Devotions dated Jody Sneed | from Devotional Christian

God-Ordained Goals and Serving the Least of These

December 1, 2009

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” Matthew 25:34-40 (New International Version)

Our men’s group is reading Mark Batterson’s Wild Goose Chase and part of the study involves personal goal setting – 100 of them broken into several categories. Among those on my first draft was a mission trip to the United Kingdom, helping with a church plant, writing for and teaching youth and parents more often. I asked my sons for their thoughts and received this from our oldest. “I like to help people or donate time, volunteer, what have you. I know y’all do it often but to have it as a goal might help you remember why you do and who you actually do it for. Matthew 25:40. I should practice this myself. I heard it somewhere and it stuck with me.”

In the book, Batterson writes: “…I’m convinced that one of the primary reasons most of us don’t accomplish more for the kingdom of God is because we don’t have any God-ordained goals we’re going after.” Combined with my son’s thoughts, I realized many of my goals, especially those specific to ministry, were of my desire and design, not God-ordained ones. Where were ‘the least of these’ being reached?

Yet we are described in Matthew 25:34 as being blessed by the King’s Father for our actions in meeting distinct human needs. These are ‘God-ordained’ goals where the righteous were not specifically looking for the Lord but for people in varying situations of distress. Helping ‘the least of these’ can require individual action as well as small and large group leaders, committee members.

And I fit neatly into those categories. But the Kingdom is not categorized for our preferences but the King’s. In my current work as a teacher in several venues, a deacon, a committee member, was I responding to the needs of others or just saying “yes” when asked to serve? Have I been confusing ministry with activity? My son called it remembering why we serve and who we actually do it for…a proper question to consider when presented with a ministry opportunity!

With thanks to my son and much prayer and humility, I will redraw my list with reaching the ‘least of these’ as a guide in making God-ordained goals my own.

Tags spiritual goals
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Do Christians Know How to Party?

November 18, 2009

Filed In Daily Devotionals

“But you walked away from your first love – why? What’s going on with you, anyway?” Revelation 2:4 (The Message)

Mike Yaconelli once observed, “It doesn’t take much to make most of us realize that we have become too serious, too tense, too stressful. The result is that we have forgotten how to live life…What happened to the gleam in our eye? What happened to that joyful, crazy, spontaneous, fun-loving spirit we once had? The childlikeness in all of us gets snuffed out over the years…the sign that Jesus is in our hearts, the evidence of the truth of the Gospel is that we still have a light on in our souls.”

How can someone walk away from their first love, lose that gleam in their eye? Could I walk away from my wife of 28 years? By all accounts, my love for her is not same as that August day in 1981 when she walked down the aisle at our wedding. Since then we have had two sons, careers, personal successes and tragedies and a growing walk with the Lord. If nothing else, today my love for her is stronger and more intimate than in those precious and heady days as newlyweds.

Yet as I claim a stronger relationship with the Lord during this time, I honestly know that I have been living in Ephesus when it comes to my walk with God. Just as human relationships have plateaus, I must confess that I have not sought out the depth of God, pursuing the love and fellowship I knew in my early days as a believer. This is what is going on: I have walked away from my first love and forgotten how to live life!

Regaining the life I seek with Him, returning to a childlikeness, requires intimacy. I know full well the intimacy I seek with Him will benefit from improved spiritual disciplines (such as more time in His Word and in prayer). But I cannot rely on these activities alone, otherwise I have fallen under the Law and am practicing faith by works. Relationships grow out of intention and communication as well as in following through with responsibilities. Any life with Him begins and ends with making God the priority, not just one of many pressing concerns in my everyday living.

Living this life means adopting a willingness to live His life, not my own. Returning to my first love means saying “no” to all the competing interests and consistently putting the needs of my Beloved before my own. My marriage is no different and it suffers when attention and intention give way to selfish living. When my priorities are restored, the joy returns to the relationship.

I find hope and direction in Yaconelli’s concluding thought: “Christians are not just people who live godly lives; we are people who know how to live period. Christians are not just examples of moral purity, we are also people filled with a bold mischievousness. Christians not only know how to practice piety, we also know how to party. I believe it’s time for the party to begin.”

With the reminder of from Ephesus and hopefully a gleam in my eye, I know it is party time!

Tags celebration, joy
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Delight, Desire and Joy in God

November 13, 2009

Filed In Daily Devotionals

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

Some days, I wonder if God feels about my faith the same way I feel about food while on a diet: if it tastes good, spit it out. In the ministries we have, the common mindset seems to be if I want to do it, then it’s probably selfish and not of God. So I just do what is commanded without thought, letting obedience become duty and obligation…a joyless ritual that must be observed or we have failed to be holy.

Based on the verse above, am I justifying myself in religious busyness or am I delighting myself in Him? Is the work at hand the desire of my heart?

This is an example of spiritual cause-and-effect…how do I delight myself in the Lord? The psalmist answers in verses 5-6. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

Commit my way to Him? Scripture tells us how in John 15:9-11: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

Obedience out of love leads to joy and righteousness. With those in hand, the justice of our cause becomes the brightest light in the sky, like the noonday sun – if our cause is to follow Him…and we encourage others to join us!

