal, but doesn’t necessarily ingratiate us with God. After all, people of all different religions can be concerned with eradicating homelessness while still worshiping false gods and idols.

In fact, just as fasting can become an empty religious ritual, so too can helping the poor. So, how then do we make sense of this passage?

These verses do not say that the people should stop fasting and start feeding the poor instead. Isaiah is not trying to impose new rules on the people. What it does call for is a heart so transformed by God that it cannot help but express that love in acts of worship and service. As we draw closer and closer to God, more and more of His character should be expressed in our lives, both internally and externally.

One aspect of God’s character that comes up over and over again in Scripture is His concern for the poor and hungry. As our hearts are transformed that concern should slowly become our concern as well. But where do we begin?

Two great places to serve right here in our community are Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) and the Northern Illinois Food Bank (NIFB).

Every year millions of meals are put together by thousands of FMSC volunteers and shipped around the world to places that need it most.

Watch this video to learn more:

Packing meals at FMSC is a great activity do as a group from 2-90 people and any age kindergarten on up! Visit their website to sign up and pack some meals this month!

http://volunteer.fmsc.org/Register/Default.aspx

Just a few miles west of us in St. Charles is the Northern Illinois Food Bank. They have several volunteer shifts per week with a variety of easy roles. This is a great activity for small groups, but there are age restrictions, so check their website to see if it is appropriate for your children. http://solvehungertoday.org/GetInvolved/Volunteer/VolunteerWestSuburban.aspx

MonMondayFebFebruary20th2012 "Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner"

Posted Monday, February 20 2012 @ 5 AM byJonathan Ziman Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment

One of my wife’s cousins has a tattoo on his arm. It’s a Bible verse, but you’d only know that if you could read Hebrew, since that’s the way it has been inked onto his arm. (Hebrew looks cool I guess). In English the verse says,

And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8, NIV)

Having a tattoo written in Hebrew is perhaps a little pretentious, but the fact that he has such a visible reminder of the kind of God that we serve permanently sealed on his arm is perhaps not such a bad idea after all.

After all, I have been part of the Christian Church long enough to know first-hand how easy it is to explain away the Biblical calls to help the poor and needy. I am personally guilty of reading through my Bible and rationalizing away verses that seem to speak so clearly about caring for the weak and oppressed.

Jesus may have said, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys” (Luke 12:33). But then I do this weird mind-trick on myself where I explain away the command and turn it around to mean something completely the opposite, like, “I should get the 32” LCD from Costco instead of the 55” that I really want.”

Acting with generosity and kindness to the weak, lonely, oppressed and hurting does not come naturally. (At least, for me it doesn’t). It’s something I have had to work at conscientiously. Something I have had to pray for God to help me understand and put into practice.

Yet, the results have been eye-opening. The more I read the Bible the more astounded I am by just how frequently God speaks about the need to care for those who cannot help themselves.

“Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!” (Deut. 27:19, NIV)

That’s strong language—uncomfortably strong language. But resist the urge to dismiss it out-of-hand or pretend that it somehow doesn’t apply to you. (“Ah yes, but that’s the Old Covenant, we’re under the New Covenant,” or, “That was just for Israel, not for me today,” or, “Those are all metaphors for other things.”) The command to love is reiterated by Jesus explicitly, described in Acts, and reaffirmed by Paul in his letters. There’s no getting around the Bible’s command to care for the oppressed.

As we prepare for Local Impact Sunday, pray for God to open your heart to ways in which He might be calling you to get involved. Ask God to help you understand what He says in the Bible about caring for the poor. And pray for the Spirit to give you new understanding of what Jesus means when He tells us to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:34-40).

FriFridayFebFebruary17th2012 Friday, February 17

Posted Friday, February 17 2012 @ 5 AM byJonathan Ziman Tagged Colossians Image of the Invisible 0 comments Add comment

We end the week transitioning to a related, but separate line of thought in Paul’s letter. Having established the path in which they will walk, and having rooted themselves in Jesus, Paul exhorts the Colossians,

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Col. 2:8-12, NIV)

When we walk in Christ, when we pursue the path of wisdom, when we choose the path that leads to life, we do not somehow exempt ourselves from challenges, temptations and struggles. We can root ourselves in Christ and build our lives on Him, but storms will still come and floodwaters will crash against our homes.

And so, in this section of his letter Paul warns the Colossians not to let anyone take them captive. His concern is that they might be led off the path and into the thick weeds of “deceptive philosophy” based on “human tradition” instead of Christ. The exact form of this danger is not important, for the solution is what matters most. It is only “in Christ” that we can find the “fullness” we are looking for. He is the antidote to the lies of this world because He is the source of life.

Not only that, but we already have this life and fullness in Jesus. Followers of Christ have already been in some sense “taken captive” by God. Possessed by His Spirit we have been given every tool we need to persevere to the end.

If you have been “circumcised by Christ” then you are a new creature, no longer weighed down by the sins of your past, no longer under condemnation, no longer facing death, no longer under the powers of this world, but adopted as sons and daughters of God and given full access into the presence of God. The gospel has set us free and now we have the power to walk with boldness down the road that God has set for us. Let that knowledge drive us to our knees in prayerful adoration and vibrant worship this Sunday!

ThuThursdayFebFebruary16th2012 Thursday, February 16

Posted Thursday, February 16 2012 @ 5 AM byJonathan Ziman Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (Col. 2:6-7, NIV)

Although we’ve spent the last three days looking at all the things we should be doing—walking in Jesus, rooting ourselves in Jesus, and being built up in Jesus, there’s a fourth component we cannot forget, and that’s Paul’s command to do all this “with thankfulness.” Indeed, Paul actually commands the Colossians to be “overflowing with thankfulness.” There’s a sense here in which he expects to see in their lives an ongoing, ever-present acknowledgement of God’s goodness and greatness, expressed in abundant joy.

That’s a high bar to set. In contrast, we have an unfortunate tendency to push off all our thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November. Of course, along the way we may give a nod to God for His daily provision, but when was the last time we can honestly say that we were “overflowing” with thankfulness? Think about your pre-schooler trying to fill a glass from a newly-opened gallon of milk. That’s an image of “overflowing,” and that’s the kind of continual thankfulness Paul calls us to express in our lives.

Now, on the one hand thankfulness is a natural response that can’t be faked or created out of our will. When God blesses us in a surprising or amazing way, thankfulness bubbles up inside us without even thinking about it. On the other hand, being thankful is a discipline that we can work on. In a world that for the most part denies the existence of God and over-emphasizes the power and significance of the individual, it takes practice to humble ourselves and keep a Biblical perspective on life. It takes practice to see God’s fingerprints all over our lives, in every moment of every day. It takes practice to say, and then believe, that God alone is the source of everything, that he alone is the One who holds all things together. It takes practice to re-orient our hearts to see that without God we are nothing and have nothing. When we get to that point, our lives will finally begin to overflow with gratefulness as we give thanks to our Heavenly Father for and in all things.