In consideration of how I commit my way to Him and His cause, here are some thoughts:

In preparing a lesson, working a youth event or cleaning up after a meal, am I loving my Savior or checking off one more item on the to-do list?
Is my attitude and demeanor attractive to the lost?
Am I laboring for my salvation (grace by works)?
Have I presented the joy He brings in our redemption or have I placed joy under the bushel so that none may see by it?

My delight should be that the desire of my heart is to have my joy complete in Him!

Tags delight, desire, happiness, joy
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Crooked Rows and the Kingdom of God

November 1, 2009

Filed In Daily Devotionals

As they were walking along someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you no matter where you go.” But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but I, the Son of Man, have no home of my own, not even a place to lay my head.” He said to another person, “Come, be my disciple.” The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.” Jesus replied, “Let those who are spiritually dead care for their own dead. Your duty is to go and preach the coming of the Kingdom of God.” Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family.” But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” Luke 9:57-62

One Sunday morning with our 12th grade Sunday School class, the topic was following Christ and was based on John 1 (the calling of Phillip and Nathaniel) and Luke 9 (Jesus letting his potential followers know that a hard path awaited them rather than one paved by their own priorities). I explained that the tools for agriculture in that day were mule and plow, not machinery. The question then posed was, “If you were plowing, why couldn’t you turn your head to see where you had been or wanted to go?”

“Crooked rows,” one student answered immediately. “You’d get crooked rows when you looked back.”

Wow. I grew up on a farm and a row was that wasn’t straight wasn’t right. But in Christ’s meaning, the issue wasn’t pride but priority. Same with the follower who presumed four-star accommodations along the way or the one with a funeral to attend…Jesus was letting us know that the Kingdom will not be built according to our priorities but His.

Jesus didn’t want “crooked rows” in His Kingdom. He wanted his plowers to plow for all they were worth…not to be distracted by “what might have been” had they stayed home. Following Him meant obedience and dedication, saying a firm “no” to competing interests.

How often do we look back from the plow? I think that is why there are so many miserable Christians who feel they missed something (a verse or prayer) that would cure their pain or feel that God has led them on a wild goose chase after the abundant life He promised but is always just out of reach.

“Crooked rows” prevail in the landscape of my ministry…but Abba is more interested in my learning how to keep my eye on the prize than re-doing the past.

Tags kingdom of God, Priorities
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Where Do You Look When Surrounded by Spiritual Dangers?

October 22, 2009

Filed In Daily Devotionals

2nd Lt. George Rice: Looks like you guys are going to be surrounded.

Richard Winters: We’re paratroopers, Lieutenant. We’re supposed to be surrounded.
from “Band of Brothers”

For the greatest generation, it was D-Day and so many hopeless situations. For today, it may be keeping a job, a home, or a relationship, all while trying to keep some hope alive…how can we hold onto our faith when everyone and everything else is against us? Because we will not come up empty, we cannot with the Spirit of God supplying the words.

Like paratroopers descending behind enemy lines to eventually win the day, it’s the same for us…

“Stay alert. This is hazardous work I’m assigning you. You’re going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don’t call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove. Don’t be naive. Some people will impugn your motives, others will smear your reputation – just because you believe in me.

Don’t be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they’ve done you – and me – a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don’t worry about what you’ll say or how you’ll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words. When people realize it is the living God you are presenting and not some idol that makes them feel good, they are going to turn on you, even people in your own family. There is a great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate!

But don’t quit. Don’t cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors! Before you’ve run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived.” Jesus from Matthew 10:16-23, The Message

Tags living in a fallen world, spiritual danger, spiritual warfare
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When the Lord of Hosts Brings Prosperity Back

October 19, 2009

Filed In Daily Devotionals

Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out again, Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.’ Zechariah 1:16-17

Last January, I was flipping through my Bible to get to the Scripture the sermon will cover, when a subtitle catches my eye: The Man among the Myrtles. It’s in Zechariah 1:7-17, where the prophet speaks of riders patrolling the earth and prosperity returning… an encouragement when the economy was crashing worse each day.

Who was the man among the myrtles? Was he a man or an angel? What about the riders? Had to be angels…said they roamed the entire earth, keeping watch. Did God really need them to report in what was happening? Doesn’t He already know and see all?

Why go to all this trouble to teach Zechariah?

Or was it to teach me?

This entire tableau was an understandable reference to the prophet…it fit his understanding of how a kingdom was patrolled and protected. Could it be that God was demonstrating how He cared enough about us and the troubles we face to show us that He is truly in control? He doesn’t need riders on horseback, leaders in dark wooded glen receiving reports to show He owns and rules and guides the Universe…I need to see all that in terms I can process.

But we aren’t thinking about Him in the right terms. We have been citizens of a democracy so long we have forgotten how to be subjects in His Kingdom. We have lost our identity as His children…His very spoiled children, hence the necessary lessons. For them, Zechariah and for me.